obvious and prominent of the facts to be collected | Acts, ch. xviii. 5. If this was the first time of from that source of information. No. IV. Chap. iii. 1-7. "Wherefore when we could no longer forbear, we thought it good to be left at Athens abone, and sent Timotheus, our brother and minister of God, to establish you, and to comfort you concerning your faith;-but now when Timotheus came from you unto us, and brought us good tidings of your faith and charity, we were comforted over you in all our affliction and distress by your faith," their coming up with him after their separation at Berea, there is nothing to account for a delay so contrary to what appears from the history itself to have been St. Paul's plan and expectation. This is a conformity of a peculiar species. The epistle discloses a fact which is not preserved in the history; but which makes what is said in the history more significant, probable, and consistent. The history bears marks of an omission; the epistle by reference furnishes a circumstance which supplies that omission. No. V. Chap. ii. 14. "For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judea are in Christ Jesus; for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews." The history relates, that when Paul came out of Macedonia to Athens, Silas and Timothy staid behind at Berea: "The brethren sent away Paul to go as it were to the sea; but Silas and Timotheus abode there still; and they that conducted Paul brought him to Athens," Acts, ch. xvii. 14, 15. The history farther relates, that after To a reader of the Acts of the Apostles, it Paul had tarried some time at Athens, and had might seem, at first sight, that the persecutions proceeded from thence to Corinth, whilst he was which the preachers and converts of Christianity exercising his ministry in that city, Silas and underwent, were suffered at the hands of their old Timothy came to him from Macedonia, Acts, adversaries the Jews. But if we attend carefully ch. xviii. 5. But to reconcile the history with the to the accounts there delivered, we shall observe, clause in the epistle, which makes St. Paul say, that, though the opposition made to the Gospel "I thought it good to be left at Athens alone, and usually originated from the enmity of the Jews, to send Timothy unto you," it is necessary to sup-yet in almost all places the Jews went about to pose that Timothy had come up with St. Paul at Athens; a circumstance which the history does not mention. I remark, therefore, that although the history does not expressly notice this arrival, yet it contains intimations which render it extremely probable that the fact took place. First, as soon as Paul had reached Athens, he sent a message back to Silas and Timothy "for to come to him with all speed," Acts, ch. xvii. 15. Secondly, his stay at Athens was on purpose that they might join him there: "Now whilst Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him," Acts, ch. xvii. 16. Thirdly, his departure from Athens does not appear to have been in any sort hastened or abrupt. It is said, "After these things," viz. his disputation with the Jews, his conferences with the philosophers, his discourse at Areopagus, and the gaining of some converts, "he departed from Athens and came to Corinth." It is not hinted that he quitted Athens before the time that he had intended to leave it; it is not suggested that he was driven from thence, as he was from many cities, by tumults or persecutions, or because his life was no longer safe. Observe then the particulars which the history does notice that Paul had ordered Timothy to follow him without delay, that he waited at Athens on purpose that Timothy might come up with him, that he staid there as long as his own choice led him to continue. Laying these circumstances which the history does disclose together, it is highly probable that Timothy came to the apostle at Athens, a fact which the epistle, we have seen, virtually asserts when it makes Paul send Timothy back from Athens to Thessalonica. The sending back of Timothy into Macedonia accounts also for his not coming to Corinth till after Paul had been fixed in that city for some considerable time. Paul had found out Aquila and Priscilla, abode with them and wrought, being of the same craft; and reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath day, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks, Acts, ch. xviii. 1-5. All this passed at Corinth before Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, accomplish their purpose, by stirring up the Gentile inhabitants against their converted countrymen. Out of Judea they had not power to do much mischief in any other way. This was the case at Thessalonica in particular: "The Jews which believed not, moved with envy, set all the city in an uproar," Acts, ch. xvii. ver. 5. It was the same a short time afterwards at Berea: "When the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was preached of Paul at Berea, they came thither also, and stirred up the people," Acts, ch. xvii. 13. And before this our apostle had met with a like species of persecution, in his progress through the Lesser Asia: in every city "the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles, and made their minds evil-affected against the brethren," Acts, ch. xiv. 2. The epistle therefore represents the case accurately as the history states it. It was the Jews always who set on