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come in competition with, or ſtand in oppoſition to, the knowledge of Jeſus Chriſt. Neither was this a warm flight of devotion, or a thought that ſuddenly ſtruck the (illegible text) the effect of the moſt attentive conſideration, (illegible text) the moſt deliberate and ſerious enquiry So (illegible text)rted in what is here rendered determined. (illegible text) he had ſaid, 'I have well weighed the caſe, I (illegible text)med it round, and balanced advantages and ⟨diſadvantages⟩, gains and loſſes;——I have endeavoured to (illegible text)n every thing that merits conſideration here;——after the moſt ſerious, deliberate and impartial ſcrutiny, this is my ſettled opinion, my fixed ſentiment, That no knowledge whatſoever is worthy to be once named with the knowledge of "Jeſus Chriſt my Lord, for whom I have ſuffered the loſs of all things, and do count them but dung," (or dogs meat, as the Greek word imports) "that I may win Chriſt, and be found in him, not having mine own righteouſneſs, ec.' (a)[1]
Now, this being the great Apoſtle's judgment, we need not wonder that he determined to know nothing,
- ↑ (a) Phil, iii, 8, 9.
I humbly conceive, we have no proper authority to alledge that Paul an inſpired writer borrowed this ſentence from Menander, or any other, unleſs himſelf had told us ſo. Far leſs can think that this ſentence, ſuppoſing it to have been quoted from Menander, will prove that Paul was friendly-diſpoſed towards the Stage, as is inſinuated by the author of a pamphlet entitled, The Morality of stage plays ſeriouſly conſidered. Printed Edinburgh 1757.
I wonder this Gentleman not with the ſame ſagacity diſcovered Paul's attachment to the Heathen deities, becauſe an inſpired writer tells us, "he was in a ſhip of Alexandria, whoſe ſign was Caſtor and Pollux." It is truly ſtrange to obſerve, what low, ſilly, and abſurd things will be ve(illegible text)ed by very ſenſible men to help them out with a beloved hypotheſis,
The third is, Titus 1. 12. "One of themſelves, even a prophet of their own, ſaid,
The Cretians are always liars, evil beaſts, ſlow bellies."
This character of the Cretians is in the original Greek on Hekametes verſe quoted from Epimenides the poet, whom Paul here calls "a prophet of their own," viz. the Cretians his countrymen, among whom he was held and reputed as ſuch, though he was not a true prophet. See Dr Hammond in (illegible text).
