that it became therefore necessary to appoint No. VI. another medium or condition of justification, There is another strong remark arising from in which new medium the Jewish peculiarity the same passage in the epistle; to make which was merged and lost; that Abraham's own jusunderstood, it will be necessary to state the pas-tification was anterior to the law, and indesage over again, and somewhat more at length. "I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me, that 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 may with you be refreshed."

I desire the reader to call to mind that part of St. Paul's history which took place after his arrival at Jerusalem, and which employs the seven last chapters of the Acts; and I build upon it this observation-that supposing 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 seen that St. Paul, in fact," was not delivered from the unbelieving Jews," but on the contrary, that he was taken into custody at Jerusalem, and brought to Rome a prisoner-it is next to impossible that he should have made St. Paul express expectations so contrary to what he saw had been the event; and utter prayers, with apparent hopes of success, which he must have known were frustrated in the issue.

This single consideration convinces me, that no concert or confederacy whatever subsisted between the Epistle and the Acts of the Apostles; and that whatever coincidences have been or can be pointed out between them, are unsophisticated, and are the result of truth and reality.

pendent of it: that the Jewish converts were to consider 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 sending his Son; that God had rejected the unbelieving Jews, and had substituted in their place a society of believers in Christ, collected indifferently from Jews and Gentiles. Soon after the writing of this epistle, St. Paul, agreeably to the intention intimated in the epistle itself, took his jour ney to Jerusalem. The day after he arrived there, he was introduced to the church. What passed at this interview is thus related, Acts, xxi. 19: "When he had saluted 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 said unto him, Thou seest, 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 Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying, that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the customs." St. Paul disclaimed the charge: but there must have been something to have led to it. Now it is only to suppose that St. Paul openly professed the principles which the epistle contains; that, in the course of his ministry, he had uttered the sentiments which he is here made to write: and the

It also convinces me that the epistle was writ-matter is accounted for. Concerning the acten not only in St. Paul's life-time, but before he arrived at Jerusalem; for the important events relating to him which took place after his arrival at that city, must have been known to the Christian community soon after they happened: they form the most public part of his history. But had they been known to the author of the epistle-in other words, had they then taken place the passage which we have quoted from the epistle would not have been found there.

No. VII.

cusation which public rumour had brought against him to Jerusalem, I will not say that it was just; but I will say, that if he was the author of the epistle before us, and if his preaching was consistent with his writing, it was extremely natural: for though it be not a necessary, surely it is an easy inference, that if the Gentile convert, who did not observe the law of Moses, held as advantageous a situation in his religious interests as the Jewish convert who did, there could be no strong reason for observing that law at all. The remonstrance therefore of the church of Jerusalem, and the I now proceed to state the conformity which report which occasioned it, were founded in no exists between the argument of this epistle very violent misconstruction of the apostle's and the history of its reputed author. It is doctrine. His reception at Jerusalem was exenough for this purpose to observe, that the actly what I should have expected the author object of the epistle, that is, of the argumen- of this epistle to have met with. I am entittative part of it, was to place the Gentile con-led therefore to argue, that a separate narravert upon a parity of situation with the Jew-tive of effects experienced by St. Paul, similar ish, in respect of his religious condition, and to what a person might be expected to experihis rank in the divine favour. The epistle ence who held the doctrines advanced in this supports this point by a variety of arguments; epistle, forms a proof that he did hold these such as, that no man of either description was doctrines; and that the epistle bearing his justified by the works of the law-for this name, in which such doctrines are laid down, plain reason, that no man had performed them; actually proceeded from him.

No. VIII.

This number is supplemental to the former. I propose to point out in it two particulars in the conduct of the argument, perfectly adapted to the historical circumstances under which the epistle was written; which yet are free from all appearance of contrivance, and which it would not, I think, have entered into the mind of a sophist to contrive.