foot the persecutions against the apostles and their followers. He speaks truly therefore of them, when he says in this epistle, "they both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have persecuted us-forbidding us to speak unto the Gentiles," ii. 15, 16. But out of Judea it was at the hands of the Gentiles, it was "of their own countrymen," that the injuries they underwent were immediately sustained: Ye, have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews." No. VI. The apparent discrepancies between our epistle and the history, though of magnitude sufficient to repel the imputation of confederacy or transcription (in which view they form a part of our argument,) are neither numerous, nor very difficult to reconcile. One of these may be observed in the ninth and tenth verses of the second chapter: "For ye remember, brethren, our labour and travail; for labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the Gospel of God. Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily, and justly, and unblameably we behaved ourselves among This is the difficulty. The answer may be assisted by the following observations: The Alexandrian and Cambridge manuscripts read (for των δεδομένων Ελλήνων πολύ πλήθος) των συνομένων you that believe." A person who reads this passage is naturally led by it to suppose, that the writer had dwelt at Thessalonica for some considerable time: yet of St. Paul's ministry in that city, the history gives no other account than the Exxx #Anos in which reading they are following that he came to Thessalonica, where also confirmed by the Vulgate Latin. And this was a synagogue of the Jews: that, as his manreading is, in my opinion, strongly supported by ner was, he went in unto them, and three Sabbath the considerations, first, that .. pivo. alone, i, e. days reasoned with them out of the scriptures: without Ex, is used in this sense in the same that some of them believed, and consorted with chapter-Paul being come to Athens, Paul and Silas." The history then proceeds to secondly, that Go and EXAMS no where τη συναγωγή τοις Ιουδαίοις και τους σεβομένοις : tell us, that the Jews which believed not, set the city in an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, The ... must be 'EXAMS. Thirdly, that come together. The expression is redundant. where Paul and his companions lodged; that the the x is much more likely to have been left out consequence of this outrage was, that "the bre-incuriâ manus than to have been put in. Or thren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by after all, if we be not allowed to change the night unto Berea," Acts, ch. xvii. 1-10. From present reading, which is undoubtedly retained the mention of his preaching three Sabbath days by a great plurality of copies, may not the pas in the Jewish synagogue, and from the want of any further specification of his ministry; it has sage in the history be considered as describ usually been taken for granted that Paul did not ng only the effects of St. Paul's discourses durcontinue at Thessalonica more than three weeks.ng the three Sabbath days in which he preached in the synagogue? and may it not be true, as we This, however, is inferred without necessity. It have remarked above, that his application to the appears to have been St. Paul's practice, in al- Gentiles at large, and his success amongst them, most every place that he came to, upon his first arrival to repair to the synagogue. He thought was posterior to this? himself bound to propose the Gospel to the Jews first, agreeably to what he declared at Antioch in Pisidia: "it was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you," Acts, ch. xiii. 46. If the Jews rejected his ministry, he quitted the synagogue, and betook himself to a Gentile audience. At Corinth, upon his first coming thither, he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath; "but when the Jews opposed themselves, and blasphemed, he departed thence, expressly telling them, "from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles; and he remained in that city a year and six months," Acts, ch. xviii. 6-11. At Ephesus, in like manner, for the space of three months he went into the synagogue; but "when divers were hardened and believed not, but spake evil of that way, he departed from them and separated the disciples, disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus; and this continued by the space of two years," Acts, ch. xix. 9, 10. Upon inspecting the history, I see nothing in it which negatives the supposition, that St. Paul pursued the same plan at Thessalonica which he adopted in other places; and that though he resorted to the synagogue only three Sabbath days, yet he remained in the city, and in the exercise of his ministry amongst the Gentile citizens, much longer; and until the success of his preaching had provoked the Jews to excite the tuinult and insurrection by which he was driven away. CHAPTER X. The Second Epistle to the Thessalonians. No. I. Ir may seem odd to allege obscurity itself as an argument, or to draw a proof in favour of a writing from that which is naturally considered as the principal defect in its composition. The present epistle, however, furnishes a passage, hitherto unexplained, and probably inexplicable by us, the existence of which, under the darkness and difficulties that attend it, can be accounted for only by the supposition of the epistle being genuine and upon that supposition is accounted for with great ease. The passage which I allude to is found in the second chapter: "That day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalted himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Remember ye not that WHEN I WAS YET WITH YOU I TOLD YOU THESE THINGS? