66 66 read thus: "And he (Paul with Silas ) went through Syria and Cilicia confirming the "churches; and as they went through the "cities (namely of Syria and Cilicia) they "delivered them the decrees to be kept, that "were ordained of the apostles and elders at Jerufalem. And fo were the churches "eftablished in the faith, and increased in "number_daily." And on the supposition that the 4th and 5th verfes of the xvith chapter should be the 43d and 44th verses of the xvth chapter; the 1st, 2d, and 3d verses of the xvith chapter will ftand well connected with the 6th and 7th verfes of the fame chapter: and the taking out the 4th and 5th verfes, and adding them to the end of the preceding chapter, will make no chasm or interruption in the xvith chapter. I fhould therefore be apt to think that there is a transposition here, and that the 4th and 5th verses of the xvith chapter fhould be the 42d and 43d verses of the xvth chapter; or else that the 1st, 2d and 3d verfes of the xvith chapter are a parenthesis, which perhaps is more likely to be the cafe'. But, however that matter is, if the decree had concerned others k Ver. 41. i Acts xv. 40. 1 The like parentheses may be obferved, Mark xvi. 3, 4 Gen. xiii. 10. Josh. xxiv. 26. On which the reader may confult Bishop Kidder's Demonftration of the Meffiah, Part II. p. 103, 104. U 2 befides befides the profelytes of the gate; how comes it to pafs, that St. Luke does not fo much as mention Paul and Silas's carrying it farther than Lyftra and Derbe, cities of the next country to Cilicia; if he even mentions their carrying it thither, and there be no parenthesis or tranfpofition in the text? and why then does not he give us an account of their carrying it farther on, to all the countries of the Leffer Afia, to Macedonia, Greece, and Rome; and of the reception the churches in those countries gave it, as well as the churches in Derbe and Lyftra? 2. This hypothefis alone agrees with several things in the body of the letter. 66 I. 1. It feemed good to the Holy Ghost "and to us, to lay no greater burthen, than to abftain &c. m" I have proved in the Third Effay, that these words," it seemed good to the Holy Ghoft and us,” do not signify any immediate inspiration that the apostles, elders, and brethren were under at that time (as has been generally thought, and even by Spencer, who fays this council was OEÓTVEUS; though he a little after fays, they omitted or forgot fomething, which St. Paul afterwards fupplied in one of his epiftles "). When they therefore declare, " that it seemed m Ver. 25. n See Differt. in loc. cap. iv. in his folution to the third objection. 66 good "good to the Holy Ghoft, and to us," it muft relate to fome decifion which the Holy Ghoft had made in this cafe, and from which they argued. Now that plainly refers to the cafe of Cornelius and his family; upon whom, we read, the Holy Ghost fell, as it did on the one hundred and twenty at the beginning; by which, Peter fays, "God bore them wit nefs, who knew their hearts P." Cornelius and his family were profelytes of the gate. And in their converfion to chriftianity the Holy Ghost fell on them, without being circumcifed, or embracing the Jewish religion, or fubmitting to any more of the laws of Mofes than what profelytes of the gate were fubject to. And from hence they argue, that this was a plain and full declaration, or witness by the Holy Ghost, that profelytes of the gate, as profelytes of the gate, were acceptable to God, on their believing the word of the gospel, without farther conformity to the law of Mofes. And if this be the meaning of these words (as I think nobody will doubt, on confidering the plain reference the letter bears to Peter's and James's fpeech), they can only relate to profelelytes of the gate converted to christianity; but cannot by any means relate to idolatrous Gentiles, converted to it;, to whom it was not known in this affembly that the Holy Ghoft had ever born witnefs, by falling on Acts x. 44. xv. 8. xi. 15. Ibid. x. 44. xv. 8. them U 3 them as he did on the apoftles and their company at the beginning; if the Holy Ghoft ever did fall, or at leaft at this time had fallen, on them in that manner. 2. It feemed good to the Holy Ghoft, and to us, to lay no greater burthen" than thefe things." 86 Why thefe things, and no others? Why were not the brethren in Antioch &c. to abftain from fwines flesh; a thing as abominable to the Jews, as ftrictly forbidden by Mofes, as blood? Why were they not to abftain from all other unclean meats? Why not from things torn or that died of themselves? What reafon can be given for this, but that thefe were not forbidden by the law of Mofes to a profelyte of the gates, but to the Ifraelites only, that is, Ifraelites by birth or religion'; for by a stranger there is meant a profelyte righteoufnefs, Why thefe things of fuch an heterogenous nature; things in their own nature unlawful, with things in their own nature indifferent, and all in the fame decree? Or what fhould make the church of Jerufalem think of things that have fo little feeming connection with one another as thefe four; but that these things were forbidden to the profelytes of the gate by Mofes together, and the only Lev. xvii. 15. 9 Deut. xiv. 21. See Selden, de Jur, Nat. things which were forbidden by him, that were not against the law of nature; as none of these were, but the laft; and perhaps not even that, in every inftance of it? Why these things in the order they are here forbidden; things offered to idols, blood, things ftrangled, and fornication; but that this is precifely the order in which they are forbidden by Mofes to the profelytes of the gate, in the xviith and xviiith chapter of Leviticus? And the order in which thefe are mentioned in the decree is the more remarkable, because it is not the order in which they are mentioned in the debate by St. James; though it is the order, not only in which they are mentioned in the decree in this chapter, but as the decree is repeated by St. James": the reafon of which difference I take to be this; that, when the apoftles were debating, the order of things was rather obferved, than the order of the prohibition; and so pollution of idols is mentioned first, as the likelieft or most frequent enticement to idolatry; fornication as the strongest; things ftrangled as the next likely enticement to pollutions of idols; and blood as the leaft temptation to idolatry of any of them all: pure blood, or mixed up in meat or drink, |