The First Epistle to the Corinthians The Second Epistle to the Corinthians The Epistle to the Philippians The First Epistle to the Thessalonians The manner of visiting the sick. Arguments and general heads of dis- course, by way of consideration, to Considerations to be offered to persons SECT. V. Considerations against presumption For a sick person who wants sleep ib. For a person lying insensible on a sick bed. . 277 For one who hath been a notoriously wicked liver 278 A prayer for a person who, from a state of health, is suddenly seized with the symptoms of death 286 A litany for a sick person at the time of departure ib. Occasional prayers and devotions for the sick and unfortunate in extraordinary cases; viz. A prayer for a person, whose illness is chiefly brought on him by some calamitous disaster or loss; as, of estate, relations, or friends, &c. For a person who, by any calamitous disaster, hath broken any of his bones, or is very much bruised Other occasional Prayers; viz. THE TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE HISTORY OF ST. PAUL EVINCED. CHAP. 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 shew, that a comparison of the different writings would, even under these circumstances, afford good 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 ma B |