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time; for the mystery of iniquity doth already work, only he that now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the Another seeming discrepancy is found in the way; and then shall that wicked be revealed, ninth verse of the first chapter of the epistle; whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of "For they themselves show of us what manner of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned of his coming." It were superfluous to prove, to God from idols to serve the living and true because it is in vain to deny, that this passage is God." This text contains an assertion, that, by involved in great obscurity, more especially the means of St. Paul's ministry at Thessalonica, clauses distinguished by Italics. Now the obsermany idolatrous Gentiles had been brought over to vation I have to offer is founded upon this, that Christianity. Yet the history, in describing the the passage expressly refers to a conversation effects of that ministry, only says, that "some of which the author had previously holden with the the Jews believed, and of the devout Greeks a Thessalonians upon the same subject: "Rememgreat multitude, and of the chief women not aber ye not, that when I was yet with you I told few," ch. xvii. 4. The devout Greeks were those who already worshipped the one true God; and therefore could not be said, by embracing Christianity, "to be turned to God from idols." you these things? And now ye know what withholdeth." If such conversation actually passed; if, whilst "he was yet with them, he told them those things," then it follows that the epistle is authentic. And of the reality of this conversation it appears to be a proof, that what is said in the epistle might be understood by those who had been present to such conversation, and yet be incapable of being explained by any other. No man writes unintelligibly on purpose. But it may easily happen, that a part of a letter which relates to a subject, upon which the parties had conversed together before, which refers to what had been before said, which is in truth a portion or continuation of a former discourse, may be utterly without meaning to a stranger who should pick up the letter upon the road, and yet be perfectly clear to the person to whom it is directed, and with whom the previous communication had passed. And if, in a letter which thus accidentally fell into my hands, I found a passage expressly referring to a former conversation, and difficult to be explained without knowing that conversation, I should consider this very difficulty as a proof that the conversation had actually passed, and consequently that he letter contained the real correspondence of real persons. No. II. Chap. iii. 8. "Neither did we eat any man's bread for nought, but wrought with labour night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you: not because we have no power, but to make ourselves an ensample unto you to fol low." In a letter, purporting to have been written to another of the Macedonian churches, we find the following declaration: was the very same as that which the history attributes to St. Paul in a discourse, which it represents him to have addressed to the elders of the church of Ephesus: "Yea, ye yourselves also know that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me. I have showed you all things, how, that so labouring ye ought to support the weak," Acts, ch. xx. 34. The sentiment in the epistle and in the speech is in both parts of it so much alike, and yet the words which convey it show so little of imitation or even of resemblance, that the agree ment cannot well be explained without supposing the speech and the letter to have really proceeded from the same person. No. III. Our reader remembers the passage in the First Epistle to the Thessalonians, in which St. Paul spoke of the coming of Christ: "This we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive, and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them which are asleep: for the Lord himself shall descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, and so shall we be ever with the Lord. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief," 1 Thess. iv. 15—17, and ch. v. 4. It should seem that the Thessalonians, or some however amongst them, had from this passage conceived an opinion (and that not very unnaturally) that the coming of Christ was to take place instantly, ότι ενίστηκεν ; * and that this persuasion had produced, as it well might, much agitation in the church. The apostle therefore now writes, amongst other purposes, tion that had been put upon his words:-"Now to quiet this alarm, and to rectify the misconstrucThe conformity between these two passages is we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our strong and plain. They confine the transaction Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together to the same period. The Epistle to the Philip unto him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or pians refers to what passed "in the beginning of