Page images
PDF
EPUB

works'. These are the things which are good and profitable 9 among men. But avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strifes about the law; for they are un10 profitable and vain. Reject a fomenter of divisions 3, after 11 the first and second admonition; knowing that such an one is perverted, and sinneth, being self-condemned.

12

2

When I shall send to thee Artemas, or Tychicus, endeavour to come unto me to Nicopolis: for I have determined 13 to winter there. Diligently conduct on their way Zenas the former teacher of the law; and Apollos; that nothing may 14 be wanted by them. And let our disciples also learn to

maintain good works for necessary uses; that they be not 15 unfruitful. All that are with me salute thee. Salute those who love us in the faith. The favour of God be with you all. *

1

Or, may study to be foremost in good works. Wakefield. 2 Or, Have no company with, Lindsey's Hist. View, p. 132. Fuge, Schleusner. See Rosenmuller. 3 a heretic, N. See Wakefield. 1 Cor. xi. 19. Rom. xvi. 17.

* Amen. R. T. The epistle to Titus, who was ordained the first bishop (or pastor) of the church of Crete, was written from Nicopolis of Macedonia. R. T.

THE EPISTLE

OF PAUL TO PHILEMON.

1 PAUL,

a prisoner for Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, to Philemon our beloved, and our fellow-labourer, 2 and to our beloved Apphia', and to Archippus our fellow3 soldier, and to the church in thy house: favour be to you

4

[ocr errors]

2

and peace from God our father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

I thank my God, making mention of thee always in my 5 prayers, (hearing of thy faith and love, which thou hast to6 ward the Lord Jesus, and to all the saints,) that thy partaking of the faith may become effectual, in the knowledge ofevery good thing which is among us3 as concerning Christ 7 [Jesus]. For we have great joy and comfort on account of thy love, because the minds of the saints are refreshed by thee, brother.

8

6

5

4

Wherefore, though I have much freedom of speech in 9 Christ to enjoin thee what is fit; yet because of my love, I rather beseech thee, as Paul the aged, and now a prisoner 10 also for Jesus Christ, I beseech thee, for my son' whom I 11 have begotten in [my] bonds, Onesimus: who formerly was

unprofitable to thee, but is now profitable to thee and to me: 12 whom I have sent again: do thou therefore receive him, 13 that is, myself: whom I was willing to retain with me, that

2 Or, to Apphia, our sister, Mss. 2 the church which assembleth, N. in the margin, congregation, 3 among you, R.T. 4 thankfulness, Mss. 5 So Wakefield. Gr. bowels, N. 6 Or, in the character of Paul, N. m. 7 I beseech thee, I say, for my son Onesimus, whom, &c. N. 8 my own bowels, N.

and Gr.

in thy stead he might have ministered to me in my bonds for 14 the gospel: but without thy consent I would do nothing:

that thy benefit might not be as it were of necessity, but 15 willingly. For perhaps he therefore departed for a time, 16 that thou mightest receive him for ever; no longer as a servant', but as above a servant', a beloved brother: especially so to me; but how much more to thee, both in the 17 flesh and in the Lord! If therefore thou consider me as thy 18 companion, receive him as myself. But if he have wronged

3

thee in any thing, or owe thee any thing, put that to my ac19 count: I Paul have written it with my own hand, I will repay it however, I do not say to thee that thou owest to 20 me even thy own self. Yes, brother, let me have joy of thee 21 in the Lord: refresh my feelings in Christ'. Having con

fidence in thy compliance, I have thus written to thee, 22 knowing that thou wilt do even more than I say. At the same time also prepare me a lodging; for I trust that through your prayers I shall be graciously given unto you.

23

Epaphras, my fellow-prisoner in Christ Jesus, salutes 24 thee. Also Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, Luke, my fellow-la25 bourers. The favour of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. *

2 Or, 66 1i. e. slave, N. m. as a friend," or, 66 as a sharer with thee in what thou hast." 3 Or, not to say unto thee that, N.m. 4 Wakefield. bowels, 5 in the Lord. R.T. 6 Or, In confident expectation of thy 7 Epaphras, &c. my fellow-labourers, salute thee. R. T. and N.

