iii. 5; Rom. xv. 18, 19; 2 Cor. xii. 12.) four other
references to the same, less direct, yet highly probable; (1 Cor. ii. 4,5;
Eph. iii. 7; Gal. ii. 8; 1 Thess. i. 8.) but more copious or
circumstantial recitals we have not. The consent, therefore, between
Saint Paul's speeches and letters is in this respect sufficiently exact;
and the reason in both is the same, namely, that the miraculous history
was all along presupposed, and that the question which occupied the
speaker's and the writer's thoughts was this: whether, allowing the
history of Jesus to be true, he was, upon the strength of it, to be
received as the promised Messiah; and, if he was, what were the
consequences, what was the object and benefit of his mission?
The general observation which has been made upon the apostolic writings,
namely, that the subject of which they treated did not lead them to any
direct recital of the Christian history, belongs to the writings of the
apostolic fathers. The epistle of Barnabas is, in its subject and
general composition, much like the epistle to the Hebrews; an
allegorical application of divers passages of the Jewish history, of
their law and ritual, to those parts of the Christian dispensation in
which the author perceived a resemblance.
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