EPISTLE TO TITUS. 11)3 



phrases dwelt in the writer's mind. Let us inquire, there- 

 fore, whether the notes of time extant in the two epistles 

 in any manner favor this supposition. 



We have seen that it was necessary to refer the first 

 epistle to Timothy to a date subsequent to St. Paul's (^rsl 

 imprisonment at Rome, because there was no journey nito 

 Macedonia prior to that event, which accorded with the cir- 

 cumstance of leaving Timothy behind at Ephesus. The 

 journey of St. Paul from Crete, alluded to in the epistle be- 

 fore us, and in which Titus " was left in Crete to set in order 

 the things that were wanting," must, in like manner, be 

 carried to the period which intervened between his first and 

 second imprisonment. For the history, which reaches, we 

 know, to the time of St. Paul's first imprisonment, contains 

 no account of his going to Crete, except upon his voyage as 

 a prisoner to Rome ; and that this could not be the occasion 

 referred to in our epistle is evident from hence, that when 

 St. Paul wrote this epistle, he appears to have been at lib- 

 erty ; whereas after that voyage, he continued for two years 

 at least in confinement. Again, it is agreed that St. Paul 

 wrote his first epistle to Timothy from Macedonia : " As I 

 besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went," or 

 came, " into Macedonia." And that he was in these parts, 

 that is, in this peninsula, when he wrote the epistle to Titus, 

 is rendered probable by his directing Titus to come to him to 

 Nicopolis : " When I shall send Artemas unto thee, or Tych- 

 icus, be diligent," make haste, " to come unto me to Nicopo- 

 lis; for I have determined there to winter." The most noted 

 city of that name was in Epirus, near to Actium. And I 

 think the form of speaking, as well as the nature of the case, 

 renders it probable that the writer was at Nicopolis, or in 

 the neighborhood thereof, when he dictated this direction to 

 Titus. 



Upon the whole, if we may be allowed to suppose tliat 

 St. Paul, after his liberation at Rome, sailed into Asia, taking 

 Crete in his way ; that from Asia aimd from Ephesus, the 



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