that the Gentiles fhould be joint heirs, and a joint body, and joint partakers with the Jews, of God's promifes in Chrift, through the gospel, chap. iii. 3.-6. And therefore, they were to give no heed to the Judaizing teachers, who excluded the Gentiles from thefe privileges, merely because they were not circumcifed. And to the united body of Jews and Gentiles, forming the Christian church, he gave the appellation of the fel lowship of the mystery, chap. iii. 9. The honours and privilege's of which he describes, ver. 15.-19. As he doth likewife, the bonds by which the members of this fellowship are united; namely, one Lord or head, one faith, one baptifm, and one object of worship, chap. iv. 4-6: Not omitting the fupernatural gifts with which the members of this fellowship were endowed, chap. iv. 11, 12.-Laftly, he exprefsly prohibited the Ephefians from joining in any of the heathen fellowships, on account of the works of darkness committed in them, chap. v. II.

Upon the whole, I fubmit it to my readers, whether the apostle, by representing the gospel in this epiftle, no lefs than five times, under the idea of a mystery, did not mean to lead the Ephefians to compare it with their own mysteries, for the purpofe of making them fenfible:-1. That in authority and importance, the discoveries contained in the gospel, infinitely exceeded the difcoveries made in the most celebrated of the heathen mysteries, and were much more effectual for comforting and directing mankind in their journey through life.-2. That Chrift, the head of the Chriftian fellowship, was much more powerful than all the heads of the heathen fellowships joined together.-3. That the Chriftian church, in which the mystery of God's will was kept, was a far more excellent fabric than the temple of Diana at Ephefus.-4. That the honours and advantages, which the members of the Chriftian church derived from Christ, their head, far furpaffed the honours and advantages, which the initiated pretended to derive from the gods, the heads of their fellowships.-5. That the bonds by which the members of the Chriftian church were united, were more excellent and more effectual for promoting concord and love, than those by which the members of the heathen fellowships were united.6. That the miraculous gifts beftowed on the apoftles, and other, inspired teachers in the Chriftian church, rendered them, as teachers, more refpectable than any of the heathen myftagogues, VOL. III.

and

and their teaching more worthy of the attention of mankind, than theirs. And therefore, 7. That it was far more honourable and advantageous to be a member of the Chriftian church, than to be initiated in the most celebrated of the heathen myste ries; confequently, That the condition of the Ephefians, as members of the church of Chrift, was far more happy than their former ftate; even although they had been partakers in the bett of the heathen mysteries, the Eleufinian not excepted.

The Epistle to the Ephefians, viewed in the light wherein I have placed it, appears excellently calculated for repreffing that vain admiration of the mysteries, which the Ephefian and other Gentile converts ftill entertained: And for enervating the fpecious arguments ufed by the Judaizers, for feducing them to obferve the law of Moses. This epiftle, therefore, must have been of great ufe for confirming the whole body of the Gentile converts inhabiting the province of Afia, in the belief and profeffion of the gospel.

Before this fection is concluded, it may be proper to obferve, that the ivth, vth, and vith chapters of the epiftle to the Ephefians, are called, by Theodoret, The moral admonition; as containing a more complete fyftem of precepts, refpecting the temper of mind which the disciples of Chrift ought to poffefs, and respecting the duties which they owe to themselves and to each other, than is to be found in any other of St. Paul's epiftles.

SECT. IV. Of the Perfons for whom the Epifle to the Ephefians was defigned.

That the epiftle to the Ephefians was defigned for the use, not of the Ephefians alone, but of all the brethren in the proconfular Afia, not excepting those to whom the apoftle was perfonally unknown, may be gathered from the infcription of the epiftle, and from the benedictions with which it is concluded. The infcription runs thus: To the faints who are in Ephesus, and to the believers in Christ Jesus; by which last expreffion, I understand perfons different from the faints in Ephefus; namely, all the believers in the province of Afia. In like manner, in the conclufion of the epistle, we have, first a particular benediction,

chap

chap. iv. 23. Peace be to the brethren, namely in Ephesus; then a general one; ver. 24. Grace be with all them who love our Lord Jefus Chrift in fincerity, that is, with all the faithful in the proconsular Afia. For that there was a confiderable intercourfe between the churches of the proconfular Afia, and that at Ephesus, appears from the first epistle to the Corinthians, which was written from Ephefus; where, instead of mentioning the church at Ephefus by itself, as faluting the Corinthians, the falutation is from the churches, of Afia in general, comprehending Ephesus among the reft, 1 Cor. xvi. 19. The churches of Afia falute you.Paul indeed, commonly directed his letters to the churches in the great cities, because they were more numerous than the other churches. Yet that he defigned them for all the brethren in the neighbourhood, appears from the infcriptions of his epiftles to the Corinthians, as was observed, Prelim. Eff. ii. page 73. To these arguments add, that the fulness and perfection of the moral admonition delivered in the epiftle to the Ephefians, as well as the catholic manner in which the other matters contained in it are handled, fhew clearly, that it was defigned for others, befides the brethren at Ephefus.

