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 part of the discussion with the following words from the same author:  “Our general conclusion from all that has preceded must be in favor of the genuineness and canonicity of this second epistle; acknowledging at the same time, that the subject is not without considerable difficulty.  That difficulty however is lightened for us by observing that on the one hand, it is common to this epistle with some others of those called catholic, and several of the later writings of the New Testament; and on the other, that no difference can be imagined more markedly distinctive, than that which separates all those writings from even the earliest and best of the post-apostolic period.  Our epistle is one of those latter fruits of the great outpouring of the Spirit on the apostles, which, not being intrusted to the custody of any one church or individual, required some considerable time to become generally known; which when known, were suspected, bearing, as they necessarily did traces of their late origin, and notes of polemical argument; but of which as apostolic and inspired writings, there never was, when once they became known, any general doubt; and which, as the sacred canon became fixed, acquired, and have since maintained, their due and providential place among the books of the New Testament.”

13.  The object of the present epistle is to warn believers against being led away with the error of the wicked so as to fall from their own steadfastness.  Chap. 3:17.  It contains accordingly extended notices of the gross errors in doctrine and morals which, as we know from the New Testament, abounded in the Christian church near the close of the apostolic period.  The second chapter, which is occupied with a vivid description of the false teachers that had “crept