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EXPLANATORY NOTES

UPON

THE NEW TESTAMENT.

BY JOHN WESLEY, M. A.,

LATE FELLOW OF LINCOLN COLLEGE, OXFORD.

ELEVENTH EDITION.

WITH THE LAST CORRECTIONS OF THE AUTHOR.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. II.

STAMFOUL LIBIA

LONDON:

PUBLISHED BY JOHN MASON, 14, CITY-ROAD;

AND SOLD AT 66, PATERNOSTER-ROW.

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EXPLANATORY NOTES

UPON

THE NEW TESTAMENT.

BY JOHN WESLEY, M. A.

NOTES

ON

ST. PAUL'S EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

MANY of the writings of the New Testament are written in the form of epistles. Such are not only those of St. Paul, James, Peter, Jude, but also both the treatises of St. Luke, and all the writings of St. John. Nay, we have seven epistles herein which the Lord Jesus himself sent by the hand of John to the seven churches; yea, the whole Revelation is no other than an epistle from Him.

Concerning the epistles of St. Paul, we may observe, he writes in a very different manner to those churches which he had planted himself, and to those who had not seen his face in the flesh. In his letters to the former, a loving or sharp familiarity appears, as their behaviour was more or less suitable to the gospel. To the latter, he proposes the pure, unmixed gospel, in a more general and abstract manner.

As to the time wherein he wrote his epistles, it is probable he wrote about the year of Christ, according to the common reckoning,

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As to the general epistles, it seems, St. James wrote a little before his death, which was A. D. 63. St. Peter, who was martyred in the year 67, wrote his latter epistle a little before his death, and not long after his former. St. Jude wrote after him, when the mystery of iniquity was gaining ground swiftly. St. John is believed to have wrote all his epistles a little before his departure. The Revelation he wrote A. D. 96.

That St. Paul wrote this epistle from Corinth we may learn from his commending to the Romans Phebe, a servant of the church of Cenchrea, chap. xvi. 1, a port of Corinth; and from his mentioning the salutations of Caius and Erastus, chap. xvi. 23, who were both Corinthians. Those

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