XVI., on John i. 1, begins by asserting that every utterance of the gospels is grander than the rest of the lessons of the Spirit, inasmuch as, while in the latter He has spoken to us through His servants the prophets, in the gospels the Master has conversed with us face to face.  “The most mighty voiced herald of the actual gospel proclamation, who uttered words loud beyond all hearing and lofty beyond all understanding, is John, the son of thunder, the prelude of whose gospel is the text.”  After repeating the words the preacher goes on to say that he has known many who are not within the limits of the word of truth, many of the heathen, that is, “who have prided themselves upon the wisdom of this world, who in their admiration for these words have ventured to insert them among their own writings.  For the devil is a thief, and carries off our property for the use of his own prophets.” There are instances of high admiration of the passage:  I have not found one of appropriation.  Augustine (De Civ. Dei x. 29), says:  “Quod initium Sancti Evangelii, cui nomen est secundum Johannem, quidam Platonicus, sicut a sancto sene Simpliciano, qui postea ecclesiæ Mediolanensi præsedit episcopus, solebamus audire, aureis litteris conscribendum et per omnes ecclesias in locis eminentissimis proponendum esse dicebat.”  Eusebius (Præp. Evang. xi. 17 and 18) refers to the Statements of Plotinus and Numerius on the δεύτερος αἴτιος, and (19) mentions Aurelius (on Aurelius vide Mosheim’s note on Cudworth’s Int. System, vol. i. cap. iv. 17), as quoting the passage in question.  Vide also Theodoret, Græc. Aff. 33, and Bentley’s Remarks on Freethinking, § xlvi.