212 HOE-^ PAULINA. 



expression: '' Legimt quidam et ad Laodicetises ; sed j,b 

 minibus exjjloditur,'' there is also an epistle to the Laodi- 

 ceans, but it is rejected by every body * Theodoret, who 

 wrote in the year 423, speaks of this epistle in the same 

 terms.! Besides these, I know not whether any ancient 

 writer mentions it. It was certainly unnoticed during the 

 first three centuries of the church ; and when it came after- 

 wards to be mentioned, it was mentioned only to show that, 

 though such a writing did exist, it obtained no credit. It is 

 probable that the forgery to which Jerome alludes, is the 

 epistle which we now have under that title. If so, as has 

 been already observed, it is nothing more than a collection 

 of sentences from the genuine epistles ; and was perhaps, at 

 first, rather the exercise of some idle pen, than any serious 

 attempt to impose a forgery upon the public. Of an epistle 

 to the Corinthians under St. Paul's name, which was brought 

 into Europe in the present century, antiquity is entirely silent. 

 It was unheard offer sixteen centuries ; and at this day, though 

 it be extant, and was first found in the Armenian language 

 it is not, by the Christians of that country, received into thei) 

 Scriptures. I hope, after this, that there is no reader who wili 

 think there is any competition of credit, or of external proof, 

 between these and the received epistles ; or rather, who will 

 not acknowledge the evidence of authenticity to be confirmed 

 by the want of success which attended imposture. 



"When we take into our hands the letters which the suf- 

 frage and consent of antiquity has thus transmitted to us, 

 the first thing that strikes our attention is the air of reality 

 and business, as well as of seriousness and conviction which 

 pervades the whole. Let the sceptic read them. If he bo 

 not sensible of these qualities in them, the argument can 

 have no weight with him. If he be, if he perceive in almost 

 every page the language of a mind actuated by real occa- 

 sions and operating upon real circumstances, I would wish 

 it to be observed, that the proof which arises from this per 

 * Lardner, vol. 10, p. 103. t Ibid, vol 11, p. 88- 



