o the Hebrews was not, indeed, received among the sacred
books by the Church of Rome; [183:1] but at an earlier period its
inspiration was acknowledged by the Christians of the great city, for it
is quoted as the genuine work of the Apostle Paul by an eminent Roman
pastor who flourished in the first century. [183:2] The authority of two
of the most considerable of the Catholic epistles--the First Epistle of
Peter and the First Epistle of John--was never questioned; [183:3] but,
for a time, there were churches which doubted the claims of the five
others to be ranked amongst "the Scriptures." [183:4] The multitude of
spurious writings which were then abroad suggested to the disciples the
necessity of caution, and hence suspicions arose in certain cases where
they were destitute of foundation. But these suspicions, which never
seem to have been entertained by more than a minority of the churches,
gradually passed away; and at length, towards the close of the fourth
century, the whole of what are now called the Catholic epistles were
received, by unanimous consent, as inspired documents. [183:5] The
Apocalypse was acknowledged to be a divine revelation as soon as it
appeared; and its credit remained unimpeached until the question of the
Millennium began to create discussion. Its authenticity was then
challenged by some of the parties who took an interest in the
controversy; but it still continued to be regarded as a part of Holy
Scripture by the majority of Christians, and there is no book of the New
Testament in behalf of which a title to a divine original can be
established by more conclusive and ample evidence. [184:1]

It thus appears that, with the exception of a few short epistles which
some hesitated to accredit, the New Testament, in the first century, was
acknowledged as the Word of God by all the Apostolical Churches. Its
various parts were not then included in a single volume; and as a
considerable time must have elapsed before copies of every one of them
were universally disseminated, it is not to be thought extraordinary if
the appearance of a letter, several years after it was written, and in
quarters where it had been previously unknown, awakened suspicion or
scepticism. But the slender objections, advanced under such
circumstances, gradually vanished before the light of additional
evidence; and it may safely be asserted that the whole of the documents,
now known as the Scriptures of the New Testament, were re