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doing good, not only to their own relations and friends, but to the poor and needy who apply to them; and how cogent are the obligations which God hath laid on the great, the powerful, and the rich, to be general benefactors to mankind, by doing good and communicating. Being thus imitators of God in his greateft attribute, they do what is more acceptable to him than facrifice, according to the faying of the heathen poet Menander, tranflated in Adventurer, No. 105. "He that offers in facrifice, "O Pamphilus, a multitude of bulls and of goats, of golden vest"ments, or purple garments, or figures of ivory, or precious

gems, and imagines by this to conciliate the favour of God, "is grofsly mistaken, and has no folid understanding. For he "that would facrifice with fuccefs, ought to be (xenoiμov) bene"ficent, no corrupter of virgins, no adulterer, no robber or mur"derer for the fake of lucre. Covet not, O Pamphilus, even "the thread of another man's needle; for God, who is near "thee, perpetually beholds thy actions."

Temperance, and justice, and purity, are here inculcated in the strongest manner, and upon the most powerful motive, the • Omniscience of the Deity, at the fame time, fuperftition and the idolatry of the heathen are artfully ridiculed. I know not C among the ancients any paffage that contains fuch exalted and fpiritualized thoughts of religion.'

A NEW

A NEW

LITERAL TRANSLATION

OF THE

THIRD EPISTLE OF THE APOSTLE

7 о н N.
H

PREFACE.

SECT. I. Of the Authenticity of the Third Epifle of John.

OR the proofs of the authenticity of this epistle, fee Pref.

FOR

2 John Sect. 1. To which may be added, that in the third epistle, we find some sentiments and expreffions which are used in the fecond. Compare ver. 4. with 2 epiftle, ver. 4. and ver. 13, 14. with 2 epistle, ver. 12.

SECT. II. Of the Perfon to whom this Epiftle was written.

This fhort letter is infcribed to a perfon named Gaius; or according to the Latin orthography, Caius; a common name, efpecially among the Romans. In the hiftory of the Acts, and in the epiftles, we meet with five perfons of this name.

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1. There is a Caius who was with St. Paul in Ephefus, during the riot of Demetrius, and who is called A man of Macedonia, and Paul's companion in travel, Acts xix. 29.—2. A Caius is mentioned, Acts xx. 4. called Caius of Derbe, which was a city of Lycaonia or Ifauria. Probably he was a perfon different from the Macedonian Caius, though like him he was Paul's affiftant in preaching the gofpel. Caius of Derbe accompanied Paul to Jerufalem with the collection for the faints. Probably, therefore, he was chofen by the churches of Lycaonia, their meffenger for that effect.-3. Paul, writing from Corinth to the church of Rome, fpeaks of a Caius with whom he lodged, Rom. xvi. 23. who was a very benevolent perfon, and in opulent circumftances. For the apostle called him his hoft, and the hoft of the whole church of Corinth. Wherefore as the Caius, to whom John wrote his 3d epiftle, was in like manner a very benevolent perfon, and in good circumftances, Bede, and after him Lightfoot, conjectured that he was the Caius, who in Paul's epistle to the Romans sent his falutation to the church at Rome,

4. The fame apoftle mentions his having baptized one of the name of Caius at Corinth, 1 Cor. i, 14. Probably he was the person whom in his epiftle to the Romans, which was written from Corinth, Paul calls his hoft, and the host of the church.— 5. There was a Caius to whom John wrote this third epiftle. Him Eftius and Heuman thought a different perfon from all. thofe above mentioned, becaufe the apoftle by numbering him among his children, ver. 4. hath infinuated that he was his convert, which they fuppofe he could not say of any of the Caius's mentioned above.

