inconsistency can be found in what he had said on this matter. And he could call God to witness, that no inconsistency could be found in his manner of publishing the gospel, that he had always preached one unchangeable doctrine of Christ, and the promises which they received would be certainly fulfilled through Christ.1 God himself had given them as well as him the certain pledge of this, by the common witness of the Holy Spirit in their hearts; (2 Cor. i. 16-22.)

The duty of vindicating his apostolic character against the accusations of his opponents, forced him to speak much of himself. The palpably evident object of his doing this, and the distinction which he was always careful to make between the divine power connected with his apostolic functions, and the person of a feeble mortal, between the "man in Christ" and the weak Paul, sufficiently acquitted him of the charge of self-conceit and vain-glory. To common men, who would measure everything by the same measure, many things might seem strange in Paul's manner of speaking of himself and his ministry, so that they were ready to accuse him of extravagance, of a self-exaltation bordering on insanity. But what impelled him to speak in such strong terms, was not personal feeling, but the inspired consciousness of the divine power attached to the gospel and to his apostolic calling, which would triumph over all opposition. Thus the fact of his "not being able to do anything of himself" redounded in his view to the glory of God.

Paul spent the rest of the summer and autumn in Macedonia; he probably extended his labours to the neighbouring country of Illyria,3 and then removed to Achaia, where he spent the winter.

Therefore independently of the law of which his adversaries pre scribed the observance.

2 To this the passage in 2 Cor. v. 13 refers. "For whether we be beside ourselves, (the inspiration with which the apostle spake of the divine objects of his calling, of what the power of God effected through his apostolic office-but which his adversaries treated as empty boasting, and ascribed to an ἀφροσύνη or μανία) it is to the glory of God; or whether we be sober (when the apostle speaks of himself as a weak mortal, puts himself on a level with the Corinthians, and makes no use of its apostolic power and its privileges) it is for your welfare."

3 In 2 Cor. x. 14-16, Paul seems to mark Achaia as the extreme limit of his labours in preaching the gospel; (this indeed does not follow from the ἄχρι καὶ ὑμῶν, since ἄχρι in itself does not denote

Since he was now resolved, after his return from the journey to Jerusalem, which he proposed undertaking at the beginning of the spring, to change the scene of his labours to the West, and to visit the metropolis of the Roman empire for the first time, he must have been gratified to form a connexion previously with the church in that city. The journey of Phoebe, the deaconness of the church at Cenchræa, who had been induced by various circumstances to visit Rome, gave him the best opportunity for this purpose, while, at the same time, he recommended her to the care of the Roman church.'

a fixed or exclusive limit, see Rom. v. 13, though Paul sometimes uses the word in this latter meaning, Gal. iii. 19; iv. 2; yet it appears to proceed from the comparison of the three verses in connexion); on the other in Rom. xv. 19, Illyria is thus marked. But it does not follow from this last passage, that Paul himself had preached the gospel in Illyria; possibly he only mentioned this as the extreme limit as far as which he had reached in preaching the gospel.

