66

Chap. i. 23.

No. VI.

"For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which " is far better."

With this compare 2 Cor. v. 8.

"We are confident "and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to "be present with the Lord."

66

The sameness of sentiment in these two quotations is obvious. I rely however not so much upon that, as upon the similitude in the train of thought which in each epistle leads up to this sentiment, and upon the suitableness of that train of thought to the circumstances under which the epistles purport to have been written. This, I conceive, bespeaks the production of the same mind, and of a mind operating upon real circumstances. The sentiment is in both places preceded by the contemplation of imminent personal danger. To the Philippians he writes, in the twentieth verse of this chapter, "According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also, Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it "be by life or by death." To the Corinthians, "Troubled "on every side, yet not distressed; perplexed, but not "in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, "but not destroyed; always bearing about in the body "the dying of the Lord Jesus." [2 Cor. iv. 8.. 10.] This train of reflection is continued to the place from whence the words which we compare are taken. The two epistles, though written at different times, from different places, and to different churches, were both written under circumstances which would naturally recal to the author's mind the precarious condition of his life, and the perils which constantly awaited him. When the Epistle to the Philippians was written, the author was a prisoner at Rome, expecting his trial. When the Second Epistle to the Corinthians was written, he had lately escaped a danger in which he had given himself over for lost. The epistle opens with a recollection of this sub

ject, and the impression accompanied the writer's thoughts throughout.

I know that nothing is easier than to transplant into a forged epistle a sentiment or expression which is found in a true one; or, supposing both epistles to be forged by the same hand, to insert the same sentiment or expression in both. But the difficulty is to introduce it in just and close connection with the train of thought going before, and with a train of thought apparently generated by the circumstances under which the epistle is written. In two epistles, purporting to be written on different occasions, and in different periods of the author's history, this propriety would not easily be managed.

66

No. VII.

Chap. i. 29, 30; ii. 1, 2. "For unto you is given in "the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also "to suffer for his sake, having the same conflict which in and now hear to be in me. ye saw me, If there be, "therefore, any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of "love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and "mercies; fulfil ye my joy, that ye be like minded, having "the same love, being of one accord, of one mind."

66

With this compare Acts xvi. 22: "And the multitude (at Philippi) rose up against them (Paul and Silas); "and the magistrates rent off their clothes, and com"manded to beat them; and when they had laid many

66

stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging "the jailer to keep them safely; who, having received "such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and "made their feet fast in the stocks."

The passage in the epistle is very remarkable. I know not an example in any writing of a juster pathos, or which more truly represents the workings of a warm and affectionate mind, than what is exhibited in the quotation before us.* The apostle reminds his Philippians of their

* The original is very spirited. Ει τις οὖν παράκλησις ἐν Χριστῷ, εἴ τι παραμύθιον ἀγάπης, εἴ τις κοινωνία πνεύματος, εἴ τινα σπλάγχνα καὶ οἰκτιρ μοι, πληρώσατέ μου τὴν χαράν

being joined with himself in the endurance of persecution for the sake of Christ. He conjures them, by the ties of their common profession and their common sufferings, to "fulfil his joy;" to complete, by the unity of their faith, and by their mutual love, that joy with which the instances he had received of their zeal and attachment had inspired his breast. Now if this was the real effusion of St. Paul's mind, of which it bears the strongest internal character, then we have in the words "the same conflict "which ye saw in me," an authentic confirmation of so much of the apostle's history in the Acts, as relates to his transactions at Philippi; and through that of the intelligence and general fidelity of the historian.

CHAP. VIII.

THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS.

No. I.

THERE is a circumstance of conformity between St. Paul's history and his letters, especially those which were written during his first imprisonment at Rome, and more especially the epistles to the Colossians and Ephesians, which, being too close to be accounted for from accident, yet too indirect and latent to be imputed to design, cannot easily be resolved into any other original than truth. Which circumstance is this, that St. Paul in these epistles attributes his imprisonment not to his preaching of Christianity, but to his asserting the right of the Gentiles to be admitted into it without conforming themselves to the Jewish law. This was the doctrine to which he considered himself as a martyr. Thus in the epistle before us, i. 24. (I Paul) "who now rejoice in my sufferings for you for you," i. e. for those whom he had never seen; for a few verses afterwards he adds, "I would that

66

وو

66

ye knew what great conflict I have for you, and for "them in Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my "face in the flesh." His sufferings therefore for them was, in their general capacity of Gentile Christians, agreeably to what he explicitly declares in his Epistle to the Ephesians, iv. 1. "For this cause, I Paul, the "prisoner of Jesus Christ, for you Gentiles." Again in the epistle now under consideration, iv. 3. Withal

66

66

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." What that "mystery of "Christ" was, the Epistle to the Ephesians [iii. 4.] distinctly informs us; whereby when ye read ye may "understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, “which, in other ages, was not made known unto the "sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles "and prophets by the Spirit, that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his "promise in Christ by the gospel." This, therefore, was the confession for which he declares himself to be in bonds. Now let us enquire how the occasion of St. Paul's imprisonment is represented in the history. The apostle had not long returned to Jerusalem from his second visit into Greece, when an uproar was excited in that city by the clamour of certain Asiatic Jews [A. xxi. 27.] who, having seen Paul in the temple, stirred up all the people, "and laid hands on him." The charge advanced against him was, that "he taught all men every where against the "people, and the law, and this place; and farther brought "Greeks also into the temple, and polluted that holy

66

66

place." The former part of the charge seems to point at the doctrine, which he maintained, of the admission of the Gentiles, under the new dispensation, to an indiscriminate participation of God's favour with the Jews. But what follows makes the matter clear. When, by the interference of the chief captain, Paul had been rescued out of the hands of the populace, and was permitted to address the multitude who had followed him to the stairs of the castle, he delivered a brief account of his birth, of the early course of his life, of his miraculous conversion;

and is proceeding in his narrative, until he comes to describe a vision which was presented to him, as he was praying in the temple; and which bade him depart out of Jerusalem, "for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles." Acts xxii. 21. 66 They gave him audience,” says the historian, "unto this word; and then lifted up "their voices, and said, Away with such a fellow from "the earth." Nothing can show more strongly than this account does, what was the offence which drew down upon St. Paul the vengeance of his countrymen. His mission to the Gentiles, and his open avowal of that mission, was the intolerable part of the apostle's crime. But although the real motive of the prosecution appears to have been the apostle's conduct towards the Gentiles; yet, when his accusers came before a Roman magistrate, a charge was to be framed of a more legal form. The profanation of the temple was the article they chose to rely upon. This, therefore, became the immediate subject of Tertullus's oration before Felix, and of Paul's defence. But that he all along considered his ministry amongst the Gentiles as the actual source of the enmity that had been exercised against him, and in particular as the cause of the insurrection in which his person had been seized, is apparent from the conclusion of his discourse before Agrippa: "I have appeared unto thee," says he, describing what passed upon his journey to Damascus, "for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness, "both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those

things in the which I will appear unto thee, delivering "thee from the people and from the Gentiles, unto whom "now I send thee, to open their eyes, and to turn them "from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan "unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, "and inheritance among them which are sanctified by "faith that is in me. Whereupon, O King Agrippa, I "was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision; but "showed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, "and throughout all the coasts of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and "do works meet for repentance. For these causes the

66

L