any thing derogatory from the Jewish institu tion, he constantly follows it by a softening clause. Having (ii. 28, 29.) pronounced, not much perhaps to the satisfaction of the native Jews, "that he is not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither that circumcision which is outward in the flesh :" he adds immediately, "What advantage then hath the Jew, or what profit is there in circumcision? Much every way." Having, in the third chapter, ver. 28. 1. The Epistle to the Galatians relates to brought his argument to this formal concluthe same general question as the Epistle to the sion, "that a man is justified by faith without Romans. St. Paul had founded the church of the deeds of the law," he presently subjoins, Galatia; at Rome, he had never been. Observe ver. 31. "Do we then make void the law now a difference in his manner of treating of through faith? God forbid! Yea, we establish the same subject, corresponding with this dif- the law." In the seventh chapter, when in ference in his situation. In the Epistle to the the sixth verse he had advanced the bold asGalatians he puts the point in a great measure sertion, "that now we are delivered from the upon authority: "I marvel that ye are so soon law, that being dead wherein we were held;" removed from him that called you into the in the very next verse he comes in with this grace of Christ, unto another Gospel." Gal. healing question, "What shall we say, then? i. 6. "I certify you, brethren, that the gos- Is the law sin? God forbid! Nay, I had not pel which was preached of me, is not after known sin but by the law. Having in the folman; for I neither received it of man, neither lowing words insinuated, or rather more than was I taught it but by the revelation of Je-insinuated, the inefficacy of the Jewish law, sus Christ." Ch. i. 11, 12. "I am afraid, viii. 3. "for what the law could not do, in that lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain." it was weak through the flesh, God sending his iv. 11, 12. I desire to be present with you own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for now, for I stand in doubt of you." iv. 20. sin, condemned sin in the flesh :" after a di“Behold, I, Paul, say unto you, that if ye be gression indeed, but that sort of a digression circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing." which he could never resist, a rapturous conv. 2. "This persuasion cometh not of him that templation of his Christian hope, and which called you." v. 8. This is the style in which occupies the latter part of this chapter; we he accosts the Galatians. In the epistle to find him in the next, as if sensible that he had the converts of Rome, where his authority was said something which would give offence, renot established, nor his person known, he puts turning to his Jewish brethren in terms of the the same points entirely upon argument. The warmest affection and respect : I say the perusal of the epistle will prove this to the sa- truth in Christ Jesus; I lie not; my conscitisfaction of every reader : and, as the observa-ence also bearing me witness in the Holy tion relates to the whole contents of the epistle, Ghost, that I have great heaviness and contiI forbear adducing separate extracts. I re-nual sorry in my heart; for I could wish that peat therefore, that we have pointed out a myself were accursed from Christ, for my bredistinction in the two epistles, suited to the thren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who relation in which the author stood to his different correspondents. Another adaptation, and somewhat of the same kind, is the following:

are Israelites, to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; whose are the fathers; and of whom, as 2. The Jews, we know, were very numer- concerning the flesh, Christ came." When, in ous at Rome, and probably formed a principal the thirty-first and thirty-second verses of this part amongst the new converts; so much so, ninth chapter, he represented to the Jews the that the Christians seem to have been known error of even the best of their nation, by tellat Rome rather as a denomination of Jews, ing them that "Israel, which followed after than as any thing else. In an epistle conse- the law of righteousness, had not attained to quently to the Roman believers, the point to be the law of righteousness, because they sought endeavoured after by St. Paul was to recon- it not by faith, but as it were by the works of cile the Jewish converts to the opinion, that the the law, for they stumbled at that stumbling Gentiles were admitted by God to a parity of stone," he takes care to annex to this declarareligions situation with themselves, and that tion these conciliating expressions: " Brethwithout their being bound by the law of Mo-ren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Isses. The Gentile converts would probably ac-rael is, that they might be saved; for I bear cede to this opinion very readily. In this epis- them record that they have a zeal of God, but tle, therefore, though directed to the Roman not according to knowledge." Lastly, having church in general, it is in truth a Jew writing ch. x. 20, 21. by the application of a passage in to Jews. Accordingly you will take notice, Isaiah, insinuated the most ungrateful of all that as often as his argument leads him to say propositions to a Jewish ear, the rejection of

the Jewish nation, as God's peculiar people; he bastens, as it were, to qualify the intelligence of their fall by this interesting expostulation: "I say, then, hath God cast away his people, (ie. wholly and entirely?) God forbid ! for I also am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew," and follows this thought, throughout the whole of the eleventh chapter, in a series of reflections calculated to soothe the Jewish converts, as well as to procure from their Gentile brethren respect to the Jewish institution. Now all this is perfectly natural. In a real St. Paul writing to real converts, it is what anxiety to bring them over to his persuasion would naturally produce; but there is an earnestness and a personality, if I may so call it, in the manner, which a cold forgery, I apprehend, would neither have conceived nor supported.

