take a journey. Nor is it probable, if he had written at fo very advanced an age, that his language would have been fo fluent.

I once thought, that thefe two Epiftles were written before that, which is called the firft Epistle of St. John: but my reafon for fuppofing fo, appears to me at prefent to be ill-founded. I will mention it however, left the fame thought fhould occur to others.

St. John fays in his first Epistle, ch. ii. 13. (at least according to our common printed text), 'I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him, that is, from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you little children, because ye have known the Father." Here St. John fpeaks in the prefent tenfe; but in the next verfe he speaks in the past time, and fays, I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him, that is, from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are ftrong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one." Now in the fecond Epifile, ver. 5. there is fomething which bears a refemblance to that which St. John fays he had written to the fathers: and ver. 4. contains the fubftance at leaft of that, which he fays he had written to the young men. But, as the expreffions are different, and in the fecond Epistle no diftinction occurs between fathers and young men, as in the first Epiftle, the conjecture grounded on 1 John ii. 14. refts on a very un

certain foundation.

I am therefore unable to discover any marks of the time, when the two laft Epiftles were written: and it remains uncertain, whether they were written before or after what is called the first Epiftle, and whether they were written before, or after the deftruction of Jeru falem.

SECT. III.

Whether the fecond Epifle was fent to a particular perfon, or to a whole church.

HE addrefs, with which the fecond Epiftle begins,

TH

is, The elder to the elect lady (Exλx xv), and her children.' Now the title elect lady' has been explained by many ancient commentators, not literally, but figuratively, and as denoting, either the whole Chriftian church, or fome particular Chriftian church. The former explanation has been given by Jerom, the latter by Caffiodorius. But that this Epiftle was addreffed to the whole Chriftian church is utterly impoffible, because St. John promifes at the clofe of it that he will foon vifit the perfon or perfons to whom he is writing, which promife he could not intend to make to every Chriftian community difperfed throughout the Roman empire. The fame objection does not apply to the other explanation, namely, that it was addreffed to a particular Chriftian church: but there are other objections, which apply equally to both. The elect lady, and her children,' if understood of a Chriftian church and its members, is too figurative for the epiftolary ftyle, and though an expreffion like this would be admiffible perhaps in an animated prophecy, it is very ill fuited to the plain addrefs of a letter. Befides, when the Hebrew prophets call the Jewish women by the title daughters of Zion,' every reader perceives at once that the language is metaphorical: but when a letter begins with the addrefs, to the elect lady and her children,' the subject does not fuggeft a metaphor.

Moft of the modern commentators explain Ex€XTȚ ugg literally, and understand the expreffion not of a

In his Epiftle to Agaruchia. T. IV. p. 741. Ep. 91. f In his Expofition of this Epiftle.

church,

church, but of a woman. But they do not agree in their literal interpretations. Some tranflate ExλEXTY xugge to the elect lady,' while others confider either xxxTḥ or xugia as a proper name. But ExλEXT cannot here be a

proper name, for, if it were, St. John would not have written τη Εκλεκτη κυρία, but τη κυρια Εκλεκτη, or at leaft, without the article Εκλεκτη κυρια. Bendes, if εκλεκτη ver. 1. be confidered as a proper name, the fame word ver. 13. which is applied to this lady's fifter muft likewife be explained as a proper name, and then we shall have two fifters, each of which had the unusual name of Electa. The opinion, that Kugia is a proper name, is not attended with the fame grammatical difficulty: and it has this circumftance in its favour, that Kupia is rendered as a proper name in the Syriac and Arabic

verfions &.

