signed chiefly against the animosities and partialities which these disputes had bred among them. THE EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS. EPHESUS was the chief city of all Asia on this side Mount Taurus. St. Paul had passed through it in the year 54, but without making any stay. The following year he returned to Ephesus again, and stayed there three years. During his abode there, he completed a flourishing church of Christians, the first foundations of which had been laid by some inferior teachers. As Ephesus was frequented by persons of distinction from all parts of Asia Minor, St. Paul took the opportunity of preaching in the ancient countries; and the other churches of Asia were considered as the daughters of the church of Ephesus; so that an epistle to the Ephesians was, in effect, an epistle to the other churches of Asia at the same time. In the year 61, St. Paul was carried prisoner to Rome for the first time; and during his confinement there, which was not very close, he wrote the epistles to Philemon, the Colossians, the Ephesians, and Philippians. b Hence all these epistles bear so great a resemblance in their style and manner. Of these four, a learned writer thinks the epistle to the Ephesians was first written by the apostle in the spring, A. D. 61, as soon as conveniently could be, after his friends at Rome had taken a lodging for him, and he was settled in it. This epistle was intended to establish the Ephesians in the faith; and to this end, to give them more exalted views of the love of God, and of the excellency and dignity of Christ; to shew them that they were saved by grace, and that the Gentiles (however wretched they had been once) had now equal privileges with the Jews; to encourage them, by declaring with what steadiness he (St. Paul) suffered for the truth, and with what earnestness he prayed for their establishment and perseverance y Acts xviii. 19-21. z Ch. xix. a Ver. 10. b Acts xxviii. 31, 32. c Dr. Lardner. in it; and finally to engage them to the practice of those duties which became them as Christians." The city of Ephesus was distinguished by peculiar vices and sins, which are alluded to in this epistle, and in those to Timothy. 1. It was the genuine seat of the idolatrous worship of Diana, who was called ZwTeipa, or the Saviour Goddess; in opposition to which, St. Paul calls the true Deity Zwrηp, or the Saviour God, in his epistle to Timothy. 2. The Ephesians were remarkable for the practice of superstitious arts.f 3. They were vain in their dress." 4. They were remarkable for lewdness and drunkenness, and gloried in obscenity of language. h An eminent critic' thinks the Christians of Ephesus were also tainted with the errors of the Essenes; an account of which the reader will find below, in the Introduction to the first Epistle to Timothy. THE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS. k PHILIPPI, was a city of no great extent in Macedonia, near the borders of Thrace. The Christian religion was first planted there about the year 51, by St. Paul, who left St. Luke and Timothy to carry on the work. He afterwards paid them a second visit, and it is probable saw them afterwards a third time. This epistle was sent at the same time with the preceding, viz. A.D. 62 or 63. The design of it seems to be, to comfort the Philippians under the concern they had expressed for his imprisonment at Rome; to check a party spirit that had crept in among them; and to promote on the contrary an entire union and harmony of affection; to guard them against being seduced from the purity of the Christian faith by judaizing teachers; to support them under the trials with which they struggled; and, d Vide Doddridge. h Eph. v. i Michaelis. See his Lectures on the New Testament. j Acts xvi. k Acts xxi. 6. above all, to inspire them with a concern to adorn their holy profession by the most eminent attainments in the divine life.' THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS. m COLOSSE (or, as it was anciently written, Colassa) was a considerable city of Phrygia in Asia Minor. St. Paul himself had not been at this city when he wrote this epistle, though he had some years before travelled through Phrygia. However, Epaphras had founded a Christian church at Colosse, and probably in the neighbouring cities of Laodicea and Hierapolis." It is probable that some Colossians, who had heard St. Paul preach at Ephesus, might be converted by him; and among them Philemon, to whom St. Paul addressed his epistle so entitled. Now the churches of Colosse, Laodicea, and Hierapolis were exposed to more imminent danger of being seduced by false teachers, as they had not received the gospel immediately from an apostle, but from Epaphras; and as they might question whether Epaphras did not err in some respects, this occasioned St. Paul's anxiety for them," and induced him to confirm the doctrine of Epaphras by this epistle, which was written from Rome about the same time with the preceding, A. D. 62 or 63. A learned writer' thinks this and the epistle to Philemon were sent away together by Tychicus and Onesimus, although that to Philemon was probably first delivered. The more immediate occasion of writing to the Colossians, was an epistle St. Paul had received from the Laodiceans,” which an eminent critic' thinks contained some written queries relating to the doctrines of the Essenes, and this epistle was intended to answer them. What those doctrines were, see in the Introduction to the first Epistle to Timothy. This epistle to the Colossians is so like that to the Ephesians, both in language and contents, that the one will greatly illustrate the other. I Vide Doddridge. m Col. ii. 1. n Col. i. 7; iv. 12, 13. • Acts xix. 10. P Col. ii. 1. 