i. 7, and ch. ii. 7; "riches of the full assurance of
understanding," Colos. ch. ii. 2; "riches of his
goodness," Rom. ch. ii. 4; "riches of the wisdom
of God," Rom. ch. xi. 33; “riches of Christ,"
Ephes. ch. iii. 8. In a like sense the adjective,
Rom. ch. x. 12, "rich unto all that call upon him;"
Ephes. ch. ii. 4, "rich in mercy;" 1 Tim. ch. vi.
18, rich in good works." Also the adverb, Colos.
ch. iii. 16, let the word of Christ dwell in yon
richly." This figurative use of the word, though
so familiar to St. Paul, does not occur in any part
of the New Testament, except once in the Epistle
of St. James, ch. ii. 5. "Hath not God chosen
the poor of this world, rich in faith? where it is
manifestly suggested by the antithesis. I propose
the frequent, yet seemingly unaffected use of this
phrase, in the epistle before us, as one internal
mark of its genuineness.
No. III.

In both these passages, submission follows giving of thanks, without any similitude in the ideas which should account for the transition.

There is another singularity in St. Paul's style, which, wherever it is found, may be deemed a badge of authenticity; because, if it were noticed, it would not, I think, be imitated, inasmuch as it almost always produces embarrassment and interruption in the reasoning. This singularity is a species of digression which may properly, I think,

It is not necessary to pursue the comparison between the two epistles farther. The argument which results from it stands thus: No two other epistles contain a circumstance which indicates that they were written at the same, or nearly at the same time. No two other epistles exhibit so many marks of correspondency and resemblance. If the original which we ascribe to these two epistles be the true one, that is, if they were both really written by St. Paul, and both sent to their respective destination by the same messenger, the similitude is, in all points, what should be expected to take place. If they were forgeries, then the mention of Tychicus in both epistles, and in abe denominated going off at a word. It is turnmanner which shows that he either carried or ac-ing aside from the subject upon the occurrence of companied both epistles, was inserted for the pur- some particular word, forsaking the train of thought pose of accounting for their similitude: or else the then in hand, and entering upon a parenthetic structure of the epistles was designedly adapted to sentence in which that word is the prevailing the circumstance: or lastly, the conformity between term. I shall lay before the reader some examples the contents of the forgeries, and what is thus di- of this, collected from the other epistles, and then rectly intimated concerning their date, was only a propose two examples of it which are found in the happy accident. Not one of these three supposi Epistle to the Ephesians, 2 Cor. ch. ii. 14, at the tions will gain credit with a reader who peruses word savour: "Now thanks be unto God, which the epistles with attention, and who reviews the always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and makseveral examples we have pointed out, and the ob- eth manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in servations with which they were accompanied. every place, (for we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them No. II. that perish; to the one we are the savour of death unto death, and to the other the savour of life unto life; and who is sufficient for these things?) For we are not as many which corrupt the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as of God; in the

There is such a thing as a peculiar word or phrase cleaving, as it were, to the memory of a writer or speaker, and presenting itself to his utterance at every turn. When we observe this, we call it a cant word, or a cant phrase. It is a natu-sight of God, speak we in Christ." Again, 2 Cor. ral effect of habit and would appear more fre- ch. iii. 1, at the word epistle: "Need we, as some quently than it does, had not the rules of good others, epistles of commendation to you, or of comwriting taught the ear to be offended with the iter-mendation from you? (ye are our epistle written ation of the same sound, and oftentimes caused in our hearts, known and read of all men; forasus to reject, on that account, the word which offer- much as ye are manifestly declared to be the epised itself first to our recollection. With a writer tle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with who, like St. Paul, either knew not these rules, or ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in disregarded them, such words will not be avoided. tables stone, but in the fleshly tables of the The truth is, an example of this kind runs through heart.") The position of the words in the origiseveral of his epistles, and in the epistle before us nal, shows more strongly than in the translation, abounds; and that is in the word riches, (AUTOS) that it was the occurrence of the word ISTORY used metaphorically as an argumentative of the which gave birth to the sentence that follows: 2 idea to which it happens to be subjoined. Thus, Cor. chap. iii. I. Ει μη χρηζομεν, ως τινες, συστατικών "the riches of his glory," "his riches in glory," TITO рos upes, UTTHTIXNY; & ENTICTORY "riches of the glory of his inheritance," "riches of HMO UHCLS EFT, sgg og pan on Tais xapsiais nun, yo νωσκομένη και συγγενοσχόμενη υπό πάντων ανθρωπων κα the glory of this mystery," Rom. ch. ix. 23. Ephes. νερούμενοι οτι εστε επιστολη Χριστού διακονηθείσα ὑφ' ch. iii. 16. Ephes. ch. i. 18. Colos. ch. i. 27: num, syysypampery ou μskars, MAAR TREUMATI OBOU LIV riches of his grace," twice in the Ephesians, ch. Ç. OUR BY #ARŽI KISIVAis, anλ” ev #à¤ğı xxpsiαs σaрxiAgain, 2 Cor. ch. iii. 12, &c. at the word vail; Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech: and not as Moses, which put a rail over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished. But their minds were blinded; for until this day remaineth the same vail

