Let us intercede for one another. Let us be ready to give and to receive admonition. In God's hands, chastisement is an instrument of mercy (Ivi.). You especially, who first stirred up the strife, be first to repent—' submit j'ourselves unto the presbyters, and receive chastisement unto repentance.' The Scriptures contain many threats against the stubborn and im- penitent (Ivii.). Let us by obedience escape them, for they who obey God's will shall be saved (Iviii.). 'But if certain persons should be disobedient unto the words spoken by Him through us . . . they will entangle themselves in no slight transgression and danger ; but we shall be guiltless of this sin ' (lix.).
(5) Prayer for all mankind : final admonition and benedic- tion.—We pray that God will keep His elect intact. We pray for inward light, for all who need, for the Gentiles' conversion, for pardon and cleansing, for peace and concord, for deliver- ance from those who hate us wrongfully, for the grace of obedience to temporal authority, for earthly rulers, that they may govern in accordance with God's will in peace and gentle- ness. _ We offer our praises to the Almighty Father ' through the High Priest and Guardian of our soiJs, Jesus Christ' (lix.- Ixi.).
We have said enough about the Christian life ; about faith, repentance, love, temperance, sobriety, patience, righteousness, truth, longsuffering. We have spoken gladlv, knowing that we spoke to men who have studied the oracles of God (Ixii.). Follow the example of the Fathers ; submit yourselves to author- ity. You will give us great joy if you cease from strife. With the letter we have sent faithful and prudent men who shall be witnesses between us (Ixiii.).
May God endue with all virtues those who call on His name through Jesus Christ our High Priest and Guardian (Ixiv.). We commend Claudius Ephebus, and Valerius Bito, who, with Fortunatus also, are the bearers of this letter. Send them back speedily with good news.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you and all men.
4. Teaching.— The object of the Epistle was strictly practical. It is therefore unreasonable to expect to find in it precise detinitions of Christian doctrine. Yet, in enforcing his practical lesson, the writer alludes to the main articles of the faith as he had learned it, and these incidental allusions are historically the more valuable, because they represent not the belief of one man but the tra- dition of a community.
The tradition, which lies behind the Epistle, is above all things catholic, in its recognition of the many-sidedness of Christian truth. It embraces almost every type of apostolic teaching which is expressed in the Epistles of the NT— the type of St. James no less than of St. Paul, of St. Peter as well as of the Epistle to the Hebrews. The one element Avhich is lacking is the mysticism of St. John, probably because the Johannine writings were not yet in existence (Lightfoot, Clem. Bom. vol. i. p. 95 ti".).
At the same time it must be admitted that the Epistle betrays a certain failure to grasp the full meaning of the more profound doctrines of the NT. Tliis is especially evident in its treatment of the Pauline idea of justification by faith. To St. Paul faith is the mainspring of the Christian life, the source of all Christian virtues. To the writer of the EpLstle, faith is nothing more than one amongst many virtues. He is conscious of no in-
congruity in placing ' faith ' and ' hospitality ' side by side as equal conditions of salvation (xii. 1 ; cf. Lightfoot, Clem. Rotti. vol. i. p. 397).
(1) Doctrine of God. — The terms in which the Epistle speaks of God are unmistakably borrowed from the language of the OT and the Jewish synagogue. God is ' the Almighty,' ' the all-seeing Master ' (Iv. 6), ' the Creator and Master of the universe' (xxxiii. 2), 'the Father of the ages, the All-holy One' (xxxv. 3) ; 'the Father and Maker of the whole world' (xix. 2; cf. Ix. and Ixii.); ' the King of the ages ' (Ixi. 2) ; ' He that em- braceth the whole universe' (xxviii. 4). His un- ceasing activity in the natural world display's both His beneficence and His love of harmony (xx. xxxii.). Amongst men He is made known as * the Creator and Overseer . . . the Benefactor of all spirits and the God of all flesh ' (lix. 3). To the elect He is revealed as a ' gentle and compassion- ate Father' (xxix. 1), ' the champion and protector of them that in a pure conscience serve His excel- lent Name' (xlv. 7).
So much might have been said by a conscientious Jew ; but in two passages at least, the language of the Epistle passes beyond the mere monotheism of Judaism : ' Have we not one God and one Christ and one Spirit of grace that was shed upon us ? ' (xlvi. 6) ; * as God liveth and the Lord Jesus Christ liveth, and the Holy Spirit, who are the faith and the hope of the elect . . .' (Iviii. 2). The simple and natural way in which the Son and the Holy Spirit are here linked with the Fatlier as equal objects of Christian faith and hope is quite inexplicable unless the writer was convinced of their essential Divinity and essential equality with the Father.