ciECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. 57 



of writing the epistle is, iii this passage, hiferred only from 

 liis saying tliat he had boasted to the Macedonians of the 

 alacrity of his Achaian converts ; and the fear which he ex- 

 presses lest, if any of the Macedonian Christians should comc; 

 with him unto Achaia, they should find his boasting unwar- 

 ranted by the event. The business of the contribution is tht 

 Bole cause of mentioning Macedonia at all. Will it be in- 

 sinuated that this passage was framed merely to state that 

 St. Paul was now in Macedonia ; and, by that statement, to 

 produce an apparent agreement with the purpose of visiting 

 Macedonia, notified in the first epistle ? Or will it be thought 

 probable, that if a sophist had meant to place St. Paul in 

 Macedonia, for the sake of giving countenance to his forgery, 

 he would have done it in so oblique a manner as through 

 i5he medium of a contribution ? The same thing may be 

 observed of another text in the epistle, in which the name 

 jf Macedonia occurs : " Furthermore, when I came to Troas 

 <o preach the gospel, and a door was opened unto me of the 

 Lord, I had -no rest in my spirit, because I found not Titus, 

 my brother ; but taking my leave of them, I went from 

 thence into Macedonia." I mean, that it may be observed 

 of this passage also, that there is a reason for mentioning 

 Macedonia entirely distinct from the purpose of showing St. 

 Paul to be there. Indeed, if the passage before us show 

 that point at all, it shows it so obscurely that Grotius, though 

 he did not doubt that Paul was now in Macedonia, refers 

 this text to a different journey. Is this the hand of a forger, 

 meditating to establish a false conformity ? The text, how- 

 ever, in Avhich it is most strongly imphcd that St. Paul 

 wrote the present epistle from Macedonia, is found in the 

 fourth, fifth, and sixth verses of the seventh chapter : " 1 

 Sja filled with comfort, I am exceeding joyful in all our 

 tribulation. For, when we were come into Macedonia, our 

 flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side : v/ith- 

 oat were fightings, wdthin were fears. Nevertheless God, 

 tV.at comforteth those that are cast down, comforted us ty 



n rr P»ul. 1 8 



