know very well both in Jewish history and tradition: (5) the destruction of the unfaithful after they had been delivered from Egypt; (6) the angels who kept not their high estate, and are reserved in chains and darkness for judgment; (7) Sodom and Gomorrha destroyed for their filthy vices. these dreamers defile their bodies, "despise government, and speak evil of dignities." "Yet Michael the archangel,† when, contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses, did not presume to bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee!" 10. But these men speak evil of what they know not. Their corruption is described, in terms very like those of 2 Peter. 14. Enoch prophesied of them (in words quoted from an apocryphal book bearing his name). 17. The writer exhorts his friends to remember the words of Christ's apostles, who have said that scoffers would come in the last time, and (20) to build themselves up in their most holy faith, with prayer, keeping themselves in the love of God, and looking for the mercy of Christ to eternal life. 22. Let them compassionate and save those whom they can, but shrink from the very touch of pollution. A very fine doxology ends this Epistle: "Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling," &c.

* κυριότητα ἀθετοῦσι, δόξας δὲ βλασφημοῦσιν. In 2 Pet. the phrases are, κυριότητος καταφρονοῦντας and δόξας βλασφημοῦντες,—nearly identical and very remarkable, whether explained to mean a reckless disregard to civil authority, or, as some think, defiance of angelic powers. Many other verbal correspondences between the two writers, especially in the description of these corrupt intruders, are visible even in the English version.

† A strange legend seems to have been founded upon the declaration in Deut. xxxiv. 6, that "no man knoweth of the sepulchre of Moses unto this day,"-to the effect that Satan wished to reveal the body of the Lawgiver in the hope of exciting the Jews to its idolatrous worship, and that Michael resisted his attempt. Josephus (Ant. iv. 8, 48) hints that Moses had some fear of a superstitious reverence arising towards him. "The Lord rebuke thee," is quoted from Zech.

iii. 2.

THE EPISTLES OF JOHN.

A BRIEF account of the life of the Apostle John was prefixed to the abstract of his Gospel. (See pp. 322— 336.)

Of the three Epistles ascribed to him, the first and principal has been universally admitted to be genuine ; and the second and third, though, according to Eusebius, not universally received before his time, are free from all reasonable doubt. Their being very short, and being also private letters addressed, the one to a Christian lady, and the other to a Christian named Gaius, will sufficiently explain how there might be many churches in the first century or two which had obtained copies of the first Epistle, but had not even heard of the others; while those who, like ourselves, possessed the three, could never fail to recognize the same mind, feeling and verbal style of expression, in all of them. There is no rational doubt of their all being John's.

The times and places of their composition are merely conjectural, as are also the immediate destination of the first or Catholic Epistle, and the residences of the apostle's correspondents addressed in the other two.

The great question as to the time of the first Epistle is, whether it was written before the destruction of Jerusalem or after, as the apostle speaks very emphatically of its being "the last time." Grotius and Michaelis severally decide that it was written before that event; Mill, Whiston and Lardner place it after. There is in the Epistle no distinct allusion to the event as having happened; nor indeed is there anything implying distinctly that it had not. Much depends upon the view taken by each expositor, as to the "false prophets" or "antichrists" of whom the apostle speaks. Were these the false Christs predicted by our Lord as about to

come before that event,-the Theudases and Judases who rashly promised temporal deliverance to the infatuated part of their nation? Or, were they the doctrinal antichrists, the knowing people of Paul's animadversion, the Gnostics of successive and rife growth during the next few centuries, the Carpocratians, Nicolaitans and other such?

I should scarcely presume to pronounce upon these intricate and obscure questions, even if their decision fell more strictly within the scope of my plan than it does. I shall be content to present in abstract the apostle John's own description of these men and their characteristics, as I have done in the case of those alluded to by Paul, and those described in the doubtful second Epistle of Peter and the doubtful Epistle of Jude. And, after this, we shall find both the Nicolaitans and a false prophet (either personal or emblematical) in the book of Revelation presenting very similar attributes. With all these heresies, false prophesyings, or antichristian principles in one view, as described by these various pens, it is the business of the ecclesiastical historian to decide whether they were identical or different, and what they really were.