vais.

* Ephes. ch. v. 20, 21, 22. EuxapiσTOUTES AVTOTS υπερ παντων, εν ονόματι του Κυρίου ημών Ιησού Χριστού, το 0 221 Пerpi, UTOTROσOMIVÕI ÄÄИÃor a poor. A JURIES, THE 18115 VORREI UNUTMCciobi,ng To Kupin. † Colos. ch. iii. 17. Kavo, TO MY HOCHTE, LED Roy, RAPERY, TAUTA By voμat. Kupion Toy, Buxapro TOURTES Το Γ. καὶ πατρὶ δὲ αυτού. Αι γυναίκες υποτάσσεστε της ίδιας ανδράσιν, ως ανηκεν εν Κύριο,

The Epistle

he must have personally known. *
to the Romans was written before St. Paul had
been at Rome; and his address to them runs in
the same strain with that just now quoted; "I
thank my God, through Jesus Christ, for you all,
that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole
world:" Rom. ch. i. 8. Let us now see what was
the form in which our apostle was accustomed to
introduce his epistles, when he wrote to those with
whom he was already acquainted. To the Co-
rinthians it was this: "I thank my God always
on your behalf, for the grace of God which is
given you by Christ Jesus," 1 Cor. ch. i. 4. To
the Philippians: "I thank my God upon every
remembrance of you," Phil. ch. i. 3. To the
Thessalonians: "We give thanks to God, always
for you all, making mention of you in our prayers,
remembering, without ceasing, your work of faith,
and labour of love," 1 Thess. ch. i. 3. To Timo-
thy: "I thank God, whom I serve from my fore-
fathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing
I have remembrance of thee in my prayers, night
and day," 2 Tim. ch. i. 3. In these quotations,
it is usually his remembrance, and never his
hearing of them, which he makes the subject of
his thankfulness to God.

of that place, the letter with which he was charged? And might not copies of that letter be multiplied and preserved at Ephesus? Might not some of the copies drop the words of designation

Ty Axodia, which it was of no consequence to an Ephesian to retain? Might not copies of the letter come out into the Christian church at large from Ephesus; and might not this give occasion to a belief that the letter was written to that church? And, lastly, might not this belief produce the error which we suppose to have crept into the inscription?

* Mr. Locke endeavours to avoid this difficulty, by explaining" their faith, of which St. Paul had heard," to mean the steadfastness of their persuasion that they were called into the kingdom of God, without subjection to the Mosaic institution. But this interpretation seems to me extremely hard; for, in the manner in which faith is here joined with love, in the expression "your faith and love," it could not be meant to denote any particular tenet which distinguished one set of Christians from others; forasmuch as the expression describes the general virtues of the Christian profession. Vide LOCKE in loc

No. V.

As our epistle purports to have been written during St. Paul's imprisonment at Rome, which lies beyond the period to which the Acts of the Apostles brings up his history; and as we have seen and acknowledged that the epistle contains no reference to any transaction at Ephesus, during the apostle's residence in that city, we cannot expect that it should supply many marks of agreement with the narrative. One coincidence however occurs, and a coincidence of that minute and less obvious kind, which, as hath been repeatedly observed, is of all others the most to be relied upon.

