also in him. That, if there be any consolation in such a Saviour, any comfort in such love as he teaches, any bowels of tenderness in human nature, any endearing fellowship in the one Spirit which we derive from him, we may with united hearts and hands be carrying on the one great business of his servants, working out our salvation with fear and trembling; avoiding every thing that may grieve and injure others, or that may discredit our holy profession. And being now made by him the children of God, may we shine with a bright, steady flame, as lights in the world, and hold out, for the benefit of all around us, the word of life, as the gospel, which redeems us from the second death and raises us to eternal life, may properly be called. May we spread its lustre through as wide a circle as possible, and with it that happiness, which nothing but a cordial belief of it and subjection to it can bring to the human heart-To conclude, let us learn from the wise and pious exhortations of the apostle, at once our duty and our dependence: our duty, to work out our own salvation ; our dependence on the grace of him, who worketh in us, both to will and to do, of his own good pleasure. And therefore let us so seek divine grace, and rest upon it, as to exert with vigour and resolution the faculties which are to co-operate with it; and let us so endeavour to exert the faculties which God hath given us, as to confide in divine grace, and rest continually upon it; without which we shall neither will nor do any thing pleasing to God, or available to our own salvation for in this sense, salvation is of the Lord, and through his blessing, which is upon his people. : SECTION V. He assures them of his readiness even to die for their advantage, but expresses his hope of being restored to them : in the mean time, promising them a visit from Timothy, he sends Epaphroditus; of whose late sickness, and love for them, he speaks in affectionate terms. Ch. ii. 17, &c. HAVE told you how much I am interested in your exemplary drink-offering, on the sacrifice and ministration of your faithf, I 18 rejoice and congratulate you all. And on this account, do you 19 also rejoice, and congratulate o me. But I hope in the Lord Jesus, quickly to send Timothy to you, that I also may be refresh20 ed, knowing from him the state of your affairs. For I have none of a like disposition with him, who will naturally take the care of 21 your affairs. For almost all seek their own things; none the 22 things of Christ Jesus. But you know the proof of him, that as 23 a son with a father, he serveth with me in the gospel. I hope therefore to send him quickly, as soon as I see how my affairs "For if." D.-V. 12. † He considers their faith as an acceptable sacrifice to God; and if he incurred martyrdom for his zeal to promote it, he might with beautiful propriety speak of his blood as a libation. "Experience." D. 24 will be determined. But I trust in the Lord, that I shall soon 25 come to you myself. Yet I thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow-labourer and fellow-soldier, 26 but your messenger, and the minister to my necessities: because he was exceedingly desirous of you all, and was dejected 27 because you had heard that he was sick. And indeed he was sick and near to death; but God had mercy upon him; and not upon him alone, but also on me, that I might not have sorrow upon sor28 row. I have therefore sent him with the greater diligence, that seeing him again ye might rejoice, and that I might be the less 29 sorrowful. Receive him therefore in the Lord, with all joy, and 30 hold such persons in high estimation: for on account of the work of Christ he was nigh unto death, having disregarded his own life, that he might fill up the deficiency of your service to me, and perform all the kind offices which you would have rendered me, had you been with me. REFLECTIONS. To what sublime heights of piety and virtue does the immortal hope of the gospel elevate the mind of mortal man! Behold this holy apostle, not only presenting himself as a resolute victim at the altar of God, but speaking of that stroke by which his blood was to be poured out as an occasion of joy, and calling for the congratulation of his friends upon it! Behold him with pleasure resigning the society of those who were dearest and most useful to him, at a time when he seemed most of all to need their assistance; even of that friend who would most naturally care for their estate, when he knew none that were like-minded! And O, that this might be the character of all the ministers of Christ, naturally, and with genuine affection, to care for the state of those committed to them, taking thought for them and the oversight of them, not by constraint, but from a principle of love, which shall make all necessary labours natural and easy! But alas ! how rare a character is it, and how much reason is there to lament the prevalency of a contrary disposition among all ranks of men, the sacred order itself not excepted; while