subsequent verb, a noun obliquely introduced in connection with a preceding verb in the same sentence. This observation removes the ambiguity which may be felt in the following words of Josephus-Τοτε δη τις Αντιοχος εις εξ αυτών τα μάλιςα δια τον πατερα τιμώμενος, ην γαρ αρχών των επ' Αντιοχείας Ιουδαίων. Β. J. lib. vii. c. 3. §. 3. It might be doubted whether Antiochus, or his father, is here said to have been a governor of the Jews at Antioch. The answer is-Antiochus; because this is the direct and leading noun in the sentence, dia Tov TαTEga being indirectly introduced, and therefore incapable of being made the subject to ην αρχων.

CHAPTER VI.

THE DIVINITY, THE MIRACULOUS BIRTH, AND THE ATONEMENT OF CHRIST, REFUTED FROM THE EPISTLES OF PAUL TO THE ROMANS AND TO THE GALATIANS.

THE attempts hitherto made to explain the apostolic writings appear to me very defective. The efforts of classical divines indeed to elucidate obscure terms and phrases by parallel passages collected from Greek and Roman authors, are commendable and useful. But the writers of the New Testament were not guided by the rules of classical composition. The situation in which they were placed, alone contains the causes of their peculiar phraseologies. The new views which the Gospel unfolded to their understandings, and the new direction which it impressed on their conduct, obliged them often to connect peculiar significations with their terms, and to form them in combinations unexampled. Besides this, the Apostles had no opportunities nor inclination to study the sources of Attic elegance. They were men engaged in the pursuit of an important end, to the accomplishment of which every moment of their time, and every

faculty of their minds were devoted. The letters which they respectively addressed to the churches, contain not abstract or speculative matters, but respect matters of practical importance and actual occurrence. They were called forth by the peculiar and local circumstances of the several societies to which they were sent. The developement of those circumstances, and a comparative view of them with the apostolic writings, must consequently be the only rational way of elucidating whatever is obscure, and ascertaining whatever is doubtful in them. The Gnostic teachers closely followed the Apostles in their efforts to propagate the Gospel; and in order to defeat that generous end, introduced, without delay, their pernicious system into all the churches which they had established. The introduction and prevalence of that system was the means which the wisdom of Providence has used to call forth the writings of the Apostles for the benefit of succeeding ages. The same heretical doctrine also furnishes the true criterion, whereby to decide those disputed passages which occur in them, respecting the person or the death of Christ. Considered in this point of view, the Epistles of Paul and of his fellowlabourers are controversial letters; and to decide their import in any doubtful place, we must refer to those errors which they were intended to refute, being well assured that the authors intended to deny what their opponents maintained, and on the other hand maintain what they denied.

The question respecting the divinity and supernatural birth of Christ had been discussed at

Rome; and Josephus has noticed the wicked Jew, who seems to have introduced those doctrines into the Roman church. The Apostle Paul, therefore, was called upon to notice it in his letter to that society; and he decides it by intimating that Jesus Christ had flesh and blood-i. e. was a real man; that he rose in the line of David, being predicted as such by the prophets; and that he became the Son of God by power from God, that is, by the Holy Spirit which descended on him at his baptism, and which raised him from the dead." Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an Apostle, separated for the Gospel of God, which he had promised before by his prophets, in the Holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was born of the race of David, according to the flesh, and proved to be the Son of God by power, through his resurrection from the dead."

"A Jew resided in Rome," says Josephus, "who having been accused of transgressing the laws, fled from his country, to avoid the punishment which threatened him. During his residence at Rome, he pretended to unfold the wisdom of the law of Moses, in conjunction with other three men, who in every respect resembled himself." This man taught the Gnostic system, of which the impostor of Samaria is represented by the early fathers as the principal author; and we might conclude from Josephus, that he was one of the three who associated with the wicked Jew at Rome. For the historian presently adds, "Nor did the nation of the Samaritans escape disturbance; for they were stirred up by a man, who made no scruple of telling falsehoods, and

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who, influenced by the desire of popularity, imposed on the multitude by various artifices." We are to infer then, that this imposture had been taught in the Roman church, when Paul wrote his epistle; and we may perceive that the author notices it and its teachers in very distinct

terms.

While the undisguised enemies of the Gospel on one hand, used open violence to withdraw the true believers from the faith; the Gnostics, its pretended friends, on the other, employed opposite but effectual means to answer this end. In opposition to the man Jesus, the endeared Lord of the Apostles, they preached a Christ descended from heaven, invested with principalities and powers, and accompanied with angels. But the foundation of their system was a Supreme God hitherto unknown to the Jews, which they pretended to have revealed under the name of Bathos or Buthos*. By these fictions, the artful enemies of the truth, sought to undermine the Gospel, and to separate the converts from the belief and worship of the Creator, whom they blasphemed as a malevolent being. The Apostle having mentioned, in the preceding verses, the violence of open enemies, in separating the

See Eccles. Research. p. 282. Irenæus, p. 7 and p. 95. The deceivers professed to unfold a chain of divinities, which the Apostle calls endless genealogies. 1 Tim. i. 3. The primary links in it were, Βυθος, μους, λόγος, φρόνησις, σοφία δύναμις, αρχαι, αγγελοι. See Epiphan. p. 69. In Rev. vi. 48, John calls this Babe TOD Σatavā.