SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTH lAl^S. 1^ 



jiroof in the history that he did so : in comparing the hlsto- 

 ly with the epistle, we shall not be surprised by the discov- 

 ry of omissions : we shall ascribe it to truth that there is no 

 contradiction. 



•X. Chap. 3:1: " Do we begin again to commend our* 

 selves ; or need we, as some others, letters oi' commendation 

 from you?" 



"As some others." Turn to Acts 18 : 27, and you will 

 find that a short time before the writing of this epistle, Apol- 

 los had gone to Corinth with letters of commendation from 

 the Ephesian Christians ; " and when Apollos was disposed 

 to pass into Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disci- 

 ples to receive him." Here the words of the epistle bear 

 the appearance of alluding to some specific instance, and the 

 history supplies that instance ; it supplies at least an in- 

 stance as apposite as possible to the terms which the apostle 

 uses, and to the date and direction of the epistle in which 

 they are found. The letter which Apollos carried from 

 Ephesus was precisely the letter of commendation which 

 St. Paul meant ; and it was to Achaia, of which Corinth 

 was the capital, and indeed to Corinth itself, Acts 19:1, 

 that Apollos carried it ; and it was about two years before 

 the writing of this epistle. If St. Paul's words be rather 

 thought to refer to some general usage which then obtained 

 among the Christian churches, the case of Apollos exempli- 

 fies that usage ; and afibrds that species of confirmation to 

 the epistle which arises from seeing the manners of the age, 

 in which it purports to be written, faithfully preserved. 



XI. Chap. 13:1: " This is the third time I am coming 

 1^ you :" TOLTOV TO no epxouxu. 



Do not these words import that the writer had been at 

 Corinth twice before ? Yet if they import this, they overset 

 every congruity we have been endeavoring to establish. The 

 Acts of the Apostles record only two journeys of St. Paul to 

 Corinth. Yfe have all along supposed, what eveiy mark of 

 time except this expression indicates, that this epistle was 



