what bore an unfriendly aspect towards himself, if it contributed to promote the cause of Christ. We perceive how far his zeal for the truth and against error was from all selfish contractedness; with what freedom of spirit he was able to pass a judgment on all doctrinal differences. Even in the erroneous views of these Judaizers he acknowledged the truth that lay at their basis; and when he compared the errors propagated by them, with the fundamental truth which they announced at the same time, it was still a cause of joy to him that this fundamental truth was becoming more generally known, that in every way, whether in pretence (by those who in their hearts preferred Judaism to Christianity,) or with an upright intention, Christ was preached, Phil. i. 18. For even by these persons the knowledge of the facts on which the gospel rested was spread to a greater extent; and where faith in Jesus as the Messiah, the Founder and King of the kingdom of God, was once produced, on this foundation a superstructure could be raised of more correct and extended instruction. But from this we learn what is of service for explaining later appearances in the history of the Roman church, that in connexion with the lessons of the Pauline theology the germ of a Judaizing tendency was implanted in this church.

The concerns of the churches in Lesser Asia first occupied Paul's attention in his imprisonment.' He had received an

1 The supposition on which we here proceed, that Paul wrote the Epistles to the Colossians, the Ephesians, and Philemon, during this confinement at Rome, has found in later times strenuous opponents in Schulz and Schott, to whom must be added Böttger; but the arguments advanced by them against it do not appear to me adapted to overthrow the opinion hitherto most generally held, though no demonstrative proof can be given in its favour, since Paul does not exactly state the circumstances under which he wrote. What he says of the opportunities presented for announcing the gospel, agrees very well with what we know of his confinement at Rome, from the hints given in the Acts and in the Epistle to the Philippians. (The latter indeed cannot be urged against Böttger, for he supposes that epistle to be written while Paul was confined at Cæsarea.) It does not appear to me surprising, that a runaway slave from Colossæ should betake himself at once to Rome; for the constant intercourse with the capital of the empire would easily furnish him with an opportunity, and he might hope for greater security from the distance and the immense population of the metropolis. Nor is it at all strange, that a teacher of the church at Colossæ should be induced, by the dangers that threatened pure Christi

He

exact account of their situations from an eminent individual belonging to the church of Colossæ, Epaphras, the founder of that and of the neighbouring Christian communities. visited Paul at Rome, and gave practical proofs of his sympathy, and through him the apostle learnt how many things which had happened in their church during his absence required to be promptly counteracted.

1

During the preceding year, a new influence emanating from Judaism had been developed in those regions;—an influence with which Christianity had hitherto not come in contact, but which now threatened to mingle with it, and to endanger its purity and simplicity. It might be expected that Christianity on its first spread among the Jews, would chiefly come in contact with the Pharisaic mode of thinking which was then predominant. Hence the first false teachers, with whom anity there, to travel as far as Rome in order to consult the apostle and to solicit his assistance; though we cannot determine with certainty whether other personal concerns also brought Epaphras to Rome. Neither can the fact that Paul, when at Rome, desired a lodging to be in readiness for him at Colossæ, determine anything; for though he had at an earlier period formed the intention to travel first into Spain, yet, as we have already remarked, he might be induced, by the information respecting the changes in the churches of Lesser Asia, to alter his plan. Nor is it otherwise than natural, that, during his confinement at Rome, he should collect around him younger men, who at other times had been used to serve as companions and fellow-labourers in his ministry, and that he should now make use of them in order to maintain with the distant churches, of whose situation he could receive information through various channels at Rome, a living connexion adapted to their necessities.

1 It is remarkable that Paul, in the Epistle to Philemon, calls this Epaphras his "fellow-prisoner in Christ Jesus." As he thus distinguishes him from his other fellow-labourers, we may conclude that it could be affirmed only of Epaphras. Since the judicial inquiry instituted against Paul would have attracted the attention of the Roman magistrates to the new religious party that were opposed to the religion of the state, it may be assumed that this led to the apprehension of Epaphras, who had laboured so zealously on behalf of this cause in Lesser Asia. But it is against this opinion, that he is not mentioned with this epithet in the Epistle to the Colossians, unless we suppose that the apprehension of Epaphras did not occur till after that epistle was written. Still it is fair to suppose, that he was distinguished by this epithet to Philemon only as a faithful companion of the apostle in his confinement; as on the other hand he is distinguished by another epithet in the epistle to the whole church at Colossæ; and this title of honour (ó ovvaixμaλwτós μov) is applied in the same epistle to Aristar. chus, who had accompanied the apostle in his confinement.

Paul had hitherto been so often in conflict, had attempted a mixture of Pharisaic Judaism with Christianity. But now, after Christianity had spread further among the Jews, and had attracted the attention of those who lived in greater retirement, and troubled themselves little about the novelties of the day, its influence affected sects that had long existed among the Jews of a theosophic-ascetic character, such as that of the Essenes. Persons of such a tendency must have felt themselves attracted, still more than Jews of the common Pharisaical bias, by what Christianity presented that was suited to the internal religious sentiment; only they were too much entangled in their mystical-ascetic bias, so opposite to the free practical spirit of the gospel, and in their spiritual pride, to be able to appropriate the gospel simply and purely with a renunciation of the preeminence of a higher religious philosophy, which they fancied themselves to possess, and of a higher practical perfection in their modes of abstinence.

