fruit? Why didst thou order them to read it in their assembly; to impart it unto neighbouring churches, and enjoin them to read it also? Why didst thou not fear lest thou shouldst infect the spirits of thine innocent disciples, and insnare them in some heresy by the darkness of thy riddles; or shouldst sow some disorder in their hearts by the ambiguity of thine expressions? Dear brethren, the apostle answers, that his gospel is clear; that it is covered only to unstable spirits, and such as are engaged in some evil passion; that this Epistle is not any seed of error, but a remedy against seduction; a vessel full, not of poisons, but of preservatives and anti-keeper and depositary of them, as the synagogue dotes. But I perceive what is the matter. The Scriptures seem to these gentlemen dangerous; because, saying nothing of their pope, of their mass, of the worship of their saints and images, nor of their purgatory, and such other points; nay, saying many things which are evidently contrary to them; they easily induce those who read them with attention to believe that these doctrines have been invented by men, and were never taught by Jesus Christ and his apostles. This book troubles them, because they find not their reckoning in it. It is obscure, because what they love does not there appear. It is ambiguous, because it pronounces nothing clearly or expressly in favour of the opinions which they are resolved never

to forsake.

Again, this imparting of St. Paul's Epistle to the Laodiceans, which the Colossians were to do by his order, shows us that there ought to be a holy and charitable commerce between the churches of Jesus Christ with reference to spiritual things; that a church which has received any grace from God which tends to edification should not grudge it to others, but affectionately communicate to them all that may serve for their instruction. And this communion ought to take place particularly between neighbouring churches, such as those of Colosse and of Laodicea. And it is upon this example, and upon the reason on which it depends, that the uniting of the churches of the same provinces in synods is founded; a thing instituted and observed from the beginning of Christianity down to our days, and still very profitably practised and kept up among us, by the goodness of God.

This mutual communication of neighbouring churches appears yet further, in the apostle's ordering the Colossians, in the third place, to read also the letter from Laodicea after imparting to them his. "When this Epistle," says he, "is read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and that ye likewise read the Epistle [which came, or was written] from Laodicea." It is demanded what this second Epistle is of which he speaks. Many theologians of the communion of Rome answer, that it was a letter which St. Paul wrote to the faithful of Laodicea, at the same time he wrote this to the Colossians; whence they conclude, that this piece being lost, as well as various other writings of prophets and apostles, it cannot be pretended that the canon of holy writ is perfect, and contains all things necessary to our salvation. Others, again, from thence infer that it is the church which gives the Scriptures the authority they have among Christians; since, of the Epistles of St. Paul, it has left this in particular out of the canon of Divine books, and retained only those fourteen which are in our hands. But there is nothing sound or solid in their argument; which concludes badly, and presupposes what is false. For suppose the apostle had written

an Epistle to the Laodiceans, and that it was lost, (as I would not affirm that St. Paul and his fellow brethren the apostles never wrote any thing to any particular person or to any church but what has been handed down to us,) suppose it, I say; who told them that this loss makes the canon of our Scriptures defective? Who told them that there was in that letter some article of faith necessary to our salvation which is not found in the other parts of the Bible which we now have? Again, who taught them thence to conclude, that it is the church who authorizes the Divine books? I grant she is the formerly was of the books of the Old Testament, according to the apostle's saying, that unto them were committed the oracles of God; and that it belongs to her charge to preserve them, and read them, and recommend them to every one. But that it is the authority of her voice and testimony which gives them the price and value they have, either in themselves, or with reference to faithful souls, cannot, in my opinion, be said without outraging the majesty of their author, by making the divinity of the instruments of his wisdom to depend upon the fancy of men; as the Romans formerly submitted the worship and divinity of their gods to the decrees of their senate. They were not gods except it so pleased men. If it were certain that the apostle had written an Epistle to the Laodiceans, and put it into the hands of the church, it should be concluded, not that she has the power to authorize what Divine books she pleases, but rather that she has greatly failed in her duty in having so negligently kept a heavenly jewel. But the worst yet is, that all that they say about this pretended Epistle of St. Paul to the Laodiceans is a vain conceit, and has no other foundation than their imagination. I well know that in our fathers' days a learned man* published one under that name, having found it in three or four libraries. But the piece is so gross and so ridiculous, that it has been universally rejected, as the work of an impostor, who, abusing his leisure, forged this trifle, and shamelessly fathered it upon St. Paul. Some of the ancients also make mention of a document bearing the same name, whether it were different from this or resembled it: but the ancients who speak of it all unanimously decry it as an apocryphal book, and one issued out of an heretical shop, and framed at pleasure after St. Paul's death. And, in truth, one of the first writers of the Latin church declares,† that a famous heresiarch, named Marcion, had changed the title of the Epistle of St. Paul to the Ephesians, and instead of this name, which it always bore in the church, impudently called it the Epistle to the Laodiceans; and indeed in the Epistle to the Ephesians, those words occur which Epiphanius reports to have been cited by Marcion out of the Epistle to the Laodiceans. ‡ This has given a certain writer § occasion to fancy that St. Paul indeed sent and addressed the same Epistle to the Laodiceans which at the same time he wrote to the Ephesians, these two churches having had need of the same remedies; and that it is this Epistle the apostle means in this place, directing the Colossians to take a copy of it, and read it in their assembly. All this would pass, if it were at all grounded; but it is too much confidence or credulity to think to persuade us of it upon the credit of Marcion, the most impudent impostor that ever troubled the church, and one that in particular played with the books of the New Testament, contracting them,

maiming them, and changing them at his pleasure with an infernal licence. Besides, this supposition agrees not with St. Paul's words. For he does not say, as these persons pretend, that the Epistle in question was written to the Laodiceans. True it is, the Latin interpreter has rendered it, the Epistle of the Laodiceans, but this would signify, as every one sees, that the Laodiceans had wrote it, and not that they had received it, either from the apostle or from any other. Yet though the Latin would suffer this rude gloss, it is clear the original cannot be made to bear it without undertaking (as these new doctors do, truly with presumption enough) to change the words of it, which we find uniform in the Greek copies, and which the ancients observed there, above twelve hundred years ago. For they clearly import, as our Bibles have faithfully translated and represented, that this Epistle had been written or sent from Laodicea; so that we must necessarily understand them, with the ancient Greek fathers, of an Epistle written, not to the Laodiceans, but from their

city.

