V. 2.—Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures. By declaring that the gospel had been before promised, Paul tacitly repels the accusation that it was a novel doctrine. At the same time he states its divine origin as a reason why nothing new is to be admitted in religion. He further shows in what respect the Old and New Testaments differ—not as containing two religions essentially dissimilar, but as exhibiting the same grand truth predicted, prefigured, and fulfilled. The
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