No. X. An exact conformity appears in the manner in which a certain apostle or eminent Christian, whose name was James, is spoken of in the epistle and in the history. Both writings refer to a situation of his at Jerusalem, somewhat different from that of the other apostles; a kind of eminence or presidency in the church there, or at least a more fixed and stationary residence. Chap. ii. 12. "When Peter was at Antioch, before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles." This text plain the time of his continuance there: "And he was with them (the apostles) coming in, and going out, at Jerusalem; and he spake boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus, and disputed against the Grecians: but they went about to slay him; which when the brethren knew, they brought him down to Cæsarea." Or rather this account, taken by itself, would lead a reader to suppose that St. Paul's abode at Jerusalem had been longer than fifteen days. But turn to the twenty-second chapter of the Acts, and you will find a reference to this visit to Jerusalem, which plainly, indicates that Paul's continuance in that city had been of short du-ly attributes a kind of pre-eminency to James: ration: "And it came to pass, that when I was come again to Jerusalem, even while I prayed in the temple, I was in a trance, and saw him saying unto me, Make haste, get thee quickly out of Jerusalem, for they will not re-tles divers intimations occur, conveying the ceive thy testimony concerning me." Here we have the general terms of one text so explained by a distant text in the same book, as to bring an indeterminate expression into a close conformity with a specification delivered in another book: a species of consistency not, I think, usually found in fabulous relations. No. IX. and, as we hear of him twice in the same epis. same idea of James's situation. When Peter "Go In the debate which took place upon the business of the Gentile converts, in the council at Jerusalem, this same person seems to have taken the lead. It was he who closed the debate, and proposed the resolution in which the council ultimately concurred: "Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them which from among the Gentiles are turned to God." Here James is manifestly spoken of in terms Chap. vi. 11. "Ye see how large a letter of distinction. He appears again with like dis. I have written unto you with mine own hand." tinction in the twenty-first chapter and the se These words imply that he did not always venteenth and eighteenth verses: “And wher write with his own hand; which is consonant we (Paul and his company) were come to Je to what we find intimated in some other of the rusalem, the day following, Paul went in. with epistles. The Epistle to the Romans was writ-us unto James, and all the elders were present ten by Tertius: "I, Tertius, who wrote this epistle, salute you in the Lord." (Chap. xvi. 22.) The First Epistle to the Corinthians, the Epistle to the Colossians, and the Second to the Thessalonians, have all, near the conclusion, this clause, "The salutation of me, Paul, with mine own hand ;" which must be understood, and is universally understood to import, that the rest of the epistle was written Upon the whole, that there exists a conformiby another hand. I do not think it improba- ty in the expressions used concerning James ble that an impostor, who had remarked this throughout the history, and in the epistle, is subscription in some other epistle, should in- unquestionable. But admitting this confor. vent the same in a forgery; but that is not done mity, and admitting also the undesignec ness here. The author of this epistle does not imi- of it, what does it prove? It proves that the tate the manner of giving St. Paul's signature; circumstance itself is founded in truth; that he only bids the Galatians observe how large a is, that James was a real person, who eld a letter he had written to them with his own situation of eminence in a real society of ChrisIt confirins also those hand. He does not say this was different from tians at Jerusalem. his ordinary usage; that is left to implication. parts of the narrative which are connected with Now to suppose that this was an artifice to pro- this circumstance. Suppose, for instance, the cure credit to an imposture, is to suppose that truth of the account of Peter's escape from pri. the author of the forgery, because he knew that son was to be tried upon the testimony of a others of St. Paul's were not written by him-witness who, among other things, made Peter, self, therefore made the apostle say that this after his deliverance, say, "Go show these was: which seems an odd turn to give to the things to James and to the brethren ;" would circumstance, and to be given for a purpose it not be material, in such a trial, to make out which would more naturally and more directly have been answered, by subjoining the salutation or signature in the form in which it is found in other epistles. The words rdixois reapuae may probably be meant to describe the character in which he wrote, and not the length of the letter. But this will not alter the Paul, by the mention of his own hand, designed to extruth of our observation. I think, however, that as St. press to the Galatians the great concern which he felt for them, the words, whatever they signify, belong to the whole of the epistle; and not, as Grotius, after St Jerome interprets it, to the few verses which follow by other independent proofs, or by a compari-likely that, during this long abode, they might son of proofs, drawn from independent sour- go up to Jerusalem and return to Antioch? ces, that there was actually at that time, living Or would the omission of such a journey be at Jerusalem, such a person as James; that unsuitable to the general brevity with which this person held such a situation in the society these memoirs are written, especially of those amongst whom these things were transacted, parts of St. Paul's history which took place beas to render the words which Peter is said to fore the historian joined his society? have used concerning him, proper and natu- But, again, the first account we find in the ral for him to have used? If this would be per- Acts of the Apostles of St. Paul's visiting Gatinent in the discussion of oral testimony, it latia, is in the sixteenth chapter and the sixth is still more so in appreciating the credit of re-verse: "Now when they had gone through mote history. Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they assayIt must not be dissembled, that the compa-ed to go into Bithynia. " The progress here rison of our epistle with the history presents recorded was subsequent to the apostolic desome difficulties, or, to say the least, some ques-cree; therefore that decree must have been extions of considerable magnitude. It may be tant when our epistle was written. Now, as doubted, in the first place, to what journey the the professed design of the epistle was to eswords which open the second chapter of the tablish the exemption of the Gentile converts epistle, “then, fourteen years afterwards, I from the law of Moses, and as the decree prowent unto Jerusalem," relate. That which nounced and confirmed that exemption, it may best corresponds with the date, and that to seem extraordinary that no notice whatever is which most interpreters apply the passage, is taken of that determination, nor any appeal the journey of Paul and Barnabas to Jerusa-made to its authority. Much however of the lem when they went thither from Antioch up-weight of this objection, which applies also to on the business of the Gentile converts; and some other of St. Paul's epistles, is removed which journey produced the famous council by the following reflections. and decree recorded in the fifteenth chapter of 1. It was not St. Paul's manner, nor agreeActs. To me this opinion appears to be en- able to it, to resort or defer much to the autho cumbered with strong objections. In the epis-rity of the other apostles, especially whiist he tle Paul tells us that "he went up by revela- was insisting, as he does strenuously through. tion." (Chap. ii. 2.)-In the Acts, we read out this epistle insist, upon his own original that he was sent by the church of Antioch: inspiration. He who could speak of the very "After no small dissension and disputation, chiefest of the apostles in such terms as the they determined that Paul and Barnabas, and following-" of those who seemed to be somecertain other of them, should go up to the Apos- what, (whatsoever they were it maketh no mattles and elders about this question." (Acts, ter to me, God accepteth no man's person,) for chap. xv. 2.) This is not very reconcileable. they who seemed to be somewhat in confer. In the epistle, St. Paul writes that, when he ence added nothing to me”—he, I say, was came to Jerusalem, "he communicated that not likely to support himself by their decision. Gospel which he preached among the Gentiles, 2. The epistle argues the point upon prinbut privately to them which were of reputaion." (Chap. ii. 2.) If by "that Gospel" he meant the immunity of the Gentile Christians from the Jewish law, (and I know not what else it can mean,) it is not easy to conceive how he should communicate that privately, which was the object of his public message. But a yet greater difficulty remains, viz. that in the ac- 3. The decree did not go the length of the count which the epistle gives of what passed position maintained in the epistle; the decree upon this visit at Jerusalem, no notice is ta-only declares that the apostles and elders at ken of the deliberation and decree which are Jerusalem did not impose the observance of the recorded in the Acts, and which, according to Mosaic law upon the Gentile converts, as a conthat history, formed the business for the sake dition of their being admitted into the Chrisof which the journey was undertaken. The tian church. Our epistle argues that the Momention of the council and of its determina-saic institution itself was at an end, as to all tion, whilst the apostle was relating his pro- effects upon a future state, even with respect ceedings at Jerusalem, could hardly have been to the Jews themselves. avoided, if in truth the narrative belong to 4. They whose error St. Paul combated, the same journey. To me it appears more were not persons who submitted to the Jew. probable that Paul and Barnabas had taken ish law, because it was imposed by the autho some journey to Jerusalem, the mention of rity, or because it was made part of the law of which is omitted in the Acts. Prior to the the Christian church; but they were persons apostolic decree, we read that "Paul and Bar-who, having already become Christians, afternabas abode at Antioch a long time with the wards voluntarily took upon themselves the obdisciples." (Acts, chap. xiv. 28.) Is it un-servance of the Mosaic code, under a notion of ciple: and it is not perhaps more to be wondered at, that in such an argument St. Paul should not cite the apostolic decree, than it would be that, in a discourse designed to prove the moral and religious duty of observing the Sabbath, the writer should not quote the thirteenth canon. attaining thereby to a greater perfection. This, | Another difficulty arises from the account I think, is precisely the opinion which St. Paul of Peter's conduct towards the Gentile conopposes in this epistle. Many of his expressions verts at Antioch, as given in the epistle, in the apply exactly to it: "Are ye so foolish? hav-latter part of the second chapter; which coning begun in the spirit, are ye now made per-duct, it is said, is