FAMILIAR ILLUSTRATION OF CERTAIN PASSAGES or SCRIPTURE RELATING TO THE POWER OF MAN TO DO THE WILL OF GOD, By JOSEPA PRIESTLEY, LL.D. F.R.S. fc. Search the Scriptures. JOHN v. 39. LONDON: PRINTED FOR J. JOHNSON AND CO. ST. PAUL'S CHURCH YARD; 1812. MY CHRISTIAN BRETHREN, IN all theological controversies our appeal lies to the Bible, which contains the writings of the inspired oy prophets, and of the apostles and evangelists, who have recorded the precepts and doctrines of Christ. To those who lived in the times in which these books were published, they were, no doubt, very intelligible; the language in which they are written, and the customs to which they allude, being perfectly known to them. But what was easy to them, a long course of time has rendered extremely difficult to us, who use a very different language, and whose manners and customs are so exceedingly unlike those of the Jews. On this account, it may puzzle the greatest scholar of the present age to make out the sense of a passage of scripture, which could not but have been perfectly understood by the most illiterate person in that age. In this state of things, the ignorant and unlearned are very liable to wrest the scriptures, as the apostle Peter says they ever have done, while good sense and sound leaming often maintain a very unequal contest. It A 2 |