TO THE RIGHT REVEREND JOHN LAW, D.D. LORD BISHOP OF KILLALLA AND ACHONRY, AS A TESTIMONY OF ESTEEM FOR HIS VIRTUES AND LEARNING, AND OF GRATITUDE FOR THE LONG AND FAITHFUL FRIENDSHIP, 2 fede .2o. Etor WITH WHICH THE AUTHOR HAS BEEN HONOURED BY HIM, THIS ATTEMPT TO CONFIRM THE EVIDENCE OF THE CHRISTIAN HISTORY, IS INSCRIBED BY HIS AFFECTIONATE ? AND MOST OBLIGED SERVANT, W. PALEY. THE CONTENTS. Page The First Epistle to the Corinthians 66 The Second Epistle to the Corinthians - 98 The Epistle to the Philippians The First Epistle to the Thessalonians 293 The Second Epistle to the Thessalonians 312 THE HE volume of Christian scriptures contains thirteen letters purporting to be written by St. Paul; it contains also a book, which amongst other things, professes to deliver the history, or rather memoirs of the history, of this same person. B Ву By, affuming the genuineness of the letters, we may prove the substantial truth of the history; or, by assuming the truth of the history, we may argue strongly in support of the genuineness of the letters. But I affume neither one nor the other. The reader is at liberty to suppose these writings to have been lately discovered in the library of the Escurial, and to come to our hands destitute of any extrinsic or collateral evidence whatever ; and the argument I am about to offer is calculated to shew, that a comparison of the different writings would, even under these circumstances, afford good reason to' believe the persons and transactions to have been real, the letters authentic, and the narration in the main to be true. Agreement or conformity between letters bearing the name of an ancient author, and a received history of that author's life, does not necessarily establish the credit of either : because, 1. The history may, like Middleton's Life of Cicero, or Jortin's Life of Erafmus, have been 'wholly, or in part, compiled from |