consistent neither with the feet in the flesh ?" (Chap. iii. 3.) “"Tell me, revelation communicated to him, upon the conye that desire to be under the law, do ye not version of Cornelius, nor with the part he took hear the law?" (Chap. iv. 21.) "How turn in the debate at Jerusalem. But, in order to ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, understand either the difficulty or the soluwhereunto ye desire again to be in bondage ?" tion, it will be necessary to state and explain (Chap. iv. 9.) It cannot be thought extraor- the passage itself. "When Peter was come to dinary that St. Paul should resist this opinion Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because with earnestness; for it both changed the cha- he was to be blamed; for, before that certain racter of the Christian dispensation, and dero- came from James, he did eat with the Gengated expressly from the completeness of that tiles; but when they were come, he withdrew redemption which Jesus Christ had wrought and separated himself, fearing them which for them that believed in him. But it was to were of the circumcision; and the other Jews no purpose to allege to such persons the de- dissembled likewise with him, insomuch that cision at Jerusalem; for that only showed that Barnabas also was carried away with their disthey were not bound to these observances by simulation; but when I saw they walked not any law of the Christian church; they did not uprightly, according to the truth of the Gospretend to be so bound; nevertheless they ima-pel, I said unto Peter, before them all, If thou, gined that there was an efficacy in these obser- being a Jew, livest after the manner of the vances, a merit, a recommendation to favour, Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why comand a ground of acceptance with God for those who complied with them. This was a situation of thought to which the tenor of the decree did not apply. Accordingly, St. Paul's address to the Galatians, which is throughout adapted to this situation, runs in a strain widely different from the language of the decree: "Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law;" (chap. v.4.) i. e. whosoever places his dependence upon any merit he may apprehend there to be in legal observances. The decree had said nothing like this; therefore it would have been useless to have produced the decree in an argu-ed in number daily." Then the history proceeds upon a ment of which this was the burden. In like manner as in contending with an anchorite, who should insist upon the superior holiness of a recluse, ascetic life, and the value of such mortifications in the sight of God, it would be to no purpose to prove that the laws of the church did not require these vows, or even to prove that the laws of the church expressly left every Christian to his liberty. This would" And they went through Syria and Cilicia," (to the avail little towards abating his estimation of their merit, or towards settling the point in controversy. Mr. Locke's solution of this difficulty is by no means satisfactory. "St. Paul," he says, "did not remind the Galatians of the apostolic decree, because they already had it." In the first place, it does not appear with certainty that they had it; in the second place, if they had it, this was rather a reason, than otherwise, for referring them to it. The passage in the Acts, from which Mr. Locke concludes that the Galatic churches were in possession of the decree, is the fourth verse of the sixteenth chapter: "And as they" (Paul and Timothy) "went through the cities, they delivered them the decrees for to keep, that were ordained of the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem." In my opinion, this delivery of the decree was confined to the churches to which St. Paul came, in pursuance of the plan upon which he set out," of visiting the brethren im every city where he had preached the word of the Lord;" the history of which progress, and of all that pertained to it, is closed in the fifth verse, when the history informs that, "so were the churches established in the faith, and increas pellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?" Now the question that produced the dispute to which these words relate, was not whether the Gentiles were capable of being admitted into the Christian covenant; that had been fully settled: nor was it whether it should be accounted essential to the profession of Christianity that they should conform themselves to the law of Moses; that was the question at Jerusalem: but it was, whether, upon the Gentiles becoming Christians, the Jews might henceforth eat and drink with them, as they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of new section of the narrative, by telling us, that "when Galatia, they assayed to go into Bithynia." The decree itself is directed to "the brethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia; that is, to churches already founded, and in which this question had been stirred. And I think the observation of the noble au thor of the Miscellanca Sacra is not only ingenious but highly probable, viz. that there is, in this place, a dislo cation of the text, and that the fourth and fifth verses of the sixteenth chapter ought to follow the last verse of the fifteenth, so as to make the entire passage run thus: Christians of which country the decree was addressed) the cities, they delivered them the decrees for to keep "confirming the churches; and as they went through that were ordained of the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem; and so were the churches established in the faith, and increased in number daily." And then the sixteenth chapter takes up a new and unbroken paragraph: "Then came he to Derbe and Lystra, &c." When St. Paul came, as he did into Galatia, to preach the