" It is to no purpose to single out quotations
of Scripture from such a writer as this. We might as well make a
selection of the quotations of Scripture in Dr. Clarke's Sermons. They
are so thickly sown in the works of Origen, that Dr. Mill says, "If we
had all his works remaining, we should have before us almost the whole
text of the Bible." (Mill, Proleg. esp. vi. p. 66.)
Origen notices, in order to censure, certain apocryphal Gospels. He also
uses four writings of this sort; that is, throughout his large works he
once or twice, at the most, quotes each of the four; but always with
some mark, either of direct reprobation or of caution to his readers,
manifestly esteeming them of little or no authority.
XIV. Gregory, bishop of Neocaesaea, and Dionysius of Alexandria, were
scholars of Origen. Their testimony, therefore, though full and
particular, may be reckoned a repetition only of his. The series,
however, of evidence is continued by Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, who
flourished within twenty years after Origen. "The church," said this
father, "is watered, like Paradise, by four rivers, that is, by four
Gospels.
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