of it, and, consequently, whilst St. Paul was living, and they corresponded with him.

"In the 1st Cor. 16. 21. Gal. 6. 11. 2 Thess. 3. 17. the very handwriting appealed to-in other cases the transcriber or amanuensis is mentioned. Rom. 16. 22. The Epistle to the Philippians imports that it was sent by Epaphroditus, consequently would not be received unless Epaphroditus brought it.

"But above all, their genuineness appears from the many examples of undesigned coincidences with one another, and with the Acts of the Apostles.

"Observe, 1. The coincidences.

"2. The undesignedness of them; for, had they been unreal, either they would not be considered at all, or the coincidences would have been the effect of design. Phil. 4. 15, he says, that the Philippians had relieved him at Thessalonica. 1 Thess. 2. 9. 2 Thess. 3, 7, 8. he reminds the Thessalonians of the distress he had suffered among them, and how he had received nothing from them.

66

Urges Timothy and Mark to come to him at Rome. Accordingly we find that Timothy and Mark were with him at Rome, when the Epistles to the Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon were writ

ten."

It may seem remarkable that no sketch of this work should have remained beyond this paper, which is placed amongst his other lecture papers,-if we except a few sentences relative to the genuineness of St. Paul's Epistles, to be found there. It seems at least to show, that it had been amongst other employments of his thoughts for some time before. But this very circumstance of its not now appearing drawn up in a more enlarged form proves almost the entire originality of the work; since of his greater works, which were evidently sketched out before in his lectures, it is only the additional patchwork that remains, as was observed before, and not even the rough copies of a collected and compacted writing. So that this morsel, by being the only outline of a large volume, suggests obviously that the work was written entirely without any such hints as

he used in his Moral Philosophy or Evidences; that if this was not the case, some such enlarged sketch would probably have remained, as of the other works. The matter of it seems to have been the production of the time at which he wrote it. Nothing remains which may lead us to conjecture how long this work was in hand.

Both the Moral Philosophy and the Hora Paulinæ have been printed in Germany, as is observed by Meadley. The first a year or two after its appearance in England, and the second in 1797. There appears, however, to have been an earlier application for a German edition of this last work from one of the deacons of Zurich; two of whose letters, remaining amongst Dr. Paley's papers, may be worth producing in this place, if it be only for their latinity.

"Reverendissimo et doctissimo
Do-Do. Wilhelmo Paley,
Archidiacono Carleolensi, &c. &c.
S. Pl. D.

Joh. Jacobus Hess,

Diaconus ad ædem Abbatissanam

Turicensem.

Cum in Ephemeridibus literariis nuper de insigni libro quod Horarum Paulinarum titulo inscribitur, ea legissem, quæ me dubitare non sinunt, fore ut si liber iste in oris patriis omnique Germaniâ notior fieret, multis ad firmiorem de Religionis nostræ veritate persuasionem via panderetur; auctor fui amico Scaphusiano, Hurtero, utriusque linguæ idiomatis satis perito, ut ejus in linguam Germanicam ex Anglicâ vertendi curam susciperet, quod quo minus ipse facerem, muneris publici, cæterorumque laborum curâ detinebar. Eâ de re ad TE scribendi occasione tribus de causis lubenter usus sum; primo, quod justum et æquum esse videtur, ut de cujusvis libri vertendi consilio ante omnes auctor ipse certior fiat, ut, si typo jam impressis addi quædam, vel in iis mutari vult, ea omnia versionis auctori possit communicare; deinde, quia librum ipsum ex Ephemeridibus quidem ita mihi notum, ut de ejus præstantiâ et utilitate dubitare nefas sit; inspicere nondum contigit; cum inter Bibliopolas Londinenses ac nostrates nullum intercidit commercium; quamobrem typothetæ Tvo mihi ignoto, vir reverendissime, quæso, significes, ut, addita pretii notâ (quod per negotiatorum quendam solvendum curabo) exemplar libri Tvi, quamprimum fieri potest, ad me transmittat. Tertia, eaque gravissima, eâ de re TE interpellandi causa fuit ingens qua perfundor,

VOL. I.

i

lætitia, quoties lego vel audio lectu dignum quid eo fine in lucem editum esse, ut Historiæ Biblicæ, jam undique ab adversariorum telis et contemptorum fere oppressæ dignitas veritasque elucescat. Lardnerus quidem vester multa præstitit, sed et aliis quædam præstanda reliquit. Est et hoc ipsum, quod libris qualibuscumque meis de Christi, Apostolorum, Patriarcharum, etc. rebus gestis, in lucem editis (an in Angliam usque corum aliqua notitia peragrarit, nescio) pro virili adstruere et promovere adnisus sum; persuasum habens, vix ulla alia ratione; hoc præsertim tempore, rei Christianæ melius posse consuli, quam ostendendo, firmis eam certissimisque Historiæ fide dignissima fundamentis niti. Et in ejusmodi rerum tractatione ne minutissima, quidem parvi habenda, sed et ipsas illas Teporσuç a lectoribus plerumque neglectas, multum sæpe momenti ad firmiorem animi persuasionem adferre, sæpissimè expertus sum. Quare, cum TV vir reverendissime novâ quadam, eâque valde commendabili ratione in isthoc genere laboraveris, et quod TIBI et cuivis litterarum sacrarum æstimatori librum TVVм legenti vel lecturo ex animo gratuler. Vale, vir doctissime, reverendissime! mê TIBI, commendatum habeas, et de re Christiana bene mereri pergas. Scripsi Turici Helvetiorum. d. 1 Junii 1792."