In the ancient hiftory of the church, we meet with three perfons of the name of Caius. One of them a bishop of Ephefus, another of Theffalonica, and a third of Pergamos; all about this time.Whiston and Mill have faid, that the bishop of Pergamos was the Caius to whom John wrote his third epiftle. But as Lardner obferves, they faid this on the teftimony of the pretended apoftolical conftitutions, which in the present affair are of no authority at all. Befides, from the epiftle itself it is evident, that Caius, to whom it was written, was at that time a perfon in a private station,

Lardner's

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Lardner's account of Caius is, that "he was an eminent "Christian, who lived in fome city of Asia not far from Ephe"fus, where St. John chiefly refided after his leaving Judea. "For ver. 14. The apostle speaks of fhortly coming to him: "which he could not well have done if Caius lived at Co"rinth, or any other remote place." Canon, vol. iii. p. 293.

Caius being neither a bishop nor a deacon, but a private member of fome church, of which the apoftle took the infpection, his hofpitality to the brethren, and to the ftrangers who came to him, is a proof that he poffeffed some fubftance, and that he was of a very benevolent difpofition.-Grotius thought Caius a good Chriftian, who lived in one of the churches or cities mentioned in the Revelation. However, as John hath not fuggested any circumftance, by which we can distinguish his Caius from others of the fame name, it is impoffible to fay with any certainty who he was, or where he lived.

SECT. III. Of the Apoftle's Defign in writing his Third Epiftle, and of the Perfons who are mentioned in it by Name.

It doth not seem to have been John's defign in writing to Caius, either to guard him against the attempts of the heretical teachers who were gone abroad, or to condemn the errors which they were at great pains to propagate: But only, in the first place, to praise Caius for having fhewed kindness to fome brethren and strangers, who, in journeying among the Gentiles, had come to the place where Caius refided; and to encourage him to fhew them the like kindness, when they should come to him again in the courfe of their fecond journey. In the next place, he wrote this letter for the purpose of rebuking and reftraining one Diotrephes, who had arrogantly affumed to himself the chief direction of the affairs of the church, of which Caius was a member: and, who had refused to affift the brethren and strangers above mentioned; and even had hindered those, from receiving and entertaining them, who were defirous to do it.In the third place, the apoftle wrote this letter to commend an excellent perfon named Demetrius, who, in difpofition and be

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haviour, being the reverfe of Diotrephes, the apoftle propofed him as a pattern, whom Caius and the rest were to imitate.

Commentators are not agreed in their accounts of the brethren and the ftrangers, to whom Caius fhewed kindness, as they paffed through his city.-Grotius and Lampe thought these ftrangers were believing Jews, who had been driven out of Palestine by their unbelieving brethren, or, who had been forced away by the calamities brought on that country during the Jewish war; and had come into Afia, in hopes of obtaining affiftance from the Chriftians in that province; or perhaps of obtaining a fettlement among them.-Grotius fuppofes Diotrephes would not receive these frangers, nor even the brethren, that is, the Chriftians who were of his acquaintance, because they joined the rites of the law with the gofpel. This, likewife, was the opinion of Le Clerc and Beaufobre. Wherefore, according to these authors, Diotrephes was a Gentile convert, and zealous for the freedom of the Gentiles from the yoke of the law. But Mofheim rejects their opinion, as having no foundation in antiquity. Others think these strangers were Gentile converts, whom Diotrephes, a Jew zealous of the law, would not re, ceive, because they did not observe the rites of Mofes. That opinion Benfon adopted, founding it on this circumstance, that Diotrephes did not receive John; that is, did not acknowledge his authority as an apoftle. For he thinks, none but the Judaizing teachers denied the authority of the apoftles.

The brethren, who were hospitably entertained by Caius, were some believers who had gone from Ephefus to the church where Caius abode. For they are faid to have praised his liberality, in the presence of the church over which John prefided. Probably they belonged to that church as members. Further, fince the apostle defired Caius to help these brethren and strangers forward on their journey, it implieth that they had gone forth, or were going forth, on a fecond journey among the Gentiles, in which they proposed to vifit Caius again.-Eftius conjectures, that John fent this letter to Caius by them.

The account given ver. 7. of the purpose for which the brethren and ftrangers went forth to the Gentiles, inclines me to think they were preachers: For his name's fake they went

forth

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