Philemon 1:17

Verse Philemon 1:17. If thou count me therefore a partner] If thou dost consider me as a friend; if I have still the place of a friend in thy affection, receive him as myself; for, as I feel him as my own soul, in receiving him thou receivest me.

There is a fine model of recommending a friend to the attention of a great man in the epistle of Horace to Claudius Nero, in behalf of his friend Septimius, Epistolar. lib. i., Ep. 9, which contains several strokes not unlike some of those in the Epistle to Philemon. It is written with much art; but is greatly exceeded by that of St. Paul. As it is very short I shall insert it: -

Septimius, Claudi, nimirum intelligit unus,

Quanti me facias; nam cum rogat, et prece cogit

Scilicet, ut tibi se laudare, et tradere coner,

Dignum mente domoque legentis honesta Neronis,

Munere cum fungi propioris censet amici;

Quid possim videt, ac novit me valdius ipso.

Multa quidem dixi, cur excusatus abirem:

Sed timui, mea ne finxisse minora putarer,

Dissimulator opis propriae, mihi commodus uni.

Sic ego, majoris fugiens opprobria culpae,

Frontis ad urbanae descendi praemia. Quod si

Depositum laudas, ob amici jussa, pudorem;

Scribe tui gregis hunc, et fortem crede bonumque.

"O Claudius Septimius alone knows what value thou hast for me; for he asks and earnestly entreats me to recommend him to thee, as a man worthy of the service and confidence of Nero, who is so correct a judge of merit. When he imagines that I possess the honour of being one of thy most intimate friends, he sees and knows me more particularly than I do myself. I said indeed many things to induce him to excuse me; but I feared lest I should be thought to dissemble my interest with thee, that I might reserve it all for my own advantage. Therefore, in order to shun the reproach of a greater fault, I have assumed all the consequence of a courtier, and have, at the request of my friend, laid aside becoming modesty; which if thou canst pardon, receive this man into the list of thy domestics, and believe him to be a person of probity and worth."

This is not only greatly outdone by St. Paul, but also by a letter of Pliny to his friend Sabinianus, in behalf of his servant, who, by some means, had incurred his master's displeasure. See it at the conclusion of these notes.