N. and Gr. compliance.

* Amen. R. T. The epistle to Philemon was written from Rome by Onesimus a domestic. R. T.

THE EPISTLE

TO THE HEBREWS.

1

CHAPTER I.

GOD who, in several parts, and in several manners, for2 merly spake to our fathers by the prophets, in the last of these days' hath spoken to us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, for whom also he constituted the 3 ages*: who, being a ray of his brightness, and an image of his perfections, and ruling all things by his powerful wordt, when he had by himself made a cleansing of [our] sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; 4 having been made so much greater than those messengers §, as he hath obtained a more excellent name than they.

in these last days, R. T. and N. 2 So Wakefield. "who, being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person," N. 3 the divine Majesty, N. 4 Gr. inherited.

* dis, for whom. For this sense of dia, with a genitive, see Grotius in loc. Schleusner in verb., and Mr. Lindsey's Second Address, p. 297. Acams, ages, "This word," says Dr. Sykes (in loc.) “does not signify the heavens and earth, and all things in them, but it means properly ages, or certain periods of time:" the Antediluvian, the Patriarchal, the Mosaic ages or dispensations. These were all intended to prepare the way for the age or dispensation of the Messiah, Abp. Newcome adopts the common translation, "by whom he made the worlds also." Ages: the plural for the superlative singular. See Eph. i. 10; ii. 2. 1 Cor. x. 11. Tit. i. 3. Heb. ix. 26. Simpson's Ess. viii. With this interpretation of aws, dia may retain its usual signification of the instrumental cause: q. d. by whom he introduced this his chief dispensation to mankind.

✦ ruling and directing all things in the new dispensation, by authority derived from the Father. Gr. " the word of his power."

when he had made a cleansing of our sins by the sacrifice of himself, N. But the judicious reader will observe that the words in Italics are not in the original. Cleansing of sin is bringing us out of an unholy into a holy state.

i.e. the prophets, who are mentioned in the first verse. See Wakefield, the angels, N.

5 For to which of those messengers' spake God at any time, "Thou art my Son, this day I have adopted thee??” and again, "I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to 6 me a Son?" And when God bringeth again * the Firstborn into the world, he saith, "And let all the messengers of 7 God pay homage to himt." And of these messengers the scripture saith, "Who maketh the winds his messengers 4; 8 and flames of lightning his ministers." But to the Son he saith, "God is thy throne + for ever and ever; a sceptre of 9 rectitude is the sceptre of thy kingdom: thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity: therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy 10 companions "." And, "Thou, Lord, in the beginning didst

lay the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the 11 works of thy hands: they will perish; but Thou wilt re12 main and they all will grow old as doth a garment; and

like a vesture thou wilt fold them up, and they will be changed; but Thou art the same, and thy years will not 13 fail§." But to which of those messengers' said he at any time, "Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thine ene

the angels, N. See ver. 4. Messengers and prophets are used synonymously, 2 Chron. xxxvi, 15, 16. Haggai i. 13. Sn. 2 begotten thee, Gr. and N. 3 So Wakefield. And of the angels he saith, N. 4 angels, N. messengers, N. m. 5 N. m. fellows, N. all who like him were messengers from God to men. -mainest, N. 7 the angels, N.

6 re

i, e. after his resurrection, by which he became the first-born from the dead, Col. i. 18. Rev. i. 5. See Peirce and Newcome.

+ i. e. Let all the prophets and messengers of God acknowledge him as their superior. "Let all the angels of God worship him," N. cited from Deut. xxxii. 43. LXX. where it is spoken of the Hebrew nation, and therefore cannot be understood of religious worship. See Sykes on Heb. i. 6.

Wakefield, Lindsey. "Thy throne, O God, is," &c. N. “God is the support of thy throne," Sykes.

This is a quotation from Psalm cii. 25. The immutability of God is here declared as a pledge of the immutability of the kingdom of Christ. "To show

(says Mr. Emlyn, Works, vol. ii. p. 340,) how able his God, who had anointed him, was to make good and maintain what he had granted him, a durable kingdom for ever and ever," See Mr. Lindsey's Sequel, p. 488.

« PreviousContinue »