pears to dismiss them all in anger, faying-' Well fpoke the Holy Ghoft by Efaias the prophet unto our fathers, faying-Go unto this people, and fay-Hearing ye fhall hear and shall not understand and feeing ye fhall fee, and not 'perceive for the heart of this people is waxed grofs, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they clofed; left they should fee with their eyes, and ear with their ears, and ⚫ understand with their heart, and fhould be converted, and I fhould heal them :' concluding with-Be it known therefore unto you, that the • falvation of God is fent unto the Gentiles; and that they will hear it.' This, if they believed it, muft have been a very mortifying informa tion to the Jews. The conclufion of this hiftory, called The Acts of the Apoftles, is- And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all that came unto him ; preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching thofe things which concern the Lord Jefus • Chrift, with all confidence, no man forbidding him. Nor doth Luke tell us that any man, Jew or Gentile, profited by it. He gives us no account of Paul's examination, acquittal, or departure from Rome. Probably, as he made few or no profelytes, he remained there unmolefted, and departed thence unnoticed. Where he went, or what he did, the two following years, we have no certain account; but it is faid that in the year 64 or 65 he returned to Rome, where, as a teacher or incendiary, he attracted the notice of the police; under thefe circumstances, in a letter to his friend Timothy, he complains- Demas hath forfaken me, having loved this prefent world, and is departed into Theffalonica, Crefcens into < Galatia, and Titus into Dalmatia. He fums up all in faying-At my firft answer no man food with me, but all men forfook me, adding I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge. This, if ferious, is Chriftian charity but when he mentions his opponent Alexander the copper-fmith, who he faid-Did me much mifchief, added-The Lord reward him according to his works. This furely breathes not the true fpirit of Chriftian charity. Another inftance of this kind he gives in his first letter to Timothy, faying-Holding faith and a good confcience; which fome having put away, concerning faith have made fhipwreck. Of whom is Hymeneus and Alexander, whom I have deliver ed unto Satan (his reafon for fo doing, is such as Pagan, Jew, nor Chriftian could ever have furmifed) that they may learn not to blafpheme me. The contrary ought rather to have been expected from the tuition of their new mafter; but were we disposed to fall in with the faintly fashion, and transform every fimple faying into prophecy; we might paraphrafe this of Paul's, in the manner St. John has done that of Caiaphas, ch. xi, v. 49 to to 52. Hymeneus taught that the refurrection was already paft; and that the only refurrection to be expected, was a fpiritual one from fin to grace this doctrine being much more probable than Paul's refurrection of the body; is the more likely to be true; and in that cafe, it was certainly the business of Satan to put him from it. Paul, in his Epiftle to the Galatians (as has been remarked *) faid-' Though an angel from Hea ven preached any other gospel unto you, than that which we have preached, let him be ac7 curfed.' It hath been already proved, and will be more fully, that Paul himself after that, did preach a different gospel; and as there was, it feems, a poffibility that an angel from Heaven (unrestrained by Paul's curfe which was infufficient to bind himself) might preach a different doctrine and if fo, it is likewife poffible this different doctrine, might be that of Hymeneus. The preachings of St. Paul, being effectually filenced by the Romans, in or near the year 65, we will now examine his works in the order of time in which they are fupposed to have been written. A. D. 52 Chapters i, ii, and iii,-Prayers to God the Fa- 1 Ep. Theff. ther. Chapter iv.-Speaks of the Day of Judgment as if to happen in his time. 274 A. D. 52 Chapter v.-Directs prayers to be made to God. 2 Ep. Theff. Chapter i.-Recounts his own prayers to God for them. Chapter. ii.-Having, in his firft epiftle alarmed them by faying the Day of Judgement was at hand, he here tells them that Satan did and would prevent that day. In his 2d Epiftle to Timothy ch. ii, v. 25 and 26, he says-' In meeknefs in ftructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth (did he himself act thus in the cafe of Elymus, Hymeneus, or Alexander?) and that they may recover themfelves out of the fnare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.' From these, and fome other parts of his writings (Vide Ephefians ch. vi, v. 12.) I am inclined to think St. Paul believed that Satan had the rule of the world, from the fall of Adam to the Day of Judgment. Probably this opinion was founded upon what Jefus fays in Mark ch. xiii. particularly in v. 20- And except that the Lord has fhortened thofe days, no flesh fhould be faved.' In the 2d chapter of his 2d Epiftle to the Theffalonians, Paul fays of the people who would be deceived by AntiChrift, the Pope, the Devil, or, I know not who; that God fhall fend them ftrong délufions that they 'fhould believe a lie; that they all might be damned who believed not the truth.' Who, in their fenfes, can believe that God would do this? A. D. 52 St. James, the brother of Jefus, informs us better- If any man lack wifdom, let him afk of 2 Ep. Theff. God that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not, and it fhall be given him,' ch. i, v. 5. And in v. 13 and 14 of the fame he fays Let no man fay when he is tempted; I am tempted of God; for God cannot be tempted. with evil, neither tempteth he any man. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own luit, and enticed.' Thefe, we fhall find, are not the only inftances in which (to the honor of St. James) the two faints differ very 56 materially. Paul's next Epiftle is to the Galatians, Galatians. fix chapters in which he exceedingly exalts himself and his doctrine, as I have already fhewn, leffens the other apoftles, and quarrels with St. Peter. He explodes the law of Mofes, and though his inftructer had declared it fhould end but with the world, he endeavours to fupprefs it, fayingBehold, I Paul fay unto you, that if ye be circumcifed Chrift fhall profit you nothing.' Speaking of his oppofers with refpect to this doctrine, he fays I would they were even cut off which 'trouble you.' We meet with many of these Anti-Christian speeches in the works of this faint which if brought into one point of view, would justify the un-kalendering him. In ch. iii. V. 13, he says-Chrift hath redeemed us from * Vide page 252. + Pages 253, 255, 273, 274, 275, 285. T 2 • the |