ETTSTLE TO THE PHILIPPJANS. 141 



his journey; his errand, his sickness, or even his existence 

 might, for what we know, have no other foundation than in 

 the invention of the forger of the epistle ; I answer, that a 

 forger would have set forth this story connectedly, and also 

 more fully and more perspicuously. If the epistle he authen- 

 tic, and the transaction real, then every thing which is said 

 concerning Epaphroditus and his commission would he clear 

 to those into whose hands the epistle was expected to come. 

 Considering the Philippians as his readers, a person might 

 naturally write upon the suhject, as the author of the epistle 

 has written ; but there is no supposition of forgery with 

 which it will suit. 



II. The history of Epaphroditus supphes another obser- 

 vation : " Indeed he was sick, nigh unto death ; but God 

 had mercy on him : and not on him only, but on me also, 

 lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow." In this passage 

 no intimation is given that Epaphroditus' recovery was 

 miraculous. It is plainly, I think, spoken of as a natural 

 event. This instance, together with one in the second epis- 

 tle to Timothy, " Trophimus have I left at Miletum sick," 

 afibrds a proof that the power of performing cures, and, by 

 parity of reason, of working other miracles, was a powei 

 which only visited the apostles occasionally, and did not at 

 all depend upon their own will. Paul undoubtedly would 

 have healed Epaphroditus if he could. Nor, if the power 

 of working cures had awaited his disposal, would he have 

 left his fellow-traveller at Miletus sick. This, I think, is a 

 fair observation upon the instances adduced ; but it is not 

 the observation I am concerned to make. It is more for the 

 purpose of my argument to remark, that forgery, upon such 

 an occasion, would not have spared a miracle ; much less 

 would it have introduced St. Paul professing the utmost 

 anxiety for the safety of his friend, yet acknowledging him- 

 self unable to help him ; which he does, almost expressly, 

 in the case of Trophimus, for he " left him sick ;" and vir- 

 tually in the passage before us, in which he felicitates him- 



