82 HORiE PAULINA. 



not apprehend, that after this it can he necessary to call to 

 our aid the reading of the Alexandrian manuscript, which 

 gives troiiiug ex(o cMelv in the thirteenth chapter as well as in 

 the twelfth; or of the Syriac and Coptic versions, which fol- 

 low that reading ; because I allow that this reading, besides 

 not being sufficiently supported by ancient copies, is probably 

 paraphrastical, and has been inserted for the purpose of ex- 

 pressing more unequivocally the sense which the shortei 

 expression rphov tovto epxofiai was supposed to carry. Upon 

 the whole, the matter is sufficiently certain : nor do I pro- 

 pose it as a new interpretation of the text which contains the 

 difficulty, for the same was given by Grotius long ago ; but 

 I thought it the clearest way of explaining the subject, to 

 describe the manner in which the difficulty, the solution, 

 and the proofs of that solution successively presented them- 

 selves to my inquiries. Now, in historical researches, a rec- 

 onciled inconsistency becomes a positive argument. First, 

 because an impostor generally guards against the appear- 

 ance of inconsistency ; and secondly, because, when apparent 

 inconsistencies are found, it is seldom that any thing but truth 

 renders them capable of reconciliation. The existence of the 

 difficulty proves the want or absence of that caution which 

 usually accompanies the consciousness of fraud ; and the solu- 

 tion proves, that it is not the collusion of fortuitous proposi- 

 tions which we have to deal with, but that a thread of truth 

 winds through the whole, which preserves every circum- 

 stance in its place. 



XII. Chap. 10 : 14—16 : "We are come as far as to you 

 also in preaching the gospel of Christ : not boasting of tilings 

 without our measure, that is, of other men's labors ; but 

 having hope, when your faith is increased, that we shall be 

 enlarged by you according to our rule abundantly to preach 

 the gospel in the regions beyond you." 



This quotation aflbrds an indirect, and therefore unsus- 

 picious, but at the same time a distinct and indubitable 

 recognition of the truth and exactness of the history I con- 



