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Corinthians which is now before us; and he begins his epiftle in this wife: “Bleffed "be God, even the father of our Lord Jefus Chrift, the father of mercies, and "the God of all comfort, who comforteth "us in all our tribulation, that we may be "able to comfort them which are in any "trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ❝ourselves are comforted of God. For, as "the fufferings of Chrift abound in us, fo "our confolation alfo aboundeth by Chrift: "and whether we be afflicted, it is for your "confolation and falvation, which is ef“fectual in the enduring of the same sufferings, which we alfo fuffer; or whether we "be comforted, it is for your confolation "and falvation; and our hope of you is

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fteadfast, knowing that, as yeare partakers "of the fufferings, fo fhall ye be alfo of the "confolation. For we would not, brethren, "have you ignorant of our trouble which

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came to us in Afia, that we were preffed

out of measure, above ftrength, info"much that we defpaired even of life; but we had the fentence of death in ourselves, "that we should not truft in ourselves, but

"in God which raises the dead, who deli"vered us from so great a death, and doth "deliver; in whom we truft that he will

yet deliver us." Nothing could be more expreffive of the circumstances in which the history describes St. Paul to have been, at the time when the epistle purports to be written; or rather, nothing could be more expreffive of the sensations arising from these circumstances, than this paffage. It is the calm recollection of a mind emerged from the confusion of instant danger. It is that devotion and folemnity of thought, which fol- . lows a recent deliverance. There is just enough of particularity in the paffage, to fhew that it is to be referred to the tumult at Ephefus: "We would not, brethren, have

you ignorant of our trouble which came "to us in Afia." And there is nothing more; no mention of Demetrius, of the feizure of St. Paul's friends, of the interference of the town-clerk, of the occafion or nature of the danger which St. Paul had efcaped, or even of the city where it happened; in a word, no recital from which a fufpicion could be conceived, either that the author of the

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epistle

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epiftle had made ufe of the narrative in the Acs; or on the other hand, that he had sketched the outline, which the narrative in the Acts only filled up. That the forger of an epiftle, under the name of St. Paul, should borrow circumftances from a history of St. Paul then extant; or, that the author of a history of St. Paul should gather materials from letters bearing St. Paul's name, may be credited: but I cannot believe that any forger whatever fhould fall upon an expedient fo refined, as to exhibit fentiments adapted to a fituation, and to leave his readers to feek out that fituation from the history; ftill less, that the author of a history should go about to frame facts and circumftances, fitted to fupply the fentiments which he found in the letter. It may be faid, perhaps, that it does not appear from the history, that any danger threatened St. Paul's life in the uproar at Ephefus, fo imminent as that, from which in the epistle he represents himself to have been delivered. This matter, it is true, is not stated by the hiftorian in form; but the perfonal danger of the apostle, we cannot doubt must have been extreme, when the "whole

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"whole city was filled with confufion;" when the populace had" feized his companions;" when, in the distraction of his mind, he infifted upon "coming forth amongst them;" when the Chriftians who were about him "would not fuffer

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him;" when his friends, certain of "the chief of Afia, fent to him, defiring

that he would not adventure himself "in the tumult ;" when, laftly, he was obliged to quit immediately the place and. the country, "and, when the tumult was

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ceafed, to depart into Macedonia." All which particulars are found in the narration, and juftify St. Paul's own account, "that: "he was preffed out of measure, above ftrength, infomuch that he defpaired

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even of life, that he had the sentence of "death in himself;" i. e. that he looked upon himself as a man condemned to die.

No. IV.

It has already been remarked, that St.. : Paul's original intention was to have visited Corinth in his way to Macedonia: "I was "minded to come unto you before, and to pafs by you into Macedonia" (2. Cor. chap.

chap.i. ver. 15, 16). It has also been remarked that he changed this intention, and ultimately refolved upon going through Macedonia firft. Now upon this head there exifts a circumftance of correfpondency between our epiftle and the hiftory, which is not very obvious to the reader's obfervation; but which, when obferved, will be found, think, clofe and exact. Which circumftance is this: that though the change of St. Paul's intention be exprefsly mentioned only in the fecond epiftle, yet it appears, both from the history and from this fecond epistle, that the change had taken place before the writing of the first epistle; that it appears however from neither, otherwife than by an inference, unnoticed perhaps by almost every one who does not fit down feffedly to the examination.

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First, then, how does this point appear from the history? In the nineteenth chapter of the Acts, and the twenty-firft verfe, we are told, that Paul purpofed in the fpirit, "when he had paffed through Macedonia "and Achaia, to go to Jerufalem. So he fent into Macedonia two of them that

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