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but, that laying aside all other works, we should meet together every week to hear it read, and gain a perfect understanding of it."

XXX. Acts, xxi. 23.

Joseph. de Bell. l. xi. c. 15. “It is customary for those who have been afflicted with some distemper, or have laboured under any other difficulties, to make a row thirty days before they offer sacrifices, to abstain from wine, and shave the hair of their heads.”

Ib. v. 24.

Joseph. Antiq. 1. xix. c. 6. “He (Herod Agrippa) coming to Jerusalem, offered up sacrifices of thanksgiving, and omitted nothing that was prescribed by the 'law. For which reason he also ordered a good number of Nazarites to be shaved." We here find that it was an act of piety amongst the Jews to defray, for those who were under the Nazarite vow, the expenses which attended its completion; and that the phrase was, "that they might be shaved." The custom and the expression are both remarkable, and both in close conformity with the Scrip

ture account.

XXXI. 2 Cor. xi. 24. "Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes, save one."

Joseph. Antiq. iv. c. 8, sect. 21. "He that acts contrary hereto, let him receive forty stripes, wanting one, from the public officer."

The coincidence here is singular, because the law allowed forty stripes:-" Forty stripes he may give him, and not exceed." Deut. xxv. 3. It proves that the author of the Epistle to the Corinthians was guided, not by books, but by facts; because his statement agrees with the actual custom, even when that custom deviated from the written law, and from what he must have learned by consulting the Jewish code, as set forth in the Old Tes

tament.

XXXII. Luke iii. 12. "Then came also publicans to be baptized." From this quotation, as well as from the history of Levi or Matthew, (Luke v. 29,) and of Zaccheus, (Luke xix. 2,) it appears that the publicans or tax gatherers were, frequently at least, if not always,

Jews: which, as the country was then under a Roman government, and the taxes were paid to the Romans, was a circumstance not to be expected. That it was the truth, however, of the case, appears from a short passage of Josephus.

De Bell. lib. ii. c. 14, sect. 45. "But, Florus not restraining these practices by his authority, the chief men of the Jews, among whom was John the publican, not knowing well what course to take, wait upon Florus, and give him eight talents of silver to stop the building.'

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XXXIII. Acts, xxii. 25. "And as they bound him with thongs, Paul said unto the centurion that stood by, "Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman, and uncondemned?"

"Facinus est vinciri civem Romanum; scelus verberari." Cic. in Verr.

"Cædebatur virgis, in medio foro Messanæ, civis Romanus, Judices: cùm intereà nullus gemitus, nulla vox alia, istius miseri inter dolorem crepitumque plagarum audiebatur, nisi hæc, Civis Romanus sum.'

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XXXIV. Acts, xxii. 27. "Then the chief captain came, and said unto him, (Paul), Tell me, art thou a Roman? He said, Yea." The circumstance here to be noticed is, that a Jew was a Roman citizen.

"Lucius

Joseph. Antiq. lib. xiv. c. 10, sect. 13. Lentulus, the consul, declared, I have dismissed from the service the Jewish Roman citizens, who observe the rites of the Jewish religion at Ephesus.'

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Ib. v. 28. "And the chief captain answered, With a great sum obtained I this freedom."

Dio Cassius, lib. lx. "This privilege, which had been bought formerly at a great price, became so cheap, that it was commonly said a man might be made a Roman citizen for a few pieces of broken glass."

XXXV. Acts, xxviii. 16. "And when we came to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard; but Paul was suffered to dwell by himself, with a soldier that kept him."

With which join ver. 20. am bound with this chain."

For the hope of Israel, I

"Quemadmodùm eadem catena et custodiam et militem copulat; sic ista, quæ tam dissimilia sunt, pariter incedunt." Seneca, Ep. v.

"Proconsul æstimare solet, utrùm in carcerem recipienda sit 'persona, an militi tradenda." Ulpian, 1. i. sect. De Custod. et Exhib. Reor.

In the confinement of Agrippa by the order of Tiberius, Antonia managed, that the centurion who presided over the guards, and the soldier to whom Agrippa was to be bound, might be men of mild character. Joseph. Antiq. lib. xviii. c. 7, sect. 5. After the accession of Caligula, Agrippa also, like Paul, was suffered to dwell, yet as a prisoner, in his own house.

