XXXII. (p. 490.) Luke iii. 12. "Then came alfo pub licans to be baptized." From this quotation, as well as from the hiftory of Levi or Matthew (Luke v. 29.) and of Zaccheus (Luke xix. 2.) it appears, that the publicans or tax-gatherers were, frequently at leaft, if not always, Jews: which, as the country was then under a Roman government, and the taxes were paid to the Romans, was a circumftance not to be expected. That it was the truth however of the cafe, appears from a fhort paffage of Jofephus.

De Bell. lib. ii. c. xiv. fec. 45. "But Florus not restrain ing these practices by his authority, the chief men of the Jews, among whom was John the publican, not knowing well what courfe to take, waited upon Florus, and gave him eight talents of filver to stop the building."

XXXIII. (p. 496.) Acts xxii. 25. "And, as they bound him with thongs, Paul faid unto the centurion that stood by, Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman, and uncondemned?

"Facinus eft vinciri civem Romanum: fcelus verberari, Cic. in ver."

"Cædebatur virgis, in medio foro Meffanæ, civis Romanus, Judices, cum interea, nullus gemitus, nulla vox alia, istius miferi, inter dolorem crepitumque plagarum, audiebatur, nifi hæc, civis Romanus fum."

XXXIV. (p. 513.). Acts xxii. 27. "Then the chief cap-tain came, and faid unto him, (Paul) Tell me, art thou a Roman? He faid, Yea." The circumftance here to be noticed is, that a few was a Roman citizen.

Jof. Ant. lib. 14. c. 10. fec. 13% "Lucius Lentulus, the conful, declared, I have difmiffed from the fervice, the Jewif Roman citizens, who obferve the rites of the Jewish religion at Ephefus."

Ib. v. 27.

"And the chief captain answered, With a great fum obtained I this freedom."

Dio. Caffius, 1. 60. "This privilege, which had been bought formerly at a great price, became fo cheap, that it was commonly faid, a man might be made a Roman citizen for a few pieces of broken glafs."

XXXV. (p. 521.) Acts xxviii. 16. "And when we came to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard, but Paul was fuffered to dwell by himself with a foldier that kept him.”

With which join v. 20. "For the hope of Ifrael I am

bound with this chain."

Quemadmodum eadem catena, et cuftodiam et militem copulat, fic ifta, quæ tam diffimilia funt, pariter incedunt." Seneca, Ep. 5.

"Proconful æftimare folet, utrum incarcerem recipienda fit perfona, an militi tradenda." Ulpian, 1. 1. fec. de custod. et

exhib. reor.

In the confinement of Agrippa by the order of Tiberius, Antonia managed, that the centurion who prefided over the guards, and the foldier to whom Agrippa was to be bound, might be men of mild character. Jof. Ant. lib. 18. c. 7. fec. 5. After the acceffion of Caligula, Agrippa alfo, like Paul, was fuffered to dwell, yet as a prifoner, in his own houfe.

XXXVI. (p. 531.) Acts xxvii. 1. "And when it was determined that we fhould fail into Italy, they delivered Paul, and certain other prifoners, unto one named Julius." Since not only Paul, but certain other prifoners, were fent by the fame fhip into Italy, the text must be confidered, as carrying with it an intimation, that the fending of perfons from Judea to be tried at Rome, was an ordinary practice. That in truth it was fo, is made out by a variety of examples which the writings of Jofephus furnifh; and amongst others by the following, which comes near both to the time and the fubject of the instance in the Acts. "Felix, for fome flight offence, bound and fent to Rome feveral priests of his acquaintance, and very good and honeft men, to anfwer for themselves to Cæfar." Jof. Invit. fec. 3.

XXXVII. (p. 539.) Acts xi. 27. "And in thefe days, came prophets from Jerufalem unto Antioch; and there stood up one of them, named Agabus, and fignified by the Spirit that there fhould be a great dearth throughout all the world, (or all the country) which came to pafs in the days of Claudius Cæfar.” Jof. Ant. 1. zo. c. 4. féc. 2. "In their time (i. e. about the fifth or fixth year of Claudius) a great dearth happened in Judea."

XXXVIII. (p. 555.) Acts xviii. 1, 2. "Because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome." Suet. Claud. c. 25. "Judæos, impulfore Chrefto affidué tumultuantes, Româ expulit."

XXXIX. (p. 664.) A&s v. 37.

"After this man rofe

up

Judas of Galilee, in the days of the taxing, and drew away much people after him."

Jof. de Bell. 1. vii. "He (viz. the perfon, who, in another place, is called by Jofephus, Judas the Galilean, or Judas of Galilee) perfuaded not a few not to enroll themselves, when Cyrenius the cenfor was fent into Judea."

