placed in its efficacy, as a religious inftitution. Now fo it happens, that whenever St. Paul's compliance with the Jewish law is mentioned in the history, it is mentioned in connection with circumstances which point out the motive from which it proceeded; and this motive appears to have been always exoteric, namely, a love of order and tranquility, or an unwillingness to give unneceffary offence. Thus, Acts, chap. xvi. ver. 3: "Him (Timothy) would Paul have to go "forth with him, and took and circum"cifed him, becaufe of the Jews which were "in those quarters." Again (Acts, chap. xxi. ver, 26), when Paul consented to exhibit an example of public compliance with a Jewish rite, by purifying himself in the temple, it is plainly intimated that he did this to fatisfy " many thousand of Jews who believed, and who were all zealous of the law." So far the inftances related in one book, correspond with the doctrine delivered in another.

No

No. VIII.

66

Chap. i. ver. 18. Then, after three 16 years, I went up to Jerufalem to fee Peter, "and abode with him fifteen days."

The shortness of St. Paul's ftay at Jerufalem, is what I defire the reader to remark. The direct account of the fame journey in the Acts, chap. ix. ver. 28, determines nothing concerning the time of his continuance there: "And he was with them (the apostles) coming in, and going out, at Je“rusalem; and he spake boldly in the name "of the Lord Jefus, and difputed against "the Grecians, but they went about to slay "him; which when the brethren knew, "they brought him down to Cæfarea." Or rather this account, taken by itself, would lead a reader to suppose that St. Paul's abode at Jerufalem had been longer than fifteen days. But turn to the twenty-fecond chapter of the Acts, and you will find a reference to this vifit to Jerufalem, which plainly indicates that Paul's continuance in that city had been of short duration : "And it came

❝ to

66

"to pass, that when I was come again to Jerufalem, even while I prayed in the "temple, I was in a trance, and faw him

66

faying unto me, Make hafte, get thee

quickly out of Jerufalem, for they will "not receive thy teftimony concerning me. Here we have the general terms of one text fo explained by a distant text in the fame book, as to bring an indeterminate expreffion into a clofe conformity with a specification delivered in another book: a species of confiftency not, I think, ufually found in fabulous relations.

Chap. vi. ver. 11.

No. I.

"Ye fee how large a

"letter I have written unto you with mine "own hand."

These words imply that he did not always write with his own hand; which is confonant to what we find intimated in fome other of the epiftles. The Epiftle to the Romans was written by Tertius: "I, Tertius, who "wrote this epiftle, falute you in the Lord" (chap. xvi. ver. 22). The first Epistle to

the Corinthians, the Epiftle to the Coloffians, and the second to the Theffalonians, have all, near the conclufion, this claufe. "The falutation of me, Paul, with mine own "hand;" which must be understood, and is univerfally understood to import, that the rest of the epistle was written by another hand. I do not think it improbable that an impoftor, who had remarked this fubfcription in fome other epiftle, fhould invent the fame in a forgery; but that is not done here. The author of this epiftle does not imitate the manner of giving St. Paul's signature; he only bids the Galatians obferve how large a letter he had written to them with his own hand. He does not fay this was dif ferent from his ordinary usage; that is left to implication. Now to fuppofe that this was an artifice to procure credit to an imposture, is to fuppofe that the author of the forgery, because he knew that others of St. Paul's were not written by himself, therefore made the apoftle fay that this was: which feems an odd turn to give to the circumstance, and to be given for a purpofe which would more naturally and more

directly

directly have been anfwered, by fubjoining the falutation or fignature in the form in which it is found in other epiftles*.

No. X.

An exact conformity appears in the manner in which a certain apostle or eminent Chriftian, whofe name was James, is fpoken of in the epiftle and in the history. Both writings refer to a situation of his at Jerufalem, fomewhat different from that of the other apostles; a kind of eminence or prefidency in the church there, or at least a more fixed and stationary refidence. Chap. ii. ver. 12, "When Peter was at Antioch, "before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles." This text

* The words πηλικοις γραμμασιν may probably be meant to defcribe the character in which he wrote, and not the length of the letter. But this will not alter the truth of our observation. I think however, that as St. Paul by the mention of his own hand defigned to exprefs to the Galatians the great concern which he felt for them, the words, whatever they fignify, belong to the whole of the epiftle; and not, as Grotius, after St. Jerom, interprets it, to the few verfes which follow.

plainly