and pompous a title, it has been highly efteemed by several learned men of the Church of Rome, and others: the famous Jefuits, Stapleton and Salmeron ", among the reft, have contended for its genuineness and authority. The Quakers have printed a tranflation of it, and plead for it. I thought it therefore neceffary to infert it here, and enquire into its original. There have been many editions of it, and Sixtus Senenfis mentions two manuscripts; the one in the Sorbonne library at Paris, which was a very old one, and the other at Padua in Venice, in the library of Joannes a Viridario, which he transcribed and published, and from which I have taken the following copy. N. B. The texts of Scripture, which are placed in the third column, are placed to the intent that the reader may with more eafe and at one view difcover the impofture and forgery of the Epiftle. et Domino noftro Jefu Chrifto. 3. Gratias ago Chrifto per omnem orationem meam, quod permanentes eftis et perfeverantes in operibus bonis, promiffionem expectantes in die judi cii. 4. Neque difturbent vos quorundam vaniloquia infimulantium veritatem, ut vos avertant a veritate Evangelii, quod a me prædicatur. 5. Et nunc faciet Deus, ut qui funt ex me, perveniant ad perfectum veritatis Evangelii, fint defervientes, et benignitatem operum facientes, quæ funt falutis vi tæ æternæ. 6. Et nunc palam funt vincula mea, quæ patior in Chrifto, in quibus lator et gaudeo. VOL. II. from God the Father, and our Lord Jefus Chrift. 3. I thank Chrift in every prayer of mine, that ye continue and perfevere in good works, looking for that which is promifed in the day of judgment. 4. Let not the vain fpeeches of any trouble you, who pervert the truth, that they may draw you afide from the truth of the Gospel which I have preached. 5. And now may God grant, that my converts may attain to a perfect knowledge of the truth of the Gofpel, be beneficent, and doing good works which accompany falvation. 6. And now my bonds, which I fuffer in Chrift, are manifeft, in which I rejoice and am glad. D 7. Scio enim quod hoc mihi eft ad falutem perpetuam, quod factum eft orationibus veftris, adminiftrante Spiritu Sancto. 8. Sive per vitam, five per mortem, eft mihi vivere vita in Chrifto, et mori gaudium. 9. Et ipfe Dominus nofter in nobis faciet mifericordiam fuam, ut eandem dilectionem habeatis et fitis unanimes. 10. Ergo, dilectiffimi, ut audiftis præfentiam Domini, ita fentite, et facite in timore; et erit vobis vita in æternum; 7. For I know that this fhall turn to my falvation for ever, which fhall be through your prayer, and the supply of the Holy Spirit. 8. Whether I live or die; (for) to me to live shall be a life to Chrift, to die will be joy. 9. And our Lord will grant us his mercy, that ye may have the fame love, and be likeminded. 10. Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have heard of the coming of the Lord, fo think and act in fear, and it act in fear, and it fhall be to you life eternal; 11. For it is God, who worketh in you; 12. And do all things without fin. 13. And what is beft, my beloved, rejoice in the Lord Jefus Chrift, and avoid all filthy lu cre. 14. Let all your requefts be made known to God, 7. Phil. i. 19. For I know that this fhall turn to my falvation through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit. 8. Phil. i. 20, 21. Whether it be by life or death, for to me to live is Chrift, to die is gain. 9. Phil. ii. 2. That ye be likeminded, having the fame love. 10. Phil. ii. 12. Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, &c. work out your falvation with fear; 11. Phil. ii. 13. For it is God who worketh in you. 12. Phil. ii. 14. Do all things withoutmurmuring, &c. ver. 15. that ye may be blameless. 13. Phil. iii. 1. Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. 14. Phil. iv. 6. Let your requests eftote The perplexing difficulties, in which we are continually involved in our fearches after truth, proceed from no cause more general than the great variety of opinions, and multiplicity of other men's fentiments, which we are obliged to meet with. Hence it inevitably happens, that fubjects, in themselves easy and intelligible, become intricate and obscure; and that which a perfon by his own genius and endeavour would in a fhort time discover, he cannot, without the utmost caution and application, if at all, come to the knowledge of. Men, who are called learned, either by fome particular prejudices, fome confusedness of ideas, and principally a certain inceffant inclination to lengthen out their volumes, do as it were caft a veil over the truth, which themselves are about to eftablish, and leave the subject attended with more difficulties than they found it; whence I have often thought it no small advantage to a question (or to him that is to manage it) that it has escaped the bufy and confounding hands and heads of criticks, commentators, &c. Such an introduction forces itself from me, when I confider, that, in order to manage this plain fubject, I have been obliged to read the tedious pages of fo many learned men, on a matter which, had they not made them, would have had few intricacies attending it. On the Epistle of the Laodiceans, I find differing in some respects almoft every one from the other; Erafmus, Sixtus Senenfis, Bellarmin, Calvin, Beza, Drufius, Whitaker %, Waltherus, Epifcopius '; Pamelius *, Lightfoot', Knatchbull", Adams", Father Simon, Du Pin P, Grotius, Dr. Hammond, Spanheim, Turretin, the prefent Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Cave, Fabritius, Dr. Whitby2, Dr. Mill, Le Clerc ", &c. But, as far as I can, to avoid both b |