things had continued as they now are from all eternity. That seeing he is Lord of heaven and earth, he dwelleth not in temples made with hands, neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life and breath and all things; which was levelled not so much against the philosophers as against the popular religion of Athens; for the philosophers seldom or never sacrificed, unless in compliance with the custom of their country, and even the Epicureans themselves admitted the self-sufficiency of the Deity; but the people believed very absurdly that there were local gods, that the Deity, notwithstanding his immensity, might be confined within temples, and notwithstanding his all-sufficiency was fed with the fat and fumes of sacrifices, as if he could really stand in need of any sustenance, who giveth to all life and breath and all things.That he hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation: which was not only opposed to the Epicureans, who derived the beginning of the human race from the mere effects of matter and motion, and to the Peripatetics or Aristotelians, who denied mankind to have any beginning at all, having subsisted in eternal successions; but was, moreover, opposed to the general pride and conceit of the people of Athens, who boasted themselves to be Aborigines, to be descended from none other stock or race of men, but to be themselves originals and natives of their own country.-That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us; for in him we live, and move, and have our being which fundamental truth, with the greatest propriety and elegance, he confirms by a quotation from one of their own poets, Aratus, the Cilician, his own country man, who lived above three hundred years before, and in whose astronomical poem this hemistich is still extant. As certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. An evident proof that he knew how to illustrate divinity with the graces of classical learning, and was no stranger to a taste and politeness worthy of an Attic audience. That forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold or silver or stone, graven by art and man's device: which was plainly pointed at the gross idolatry of the lower people, who thought the very idols themselves to be gods, and terminated their worship in them.-That the times of this ignorance God winked at or overlooked; as he said before to the people of Lystra, In former times God suffered all nations to walk in their own ways; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: which doctrine of the necessity of repentance must have been very mortifying to the pride and vanity of the philosophers, and especially of the Stoics, whose wise man was equal if not superior to God himself.-Because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead: till now they had heard him with silence and attention, because though every period of his discourse glanced at some of his hearers, yet it coincided with the notions of others, and he had not before touched and offended them altogether; but when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked (the Epicureans, and the men of wit and pleasure), and others said (the Platonists, and the graver sort of his audience), We will hear thee again of this matter, putting it off to a more convenient season. So Paul departed from among them, leaving them as they deserved to themselves. Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed (a diminutive expression to signify that he made but very few converts); among whom the principal were Dionysius the Areopagite (who is said to have been afterwards constituted the first bishop of Athens), and a woman of rank named Damaris. with so much address, as not to offend his person,—an example, the most worthy of our imitation; as it would greatly contribute to make the bitter portion of reproof, if not palatable, at least salutary and successful. How artfully, then, does St. Paul insinuate himself into the soul of this great sinner, and shake his conscience at the remembrance of his vices!-not by denouncing vengeance against him, for his lust and injustice, but by placing in the strongest point of light the opposite virtues, showing their reasonableness in themselves, and their rewards at the day of judgment. For he reasoned, not of unrighteousness,not of incontinence, but of righteousness and chastity;—and by holding forth a beautiful picture of these necessary virtues, he left it to Felix to form the contrast, and to infer the blackness of his own vices. A masterly stroke! and it effec tually succeeded: for, as the prisoner spake,-the judge trembled. 5. The last instance, which we shall notice of this apostle's fine address and politeness, is to be found in his celebrated reply to king Agrippa, who publicly declared to him that he had almost persuaded him to be a Christian. Would to God that not only THOU but also ALL that hear me this day, were both ALMOST, and ALTOGETHER, such as I am-EXCEPT THESE BONDS. (Acts xxvi. 29.) What a prodigious effect must this striking conclusion, and the sight of the irons held up to enforce it, make upon the minds of the audience! Το his singular attainments in learning the Roman governor publicly bore an honourable testimony, imagining that the intense ness of his application to his studies, and his profound erudition, had disordered his understanding, and occasioned his supposed insanity. The writings of Paul show him to have been eminently acquainted with Greek learning and Hebrew literature. "He greatly excelled in the profound and accurate knowledge of the Old Testament, which he perpetually cites and explains with great skill and judgment, and pertinently accommodates to the subject which he is discussing. Born at Tarsus, one of the most