adequately; but with this indispensable assistance, nothing is obscure as to the broad, saving truth of Christ. The Gospel shines forth like the light of day. The main course of the apostle's arguments is perspicuous. It is only to a careless or presumptuous reader that it is difficult; or to a student, whose mind, however learned and diligent, is preoccupied with a scheme of divinity contrary to that of St. Paul, and who labours to make him speak just the opposite to what his words import. The hindrances are then for the time insuperable; but not from any obscurity in the sacred writings, but from the want of the right state of mind on the part of those who would interpret them.

The apostle divides his Epistle to the Colossians into four parts, which nearly coincide with the four chapters as we find them.

In the first, he establishes the truth of the Gospel in a manner adapted to the impending dangers.

He next refutes, in a brief, but most decisive condemnation, the errors which had arisen among them.

He proceeds then to point out the true motives to holiness as springing from the Gospel he had taught, and from no other source.

Lastly, he urges on them several duties, both general and particular, in his usual manner; concluding with salutations.

A strong resemblance to the Epistle to the Ephesians is observable throughout. There is the same effusion of heart, the same tenderness of affection,

and the same elevation of views as to the glorious salvation of Christ. Several, also, of the particular topics and turns of expression have a great similarity, which enables us to illustrate the one by the other, and which gives the impression that the two were poured out from the writer's mind whilst all the matters of both were fresh in his recollection. And if the words, "the Epistle from Laodicea," allude, as is probable, to that to the Ephesians, which was to be transmitted onwards to them from Laodicea in order to be publicly read, then we may consider the letter before us as a continuation of that to the converts at Ephesus. And it is noted by the most ancient commentators, Chrysostom amongst the number, that this and the other Epistles written by St. Paul during his imprisonment, abound with the tenderest and most pathetic addresses, the highest spirituality of affection, and great similarity of topics, owing to the large measure, as it is justly supposed, of the Holy Spirit's consolation, with which he was then favoured.

The introduction, or exordium, of the Epistle, occupies the first eleven verses. It contains, besides the salutation, a thanksgiving to God for the Colossians, a testimony to the doctrine of Epaphras amongst them, and a most solemn prayer for their progress in every part of the christian character.

LECTURE II.

SALUTATION, AND THANKSGIVING FOR THE FAITH AND LOVE OF THE COLOSSIAN CHRISTIANS.

COL. i. 1-4.

OUR present lecture will contain remarks on the first four verses of St. Paul's Introduction, comprehending his salutation and part of his thanksgivings to Almighty God on account of the Colossians.

1 Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timotheus our brother.

In some of his epistles, St. Paul only styles himself" the servant of Jesus Christ;" but here, as being probably unknown by face to the Colossians, he mentions expressly that he was an apostle of Jesus Christ, and declares he was so by the will of God. This is in order to show that he was not acting on his own will, as the false apostles, nor intruding, as they were into a province not assigned him; but that he was discharging the functions of an apostle committed to him by the will and authority of Almighty God, in writing to admonish and caution them.

It is this will of God which is in every age the foundation of authority in the christian ministry. We cannot, indeed, ascertain this as the apostles did, by revelation, but we may and must by the inward movement of the Holy Ghost upon the mind, and by the voice and calling of those who are duly appointed

to examine the claims of candidates for sacred functions, and to send them forth by solemn ordination as labourers in the Lord's harvest.*

The apostle joins Timothy with himself, and calls him his brother. In like manner, when writing to the Corinthians, he joins Sosthenes, and to the Thessalonians, Sylvanus.

Timothy is probably named here as having been his amanuensis in writing the letter, and possibly as having founded the church at Colosse, or at least as well known there. And St. Paul styles him, not his son, as in the Epistles to Timothy, but his brother, in order, perhaps, to give him the more authority if he should be again sent to labour amongst them.

The union of other and younger ministers with himself in his public and authoritative Epistles, is a proof of his charity and esteem for them, and of the honour he wished to put on his younger brethren; and constitutes, in fact, a strong testimony to their fidelity. Genuine lowliness of mind, like

* In our own Church, it is by the bishops and chief pastors that this authority is exercised, assisted, according to the canons and rubrics, by their presbyters in the examination and imposition of hands.

As to the inward call, it is thus laid at the foundation of our service; "Do you trust that you are inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost to take upon you this office and ministration, to serve God for the promoting of his glory and the edifying of his people?" To which awful question the candidate must be prepared to answer, "I trust so."

wise in the apostle, led him to claim nothing beyond his necessary authority, but to share, so far as was possible, everything of an honourable nature with his beloved fellow-labourers.

Nothing, we may be assured, can be more offensive to Christ, and contrary to the whole spirit of the Gospel, nothing more opposite to the conduct of the inspired apostles, and more destructive of all real usefulness in the ministry, than the arrogance and exclusive claims so much put forward of late years amongst us. The apostles and the reformers knew nothing of an apostolical succession in the modern sense of not merely an official, but a personal descent from the apostles-a visible and tangible series of men, with a canonical derivation of sacramental grace, succeeding, in all following ages, to the authority of the first apostles, whether preaching their doctrines and treading in their holy steps or not-and this succession, incapable as it is of proof, held to be essential to the lawfulness of the ministry, and to the validity of the sacraments.

A divine power, indeed, the apostles always asserted, and in a manner suited to their direct inspiration and possession of miraculous gifts. And in like manner an authority is necessarily deposited, in its due measure, with the bishops and presbyters of every age; but an authority mild, gracious, directly subservient to the salvation of souls, and in the spirit of such passages as the following-" Not that we have dominion over your faith, but are help