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A 
 
 PARAPHRASTIC TRANSLATION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 APOSTOLICAL EPISTLES. 
 
 WITH NOTES. 
 
 PHILIP NICHOLAS SHUTTLEWOBTH, D.D. 
 
 WARDEN OF NEW COLLEGE, OXFORD; AND RECTOR OF FOXLEY, WILTS. 
 
 FOURTH EDITION. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED FOR J. G. F. & J. RIVINGTON, 
 
 ST. Paul's church yard, and waterlog place, pall mall; 
 & J. H. PARKER, OXFORD. 
 
 1840. 
 
I. O N I) o N : 
 
 GII.DF.RT .S.' RIVINGTON. PRINTFBS, 
 ST. JOHN'S SQUARE. 
 
^, ^ f/ 
 
 TO THE REVEREND 
 
 WILLIAM STANLEY GODDARD, D.D. 
 
 My dear Sir, 
 The motive for my request that I might be permitted 
 to address the present volume to you was, that I might 
 avail myself of the opportunity which it would afford 
 me of publicly expressing my grateful acknowledg- 
 ments for the real kindness and the truly valuable 
 instruction which, at an important period of my life, I 
 had the happiness of receiving from you, when placed 
 under your care on the foundation of Winchester Col- 
 lege. More than twenty-eight years have now elapsed 
 since my removal from that seat of my early education ; 
 but the course of time has diminished nothing of the 
 distinctness of recollection with which I at this mo- 
 ment look back to the uniform and impartial integrity 
 displayed by you in the exercise of your high trust as 
 Head Master of that establishment ; your unremitting 
 anxiety for the welfare of your pupils ; and the judg- 
 
 A 2 
 
 700521 
 
iv 
 
 DEDICATION. 
 
 ment and ability with which you directed their studies. 
 In expressing these sentiments, I feel that I am at the 
 same time conveying those of every other member of 
 the Wiccamical body, who has had a similar opportu- 
 nity with myself for forming an opinion. Scanty as, 
 from the operation of untoward circumstances, your 
 reward has been in other respects, you have at least 
 one, which to a mind like yours is far more valuable 
 than the gratification of mere temporal ambition, in 
 the sincere attachment and respect of those who owe 
 to your fostering care their most important acquire- 
 ments ; and in the cheering retrospect of an highly 
 useful and well-spent life. That you may long con- 
 tinue to enjoy these and all other blessings consistent 
 with our mortal allotment, is, dear Sir, the sincere 
 wish of 
 
 Your obliged friend and servant, 
 
 PH. N. SHUTTLEWORTH. 
 
 New College, 
 Feb. 1829. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The object of the present publication is to render the 
 apprehension of the Apostolical Epistles easy and fami- 
 liar to that numerous class of readers, who, from local 
 or other disadvantages, cannot be expected to pursue 
 without assistance the fine trains of reasoning which 
 they contain, or to be able to explain those many 
 incidental obscurities which the gradual change of 
 manners and of language has inevitably introduced 
 into them. In an age perfectly unexampled for its 
 eager pursuit of religious knowledge, and for the vast 
 influx of light which the researches of the learned 
 have poured upon the profounder questions of theo- 
 logy, it cannot but be matter of surprise that so little 
 should have been attempted in that humble walk of 
 scriptural exposition, which without aiming at the dis- 
 covery of any new and unexplored truths, strives only 
 to render the study of the sacred writings more gene- 
 rally attractive and beneficial, by making them more 
 accessible and intelligible. That some work, executed 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 on the plan of this which it has been my lot to under- 
 take, is much wanted at the present moment, must, I 
 think, be universally acknowledged. When we recol- 
 lect the very close and earnest attention which even 
 scholars, trained up in all the habits of acute disputa- 
 tion, are obliged to bring with them to the study of 
 the Epistles of the New Testament, before they can 
 do sufficient justice to the profundity of reflection and 
 the elaborate acuteness of argument which they con- 
 tain, we surely cannot but feel that to a vast portion 
 of the religious world they must, in the form in which 
 they are most usually resorted to, present much which 
 is liable to misconstruction, and much which must 
 appear almost hopelessly obscure. What portion of 
 that obscurity may be made clear to the understanding 
 of common readers, by discarding the occasionally ob- 
 solete phraseology and constrained idioms of our estab- 
 lished version, and by distending over a wider surface 
 the closely compressed thoughts and deep argumenta- 
 tion of the original compositions, may admit of differ- 
 ence of opinion. Something in this way however may, 
 at all events, be done. It is surely no derogation from 
 the value of these, or of ^ any other, portions of the 
 sacred writings to assert of them, that, unless we sup- 
 pose the same preternatural aid invariably to attend 
 the reader of them which we believe to have accompa- 
 nied the original writers, the degree of their perspi- 
 cuity must in all ages depend upon the same combina- 
 tions of accidental circumstances which produce, or 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Vll 
 
 diminish, that of all other literary compositions what- 
 soever. Allusions to the facts whether of sacred or of 
 profane history can only, without a miracle, be under- 
 stood by those persons who have in some degree made 
 that department of history their study ; and polemical 
 discussions, whether on questions of philosophy or reli- 
 gion, must be deprived of their technicalities; and be 
 more broadly and distinctly brought out in plain and 
 familiar language, before they can be made as intelligi- 
 ble to the inexperienced and occasional student, as 
 they are in their original shape to the exercised dis- 
 putant. To assert therefore universally of Scripture, 
 that, as being the revelation of Infinite Wisdom, it 
 can need no explanation or comment whatsoever for 
 the purpose of making it intelligible to all classes of 
 readers, is evidently a mis-statement of the practical 
 fact, from a misconception of the question. Our dispute 
 is not so much with regard to the intrinsic clearness 
 of the truths themselves, when fully and adequately 
 announced, as with the imperfect mode and vehicle by 
 which those momentous truths are necessarily conveyed 
 to the parties for whose instruction we are solicitous. 
 The most perfect revelation of the divine will can, 
 after all, be transmitted to our minds only through the 
 very uncertain medium of human language, the stand- 
 ard of which even in one and the same nation varies 
 from age to age ; and practical doctrines which were 
 completely intelligible to the humblest capacities, so 
 long as they bore upon existent and established usages 
 
 12 
 
viii 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 of society, must of necessity become to a certain degree 
 obscure in proportion as those usages give place to, and 
 are superseded by, others entirely dissimilar. 
 
 In alluding however to those difficulties which time 
 and accident have introduced into the sacred volume, 
 I am far from asserting that the original work itself 
 is so entirely free from obscurity, as many truly good 
 men, in their zeal for the cause of religion, have been 
 disposed to maintain. Close and profound reasoning, 
 such as we find in the Apostolical Epistles, and more 
 especially in those of St. Paul, cannot be immediately 
 pursued and assented to by the average understandings 
 of mankind, even where the subject-matter embraces 
 only the ordinary problems of human knowledge ; much 
 less can we expect that it will be uniformly intelligible 
 where the points under discussion are the transcen- 
 dental mysteries of God's providence ; and where the 
 inspired mind of the writer, itself perfectly familiarized 
 with these profound topics, glances from one head of 
 argument to another with a fluent rapidity of appre- 
 hension with which the most highly gifted of his 
 readers ineffectually strives to keep pace. 
 
 These impediments, however, to the due interpreta- 
 tion of Scripture are after all as nothing when com- 
 pared with those superadded difficulties which neces- 
 sarily attend the substitution of modern translations 
 in the place of the original text. The transfusion of 
 the doctrines contained in the several inspired writings 
 into a language such as ours, differing in its whole con- 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 struction so entirely from those in which they were 
 first conveyed, has been a source of fresh obscurity 
 which, paradoxical as it may appear, has in some cases 
 been increased in exact proportion to the caution and 
 accuracy with which the various translators have per- 
 formed their work. The total diversity of idiom which 
 distinguishes one language from another, and more 
 especially the ancient from the modern, presents an 
 insuperable barrier against every attempt to translate 
 literally any work of considerable length, so as to pre- 
 serve at the same time actual identity of expression 
 and that perspicuity of idea which is necessary to put 
 us into complete possession of the sentiments of the 
 original writer. 
 
 The remark which is clear as the light when con- 
 veyed in its own vernacular idiom, is often obscurity 
 itself when harshly but closely rendered without accom- 
 modation to the pecular phraseology of other nations. 
 Every person who has been in the habit of referring 
 to the original Greek for the explanation of those pas- 
 sages of the Apostolical Epistles which appear intricate 
 and obscure in our English version, must have had 
 continual occasion to observe the justness of this asser- 
 tion. An expression may have been unexceptionably 
 rendered word for word, yet for want of accordance 
 with the structure and associations of our own lan- 
 guage, it will often be nearly unintelligible in its 
 English dress, where the Greek shall present no diffi- 
 culty whatever. Examples to this effect may be col- 
 lected in abundance from almost every page of the 
 
X 
 
 PKEFAOE. 
 
 compositions in question. Take, for instance, tliat part 
 of the concluding paragraph of the second Epistle to 
 the Thessalonians, in which St. Paul states, that his 
 genuine letters may always be recognized as such, from 
 the fact of the valedictory salutation being his own 
 autograph, and written in a peculiar character, the form 
 of which he begs may be attentively examined. No- 
 thing can be clearer than the statement as conveyed in 
 
 the original Greek, 0 aairaaiJiOi; ry e/LLYi \£ipi YlavXoVj o 
 E<JTL ai^fAHOv ev iraay 'FiiriaToXri' ovrto ypa(j)(jj. Yet the 
 
 English version, though scrupulously exact in point of 
 form, scarcely suggests any definite idea to a reader 
 whose literature does not extend beyond our own 
 language. " The salutation of Paul with mine own 
 hand, which is the token in every Epistle : so I write." 
 The defect here is evidently a too great attention to 
 verbal accuracy ; yet where the subject-matter of ex- 
 position is the inspired word of God, it is not very 
 obvious what latitude of expression can be safely allowed 
 to persons specially appointed to transmit it to the un- 
 learned, pure from any admixture of human theory as 
 they first received it. 
 
 The dififtculty, accordingly, which attends the correct 
 transmission of the sentiments of an author, and which 
 may always be evaded or obviated in the case of the 
 works of profane literature, by adopting at will other 
 modes of expression more in accordance with the asso- 
 ciations of the translator, and of the nation for whose 
 benefit the version is intended, presses, on the contrary, 
 heavily, because inevitably, wherever the object is to 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 xi 
 
 afford a faithful and accurate interpretation of the words 
 of hoi J writ. The reverential awe which a conscien- 
 tious translator necessarily feels under such a solemn 
 responsibility as that now alluded to with regard to the 
 doctrines which he is called upon to clothe in a new 
 dress, is an effectual impediment, where his translation 
 is to emanate under the sanction of legislative authority^ 
 to his taking those elsewhere allowed liberties, which 
 in rendering the works of other writers are often no less 
 essential for conveying the full meaning, than they are 
 for preserving the spirit and manner of the original. 
 The disadvantages therefore under which our own, and 
 every other established version of many parts of Scripture 
 must be admitted to labour, are more easy to be 
 lamented than remedied. That the learned and good 
 men, to whom we owe that great and invaluable work, 
 executed the task entrusted to them with judgment 
 and fidelity, is beyond dispute. Nor can we do other- 
 wise than applaud also the integrity of the persons in 
 authority, who, when a translation into our own language 
 of the word of God was rendered necessary by the diffu- 
 sion of Protestantism, took due care that no bias of 
 human passion should be allowed to tamper with its 
 minutest parts under the plea of exposition or improve- 
 ment. Whilst however these considerations suggest 
 an ample vindication of the manner in which that work 
 was executed, they afforded but an insufficient consola- 
 tion for the disadvantages to which an undertaking so 
 circumstanced must be inevitably liable. If accordingly 
 it be incumbent, as it assuredly is, upon the temporal 
 
Xll 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 and ecclesiastical government of the country to promul- 
 gate nothing, directly or indirectly, as the word of God, 
 but that which is undoubtedly and demonstrably such ; 
 then, most assuredly, must individual exertion step in 
 to execute upon its own personal responsibility and risk 
 that which, however indispensable for the adequate in- 
 struction of the majority of readers, cannot with pro- 
 priety emanate from any higher source. A large sup- 
 ply of helps of this description has in consequence been 
 afforded during the course of the last and the present 
 centuries by some of our foremost divines and scholars 
 for the better apprehension of the holy Scriptures, no 
 small portion of whose labours has reference to the very 
 writings which it is the object of this volume to illus- 
 trate. Still however the work here presented to the 
 public will not, I trust, be without its use. Of the 
 many paraphrases and translations of the Apostolical 
 Epistles which have already appeared, most are arranged 
 in a form which renders them more fit for occasional 
 reference than for continuous perusal : whilst some, in- 
 tended chiefly for the assistance of the minutely critical 
 scholar, however admirably adapted for that purpose, 
 are ill calculated to meet the wants of general readers. 
 For the use of this last-mentioned and most important 
 portion of the Christian community a translation appears 
 to me to be still wanting, which should be sufficiently 
 close to convey an adequate idea of the manner in which 
 the Apostolical Epistles were originally written, yet 
 also sufficiently diffuse — to give breadth and prominence 
 to those minute but necessary links of reasoning which 
 
PREFACE. xiii 
 
 are often so cursorily glanced at by the original writers 
 as to escape the observation of persons not in the habit 
 of pursuing an elaborate argument through its finest 
 details ; — to fill up those lacunae of inference, the im- 
 plied purport of which, though necessarily suggested 
 by the context to the experienced dialectician, does not 
 always present itself to others less exercised in this 
 species of elliptical composition ; — and to supply that 
 fluency of context, by which even the languid and de- 
 sultory reader, when indisposed to the labour of intense 
 thought, may be enabled to take a comprehensive view 
 of the whole chain of the argument, and of the object 
 of the writer. Without such a complete and general 
 view, which can only be obtained by the perusal of 
 an entire Epistle at one single sitting, it is not only 
 impossible to derive from it that exact impression which 
 it was intended to convey, but it is even scarcely pos- 
 sible for the clearest mind to avoid some degree of mis- 
 apprehension of its real purport. 
 
 When the reader is entangled and detained by the 
 statement of objections which may be opposed to one 
 branch of an argument, yet wants leisure to pass on to 
 the remainder of the context in which those objections 
 are answered, and consequently is compelled to derive 
 his knowledge piece-meal, deprived of its due propor- 
 tions, and of its unity of design, not the most sincere 
 rectitude of purpose can prevent the adoption of partial 
 and unsound theories. There is also, we may observe, 
 a morbid curiosity in the human mind which loves 
 mysticism for its own sake; and which, glancing 
 
XIV 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 thoughtlessly over the most important truths, which, 
 perhaps on account of their extreme importance, are 
 clearly announced, is ever returning to ponder again 
 and again over those perplexing speculations for which 
 it imagines that it finds a warrant in some detached 
 and isolated fragment of Scripture. 
 
 The only effective mode of counteracting this unsafe 
 tendency is, the elucidation, so far as circumstances 
 will permit, of the obscurity in which such passages are 
 involved. That something may be done in this way by 
 the means already alluded to, is perfectly obvious. No 
 one surely would hesitate to allow, that where the 
 literal rendering of the idiom of an extinct language 
 into our own would suggest scarcely any, or perhaps 
 only an inaccurate, idea to the minds of the unlearned ; 
 or where customs are alluded to with which scholars 
 alone are supposed to be familiar, in such cases the 
 alteration of a single word, or the appending of a 
 short commentary, may supply all the aid requisite. 
 But these, as has been already remarked, are not the 
 only difficulties which a little attention may effectually 
 remove. St. Paul, for instance, not unfrequently quotes 
 a few words only from some passage in the Old Testa- 
 ment, where, from the context of the argument, it is de- 
 monstrable, that he had in his mind the purport of the 
 whole clause of which his quotation forms a part. An 
 exposition, therefore, which fills up his meaning by the 
 insertion of the entire paragraph, undoubtedly affords 
 considerable help for the apprehension of the point 
 under discussion. Again, like an experienced and 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 XV 
 
 subtle disputant, he often advances, as in his own per- 
 son, plausible but fallacious arguments, or anticipates 
 the objections of his opponent, for the purpose of re- 
 futing them. But, however clear such a mode of 
 reasoning may be to the learned, it is self-evident that 
 to the mere reader for spiritual edification, especially 
 to those who are unequal to the effort of studying more 
 than short and detached passages on any one occasion, 
 it will sometimes be attended with considerable per- 
 plexity. The elucidation of such passages therefore, 
 by the insertion of a few words, which shall give pro- 
 minence to the writer's object, and leave nothing for 
 the ingenuity of the reader to surmise or fill up, must 
 of course have a tendency to promote that fluent readi- 
 ness of perception, which is so absolutely necessary for 
 arriving at the real purport of the revealed word of 
 God. The last, but perhaps the most eflScient, means 
 which I have adopted for the purpose of restoring this 
 truly invaluable portion of the inspired volume to its 
 original clearness, is by discarding the commonly re- 
 ceived, though almost universally reprobated, division 
 into chapters and verses ; a division which, though use- 
 ful for occasional reference, has been so capriciously 
 executed by its first contrivers, and with so little regard 
 or attention to the bearings of the context, that it is 
 perhaps no expggeration to say of it, that it has done 
 more to mislead the attention and perplex the judg- 
 ment of the student than any, or all, of the causes of 
 occasional obscurity already alluded to. 
 
xvi 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 Such is the humble and unostentatious help which 
 the present volume is intended to convey. Of course, 
 therefore, it is not, nor does it profess to be, a critical 
 work, in the strict meaning of that term. It has in- 
 deed been my anxious endeavour, as it was my duty, 
 to select the true sense of the writer to the best of my 
 power and judgment in those few controverted cases 
 w^hich have afforded so much occupation, with some 
 occasional difference of opinion, to the learned. Still, 
 however, it was not this species of elucidation which 
 suggested the inducement to this undertaking. My 
 wish has been to assist, not the learned, who can derive 
 little benefit from my exertions, but the religious com- 
 munity under its widest designation ; by placing in 
 the hands of any casual readers an exposition which 
 may save to them that continuous labour of thought, 
 the necessity of which renders more particularly this 
 portion of the word of God always a difficult, and con- 
 sequently to many an irksome task. How far I may 
 have attained my object it is not for me to surmise. 
 One consolation, be the fate of this volume what it may, 
 I shall at all events derive from the conviction, that, 
 whatever may be the defects which inadvertence or 
 error may have admitted into it, the design of it is one 
 well suited to the wants of the age in which we live ; 
 and that, should I be found to have failed in the due 
 execution of my plan, others will assuredly not be want- 
 ing to undertake it under better auspices, and to per- 
 form it with superior ability. 
 
THE 
 
 EPISTLE OF PAUL 
 
 TO THE 
 
 ROMANS. 
 
 The Epistle to the Romans has generally been considered 
 as having been addressed by St. Paul to the J ewish con- 
 verts to Christianity resident in Rome ; but from the tenor 
 of several passages, particularly of that impressive and 
 eloquent exhortation directed to the believing Gentiles in 
 the latter part of the eleventh chapter, it seems more pro- 
 bable that the Apostle intended his communication for the 
 benefit of the whole Christian fraternity in that city. It 
 may be observed, as strengthening this opinion, that the 
 names of the persons to whom this salutation is addressed 
 in the concluding chapter are chiefly such as denote an 
 Italian or Greek parentage. This Epistle appears to have 
 been written at Corinth ; and, as is generally supposed, 
 about the year 58 of the Christian era, during St. PauFs 
 second visit into Greece, and subsequently to his composition 
 of the second Epistle to the Corinthians. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 
 
 1 Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an 
 apostle, set apart for the preaching the Gospel of 
 
 2 God (which he promised of old by his prophets in 
 
 3 the holy Scriptures) concerning his Son, who was 
 born of the seed of David according to the flesh, 
 
 4 and declared to be the Son of God in power, ac- 
 
 B 
 
2 
 
 ROMANS. 
 
 CHAP. 1. 
 
 cording to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection 
 of the dead, namely Jesus Christ our Lord ; by 5 
 whom we have received grace and apostleship for 
 teaching submission to the faith among all nations, 
 through his name, among whom are ye also, the 0 
 called of Jesus Christ ; — to all the beloved of God 7 
 in Rome, called to be his saints, grace and peace 
 be to you from God our father, and the Lord Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 Section I. 
 
 Salvation is to be ol)tained only through the covenant oi faith. 
 
 In the first place I thank my God through Jesus 8 
 Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of 
 throughout all the world. For God is my witness, 9 
 whom I serve in my spirit preaching the Gospel of 
 his Son, how incessantly I bear you in my thoughts, 
 always intreating in my prayers that I may now at lo 
 length by the will of God have a prosperous jour- 
 ney to come unto you. For I am anxious to see 11 
 you that I may impart to you some spiritual gift for 
 the confirming you in the faith : that is, that I may 12 
 be comforted, together with you, through our joint 
 persuasion of the sincerity of our mutual belief. 
 For I wish you to be assured, brethren, that I have 13 
 often purposed coming to you (though I have been 
 prevented up to this present time) in order that I 
 might reap some fruit amongst you also, as I have 
 already done amongst the other Gentiles. For as 14 
 an apostle of the Gentiles it is my duty to preach the 
 Gospel to Greeks and to Barbarians ; to the learned 
 and to the ignorant ; I am therefore ready accord- 1 5 
 ing to my ability to preach also to you in Rome. 
 
CHAP. I. ROMANS. 3 
 
 16 For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, 
 which is the power of God displaying itself for the 
 salvation of every one who believes in it: of the 
 Jew in the first place, and after him of the Gentile 
 also. 
 
 17 For in it is revealed that righteousness of God, 
 which, having its first beginning and foundation in 
 faith, is finally perfected in faith : as it is written, 
 (Habakkuk ii. 4.) He who is justified by faith shall 
 live. 
 
 Section II. 
 
 The apostle, in order to prove the universal necessity of salvation 
 ihxough. faitJi, proceeds to show that no human beings whatever, 
 whether Gentiles or Jews, have attained to righteousness by works. 
 And this he illustrates, in the first place, by the instance of the Gen- 
 tiles, who have uniformly sinned against their better knowledge, as 
 afforded by the light of nature. 
 
 18 For the anger of God is denounced from heaven 
 against all the impiety and injustice of mankind 
 whatsoever, who, notwithstanding their better know- 
 ledge of the truth and of their duty, wilfully perse- 
 
 19 vere in the practice of unrighteousness. For none, 
 whether Jew or Gentile, can plead ignorance of 
 the being of God as their excuse for their neglect of 
 him and of the duties he enjoins ; inasmuch as the 
 knowledge of God is manifested, even to the per- 
 ceptions of the Gentiles themselves, by the natural 
 
 20 faculties which God has given them. For his in- 
 visible attributes, namely, his eternal power and 
 Godhead, have been distinctly perceivable by man- 
 kind, through his material and visible works, from 
 
 21 the first commencement of the world. Therefore are 
 they necessarily without excuse, since, knowing him 
 by the certain light of reason to be God, they have 
 
 b2 
 
4 
 
 ROMANS. 
 
 (HAP. T. 
 
 not honoured him as God ought to be honoured, nor 
 thanked him as God ought to be thanked : but 
 have become vain and foolish in their reasonings 
 respecting him : and thus their inapprehensive 
 minds grew dark and bewildered ; pretending to 22 
 wisdom they became fools, and, blinded by a sense- 23 
 less superstition, finally converted the glory of the 
 imperishable Godhead into the likeness of perish- 
 able man, of birds, of beasts, of reptiles. Wherefore 24 
 God in his turn gave them up, by a just retribution 
 through their own grovelling desires, to unclean- 
 ness, and to the dishonouring of their own bodies 
 by licentious indulgence ; as being persons who had 25 
 converted the eternal truths of his holy nature into 
 a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather 
 than Him their great Creator, who is blessed for 
 ever and ever. Amen. For this reason He 26 
 abandoned them to the pollution of their impure 
 passions ; so that their very women, as their own 
 annals will testify, have learned to change their 
 natural affections into passions against nature ; and 
 the men, abandoning the natural use of the woman, 27 
 have burned with lust for one another, males with 
 males practising abomination, and receiving, as 
 was fit, the awful retribution of a darkened under- 
 standing. And, as they did not choose to seek 28 
 after the true knowledge of God's nature and attri- 
 butes \ God gave them up to a reckless mind, to 
 
 ^ It is worthy of observation, that the apostle in this 
 passage directly asserts the competency of unassisted hu- 
 man reason to arrive at tolerably accurate conclusions 
 respecting the perfections of the divine Being, and the 
 accuracy of our natural perceptions in the great questions 
 
CHAP. I. 
 
 ROMANS. 
 
 5 
 
 29 do all things which are unseemly : being filled 
 with every kind of unrighteousness \ with forni- 
 
 of morals. Without the possession of such intuitive know- 
 ledge, he justly argues that the heathen world could not 
 be considered as responsible agents in the sight of God. 
 Strange to say, however, this seemingly self-evident doc- 
 trine, which would appear to require no other proof than the 
 internal consciousness of every reflecting person, has been 
 opposed even in our own times by some of the ablest and 
 most sincere champions of Christianity. That the more 
 captious schools of ancient philosophy should have occasion- 
 ally made this question a subject for the display of a false 
 ingenuity, and have taught that the distinctions of right 
 and wrong were not referrible to any moral sense within us, 
 and had no other origin than the enactments of legislators 
 founded upon mere principles of expediency, need not per- 
 haps be matter of wonder. To ^iKaiov uvac koX to alcrx^ov 
 oi) (l)VGei, aXXa vojiKo. But one cannot but be surprised that 
 so acute and truly pious a mind as that of Dr. Paley should 
 have given its sanction to an opinion not very dissimilar. 
 The unhesitating assent which it was the fashion of the 
 writers of the last century to give to that theory of Locke 
 and others respecting our bodily senses as being the ex- 
 clusive vehicle of all our knowledge, has probably contri- 
 buted much to the prevalence of these notions : but it 
 seems now to be generally admitted, that the theory, though 
 apparently true in a certain sense, must at all events be 
 understood with considerable modifications. When ad- 
 mitted without limitation in its broadest and most literal 
 interpretation, its tendency undoubtedly is to obscure our 
 apprehension of the divine attributes, and to overthrow the 
 internal evidences of religion as deducible from its accord- 
 ance with what we should conceive probable respecting the 
 will of a perfectly good supreme Being. 
 
 * The recollection of every classical scholar will readily 
 suggest to him abundant proofs, taken from the most en- 
 lightened ages of heathen antiquity, of the accuracy of this 
 portraiture of pagan morals as delineated by the apostle. 
 
6 
 
 ROMANS. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 cation, baseness, avarice, malice, envy, murder, 
 strife, treachery, malignity ; and becoming whis- 
 perers, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, domi- 30 
 neering, boasters, inventors of w^ickedness, disobe- 
 dient to parents; without right perceptions, covenant 31 
 breakers, without the kindly affections, implacable, 
 merciless : who knowing by the natural light of 32 
 their own consciences the moral attributes and just 
 judgments of God, and that they who practise such 
 offences as these are worthy of death, not only 
 themselves persevere in the commission of them, 
 but encourage others to do the same. 
 
 Wherefore even you, O man, who in the fancied 2 
 superiority of moral wisdom condemn others for 
 these things, are yourself without an excuse : for 
 in condemning another you convict yourself, inas- 
 much as you in your practice commit those very 
 things of which you disapprove in others. God's 2 
 judgments we are assured will be exercised with 
 truth and impartiality against all the doers of un- 
 righteousness. Can you then hope, that whilst you 3 
 yourself commit what your own natural understand- 
 ing enables you thus to condemn in others, that you 
 shall in your turn escape the all-seeing eye of God ? 
 or are you trifling with the abundance of his good- 4 
 ness, and forbearance, and slowness to anger, not 
 perceiving that it is the merciful object of that for- 
 bearance to afford you the means and opportunity of 
 repentance, and thus to bring you finally to salva- 
 tion ? But be assured, that by this hardness and 5 
 impenitence of heart you are laying up for yourself 
 wrath against the day of wrath ; when the righteous- 
 ness of God's dispensations shall be finally mani- 
 fested, and when he shall repay to every man ac- 6 
 cording to his work ; to those who by perseverance 7 
 
CHAP. II. 
 
 ROMANS. 
 
 7 
 
 in good conduct seek for glory, and honour, and 
 
 8 immortality, eternal life ; whilst, on the other hand, 
 for the self-willed, for those who are disobedient to 
 the truth, and slaves to unrighteousness, is reserved 
 
 9 wrath and anger, tribulation and anguish, upon 
 every soul of man that works wickedness ; for the 
 Jew in the first place, and afterwards for the Greek 
 
 10 and the Gentile. But glory, and honour, and peace 
 to every man that works righteousness ; to the Jew 
 in the first place, and afterward to the Greek and 
 to the Gentile also. 
 
 11 For there is no preference of nation or individual, 
 
 12 no partiality or injustice with God : but whosoever 
 shall have sinned against the law of nature shall be 
 condemned and perish by the law of nature; and 
 whosoever shall have sinned against the written 
 law of Moses, shall in like manner be condemned 
 
 16 and perish by the law of Moses, ^on that day when 
 God shall lay open the secrets of every breast by 
 Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of that 
 Gospel which I preach. 
 
 13 For it is not the mere unprofitable hearers of the 
 law of Moses who are acquitted in the sight of 
 God; but it is the sincere doers of the command- 
 ments contained in that law, who shall finally be 
 justified. 
 
 14 For when the Gentiles, to whom the law of 
 Moses was never communicated, do, by the mere 
 
 ^ 1 have ventured to take the 1 6th verse out of its regu- 
 lar order, and to place it immediately after the 12th, for 
 the purpose of avoiding the obscurity resulting from the 
 parenthetical insertion of the 13th, 14th, and 15th verses 
 between them, as it exists in the original. The sense of 
 the passage of course remains unaltered. 
 
8 
 
 ROMANS. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 light of nature, the precepts of the revealed law, 
 they, without the aid of a more express revelation, 
 are a law and a rule of conduct to themselves: 
 inasmuch as they show the works of the law en- 15 
 graved upon their hearts, their consciences mean- 
 while bearing witness to them, and their internal 
 moral perceptions one with another confirming or 
 correcting its decisions. 
 
 Section III. 
 
 Having shown that the Gentile world have failed of attaining the righte- 
 ousness which is by works, the Apostle proceeds, in the second 
 place, to prove the same result with respect to the Jews, who sought 
 to obtain salvation by performance of the ceremonial observances, 
 and by obedience to the moral precepts, of the Mosaic covenant. 
 
 But you will say perhaps, " Why urge me with 17 
 what I most readily acknowledge, namely, that the 
 Gentile world has uniformly fallen short of complete 
 moral righteousness? What have t/ou to do with 
 that admission ; ijou who profess yourself a Jew, 
 and rest your claim to holiness upon the righteous- 
 ness of the revealed law, and boast of your more 
 complete knowledge of God, and of his will, and 18 
 have a more perfect and accurate rule of duty than 
 the Gentiles, deriving, as you do, your instruction 
 from the divine precepts delivered to Moses ?" 
 True, you have so : and accordingly under this 19 
 presumption you feel confidence in yourself that 
 you are a leader of the blind, a light to those who 
 are in darkness, the instructor of the ignorant, a 20 
 teacher of babes, having for your guide the summary 
 of divine knowledge and truth contained in a code 
 derived from heaVen itself — ^' What then ?" let 21 
 
CHAP. II. 
 
 ROMANS. 
 
 9 
 
 me ask in my turn, " you who teach others, do you 
 
 22 not teach yourself ?" You who proclaim, " Thou 
 shalt not steal," do you steal ? You who say, 
 " Thou shalt not commit adultery," do you commit 
 adultery? You that abhor idols, do you insult the 
 
 23 true God by committing sacrilege? You who boast 
 of the excellence of your divine law, do you by 
 transgressing that same law dishonour its almighty 
 
 24 Author? For assuredly, as it is truly written of 
 you by the prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel, " through 
 you the name of God is blasphemed amongst the 
 Gentiles." 
 
 25 Grant that your boasted circumcision would be 
 of real profit to you, provided you were to perform 
 all the conditions of that law of which it is the 
 symbol, yet if, instead of so doing, you become a 
 wilful violator of that law which you profess to 
 revere, as certainly will your circumcision become 
 in no respect better than the uncircumcision of the 
 
 26 Gentiles. And if so, then may we not by a parity 
 of reason pronounce of the uncircumcised Gentile, 
 that, if his moral practice be in all respects con- 
 formable to the precepts of your law, his uncircum- 
 cision shall be as available to him in the siffht of 
 
 27 God as the circumcision of the Jew ? Nay, may we 
 not carry the argument still further, and venture to 
 assert, that the uncircumcision of him who, in- 
 structed only in the law of nature, shall have per- 
 formed the moral duties enjoined by Moses, shall 
 sit in judgment upon and condemn you, who, being 
 a Jew only by the letter and circumcision, are by 
 your actions a violator of that very law which you 
 
 28 profess to honour ? For he is not a Jew in the sight 
 of God who is only one outwardly ; nor is that the 
 
10 
 
 ROMANS. 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 true circumcision which is only the outward sign 
 marked upon the flesh : but it is the inwardly sin- 29 
 cere Jew only who in reality deserves the title ; and 
 that only is the true circumcision which is the cir- 
 cumcision of the heart, impressed upon the spirit, 
 and not existing in the mere literal fulfilment of an 
 external ceremony. The^ commendation of which 
 is not from men, but from God. 
 
 But you will ask then : " If so, what after all 3 
 are the boasted privileges possessed by the Jew 
 beyond those of the Gentile, and what are the 
 advantages of that circumcision which we know 
 to have been of divine appointment ?" I answer, 
 " Many in every respect. But chiefly indeed, that 2 
 to the Jews, as God's chosen people, were intrusted 
 the oracles of the will of God." " Why then," 3 
 you ask, " does God now rescind those privileges 
 which he has guaranteed to us as a nation ? Grant 
 that some individuals amongst ourselves have broken 
 their covenant with him : are we to suppose that 
 lie will therefore withdraw from his engagements 
 solemnly pledged to the collective body of the 
 Israelitish people ?" By no means, I reply. Let God 4 
 be found faithful to his word, though every man be 
 found a liar ; as it is written in the fifty-first Psalm, 
 " That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and 
 prevail when thou art judged." 
 
 " Why then," you will perhaps retort, " should 5 
 He thus severely punish us for our rebellion and in- 
 gratitude, which, however disgraceful to ourselves, 
 serve only to make His own superior faithfulness 
 in Ids observance of the covenant made with our 
 forefathers more conspicuous by the comparison ? 
 Is not . God," it may be plausibly urged, " unjust 
 
CHAP. III. ROMANS. 
 
 11 
 
 in visiting with severity the rebellion of the Jews, 
 from which no injury could possibly accrue to 
 
 6 himself?" I reply, that this argument proves too 
 much, and that, if correct, it would show, that, be- 
 cause no actual injury can accrue to God from the 
 sins of the human race, therefore " he will never 
 judge the world at all,'' which is directly contrary to 
 
 7 our conviction of his purity and justice. But per- 
 haps you will urge again, " If the truth and glory 
 of God, so far from being sullied, is actually made 
 more manifest by its contrast with the faithlessness 
 of us Jews with regard to the covenant which he 
 has made with us, why should he cast us off and 
 reject us solely for a disobedience, which, however 
 it may disgrace ourselves, has actually redounded 
 to Ids credit, and to the increase of his glory ?" — 
 
 8 Yet this very argument again if true would justify 
 the maxim which we are slanderously asserted by 
 our enemies to adopt, " that it is lawful to do evil 
 in order that good may ensue,'' a sentiment revolting 
 to the first principles of morals. 
 
 9 " What then," you will once more ask, " are we 
 Jews in no respect morally better in the sight of 
 God than the Gentiles ?" I answer, " in none what- 
 ever." For I have already proved that all men in- 
 discriminately, both Jews and Gentiles, are involved 
 
 10 in the guilt of sin. As it is written in the four- 
 teenth Psalm, " There is no one without sin : no 
 
 1 1 not one : there is none that understandeth, there is 
 
 12 none that seeketh God : all have gone out of their 
 way, they are together become unprofitable; there 
 
 13 is none that doeth good, no not one. Their throat 
 is an open sepulchre, with their tongues they have 
 used deceit : the poison of asps is under their lips. 
 
12 
 
 ROMANS. 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness : 14 
 their feet are swift to shed blood : destruction and \q 
 misery are in their ways, and the way of peace they 17 
 have not known: there is no fear of God before 18 
 their eyes." Now we know that these heavy de- 19 
 iiunciations as being contained in the book of the 
 Jewish scriptures are addressed personally and ex- 
 clusively to the Jews\ in order that every mouth, 
 both Jew and Gentile, might be stopped, and the 
 whole world be found amenable to the just judg- 
 ment of God. Wherefore, as I have already stated 20 
 as my primary position, hy the performance of the 
 works of the law, whether it he that of nature or that 
 of Moses, no flesh whatever shall stand acquitted and 
 justified in his sight : on the contrary, it is from 
 those very precepts of the law which teach us our 
 duty that we first learned the knowledge of what 
 is right, and consequently acquired the cajiability 
 of disobedience, and, through disobedience of sin. 
 
 Section IV. 
 
 It having been proved by the foregoing arguments that the whole 
 human race are involved in one common condemnation in the sight 
 of God, it necessarily follows that salvation can be attained only 
 through the covenant of mercy communicated to us through the merits 
 of Christ. This new dispensation accordingly the Apostle declares 
 to be now offered to the whole of mankind indiscriminately, whether 
 Jews or Gentiles. 
 
 But now, at length, in these latter days, the 21 
 righteousness and mercy of God, which is not 
 extreme to measure our conduct by the strict letter 
 of the written law, has been finally revealed to man- 
 kind ; a dispensation long ago announced by Moses 
 and the Prophets, and now accomplished in that 22 
 
CHAP HI. 
 
 ROMANS. 
 
 13 
 
 covenant of righteousness and justification through 
 faith in Christ, extended without discrimination to 
 
 23 all those who believe in him. For all men have 
 alike sinned and come short of the glory of God, 
 
 24 being justified gratuitously, and without any effec- 
 tive merit on their part, by his mercy, through 
 
 25 the redemption which is in Jesus Christ ; whom 
 God set forth as a propitiation through faith in 
 his blood, not only for the display and vindication 
 of his own unblemished righteousness and mercy, 
 in passing over former offences by his long and 
 
 26 patient forbearance : but also for the manifestation 
 of the same righteousness and mercy at this present 
 moment, showing at once the justice of his own 
 ways, and at the same time releasing from the 
 penalties of sin every one who has faith in Jesus. 
 
 27 Where then is boasting on our part ? It is ex- 
 cluded. By what dispensation ? by that of human 
 merit and of works ? By no means : but by the 
 
 28 dispensation of faith in our Redeemer. Here then 
 is our conclusion, namely, " that a man is acquitted 
 and rendered acceptable to God hy faith in the merits 
 of his Redeemer only, and not by the merit of his own 
 performance of the works of the lawP 
 
 29 And shall we presume to say that God is the God 
 of the Jews only, and not also of the Gentiles ? 
 
 30 Most assuredly he is the God of the Gentiles also : 
 inasmuch as he is one and the same God, who will 
 alike acquit both Jew and Gentile by the covenant 
 
 31 of faith. Are we then declaring the moral law of 
 works to be useless, because we teach that redemp- 
 tion is through faith only ? Far otherwise ; on the 
 contrary, we are confirming and bearing our testi- 
 mony to the perfection of that law ; inasmuch as it 
 
 1 
 
14 
 
 ROMANS. 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 was our inadequate performance of its ordinances 
 which rendered the dispensation of faith in a Re- 
 deemer necessary. 
 
 Section V. 
 
 The Apostle proceeds to prove, that the covenant of mercy through 
 faith extends to the Gentile world no less than to the Jews, from the 
 fact that the divine promise made to Abraham was the reward of his 
 reliance on God's protection before he had received the rite of cir- 
 cumcision, and consequently before he could be considered as ex- 
 clusively representing the Jewish nation. 
 
 If however righteousness, as is now asserted, be 4 
 through faith only, what are we to say of the ex- 
 ample of our father Abraham ? for if he was justi- 2 
 fied by his own works, his boast would be in the 
 merit of those works. But not such is that imputed 
 riofhteousness of God which is communicated 3 
 through faith. What says the Scripture on this 
 subject? Abraham "trusted in God, and that was 
 counted to him for righteousness ^ But the reward 4 
 of a man who has completely performed his duty 
 in all its parts is one of debt, and of absolute right ; 5 
 not one of mercy and favour. But in the case of 
 him whose works have been inadequate, and who 
 throws himself upon the mercy of him who can 
 justify the sinner, it is faith alone and not adequate 
 performance which is accounted to him for righteous- 
 ness'' And according to this view of the question 6 
 is it, that David in the thirty-second Psalm de- 
 scribes the blessedness of the man to whom God 
 imputes righteousness without the merit arising 
 from works. " Blessed are they whose violations 7 
 of the law are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. 
 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not i7n- 8 
 
CHAP. IV. 
 
 ROMANS. 
 
 15 
 
 9 pute sin." Is this blessedness then to the circum- 
 cised Jews only, or to the uncircumcised Gentiles 
 also? What do we learn on this point from the 
 example before us ? We say that faith was imputed 
 
 10 to Abraham for righteousness. I ask then, " At • 
 what time, and on what occasion, was it so imputed 
 to him ?" Refer to the sacred writings, and we 
 shall find it to have been not after but before his 
 
 11 receiving the rite of circumcision. And he after- 
 wards received the mark of circumcision as a seal 
 of that previous righteousness through faith which 
 he had shown when uncircumcised: in order that 
 he might be considered the father of the believing 
 Gentiles also, that righteousness might be imputed 
 through faith to them as well as to the Jews : and 
 
 12 the father of circumcision to those not of the cir- 
 cumcision only, but to all whosoever walk in the 
 track of that faith in God which he, our father 
 Abraham, had before his circumcision. 
 
 13 The promise then to Abraham or to his seed, 
 " that he should be the heir of the world," was not 
 a reward of his, or their, perfect obedience to the 
 law of works, but the consequence of the righteous- 
 
 14 ness imputed to him through faith. For if those 
 only are after all to be heirs to the promise whose 
 obedience to the law of works has been complete, 
 faith, in the first place, becomes of no value, and, 
 secondly, the promise of God, that he will be a 
 rewarder of righteousness, becomes, in consequence 
 of the un worthiness of mankind, without effect. 
 
 15 For the law of perfect works, if rigorously insisted 
 on, would lead not to reward, but to punishment : 
 whilst on the other hand, where law is not, as there 
 can be no transgression, so consequently can there 
 be no punishment. 
 
16 
 
 ROMANS. 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 The inheritance therefore to which we look is IC 
 through " faith," that it may be a covenant of 
 mercy, and that accordingly the fulfilment of the 
 promise may be secure to all the seed of our com- 
 mon father Abraham, whether Jew or Gentile ; not 
 to that part of it only which claims its descent from 
 him under the exclusive limitations of the law, but 
 to that also which follows him as their great spiri- 
 tual example in the righteousness of faith : as it is 17 
 written, (Gen. xvii. 5.) "I have made thee a father 
 of many nations :" a promise confirmed to him 
 whilst he stood in the presence of that God who can 
 raise the dead to life, and who calls the things as 
 yet unborn as though they already existed. And 18 
 thus, with this humble reliance, Abraham firmly 
 believed in the divine promise, for what then seemed 
 impossible to all human calculation, that he should 
 be the father of many nations, according to that 
 which was declared to him by God, (Gen. xv. 5.) 
 " Thy seed shall be as the stars of heaven for mul- 
 titude." And accordingly, being firm in faith, he 19 
 did not consider the improbability of his having 
 children at his very advanced age, (for he was then 
 about an hundred years old,) nor the great age of 
 Sarah. Therefore he did not expostulate through 20 
 disbelief with this promise of God, but was strong 21 
 in faith, giving God the glory, and being fully per- 
 suaded that He is able to perform all that He had 
 promised. And it was the undoubting sincerity of 22 
 this faith which was imputed to him for righteousness. 
 Now, that " it was thus imputed to him for 23 
 righteousness" was not written for his sake alone, 
 but for ours also, to whom righteousness shall also 24 
 be imputed in like manner, if we believe as firmly 
 in Him who raised Jesus Christ our Lord from the 
 
CHAP. V. 
 
 ROMANS. 
 
 17 
 
 25 dead. Who was delivered to death for our of- 
 fences, and was raised again for our justification. 
 5 Being then thus justified by faith, we are at peace 
 
 2 with God through our Lord Jesus Christ : through 
 whose merits we have access by faith to this cove- 
 nant of mercy in which we now stand : and exult 
 in the hope that we shall one day be admitted to 
 
 3 see the glory of God. And not only so, but we 
 exult also even in our present aflflictions, knowing 
 
 4 that affliction produces patience, and patience our 
 spiritual improvement, and our spiritual improve- 
 
 5 ment hope : and this hope makes us not ashamed, 
 because we know it to be a well-grounded conscious- 
 ness of the love of God poured into our hearts 
 through the Holy Spirit which is given to us. 
 
 6 For let us remember, than when we were yet in 
 all the infirmity of sin, Christ in his own good time 
 
 7 died for sinners. (Now even for a good man we 
 should scarcely find any one who would willingly 
 lay down his life, though for a truly good man 
 perhaps persons may be found who would make 
 
 8 such a sacrifice ;) but God shows the immensity of 
 his own love towards us, in that Christ died for us 
 even whilst we were in the very midst of our sins. 
 
 9 Much more then, now that we have been justified 
 and reconciled to him by the expiation of his blood, 
 may we confidently hope to be saved through him 
 
 10 from the divine wrath. For if, whilst we were yet 
 enemies to God by our sins, we became reconciled 
 to him through the death of his Son, much more, 
 now that we are reconciled, may we calculate upon 
 our salvation through that Son's restoration to life : 
 
 11 nay we may even confidently exult in this view of 
 the mercies of God as communicated to us through 
 
 c 
 
18 
 
 ROMANS. 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have received 
 this reconciliation. 
 
 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the 1 
 world, and death in consequence of sin, and thus all 
 became subject to death, because all have sinned, 1 
 (for sin prevailed in the world from the time of 
 Adam to that of Moses, though sin is not imputed 
 to those who have sinned through ignorance of the 
 law ^ : and yet, be that as it may, death, the con- i 
 sequence of sin, has certainly attached to all men 
 whatsoever during the whole of that period, and 
 even to those who have not sinned knowingly as 
 Adam had done,) it will appear that this first Adam, 
 by the universality of the penalty which he brought 
 upon mankind by his individual guilt, is in that 
 respect a type of the second Adam, who by his 
 individual merits procured an universality of expia- 
 tion. But yet with this marked and important 1 
 difference ; that, not as was the offence of Adam, so 
 was the mercy of Christ ^. For if by the sins of 
 
 * The Apostle's meaning in this passage seems to be, 
 that, although the physical consequences of Adam's sin 
 have been the natural tendency to dissolution in all his 
 posterity without exception by the inevitable decay of the 
 body, yet that that transgression will not be imputed as a 
 spiritual condemnation to such as shall have been incapable, 
 whether from ignorance or any other preventive cause, of 
 the actual commission of wilful sin in their own persons, as 
 in the case of idiots, or of children who die in their infancy. 
 
 ^ It has been a favourite objection with unbelievers 
 against the internal evidence of Christianity, that the doc- 
 trine of imputed sin as descending from Adam, and 
 attaching to his posterity, is inconsistent with every notion 
 of the divine justice. The weight of this objection is 
 
CHAP. V. 
 
 ROMANS. 
 
 19 
 
 one, many died, who might otherwise have lived, 
 much more has the mercy of God, and the free 
 
 considerably diminished by the admission of the apostle, 
 that " where no law has been promulgated, sin is not im- 
 puted," an admission which, as was observed in the pre- 
 ceding note, would encourage us to infer that God will not 
 charge with sin such individuals of the human race as shall 
 have been by insuperable necessity cut off from the means 
 of better knowledge. But another answer to this charge 
 is that which St. Paul now proceeds to urge ; namely, that 
 admitting to the fullest extent the imputation of Adam's 
 guilt to his posterity, still its operation will not be 
 more wide than that of the imputed righteousness of 
 Christ, by which the responsibility attaching to us from the 
 fall of our first parent is effectually done away. The 
 analogy and harmony of revelation therefore in this, as in 
 a vast number of other cases, when considered as a wliole^ 
 affords a satisfactory solution of the peculiar difficulty 
 suggested by an examination of a part only. If it be 
 urged, however, that the operation of Adam's fall was 
 universal in its effects, but that of the atonement of Christ 
 conditional, and dependent upon the lives and conduct 
 of the persons claiming to be benefited by it, w^e may ob- 
 serve in reply, that at all events we infer from Scripture 
 that the offer of salvation through Christ is made indiscri- 
 minately to all mankind ; and that although we have good 
 reason to fear the final rejection of many through their 
 disobedience, still that circumstance involves no more per- 
 plexing an admission than, that a God of infinite purity must 
 necessarily disapprove of and punish all cases of gross and 
 persevering immorality. Had our first parents remained 
 innocent, we have no reason to infer that their posterity 
 would never have sinned, and consequently have never for- 
 feited their privileges, precisely as mankind may at this 
 moment lose by their own guilt and folly the imputed righte- 
 ousness purchased for them by the sacrifice of Christ. If there 
 be any difference as to the actual extent of the two cases, 
 
 c 2 
 
20 
 
 ROMANS. 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 gift of redemption by the one man Jesus Christ, 
 abounded for the salvation of many who were 
 otherwise lost. And not, as was the penalty of 16 
 one man's sin, so was the free gift by the merits of 
 Christ. For the sentence against Adam was con- 
 demnation to all through the offence of one: but 
 the mercy through Christ was a transition from 
 the offences of many to justification. For if, by the 17 
 transgression of one, death reigned over the whole 
 world through that one, much more may we expect 
 from the divine benevolence that they who embrace 
 the exuberance of the divine mercy and the free gift 
 of justification, shall reign in life through one, our 
 Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 Therefore, as the effects of one man's offence 18 
 were the condemnation to death of all men, so by 
 the righteousness of one is the communication of 
 justification to life made to all mankind. For as 19 
 by one man's disobedience many became sinners, 
 so, by the obedience of one, many shall be made 
 righteous. 
 
 Section VI. 
 
 The law of perfect morality, whether it be that suggested by the light 
 of natural religion as in the case of the Gentiles, or that contained 
 in the Levitical code as in the case of the Jews, so far from being 
 able to correct the original depravity of man's nature, the conse- 
 quence of the fall of our first parents, has on the contrary a tendency 
 
 St. Paul justly argues, that the preponderance is clearly on 
 that side where under the government of a good Providence 
 we might naturally expect to find it : namely, on that of 
 mercy. A benevolent Creator may be presumed to incline 
 unwillingly to measures of even just severity, but we may 
 safely infer that he will display no repugnance to the adop- 
 tion of consistent goodness to any possible extent. 
 
CHAP, VI. 
 
 ROMANS. 
 
 21 
 
 rather to increase his Hability to sin ; the multiplication of its 
 enactments being in fact so many additional occasions afforded to 
 him of displaying his disobedience. This being an objection against 
 the efficacy of every attempt at merely legal justification in the 
 sight of God, when applied to the case of infirm moral agents, 
 which must operate more ^nd more fatally precisely in proportion 
 to the increased purity of the enactments which such a law would 
 enforce, it appears to follow as an evident consequence, that our 
 final responsibility can be effectually done away only by a dispensa- 
 tion constructed upon the principle of mercy and imputed righteous- 
 ness. Such a dispensation however the apostle urges can never be 
 supposed to supersede the original obligations of morality, since its 
 object is to supply the inevitable deficiencies in human actions, and 
 not to dispense with our best possible exertions. On the contrary, 
 it affords the highest and most urgent motive, upon every principle 
 whether of gratitude or of absolute obligation, to a life of purity and 
 spiritual holiness. 
 
 20 As then the moral law by its introduction only 
 served to multiply offences through man's disobe- 
 dience, so, where offences have abounded, mercy 
 
 21 has much more abounded. And thus as sin reigned 
 over the whole world by introducing death, so has 
 it been arranged that mercy should reign through 
 the righteousness which is from God, to the intro- 
 duction of eternal life through Jesus Christ our 
 Lord. 
 
 6 What then ; shall we abandon the pursuit of 
 moral purity, and continue in the practice of those 
 sins which the law denounces, because the cove- 
 nant which we look to is one of grace and mercy, 
 
 2 and not of rigorous retribution ? By no means. 
 How shall we who are dead to sin any longer live in 
 
 3 the commission of it ? Know ye not that as many 
 of us as were baptized to Christ Jesus were bap- 
 
 4 tized to his death ? We have therefore been buried 
 with him as to all the affections of this sinful world, 
 inasmuch as we have been baptized to his death : 
 
22 
 
 ROMANS. 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 to the end that as Christ was raised from the dead 
 through the glorj of the Father, so we also, being 
 dead to sin, might walk in newness of life. For, 5 
 if we have been planted together with him in the 
 likeness of his death, so we shall bear the same 
 blessed fruit with him in the likeness of his resur- 
 rection : knowing this, that our original carnal 6 
 nature was crucified together with him, in order 
 that the body which was subject to sinful affections 
 might be done away, and that we, as being dead, 7 
 should no longer be enslaved by sin. But if we 8 
 have died with Christ, we trust that we shall also 
 live eternally together with him, knowing that 9 
 Christ being raised from the dead henceforward 
 dies no more : death has no longer dominion over 10 
 him. For in dying, he died, unto sin once, but in 
 living, he lives now unto God. In like manner do 11 
 you consider yourselves, even in this world, dead 
 to sin, but living to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. 
 
 Let not then sin reign in your mortal body, so 12 
 that by the indulgence of your corrupt appetites 
 you should yield to it ; nor render your members 13 
 instruments of iniquity through sin. But sur- 
 render yourselves to God, living as though you 
 had been already raised from the dead, and let 
 your members be instruments of holiness to God. 
 Doing thus you may be assured that sin shall not 14 
 prevail against you ; for you are no longer under 
 the rigid law of adequate and perfect works, but 
 under the covenant of grace and mercy. What 15 
 then, I again ask, shall we wilfully sin, because 
 we are no longer under the law of perfect works, 
 but under the covenant of grace? By no means: 16 
 know ye not that to whatsoever dominion you wil- 
 
CHAP. VI. 
 
 ROMANS. 
 
 23 
 
 fully subject yourselves, you render yourselves the 
 slaves of, and tender your allegiance to, that domi- 
 nion, whether it shall be of sin whose fruit is death, 
 
 17 or of obedience whose fruit is holiness? But thanks 
 be to God that, having been formerly the slaves of 
 sin, you have now from your heart become obedient 
 to the form of pure doctrine to which you were trans- 
 
 18 ferred : and being set free from the bondage of sin, 
 
 19 have become the slaves of holiness. (In speaking 
 thus I am using a homely and familiar illustration, 
 in order to make myself clear to your understand- 
 ing.) Wherefore as you have in time past made 
 your members slaves to impurity and to licentious- 
 ness whilst under the dominion of sin, so now 
 render them slaves to holiness as being under the 
 
 20 dominion of purity. For when you were the slaves 
 of sin you considered not yourselves subject to the 
 
 21 control of the rule of righteousness. And what 
 fruit did you reap from that degrading bondage to 
 your former master? fruit of which you are now 
 ashamed ; for the end of those things is death. 
 
 22 But now being set free from sin, and become ser- 
 vants of God, you have your fruit unto holiness ; 
 
 23 and, for your final reward, everlasting life \ For 
 
 ^ This is the true philosophy of sound morahty. Where 
 the heart and inclinations are callous or corrupt, the un- 
 derstanding may be crowded with the noblest maxims of 
 ethical wisdom, and men may be taught to declaim plausi- 
 bly and learnedly upon the beauty of virtue, but no fruits 
 of practical hohness will be the result. The inculcation 
 however of such lessons is all that the purest schools of 
 morals can achieve, without the awakening aid of revealed 
 religion. Christianity adopts the contrary and far more 
 effectual method, and, making its first appeal to the better 
 
24 
 
 ROMANS. 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 the wages of sin is death : but the free gift of God 
 is everlasting life in Christ Jesus our Lord. 
 
 And here (to illustrate my argument by an anaio- 7 
 gous case of the Mosaic law with which you are 
 familiar) let me remind you, my brethren, that 
 it is an established rule of that law, that a co- 
 venant is binding upon the contracting parties 
 during their joint lives only, and no longer. Thus 2 
 a woman is bound in duty to her husband, as to 
 a law which is to regulate her actions, until that 
 husband's death ; but after his death she is set free 
 from that law to which she was before subject. If 3 
 then during her husband's life she marry another 
 man she is an adulteress : but, if her husband dies, 
 she is set free from her former subjection, so that 
 she no longer is to be considered an adulteress if 
 she unite herself in a second marriage. In like 4 
 manner, my brethren, you have been set free by 
 death from subjection to the law of Moses, through 
 the sacrifice of the body of Christ, that you may 
 now be married to another, even to him who was 
 raised from the dead, that we might henceforward 
 bring forth fruit not unto this world, but unto God. 
 
 affections of the heart, presumes that where they are ef- 
 fectually roused, the works of righteousness will neces- 
 sarily follow. It is not therefore that it would derogate 
 from the value, or deny the necessity, of good works, as 
 some fanatics have impiously asserted, that it so earnestly 
 inculcates faith as a primary principle, but because with- 
 out the groundwork of faith the moral character possesses 
 not the means of its own effectual development. "A 
 good tree,'' says bur blessed Saviour, " bringeth not forth 
 corrupt fruit, neither doth a corrupt tre(3 bring forth good 
 fruit." 
 
CHAP. VII. 
 
 ROMANS. 
 
 25 
 
 5 For when we were subject to the carnal law of 
 works, the evil propensities which we had under 
 that covenant, worked in our members to bring 
 
 6 forth fruit unto death : but now we are set free 
 from the rigorous stipulations of that law, (that 
 covenant being dead to which we were subject,) so 
 that we henceforward obey the new dispensation of 
 spiritual holiness, not the cancelled letter of ritual 
 expiations. 
 
 7 What shall we say then ? Is that law, which 
 God himself gave from Mount Sinai, sinful ? Far 
 from it. But this I do say, that I should never 
 have known the full nature of sin, and consequently 
 should never have sinned completely against my 
 better knowledge, had it not been for the prohi- 
 bitions contained in the law. Thus, for instance, I 
 should never have known the full enormity of a 
 licentious appetite, if the law had not forbidden the 
 
 8 indulgence of those appetites. Sin therefore, taking 
 its advantage of the very injunctions and prohibi- 
 tions of the law, wrought in me all manner of evil ap- 
 petites and deliberate disobedience ; for where there 
 is neither injunction nor prohibition sin cannot exist. 
 
 9 So long then as I was ignorant of my duty, I might 
 indeed in a certain sense be said to live ; but when 
 I was taught to understand the moral obligations 
 and unsullied purity of the law, then my sins came 
 
 10 into life ^ and I became spiritually dead : and 
 
 ^ It is an observation which St. Paul omits no opportunity 
 of enforcing, and which should never be forgotten by those 
 who would satisfy themselves that nothing short of such a 
 dispensation as that of the Christian covenant could procure 
 our effectual reconciliation with God, that the inculcation of 
 
26 
 
 ROMANS. 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 thus the very perfection of those moral injunctions, 
 which ought to have shewn me the way to life, in 
 reality brought me down to death. For sin, availing 1 1 
 itself of the very sanctity of the duties imposed by 
 the commandments, insinuated itself into my heart, 
 and slew me through their means. Still however 12 
 the law considered bv itself must be acknowledofed 
 to be intrinsically holy, and the precepts it contains 
 holy, and just, and good. Was that then, which 13 
 was thus in its own nature good, the real occasion 
 of my spiritual death ? By no means. The real 
 cause was my own sin and disobedience, which, 
 
 the mere science of morals, though it may in a certain degree 
 contribute to the external civilization of mankind and the 
 refinement of our social habits, has nevertheless little or no 
 tendency to purify the internal moral principle which alone 
 can recommend our seemingly best actions to the approba- 
 tion of our Creator. On the contrary, the promulgation 
 of every new prohibitory enactment by the divine authority 
 is in reality a fresh opportunity afforded to our corrupt 
 nature of sinning either by total neglect of what is com- 
 manded, or by inadequate obedience. Hence therefore, I 
 conceive, may be derived an unanswerable argument against 
 those impugners of the doctrine of our Saviour's divinity 
 who deny the necessity of his expiatory atonement, on the 
 ground that the mere inculcation of a purer moral code 
 than had previously existed were a quite sufficient motive 
 for God's miraculous interposition with mankind in com- 
 municating to them the knowledge of the Gospel. Did that 
 holy dispensation convey to us nothing more than a tissue 
 of practical morals, however pure their tenor might be, 
 we can have no hesitation in asserting of it, that, like its 
 precursor the Levitical law, it would have been to us the 
 cause rather of deeper guilt than of increased holiness in 
 the sight of God, and instead of leading us to life would in 
 fact have assisted in bringing us down to death. 
 
CHAP. VII. 
 
 ROMANS. 
 
 27 
 
 as if to shew the extreme deadliness of its nature, 
 made the very precepts of holiness the instrument 
 of my spiritual death, and consummated the enor- 
 mity of its original sinfulness by the wilful violation 
 
 14 of positive commandment. For we know that the 
 law enjoins spiritual holiness, but I am, in my 
 
 15 natural state, carnal, sold as a slave to sin, and 
 therefore what I do, my conscience sanctions not; 
 for I do not what my reason dictates and my will 
 approves : but that which I hate and disapprove, 
 I do. 
 
 16 Still, however, if I do that which my conscience 
 disapproves, my conscience at all events bears tes- 
 timony by its reproaches that the moral law which 
 also disapproves those things, is in itself just and 
 
 17 holy. But now that I am under the spiritual cove- 
 nant of grace, I no longer do these things; or, if 
 they are done by an incurable infirmity of my 
 nature in spite of myself, it is not I that do them, 
 but the sin which clings to my present mortal con- 
 dition, and works without my participation and 
 
 18 consent. For I am well aware that there is no 
 really good inclination in my natural and carnal 
 part. I have indeed the wish to do what is right, 
 
 19 but tbe means I find not. For the good which I 
 would do, I do not ; but the evil which I would 
 
 20 shun, that I do. But if I do that which my con- 
 science, uniting with every earnest moral effort on 
 my part, makes me sincerely anxious to avoid, then 
 indeed it is not I who do it, but the sinfulness 
 which cleaves to my nature which does it in my 
 
 21 despite. Such then I find from my daily experience 
 to be the law of my })resent constitution, namely, 
 that even where I am zealous to do good, even 
 
28 
 
 there I feel an accompanying and countervailing 
 tendency to do .evil. For with my spiritual nature 22 
 I sincerely delight in and assent to the pure com- 
 mandments of God ; whilst in my members I feel 23 
 a struggle against the conviction of my conscience, 
 which enslaves me to that law of sin which prevails 
 over my carnal nature. Wretched man that I am, 24 
 who shall put an end to this warfare, and deliver 
 me from these deadly propensities which attach to 
 my body ? I thank my God for his deliverance 25 
 through Jesus Christ our Lord. Thus it is that 
 our spiritual nature is of necessity at variance with 
 our carnal : the former leading us to the love and 
 admiration of what is good ; the latter, to practical 
 acts of grossness and immorality. 
 
 There is therefore no longer any condemnation to 8 
 those who are in Christ Jesus, and who walk, not 
 according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit, 
 For the spiritual law of life in Christ Jesus has set 2 
 me free from that of sin and death. For that which 3 
 the ritual law, through the weakness of our carnal 
 nature, could not do, God has done for us by 
 sending his own Son in the likeness of our sinful 
 flesh, and as an expiation for sin, and thus has 
 destroyed the power of sin in the flesh : that the 
 righteousness required by the law might be at- 4 
 tained by us who walk not according to the flesh, 
 but according to the Spirit. For they who live 5 
 according to the flesh continue to follow the sinful 
 propensities of the flesh ; but they who live ac- 
 cording to the Spirit seek the good things of the 
 Spirit. For the pursuit of the things of the flesh 6 
 is death ; but the pursuit of the things of the 
 Spirit is life and peace; because the cherishing of 7 
 
CHAP. VIII. ROMANS. 
 
 29 
 
 the propensities of the flesh is enmity to God, for 
 they neither are, nor ever can be, subjected to the 
 
 8 perfect law of God. Those therefore, who continue 
 to be wrapt up in the mere pursuits of the flesh, 
 
 9 cannot please God. But you are no longer in the 
 flesh, but in the Spirit : inasmuch as I trust that 
 the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if any one 
 has not the Spirit of Christ, he assuredly is none of 
 
 10 his. But if Christ dwells in you, then your body 
 is dead with respect to sin, but your spirit is alive 
 
 1 1 with respect to holiness. And if the Spirit of that 
 God who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, 
 then He who raised Christ from the dead shall 
 also bring again to life your mortal bodies through 
 his Spirit which dwells within you. 
 
 12 Therefore, brethren, we are henceforward under 
 a solemn obligation to control the propensities of 
 
 13 the flesh ; for if you live according to the desires of 
 the flesh you shall die ; but if, through the Spirit, 
 you put to death the works of the flesh, you shall 
 live. 
 
 14 All then, who are thus led and influenced by the 
 
 15 Spirit of God, become the sons of God. Nor is 
 this (as was your case whilst under the dominion of 
 the law) a state of timid subservience to a rigorous 
 master, but one of real and actual adoption, by 
 which we are authorized to look up to him as 
 
 16 children to their parent. Hence that cheerful com- 
 munity of feeling and spiritual intercourse with the 
 Divinity within us, which so convincingly tells us 
 
 1 7 that we are the children of God : and if children, 
 then heirs : heirs of God, and joint heirs with 
 Christ ; suflering at present the aflflictions to which 
 he himself submitted whilst upon the earth, in the 
 
so 
 
 ROMANS. 
 
 CHAP. VIIT. 
 
 hope that we may also hereafter be glorified toge- 
 ther with him in heaven. 
 
 For be assured that the afflictions of the present 18 
 life are as nothing when compared with the glory 
 which shall be finally revealed to us. For the ear- 19 
 nest expectation of the whole of the human race 
 even now waits impatiently for the manifestation of 
 the redemption of the sons of God ; for our nature 20 
 was made subject to its present infirmities and cor- 
 ruption, not as though that were its original des- 
 tination or the final object of God's providence, 
 without any ulterior design ; but through the wise 
 prospective arrangement of him who so disposed it, 
 in order that it might finally be set free from the 21 
 bondage of mortality to the glorious liberty which 
 shall hereafter be the heritage of the sons of God. 
 
 For we know that the whole creation has up to 22 
 this moment been groaning as in the pains of child- 
 birth for the development of a happier and better 
 state of things than the present : and not only has 23 
 such been the earnest expectation of both Gentiles 
 and Jews in former times, but even we ourselves, 
 admitted as we are to the participation of a better 
 covenant, being the first fruits of the Holy Spirit, 
 even we, so long as we continue subject to the laws 
 of mortality, are still involved in this same agony 
 of expectation, waiting for that adoption which has 
 not yet been completed, namely, the deliverance 
 of our bodily nature from its present state of cor- 
 ruption. 
 
 For our redemption is at present in hope only, 24 
 and not in actual fruition. Hope, however, we 
 should remember, which has already attained its 
 object has ceased to be hope, since no man hopes 
 
 1 
 
CHAP. VITT. ROMANS. 
 
 31 
 
 25 for what he actually possesses. But if hope, to be 
 such, is necessarily the desire of things not yet in 
 our possession, then is it our duty to wait patiently 
 
 26 ybr its consummation. And accordingly as we en- 
 dure affliction in this our present state of trial, so 
 also the Divine Spirit itself, which is in us, bears its 
 part with, and sustains, us under the burden of our 
 infirmities : for we in this life are too ignorant even 
 to pray for that which is the best for us : but 
 the Holy Spirit silently prays for us without our 
 
 27 knowledge : and He who sees the interior of our 
 hearts listens to these secret supplications of the 
 Spirit which it offers to God in the behalf of his 
 saints ^ 
 
 28 One thing then we are perfectly assured of ; that, 
 be the present aspect of God's providence what it 
 may, all things are at this moment working toge- 
 ther for the production of ultimate good to those 
 who are called to participate in that redemption 
 which God predetermined for those who love and 
 believe in him, from the foundation of the world. 
 
 29^ For those whose obedience he foreknew, those 
 
 ^ This passage affords a beautiful and encouraging pic- 
 ture of the co-operating aid of the divine grace afforded to 
 every sincere Christian in this our present state of infirmity 
 and ignorance. It is worthy of observation also on an- 
 other account, as explicitly asserting the distinct person- 
 ality of the Holy Spirit in the mysterious union of the 
 eternal Godhead. 
 
 ^ St. Paul here expressly asserts, that the predestination 
 of individuals to salvation is the consequence of God's 
 foreknowledge of their respective dispositions, an arrange- 
 ment perfectly accordant with our indelible notions of 
 divine justice. If it be alleged that this view of that 
 mysterious question does not remove all the difficulties 
 
32 
 
 ROMANS. CHAP. VIII. 
 
 same he predestined to bear the image of his Son, 
 that Christ might be to them as the elder brother 
 
 connected with it, we can only answer, that it is perfectly 
 satisfactory so far as our oivn eternal destination is con- 
 cerned, and that the perplexities which still remain un- 
 solved are such only as meet us in every discussion con- 
 nected with the divine nature, but which have no reference 
 whatever to our personal interests, or to our duty as moral 
 agents. We cannot read these cautious statements con- 
 tained in the sacred writings with reo^ard to this much 
 discussed and interminable question, without feeling pain 
 and surprise when we turn from them to the unhesitating, 
 and it is difficult not to add unscriptural^ assertions of 
 human authority on this subject. The best answer which 
 we can give to the following passage, which constitutes the 
 ninth article of the confession of faith of the synod of 
 Dort, is the placing it in juxta position with the inspired 
 words of the apostle to which this note is appended. 
 
 Eadem hsec electio facta est non ex prsevisa fide, fidei- 
 que obedientia, sanctitate, aut alia aliqua bona qualitate et 
 dispositione, tanquain causa sen conditione in homine eli- 
 gendo pra^requisita, sed ad fidem, fideique obedientiam, 
 sanctitatem, &c. Ac proinde electio est fons omnis salu- 
 taris boni : undo fides, sanctitas, et reliqua dona salvifica, 
 ipsa denique vita seterna, ut fructus et effectus ejus, pro- 
 fluunt, secundum illud apostoli, " Elegit nos^"* (non quia 
 eramus, sed) " ut essemus sancti et inculpati in conspectu 
 ejus in charitate." Ephes. i. 4. 
 
 Should it be objected to the foregoing remarks, that the 
 words " whose obedience," inserted by me in the trans- 
 lation, are not borne out by any corresponding term in the 
 Greek text, I answer, that the assertion of the fact of 
 God's foreknowledge in the original passage necessarily 
 implies the existence of some subject-matter as the object 
 of the particular exercise of the divine intellect here al- 
 luded to : — that such subject-matter cannot be supposed to 
 have been the mere persons of the parties foreknown, since 
 
CHAP. VIII. 
 
 ROMANS. 
 
 30 among^ many brethren : and those whom he thils 
 predestined, those same he called ; and those whom 
 he thus called, those same he justified, by the re- 
 demption which is in Christ ; and those whom he 
 has thus justified, those same he has made heirs of 
 his glory. 
 
 31 What shall we say then to these things ? If God 
 is for us, who or what of all the evil persons or 
 things with which we may be at present surrounded 
 
 32 can finally prevail against us ? He who spared not 
 his own Son, but gave him up to death for our 
 sake, will not He, who has already given to us so 
 transcendent a gift, give us also whatever other 
 things shall be necessary for us ? 
 
 33 Who then shall charge those whom God has 
 deigned to receive into his covenant of mercy with 
 the inadequacy of their works? God himself has 
 accepted and acquitted them through the merits of 
 
 34 Christ's expiation. Who amongst his creatures 
 then shall dare to pronounce sentence of condemna- 
 tion upon them ? It is Christ himself, who has died, 
 or rather let us say, who is risen again, and is even 
 now on God's right hand, who is our advocate, and 
 
 those of all human beings whatever, of the lost no less 
 than of the justified, must from all eternity have been 
 equally objects of the prescience of their Creator : — conse- 
 quently that it could be nothing else than their possession 
 of some of those moral qualities which exist in different 
 degrees in different men. But Scripture informs us of 
 ' none such as are really acceptable with God, excepting 
 Christian faith and obedience^ or, in other words, that 
 faculty of the soul by which, with the co-operating aid of 
 the Holy Spirit, we are enabled to perform our appointed 
 task in the great duty of working out our salvation. 
 
 D 
 
ROMANS. 
 
 CHAP. VIJI. 
 
 pleads for us. Who then shall separate us from 35 
 the love of Christ ? shall affliction, or privation, or 
 persecution, or hunger, or nakedness, or peril, or 
 the sword ? (as it is written, Psalm xliv. 22. " For 36 
 thy sake are we killed all the day long, we are 
 accounted as sheep for the slaughter.") In all such 37 
 momentary afflictions we are more than conquerors 
 through the support of him who loved us. For 38 
 I am fully assured that neither death, nor life, nor 
 angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor the things 
 which now are, nor the things which are yet to 
 come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, 39 
 shall be able to separate us from the love of God, 
 which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 
 
 Section VII. 
 
 The exclusive election of the Jewish nation as God's peculiar people, 
 and the depositories of his revealed will, being necessarily terminated 
 by the extension of the new covenant of mercy to the whole world 
 whether Jew or Gentile, the Apostle now proceeds to show that this 
 arrangement, so mortifying to the national vanity of the former, is 
 neither indicative of any fickleness in the divine decrees, nor reason- 
 ably chargeable with injustice, or the violation of a promise. This 
 he proceeds to prove, in the first place, by showing that the original 
 covenant made with them was conditional^ and necessarily implied 
 undeviating obedience on their part : secondly, that God's election of 
 that particular people was perfectly gratuitous^ both Isaac and Jacob, 
 the founders of that race, having been chosen by him in preference to 
 their elder brothers, before they could by their own conduct have in 
 any way merited such a distinctive mark of favour : thirdly, that that 
 election had been virtually forfeited by the idolatry of the Israelites, 
 and had therefore been continued to them and their posterity only by 
 the free mercy and good will of the Almighty : and fourthly, that the 
 admission of the Gentiles into one common covenant with them was 
 in fact not only indirectly implied, but clearly and explicitly declared 
 in various passages of the prophetic writings. He then goes on to 
 show, that in real fact no privilege whatever has been withdrawn from 
 the Jews, every individual of that nation being admitted to the offer 
 
CHAP. TX. 
 
 ROMANS, 
 
 35 
 
 of the new covenant as freely as the Gentiles, and being excluded 
 from the benefit of it only by his own persevering obstinacy and want 
 of faith. That in consequence of this obstinacy God's favour is 
 undoubtedly withdrawn from them for the present as a nation, and 
 transferred to the Gentiles, but that the moment of their return to 
 Him will be that of his return to them ; and that accordingly the 
 whole world, both Jew and Gentile, shall one day be included within 
 the pale of the Gospel dispensation, and joint partakers of the divine 
 favour and mercy. 
 
 9 Since then such is the nature of the dispensation 
 of the new covenant of grace, that it has broken 
 down the partition wall between Jews and Gentiles, 
 and, by placing both on an equal footing, finally 
 extinguished the claim of the Jewish nation to any 
 priority in God's favour over the rest of mankind ; — 
 and such being the case, (be assured that I speak the 
 sincere truth : — T lie not, as my conscience, as it is 
 open to the scrutiny of the Holy Spirit, bears me 
 
 2 witness,) as a jealous Jew bearing sincere love to 
 my countrymen, and proud of their national privi- 
 leges, I feel on their account great grief and un- 
 
 3 ceasing agony of heart. For I could even wish to 
 be in my own person an outcast from Christ, so it 
 might benefit my brethren, my beloved kindred 
 
 4 according to the flesh, the Jewish nation : men 
 whose boast it has been that they are of the blood 
 of Israel ; to whom for so many ages belonged the 
 peculiar adoption as God's chosen people, the glory, 
 the covenants with our forefathers, the giving of the 
 
 5 law, the ritual worship, and the promises : whose 
 are the fathers, men favoured by God, and from 
 whose lineage according to the flesh has sprung 
 Christ himself, God ruling over all, blessed for 
 ever and ever. Amen. 
 
 6 Imagine not, however, that in superseding his 
 
 D 2 
 
36 
 
 ROMANS. 
 
 CHAP. IX. 
 
 former covenant with you, God has violated or 
 forgotten his promise made to our forefathers. For 
 not all who claim descent from the blood of Israel 
 are in reality God'fe chosen ^ Israel ; any more than 7 
 all the various descendants of Abraham can claim 
 as such the benefit of the promises made to Abra- 
 ham. " In Isaac, said the Almighty, (Gen. xxi. 12.) 
 shall thy seed be called." That is to say, not all 8 
 the natural descendants of thy body, such as Ismael 
 and his progeny, shall be considered as God's 
 children, but the especial children of the promise only 
 shall have the benefit of the peculiar covenant made 
 with Abraham's seed. For these were the words of 9 
 the promise. " I will come to thee at this thy 
 time of life, and Sarah shall have a son." (Gen. 
 xviii. 10.) And again in the instance of Rebecca, lo 
 
 ^ The whole Israelitish nation was externally and by 
 election God's peculiar and chosen people ; but the Apostle 
 here and in the following arguinent asserts that " God's 
 own Israel," those who were actually chosen and elected by 
 him, were those only who were distinguished by their piety 
 and obedience. In like manner we find St. Paul address- 
 ing the Corinthians, in the introduction to his first Epistle, 
 as persons " called to be God's saints yet we learn from 
 that same Epistle that the Church of Corinth contained at 
 that time many immoral and heretical members, whom we 
 cannot by the most charitable construction conceive to have 
 been at that moment in a state of grace. " Many are 
 called," says our blessed Saviour, in his parable of the guest 
 who came to the feast without the wedding garment, 
 *' but few are chosen." The inference from these passages 
 is obvious, namely, that the universality of the call to a 
 participation in the blessings of the Gospel covenant is 
 nevertheless conditional, and may be subsequently forfeited 
 by our disobedience. 
 
CHAP. IX. 
 
 ROMANS. 
 
 37 
 
 when she was pregnant by one and the selfsame 
 
 1 1 person, our father Isaac, before the children were 
 yet born, and whilst they had done as yet neither 
 good nor evil, (that God might show that his selec- 
 tion of our race in the person of Jacob was of his 
 own free will, and not the consequence of any claim 
 
 12 of merit on the part of our forefather Jacob so 
 selected,) even then it was declared to her, (Gen. 
 XXV. 23.) "The elder shall serve the younger." 
 
 13 As it is written in the book of Malachi, " I loved 
 Jacob, and hated Esau." 
 
 14 What shall we say then ? That there is injustice 
 with God, or that He has broken his covenant with 
 
 15 us ? By no means. On the contrary, our fore- 
 fathers, we know, broke their covenant with him 
 even at the very moment of its ratification, by fall- 
 ing into the grievous sin of idolatry ; yet even then, 
 under such grievous provocation, he withdrew not 
 his protection from them, but gratuitously declared 
 to Moses, when interceding with him on their be- 
 half, " I will have mercy on him for whom I 
 choose to have mercy, and will pity him I choose 
 
 16 to pity." (Exod. xxxiii. 19.) So that it is not the 
 plea of exertion or merit on our own or on their 
 part that we can presume to set up as affording us 
 a claim to his favour, but his own free and gra- 
 cious selection of us from among the surrounding 
 
 17 nations. Thus again, as an example of the 
 opposite kind, he says to Pharaoh, (Exod. ix. 
 16.) " For this cause have I raised you to your 
 present greatness, that I might show my power in 
 you, and that my name might be declared through- 
 
 18 out all the earth." We see then from these two 
 instances, that he spares a nation whom he chooses 
 
38 
 
 ROMANS. 
 
 CHAP. XT. 
 
 to spare, and leaves, when he thinks fit, another 
 nation to its own obduracy. But you will still say 19 
 perhaps, " Why then, having used his own free 
 discretion with us thus far, to raise us above the 
 level of other nations, does he now, without any 
 fresh offence or resistance on our part, suddenly 
 withdraw the privileges which he once conferred 
 upon us ?" " And who, let me ask in my turn, 20 
 art thou, who puttest this captious question to 
 God ?" Recollect the words of the prophet Jere- 
 miah, when he foretold this very abandonment 
 of the Jewish people, and asserted God's right to 
 raise up or to put down nations as might please 
 him best, (Jer. xviii. 6.) " Shall the thing shaped 
 say unto its former. Why hast thou modelled me 
 thus ? Hath not the potter power over the clay, 21 
 of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, 
 and another unto dishonour ?" Are we entitled 22 
 to remonstrate, if it shall have pleased God, in 
 order to manifest his just wrath, and the plenitude 
 of his power, to bear with for a time, with long- 
 suffering and forbearance, the vessels of wrath, 
 fitted to destruction ; or, in order to make known 23 
 the riches of his glory, to raise up to eminence the 
 vessels of his mercy, prepared by him for glory ? as 24 
 he has now done in our case, and in that of the 
 Gentiles, calling to his covenant not only such of 
 the Jews as will be obedient to him, but those of 
 other nations also. This is no new and capricious 
 alteration in the purposes of God's government. 
 The prophet Hosea, we may remember, has ex- 25 
 pressly foretold to us, this future extension of God's 
 favour to the G^tiles indiscriminately with the 
 Jews. 1 will call that my people, says he, (Hosea 26 
 
CHAP. X. 
 
 ROMANS. 
 
 39 
 
 ii. 23.) which was not my people, and her beloved 
 who was not beloved." And again, (chap. i. 10.) 
 " It shall come to pass, that in the place where 
 it was said unto them, ' Ye are not my people,' 
 ' there shall they be called the children of the living 
 
 27 God." Isaiah also proclaims the rejection of a 
 large portion of the lineal descendants of Israel 
 in the following passage, (Isaiah x. 22.) " Although 
 the number of the children of Israel be as the sand 
 
 28 of the sea, a remnant only shall be preserved. For 
 the Lord will bring his dispensations to a conclu- 
 sion, and cut them short in righteousness ; because 
 he shall make short work in his government of the 
 
 29 earth." As the same prophet also had said to the 
 same purpose in a former passage, (Isaiah i. 9.) 
 " Had not the Lord of hosts left us a remaining 
 seed, we should have been as Sodom, and like unto 
 Gomorrah." 
 
 30 What then is our conclusion? This. That the 
 Gentiles who never sought after righteousness have 
 attained to real righteousness ; namely, the righ- 
 
 31 teousness of faith : and that Israel, who had God's 
 own law of ritual righteousness for their guide, 
 have not attained to the end of even ritual righ- 
 
 32 teousnes^. And why so ? Because they trusted 
 to mere ceremonial observances as constituting the 
 whole of righteousness, and sought it not also in 
 the holiness of faith. And thus they stumbled 
 against that stumbling block, the spirituality of 
 
 33 the Christian covenant ; as it is written by the 
 prophet Isaiah, (Isaiah viii. 14.) "Behold I place 
 in Sion a stumbling stone and rock of offence : yet 
 whosoever believeth on it shall not be ashamed.' 
 
 10 Brethren, the earnest desire of my heart, and 
 
40 
 
 ROMANS. 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 my constant prayer to God, is for the salvation of 
 Israel my countrymen : for I can testify for them 
 that they are not deficient in zeal for God ; but 
 unhappily their zeal is without sufficient knowledge. 
 For not being aware of the nature of that righte- 
 ousness which God alone can communicate, and 
 wishing to establish their claim to righteousness by 
 the merit of their own ritual performances, they have 
 not submitted themselves as they should have done 
 to that righteousness which is of God. For Christ 
 is the completion of the law, a means of perfect 
 justification to all those who believe in him. 
 
 For the righteousness required by Moses in the 
 law which he received and taught was that which 
 was to be the result of complete and adequate obe- 
 dience, so that the man who accepted that rule as 
 a rule of life was bound entirely to conform to it 
 in all its parts. " Ye shall therefore keep my 
 statutes and my judgments, said he ; which if a 
 man do, he shall live in them'' (Leviticus xviii. 5.) 
 But the righteousness which is of faith addresses 
 mankind in the same beautiful and simple language 
 with which Moses exhorted the Israelites after that 
 he had laid before them the promises and threaten- 
 ings of the Almighty at the time of the final promul- 
 gation of his law. " Say not in thine heart, said he, 
 (Deuteronomy xxx. 12.) Who shall ascend into hea- 
 ven ;" and such also in this our present life should 
 be our language, for it is not yet permitted us to 
 examine the heavenly nature and mysteries of 
 Christ : and again, " Say not," said he, " Who shall 
 descend for us into the deep and so also again 
 say we ; for it is not at present for us to pronounce 
 upon the hidden secrets of that lower world which 
 
CHAP. X. ROMANS. 41 
 
 8 Christ visited for our sakes ; — but as be tben added, 
 so also in bke manner say we, " Tbe word is nigb 
 tbee, and in tby moutb, and in tby beart." For sucb 
 
 9 is tbe word of faitb wbicb we preaeb, namely, tbat if 
 you will confess witb your moutb tbe Lord Jesus, and 
 believe in your beart tbat God raised bim from tbe 
 
 10 dead, you sball be saved. For witb tbe beart man 
 believes unto justification, and witb bis moutb pro- 
 
 11 fesses tbat belief unto salvation. For tbe Scripture 
 says, (Isaiab xxviii. 16.) " Wbosoever believetb on 
 
 1 2 bim sball not be asbamed." Nor is tbere any dif- 
 ference in tbis respect between tbe Jew and tbe 
 Gentile : for tbe same Lord is over all, sufficiently 
 ricb in redemption for all wbo call upon bim. 
 
 13 For so says tbe propbet Joel, (Joel ii. 32.) " For 
 wbosoever sball call upon tbe name of tbe Lord 
 sball be saved." 
 
 14 But bow sball men call upon bim, unless tbey 
 bave previously faitb in bim ? and bow sball tbey 
 acquire faitb in bim unless tbey bave previously 
 
 15 beard bis Gospel preacbed ? and bow sball tbey 
 bear bis Gospel preacbed witbout an apostle to 
 preaeb it to tbem ? and bow sball a man become 
 an apostle, unless be bas bis commission from God ? 
 According to tbe words of tbe propbet Isaiab, 
 (Isaiab lii. 7.) " How beautiful are tbe feet of bim 
 tbat bringetb good tidings, tbat publisbetb peace, 
 
 16 tbat bringetb glad tidings of good tbings." Yet too 
 often bas tbe Preacber lifted up bis voice in vain ; men 
 stop tbeir ears, and refuse to bear tbe tidings of tbe 
 Gospel ; according to tbe propbecy of Isaiab, (Isaiab 
 liii. 1.) "Wbo, Lord, batb believed our report?" 
 
 17 If you ask tben, " How are you to acquire tbat 
 faitb wbicb is necessary to salvation ?" I answer, 
 
42 
 
 ROMANS. 
 
 CHAP. XI. 
 
 " by listening with submission to the instruction of 
 your teacher." If you ask again, " Who is that 
 teacher ?" I again reply, " He who bears God's own 
 commission to preach his revelation." And has 18 
 not that w^ord been preached ? Most assuredly it 
 has, and with such notoriety, that we may apply to 
 it the language of the Psalmist, " Their sound is 
 gone forth into all lands, and their words unto the 
 ends of the w^orld." But, whilst other nations have 19 
 listened and been converted, has Israel condescended 
 to hearken to the words of revelation ? The pro- 
 phetic language of Moses (Deuteronomy xxxii. 21.) 
 will best answ^er this question. " I will rouse your 
 jealousy by preferring to you people whom you have 
 not deigned to consider as a nation, and rouse your 
 anger by setting up those whom you despised as 
 ignorant." And Isaiah boldly expresses himself on 20 
 the same subject, (Isaiah Ixv. 1.) "I was found of 
 them that sought me not; I was made manifest 
 unto them that asked not after me." And again 21 
 in the next verse, " All day long have I stretched 
 forth my hands unto a disobedient and obstinate 
 people." 
 
 Do I assert then that God has finally abandoned 1 1 
 his people Israel ? Far from it. I myself, who 
 now address you as his apostle, am by descent an 
 Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, and of the tribe 
 of Benjamin, God assuredly has not abandoned 2 
 his people : that part of them I mean whose obe- 
 dience he foreknew. Recollect the words which 
 the Scriptures put into the mouth of Elijah, how 
 he remonstrates with God against the rebellious 
 Israelites of his time, (1 Kings xix. 18.) " Lord, 3 
 they have killed thy prophets, and digged down 
 
 1 
 
CHAP. XI. 
 
 ROMANS. 
 
 43 
 
 thine altars ; and I am left alone, and they seek 
 
 4 my life." And what is God's answer ? "I have 
 reserved to myself seven thousand men who have 
 
 5 not bowed the knee to Baal." And so may we say 
 at the present day, ^* There is still reserved in 
 
 6 Israel a remnant selected to receive mercy." But 
 remember that if they are to be saved through 
 mercy, then is their salvation not through meritorious 
 works, since mercy would cease to be such 
 might it be claimed, not as a gratuitous kindness, 
 but as a debt which it were injustice to refuse. 
 
 7 What then is our conclusion ? That Israel as a 
 nation has not obtained the salvation of the Gospel, 
 but that the select remnant of the obedient among 
 them have obtained it, whilst the others have hard- 
 
 8 ened their hearts against its reception. As it is 
 written by Isaiah, (Isaiah xxix. 10.) where he de- 
 scribes the judicial hardening of the hearts of the 
 inhabitants of Jerusalem in his day, in punishment 
 of their wilful disobedience. " God," says he, 
 " has given them a spirit of slumber, eyes incapable 
 of sight, and ears incapable of hearing to this day." 
 
 9 As David also says, (Psalm Ixix. 22.) " Let their 
 table also be made a snare and a trap, and a stum- 
 
 10 bling block, and a retaliation to them : let their 
 eyes be darkened that they may not see ; and bow 
 thou down their back." 
 
 1 1 Has then this momentary stumbling of the Jews, 
 whilst it has forfeited for them their privilege of 
 being God's peculiar people, operated to their final 
 downfall and absolute exclusion from his mercy? 
 I trust not. Rather let us hope that the salvation 
 which,' upon their neglect of it, has passed from 
 them to the Gentiles, niay one day re-act benefit 
 
44< ROMANS. CHAP. XI. 
 
 cially upon them, by exciting an emulation amongst 
 themselves similar to that which has already ap" 
 peared amongst the Gentile converts. And if so; 12 
 if their present fall has been the cause of the exten- 
 sion of the Gospel covenant to the rest of mankind ; 
 if their present forfeiture has proved a source of 
 riches to the Gentiles ; much greater, we trust, 
 will eventually be the benefit resulting hereafter to 
 mankind at large from their final restoration to 
 God's favour. 
 
 And it is under this conviction that I make my 13 
 appeal to the Gentiles, as an apostle to them of 
 that revelation which my own countrymen the Jews 
 have rejected; proclaiming the more publicly my 
 present mission to them, in the hope that by so 14 
 doing I may rouse the Jewish nation, who are my 
 own flesh and blood, to a competition with them, 
 and thus be the means of saving some of them. 
 For if the abrogation of the Jewish covenant, and 15 
 their rejection as God's people, has produced the 
 happy result of reconciling the heathen world to 
 God, surely their readmission to his favour may be 
 expected to lead to still more happy consequences. 
 For if the original materials are holy, the conse- 16 
 quent mass derived from them will be holy in like 
 proportion ; and if the root is holy, so may the 
 branches be expected to be. And if some of the 17 
 natural branches have been broken off, and you the 
 Gentiles, like branches of the wild olive, have been 
 engrafted upon the original stock in their place, 
 and together with the remaining boughs now derive 
 fatness and nourishment from the cultivated root, 
 are you therefore to boast yourselves of your newly 18 
 acquired privilege, as though you support the root, 
 
CHAP. XI. 
 
 ROMANS. 
 
 19 and are not yourselves sustained by it ? Do you 
 assert that the original and natural branches were 
 broken off, in order that you, the wild scions, 
 
 20 might be grafted in their room ? Be it so. Recol- 
 lect however that they were broken off because of 
 their unbelief, and that you occupy their place solely 
 on account of that faith which they want. Be not 
 elated then with your present situation, but possess 
 
 21 it with fear and trembling ; remembering that if 
 God did not spare even the original branches, so, 
 if you sin as they have done, he may in like man- 
 
 22 ner not spare you. Contemplate therefore in this 
 awful example at once the goodness, and the just 
 severity of God : his just severity in the punish- 
 ment of those who have fallen ; his goodness as 
 manifested in your case, if you continue to deserve 
 it ; for be assured that when you cease to deserve 
 
 23 it, it will be withdrawn : as they, if they will only 
 turn away from their present unbelief, will be again 
 engrafted upon the same stock from which they 
 have been severed. For God is able so to deal 
 
 24 with them. For if you, who were originally 
 branches of the wild and worthless olive, were not- 
 withstanding artificially engrafted upon the good 
 and cultivated stock, how much rather shall the 
 naturally good and cultivated branches be engrafted 
 once more upon that stock by which they were first 
 reared. 
 
 25 Brethren, I am the more earnest in impressing 
 upon you this warning, that you may not be puffed 
 up with vain and false notions of your own com- 
 parative merit. Be assured that a temporary hard- 
 ness of heart only has come upon part of the 
 Jewish nation, which shall be allowed to continue 
 
46 
 
 ROMANS. 
 
 CHAP. XT. 
 
 no longer than till the conversion of the Gentiles 
 shall be complete ; and thus eventually all Israel 26 
 itself shall be saved : as it is written, (Isaiah lix. 
 20.) " The Redeemer shall come out of Sion, and 
 shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob : for this 27 
 is my covenant with them when I shall take away 
 their sins : my spirit that is upon thee, and my 
 words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not 
 depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of 
 thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, 
 saith the Lord, from henceforth and for ever." 
 
