EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 27 



ther, that St. Paul had before this been at Cenchrea itself, 

 appears from the eighteenth chapter of the Acts ; and ap- 

 pears by a circumstance as incidental and as unlike design 

 as any that can be imagined. " Paul after this tarried there," 

 namely, at Corinth, "yet a good while, and then took his 

 leave of his brethren, and sailed thence into Syria, and with 

 him Priscilla and Aquila, having shorn his head hi Cen- 

 chrea': for he had a vow.*' Acts 18 : 18. The shaving of 

 the head denoted the expiration of the Nazaritic vow. The 

 historian, therefore, by the mention of this circumstance, vir- 

 tually tells us that St. Paul's vow was expired before he set 

 forward upon his voyage, havijig deferred probably his de- 

 parture until he should be released from the restrictions 

 under which his vow laid him. Shall we say that the 

 author of the Acts of the Apostles feigned this anecdote of 

 St. Paul at Cenchrea, because he had read in the epistle to 

 the Romans that ** Phebe, a servant of the church of Cen- 

 chrea, had been a succorer of many, and of him also ?" Or 

 shall we say that the author of the epistle to the Romans, 

 out of his own imagination, created Phebe " a servant oj 

 the church of Ce7ich7'ea" hecsiuse he read in the Acts of the 

 Apostles that Paul had " shorn his head" in that place ? 



III. Chap. 1 : 13 : "Now I would not have you igno- 

 rant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, 

 (but was let hitherto,) that I might have some fruit among 

 you also, even as among other Gentiles." Again, 15 : 23-28, 

 " But now having no more place in these parts, and having 

 a great desire these many years," TroAAa oftentimes, "to come 

 unto you ; w^hensoever I take my journey into Spain I will 

 come to you : for I trust to see you in my journey, and to 

 be brought on my way thitherward by you. But now I go 

 up unto Jerusalem, to minister unto the saints. When, 

 therefore, I have performed this, and have sealed to them 

 this fruit, I will come by you into Spain." 



With these passages compare Acts 19:21: " After these 

 things were ended," namely, at Ephesus, " Paul purposed 