It is here taken for granted, that the 16th chapter belongs with the whole of the Epistle to the Romans, which in modern times has been disputed by Schulz in the Studien und Kritiken, vol. ii. p. 609; but, as it appears to me, on insufficient grounds. It may excite surprise that Paul should salute so many individuals in a church to which he was personally a stranger, and that we find among them relations and old friends of the apostle from Palestine, and other parts of the East. But we must recollect, that Rome was always the rendezvous of persons from all parts of the Roman empire, a fact stated by Athenæus in the strongest terms, Deipnosoph. i. 20, τὴν Ῥωμαίων πόλιν ἐπιτομὴν τῆς οἰκουμένης, ἐν ᾗ συνιδεῖν ἐστιν πάσας τὰς πόλεις ἱδρυμένας, (such as Alexandria, Antioch, Nicomedia, and Athens)-kal yàp öλa тà čovn å◊póws αὐτόθι συνώκισται. Paul might easily become personally acquainted at Ephesus and Corinth with many Christians from Rome, or learn particulars respecting them. Among those whom he salutes were persons of the family of Narcissus, who was well known to be a freed-man of the Emperor Claudius. That Aquila and Priscilla were again in Rome, that a part of the church assembled in their house, and that a number of years afterwards, as may be inferred from the 2d Epistle to Timothy, they are to be found at Ephesus,-all this, from what we have before remarked, is not so surprising. The warning against the Judaizing teachers, xvi. 17, who published another doctrine than what they had received (from the disciples of the apostle), agrees perfectly with what is said in the 14th chapter, and with what we may infer from the epistle itself, in reference to the state of the Roman church. The passage in xvi. 19 agrees also with i. 8, and the comparison confirms the belief that they both belong to the same epistle. Bauer, in his essay before quoted, has endeavoured to prove the spuriousness of the two last chapters. He believes that, in the 15th chapter especially, he can trace a later writer attached to Pauline principles, who thought that, in order to justify Paul, and to bring about a union between the Jewish and Gentile

Still the objection may be urged, Titus must at all events, as a messenger from Paul, have brought with him an epistle to Corinth; and if Paul quotes a letter without marking it more precisely, we can understand by it no other than the last, and therefore the one brought by Titus. But if he sent Titus after Timothy's return, and soon after he had despatched his first Epistle to the Corinthian church, we may more readily presume that he would not think it necessary to send a long epistle at the same time, but perhaps give him only a few lines in which he intimated that Titus was to supply the place of Timothy, who was not able to come to them himself.1 said to Titus in your praise, I have not been put to shame; but as I have spoken to you all according to truth, so also this has been proved to be true.

1 A difficulty is here presented, from the manner in which Paul mentions the sending Titus in the Second Epistle to the Corinthians. 2 Cor. viii. 6, compared with v. 16, and ix. 3; xii. 18. Billroth and Rückert (who does not however assent to all the reasons alleged by the former) have hence concluded, that the sending of Titus was by no means after the despatch of that first epistle, but took place long before, and that the arrangement of the collection was the object of his visit. But Titus would be still at Corinth when that letter arrived, and hence could communicate to Paul respecting the effect it produced. Perhaps Titus was the bearer of the first lost epistle to the Corinthian church. Hence it may be explained, why Paul could consider his second epistle (the first now extant) as his last written epistle, and quote it without any further designation. But if this had been the case, we must necessarily look for an express mention of Titus in our first epistle; and since none such occurs, we must either assume that the sending of Titus mentioned in the second epistle, is the same as that which we have spoken of in the text, or if we consider it as different, it occurred much earlier, so that Titus, when Paul wrote his first Epistle to the Corinthians, must have been a long while returned to them. And for this latter assumption, it may be urged, that at that first sending a companion of Titus is mentioned; and, on the other hand, when Paul mentions his meeting with Titus in Macedonia, no one else appears; not that this is a decisive proof, because Titus alone might be mentioned as being the principal person. But, on the contrary, when Paul states that he boasted of the Corinthian church to Titus, it seems implied (if not absolutely necessary) that this church was not personally known to him. If we are disposed to assume, that this mission of Titus was the same as that mentioned in the first epistle, the chronological order of events would not oppose this supposition. But first, there is the question, whether Paul reckoned the year according to the Roman, Greek, or Jewish Calendar; in the last case, he might mention the sending of Titus as having taken place in the preceding year, if it was before Easter; in the second, if it was after Easter, and if he wrote this epistle in autumn. But it is not at all necessary to assume that the

