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Epistle to the Romans. Another observation of Kuinoel's is, that if the Luke mentioned in Coloss. iv. 14, had been the Lucius, who was a kinsman of the Apostle, St. Paul would have described him as his relation, rather than under the designation of " the beloved physician." But I can perceive no reason why he should have preferred this description to the other it is probable that the Colossians would know St. Luke in his character of a physician, quite as well as by his relationship to St. Paul; which was not the case with the Romans; for when the Apostle wrote his Epistle to them, Luke had probably never been at Rome, and, therefore, had never exercised his art among them.

That St. Luke took a part in the work of teaching, may be inferred, though not conclusively, from the manner in which he speaks of himself in conjunction with St. Paul, ver. 13, "We sat down, and spake unto the women which resorted thither." He mentions in chap. xi. 20, that some of them which first preached the word in Antioch " were men of Cyprus and Cyrene;" and this, as Mr. Blunt has well observed, may have been the reason why Barnabas, himself a Cypriote, was selected by the Apostles to visit Antioch, and make inquiry into the state of the Church there. Of the teachers from Cyrene, Lucius was one, and perhaps the only one.

P. 169. In an oratory by the river side.] Although this interpretation has been learnedly defended by Joseph Mede and others, I am not sure whether our received version be not more correct, if by prayer we understand congregational prayer.

P. 191.

The transition of the disembodied spirit, &c.] "Non irrisuri omnino, si animi solius restitutionem ab eo audissent: suscepissent enim vernaculæ suæ philosophiæ

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præsumtionem." Tertull. de Resurr. Carnis, c. 39. See Knappii Scripta p. 350.

The reader is referred to the masterly analysis of this discourse of St. Paul contained in Dr. Bentley's Boyle Lectures.

P. 195. Το an unknown God.] ἀγνώστῳ Θεῷ, not τῷ dyvwory DeŸ. See Kuinoel on Acts xvii. 28.

P. 198.

Certain also of your own poets.] i. e. Grecian poets; not Athenian. The hemistich, τοῦ γὰρ καὶ γένος éoμév, is extant in the Phænomena of Aratus, a Cilician poet, v. 5. Nearly the same words occur in the Hymn to Jove, ascribed to Cleanthes, the Stoic philosopher, a native of Lycia, but the successor of Zeno in the Athenian Portico, ἐκ σοῦ γὰρ γένος ἐσμέν. It has been disputed, to which of the two poets St. Paul referred. The question seems to be easily settled, by observing that the Apostle quotes the words of Aratus, not those of Cleanthes. I think it very doubtful whether that admired hymn, which goes under the name of the Stoic philosopher, be not the forgery of a later age.

P. 243. Some of the imperial household.] Josephus relates (xx. 7.) that Poppaa Sabina, the wife of Nero, greatly favoured and protected the Jews at Rome; and as he terms her Oɛoreßns, Jablonski (Opusc. T. III. p. 294) conjectures that she was a proselyte; and that although she did no credit by her conduct to the religion which she had embraced, she might have interested herself with Nero in behalf of Paul, who was, perhaps, recommended to her by the believing Jews. There is, however, no ground for supposing that she herself became a Christian.

P. 243. visited these islands.] This opinion is maintained by Archbishop Usher, in his Britannicarum Ecclesiarum

Antiquitates, p. 4; by Bishop Stillingfleet, in his work on the same subject; and by the present learned Bishop of Salisbury. Jablonski (Opusc. T. III. p. 301) says that it is destitute of all probability. Le Clerc says, that it is chronologically impossible. The reader will find all that is to be said on this subject, in the works above referred to, in the Introduction to Spelman's Concilia; Dr. Hammond's Works, Vol. II. p. 102, and at the end, p. 215; Richardson's Prælectiones Ecclesiasticæ, T. I. & II. The earliest writer who distinctly mentions St. Paul's visit to Britain is Venantius Fortunatus, who lived in the sixth century.

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A

BRIEF AND DISPASSIONATE VIEW

OF THE

DIFFICULTIES

ATTENDING THE

TRINITARIAN, ARIAN, AND SOCINIAN SYSTEMS.

BY

JOSIAH TUCKER, D. D.

DEAN OF GLOUCESTER.

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