To this Ambrose seems to me to have alluded in those words, Hexam. 6, cap. 8, Thou art painted, O man, painted by the Lord thy God; thou hast a good artist, and painter; do not thou deface a good picture, shining not with varnish, but truth; not formed of wax, but of grace. He, therefore, places the image of God which we bear in the effects of grace. Then we are renewed after the image of God when all the powers and inclinations of our souls are enlightened and sanctified.

We derive these Instructions:

1. The end of our regeneration is, that we may be made like to God, and, like a hard and polished mirror, reflect (as far as infirmity permits) his wisdom, righteousness, holiness, &c.

2. Those who do not seek after holiness and righteousness, still bear the image of the old Adam, nay, indeed, that of the devil; they are not yet renewed after the image of God, which chiefly consists in holiness: they must be adjudged to him whose character they bear impressed on their minds.

3. God's kindness and love to man, must be considered. in this work of regeneration: it is a great proof of his goodness and clemency, that he once willed that his image should be impressed upon us; and would renew and restore it again after it was obliterated and deformed. The consideration of the value God set upon this restoration will still more shew forth the Divine clemency: He created man first in his image by his voice and his word; but he restored him a second time by his death and blood. Let, then, this benevolence of God in regenerating us at so great a cost, and renewing us after his image by his Holy Spirit, be a spur to us in laying aside our vices, and pursuing godliness.

So far of the twofold reasoning by which the Apostle confirms the preceding dissuasions from vice: in the next verse we have an amplification of the same reasoning.

Vers. 11.

Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free; but Christ is all and in all.

He now

The Apostle has excited the Colossians to renounce their carnal and spiritual vices, by this argument chiefly; that they had put off the old man and put on the new. seems to polish and point this very argument itself: 1. By discarding the false opinion of those, who, neglecting this renewing of themselves, confided in external privileges, and despised those who were without them. 2. By substituting a true one, viz. that all external things which are esteemed excellent and honourable, avail nothing to salvation without this renewal: on the other hand, what is esteemed vile and base, in no respect hinders it, because Christ is all in all. Let us examine the words in their order.

Where there is neither Greek nor Jew.] That is, where there is considered no difference of nations in respect to a new or renewed man, or the state of regeneration; so that any one should hope he is more acceptable to God because he is a Jew, or fear that he is despised because he is a Gentile: Nay, If thou art a Jew, and art without this renewing, thou art a dog, and no son; if thou art a Gentile and hast it, thou art a son, and no more a dog.

We thus prove it. The difference of nation does not promote the salvation of any one if he be without sanctification, nor hinder his obtaining it if he have it: we must, therefore, seek after holiness. Hence it is that in the Scriptures the pride of the Jews, who plumed themselves on the privileges of their nation, is always rebuked. Thus in Matt. iii. 9, Say not within yourselves, we have Abraham to our father and John viii. 39, to the Jews who boasted, We have Abraham to our father, Christ says, If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham. But

ye are of your father the devil, &c. vers. 44. On the other hand, if the Gentiles were renewed and sanctified, they are shewn to be acceptable to God. See Acts x. 34, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons; but in every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him. And Gal. iii. 7, They which are of faith, the same are children of Abraham. Jerome says, It is not the sons of the saints, who obtain the places of the saints, but those who perform their works. This is an effective argument against the impudence of the Romanists, who measure a member of the Church by this point alone, viz. that he does or does not adhere to the Papal chair. But Christ asks not whether he adhere to this or that national church, but to the true faith? not whether he be a Romanist, but whether he be renewed and sanctified? In the spiritual state, whether a man be a Greek or a Jew is not regarded; much less whether he be a Greek or a Romanist.

Circumcision nor uncircumcision.] As in the business of salvation the difference of nations affords neither prerogative nor prejudice; by similar reasoning the difference of ceremonies and external observances is of no moment. Circumcision was in the Jewish church the chief religious rite it was used, therefore, to express the observance of all the legal rites, and uncircumcision argued the neglect of them. The Apostle, then, affirms, that neither the observation nor neglect of all the outward ceremonies is of any moment to Christians; but that internal renovation and true holiness contain the sum of our salvation.

