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his preaching was confiftent with his writing, it was extremely natural; for, though it be not a neceffary, furely it is an eafy inference, that if the Gentile convert, who did not obferve the law of Mofes, held as advantageous a fituation in his religious interefts as the Jewish convert who did, there could be no ftrong reafon for obferving that law at all. The remonftrance therefore of the church of Jerufalem, and the report which occafioned it, were founded in no very violent mifconftruction of the apostle's doctrine. His reception at Jerufalem was exactly what I should have expected the author of this epiftle to have met with. I am entitled therefore to argue that a feparate narrative of effects experienced by St. Paul, fimilar to what a perfon might be expected to experience, who held the doctrines advanced in this epiftle, forms a proof that he did hold thefe doctrines; and that the epiftle bearing his name, in which fuch doctrines are laid down, actually proceeded from him.

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No. VIII.

This number is fupplemental to the former. I propofe to point out in it two particulars in the conduct of the argument, perfectly adapted to the historical circumstances under which the epistle was written; which yet are free from all appearance of contrivance, and which it would not, I think, have entered into the mind of a fophift to contrive.

1.The Epiftle to the Galatians relates to the fame general question as the epistle to the Romans. St. Paul had founded the church of Galatia; at Rome he had never been. Obferve now a difference in his manner of treating of the fame fubject, correfponding with this difference in his fituation. In the Epiftle to the Galatians he puts the point in the point in a great measure upon authority: "I marvel that ye 66 are fo foon removed from him that called "you into the grace of Chrift, unto another

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gofpel." Gal. i. 6. "I certify you, bre"thren, that the gofpel which was preached "of me, is not after man; for I neither re"ceivedit of man, neither was I taught it but

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by the revelation of Jesus Christ” (ch. i. ver. 11, 12). "I am afraid left I have bestowed upon you labour in vain" (iv. 11, 12). "I defire to be prefent with you now, for "Iftand in doubt of you" (iv.20)."Behold I, "Paul, fay unto you, that, if ye be circum"cifed, Chrift fhall profit you nothing" (ch.

2). "This perfuafion cometh not of him “that called you”(ch.v.8). This is the style in which he accofts the Galatians. In the epiftle to the converts of Rome, where his authority was not established, nor his perfon known, he puts the fame point entirely upon argument. The perufal of the epistle will prove this to the fatisfaction of every reader; and, as the obfervation relates to the whole contents of the epiftle, I forbear adducing feparate extracts. I repeat therefore that we have pointed out a distinction in the two epiftles, fuited to the relation in which the author ftood to his different correfpondents.

Another adaptation, and fomewhat of the fame kind, is the following:

2. The Jews we know were very numerous at Rome, and probably formed a principal part amongst the new converts; fo much

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fo, that the Chriftians feem to have been known at Rome rather as a denomination of Jews, than as any thing elfe. In an epiftle confequently to the Roman believers, the point to be endeavoured after by St. Paul was, to reconcile the Jewish converts tothe opinion, that the Gentiles were admitted by God to a parity of religious fituation with themselves, and that, without their being bound by the law of Mofes. The Gentile converts would bably accede to this opinion very readily. In this epistle, therefore, though directed to the Roman church in general, it is in truth a Jew writing to Jews. Accordingly you will take notice, that as often as his argument leads him to fay any thing derogatory from the Jewish institution, he constantly follows it by a foftening claufe. Having (ii. 28, 29) pronounced, not much perhaps to the fatisfaction of the native Jews, "that he is not a Jew " which is one outwardly, neither that cir"cumcifion which is outward in the flesh;" he adds immediately "what advantage then "hath the Jew, or what profit is there in circumcifion? much every way." Having in the

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third chapter, ver. 28, brought his argument to this formal conclufion, "that a man is justi"fied by faith, without the deeds of the "law," he presently fubjoins, ver. 31, “do we then make void the law through faith? God "forbid; yea, we establish the law." In the feventh chapter, when in the fixth verse he had advanced the bold affertion, that "now we "are delivered from the law, that being dead. "wherein we were held;" in the very next verse he comes in with this healing question, "What shall we say then? Is the law fin? God "forbid; nay, I had not known fin but by the "law." Having in the following words infinuated, or rather more than infinuated, the inefficacy of the Jewifh law, viii. 3, "for what "the law could not do, in that it was weak "through the flesh, God fending his own Son "in the likeness of finful flesh, and for fin, "condemned fin in the flesh;" after a digreffion indeed, but that fort of a digreffion which he could never refift, a rapturous contemplation of his Christian hope, and which occupies the latter part of this chapter; we find him in the next, as if sensible that he

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