The Bishop of London's Three Pastoral Letters to the People of His Diocese; Particularly, to Those of the Two Great Cities of London and Westminster i

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1731. Excerpt: ... observing the Moral Law; the one. That Works of what kind soever, without Faith, are inesfectual to Salvation, and the other, That Faith without Works cannot save; no Scruple was made of putting it upon the same Foot with the other Epistles; in point of Authority. Euseb. 1. Eufebius says, that not many of the Ancients T' 23jement'on'd it; and their Silence is already acnm 'counted for: but Jerom tells us, that it obtain'd Mill. Authority by Degrees, and we find it currently Proleg. p. cited, like other Scriptures, by the Fathers of + the fourth Century, and particularly by Jerom adPaul P himself, as written by James the Apostle, and the Contra Brother of our Lord: So that in the Words of a Jovin. learned Commentator, - They that doubted of it - 24-before, did in the fourth Century embrace the Opinion of thofe that received it; and from thence no Church nor Ecclefastical Writer ever doubted of it but on the contrary, all the Catalogues of the Books of Scripture, whether publijh'd by General or Provincial Councils, &c. number it among the Canonical Scriptures. Euseb. 1. The Second Epistle of St. Peter has been 3. c. 25. already observed to be one of those which Eu--l-l-t'l-febius mentions as question'd, but which also 'were aknowledg'd by many as genuine. And this shows, that when it is said by him that the ancient Fathers acknowledged but one Epistle of St. Peter, i. e. the First, it must be meant, Univerfally and without Exception v with reference to the Second, which was not fo acknowledg'd. Jerome in St. Jerom grounds this doubt concerning the the Word second Epistle, upon the difference from the Pttrui. flrft. jn p0jnt Qf gjyfc gut tijjS truC) jn strict. ness, of the second Chapter only, which is as different in Style from the first and t...