pointment in this place, upon any other fuppofition, is irrelative.

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No. IX.

"Of the Jews

Chap. xi. ver. 24, 25. "five times received I forty ftripes save one ; "thrice was I beaten with rods; once was "Iftoned; thrice I fuffered fhipwreck; a night and a day I have been in the deep." These particulars cannot be extracted out of the Acts of the Apostles; which proves, as hath been already obferved, that the epif tle was not framed from the history; yet they are confiftent with it, which, confidering how numerically circumftantial the account is, is more than could happen to arbitrary and independent fictions. When I say that these particulars are confiftent with the history, I mean, firft, that there is no article in the enumeration which is contradicted by the hiftory; fecondly, that the hiftory, though filent with refpect to many of the facts here enumerated, has left space for the existence of thefe facts, confiftent with the fidelity of its own narration.

First, no contradiction is difcoverable be

tween the epiftle and the history. When St. Paul fays, thrice was I beaten with rods, although the history record only one beating with rods, viz, at Philippi, Acts, chap. xvi, ver. 22, yet is there no contradiction. It is only the omiffion in one book of what is related in another. But had the history contained accounts of four beatings with rods, at the time of writing this epiftle, in which St. Paul fays that he had only fuffered three, there would have been a contradiction properly fo called. The fame obfervation applies generally to the other parts of the enumeration, concerning which the history is filent but there is one claufe in the quotation particularly deferving of remark; becaufe, when confronted with the history, it furnishes the nearest approach to a contradiction, without a contradiction being actually incurred, of any I remember to have met with. "Once," faith St. Paul," was "I ftoned." Does the hiftory, relate that St. Paul, prior to the writing of this epistle, had been stoned more than once? The hiftory mentions distinctly one occafion upon which St. Paul was ftoned, viz. at Lyftra

in Lycaonia. "Then came thither certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium, who

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perfuaded the people; and, having ftoned "Paul, drew him out of the city, fuppofing “he had been dead." (chap. xiv. ver. 19). And it mentions also another occafion in which "an affault was made both of the "Gentiles, and alfo of the Jews with their “rulers, to use them defpitefully and to stone

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them; but they were aware of it," the hiftory proceeds to tell us," and fled into Lyf

tra and Derbe." This happened at Iconium, prior to the date of the epiftle. Now had the affault been completed; had the history related that a ftone was thrown, as it relates that preparations were made both by Jews and Gentiles to ftone Paul and his companions; or even had the account of this tranfaction stopped, without going on to inform us that Paul and his companions were "aware of their danger and fled,” a contradiction between the history and the epiftle would have enfued. Truth is neces farily confiftent; but it is fcarcely poffible that independent accounts, not having truth to guide them, fhould thus advance to the

very brink of contradiction without falling into it.

Secondly, Ifay, that if the Acts of the Apoftles be filent concerning many of the instances enumerated in the epiftle, this filence may be accounted for, from the plan and fabric of the hiftory. The date of the epiftle fyn-;. chronises with the beginning ofthe twentieth chapter of the Acts. The part, therefore, of the hiftory, which precedes the twentieth chapter, is the only part in which can be found any notice of the perfecutions to which St. Paul refers. Now it does not appear that the author of the history was with St. Paul until his departure from Troas, on way to Macedonia, as related chap. xvi. ver. 10; or rather indeed the contrary appears. It is in this point of the hiftory that the language changes. In the feventh and eighth verses of this chapter the third perfon is used. "After they were come to Myfia, they affayed to go into Bithynia, but the spirit fuffered them not; and they paffing by Myfia, came to Troas:" and the third perfon is in like manner conftantly used throughout the foregoing part of the history.

his

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In the tenth verfe of this chapter, the first perfou comes in: "After Paul had feen the "vifion, immediately we endeavoured to 66 go into Macedonia; affuredly gathering "that the Lord had called us to preach the gofpel unto them." Now, from this time to the writing of the epiftle, the hif tory occupies four chapters: yet it is in these, if in any, that a regular or continued account of the apoftle's life is to be expected; for how fuccinctly his hiftory is delivered in the preceding part of the book, that is to fay, from the time of his conversion to the time when the hiftorian joined him at Troas, except the particulars of his converfion itself which are related circumftantially, may be understood from the following obfervations :

The history of a period of fixteen years is comprised in lefs than three chapters; and of thefe, a material part is taken up with difcourfes. After his conversion, he continued in the neighbourhood of Damafcus, according to the history, for a certain confiderable, though indefinite length of time, accordingtohisown words (Gal. ch.i.ver. 18),

for