XL. (p. 942.) Acts xxi. 38. " Art not thou that Egyptian, which, before these days, madest an uproar, and leddest out into the wilderness four thousand men, that were murdercrs,"

Jof. de Bell. 1. 2. c. 13. fec. 5. "But the Egyptian falfe - prophet, brought a yet heavier difafter upon the Jews; for this impoftor, 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 Jerufalem; but Felix coming fuddenly upon him with the Roman foldiers, prevented the attack. A great number, or (as it should rather be rendered) the greatest part of those that were with him, were either flain, or taken prifoners."

66

In these two paffages, the defignation of the impoftor, an Egyptian," without his proper name; "the wildernefs ;" his escape, though his followers were destroyed; the time of the tranfaction, in the prefidentship of Felix, which could not be any long time before the words in Luke are fuppofed to have been spoken; are circumstances of clofe correfpondency. There is one, and only one, point of disagreement, and that is, in the number of his followers, which in the Acts are called four thousand, and by Jofephus thirty thoufand: but, befide that the names of numbers, more than any other words, are lia ble to the errors of tranfcribers, we are, in the present instance, under the lefs concern to reconcile the evangelift with Jofe phus, as Jofephus is not, in this point, confiftent with himself.

For, whereas, in the paffage here quoted, he calls the number thirty thoufand, and tells us that the greatest part, or a great number (according as his words are rendered) of thofe that were with him, were deftroyed; in his Antiquities, he represents four hundred to have been killed upon this occafion, and two hundred taken prisoners, which certainly was not a Lib. 20. c. 7. fec. 6.

a

the "greatest part," nor 66 a great part," nor a great number," out of thirty thousand. It is probable alfo, that Lyfias and Jofephus spoke of the expedition in its different stages: Lyfias of thofe who followed the Egyptian out of Jerusalem ; Jofephus of all who were collected about him afterwards, from different quarters.

XLI. (Lardner's Jewish and Heathen Teftimonies, Vol. III. p. 21) Acts xvii. 22. "Then Paul ftood in the midst of Mars-hill, and faid, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too fuperftitious; for, as I paffed by and heheld your devotions, I found an altar with this infcription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you."

Diogenes Laertius, who wrote about the year 210, in his hiftory of Epimenides, who is supposed to have flourished nearly fix hundred years before Chrift, relates of him the following ftory: that, being invited to Athens for the purpose, he delivered the city from a peftilence in this manner- "6 Taking feveral sheep, fome 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 facrifice it to the god to whom it belonged; and fo the plague ceased. Hence," fays the hiftorian, "it has come to pass, that, to this prefent time, may be found in the boroughs of the Athenians ANONYMOUS altars; a memorial of the expiation then made." Thefe altars, it may be prefumed, were called anonymous, because there was not the name of any particular deity inscribed upon them.

Paufanias, 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, speaks "of altars of gods called unknown."'c

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

The author of the dialogue Philopatris, by many fuppofed to have been Lucian, who wrote about the year 170, by others

fome anonymous heathen writer of the fourth century, makes Critias fwear by the unknown god of Athens; and near the end of the dialogue, has thefe words, "but let us find out the unkgown god at Athens, and, ftretching our hands to heaven, offer to him our praifes and thanksgivings."a

This is a very curious and a very important coincidence, It appears beyond controverfy, that altars, with this infcription were exifting at Athens, at the time when St. Paul is alleged to have been there. It feems alfo, which is very worthy of obfervation, that this infcription, was peculiar to the Athenians.. There is no evidence that there were altars infcribed "to the unknown god" in any other country. Suppofing the history of St. Paul to have been a fable, how is it poffible that fuch a writer as the author of the Acts of the apostles was, fhould hit upon a circumftance fo extraordinary, and introduce it, by, an allufion fo fuitable to St. Paul's office and character.

The examples here collected, will be fufficient, 1 hope, to fatisfy us, that the writers of the Chriftian hiftory knew, fomething of what they were writing about. The argument is alfo strengthened by the following confiderations:

I. That thefe agreements appear, not only in articles of pub-,, lic hiftory, but, fometimes, in minute, recondite, and very pecu.. liar circumftances, in which, of all others, a forger is moft likely to have been found tripping,

II. That the deftruction of Jerufalem, which took place forty years after the commencement of the Chriftian inftitution, produced fuch a change in the state of the country, and the condition of the Jews, that a writer who was unacquainted with the circumftances of the nation before that event, would find it difficult to avoid mistakes, in endeavouring to give detailed accounts of tranfactions connected with thofe circumftances, forafmuch as he could no longer have a living exemplar to copy from.

III. That there appears, in the writers of the New Testament, a knowledge of the affairs of thofe times, which we do not find in authors of later ages. In particular, many of the Christian writers of the second and third centuries, and of the following ages, had falfe notions concerning the state of Judea, between the nativity of Jefus and the deftruction of Jerufalem. Therefore they could not have compofed our histories.

a Lucian in Philop. tom. 2. Gray. p. 767,789.

b Lard. part I. vol. II. p. 96c.