again, and again, Be as good lawgivers to one another; continue faithful counsellors do each other: remove from among you all hypocrisy.
12 And may God, the Lord of all the world, give you wisdom, knowledge, counsel, and understanding of his judgments in patience:
13 Be ye taught of God; seeking what it is the Lord requires of you, and doing it; that ye may be saved in the day of judgment.
14 And if there be among you any remembrance of what is good, think of me; meditating on these things, that both my desire and my watching for you may turn to a good account.
15 I beseech you; I ask it as a favour of you; whilst you are in this beautiful tabernacle of the body, be wanting in none of these things; but without ceasing seek them, and fulfil every command. For these things are fitting and worthy to be done.
16 Wherefore I have given the more diligence to write unto you according to my ability, that you might rejoice. Farewell, children of love and peace.
17 The Lord of glory and of all grace, be with your spirit, Amen.
REFERENCES TO THE GENERAL EPISTLE OF BARNABAS.
[Barnabas was a companion and fellow-preacher with Paul. This Epistle lays a greater claim to canonical authority than most others. It has been cited by Clemens, Alexandrinus, Origen, Eusebius, and Jerome, and many ancient Fathers. Cotelerius affirms that Origen and Jerome esteemed it genuine and canonical; but Cotelerius himself did not believe it to be either one or the other; on the contrary, he supposes it was written for the benefit of the Ebionites, (the christianized Jews,) who were tenacious of rites and ceremonies. Bishop Fell feared to own expressly what he seemed to be persuaded of, that it ought to be treated with the same respect as several of the books of the present canon. Dr. Bernard, Savilian professor at Oxford, not only believed it to be genuine, but that it was read throughout in the churches of Alexandria, as the canonical Scriptures were. Dodwell supposed it to have been published before the Epistle of Jude, and the writings of both the Johns. Vossius, Dupuis, Dr. Cane, Dr. Mill, Dr, S. Clark, Whitson, and Archbishop Wake also esteemed it genuine: Menardus, Archbishop Laud, Spanheim, and others deemed it apocryphal.]
THE EPISTLE OF
IGNATIUS TO THE EPHESIANS.
⁂ The References to the following seven Epistles will be found at the end of the Epistle to Polycarp.
CHAP. I.
IGNATIUS, who is also called Theophorus, to the church which is at Ephesus in Asia; most deservedly happy: being blessed through the greatness and fullness [1]of God the Father, and predestinated before the world began; that it should be always unto an enduring and unchangeable glory; united and chosen through his true passion, according to the will of
- ↑ See Eph, iii.19.
