Dr. Arnold, "when admitted by Archbishop Howley to priest's orders, proposed doubts, not merely on the authorship, but the canonicity of the Epistle to the Hebrews."-Dr. Stanley's Letter to the Bishop of London on Subscription, p. 27.

the attention of men, altogether illiter-ings, quite independently of the Spirit ate, or very scantily furnished with (Tertullian, Jerome)." - Warrington's literature, has been chiefly devoted. Inspiration of Scripture, p. 36. Guided, not by the original language of Scripture, but by translations; not by the practices or notions of the Apostolic times, but of our own; not by careful, sober, and unprejudiced comparison of argumentative and critical expositions, but by their own zeal; they have drawn from them conclusions unwarranted by the general tenor of the Holy Writings, contrary in many instances to our clearest perceptions of the Divine Attributes, and upon some occasions revolting to common sense, common justice, and common humanity:-to common sense, when they indiscriminately reject and deride the usefulness of learning; to common justice, when they assert that the Deity, without any regard to human actions, has selected some of his creatures for final salvation, and others for final perdition; to common humanity, when they maintain that all who are not the preachers and believers of what they call vital Christianity, are graceless, helpless, hopeless outcasts from the favor of their Creator, their Redeemer, and their Sanctifier.

"The habit of depreciating good works; the disposition to depend upon faith alone; the opinion that grace communicated to the elect supersedes the necessity of their endeavors to be virtuous; the merciless exclusion of all other Christian individuals from the possibility of acceptance with God; these surely are peculiarities which neither reason nor revelation would permit us to consider as favorable to the innocence, or the spiritual improvement, or the future happiness, of their advocates."-Maltby's Sermons, 1819, vol. i., pp. 412-433.

"In the Epistles there is perceptible a well marked personal element,-the writer speaking here and there solely in his own name, and from his own feel

"On the Epistle to the Hebrews, the greatest diversity of opinion prevails among critics as to its claims to canonical authority and Pauline origin. Some denying both of these, and some admitting the former whilst they repudiate the latter. . . . On no subject, perhaps, in the department of the higher criticism of the New Testament, have opinions been more divided, and more keenly discussed, than on this. Of those who have rejected the claims of the Apostle Paul to the authorship of this Epistle, some have advocated those of Barnabas, others those of Luke, others those of Clement of Rome, others those of Silas, others those of Apollos, others those of some unknown Christian of Alexandria, and others those of some 'Apostolic man,' whose name is no less unknown.

.. That which ascribes this production to Apollos, was first suggested by Luther, and it has been in more recent times adopted by Henmann, Bertholdt, De Wette, Bleek, and apparently also by Tholuck."-See Kitto's Cyclop. of Bib. Lit.-art.

"The notion of God appeased by a sacrifice, and remitting, in consideration of it, his wrath against those who had offended him,--this notion of God, which science repels, was equally repelled, in spite of all that his nation, time, and training had in them to favor it, by the profound religious sense of Paul. In none of his Epistles, is the reconciling work of Christ really presented under this aspect. One great epistle there is, which does present it under this aspect, the Epistle to the

Hebrews

If other proof were wanting, this alone would make it impossible that the Epistle to the Hebrews should be Paul's; and indeed, of all the epistles which bear his name, it is the only one which may not, in spite of the hesitation caused by some difficulties, be finally attributed to him.

served; it is at least evident from 1 Cor. v. 9, that a letter to the Corinthians has been lost; and from Col. iv. 16, it has been concluded that another letter to the community of Laodicea has likewise been lost.”—Cyc. Bib. Lit., art. Epistles.

Archdeacon Paley has shown that "The tradition which ascribes to "six of the subscriptions of Paul's Apollos the Epistle to the Hebrews, Epistles are false or impossible; that derives corroboration from the one ac- is, they are either absolutely contracount of him which we have, that 'he dicted by the contents of the epistle, was an eloquent man, and mighty in or are difficult to be reconciled with the Scriptures.' The Epistle to the them; viz., 1 Cor.; Gal.; 1 Thess.; 2 Hebrews is just such a performance as Thess.; 1 Tim., and Titus. I do not," might naturally have come from 'an he concludes, "attribute any authority eloquent man, and mighty in the Scrip- to these [or the other five] subscriptures,' and in whom the intelligence, tions. I believe them to have been and the power of combining, type-es- conjectures founded sometimes upon tablishing, and expounding, somewhat loose traditions, but more generally dominated the religious perceptions." --Matthew Arnold's St. Paul and Protestantism, Cornhill Mag., 1869, p. 616.

upon a consideration of some particular text, without sufficiently comparing it with other parts of the Epistle, with different Epistles, or with history.

....

