SECOND EriSTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. 69 



[)one his journey to Corinth ; in other words, that the- change 

 of his purpose with respect to the course of his journey, 

 though expressly mentioned only in the second epistle, had 

 taken place before the writing of the first — the point which 

 we made out to be implied in the history, by the order o{ 

 the events there recorded, and the allusions to those events 

 in the first epistle. Now this is a species of congruity to 

 be relied upon more than any other. It is not an agree- 

 ment between two accounts of the same transaction, or be- 

 tween different statements of the same fact, for the fact is 

 not stated : nothing that can be called an account is given ; 

 but it is the junction of two conclusions, deduced from in- 

 dependent sources, and deducible only by investigation and 

 comparison. 



This point, namely, the change of the route being prior 

 to the writing of the first epistle, also falls in with, and ac- 

 counts for, the manner in which he speaks in that epistle ot 

 his journey. His first intention had been, as he declares, 

 to " pass by them into Macedonia :" that intention having 

 been previously given up, he writes, in his first epistle, 

 " that he would not see them now by the way," that is, as 

 he must have done upon his first plan ; but " that he trust- 

 ed to tarry awhile with them, and possibly to abide, yea. 

 and winter with them." 1 Cor. 16 : 5, 6. It also accounts 

 for a singularity in the text referred to, which must strike 

 every reader : "I will come to you when I pass through 

 Macedonia ; for I do pass through Macedonia." The sup- 

 plemental sentence, "for I do pass through Macedonia," 

 imports that there had been some previous communication 

 upon the subject of the journey ; and also that there had 

 been some vacillation and indecisiveness in the apostle's 

 plan ; both which we now perceive to have been the case. 

 The sentence is as much as to say, " This is what I at last 

 resolve upon." The expression, drav lAaKsSovcav disMo, is am- 

 biguous ; it may denote either " when I pass," or " wnen 1 

 shall have passed,, through Macedonia :" the considerations 



