being separated in a great degree from the rest of the community, their being closely linked amongst themselves by habits of society and subordination, and the dependency of the whole chain upon the will and favour of the prince,-however essential they may be to the purposes for which armies are kept up, give them an aspect in no wise favourable to public liberty. The danger however is diminished by maintaining, on all occasions, as much alliance of interest, and as much intercourse of sentiment, between the military part of the nation and the other orders of the people, as are consistent with the union and discipline of an army. For which purpose, officers of the army, upon whose disposition towards the commonwealth a great deal may depend, should be taken from the principal families of the country, and at the same time also be encouraged to establish in it families of their own, as well as be admitted to seats in the senate, to hereditary distinctions, and to all the civil honours and privileges that are compatible with their profession: which circumstances of connexion and situation will give them such a share in the general rights of the people, and so engage their inclinations on the side of public liberty, as to afford a reasonable security that they cannot be brought, by any promises of personal aggrandisement, to assist in the execution of measures which might enslave their posterity, their kindred, and their country. ΤΟ THE RIGHT REVEREND JOHN LAW, D.D. LORD BISHOP OF KILLALA AND ACHONRY, AS A TESTIMONY OF ESTEEM FOR HIS VIRTUES AND LEARNING, AND OF GRATITUDE FOR THE LONG AND FAITHFUL FRIENDSHIP WITH WHICH THE AUTHOR HAS BEEN HONOURED BY HIM, THIS ATTEMPT TO CONFIRM THE EVIDENCE OF THE CHRISTIAN HISTORY IS INSCRIBED, BY HIS AFFECTIONATE AND MOST OBLIGED SERVANT, W. PALEY. THE TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE HISTORY OF ST. PAUL EVINCED. CHAPTER I. EXPOSITION OF THE ARGUMENT. THE Volume of Christian Scriptures contains thirteen letters purporting to be written by St. Paul; it contains also a book, which, amongst other things, professes to deliver the history, or rather memoirs of the history, of this same person. By assuming the genuineness of the letters, we may prove the substantial truth of the history; or, by assuming the truth of the history, we may argue strongly in support of the genuineness of the letters. But I assume neither one nor the other. The reader is at liberty to suppose these writings to have been lately discovered in the library of the Escurial, and to come to our hands destitute of any extrinsic or collateral evidence whatever; and the argument I am about to offer is calculated to show, that a comparison of the different writings would, even under these circumstances, afford good VOL. II. K reason to believe the persons and transactions to have been real, the letters authentic, and the narration in the main to be true. Agreement or conformity between letters bearing the name of an ancient author, and a received. history of that author's life, does not necessarily establish the credit of either: because, 1. The history may, like Middleton's Life of Cicero, or Jortin's Life of Erasmus, have been wholly, or in part, compiled from the letters: in which case it is manifest that the history adds nothing to the evidence already afforded by the letters; or, 2. The letters may have been fabricated out of the history a species of imposture which is certainly practicable; and which, without any accession of proof or authority, would necessarily produce the appearance of consistency and agreement; or, 3. The history and letters may have been founded upon some authority common to both; as upon reports and traditions which prevailed in the age in which they were composed, or upon some ancient record now lost, which both writers consulted; in which case also, the letters, without being genuine, may exhibit marks of conformity with the history; and the history, without being true, may agree with the letters. Agreement therefore, or conformity, is only to be relied upon so far as we can exclude these several suppositions. Now the point to be noticed is, that in the three cases above enumerated, conformity must be the effect of design. Where the history is compiled from the letters, which is the |