 With regard then to their rejection of the Gospel 28 
 covenant, the Jews have for the present become 
 as it were enemies of God, for the sake of the sal- 
 vation of you Gentiles : but as being of the race of 
 God's chosen people, they are still even now be- 
 loved by him for the sake of their forefathers. 
 For he is not a Being who acts capriciously, or 29 
 elects for reasons which he afterwards disclaims. 
 As therefore you formerly were disobedient to the 30 
 true God, but have now been admitted to mercy 
 in consequence of their unbelief, which has caused 
 the favour of God to pass from them to you; so 31 
 have they now also in their turn become disobe- 
 dient, that the mercy which you have now received 
 may one day extend from you to include them- 
 selves also. For God has allowed both you and 32 
 them to fall into disobedience, that he might show 
 his mercy upon you all on equal terms, and in like 
 proportion. 
 
 Oh ! may we well therefore exclaim, the immen- 33 
 sity of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of 
 God ! how inexplicable are his judgments, and how 
 untraceable are his ways ! For who has compre- 34 
 
CHAP. XII. 
 
 ROMANS. 
 
 47 
 
 hended the mind of the Lord, or who hath been 
 
 35 his counsellor ? or who hath conferred benefits 
 upon him, to have claims upon him as his credi- 
 
 36 tor ? since from him, and through him, and for 
 him are all things.— To him be glory for ever and 
 ever. Amen. 
 
 Section VIII. 
 
 Having in the former part of this Epistle proved from the failure of all 
 former dispensations the necessity of a new covenant better suited 
 to the peculiar circumstances of our nature, and having shown the 
 perfect impartiality of God's government in his revelation of the 
 promises of the Gospel to all mankind indiscriminately, the apostle 
 now proceeds to inculcate the grand practical result of this doctrine, 
 in the obligation which it imposes upon us to a hfe of holiness and 
 unblemished morality, in the conscientious discharge of our various 
 duties to God and man, and in the exercise of the most universal 
 brotherly love towards the whole human race. 
 
 12 ^ I entreat you therefore, brethren, in the name 
 of those mercies of God which we have all expe- 
 rienced, to render yourselves pure according to the 
 pure nature of the sublime covenant to which you 
 are admitted, and present your bodies a living, holy, 
 and acceptable sacrifice to God, which is your fit, 
 2 becoming, and reasonable service. And be not 
 adapted to the vain views and speculations of this 
 world, but put on a new character in the renovation 
 of your minds, that you may feelingly experience 
 
 ' It is scarcely possible to imagine any exhortation to 
 holiness and a good life more impressive and beautiful than 
 the one here given. It is only equalled by our Saviour''s 
 own sermon on the mount, and bears impressed upon it the 
 same character of a divine morality far more perfect than 
 any which can be conceived to have proceeded from any 
 school of mere human philosophy. 
 
48 
 
 ROMANS. 
 
 CHAP. XTI. 
 
 how good, and pleasing, and perfect the will of God 
 is. And accordingly, as bearing his commission to 3 
 address you, I require of you all, that none among 
 you shall think more highly of himself than he 
 ought to think ; but deem of himself meekly, each 
 according to the measure of the talents and spiritual 
 gifts which God has entrusted to him. For, as we 4 
 have in our own persons many members which con- 
 stitute our one single body, so we, the multitude of 5 
 Christian believers, are one body in Christ, but sepa- 
 rately are each of us different limbs, all bearing our 
 peculiar and distinct offices. Having then all of us 6 
 our own individual gifts and abilities, according to 
 the measure in which the mercy of God has distri- 
 buted them to us, let us use them to the best of our 
 power for the promotion of that object for which 
 they were given. Is our gift that of the clear ap- 
 prehension of the doctrines of revelation ? ^ Let us 
 
 ^ The word " prophecy"" (7rpo0i]rf ta) is frequently used 
 by St. Paul, as in the original of this passage, in the sense 
 of exposition, or spiritual interpretation of Scripture. The 
 advice here given, that those who undertake to expound 
 any passage of the sacred writings should be careful to 
 keep in their mind the general analogy and harmony of 
 the Christian dispensation as a wJiole^ (Kara r^v dvaXoyiav 
 Trig TTiVrewc) has unfortunately been too much lost sight of 
 by theologians and commentators of all ages and deno- 
 minations. Of all the various shades of opinion which 
 distract the Christian world, how large a portion is refer- 
 rible to the single abuse of dwelling with minute and almost 
 exclusive attention to single passages torn from their pro- 
 per position where bearing upon some peculiar chain of 
 argument, and thus made to sanction some favourite pre- 
 conceived theory at variance with the general character, 
 and destructive of some of the most certain and palpable 
 
CHAP. XII. ROMANS. 49 
 
 expound them to others, illustrating Scripture by 
 Scripture, according to the full meaning and spirit 
 
 7 of the respective passages. Is our lot cast among 
 the humbler services of the Church ? let us exe- 
 cute that duty, such as it may be, to the best of 
 
 8 our pov^er. Are we called to instruct others ? let 
 us make our instruction advantageous to those 
 committed to our care. To preach ? let us preach 
 with earnestness and sincerity. Let him that 
 gives, give with simplicity and singleness of heart : 
 let him that is entrusted with authority exercise it 
 conscientiously, and for the good of those over 
 whom he presides : let him that shows mercy, do 
 so cheerfully and from the bottom of his heart. 
 
 9 Let your mutual kindness to one another be in full 
 sincerity, without deceit or dissimulation. Abhor 
 that which is evil ; cling to and cherish that which 
 
 10 is good. Love one another as brethren, each pre- 
 
 1 1 ferring his neighbour to himself : not remiss in the 
 performance of your several duties ; but eager in 
 
 12 your zeal, and serving the Lord in full humility : 
 consoling yourselves in the hope of the fulfilment of 
 God's promises : bearing your afflictions patiently : 
 
 13 persevering in the fervency of prayer : imparting to 
 the wants and necessities of your Christian brethren : 
 
 14 practising hospitality. Bless them wtio persecute 
 
 15 you: bless, and curse not. Rejoice with them who 
 
 doctrines, of the inspired writings ! A wide and discursive 
 range is to the full as necessary for the due apprehension 
 of Scripture as a^dlose and accurate examination of parts ; 
 but it is a faculty much less frequently met with, and which 
 requires a rare combination of impartiality, discrimination, 
 and judgment. 
 
 E 
 
50 
 
 ROMANS. 
 
 CHAP. XII. 
 
 rejoice, and weep with them who weep. Be equal 16 
 in your bearings to all men ; not seeking after emi- 
 nence and distinction, but making yourselves com- 
 panions to the meek and humble minded. Be not 
 wise in your own conceits. Return not injury for 17 
 injury, but carefully live so that men may have 
 cause to approve your conduct. If it be possible, 18 
 at all events so far as in you lies, be at peace with 
 all men : not avenging your own quarrels, but let 19 
 the violence of your enemies pass away without at- 
 tempting retaliation ; remembering what is written, 
 (Deut. xxxii. 35.) " Vengeance is mine, I will re- 
 pay, saitli the Lord." As also in the book of Pro- 20 
 verbs, (Pro v. xxv. 21, 22.) "'Therefore if thine 
 
 * The practical inference to be derived from this passage 
 quoted from the book of Proverbs, as from the preceding 
 one taken from the book of Deuteronomy, is evidently 
 this; namely, that we avenge not our own wrongs, but 
 leave our cause in the hands of God, who, we may be 
 assured, will finally execute justice in wisdom and holiness 
 upon the whole human race. Such conduct is clearly per- 
 fectly compatible with the most complete Christian for- 
 bearance, as it seeks nothing more than that divine ar- 
 bitration between ourselves and our adversaries which 
 will undoubtedly be administered in perfect righteousness 
 and mercy. From the whole tenor of the apostle's rea- 
 soning it is impossible for us to suppose that he recom- 
 mends the display of acts of kindness to our bitterest 
 enemies for the purpose of aggravating the final judg- 
 ment against them ; yet such has been the invidious 
 interpretation given to this passage by the cavillers at 
 revelation. May not the expression of " heaping coals of 
 fire on the head of an individual after all be nothing 
 more than a strong oriental metaphor, intended to describe 
 the burning glow of shame and compunction which the re- 
 
 1 
 
CHAP. XIII. EOMANS. 
 
 51 
 
 enemy hunger, feed him ; if he thirst, give him 
 drink ; for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire 
 
 21 on his head." Be not overcome by evil to do in 
 like manner, but rather let the goodness of your 
 conduct subdue evil in others, till they follow your 
 
 13better example. Let every person whatsoever sub- 
 mit with due obedience to the authorities of the 
 state ; for there is no authority but of God : and all 
 
 2 existing authorities are as God's ministers. Who- 
 soever therefore resists the power of the magistrate, 
 resists the ordinance of God : and they who resist 
 shall draw upon themselves the just penalty of their 
 
 3 disobedience. For magistrates are not a terror to 
 good works, but to evil : would you then stand in 
 no fear of those in authority ? do your duty as a 
 good citizen, and you shall receive commendation 
 
 4 from them. For a ruler is God's deputy, for the 
 improvement and regulation of public morals : if 
 therefore you do evil, expect the chastisement of 
 the law ; for he bears not the sword of authority in 
 vain : for he is, I repeat, God's deputy to execute 
 
 5 vengeance upon the evil doer. Wherefore it is 
 necessary for you to submit, not merely from a fear 
 of punishment, but from the higher principle of 
 
 6 duty and conscience. For the same reason also 
 pay your taxes and contributions as required by 
 your rulers, for they are God's ministers, holding 
 their authority from him on this . occasion also. 
 
 7 Render therefore to all men their due : taxes to 
 whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, 
 
 payment of injuries with kindness must necessarily excite 
 in every person not quite callous to generous and honour- 
 able feeling ? 
 
 E 2 
 
52 
 
 ROMANS. 
 
 CHAP. XIV. 
 
 fear to whom fear, respect to whom respect. Owe 8 
 no man any thing but the debt of mutual and bro- 
 therly love, for all the prohibitions of the moral 
 law are after all nothing more than injunctions to 
 enforce this single duty. It is for this reason there- 9 
 fore, because we are bound to do good and not evil 
 to our neighbours, that we are forbidden to commit 
 adultery, to kill, to steal, to bear false- witness, to 
 covet the possessions of another. In fact, the whole 
 of our social duties of whatsoever description may 
 be shortly summed up as enforced by the plain 
 rule, " to love our neighhoiir as ourself,'" for love lo 
 necessarily abstains from working any injury to our 
 neighbour, and consequently observes all the above- 
 mentioned, and such like, precepts by which all 
 injury to another is expressly forbidden. 
 
 These things do, my brethren, and earnestly ; 1 1 
 for the time is come when it behoves us to rouse 
 ourselves effectually from our sleep : the hour 
 of our salvation approaches, and is already much 
 nearer, than when our consciences were first 
 awakened by the word of revelation: the night is 12 
 far spent, and the day is at hand : let us therefore 
 put away the works of darkness, and put on the 
 armour of the light: and, recollecting that it ^^13 
 the day, let us henceforward walk decently as in 
 the day ; not in riotings and drunkenness, not in 
 fornication and lasciviousness, not in quarrels and 
 envying ; but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, 14 
 and study not to pamper the corrupt appetites of 
 the flesh. 
 
 With regard to such brethren as may be per- 14 
 plexed by conscientious scruples on the subject 
 of trifling and unimportant observances, my advice 
 
58 
 
 is, ' receive them kindly, without distressing them by 
 
 2 nice disputations on matters of indifference.' One 
 man, for instance, believes all kinds of food to be 
 lawful : another more scrupulous confines himself 
 
 3 to a vegetable diet. Let not the former ridicule 
 the conscientious abstinence of the latter, nor the 
 latter censure as impious the satisfied conviction 
 of the former. For God accepts the upright in- 
 
 4 tentions of them both. Who art thou, let me ask, 
 who presumest to pronounce an opinion upon the 
 servant of another ? let him render his account to 
 his own master, by whose judgment he shall stand 
 or fall ; and stand he will, for God has power to 
 acquit him. 
 
 5 Again, one man makes distinctions between days, 
 as though one day were more holy than another, 
 whilst some consider all days alike. My advice is, 
 let every man act according to the deliberate con- 
 
 6 viction of his own conscience, and in so doing, 
 he who sanctifies certain days, sanctifies them to 
 God ; and he who makes no distinction of days, 
 provided he do so upon principle, pleases God 
 equally. He who is unscrupulous about meats, 
 eats them to the Lord, and is thankful for the 
 indulgence ; whilst he who abstains from them 
 through scruples of conscience, sanctifies his absti- 
 
 7 nence to the Lord, and gives thanks also. For 
 none of us either live or die for ourselves, and for 
 
 8 our own pleasure, but if we live, we live to give 
 glory to God, and if we die, we die to give glory to 
 God, so that, whether we live or we die, we are 
 
 9 God's property. For Christ died, and rose again, 
 and was received back into life, that he might 
 make both the dead and the living his own peculiar 
 
54 
 
 ROMANS. 
 
 CHAP. XIV. 
 
 possession. By what right then do you, does any 10 
 man, judge a brother? by what authority despise a 
 brother ? for all of us, high and low, shall stand alike 
 before the judgment seat of Christ : as it is written 11 
 by the prophet Isaiah, (Isaiah xlv. 23.) "As I live, 
 saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and 
 every tongue shall confess to God." Are we then 12 
 all of us to give account of ourselves to God ? if so, 13 
 let us not judge one another : but let our judgment 
 be this, that w^e place not stumbling-blocks in the 
 way of our brother's conscience. It is true that 1 14 
 individually am convinced, from what I conceive of 
 the spiritual character of the Christian dispensation, 
 that there is no meat which is any longer forbidden 
 to Christians or unclean in itself : but what of that ? 
 to him who considers it forbidden it is forbidden. 
 If then you wantonly shock your brother's scruples 15 
 for so trifling a consideration as this or that kind of 
 food, you are in so doing guilty of a serious breach 
 of brotherly love. Tempt not then thus unneces- 
 sarily the conscience of one for whom Christ him- 
 self submitted to die. Let not the integrity of 16 
 your own conviction on these points be a means of 
 annoyance to others ^ For the kingdom of God is 17 
 
 ^ The question respecting the lawfulness of meats, which 
 may appear trifling to us in the present day, who have 
 been brought up in the full possession of Christian liberty, 
 must naturally have been one of considerable moment 
 to persons recently converted from Judaism, and whose 
 earliest religious impressions must have suggested to them 
 a degree of scrupulosity on this subject wliich it would 
 require no common strength of mind effectually to subdue 
 in after life. The force of this prejudice at that period 
 is evident from the sanction which the first council of Jeru- 
 
CHAP. XIV. 
 
 ROMANS. 
 
 55 
 
 not this or that meat, this or that drink ; but it is 
 holiness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. 
 
 18 In these things whosoever serves Christ is accept- 
 able to God, and should be approved by men. 
 
 19 Why not then follov^^ the works of peace, and such 
 things as may serve for the edification of one an- 
 
 20 other ? Let not the purity of that divine holiness, 
 which ought to exist among you, be sacrificed for 
 mere questions about meats. All things it is true 
 are clean, and permitted to those who have no 
 scruples on the subject ; but they are no less sinful 
 to him who sacrifices his conscience for the sake of 
 
 21 conformity with others. Wherefore neither eat any 
 particular meat, nor drink wine or any other liquor, 
 where by so doing you may lead a brother to sin 
 against his own conviction, or may wound his 
 
 22 feelings. Is your own conscience at ease on these 
 points ? Be it so : act according to it, as you shall 
 give account of yourself to God ; and happy that 
 
 salem thought it expedient to afford to these scruples, as 
 recorded in the fifteenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. 
 To ourselves the discussion has indeed lost its interest, but 
 the beautiful and truly Christian spirit of the Apostle's 
 exhortation on this subject is applicable to all ages, and 
 might afford a most salutary lesson to every denomination 
 of believers in those little feuds and jealousies which are 
 so apt to accompany slight and unimportant differences of 
 religious opinion even amongst the sincerely well disposed. 
 It is melancholy to reflect how many unworthy triumphs 
 of fancied superiority, how much real pain and mortifica- 
 tion to the sensitive and timid mind, how much domestic 
 and social bitterness have been inflicted upon mankind 
 during the last eighteen centuries, which might have been 
 effectually spared had the spirit of this exhortation been 
 duly and seriously attended to. 
 
56 
 
 ROMANS. 
 
 CHAP. XV. 
 
 man whose breast thus acquits him. But he, on 23 
 the other hand, who makes scrupulous distinctions, 
 and yet notwithstanding acts against them, is guilty 
 of sin, because every wilful resistance to conscience 
 is sin. 
 
 Let us then, who feel convinced of our Christian 15 
 liberty, be notwithstanding kind to the infirmities of 
 others, sacrificing for the sake of edification and the 2 
 good of our neighbour, even those occasional indulg- 
 ences of the innocence of which we may be sincerely 
 confident. For Christ himself did not seek his 3 
 own gratification, as it is written in the sixty-ninth 
 Psalm, "The reproaches of them that reproached 
 thee fell on me." For all these things which have 4 
 been written of old in the Scriptures were written 
 for our instruction, that we by patience and the 
 comfort which they convey might have hope. May 5 
 then the God of patience and comfort give you 
 mutual good will and forbearance one to another, 
 according to the example of Jesus Christ : that you 6 
 may with one mind and one mouth glorify your 
 God, and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 Wherefore receive one another kindly, as Christ 7 
 has received us, to the glory of God. 
 
 CONCLUDING ADDRESS. 
 
 And now, to return to the main argument and 8 
 object of this letter, the substance of what I would 
 urge is this : " that Jesus Christ came to us in the 
 first place as the minister to those of the Jewish 
 covenant, to prove to them the veracity and faith 
 of God, and to carry into effect the divine pro- 
 mises made to our forefathers : and, secondly, he 9 
 came, in order that the Gentiles also might praise 
 
CHAP. XV. 
 
 ROMANS. 
 
 57 
 
 and glorify God, being justified through the same 
 covenant of mercy. As it is written in the eigh- 
 teenth Psalm, " For this cause I will confess thee 
 
 10 among the Gentiles, and sing unto thy name." As 
 Moses also testified to the like effect, (Deut xxxii. 
 
 11 43.) " Rejoice ye Gentiles with his people." And 
 again as we read in the hundred and seventeenth 
 Psalm, " Praise the Lord all ye Gentiles, and laud 
 
 12 him all ye people." And again also as Isaiah has 
 written, (Isaiah xi. 10.) "There shall be a root of 
 Jesse, and he shall rise to reign over the Gentiles ; 
 in him shall the Gentiles rest their hope." 
 
 13 And now therefore may the God of that hope fill 
 you with all joy and peace of mind in your belief, 
 that you may overflow with hope, in the power 
 
 14 of the Holy Spirit. For my own part, brethren, 
 I am convinced from what I have known of you, 
 that you are filled with goodness, and abundance 
 of knowledge for your mutual instruction and edifi- 
 
 15 cation. Still I have thought it my duty without 
 reserve to put into writing a few suggestions for 
 the purpose of refreshing your recollection on these 
 points, as by my commission as an apostle I am 
 
 16 entitled to do : being deputed to be the minister 
 of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, a priest of the new 
 covenant of the Gospel, in order that I may pre- 
 sent them to him as an acceptable offering, purified 
 
 17 by the Holy Spirit. Holding this commission, I 
 can look back upon the spiritual labours which I 
 have myself already achieved, with a holy satis- 
 faction as a faithful servant of God through Jesus 
 
 18 Christ, (for I do not presume to claim any part in 
 that rapid diffusion of the Gospel among the Gen- 
 tiles in profession and practice which Christ has 
 
58 
 
 ROMANS. 
 
 CHAP. XV. 
 
 elsewhere accomplished without any exertion of 
 mine,) having had my administration assisted by 19 
 signs and miracles, operated by the power of the 
 Holy Spirit ; so that from Jerusalem, and round 
 about unto Illyricum, I have successfully preached 
 the Gospel of Christ. Nay, I rather made it my 20 
 ambition to proclaim tlie Gospel in regions where 
 Christ was yet unknown, that I might not be erect- 
 ing my own labour upon another man's foundation. 
 As it is written in Isaiah, (Isaiah lii. 15.) " They 21 
 shall see him, who have never been told of him, 
 and they who have never heard of him shall under- 
 stand him." 
 
 It was in consequence of these necessary occupa- 22 
 tions that I have been so long, and so frequently, 
 prevented from coming to you as I had proposed : 
 but now, having no longer any field open for exer- 23 
 tion in these parts, and having been anxious for 
 many years past to come to you, whenever I can 24 
 take my journey into Spain, I will contrive to see 
 you : for I hope that I shall be able to pay you 
 a visit on my way, and to have your company 
 during part of my journey onwards from Rome, 
 after I shall have indulged myself a short time in 
 your society at that place. At present I am called 25 
 away to Jerusalem to arrange some matters for the 
 believers there : for the Christians of Macedon and 26 
 Achaia have thought proper to make a collection of 
 money for the relief of the poor members of the 
 Church at Jerusalem ; and in so doing, have only 27 
 discharged a just debt ; since, having derived from 
 the Church at Jerusalem so many spiritual blessings, 
 it is their duty to repay the obligation to the best of 
 their power, by the relief of their temporal wants. 
 
CHAP. XVI. 
 
 ROMANS. 
 
 59 
 
 28 So soon therefore as I shall have performed this, 
 and completed the necessary arrangements, I pur- 
 
 29 pose to pass through Rome into Spain ; fully con- 
 fident that I shall find you in the full possession of 
 
 30 the blessing of the Gospel of Christ. Meanwhile I 
 beseech you, brethren, in the name of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, and the love of the Spirit, to pray ear- 
 
 31 nestly to God for me in your religious assemblies, 
 that I may be preserved from the violence of the 
 unbelievers in Judea, and that my ministry may 
 
 32 be acceptable to the Church at Jerusalem : that, 
 having accomplished that object, I may, with God's 
 blessing, come to you, and repose myself a short 
 
 33 time among you. The God of peace be with you 
 all. Amen. 
 
 16 I recommend our sister Phcebe, who is a servant 
 
 2 of the Church at Cenchrea, to your kindness : that 
 you may receive her in the Lord as becomes the 
 disciples of Christ, and assist her on any occasion 
 in which she may have need of your good offices ; 
 for she has shown kindness to many of our friends, 
 
 3 as well as to myself. Salute in my name Priscilla, 
 and her husband Aquila^ who have been my fellow 
 
 4 labourers at Corinth ; and who, as I and all the 
 
 ^ The intercourse which subsisted at Corinth between 
 Paul and his friends Aquila and Priscilla is mentioned in the 
 eighteenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. It is there 
 stated that Aquila was a native of Pontus, and had been re- 
 cently expelled from Rome, together with the other J ews, 
 in consequence of the offence taken against that people by 
 the emperor Claudius, an allusion to which we find recorded 
 in Suetonius's life of that prince. The names of Aquila and 
 Priscilla however clearly mark their Italian origin, and ac- 
 cordingly we cannot be surprised to find them returned to 
 
60 
 
 Gentile Churches remember with gratitude, saved 
 my life in that city at the risk of their own. Salute 5 
 the society of believers also, who reside with them. 
 Salute my dear friend Epjcnetus, my first convert to 
 Christ when I preached in Achaia. Salute Mary, (5 
 who has laboured much in my behalf. Salute my 7 
 relations and fellow prisoners Andronicus and Junia, 
 who are much esteemed among the Apostles, and 
 whose conversion to Christianity preceded my own. 
 Salute Amplias, my friend in the Lord. Salute our 
 fellow labourer in Christ, Urbanus, and my friend 
 Stachys. Salute Apelles, that tried servant of lo 
 Christ. Salute the household of Aristobulus. 
 Salute my relation Herodion : salute such of the 1 1 
 household of Narcissus as are converted to our 
 faith. Salute Trypha^na and Tryphosa, who labour 12 
 in the Lord. Salute my friend Persis, who has 
 also laboured much in the Lord. Salute Rufus, a 13 
 chosen servant of the Lord, and his mother, whom 
 I also look upon as my own. Salute Asyncritus, 14 
 Phlegon, Hermas, Patrobas, Hermes, and the 
 brethren who are with them. Salute Philologus, 15 
 and Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and 
 all the Christian brethren with them. Salute one 16 
 another with an holy kiss. The Churches of 
 Christ salute you. 
 
 I intreat you, brethren, be on your guard against, 1 7 
 and avoid, all those who cause schisms amongst 
 you, and lay stumbling-blocks in your way : for 18 
 they are not, as they pretend, serving the cause 
 
 Rome at the date of this Epistle, which is generally sup- 
 posed to have been not earlier than A.D. 57, about the 
 third year of the reign of Nero. 
 
( HAP. xvT. ROMANS. 
 
 61 
 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ, but of tlieir own selfish 
 appetites ; and by their fair and plausible speeches 
 
 19 mislead the minds of the unsuspecting. For 
 your obedience to the Gospel is every where 
 spoken of ; and I sincerely rejoice that it is so ; 
 but I am at the same time anxious that your faith 
 may be pure, and without the taint of heresy or 
 
 20 false doctrine. And be assured that the God of 
 peace will enable you shortly to trample Satan 
 under your feet. Amen. 
 
 21 Timotheus my fellow labourer, and Lucius, and 
 Jason, and Sosipater, my relations, salute you. 
 
 22 I Tertius, who wrote out this letter at the apostle's 
 dictation, salute you in the Lord. 
 
 23 Caius, whose hospitality I, with the whole Church, 
 have experienced, salutes you. Erastus the steward 
 of the city, and our brother Quart us, salute you. 
 
 24 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. 
 Amen. 
 
 25 Now to Him who is able to strengthen and con- 
 firm you in that Gospel which I have preached 
 in the name of Jesus Christ, according to the revela- 
 tion of that mystery which God has kept secret 
 
 26 from the past ages, but has now proclaimed, that, 
 through the means of the prophetic writings, and 
 according to his divine purpose, it might be made 
 known to all the nations of the globe, and thus 
 
 27 bring them to the obedience of faith — to Him the 
 only wise God be glory for ever and ever, through 
 Jesus Christ. Amen. 
 
 The Epistle to the Romans has been generally consi- 
 dered as the most profoundly argumentati^e of all the 
 
62 
 
 ROMANS. 
 
 writings of St. Paul. Its subject not being one of merely 
 local and momentary importance, but having reference to 
 the moral dealings of Providence with the whole human 
 race, it naturally involves the discussion of topics which, 
 so long as the present world exists, must afford to our 
 minds the almost irresistible excitement of intense interest, 
 at the same time that they are confessedly too mysterious 
 for human solution. Accordingly it is from this store- 
 house of theological metaphysics that the impatient curi- 
 osity of mankind, ever too prone to convert into a mere 
 play for the intellect what is intended for the holier pur- 
 pose of spiritual edification, has selected more matter for 
 irreconcileable controversy, than from any other portion 
 of the sacred writings. It is evident however that no- 
 thing could be more remote from the intentions of the 
 inspired witer, than to afford materials for the display of 
 this captious spirit. Although engaged by the tran- 
 scendental nature of his subject in a chain of argument 
 which could not avoid touching occasionally upon these 
 much debated, and to us incomprehensible, points, we can- 
 not but remark, that they are never obtruded by him 
 unnecessarily upon the attention, nor allowed for a mo- 
 ment to interfere with, or derogate from, that tone of 
 fervent and exalted piety, and those lessons of the purest 
 practical morality, which it was his great aim to inculcate. 
 " To vindicate the ways of God to man,"" is the primary 
 proposition which forms the groundwork of his argument ; 
 and the superstructure which he has erected upon that 
 immoveable foundation is the gratifying doctrine of the 
 duty of the most unhesitating reliance on the infinite 
 mercy and justice of a gracious Creator, and a demonstra- 
 tion of the great Gospel truth, that without practical holi- 
 ness no man shall see God. When we recollect how much 
 perverse ingenuity has been applied, for the purpose of 
 rendering this beautiful summary of Christian ethics sub- 
 servient to the morbid excitement of a controversy as 
 unprofitable as it is interminable and mysterious, it will 
 not perhaps be without its use, in our concluding remarks 
 upon this Epistle, to recapitulate some of the more pro- 
 
ROMANS, 
 
 63 
 
 minent propositions contained in it, which, as constituting 
 the main Hnks of his argument, we cannot doubt it to have 
 been the Apostle's intention expressly to inculcate. The 
 following conclusions are therefore here adduced, as being 
 at all events too broadly and explicitly stated by St. Paul, 
 in the course of his argument, to allow us to hesitate in 
 receiving them as bearing the sanction of his high autho- 
 rity. With regard to any other more abstruse inferences 
 which the theological speculatist may be inclined to imagine 
 that he can also discover in the positions laid down by the 
 Apostle, we would only wish to observe, that, since Scripture 
 cannot be really at variance with itself, they must, if true, 
 be at least such as are consistent with those doctrines of 
 holy writ, which are too clear and palpable to be made 
 matter for controversy. 
 
 1. That all men are sinners in the sight of God, and 
 can only attain to salvation by the aid of a dispensation of 
 imputed righteousness, and not of personal merit. 
 
 2. That the criminality of mankind is the consequence of 
 their disobedience to an acknowledged law of righteousness, 
 either natural or revealed. 
 
 3. That the spiritual condemnation of the heathen world 
 is the result of their violation of the sanctions of natural 
 religion. 
 
 4. That the guilt of the Jews was the effect of their 
 transgressions against the enactments of the Mosaic law. 
 
 5. That in our present fallen and degraded condition, 
 which is the consequence of the sin of our first parents, the 
 suggestions and desires of our carnal nature are in a con- 
 stant state of warfare with our purest spiritual aspirations, 
 and our better knowledge. 
 
 6. That, as it was the express object of our Saviour's 
 mission to obliterate the effects of Adam's transgression, 
 and to reconcile us to God by a satisfactory expiation for 
 sin, it is obviously the duty of every Christian, to eman- 
 cipate himself by every means in his power from the do- 
 minion of his carnal and impure appetites, invoking for that 
 purpose the strengthening aid of the Holy Spirit, and 
 
64 
 
 ROMANS 
 
 trusting to the imputed righteousness of Christ for his 
 final justification. 
 
 7. That God's election of the Jewish nation was of a 
 temporal character only : the spiritual and real election 
 being confined exclusively to such individuals as should 
 subsequently have approved themselves to him by their 
 piety and obedience. 
 
 8. That the national election of the Jews, having been 
 an act of gratuitous favour, and designed for a specific 
 object, without reference to any claim of merit on their 
 part, might be, and was, justly withdrawn when the ar- 
 rangements of Providence so required it. 
 
 9. That the admission of the Gentiles into the Gospel 
 covenant implied no loss of spiritual privileges to the 
 believing Jews, but merely the impartial diffiision of God's 
 favour to all nations without distinction, whether Jew or 
 Gentile. 
 
 10. That, as the whole of the Israelitish nation was not 
 in reality God's Israel, but the obedient only deserved that 
 appellation ; so in the Christian world it is not every one 
 bearing the denomination of Christian, but the pure in heart, 
 and the perseveringly righteous only, who can hope to attain 
 to the blessino^s resultinij from Christ's atonement. 
 
 11. That a hfe of unblemished holiness, of perfect obe- 
 dience, and of implicit reliance upon God's faithfulness, is 
 in strictness the bounden duty, and, so far as human frailty 
 permits, will be actually required of every person whatever 
 looking for salvation through the merits of our Redeemer. 
 
 Such are the principles undoubtedly inculcated in this 
 beautiful Epistle. Whether or not they are compatible 
 with what is usually termed the Calvinistic theory may 
 be matter of opinion, according to the peculiar views and 
 impressions of individuals. Certain it is, that no religious 
 scheme can be pronounced to be that of St. Paul, which 
 is irreconcileable with the admission of the foregoing pro- 
 positions. 
 
THE 
 
 FIRST EPISTLE OF PAUL 
 
 TO THE 
 
 CORINTHIANS. 
 
 The history of St. PauFs residence at Corinth is related 
 in the eighteenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. 
 After having remained in that city for the space of eighteen 
 months, during which period he succeeded in making many 
 converts to Christianity, he proceeded to Ephesus, from 
 which place he addressed to his infant Church the follow- 
 ing Epistle, which is generally supposed to have been 
 written by him about the time of Easter, in the year of 
 our Lord 57. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 
 
 1 Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ by 
 
 2 the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, to the 
 Church of God which is in Corinth, to the sancti- 
 fied in Christ Jesus, the brethren called to be his 
 saints, and to all others who invoke the name of their 
 and our common Lord Jesus Christ, in whatever part 
 
 3 of the earth — grace and peace be unto you from God 
 our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 Section I. 
 
 The following Epistle divides itself under two heads, the first of which 
 consists of an earnest expostulation addressed by the apostle to his 
 Corinthian converts on the subject of several grievous abuses re- 
 cently introduced into that Church, and of which he had received 
 
 F 
 
 i 
 
66 
 
 I. CORINTHIANS. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 private intimation : whilst the latter conveys his authoritative replies 
 to various interrogatories respecting rehgion and discipline, which 
 we learn from the context to have been addressed to him by the 
 whole body of that community, for the satisfaction of certain con- 
 scientious scruples, and the regulation of their public worship. The 
 picture which this Epistle affords us of the spiritual condition of 
 that infant Christian society is far from gratifying ; and in the mild 
 and affectionate remonstrances of the writer it is impossible not to 
 observe the marks of the wounded and generous spirit of one deeply 
 conscious of the unmerited neglect which he had experienced from 
 persons, to the promotion of whose eternal welfare he had so zeal- 
 ously devoted himself, yet willing, so far as an imperious duty would 
 allow, to spare them the pain of reproaches too evidently deserved. 
 The humble and unassuming tone in which he alludes to his own 
 important services ; the total absence of rivalry or jealous feeling 
 with which he speaks of his coadjutors in the ministry, with the 
 tempered yet severe energy of his remonstrances on the subject of 
 their party feuds, their relaxed morality, and the indecorum of their 
 religious meetings, afford a beautiful specimen of what a Christian 
 teacher might and should be in all ages of the Church. We here 
 see one anxiously scrupulous in the performance of his own duties, 
 yet rejoicing in the successful labours of others in the same holy 
 cause no less than in his own, and for both giving glory and thanks 
 to God : one stern and inflexible in the great questions of sound 
 belief and of practical holiness, yet manifesting even in the midst of 
 his severity towards offenders an eager anxiety to hope and believe 
 the best ; and ever more desirous to lead them back to the path of 
 duty, by kindling afresh their holy and generous feelings, than to 
 compel them to it by harshness of inculpation, and severity of 
 punishment. So happily has he exemplified in his own person his 
 own beautiful precept, expressed in another Epistle, " Be ye angry, 
 and sin not." 
 
 I thank my God continually for you, on account 4 
 of the divine grace which has been given to you in 
 Christ Jesus, that you have been enriched by him 3 
 with all those spiritual gifts, both of language and 
 of wisdom, which are Christ's own testimony to the 6 
 soundness of your faith : so that you are deficient 7 
 in none of the fruits of grace, waiting with patience 
 for the final revelation and second coming of our 
 "Lord Jesus Christ, who shall strengthen and sup- 8 
 
I. CORINTHIANS. 
 
 67 
 
 port you unto the end, that you may stand before 
 him a blameless community in the great day of our 
 9 Lord Jesus Christ. Meanwhile be assured, that 
 that God by whom you were called to a partici- 
 pation in the redemption of his Son Jesus Christ 
 our Lord, will not recede from his covenant which 
 he has made with you. 
 
 10 And now I most earnestly exhort you, my bre- 
 thren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that 
 you would be of one mind, agreeing in the unity of 
 one common faith, and using one common profes- 
 sion of your belief, without the admixture of party 
 
 11 distinctions and divisions. For I have received a 
 communication respecting you, my brethren, from 
 some of the household of Chloe, that there are 
 
 12 schisms and disagreements amongst you : for in- 
 stance, one man, as I am told, will say, " I am a 
 disciple of Paul," another, " I am of Apollos," a 
 third, " I am of Peter," a fourth, " I am of Christ 
 
 13 himself." What then, are there as many different 
 Christs as there are converts ? Did Paul ever pro- 
 fess himself to be more than the mere servant of 
 our common Saviour ? was he ever crucified as an 
 expiation for your sins ? or were you ever baptized 
 
 14 to his name, as you were to that of Christ? I thank 
 God, if such party distinctions and jealousies are to 
 be the consequence of my coming to preach amongst 
 you, that I have uniformly abstained from baptizing 
 any of you with my own hands, (except indeed 
 
 15 Crispus and Caius,) lest I should appear to be a 
 partner in your folly, and to be attempting to esta- 
 
 16 blish a peculiar Gospel and sect of my own. I did 
 indeed also, as I now recollect, baptize the house- 
 
 f2 
 
68 
 
 I. CORINTHIANS 
 
 hold of Stephanus, but besides these I am not aware 
 that I have baptized any others. 
 
 For the commission which I received from Christ 17 
 was not to baptize converts, but to preach the 
 Gospel to the unconverted : and that, not with 
 captious eloquence or the words of human wisdom, 
 but in homeliness and simplicity, in order that the 
 great truth of Christ's atonement might be shown 
 not to require the aid of ingenuity and eloquence 
 for its support: for to the lost and carnally minded 18 
 the doctrine of the cross is indeed foolishness, but, 
 to us who look for salvation through it, it is the 
 manifestation of the glorious power of God. As it il> 
 is written, (Isaiah xxix. 14.) "I will destroy the 
 wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the 
 knowledge of the intelligent." Let then the Greek 20 
 philosopher, let the scribe learned in the Jewish 
 law, let the ingenious expounder of this world's 
 wisdom, come forward, and produce their strong 
 arguments : — I would ask them, " Has not God, by 
 the sublime revelation of Christ crucified, shown 
 their boasted wisdom to be but folly?" For when 21 
 the world, though gifted by God their Creator with 
 moral perceptions to know right from wrong, and 
 with the great book of God's creation laid open 
 before them \ yet failed notwithstanding to form 
 due apprehensions of his sublime and pure nature, 
 it pleased God, by the unattractive and humiliating 
 dispensation of a gratuitous amnesty for sin through 
 an humble reliance in Christ's expiatory merits, to 
 save those who turn to him with faith and submis- 
 
 ^ See Romans i. 20. 
 
CHAP. I. 
 
 I. CORINTHIANS. 
 
 69 
 
 22 sion. The Jews indeed demand of us such divine 
 proofs of our mission as were accorded to Moses 
 from mount Sinai in thunders and earthquakes, and 
 the Greeks require of us to bend our doctrine to 
 make it accord with their own disputatious and 
 captious philosophy : but not such is the unosten- 
 tatious revelation which we are deputed to com- 
 
 23 municate to mankind. We preach a suffering and 
 crucified Messiah — to the carnal pride of the Jews 
 a stumbling-block : we preach the single-minded 
 doctrine of humility, and poorness of spirit — to the 
 self-complacent wisdom of the Greeks foolishness : 
 
 24 but to all who are called from the wranglings of 
 carnal knowledge to the adoption of the righteous- 
 ness which is from heaven, be they Jews, or be 
 they Greeks, we preach Christ, and Christ only ; 
 Christ, in whom, are manifested the immensity of 
 the power, and the fulness of the unfathomable 
 
 25 wisdom, of God. For those very dispensations of 
 God which to our imperfect apprehensions may ap- 
 pear foolish, are far beyond the wisdom of men to 
 find out ; and the humblest instruments which he 
 may use, far exceed the utmost power of man to 
 
 26 equal. Look, for instance, brethren, amongst your 
 own numbers ; you can reckon amongst the con- 
 verts as yet made to our faith very few of those 
 whom the world calls men of learning S very few 
 
 ^ Such was the reception given to Christianity by the 
 authorities of this world from the first moment of its pro- 
 mulgation. " Never man spake Hke this man," was the 
 exculpatory statement of the officers who had been sent by 
 the pharisees to arrest our blessed Saviour's person, but 
 who returned, without having executed their commission, 
 in perfect astonishment at the cogency of his doctrine. 
 
70 
 
 L CORINTHIANS. chap. ii. 
 
 persons in authority ; very few of noble birth ; but 27 
 God, by thus accepting the low and ignorant in 
 preference to the wealthy and the wise, has shown 
 how this world's folly may put to shame its wis- 
 dom, and how this world's weakness may confound 
 and put to shame its strength ; and how the low, 28 
 and despised, and overlooked in this world may, by 
 the divine favour, bring to nought the exalted in 
 rank, and the pre-eminent in authority. In order 29 
 that no human being whatever might have any 
 thing of his own, of which to make his boast in the 
 presence of God. Even you yourselves, brethren, 30 
 owe to his mercy the spiritual advantages which 
 you now derive from your faith in Christ, who has 
 been made to us the manifestation of God's wisdom, 
 and a means of righteousness, and holiness, and 
 redemption. So true is the exclamation of the 31 
 prophet, (Jeremiah ix. 23.) " He that boasteth, 
 let him boast in the Lord." 
 
 With this feeling, my brethren, of the unworldly 2 
 character of the Christian dispensation, I came first 
 to preach among you the testimony of God, without 
 
 " Are ye also deceived ? have any of the rulers or the 
 pharisees believed on himT' was the reply. Of all the 
 miracles worked by Providence for the establishment of 
 the Gospel, none perhaps is more truly wonderful than the 
 final triumph of that unworldly, unassuming, yet resistless 
 principle, silently working its way against the leagued con- 
 federacy of wealth and temporal power, until it subjugated 
 the throne of the Caesars itself. " The kings of the earth 
 stood up, and the rulers took counsel together against the 
 Lord and against his Christ. Let us break their bonds 
 asunder, and cast away their cords from us. — He that 
 dw6lleth in heaven shall laugh them to scorn.'' 
 
CHAP. II. I. OOEINTHIANS. 
 
 71 
 
 attempting to recommend myself or my doctrine by 
 
 2 any effort at human wisdom or eloquence : and ac- 
 cordingly I taught, and confined myself to one single 
 topic only, namely, " Christ, and him crucified." 
 
 3 And this I did (knowing how unattractive such a doc- 
 trine must be to carnal hearers) with weakness, and 
 
 4 fear, and dififtdence ; but though my arguments and 
 language possessed none of the attractive charms of 
 learning and eloquence, God gave them weight by 
 the spiritual gifts and the miraculous powers with 
 
 5 which he allowed them to be accompanied, in order 
 that your faith might not be built upon the mere 
 foundation of man's wisdom, but upon the mani- 
 
 6 festation of the power of God. Yet notwithstand- 
 ing, weak as my arguments may appear to the 
 unconverted, they are wise^ to the apprehension of 
 
 ^ The self-denying character of the Christian dispensation 
 is quite sufficient to account for the distaste with which it 
 has ever been received by the worldly-minded, without our 
 being necessarily obliged to infer that there is any thing in 
 its doctrines at all revolting to the conclusions of our moral 
 sense or of impartial reason. The substitution of uni- 
 versal charity in the place of self-love ; of an implicit sub- 
 mission of the understanding to such portions of the divine 
 arrangements as are obviously beyond our reach, in the 
 room of a prying and dogmatical philosophy ; and the 
 total denial of any merit in our seemingly best actions, as 
 affording a claim to a future recompense, must obviously 
 have presented in all ages a formidable barrier against the 
 admission of such a belief, to beings whose opinions on 
 moral subjects are confessedly more frequently arrived at 
 through the medium of their passions than of their intel- 
 lectual powers. Admitting therefore in its fullest extent 
 the perfect impossibility of unassisted human ignorance 
 ever arriving at the remotest conception of the mysterious 
 
72 
 
 I. CORINTHIANS. chap. ii. 
 
 the believer, however ill-adapted to the wisdom of 
 this world, and its perishable distinctions. For the 7 
 wisdom which I preach is the mystery of divine 
 wisdom, which, though prepared among the dis- 
 
 Christian scheme, and the almost insuperable impediment 
 which human prejudice must have opposed to its first re- 
 ception, still it by no means follows as a necessary conse- 
 quence that our moral and intellectual perceptions must 
 under all circumstances remain incapable of perceiving its 
 entire consistency with itself, and its nice adaptation to the 
 peculiar constitution of our nature. To find our own way 
 through a maze of difficulty is one thing ; to apprehend the 
 explanation of it when supplied by an understanding superior 
 to our own is another. This distinction may be worth the 
 consideration of those persons, who, in their zeal to advo- 
 cate the cause of revelation at the expense of human rea- * 
 son, are disposed to depreciate the evidence arising from 
 the apparent internal probability of the Christian dispensa- 
 tion as unsound. No person indeed who is at all aware of 
 the very contracted area of human knowledge would pre- 
 sume much upon that faculty in the discussion of religious 
 topics : but it surely is not to derogate from the dignity 
 of revelation when we assert, that an humble and pious 
 mind may be enabled to trace in it enough of internal pro- 
 bability, from what we can venture to surmise of God's 
 attributes, to afford, independently of any external proof, 
 a strong foundation for belief in its divine origin. Such 
 at least seems to be the admission of the apostle in the 
 passage before us. It is true that he asserts at the same 
 time, that such a faculty of apprehension can descend to us 
 from no other source than that which is the fountain of 
 all true wisdom, the illumination of the Holy Spirit ; but 
 that very assertion declares the reality of the faculty so 
 communicated. To argue otherwise were in fact to de- 
 prive that sublime dispensation of its hold upon our moral 
 approbation, and to trench upon that satisfied conviction 
 with which so many sincere Christians, who may be unequal 
 
CHAP. II. 1. CORINTHIANS. 
 
 73 
 
 pensations of God's providence before the beginning 
 of time for the redemption of mankind, he has only 
 within our own age allowed to be openly promul- 
 
 8 gated ; a mystery which none of the authorities of 
 this world have duly apprehended, otherwise they 
 
 9 would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, 
 as it is truly written by the prophet, (Isaiah Ixiv. 4.) 
 " Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have 
 entered into the heart of man, the things which 
 
 10 God has prepared for them who love him." But 
 God has graciously revealed them to us by his 
 Spirit ; that eternal Spirit which searches and sees all 
 things, the mysterious and most secret dispensations 
 
 1 1 of God himself not excepted. For as the spirit of man 
 alone can detect the inmost workings of that indi- 
 vidual human breast in which it is stationed, so the 
 Spirit of God alone can penetrate and apprehend all 
 the secret resolves and purposes of God's govern- 
 
 12 ment. Now we have received, not the fallible spirit 
 of this world, but the direct communications of that 
 all-seeing divine Spirit, so that to us is given to 
 know the operations of God's mercy, as extended 
 
 13 to us and to mankind. And it is those divine com- 
 munications which we now preach to the world, not 
 in the artificial language of human wisdom, but as 
 they are suggested to us by the Holy Spirit itself, 
 expounding spiritual things in spiritual language. 
 
 14 But the mere natural man apprehends not the re- 
 velations made by the Spirit of God, so as to be 
 able to form a right judgment respecting them ; for 
 
 to pursuing all the details of external evidence, repose upon 
 it as a full vindication of the otherwise inexplicable arrange- 
 ments of Providence. 
 
74 
 
 I. CORINTHIANS. chap. nr. 
 
 to him they are foolishness, because he judges of 
 them carnally and not spiritually. He, on the con- 15 
 trary, who is illuminated by the gifts of the divine 
 Spirit loses none of the natural knowledge which he 
 previously possessed, but has a due perception of the 
 things both of the spiritual and carnal world ; — but 
 the carnal world, on the other hand, judges not 
 him ; " for w^hat man," as says the prophet Isaiah, 16 
 (xl. 13.) " hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or 
 hath taught him ?" But to us the mysterious dis- 
 pensations of Christ have been communicated. 
 
 As yet, however, my brethren, I have not been 3 
 able to speak to you according to the full communi- 
 cation of God's Spirit which I have received, your 
 judgments not yet being sufficiently matured to 
 apprehend these mysterious subjects. I have there- 
 fore thus far addressed you as still in your carnal 
 nature, still children in Christian knowledge : I 2 
 have fed you from the first with milk, not with 
 substantial food ; for you were not then, nor are 
 you yet, able to digest the harder mysteries of 
 the doctrine of revelation. You are still, I repeat, 3 
 in your carnal nature ; for whilst envy, and strife, 
 and party divisions prevail among you, may I not 
 truly affirm that you are yet unregenerated, and 
 walk according to the infirmities of the flesh ? And 4 
 walk you not indeed according to the flesh, so long 
 as one exclaims, " I am a disciple of Paul," another, 
 " I am a disciple of Apollos ?" And who, let me 5 
 ask, is Paul, and who Apollos, but mere mortals, 
 the humble ministers of Christ, who were the means 
 of your conversion solely because the Lord gave 
 them ability to be so ? I perhaps first planted the 6 
 good seed, Apollos came after me and watered, but 
 
CHAP. III. I. CORINTHIANS. 
 
 75 
 
 7 it was God who in his mercy gave the increase ; so 
 that the first planter is nothing, and the waterer is 
 nothing ; but the glory of the increase is God's only. 
 
 8 As to which of us planted, or which watered, is a 
 matter of no importance, for we are but fellow-la- 
 bourers in the same vineyard ; and shall receive our 
 pay from our common Master according to our 
 
 9 respective services : ours indeed is the labour of 
 the tillage, but the produce of the soil is the pro- 
 perty of God. You, my brethren, are a building 
 
 10 erected to God's glory. According to the best 
 abilities which God's grace has given to me, I, 
 like a skilful architect, laid the first foundation; 
 Apollos, or whoever came after me, laid upon that 
 the superstructure ; but, whoever is the workman, 
 let every man recollect, that he labours not for 
 his own benefit, but that he is reponsible to God 
 
 11 for the goodness of his work. One foundation, 
 and one only, are we allowed to build upon, that, 
 namely, which was the sole and single purport of 
 my first communications to you : — Jesus Christ. 
 
 12 On that foundation it is our common duty, as 
 servants of the same Master, to build according 
 to the means entrusted to us; and accordingly 
 one man may build upon it gold, another silver, 
 another marble, another timber, another thatch, 
 
 13 another reeds : and, such as each man's work is, 
 such shall it be proved to be, when the fearful day 
 of trial comes, when the fire of persecution and 
 temptation shall take possession of the building, 
 and search out each separate part, whether it was 
 
 14 well and substantially laid or not. If any man's 
 work shall stand uninjured through that trial, he 
 will receive the glorious reward of one who has 
 
76 
 
 converted others to righteousness : if it fail in the 15 
 trial and be consumed, he indeed individually shall 
 be acquitted, but as one who has lost his labour, and 
 whose property the fire has demolished ^ 
 
 I have said that you are God's building. So you 16 
 are; you are God's temple, and the inhabitant 
 within you is God's Holy Spirit. If any man then, 17 
 instead of doing his utmost to adorn and improve 
 that consecrated building, wilfully injures or pol- 
 lutes it, that man will God destroy. For even the 
 earthly temple of God is a holy place, and if so, 
 
 ^ Many a Christian teacher must have had cause, in the 
 apostacy of his flock, to mourn over his lost labours, during 
 those fearful days of persecution which witnessed the first 
 estabhshment of Christianity. It is impossible to read 
 Pliny's account of his own success, at a period somewhat 
 later than the date of this epistle, in extorting from some 
 of the early converts an abjuration of their belief, without 
 some sinking of the heart for the weakness of human nature, 
 and feeling grateful to Providence that our faith and reso- 
 lution have not been exposed to the same formidable trial. 
 " Interrogavi ipsos, an essent Christiani : confitentes ite- 
 rum ac tertio interrogavi, supplicium minatus : perseverantes 
 duci jussi. — Propositus est libellus sine auctore multorum 
 nomina continens, qui negarent se esse Christianos, aut 
 fuisse, quum, prseeunte me, deos appellarent, et imagini 
 tua; (Trajani), quam propter hoc jusseram cum simulacris 
 numinum afferri, thure ac vino suppHcarent ; prseterea male- 
 dicerent Christo ; quorum nil cogi posse dicuntur qui sunt 
 revera Christiani. Ergo dimittendos putavi. Alii ab in- 
 dice nominati esse se Christianos dixerunt, et mox nega- 
 verunt ; fuisse quidem, sed desiisse, quidam ante trien- 
 nium, quidam ante plures annos ; non nemo etiam ante 
 viginti quoque. Omnes et imaginem tuam, deorumque 
 simulacra venerati sunt ; ii et Christo maledixerunt."' 
 Plirtii Epistolce^ lib. x. epist. 97. 
 
I. CORINTHIANS. 
 
 77 
 
 you, who are God's spiritual temple, should be all 
 
 18 of you individually holy. Let no man then deceive 
 himself or you, by adulterating with carnal know- 
 ledge the revelation which you have received ; but 
 if he comes among you, preaching the wisdom of 
 this world as the Gospel of Christ, let him learn to 
 submit his understanding to what men will call 
 
 19 foolishness, and so shall he be truly wise. For as 
 what appears foolish to our carnal nature is wisdom 
 in the sight of God, so what men may term wisdom 
 is mere foolishness in his eyes. As it is written in 
 the book of Job, (Job v. 13.) "He taketh the wise 
 
 20 in their own craftiness." And again in the ninety- 
 fourth Psalm, " The Lord knowetli the thoughts of 
 
 21 the wise that they are vain." Wherefore, I again 
 repeat, let no one among you boast that he is the 
 disciple and convert of this or that particular teacher, 
 for after all, what are we all but common labourers 
 
 22 for your benefit ? Let then your instructor be 
 Paul, if it should so happen ; let him be Apollos ; 
 let him be Peter ; let our task throw us into col- 
 lision with the authorities of this world ; let our 
 lot be life ; let it be death ; let us be struggling 
 with the difficulties of our mortal condition ; or 
 looking forward to the hopes of eternity ; — still our 
 labours, be they what they may, are not for our 
 
 23 own, but for your advantage : — you are Christ's : 
 4 and Christ is God's. Deem of us then your 
 
 teachers, not as ambitious leaders of separate par- 
 ties, but as the joint servants of Christ, and the 
 stewards of the dispensation of God's mysteries, 
 
 2 who are responsible for our trust, and shall, we 
 hope, be found one day to have discharged it faith- 
 
 3 fully. With regard to myself, therefore, it is a 
 
78 
 
 I. CORINTHIANS. chap. iv. 
 
 matter of very little moment what judgment you 
 or any human beings may pass upon my services: 
 in fact, I do not pretend to know myself sufficiently 
 to pronounce an opinion how far I may have exe- 
 cuted my commission faithfully : it is true I am con- 
 scious of no wilful omissions of my duty, but I am far 
 from asserting therefore that I stand acquitted in all 
 points : it is God only who can pronounce of me how 
 far I have been a profitable servant. Therefore, my 
 brethren, without drawing invidious and premature 
 comparisons between us, let us your several teachers 
 continue for the present to do our work among you 
 to the best of our power, w^aiting for that day when 
 the Lord himself shall come to judge us all : who 
 shall bring to light and make manifest to all of you 
 what have been the secret workings of our breasts ; 
 and then, and not till then, shall each of us receive 
 from God the just commendation which he de- 
 serves. In making these remarks, my brethren, 
 I have only made mention of a few names, such as 
 my own, and that of Apollos, but I would apply the 
 sentiment which I wish to inculcate to all as an 
 universal maxim: namely, that you seek not after 
 ostentatious unscriptural wisdom, nor allow any 
 presumed advantages of this nature to inflate you 
 with vanity, or to entangle you in party distinc- 
 tions, or undue preferences of one person to an- 
 other. For admitting that you, or any man, sur- 
 pass another in talents or spiritual gifts : after all, 
 what have you, but what God has given you, and 
 if given to you, why then pride yourself upon it as 
 though it were your own acquisition ? so far how- 
 ever from practising this Christian humility, you 
 imagine, as I am informed, that you are already 
 
CHAP. IV. I. CORINTHIANS. 
 
 79 
 
 full of all necessary knowledge, that you are rich 
 in spiritual privileges ; that you have attained to 
 the fulness of Christian edification, and no longer 
 stand, as formerly, in need of my instruction : — 
 I wish indeed it were so, and that I had nothing 
 now to do but to enjoy together with you in 
 
 9 quiet our common edification. For the oflSce of 
 an apostle is indeed one of toil and hardship. 
 God seems to have reserved us, whom he has 
 entrusted with that awful commission, as a spec- 
 tacle in some great theatre, in which the whole 
 creation, angels and men, are the spectators, that 
 we may exhibit before them, even to the latest 
 mortal agony, the endless variety of our suffer- 
 
 10 ings. We bear all the reproaches and contumely 
 of the Christian doctrine which we preach: ^ou 
 hold yourselves high in imaginary wisdom : — we 
 are weak ; ^ou are strong : — we are slighted ; ^ou 
 
 11 are courted and respected : from the first hour 
 of our apostleship to the present, we have had to 
 sustain hunger and thirst, and nakedness, and vio- 
 
 12 lence, and destitution ; yet whilst we incur these 
 hardships on your account, we earn our own bread 
 by our ^ own personal and bodily labour ; repaying 
 maledictions with blessings ; meeting persecutions 
 
 13 with patient submission : when misrepresented by 
 mankind calmly appealing to their better feelings, 
 and in all respects submitting, up to this very mo- 
 ment, for the sake of the Gospel, to be considered as 
 
 14 the refuse, the olF-scouring of the world. My bre- 
 thren, I write not this for your reproach, but, look- 
 ing upon you as my beloved children, I am anxious 
 
 ^ See Acts xviii. 5. 
 
80 
 
 I. CORINTHIANS. 
 
 to set you right where I feel that you have been in 
 error : you may for aught I know have ten thousand 15 
 teachers of the Gospel among you at present, but 
 you cannot have many fathers. I, who first brought 
 you to the knowledge of Christ, am your spiritual 
 father, and as such, I earnestly require of you, that 16 
 my admonitions and influence may have the weight 
 with you which they deserve. And vrith this feel- 17 
 ing, accordingly, I have sent unto you Timothy, 
 who is my beloved son, and faithful in the Lord, 
 to remind you of the tenor of my first instructions 
 in the ways of Christ, as I still preach them, singly 
 and purely, in every Church which I visit. Some 18 
 persons there are among you, I am aware, who 
 calculate upon my not coming to you in person, 
 and presume upon it accordingly : but come I will, 19 
 with God's blessing, and when I am come, I will 
 judge of each man, not according to the confidence 
 of his language, but according to his spiritual ac- 
 quirements : for the kingdom of God does not consist 20 
 in the show of words and of eloquence, but in the 
 power resulting from the gifts of the Spirit. How 21 
 then, my brethren, shall I come, when I do come ? 
 must it be with the salutary rod of discipline ; or 
 with kindness in the spirit of meekness ? One 5 
 abomination in particular which has been reported 
 to me, I must speak of at present : not only that 
 there is fornication among you, but such fornication 
 as is not tolerated even among the heathen, that a 
 man should be living impurely with his father's 
 wife. And yet whilst these enormities are taking 2 
 place among you, you are boasting of your spiritual 
 attainments, instead of mourning that such an 
 event has occurred, and doing justice upon the of- 
 
CHAP. V. L CORINTHIANS. 81 
 
 fender by excommunicating him from your society. 
 
 3 Absent therefore as I am in person, yet present 
 with you in spirit, as your authorized religious in- 
 structor, I feel it my duty to forward by this writ- 
 ten communication the sentence which I should 
 have pronounced against the offending party, were 
 I now resident with you, upon the spot : and that 
 
 4 sentence is, that, having solemnly convened an as- 
 sembly of all the brethren in the name of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, and acting under my authority which 
 
 ,5 I have received from the Holy Spirit, you tlirough 
 the 'power granted to you by our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 exclude from the Church and all its privileges the 
 person who has committed this sin, for the punish- 
 ment and affliction of his body in this world, in order 
 that his spirit may be finally saved in the great day 
 
 6 of the Lord Jesus'' It is to little purpose, whilst 
 such enormities remain uncensured among you, 
 that you pride yourselves upon your advancement 
 in religious knowledge : know ye not that a little 
 leaven, one tolerated bad example, may leaven and 
 
 7 corrupt the whole lump ? Purge away then from 
 your community all the old leaven of the sins which 
 you have abjured, and become henceforward a new 
 lump, pure and unleavened ; recollecting that 
 Christ our expiatory paschal lamb has been sacri- 
 
 8 ficed for us ; therefore let us on our part keep the 
 
 feast, not with the old leaven of our former sins, nor 
 
 with the leaven of malice and wickedness ^ but 
 • 
 
 ^ It is observable, that through the whole of his writings, 
 St. Paul never omits an opportunity of inculcating the 
 necessity of a strictly moral life, as the legitimate inference 
 derivable from the doctrine of Christ's atonement, and the 
 
 G 
 
82 
 
 with the pure and unleavened bread of sincerity and 
 truth. 
 
 With regard to my injunction not to keep 9 
 company with fornicators, I wish you however to lo 
 understand, that I do not mean that you are neces- 
 sarily to absent yourselves from all societies in 
 which heathens who may be fornicators, or cove- 
 tous, or extortioners, or idolaters, may chance to bo 
 present : because, as the world is constituted, such 
 contingencies, so long as you mingle with it, cannot 
 always be avoided : but what I intend to enjoin is, 1 1 
 that if any converted brother, calling himself a 
 
 natural fruits of faith. The Christian dispensation is in 
 fiict, from first to last, nothing more than a stupendous 
 display of the total irreconcileableness of sin with the 
 purity of God's government, and of the means adopted by 
 infinite wisdom for its expiation. " The doctrine of Christ's 
 satisfaction,"*' says Dr. Leland, " is so far from giving the 
 least encouragement to sin, that it tendeth to impress men's 
 hearts with the deepest sense of the heinous evil and malig- 
 nity of sin, and of God's just displeasure against it. Not 
 only do those who teach that doctrine, as delivered in the 
 Scriptures, insist as strongly as any others upon the neces- 
 sity of repentance and personal holiness, in order to their 
 acceptance with God, but they maintain that, at the same 
 time that God promiseth pardon to the truly penitent, he 
 taketh care to dispense that pardon in such a way as to make 
 an awful declaration of his hatred against sin, and to vindi- 
 cate the authority of his government and laws. What can 
 have a greater tendency to prevent our abusing his pardon- 
 ing mercy, and to excite in us a holy fear* of offending him, 
 than to consider that he would not receive even penitent 
 sinners to his grace and favour, without a sacrifice of infinite 
 virtue offered up on their behalf, consisting in the perfect 
 obedience and suffering of the great Mediator?" — View 
 of the Deistical Writers^ Letter 14. 
 
83 
 
 Christian, be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idol- 
 ater, or a slanderer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, 
 have no communings with such a person, nor even 
 
 12 sit down with him at the same table. For with 
 regard to tlie heathen, we profess to hold no juris- 
 diction over them : our authority is over the mem- 
 
 13 bers of our own Church : with regard to the former, 
 leave them to the final judgment of God^ ; but 
 keep your own society pure from all pollution. 
 
 6 One other point which needs correction among 
 you ought now to be mentioned, and that is what 
 
 * From this admonition of the apostle we learn the 
 important lesson, that a Christian is only so far justified in 
 marking by his personal demeanour any strong disapproba- 
 tion of the irregular lives of others, as by such conduct he 
 may hope to promote edification, either by the correction 
 and amendment of the offending party, or by deterring 
 others from adopting a similar course. When neither of 
 these objects is attainable, the rule here given is simple • 
 " keep yourself pure from all contagion of sin, and leave 
 such cases entirely to the final judgment of God.'"* It may 
 be urged indeed, that as society is now constituted, it is 
 scarcely possible for a public breach of morals to take 
 place, without its affording sufficient matter of scandal to 
 make it a peremptory duty in every religious person to 
 express openly his disapproval of it. And such perhaps 
 may be the fact. But still the apostolical precept is not 
 without its use, at least as a corrective to our own inward 
 motives and feelings. We should never forget that the 
 measure of the censure which we may venture to pronounce 
 upon the vices of our neighbours should be that of the 
 degree of benefit which may be derived by its means to the 
 cause of religion and good morals. Without such a 
 precautionary rule we could scarcely hope to avoid falhng 
 into the sin of spiritual pride, and the fatal mistake of 
 trying our conduct, not by the perfect standard of abstract 
 
 G 2 
 
84 
 
 1. CORINTHIANS. 
 
 ( HAP. VI. 
 
 I hear respecting your suits against one another 
 before the heathen tribunals on points which might 
 have been arranged by private Christian arbitration. 
 Is it becoming, let me ask, to bring your private 
 differences to be judged of by pagan authorities, 
 instead of by the pov^^ers of the Church ? Know you 2 
 not who has said that the saints shall judge the 
 world ? and if so, are you not competent to decide 
 upon such trifling points as these ? are we hereafter 3 
 to judge angels, and shall we deem the unimportant 
 transactions of this life above our competency? If 4 
 then you have litigations of this nature to arrange, 
 let your arbitrators be, not the rulers of your Church, 
 for they have higher duties to perform, but the 
 inferior brethren, who may still be fully adequate to 
 these secondary duties. A shame and scandal it 5 
 were indeed to you, if you cannot among your 
 whole number supply a few persons of competent 
 understanding to arrange the trivial disputes of one 
 Christian brother with another, but must come with 6 
 your wretched bickerings to ask the aid of heathen 
 magistrates. But, let me ask, why do these dis- 7 
 putes exist at all ? Is it not better at once to suffer 
 wrong, and to submit to loss, than to right yourself 
 by such methods ? Suffer wrong do I say ? Should I 8 
 not more correctly designate many of you, were I 
 to assert of you, not that you suffer injustice from 
 others, but tliat you commit it yourselves f that you 
 usurp that which is not your own to take, and that, 
 from your own brethren ? Is this the conduct which 
 
 holiness, but by that of our own imaginary superiority over 
 others, as suggested by the partial estimate of an overween- 
 ing self-love. 
 
85 
 
 9 befits your holy profession ? Know you not that the 
 unjust shall not inherit the kingdom of God ? Be 
 not deceived : — neither fornicators, nor idolators, nor 
 adulterers, nor those addicted to unnatural appetites, 
 
 10 nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor 
 slanderers, nor eoctortioners, shall inherit the 
 
 11 KINGDOM OF GoD. And such as I am now describ- 
 ing were some of you : — but you have cleansed 
 yourselves in the waters of baptism : you have 
 consecrated yourselves to a holy life, and you have 
 been acquitted and justified in the name of the 
 Lord Jesus, and by the Divine Spirit. 
 
 Section II. 
 
 The apostle in the next place proceeds to reply to the several interro- 
 gatories respecting religion and morals which had been submitted 
 to his decision by the public assembly of the Corinthian Church. 
 His several answers, together with the spiritual admonitions con- 
 nected with them, constitute the remaining portion of this Epistle. 
 The following are the topics discussed. 
 
 1 . On the diversity of meats : whether Christians are required to 
 attend to the old distinctions of the Levitical law, as to the clean 
 and unclean. 
 
 2. On fornication. 
 
 3. On marriage and divorce. 
 
 4. On the expediency or inexpediency of circumcision. 
 
 5. On the comparative expediency of a single state, and of matri- 
 mony. 
 
 6. On the use of meats which had been sacrificed in the heathen 
 temples. 
 
 7. On the decorum and reserve of the female character, and the 
 inexpediency of women taking a part in the public services of the 
 Church. 
 
 8. On the decorous administration of the Lord's Supper. 
 
 9. On the gifts of the Holy Spirit ; the diversity of their nature and 
 character, and their comparative utility. 
 
 10. On the decorum to be observed in the celebration of divine wor- 
 ship, with regulations for the promotion of that object. 
 
 11. On the resurrection of the body. 
 
86 I. CORINTHIANS. chap. vi. 
 
 ON DIVERSITY OF MEATS. 
 
 With regard to your question respecting diversity 12 
 of meats, I simply answer, that " all are equally 
 allowable as food ; but that, at the same time, there 
 may be reasons which render them not all equally 
 expedient ; all may be in themselves lawful, but we 
 are not therefore to make ourselves the slaves of 
 our appetites." You will say that God gave food 13 
 for the belly, and made the belly to require food: 
 be it so, yet recollect also that he will shortly de- 
 stroy both one and the other. 
 
 ON FORNICATION. 
 
 On the subject of fornication, it is most certain 
 that our bodies were given to us not for purposes of 
 impurity, but that we might consecrate them to the 
 Lord, as our Lord has already consecrated them, by 
 himself condescending to assume our human na- 
 ture ; and accordingly as God raised the body of our 14 
 Redeemer from the grave, so will he by his almighty 
 power also raise ours at the last day. Remember 15 
 then that you are members of Christ himself, inte- 
 gral portions of his mystical body. And are then 
 our bodies, which are already members of Christ, 
 and look to be, as he has been, raised up incor- 
 ruptible from the grave, to become the members 
 also of an harlot ? By no means. Know you not 16 
 that he who associates with an harlot, becomes one 
 with her; according to what has been declared in 
 holy writ respecting the intercourse of the sexes : 
 "they two shall be one flesh?" But he who unites 17 
 himself with Christ, is one with Christ in spirit and 
 
CHAP, VII. I. CORINTHIANS. 87 
 
 18 holiness. Fly then, I intreat you, from fornication: 
 other sins are external to man's corporeal nature, 
 and, however otherwise blameable, leave his own 
 person at least uncontaminated ; but fornication is 
 a sin against, and a degradation of, a man's own 
 
 19 self. Know you not also that your bodies are the 
 temple of that Holy Spirit which dwells within you, 
 and which God himself gave to you : and that they 
 
 20 are not your own property, but God's, purchased for 
 him by the blood of Christ ? Glorify then God both 
 in your bodies, and in your spirits, for both are alike 
 God's property. 
 
 ON MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE. 
 
 7 Your next question is as to the regulations which 
 1 would have you adopt respecting marriages, and 
 the legality of divorce. My first answer to it is, 
 that, where it is possible, a single state is in my 
 
 2 opinion preferable : but as every one may not have 
 the gift of continence, then for the sake of avoiding 
 sin, I say, let any man who is so disposed have his 
 
 3 own wife, and any woman her own husband ; and 
 so, let the husband associate affectionately with his 
 
 4 wife, and the wife with her husband ; with this 
 understanding, that the wife is to submit to the 
 wishes of the husband, and the husband to those of 
 
 5 the wife. Accordingly, let not the one repel the 
 other, excepting at such times when they may 
 abstain from one another by mutual agreement, on 
 peculiar occasion of prayer and fasting ; after which 
 let them return to one another as before, that nei- 
 ther of them may be tempted to sin by incontinency 
 
 6 in any other quarter. In speaking thus, however, 
 1 wish to be considered rather as permitting mar- 
 
88 
 
 I. CORINTHIANS. 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 riage, than as recommending it universally : since I 7 
 would rather see others living singly and chastely 
 as I do, if possible ; but our temperaments have 
 been difterently constituted by God, and what is 
 practicable by one, is not always equally so by 
 another. To the single, therefore, whether they 8 
 have continued unmarried from the first, or are in a 
 state of widowliood, my private opinion is, that it is 
 better for them to remain single, as I am myself ; 
 at the same time if tliey doubt their own powers of 9 
 continence, let them marry, for marriage is prefer- 
 able to a state of painful restraint. But to the lo 
 married I say, or rather not I, but Christ, (for it is 
 our Lord's own injunction,) " Let not the wife 
 separate from her husband, or, at least, if she do 11 
 so, and does not return to him, let her abstain 
 from marriage elsewhere : and according to the 
 same rule, let not the husband put away his wife." 
 This command we have from Christ himself. With 12 
 regard to that part of your question which you put 
 to me on the subject of marriages between parties, 
 of whom one is a Christian and the other a heathen, 
 as our Lord has left no injunction on such a case, 
 my own opinion is as follows. " In a case where 
 the husband is Christian and the wife heathen, and 
 she is willing to continue to live with her husband, 
 let her do so ; and by the same rule let them act, 1 3 
 where the husband is heathen and the wife Christian, 
 and the husband is content to continue to live with 
 his wife ; that is to say, let such a marriage be in 
 all respects binding ^ For the blessing attending the 14 
 
 ^ St. PauFs decision on the subject of this difficulty, 
 which occasionally arose in the early ages of the Church 
 
CHAP. vii. 1. CORINTHIANS. 
 
 89 
 
 belief of the one party sanctifies and extends to the 
 matrimonial connexion with the other; as it does 
 
 from the intermarriage of Christian converts with pagans, 
 or, which was more frequently the case, the conversion of 
 one only of the parties to Christianity, where both the hus- 
 band and wife had originally been pagans, is a beautiful 
 specimen of the caution and good sense requisite for the 
 adaptation of a previously existing rule to a new combina- 
 tion of circumstances not contemplated, or at least not fully 
 explained, by the original enactor. 
 
 In our Saviour's sermon on the mount (Matt. v. 82.) we 
 find the permission of divorce expressly limited to the single 
 case of adultery ; obviously upon the equitable ground 
 that, where one out of two contracting parties has wilfully 
 broken through a reciprocal compact, the other unoffending 
 person ought no longer to be bound by it to his own 
 injury. When however Christianity began to find its 
 way through heathen countries, a fresh perplexity arose 
 from the occasional difference of religion between the 
 husband and the wife. Our Saviour's rule allowing of no 
 divorce excepting in the case of adultery only, a Christian 
 married to a heathen was thus incidentally engaged in a 
 tie which religious obligation rendered indissoluble to the 
 person so circumstanced, whilst, on the other hand, the 
 heathen married to a Christian possessed that liberty of 
 divorce which the laws of the Roman empire allowed 
 indiscriminately to all its subjects, without the intervention 
 of any scruples of conscience to prevent his taking ad- 
 vantage of it. It is evident therefore that here was the 
 instance of a compact not entailing a reciprocity of obliga- 
 tion between the contracting parties, the Christian having 
 no legal redress should the heathen be disposed to take 
 that advantage which the constitution of his country 
 allowed for releasing himself from the restraints of mar- 
 riage. 
 
 The decision of St. Paul therefore, though at first sight 
 it may appear to be an infringement of our Saviour's 
 
90 
 
 also to the children who may be born from such 
 marriages, and who may be looked upon as in all 
 respects the progeny of Christian wedlock. Should 15 
 it however happen that the heathen husband or wife 
 should choose to relinquish the connexion, let them 
 do so ; for the happiness of a Christian brother or 
 sister ought not to be sacrificed to circumstances 
 over which they have no control ; remember how- 
 ever, that we ourselves as Christians are not justi- 
 fied, in these cases, in assuming that liberty of 
 divorce, which we have no power to prevent our 
 heathen connexions from taking advantage of, should 
 it please them to do so. Perhaps it may so happen, 16 
 that by continuing to live with her heathen husband 
 the Christian wife may be the means of his con- 
 version ; and perhaps the Christian husband may in 
 like manner promote the salvation of his heathen 
 wife. At all events, be that as it may, it is not for 17 
 
 exclusive rule, is in reality confirmatory of it, and founded 
 upon the same just principle ; namely, that in every 
 mutual covenant the want of faith in one of the persons 
 concerned operates a virtual release from any conscientious 
 obligation in the other. Still however the apostle, with a 
 becoming humility, makes this distinction between his own 
 decision of the case in question, and the law of his divine 
 Master ; that whilst he refers to the latter as an infallible 
 dictum, he advances the former as merely the best con- 
 clusion to which he can arrive in his attempt to accommo- 
 date an unforeseen contingency to what may be presumed 
 of the real intention and object of the legislator. It was 
 probably with a view to obviate the recurrence of this diffi- 
 culty, that in a subsequent passage of this Epistle (chap. vii. 
 39.) he enjoins widows, if entering upon a second marriage, 
 to confine their choice to such persons for their future hus- 
 bands as shall be professed Christians. 
 
1. CORINTHIANS. 
 
 91 
 
 us to break a connexion which we have deliberately 
 entered into, and which God has sanctioned. This 
 my injunction in reply to the question which you 
 have submitted to me I wish to be understood as 
 intended to apply to all the Churches indiscrimi- 
 nately. 
 
 ON CIRCUMCISION. 
 
 18 My next answer is to your question, which you 
 urge as to the expediency of adopting that method, 
 which some have recommended, of marking their 
 abjuration of the Mosaic law by extirpating the 
 mark left upon their bodies by the operation of 
 circumcision. My reply is a simple one : let every 
 one remain as he is. He that has been circumcised, 
 let him continue so : he that is uncircumcised, let 
 
 19 him not be circumcised. The real question is, not 
 whether we happen to have been circumcised or 
 otherwise, which is a matter of perfect indifference, 
 but whether we are sincerely obedient to the com- 
 
 20 mands of God. And on this principle I would say 
 to every person who is apt to speculate upon the 
 expediency of this or that change in his temporal 
 circumstances, "remain patiently as you are with- 
 
 21 out repining." Are you, for instance, in a state of 
 slavery to another? regard it not, but submit to the 
 condition in which God has placed you: though, 
 at the same time, if you have the offer of your 
 
 22 liberty ^, it is your duty to avail yourself of it : for 
 
 ^ In this injunction we have a beautiful instance of the 
 moderation of St. PauFs principles, and of his unwillingness 
 to disturb unnecessarily by a premature, and consequently 
 injudicious, reformation, the then existing order of society 
 
92 
 
 a slave who has been admitted to the terms of 
 Christ's covenant has become conseqnentlj Christ's 
 freedman ; as he who, being free, is admitted into 
 the same covenant, is consequently Christ's bond- 
 man. Being therefore all of us ransomed with no 23 
 less a price than Christ's blood, and accordingly 
 devoted to his peculiar service, it does not become 
 us, provided we can justly avoid it, to be the slaves 
 of merely human beings like ourselves. Still how- 24 
 ever I repeat, " remain patiently, as submitted to 
 God's will, in whatever station he may have thought 
 fit to place you." 
 
 ON THE COMPARATIVE EXPEDIENCY OF THE SINGLE 
 AND MARRIED STATE. 
 
 You ask me, in the next place, " what is my 25 
 opinion respecting a state of virginity ; how far it is 
 more pleasing in the sight of God than that of mar- 
 riage ?" On this subject I have no positive injunction 
 
 The opinion which he pronounces against the expediency 
 of slavery as repugnant to the spirit of Christianity is per- 
 fectly decisive ; but he notw^ithstanding recommends a cheer- 
 ful submission to it, in persons whose emancipation could 
 not be legitimately obtained, as the becoming acquiescence 
 of a resigned disposition to the will of Providence, and a 
 proper sacrifice of self-interest to the tranquillity of man- 
 kind. In denouncing however the principle, Christianity 
 has laid the axe effectually to the root of the evil ; and the 
 consequence has accordingly been, that compulsory servi- 
 tude has in the course of ages entirely disappeared from the 
 greater portion of the Christian world, or at least, where it 
 still unfortunately exists, remains only as a blemish depre- 
 cated even by those amongst whom by an unhappy combi- 
 nation of circumstances it is unwillingly retained. 
 
93 
 
 to give, tliongh my individual opinion as an apostle 
 bearing God's commission may deserve to have some 
 
 26 weight. My opinion then is, that under the pre- 
 sent distressed circumstances of the Church, such a 
 condition is certainly preferable to the married state : 
 that is, I mean, for such as are at this moment 
 
 27 single. Where indeed a person is already married, 
 no doubt it is his duty to continue as such ; but 
 those who are still unmarried, I would certainly at 
 present wish to dissuade from engaging themselves 
 
 28 in matrimony \ Still if a man choose to marry, he 
 commits no sin, and if a woman choose also to marry, 
 she commits no sin on her part : they must however 
 make up their minds to incur many inconveniences 
 and annoyances by so doing. These however I do 
 
 29 not wish to enumerate : but at all events there is 
 
 ^ It is observable, that the apostle's recommendation 
 of a state of cehbacy in preference to marriage is founded 
 upon the then troubled state of the world, and particularly 
 the persecutions to which Christians were at that time liable : 
 ^la TYiv IviGThjaav avayicrjv. A similar sentiment is recorded 
 in the Gospels as having been expressed by our Saviour, 
 when prophetically describing the miseries which would 
 befal the inhabitants of Jerusalem at the time of its final 
 capture, he observed, " Woe unto them that are with child 
 and give suck in those days.'' But this declaration, as well 
 as the former, was merely a prudential admonition, without 
 the slightest reference to any supposed religious and spiri- 
 tual advantage attaching to celibacy as contrasted with a 
 married life. How far is this rational view of the question 
 from sanctioning the superstitious obligation to a single 
 state, which at the expence of so many of the kindly feelings 
 of our nature, and to the hazard of the cause of good morals, 
 the Church of Rome so inexorably forces upon many of its 
 members ! 
 
94 
 
 one thing which it behoves us all, married or single, 
 alike to recollect, namely, that our time on earth is 
 short ; and that they who have wives shall soon be as 
 though they had them not ; and they that sorrow, 30 
 as though they sorrowed not ; and they who rejoice, 
 as though they rejoiced not ; and they who buy, as 
 though they possessed not ; and they who use this 31 
 world, as though they used, or rather I might say 
 abused, it not ; for the world and all that belongs 
 to it passes away. One advantage undoubtedly the 32 
 single state possesses over the married, and on that 
 account I give it the preference in recommending it 
 to you ; namely, that it has fewer of the pressing 
 wants and cares of this life to provide for : a single 
 man has nothing to do but to attend to his spiritual 
 concerns, how he may best do his duty to God ; a 33 
 married man, on the other hand, has the affairs of 
 his domestic life to provide for, and the claims of a 
 wife to attend to. In like manner the married and 34 
 the single women have their different allotment of 
 duty and occupation. The latter can give her un- 
 divided attention to the care of her soul, that she 
 may be pure in God's sight both as to body and 
 mind : but the former is entangled in the occupa- 
 tions of her family, and in the discharge of the 
 duties which she owes to her husband. I have 35 
 made these observations for the purpose of ex- 
 plaining what I conceive to be altogether for your 
 interests to adopt : at the same time without any 
 wish to lay upon you any unnecessary restraint, 
 but solely anxious that you should from your own 
 free will do what is becoming and expedient before 
 God. Should however any father imagine that he 36 
 is acting unjustly by his daughter in imposing any 
 
CHAP. viii. I. CORINTHIANS. 
 
 96 
 
 restraint upon her inclinations respecting marriage, 
 if she be of full age, and there be no other inexpe- 
 diency in the engagement, let him give his consent 
 to it without scruple, and let the parties marry if 
 
 37 so disposed. But he on the contrary who may be 
 otherwise inclined, and from his daughter's age or 
 other circumstances may deem her marriage inex- 
 pedient, being conscientiously satisfied that such is 
 
 38 the case, will act well in keeping her single. So 
 that he who gives his daughter in marriage, with 
 projDriety, does well ; but he who, with propriety, 
 
 39 restrains her from marriage, does better. But be it 
 ever remembered, that a woman, once married, is 
 indissolubly bound to her husband so long as he 
 lives : in case of his death, she may take a second 
 
 40 husband, provided he be a believer in Christ. She 
 would indeed in my judgment act more wisely by 
 remaining in her widowhood, but let her use her 
 own discretion. I think however that in giving 
 this opinion I am speaking under the direction of 
 the Holy Spirit. 
 
 ON MEATS SACRIFICED TO IDOLS. 
 
 8 ' With regard to your next difficulty, for which 
 you ask my decision, namely, " as to the propriety 
 
 ' The question respecting the use of meats which had 
 been sacrificed to idols was one of no small worldly mo- 
 ment to Christians living as a small isolated sect in the 
 midst of a numerous heathen population. The flesh of 
 animals which had been so sacrificed was, as we infer from 
 various passages in the classical writers, after the consump- 
 tion of certain parts upon the altar in honour of those 
 imaginary deities, either immediately consumed by the 
 assembled votaries in a species of public feast, or, if not so 
 
96 
 
 and innocence of eating meat which lias been pre- 
 viously sacrificed to an idol ;" — I see the tendency 
 
 disposed of, was subsequently sold in the open shambles 
 for the emolument of the ministers of religion. The con- 
 verts to Christianity were thus exposed to a double loss 
 and inconvenience, by their adoption of a new creed ; be- 
 ing excluded by their conscientious scruples not only from 
 partaking in those festive banquets celebrated within the 
 precincts of the temple, which, from their frequent occur- 
 rence, formed no inconsiderable feature in the social habits 
 of that period ; but also from the purchase of many of the 
 usual articles of human food, when offered for sale in the 
 common market. The interested sophistry of the Co- 
 rinthian converts had however, as it appears, invented a 
 convenient argument, calculated to reconcile their personal 
 indulgence with their newly acquired scruples, and to 
 justify their conformity with their pagan neighbours in 
 both these particulars. The argument is a curious spe- 
 cimen of the strange subterfuges which worldly men will 
 have recourse to when the observance of the duties of re- 
 
 i 
 
 ligion involves the relinquishment of some temporal ad- 
 vantage. To participate in the feast upon a sacrifice 
 ofiPered to any evil heing^ or to purchase for domestic pur- 
 poses the meat so sacrificed, knowing it to be such, was, 
 they readily admitted, to become partakers in an act of 
 unhallowed worship. But the false deities of the pagans 
 they asserted were not evil beings, inasmuch as they were 
 in fact no beings at all ; mere non-entities ; and as such 
 could not possibly be the object of actual worship, nor 
 entail any real pollution upon the sacrifices offered to them 
 through the ignorance of their votaries. Under the pro- 
 tection of this salvo, they appear to have accommodated 
 themselves to the practices of their pagan neighbours, 
 and, as we infer from the indignant remonstrance of St. 
 Paul, to have urged this wretched evasion as an ingenious 
 and satisfactory exculpation of their conduct to the apostle 
 himself. His answer is such as might be expected 
 
CHAP. VTTT. 1. CORINTHIANS. 97 
 
 of the argument which you suggest in exculpation 
 of this practice, namely, that " a fictitious deity is 
 
 from a manly understanding, united to a humble and re- 
 ligious mind. He breaks at once through their casuistical 
 cobwebs, by a direct appeal to their own practical good 
 sense, and the unsophisticated character of the religion 
 they professed : proving that, even by their own admis- 
 sions, as implied by their knowledge of the Levitical sacri- 
 fices, and their own habitual celebration of the Eucharist, 
 the participation in the subject matter of a sacrifice was 
 bona fide a participation in that peculiar faith and worship 
 to which such sacrifices were annexed. His injunction 
 accordingly on this point is peremptory. " Where you 
 Tznow the meat which you find served at table, or exposed 
 in the shambles, to have formed part of an idolatrous 
 offering, abstain scrupulously from it." Yet at the same 
 time, with a beautiful liberality of feeling which would 
 not strain an inconvenient precept beyond the point 
 actually required by the circumstances of the case, he not- 
 withstanding allows them to eat indiscriminately from the 
 meats set before them, provided they can do so in perfect 
 ignorance of the previous facts, even though they may 
 have purposely abstained from asking questions which 
 might lead to an explanation. Thus far he admits that 
 they may proceed innocently : one step farther would be 
 an act of at least implied idolatry, incompatible with the 
 purity of the Christian profession, and highly dangerous 
 as an example to others. That this apostolical injunction 
 had its effect in deterring professed Christians at a subse- 
 quent period from such equivocal compliance with pagan 
 usages may be inferred from that Epistle of Pliny, from 
 which an extract was given in a former note, in which that 
 writer states, that, in consequence of the frequent abjura- 
 tions of Christianity, produced by the increased severity of 
 the government, the victims in the public markets, which 
 were formerly scarcely saleable, have at length once more 
 found abundant purchasers. " Certe satis constat, prope 
 
 H 
 
98 I. CORINTHIAMS. chap. viii. 
 
 a nonentity, and consequently can entail no real 
 pollution upon meat so sacrificed ;" but I would 
 answer in reply, that these subtile and casuistic 
 distinctions savour more of intellectual vanity in 
 the proposer, than of that simplicity and rectitude 
 of heart which is our best wisdom. For be assured, 2 
 that the man who is vain of the superior acuteness 
 of his understanding is far more likely to fall into 
 serious errors in judgment than the man, wlio, 3 
 making his love for God his guide, derives his know- 
 ledge of practical morality from that best and holiest 
 source. It is indeed perfectly true, as you say, that 4 
 " an idol is an absolute nonentity," and that there 
 is only one true and existent God. For though 5 
 there be many so styled deities in heaven or upon 
 the earth, (whether called gods, or lords, or by any 
 other appellation,) still we at least know that there 6 
 is but one God, the Father, from whom are all 
 things, and from whom we exist : and one Lord 
 Jesus Christ, by whose agency we and all things 
 were created : but unanswerably true as this ab- 7 
 stract assertion is, still it does not meet the case in 
 point. The real grievance is, that a scrupulous 
 person, eating meat which has been so sacrificed, 
 is apt to be fearful, lest in so doing he shall have 
 given his concurrence to an idolatrous rite, and 
 feels his conscience wounded accordingly. Grant- 8 
 ing, therefore, that particular meats neither give nor 
 diminish our merits in the sight of God, that there 
 is nothing gained by their use, and nothing lost by 
 
 jam desolata templa coepisse celebrari, et sacra solennia 
 diu intermissa repeti ; passimque vcenire victimas^ quarum 
 adhuc rarissimus emptor iwoeniebaturr 
 
99 
 
 9 our abstaining from them, still it is our duty to 
 take heed that this liberty in which we may think 
 fit to indulge respecting things indifferent may not 
 prove a stumbling-block to a scrupulous and tender 
 
 10 conscience. For if a person of this description sees 
 you, who presume upon your stronger understand- 
 ing, sitting down to table in a heathen temple, is 
 there not danger lest he should impose silence upon 
 his scruples against his better judgment, from mere 
 deference to your authority, and thus become vir- 
 tually a participator in an act of idolatry ? for such 
 
 11 it would be to him : and thus, may not the effect of 
 your subtile distinctions be the ruin of a soul for 
 
 12 which Christ has died ? Be assured, that when you 
 thus sin against your brethren, by bringing their 
 principles into danger, even when their scruples may 
 appear over nicely defined, you sin against Christ 
 
 13 himself For my own part, if my eating this or 
 that description of meat is to be a stumbling-block 
 in the way of my brother's conscience, most as- 
 suredly I shall uniformly make a point to abstain 
 from it. 
 
 9 Do not however infer \ because I may from 
 
 * St. Paul is here led incidentally by the course of his 
 argument into a digression, in which he takes an oppor- 
 tunity of repelling certain misrepresentations under which 
 he had himself laboured during his intercourse with the 
 Corinthian Church, on account of his having declined from 
 motives of delicacy to avail himself of those temporal ad- 
 vantages and emoluments, which, as an apostle devoted to 
 a harassing and laborious duty, he was justly entitled 
 to claim. We learn from the early part of this Epistle, 
 that strong party feelings and jealousies between the disci- 
 ples of the various Christian teachers were at this moment 
 
 H 2 
 
100 
 
 T. CORINTHIANS. chap. ix. 
 
 principle decline to avail myself of my Christian 
 liberty in all points ; as, for instance, in the case 
 
 distracting that community ; and that even Paul himself, 
 although the first planter of the Gospel in that district, 
 had been latterly considered by some of his turbulent fol- 
 lowers rather as the ambitious head of a rival faction, than 
 as a disinterested fellow-labourer with others in the service 
 of his Redeemer. Conscious of the delicate situation in 
 which he was placed, among nominal converts to the faith, 
 but of whom a large proportion had as yet imbibed but 
 little of the true Christian spirit, he had endeavoured, by 
 rendering his toilsome services perfectly gratuitous, to stifle 
 these unworthy jealousies, and to afford an unanswerable 
 refutation to the . calumnies of his impugners. Even this 
 exemplary forbearance however does not appear to have 
 entirely attained its object. Had he submitted to derive 
 his support and maintenance from the contributions of the 
 public, as the other apostles appear to have done, he would 
 undoubtedly, as he knew, have been charged with preach- 
 ing the Gospel from mercenary and interested motives ; 
 but in declining to do so, he was on the other hand imme- 
 diately met by another and opposite calumny, which, if 
 less opprobrious, was certainly not less injurious. T3ecause 
 he received no remuneration for his ministry from the 
 Church of Corinth, it was therefore argued by his oppo- 
 nents, that he ought not to be considered as their peculiar 
 and acknowledged apostle ; and that his forbearance in 
 demanding such a compensation was a tacit avowal on his 
 part that he had no title to any jurisdiction or power of 
 interference with them. His indignant refutation of this 
 captious argument forms the main subject of the following 
 digression, which extends to verse 14 of chap. x. in which 
 he strongly asserts his undoubted right of maintenance, 
 should he be, as he was not, disposed to claim it, and pro- 
 ceeds to state the reasons which had induced him to adopt 
 that self-denying system which had been so uncandidly 
 misconstrued. We have only to cast our eyes over this 
 
101 
 
 of that right of maintenance which I may justly 
 claim at your hands, that therefore that right does 
 not exist. Am I not an apostle ? am I not free to 
 claim if I please, or not to claim if I please ? Have 
 I not been permitted to see in a miraculous manner 
 our Lord Jesus Christ himself? Are not you, all of 
 
 2 you, my converts in the Lord ? If I am not an 
 apostle to others, at least I am one to you, for you 
 by the confession of your faith at this moment are 
 sufficient proofs of the success of my apostleship 
 
 3 among you. My answer then to those who may 
 choose to speculate upon the reserve which I prac- 
 tise, in that I do not, like your other teachers, 
 become a burden upon you for my maintenance, is 
 
 4 this. Have I not a right to require a due provision 
 of meat and drink at your expense if I think fit ? 
 
 5 Have I not a right to require the like maintenance 
 for a wife, were I to bring one among you, as the 
 other apostles have done in their several commu- 
 nities ; and among the rest, our Lord's own bre- 
 
 6 thren, and Peter ? Or am I and Barnabas the only 
 
 ingenuous vindication of himself, in order to observe all 
 the characteristics of a disposition of the very first degree 
 of excellence ; of one sensitive yet magnanimous ; uncom- 
 promising yet kind and generous ; conscious, as he himself 
 expresses it, of having laboured more than all the other apos- 
 tles, yet at the same time diffident of the value of his own 
 exertions, and fearful, lest when called to his final account 
 he should be found to have slumbered at his post. The 
 subject of his exculpation is of a merely temporary cha- 
 racter, and of momentary interest ; but we may confidently 
 assert, that the example which it affords, of what an 
 effective and disinterested labourer in Christ's vineyard 
 should be, will be of value to mankind so long as the 
 world shall last. 
 
