Dialogue Against the Marcionites, Exhortation to Martyrdom (Wettstein 1674)

...and Gentiles, that most celebrated disputant undertook; this can be seen throughout the historians of the Church and the works of Origen. Whence, without a doubt, it happened that Eusebius preferred to designate all those by the name of "the words," and he mentions neither this nor the other Disputation held at Athens before many people against a heretic; which Origen published so that he might defend his own innocence against an adversary who was insulting him using a corrupted autograph; just as Origen writes in his letter to the Alexandrians, found in Rufinus, regarding the adulteration of Origen's books, Vol. 1 of Origen's works, p. 779. But truly, if we consult Eusebius more carefully, he will seem to hint at this Disputation not obscurely, in Ecclesiastical History bk. 6, ch. 18, recording these things: "And many others of the learned, when the fame of Origen was heralded everywhere, came to him, intending to take the measure of the man's ability in the sacred writings. Countless heretics, and not a few of the most prominent philosophers, listened to him with eagerness, being instructed by him not only in divine matters but also in the external philosophy." Hence Halloixius himself in Defense of Origen bk. 1, ch. 9, p. 27, and Spencer in the Notes to bk. 1 Against Celsus, p. 1, write: that our disputation is also believed to have been held at that time.

However, the waves of doubt are not yet all settled; rather, the most illustrious Huetius rises up more sharply with Halloixius, who believe the Dialogue was written long after Origen's time. The former, indeed, defends his opinion with very weighty reasons; and I would most willingly make it my own if I were certain of what ought truly to be established here. But his humanity and fairness, and the unique moderation of spirit that shines forth in his writings, must be asked to either approve what we inquire into for the love of truth alone with his own judgment, or to dissolve our reasons with his solid erudition. To him, this Dialogue seems too Orthodox to suit Origen: because Origen is introduced in it defending the opinion approved in the Church concerning the coats of skins of Adam, and concerning the human body and the soul, and their resurrection; whereas Origen thought otherwise. In Origenian Dissertations, p. 276.

But to this objection, the learned man himself seems to provide the answer, Origeniana bk. 2, ch. 2, question 2, and ch. 12, § 8, and elsewhere throughout: where he observes that Origen, in...