220 HOR^ PAULINA. 



"We ourselves glory in you in the churches of God, foi 

 your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribula- 

 tions that ye endure." 2 Thess. 1 : 4. 



We may seem to have accumulated texts unnecessarily , 

 but besides that the point which they are brought to prove 

 is of great importance, there is this also to be remarked in 

 every one of the passages cited, that the allusion is drawn 

 from the writer by the argument or the occasion — that the 

 notice which is taken of his sufferings, and of the suffering 

 condition of Christianity, is perfectly incidental, and is dic- 

 tated by no design of stating the facts themselves. Indeed, 

 they are not stated at all : they may rather be said to be 

 assumed. This is a distinction upon which we have relied 

 a good deal in former parts of this treatise ; and where the 

 writer's information cannot be doubted, it always, in my opin 

 ion, adds greatly to the value and credit of the testimony. 



If any reader require from the apostle more direct and 

 exphcit assertions of the same thing, he will receive full 

 satisfaction in the following quotations : 



"Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool,) I am 

 more ; in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, 

 in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five 

 times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten 

 with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a 

 night and a day I have been in the deep ; in journeyings 

 often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by 

 mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in 

 the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in 

 perils among false brethren ; in weariness and painfulness ; 

 in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, 

 in cold and nakedness." 2 Cor. 11 : 23-27. 



Can it be necessary to add more? "I think that God 

 hath s'3t forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed t'j 

 death ; for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to 

 angels, and to men. Even unto this present hour we both 

 hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and ar^ buffeted, and have 



