"Ghost witneffeth in every city that bonds "and afflictions awaited him." Now that his fears should be greater, and his hopes lefs, in this ftage of his journey than when he wrote his epistle, that is, when he first fet out upon it, is no other alteration than might well be expected; fince those prophetic intimations to which he refers, when he fays, "the Holy Ghost witneffeth in every city," had probably been received by him in the courfe of his journey, and were probably fimilar to what we know he received in the remaining part of it at Tyre (xxi. 4), and afterwards from Agabus at Cæfarea (xxi. 11).

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No. VI.

1

There is another ftrong remark arifing from the fame paffage in the epiftle; to make which understood, it will be neceffary to state the paffage over again, and somewhat more at length.

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"I befeech you, brethren, for the Lord Jefus Chrift's fake, and for the love of "the Spirit, that ye ftrive together with "me in your prayers to God for me, that "I may

E 3

"I may be delivered from them that do not "believe in Judæa-that I may come unto

you with joy by the will of God, and 66 may with you be refreshed."

I defire the reader to call to mind that part of St. Paul's hiftory which took place after his arrival at Jerufalem, and which employs the feven laft chapters of the Acts; and I build upon it this obfervation—that fuppofing the Epistle to the Romans to have been a forgery, and the author of the forgery to have had the Acts of the Apostles · before him, and to have there feen that St. Paul, in fact, "was not delivered from the

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unbelieving Jews," but, on the contrary, that he was taken into cuftody at Jerufalem, and brought to Rome a prisoner—it is next to impoffible that he should have made St. Paul exprefs expectations fo contrary to what he faw had been the event; and utter prayers, with apparent hopes of success, which he must have known were fruftrated in the iffue.

This fingle confideration convinces me, that no concert or confederacy whatever fubfifted between the epiftle and the Acts

of

of the Apostles; and that whatever coincidences have been or can be pointed out between them, are unfophifticated, and are the refult of truth and reality.

It also convinces me that the epistle was written not only in St. Paul's life time, but before he arrived at Jerufalem; for the important events relating to him which took place after his arrival at that city, must have been known to the Chriftian community foon after they happened: they form the moft public part of his hiftory. But had they been known to the author of the epiftle-in other words, had they then taken place the paffage which we have quoted from the epiftle would not have been found there.

No. VII.

I now proceed to ftate the conformity which exifts between the argument of this epiftle and the hiftory of its reputed author. It is enough for this purpose to obferve, that the object of the epistle, that is, of the argumentative part of it, was to place the Gentile convert upon a parity of fituation with the Jewish, in refpect of his religious

E 4

religious condition, and his rank in the divine favour. The epistle fupports this point by a variety of arguments; fuch as, "that no man of either description was justified by the works of the law-for this plain reason, that no man had performed them; that it became therefore neceffary to appoint another medium or condition of juftification, in which new medium the Jewith peculiarity was merged and loft ; that Abraham's own juftification was anterior to the law, and independent of it; that the Jewish converts were to confider the law as now dead, and themselves as married to another; that what the law in truth could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God had done by fending his Son that God had rejected the unbelieving Jews, and had fubftituted in their place a fociety of believers in Christ, collected indifferently from Jews and Gentiles." Soon after the writing of this epiftle, St. Paul, agreeably to the intention intimated in the epiftle itself, took his journey to Jerufalem. The day after he arrived there, he was introduced to the church.

What

1

What paffed at this interview is thus related, Acts xxi. 19: "When he had faluted them, "he declared particularly what things God "had wrought among the Gentiles by "his ministry and, when they heard it, "they glorified the Lord; and faid unto "him, Thou feeft, brother, how many "thousands of Jews there are which believe; "and they are all zealous of the law; and they are informed of thee, that thou teachest

"all the Jews which are among the Gen"tiles to forfake Mofes, faying, that they ❝ought not to circumcife their children, "neither to walk after the customs." St. Paul disclaimed the charge; but there must have been fomething to have led to it. Now it is only to fuppofe that St. Paul openly profeffed the principles which the epiftle contains; that, in the course of his ministry, he had uttered the fentiments which he is here made to write; and the matter is accounted for. Concerning the accufation which public rumour had brought against him to' Jerufalem, I will not say that it was juft; but I will fay that, if he was the author of the epiftle before us, and if