KNOWLEDGED from the time of the Apostles to his own1. Jerom, ordained Presbyter of Antioch in the year 378, says, that the Four Gospels alone, which have been handed down to us, under the names of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, are genuine; that "the Church, according to the word of the Lord, built upon a rock, pours out only these four rivers of Paradise 2." And let it be remembered, that these Books were not accepted by the primitive Church without the most careful and scrupulous inquiry. The early Christians examined with extreme caution the claims of all the writings, to the sacredness of which they assented. "Where there was a cause of doubt (as Paley observes) they did doubt." Of this we have proof in their backwardness to acknowledge certain Books (afterward fully recognized) to the genuineness of which, at first, sufficient attestation had not been given. I allude to the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Epistle of St. James, the Second Epistle of St. Peter, the Epistle of St. Jude, the Second and Third Epistles of St. John, and the Book of Revelation. “Their unwillingness to receive these Books for some time, before the doubts concerning them were satisfactorily and entirely removed, gives us very good ground to believe, that they had from the be H. E. lib. iii. c. 24, 25. 2 Prolog. in Comm. in Matth. ginning such evidence, as was without exception, of the authority of all those other Books of the New Testament, which were never controverted, which were from the first, and with universal consent, received by all Christian Churches. If there had not been very undeniable evidence of their being the genuine writings of the Apostles, or other inspired men, there would certainly have been the same doubt and controversy concerning them 1." "There is a perfect harmony," says Bishop Tomline, "between the doctrines delivered by St. Mark and St. Luke, and by the other writers of the New Testament; and we can indeed scarcely conceive it possible, that God would suffer Four Gospels to be transmitted, as a rule of faith and practice, to all succeeding generations, two of which were written under the immediate direction of His Holy Spirit, and two by the unassisted powers of the human intellect 2." 1 Bishop Blackall. Boyle Lect. Serm. iii. 2 Elements of Christian Theology, Part ii. c. 1. KNOWLEDGED from the time of the Apostles to his own'. Jerom, ordained Presbyter of Antioch in the year 378, says, that the Four Gospels alone, which have been handed down to us, under the names of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, are genuine; that "the Church, according to the word of the Lord, built upon a rock, pours out only these four rivers of Paradise 2." And let it be remembered, that these Books were not accepted by the primitive Church without the most careful and scrupulous inquiry. The early Christians examined with extreme caution the claims of all the writings, to the sacredness of which they assented. "Where there was a cause of doubt (as Paley observes) they did doubt." Of this we have proof in their backwardness to acknowledge certain Books (afterward fully recognized) to the genuineness of which, at first, sufficient attestation had not been given. I allude to the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Epistle of St. James, the Second Epistle of St. Peter, the Epistle of St. Jude, the Second and Third Epistles of St. John, and the Book of Revelation. "Their unwillingness to receive these Books for some time, before the doubts concerning them were satisfactorily and entirely removed, gives us very good ground to believe, that they had from the be 1 H. E. lib. iii. c. 24, 25. 2 Prolog. in Comm. in Matth. ginning such evidence, as was without exception, of the authority of all those other Books of the New Testament, which were never controverted, which were from the first, and with universal consent, received by all Christian Churches. If there had not been very undeniable evidence of their being the genuine writings of the Apostles, or other inspired men, there would certainly have been the same doubt and controversy concerning them '." "There is a perfect harmony," says Bishop Tomline, "between the doctrines delivered by St. Mark and St. Luke, and by the other writers of the New Testament; and we can indeed scarcely conceive it possible, that God would suffer Four Gospels to be transmitted, as a rule of faith and practice, to all succeeding generations, two of which were written under the immediate direction of His Holy Spirit, and two by the unassisted powers of the human intellect 2." 1 Bishop Blackall. Boyle Lect. Serm. iii. 2 Elements of Christian Theology, Part ii. c. 1. CHAPTER III. ST. PETER WAS NOT VESTED WITH A JURISDICTION OVER the OTHER APOSTLES. WHETHER the leading place, which Peter took among the Twelve, is to be attributed to his having been the first, called to the Apostleship', or to his having first distinctly apprehended the Godhead of the Saviour, or to his seniority, or to his personal 1 1 He might have had this distinction, since his name is placed first in the enumeration of the Apostles by the Evangelists; but Peter was not the first of those (who were afterward Apostles,) admitted into the presence of Christ. His brother Andrew introduced him to that blessedness. John i. 41, 2. Hesychius called Andrew the first-born of the Apostolical choir-o roũ Xopoũ Twy ̓Αποστόλων πρωτότοκος : a rock before the rock-ὁ πρὸ Πέτρου Ilérpos. Quoted by Barrow, On the Pope's Supremacy, 2 Matt. xvi. 16. Supereminentem beatæ fidei suæ confessione gloriam promeruit. Hil. De Trin. lib. vi. 3 Cassian concluded that Peter's seniority was the reason of his precedence among the Apostles. Jerom says: "All the Apostles alike received the keys of the kingdom of Heaven, and the Church is founded on them all equally; nevertheless, one is |