ly; for, had the ancient atteftations to this valuable record been lefs fatisfactory than they are, the unaffectedness and fimplicity with which the author notices his prefence upon certain occafions, and the entire abfence of art and design from these notices, would have been fufficient to persuade my mind, that, whoever he was, he actually lived in the times, and occupied the fituation, in which he reprefents himself to be. When I fay" whoever he was," I do not mean to cast a doubt upon the name to which antiquity hath afcribed the Acts of the Apoftles (for there is no caufe, that I am acquainted with, for queftioning it), but to observe, that, in such a cafe as this, the time and fituation of the author is of more importance than his name; and that these appear from the work itself, and in the most unsuspicious form. II. That this account is a very incomplete account of the preaching and propagation of Christianity; I mean, that, if what we read in the hiftory be true, much more than than what the history contains must be true alfo. For, although the narrative from which our information is derived has been entitled the Acts of the Apoftles, it is in fact a history of the twelve apoftles only during a fhort time of their continuing together at Jerufalem; and even of this period the account is very concife. The work afterwards confifts of a few important paffages of Pe ter's ministry, of the fpeech and death of Stephen, of the preaching of Philip the deacon; and the sequel of the volume, that is, two thirds of the whole, is taken up with the converfion, the travels, the discourses and history of the new apoftle Paul, in which history also large portions of time are often paffed over with very fcanty notice. III. That the account, fo far as it goes, is for this very reafon more credible. Had it been the author's design to have displayed the early progress of Christianity, he would undoubtedly have collected, or, at least, have fet forth, accounts of the preaching of the reft of the apostles, who cannot, without ex treme treme improbability, be supposed to have remained filent and inactive, or not to have met with a fhare of that fuccefs which attended their colleagues. To which may be added, as an observation of the fame kind, IV. That the intimations of the number of converts, and of the fuccefs of the preaching of the apoftles, come out for the most part incidentally; are drawn from the historian by the occafion; fuch as the murmuring of the Grecian converts, the rest from perfe cution, Herod's death, the fending of Barnabas to Antioch and Barnabas calling Paul to his affiftance, Paul coming to a place and finding there difciples, the clamour of the Jews, the complaint of artificers interested in the fupport of the popular religion, the reafon affigned to induce Paul to give fatisfaction to the Chriftians of Jerufalem. Had it not been for thefe occafions, it is probable that no notice whatever would have been taken of the number of converts, in feveral of the paffages in which that notice now appears. All this tends to remove VOL. II. the the fufpicion of a defign to exaggerate or deceive. PARALLEL TESTIMONIES with the hiftory, are the letters which have come down to us of St. Paul, and of the other apoftles. Those of St. Paul are addreffed to the churches of Corinth, Philippi, Theffalonica, the church of Galatia, and, if the infcription be right, of Ephefus, his ministry at all which places is recorded in the history; to the church of Coloffe, or rather to the churches of Coloffe and Laodicea jointly, which he had not then vifited. They recognize by reference the churches of Judea, the churches of Afia, and "all the churches of the Gentiles *." In the epiftlet to the Romans, the author is led to deliver a remarkable declaration concerning the extent of his preaching, its efficacy, and the cause to which he ascribes it, "to make the Gentiles obedient by word and deed, through mighty figns and wonders, by the power of * I Theff. ii. 14. Rom. xv. 18, 19. the the Spirit of God; fo that from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gofpel of Chrift." In the epiftle to the Coloffians*, we find an oblique but very ftrong fignification of the then general state of the Chriftian mission, at leaft as it appeared to St. Paul: " If ye continue in the faith, grounded and fettled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven;" which gospel, he had reminded them near the beginning of his letter, "was prefent with them as it was in all the world." The expreffions are hyperbolical; but they are hyperboles which could only be used by a writer who entertained a strong fense of the fubject. The firft epistle of Peter accofts the Chriftians dispersed throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Afia and Bithynia. It comes next to be confidered, how far *Col. i. 23. + Ib. i. 6. thefe |