medium of information, and that he had examined with attention this species of proof, is Thewn, firft, by a paffage in the very chapter we are quoting, in which, fpeaking of the books which he calls fpurious, "None (he fays) of the ecclefiaftical writers, in the fucceffion of the apoftles, have vouchfafed to make any mention of them in their writings;" and fecondly, by another paffage of the fame work, wherein, fpeaking of the first epistle of Peter, "This (he says) the prefbyters of ancient times have quoted in their writings as undoubtedly genuine *;' and then, fpeaking of fome other writings. bearing the name of Peter, "We know (he fays) that they have not been delivered down to us in the number of catholic writings, forafmuch as no ecclefiaftical writer of the ancients, or of our times, has made ufe of teftimonies out of them." "But in the progrefs of this hiftory," the author proceeds, "we fhall make it our bufinefs to shew, together with the fucceffions from the VOL. I. *Ib. p. 99. U apostles, apostles, what ecclefiaftical writers, in every age, have used fuch writings as these which are contradicted, and what they have faid, with regard to the fcriptures received in the New Teftament, and acknowledged by all, and with regard to those which are not fuch *" After this it is reasonable to believe, that, when Eufebius ftates the four Gofpels, and the Acts of the Apoftles, as uncontradicted, uncontested, and acknowledged by all; and when he places them in oppofition, not only to those which were fpurious in our sense of that term, but to thofe which were controverted, and even to those which were well known and approved by many, yet doubted of by fome; he represents, not only the sense of his own age, but the refult of the evidence, which the writings of prior ages, from the apostle's time to his own, had furnished to his enquiries. The opinion of Eufebius and his contemporaries, appears to have been founded upon the teftiinony of writers, A whom they then called ancient; and we may obferve, that fuch of the works of these writers, as have come down to our times, entirely confirm the judgement, and fupport the diftinction which Eufebius proposes. The books, which he calls "books univerfally acknowledged," are in fact used and quoted, in the remaining works of Christian writers, during the 250 years between the apostle's time and that of Eufebius, much more frequently than, and in a different manner from, thofe, the authority of which, he tells us, was difputed. SECT. IX. Our biftorical fcriptures were attacked by the early adverfaries of Chriftianity, as containing the accounts upon which the religion was founded. 1. NEAR EAR the middle of the fecond century, Celfus, a heathen philofopher, wrote a professed treatise against Christianity. To this treatise, Origen, who came about fifty years after him, published an answer, in which he frequently recites his adversary's words and arguments. The work of Celfus is loft; but that of Origen remains. Origen appears to have given us the words of Celfus, where he profeffes to give them, very faithfully; and, amongst other reasons for thinking fo, this is one, that the objection, as stated by him from Celfus, is fometimes stronger than his own anfwer. I think it also probable that Origen, in his anfwer, has retailed a large a large portion of the work of Celfus: "That it may not be suspected (he says) that we pass by any chapters, because we have no answers at hand, I have thought it beft, according to my ability, to confute every thing propofed by him, not fo much obferving the natural order of things, as the order which he has taken himself *" Celfus wrote about 100 years after the Gospels were published; and therefore any notices of thefe books from him are extremely important for their antiquity. They are, however, rendered more fo by the character of the author ; for the reception, credit, and notoriety of these books must have been well established amongst Christians, to have made them fubjects of animadverfion and oppofition by ftrangers and by enemies. It evinces the truth of what Chryfoftom, two centuries afterwards, obferved, that "the Gofpels, when written, were not hid in a corner, or buried in obfcurity, but they were * Or. cont. Celf. 1. i. fect. 41. U 3 made |