Page images
PDF
EPUB

having ftudiously inferted it, either with a view of producing an apparant agreement between them, or for any other purpose whatever.

The context, by which the circumstance before us is introduced, is in the two places totally different, and without any mark of imitation; yet in both places does the circumstance rise aptly and naturally out of the context, and that context from the train of thought carried on in the epistle.

The Epistle to the Galatians, from the beginning to the end, runs in a strain of angry complaint of their defection from the apostle, and from the principles which he had taught them. It was very natural to contraft, with this conduct, the zeal with which they had once received him; and it was not lefs fo to mention, as a proof of their former difpofition towards him, the indulgence which, whilst he was amongst them, they had fhewn to his infirmity: "My "temptation which was in the flesh ye de"fpifed not, nor rejected, but received me "as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. "Where is then the bleffedness you spake

" of,

"of, i. e. the benedictions which you be"ftowed upon me? for I bear you record, "that if it had been poffible, ye would "have plucked out your own eyes, and "have given them to me."

In the two epiftles to the Corinthians, efpecially in the fecond, we have the apostle contending with certain teachers in Corinth, who had formed a party in that church against him. To vindicate his personal authority, as well as the dignity and credit of his miniftry amongst them, he takes occafion (but not without apologizing repeatedly for the folly, that is, for the indecorum of pronouncing his own panegyric*) to meet his adversaries in their boastings: "Wherein"foever any is bold (I speak foolishly) I "am bold also. Are they Hebrews? fo am "I. Are they Ifraelites? fo am I. Are they

[ocr errors]

* "Would to God you would bear with me a little in my folly, and indeed bear with me." Chap. xi. ver. 1. "That which I fpeak, I speak it not after the Lord, "but as it were foolishly, in this confidence of boast"ing." Chap. xi. ver. 17.

"I am become a fool in glorying, ye have compelled "me." Chap. xii. ver. 11.

[blocks in formation]
[ocr errors]

66

"the feed of Abraham? fo am I. Are "they the minifters of Chrift? (I speak "as a fool) I am more; in labours more "abundant, in ftripes above measure, in prifons more frequent, in deaths oft." Being led to the subject, he goes on, as was natural, to recount his trials and dangers, his inceffant cares and labours in the Chriftian miffion. From the proofs which he had given of his zeal and activity in the service of Chrift, he paffes (and that with the fame view of establishing his claim to be confidered as "not a whit behind the very chiefeft of the apostels") to the visions and revelations which from time to time had been vouchfafed to him. And then, by a close and eafy connection, comes in the mention of his infirmity: "Left I fhould be exalted, fays he," "above measure, through the "abundance of revelations, there was given "to me a thorn in the flesh, the meffenger "of Satan to buffet me."

Thus then, in both epiftles, the notice of his infirmity is suited to the place in which iis found. In the Epistle to the Corinthians, the train of thought draws up to the

circum

circumstance by a regular approximation. In the epistle, it is fuggefted by the subject and occafion of the epiftle itself. Which obfervation we offer as an argument to prove that it is not, in either epiftle, a circumftance industriously brought forward for the fake of procuring credit to an impofture.

A reader will be taught to perceive the force of this argument, who fhall attempt to introduce a given circumstance into the body of a writing. To do this without abruptness, or without betraying marks of defign in the tranfition, requires, he will find, more art than he expected to be neceffary, certainly more than any one can believe to have been exercifed in the compofition of these epiftles.

No. V.

Chap. iv. ver. 29.

"But as then he that

"was born after the flesh perfecuted him "that was born after the fpirit, even fo is "" it now."

Chap. v. ver. 11. "And I, brethren, if I yet "preach circumcifion, why do I yet fuffer 66 per

N3

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

Chap. vi. ver. 17. "From henceforth, "let no man trouble me, for I bear in my "body the marks of the Lord Jesus."

From these several texts, it is apparent that the perfecutions which our apostle had undergone, were from the hands or by the inftigation of the Jews; that it was not for preaching Christianity in oppofition to heathenifm, but it was for preaching it as diftinct from Judaism, that he had brought upon himself the fufferings which had attended his ministry. And this reprefentation perfectly coincides with that which results from the detail of St. Paul's history, as delivered in the Acts. At Antioch, in Pifidia, the "word of the Lord was published through❝out all the region; but the Jews ftirred

66

up the devout and honourable women and "the chief men of the city, and raised per"fecution against Paul and Barnabas, and "expelled them out of their coafts."(Acts, chap. xiii, ver. 50). Not long after, at Iconium, " a great multitude of the Jews " and alfo of the Greeks believed; but the

66

"" unbe

« PreviousContinue »