Gospel, for the first time, in a new place, it is not probable that he would make mention of the decree, or rather letter, of the church of Jerusalem, which presup posed Christianity to be known, and which related to certain doubts that had arisen in some established Chris. tian communities. The second reason which Mr. Locke assigns for the omission of the decree, viz. " that St. Paul's sole object in the epistle was to acquit himself of the imputation that had been charged upon him of actually preaching circumcision," does not appear to me to be strictly true. It was not the sole object. The epistle is written in ge. neral opposition to the Judaizing inclinations which he found to prevail among his converts. The avowal of his own doctrine, and of his stedfast adherence to that doc trine, formed a necessary part of the design of his letter but was not the whole of it. with their own brethren. Upon this point junction with Onesimus, was the bearer of the St. Peter betrayed some inconstancy; and so letter to that church; "All my state shall Tyhe might, agreeably enough to his history.chicus declare unto you, who is a beloved broHe might consider the vision at Joppa as a ther, and a faithful minister, and fellow serdirection for the occasion, rather than as uni-vant in the Lord; whom I have sent unto you versally abolishing the distinction between for the same purpose, that he might know your Jew and Gentile; I do not mean with respect estate, and comfort your hearts; with Onesito final acceptance with God,but as to the man-mus, a faithful and beloved brother, who is one ner of their living together in society: at least of you. They shall make known unto you all he might not have comprehended this point things which are done here." Colos. chap. iv. with such clearness and certainty, as to stand 7-9. Both epistles represent the writer as out upon it against the fear of bringing upon under imprisonment for the Gospel; and both himself the censure and complaint of his bre-treat of the same general subject. The Episthren in the church of Jerusalem, who still tle therefore to the Ephesians, and the Epistle adhered to their ancient prejudices. But Pe- to the Colossians, import to be two letters writter, it is said, compelled the Gentiles Iedov ten by the same person, at, or nearly at, the "Why compellest thou the Gentiles to live same time, and upon the same subject, and to as do the Jews?" How did he do that? The have been sent by the same messenger. Now, only way in which Peter appears to have com- every thing in the sentiments, order, and dicpelled the Gentiles to comply with the Jewish tion of the two writings, corresponds with what institution, was by withdrawing himself from might be expected from this circumstance of their society. By which he may be under- identity or cognation in their original. The stood to have made this declaration: "We do leading doctrine of both epistles is the union of not deny your right to be considered as Chris-Jews and Gentiles under the Christian dispentians; we do not deny your title in the pro-sation; and that doctrine in both is established mises of the Gospel, even without compliance by the same arguments, or, more properly with our law; but if you would have us Jews speaking, illustrated by the same similitudes: live with you as we do with one another; that" one head," "one body," " one new man,' is, if you would in all respects be treated by one temple," are in both epistles the figures us as Jews, you must live as such yourselves." under which the society of believers in Christ, This, I think, was the compulsion which St. and their common relation to him as such, is Peter's conduct imposed upon the Gentiles, represented+. The ancient, and, as had been and for which St. Paul reproved him. thought, the indelible distinction between Jew As to the part which the historian ascribes and Gentile, in both epistles, is declared to be to St. Peter in the debate at Jerusalem, be-" now abolished by his cross." Besides this sides that it was a different question which was there agitated from that which produced the dispute at Antioch, there is nothing to hinder us from supposing that the dispute at Antioch | was prior to the consultation at Jerusalem; or that Peter, in consequence of this rebuke, might have afterwards maintained firmer sentiments. CHAPTER VI. THE EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS. No. I. 66 consent in the general tenor of the two epistles, and in the run also and warmth of thought with which they are composed, we may naturally expect in letters produced under the cir.cumstances in which these appear to have been written, a closer resemblance of style and diction, than between other letters of the same person but of distant dates, or between letters adapted to different occasions. In particular, we may look for many of the same expressions, and sometimes for whole sentences being alike; since such expressions and sentences would be repeated in the second letter (whichever that was) as yet fresh in the author's mind from THIS epistle, and the Epistle to the Colos* St. Paul, I am apt to believe, has been sometimes sians, appear to have been transmitted to their accused of inconclusive reasoning, by our mistaking that respective churches by the same messenger: for reasoning which was only intended for illustration. He is not to be read as a man, whose own persuasion of "But that ye also may know my affairs, and the truth of what he taught always or solely depended how I do, Tychicus, a beloved brother and upon the views under which he represents it in his writ faithful minister in the Lord, shall make knownings. Taking for granted the certainty of his doctrine, as resting upon the revelation that had been imparted to to you all things; whom I have sent unto you him, he exhibits it frequently to the conception of his for the same purpose, that ye might know readers under images and allegories, in which if an ana logy may be perceived, or even sometimes a poetic re. our affairs, and that he might comfort your semblance be found, it is all perhaps that is required. hearts." Ephes. chap. vi. 21, 22. This text, Ephes. i. 22, if it do not expressly declare, clearly I think iniv. 15, with ii. 15, imates, that the letter was sent by Tychicus. The words made use of in the Epistle to the Colossians are very similar to these, and afford the same implication that Tychicus, in con + Compare Also { { Ephes, ii. 14, 15, ií. 16, } } with { { Colos, i. 18. ii. 19. iii. 10, 11 Colos. ti. 14. 