and SAVIOUR, JESUS CHRIST, and his APOSTLES, -&c. 315 apoffle here, according to his ufual mo- defly, conceals his name, it being of more confequence to a wife -man what is Paid, than he who rays it. It appears from St. Auguffine, that this epiffle was anciently infcribed to the Parthians, becaufe, in all probability, St. John preached the gofpel in Parthia. The other two epiftles are but fhort, and direffed to particular per- fons; the one a lady of great quality, the other to the charitable and hofpitable Gaius, the kindeft friend, and the moff courteous entertainer of all indigent Chrif- tians, in thofe primitive times. We are told by Eufebius and St. Je- rom, that St. John, having perufed the other three gofpels, approved and con- firmed them by his authority ; but obferv- ing at the fame time that there evangelifts had omitted feveràl ofour bleffed Saviour's tranfaaions, particularly thofe which were performed before the Baptift's imprifon- ment, he wrote his gofpel to fupply what was wanting in them ; and becaufe feveral Heretics were at that time fprung up in the church, who denied the divinity of our bleffed Saviour, he took care to guard againff there herefies, by proving that our great Redeemer was God from everlafting. He largely records our Sa- viour's difcourfes, but takes little notice of his miracles, probably becaufe the other evangeliffs had fo fully and parti- cularly written concerning them. Previous to his undertaking the talle of writing his gofpel, he caufed a general fart to be kept by all the Arran churches, to implore the bleffing of heaven on fo great and momentous an undertaking. When this was done, he fet about the work, and completed it in fo excellent and fublime a manner, that the ancients generally compared him to an eagle's foaring aloft amongft the clouds, whither the weak eye of nian was not able to follow him. " Among all the evangelical writers," Pays St. Bafil, "none are like St. John, the fon of thunder, for the fubli- mity of his fpeech, and the height of his difcourfes, which are beyond any man's capacity fully to reach and com- prehend." " St. John, as a true fon of thunder," Pays Epiphanius, by a loftinefs of fpeech peculiar to himfelf, " acquaints us, as it were out of the clouds and dark recedes of wifdom, with the divine doftrine Of the Son of God, the glorious Saviour of mankind." Thus have we given the charaEfer of the writings of this great apoffle and evangelifl, who, as we have hinted above, was honoured with the endear- ing title of being the beloved difciple of the Son of God; and was a writer fo fublime as to deferve, by way of emi- nence, the charaaer of St. John the Di- vine.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=