were mistaken in the authors to whom they ascribed them. Not
one of them expressed an opinion upon this subject different from that
which was holden by Christians. And when we consider how much it would
have availed them to have cast a doubt upon this point, if they could;
and how ready they showed themselves to be to take every advantage in
their power; and that they were all men of learning and inquiry: their
concession, or rather their suffrage, upon the subject is extremely
valuable.

In the case of Porphyry, it is made still stronger, by the consideration
that he did in fact support himself by this species of objection when he
saw any room for it, or when his acuteness could supply any pretence for
alleging it. The prophecy of Daniel he attacked upon this very ground of
spuriousness, insisting that it was written after the time of Antiochus
Epiphanes, and maintains his charge of forgery by some far-fetched
indeed, but very subtle criticisms. Concerning the writings of the New
Testament, no trace of this suspicion is anywhere to be found in him.
(Michaelis's Introduction to the New Testament, vol. i. p. 43. Marsh's
Translation.)

SECTION X.

Formal catalogues of authentic Scriptures were published, in all which
our present sacred histories were included.

This species of evidence comes later than the rest; as it was not
natural that catalogues of any particular class of books should be put
forth until Christian writings became numerous; or until some writings
showed themselves, claiming titles which did not belong to them, and
thereby rendering it necessary to separate books of authority from
others. But, when it does appear, it is extremely satisfactory; the
catalogues, though numerous, and made in countries at a wide distance
from one another, differing very little, differing in nothing which is
material, and all containing the four Gospels. To this last article
there is no exception.

I. In the writings of Origen which remain, and in some extracts
preserved by Eusebius, from works of his which are now lost, there are
enumerations of the books of Scriptures, in which the Four Gospels and
the Acts of the Apostles are distinctly and honourably specified, and in
which no books appear beside what are now received. The reader, by this
time, will easily recollect that the date of Origen's works is A.D. 230.
(Lardner, Cred. vol. iii. p. 234, et seq.; vol. viii. p. 196.)

II. Athanasias, about a century af