"thee and to me, whom I have fent again: thou "therefore receive him that is mine own bowels,

whom I would have retained with me, that in thy "stead he might have ministered unto me in the "bonds of the gospel; but without thy mind would "I do nothing, that thy benefit fhould not be as it

were of neceffity, but willingly; for perhaps he "therefore departed for a season, that thou shouldest "receive him for ever; not now as a fervant, but "above a fervant-a brother beloved, efpecially to 66 me, but how much more unto thee, both in the "flesh, and in the Lord. If thou count me there"fore a partner, receive him as myfelf. If he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee ought, put that on "mine account, I, Paul, have written it with mine ❝ own hand, I will repay it; albeit, I do not say to "thee how thou oweft unto me even thine ownfelf " befides; yea, brother, let me have joy of thee in "the Lord: refresh my bowels in the Lord: having "confidence in thy obedience, I wrote unto thee, "knowing that thou wilt alfo do more than I fay."

In this beautiful paffage we have the greatest variety of arguments, and motives of the strongest kind, couched in terms the most soft and perfuafive. On the one hand, we have Philemon's reputation for gooodness, the respect due to his own character, his friendship for St. Paul, the reverence claimed by the apostle's age, the compaffion due to his bonds; on the other, we have Onefimus's repentance and

return

return to virtue-his converfion to the Christian religion, and confequent claim on Philemon's piety, as his spiritual brother-his faithful fervices to St. Paul -the tender intereft the apoftle took in his concerns -a promise of reftitution for any pecuniary lofs, accompanied with an infinuation, that Philemon was indebted to the apostle for what was much more than the pardon of his repentant flave, even his own existence as a Christian, the forgiveness of his fins, and his admiffion into the kingdom of heaven. But the interceffor infifts not on his authority as an apoftle, or his claims to Philemon's gratitude; he submits all to his free generofity; and closes with a declaration of his full confidence, that under the influence of that, Philemon would do more than he himself thought it neceffary to defire. Can there be a doubt, whether such an addrefs proceeded from a fanatic, weak and extravagant, claiming a spiritual authority which had no other foundation than his own spiritual arrogance, and exercising this authority, as such a temper must have exercised it, indifcriminately and violently, unreasonably and mifchievously? or whether this epistle was not rather the effufion of a mind replete with good sense, versed in the knowledge of the human heart, animated with the best and tendereft feelings, but whofe every feeling was regulated by the clearest reafon, claiming no authority to which there was not the most indifputable title, and exercifing that authority with the foundest difcretion.

and the violence of fanaticism, which we have feen in the general plan of St. Paul's epiftles, is confpicuous in the fingular benevolence and addrefs, by which he renders his tranfitions to an ungrateful fubject, as little offenfive as poffible, particularly towards his countrymen, the Jews, whose obftinate prejudices, and inveterate oppofition, perpetually filled him with the deepest anxiety, and exposed him to the greatest dangers.

Inftances of this are fo frequent, that to tranfcribe them all would be to form almost a continued comment on several of the epiftles-a few, which may be most easily feen when separated from the context, will illuftrate and establish the argument; and here I adopt and transcribe, with pleasure, fome of those paffages which have been selected by one of the "ableft critics, who has directed his attention to this part of the facred fcriptures.

"The Jews, we know, were very numerous at "Rome, and probably formed a principal part among "the new converts; fo much fo, that the Chriftians "feem to have been known at Rome, rather as a "denomination of Jews than any thing elfe. In an epiftle confequently, to the Roman believers, the point to be endeavoured after by St. Paul was, << to reconcile the Jewish converts to the opinion,

"Archdeacon Paley, in his Hora Pauline, ch. ii. no. 8. § 2. Dublin edit. P. 61.

"that

"that the Gentiles were admitted by God to a pa"rity of religious fituation with themselves, and that, "without being bound by the law of Mofes. The "Gentile converts would probably accede to this "opinion very readily. In this epistle, therefore, "though directed to the Roman church in general, "it is, in truth, a Jew writing to Jews. Accordingly you will take notice, that as often as his argument leads him to fay any thing derogatory from "the Jewish inftitution, he conftantly follows it by "a foftening claufe. Having (ii. 28, 29.) pro"nounced, not much, perhaps, to the fatisfaction of "the native Jews," that he is not a few which is

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one outwardly, neither that circumcifion which is out"ward in the flesh;" he adds immediately, "what

advantage then hath the Jew, or what profit is there "in circumcifion? much every way. Having in the "third chapter, ver. 28, brought his argument to "this formal conclufion," that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law;" he prefently

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fubjoins, ver. 31, "do we then make void the "law through faith? God forbid; yea, we establish "the law." In the feventh chapter, when, in the "fixth verfe, he had advanced the bold affertion, "that now we are delivered from the law, that being "dead wherein we were held; in the very next verfe "he comes in with this healing question, "what fhall we fay then? is the law fin? God forbid; nay, "I had not known fin but by the law. Having in the following words infinuated, or rather more than infinuated,

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O 2

is

infinuated, the inefficacy of the Jewish law, viii. 3. for what the law could not do, in that it was weak "through the flesh, God fending his own fon, in the likeness of finful fleft, and for fin, condemned fin in "the flesh;" after a digreffion indeed, but that fort "of digreffion which he could never refift, a raptu rous contemplation of his Christian hope, and "which occupies the latter part of this chapter, we ❝ find him in the next, as if fenfible that he had "faid fomething that would give offence, returning "to his Jewish brethren, in terms of the warmest affection and refpect I say the truth in Chrift Jefus ; I lie not; my conscience also bearing me witnefs in the Holy Ghoft, that I have great heaviness " and continual forrow in my heart; for I could wish "that I myself were accurfed from Chrift, for my

brethren, my kinfmen, according to the flesh, whe

are Ifraelites, to whom pertaineth the adoption, and "the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the "law, and the fervice of God, and the promises, whose

are the fathers, and of whom, as concerning the

flesh, Chrift came." When in the thirty-first and "thirty-fecond verses of this ninth chapter, he re"presented to the Jews, the error of even the best "of their nation, by telling them, that." Ifrael, "which followed after the law of righteoufnefs, had "not attained to the law of righteousness, because

they fought it not by faith, but as it were, by the "works of the law, for they ftumbled at that stumbling Stone" he takes care to annex to his declaration

" thefe