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condition that we continue friends, and that my vifits are acceptable, is neceffarily implied. If we ceafe to be friends, he will not accufe me of falfhood for ceafing to vifit him.

The Prophets of the Old Teftament themselves fometimes foretold things under certain conditions, as Jonas for inftance foretold the deftruction of Niniveh, which did not take place, because the conditions, which depended on the will of men, were altered.

Thus St. Paul had formerly promised the Corinthians, while he was on amicable terms with them, to return before he went into Macedonia, that he might a fecond time impart to them the gifts of the Holy Ghoft. But when the face of things was totally changed at Corinth, and the Corinthians themselves did not fulfil the conditions, which St. Paul's promise prefuppofed; when they had fallen into errors and extravagancies, which rendered it impoffible for him to impart to them the gifts of the Holy Ghoft, he thought it neceffary to alter his route, and not to visit them again, till his Epiftles had produced fome amendment.

The other conclufion drawn by St. Paul's adverfary was, that the Apostle was afraid to return. In answer to this objection St. Paul fays that he had hitherto spared this falfe teacher and his party: but that, if he came again and found no amendment, he fhould use the power committed to him as an Apostle, and punish some of the offenders in a miraculous manner. This would afford a proof of his apoftolical authority, which how, ever he wished to avoid,

• 2 Cor. i. 15.

SECT,

SUCH

SECT. VI.

Of the fecond Epiftle to the Corinthians..

UCH was the ftate of the Corinthian church, when St. Paul after his departure from Ephefus vifited the Chriftian communities in Macedonia, and received from Titus, whom he had fent to Corinth, the account that the Corinthians had amended their conduct. It was about this time, (that is about the year 58 of the Christian Era) that he wrote his fecond Epiftle, as appears from 2 Cor. viii. 1-5. He fent it by the hands of Titus, who was invested also with power to forward the collection for the faithful in Judæa'. The fubfcription mentions that he fent Luke with Titus, which is grounded on 2 Cor. viii. 18. where St. Paul fays, and we fent with him the brother, whose praise is in the Gofpel, throughout all the churches.' Now this brother is explained by many ancient commentators of St, Luke: but this is not only mere conjecture, but one that is difficult to be reconciled with Acts xx. 3-16, That Titus was accompanied by two brethren, when he carried St. Paul's fecond Epiftle to the Corinthians, is certain: but who they were I cannot pretend to determine.

Of the effects, which this Epiftle produced, we have no circumftantial accounts: for the journey which St, Paul took to Corinth, after he had written this Epistle, St. Luke has mentioned only in a few words, Acts xx. 2. 3. We know however that St. Paul was at Corinth after he had written this Epiftle, that the contributions, which he had ordered to be made for the poor brethren in Jerufalem, were brought to him thither from different parts", and must have been very confiderable, fince St. Paul himself carried them to Jerufalem"; further,

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See what was faid on this fubject, Ch. vi. Sect. 6.

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Ch. viii. 6.

WI Cor. xvi. 3.

ther, that St. Paul staid several months at Corinth, and that he was greatly refpected by fome of the principal members of that church, from whom he fent falutations in his Epiftle to the Romans*. From this time we hear nothing more of the adverfe party: and when Clement of Rome wrote his Epiftle to the Corinthians, St. Paul was confidered by them as a divine Apostle, to whose authority he might appeal, without fear of contradiction. The falfe teacher therefore muft either have been filenced

by St. Paul in virtue of his apoftolical powers, and by an act of severity, which he had threatened, 2 Cor. xiii. 2. 3. or this adverfary of the Apoftle had voluntarily quitted the place. Whichever was the caufe, the effect produced muft operate as a confirmation of our faith, and as a proof of St. Paul's divine miffion.

SECT.

VII.

Contents of the fecond Epiftle to the Corinthians.

HE contents of this Epiftle are the following.

THE

1. St. Paul gives the Corinthians an account of his fufferings to the time of writing this Epiftle, and of the comfort, which he derived from meditating on the Refurrection of the Dead, ch. i. 1–11.

