Page images
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

9 And let us not weary in well-doing for in due fea*Luke xiv. fon we shall reap, if we faint not.

[ocr errors]

:

10 As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unthe houfhold of faith.

to them who are of

and Perfecution,
Diftinctions.

11 Ye fee how large
a letter I have writ-
ten you with mine

own hand.

12 As

8. He that lays out his worldly Subftance to felfish and private Purpofes only, fhall reap the Fruits of fo worldly and corrupt a Principle. But he that fpends it agreeably to the charitable Spirit of the Gospel, fhall find a full Harveft of eternal Life and Happiness.

9. Let this encourage us all to be conftant and cheerful in Acts of Bounty and Beneficence, which will not fail, in God's due * Time, of producing us a plentiful Recompence.

10. As Providence, then, gives us Opportunities and Abilities, let us extend our Charity to all Mankind, but efpecially to cur Fellow Chriftians, efpecially to thofe of them that are under Affliction (See v. 12.) without Partiality and unreasonable

11. I have written this Letter to you, on this important Occafion, with my own * Hand. Confider + the Contents of it; the Sum and Substance thereof is this, viz.

12. Those

*With mine own Hand.

His other Epiftles being moftly written by an Amanuenfis. See Rom. xvi. 26. 1 Cor. xvi. 21. 2 Thef. iii. 17.

+ ιδέε πηλίκοις γράμμασιν. Ye fee how large a Letter: Or rather, in what Words,

By obferving the five following Verses to be a perfect Recapitulation of the Argument of this whole Epiftle, I cannot think naixo denotes either the Largeness of it, or the bad Hand in which it was written, (as Theophylact fays, but without any Proof) but the Matter and Substance of it. And that sought to be rendered imperatively, the Senfe being this, viz. Confider what I have written, the Sum whereof is thisas in the following Verses.

มาด

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

12 As many as defire to make a fair fhow in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcifed only left they should fuffer perfecution for the cross

12. Those Zealots that ftand up A. D. 58. thus for the meer external and carnal Ordinances of the fewish Law, would perfwade you Gentile Converts into the Neceflity of obferving them, purely for fear of the Jews, and to avoid the Perfecutions they would otherwife bring on them for their Chriftian Faith, by incenfing the Roman Power against them.

of Chrift.

13 For neither they themselves who are circumcifed, keep the law, but defire to have you circumcifed, that they may glory in your flesh.

14 But God forbid that I fhould glory fave in the cross of our Lord Jefus Chrift, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.

13. 'Tis not out of any real and religious Zeal for the Law, (for they regard that as little as other People) but from an Itch of Vain-glory, to make you their Profelytes, and fave themselves harmless.

14. I on the contrary (notwithftanding their falfe Suggestions) make a perfect Confcience of aiming at any Credit or Favour with any Sort of People, but what comes from the fincere Difcharge of my Office, in preaching Jefus Chrift as a Crucified Saviour; by whofe Religion alone Juftification and Happiness is to be attained. In Conformity to whofe Death all worldly and selfish Designs are dead to me, and I to them.

15 For in Christ Jefus neither circumsifion availeth any thing, nor uncircumcifion, but a new

creature.

16 And as many as

15. For, as I have abundantly proved to you, it is of no Confe quence under the Gospel Covenant, whether a Man be Circumcifed or not. All that Christianity requires is, the Reformation of his Principles and Practices.

16. And therefore all Chriftians, walk according to Gentile or Jewish, that stick to this

this

D 3

Principle,

A.D. 58. this Rule,* peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Ifrael of God.

17 From henceforth let no man trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jefus +.

Jew. But tho' I be

Principle, may be fully affured of
their Pardon and Salvation at God's
Hand, as his true Church and
People.

17. Wherefore, for the future, let no more Calumnies be raised on me upon this Point, nor let me have any further Disturbance about

it.

Circumcifion is the Badge of a Circumcifed, I do not look on that as my Chriftian Badge. No, my Marks are the Stripes and Chains I have borne for Christ and his Religion; the Prints whereof remain ftill upon my Body, and are fufficient Tokens to whom I belong.

18 Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jefus Chrift be with your fpirit. Amen.

Unto the Galatians, written from Rome.

18. Brethren, the Love and Fayour of our Lord Jefus Christ be with you, and direct your Minds. Amen.

*And upon the Ifrael of God. Kai iTi Tòv 'Iopana & Je8. Peace and Mercy be unto them, as the Ifrael of God.

+ Ver. 17. The Marks of the Lord Jefus. Note, The general Sense of this Phrafe is very clear: And, I think, the five foregoing Verfes plainly fhow the Jewish Circumcifion to be the Thing here alluded to. They that would fee another Conjecture, may confult the Author of The Sac. Clafficks defended, Vol. II. pag. 67, 68. Edit. Octav.

A PARA

A

PARAPHRASE

Ο Ν

The Epistle of St. PAUL

TO THE

EPHESIANS

$ 1.

The PREFACE.

HIS and the two following Epiftles A. D. 62. to the Philippians and Coloffians, were written from the fame Place, in the fame Year, during St. Paul's Imprisonment at Rome, and upon the fame Occafion. From whence the Reader fees. how the Strain of their Expreffions come to be so much alike, and in a great measure the fame.

§2. One cannot attend to the main Drift of these three Writings, without obferving what it was that lay neareft the Apoftle's Heart while he indited them; viz. The Confirmation of these Chriftians against that Doctrine of the abfolute Neceffity of the Ceremonial Law in order to the Salvation of a Chriftian Convert; the Effect of that proud Conceit the Jewish Zealots had D 4

of

A. D. 62. of themselves, as the ancient People of God, in Derogation to all the rest of Mankind, whom they would hardly at all grant to have been defign'd any Share in the Bleffings of Chrift the Meffiah; but especially not without their firft embracing the Jewish Religion. A Principle that, more or lefs, runs through, and is attack'd in, all the Apoftolical Epistles.

3. But there is this Difference between the Manner of St. Paul's Management of this Point in thefe, and that in his foregoing Epiftles to the Romans, Corinthians, and Galatians. In thofe Letters (efpecially the two latter) he had to do with a People actually perverted by thofe Jewish Principles; and by the Cunning and Bigottry of their Leaders, wrought up into a Contempt of his Perfon, and Apoftolical Authority. Whereas in thefe he had nothing to do but to back and encourage a fteddy and orthodox Sett of Chriftians to final Conftancy and Perfeverance, against those prejudiced Teachers who had spread themselves into almost every Church. In the one therefore his Method is all Reasoning and Argumentative, while in the other he runs in chearful Encouragements and loving Congratulations; and as you fee thofe to be full of Expoftulations and Complaint, fo these abound and even overflow in Expreffions of Endearment and Love: Of which Expreffions, tho' fonie may, to a modern Reader, feem to be but Tautology, they are indeed the Effect of an inspired Mind transported with Joy, ftriving to vent its unutterable Satisfaction at the happy Fruits of its Endeavours for the Good of Mankind and the Glory of God.

$4. The Jewish Zealots had fo contemptuous a Notion of an uncircumcifed Perfon, especially one not at all profelyted to their Jewish Religion; that they thought the Duties flowing from the neareft even of Civil and Natural Relations, too much to be observed toward them. This I take to be the proper Key to thofe Leffons of St. Paul concerning the Relative Duties in thefe and his other Epiftles. By comparing them with 1 Cor. vii, or with his Exhortations to Love, Unity, &c. which have a plain Relation to the furious Difputes between the Jewish and Gentile Converts; thefe very Admonitions to Husbands, Mafters, Wives, &c. appear to me to

« PreviousContinue »