all seek their own things, none the things of Jesus Christ! What ingratitude does this argue! Yea, what stupid insensibility, that any thing, that every thing, should be dearer to us than the interest of that Saviour who purchased us to himself with his blood! Happy they who are distinguished by their fidelity and their zeal, in a time of prevailing apostasy! which we are not to wonder if we discover in these latter ages, when the apostles found cause to speak thus in their own. How beautiful a description does he here give of the piety and humility of young Timothy, while serving with him as a son with a father in the gospel! Thus let young and aged ministers behave to each other, as fathers and sons: the young paying the elder such reverend regards, the aged affording to the younger such kind and tender patronage, and shewing a solicitous concern to prepare them for filling up their place in the church with increasing advantage.-Some obvious instruction arises from what is here said of good Epaphroditus, whose affection to his Christian friends was so ardent, and whose zeal for the work of Christ had even endangered his life. Great reason is there to hold such, wherever they are found, in high esteem, tenderly to sympathize with them, earnestly to entreat God for them, if at any time diseases threaten their useful lives; and to own the mercy of God, not to them only, but to us, when he is pleased to raise them up, and restore them to a capacity of ministering in his church. Let us go back, in our memories, to the days and weeks of dangerous sickness which any of us have known, and humble ourselves before God, that we have no better improved, for his glory and for the good of his church, his mercy to us, in bringing us up from the gates of the grave. SECTION VI. Paul exhorts them to fix their whole dependence on Christ and his gospel, as he himself did, though he had more to glory in than most, with respect to Jewish advantages. Ch. iii. 1-14. 1 AS S for what remaineth, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, is not grievous to me, and it 2 is safe for you. Beware of dogs, persons of a snarling and greedy 3 disposition: beware of evil workers, beware of the concisiont. For we are the true circumcision, who worship God in spirit, and 4 boast in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. Though indeed I have also what might be an occasion of confidence in the flesh. If any other thinketh he hath whereof to trust in the flesh, 5 I have more. I was circumcised on the eighth day after my birth; of the stock of Israel; of the tribe of Benjamin; an Hebrew of Hebrews, born of two Jewish parents; with respect to the law, a 6 Pharisee; with respect to zeal, I was furious in persecuting the church; as to that righteousness, which is in the law, blameless. 7 But the things which were once gain to me, I have accounted loss 8 for Christt. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss, with respect to the most excellent knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for which I have suffered the loss of all things; and I account 9 them but dung, that I may gain Christ, and be found in him; not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is by the faith of Christ; the righteousness which is of 10 God through faith: to know him, and the power of his resurrec tion, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conforma11 ble to his death; if I may by any means attain to the resurrection 12 from the dead: not as if I had already attained, or were already perfect but I pursue it if I may but apprehend that, for which *Some think this refers to a former epistle, others to what he had spoken. [And some to what he had desired Epaph. to tell them.] †Those carnal Jews, who pride themselves on the outward ceremony of cutting the flesh, who delight to cut and mangle the church of Christ.-M. renders the word, the excision. i.e. I threw them away, as mariners do their goods, lest they should sink the vessel. 13 also I am apprehended by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have attained but one thing I can say: Forgetting the things which are behind, I stretch forward toward those things 14 which are before; I press toward the goal, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. REFLECTIONS. As it was not grievous to the apostle to repeat the same useful exhortations, when he judged it conducive to the safety and happiness of those to whom he wrote, so neither should it be grievous to us to hear or to speak truths, with which in the general we may be well acquainted, but which we may be too ready to forget, in pursuit of things, more amusing indeed, but less advantageous. Such are the truths here inculcated; familiarly known, but not therefore to be disregarded. Let us avoid all approaches to these detestable characters here branded with so just an infamy; and consider what it is that will constitute us the circumcision, the people whom God will avow for his own; and charge it upon our