As great difficulties stand in the way supposing the epistle before us to have been written to the church of Ephesus, so I think it probable that it is actually the Epistle to the Laodiceans, referred to in the fourth chapter of the Epistle to the Co-bassador in bonds." “ In bonds,” av taura, in a

Chap. vi. 19, 20, we read, "praying for me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the Gospel, for which I am an am

lossians. The text which contains that reference is this: "When this epistle is read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans, and that ye likewise read the epistle from Laodicea," ch. iv. 16. The "epistle from Laodicea was an epistle sent by St. Paul to that church, and by them transmitted to Colosse. The two churches were mutually to communicate the epistles they had received. This is the way in which the direction is explained by the greater part of commentators, and is the most probable sense that can be given to it. It is also probable that the epistle alluded to was an epistle which had been received by the church of Laodicea. It is in exact conformity therefore with the lately. It appears then, with a considerable de- truth of St. Paul's situation at the time, that he gree of evidence, that there existed an epistle of declares of himself in the epistle, we St. Paul's nearly of the same date with the Epis- And the exactness is the more remarkable, as tle to the Colossians, and an epistle directed to a Aves (a chain) is no where used in the singular church (for such the church of Laodicea was) in number to express any other kind of custody, which St. Paul had never been. What has been When the prisoner's hands or feet were bound observed concerning the epistle before us, shows together, the word was ru (bonds,) as in the that it answers perfectly to that character. twenty-sixth chapter of the Acts, where Paul re

chain. In the twenty-eighth chapter of the Acts we are informed, that Paul, after his arrival at Rome, was suffered to dwell by himself with a soldier that kept him. Dr. Lardner has shown that this mode of custody was in use amongst the Romans, and that whenever it was adopted, the prisoner was bound to the soldier by a single chain: in reference to which St. Paul, in the twentieth verse of this chapter, tells the Jews whom he had assembled, "For this cause therefore, have I called for you to see you, and to speak with you, because that for the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain," THY AUGINTAUTHY Zogixel

Nor does the mistake seem very difficult to account for. Whoever inspects the map of Asia Minor will see, that a person proceeding from Rome to Laodicea, would probably land at Ephe. sus, as the nearest frequented sea-port in that direction. Might not Tychicus then, in passing through Ephesus, communicate to the Christians

And it is remarkable that there seem to have been

some ancient copies without the words of designation, either the words in Ephesus, or the words in Laodicea. St. Basil, a writer of the fourth century, speaking of the writing to the Ephesians, as truly united to him who is present epistle, has this very singular passage: "And through knowledge, he (Paul) calleth them in a peculiar sense such who are; saying, to the saints who are and (or even) the faithful in Christ Jesus; for so those before us have transmitted it, and we have found it in ancient copies." Dr. Mill interprets (and, notwithstanding some objections that have been made to him, in my opinion rightly interprets) these words of Basil, as declaring that this father had seen certain copies of the epistle in which the words "in Ephesus" were wanting. And the passage, I think, must be considered as Basil's fanciful way of explaining what was really a corrupt and defective reading; for I do not believe it possible that the author of the epistle could have originally written 15 TOIS OUT, without any name of place to follow it.

plies to Agrippa, "I would to God that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, were both almost and altogether such as I am, except these bonds,” παρεκτος των δεσμών τουτων. When the prisoner was confined between two soldiers, as in the case of Peter, Acts, chap. xii. 6, two chains were employed; and it is said upon his miraculous deliverance, that the "chains" (xus, in the plural) "fell from his hands." As, the noun, and the verb, being general terms, were applicable to this in common with any other species of personal coercion; but axes, in the singular number, to none but this.

bonds, and in the defence and confirmation of the Gospel, ye all are y XOIDOVOR MOU THE XXPires, joint contributors to the gift which I have received."* Nothing more is said in this place. In the latter part of the second chapter, and at the distance of half the epistle from the last quotation, the subject appears again: "Yet I supposed it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and companion in labour, and fellow-soldier, but your messenger, and he that ministered to my wants: for he longed after you all, and was full of heaviness, because that ye had heard that he had been sick for indeed he was sick nigh unto death; but God had mercy on him, and not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. I sent him therefore the more carefully, that when ye see him again ye may rejoice, and that I may be the less sorrowful. Receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness; and hold such in reputation: because for the work of Christ he was nigh unto death, not regarding his life to supply your lack of service toward me," chap. ii. 25-30. The matter is here dropped, and no farther mention made of it till it is taken up near the conclusion of the epistle as follows: "But I rejoice in the Lord greatly, that now at the last your care of me hath flourished again, wherein ye were also careful, but ye lacked opportunity. Not that I speak in respect of want; for I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound; every where and in all things, I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Notwithstanding, ye have well done that ye did communicate with my affliction. Now, ye Philippians, know also, that in the beginning of the Gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me, as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only. For even in Thessalonica ye sent once and again unto my necessity. Not because I desire a gift: but I desire fruit that may abound to your account. But I have all, and abound: I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you," chap. iv. 10-18. To the Philippian reader, who knew that contributions were wont to be made in that church for the apostle's subsistence and relief, that the supply which they were accustomed to send to him had been delayed by the want of opportunity, that Epaphroditus had undertaken

