Thus the call of the
gentiles, that is, the admission of the Gentiles to the Christian
profession without a previous subjection to the law of Moses, was
imported to the apostles by revelation, and was attested by the miracles
which attended the Christian ministry among them. The apostles' own
assurance of the matter rested upon this foundation. Nevertheless, Saint
Paul, when treating of the subject, often a great variety of topics in
its proof and vindication. The doctrine itself must be received: but it
is not necessary, in order to defend Christianity, to defend the
propriety of every comparison, or the validity of every argument, which
the apostle has brought into the discussion. The same observation
applies to some other instances, and is, in my opinion, very well
founded; "When divine writers argue upon any point, we are always bound
to believe the conclusions that their reasonings end in, as parts of
divine revelation: but we are not bound to be able to make out, or even
to assent to all the premises made use of by them, in their whole
extent, unless it appear plainly, that they affirm the premises as
expressly as they do the conclusions proved by them.
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