132 aORM PAULINA. 



have you ignorant of our trouble which can.e to us in Asia.'* 

 2 Cor. 1:8. " As I beso^aght thee to abide still at E2')hesuSj 

 when I went into Macedonia." 1 Tim. 1:3. " And in 

 how many tnings he ministered to me at Ephesus, thou 

 knowest very well." 2 Tim. 1:18. I adduce these testi- 

 monies, because, had it been a competition of credit between 

 the history and the epistle, I should have thought myself 

 boi<nd to have preferred the epistle. Now, eveiy epistle 

 which St. Paul wrote to churches which he himself had 

 founded, or which he had visited, abounds with references 

 md appeals to what had passed during the time that he 

 was present among them ; whereas there is not a text, in 

 the epistle to the Ephesians, from which we can collect that 

 he had ever been at Ephesus at all. The two epistles to 

 the Corinthians, the epistle to the Galatians, the epistle to 

 the Philippians, and the two epistles to the Thessalonians 

 are of this class ; and they are full of allusions to the apos- 

 tle's history, his reception, and his conduct while among 

 them : the total want of which, in the epistle before us, is 

 very difficult to account for, if it was in truth written to the 

 church of Ephesus, in which city he had resided for so long 

 a time. This is the first and strongest objection. But fur- 

 ther, the epistle to the Colossians was addressed to a church 

 in wliich St. Paul had never been. This we infer from the 

 first verse of the second chapter : " For I would that ye knew 

 wdiat great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, 

 and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh." 

 There could be no propriety in thus joining the Colossians 

 and Lao.iiceans wdth those "who had not seen his face in 

 the flesh," if they did not also belong to the same descrip- 

 lion.* Now, his address to the Colossians, whom he had 

 aot visited, is precisely the same as his address to the Chris- 

 dans to whom he wrote in the epistle which we are now 

 considering : •' We give thanks to God and the Father of our 



-* Dr. Lardner contends against the validity of this oonclusion; 

 but I think without success. Laupntse, vol. 14, p. 47.3, edit. 1757. 



