heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you in my prayers," chap. i. 15. The terms of this address are observable. The words

and his address to them runs in the same strail with that just now quoted: "I thank my Goà, 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 Corinthians 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 Timothy: "I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers 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.

excess on the side of the received reading. The objection therefore principally arises from the contents of the epistle itself, which, in many respects, militate with the supposition that it was written to the church of Ephesus. Ac-" having heard of your faith and love," are cording to the history, St. Paul had passed two the very words, we see, which he uses towards whole years at Ephesus, Acts, chap. xix. 10. strangers; and it is not probable that he should And in this point, viz. of St. Paul having employ the same in accosting a church in which preached for a considerable length of time at he had long exercised his ministry, and whose Ephesus, the history is confirmed by the two" faith and love" he must have personally Epistles to the Corinthians, and by the two known*. The Epistle to the Romans was Epistles to Timothy: "I will tarry at Ephe-written before St. Paul had been at Rome; sus until Pentecost," 1 Cor. ch. xvi. ver. 8. "We would not have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia," 2 Cor. ch. i. 8. "As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia," 1 Tim. ch. i. 3. "And in how many things he ministered to me at Ephesus thou knowest well," 2 Tim. ch. i 18. I adduce these testimonies, because, had it been a competition of credit between the history and the epistle, I should have thought myself bound to have preferred the epistle. Now, every epistle which St. Paul wrote to churches which he himself had founded, or which he had visited, abounds with references, and appeals to what had passed during the time that he was present amongst them; whereas there is not a text in the Epistle to the Ephesians, from which we can collect that he had ever been at Ephesus at all. The two Epistles to the Corinthians, the Epistle to the Galatians, the Epistle to the Philippians, and the two epistles to the Thessalonians, are of this class; and they are full of allusions to the apostle's history, his reception, and his conduct whilst amongst them; the total want of which, in the epistle before us, is very difficult to account for, if it was in truth written to the church of Ephesus, in which city he had resid-ten to the church of Ephesus, so I think it ed for so long a time. This is the first and strongest objection. But farther, the Epistle to the Colossians was addressed to a church, in which St. Paul had never been. This we infer from the first verse of the second chapter: "For I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh." There could be no propriety in thus joining the Colossians and Lao-church, and by them transmitted to Colosse. diceans with those "who had not seen his face in the flesh," if they did not also belong to the same description". Now, his address to the Colossians, whom he had not visited, is precisely the same as his address to the Christians, to whom he wrote in the epistle which we are now considering: "We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints," Col. ch. i. 3. Thus, he speaks to the Colossians, in the epistle before us, as follows: "Wherefore I also, after I

Dr Lardner contends against the validity of this conclusion; but, I think, without success. LARDNER, vol. xiv. p. 473, edit. 1757.

As great difficulties stand in the way supposing the epistle before us to have been writ

probable that it is actually the Epistle to the Laodiceans, referred to in the fourth chapter of the Epistle to the Colossians. 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

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

Mr. Locke endeavours to avoid this difficulty, by ex. plaining " 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 frora others; forasmuch as the expression describes the ge neral virtues of the Christian profession. Vide LockB in loc.

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 re

was an epistle which had been received by the church of Laodicea lately. It appears then, with a considerable degree of evidence, that there existed an epistle of St. Paul's nearly of the same date with the Epistle to the Colossians, and an epistle directed to a church (for such the church of Laodicea was) in which St. Paul had never been. What has been observ-ference to which St. Paul, in the twentieth ed concerning the epistle before us, shews that it answers perfectly to that character.

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,” ny &UTIY TAUTNY TIQIXu

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. It is inexact conformity therefore with the at Ephesus, as the nearest frequented sea-port truth of St. Paul's situation at the time, that in that direction. Might not Tychicus then, he declares of himself in the epistle. #gsøbsva s in passing through Ephesus, communicate to λve. And the exactness is the more rethe Christians of that place, the letter with markable, as aves (a chain) is no where used which he was charged? And might not co-in the singular number to express any other pies of that letter be multiplied and preserved kind of custody. When the prisoner's hands at Ephesus? Might not some of the copies or feet were bound together, the word was drop the words of designation s ry Amodincia*, dioμs (bonds,) as in the twenty-sixth chapwhich it was of no consequence to an Ephe.ter of the Acts, where Paul replies to Agripsian to retain? Might not copies of the letter pa, "I would to God that not only thou, but come out into the Christian church at large also all that hear me this day, were both alfrom Ephesus; and might not this give occa-most and altogether such as I am, except these sion 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?

