EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 25 



seem to have bjen entitled to " thanks from the churches ol 

 the (Tciitiles." They were Jews taking pan with Gentiles 

 Yet is all this so indirectly intimated, or rather so much ci 

 it left to inference, in the account given in the Acts, that I 

 do not think it probable that a forger either could or would 

 have drawn his representation from thence ; and still les? 

 probable do I think it, that without having seen the Acts, 

 he could, by mere accident, and without truth for his guide, 

 have delivered a representation so conformable to the cir- 

 cumstances there recorded. 



The two congruities last adduced depended upon tht 

 time ; the two following regard the place of the epistle. 



1, Chap. IC : 23 : " Erastus the chamberlain of the 

 city salutoth you." Of what city ? We have seen, that is, 

 we have mferred from circumstances found in the epistle, 

 compared with circumstances found in the Acts of the Apos- 

 tles, and m the two epistles to the Corinthians, that our 

 epistle was WTittcn during St. Paul's second visit to the 

 peninsula of Greece. Again, as St. Paul, in his epistle to 

 the church of Corinth, 1 Cor. 16 : 3, speaks of a collection 

 going on in that city, and of his desire that it might be ready 

 against he came thither ; and as in this epistle he speaks of 

 that collection being ready, it follows that the epistle was 

 written either while he was at Corinth, or after he had been 

 there. Thirdly, since St. Paul speaks in this epistle of his 

 journey to Jerusalem, as about instantly to take place ; and 

 as we learn, Acts 20 : 3, that his design and attempt was 

 to sail upon that journey immediately from Greece, properly 

 so called, that is, as distinguished from Macedonia, it is prob- 

 able that he was in this country when he wrote the epistle, 

 in which he speaks of himself as upon the eve of setting out. 

 If in Greece, he was most likely at Corinth ; for the two 

 epistles to the Corinthians show that the principal end of 

 liis coming into Greece was to visit that city, where he had 

 founded a church. Certainly w^e know no place in Greece 

 in which his presence was so probable ; at least, the placing 

 2 



