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"who have for my life laid down their "necks; unto whom not only I give thanks, "but alfo all the churches of the Gentiles." In the eighteenth chapter of the Acts, we are informed that Aquila and Priscilla were Jews; that St. Paul first met with them at Corinth; that for fome time he abode in the fame houfe with them; that St. Paul's contention at Corinth was with the unbe

lieving Jews, who at firft " oppofed and

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blafphemed, and afterwards with one ac"cord raised an infurrection against him ;' that Aquila and Prifcilla adhered, we may conclude, to St. Paul throughout this whole conteft; for, when he left the city, they went with him, Acts xiii. 18. Under thefe circumstances, it is highly probable that they fhould be involved in the dangers and perfecutions which St. Paul underwent from the Jews, being themselves Jews; and, by adhering to St. Paul in this difpute, deserters, as they would be accounted, of the Jewish cause. Farther, as they, though Jews, were affifting to St. Paul in preaching to the Gentiles at Corinth, they had taken a decided part in the great controverfy of that day,

the admiffion of the Gentiles to a parity of religious fituation with the Jews. For this conduct alone, if there was no other reafon, they may feem to have been entitled to "thanks from the churches of the Gentiles." They were Jews taking part with Gen-. tiles. Yet is all this fo in directly intimated, or rather fo much of it left to inference in

the account given in the Acts, that I do not think it probable that a forger either could or would have drawn his reprefentation from thence; and still less probable do I think it, that without having feen the Acts, he could, by mere accident, and without truth for his guide, have delivered a reprefentation fo conformable to the circumftances there recorded.

The two congruities last adduced depended upon the time, the two following regard the place, of the Epistle.

1. Chap. xvi. 23. "Eraftus, the chamber"lain of the city, faluteth you”—of what city? We have feen, that is, we have inferred from circumstances found in the epistle, compared with circumftances found in the Acts of the Apostles, and in the two Epiftles

to the Corinthians, that our epiftle was written during St. Paul's fecond vifit to the peninsula of Greece. Again, as St. Paul, in his epiftle to the church of Corinth, 1 Cor. xvi. 3, fpeaks of a collection going on in that city, and of his defire that it might be ready against he came thither; and as in this epiftle he speaks of that collection being ready, it follows that the epistle was written either whilst he was at Corinth, or after he had been there. Thirdly, fince St. Paul speaks in this epistle of his journey to Jerufalem, as about inftantly to take place; and as we learn, Acts xx. 3, that his defign and attempt was to fail upon that journey immediately from Greece, properly fo called, i. e. as distinguished from Macedonia; it is probable that he was in this country when he wrote the epiftle, in which he speaks of himself as upon the eve of setting out. If in Greece, he was most likely at Corinth; for the two Epiftles to the Corinthians fhew that the principal end of his coming into Greece was to visit that city, where he had founded a church. Certainly we know no place in Greece in which his prefence

prefence was so probable at least, the placing of him at Corinth fatisfies every circumftance. Now that Eraftus was an inhabitant of Corinth, or had fome connection with Corinth, is rendered a fair fubject of prefumption, by that which is accidentally faid of him in the fecond Epistle to Timothy, chap. iii. v. 20, "Eraftus abode at "Corinth." St. Paul complains of his folitude, and is telling Timothy what was become of his companions: "Eraftus abode "at Corinth; but Trophimus have I left at "Miletum, fick." Eraftus was one of those who had attended St. Paul in his travels, Acts xix. 22; and when thofe travels had, upon some occasion, brought our apostle and his train to Corinth, Eraftus ftaid there, for no reason fo probable as that it was his home. I allow that this coincidence is not fo precife as fome others, yet I think it too clear to be produced by accident; for, of the many places which this fame epistle has affigued to different perfons, and the innumerable others which it might have mentioned, how came it to fix upon Corinth for Eraftus? And, as far as it is a coincidence,

it is certainly undefigned on the part of the author of the Epiftle to the Romans: because he has not told us of what city Eraftus was the chamberlain; or, which is the fame thing, from what city the epiftle was written, the fetting forth of which was abfolutely neceffary to the difplay of the coincidence, if any fuch difplay had been thought of: nor could the author of the Epiftle to Timothy leave Eraftus at Corinth, from any thing he might have read in the Epiftle to the Romans, because Corinth is no where in that Epiftle mentioned either by name or description.

2 Chap. xvi. 1-3. "I commend unto you "Phoebe, our fifter, which is a fervant of "the church which is at Cenchrea, that ye "receive her in the Lord, as becometh

faints, and that ye affift her in whatfo"ever bufinefs fhe hath need of you; for "the hath been a fuccourer of many, and "of myself alfo." Cenchrea adjoined to Corinth; St. Paul therefore, at the time of writing the letter, was in the neighbourhood of the woman whom he thus recommends. But, farther, that St. Paul had before this

been

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