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wrest , as they also do the other scriptures , to their own destruction . Being then forewarned , beloved , be on your guard , lest you be led astray by the deception of these impious men , and fall from the firm foundation of your faith . " 2 Peter III . 14 .
In this passage Peter alludes to the disputed verse in the Philippians . This will appear evident if we compare the words of the two apostles as they stand in the original . They both warn their readers against certain impostors who claimed , as versed in the Heathen
philosophy , superior wisdom , while , in reality , they were uninformed ; that is , however wise in their own esteem or in a worldly sense , they were themselves ignorant of that gospel which they pretended to teach to others . Paul says that they gloried in their
shame . Peter calls them aOecr / xot ^ lawless violators of all law , human and divine . Paul again says of them , coy to T £ \ ot ; cciraXua . , which carries an allusion to their lofty pretensions as the saviours of others , asserting that their end will be their own destruction .
Peter understood this precisely , and he expresses the contrast more fully , < jrpoq irrj y idi < x p oivTwy olkcoT ^ kxvy " to their own peculiar destruction . " From the passage in the Philippians it appears , that the deceivers endeavoureu , and too successfully endeavoured , to withdraw the converts from the pattern of
virtue and truth exemplified in Jesus . Paul is eloquent and earnest in defeating their end in this respect - , and the same purpose Peter has in . view when he says , " Being then forewarned , beloved , be on your guard lest you be misled by the deception of impious men . It was the advice of Paul that
the converts should be a ^^ izToi xaj ctvtepouQk TZKva . < &sov oLy ~ wy . v \ Ta . . Phil . iL 15 . Peter had these words of Paul iu his memory , and virtually repeats
them ; jcrircv ^ £ ccra . ra cc ctulXqi y . oc i < xjulo ~ fAYjTot owfejp kvgtQtjvcu ev eipy \ vr ^ ^ in peace , which lust wo * x | s Paul expresses by % cc ? j > i £ otryvjq koh hioikoy lg // . < £ > , " without anger an 4 wruuglings . "
Farther , Peter holds forth his bro-r thex Paulas having ' wisdom , " or , as the term might be rendered , " learning , " learning peculiar to himself , or learning in which the other apostles had no share . Now I have shewn that in the letter to the-Philippians , Paul d ^ es actually allude to the cele-
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brated Ode of Aristotle , on Virtue and the peculiar terms which Paul has ' copied from that source , constitutes the obscurity of which Peter com .
plains . This last apostle was doubtless unacquainted with the writings of Aristotle ; and hence the language of Paul must have contained on this occasion something that appeared to him difficult to be understood . There is
no other passage in the writings of Paul , respecting which the apostle Peter could have made the same remark with equal propriety . Now it is certain that the men whom Paul and Peter here have in view , did pretend to teach the divinity of Christ ,
The impostors availed themselves of the borrowed language of Paul on thi ^ occasion , and when addressing persons who had not an opportunity to know the truth , they produced and interpreted his words as inculcating that doctrine . The " orthodox" divines have
ever done the same thing , though without the guilt of those Gnostics who sej them the example ; and we have the authority of Peter for saying , that in doing this they wrest the language of the apostle , that is , violently pervert it to support a doctrine which it was intended to refute .
It is a remarkable fact , that Peter in the above passage recognizes the Epistle to the Hebrews as the composition of Paul . The former addressed his two Epistles to the Hebrew believers , most of whom were dispersed in Heathen countries . These were the men for whose use Paul coin * -
posed his Epistle to the Hebrews , and it seems they were all in possession of tliis Epistle , and knew it to be the work of Paul , when Peter addressed to them his two letters . I mention this because Mr . Belsham , in his great
and most valuable Commentary on the Epistles , now happily before the public , denies its authenticity ; following chiefly the authority of Origen , ol whom , notwithstanding his voluminous works , as Erasmus has observed , we know little but that he was always in the wrong . JOHN JONES .
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Sir , HAVE as strong a disapprobation I as your correspondent 8 . C , ( pp * 459—464 , ) of prosecutions against
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$ 98 Moral Duty of Jury men *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1822, page 598, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2517/page/14/
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