by those, who on these grounds decry him, is a proof, if he was inspired, and they uninspired, not that he is wrong, but that they are. If the Gospel is against a man, he will be against the Gospel. And the more any work is depreciated by those who are resolved to believe only just what they please, the higher ought its value to rise in the estimation of those who are willing to " obey the truth." Now there is no one of the Sacred Writers whose expressions have been so tortured, whose authority has been so much set at nought, as Paul's, by those who reject many of the most characteristic doctrines of the Gospel; which is a plain proof that they find him a formidable opponent; and which should lead those who prize the purity of the Gospel, to value his writings the more. I am far from insinuating that the great truths of Christianity, the doctrines of the divinity of our blessed Lord,—of his atoning sacrifice,—and of salvation through Him,-rest on this Apostle's authority alone; but a presumption is afforded,

8 The Mahometans, who acknowledge the authority of the four Gospels, though they pretend the Christians have interpolated them, hold the name of Paul in detestation.

by the very hostility shewn towards him by the opponents of those doctrines, that he is particularly full and clear in enforcing them, and that he adds great confirmation to the testimony in their favour of the other Sacred Writers.

It is perhaps to be wished, accordingly, that those who, without professing to reject Christianity, have avowedly laboured to disparage this Apostle, and to represent him as at variance with his Master, had written with more ability, and had attracted more notice; in order that they might have directed men's attention more strongly, not only to Paul's claims to a divine commission, but also to his importance as a bulwark of the christian faith. And I wish also that some of them had set forth more strongly the alleged discrepancy between Paul's doctrines and those of the discourses of Jesus. certainly might have been done; since (as was above remarked), though there is nothing contrary in the one to the other, there is much that is different, as the nature of the case required; the same doctrines which were but obscurely hinted at by the one, being fully developed, (the fit time being come) and earnestly

This

dwelt on, by the other. The doctrines which Jesus preached were suited to the period where the kingdom of Heaven was only at hand, and were preparatory to the fuller manifestation of Gospel-truth which He revealed to the Apostle Paul when his kingdom was established. The attention which a powerful opponent would thus have called to a most important subject, too often neglected by the advocates of our faith, and the light which would in consequence have been thrown on the subject, would have been no small benefit to the cause of truth. Opposition excites discussion; and discussion leads to inquiries which may end in not only bringing truth to light, but impressing it forcibly on minds which had been sunk in heedless apathy. Next, after an able, and full, and interesting vindication and explanation of Paul's writings, the sort of work whose appearance ought most to be hailed, is a plausible attack on them: which, indeed, is the most likely to call forth the other. His labours can never be effectually frustrated except by being kept out of sight. Whatever brings him into notice will, ultimately, bring him into triumph. All the malignity and

the sophistry of his adversaries will not only assail him in vain, but will lead in the end to the perfecting of his glory, and the extension of his Gospel. They may scourge him uncondemned, like the Roman magistrates at Philippi; -they may inflict on him the lashes of calumnious censure,-but they cannot silence him: they may thrust him as it were into a dungeon, and fetter him with their strained interpretations; but his voice will be raised, even at the midnight of unchristian darkness, and will be heard effectually; his prison doors will burst open as with an earthquake, and the fetters will fall from his hands; and even strangers to Gospel-truth will fall down at the feet of him, even Paul, to make that momentous inquiry, "What shall I do to be saved?"

May God "grant (as the prayer of our Church expresses it) that as the light of the Gospel has been caused to shine through the preaching of that blessed Apostle, we, having his wonderful conversion in remembrance, may shew forth our thankfulness for the same, by following the holy doctrines which he taught, through Jesus Christ our Lord."

ESSAY III.

ON ELECTION.

WE learn, from the most undeniable authority, that the writings of the blessed Apostle Paul contain some "things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as well as the other Scriptures, to their own destruction." Now as it is evidently of the highest importance to guard against such a danger, so it is not less evident (as has been formerly remarked) that this is not to be done by keeping in the back-ground these Epistles, and withdrawing, or encouraging Christians to withhold, attention from them; not only because it is neither wise nor pious to neglect the instructions of one who "received not his doctrine from men, but by inspiration of Jesus Christ;" but also, because the very errors in question will be the more easily propagated by such as appeal to him in support of them, in proportion