illustrious seats of the muses in those days, initiated in that city into the learning and philosophy of the Greeks, conversing, in early life, with their most elegant and celebrated writers, whom we find him quoting, and afterwards finishing his course of education at the feet of Gamaliel, the learned Jewish rabbi, he came forth into public and It is universally acknowledged that Paul had read the Greek poets, and has quoted Aratus, Epimenides, and Menander; though it is scarcely sus pected by any one, that he quotes or refers to Eschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. There is, however (Dr. A. Clarke observes), such a similarity between the following quotations and the apostle's words, that we are almost persuaded that they were present to his comprehensive mind; and if they were, he extends the thought infinitely higher, by language incomparably more exalted. 1 Tim. vi. 25. Ο μακάριος και μονος Δυναστης, ὁ Βασιλευς των βασιλευοντων, kings, and Lord of lords. a Kupios Twv xupvVTOV. The blessed and only Potentate, the King of The Supreme Being is also styled the King of kings, and the Blessed, by Eschylus in his tragedy of the Supplicants: Αναξ ανακτών, μακαρων Μακάρτατο, και τελέων Τελειότατον κρατος. Ver. 520. Ed. Porson. "O King of kings, most Blessed of the blessed, most Perfect of the perfect." 1 Tim. vi. 16. Ο μόνος έχων αθανασίαν, φως οικων απρόσιτον.—Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can come unto. In the Antigone of Sophocles, there is a sublime address to Jove, of which: the following is an extract: Αγήρως χρόνῳ Δυνασίας Κατέχεις Ολυμπου Μαρμαροεσσαν αίγλαν, Ver. 608. Edit. Brunck. "But thou, an ever-during potentate, dost inhabit the refulgent splendour of Olympus!" "This passage," says Dr. Clarke, "is grand and noble; but how insigni. ficant does it appear, when contrasted with the superior sublimity of the of heaven; but the God of Paul inhabits light, so dazzling and so resplen inspired writer! The deity of Sophocles dwells in the dazzling splendour dent, that it is perfectlly unapproachable!" Once more, in 2 Tim. iv. 7. we read, Τον αγώνα τον καλόν ηγανισμαι, τον There is a passage in the Alcestis of Euripides, in which the very expressions used here by the apostle are found, and spoken on the occasion of a wife laying down her life for her husband, when both his parents had refused to do it. 4. In St. Paul's discourse to Felix (Acts xxiv.), he had TTX. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course. for his hearer a Roman governor, who was remarkable for his lust, and injustice;-a man who was very unlikely to bear, much less to reform by, a pointed reproof from his own prisoner. This, then, was a case, which required great art as well as great courage; and accordingly we find our apostle mingled the wisdom of the serpent with the innocence of the dove. He had honesty enough, to rebuke the sins; and yet prudence enough, not to offend the sinner. He had the courage to put even his judge in mind of his crimes; yet 1 Bp. Barrington conjectures that this quotation was taken from the celebrated Hymn of Cleanthes, in which the words spoken by Saint Paul are also to be found. See Mr. Townsend's New Test. arranged in Chronological Order, &c. vol. ii p. 249. Ουκ ηθέλησας ουδ' ετολμησας θάνειν Του σου προ παιδός" αλλα την δ' ειάσατε UvXIX' obviar, ny yw xas μnTips Πατερα το γ' ενδίκως αν εγοιμην μόνην Και τον καλόν γ' αν τονδ' αγων ηγωνίσω, Του σου προ παιδος κατύκνων. Alcest. v. 644. "Thou wouldest not, neither darest thou to die for thy son; but has suffered this strange woman to do it, whom I justly esteem to be alone m father and mother: thou wouldest have fought a good fight had'st thou died for thy son." The xxv xyv, good fight, was used among the Greeks to express & contest of the most honourable kind: and in this sense the apostle usos it (Dr. A. Clarke, on 1 Tim. vi. 16., and on 2 Tim. iv. 8.) active life, with a mind stored with the most ample and various treasures of science and knowledge. He himself tells us, that the distinguished progress which he had made was known to all the Jews, and that in this literary career he left all his co-equals and contemporaries far behind him. I profited in the Jewish religion above my fellows. A person possessed of natural abilities so signal, of literary acquisitions so extensive, of an activity and spirit so enterprising, and of an integrity and probity so inviolate, the wisdom of God judged a fit instrument to employ in displaying the banners and spreading the triumphs of Christianity among mankind. A negligent greatness, if we may so express it, appears in his writings. Full of the dignity of his subject, a torrent of sacred eloquence bursts forth, and bears down every thing before it with irresistible rapidity. He stays not to arrange and harmonize his words and periods, but rushes on, as his vast ideas transport him, borne away by the sublimity of his theme. Hence his frequent and prolix digressions, though at the same time his all-comprehensive mind never loses sight of his subject; but he returns from these excursions, resumes and pursues it with an ardour and strength of reasoning that astonishes and convinces." What a treasure of divinity and morality is contained in his epistles! which, as examples of a nervous, invigorating, commanding style, have seldom been equalled, never excelled. The instructions they contain are delivered with a simple gravity and concinnity that commands the attention, and is as much superior to high-wrought ornaments of professed rhetoricians as the native uncut diamond, to the furbished, glittering paste. Yet are they not deficient in those beauties which captivate the refined taste. Although professedly didactic, there are few pieces of composition