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4. But, fourthly, the objection will appear to have no weight or difficulty in it, if it be confider'd, that gentiles, before they could become chriftians, ought to believe judaifm to come from God, and to receive the jewish fcriptures as of a divine autority; which, when they had once receiv'd as fuch, they were in an equal condition with the Jews of being converted by type and allegory. And confequently, all the typical and allegorical arguments of the apoftles from the law, the pfalms, the history, and the prophets of the Old Testament, were of equal force to Gentiles as to Jews; among whom they were in effect included with refpect to these arguments. Nay, it feems very probable, that the allegorical arguments of the apoftles from the Old Testament, as being divine and most sublime arguments, and (w) infinitely better than all human reafonings, did of themselves, or with little ufe of other topicks, convince the gentile-chriftians at the fame time, both of the autority and divinity of the Old Teftament, and of the truth of christianity. Which matter may not perhaps be untruly illustrated by the cafe of St. LuKE. He is judg'd by many learned divines to have been

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(w) Bentley's Sermon on Revelation and the Meffias, P. 30.

a gentile convert; and, being a great companion of St. Paul, was no doubt instructed by him in the Cabala of the Jews, and in the fublime fenfe of the Old Teftament. Accordingly we find St. Luke, in his gofpel, and Acts, reprefenting the grounds of christianity, and arguing for it, in the fame typical manner, from the Old Testament, with St. PAUL and the other apoftles, who were originally Jews: in which two books he may not untruly be fuppos'd, to declare the grounds of his own conviction, and to defign to reprefent thofe grounds to other Gentiles, as fufficient for their conviction alfo. But the (x) preaching of St. PETER to CORNELIUS puts the matter past dispute. He declares to him that word which had been publish'd thro' all Judea, that is, the gofpel as founded on the Old Testament, and as preach'd to the Jews. He then gives a relation of the life and actions, and of the fufferings, death, and refurrection of JESUS, and of his commands to his difciples. And concludes with faying, To JEsus give all the prophets witness, that thro' his name, whofoever believeth in him shall receive remiffion of fins. Which is just the fame way of arguing used throughout the New Teftament to mere Jews.

PART

(x) A&ts 10. 37, 38-41, 42, 43.

PART II.

Containing Confiderations on the Scheme which Mr. Whifton Jets up in Oppofition to the allegorical Scheme.

I.

Mr. WHISTON's Scheme reprefented; which confifts chiefly in maintaining; that the Hebrew and Greek of the Old Testament agreed in the times of Jesus and the apostles; that the apoftles cited exactly and argu'd literally from the Greek or Septuagint Tranflation; and that fince their times both these copies of the Old Teftament have been corrupted by the Jews, which makes it feem as if the apoftles had not argu'd literally from the Old Testament; and in propofing, by vari ous means to restore the Text thereof as it Stood in the days of Jesus and his apoftles.

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R. WHISTON highly condemns the allegorical Scheme when used in explaining the prophefies cited out of the Old

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in the New Teftament. In his Boylean LeEtures he fays, (a) If a double fenfe in prophefies be allow'd by us chriftians, as to thofe predictions, which were to be fulfill'd in our Saviour CHRIST, and if we own that we can no otherwife shew their completion, than by applying them fecondarily and typically to our Lord, after they had in their first and primary intention been already plainly fulfill d in the times of the Old Teftament, we lose all the real advantages of the ancient prophefies, as to the proofs of our common chriftianity, and take a method which expofes the chriftian religion to the laughter of infidels. In the book before us, he calls the (b) allegorical foheme weak and entbufiaftical, and one of the most ill-grounded and pernicious things that ever was admitted by chriftians and he fpeaks of it, as a great reproach to the gospel, and tending to barden the Jews in their infidelity; tho' he confeffes, that taking the prefent text of the Old Teftament for genuine, it is impoffible to expound or apologize for the apostle's application of the prophefies they cite from the Old Teftament upon any other foundation: and he particularly calls

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(a) Whiston's Boylean Lectures, p. 16, 20, 29. (b) Whifton's Ejay, &c. p. 92.

the hypothefes or allegorical scheme discover'd and explain'd by SURENHUSIUS abfurd and ridiculous.

I fhall therefore confider, how Mr. WHISTON mends the matter, and what scheme of things he would fet up in the room of what he calls the abfurd allegorical fcheme; which he owns to be founded on the present text of the Old Teftament.

He contends, that the (c) apostles made their quotations out of the Old Testament rightly and truly, from the Septuagint; which was in their times in vulgar ufe, and then (d) agreed with the hebrew; and that as they made exact quotations, fo they argu'd justly and logically from the obvious and literal fenfe of the faid quotations, as they then food in the Old Testament: but that fince their times both the Hebrew and Septuagint copies of the Old Testament have been fo greatly (e) corrupted, and fo many apparent diforders and dislocations introduc'd therein, fo as to occafion many remarkable differences, inconfiftencies, and contradictions, between the Old and New Teftament, in refpect to the words and fenfe of the quotations made from the Old in the New Teftament; all which corruptions of the

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(c) Whifton's Essay, &c. (d) Ib. p.3.

328.

p. 12, 16, 87, 176, 1873 (e) 182; 2 0 2 3 7 6 Z

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