ferable. "King Agrippa," (continues verse 27) “be"lievest thou the prophets? I know that thou be"lievest."

King Agrippa to Paul, ver. 28. "Almost thou per"suadest me to be a Christian."

Paul to Agrippa: "I would to God, that not only "thou, but also all that hear me this day were both "almost and altogether such as I am, except these "bonds." No bad trait of polite oratory this exception.

Assembly breaks up.-30. "And when he had thus spoken, the King rose up, and the governor and Ber"nice, and they that sat with them. 31. And when they were gone aside, they talked between themselves, saying, This man doeth nothing worthy of death "or of bonds. 32. Then said Agrippa unto Festus, "This man might have been set at liberty, if he had "not appealed unto Cæsar." Observation. In this observation, something of the obscure seems to present itself. For, Paul himself being the appellant, and that for no other purpose than the saving himself from death or bonds, he had but to withdraw the appeal, and, supposing a judgment pronounced to the effect thus mentioned, this was every thing he could have wished from it. But, Paul having already, to judge from his Epistle to the Romans, laid the foundation of a spiritual kingdom in the metropolis of the civilized world,-it looks as if he had no objection to figure there, as we shall find him figuring accordingly, in the character of a state-prisoner, for the purpose of displaying, and in the eye of the Cæsar of that day, a sample of his eloquence, in a cause so much greater than any in which that of the first Cæsar could ever have displayed itself. Reason is not wanting for the supposition, that it was by what passed at the council, that the idea was first suggested to him: for "the night following, the Lord (says xxiii. 11.) stood by

"him, and said, Be of good cheer, Paul; for as thou "hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear "witness also at Rome." The Lord has commanded me so and so, is the sort of language in which he would naturally make communication of this idea to his attendants.

The circumstantiated and dramatic style of this part of the narrative, seems to add to the probability, that, on this occasion, the historian himself was present. On this supposition, though in the Greek as well as in the English, they are represented as if they had quitted the justice-room,-any conversation, that took place among them immediately after, in the street, might not unnaturally have been overheard by him. In chapter xxiv. ver. 23. stands Felix's order of admittance, as above, for Paul's acquaintance, to minister or come to him. One other attendant has appeared, in the character of his sister's son (Acts xxiii. 16); by whom information was given to Felix, that the men there spoken of were lying in wait for him to kill him. On the occasion of this invasion of his, it would have been interesting enough to have had a complete list of his staff.

Here ends trial fifth and last: and in the next verse it is, that, together with other prisoners, and the historian at least for his free attendant, he is dispatched on his voyage. Acts xxvii. 1. "And when it was de"termined that we should sail into Italy, they deli"vered Paul and certain other prisoners unto one “named Julius, a centurion of Augustus' band."2. And entering into a ship of Adramyttium, we "launched....

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CHAPTER XVI.

Paul's Doctrines Anti-apostolic.-Was he not Anti

Christ?

SECTION 1.

PAUL'S DOCTRINE WAS AT VARIANCE WITH THAT OF THE APOSTLES.

IF Paul's pretensions to a supernatural intercourse with the Almighty were no better than a pretence ;his visit to Jerusalem, from first to last, an object of abhorrence to the Apostles and all their disciples; in a word, to all, who in the birth-place of Christianity, bore the name of Christian, and were regarded as belonging to the religion of Jesus;—if, not only to their knowledge, but to that of the whole population of Jerusalem, he was a depraved character, marked by the stain, not merely of habitual insincerity, but of perjury in its most aggravated form;-if it was no otherwise than by his having declared himself a Roman citizen, that he escaped from the punishment-apparently a capital one-attached by the law of the land to the crimes of which he had been guilty; if, in a word, it was only in places, in which Jesus-his doctrines, and his Apostles were alike unknown, that this self-declared Apostle of Jesus was received as such;-if all, or though it were but some, of these points may be regarded as established, any further proof, in support of the position, that no doctrine of his, which is not contained in some one or other of the four Gospels, has any pretension to be regarded as part and parcel of the religion of Jesus, might well, in any ordinary case, be regarded as superfluous: and,

of the several charges here brought to view, whether there be any one, of the truth of which the demonstration is not complete, the reader has all along been invited to consider with himself, and judge. If thereupon the judgment be condemnatory, the result is that whatever is in Paul, and is not to be found in any one of the four Gospels, is not Christianity, but Paulism.

In any case of ordinary complexion, sufficient then, it is presumed, to every judicious eye, would be what the reader has seen already: but the present case is no ordinary case. An error, if such it be, which notwithstanding all the sources of correction, which in the course of the work have at length been laid open and brought to view, has now, for upwards of seventeen centuries past, maintained its ground throughout the Christian world, cannot, without the utmost reluctance, be parted with: for dissolving the association so unhappily formed, scarcely, therefore, can any argument which reason offers be deemed superfluous.

For this purpose, one such argument, though on a preceding occasion already touched upon, remains to be brought to view. It consists of his own confession. Confession? say rather avowal: for-such is the temper of the man-in the way of boasting it is, not in the way of concession and self-humiliation that he comes out with it. Be this as it may-when, speaking of the undoubted Apostles, he himself declares, that he has received nothing from them, and that he has doctrines which are not theirs, shall he not obtain credence? Yes: for this once, it should seem, he may, without much danger of error, be taken at his word.

To see this-if he can endure the sight-will not cost the reader much trouble, Table II. Paul disbelieved Table, lies before him. Under the head of

Independence declared, in Paul's Epistle to his Galatians, chapter i. verses 11, 12, he will find these words. "But I certify you, brethren, that the Gospel "which was preached of me is not after man: for "I neither received it of man, neither was I taught, "but by the revelation of Jesus Christ." Thus far Paul. If then it was not received by him by the revelation of Jesus Christ-this Gospel of his; nor yet, as he assures us," of man,"-the consequence is a necessary one-it was made by him, out of his own head.

SECTION 2.

OF CONFORMITY, USE MADE OF THE NAME OF JESUS NO PROOF.

Or the name of Jesus, whatever use he may have made-made (as it was seen) without authority-can any use, made in contradiction to this his own confession, afford any the slightest ground for regarding his Gospel, whatever it be,-his Gospel, or any part of it, as belonging to the religion of Jesus? If so, then are all impostors the persons they falsely pretend to be-all counterfeit productions of any kind, ge

nuine ones.

While preaching to Gentiles at a distance from Jerusalem, from any use he could have the assurance to make of so revered a name, it is almost superfluous to observe, how much he had to gain, and how little to lose. In a case of this sort, how much soever there may be that is offensive in the demeanour of the pretended agent eulogizing, no part of it is ascribed to the pretended principal eulogized: and, in such his eulogy, the pretended agent is not hampered by any of those considerations, by which he would stand precluded from all prospect of advantage, had he the ef