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    Sra , If you shall deem the following attempt to illustrate a difficult portion of Scripture worthy the attention of your readers , you perhaps will favour it with a place in the Monthly Repository * Of the style of the Epistle to the Hebrews , in general , it may be said , that it savours much of the same obscurity which involves the question

    concerning its author . Strong figures , bold ellipses , allegorical interpretations , and obscure allusions , increase that difficulty in this book which could not otherwise be absent from a piece so argumentative on subjects so abstruse . These difficulties have indeed called forth a corresponding zeal in many learned and pious writers to do something effectual towards their removal :

    they have effected much ; and if their elaborate works had been more studied they would have effected still more . But after all , so much real difficulty is felt and so much misconception exists in regard to the design and meaning of this epistle , that 1 trust the present attempt to contribute something towards the right understanding of it will not be deemed presumptuous or misplaced .

    It is to some passages only of the first and second chapter , relating to the person and character of the Messiah , that I shall at present direct attention , premising , however , a few remarks on the apparent aim and scope of the ' epistle at large . ' It appears , then , ( o have been addressed to what are commonly called Judaizing Christians ; that great class of Hebrew converts to the faith of

    Jesus , concerning whom the apostle at Jerusalem said to Paul , on his last visit to that city , " Thou seest , brother , how many myriads there are of Jews who believe , and they are all zealous of the law : "" the same class with whom the Apostle Paul found much matter of contention throughout his ministry , as almost all his epistles shew . In all probability these were also the same sort of persons who , in the following age , became distinguished by

    the epithets of Nazarenes and Ebionites . It appears to have been their principal error that they undervalued the new or Christian dispensation as compared with the old one or Mosaic , and instead of abandoning the latter as superseded by the former , they retained an inconsistent and unprofitable mixture of both together . Thus the true glory and excellence of the Christian system was almost lost to them , being still overlaid by the rubbish of the law . It was to make them duly understand the pre-eminence of the

    Christian economy , not only as improving on , but as abolishing , the Mosaic , that this masterly and elegant composition was penned ; and I proceed to inquire very briefly into the ground which the writer takes in order to effect this purpose . It is very obvious that it is every where the writer ' s aim to point out the poorness and insufficiency of the Mosaic ceremonial observances , as compared with the provisions of the new system ; but } am not

    sure whether it is always duly noticed under what particular aspect or point of view this comparison is drawn . Some , perhaps , are satisfied with the * general notion that the writer is busied in shewing the superiority of a purely moral and spiritual institution over a ceremonial one ; others will see nothing throughout the whole but a declaration of the infinite value of the sacrifice of Chript compared with that of bulls and- goats .. I conceive ,

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    ILLUSTRATIONS OP PASSAGES IN THE EPISTL ^ TO THE HEBREWS . To the Editor .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1828, page 376, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2561/page/16/