Yet the opinion, that this Epiftle was addreffed to a woman, is likewife attended with fome difficulties, which, though when taken fingly they are not of fufficient importance to overturn it, are of fome weight, at least as they appear to ine, when taken together. St. John fays, ver. 5. ερωτω σε, κυρια,ίνα αγαπωμεν αλληλες. It is true that the Apostle speaks of Chriftian love and charity, and that no ferious man, on reading this paffage, will think of any other kind of love, efpecially, as neither the writer of the Epiftle, nor the person to whom it was written, (if written to a woman) were any longer young. But I think that, if St. John had written really to a woman, he would have avoided an expreffion, which they, who are accustomed to treat grave fubjects ludicrously, might convert into ridicule. Further, it is extraordinary, that St. John fhould speak ver. 1. of the elect lady, and her children,' and ver. 13. of the children of her elect fister,' and yet say nothing of either of their hufbands. However I will not infift on this objection because both of them might have been widows. Again,

St.

The word is retained and written in Syriac þjoo, in Arabię.
, and in the Arabic of Erpenius ns.
FF

VOL. IV.

St. John not only greets the children of the elect lady, who were then with her, but speaks likewise, ver. 4. of several other of her children, whom he found walking in the truth.' This implies, that her children were very numerous. Laftly, St. John fpeaks of her children, as if they were all of them fons, and fays nothing of daughters. For, though he ufes both ver. 1. and ver. 4. the neuter TEXVα, which when used by itself may include daughters as well as fons, yet, fince he adds in the former inftance ἐς εγω αγαπω, and in the latter inftance περιπατεντας εν aan, the mafculine relative and participle reftrict the fenfe to fons alone". Now in a numerous family, it is very feldom that we find all fons, and no daughters: but when we speak of a church the word 'fons' includes perfons of both fexes.

κυρια

It appears then, that the literal interpretation of ExλEKTA Mugia is attended with difficulty, as well as its metaphorical interpretation. I would explain therefore this expreffion elliptically, by which means it may be made to denote a church, as well as by its metaphorical interpretation; and at the fame time the inconvenience attending the metaphor will be avoided. I conjecture that xugia is ufed elliptically for κύρια εκκλησία, which among the ancient Greeks fignified an affembly of the people held at a stated time, and at Athens was held three times in every month. Now fince the facred writers adopted the term Exxλndia from its civil ufe among the Greeks, κυρία εκκλησία, if uted in the facred writings would fignify the ftated affembly of the Chriftians held every Sunday: and T EXλEXTY xugia, with xxλnrig understood, would fignify to the elect church or community, which comes together on Sundays.' The only difficulty attending this interpretation is, that I know of no inftance, in which Exxλnoia, as belonging to xupia, is fuppreffed.

St. John here uses, what is called constructio ad fenfum,
See Suidas, under the article sxxλnoia xugia.

T

SECT. IV.

Of the contents and defign of the third Epistle.

HE object of the third Epiftle was to recommend to Caius, certain Chriftians, who were travelling to preach the Gospel to the heathens; and St. John wrote to Caius in particular, because his hofpitality to the Christian brethren was already known, and St. John had reafon to apprehend, that a former Epiftle, which he had addreffed to the community, of which Caius was a member, had produced little effect.

The recommendation is properly contained in the fixth, seventh, and eighth verfes. In the fixth verfe, St. John fays to Caius, thou will do well (xaλws wondeLS *) if thou forwardeft the brethren on their journey. These brethren he defcribes in the feventh verfe, as perfons, who went forth for God's fake, taking nothing of the Gentiles.' Now whether these perfons went forth voluntarily to preach the Gofpel to the Gentiles, and would not receive from them any reward for their labours, or whether they had been compelled by a perfecution to quit their own country, and refufed to accept alms in their diftrefs from benevolent heathens, is a question, on which the commentators are not agreed. But the former is the most probable, because it is attended with no inconvenience, whereas to the latter may be made the three following objections.

1. In the age, in which this Epiftle was written, there were very few exiles for the fake of the Gofpel, efpecially in Grecian countries. And if any Chriftians had been banished from Ephefus, St. John himfelf, as the principal perfon, must likewife have been banished.

2. If

The expreffion as winds denotes a civil request, and is equivalent to, i intreat thee' See 1 Maccab. xi. 43. xii. 18. 22. At any rate, as St. John here ufes the future tenfe, he must mean fome expected, and not any past act of hospitality.