1 Storr's opinion that the Jewish Christian sect at Colossæ was derived immediately from the Essenes, who yet can be regarded only as one manifestation of this general mental tendency, is not supported by sufficient evidence. Yet it is not a decisive objection against it, that the Essenes had not spread themselves beyond Palestine, and showed no inclination for proselytism; for by the influence of Christianity, it is very possible that the original character of such a sect might be somewhat modified. And I would by no means adduce against it, what is said in the Epistle to the Colossians, not merely of the practically ascetic, but also of the theosophic tendency of this sect (their piλooopía), since we cannot trust what Philo says of the Essenes as the ideal of practical philosophers. See my Church History, vol. i. p. 58. But although in this epistle some marks may be found which suit the Essenes, as, for instance, what is said of abstinence, of chastising the body, of the observance of the ceremonial law, of the reverence paid to angels, &c. ; yet all this is too general, not to suit many other similar manifestations, arising from the same mental tendency, and on the other hand, we find nothing which marks the whole peculiar character of the Essenes. As a proof how much a propensity to bring themselves with angelology was spread among the Jews, we may notice the words in the κήρυγμα Πέτρου, in which it is said, μηδὲ κατὰ Ἰου δαίους σέβεσθε, καὶ γὰρ ἐκεῖνοι οἰόμενοι τὸν θεὸν γινώσκειν οὐκ ἐπίστανται, λατρεύοντες ἀγγέλοις καὶ ἀρχαγγέλοις. See Clement. Stromata, vi. 635. Grabe, Spicileg. i. 64. If also an intention was contained in these words to indicate a subordinate place to Judaism as a religious system communicated by angels (the idea which at a later period was formed by the gnostics), the doctrine in vogue among the Jews concerning angels, and their connexion with them, might serve as a point of connexion for this censure.

They must have been rather tempted to remodel Christianity according to their former ideas and tendencies, and to cast it into a theosophic form of their own. We here see a tendency, first germinating in the circle of Judaism, from which, in the following century, manifold branches proceeded of a gnosticism that corrupted the simple gospel. Paul had probably cause, from his experience during his long sojourn in Lesser Asia, to apprehend the springing up of a tendency so injurious to the gospel, and hence we may account for his warnings addressed to the presbyters of the Ephesian church. His apprehensions were now verified. Jewish false teachers of this tendency had made their way into the church at Colossæ. What distinguished them from the common pharisaicallyminded Jewish Christians was this, that they did not begin with recommending to the Gentiles the observance of Jewish ceremonies, as indispensable for justification and sanctification, and for obtaining eternal happiness. Had they proceeded in this manner, they would in all probability not have found an entrance so easily into churches consisting purely of Gentile Christians. But they boasted of the knowledge of a higher wisdom transmitted by tradition among the initiated ;' they pretended to a higher knowledge of the spiritual world, to stand in a closer connexion with it, and that they could communicate it to those who were disposed to be initiated into their mysteries. With this theoretical tendency they joined a strict ascetism in practice, which was probably in close connexion with their theosophic principles, and had its foundation in their notions of matter, as the source and principle of evil; and thus also many particulars in their rules for abstaining from certain things, which it would be injurious to touch or taste, may be referred not simply to the Jewish laws respecting food, but to their peculiar theoretic doctrines.

The history of religion acquaints us with a twofold tendency of mysticism; one that adheres to the prevailing cultus, and professes to disclose its higher meaning: another

L Perhaps they used the term pλooopía, since this appellation, in consequence of the mixture of Oriental and Grecian ideas at this time, might be used as well as the word yvwois, afterwards employed among the Jewish theosophic sects to designate their pretended mysteries.

that wears a hostile aspect towards it, and entirely despises what is external and historical in religion. This contrariety had already made its appearance in the Jewish philosophical religion at Alexandria. Among the Jews in that place, a class of religious Idealists had been formed, who, viewing the historical and the literal in religion only as the covering or vehicle of general ideas, drew the inference that the attainment of perfection depended on holding fast those ideas, while all besides was abandoned to the childish multitude who were incapable of higher conceptions, and satisfied with the outward husk of sensible objects. 1 Philo, in whom we have an example of the first tendency, combats, although agreeing with them in the principles of allegorical interpretation, those despisers of the letter; while he taught that it was possible only by spiritual intuition to penetrate into the true internal meaning of religion, and to know those mysteries of which outward Judaism presented the symbols. But he also taught, that in proportion to the conscientious reverence with which the external was contemplated, would be the progress through divine illumination in the examination of the internal. This last tendency we must suppose to exist in the sect of which we are now speaking.

In however slight a degree a party of common Judaizers would have been dangerous to the church at Colossæ, yet Judaism under this modification would be far more dangerous for many. For the people of that age who were filled with anxiety for a communication with heaven, and for the investigation of the invisible, stretching beyond the limits of earthly existence, the promise of a higher knowledge that to a certain extent would release them from the thraldom of the senses, was very seducing. Such anxious inquiries had led many an individual to Christianity, which, while it brought them to a consciousness of the real wants of their religious and moral nature, for which it guaranteed the relief, communicated on this side another tendency to their minds; but before it had thoroughly penetrated their life and thoughts, it might easily happen that such illusions, falling in with a previous and only partially conquered tendency, would deceive

1 Thus characterised by Philo: οἱ τοὺς ῥητοὺς νόμους σύμβολα νοητῶν πραγμάτων ὑπολαμβάνοντες, τὰ μὲν ἄγαν ἠκρίβωσαν, τῶν δὲ ῥαθύμων ὠλιγά pno av. See his work, De Migratione Abrahami, p. 16.