WHEN a transaction is referred to in such a manner, as that the reference is easily and immediately understood by those who are before-the charge of conveying their liberality to the hand, or from other quarters, acquainted with the hands of the apostle, that he had acquitted himfact, but is obscure, or imperfect, or requires in- self of this commission at the peril of his life, by vestigation, or a comparison of different parts, in hastening to Rome under the oppression of a order to be made clear to other readers, the trans- grievous sickness; to a reader who knew all this action so referred to is probably real; because, beforehand, every line in the above quotations had it been fictitious, the writer would have set would be plain and clear. But how is it with a forth his story more fully and plainly, not merely stranger? The knowledge of these several paras conscious of the fiction, but as conscious that ticulars is necessary to the perception and exhis readers could have no other knowledge of the planation of the references; yet that knowledge subject of his allusion than from the informatio must be gathered from a comparison of passages of which he put them in possession. lying at a great distance from one another. Texts must be interpreted by texts long subsequent to

If it can be suspected that the writer of the present epistle, who in no other particular appears to have availed himself of the information concerning St. Paul, delivered in the Acts, had, in this verse, borrowed the word which he read in that book, and had adapted his expression to what he found there recorded of St. Paul's treatment at Rome; in short, that the coincidence here noted was effected by craft and design; I think it a strong reply to remark, that, in the parallel passage of the Epistle to the Colossians, the same allusion is not preserved; the words there are, "praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds," & oxxx Si. After what has been shown in a preceding number, there can be little doubt but that these two epistles were written by the same person. If the writer, therefore, sought for, and fraudulently inserted, the correspondency into one epistle, why did he not do it in the other? A real prisoner might use either general words which comprehended this amongst many other modes of custody; or might use appropriate words which specified this, and distinguished it from any other mode. It would be accidental which form of expression he fell upon. But an impostor, who had the art, in one place, to employ the appropriate term for the purpose of fraud, would have used it in both places.

CHAPTER VII.

The Epistle to the Philippians.

No. I.

The account of Epaphroditus, in the Epistle to the Philippians, of his journey to Rome, and of the business which brought him thither, is the article to which I mean to apply this observation. There are three passages in the epistle which relate to this subject. The first, chap. i. 7, "Even as it is meet for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my

Pearce, I believe, was the first commentator, who gave this sense to the expression; and I believe also He

that his exposition is now generally assented to.
interprets in the same sense the phrase in the fifth
verse, which our translation renders "your fellowship
in the Gospel" but which in the original is not
TO BURY EXLOV.
του ευαγγελίου, Οr κοινωνία εν τω ευαγγελια ; but notvavin

them, which necessarily produces embarrassment and suspense. The passage quoted from the beginning of the epistle contains an acknowledgment, on the part of the apostle, of the liberality which the Philippians had exercised towards him; but the allusion is so general and indeterminate, that had nothing more been said in the sequel of the epistle, it would hardly have been applied to this occasion at all. In the second quotation, Epaphroditus is declared to have "ministered to the apostle's wants," and "to have supplied their lack of service towards him;" but how, that is, at whose expense, or from what fund he "ministered," or what was "the lack of service" which he supplied, are left very much unexplained, till we arrive at the third quotation, where we find that Epaphroditus "ministered to St. Paul's wants" only by conveying to his hands the contributions of the Philippians: "I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you:" and that "the lack of service which he supplied" was a delay or interruption of their accustomed bounty, occasioned by the want of opportunity: "I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at the last your care of me hath flourished again; wherein ye were also careful, but ye lacked opportunity." The affair at length comes out clear; but it connes out by piecemeal. The clearness is the result of the reciprocal illustration of divided texts. Should any one choose therefore to insinuate, that this whole story of Epaphroditus, or his journey, his errand, his sickness, or even his existence, might, for what we know, have no other foundation than in the invention of the forger of the epistle; I answer, that a forger would have set forth his story connectedly, and also more fully and more perspicuously. If the epistle be authentic, and the transaction real, then every thing which is said concerning Epaphroditus, and his commission, would be clear to those into whose hands the epistle was expected to come. Considering the Philippians as his readers, a person might naturally write upon the subject, as the author of the epistle has written: but there is no supposition of forgery with which it will suit.

