CHAP. IV.

THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE

CORINTHIANS.

No. I.

WILL not fay that it is impoffible, having feen the first Epistle to the Corinthians, to conftruct a fecond with oftenfible allufions to the firft; or that it is impoffible that both fhould be fabricated, fo as to carry on an order and continuation of ftory, by fucceffive references to the fame events. But I fay, that this, in either cafe, muft be the effect of craft and defign. Whereas, whoever examines the allufions to the former epiftle, which he finds in this, whilst he will acknowledge them to be fuch, as would rife fpontaneoufly to the hand of the writer, from the very fubject of the correfpondence, and the fituation of the correfponding parties, fuppofing these to be real, will fee no particle of reason to suspect, either that the clauses containing these allu

fions were infertions for the purpofe, or that the feveral tranfactions of the Corinthian church were feigned, in order to form a train of narrative, or to fupport the appearance of connection between the two epiftles.

1. In the first epistle, St. Paul announces his intention of paffing through Macedonia, in his way to Corinth: "I will come to you "when I shall pass through Macedonia.” In the fecond epiftle, we find him arrived in Macedonia, and about to pursue his journey to Corinth. But obferve the manner in which this is made to appear: "I know "the forwardness of your mind, for which "I boaft of you to them of Macedonia, "that Achaia was ready a year ago, and your zeal had provoked very many: yet have I fent the brethren, left our boafting of you fhould be in vain in this "behalf; that, as I faid, ye may be ready, "lest haply, if they of Macedonia come "with me, and find you unprepared, we, "that we fay not you, be afhamed in this "fame confident boafting" (chap. ix. 2, 3, 4). St. Paul's being in Macedonia at the time of writing the epiftle, is, in this paffage, inH 2 ferred

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ferred only from his saying, that he had boafted to the Macedonians of the alacrity of his Achaian converts; and the fear which he expreffes, left, if any of the Macedonian Chriftians fhould come with him unto Achaia, they should find his boafting unwarranted by the event. The bufinefs of the contribution is the fole caufe of mentioning Macedonia at all. Will it be infinuated that this paffage was framed merely to ftate that St. Paul was now in Macedonia; and, by that statement, to produce an apparent agreement with the purpose of vifiting Macedonia, notified in the first epistle? Or will it be thought probable, that, if a fophift had meant to place St. Paul in Macedonia, for the fake of giving countenance to his forgery, he would have done it in fo oblique a manner as through the medium of the contribution? The fame thing may be observed of another text in the epiftle, in which the name of Macedonia occurs: "Furthermore, when I came

"to Troas to preach the gospel, and a door

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was opened unto me of the Lord, I had

"no reft in my spirit, because I found not

"Titus, my brother; but taking my leave "of them, I went from thence into Mace

donia." I I mean, that it may be obferved of this paffage also, that there is a reason for mentioning Macedonia, entirely diftin&t from the purpose of fhewing St. Paul to be there. Indeed, if the paffage before us fhew that point at all, it fhews it fo ofcurely, that Grotius, though he did not doubt that Paul was now in Macedonia, refers this text to a different journey. Is this the hand of a forger, meditating to establish a falfe conformity? The text, however, in which it is most strongly implied that St. Paul wrote the prefent epistle from Macedonia, is found in the fourth, fifth, and fixth verses of the feventh chapter: "I am filled with comfort, "I am exceeding joyful in all our tribula"tion; for, when we were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no reft; without were fightings, within were fears; neverthe"lefs God, that comforteth those that are "caft down, comforted us by the coming "of Titus.' Yet even here, I think, no one will contend, that St. Paul's coming to Macedonia, or being in Macedonia, was the

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principal thing intended to be told; or that the telling of it indeed, was any part of the intention with which the text was written; or that the mention even of the name of Macedonia was not purely incidental, in the defcription of thofe tumultuous forrows with which the writer's mind had been lately agitated, and from which he was relieved by the coming of Titus. The five firft verfes of the eighth chapter, which commend the liberality of the Macedonian churches, do not, in my opinion, by themfelves, prove St. Paul to have been in Macedonia at the time of writing the epiftle.

2. In the first epiftle, St. Paul denounces a fevere cenfure against an incestuous marriage, which had taken place amongst the Corinthian converts, with the connivance, not to fay with the approbation, of the church; and enjoins the church to purge itfelf of this fcandal, by expelling the offender from its fociety: "It is reported "commonly, that there is fornication among

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you, and fuch fornication, as is not fo "much as named amongst the Gentiles, that "one fhould have his father's wife; and ye

I

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are