And observe how that divine injunction was fulfilled. For as following our Lord with loving gaze through the Gospels we see every object grouped about that heavenly figure of His; as our eyes rest ever upon Him in the synagogue, in the market-place, among the crowd, before the Pharisees, the elders, the chief priests, healing the sick, raising the dead, supporting and animating His disciples—so turning to the Acts we see a human copy indeed of that Divine portrait, but still one wrought by the Holy Spirit out of our redeemed flesh and blood. We see the fervent Apostle treading in his master's steps, the centre and the support of his brethren, the first before the Council, and before the people, ready with his words and his deeds, uttering to the dead, as the echo of his Lord, "Arise," and healing the sick with his shadow. With reason, then, do the inspired writers use of Peter and of Christ similar forms of speech, and as they write, "Jesus, and His disciples," "there went with Him His disciples," "there He abode with His disciples," so they write, "Peter standing up with the Eleven," "they said to Peter and to the rest of the Apostles," "Peter and the Apostles answering." What above all is remarkable is to observe the same proportion between the figure of Peter and the Apostles in the first twelve chapters of the Acts, as between the figure of our Lord and the Apostles in the Gospel. Such was the power and the will of the Divine Master when He said, "Feed My sheep; follow thou Me." Such the truth of the disciple, answering, "Lord, Thou knowest all things, Thou knowest that I love Thee."
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Passaglia, p. 138.
[2] Passaglia, p. 140. St. Chrys. in Acta, Hom. 1.
[3] St. Chrys. Hom. in Ascens., and on Acts, Tom. 3, p. 773.
[4] Acts xvii. 28-9, and compare 1 Cor. xii. 12-17 with Eph. iv. 16.
[5] Dionys. de Cœl. Hier. cap. 1, § 3.
[6] S. Cyril. Thes. lib. 34, p. 352, and lib. 9, on John, p. 810.
[7] Passaglia, p. 143.
[8] Passaglia, p. 144.