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 No.. 
 
THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 
 
GEORGE BELL & SONS, 
 
 LONDON : YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN 
 NEW YORK: 66, FIFTH AVENUE, AND 
 BOMBAY : 53, ESPLANADE ROAD 
 CAMBRIDGE : DEIGHTON, BELL & CO. 
 
THE EPISTLE TO THE 
 
 EOMANS 
 
 WITH NOTES CRITICAL AND PRACTICAL 
 
 BY THE REV. M. F. SADLER 
 
 LATE RECTOR OF HONITON AND PREBENDARY OF WELLS 
 
 LONDON 
 
 GEORGE BELL AND SONS 
 
 1898 
 
First puhlished February 1888. 
 Reprinted 1889, 1895, 1898. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THE GENEKAL EECEPTION OF THE EPISTLE TO THE 
 EOMANS BY THE CHUECH. 
 
 AS it has always been the province of the Church to decide upon 
 what books are to be accounted Holy Scripture, and what 
 books are not, we must first glance over the testimony of the 
 Church to the place of this Epistle in the Canon. 
 
 Tracing the citations or references upwards, we find that Euse- 
 bius, born at the conclusion of the reign of Gallienus, writes : 
 " The Epistles of Paul are fourteen, all well known and beyond 
 doubt " (E. H. iii. c. 3) ; and a little further on he mentions that 
 " the same Apostle in the addresses at the close of the Epistle to 
 the Eomans, has, among others, made mention also of Hermes," &c. 
 
 Origen wrote a commentary on this Epistle, " which is preserved 
 entire only in a loose Latin translation by Eufinus." 
 
 Of the three great writers flourishing at the close of the second 
 century — Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, and Tertullian — I find 
 that, in an index of quotations I have now before me, Irenaeus 
 quotes this Epistle alone above 70 times, Clement of Alexandria 
 114 times, and Tertullian 142 (and this in an index to only a part 
 of his works). 
 
 This Epistle is also cited in the letter of the Churches of Lyons 
 and Vienne, in the words (quoting from the letter as given in 
 Eusebius), " These coming in close conflict endured every species 
 of reproach and torture. Esteeming what was deemed great but 
 little, they hastened to Christ, showing in reality that the suffer- 
 ings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory 
 that shall be revealed in us." 
 
 It is included amongst the Pauline Epistles in the Canon of 
 Muratori (about a.d. 170). The notice is exceedingly interesting: 
 " Epistolae autem Pauli, quae, a quo loco, vel qua ex causa directae 
 
n INTEODUCTION. 
 
 sint, volentibus intelligere ipsae declarant. Primum omnium 
 Corinthiis schisma haeresis interdicens, deinceps Galatis circum- 
 cisionem, Komanis autem ordine Scripturarum, sed et principium 
 earum esse Christum intimans," &c. Upon which Professor 
 Westcott has this note : " Ordine Scri'ptv/ra/rimi, according to the 
 general tenour of the Scriptures. Compare Tregelles, p. 43, who 
 points out that there are more quotations from the Old Testament 
 in the Epistle to the Eomans than in all the other Epistles of St. 
 Paul together." 
 
 We next come to Justin Martyr, in the middle of the second 
 century. He quotes or alludes to the Epistle twelve or fourteen 
 times. Most of his quotations are worth reproduction. I will 
 give eight. 
 
 1. "For when Abraham himself was in circumcision he was 
 justified, and blessed by reason of the faith which he reposed in 
 God, as the Scripture tells. Moreover, the Scripture and the facts 
 themselves compel us to admit that he received circumcision for a 
 sign, and not for righteousness." (Dial. ch. xxiii.) 
 
 2. " But now, by means of the contents of these Scriptures, 
 esteemed holy and prophetic among you, I attempt to prove all 
 (that I have adduced), in the hope that some one of you may be 
 found to be of that remnant which has been left by the grace of the 
 Lord of Sabaoth for the Eternal Salvation." (Dial, xxxii.) 
 