2

But after the sending of Titus, a violent popular tumult arose at Ephesus against the apostle, which was nevertheless an evidence of the great success of his ministry in Lesser Asia. Small models in gold and silver of the famed temple of Artemis were used to be made,' which being sent to distant parts as an object of devotion, brought great gain to the city. A man named Demetrius, who had a large manufactory of such models, and a great number of workmen, began to fear, since the gospel had spread with such success in Lesser Asia, and faith in Artemis had so far declined as to lessen the sale of his wares in this region, that the gains of his trade would soon be lost. He assembled his numerous workmen, and easily inflamed their anger against the enemies of their gods, who threatened to deprive the great Artemis of her honour, and them of their gain. A great tumult arose, they all hastened to the public place where they were wont to assemble, and many cried out, some one thing, some another, without knowing why they were come together. As the Jews here lived in the midst of a numerous Greek population who viewed them with constant aversion, any special occasion easily roused their slumbering prejudices into open violence, and they had then much to suffer: they feared therefore, that the anger of the people against the enemies of their godsespecially as many did not know who these enemies were exactly would be turned upon themselves; and one of their number, Alexander by name, came forward, in order to shift the blame from themselves upon the Christians; but the sending away of Titus was in the preceding year; for it might be the case that the Corinthian church had begun the collection, before Titus had proposed it to them. Nor ought it to excite our surprise, that Paul mentions only one object for which he sent Titus, the arrangement of the collection; for he might be sent for this purpose, and at the same time, to obtain information for Paul respecting the state of the Corinthian church, and the effect produced by his epistle. But as he was writing respecting the collection, he had no occasion to advert to another topic.

The words of Paul, Acts xx. 19, perhaps intimate that this popular disturbance proceeded from the machinations of the Jews, though it afterwards threatened to be dangerous to the Jews themselves.

* It is possible, that the successful ministry of Paul already threatened the destruction of idolatry, though after the first successful propagation of the gospel, a pause in its progress intervened, similar to what has often occurred. Compare Pliny's account of the decline of heathenism, in my Church History, vol. i. p. 140.

appearance of such a person whom they ranked among these enemies, aroused the heathen to still greater fury, and the clamour became more violent. But on this occasion only the populace appear to have been hostile to the teachers of Christianity; the manner in which Paul had lived and acted during his long residence in the city must have operated advantageously on the public authorities of the city. Some even of the magistrates who were placed this year at the head of regulating all the sacra in Lesser Asia,' and presided over the public games, showed their sympathy for him, for when he was on the point of exposing himself to the excited crowd, they besought him not to incur this danger. And the chamberlain of the city at last succeeded in calming the minds of the people by his representations-by calling on them to give an account of the object of their meeting-of which the majority were totally ignorant-and by reminding them of the serious responsibility they incurred for their turbulent and illegal behaviour.

It is very doubtful whether Paul was determined by this disturbance, which seems to have been quite transitory, to leave Ephesus earlier than he had intended according to his original plan. When he wrote his first letter to the Corinthians, he spoke to them of the dangers which daily threatened him, and yet these had no influence in determining the length of his sojourn in this city. Perhaps we may find several allusions to this new disturbance." A comparison of the

1 Ασιάρχαι : each of the cities which formed the Κοινὸν τῆς Ασίας chose a delegate yearly for this college of 'Aoiáρxai. See Aristid. Orat. Sacr. iv. ed. Dindorf. vol. i. p. 531; and probably the president of this college would be called ἀρχιερεὺς, ἀσιάρχης ; his name was employed in marking the date of public events; see the Letter of the Church at Smyrna, on the martyrdom of Polycarp; and Ezechiel Spanheim, de Præstantia et Usu Numismatum, ed. secunda, p. 691.

2 He says, 1 Cor. xv. 31, that he was daily exposed to death, which may lead us to conclude, that when Paul had reached the end of this epistle, (which was probably not written all at once,) this disturbance had taken place. Thus we may take the words in v. 32, kaтà àvepú πινον λογισμὸν θηρίων ἐγενόμην βορὰ ἀλλὰ παραδόξως ἐσώθην, with Theodoret, in a literal sense, namely, that it was demanded by the raging populace, as afterwards was often the case in the persecutions of the Christians, that the enemy of the gods should be condemned ad bestias ad leonem. But though such a cry might be raised by the infuriated multitude, it is very difficult to suppose, considering the existing cir cumstances, that their desire would be granted, and Paul therefore