that afford a richer variety of appropriate figure. There is scarcely a species of trope that has been noticed by rhetoricians that may not be found in one part or other of these books, and always in an apposite situation. "Nor are there wanting instances of a strength of figure only to be equalled by the importance of the sentiment expressed. As such, the description of the powerful efficacy of the promises and threats of God may be produced. The word of God is living and energetic, and more cutting than any two-edged sword, dividing even to the separation of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and a díscerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.' Again, when the apostle expresses his desire to be useful even to the death, to his converts; how noble and appropriate to men accustomed to the sacrificial rites is his expression! Yea, and if I be poured out as a libation (rad) upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all.' And how full of affection and exultation is his figurative appellation of the Philippians; My brethren, beloved and longed for, my joy and my crown!' Is there any thing in any of the heathen moralists comparable to that fine description of charity in the thirteenth chapter of the first epistle to the Corinthians? Speaking with the tongues of men and of angels is nothing in comparison of charity; and the tongues of men and of angels can never exceed this description. All the powers of logic and rhetoric are to be seen and felt in the fifteenth chapter of the same epistle; and what affecting solemnity does it add to that most solemn service of our liturgy, the burial of the dead! But it is not in the use of figures only that the excellence of the apostle's style consists. For appropriate diction he is unrivalled, and occasionally he rises into a sublimity of expression that carries his readers above themselves, and, while it astonishes, convinces or persuades with a delightful violence. When he undertakes to describe the goodness of our Maker in providing for us the means of salvation, the reader is transported with gratitude, and overwhelmed with self-abasement. When he exultingly depicts the excellences of the Gospel dispensation, he commands the enraptured mind, and we are 'lost in wonder, love, and praise!' When he concisely describes his sufferings, the constancy, the joyous triumphing in the midst of tortures, of the primitive propagators of Christianity, we require a new idea of the human mind; we are tempted to imagine the persons he speaks of to be superior beings, and to render them our humble adoration, till recalled by the assurance that it is by the might of the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, by the aid of the Holy Spirit, that these holy men so nobly won their heavenly crown. When we read his exulting and fervent expressions Harwood's Introduction, vol. 1. pp. 200, 202. of delight in the Gospel, and thankfulness for the glorious office of an apostle, how do we feel our hearts burn within us at being permitted by the good providence of God to par ticipate in the privileges so admirably extolled by the great apostle of the Gentiles. "Occasionally, too, the student of the epistles is at once astonished and delighted by a fervency of language unexampled in any other writer. Words of the most intense signi fication are accumulated, and, by their very strength, are made to express their weakness when compared with the inexpressible greatness of their object. Our language cannot express the force of a goan eis úmegConav aivar Bzgas diža (2 Cor. iv. 17.), which is but faintly shadowed forth in the translation of an eminent critic, an excessively exceeding and eternal weight of glory.' Numerous, and some, if pos sible, still more striking examples occur, but cannot be adequately displayed in any, even the best translation. Even the ordinary grammatical compounds are not sufficient for the glowing ideas of the apostle. Thus, wishing to express his own utter worthlessness considered in himself, he makes use of a comparative, found only in the most exalted sentences of the classic authors: a To inaX15CTER, not unaptly redered by our translators less than the least." "2 Another excellence in Saint Paul's writings is presented to our notice in the admirable art with which he interests the passions, and engages the affections of his hearers. Under the present depravity of human nature, our reason being enfeebled, and our passions consequently grown powerful, it must be of great service to engage these in the cause we would serve; and therefore, his constant endeavour w ́ ́,— not only to convince the reason of his hearers, but alarm and interest their passions. And, as hope and fear are (with the bulk of mankind) the main-springs of human action, to these he addressed himself most effectually,-not by cold speculation upon abstract fitnesses, but by the awful assurances of a resurrection of the dead to an eternity of happiness or misery. With respect to the latter, who can hear without trembling, that, the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven, with his mighty angels, in fluming fire, taking ven geance on the ungodly, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power! And the happiness of heaven he describes by words so strong, as to baffle the expression of all language but his own,-by a weight of glory infinite and eternal beyond all hyperbole or conception. Thus the apostle secured the passions of those to whom he directed his epistles: and he equally engaged their affeetions by his endearing manner of address. Has he occasion to introduce any subject, which he is afraid will prejudice and disgust his bigoted countrymen the Jews? He announces it with a humility and modesty