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

No. IX.

"Of the Jews

Chap. xi. ver. 24, 25. "five times received I forty ftripes fave one; "thrice was I beaten with rods; once was "I ftoned; thrice I fuffered fhipwreck; a night and a day I have been in the deep.”

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These particulars cannot be extracted out of the Acts of the Apostles; which proves, as hath been already obferved, that the epif

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was not framed from the hiftory; yet they are consistent 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 history, though filent with refpect to many of the facts here enumerated, has left space for the existence of these facts, consistent with the fidelity of its own narration. First, no contradiction is difcoverable be

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tween the epistle and the history. When St. Paul says, 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 omission 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 epistle, in which St. Paul says that he had only fuffered three, there would have been a contradiction properly so called. The same observation applies generally to the other parts of the enumeration, concerning which the history is filent: but there is one claufe in the quotation particularly deserving of remark; because, 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 history 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 stoned, viz. at Lystra

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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

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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

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very brink of contradiction without falling into it.

Secondly, Ifay, that if the Acts of the Apoftles befilent concerning many of the inftances enumerated in the epiftle, this filence may be accounted for, from the plan and fabric of the hiftory. The date of the epiftle fynchronises with the beginning of the 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 his way to Macedonia, as related chap. xvi. ver. 10; or rather indeed the contrary appears. It is in this point of the history that the language changes. In the feventh and eighth verfes of this chapter the third perfon is used. "After they were come to Myfia, they affayed to go into Bithynia, but the fpirit fuffered them not; and they paffing by Myfia, came to Troas:" and the third person is in like manner conftantly used throughout the foregoing part of the history.

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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 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 history 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 converfion 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 hiftory 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 converfion, he continued in the neighbourhood of Damafcus, according to the hiftory, for a certain confiderable, though indefinite length of time, - accordingto his own words (Gal.ch.i.ver.18),

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