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 afterwards, delivered a catalogue of the
books of the New Testament in form, containing our Scriptures and no
others; of which he says, "In these alone the doctrine of Religion is
taught; let no man add to them, or take anything from them." (Lardner,
Cred. vol. ii. p. 223.)
III.
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