The ship into which the centurion removed Paul, and the other prisoners at Myra, was a ship of Alexandria that was sailing into Italy. It was evidently a merchant-vessel, for mention is made of its lading. The nature of the lading, however, is not directly stated. It was capable of receiving Julius and his company, and was bound right for them. This was enough, and this was all that St. Luke cares to tell. Yet, in verse 38, we find, by the merest chance, of what its cargo consisted. The furniture of the ship, or its "tackling," as it is called, was thrown overboard in the early part of the storm; but the freight was naturally enough kept till it could be kept no longer, and then we discover for the first time that it was wheat-" the wheat was cast into the sea."

Now it is a notorious fact that Rome was in a great measure supplied with corn from Alexandria-that in times of scarcity the vessels coming from that port were watched with intense anxiety, as they approached the coast of Italy*—that they were of a size not inferior to our line of battle ships,† a thing by no

* See Sueton. Nero. § 45.

† See Wetstein, Acts, xxvii. 6.

means usual in the vessels of that day-and accordingly that such an one might well accommodate the centurion and his numerous party, in addition to its own crew and lading.

There is a very singular air of truth in all this. The several detached verses at the head of this number tell a continuous story; but it is not perceived till they are brought together. The circumstances drop out one by one at intervals in the course of the narrative, unarranged, unpremeditated, thoroughly incidental; so that the chapter might be read twenty times, and their agreement with one another and with contemporary history be still overlooked. But if the account of the voyage, as far as relates to the change of ship, the tempest, the disastrous consequences, &c. is found, on being tried by a test which the writer of the Acts could never have contemplated, to be an unquestionable fact, how can the rest, which does not admit of the same scrutiny, be set aside as unworthy of credit ?-for instance, that Paul actually foretold the danger-that again, in the midst of it, he foretold the final escape, and that an angel had declared to him God's pleasure, that, for his sake, not a soul

should perish? I see no alternative, but to receive all this nothing doubting; unless we consider St. Luke to have mixed up fact and fiction in a manner the most artful and insidiYet who can read the Acts of the Apostles and come to such a conclusion?

ous.

7

SECOND SECTION,

CONTAINING

UNDESIGNED COINCIDENCES BE

TWEEN THE EVANGELISTS AND JOSEPHUS.

As in the former section it was my object to establish the truth of the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles, by instances of undesigned coincidence to be found in them, when compared with themselves or one another, so, in this section, do I intend to follow up the argument, by other instances of undesigned coincidence between those writings and Josephus. The subject has been treated, but not exhausted, by Lardner and Paley, the latter of whom indeed did not profess to do more than epitomise that part of the "Credibility of the Gospel history" which considers the works of the Jewish historian. Josephus was born A. D. 37, and therefore must have been long the contemporary of some of the apostles. For my purpose, it matters little, or nothing, whether we reckon him a believer in Chris