not mentioned by the other apostles. For, besides repeating what Christ himself declared, That he will return a second time to this earth, surrounded with the glory of his Father, and attended by a great host of angels; that he will call all the dead forth from their graves; and that, by his sentence as judge, he will fix the doom of all mankind irreversibly, this apostle hath taught us the following interesting particulars. That the last generation of men shall not die, but that, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, Christ will change such of the righteous as are alive upon the earth at his coming. And having said nothing of Christ's changing the wicked, the apostle hath led us to believe that no change shall pass on them; consequently that the discrimination of the righteous from the wicked will be made by the difference of the body in which the one and the other shall appear before the tribunal; and that no particular inquiry into the actions of individuals will be needed to determine their different characters. The character of each will be shewn to all, by the nature of the body in which he appears to receive his sentence. The same apostle hath taught us, that, after sentence is pronounced upon all men, according to their true characters, thus visibly manifested, the righteous shall be caught up in clouds, to join the Lord in the air: so that the wicked, being left behind on the earth, it follows, that they are to perish in the flames of the general conflagration. He farther informs us, that the righteous, having joined the Lord in the air, shall accompany him in his return to heaven, and there live in an embodied state, with God and Christ and the angels, to all eternity.

It is St. Paul who hath given us the completest account of the spiritual gifts, which were bestowed in such plenty and variety on the first christians, for the confirmation of the gospel. Nay, the form which the christian visible church has taken under the government of Christ, is owing, in a great measure, to the directions contained in his writings. Not to mention, that the different offices of the gospel ministry, together with the duties and privileges belonging to these offices, have all been established in consequence of his appointment.

Finally, it is St. Paul who, in his first epistle to the Thessalonians, hath given us a formal proof of the divine original of the gospel; which, though it was originally designed for the learned Greeks of that age, hath been of the greatest use ever

since, in confirming believers in their most holy faith, and stopping the mouths of adversaries.

The foregoing account of the matters contained in the writ ings of the apostle Paul, shews, that whilst the inspired epistles of the other apostles deserve to be read with the utmost attention, on account of the explications of particular doctrines and facts which they contain, and of the excellent precepts of piety and morality with which they abound, the epistles of Paul must be regarded as the grand repository, in which the whole of the gospel doctrine is lodged, and from which the knowledge of it can be drawn with the greatest advantage. And, therefore, all who wish to understand true christianity ought to study the epistles of this great apostle with the utmost care. In them, indeed, they will meet with things hard to be understood. But that circumstance, instead of discouraging, ought rather to make them more diligent in their endeavours to understand his writings; as they contain information from God himself concerning matters which are of the utmost importance to their temporal and eternal welfare. It is true, the ministers of religion, whose office it is to instruct others, are under more peculiar obligations to study the scriptures with unremitting assiduity: nevertheless, others, whose leisure, learning, and genius qualify them for the work, are not exempted from that obligation.—In former times, by the cruel persecution and obloquy which followed those who, in matters of religion, happened to go out of the beaten track, men of liberal minds were hindered from searching the scriptures, or, at least, from publishing what they found in them contrary to the received opinions. But the darkness of bigotry is passing away, and the light of truth is beginning to shine. Men have acquired more just notions of the rights of conscience; and the fetters in which the understandings of christians, for so many ages, have been held bound, by the decrees of councils and the establishment of creeds, are begun to be broken: so that the candid may now modestly propose the result of their inquiries into the word of God, without incurring either danger or blame. If, therefore, proper attention is paid to such publications as are designed for the illustration of the scriptures, it is to be hoped that, in the progress of ages, the united efforts of many will dispel the obscurity which hath so long rendered some passages of scripture hard to be understood: and the matters of fact above human comprehension really made known in the word of God, being separated from those which

have been obtruded on it by ignorant or by worldly men, genuine christianity will, at last, shine forth in its native splendor. And thus the objections raised against the gospel vanishing, it will at length be generally received, and acquire its proper influence on the minds and manners of mankind.

By attending to the various undoubted facts set forth in the foregoing essay, every christian must be sensible of the divine authority of all the books of the New Testament; and, by forming a proper judgment of the purpose for which each of these books was written, he may easily learn the use he is to make of these divinely inspired writings.

ESSAY II.

Of the Use which the Churches were to make of the Apostle's Epistles: and of the Method in which these Writings were published and pre

served.

