nimous belief of the Eastern and Alexandrine churches ascribed to
Paul the authorship of the epistle to the Hebrews; but in the Western
churches its Pauline authorship was not generally admitted till the
fourth century. The Apocalypse, on the contrary, found most favor with
the Western or Latin churches. It has in its favor the testimony of the
Muratorian canon, which is of Latin origin, and also--as appears from
the citations contained in the commentaries of Primasius--that of the
old Latin version. Other examples see above, No. 1.

3. Although we cannot account for the universal and undisputed reception
of the acknowledged books by all the churches, except on the assumption
of their genuineness, the non-reception of a given book by some of the
early churches is no conclusive argument against its apostolic origin.
From the influence of circumstances unknown to us, it may have remained
for a considerable period of time in comparative obscurity. We have good
ground for believing that some apostolic writings are utterly lost. To
deny the possibility of this would be to prejudge the wisdom of God. As
the apostles delivered many inspired discourses which it did not please
the Holy Ghost to have recorded, so they may have written letters which
he did not judge needful to make the sacred volume complete. The
question is one of fact, not of theory. The most obvious interpretation
of 1 Cor. 5:9 and Col. 4:16 is that Paul refers in each case to an
epistle which has not come down to us. And if an inspired epistle might
be lost, much more might the knowledge and use of it be restricted for a
time to a narrow circle of churches. When such an epistle--for example,
the second of Peter--began to be more extensively known, the general
reception and use of it would be a slow process, not only from the
difficulty of communication in ancient as compared with modern times,
but also from the slowness with which the churches of one region
received any thing new from those of other regions.

Then again, if a book were known, there might be in some regions
hesitancy in respect to receiving it, from doubts in regard to its
author, as in the case of the epistle to the Hebrews and the Apocalypse;
or from the peculiarity of its contents also, as in the case of the
latter book. In the influence of causes like the above named, we find a
reasonable explanation of the fact that some books, which the mature
judgment of the churches received into the ca