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.

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 ambassador in bonds." "In bonds," w àλvou, in a chain. In the twenty-eighth

bonds,” παρέατος των δεσμών τούτων. When the prisoner was confined between two soldiers, as in the case of Peter, Acts, chap. xii. 6. twe chains were employed; and it is said upon his miraculous deliverance, that the "chains" (&urus, in the plural)" fell from his hands." Ass, the noun, and dip the verb, being general terms, were applicable to this in common with any other species of personal coercion; but aves, in the singular number, to none but this.

If it can be suspected that the writer of the present epistle, who in no other particular appears to have availed himself of the informa tion 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,” di i nas dropas. 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. as Twould be accidental which form of expression It

* 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 present epistle, has this very singular passage: "And writing to the Ephesians, as truly united to him who is 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 co. pics." 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

, without any name of place to follow it.

he fell upon. But an impostor, who had the not regarding his life to supply your lack of ser art, in one place, to employ the appropriate vice toward me." Chap. ii. 25-30. The mat term for the purpose of fraud, would have ter is here dropped, and no farther mention used it in both places.

CHAPTER VII.

THE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS.

No. I.

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 WHEN a transaction is referred to in such and in all things, I am instructed both to be a manner, as that the reference is easily and full and to be hungry, both to abound and to immediately understood by those who are be-suffer need. I can do all things through Christ forehand, or from other quarters, acquainted which strengtheneth me. Notwithstanding, with the fact, but is obscure, or imperfect, or ye have well done that ye did communicate requires investigation, or a comparison of dif- with my affliction. Now, ye Philippians, know ferent parts, in order to be made clear to other also, that in the beginning of the Gospel, when readers, the transaction so referred to is pro. I departed from Macedonia, no church combably real; because, had it been fictitious, the municated with me, as concerning giving and writer would have set forth his story more fully receiving, but ye only. For even in Thessaand plainly, not merely as conscious of the fic-lonica ye sent once and again unto my neces tion, but as conscious that his readers could sity. Not because I desire a gift: but I dehave no other knowledge of the subject of his sire fruit that may abound to your account. allusion than from the information of which But I have all, and abound: I am full, havhe put them in possession. ing received of Epaphroditus the things which

The account of Epaphroditus, in the Epis-were sent from you." Chap. iv. 10-18. To tle to the Philippians, of his journey to Rome, the Philippian reader, who knew that contriand of the business which brought him thither, butions were wont to be made in that church is the article to which I mean to apply this ob- for the apostle's subsistence and relief, that the servation. There are three passages in the supply which they were accustomed to send epistle which relate to this subject. The first, to him had been delayed by the want of opchap. i. 7. "Even as it is meet for me to portunity, that Epaphroditus had undertaken think this of you all, because I have you in the charge of conveying their liberality to the my heart, inasmuch as both in my bonds, and hands of the apostle, that he had acquitted-himin the defence and confirmation of the Gospel, self of this commission at the peril of his life, ye all are συγκοινωνος μου της χάριτος, joint by hastening to Rome under the oppression contributors to the gift which I have receiv-of a grievous sickness; to a reader who knew ed." Nothing more is said in this place. In all this beforehand, every line in the above the latter part of the second chapter, and at quotations would be plain and clear. But how the distance of half the epistle from the last is it with a stranger? The knowledge of these quotation, the subject appears again: "Yet several particulars is necessary to the percepI supposed it necessary to send to you Epa- tion and explanation of the references; yet phroditus, my brother and companion in la- that knowledge must be gathered from a combour, and fellow-soldier, but your messenger, parison of passages lying at a great distance and he that ministered to my wants: for he long-from one another. Texts must be interpreted after you all, and was full of heaviness, be-ed by texts long subsequent to them, which cause that ye had heard that he had been sick necessarily produces embarrassment and susfor indeed he was sick nigh unto death; but pense. The passage quoted from the beginGod had mercy on him, and not on him on- ning of the epistle contains an acknowledgely, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow ment, on the part of the apostle, of the liberupon sorrow. I sent him therefore the more ality which the Philippians had exercised tocarefully, that when ye see him again ye may wards him; but the allusion is so general and rejoice, and that I may be the less sorrowful. indeterminate, that, had nothing more been Receive him therefore in the Lord with all said in the sequel of the epistle, it would hardgladness; and hold such in reputation: because ly have been applied to this occasion at all. In for the work of Christ he was nigh unto death, the second quotation, Epaphroditus is declared

Pearce, I believe, was the first commentator, who gave this sense to the expression; and I believe also that his exposition is now generally assented to. He 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 a

ευαγγελίου. Οι κοινωνία εν τω ευαγγέλιο; but κοινωνίας ως suprared eno.

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

No. III.

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

find that Epiphroditus "ministered to St. himself upon the recovery of Epaphroditus, in Paul's wants," only by conveying to his hands terms which almost exclude the supposition of the contributions of the Philippians: "I am any supernatural means being employed to effull, having received of Epaphroditus the things fect it. This is a reserve which nothing but which were sent from you:" and that "the truth would have imposed. lack of service which he supplied" was a delay or interruption of their accustomed bounty, occasioned by the want of opportunity: "I re- Chap. iv. 15, 16. "Now, ye Philippians, joiced in the Lord greatly, that now at the last know also, that in the beginning of the Gosyour care of me hath flourished again; where-pel, when I departed from Macedonia, no in ye were also careful, but ye lacked oppor- church communicated with me, as concerning tunity." The affair at length comes out clear; giving and receiving, but ye only. For even but it comes out by piecemeal. The clearness in Thessalonica ye sent once and again unto is the result of the reciprocal illustration of my necessity." 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 authenThe reader will please to direct his attentic, and the transaction real, then every thing tion to the corresponding particulars or and which is said concerning Epaphroditus, and, which connect the words y agx? re his commission, would be clear to those into ευαγγελίου, ότε εξήλθον απο Μακεδονίας, with the whose hands the epistle was expected to come. words tv soraλony, and denote, as I interpret Considering the Philippians as his readers, a the passage, two distinct donations, or rather person might naturally write upon the sub-donations at two distinct periods, one at Thesject, as the author of the epistle has written; salonica, azaz a dis, the other after his debut there is no supposition of forgery with parture from Macedonia, ors snλlov awo Maxi

which it will suit.

No. II.

Οιδατε δε και ύμεις, Φιλιππησία, ότι εν αρχή του ευαγγελίου, ότε εξήλθον απο Μακεδονίας, ουδε μια μοι εκκλησία εκοινωνησεν, εις λόγον δοσε ληψεως, ει μη ύμεις μονοι· ότι και εν Θεσσαλονική και άπαξ και δις εις την χρειαν μοι επεμψατε

dovias. 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. xi. 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."

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 fellow-traveller 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 * Lake, ch. ii. 15. Και εγένετο, ώς απήλθον απ' αυτών spared a miracle; much less would it have in-us to weavey of azriñas, as the angels were gone away," i. e after their departure, οἱ ποιμένες είπον προς αλλήλους troduced St. Paul professing the utmost anxie- Matt. ch. xii. 43 Όταν δε το ακαθαρτον πνευμα εξέλθη ty for the safety of his friend, yet acknowledg-αO TEU avigaτev," when the unclean spirit is gone," I ing himself unable to help him; which he (levdas) "when he was gone," i. e. after his dee. after his departure, digira. John, ch. xiii. 30. 'Ors does, almost expressly, in the case of Trophi-parture, Ay lyrous. Acts, ch. x. 7, & de anibersar mus, for he "left him sick;" and virtually in hos & hodoo To Kograd, and when the angel which spake unto him was departed," i. e. after his departure. the passage before us, in which he felicitates canoas duo TWY DIXITOY, &C.

It appears from St. Paul's history, as related in the Acts of the Apostles, that upon leav ing 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 pre-such suspicion. But the truth is, that in the sent number, that the brethren in Philippi, a history of St. Paul's transactions at Philippi, city of Macedonia, had followed him with their which occupies the greatest part of the sixmunificence, or iğn) lo› awo Manidovias, when he teenth chapter of the Acts, no mention is made was departed from Macedonia, that is, when of Timothy at all. What appears concerning he was come into Achaia. Timothy in the history, so far as relates to the The passage under consideration affords an- present subject, is this: "When Paul came to other circumstance of agreement deserving of Derbe and Lystra, behold a certain disciple our notice. The gift alluded to in the Epistle was there named Timotheus, whom Paul to the Philippians is stated to have been made would have to go forth with him." The nar "in the beginning of the gospel." This phrase rative then proceeds with the account of St. is most naturally explained to signify the first Paul's progress through various provinces of preaching of the Gospel in these parts, viz. on the Lesser Asia, till it brings him down to that side of the Ægean sea. The succours refer- Troas. At Troas he was warned in a vision red to in the Epistle to the Corinthians, as receiv- to pass over into Macedonia. In obedience to ed from Macedonia, are stated to have been re- which he crossed the Ægean sea to Samothraceived by him upon his first visit to the penin- cia, the next day to Neapolis, and from thence sula of Greece. The dates therefore assigned to to Philippi. His preaching, miracles, and perthe donation in the two epistles agree; yet is secutions at Philippi, follow next; after which the date in one ascertained very incidentally, Paul and his company, when they had passed namely, by the considerations which fix the through Amphipolis and Apollonia, came to date of the epistle itself; and in the other, by Thessalonica, and from Thessalonica to Berea. an expression ("the beginning of the Gospel') much too general to have been used if the text had been penned with any view to the correspondency we are remarking.

From Berea the brethren sent away Paul; "but Silas and Timotheus abode there still." The itinerary, of which the above is an abstract, is undoubtedly sufficient to support an Farther, the phrase, "in the beginning of inference that Timothy was along with St. the Gospel," raises an idea in the reader's Paul at Philippi. We find them setting out mind that the Gospel had been preached there together upon this progress from Derbe, in Lymore than once. The writer would hardly caonia; we find them together near the concluhave called the visit to which he refers, the sion of it, at Berea in Macedonia. It is highly "beginning of the Gospel," if he had not also probable, therefore, that they came together visited them in some other stage of it. The to Philippi, through which their route between fact corresponds with this idea. If we con- these two places lay. If this be thought prosult the sixteenth and twentieth chapters of bable, it is sufficient. For what I wish to he the Acts, we shall find, that St. Paul, before observed is, that in comparing, upon this subhis imprisonment at Rome, during which this epistle purports to have been written, had been twice in Macedonia, and each time at Philippi.

No. IV.

ject, the epistle with the history, we do not find a recital in one place of what is related in another; but that we find, what is much more to be relied upon, an oblique allusion to an implied fact.

No. V.

That Timothy had been long with St. Paul at Philippi, is a fact which seems to be implied in this epistle twice. First, he joins in the Our epistle purports to have been written salutation with which the epistle opens: "Paul near the conclusion of St. Paul's imprisonment and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, at Rome, and after a residence in that city of to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at considerable duration. These circumstances Philippi." Secondly, and more directly, the are made out by different intimations, and the point is inferred from what is said concerning intimations upon the subject preserve among him, chap. ii. 19: "But I trust in the Lord themselves a just consistency, and a consistenJesus to send Timotheus shortly unto you, that cy certainly unmeditated. First, the apostle I also may be of good comfort when I know had already been a prisoner at Rome so long, your state; for I have no man like minded, as that the reputation of his bonds, and of his who will naturally care for your state; for all constancy under them, had contributed to adseek their own, not the things which are Jesus vance the success of the Gospel: "But I would Christ's; but ye know the proof of him, that ye should understand, brethren, that the things as a son with the father, he hath served with which happened unto me have fallen out rame in the Gospel." Had Timothy's presence ther unto the furtherance of the Gospel; so with St. Paul at Philippi, when he preached that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the the Gospel there, been expressly remarked in palace, and in all other places; and many of the Acts of the Apostles, this quotation might the brethren in the Lord waxing confident by be thought to contain a contrived adaptation my bonds, are much more bold to speak the to the history; although, even in that case, word without fear." Secondly, the account the averment, or rather the allusion in the given of Epaphroditus imports, that St. Paul. epistle, is too oblique to afford much room for when he wrote the epistle, had been in Rome