to our faithful brethren the christian converts at Coloss. favour and peace be to you from God our father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

who has deliver'd you from the state of darkness, and has translated you into the kingdom of his beloved son.

he himself is the head of the church, which is his body. he is the prince, the first-born from the dead, that in all things he might be chief.

You then that formerly were alienated from God, and were enemies by your imaginations and wicked practices, even you has Jesus Christ now reconciled to the body of his church,

that mystery, which has been hid from ages and generations, but is now made manifest to his saints:

which were buried (as Christ was) in your baptism, by virtue of which you rise (as he did) to a new life, through a belief of that divine power, which raised him from the dead.

Let no man condemn you, from an affectation of humility, in worshipping of Angels, boldly prying into matters which he knows nothing of, being vainly puft up with his Jewish conceits:

not adhering to the head, from which all the parts of the body derive its nutrition, and being firmly united together by its joints and ligaments, receives a divine increase.

but now renounce them all, as well as anger, animosity, malice: let calumny and obscene discourse be banish'd from your lips.

servants, be entirely obedient to those, whom the laws have made your masters, and not meerly out of regard to their observation, as designing only to please men, but from a principle of integrity, as fearing God:

knowing that as you are the servants of Christ our Lord, you shall receive from him the inheritance for your reward.

that you read the epistle from Laodicea. give Archippus this instruction from me, take care to discharge the function, you

have received from the Lord. I Paul salute you, and this salutation I write with my own hand. remember my bonds. grace be with you. AMEN.