that secures the attention, and with an insinuating form of address to which nothing can be denied. "This appears particularly in his Epistle to the Romans, where we see with what reluctance and heartfelt grief he mentions the ungrateful truth of the Jews' rejection of the Messiah, and their dereliction by God for their insuperable obstinacy. How studious is he to provoke them to jealousy and emulation by the example of the Gen tiles, and how many persuasive and cogent arts and argu ments does he employ to win them over to the religion of Jesus! In these delicate touches, in these fine arts of moral suasion, Saint Paul greatly excels. Upon occasion, also we find him employing the most keen and cutting raillery in satirizing the faults and foibles of those to whom he wrote. With what sarcastic pleasantry does he animadvert upon the Corinthians for their injudicious folly, in suffering themselves to be duped by a false judaizing teacher! A more delicate and poignant instance of irony, than the following passage, is perhaps nowhere to be met with: What is it, says he to the Corinthians, wherein you were inferior to other churches, except that I myself was not burthensome to you (by taking any acknowledgment for my labours)? do forgive me this wrong. (2 Cor. xii. 13.)-To his eloquence, as a publie speaker, we have the testimony of the Lycaonians, who (as we have already remarked) foolishly imagining the gods to have descended from heaven among them in the persons of Barnabas and Paul, called the former Jupiter, and the latter Mercury, because he was the chief speaker. And though it is said his bodily presence was mean, and his speech contemp-| monarchy. This opinion was so deeply rooted in the minds of tible, yet it ought to be remembered, that this was the aspersion of his enemies, the effusion of malignity, to defame and sink him, and ruin his usefulness." SECTION II. OBSERVATIONS ON THE APOSTOLICAL EPISTLES IN GENERAL, 1. Importance of the Epistles.-Nature of these writings the apostles, that Jesus Christ did not think proper to eradicate it all at once, but rather chose to remove it by gentle and easy degrees. Accordingly, in compliance with their prejudices, we find him describing his kingdom, and the pre-eminence they were to enjoy in it, by eating and drinking at his table, and sitting on thrones, and judging the twelve tribes of Israel. (Luke xxii. 30. Matt. xix. 28.) But after the Holy Spirit had given the apostles clear and distinct apprehensions of the spiritual nature of Christ's kingdom, and the real nature of its happiness, we find what noble reprefor true Christians, and what powerful arguments they derive sentations they give of the glories which are laid up in Heaven thence, in order to persuade them not to set their minds upon the things of this world. They describe the happiness of the world to come by an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away (1 Pet. i. 4.); by a new heaven, and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness (2 Pet. iii. 13.), I. THE EFISTLES, or letters addressed to various Christian where God shall be all in all (1 Cor. xv. 28): he shall reign communities, and also to individuals, by the apostles Paul, with an absolute dominion, and it shall be our honour and hapJames, Peter, John, and Jude, form the second principal di- piness that God is exalted; and they exhort us not to set our vision of the New Testament. These writings abundantly minds upon the things that are seen, and are temporal, but on confirm all the material facts related in the Gospel and Acts those things which are not seen, and are eternal. (2 Cor. iv. 18.) of the Apostles. The particulars of our Saviour's life and Again, it was the same prejudice concerning the temporal death are often referred to in them, as grounded upon the un- glories of Christ's kingdom which caused his disciples to mis doubted testimony of eye-witnesses, and as being the foun- understand the meaning of his various clear and explicit disdation of the Christian religion. The speedy propagation courses concerning his sufferings, death, and resurrection. (See of the Christian faith, recorded in the Acts, is confirmed be- Mark ix. 10. Luke ix. 45. xviii. 34.) They vainly expected yond all contradiction by innumerable passages in the Epis- that their master would gain earthly conquests and triumphs, tles, written to the churches already planted; and the mira- and they could not apprehend how he should become gloculous gifts, with which the apostles were endued, are often rious through sufferings. In consequence of these mistaken appealed to in the same writings, as an undeniable evidence ideas, the doctrine of the cross and its saving effects were not of the divine mission of the apostles.2 Though all the essential doctrines and precepts of the understood by the apostles (Matt. xvi. 22.), until our Saviour Christian religion were unquestionably taught by our Saviour had opened their understandings by his discourses on this subject himself, and are contained in the Gospels, yet it is evident after his resurrection; and therefore we cannot expect so perfect an exposition of that great and fundamental article of Christo any person who attentively studies the Epistles, that they are to be considered as commentaries on the doctrines of the tianity in the Gospels as in the Epistles, in which Christ's dying Gospel addressed to particular Christian societies or persons, for our sins, and rising again for our justification, is every in order to explain and apply those doctrines more fully, to where insisted upon as the foundation of all our hopes; and the confute some growing errors, to compose differences and doctrine of the cross is there spoken of as a truth of such imschisms, to reform abuses and corruptions, to excite Chris-portance, that Saint Paul (1 Cor. ii. 2.), in comparison of it, tians to holiness, and to encourage them against persecutions. despises every other kind of knowledge, whether divine or human. And since these Epistles were written (as we have already Hence it is that the apostles deduce those powerful motives to shown) under divine inspiration, and have uniformly been obedience, which are taken from the love, humility, and conde received by the Christian church as the productions of in-scension of our Lord, and the right which he has to our service spired writers, it consequently follows (notwithstanding some having purchased us with the price of his blood. (See 1 Cor. vi. writers have insinuated that they are not of equal authority 20. 