No. II. In comparing the fecond Epiftle to the Corinthians with the Acts of the Apostles, we are foon brought to obferve, not only that there exists no veftige either of the epiftle having been taken from the history, or the history from the epiftle; but also that there appears in the contents of the epiftle pofitive evidence, that neither was borrowed from the other. Titus, who bears a confpi cuous purpose to answer by the recommending of subscriptions, would thus diftinguish, and thus lower the credit of his own recommendation ? 2. Although he afferts the general right of chriftian ministers to a maintenance from their ministry, yet he protests against the making use of this right in his own perfon: "Even fo hath the Lord ordained, that they "which preach the gospel fhould live of the gospel; "but I have used none of these things, neither have I "written these things that it should be so done unto me; "for it were better for me to die, than that any man "fhould make my glorying, i. e. my profeffions of dis"interestedness, void" (1 Cor. chap. ix. ver. 14, 15). 3. He repeatedly propofes that there fhould be affociates with himself in the management of the public bounty; not colleagues of his own appointment, but perfons elected for that purpose by the contributors them felves: cuous part in the epiftle, is not mentioned in the Acts of the Apoftles at all. St. Paul's fufferings enumerated, chap. xi. ver. 24, "of the Jews five times received I forty "ftripes fave one; thrice was I beaten with "rods; once was I ftoned; thrice I fuffered shipwreck; a night and a day I have been "in the deep," cannot be made out from felves: "And when I come, whomfoever ye fhall ap་ prove by your letters, them will I send to bring your "liberality unto Jerufalem; and if it be meet that I go "alfo, they fhall go with me" (1 Cor. chap. xvi. ver. 3, 4). And in the second epistle, what is here proposed, we find actually done, and done for the very purpose of guarding his character against any imputation that might be brought upon it, in the discharge of a pecuniary truft: "And we have fent with him the brother, whofe praise " is in the gospel throughout all the churches; and not "that only, but who was also chofen of the churches to "travel with us with this grace (gift) which is adminif"tered by us to the glory of the fame Lord, and the "declaration of your ready mind; avoiding this, that no Iman fhould blame us in this abundance which is ad"ministered by us; providing for things honeft, not "only in the fight of the Lord, but alfo in the fight of men;" i. e "not refting in the consciousness of our own integrity, but, in such a subject, careful also "to approve our integrity to the public judgment" (2 Cor. chap. viii. ver. 18-21). his hiftory, as delivered in the Acts, nor would this account have been given by a writer, who either drew his knowledge of St. Paul from that hiftory, or who was careful to preferve a conformity with it. The account in the epiftle, of St. Paul's escape from Damafcus, though agreeing in the main fact with the account of the fame tranfaction in the Acts, is related with fuch difference of circumftance, as renders it utterly improbable that one fhould be derived from the other. The two accounts, placed by the fide of each other, ftand as follows: Now if we be fatisfied in general concerning thefe two ancient writings, that the one was was not known to the writer of the other, or not confulted by him; then the accordances which may be pointed out between them, will admit of no folution fo probable, as the attributing of them to truth and reality, as to their common foundation, No. III. The opening of this epiftle exhibits a connection with the hiftory, which alone would fatisfy my mind, that the epiftle was written by St. Paul, and by St. Paul in the fituation in which the hiftory places him. Let it be remembered, that in the nineteenth chapter of the Acts, St. Paul is represented as driven away from Ephesus, or as leaving however Ephefus, in confequence of an uproar in that city, excited by fome interested adverfaries of the new religion. The of the tumult is as follows: "When they heard thefe fayings, viz. Demetrius's complaint of the danger to be apprehended from St. Paul's miniftry to the established worship of the Ephefian goddess, account 66 66 they were full of wrath, and cried out "faying, Great is Diana of the Ephesians; "and "and the whole city was filled with confu"fion; and having caught Gaius and Arif"tarchus, Paul's companions in travel, they rufhed with one accord into the theatre; "and when Paul would have entered in "unto the people, the disciples suffered him "not; and certain of the chief of Afia, "which were his friends, fent unto him, 66 defiring that he would not adventure him"felf into the theatre. Some, therefore, "cried one thing, and fome another; for the 66 affembly was confused, and the more part "knew not wherefore they were come to"gether. And they drew Alexander out "of the multitude, the Jews putting him "forward; and Alexander beckoned with "his hand, and would have made his de"fence unto the people; but, when they "knew that he was a Jew, all with one voice, about the space of two hours, cried out, "Great is Diana of the Ephefians.—And "after the uproar was ceafed, Paul called "unto him the difciples, and embraced "them, and departed for to go into Mace"donia." When he was arrived in Macedonia, he wrote the fecond Epiftle to the |