not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow I sent him therefore the more carefully, that upon sorrow. when ye see him again, ye may rejoice, and that I may be the less sorrowful. Receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness, and hold such in reputation. Because for the work of Christ he was nigh unto death, nor regarding his life to supply your lack of service toward me.”

In this passage there are very palpable incongruities, which can be removed only by one delicate circumstance in the history of Epaphroditus. The Philippians might be allowed to say, that they were full of anguish to hear that Epaphroditus was sick, but it is an idle use of language to say that he, when now recovered, was full of anguish because they had heard he had been sick. Besides, if the Christians at Philippi felt such interest in Epaphroditus, was it necessary in the Apostle to advise them to receive him with gladness in the Lord, and to hold such in reputation? Does not this advice imply that they were disposed to receive him with reluctance or not to receive him at all in the Lord, and to hold such in contempt? How is this incoherence to be removed? At the first promulgation of the gospel, those of the pagans who embraced it were expected to withdraw from the stations, which they had before occupied, especially if such stations were inconsistent with genuine piety and benevolence. Thus such converts as bore arms or were engaged in any department of Paganism in general gave up their profession as immoral; and thus with their opinions they changed their modes of living. It may be gathered from Suetonius and Dion that Epaphroditus showed his attachment to the new religion, not by any profession, but by his conduct, having had the prudence to remain at his post. Clement, it is evident, acted a different part; and hence while he is branded for inertness and atheism, the same charge is not made in words against Epaphroditus, who was even put to death without the imputation of being a Christian. As the emperor was at the head of the army, every man in his service was at least nominally a soldier: and his continuance in the court of so odious a monster as Nero, and in a profession so repugnant to the spirit of the gospel, must have necessarily sunk him as weak and timid in the estimation of his more ardent, but less prudent,

brethren. And it is highly interesting to observe that this is the point of light, in which he is placed and defended by the Apostle of the Gentiles. The term ovno means weakness either in mind or in body; and the writer, after using it in the first of these senses, uses it again in the second; agreeably to a custom familiar to the Jewish and Christian writers, of employing the same word in the same place, in a literal and metaphorical acceptation. See Rom. iv. 18, 19.

The Christians at Philippi had heard that Epaphroditus had the weakness not to give up his connexion with the emperor, and perhaps in words not to have made a public avowal of his faith such a report of him was doubtless propagated by some envious nominal believers; and this must have proved to that The clause therefore good man an unfeigned cause of sorrow.

should be thus rendered, "For he longs to see you, and is full of anguish because ye have heard, that he has proved weak; and indeed he was weak, being by sickness nigh unto death." His sickness is explicitly said to have proceeded from the service of Christ, that is, from exposing his life to defend and supply the Apostle, while a prisoner of Nero. Epaphroditus must have naturally wished to visit the churches, in order to remove the prejudices which were cherished against him; and hence we perceive the propriety of the admonition to receive him with gladness in the Lord, and to hold such in estimation. At Rome, as in other places, there were men loud in their profession of the gospel, while they had yet no danger or difficulty to encounter. These changed their tone and left the Apostle to shift for himself, when the hour of trial arrived: Epaphroditus acted quite an opposite part. He made no profession, and continued in office, as if he had not been a believer; but when the season arrived, when he was called upon to honor, or to betray his faith, he stands forth and supports the Apostle at the hazard of his life. Touched with his generosity and firmness, the Apostle bears him in return the most honorable testimony, rendering prominent his character as a man not of words, but of deeds, and recommending him, and such persons as resembled him, to reverence and admiration, in opposition to those pretenders who were men not of deeds but of words. Such men hold in

estimation, because for the work of Christ he was nigh unto death.

As the Philippians had the temerity to censure Epaphroditus for weakness, the Apostle scruples not to remind them that they had been deficient in liberality towards him now in bonds, and as such unable to supply his own wants; while he, whom they had injured, had supplied that deficiency at the risk of his life. To soften the odium, which attached to Epaphroditus as a nominal soldier under Nero, St. Paul calls him my fellow-soldier; and in reference to his being a minister of the emperor, he styles him a minister of my wants.

In his epistle to the Colossians, St. Paul has farther these words: "Epaphras your countryman a slave of Christ saluteth you." Grotius and some others have observed that Epaphras is but an abbreviation of Epaphroditus, not to mention that in this place some copies have the latter reading. Epaphroditus then was a native of Colossi, and at this time a slave of the emperor. To this circumstance the Apostle alludes; and he endeavours to do away the odium which attached to him as a slave of Nero, by holding him forth as a slave of Christ: as though he had said, "Do not have any prejudice against him for being engaged in the service of the emperor: for he is truly and faithfully the servant of him, whose service is perfect freedom."

