Section 189
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158 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. and false prophets and false apostles, who divided the unity of the church, by the introduction of corrupt doctrines against God and against his Christ." The same author also mentions in his histo ry, the ancient heresies prevalent among the Jews, as follows : " There were also, different opinions in the circumcision among the children of Israel, against the tribe of Judah and the Mes siah, viz., the Essenes, the Galileans, Hemerobaptists, the Masbothoeans, the Samaritans, the Sadducees and Pharisees." He also speaks of many other matters, which we have in part already quoted, and introduced in their appropriate places. He also states some particulars from the gospel of the Hebrews and from the Syriac, and particularly from the Hebrew language, showing that he himself was a convert from the Hebrews. Other matters he also records as taken from the unwritten tradition of the Jews. And not only he, but Irenaeus also, and the whole body of the ancients, called the Proverbs of Solomon, " Wisdom, comprehending every virtue." Also in discoursing on the books called Apocrypha, he relates that some of them were forged in his day, by some of the heretics. But it is now time to proceed to another. CHAPTER XXIII. Of Dionysius, bishop of Corinth, and his epistles. AND first we must speak of Dionysius, who was appointed over the church at Corinth, and imparted freely, not only to his own people, but to others abroad also, the blessings of his divine labours. But he was most useful to all in the catholic epistles that he addressed to the churches. One of which is addressed to the Lacedaemonians, and contains instructions in the true re ligion, and inculcates peace and unity. One also to the Atheni ans, exciting them to the faith, and the life prescribed by the gospel, from which he shows that they had swerved, so that they had nearly fallen from the truth, since the martyrdom of Publius,