CHAPTER III.

which their conversion produced upon their prior state, of circumcision, of slavery; the eating of things offered to idols, as it was in itself, as others were affected by it; the joining in idolatrous sacrifices; the decorum to be observed in their religious assemblies, the order of speaking, the silence of women, the covering or uncovering of the head, as it became men, as it became women. These subjects, with their several subdivisions, are so particular, minute, and numerous, that though they be exactly agreeable to the circumstances of the persons to whom the letter was written, nothing, I believe, but the existence and reality of those circumstances could have suggested to the writer's thoughts.

But this is not the only nor the principal observation upon the correspondence between the church of Corinth and their apostle, which I wish to point out. It appears, I think, in this correspondence, that although the Corinthians had written to St. Paul, requesting his answer and his directions in the several points above enumerated, yet that they had not said one syl

THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. lable about the enormities and disorders which

No. I.

BEFORE we proceed to compare this epistle with the history, or with any other epistle, we will employ one number in stating certain remarks applicable to our argument, which arise from a perusal of the epistle itself.

66

had crept in amongst them, and in the blame of which they all shared ; but that St. Paul's information concerning the irregularities then prevailing at Corinth had come round to him from other quarters. The quarrels and disputes excited by their contentious adherence to their different teachers, and by their placing of them By an expression in the first verse of the in competition with one another, were not menseventh chapter, now concerning the things tioned in their letter, but communicated to St. whereof ye wrote unto me," it appears, that Paul by more private intelligence: "It hath this letter to the Corinthians was written by been declared unto me, my brethren, by them St. Paul in answer to one which he had receiv- which are of the house of Chloe, that there are ed from them; and that the seventh, and some contentions among you. Now this I say, that of the following chapters, are taken up in re- every one of you saith, I am of Paul, and I of solving certain doubts, and regulating certain Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ." points of order, concerning which the Corinth- (i. 11, 12.) The incestuous marriage "of a ians had in their letter consulted him. This man with his father's wife," which St. Paul alone is a circumstance considerably in favour reprehends with so much severity in the fifth of the authenticity of the epistle; for it must chapter of our epistle, and which was not the have been a far-fetched contrivance in a forgery, crime of an individual only, but a crime in first to have feigned the receipt of a letter from which the whole church, by tolerating and conthe church of Corinth, which letter does not niving at it, had rendered themselves partakers, appear; and then to have drawn up a fictitious did not come to St. Paul's knowledge by the letanswer to it, relative to a great variety of doubts ter, but by a rumour which had reached his ears: and inquiries, purely economical and domestic; "It is reported commonly that there is fornicaand which, though likely enough to have oc- tion among you, and such fornication as is not curred to an infant society, in a situation and so much as named among the Gentiles, that one under an institution so novel as that of a should have his father's wife; and ye are pufChristian church then was, it must have very fed up, and have not rather mourned that he much exercised the author's invention, and that hath done this deed might be taken away could have answered no imaginable purpose of from among you." (v. 1, 2.) Their going to forgery, to introduce the mention of at all. law before the judicature of the country, rather Particulars of the kind we refer to, are such as than arbitrate and adjust their disputes among the following: the rule of duty and prudence themselves, which St. Paul animadverts upon relative to entering into marriage, as applica- with his usual plainness, was not intimated to ble to virgins, to widows; the case of hus-him in the letter, because he tells them his opibands married to unconverted wives; of wives nion of this conduct before he comes to the conhaving unconverted husbands; that case where the unconverted party chooses to separate, where he chooses to continue the union; the effect

tents of the letter. Their litigiousness is censured by St. Paul in the sixth chapter of his epistle, and it is only at the beginning of the