Soon after this, the Great Apostle of the Gentiles was sacrificed by the adversary on the altar of the gospel. But the providence of God brought to Rome and to the palace a man perfectly similar in principles and in character, who supplied in the heart of Epaphroditus the place of his deceased illustrious friend. This man was JOSEPHUS, who after twenty years' friendship and co-operation in the same great cause, thus writes in the introduction to his Antiquities. Ησαν δέ τινες οἱ πόθῳ τῆς ἱστορίας ἐπ ̓ αὐτήν με προύτρεπον καὶ μαλίστα δὲ πάντων ̓Επαφρόδιτος, ἀνὴρ ἅπασαν μὲν ἰδέαν παιδείας ἠγαπήκως, διαφερόντως δὲ χαίρων ἐμπειρίαις πραγμάτων· ἅτε δὴ μεγάλοις αὐτὸς ὁμιλήσας πράγμασι καὶ τύχαις πολυτρόποις, ἐν ἁπᾶσι δὲ θαυμάστην ἐπιδειξάμενος αγάθης φυσέως ἴσχυν καὶ προαίρεσιν ἀρετῆς ἀμετακίνητον. Τούτῳ δὴ πειθόμενος, αἰεὶ τοῖς χρήσιμον ἢ καλόν τι πράττειν δυναμένοις συμφιλοπ

παλοῦντι προθυμότερον ἐπερρώσθην. Ετι κἀκεῖνο πρὸς τοῖς εἰρημένοις λογισάμενος οὐ παρεργῶς περί τε τῶν ἡμετερῶν προγόνων, οἱ μεταδιδόναι τῶν τουτῶν ἤθελον, καὶ περὶ τῶν ̔Ελλήνων, εἴ τινες αὐτῶν γνώναι τὰ παρ' ἡμῖν ἐσπούδασαν, i. e. There were some, who from their love to this subject have encouraged me to undertake it, and beyond all others Epaphroditus, a man who excels in every branch of literature, and especially in the knowledge of historical facts; as having been himself engaged in the management of important affairs, and having experienced various vicissitudes of fortune; in all which he has displayed the captivating energies of a mighty genius, and an inflexible adherence to virtue. By the admonition of this man, whose example and persuasion call upon all who have the power to engage in whatever is honorable and useful, I prosecuted this undertaking with more alacrity and decision, being at the same time not unmindful of my ancestors, who cheerfully imparted the knowledge of these things, nor of those Gentiles, who are eager to know the customs established among us.

This must be deemed a paragraph singularly beautiful and important; as it presents us with a fine portrait of the man, who at the hazard of his life and fortune sided with the Apostle in the court of Nero. Such a character, drawn by the impartial pen of the Jewish historian, is itself an eloquent volume in favor of St. Paul and of the sacred cause, in which he was engaged. But the words of Josephus have a peculiar propriety, if considered in reference to the situation, which Epaphroditus occupied in the household of Cæsar. See Phil. iv. 23. As the Secretary or Minister of Nero, and perhaps of the succeeding emperors, he was himself engaged in important affairs. As he had been brought a slave from Colossi to Rome, where by his unspotted integrity and splendid talents, he reached a place of great trust and eminence, where, after he had been disgraced by persecution, he was again restored to honor; he had truly experienced various vicissitudes of fortune. He displayed an inflexible adherence to virtue; as in circumstances which menaced his fame, his property, and even his life, he embraced the gospel, and remained attached to it, displaying its happy influence on his temper and conduct, in the most cruel and profligate court, unawed by the terrors of ignominy and persecution

on one hand, and unseduced by the allurements of pleasure on the other. The pagan historians Suetonius, Tacitus, and Dion, envying Christianity the fame of this man's talents, and the lustre of his character, have not even hinted that he was a believer in it; though this was a fact, of which they could not possibly have been ignorant, and their apprehension of it appears evident from the context, in which they speak of his death.

It remains, after these noble testimonies to the character of Epaphroditus, to consider what an enemy has said of him. He is said to have been the master of the celebrated Epictetus; and in this relation his name has been handed down with infamy. Arrian represents Epictetus, c. 1. as treating Epaphroditus with great contempt, when interrogating him about a certain conspiracy against Nero; " If I have a mind," replied he, "to say any thing, I will tell it to your master." In C. 26. the same writer farther says, "I once saw a person weeping and embracing the knees of Epaphroditus, and deploring his hard fortune that he had not fifty thousand pounds left." What said Epaphroditus then? did he laugh at him as we should do? No, but he cried out with astonishment, "poor man! how could you be silent? how could you bear it?" Again in c. 19. we read, “Epaphroditus had a slave that was a shoemaker, whom, because he was good for nothing, he sold. This very fellow, being bought by a courtier, became shoemaker to Cæsar. Then you might have seen how Epaphroditus honored him." To these malicious representations may be added the following well-known story told by Celsus, that when his master (meaning Epaphroditus) tortured his leg, he, smiling, and not at all discomposed, said, you will break it: and when it was broken, he said, did not I tell you that you would break it?" These stories have been gravely believed by modern critics: and Epaphroditus has been roundly called a brute and a monster, of whom nothing is known worthy of remembrance, but that he was once the master of so renowned a slave. The early believers regarded slavery with the utmost abhorrence, as utterly repugnant to the dictates of nature and of the gospel. Epaphroditus must therefore have given Epictetus his freedom as soon as he had embraced Christianity.

As Epaphroditus was a grammarian and a man of learning,