EPiSTLE TO THE PHILIPPI A Nfe. 147 



The sameness of sentiment in these two quotations is 

 obvious. I rely, hoAvever, not so much upon that, as upon 

 the similitude in the train of thought which in each epistle 

 leads up to this sentiment, and upon the suitableness of that 

 train of thought to the circumstances under which the epis- 

 tles purport to have been written. This, I conceive, be- 

 speaks the production of the same mind, and of a mind 

 operating upon real circumstances. The sentiment is in 

 both places preceded by the contemplation of imminent per- 

 sonal danger. To the Philippians he writes, in the twentieth 

 verse of this chapter, " According to my earnest expectation, 

 and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that 

 with all boldness, as always, so now also, Christ shall be 

 magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death." 

 To the Corinthians, " Troubled on every side, yet not dis- 

 tressed ; perplexed, but not in despair ; persecuted, but not 

 forsaken ; cast down, but not destroyed ; always bearing 

 about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus." This train 

 of reflection is continued to the place from whence the words 

 v/hich we compare are taken. The two epistles, though 

 written at different times, from different places, and to dif- 

 ferent churches, were both written under circumstances 

 which would naturally recall to the author's mind the pre- 

 carious condition of his life, and the perils which constantly 

 awaited him. When the epistle to the Philippians was 

 written the author was a prisoner at Rome, expecting his 

 trial. "When the second epistle to the Corinthians was writ- 

 ten he had lately escaped a danger in which he had given 

 himself over for lost. The 'epistle opens with a recollection 

 of this subject, and the impression accompanied the writer's 

 thoughts throughout. 



I know that nothing is easier than to transplant into a 

 forged epistle a sentiment or expression which is found in a 

 true one ; or, supposing both epistles to be forged by the 

 same hand, to insert the same sentiment or expression in 

 both ; but the difficulty is to uitroduce it in just and close 