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN is variously supposed to have been written from Ephesus or from Patmos. It bears no address, but is generally supposed to have been sent in the first instance to some of the churches in the province of Asia, where John had laboured. According to Augustine, it was anciently known as John's Epistle to the Parthians, and was believed to have been sent to the Jewish Christians beyond the Euphrates. But this idea finds no favour with the learned of the present day. There is, in this composition, neither the opening inscription nor the concluding benediction usual in ancient letters; yet it has the tone of a letter in other respects.

ABSTRACT OF THE FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN.

Ch. i. 1. (The introduction, which identifies the author with that of the fourth Gospel, has been spoken of on pp. 332, 333.) The Word of Life, as manifested from the beginning, and seen, heard and handled by himself, the writer attests to those whom he addresses, in order that they may have fellowship with him and his fellow-apostles, that fellowship uniting them all with God and with Jesus Christ. 5. His message is, in brief: that God is light; and those who are in fellowship with Him must not walk in darkness; but if they walk in the light, "the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth them from all sin."

Ch. ii. 1. He writes these things to his "dear children "* to keep them from sinning. Yet if any one sin, the way is open to the mercy-seat of God since Christ's propitiation, and he is our Advocate (Paraclete or Comforter) also. 3. The valid proof of a knowledge of God is obedience to His commands. All profession, short of this, is vain. He who says he abides in God, must walk as Christ did. 7. This is no new commandment in everlasting morality; yet, in another sense, it is the new commandment of the Christian dispensation, inasmuch as the darkness is passing away and the true light now shines;-the commandment, namely, to love one another. (See John xiii. 34.) 12. To his "dear children," whether themselves fathers, young men or children in age, the apostle emphatically writes: "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." 17. The world is passing fast away. "It is the last time," and accordingly there are many antichrists, who "went out from us, but are not of us." Christian believers, by their anointing from the Holy One, know all these things. 22. The false teacher is "he who

*TEKvía μ8, not little children, but dear children,-a phrase appropriate to the writer as aged, rather than to the readers as literally young.

† He and him in the English translation are often obscure. The Greek has two pronouns; avròç is the Deity, kκčivog is Jesus Christ, in this case plainly, and I think wherever they are contrasted in this Epistle.

24.

denieth that Jesus is the Christ. He is the antichrist, who denieth the Father and the Son. Whoso denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father." Let them hold what they have been taught from the first. He writes thus much “in reference to those who would lead them astray.” But they ought not to need teaching, after their Christian anointing. If they but abide in God, they will have confidence at His appearing. 29. As God is righteous, every one who practises righteousness is His child.

The

Ch. iii. 1. What love, to be called God's children! world knows them not, as it knew not Him. Who can tell what the children of God will be, when they shall become like Him and see Him as He is! Such a hope should indeed purify them, as Christ was pure. 4. All sin is defiance of the Divine law. Christ, sinless himself, was manifested in order to take away our sins; therefore he who abides in Christ will not sin; and he who sins cannot really have seen or known Christ. 7. Let there be no sophistication or delusion on this matter of Christian morality: the righteous and justified man is he who does what is right, like Christ himself. He who commits sin is the child of the devil, not of God. The contrast is clear and decisive. 10. And brotherly love is one chief branch of Christian righteousness. 13. No wonder if the world hates the brethren; among themselves the stronger brotherly love should prevail;—love in deed, not in tongue. He who keeps the Divine commandments abideth in God, and God in him; and has the pledge of the Holy Spirit.

Ch. iv. 1. Not every professor of spiritual powers is to be trusted; they must "try the spirits, to see whether they are of God; because many false prophets are gone out into the world." The test is this: "Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. And every spiritual pretender that confesses not that Jesus Christ is come in

Is the emphasis on the words is come, or on in the flesh? Are the false prophets those who said another was yet to come, or those who said the Christ was indeed come, but that he was not defiled by contact with mortal flesh, and that the man Jesus was a mere phantasm, not a corporeal being? Or does his having come in the flesh mean his lowly and suffering state, which was a stumbling-block to Jewish ideas of the Messiah?