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in the epistles.
It is enough if we receive the great truths and facts on which the
Christian system is raised in reliance on their testimony, and the doctrines or conclusions which they professedly teach on apostolic authority, without attempting to ascribe to inspiration that which any man might as well say or do without it. With respect to the abolition of the ceremonial law, his opinion is, that while the
Jewish Christians, like all others, remained universally and every where bound by the
moral law, those resident in
Judaea, and they
only, were bound by the political or judicial part of the Mosaic law, which was, in fact, a part of the civil constitution of the state to which they belonged; but that from the
ritual part, whether at home or abroad, they were
de jure absolved, immediately upon their embracing Christianity.
If, nevertheless, they continued to observe it, this was partly owing to the influence of their own prejudices, ‘zealous for the law,’ and strongly attached to the religious peculiarities of their nation, and partly to a desire not unnecessarily to offend the prejudices of others, which might occasionally lead them with
St. Paul, in things not sinful, to become all things to all men, that by any means they might gain some.
In his view of the early settlement of the Christian church, it appears that Mr. Benson availed himself considerably of the observations thrown out by Lord Barrington in his Miscellanea Sacra, and particularly of the distinct account given by him of the gifts of the Spirit, by which the apostles and first preachers of Christianity were enabled to spread and confirm the Gospel.
His lordship and Mr. Benson frequently corresponded