2 Cor. v. 15. Gal. ii. 20. Tit. ii. 14. 1 Pet. i. 18, 19.) Hence with the Gospels, while others would reject them altogether) they derive those great obligations, which lie upon Christians to that what the apostles have delivered in these Epistles, as exercise the duties of mortification and self-denial; of crucifying necessary to be believed or done by Christians, must be as the flesh with the affections and lusts (Gal. v. 24. vi. 14. Rom. necessary to be believed and practised in order to salvation, vi. 6. 1 Pet. iv. 1, 2.); of patience under afflictions, and rejoicing as the doctrines and precepts delivered by Jesus Christ him- in tribulations (Phil. iii. 10. 2 Tim. ii. 11, 12. 1 Pet. ii. 19. &c., self, and recorded in the Gospels: because in writing these iv. 13.); of being dead to this world, and seeking those things Epistles, the sacred penmen were the servants, apostles, am- which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. bassadors and ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mys- (Col. iii. 1. &c.) Thus, as our Saviour spoiled principalities teries of God, and their doctrines and precepts are the will, and powers, and triumphed over his enemies by the cross the mind, the truth, and the commandments of God himself. (Col. ii. 15.), so the believer overcomes the world by being cruOn account of the fuller displays of evangelical truth con- cified to it; and becomes more than conqueror through Christ tained in this portion of the sacred volume, the Epistles have that loved him. by some divines been termed the DOCTRINAL BOOKS of the New Testament. That the preceding view of the Epistles is correct, will appear from the following considerations. In the FIRST place they announce and explain DOCTRINES, of, which our Saviour had not fully treated in his discourses, and which consequently are not clearly delivered in the Gospels. Thus there were some things which our Saviour did not fully and clearly explain to his disciples (John xvi. 12.), but accommodated his expressions to those prejudices in which they had been educated. Of this description were his discourses concerning the nature of his kingdom; which, agreeably to the erroneous notion: then entertained by their countrymen, the apostles expected would be a temporal kingdom, and accompanied with the same pomp and splendour which are the attendants of an earthly Dr. Harwood's Introd. to the New Test. vol. i. p. 202. See also Michael is's Introduction, vol. i. pp. 149-159. Bp. Newton's Dissertation on St. Paul's Eloquence. (Works, vol. v. pp. 248-271.) Dr. Kennicott's Remarks on the Old Testament and Sermons, pp. 369-379. Dr. A. Clarke on 1 Tim. vi. 15. and 2 Tim. iv. 8. Once more, it is in the Epistles principally, that we are clearly taught the calling of the Gentiles to make one church with the Jews. Our Lord, indeed, had intimated this glorious event in some general expressions, and also in some of his parables (sec Matt. viii. 1. xx. 1. Luke xv. 11. &c.); and the numerous prophecies of the Old Testament, which foretell the calling of the Gentiles, were sufficient to convince the Jews, that in the times of the Messiah, God would reveal the knowledge of himself and his will to the world more fully than ever he had done before. But the extraordinary value which they had for themselves, and the privileges which they fancied were peculiar to their own nation, made them unwilling to believe that the Gentiles should ever be fellowheirs with the Jews, of the same body or church with them, and partakers of the same promises in Christ by the Gospel. (Eph. iii. 6.) This Saint Peter himself could hardly be persuaded to believe, till he was convinced by a particular vision vouchsafed to him for that purpose. (Acts x. 28.) And Saint Paul tells us that this was a mystery which was but newly revealed to the apostles by the Spirit (Eph. iii. 5.): and therefore not fully discovered by Christ before. Lastly, it is in the Epistles chiefly that the inefficacy of the law to procure our justification in the sight of God, the cessation of the law, and the eternal and uncnangeable nature of Christ's | ple of Saint Paul, and also because those Epistles are the priesthood are set forth. Compare Rom. iii. 20. 25. Gal. ii. 21. iii. 16. v. 2. 5. Heb. ix. 10. vii. 18. v. 5, 6. vii. 24, 25 SECONDLY, in the Epistles only we have instructions concerning many great and necessary DUTIES. Such are the following, viz. that all our thanksgivings are to be offered up to God in the name of Christ. The duties which we owe to our civil governors are only hinted in these words of Christ—“Render unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's," but are enlarged upon in Saint Paul's Epistles to the Romans (xiii.), and to Titus (iii. 1.), and also in the first Epistle of Saint Peter. (ii. 10. 