102 
 
 I. COEINTHIANS. chap. ix. 
 
 apostles who are to be obliged, even against our 
 will, to subsist by the actual labour of our own 
 hands? Yet, let me ask, what soldier ever serves 7 
 in the field without his remuneration of pay ? what 
 husbandman cultivates a vineyard, without partak- 
 ing of its produce? what shepherd feeds a flock, 
 yet has no share in the milk it affords ? Are these 8 
 my own arguments, invented specially to serve my 
 interests on the present occasion ? What then says 9 
 Moses in the law ? (Deut. xxv. 4.) " Thou shalt 
 not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn." Did 
 God give this injunction solely that you may be 
 kind and just to your brute animals, and is not the 
 application to be made to the human race also ? 
 Surely it was enjoined for the sake of all of us, as a lo 
 salutary and wise regulation, that the ploughman 
 may hope to receive the remuneration for his la- 
 bours, and that the thresher may thresh with a 
 certain assurance of his compensation also. Surely 1 1 
 then, if I have fed you with spiritual knowledge, it 
 is not asking much in return if I require the bread 
 of this world as my recompense. If your other 12 
 teachers at this moment claim such an allowance at 
 your hands, much more may I. But I have not 
 required it, nor do I now require it ; and upon this 
 principle ; namely, that I may not, by becoming an 
 incumbrance to you, diminish the effects of my 
 ministry as a preacher of the Gospel of Christ. 
 Look abroad elsewhere, and you find universally, 13 
 that they who minister in sacred things live by the 
 offerings of the pious ; and they who wait upon the 
 altar feed upon the things sacrificed upon the altar : 
 and such, we know, was the authority given by our 14 
 Saviour himself to his disciples when he sent them 
 
CHAP, IX. 1. CORINTHIANS. 103 
 
 15 upon their mission. (Matt. x. 9, &c.) But I have 
 not availed myself of this right : nor do I make 
 these observations with the slightest intention of so 
 doing in future ; for I would rather die than it 
 should be said of me that I preached the Gospel 
 
 16 for hire or reward. For after all, it is no merit of 
 mine that 1 preach the Gospel ; on the contrary, I 
 have received the positive command of my Re- 
 deemer to do so, and woe indeed unto me if I preach 
 
 1 7 it not. Willingly accordingly, or unwillingly, I 
 must at all events preach it. If willingly, I have 
 my reward as a faithful and zealous servant ; if 
 unwillingly, I have no claim to a recompence for 
 having only done what was a peremptory duty. 
 
 18 What then is the remuneration I look to ? this : 
 that I may have been found to have spread abroad 
 the Gospel of Christ without having been burthen- 
 some to any one, or abusing the just rights which 
 
 19 my apostleship gave me. For though a full master 
 of my own actions in this and other respects, I have 
 waved my claims, and made myself a servant to 
 every man, that I might gain the more converts to 
 
 20 my Saviour. With this feeling it was that, whilst 
 I resided amongst the Jews, I lived as they did, 
 sacrificing my Christian liberty, and adopting all the 
 scrupulous observances of their law, that I might 
 
 21 save the souls of those within the law : as, on the 
 other hand, I omitted the ritual ceremonies of the 
 law whilst residing among the Gentiles, (not indeed 
 without a due observance of the law of God as 
 communicated to us through Christ,) in order that 
 I might be the means of salvation to the Gentiles : 
 
 22 and on the same principle I have submitted my own 
 understanding on other occasions to the scruples of 
 
104 
 
 1. CORINTHIANS. chap. x. 
 
 timid and weak consciences, rather than distress 
 them by the assertion of my innocent privileges : 
 and thus have made myself all things to all men, in 
 the hope of saving all. And this I do for the sake 23 
 of the Gospel, in the trust that I may finally be 
 admitted to share in the fulness of its blessings. 
 For it is not by remiss and relaxed exertions that I 
 can expect to obtain the glorious reward to which I 
 aspire. You know that in your own public games, 24 
 though all the competitors in a race may run, it is 
 only one who achieves the prize ; — (may you all 
 run in such a manner in your spiritual race that 
 you may attain to your immortal object ; — ) and you 25 
 know also what a system of privations and discipline 
 of their bodies the various athletes will submit to 
 for the sake of training themselves for the competi- 
 tion in which they engage ; and yet their object is 
 a perishable croAvn of laurel or j)arsley, whilst ours 
 is the glorious crown of immortality itself. I then, 26 
 conscious of the immensity of the object for which I 
 contend, run in this great race with all the exertion 
 in my power ; and wrestle, not as in sport, but 
 with the desperation of one determined upon victory, 
 struggling with all my might for the mastery over 27 
 my carnal and corrupt affections, lest I, w^ho have 
 excited others to this great spiritual contest, should 
 myself be found wanting when brought to trial. 
 
 Rely not then yourselves, my brethren, upon the 10 
 mere fact of your past ^ conversion : nor, because 
 you have become partakers of the Christian cove- 
 
 ^ The whole tenor of the preceding and following passages 
 appears to be quite irreconcileable with the doctrine of the 
 indefeasibility of grace. 
 
CHAP. X. I. OOEINTHIANS. 
 
 105 
 
 nant, imagine therefore that you have no longer 
 any spiritual hazards to incur. Recollect the case 
 of our Jewish forefathers in the wilderness. All of 
 them were alike defended by the pillar of the cloud, 
 and miraculously preserved in their passage through 
 
 2 the Red Sea ; and by that passage were all baptized 
 and initiated into the Mosaic covenant, by which 
 God confirmed his promise to them as his own 
 
 3 peculiar people. And all of them partook of the 
 
 4 miraculous gift of manna in the wilderness, and all 
 drank of that wonderful stream of water produced 
 from the solid rock ; (a stream typical of that pure 
 fountain which gushes from the Rock of ages, of 
 which we are assured that he who drinks shall 
 
 5 thirst no more ;) — and yet, what was the result ? — 
 they provoked God to anger in the wilderness, — 
 
 6 and they 'perished. These things then are an awful 
 and instructive warning to ourselves, that we do 
 not forfeit our privilege as they did, by lusting after 
 the carnal vanities of this world, as they did after 
 
 7 the flesh-pots of Egypt ; neither, my brethren, be 
 you idolaters, as were some of them, of whom 
 the sacred historian relates, (Exod. xxii. 6.) " the 
 people sat down to eat and drink the sacrificed 
 meats, and then rose up to dance their idolatrous 
 
 8 revels :" neither let us commit fornication as they 
 also committed, and perished in one day three and 
 
 9 twenty thousand : neither let us grieve the Spirit of 
 our Saviour as they grieved him, and were destroyed 
 
 10 by serpents : neither murmur you against God, as 
 some of them murmured, and were destroyed of the 
 
 11 destroyer. My brethren, these punishments fell 
 upon them as a fearful warning to others ; and were 
 written for our instruction, under this more perfect 
 
106 
 
 I. CORINTHIANS. 
 
 ( HAP. X. 
 
 dispensation to which we have been called. Where- 12 
 fore I say again, let him who thinks that he is 
 secure, take heed lest he fall. Your temptations 13 
 may be severe, but they are only such as all man- 
 kind must expect to encounter ; and be assured 
 that God will not withhold the support which he 
 has promised to all those who call upon him for it, 
 but will, with the temptation, also make a way to 
 escape, that you may be able to bear it. 
 
 And now, my brethren, to return to my former 14 
 admonition, respecting meats sacrificed to idols, let 
 me exhort you, avoid every thing which can by im- 
 plication involve you in the sin of idolatry. You 15 
 urge that an idol is a nonentity, and that therefore 
 you may innocently partake in meats which have 
 been sacrificed to such merely imaginary beings. 
 But mark how your own admission may be turned 
 against yourselves, and how your own most sacred 
 ceremonies will detect your own sophistry. — The 16 
 cup of the holy communion of the Lord's Supper, 
 do we not all partake of it, and in so doing give our 
 asseiit to the great doctrine of redemption by Christ's 
 blood, of which it is the type? Do we not in like 
 manner in 'participating the consecrated bread which 
 we eat, make ourselves one with Christ, and Christ 
 with us f For by eating in common from that one 1 7 
 mysterious bread, we become one bread, and one 
 body with Christ. Look again to the Jewish sacri- 18 
 fices. Do not those who eat of the sacrificed meats, 
 mean to imply their participation in the covenant with 
 Him to whom those sacrifices are offered? My an- 19 
 swer then to your argument is this. I stop not to 
 sophisticate upon such speculations as the entity or 
 nonentity of the heathen idols, but I assert plainly 20 
 
CHAP. X. 
 
 I. CORINTHIANS. 
 
 107 
 
 that the heathens do intend to address their sacri- 
 fices to other beings than the true God whom we 
 worship, and that you cannot therefore, consistently 
 with your admission in your own most solemn acts 
 of devotion, partake with innocence of the sacri- 
 ficed meats, as in so doing you are making yoursehes 
 one with their false gods, and assenting to an idola- 
 
 21 trous worship. You cannot at once drink of the 
 cup of our Lord's blood, and of the cup of their 
 false and abominable deities ; nor participate in the 
 communion of the Lord's body, and the communion 
 
 22 of their detestable superstition. Are we lightly to 
 set up rival objects of adoration against the God 
 we worship ; and if we provoke his wrath, are we 
 
 23 strong enough to stand against it ? You talk of 
 your Christian liberty, but recollect that that liberty 
 must be compatible with expediency and edifica- 
 
 24 tion, or it ceases to be innocent : remember also, 
 that whatever your own opinions may be, you cannot 
 eat innocently, so long as in so doing you wound 
 a brother's conscience, which it is your duty to 
 
 25 spare. What meat indeed you find for sale in the 
 shambles, (though even that may have been, as we 
 know it often is, previously sacrificed in some 
 idolatrous ceremony, still,) such meat you may 
 without scruple purchase and use, provided you do 
 not actually know it to ham been so sacrificed, as 
 in that case you are neither directly nor indirectly 
 sanctioning any profane rite ; and we know that all 
 
 26 God's creatures are originally good, as it is written 
 in the twenty-fourth Psalm, " the earth is the 
 
 27 Lord's, and the fulness thereof." On the same 
 principle, should any of your pagan neighbours in- 
 vite you to a feast, and you like to attend, you may 
 
108 
 
 without scruple eat whatever is placed before you, 
 so long as you do not know the meat so served to have 
 previously formed part of an idolatrous offering. The 28 
 moment however that you learn that it has been 
 applied to such an unhallowed purpose, then abstain 
 from it for the sake of your own conscience, and that 
 you may not wound the consciences of others : for, to 
 avail myself once more of my last quotation, " the 
 earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof." Re- 29 
 member, I say, not only for the sake of your own 
 conscience, but that you may not wound that of others. 
 But why, you will say, is my innocent Christian 
 liberty to be made subservient to another man's 
 mistaken and ill-judged scruples ? If I eat with no 30 
 bad intention, and give God thanks for what . I eat, 
 am I to be blamed for so doing? I answer, that 31 
 whether in eating or drinking, or in any other occu- 
 pation, our first object should be God's glory : and 32 
 accordingly I say again, be not, even as you may 
 suppose harmlessly, stumbling-blocks to the con- 
 science of Jew, or Gentile, or of any member of 
 God's church whatever. Such has been invariably 33 
 the rule which I have laid down for my own prac- 
 tice ; not seeking what may best suit my own per- 
 sonal convenience, but that far greater object, the 
 salvation of others. In this respect, imitate me, for 1 1 
 my model is no less than that of Christ himself. 
 
 ON THE DECORUM OF THE FEMALE CHARACTER. 
 
 And now, to turn to another subject, I cannot 2 
 but commend you, my brethren, for the deference 
 with which you have attended to many of my for- 
 mer injunctions : and accordingly, calculating upon 
 
109 
 
 a continuance of the same obedience from you, I 
 send you the following regulations for promoting 
 the decorum of your public places of worship, and 
 for a proper celebration of the divine offices. 
 
 3 I wish you then to recollect, that as Christ is the 
 head of every man, so is a man the head of a 
 woman, as the head of Christ is God the Father. 
 
 4 Every man therefore who officiates in the public 
 prayers, or public exhortation, with a veil upon his 
 head, is acting unseemly, as abandoning the privilege 
 
 5 and superiority of his sex. Every woman, on the 
 contrary, officiating in like manner without a veil, 
 acts inconsistently with her sex, the natural profu- 
 sion of hair which God has given to the female 
 marking what is the attire most befitting her con- 
 dition ; and accordingly for a woman to appear in 
 public without a veil is little less unbecoming than 
 
 6 to see her at once with her head shorn. If she will 
 dispense with the head dress which becomes her 
 sex, why not part with her hair also? Let her 
 
 7 then wear a veil, as propriety requires. A man 
 should appear in public with his head uncovered, 
 as standing on the earth in God's place, and being 
 
 8 God's image : but the woman is man's image, for 
 the man was not formed from the woman, but the 
 
 9 woman from the man ; and the man was not created 
 as an helpmate for the woman, but the woman as 
 
 10 an helpmate for the man. Wherefore a woman 
 ought to wear her head veiled out of deference to 
 
 1 1 the rulers ^ of the Church. But in the sight of 
 
 ^ I am not satisfied that the word ayyeXog ought in this 
 place to be rendered according to the sense which I have 
 given to it, but it appears to me to labour under fewer 
 
110 I. CORINTHIANS. ( hap. xt. 
 
 God, as members of the Christian covenant, the 
 man and the woman are both equal. For as the 12 
 first woman was formed out of the flesh of the first 
 man, so every subsequent man is born of a woman ; 
 and both, as every thing else, are God's creatures. 
 Ask your own natural feelings ; is it consistent with, 13 
 or becoming her sex, for a woman to pray publicly 
 with her head uncovered ? I have already observed 14 
 that nature itself has marked this distinction be- 
 tween the sexes. Long hair is unbecoming in a 
 man, as bespeaking effeminacy ; but it is ornamental 15 
 to a woman, making a beautiful clothing for the 
 head, and suggesting that style of dress which is 
 most becoming to her situation. 
 
 ON THE DECOROUS ADMINISTRATION OF THE LORD's 
 
 SUPPER. 
 
 As to the emulations and party feelings which 16 
 have crept even into your places of worship, and to 
 which I have already alluded, I can neither give 
 them the sanction of my own approbation, nor that 
 
 difficulties when thus explained, than when taken according 
 to its more usual meaning " angel" as in our established 
 version. The testimony of early antiquity may be pleaded 
 for both constructions : for some of those in support of the 
 one here given, see Bingham's Origines Ecclesiasticse, 
 book ii. chap. ii. sect. 11. The well-known passage in the 
 Apocalypse respecting the " angels," i. e. " bishops," of the 
 seven Churches is also in favour of the same interpretation 
 of the word. See also Prideaux's Connection of the Old and 
 New Testament, part i. book vi. sect. 4. and Lightfoot's 
 remarks upon chapters i. ii. iii. of the Revelations, in part ii. 
 of his Harmony of the New Testament. 
 
 1 
 
CHAP. XT. T. CORINTHIANS. Ill 
 
 17 of the Churches of God: on the contrary, I must 
 express to you the displeasure I feel upon that sub- 
 ject, as the effect of these disputes can be nothing 
 else than that of converting your public assemblies 
 from places of worship and brotherly love into 
 scenes of unbrotherly animosity and disturbance. 
 
 18 And accordingly when you are met together for the 
 ostensible purpose of common prayer, I hear, in the 
 first place, that doctrinal differences on points of 
 faith are beginning to show themselves amongst 
 you ; a circumstance I can partly believe, for 
 
 19 heresies will always grow up, even in the true 
 Church, for the trial of those who shall remain firm 
 
 20 in the orthodox belief. Then, in the next place, 
 your mode of celebrating the Lord's Supper is, as I 
 hear, very unlike that solemn and brotherly com- 
 munion of an affecting religious rite which such an 
 
 21 occasion requires. So far from an equal and tem- 
 perate distribution of the holy elements, I understand 
 your custom to be, that each man has his own 
 separate and exclusive meal, each variously appor- 
 tioned, so that, whilst one person from lack of means 
 has little or nothing, another is surfeiting himself 
 with intemperance. Is this doing it, as our Re- 
 deemer commanded us, in remembrance of him, 
 
 22 and after his model ? If you must have your ex- 
 clusive banquets, have you not your own houses for 
 such purposes ? or do you despise the sanctity of 
 the Church of God, and wish to make a public 
 display of your own luxurious living for the purpose 
 of mortifying your poorer neighbours ? What ought 
 I to say and think of this conduct of yours ? to 
 
 23 commend it is impossible. Remember the time, 
 the occasion, and the purpose of the first institution 
 
112 
 
 1. CORINTHIANS. chap. xi. 
 
 of that solemn rite, which I have faithfully taught 
 you on a former occasion, as I received it from the 
 communication of Christ himself. I restate it, in 
 order to impress it yet more forcibly upon your 
 memories. It was as follows. "Our Lord Jesus, 
 on the night in which he was betrayed, took bread, 
 and, having given thanks, he brake it, and said, 24 
 Take, eat, this is my body which is broken for you : 
 this do in remembrance of me. After the same 25 
 manner also he took the cup after supper, saying. 
 This cup is the new covenant in my blood, this do 
 ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me." 
 In eating this bread then, and in drinking this cup, 26 
 you are solemnly commemorating our Lord's death 
 until his second coming ; wherefore, he who eats of 27 
 that bread or drinks of that cup in such unseemly 
 and unworthy manner is profaning no less a thing 
 than the body and blood of our Lord himself, and « 
 incurring all the guilt of such profanation. Let a 28 
 man then search into his own thoughts, and put 
 them into a befitting train for so solemn an occa- 
 sion, and then, and not sooner, let him eat of that 
 bread, and drink of that cup. For he who eats and 29 
 drinks in your thoughtless and unbecoming manner, 
 eats and drinks what will operate upon him rather 
 as a curse than as a blessing, inasmuch as he recol- 
 lects not that it is our Lord's body which he is thus 
 making subservient to his own intemperance. And 30 
 hence it is, that by God's just judgments, many of 
 you are weak, and sickly, and some have been cut 
 off in their sins. For, would we but judge ourselves, 31 
 we should escape the judgments of God ; who now 32 
 judges us for these and our other sins in this life, in 
 order that, taking warning ere it be too late, we may 
 
CHAP XI. 1. CORINTHIANS. 
 
 113 
 
 escape that final condemnation which shall befal 
 
 33 the mere children of this world. Wherefore, my 
 brethren, when for the future you assemble to eat 
 on this occasion, let it be in one common and tem- 
 
 34 perate meal ; and if a man must eat to satisfy his 
 hunger, let him eat for that purpose in his own 
 home, that he may escape sin and condemnation \ 
 
 ' The strangely indecorous mode of celebrating the Lord's 
 Supper here described conveys a far from gratifying im- 
 pression of the spiritual advancement of that infant Church 
 which St. Paul is addressing in this Epistle. The Apos- 
 tle's temperate, dignified, and truly pious remonstrance, 
 affords indeed a noble contrast when placed in apposition 
 with that delineation of coarse and selfish feeling which 
 calls it forth. Still however we cannot but observe, that, 
 although his whole cast of sentiment, whilst describing 
 those awful impressions with which it is every Christian's 
 duty to approach the Lord's table, is solemn and reveren- 
 tial in the highest degree, still no single expression escapes 
 from him which can with any probability be adduced in 
 support of the doctrine of transubstantiation as taught by 
 the Romish Church. If we consider him as intending 
 merely to inculcate the necessity of purified and devotional 
 feelings for a due participation in the most affecting rite of 
 our religion, his language is highly just and apposite ; but 
 it falls far short of what might be expected from him were 
 it his object to assert the actual divinity of the consecrated 
 elements. Once admitting this portentous dogma, the 
 papal Ritual is undoubtedly justified and consistent in all 
 its subsequent inferences from such premises. If indeed 
 the bread and wine of the holy communion be really trans- 
 muted into the very body and blood of Christ, then un- 
 doubtedly they have a claim to the direct adoration of all 
 believers, and that minute attention to prevent the loss or 
 escape of any particle of them, with the denial of the cup to 
 the laity on the same principle of reverential precaution, 
 and all those other regulations which Protestants denounce 
 
 I 
 
114 
 
 I. CORINTHIANS. chap. xit. 
 
 My other regulations on the subject of your re- 
 ligious meetings 1 will pronounce when I arrive 
 amongst you. 
 
 ON THE GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 You ask me, in the next place, " by what certain 1 2 
 sign you shall be able to know whether you have 
 received the gift of the Holy Spirit ?" I answer, by 
 the plain and simple fact of " your conversion from 
 sin to righteousness." You know that you were 2 
 formerly heathens, led away by your own fancies to 
 the worship of dumb and senseless idols, but have 
 
 as superstitious and unscriptural, are in fact most just and 
 expedient. But the total silence of St. Paul is an unan- 
 swerable refutation of these superadditions of human specu- 
 lation upon the simplicity of the truth as it is revealed in 
 Scripture. He is too acute a reasoner not to perceive all 
 the consequences necessarily resulting from such a doctrine 
 had he really assented to it, and therefore the fact that he 
 makes no allusion whatever to them can admit of only one 
 explanation. 
 
 It may here by the way be worth observing, that one of 
 the most atrocious calumnies advanced against the early 
 Christians by their pagan persecutors, namely, that of 
 devouring at their religious feasts human flesh concealed 
 under a sprinkling of wheaten flour ^ was probably nothing 
 more than a mistake arising from a literal acceptation of 
 the figurative language of Scripture on the subject of the 
 blessed Eucharist. " Infans farre contectus, ut (Jecipiat 
 incautos, apponitur ei qui sacris imbuatur. Is infans a 
 tirunculo farris superficie quasi ad innoxios ictus provocate 
 csecis occultisque vulneribus occiditur : hujus, proh nefas, 
 sitienter sanguinem lambunt ; hujus certatim membra dis- 
 pertiunt, hac foederantur hostia, hac conscientia sceleris ad 
 silentium mutuum pignerantur."' Minucii Felicis Octavius, 
 cap. 9. 
 
CHAP. XIT. 
 
 T. CORINTHIANS. 
 
 115 
 
 subsequently abjured your errors, and embraced the 
 
 3 doctrine of redemption. Now, as it is evident that 
 no one speaking under the influence of the Holy 
 Spirit can pronounce our blessed Saviour to be 
 accursed ; so we know from his own express assur- 
 ance to Peter, (Matt. xvi. 17.) that no one can pro- 
 nounce him to be the Lord and Christ, but by the 
 
 4 aid of the Holy Spirit. It is true, that the opera- 
 tions of the Holy Spirit are variously exhibited in 
 different persons, still however it is one and the 
 same Spirit which under this diversity of appear- 
 
 5 ance operates in them all. Thus men have different 
 functions entrusted to them, and for the discharge 
 of which they are accountable, but it is the same 
 
 6 God which distributes to each man his task : various 
 powers and capacities are communicated to each, 
 but it is one and the same God from whom they 
 
 7 are derived. Now the gifts which descend to us 
 from the operation of the Holy Spirit are dealt out 
 to us individually in that form and that degree, 
 which is best suited to enable each of us to perform 
 
 8 effectually our respective duties. To one man, for 
 instance, is given the communication of a wise and 
 powerful understanding ; to another, a ready appre- 
 hension of the various parts of learning ; yet it is 
 
 9 the same Spirit who confers them both : to another 
 again is given a submiss and firm confidence in the 
 doctrines of revelation ; to another, the gift of heal- 
 ing diseases ; but still again it is the same Spirit 
 which manifests itself under these distinct appear- 
 
 10 ances : to another again is given the power of work- 
 ing general miracles ; to another, skill in the inter- 
 pretation of Scripture; to another, the power of 
 distinguishing between the real operations of the 
 
 I 2 
 
116 
 
 Spirit, and those which may be the result of impos- 
 ture, or of an excited imagination ; to another is 
 given a ready fluency in languages ; to another, the 
 faculty of interpreting languages for the instruction 
 of the unlearned ; yet all this variety of faculties is 1 1 
 nothing more 'than the inworkings of one and the 
 same Spirit, distributing to each individual accord- 
 ing to its own good pleasure. For as the human 12 
 body is one single being, yet consists of many dis- 
 tinct members, the aggregate of those several mem- 
 bers constituting by their union only one individual 
 person ; so is the mystical body of Christ, of which 
 we all of us are respectively members. For by one 13 
 and the same Spirit we have all been baptized and 
 united together in one common body, whether we 
 were Jews or Gentiles, slaves or freemen ; and have 
 all drunk of and participated in the gifts of the one 
 Holy Spirit. Now then, to follow up the illustra- 14 
 tion afforded by this remark, namely, that our 
 bodies derive their single individual character from 
 the harmonious agreement of the various limbs, each 
 separately performing their due functions ; — let us 15 
 suppose that the foot were to say, " Because I am 
 not the hand, therefore I am not part of the body 
 would that assertion be correct? or suppose that 16 
 the ear were to say, " Because I am not the eye, 
 therefore I am not part of the body ;" would that 
 assertion again be correct ? for if the eye consti- 1 7 
 tuted the whole body, where would be the faculty 
 of hearing ? or if the hearing constituted the whole 
 body, where would be the faculty of smelling? The 18 
 fact is, that God has in his wisdom allotted the 
 various portions of the body each for its respective 
 use, yet so as to form by their combination the 
 
117 
 
 19 whole man : — whereas if any one sejmrate member 
 were to be the whole body, where would be that 
 harmony and proportion of parts of which we know 
 
 20 it to consist ? As it is, however, being one aggre- 
 gate nature, consisting of the union and combina- 
 
 21 tion of distinct parts, the eye cannot say con- 
 temptuously to the hand, " I have no need of you 
 nor can the head say to the feet, " I have no need 
 
 22 of you." Even the most subordinate and unim- 
 portant parts of our bodies, we know, have all their 
 
 23 separate and positive use ; and even those which 
 are deemed the least honourable, we notwithstand- 
 ing clothe with more costly attire than many others 
 
 24 which we expose to observation : and thus God has 
 wisely contrived that each several portion of our 
 animal nature should have its due share of our care 
 and attention, making up to them in one respect 
 
 25 what is deficient in another : so that there should 
 be no actual preference or preponderance of one 
 
 26 part over another : and thus it is, that if one limb 
 is in pain, the whole body suffers with it ; or if one 
 be indulged, the whole body is conscious of the 
 
 27 comfort. Now, as it is wdtli the human body, so is 
 it with the mystical body of Christ, which is one in 
 its individuality, yet composed of as many distinct 
 members as there are believers in the community of 
 
 28 the Church. God has accordingly apportioned to 
 each their respective oflSces, making some of us 
 apostles, others expounders of Scripture, others 
 teachers, others workers of miracles, others healers of 
 the sick, others helpers, others Church rulers, others 
 
 29 speakers of various languages. But, as 1 said before, 
 one member is not to claim the functions appropri- 
 ated to another, and consequently not every man is 
 
118 
 
 I. CORINTHIANS. chap. xiii. 
 
 to expect to become an apostle, nor every man an 
 expounder of Scripture, nor every man a teacher, 
 nor every man a worker of miracles, nor every man 30 
 a healer of the sick, nor every man a speaker in 
 various languages, nor every man an interpreter of 
 lano'uao'es to others. Of all these various dfts of 31 
 the Holy Spirit then let every man aspire to that 
 which is best and most excellent ; — and shall I tell 
 you what, after all, that "best and most excellent" 
 is ? It is not the gift of languages, but something far 1 3 
 better : for be assured that, even if I have ability in 
 all the languages of men and of angels themselves, 
 and yet am without Christian love and kindness, I am 
 after all but as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. 
 Again, it is not the mere interpretation of Scripture ; 2 
 for I say again, though T had that, and the power of 
 solving all mysteries whatsoever, and all knowledge 
 however various ; — nay, though I possessed faith, 
 such as, to use our Saviour's ^ expression, (Mark ix. 
 
 ^ I shall avail myself once for all of this incidental allu- 
 sion to our Saviour's own expression as recorded in the 
 Gospels, (Matt. xxi..21. Mark xi. 23.) to direct the reader s 
 attention to the many apparent citations from the works of 
 the four Evangelists which occur in various parts of the 
 apostolical Epistles: a circumstance which we can ac- 
 count for only by supposing, either that the Gospels were 
 then extant in the form in which they have been trans- 
 mitted to us, or that the writers of the Epistles derived 
 their information from the same common source with those 
 who subsequently undertook to record the events of our 
 Redeemer's history. Mr. Toland early in the last century, 
 and other infidel writers within the last few years, have 
 attempted to derogate from the authority of the four 
 Gospels by ostentatiously bringing forward the apocryphal 
 
CHAP. XIII. 1. CORINTHIANS. 
 
 119 
 
 23.) " would remove mountains," yet am wanting 
 in Christian love and kindness, — -I am nothing. 
 
 3 It is not, again, merely what the world calls charity ; 
 for even though I expend my whole substance in 
 feeding the poor, or give up my very body to be 
 burned, yet, if I am wanting in Christian love and 
 
 4 kindness, my good deeds are of no avail. What 
 then is this love and kindness which I am now 
 recommending as the most excellent of all the gifts 
 of the Spirit ? It is that state of mind which is slow 
 to anger, whilst it regards the conduct of others 
 with charity and kindness. It is that which envies 
 not its neighbour, boasts not of itself ; shuns pride 
 
 5 and arrogance ; prefers another's benefit to its own ; 
 gives way to no impetuosity of temper ; imputes 
 
 6 no evil intentions to others ; takes no pleasure 
 in injustice ; but delights in and sympathizes with 
 
 7 whatever is true and holy ; conceals to the best 
 of its power the failings of its neighbour ; hopes 
 and deems of every one for the best; and bears 
 meekly with the waywardness of mankind, and the 
 
 8 trials and calamities of life. This is the frame of 
 
 writings of the early ages of Christianity as of equal authen- 
 ticity with those which the uniform consent of the various 
 Christian Churches has admitted into the sacred Canon. 
 But the numerous citations now referred to, and which no 
 reader will find any difficulty in selecting for himself, 
 appear, even if other and irrefragable proofs were wanting, 
 almost decisive of the question. It is scarcely an exagge- 
 ration to assert, that from the apostolical Epistles and the 
 Book of the Acts of the Apostles a tolerably accurate 
 notion of the contents of the four Gospels might be derived, 
 even if by some unfortunate accident those last-mentioned 
 books should one day be lost to mankind. 
 
120 I. CORINTHIANS. chap. xiii. 
 
 mind; this the best gift of the Spirit, which shall 
 survive death itself. As for the wisdom which we so 
 ambitiously seek after, it shall cease and be for- 
 gotten ; our gifts of language shall be silenced, our 
 knowledge shall pass away as though it had never 
 been : for our knowledge in this world is but a 9 
 slight and imperfect surmise ; our wisdom but a 
 vague and partial apprehension of mysteries beyond 
 the reach of our present limited faculties to explain. 
 But when the fulness of God's dispensations shall lo 
 be made clear to us, as it will be, then these inferior 
 acquirements will be no longer wanted by us, as the 11 
 mistaken guesses of the child disappear and are 
 discarded before the full apprehension and percep- 
 tions of manhood. For in this life we see not truth 12 
 itself, but its imperfect reflection only ; but in that 
 which is to come we shall be admitted to con- 
 template it face to face. Now we make partial 
 surmises ; then I shall apprehend God, as I am 
 now apprehended by Him. Meanwhile, during the 13 
 course of our present mortal career, faith, hope, 
 and Christian love form the three great excellences 
 of that Christian character to which we aspire ; but 
 the two former are calculated for this world's 
 necessities only ; the latter will accompany us to the 
 next^ and will last for ever ^ 
 
 ^ It is consolatory to us, who live in a period in which the 
 extraordinary dispensations of the Holy Spirit are no longer 
 communicated, to observe how St. Paul, who was himself 
 rich in those mysterious treasures, directly asserts the far 
 superior value of the practical Christian virtues to the 
 more ostentatious gifts of miracles and languages. This 
 consideration ought to operate with us as a satisfactory 
 vindication of the impartiality of God's providence in his 
 
CHAP. XIV. 1. CORINTHIANS. 
 
 121 
 
 14 Having secured to the best of your power this 
 most excellent and foremost of all the gifts of God's 
 Holy Spirit, then in the next place aspire after the 
 others ; and, as it is your duty to prefer that which is 
 really profitable to that which may be merely osten- 
 tatious, pray rather for the gift of duly understand- 
 ing and interpreting the holy Scriptures, than for 
 those more extraordinary acquirements which are 
 
 2 disj)ensed only to a few. For after all — the gift of 
 languages which so many ambitiously seek after — 
 what is it ? He who possesses that gift speaks not 
 to the apprehension of the Church in general, who 
 cannot follow him, but to God only : his knowledge 
 indeed is from the Spirit, but it is dark and unpro- 
 
 dealings with the human race. Miracles were wanted for 
 the first establishment of Christianity, and they were 
 allowed to be performed ; the necessity for them no longer 
 existed when the infancy of the Church was passed, and 
 they were finally withdrawn. But that single-minded, 
 pure, and exalted affection to God and man, which is the 
 consummation of the Christian character, and without 
 which even faith itself were valueless, is a no less necessary 
 acquisition now than in the apostolical age ; and, being 
 such, is, as we are expressly assured by Scripture, no 
 less attainable by every sincere disciple of our Lord at this 
 moment than it was to the primitive believers themselves. 
 If then the possession of this pearl of price could have 
 consoled St. Paul for the loss of all his other treasures, 
 surely we can have no reason to feel differently, or to sigh 
 in fruitless regret after the acquisition of those other 
 powers, which, however more gratifying to our carnal 
 vanity, could scarcely have been possessed by us without 
 risk, as affording aliment to spiritual conceit, and tending to 
 excite unworthy and invidious emulations among the com- 
 mon servants of Christ. 
 
122 
 
 fitable to others. The able expounder of Scripture, 3 
 on the contrary, addresses to the assembled Church 
 the words of edification, and exhortation, and com- 
 fort. He who possesses the gift of languages speaks 4 
 in them for his own profit only : he, on the other 
 hand, who expounds the Scriptures, makes his 
 knowledge useful for the instruction of others. I 5 
 wish indeed that you all possessed the gift of lan- 
 guages, but I wish much more that you possessed 
 the gift of the interpretation of Scripture : for the 
 expounder of Scripture is far more serviceable to 
 the Church in the exercise of his peculiar gift than 
 the mere speaker of unknown languages, unless 
 indeed the words of the latter be interpreted into 
 the vernacular language of the country, in order 
 that the whole assembly be able to derive instruction 
 from them : and even when interpreted, what is the 6 
 value of my gift of languages, unless the words 
 which I may utter shall be available for the revela- 
 tion of God's will, or for imparting wisdom, or for 
 the exposition of Scripture, or for general instruc- 
 tion ? Just as is the case with common musical 7 
 instruments, the pipe, for instance, or the harp ; 
 unless we produce upon them some definite and well 
 modulated sound, no idea is excited in the minds of 
 the hearers. Thus if the trumpet when sounded 8 
 produce no peculiar and decided note, who will 
 understand it as the signal for battle, and make 
 his preparations accordingly ? So you, if in your 9 
 Churches you utter what is unintelligible to the 
 minds of the assembled congregation, how will they 
 be the better for your knowledge ? not more so, 
 than if you were speaking to the air. There is, as lo 
 we know, a vast variety of languages in the world, 
 
CHAP. XIV. I. CORINTHIANS. 
 
 123 
 
 all of them understood by the nations respectively 
 
 11 speaking" them : yet if I know not the language 
 of the country in which I converse, I am unintelligi- 
 
 12 ble to the natives, and they to me. Wherefore, my 
 brethren, as you express an anxiety to possess the 
 gifts of the Holy Spirit, pray especially that you may 
 abound in such as may tend, not to the indulgence of 
 your own gratification, but to the practical advantage 
 
 13 of the Church: and let him who speaks in an un- 
 known tongue pray that he may have the gift of 
 
 14 interpretation also. For if I pray^ in an unknown 
 tongue, my own spirit is indeed occupied in prayer, 
 but the understanding of those who might wish to 
 
 15 join Avith me is unedified. Let us then strive to 
 pray in the spirit, and to pray to the understanding 
 of our hearers also : let us sing our hymns in the 
 spirit, but let us also sing to the apprehension of 
 
 16 others. For if otherwise, when you invoke God's 
 blessing upon the congregation of believers, how 
 shall each private individual join in the supplica- 
 tion, and pronounce the " Amen" from his heart, 
 if he has been unable to follow the meaning of your 
 
 17 words? Your benediction may be properly con- 
 ceived with reference to your own understanding, 
 but the rest of the congregation is not benefited. 
 
 18 Think not that I speak thus from a wish to depre- 
 ciate the gift of languages. The fact is, and I 
 thank God for it, I myself speak more languages 
 
 19 than you all. And yet, whilst officiating in the 
 Church, I had rather speak five words to the ap- 
 
 ^ How would the Church of Rome reconcile its practice 
 of prayer in an unknown tongue with this injunction of 
 the apostle 'i 
 
124 
 
 prehension of my hearers, so as to communicate 
 real knowledge to them, than ten thousand in a 
 language which they do not understand Do not, 20 
 my brethren, indulge in this childish disj3lay of un- 
 profitable acquirements : be as children in a guile- 
 less disposition, and in simplicity of heart, but be 
 men in that strength of mind which delights in the 
 pursuit of true, and not merely ostentatious, wisdom. 
 Remember what is written in the prophet Isaiah, 21 
 (Isaiah xxviii. 11.) "I will speak to this people 
 with the miracle of various languages, and foreign 
 speech, and yet not even for all that will they 
 hearken unto me, saith the Lord." From which we 22 
 are taught to infer, that the gift of languages was 
 imparted as a miraculous ^ sign to convince unbe- 
 lievers, and not for the daily intercourse of believers. 
 The gift of interpretation of Scripture, on the con- 
 trary, is lost upon unbelievers, who assent not to 
 the truth of those Scriptures, but is of hourly 
 value to us who look to them for the means of our 
 salvation. If then, when your Church is assembled 23 
 for the purpose of common edification and prayer, 
 all of you, instead of doing that which is most 
 profitable for you all, indulge only in the wretched 
 vanity of displaying your knowledge of various 
 languages, and any indifferent person, or heathen, 
 chance to step in, will they not say that you are 
 mad ? If, on the other hand, when you are so as- 24 
 
 ' This assertion of St. Paul affords a satisfactory ex- 
 planation of that arrangement of Providence by which the 
 miraculous gift of languages was confined to the early 
 ages of the Church, when the cause of revelation stood in 
 more urgent need of these extraordinary aids than it can 
 be said to do at present. 
 
CHAP. XIV. T. CORINTHIANS. 125 
 
 sembled, all who are competent to the task be 
 occupied to their utmost in expounding the doc- 
 trines of revelation to the other brethren, a stranger 
 or an heathen accidentally stepping in may not im- 
 probably be roused to the conviction of his own 
 
 25 state, and taught to regard his soul's health : and 
 thus perhaps may the awakened feelings of his 
 heart find a vent, and he falling prostrate be in- 
 duced to join in prayer to the true God, and may 
 go away with the conviction that that God is as- 
 
 26 suredly amongst you. But is it so, my brethren, 
 in your assemblies ? On the contrary, I understand 
 them to be too often a mere display of ostentatious 
 rivalry : and that one man has his psalm, another 
 his discourse, another his display of languages, an- 
 other his revelation of some mystery, another his 
 interpretation. Let then, for the future, all that 
 you do be for the great object of common edification. 
 And for this purpose, and for the preservation of 
 order and decorum in your churches, adopt the 
 following regulations. 
 
 27 If any man wish to speak in a foreign language, 
 let him utter one, two, or at most three, sentences 
 at a time ; and then pause, until what he has spoken 
 shall have been interpreted to the rest \ 
 
 ^ The apostle appears to have adopted this regulation 
 from the established mode of reading the books of the 
 Old Testament in the Jewish synagogues. " After the 
 Hebrew language had ceased to be the mother tongue of 
 the J ews," says Dean Prideaux, and the Chaldee grew 
 up into use among them instead of it, (as was the case 
 after their return from the Babylonish captivity,) their 
 usage was, that, in the public reading of the Law to the 
 people, it was read to them first in the original Hebrew, 
 
126 
 
 If there be no person in the church competent 28 
 to interpret for him to the congregation, then let 
 him remain silent, and offer his prayers quietly to 
 himself. 
 
 Let the expounders of Scripture utter two or 29 
 three sentences only at a time, and then make a 
 short pause, until the congregation shall have duly 
 apprehended what they have said. 
 
 If, whilst one is speaking, any revelation occur 30 
 to another, let the first remain silent, in order to 
 afford his neighbour an opportunity of uttering it. 
 For, by restricting yourselves to the rule of one only 31 
 speaking at the same moment, the whole congrega- 
 tion will receive instruction, and derive the greatest 
 spiritual profit. And it is right that each expounder 32 
 of Scripture should be willing in his turn to listen 
 to, and improve himself by, the exposition of others : 
 for God is not the author of confusion, but of peace 33 
 and harmony in the churches of his saints. 
 
 Let not the women attempt to speak in public 34 
 
 and after that rendered by an interpreter into the Chaldee 
 language, that so all might fully understand the same. 
 And this was done period by period. And therefore that 
 these periods might be the better distinguished, and the 
 reader more certainly know how much to read at every in- 
 terval, and the interpreter how much to interpret at every 
 interval, there was a necessity that some marks should be 
 invented for their direction herein. The rule given in their 
 ancient books is, that in the Law the reader was to read 
 one verse, and then the interpreter was to render the same 
 into the Chaldee ; but that in the Prophets the reader was 
 to read three verses together, and then the interpreter to 
 render the same three verses into Chaldee in the same 
 manner."" Connection of the History of the Old and Nev) 
 Testament, part. i. book 5. 
 
CHAP. XV. I. CORINTHIANS. 
 
 127 
 
 in your cliurclies ; for the reserve of their sex 
 makes such a disj)lay of themselves unsuitable and 
 
 35 inexpedient. Accordingly if they even wish only 
 to speak so much as to ask questions for their own 
 better information, let them reserve those questions 
 till they return home, and are able to consult their 
 husbands, but let them not take any part in the 
 conversations in the church. 
 
 36 By observing these regulations, you will not only 
 keep order in your public meetings, but will check 
 that undue vanity which is at present causing so 
 much confusion, as well as leading to the display 
 of so much spiritual presumption, amongst you. 
 For do not imagine, as you appear to do, that the 
 knowledge of the true God came first to me from 
 you, or that you are the only persons with w^hom 
 
 37 it rests at this moment. On the contrary, if you 
 will flatter yourselves with your supposed spiritual 
 attainments, and knowledge of Christian truth, show 
 them at least by admitting that the admonitions 
 
 38 which I now give you are from Christ. If any man 
 choose to deny that they are so, I shall not attempt 
 to convince him to the contrary. 
 
 39 Once more then, I repeat, keep up at all events 
 in your public assemblies the habit of interpreta- 
 tion of Scripture as a necessary part of the divine 
 service ; and with regard to the use of foreign lan- 
 guages, let it have its turn also, — but with modera- 
 
 40 tion. Meanwhile, let every thing be done decently, 
 and in order. 
 
 ON THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY. 
 
 15 Thus much then for the external discipline and 
 regulation of your Church ; and now before I con- 
 
128 
 
 I. CORINTHIANS. chap. xv. 
 
 elude this epistle, let me advert to the great doctrine 
 of the resurrection of the dead, which I understand 
 that some teachers amongst you have ventured to 
 call into question. Now this is the sum and sub- 
 stance of that great Gospel truth which I taught 
 amongst you, and to which you have made your 
 profession as an article of faith ; and which will be 2 
 the means of the salvation of your souls, if you 
 accept it, not as a merely vague impression, but 
 with the solemn conviction which I have attempted 
 to inculcate in your minds. The foundation of this 3 
 our hope is the certainty which we possess of the 
 resurrection of Christ himself. For I have already 
 taught to you, my brethren, that which I had before 
 received as an undoubted truth, that Christ died for 
 our sins accordingly as had been foretold respecting 
 him by the prophet Isaiah, (Isaiah liii. 5.) and that 4 
 he was buried, and that he was raised again from 
 the grave on the third day, as the Scriptures had 
 also foretold of him. And that he was seen after 5 
 his resurrection by Peter, and afterwards by the 
 other apostles; and on a subsequent occasion was 6 
 seen by more than five hundred of the brethren at 
 once, the greater part of whom are at this moment 
 living to vouch for the fact, though some few are 
 dead \ On another occasion he was seen by James, 7 
 and then again by all the apostles, and last of all he 8 
 was seen by myself, an apostle born out of due time, 9 
 the least amongst the apostles, and who do not de- 
 serve so proud an appellation, because I persecuted 
 the Church of God, Still, by the grace of God, I lO 
 
 * These two appearances of Christ subsequent to his 
 ascension are not mentioned in any other part of Scripture. 
 
CHAP. XV. T. CORINTHIANS. 
 
 129 
 
 am what I am. And the mercy and grace which 
 he has bestowed upon me has not, I trust, been 
 wasted ; but I have laboured in his service more 
 than all the others; or rather, let me say, it was 
 not I that laboured, but God's grace that was with 
 
 11 me. Be their labours, however, or be my own, what 
 they may, such at all events is the doctrine which 
 we all teach, and in which you have professed your 
 belief. 
 
 12 If then it be true (and with such evidence who 
 can doubt its truth ?) that Christ really rose from the 
 dead, how is it that some of your teachers have as- 
 
 13 sorted that there is no resurrection of the dead? If 
 there is no resurrection of the dead, then assuredly 
 
 14 Christ himself is not risen ; and, if Christ be not 
 risen, then is our preaching unprofitable, and your 
 
 15 faith equally unprofitable : nay, we, the apostles, 
 stand convicted of having borne false testimony re- 
 specting God ; for we have in that case asserted of 
 God, against the real fact, that he raised Christ 
 from the dead ; which cannot be true, if the dead 
 
 16 rise not: for, if there be no resurrection of the dead, 
 Christ himself, as I just now observed, is not risen ; 
 
 17 and if Christ be not risen, then your faith is a mere 
 delusion, and you are all of you still involved in 
 
 18 your sins, without a hope of expiation ; and then 
 also have all those who have died in the faith of 
 
 19 Christ perished likewise in their sins. Most assur- 
 edly, if it is in this life only that we are to look for 
 the reward of our faith in Christ, we Christians are 
 
 20 of all men the most miserable. But not such is the 
 termination of our hopes. Christ, we know, is risen 
 from the dead, the first fruit to God of those who 
 lie in the grave, and the pledge of their resurrection. 
 
 K 
 
130 I. CORINTHIANS. chai>. xv. 
 
 For as by one man death came upon mankind, so 21 
 by one man came also the resurrection of the dead ; 
 and as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all 22 
 be made alive. But that end of all things is not 23 
 yet. Each must wait to receive his reward in that 
 order which God has appointed. Christ was the 
 first fruits of the grave : and next after him shall 
 be raised Christ's own flock at his second comiiig : 
 and after that shall be that final consummation 24 
 when he shall give up the kingdom to God the 
 Father, and finally extirpate every other supremacy, 
 and authority, and power. For he, our blessed 25 
 Redeemer, shall reign, as we are assured by the 
 Psalmist, (Psalm viii.) " until God hath put all ene- 
 mies under his feet." The last enemy that shall be 26 
 destroyed is death ; but even death shall be destroyed 
 in its turn, otherwise that promise, that all things 21 
 shall be put under his feet,'' would lose its comple- 
 tion. In saying however that " God shall put aJl 
 things under his feet," it is of course evident, that 
 God the Father himself is not intended to be in- 
 cluded in that expression, as He it is who puts all 
 things under him. But when all things whatever 28 
 shall have been put under him, then in his turn the 
 Son himself shall be subject to God the Father, 
 that God may be all things, and over all things. 
 Why, let me ask, are we^ baptized into that faith 29 
 of a crucified and dead Redeemer, to which our 
 
 ^ It can scarcely be supposed that St. Paul, in the rather 
 obscure expression contained in the original text of this 
 passage, rt fdairriZovTai vTrlp rwv vsKpujv ; has intended 
 to give his sanction to a presumed superstitious usage of 
 baptizing the living for, and in behalf of, the dead, as some 
 commentators have imagined. The context is certainly not 
 
131 
 
 already departed brethren have clung as their last 
 hope in death, if the dead rise not ? Why continue 
 
 30 we thus to chase a mere delusion ? why thus to 
 submit to persecution and tribulation hourly, yet 
 
 31 without an object ? I protest, by those hopes which 
 I have in Jesus Christ our Lord, my daily afflictions 
 which I suffer for the sake of the Gospel, are equal 
 
 32 in their agony to death itself. Why did I, for what 
 purpose, or in hope of what compensation, undergo 
 so many fearful afflictions and dangers from the 
 enraged populace at Ephesus, if my hopes are to 
 terminate in this life, and the dead rise not ? If so, 
 let us throw ourselves at once into the frivolity and 
 dissipation of the children of this world, and eat, and 
 drink, and revel to-day, because we die to-morrow ! 
 
 33 No, my brethren, be not deceived by this licentious 
 sophistry ; 
 
 " Such communings debase the heav''n-born soul ; 
 And mar its holier purpose^ — 
 
 34 On the contrary, I call upon you to rouse yourselves 
 from all such dreams of sensuality and intemperance, 
 and to sin not : — and I call upon you the more 
 earnestly, because I am aware that some of you (I 
 blush for you whilst I say it) are yet ignorant of 
 God, and of the holy faith which you profess. 
 
 35 But some of you argue, as I am informed, of the 
 ifnpossibility of a future resurrection. "How can the 
 
 without its difficulties : but perhaps some light may be 
 thrown upon it by referring to a similar and seemingly 
 analogous expression contained in Romans vi. 8, 4. 
 * It will be remembered that the original passage, 
 ^dugovmv riOri X9^^^^ ojuiXiai ica/cat, 
 is a quotation from the Greek poet Menander. 
 
 K 2 
 
132 
 
 1. CORINTHIANS. chap. xv. 
 
 bodies which have been wasted in the flames, whicli 
 have mingled with the winds, or mouldered in the 
 grave, be restored each to their original particles, 
 and live again ?" Wretched reasoners ! look at the 36 
 very seeds which you cast into the ground, and you 
 will find that the substance of the seed undergoes 
 its own peculiar decomposition ere it can vegetate 
 afresh : nor is the seed ^ which you sow the same 37 
 
 ' This objection, derived from the supposed impossibility 
 of the re-assemblage of all the component materials of the 
 human frame at the day of judgment, which supphed an 
 argument to the early heretics for impugning the great 
 doctrine of the resurrection, though completely refuted by 
 St. Paul, has nevertheless by some strange perversity af- 
 forded matter of discussion and perplexity to speculative 
 theologians of all ages, and even within our own times. 
 How, it has been asked, can all the various particles which 
 once constituted a human body, but which are now dis- 
 persed among the elements, or perhaps actually forming 
 j)art of the material substance of other persons, be so com- 
 pletely restored to their original locality, that each indi- 
 vidual shall receive back the same identical atoms moulded 
 afresh into the same identical limbs? The satisfactory 
 solution of this difficulty is that given by the apostle, 
 which, it may be worth observing, precisely accords with 
 what the experiments of philosophers in more recent times 
 would lead us to infer. It is now, I believe, universally 
 admitted, that what is called the personal identity of sen- 
 tient beings has nothing whatever to do with the substan- 
 tial identity of their bodily organs. A human individual 
 grows up from infancy to manhood, and from manhood to 
 old age, during which period the whole substance of his 
 limbs is changed again and again ; yet his own recollec- 
 tions and internal consciousness tell him to the last that he 
 is the same person who thought and acted fourscore years 
 ago : — limbs are amputated, yet the sensations which ap- 
 
CHAP. XV. I. CORINTHIANS. 
 
 133 
 
 with the vigorous plant which rises from it, but 
 a mere grain of whatever plant it may chance to be, 
 
 38 to which God in his due time gives its own just and 
 
 39 peculiar development and figure. All flesh again 
 is not endowed with the same identical characters, 
 but there is one kind which belongs to men, an- 
 other to beasts, another to fishes, and another to 
 
 40 birds : there are also bodies celestial, and bodies 
 terrestrial : but the glory of the heavenly bodies is 
 one thing, the constitution of terrestrial bodies is 
 
 41 another. Again the splendour of the sun differs from 
 
 peared to belong to them remain as matter of consciousness 
 to the person so maimed : these facts seem to establish the 
 conclusion, that our bodies are rather the vehicles of sensa- 
 tion than that they are themselves sentient : that they are 
 instruments through which the soul acts, but which might 
 be superseded by the substitution of others of greater or 
 less capacity, without at all infringing our consciousness of 
 our own identity. It is evident, therefore, that the re- 
 annexation of the soul to the same or to different particles 
 of matter at the final resurrection, can have no more to do 
 with its own continuous duration and individuality, than 
 the existence of the eye can be said to depend upon the 
 optical contrivances by which its functions are assisted, or 
 the personal identity of an artizan upon the peculiar im- 
 plements by which he labours at his vocation. St. Paufs 
 illustration of this mysterious question, therefore, is per- 
 fectly apposite. The grain of wheat is cast into the 
 ground ; the full and perfect stem, blade, and ear spring 
 from it, all differing from the original seed in form, size, 
 colour, and in their constituent material particles ; yet the 
 continuity of existence is never for a moment interrupted, 
 but, whilst minute portions of the substance are succes- 
 sively withdrawn, the gradual substitution and assimilation 
 of others build up the entire plant to the full development 
 of its growth. 
 
134 
 
 L CORINTHIANS. chap. xv. 
 
 that of the moon, and the splendour of the moon 
 from that of the stars ; the stars also themselves 
 have their various degrees of beauty and brilliance. 
 So, raised from death to life, so, changed in consti- 42 
 tution and character, will be man's body when God 
 shall create it afresh. It is sown in corruption ; it 
 shall be raised in incorruption : — it is sown in dis- 43 
 honour; it shall be raised in glory: — it is sown in 
 weakness ; it shall be raised in power : — it is sown 44 
 a natural body; it shall be raised a spiritual body : for 
 there is a natural body, and there is also a spiritual 
 body. As it is written in the book of Genesis, " the 45 
 first man Adam was made a sentient being the last 
 Adam, on the contrary, was made a spirit communi- 
 cating life to others : but it was not the spiritual 46 
 man who came first, but the natural ; and after- 
 wards, in God's good time, the spiritual. The first 47 
 man was made of the dust of the earth, and accord- 
 ingly returned to it : the second man is the Lord 
 from heaven. As was our earthly forefather Adam, 48 
 so are we his earthly descendants ; and as is our 
 heavenly Redeemer, such will his glorified children 
 one day become : and as we have borne the form 49 
 and infirmities of the earthly we shall also bear the 
 glorious image of the heavenly. Let me not then, 50 
 my brethren, be supposed to assert, that mere 
 mortal flesh and blood can inherit the kingdom 
 of heaven, or that our present wretched and cor- 
 ruptible bodies can inherit incorruption. Mark the 5 1 
 wonderful and glorious dispensation which is pre- 
 pared for us. All of us, the whole human race, 
 they who shall be in their graves at Christ's second 
 coming, and they who shall still be living upon the 
 earth, all shall undergo an instantaneous change, in 52 
 
CHAi.. XVI. I. CORINTHIANS. 
 
 135 
 
 a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last 
 trumpet. For the trumpet shall sound, and the 
 dead shall be raised incorruptible, and all of us 
 
 53 shall put on a new nature : for it is necessary that 
 this our corruptible nature should put on incorrup- 
 tion, and these our mortal bodies should put on 
 
 54 immortality : and then, when this our corruptible 
 frame shall have put on incorruption, and these our 
 mortal bodies shall have put on immortality, then 
 shall be finally accomplished the declaration of the 
 Prophet, (Isaiah xxv. 8.) " Death is swallowed up 
 
 55 in victory." — O death ! w^here is now thy sting ? O 
 
 56 grave ! where is now thy victory ? The sting of 
 death is sin ; and that which gives strength and 
 efficacy to sin, is that law of moral righteousness 
 
 57 of which we have all of us fallen short : but thanks 
 be to God who gives us the victory, not through 
 our own merits, but through the expiation of our 
 
 58 Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore, my beloved bre- 
 thren, continue firm in your faith, unmoved by the 
 seductions of the world, and to the end of your 
 career abounding in the work of the Lord, resting 
 fully assured that your labour in the Lord's service 
 shall not remain for ever without its reward. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 16 With regard to the collection which I have re- 
 commended for the support of our distressed Chris- 
 tian brethren, I would advise you to follow the 
 directions which I have laid down for the Churches 
 
 2 in Galatia. That is, on the first day of every week 
 let each of you lay by something from his gains for 
 the establishment of a fund, in order that you may 
 not have to commence your contributions after my 
 
 i 
 
136 
 
 1. CORINTHIANS. chap.xvi. 
 
 arrival. And when I arrive, 1 will send such persons 3 
 to bear your liberality to Jerusalem as you shall 
 specially commission in writing: and, if you wish 4 
 it, I myself will accompany them in person. My 5 
 present intention is to come to you, after passing 
 through Macedon, which it is my object to visit, and 6 
 to stay some time with you, perhaps the whole win- 
 ter, in the hope of having some of you to accompany 
 me afterwards on some part of my journey. I do 7 
 not come to you sooner, as in that case I could only 
 see you in my way through your country ; but defer 
 my visit until I shall have leisure, with God's 
 blessing, to make a longer stay than I could afford 
 at present. I shall therefore continue at 'Ephesus 8 
 till Pentecost, where a promising opportunity of 9 
 making converts seems to present itself, though I 
 expect much and violent opposition. If, meanwhile, Jo 
 Timothy arrive among you, receive him well and 
 kindly ; for he is engaged upon our Lord's business 
 as actively as myself. Let no man therefore think 1 1 
 slightingly of him, but send him on his way in 
 comfort, that he may reach me according to our 
 arrangement: for I expect him together with the 
 other brethren. With regard to our brother Apollos, 1 2 
 I strongly pressed him to come to you with the 
 others, but could not prevail upon him ; but he will 
 come shortly, when he has an opportunity. 
 
 Be watchful and firm in the faith: acquit your- la 
 selves like men : be strong ; and do every thing, u 
 one with another, in love and charity. Farewell. 
 
 I beseech you, brethren, (you know the family of 15 
 Stephanas, that they were our first converts in 
 Achaia, and are at present employed in rendering 
 service to the Church,) submit yourselves to their IG 
 
CHAP. XVI. 1. CORINTHIANS. 
 
 137 
 
 instruction, and to that of all my other fellow- 
 
 17 labourers in the Gospel. I am happy in the com- 
 pany of Stephanas and Fortunatus, whose presence 
 is some consolation to me for my absence from 
 
 18 you: for they have cheered me much, as they will 
 
 19 you upon their arrival. Receive them kindly. The 
 Churches of Asia salute you. Aquila and Priscilla, 
 with the other Christian brethren in their household, 
 
 20 salute you. All the brethren here salute you. 
 
 21 Salute one another with a holy kiss. My own 
 salutation, which I Paul write with mine own hand^ 
 
 22 be with you. If any one among you love not the 
 Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema, Maran- 
 atha ! 
 
 23 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. 
 
 24 My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Aiiien. 
 
 The topics which form the subject of the foregoing Epistle, 
 having reference chiefly to usages and opinions which the 
 change of manners produced by the lapse of many cen- 
 turies has long superseded, may at the first view appear 
 to have lost much of their original interest ; but the fact 
 is, that the admirable tone of truly Christian feelings with 
 which they are discussed, and the practical inferences 
 which may be derived from them, are calculated to instruct 
 and improve mankind in all ages. The intention of a legis- 
 lator is seldom so clearly perceived when put forth only in 
 the shape of general rules and maxims, however accurately 
 expressed, as when it is illustrated by its application to 
 special cases, even though those cases may no longer form 
 a part of modern manners : and it is this circumstance which 
 attaches such immense value to the inspired composition now 
 before us. Considered as a practical comment upon the 
 abstract principles of the Gospel, by its application to some 
 of those unforeseen emergencies which the natural course of 
 
138 
 
 I. CORINTHIANS. 
 
 events must be expected to produce, it is calculated to supply 
 an unerring rule, which no one who has imbibed the least 
 portion of the Christian spirit can fail to apprehend, for the 
 regulation of his conduct in every new position in "which 
 accident may place him. But to no one is it fitted to convey 
 a more salutary lesson than to him who is occupied in tread- 
 ing in the apostle's footsteps in preaching the doctrines of 
 the Grospel. To such a person, the impression received 
 from the study of this invaluable exhortation will be at once 
 disheartening and consolatory. He will learn what dis- 
 couragement, what resistance from the perversity of the 
 human temper, what mortifications, what disappointments 
 to expect ; but he will learn also how to bear them without 
 despair, if not without a murmur. He will learn at how 
 early a period in the history of our faith the tares began to 
 grow up together with the good seed ; and, whilst contem- 
 plating the ambitious feuds of the Corinthian Church, their 
 relaxed morality, the coldness of their zeal, and the world- 
 liness of their views, will strive to endure with cheerful- 
 ness and hope the many vexations attending his own 
 ministry, from the recollection of those which even an 
 inspired apostle, the eloquent, the meek, the energetic 
 Paul himself, could not entirely escape. If in that infant 
 period of the Church, when the great truths of Christianity 
 had not yet lost their primitive freshness, and when the 
 cogent arguments of Christ's immediate messenger were 
 enforced by the operation of miracles, even then the spi- 
 ritual parent had to mourn over the ingratitude of his 
 children; — surely the modern uninspired Christian teacher 
 will find little cause for wonder, that the utility of his 
 spiritual labours is often checked by the hostility of the 
 profane, or the misconstructions of the speculative and 
 falsely ingenious. But still the same great example of 
 his heaven-taught precursor will call upon him to perse- 
 vere ; and whether his way shall lie amid friends or assailants, 
 he will like him unhesitatingly pursue it, without deviating, 
 through deference to human prejudices, to the right hand or 
 to the left ; and like him exclaim to the last, " Woe unto 
 me if I preach not the Gospel." 
 
THE 
 
 SECOND EPISTLE OF PAUL 
 
 TO THE 
 
 CORINTHIANS. 
 
 The second Epistle to the Corinthians was written, as is 
 evident from the context, at a short period, probably within 
 a few months, after the date of the preceding. The com- 
 monly received opinion is that it was composed at Philippi 
 in the year of our Lord 58. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 
 
 1 Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, 
 and Timothy our brother, to the Church of God which 
 is in Corinth, together with all the Christian bre- 
 
 2 thren who are in Achaia ; grace and peace be unto 
 you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 Section T. 
 
 The second Epistle to the Corinthians, Hke the preceding one ad- 
 dressed to the same community, divides itself under two heads, the 
 former of which, comprehending the first nine chapters, consists of 
 St. Paul's reply to the exculpatory statement of the Corinthian 
 Church produced by his late remonstrance upon their past conduct, 
 together with a dignified exposition of the high importance of his 
 apostohcal commission, and an eloquent vindication of the course 
 pursued by him in the execution of that arduous office : whilst in 
 
140 
 
 II. CORINTHIANS. 
 
 CHAr. I. 
 
 the latter he reprobates with considerable but just severity the per- 
 severing ingratitude and turbulent conduct of some false teachers 
 who were continuing to foment ill will, and to sow the seeds of 
 pernicious heresies in that society. 
 
 In no part of the New Testament perhaps is the personal character 
 of the writer more graphically drawn out than in the vivid and 
 energetic display of kind and noble feeling conveyed in this interest- 
 ing composition, in which we have the portraiture of a warmly affec- 
 tionate mind, painfully anxious lest in the discharge of an imperious 
 duty, more pain should have been inflicted upon the offending party 
 than the circumstances actually required; — yet at the same time 
 accompanied with that inflexible decision of principle, which feels 
 that the indulgence of the gentler inclinations of our nature is not 
 to be purchased by an indifference to the paramount claims of duty 
 and of man's eternal welfare. Accordingly, if in the former part of 
 this Epistle we have the beautiful and affecting picture of an humble 
 Christian teacher burning with holy love toward God, and charity to 
 mankind ; cheerful amid persecutions, and humbly looking forward 
 to that period when he, with those entrusted to his ministry, shall 
 exchange their present afflictions and infirmities for a blissful im- 
 mortality ; we see, in the concluding portion, that same person 
 undauntedly asserting the discipline of his office, and establishing, 
 unmllingly indeed, but peremptorily, and with a becoming con- 
 fidence, his own personal claims to their obedience and respect. 
 
 The self-denying principles of Christianity have been accused by 
 its adversaries as having a tendency to subdue the more energetic 
 faculties of the soul, and thus to derogate from the dignity of human 
 nature : but of this charge the character of St. Paul as it stands 
 forth in the following Epistle affords a decisive refutation. The 
 annals of heroism contain not a more striking specimen of a mind 
 operated upon by ardent impulses, or endued with more persevering 
 hardihood of moral courage ; yet the sternness here pourtrayed is 
 the sternness of a (Christian saint, compatible with the most fervent 
 kindness, the most disinterested benevolence, the most amiable 
 gentleness of manners, and the most guileless simplicity of heart. 
 And if accordingly we find the Apostle at length roused by the 
 unworthy taunts of his opposers into a tone of self-commendation, 
 still it is such as necessarily results from the inevitable consciousness 
 of the possession of high gifts ; whilst it is stripped of the last rem- 
 nant of human vanity by the avowal of accompanying infirmity, and 
 by the humbhng admission that, however transcendent, they are, 
 after all, nothing more than an awful deposit intrusted to his charge, 
 for the use or abuse of which a strict account must be one day 
 rendered to their Almighty Giver. 
 
CHAP. T. 
 
 IT. CORINTHIANS. 
 
 141 
 
 3 Blessed be our God, and the Father of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of 
 
 4 all consolation, who comforts us in all our tribula- 
 tion, so that we may in our turn comfort our brethren 
 in their manifold affliction, by that same comfort 
 which we have received as our own consolation from 
 
 5 God. For as we are called to participate abundantly 
 in the afflictions of Christ our Saviour, so does the 
 divine support also which we have through him 
 
 6 abound in us ; recollecting that if we do suffer tri- 
 bulation, it is for your comfort and salvation, the 
 working out of which is forwarded by your patience 
 under the same class of trials by which we ourselves 
 are afflicted :— and that, if we are strengthened by 
 that support which is from above, it is also for your 
 spiritual encouragement, and the forwarding of your 
 
 7 eternal welfare. Our confidence therefore in your 
 perseverance in the faith is unshaken, knowing, as we 
 do, that, as you are joint partakers in our sorrows, 
 so you share also in the same divine consolation 
 
 8 with ourselves. My brethren, I do not wish to con- 
 ceal from you the persecutions which we have 
 recently experienced in Asia, which have pressed 
 most fearfully upon us, even beyond our strength 
 to endure, and to the imminent peril of our lives ; 
 
 9 but we were allowed by God's providence to fall 
 into this danger and total helplessness in our own 
 resources, in order that feeling our own weakness 
 we might learn more implicitly to repose our trust 
 upon his protecting aid, who is able to raise the 
 
 10 dead to life; and who has rescued us from this 
 grievous peril of our lives, and even now holds his 
 guardian arm over us ; as we are humbly assured 
 he will still continue to do during the remainder of 
 
142 
 
 11. CORINTHIANS. 
 
 ( HAP. r. 
 
 our course. And do you, my brethren, meanwhile 1 1 
 aid us with your prayers before the throne of grace, 
 that having brought down mercy and support upon 
 us by your common petitions, you may with one 
 voice return God thanks for the protection afforded 
 by Him to us, through your intercession. 
 
 It is indeed, my brethren, no small cause of 12 
 exultation in these my tribulations, that looking into 
 my own breast T can confidently assert that the 
 whole course of my converse with mankind, and 
 more especially during my apostleship to yourselves, 
 has been in the pure and simple spirit of the Christian 
 faith, not compromising my doctrine in order to 
 make it assimilate with the speculations of earthly 
 wisdom, but preaching the merciful dispensations of 
 God, as displayed through Christ; and that only. 
 Accordingly, nothing which you will find in these 13 
 my Epistles, will be in any degree at variance with 
 those great truths which you have already read and 
 apprehended, and in the due apprehension of which 
 you will, I trust, continue to the latest moment of 
 your lives: a hope which I the more confidently 14 
 entertain, from having occasionally heard that you 
 boast of the advantages which you have received 
 from my ministry ; as I hope hereafter to make 
 my boast of you, when I produce you to my blessed 
 Saviour on the great day of judgment as the glorious 
 fruit of my spiritual labours upon the earth. 
 
 It was under this earnest anxiety for your welfare 15 
 that I proposed some time ago to pay you a double 
 visit, one in my way to Macedon, and another on 16 
 my return from thence, in order that you might 
 have a second opportunity of profiting by my in- 
 structions, hoping that afterwards you might be 
 
CHAP. ir. II. CORINTHIANS. 
 
 143 
 
 induced to accompany me on some part of my 
 ITjourney towards Judea. Now do not imagine that 
 in having abandoned this intention I have acted 
 from fickleness or caprice ; or that from any selfish 
 motive I determine upon one day what I abandon 
 
 18 on the following. I am not, as God who knows my 
 heart can bear witness, a person who can change 
 his " yes " into " no," or " no " into " yes," without 
 
 19 due consideration and sufficient cause. The holy 
 doctrine w^hich I, as well as Silvanus and Timothy, 
 have taught among you, was not, as your own 
 recollection will testify, of this light and unsteady 
 
 20 character, but one and the same consistent whole ; 
 what 1 affirmed from the first respecting God's pro- 
 mises being affirmed by me to the last, my uniform 
 and single object being the establishment of his 
 
 21 veracity, and the furtherance of his glory. And 
 God has borne testimony to my ministry by con- 
 firming us in one common faith in Christ, and giving 
 
 22 us the unction of his Holy Spirit, sealing us as his 
 own peculiar property, and pouring the pledge of 
 
 23 his love, his divine grace, into our hearts. My real 
 motive for not coming at the time I proposed (and 
 I appeal to God, as my soul shall answer it, for 
 the truth of this assertion,) was that I might spare 
 your feelings after the chiding tone in which I have 
 
 24 been compelled to write to you. For I do not wish 
 to appear to exercise my authority over you more 
 harshly than my duty requires, but rather to be con- 
 sidered as a fellow labourer with you for the attain- 
 ment of that joy which is the result of a stedfast 
 faith in God's promises ; for it is by faith alone that 
 we stand firm in this our present state of trial. 
 
 2 Now my anxious wish was that T should not take 
 
144 
 
 II. CORTNTHTANS. chap. it. 
 
 another journey to you at a moment when, after 
 what had recently passed between us, a meeting- 
 could not be otherwise than painful ; for if I afflict 2 
 you unnecessarily, how can I look to you in my own 
 afflictions for that consolation which I have been the 
 cause of your w^anting for yourselves ? I thought it 3 
 therefore more expedient to put my censures and 
 remonstrances upon paper and forward them to you, 
 rather than to come to you at that moment in per- 
 son, that I might not diminish the joy of my visit, 
 whenever it shall take place, by mixing up with it 
 the exercise of a necessary, though truly unpleasant, 
 duty : being fully assured, that of all my well wishers 
 there arc none who more cordially participate in 
 my joys, whenever I can procure them thus pure 
 and unmixed, than yourselves. And it was accord- 4 
 ingly with sincere agony and anguish of heart, 
 and with a profusion of tears, that I addressed to 
 you in my former Epistle the severe admonition 
 which you have received ; and which so far from 
 being suggested by any bitter feeling on my part, 
 was in reality but the result of the anxious desire 
 which I wish you to be assured that I entertain for 
 your welfare. 
 
 With regard to the person ^ then whose conduct 5 
 provoked from me this strong and severe remon- 
 strance, give him to understand that the pain which 
 he caused to me was not so much upon my own 
 account as upon yours, as it obliged me in some de- 
 gree to extend my censure from him singly to certain 
 other individuals amongst yourselves. As however G 
 
 ^ The incestuous person alluded to in chap. v. of the first 
 Epistle. 
 
CHAP. Ti. IT. CORINTHIANS. 
 
 145 
 
 he has shown a proper contrition and submission to 
 the wholesome discipline of the Church, let the 
 punishment which has already been inflicted be con- 
 V sidered sufficient for what has taken place ; and now 
 accordingly, that he may not be borne down with 
 deeper affliction than may be requisite for the pur- 
 
 8 pose of reformation, let it be your endeavour to show 
 to him such returning regard on your parts, and such 
 commiseration, as his repentance seems to require. 
 From this time then receive him, as heretofore, with 
 
 9 love and kindness. I had also another motive in 
 addressing you with so much earnest severity, and 
 that was, that I might have proof of the readiness 
 of your obedience to that spiritual authority with 
 
 10 which I am entrusted. Be assured, however, that 
 where you feel disposed to show forgiveness in cases 
 like the present, I am no less disposed to do the 
 same ; and in so doing act, as I trust, under the 
 authority of Christ, for your spiritual edification, 
 
 1 1 and in the hope of defeating the artifices of Satan : 
 that we may not, either by undue severity or undue 
 remissness, (for we know by how many ways he 
 assails us,) give him any advantage against us \ 
 
 ^ There is much wisdom as well as good feeling in this 
 observation of the apostle. The great aim of a Christian 
 teacher should be rather to entice the wanderer back to 
 the path of duty by gentle and kind expostulation, than 
 to compel him into it by mere severity of discipline. The 
 ill-judging but well-intentioned austerity of many truly good 
 men has in this respect done occasionally serious injury to 
 the interests of religion, and afforded a cause of triumph 
 to its impugners. Look where we will into the holy Scrip- 
 tures, we find them to consist more of exhortation than of 
 reproof ; of promises than of threats. It is true indeed that 
 
 L 
 
146 
 
 II. CORINTHIANS. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Now after my arrival at Troas with the intention 12 
 of preaching the Gospel of Christ, and where a favour- 
 able opportunity appeared to have been afforded 
 me by the Lord for so doing, not finding my brother 13 
 Titus there, I could not restrain my anxiety to meet 
 with him ; and accordingly, taking leave of my 
 friends in that place, I departed for Macedon. 
 And thanks be to God who, wherever I go, makes 14 
 me to triumph in the cause of Christ, and who 
 diffuses in every country through which I pass the 
 sweet fragrance of the knowledge of his gracious 
 dispensations ; for I am in my ministry the sweet 15 
 fragrance of Christ to God, both in those whom 
 I may be the means of saving, and in those who 
 perish; to the latter, a fragrance terminating indeed 16 
 in death, to the former, a fragrance of immortality. 
 For so arduous a ministry, who will dare to presume 
 upon the sufficiency of his own natural powers ? 
 As for myself, I dare not, as many others have 17 
 done, adulterate, by a spirit of carnal accommoda- 
 tion, the pure word of God ; but I preach it in truth 
 and simplicity in Christ, as I received it from God, 
 and with a full consciousness that his eye is now 
 upon me, and that I shall one day render to him 
 
 the latter are never withheld where necessary, but it cannot 
 be denied that the main character of the inspired volume 
 is a predisposition to appeal in the first instance to our 
 affections and good feelings. No follower of Christ should 
 for a moment forget the beautiful metaphorical delineation 
 of the character of our great Master, as given by the pro- 
 phet Isaiah. " He shall feed his flock like a shepherd : he 
 shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his 
 bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young."' 
 (Isaiah xl. 1 1 .) 
 
CHAP. IT. 
 
 11. CORINTHIANS. 
 
 U7 
 
 San account of my labours. Think not that in 
 speaking thus of my own ministry, I mean to make 
 an undue parade of my own exertions in the cause 
 of the Gospel. With regard to you, I certainly can 
 stand in no need at this moment of such a mode 
 of recommending myself, as my past services may 
 well stand me in lieu of any letter of recommenda- 
 
 2 tion to you, or from you. The conversions which 
 I worked while I stayed among you are my best 
 letters of recommendation, letters deeply inscribed 
 upon the tablets of my own heart, and known and 
 
 3 read by all the world. Yourselves, I repeat, are 
 my best letters of recommendation, a letter written 
 by Christ himself, and entrusted to my charge ; a 
 letter written, not with ink but with the Spirit of 
 the living God, and that, not on tablets of stone, 
 
 4 but on the fleshly tablets of the heart. This legiti- 
 mate boast, therefore, I have through Christ before 
 
 5 God. Not indeed that I presume to attribute any 
 success which may have attended my endeavours 
 to my own natural strength ; on the contrary, I 
 acknowledge that I owe my sufficiency to the free 
 
 6 mercy of God ; who has made me an effective in- 
 strument in the ministry of the new covenant ; a 
 covenant, not like the former one given to Moses, 
 of literal and adequate obedience to minute injunc- 
 tions, but of spiritual righteousness : for the law of 
 literal obedience is as a snare which leads to death ; 
 but the covenant of the Spirit is a law which re- 
 
 7 stores to life. If then the promulgation of that law 
 of literal righteousness, whose consequence is death, 
 a law engraven upon mere stone, was still accom- 
 panied with such a display of divine glory, that, as 
 we are told, the children of Israel could not look 
 
 L 2 
 
148 
 
 II. CORINTHIANS, chap. nr. 
 
 stedfastly on the face of Moses, because of the glo- 
 rious radiance of his countenance, (which radiance 
 however was doomed to pass away, as was also that 
 very ceremonial law itself,) shall not the promulga- 8 
 • tion of the law of spiritual righteousness be attended 
 with a far more intense display of glory ? For if 9 
 the ministry of a covenant of condemnation (for such 
 the Mosaiac covenant practically was) made its first 
 appearance in glory, assuredly much more shall the 
 ministry of a covenant of justification and redemp- 
 tion excel in glory ; (in fact the glory of the former lo 
 is overpowered and quenched in the far superior 
 glory of the latter ;) and surely, if the perishable law 1 1 
 of Moses was glorious, the imperishable law of Christ 
 shall be far more exceedingly and more permanently 
 glorious. 
 
 With this solemn conviction of the paramount 12 
 importance of my mission, I preach, as I have just 
 now observed, these divine truths in simplicity, 
 without guile or concealment, not acting like Moses, 13 
 who spread a veil over his face, as a type of that 
 dark and enigmatical covenant which he announced : 
 (a veil which his countrymen wear upon their under- 14 
 standing to this very moment during the reading of 
 the promises of the Old Testament ^ ; a veil which 
 Christ has taken away from those w^ho believe him, 
 but which yet even now obscures the perception of 15 
 the Jewish nation when the law of Moses is read to 
 them; — yet let them turn to the Lord, and that 16 
 
 ^ The Apostle, in this passage, appears to intend an allu- 
 sion to the custom which still prevails among the worship- 
 pers in the Jewish Synagogues, of wearing veils upon their 
 faces during the reciting of the Book of the Law. 
 
CHAP. IV. 
 
 II. CORINTHIANS. 
 
 149 
 
 17 veil shall be withdrawn ; to that Lord, I mean, who 
 is the Spirit, and not the mere external form, of 
 holiness, and where the Spirit of holiness is, there 
 also is freedom from the vexatious slavery of ritual 
 
 18 obedience :) but, on the contrary, without veil or 
 concealment, yet bearing, like Moses, upon my face 
 the reflected glory of the Lord, I proceed onward on 
 my glorious office, after the pattern of my blessed 
 Redeemer himself, and under the infallible guidance 
 of his Holy Spirit. 
 
 4 Bearing this sublime commission, and relying 
 upon that superintending Providence which has 
 guided me in time past, and still protects me, I 
 faint not at the prospect of the difficulties which the 
 
 2 world may throw in my path ; but renouncing the 
 secret ways of impurity, and the craft of carnal 
 wisdom, and without compromising the pure word 
 of the Gospel in conformity to human prejudices, 
 I recommend the plain doctrine of truth to the con- 
 sciences of my hearers, having the all-seeing eye of 
 
 3 God as a witness to my sincerity. It is to the 
 unawakened and hardened understanding only that 
 this glorious dispensation fails of its effect, and 
 remains still a tissue of dark and unprofitable 
 
 4 mystery ; to those only, in whom the god of this 
 world has darkened their apprehension in wilful 
 disbelief, so as to prevent the light of the glorious 
 Gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, from 
 pouring its illuminating influence into their hearts. 
 
 5 For it is not myself that I preach, nor any doctrine 
 of merely human invention, but the word of our 
 common Lord Jesus Christ, in whose ministry I, 
 with the other apostles, are as your servants to 
 
 6 help you forward to salvation ; that same Almighty 
 
150 
 
 Power, who said, " Let there be light, and there was 
 light," having graciously condescended to pour the 
 sunshine of his knowledge into our benighted hearts, 
 to lead us, and you through our means, to the con- 
 templation of his glory, in the immediate presence 
 of the Lord Jesus. And if this mighty treasure 7 
 has been lodged by him, as we humbly feel it has 
 been, in base and earthly vessels, it was that the 
 excellence of his divine power might thereby be 
 rendered more manifest by the meanness of the 
 instruments which he has made available for the 
 accomplishment of his purpose. Feeling then at the 8 
 same moment my own weakness, yet in whose ser- 
 vice I am engaged, though hardly pressed on every 
 side, I falter not ; though apparently helpless, I 
 despond not ; though meeting with the world's per- 9 
 secution, I abandon not my hope in Him who is 
 able to rescue me ; and though cast down, give not 
 up the contest in despair; bearing for the present in lo 
 my perishable body that suffering even unto death 
 to which Christ himself submitted, in the hope that 
 the glorious immortality to which God raised him 
 up may hereafter be accomplished in myself also. 
 And thus in my present life I submit daily to the 1 1 
 perils and agony of death itself, that that better life 
 which was earned for us by Christ may be made 
 manifest in this my mortal flesh. But that which 12 
 is at this moment death to me, will, under God's 
 blessing, be salvation and immortality to you. 
 Wherefore, as the Psalmist exclaimed in the fulness 13 
 of his faith, " I believed, and therefore have I 
 spoken :" such also is my language ; I too believe, 
 and believing, will give utterance to my faith ; 
 being well assured, that He who raised up the Lord 14 
 
 1 
 
CHAP. V. II. CORINTHIANS. 151 
 
 Jesus from the grave, will also raise up and place 
 me, together with you, before his judgment-seat. 
 1.5 It is for your sakes then, my brethren, that I 
 endure my present afflictions, in order that God's 
 mercy being extended to many through my ministry, 
 may cause the thanksgivings of many to ascend up 
 
 16 to Him, in unceasing praise and gratitude. Where- 
 fore I shrink not from the difficulties of my labo- 
 rious office, feeling that however my external carnal 
 nature may be wasted in the enterprise, my better 
 and spiritual nature is but the more and more 
 
 17 invigorated : and knowing that these trifling tem- 
 poral afflictions work out for me an immense and 
 
 18 overpowering recompense of eternal glory ; whilst 
 I look, not to the visible things of this transitory 
 world, but to the invisible things of that which is to 
 come. For those things which are visible to our 
 mortal senses are, like them, perishable ; but those 
 
 5 which are invisible are eternal. For of this I am 
 fully assured, that if this my earthly tabernacle of 
 flesh were destroyed, I have still in reserve an 
 imperishable building, not made with hands, but 
 the creation of God himself, prepared for me in the 
 
 2 heavens. Wherefore, whilst we continue in this 
 our mortal covering, we groan and impatiently look 
 
 3 forward to that eternal and heavenly mansion, that 
 we may be clothed with it, and so may not be left 
 
 4 bare and destitute : for in this our mortal covering 
 we groan, not from an impatience of existence, and 
 a desire of annihilation, but, on the contrary, from 
 an anxious desire to put on a better covering, and 
 that our mortality may be converted into immor- 
 
 5 tality. And he who has instilled this eager longing 
 in us is God himself, who has given us, even in this 
 
152 II. CORINTHIANS. chai>. v. 
 
 life, the gift of his Holy Spirit as an earnest that we 
 shall not be disappointed of this sublime expecta- 
 tion. With such a substantial ground for our hope, 0 
 and being assured that so long as we are resident 
 in our present mortal bodies we are in banishment 
 from God, (for our desires dw^ell not upon the visible 7 
 things of this world, but upon those purer objects 
 which at present we can only descry by the eye of 
 faith,) our earnest longing is to be released from our 8 
 present mortal condition, and to be resident with 
 the Lord. Meanwhile our unremitting endeavour 9 
 is, whether in banishment from him, or resident 
 with him, that we may be accepted by him. For lo 
 we know that we must all of us appear before the 
 tribunal of Christ, in order that each of us may 
 receive his remuneration according to the works 
 which he shall have done in this life, whether they 
 shall have been good or evil. 
 
 Looking forward then to this awful day of divine 1 1 
 retribution, I do my endeavour to bring over my 
 fellow men to the path of salvation, acquitting my- 
 self, by the earnestness of my zeal, as a faithful 
 servant to God, as I trust tliat your own con- 
 sciences can also bear witness of me. For I wish 12 
 not to boast of my own exertions, but that you, 
 experiencing my unremitting anxiety for your wel- 
 fare, may have reason to boast of me as your effi- 
 cient minister in the presence of my impugners. 
 You think perhaps the impetuosity of my zeal ex- 13 
 cessive : be it so : for it is for God's service : you 
 wonder at my deliberate and unwearied persever- 
 ance : — it is for your salvation. In this I but imitate 14 
 the excessive love of Christ for mankind ; recollect- 
 ing, that as he in his mercy died for all of us, so we 
 
CHAP. VI. 
 
 II. CORINTHIANS. 
 
 153 
 
 15 are all dead to this world in him : and as his death 
 was incurred to give us life, so that life ought to 
 be entirely devoted to the service of him who thus 
 
 16 died and rose again on our account. From this 
 moment then all inferior and earthly considerations 
 are absorbed in this one great consideration ; this 
 world has become to us as nothing, and eternity as 
 every thing. That blessed Redeemer whom some of 
 us have known according to the flesh, is no longer a 
 
 17 suffering, but a glorified Saviour ; and as he has 
 resumed his glorified nature, so are we, his servants 
 and followers, transformed into new creatures : the 
 deadliness of cur former condition has passed away, 
 and a new sera under a new dispensation has com- 
 
 18 menced. This is the great work which God has 
 wrought for us, in reconciling us to himself through 
 the meritorious expiation of Jesus Christ ; and we 
 the apostles are his ministers, to declare unto maii- 
 
 19 kind this blessed doctrine of reconciliation; pro- 
 claiming that " the divine Essence in the person of 
 Christ has reconciled the world to himself, no longer 
 imputing to them their former trespasses ; and that 
 we the apostles are his appointed messengers to con- 
 vey the intelligence of this merciful dispensation." 
 
 20 Coming then to you as Christ's own ambassadors, 
 and speaking to you as in God's own person, we im- 
 plore you, in the name of Christ who died for you, 
 
 21 be reconciled to God ; to that merciful God who 
 made him who never committed sin a sacrifice for sin 
 on our account, that we sinners might through his 
 
 6 redemption stand pure and holy in his sight. We 
 then, as fellow-labourers in his ministry, most earn- 
 estly implore you, brethren, that we may not call 
 you in vain to the acceptance of this covenant of 
 
154 
 
 mercy. Recollect, we beseech you, the words of the 2 
 jorophet Isaiah, (Isaiah xlix. 8.) " I have heard thee 
 in a favourable season ; and in the day of salvation 
 I have assisted thee." Brethren, this 'present mo- 
 ment is the favourable season ; this present day, if 
 you will avail yourselves of it, is the day of salva- 
 tion. We call unto you, as God's own appointed 3 
 ministers, anxious for your salvation, and anxious 
 also that, by the earnestness of our endeavours, and 
 the blamelessness of our conduct, we may be found 
 to have acted worthily of our apostolical commis- 
 sion. In all things accordingly, to the utmost of 4 
 our power, we have striven to prove ourselves the 
 faithful servants of him whose ministers we are : — 
 in patience ; in afflictions ; in dangers ; in desti- 
 tution ; in scourgings ; in imprisonments ; in po- 5 
 pular violence ; in toils ; in sleeplessness ; in hun- 
 ger : — by purity of heart ; by sobriety of judgment ; 6 
 by equanimity ; by that holiness of disposition which 
 God's grace can alone communicate ; by sincere 
 love to all men ; by preaching the word of truth ; 7 
 by the display of miraculous gifts ; by putting on 
 the whole armour of righteousness on the right 
 hand and on the left ; — through honour, and through 8 
 disgrace ; through good report, and through evil 
 report : — as obscure individuals, yet exposed to pub- 9 
 lie observation ; as daily incurring the danger of 
 our lives, yet escaping from the hands of our ene- 
 mies: as persecuted, but not killed; as in afflic- lo 
 tions, yet filled with joy ; as poor, yet communi- 
 cating riches to many ; as having nothing, and yet 
 possessing all things. O Corinthians, my tongue 11 
 has not been silent, nor the feelings of my heart 
 cold, when your salvation was at stake : if there 12 
 
CHAP. VII. 
 
 II. CORINTHIANS. 
 
 155 
 
 has been any deficiency of zeal amongst you, that 
 deficiency has been from you, and not from myself. 
 
 13 Let then, my beloved children, let that zeal which 
 I have manifested for your welfare be reflected back 
 
 14 from yourselves. Continue not, I beseech you, as 
 heretofore, in unseemly and inexpedient community 
 of intercourse with the calumniators of our faith. 
 What sympathy can righteousness have with pro- 
 faneness ? what fellowship or intercourse can light 
 
 15 have with darkness; what concord can Christ have 
 with Belial ; or what common hope can the believer 
 
 16 entertain with the unbeliever? how, without pro- 
 fanation, can the ^ temple of God be placed in con- 
 tact with an idol ? for recollect that you yourselves 
 are the temple of God, as his own assertion will 
 bear witness; (Leviticus xxvi. 11, 12.) "I will 
 dwell among them," says he, " and will walk among 
 them ; and I will be their God, and they shall be 
 
 17 my people." Wherefore, as says the prophet Isaiah, 
 .(Isaiah lii. 11.) "Come out from among them, and 
 be ye separated from them, saith the Lord, and 
 touch no unclean thing; and I will receive you." 
 
 18 And if you will do so, then you may be assured, 
 that the promise which God made to David will be 
 realized upon yourselves ;" " I will be unto you a 
 Father, and you shall be unto me sons and daugh- 
 
 7 ters." Wherefore, looking forward to the fulfil- 
 ment of these divine promises, let us, my beloved 
 brethren, cleanse ourselves both in body and spirit 
 from every thing which may contaminate, making 
 ourselves pure and holy in the fear of the true 
 God. 
 
 ^ See the first Epistle to the Oorinthiaius, chap. viii. 
 
156 
 
 II. CORINTHIANS. chap. vii. 
 
 Receive me then, brethren, as one who has faith- 2 
 fully performed the work required of him to the 
 best of his ability. I have wronged no man; I 
 have misled no man ; I have defrauded no man. 
 In making this boast I mean not to insinuate any 3 
 thing to your disparagement ; for I have already 
 assured you of the place which you hold in my 
 heart, and that I am prepared to live and die to- 
 gether with you : on the contrary, great is my con- 4 
 fidence in, much my boast of, the sincerity of your 
 faith, which has been no small joy and consolation 
 to me in the midst of my late sufferings. For my 5 
 whole stay in Macedon was one continued series 
 of unintermitting afflictions from persecutions exter- 
 nally, and internal apprehensions. But that God, 6 
 who comforts those who are in calamity, sent me 
 consolation, first, in the society of Titus, and se- 7 
 condly, by the gratifying account which he gave me 
 of your spiritual welfare, of your anxious wish to 
 see me, your contrition for those faults which I had 
 remarked in your past conduct, and your earnest 
 desire to be reinstated in my good opinion ; all 
 which was a source of sincere pleasure to me for 
 your sake. I cannot therefore regret, though the 8 
 necessity was painful to me at the moment, that I 
 was induced to write to you a severe admonition : 
 on the contrary I rejoice in the circumstance, not 9 
 because I was obliged to give you pain for a moment, 
 but because that momentary pain was a holy sorrow 
 leading to repentance ; a holy sorrow commendable 
 in the sight of God, and disarming me from the 
 exercise of that severity of discipline which is en- 
 trusted to me. For that sorrow which is commend- lo 
 able in the sight of God leads to salvation through 
 
CHAP. VII. II. CORINTHIANS. 157 
 
 a repentance not to be repented of : but the sorrow 
 which is produced by the carnal and corrupt motives 
 
 11 of this world leads to death. Accordingly, reflect 
 a little upon what have been the blessed effects of 
 this laudable sorrow which my censures have pro- 
 duced in you : what eagerness, for instance, to 
 convince me of the sincerity of your good inten- 
 tions; what zealous vindication of your motives; 
 what self-reproach ; what fear of my ill opinion of 
 you ; what anxiety to be reinstated in my affections ; 
 what honest emulations ; what earnestness of re- 
 proof against the party whom I had required of you 
 to censure ! Throughout the whole of this painful 
 investigation you have clearly shown yourselves to 
 have had no guilty participation in the criminality 
 
 12 which I denounced to you. Although therefore one 
 object of my admonition may have been the cor- 
 rection of the offender, and the avenging an injured 
 person, still my great and foremost motive, and 
 which I have most satisfactorily accomplished, was 
 the entire vindication of yourselves in the sight of 
 one another, and the manifestation of your inno- 
 
 13 cence before God. Hence it was that the consola- 
 tion which I derived in the midst of my afflictions 
 from the knowledge of your exemplary conduct was 
 so truly gratifying ; and much also was that gratifi- 
 cation enhanced by what I heard of your kind re- 
 ception of Titus, and of the general good feeling 
 
 14 displayed by you all towards him. For your con- 
 duct in this respect has completely borne out all 
 that I had said to him in your favour, so that not 
 only my communications directly with you, but 
 also my report to him of you, have in all respects 
 
 15 been found consistent with the fact. His own kind 
 
158 
 
 11. CORINTHIANS. chap. vih. 
 
 feeling towards you also is of the most fervent 
 character, in consequence of what he witnessed 
 during his stay at Corinth of your ready obedience 
 to my injunctions ; and of the becoming awe and 
 apprehension with which you received him. I sin- 16 
 cerely therefore congratulate myself upon the well- 
 grounded confidence which I have in all of you. 
 
