" (Lardner, vol.
iii. p. 12.--Dr. Lardner's future inquiries supplied him with many other
instances.)
SECTION VIII.
The four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, thirteen Epistles of Saint
Paul the First Epistle of John, and the First of Peter, were received
without doubt by those who doubted concerning the other books which are
included in our present Canon.
I state this proposition, because, if made out, it shows that the
authenticity of their books was a subject amongst the early Christians
of consideration and inquiry; and that, where there was cause of doubt,
they did doubt; a circumstance which strengthens very much their
testimony to such books as were received by them with full acquiescence.
I. Jerome, in his account of Caius, who was probably a presbyter of
Rome, and who flourished near the year 200, records of him, that,
reckoning up only thirteen epistles of Paul, he says the fourteenth,
which is inscribed to the Hebrews, is not his: and then Jerome adds,
"With the Romans to this day it is not looked upon as Paul's." This
agrees in the main with the account given by Eusebius of the same
ancient author and his work; except that Eusebius delivers his own
remark in more guarded terms: "And indeed to this very time, by some of
the Romans, this epistle is not thought to be the apostle's.
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