then is, that the church should direct him, on St. Paul's behalf, to mind both the quality of that excellent ministry, and the authority and Divinity of the Lord, in whose name he had been called to it, that he might acquit himself worthily in it, and diligently fulfil all its functions, leaving no part of them unperformed. It is thought that some negligence or other defect of this pastor might have induced the apostle to cause this advice to be given him; but, for my part, I would not without a more pressing reason suspect such a thing of a person whom the apostle had so much honoured as to call him his fellow soldier, in the Epistle he wrote at the same time to Philemon; and should rather believe that Archippus, having been newly received into this sacred charge, the apostle would encourage him by this direction to a good discharge of his duty. However this may be, you see he gives the body of the church a power to address some remonstrances sometimes to its own pastors; an evident sign that they are not the masters and lords of it, as those of Rome pretend, but ministers and officers only.

He adds in conclusion, "The salutation by the hand of me Paul." The rest of the Epistle had been dictated by the apostle, and written by another hand. He writes these and the following words himself, with his own hand; and it was his ordinary practice so to do, as he declares elsewhere, 2 Thess. iii. 17, to assure his letters by this mark against the fraud of falsifiers, who even then impudently dispersed forged letters under his name; as he himself in another place intimates to us, 2 Thess. ii. 2. Yet, before he concludes, he conjures them to remember his bonds, as an excellent seal of the truth of his

he bore to them, and the rest of the Gentiles, for whose sake he suffered these things; which consequently obliged them to love him, and to pray the Lord ardently for him; and above all to imitate his constancy and his patience on similar occasions, if they should be called to suffer. After this he gives them his blessing in these words, "Grace be with you. Amen." He means the grace of God in Jesus Christ his Son our Lord; and it was not possible to crown this divine letter with a fairer and more appropriate conclusion.

Now the apostle telling us no more of it, either here or elsewhere, we need not wonder that those who have had the curiosity to inquire what this letter might be have fallen upon different opinions, as in a matter both obscure, and besides of no great necessity. Some of the ancients say that it is the First Epistle of St. Paul to Timothy, written from Laodicea; as is expressly reported by an old tradition, which is read still to this day at the end of that Epistle. And the truth is, it cannot be denied that this Epistle contains various instructions fit to edify the Colossians about the business of those seducers whom St. Paul here opposes; they taught a dis-gospel, and an irrefragable testimony of the affection crimination of days and meats, and this is there expressly condemned. And whereas it is alleged against these authors, that the apostle had not been in the city of Laodicea; consequently, he could not have thence written any letters, either to Timothy or any other; they perhaps would answer with an ancient author, Theodoret by name, that the history of the Acts assuring us St. Paul had traversed Phrygia, it is not very improbable that he passed through Laodicea, the capital city of the province. As to his saying, in the 2nd chapter to the Colossians, that he had a great conflict for them, and for those at Laodi- Let us bless God, my beloved brethren, who has cea, and for all such as had not seen his face in the vouchsafed us the grace to read and to explain it flesh; this shows indeed that the apostle had care throughout in these holy assemblies; and pray him even of those of the faithful whom he had not seen, that he would please to continue the same liberty but not that they of Laodicea or of Colosse were of and tranquillity still to us, causing his word to fructhe number; and that the sense of these words is, hetify among us. At present, let us particularly mediwas in pain, not only for them whom he had seen and known, but even for the Christians he never saw. Yet because this exposition may seem a little forced, it is better and more easy to adhere to the common opinion, followed by the greater number of expositors, both ancient and modern, even that the Epistle from Laodicea, here mentioned by the apostle, was a letter written by the church of Laodicea to St. Paul; which letter he desires the Colossians should read in their assembly, because it contained things which he judged helpful to their edification; perhaps concerning the persons, or the errors, or the procedures of those very seducers whom he combats in this Epistle. This, in my opinion, is that which may be said in the matter with greatest probability.

There remains the third and last order he gives them: "Say to Archippus, Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord, that thou fulfil it." We learn from the Epistle to Philemon, that Archippus was a fellow soldier of the apostle's, that is, a minister of the holy gospel. The meaning

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tate upon the remarkable lessons which this conclusion contains, to the end that we may sedulously practise them, each of us according to our vocation. Let ministers mind the direction given to Archippus, and imitate the example of Epaphras, in loving cordially their flocks, in striving for them by prayer, by word, and by deed; fulfilling their ministry, and so demeaning themselves in it, as may be worthy both of the excellency of the charge, and of the respect and love they owe to the Son of God, who has honoured them with it. Let flocks have reverence and amity for their pastors, and live in good intelligence with their neighbours, as Colosse and Laodicea, mutually communicating all things which tend to their common edification. Let the Epistles of St. Paul, and the books of his fellow brethren, the prophets and apostles of the Lord, resound eternally in our assemblies. Let their voice alone be there heard, and their doctrine alone received, and let every tradition which is not marked with their seal be banished thence. Let heads of families imitate the zeal of