 And now, brethren, I am certain that you will be 8 
 glad to hear of the grace and mercies of God which 
 have been poured upon the Churches in Macedon : 
 how they have borne up under much temporal 2 
 affliction with holy joy and patience : and in the 
 midst of their own many wants and privations have 
 still found the means of displaying their beneficence 
 in relieving the wants of others ; and that, without 3 
 any solicitation on my part, not only to the fair 
 extent of their means, but, as I can fairly vouch to 
 have been the fact, beyond them. They accordingly 4 
 requested me with much earnestness to take upon 
 myself the charge of receiving and distributing 
 amongst our poor brethren in Jerusalem the contri- 
 bution which they had raised ; with a truly Chris- r> 
 tian spirit, far exceeding what I had previously 
 expected, giving themselves up implicitly to God's 
 service, and to my spiritual direction as bearing 
 God's commission. In consequence of this exem- 6 
 plary zeal of theirs I have desired Titus, as he has 
 already mentioned the thing to you, so finally to 
 excite you to a like emulation in works of charity : 
 that, as you already abound in the other Christian 7 
 excellencies, in faith, in apprehension, in knowledge, 
 and in every good pursuit, and in your affection to 
 myself, you may also show how largely you par- 
 take of this virtue also. I do not urge this as a po- 8 
 
159 
 
 sitive demand upon you, but because I am anxious 
 that you should not be left behind others in the 
 career of beneficence, and also not being quite 
 incurious to make this practical appeal to your 
 sincerity on the subject of your professed deference 
 
 9 to my admonitions. You know, my brethren, all 
 that our blessed Lord Jesus Christ did in his mercy 
 for ourselves : that being Lord of the universe he 
 submitted to be poor for your sake ; in order that 
 
 10 through his poverty you might be made rich. In 
 accordance with that great example I cannot but 
 press upon you my decided opinion of the expe- 
 diency of your carrying into effect at an early 
 opportunity that contribution which you will recol- 
 lect was agitated and discussed amongst you with 
 some appearance of zeal so long ago as last year. 
 
 11 Now then let me urge you to carry that zeal into 
 effect ; that, as you have professed the inclination, 
 you may also proceed to the performance according 
 
 12 to your means. I say according to your means, be- 
 cause, where they are wanting, the sincerity of the 
 
 13 wish is quite sufficient for your acquittal ; for I am 
 far from desiring that in the attempt to remove the 
 pinch of want from others you should bring it upon 
 
 14 yourselves \ All I am anxious for is a mutual 
 
 ^ The calm good sense contained in the admonition here 
 given, and the cautious solicitude displayed by St. Paul 
 in verses 20, 21, of this chapter, to place his own motives 
 respecting the very delicate subject of a pecuniary contri- 
 bution, which was to be entrusted to his management, 
 beyond the possibility of suspicion, are worthy of observa- 
 tion ; particularly as they afford a remarkable contrast 
 with the vigorous exertion of spiritual discipline which 
 immediately afterwards we find him prepared to adopt 
 
160 
 
 II. CORINTHIANS. chap. viit. 
 
 reciprocity of kindness in meeting each other's 
 necessities ; that, as your abundance is now per- 
 haps available for relieving the distress of your poor 
 brethren in Jerusalem, so the time may come when 
 their abundance may be called in to relieve in its 
 turn any occasional poverty which may befal your- 
 selves. As it is written of the Israelites when they 15 
 gathered manna in the wilderness, " He that had 
 gathered much had no superfluity, and he that had 
 gathered little had no lack." (Exodus xvi. 18.) 
 
 I thank God that he has given to Titus on this 16 
 occasion the same zeal with which I myself am 
 actuated ; accordingly the exhortation which he 17 
 received from me on this subject was quite super- 
 fluous, as he set out entirely of his own accord for 
 
 if necessary, and with the candid avowal of his own para- 
 mount claims to the foremost dignity of an apostle. We 
 cannot help perceiving also from the whole tenor of his 
 exhortation, that the charitable donation under discussion 
 had not been undertaken with that alacrity of zeal by his 
 Corinthian disciples which, for so many reasons, he had 
 a right to expect. The measure had now been in agitation 
 a twelvemonth, and had even been made a matter of boast 
 in the other Christian Churches, yet the actual collection 
 was scarcely yet begun at the time of the date of this Epis- 
 tle. Still however the earnestness of the writer betrays him 
 not for a single moment into any uncharitable misconstruc- 
 tion of this delay, nor into any expression of disappointment 
 inconsistent with his uniform urbanity and conciliation of 
 language and sentiment. The tone of feeling expressed in 
 the whole passage to the end of chapter 9, is beautiful in the 
 highest degree, and affords a striking practical illustration 
 of the attractiveness of the Christian cliaracter when sin- 
 cerely adopting the gentle and unobtrusive morality incul- 
 cated throughout the Gospel. 
 
CHAP. IX. 11. CORINTHIANS. 161 
 
 18 Corinth to arrange the matter with you. I have also 
 sent with him on the same mission another of our 
 brethren whose praise in the ministry of the Gospel 
 
 19 is spread abroad through all the Churches : and 
 who also has been appointed by the Churches my 
 fellow traveller and assistant in the management and 
 distribution of the fund which has been collected 
 to the honour of our Saviour, and the credit of your 
 
 20 liberality ; as I was most anxious that no possible 
 blame might attach to me with regard to my stew- 
 
 21 ardship of this large sum, and that I might stand, 
 not only pure in conscience before our Lord and 
 Saviour, but also above all suspicion in the eyes of 
 
 22 mankind. I have also sent along with them another 
 of our brethren, the sincerity of whose zeal I have in 
 many instances experienced, and who is if possible 
 more zealous on the present occasion from the con- 
 fidence which, in consequence of my representation, 
 he has in your good feelings. 
 
 23 Of Titus then my recommendation to you is, that 
 he is my assistant and fellow labourer in preaching 
 the Gospel among you : of the two other brethren, 
 that they bear the commission of the Churches, and 
 
 24 that they do honour to the cause of Christ. Justify 
 then by your kind reception of them the expectation 
 of the Churches whose messengers they are, and the 
 favourable sentiments which they have imbibed from 
 me respecting you. 
 
 9 With regard indeed to the proposed contribution 
 for our poor brethren in Jerusalem, I feel that any 
 
 2 exhortations of mine would be unnecessary : for I 
 am fully aware of the readiness of your liberality, of 
 which in fact I have taken an opportunity of speak- 
 ing with approbation whilst in Macedon, having 
 
 M 
 
162 
 
 II. CORINTHIANS. chap.ix. 
 
 informed them, what you know to be true, that your- 
 selves with the rest of Achaia were commencing 
 this work of charity a full year ago ; and the conse- 
 quence was that this mention of your intention was 
 the cause of exciting a similar zeal in others. Still 3 
 however, with this implicit confidence in your good 
 intentions, I have thought it more prudent to send 
 my three brethren to you, lest, by any accident, the 
 expectation which I have raised respecting your 
 intentions should be disappointed ; and that you 
 may show yourselves as ready as I have boasted of 
 you that you are. For it would be extremely 4 
 mortifying to myself, (to say nothing about the dis- 
 credit to yourselves,) should the Macedonians who 
 may possibly accompany me upon my visit to Corinth, 
 find you unprepared with your contribution, and 
 that I had spoken thus largely of your liberality 
 without suflficient reason. I therefore thought it 5 
 necessary to urge my three brethren to be at Corinth 
 before my arrival there, and to contrive that the 
 donation which I have given the Church reason 
 to expect from you, may be ready against my 
 coming, that it may appear to be a willing effort of 
 kindness on your part, and may not seem to be 
 wrung from you against your inclinations by any 
 urgency from myself. Meanwhile remember, that 6 
 " he who sows sparingly, shall reap also sparingly ; 
 and he who sows bountifully, shall reap also bounti- 
 fully. ' Let every man however give according to 7 
 what he is sincerely willing to do from his heart ; 
 not against his will and as a matter of compulsion ; 
 for God loves a cheerful and free giver. And that 8 
 God who reads the secrets of the heart, is able in 
 recompense to pour his mercies abundantly upon 
 
CHAP. IX. . 11. CORINTHIANS. 
 
 163 
 
 yourselves, so that having a sufficiency of all earthly 
 comfort, you may have the means of exercising this, 
 9 with every other good and Christian work : accord- 
 ing to the assurance of the Psalmist, (Psalm cxii. 9.) 
 " he hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor : his 
 righteousness endureth for ever; his horn shall be 
 exalted with honour." 
 
 10 May He then, who gives the seed to the sower, 
 both give you bread to eat, and multiply the pro- 
 duce of the seed which you sow, increasing in you 
 at the same time in like proportion the fruits of 
 
 11 good works; that you may be rich in the good 
 things of this life, and may dispense those riches 
 with liberality ; thus causing his own gifts to return 
 back to himself in sentiments of thanksgiving and 
 
 12 gratitude. For it is not only the relief of our dis- 
 tressed Christian brethren which is the blessed fruit 
 of these charitable exertions, but the harmonious 
 concord of grateful hearts also which is thus made 
 
 13 to ascend to the Giver of all good ; whilst the poor, 
 whose distresses you have relieved, praise God as 
 well for your perfect adoption of the precepts of 
 our blessed Saviour, as for your unaffected and 
 cordial benevolence displayed to themselves, and to 
 
 14 all others in like necessity : and offer up their 
 prayers for you in the fulness of their hearts, for 
 that display of Christian grace thus manifested in 
 
 15 your conduct. Blessed be God for this his unspeak- 
 able gift. 
 
 Section II. 
 
 The remainder of this Epistle contains the apostle's eloquent and in- 
 dignant vindication of his own spiritual jurisdiction, against the 
 malice of his opposers in the Church of Corinth, with a statement of 
 
 M 2 
 
164 
 
 II. CORINTHIANS. 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 his past exertions and sufferings in the cause of the Gospel, and of 
 some miraculous communications which he had experienced in the 
 earlier part of his ministry. 
 
 My brethren, I am not ignorant that it has been 10 
 said of me that my personal demeanour to you in 
 your presence is meek and humble, but that my 
 epistolary admonitions written to you in my absence 
 from you are in a commanding tone of authority. 
 Now I most earnestly intreat, in the name of the 2 
 humble and merciful Jesus, those my impugners, 
 who by making this charge would insinuate that 
 my conduct is regulated by worldly and temporizing 
 motives, that they will not compel me to repel 
 this accusation in the most effectual manner, by 
 adopting upon my arrival a harsher and more severe 
 tone than my own inclinations would lead me to 
 exercise towards them. Be assured that, however li 
 worldly may be the feelings and passions of many 
 with whom I am in collision, the weapons of my 
 own warfare will always be of a spiritual character, 
 not mere carnal implements, but such as are en- 4 
 dued by God himself with strength to pull down 
 the fortresses of human policy : such as are powerful 5 
 to overthrow the strong holds of specious and carnal 
 wisdom, and every proud feeling which elevates 
 itself against God's revealed dispensations, and to 
 bring every thought of the human heart into cap- 
 tivity to the obedience of Christ ; and which, even 6 
 when your obedience shall be complete, will still 
 be endued ^vith a wholesome discipline to prevent 
 any future wanderings into which you may deviate, 7 
 and to correct your backslidings. Why then draw 
 unfair inferences from my personal demeanour, as 
 contrasted with the tone of my writings ? Let 
 
165 
 
 me entreat those who may have thought thus un- 
 charitably of me, and yet who probably flatter them- 
 selves that they are sincere servants of Christ, to 
 give me at least the same credit which they give 
 themselves, and believe that I am as sincerely de- 
 
 8 voted to my blessed Saviour as they are. Nay, if I 
 were to assert of myself something more than this, 
 and tell them plainly that I possess an authority 
 over them which I have received from Christ him- 
 self, (for your edification, I admit, and not for your 
 destruction,) I should not in thus boasting exceed 
 
 9 the literal truth. Away then for the future with 
 this invidious charge, that I presume upon my 
 absence, and venture upon a higher tone of autho- 
 rity in my letters than I dare exert when resident 
 
 10 among you. " His letters, forsooth, are severe and 
 magisterial, but his person \ when amongst us, is 
 humble, and his speech subdued and contemptible." 
 
 11 Let those who have made this unfair remark be 
 assured, that authoritative as my letters have been, 
 such I can also be in person where expedience 
 
 12 may require it. It is true I am not one of those 
 self-conceited persons who measuring themselves by 
 a standard set up in their own minds, presume 
 upon an excellence which they do not possess, and 
 form in consequence a mistaken notion of their 
 
 ^ It is well known that early tradition agrees with this 
 passage in describing the personal appearance of St. Paul 
 as unprepossessing. The apocryphal book of the Acts of 
 Paul and Thecla gives the following portrait of him, which 
 may not improbably have been derived from more authentic 
 sources. "iSov tov avdpa kp\6/xevov, tov UavXov, fiiKpbv 
 Tco fieyiOu, xpiXov Tr]v »c£^aXr]v, ayKvXov tollq Kviifxaig.) 
 tVKvriiuov, avvo(j)pvv, lirippivov. 
 
166 
 
 II. CORINTHIANS. chap. xi. 
 
 own qualifications. Without lending myself to such 13 
 vague and exaggerated delusions, still however I 
 cannot but be conscious of the high ground which 
 I occupy, nor can I avoid measuring my actual 
 authority over you by the standard of that commis- 
 sion which I hold from God himself; an authority 
 be assured which is fully competent to reach to 
 yourselves if occasion requires. Suppose not then 14 
 that you lie beyond the reach of my legitimate 
 superintendence : on the contrary, the right of 
 authority over you which I possess is the natural 
 consequence of my having been the first to bring 
 you to the knowledge of the Gospel. In asserting 15 
 this jurisdiction therefore, I am not presuming to 
 reap the fruits of another man's labours ; nay, 1 16 
 rather hope to extend my line still further, by 
 preaching yet more successfully and extensively in 
 your neighbourhood, and even in tlve countries which 
 lie yet more remote ; but am far from wishing to 
 assume to myself either the credit, or the autho- 
 rity due to the spiritual exertions of others, with 
 which I have had no participation. If however we 17 
 must, any of us, boast, let us boast in the Lord; 
 for it is not the estimate which we may choose 18 
 to form of ourselves, but that which is formed 
 of us by God, which is the real measure of our 
 value. 
 
 Bear then for a moment with my weakness, (for 1 1 
 such you may call it if you please,) but still bear 
 with it, if in reply to these undeserved accusations 
 I state broadly and openly the claims upon you 
 which I cannot but feel that I possess. For I am 2 
 jealous of you as my own peculiar converts, on 
 God's account ; and am earnestly desirous to be able 
 
CHAP. XI. 
 
 11. CORINTHIANS. 
 
 167 
 
 to present you with my own hands as a pure and 
 
 3 immaculate virgin to your husband Christ ; and ac- 
 cordingly I cannot but feel anxious lest, as the 
 serpent deceived Eve by his subtilty, so some false 
 teacher may intrude himself into my place, and 
 seduce your minds from the true simplicity of the 
 
 4 Christian doctrine. Bear with me, 1 repeat; for, 
 even were some other teacher to come amongst you, 
 and to preach the faith of some other Jesus than 
 of him whom I have revealed to you, and were 
 you through his means to have received the gifts 
 of some other spirit than of that which you have 
 received, or to have heard another Gospel than that 
 which you have heard, you would most assuredly 
 
 5 bear with him ; and in what single respect have 
 I less claim upon your attention and deference than 
 any even of the foremost of the true apostles ? 
 
 6 Grant that my utterance is uncouth and feeble : — 
 still let me ask, has the knowledge which it has 
 conveyed to you been equally so ? far otherwise. Am 
 
 7 I a fit object for taunting remarks because I have 
 spoken meekly to you when I might have presumed 
 upon the authority of my office ? because I have 
 preached the Gospel gratuitously amongst you, 
 when I might have demanded the maintenance of 
 
 8 an apostle ? You know, all of you, that I have 
 submitted to receive from other Churches, what 
 perhaps I was scarcely entitled to claim at their 
 hands, the means of my support, in order that I 
 
 9 might not prove burthensome to you. Nay, when 
 I was resident among you, and was in absolute 
 want, I encumbered none of you, but received the 
 relief of my necessities from the brethren who ar- 
 rived from Macedon ; nor subjected any one indj- 
 
168 
 
 II. CORINTHIANS. 
 
 CHAP- XI. 
 
 vidual among yourselves to any expence on my own 
 account, neither will I so subject any one of you 
 in time to come : for, as the truth which is in lo 
 Christ can testify, no one shall rob me of this boast, 
 that in the whole region of Achaia I have been, and 
 will continue to be, chargeable to no man. Why 11 
 so ? you will ask. Is if because I love you not ? 
 God knows to the contrary : but in adopting this 12 
 resolution, I do so that I may give no advantage 
 ground to the seducers who have insinuated them- 
 selves amongst you, and would gladly draw^ invidious 
 comparisons, if they might, between their conduct 
 and my own. Be assured that these men, however 13 ' 
 disinterested they may appear, have not your real 
 benefit at heart, but are false apostles, deceitful 
 workers, assuming the character of apostles of 
 Christ ; nor be surprised that such is the case : 14 
 Satan himself we know can assume upon occasion 
 the appearance of an angel of light. Why then 15 
 are we to wonder if his agents can put on the ex- 
 ternal garb of the ministers of righteousness? but 
 their end shall be according to their works. 
 
 I have said, bear with me, nor accuse me of IG 
 weakness, if I plainly state my legitimate claims to 
 your attention ; or rather let me say that, even at 
 the risk of being accused of weakness in boasting 
 of myself unnecessarily, I will state them broadly 
 and explicitly. Well then; be it, if you please so 17 
 to call it, not the humble bearing of an apostle, 
 but mere human folly and vanity in me to speak in 
 my own commendation ; yet if others, who possess 18 
 no real claim, will vaunt their own praises for the 
 purpose of misleading you, let me, at least, on my 
 own part state wdiat I know of my own qualihca- 
 
169 
 
 19 tions, for your spiritual benefit. Bear with me, 
 I say, and well may I use that expression, when 
 I recollect to what a degree, wise and sagacious as 
 you believe yourselves to be, you still can bear with 
 
 20 others. You can bear with them if they enslave 
 you ; you can bear with them if they devour you : 
 — if they waste your property ; if they raise them- 
 selves against you ; if they strike you in the face. 
 
 21 1, on the contrary, am reproached by you as being 
 humble and timid in your presence ; and yet, if 
 comparisons must be drawn, (I say again, call my 
 boasting weakness if you think proper to do so,) 
 I have rival claims to assert as forcible as theirs. 
 
 22 They will tell you perhaps that they are Hebrews : — 
 I answer. So am I. That they are Israelites : — So 
 
 23 am I. That they are the ministers of Christ ; — 
 the boaf^t on my part may savour of ostentation, 
 but I deliberately assert that so am I also, and in a 
 far superior, let me add in a far more painful, 
 degree : — in labour far more abundant ; in scourg- 
 ings far beyond any suffering which has befallen 
 them ; in prisons more frequently ; in imminent 
 
 24 peril of death often : five times have I received the 
 punishment of thirty-nine stripes from the Jewish 
 
 25 authorities ; thrice was I beaten with rods by order 
 of the Roman magistrate ; once was I stoned ; 
 thrice have I been shipwrecked ; a whole day and 
 
 26 night I have struggled in the sea : many and 
 harassing have been my wanderings, and in them 
 many my dangers from rivers ; from robbers ; from 
 Jews ; from Gentiles ; in cities ; in deserts ; in the 
 
 27 sea ; from false brethren ; much has been my toil 
 and weariness, many my sleepless nights, great my 
 hunger and thirst, frequent my sufferings from in- 
 
170 
 
 sufficient food, from cold, from destitution ; in ad- 28 
 dition to all which let me mention, not the least 
 part of my many labours, the daily care and anxiety 
 connected with the superintendance of all the 
 Churches. Who is there amongst all those for 29 
 whose spiritual welfare I have made myself respon- 
 sible, who is weak in conscience with whom I do 
 not sympathize ? who burns with an holy zeal 
 against the corruptions which surround us, and 
 finds not in me a zealous coadjutor ? — If I must 30 
 boast, let me at least boast of these my afflictions 
 and weaknesses ; for in speaking of such there can 
 be little unseemly vanity ; and in saying what 31 
 I have now ventured to do of myself, God the 
 Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, He who is blessed 
 for ever and ever, knows that I have not exagge- 
 rated the truth. In addition to this catalogue of 32 
 sufferings, I may also state the recent circumstance, 
 that the governor under king Aretas at Damascus 
 kept the city with a guard of the Damascenes for 
 the purpose of apprehending me, but I was let 33 
 down the wall from a window in a basket, and 
 escaped from his hands. 
 
 Be however these things as they may, to boast 12 
 of my own sufferings in the cause of Christ may 
 perhaps appear unseemly and ostentatious. Well 
 then, let me content myself with relating some 
 visions and revelations from our Saviour which have 
 come within my own personal knowledge. I knew 2 
 a man, a servant of Christ above fourteen years ago, 
 who, (whether he was in the body at that time or 
 out of the body I cannot tell ; God knows) was 
 caught up into the third heaven : such a man I 3 
 myself knew, (whether indeed this revelation befel 
 
11. CORINTHIANS. 
 
 171 
 
 him in the body or out of the body I cannot pre- 
 
 4 sume to say, God knows,) who was caught up into 
 paradise, and heard there unspeakable things beyond 
 
 5 the power of human language to express. Of a 
 man thus highly favoured I may and will boast 
 without scruple, but of myself I will not venture to 
 boast unless it be on the score of my infirmities. 
 
 6 Yet even were I to boast of myself I might find 
 abundant occasion for so doing, and yet not go 
 beyond the truth ; but I abstain, lest any one should 
 deem of me beyond what he sees me to be, or hears 
 
 7 respecting me. And, in fact, that the preternatural 
 revelations with which I have been favoured might 
 not buoy me up with undue confidence in myself, 
 God inflicted upon me ^ a thorn in the flesh, an 
 infirmity with which Satan has been allowed to 
 torment me, in order that I might not become a 
 
 8 slave to spiritual vanity and presumption. Against 
 this afflicting visitation I earnestly besought God 
 thrice in prayer, that it might be allowed to pass 
 
 9 away from me ; but the answer I received was, 
 
 * Much needless discussion has taken place for the pur- 
 pose of ascertaining what was this thorn in the flesh of 
 which the apostle here makes mention. It has been gene- 
 rally supposed to have been some bodily disease ; but from 
 his own assertion, that it was counteracted by the support 
 of the divine grace, it seems more natural to imagine that 
 it must have been some intellectual or moral infirmity 
 which it gave him much trouble to conquer. Be that how- 
 ever as it may, the candour of the avowal is a strong proof 
 that the peculiar marks of the divine favour which he had 
 received had not impaired that humility and self-abasement 
 of disposition which form so indispensable an adjunct to a 
 tridy Christian character. 
 
172 
 
 " My grace and support is sufficient for you ; for 
 my might is best displayed through the medium of 
 human infirmities." And accordingly, with this lo 
 satisfactory conviction, I will continue to boast, and 
 to boast gladly, of my infirmities, that the power of 
 my Redeemer may through them be manifested 
 upon me. Therefore it is that I even exult in my 
 aflflictions and weaknesses ; in the insults to which 
 I am exposed ; in the wants I experience ; in the 
 persecutions under which I suffer ; in my destitu- 
 tion for the cause of Christ ; for when I am naturally 
 w^eak, then, by his aid, I am made strong. You 11 
 will, perhaps, again tell me that I am still boasting 
 unduly of myself. If I am so, the blame is with 
 you, and your unmerited neglect of me, which has 
 obliged me thus against my will to obtrude my 
 claims and services upon you : for you cannot but 
 know that, weak and unworthy as I am of myself, 
 still in spiritual gifts and the labours of my ministry 
 I have been inferior to none of the very foremost 
 apostles. You can from your own experience bear 1 2 
 witness of me, that in my person have been mani- 
 fested all the tokens which denote a true apostle ; I 
 mean patient perseverance in the execution of my 
 office, and the proofs of the divine grace as displayed 
 in my spiritual gifts, and my miraculous powers. 
 In fact, what single circumstance can yourselves 13 
 point out in which my conduct to you was less 
 exemplary than that of the other apostles to the 
 other Churches ? Was it that I put you to no 
 expense for my maintenance ? If this was an injury 
 to you. forgive me for it. 
 
 I am now on the point of making you my third H 
 visit : and in so doing it is my intention still to 
 
173 
 
 burthen you with no greater expence on my account 
 than was the case during my residence with you on 
 the two former occasions. For it is not your wealth 
 I covet, but yourselves ; and considering you as my 
 children in the spirit, I feel that it is my duty to 
 lay up wealth for you, and not yours to provide for 
 
 15 me. And accordingly most cheerfully will I spend 
 my substance, and myself, for the salvation of your 
 souls; even though the immediate consequence of 
 my love for you should be the sacrifice of even 
 
 1 6 your affection for myself. I am aware indeed that 
 some of my adversaries may attempt to assert that, 
 although I have abstained from burthening you with 
 expence on my own account, still my forbearance 
 may have been the result of selfish and ambitious 
 
 17 motives. To this I shall only reply, by asking 
 whether, if not directly for myself, I have at any 
 time indirectly made profit of you to serve a friend ? 
 
 18 1 have recently, as you know, sent Titus on a 
 mission to you, in company with another of our 
 brethren. Have either of them made any profit of 
 you ? or have they not rather in all points acted 
 with the same feeling and forbearance with myself, 
 
 19 and walked entirely in my footsteps ? Imagine not 
 that I am again making a boast of my own merits, 
 whilst replying to these unjust aspersions : I declare, 
 in the presence of God, and of my blessed Saviour, 
 that I am now speaking not upon my own account, 
 
 20 but upon yours : for I am not without serious 
 apprehensions that, if these unworthy jealousies are 
 allowed to continue among you, my arrival may 
 not improbably be really painful to all of us, and 
 that a visit, intended by me in kindness, may end 
 by proving to be one of wholesome severity : for 
 
174 
 
 11. CORINTHIANS. chap. xiti. 
 
 such it must be, if I find, as I have too much reason 
 to expect, strifes, party animosities, ill will, quarrels, 
 mutual reproaches, private slanders, ambitious emu- 
 lations, and acts of open violence still prevalent 
 among you : and if the pride which I felt in the 21 
 imagined success of my spiritual labours in your 
 behalf is, by God's will, to receive a check, finding, 
 as I much fear that I shall find, to my sorrow, many 
 whose sins I have already been compelled to notice, 
 still persevering without remorse or compunction in 
 their former habits of uncleanness, and fornication, 
 and lasciviousness. 
 
 I am now, I repeat, on the point of visiting you 13 
 for the third time ; and accordingly I wish you 
 previously to understand, that upon my arrival 
 inquiry will be made into what misdemeanors may 
 have occurred during my absence, and that in each 
 case I shall proceed according as the fact shall be 
 established by the testimony of two or three wit- 
 nesses. I gave you notice on a former occasion, 2 
 and I now repeat it in writing as strongly as I could 
 do were I actually present with you, that neither 
 former offenders still persevering in sin, nor any 
 others sinning in like manner, shall escape with 
 impunity, when I commence my inquiry into your 
 conduct. 
 
 You ask me what proof you have that Christ 3 
 addresses himself to you by me. Recollect that 
 Christ's presence has been manifested among you, 
 not weakly, but irresistibly by the display of signs 
 and wonders : for we know, that although he once 4 
 submitted to be crucified in the weakness of the 
 flesh, he now lives for ever by the power of God ; 
 and that in like manner, as we now are weak in 
 
 1 
 
175 
 
 our mortal nature as his followers and servants, so 
 we shall one day live together with him through the 
 same divine power. I reply then to your question 
 
 5 thus. Examine yourselves, and search whether you 
 are firm in this faith. Are not your own feelings a 
 sufficient criterion whether the Spirit of Christ really 
 resides within yourselves ? or am I to suppose you 
 
 6 aliens from the divine grace ? By the same test 
 then, namely, by the spirit of faith and holiness 
 which I may appear to possess through the grace of 
 Christ, judge for yourselves whether or not I speak 
 
 7 by his authority. One proof of the reality of my 
 mission to you I trust indeed will never be wanting ; 
 that I mean which consists in the holiness and purity 
 of your lives; a proof which I earnestly pray for, 
 not on my own account, but on yours ; not that I 
 may be found to have been a tru-e apostle, (for I am 
 prepared to have my own intentions and conduct 
 misconstrued,) but that you may be found to have 
 
 8 comported yourselves as becomes Christians. In this 
 be assured that I speak the truth in full sincerity. 
 
 9 My most earnest rejoicing is in your spiritual wel- 
 fare, even though the price be my own personal 
 privations : and my first and foremost object at this 
 
 10 moment is your reformation. It is therefore on that 
 account only that I write thus warmly to you before 
 my arrival, in the hope that I may be spared the 
 necessity of adopting severe measures when we meet, 
 and that the authority with which the Lord has 
 entrusted me may be for your comfort and edifica- 
 tion, and not for the purposes of punishment. 
 
 11 And now, my brethren, for the present adieu. 
 Meanwhile amend yourselves; encourage one an- 
 other in good works ; abstain from your mutual 
 
176 
 
 II. CORINTHIANS. chap. xitt. 
 
 dissensions, and live in peace one with another. 
 
 So shall the God of love and peace take up his 
 
 abode among you. 
 
 Greet one another with an holy kiss. 12 
 All the brethren in Christ salute you. 13 
 May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the 14 
 
 love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, 
 
 be with you all. Amen. 
 
 The second Epistle to the Corinthians is more remark- 
 able, as giving us an insight into the personal character 
 and the inmost feelings of St. Paul, than as being the 
 vehicle of any new scriptural truth, or as containing the 
 exposition of any of the more mysterious topics of revela- 
 tion. When however we recollect what in all cases is the 
 force of example upon our habits,, and remember that the 
 example here afforded to us is not that of an ungifted in- 
 dividual like ourselves, but of an inspired apostle, who had, 
 on one occasion at least, been admitted to a glimpse of the 
 unrevealed wonders of the other world, and observe in the 
 interesting character here depicted all that we can imagine 
 of Christian heroism and moral elevation, combined with 
 the most unassuming humility, the warmest and gentlest af- 
 fections, the most polished urbanity of manners, and the 
 most guileless simplicity of heart, we cannot but consider 
 this Epistle, if less gratifying to our speculative curiosity, at 
 all events as replete with spiritual gratification as any portion 
 whatever of the sacred writings. And accordingly, to those 
 persons who read the holy Scriptures for the great purpose 
 of attaining to practical holiness, the composition now before 
 us is replete with the most invaluable instruction. From 
 the kind, yet earnest remonstrances of the apostle to his way- 
 ward disciples, the austere moralist may learn to temper his 
 reproofs with Christian gentleness, and to make his exhor- 
 tations more forcible by rendering them less repulsive : from 
 
11. CORINTHIANS. 
 
 177 
 
 the example of his inflexibiHty on the great points of duty, 
 the timid and wavering may study how to acquire steadiness 
 of principle ; and from his frank, yet unassuming avowal of 
 the miraculous interpositions with which he has been favour- 
 ed, the talented and highly gifted may be taught how to 
 possess the blessings of which they may be inevitably con- 
 scious, with that humility which becomes persons who know 
 from what source those faculties descend ; whilst, from his 
 unrepining patience under afflictions, from the consideration 
 of which our flesh instinctively shrinks with dismay. Chris- 
 tians of all ages and conditions may learn how to blush at 
 their own impatience under trials which appear as nothing 
 when compared with those with which God permitted his 
 great apostle to be proved. 
 
 N 
 
THE 
 
 EPISTLE OF PAUL 
 
 TO THE 
 
 GALATIANS. 
 
 Various dates have been assigned to the Epistle to the 
 Galatians, some as early as the years of our Lord 48 and 
 49. But as the apostle speaks in it of his second journey 
 to Jerusalem as a not very recent event, which journey did 
 not take place till seventeen years after his conversion, and 
 as that last event cannot be placed earlier than the year 35, 
 it seems scarcely consistent to assign an earlier period for 
 its composition than the year 53 or 54. It does not ap- 
 pear from what city this letter was sent to the Church to 
 which it is addressed. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 
 
 Paul, an apostle, not of men, neither by man, 1 
 but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who 
 raised him from the dead ; and all the brethren who 2 
 are with me, to the Churches of Galatia — grace be 3 
 unto you, and peace, from God the Father, and 
 from our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself to 4 
 death for our sins, that he might deliver us from 
 the present evil world, according to the will of God 
 and our Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever. 5 
 Amen. 
 
CHAP. I. GALATIANS. 
 
 179 
 
 The Epistle to the Galatians has allusion to a heresy, which under 
 some form or other will probably continue to contaminate Christ- 
 ianity to the end of time ; namely, that tendency so prevalent with 
 timid and scrupulous minds, to take refuge in ritual expiations and 
 the supposed merit of human works, as an auxiliary means of recon- 
 ciliation with God, in addition to that afforded by the plenary atone- 
 ment of Christ. The Church here addressed had received from its 
 first founder, St. Paul, the great primary doctrine of " Christ cruci- 
 fied," as comprehending within itself the sum and substance of the 
 Gospel dispensation : but we learn from this Epistle, that after his 
 departure, other teachers of a more worldly and speculative character 
 had introduced themselves into that community, and inculcated the 
 necessity of the adoption of circumcision and other rites of the cere- 
 monial law, as concurrent requisites for justification, scarcely less 
 necessary than faith itself. The object of the apostle, accordingly, 
 is to bring back his deluded followers to the primitive simplicity of 
 their belief, and to denounce this dangerous doctrine as destructive 
 of the singleness and purity of the Gospel truth ; as derogatory from 
 the all-sufficient merits of our Redeemer ; and as teaching men to 
 build their hopes of salvation upon a false and unsound foundation. 
 When we recollect the strong inclination which ascetics in all ages, 
 and under almost every form of religion, have displayed for that 
 spurious righteousness which is sought after by the maceration of 
 the body, ceremonial practices, and capricious forms of worship, we 
 cannot be surprised at the degree of anxiety displayed by St. Paul to 
 check in its commencement this destructive error. He too well 
 knew the character of the human mind not to anticipate the vast 
 labyrinth'of superstition into which such principles have an inevita- 
 ble tendency to lead their advocates. In fact, the history of Christ- 
 ianity in later times, not with reference to the Romish Church 
 only, but in a vast multitude of individual cases without the pale of 
 that community, has shown the extreme deceitfulness of this easily 
 besetting sin, and how very narrow is the boundary to weak, but 
 sensitive and devout minds, which separates religion from supersti- 
 tion ; and with what eagerness such persons will take refuge from 
 the alarms of conscience or the instinctive dread of death in other 
 modes of relief than that which the mercy of Providence has ap- 
 pointed for us. Where such morbid apprehensions exist, it is difli- 
 cult to persuade the sufferers that the access to the throne of mercy 
 has been made so easy as Scripture assures us that it is, and that 
 through the imputed righteousness of our Redeemer all may obtain 
 admission who humbly and earnestly ask for it. It is, however, on 
 the other hand, highly necessary to observe, that although the apo- 
 stle expressly declares our salvation to depend entirely, absolutely, 
 and exclusively upon the expiatory merits of Christ alone, he still in 
 
 N 2 
 
180 
 
 GALATIANS. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 this, as in his other Epistles, emphatically asserts the necessity of 
 good works and of a holy life as the concomitant of a Christian pro- 
 fession, and the natural fruits of that faith which he inculcates. The 
 rational and satisfactory principle upon which this inference is 
 grounded must be self-evident to all those who know what Christ- 
 ianity really is ; namely, that its object is not to supersede the 
 necessity of human works, but to supply their deficiencies : as then 
 the atonement of Christ was intended to stand in the place of that 
 perfect obedience which from the inevitable infirmity of our nature 
 we cannot but fail of attaining, it can never be pleaded by us as a 
 release from that practicable obedience, and those works of piety, 
 justice, and mercy, which, however inadequate as a means of salva- 
 tion, are by the assistance of the divine grace at all events within our 
 power to perform, and are therefore justly due as an indispensable 
 sacrifice of gratitude to our Almighty Benefactor. 
 
 I cannot but wonder that you have so soon 6 
 turned away from the gracious call which you have 
 received to the covenant of redemption by the 
 mercy of Christ, and have betaken yourselves to 
 another and an unsound view of God's dispensations. 
 The cause of this unsteadiness on your part I con- 7 
 ceive to be the mistaken notions of some false 
 teachers who have risen up among you, who are 
 desirous by their own partial interpretations to 
 suggest to you unreasonable doubts, and to pervert 
 the original simplicity of the Gospel of Christ. 
 Against such inaccurate views of the covenant of 8 
 salvation I now therefore send my most earnest 
 protest ; solemnly declaring, that ''if I myself, nay, 
 if an angel from heaven, presume to teach any other 
 Gospel than that which I have already preached to 
 you, let such teacher be accursed'' What I have 9 
 so earnestly assevered on a former occasion, that 
 same I now solemnly repeat, " if any man teach a 
 doctrine at variance with that Gospel which you 
 have already received, let him be accursed'' Think lo 
 you that I will falsify and accommodate my doc- 
 
181 
 
 trine to meet the perverted views of men, rather 
 than earnestly inculcate that which I know to be 
 the word of divine truth ? that I will vilify Christ's 
 own commission, and, adapting the holy truths of 
 revelation to the prejudices of mankind, become 
 
 1 1 their servant by ceasing to be his ? I distinctly 
 declare to you, my brethren, that the Gospel which 
 
 12 I have preached is no human doctrine. I received 
 it not at first from any human being, nor do I 
 bear my commission from any mortal creature, 
 but from an express revelation of Jesus Christ 
 
 13 himself ^ You all of you have heard the history 
 of my early life at the time when I was a rigid 
 professor of Judaism ; how I was a most eager 
 
 14 persecutor and destroyer of God's Church ; and 
 how in consequence I made myself a deep proficient 
 in rabbinical knowledge beyond any other Jews 
 of my own age, and became a zealous champion 
 of all the traditions and comments engrafted by our 
 
 15 fathers upon the law of Moses. But when it 
 
 ^ Those persons who are disposed to assert, that a ^ood 
 and moral life is in itself a sufficient means of salvation, 
 and that where that exists there is no necessity for a minute 
 attention to the peculiar dogmas of the Christian belief, 
 would do well to study this solemn and impressive statement 
 of St. Paul. He on the contrary well knew to what a degree 
 a single false position in philosophy or religion will distort 
 every subsequent inference of a mind which has once given 
 admission to it ; and that trifling and harmless as opinions 
 upon seemingly abstract questions may appear ta the un- 
 thinking, they are in reality the operative principles which 
 mould the character of nations, and impress upon each 
 successive generation of mankind its peculiar and distinctive 
 tendency to improvement or deterioration. 
 
182 
 
 GALATIANS. chap. ii. 
 
 pleased God in his own good time, having destined 
 me to this office of my agiostleship from my mother's 
 womb, to reveal to me in his infinite mercy the 16 
 great scheme of redemption purchased by his Son, 
 in order that I might preach it to the various Gen- 
 tile nations \ I derived not my instructions on that 
 occasion at second hand from flesh and blood, but 17 
 instead of going directly up to Jerusalem to com- 
 mune with the other apostles, who had preached 
 Christ from the first, I went away into Arabia, and 
 afterwards returned from thence to Damascus : nor 18 
 did I go at all up to Jerusalem till after the expira- 
 tion of three years, when I went to hold a con- 
 ference with Peter, and remained there with him 
 fifteen days : yet even then I saw no other of the 19 
 apostles, excepting only James our Lord's brother, 
 (this account which I now give you, I solemnly 20 
 declare in the presence of Almighty God, is true in 
 every particular,) from Jerusalem I went into the 21 
 regions of Syria and Cilicia, and still continued 22 
 personally unknown to the Christian Churches of 
 Judea, being only known to them by report as the 23 
 person who was now become a zealous convert to 
 the faith, and a preacher of that Gospel which he 
 once persecuted. And accordingly they gave thanks 24 
 to God for his mercies on my behalf It was not 2 
 till fourteen years after this time that I paid another 
 
 ^ This is a most important fact, since it informs us that 
 the coincidence which existed between the doctrines of St. 
 Paul and those of the other apostles, was not in conse- 
 quence of his having derived his knowledge of the Gospel 
 from them, but from their having all drawn from one 
 and the same source ; namely, the infallible communication 
 of the Holy Spirit. 
 
CHAP. II. 
 
 GALATIANS. 
 
 183 
 
 visit to Jerusalem in company with Barnabas and 
 
 2 Titus. This last journey I undertook in consequence 
 of a revelation to that effect ; and accordingly, whilst 
 at Jerusalem, I explained to the other apostles that 
 view of the Gospel which I had been preaching to 
 the Gentiles; and this I did not publicly, but in 
 private to those of the greatest authority among 
 them, in order to satisfy them that no error or dis- 
 crepancy had crept into and corrupted my doctrine. 
 
 3 Yet not even then, although my visit was made 
 expressly for the purpose of convincing the apostles 
 of the correctness of my tenets, not even then did I 
 oblige Titus, who was a Gentile, to submit to the 
 
 4 rite of circumcision ; a ceremony which, however 
 harmless in itself, I objected to on that occasion, in 
 order to give no encouragement to the opinions of 
 some false brethren, who, jealous of our Christian 
 liberty, were desirous to bring us back to all the 
 
 5 slavery and incumbrances of the Jewish law. On 
 that ground, therefore, I conceded not one tittle to 
 them of the question in dispute, in order that no 
 concession of mine for the sake of mere momentary 
 concord might trench upon the completeness and 
 sufficiency of the unadulterated Gospel covenant. 
 
 6 But though I condescended to explain to the leading 
 men among the apostles the revelation which I had 
 been preaching to the Gentiles, yet (recollecting 
 that God makes no distinction of persons, and that 
 the present question was not one of personal weight 
 of authority, but of purity of belief) even then, I 
 neither surrendered to them, nor borrowed from 
 
 7 them, a single iota of doctrine ; but, on the contrary, 
 when they perceived that I had received my own 
 special commission to convert the Gentiles, as 
 
184 
 
 GALATIANS. chap. ii. 
 
 Peter had received his to preach to the Jews, both 8 
 of us having been directly appointed and miracu- 
 lously aided by Christ; James, and Peter, and 9 
 John, the three men of most weight among the 
 apostles, acknowledging the authenticity of my call, 
 gave without hesitation the right hand of fellowship 
 to myself and Barnabas, in order that we might 
 take upon ourselves the apostleship to the Gentiles, 
 and they, on the other hand, continue to preach to 
 the inhabitants of Judea. In fact, the only request 10 
 which they made, and to which I readily agreed, 
 was that I should do what lay in my power for the 
 relief of our poor Christian brethren of the Jewish 
 nation. 
 
 Some time afterwards, however, when Peter came 1 1 
 to Antioch, I opposed him publicly to his face, 
 because he deserved censure. For on former occa- 12 
 sions, before any message had been delivered from 
 James on the subject of partial external conformity 
 with some of the rites of the Levitical law, he 
 without scruple had eaten with the Gentiles, and 
 acted in all respects with the same liberty as they; 
 but after the arrival of that message, he drew back, 
 and kept himself aloof from them, for fear of giving 
 offence to the prejudices of the Jews. And not 13 
 only he, but other converts of the Jewish nation, 
 adopted the same timid line of conduct, so that the 
 infection at last extended to Barnabas himself. 
 Perceiving this, and that they were compromising, 14 
 by this want of frankness and steadiness, the sincere 
 truth of the Gospel, I said before them all to Peter, 
 " If you, who are by birth a Jew, can live without 
 scruple after the manner of the Gentiles, and not 
 according to the law of Moses, why do you at- 
 
CHAP. II. 
 
 GALATIANS. 
 
 185 
 
 tempt to bring the Gentiles into the bondage of 
 that law which you have in your own person 
 abandoned 
 
 15 Even I then who have been brought up as a Jew 
 to all the observances and expiations of the Mosaical 
 
 16 law, and not as one of the idolatrous Gentiles, am 
 now convinced that no man is acquitted in the sight 
 of God by the expiatory sacrifices of the law, but 
 by faith in the mercies of Christ : and I accordingly 
 rest my faith exclusively upon our Redeemer Jesus 
 Christ, in order that I may be justified through 
 him, and not through those ceremonial observances 
 by which his expiation was prefigured : for I know 
 that by the works of the law no man living can be 
 
 17 justified. If then, whilst I profess to look for 
 justification through Christ's merits only, I am 
 still resorting to other methods to release myself 
 from the yoke of sin, am I not making Christ's 
 merits subordinate in efficacy to the power of sin, by 
 thus practically asserting their incompetency to re- 
 move it ? God forbid that I should so undervalue 
 
 ^ The history of Cornelius, as recorded in the tenth 
 chapter of the Acts, informs us how strong was the original 
 disposition of St. Peter's mind to consider the Gospel dis- 
 pensation as addressed particularly to the members of the 
 Jewish nation, and how reluctant was his final conviction 
 of the abrogation of the Mosaic ritual. Painful as is the 
 contemplation of these little infirmities in men whom Provi- 
 dence has appointed as the great lights of the world, still 
 however they are not without their use, as they afford 
 another and a strong argument to convince us of the 
 accuracy of that form of doctrine, in which men of such 
 dissimilar feelings and prejudices, after these short lived 
 oppositions of opinion, were found ultimately to coincide. 
 1 
 
186 
 
 GALATIANS. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 that merciful dispensation. For if I erect afresh 18 
 those ritual ordinances which the Gospel dispensa- 
 tion has abolished, I return, so far as in me lies, to 
 the original responsibility of those sins which Christ's 
 blood had blotted out. For by acknowledging, 19 
 during my state of Judaism, the sanctions of the 
 law, I became spiritually dead through the penalties 
 of that law, from which death I was restored again 
 to life through the vivifying operation of the Gospel 
 covenant alone. Accordingly I am now crucified 20 
 with Christ ; and yet I live again, or rather it is 
 Christ who now lives within me ; and the life 
 which I now live in the flesh I live solely through 
 my faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and 
 gave himself for me. Let me not then, by return- 21 
 ing to the bondage of the law, throw a slight 
 upon the free mercy of the Gospel of God ; for 
 most assuredly if righteousness could be attained 
 by the observances of the Levitical law, then were 
 Christ's death a superfluous sacrifice \ 
 
 ^ The whole tenor of this passage, and in fact of the 
 entire Epistle, is no less decisive against the Romish doc- 
 trine of penances as a means of reconciliation with God, 
 than it is against the Judaizing heresy of the apostle's 
 days. If a mere human being can make his own personal 
 sufferings an adequate expiation for his sins, then we may 
 assuredly say with St. Paul, that, so far as he is concerned, 
 Christ's death was a superfluous sacrifice. The same 
 argument may be applied to the doctrine of purgatory. 
 If the human soul is to expiate its own offences by its 
 own sufferings in a future state of existence, then Christ's 
 atonement is no longer necessary. Had the devout men 
 of former ages been content to derive their religious 
 opinions from the plain language of Scripture instead of 
 indulging in their own theoretical speculations, it is impossi- 
 
187 
 
 3 O senseless Galatians, who then has bewitched 
 you to seduce you from the truth : you to whom the 
 doctrine of Christ crucified for your sins has been 
 so plainly laid down as the very foundation of your 
 
 2 faith ? Answer me yourselves ; you have many of 
 you, as you know, received the gifts of the Holy 
 Spirit. Were those gifts first communicated in con- 
 sequence of your performance of the ritual works 
 of the law, or in consequence of your faith in the 
 
 3 Gospel of Christ ? Can your understandings be so 
 senseless as to induce you to attempt to make per- 
 fect that righteousness which came to you origin- 
 ally through the operations of the Spirit by the 
 
 4 gross observances of the flesh ? Have you cheer- 
 fully suffered so many temporal privations in order 
 to release yourselves from your carnal bondage, and 
 to attain to the liberty which is by Christ, and are 
 you now returning of your own accord to that self- 
 
 5 same bondage ? Have the gifts of the Holy Spirit 
 which you have received, or the many miracles 
 which yourselves have witnessed, been performed 
 among you through the instrumentality of the works 
 of the Mosaic law, or by faith in the Gospel of 
 
 6 Christ ? Remember what is recorded of our father 
 Abraham, (Gen. xv. 6.) "He believed God, and it 
 
 7 was accounted to him for righteousness." From 
 which passage we infer, that all those who look to 
 God through faith, are the true children of Abra- 
 
 8 ham, and not those of the Jewish nation only. For 
 
 ble to conceive that these doctrines, so completely at variance 
 with the merciful character of the Gospel dispensation, and 
 in their practical effects so fearfully injurious to society, 
 could have found their way into the Church. 
 
188 
 
 GALATIANS. chap. hi. 
 
 God, when he communicated to our forefathers the 
 Scriptures of the old covenant, foreseeing that he 
 would justify the Gentiles through the medium of 
 their faith, anticipated the promises of Christ's 
 Gospel in his communications with the patriarch 
 Abraham, when he declared to him that " in thee 
 shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." It is 9 
 evident therefore that all the children of faitli, all 
 who believe in Christ's expiatory redemption, be 
 they who they may, are included in the blessing 
 then pronounced upon the believing Abraham. On lo 
 the other hand it is evident from those same Scrip- 
 tures, that all who look only for that righteousness 
 which is communicated by the duties and observ- 
 ances of the Mosaic law, are subjected by that 
 same law not to a blessing, but to an actual curse. 
 Witness, for instance, the denunciation, (Dent, 
 xxvii. 26.) " Cursed is every one who continueth 
 not completely in all the performances enjoined by 
 the book of the law, to do them." And who, of 
 all the sons of Israel, shall say that his perform- 
 ance has been so perfect as to free him from the 
 effects of this curse ? Now that no man can stand 1 1 
 acquitted in the sight of God through the perform- 
 ance of the works of the law is again evident from 
 the same Scriptures, (Habakkuk ii. 4.) " the just 
 shall live by faithr But obedience to the ritual 12 
 law has nothing to do with faith ; on the contrary, 
 that law is a law of works, and of works only. As 
 witness its own words, (Leviticus xviii. 5.) " the 
 man who doeth all these things shall live through 
 their means." 
 
 From that curse then which is thus denounced 13 
 against all who, owing obedience to the covenant 
 
CHAP. III. GALATIANS. 
 
 189 
 
 of works, have fallen short of the perfection which it 
 requires, Christ has redeemed us, by becoming in 
 his own person a curse in our stead ; for such, ac- 
 cording to the express language of the same Scrip- 
 tures, he has literally been, (Deut. xxi. 23.) " cursed 
 
 14 is every one that hangeth on a tree." And this he 
 did in order that the blessing which was promised 
 to the children of Abraham might extend even to 
 the Gentiles, through faith in Christ Jesus, that 
 believing in him w^e might receive the promises of 
 the Spirit. 
 
 15 Brethren, let me use a familiar illustration bor- 
 rowed from the every day transactions of society. 
 When a covenant or deed of obligation between two 
 parties has once been formally ratified by each of 
 them, it is binding in all its parts down to its 
 minutest literal construction ; nor from that moment 
 can either of the contracting parties subtract from, 
 or add to, one tittle of the obligations thus volun- 
 
 16 tarily incurred. Now, with this observation in our 
 minds, let us refer to the strict letter of God's 
 promise to Abraham. What says it? "To Abra- 
 ham, and his seed'' Here the reference is clearly 
 to some one individual, and not to a multitude of 
 persons: not to thy seeds, but to thy seed^. That 
 
 ^ It is worthy of observation, that in this, as in all his 
 other references to the books of the Old Testament, St. 
 Paul makes his appeal to them as to the inspired oracles of 
 God in the strictest acceptation of the term : giving them 
 credit not merely for substantial truth in their main and 
 general purport^ but for a store of implied wisdom which 
 the eye of the student may be able to trace in their most 
 minute and apparently trivial peculiarities of expression. 
 This consideration ought surely to have had sufficient 
 
190 
 
 GALATIANS. 
 
 CHAP. ITI. 
 
 one individual therefore evidently designates Christ. 
 Again I would observe, that this original promise of 17 
 a future Redeemer in the person of Christ made to 
 Abraham, cannot be cancelled by a subsequent and 
 more restricted law, which was not given till four 
 hundred and thirty years afterwards to Abraham's 
 descendants. For if our redemption is after all to 18 
 be purchased solely by our obedience to the law of 
 Moses, there is an end of that redemption which 
 we look for through the original promise made to 
 Abraham. 
 
 But if so, what then, we naturally ask, was God's 19 
 purpose in giving the law to Moses at all ? I 
 answer, that it was an intermediate provision in- 
 tended for the preservation of religious obedience 
 and good morals among the Israelites, till the ful- 
 
 weight to check that licence of theory with regard to the 
 inspiration of the Jewish Scriptures which has been so 
 hastily adopted by some theological writers of the present 
 day. It has been said that the New Testament may be 
 true, even though large portions of the Old should be 
 shown to be founded upon mistake. I own, I see not how 
 this opinion can for a moment be entertained by those who 
 attach credit to the authority of St. Paul. How far the 
 doctrine of the strict verbal inspiration of Scripture is 
 tenable in all points may perhaps admit of question. Cer- 
 tain however it is, that the manner in which our Saviour 
 and his apostles uniformly refer to the dicta of the Law 
 and the Prophets, if it does not actually sanction this 
 latter conclusion, ought at all events to impress us with 
 a fearful sense of the responsibility we incur, when in 
 attempting to reconcile the mysteries of Scripture to the 
 prejudices of mankind, we explain away its direct and 
 palpable assertions, or assail the credibility of its minutest 
 historical facts. 
 
191 
 
 ness of God's good time, when he should redeem 
 the promise made to Abraham ; and accordingly it 
 was delivered by angels ^ into the hands of Moses, 
 whom God had chosen as an intervening agent 
 
 20 between him and the Israelites. But that Moses 
 was appointed the intervening agent between God 
 and the Israelites is at once a proof that the Mosaic 
 law was, in the strictest interpretation of the term, 
 a covenant^^ and in consequence binding only on the 
 contracting "parties ; but these special dealings with 
 the Jewish nation form rather the exception than 
 the main character of God's moral government of 
 his creatures. As the Lord and Arbiter of the 
 whole human race, he rules over them generally by 
 the single and authoritative exercise of his will, and 
 not by a system of conventional dispensations. 
 
 21 Was then the law of Moses derogatory to the 
 promise originally made by God to Abraham ? By 
 no means. Had the circumstances of human nature 
 made it possible that our salvation could be obtained 
 by perfect obedience to a law of works, I doubt 
 not but that God in his wisdom would have so 
 
 22 arranged it. This however, in consequence of man's 
 inherent infirmity, not being the case. Scripture, 
 in order to conduct us to salvation by another road, 
 has called the whole of mankind, vf^ho lay alike in- 
 
 ' The delivery of the ritual law to Moses by the inter- 
 vention of angels is again alluded to by St. Paul in the 
 Epistle to the Hebrews, chap. ii. 2. The book of Exodus 
 expressly asserts, (Exod. xxxiv. 20.) that Moses was not 
 admitted to a sight of God, although he is elsewhere 
 described as conversing with him face to face ; which is in 
 perfect accordance with what is here stated by the apostle. 
 
192 
 
 GALATIANS. chap. iv. 
 
 volved in all the penalties of disobedience, to the 
 gracious promise of redemption to be imparted to 
 believers through the operation of faith in the merits 
 of Jesus Christ. Accordingly, before the covenant 23 
 of faith was open to the acceptance of mankind, we 
 were kept under the intermediate and provisional 
 stipulations of the Mosaic law, waiting anxiously 
 for that better dispensation of faith in Christ, which 
 was in its due time to be revealed. To return then 24 
 to the question, " why did God give the law to 
 Moses at all ?" I answer, that he gave it, in order 
 that it might serve as a schoolmaster to train us up 
 for Christ, that our salvation might finally be con- 
 summated through faith. That dispensation of faith 25 
 having been now at length revealed to mankind in 
 the maturity of God's arrangements, they are con- 
 sequently no longer under their former schoolmaster. 
 For all of you have now become the sons of God by 26 
 faith in Christ Jesus : having been baptized in the 27 
 name of Christ, and having become participators in 
 the covenant of redemption by faith in Christ. 
 
 Henceforth then there is no distinction between 28 
 Jew and Gentile ; between the slave and the free- 
 man ; between the male and the female ; for all of 
 you are alike comprehended in the covenant of 
 Christ ; and if you are Christ's, then you are the 29 
 children of Abraham, and heirs to the promise made 
 to him and all his descendants. 
 
 Having termed you heirs, I would remind you 4 
 that a man's son and heir, however great the suc- 
 cession which he may one day look to inherit, is, 
 whilst in his minority, little different from a servant, 
 being put under tutors and guardians until the time 2 
 fixed by his father for his becoming of full age. 
 
CHAP. TV. 
 
 GALATIANS. 
 
 193 
 
 3 In like manner we, during that intermediate dis- 
 pensation of the Mosaic law, were as children put 
 under the provisional tuition of a carnal form of 
 
 4 rierhteousness. But when the fulness of time ar- 
 rived, God sent his Son into the world, a Son born 
 of a woman, and under the covenant of the Mosaic 
 
 5 law, in order that he might redeem those who 
 together with him had lain under the obligations of 
 that law, so that also together with him they might 
 
 6 receive the full privileges of sons. And accordingly 
 it is, because he has thus acknowledged you for his 
 sons, that God by his Holy Spirit authorizes and 
 encourages you to invoke him in your prayers by 
 the familiar and endearing name of Father. 
 
 7 From this moment then you are each of you no 
 longer a servant, but a son : and if a son, then an 
 
 8 heir of God through Christ. Look back then for a 
 moment to the servitude from which you have 
 escaped. Formerly, before you had learned to 
 worship the true God you were slaves to the most 
 degrading superstitions, trembling before your ima- 
 
 9 ginary deities. Now on the contrary that you know 
 who the true God is, or rather let me say, now that 
 the true God acknowledges you for his sons, how, 
 I cannot but ask, can you be so lost to the enjoy- 
 ment of your Christian liberty, as to be desirous 
 of returning to the false and fantastic righteousness 
 which consists in a slavish deference for trifling 
 
 10 ceremonies, converting your spiritual obedience into 
 a superstitious reverence for this or that day, or 
 
 11 month, or season, or year? Brethren, I much fear 
 that, if such be your ideas of the holiness conveyed 
 by the Gospel covenant, all my past exertions for 
 your instruction have been but lost labour. 
 
194 
 
 GALATIANS. 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 Take not, however, amiss what I have now said, 12 
 nor imagine for a moment that I speak to you in 
 bitterness. Individually I have nothing w^hatever 
 to complain of at your hands. You know under 13 
 what painful infirmities I first came to preach the 
 Gospel among you ; and yet, I cannot but recollect 14 
 with what kind attention you received me in that 
 trial of aflfliction, and hailed me, weak and broken 
 down as I then was, as God's own messenger; as 
 though I had been Christ himself announcing his 
 own Gospel. What then is now become of all the 15 
 blessings which you invoked on that occasion upon 
 my head ? for I call yourselves to witness, that you 
 would on that day have plucked out your very eyes, 
 and given them to me, had I required them of you. 
 Has your aifection for me become less because I IG 
 have persevered in preaching to you nothing but the 
 simple unadulterated truth ^? False teachers, believe 17 
 me, have gotten among you ; men who flatter your 
 prejudices, and decry my doctrine, merely that they 
 may supplant me in your esteem, and occupy my 
 place. Let then your affection and obedience be 18 
 
 ^ This is a difficulty with which the ministers of the 
 Gospel will have to struggle to the end of time. The 
 simple tenets of revelation will not allow themselves to be 
 bent and distorted according to the fluctuating tastes and 
 prejudices of mankind. But the human mind becomes 
 fastidious with regard even to the most important truths 
 when incessantly repeated. Hence the advantage which 
 the innovator in religion possesses over the sound and 
 cautious teacher. The influx of new ideas is hailed as the 
 acquisition of new truths ; and a mere change of position 
 in the human faculties is mistaken for a positive advance- 
 ment in substantial knowledge. 
 
CHAP. IV. GALATIANS. 195 
 
 manifested, as formerly, by your persevering atten- 
 tion during my absence to the pure doctrine which 
 I have laboured to inculcate, and not merely to my 
 person when I may at any time accidentally come 
 
 19 among you. My dear children, with whom I am as 
 it were once more in the pains of child-birth until 
 
 20 you shall be completely born to the faith of Christ, 
 I could indeed earnestly wish that I were at this 
 moment with you, in order that I might address you 
 in stronger language than I have yet used, for I 
 
 21 am distressed and anxious on your account. You 
 wish, it seems, to conform to the ceremonial usages 
 of the law ; if such be your feeling, look at least 
 into what is related in that very book of the law 
 
 22 which you so much admire. You will find it there 
 recorded that Abraham had two sons ; the one by 
 
 23 a servant, the other by a free woman : but the son 
 of the servant was begotten according to the usual 
 course of nature ; the son of the freewoman, on the 
 other hand, was born by a special intervention of 
 
 24 Providence in conformity with God's promise. Now 
 these women are types of the two covenants ; the 
 one, Agar, who was born in slavery, represents the 
 law which was given to Moses from mount Sinai ; 
 
 25 for the name Agar is at this moment one of the 
 appellations of mount Sinai in Arabia ; and accord- 
 ingly under this type we recognise the earthly 
 Jerusalem, which is at present with her children 
 in bondage to the slavish obligations of the Jewish 
 
 26 covenant : but the heavenly Jerusalem on the con- 
 trary is free, and the common mother of all true 
 
 27 believers. As it is written by the prophet Isaiah, 
 (Isaiah liv. 1.) " Rejoice, thou barren that bearest 
 not ; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not, 
 
 o 2 
 
196 
 
 GALATIANS. 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 for the desolate hath more children than she who 
 hath an husband." We therefore, brethren, like 28 
 Isaac, are the children of the promise. But then, 29 
 as we are told that he who was born naturally per- 
 secuted him who w^as born according to the divine 
 promise, even so it is now, as is manifest from the 
 persecution which the professors of the Gospel daily 
 experience from the animosity of the Jews. Yet 30 
 w^hat says Scripture for our comfort ? (Genesis 
 xxi. 10.) " Cast out the bondwoman and her son, 
 for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir 
 with the son of the free woman." Now we, my 31 
 brethren, are not the sons of the bondwoman, but of 
 the free. 
 
 Stand firm therefore in the liberty with which 5 
 Christ has made us free, and be not again entangled 
 in the yoke of bondage. Behold, I Paul declare to 2 
 you, that if you adopt the rite of circumcision, the 
 expiation offered through Christ's merits shall avail 
 you nothing : for I assure you, that every man who 3 
 adopts circumcision as a means of justification, by so 
 doing enters into a positive obligation to perform all 
 the injunctions of the law whatever : and they who 4 
 look for justification and remission of their sins 
 through the ritual works of the law, have nothing 
 to do with the redemption wrought for us by Christ ; 
 they have forfeited their share in the covenant of 
 grace and mercy. For we Christians, aspiring to 5 
 spiritual holiness, wait for that hope of justification 
 which is to be obtained through faith ; for to all 6 
 who have become partakers in Christ's covenant, 
 the mere accidental fact of circumcision or of un- 
 circumcision is of no manner of avail ; that which is 
 really available with God being that faith and con- 
 
CHAP. V. 
 
 aALATIANS. 
 
 197 
 
 fidence in him which operates through love and 
 
 7 charity to God and man. You were all of you, 
 some short time since, well grounded in this belief. 
 What seducer then has now corrupted you, and 
 
 8 turned you away from it ? Most assuredly this 
 doctrine is not from Him to whose gracious sum- 
 
 9 mons you originally listened. Beware then whom 
 you resort to as your teachers ; and recollect how 
 easily heresy finds its way even into the true Church, 
 and how a little leaven may leaven and corrupt the 
 
 10 whole lump. I firmly rely upon what I know of 
 you, that you will escape from these seductions ; 
 but the seducer, whoever he be, must expect to 
 
 11 bear the just consequences of his offence. That 
 your present misapprehension of the nature of the 
 Christian covenant cannot be attrtbuted to any in- 
 struction which you have received from me is evident 
 from this: that I am at this moment an object of 
 persecution to the Jews, because I teach the useless- 
 ness of circumcision. If I would but so far accom- 
 modate my doctrine to their prejudices as to insist 
 upon the necessity of circumcision, 1 might preach 
 at the same time the faith of Christ crucified without 
 offence or danger. 
 
 12 I sincerely wish, brethren, that these false and 
 temporizing teachers were finally excluded from 
 your society, that you might no longer be exposed 
 
 13 to risk from their seductions, nor be induced to 
 sacrifice that liberty in Christ to the enjoyment of 
 which you have been called. When, however, I 
 speak of liberty, be assured that I mean not licen- 
 tiousness ; it is not the liberty of unrestrained pas- 
 sion which I recommend, but the cordial and unre- 
 strained exercise of every kind and benevolent feeling 
 
198 GALATIANS. chap. v. 
 
 in mutual submission to each other. For, after all, 14 
 the numerous and nice distinctions of the Levitical 
 law itself, which you so much admire, have this 
 single maxim as their great end and object, " that you 
 love your neighbour as yourself:" if therefore your 15 
 zeal lead only to hatred and bitterness, your ruin, 
 both temporal and spiritual, must be the final con- 
 sequence. I repeat then, let your ways be those of \6 
 spiritual purity and love, and the sinful and impure 
 propensities of your carnal nature will necessarily 
 lose their hold upon you. For the inclinations of 17 
 our carnal nature are at direct variance with our 
 spiritual nature ; and those of our spiritual nature 
 with our carnal nature ; each urging us in opposite 
 directions, so that too frequently, where conscience 
 would impel us one way, appetite bears us the con- 
 trary. But where the better and spiritual feelings 18 
 obtain the mastery, you are no longer under a law 
 extreme to mark every nice and inevitable devia- 
 tion. Now if you ask me what are those works of 19 
 our carnal nature, the indulgence in which is per- 
 fectly incompatible with spiritual holiness, I reply, 
 that they are such as cannot possibly be mistaken. 
 ^ They are adultery, fornication, impure thoughts, 
 
 ' St. Paul has been emphatically designated as the apostle 
 of faith ; but this appellation can be considered as really 
 apposite only, if under the term " faith we mean to imply 
 the necessary and inseparable accompaniment of a holy life. 
 This is the final inference to which all his arguments in- 
 variably tend. If he attributes any priority to faith as 
 compared with works, it is a priority of time, and not of 
 importance ; that priority which attaches to cause as con- 
 nected with effect, but which affords no criterion whatever 
 by which to judge of their respective value. 
 
 1 
 
CHAP. VI. GALATIANS. 
 
 199 
 
 20 lascivious habits, idolatry, sorcery, animosity, con- 
 tentions, emulations, violent anger, strifes, schisms, 
 
 21 heresies, envy, murder, drunkenness, riotous revels, 
 and all other kindred vices : v^ith regard to which I 
 now solemnly warn you, as I have warned you on 
 former occasions, that " they who do such things 
 
 22 shall not inherit the kingdom of God." On the 
 other hand, the marks which attend a progress in 
 spiritual holiness are these ; love, cheerfulness, peace, 
 slowness to anger, gentleness, goodness, sincerity, 
 
 23 suavity, temperance : where these form the character 
 of the mind, no captious distinctions of the ritual 
 law shall be allowed to strip them of their reward. 
 
 24 Recollect then, that the true followers of Christ 
 have crucified with him their own carnal affections 
 
 25 and appetites ; and recollect also, that " the proof 
 of your being led by the Spirit is your living according 
 
 26 to the works of the Spirit ;" not a self-complacent 
 opinion of your own supposed merits, or a depreciation 
 or jealousy of others. 
 
 6 If then any one among you, my brethren, be 
 surprised into any fault, such as those to which I 
 have alluded, do you who strive to walk according 
 to the Spirit correct that person in the true feeling 
 of meekness and charity ; recollecting your very 
 precarious tenure of your own better and purer 
 principles, and fearing lest you should in your turn 
 fall into temptation as he has done. 
 
 2 Bear one another's burdens ; both their spiritual 
 and their bodily infirmities ; and so shall you fulfil 
 
 3 the holy law of Christ. For if any man prides him- 
 self upon his own strength, being, as we all are, 
 intrinsically weak, be assured that he is laying up 
 eventual shame and mortification for himself. 
 
200 
 
 GALATIANS. chap. vi. 
 
 Let therefore every man look earnestly after his 4 
 own conduct, and not draw invidious comparisons 
 between himself and his neighbour ; and so let him 
 make himself, if he can, individually excellent, not 
 merely relatively so : for each man must bear his 5 
 own responsibility for his own conduct, be it what 
 it may. 
 
 Let every learner and pupil in the Christian know- 6 
 ledge, rejmy his teacher for the instruction he has 
 received from him by every display of affection and 
 gratitude in his power. 
 
 Deceive not yourselves, my brethren, we cannot 7 
 trifle with an all-seeing God. Be assured therefore, 
 that as a man sows in good or evil works, in the 
 like quality and proportion he shall eventually reap. 
 He who sows to the propensities of the flesh, shall 8 
 from the flesh reap corruption : but he who sows to 
 the pure inclinations of the Spirit, shall from the 
 Spirit reap eternal life. Let us not therefore be 9 
 wearied in well doing; for in God's own time we 
 shall, if we persevere unto the end, reap our reward. 
 According to our various opportunities then let us lo 
 do good to all men ; and more particularly to our 
 brethren in the Christian covenant. 
 
 You see how large a letter I have written to you 1 1 
 with my own hand. 
 
 Believe me it is with an eye to their own security 12 
 from molestation on the part of the Jews that your 
 selfish and false teachers have so earnestly pressed 
 you to be circumcised : they fear persecution if they 
 teach in its full simplicity the doctrine of spiritual 
 liberty obtained for us by Christ's meritorious ex- 
 piation. As a proof of this you may observe, that 13 
 those same persons observe not the other injunctions 
 
CHAP. VI. GALATIANS. 
 
 201 
 
 of the law of Moses, whilst they at the same time 
 make a parade of their external mark of circum- 
 cision, and boast of their having induced you to 
 
 14 adopt it also as they have done. But for my own 
 part, God forbid that I should boast of any thing as 
 the symbol or means of salvation excepting Christ's 
 meritorious atonement only : through which all 
 worldly interests and desires are crucified to me, 
 
 15 and I to them. For within the pale of the Christian 
 covenant it is not the accidental fact of our circum- 
 cision or of our uncircumcision which conduces to 
 our salvation, but the total renovation of the moral 
 character with all its various inclinations and pro- 
 
 16 pensities. And accordingly to as many as live in 
 conformity to this rule, whether they be Jew or 
 
 17 Gentile, peace and mercy be unto them. For 
 myself, I make this reply to those who insist upon 
 the necessity of the mark of circumcision : " that 
 I bear upon my flesh Christ's own mark, the marks 
 of that persecution which 1 have sustained in his 
 service." 
 
 18 May, my brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ be with your spirit. Amen. 
 
 The history of all religions is the history of the various 
 expedients by which mankind have in all ages attempted 
 to silence the clamours of conscience, and to avert the 
 wrath of heaven. Terror being a much stronger stimulant 
 to the human breast than hope, the impressions entertained 
 of the divine attributes by uncivilized nations have ever 
 been of a gloomy and repulsive character ; and conse- 
 quently the expiatory rites which have been invented by a 
 
202 
 
 GALATIANS. 
 
 superstitious imagination under such circumstances have 
 almost invariably been characterized by cruelty and atrocity. 
 A propensity however so deeply rooted in the constitution 
 of our frame does not entirely disappear as civilization ad- 
 vances, and accordingly we learn from history that some of 
 the worst superstitions of a darker period still continued 
 to haunt mankind even in the most refined sera of pagan 
 antiquity. The effectual death blow to terrors of this 
 description was that given by the revelation of the Christian 
 covenant, which announces to us the important fact of the 
 final reconciliation of God with the human race by means 
 of an expiation, the completeness and sufficiency of which, 
 if Christianity be true, cannot for a moment be doubted. 
 A sincere believer in that doctrine therefore must neces- 
 sarily, if he reasons consistently, enjoy an emancipation 
 from superstitious fears which no other form of religious 
 belief can profess to communicate. True however as this 
 proposition is in theory, it is no less true, that in every 
 period of Christianity sincere believers have been found 
 who have wanted acuteness of perception to apprehend, or 
 strength of mind unreservedly to rely upon, that complete 
 liberty and reconciliation purchased for them by the invaluable 
 atonement of Christ. Of all heresies, that which a suscep- 
 tible and fragile mind most easily slides into is that of an 
 inability to comprehend the full extent of the divine mercy. 
 Hence it is that, conscious of its own defects and infirmi- 
 ties, it is ever pondering over its own little and fantastic 
 attempts to avert the wrath of an offended God ; ever striv- 
 ing to superadd to that great and all-sufficient sacrifice for 
 sin once offered the tribute of its own personal sufferings, 
 or of ceremonial rites to which from prejudice or education 
 it has been taught to attach an imaginary value. Super- 
 stition is the canker which must necessarily take possession 
 of every delicate mind which, abandoning the infallible 
 guidance of Scripture, has recourse to its own conjectures 
 for obtaining relief in a malady which nothing less than 
 the word of revelation can cure. We cannot therefore be 
 surprised to find how early the abuses resulting from this 
 very natural propensity began to manifest themselves in 
 
GALATIANS. 
 
 203 
 
 the Christian Church : and when we recollect to what an 
 enormous bulk the corruptions derived from these gloomy 
 and mistaken views have accumulated in the subsequent 
 course of ages, we can be less surprised at the earnest and 
 emphatic protest of the apostle against their first admis- 
 sion. " Let me fall into the hands of God, and not of 
 man," was the exclamation of David, when left to choose 
 between the visitations of pestilence or the sword of the 
 enemy ; and so will every Christian be disposed to exclaim, 
 when he turns from the contemplation of the fearful self- 
 inflicted sufferings of the ascetic, through mistaken notions 
 of piety, to that calm sunshine of humble gratitude which 
 the Christian Scriptures not only ofifer to our acceptance, 
 but even impose upon us as a duty. It may be urged, 
 however, that this mistaken estimate of man's relative 
 position with his Maker is rather an infirmity than a sin. 
 It may be said, " Why severely blame a weakness, the 
 painful effbcts of which descend chiefly upon the head of 
 the party yielding to it, and which may appear to require 
 rather pity than censure V But we shall hardly be dis- 
 posed to repeat this question, when we recollect how com- 
 pletely destructive this view of religion is to our purest and 
 best feelings of love to God ; to our faith in the efficacy 
 of our Lord's atonement ; and to that cheerful and exhi- 
 larating sentiment of piety, which a more scriptural notion 
 of Christianity is so well calculated to throw over our whole 
 social existence. It is true that a superstitious Christian 
 may be an object of commiseration rather than of personal 
 blame : but so is every one else who sins through ignorance : 
 but though a want of knowledge may be a justification in 
 morals, it is no alleviation of the incalculable evil which 
 results to mankind through its means. We should recol- 
 lect also, that, as the minds which are naturally most alive 
 to the best feelings of piety are the most inclined to fall 
 into these painful errors, the measure of the injury thence 
 resulting to them individually, as well as to society in gene- 
 ral, is not merely the actual suffering which such principles 
 may occasion to them ; but that we ought also to take into 
 the account the destruction of so many available means of 
 
204 
 
 GALATIANS. 
 
 enticing others to religion by a bright and attractive exam- 
 ple, and the loss of so much sincere and well-founded joy, 
 which the contemplation of the immensity of God's revealed 
 mercies is so well calculated to produce, and which has thus 
 by a fatal misapprehension been converted into unprofitable 
 terror. If it be urged that our Saviour himself recom- 
 mends one species of mortification, namely, fasting, as a 
 religious duty, and himself set the example of it, the answer 
 is obvious ; that as a means of piety, as a corrective of the 
 petulance produced by prosperity or health, it may be, and 
 is, highly profitable : the real mistake is, when it is relied 
 upon as actually meritorious, and as a substitute for that 
 expiation for sin, which can be obtained through Christ's 
 blood alone. The various forms under which this very 
 natural but pernicious delusion has shown itself in different 
 ages, according to the circumstances of each respective 
 period, is matter of curious but melancholy observation. To 
 the converted Jew and the Judaizing Gentile of the primi- 
 tive Church it suggested an anxiety to return to the vexa- 
 tious Levitical bondage from which they had been recently 
 emancipated, and to adopt an heterogeneous and ill-assorted 
 creed, in which the practice of circumcision and other un- 
 profitable ceremonies was considered as a concurrent means 
 of justification with the atonement of Christ itself. A few 
 centuries afterwards it peopled the Egyptian deserts with 
 ascetics, who, having originally retired thither for purposes 
 of general mortification of the body, finally set the example, 
 which was so eagerly followed in other countries, of the 
 most fantastic and capriciously diversified modes of self- 
 torment. It introduced the unscriptural doctrine of purga- 
 tory into the Eastern and Western Churches, and gave rise 
 to the institution of the various monastic orders, and with 
 them to a state of spiritual bondage, far exceeding that 
 against which St. Paul so eloquently declaims in the Epistle 
 now before us. To trace it through its infinite diversity of 
 shapes would be endless ; perhaps, in fact, few piously dis- 
 posed persons exist who have not at some period of their 
 lives felt a tendency to this delusion ; from which they have 
 finally escaped only by fixing their attention upon that one 
 
GALATIANS. 
 
 205 
 
 great basis of all scriptural truth, " Christ crucified,"" which 
 as it affords the only solid foundation for a believer's hope, 
 so it is the great practical security for a holy and pure life. 
 If the Protestant communities have been less disfigured by 
 these gloomy superstitions than the Church of Rome, it is 
 because their knowledge of the sacred writings is greater ; 
 without the continual and salutary corrective afforded by 
 which, no goodness of intention, no degree of piety, how- 
 ever sincere, could have preserved them from the same 
 pitiable degradation. 
 
THE 
 
 EPISTLE OF PAUL 
 
 TO THE 
 
 EPHESIANS. 
 
 The following Epistle is generally supposed to have been 
 written at Rome during the time of St. Paul's first impri- 
 sonment, about the year of our Lord 61. For the narrative 
 of the apostle's visit to Ephesus, see Acts xix. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 
 
 Paul an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of 1 
 God, to the saints who are in Ephesus and to the 
 believers in Jesus Christ ; grace be unto you and 2 
 peace from God our Father, and from our Lord 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 Section I. 
 
 The object of the Epistle to the Ephesians, as of that to the Romans, 
 is to assert the absolute impartiality of God's moral government in 
 his dealings with mankind, and to show that the blessings resulting 
 from the expiatory redemption of Christ, which had been prepared 
 by his foreknowledge before the creation of the world for the abolition 
 of the sin introduced by our first parents, are offered indiscriminately 
 to the acceptance of the whole human race, whether Jew or Gentile. 
 This part of the argument occupies the first three chapters. The 
 remainder of the Epistle consists of an earnest exhortation to an holy 
 life, as a consequence necessarily deducible from this doctrine. 
 
CHAP. I. 
 
 EPHESIANS. 
 
 207 
 
 3 Blessed be God and the Father of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual bless- 
 ing in the heavenly things which are in Christ ; 
 
 4 according as he chose us in him before the founda- 
 tion of the world, that we might be holy and with- 
 
 5 out blame before him, in love ; having predestined 
 us to the adoption unto himself through Jesus Christ, 
 
 6 according to the good pleasure of his will ; to the 
 praise of that glorious display of mercy which he 
 has extended to us in the person of his beloved Son, 
 
 7 by whom we have redemption through the expiation 
 of his blood, namely, the forgiveness of our sins, 
 
 8 according to the riches of his grace and mercy in 
 
 9 which he has abounded towards us ; having made 
 known to us in all wisdom and divine knowledge 
 the mystery of his will (according to that good 
 
 10 pleasure which he purposed in himself) to gather 
 together in the completion of his own good time, 
 all things in Christ, both the things which are in 
 heaven, and the things which are in earth ; that 
 
 11 they should remain in him. In whom both we 
 Jews have obtained an inheritance, according to 
 the predetermined purpose of Him who makes all 
 
 12 things subservient to his will ; that having rested 
 our hopes in this life upon the promises of Christ, 
 we might hereafter receive our eternal reward to 
 
 13 the glory of his merciful dispensations ; — and in 
 whom you Gentiles also, having embraced the word 
 of truth, namely, the eternal Gospel of salvation, 
 have reposed your belief, and have had his gracious 
 promises ratified to you by the gifts of the Holy 
 
 14 Spirit: — that awful pledge of our future inheritance 
 given to us as our consolation in this life, to comfort 
 us until the day when he shall redeem his pur- 
 
208 
 
 EPHESIANS. CHAP. T. 
 
 chased possession, and display the whole glory of 
 his grace and mercy. 
 
 Wherefore I on my part, having heard of your 15 
 faith in the Lord Jesus, and your love towards 
 all his holy servants, do not cease giving thanks 16 
 on your account, making mention of you in my 
 prayers, and beseeching the God of our Lord Jesus 17 
 Christ, the Father of glory, to give you the Spirit 
 of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of 
 Him : that the eyes of your understanding may be 18 
 enlightened, in order that you may know to what an 
 immensity of hope he calls you to look forward ; 
 and what are the riches of the glory of his inherit- 
 ance which he has imparted to his saints ; and what 19 
 is the immensity of his power as displayed towards 
 us who believe in him : a power which shall one 20 
 day raise us up from the dead, as it has already 
 raised Christ ; calling him from the grave, and plac- 
 ing him upon God's own right hand in heaven ; far 21 
 above all the ^ angelic beings ; and above every name 
 
 ' The passage which I have rendered " far above all the 
 angelic beings,'^ is in our established version literally trans- 
 lated from the original Greek " far above all principality, 
 and power, and might, and dominion.'^ It is well known 
 that the Jewish commentators arranged the angelic hier- 
 archy in three classes, in the following order : first, Sera- 
 phim, Cherubim, Thrones : second, Dominions, Virtues, 
 Powers : third, Principalities, Archangels, Angels. St. 
 Paul is evidently alluding to this division in the present 
 passage, as also in chap. iii. 10. and in chap. vi. 12. of this 
 Epistle. See also Colossians i. 16. and ii. 10. 15. Our 
 poet Milton has reference to the same tradition in various 
 passages of his Paradise Lost ; as in the following verse, 
 
 Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers. 
 Par. Lost, book v. verse 601. 
 
CHAP. II. 
 
 EPHESIANS. 
 
 209 
 
 that is named not only in this world, but in that 
 
 22 which is to come ; and placing all things under his 
 feet, and making him to be the universal head over 
 
 23 his mystical body, the Church ; and the fulness of 
 him who fills all things, and whose glorious essence 
 
 2 pervades all places : of him who has quickened 
 you to life in Christ ; you who were dead in your 
 
 2 trespasses and sins, in which you once walked ac- 
 cording to the manners of this world ; making your- 
 selves servants to the prince of the power of the air, 
 that evil spirit who still works in the children of 
 
 3 disobedience ; amongst whom we Jews also formerly 
 pursued our course in the appetites of our flesh, 
 following all the evil propensities of our carnal 
 inclinations and our corrupt imaginations. For we 
 were, by our nature, like the Gentiles, the children 
 
 4 of wrath, but God in the riches of his mercy loved 
 
 5 and took compassion upon us, and quickened us also 
 to life in Christ, who like you were dead in our 
 sins, (for the salvation whether of Jew or Gentile is 
 
 6 the work of his free mercy only,) and has raised 
 you and us up together, and has given us our place 
 
 7 amongst the heavenly things in Christ Jesus ; in 
 order that he might show, in the ages yet to come, 
 the superabundant wealth of his mercy, in his good- 
 
 8 ness towards us in Jesus Christ. For your salvation, 
 I repeat, is through his mercy only, the consequence 
 
 9 of your firm reliance upon him : it is not your own 
 work, but God's free gift to you : not purchased by 
 your righteousness, that no man may set up his own 
 
 10 merits against the loving kindness of God. For in 
 all respects we are his work, created anew by him in 
 the Spirit of Christ Jesus, that we might serve him 
 in good works, which God has prepared and ap- 
 
210 
 
 EPHESIANS. CHAP. II. 
 
 pointed for us, that we might walk in them as his 
 servants. 
 
 Remember then, my brethren, that you were 11 
 formerly Gentiles, living according to the lusts of 
 the flesh ; despised, because of your uncircumcision, 
 by the Jews who boasted of their own circumcision 
 as God's distinguishing mark impressed upon their 
 bodies; that you were in those days ignorant of 12 
 your Redeemer, excluded from the covenant of 
 the Mosaic dispensation, and strangers to God's 
 stipulated promises in Jesus Christ, running your 
 career through this world without hope, and with- 
 out the knowledge of God ; and then again remem- 13 
 ber with gratitude that you are now no longer 
 aliens from him, but admitted near to Christ, and 
 having an interest and participation in the redemp- 
 tion through his blood. For he it is who has made 14 
 our peace both with himself, and with one another ; 
 having broken down that partition Wall of jealousy 
 which separated the Jew from the Gentile, and 15 
 having abolished by the sacrifice of himself the 
 rigorous law of ritual injunctions ; in order that out 
 of these two divisions of mankind he might build 
 up a new and united race : establishing harmony 
 between them, and reconciling both to God in the 16 
 one holy covenant of the cross, having destroyed all 
 the former animosity which existed between them. 
 Therefore has he preached the tidings of salvation 17 
 as well to those who were at a distance as to 
 those who were near ; giving to all of us, both 1 8 
 Jew and Gentile, one common access, through one 
 and the same Spirit, to God the Father. From 19 
 this moment therefore you are no longer foreigners 
 and strangers to us, but fellow citizens with God's 
 
CHAP. III. 
 
 EPHESIANS. 
 
 2J1 
 
 20 servants, and members of his household : being 
 built, as we ourselves are, upon the foundation 
 of the apostles and the prophets, Jesus Christ him- 
 self being the chief corner stone of the building ; 
 
 21 in whom all the several portions being duly united 
 form one great edifice, an holy temple to the Lord : 
 
 22 an integral part of which edifice you yourselves 
 are, in order that God's blessed Spirit may dwell 
 within you. 
 
 3 On this account it is that I Paul*, am at this time 
 a prisoner ; because as a minister of Jesus Christ 
 I have proclaimed salvation to you the Gentiles. 
 
 2 For you are all, I trust, aware of the dispensation 
 of God's mercy which has been given to me on 
 
 3 your account, in the mysterious revelation to me of 
 his will respecting you, (as I have mentioned to you 
 
 4 in a former letter, by referring to which you may 
 perceive the knowledge of the dispensations of 
 
 5 Christ which hals been vouchsafed to me,) a revela- 
 tion which in the past ages was kept back from the 
 knowledge of mankind, but which has been recently 
 communicated to his holy apostles and prophets by 
 
 6 the Spirit, namely that " the Gentiles should be 
 fellow heirs together with the Jews, and members 
 of the same body, and joint partakers in the same 
 blessed promise of redemption through Christ, by 
 
 7 faith in his Gospel." Of which Gospel I am a 
 minister, according to the grace and miraculous 
 gifts which have been bestowed upon me by God ; 
 
 8 and although less than the least of his saints, I have 
 received this gracious appointment to preach among 
 the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of the Gospel 
 
 9 of Christ, and to teach all men the mystery of that 
 
 p2 
 
212 EPHESIANS. chap. hi. 
 
 dispensation which has been reserved ' from the be- 
 ginning of time among the secret counsels of Him 
 who has created all things through Jesus Christ ; in 
 order that his manifold wisdom, as displayed through lo 
 his Church, might be finally made manifest to all 
 
 * It is expressly asserted in various parts of the aposto- 
 lical Epistles, that the redemption of mankind by the expia- 
 tory atonement of Clirist was decreed by the divine fore- 
 knowledge before the creation of the world. Hopeless as 
 must be every human attempt to inquire into the unsearch- 
 able mysteries of God''s providence, still we may surely ven- 
 ture to surmise from this revealed fact, that the prospec- 
 tive arrangement then made by the infinite mercy of our 
 Creator for averting the miseries consequent upon the 
 introduction of sin was adequate in its operation to the 
 gracious object contemplated by him : in other words, that 
 widely spread as is the transmitted evil, the consequence 
 of the fall of our first parents, the remedial effects of our 
 blessed Saviour's atonement will one day be fully co-exten- 
 sive with it. This consideration may perhaps serve to 
 lessen in some degree, though it cannot remove, the diffi- 
 culty which attends that most momentous paradox in the 
 works of Omnipotence, the existence of sin. That the 
 same great Being, who originally made it a part of our 
 moral constitution that we should stand in need of the 
 trials to which we are exposed for our ultimate improve- 
 ment, or who foresaw that such would be the result, 
 provided at the same time a means to all who should not 
 wilfully resist the offer, for averting the destructive conse- 
 quences otherwise necessarily accompanying such a state 
 of probation, is indeed a mysterious dispensation which 
 human reason is perfectly inadequate to solve, but it 
 presents at all events no moral inference incompatible with 
 our most firm conviction of the infinite perfection of the 
 divine attributes. 
 
CHAP. nr. EPHESIAN^. 213 
 
 1 1 the powers of heaven ; according to his eternal 
 
 12 purpose of redeeming us through Jesus Christ, in 
 whom we have confidence and a fearless access to 
 God, in the full reliance of faith in his promises. 
 
 13 Wherefore, my brethren, I beg you not to be dis- 
 mayed at my present sufferings on your account, 
 
 14 which are for your glory; and I fervently bend my 
 knees in prayer before the Father of our Lord 
 
 15 Jesus Christ, from whom his whole family in hea- 
 
 16 ven and earth is named, that he would grant to 
 you grace, according to the riches of his glory, 
 that you may be strengthened by the gifts of his 
 
 17 holy Spirit in your inward nature, that Christ may 
 dwell in your hearts through faith ; and that, being 
 firmly rooted and established in love towards him, 
 
 18 you may be able to understand together with the 
 other servants of God what is the breadth, and 
 length, and depth, and height of his wonderful 
 
 19 dispensations ; and may perceive the surpassing 
 and inconceivable love of Christ towards you, and 
 may be filled with all the fulness of the Spirit of 
 God. 
 
 20 Now unto Him who is able to do all things for 
 us in far greater proportion than we can ask or 
 think, by that mighty power which works within 
 
 21 us, — to Him be glory in the Church for the salvation 
 which is by Christ Jesus, through all ages, for ever 
 and ever. Amen. 
 
 Section II. 
 
 The Apostle here subjoins an exhortation to good works, which are 
 enumerated by him under the following heads : — viz. submission to 
 those in authority ; — brotherly love ;— integrity ;— purity of language 
 and manners ; — sobriety ; — the relative duties of husband and wife ; — 
 the relative duties of parents and children ; — the relative duties of 
 masters and servants ; — hohness and faith in God. 
 
214 
 
 EPHESIANS. CHAP. IV. 
 
 Wherefore, my brethren, I, a prisoner for the 4 
 cause of Christ, beseech you to walk worthily of the 
 vocation by which you have been called, with all 2 
 lowliness of mind, with meekness, with forbearance, 
 with kindness towards one another, doing your utmost 3 
 to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of 
 peace. Be as one body and one soul, as you have all 4 
 been called to the attainment of one common hope ; 
 acknowledging' one and the same Lord ; one and the 5 
 same faith ; one and the same baptism ; one and 6 
 the same God and Father of all, who is over all 
 things, and pervades all things, and dwells within 
 you all. Recollect, however, that although you 7 
 all acknowledge one common Master, you are not 
 all at this moment called to the enjoyment or exer- 
 cise of the self-same spiritual gifts, but that Christ 
 has distributed to every man his peculiar function 
 according to his own good pleasure : as we are 8 
 assured by the Psalmist, (Psalm Ixviii. 18.) "having 
 ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and 
 gave gifts to men :" (in which prophecy, by the way, <J 
 we may observe, that the mention of the ascension 
 of Christ necessarily implies his previous descent 
 into this world, and into the grave, from which he lo 
 ascended to the highest heavens, that he might fill 
 and rule over all things.) And according to that 1 1 
 good pleasure, therefore, in allotting to the various 
 members of his Church militant upon earth their 
 various departments, he has appointed some men to 
 be his apostles, some to be prophets, some to be 
 evangelists, some to be pastors, and some to be 
 teachers, for the due arrangement and subordination 12 
 of the community of believers, for promoting the 
 great work of the Gospel, and for the discipline and 
 
CHAP. IV. EPHESIANS, 215 
 
 13 harmony of his Church ; until its several members 
 shall have attained that unity of belief, and that 
 uniform and consistent knowledge of the Son of 
 God, which shall mark its full maturity and its 
 complete and final establishment on a scale worthy 
 
 14 of its divine Founder. In thus varying the character 
 of his spiritual gifts according to the existing wants 
 of the infant Church, he has wisely provided at 
 once for its discipline and our instruction, that we 
 should no longer like children be capriciously tossed 
 about from one system of opinions to another, under 
 the influence of false and designing teachers, who 
 
 15 might attempt to waylay us by their subtlety : but, 
 on the contrary, that holding one common faith in 
 mutual love and good will, we might as the several 
 members of one and the same body grow together in 
 strength and harmonious proportion under our com- 
 
 16 mon head Jesus Christ ; under whom his whole body, 
 the Christian Church, symmetrically and firmly 
 arranged in all its joints and various articulations, all 
 of them exercising their peculiar and distinct offices, 
 increases daily in health and beauty in its progress 
 to maturity. 
 
 17 Aspire then, my brethren, all of you, 1 earnestly 
 implore you in the name of our common Redeemer, 
 aspire to this unity of love and discipline, nor con- 
 tinue to walk, each man in the folly and vanity of 
 his own imagination, like the heathens by whom 
 
 18 you are surrounded ; who have their apprehensions 
 darkened,-and are aliens from the life of God, through 
 the ignorance of their understandings, and the callous 
 
 19 obduracy of their hearts ; and who, having lost the 
 very sensation of remorse, have given themselves up 
 
216 
 
 to lasciviousness, and to the unrestrained exercise of 
 every work of uncleanness. 
 
 Not such, my brethren, is the lesson which you 20 
 have been taught by the pure Gospel of Christ ; 
 if indeed you have learned it as you ought, and have 21 
 imbibed its precepts as inculcated by the blessed 
 Jesus : that Gospel, whose foremost injunction is, 22 
 that " you put away all the destructive appetites, 
 all the deceitful propensities, of your unregenerated 
 nature ; that you acquire new aspirations, new habits, 2;j 
 and put on that new and regenerated man which is 24 
 created after God's own image in righteousness and 
 true holiness." In conformity then with this lovely 25 
 doctrine, put away from among you all falsehood and 
 deceit, and let your dealings with one another be in 
 entire truth and sincerity, recollecting that we are 
 common members of the same holy body. If pro- 26 
 voked to anger, let it at least be such as shall lead 
 you into no sin, nor let any provocation keep it alive 
 till the sun set, that your holy religion be not evil 27 
 spoken of. Let him who has stolen steal no more ; 28 
 but betake himself to honest and useful labour, that, 
 instead of defrauding others, he may have the means 
 of giving to those in necessity. Let no indecent 29 
 or filthy language proceed from your lips, but such 
 sentiments only as are edifying, and calculated to 
 afford benefit to the hearers ; nor profane or dese- 30 
 crate that pure and holy Spirit within you, by 
 which you have been sealed as God's own children 
 against the day of your redemption. Let all bitter- 31 
 ness of feeling, all violence of anger, all animosity, 
 all clamorous contention, all injurious expressions, 
 with every harsh and unchristian disposition, be 
 
EPHESIANS. 
 
