the Rev. W. Turner , Jun. , MA., Lives of the eminent Unitarians

It is necessary also to bear in mind continually that the writers were Jews, and that they were addressing themselves, for the most part, to communities made up partly of Jews and partly of Gentiles, who, by the profession of their new faith as Christians, were necessarily thrown into close connexion and frequent intercourse with their Jewish brethren. It was to be expected, therefore, that the language adopted by writers so circumstanced would be founded upon that with which their own minds were already familiar in the Hebrew scriptures. The previous habits of thought and expression in Jewish writers could not fail to lead them to convey their views of the salvation which is by Christ in language borrowed from their own laws, customs, and even prejudices. Such language was likely to be familiar and easily intelligible to the persons whom they addressed, but is apt to be misunderstood by modern readers, to whom the subjects and practices alluded to are but imperfectly known, and who, moreover, are accustomed to read under the impression that they are to seek in their own condition, and in the circumstances of these times, for the objects to which all these obscure reasonings and illustrations—originally clear enough, but by which they are only confounded and perplexed—were intended to be applied.

It follows, therefore, that the difficulties we encounter in the study of St. Paul's writings (except such as arise from the character of his own very remarkable and peculiar style) will most commonly find their solution in an examination of the sense in which similar modes of expression are used in the Old Testament, considered with