stract in the fourth volume of his larger Introduction which does not admit of abridgment. The humble reader of the Bible, however, need not entertain any apprehension lest any of the truths of the true and proper deity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ should be weakened. Much as has been written on this topic, the question cannot yet be considered as decided, while it is known that many hundred manuscripts of the New Testament still remain uncollated. Even, should it ultimately appear that the disputed clause is spurious, its absence will not diminish the weight of irresistible evidence which other undisputed passages of holy wri afford to the doctrine of the Trinity. "The proofs of our Lord's true and proper Godhead remain unshaken—deduced from the prophetic descriptions of the Messiah's person in the Old Testament -from the ascription to him of the attributes, the works, and the homage, which are peculiar to the Deity—and from those numerous and important relations, which he is affirmed in Scripture to sustain towards his holy and universal church, and towards each of its true members."*

SECTION VI.-On the Second and Third Epistles of Saint John.

Although some doubts were, in the fourth century, entertained respecting the canonical authority of these Epistles, yet that point has long been considered as determined by the fact that these Epistles have been cited by Christian writers of the third century, as well as by many in the ages immediately following. The similarity of style also attests that they are the productions of the same author as the first epistle of St. John, who probably wrote them about A.D. 68 or 69.

The SECOND EPISTLE is addressed to an eminent Christian matron, the Lady Electa, whom the apostle commends for her virtuous and religious education of her children; and who is exhorted to abide in the doctrine of Christ, to persevere in the truth, and carefully to avoid the delusions of false teachers. But chiefly the apostle beseeches this

Eclectic Review, vol. v. part i. p. 249,

Christian matron to practise the great and indispensable commandment of Christian love and charity.

The THIRD EPISTLE of St. John is addressed to a converted Gentile, a respectable member of some Christian church, called Gaius or Caius: most probably Gaius of Corinth, (1 Cor. i. 14,) whom St. Paul calls his "host, and the host of the whole church." (Rom. xvi. 23.) The scope of this Epistle is to commend his steadfastness, in the faith, and his general hospitality, especially to the ministers of Christ; to caution him against the ambitious and turbulent practices of Diotrephes, and to recommend Demetrius to his friendship; referring what he further had to say to a personal interview.

SECTION VII.-On the General Epistle of Jude.

Jude, or Judas, who was surnamed Thaddeus and Lebbeus, and was also called the brother of our Lord, (Matt. xiii. 55,) was the son of Alpheus, brother of James the Less, and one of the twelve apostles. We are not inform ed when, or how he was called to the apostleship; and there is scarcely any mention of him in the New Testament, except in the different catalogues of the twelve apostles. Although the epistle which bears his name, was rejected in the early ages of Christianity, by some persons, we have satisfactory evidences of its authenticity; for it is found in all the ancient catalogues of the sacred writings of the New Testament; it is asserted to be genuine by Christian fathers of the third and following centuries; and independently of this external evidence, the genuineness of the Epistle of St. Jude is confirmed by the subjects discussed in it, which are in every respect worthy of an apostle of Jesus Christ. There is great similarity between this Epistle and the second chapter of St. Peter's second Epistle. Jude addressed his letter to all who had embraced the Gospel; its design is to guard them against the false teachers who had begun to insinuate themselves into the Christian church; and to contend with the utmost earnestness and zeal for the true faith, against the dangerous tenets which they disseminated,

resolving the whole of Christianity into a speculative belief and outward profession of the Gospel. And having thus cancelled the obligations of morality and personal holiness, they taught their disciples to live in all manner of licentiousness, and at the same time flattered them with the hope of divine favour, and of obtaining eternal life. The vile characters of these seducers are further shown, and their sentence is denounced; and the Epistle concludes with warnings, admonitions, and counsels to believers how to persevere in faith and godliness themselves, and to rescue others from the snares of the false teachers.

CHAPTER IV.

ON THE REVELATION OF ST. JOHN THE DIVINE.

Ir is a remarkable circumstance that the authenticity of this book was very generally, if not universally, acknowledged during the first two centuries, and yet in the third century it began to be questioned. This seems to have been occasioned by some absurd notions concerning the Millenium, which a few well-meaning but fanciful expositors grounded on this book; which notions their opponents injudiciously and presumptuously endeavoured to discredit, by denying the authority of the book itself. So little, however, has this portion of holy writ suffered from the ordeal of criticism, to which it has in consequence been subjected, that, (as Sir Isaac Newton has long since remarked) there is no other book of the New Testament so strongly attested, or commented upon so early, as the Apocalypse, or Revelation of Saint John; for, besides the strong internal evidence afforded by the similarity of its style to that of the apostle's other writings, we have an unbroken series of external, or historical testimony, from the apostolic age downwards. The revelations contained in this book were made to Saint John during his exile in the isle of Patmos, toward the end of Domitian's reign, though the book containing them could not have been published until after his release, on the emperor's death,

in the year 96, and after his return to Ephesus. The year 96 or 97, may therefore be considered as its true date. The scope of this book is twofold: first, generally to make known to the apostle "the things which are," (i. 19,) that is, the then present state of the Christian churches in Asia; and, secondly and principally, to reveal to him "the things which shall be hereafter," or the constitution and fates of the Christian church, through its several periods of propagation, corruption and amendment, from its beginning to its consummation in glory. The Apocalypse, therefore, consists of two principal divisions, or parts; viz. :

After the title of the book. (ch. i. 1-3.)

PART I. contains the "things which are-" that is, the then present state of the church: it includes the Epistles to the seven Asiatic Churches of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. (i. 9-20, ii., iii.) These churches, in the Lydian, or Proconsular Asia, are supposed to have been planted by the apostle Paul, and his assistants during their ministry. They lie nearly in an amphitheatre, and are addressed according to their geographical positions, as may be seen on reference to our Map of the Travels of the Apostles. These seven Epistles contain excellent precepts and exhortations, commendations and reproofs, promises and threatenings, which are calculated to afford instruction to the Universal Church of Christ at all times.

PART II. contains a Prophecy of "the things which shall be hereafter," or the future state of the church through succeeding ages, from the time when the apostle beheld the apocalyptic visions, to the grand consummation of all things. (ch. iv.—xxii.)

Although many parts of the Apocalypse are necessarily obscure to us, because they contain predictions of events still future, yet enough is sufficiently clear to convey to us the most important religious instruction. The Revelation of St. John is to us precisely what the prophecies of the Old Testament were to the Jews, nor is it in any degree more inexplicable. "No prophecies in the Revelation can be more clouded with obscurity, than that a child should be born of a pure virgin-that a mortal should not see corruption-that a person despised and numbered

among malefactors should be established for ever on the throne of David. Yet still the pious Jew preserved his faith entire amidst all these wonderful, and, in appearance, contradictory intimations. He looked into the holy books in which they were contained, with reverence, and with an eye of patient expectation 'waited for the consolation of Israel.' We, in the same manner, look up to those prophecies of the Apocalypse, for the full consummation of the great scheme of the Gospel; when Christianity shall finally prevail over all the corruptions of the world, and be universally established in its utmost purity."*

· Gilpin's Exposition of the New Testament, vol. ii. p. 428.