4 Col. i. 7; iv. 12, 13. Lardner. See also Michaelis. * Ch. iv. 16. 1 Michaelis. FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. THESSALONICA was, in St. Paul's time, the capital of Macedonia. St. Paul had preached the gospel there in the year 51:" some few among the Jews received the gospel; but a great multitude of those heathens, who confessed one only true God," became converts to Christ. Hence the majority of the church consisted of native heathens, who had formerly been idolaters." The Jews, ever jealous of the admission of the Gentiles to the same privileges with themselves, raised such a disturbance, that St. Paul, with Silas, was obliged suddenly to withdraw; they even pursued him to Berea. He left Silas and Timothy there, and fled to Athens, ordering them to follow him. Timothy did not long continue there with St. Paul, but was sent back to Thessalonica,' and, when he returned, found St. Paul at Corinth, where he resided a year and a half; and in the former part of that time this epistle was probably written, viz. about A. D. 52. With regard to the state of the church of Thessalonica, the knowledge of which is requisite to understand these two epistles, 1. It consisted chiefly of Gentiles, and of some Jewish members. It is probable that the teachers mentioned in the fifth chapter" were converts from Judaism; at least, such Greeks as had before been proselytes to the Jewish religion. 2. This church being still in its infancy, and oppressed by the powerful Jews, required to be established in the faith. St. Paul therefore, in the three first chapters, endeavours to convince the Thessalonians of the truth and divinity of his gospel, both by the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost, which had been imparted, and by his own conduct when among them. 3. An error prevailed with respect to the doctrine of the last judgment. The Thessalonians, like most of the primitive Christians, thought the day of judgment would happen in their time. They imagined, those who lived to see it take place would have great advantage over the deceased faithful; which was, pro " Acts xvii. * Σεβόμενοι Έλληνες. w 1 Thess. i. 9. x Acts xvii. 14, 15. 1 Thess. iii. 1, 2. St. Paul came there before the end of the year 51, and stayed till the beginning of 53.-Lardner. a Ver. 12. bably, to consist in their entering immediately on the Millennium. This error he combats in the fourth chapter. 4. Some of this church who refused to subject themselves to the teachers, had at the same time given themselves up to disorder; and they seem to have carried on this unruliness under a pretence of teaching or edifying others. On this account the apostle gives the admonitions in the fifth chapter.b SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. THE second epistle to the Thessalonians was sent from Corinth soon after the first, viz. A. D. 52. St. Paul found the Thessalonians still considered the day of judgment as at hand, and that the disorders before reproved were still carried on among them. He therefore, in this second epistle, shews that the last day was still distant, from some prophecies not yet fulfilled; and gives them more particular directions how to conduct themselves towards those disorderly persons. M. Michaelis thinks that 2 Thess. ii. 2, refers to some epistles forged in St. Paul's name to propagate the above error, and to certain calculations and false prophecies applied to the same purpose. THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY. d We have an account of Timothy in the Acts of the Apostles, and in other parts of the New Testament, from which he appears to have been a youth of most excellent qualities, and almost constantly the companion of St. Paul. This first epistle to him is by some dated A. D. 65, but by others, on better grounds, about A. D. 56 or 58, at the time of St. Paul's journey into Macedonia.f This apostle being obliged to retire from Ephesus earlier than he intended, on account of b Ver. 11-14. Acts xvi. 1—3. d 2 Tim. i. 5; Acts xiv; 2 Tim. iii. 10, 11; 1 Tim. iv. 14; 2 Tim. i. 6; 1 Tim. iv. 12; Heb. xiii. 23. Vide also the address to 2 Cor. Philipp. Coloss. 1 and 2 Thess. Philem. See Michaelis, Lardner. The place where this epistle was written is not cer tainly agreed, though it is likely St. Paul was either in Macedonia or near it. f Acts xx. 1. |