This remark, concerning the perfons for whom the epistle to the Ephefians was defigned, may be of confiderable ufe in helping us to judge of fome paffages. For example, when we recollect that this epiftle was directed to the faithful in Chrift Jefus, throughout the province of Afia, many of whom, it is to be supposed, had never seen Paul's face, we shall be fenfible of the propriety of his faying to them, even according to the common. tranflation, chap. iii. 2. If ye have heard of the difpenfation of the grace of God given to me. For although the brethren at Ephefus, with whom the apoftle abode three years, and many of the inhabitants of the province of Afia, who had heard him preach in Ephesus, Acts xix. 10. must have known that he was appointed by Chrift the apostle of the Gentiles, fome of the churches of Afia, or at least some of the members of thefe churches, who had never feen him, may have been ignorant of the miraculous manner in which he was convertéd, and commiffioned to be an apoftle. And therefore, his mentioning these things, together with the revelations that were made to him of the mystery of

God's

God's will, in his epistle to the Ephefians, which was defigned for their ufe likewife, may have been very neceffary to many, to make them understand what his knowledge and authority as an apostle of Chrift were. Accordingly, as if this part of the epiftle had been written for a clafs of readers different from those to whom the foregoing part was addreffed, he introduces it with his name, Eph. iii. 1. On account of this, I Paul, am the prifoner of Jefus Chrift, for you Gentiles, &c. See, however, the new tranflation of the paffage.-In like manner, by confidering the epiftle to the Ephefians, as defigned for all the brethren in the province of Afiá, we fee the reason why the apostle has handled his fubjects in a general manner, without making any of those allufions to particular perfons and affairs, which might have been expected in a letter to a church gathered by himself, and in which he had so long refided, and with the members of which he was fo intimately acquainted. Such allufions would not easily have been understood by strangers, and therefore they were with great propriety avoided.

SECT. V. Of the Time and Place of writing the Epifle to the Ephefians.

During the apostle Paul's imprisonment in Cæfarea, though it lasted more than two years, he wrote no letters, either to the churches which he had planted, or to particular perfons; at leaft we know of none which he wrote. But during his confinement at Rome, having more liberty, he wrote feveral epistles which ftill remain. For when the news of his confinement in that city reached the provinces, fome of the churches which he had gathered, fent certain of their most refpected members all the way to Rome, as formerly mentioned, to vifit and comfort him, Philip. iv. 18. Col. i. 7, 8. Thefe meffengers having given him a particular account of the ftate of the churches from whence they came, their information gave rife to the letters which the apostle wrote at that time; and which may be diftinguished from his other letters, by the mention made in them of his imprisonment and bonds. Wherefore, the apostle's bonds being frequently introduced in his epiftle to the Ephesians, chap.

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iii. 1. 13. iv. 1. vi. 12. there can be little doubt of its being written during his confinement at Rome. But whether in the first, or in the second year of that confinement, learned men are not agreed. Many fuppofing it to have been written at the fame time with the epistle to the Coloffians, have dated it in the end of the second year of the apostle's confinement, at which time we know the epistle to the Coloffians was written. And that these two epiftles were written about the fame time, they prove by obferving, that there is a great fimilarity of sentiment and expreffion in them; and that they were fent by the fame meffenger, namely, Tychicus, Ephef. vi. 21. Col. iv. 7. But in Lardner's opinion, these circumftances are not decifive; because Tychicus may have been sent twice from Rome into Asia, by the apostle with letters during his two years confinement; and because several reasons may have rendered it proper for him to write the fame things to these churches, especially as a confiderable space of time intervened between the writing of the letters in which they are contained. Rejecting, therefore, the late date of the epiftle to the Ephefians, Lardner fupposes it to have been written in the beginning of the first year of the apof tle's imprisonment at Rome. And, in support of his opinion, he offers the two following arguments, Canon, chap. xii.

1. That Timothy who joined the apoftle in his letters to the Philippians, Coloffians, and Philemon, did not join him in his epistle to the Ephefians. True. But might not Timothy after joining the apostle in the letters mentioned, leave Rome on fome neceffary business, before the epiftle to the Ephefians was begun? That this was actually the cafe, we have reason to believe. For the apostle, in his letter to the Philippians, promised to send Timothy to them foon, chap. ii, 19. And in his epiftle to the Hebrews, which was written after his releafe, he informed them that Timothy was fent away, Heb. xiii. 23. Wherefore, having left Rome before the letter to the Ephefians was begun, his name could not be inferted in the infcription, notwithstanding it was finished in such time, as to be fent to Epheíus by the meffenger who carried the letters to the Coloffians and to Philemon. 2. Lardner's fecond argument for the early date of the epiftle to the Ephefians, is, that in his letters to the Philippians and to Philemon, the apoftle expreffes his hope of being foon released;