Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub

the

In a

it extends to these points :-It proves general reality of the circumstances; it proves the hiftorian's knowledge of these circumstances. In the prefent instance it confirms his pretenfions of having been a cotemporary, and in the latter part of his history a companion of St. Paul. word, it establishes the fubftantial truth of the narration; and fubftantial truth is that which, in every historical enquiry, ought to be the first thing fought after and ascertained; it must be the groundwork of every other obfervation.

The reader then will please to remember this word undefignedness, as denoting that upon which the conftruction and validity of our argument chiefly depend.

As to the proofs of undefignedness, I fhall in this place fay little; for I had rather the reader's perfuafion fhould arise from the inftances themfelves, and the feparate remarks with which they may be accompanied, than from any previous formulary or description of argument. In a great plurality of examples, I trust he will be perfectly convinced that no defign or contrivance

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

contrivance whatever has been exercised; and if fome of the coincidences alledged appear to be minute, circuitous, or oblique, let him reflect that this very indirectness and subtility is that which gives force and propriety to the example. Broad, obvious, and explicit agreements prove little; because it may be fuggefted that the infertion of fuch is the ordinary expedient of every forgery: and though they may occur, and probably will occur, in genuine writings, yet it cannot be proved that they are peculiar to these. Thus what St. Paul declares in chap. xi. of 1 Cor. concerning the inftitution of the eucharift"For I have received of the Lord that "which I alfo, delivered unto you, that "the Lord Jefus, the fame night in which "he was betrayed, took bread; and when "he had given thanks, he brake it, and "faid, Take, eat; this is my body, which "is broken for you; this do in remem→ "brance of me"-though it be in close and verbal conformity with the account of the fame transaction preferved by St. Luke, is yet a conformity of which no ufe can be

made

made in our argument; for if it fhould be objected that this was a mere recital from the gofpel, borrowed by the author of the epiftle, for the purpose of fetting off his compofition by an appearance of agreement with the received account of the Lord's fupper, I fhould not know how to repel the infinuation. In like manner, the description which St. Paul gives of himself, in his epistle to the Philippians (iii. 5)"Circumcifed the eighth day, of the stock "of Ifrael, of the tribe of Benjamin, an "Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching "the law, a Pharifee; concerning zeal,

[ocr errors]

66

perfecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blame"lefs"--is made up of particulars fo plainly delivered concerning him, in the Acts of the Apoftles, the Epiftle to the Romans, and the Epistle to the Galatians, that I cannot deny but that it would be eafy for an impoftor, who was fabricating a letter in the name of St. Paul, to collect these articles into one view. This, therefore, is a conformity which we do not adduce. But when I read, in the Acts of the Apo

ftles,

1

ftles, that "when Paul came to Derbe and

66

[ocr errors]

Lyftra, behold a certain difciple was "there, named Timotheus, the son of a "certain woman which was a Jewess; and when, in an epiftle addreffed to Timothy, I find him reminded of his " having "known the holy fcriptures from a child," which implies that he muft, on one fide or both, have been brought up by Jewish parents; I conceive that I remark a coincidence which fhews, by its very obliquity, that scheme was not employed in its formation. In like manner, if a coincidence depend upon a comparison of dates, or rather of circumftances from which the dates are gathered the more intricate that comparifon fhall be; the more numerous the intermediate steps through which the conclufion is deduced; in a word, the more circuitous the investigation is, the better, because the agreement which finally refults is thereby farther removed from the fufpicion of contrivance, affectation, or defign. And it fhould be remembered, concerning these coincidences, that it is one thing to be minute, and another to be precarious; one thing

2

thing to be unobferved, and another to be obfcure; one thing to be circuitous or oblique, and another to be forced, dubious, or fanciful. And this diftinction ought always to be retained in our thoughts.

The very particularity of St. Paul's epiftles; the perpetual recurrence of names of perfons and places; the frequent allusions to the incidents of his private life, and the circumstances of his condition and history; and the connection and parallelifm of thefe with the fame circumstances in the Acts of the Apostles, fo as to enable us, for the most part, to confront them one with another; as well as the relation which fubfifts between the circumstances, as mentioned or referred to in the different epiftles-afford no inconfiderable proof of the genuineness of the writings, and the reality of the transactions. For as no advertency is fufficient to guard against flips and contradictions, when circumftances are multiplied, and when they are liable to be detected by cotemporary accounts equally circumftantial, an impoftor, I fhould expect, would either have avoided. particulars entirely, contenting himself with doctrinal

« НазадПродовжити »