 217 
 
 32 taken away from among you : and be kind and 
 sympathizing with one another, forgiving each man 
 his neighbour, as God, for Christ's sake, has for- 
 
 5 given you. Be then in this, as in every other respect, 
 imitators of God, looking up to him, as affectionate 
 
 •2 children to the example of a beloved parent, and 
 walk in love and affection one to another, as Christ 
 loved us, and gave himself an offering and a sweet- 
 
 3 smelling sacrifice to God for us. As to fornication, 
 and impure ideas, or covetousness, let them not 
 be even remotely alluded to in your conversation, 
 but let your intercommuning be such as becomes 
 
 4 Christians, without obscenity, or foolish talking, or 
 mimicry, or whatever else is unseemly ; remember- 
 ing that the best use of the gift of speech is that of 
 
 5 praise and gratitude to God. For of this you have 
 already been assured, that no fornicator, nor person 
 of impure life, nor covetous person, whose god is his 
 wealth, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ 
 and of God. 
 
 6 Let no man deceive you with sophistry and false 
 distinctions on these points ; but receive it as an 
 undoubted truth, that for these offences the just 
 anger of God overtakes the children of disobedi- 
 
 7 ence. Be not partakers of their evil deeds. You 
 
 8 were once all of you dark in your understandings 
 as your heathen neighbours ; but the Lord in his 
 mercy has shed the light of his divine knowledge 
 upon your hearts ; walk in it then as children of 
 
 9 light, (for the fruit of his blessed Spirit shows itself 
 
 10 in goodness, and righteousness, and truth,) seeking 
 out what is pleasing in the sight of God, and prac- 
 
 11 tising it. And not only abstain from any partici- 
 I)ation in the unprofitable works of darkness in this 
 
218 
 
 EPHESIANS. 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 sinful generation, but openly mark by your words 
 and conduct your abomination of them ; for their 12 
 evil deeds done in secret are shameful even to men- 
 tion. And yet all these things, having the full glare 13 
 of day poured upon them, shall be made manifest in 
 all their deformity. Awake then, says the blessed 14 
 Gospel, awake thou who sleepest in darkness ; awake 
 from the death of sin, and God himself shall give 
 thee light. See then, my brethren, that you walk 15 
 steadily in that light, not as fools, but as wise men ; 
 availing yourselves of your time whilst you have it : IG 
 for the days in which you live are evil ; wherefore 17 
 waste it not after the manner of the unwise of this 
 w^orld, but recollect what conduct it is which the 
 Lord requires at your hands. Be not drunk with 18 
 wine, nor addict yourselves to riotous living, but 
 let your habits be those of spiritual holiness, express- 19 
 ing your joyful feelings in psalms, and hymns, 
 and spiritual songs, singing and making melody 20 
 with a grateful heart to the Lord ; giving thanks 
 always for all your manifold blessings to our God 
 and Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 Submit yourselves one to another in the fear of God. 21 
 Wives submit yourselves to your own husbands, 22 
 as to the Lord : for the husband is the head of 23 
 the wife, as Christ is the head of the Church ; pre- 
 siding over it as over his own body : as therefore 24 
 the Church is subject to Christ, so let the wives 
 be subject in all things to their husbands. Hus- 25 
 bands also, on your part, love your wives, as Christ 
 has loved his Church, and given himself for it, that 
 he might render it holy, having purified it by his 26 
 blessed Gospel in the pure waters of baptism, and 27 
 present it to himself a glorious Church without 
 
CHAP. VI. EPHESIANS. 
 
 219 
 
 spot or wrinkle, or any other blemish, holy and un- 
 
 28 defiled. So ought husbands to love their wives 
 as their own bodies ; for he, who loves his wife, 
 
 29 loves himself ; and no man ever hated his own flesh, 
 but rather nourishes and cherishes it, as the Lord 
 
 30 cherishes his own Church : for we are members of 
 
 31 his body, " bone of his bone," as Adam said of Eve, 
 " and flesh of his flesh ; and therefore," as the same 
 passage of Scripture proceeds to say, " shall a man 
 leave his father and mother, and shall be joined 
 to his wife, and they two shall be one flesh," 
 
 32 (Genesis ii. 23, 24.) in which description of the 
 union of the sexes was mystically designated also 
 that union which exists between Christ and his 
 
 33 Church. In imitation of this great example do each 
 of you individually cherish his own wife as himself ; 
 and let the wife in her turn reverence her husband. 
 
 6 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this 
 
 2 is right ; remembering that that same divine com- 
 mandment which requires you to honour your father 
 and your mother is the first to which a special and 
 peculiar promise of a blessing is annexed : namely, 
 
 3 " that it may be well with you, and that you may 
 
 4 in your turn live to attain to old age." And you, 
 fathers, do not irritate your children by harsh treat- 
 ment, but bring them up in the instruction and 
 
 5 wisdom which is of Christ. Servants, be obedient 
 to those who are your masters . upon earth, with 
 becoming awe and respect, and sincerity of service ; 
 and recollect that in so doing you are also doing 
 
 6 your duty to Christ. Obey them then, not merely 
 because their eye is on you, and to obtain appro- 
 bation from mere mortals like yourselves, but as the 
 servants of Christ, and from a hearty desire to obey 
 
 1 
 
220 
 
 EPHESIANS. 
 
 CHAP. VI, 
 
 God's holy will : acting cheerfully and contentedly 7 
 in your humble situation, and thus showing your 
 submission, not so much to men, as to God who 
 has thus disposed your lot in life ; knowing that 8 
 all our good actions are recorded by God, and that 
 whether we shall have been masters or servants, we 
 shall all be rewarded by Him according to our 
 works. And you, masters, be in like manner kindly 9 
 disposed tow^ards your servants, not threatening 
 them, nor presuming upon your authority over 
 them ; but recollecting that you have also a Master 
 who is in heaven, in whose eyes the earthly dis- 
 tinction of master and of servant is as nothing. 
 Finally, my brethren, be strong in holiness, and in 10 
 the protecting power of the Lord; and put on ac- 11 
 cordingly that armour which righteousness only can 
 supply, that, so armed, you may be able to stand 
 aofainst the machinations of the devil. For the 12 
 Christian's warfare is not against flesh and blood, 
 which is able only to destroy the body, but against 
 spiritual beings leagued for his eternal destruction, 
 the various orders of evil angels who rule over the 
 dark elements of this world, and who surround the 
 earth, looking down upon us, and seeking whom 
 they may devour. Wherefore, I repeat, put on the 13 
 whole armour of God, that you may be able to 
 stand in the evil day, and to stand victorious and 
 uninjured. Stand, therefore, having your loins girt 14 
 about with sincerity and truth ; and having put on 
 the breastplate of righteousness ; and having your 15 
 feet shod with holy zeal to go on the blessed mis- 
 sion of preaching the Gospel of peace : but above 16 
 all, bearing before you the shield of faith, that with 
 it you may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts 
 
221 
 
 17 of the evil one : and take the helmet of salvation, 
 and the sword of the Holy Spirit, which is the in- 
 
 18 spired word of God : praying also without ceasing 
 in every form of earnest supplication, under the 
 guidance of that blessed Spirit, not for yourselves 
 only, but with persevering intercession also for all 
 the various members of God's universal Church. 
 
 19 Pray too, my brethren, for me also, that divine wis- 
 dom may be imparted to me, to open my mouth 
 with boldness in the cause of truth, and to expound 
 truly, and to the conviction of my hearers, the sub- 
 
 20 lime mysteries of the Gospel dispensation, for the 
 service of which I am God's ambassador, though at 
 this moment in fetters ; — pray for me, that notwith- 
 standing my present sufferings, I may have boldness 
 to accomplish the full object of my mission, and to 
 speak as I ought to speak. 
 
 21 With regard to my present circumstances and 
 condition, Tychicus my beloved brother, and a faith- 
 ful servant of Christ, will give you all requisite 
 
 22 information : I have sent him to you therefore for 
 that object, that you may know how I am situated, 
 and may receive consolation from him on my 
 account. 
 
 23 Peace, love, and faith be to all the brethren from 
 God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 24 Grace be with all them who love our Lord Jesus 
 Christ in sincerity. 
 
 There is a disposition natural to all religious enthu- 
 siasts, of whatever denomination, to consider themselves as 
 the personal favourites of the Almighty, and to attempt to 
 limit the communication of the divine mercies, not merely 
 to their own peculiar creed, but also to some chosen few, 
 
222 
 
 EPHESIANS. 
 
 whom, from some perhaps casual association of feehng, 
 they conceive to be more immediate objects of God's ap- 
 probation. It requires, in fact, no easy sacrifice of our 
 own partial views and worldly feelings, to enable us to 
 apprehend fully that unbounded amplitude of benevolence 
 developed in the revelation of the Christian scheme. The 
 invariable result of human speculations upon the mysteries 
 of theology has been rather to set limits to, than to extend 
 the scale of God's mercies. Such being the harsh tendency 
 of the human judgment in all ages, we need not be surprised 
 that the Jews, whose peculiar selection as God's favoured 
 people had been confirmed by so many repeated displays of 
 divine power, and which the undisputed possession of so 
 many centuries had appeared completely to establish, should 
 have clung to this flattering mistake, with a degree of des- 
 perate pertinacity which even the preaching and miracles of 
 our Saviour himself could scarcely shake. In the Epistle 
 to the Galatians we have seen how reluctantly even the in- 
 spired apostles emancipated themselves from it, although the 
 express intervention of heaven in the case of the conversion 
 of Cornelius, and the subsequent descent of the Holy Spirit 
 upon his Gentile associates, might have been expected to 
 remove every doubt upon that question. The solemnity of 
 assurance with which, in the Epistle before us, St. Paul 
 combats the same delusion, is another proof how deeply 
 rooted was that inveterate prejudice in the Jews of his day. 
 Those persons who are anxious to imbibe the true spirit of 
 Christianity, would do well to advert to this circumstance, 
 which teaches us how inevitably, without the corrective illu- 
 mination afforded by Scripture, the human mind will ever 
 adapt its notions of the comprehensive and beneficent deal- 
 ings of Providence to its own contracted conceptions and 
 unjust predilections. The period in which any mischief to 
 mankind might be apprehended from the peculiar error 
 denounced by the apostle is indeed long passed by ; but 
 the lesson which this Epistle conveys has a secondary refer- 
 ence to one of the most prevalent of human weaknesses, 
 and will therefore continue to be useful so long as our pre- 
 sent nature shall continue to be what it is. 
 
THE 
 
 EPISTLE OF PAUL 
 
 TO THE 
 
 PHILIPPIANS. 
 
 The date of the following Epistle, falling within that of 
 St. Paul's two years' residence at Rome, must necessarily 
 be placed about the years of our Lord 62 or 63. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 
 
 1 Paul and Timothy, the servants of Jesus Christ, 
 to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, 
 
 2 with the bishops and deacons ; — grace be unto you, 
 and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 This Epistle, which was addressed to the Church at Philippi by St. 
 Paul during the period of his first imprisonment at Rome, consists 
 of a beautiful and affecting dehneation of the apostle's calm resigna- 
 tion under the persecution to which he was at that time subject, and 
 of the warmth of his affection towards those converts for whose 
 edification it was written. Although containing no points of doc- 
 trine which have not been discussed in his former Epistles, the 
 whole composition is in the highest degree interesting and instructive 
 as a brief summary of Christian faith and practice, and also as afford- 
 ing a most gratifying impression of the perfectly amiable character of 
 the writer, and of the good disposition of those for whom he ex- 
 presses such earnest attachment. 
 
224 
 
 PHILIPPIANS. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 I thank my God in all my recollections of you in 3 
 my daily prayers which I offer with much joy and J 
 gratitude to God on your account, for your unani- 5 
 mous perseverance in the faith of the Gospel, from 
 the day in which you first received it even to the 
 present moment : feeling firmly confident, that he 6 
 who began this good work in you will enable you 
 to persevere in it until its final accomplishment in 
 the great day of our Lord Jesus Christ. Nor can 7 
 I, nor ought I to, do otherwise than thus earnestly 
 pray for you, when I recollect how my conviction 
 of your sincerity in the faith, and of your partici- 
 pation with me in the gifts of the ever-blessed 
 Spirit, gave me consolation and confidence during 
 the period of my imprisonment, and afterwards, 
 when I was called to make my defence before the 
 emperor, and in my subsequent labours for the pro- 
 pagation of the Gospel. God is my witness how 8 
 ardently T love you with all Christian affection ; 
 and I earnestly pray that the fervency of your zeal 9 
 and mutual goodwill may abound in you still more 
 and more in all holy wisdom and knowledge ; that 10 
 you may be able to assign the grounds for the faith 
 which is in you, remaining sincere in your belief, 
 and pure in the soundness of your doctrine, until 
 the great day of Christ ; being filled with those 1 1 
 fruits of holiness which proceed from faith in Jesus 
 Christ, to the glory and honour of God. 
 
 Brethren, I rejoice in being able to assure you, 12 
 that the persecutions under which I have recently 
 laboured have rather promoted than retarded the 
 cause of the Gospel; inasmuch as my imprison- 13 
 ment for the sake of Christ has been a matter of 
 
CHAP. I. PHILIPPIANS. 225 
 
 notoriety, not in the palace * only, but in all other 
 
 14 places ; and many of our brethren in consequence, 
 hearing of the courage with which I bore my con- 
 finement, have themselves derived from thence 
 fresh confidence to preach the w^ord of God without 
 
 15 fear. It is true, that not all of them have displayed 
 this increased zeal for the propagation of the Gospel 
 from pure and worthy motives ; for though some 
 have had no other object than to spread more, 
 widely the knowledge of Christ, others, I fear, have 
 assumed this increased energy for no better reason 
 than that of personal emulation against myself; 
 
 16 these latter preaching Christ, not from any hearty 
 wish to the cause, but solely for the purpose of tri- 
 umphing over me at a time when my own exertions 
 
 17 were restrained by my imprisonment; the former 
 from sincere and holy conviction, and a desire to 
 assist my endeavours in the service of truth, when 
 I was precluded from any effectual services of my 
 
 18 own. But what of that ? Let their several motives 
 have been M^hat they may, still at all events the 
 great purpose has been answered ; whether it were 
 
 ^ It is generally supposed that Poppsea, the profligate 
 wife of Nero, was well-disposed towards the Christians in 
 consequence of St. PauPs preaching at this period. Such 
 a convert was not indeed calculated to reflect credit upon 
 Christianity ; but it is not improbable that her influence 
 may have been the means of rescuing the apostle from his 
 impending perils, and thus of promoting the cause of the 
 Gospel. When we consider the elevated tone of morality 
 which pervades the writings of Seneca, it seems not a very 
 improbable supposition, that much of what we admire in the 
 works of that inconsistent character may also have been de- 
 rived from personal communication with St. Paul during 
 his residence in the neighbourhood of the imperial palace. 
 
 Q 
 
226 
 
 PHILIPPIANS. 
 
 CHAP, I. 
 
 from unworthy, or whether from worthy feelings; 
 whether in rivalry, or whether in sincerity; still 
 the work has been done, and the faith of Christ has 
 been preached ; and accordingly most sincerely have 
 I rejoiced, and do still rejoice, in what has occurred. 
 For I am firmly convinced, that all this will contri- 19 
 bute to my eternal salvation through your prayers 
 in my behalf, and through the protecting aid and 
 guidance of the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ ; trust- 20 
 ing, as I most confidently do, that God will not 
 allow the efforts of my apostleship to be brought to 
 shame ; but that now, as on all former occasions, 
 w^iether my impending lot be life or death, I shall 
 be enabled by my personal exertions in his cause to 
 promote the glory of my blessed Redeemer. If my 21 
 life for the present be spared, it will, I am assured, 
 be that I may expend it in Christ's service : — if I 
 am to die, it w^ill be for my own individual benefit. 
 Longer life will be to me but longer toil : yet which 22 
 to pray for, whether life or death, I know not. 
 Two different feelings call me in two different di- 23 
 rections : my own wishes lead me to long for death 
 and to be with Christ, as far the best alternative for 
 myself ; but, on the other hand, I feel that you 24 
 cannot yet spare me : that my services as an apos- 
 tle are yet necessary for the work of the Gospel; 
 and feeling this, I am confident that it is not yet 25 
 God's pleasure to release me, but that I shall be 
 called to remain with you yet some time longer for 
 the advancement of your joy and comfort in the 
 faith ; and that you will have yet further reason to 26 
 boast of the success of my spiritual labours among 
 you, after I shall have been permitted to see you 
 once again. 
 
PHILIPPIANS. 
 
 227 
 
 27 Be, however, this as it may, do you, at all events, 
 my brethren, live worthily of the Gospel of Christ, 
 that either, as it may please God, present with you 
 I may see, or absent from you I may hear, the 
 unanimity and firmness of your faith, and rejoice in 
 your zeal and exertions for the propagation of the 
 
 28 truth. And be not dismayed at the violence of 
 your persecutors, which, whilst it marks them as 
 the children of perdition, is to you only another 
 proof that your heavenly Father designs you for 
 
 29 salvation, since he has been pleased to allow you 
 not only to profess your faith in Christ, but also to 
 
 30 suffer persecution for his sake : such persecution as 
 you have seen me undergo on former occasions, and 
 such as that to which you know me to be at this 
 
 2 moment exposed. In the name then of that holy 
 consolation which we all feel in Christ, in the name 
 of our community of Christian love, in the name of 
 those blessed gifts of the Spirit of which, we trust, 
 we have all participated, in the name of that dispen- 
 sation of mercy and charity which our Redeemer 
 
 2 has bequeathed to us, fill up, I beseech you, the 
 measure of my joy in you by the unanimity of your 
 faith, the fervency of your love to God and to one 
 another, and the kindliness and harmony of your 
 
 3 social intercourse. Let no petty jealousies exist 
 among you ; no desire to raise yourselves by the 
 depression of others ; but in all your intercom mun- 
 ings, in all your judgments respecting persons, let 
 each man deem meekly of himself, and prefer his 
 
 4 neighbours' interests to his own. Avoid accordingly 
 every selfish feeling, and let your foremost object be 
 
 5 the good of others ; in this respect making the ex- 
 
 Q 2 
 
228 
 
 ample of Christ your model, who, although arrayed 6 
 with the glory of divinity, and feeling it no robbery 
 to be in all respects as God, yet voluntarily sub- 7 
 mitted to strip himself of his high privileges, and to 
 put on the form of a servant, assuming all the 
 infirmities of our nature, and clothing himself with 8 
 human flesh, to submit to death itself, and not 
 to death merely, but that of a malefactor upon the 
 cross : w^herefore God on his part has highly exalted 9 
 him, and given him a name above every other name ; 
 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, lo 
 of things in heaven, and things on earth, and 
 things under the earth ; and that every tongue il 
 should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the 
 glory of God the Father. Wherefore, my beloved 12 
 friends, according to that doctrine which I have 
 always taught, and which you have so earnestly 
 received, strive, I beseech you, not merely with the 
 former zeal which you displayed when I was with 
 you, but much more now that I am prevented by 
 my persecutors from visiting you, anxiously and 
 perseveringly strive, with fear and trembling, to 
 work out the great work of your salvation ; for you 13 
 have God's own Spirit to assist your endeavours; 
 which in its mercy can give you both will to attempt, 
 and ability to perform. Perform then the duties 14 
 required of you without murmurings or discontent ; 
 that you may show yourselves a blameless and 15 
 single-minded people, the inoffensive children of 
 God, among a perverse and obstinate generation, 
 as lights in the midst of surrounding darkness, 16 
 clinging to the word of life : so that I may finally 
 have reason to boast of you, in the great day of our 
 
CHAP. II. 
 
 PHILIPPIANS. 
 
 229 
 
 Redeemer, that the labour which I have bestowed 
 
 17 upon you was not expended in vain. God grant 
 such a glorious termination to my exertions, and 
 then even though it be my lot to be made a sacrifice 
 and offering for your faith, I gladly hail the condi- 
 
 18 tions, and rejoice for and with you. May you also, 
 in your sufferings in the same holy cause, feel the 
 same consolation which I have done, and rejoice for 
 and with me. 
 
 19 I hope, by the blessing of our Lord Jesus, to 
 send Timothy shortly to you, that I may have the 
 
 20 consolation of hearing respecting you. For I have 
 no one with me who is so ardently and sincerely 
 
 21 attached to you as he is. The others with whom I 
 am obliged to associate at present have rather their 
 own interests and convenience at heart than the 
 
 22 furtherance of the cause of the Gospel ; but of his 
 merits and good disposition you have proof as well 
 as myself, having witnessed with how much affec- 
 tionate attention, as a son under the direction of his 
 father, he has laboured with me in the toils of my 
 
 23 ministry. Him I hope to send immediately, the 
 moment that I learn the result of my present busi- 
 
 24 ness ; and I trust in God's mercy, that I myself 
 shall be enabled to follow him after no long interval. 
 
 25 I have however thought it expedient already to send 
 to you Epaphroditus my brother, and fellow labourer, 
 and fellow soldier, as my messenger to you, and 
 one who has afforded me much assistance under 
 
 26 my late afflictions : for he was very anxious to 
 return to you, particularly as he knew that you had 
 felt considerable uneasiness on the subject of his 
 
 27 recent illness. He has been indeed extremely un- 
 well ; so much so as to have been in considerable 
 
230 
 
 PHILIPPIANS. 
 
 CHAF. II. 
 
 danger of his life ^ : but God was merciful to him, 
 and through him to myself also, as his loss would 
 have indeed been a fearful addition to my other 
 sorrows. I was therefore the more anxious to send 28 
 him to you, that you might have the pleasure of 
 seeing him restored to health, and that I might 
 have the satisfaction of s}Tnpathizing in your com- 
 mon gratification. Cherish him therefore, in the 29 
 name of Christ, with all joy, as one of those to 
 whom you owe much ; for his dangerous illness was 30 
 brought on by his zeal in Christ's service, in con- 
 sequence of his not husbanding his strength, but 
 over fatiguing himself in the ministry of the Gospel, 
 whilst affording me by his own individual exertions 
 that assistance which I have been in the habit of 
 receiving from you all. 
 
 ^ The following is Dr. Paley^s remark upon this passage. 
 " No intimation is given that Epaphroditus''s recovery was 
 miraculous. It is plainly I think spoken of as a natural 
 event. This instance, together with one in the second 
 Epistle to Timothy, (' Trophimus have I left at Miletum 
 sick,') affords a proof that the power of performing cures, 
 and, by parity of reason, of working miracles, was a power 
 which only visited the apostles occasionally, and did not at 
 all depend upon their own will. Paul undoubtedly would 
 have healed Epaphroditus if he could. Nor, if the power 
 of working cures had awaited his disposal, would he have 
 left his fellow traveller at Miletum sick." This fact, Dr. 
 Paley justly observes, contains a strong internal proof of 
 the authenticity of the Epistle, and of the sincerity of the 
 writer : a forged document would not have spared the 
 miracle, and an impostor writing for the furtherance of his 
 own selfish views, would not have voluntarily deviated into 
 an admission of his own inability to assist his friend in his 
 calamity. 
 
CHAP. III. 
 
 PHILIPPIANS. 
 
 231 
 
 3 And now, my brethren, once more let me exhort 
 you, " rejoice in the merciful dispensation of redemp- 
 tion through Christ s merits onlyT This I have often 
 impressed upon you before, but it is a sentiment 
 which I cannot too often repeat, nor you too often 
 
 2 hear. And accordingly I repeat, beware of those 
 teachers, who, like angry dogs, bark at the simpli- 
 city of this faith, and who would adulterate it by 
 intermixing with it the cancelled obligations of the 
 ceremonial law ; beware of the circumcision ^ which 
 they would enforce upon you as a necessary means 
 of justification, but which if used by you for that 
 purpose, so far from being a symbol of holiness, 
 will be nothing less than the cutting you off from 
 
 3 the covenant of Christ. We in fact are the true 
 circumcision, we who worship God in the spirit of 
 holiness, and who make our boast of the merits of 
 Christ Jesus, and not of a mere mark impressed as 
 
 4 a symbol upon our flesh. And yet, may I venture 
 to assert, were I disposed to make my own boast of 
 that external righteousness which consists in carnal 
 observances, I might do so, with as much or more 
 confidence than themselves ; having been brought 
 up from my infancy in the most punctilious defer- 
 ence to all that the ritual law of Moses requires ; 
 
 5 having been circumcised on the eighth day from my 
 birth ; one of the true blood of Israel by descent ; 
 
 ^ The ideas intended to be conveyed by this passage 
 having been suggested by the relation which exists between 
 the Greek words TrtpirojurJ and Kararo\iy] are incapable of 
 being rendered in our own language otherwise than by a 
 paraphrase. To native Greeks the apostle's implied allusion 
 must have been readily intelligible. 
 
232 
 
 a member of the tribe of Benjamin ; a Hebrew from 
 Hebrew parents ; educated in all the legal learning 
 of the Pharisees ; a zealous persecutor of Christ's 
 Church, which I then deemed sinful innovation ; 
 and an observer of every tittle of those rites and 
 ceremonies which the law requires; yet all these 
 proud acquisitions, as I once deemed them, this 
 carnal righteousness, I have now learned by the 
 wisdom which has been communicated to me from 
 Christ to consider biit as lost and unprofitable 
 labour. And not these things only, but every thing 
 else, all which the world counts honourable and de- 
 sirable, I have also learned to consider as vanity, 
 when compared with the paramount importance and 
 excellence of Christ's Gospel ; for the sake of which 
 I have abandoned all, looking upon them as the 
 vilest of refuse, in order that I might obtain the 
 great prize of salvation through Christ, and be en- 
 abled to shelter myself in him ; not urging my own 
 righteousness in the performance of the law of ritual 
 works, but pleading my humble reliance upon the 
 merits of my Redeemer, and clinging to that justifi- 
 cation of the sinner before God which is communi- 
 cated through the medium of faith : that I may 1 
 know him, and the power of that great Being who 
 raised him from the dead ; and that, having partaken 
 in the afflictions which he underwent whilst upon 
 earth, I may share also in his death, in the hope l 
 that I may finally be a partaker in his glorious 
 resurrection. For I flatter not myself that I have 
 as yet attained that great object, nor the perfection 
 to which I trust that I shall one day be admitted ; 
 but I pursue it with my most earnest endeavours, 
 
CHAP. III. PHILIPPIANS. 
 
 233 
 
 grasping at, and striving to lay my hand * upon that 
 righteousness for the attainment to which my blessed 
 
 13 Saviour laid his hand upon me. I repeat it, my 
 brethren, I dare not as yet flatter myself that I have 
 already attained ; but I anxiously devote myself to 
 this one single object, looking forward to the end of 
 my race, not stopping to consider the ground over 
 
 14 which I have already passed; and keeping in my eye 
 the glorious prize which is to crown my labours ; the 
 calling of God from above to the righteousness which 
 
 15 is in Christ Jesus. Let this glorious prize then, my 
 brethren, be the common and unanimous object of us 
 all ; and leaving the minuter differences of opinion 
 upon less important^ matters to be reconciled by the 
 
 ^ This beautiful picture of a humble and zealous Christian 
 cannot be too much admired. If such was St. PauFs estimate 
 of himself, what human being shall dare to rate his own 
 endeavours after righteousness more highly ? 
 
 ^ We have here the best practical rule for attaining that 
 unity of faith which all mixed communities of Christians 
 profess to aim at, but which so few attain. It is not by 
 the litigation of minute differences of opinion, but by their 
 accordance in those main propositions which compose the 
 basis of Christianity, that the sentiments of large religious 
 communities can ever be made to harmonize in one con- 
 sistent whole. Where the great doctrine of Christ's atone- 
 ment, and of sanctification by the Holy Spirit, are once 
 assented to, either the less important coincidences of belief 
 will follow of course, or at all events any remaining conflict 
 of opinion will be so modified and diminished, as to render 
 its continuance perfectly compatible with the most entire 
 good will to God and man. But the impatience which 
 would elevate into importance every trifling dissimilarity 
 of feeling, so far from establishing that unanimity which it 
 so injudiciously pursues, not only by the angry feelings 
 
234 
 
 illumination of that Holy Spirit, who will not let you 
 wander from the truth, let us at all events be of one 16 
 mind with regard to those great vital principles which 
 form the standard and criterion of our faith. Be 17 
 you then followers of my doctrine, and of all those 
 who adhere to the same doctrine unadulterated by 
 human inventions ; for many there are calling 18 
 themselves Christians (against whom I have often 
 forewarned you, and now warn you once more, and 
 that even with tears) of whom I must unhesitatingly 
 declare that they are enemies to the doctrine of 
 redemption by the death and sufferings of Christ ; 
 men whose end is destruction ; whose God is their 19 
 belly and their bodily appetites, and whose glory is 
 in their own debased views and in their own carnal 
 pursuits. But our conversation, my brethren, is 20 
 there where we have placed our hopes, even in 
 heaven itself, from whence we look for the coming 
 of our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ : who shall 21 
 change our frail body that it may become like to his 
 glorious body, through the operation of that mighty 
 power by which he is able to subdue all things to 
 himself. Wherefore, my beloved friends, you who 4 
 are my crown, and my boast, whom I so earnestly 
 love and am so anxiously desirous to see, stand firm 
 I beseech you in this the very basis and groundwork 
 of our faith. 
 
 I beseech most earnestly Euodias and Syntyche 2 
 to be of one mind towards each other, as becomes 
 
 which it excites, but also by the intellectual embarrassment 
 which it creates, is the prolific mother of heresies in the 
 Church, and of those fearful animosities which have for so 
 many ages disfigured the society of Christians. 
 
CHAP. IV. PHILIPPIANS. 
 
 235 
 
 3 Christians : and I beg of you, my faithful friend 
 and coadjutor, to use your good endeavours towards 
 them, recollecting the kind assistance which they 
 afforded me and Clement, and my other fellow 
 labourers, whose names are written in the book of 
 
 4 life, in the toils of our ministry. Rejoice in the 
 
 5 Lord always : again I say it : rejoice. Let the meek- 
 ness and forbearance of your conduct be known to 
 
 6 all men. The eye of the Lord is upon you. Be not 
 over anxious respecting your allotment in this life ; 
 but, in all your prayers for the relief of your im- 
 pending wants, repose yourselves with confidence in 
 God's merciful arrangements, giving him thanks for 
 
 7 all past and present blessings : and the peace of 
 God, which surpasses all that we can conceive of it, 
 shall keep your hearts and minds, through Christ 
 Jesus. 
 
 8 Finally, my brethren, whatever things are true, 
 whatever things are honourable, whatever things are 
 just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are 
 amiable, whatever things are commendable; what- 
 ever is virtuous, whatever is really praiseworthy — 
 
 9 make such things the object of your pursuit ; using 
 also your earnest endeavours to carry into practice 
 all those lessons which you have at various times 
 and in various manners received from me, and which 
 it has been my aim to illustrate by my own conduct : 
 and the God of peace shall be with you. 
 
 10 I have been much gratified, and thank our Lord 
 for it, by the beneficent recollection you have lately 
 testified of me, by your liberal donation, which I 
 was aware that you had in contemplation some 
 
 11 time ago, but wanted the means to send it. I do 
 not say this because my late privations have been 
 
236 
 
 PHILIPPIANS. ( HAP. IV. 
 
 any great cause of affliction to me ; for I have 
 learned to be contented with my daily lot, be it what 
 it may : I know how to accommodate myself with 12 
 poverty, and not to be elevated by prosperity; I 
 have learned the difficult art how to bear with equal 
 temper abundance of food, or its privation ; to abound 
 in the good things of this life, or to be excluded 
 from them ; for the strength which I possess is 13 
 from Christ himself. ^ Nevertheless you have acted 14 
 kindly and properly, in contributing thus liberally 
 for my relief. You know, my beloved friends, that 15 
 when, in the commencement of my apostleship, I 
 passed through Macedon to preach the Gospel in 
 other districts also, no other Church contributed any 
 thing to my support, but yourselves only : even when 16 
 I w^as resident in Thessalonica, you, on two separate 
 occasions, gave me proofs of your liberality. Now I 17 
 am far from desiring these donations on my own 
 account ; though I cannot but rejoice that your 
 conduct has been such as will one day reap its due 
 
 ^ It will be remembered, that the apostle has on a former 
 occasion (2 Corinthians viii. 1 — 6.) spoken with much com- 
 mendation of the hberality of the Macedonian Churches, 
 of course including that of Philippi, for the relief of the 
 distressed Christians at Jerusalem. It appears from this 
 passage that they had subsequently contributed a fund for 
 his own support during his tedious imprisonment at Rome, 
 in addition to what they had formerly given towards his 
 maintenance whilst preaching the Gospel in Greece. There 
 is something very amiable in this interchange of kindness 
 between the great spiritual teacher and his disciples, which 
 presents a striking contrast with the cold and niggardly dis- 
 position displayed by the wealthy Corinthians, to which he 
 alludes more than once in his Epistles to that community. 
 
287 
 
 18 reward. At present be assured I have no wants ; 
 your liberality has supplied, and more than supplied, 
 them all, in the donation which I received from you 
 by the hands of Epaphroditus ; and which will have 
 proved, I trust, a sweet-smelling, acceptable, and 
 
 19 pleasing sacrifice to God himself. And he, the God 
 whom I serve, shall supply all your wants by the 
 riches of his mercy, in glory, through Christ Jesus. 
 
 20 Now to Him our God and Father be glory for ever 
 and ever. Amen. 
 
 21 Salute every saint in Christ Jesus. The brethren 
 
 22 who are with me salute you. All the saints, par- 
 ticularly those of the emperor's household, salute 
 you. 
 
 23 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you 
 all. Amen. 
 
 To those persons who read the holy Scriptures for the 
 purpose of mere moral edification, and with whom the 
 tranquil amenity of disposition which is the result of a hum- 
 ble and sincere faith in God, and of charity to mankind, 
 is in higher estimation than the intellectual excitement 
 afforded by the intricate problems of theology when con- 
 sidered as a science, this short Epistle will be found to 
 be replete with the best possible instruction. It affords a 
 faithful and a delightful representation of what a community 
 of Christians may, and ought to be. It is the picture of a 
 suffering, yet, so far as the pressure of temporal affliction 
 will permit, of a triumphant Church : a Church in which 
 both the pastor and his flock are labouring under severe 
 privations, and looking forward with awe, though not with 
 apprehension, to impending persecution. Yet in the place 
 of complaint or remonstrance we can perceive in it only the 
 feelings of unshaken confidence in the divine mercy, of un- 
 
238 
 
 PHILIPPIANS. 
 
 affected purity of heart, and of single-minded unealciilating 
 benevolence. The harassed mind of the apostle appears to 
 repose with delight, in the midst of his own personal suffer- 
 ings, upon the recollection of the often experienced good will 
 of his favourite disciples ; and we learn from his own words 
 with what warmth of affection they in their turn repaid the 
 kind solicitude of their instructor. From the perusal of this 
 interesting composition every reader will necessarily rise up 
 a better Christian : and, if not more learned in those pro- 
 found and momentous truths which are developed in other 
 portions of the sacred writings, at all events deeply imbued 
 with those fervent conceptions, and those harmonized and 
 chastened feelings, which constitute the main substance of 
 practical Christianity. 
 
THE 
 
 EPISTLE OF 
 
 PAUL 
 
 TO THE 
 
 COLOSSIANS. 
 
 The following Epistle was written nearly at the same 
 period with that addressed to the Ephesians, a.d. 61, and 
 conveyed from Rome, where St. Paul was then a prisoner, 
 by the same bearer, Tychicus. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS, 
 
 1 Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, 
 
 2 and Timothy our brother, to the holy brethren be- 
 lieving in Christ in Colosse — grace be unto you and 
 peace from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 The subject of the Epistle to the Colossians is nearly the same with 
 that of the one written to the Church of Ephesus; namely, the 
 perfect impartiality of God's dispensations, in calling the Gentiles 
 equally with the Jews to a participation in the Gospel covenant. 
 The Apostle also in the course of his argument alludes incidentally 
 to the growing heresy of the Gnostics, and then, as usual, concludes 
 his Epistle with an earnest exhortation to a holy and moral life. 
 
 3 We give continual thanks in our prayers for you 
 to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 
 4 having heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of 
 
 5 the love you bear to all his saints, in consequence 
 of the hope which you have treasured for yourselves 
 
240 
 
 OOLOSSIANS. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 in the heavens, according as it was first preached 
 to you in the Gospel of truth ; a Gospel which has 6 
 been communicated not to you only, but to all the 
 world, in which it is now bringing forth the fruits 
 of righteousness, as it has done in you ever since 
 the merciful dispensations of God were first re- 
 vealed to you. That same doctrine which you 7 
 originally received from myself, you have also sub- 
 sequently learned from my friend and fellow-labourer 
 Epaphras, who is my faithful assistant in the ministry 
 of Christ ; and who has reported to me respecting 8 
 that fervency of holy love which the divine Spirit has 
 kindled in you. 
 
 Having received this encouraging account of you, 9 
 we in consequence have not ceased to mention you 
 continually in our prayers, intreating God that he 
 would fill you with the knowledge of his will in all 
 wisdom and spiritual understanding : and that you lo 
 may henceforth walk worthily of the Lord in all that 
 is pleasing in his sight, bringing forth abundantly 
 the fruit of good works, and increasing daily in the 
 apprehension of his ways ; being endued, by his glo- ll 
 rious assistance, with power to bear your present 
 afflictions, not only with patience and equanimity, 
 but even with joy ; giving thanks unto our heavenly 12 
 Father who has made us fit to be admitted par- 
 takers of the inheritance of his saints, by extending 
 to us the light of the blessed Gospel, and delivering 13 
 us from the power of darkness, and comprehending 
 us within the kingdom of his beloved Son : through 14 
 whose precious blood we have the promise of re- 
 demption, and remission of our sins ; who is the 15 
 image of the invisible God, as he was antecedent 
 in existence to the whole created universe. For by 16 
 
CHAP, I. 
 
 COLOSSIANS. 
 
 241 
 
 him were created all tilings which are in heaven, 
 and upon the earth ; all things visible, and invisible, 
 all the spiritual hierarchy under whatever deno- 
 mination they may come ; — all were created by 
 
 1 7 him, and for him ^ ; and as he was, and is, prior in 
 existence to them all, so they all exist in and by 
 
 18 him. He, that same blessed Being, is the head of 
 his own mystical body the Church : he, its first 
 author ; he, in his own person, the first-fruits of the 
 grave, that in all things he might lead the way for 
 us, and in all things be supreme Lord over us. 
 
 19 For it pleased the Father that the fulness and com- 
 pletion of all created beings should dwell in him ; 
 
 20 and that through him, and through his precious 
 blood shed upon the cross, expiation and reconcili- 
 ation should be made for all things, whether they be 
 things upon the earth, or things in the heavens. 
 
 21 And accordingly by that blessed redemption he 
 has now reconciled you to himself, who were for- 
 merly alienated from him, and living in enmity to 
 
 22 him in the midst of your evil works ; that having 
 submitted his own body for your sakes to a cruel 
 death, he might present you to God holy, unblame- 
 
 23 able, and unimpeached. Of which redemption you 
 cannot fail to participate, if only you will remain 
 firm and stedfast in your reliance upon him, and 
 suffer not yourselves to be turned away from your 
 hopes in that Gospel which has been recently com- 
 
 ^ What can be a stronger assertion of our blessed Sa- 
 viour's divinity than this passage of the apostle, which 
 declares him to have been the Creator of all things visible 
 and invisible, not excepting the very angels themselves ? For 
 the explanation of the words which I have rendered "the 
 spiritual hierarchy,'" see the note appended to Ephesians i. 21 . 
 
 R 
 
242 
 
 COLOSSIANS. CHAP. Ti. 
 
 municated to you, and not to you only, but also to 
 every other creature under heaven ; of which Gospel 
 I, Paul, am his appointed minister. Accordingly, 24 
 I rejoice in my present afflictions which I undergo 
 on your account, and readily take my share in 
 bearing those tribulations which befal in this world 
 the servants of Christ, in the hope that I may be 
 serviceable to his body, the community of his 
 Church : doing my utmost in the ministry of the 25 
 dispensation of God's will, which I have been com- 
 missioned to preach among you : a mysterious ^ dis- 26 
 pensation which has been concealed from the know- 
 ledge of the past ages, but which now, in the fulness 
 of time, has been revealed to his saints ; to whom 27 
 God has been pleased to make known the riches of 
 this glorious and mystical covenant with all na- 
 tions ; namely, of Christ resident within you, and 
 calling you to the inheritance of glory ; whom we 28 
 preach ; warning, and instructing all men in the 
 wisdom of divine holiness ; in the hope that we may 
 one day present them to God perfect in the faith 
 and obedience of Christ Jesus. For which great 29 
 object I spare no exertions, but strive with all the 
 might which has been given to me by him from 
 whom all power is derived. 
 
 I wish you, accordingly, to understand how much 2 
 violent persecution I have sustained in the cause of 
 the Gentiles, not in your cause only and in that 
 of the inhabitants of Laodicea, to whom I am per- 
 sonally known, but in that also of the remote nations 
 of the earth, because I have preached the doctrine 
 of the free mercies of Christ to the exclusion of 
 
 ^ See Ephesians iii. 5. 
 
CHAP. II. 
 
 OOLOSSIANS. 
 
 243 
 
 2 ritual holiness by the covenant of works ; in order 
 that your hearts may be comforted under this as- 
 surance of God's gracious dispensations, and that 
 you may be knit together in Christian love, and 
 brought to a perfect knowledge of the immense wis- 
 dom of the divine arrangements, and of the great 
 mystery of the eternal God ; namely, of the Father, 
 
 3 and of the Lord Jesus Christ ; in whom are stored 
 all the secret treasures of wisdom and of knowledge. 
 
 4 And this I remind you of the more earnestly, be- 
 cause I am anxious to put you on your guard against 
 the unsound arguments of plausible teachers, who 
 may wish to entice you away from this great prin- 
 
 5 ciple of our faith. For though necessarily absent 
 from you at this moment, my thoughts are con- 
 tinually with you, rejoicing in a well-founded con- 
 viction of the soundness of your o23inions, and the 
 stedfastness of your belief in the effectual redemp- 
 
 6 tion communicated by Christ. As then you have 
 received that faith in our one common Saviour, so 
 
 7 be careful to walk perseveringly in it : taking root 
 in it, and building upon that firm foundation on 
 which you have been taught to rest your hope, 
 and giving God thanks for that blessed dispensation 
 
 8 of mercy. Beware then, lest any man lead you 
 away captive by a false and deceitful philosophy 
 founded upon mere human speculations, and a 
 fanciful arrangement of the physical elements, but 
 
 9 at total variance with the Gospel revelation : for in 
 the person of Christ, be assured, is substantially 
 comprehended the full and complete essence of the 
 
 10 Godhead : and as the fulness of the Godhead is 
 complete in him, who is placed in dignity far above 
 all the celestial hierarchy, so is his fulness complete 
 
 R 2 
 
244 COLOSSIANS. chap. it. 
 
 in you. To the faith of that great and glorious 1 1 
 Being recollect that you have been consecrated, 
 not by the rite of a mere carnal circumcision, 
 but by the circumcision of the heart, the spiritual 
 circumcision of the Christian covenant; namely, 
 the putting away of the sinful propensities of the 
 flesh; and being buried with Christ by baptism, that 12 
 you might rise again to a new and regenerated 
 nature through your faith and reliance on that 
 divine power which raised our Redeemer himself 
 from the grave. Remember then that all of you 13 
 lay dead in your sins, in the unsubdued and un- 
 circumcised impurity of your natural corruptions ; 
 but that God has in his mercy given you the prin- 
 ciple of a new and a better life through him, re- 
 mitting to you all your sins ; and blotting out and 14 
 cancelling the written law of ritual holiness, in 
 which you could read nothing but your own eternal 
 condemnation, and finally nailing it to his expiatory 
 cross. By these wondrous means has our blessed 15 
 Redeemer stripped all the spiritual powers who were 
 leagued for your destruction of their means of an- 
 noyance, and led them away in triumph. Let no 16 
 man then for the future tempt you to compromise 
 or adulterate this simple and satisfactory doctrine, 
 by teaching you to repose your faith in minute and 
 unimportant observances, of meats, of drinks, of 
 festivals, of new moons, or of sabbaths ^ which 17 
 
 ^ It seems probable, that by this injunction the apostle 
 intends to deprecate the superstitious observance of the 
 holidays or days of rest established in the Mosaic law, of 
 which see an enumeration in Leviticus xxiii. rather than to 
 discourage the sanctification of every seventh day, as prac- 
 tised by Christians, for which latter usage, in addition to 
 
CHAP. II. 
 
 COLOSSIANS. 
 
 245 
 
 were indeed provisionally established by the Al- 
 mighty as types of the spiritual holiness which was 
 to be revealed in the latter ages, but which were 
 finally accomplished, and consequently superseded, 
 18 by the perfect holiness of Christ. Let no man, I 
 repeat, beguile you by this or any other similar 
 doctrine ; such as that, for example, of the baseness 
 of all material beings, and of the reverence due to 
 all things partaking of a spiritual nature S a doc- 
 its enormous political importance and its salutary effect 
 upon our religious feelings, we have our Saviour's own 
 authority in several passages of the Gospels. 
 
 ^ The heresy of the Docetse or Gnostics, which the Apos- 
 tle here alludes to, and which owed its first origin to some 
 mistaken theories respecting the nature of the physical 
 universe, may be traced back to a very remote period of 
 pagan antiquity. The very obvious superiority which, to 
 the most superficial observer, the phenomena of mind 
 appear to possess over those of matter had, so early as the 
 time of the commencement of the Magcian sect, suggested 
 to the oriental philosophers the well-known theory of two 
 self-existent, independent, intellectual principles ; the one 
 the Creator of the spiritual world and the source of good ; 
 the other the Artificer of the material creation and the 
 author of evil. The system of religious belief founded 
 upon these principles seems, in its later modification, to 
 have borne a strong resemblance to that fanciful doctrine 
 of the Platonists, which inculcated the necessity of sub- 
 tilizing and defecating the human soul by acts of mortifi- 
 cation in this life, in order to enable it to ascend after 
 death, as it were by a kind of specific levity, purged from 
 the gross contagion of matter, to the abode of the ethereal 
 essences, there to be reunited to the Godhead, from which 
 it had originally emanated. It is obvious that this doc- 
 trine (although, from its seeming coincidence with some of 
 the then admitted phenomena of the universe, perhaps the 
 
246 
 
 OOLOSSIANS. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 trine first suggested by the proud and meddling 
 presumption of the falsely wise, who would dogma- 
 least irrational of all those systems of paganism which ac- 
 companied the infancy of science) is defective in the most 
 essential requisite of a sound religious belief ; namely, a 
 tendency to promote the practice of rational morality : the 
 purity which it enjoins being rather that fantastic holiness 
 which consists in the abstinence from what may appear 
 gross with reference to our bodily senses, and in the at- 
 tenuation of our animal nature, than in the performance of 
 those nobler duties which the laws of an enlightened con- 
 science prescribe, and Christianity approves. 
 
 The opinions of tlie Gnostics, therefore, when attempted 
 to be engrafted upon, and identified with, the sublime and 
 beneficent morality of the Gospel, although plausible, as 
 St. Paul has observed of them, in their first aspect, from 
 their accordance with a very seductive prejudice, were in 
 reality a fatal and pernicious innovation upon the simple 
 purity of its tenets. In the first place, by teaching men 
 to seek after effectual righteousness in the schools of merely 
 animal mortification, they not only inculcated a degrading 
 superstition, but fell also into the same mistaken view of 
 the means of reconciliation with God, so derogatory to the 
 all-sufficient expiatory merits of Christ, which St. Paul has 
 reprobated with such just severity in the case of the Ju- 
 daizing Christians. Secondly, another inference to which 
 they naturally led was that to which the apostle alludes in 
 the passage before us, respecting the adoration due to the 
 several degrees of angelic beings, who, being supposed by 
 this theory to be emanations from the divine Being him- 
 self, were consequently asserted to be legitimate objects of 
 worship. The great Christian doctrine of the resurrection 
 of the body was also at direct variance with these prin- 
 ciples ; and, lastly, from the supposed impurity which 
 was considered as essentially attached to all material sub- 
 stances whatever, they involved the necessary consequence 
 of the denial of that fundamental truth of the Gospel 
 
CHAP. II. 
 
 COLOSSIANS. 
 
 247 
 
 tize upon the nature of those high things which 
 human eye has never been allowed to contemplate ; 
 
 revelation, the incarnation of our blessed Saviour. The 
 pure and spiritual Godhead, it was argued, could never 
 be attached to gross material elements, without incurring 
 moral pollution ; and as this latter supposition was of 
 course deemed blasphemous, a strange theory was invented 
 to meet this difficulty; namely, that a mere incorporeal 
 phantom, not our divine Redeemer himself, had been allowed 
 by Providence to appear for a certain season upon the earth, 
 to perform the external functions of a human being, and 
 finally to submit to a seeming crucifixion. To this gra- 
 s tuitous and wild assumption various allusions are made in 
 different parts of the apostolical writings ; more particularly 
 in the commencement of the first and second Epistles of 
 St. John. 
 
 In this tissue of heretical and unchristian opinions, all 
 of them necessary deductions from one plausible but mis- 
 taken theory, we have an awful illustration of the dan- 
 gerous errors into which we may be led by a single false 
 speculation of human reason, the moment that we desert, 
 in the pursuit of our own suggestions, the safe line marked 
 out to us by the revealed word of Scripture. But the 
 abuses resulting from the mistaken views of Gnosticism 
 did not terminate here : on the contrary, they were found 
 eventually to be as destructive of even that practical purity 
 of morals which they professed to inculcate, as they were 
 incompatible with the general theory of the Christian 
 covenant. It would appear at first sight a strangely para- 
 doxical fact, did we not know from experience hov/ many 
 ramifications of seemingly contradictory errors may spring 
 from one common root, that this very spiritualizing system 
 had, with a numerous class of that school, even so early as 
 the apostolical age, a tendency to encourage the grossest 
 sensuality and libertinism to a truly fearful extent. That 
 such however was the fact is established by the Epistles of 
 Peter, John, and Jude, and by the concurrent testimony 
 
248 
 
 COLOSSIANS. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 and who would turn your adoration to inferior and 19 
 created beings, such as the angels, from Him who is 
 
 of most of the early Christian writers. This singular cir- 
 cumstance we may however perhaps account for by recol- 
 lecting the parallel error which has laid the foundation of 
 Antinomianism in more recent times. In the instance of 
 both these heresies, the effort to elevate by every possible 
 argument the spiritual portion of our nature, by the depres- 
 sion and degradation of the animal^ seems to have led to 
 the monstrous conclusion, that the abuse of so worthless 
 and unimportant a part of our constitution as the bodily 
 senses, must be a matter of perfect indifference to the soul 
 itself, whose totally distinct and far superior functions could 
 never derive any real contamination from the conduct of its 
 ill-assorted and mortal companion. As the human heart is 
 continually lying in wait for every the most trivial pretext 
 for the indulgence of its corrupt appetites, we cannot ac- 
 cordingly be surprised that this theory, hollow and unsub- 
 stantial as it is, should have had sufficient plausibility to 
 conciliate that numerous portion of mankind who would 
 gladly embrace religion, yet want strength of mind to part 
 with their sensual enjoyments, and who therefore strive 
 to render compatible one with the other what God has 
 eternally disjoined, namely, spiritual holiness and practical 
 immorality. 
 
 Such was the character of one of the earliest and most 
 pernicious heresies which has disfigured Christianity, and 
 which continued to linger in the eastern Churches consi- 
 derably after the apostolical times. The last form under 
 which it appeared was that of the sect of the Manicheans, 
 which so deeply polluted the pure stream of divine truth 
 in the latter part of the third, and during the greater part 
 of the fourth centuries, numbering at one season among its 
 votaries the powerful mind of Augustine himself. If we 
 are to believe the charges brought by the Church of Rome 
 against the Albigenses, (and in this respect its assertion 
 appears worthy of credit,) the opinions of that unfortunate 
 
CHAP. III. COLOSSIANS. 
 
 249 
 
 the head of all things, and whose body we the 
 several members of his Church are ; members knit 
 together by Him in symmetrical arrangement, and 
 mutual subservience one to the other, and growing 
 up under Him to the full maturity of spiritual holi- 
 
 20 ness. If then you be really dead with Christ to all 
 the carnal elements of this world, why, as though 
 still living in this world, do you continue to tamper 
 
 21 with these deluding and human speculations, imagin- 
 ing that holiness consists in a fanciful imitation of 
 spiritual essences, and in proscribing the common 
 and legitimate exercise of our corporeal functions ; 
 
 22 with all the other wild conceptions of a fantastic 
 philosophy on the subject of our perishable nature : 
 
 23 a philosophy plausible in its first aspect to our 
 human prejudices, but the natural consequence of 
 which is rather the degradation of our animal con- 
 stitution by its superstitious mortification, than its 
 elevation and correction by a wise and holy dis- 
 cipline ? 
 
 3 Being then risen with Christ to a new and holier 
 life, let it be your great object to live according 
 to this blessed change, and to turn your attention 
 henceforward from these earthly speculations to 
 that heaven where Christ sits at the right hand of 
 
 2 God. Set your affections accordingly not upon 
 
 3 terrestrial, but upon celestial things : for you are 
 dead to this world, and your better life is at present 
 
 people also were, at a much more recent period, infected 
 with the same taint : a circumstance which ought not to 
 diminish our indignation at the atrocities exercised against 
 them under that plea, but which must necessarily lower the 
 admiration with which, upon other grounds, we are naturally 
 disposed to regard them. 
 
250 
 
 COLOSSIANS. CHAP. III. 
 
 in store for you with Christ in God's keeping ; 
 when therefore Christ shall appear at his second 4 
 coming, then also shall you appear with Him in 
 glory. Meanwhile consider your mortal members 5 
 as dead, together with all their corrupt desires ; ab- 
 staining from fornication, uncleanness, sins against 
 nature, evil and inordinate appetites, and avarice 
 wliich is a species of idolatry ; for all which offences 6 
 the wrath of God comes upon the children of dis- 
 obedience ; in which enormities yourselves once 7 
 lived, during your unconverted and carnal course. 
 If however these propensities are now dead within 8 
 you, as I trust they are, then, in the next place ^ 
 put away those which still cling to our nature, even 
 after its grosser inclinations are subdued ; I mean, 
 perversity of temper, violent anger, ill will, evil 
 speaking, with all light and indelicate conversation ; 
 
 * The apostle here appears to make a distinction between 
 those sins, the indulgence in which, from their deep enor- 
 mity is perfectly irreconcileable under all circumstances 
 with a sincere profession of Christianity, and those which, 
 as resulting rather from the infirmities natural to the human 
 temper than from deliberate ill intention, or unrestrained 
 habit, may occasionally continue to cling to the character 
 even after some progress is made in the work of conversion. 
 It should be recollected, however, that these last-mentioned 
 failings, though of a somewhat less deep dye than the 
 others, are still incompatible with that high degree of 
 purity which our religion enjoins ; they may be to a cer- 
 tain degree venial so long as they are the growth of igno- 
 rance, or of feelings not yet perfectly subdued by religious 
 discipline ; but he cannot be said to be a real Christian, in 
 the full acceptation of the term, who continues wilfully to 
 offend in any one of them, however trivial they may appear, 
 when contrasted with graver enormities. 
 
CHAP. III. OOLOSSIANS. 
 
 251 
 
 9 use also no deceit one with the other, recollecting 
 that you have renounced all the evil practices of 
 
 1 0 your unregenerated nature, and have put on the 
 new man ; that renovated character which is formed 
 in the knowledge of divine wisdom, after the image 
 of God himself. Under which character all the 
 former distinctions which separated nation from 
 nation, and man from man, are for ever and effec- 
 
 ] 1 tually done away ; so that it is no longer a question 
 which is the Gentile or which is the Jew ; which 
 the circumcised or which the uncircumcised ; which 
 the Barbarian, which the Scythian ; which the slave, 
 which the free man ; but one single designation, 
 that of "Christian," alike comprehends and defines 
 
 12 you all. Put on therefore, as God's own holy and 
 beloved children, habits of compassion, kindness, 
 
 13 meekness, gentleness, slowness to anger ; bearing 
 with one another, and forgiving each man his 
 neighbour's offences and provocations, as Christ 
 has in his mercy forgiven yours towards himself. 
 
 14 And above all things put on Christian love and 
 charity, which is the great band of union by which 
 all the other Christian virtues are held together. 
 
 15 And let the peace of God reign in your hearts, that 
 you may serve him with one mind, as you are per- 
 sonally collected together in one body : and offer 
 with one accord your joint praises and thanksgivings 
 
 16 to him. Let the holy word of Christ dwell within 
 you, bringing forth fruit abundantly ; that you may 
 be filled with divine wisdom, teaching and admon- 
 ishing one another with psalms, and hymns, and 
 spiritual songs, singing to the Lord in your hearts 
 
 17 with thankfulness. And whatsoever you do, in 
 word or deed, do it in the name and for the glory 
 
252 
 
 of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to our God and 
 Father through him. 
 
 Wives, submit yourselves to your respective hus- 18 
 bands, and in so doing show your obedience to Christ. 
 
 Husbands, love your wives, and use no harshness 19 
 towards them. 
 
 Children, obey your parents in all things ; for 20 
 such conduct is pleasing to the Lord. 
 
 Fathers, do not act tyrannically towards your 21 
 children, lest they become careless of your affec- 
 tion from discouragement. 
 
 Servants, obey your masters upon earth, not 22 
 merely whilst their eye is upon you, and from in- 
 terested motives, but from a sincere wish to perform 
 the duties of your station, and from the fear of God : 
 and whatever you do, do it from the heart, that it 23 
 may be seen of God, and not of men : recollecting 24 
 that it is from God that you will one day receive 
 your reward ; for you are his and Christ's servants. 
 But he, on the other hand, who acts dishonestly 25 
 towards his earthly master, shall receive hereafter 
 the punishment of his dishonesty. For God is not 
 partial, or a respecter of persons. 
 
 Masters, give to your sej-vants their due in fairness 4 
 and justice : remembering that you have yourselves 
 a Master, namely, Jesus Christ. 
 
 All of you, my brethren, continue perseveringly 2 
 in prayer, using it on all suitable occasions, with 
 thanksgiving to God for his many mercies. 
 
 Pray also for me, my brethren, that God may 3 
 give me a fluent and persuasive speech, that I may 
 be able to preach effectual ly the doctrines of that 
 Gospel for which I am now suffering imprisonment, 
 and that I may speak as I ought to speak. 4 
 
€HAP. IV. 
 
 COLOSSIANS. 
 
 258 
 
 5 Walk prudently with regard to the pagan autho- 
 rities of this world, not bringing into unnecessary ^ 
 risk that time which God has allotted you upon 
 earth for the working out your salvation. 
 
 6 Let your conversation be at all times such as 
 becomes Christians, seasoned with the salt of holi- 
 ness, that you may know how to answer every man 
 properly. 
 
 7 My beloved brother, and faithful assistant, and 
 fellow-servant in the ministry of the Gospel, Tychi- * 
 cus, will explain to you my present circumstances : 
 
 8 whom I have sent to you for the purpose, and that 
 he may inquire also after your affairs, and afford 
 
 9 you consolation on my account. I have also sent 
 Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother, and a 
 native of your own city, to bear him company. 
 From them you will learn every thing which has 
 occurred to me here. 
 
 10 Aristarchus my fellow-prisoner salutes you ; and 
 Marcus, sister's son to Barnabas, respecting whom 
 you have received my injunction, that should he 
 
 11 come to you you should receive him kindly. Jesus 
 also, who is surnamed Justus, salutes you. All 
 these are of the Jewish nation, and the only per- 
 sons from that quarter who have assisted me in the 
 ministry of the Gospel, and been a comfort to me 
 
 12 in my sufferings. Epaphras, the servant of Christ, 
 whom you sent to me, and who continues to pray 
 
 ^ It is worthy of observation how diametrically opposite 
 this sensible injunction is to that fanatical spirit which aims 
 at momentary excitement by wilfully incurring unnecessary 
 persecution, and which prefers the applause and admiration 
 of men to the unostentatious but substantial advancement 
 of the cause of truth. 
 
254 COLOSSTANS. chap. iv. 
 
 incessantly for you that you may stand perfect and 
 complete in all the will of God, also salutes you by 
 me. I can bear witness for him that he is very 13 
 zealous for you, and for all our brethren in Laodicea 
 and in Hierapolis. Our beloved brother Luke the 14 
 physician, and Demas also salute you. Salute from 15 
 me the brethren in Laodicea, and Nymphas, and 
 the congregation of believers in his house. And 16 
 when this Epistle has been read among you, let it 
 also be read in the Church of Laodicea ; and do 
 you in your turn read in your Church that which 
 you have received from Laodicea. And enjoin 17 
 Archippus, that he take heed to the ministry which 
 he has received from the Lord, to do his duty in 
 it. I send my own salutation written with my own 18 
 hand. Remember my fetters which I endure for the 
 sake of the Gospel. Grace be with you. Amen. 
 
 Dr. Paley has observed, that, as the Epistle to the 
 Ephesians and this to the Colossians were written nearly 
 at the same time, having been forwarded to the parties 
 addressed by the hands of the same bearer, and for nearly 
 the same object,, a more than usual coincidence, not only 
 of sentiment, but of style and arrangement, might be ex- 
 pected to exist between them, marking not only the mind 
 of the same author, but also of the same author under 
 nearly the same identical circumstances. And such he has 
 shown to be actually the case. The resemblance is by no 
 means that of a mere transcript, but it is still such as 
 would naturally exist where the writer, having his mind 
 strongly impressed with one main idea, unconsciously and 
 unintentionally repeats himself in his correspondence with 
 
 1 
 
COLOSSIANS. 
 
 255 
 
 two different parties. The same acute observation, which 
 is so strongly confirmatory of the authenticity of these 
 compositions, may also in some degree be applied to the 
 Epistle to the Philippians, written, like the one before us, 
 during the apostle's imprisonment at Rome, and which 
 accordingly, in his mode of alluding to that circumstance, 
 marks the same identity of authorship with it, and conse- 
 quently with that addressed to the Ephesians. The ge- 
 neral precepts contained in this Epistle differ little from 
 those advanced by St. Paul on former occasions ; but they 
 are as usual characterized by that earnestness, gentleness, 
 and sincerity of manner, together with that fervent piety of 
 sentiment, which in all the writings of that great apostle 
 convey to us so vivid a conception of the splendid moral and 
 intellectual qualities which combined to form his character ; 
 and which have rendered all his productions not less beau- 
 tiful and impressive, than they are, as specimens of acute 
 reasoning, cogent and instructive. 
 
THE 
 
 FIRST EPISTLE OF PAUL 
 
 TO THE 
 
 THESSALONIANS. 
 
 The date usually assigned to the following Epistle is the 
 year of Christ 52. From the circumstance of its professing 
 to be the address of Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, to the 
 Thessalonian Church, it is supposed to have been written at 
 Corinth at the time when those three persons were together 
 resident in that city, as stated in Acts xviii. 5. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 
 
 Paul and Silvanus ^ and Timothy to the Church 1 
 of Thessalonica, which is in the faith of God the 
 
 ^ It may appear a trifling remark to observe, that the 
 person designated in the Epistles by the name of Silvanus, 
 is invariably spoken of in the book of the Acts under the 
 abbreviated appellation of Silas. The circumstance, how- 
 ever, is worth noting, as it affords another instance in con- 
 firmation of Dr. Paley's celebrated argument in proof of the 
 authenticity of those two portions of the New Testament 
 derived from the seeming discrepancies and real coincidences 
 which exist between them. Had those works been the pro- 
 duction of one and the same author, there can be no doubt 
 but that he would have spoken of this person under one 
 uniform appellation. Silas, it is well known, is the abbre- 
 viation of Silvanus, as Lucas is that of Lucanus, 
 
CHAP. T. I. THESSALONIANS/ 
 
 257 
 
 Father and of the Lord Jesus Christ — grace and 
 peace be to you from God our Father, and from the 
 Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 The object of the apostle in the following address to the Church of 
 Thessalonica appears to have been to console them under the severe 
 persecutions which both he and they were at that time sustaining 
 from the Jewish authorities. This Epistle, although suggested by- 
 local and temporary circumstances, is well adapted for the consola- 
 tion and instruction of Christians in all ages, and under all possible 
 conditions of life. Every sentence is marked by the usual amenity 
 and kindness of the writer's affectionate disposition ; whilst in his 
 allusion to that great source of religious comfort, the certainty of a 
 future state of existence, and in his inculcation of the consequent 
 duties of holiness and good works, he rises to a high tone of earnest 
 and energetic eloquence not often exceeded in any other portions of 
 the sacred writings. 
 
 2 We return continual thanks to God for you, 
 
 3 making mention of you in our prayers, from the 
 unceasing recollection which we have of your work 
 of faith, and labour of Christian love, with your 
 persevering hope and confidencd in our Lord Jesus 
 
 4 Christ, in the sight of God and our Father ; know- 
 ing, as we do, my brethren beloved of God, that he 
 has indeed elected you to be a Church holy unto 
 
 5 himself ; inasmuch as the Gospel which we preached 
 to you has been effectual, not in word only, but has 
 also been confirmed by God's own sanction, namely, 
 the miracles which he has worked among you by 
 our means; and by the gifts of the Holy Spirit 
 which he has conferred upon you, with the abundant 
 produce in your hearts of the fruits of faith and 
 holiness; whilst you also, on your part, have 
 known no less certainly of us, with what per- 
 severing zeal and sincerity we have laboured for 
 
 6 your benefit in the work of our ministry. You 
 
 s 
 
258 
 
 1. THESSALONIANS. chap. ii. 
 
 have accordingly become imitators of us, and of 
 our blessed Master, receiving the word of truth, 
 though at the price of much affliction and persecu- 
 tion, with that joyful alacrity which is the blessed 
 fruit of the Holy Spirit within you: so that you 7 
 have become examples to all tlie believers both in 
 Macedon and Achaia. For the tidings of the Gospel 8 
 have gone forth from among you, not only through 
 JNIacedon and Achaia, but even in remote regions 
 your conversion to God and the fervency of your 
 faith have been generally reported ; common 9 
 rumour, without any agency of ours, reporting in 
 all quarters the rapid success of our endeavours in 
 your district ; and with what readiness you turned 
 away, in consequence of our preaching, from your 
 former idolatry, and betook yourselves to the wor- 
 ship of tlie true and eternal God : waiting with lo 
 confidence for the second coming of his Son from 
 heaven ; of that Son, the blessed Jesus, whom he 
 has already raised from the dead, and who we 
 humbly hope will be our place of refuge from the 
 wrath to come. 
 
 Yourselves, brethren, will well remember the sig- 2 
 nal success which attended our first arrival among 
 you : how, after having suffered many insults and 2 
 persecutions at Philippi, we notwithstanding pro- 
 ceeded undismayed, and in full confidence of God's 
 protection, to announce to you, amidst the clamours 
 of unbelievers, the glad tidings of the blessed 
 Gospel. Our exhortation to you accordingly was de- 3 
 livered in full sincerity and candour, not accommo- 
 dating itself to the tortuous and impure feeling of 
 human passions, but displaying a deep conviction 4 
 of the sacred trust which had been committed 
 
CHAP. II. I. THESSALONIANS. 
 
 259 
 
 5 into our hands by our divine Master, and without 
 any subserviency to mortal interests or prejudices, 
 challenging the rigorous scrutiny of his all-searching 
 
 6 eye. For that gracious God is our witness, that we 
 never for a moment made his mission an instru- 
 ment for the gratification of our ambition or our 
 avarice, nor presumed upon it either amongst 
 yourselves, or others, for the promotion of our 
 temporal interests, although, as being Christ's own 
 ministers, we might, had we been so disposed, have 
 reasonably made it a plea for the exercise of some 
 jurisdiction, or the exaction of the maintenance of 
 
 7 apostles. Such however was not our line of con- 
 duct. On the contrary, as a nurse cherishes her 
 
 8 children, and is not fostered by them, so, devoting 
 ourselves to your benefit, we preferred, not only to 
 communicate to you the holy Gospel of our Re- 
 deemer, but also gratuitously to expend our strength 
 and means in your service, as a proof of the sin- 
 
 9 cerity of our attachment. And, accordingly, you 
 cannot but remember the manual labour to which 
 we submitted for that object ; working day and 
 night for the procuring of our own livelihood, whilst 
 we were at the same time employed in preaching to 
 you, without expense or burden, the word of divine 
 
 10 truth. You cannot also but remember the purity, 
 and correctness, and innocence of our life and con- 
 
 1 1 versation, amongst our converts to the faith ; — how 
 we earnestly exhorted and intreated you, with the 
 
 12 anxious affection of parents for their children, all 
 and severally to conduct yourselves worthily of the 
 God who has called you to his worship, and to 
 whose glorious kingdom we all of us hope to be one 
 day admitted. 
 
 s2 
 
260 
 
 I. THESSALONIANS. chap. ii. 
 
 With these gratifying recollections, we cannot 13 
 but offer our unremitting thanks to God for the 
 success with which he has crowned our exertions, 
 in that you received the word which we preached, 
 not as the words of human wisdom, but as, what it 
 undoubtedly is, the word of that divine Being, 
 whose blessed Spirit works eiFectually within you 
 for your support under your present trials. For 14 
 with regard to what you have ^ suffered on account 
 of your belief in the Gospel, your lot has been pre- 
 cisely that of the Christian converts amongst my 
 own countrymen; your fellow-citizens having per- 
 secuted you for the sake of your opinions, in the 
 same manner as the believing Jews have under- 
 gone persecution from the ruling authorities at 
 Jerusalem ; from those men who have been from 
 first to last consistent in their uniform hostility to 
 the truth ; who crucified the blessed Jesus himself, 15 
 and put his prophets to death ; and who now vent 
 their fury upon us ; men, enemies to God, and to 
 the whole human race, their great object at this 16 
 very moment being to prevent our preaching God's 
 gracious dispensations to the " Gentile world, and 
 consequently to hinder the glad tidings of salvation 
 from reaching to other nations : — thus filling up the 
 measure of their sins, and bringing down upon their 
 own heads the summary vengeance of the Almighty 
 which awaits them. 
 
 Having been necessarily absent from you for some 17 
 
 ^ See the account of the violence of the Jews at Thessa- 
 lonica against the Christian converts, as given in the seven- 
 teenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. 
 
 ^ See Colossians ii. 1 — 5. 
 
CHAP. HI. I. THESSALONIANS. 
 
 261 
 
 time, (in body only, but never for a moment in my 
 thoughts,) 1 was extremely anxious to enjoy another . 
 
 18 opportunity of coming among you : accordingly I 
 (Paul) made more than one attempt to do so, but 
 the difficulties which Satan was able to stir up 
 against me prevented my succeeding in my object. 
 
 19 For what greater hope, or joy, or subject for self- 
 congratulation have I at this moment, than the 
 anticipation that I shall be allowed to present you 
 one day as my children in the faith to our blessed 
 
 20 Redeemer at his second coming? You are indeed 
 3 my glory and my joy ; and being such, as I found 
 
 myself unable to continue longer without some 
 communication with you, and yet was prevented 
 from visiting you in person, I thought it best to 
 
 2 remain alone at Athens, and to send our brother 
 Timothy, the minister of God, and my fellow la- 
 bourer in the service of the Gospel of Christ, to 
 strengthen you by his exhortations, and to comfort 
 
 3 and establish you in your faith ; lest any of you 
 should despond at the intelligence of the persecu- 
 tions I undergo. For it is necessary that you should 
 be prepared to expect these afflictions, which in this 
 life form part of the lot of a Christian apostle. 
 
 4 (You may remember, that when I was last with 
 you, I anticipated and foretold to you the precise 
 
 5 troubles which awaited myself.) Anxious therefore 
 on your account, I took the first possible oppor- 
 tunity of sending a message to you, and of inquiring 
 in what degree your confidence in God's promises 
 remains unshaken in this moment of trial ; lest 
 perchance the tempter should have availed him- 
 self of the occasion for shaking your faith, and de- 
 
 6 stroying the fruits of my spiritual labours. Judge 
 
262 
 
 I. THESSALONIANS. chap. iv. 
 
 accordingly of the gratification I experienced, when 
 I understood from Timothy upon his return, that 
 your holy confidence and mutual love and charity 
 remained precisely what they were, and that your 
 anxiety to see me was not less earnest than mine to 
 visit you. Great indeed was my consolation in the 7 
 midst of my afilictions, in consequence of this happy 
 intelligence of your persevering faith and trust in 
 God ; for be assured that my own griefs can press 8 
 but lightly upon me, so long as I feel satisfied that 
 your confidence in Christ remains unshaken. I 9 
 cannot therefore too fervently nor too frequently 
 thank my God on your account, for the great cause 
 for rejoicing in the success of my endeavours, which 
 your persevering good conduct has afforded me; 
 and accordingly I now, both by night and by day, lo 
 more earnestly than ever desire to see you once 
 more, and to add by my instructions the last finish, 
 should such be still wanting, to the completion of 
 your faith and religious knowledge. May God our ll 
 Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, enable me to 
 undertake this journey ; and may our Redeemer 12 
 cause you to increase and abound in that fervent 
 affection towards one another, and towards all man- 
 kind, with which I am disposed towards yourselves ; 
 that he may finally establish you unblameable in 13 
 holiness before our God and Father, among the rest 
 of his saints, at the glorious second coming of him 
 the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 And now, my brethren, let me finally exhort 4 
 you, in the name of the Lord Jesus, that, as you 
 have received from me directions for a holy life, 
 such as is pleasing to God, so you will earnestly 
 labour to your utmost to make yourselves, day 
 
CHAP. IV. I. THESSALONIANS. 
 
 263 
 
 after day, more and more perfect in that necessary 
 
 2 work. You cannot but remember what instructions 
 to that effect I formerly gave you in our Lord's 
 behalf. 
 
 3 In the first place, I stated it as God's special 
 command that you keep yourselves pure in mind 
 
 4 and body, abstaining from fornication ; so that each 
 individual among you should learn to preserve the 
 body which God gave him, in holiness and suit- 
 
 5 able respect, not making it, like the unconverted 
 heathen nations, a mere minister to degrading 
 appetites. 
 
 6 Let no man, in the next place, overreach or 
 defraud his brother in any thing : for, as I have on 
 former occasions solemnly testified to you, God is 
 
 7 an avenger of all such misdeeds : for he has not 
 called us to a life of unholiness, but to innocence ; 
 
 8 that man therefore who sins against these social 
 duties, sins not only against man, but against God 
 himself, who has planted his Holy Spirit within us 
 to instruct and strengthen us. 
 
 9 On the subject of brotherly love, and mutual acts 
 of kindness, indeed, I feel that it is superfluous to 
 address to you any new exhortations ; for God has 
 
 . already given you those affectionate feelings in no 
 small proportion, as your past conduct has abun- 
 dantly shown, not with regard to your more imme- 
 
 10 diate connections only, but by your many acts 
 of beneficence ^ to our brethren through the whole 
 
 ^ There will appear something very amiable in this 
 admission by the apostle of the Hberahty and beneficence 
 displayed by the Thessalonians, when we recollect that he 
 himself, as we learn from chap. ii. ver. 9. of this Epistle, 
 
264 
 
 I. THESSALONIANS. chap. iv. 
 
 realm of Macedon ; all that I will say therefore on 
 this point is, — cherish and improve this disposition 
 to your utmost ability. 
 
 Frequent not noisy and disputatious assemblages 1 1 
 of men, but keep yourselves aloof, attending to your 
 own concerns, and working at your several occupa- 
 tions, as I have already enjoined you : that your 12 
 heathen neighbours may be led to remark, and to 
 imitate, the decency and propriety of your lives ; 
 and also that you may not be guilty of injustice by 
 making yourselves dependent upon others for the 
 necessaries of life. 
 
 Lastly, my brethren, with regard to our departed 13 
 friends and relatives who have been called away 
 from the miseries of this life, do not despond on 
 their account, nor, like the heathen who have not 
 yet learned to cherish the glorious hope of a future 
 resurrection, imagine that they are lost to you for 
 ever. For if w^e know and are well assured that our 14 
 blessed Saviour died, and rose again from the grave, 
 so we may feel in like manner fully confident that 
 Christ will at his second coming bring back with 
 him all his servants who have died in his faith. For 15 
 this declaration which I now make to you I received 
 from our Lord himself, namely, that we', who may 
 
 had supported himself by his own manual labour, whilst 
 resident in that quarter, in order that he might preach the 
 Gospel to them without occasioning to them any burden or 
 expense. 
 
 ^ This passage affords an illustration of the misapprehen- 
 sion of the real purport of some parts of Scripture, which 
 may be the consequence of a too literal acceptation of a 
 single expression of the writer, instead of arriving at his 
 meaning by the general analogy of his argument. Had the 
 
 1 
 
265 
 
 be still living at that day of Christ's coming, will 
 have no advantage whatever over those who are at 
 
 16 this moment in their graves. For our Lord himself 
 will descend from heaven with a shout of triumph, 
 with the cry of the archangel, and the sound of 
 God's trumpet ; and those who have already died in 
 
 17 Christ shall be the first summoned ; and afterwards 
 we, or whoever may be the survivors, will be caught 
 up together with them into the clouds, to meet our 
 Lord in the air ; and so shall thenceforward reside 
 
 18 with the Lord for ever. Wherefore comfort one 
 5 another with this assurance. But when that awful 
 
 day will be, it is not for me to attempt to hazard 
 
 second Epistle to the Thessalonians not come down to us, 
 it cannot be doubted but that the inference which we should 
 have derived from his mode of expressing himself in this 
 place would have been, that St. Paul expected himself to 
 continue in this world until the final day of judgment, 
 or at all events that he conceived that the then existing 
 generation of men would not pass away before the arrival 
 of that awful period. And such in fact was the impression 
 which this passage appears to have made upon the Thessa- 
 lonians themselves. Of course the impugner of revelation 
 would not in that case have let slip this opportunity of 
 pointing out the apostle's mistake, and of assailing the 
 presumed infallibility of the sacred writings. But the 
 following Epistle entirely does away this misapprehension. 
 There St. Paul expressly declares that it never was his in- 
 tention to represent the day of judgment as near at hand ; 
 on the contrary, he asserts with a peculiar clearness of 
 language, and with a spirit which subsequent history has 
 decidedly shown to be that of prophecy, that the end was 
 not to be yet, but that vast changes were destined to take 
 place, and many generations to pass away before the fearful 
 day of our Lord's second coming. 
 
266 
 
 1. THESSALONIANS. chap. v. 
 
 a conjecture. Yourselves know what were our 2 
 Saviour's own words on that subject, namely, " that 
 the coming of the day of the Lord will be as that of 
 a thief in the night," for when men shall be busily 3 
 occupied in the midst of their own temporal specu- 
 lations, and unsuspicious of the fearful hour which 
 awaits them, then in a moment shall destruction 
 overtake them, sudden as the pains of labour seize 
 upon a woman when her time is complete, and there 
 shall be no way for them to escape. But you, my 4 
 brethren, live not in darkness, so that you need 
 dread the approach of Him, who will thus come 
 " like the thief in the night." You all are the 5 
 children of light and of the day. We live not, like 
 the votaries of this world, in the night and in dark- 
 ness ; let us not then go carelessly to sleep as they 6 
 do, but let us watch and be sober ; for they who 7 
 indulge in sleep do so in the night, and they who 
 revel in drunkenness and riot do so in the night ; 
 but let us, who live in the light of day, under 8 
 the glorious sunshine of the Gospel, let us be vigi- 
 lant and sober, as in the day ; putting on the breast- 
 plate of faith and love, and bearing upon our heads 
 as a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God has 9 
 not appointed us to abide the effects of his wrath on 
 that awful day, but to receive salvation through our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that, whether 10 
 we wake or sleep, we may finally live together with 
 him. Wherefore still continue to comfort and cheer 11 
 one another, and edify each man his neighbour, with 
 this assurance, as I am satisfied that you have done 
 in time past. 
 
 1 intreat you moreover, my brethren, to submit 12 
 yourselves dutifully to the teachers who labour 
 
CHAP. V. I. THESSALONIANS. 
 
 267 
 
 among you, whom the Lord hath set over you for 
 
 13 your instruction, and to repay their exertions with 
 that affection which they deserve. 
 
 14 Be at peace also amongst yourselves. Admonish 
 the factious and disorderly. Encourage the feeble- 
 minded. Support the weak. Be patient and even 
 
 15 tempered to all men. Return not evil for evil, but 
 do good on every opportunity both to one another, 
 
 16 and to strangers. Be cheerful-minded on all occa- 
 1^ sions. Be in the continual habit of prayer, giving 
 
 God thanks for all his dispensations, be they what 
 they may : for such is the will of God declared to us 
 
 19 by Jesus Christ. Quench not the holy suggestions 
 
 20 of the Spirit. Despise not the opportunities for 
 improvement, afforded by the instruction commu- 
 
 21 nicated in your religious assemblies. Give a fair 
 and impartial examination to every thing, and, 
 having done so, hold to and cherish that which you 
 
 22 are satisfied is good. Abstain from any equivocal 
 
 23 act, which may possibly be evil. And may the 
 great God of peace sanctify you in all points ; that 
 you may be preserved pure and blameless both in 
 soul and body till the second coming of our Lord 
 
 24 Jesus Christ. Be assured that He who has called 
 you to the mercies of his covenant will not be un- 
 true to his promise, nor disappoint you of your 
 hope. 
 
 25 My brethren, remember us in your prayers. Sa- 
 lute all the brethren with a holy kiss. I solemnly 
 enjoin you in the name of the Lord, that you take 
 care that this Epistle be read to all the holy 
 brethren. 
 
 28 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. 
 
I 
 
 THE 
 
 SECOND EPISTLE OF PAUL 
 
 TO THE 
 
 THESSALONIANS. 
 
 This Epistle, having been written shortly after the pre- 
 ceding, must consequently have its date assigned about the 
 latter end of the year of our Lord 52. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 
 
 Paul, and Silvanus, and Timothy, to the Church 1 
 of Thessalonica, established in the faith of God our 
 Father, and of our Lord Jesus Christ — grace and 2 
 peace be unto you from God our Father, and from 
 the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 The Thessalonian Church having been led, by a misapprehension of the 
 apostle's meaning in his allusion to the final day of judgment in his 
 former Epistle, to expect our Lord's second coming as an event near 
 at hand, St, Paul appears to have written this second Epistle for the 
 purpose of correcting that mistake, and .assuring them that many 
 important changes in the history of mankind were destined to be 
 wrought before the arrival of that period. This discussion leads him 
 into a truly remarkable anticipation of some of the future events 
 which were to occur in the latter ages of the Christian Church, which 
 strikingly demonstrate the prophetic spirit of which he was pos- 
 sessed. The Epistle then concludes with an injunction to habits of 
 industry, and the preservation of Church discipline. 
 
CHAP. I. II. THESSALONIANS. 269 
 
 3 We are bound to thank God continually for you, 
 brethren, as is fit, for the daily increase of your 
 faith, and the exuberant abundance of your love one 
 
 4 to another, which have given us just occasion to 
 boast of you in the several Christian Churches, as 
 bearing with exemplary patience and faith the many 
 afflictions and persecutions to which you are subject. 
 
 5 Which present afflictions we cannot but consider as 
 manifest pledges of God's ultimate righteousness 
 and justice, and that he thinks you worthy of that 
 divine inheritance for which you now sulFer so much ; 
 
 6 for, as the violence and cruelty of your persecutors 
 must be expected to reap from his final just retribu- 
 tion that due retaliation of suffering which they now 
 
 7 inflict upon you ; so by a parity of reasoning we are 
 justified in presuming, that our common afflictions 
 which now assail us, are but preparatory to our re- 
 ward of eternal happiness, when the Lord Jesus 
 shall return in glory from heaven with his mighty 
 
 8 angels, as a flaming fire, to execute vengeance on 
 those who know not God, and are disobedient to the 
 
 9 Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ ; and who shall 
 suffer for their unbelief the penalty of eternal de- 
 struction, being far removed from his presence \ 
 
 * It seems to be implied by this as well as by several other 
 passages of the New Testament, that a considerable portion 
 of the misery awaiting the condemned souls in a future state 
 will consist in their eternal exclusion from the divine pre- 
 sence. Thus in our Lord's parable of the wedding garment, 
 (Matthew xxii. 13.) we find the rejected guest ordered to be 
 bound hand and feet, and to be cast into " outer darkness,'^ 
 TO (JKOTOQ TO cSwrEjOov, that is, to be removed from the guest- 
 chamber, and the presence of the Lord of the feast, into a 
 place of melancholy seclusion. If this negative infliction 
 
270 
 
 11. THESSALONIANS. 
 
 and from the radiance of his glory ; when he shall 10 
 come to be glorified by his blessed saints, and to 
 receive honour and worship fi-om those who have 
 trusted in him (amongst whom you will be admitted 
 to a place as having professed his faith) on that 
 
 will add so much of bitterness to the positive punishments 
 of those unhappy beings, .we must of necessity assent also to 
 the opposite inference, that the admission of the blessed 
 souls to the immediate presence of the Deity will be one 
 grand constituent of the happiness reserved for just men 
 made perfect. It would undoubtedly be unwise, if not un- 
 safe, to speculate nuich, with our present very limited facul- 
 ties, upon this mysterious subject : yet even with our darkened 
 mortal capacities, we can at this moment see enough to be 
 perfectly certain, that the privilege here alluded to must 
 be one calculated to afford to us the most inconceivable 
 degree of felicity. Of all our pleasures in this world, that 
 resulting from the contemplation of the stupendous pheno- 
 mena of nature is by far the most exciting and the most 
 intellectual. But what is all that the human eye can at 
 present embrace, or all that the human mind can conceive, 
 when compared with the actual immensity of the material 
 universe ? And again, what is the mere material universe, 
 when placed in comparison with that moral spiritual crea- 
 tion, which we have every reason to believe to be as really 
 existent as any. of the tangible properties of matter? — And 
 yet again, after all, what is even that highest and sublimest 
 portion of created beings, when considered with reference to 
 their Almighty Creator ? Our mortal imagination, it is true, 
 will not lend itself to the pursuit of this train of thought, 
 but it is sufficiently palpable to our reasoning faculties to 
 satisfy us how much of literal truth of delineation is con- 
 veyed in that scriptural account of the happiness of a future 
 state, which describes it as that which " eye hath not seen, 
 nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man 
 to conceive." 
 
CHAP. II. II. THESSALONIANS. 
 
 271 
 
 11 tremendous day. Wherefore we offer up our prayers 
 continually for you tbat God would count you wor- 
 thy of that glorious summons, and fulfil in you all 
 the purposes of his grace and love, and complete 
 within you by his powerful assistance the workings 
 
 12 of your faith. That the name of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ may be glorified in you, and you in him, 
 through the mercy of our God, and of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 2 With regard however to the time of the second 
 coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that day when 
 the whole human race will be gathered before his 
 
 2 judgment-seat, I beg of you, my brethren, not to be 
 easily excited or alarmed either by any presumed 
 revelation to that effect, or by any light report, or 
 by any misapprehension of what I said in my former 
 Epistle, as though that awful period were at this 
 
 3 moment nigh at hand. Let no man deceive you 
 on this point ; as that day will not arrive until 
 the great apostacy from the pure faith shall have 
 first taken place, and until that man of sin foretold 
 by prophecy shall have been manifested : that son 
 
 4 of perdition, of whom it is declared that he shall 
 make war against, and elevate himself above, every 
 one that is called God, (Daniel xi. 36.) and every 
 thing holy, and shall intrude himself into God's 
 place in God's own temple, claiming to himself the 
 
 5 veneration due to God only. Do you not remember 
 that when I was with you on a former occasion, I 
 
 6 explained to you how these things should be ? You 
 must recollect how I then told you what are the 
 causes now in operation which prevent for the pre- 
 sent the manifestation of that general corruption 
 
 7 which will be made palpable in its due season. For 
 
272 
 
 the seeds of iniquity are already at work \ but that 
 restraint which the present order of things imposes 
 
 ^ Nothing can be more Hterally accurate, as every per- 
 son at all conversant with ecclesiastical history must readily 
 admit, than the whole of this remarkable prophecy respecting 
 the then commencing corruptions of the Christian Church. 
 In looking back upon that enormous mass of error and of 
 human inventions on which the papal power erected its 
 audacious tyranny, we are too apt to consider the whole 
 of it rather as the growth of one short period, and the 
 result of a wilful system of deliberate imposture, than as the 
 slow produce, as it really was, of various concurrent causes 
 spread over a very considerable portion of time. Of those 
 unscriptural abuses which form so large a part of the creed 
 of the Romish Church, no inconsiderable quantity had been 
 suggested by the natural tendency of mankind to corrupt 
 the pure truths of revelation by the admixture of human 
 inventions, at a comparatively early period of Christianity. 
 The ambitious spirit of popery, it is true, subsequently 
 availed itself of them for the extension of its own usurped 
 power, but their first origin may be traced much more 
 frequently to human superstition and ignorance, than to 
 wilful and calculating profligacy. " The seeds of iniquity," 
 says St. Paul in the passage before us, " are already at 
 work :" and so undoubtedly they were ; for the morbid 
 activity of false ingenuity from the very first infancy of 
 the Church began to work its way like a canker into the 
 soundness of its doctrines. But, as the apostle proceeds 
 to observe, " the restraint which the then existing order 
 of things imposed upon them," that is to say, the subjuga- 
 tion of the Christian converts to the pagan authorities, 
 " prevented their effectually springing up." The subse- 
 quent accession of temporal prosperity however at once 
 removed the impediments which had previously opposed 
 the progress of the man of sin. From the time of Con- 
 stantino downwards the decay of true Christianity was 
 fearfully rapid, and before the expiration of tha fourth 
 
273 
 
 upon them must be first removed before tliey can 
 
 8 effectually spring up. But the time will come 
 when those checks will be withdrawn, and then 
 shall arise that lawless power whom the Lord shall 
 one day blow away with the blast of his irresistible 
 breatlh, and shall quell with the overpowering blaze 
 
 9 of his divine presence : that blasphemous and im- 
 pious power, whose coming shall be attended with 
 the working of Satan in power, and signs, and 
 
 10 wonders, to give sanction to a lie, and in unrigh- 
 teous deceit for the seduction of the many who will 
 perish, because they have not loved that pure and 
 
 11 unadulterated truth which leads to salvation. And 
 therefore, because of this their worldly mind, it will 
 be that God will suffer the power of delusion to 
 overtake them, so that they shall rest their faith 
 
 12 upon vain fictions; in order that judgment may 
 come upon all who believe not the truth, but who 
 have pleasure in unrighteousness. 
 
 13 How much then ought we, my brethren beloved 
 of the Lord, to return thanks to God incessantly on 
 your account, that he has admitted you, from the 
 very first, to salvation through the sanctification of 
 his Holy Spirit, and through your reliance upon 
 
 14 his truth, to which he has called you by the means 
 of our ministry, that you might obtain the glory of 
 
 1 5 the inheritance of our Lord Jesus Christ ! Stand 
 
 century the veneration of relics, the sacrifice of the mass 
 for the dead, the Arian and a vast variety of other heresies, 
 with a multitude of accompanying false and absurd legends, 
 had combined to form that accumulation of abuses, so large 
 a portion of which papal enterprise contrived subsequently 
 to consolidate into the materials of the most oppressive 
 usurpation recorded in the annals of mankind. 
 
 T 
 
274 
 
 then firm in this faith, and be strong in your per- 
 suasion of the certainty of that revelation which you 
 have received from us, whether by word of mouth, 
 or by letter: and may our Lord Jesus Christ him- 16 
 self, and our God and Father who has loved us, 
 and given us his eternal consolation, and a well- 
 founded hope in his grace and mercy, comfort your 17 
 hearts, and confirm you in all good doctrine and 
 practice. 
 
 Finally, my brethren, pray for us, that the word 3 
 of the Lord which is entrusted to our ministry may 
 spread, and be glorified by the conversion of other 
 nations, as it has been by yours : and that we may 2 
 be preserved from the violence of unreasonable and 
 wicked men. For all men have not faith in our 
 preaching. Be assured, however, that God will be 3 
 true to his covenant, and will strengthen you, who 
 believe in him, and guard you from the attempts of 
 your spiritual enemy. We also have ourselves full 4 
 assurance in you, and in the Lord your protector, 
 that you will faithfully continue to attend to our 
 exhortations as in time past. May then that Lord 5 
 direct your hearts to the love of God, and to the 
 waiting with patience for Christ's second coming. 
 
 We enjoin you also, my brethren, in the name 6 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep yourselves aloof 
 from every brother whose life shall be disorderly, 
 and inconsistent with the precepts which you have 
 received from us. For you cannot be ignorant, 7 
 from the recollection of our own conduct whilst we 
 were with you, what kind of habits we require in 
 our followers : you remember that we conformed 
 ourselves strictly to our own precepts: that we 8 
 encumbered no man with our gratuitous mainte- 
 
275 
 
 nance, but laboured with our own hands by night 
 and day for the earning of our own livelihood, that 
 we might not make ourselves chargeable to others ; 
 9 not indeed that we might not have justly advanced 
 that claim, had we been so disposed ; but we pre- 
 ferred to make our own disinterested conduct an 
 illustration of our own maxim which we often en- 
 
 10 forced among you, namely, that " if a man will not 
 
 11 work, neither should he eat." For we have been 
 informed, that there are at present certain persons 
 in your society whose habits are disorderly, and 
 who do not work themselves, but interfere with, 
 
 12 and are an incumbrance to, others. To such there- 
 fore we give this positive command in the name 
 and authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, that for 
 the future, living more quietly and industriously, 
 they strive to earn their own bread by their own 
 
 13 labour. And may all of you, my brethren, in like 
 manner never be weary in your task of well doing. 
 
 14 Should any one refuse obedience to the injunc- 
 tions contained in this letter, note that man, and 
 shut him out for the present from your society, to 
 
 15 bring him to a proper feeling. I do not mean, 
 however, that you should consider him altogether 
 as an alien, but that you should admonish him 
 kindly as a brother. 
 
