en, about twenty years after Caius, quoting the Epistle to the
Hebrews, observes that some might dispute the authority of that epistle;
and therefore proceeds to quote to the same point, as undoubted books of
Scripture, the Gospel of Saint Matthew, the Acts of the Apostles, and
Paul's First Epistle to the Thessalonians. (Lardner, vol. iii. p. 246.)
and in another place, this author speaks of the Epistle to the Hebrews
thus: "The account come down to us is various; some saying that Clement
who was bishop of Rome, wrote this epistle; others, that it was Luke,
the same who wrote the Gospel and the Acts." Speaking also, in the same
paragraph, of Peter, "Peter," says he, "has left one epistle,
acknowledged; let it be granted likewise that he wrote a second, for it
is doubted of." And of John, "He has also left one epistle, of a very
few lines; grant also a second and a third, for all do not allow them to
be genuine." Now let it be noted, that Origen, who thus discriminates,
and thus confesses his own doubts and the doubts which subsisted in his
time, expressly witnesses concerning the four Gospels, "that they alone
are received without dispute by the whole church of God under heaven."
(Lardner, vol. iii. p. 234.)

III. Dionysius of Alexandria, in the year 247, doubts concerning the
Book of Revelation, whether it was written by Saint John; states the
grounds of his doubt, represents the diversity of opinion concerning it,
in his own time, and before his time. (Lardner, vol. iv. p. 670.) Yet
the same Dionysius uses and collates the four Gospels in a manner which
shows that he entertained not the smallest suspicion of their authority,
and in a manner also which shows that they, and they alone, were
received as authentic histories of Christ. (Lardner, vol. iv. p. 661.)

IV. But this section may be said to have been framed on purpose to
introduce to the reader two remarkable passages extant in Eusebius's
Ecclesiastical History. The first passage opens with these words:--"Let
us observe the writings of the apostle John which are uncontradicted:
and first of all must be mentioned, as acknowledged of all, the Gospel
according to him, well known to all the churches under heaven." The
author then proceeds to relate the occasions of writing the Gospels, and
the reasons for placing Saint John's the last, manifestly speaking of
all the four as parallel in their authority, and in the certainty of
their original. (Lardner, vol. viii. p. 90