1803.1 
ture has been of great ftay to me.—Read 
Ifaiah 8. roth. 13.434. Read all the chap- 
ter. 
. I am informed, from good hands, that 
a poor godly man died in Prelton the day 
before the fight; and, being fick near the 
hour of his death, he defired the woman, 
that looked to him, to fetch him a hand- 
ful of grafs. She did fo; and, when he 
received it, he afked, whether it would 
wither or not, now it was cut? The wo- 
man faid, yea. He replied, fo fhould this 
army of the Scots do, and come to nothing, 
fo foon'as our’s did but appear, or words 
to this effect, and fo immediately died. 
My fervice to Mr. W. P. Sr. J. E. and 
the reft of our good friends. I,hope I 
do often remember you. Your's, 
O. CROMWELL. 
My fervice to Frank Ruffell, 
and honeft Pickering 
Sept. 1, Kuarefborough. 
for my worthy Friend, Oliwer St. Fokn, 
Lg. Solicitor General, thefeat 
Liacola's Inn. 
DR. JOHNSON. 
In the year 1768, the King of Denmark 
vifited England, and amongft the gentle- 
men of his fuite, was Comte de Holcke, 
Grand-matter of the Wardrobe, a gentle- 
~man of confiderable celebrity for polite 
learning and claffical erudition. This 
gentleman had heard much of Dr. Jobn- 
fon’s literary fame, and was therefore an- 
xious tofee him, Through the intereft of 
Dr. Brocklefby, he was enabled to pay 
Johnfon a morning-vifit. They had a 
jong converfation. Next day Comte de 
Hoicke dined with Lord Temple in Pall- 
mall, where he met with Mr. W. G. Ha- 
milton (conrmonly called Single-{peech 
Hamilton), who, knowing of his vifit to 
Johnfon, aiked him what he thought of 
Johnion?. Holcke replied, that of all the 
literary impottors and pedants he had ever 
met with, he thought Johnfon the greateft 
~—{o fhallow a fellow, he faid, he had ne- 
ver feen ! 
On the CONFECTION of the acrs of. the 
APOSTLES. 
A. diftinguithed correfpondent has (vol. 
XIV. p. 377.) fupported with ftrong and 
convincing arguments the cpinion that 
Silas and Luke are the fame perfon; but 
he is furely lefs evidently jultified in af- 
cribing to this writer the whole. book of 
Ags. 
The firft twelve chapters relate only to 
the miniftry of Peter. They mu& then. 
have been originally drawn vp by Peter 
himlelf, or by his Greek fecretary Mark ; 
From the Port-folio of a Man of Letters. 153 
for feveral faéts, fuch as the baptifm of 
the eunuch, could only be known from 
Peter’s perfonal teftimony. 
The dedication and introdu&tion, which 
fill up eleven verfes of the firft chapter, 
and the vifion of Paul,which fills up thirty- 
one verfes of the ninth chapter, may well 
be fubfequent interpolations, added when 
the Aéts of Peter were firft united with 
the Aéts of Paul. But, with thefe excep- 
tions, theAéts of Peter form a continuous 
narrative, fo widely different in character 
from the Acts of Paul, that it is hardly 
poffible to conceive them effluent from 
the fame pen. ‘There is a headlong ho- 
neft zeal, an artlefs wondering © fim- 
plicity, a lack of moral refinement, 
(which narrates, for inftance, the ftory of 
Ananias and Sapphira, as if it clearly did 
honour to the apoftles, ) and a fincere mo- 
defty,in the memorialif of Peter, through- 
out confiftent with his own character, and 
favourable to confidence. To Paul, or 
his delineator, belong ’a higher vigor. of 
mind, a loftier moral tafte, a more culti- 
vated overawing eloquence, an ambitious 
importance, and.a calculated daring, 
which in action ftrides to the very verge 
of fafety; and in narration, of probability. 
It is mott likely therefore that thefe two 
miffonary journals were originally drawn 
upapart; Peter’s by himfelf,and done into 
Greek by * Mark; Paul’s by the joint 
labour of himfelf and Silas. 
If the Aéts of Peter had been prefixed 
to thofe of Paul by Silas, the artificial an- 
ticipation or repetition of Paui’s vifion, 
(compare Acts IX, 1—31. with Adis 
XXII, 6—16.) would probably have been 
avoided, ana the fecond narrative further 
abridged ; yet many paflages-occur in 
the Aéts of Paul, which imply the pre- 
vious perufal of the Aéts of Peter; and 
the Dying Speech of Stephen may be 
thought to come mended from the pen of 
Silas. It is not unlikely that a collec- 
tion of the canonical Chrittian Scriptures 
was undertaken at Antioch, by Cerin- 
thus, or fome other adherent of Aridius 
Caffius, while Theophiius was  bifhop 
there. To this Theophilus perhaps the. 
Ass are infcribed, as having been then 
firft united. 
The Acts of Peter feerm intended for 
a continuation of the Golpel. called. 
Mark’s, which Peter, no doubt, drew up 
in the vernacular diale&t of Judea. At. 
* As Peter fends his firft epiftle from Ba- 
bylon, by Silvanus, who is all one with Si- 
las, he may have employed the fame tranf- 
lator as Paul. 
Usa leafk 
ee eee 
