EXPOSITION OF THE ARGUMENT. 13 



vat ion this important circumstance, that whatever ascer- 

 tains the original of one epistle, in some measure establisheg 

 the authority of the rest. For, whether these epistles be 

 genuine or spurious, every thing about them indicates that 

 they come from the same hand. The diction, which it is 

 extremely difficult to imitate, preserves its resemblance and 

 peculiarity throughout all the epistles. Numerous expres- 

 sions and singularities of style, foun^d in no other part of the 

 New Testament, are repeated in different epistles ; and oc- 

 cur in their respective places, without the smallest appear- 

 ance of force or art. An involved argumentation, frequent 

 obscurities, especially in the order and transition of thought, 

 piety, vehemence, aflection, bursts of rapture, and of unpar- 

 alleled sublimity, are properties, all or most of them, dis- 

 cernible in every letter of the collection. But although 

 these epistles bear strong marks of proceeding from the same 

 hand, I think it is still more certain that they were originally 

 separate publications. They form no continued story ; they 

 compose no regular correspondence ; they comprise not the 

 transactions of any particular period ; they carry on no con- 

 nection of argument ; they depend not upon one another ; 

 except in one or two instances, they refer not to one another. 

 I will further undertake to say, that no study or care has 

 been employed to produce or preserve an appearance of con- 

 sistency among them. All which observations show that 

 they were not intended by the person, whoever he was, that 

 wrote them, to come forth or be read together — that they 

 appeared at first separa*;^ly, and have been collected since. 



The proper purpose of the following work is to bring 

 together, from the Acts of the Apostles, and from the differ- 

 ent epistles, such passages as furnish examples of undesigned 

 coincidence ; but I have so far enlarged upon this phiu, as 

 to take into it some circumst£\nces found in the epictlcs, 

 which contributed strength t<* the CD.icluslou, though not 

 strictly objects of comparison. 



It appeared also a part of ths sanrie plan Iq nx^v^n^ ♦he 



