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24 Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jefus Chrift in fincerity. Amen.

24 Ἡ χαρις μετα παν 'H

των των αγαπωντων τον Κυριον ήμων Ιησεν Χριςον εν αφ θαρσια. Αμην.

when it was written. And in the second, there are only falutations to Prifca and Aquila, the apoftle's fellow-labourers, who were in Ephefus occafionally, and to the household of Onefiphorus, on account of the great refpect which the head of that family had fhewed to the apoftle during his fecond imprisonment in Rome, 2 Tim. i. 16.—In like manner, there are no particular falutations in the epiftles to the Galatians, the Philippians, the Theffalonians, and to Titus; because to have fent falutations to individuals, in churches where the apostle was fo rally and intimately acquainted, unless there had been fome very fpecial reafons for fuch falutations, it might have offended those who were neglected. On the other hand, to have mentioned every perfon of note in these churches, would have taken up too much room. writing to the Romans, the cafe was different. The apostle was perfonally unknown to the most of them. And therefore, he could with

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24 Grace BE with all them who love our Lord Jefus Chrift in fincerity. Amen. (See Pref. fect. iv. at the beginning.)

24 I give my benediction also to the brethren in Afia, The favour of God be with all them who love our Lord Jefus Chrift in fincerity. And in teftimony that all I have written and prayed in this letter, is my real fentiments, I conclude with an Amen

out offence to the reft, take particular notice of all his acquaintance. See Illuft. prefixed to Rom. xvi.

Ver. 24.1. Who love our Lord Jefus Chrift in fincerity: Ev adago, literally in incorruption. Our love of Chrift, like our love of God, is founded in our knowledge of the excellencies of his character, and of the benefits he has conferred on us; and confifts in efteem and gratitude. And fhews itfelf by our imitating him, and our obeying his commandments. This is the import of loving our Lord Jefus Chrift in incorruption, or in fincerity.

2. Amen. This is an Hebrew word, signifying truth. With this word, the Jews ended all their prayers, and moft folemn fpeeches; in which they were followed by the firft Chriftians, who thus fignified, that the things which they had fpoken, whether to God or men, were their real fentiments and defires. See z Peter iii. 18. note 2.

A NEW

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ST. PAUL'S EPISTLE

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NE cannot view the present state of the world without

taking notice of the mifery and fin which prevail in it. The earth would be a wilderness, were it not cultivated with great care and labour. It nourisheth a number of plants and animals noxious to man. The fruits forced from it by human labour, are oftentimes deftroyed by inclement feafons. Men, its chief inhabitants, are many of them excessively wicked; and their wickedness is productive of much misery to themselves in the prefent life, and to others who are affected by it. Befides, ail of them are naturally liable to a variety of painful diseases and to death.

This disordered state of the world, hath been the occafion of much anxious fpeculation to those, who fancying that things might have been fo ordered as to exclude all evil, both natural and moral, have confidered the admiffion of fin and mifery into any system formed by an infinitely powerful, wife, and benevo

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lent being, as abfolutely impoffible. Hence the ancient Perfians, and after them the Manicheans, to account for the prefent difordered constitution of things, affirmed, that the world was the work of two independent infinitely powerful principles, the one good and the other evil.-Others of the Easterns accounted for the evils which are in the world, by supposing that mankind had exifted in fome prior ftate, and are punished here for the fins which they committed in their pre-existent state and that their punishment is intended to purify and reform. them. This was the doctrine of the Pythagoreans, and of fome of the Jews, John ix. 1, 2.-But a third fort of reafoners, not fatisfied with either of these folutions, maintained that the world hath exifted from eternity by fucceffive generations and corruptions, in the manner we fee it at prefent, without any first cause at all. This was the opinion of the Aristotelian atheifts. A fourth fort affirmed, that the world owes its origin to what they termed the fortuitous concourfe of atoms; and that it is not governed by any intelligent principle whatever. This was the fcheme of the Epicureans, who, to avoid the odium of the populace, pretended indeed to acknowledge the existence of gods, but denied that they made the world, or any concern whatever in its affairs.

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In this uncertainty, or rather darkness concerning the origin of the world, revelation hath seasonably interpofed. For it affureth us that there is but one firft caufe of all things, who is not only infinitely powerful, but infinitely good: That all the beings in the universe derive their existence from him, are abfolutely dependent on him, and subject to his government: That whatever evil exifts in the world, is the natural confequence of that freedom of will with which God originally endowed his rational creatures, in order to render them moral and accountable agents: And that the first parents of mankind, abufing their liberty of action, fubjected themselves and their pofterity to fin and death, by one fingle act of difobedience: But that for remeding these evils, God was graciously pleased, in his original plan, to appoint the mediation of his Son, whereby the penal confequences of fin are so far prevented, that they do not take place in all cafes. For, as many of mankind as are delivered by him from the power of fin, fhall at length be also

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delivered from its punishment, and be raised to a degree of perfection and happiness, greater than if they never had finned. The mediation therefore of Chrift, by which God remedies the evils which were introduced into the world through the difobedience of the parents of the human race, hath for its object to deliver mankind, firft, from the power, and, fecondly, from the punishment of fin.

SECT. 1. Of the Mediation of Chrift as a Prief, whereby the penal confequences of fin are so far prevented, that they do not take place among mankind univerfally.

To prevent the penal confequences of fin from taking place among mankind univerfally, revelation affureth us, that the Son of God, by the appointment of his Father, made propitiation for the fins of mankind by his sufferings and death in the human nature; that is, by his fufferings and death he hath rendered it confiftent with the character of God, as the moral governor of the world, in certain cafes to pardon finners. For we are told, Rom. v. 12. That as by the disobedience of one man, Adam, fın entered into the world, and by fin death.-So by the obedience of man, Chrift, righteousness entered into the world, and by righteousnefs life; that is, an opportunity of becoming righteous and of obtaining life, was granted to mankind on account of the obedience of Chrift.

To this account of the ruin and recovery of the human species, various objections have been made. And firft, It hath been loudly urged, That to involve all mankind in fin and mifery, on account of a disobedience to which they were nowife acceffary, and to beftow righteousness and life, or an opportunity of obtaining thefe bleffings, through an obedience in which they had no concern, are both of them contrary to our natural ideas of the justice and goodness of God.

To this objection, however, it is a fufficient anfwer to obferve, that the very fame conftitution taketh place in the present ftate of things. For we fee evils brought on the innocent, and favours communicated to the guilty, through actions in which neither the one nor the other had any hand. Thus, the miscon

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