pofe the frequent, yet feemingly unaffected use of this phrafe, in the epiftle before us, as one internal mark of its genuineness.

No. III.

There is another fingularity in St. Paul's style, which, wherever it is found, may be deemed a badge of authenticity; because, if it were noticed, it would not, I think, be imitated, inafmuch as it almost always produces embarraffment and interruption in the reasoning. This fingularity is a species of digreffion which may probably, I think, be denominated going off at a word. It is turning afide from the subject upon the occurrence of fome particular word, forfaking the train of thought then in hand, and entering upon a parenthetic fentence in which that word is the prevailing term. I shall lay before the reader fome examples of this, collected from the other epiftles, and then propofe two examples of it which are found in the epistle to the Ephefians. 2 Cor. ch. ii. ver. 14, at the word favour: "Now "thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh ma"nifeft

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" in

nifeft the favour of his knowledge by us every place (for we are unto God a "fweet favour of Chrift, in them that are

"faved, and in them that perish; to the

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the

one we are the favour of death unto death, "and to the other the favour of life unto "life; and whois fufficient for these things?) "For we are not as many which corrupt "word of God, but as of fincerity, but as "of God; in the fight of God speak we in "Chrift." Again, 2 Cor. ch. iii. ver. 1, at the word epiftle. "Need we, as fome others, epiftles of commendation to you, or of "commendation from you? (ye are our epiftle, written in our hearts, known and "read of all men; forafmuch as ye are ma"nifeftly declared to be the epistle of Chrift, "ministered by us, written not with ink, "but with the spirit of the living God; not "in tables of ftone, but in the fleshy tables "of the heart." The pofition of the words in the original, fhews more strongly than in the translation that it was the occurrence of the word 50λn which gave birth to επιςολη the fentence that follows: 2 Cor. chap. iii.

ver. I. Ει μη χρηζομεν, ως τινες, συςατικων

επιςόλων

επιςολων προς υμας, η εξ υμων συςαλικων; η επιςολη ημων υμεις εςε, εγγεγραμμένη εν ταις καρδίαις ημων, γινωσκομένη και αναγινωσκομένη υπο πανων ανθρωπων, φανερέμενοι οτι εςε επιςολη Χριςε διακονηθεισα υφ' ημών, εγγεγραμ μένη & μελανι, αλλα πνευματι Θεου ζωνος εκ εν πλαξι λιθίναις, αλλ' εν πλαξι καρδιας σαρ

κιναις.

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Again, 2 Cor. ch. iii. ver. 12, &c. at the word vail: "Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech: " and not as Mofes, which put a vail over "his face, that the children of Ifrael could "not ftedfastly look to the end of that "which is abolished. But their minds were "blinded; for until this day remaineth the "fame vail untaken away in the reading of "the Old Teftament, which vail is done

away in Chrift; but even unto this day, "when Mofes is read, the vail is upon their "heart: nevertheless, when it shall turn to "the Lord, the vail fhall be taken away

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(now the Lord is that fpirit; and where "the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty). "But we all, with open face, beholding as

in a glafs the glory of the Lord, are

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changed into the fame image from glory "to glory, even as by the spirit of the Lord. "Therefore, feeing we have this ministry, as "we have received mercy, we faint not."

Who fees not that this whole allegory of the vail arifes entirely out of the occurrence of the word, in telling us that "Mofes put "avail over his face," and that it drew the apostle away from the proper fubject of his difcourfe, the dignity of the office in which he was engaged: which fubject he fetches up again almost in the words with which he had left it; "therefore, feeing we have "this ministry, as we have received mercy, "we faint not." The fentence which he had before been going on with, and in which he had been interrupted by the vail, was,

feeing then that we have fuch hope, we "ufe great plainnefs of fpeech."

In the epistle to the Ephefians, the reader will remark two inftances, in which the fame habit of compofition obtains; he will recognize the fame pen. One he will find, chap. iv. ver. 8-11, at the word afçended : "Wherefore he faith, When he afcended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave

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R

❝ gifts

"gifts unto men. (Now that he afcended, "what is it but that he alfo defcended first "unto the lower parts of the earth? He "that defcended is the fame also that afcended 66 up far above all heavens, that he might "fill all things.) And he gave fome, "apostles," &c.

The other appears, chap. v. ver. 12-15, at the word light: "For it is a fhame even "to speak of thofe things which are done "of them in fecret: but all things that are “reproved, are made manifest by the light; "(for whatsoever doth make manifest, is

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light; wherefore he faith, Awake, thou "that fleepest, and arife from the dead, and "Chrift fhall give thee light): fee then " that ye walk circumspectly.”

No. IV.

Although it does not appear to have ever been difputed that the epiftle before us was written by St. Paul, yet it is well known that a doubt has long been entertained concerning the perfons to whom it was addreffed. The question is founded partly in fome