EPISTLE TO THE TtALATIANS, I03 



The shortness of St. Paul's stay at Jerusalem is what I 

 desire the reader to remark. The direct account of the same 

 journey in the Acts, chap. 9 : 28, determines nothing con- 

 cerning the time of his continuance there: "And he was 

 with them," the apostles, " coming in and going out at Jerusa- 

 lem And he spake boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus, 

 and disputed against the Grecians ; but they went about to 

 slay him. Which when the brethren knew, they brought 

 him down to Cesarea." Or rather this account, taken by 

 itself, would lead a reader to suppose that St. Paul's abode 

 at Jerusalem had been longer than fifteen days. But turn 

 to the twenty-second chapter of the Acts, and you will find 

 a reference to this visit to Jerusalem, which plainly indi- 

 cates that Paul's continuance in that city had been of short 

 duration : " And it came to pass, that, when I M^as come 

 again to Jerusalem, even while I prayed in the temple, I 

 was in a trance ; and saw him saying unto me, Make haste, 

 and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem ; for they will not re- 

 ceive thy testimony concerning me." Here we have the 

 general terms of one text so explained by a distant text in 

 the same book, as to bring an indeterminate expression into 

 a close conformity with a specification delivered in another 

 book : a species of consistency not, I think, usually found in 

 fabulous relations. 



IX. Chap. 6:11: "Ye see how large a letter I have 

 written unto you with mine own hand." 



These words imply that he did not always write with 

 his own hand ; which is consonant to what we find intima- 

 ted in some other of the epistles. The epistle to the Ro- 

 mans was written by Tertius : " I Tertius, who wrote this 

 epistle, salute you in the Lord." Chap. 16 : 22. The first 

 epistle to the Corinthians, the epistle to the Colossians, and 

 the second epistle to the Thessalonians, have all, near the 

 conclusion, this clause, "the salutation of me, Paul, with 

 mine own hand;" which must be understood, and is uni- 

 versally understood to import, that the rest of the epittie 



