26 IlOEiE PAULINiE. 



of him at Corinth satisfies every circumstance. Now, that 

 Erastus was an inhabitant of Corinth, or had some connec- 

 tion with Corinth, is rendered a fair subject of presumption, 

 by that which is accidentally said of him in the second epis- 

 tle to Timothy, cha]3. 4 : 20 : " Erastus abode at Corinth''' 

 St, Paul complains of his solitude, and is telling Timothy 

 what was become of his companions. " Erastus abode at 

 Corinth ; but Trophimus have I left at Miletus sick." Eras- 

 tus was one of those who had attended St. Paul in his trav- 

 els, Acts 19 : 22 ; and when those travels had upon some 

 occasion brought our apostle and his train to Corinth, Eras- 

 tus stayed there, for no reason so probable as that it was his 

 home. I allow that this coincidence is not so precise as 

 some others, yet I think it too clear to be produced by acci- 

 dent ; for of the many places which this same epistle has 

 assigned to different persons, and the innumerable others 

 which it might have mentioned, how came it to fix upon 

 Corinth for Erastus ? And as far as it is a coincidence, it is 

 certainly undesigned on the part of the author of the epistle 

 to the Romans : because he has not told us of what city 

 Erastus was the chamberlain ; or, which is the same thing, 

 from what city the epistle was written, the setting forth of 

 which was absolutely necessary to the display of the coinci- 

 dence, if any such display had been thought of: nor could 

 the author of the epistle to Timothy leave Erastus at Cor- 

 inth, from any thing he might have read in the epistle to the 

 Romans, because Corinth is nowhere in that epistle men- 

 tioned either by name or description. 



2. Chap. 16 : 1—3 : "I com.mend unto you Phebe our 

 sister, which, is a servant of the church which is at Cen- 

 chrea : that ye receive her in the Lord, as becometh saints, 

 and that ye assist her in whatsoever business she hath need 

 of you ; for she hath been a succorer of many, and of my- 

 self also." Cenchrea adjoined to Corinth ; St. Paul, there- 

 fore, at the time of writing the letter, was in the neighbor- 

 hood of the woman whom, he thus rocomm.ends. But fur- 



