his testimony come from Saint Paul's own hand,
it is invaluable. And that it does so, the argument before us fixes in
my mind a firm assurance.

Secondly, it shows that the series of action represented in the epistles
of Saint Paul was real; which alone lays a foundation for the
proposition which forms the subject of the first part of our present
work, viz. that the original witnesses of the Christian history devoted
themselves to lives of toil, suffering, and danger, in consequence of
their belief of the truth of that history, and for the sake of
communicating the knowledge of it to others.

Thirdly, it proves that Luke, or whoever was the author of the Acts of
the Apostles (for the argument does not depend upon the name of the
author, though I know no reason for questioning it), was well acquainted
with Saint Paul's history; and that he probably was, what he professes
himself to be, a companion of Saint Paul's travels; which, if true,
establishes, in a considerable degree, the credit even of his Gospel,
because it shows that the writer, from his time, situation, and
connexions, possessed opportunities of informing himself truly
concerning the transactions which he relates. I have little difficulty
in applying to the Gospel of Saint Luke what is proved concerning the
Acts of the Apostles, considering them as two parts of the same history;
for though there are instances of second parts being forgeries, I know
none where the second part is genuine, and the first not so.

I will only observe, as a sequel of the argument, though not noticed in
my work, the remarkable similitude between the style of Saint John's
Gospel and of Saint John's Epistle. The style of Saint John's is not at
all the style of Saint Paul's Epistles, though both are very singular;
nor is it the style of Saint James's or of Saint Peter's Epistles: but
it bears a resemblance to the style of the Gospel inscribed with Saint
John's name, so far as that resemblance can be expected to appear, which
is not in simple narrative, so much as in reflections, and in the
representation of discourses. Writings so circumstanced prove
themselves, and one another, to be genuine. This correspondency is the
more valuable, as the epistle itself asserts, in Saint John's manner,
indeed, but in terms sufficiently explicit, the writer's personal
knowledge of Christ's history: "That which was from the beginning, which
we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we h