1. 18-21. ii 7 the writing of the first. This repetition occurs in the following examples:" Colos. ch. iii. 16 "In psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your Eplies. ch. i. 7. "In whom we have re-hearts to the Lord." * demption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins."+ Colos. ch. i. 14. "In whom we have relemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins."+ Besides the sameness of the words, it is farther remarkable that the sentence is, in both places, preceded by the same introductory idea. In the Epistle to the Ephesians it is the “beloved" (nyani); in that to the Colossians it is his dear Son" (viov τns ayarns MUTOD,)" in whom we have redemption." The sentence appears to have been suggested to the mind of the writer by the idea which had accompanied it before. Ephes. ch. i. 10. "All things both which are in heaven and which are in earth, even in him."S Colos. ch. i. 20. "All things by him, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven."|| Ephes. ch. vi. 22. "Whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose, that ye might know our affairs, and that he might comfort your hearts."+ Colos. ch. iv. & Whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose, that he might know your estate and comfort your hearts." In these examples, we do not perceive a cen to of phrases gathered from one composition, and strung together in the other; but the occasional occurrence of the same expression to a mind a second time revolving the same ideas. 2. Whoever writes two letters, or two discourses, nearly upon the same subject, and at no great distance of time, but without any express recollection of what he had written before, will find himself repeating some sentences, in the very order of the words in which he had already used them; but he will more frequently find himself employing some principa terms, with the order inadvertently changed, This quotation is the more observable, be- or with the order disturbed by the intermixture cause the connecting of things in earth with of other words and phrases expressive of ideas things in heaven is a very singular sentiment, rising up at the time; or in many instances and found no where else but in these two epis-repeating not single words, nor yet whole sertles. The words also are introduced and tences, but parts and fragments of sentences followed by a train of thought nearly alike. Of all these varieties the examination of our They are introduced by describing the union which Christ had effected, and they are followed by telling the Gentile churches that they were incorporated into it. Ephes. ch. iii. 2. "The dispensation of the grace of God, which is given me to you ward."¶ two epistles will furnish plain examples: and I should rely upon this class of instances more than upon the last; because, although an impostor might transcribe into a forgery entire sentences and phrases, yet the dislocation of words, the partial recollection of phrases and sentences, the intermixture of new terms and | new ideas with terms and ideas before used, which will appear in the examples that follow, Of these sentences it may likewise be ob- and which are the natural properties of writserved that the accompanying ideas are simi-ings produced under the circumstances in which lar. In both places they are immediately pre- these epistles are represented to have been ceded by the mention of his present sufferings; composed-would not, I think, have occurin both places they are immediately followed by the mention of the mystery which was the great subject of his preaching. Colos. ch. i. 25. "The dispensation of God which is given to me for you."** Ephes. ch. v. 19. "In psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord."†† When verbal comparisons are relied upon, t becomes necessary to state the original; but that the Eng lish reader may be interrupted as little as may be, I shall in general do this in the notes. † Ephes. ch. i. 7. Ev & exquer any atokvrgwr die Tou αίματος αυτού, την άφεσιν των ταραττωμάτων. Colos. ch i. 14 EXOLLY THE TOUTENTIV dia Too αίματος αυτού, την αφίσιν των αμαρτιών However it must be observed, that in this latter text many copies have not δια του αίματος αυτού. { Ephes. ch. i. 10. Τα τε εν τοις ουρανοίς και τα επί της γης, εν αυτω. red to the invention of a forger; nor, if they had occurred, would they have been so easily executed. This studied variation was a refinement in forgery which I believe did not exist; or, if we can suppose it to have been practised in the instances adduced below, why, it may be asked, was not the same art exercised upon those which we have collected in the preceding class? Ephes. chap. i. 19. ch. ii. 5. "Towards us who believe according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead (and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly | Colos, ch. i. 20. Δί αυτού, είτε τα επί της γης, είτε τα ] * Colas ch. iii. 16. Ψαλμοις και ύμνοις και ωδαις πνευματικαίς, εν χαριτι άδοντες ν τῇ καρδίᾳ ύμων των † Colas. ch. iv. 8 Οι επεμψα προς ύμας εις αυτό του το ένα γνω τα πολι ύμων, και παρακαλέση τας καρδια |