 16 May the Lord of peace give his blessed peace to 
 you at all times, and in all ways. The Lord be with 
 you all. 
 
 17 The salutation of me, Paul, is subjoined in my own 
 handwriting. Pay attention to the character, as it 
 is the mark of the genuineness of my Epistles. 
 
 18 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you 
 all. Amen. 
 
 T 2 
 
THE 
 
 FIRST EPISTLE OF PAUL 
 
 TO 
 
 TIMOTHY. 
 
 The date of the following Epistle is assigned to various 
 periods. That most commonly received supposes it to have 
 been written about the year of our Lord 64. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 
 
 Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ by the appoint- 1 
 ment of God our Saviour, and of Jesus Christ 
 the hope of our redemption, to Timothy my own 2 
 son and convert in the faith — grace, mercy, and 
 peace be from God our Father, and from our Lord 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 In this Epistle St. Paul conveys to Timothy, whom he had deputed to 
 superintend the Church at Ephesus, his admonitions respecting 
 ecclesiastical discipline, with directions for the proper selection of 
 the spiritual officers who were to preside over the various depart- 
 ments of the ministry in that community. The whole composition 
 is an admirable specimen of the enlightened good sense and amiable 
 feeling of the writer, and affords also valuable information on the 
 subject of the peculiar form of government adopted by the primitive 
 Church. 
 
 It is my wish, in conformity with the instructions 3 
 which I gave you when I set out for Macedon, that 
 
CHAP. I. 
 
 1. TIMOTHY. 
 
 277 
 
 you should remain at Ephesus, in order that you 
 may have an opportunity of exhorting certain of 
 our brethren to avoid variety and discrepancies of . 
 
 4 doctrine, and to withdraw their minds from the study 
 of those traditional speculations and endless inquiries 
 into genealogies ^ and fables, which are rather to be 
 considered in the light of laborious trifling, than as 
 affording any real help towards our edification, or 
 
 5 the establishment of our faith. And accordingly I 
 would have you in all such exhortations uniformly 
 urge upon them, as their great aim and object, the 
 pursuit of that Christian charity and good will 
 towards God and man which is the result of a 
 pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith ; 
 
 6 which best qualification of a Christian teacher 
 some persons losing sight of, have turned the force 
 of their minds rather to minute discussions than to 
 
 7 practical edification : and continue to urge the 
 
 ^ Dr. Macknight and the greater number of commenta- 
 tors upon this passage are of opinion, that the " genealogies" 
 here mentioned were those preserved by the J ewish families 
 as proofs of their descent from the original founder of their 
 race. The explanation however given by Hammond appears 
 to me much more satisfactory ; namely, that the apostle is 
 here alluding to the mystical speculations of the Gnostics 
 respecting the successive emanations from the divine essence, 
 and the generation of the various ^ons, or angelic beings, 
 which formed the leading feature of the theology of that 
 sect. According to the former supposition the remonstrance 
 of the apostle is directed only against an harmless, however 
 childish prejudice ; but according to the latter, he is rescu- 
 ing the pure truths of revelation from that admixture of 
 human philosophy, which, as uniform experience has shown, 
 is the most dangerous, because the most insidious, auxiliary 
 that true religion can call in to her aid. 
 
278 
 
 I. TIMOTHY. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 obligation of the Mosaic law, without possessing 
 any accurate or definite idea what the object of 
 • that law was, or of the tendency of their own 
 arguments. I am far from wishing to depreciate 8 
 the value of the law when considered with refer- 
 ence to the real end for which it was promulgated ; 
 but this I would explicitly say of it, " that it was 9 
 never intended by its author as a rule of positive 
 righteousness, for which it is perfectly incompetent, 
 but solely as a provisional preventive check against 
 moral delinquency ; and accordingly that its aim 
 was not the improvement of the well-disposed, but 
 the correction of the bad; of the lawless and the 
 dissolute ; of the irreligious and the sinful, the im- 
 pious and the profane ; the parricide, the mur- 
 derer, the fornicator, the offender against nature, lo 
 the man-stealer, the liar, the false and perjured wit- 
 ness, and of every other violator of the laws of 
 God and good morals." Inculcate then, I repeat, ll 
 the glorious Gospel of the blessed God, the task of 
 proclaiming which has been entrusted to my ministry 
 as an apostle. And I earnestly thank our Lord 12 
 Jesus Christ, who has given me strength for the 
 performance of this great work, and counted me a 
 faithful servant in the office with which I have 
 been entrusted by Him : not charging me with my 13 
 former offences of blasphemy, and persecution, and 
 violence against his blessed revelation, but showing 
 mercy towards me, because he knew that I sinned 
 in ignorance and through unbelief; and accordingly, 14 
 the plentiful fruits of the mercy which I received 
 from him, have by his blessing been on my part an 
 overflowing of faith and holy love towards him for 
 these his inestimable gifts. This is indeed a true 15 
 
CHAP. I. 
 
 I. TIMOTHY. 
 
 279 
 
 saying, and worthy of the most heartfelt acceptation, 
 that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sin- 
 
 16 ners, of whom I feel that I am the chief. But for 
 this reason I received mercy at his hands, that in 
 me, as a foremost and striking example, might be 
 shown the immensity of his forbearance, for the 
 future encouragement of all such as hereafter shall 
 turn away from their sins, and repose themselves 
 upon that mercy for the attainment of everlasting 
 life. 
 
 17 Now, to the one almighty, eternal, incorruptible, 
 invisible, all-wise God, be honour and glory for ever 
 and ever. Amen. 
 
 18 The delivery of the above exhortation I have 
 entrusted to you, my son Timothy, relying upon the 
 prophetic anticipation entertained by the Church of 
 your future services in the ministry, and feeling 
 satisfied that you will not disappoint that expectation, 
 but will fight the good fight as a soldier of Christ ; 
 
 19 holding fast your faith in him, and together with 
 your faith an approving conscience, the result of 
 a good life : the necessity of which latter thing some 
 persons^ overlooking have in consequence made ship- 
 
 ^ In his former Epistles, the admonitions of St. Paul have 
 been chiefly directed against the mistake so natural to timid 
 and superstitious minds, of aiming at righteousness through 
 the medium of trifling ritual observances and bodily morti- 
 fication. His indignation is now called forth by another, 
 and far more revolting heresy ; that which, misstating the 
 object and effects of our Lord's meritorious atonement, 
 would make that blessed expiatory sacrifice a licence for the 
 unrestrained indulgence of the passions, and a deliberate 
 continuance in sin. Between these opposite extremes of 
 error, into one or other of which religious theorists have in 
 
280 
 
 wreck of the former ; such as are Hymenaeiis and 20 
 Alexander, whom I have struck out of the com- 
 munity of the Church, that they may learn to cease 
 to blaspheme Christ by supposing that he can be 
 the patron of immorality. I enjoin, therefore, in 2 
 conformity with the above instructions which I have 
 given you, in the first place, that ])rayers, supplica- 
 tions, intercessions, and thanksgivings be offered up 
 in your religious assemblies for all men, whatever 
 be their condition ; of course not omitting kings, 2 
 and all other persons possessing authority ; that 
 under their protection we may be enabled to lead 
 a quiet and peaceable life in holiness and purity. 
 I repeat, pray for all men^ be they who they may, 
 for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God 3 
 our Saviour, who would have all men whatever to 4 
 be saved, and to come to the knowledge of his truth ; 
 for we know that there is one God, and one Mediator 5 
 between God and the whole human race, namely, 
 Christ ; who for that purpose clothed himself with 6 
 the human nature, and gave himself a ransom for all 
 mankind, as he has now declared in his own good 
 time ; of which gracious covenant of redemption I 7 
 have been appointed his apostle and minister (I speak 
 the truth in perfect sincerity) to teach to the Gentile 
 
 all ages been prone to fall, the written word of revelation 
 points out the only true and secure path. In fact, almost 
 every page of ecclesiastical history is little more than the 
 record of the oscillations of the human mind between these 
 two points, to which the timidity of the feeble minded on 
 the one hand, or the gross conceptions of the fanatical on 
 the other, have invariably deviated the moment that they 
 abandoned that infallible guide, in pursuit of the false lights 
 supplied by human speculation, and interested sophistry. 
 
CHAP. III. 
 
 I. TIMOTHY. 
 
 281 
 
 nations the doctrines of faith and truth. Enjoin 
 
 8 then that prayers be offered up for our various fellow 
 creatures by all the brethren in every fitting place 
 and occasion, holding up pure hands to heaven, and 
 laying aside all animosities, with all jealous and partial 
 distinctions. 
 
 9 In the next place, let the women attire themselves 
 in decent apparel, with modesty and reserve, not 
 with braided hair, or gold, or pearls, or expensive 
 
 10 habits, but with that far more becoming ornament for 
 Christian women, the attire of good works. 
 
 11 Let them moreover receive their competent and 
 necessary instruction in silence and with due de- 
 
 12 ference ; for I permit not a woman to become a 
 teacher, or to usurp authority over a man ; on the 
 
 13 contrary, enjoin them to be diffident and silent ; for 
 Adam was formed by the Almighty before Eve ; 
 
 14 and not Adam but Eve was the person beguiled by 
 the serpent, and the cause of man's transgression. 
 
 15 Let us however recollect, that it was promised that 
 the seed of the woman, and not of the man, should 
 bruise the serpent's head, and that therefore through 
 Jier progeny it is that both the female and the male 
 sex shall eventually be saved, if they live in faith, 
 and Christian love, and holiness, and sobriety. 
 
 3 And now let me earnestly remind you, as one to 
 whom I have entrusted the momentous charge of 
 appointing ministers to the Church, that the office 
 of a bishop is one of high and solemn moment, and, 
 when properly filled, of the utmost benefit to those 
 
 2 whom he is selected to govern. Let then every 
 person chosen by you to that office be blameless in 
 his life, the husband of one wife, sober, sedate, 
 judicious, hospitable, and competent to instruct 
 
282 
 
 I. TIMOTHY. 
 
 CHAP. 111. 
 
 others : not a frequenter of riotous banquets, not a 3 
 brawler, but meek, peaceful, and free from the stain 
 of avarice, a wise director of his own household, and 4 
 a cautious trainer up of his own children in the 
 habits of order and propriety, (for if he want skill to 5 
 manage his own children, you may safely presume 
 that he will fail in the more difficult charge of 
 governing God's Church,) one of tried and established 6 
 character in morals and doctrine, for, if but a novice, 
 he may from want of steady consistency bring 
 scandal upon the Church. In fine, let him be one 7 
 whom the very heathens would pronounce to be 
 blameless, that no disgrace or ill name may attach 
 to his ministry. 
 
 On the same principle, be careful to choose your ^ 8 
 deacons from men of grave character, not double 
 tongued, not addicted to intemperance, not rapacious 
 after gain ; but, on the contrary, uniting soundness 9 
 of faith, with purity of morals. When you chance lo 
 to meet with persons apparently such as I am now 
 describing, in the first place subject them to an 
 equitable probation, and, should they be found upon 
 such trial to answer to the character received of 
 them, then let them be duly admitted into the office 
 of deacons. You will also take care that the dea- 11 
 connesses be of grave characters, not given to slander, 
 but sober, and faithful in their trust. Let the dea- 
 cons be the husband of one wife, and men who 12 
 have been found to have been good and judicious, 
 managers of their children and household. For they 13 
 who shall have performed this office suitably, may 
 
 ^ For the first institution of the office of Deacon, see 
 Acts vi. 
 
CHAP. III. 
 
 I. TIMOTHY. 
 
 283 
 
 justly be considered as having earned an honourable 
 station, and worthy to be entrusted with the more 
 arduous duties of a minister of the faith of Christ 
 Jesus. 
 
 14 I have written these things to you, hoping indeed 
 
 15 to be able to come to you shortly ; but anxious, 
 should any thing occur to delay me, that you should 
 at all events possess all the necessary instructions for 
 the due management of God's household, I mean the 
 Christian Church, which is the great pillar and sup- 
 
 16 port of the true faith: and awful indeed is the 
 mystery of that holiness which is entrusted to its 
 keeping ; namely, that ^ God himself appeared on 
 
 ^ The abrupt introduction and detached character of this 
 passage, verse 1 6, give it all the appearance of a compressed 
 formula of doctrine, which we can suppose to have been 
 intended by St. Paul for the use of that infant Church, 
 over which Timothy was appointed to preside. According 
 to this supposition, if we admit the commonly received and 
 more probable reading Qeog, in preference to the og con- 
 tended for by the Socinians, it will form an epitome of 
 belief consisting of the following articles : first, the divinity 
 and incarnation of Christ : secondly, the separate personality 
 and imphed divinity of the Holy Spirit : thirdly, the univer- 
 sality of the offer of redemption to the human race : fourthly, 
 the necessity of faith : fifthly, the re-ascension of our Saviour 
 into glory, and the consequent implied resurrection of man- 
 kind. That he intended this as a model of that kind of 
 confession of belief of things vitally necessary which he 
 deemed it expedient that every Christian teacher should 
 require from his disciples appears also probable, from the 
 fact of his contrasting it with that cumbrous and super- 
 stitious detail which his gift of prophecy enabled him to 
 foresee that the Church of Rome in after ages would annex 
 to this simple and cogent summary. How completely that 
 anticipation has been subsequently realized every one will 
 
 5 
 
284 
 
 I. TIMOTHY. 
 
 ClIAl'. IV. 
 
 EARTH IN THE HUMAN FORM; THAT HIS IDENTITY 
 WAS ACKNOWLEDGED AND RATIFIED BY THE VISIBLE 
 OPERATIONS OF THE HoLY SPIRIT ; THAT HE WAS 
 SEEN BY THE AnGELS ' ; THAT HE WAS PROCLAIMED 
 AS THE COMMON SaVIOUR OF ALL NATIONS ; THAT HE 
 WAS BELIEVED ON BY THE WORLD WHICH WITNESSED 
 HIS COMING ; AND FINALLY THAT HE RE-ASCENDED 
 INTO ETERNAL GLORY. 
 
 True indeed it is, as I know through the com- 4 
 munication of the Holy Spirit, that the Church will 
 not always retain in its original purity this simple 
 and sublime doctrine, but that in later times men 
 shall arise who shall turn away from the true faith, 
 
 be satisfactorily convinced v^ho takes the trouble of casting 
 his eye over the Tridentine creed of Pope Pius IV. The 
 variety of minute speculations with which successive here- 
 sies in the course of ages have infested the Church, and 
 perplexed the plain doctrines of primitive Christianity, may 
 indeed in our day have rendered more elaborate and de- 
 tailed forms of confession than that here given by the 
 apostle useful, if not absolutely necessary. But at all events 
 it is important for us to recollect, that in the innocence of 
 those early times, a believer's faith was considered as suffi- 
 ciently expressed in his admission of those few but elemen- 
 tary and momentous truths. 
 
 ^ It would appear more to accord with the general context 
 of this passage, if w^e understand the word ayyeXog in this 
 place to refer to our Saviour's mortal associates upon earth, 
 rather than to the angelic beings more usually designated 
 by that appellation. For this occasional application of the 
 word "angel," see note upon 1 Corinthians xi. 10. In that 
 case, the sense of the text would be, " He was borne wit- 
 ness to by the Holy Spirit : — He was seen and communed 
 with in the human form by his chosen Apostles : — He was 
 proclaimed by them,'' &c. 
 
CHAP. IV. 
 
 L TIMOTHY. 
 
 285 
 
 giving heed to seducing revelations, and doctrines 
 
 2 of devils through the subtle machinations of false 
 teachers, of men of a seared and hardened con- 
 
 3 science, who will forbid matrimony, and make fan- 
 ciful and superstitious distinctions between meats, 
 commanding their hearers to abstain from many 
 which God has created, that they might be received 
 and used with gratitude by the believers who wor- 
 
 4 ship him in truth. For every creature of God is 
 good, and nothing, if received with a grateful dispo- 
 
 5 sition, is to be rejected as forbidden ; having been 
 sanctified by the command of God, and by prayer. 
 
 6 Be careful then to inculcate these principles, and 
 you will do your part well as a servant of Jesus 
 Christ, brought up in the knowledge of the true 
 faith, and of that wholesome doctrine in which you 
 
 7 have been so carefully grounded. But avoid pro- 
 fane and superstitious fancies, and fictions, making 
 it your great aim to arrive at true and spiritual 
 
 8 righteousness. For the holiness which is sought 
 after by the maceration of the body is of little avail, 
 but spiritual righteousness is blessed both here and 
 hereafter, having the temperate indulgence of God's 
 good gifts in this world, and the promise of a 
 
 9 happy immortahty in that which is to come. This 
 
 ^ It is not an improbable conjecture of many commen- 
 tators, that by the expression di^aaKoXiai daifioviMv, here 
 rendered in conformity with our established version, " doc- 
 trines of devils," the apostle intended to forewarn man- 
 kind against the adoption of the superstitious worship and 
 invocation of the souls of departed saints, which, emanat- 
 ing originally from the schools of heathen philosophy, sub- 
 sequently became an acknowledged tenet of the Romish 
 Church. For the Platonic doctrine of the " Demones,'' 
 see Augustin de Cimtate Dd, lib. viii. cap. 14, et seq. 
 
286 I. TIMOTHY. chap. v. 
 
 is a truth, the importance of which you cannot too 
 earnestly impress upon your hearers : and it is lo 
 accordingly for inculcating this great fact of our 
 Christian liberty, and of the superior value of 
 spiritual over carnal righteousness, and because I 
 have preached the doctrine, that God is no less the 
 God of the Gentiles than of the Jews, and more 
 particularly the protector of those who repose their 
 hopes on his merits, that I have suffered so many 
 persecutions and insults from the Jewish authori- 
 ties. Be it your care to inculcate and enforce this 11 
 same doctrine among all your converts. 
 
 Give no man a handle to undervalue you on 12 
 account of your youth ; but strive to render your- 
 self an example and model of what a true believer 
 should be by the soundness of your precepts, by 
 the purity of your life, by your charity towards all 
 men, by the fervour of your piety, by the stedfast- 
 ness of your faith, by the candour of your mind. 
 Meanwhile, till I come to you, occupy yourself in 13 
 private study, in public exhortation, and in com- 
 municating instruction ; nor let those spiritual gifts 14 
 lie useless, which were conferred upon you, in con- 
 formity to God's declared will, by the imposition of 
 the hands of the presbytery. Be earnest then in 15 
 these holy exercises ; and lose no opportunity of 
 acquiring requisite knowledge, that all men may 
 see and confess your proficiency. Be zealous to 16 
 lead a pure and holy life, and to arrive at the pos- 
 session of the true and wholesome doctrine, and, 
 having arrived, to persevere in the practice and in- 
 culcation of it : for so doing, you will save your own 
 soul, and the souls of your hearers. 
 
 Give no unnecessary offence or. scandal by harshly 5 
 rebuking the elders of the Church, but admonish 
 
CHAP. V. 
 
 I. TIMOTHY. 
 
 287 
 
 them, when necessary, with the forbearance of a 
 son addressing his father ; and in like manner ex- 
 hort the young with the affectionate earnestness of a 
 
 2 brother persuading a brother. By the same rule, 
 address the elder women as mothers, the younger, 
 as your own sisters, with all purity of thought and 
 manner. 
 
 3 Treat with respect the widows who derive their 
 maintenance from the contributions of the Church, 
 taking care to admit such only to those appoint- 
 ments, as may from their age and circumstances be 
 
 4 best suited to the duties of the situation. I mean 
 such as shall have no children or relatives for whom 
 to provide, or to whom to look. For with regard 
 to those who have families of their own to support, 
 let such be content to perform the peculiar domestic 
 duties resulting from that circumstance, looking 
 after the welfare of their own offspring, and assisting 
 their parents in their infirmity ; as in so doing, 
 they will be well performing their duty to God. 
 
 5 But the real widows whom I would recommend to 
 you for the service of the Church, such, I mean, as 
 have no temporal occupations to distract or call 
 them away from the more direct duties of religion, 
 cannot do better than devote themselves to the 
 service of God, by offering up to him their prayers 
 
 6 and supplications by night and by day ; whilst those 
 on the contrary who may be in more affluent cir- 
 cumstances, devoting themselves to the pleasures of 
 this life, will often be spiritually dead with reference 
 
 7 to that which is to come. Be careful then to men- 
 tion this my injunction to the brethren, that they 
 make their choice accordingly of persons duly quali- 
 
 8 fied : remembering that where relatives exist who 
 are dependent upon ourselves for their support, we 
 
288 
 
 1. TIMOTHY. 
 
 CHAP V. 
 
 can have no excuse for withdrawing ourselves from 
 the performance of an imperative domestic duty, 
 under the plea that we are devoting ourselves to the 
 peculiar service of God. For the desertion of that 
 station in which God has placed us, with all its 
 accompanying obligations, is not only inconsistent 
 with the spirit of Christianity, but is even below the 
 usual affection displayed towards their near con- 
 nexions by the very heathens themselves. Let then 9 
 the widow whom you may elect into the service of 
 the Church be at all events not under sixty ^ years 
 
 ^ One cannot but be strongly impressed whilst perusing 
 this passage with the powerful good sense, as well as good 
 feeling of St. Paul pourtrayed in it. It is not the self- 
 exclusion of devout persons from the turmoil of worldly 
 concerns for the purposes of habitual piety which he de- 
 precates, for such habits may be in their proper time and 
 place as highly rational and as consistent with true religion, 
 as they are for the most part well intentioned. But his 
 insight into human nature had taught him, that resolutions 
 of this description formed under the momentary operation 
 of some strong devotional excitement, are often ill adapted 
 to the bodily and intellectual temperament of the persons 
 forming them : and that there can be neither true piety 
 nor true wisdom in entangling a reluctant conscience in 
 the responsibility of services, the essential value of which 
 necessarily consists in the willing spirit, and the cheerful- 
 ness with which they are performed. Had the Church of 
 Rome, when she gave her confirmatory sanction to the 
 indissoluble obligation of monastic vows, but seriously 
 weighed the prudential caution of the apostle in the pas- 
 sage before us, how vast a mass of misery, the consequence 
 of ineffectual regret, and of an alarmed conscience reproach- 
 ing itself with its instinctive but involuntary recollections 
 of a world it had abjured, would she have removed from 
 many a now blighted victim of ill-judging piety, or gloomy 
 superstition ! 
 
CHAP. V. 
 
 L TIMOTHY. 
 
 289 
 
 10 of age; having had only one husband; and who 
 shalJ come to you specially recommended by her 
 good works, such as having brought up her children 
 well; having been hospitable to strangers; having 
 washed the feet of our brethren ; having assisted the 
 distressed, and having laudably performed the other 
 
 11 commendable duties of life. All w^omen accordingly 
 under the age now mentioned consider as dis- 
 qualified; lest after having devoted themselves 
 more especially to the service of Christ, they be 
 induced to change their minds, and to engage in a 
 
 12 second marriage ; and thus be tempted into the sin 
 of violating engagements which they may have 
 entered into from want of a thorough knowledge of 
 
 13 their own inchnations: or even, should they not 
 betake themselves a second time to matrimony, lest, 
 at all events, they should want a due steadiness of 
 character, wandering from house to house for the 
 sake of indulging a trifling disposition, and joining 
 
 14 in light and frivolous conversation. Instead then 
 of perverting a charitable and rehgious institution, 
 I would rather recommend that the younger widows 
 marry a second time, and have children whom they 
 may bring up properly, than, by undertaking duties 
 for which they are inadequate, give a handle to the 
 
 15 ill-disposed to revile our establishment. For already 
 some, by the conduct which I have now described, 
 have given just occasion to scandal. 
 
 16 In cases where any private individuals, male or 
 female, have from charitable motives undertaken 
 the support of a widow, or widows, let them con- 
 tinue to do so without burthening the finances of 
 the Church, in order that it may be better able to 
 
290 
 
 I. TIMOTHY. CHAP. V. 
 
 provide for such as shall be really destitute and 
 deserving. 
 
 Let those elders who perform the work of the 17 
 ministry in an exemplary manner, particularly those 
 who are zealous in preaching and instructing others, 
 receive a larger provision, in proportion to their 
 deserts : according to the precepts of Moses, (Deu- 18 
 teronomy xxv. 4.) "Thou shalt not muzzle the ox 
 that treadeth out the corn," as also the words of 
 our blessed Saviour himself, (Matthew x. 10. Luke 
 X. 7.) " the labourer is worthy of his hire." 
 
 ^ Receive no accusation against an elder, unless 19 
 it be substantiated by two or three witnesses ; but 20 
 where an accusation shall be proved to be well- 
 founded, let your reprimand of the offending party 
 be as public as possible, in order that others may 
 be deterred from offending in a like manner. 
 
 I charge you in the name of God, and of our 21 
 Lord Jesus Christ, and of those apostles whom he 
 has appointed to rule over his Church, to observe 
 all these directions with perfect impartiality, with- 
 out prejudice or undue bias. 
 
 Confer imposition of hands upon no man without 22 
 due caution, lest by inadvertence you make yourself 
 responsible for another person's misconduct. 
 
 Keep watch over your own conduct, and preserve 
 purity of life and conversation. 
 
 ^ This passage, which asserts the authority of Timothy 
 to establish a judicial investigation into the conduct of any 
 accused Elders (Presbyters) of the Church, with the sub- 
 sequent clause, ver. 22, respecting the conferring of orders, 
 appears perfectly decisive with regard to the existence of 
 the prelatical office in the primitive ages of Christianity. 
 
CHAP. VI. 1. TIMOTHY. 291 
 
 23 Do not, as I understand you have done, continue 
 to confine yourself to water only at your meals, but 
 drink a little wine for your stomach's sake, and on 
 account of your frequent bodily infirmities. 
 
 24 In judging of your candidates for the ministry, 
 you will have no diflSculty in deciding upon the 
 unfitness and un worthiness of some applicants ; but 
 cases will occur, in which you will be liable to be 
 
 25 deceived, unless you exercise much caution : on 
 the other hand, the suflftciency of some will be ob- 
 vious to you at first sight, whilst that of others will 
 require some pains to draw it out, before it can be 
 duly appreciated K 
 
 6 Let every believing brother who is a slave, pay 
 all becoming honour and respect to the master who 
 has a legal claim to his services, that the name of 
 God and of the Gospel be not calumniated as in- 
 
 2 compatible with the usages of society : and in cases 
 where the master is himself a Christian, let not the 
 slave on that account relax his attention to his 
 master's interests, on the plea that all Christians^ 
 
 * The caution exercised by the primitive Church in in- 
 quiring strictly into the morals of the candidates for the 
 ministry, is evident from the following pass age in Lampri- 
 dius's Life of Alexander Severus. " Ubi aliquos voluisset 
 vel rectores provinciis dare, vel prsepositos facere, vel pro- 
 curatores, id est rationales ordinare, nomina eorum propone - 
 bat, hortans populum, ut, si quis quid haberet criminis, 
 probaret manifestis rebus ; si non probasset, subiret poenam 
 capitis : dicebatque, grave esse, cum id Christiani et J udsei 
 facerent in prsedicandis sacerdotibus qui ordinandi sunt, non 
 fieri in provinciarum rectoribus, quibus et fortunse hominum 
 committerentur et capita." ^lii Lampridii Alexander 
 Severus, cap. 45. 
 
 ^ The admonition here inculcated by the apostle is strik- 
 u 2 
 
292 
 
 are brethren to one another, and equal in the sight 
 of God ; but let him rather do his duty the more 
 earnestly on that very account, making the tie of 
 mutual love and kindness only another motive to 
 stimulate his industry. Impress this precept to the 
 utmost of your power upon those whom you are 
 called to instruct. 
 
 If any convert be given to innovate upon the 3 
 simplicity of the Gospel, and will not submit his 
 understanding to the wholesome and unsophisti- 
 cated doctrine taught by our blessed Saviour, be 4 
 assured that man is led away by carnal arrogance 
 and conceit from the search of true knowledge, and 
 is making the word of life a mere instrument for 
 idle speculations and controversies, and thus sowing 
 the seeds of jealousies, dissensions, railings, uncha- 
 ritable surmises, and of all those sophistical fallacies 5 
 by which worldly men attempt to harden their 
 hearts against the chidings of conscience, and to 
 make the holy cause of religion compatible with 
 their own selfish interests. Of such persons beware. 
 Compatible with our real interests even in this life 6 
 religion undoubtedly is ; it is not however by 
 making us rich, but in giving us that contented 
 disposition which is equivalent with riches. For we 7 
 brought nothing into this world, and it is certain 
 that we can carry nothing out ; wherefore, provided 8 
 we have food and covering, let that suffice. In 9 
 aiming beyond this, and in seeking to be rich, men 
 
 ingly characteristic of his deep insight into human nature. 
 How often since bis day has the spiritual equality of Christ- 
 ians been advanced by the enthusiastic and fanatical as a 
 plea for insubordination, and an argument for the abolition 
 of the civil distinctions of society ! 
 
CHAP. VI. 
 
 I. TIMOTHY. 
 
 293 
 
 fall of their own accord into temptation and a snare, 
 blinding their understandings, and fostering those 
 evil passions which eventually plunge all who give 
 
 10 way to them into the abyss of perdition. For ava- 
 rice is the root of all evil ; rendering the hearts of 
 those who are its slaves callous to all the feelings 
 of faith and piety, and embittering their whole exist- 
 
 11 ence with anxiety and sorrow. Fly, chosen servant 
 of God, I beseech you, fly from these wretched and 
 base passions ; and let your great and earnest en- 
 deavour be the attainment of righteousness, piety, 
 
 12 faith, charity, patience, meekness : fight the good 
 fight of faith : lay hold of, and cling to, that hope 
 of eternal life to which God has called you, and 
 the blessed doctrine of which you have gloriously 
 
 13 asserted in the presence of so many witnesses. - Do 
 this I solemnly abjure you in the name, and as you 
 shall one day stand in the sight of God, the Giver 
 of life ; continue to bear your fearless testimony to 
 the truth, as your great Master Christ Jesus him- 
 self has done before you, who so unhesitatingly 
 
 14 answered to the interrogations of Pilate : that our 
 gracious Redeemer may find you faithful to the last, 
 without stain or reproach, at his glorious second 
 
 1 5 coming, when in his own good time he shall re- 
 appear as the blessed and only Mighty One, the 
 
 16 King of kings, and Lord of lords, the great self- 
 existent and eternal Being, who makes his abode in 
 that inaccessible blaze of light and glory, which man 
 has not seen, nor can see. To Him be honour and 
 eternal dominion. Amen. 
 
 17 Remind those who are rich in this world's trea- 
 sure, that they place not their confidence and hopes 
 on those uncertain possessions ; but on the mercies 
 
294 I. TIMOTHY. chap. vi. 
 
 of the living God, who gives us all things abun- 
 dantly for our innocent enjoyment : and exhort 18 
 them to be zealous after good works, making them- 
 selves rich in the fruits of a good life, ready to dis- 
 tribute to others, and compassionate to the neces- 
 sitous ; that so they may lay up for themselves a 19 
 good treasure for the world to come, and may 
 attain to everlasting life. 
 
 O Timothy, keep the doctrine which is entrusted 20 
 to your ministry in simplicity and purity, avoiding 
 profane and trifling innovations, and the vain super- 
 additions of carnal philosophy, which some of our 21 
 brethren having adopted, have corrupted the word 
 of God, and fallen away from the faith. Grace be 
 with you. Amen. 
 
THE 
 
 SECOND EPISTLE OF PAUL 
 
 TO 
 
 TIMOTHY. 
 
 The following Epistle, the last of those attributed to St. 
 Paul, is supposed to have been written a short time pre- 
 vious to his martyrdom, in the year of our Lord 65. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 
 
 1 Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, 
 according to the promise of eternal life in Christ 
 
 2 Jesus, to my beloved child Timothy — grace, mercy, 
 and peace be from God the Father, and from our 
 Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 We have here the valedictory and affecting exhortations of the dying 
 Paul, ready, as he expresses it, to be offered up for the service of his 
 Redeemer, to his favourite disciple Timothy, on the subject of the 
 duties of a Christian minister. The Epistle presents a beautiful and 
 striking picture of the same unshrinking energy of character, the 
 same simplicity of feelings, and the same sincerity of belief, which 
 marks the former writings of the apostle, wound up by the prospect 
 of approaching dissolution to a degree of joyful confidence in the 
 mercies of his Creator, which more than reahze our most sanguine 
 conceptions of that beatitude which might be expected to attend the 
 closing career of an expiring saint. The whole composition is how- 
 ever as completely devoid of every symptom of enthusiasm and Of 
 morbid excitement, as it is abundant in topics of edification, from 
 which every class of human beings may derive substantial benefit. 
 
296 
 
 II. TIMOTHY. 
 
 I thank niy God, the God of my forefathers, 3 
 whom I serve with a pure conscience, making in- 
 cessant mention of you in my prayers by night and 
 by day, (for I cannot forget the tears which you 4 
 shed when with me on a former occasion, nor re- 
 strain the anxious longing which I feel to see you 
 once more,) when I call to mind your sincere faith 5 
 in the Gospel ; a faith which shone conspicuously 
 in your grandmother Lois, and in your mother 
 Eunice, and which, I am confident, exists in no 
 less degree in yourself. Wherefore I the more ear- 6 
 nestly in treat you to stir up and keep alive that 
 spiritual gift of God which dwells within you, 
 through the imposition of my hands ; for that pre- 7 
 cious gift was not communicated that it might lie 
 dormant through timidity, but that it might operate 
 by miracles, and works of Christian charity, and 
 well-regulated zeal. Be not then ashamed to bear 8 
 witness to the name of our Redeemer, nor to ac- 
 knowledge me who am now a prisoner on account of 
 his Gospel; but bear cheerfully your share in the 
 afflictions which await those who are called to the 
 ministry, looking up to the protection and support 
 of that God who calls us to salvation by his holy 9 
 summons, not on account of our own merits, but 
 from his own gracious purpose and mercy, which 
 was prepared for us, through Christ Jesus, before 
 the commencement of time ; and which has been lo 
 revealed in our days by the coming of our Saviour, 
 Jesus Christ, who has stripped death of its power, 
 and brought life and immortality to light through 
 his Gospel : of which I have been appointed by him 1 1 
 a teacher, and an apostle, and an instructor of the 
 Gentiles : and for the sake of which I now suffer 12 
 
CHAP. II. 
 
 II. TIMOTHY. 
 
 297 
 
 persecution. I am not however ashamed or dis- 
 mayed on that account : for I know in whom I 
 have trusted, and I am well assured that he is 
 able to guard the treasure which I have deposited 
 in his keeping until the great day of his second 
 coming. 
 
 13 Hold fast then, I beseech you, that form of sound 
 and wholesome doctrine which you derived from my 
 instructions, with that firmness of conviction and 
 earnestness of zeal which become a follower of 
 
 14 Christ; guarding that sacred deposit by the aid of 
 that Holy Spirit which God has been pleased to 
 communicate to us. 
 
 15 You have of course heard that our Asiatic con- 
 verts, including Phygellus and Hermogenes, have 
 turned away from me. 
 
 16 May the Lord have mercy on the family of 
 Onesiphorus ; for he often refreshed me, and was 
 not ashamed of me, although a prisoner in fetters ; 
 
 17 but upon his arrival in Rome made an eager search 
 
 18 after me, and came to me. May the Lord grant 
 that he may find mercy from our Saviour in the day 
 of his second coming. You had before heard of his 
 many kindnesses towards me when 1 was in Ephesus. 
 
 2 Be then, my son,' strong in the grace which has 
 
 2 been given to you in Christ Jesus, being careful to 
 commit as a sacred deposit to faithful and sincere 
 men those great truths which were communicated to 
 you through my instructions, and which have been 
 attested and authenticated by so many witnesses, in 
 order that they may in their turn transmit them to 
 
 3 others for the information of future ages. Conduct 
 yourself as a good soldier of Christ, and shrink not 
 
 4 from the hardships of his service ; recollecting that 
 
298 
 
 II. TIMOTHY. 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 it is the part of a good soldier to bid adieu to the 
 entanglements of civil and domestic concerns, and 
 to attend exclusively to that obedience which he 
 owes to his superior officer. Recollect also that 5 
 in the public games, no champion can win the prize 
 unless he conform to all the prescribed conditions 
 of the day ; and that in agriculture no husbandman 6 
 can hope to gather in the harvest, unless he have 
 first undergone the labour and expense of tillage. 
 Let these and similar reflections sink deep in your 7 
 thoughts ; and may our Lord give you a right ap- 
 prehension of all tilings. Forget not for a single 8 
 moment the first great article and foundation of that 
 foith which I so earnestly preach ; namely, that Jesus 
 Christ, verily and actually clothed with our human 
 nature, and a descendant from the lineage of David, 
 has been raised again from the dead : a faith for the 9 
 teaching of which I am at this moment lying, like a 
 common malefactor, a prisoner in fetters. But what 
 of that? my limbs may be chained, and my body 
 imprisoned ; but the word of God notwithstanding 
 spreads, yea, and will spread. Therefore I submit 10 
 with patience to these temporary afflictions for the 
 sake of God's people, that they also may obtain sal- 
 vation through Jesus Christ, and an inheritance of 
 eternal glory. Be assured, this is no vain and delu- ll 
 sive expectation. If we are now content to die with 
 him, we shall all of us assuredly one day live also 
 with him : if we now submit patiently to affliction 12 
 for his sake, we shall also hereafter reign triumph- 
 antly with him ; but then let us not on the other 
 hand forget how solemnly we have been warned by 
 him, that " if we deny him, he will also deny us 
 when he shall return in his glory." (Matt. x. 33.) 
 
 5 
 
11. TIMOTHY. 
 
 299 
 
 13 We may in our perversity turn a deaf ear to him, 
 and disbelieve his report of himself : but it will 
 not be therefore one tittle the less true : he at least 
 cannot deny himself, nor be false to his own positive 
 declarations. 
 
 14 Let this then be the sum and substance of your 
 exhortations ; nor omit to charge your hearers, in 
 the name of our blessed Saviour, to avoid captious 
 disputations on these mysterious subjects, the effect 
 of which will too probably be the destruction of 
 
 15 both their faith and their charity. Be on your 
 guard also with respect to the purity of your own 
 doctrine, not showing yourself ashamed of God's 
 holy Gospel, but delivering the word of truth plain 
 
 16 and unadulterated ; without any admixture of hu- 
 man glosses and interpretations, which will serve 
 only as a door for the admission of anticliristian 
 
 17 principles, and eat, like a canker, into the very 
 vital doctrines of our faith. Witness for instance 
 
 18 the case of Hymenseus and Philetus, who have set 
 up their own speculations in opposition to the truth, 
 and have asserted, to the misleading of some, that 
 
 19 the resurrection is already past. But the funda- 
 mental hopes of the true believer are not to be thus 
 easily overthrown ; on the contrary, they stand firm 
 in the security of God's promises, bearing for their 
 legend and inscription the words spoken by Moses 
 on the occasion of the rebellion of Korah, " The 
 Lord knoweth them that are his ;" and again, " ^ Let 
 
 ^ This allusion to the judgments inflicted upon Korah 
 and his associates, shows with what severity of reprehension 
 when necessary St. Paul was disposed to consider every 
 heretical innovation upon the sound doctrines of the Gospel. 
 
300 
 
 11. TIMOTHY. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 every one who nameth the name of Christ depart 
 from among these wicked men," (Numbers xvi. 5. 
 26.) But we know that in every great house, not 20 
 every vessel is of gold or silver, but some are of 
 baser materials, such as wood and earthenware ; the 
 former for honourable, the latter for meaner uses. 
 Let a man then keep himself pure from these cor- 21 
 rupt doctrines, and he shall be in the Lord's house 
 as one of the honourable vessels, clean, and fit for 
 his master's use, and for every good and seemly 
 purpose. 
 
 Let me also put you upon your guard against 22 
 the indiscretion and impetuosity natural to youth, in 
 the administration of your very momentous office. 
 Strive therefore the more earnestly on that account 
 to attain the great Christian virtues of holiness, 
 faith, charity, and forbearance, and to display them 
 on all occasions in your intercourse with the pure 
 and sincere followers of Christ ; discouraging always 23 
 every tendency to vain and unprofitable inquiries 
 into matters which have not been revealed, the 
 only result of which must be conflicting opinions, 
 and embittered passions. It is not by such dis- 24 
 cordant instruments that the servant of Christ can 
 hope to do his Master's work. On the contrary, 
 he can only labour profitably by showing himself 
 gentle to all men, willing to impart instruction ; not 25 
 easily provoked, but rather expostulating meekly 
 with the wayward opinions of the arrogant and 
 
 Notwithstanding the peculiar and almost unparalleled be- 
 nignity of his character, the sacred cause of scriptural 
 truth is never for a moment compromised by him for the 
 sake of a mistaken liberality or of unwarranted conciliation. 
 
' CHAP. Tii. II. TIMOTHY. 
 
 SOI 
 
 self-conceited, in the hope that God may bring 
 26 them to a better mind, that they may awake from 
 the intoxicating delusions with which Satan has 
 bewildered their judgments, that they might be- 
 3 come his slaves. Nor will this caution on your 
 part be superfluous ; for be assured that, from the 
 causes now alluded to, corruptions will in the course 
 of ages most abundantly creep into God's Church ; 
 
 2 when Christian simplicity and charity will be lost 
 amid the collision of worldly feelings, and men shall 
 become selfish, covetous, arrogant, contemptuous, 
 
 3 calumniators, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, 
 irreligious, incapable of the kindly and social affec- 
 tions, faithless, stirrers of strife, slaves to their 
 
 4 passions, harsh, dead to the perception of what is 
 good, betrayers, headstrong, insolent, lovers of plea- 
 
 5 sure rather than lovers of God, professing the ex- 
 ternal forms of piety, but uninfluenced by its in- 
 
 6 ternal sentiment. All such persons do your utmost 
 to discourage, for such there are already in opera- 
 tion, men who creep from house to house, mislead- 
 ing weak women who cling to their sins, and are 
 slaves to their own unsubdued passions, and who 
 
 7 make religion rather a subject for the indulgence 
 of a meddhng curiosity, than an instrument of 
 
 8 spiritual righteousness. As it is related of Jannes^ 
 and Jambres, Pharaoh's juggling magicians, that 
 they withstood Moses, so do these men set up their 
 own sophisticated feelings and hardened imagina- 
 
 * The names of Jannes and Jambres not being recorded 
 in the narrative of the book of Genesis, St. Paul must be 
 here alluding to some Jewish tradition which has not come 
 down to our time. 
 
802 
 
 tions against the cause of truth. But they shall 9 
 not finally succeed in their endeavours : but, as the 
 two impostors just now mentioned stood convicted 
 in the presence of their master, so shall the delusion 
 of these false teachers be eventually exposed in the 
 face of all men. 
 
 For the present, however, be prepared for per- lo 
 secution. You have witnessed the latter circum- 
 stances of my life in all its details ; my persever- 
 ance in preaching, my disciplined habits, my fixed 
 resolution, my implicit faith, my equable temper, 
 my affection for all men, my patience ; and you 11 
 know how all these have been put to the test 
 by persecutions and afflictions ; what I suffered at 
 Antioch, what at Iconium, what at Lystra : how 
 my course has been one of suffering for the cause of 
 truth, and how my God has carried me unscathed 
 through it all. And be assured, that all men, who 12 
 are zealous to live holily and conformably to the 
 religion of Christ, must make their account to suffer 
 persecution as I have done ; or rather let me say, 
 more than I have done ; for the wickedness and 13 
 seductions of mankind have not yet reached their 
 limit, but men as time advances shall grow worse 
 and worse, deceiving and deceived. Again then, 14 
 let me intreat you, be firm, nor abandon one particle 
 of that holy doctrine which you have embraced, and 
 with the ministry of which you have been entrusted, 
 recollecting the authentic source from which you 
 first received it : and that it has been your good 15 
 fortune to have imbibed from your very infancy the 
 knowledge of those holy Scriptures which, if rightly 
 understood, are able to make you wise unto salva- 
 tion, and to bring you to the faith of Christ. For 16 
 
CHAP. IV, 11. TIMOTHY. 
 
 803 
 
 all those Scriptures which the Jews acknowledge 
 were imparted by God's own inspiration, that from 
 them we might derive wholesome instruction, sound 
 argument, a knowledge of God's ways, and that 
 
 17 preparatory discipline which terminates in effectual 
 righteousness, that the servant of God may be per- 
 fect in fulness of instruction, and fitted for a career 
 of complete happiness. 
 
 4 I solemnly call upon you then, in the name of 
 God, and of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge 
 the living and the dead at his second coming in the 
 
 2 plentitude of his power and glory, preach, impress, 
 enforce, in season or out of season, the glad tidings 
 of salvation ; refute the false reasoner ; rebuke the 
 evil liver ; call and encourage all men, bearing 
 with their waywardness, and administering whole- 
 
 3 some instruction. For it will not be always that 
 they will hear you. The time will come when they 
 will no longer endure the simplicity of the Gospel, 
 but, according to their own passions and caprices, 
 will heap teacher upon teacher, speculation upon 
 speculation \ having their ears itching after novelty^ 
 
 * This passage conveys a truly important admonition to 
 Christian teachers of every period, and more especially to 
 those of our own times. When we recollect through what 
 a mass of heterogeneous speculation, through what intri- 
 cacies of false learning, the product of eighteen centuries 
 of too frequently misapplied ingenuity, the modern theo- 
 logian has to explore his way back to the simple truths 
 and feelings of primitive Christianity ; — how many lures 
 of controversial display, of feverish intellectual excite- 
 ment, of momentary interest, co-operate to turn his atten- 
 tion rather to the incidental questions, or the metaphysical 
 enigmas of religion, than to the great and vital dogmas of 
 
304 
 
 II. TIMOTHY. 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 and turning away from the plain truth to hunt after 
 the excitements of fiction. Be then cool, temperate, 
 
 man's natural helplessness, of Christ's efficacious atonement, 
 and of sanctification by the Holy Spirit, we cannot but 
 acknowledge that few of the apostolical injunctions require 
 to be more frequently sounded in the ears of those persons 
 to whose superintendence the souls of others are intrusted, 
 than the one before us. Far be it indeed from any well- 
 wisher to pure Christianity to deprecate the application of 
 controversial divinity in its proper season, and under a 
 justifying emergency. St. Paul himself is, in many por- 
 tions of his writings, an instance with what inflexible 
 energy of mind the most subdued and gentle character 
 may, and ought to, harden itself for the exercise of pole- 
 mical discussion, when to decline the combat would be to 
 abandon to our adversary the holy cause of eternal truth. 
 Still, however, we should never lose sight of the fact, that 
 real Christianity is rather a moral feeling than a science ; 
 that controversial discussion is only an offensive, however 
 occasionally necessary, weapon in the armoury of religion, 
 and not religion itself ; and that, as in our bodies disorders 
 are often aggravated by the irritation produced by the 
 remedies intended for their cure, so the angry feelings 
 thus excited will often do more to confirm rival differences 
 of opinion, that any arguments which we can advance will 
 be able to effect for their extinction. Controversy, like 
 warfare between nations, is indeed the final appeal to which 
 we must necessarily have recourse, when other preventive 
 and more pacific measures fail ; but the necessity of the 
 former no less than of the latter may not unfrequently be 
 averted, without the slightest compromise of the justice of 
 our cause, by that conciliatory spirit, the natural tendency 
 of which is to incline our adversary to reconsider his argu- 
 ments, not so much for the purpose of pointing them afresh, 
 as from a suspicion that they may have been overstated, 
 and from a misgiving lest, whilst he intended nothing more 
 than to advocate his just rights, he should be found to 
 
CHAP. TV. IT. TIMOTHY. 
 
 305 
 
 and cautious; not turned away by provocation 
 from the right course, but, doing faithfully the work 
 of an evangelist, perform with anxious attention all 
 
 6 the various duties of your ministry. For my as- 
 sistance in this holy cause, I feel that you can no 
 longer look. My vial is now nearly exhausted of 
 its contents, and the time of my liberation is at 
 
 7 hand. I have fought a good fight ; I have won the 
 race which was set before me ; I have maintained 
 my faith unshaken to the last ; and now my reward 
 
 8 awaits me. Henceforth there is laid up for me a 
 crown of righteousness, which the Lord my righ- 
 teous Judge shall give me on the great day of his 
 coming ; and not to me only, but to all those who 
 look forward to that his glorious re-appearance with 
 hope and affection ^ 
 
 have been himself the original aggressor. In a note ap- 
 pended to Philippians iii. 15, a wise practical maxim of 
 St. Paul on this subject has been already alluded to, which 
 substantially differs little from that which has suggested 
 these observations, and which no person sincerely labour- 
 ing in the duties of the ministry can lay too near to his 
 heart ; namely, that an incessant and earnest inculcation 
 of the fundamental truths of revelation will operate far 
 more powerfully as an incidental check to the growth of 
 false opinions on remoter points, than the direct refutation 
 of them. Nor, on the other hand, is the danger slight, 
 lest, by the indulgence of a disputatious spirit upon ques- 
 tions of inferior, not to say trivial, interest, we should to a 
 certain degree invert the scale of their relative importance, 
 and check the due recurrence of our thoughts to those 
 primary and momentous truths which constitute the very 
 essence of Christianity. 
 
 ^ Compare this beautiful passage with the no less affect- 
 ing and valedictory address of St. Paul to the elders of the 
 ) X 
 
306 
 
 II. TIMOTHY. CHAP. IV, 
 
 Come to me with all speed : for Demas has left 9 
 me, having attached himself to this present life, and 
 is gone to Thessalonica, Crescens to Galatia, Titus 
 to Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me. Bring Mark il 
 with you, for he is an able assistant to me in the 
 ministry. Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus. 12 
 Bring with you, when you come, the cloak which 13 
 I left at Troas with Carpus, and also the books, 
 but particularly the parchments ^ Alexander the 14 
 coppersmith did me much mischief : the Lord re- 
 pay him according to his works : be you also on 15 
 your guard against him, for he has been a violent 
 opposer of our preaching. 
 
 None of our brethren had the fortitude to attend 16 
 me at my first defence before the emperor, but all 
 forsook me. I pray that God may not lay it to 
 their charge. The Lord however was my aid and 17 
 support, on that trying occasion, in order that my 
 public and unshrinking declaration of the tidings of 
 salvation might be widely heard, and that the hea- 
 thens might have an opportunity of turning to the 
 faith. And though I spoke with boldness, his mercy 
 delivered me out of the lion's mouth; and I feel 18 
 assured that he will continue to protect me so that 
 nothing evil shall finally gain advantage over me, but 
 
 Church at Ephesus, as given in Acts xx. 18. et seq. The 
 strict identity of feeling and manner in both these extracts 
 is strikingly confirmatory of the authenticity of the portions 
 of the New Testament in which they are found. 
 
 ^ It has been suggested as a not improbable conjecture, 
 that the cloak and parchments, respecting which the apostle 
 gives this commission to Timothy, were the Roman toga, 
 and the certificates of his citizenship, which might be of 
 service to him in his approaching trial before the emperor. 
 
CHAP. IV. II. TIMOTHY. 
 
 SOT 
 
 that he will receive me into his glorious kingdom. 
 To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen. 
 
 19 Salute Prisca and Aquila, and the household of 
 
 20 Onesiphorus. Erastus remained behind at Corinth. 
 
 21 Trophimus I left sick at Miletus. Join me if pos- 
 sible before the winter. Eubulus, and Pudens, and 
 Linus, and Claudia, and all the brethren salute you. 
 
 22 The Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Grace 
 be with you. Amen. 
 
 X 2 
 
THE 
 
 EPISTLE OF PAUL 
 
 TO 
 
 TITUS. 
 
 The Epistle to Titus is supposed to have been written 
 about the same time with the first to Timothy : that is to 
 say, about the year of our Lord 64, after the close of 
 PauFs first imprisonment at Rome. No account being 
 given in the book of the Acts of that apostle's visit to 
 Crete alluded to in this Epistle, that journey must neces- 
 sarily be supposed to have taken place after the period 
 at which that narrative ends, namely, after his arrival 
 in Rome for the first time, in which city it is well known 
 that he continued to reside for the space of two years before 
 he was again set at liberty. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 
 
 Paul the servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus 1 
 Christ for the propagation of the faith of God's 
 chosen people, and of the knowledge of truth and 2 
 holiness, in the hope of that everlasting life which 3 
 our God, who cannot lie, promised before the com- 
 mencement of time ; and who has in his due season 
 declared his word by the mouth of his preachers, to 
 which ministry I have been appointed by the com- 
 mand of God our Saviour, to Titus my own son 4 
 
CHAP. T. 
 
 TITUS. 
 
 309 
 
 and convert in our common faith — grace, mercy, 
 and peace be from God our Father, and from our 
 Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 
 
 The object of this Epistle is nearly the same with that of the first 
 addressed to Timothy, namely to convey the apostle's instructions to 
 his friend and disciple Titus, whom he had left behind him in Crete, 
 respecting the selection of proper persons for the Christian ministry, 
 and the due regulation of Church discipline. It also refers to the 
 so often denounced error of the Judaizing Christians, whose doctrines 
 appear to have gained a footing in that island. 
 
 5 My object in leaving you in Crete, was in order 
 that every thing which had been left unsettled by 
 me there might be finally arranged, and that you 
 might ordain elders in every city according to the 
 
 6 directions which I gave you : choosing for that office 
 men of unblemished character, each of them the 
 husband of only one wife, having their children 
 brought up in the faith of Christ, and in orderly 
 
 7 and correct discipline. For it is quite necessary 
 that a person filling the station of a bishop ^ should 
 
 ^ The word " Bishop" in this, as in the parallel passage 
 in 1 Timothy iii. 1. appears to have been used by St. Paul 
 as synonymous with that of " elder" or " presbyter," and 
 from this circumstance the presbyterian Churches have 
 attempted to derive an argument in favour of that peculiar 
 form of government established in their communities. This 
 however is not a mere controversy about names. The 
 real point at issue between our Church and those formed 
 upon the presbyterian model is, whether any real distinc- 
 tion of rank and office did actually exist among the minis- 
 ters of the Christian congregations established by the 
 apostles themselves. Now this question appears to be 
 satisfactorily answered by the fact, that both Timothy and 
 Titus are expressly declared to have had power to ordain 
 
810 
 
 TITUS. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 be of blameless morals, as being the steward of 
 God's mysteries, not self-willed, not irritable, not 
 given to intemperance, not violent, not avaricious, 
 but on the contrary hospitable, delighting in the 8 
 society of the well-disposed, judicious, just, devout, 
 temperate, holding firmly the true word of revela- 9 
 tion, that by it he may be able both to edify his 
 hearers by sound instruction, and to refute his 
 impugners by forcible argument. For many false lo 
 teachers and corrupters of the Gospel doctrine have 
 crept into the Cretan Church, particularly of that 
 class who would enforce the necessity of circumcision 
 as conducive to salvation, whose arguments it is ll 
 highly expedient to silence ; for they have succeeded 
 in perverting the faith of whole families, engrafting 
 human speculations upon the word of God, as a 
 source of worldly profit to themselves. But such 12 
 has ever been the character of the Cretans as a 
 
 bishops or presbyters to the ministry according to their 
 own discretion, and also to sit in judgment upon such as 
 should have been accused of any misdemeanour in the ex- 
 ercise of their office. Milton in his " Reasons against Pre- 
 lacy" has attempted to destroy the force of this argument 
 by asserting, that the power possessed by Timothy and 
 Titus was nothing more than the delegated authority of 
 the apostle Paul acting through them as his deputies, and 
 consequently that it could afford no precedent for the 
 establishment of a similar jurisdiction after the expiration 
 of the apostolical age. This assertion however proves too 
 much, as, if admitted, it would be good, not against pre- 
 lacy only, but against every other branch of church disci- 
 pline established by the apostles, and which, under the 
 sanction of their authority, has formed part of the perma- 
 nent usage of the Christian world in later times. 
 
CHAP. II. 
 
 TITUS. 
 
 311 
 
 nation, whom one of their own poets has accurately 
 described in the well known verse, 
 
 ' The false, rapacious, sluggard sons of Crete.' 
 
 13 And such they continue to be at this moment. 
 Wherefore admonish them in severe terms, that 
 they may learn to submit to the truth as they find 
 
 14 it revealed in God's word, and not garbled and 
 adulterated by the admixture of Levitical traditions 
 
 15 or of deceitful human glosses. To the pure in 
 heart all things are pure ; but to the perverted and 
 selfish mind, on the contrary, the best and holiest 
 things, even conscience and reason themselves, be- 
 
 16 come an abomination. And thus with the blessed 
 name of God on their lips they virtually deny 
 him in their works, giving themselves up to licen- 
 tiousness, and disobedience, and every species of 
 corruption. 
 
 2 In a country where so many errors and abuses 
 require correction, be it your anxious endeavour to 
 preach to the best of your power the wholesome 
 corrective of sound religion and morals, dwelling 
 upon and enforcing the following topics. 
 
 2 That the elder men be sober in their demeanour, 
 decorous, steady, firm in their faith, abundant in 
 Christian love and kindness, and patient under 
 afflictions. 
 
 3 That the elder women be in their conduct such 
 as becomes the holy religion they profess, not tale- 
 bearers, nor addicted to intemperance, but being an 
 example to others for their good life and conversa- 
 
 4 tion : that from them the younger women may learn 
 
 5 to love their husbands and children, to be discreet, 
 
312 
 
 TITUS. 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 chaste, domestic, affectionate, and obedient to their 
 husbands, that the Gospel which they profess to 
 believe may not be evil spoken of 
 
 Exhort the yomig men also to practise moral 6 
 restraint ; and, that they may be induced to do so, 7 
 make yourself an example and model of good works, 
 and let your instructions be conceived in a spirit of 
 purity, gravity, and sincerity, and your expressions 8 
 so tempered by judgment and caution, that your 
 adversaries may neither in the matter or manner find 
 a handle for censure or ridicule. 
 
 Enjoin servants to be obedient to their respective 9 
 masters, conducting themselves with deference, and 
 avoiding rudeness and contumacy of manner ; not lo 
 pilfering or defrauding, but showing themselves 
 faithful and honest in all things ; that the doctrine 
 of God our Saviour may derive credit from their 
 irreproachable behaviour. 
 
 For the saving mercy of God has in these latter ll 
 days shone forth upon all men, teaching us to re- 12 
 nounce ungodliness and all worldly appetites, and 
 to live soberly, and honestly, and piously in this 
 our present life, waiting for that blessed consumma- 13 
 tion of our hope, the glorious second coming of our 
 great God and Saviour Jesus Christ : who gave 14 
 himself to death for our sakes, that he might redeem 
 us from all iniquity, and purify to himself a peculiar 
 people studious of good works. These things speak 15 
 and exhort : rebuking, where needful, with the au- 
 thority of a minister of Christ. Let no man despise 
 you or your words. 
 
 Remind them also of the deference which they 3 
 owe to persons in authority and power, that they 
 may be ready to show their obedience to them in 
 
CHAP. III. 
 
 TITUS. 
 
 318 
 
 every thing consistent with the laws of conscience. 
 
 2 To avoid declamation and quarrels, and to be meek 
 and gentle in all their dealings with all mankind. 
 
 3 For we ourselves, before we had learned the know- 
 ledge of Christ, were like them headstrong, disobe- 
 dient, loose livers, the slaves of appetite and plea- 
 sure, living in hatred and malice, bearing jealousy 
 
 4 and animosity against one another. But when it 
 pleased God our Saviour to display his goodness 
 and love for mankind, he communicated his salva- 
 
 5 tion to us not on account of any righteous deeds 
 which we had done, but from his own pure and 
 undeserved mercy, by the washing of regeneration, 
 and the renewal of our heart by the assistance of 
 
 6 the Holy Spirit, which he poured abundantly upon 
 
 7 us, through Jesus Christ our Saviour, that being 
 justified and acquitted by his mercy, we might in- 
 
 8 herit the hope of everlasting life. This then is a true 
 and important maxim which you cannot too earnestly 
 enforce, that a good moral life ought to be the 
 anxious endeavour of all persons professing a belief 
 in God. Such precepts are honourable to the religion 
 which enjoins them, and salutary to mankind whose 
 
 9 welfare they directly promote : but not so are the 
 idle and captious arguments, and ^ genealogical spe- 
 culations, and futile distinctions between Jew and 
 Gentile, which serve but to irritate the passions and 
 to promote strife and ill will. Such accordingly avoid 
 
 10 as vain and unprofitable. If in spite of your better 
 instructions, any member of the Church continue to 
 foment heresy by such indulgence in human specula- 
 tions, after a second formal admonition exclude such 
 
 ' See 1 Timothy i. 4. 
 
314 
 
 TITUS. 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 an one from the society of the Church ; as in that 1 1 
 case he can only be considered in the light of a per- 
 son of a corrupt mind who deliberately sins against 
 his better knowledge. 
 
 When I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, make 12 
 what haste you can to meet me at Nicopolis, for 
 there I have determined to pass the winter. Supply 13 
 Zenas the lawyer and Apollos with every thing 
 necessary for their journey, that they feel no priva- 
 tion. And let all our brethren learn to practise some 14 
 honourable calling for the supply of their wants, that 
 they may not be a burthen upon others. All who 
 are here with me salute you. Salute from me all my 15 
 Christian well-wishers. 
 
 The grace of God be with you all. Amen. 
 
 It has been observed, that, whilst St. Paul has in his 
 Epistle to Timothy particularly cautioned that disciple 
 against any injudicious display of impetuosity and eagerness 
 of temper in the exercise of his office, he has not urged the 
 same prudential admonition to Titus whilst delegating to 
 him a similar authority ; from whence it has been inferred, 
 that the latter was probably a person of a milder temper, 
 and consequently less likely to offend on the side of that 
 peculiar species of indiscretion. In accordance with this 
 supposition, we may observe, that the second Epistle to 
 Timothy affords us a painful ground for conjecturing, that 
 however numerous in other respects may have been the 
 excellences of Titus's character, firmness and moral courajre 
 were not the most prominent of them. " Come to me with 
 all speed," says the apostle in that moment of his temporal 
 affliction, " for Demas has left me, having attached himself 
 to this present life, and is gone to Thessalonica, Crescens to 
 
TITUS. 
 
 315 
 
 Galatia, Titm to Dalmatia." This juxta-position of his 
 name with that of Demas undoubtedly appears to involve 
 him in some degree in the censure attaching to the tergiver- 
 sation of the former \ Of both we may however venture 
 to hope, that their fault was rather the consequence of mo- 
 mentary infirmity than of deliberate ingratitude, and that, 
 like the repentant disciples of their divine Master, they 
 subsequently expiated their short-lived desertion by the sin- 
 cerity of their contrition, and by their increased zeal in the 
 execution of the duties of their ministry. 
 
 * This inference seems to be confirmed by what follows a few verses 
 below the passage here referred to, " At my first defence before the 
 emperor all forsook me." (2 Timothy iv. 16.) 
 
THE 
 
 EPISTLE OF PAUL 
 
 TO 
 
 PHILEMON, 
 
 The following Epistle appears to have been written 
 towards the conclusion of St. PauFs first imprisonment at 
 Kome, and must therefore have its date assigned late in 
 the year of our Lord 62, or early in 63. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 
 
 Paul, a prisoner in the cause of Jesus Christ, and l 
 Timothy our brother, to our beloved and fellow- 
 labourer Philemon, and to our beloved Apphia, and 2 
 to Archippus our fellow-soldier, and to the congre- 
 gation of believers in your house — grace be to you 3 
 and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 The object of the apostle in addressing this Letter to Philemon is of a 
 private and domestic nature. Onesimus, a slave of the latter person, 
 having fled from his master's service, and taken refuge in Rome, 
 had by some accident become acquainted with St. Paul, at that time 
 
PHILEMON. 
 
 317 
 
 a prisoner in that city, and had by him been converted to Christ- 
 ianity. Being now desirous of returning to his Master, but being 
 at the same time apprehensive of the punishment which might await 
 him as the consequence of his past misconduct, he apphed to that 
 apostle to mediate for him for the purpose of obtaining his pardon. 
 The following Epistle was accordingly written in conformity with 
 this request, and affords a beautiful specimen of the urbanity of 
 St. Paul's manners as an accomphshed member of society, no less 
 than of the natural liberality and benevolence of his feeUngs. 
 
 4 I sincerely thank God in my continual remem- 
 
 5 brance of you in my prayers, for all that I have 
 heard of your love and faith toward our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, as manifested in your kindness to his holy 
 
 6 servants ; earnestly trusting that your participation 
 in our common belief may become effectual by 
 leading you to exercise before all men those many 
 good dispositions which you feel towards Christ 
 
 7 Jesus, and the members of his Church. For we 
 have all of us great cause for self-congratulation and 
 comfort in witnessing your Christian kindness, and 
 your many acts of beneficence, my beloved brother, 
 
 8 to our necessitous converts ; and under that con- 
 viction, though I might, as bearing Christ's com- 
 mission, address you in the way of command, I have 
 preferred to make my appeal to your gratuitous 
 gpod will and generosity under a no higher cha- 
 racter than that of the aged individual Paul, now 
 a prisoner in chains for the sake of the blessed 
 Gospel. 
 
 10 Let me then entreat you to show compassion to 
 Onesimus, one whom during my captivity I have 
 
 11 succeeded in converting to our faith, whom, unpro- 
 fitable as his service has been to you thus far, you 
 will, I trust, now that he is brought to a better 
 mind, and to a knowledge of the true God, find a 
 
318 
 
 PHILEMON. 
 
 good and an altered character \ I have therefore 12 
 ventured to send him back to you. Receive him then 
 kindly, I beseech you, and consider yourself in so 
 doing to be shovsdng substantial kindness to myself. 
 I should indeed have been glad to have retained him 13 
 with me in Rome for some longer time, in order 
 that he might during my imprisonment afford me 
 those services which I am sure you would gladly 
 supply in your own person were you here : I did 14 
 not however venture to do so without your consent, 
 especially as I wished such a favour to originate 
 from yourself, and not to be extorted from you by 
 any act of mine. May I also venture to suggest 15 
 with regard to his late flight from you, " may not 
 that event have been permitted by Providence, in 
 order that, by the means of conversion which it has 
 so fortunately afforded him, you might, by sustain- 
 ing a short privation of his temporal services, at- 
 tach him to yourself for all eternity, not as a slave, 16 
 but as something better, a beloved brother, dear to 
 me, but much more to you from your long know- 
 ledge of him, and now also from his participating 
 with you in the covenant of Christ ?" 
 
 In the name then of our intimacy of affection, 1 17 
 entreat you to receive him with as much kindness 
 as that with which you would receive myself : and, 18 
 if you have suffered any loss or injury by him, to 
 
 * According to the tradition of the early Church, the 
 Onesimus, whose cause St. Paul thus feelingly advocates, 
 became subsequently Bishop of Ephesus, or, as is elsewhere 
 stated, of Berea in Macedonia. He is said to have suffered 
 martyrdom during the persecution of the Emperor Domitian, 
 or, according to others, of Trajan. 
 
PHILEMON. 
 
 319 
 
 19 consider me as your debtor to that amount. In 
 order that you may be warranted in requiring the 
 compensation from myself, be it what it may, I 
 write this clause specially with my own hand, as a 
 full acknowledgment of the debt : though perhaps I 
 might remind you that you owe me much more 
 than any thing which I may be indebted to you on 
 this account, as it was from me that you derived 
 
 20 your own conversion to the Gospel. Yes, my bro- 
 ther, grant me this favour in Christ's name. Afford 
 
 21 me this comfort for the Lord's sake. I have written 
 this request with a full conviction of your ready 
 kindness, and that you would willingly bestow upon 
 me a greater favour than that which I now solicit. 
 
 22 Let me also avail myself of the present opportunity 
 to beg of you to provide me with a lodging, for I 
 trust that your prayers for my release have been 
 heard, and that I shall shortly be allowed to visit 
 you. 
 
 23 Ephaphras, my fellow-prisoner for the cause of 
 
 24 Christ, with Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, 
 my fellow-labourers in the ministry salute you. 
 
 25 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your 
 spirit. Amen. 
 
 In the Epistle to Philemon we have a striking proof 
 how perfectly compatible are the noblest principles of 
 practical Christianity with that elegance and amenity of 
 character which form the great charm of polished society. 
 Few of the epistolary remains of classical antiquity surpass 
 it in beauty of composition or in grace of expression, yet 
 the spirit which it breathes is that of the simplicity of a 
 saint combined with the dignity of an apostle. It is how- 
 ever not a little remarkable, that the subject of the letter 
 
320 
 
 PHILEMON. 
 
 involves a very delicate topic for the discussion of a Christ- 
 ian teacher, namely, the right of one human being to the 
 compulsory services of another. In 1 Corinthians vii. 21, 
 St. Paul has already incidentally expressed his own private 
 disapprobation of an usage so inconsistent with the prin- 
 ciples of natm-al justice and of Christian liberty ; and yet, 
 both in that passage and in 1 Timothy vi. 2, he appears 
 to consider it rather as an abuse which the then established 
 order of society had rendered necessary, than as an abo- 
 mination requiring at all events and at any price to be 
 inexorably rooted up. It has already been observed in a 
 former note, that Christianity rather trusted to the slow 
 but sure amelioration resulting from the gradual adoption 
 of better and holier principles of morals for the correction 
 of what was amiss in ancient manners, than proposed any 
 new and violent remedies, the operation of which could 
 only have led to political convulsions and domestic misery. 
 We can perfectly understand how, in the apostolic age, 
 many a sincere believer in the Gospel may have found 
 himself implicated in the responsibility attaching to the 
 possession of a numerous household of domestic slaves, 
 under circumstances which might render it impossible for 
 him as a citizen, or even as a just and good man, to effect 
 their complete manumission. In that case it became the 
 necessary duty of an apostle, anxious rather for the pro- 
 motion of substantial good, than for showy and plausible 
 systems of reform, to tolerate what neither himself nor the 
 party addressed had the power to prevent ; remembering 
 however always to inculcate meanwhile such merciful prin- 
 ciples upon the persons possessed of this dangerous and 
 easily abused authority, as, whilst the external form of the 
 evil was allowed to continue, might effectually remove 
 from it all liability to practical injustice or cruelty. From 
 the feehng manner, accordingly, in which this perplexing 
 topic is discussed in the Epistle before us, one truly im- 
 portant lesson is, at all events, to be derived ; namely, 
 with what liberality of charitable candour a Christian may 
 hold his communings with society in his passage through a 
 world, many of whose usages he disapproves, yet where no 
 
PHILEMON. 
 
 321 
 
 necessary reason exists for attributing improper motives to 
 the particular individuals whose conduct may accidentally 
 differ from his own. In expostulating with deliberate and 
 calculating vice, the protest of a Christian minister cannot 
 perhaps be too explicitly declared ; but a vast multitude 
 of cases may, and do, undoubtedly exist, in which a candid 
 and pious temper will suggest much to palliate what our 
 first impulse might incline us to disapprove, where a sterner, 
 though intrinsically less pure, system of philosophy would 
 find only the materials for angry declamation and uncom- 
 promising censur,e. 
 
 Y 
 
THE 
 
 EPISTLE OF PAUL 
 
 TO THE 
 
 HEBREWS. 
 
 The date of this Epistle is marked by the valedictory 
 address, chap. xiii. 24, and must therefore be referred to the 
 latter end of a.d. 62, .or the beginning of 63, when St. 
 Paul's first imprisonment at Eome was nearly terminated. 
 
 The object of the Epistle to the Hebrews is to prove to the Christian 
 converts of that nation, and incidentally also to all who acknowledge 
 the divine inspiration of the books of the Old Testament, the reality 
 of the mission, and the divine nature of our blessed Saviour, from 
 arguments derived exclusively from the peculiar lights afforded by 
 those writings. The tendency of the apostle's reasoning is therefore 
 to show, that no Jew who really believes in the authority of his own 
 sacred books could, if he reason consistently, and be content to 
 adopt all the inferences necessarily deducible from those premises, 
 ultimately refuse his assent to the truth of the Christian dispensa- 
 tion, or fail of perceiving that in the person of our Redeemer all the 
 types and prophecies of the Jewish writings had effectually found 
 their final completion. In order to perceive the extreme closeness 
 and beauty of the argument thus managed, it is necessary therefore 
 that the reader should keep in his mind that St. Paul addresses him- 
 self to Jews only ; to persons acknowledging no literature, no autho- 
 ritative code of doctrine or formula of behef whatever, excepting the 
 ancient books of the Law and the Prophets ; and accordingly that 
 
CHAP. I. 
 
 HEBREWS. 
 
 323 
 
 proofs of our Saviour's mission derived from other sources, however 
 satisfactory they might be to others, would have been to them at 
 least out of place. The following dissertation is in short what the 
 logicians call an " argumentum ad hominem," in which the point at 
 issue is estabhshed by an appeal to those very peculiar opinions and 
 principles which the parties to be convinced have, above all others, 
 the most imperative obligation to admit. 
 
 1 GOD, who at various times and in various man- 
 ners spoke in clays of old to our fathers by the 
 
 2 prophets, has in these latter days spoken to us by 
 his Son, whom he has made heir of all things, 
 
 3 (and by whom he made the world), who, (being an 
 effulgence of his divine glory, and an impress of 
 his person, and upholding all things by the word of 
 his power,) having made by himself an expiation for 
 our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty 
 
 4 on high ; as much surpassing the angels in the es- 
 sential dignity of his nature, as the name which he 
 has inherited is pre-eminent above theirs. 
 
 5 For to which of the angels has God said at any 
 time, " Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten 
 thee?" (Psalm ii. 7.) and again, "I will be to him 
 a Father, and he shall be to me a Son'' (2 Sam. 
 
 6 vii. 14.) And again, when prophetically alluding to 
 the second glorious coming of that Son into the 
 world, " Let all the angels of God worship him." 
 
 7 (Psalm xcvii. 7.) Of the angels themselves he 
 merely says, " Who maketh his angels spirits, and his 
 
 8 ministers a flame of fire ;" (Psalm civ. 4.) but to the 
 Son he says, " Thy throne, O God ^ is for ever and 
 
 ^ It appears to be scarcely within the power of language 
 to assert the divine nature of our blessed Saviour in more 
 express terms than in those of the two passages of the book 
 of Psalms here quoted by the apostle. 
 
 Y 2 
 
324 
 
 HEBREWS. CHAP. II. 
 
 ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of 
 thy kingdom. Thou hast loved holiness and hated 
 iniquity; wherefore God, thine own God, hath 9 
 anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy 
 fellows." (Psalm xlv. 6.) And again, "Thou, Lord, lo 
 in the beginning laidest the foundations of the 
 earth, and the heavens are the work of thine hands. 
 They shall perish, but thou remainest for ever : 1 1 
 they all shall grow old as does a garment, and as a 12 
 mantle thou shalt fold them up, and they shall be 
 changed ; but thou continuest the same, and thy 
 years shall not fail." (Psalm cii. 25.) To which 13 
 again of the angels has he said at any time, "Sit 
 thou on my right hand, until I shall have made 
 thine enemies thy footstool?" (Psalm ex. 1.) on the 14 
 contrary, are they not mere ministering spirits, 
 appointed to attend upon such of the human ^ race 
 as shall inherit salvation ? 
 
 If then such be the awful dignity of the Son of 2 
 God, the more earnestly in like proportion ought we 
 to pay attention to his holy commands, lest we should 
 fall away in our obedience from them. For if the 2 
 covenant which God made with the Israelites through 
 the intervention of^ angels was so solemnly sanc- 
 tioned by himself, that every incidental transgression 
 of its precepts and every occasional act of disobe- 
 dience received its just retribution from God, how 3 
 shall we hope to escape the divine justice if we 
 despise the covenant of salvation offered to our 
 acceptance by the glorious Son of God himself? 
 
 ^ This passage seems to sanction the doctrine of guardian 
 angels. 
 
 ^ See Galatians iii. 19. 
 
CHAP. II. 
 
 HEBREWS. 
 
 S25 
 
 a covenant which having been first promulgated to 
 mankind by our Lord's own mouth, has been con- 
 firmed to ourselves by the testimony of his own 
 
 4 disciples who heard him ; and ratified by God's 
 direct interposition, in the display of signs, and 
 wonders, and various miracles, aiTd by the com- 
 munication of the gifts of the Holy Spirit from 
 time to time according to his divine pleasure? 
 
 5 For it is not to the mere ministering angels that 
 he has committed the jurisdiction of the world to 
 come, of which that blessed covenant promises us 
 
 6 the fruition, as is evident from the following in- 
 spired passage. " What is man that thou art mind- 
 ful of him, or the Son of man that thou regardest 
 
 7 him ? Thou hast made him a small degree lower 
 than the angels ; and yet thou hast crowned him 
 
 8 with glory and honour. Thou hast placed all tilings 
 under his feet." (Psalm viii. 4. Now if he has 
 
 * The primary and more obvious meaning of the passage 
 in the eighth Psalm here referred to, appears to assert 
 nothing more than the supremacy of man's present nature 
 over the inferior races of animals which inhabit our globe. 
 " Thou hast put all things under his feet : all sheep and 
 oxen ; yea, and all the beasts of the field. The applica- 
 tion of it in a prophetic sense to the supreme dominion of 
 our Redeemer over all created beings in heaven and earth, 
 is certainly not one which would naturally suggest itself to 
 us, or which we should venture to adopt as probable, had 
 we not the warrant of inspired Scripture for so doing. 
 I have made this observation on the present occasion, for 
 the purpose of pointing out an evidence which this quota- 
 tion affords of the authenticity of the Epistle to the Hebrews 
 as written by St. Paul ; a fact which, as every biblical 
 scholar is aware, has been occasionally controverted. It 
 seems scarcely probable that it could have occurred to two 
 
326 
 
 HEBREWS. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 placed all things under him, it is evident that 
 there is nothing whatever, however great and dig- 
 nified, which is not put under him. But as yet 
 we do not see all things placed wider him, and con- 
 sequently that latter part of the prophecy as yet 
 awaits its consummation ; but the former part of 
 it we ourselves have already seen consummated. 
 We have seen Jesus Christ made a little inferior to 9 
 the angels, by taking upon himself the human na- 
 ture, and we have also seen him, after his passage 
 through the grave, crowned with glory and honour : 
 that, by God's mercy towards us, he might taste of 
 death for the redemption of all mankind. For it lo 
 accorded with the character of that mighty Being 
 who called us and all things into existence, and 
 for whom we and they exist, whilst preparing the 
 w^ay for us his sons to ascend into glory, to make 
 also the great Leader of our salvation perfect 
 through human sufferings ; for he the sanctifier, ll 
 and we the sanctified, are all the children of the 
 one Almighty God ; for which reason he is not 
 
 different writers to cite the same text for the self-same 
 purpose with an interpretation annexed to it so widely 
 different from that which would present itself to common 
 readers ; yet in 1 Cor. xv. 25, and also in Eph. i. 22. it is 
 expressly referred to by St. Paul as confirmatory of the 
 universal sovereignty of Christ. That this secondary appli- 
 cation of the passage is a correct one we are of course bound 
 to admit ; but, as I have just now observed, it suggests an 
 argument which is much more likely to occur more than 
 once to the same individual whilst discussing the same sub- 
 ject, than to have been advanced with perfect identity of 
 allusion by some other person writing under the influence 
 of his own intellectual associations, and peculiar modes of 
 thought. 
 
CHAP. III. 
 
 HEBREWS. 
 
 327 
 
 12 ashamed to call us his brothers ; as we read, (Psalm 
 xxii. 22.) " I will declare thy name to my brethren ; 
 in the midst of the Church will I sing praise unto 
 
 13 thee." And again, (Isaiah viii. 17, 18.) "I will 
 wait upon the Lord that hideth his face from the 
 house of Jacob, and I will look for him, I, and the 
 
 14 children whom the Lord hath given me." As then 
 those children whom he came to redeem were of 
 human flesh and blood, he himself condescended, 
 for their sake, to assume the same nature with 
 them, in order that by submitting to death he might 
 destroy the power of the lord of death, namely, the 
 
 15 devil ; and might release from the apprehensions 
 connected with the thoughts of death all who till 
 that time had been subject to those slavish terrors. 
 
 16 Let us observe, also, that he did not assume, as he 
 might have done, the nature of angels, for the pur- 
 pose of procuring our salvation, but that of a human 
 
 17 son of Abraham: From whence we infer that he 
 deemed it expedient to be made like unto us his 
 brethren in all points, that he might become a mer- 
 ciful and faithful High Priest to offer expiation for 
 
 18 our sins to God ; and accordingly, inasmuch as he 
 has borne the same infirmities and temptations with 
 ourselves, we are confident that he knows how to 
 feel for and to assist us his brethren in these our 
 present trials. 
 
 3 Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of this hea- 
 venly calling, consider this mighty apostle and high 
 
 2 priest of our faith, even Jesus, who has in his person 
 been thus faithful to Him who appointed him to 
 that oflftce, as it was also on a former occasion pro- 
 nounced of Moses, (Numbers xii. 7.) " that he was 
 
 3 found faithful in God's house." And yet the faith- 
 
328 
 
 HEBREWS. CHAP. 111. 
 
 fulness of Christ as far exceeds that of Moses, as 
 the builder^ of a house exceeds in dignity the house 
 which he builds : for as every house must have had 4 
 a builder, so God is the great builder of all things 
 which exist. Again, the faithfulness of Moses in 5 
 the house of God consisted in his performing the 
 part of a servant to prepare the way for the coming 
 of a better covenant : but Christ came, not as a 6 
 servant in, but as the heir presiding over, the house : 
 which house, we the members of his Church are, 
 if we will hold fast unto the end that joyful con- 
 fidence and hope which we derive from his promises. 
 
 Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost declares, (Psalm 7 
 xcvii. 7.) " To-day if you will hear his voice harden 8 
 not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day 
 of temptation in the wilderness, when your fathers 9 
 tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty 
 years. Wherefore I was grieved with that genera- lo 
 tion, and said, They always err in their heart, they 
 have not known my ways : wherefore I swore in 1 1 
 my wrath. They shall not enter into my rest." Take 12 
 heed therefore, brethren, lest there should be in any 
 of you an evil heart of unbelief, leading you to turn 
 away from the call of the living God : but exhort 13 
 one another daily, whilst it is called to-dai/, lest the 
 heart of any of you should become finally hardened 
 by the deceitfulness of sin : for we are members of 14 
 the body of Christ, if we perseveringly maintain our 
 confidence in him unshaken from the beginning to 
 the very end. Recollect then that the words of 15 
 Scripture are, " To-day if you will hear his voice, 
 
 ^ We have here another direct assertion of* the divinity 
 of our blessed Saviour. 
 
CHAP. W. 
 
 HEBREWS. 
 
 329 
 
 harden not your hearts, as in the provocation." For 
 
 16 some, we know, when they had heard his voice, pro- 
 voked him : (not indeed that all did so who came 
 
 17 out of Egypt under the guidance of Moses :) with 
 which of them then was he grieved forty years ? 
 was it not with the disobedient, who afterwards 
 
 18 perished in the wilderness ? And to whom again 
 did he swear that they should not enter into his 
 rest ? was it not to them who disbelieved his word ? 
 
 19 Why then were they unable to enter in ? Assuredly 
 because of their unbelief. 
 
 4 Let us then take warning by this example of our 
 disobedient forefathers, and cherish a salutary fear 
 lest any of ourselves also should, through want of 
 faith and obedience, fail, as they did, of entering 
 into that rest which he has been graciously pleased 
 
 2 to promise to us. For we have indeed received our 
 promise, as they received theirs ; yet the promul- 
 gation of the Jewish covenant with all its promised 
 blessings did not avail them, not being accompanied 
 with faith on their part to make the promise of 
 
 3 effect. Therefore, by a parity of reasoning, all we 
 who will believe in his faithfulness, and such only as 
 will believe, shall enter into his blessed rest. " I 
 sware in my wrath, said he, that they shall not enter 
 into my rest." 
 
 Now the question is, " What is that rest from 
 which he has declared that the disobedient are ex- 
 cluded?" For God's works were finished, we are 
 told, from the time of the completion of the creation 
 
 4 of the world ; and accordingly God declared (Gen. 
 ii. 3.) of the seventh day, that " on that day he 
 
 5 rested from his works." And yet we find him sub- 
 sequently declaring of our forefathers, that " they 
 
830 HEBREWS. chap. iv. 
 
 should not ifi time to come enter into his rest 
 from whence it is evident, that some, to whom the 6 
 covenant was preached, should enter in, and that 
 others should be excluded in consequence of their 
 disobedience. Then again the time in which this 7 
 declaration was made requires observation. It was 
 made, we know, at so late a period as that of the 
 prophet David. " To-day^' says the Psalmist, " if 
 you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts." 
 And yet undoubtedly, if the entrance of our fore- 8 
 fathers into the promised land under the guidance 
 of Joshua ^ had been the completion of the promise 
 that they should enter into God's rest, it were per- 
 fectly inconsistent that David, at a period so much 
 subsequent in time to that of Joshua, should speak 
 of that day in which he lived as the day for showing 
 their obedience, and of God's rest as a thing yet 
 existing only in expectation. It is evident therefore 9 
 from the foregoing passages that the promised rest 
 of the people of God is yet to he accomplished; for lo 
 then only can a man be said to enter into his rest, 
 when he ceases from his labours ; as it is said of God, 
 that he rested after the creation of the universe was 
 completed. What then is the necessary inference ? 1 1 
 that if the promised rest to God's people is still a 
 thing in futurity^ we should continue to use our 
 
 ^ It is unfortunate that the composers of our authorized 
 translation should have made use of the name " Jesus in 
 this passage as the appellation of the leader of the Jews 
 into the promised land, instead of the more usual and fami- 
 liar word Joshua.^** It is true that the names are identical 
 in Greek, but to an unlearned English reader the conse- 
 quence is, that the meaning of the apostle in this place is 
 unintelligible, and liable to misconstruction. 
 
CHAP. V. 
 
 HEBREWS. 
 
 831 
 
 utmost endeavour to attain to it, lest, after the 
 example of our forefathers, we also forfeit the be- 
 nefit of the divine promise through our disobe- 
 
 12 dience. For the blessed covenant of the Gospel is 
 endued with an active and searching influence ; it 
 is not a thing which can be lightly deemed of, but 
 is sharper than a two-edged sword, penetrating into 
 the very centre of the soul, and of its most secret 
 thoughts ; exploring the whole interior of man's 
 nature, and detecting every feeling and apprehen- 
 
 13 sion of the heart. There is no portion of the crea- 
 tion which the eye of our great Master does not 
 penetrate, and all we, like animals severed, opened, 
 and disjointed, lie before him, with our inmost struc- 
 ture exposed to his inevitable scrutiny. 
 
 14 Having then the blessed Jesus himself, the very 
 Son of God, now returned to his eternal glory, as 
 our great High Priest to officiate for us, and to 
 introduce us into the possession of these covenanted 
 mercies, let us abide firmly by the profession of this 
 
 15 faith : for our High Priest, all-powerful as he is, is 
 not one who cannot sympathize with our infirmities ; 
 on the contrary, as I have already observed, he has 
 submitted to undergo all the very trials which we 
 ourselves are subject to, with this only difference, 
 that in his passage through this world he escaped 
 
 16 the taint of sin. With such a Mediator to make 
 intercession for us, let us then approach boldly to 
 the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, 
 
 5 and find grace in the time of need. Now the office 
 of an high priest is, we know, that to which a 
 person is appointed, whose duty it shall be to offer 
 to God gifts and sacrificatory expiations for sin in 
 
 2 the behalf of the congregation ; and accordingly he 
 
532 
 
 HEBREWS. 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 ought to be one possessed of those sympathies for 
 others, and that knowledge of human nature, as to 
 be able to understand and enter into the various 
 natures of their infirmities and wants ; inasmuch as 3 
 it appertains to his office to be the intercessor with 
 God, not for his own sins only, but for those of all 
 others with whose spiritual welfare he is entrusted. 
 We know also that functions of this high character 4 
 cannot be vested in any individual by his own, or by 
 any merely human, authority, but that he must re- 
 ceive the efficiency of his appointment from God, as 
 was the case with respect to the first Levitical high 
 priest Aaron. And accordingly in like manner we 5 
 find that Christ did not appoint himself to the cha- 
 racter of our spiritual High Priest, but received his 
 authority for undertaking that office from Him who 
 declared of him, " Thou art my Son : this day have 
 I begotten thee." Wliich divine appointment of 6 
 him to that office we find again asserted in another 
 Psalm, (Psalm ex. 4.) " The Lord sware, and will 
 not repent : Thou art a priest for ever after the 
 order of Melchisedec." And accordingly we know 7 
 respecting him, that during the period of his abode 
 upon earth, he offered up prayers and supplications ^ 
 with strong crying and tears to him who was able 
 to save him from death, and was rescued in conse- 
 quence from its terrors : and, although bearing the 8 
 high rank of the Son of God himself, yet that he 
 
 ^ This is probably an allusion to our Saviour's agony in 
 the garden on the eve of the crucifixion ; and another of 
 the many instances in which reference is made by St. Paul 
 to the narrative contained in the Gospels as they have 
 descended to us. 
 
CHAP. VI. 
 
 HEBREWS. 
 
 condescended for our sake to be obedient to the 
 
 9 discipline of affliction, and thus, qualifying himself 
 to appear before his Father as the High Priest to 
 make intercession for the whole human race, has 
 become the author and means of eternal salvation 
 
 10 to all those who are obedient to him : being ac- 
 knowledged by God himself to be " an High Priest 
 according to the order of Melchisedec." 
 
 11 With regard to the meaning of this expression, 
 and why Christ is designated as a High Priest after 
 the order of Melchisedec, much might be said to 
 show the justice of the comparison, from what is 
 related in Scripture of that last-mentioned person- 
 age; but such mysterious speculations would be 
 hard for you to understand. For you have shown 
 yourselves slow in your apprehension of religious 
 
 12 knowledge, and, although you might ere this have 
 been qualified to instruct others, have yet to learn 
 the very rudiments of the oracles of God, and re- 
 quire even now rather the milk of infants than the 
 
 13 strong food of adults. But it is not for children not 
 yet weaned from the milk of infancy to comprehend 
 
 14 the deeper mysteries of wisdom : by the more ad- 
 vanced and mature only can the stronger meat be 
 used with advantage, when their awakened percep- 
 tions and judgment shall have enabled them by long 
 exercise to distinguish between good and evil ; be- 
 
 6 tween what is wholesome, and what pernicious. Let 
 me then lead you on from the mere elementary pro- 
 positions on which our holy religion is founded, and 
 which every beginner in Christianity is necessarily 
 presumed to have apprehended, to the investigation 
 of some of those deeper conclusions, to which it is 
 now fall time that you should begin to turn your 
 
334 
 
 HEBREWS. 
 
 CHAP, vr. 
 
 attention. It can be no longer necessary for me to 
 demonstrate to you that the mere ritual expiations 
 of the law of works can never lead to effectual 
 righteousness, nor to require your assent afresh to 
 the great primary truth of Christ's covenant, namely, 
 that we can be saved by a reposing confidence in his 
 redemption only. Nor need I dwell on the necessity 2 
 of baptism to you who have already submitted to 
 receive it ; nor on the commission given by our Re- 
 deemer to us his apostles, to communicate the gifts 
 of the Holy Spirit by the imposition of our hands ; 
 nor on our confident assurance of the certainty of a 
 future resurrection from the grave, and of a judgment 
 to come. It shall therefore be my endeavour, with 3 
 God's blessing, to conduct you onwards from these 
 elementary principles to some of the more remote 
 truths of our holy religion, not stopping to examine 
 you in those which I have just now enumerated, 
 and which no one can for a moment hesitate in 
 accepting without abjuring the very name of Chris- 
 tian, and falling back into the most hopeless and 
 incurable hardness of unbelief. For no case of un- 4 
 belief can perhaps be imagined to be more desperate 
 than that of a person, who, having once advanced 
 thus far ; who having already felt from his own in- 
 ternal consciousness the inefiicacy of ritual works, 
 and the consequent necessity of a divine atonement 
 for sin ; who having submitted from conscientious 
 conviction to the purifying rite of baptism ; who 
 having prayed for and received the blessed gifts of 
 the Holy Spirit ; and who having looked forward in 5 
 hope to a glorious resurrection from the dead, and 
 to the final retribution of the future judgment, shall 6 
 have afterwards hardened his heart afresh, and 
 
CHAP. VI. 
 
 HEBREWS. 
 
 .385 
 
 thrown himself back into that spiritual obduracy 
 and darkness from which he had emerged. In the 
 mind of such a person repentance itself has no soil 
 in which to take root ; he has deliberately crucified 
 again that Saviour in whom he had professed to 
 believe, and contemptuously rejected that holiness 
 
 7 of which he had tasted. It is the fertile and not 
 the barren soil which God loves to cultivate, and in 
 which to plant his seed ; that which drinks in the 
 rain, and clothes itself with a wholesome vegeta- 
 
 8 tion ; but the stony and parched soil, which brings 
 forth only thorns and briars, is worse than unpro- 
 
 9 fitable, and fit only to be burnt as stubble. Imagine 
 not, my beloved friends, that I am now intending 
 to describe your case : on the contrary, though I 
 may blame the slowness of your progress, I am 
 perfectly satisfied of the soundness of your faith in 
 the fundamental principles of the doctrine of salva- 
 
 10 tion now alluded to; nor is God so unmindful of 
 those who are anxious to perform his will, as to 
 disregard labours of Christian love such as yours, 
 which have been, and are, so unremittingly dis- 
 played by you in your various acts of benevolence 
 
 11 towards his disciples and servants. All therefore 
 which I am desirous of is, to lead you on still fur- 
 ther ; to make your present zeal consistent to the 
 end, and to render your future progress in religious 
 knowledge conformable to the real soundness of its 
 
 12 commencement ; that you may not be slothful, but 
 may be successful imitators of those who through 
 faith and persevering obedience have finally inhe- 
 
 13 rited the promises of God's covenant. Such was 
 the case of our great forefather Abraham, to whom 
 God, having given a promise, because he could 
 
336 
 
 HEBREWS. 
 
 CHAP. VTI. 
 
 swear by no greater being, sware by himself, saying, 14 
 " Surely in blessing I will bless thee, and in multi- 
 plying I will multiply thee;" (Genesis xxii. 17.) 
 and he, waiting patiently for the fulfilment of the 15 
 promise, finally obtained it. Men, we know, on 16 
 solemn occasions swear by something greater than 
 themselves, as the most impressive guarantee they 
 can give to assure others of their sincerity ; and in 17 
 like manner, God on that occasion, in order to 
 show mankind the certainty of his immoveable pur- 
 pose to bring them to salvation, confirmed the pro- 
 mise made to Abraham by an oath ; that, in these 18 
 two undoubted pledges which it was quite impossible 
 tliat God should violate, we might have a sure con- 
 solation in which to take refuge, and a hope of 19 
 ultimate redemption to which we might confidently 
 cling, as to the soul's firm and sure anchor fixed 
 within the mysterious veil of the temple, that is to 
 say, the unknown world, into which Jesus our fore- 20 
 runner has already entered, there for ever to officiate 
 for us as an High Priest after the order of Mel- 
 chisedec. 
 
