glories, being the first and grand article in "the covenant with Abraham; and which " he fails not to affert among the fingular privileges of Chriftians, (Ch. v. 11.) when "he is fhewing that the subjects of their "glorying were not inferior to those of the "Jews. How could he overlook the main

article of this lift? Or what if there "fhould be a tranfpofition of a single letter " in the text, o av for av o. This will remove "every difficulty. Then the English will be,

of whom, as concerning the flesh, Chrift came, whofe is the God over all, bleffed for ever. "Thus the grand privilege will be inserted "to advantage, and stand at the top of a "lofty climax rifing from the Father, to "Chrift, and to God. We have indeed no

copy to justify this reading. But the afore

"faid confiderations feem to make it pro"bable the article () might be very easily tranfpofed. This is only my conjecture.”

Now I beg leave to afk, whether our annotator was under an abfolute neceffity of conjecturing? Conjectures, I prefume, are

never admiffible in criticism, but when they clear the fenfe of an author from obfcurity; or when direct abfurdities, or confiderable difficulties are removed by them. Is either of these cafes the cafe at prefent? So far from it, that unless we are to facrifice fenfe to figure, and real truth to ideal climax, I affirm without ceremony the old and univerfal reading to be the only right one; and that this paffage, abundantly plain and confiftent in itself, is here obfcured by elucidation, and marred by amendment. Mr. T. in fact fmothers himself in a duft of his own raifing. For though, in a spirit of true compaffion, and in the tendereft affection to his brethren, &c. the Apoftle calls to mind their national character, and many of the privileges they had enjoyed, yet at the time of his writing this Epistle, it should be remembered, that their grand privilege of all, as our author justly terms it, that which the Jews conftantly made their boast of, and "which was indeed the glory of all their glories," was abfolutely loft, and irrecoverably done away for ever. God was no longer N 4

their

their God in any fenfe favourable to them they were disowned; they were cut off by him, to use St. Paul's words in another place; the believing Gentiles were now " more nearly "related to him;" they were purified to be a peculiar people; and Jews, as Jews, had no manner of interest in the new dispensation:

1

fo that, according to this author's conftruction, the Apostle falfifies fact, and infults his kinfmen, by way of commiferation.

There is another text which the fame author handles not lefs to his own disadvantage. Every boufe is builded by fome man, says the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, Ch. iii. 4. but he that built all things is God. Mr. T's. paraphrafe is as follows. When he faith, every houfe is builded by fome perfon, but he "who built all things is God, he evidently

diftinguishes between a fubordinate and

Supreme builder. But this distinction he "needed not to have mentioned, had he not fpoke of a fubordinate builder before. For, "if in the cafe under confideration, there "be no fubordinate builder at all, this dif"tinction

"tinction is nothing to his purpose. Then

his argument would have been; Chrift "muft build the houfe; because no one "could build it but he; feeing no house is "built by any but God. Whereas, contra"riwife, he afferts a fubordinate builder, and "tells us fuch a one is confiftent with God's being the Supreme original builder."

Now, I take it, this is a mere fanciful diftinction of Mr. Taylor's own brain. The context runs thus. This man was counted worthy of more glory than Mofes, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house, hath more honour than the houfe: for every house is builded by fome man, but he that built all things is God. Surely he that built all things, he who made the world was the very Perfon or Being that built the house, as the Apostle expreffes it; i. e. who founded the whole Jewish OEconomy, ecclefiaftical and civil; and confequently, though every houfe is builded by fome man, though every institution, &c. has fome author, and Mofes in particular may be said to be a founder in a fecondary fenfe, Jefus Chrift

Christ is strictly and properly the Supreme Architect, as we may fay, as well in the one as the other of the above inftances, to the total exclufion of every idea of fubordination. And fo this very paffage in effect plainly afferts our Saviour's Divinity, and confirms the Supremacy this Gentleman appears to be extremely forward to deftroy by it. It is remarkable enough that the texts under confideration have been before now a fnare to unbelievers. For the Socinian glofs on them is, that Chrift is as much more excellent than Mofes as God is more excellent than his "own people ;" and this fuperexcellence is on all hands allowed not to come one jot fhort of abfolute infinity.

In confequence of the fhifts to which infidelity is reduced, it will add, omit, affirm, and fuggeft, fometimes arbitrarily, fometimes imprudently, and fometimes on weak and incompetent authority. That paffage in St. Paul's first Epistle to Timothy, without controversy great is the mystery of godliness ; * God

1 Tim. iii. 16.

was