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observations by examples takeii from the Epistle to the Romans . " Behold , thou caliest thyself a Jew , and reposest in the law , and gloriest in God , and knowest his will , and approvest thing ?
that are more excellent , as instructed in the law , and confidently pretendest to be a guide of the blind , a light to them that are in darkness , an instructor of the simple , a teacher of babes , having the form of true knowledge in the law . Thou then that teachest
another , neglectest thou to teach thyself ? Thou who preachest that a man should not steal , dost thou steal ? Thou who forbiddest to commit adultery , dost thou commit adultery ?
Thou who abhorrest idols , dost thou profanely rob the temple ? Thou who gloriest in the law , dost thou by the transgression of this law , dishonour God ? For the name of God is
blasphemed among the Gentiles through you . " Chap . ii . 17—24 . Now , according to the plan suggested by Locke , illustrated by Taylor , and adopted by Mr . Belsham , this is an extreme case feigned by the
Apostle to represent , under one character , the general state of the Jewish nation , and would be as proper , in a letter addressed to the Church at Corinth , to an assembly at Athens , or a synagogue in Jerusalem , as in the Epistle to the Romans . The words which
Mr . Belsham subjoins to the passage are these : " The Apostle having sufficiently prepared the mind of his Jewish readers by arguing upon general principles , equally applicable to Jews und Gentile ^ , now brings his
conclusion home to the Jew exclusively , and directly charges him with being equaU ly , and even more guilty than the untaught and despised Heathen /* What 1 is it possible that the Apostle Paul , the most cautious , the most
correct and just of men , in his ideas and language , should thus exhibit > -collectively exhibit , his own nation as guilty of theft , adultery , and even of « acri £ ege , as transgressing the law and blaspheming the name of God among the Gentiles ? Dishonourable and
apostate individuals among * the children of Abraham , in Heathen countries , might . answer to this descrip * . tion ; but was this the general character of the nation ? The Apostle would aot . have said thi » if k had been jt ru % much lefts , would he ihave ex-
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eeeded Die trUA in pla [ einff . lus conn trymen , the disciples of Moses and the prophets , the worshipers of the true God , in an invidious and false light before those Gentile converts , whose prejudice against the Jews he
sought to remove , and whose respect for the Jewish nation , and to the oracles of God delivered to them , he endeavoured to conciliate . No , no , the Apostle never pursued a course so unwise , so erroneous , so devoid of candour and feeling as this supposes .
Now , if we relinquish this plan and adopt another , which is recommended by common sense , namely , if we sup * pose the Epistles of Paul to be letters , pad letters , like afll other letters , turn , ing on circumstances peculiar to the person or persons to whom they are addressed , we shall have but one way , and that way an obvious and effectual
one , to come at their meaning , namely , the development of those circumstanqe ^ through the mediunj of ecclesiastical history or other collateral writings in the succeeding ages of the church . If we here could receive no
light from history , it would be no unwarrantable stretch of fancy to suppose that there existed in the Church at Rome a Jew , guilty of the crimes which the Apostle lays to his charge ; and that it is this very individual whose pretensions and hypocrisy the Apostle exposes in the above
passage . But happily in this case there is no need of mere supposition : for we have the fact stated on the authority of the Jewish historian . From Josephus and others we infer that a learned , but abandoned Jew , one of the
framers and teachers of the Gnostic system , went and introduced that system into the Christian Church just established at Rome . His colleagues were the Samaritan impostor , the priests of Isis and Anubis , and , in general , the magicians and astrologers m the Court of Tiberius . The object of these wicked men- was to deprive Christianity of its purifying influence by sinking it in Heathenis m * Their first step towards this waft to represent
the founder as one of the Pagan gods , a man only in appearance , and born unlike other men : and availing themselves of ffae influence which their pretended skill in magic and astrology gave them ov < jf the mind * f Tibsriu ^
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408 , O » Mr . BeUJtam ?* Scheme ef interpreting Puttl * ±£ pt $ tie * .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1823, page 408, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1786/page/40/
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