.) The second passage is taken
from a chapter, the title of which is, "Of the Scriptures universally
acknowledged, and of those that are not such." Eusebius begins his
enumeration in the following manner:--"In the first place are to be
ranked the sacred four Gospels; then the book of the Acts of the
Apostles; after that are to be reckoned the Epistles of Paul. In the
next place, that called the First Epistle of John, and the Epistle of
Peter, are to be esteemed authentic. After this is to be placed, if it
be thought fit, the Revelation of John, about which we shall observe the
different opinions at proper seasons. Of the controverted, but yet well
known or approved by the most, are, that called the Epistle of James,
and that of Jude, and the Second of Peter, and the Second and Third of
John, whether they are written by the evangelist, or another of the same
name." (Lardner, vol. viii. p. 39.) He then proceeds to reckon up five
others, not in our canon, which he calls in one place spurious, in
another controverted, meaning, as appears to me, nearly the same thing
by these two words.*

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* That Eusebius could not intend, by the word
rendered 'spurious' what we at present mean by it, is evident from a
clause in this very chapter where, speaking of the Gospels of Peter, and
Thomas and Matthias, and some others, he says, "They the are not so much
as to be reckoned among the spurious, but are altogether absurd and
impious." (Lardner, vol. viii. p. 99.)
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It is manifest from this passage, that the four Gospels, and the Acts of
the Apostles (the parts of Scripture with which our concern principally
lies), were acknowledged without dispute, even by those who raised
objections, or entertained doubts, about some other parts of the same
collection. But the passage proves something more than this. The author
was extremely conversant in the writings of Christians which had been
published from the commencement of the institution to his own time: and
it was from these writings that he drew his knowledge of the character
and reception of the books in question. That Eusebius recurred to this
medium of information, and that he had examined with attention this
species of proof, is shown, first, by a passage in the very chapter we
are quoting, in which, speaking of the books which he calls spurious,
"None," he says, "of the ecclesiastical writers, in the succession of
the apostles, have vouchsafed to make any menti