wrote during the lives of St. Peter and St. Paul; and to observe the references which fome passages in St. Paul's epistles have to the fubdivision of the last period, which I shall speak more fully to by and by. These observations, and these alone, will, in my opinion, often afford us great assistance in scripture-criticism, where it is very much wanted, and where no other observations will. Instances of this kind are the four Effays. The first being an account of the difpenfation of the Spirit; the second, both of the difpenfation of Jesus and of the Spirit; the third, the subdivision of the ministry of the Spirit; the fourth, the second subdivision of the ministry of the Spirit, and the unknown period of the third fubdivifion.

THAT I may not be misunderstood in what I have just now faid of the different obligations the different forts of people preached to were under, and of the different doctrine that was preached to them, I mean no more than this: that the Jews were under an obligation to observe all the laws of Moses, as the laws of their country; that the Profelytes of the Gate were obliged to observe fome of those laws, as the terms on which they were entitled to some civil privileges when they were in Palestine; and that the reft of the Gentiles were entirely free from all all of them, &c. The sum of the doctrine that was preached in common to these three forts of men was, that they could obtain justification and pardon, God's favour, acceptance, and eternal life, only on faith and repentance. The different doctrine that was preached to them according to these different obligations which they were under was, that a Jew ought to continue a Jew, and remain subject to all the laws of Mofes; that a Profelyte of the Gate was to continue a Profelyte of the Gate, and fubject only to those laws after his converfion that he was fubject to before; and that the reft of the Gentiles remained entirely free from any of them: but withall, that if the Jews hoped to obtain God's favour by observing the law; or if the Proselytes of the Gate fubjected themselves to more of the laws of Mofes after their converfion to chriftianity than before; or if the other Gentiles fubjected themselves to any after their converfion to chriftianity, all these three forts of men " fubverted their own souls; fought juftifica" tion by the works of the law; and made the " death of Chrift of no effect."

Bur to return. The first of these periods is from the year 33 to the year 41. The fecond is from the year 41 to the year 45. The third is from the year 45 to the year 70, the end of the Jewish age, or the destruction of

the

..

the Jewish state and nation, which took away all the obligations the Jews were under to all the laws of Mofes, and that the Profelytes of the Gate were under to some of them, and consequently deftroyed the distinction of the three periods; all men being then bound only to faith and repentance, and a subjection to the laws of those countries where they lived.

It will be of fome use to divide each of these three periods into their lesser periods, as I have done in the Abstract of the Abstract. But it will be found abfolutely necessary to subdivide the third period into three; namely, the period in which the gospel was preached to the idolatrous Gentiles, and that it was not known to be preached to them by any of the church of Jerufalem (which I apprehend to be from the year 45 to the year 49); the period in which it was known to three of the apostles, namely, Peter, James, and John, and concealed from the rest of the church of Jerufalem (which I apprehend was from the year 49 to the year 58); and the period in which it was known to the whole church at Jerufalem, which I apprehend was from the year 58 to the year 70.

I PROPOSE this to the learned, with the diffidence that becomes a scheme so new as this, even in this knowing age. I own too, that

!

that it is not without fome difficulty one can conceive how so great an event as the converfion of the idolatrous Gentiles, and the gofpel that Paul and Barnabas preached to them, should be kept near four years from the knowledge of any of the Jewish apoftles, and thirteen years from the rest of the church of Jerufalem. I confefs, this startled me extremely at first; yet, I think, if the following circumstances are confidered, they will very much lessen, if not quite remove, the difficulty with my reader, as they have with

me.

1ft, That there were at that time no pofts, nor any fixed stated way of correfpondence, in the world.

2dly, That there was then very little intelligence between the Jewish believers in diftant places. We have a strong instance to this purpose in the cafe of Saul, who was not known so much as to be a disciple by the apostles, or church of Jerufalem, three years after his converfion; nor then believed to be so, on his attempting to join himself to them, till they were certified of the miraculous event of his converfion by Barnabas d. This is altogether afto

See Acts ix. 26. and Gal. i. 18.

VOL. I.

b.

nishing,

nish, confidering how great a perfecutor of the churches he had been; how must rest they all had on his converfion; how remarkable the converfion of a man so diftinguished: for learning, for zeal for the law, as well as fury against the Christians, must have been; what wonderful circumstances attended it (a voice and a light from heaven, a vifion to Ananias and him, his being miraculoufly struck blind, restored to his fight, and filled with the Holy Ghost); preaching and difputing with great skill and success in the synagogues at so great a city as Damafcus, afterwards in Arabia, and then again at Damafcus; both of them in the neighbourhood of Palæstine. How much eafier is it to conceive how the converfion of the idolatrous Gentiles, fo much more distant from Palæstine, as the Leffer Afia, Macedonia, and Greece, might be concealed from all the church of Jerufalem four years, and from the body of it very near thirteen? Especially fince,

3dly, That there was then no correfpondence between the churches of the idolatrous Gentiles converted to chriftianity and the church of Jerufalem, but by Paul; and that he was at Jerufalem but twice between the year 45 and the year 58 (in which year,

• Acts ix. 31.

5

namely,