 The following coincidences between what is re- 7 
 lated of Melchisedec in the book of Genesis and 
 the peculiar character of our Saviour's spiritual 
 priesthood will show, that the former personage has 
 been not inappositely declared by the Psalmist in the 
 passage just quoted to be a type and symbolical fore- 
 runner of the latter. This Melchisedec was, we are 
 told, the king of Salem, and priest of the most high 
 God, who met Abraham upon his return from the 
 slaughter of the kings, and blessed him ; to whom 2 
 Abraham gave a tenth part of all the spoils. (Genesis 
 xiv. 18.) Now in the first place I would observe. 
 
CHAP. VII. HEBREWS. 
 
 .337 
 
 that the name " Melchisedec" signifies when inter- 
 preted " king of righteousness ;" then again he was 
 also " king of Salem," which latter word signifies 
 " peace ;" and consequently he bore another of our 
 blessed Saviour's titles, namely, " the Prince of 
 
 3 peace." In the book of Genesis also no mention 
 whatever is made of his father, of his mother, of his 
 genealogy, of the commencement of his life, nor of 
 his death, and in these respects also he may there- 
 fore be considered as representing typically the 
 divine nature, the self-existence, and the twofold 
 eternity, past and future, of Christ our own im- 
 
 4 mortal High Priest. In the next place we may 
 observe what pre-eminent rank is attributed to this 
 personage in the Old Testament, inasmuch as he 
 is described as receiving a tenth part of the spoils 
 from so illustrious a character as the patriarch 
 
 5 Abraham himself Now the descendants of Levi, 
 to which tribe the Jewish priesthood is exclusively 
 annexed, have the right of demanding tithes from 
 the whole of the Jewish people, though they them- 
 selves being of the stock of Abraham cannot of 
 course be supposed to be superior in dignity to that 
 
 6 their renowned ancestor. But Melchisedec, a per- 
 son of a totally distinct race, marked his own su- 
 perior authority bi/ taking tithes of Abraham himself, 
 and by pronouncing a blessing even upon that man to 
 whom God himself had made the promise that he him- 
 
 7 self should be a blessing. Now it is self-evident, 
 that he who is competent to pronounce a blessing 
 upon another is the superior of the person whom he 
 
 8 blesses. Again, according to the law of Moses the 
 priests who receive the tithes are mortal men like 
 those who pay them : but I have already shown 
 
 z 
 
338 
 
 HEBREWS. CHAP VII. 
 
 that Melchisedec as described in the book of Genesis 
 typically represents a Being without beginning or 
 end. We may also observe, that in a certain sense 9 
 Levi himself, whose descendants receive tithes from 
 others, paid them to Melchisedec ; for not being lo 
 yet in existence when Abraham paid tithes to 
 Melchisedec, he may be said to have ^ himself paid 
 them in the person of his ancestor Abraham. Let ll 
 me ask you also, " if perfect holiness can be attained 
 under the Levitical priesthood, through which only 
 Moses taught our forefathers to seek after it, why 
 should David, when describing a priesthood of a 
 superlatively pre-eminent character, have designated 
 it as after the order of Melchisedec rather than as 
 after the order of Aaron?" For we must recollect, 12 
 that in acknowledging a valid priesthood out of the 
 family of Levi, to which latter family the law of 
 Moses exclusively annexes it, David is expressly 
 
 * Should some parts of the apostle's reasoning with 
 respect to this parallel drawn by him between the person 
 of Melchisedec and that of our blessed Saviour appear to 
 dwell upon seemingly trifling coincidences of facts, we 
 should recollect that it was from that very circumstance 
 admirably well adapted for the convincing of the parties to 
 whom it was specially addressed. The commentaries of 
 the Rabbinical writers upon their own sacred books were, 
 as is well known, almost uniformly of this minute, and as 
 to the eye of modern criticism it may appear, over ingenious 
 character ; not merely the general phraseology of any pas- 
 sage under review, but the collocation of the words, and 
 even the number of syllables contained in them, being 
 sometimes made the subject of elaborate discussion, and 
 adduced by them in confirmation of the most fanciful con- 
 clusions. 
 
CHAP. vir. 
 
 HEBREWS. 
 
 339 
 
 pronouncing judgment against the validity of that 
 
 13 law itself. And Melchisedec, of whom David thus 
 speaks, had, we know, no common kindred or con- 
 
 l4nexion with Levi or his tribe; in which respect 
 also he resembles our Saviour, who derived his 
 mortal lineage from the tribe of Judah, which by the 
 Mosaic law is disqualified from aspiring to the 
 
 15 priesthood. It is therefore abundantly evident, that 
 by the expression of "a priest after the order of 
 
 ] 6 Melchisedec," not a human Levitical priest is de- 
 
 1 7 signated, but one spiritual and eternal ; God's ex- 
 pression being, " Thou art a priest for ever after the 
 
 18 order of Melchisedec." The former law is therefore 
 evidently considered, according to the real sense of 
 this passage, as superseded and cancelled on account 
 
 19 of its insufficiency and incompleteness; and the 
 introduction of another dispensation is prophetically 
 anticipated by it as a means of effectually recon- 
 
 20 ciling us to God. Observe also the solemnity with 
 
 21 which the Psalmist introduces this assertion. The 
 appointment of the priests under the Levitical law 
 is accompanied with no ratification by an oath ; but 
 here we are told, "the Lord sware and will not 
 repent : Thou art a priest for ever after the order of 
 
 22 Melchisedec :" and the inference is obvious, that the 
 priesthood of Christ is of a far superior order and 
 dignity to any recognized by the Mosaic institutions. 
 
 23 In the Levitical law again a succession of priests 
 becomes necessary from the mortality of the persons 
 
 24 holding the office ; but Christ in consequence of 
 
 25 his eternal nature is one priest for ever ; and from 
 that circumstance is able to assist without ceasing, 
 and in the plenitude of the divine power, all his 
 
 z 2 
 
340 
 
 HEBREWS. CHAP. VIII. 
 
 suppliants who seek to approach God through his 
 eternal intercession. And such an High-Priest it is 26 
 that our fallen nature requires: one holy, perfect, 
 pure, uncontaminated by sin, and in power pre- 
 eminent above the very heavens : one who has no 27 
 occasion to offer up daily sacrifice for his own sins 
 before he can presume to intercede for those of the 
 people, for in offering himself up 07ice he made a 
 full and complete sacrifice for the sins of the whole 
 world. The Levitical law gives us only priests 28 
 labouring under every mortal infirmity like our- 
 selves ; but the High Priest whom God appointed 
 by an oath, with authority to supersede that pro- 
 visional covenant, is his only-begotten Son, all perfect 
 and eternal. 
 
 This then is the sum and substance of the fore- 8 
 going observations, that the High Priest of the 
 Gospel-covenant is one who sits for ever on the 
 right hand of the throne of the divine Majesty in 
 the heavens, a minister for us in all spiritual holi- 2 
 ness, a priest of the true tabernacle, pitched not by 
 human hands, but by those of God himself. But 3 
 the office of every high priest is to offer gifts and 
 sacrifices, and if so, then assuredly our blessed 
 Redeemer offers in our behalf such gifts and sacri- 
 fices as he knows to be the most effectual and 
 acceptable. Then, in the next place, that his is an 4 
 heavenly and not an earthly priesthood is evident 
 from the fact, that he was disqualified by the Mosaic 
 institutions from holding the earthly office, from 
 the circumstance of his not belonging to the family 
 of Levi, to whose tribe that dignity is inseparably 
 annexed. We may observe also that the Levitical 6 
 
CHAP. VIII. 
 
 HEBREWS. 
 
 341 
 
 priesthood is confessedly a type and symbol ^ of the 
 heavenly one, as is evident from the command 
 given to Moses respecting the construction of the 
 tabernacle, (Exod. xxv. 40.) " See that thou make 
 all things according to the pattern showed to thee 
 
 6 in the mount which last mentioned heavenly office 
 being exercised by our blessed Redeemer, we may 
 confidently assert that he is the Mediator of a 
 covenant as far surpassing in excellence the one 
 established with our forefathers, as the spiritual pro- 
 mises contained in the Gospel exceed the temporal 
 blessings, to which alone Moses has encouraged his 
 
 7 countrymen to aspire. For if the first covenant 
 had been perfect, most certainly there would have 
 
 8 been no occasion for the second. But we find the 
 Almighty himself declaring the insufficiency of the 
 former ; (Jeremiah xxxi. 31.) " Behold, the days 
 come, saitli the Lord, when I will make a new 
 covenant with the house of Israel, and with the 
 
 9 house of Judah ; not according to the covenant that I 
 made with their forefathers in the day when I took 
 them hy the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, 
 because they continued not in my covenant, and 
 
 10 I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is 
 the covenant which I will make with the house of 
 Israel after those days, saith the Lord ; I will put 
 my laws in their minds, and write them in their 
 hearts, and I will be to them a God, and they shall 
 
 ^ J osephus expressly asserts, that the Levitical tabernacle 
 with its furniture, and the dresses of the high priest, were 
 designed by Moses as a representation of the universe. See 
 his Antiquities of the Jews, lib. iii. cap. 7. 
 
342 
 
 HEBREWS. 
 
 CHAP. IX. 
 
 be to me a people. And they shall not teach every 1 1 
 man his neighbour, and every man his brother, 
 saying, Know the Lord : for all shall know me, 
 from the least to the greatest. For I will be mer- 12 
 ciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and 
 iniquities will I remember no more." If then we 13 
 cannot but conclude from this passage that God 
 intended the establishment of what he terms a new 
 covenant, it is obvious that he also at the same 
 time purposed the cancelling and abrogating of that 
 which, as opposed to the former, we must denomi- 
 nate the old. 
 
 This former and less perfect covenant had how- 9 
 ever, by God's own appointment, its peculiar ordi- 
 nances of divine worship, and its earthly holy of 
 holies, a type, as I have observed, of the heavenly 
 and invisible one. For the command given to 2 
 Moses was that he should construct in the first 
 place what is called the holy outward tabernacle, 
 in which were to be preserved the candlestick, and 
 the tabernacle, and the shew bread ; and within the 3 
 second vajl the second tabernacle, which is called 
 the holy of holies ; in which were to be placed the 4 
 golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid 
 entirely with gold, containing the golden pot of 
 manna, and Aaron's rod which budded, and the 
 tables of the covenant : and over which were to be 5 
 spread the cherubim of glory overshadowing the 
 mercy seat, of which awful emblems there is no 
 occasion for me to speak largely at present. All 6 
 which being exactly arranged according to the divine 
 appointment, the outer holy tabernacle is allotted 
 to the ordinary priests for performing the daily 
 
CHAP. IX. 
 
 HEBREWS. 
 
 343 
 
 7 sacrifices ; but into the second, namely, the holy of 
 holies, the high priest alone^ enters but one day 
 every year, not without shedding of blood, which he 
 offers for his own sins of ignorance and for those 
 
 8 of the people : the Holy Spirit signifying by this 
 emblematical ceremony, that mankind were to be ew- 
 eluded from God's inmost sanctuary, so long as the 
 
 9 first tabernacle should continue to ewist. All which 
 form of worship is entirely symbolical, und esta- 
 blished as a provisional intermediate arrangement; 
 to enable men to offer gifts and sacrifices which 
 have no natural tendency to purify and expiate the 
 
 10 worshipper, consisting as they do in regulations 
 respecting meats and drinks, and ablutions, and 
 ceremonies which have reference to the body only, 
 but which meanwhile were sanctioned by divine 
 authority, until superseded by the establishment 
 
 11 of a covenant of spiritual holiness. But Christ 
 having in the fulness of time appeared upon earth 
 
 * As this Epistle contains a direct prophecy of the ap- 
 proaching destruction of Jerusalem, it is of course important, 
 as a proof of the inspiration of the writer, that we should be 
 satisfied that it was actually composed before the date of 
 that event. It is unfortunate therefore that our established 
 version has, through inadvertence, thrown a seeming doubt 
 upon this fact, by using the past instead of the present 
 tense in mentioning the solemn entry of the high priest 
 into the holy of holies ; " but i^ito the second went the 
 high priest,'" &;c. Of course the necessary inference of the 
 unlearned reader would be, that the temple of Jerusalem 
 was no longer in existence at the time when this Epistle 
 was written. Both the verbs in the original Greek are in 
 the present tense : uaiaaLv ol ttptic* ou X'^'^qXq alfiarog o 
 
344 
 
 HEBREWS. 
 
 CHAP. IX. 
 
 as the High Priest of that righteousness which shall 
 hereafter be perfected, and having passed onward 
 through a greater and holier tabernacle than mere 
 human hands could construct, (of course far ex- 
 ceeding that devoted to the purposes of the Levi- 
 tical worship,) and not carrying with him the blood 12 
 of goats or of calves, but the precious sacrifice 
 of his own blessed blood, has entered once and for 
 ever into the heavenly holy of holies, having offered 
 for us one great and sufficient expiation which never 
 will require repetition. And if even the blood of 13 
 bulls and of goats, or the ashes of an heifer sprinkled 
 over the unclean were sanctified by God's appoint- 
 ment to serve for the purifying of the body, surely 
 much more shall the sacred blood of Christ, who 14 
 through the instrumentality of the eternal Spirit 
 presented himself a spotless sacrifice to God, purge 
 your consciences from your former sins, and direct 
 them, not to works of ritual holiness, but to the 
 spiritual worship of the living God. And accord- 15 
 ingly he is the Mediator of a new covenant, in 
 order that having submitted to death for the ex- 
 piation of the offences which were committed under 
 the old covenant, he might obtain the promise of 
 their eternal inheritance for all who are summoned 
 to take possession of it. Even in the case of human 16 
 covenants, the ratification we know to be usually 
 accompanied by the death of a victim, and that 17 
 the obligation by which they bind the contracting 
 parties is considered as commencing with the death 
 of the animal sacrificed, and not earlier. In con- 18 
 formity with which usage the Mosaic covenant itself 
 was confirmed by the shedding of blood, as we are 
 informed in the book of Exodus, (Exodus xxiv. 
 
CHAP. IX. 
 
 HEBREWS. 
 
 345 
 
 19 6, 7, 8.) for when Moses had spoken every precept 
 to all the people according to the law, " he took 
 the blood of calves and of goats with water and 
 scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the 
 
 20 book and all the people, saying, This is the blood 
 of the covenant which God has dictated to you." 
 
 21 He also sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle 
 
 22 and all the vessels of the ministry. And according 
 to the directions of the same law, all the purifica- 
 tory ceremonies are performed with blood, and by 
 the shedding of blood was the atonement made 
 for all the people by the high priest. (Leviticus 
 
 23 xvi. 24.) It was therefore expedient that the typical 
 representations of heavenly things should be purified 
 by those carnal emblems ; but the true heavenly 
 and spiritual things require a purification of a far 
 
 24 superior and more excellent description. For it is 
 not into the earthly holy of holies, the more perish- 
 able symbol of the heavenly one, that Christ our 
 High Priest is entered, but into the nery sanctuary 
 of heaven itself, where he now officiates for us in 
 
 25 the glorious presence of his eternal Father ; not for 
 the purpose of offering again the great and effec- 
 tual sacrifice of himself, as the Jewish high priest 
 is obliged year after year to renew his earthly ex- 
 
 26 piatory sacrifice, (for in that case a similar necessity 
 would have existed of a continuous repetition of that 
 same blessed offering from the very foundation of 
 the world ^ to the present time,) but, on the con- 
 
 ^ From this passage we necessarily infer that our Saviour's 
 atonement for human sin had a retrospective as well as pro- 
 spective operation, and consequently that the generations 
 
346 
 
 HEBREWS. 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 trary, having once, and for ever, at his own good 
 and appointed time, earned by the sacrifice of him- 
 self an expiation, both retrospective and prospective, 
 of the sins of the whole world. And as it is allotted 27 
 to all men to die once, and once only, and after- 
 wards to rise to judgment, so Christ, being once 28 
 offered up for the remission of the sins of many, 
 shall a second time appear in glory, having for ever 
 abolished sin, for the salvation of those who await 
 his coming. 
 
 Considering then the law of Moses in its true 10 
 light, namely, as a typical representation of a future 
 and better covenant, and not as a complete and 
 final dispensation, we cannot but perceive, even in 
 the continually recurring necessity of the same 
 annual sacrifices, its total insufficiency to make its 
 worshippers perfect or holy. For had those sacri- 2 
 fices been really efficacious, their constant repetition 
 would have been evidently superfluous, as the con- 
 sciences of the worshippers once purified by those 
 means could never have had, under that supposition, 
 any reviving responsibility of guilt. But the annual 3 
 renewal of the Levitical sacrifices is a direct admis- 
 sion, that those of the former years did ?wt attain 
 their object : and, in fact, we cannot but admit that 4 
 it is quite impossible that the blood of bulls or of 
 goats should be able to take away sin. Accord- 5 
 ingly David describes the Messiah, upon his coming 
 into the world, as exclaiming, " Sacrifice and offer- 
 
 which existed before his appearance upon earth will be 
 benefited by it no less than those which shall have been 
 born subsequent to that great event. 
 
CHAP. X. HEBREWS. 
 
 347 
 
 ing thou wouldest not, but my body thou hast 
 
 6 made obedient to thy discipline ; in burnt offerings 
 
 7 and sin offerings thou hast no pleasure ; then 
 said I, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God, as 
 the book of the Scriptures has foretold concerning 
 
 8 me." (Psalm xl. 6.) Thus having in the former part 
 of the passage asserted that " sacrifice, and offer- 
 ing, and burnt offering, and sin offering, thou 
 wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein, (which 
 sacrifices are those prescribed by the Mosaic law,) 
 
 9 he proceeds to say, " Lo, I come to do thy will, O 
 God," thus substituting the obedience of our blessed 
 Redeemer in the place of the cancelled obligations 
 
 10 of ritual ordinances. By obedience to which holy 
 will of God we are sanctified through the one single 
 and sufficient sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ. 
 
 11 While therefore the Jewish priesthood continue day 
 after day ministering at the altar, and offering again 
 
 12 and again the same ineffectual sacrifice, our blessed 
 Saviour, on the contrary, having made his one all- 
 powerful expiation \ has sat down for ever at the 
 
 13 right hand of God ; henceforth waiting " till his 
 
 14 enemies shall be made his footstool." And that 
 one sacrifice of himself extends an inexhaustible 
 and everlasting redemption to those who are sanc- 
 tified by faith in him. 
 
 15 The inspired prophet Jeremiah also, in a passage 
 
 ^ It is quite inconceivable that, with this explicit declara- 
 tion of the apostle before them respecting the complete 
 sufficiency of the great atonement for sin once offered, the 
 Romish Church should, in imitation of the Jewish ritual, 
 have so pertinaciously chosen to consider the beautiful com- 
 memorative institution of the Eucharist in the light of an 
 incessantly recurring expiatory sacrifice, 
 
 1 
 
348 
 
 HEBREWS. 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 immediately subsequent to that already quoted from 
 him, (Jeremiah xxx. 33.) speaks precisely to the 
 same purport. " This is the covenant which T will 16 
 make with them after those days, saith the Lord : 
 I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their 
 minds will I write them ; and their sins and iniqui- 17 
 ties will I remember no more." But where sins are 18 
 entirely cancelled, any further expiatory sacrifice for 
 sin is clearly superfluous. 
 
 Having then, my brethren, a just confidence that 19 
 we shall be permitted to enter within the heavenly 
 tabernacle through the expiatory blood of Jesus, by 20 
 the new and living way which he has consecrated for 
 us through the rending of the veil, that is, through 
 the sacrifice of his flesh; and having him for our 21 
 High Priest over the heavenly house of God ; let 22 
 us draw near with a true heart, in the full assurance 
 of faith, having our hearts cleansed by his effectual 
 expiation from a polluted conscience, and our bodies 
 washed with the pure waters of baptism ; and let 23 
 us hold fast the profession of our hope in him with- 
 out wavering, being assured that he is true and 
 faithful to his promises ; and let us mutually en- 24 
 courage and excite one another to Christian affec- 
 tion, and the practice of good works : not omitting 25 
 from an undue fear of persecution the assembling 
 of ourselves together, as the practice of some of our 
 brethren is; but exhorting and strengthening one 
 another ; and this let us do the more earnestly, as 
 you may see from the signs of the times, as foretold 
 by our blessed Saviour, that the day of our Lord is 
 approaching. For if, through fear or any appro- 26 
 hension of the authorities of this world, we apo- 
 statize from our faith, after having assented to the 
 
CHAP. X. 
 
 HEBREWS. 
 
 349 
 
 blessed covenant of the Gospel, then, as I have 
 already observed, there remains for us no longer 
 
 27 any expiation for sin, but, in its place, an awful 
 anticipation of God's impending judgment and 
 vengeance, which as a blazing fire shall devour his 
 
 28 impugners. Remember the severe punishment 
 which is enjoined even against those who apostatize 
 from the law of Moses, how it is required that such 
 persons shall be put to death without mercy, if the 
 fact be proved against them by the testimony of two 
 
 29 or three witnesses. (Deuteronomy xvii. 6.) And 
 shall not a far more terrible retribution await that 
 man who has knowingly trodden under foot the Son 
 of God, and who has blasphemed as an unholy 
 thing that sacred blood of Christ's covenant in 
 which he had professed to seek redemption, and 
 
 30 has defied the Spirit of grace and mercy ? We 
 know what is the solemn language of Scripture 
 respecting offences such as these. " Vengeance 
 is mine : I will repay, saith the Lord." (Deu- 
 teronomy xxxii. 35.) And again, in the sentence 
 which immediately follows, " The Lord shall judge 
 
 31 his people." And assuredly a fearful thing it is 
 
 32 to fall into the hands of the living God. Shrink 
 not then, I beseech you, from the bold profession of 
 your faith through fear of your present persecutors, 
 but encourage yourselves by the recollection of the 
 fortitude which you displayed at the time of your 
 first conversion, when the animosity of your ad- 
 versaries was in vain exerted to prevent your 
 
 33 confession of the truth ; when at one time you 
 were made a public spectacle to bear insults and 
 afflictions in your own persons; and at another so 
 fearlessly stood forward to countenance and en- 
 
350 
 
 HEBREWS. CHAP. XT. 
 
 courage others when suffering under the same in- 
 justice. For I cannot myself forget the kind and 34 
 generous manner with which you sympathized with 
 me in my imprisonment, and submitted, not with 
 patience only, but with cheerfulness, to the spolia- 
 tion of your property, from the conviction that you 
 had laid up for you in heaven far better and more 
 lasting possessions. Cast not away, therefore, for 35 
 the sake of a little momentary suifering, this holy 
 confidence which has so vast a reward in store : 
 but remember that you are now called upon to 36 
 exhibit the patience and fortitude which become 
 soldiers of Christ ; tliat having performed God's 
 will without murmuring, you may receive your final 
 compensation at his hands. For be assured that 37 
 your probation will be short, and that even now 
 God is preparing his coming to inflict vengeance 
 upon your oppressors. Meanwhile remember the 38 
 words of the prophet, (Habakkuk ii. 4.) " the just 
 shall live hy faith ; but if any man draw back from 
 it and fall away, my heart shall have no pleasure in 
 him ^" But we, my brethren, are not of those who 39 
 apostatize to their own destruction, but of those 
 who remain firm in their faith to the saving of their 
 souls. 
 
 Let me then now remind you what faith is ^. It 11 
 
 ^ In this quotation from the prophet Habakkuk, the 
 Apostle has given the meaning of the passage rather ac- 
 cording to the version of the Septuagint, than as we find it 
 in our authorized translation. He has, however, inverted 
 the order of the clauses as they exist in the original text. 
 'Eav vTroaTei\r}Tai, ovic ev^OKet r\ "ipv^rj jxov Iv avTM' 6 
 
 2 Nothing can be imagined more surprisingly beautiful 
 
CHAP. XI. HEBREWS. 351 
 
 is not the visible and tangible fruition of things 
 present, but that which gives a substantial value 
 to things as yet in remote futurity ; it is that 
 faculty of the mind by which we lay hold of the 
 objects of the invisible world, as though they were 
 actually subject to the perceptions of the bodily 
 
 2 senses. By it accordingly the great and good of 
 former ages have manifested their firm reliance upon 
 the divine will, and have thus become pleasing to 
 
 3 God. Faith is in fact the basis of all sound religion. 
 It is through faith that we assent to the great truth 
 that God made the universe, and that material ob- 
 
 4 jects could not have had a material first cause. By 
 faith Abel offered to God a more satisfactory sacri- 
 fice than that of Cain, and was accordingly pro- 
 nounced righteous, (the Almighty himself bearing 
 witness of him to that effect by the acceptance of 
 his gifts ;) and even now by the example which he 
 has afforded conveys a valuable lesson to mankind. 
 
 5 By faith Enoch was removed from this world with- 
 out experiencing death, disappearing from the earth 
 because God had taken him to himself For before 
 that happy removal it is recorded of him that he 
 
 6 pleased God : but without faith we know that it is 
 impossible to please him, inasmuch as the belief 
 in God's existence and' in his eternal attributes of 
 justice and mercy and wisdom is the first founda- 
 
 7 tion of all devotion whatever. By faith Noah, 
 when no visible signs as yet gave warning of the 
 impending destruction of mankind, obeyed the 
 divine commands, and made ready the ark for the 
 
 and edifying than the whole of the following eloquent dis- 
 cussion on the nature of religious faith. 
 
352 
 
 HEBREWS. 
 
 CHAP. XI. 
 
 preservation of his family ; and thus survived amid 
 the wreck of an unbelieving world as an inheritor of 
 that righteousness and salvation which comes by 
 faith. By the same rehance upon the divine pro- 8 
 mises Abraham, being called to remove himself 
 into a country which was to be the inheritance of 
 his descendants, obeyed without hesitation, although 
 an entire stranger to the country to which he was 
 going. By faith he continued to dwell in the pro- 9 
 mised land, though without possessing one foot of 
 it which he could call his own, dwelling merely in 
 moveable tents, as after him did his sons Isaac and 
 Jacob, the joint heirs with him of the promise ; 
 confidently looking forward to a city built upon im- lo 
 moveable foundations, of which God himself should 
 be the architect. By faith also his wife Sarah re- 1 1 
 ceived power to bear a child when past the regular 
 period of her life, trusting that He who made the 
 promise would answer for its fulfilment. And the 12 
 consequence was that fi'om her aged husband has 
 descended a race as the stars of heaven in multitude, 
 and innumerable as the sand upon the sea shore. 
 All these good men, let us recollect, passed through 13 
 this life with no better assurance than that of faith 
 in the performance of God's promises, and without 
 witnessing their completion ; but seeing them only afar 
 off, and tranquilly reposing and rejoicing in the firm- 
 ness of their conviction, though feeling themselves not- 
 withstanding strangers and aliens upon the soil of this 
 world. For they confessed that they had no coun- 14 
 try which they could call their own, and that they 
 looked for a more permanent home than that which 
 they then occupied ; and yet, had an earthly home 15 
 been their object, they might readily have found 
 
CHAP. XT. 
 
 HEBREWS. 
 
 .353 
 
 16 one amonof their own relatives in Chaldea. But 
 the fact was, that it was an heavenly home after 
 which they aspired ; and God accordingly prepared 
 
 • them a city, and was not ashamed to acknowledge 
 
 17 them as his own peculiar and beloved people. By 
 faith Abraham remained unshaken in that most per- 
 plexing trial, the enjoined sacrifice of his only son, 
 whom he readily consented to offer up, although 
 that very son had been pronounced to be the heir 
 
 18 to the divine promises ; God himself having de- 
 clared of him that through Isaac he should become 
 
 19 the father of many nations. For he felt assured 
 that God was able to raise him up again even from 
 the dead, and therefore he accordingly received him 
 back from God's own hands even when he might 
 
 20 have been considered as virtually lost. By faith in 
 the peculiar promises made to his posterity, Isaac 
 bestowed an appropriate blessing prospectively upon 
 
 21 Jacob and upon Esau. By faith Jacob, when he was 
 dying, prophesied respecting the two sons of Joseph, 
 and worshipped God bending over the top of his 
 
 22 staff. By faith Joseph foretold in his last moments 
 the departure of the Israelites from Egypt, and 
 gave directions for the conveyance of his own body 
 
 23 from thence. By faith Moses was hidden during 
 three months after his birth by his parents, because 
 they saw that the child was beautiful, and were not 
 
 24 afraid of disobeying the king's order. By faith 
 Moses himself, when he grew up to manhood, 
 refused to be considered any longer as the son of 
 
 25 Pharaoh's daughter ; choosing rather to participate 
 in the afflictions of God's people than to enjoy the 
 
 26 immediate pleasures of a sinful life, and considering 
 the reproaches cast upon his countrymen, because 
 
354? 
 
 HEBREWS. 
 
 CHAP. XT. 
 
 they looked forward to Christ's coming, a§ more 
 desirable than all the wealth of Egypt : for he knew 
 that the reward of his belief, though remote, was 
 certain. By faith he forsook Egypt without re- 27 
 garding Pharaoh's menaces, fixing his mind's eye 
 upon the invisible God in whom he trusted. By 28 
 faith he kept the first passover by sprinkling with 
 blood the door posts of the Israelites according 
 to the divine command, that the destroyer of 
 the first-born of the Egyptians might not touch 
 theirs. By faith the Israelites passed through 29 
 the Red Sea as upon the dry land; which the 
 Egyptians attempting to do were drowned. By 30 
 faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they 
 had been encompassed during seven days. By 31 
 faith Rahab the harlot escaped destruction at the 
 capture of Jericho, because she had kindly re- 
 ceived the spies sent by Joshua. But why should 32 
 I produce more examples to the same purport ? 
 for the time would fail me were I to dwell upon 
 those of Gideon, of Barak, of Samson, of Jephtha, 
 of David, of Samuel, and of the other prophets ; 
 men who by the aid of faith subdued kingdoms, 33 
 executed righteousness, obtained the promises, 
 stopped the mouth of lions, passed unhurt through 34 
 the fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of 
 weakness were made strong, were rendered mighty 
 in battle, overthrew the armies of their adver- 
 saries : restored dead children alive to their mothers ; 35 
 were cruelly beaten, yet accepted not deliverance, 
 because they looked for a better life than the 
 present ; were insulted and scourged ; chained and 36 
 imprisoned ; were stoned to death ; were sawn 37 
 asunder ; were exposed to other fearful trials ; were 
 
 / 
 
CHAP. XII. 
 
 HEBREWS. 
 
 355 
 
 slain by the sword ; wandered about in sheep- 
 skins, and goat-skins; being destitute, afflicted, 
 
 38 maltreated ; and living, like men of whom the world 
 was not worthy, in deserts, in mountains, in dens 
 
 39 and holes of the earth. And yet let us recollect, 
 that we may profit by the example, that these good 
 men, whose faith in God's promises has made them 
 so justly celebrated, never lived to see those promises 
 
 40 realized, the Almighty having reserved until our 
 time the accomplishment of his better dispensation, 
 that we might be partakers with them of its mani- 
 
 12fold blessings. Wherefore, encouraged by this mul- 
 titude of glorious examples of holy fortitude and 
 submission, let us, manfully shaking off every 
 worldly incumbrance, and resisting all those mani- 
 fold seductions which beset us in this present trial 
 of our constancy, run with patience the race which 
 
 2 lies before us, looking for our encouragement to the 
 leader and perfecter of our faith, the blessed Jesus 
 himself, who for our sake exchanged the happiness 
 of heaven for the agonies of the cross, regardless of 
 the degradation, and who now sits for ever at the 
 
 3 right hand of the throne of God. Cherish I beseech 
 you, my brethren, this divine example of our great 
 Master, who voluntarily submitted to so much vio- 
 lent opposition from the waywardness of a sinful 
 world, and derive fortitude and patience for your- 
 selves in this your hour of trial from that affecting 
 
 4 recollection. Remember that you have not yet, as 
 he did, resisted the temptations of the wicked even 
 
 5 unto blood : nor have you consoled yourselves, as 
 you might have done, by the comfortable assurance 
 of holy writ, which applies so well to your present 
 afflictions. " My son," says Solomon, " despise not 
 
 A a 2 
 
856 
 
 HEBREWS. 
 
 CHAP. XI I. 
 
 thou tlie chastening of the Lord, nor faint when 
 thou art rebuked of him : for whom the Lord loveth 6 
 he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he 
 reeeiveth." (Proverbs iii. 11, 12.) If then you 7 
 patiently submit to that wholesome discipline, com- 
 fort yourselves with the reflection that it is a 
 father who thus deals with you, and that by this very 
 chastisement he is now displaying his paternal 
 affection ; and that, were he to withhold this sea- 8 
 sonable and useful correction, it would mark in him 
 rather the neglect of a stranger, than the well- 
 judging kindness of a parent. All of us have felt 9 
 in our time the coercion of our earthly parents, and 
 yet we did not love or revere them the less on that 
 account : and shall we then refuse to submit pa- 
 tiently to the wise arrangements of the great Father 
 of spirits, in whose hands are the gifts of life and 
 immortality? chastised us that we might be lO 
 
 induced to run our course well through this our 
 present short and perishable existence; his correc- 
 tions on the other hand are intended to prepare us 
 to be partakers of his own imperishable holiness 
 and perfection. It is true indeed that all chastise- 1 1 
 ment is hard to bear at the moment of its infliction ; 
 but then we should remember, that its final result is 
 the tranquil enjoyment of spiritual improvement to 
 such as have been duly trained in this salutary dis- 
 cipline. 
 
 Lift up then again, my brethren, your exhausted 12 
 and enfeebled hands, and rouse for a second and 
 bolder effort your sinking knees, and remove every 13 
 unnecessary obstacle from the straight pathway of 
 your duty, that you may run safely over it without 
 strain or dislocation. Let your anxious desire be to 14 
 
CHAP. XII. 
 
 HEBREWS. 
 
 357 
 
 maintain peace and good will with all men, and to 
 attain to that purity of heart, without which no man 
 
 15 shall see the Lord. Be careful that none among 
 you fall short in his own endeavours of the assist- 
 ing grace of God which has been extended to him. 
 Let no evil and bitter weeds of sinful appetites 
 spring up among you to your mutual seduction. 
 
 16 Let there be no fornicator in your society, no 
 hardened and reckless person who, like Esau, will 
 sell his birthright, his eternal inheritance, for a 
 mere mess of pottage, for a little temporal ease and 
 
 17 enjoyment. Remember the awful example of the 
 person now mentioned. In a thoughtless moment 
 he parted with his future hopes, and afterwards, 
 when he would have claimed the blessing which he 
 had so foolishly forfeited, he obtained it not. Re- 
 pentance came too late, although he urged his de- 
 ls mand with many tears. The summons to God's 
 
 covenant which you have now received is one of a 
 far more momentous character than that which was 
 given to our forefathers under circumstances of such 
 dreadful solemnity. You are not standing as they 
 did under a tangible mountain, amid fire, and 
 
 19 clouds, and darkness, and whirlwinds, and the blast 
 of the trumpet and that thrilling voice which they 
 who heard mtreated that it might not continue to 
 
 20 address them : " Speak thou, said they unto Moses, 
 and we will hear, but let not God speak with us, 
 
 . lest we die." (Exodus xx. 19.) " If so much as a 
 beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or 
 thrust through with a dart," was the injunction on 
 
 21 that solemn occasion, (Exodus xix. 13.) an occa- 
 sion so fearful and impressive, that even Moses 
 cried out, " I am exceedingly afraid, and tremble." 
 
358 
 
 HEBREWS. CHAP. XII. 
 
 But you are placed on the verge of the heavenly 22 
 mount Sion itself, the residence of the ever-living 
 God, the celestial Jerusalem, whose inhabitants are 
 myriads of angels, amid the thronged assemblage 23 
 of God's first-born saints, whose names are written 
 in the book of life; amid the souls of just men 
 made perfect, and before the very throne of our 
 Almighty Judge ; and in the presence of the blessed 24 
 Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant ; a cove- 
 nant which has been confirmed by the sprinkling of 
 far more precious blood than that which God ac- 
 cepted in the sacrifice of Abel. Beware then, that 25 
 you turn not away with indifference from Him who 
 now addresses you, and calls you to his obedience ; 
 for if our forefathers escaped not the divine venge- 
 ance when they turned a deaf ear to the words of 
 a perishable law delivered to them by a mortal man ^ 
 Moses, much more assuredly shall we perish if we 
 despise him who speaks to us from heaven itself. 
 That almighty voice then shook the earth only ; 26 
 but now it shall fulfil the words of the prophet, 
 (Haggai ii. 6.) " Yet once more, I shake not the 
 earth only, but also the very heavens,^' Mark in 27 
 this passage the words " once more do they 
 not imply thitu all temporary and provisional things 
 will be then finally and for ever shaken off, and 
 that that only will be allowed to remain which God 
 has determined should be eternally immoveable f 
 
 * The exact identity of the sentiments here expressed 
 with those put into the mouth of St. Paul in Acts xiii. 
 38 et seq. affords another strong confirmatory testimony 
 to that almost uniform tradition of the Christian Church, 
 which attributes the Epistle to the Hebrews to that great 
 Apostle. 
 
CHAP. XIII. 
 
 HEBREWS. 
 
 859 
 
 28 Wherefore let us, looking to a kingdom which 
 shall survive that shock w^hich will displace the 
 very heavens themselves, cherish with awe and 
 holy fear that divine grace, by the aid of which 
 alone we can render acceptable service to our 
 
 29 Almighty Father : for he is, in his wrath, as a con- 
 suming fire. 
 
 13 Cherish brotherly affection one to another. 
 
 2 Forget not to exercise hospitality ; we are in- 
 formed, you know, by Scripture, that in so doing 
 some persons have entertained even angels un- 
 awares. 
 
 3 Remember those who suffer imprisonment, for 
 you have suffered in like manner. Remember all 
 in affliction, for you, as men, are liable to the 
 same. 
 
 4 Marriage and the unpolluted bed is honourable 
 in all conditions of life, but God will bring to judg- 
 ment both the fornicator and the adulterer. 
 
 5 Avoid covetousness, and be content with your 
 present lot ; for God himself has promised, " I will 
 
 6 never leave nor forsake thee so that we may con- 
 fidently exclaim with the Psalmist, ''The Lord is 
 my helper, I will not fear what man can do unto 
 me." (Psalm cxviii. 6.) 
 
 7 Forget not your spiritual instructors, who first 
 announced to you the doctrine of salvation ; and, 
 considering the tenor of their lives, imitate them in 
 the firmness of your faith. 
 
 8 Remember that God cannot alter. Christ was 
 the same yesterday which he is to-day, and will 
 
 9 continue so for ever. Be not then carried about 
 by various and strange doctrines, destructive of the 
 simplicity of evangelical truth. Let your hope and 
 
360 
 
 HEBREWS. 
 
 CHAP. XIII. 
 
 holy conviction derive their sustenance from your 
 acceptance of the divine grace and mercy ; not from 
 carnal meats and sacrifices, from which those who 
 resort to them can derive no profit. Ours is a 10 
 sacrifice from which they who serve in the Levitical 
 tabernacle have no privilege to feed, as is evident 
 from what is prescribed in the ritual with respect 
 to the sin-offering, in which Christ's sacrifice is 
 typically prefigured. For the bodies of those beasts, 1 1 
 whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the 
 high priest as a sin-ofiering, are required to be 
 burnt without the camp. (Leviticus xvi. 27.) In 12 
 conformity with which prophetic type, Jesus also, 
 that he might purify the people from their sins by 
 his own blood, submitted to be sacrificed without 
 the gate of Jerusalem. Let us therefore after his 13 
 example go forth with him without the camp, bear- 
 ing our share in the contumely to which he sub- 
 mitted ; for it is not here that we have our lasting 14 
 abode, but we seek for one with him in the abode 
 of God himself By him then, as by our eternal 15 
 High Priest, let us offer our continual sacrifice 
 of praise and thanksgiving to God, the offering 
 of grateful lips, acknowledging him as our Re- 
 deemer. 
 
 Omit not however deeds of social kindness and 16 
 of beneficence to those who are in want, for these 
 are sacrifices really acceptable to God. 
 
 Obey and show deference to your spiritual rulers, 17 
 for they keep watch for the welfare of your souls, 
 for which they must one day be accountable : en- 
 able them then to render that account with joy and 
 satisfaction, and not with regret that their labours 
 have been ineffectual both to them and to yourselves. 
 
CHAP. XIII. HEBREWS. 
 
 361 
 
 18 Pray for me ; for I can confidently say, that I 
 have conscientiously and honestly striven to do my 
 
 19 duty well and faithfully in all things : pray for me, 
 and at this moment the more earnestly, that I 
 may by God's blessing be again enabled to visit 
 you. 
 
 20 May the God of peace, He who raised again from 
 the dead the great Shepherd of that flock which He 
 purchased by the precious blood of the new covenant, 
 
 21 namely, the Lord Jesus Christ, may He make you 
 perfect in every good work, that you may be enabled 
 to do his will ; producing in you all good and holy 
 inclinations, such as may be accepted by him for the 
 sake of Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and 
 ever. Amen. 
 
 22 My brethren, be not offended, I intreat you, with 
 the few words of exhortation which I have thought 
 
 23 it fit to write to you. I have to inform you that 
 our brother Timothy is set at liberty, whom, should 
 he come to me sufficiently early, I will bring with 
 me when I visit you. 
 
 24 Salute all your spiritual pastors from me, and all 
 our believing brethren. All our brethren of Italy 
 salute you. Grace be with you all. Amen. 
 
 The question respecting the authenticity of the Epistle 
 to the Hebrews, as is well known, has given rise to occa- 
 sional discussion both in ancient and modern times. One 
 opinion very early received into the Church was, that it 
 contains the sentiments of St. Paul as dictated generally 
 by that apostle to Clement of Rome, or to his companion 
 Luke, and that it was moulded by one of those latter 
 
362 
 
 HEBREWS. 
 
 persons into its present form ; a surmise not without some 
 degree of plausibility, when we recollect that it was the 
 constant habit of St. Paul to avail himself of the aid of an 
 amanuensis for the transcription of his Epistles, and that 
 the pressure of business in consequence of his imprison- 
 ment may possibly on this one occasion have induced him 
 to avail himself in a still more extended degree of the co- 
 operation of his friends. Be this as it may, the very large 
 extracts made from this work by Clement of Rome in his 
 first Epistle to the Corinthians, afford an unanswerable 
 proof of the consideration in which it was held at that very 
 early period, as being of canonical authority ; an opinion 
 which can be accounted for only by the supposition that 
 the contemporaries or immediate successors of St. Paul 
 really considered it as the production of that great apostle. 
 Another theory supposes it to have been written by the 
 apostle in Hebrew, the mother-tongue of the persons to 
 whom it is addressed, and to have been subsequently trans- 
 lated into Greek by St. Luke. It has however been well 
 observed, that the internal evidence of the style is incom- 
 patible with this idea, many of those untranslatable pecu- 
 liarities of expression occurring in it, which usually designate 
 original composition, and which seldom can be adequately 
 transfused into another language. Still, whatever may be 
 the uncertainty attaching to this question, that the senti- 
 ments and doctrines contained in this Epistle are, at all 
 events those of Paul himself, no one, who will take the 
 trouble of comparing it with the other writings undoubtedly 
 his, can, I conceive, for a moment hesitate to admit. It 
 bears, in fact, every mark of that peculiar cast of mind which 
 so strongly characterizes all the works of that great apostle : 
 the same energetic tone of remonstrance ; the same amiable 
 spirit of pure practical morality ; the same conciliation of 
 manner : the same earnest and pathetic appeals to the gentler 
 affections of those whom he addresses ; and, in the abstruser 
 parts of his argument, the same tendency to dwell upon 
 minute coincidences and fine-drawn deductions, which per- 
 vades his other controversial discussions. The great and 
 primary truth which it is the object of this Epistle to enforce 
 
HEBREWS. 363 
 
 is, " the divinity of our blessed Saviour with the obvious 
 inference deducible from that doctrine, namely, " the com- 
 plete sufficiency of his one great expiation for sin a truth 
 which is indeed substantially implied throughout the whole 
 of his other writings, and without which preliminary admis- 
 sion the greater part of the arguments contained in them 
 would be, to say the least, inconclusive, if not absolutely 
 unintelligible. But in the Epistle to the Hebrews, those 
 awful topics are not merely incidentally alluded to, but 
 are made the prominent and almost exclusive subjects 
 of discussion, with a direct plainness of assertion which 
 would appear to leave no possibility of evasion to their 
 impugners short of a total denial of the authenticity of the 
 work itself. And to this feeling accordingly it is that we 
 cannot but refer the unwillingness displayed by some deno- 
 minations of Christians to receive it into the sacred canon, 
 and which has led them to avail themselves of some few 
 and trifling peculiarities in the style of the composition, 
 for the purpose of throwing doubts upon its authenticity, 
 far beyond what those peculiarities would justify. The 
 result of the controversy however has been precisely that 
 which every Trinitarian Christian would wish : a vast and 
 unanswerable weight of evidence, both external and internal, 
 in confirmation of the authority of this Epistle, having 
 being thus accumulated by the labours of learned men, 
 which every reader of moderate industry may avail himself 
 of by turning to the many writers who have discussed this 
 question, and to whom I refer him for the details of an 
 argument much too long to be adequately considered in this 
 place. 
 
 And now, whilst taking leave of this most truly im- 
 portant portion of the Scriptures of the New Testament, 
 the Epistles of St. Paul, let me make a few passing ob- 
 servations upon the irresistible confirmation which these 
 several writings afford of the truth and divine origin of 
 our holy religion. That they are all of them really the 
 
364 HEBREWS. 
 
 productions of the person whose name they bear will not, 
 I conceive, be controverted at this moment by the most 
 hardened controversialist in the school of scepticism. Were 
 the uniform admission of antiquity to this effect to be con- 
 sidered of little weight, the single argument of Paley, so 
 triumphantly established in his Horae Paulinse, is quite 
 sufficient to confirm that fact by a degree of evidence which 
 no one whose ears are not wilfully closed to conviction could 
 possibly deem unsatisfactory. It is therefore no gratuitous 
 assumption of the matter in discussion to consider this 
 point as at length conceded by all parties. But if so, then 
 I would ask any fair and impartial person, who knows 
 enough of human nature to enable him to judge of the 
 principles and motives upon which rational beings act, 
 diligently to peruse the Epistles of St. Paul, and then to 
 put to himself the question, " whether they could by 
 any possibility have been composed by a person not sin- 
 cerely and solemnly convinced of the truth of the doctrines 
 contained in them F'' I ask not at this moment whether he 
 himself would acknowledge the principles there asserted 
 to be true, but only whether the writer actually believed 
 them to be such. Surely on this point (unless we are 
 willing to discard all internal evidence whatever as fallacious) 
 the manner in which these compositions are written, — the 
 whole tenor of the language and sentiments contained in 
 them, — the author's earnest solicitude to convince, — the 
 deep solemnity of feeling, — ^the subdued and temperate tone 
 of reasoning maintained by him even on those mysterious 
 and transcendental topics which would appear to justify, 
 if not to call for, almost any possible degree of intellectual 
 excitement, and which an impostor or a fanatic would not 
 have failed to affect, even had it not been really felt, — the 
 almost uniformly unassuming gentleness of admonition in 
 the place of an ambitious and magisterial tone of authority, 
 — the unobtrusive humility of the writer's mind, — his con- 
 stant anxiety rather to improve the understanding than 
 to excite the passions, — his total abstinence from all those 
 cheap and spurious aids of argument which less judicious 
 theological disputants have in all ages been too prone to seek 
 
HEBREWS. 
 
 365 
 
 in the physical weaknesses of their hearers, by expatiating 
 upon those revolting topics connected with our mortality, 
 from which man's nature instinctively shrinks, and upon 
 those spiritual terrors which all the descendants of Adam 
 must occasionally feel, — his uniform predisposition to dwell 
 upon the idea of God's mercies rather than upon that of 
 his more formidable attributes, — and last, though not least, 
 the exquisite purity of the morality which he inculcates, — 
 surely, I repeat, all these striking characteristics of the 
 writings of this remarkable person denote one, who, what- 
 ever may be thought of the real truth of his doctrines, was 
 himself, at all events, most immoveably convinced of their 
 certainty aud importance. If again we look to probable 
 personal motives, to those views of temporal interest, I 
 mean, which may naturally be suspected to operate with 
 propagators of false or perverted systems of religion, still 
 we are inevitably driven to the same conclusion, that, 
 unless we really believe St. Paul to have been seriously 
 impressed with the conviction of the truth of his own 
 tenets, it is perfectly impossible to account for the self- 
 denying, and, in a worldly point of view, the humiliating 
 line of conduct which he so undeviatingly pursued. " If," 
 as has been justly observed by Lord Lyttelton, " it appears 
 that St. Paul had nothing to gain by taking this part, let 
 us consider, on the other hand, what he gave up, and what 
 he had reason to fear. He gave up a fortune which he 
 was then in a fair way of advancing. He gave up that re- 
 putation which he had acquired by the labours and studies 
 of his whole life, and by a behaviour which had been 
 blameless^ touching the righteousness which is in the law. 
 He gave up his friends, his relations, and family, from 
 whom he estranged and banished himself for life. He 
 gave up that religion which he had profited in above many 
 of his equals in his own nation^ and those traditions of his 
 fathers which he had heen more exceedingly zealous of How 
 hard this sacrifice was to a man of his warm temper, and 
 above all men to a Jew, is worth consideration. That 
 nation is known to have been more tenacious of their reli- 
 
366 
 
 HEBREWS. 
 
 gious opinions than any other upon the face of the earth. 
 The strictest and proudest sect among them was that of 
 the Pharisees, under whose discipHne St. Paul was bred. 
 The departing therefore so suddenly from their favourite 
 tenets, renouncing their pride, and from their disciple be- 
 coming their adversary, was a most difficult effort for one to 
 make so nursed up in the esteem of them, and whose early 
 prejudices were so strongly confirmed by all the power of 
 habit, all the authority of example, and all the allurements 
 of honour and interest. These were the sacrifices he had 
 to make in becoming a Christian: let us now see what 
 inconveniences he had to fear : — the implacable vengeance 
 of those he deserted ; that sort of contempt which is hardest 
 to bear, the contempt of those whose good opinion he had 
 most eagerly sought ; and all those other complicated evils 
 which he describes in his second Epistle to the Corinthians, 
 evils, the least of which were enough to have frightened any 
 impostor, even from the most hopeful and profitable cheat. 
 But where the advantage proposed bears no proportion to 
 the danger incurred, or the mischiefs endured, he must be 
 absolutely out of his senses who will either engage in an 
 imposture, or, being engaged, persevere."' 
 
 If however we cannot but admit the sincerity of St. PauFs 
 own conviction of the truth of those doctrines, to the propa- 
 gation of which he thus sacrificed every human tie ; and 
 together with that sincerity if we admit also the competency 
 of his understanding to pronounce upon a simple matter of 
 fact^ (and of that competency who that has ever considered 
 the acuteness of reasoning displayed throughout his writings 
 could venture to express a doubt V) — then of necessity we 
 must assent also to the conclusion, that those doctrines were 
 undeniably true. 
 
 Had Paul been really an impostor, he must inevitably 
 have known himself to be such. The signal miracle to 
 which he so frequently asserts that he owed his conversion ; 
 his thorough knowledge of the peculiar nature of the 
 Christian covenant, which he solemnly declares that he 
 derived from no human communication, but directly and 
 immediately from preternatural revelation ; and the mira- 
 
HEBREWS. 
 
 367 
 
 culous powers to which, in various parts of his writings, 
 he repeatedly lays claim, are all perfectly irreconcileable 
 with his own sincere belief in an actual and easily-detected 
 delusion. Admit however his own statement respecting 
 his own personal experience to be correct, and it is im- 
 possible for us to stop at this single admission ; grant this 
 one point, and the whole system of the Christian dispensa- 
 tion, link by link, will follow in due and necessary suc- 
 cession : not merely that lax and latitudinarian system 
 which culls and chooses from holy writ such principles as 
 may best accord with its own favourite theories, but the 
 whole of the Trinitarian doctrine, with those great and 
 vital dogmas which give to Christianity its peculiar and 
 exclusive character ; namely, those of the fallen state of 
 man's nature ; the inadequacy of human works for justifi- 
 cation ; the necessity of Christ's atonement, and of the 
 strengthening and co-operating aid of the Holy Spirit. 
 It has been occasionally asked, whether St. Paul has added 
 the knowledge of any really new truths to those previously 
 communicated by our blessed Saviour, or asserted in the 
 book of the Acts ; and, if not, what then is the value of his 
 writings ? Even if we decline answering the first of these 
 questions in the afiirmative, still it by no means follows that 
 they are not of momentous consequence as means of Christian 
 instruction. In them, at all events, the great principles 
 casually glanced at in those former writings have been more 
 fully developed, and their salutary tendency demonstrated, 
 not in argument only, but in their best practical comment, 
 the recorded feelings and principles of Christ's own favoured 
 emissary. What in the former was the dark anticipation 
 of then ill-understood prophecy, is in the latter the retro- 
 spective certainty of established history ; what is there pre- 
 cept only, or the theoretical exposition of truth, is here 
 active holiness exhibited in every practical point of view 
 best fitted to operate as an example, and to instruct us how 
 Christians ought to act under every possible contingency of 
 circumstances. To those persons therefore who consult the 
 sacred writings for that vital object of real edification which 
 they were intended to promote, the writings of this great 
 
368 
 
 HEBREWS. 
 
 apostle will ever be a favourite and important study. They 
 will accordingly read them, not for the too seductive purpose 
 of entangling themselves in the inextricable metaphysics of 
 theology, of elucidating some cherished theory, or of sup- 
 porting some partial view of the Christian dispensation ; but 
 for the sake of the fervency of feeling, the purity of principle, 
 the consolatory firmness of faith, the clearness of apprehen- 
 sion, the conception at once comprehensive and definite of 
 the scheme of our salvation, which they afford ; and because 
 they will practically find it impossible to commune with the 
 inspired teacher and champion of these stupendous doc- 
 trines without rising up from the study with every moral 
 feeling refined, purified, and soothed, and their appre- 
 hension of the perfection of the divine attributes, and 
 their reposing confidence in God's mercies, enlivened and 
 strengthened. 
 
THE 
 
 EPISTLE GENERAL 
 
 OF 
 
 JAMES. 
 
 The date usually assigned to the following Epistle is the 
 year of our Lord 61. St. James is supposed to have suf- 
 fered martyrdom from the violence of the Jewish authorities 
 at Jerusalem in the subsequent year. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 
 
 1 James, the servant of God and of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, to the twelve tribes dispersed among the 
 Gentiles, greeting. 
 
 The object of the General Epistle of St. James appears to have been 
 less that of inculcating the primary truths of revelation, than that 
 of enforcing the necessity of those fruits of true faith and holiness, 
 the various Christian virtues, the existence of which in the human 
 character presupposes the assent of the understanding to the proofs 
 of our religion, and the affection of the heart for its precepts, as 
 points already secured. It differs therefore from the general tenor 
 of the writings of St. Paul in the single circumstance, that it con- 
 templates the great requisites of the Christian character from an 
 opposite point of view, arriving at the evidence of the existence of 
 faith in each individual through the medium of works, instead of 
 adopting the equally just and perfectly consistent inference of the 
 latter apostle, who, having estabhshed the necessity of faith, arrives 
 B }) 
 
370 
 
 JAMES. 
 
 CHAP. 1. 
 
 through those premises at the no less certain conclusion, that where 
 sincere belief exists, there good works will inevitably follow. The 
 sentiments of those two inspired teachers, therefore, are in all 
 respects the same ; whilst their respective modes of conveying 
 instruction differ, as might naturally be expected, according to the 
 peculiar circumstances of each individual, and as the spiritual con- 
 ditition of the Churches over which they severally presided sug- 
 gested the expediency of this or that mode of enforcing the practice 
 of the various duties which constitute the full perfection of a Chris- 
 tian life. 
 
 Consider it, my brethren, a subject of self-con- 2 
 gratulation when you fall into various trials, as you 3 
 cannot but know that these proofs of the soundness 
 of your faith are productive of patient submission : 
 let that submission therefore be implicit in all re- 4 
 spects, that you may be complete in whatever is 
 requisite for the perfection of the Christian cha- 
 racter. And if any of you feels that he wants a 5 
 due apprehension of any part of spiritual know- 
 ledge, let him pray for the illumination of his un- 
 derstanding to God, who gives liberally and without 
 grudging, and let him be assured that it shall be 
 granted to him. Let him however ask in faith with 6 
 simplicity and sincerity ; not tossed about like a 
 troubled sea by unsteady and contradictory wishes, 
 for prayers so desultorily conceived cannot hope to 7 
 receive their accomplishment from God. But it 8 
 is only where the heart has taken one single and 
 decided bias, that such consistency of character can 
 be reasonably expected. 
 
 Let every brother, who has been placed by Pro- 9 
 vidence in a humble station in this life, exult in the 
 sublimity of his future expectations. 
 
 Let every one who is rich in this world's trea- lo 
 sures exult that he has the grace to appreciate them 
 
CHAP. T. 
 
 JAMES. 
 
 371 
 
 according to their true value ; for they shall fade 
 
 11 away as the flower of the field. The sun rises with 
 its burning heat and parches the herbs, and their 
 flowers droop, and their beauty withers : so shall 
 the rich man wither in the midst of his worldly 
 pursuits. 
 
 12 Happy is that man who passes unshaken through 
 the midst of trial ; for having been proved a faith- 
 ful servant, he shall receive the crown of life 
 which the Lord has promised to those who love 
 him. 
 
 13 Let no man, when he has fallen into temptation, 
 say, " I am tempted by God ;" for God, who is all 
 perfect, is neither himself subject to temptation, nor 
 
 14 tempts others. But man is then tempted when he 
 is agitated and enticed by his own unruly appetites ; 
 
 15 for appetite conceives and brings forth sin ; and sin 
 
 16 growing strong and vigorous brings forth death. Be 
 not deceived then, my brethren, by such delusive 
 
 1 7 arguments. Man, on the other hand, creates not 
 his own blessings, but he receives them immediately 
 from God. Every good gift, every perfect accom- 
 plishment, descends to us from heaven, from the 
 Father of all lights, whose attributes are eternal and 
 
 18 unchangeable \ By his own good pleasure, and for 
 no merit of our own, he begot us as his sons by the 
 holy word of truth, that we might be to him as it 
 were the first fruits of his creatures. 
 
 19 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man 
 of you be swift to hear instruction ; considerate and 
 cautious in his attempts to communicate it to 
 
 ^ This sentiment of St. James accords exactly with the 
 doctrine so uniformly inculcated by St. Paul. 
 
 Bb 2 
 
372 
 
 JAMES. 
 
 CHAP. 11. 
 
 others; and slow to aiisfer where liis exhortations 
 fail of immediate effect : for it is not violence or 20 
 impetuosity that can bring any one to that holiness 
 of heart which is acceptable to God. Wherefore, 21 
 divesting yourselves in the first place of every moral 
 blemish and pollution, apply to your own consciences 
 with becomino' meekness the inofrafted word of reve- 
 lation, which is able to save your souls ; making 22 
 yourselves doers of that word, and not hearers only ; 
 and be not contented with the mere externals of 
 holiness. For a man who is a hearer of the word 23 
 only, and not a doer also, is like a person who con- 
 templates for a single moment the features of his 
 own countenance in a looking-glass, and, having 
 gazed at himself, goes away without farther trou- 24 
 bling himself to recollect what his appearance was : 
 but he who bends earnestly to look into the perfect 25 
 law of Christian liberty, and continues so to do, in 
 order that he may properly and suitably arrange him- 
 self by it, that man not being a mere careless hearer, 
 but zealous in performance, shall be blessed in the 
 final success of his efforts. 
 
 If any man among you presumes that he is reli- 2G 
 gious, but cannot restrain his tongue from calum- 
 niating or depreciating others, that man, be assured, 
 deceives his own heart, and his religion is valueless. 
 Pure and un defiled religion, such as is really accept- 27 
 able to God and the Father, is this : to take care of 
 the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to 
 keep ourselves unspotted by the contaminations of 
 the world. 
 
 My brethren, let no unworthy distinctions between 2 
 man and man from worldly and selfish motives bring 
 discredit upon your profession of belief in our blessed 
 
CHAP. 11. 
 
 JAMES. 
 
 373 
 
 2 Lord Jesus Christ. I ask you, should a person 
 come into your assembly with a gold ring and in 
 splendid apparel, and at the same time should a 
 
 3 poor man enter with ragged clothing, and you were 
 to say to the former, " Seat yourself here in a place 
 of honour," and to the latter, " Stand there, or if you 
 
 4 wish to sit, place yourself at my feet," would you 
 not be making uncharitable and culpable distinc- 
 tions unbecoming of the meek religion you profess ? 
 
 5 Let me ask you, my beloved brethren, was it not 
 the poor in worldly wealth whom God called to be 
 made rich in faith, and pronounced to be heirs of 
 that blessed kingdom which he has promised to all 
 
 6 those who love him ? and shall we despise those 
 same persons because of their poverty? Who, let 
 me ask again, are your oppressors at this very 
 moment ? Who are they who bring you daily 
 before the tribunals of the magistrate? Are they 
 
 7 not the rich ? Is it not they who revile continually 
 in your hearing the holy name of Christ, from whom 
 
 8 we Christians take our designation ? Observe then 
 the great and golden maxim of our Saviour, " Thou 
 shalt love thy neighbour as thyself," and you will 
 
 9 do well : but remember always to make that rule 
 universal, and not by undue distinctions and par- 
 tialities to observe it in your conduct to one class, 
 whilst you violate it in your treatment of another. 
 By acting thus inconsistently, you turn that sacred 
 maxim against yourselves, and stand self-convicted 
 of a wilful breach of that very law which you pro- 
 
 10 fess to regard. Recollect that he who pledges him- 
 self to obey the whole of a law, and yet knowingly 
 violates one of its injunctions, is a violator and 
 
 11 despiser of the whole code. For the same divine 
 
 7 
 
374 
 
 JAMES. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 authority which commanded, " Thou shalt not com- 
 mit adultery," commanded also, " Thou shalt do no 
 murder :" if then you abstain from adultery but 
 commit murder, you become no less guilty of dis- 
 obedience to that supreme Legislator from whom 
 the whole law derives its sanction. Speak then and 12 
 act on all occasions as becomes persons who are to 
 be judged by that comprehensive spiritual law, the 
 great object of which is to correct and amend the 
 whole character, and which is not to be explained 
 away by minute and subtile distinctions ; and be 13 
 assured that there shall be judgment without mercy 
 to him who shows no mercy; whilst on the other 
 hand a man's merciful deeds shall soften to him- 
 self the rigour of that final judgment to which he 
 might be otherwise liable from the divine retri- 
 bution. 
 
 Remember ever that it is the whole character 14 
 which the Gospel undertakes to correct and amend, 
 and that it is not therefore by a partial cultivation 
 of one Christian virtue to the exclusion of another 
 that we can be said to discharge the duty to which 
 we are pledged. What for instance, my brethren, 
 can be the value of faith itself, unless that faith 
 ripen into works of effectual charity? Can faith 
 alone save us ? Suppose the case of a brother or 15 
 a sister left in nakedness and destitution, and one 16 
 of you should say to them, " Go in peace, warm 
 yourselves, and refresh yourselves with abundant 
 food," and yet at the same time afford them none 
 of the means by which those wants might be satis- 
 fied ; would the mere mention of food and clothing 
 stand them in stead of the actual reality? Equally 17 
 dead and valueless with such unsubstantial charity. 
 
CHAP. II. 
 
 JAMES. 
 
 375 
 
 18 be assured, is faith without works; on which barren 
 quality should any person be disposed to build his 
 exclusive hopes of salvation, I would argue with 
 him thus : " You have faith, and I have works ; 
 show me then, if you can, your boasted faith with- 
 out w^orks, and I will engage to prove by my works 
 
 19 the validity of my faith." You will say that you 
 believe in one God : be it so : the acknowledgment 
 is a good one, inasmuch as it is the basis of all 
 religion; but recollect that it is not the wliole of 
 religion, and that the very devils who tremble with 
 
 20 dread of his vengeance believe the same. Vain 
 reasoner, search the Scriptures themselves, and 
 there you will find that faith without works is dead 
 
 21 and unprofitable. Was not our father Abraham 
 justified by works when he offered his son Isaac 
 
 22 upon the altar ? See you not that his faith even on 
 that occasion operated only conjointly with his 
 
 23 works, and was made perfect by* them ? and accord- 
 ingly the Scripture was fulfilled which says, " Abra- 
 ham believed in God, and it )vas counted to him 
 for righteousness:" and he was therefore called 
 
 24 " the friend of God." Is it not evident then, even 
 from the case of this remarkable display of faith 
 that man is justified by works co-operating with 
 
 25 faith, and not by faith exclusively ? In like manner, 
 was not Rahab ^ the harlot justified by her works, 
 
 ' It is observable that Rahab, who is described in 
 Hebrews xi. 31, as having escaped from destruction through 
 the means of her faith^ is here asserted to have been jus- 
 tified by her works. The contradiction is, however, rather 
 apparent than real. The author of this Epistle is not here 
 combating the great primary position of " justification by 
 faith," so uniformly maintained by St. Paul, but solely 
 
376 
 
 JAMES. 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 when slie hospitably received Joshua's spies, and 
 assisted them in their escape by another road ? 
 Precisely then as the body without the soul is 26 
 inanimate matter, so faith without works is dead 
 also. 
 
 Be not too many of you eager to correct and 3 
 admonish your neighbours, recollecting that whilst 
 you minutely censure others, you are in reality 
 pronouncing judgment against yourselves. For all 2 
 of us have our own peculiar failings, of which an 
 intemperate and censorious tongue is not the least, 
 which, when a man has learned effectually to re- 
 strain, he need not fear that he should want energy 
 to bring his other unruly members under a proper 
 discipline. Do not we put bits into the mouths of 3 
 
 guarding against its abuse. It is natural to suppose that 
 that same fatal misapprehension, which has so frequently 
 prevailed in modern times respecting faith as an exclusive 
 condition of salvation, had already begun to manifest itself 
 even at that early period, and that advantage had been 
 taken of the words of the latter apostle by the licentious 
 and profligate, to justify their perseverance in an evil 
 course of life. St. James therefore refutes the fallacy by 
 showing that true and complete faith necessarily involves 
 the idea of good works as an inseparable accompaniment. 
 Abraham not only believed in (xod's promise, but he also 
 actually prepared to sacrifice Isaac : Kahab not only believed 
 the judgments which were about to overtake her country- 
 men, but she also received and sheltered the spies of Joshua 
 as her gv^ests. It seems probable that St. Paul had this 
 passage of St. James in his mind when he wrote the words 
 (Hebrews xi. 31.) above alluded to, as it would otherwise 
 be difficult to perceive in the character of Rahab a reason 
 why her example should be thus expressly cited in twf) 
 separate portions of the New Testament.'' 
 
CHAP. III. 
 
 JAMES. 
 
 377 
 
 horses, in order to render them obedient, and do we 
 not by these means direct the motions of the whole 
 
 4 animal ? Are not ships, large and unwieldy as they 
 are, and tossed about by the violence of the winds, 
 still directed from port to port at the will of the 
 
 5 steersman by means of a small rudder ? As the bit 
 in the horse's mouth, and as the rudder in a vessel, 
 so is the tongue of man in the human body : a small 
 member indeed, but still powerful in its operations. 
 Observe how vast a pile of combustibles a small 
 
 6 spark of fire may consume. Not less destructive in 
 its effects is an unruly tongue, which is a little 
 world of mischief within itself : like it, it seizes 
 hold of the whole body, burning up with evil pas- 
 sions every thing with which it comes in contact, 
 and the fire with which it is kindled is from hell 
 
 7 itself. Human ingenuity has succeeded in taming 
 every species of savage beasts, birds, reptiles, 
 
 8 and marine animals ; but it is unable to tame the 
 unruly licence of the venomous and slanderous 
 tongue. Adapted for the best of purposes, we 
 profane the blessed gift of speech to the worst. 
 
 9 With it we offer up praises and prayers to our Al- 
 mighty Father, and with it we spit forth imprecations 
 against our fellow creatures made after his own 
 
 U) divine image. And thus one and the same mouth 
 is made an instrument indifferently for blessing or 
 cursing. My brethren, ought such things to be? 
 
 1 1 Does any fountain send forth from the same source 
 
 12 both sweet waters and bitter? Can the fig tree bear 
 olives, or a vine figs ? Does salt and fresh water 
 
 13 gush together from the same spring head? Is there 
 then any wise and pre-eminently gifted person among 
 you ? let him show his superiority, as a Christian 
 
878 
 
 JAMES. 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 should do, by the purity of his life and actions, and 
 by that suavity of disposition which is the surest 
 mark of true wisdom. But if disgraceful jealousies 14 
 and recriminations will prevail in your societies, 
 let not, at least, such unchristian feelings assume to 
 themselves the garb of superior excellence, nor give 
 the lie to the humble and unassuming religion of 
 the blessed Jesus. Believe me, that fancied supe- 15 
 riority of intellect which displays itself in depre- 
 ciating the conduct of others is not the wisdom 
 which descends from above, but is, on the contrary, 
 earthly, carnal, and fiendlike. For where bitter 16 
 and angry feelings prevail, there violence and every 
 species of mischief will be found in company. But 17 
 the wisdom which is from heaven is in the first 
 place pure, then peaceable, then disposed to defer- 
 ence to the feelings and opinions of others, then 
 conciliatory, then merciful and beneficent, and in 
 all points unbiassed by unjust partialities, and free 
 from guile and deceit: and he best sows in the 18 
 hearts of others the fruits of the religion of meek- 
 ness, who is himself meek and compassionate in all 
 his own habits. 
 
 How is it then that strifes and warfare prevail so 4 
 fearfully among you ? Is it not that you have not 
 yet learned the great Christian duty to coerce your 
 rebellious and sensual appetites ? You cherish all 2 
 the cravings and desires of an ungoverned imagina- 
 tion, and repine that you are not satisfied : you 
 shed blood in the hope of attaining your object, yet 
 fail of success ; you struggle and contend for it one 
 with another, but meet only with disappointment. 
 And why are you disappointed ? because you ask 
 not for what you want in prayer to the Almighty. 
 
CHAP. IV, 
 
 JAMES. 
 
 379 
 
 3 You do ask and are again disappointed ; and why ? 
 because you ask with unchristian feelings, and for 
 
 4 unchristian and sensual objects. O adulterers and 
 adulteresses ! have you yet to learn that the friend- 
 ship of this world is enmity with God, and that he 
 who leagues himself with the pleasures of this 
 wicked life is waging war against the Almighty? 
 
 5 Think you that the Scriptures describe man's na- 
 ture inaccurately when they say of it, " that the 
 imagination of his heart is evil from his youth ?" 
 
 6 God's grace however is ever ready to assist those 
 who seek humbly and earnestly for amendment, as 
 we are assured by another passage of the inspired 
 writings ; " God resisteth the proud, and showeth 
 mercy, and giveth his grace to the humble." (Pro- 
 
 7 verbs iii. 34.) Submit yourselves then to God's 
 blessed protection, and under his support resist the 
 
 8 devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, 
 and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, 
 ye sinners, and learn purity and simplicity of heart, 
 
 9 ye double minded. Humble yourselves, repent, 
 and weep for your transgressions : let your laugh 
 of mirth be turned into sorrow, your revelry into 
 
 1 0 sadness ; prostrate yourselves in holy contrition be- 
 fore your God, and he will raise you up. 
 
 11 Speak not censoriously, my brethren, one of an- 
 other. He who takes upon himself to censure and 
 judge his brother is putting himself in the place of 
 the law, and in so doing is slandering that law of 
 which he usurps the office, making himself rather 
 an arbiter of what the law is, than a zealous per- 
 
 12 former of the duties it enjoins. Remember that 
 there is one Being, and only one, who gives law to 
 us all ; in whose hands are the issues of life and 
 
380 
 
 JAMES. 
 
 CHAP. V, 
 
 death ; how then shall we dare, by Judging our fellow- 
 creatures, to assume to ourselves his high prerogative ? 
 
 Poor frail mortal beings ! who are you that ven- 13 
 ture to say, " to-day or to-morrow we will go to 
 such or such a city, and there we will reside a 
 twelvemonth, and there we will traffick and make 
 great profit," knowing not what to-morrow shall 
 be ? for what is your tenure of that life on which 14 
 you calculate ? a smoke which unrols itself and 
 passes away. In all such anticipations then of an 15 
 uncertain futurity, let your language be always, " If 
 such be God's will, and our lives be spared, then 
 will we do this or that." Be assured that such 16 
 unhesitating confidence in his own calculations 
 upon a mere contingent possibility is unseemly in 
 so frail a creature as man ; and remember also, 17 
 that he who knows what is unseemly, yet perseveres 
 in practising it, is guilty of positive sin. 
 
 And you, ye rich, howl and lament for the 5 
 •miseries that are coming upon you. Your wealth 2 
 has fallen to decay, and your splendid garments are 
 become moth-eaten : your gold and your silver have 3 
 become tarnished, and their rust shall be a testi- 
 mony against you, and shall eat into your flesh like 
 fire. You have hoarded up treasures which shall 
 rise in judgment against you in the latter days. 
 Mark; the wages of your labourers, who have 4 
 reaped your fields for you, the hard-earned wages 
 which you have fraudulently^ withheld from them 
 
 ^ What an awful contrast does this description of the 
 pampered and selfish Jews, upon whose heads the storm 
 of divine vengeance was- preparing to burst, afford to that 
 beautiful and humane injunction contained in their own 
 law, and to which the apostle in this passage obviously 
 
CHAP. V. 
 
 JAMES. 
 
 381 
 
 call for judgment against you : the cry of those 
 who have gathered in your harvest has reached 
 
 5 even to the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have 
 lived luxuriously and lasciviously upon the earth : 
 you have fattened yourselves as in a day of surfeit 
 
 6 and feasting : you have sate in judgment upon, and 
 put to death, the innocent man who made no resist- 
 ance. 
 
 7 Be you meanwhile, on the other hand, my bre- 
 thren, patient, and await the coming of your Lord. 
 Imitate the husbandman, who confidently calculates 
 upon gathering in their due season the mature fruits 
 of the earth, but notwithstanding observes without 
 impatience the slow but gradual development of 
 their growth, the tardy succession of the seasons, 
 
 s and the coming on of the periodical rains. Be you 
 in like manner patient in your present endurance, 
 and confident in your anticipation of the day of 
 God's judgments, ^ for that day is approaching. 
 
 9 Let no fretful murmuring, meanwhile, escape your 
 lips in your communings with one another, that you 
 may be found blameless when your Judge arrives ; 
 and believe me, he is at this moment at the very 
 10 door. Imitate the glorious examples of fortitude 
 
 alludes ! " Thou shalt not oppress an hired servant that 
 is poor and needy, whether he be of thy brethren, or of 
 thy strangers that are in thy land within thy gates. At 
 Ms day thou shalt give him his hire ; neither shall the sun go 
 down upon it ; for he is poor, and setteth his heart upon it : 
 lest he cry unto the Lord, and it he sin unto thee.'''' Deutero- 
 nomy xxiv. 14, 15. 
 
 ^ It is evident from this passage, as from several which 
 occur in St. Paufs writings, that the approaching destruc- 
 tion of Jerusalem foretold by our Saviour was at this time 
 confidently anticipated by the apostles. 
 
382 
 
 JAMES. 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 and forbearance afforded by the prophets of old, who 
 spoke to our forefathers in the name of the Lord. 
 Blessed, we know, are all they who suffer patiently ii 
 for righteousness' sake. You have heard of the 
 patience of Job, and of the final compensation which 
 he received from God, who is a God full of mercy 
 and compassion. 
 
 More particularly let the tranquil tenor of your 12 
 minds be displayed in the even tone of your daily 
 conversation. Abstain from all oaths and violent 
 protestations. Swear not, either by the heaven, or 
 the earth, or any other object whatever : but let 
 your affirmation be simply " yes," and your negation 
 " no," that you may be in all respects blameless. 
 (Matt. V. 34—37.) 
 
 Is any one of you in affliction? let him pray. Is 13 
 any one cheerful ? let him sing hymns of praise to 
 God. Is any one sick? let him send for the elders^ 14 
 
 ^ On this passage, and on that contained in Mark vi. 13. 
 the Church of Borne, as is well known, has founded its 
 doctrine of the sacrament of extreme unction. Father 
 Paul indeed, in his history of the Council of Trent, relates 
 that the Divines in that assembly asserted that the sacra- 
 ment in question derived its actual sanction from this in- 
 junction of St. James only, and that it was rather hinted at 
 than really established on the occasion recorded by St. 
 Mark in the place here referred to ; inasmuch as, accord- 
 ing to the theory of that Church, the apostles did not 
 acquire the character of priests (an indispensable requisite 
 for the due administration of that rite) until the time of 
 our blessed Saviour's celebration of the last supper. This 
 latter argument is an accurate specimen of that grave 
 trifling, and those subtile distinctions, which in that por- 
 tion of the Christian world have so fatally prevailed, often 
 to the total exclusion of the far more weighty matters of 
 the divine law, judgment, mercy, and faith. 
 
CHAP. V. 
 
 JAMES. 
 
 383 
 
 of the Church, and let them pray over him, and 
 
 15 anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord : and 
 the prayer which is offered for him in the fulness 
 of faith shall save the sick man, and the Lord shall 
 restore him to health : and, should he have com- 
 
 16 mitted any sins, they shall be forgiven him. Con- 
 fess your sins therefore to one another, and pray for 
 one another, that God may restore you to health : 
 for be assured that the fervent prayer of a good 
 
 17 man has great influence with him. Remember the 
 instance of Elijah. He was a mere mortal man as 
 we are, and yet, when he prayed that there should 
 be no rain, God heard him ; so that no rain fell 
 upon the earth during three years and six months ; 
 
 18 and whe;i he afterwards prayed for rain, it descended 
 immediately from the heavens, and the earth brought 
 forth her fruit. (1 Kings xviii. 42.) 
 
 19 Finally, my brethren, remember that if any one 
 of you should have wandered from the true faith, 
 
 20 and any person convert and reclaim him, he who 
 thus shall be instrumental in that good work of 
 bringing back a sinner from the error of his ways, 
 shall save a soul from perdition, and bring down 
 God's mercy and forgiveness upon himself. 
 
 It is a remarkable illustration of the strong tendency 
 which prevails in many sincere and well-disposed believers, 
 to imagine difficulties in Scripture where they can scarcely 
 be said to exist, that so much discussion has been thought 
 necessary to reconcile the supposed discrepancies in the 
 doctrines taught by St. Paul, and by St. James, the writer 
 of the preceding Epistle. The only real difference to be 
 found between them consists, as I have already observed 
 
384 
 
 JAMES. 
 
 in a former note, in tlie single fact that they liave looked 
 upon the constituent moral perfections of a regenerate and 
 converted character from contrary positions, the former 
 dwelling more particularly upon that primary foundation 
 of faith which will eventually grow up into an holy life ; 
 and the latter urging the cultivation of that true eventual 
 holiness which can exist only where the foundation of faith 
 has already been substantially laid. That the virtues incul- 
 cated in the preceding Epistle by St. James are not merely 
 those of morality, as taught in the works of the pagan 
 ethical wTiters, will be evident to all persons who will peruse 
 it with attention. Almost all the duties there recom- 
 mended are such as necessarily pre-suppose a belief of the 
 Christian scheme, and fervent sentiments of love and devo- 
 tion towards its Author. " Let the poor,^' says he, " bear 
 their present afflictions patiently and cheerfully, became 
 they Tcnow that they ham an eternal reward stored up for 
 them hereafter y Again, " Make not undue distinctions 
 between man and man in your religious assemblies, prefer- 
 ring the rich, and depreciating the poor ; for you know who 
 has said, Blessed are ye poor : and that it was to the poor 
 and humble that the Gospel ims first addressed^ The same 
 observation will apply to the admonitions requiring the cul- 
 tivation of mutual charity, candour, consistency of good 
 conduct, and fortitude under persecution for conscience 
 sake ; all which virtues, however analogous with the kin- 
 dred habits pourtrayed by the heathen moralists, could exist 
 in the degree, and under the, peculiar modification, here re- 
 commended, in such breasts only as the sanctifying influence 
 of Uod's Holy Spirit had previously visited and purified. 
 
THE 
 
 FIRST GENERAL EPISTLE 
 
 OP 
 
 PETER. 
 
 St. Peter dates the following Epistle from Babylon, under 
 which name the early Christian Fathers considered him as 
 designating Rome ; an opinion which has been generally 
 adopted by later writers. He is supposed to have written 
 it in the last-mentioned city, about the year of our Lord 64, 
 a short time previous to his martyrdom under Nero. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 
 
 1 Peter, an ?Lpostle of Jesus Christ, to the brethren 
 dispersed through Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, the 
 
 2 province of Asia, and Bithynia, chosen, according 
 to the foreknowledge of God, by the sanctifying 
 influence of the Spirit, to the obedience of Christ, 
 and redemption by the sprinkling of his blood, — 
 grace and peace be multiplied to you. 
 
 The Jewish converts to Christianity were, at the time in which this 
 Epistle was written, undergoing severe persecutions from the rulers 
 of the various synagogues, not in Jerusalem only, but through the 
 C C 
 
386 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 whole of Lesser Asia. St. Peter accordingly addressed this exhorta- 
 tion to them for the purpose of strengthening their resolution, and 
 confirming in them those feelings of faith, holiness, and patient sub- 
 mission to the divine will, which the urgent pressure of affliction 
 might be suspected to have in some degree impaired. The argu- 
 ments on which he chiefly insists are, 
 
 First, the unworldly character of the blessings promised to believers 
 by the Christian covenant ; and consequently that those who look 
 for the joys of eternity must make their account to submit to afflic- 
 tions in the present life. 
 
 Secondly, the necessity that all those, who professed to seek after spi- 
 ritual righteousness, and who had consequently abjured many of the 
 usages of their pagan neighbours, should vindicate the purity of 
 their holy profession by the harmlessness of their lives, and the con- 
 sistent integrity of their conduct, both public and private. 
 
 Thirdly, that as Christ himself suflfered persecution from the wayward- 
 ness of mankind, in like manner must all his followers expect to 
 meet with the same from the malignity of human passions. 
 
 Fourthly, that the di\'ine vengeance long since foretold by our blessed 
 Sa\dour is now on the point of overtaking their persecutors ; and 
 that if even God's own servants experience their share of affliction, 
 much more in the day of retribution will his wrath fall heavy upon 
 those who have uniformly oppressed his Church, and made war 
 against his faith. 
 
 Blessed be our God and the Father of our Lord 3 
 Jesus Christ, who, through his great mercy, has 
 begotten us again to a living hope, through the 
 resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, of an 4 
 incorruptible, undefiled, and imperishable inherit- 
 ance, treasured up for us in the heavens, preserving 5 
 us by his almighty power, that through our faith in 
 him we may attain to that salvation which shall be 
 revealed at the last day. In which blessed hope 6 
 you look forward with joy to your final allotment, 
 bearing in the mean time the short but necessary 
 afflictions of this life, in order that your faith, being 7 . 
 proved by a variety of trials, may come out far 
 more precious than perishable gold from the re- 
 finer's furnace, and being found pure may receive 
 
CHAP. T. I. PETER. 387 
 
 the stamp of approbation, honour, and glory, at the 
 
 8 second coming of our Lord, whom you love at this 
 moment, though as yet you have had no personal 
 knowledge of him ; and confiding in whom, though 
 your eyes have never yet beheld him, you even now 
 
 9 exult in unspeakable and heavenly joy, receiving as 
 the recompence of your faith the salvation of your 
 
 10 souls. Of that promised salvation the prophets of 
 old, who foresaw from afar the blessings which God 
 had in store for our age, made diligent and anxious 
 
 11 inquiry, darkly conjecturing what blessed period of 
 time the Holy Spirit by which they were inspired 
 seemed to designate, and what could be that mys- 
 terious arrangement which was to receive its ac- 
 complishment first in the sufferings, and afterwards 
 
 12 in the glorification, of the promised Messiah. They 
 knew indeed, that not for their day, but for ours, 
 was reserved the full manifestation of that glorious 
 dispensation, which has in these latter times been 
 announced to you by the preaching of the heavenly 
 inspired teachers whom you have heard ; a dispen- 
 sation so solemnly mysterious, that the very angels 
 themselves have wished to search into it, and yet 
 
 13 have not been able. Be it yours then to mark your 
 sense of its ineffable value, by the earnestness and 
 alacrity of your endeavours to live worthily of that 
 your high vocation in sobriety and patience, perse- 
 veringly looking forward in joyful expectation to the 
 salvation which is prepared for you at the destined 
 time of our gracious Redeemer's second coming. 
 
 14 Live therefore, I beseech you, as obedient children, 
 not according to the sinful appetites of your days 
 
 15 of ignorance, but according to the pure and holy 
 nature of Him who would have you and all his crea- 
 
 c c 2 
 
888 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 tures imitate his own purity and holiness; accord- 16 
 ing to his own injunction delivered to our fore- 
 fathers by the mouth of Moses : " Be ye holy, for 
 I am holy," (Leviticus xix. 2.) And as you know 17 
 that your Almighty Father is no partial accepter of 
 persons, but rewards each man in all respects ac- 
 cording to his works \ be mindful to pass the time 
 of your allotted sojournment upon earth with the 
 anxious caution of persons who know that they 
 must one day give a strict account of their minutest 
 actions; recollecting that God did not redeem you 18 
 from the sinfulness and sensuality which disgraced 
 the ages of old by any common or perishable ran- 
 som, but by the precious sacrifice of that pure 19 
 and spotless Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ ; an ex- 20 
 piation which the divine mercy and foresight had 
 prepared for the salvation of mankind before ^ the 
 foundations of the earth were laid, but which has 
 remained unrevealed until these latter ages, when it 21 
 has pleased God to call you to rest your faith upon 
 him who has raised your blessed Redeemer from the 
 dead, and advanced him to eternal glory, as a pledge 
 that your confidence and hope in his protection 
 shall also find in due time their final compensation 
 in the joys of heaven. As then being all of you 22 
 common sharers in these inestimable benefits, and, 
 through the aid of the divine Spirit, all alike be- 
 lievers in this holy faith, let that community of 
 hope display itself, during your earthly intercourse 
 
 ^ How is this assertion of St. Peter reeoncileable witli 
 the doctrine of irrespective election, and of God's arbitrary 
 decrees ? 
 
 ^ See Ephesians iii. 9. 
 
CHAP. II. 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 389 
 
 one with another, in the exercise of sincere bro- 
 therly love, proceeding from a pure and fervent 
 
 23 heart ; having your every feeling and inclination 
 regenerated and springing up anew, not from the 
 vitiated seed of your corrupt carnal nature, but 
 from the divine seed of the word of the everliving 
 
 24 and eternal God. For our carnal nature has been 
 well described by the inspired language of the pro- 
 phet, when he assures us, (Isaiah xl. 6.) that " all 
 flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the 
 flower of grass : the grass withereth, and the flower 
 
 25 thereof falleth away ; but," he also adds, " the 
 word of the Lord endureth for ever." And that 
 word, my brethren, is the word of the blessed 
 Gospel which is preached to you. 
 
 2 Lay aside then, I entreat you, all malice, and 
 deceit, and insincerity, and jealousies, and evil 
 
 2 speaking in your mutual dealings, and become as 
 new-born infants, eager to imbibe the pure milk of 
 heavenly wisdom, that by it you may grow up to 
 
 3 the full vigour of regenerated holiness. You have, 
 I trust, already tasted enough of that precious milk 
 
 4 to know how gracious the Lord is : come then to 
 Him as to a living corner stone of God's temple, 
 although, as was foretold by the prophet David, it 
 has been despised and rejected by the carnal build- 
 
 5 ers : and be yourselves also, as living stones, built 
 into that sacred edifice : and present yourselves to 
 him as a holy priesthood, offering up to him the 
 sacrifice of spiritual duty and service, rendered 
 acceptable to him by the merits of Jesus Christ. 
 
 6 " Behold," says the prophet Isaiah, (Isaiah xxviii. 
 16.) " behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, a 
 tried stone, a sure foundation ; and he that believ- 
 
390 
 
 1. PETER. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 eth in him shall not be confounded." To you there- 7 
 fore, my brethren, who believe in him, he shall be, 
 aecordino^ to the words of this prophecy, an honour 
 and a defence : but to the builders who rejected 
 him he shall be, not only, as was foretold of him, 
 the chief corner stone, but a stone also to make 8 
 them stumble, and a rock against which their feet 
 shall strike; for they stumble through their un- 
 belief against the holy word of God, as it was 
 declared of them that they would do. But you are 9 
 a chosen race, a kingly priesthood, a holy nation, 
 a purchased people, called to declare the praises of 
 Him who has summoned you from darkness into 
 the fulness of his marvellous light ; being, as the lo 
 prophet of old declared of you, (Hosea ii. 23.) 
 " formerly not a people, but now the people of 
 God ;" formerly un visited by the divine mercy, but 
 now having received mercy. 
 
 My beloved brethren, recollect then that you are ii 
 mere strangers and pilgrims upon the earth, and, 
 as such, abstain from all those earthly propensities 
 and appetites which would impede you in your spi- 
 ritual journey to your heavenly home. Let the un- 12 
 believing Gentiles have nothing to observe in all 
 your social dealings but what is good and praise- 
 worthy: that, having calumniated you as the ene- 
 mies ^ of mankind, they may by the contemplation of 
 your good works when your conduct shall be rigo- 
 rously inquired into by the temporal authorities, be 
 
 ^ " Christianos per flagitia invisos^' is the term by which 
 the historian Tacitus designates the early Christians, as he 
 also stigmatizes our holy religion by the appellation of 
 
 exitiabilis superstitio.'" 
 
CHAP. II. 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 391 
 
 obliged to confess that God's name is honoured by 
 
 1 3 the exemplary lives of his servants. Submit your- 
 selves therefore to every established jurisdiction for 
 the Lord's sake, whether to the king as the fountain 
 
 14 of authority, or to deputies as bearing his commis- 
 sion for the coercion of the ill-disposed, and the 
 
 15 encouragement of the good. For this is God's 
 will, that by the purity of your lives and conversa- 
 tion you disarm the malice of those who would 
 
 16 misrepresent your actions; availing yourselves of 
 that freedom from undue restraint which is the 
 privilege of the Gospel, only that you may show 
 yourselves the more willing servants to your divine 
 Master, and the more inoffensive members of hu- 
 
 1 7 man society. Show then due respect to all con- 
 ditions of men whatever : love the brethren of the 
 Christian community : fear God : honour the king. 
 
 18 Servants, be faithful and obedient to your masters, 
 and not to the good and kind only, but also to 
 
 19 those who use you harshly ; for it is an acceptable 
 sacrifice to God when any person bears with human 
 
 20 injustice for conscience sake without repining. For 
 where is the merit, if you bear patiently the punish- 
 ment of your actual faults ? but if, having done 
 well, you suffer unjust punishment, and bear it 
 without murmuring, such obedience is truly accept- 
 
 21 able with God. For such is in fact the profession 
 of every Christian in this world, who must make 
 his account to follow in the footsteps of his blessed 
 Master, who submitted for our sake to the extremity 
 of human persecution and injustice, making his 
 exemplary patience a pattern for our imitation : 
 
 22 who committed no sin, neither was any deceit found 
 
 23 in his mouth : who, when he was reviled, reviled 
 
892 
 
 1. PETER. 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 not again ; nor returned threats for ill usage ; but 
 submitted his cause to the one great, just, and 
 righteous Judge : and who condescended to bear in 24 
 his own person our sins upon the cross, that we, 
 dying as to our sinful nature, might live through 
 him in regenerated holiness : " by whose stripes 
 you are healed." (Isaiah liii. 5.) For you were, as 25 
 the prophet has described us all, "as sheep going 
 astray," but are now turned back to the Shepherd 
 and Guardian of your souls. 
 
 In like meekness of disposition with that already 3 
 recommended, be you, wives, obedient to your hus- 
 bands, in the hope that, if any of them shall be dis- 
 obedient to the law of Christ, they may be allured 
 back to a better state of mind by the calm and per- 
 severing Christian demeanour of their wives, whilst 2 
 they have before their eyes the daily example of 
 your pure and respectful submission. And let not 3 
 your ornaments be the external decoration of braided 
 hair, or of golden trinkets, or expensive dresses, 
 but the internal attractions of the good feelings of 4 
 the heart, those unfading charms of a mild and 
 gentle disposition which are precious in the eyes of 
 God. Such were the ornaments of which the holy 5 
 women in former ages availed themselves, who 
 united a pious confidence in the Almighty with a 
 meek submission to the authority of their husbands ; 
 such, for instance, was Sarah, who is described as 6 
 speaking of Abraham under the appellation of her 
 " Lord ;" whose daughters you are, so long as you 
 live holily, without suffering the respect, which it 
 becomes a wife to pay to her husband, to degenerate 
 into the terror-stricken service of a slave. 
 
 Do you, husbands, in like manner, living with 7 
 
CHAP. III. 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 393 
 
 your wives as their affectionate advisers and pro- 
 tectors, show them that attentive kindness which it 
 becomes the stronger party to pay to the weaker ; 
 remembering that they have a joint interest with 
 yourselves in the promised blessings of the Gospel 
 covenant, and offering up your daily prayers con- 
 jointly with them. 
 