No. II.

The history of Epaphroditus supplies another observation: "Indeed he was sick, nigh unto death: but God had mercy on him, and not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow." In this passage, no intimation is given that Epaphroditus's recovery was miraculous. It is plainly, I think, spoken of as a natural event. This instance, together with one in the Second Epistle to Timothy ("Trophimus have I left at Miletum sick,") affords a proof that the power of performing cures, and, by parity of reason, of working other miracles, was a power which only visited the apostles occasionally, and did not at all depend upon their own will. Paul undoubtedly would have healed Epaphroditus if he could. Nor, if the power of working cures had awaited his disposal, would he have left his fellowtraveller at Miletum sick. This, I think, is a fair observation upon the instances adduced; but it is not the observation I am concerned to make. It is more for the purpose of my argument to remark, that forgery, upon such an occasion, would not have spared a miracle; much less would it have introduced St. Paul professing the utmost anxiety

for the safety of his friend, yet acknowledging
himself unable to help him; which he does, almost
expressly, in the case of Trophimus, for he "left
him sick;" and virtually in the passage before us,
in which he felicitates himself upon the recovery
of Epaphroditus, in terms which almost exclude
the supposition of any supernatural means being
employed to effect it. This is a reserve which
nothing but truth would have imposed.
No. III.

Chap. iv. 15, 16. "Now, ye Philippians, know also, that in the beginning of the Gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me, as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only. For even in Thessalonica ye sent once and again unto my necessity."

It will be necessary to state the Greek of this passage, because our translation does not, I think, give the sense of it accurately.

Οίδατε δε και υμείς, Φιλιππησίοι, ότι εν αρχή του ευαγγελίου, ότι εξηλθόν απο Μακεδόνιας, ουδεμία μου εκκλησια εκοινωνησεν, εις λογον δόσεως και λήψους, εν μη υμεις μονοι· οτι καὶ ἐν Θεσσαλονίκη και απαξ και δις εις

την χρείαν μου επέμψατο,

The reader will please to direct his attention to the corresponding particulars от and от хол, which connect the words av Hex TOU NEXION, OT εξηλθον απο Μακεδονίας, with the words εν Θεσσαλονίκη, and denote, as I interpret the passage, two distinct donations, or rather donations at two distinct periods, one at Thessalonica, x 85, the other after his departure from Macedonia, οτό εξηλθον απο Maxdovis. I would render the passage, so as to mark these different periods, thus: "Now, ye Philippians, know also, that in the beginning of the Gospel, when I was departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me, as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only. And that also in Thessalonica ye sent once and again unto my necessity." Now with this exposition of the passage compare 2 Cor, chap. xí, 8. 9: "I robbed other churches, taking wages of them to do you service, And when I was present with you and wanted, I was chargeable to no man; for that which was lacking to me, the brethren which came from Macedonia supplied."

It appears from St. Paul's history, as related in the Acts of the Apostles, that upon leaving Macedonia he passed, after a very short stay at Athens, into Achaia. It appears, secondly, from the quotation out of the Epistle to the Corinthians, that in Achaia he accepted no pecuniary assistance from the converts of that country; but that he drew a supply for his wants from the Macedonian Christians. Agreeably whereunto it appears, in the third place, from the text which is the subject of the present number, that the brethren in Philippi, a city of Macedonia, had followed him with their munificence, or snovao Maxsdovias, when he was departed from Macedonia, that is, when he was come into Achaia.

The passage under consideration affords another circumstance of agreement deserving of our notice.

* Luke, ch. ii. 15. Και εγένετο, ως απηλίου απ' αυτών TOU SERVER OF Myys, "as the angels were gone away," i. e. after their departure, as

AOUS. Matt. ch. xii. 43. Oтay & ToxρTO gone," i. e. after his departure, SpXT. John, ch. xiii. εξελθη απο του ανθρωπου, “when the unclean spirit is 30. Orense (Loudas)" when he was gone," i. e. after his departure, as Ineous, Acts, ch. x. 7, de which spake unto him was departed," i. e. after his de ο αγγέλος ο λαλων τω Κορνήλιο, “and when the angel parture, vras duo TWY DIXETRY, &c.