The Christian is not commended to God by the observance of certain ceremonies or external traditions; neither is he alienated from God by the mere omission of the same. So Paul constantly teaches: Gal. vi. 15, In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. Rom. xiv. 2, 3, One believeth that he may eat all things; another who is weak eateth herbs. Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth. He lays down the same rule as to the observance of days in vers. 5. But more clearly in 1 Cor. viii. S, But meat commendeth us not to God,

for neither if we eat are we the better: neither if we eat not are we the worse. It is, then, a wretched thing to condemn some for meat and drink's sake, or to arrogate to ourselves holiness on account of abstinence from them.

What is said of circumcision, of meats, and of the observance of days, ought to be applied to all observations placed in external things. For these of themselves neither render men more acceptable to God by their observance ; nor less acceptable to him from their omission: We must not, then, trifle about these things, but strive for mortification and sanctification.

Hence the Monks are convicted of foolish pride, who account themselves superior to all other Christians by reason of these externals; such as abstaining from certain meats, and shutting up themselves in convents, and (in one word) observing some rule of outward ceremonies invented by men. But if in Christ circumcision and uncircumcision make no difference, then the eating of flesh or fish, the living in convents or cities, and wearing frocks and hoods, has nothing in it that regards the salvation of Christians.

Barbarian or Scythian.] The former expressions seem particularly directed to the Jews, who considered themselves more acceptable and agreeable to God than others from the prerogatives of their nation and their ritual observances. The present are directed at the Greeks, who, refined by the knowledge of philosophy and the liberal arts, despised other nations, and considered them almost as brutes in comparison with themselves. The Apostle, therefore, says, this barbarism is no hindrance to those engrafted in Christ and truly renewed and sanctified. He mentions the Scythians by name, since they were accounted the most fierce of all barbarians; as if he had said, Not even the most barbarous barbarism should be any ground of prejudice against those who are enlightened by faith and renewed by the Spirit of God. Epiphanius,* almost in the very begin

Epiphanius, Bishop of Salamis, in Cyprus, in the fourth Century. He was born about the year 332, at a village in the neighbourhood of Eleutheropolis, in Palestine, and appears to have been educated in Egypt, where he imbibed the principles of the Gnostics. At length he left those heretics,

ning of his first book against the eighty heresies, calls barbarism Scythism; and says, that barbarism flourished in the ten first generations of the world, afterwards that Scythism prevailed from the flood to the destruction of the tower of Babel. But I confess that I do not clearly understand the reason of this distinction; that the Scythians are so joined to the Barbarians, I think is for the sake of amplification, and not of distinction: which also seemed the case to Ambrose, who writes that the Scythians are distinguished from other Barbarians in this place because they surpassed the rest in rudeness of manners.

No pious and holy man is to be esteemed nothing worth, because he is of unpolished manners and destitute of literary attainments. It is not elegance of manners but innocence of life, not erudition but faith, which commends us to God. Ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, 1 Cor. i. 26. So Augustine heretofore exclaimed, The unlearned arise and seize on heaven; and lo, where we with our heartless learning wallow in the mire of flesh and blood! Confess. lib. 8. cap. 8. A barbarian ignorance of other things is no hindrance to one who knows Christ,

and becoming an ascetic, returned to Palestine, and adopted this discipline of Hilarion, the founder of Monachism in that country. Epiphanius erected a Monastery near the place of his birth, over which he presided till he was elected to the See of Salamis, in 367. In 391 he commenced a controversy with John Bishop of Jerusalem, relative to the opinions of Origen, which Epiphanius condemned. In the course of this dispute, as in others in which he was involved, he displayed more zeal than charity or prudence ; particularly when in the height of his resentment against the favourers of Origen, he sent word to the Empress Eudoxia, who requested his prayers for her son Theodosius, who was ill, that the prince should not die, provided she would discard the heretics who enjoyed the imperial patronage. Epiphanius died in 402 or 403, on returning from Constantinople to Cyprus. He was a man of great learning, but deficient in judgment and accuracy. His work entitled "Panarion," against heresies, is reckoned as a piece of Ecclesiastical history; but the carelessness or ignorance of the author as to facts and opinions, deducts much from its authority. The best edition of the writings of Epiphanius is that of Petavius, Paris, 2 vols. folio; reprint. ed at Cologne, in 1682.-Gorton.