'To prove that he alone was king of him.'
And the last scene of all represents him the weak slave of his mistress, a quack doctor, and a revivalist—'which things are an allegory.'
2. The phrase 'a form' or 'pattern of teaching,' is interesting. It suggests the idea of the Church as holding a 'pattern of sound words[[4]],' a definite body of instruction, which is to form the life of each person who gives himself over to her loving discipline. Christian faith is not a formless impulse; it is self-surrender to a corporate life ruled on a definite model of religious and moral teaching. What St. Paul has here chiefly in mind is moral teaching. But the moral teaching was inseparable from religious facts and motives. Nor is it difficult to ascertain from the allusions of the New Testament what the subjects were in which the first Christians were orally instructed, or, in other words, what constituted 'the tradition' which lies behind the written books of the New Testament. It comprised instruction in (1) the facts of our Lord's life, death, and resurrection[[5]]; (2) the meaning of sacred rites—baptism, laying on of hands, eucharist[[6]]—including the Lord's Prayer[[7]]; (3) the moral duties of 'the way,' and the doctrine 'of the resurrection of the dead and of eternal judgement[[8]]'; (4) the meaning of 'the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost[[9]].' On all these subjects the books of the New Testament do not give the primary instruction, but imply that it has been already given.
3. The word rendered 'sanctification' (vers. 19, 22) is one which needs to have its primitive force restored to it[[10]]. The 'saint' is the person set apart for the worship and service of God. What is here translated 'sanctification' means literally (1) 'the process of being made fit for such worship and service,' that is, consecration as of a priest; or (2) by a slight transition of meaning, the result of such consecration, i.e. 'holiness.'
[[1]] The tense of the verb in 'shall we sin' appears to indicate an act, not a habit of sin.
[[2]] John viii. 34.
[[3]] Serm. xxxix. 2.
[[4]] 2 Tim. i. 13.
[[5]] Cf. Luke i. 1-4; 1 Cor. xi. 23; xv. 3, 4.