Study Desk

but the Jews opposing it, I was oblig'd to appeal to the emperor: not having however any design to accuse them.

but we should be glad to know your sentiments: for as to this sect, we are sensible it is every where inveigh'd against.

some believed what he had said, but others did not believe:

but as to his holy spirit miraculously declared to be the son of God, by his resurrection from the dead:

because when they knew God, they did not with gratitude glorify him as God, but their reasoning became extravagance, and their minds, void of judgment, were involv'd in darkness.

who knowing the divine rule of right, did not perceive that they who commit such things are worthy of death, and not only they who do the same, but they who give countenance to those that do them.

but we know that the judgment of God against those who commit such crimes, is just.

but unto those who are contentious, and do not yield to the truth, but give way to injustice, indignation and wrath,

but glory, honour, and peace, to every man that acts right, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile:

for not the bare hearers of the law, but they who observe the law, are such as shall be justified, before God.

Circumcision indeed is an advantage, if you keep the law: but if you violate the law, your being a Jew makes you no better than a heathen.

but it is the Jew, who is so inwardly, and it is the circumcision of the heart, according to the spiritual, not the literal sense, which have the approbation, I do not say of men, but of God.

but say you, "if our unfaithfulness displays the veracity of God, what shall we say? is it not injustice in God to inflict punishment?"

"but, say you, if the veracity of God hath appeared more illustrious thro' my unfaithfulness, why then am I condemned as a sinner?

but the divine justification certified by the law and the prophets, is now clearly proposed independently of the law:

what reason then is there for boasting? it is excluded. what, by the ceremonial law? no: but by the law of faith.

the reward is not counted as a favour to him that has done good actions, but as a debt:

how was it then accounted? whilst he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? he was not then circumcised, but uncircumcised:

and the father of the circumcised, that is of those who are not barely circumcised, but who imitate that faith which our father Abraham had, being yet uncircumcised.

Besides, the promise that he should possess the world, was not made to Abraham, or to his posterity in consideration of the law, but with regard to the righteousness by faith.