 8 Finally, be all of you, whatever may be your 
 respective conditions, kind and sympathizing one 
 with another, consorting together as affectionate 
 
 9 brethren, compassionate, obliging : not returning 
 evil for evil, or bitterness for bitterness, but on the 
 contrary repaying unkindness with blessings, know- 
 ing that such is every Christian's profession, and 
 that, in proportion as he forgives, he has reasonable 
 
 10 grounds for hoping that he shall be forgiven. Re- 
 member accordingly the words of the inspired 
 Psalmist, (Psalm xxxiv. 12.) "What man is he that 
 desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may 
 see good ? Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips 
 
 1 1 from speaking guile ; depart from evil, and do 
 
 12 good ; seek peace, and pursue it. For the eyes of 
 the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are 
 open unto their cry ; but the face of the Lord is 
 
 13 against them that do evil." Pretend not then to 
 urge against that universal meekness which I now 
 recommend, that he who knows not how to resist 
 oppression, is in fact inviting the oppressor to do 
 him injury. To such objectors I answer in the first 
 place by asking, " who will injure unnecessarily a 
 person whose actions are uniformly harmless and 
 
 14 benevolent ?" and secondly, admitting that un- 
 deserved persecutions do befal you, I reply in the 
 words of our blessed Saviour, " if you suffer perse- 
 
394 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 cution for righteousness' sake, happy are you to 
 which let me also subjoin the encouraging exhor- 
 tation of the prophet, (Isaiah viii. 12.) " Fear not 
 their fear, nor be afraid ; but sanctify the Lord 15 
 of hosts, and let him be your fear." Be, at the 
 same time, always ready to give an undismayed 
 but still a meek and unassuming, answer, to your 
 revilers in vindication of the sublime hopes of im- 
 mortality with which you are sustained. Mean- 16 
 while keep your consciences pure from all blame 
 and self-reproach whatever, in order that your very 
 accusers, who now calumniate you as pernicious 
 members of society, may eventually be put to the 
 blush by the irrefragable evidence of your holy and 
 Christian life. And surely it is far more desirable, 1 7 
 if by God's will you must at all events suffer the 
 persecutions of mankind, that it should be for your 
 good rather than for your evil deeds; for even so 18 
 did Christ our common master suffer in his one 
 great sacrifice for the sins of the world ; the righte- 
 ous for the wicked, in order that he might reconcile 
 us to God ; enduring death for us in his carnal 
 nature, but being raised again by the energetic 
 operation of the Holy Spirit ; by which Spirit we 19 
 are assured he once preached to the antediluvian 
 world, those rebellious people, (whose souls are now 
 reserved awaiting the final judgment,) who pro- 20 
 voked by their obstinacy the patient forbearance 
 of God in the days of Noah, while the ark was 
 preparing, in which a few, that is eight, souls were 
 saved by water. And so in like manner shall the 21 
 water of baptism save us, (I mean not the mere 
 external washing of our carnal bodies, but the 
 internal baptism and purification of the heart and 
 9 
 
CHAP. IV. 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 895 
 
 conscience in the sight of God,) through the resur- 
 22 rection of Jesus Christ, who is now ascended into 
 heaven, and placed for ever upon God's right hand, 
 far above all angels and the celestial hierarchy. 
 
 4 As then Christ in his carnal nature died for us, so 
 in like manner do you, following his holy example, 
 
 2 and recollecting that he, whose body is dead, is 
 dead to sin, be careful to pass the remainder of 
 your course upon earth as persons whose carnal 
 desires are dead, and who live only to obey the 
 
 3 holy will of God. For sufficient for all of us have 
 been the aberrations of our past life, when, igno- 
 rant of the holy discipline of the Gospel, we lived 
 according to the impure habits of the Gentiles, 
 walking in lasciviousness, unbridled appetites, in- 
 temperance, revellings, banquetings, and abomina- 
 
 4ble idolatries, for your present abstinence from 
 which abominations you now incur the calumnies 
 
 5 and malice of a sensual world. But be assured that 
 for all this God will bring them, both the dead and 
 
 6 the living, to one common judgment. Meanwhile 
 be you, even in this life, dead : dead to the world, 
 and to its corruptions, for to such are the promises 
 of the Gospel announced ; that, whilst the carnal- 
 minded shall reproach you for your deathlike indif- 
 ference to the pleasures of this life, you may be in 
 reality enjoying the fulness of spiritual life in your 
 communings with God. 
 
 7 The consummation of all things is approaching : 
 be you therefore careful and vigilant in the daily 
 
 8 exercise of prayer. But above all things maintain 
 mutual affection and charity amongst one another, 
 
 9 for charity shall cover a multitude of sins. Be 
 
 10 hospitable to one another without grudging, each of 
 
896 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 you, in proportion as lie has received mercies from 
 God, being ready to impart of his abundance to 
 others, as becomes a faithful steward in the manage- 
 ment of the trust rejiosed in him by Providence. 
 If, for example, he has received the blessing of 1 1 
 spiritual wisdom, let him instruct others, as one 
 to whom God has communicated the knowledge 
 of his mysteries : if he administers to the temporal 
 necessities of the brethren, let him do it according 
 to the extent of the means which have been be- 
 stowed upon him : that in all things God may be 
 glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise 
 and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. 
 
 My brethren, be not, I beseech you, dismayed at 12 
 the fiery trial of persecution which God has per- 
 mitted to befal you for the manifestation of your 
 faith, as though it were something strange and un- 
 looked for : but rather exult that you are allowed 13 
 to follow your Redeemer through the course of 
 afflictions, as being a sure pledge that you will also 
 be permitted to share in the glory of his second 
 coming. If you are reproached for the name of 14 
 Christ, happy are you : for the Spirit of glory and 
 of God rests upon you ; a Spirit w^hich is insulted 
 by the cruelty of your persecutors, but which is 
 glorified and hallowed by your patient endurance of 
 affliction for its sake. He only ought to look with 15 
 terror to the inflictions of temporal authority who, 
 like the murderer, the thief, the felon, and the mis- 
 chief-maker, has provoked them by his crimes: but 16 
 let no man tremble or be ashamed on account of any 
 sufferings which his profession of Christianity may 
 draw down upon him, but rather let him praise God 
 that he has thought him worthy of so glorious a trial. 
 
CHAP. V. 
 
 1. PETER. 
 
 397 
 
 17 For be assured that the day of God's visitation of 
 mankind is at hand : the first who shall undergo 
 that searching examination shall be ourselves, the 
 members of his own household ; and if such is to 
 be our trial for the manifestation of our faith, what 
 are we to suppose will be that which, after our- 
 selves, is to overtake the unbelievers, who have 
 
 18 resisted and persecuted the Gospel ? If such will 
 be the rigour of God's approaching vengeance, that 
 scarcely the just man will be allowed to escape 
 from it, what shall be the lot at that fearful time 
 
 19 of the profane and the sinful ? Wherefore let those 
 whom God may call to the endurance of afflictions 
 be careful in the first place to secure a good con- 
 science, and then let them confidently commit their 
 souls to the keeping of their Creator, who they 
 may be assured will not allow them eventually to 
 perish. 
 
 5 And now let me admonish and exhort you, the 
 several elders of your various communities, (for I 
 am a brother elder with you, one who have been 
 an eye-witness of our blessed Saviour's sufferings, 
 and who look to be a partaker with you in the 
 
 2 glory which shall be hereafter revealed,) let me 
 intreat you to feed as faithful pastors the flocks 
 which have been respectively committed to your 
 care, superintending their spiritual welfare, not as 
 though it were an irksome task, but a pleasing 
 duty : not as a means of temporal profit, but as a 
 
 3 work of gratuitous kindness : not making a wanton 
 display of the authority with which you have been 
 entrusted for the edification of those over whom 
 you preside, but making your own lives a pattern 
 
 4 for the imitation of those whom you govern. And, 
 
.398 
 
 1. PETER. 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 if such be your conduct, be assured that, when the 
 great Shepherd of us all shall appear in judgment, 
 you shall receive as your reward an imperishable 
 crown of glory. 
 
 And likewise you, the common brethren of the 5 
 various Churches, be it your care to pay, not 
 merely the appointed reverence to your several 
 elders which God requires at your hands, but also 
 the mutual obligations of deference and regard one 
 for the other ; wearing the Christian badge of hu- 
 mility: for God, we know, delights to debase the 
 proud, and to pour his blessings upon the humble- 
 minded. Humble yourselves then under the power- 6 
 ful hand of God, that in his good time he may raise 
 you up ; reposing upon him the whole burden of 7 
 your cares and anxieties, for be assured that his 
 Providence will effectually provide for you. Be 8 
 sober, meanwhile, and vigilant ; for your adversary 
 the devil, like a lion roaring after his prey, walks 
 about seeking whom he may devour : whom resist 9 
 to your utmost ; reposing your trust in the pro- 
 tection of the Almighty ; and recollecting that your 
 present trials are not peculiar to yourselves, but are 
 the common lot of the whole company of Christian 
 believers throughout the world. And may the God lo 
 of all mercies who has summoned us to his eternal 
 glory in Christ Jesus, when you shall have under- 
 gone your share of allotted trial, make you perfect, 
 confirm, strengthen, and finally establish you. To li 
 Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. 
 x\men. 
 
 I have sent you these few lines by Silvanus, 12 
 whom I have every reason to confide in as a faith- 
 ful brother, for the purpose of encouraging you, and 
 
CHAP. V. 
 
 I. PETER. 
 
 399 
 
 bearing my testimony to the certain truth of that 
 merciful revelation on which you rest your hopes. 
 
 13 The Church of Babylon set apart, together with 
 yourselves, for the confession of the true faith, 
 
 14 salutes you : as also does my son Marcus. Salute 
 one another with the kiss of Christian affection. 
 Peace be with all of you who are in the faith of 
 Christ Jesus. Amen. 
 
 There is a remarkable coincidence between the argu- 
 ments and sentiments contained in the preceding Epistle, 
 and those expressed in various passages of the witings of 
 St. Paul. That St. Peter had diligently studied the works 
 of the former apostle is evident from his allusion to them 
 by name in his second Epistle ; and, that he did not in 
 that passage intend to imply any disapprobation of the doc- 
 trines contained in them, is manifest from the similarity of 
 thought which pervades the composition before us, and 
 which marks an exact conformity in feeling and opinions 
 with the great teacher of the Gentiles on all the main 
 points of the Christian revelation. This coincidence is 
 worthy of observation, because we know from St. PauFs 
 own statement, that considerable difference of sentiment 
 had at one period existed between him and St. Peter on 
 the subject of the observance of some of the cancelled rites 
 of the Levitical law ; and that he had on one occasion 
 severely rebuked him for the inconsistency and unsteadi- 
 ness of his conduct with reference to that question. That 
 with predispositions originally dissimilar they should thus 
 have eventually so perfectly united in adopting the same 
 views of the scheme of our redemption, and inculcating 
 precisely the same practical habits, can be attributed only 
 to the irresistible force of truth, which will assuredly in 
 due time assimilate every candid and well-principled mind 
 to itself, be the primary bias what it may. Not the 
 
400 
 
 T. PETER. 
 
 slightest Judaizing taint is to be traced in this beautiful 
 Epistle ; and yet we know its author to have been one 
 who received the first revelation of the extension of God's 
 mercies to the Gentiles, and of the final abolition of the 
 Levitical scheme, with astonishment, if not with distrust ; 
 and who, even after his better judgment was convinced, 
 still instinctively lingered in the atmosphere of prejudices 
 which he found it difficult not to cherish, whilst he knew 
 them to be such. But the sincerity of character, which 
 displays itself in almost every passage in the historical 
 works of the New Testament, where any action of this 
 favoured apostle of our Lord is related, was perfectly incom- 
 patible with any obstinate perseverance in acknov/ledged 
 error ; and accordingly the exposition of his opinions con- 
 veyed by this and the following Epistle, the date of which 
 is supposed to have preceded his martyrdom by a very short 
 interval, is in all respects confirmatory of what has been 
 asserted in other parts of the apostolical writings on the 
 subject of Christian liberty, and of the universality of the 
 conditions of the Gospel covenant. 
 
THE 
 
 SECOND GENERAL EPISTLE 
 
 OF 
 
 PETER. 
 
 The authenticity of the second Epistle of St. Peter was, as 
 is well known, made an occasional subject of controversy 
 in the early ages of the Church, but it has been acknow- 
 ledged as canonical by far the preponderant weight of 
 authority of the best judges, both in ancient and modern 
 times. The date of its composition is generally supposed 
 to have been a short time before that apostle's martyrdom ; 
 probably early in the year of our Lord 65. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 
 
 1 Simon Peter, the servant and apostle of Jesus 
 Christ, to all the brethren who are joint partakers 
 with me in the precious faith in that covenant of 
 righteousness which is from our God and from our 
 
 2 Saviour Jesus Christ — grace and peace be multiplied 
 unto you, in the knowledge of God and of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 The arguments in the following Epistle are chiefly directed against 
 the gross immoralities of the Gnostics, of which the apostle speaks 
 with becoming reprobation. For an account of the tenets of these 
 heretics, see the note appended to Colossians ii. IS. 
 
 D d 
 
40*2 
 
 IT. PETER. 
 
 CHAP. T. 
 
 God having by his ahnighty ])ower given to us :i 
 all the necessary requisites for the attainment of 
 immortality and holiness, in bringing us to the 
 knowledge of Him who has called us to his covenant 
 of glory and righteousness, (by which the greatest 4 
 and most precious hopes of future blessings have 
 been set before us ; namely, that having escaped 
 from the pollutions of gross and carnal appetites, 
 you should one day be assimilated to the purity of 
 his divine nature ;) — such being the blessed means 5 
 of salvation which he has placed in our hands, let 
 it be our care to exercise all due industry in their 
 proper application ; and accordingly let us add to 
 this his first great gift of faith proportionate zeal 
 on our part in his service ; to zeal let us add 
 spiritual knowledge, to knowledge the restraint of () 
 our passions, to the restraint of our passions pa- 
 tience under affliction, to patience cheerful piety, 
 to piety brotherly love, to brotherly love universal 7 
 good will to all mankind, be they who they may ; 
 so that the existence and abundance of these last- 8 
 mentioned graces may show that the ^ first founda- 
 tion of all holiness, your knowledge of, and faith 
 in, Christ, has not been without its plentiful har- 
 vest of good works. For be assured that he who 9 
 wants these, which constitute the finish and perfec- 
 
 ' This is a correct and happy description of the growth 
 and successive development of the several Christian virtues 
 as they spring up one by one from the root of religious 
 faith ; and affords another illustration of the great scrip- 
 tural truth, that faith is rather the first link in the chain of 
 those multifarious endowments which combine to form a re- 
 generate character, than that it in itself constitutes the whole 
 sum and substance of the conditions of our salvation. 
 
CHAP. I. 
 
 II. PETER. 
 
 408 
 
 tion of the Christian character, is blind to the true 
 purpose of the Gospel, and forgets that the very 
 first aim and object of our profession is to cleanse 
 us from those impure and corrupt appetites which 
 cling to and pollute our nature in its unregenerated 
 
 10 state. Wherefore, my brethren, be strenuous in 
 your endeavours to make eventually effectual your 
 first calling and election to the faith of Jesus by 
 adopting its necessary adjunct and consequence, an 
 
 11 holy life ; and so doing be assured that you shall 
 never fall, but that a ready entrance shall be afforded 
 to you into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord 
 
 12 and Saviour Jesus Christ. So important is it that 
 you should avoid all possibility of misapprehension 
 vrith regard to this great and fundamental truth of 
 the necessity of good works, that although I am 
 persuaded that you all of you at this moment feel 
 its force, and most firmly and implicitly believe in 
 it, still it shall be my care from time to time to 
 
 13 direct your attention to it; nor do I feel that I can 
 better devote the short remainder^ of life in this 
 world which I now have before me, than in employ- 
 
 14 ing it for that purpose. I feel that I shall not be 
 much longer with you, and that the termination of 
 my earthly pilgrimage which my Saviour long ago 
 
 15 foretold is rapidly drawing near ; and it is accord- 
 ingly under this conviction that I feel the more 
 anxious to leave this testimony behind me to which 
 you may appeal, when I shall have been removed 
 
 ^ This solemn, and as it may be termed dying, protest 
 of the apostle against the Antinomian tenets, shows with 
 what deep abomination he considered that truly impious, 
 yet plausible and seductive, heresy. 
 
 D d 2 
 
404 
 
 11. PETER. 
 
 CHAP, I. 
 
 from hence, against the sophistry and misconceptions 
 of false teachers. 
 
 Remember, I am not now enforcing, nor have 1 16 
 on any former occasion attempted to enforce, any 
 unauthorized or sophistical speculations of my own 
 as the religion of the blessed Jesus, but I have on 
 the contrary faithfully and accurately related to you 
 what I saw with my own eyes, and heard with 
 my own ears, when the doctrine which he taught 17 
 and which we have derived from him, was con- 
 firmed by the solemn attestation of the Almighty 
 himself. For he received in my presence a positive 18 
 confirmation of his glorious office and revelation in 
 the awful voice from heaven which declared of him, 
 (Matthew xvii. 5 ; Mark ix. 7.) " This is my be- 
 loved Son, in whom I am well pleased," and that 
 voice I, with my brother apostles James and John, 
 distinctly heard when we were with him upon the 
 holy mount. In addition to which we have also 19 
 to the same effect another voice, namely, the strong 
 confirmation of our Saviour's mission afforded by 
 the various prophecies of the Old Testament; to 
 which, as to a light shining in a dark place, you 
 will do well to turn your attention for the removal 
 of any lingering doubts which may still perplex 
 you in this your earthly course, until the arrival 
 of that day which will clear up all which at this 
 moment is obscure and unexplained in God's mys- 
 terious arrangements. For be assured that those 20 
 prophetic writings are not the mere guesses of 
 private speculation, nor were they delivered ac-2i 
 cording to the caprice or inclination of the per- 
 sons uttering them, but they are the words of 
 holy men beloved by God, and speaking as they 
 
CHAP. II. 
 
 II. PETER. 
 
 405 
 
 were inspired by the communications of the Holy 
 Spirit. 
 
 2 But as in the clays of the true prophets there 
 existed false prophets also, so among the teachers 
 of the true Christian tenets there shall arise false 
 teachers, who shall introduce destructive heresies, 
 denying that Lord who redeemed them with his 
 own blood, and bringing down destruction upon 
 
 2 their own heads : and many shall be seduced to 
 follow their pernicious ways, so that even the true 
 and orthodox belief shall be decried and evil spoken 
 
 3 of. In such hands the pure word of life shall be- 
 come a mere merchandise for the glutting of their 
 own avarice : but be assured that God's vengeance 
 
 4 though it may be delayed is not asleep. For if 
 He spared not the very angels who sinned, but cast 
 
 5 them into hell in chains of darkness to be reserved 
 for punishment ; — if He spared not the antediluvian 
 world, but destroyed for their sins the whole human 
 
 6 race, with the exception of the righteous Noah, and 
 seven other persons ; — if He overwhelmed in fire 
 and ashes the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha, mak- 
 
 7 ing them an awful example of the punishment of 
 licentiousness, but preserved the good man Lot, who 
 had been grieved by the profligate habits of his 
 
 8 unprincipled fellow citizens, and who from day to 
 day had vexed his righteous soul by the contempla- 
 tion of the deeds of abomination which he saw and 
 
 9 heard ^ ; — if such are the standing past records of 
 God's discriminating justice, most assuredly will he 
 
 ' With regard to the many coincidences of thought and 
 expression to be found in this Epistle with similar passages 
 in that of St. J ude, the reader is referred to the disserta- 
 
406 
 
 II. PETER. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 continue in like manner to the end of time to de- 
 liver the sincere and obedient out of their various 
 trials, but will reserve the ungodly for that tremend- 
 ous day, when they shall appear before him in judg- 
 ment. More particularly will his vengeance then lo 
 fall heavily upon those who shall be found to have 
 run their mortal course in habits of profligate sen- 
 suality, having shaken off* the yoke of wholesome 
 discipline ; men hardened in their own self-conceit, 
 and showing themselves petulant revilers of those 
 established authorities appointed for the mainte- 
 nance of good morals : authorities against whom the 1 1 
 very angels of God, high as their exalted nature is 
 over that of every earthly jurisdiction, venture not 
 to bring railing accusations before the Lord. Yet 12 
 these persons (senseless as those brute beasts which 
 seem to exist only that they may be chased and 
 destroyed) revile institutions which they have not 
 the faculties to understand, and thus run headlong 
 with reckless impetuosity into the destruction which 
 awaits them. And be assured that they will reap 13 
 the due reward of their misconduct. Their days 
 are one continued course of riot which they deno- 
 minate pleasure. They appear amongst your reli- 
 gious assemblies like spots and deformities, convert- 
 ing a society of Christians into a throng of licentious 
 revellers, and gazing around them with adulterous 14 
 and sensual eyes even in the very house of God ; and 
 thus it is that weak minds are seduced by them to 
 consider our holy religion as sanctioning licentious- 
 
 tion of Bishop Sherlock on that subject, subjoined to the 
 Oxford edition of his Sermons. Vol. iv. p. 129. edition 
 of 1812. 
 
CHAP. 11. II. PETER. ,407 
 
 15 ness, and every worldly and selfish feeling. But the 
 awful curse which our Saviour will one day pro- 
 nounce against such abominations will assuredly 
 come upon them. Like Balaam the son of Bosor, 
 they have left the right path, and have prostituted 
 for gain the blessed gifts of the Spirit to the cause 
 
 16 of unrighteousness; (and recollect that God allowed 
 him, though endowed with the gift of prophecy, to 
 learn a lesson of righteousness, and to receive a 
 rebuke for his avarice and impiety from the mouth 
 
 17 of a brute beast.) Like wells without water they 
 entice only to disappoint, holding out expectations 
 which they cannot realize ; like passing clouds pro- 
 mising the blessing of rain to a parched country, 
 but which shortly disperse themselves before the 
 wind. Of such men the end shall be the blackness 
 
 18 of eternal darkness. By plausible and specious 
 sophistry attempting to disjoin what God has de- 
 creed should be inseparably united, namely, an 
 orthodox belief and a holy and moral life, they 
 seduce back again into the trammels of sin those 
 
 19 who had already escaped from its snares ; and mak- 
 ing their boast of their Christian liberty, by which 
 they mean licence, they debase themselves to the 
 worst of slavery, the impure slavery of the passions, 
 which they want both force and inclination to resist. 
 
 20 To such men let me recal the awful words of our 
 blessed Saviour, who assures us, that if, when we 
 have made our hearts clean from the pollutions of 
 impure appetite by the searching influence of the 
 knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, we again re- 
 ceive back into them the tempter whom we had 
 succeeded in expelling, our case is from that mo- 
 ment far more hopeless than if we had never been 
 converted, and that " our last state will be, under 
 
408 
 
 II. PETER. 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 such circumstances, worse than the first." For as- 21 
 suredly far better would it have been for us never 
 to have known the path of righteousness, than, 
 having known it, to have wilfully returned again 
 into our sinful habits. But to the impure teachers 22 
 whom I am now describing we may justly apply the 
 well-known proverb : " the dog is gone back to his 
 own vomit ; and the sow, which was washed, to her 
 wallowing in the mire." 
 
 This is the second Epistle, my beloved brethren, 3 
 which I have written to you for the purpose of en- 
 forcing upon your minds the paramount importance 
 of maintaining the holy doctrine of the Gospel pure 2 
 from the sophistry and corruptions of a wayward 
 world ; and unadulterated as you first received it 
 from the inspired predictions of the holy prophets, 
 and from the mouths of us the commissioned apos- 
 tles of our blessed Lord and Saviour. For let me 3 
 now forewarn you, that, as time passes on, and one 
 age shall succeed to another without appearing to 
 bring nearer the great consummation to which we 
 finally look, not only corruptions of doctrine shall 
 gradually arise, but men, grown impatient at the 
 restraint imposed upon their passions, and at the 4 
 procrastination of their hopes, shall begin to scoff 
 at Christianity itself, as having excited expectations 
 which it could not realize. " What has become," 
 they will urge, " of the long-promised second ad- 
 vent of Christ ? for the apostles of old who taught 
 this doctrine have long passed away, and the opera- 
 tions of nature still continue in the same undevi- 
 ating course ^ which they held from the beginning." 
 
 ^ This passage contains a wise and salutary caution, well 
 adapted to meet the petulant impatience of mankind, which 
 
CHAP. III. 
 
 11. PETER. 
 
 409 
 
 5 Forgetting, or wishing to forget, that equally firm 
 and unchangeable appeared the state of the ante- 
 diluvian world, when, at the command of God, the 
 expanse of heaven beamed cheerfully over the earth, 
 and the dry land swelled prominent and smiling 
 
 6 above the surrounding waters : and yet notwith- 
 standing the day came when that same heaven 
 
 might otherwise be disposed to consider the protracted 
 duration of the present world as an argument against the 
 truth of the Christian revelation. Under the strong moral 
 and intellectual excitement occasioned by the first promul- 
 gation of the Grospel covenant, an opinion is known to have 
 prevailed extensively amongst the primitive converts, that 
 the day of judgment was even then near at hand. St. Paul, 
 as we have already seen, wrote his second Epistle to the 
 Thessalonians chiefly for the purpose of dissipating this 
 unfounded apprehension. Since that period, however, 
 nearly eighteen centuries have passed away, and yet, to 
 use the expression in the Epistle before us, the operations 
 of nature still continue in the same undeviatins: course. 
 It is perhaps too early as yet in the history of mankind for 
 infidelity to derive an argument against revelation from 
 this circumstance ; but we can readily imagine that, should 
 the continuance of the present order of the universe be 
 still eventually maintained through a vast succession of 
 future ages, the time may probably arise when the mis- 
 giving here alluded to may begin seriously to shake the 
 firmness of the conviction of the most sincere believers. 
 Under such a supposition there appears to be much mercy 
 in the arrangements of providence, which have thus antici- 
 pated a formidable objection of infidelity, and suggested a 
 satisfactory argument from which every humble Christian 
 may, to the latest possible duration of time, derive in- 
 creased faith and consolation under that procrastinated 
 hope, which, as the wise man has observed, "makes the 
 heart sick.^^ 
 
410 
 
 TI. PETER. 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 poured down its rain, and those same waters rose 
 from their ancient level to overwhelm mankind. 
 And in like manner no less certainly, tranquil as 7 
 the present aspect of nature may be, that same 
 heaven and this same earth are reserved for that 
 period when God shall again utter his command, 
 and they shall pass away in that universal confla- 
 gration which is in store for the day of final judg- 
 ment, and for the destruction of ungodly men. 
 Remote as that awful moment may appear to us, 8 
 short-lived and transitory beings as we are, let us 
 remember that the intermediate interval is abso- 
 lutely as nothing in the sight of God, with whom 
 one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand 
 years as one day. If then the Lord appears at this 9 
 moment slow to execute his judgments, it is not a 
 slowness which proceeds from want of power, but 
 from want of will ; from his patient long-suffering ; 
 from his suspending again and again the day of his 
 visitation, in the still lingering hope that none 
 should finally perish, but that all may come to 
 repentance. But as the thief comes upon men lo 
 unawares in their midnight slumbers, so shall that 
 awful moment arrive when the world shall least 
 expect it; when the heavens shall pass away with 
 a roar, and the natural elements shall dissolve in 
 fire, and this globe and all the mighty works of 
 man upon it shall be burnt up. But if thus tran- 1 1 
 sitory is the tenure of our mortal possessions, what 
 then are the habits of life and conversation which 
 best become creatures thus circumstanced? — holi- 
 ness, assuredly, and godliness of heart: — such ho- 12 
 liness and such godliness as may not only patiently 
 wait, but eagerly and cheerfully look, for that great 
 
CHAP. III. 
 
 11. PETER. 
 
 411 
 
 day of our God's coming, when the material hea- 
 vens shall pass away in flames, and the elements of 
 nature shall melt in one common conflagration. 
 
 13 God also, we know, has promised, and we dwell with 
 unshaken confidence upon the fulfilment of that 
 promise, that a new heaven and a new earth, in 
 which righteousness shall be established for ever, 
 shall succeed to that perishable creation which we 
 
 14 now inhabit. Wherefore, my beloved friends, en- 
 tertaining this glorious expectation, be it your care 
 to be found by our great Master at his second 
 coming without spot and blameless, in peace with 
 
 15 God and man. Meanwhile, be assured that the 
 long-suffering of our Lord is not forgetfulness of his 
 purpose, but a delay suggested by the immensity 
 of his mercy, that men may perchance even yet 
 awake from their sins and be saved ; as our brother 
 Paul has expressly asserted to you in those divinely 
 inspired writings which he has addressed to you; 
 
 16 as also in his other Epistles to the several Churches, 
 in which he discusses these mysterious topics, from 
 which some ignorant and unstable teachers would 
 derive (as they would also from other portions of 
 the sacred writings) conclusions of the most dan- 
 gerous and pernicious tendency. 
 
 17 And now, my beloved, being thus forewarned, 
 make it your earnest endeavour that you be not 
 misled by the erroneous doctrine of these false 
 teachers, and that you fall not away from the pre- 
 
 18 sent stedfastness of your faith ; bat grow in grace, 
 and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 To Him be glory both now and to all eternity. 
 Amen. 
 
412 
 
 II. PETER. 
 
 It is lamentable to observe, how, in despite of the lessons 
 of experience and of the express declarations of Scripture, 
 human nature, when placed under similar circumstances, 
 continues in all ages to retrace the same endless circle 
 of vice and folly which brought down the severe reproba- 
 tion of the apostles upon the heretics of the primitive 
 Church. We learn from the preceding Epistle at how 
 early a period the emancipation of the Christian world from 
 the vexatious slavery of the ritual law began to produce 
 a violent reaction in the moral and religious feelings of 
 mankind, similar to that which the sudden abolition of 
 a temporal tyranny has often been known to work in their 
 political and civil habits. The relaxation of a system of 
 extreme restraint was followed by its too natural conse- 
 quence, a system of extreme licence. The first apostles 
 had preached to mankind the blessed doctrine of a free 
 pardon of sin through faith in the expiatory redemption 
 wrought by the death of Christ ; but they had at the same 
 time carefully inculcated the obvious and necessary conse- 
 quence of that doctrine ; that the great and pure Being, 
 who had in this signal manner marked his strong abhor- 
 rence of sin, must inevitably continue to disapprove of it 
 under all possible circumstances ; and accordingly, that a 
 good life, though not the operating cause of man's salva- 
 tion, was still an inseparable accompaniment of a sincere 
 and effective faith. But the selfishness of human passions, 
 fostered by the mistaken theories of the Gnostics, was then, 
 as it has frequently shown itself since on similar occasions, 
 much more disposed to grasp at the proffered mercy as a 
 gratuitous benefit, than to bear its own share in the ful- 
 filment of the conditions. Because the redemption pro- 
 posed for man's acceptance was declared to be a voluntary 
 concession of the divine benevolence, it was presumptu- 
 ously and impiously urged, that a Being thus infinitely 
 gracious could not be disposed to examine the infirmities 
 of our nature with a very scrutinizing eye ; and that as 
 the expiatory merits of our Saviour were infinite, they 
 were of course sufficient to cover, when appealed to through 
 the medium of faith, all sins of deliberate and wilful com- 
 
II. PETER. 
 
 418 
 
 mission no less completely than those resulting from the 
 insuperable infirmities of human nature. The main pro- 
 position therefore which stood foremost in the writings of 
 St. Paul, respecting the necessity of faith in Christ's atone- 
 ment as the sole operating cause of our salvation, was 
 eagerly caught at, whilst the inference so certainly deducible 
 from it of the importance of good works, which had been 
 uniformly maintained by that great apostle, was overlooked 
 as a thing of no moment. To this growing heresy accord- 
 ingly we find occasional allusions in the later Epistles of 
 that inspired writer. Still however it is probable, that the 
 abuse in question was more prevalent among the Jewish 
 converts, who fell under the spiritual superintendence 
 of Peter, and our Saviour's immediate disciples, than 
 among the Gentiles, who had derived their instruction 
 from the preaching of Paul. The natural effect of a 
 pure and spiritual doctrine, when addressed to the pro- 
 fligate heathens, might be presumed to be the adoption of 
 a more correct, if not austere, morality ; but the removal 
 of the Levitical restraints from the Jews was an apparent 
 relaxation of discipline, against the abuse, consequent upon 
 the misapprehension of which, it required no small degree 
 of strong sense and good feeling to be sufficiently vigilant. 
 That St. Peter therefore should have found it necessary to 
 caution his readers in the Epistle before us against the 
 possible misconception of the momentous truths inculcated 
 by his brother apostle, can excite in us no surprise. But 
 we should recollect, that the heresy here combated is not 
 one of those which, deriving their first origin from accidental 
 circumstances, disappear when the contingencies which gave 
 rise to them are withdrawn. On the contrary, the seeds of 
 it lie deeply imbedded among the first principles of our 
 moral constitution ; and we may therefore presume, that so 
 long as the present world shall continue, the apostolical ad- 
 monitions conveyed in this inspired composition will retain 
 their original importance. 
 
 We all know how speedy was the fearful moral reaction 
 produced in Germany and elsewhere by the first excite- 
 ment of the Protestant Reformation, and with what deep 
 
414 
 
 IT. PETER. 
 
 abomination, similar to that expressed by the primitive 
 apostles, the pious Luther was known before the close of his 
 life to lament the gross immoralities of the fanatics of his 
 time. Those monstrous and blasphemous perversions of 
 the scheme of the blessed Christian dispensation may, it is 
 probable, be never again repeated in all their original de- 
 formity; but the extremity to which that delusion was 
 carried by the Gnostics of ancient, and the Antinomians of 
 recent, times, and the wide circle over which we know it 
 to have spread, are awful proofs, of its close connexion with 
 a natural human infirmity ; and may serve to forewarn us, 
 how surely it will manifest a tendency to reappear wherever 
 the strong stimulant of religious fervour is excited without 
 a concurrent attention to the doctrines of practical holiness, 
 and a solemn impression of the unsullied and ineffable purity 
 of the divine attributes. 
 
THE 
 
 FIRST EPISTLE 
 
 OF 
 
 JOHN. 
 
 The reference to the impending destruction of Jerusalem contained 
 in the following Epistle, together with other internal marks, would 
 seem to place the date of its composition at a much earlier period 
 than that usually assigned to the Gospel written by the same apostle. 
 The coincidence of thought aud feehng in both those inspired works 
 strongly mark the identity of their author. The principle so urgently 
 enforced by the writer, that love to God and man is the only sound 
 basis of religion, and the only effectual motive to holiness and per- 
 fect obedience of heart, is precisely that which might be expected to 
 proceed from the disciple whose gentleness and affectionate warmth 
 of character conciliated to him in so remarkable a degree the attach- 
 ment of his divine Master. 
 
 1 That manifestation of the incarnate Word of life 
 which we have personally witnessed from its very 
 beginning ; which we have seen with our own eyes, 
 and have been permitted to look upon ; and which 
 
 2 our own hands have felt and handled, (for the great 
 Source of life was made visible to human eye-sight, 
 and we ourselves saw it, and accordingly bear our 
 witness to the certainty of its appearance, announc- 
 ing to you the revelation of that eternal self-existent 
 Being who was resident with the Father, but who 
 condescended to appear in a human shape upon the 
 
 9 
 
416 
 
 I. JOHN. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 earth,) that wonderful revelation, I repeat, which 3 
 we ourselves have been allowed to see and to hear \ 
 do we now announce unto you ; that the same 
 blessed community of intercourse which has been 
 vouchsafed to ourselves from the eternal Father and 
 from his Son Jesus Christ, may through us be ex- 
 tended to you also. And accordingly these things 4 
 we now write unto you, that your joy in Him may 
 be complete. 
 
 This then is the divine message which we have 5 
 received from his mouth, and which we now, as his 
 ministers, declare unto you ; namely, " that God is 
 the great Fountain of light ^ and purity, unsullied 
 by any shadow of darkness or pollution whatever." 
 If then we profess to have any community or parti- 6 
 cipation with his all-perfect nature, yet at the same 
 time indulge in works of darkness or impurity, such 
 professions, be assured, are a manifest contradiction, 
 and inconsistent with the truth. But if, on the 7 
 
 ^ St. John thus earnestly insists upon the fact of the 
 visible and substantial personality of our blessed Saviour 
 whilst upon earth, of which his own familiar intercourse 
 with him had rendered him an incontrovertible witness, for 
 the purpose of repelling the absurd theory of the Gnostics 
 already alluded to ; namely, that the supposed incarnate 
 and crucified Redeemer, was nothing more than an incor- 
 poreal phantom invested with the external appearance and 
 circumstances of human nature. 
 
 ^ The greater part of this Epistle appears to be little 
 more than a practical comment upon the valedictory ex- 
 hortations of our Lord, addressed to his disciples on the 
 eve of his crucifixion, as related by St. John in chapters 
 xiii. xiv. XV. xvi. and xvii. of his Gospel. The passage 
 before us in the text appears to be an allusion to the senti- 
 ments contained in verse 46 of the twelfth chapter. 
 
CHAP, IT. 
 
 1. JOHN. 
 
 417 
 
 other hand, we walk in that light and holiness in 
 which he himself makes his dwelling, we then have 
 fellowship with him and with one another, and 
 the blood of his Son Jesus Christ cleanses us from 
 
 8 all our sins. If indeed we say that we have no sin, 
 we deceive ourselves, and are ignorant of the real 
 
 9 debased condition of our fallen nature : but if, in- 
 stead of denying our sins, we humbly confess them, 
 He is faithful to his promises, and just in his dis- 
 pensations, to forgive us those sins, and to cleanse 
 
 10 us from all our unrighteousness. If, I say again, 
 we assert that we have not sinned, we are giving 
 the lie to his positive declarations, and are betray- 
 ing our ignorance of the great purpose of the Gospel 
 covenant. 
 
 2 My dear children, my object in writing to you 
 therefore is, to exhort you, in the first place, to 
 abstain from all manner of sin whatever ; and, 
 secondly, if through the infirmity of human nature 
 you fall into sin, then to recollect that we have 
 an Advocate with the Father, the righteous Jesus 
 
 2 Christ, and he is the propitiation for our sins ; and 
 not for ours only, but also for those of the whole 
 
 3 world. And accordingly, by this sure criterion we 
 may know whether we apprehend him and his holy 
 covenant aright ; namely, " if we keep his com- 
 
 4 mandments." He who asserts of himself that he 
 knows Christ, and yet wilfully violates his com- 
 mandments, is a liar, far removed from the know- 
 
 5 ledge of his truth. But he on the contrary, who 
 carefully observes and performs the injunctions of 
 his divine Master, is giving the most perfect and 
 satisfactory proof of the real fervour of his love. 
 By this rule then can we assuredly know whether 
 
 E e 
 
I. JOHN. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 we are really and truly his disciples ; since, if we G 
 are indeed sincere in our profession of attachment 
 to his service, we are by a natural consequence 
 bound to follow that example of perfect obedience 
 which he himself afforded during his continuance 
 upon earth. My brethren, this is no new command- 7 
 ment which I now give, but old as the very first 
 establishment of religion. To this original duty of 8 
 love to God, however, I have now to add also that 
 second and new commandment which constituted 
 one of the last injunctions delivered by our blessed 
 Redeemer whilst upon the earth, and which was so 
 beautifully exemplified in his conduct, as it should 
 be in yours ; for from henceforth the darkness of 
 imperfect revelation is passed away, and the true 
 light of holiness remains, in which it is our duty to 
 walk. " A new commandment," said he, " I give 
 to you ; that ye love one another ; as I have loved 
 you, that ye also love one another." (John xiii. 24.) 
 He then who flatters himself that he is in the light 9 
 of the Gospel dispensation, and yet hates his brother, 
 may be assured that he is still in his original dark- 
 ness. He who loves his brother walks in the light, lo 
 and, as being in the light, shall find no occasion of 
 stumbling ; but he who hates his brother is, I re- 1 1 
 peat, in darkness, walking about in the midst of it 
 unsteadily and uncertainly, because his intellectual 
 eyes are blinded. 
 
 My children, I write then now to you, to remind 12 
 you that your sins are forgiven you through faith in 
 the name and merits of Jesus Christ. 
 
 Fathers, I write to you to recal to your recol- 13 
 lection what yourselves have seen and heard of our 
 blessed Saviour during his residence on earth, and 
 
(.HAP. TI. 
 
 I. JOHN. 
 
 419 
 
 that you may conform your lives accordingly to that 
 glorious and perfect pattern. 
 
 Young men, I write to you, to encourage you with 
 the recollection that you have struggled with, and 
 conquered, the evil powers of this world. 
 
 To you, children, I have addressed myself, be- 
 cause you have been brought to the knowledge of 
 our Almighty Father. 
 
 14 To you, fathers, I have addressed myself, because, 
 having had an example of true perfection '' before 
 your eyes, you cannot but know how to adapt your- 
 selves to it. 
 
 To you, young men, I have addressed myself, 
 because you have yet the entire possession of your 
 faculties, and have already fought the good fight 
 against the powers of evil, as champions in the holy 
 cause of God. 
 
 15 Love not, I beseech you, the world, nor the 
 things of the world. He who fixes his affections 
 upon the world will never fix them, as he ought to 
 
 16 do, upon his heavenly Father also. For all the 
 things of this world, the carnal appetites, the dis- 
 play of magnificence, the insolence of wealth, are 
 
 17 of earth, and not of heaven, and the earth, as we 
 know, shall pass away, and all its attractions with 
 it. But he, whose study is to do the will of God, 
 is imperishable as that solid foundation on which 
 he builds his hopes. 
 
 18 My beloved children, the time of the final de- 
 struction of the Jewish nation, as foretold by our 
 Saviour, is drawing nigh. You remember the signs 
 by which he declared that you should be able to 
 know when that day was approaching. " Many," 
 said he, " shall come in my name, saying, I am 
 
 E e 2 
 
420 
 
 1. JOHN. 
 
 CHAP. 11. 
 
 Christ, and shall deceive many." (Matthew xxiv. 5.) 
 And accordingly many false Christs have appeared, 
 from which circumstance we may certainly conclude 
 that the time of which he prophesied is at hand. 
 Commencing with us as their teachers in the true 19 
 faith, these men were never sincere members of our 
 community. Had they from the first been real 
 partakers with us of the knowledge of the pure doc- 
 trine, they would have finally continued with us in 
 the profession of it : but their apostacy has brought 
 to light the original unsoundness of their preten- 
 sions. You however have received enough of the 20 
 assisting communications of the Holy Spirit to be in 
 no danger of being misled by their deceitful doc- 
 trines : I write not therefore to you at present for 21 
 the purpose of instructing you as to what the true 
 faith is, but because I feel assured of the accuracy of 
 your knowledge, and that you will immediately per- 
 ceive the falsehood of what these men would teach 
 as the word of revelation. Who then are these 22 
 false teachers against whom our blessed Saviour has 
 forewarned you ? Who but they who deny that 
 Jesus is the promised Messiah ? Who is the anti- 
 christ of whom he prophesied, but he who denies 
 both the Father and the Son ? for in denying the 23 
 Son he denies also the Father who bore witness of 
 him. 
 
 Be careful then to remain stedfast in the profes- 24 
 sion of that doctrine which you have received from 
 the first; for in abiding firmly by what you then 
 received as the word of truth, you are abiding in 
 the blessings of that covenant made with you by 
 the Son and the Father conjointly : and this is the 25 
 glorious promise which shall be inherited by those 
 
CHAP. III. 
 
 I. JOHN. 
 
 421 
 
 who shall thus manifest their obedience to him, 
 namely, " everlasting life." 
 
 26 Thus much I have thought it expedient to write 
 to you on the subject of the deceitful teachers who 
 
 27 are abroad ; but, as I have already observed, your 
 minds have been sufficiently illuminated by that 
 grace of the Holy Spirit which he has given to you 
 to supersede the necessity of any instruction which 
 it is in my power to bestow ; all that I will say 
 therefore is, that, as by that divine guidance you 
 have been enabled to embrace the true doctrine of 
 the Christian dispensation, so, I trust, you will be 
 enabled to remain unshaken to the last in the sin- 
 
 28 cere profession of it. Continue then, my children, 
 to acknowledge him as heretofore, for your Redeemer 
 and Saviour, so that when he shall return to judge 
 the world, we may stand before him with confidence, 
 as having nothing of which our consciences shall be 
 
 29 able to accuse us. And remember, that, as we are 
 assured that he is holy in all his ways, so those are 
 especially his sons, and are born of him, who are 
 careful to perform the works of holiness. 
 
 3 Observe also what must be the extent of the love 
 of our Almighty Father for us, in that he deigns to 
 be called by that endearing appellation, and to con- 
 sider us as his children. If then the world rejects 
 and hates us, the reason is manifest, for it also 
 
 2 rejected and hated him. Even in that respect 
 therefore, as suffering persecution from those who 
 persecuted him, we feel another proof that we are 
 at this moment his children. What indeed we shall 
 one day be, has not yet been revealed to mortal 
 flesh and blood. But we know at all events that 
 when he shall re-appear in glory, we shall also be 
 
422 
 
 1. JOHN. 
 
 CHAP. 111. 
 
 glorified with him, and shall be admitted to look 
 upon his glory face to face. Recollect, however, 3 
 that no one can reasonably cherish this sublime 
 hope, but he who earnestly strives to render him- 
 self worthy of being received into the divine pre- 
 sence, by rendering himself pure even as God 
 is pure. He who falls into wilful sin, falls also 4 
 at the same time into wilful rebellion, for sin is 
 the breach of God's laws, and as such is rebellion 
 against him. And we know that the very end 5 
 and object of Christ's mission to mankind was to 
 abolish sin, as we know also that his own nature is 
 perfectly sinless. He then who is truly his shuns, 6 
 and abstains from, sin ; whilst the deliberate sinner, 
 however he may deceive himself by false hopes, has 
 no real knowledge of, nor communication with, him. 
 Be not deceived then, my dear children, by the 7 
 dangerous delusion that you may hold by your 
 Christian faith whilst leading an immoral life ; but 
 be assured, that he only can be said to resemble his 
 divine Master in holiness, and to be himself holy, 
 who is such in the practical excellence of his 
 works. That man who continues in sin is the son 8 
 not of Christ, but of the devil ; for the devil was a 
 sinner from the beginning. And remember that it 
 was to break down the power of the devil that 
 Christ was made manifest in the flesh. He who is 9 
 reallv born of God abstains from sin, because he 
 partakes of the pure nature of his divine Father: 
 his former evil appetites cannot continue in his new 
 and regenerated character. You can then be at no lo 
 loss to discriminate between the sons of God and 
 the sons of the devil. That man cannot be the son 
 of God who leads an immoral life ; nor again can 
 
CHAP. III. 
 
 I. JOHN. 
 
 423 
 
 he who does not sincerely and from his heart love 
 
 1 1 his brother ; for such was the positive command 
 conveyed by our blessed Master in his parting 
 
 12 valediction, "that we love one another." By the 
 hatred which induced Cain to murder his brother, 
 that person showed himself to be the true child of 
 the devil. And why did he murder him ? For a 
 reason which none but the devil could have sug- 
 gested : because his own works were evil, and those 
 
 13 of his brother were righteous. Wonder not then 
 my brethren, if in like manner an evil world hate 
 
 14 and persecute you. We, on the other hand, have 
 within our own breasts a sure and infallible test 
 that we are the children of God, and have passed 
 from death to life, in that we love our brethren. 
 He therefore who feels that he wants this true mark 
 of a Christian disposition, may be assured that he 
 
 15 still remains in the death of unrighteousness. The 
 man who hates his brother is in disposition, if not 
 in act, a murderer : and you know that no murderer 
 
 16 has the promise of eternal life. The great proof 
 which our gracious Redeemer gave us of the im- 
 mensity of his love was in that he laid down his 
 life for us ^ ; and we his disciples ought in like man- 
 ner to be prepared to follow his example, and to 
 
 17 do the same for our brethren. When therefore one 
 calling himself a disciple of Christ possesses this 
 world's goods, and yet can look upon the necessities 
 of his brother without a disposition to administer to 
 his relief, can we say of that man, that he is an 
 imitator of that glorious pattern of disinterested love 
 displayed in the conduct of his divine Master ? 
 
 ^ See St. John's Gospel, xv, 13. 
 
424 
 
 1. JOHN. 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 Let then our love, my beloved cliildren, be not 18 
 the mere external profession of kindness, but the 
 sincere love of the heart, displaying itself in works 
 of mercy and good will; and so shall we feel 19 
 assured of the soundness of our religious disposi- 
 tion, and shall look up to him with confidence. 
 For if our hearts and consciences condemn us as 20 
 deficient in this foremost Christian excellence, we 
 may be assured that he who made our hearts, and 
 who dictates to our consciences, will not acquit us. 
 But if our consciences acquit us, we may assert 21 
 with confidence that God will not condemn us. 
 
 Remember also that our only sure and reasonable 22 
 ground for hoping that he will grant any petitions 
 which we may make to him upon our own account, 
 is when w^e are earnestly disposed to obey his will, 
 and to do such things as may be pleasing to him : 
 but we know that his special commandment has 23 
 been that we should repose our whole trust in 
 the name of his Son our Saviour Jesus Christ, 
 and also that we should love one another ; ac- 
 cording to that same Saviour's positive injunction. 
 He then who keeps these commandments dwells 24 
 in God and God in him ; and this is the proof 
 that God really dwells in us ; namely, the holi- 
 ness of the disposition which his blessed Spirit excites 
 ivithin us. 
 
 By this infallible rule then, my beloved, judge of 4 
 the real character of those various impulses which 
 profess to be the dictation of God's Holy Spirit. It 
 is not every one who imagines that he acts by im- 
 mediate inspiration, who in reality does so. On 
 the contrary, many false pretenders and false pro- 
 phets have gone forth into the world. Let this then 2 
 
CHAP. IV. 
 
 I. JOHN. 
 
 425 
 
 be the criterion by which to guide your judgment. 
 " Every one who teaches that the Son of' God was 
 made very and actual man for our redemption, speaks 
 according to the infalhble suggestions of the holy 
 
 3 Spirit of truth." On the contrary, he who would 
 set up a philosophy of human invention in opposi- 
 tion to this doctrine, and would teach you, as many 
 heretics have lately done, that Christ did not ac- 
 tually exist in the flesh, speaks not by the dictation 
 of the Spirit of God, but by that of Antichrist, of 
 whose coming you have been forewarned, and who 
 
 4 is already commencing his career of deceit. You, 
 my dear children, are of God, and have therefore 
 been able to withstand the plausible arguments of 
 these deceitful teachers ; for the divine Spirit which 
 instructs you is more powerful than the spirit of 
 this world from which they derive their false opi- 
 
 5 nions. They are men of this world, and conse- 
 quently prefer their own carnal speculations and 
 human wisdom to the spiritual knowledge which is 
 from heaven ; and accordingly the sons of this 
 
 6 world lend a willing ear to them. We, on the con- 
 trary are of God, and he therefore who understands 
 what God's will really is, hearkens to us ; whilst 
 those who are ignorant of that will turn away from 
 us. Make this then your rule, by which you may 
 distinguish the dictates of the Spirit of truth from 
 those of the spirit of error. 
 
 7 Above all things then, my brethren, let us love 
 one another, recollecting that love proceeds from 
 God : and that it is by the fervency and purity of 
 the love displayed by each individual that we feel 
 assured that he is of God, and duly apprehends the 
 
 8 will of God. Be assured, that he who is incapable 
 
426 
 
 I. JOHN. 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 of the kindly affections, is no less incapable of duly 
 apprehending God, for " God is love." And to such 9 
 an extent has our heavenly Father manifested the 
 immensity of his love for us his children, that he 
 sent his only-begotten Son into the world, that we 
 might obtain immortality though him : and yet the lo 
 more astonishing was this signal display of the 
 divine benevolence, in that it was not in return for 
 any previous love of ours towards himself, but was 
 a free communication of gratuitous love on his 
 part, in giving his Son as an expiation for our sins, 
 at a time when his anger might have been justly 
 provoked against us. If then, my beloved friends, 11 
 such was God's love towards us his then rebel- 
 lious children, much more ought we to love one 
 another. No man has ever been admitted to see 12 
 God, that he should love him with that warm in- 
 timacy of feeling ^ which is due to our natural con- 
 
 * The indulgent allowance which is uniformly displayed 
 throughout the inspired writings for the inevitable infirmi- 
 ties of our nature, affords a striking trait of the divine 
 benevolence by which they are dictated. Nothing can be 
 more certain, whether we appeal to the light of human 
 reason, or to the revealed word of Scripture, than that 
 God is, in his perfect and unsullied nature, an object in- 
 finitely more worthy of the most ardent love than any 
 created being can possibly be supposed to be. Still, how- 
 ever, our limited feehngs and faculties are not in this life 
 adapted for the full reception of these abstract impressions. 
 Love, such as we must feel it so long as we continue to be 
 mere human creatures, must ever be too much the result 
 of unreserved familiarity, and the interchange of mutual 
 good offices, to be strictly applicable to our relation with 
 regard to our Creator. The kindliness of our aifections, 
 however, in the intercourse of society, and in the exercise 
 
CHAP. IV. 
 
 I. JOHN. 
 
 427 
 
 nexions on earth : but we are assured that, if we 
 love one another with a Christian benevolence, the 
 Spirit of God abides in us, and that the fervency of 
 such affection will be accepted by him from us, as 
 though it had been directly addressed towards him- 
 self. 
 
 13 In proportion then as w^e feel that we possess the 
 illumination of his Holy Spirit in the perception of 
 truth, and are actuated by those kindly affections 
 which we know to be essential to his nature, we 
 may confidently assert that we are one with him, 
 
 14 and he with us. I who now address you, have 
 been permitted personally to witness, and to bear 
 my testimony to, the astonishing fact of the actual 
 
 15 incarnation of our blessed Redeemer ; he then who 
 abides by this the true faith, and acknowledges 
 Jesus to be the Son of God, may be assured that 
 
 16 God dwells in him, and he in God. I have also 
 myself personally witnessed the immensity of the 
 loving-kindness of that gracious Being ; and I can 
 therefore bear my testimony that God's very essence 
 
 of our domestic duties, is, as the apostle observes, at all 
 events, a sure criterion of an original predisposition to 
 that more perfect love of God, which a more adequate 
 apprehension of his adorable and attractive attributes 
 may in a purer state of being be expected to produce. 
 The sentiment therefore here expressed is in exact accord- 
 ance with the assertion of our Saviour with reference to 
 works of charity, which, though not the actual fulfilment 
 of the first and great commandment, will nevertheless, he 
 assures us, be accepted by him as such. " Verily I say 
 unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the 
 least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." 
 Matthew xxv. 40. 
 
428 
 
 1. JOHN. 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 is love, and that every individual who is actuated 
 by a similar spirit of love to him, and of mercy 
 and kindness to mankind, in like manner dwells in 
 God, and God in him. 
 
 The glorious result of this blessed disposition of 17 
 love towards God and man is, that we are enabled 
 to look forward with hope and confidence to the 
 tremendous day of judgment, in the conviction 
 that we have followed his divine example, and 
 pursued our way through this world treading faith- 
 fully in his footsteps; for, where such feelings 18 
 of affection exist, apprehension is out of the ques- 
 tion, since it is impossible that we should perfectly 
 love ^ a Being whom we dread ; the sentiment 
 of fear being an anticipation of punishment, not 
 of mercy, and consequently being incompatible 
 with that fervent love which delights to dwell upon 
 
 ^ It cannot be doubted that much serious injury in after 
 life has been occasioned to the religious feelings of many 
 truly well-disposed persons, by the indiscreet mode of con- 
 veying spiritual instruction adopted by their early teachers. 
 To instil the unmixed terrors of religion, and to dwell 
 exclusively upon the formidable attributes of the Almighty, 
 is perhaps the most immediately operative appeal which 
 we can make to the minds of young persons, but, like 
 other powerful stimulants, it is not always, if ever, the best. 
 In a breast which has thus been taught from early infancy 
 to shrink with apprehension from the contemplation of the 
 Supreme Being, that affection of the heart which is the 
 only legitimate source of true piety and good morals, is 
 necessarily a plant of slow and unwilling growth. The 
 first appeal uniformly made to our feelings throughout the 
 sacred writings is that of conciliation and kindness ; the 
 last, and by far the least frequent in its occurrence, the 
 threat of punishment. 
 
 9 
 
CHAP. V. 
 
 I. JOHN. 
 
 429 
 
 the more gracious attributes of tlie object of its 
 
 19 worship. Our love for God is a natural conse- 
 quence on our part of our consciousness of the 
 immensity of the blessings which we have pre- 
 viously received from Him, differing in intensity, 
 but not in nature, from that with which we repay 
 all acts of kindness which we may have experienced 
 
 20 from our fellow creatures. He then who asserts 
 that he loves God, yet at the same time feels no 
 kindly affection towards his own brother, is a liar ; 
 for it is impossible that he should feel any real 
 attachment to his Creator whom he has not seen 
 if his heart warm with no sentiments of attach- 
 
 21 ment to his brother whom he has seen. And this 
 accordingly is our blessed Redeemer's express in- 
 junction, " that he who loves God, love his brother 
 also." 
 
 5 If then we believe that Jesus is the Son of God, 
 and if we love God with all that fervour which his 
 mercies are entitled to claim at our hands, it follows 
 as a necessary consequence that we love the Son 
 with the same affection which we cherish for the 
 Father : and as the love which we bear to the 
 Father extends also to his eternal and divine Son, 
 so ought it also to descend to his mortal children, 
 
 2 his servants upon the earth. But the best proof 
 which we can afford both to ourselves and others 
 that we do cherish these feelings of universal love 
 for God's creatures is, that we love God himself, 
 and feel earnestly disposed to obey his command- 
 
 3 ments. This obedience is the natural and neces- 
 sary consequence of our love, provided that love be 
 sincere. Nor is the obligation to a holy life which 
 such love imposes upon us a painful or irksome 
 
430 
 
 I. JOHN. 
 
 ( HAP. V. 
 
 duty. Every one who is really regenerate and born 4 
 of God is detached from the false pleasures of this 
 world, and able to triumph over their temptations : 
 and the strength which he possesses for the achieve- 
 ment of this victory is the consequence of his im- 
 plicit faith in God's promises. Who then is he who 5 
 thus succeeds in vanquishing the powers of this 
 world ? it is he who firmly believes that Jesus is the 
 Son of God, and the Saviour of mankind. This is 6 
 He who came to preach salvation not by the purify- 
 ing waters of baptism only ; but also by the expia- 
 tory sacrifice of his precious blood : and God's holy 
 Spirit, the blessed Spirit of truth, bore witness to 
 the reality of his mission \ To our belief in him 8 
 
 ' I have ventured in this place to omit the well-known 
 controverted passage respecting the testimony of the three 
 heavenly Witnesses, under tlie idea that, whatever may 
 be our opinion respecting the real state of that controversy, 
 at all events the authenticity of the clause in question has 
 been rendered sufficiently problematical to disqualify it 
 from being any longer cited as an authority in support of 
 the Trinitarian doctrine. In fact, whilst such superfluity 
 of proof of that great fundamental tenet of our faith is to 
 be found through so large a portion of the New Testament, 
 (for, without that previous admission, much of what we 
 read in the inspired volume would be contradictory and un- 
 intelligible,) it appears to me that by pertinaciously cling- 
 ing to an equivocal and disputed text, we run the risk of 
 doing injury to the holy cause which we are anxious to 
 support. After the very elaborate investigation of this 
 point of biblical criticism, which has been almost unremit- 
 tingly kept up, from the date of Person's celebrated letters 
 to the present time, it is scarcely to be hoped that any new 
 light remains to be thrown upon the subject ; and it can- 
 not, I think, be denied, that thus far the preponderance of 
 proof is against the authenticity of the clause in question. 
 
CHAP. V. 
 
 1. JOHN. 
 
 431 
 
 then we have this threefold and concurrent testi- 
 mony; namely, that of the Holy Spirit, by whom 
 we are illuminated and sanctified ; our baptism, by 
 which we are regenerated and made partakers of his 
 covenant ; and his sacrifice upon the cross, to which 
 we and all mankind look for justification and the 
 
 9 remission of our sins ^ We have not only there- 
 fore the testimony of his mortal followers to the 
 reality of his person and divine mission, but that 
 far more cogent one also of the Almighty Being 
 himself : for such testimony did he bear when he 
 pronounced of him the words, " this is my beloved 
 
 10 Son." He then who believes in the Son of God, 
 has the witness of that Spirit which illuminates 
 his understanding, and suggests to him all good 
 desires as the seal and guarantee of his belief ; 
 
 This admission, however, can subtract little or nothing 
 from the weight of testimony supplied by the whole context 
 of Scripture in support of the Trinitarian tenets. That 
 such was the faith of the primitive Church cannot be 
 seriously doubted by persons at all conversant with the 
 history of that period. Whence then were those opinions 
 derived ? Undoubtedly from the obvious tenor and con- 
 text of the apostolical writings, and from the oral commu- 
 nications of their inspired authors. The passage in ques- 
 tion is supposed to have been originally a marginal comment, 
 which was subsequently by mistake admitted into the text : 
 but that very supposition necessarily implies, that the doc- 
 trine alluded to had been previously assented to as an 
 acknowledged scriptural truth on other, and entirely inde- 
 pendent, grounds. 
 
 ^ I am far from satisfied that I have given the right in- 
 terpretation of this difficult passage, but I am not aware of 
 any other mode of rendering it more consistent with the 
 original expressions, and the general tenor of the argument. 
 
432 
 
 1. JOHN. 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 whilst he who believes not, makes that blessed 
 Spirit a liar, in denying that solemn testimony 
 to be true w^hich God himself gave to the reality 
 of his Son's person and mission. By that infallible ll 
 testimony we are assured that God has given to 
 us eternal life, and that the gift of eternal life 
 is communicated to us through the merits and re- 
 demption of his Son. He then, who is one with 12 
 him in the blessed communion of the Son, has life, 
 and he who shares not in that blessed })articipation 
 has not life. 
 
 These things I have written to you, that you 13 
 might all of you feel confident that you have the 
 infallible promise of eternal life, through faith in 
 the name of the Son of God. 
 
 We are moreover unhesitatingly convinced, that, 14 
 if we ask any thing of him according to his will, 
 as communicated to us by his blessed Son, he will 
 favourably hear us : and if he favourably hear us, 15 
 we are no less confident that we shall receive at 
 his hands the object of our petitions. If then any 16 
 man see his brother falling into sin, such sin I 
 mean as the infirmity of a heart not entirely hard- 
 ened to the feelings of Christian piety may be 
 supposed capable of falling into, let him pray God 
 for him, and be assured that to such a person so 
 prayed for God will be prevailed upon to restore the 
 assisting grace of his Holy Spirit. There is indeed 
 a deadliness of sin so fearful, that we can have 
 nothing to do with it but to leave it to God's own 
 mysterious judgment, and where any prayers ^ of 
 
 ^ The apostle appears in this passage to have had in his 
 mind the words of our Saviour as recorded in chap. xvii. 
 
CHAP. V. 
 
 1. JOHN. 
 
 433 
 
 17 ours would come amiss. But there are gradations 
 in sin ; under every shape and degree indeed it 
 is offensive to God, but still there are inferior 
 stages of wickedness for which, as the consequence 
 of human weakness, he may without impropriety 
 be entreated by us, and which he will not consider 
 
 18 incompatible with the display of his mercy. Still 
 recollect, however, at the same time, that the truly 
 regenerated Christian has all his original sinful 
 propensities quenched in the purifying influence of 
 a Christian disposition, and commits no deliberate mid 
 wilful sin whatever, but keeps watch over his own 
 conduct, and repels by constant vigilance the as- 
 
 19 saults of the tempter. And such we are assured 
 that we are, having been called to the regeneration 
 of the Gospel covenant through faith in Christ, 
 whilst as yet the great bulk of mankind lie still 
 
 20 immersed in the deadliness of their own sins. We 
 know that he, our blessed Redeemer, the Son of 
 God, has visited us, and has given to us knowledge 
 
 ver. 9. of St. John's Gospel. Should there appear to bo 
 any harshness in the sentiment it conveys, it should on the 
 other hand be recollected, that with the possible uncove- 
 nanted mercies of God we have nothing to do, because 
 nothing on that subject has been revealed to us. As 
 Christians we look for redemption to the covenant of faith 
 in Christ only ; and it were therefore as incompatible with 
 our profession as it would be presumptuous, to pray for the 
 salvation of our brethren by any other means than the one 
 declared to us by Scripture. To pray for the infidel, that 
 he may be brought back to Christ's fold and be saved, is 
 our duty as Christians : to pray that he may be saved not- 
 withstanding his perseverance in infidelity^ would be the 
 sacrifice of consistency for the sake of an unauthorized and 
 unscriptural liberality. 
 
 F f 
 
434 
 
 1. JOHN. 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 and understanding of him the True One : in whom 
 and through whom (the True One, the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, the Son of God) we all have our existence. 
 This is indeed the true God and everlasting life. 
 My beloved children, abstain from all community 21 
 with idols. Amen. 
 
 It is remarkable that no allusion is made in the preced- 
 ing Epistle to the name of its writer, but its identity in 
 style and sentiment with many parts of the Gospel of St, 
 John affords irrefragable testimony that both works are the 
 production of the same author. 
 
THE 
 
 SECOND EPISTLE 
 
 OF 
 
 JOHN . 
 
 INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 
 
 1 The Elder to the Lady, the chosen servant of God, 
 and to her children, whom I love in the truth of 
 Christian sincerity, (and not I only, but all others 
 
 2 also of the community of believers, being joint par- 
 takers in the covenant of the divine truth in this 
 world, as we trust that we shall also be through all 
 
 3 eternity,) grace, mercy, and peace be to you from 
 God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 the Son of the Father, in love and in truth. 
 
 In this short Epistle St, John warns some lady of eminence, one of his 
 own converts, against the seductions of the Gnostic heretics who 
 had begun to prevail extensively in the Christian Church. The 
 sentiments and arguments are nearly the same with those which are 
 more copiously developed in the preceding Epistle. 
 
 4 It was with extreme pleasure that I perceived 
 lately in the conduct of some of your children with 
 whom I have had communication, that you and they 
 
 ^ Eusebius seems inclined to believe that the second and 
 third Epistles of John were not written by our Lord's 
 favourite disciple of that name, but by another J ohn, desig- 
 Ff 2 
 
436 
 
 IT. JOHN. 
 
 continue to walk perseveringly in the practice of 
 that true and holy doctrine which has been revealed 
 to us from above. And now, Lady, I repeat to 5 
 you not a new and fresh commandment, but one 
 which is the very foundation of every Christian's 
 belief ; namely, the great rule of our blessed Master, 
 that you " love one another remembering at the 6 
 same time that such sincerity of love as I now 
 recommend is best shown by our living in all 
 respects in obedience to the divine will, and as 
 faithful servants of Christ. Now the divine will 
 is, that you preserve inviolate the pure doctrine of 
 revelation in all points, precisely as you first re- 
 ceived it from the fountain head, namely, from us 
 the immediate followers and apostles of Clnist. 
 For many deceivers and false teachers have lately 7 
 gone forth into the world, who have ingrafted 
 their own false and ungrounded speculations upon 
 the true Gospel, denying that our blessed Saviour 
 did ever really appear in material flesh and blood, 
 and in all the actual circumstances of the human 
 nature. Beware, I beseech you, of every such 8 
 teacher, as being a deceiver and antichrist ; and 
 look carefully to the soundness of your own faith, 
 that my laborious instruction in times past may 
 not be lost upon you, but that I may have the 
 gratification of seeing it produce in you the fruit 
 of a sound and orthodox belief. Be assured, that 9 
 
 nated by the surname of " Presbyter,"' who also resided 
 and was buried in the city of Ephesus. The internal evi- 
 dence, however, of the second Epistle, which in its style 
 and sentiments bears a close analogy with the first, is 
 strongly oj)posod to this latter theory. 
 
11. JOHN. 
 
 487 
 
 every one who innovates upon that peculiar doc- 
 trine, for the truth of which we have our Saviour's 
 own positive declaration, is in hostility with God ; 
 whilst he, who carefully abides by the truth as 
 we first received it from our gracious Master, has 
 the blessing of both the Father and the Son abiding 
 
 10 upon him. Should then such a false teacher as I 
 have now described come to you, and attempt to 
 inculcate his heretical opinions, receive not that per- 
 son into your house, nor salute him as a friend or a 
 
 1 1 brother ; as by so doing you would be, at least indi- 
 rectly, giving your sanction to his mischievous and 
 false opinions. 
 
 12 I have many other instructions to give you, but 
 shall not convey them in writing, as I hope to be 
 enabled to visit you personally, and to have the 
 gratification of a free and unchecked conversation 
 
 13 with you upon those points. The children of your 
 excellent sister salute you. 
 
THE 
 
 THIRD EPISTLE 
 
 OF 
 
 JOHN. 
 
 The aged apostle to the beloved Caius, whom I 1 
 love in the fellowship of the covenant of truth, 
 greeting. 
 
 My beloved brother, I earnestly pray to God that 2 
 you may enjoy all temporal health and prosperity 
 in the same proportion in which you possess the 
 gifts of spiritual holiness : for it was with no small 3 
 pleasure that I recently heard from some of our 
 brethren of your exemplary perseverance in the 
 profession of the Gospel truth. Believe me, the 4 
 highest gratification which this life can afford me is 
 to hear that my scholars, whom I have sedulously 
 instructed in the doctrines of the Christian revela- 
 tion, continue stedfastly to adhere to their confes- 
 sion of that holy dispensation. 
 
 The many acts of kindness, my dear friend, 5 
 which you have performed, both towards our Christ- 
 ian brethren, and to others, are such as are in 
 perfect accordance with the benevolent character of 
 our religion, and as such have been honourably and 6 
 gratefully reported to the various members of our 
 Church. You will do well in persevering to display 
 the same beneficent disposition whenever an oppor- 
 
III. JOHN. 
 
 439 
 
 tunitj shall be afforded you, by your hospitable 
 attentions to such of our members as accident may 
 
 7 throw in your way : for recollect that their wander- 
 ings are for the service of Christ, and that conse- 
 quently they can have neither claim nor expectation 
 from those of a different persuasion from ourselves. 
 
 8 Of course therefore the duty is the more incumbent 
 upon us to show them every possible kindness, and 
 in so doing to contribute to the more easy propa- 
 gation of the doctrines of the Gospel which they are 
 commissioned to preach. 
 
 9 I have written to the assembly of the Church 
 respecting my own intentions ; but Diotrephes, 
 whose ambitious spirit is unwilling to give place to 
 one who would come with authority superior to his 
 own, is endeavouring to render my design abortive, 
 
 10 and to prevent my being received by them. Where- 
 fore, when I arrive, I shall take proper notice of his 
 conduct, and of his calumnious language against 
 me ; especially as I hear, that, not contented with 
 his hostility to my own person, he has set his face 
 against receiving the other brethren, and has even 
 gone so far as to expel from the Church such per- 
 sons as in contradiction to his injunctions have 
 treated them with kindness. 
 
 11 Let not your own conduct, my friend, be in- 
 fluenced by so pernicious an example, but persevere 
 in doing as you have already done : being assured 
 that a benevolent disposition is of God, and that a 
 harsh and inhospitable character is in direct hostility 
 towards him. 
 
 12 Of Demetrius I hear from all quarters a favour- 
 able report, not only respecting the kindness of his 
 disposition, but also as regards the stability of his 
 
440 
 
 TIL JOHN. 
 
 religious belief; and I myself, who as you know 
 have had many opportunities of forming a correct 
 judgment of him, can vouch for the justice of such 
 reports. 
 
 I have much to communicate, but shall abstain 13 
 from doing so in writing : I hope however shortly 
 to see you, and to communicate with you per- 
 sonally. 
 
 Peace be with you. Your friends in this place 14 
 salute you : salute my friends in your neighbourhood 
 severally by name from myself. 
 
THE 
 
 GENERAL EPISTLE 
 
 OF 
 
 JUDE. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 
 
 1 JuDE, the servant of Jesus Christ and brother of 
 James, to the brethren sanctified by God the Fa- 
 ther, and set apart as chosen followers of Jesus 
 
 2 Christ, — mercy, and peace, and love be multiplied to 
 you. 
 
 The Epistk of St. Jude, like the second of St. Peter, to which it bears 
 a remarkable resemblance, and the first and second of St. John, is 
 directed chiefly against the then prevalent heresy of the Gnostics, 
 and more especially against that branch of them which inclined to 
 the impious doctrines of Antinomianism. The express reference in 
 verse 18, to the passage 2 Peter iii. 3. and the identity of the allu- 
 sions contained in both Epistles to writings then extant, but which 
 have been subsequently lost, clearly mark the similarity of purpose 
 in the writers of both compositions, and the strong anxiety with 
 which each of them respectively contemplated the first commencing 
 symptoms of corruption in the pure doctrines of Christianity. 
 
 3 Being extremely anxious, my beloved friends, to 
 write to you on the subject of our common hopes of 
 salvation, I felt the necessity still more urgent, 
 when, from the circumstances of the times, I per- 
 ceived myself called upon to exhort you more par- 
 
442 
 
 JUDE. 
 
 ticularly to avoid the dangerous and seductive here- 
 sies which are now abroad, and to cling to that 
 pure form of doctrine which was delivered by 
 our gracious Redeemer to his apostles, and by 
 them communicated to mankind. For certain false 4 
 teachers have lately crept into the Church, against 
 the abomination of whose principles you have long 
 been prophetically forewarned, who have had the 
 daring impiety to represent the holy covenant of 
 mercy as sanctioning the grossest licentiousness, ^ 
 and to deny our only Lord and Master Jesus Christ. 
 Accordingly I have been induced to interpose this 5 
 solemn warning, and to remind you of the well- 
 known judgments which befel our apostate fore- 
 fathers, who, after having been miraculously res- 
 cued by the intervening arm of the Almighty from 
 Egyptian bondage, finally perished in the wilder- 
 ness through their unbelief. In like manner we 6 
 know, that even the ^ angelic beings, who acted 
 unworthily of their high condition, and contuma- 
 ciously abandoned the stations to which they were 
 appointed, are at this moment reserved in ever- 
 lasting chains and darkness for the final judgment 
 of the great day. Thus also ^ Sodom and Go- 7 
 morrha, with the other cities in their neighbour- 
 hood, whose abominable licentiousness called down 
 upon them the infliction, of divine vengeance, are 
 even now in their present smoking desolation a 
 standing example of the severity of God's judg- 
 ments upon sin. Yet with these awful proofs before 8 
 them of his irreconcileable abhorrence of all im- 
 purity, these profligate teachers, bewildered in their 
 
 See 2 Peter ii. 4. 
 
 ' 2 Peter ii. 6. 
 
JUDE. 
 
 own dreams and misconceptions, give their sanction 
 to the indulgence of every impure appetite ; despise 
 the restraint of wholesome authority, and calum- 
 niate the rulers ^ whom God has set over them. 
 
 9 (Yet it is related of Michael the archangel, when he 
 contended with the devil about the body of Moses, 
 that even he dared not to bring against him a rail- 
 ing accusation ^ but left him to God's judgment, 
 
 10 saying only, " The Lord rebuke thee.") But these 
 men speak contemptuously of institutions of which 
 they have not the understanding to perceive the 
 excellence, and following, like the beasts^ of the 
 field, every impulse of reckless appetite, run blindly 
 
 1 1 along in the road of perdition. Woe unto them ! 
 for they have walked in the path of Cain ; they 
 have forsaken their duty for a bribe like the seducer 
 Balaam, and fallen into the destruction which befel 
 
 12 the self-willed and rebellious Corah. These are they 
 who turn your feasts * of Christian love into a pro- 
 fane and intemperate revel ; men, who, like clouds 
 without rain, seduce you with vain expectations 
 never to be realized ; like trees whose fruit withers 
 before it is ripe, and which are rooted up and 
 
 13 thrown away as incurably barren : like raging waves 
 of the sea, tossed about by their own malignant and 
 disgraceful passions, and like the meteors of the 
 night, blazing for a moment, only to be extinguished 
 
 14 in perpetual darkness. It is related of Enoch, the 
 seventh in descent from Adam, that he prophesied 
 of the coming of these traducers of good morals, 
 and of the infliction of God's vengeance upon them. 
 
 ' 2 Peter ii. 10. 
 2 Peter ii. 12. 
 
 ' 2 Peter ii. 11. 
 ' 2 Peter ii. 13. 
 
444 
 
 JUDE. 
 
 " ^ Behold," said he, " the Lord cometh with his 
 innumerable army of saints, to execute judgment 15 
 upon them, to convict them of their impiety, and 
 of all their deeds of abominable wickedness which 
 they have committed, and of all the licentious so- 
 phistry with which they have advocated the cause 
 of sin, and the violation of his commandments." 
 These are fretful and impatient complainers, slaves 16 
 to their own selfish lusts, contumacious in their 
 intercourse with their superiors; yet cringing adu- 
 lators of those from whom they hope to derive 
 profit. But, my beloved friends, recollect the early 17 
 warnings which you received from the apostles of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ against the seductions of these 
 men : particularly the description given of them by 
 Peter in his Epistle, where he declares that " there 18 
 shall arise in the latter ages a scofliing and licentious 
 race, who shall walk in the unrestrained indulg- 
 ence of their own ungodly lusts." These are they 19 
 who are now striving to raise a schism in the 
 Church ; slaves to every animal appetite, and entirely 
 void of spiritual righteousness. 
 
 Be it yours, my beloved, on the contrary, to 20 
 build up with care the solid fabric of your faith, to 
 pray for the illumination and aid of God's Holy 
 
 ^ These words are a quotation from the apocryphal book 
 of Enoch, the original of which has been long lost, but of 
 which an Ethiopic MS. version exists in the Bodleian Li- 
 brary. The following is the exact form of the passage, as 
 giveii by Archbishop Laurence in his translation of that 
 singular work : — Behold, he comes with ten thousands of 
 his saints, to execute judgment upon tlicm, and destroy the 
 wicked, and reprove the carnal,' for every thing which the 
 sinful and ungodly have done, and committed against him.'' 
 
 9 
 
JUDE. 
 
 445 
 
 Spirit, to cherish the sentiment of fervent love and 
 
 21 gratitude to your Almighty Father, and to look 
 forward v^ith humble confidence to that mercy of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ, through which we hope to 
 
 22 arrive at everlasting life. As to the seducers against 
 whom I have placed you upon your guard, let your 
 conduct towards them be regulated by the various 
 degrees of their guilt : the less culpable admonish 
 
 23 with compassion for their weakness, the more hard- 
 ened censure with detestation of their deeper guilt, 
 snatching them at all hazards, if it be possible, from 
 the fire of God's wrath, and detesting the very con- 
 tact of the garments which have been infected by 
 the deadly pollutions of the flesh. 
 
 24 Now to Him who is able to preserve your feet 
 from stumbling, and to place you before his glorious 
 tribunal in joyful confidence, and without blemish, 
 
 25 to the one God our Saviour, be ascribed glory, and 
 majesty, and power, and dominion, through our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, for ever and ever. Amen. 
 
 / 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 Having now brought to a conclusion this exposition of the 
 ApostoHcal Epistles, I am desirous before I finally take 
 leave of the subject, to venture a few brief remarks upon 
 the peculiar character of the doctrines which they contain, 
 and upon the nature of the evidence which they afford for 
 the confirmation of our faith. The first impression which 
 their perusal must, I think, force upon the mind of every 
 impartial person is, the perfect sincerity and earnestness of 
 their several writers ? — the second is, the actual identity of 
 the doctrines, both theoretical and practical, which, under a 
 somewhat dissimilar exterior, they will upon a very slight 
 examination be found respectively to inculcate. We have 
 in these interesting compositions, it should be observed, the 
 recorded sentiments of five distinct persons, all of them lia- 
 ble, like ourselves, to be impressed with those various pecu- 
 liarities of feeling and of early association, which on all 
 important topics, and more especially on the paramount 
 question of religion, have a tendency to separate one man 
 from another by encouraging the indulgence of favourite 
 theories, and exclusive habits of thought. Yet such not- 
 withstanding is the harmony of idea which pervades these 
 writings, that it would, I conceive, be impossible to produce 
 from them one single line or sentiment which might not 
 with perfect consistency be transferred from the page of its 
 actual author to that of any one of the four others where 
 the same subject shall have been discussed. A character- 
 istic difference of manner and a predisposition in each of 
 
448 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 them to dwell with a certain degree of preference upon this 
 or that particular branch of diristian morals, is indeed per- 
 ceptible throughout ; but this is a diversity as desirable in 
 itself as, from the nature of the human mind, it is inevitable. 
 That five different persons, each of them severally occupied 
 in pourtraying the mysterious Christian scheme, should have 
 varied somewhat from one another in the lights and shades, 
 the tone and colouring of their works, was of course to be 
 expected ; whilst their perfect concurrence in the delinea- 
 tion of the main features affords the strongest proof of the 
 real accuracy of the drawing. Accordingly it is this very 
 " discordia concors,'' this combination of diversity of cha- 
 racter with real unity of purpose, which renders the import- 
 ant portion of the sacred writings now under discussion at 
 once so irrefragable an evidence of the truth of revelation, 
 and so highly and so practically useful as a rule of Christian 
 holiness. Had it pleased the wisdom of Providence to have 
 restricted the communication of his will conveyed in the 
 volume of the New Testament to the four books of the 
 Gospel and that of the Acts of the Apostles only, it would 
 perhaps be difficult to show that, in point of abstract know- 
 ledge of the great principles of our faith, we should have 
 laboured under any actual deficiency, which the additional 
 possession of the Apostolical Epistles has removed. Yet, 
 even if disposed to make this concession in its fullest extent, 
 every Christian who is really anxious for his souFs improve- 
 ment will feel truly grateful to that merciful Being, who 
 has afforded to him so vast a store of spiritual wisdom as 
 that which is contained in these latter writings. Had they 
 never existed, or never come down to us, we should still 
 indeed have possessed the knowledge of the fundamental 
 conditions and of the main principles of the Christian reve- 
 lation : we should even then have been taught how perfectly 
 valueless in the sight of God are the most meritorious human 
 actions as a means of salvation ; how indispensably requisite 
 is the strengthening aid of the Divine grace for our fallen 
 nature, how unattainable man's final justification by any 
 agency short of the infinite merits and expiation of Christ. 
 But such is the waywardness of our moral and intellectual 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 449 
 
 constitution, that general positions and abstract truths have 
 Httle effect upon our practical habits. Passion and preju- 
 dice can incapacitate us as effectually for the proper appli- 
 cation of a rule, as for its orginal discovery. It was there- 
 fore a wise and benevolent arrangement of Providence, 
 which ordained that our religious instruction should be 
 transmitted to us, not so much in the form of a technical 
 system of philosophy, as in that of successive comments 
 upon the several portions of the Christian scheme, accord- 
 ing as the collisions of opinion under the operation of exter- 
 nal circumstances rendered them necessary. It was by such 
 means only that theology could be brought down from hea- 
 ven to earth, and be made to adapt itself effectually to the 
 realities of hfe. A tendency to recur to supposed first prin- 
 ciples, though at the expense of overlooking or explaining 
 away some of the most positive declarations of Scripture, is 
 even now, after all the precautionary measures by which its 
 meaning has been fixed and defined, the besetting sin of a 
 vast portion of the Christian community. What then would 
 have been the case had the ApostoHcal Epistles never been 
 composed, and human caprice accordingly been left free to 
 choose its own construction of those primary truths, the 
 practical bearings, of which are now authoritatively deter- 
 mined by a positive rule from which there is no appeal? 
 Moral injunctions, however cautiously worded, but whicli 
 had never been made to bear upon the real detail of life, 
 would have afforded but a feeble barrier against the inge- 
 nious sophistry of passion ; and transcendental doctrines, 
 which had never been specially applied as an infallible stand- 
 ard by which to mark out the nice boundaries which sepa- 
 rate truth from falsehood, would have been confidently 
 appealed to in support possibly of those very heresies which 
 they now serve to refute. 
 
 Not only however was such a supplementary practical 
 comment upon the Christian revelation as, by Cxod's mercy, 
 has been afforded to us in the epistolary writings, absolutely 
 necessary for our complete apprehension of it in all its bear- 
 ings, but we may add also that it was desirable, if not indis- 
 pensably requisite, that it should contemplate that awful 
 
 G g 
 
450 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 subject from different points of view, and under the influence 
 of different intellectual associations. 
 
 Had, for instance, the Epistles of one only of our Lord's 
 disciples descended to us, vast as would have been the value 
 which would have attached to them, still they could not 
 have completely effected that purpose which has been so 
 fully accomplished by the diversified compositions which we 
 actually possess. Every individual brings with him to the 
 profound discussions of theology, if not the reality, at least 
 the suspicion, of a bias. And even if we consider such a 
 suspicion in the case of an inspired teacher to be out of the 
 question, still we must at all events admit that the peculiar 
 circumstances under which he may have been placed with 
 respect to his own immediate converts may occasionally 
 have made it imperative upon him from principle to dwell 
 more particularly upon some single and partial view of the 
 theory of revelation, to the comparative neglect, if not to 
 the actual exclusion, of others not less intrinsically import- 
 ant. Li addition therefore to the most unblemished integ- 
 rity in the writer, it requires the collision, not merely of 
 various individual feelings and predispositions, but that also 
 of contingent external events, operating severally upon seve- 
 ral parties, to call forth the complete discussion in all its 
 parts of so intricate and extensive a system of belief as that 
 of the Christian revelation, and to secure the adequate 
 transmission of a scheme thus minute and comprehensive 
 for the edification of after times. And such is precisely the 
 advantage which has accrued to religion both in speculation 
 and practice, from that dissimilar mode of discussing the 
 same really identical and harmonious doctrine which charac- 
 terizes the Apostolical Epistles. The very different position 
 of Paul with respect to his own peculiar converts, from that 
 occupied by J ames, Peter, John, and Jude, with reference 
 to theirs, made it to a certain degree incumbent upon him 
 to consider the Christian dispensation from a position di- 
 rectly opposite to that from which they were disposed to 
 regard it. Having been commissioned to undertake the 
 conversion of the Gentile world, he must necessarily have 
 laid it down as the foremost duty of his office to establish, 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 451 
 
 in the first place, solidly and substantially the foundation of 
 faith in the Jehovah of the old, and in the crucified Saviour 
 of the new, covenant ; and, having secured that great ele- 
 mentary principle, then, as an obvious consequence, to erect 
 upon it the superstructure of Christian holiness and of a 
 good life. And according to this consistent view of the 
 subject, we find him uniformly looking forward prospectively 
 through the whole system, from its first commencing germ 
 to its final and complete developement. The four last- 
 mentioned apostles, on the contrary, having to deal almost 
 exclusively with Jews, found many of the primary dogmas 
 of the religion which they had to inculcate already in 
 great measure assented to as articles of faith. To them 
 therefore the task of elementary initiation was compara- 
 tively easy. It was not the doctrine of a Messiah which 
 they had to originate, but that the crucified Son of Mary 
 was tlw Messiah, whose advent had been impatiently ex- 
 pected : and in announcing the covenant of divine mercy 
 as proffered to all mankind, they were only enlarging the 
 operation, and refining the principle, of that covenant 
 already acknowledged to subsist between the Almighty 
 and the Jewish nation. The errors therefore which they 
 had to combat, and to guard against, were of an entirely 
 different character from those which called forth the 
 occasional objurgations of St. Paul. The besetting sin of 
 the converted Gentiles was a tendency to mistake the real 
 conditions of justification in the sight of God ; and from a 
 natural abhorrence of their former grossness and immorality 
 whilst immersed in the darkness of paganism, to deviate 
 into the contrary extreme of a superstitious adoption of 
 the ritual expiations of the Levitical law, in addition to 
 the faith and obedience required of them as believers in 
 Christ. The mistake of the Jewish converts was, on the 
 other hand, that which most easily suggests itself to per- 
 sons recently emancipated from a system of servile and 
 vexatious discipline ; namely, the abuse of their newly 
 acquired liberty ; and we find accordingly that the object 
 of the admonitions of their instructors consists almost 
 entirely in the inculcation of moral restraint, and the duty 
 
 Gg2 
 
452 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 of practical holiness ; whilst the no less important requisite 
 of faith, if not actually taken for granted as a thing of 
 course, is at all events less earnestly and obtrusively dwelt 
 upon. 
 
 All this is exactly what might have been expected under 
 these very different circumstances ; and we may add also, 
 that it is that very arrangement which is best calculated 
 for the complete inculcation of the truth in all points, and 
 under every aspect. Like two rival, but enlightened ad- 
 vocates, each several writer has thus used the whole energy 
 of his mind in the improvement of his own peculiar depart- 
 ment ; whilst the common principles on which they are all 
 agreed derive additional confirmation from the conviction 
 which we feel that such harmony of sentiment is the re- 
 sult, not of any calculated confederacy, but of an honest 
 and impartial conviction of the truth of the doctrines 
 inculcated. Nor has the effort which they have respec- 
 tively made to guard against the growth of peculiar sys- 
 tems of error been greater, as subsequent experience has 
 shown, than the circumstances imperatively required. The 
 heresies denounced in their several writings, though oppo- 
 site in their character, were all of them such as, being 
 founded in human nature, are ever likely to re-appear under 
 some form or other ; and which therefore each required their 
 own appropriate and separate refutation. Those arguments 
 of St. Paul which were originally urged against the super- 
 stition and legal righteousness of the Galatian converts are 
 no less applicable at this moment, when directed against the 
 fantastic ritual of the Church of Rome, than they were in 
 their primary reference to the doctrines of those Judaizing 
 Christians of the primitive ages : whilst the indignant abhor- 
 rence expressed in the writings of the other apostles with 
 regard to the blasphemous impieties of the Antinomian 
 Gnostics are no less admirably calculated to repress at any 
 subsequent period the presumption of fanaticism, which, as 
 we are painfully reminded by almost every page of history, 
 is ever on the alert to advance the plea of a peculiar posses- 
 sion of God's favour, as a claim to emancipation from the 
 most sacred duties of practical morality. 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 453 
 
 The uniform tone of reverential awe in which the person 
 of our blessed Redeemer is alluded to throughout the Apos- 
 tolical Epistles, is another circumstance which those persons 
 who are disposed to object to the doctrine of his divine na- 
 ture will do well seriously to consider. That St. Paul, who 
 had known him only through the medium of the most stu- 
 pendous preternatural events, should ever be found to speak 
 of that tremendous Being with the deepest solemnity might 
 naturally be expected. But with regard to the other apostles 
 this consequence seems somewhat less obvious. We all know 
 the equalizing tendency of familiarity in domestic intercourse 
 between persons of the most dissimilar rank and condition of 
 life. But the intimacy of friendship to which the disciples of 
 our Lord were admitted for so long a period, appears not for 
 a moment to have trenched upon their reverential adoration 
 of him as an immediate emanation of the eternal Godhead. 
 Above all, we find that sentiment most strongly marked, 
 where perhaps we should least be prepared to look for it, in 
 the writings of the beloved disciple St. J ohn. The unequi- 
 vocal assertions of our blessed Saviour"'s divinity contained in 
 his Epistles and in his Gospel are justly considered as afford- 
 ing some of the strongest scriptural proofs of that important 
 doctrine. But that such an impression should have taken 
 complete hold of a mind which had been permitted to trace 
 the object of its reverence through the humble incidents and 
 detail of private life, can be accounted for only upon the 
 supposition that the evidence confirmatory of that impression 
 w^as of too decided a character to be shaken by even that 
 most critical and perilous test. Certain it is that no mis- 
 givings or interventions of doubt upon this subject ever seem 
 for one instant to suggest themselves to that apostle's mind. 
 It has accordingly been well remarked, in reply to those 
 impugners of our Redeemer's divinity, who assert that this 
 doctrine is of comparatively recent origin, and was un- 
 known to the primitive Church, that, on the contrary, the 
 heresy which stood most conspicuous in the age of the 
 apostles was that which denied, not his divine^ but his 
 human^ nature ; and that, so far from being called upon 
 to prove him to be very God^ (a point universally acknow- 
 9 
 
454 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 ledged,) the great difficulty seems to have been to per- 
 suade the first polkiters of the Christian faith, that he was 
 also, really and actually, very Man. It was not, until the 
 lapse of time had subdued by distance the astounding effect 
 produced by his miraculous career upon earth, that human 
 audacity dared to attempt to lower him to the scale of a 
 merely mortal teacher, or even to that of the foremost and 
 most glorious of God's created beings. 
 
 One other observation, and that of a truly awful and 
 melancholy character, but which is well calculated to afford 
 a salutary warning to ourselves that we presume not upon 
 our present spiritual advantages, will naturally suggest 
 itself during our perusal of this interesting portion of the 
 sacred writings. The pervading characteristic of these 
 beautiful, eloquent, and profound compositions is the deep 
 and earnest anxiety manifested by their respective authors 
 for the spiritual welfare of the Churches committed to 
 their care, and the complete self-devotion with which they 
 surrendered every faculty, every interest, both of soul and 
 body, for the accomplishment of that important object. — 
 Yet where now are the Christian Churches of Jerusalem, 
 of Ephesus, of Colosse, of Galatia, of Salonica, of PhiHppi, 
 of Crete, of Corinth? — where, we may even ask, that of 
 Rome itself 1 The answer is a short and painful one. The 
 tares, the thorns and briars of this world, were too powerful 
 and rank for the growth of the good seed, and choked it. 
 In vain did their respective inspired teachers lift up their 
 voice against each commencing corruption as it arose ; 
 against the superstitions which had already begun to en- 
 cumber, and the human theories which were even then 
 adulterating, the simplicity of divine truth. The evil 
 principle was too strong to be thus checked. Error suc- 
 ceeded to error, and abuse to abuse ; and the result has 
 been, that Mahomedan imposture is now spreading its 
 baleful influence over the greater part of those regions 
 which our Lord's own apostles once fostered with parental 
 solicitude, and from whence Christianity derived its first 
 growth and nurture ; and even in that quarter where the 
 faith of Christ is still professed, the name of our religion 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 455 
 
 indeed remains, but its form, its beauty, its simplicity are 
 gone. Superstitions far more portentous than those de- 
 nounced by St. Paul have superseded the spiritual holiness 
 of the Gospel : and the very Scriptures themselves, which 
 could alone effectually define the evil and point out the 
 remedy, are become a sealed book, inexorably closed to the 
 many wanderers who might otherwise under its guidance 
 retrace their steps to that primitive doctrine from which 
 they have so widely deviated. 
 
 Here then let me conclude this imperfect survey of the 
 Apostolical Epistles, of which I can truly declare, that the 
 more close examination of them into which I have neces- 
 sarily been led in the course of my present undertaking, 
 has served only to confirm and heighten that previously 
 strong impression of their paramount value, as aids both 
 to faith and practice, which was my motive for the com- 
 mencement of this work. Should 1 eventually have reason 
 to believe that the result of my attempt has been to recom- 
 mend them more completely to others, of whatever con- 
 dition in life, by rendering them in any degree more ac- 
 cessible, or more easy of apprehension, I shall derive a 
 reward from my labour far surpassing in my own estima- 
 tion any which the highest attainments in general know- 
 ledge or the most elegant acquirements in literature can 
 impart to their possessor. 
 
 THE END. 
 
LONDON : 
 GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, PRINTERS, 
 ST. JOHN'S SQUARE. 
 
I