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are appealed to in the epistle; and not only fo, but to have fuffered thefe perfecutions both in immediate fucceffion, and in the order in which the cities are mentioned in the epiftle. The conformity also extends to another circumftance. In the apoftolic history Lyftra and Derbe are commonly mentioned together: in the quotation from the epiftle Lyftra is mentioned, and not Derbe. And the diftinction will appear on this occafion to be accurate; for St. Paul is here enumerating his perfecutions: and although he underwent grievous perfecutions in each of the three cities through which he paffed to Derbe, at Derbe itself he met with none: "The next day he departed," fays the historian, "to Derbe; and when they had

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preached the gospel to that city, and had "taught many, they returned again to Lyf"tra." The epiftle, therefore, in the names of the cities, in the order in which they are enumerated, and in the place at which the enumeration ftops, correfponds exactly with the history.

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But á fecond question remains, namely, how these perfecutions were "known" to Timothy,

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Timothy, or why the apostle fhould recal thefe in particular to his remembrance, rather than many other perfecutions with which his miniftry had been attended. When fome time, probably three years, afterwards (vide Pearson's Annales Paulinas), St. Paul made a fecond journey through the fame country, "in order to go again and vi"fit the brethren in every city where he "had preached the word of the Lord," we read, Acts, chap. xvi. ver. 1. that, "when "he came to Derbe and Lyftra, behold a

certain difciple was there named Timo"theus." One or other therefore of these cities was the place of Timothy's abode. We read moreover that he was well reported of by the brethren that were at Lyftra and Iconium; fo that he must have been well acquainted with thefe places. Also again, when Paul came to Derbe and Lyftra, Timothy was already a difciple: "Behold a "certain difciple was there named Timo"theus." He must therefore have been converted before. But fince it is expressly ftated in the epiftle, that Timothy was converted by St. Paul himself, that he was “his

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own fon in the faith;" it follows that he muft have been converted by him upon his former journey into those parts; which was time when the apostle underwent the perfecutions referred to in the epiftle. Upon the whole then, perfecutions at the feveral cities named in the epiftle are exprefsly recorded in the Acts; and Timothy's knowledge of this part of St. Paul's hiftory, which knowledge is appealed to in the epiftle, is fairly deduced from the place of his abode, and the time of his converfion. It may farther be obferved, that it is probable from this account, that St. Paul was in the midst of these perfecutions when Timothy became known to him. No wonder then that the apostle, though in a letter written long afterwards, fhould remind his favourite convert of those scenes of affliction and diftrefs under which they first met.

Although this coincidence, as to the ' names of the cities, be more fpecific and direct than many which we have pointed out, yet I apprehend there is no juft reason for thinking it to be artificial; for had the writer of the epistle fought a coincidence

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with the history upon this head, and searched the Acts of the Apostles for the purpose, I conceive he would have fent us at once to Philippi and Theffalonica, where Paul fuffered perfecution, and where from what is ftated, it may easily be gathered that Timothy accompanied him, rather than have appealed to perfecutions as known to Timothy, in the account of which perfecutions Timothy's prefence is not mentioned; it not being till after one entire chapter, and in the history of a journey three years future to this, that Timothy's name occurs in the Acts of the Apostles for the first time.

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VERY characteristic circumstance in this epiftle, is the quotation from Epimenides, chap. i. ver. 12: "One of "themselves, even a prophet of their own, "faid, the Cretans are always liars, evil "beafts, flow bellies."

Κρητες αεί ψευσται, κακα θηρία, γαστερες αργαί.

I call this quotation characteristic, becaufe no writer in the New Teftament, except St. Paul, appealed to heathen teftimony; and because St. Paul repeatedly did fo. In his celebrated fpeech at Athens, preferved in the feventeenth chapter of the Acts, he tells his audience, that "in God "we live, and move, and have our being; "as certain alfo of your own poets have faid, for we are alfo his offspring."

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το γαρ και γένος εσμεν.

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