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But if any one fhall ftill contend that a forger of the epistle, with the Acts of the Apostles before him, and having fettled his scheme of writing a letter as from St. Paul upon his fecond vifit into Greece, would eafily think of the expedient of putting in the names of those persons who appeared to be with St. Paul at the time, as an obvious recommendation of the imposture; I then repeat my obfervations; first, that he would have made the catalogue more complete; and fecondly, that with this contrivance in his thoughts, it was certainly his bufinefs, in order to avail himself of the artifice, to have stated in the body of the epiftle that St. Paul was in Greece when he wrote it, and that he was there upon his fecond

should seem, St. Paul had lately passed, should have accompanied St. Paul into Greece, and have been with him there at this time. Lucius is another name in the epiftle. A very flight alteration would convert Auxos into Aexas, Lucius into Luke, which would produce an additional coincidence: for, if Luke was the author of the history, he was with St. Paul at this time; inafmuch as, defcribing the voyage which took place foon after the writing of this epiftle, the hiftorian uses the first perfon-" We failed away from Philippi. Acts, xx. 6.

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vifit. Neither of which he has done, either directly, or even fo as to be discoverable by any circumftance found in the narrative delivered in the Acts.

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Under the fame head, viz. of coincidences depending upon date, I cite from the epistle the following falutation: "Greet Prifcilla and Aquila, my helpers in Christ Jesus, who "have for my life laid down their own necks; "unto whom not only I give thanks, but "alfo all the churches of the Gentiles." Chap. xvi. 3.-It appears, from the Acts of the Apostles, that Priscilla and Aquila had originally been inhabitants of Rome; for we read, Acts xviii. 2, that "Paul found a cer"tain Jew, named Aquila, lately come from

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Italy with his wife Prifcilla, because that "Claudius had commanded all Jews to de"part from Rome." They were connected therefore with the place to which the falutations are fent. That is one coincidence; another is the following: St. Paul became acquainted with these perfons at Corinth during his first vifit into Greece. They accompanied him upon his return into Afia; were fettled for fome time at Ephefus, Acts xviii. 19-26;

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appear to have been with St. Paul when he wrote from that place his first Epistle to the Corinthians, 1 Cor. xvi. 19. Not long after the writing of which epiftle St. Paul went from Ephesus into Macedonia, and" after he had gone over those parts,' proceeded from thence upon his fecond vifit into Greece; during which vifit, or rather at the conclufion of it, the Epiftle to the Romans, as hath been fhewn, was written. We have therefore the time of St. Paul's refidence at Ephesus after he had written to the Corinthians, the time taken up by his progrefs through Macedonia (which is indefinite, and was probably confiderable), and his three months abode in Greece; we have the fum of these three periods allowed for Aquila and Prifcilla going back to Rome, fo as to be there when the epistle before us was written. Now what this quotation leads us to observe is, the danger of fcattering names and circumftances in writings like the prefent, how implicated they often are with dates and places, and that nothing but truth can preserve confistency. Had the notes of time in the Epistle to the Romans fixed the writing

of it to any date prior to St. Paul's first refidence at Corinth, the falutation of Aquila and Prifcilla would have contradicted the history, because it would have been prior to his acquaintance with these perfons. If the notes of time had fixed it to any period during that refidence at Corinth, during his journey to Jerufalem when he first returned out of Greece, during his ftay at Antioch whither he went down from Jerufalem, or during his fecond progrefs through the Leffer Afia upon which he proceeded from Antioch, an equal contradiction would have been incurred; because from Acts xviii. 2-18,1926,it appears that during all this time Aquila and Prifcilla were either along with St. Paul, or were abiding at Ephefus. Laftly, had the notes of time in this epiftle, which we have feen to be perfectly incidental, compared with the notes of time in the first Epistle to the Corinthians, which are equally incidental, fixed this epiftle to be either cotemporary with that, or prior to it, a fimilar contradiction would have enfued; because, first, when the Epistle to the Corinthians was written, Aquila and Prifcilla were

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along with St. Paul, as they joined in the falutation of that church, 1 Cor. xvi. 19 ; and because, fecondly, the hiftory does not allow us to fuppofe, that between the time of their becoming acquainted with St. Paul, and the time of St. Paul's writing to the Corinthians, Aquila, and Priscilla could have gone to Rome, fo as to have been faluted in an epiftle to that city; and then come back to St. Paul at Ephesus, fo as to be joined with him in faluting the church of Corinth. As it is, all things are confiftent. The Epistle to the Romans is pofterior even to the fecond Epiftle to the Corinthians; because it speaks of a contribution in Achaia being completed, which the second Epistle to the Corinthians chap. viii. is only foliciting. It is fufficiently therefore pofterior to the first Epistle to the Corinthians, to allow time in the interval for Aquila and Prifcilla's return from Ephesus to Rome.

Before we difmifs thefe two perfons, we may take notice of the terms of commendation in which St. Paul defcribes them, and of the agreement of that encomium with the hiftory. "My helpers in Chirst Jefus,

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