.

THE

CONTENT S.

Page EXPOSÌTION of the Argument - I The Epistle to the Romans

20 The First Epistle to the Corinthians 66 The Second Epistle to the Corinthians 98 The Epistle to the Galatians

152 The Epistle to the Ephefans

208 The Epistle to the Philippians

255 The Epistle to the Colosians

278 The First Epistle to the Thessalonians 293 The Second Epistle to the Thessalonians ' 312 The First Epistle to Timothy

323 The Second Epistle to Timothy

339 The Epistle to Titus

357 The Epistle to Philemon The Subscriptions of the Epiftles The Conclusion

368 378

386

THE

TRUTH

OF THE

Scripture History of St. Paul

EVINCE D.

CHAP. I.

EXPOSITION OF THE ARGUMENT.

THE volume of Christian fcriptures

contains thirteen letters purporting to be written by St. Paul; it contains also a book, which amongst other things, profefses to deliver the history, or rather memoirs of the history, of this same person.

By

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