CLAIMS OF ST JAMES AND ST JOHN. 75 cousins german; which was esteemed by the ancients a ground of preferment, as Hegesippus reports.' Their industry and activity in propagation of the gospel was most eminently conspicuous. To them it was peculiar, that St James first suffered for it (Acts xii. 2), and St John longest persisted in the faithful confession of it; whose writings, in several kinds, remain as the richest magazines of Christian doctrine, furnishingus with the fullest testimonies concern- ing the divinity of our Lord, with special histories of his life, and with his divinest discourses, with most lively incitements to piety and charity, with prophetical revelations concerning the state of the church. He, therefore, was one of the 6riiXot, chief pillars and props of the Christian profession; one of barsp ?Fav ieaóaroaoy " the super- lative apostles," Gal.,ii. 9; 2 Cor. xi. 5, xii. 11. Accordingly, in the rolls of the apostles, and in reports concerning them, their names usually are placedafter St Peter, Mark iii. 16, 17; Acts i. 13. Hence, also, some of the fathers do take them, as St Peter was, to havebeen preferred by our Lord. " Peter," says St GregoryNazi- anzen, "and James, and John, who both were indeed, and were reckoned, before the others; so, indeed, did Christ himself prefer them." And, "Peter, James, and John," says Clemens Alexandrinu's, "did not, as being preferred by the Lord himself, contest for honour, but chose James the Just, bishop of Jerusalem," (or, as Ruffinus reads, [renders it,] "bishop of the apostles. ") Hence, if by designation of Christ, by the concession of the apos- tolical college, by the prefulgency of his excellent worth and merit, or upon any other ground, St Peter had the .npare7a, or first place, the asurspsiá, or next place in the same kind, by like means, upon the same grounds, seems to have belonged unto them; and if their ad- vantage implied difference, not in power but in order only, not authoritative superiority, but honorary precedence, then can no more be allowed or concluded due to him. 18. The fathers, both in express terms and implicitly or by con- sequence, assert the apostles to have been equal or co-ordinate in power and authority. What can be more express than that of St Cyprian: "The other ' Tai,; Bl áa'oXedi rat Ariaaviat rmv éwsxnatmv, ¿'s áv psáprupas ópsot7 xai ácró yiYous :i ras roü Kvpíou. Hegesipp., apudEuseb., iii. 20. " Theybeing dismissed, and sent away to govern the churches, as being both witnesses and also kinsmen of our Lord." 2 Aaßá,v .roivuv Tai,; xopu¢aíous. Chrys. in Matt. xvii. 1. "Taking, therefore, the chief and principal." ,t2 r( raÚra'JÇ oreepaXapaßávfit paáVOVs; Ört o .rat rrY iaTwv JÇaY i r;plx2Vrts. Chrys., ibid. "Wherefore takethhe these onlywith him? Because these were the chief and principal above the others." nírpos> xai 'Iáxwße;, xai 1.4"K, ai crpò ,rm, áxA.wv xai ávra; xai ápApeoúpasvot ... aúrn psìv ,, ;none vrperipaneuGreg. .Na., z Or. xxvi. nirpov ¢nvi xai 'Iáxmßov, xai 'Iwávvnv á+s áv xai ú.rò roll Kupiou crporstpcnpsivov; p4 isnát- xáí;svAat 8ágns, rtllá'Iáxwßov e- Síxat,v 1ataaDZaY'Ispavo7.úpcmv Walla,. (Rufinus reddit, apostolorum episeopum.)Clem. Alex., spud Euseb.,
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