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are given them are as judicious as they are ,new, I flatter myself, it will fully answer my end, and effectually recommend the study of the fcriptures according to this method, to which I owe thofe turns, if there be any thing in them: moft, if not all, of them occurring to me on my confidering the fcripture in this view; though I have met with fome few of them afterwards, on confulting the critics and commentators. I fay this, purely to recommend this method of ftudying the fcriptures. On the other hand, I am perfuaded, the rule or method I have proposed for reading the Gospels and the Acts, as well as feveral parts of the Epiftles, will be found a very good one; though I fhould often appear to mifapply it, either for want of greater leifure or ability.

I BELIEVE it will be always found to be of ufe, to confider in what year the books and epiftles of the New Teftament were written, or that any thing happened that is recorded in them of which we defire to make ourselves mafters. This, I confefs, has been recommended to us by the best critics; who have often reminded us, that when we read any of the facred authors, as well as others, we must put ourselves in the fame fituation in every respect that the writer was when he wrote: though, I think, fcarce any of those

critics

critics have attended fo exactly to their own rule as they ought; and when they attend to their own rule, it is ftill very difficult to follow it. But what I principally aim at is, to engage my reader to divide the apoftolical times not barely into the order of time, but chiefly by that means into the period of the miniftry of Jefus, and the miniftry of the Spirit; and particularly the latter (for it is not neceflary to speak of the fubdivifion of the former here), into the three great periods; which, though very remarkable in fcripture, have not been ever taken notice of by any one, as far as I know, at least to this purpose. I mean, the time from the defcent of the Holy Ghoft, while Chrift was preached only to the Jews, either by birth or profelytism, in Jerufalem, Judea, and Samaria, according to our Saviour's parable, and his exprefs prediction ; and at laft out of Judea, as far as Antioch; the time that it was preached not only to the Jews, but to thofe who were Heathens by nation, but had quitted the Pagan Religion, without embracing the Jewish, called the Devout Gentiles, or Profelytes of the Gate; and the time that it was preached to thofe two, and to the idolatrous Gentiles alfo.

a Luke xiv. 16-25. • Ibid. xi. 19.

Acts i. 8.

THE

THE perfons who preached to thefe different forts of people, the characters and circumftances of these people to whom they preached, the obligation that they were under, the doctrine that was preached to them, and the manner and ftile of preaching, were all different, as well as the periods in which these teachers preached: fo that, if I am not very much mistaken, smaller or larger portions of the Acts, read with a regard to those three periods of time, and to the three different forts of perfons they concern, will often cast a great light on them; as the not regarding, or confounding thefe periods has, in my opinion, been the occafion of many grofs miftakes about them. And I cannot but think, that as it will give one of the best clues to the finding out the true fenfe and meaning of the Gofpels and Acts, to confider them with a view to thefe periods, fo it will be a great help to us in reading the Epiftles, to carry it always in our eye, to which of thefe forts of perfons they were written; and particularly, that St. Paul wrote his epiftles to the Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, Ephefians, Coloffians, and Theffalonians, chiefly with a view to the idolatrous Gentiles, but now and then with a regard to the profelyted Gentiles; that St. Peter wrote to the profelyted Gentiles; and that the other apostles wrote to the Jews, at least those who

wrote

wrote during the lives of St. Peter and St. Paul; and to obferve the references which fome paffages in St. Paul's epiftles have to the fubdivifion of the last period, which I shall fpeak more fully to by and by. Thefe obfervations, and thefe alone, will, in my opinion, often afford us great affiftance in fcripture-criticism, where it is very much wanted, and where no other obfervations will. Inftances of this kind are the four Effays. The first being an account of the difpenfation of the Spirit; the fecond, both of the difpenfation of Jefus and of the Spirit; the third, the fubdivifion of the miniftry of the Spirit; the fourth, the fecond fubdivifion of the ministry of the Spirit, and the unknown period of the third fubdivifion.

THAT I may not be misunderstood in what I have just now faid of the different obligations the different forts of people preached to were under, and of the different doctrine that was preached to them, I mean no more than this: that the Jews were under an obligation to obferve all the laws of Mofes, as the laws of their country; that the Profelytes of the Gate were obliged to obferve fome of thofe laws, as the terms on which they were entitled to fome civil privileges when they were in Palestine; and that the reft of the Gentiles were entirely free from

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all of them, &c. The fum of the doctrine that was preached in common to these three forts of men was, that they could obtain juftification and pardon, God's favour, acceptance, and eternal life, only on faith and repentance. The different doctrine that was preached to them according to these different obligations which they were under was, that a Jew ought to continue a Jew, and remain fubject to all the laws of Mofes; that a Profelyte of the Gate was to continue a Profelyte of the Gate, and fubject only to thofe laws after his converfion that he was fubject to before; and that the reft of the Gentiles remained entirely free from any of them: but withall, that if the Jews hoped to obtain God's favour by obferving the law; or if the Profelytes of the Gate fubjected themselves to more of the laws of Mofes after their converfion to christianity than before; or if the other Gentiles fubjected themselves to any after their converfion to chriftianity, all these three forts of men "fubverted their own fouls; fought juftifica❝tion by the works of the law; and made the "death of Christ of no effect."

BUT to return. The first of these periods is from the year 33 to the year 41. The fecond is from the year 41 to the year 45. The third is from the year 45 to the year 70, the end of the Jewifh age, or the deftruction of

the

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