Dr. Arnold asserts that "the Apostle Paul expected that the world would. . . . They are to be considered as come to an end in the generation then only ancient scholia."--Hor. Pauli., pp. existing. . . . Shall we say, then," he 87, 88. adds, "that St. Paul entertained and expressed a belief, which the event did not verify? We may safely say so, safely and reverently, in this instance; for here he was most certainly speaking as a man, and not by revelation, as it has been providentially ordered that our Lord's express words on this point have been recorded."―[Matt. xxiv. 36.] See Epistles to the Thessalonians.-Sermons on the Christian Life, etc., p. 489.

Kitto says "that the Pauline Epistles offered great difficulties, was already felt in the earliest times." And further: "All the [general] Epistles of the Apostle Paul, except the one to the Romans, were called forth by circumstances and peculiar occasions in the affairs of the communities to which they were addressed." And he adds, that "not all Paul's Epistles were pre

In his Christian Theology and Modern Skepticism, 1872, the Duke of Somerset, speaking of the Pauline Epistles, says, "they present to us a most interesting phase in the progress of religious thought, they assist to elucidate an important movement in the history of Christianity; but when we are solemnly asked to call these Epistles the Word of God, a feeling of religious reverence forces us to withhold our assent."

"That Jerome considered Paul's epistles as of merely human origin, appears from his accusing Paul of solecisms and errors of grammar, alleging, that he spoke truly of himself when he said he was rude of speech; of course no good man would thus speak of books which he believed to be written by divine inspiration."-Int. Rep., vol. v., p. 104.

Christian church respecting the authenticity and genuineness of the Apostolic writings, as will be seen by the following sketch.

Eichhorn, in the 7th vol. of his Kritische Schriften, affirms that the Epistles to Timothy and Titus were not written by Paul, and that the superscription and introduction are erroneous.

Bauer has attacked the genuineness of the three pastoral epistles; and Schleiermacher that of the 1st Ep. to Timothy.-Kitto's Cyc. Bib. Lit., art. EPISTLES.

Paul was brought up at Tarsus, troversy have always existed in the amongst heathens. He quotes part of a verse from the Phænomena of Aratus (a poet of Cilicia, the native country of Paul, lived 300 B. C.), against the Epicurean philosophers at Athens. "For we his children are" (Acts xvii. 28), originally spoken of the heathen deity Jupiter, and dexterously applies it to the true God. In 1 Cor. xv. 33, he quotes a senary iambic which is supposed to be taken from Menander's lost comedy of Thais, rendered "Evil communications corrupt good manners." And in his Epistle to Titus, Bishop of Crete (Tit. i. 12), he makes an extract from Epimenides, a Cretan poet, whom he styles a prophet, and whose writings, by the ancient heathens, were regarded as oracles. The general import of the passage is, that The Cretans were a false people; and united in their character the ferocity of the wild beast, with the luxury of the domesticated one." No one can regard this as of plenary inspiration. See Porson's Works; Allex's Judgt., p. 288; Hartwell Horne's Introd., vol. ii., pt. 1, p. 347; vol. i., p. 172.

"The Epistle to the Hebrews, so different in its conception of faith, and in its Alexandrine rhythm, from the doctrine and language of St. Paul's known epistles, has its degree of discrepance explained by ascribing it to some companion of the Apostle; and minute reasons are found for fixing with probability on Apollos.”—Dr. R. Williams, Essays and Reviews, 9th ed., p. 84.

Jerome doubted whether the Epistle to Philemon was Paul's. Eusebius says that "the Epistle to the Hebrews was not received by all."-Lardner's Gospel Hist., vol. v., p. 24. Origen affirms that "

no man can tell who was the author of it." Erasmus questioned its author and authority. "Hypollitus writes that this Epistle is not Paul's."-Ib., vol. iii., p. 393. "Irenæus doubted its genuineness."-lb., vol. v., p. 88. It was not received by the Latin churches till the time of Jerome. Tertullian ascribes it to Barnabas; others have attributed it to Timothy, to Alexander, to Apollos (Monthly Mag., Mar., 1815), and by tradition only is it attributed to Paul. Several of the Fathers, and many learned moderns, agree in rejecting its Pauline origin. And F. W. Newman says, "That this Epistle is not from the hand of Paul, had very long seemed to me an obvious certainty,-as long as I had any delicate feeling of Greek style." "The second of the Petruic Epistles, -Phases of Faith, p. 100. Erasmus having alike external and internal evi- affirms that the Epistle of James does not dence against its genuineness, is neces- savor of an Apostolic gravity. Cajetan sarily surrendered as a whole. . . . . doubted of the author, and insists upon The second chapter may not improba- its being of less authority. Luther bly be a quotation; but its quoter, and stigmatized it as “Epistola Straminea,” — the author of the rest of the Epistle, an Epistle of straw,—or worthless; beneed not, therefore, have been St. Pe- cause it corrected the mistakes of Jewter."-Ib., p. 85. ish Christians on the doctrine of justiIn conclusion, much doubt and con- fication by faith alone, and enforces

under an inferior degree of inspira- The reason which they give for it in tion.