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clude the fuppofition of any fupernatural means being employed to effect it. This is a reserve which nothing but truth would have impofed.

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No. III.

Chap. iv. ver. 15, 16. "Now ye, Philippians, know also that in the beginning "of the gospel, when I departed from Ma"cedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving,

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"but

ye only: for even in Theffalonica ye "fent once and again unto my neceffity."

It will be neceffary to ftate the Greek of this paffage, because our tranflation does not, I think, give the sense of it accurately.

Οιδαξε δε και υμεις, Φιλιππησίοι, οτι εν αρχή τε ευαγίελι8, οτε εξηλθον απο Μακεδονιας, εδέμια μοι εκκλησια εκοινώνησεν εις λογον δόσεως και ληψεως, ει μη υμεις μονοι, οτι και εν Θεσα σαλονικη και απαξ και δις εις την χρειαν μοι επέμψαζε.

The reader will please to direct his attention to the correfponding particles oτ, and οτι και, which conned the words εν αρχή τε ευαγγέλιο, οτε εξηλθον απο Μακεδονιας, with the words

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words ev`Oεσσaλoviny, and denote, as I interpret the paffage, two diftinct donations, or rather donations at two diftinct periods, one at Theffalonica, απαξ και δις, the other after his departure from Macedonia, OTE εξήλθον απο Μακεδονιας*. I would render the paffage, fo as to mark thefe different periods, thus: "Now ye, Philippians, know also "that in the beginning of the gofpel, when "I was departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giv

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ing and receiving, but ye only; and that "alfo in Theffalonica ye fent once and again

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unto my neceffity." Now with this ex

pofition of the paffage compare 2 Cor. chap. xi. ver. 8, 9: "I robbed other churches,

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* Luke, ch. ii. ver. 15, Και εγένετο, ως απηλθον απ' αυτων Els Toy favor of aylayo," as the angels were gone away," i. e. after their departure, οι ποιμένες είπον προς αλλήλες, Matt. ch. xii. ver. 43, Όταν δε το ακαθάριον πνεύμα εξέλθη από το awe, "when the unclean spirit is gone," i. e. after his departure, diepla. John, ch. xiii. ver. 30, Ora eğnλ0e (ledas)" when he was gone, i. e. after his departure, (Ιέδας) λέγει Ιησες. Afts, ch. x. ver. 7, ως δε απηλθεν ὁ αγίελος ὁ λαλων τῷ Κορνηλίῳ, "and when the angel which spake unto him "was departed," i. e. after his departure, panas duo tar BIXETOY, &c.

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taking wages of them to do you fervice: "and when I was prefent with you and "wanted, I was chargeable to no man; "for that which was lacking to me the "brethren which came from Macedonia fupplied."

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It appears from St. Paul's hiftory, as related in the Acts of the Apoftles, that upon leaving Macedonia he paffed, after a very fhort ftay at Athens, into Achaia. It appears, fecondly, from the quotation out of the epiftle to the Corinthians, that in Achaia he accepted no pecuniary affistance from the converts of that country; but that he drew a fupply for his wants from the Macedoniair Christians. Agreeably whereunto it appears, in the third place, from the text which is the subject of the prefent number, that the brethren in Philippi, a city of Macedonia, had followed him with their munificence, οτι εξήλθον απο Μακεδονιας, when he was departed from Macedonia, that is, when he was come into Achaia.

The paffage under confideration affords another circumftance of agreement deferving of our notice. The gift alluded to in the epiftle

epiftle to the Philippians is ftated to have been made "in the beginning of the gofpel." This phrafe is most naturally explained to fignify the first preaching of the gospel in these parts; viz. on that fide of the Ægean fea. The fuccours referred to in the epiftle to the Corinthians, as received from Macedonia, are stated to have been received by him upon his first visit to the peninfula of Greece. The dates therefore affigned to the donation in the two epiftles agree; yet is the date in one afcertained very incidentally, namely, by the confiderations which fix the date of the epiftle itself; and in the other, by an expreffion (" the beginning of "the gofpel") much too general to have been used, if the text had been penned with any view to the correfpondency we are remarking.

Farther, the phrafe, "in the beginning of "the gofpel," raises an idea in the reader's mind that the gospel had been preached there more than once. The writer would hardly have called the vifit to which he refers the " beginning of the gospel," if he had not also visited them in fome other stage

of

of it. The fact corresponds with this idea. If we confult the fixteenth and twentieth chapters of the Acts, we shall find, that St. Paul, before his imprisonment at Rome, during which this epiftle purports to have been written, had been twice in Macedonia, and each time at Philippi.

No. IV.

That Timothy had been long with St. Paul at Philippi is a fact which feems to be implied in this epiftle twice. First, he joins in the falutation with which the epistle opens, "Paul and Timotheus, the fervants of Jefus "Chrift, to all the faints in Christ Jefus "which are at Philippi." Secondly, and more directly, the point is inferred from what is faid concerning him, chap, ii. ver. 19: “But I trust in the Lord Jefus to send Ti"motheus fhortly unto you, that I alfo "be of good comfort when I know your "ftate; for I have no man like minded, "who will naturally care for your state; "for all feek their own, not the things

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