250 IN SINCERITY. [EPHESIANS. 24 Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ r Tit. ii. 7. r in sincerity. Amen. A Or, with incorruption. Written from Rome unto the Ephesians by 24. "Amen." So D., E., K., L., P., most Cursives, Syriac, Copt., Goth.; but omitted by N, A., B., F., G., 17-73, f, g, Vulg. (Cod. Amiat.), Arm., &c. no theological significance in this, but it shows that the Apostle was not tied to any sequence of doctrine, but expressed himself as being free from the chains of any system. 66 24. Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity." "In incorruption." For such only can receive the grace of the Lord. "In incorruption " means in sincerity, in purity, in holiness. They love the Lord in sincerity who love Him for the goodness and holiness which is in Him, and for the deliverance from sin and the newness of life which He bestows upon them. INTRODUCTION. AUTHENTICITY. THE Epistle to the Philippians has always been received in the Church as a genuine letter of St. Paul. The first witness in point of time is Polycarp, who wrote an Epistle to this Church, in which he mentions the Epistle of St. Paul to them, and exhorts them to study it. "And when absent from you, he wrote you a letter, which, if you carefully study, you will find to be the means of building you up in that faith which has been given you" (" Epistle of Polycarp," ch. iii.). Also in chap. xi. "But I have neither seen nor heard of any such thing among you, in the midst of whom the blessed Paul laboured, and who are commended in the beginning of his Epistle [I thank my God upon every remembrance of you. he which hath begun a good work in you, &c.]”. Irenæus, (about A.D. 180) i. 10, "To Jesus Christ . . . according to the will of the invisible Father, 'Every knee should bow of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess to him.'" Again, iv. 5, 3. "This is meant by St. Paul, when he says, 'as lights in the world.' Again, iv. 8. "Wherefore also Paul says, 'I do not seek a gift, but I seek after fruit.'" Again v. 13. "Again to the Philippians he says, ‘But our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus,""&c. The Muratorian fragment on the Canon (A.D. 170): "Cum ipse beatus Apostolus Paulus, sequens prodecessoris sui Johannis ordinem nonnisi nominatim septem ecclesiis scribat ordine tali: ad Corinthios (prima) ad Ephesios (secunda) ad Philippenses (tertia)," &c. Clement of Alexandria appears to quote the Epistle to the Philippians twenty times. One place will be amply sufficient. "But the Apostle, writing to us with reference to the endurance of affliction says, 'And this is of God, that it is given to you on behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake, having the same conflict which ye saw in me, and now hear to be in me. If there is, therefore, any consolation in Christ, &c.' likewise also writing respecting Timothy and himself, he says, 'For I have no one like souled, who will nobly care for your state.' .... In the Epistle of the Churches of Vienne and Lyons, A.D. 161-180, we have Phil. ii. 6, "who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God." Tertullian writes: "So that as the Apostle says, 'God may be magnified in your body.' "" Phil. i. 20. Again, in his treatise on the Resurrection of the flesh he says: “It is in expectation of this for himself that the Apostle writes to the Philippians, 'If by any means I might attain to the Resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained, or were already perfect.' And yet he had believed, and had known all mysteries, as an elect vessel, and the teacher of the Gentiles; but for all that he goes on to say, 'I, however, follow on, if so be I may apprehend that for which I am apprehended ' (ch. xxiii.)." In an index to the quotations of Scripture in this author I find forty citations of the Epistle to the Philippians exclusive of those in his treatise against Marcion, which number eleven or twelve. PHILIPPI. The city of Philippi is described by St. Luke as the chief city of that part of Macedonia, and a colony (Acts xvi. 12, which the Revisers translate "which is a city of Macedonia, the first of that district and a colony"). The place was at first called "Crenides," or "Fountains" from its numerous springs, which rising in the mountains of the north ran down into the marsh to the south of Philippi. It also at one time bore the name of Datum. Crenides, or Datum, was originally in Thrace, for Macedonia was anciently bounded on the east by the Strymon, but Philip of Macedon, the father of Alexander the Great, having triumphed over the Thracians, extended the limits of Alexandria to the River Nestus. As the Thracians were a warlike and restless people, it was necessary to establish a garrison on the frontier to repress their incursions, and Philip |