more destitute of solid foundation, than tliat huge mass of matter which the Roman Catholic Church has heaped together, and professes to respect, called " Catholic tradition." The mo- ment a Christian departs from God's Word written, and allows " Catholic tradition " any authority, he plunges into a jungle of uncertainty, and will be happy if he does not make ship- wreck of his faith altogether.
Flacius observes, that not observing our Lord's " if " gave rise to a tradition 1 A single word omitted in a text may do harm.
Henry remarks, " Let us learn here the uncertainty of hu- man tradition, and the folly of building faith upon it. Her.e was a tradition, an apostolical tradition, a saying that went abroad among the brethren. It was early ; it was common ; it was public ; and yet it was false. How little then are those unwritten traditions to be relied upon, which the Council of Trent has decreed to be worthy to be received with a venera- tion and pious affection equal to that which is owing to Holy Scripture."
Henry also remarks, " Let us learn the aptness of men to misinterpret the sayings of Christ. The grossest errors have sometimes shrouded themselves under the umbrage of incon- testable truth, and the Scriptures themselves have been wrest- ed by the unlearned and unstable. We must not think it strange if we hear the sayings of Christ misinterpreted, and quoted to patronize the errors of antichrist."
The Greek phrase" which we render " should not die," is lit- erally, " does not die."
It seems impossible to avoid the conclusion, that the words which Jesus addressed to Peter were heard by the other five Apostles. Otherwise, the saying, or report referred to in this verse, could not have gone forth.
24. — [TJiis is the disciple, etc.'] In this verse the Apostle John makes a solemn declaration of his own authorship of the Gos- pel which bears his name, and of the truth of the matters which the Gospel itself contains. As usual, with characteris- tic humility, he does not give his name, but modestly speaks of himself in the third person. It is as though he said, — " Fi- nally, I, John the Apostle, who leaned on Jesus's breast, de- clare that I am the person who here testifies of these sayings and doings of Christ, and who has here written them down in this book, and I know that I have told nothing but what ia true, and that my testimony may be implicitly trusted."
The first person plural is here used by John, we should ob- Berve^ just as it is in the beginning of his first Epistle.
The verse seems written in order to assure all readers of John's Gospel that they need feel no doubt whatever that they