be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by the Gospel," that, is to say, during the first preach-letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at ing of the Gospel on that side of the Egean sea. The Epistle to the Thessalonians speaks of the apostle's conduct in that city upon "his first entrance in unto them," which the history informs us was in the course of his first visit to the penin "Now, ye Philippians, know also that in the beginning of the Gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving but ye only." sula of Greece. As St. Paul tells the Philippians, "that no church communicated with him, as concerning giving and receiving, but they only," he could not, consistently with the truth of this declaration, have received any thing from the neighbouring church of Thessalonica. What thus appears by general implication in an epistle to another church, when he writes to the Thessalonians themselves, is noticed expressly and particularly; "neither did we eat any man's bread for nought, but wrought right and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you." The texts here cited further also exhibit a mark of conformity with what St. Paul is made to say of himself in the Acts of the Apostles. The apostle not only reminds the Thessalonians that he had not been chargeable to any of them, but he states likewise the motive which dictated this reserve: "not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an ensample unto you to follow us," ch. iii. 9. This conduct, and, what is much more precise, the end which he had in view by it, hand." If the allusion which we contend for be admitted, namely, if it be admitted, that the passage in the second epistle relates to the passage in the first, amounts to a considerable proof of the genuineness of both epistles. I have no conception, because I know no example, of such a device in a forgery, as first to frame an ambiguous passage in a letter, then to represent the persons to whom the letter is addressed as mistaking the meaning of the passage, and lastly, to write a second letter in order to correct this mistake. I have said that this argument arises out of the text, if the allusion be admitted; for I am not ignorant that many expositors understand the passage in the second epistle, as referring to some forged letters, which had been produced in St. Paul's name, and in which the apostle had been made to say that the coming of Christ was then at hand. In defence, however, of the explanation which we propose, the reader is desired to observe, 1. The strong fact, that there exists a passage in the first epistle, to which that in the second is capable of being referred, i. e. which accounts for the error the writer is solicitous to remove. no other epistle than the second been extant, and Had * OTI EVERTHREv, nempe hoc anno, says Grotius, verTXIV his dicitur de re præsenti, ut Rom. viii. 38. 1 Cor. iii. 22. Gal. i. 4. Heb. ix. 9. 216 had it under these circumstances come to be con- | sidered, whether the text before us related to a forged epistle or to some misconstruction of a true one, many conjectures and many probabilities might have been admitted in the inquiry, which can have little weight when an epistle is produced, containing the very sort of passage we were seeking, that is, a passage liable to the misinterpretation which the apostle protests against. 2. That the clause which introduces the passage in the second epistle bears a particular affinity to what is found in the passage cited from the first epistle. The clause is this: "We beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him." Now, in the first epistle, the description of the coming of Christ is accompanied with the mention of this very circumstance of his saints being collected round him. "The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air," 1 Thess. chap. iv. 16, 17. This I suppose to be the ""gathering together unto him" intended in the second epistle: and that the author, when he used these words, retained in his thoughts what he had written on the subject before. went into Macedonia," it is evident that this epis tle was written soon after St. Paul had gone to Macedonia from Ephesus. Dr. Benson fixes its date to the time of St. Paul's journey recorded in the beginning of the twentieth chapter of the Acts: "And after the uproar (excited by Demetrius at Ephesus) was ceased, Paul called unto him the disciples, and embraced them, and departed for to Benson is followed by Michaelis, as he was prego into Macedonia." And in this opinion Dr. ceded by the greater part of the commentators who have considered the question. There is, however, one objection to the hypothesis, which these learned men appear to me to have overlooked; and it is no other than this, that the superscription of the Second Epistle to the Corinthians seems to prove, that at the time St. Paul is supposed by them to have written this epistle to Timothy, Timothy in truth was with St. Paul in Macedonia. Paul, as it is related in the Acts, left Ephesus "for to go into Macedonia." When he had got into Macedonia, he wrote his Second Epistle to the Corinthians. Concerning this point there exists little variety of opinion. It is plainly indicated by the contents of the epistle. It is also strongly implied that the epistle was written soon after the apostle's arrival in Macedonia; for he begins his letter by a train of