Page:ASystematicStudyOfTheCatholicReligion.djvu/56



40. In this chapter we shall have frequent occasions to quote from the Acts of the Apostles. Their reliability is acknowledged by all Christian denominations; it had not been questioned by any scholars before the recent rise of an infidel school of criticism, that of Tubingen, which has assumed the pretentious name of "higher criticism". Still these critics have not found any objections to the Acts on historical grounds, or from extrinsic sources; they only question the intrinsic probability of the narrative. It purports to be from the same pen as the third Gospel, but some of them pretend that its style is different from that of the Gospel; others, that its author must have purposely misrepresented the facts, since these upset their theories. Now even the infidel Renan acknowledges that "one thing is certain, namely, that the Acts have had the same author as the third Gospel, and are a continuation of it." He adds: "I will not pause to prove this proposition, for it has never been contested' ' (Comely, Curs. Script. Introd. Vol. Ill, p. 316). That the Acts are worthy of all credit is evident from the fact that the learned early historian of the Church Eusebius classed them among those sacred Books whose Divine inspiration had never been disputed in the Church. And Tertullian, as early as the second century, reproaches Marcion with having rejected the Acts, and with having done so precisely because of their opposition to his heret-