present Bishop of Worcester, preached at Lincoln's

Inn on the following text.

1.

IV.

1 Timothy iii. 16.

Και ομολογεμένως μέγα εςι το της ευσέβειας μυστηριον. Θεος εφανερώθη εν σαρκί, εδικαιώθη εν πνευματι, ώφθη αγγελοις, εκηρύχθη εν εθνεσιν, επιςεύθη εν κόσμω, ανελήφθη εν δόξη.

Common Version.

"And without controversy great is the mystery of god"liness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the

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Spirit, seen of Angels, preached unto the Gentiles, "believed on in the World, received up into Glory."

Proposed Version.

And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of the Chiefs or Ministers of the Synagogue, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the World, received up into Glory.

My reasons for thinking that this interpretation of the Greek word may be here preferable to that in our present version are the following:

1. Ayyɛλos is here introduced singly, unaccompanied with any appropriating phrase or epithet, such as, seen

by the holy or heavenly Angels, &c. whereas St. Paul's usual, if not constant custom, was thus to fix the meaning of the term in his Epistles to the Gentiles, though he found no necessity, as I observed before, to do so when writing to the Hebrews.

2. A gradation or climax seems to have been intended by the Apostle in this delineation of the mystery of godliness, from Christ's manifestation in the flesh, and reception into Glory; or, in other words, from the time of his incarnation to his ascension: and if so, his being "seen of

Angels," would have been a circumstance more appositely introduced immediately after the manifestation, that is, in the second step of the climax, than where it now stands: For that our Saviour was seen of Angels immediately after his nativity, as well as throughout his mission, there can be no doubt. This reason however I should not much insist upon, did I not think it strengthened by a third;

3. Which is, that in the place where it now stands it is clearly opposed, according to my interpretation, to the next which immediately follows, seen by the Jews, preached to the Gentiles; so that the whole will clearly admit the following paraphrase,-" Without doubt great "is the mystery of our Holy Faith: God was made appa"rent in a human body, and proved to be so by the "Holy Spirit, through which he worked such stupendous "miracles, seen by the chiefs of the Jewish nation, but

only seen, for they believed not, though they saw such "miraculous credentials of his Divinity: he was then

preached unto the Gentiles by me Paul, and other "Apostles; in consequence he was believed to be the "Messiah through the whole Roman empire; and lastly " he was received up into heaven."

I would not however have it thought that I should have offered to apply my interpretation of the word to the text in question, had I not found that in three much more difficult ones, I had applied it to a good purpose. If then even here it conveys as true a Gospel sense, and is as consistent with Christ's ministration, as the common one, making at least equally a part in the Apostle's account of the mystery of godliness, it collaterally tends to support those which have been produced before it. I have said that I did not think my alteration of the version here essential; and I know of no commentator except Benson, who wished to change the passage. But he, after translating Ayyɛλos Messengers, puts it as a quære, that it might mean the Apostles themselves: a quære which, I fancy, my reader, after what I have written concerning the other texts, will not think incumbent on me to answer in a controversial manner; and less so, if he reads the Doctor's note. See Benson's Paraphrase on Six Epistles of St. Paul, p. 273.

I proceed now to consider another text, and apply to it the same mode of interpretation, with a view rather to

corroborate the arguments I have employed on the three first versions, than to aim at an establishment of this new sense, exclusive of the old one. For I do not think that this, which I have now to offer, is of more importance than the last. Both of them only tend to shew, that one and the same alteration of the present version in these two last, is equally natural and easy with the three principal ones.

V.

1 Timothy v. 21.

Διαμαρτυρομαι ενωπιον τ8 Θεέ και Κύριε Ιησε Χρις, και των εκλεκίων Αγγελων, ινα ταυτα φύλαξης χωρις προκριμαῖος, μηδεν ποιων κατα προσκλισιν.

Common Version.

"I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, "and the elect Angels, that thou observe these things " without preferring one before another, doing nothing " by partiality."

Proposed Version.

I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, and those elect Converts, the Ministers of the Synagogue, that thou observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality.

The two usual interpretations of the phrase elect Angels in this text are, that St. Paul here means either R

VOL. IV.

those celestial Spirits, who are considered as the peculiar guardians of the Christian Church, or the seven Angels, who stand before the throne of God mentioned in the Revelations.

To every explanation of this sort I venture to make the following objections.

1. The interpretation of presiding Angels has no authority, unless we suppose St. John at the beginning of the Apocalypse to mean celestial beings, when he speaks of the Angels of the seven Churches, a supposition now universally deemed erroneous.

2. The epithet elect is never given to such beings either in St. Paul's writings, or in any passage in the New Testament.

3. The usual epithets are holy, heavenly, or the like, which might seem most proper here to have been given them, the epithet elect being universally applied in the apostolic writings to that part of mankind, who had been made converts to the Christian Faith; insomuch that it is frequently used singly to denote the chosen, without a substantive.

4. We have no ground from Scripture to affirm, that God elected Angels, or raised them to any superior degree