reflection, referring to his persecutions in which he had lately been delivered. But in the Asia as to recent transactions, as to dangers from salutation with which the epistle opens, Timothy was joined with St. Paul, and consequently could not at that time be "left behind at Ephesus." And as to the only solution of the difficulty which can be thought of, viz. that Timothy, though he was left behind at Ephesus upon St. Paul's de parture from Asia, yet might follow him so soon after, as to come up with the apostle in Macedonia, before he wrote his Epistle to the Corinthians; 4. The words in the original, as far as they are tenor of the epistle throughout. For the writer that supposition is inconsistent with the terms and material to be stated, are these: I TO MY TAXING ON. speaks uniformly of his intention to return to λευθήναι υμας από του νόος, μήτε θροεισθαι, μητε δια πνευ. Timothy at Ephesus, and not of his expecting ματος, μητε δια λόγου, μήτε δε επιστολης, ως δε ημων, ως Timothy to come to him in Macedonia: “ These OTO SVETRNEY N MAINE TOU XPTO. Under the weight things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee of the preceding observations, may not the words shortly; but if I tarry long, that thou mayest know μητε δια λόγου, μητε δε επιστολής, ως δε ήμων, be con- how thou oughtest to behave thyself” ch. ii. 14, strued to signify quasi nos quid tale aut dixeri- 15. mus aut scripserimus, intimating that their words had been mistaken, and that they had in truth said or written no such thing? 3. The second epistle is written in the joint name of Paul, Silvanus, and Timotheus, and it cautions the Thessalonians against being misled "by letter as from us" (w div.) Do not these words,, appropriate the reference to some writing which bore the name of these three teachers? Now this circumstance, which is a very close one, belongs to the epistle at present in our hands; for the epistle which we call the First Epistle to the Thessalonians contains these names in its superscription. CHAPTER XI. The First Epistle to Timothy. FROM the third verse of the first chapter, "as I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus when I 66 exhortation, to doctrine," ch. iv. 13. Since, therefore, the leaving of Timothy behind at Ephesus, when Paul went into Macedonia, suits not with any journey into Macedonia, recorded in the Acts, I concur with Bishop Pearson, in placing the date of this epistle, and the journey referred to in it, at a period subsequent to St. quently subsequent to the æra up to which the Paul's first imprisonment at Rome, and conseActs of the Apostles brings his history. The St. Paul must, according to us, have come to Ephesus after his liberation at Rome, contrary as it only difficulty which attends our opinion is, that should seem, to what he foretold to the Ephesian elders, "that they should see his face no more." And it is to save the infallibility of this prediction, and for no other reason of weight, that an earlier date is assigned to this epistle. The prediction *Should a contrary interpretation be preferred, I do not think that it implies the conclusion that a false epistle had then been published in the apostle's name. It will completely satisfy the allusion in the text to allow, that some one or other at Thessalonica had pretended to have been told by St. Paul and his companions, or to have seen a letter from them, in which they had said, that the day of Christ was at hand. In like manner as, Acts, xv. 1, 24, it is recorded that some had pretended to have received instructions from the church at Jerusa-itself, however, when considered in connexion lem, which had been received, " to whom they gave no such commandment." And thus Dr. Benson interpreted the passagers SpoTION, ANTE SIN VERMATOS, MT Six AngOU, MATS SE STIGTAS, dv, "nor be dismayed by any revelation, or discourse, or epistle, which any One shall pretend to have heard or received from us." with the circumstances under which it was delivered, does not seem to demand so much anxiety. The words in question are found in the twentyfifth verse of the twentieth chapter of the Acts: "And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more." In the twenty-second. and twenty-third verses of the same chapter, i. e. two verses before, the apostle makes this declaration: "And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there: save that the Holy Ghost witness eth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me." This "witnessing of the Holy Ghost" was undoubtedly prophetic and supernatural. But it went no farther than to foretell that bonds and afflictions awaited him. And 1 can very well conceive, that this might be all which was communicated to the apostle by extraordinary revelation, and that the rest was the conclusion of his own mind, the desponding inference which he drew from strong and repeated intimations of approach ing danger. And the expression " I know," which St. Paul here uses, does not, perhaps, when ap plied to future events affecting himself, convey an assertion so positive and absolute as we may at first sight apprehend. In the first chapter of the Epistle to the Philippians, and the twenty-fifth verse, "I know." says he, "that I shall abide and continue with you all, for your furtherance and joy of faith." Notwithstanding this strong declaration, in the second chapter and twenty-third verse of this same epistie, and speaking also of