XXXVI. Acts, xxvii. 1.

Since not only Paul, but certain other prisoners were sent by the same ship into Italy, the text must be considered as carrying with it an intimation, that the sending of persons from Judea to be tried at Rome was an ordinary practice. That in truth it was so, is made out by a variety of examples which the writings of Josephus furnish; and, amongst others, by the following, which comes near both to the time and the subject of the instance in the Acts. "Felix, for some slight offence, bound and sent to Rome several priests of his acquaintance, and very good and honest men, to answer for themselves to Cæsar." Joseph. in Vit. sect. 3.

XXXVII. Acts, xi. 27. Joseph. Antiq. 1. xx. c. 4. sect. 2. "In their time (i. e. about the fifth or sixth year of Claudius) a great dearth happened in Judea."

XXXVIII. Acts, xviii. 1, 2. "Because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome." Suet. Claud. c. xxv. "Judæos, impulsore Chresto assiduè tumultuantes, Româ expulit."

"He

XXXIX. Acts, v. 37. Joseph. de. Bell. 1. vii. (viz. the person who in another place is called by Josephus, Judas the Galilean or Judas of Galilee) persuaded not a few not to enrol themselves, when Cyrenius the Censor was sent into Judea."

XL. Acts, xxi. 38. "Art not thou that Egyptian which,

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before these days, madest an uproar, and leddest out into the wilderness four thousand men that were murderers?" Joseph. de Bell. 1. ii. c. 13. sect. 5. But the Egyptian false prophét brought yet a heavier disaster upon the Jews; for this impostor, coming into the country, and gaining the reputation of a prophet, gathered together thirty thousand men, who were deceived by him. Having brought them round out of the wilderness, up to the mount of Olives, he intended from thence to make his attack upon Jerusalem; but Felix, coming suddenly upon him with the Roman soldiers, prevented the attack." A great number, (or as it should rather be rendered) the greatest part of those that were with him, were either slain or taken prisoners.

In these two passages, the designation of this impostor, an 'Egyptian,' without the proper name; "the wilderness;" his escape, though his followers were destroyed; the time of the transaction, in the presidentship of Felix, which could not be any long time before the words of Luke are supposed to have been spoken; are circumstances of close correspondency.

XLI. Acts, xvii. 22. "Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars-hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious; for as I passed by and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you."

Diogenes Laertius, who wrote about the year 210, in the history of Epimenides, who is supposed to have flourished nearly six hundred years before Christ, relates of him the following story: that, being invited to Athens for the purpose, he delivered the city from a pestilence in this manner; 66 Taking several sheep, some black, others white, he had them up to the Areopagus, and then let them go where they would, and gave orders to those who followed them, wherever any of them should lie down, to sacrifice it to the god to whom it belonged; and so the plague ceased. Hence," says the historian, “it has come to pass, that to this present time, may be found in the boroughs of the Athenians ANONYMOUS altars; a

memorial of the expiation then made.”* These altars, it may be presumed, were called anonymous, because there was not the name of any particular deity inscribed upon them.

Pausanius, who wrote before the end of the second century, in his description of Athens, having mentioned an altar of Jupiter Olympius, adds, "And nigh unto it is an altar of unknown gods." And in another place he speaks of altars of gods called unknown."‡

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Philostratus, who wrote in the beginning of the third century, records it as an observation of Apollonius Tyanæus, "that it was wise to speak well of the gods, especially at Athens, where altars of unknown demons were erected."S

The author of the dialogue Philopatris, by many supposed to have been Lucian, who wrote about the year 170, by others, some anonymous Heathen writer of the fourth century, makes Critias swear by the unknown god of Athens; and, near the end of the dialogue, has these words, "But let us find out the unknown god of Athens, and, stretching our hands to heaven, offer to him our praises and thanksgivings."||

This is a very curious and very important coincidence. It appears beyond controversy, that altars with this inscription were existing at Athens, at the time when Saint Paul is alleged to have been there. It seems also (which is very worthy of observation), that this inscription was peculiar to the Athenians. There is no evidence that there were altars inscribed "to the unknown god" in any other country. Supposing the history of Saint Paul to have been a fable, how is it that such a writer as the author of the Acts of the Apostles was, should hit upon a circumstance so extraordinary, and introduce it by an allusion so suitable to Saint Paul's office and character? The examples here collected will be sufficient, I hope,

* In Epimenide, 1. i. segm. 110.

+ Paus. 1. v. p. 412.

Paus. l. i. p. 4.

& Philos. Apoll. Tyan. 1. vi. c. 3.

Lucian. in Philop. tom. ii. Græv. p. 767. 780.

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