Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: INTRODUCTION EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. SECTION I. OUR STARTING-POINT AND OUR AIM. 1. As this work will be to some extent argumentative, I shall begin it by stating plainly what are the assumptions on which the argument rests. I do not wish to take for granted the divine authority or supernatural origin of any part of the Bible. The only admissions I require are, that a letter exists professing to have been written by the Apostle Paul to the Christians at Rome ; that it exists in various languages, in thousands of printed books bearing all dates from the invention of printing to our own day, and in hundreds of manuscripts preserved in libraries and monasteries and giving various indications of age ; and that it is quoted in many ancient writings, of which copies have come down to us. 2. Assuming this, we will inquire whether these documents afford sufficient proof that the Epistle was actually written by Paul ; and whether the letter written by him is correctly represented in the Authorised English Version. We will consider certain indications in the Epistle as to when, and where, and to whom it was written. We will then study the Epistle itself. We will try to understand the meaning of the words used, and to trace the writer's argument. We will carefully observe the facts and doctrines which he takes for granted, and the conclusions to which he seeks to bring his readers. As we pass along, we will examine his opinions on several of the matters about which he writes. At the end of our work, we will try to delineate the writer's view of Christ and the Gospel, as that view chapter{Section 4is reflected in the pages of this Epistle. And, standing by Paul, we will endeavour to see with our own eyes and hear with our own ears the face and the teaching of Jesus. 3. In oth...