souls, that we worship God in the Spirit, that we rejoice in Christ Jesus, and repose not in any sense confidence in the flesh. -We see an example of this excellent temper in the apostle here, who makes his boast in Christ, and for him renounces those advantages on which he was once ready to set the highest value. He accounted those things but loss and damage which once he esteemed his gain and his treasure, especially that eager but blind zeal with which he had once persecuted the church. May it be deeply and constantly impressed upon our minds, that the knowledge of Christ is of all things the most excellent, as the object of it is most sublime and interesting, and the fruits of it most happy and important! This therefore let us pursue, and be truly solicitous that we may gain Christ as our own unalienable property, and that we may be found in him, interested in a better righteousness than we can claim, by virtue of our own personal obedience to any law; even that which is by the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God; prepared, exhibited, and appointed by him, and which is received by faith in his Son. Who would not wish to know him in the power of his resurrection, to feel the views of that great event powerfully operating on his mind; yea in this connection to know the fellowship of his sufferings too? Who would not be willing to be made, in the most painful sense, conformable to his death, to feel the scourges, the insults, the nails, the cross, and what was more dreadful than all, even the desertion of the Father himself, might he thereby attain to a resemblance to Christ in a glorious resurrection from the dead? It shall be the portion of all who die to sin, and live to God, and persist in a resolution of sacrificing all to that Redeemer who for us died and rose again. In the mean time, while we are surrounded with the infirmities of mortality, may we ever keep up an humble sense of the imperfection of our present at * Reach and lay hold on that height of excellence, for which Christ so graciously laid hold on me when I was in my mad career. † Alluding to the proclamation at the Olympic games, by which the candidates were called, before the opening of the course. tainments in religion. May we with holy Paul, so incomparably our superior, forget the progress already made, and strain every nerve, in reaching on to what yet remains before us. How far are we from apprehending that for which we were afprekended by Jesus Christ! How Far from answering the plan our Lord has drawn, and being completely what he intended his servants should be!" Enkindle in our breasts, O thou great Author and Finisher of our Faith! a more ardent desire of answering it; and for that purpose, may it please thee so to display before our believing eyes the glorious prize of the high calling with which God has honoured us through thee, that we may feel all the ardour of our souls awakened to obtain it, and never slacken our pace till we win that immortal crown, but daily increase our speed as we approach it." SECTION VII. He urges upon them a blameless and heavenly conversation, cautioning them against the bad example of some professing Christians. Ch. iii. 15.—iv. 1. 15 ET as many of us therefore, as are perfect* (all sincere Chris16 fectedt, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless whereunto we have attained, let us walk agreeably to the same 17 rule; let us attend to the same thing. Be ye, brethren, imitators of me, and observe those that walk, as ye have us for an example. 18 For many walk very differently, of whom I have often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross 19 of Christ whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and 20 they glory in their shame: who mind earthly things. But we converse as citizens of heaven: from whence also we expect the 21 Lord Jesus Christ as a Saviour; who shall transform our vile body, that it may be made conformable to his glorious body, according to the energy whereby he is able to subject even all things unto himiv. self. Therefore, my beloved and most amiable brethren, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, beloved. REFLECTIONS. And do not we also look for Christ as a Saviour? Do we not hope that this vile body shall, by his all-victorious power, be transformed into the likeness of his own glorious body? Is it not with this hope that we commit the dust of our friends to the grave? And is it not in this confidence that we think of our own death with hope and with cheerfulness? Why then is not our conversation more in heaven? Why have we not more frequent, solemn, and affectionate views of that better world to which we profess to be tending? Alas! have we not reason too often to weep for ourselves as well as others, that we mind earthly things so much and heavenly no more? But wretched indeed are we *Completely initiated into the holy mysteries of our religion." As would be perfect." M. "If ye think differently concerning any thing else." M. |