is doubtful whether in this matter he
speaks for the early churches generally. The obscurity in which
the epistle had remained, partly at least because it was not
addressed to the guardianship of any particular church, seems to
have been the chief ground of doubt.

The _internal_ testimony for and against the genuineness of this
epistle has been discussed at great length by many writers. The
reader will find good summaries of them in the two works above
referred to, also in the critical commentaries generally and the
modern Bible dictionaries. If one would come to true results in
this field of investigation it is important that he begin with
true principles. There are what may be called _staple
peculiarities_, which mark the style of one writer as compared
with that of another--that of John, for example, in contrast
with that of Paul. We cannot conceive of these as being wanting.
But then we must allow to one and the same writer a considerable
range of variation in style and diction, dependent partly on
difference of subject matter, and partly on varying frames of
mind of which no definite account can be given. If one would be
convinced of this, he has only to read side by side the epistle
of Paul to the Romans and his second to the Corinthians.
Reserving now the second chapter of the present epistle for
separate consideration, we do not find in the two remaining
chapters, as compared with the first epistle, any such
fundamental differences of style and diction as can constitute a
just ground for denying the common authorship of the two
epistles. For the particulars, as well as for the examination of
other objections of an internal character, the reader must be
referred to the sources above named. It is certainly remarkable
that Peter should refer to the writings of Paul in such terms as
to class them with the "Scriptures" of the Old Testament. Chap.
3:16. But, as Alford remarks, this implies not that the canon of
the New Testament had been settled when the present epistle was
written, but only that "there were certain writings by Christian
teachers, which were reckoned on a level with the Old Testament
Scriptures, and called by the same name. And that that was not
the case, even in the traditional lifetime of Peter, it would be
surely unreasonable to deny." We close this p