Send back speedily to us in peace and with joy these our messengers to you: Claudius Ephebus and Valerius Bito, with Fortunatus; that they may the sooner announce to us the peace and harmony we so earnestly desire and long for [among you], and that we may the more quickly rejoice over the good order re-established among you. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you, and with all everywhere that are the called of God through Him, by whom be to Him glory, honour, power, majesty, and eternal dominion,[257] from everlasting to everlasting.[258] Amen. Footnote 1: In the only known MS. of this epistle, the title is thus given at the close. Footnote 2: Literally, “is greatly blasphemed.” Footnote 3: Literally, “did not prove your all-virtuous and firm faith.” Footnote 4: Eph. v. 21; 1 Pet. v. 5. Footnote 5: Acts xx. 35. Footnote 6: Literally, “ye embraced it in your bowels.” Footnote 7: 1 Pet. ii. 17. Footnote 8: So in the MS., but many have suspected that the text is here corrupt. Perhaps the best emendation is that which substitutes συναισθήσεως, “compassion,” for συνειδήσεως, “conscience.” Footnote 9: Tit. iii. 1. Footnote 10: Prov. vii. 3. Footnote 11: Literally, “enlargement.” Footnote 12: Deut. xxxii. 15. Footnote 13: It seems necessary to refer αὐτοῦ to God, in opposition to the translation given by Abp. Wake and others. Footnote 14: Literally, “Christ;” comp. 2 Cor. i. 21, Eph. iv. 20. Footnote 15: Wisd. ii. 24. Footnote 16: Gen. iv. 3-8, The writer here, as always, follows the reading of the Septuagint, which in this passage both alters and adds to the Hebrew text. We have given the rendering approved by the best critics; but some prefer to translate, as in our English version, “unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.” See, for an ancient explanation of the passage, Irenæus, _Adv. Hær._ iv. 18, 3. Footnote 17: Gen. xxvii. 41, etc. Footnote 18: Gen. xxxvii. Footnote 19: Ex. ii. 14. Footnote 20: Num. xii. 14, 15. Footnote 21: Num. xvi. 33. Footnote 22: 1 Kings xviii. 8, etc. Footnote 23: Literally, “those who have been athletes.” Footnote 24: Some fill up the _lacuna_ here found in the MS. so as to read, “have come to a grievous death.” Footnote 25: Literally “good.” Footnote 26: _Seven_ imprisonments of St Paul are not referred to in Scripture. Footnote 27: Archbishop Wake here reads “scourged.” We have followed the most recent critics in filling up the numerous _lacunæ_ in this chapter. Footnote 28: Some think _Rome_, others _Spain_, and others even _Britain_, to be here referred to. Footnote 29: