ways for all things unto God and the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; submitting yourselves one to another, in the fear of God. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord."*

Colos. ch. iii. 17. "Whatsoever ye do, in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit, in the Lord."t

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

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.

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. There is another singularity in St. Paul's style, If the original which we ascribe to these two epis- which, wherever it is found, may be deemed a tles be the true one, that is, if they were both badge of authenticity; because, if it were noticed, really written by St. Paul, and both sent to their it would not, I think, be imitated, inasmuch as it respective destination by the same messenger, the almost always produces embarrassment and intersimilitude is, in all points, what should be expect-ruption in the reasoning. This singularity is a ed to take place. If they were forgeries, then the species of digression which may properly, I think, mention of Tychicus in both epistles, and in a be 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.

No. II.

every place, (for we are unto God a sweet sarour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish; to the one we are the savour of death There is such a thing as a peculiar word or unto death, and to the other the savour of life unto phrase cleaving, as it were, to the memory of a life; and who is sufficient for these things?) For writer or speaker, and presenting itself to his utter- we are not as many which corrupt the word of ance at every turn. When we observe this, we God, but as of sincerity, but as of God; in the 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 of 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,' (#ours) that it was the occurrence of the word 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. 1. Ει μη χρήζομεν, ως τίνες, συστατικών "the riches of his glory," "his riches in glory,"TITOX XрOS UMAS, SE UMEY GUSTATIXRY; N EXISTIAN "riches of the glory of his inheritance," "riches of my UHLIS BOTE, ogg og pammern on Tais xapfixes μm, yo νωσκομένη και αναγινοσκομένη στο παντων ανθρώπων και the glory of this mystery," Rom. ch. ix. 23. Ephes. Sovevo OTE SOTE STIFTON XPT Sexx up eh. . 16. Ephes. ch. i. 18. Colos. ch. i. 27, og gay pampson of mohave, AAA REUMATI NOU COV. riches of his grace," twice in the Ephesians, ch. TOS OU ARE hidivais, œka” ev #λağı xxp♪iαs σxpx

Ephes, ch. v. 20, 21, 22. Ευχαριστούντες παντοτε στις παντων, εν ονόματι του Κυρίου ημών Ιησού Χριστού, τω 6. Izrpi, UTOTROPOMIVOI AXXNXot spot to. A Y-PRIZES, TO15 181015 and UTOTROCIOUL, US TO Kupio. ↑ Colos. ch. iii. 17. Kev, AN TOINTE, ED Xoy, 177 478, TAYTA 1 ovomati Kupicu Inoon, EUXXPICTOURTES To 8. και πατρι δι αυτού. Αν γυναίκες υποτασσεσίι τους ίδιους ανδρασιν, ως ανήκεν εν Κυρίω.

τάις.

Again, 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

he must have personally known. The Epistle of that place, the letter with which he was to the Romans was written before St. Paul had charged? And might not copies of that letter be been at Rome; and his address to them runs in multiplied and preserved at Ephesus? Might not the same strain with that just now quoted; "I some of the copies drop the words of designation thank my God, through Jesus Christ, for you all, Вити Лизбиени, * which it was of no consequence that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole to an Ephesian to retain? Might not copies of world:" Rom. ch. i. 8. Let us now see what was the letter come out into the Christian church at the form in which our apostle was accustomed to large from Ephesus; and might not this give ocintroduce his epistles, when he wrote to those with casion to a belief that the letter was written to that whom he was already acquainted. To the Co-church? And, lastly, might not this belief prorinthians it was this: "I thank my God always duce the error which we suppose to have crept on your behalf, for the grace of God which is into the inscription? 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.

-"

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 amIn bonds," vaxus, in a

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." 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 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 observed concerning the epistle before us, shows that it answers perfectly to that character.

