EPISTLE TO THE ETHESIANS. 131 



The ether appears, chap. 5 : 12-15, at the v^ord light: 

 •• For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are 

 done of them in secret. But all things that are reproved, 

 are made manifest by the light: (for whatsoever doth make 

 manifest is light. Wherefore he saith. Awake, thou that 

 sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee 

 light.) See then that ye walk circumspectly." 



IV. Although it does not appear to have ever been dis- 

 puted that the epistle before us was written by St. Paul, 

 yet it is well known that a doubt has long been entertained 

 concerning the persons to whom it was addressed. The 

 question is founded partly on some ambiguity in the external 

 evidence. Marcion, a heretic of the second century, as 

 quoted by Tertullian, a father in the beginning of the third, 

 calls it the epistle to the Laodiceans. From what we know 

 of Marcion, his judgment is little to be rehed upon; nor is 

 it perfectly clear that Marcion was rightly understood by 

 Tertulhan. If, however, Marcion be brought to prove thai 

 some copies in his time gave h AaoSiKeca in the superscription 

 his testimony, if it be truly interpreted, is not diminished b) 

 his heresy ; for, as Grotius observes, " cu?' in cd re menti 

 retiir nihil erat caused.''' The name kv 'E^eatj, in the firs' 

 \rerse, upon which word singly depends the proof that th« 

 epistle was written to the Ephesians, is not read in all tht 

 manuscripts now extant. I admit, however, that the exter- 

 nal evidence preponderates with a manifest excess on the 

 side of the received reading. The objection, therefore, prin- 

 cipally arises from the contents of the epistle itself, which, 

 in many respects, militate with the supposition that it was 

 written to the church at Ephesus. According to the his- 

 tory, St. Paul had passed two whole years at Ephesus. 

 A.cts 19:10. And in this point, namely, of St. Paul having 

 preached for a considerable length of time at Ephesus, the 

 history is confirmed by the two epistles to the Corinthians, 

 and by the two epistles to Timothy. "I will tarry at 

 Ephesus until Pentecost ". 1 Cor. 16 ; 8. " We would not 