 3. " No one, not even of them (the fleshly seed of Abraham), has 
 anything to look for, but only those who in mind are assimilated 
 to the faith of Abraham." (Dial, xliv.) 
 
 4. •' Because of your wickedness God has withheld from you the 
 ability to discern the wisdom of His Scriptures. Yet there are some 
 exceptions, to whom, according to the grace of His long suffering, 
 as Isaiah said. He has left a seed for salvation, lest your race be 
 utterly destroyed as Sodom and Gomorrah." (Dial. Iv.) 
 
 5. " For Abraham was declared by God to be righteous, not on 
 account of circumcision, but on account of faith, for, before he was 
 circumcised, the following statement was made regarding him : 
 * Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteous- 
 ness.' And we, therefore, in the un circumcision of our flesh, be- 
 lieving God through Christ, and having that circumcision which is 
 of advantage to us who have acquired it — namely, that of the 
 heart — we hope to appear righteous before, and well-pleasing to, 
 God." (Dial, xcii.) 
 
INTRODUCTION. Vll 
 
 6. " For God sets before every race of mankind that which it 
 always and universally just, as well as all righteousness ; and ever^ 
 race knows that adultery, and fornication, and homicide, and such 
 like are sinful: and though they all commit such practices, yet 
 they do not escape from the knowledge that they act unrighteously 
 whenever they so do, with the exception of those who are possessed 
 with an unclean spirit, and who have been debased by education, 
 by wicked customs, and by sinful institutions, and who have lost, 
 or rather quenched, or put under, their natural ideas." (Dial, xciii.) 
 
 7. " For as he (Abraham) believed the voice of God, and it was 
 imputed unto him for righteousness, in like manner we, having 
 beheved God's voice spoken by the Apostles of Christ, and pro- 
 mulgated to us by the prophets, have renounced even to death all 
 the things of the world." (Dial, cxix.) 
 
 8. *' That (circumcision) was given for a sign, and not for a work 
 of righteousness, as the Scriptures compel you to admit." (Dial, 
 cxxxvii.) 
 
 I have given the above citations somewhat in full, inasmuch as 
 they seem to show what an invaluable store of controversial argu- 
 ment this Epistle contains to enable the Christians to deal with the 
 Jews, ever their bitterest and most formidable opponents. Justin 
 was well acquainted with the letter, and permeated with the spirit 
 of St. Paul's Epistles ; and, if he thus used them in controversy, 
 no doubt multitudes of others did the same, so that we cannot 
 over-estimate their importance in the Early Church. 
 
 In the Epistles of Ignatius to the Smyrneans (shorter form) 
 there is one very clear reference to Eom. i. 3 ; and one in the 
 Epistle to Polycarp, and a reference to xiv. 10-12 in the Epistle of 
 Polycarp. 
 
 There are also two or three very distinct references to this Epistle 
 in the first Epistle of Clement, the contemporary of St. Paul, par- 
 ticularly to Eom. iv., "Abraham as justified by faith; " and xii. 5, 
 " Every one members one of another." 
 
 THE ORIGIN OR FIRST PLANTING OF THE ROMAN 
 CHURCH. 
 
 Nothing whatsoever is told us in Scripture respecting the origin 
 of the Roman Church. Late traditions ascribe it to St. Peter, who 
 is supposed to have commenced there an Episcopate of twenty-nve 
 