the very same event, he is content to use a language of some doubt and uncertainty: "Him therefore 1. hope to send presently, so soon as I shall see how it will go with me. But I trust in the Lord that I also myself shall come shortly." And a few verses preceding these, he not only seems to doubt of his safety, but almost to despair; to contemplate the possibility at least of his condemnation and martyrdom: "Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all." No. I. No. II. Chap. v. 9. "Let not a widow be taken into the number under threescore years old." This accords with the account delivered in the sixth chapter of the Acts. And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration." It appears that, from the first formation of the Christian church, provision was made out of the public funds of the society for the indigent widows who belonged to it. The history, we have seen, distinctly records the existence of such an institution at Jerusalem, a few years after our Lord's ascension; and is led to the mention of it very incidentally, viz. by a dispute, of which it was the occasion, and which produced important consequences to the Christian community. The epistle, without being suspected of borrowing from the history, refers, briefly indeed, but decisively, to a similar establishment, subsisting some years afterwards at Ephesus. This agreement indicates, that both writings were founded upon real circumstances. Now this is But, in this article, the material thing to be noticed is the mode of expression: "Let not a widow be taken into the number."-No previous account or explanation is given, to which these words, into the number," can refer; but the direction comes concisely and unpreparedly. "Let not a widow be taken into the number." the way in which a man writes, who is conscious that he is writing to persons already acquainted with the subject of his letter; and who, he knows, will readily apprehend and apply what he says by virtue of their being so acquainted: but it is not the way in which a man writes upon any other occasion; and least of all, in which a man would draw up a feigned letter, or introduce a suppositious fact.* Chapter iii. 2, 3. No. III. "A bishop then must be But can we show that St. Paul visited Ephesus after his liberation at Rome? or rather, can we collect any hints from his other letters which make it probable that he did? If we can, then we have a coincidence. If we cannot, we have only an *It is not altogether unconnected with our general unauthorised supposition, to which the exigency purpose to remark, in the passage before us, the selection of the case compels us to resort. Now, for this and reserve which St. Paul recommends to the gover purpose, let us examine the Epistle to the Philip. nors of the church of Ephesus in the bestowing relief upon the poor, because it refutes a calumny which has pians and the Epistle to Philemon. These two been insinuated, that the liberality of the first Christians was an artifice to catch converts; or one of the temptaepistles purport to be written whilst St. Paul was yet a prisoner at Rome. To the Philippians he tions, however, by which the idle and mendicant were writes as follows: "I trust in the Lord that I also drawn into this society: "Let not a widow be taken into the number under threescore years old, having been myself shall come shortly." To Philemon, who the wife of one man, well reported of for good works; was a Colossian, he gives this direction: "But if she have brought up children, if she have lodged withal, prepare me also a lodging, for I trust that strangers, if she have washed the saints' feet, if she have through your prayers I shall be given unto you." relieved the afflicted, if she have diligently followed An inspection of the map will show us that Co- every good work. But the younger widows refuse," v. 9, 10, 11. And in another place, "If any man or losse was a city of the Lesser Asia, lying eastward, woman that believeth have widows, let them relieve and at no great distance from Ephesus. Philippi them, and let not the church be charged; that it may was on the other, i. e. the western side of the relieve them that are widows indeed." And to the same effect, or rather more to our present purpose, the apostle Egean sea. If the apostle executed his purpose; writes in the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians: if, in pursuance of the intention expressed in his "Even when we were with you, this we commanded letter to Philemon, he came to Colosse soon after you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat," he was set at liberty at Rome, it is very improba-i. e. at the public expense. "For we hear that there are ble that he would omit to visit Ephesus, which lay so near to it, and where he had spent three years of his ministry. As he was also under a promise to the church of Philippi to see them "shortly;" if he passed from Colosse to Philippi, or from Philippi to Colosse, he could hardly avoid taking Ephesus in his way. some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busy bodies. Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread." Could a designing or dissolute poor take advantage of bounty regulated with so much caution; or could the mind which dictated those sober and prudent directions be influenced in his recommendations of public charity by any other than the properest motives of beneficence? 19 |