FORMERLY, books being of such value that none but the rich were able to purchase them, the common people were seldom taught to read in any country; and having no teachers given them by the public, they were generally grossly ignorant of moral and religious truths. The vulgar, however, of the Jewish nation were better instructed. For Moses, having ordered his law to be read to the people, at the end of every seven years, during the feast of tabernacles, in the year of release, (Deut. xxxi. 10, 11.), the knowledge of the doctrines contained in his writings was, by that institution, universally diffused among the Jews. Besides, it gave rise to the reading of the law and the prophets in their synagogues. For, in whatever part of the world the Jews resided, they assembled themselves every Sabbath for the worshipping of God, and for the reading of their sacred writings. Now, the christian churches being destined for the same purposes of worshipping God, and diffusing the knowledge of religion among the people, it was natural, in forming them, to imitate the model, and follow the rules of the synagogue. And therefore, seeing the reading of the Jewish scriptures always made a part of the synagogue service, it cannot be doubted that the same was practised in the church from the very beginning, especially as the disciples of Christ, equally with the disciples of Moses, acknowledged the divine inspiration of these scriptures, and had been ordered, by their master, to search them, as testifying of him. Besides, till the apostles

and evangelists published their writings, the Jewish scriptures were the only guide to which the disciples of Christ could have recourse for their instruction. But, after the Spirit of God had inspired the evangelists to write their histories of Christ's ministry, and the apostles to commit their doctrines and precepts to writing, their gospels and epistles became a more direct rule of faith and practice to the brethren, than even the Jewish scriptures themselves; for which reason it was fit that they should be statedly read in the public assemblies, to teach the brethren more perfectly the things wherein they had been instructed. And, to introduce that practice, St. Paul, in the conclusion of his first epistle to the Thessalonians, (which is generally supposed to have been the first of his inspired writings,) laid the presidents and pastors of that church under an oath to cause it to be read to all the holy brethren, ch. v. 27.: that is to say, being conscious of his own inspiration, he required the Thessalonians to put his writings on a level with the writings of the Jewish prophets, by reading them in their public assemblies for worship, and by regarding them as the infallible rule of their faith and practice. For the same purpose, John (Rev. i. 3.) declared him blessed who readeth, and them who hear the words of his prophecy.

The Thessalonian presidents and pastors being adjured by the apostle Paul to cause his epistle to be read to all the brethren, it was to be read not only to them in Thessalonica, but to the brethren of all the towns and cities of the province of Macedonia; and particularly to the brethren of Berea and Philippi, and of every place in their neighbourhood where churches were planted. For that St. Paul did not intend his epistles merely for the churches to which they were first sent, but for general use, appears from the inscriptions of several of them. Thus the epistle to the Galatians is directed, To the churches of Galatia; and the second epistle to the Corinthians, To the church of God, which is at Corinth, with all the saints which are in all Achaia. Nay, the first epistle to the same church hath even a more general inscription, being directed not only To the church at Corinth, but To all them who in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ.

But while the churches, to which the apostle sent his letters, were directed by the inscriptions to circulate them as widely as possible, he did not mean, by these inscriptions, nor by his adjuration of the Thessalonian pastors, that the autographs of his

letters were to be sent to all who had an interest in them. These divinely inspired compositions, authenticated by the salutation in the apostle's own hand writing, were too valuable to be used in that manner. But his meaning was, that correct copies of his letters should be sent to the neighbouring churches, to remain with them for their own use, and to be transcribed by them, and circulated as widely as possible. The direction to the Colossians, iv. 16. When this epistle hath been read by you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans, is certainly to be understood in the manner I have explained. The apostle adds and that ye likewise read the epistle from Laodicea. The Laodiceans, it seems, had been directed to send to the Colossians a copy of some letter written by the apostle, which they had received: probably the letter which he had lately sent to the Ephesians for that epistle is inscribed, not only To the saints which are at Ephesus, but also To the faithful in Christ Jesus. This inscription, therefore, like that of the epistle to the Corinthians, implied that the Ephesian brethren were to send copies of their letter to the neighbouring churches, and, among the rest, to the church of the Laodiceans, with a particular order to them to send a copy of it to the Colossians.

In the same manner, also, we may suppose the epistle to the Galatians was circulated. For the inscription, To the churches of Galatia, implies, that the church in Galatia which received this letter from the apostle's messenger, was to send a copy of it to the church that was nearest to them; which church was to circulate it in like manner: so that, being sent from one church to another, it was no doubt communicated, in a short time, to all the churches of Galatia. In like manner, the apostle Peter's first epistle being inscribed, To the strangers of the dispersion of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, the person or church to which that letter was delivered by Silvanus (1 Pet. ch. v. 12.) was to communicate it to the brethren nearest at hand, to be copied and dispersed till it was fully circulated among the faithful in the several countries mentioned in the inscription, unless that service was performed by Silvanus himself. For it cannot be supposed that Peter would write and send copies of such a long letter to all the churches in the widely extended countries of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. The like method, no doubt, was used for circulating all the other catholic epistles.