CHRISTIAN SAINTS, AS DESCRIBED IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. ROM. i., 1 & 7. "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called [to be] an Apostle THE opening addresses of the Apostolic Epistles contain more instruction, and more matter for useful meditation, than some readers of Scripture are aware. And, especially, the titles applied to the persons each Apostle is writing to, tend, incidentally, to throw much valuable light on the history, and on the whole character, of the Gospel dispensation. They indicate to us what were the ideas most familiar to the mind of the writer, and which he expected, or at least in tended, to be the most habitually impressed on the mind of the reader. And this is more particularly the case in respect of any remarkable words or phrases that occur frequently, and are repeated in Epistles addressed to different and distant Churches. Appellations thus commonly employed, must, we may conclude, express something essential to the religion of the Gospel; and it is, therefore, most important to ascertain their true import, and full force. Now in looking over the openings of the several Epistles of Paul, you will find that in the far greater part of them he applies the title of SAINTS to the persons he is addressing. The Romans, and also the Corinthians, he addresses as "called saints(a):" he applies the title of saints to the Philippians, to the Colossians, and to the Ephesians: besides which, he several times uses the same title at the close of an Epistle, in reference to those whose remembrances he gives: "all the saints salute you." With respect to his address to the Ephesians, (a) The words "to be," which were inserted by our translators, they have printed in italics, to denote that there is no corresponding word in the original. "to the saints who are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus," it is worth remarking that our translation might naturally lead the reader to suppose the Apostle to be addressing his Epistle to two distinct classes of persons:"to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus." But the original will not bear that sense. The exact rendering would be, "to the saints (i. e. the holy), even the believers in Christ Jesus, who are at Ephesus." The word "faithful," I may observe, by the way, was used in the times when our translators wrote, in a sense which it has now lost, to signify "a believer." Thus, in one of the prayers at the close of the communion-service, we read of "the blessed company of all faithful people ;" and again, in the 19th Article, a Church is defined, "a congregation of faithful men :" meaning, evidently, in both places, "believers in Christ." Who then were those Saints and Believers to whom the Apostle addresses his Epistles? Manifestly, not certain persons of distinguished holiness, beyond the rest of the Christians; for he takes occasion to rebuke several of those he |