17.) In like manner the duties, which we owe to the ministers of the Gospel (our spiritual governors), are more expressly taught in Saint Paul's Epistle to the Galatians (vi. 6.), the Thessalonians (1 Thess. v. 12, 13.), and to the Hebrews. (xiii. 17, 18.) Lastly, all the duties belonging to the relations of husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and servants, are particularly treated in the Epistles to the Ephesians (v. 28-33. vi. 1-9.), and the Colossians (iii. 1125.); but are scarcely ever mentioned in the Gospels. This is a convincing argument that the Holy Spirit, who influenced the pens of the apostles, not only regarded the particular exigencies of the Christians who lived in those times, but also directed the sacred writers to enlarge on such points of doctrine and practice as were of universal concern, and would be for the benefit of the faithful in all succeeding generations. It is true that the immediate occasion of several of the epistles was the correction of errors and irregularities in particular churches :3 but the experience of all succeeding ages, to our own time, has shown the necessity of such cautions, and the no less necessity of attending to the duties which are directly opposite to those sins and irregularities, and which the apostles take occasion from thence to lay down and enforce. And even their decisions of cases concerning meats and drinks, and the observation of the ceremonial law, and similar doubts which were peculiar to the Jewish converts, in the first occasion of them:-even these rules also are, and will always be, our surest guides in all points relating to church liberty, and the use of things indifferent; when the grounds of those decisions, and the directions consequent upon them, are duly attended to, and applied to cases of the like nature by the rules of piety and prudence, especially in one point, which is of universal concern in life, viz. the duty of abstaining from many things which are in themselves innocent, if we foresee that they will give offence to weak Christians, or be the occasion of leading others into sin. II. The Epistles contained in the New Testament are twenty-one in number, and are generally divided into two classes, the Epistles of Saint Paul, and the Catholic Epistles. Of these apostolical letters, fourteen were written by the great apostle of the Gentiles; they are not placed in our Bibles according to the order of time when they were composed, but according to the supposed precedence of the societies or persons to whom they were addressed. Thus, the epistles to churches are disposed according to the rank of the cities or places whither they were sent. The Epistle to the Romans stands first, because Rome was the chief city of the Roman empire: this is followed by the two Epistles to the Corinthians, because Corinth was a large, polite, and renowned city. To them succeeds the Epistle to the Galatians, who were the inhabitants of Galatia, a region of Asia Minor, in which were several churches. Next follows the Epistle to the Ephesians, because Ephesus was the chief city of Asia Minor, strictly so called. Afterwards come the Epistles to the Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians; for which order Dr. Lardner can assign no other probable reason than this, viz. that Philippi was a Roman colony, and, therefore, the Epistle to the Philippians was placed before those to the Colossians and Thessalonians, whose cities were not distinguished by any particular circumstance. He also thinks it not unlikely that the shortness of the two Epistles to the Thessalonians, especially of the second, caused them to be placed last among the letters addressed to churches, though in point of time they are the earliest of Saint Paul's Epistles. Among the Epistles addressed to particular persons, those to Timothy have the precedence, as he was a favourite disci 1 Compare Eph. v. 8. 20. 1 Thess. v. 18. Heb. xiii. 14, 15. Whitby, vol. ii. p. 1. Lowth's Directions for the Profitable Reading of the Scriptures, pp. 199-211. Such were the corrupting of Christianity with mixtures of Judaism and philosophy, apostacy from the faith which they had received, contentions and divisions among theraselves, neglect of the assemblies for public worship, and misbehaviour in them, the dishonouring of marriage, &c. &c. longest and fullest. To them succeeds the Epistle to Titus, who was an evangelist; and that to Philemon is placed last, Last of all comes the Epistle to the Hebrews, because its as he was supposed to have been only a private Christian. authenticity was doubted for a short time (though withou any foundation, as will be shown in a subsequent page); Dr. Lardner also thinks that it was the last written of all St. Paul's Epistles. Some learned men, who have examined the chronology of Saint Paul's Epistles, have proposed to arrange them in our Bibles, according to the order of time: but to this classifica tion there are two serious objections, viz. 1. The order of their dates has not yet been satisfactorily or unanimously settled; and, 2. Very considerable difficulty will attend the alterstion of that order which has been adopted in all the editions and versions of the New Testament. This was the received arrangement in the time of Eusebius, who flourished in the beginning of the third century, and probably also of Irenæus, who lived in the second century. Consequently it is the most ancient order: in Dr. Lardner's judgment it is the best that can be adopted ;4 and therefore we have retained the received order in the subsequent part of this work. As, however, a knowledge of the order in which Saint Paul's Epistles wer written, cannot fail to be both instructive and useful to the biblical student, we have deemed it proper to subjoin a TABLE of their CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER (as established in the subsequent pages), which exhibits the places where, and the times when, they were