and makes his Appeal to his Redeemer and Sanctifier for the Sincerity of his enfuing Declaration, that their Converfion lay deeply at his Heart; that his Grief for their Blindness somewhat ballanced his own foy in Believing, and that this, if any thing, might have prevailed with Him to have renounced his own Share in the Benefits of the general Redemption. If it could have been done at all (which He had before declared it could not, and which the first Reflection on the Reafon of the Thing would eafily confirm, yet if it had been poffible at all) He could have fubmitted to it for this End fooner than any other, and could have wifhed Himself accurfed from Chrift for his Brethren, his Kinfmen according to the Flesh. The Occafion of this warm Ejaculation, and the very Form of the Phrafe fo clearly point out this plain and justifiable Sense of it, that it may feem unneceffary to mention any other.

But Suppose that the Expreffion had not been fo limited and confined, but the Wish had been more pofitive and absolute, the Answer to it, and Solution of it would then have been, that it was a plain Hyperbole, and must be understood as fuch. Figurative Expreffions are frequently used in Scripture, and this particular Figure is exemplified in feveral Inftances. When St. John faid that He fuppofed that if all that Jefus had done, Should be written, the World itfelf could not contain the Books that should be written, He plainly meant to fignify this, and no more, that fuch Writings would be extremely numerous. This Method of

expreffing the highest conceivable Degree of any Thing, by ftating the Cafe beyond all Degree of Poffibility, is familiar and well known, and has its particular Name and Signification affigned to it. The Truth in this Cafe lies not in the Letter, but in the Idea intended to be conveyed by it, and that is as determinate and as defenfible in this Inftance, as in any other. The fame Cuftom and general Agreement, which has given Senfe to Words (which They have not naturally in themselves) has likewife given Senfe to whole Phrafes and Forms of Speaking; and whilst they are used according to their cuftomary Signification, without being applied to any Purpose of Fraud or Deceit, they are entirely juftifiable. This Remark is particularly applicable to fuch Hyperbolical Expreffions, because these can never be used to deceive, as being framed in a Stile exceeding all real Degree of Belief, and intended only to raise our Apprehenfions to a very high Notion of all that is poffible in the Instances spoken of. This occafions no Doubt in verbal Intercourse, nor in human Writings, and therefore should not in those which are infpired.

There is another Interpretation of thefe Words, which is approved by the greater Part of Commentators, though it seems indeed less probable than any of those before affigned. They obferve that the being accurfed, or Anathema, does throughout the Old Teftament, in the Verfion of the LXX, fignify the being devoted to Destruction, and therefore fuppofe that St. Paul only

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meant,

meant, that He could wifh to be thus devoted for their Sake, and could be willing to suffer any temporal Punishment, to contribute to their Spiritual Salvation. And had the Words been only that He could wish to be accurfed for his Brethren, his Kinfmen, This would clearly have been the Sense of them, that He would contentedly have undergone any temporal Sufferings to be the Inftrument of preferving them from eternal Ruin. But the being accurfed from Chrift must be understood according to the Stile of the New Teftament, and can mean Nothing less than a total Forfeiture of the Benefits of the Gospel, or final Destruction itself. The Interpreters omit the principal Circumftance in the Wish, and take away at once both the Spirit and the Letter of it.

Others again have obferved that extraordinary Judgments and temporal Punishments attended Excommunication in the first Ages of the Church, and have supposed that St. Paul might with Himfelf obnoxious to thefe, to do his Jewish Brethren any Service. They conftrue the being accurfed from Chrift as being cut off by a judicial Sentence from the Chriftian Church, and by his Readiness to submit to it, They understand his Willingness to bear the prefent Confequence of it, through a Hope of the Sentence itself being finally reversed by his Redeemer. But This is multiplying Figures without End and without Reafon. It is putting a Part for the Whole, and the Effect for the Caufe. It is contradicting the obvious Sense of the Expreffion, and amounts in

the

the Conclufion to a Wish of being accurfed from Christ, in order to be reconciled to and faved by Him.

Others have fuppofed, that by this Wish of being accurfed from Chrift, He meant that He fhould be willing to be difefteemed as fuch, and to bear the Ignominy of fuch a Condition to promote the Salvation of the Jews. But if This had been the Meaning, it had been very easy for the Apostle to have expreffed it clearly, and by putting in a Particle of Similitude to have prevented the Poffibility of any Mifconftruction. It had likewife been little extraordinary in itself, or answerable to the Occafion and Manner in which it is introduced; and it had been the leaft fuitable Image which he could have presented to their Thoughts, to imagine that He could promote their Converfion by the Lofs of his Reputation. Whereas the Giving up the Salvation of One to promote that of Thousands, if it had been poffible in itself, as confeffedly it was not, was yet a Thought of Dignity and Importance, and equal to the highest Profeffions and Expectations.

:

There is One farther Interpretation of this Paffage deferving of Notice (though new and fingular) as plaufible in itself, and as coming from the Hand of a very pious and learned Perfon, who has happily illuftrated many other Paffages of Scripture, whether He has equally fucceeded in this Particular or not. He lays the Difficulty entirely in our tranflating it accurfed from Chrift, whereas the Particle fo tranflated, it is faid, may

as

as well be rendered after Chrift, that is, after the Example of Chrift; and then the Sense would be, that He could be content, nay could rejoice, to fuffer even to Crucifixion, which was an accurfed Death, as his Bleffed Mafter had done before Him, to promote their Repentance and Salvation. This would be Senfe, would be very pertinent and weighty Senfe, and would every way fuit the Context. The only Thing wanting is fome competent Authority for this Manner of tranflating it. But I do not find that this Particle am will bear this Senfe. The only parallel Pasfage offered to confirm it is 2 Tim. 1.3. where the Apostle fays, I thank God, whom I serve & gogóvæv, from my Forefathers, which, it is faid, fignifies after my Forefathers, or as They have done before me; and that therefore the fame Particle may as well be rendered and interpreted fo in this Place. But befides that a fingle Inftance, if it would bear the ftricteft Examination, ought with Caution to be urged against the known and fixed Senfe of a Word in other Authors, befides this, it does not at all appear that the Instance referred to comes up to the Point, but that it is very rightly tranflated, as it stands in our Verfion, whom I ferve from my Forefathers. The Expreffion is fhort, and feveral Conjectures may be paffed on the Defign of it. The Apostle might mean no more than that He had ever ferved God to the best of his Knowledge from his earliest Days, and the first Inftructions received from thofe who had the Care of his Educa