What answer was made to this application there is now no opportunity of knowing; nor does any thing occur amongst the papers of Dr. Paley to build a conjecture upon. That an answer was returned favourable to the application, as well as courteous enough, may be collected from a second letter:

"Viro plurimum reverendo
Wilhelmo Paley, &c.

S. P. D.

S. Jacobus Hess,

Turicens. Diaconus.

Elapsis jam aliquot mensibus, necdum ad me perlato libro rvo, viâ jam prorsus aberasse vel intercidisse puto (ob turbas forsan in Gallia bellicas) desideratissimum illud munus TVVм. Oritur hinc ad Scriptorem libri, quo carere nolim, recurrendi necessitas, quam quidem mihi imponi haud ægre fero. Accedit enim confidentiùs tecum confabulandi libertas abs te ipso concessa, immo vinculum quoddam amicitiæ, quo me tecum jungi sentio lætorque, litteris quippe Tvis amicissimis ad rescribendum invitatus. Fateor magna me lætitia adfectum esse isthac tua humanitate. Sum enim ita naturâ comparatus, ut quos veritatis

Christianæ amicos et defensores magni facio, eos non e libris tantum, sed e suaviori quadam si fieri potest, conversatione, notes mihi reddere familiaresque cupiam. Te vero de Christianâ religione defendenda optime meritum esse, vel ex iis compertum habeo quæ in volumine 73m0 78° Monthly Review, page 411–413, è Philosophicis Tvis Principiis' de incredulorum parum honestis artibus excerpta nuper legi verissima sane et momentosissima. Ne tamen vel loquacitatis vel assentationis suspectum me habeas, plura addere nolo. Vale, vir reverende, et mecum, si placet, conjunctissime. Scripsi Turici Helvetiorum d. v. Nov. 1792."

This work cleared off, he quickly turned his attention to making up a more general, though scarcely a more original survey of the Evidences of Christianity. It was probably in furtherance of his early plan of putting his college lectures into a more complete form, that he commenced this undertaking; for it does not appear that any other inducement was held out, or was necessary for him at this stage of authorship, than that of being a useful and striking writer. By this time, indeed, he was almost habitually a writer, and if writing for the press ever with him became a business, it was at this period; for, being at comparative ease in his circumstances, satisfied to the full with his station, happy in his clerical engagements, attentive to family duties, and diligent in a certain routine of professional duties, which called for a regular discharge and almost daily attention, he was necessarily much at home, though not occupied in his public capacity to the full stretch of his abilities; and a mind like his could not be satisfied with the mere possession of such resources.

Of the two works which are derived from his college lectures, viz. his Moral Philosophy and Evidences, the latter seems to have engaged much more of his research, the former much more of original thinking. There is, however, another difference in the rough model of the two writings,―if, as seems incontestibly to be the case, his lectures gave rise to both. As far as respects the Moral Philosophy, the plan adopted in his lectures was adhered to in his work, though much enlarged. For his Evidences there is but a very crude and misshapen substance discoverable in his lectures, from which to draw any thing like a connected performance. In the one it is not difficult to recognise the plan, in the other it is more than difficult. Indeed so little does he seem to have decided with himself to what purpose he should turn these last, that even whilst he was reconsidering and remodelling

them, he appears to have changed his plan. His general mode of composition and the unconnectedness of his rough sketches have been already observed, as suggested by a peep into his manuscript papers and books and it may be that this very confusion gives rise to conjectures rather fanciful than well warranted; since what seems to us to stand without connexion, and as if written with a hasty snatch of his pen in any page, may to him who was master of his plan have had a very intelligible connexion and consistency. The books into which the Evidences of Christianity were collected are in eight or ten numbers, and of different sizes, crammed with short and detached sentences, some of which are divided into heads, and others intermingled with a curious variety of heterogeneous stuff. To these books may be added a great many loose sheets of paper, which contain the most substantial part of his work. Most of these detached sentences are marked as if received and placed in order, and appear in the body of the work scattered in different corners. These same marks, and the passages so marked, are to be found very generally in his lecture-book also. Such statements will scarcely be thought too minute, if they enable us to ascertain, both the quantum of thought expended upon this work, and the way in which it may be said to have assumed its present form.

His lectures, as far as they present a rough cast of his Evidences, seem to proceed upon, and to be a sort of abstract of, the second and third books of Grotius de Veritate, &c.

"The Evidences of Christianity are an aggregate of many circumstances, not any one of which would alone be sufficient, and yet altogether convey complete and entire satisfaction. This I mention for the sake of those who are uneasy because they have not some one single proof to turn to, which, like a demonstration in Euclid, makes an end of the question at once.

"The evidence of Christianity is either external or internal.

"The internal, that which arises from the contents of the books themselves.

"The external, that which proves the truth of what they contain, be the contents what they will.

"The direct external evidence of Christianity is comprised in these three propositions:

"That the books of the New Testament were written by the authors to whom they are ascribed;