Dr. Lightfoot admits that Bochart directly condemns one Epistle, and
would probably have condemned the rest also; that Aubertin, Blondel,
Basnage, R. Parker, and Saumaise actually rejected all; and that Cook
pronounces them "either supposititious or shamefully corrupted." So
far, therefore, there can be no dispute. I will now take the rest in
succession. Dr. Lightfoot says that Humfrey "considers that they have
been interpolated and mutilated, but he believes them genuine in the
main." Dr. Lightfoot has so completely warped the statement in the
text, that he seems to demand nothing short of a total condemnation of
the Epistles in the note, but had I intended to say that Humfrey and
all of these writers definitely rejected the whole of the Epistles I
should not have limited myself to merely saying that they expressed
"_doubts_ more or less definite," which Humfrey does. Dr. Lightfoot
says that Socinus "denounces corruptions and anachronisms, but so far
as I can see does not question a nucleus of genuine matter." His very
denunciations, however, are certainly the expression of "doubts, more
or less definite." "Casaubon, far from rejecting them altogether,"
Dr. Lightfoot says, "promises to defend the antiquity of some of the
Epistles with new arguments." But I have never affirmed that he
"rejected them altogether." Casaubon died before he fulfilled the
promise referred to, so that we cannot determine what arguments he
might have used. I must point out, however, that the antiquity does not
necessarily involve the authenticity of a document. With regard to
Rivet the case is different. I had overlooked the fact that in a
subsequent edition of the work referred to, after receiving Archbishop
Usher's edition on of the Short Recension, he had given his adhesion to
"that form of the Epistles." [67:1] This fact is also mentioned by
Pearson, and I ought to have observed it. [67:2] Petau, the last of the
writers referred to, says: "Equidem haud abnuerim epistolas illius