seventh chapter that he proceeds upon the ar- of those conflicts to which the expression re ticles which he found in their letter; and he lates. "The churches of Asia salute you." proceeds upon them with his preface: "Now (xvi. 19.) Asia, throughout the Acts of the concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto Apostles and the epistles of St. Paul, does not me," (vii. 1.) which introduction he would not mean the whole of Asia Minor or Anatolia, have used if he had been already discussing any nor even the whole of the proconsular Asia, of the subjects concerning which they had writ- but a district in the anterior part of that counten. Their irregularities in celebrating the try, called Lydian Asia, divided from the rest, Lord's supper, and the utter perversion of the much as Portugal is from Spain, and of which institution which ensued, were not in the let- district Ephesus was the capital. "Aquila and ter, as is evident from the terms in which St. Priscilla salute you." (xvi. 19.) Aquila and Paul mentions the notice he had received of it: Priscilla were at Ephesus during the period Now in this that I declare unto you, I praise you within which this epistle was written, Acts not, that ye come together not for the better, (xviii. 18. 26.) “ I will tarry at Ephesus until but for the worse; for first of all, when ye come Pentecost." (xvi. 8.) This, I apprehend, is together in the church, I hear that there be di- in terms almost asserting that he was at Ephevisions among you, and I partly believe it." Now sus at the time of writing the epistle." A that the Corinthians should, in their own let-great and effectual door is opened unto me. ter, exhibit the fair side of their conduct to the (xvi. 9.) How well this declaration corresapostle, and conceal from him the faults of their ponded with the state of things at Ephesus, behaviour, was extremely natural, and extreme- and the progress of the Gospel in these parts, ly probable: but it was a distinction which we learn from the reflection with which the would not, I think, have easily occurred to the historian concludes the account of certain tranauthor of a forgery; and much less likely is it, sactions which passed there: "So mightily that it should have entered into his thoughts grew the word of God and prevailed," (Acts to make the distinction appear in the way in xix. 20 ;) as well as from the complaint of Dewhich it does appear, viz. not by the original metrius, "that not only at Ephesus, but also letter, not by any express observation upon it throughout all Asia, this Paul hath persuadin the answer, but distantly by marks perceived, and turned away much people." (xix. 26.) able in the manner, or in the order, in which—“And there are many adversaries," says St. Paul takes notice of their faults.

No. II.

the epistle, (xvi. 9.) Look into the history of this period: "When divers were hardened and believed not, but spake evil of that way before the multitude, he departed from them, and separated the disciples." The conformity therefore upon this head of comparison, is circumstantial and perfect. If any one think that this is a conformity so obvious, that any forger of tolerable caution and sagacity would have taken care to preserve it, I must desire such a one to read the epistle for himself; and, when he has done so, to declare whether he has discovered one mark of art or design; whether the notes of time and place appear to him to be inserted with any reference to each other, with any view of their being compared with each other, or for the purpose of establishing a visible agreement with the history,

Our epistle purports to have been written after St. Paul had already been at Corinth: 'I, brethren, when I came unto you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom," (ii. 1.) and in many other places to the same effect. It purports also to have been written upon the eve of another visit to that church: "I will come to you shortly, if the Lord will," (iv. 19.) and again, "I will come to you when I shall pass through Macedonia.” (xvi. 5.) Now the history relates that St. Paul did in fact visit Corinth twice: once as recorded at length in the eighteenth, and a second time as mentioned briefly in the twentieth chapter of the Acts. The same history also informs us, (Acts xx. 1.) that it was from Ephesus St. Paul proceed-in respect of them. ed upon his second journey into Greece.Therefore, as the epistle purports to have been written a short time preceding that journey; Chap. iv. 17-19. "For this cause I have and as St. Paul, the history tells us, had re- sent unto you Timotheus, who is my beloved sided more than two years at Ephesus, before son and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring he set out upon it, it follows that it must have you into remembrance of my ways which be been from Ephesus, to be consistent with the in Christ, as I teach every where in every history, that the epistle was written; and church. Now some are puffed up, as though every note of place in the epistle agrees with I would not come unto you; but I will come this supposition." If, after the manner of unto you shortly, if the Lord will." men, I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, With this I compare Acts xix. 21, 22: what advantageth it me, if the dead rise not?"" After these things were ended, Paul pur(xv. 32.) I allow that the apostle might say posed in the spirit, when he had passed through this, wherever he was; but it was more na- Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem; tural and more to the purpose to say it, if he saying, After I have been there, I must also was at Ephesus at the time, and in the midst see Rome; so he sent unto Macedonia two of

No. III.

them that ministered unto him, Timotheus | St. Paul's orders.-At any rate, this discreand Erastus." pancy shows that the passages were not taken

