APPENDIX D. pp. 62, 63.

On ACTS xix. 22. xx. 1, 2, &c.

The developement promised, H. P. 40, 1., of the transactions, &c. connected with the two Epistles to the Corinthians.

ss. 1, 2. As far as Timothy is concerned; and in s. 1. of Apollos.

s. 3. Of Titus, more particularly.

s. 4. Of that benevolent contribution of the Gentile

Christians.

s. 5. On the apostle's retrospect of his labours and sufferings.

s. 6. Original argument against the early date of the Epistle, 1 TIMOTHY.

This epistle, 1 COR., was written by St. Paul from Ephesus, H. P. 36.: and the principal circumstances connected with its history and with that of 2 COR., such as are necessary to make the narrative more clearly understood, may be stated thus, with as much brevity as those circumstances, themselves somewhat complex, will permit.

s. 1. After St. Paul's first visit to Corinth, p. 47., and his residence there for a year and a half, the history brings him, and after no very long interval, the

second time to Ephesus, A. xix. 1.: and as he then continued in that city for the space of three years, A. xx. 31. or thereabouts, opportunities of intercourse with the church of Corinth must have frequently occurred. Accordingly we find that some of the Corinthian converts, distressed by matters of scandal which had arisen after St. Paul's sojourn among them, agreed to appeal to the apostle at Ephesus, and for that purpose to consult him by a letter, conveyed apparently, 1 Cor. xvi. 17., through the hands of Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus.

To this public letter St. Paul writes in 1 COR. an explicit answer: but having received private intelligence, H. P. 34, 5., of other abuses and disorders, he delivers his judgment, i. 11., v. 1., xi. 18., very fully on those matters also. And the epistle in which all this and much more is accomplished, he seems to have sent to Corinth by the persons commissioned to him in the first instance.

About the same time that the letter from Corinth was received by the apostle, we may suppose that APOLLOS (of whom our earliest account is very distinct, A. xviii. 24...28.), "displeased with the faction" in Corinth, "which had spread under his name," went over to Ephesus for the satisfaction of conferring in person with St. Paul; to whom he then for the first time became personally known. And the depth of that feeling under which he sought the conference, may be estimated by his disinclination, his refusal indeed, to go back to Corinth along with the messengers, though, greatly desired," 1 C. xvi. 12., so to do by the apostle himself. No schism in the peace and unity of the church of Christ should be laid to his charge.

After this period, no further mention (and never as at Corinth again) occurs of Apollos, till, in the Epistle

to TITUS iii. 13., we find his name as a Christian minister under the direction of St. Paul; with the request to Titus, that he should be forwarded from Crete, on some journey, to Jerusalem not improbably, in company with Zenas the lawyer.

s. 2. Before St. Paul wrote this epistle, 1 CoR., he had dispatched TIMOTHY from Ephesus, A. xix. 22., together with Erastus who belonged to Corinth, on a journey (probably by Troas) into Macedonia, to prepare the way for his visiting the churches of that country.

From Macedonia, Timothy had instructions, 1 C. iv. 17., xvi. 10., to proceed onwards to Corinth; where, however, it was clearly not expected by St. Paul, that he could arrive till some time after the epistle, 1 COR., had been received.

Now on the fair probabilities before the mind of St. Paul in the actual situation of things when he wrote that epistle, he had formed a calculation which would allow Timothy, after passing through Macedonia, both to visit the church of Corinth on his way back, and from thence even to be forwarded to Ephesus, in time it might be to reach Paul with tidings from Corinth, before the day of Pentecost, 1 C. xvi. 8., the limit then marked for his stay in that city.

Every thing, however, seems to have turned out in the event far otherwise than the apostle, with apparent reason at the time, had calculated. The riot in the theatre at Ephesus, A. xix. 23., after 1 COR. was written, beyond a doubt occasioned, A. xx. 1., his premature departure for Macedonia. And when on his route thither he had reached Troas, sooner of course than he originally intended, not finding Titus there, 2 C. ii. 12, 13., with tidings from the church of Corinth, "I had no rest in my spirit," he tells us; and his impatience was

so great, that he hurried away at once into Macedonia as hoping there to meet Titus.

At Philippi (no other place so probable) Titus happily, 2C. vii. 6., came to him: and in that city, we may reasonably suppose, that Paul, having with successful expedition arrived there, overtook Timothy also, on that favourite spot of their common ministry, before the errand on which he was there engaged had allowed him to set out for Corinth.

(Such is the fuller account promised, H. P. 40, 1.

s. 3. Thus far principally in respect of TIMOTHY. The share which TITUS had in this series of transactions next requires, with somewhat more particularity, to be laid before the reader.

Paul's original intention had once been, as he intimates, 2 C. i. 15, 16., to visit Corinth in his way (the second time) to Macedonia, and even to take Corinth in his way back again toward Judea. But from the disorderly state of the Corinthian converts at that period, and the necessity, if he had then visited the church, of exercising some painful severities, H. P. 64., he changed his purpose, but without assigning the motive to them at the time; and chose rather to try what good effect "a letter of authoritative objurgation" might first have upon them.

To ascertain the result of that experiment, it should appear, that soon after the letter, 1 COR., from Ephesus was dispatched, he sent Titus to Corinth direct (the mission afterwards alluded to, 2 C. xii. 17, 18.) with instructions, after his errand of visitation there was accomplished, to pass through Macedonia and meet him at Troas.

When Paul on his way to Macedonia, A. xx. 1., as we have seen, arrived at Troas, much sooner than he

uproar

had originally designed, in consequence of that at Ephesus; though a door was opened to him there, 2 C. ii. 12, 13., to preach the gospel of Christ, yet his anxiety to see Titus, who did not arrive according to his wishes, was such, that he departed somewhat hastily from Troas, in the hope to meet Titus in Macedonia. And there, to his great joy, at Philippi, most probably, Titus actually came to him.

When from his confidential minister Paul had now learned, that the epistle, 1 C., to the Corinthians, had proved fully effective to the salutary end proposed by it, and had received satisfactory intelligence of their fervent mind towards him, 2 C. vii. 7...9., their sorrow, and their penitence, then, but not before, in his second epistle (written soon after from Philippi, H. P. 166., and sent by Titus as a welcome messenger, 2 C. viii. 6. 16, 17.) he discloses the very deep and kind consideration, upon which he had delayed to visit Corinth the second time as he had originally promised: and he thus clears himself from the appearance of vacillation and indecisiveness and even timidity under which he had been content for a while to labour, and to be so much misrepresented, 1 C. iv. 18, 19.

It is important here to remark, that Titus when first sent by Paul from Ephesus to Corinth, had acted there, 2 C. xii. 17, 18., with the same generous and disinterested feeling as the apostle himself had done before: and the readiness which he showed to go from Philippi, on a second mission as the delegate of Paul to the Corinthians, 2 C. viii. 6., justifies the idea, that a truely Christian spirit of affection had filled the hearts alike of him and of them.

And seeing it is quite clear, that Titus did not bear Paul company when he at a later period set off from Corinth, A. xx. 3, 4., we must naturally conclude, that