proved to that good man an unfeigned cause of sorrow. The clause be therefore proposes to render thus: "For he longs to see you, and is full of anguish, because ye have heard that he has proved weak; and indeed he was weak, being by sickness nigh unto death." His sickness is explicitly said to have proceeded from the service of Christ, that is, from exposing his life to defend and supply the apostle, while a prisoner of Nero. Epaphroditus must have naturally wished to visit the churches, in order to remove the prejudices which were cherished against him; and hence we perceive the propriety of the admonition to receive him "with gladness in the Lord," and to hold such in estimation. At Rome, as in other places, there were men loud in their profession of the gospel, while they had yet no danger or difficulty to encounter. These changed their tone, and left the apostle to shift for himself, when the hour of trial arrived. Epaphroditus acted quite an opposite part. He made no profession, and continued in office, as if he had not been a believer; but when the season arrived, when he was called upon to honour or to betray his faith, he stood forth and supported the apostle at the hazard of his life. Touched with his generosity and firmness, the apostle bears him in return the most honourable testimony, rendering prominent his character as a man not of words but of deeds, and recommending him, and such persons as resembled him, to reverence and admiration, in opposition to those pretenders who were men not of deeds but of words. "Such a man hold in estimation, because for the work of Christ he was nigh unto death."

As the Philippians had the temerity to denounce Epaphroditus for weakness, the apostle scruples not

to remind them that they had been deficient in liberality towards him, now in bonds and unable to supply his own wants; while he, whom they had injured, had supplied that deficiency at the risk of his life. To soften the odium, which attached to Epaphroditus as a nominal soldier under Nero, Paul calls his, my fellow-soldier; and in reference to his being a minister of the emperor, he styles him a minister of my wants.

In the epistle to the Colossians, Paul has further these words: "Epaphras, your countryman, a slave of Christ, saluteth you" (ch. iv. 12). Grotius and

some others have observed that Epaphras is but an abbreviation of Epaphroditus, not to mention that in this place some copies have the latter reading. Epaphroditus, then, was a native of Colosse, and at this time a slave of the emperor. To this circumstance the apostle alludes; and he endeavours to do away the odium which attached to him as a slave of Nero, by holding him forth as a slave of Christ; as though he had said, "Do not have any prejudice against him for being engaged in the service of the emperor, for he is truly and faithfully the servant of Him whose service is perfect freedom."*

CHAPTER IV.

"Be careful for nothing."-Ver. 6.

SEE this and similar passages explained, vol. i. pp. 28, 29.

* Jones's "Ecclesiastical Researches," pp. 26-31.

THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS.

CHAPTER I.

"And having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven."-Ver. 20.

On the meaning of the words employed at the close of this verse commentators are not agreed. Whitby, whose opinion is adopted by Doddridge and Bloomfield, renders, "And by him to make all things friendly in him, making peace between them by the blood of his cross ;" and in his note he observes that while man continued in his obedience to God, angels and men were in a perfect friendship; but when men became disobedient to their sovereign Lord, the angels became averse to them, because their Lord was dishonoured by them: but God being reconciled to us by the death of his Son, they also became friends and ministering spirits to us, and we became of the same church and body with them, under the same head, Christ Jesus (Heb. xii. 22). And so all things in heaven and earth were gathered into one Christ (Eph. i. 10). Others suppose that the "things in heaven" refer to those persons who died under the Old Testament dispensation, and who could not have a title to glory but through the sacrificial death of Christ; and that the apostle intended by the use of this phraseology merely to show that without this sacrifice no human beings could be saved; not only

those who were then on earth, and to whom, in their successive generations, the gospel should be preached, but even those who had died before the incarnation; and, as those of them that were faithful were now in a state of blessedness, they could not have arrived there but through the blood of the cross; for the blood of calves and goats could not take away sin.— After all, says Dr. Adam Clarke, the apostle probably means the Jews and the Gentiles; the state of the former being always considered a sort of divine or celestial state; while that of the latter was reputed to be merely earthly, without any mixture of spiritual or heavenly good. It is certain, he adds, that a grand part of our Lord's design, in his incarnation and death, was to reconcile the Jews and the Gentiles, and make them one fold under himself, the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls. That the enmity of the Jews was great against the Gentiles, is well known; and that the Gentiles held them in supreme contempt is not less so. I was therefore an object worthy of the mercy of God to form a scheme that might reconcile these two grand divisions of mankind.

CHAPTER II.

"Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ: for in him dwelleth all the fulness of the godhead bodily."-Vers. 8, 9.

OUR English verb spoil commonly means to corrupt, to cause to decay and perish, as fruit is spoiled by keeping too long, or hay by a long rain, or crops by mildew. But the Greek word used in the text signifies to spoil in the sense of plunder, rob. Hence the meaning is, "Take heed lest any one plunder or rob you of your faith and hope by philosophy," etc.

"In the very striking statement, for in him dwelleth all the fulness of the godhead bodily,' there is probably an allusion to one of the forms in which error then arrayed itself. It was the favourite notion of those who then thought themselves to know more than others, that out of the fulness of the Godhead there were various emanations of power, greatness, holiness, and wisdom, and that Christ was one of these emanations. It was only the same thought more clearly expressed which meets us everywhere in the present day—that great men, great poets, great artists, great conquerors, great statesmen, are in some way half divine, and that Christ is divine in the same way, only in a higher degree. The words meet the modern deceit as much as the ancient. 'In him dwelleth all the Godhead bodily.' Christ Jesus is

fulness of the God himself. dwells in Him.

All the fulness of the Godhead' His being the Son of God does not make Him less truly God than the Father. And, therefore, there is not the slightest resemblance to or comparison with any human greatness, or power, or wisdom, or goodness. It stands on an entirely different level. All that we know of God we know in Him. The Father does not reveal Himself to us, nor, we believe, to any of his creatures, but in Him. God revealed out of Christ would be a false God. Those who think to see Him in human genius, or power, or goodness, or in the thoughts of their own minds, are just as much worshipping an idol as the heathen Brahmin who falls down before Shiva or Vishnu. For we know nothing of God out of Christ. Apart from Christ, we can no more see the Father than we can see the sun without the sunams- For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of