Though it be not said, it appears, I think, from one another. with sufficient certainty, I mean from the history, independently of the epistle, that Timothy was sent upon this occasion into Achaia, of which Corinth was the capital city, as well

as into Macedonia: for the sending of Timothy and Erastus is, in the passage where it is mentioned, plainly connected with St. Paul's own journey: he sent them before him. As he therefore purposed to go into Achaia himself, it is highly probable that they were to go thither also. Nevertheless, they are said only to have been sent into Macedonia, because Macedonia was in truth the country to which they went immediately from Ephesus; being directed, as we suppose, to proceed afterwards from thence into Achaia. If this be so, the narrative agrees with the epistle; and the agreement is attended with very little appearance of design. One thing at least concerning it is certain that if this passage of St. Paul's history had been taken from his letter, it would have sent Timothy to Corinth by name, or expressly

however into Achaia.

No. IV.

Chap. xvi. 10, 11." Now, if Timotheus fear; for he worketh the work of the Lord, as come, see that he may be with you without I also do : let no man therefore despise him, but conduct him forth in peace, that he may come unto me, for I look for him with the brethrez

From the passage considered in the prece ing number, it appears that Timothy was sent to Corinth, either with the epistle, or before it: "for this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus." From the passage now quoted, we infer that Timothy was not sent with the epistle; for had he been the bearer of the letter, or accompanied it, would St. Paul in that letthe sequel consistent with the supposition of ter have said, "If Timothy come ?" Nor is his carrying the letter; for if Timothy was with the apostle when he wrote the letter, the brethren?" I conclude therefore, that Ticould he say, as he does, "I look for him with mothy had left St. Paul to proceed upon his journey before the letter was written. Far

Timothy was not expected by St. Paul to arletter. He gives them directions in the letter rive at Corinth, till after they had received the how to treat him when he should arrive :" If

But there is another circumstance in these two passages much less obvious, in which an agreement holds without any room for suspi-ther, the passage before us seems to imply, that cion that it was produced by design. We have observed that the sending of Timothy into the peninsula of Greece was connected in the narrative with St. Paul's own journey thither ; it is stated as the effect of the same resolution. he come," act towards him so and so. LastPaul purposed to go into Macedonia: "so he ly, the whole form of expression is most nasent two of them that ministered unto him, thy's coming to Corinth, not directly from St. turally applicable to the supposition of TimoTimotheus and Erastus." Now in the epistle Paul, but from some other quarter; and that also you remark, that, when the apostle men-his instructions had been, when he should tions his having sent Timothy unto them, in the reach Corinth, to return. Now, how stands this very next sentence he speaks of his own visit: "for this cause have I sent unto you Timo-matter in the history? Turn to the nineteenth chapter and twenty-first verse of the Acts, and theus who is my beloved son, &c. Now some are puffed up, as though I would not come to you will find that Timothy did not, when sent you; but I will come to you shortly, if God from Ephesus, where he left St. Paul, and where will." Timothy's journey, we see, is mention- the present epistle was written, proceed by a ed in the history and in the epistle, in close straight course to Corinth, but that he went connexion with St Paul's own. Here is the round through Macedonia. This clears up evesame order of thought and intention; yet con-ry thing; for, although Timothy was sent forth veyed under such diversity of circumstance and upon his journey before the letter was writexpression, and the mention of them in the epistle so allied to the occasion which introduces it, viz. the insinuation of his adversaries that he would come to Corinth no more, that I am persuaded no attentive reader will believe, that these passages were written in concert with one another, or will doubt but that the agreement is unsought and uncontrived,

the letter arrived there; and he would come to ten, yet he might not reach Corinth till after Corinth, when he did come, not directly from St. Paul at Ephesus, but from some part of Macedonia. Here, therefore, is a circumstantial and critical agreement, and unquestionably without design; for neither of the two pas sages in the epistle mentions Timothy's jour But, in the Acts, Erastus accompanied Ti.ney into Macedonia at all, though nothing but mothy in this journey, of whom no mention is a circuit of that kind can explain and reconcile the expressions which the writer uses. made in the epistle. From what has been said in our observations upon the Epistle to the Romans, it appears probable that Erastus was a Corinthian. If so, though he accompanied Ti

No. V.

Chap. i. 12. "Now this I say, that every

mothy to Corinth, he was only returning home, one of you saith, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and Timothy was the messenger charged with and I of Cephas, and I of Christ."