husband, that I may prefent you a chafte vir gin unto Chrift. But I fear left by any means, as the ferpent beguiled Eve thro' his fubtilty, fo your minds fhould be corrupted from the fimplicity that is in Chrift. Gal. iv. 11, 19. I am afraid of you, left I have bestowed upon you labour in vain. My little children of whom I travail in birth, until Chrift be formed in you. 1 Tim. iii. 14, 15. These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee fhortly; but if I tarry long, that thou mightest know how thou oughteft to behave thy felf in the house of God. 2 Pet. i. 12, 13. Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of thefe things, tho' ye know them, and be establish'd in the prefent truth. Yea I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to ftir you up by putting you in remembrance. Here we fee, that the motives, or that which induced the holy penmen to write thefe epiftles, were the affectionate concern they had to promote the good and welfare of thofe, to whom they fent them, and to answer their own obligations to them, which is another evidence to prove that thofe epiftles were not written by divine infpiration in the fenfe beforementioned. For if God had thus interpofed in this affair, then the true and only cause of their writing had been not their love and concern for their brethren, and a sense of their duty to them, but the act of God in them. They dared not, or could do no other but to fpeak, or write the words, which God

put in their mouths, or impressed upon their minds.

Thirdly, The fubject matter contained in thofe epiftles neceffarily fuppofes them to be properly and truly the act of those men, in whose names they were written: that is, thofe letters were indited by those men, or the subject of them was penned down, as it then accrued to their thoughts, without God's immediate and extraordinary interpofition, revealing to and impreffing it upon their minds. For the proof of this I need only appeal to thofe epiftles themselves, the subjects of which neceffarily fuppofe as aforefaid, and to fuppofe the contrary makes those writings to be a heap of abfurdities. To give a few inftances of this (for if I were to give all that might be produced, I must transcribe the epiftles at large). Thus in Rom. ix. 1, 2, 3. I fay the truth in Chrift, I lye not, my confcience alfo bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness, and continual forrow in my heart. For I could wish that my felf were accurfed from Chrift, for my brethren, my kinfinen according to the flesh, &c. Chap. x. 1, 2. Brethren my heart's defire and prayer to God for Ifrael is that they may be faved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. Chap. xi. 1. I fay then bath God caft away his people? God forbid: For I also am an Ifraelite of the feed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. And Chap. xv, 14, 15, 16. And I my felf am

also

alfo perfuaded of you, my brethren, that ye alfo are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able alfo to admonish one another. Neverthelefs, brethren, I have written the more boldly unto you in fome fort, as putting you in mind, becaufe of the grace given to me of God, that I should be the minister of Jefus Chrift to the Gentiles, &c. 2 Cor. x. I, 2. Now I Paul my felf beseech you by the meekness and gentlenefs of Chrift, who in prefence am bafe among you, but being absent am bold towards you. But fbefeech you, that I may not be bold, when I am prefent, with that confidence, wherewith I think to be bold against fome, which think of us, as if we walked according to the flesh, &c. Ver. 9, 10, 11. That I may not feem, as if I would terrify you by letters, for his letters, fay they, are weighty and powerful, but his bodily prefence is weak, and his fpeech contemptible. Let fuch an one think this, that fuch as we are in word by letters, when we are abfent, fuch will we be alfo indeed, when we are prefent. 1 Tim. v. 23. Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy ftomach's fake, and thine often infirmities. 2 Tim. iv. 13. The cloak, which I left at Troas with Carpus, when thou comeft, bring with thee, and the books, especially the parchments. Philem. ver. 8, 9, 10. Tho' I might be much bold in Chrift to enjoin thee that which is convenient, yet for love fake I rather beseech thee, being fuch an one as Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ. I beseech thee for my jon Onefimus, whom I

D 2

bave

have begotten in my bonds, &c. Ver. 17, 18, 19: If thou counteft me therefore a partner, receive him as myself. If he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee ought, put that on my account. I Paul have written it with my own hand, I will repay it. Heb. xiii. 22. I beseech you brethren Juffer the word of exhortation, for I have written a letter unto you in few words. Here we fee those declarations neceffarily suppose, that the enditing thofe epiftles was Paul's own act, and not the act of God upon him. And what greater abfurdity can there be than to fuppofe, that God hath expreffed himself thus, which he must have done, if these epiftles were written by divine infpiration as aforefaid? To this I may add, that those letters contain a relation of many facts, which the authors had the perfonal knowledge of, or else had received them from others, and alfo many arguments drawn from reafon, and likewife many quotations from the Old Testament, and certainly there was no need of God's extraordinary interpofition for the writing of thefe, But,

Fourthly, St. Paul makes a diftinction in his epiftles betwixt his own advice and the commandments of the Lord. But if thefe letters were written by divine infpiration in the fenfe beforementioned, then there had been no place for fuch a diftinction, because then the whole would have been from God, and not from himself, or any other. Thus in 1 Cor. vii. 8. I fay therefore unto the unmarried and

widows,

widows, that it is good for them if they abide even as I. Ver. 10. And unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, let not the wife depart from her husband. Ver. 12. But the reft fpeak I, not the Lord, &c. Ver. 25, 26. Now concerning virgins I have no command of the Lord, yet I give my judgment, as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful. I fuppofe therefore it is good for the present diftress, I fay, that it is good for a man fo to be, &c. Here we fee, St. Paul makes a distinction in this epiftle, betwixt his own advice and the commandments of the Lord, which is a manifeft token that these epiftles were not written by divine infpiration as aforefaid.

Poffibly it may here be urged, that the diftinction which St. Paul makes betwixt his own opinion and the commandments of the Lord, proves all he wrote to be by divine inSpiration, and as fuch, to be the commandments of the Lord, excepting the particular inftances here referred to, and which particulars he therefore excepted, and called his own opinions, which otherwife he would not have done.

I answer, when St. Paul at any time refers to the fayings and commands of Chrift, he does not intend what Chrift faid and commanded by any present immediate inspiration or divine impreffion upon his own mind; but only what Chrift faid and commanded in his life time, most of which stand recorded in the gospel hiftory. This is evident, not

only