66 RORJE PAULINA. 



has also been remarked that he changed his intention, and 

 ultimately resolved upon going through Macedonia Jirst. 

 Now, upon this head there exists a circumstance of corre- 

 spondency between our epistle and the history, which is not 

 very obvious to the reader's observation, but which, when 

 observed, will be found, I think, close and exact. Which 

 circumstance is tliis : that though the change of St. Paul's 

 intention be expressly mentioned only in the second epistle, 

 yet it appears, both from the history and from this second 

 epistle, that the change had taken place before the writing 

 of the first epistle ; that it appears however from neither, 

 otherwise than by an inference, unnoticed perhaps by al- 

 most every one who does not sit down professedly to the 

 examination. 



First, then, how does this point appear from the history ? 

 In the nineteenth chapter of the Acts and the twenty-first 

 verse, we are told, that " Paul purposed in the spirit, when 

 he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Je 

 rusalem. So he sent into Macedonia two of them that min- 

 istered unto him, Timotheus and Erastus ; but he himself 

 stayed in Asia for a season." A short time after this, and 

 evidently in pursuance of the same intention, we find, chap. 

 20 : 1, 2, that " Paul departed from Ephesus for to go into 

 Macedonia ; and that, when he had gone over those parts, 

 he came into Greece." The resolution therefore of passing 

 first through Macedonia, and from thence into Greece, was 

 form.ed by St. Paul previously to the sending away of Tim- 

 othy. The order in which the two countries are mentioned 

 shows the direction of his intended route, " when he had 

 passed through Macedonia and Achaia." Timothy and 

 Erastus, who were to precede him in his progress, were sent 

 by him from Ephesus into Macedonia. He himself a short 

 tine afterwards, and, as has been observed, evidently in con- 

 tinuation and pursuance of the same design, " departed for 

 to go into Macedonia." If he had ever, therefore, enter- 

 tained a different plan of his journey, which is not hinted 