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 Ephesus, as the nearest frequented sea-port in that direction. Might not Tychicus then, in passing through Ephesus, communicate to the Christians

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 sems 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. Fade LOCKE in loc

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," TY TRUTHY TEIXEI It is in exact conformity therefore with the truth of St. Paul's situation at the time, that he declares of himself in the epistle, UW EV HAUGEL. And the exactness is the more remarkable, as Aves (a chain) is no where used in the singular number to express any other kind of custody. When the prisoner's hands or feet were bound together, the word was dru. (bonds,) as in the twenty-sixth chapter of the Acts, where Paul re

μαι.

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 eren) 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 Tois ovey, without any name of place to fol

low 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 τούτων. 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 αλυσις, in the singular number, to none but this.

bonds, and in the defence and confirmation of the Gospel, ye all are y XOINCUVOS MOU THE XXRves, 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 com panion 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 heavi ness, because that ye had heard that he had been sick for indeed he was sick nigh unto death; but If it can be suspected that the writer of the God had mercy on him, and not on him only, but present epistle, who in no other particular ap-on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorpears to have availed himself of the information row. I sent him therefore the more carefully, concerning St. Paul, delivered in the Acts, had, that when ye see him again ye may rejoice, and in this verse, borrowed the word which he read that I may be the less sorrowful. Receive him in that book, and had adapted his expression to therefore in the Lord with all gladness; and hold what he found there recorded of St. Paul's treat-such in reputation: because for the work of Christ ment at Rome; in short, that the coincidence here he was nigh unto death, not regarding his life to noted was effected by craft and design; I think it supply your lack of service toward me," chap. a strong reply to remark, that, in the parallel pas- ii. 25-30. The matter is here dropped, and no sage of the Epistle to the Colossians, the same farther mention made of it till it is taken up near allusion is not preserved; the words there are, the conclusion of the epistle as follows: "But I "praying also for us, that God would open unto rejoice in the Lord greatly, that now at the last us a door of utterance to speak the mystery of your care of me hath flourished again, wherein ye Christ, for which I am also in bonds," & 0xx were also careful, but ye lacked opportunity. Not Si. After what has been shown in a preceding that I speak in respect of want; for I have learned number, there can be little doubt but that these in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. two epistles were written by the same person. If I know both how to be abased, and I know how the writer, therefore, sought for, and fraudulently to abound; every where and in all things, I am inserted, the correspondency into one epistle, why instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both did he not do it in the other? A real prisoner to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things might use either general words which compre- through Christ which strengtheneth me. Notwithhended this amongst many other modes of cus- standing, ye have well done that ye did communitody; or might use appropriate words which spe- cate with my affliction. Now, ye Philippians, cified this, and distinguished it from any other know also, that in the beginning of the Gospel, mode. It would be accidental which form of ex- when I departed from Macedonia, no church compression he fell upon. But an impostor, who had municated with me, as concerning giving and rethe art, in one place, to employ the appropriate ceiving, but ye only. For even in Thessalonica term for the purpose of fraud, would have used ye sent once and again unto my necessity. Not it in both places. 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 the charge of conveying their liberality to the hands of the apostle, that he had acquitted himself of this commission at the peril of his life, by hastening to Rome under the oppression of a grievous sickness; to a reader who knew all this beforehand, every line in the above quotations would be plain and clear. But how is it with a stranger? The knowledge of these several particulars is necessary to the perception and explanation of the references; yet that knowledge must be gathered from a comparison of passages lying at a great distance from one another. Texts must be interpreted by texts long subsequent to

CHAPTER VII.

The Epistle to the Philippians.

No. I.

WHEN a transaction is referred to in such a manner, as that the reference is easily and immediately understood by those who are beforehand, or from other quarters, acquainted with the fact, but is obscure, or imperfect, or requires investigation, or a comparison of different parts, in order to be made clear to other readers, the transaction so referred to is probably real; because, had it been fictitious, the writer would have set forth his story more fully and plainly, not merely as conscious of the fiction, but as conscious that his readers could have no other knowledge of the subject of his allusion than from the information of which he put them in possession.

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

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 miracubus. It is plainly, I think, spoken of as a natuThis 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 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-5 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 spared a miracle; much less would it have introduced St. Paul professing the utmost anxiety