What belongs to our present purpose is the description exhibited of the apostle's sufferings: and the representation, given in the history, of the dangers and distresses which he underwent, not only agrees, in general, with the language which he himself uses, whenever he speaks of his life or ministry, but is also, in many instances, attested by a specific correfpondency of time, place, and order of events. If the historian puts down in his narrative that at Philippi the apostle "was beaten with many stripes, cast into prison, and there treated with rigor and indignity *," we find him, in a lettert to a neighbouring church, reminding his converts, that, "after he had fuffered before, and was shamefully entreated at Philippi, he was bold, nevertheless, to speak unto them (to whose city he next came) the Gospel of God." If the hiftory relate, that, at Theffalonica, the house in which the apostle was lodged, when he first came to that place, was assaulted by the populace, and the master of it dragged be

* Acts xvi. 24. † 1 Theff. ii. 2. † Acts xvii. 57.

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fore the magiftrate for admitting such a guest within his doors, the apostle, in his letters to the Christians of Thessalonica, calls to their remembrance " how they had received the Gospel in much affliction*." If the hiftory deliver an account of an insurrection at Ephefus, which had nearly cost the apostle his life, we have the apostle himself, in a letter written a short time after his departure from that city, describing his defpair, and returning thanks for his deliverancet. If the history inform us, that the apostle was expelled from Antioch in Pisidia, attempted to be ftoned at Iconium, and actually stoned at Lystra, there is preserved a letter from him to a favorite convert, whom, as the fame hiftory tells us, he first met with in these parts; in which letter he appeals to that disciple's knowledge "of the perfecutions which befel him at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra ‡." If the history make the apostle, in his speech to the Ephefian elders, remind them, as one

*

† Acts xix. 2 Cor. i. 8, 9.

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proof of the disinterestedness of his views, that, to their knowledge, he had fupplied his own and the necessities of his companions by personal labour *, we find the same apostle, in a letter written during his residence at Ephefus, asserting of himself, " that even to that hour he laboured, working with his own hands t.

These coincidences, together with many relative to other parts of the apostle's history; and all drawn from independent fources, not only confirm the truth of the account, in the particular points as to which they are observed, but add much to the credit of the narrative in all its parts; and support the author's profession of being a contemporary of the perfon whose history he writes, and, throughout a material portion of his narrative, a companion.

What the epistles of the apostles declare of the suffering ftate of Chriftianity, the writ

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ings which remain of their companions, and immediate followers exprefsly confirm.

Clement, who is honourably mentioned by St. Paul in his epistle to the Philippians*, hath left us his attestation to this point in the following words: "Let us take (says he) the examples of our own age. Through zeal and envy the most faithful and righteous pillars of the church have been perfecuted even to the most grievous deaths. Let us fet before our eyes the holy apostles. Peter, by unjust envy, underwent, not one or two, but many fufferings; till at last being martyred, he went to the place of glory that was due unto him. For the fame cause did Paul, in like manner, receive the reward of his patience. Seven times he was in bonds; he was whipped, was stoned; he preached both in the east and in the west, leaving behind him the glorious report of his faith: and so having taught the whole world righteoufness, and for that end travelled even

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unto the utmost bounds of the west, he at last suffered martyrdom by the command of the governors, and departed out of the world, and went unto his holy place, being become a most eminent pattern of patience unto all ages. To these holy apostles were joined a very great number of others, who, having through envy undergone, in like manner, many pains and torments, have left a glorious example to us, For this, not only men, but women, have been perfecuted; and having fuffered very grievous and cruel punishments, have finished the course of their faith with firmness *."

Hermas, faluted by St. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans, in a piece very little connected with historical recitals, thus fpeaks"Such as have believed and suffered death for the name of Christ, and have endured with a ready mind, and have given up their lives with all their hearts †,"

* Clem. ad Cor. c. v. vi. Abp. Wake's tranf,
† Shepherd of Hermas, c. xxviii.

Polycarp,