EiMSlLE TO THE GALATJANS. 99 



suited to the place in which it is found. In the epistle to 

 the Corinthians, the train of thought draws up to the cir- 

 cumstance by a regular approximation. In this epistle, it is 

 suirgestcd by the subject and occasion of the epistio itself. 

 Which observation we offer as an argument to prove that it 

 is not, in either epistle, a circumstance industriously brought 

 forward for the sake of procuring credit to an imposture. 



A reader will be taught to perceive the force of this argu- 

 ment, who shall attempt to introduce a given circumstance 

 into the body of a writing. To do this without abruptness, 

 or without betraying marks of design in the transition, 

 requires, he will find, more art than ne expected to be neces- 

 sary, certainly more than any one can believe to have been 

 exercised in the composition of these epistles. 



V. Chap. 4 : 29 : " But as then he that was born after 

 the flesh persecuted him that v/as born after the Spirit, even 

 50 it is now." 



Chap. 5:11: " And I, brethren, if I yet preach circum- 

 cision, why do I yet suffer persecution ? then is the oflence 

 Df the cross ceased." 



Chap. 6:17: " From henceforth, let no man trouble 

 me ; for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." 



From these several texts, it is apparent that the perse- 

 cutions which our apostle had undergone, were from the 

 hands or by the instigation of the Jews ; that it was not for 

 preaching Christianity in opposition to heathenism, but it 

 was for preaching it as distinct from Judaism, that he had 

 brought upon himself the sufferings which had attended his 

 ministry. And this representation perfectly coincides with 

 that w^hich results from the detail of St. Paul's history, as 

 delivertd in the Acts. At Antioch, in Pisidia, the " word A 

 the Lord was published throughout all the region. But the 

 Jeivs stirred up the devout and honorable women, and the 

 chief men of the city, and raised persecution against Paul 

 and Barnabas, and expelled them out of their coasts." Acts 

 13 : 49, 5C. Not long after, at Iconium, " a great multitude 