2. He vindicates himself against thofe, who refused to acknowledge him as a true Apoftle, because he had altered his refolution of going immediately from Ephesus to Corinth, ch. i. 12. ii. 4.

3. He forgives the inceftuous perfon, ch. ii. 5-11. and on this occafion tells the Corinthians, how earnestly he wishes to hear an account of their amendment, ver. 12. 13.

4. He treats of the office committed to him of preaching redemption, and highly prefers it to the office of preaching the law, probably because his adverfary had pretended

* Ch, xvi. 22. 23.

pretended to be a teacher of the law. This falfe teacher he at the fame rebukes for the innovation of reading the. Jaw, with his face covered. Further, he fhews that the fufferings, which accompany the Gospel, are no difgrace either to the Gospel or its minifters, and gives a thort abftract of the doctrine, which he preaches, ch. ii. 14.

-V. 21.

5. He fhews that it is his office not only to preach redemption by Chrift, but likewife to inculcate certain duties, especially that of renouncing idolatry, which duty he enforces against thofe, who attended the idol feftivals, ch. vi. 1—vii. 1.

6. He endeavours again to win the confidence of the Corinthians, by telling them how kindly he was affectioned toward them, and how greatly he rejoiced at their amendment, ch. vii. 2-16.

7. He exhorts them to a liberal collection for the Chriftians in Judæa.

8. He vindicates himself against thofe, who contended that there was not fufficient proof of his divine miffion, and who imputed his caution at Corinth to the consciousness of not being a true Apoftle, ch. x-xii.

CHAP. XV.

OF THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY.

SECT. I.

Of the time, when St. Paul wrote his firft Epifle to
Timothy.

ABOUT the fame time that St. Paul wrote his fecond Epiftle to the Corinthians, or rather a fhort time before it, he wrote his firft Epiftle to Timothy, as Benfon has very clearly fhewn in his Prolegomena to this Epif

tle,

tle, to which opinion Lardner likewise upon the whole accedes. Other critics maintain, that it was written about the year of Chrift 65, after St. Paul had been discharged from his firft imprisonment in Rome, and again vifited the church of Ephefus. This opinion, which is patronised by Pearfon, le Clerc, Mill, and others, who grounded it merely on an induction made from the common Greek fubfcription to this Epiftle", is not very easy to be reconciled with the notion of St. Paul's infallibility or his divine infpiration: for when he took leave of the elders at Ephefus in the year 58, he affured them that they would fee his face no more. Now it is hardly credible that all the Elders at Ephefus died within the space of five, or even seven years: and we know from 1 Tim. i. 3. that when St. Paul wrote to Timothy, he had left him at Ephesus only a short time before.

The principal arguments, by which Dr. Benfon has proved his pofition, are the following.

1. It appears plainly from the third chapter of this Epiftle, that no bishops had been then appointed at Ephefus. St. Paul inftructs Timothy in the choice of perfons

* Προς Τιμόθεον πρώτη εγραφη απο Λαοδίκειας, ητις εςι μητροπολις Φρυγίας της Πακατιανης. Now were it true, that this Epistle was written at Laodicea, it was certainly written after the expiration of St. Paul's imprisonment: for before that time he had never been at Laodicea, as appears from Coloff. ii. 1. But this fubfcription is undoubtedly erroneous: for when St. Paul wrote his firft Epiftle to Timothy, he had lately left Ephefus, and was gone, not into Phrygia, but into Macedonia, as the Apoftle himself says, 1 Tim. i. 3. Wetstein has quoted other fubfcriptions, in which different, and more probable places are affigned. For inftance, the subscription in one of Stephens's MSS. has Macedonia, and that in the Coptic verfion, to which may be added the Arabic version published by Erpenius, has Athens.

z In the first edition I represented it as wholly irreconcileable, which I here change into a more moderate expreffion, because it may be objected that Acts xx. 25. (Ye all shall fee my face no more') is capable of being interpreted in such a manner, as to denote that St. Paul would not fee all the Elders at Ephesus again affembled together, not that he would fee none of them again,

a Acts xx. 25.

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