in all probability respectively writter The dates, &c. assigned by Dr. Lardner and other learned men, are duly noticed in the following pages. III. The Catholic Epistles are reven in number, and contain the letters of the apostles Jar es, Peter, John, and Jude. They are termed Catholic, that is, general or universal, because they are not addressed to the believers of some parti cular city or country, or to individuals, as Saint Paul's Epis tles were, but to Christians in general, or to Christians of several countries. The subjoined table exhibits the dates of the Catholic Epistles, and also the places where they were written, agreeably to the order established in the following pages. IV. The general plan on which the Epistles are written is, first, to discuss and decide the controversy, or to refute the erroneous notions, which had arisen in the church, or among the persons to whom they are addressed, and which was the occasion of their being written; and, secondly, to recommend the observance of those duties, which would be necessary, and of absolute importance to the Christian church in every age, consideration being chiefly given to those particula graces or virtues of the Christian character, which the disputes that occasioned the Epistles might tempt them to neg fect. In pursuing this method, regard is had, first, to the nature and faculties of the soul of man, in which the understanding is to lead the way, and the will, affections, and active powers are to follow; and, secondly, to the nature of religion in general, which is a reasonable service, teaching us that we are not to be determined by superstitious fancies, Dr. Lardner's Works, 8vo. vol. vi. pp. 646-649., 4to. vol. iii. pp 407, 408. On the origin and reasons of this appellation, see Chapter IV. Sect. § 1. infra. nor by blind passions, but by a sound judgment and a good | understanding of the mind and will of God; and also showing us the necessary union of faith and practice, of truth and holiness. The pious, affectionate, and faithful manner in which the apostles admonish, reprove, exhort, or offer consolation, can only be adequately appreciated by him, who, by patient and diligent study, is enabled to enter fully into the spirit of the inspired authors. V. Explicit as the Epistles unquestionably are in all fundamental points, it is not to be denied that some parts of them are more difficult to be understood than the Gospels. The reason of these seeming difficulties is evident. In an Epistle many things are omitted, or only slightly mentioned, because they are supposed to be known by the person to whom it is addressed; but, to a person unacquainted with such particulars, they cannot but present considerable difficulty. The affairs discussed by Saint Paul were certainly well known to the persons to whom he wrote; who consequently would easily apprehend his meaning, and see the force and tendency of his discourse. As, however, we who live at this distance of time, can obtain no information concerning the occasion of his writing, or the character and circumstances of the persons for whom his Epistles were intended, except what can be collected from the Epistles themselves, it is not strange that several things in them should appear obscure to us. Further, it is evident from many passages, that he answers letters sent, and questions proposed to him, by his correspondents; which, if they had been preserved, would have illustrated different passages much better than all the notes of commentators and critics. To these causes of obscurity, which are common to all the writers of the Epistles, we may add some that are peculiar to Saint Paul, owing to his style and temper. Possessing an ardent, acute, and fertile mind (as we have seen in the preceding section), he seems to have written with great rapidity, and without closely attending to method. Hence arise those frequent parentheses which occur in his Epistles. In the course of his argument he sometimes breaks off abruptly, in order to pursue a new thought that is necessary for the support of some point arising from the subject, though not immediately leading to it; and when he has exhausted such new idea, he returns from his digression without any Intimation of the change of topic, so that considerable attention is requisite in order to retain the connection. His frequent changes of persons and propositions of objections, which he answers without giving any formal intimation, are also causes of ambiguity. To these we may add, 1. The modern divisions of chapters and verses, which dissolve the connection of parts, and break them into fragments; and, 2. Our uncertainty concerning the persons addressed, as well as the opinions and practices to which the great apostle of the Gentiles alludes, sometimes only in exhortations and reproofs. Other causes of obscurity might be assigned, but the preceding are the most material; and the knowledge of them, if we study with a right spirit, will enable us to ascertain the rest without difficulty. The most useful mode of studying the epistolary writings of the New Testament is, unquestionably, that proposed and recommended by Mr. Locke; which, having been already noticed when treating on the doctrinal interpretation of the Scriptures, it is not necessary again to repeat.3 SECTION III. ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. I. Date, and where written.-II. Genuineness and authenticity of this Epistle; particularly of chapters XV. and XVI. III. The church at Rome, when and by whom founded. The following remark of a late excellent writer, on the Scriptures in general, is particularly applicable to Saint Paul's Epistles.