S(^ K0R2E VAULmJE. 



We have the disposition here described exemplified in 

 two instances which the history records ; one, Acts 16:3: 

 " Him," Timothy, " would Paul have to go forth with him : 

 and took and circumcised him, because of the Jeivs ivhich 

 were in those quarters; for they knew all that his father 

 was a Greek." This was before the writing of the epistle 

 The other, Acts 21 : 23, 26, and after the writing of the 

 epistle: "Do therefore this that we say to thee : "VVe have 

 four men which have a vow on them : them take, and pu- 

 rify thyself with them, and be at charges with them, that 

 they may shave their heads : and all may know that those 

 things whereof they were informed concerning thee, are 

 nothing ; but that thou thyself also walkest orderly, and 

 keepest the law. Then Paul took the men, and the next 

 (\2ij purifying himself ivith them, entered into the templet 

 Nor does this concurrence between the character and the 

 instances look like the result of contrivance. St. Paul in 

 the epistle describes, or is made to describe his own accom- 

 modating conduct towards Jews and towards Gentiles, 

 towards the weak and over-scrupulous, towards men, indeed, 

 of every variety of character : "To them that are without 

 law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but 

 under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are 

 without law. To the weak became I as weak, that I might 

 gain the weak : I am made all things to all men, that 1 

 might by all means save some." This is the sequel of the 

 text which stands at the head of the present number. Tak- 

 ing, therefore, the whole passage together, the apostle's con- 

 descension to the Jews is mentioned only as a part of his 

 general disposition towards all. It is not probable that this 

 character should have been made up from the instances in 

 the Acts, which relate solely to his dealings with the Jews. 

 It is not probable that a sophist should take his hint from 

 those instances, and then extend it so much beyond them ; 

 and it is still more incredible that the two instances in the 

 Acts, circumstantially related and interwoven with the nis- 