-"Difficulties indeed there are, but the life-directing precepts they contain are suffi ciently easy; and he who reads the Scriptures with an unprejudiced mind, must be convinced, that the whole end they have in view is to lead mankind to their truest and best happiness, both here and hereafter. They inform our reason, they guide our consciences; in short, they have the words both of temporal and eternal life." Gilpin's Sermons, vol. iv. p. 335. See also Mrs. More's Essay on Saint Paul, vol. i. pp. 59-72. Locke's Essay for the understanding of Saint Paul's Epistles (Works, vol. iii.), p. 275. et seq. See also Dr. Graves's Essay on the Character of the Apostles and Evangelists, pp. 146-163., for some useful remarks on the obscurity of Saint Paul's Epistles. See Vol. I. Part II. Chap. V. IV. Occasion.-V. Internal state of the church at Rome.VI. Scope.-VII. Synopsis of its contents.-VIII. Observations on this Epistle. I. THE Epistle to the Romans, though fifth in order of time, is placed first of all the apostolical letters, either from the pre-eminence of Rome, as being the mistress of the world, or because it is the longest and most comprehensive of all Saint Paul's Epistles. Various years have been assigned for its date. Van Til refers it to the year 55; Langius, Bishop Pearson, Drs. Mill and Whitby, Fabricius, Reineccius, Professor Stuart, and others, to the year 57: Baronius, Michaelis, Lord Barrington, Drs. Benson and Lardner, and Bishop Tomline to the year 58; Archbishop Usher and our Bible chronology, to the year 60; Dr. Hales to the end of 58, or the beginning of 59; and Rosenmüller to the end of the year 58. The most probable date is that which assigns this Epistle to the end of 57, or the beginning of 58; at which time Saint Paul was at Corinth, whence he was preparing to go to Jerusalem with the collections which had been made by the Christians of Macedonia and Achaia for their poor brethren in Judæa. (Rom. xv. 25-27.) The Epistle was dictated by the apostle in the Greek languages to Tertius his amanuensis (xvi. 22.), and was sent to the church at Rome, by Phoebe, a deaconess of the church at Cenchrea (xvi. 1.), whose journey to Rome afforded Saint Paul an opportunity of writing to the Christians in that city. That he wrote from Corinth is further evident from Romans xvi. 23. where he sends salutations from Erastus the chamberlain of Corinth (which city, we learn from 2 Tim. iv. 20. was the place of his residence), and from Gaius, who lived at Corinth (1 Cor. i. 14.), whom Saint Paul terms his host, and the host of all the Christian church there. II. That this Epistle has always been acknowledged to be a genuine and authentic production of Saint Paul, is attested not only by the ancient Syriac and Latin versions, but by the express declarations and quotations of Irenæus,' Theophilus of Antioch, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Origen,10 and by all subsequent ecclesiastical writers. It was also cited or alluded to by the apostolic fathers," Barnabas,12 Clement of Rome,13 Ignatius,14 Polycarp, and by the churches of Vienna and Lyons.13 17 15 The genuineness of chapters xv. and xvi. has been of late years impugned by Heumann, Semler, Schott, and Eichhorn. Their arguments have been examined in detail, and most satisfactorily refuted by Professor Stuart, in his Introduction to the Epistle to the Romans, the result of whose researches proves, first, that there is no internal evidence to prove that these chapters are spurious; and secondly, that no external evidence of any considerable weight can be adduced in favour of this supposition. All the manuscripts which are of any authority (with some variety as to the position of xvi. 25-27., and with the omission of these verses in a few cases) are on the side of the genuineness of these chapters. Jerome mentions, 18 that he knew of some manuscripts which omitted xvi. 25-27.; and Wetstein cites a Codex Latinus which also omits those verses. But in regard to all the rest of the fifteenth and sixteenth chapters, no authority from manuscripts, fathers, or versions, warrants us in sus pecting them. III. The Scriptures do not inform us at what time or by whom the Gospel was first preached at Rome. Those who assert that the church in that city was founded by Saint Pe ter, can produce no solid foundation for their opinion: for, if he had preached the Gospel there, it is not likely that such This opinion is satisfactorily vindicated at considerable length, by Dr. J. F. Flatt, in a dissertation, De tempore, quo Pauli epistola ad Romanos |-scripta sit (Tubingæ, 1759); reprinted in Pott's and Ruperti's Sylloge Com mentationum Theologicarum, vol. ii. pp. 54-74. Latin, but this notion is contradicted by the whole current of Christian Bellarmine and Salmeron imagined that this epistle was written in antiquity; and John Adrian Bolton, a German critic, fancied that it was written in Aramaic, but he was amply refuted by Griesbach. Viser, Herm. Sacr. Nov. Test. pars ii. p. 351. Rosenmüller, Scholia, vol. iii. p. 359. That Greek was the original language we have already proved, supra, Vol. I pp. 193, 194. Lardner's Works, 8vo. vol. ii. pp. 163–165.; 4to. vol. i. pp. 368, 369. Ibid. 8vo. vol. ii. pp. 195-199.; 4to. vol. i. pp. 385-388. Ibid. 8vo. vol. ii. pp. 222-224.; 4to. vol. i. pp. 400-402. Ibid. 8vo. vol. ii. pp. 266-272.; 4to. vol. i. pp. 424-428. 10 Ibid. 8vo. vol. ii. pp. 375-377.; 4to. vol. i. pp. 482-484. 11 Ibid. 8vo. vol. ii. pp. 471, 472.; 4to. vol. i. p. 535. 12 Ibid. 8vo. vol. ii. pp. 17, 18.; 4to. vol. i. pp. 286, 287. 13 Ibid. 8vo. vol. ii. p. 35.; 4to. vol. i. p. 296. 14 Ibid. 8vo. vol. ii. p. 74.; 4to. vol. i. p. 318. 15 Ibid. 8vo. vol. ii. p. 94.; 4to. vol. i. p. 329. 16 Ibid. 8vo. vol. ii. p. 151.; 4to. vol. i. p. 361. 17 Stuart's Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, pp. 42-50. 18 Hieronymi Comm. in Eph. iii. 5. |