viii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 years in the year 42. But it is impossible to believe that if he had 
 been residing in Eome as its Bishop, St. Paul would have sent to 
 him no loving greeting. St. Paul writes to the Christians of Eome 
 as if they required no organization, and had been so long established 
 in the truth of the Gospel that " their faith was spoken of through- 
 out the whole world." It seems most probable from the mention 
 of " strangers of Eome, both Jews and proselytes," who evidently, 
 from their mention here, joined with the rest in the exclamation, 
 " We do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of 
 God," — that such, being devout men, would speak when they re- 
 turned to Eome of what they had heard and seen ; and so a Church 
 principally of Jews or Israelites would be formed in the Imperial 
 city very soon after Pentecost. Such a Church so composed would 
 be reckoned under the Apostles of the circumcision ; but, as time 
 went on, Eome being the centre of the world, and having inter- 
 course with all Greece and the shores of the Mediterranean, many 
 Greeks and inhabitants of Asia and Syria, who had been converted 
 by St. Paul or his disciples, or those who worked in concert with 
 him, would settle in Eome, and so a Church, which was originally 
 Jewish, would, as to its members, become more and more Gentile, 
 and so would come more and more under the Apostolate of St. 
 Paul. St. Paul evidently considered that, having had the Gentiles 
 committed to him by the Lord, the Church of Eome was under 
 him. On this account he wrote his Epistle to them with authority 
 (xii. 3), and speaks to them as if they were part of that offering of 
 the Gentile world which he was ordained to make to God through 
 the preaching of the Gospel (xv. 16). 
 
 But now the question arises, Was he the first Apostle or person 
 with apostolic or quasi- apostolic powers who visited them? It is 
 generally assumed that he was, on two grounds : 1st, That he says 
 he desired to see them, in order that he might impart to them some 
 spiritual gift, that is, one which only an Apostle could impart ; and 
 2ndly, That as his rule was not to build upon another man's founda- 
 tion, he would not have gone to Eome to impart to them such gifts 
 if another Apostle had done so before him : but I beheve that both 
 these assertions are made under a great misconception. It seems 
 certain that, in what he writes in Eom. xii., the Apostle implies 
 that the Eoman Church possessed spiritual gifts — for prophecy, 
 ministry, teaching, and ruling, are all reckoned in 1 Corinth, xii. 
 and xiv. as spiritual gifts. I cannot believe that all the gifts of 
 
INTRODUCTION. IX 
 
 Rom. xii. 6, 7, were natural gifts, sanctified by faith or grace. They 
 seem, though not so many in number, to be (some at least), of the 
 same supernatural character as those mentioned in other Epistles. 
 
 And then, with respect to the Apostle not preaching or otherwise 
 exercising ministerial functions in Churches founded by others, this 
 is faUy answered by the very probable assumption that inhere was, as 
 time went on, a considerable change in the nationality of the 
 Roman Church. If a Church, originally Jewish, became mainly 
 Gentile, it would, according to the compact, come under the super- 
 vision of the Apostle of the Gentiles, even if St. Peter himself had 
 founded it, or visited it after it was founded. 
 
 And now let us look a little more closely into this alleged neglect 
 of the Church of Rome by the Apostolic College. 
 
 Though we have no record of its foundation, all the circumstances 
 of the case point to a very early establishment of a Church in Rome. 
 
 Its faith was, thirty-five years or so after its founding, spoken of 
 throughout the whole world. Long before his wish was gratified, 
 St. Paul himself earnestly desired to see it. Now are we to suppose 
 that for, in all probability, twenty-five years, the existence of this 
 Church was ignored by the Apostles of the Circumcision ? Sup- 
 posing that Peter and John could not find time to visit it, was there 
 no quasi-Apostle, such as Barnabas, whom they could send to 
 organize, and confirm, and supply such needful gifts as prophecy, 
 and teaching, and Church rule ? If the Church of Jerusalem sent 
 Barnahas to Antioch, surely someone with equal powers might be 
 sent to the Church of the world's metropolis, notwithstanding its 
 distance. But to this it is answered that we have no record of such 
 a visit in the Acts of the Apostles, which we should have if the 
 Apostles, or any one of them, had noticed the Church of Rome. But 
 the people who allege this seem, one would say, never to have read 
 with any attention the Book of the Acts. For, if they had, they must 
 have known that of the original twelve Apostles ten are never men- 
 tioned from the middle of the first chapter to the end of the book. 
 Of the two who are mentioned one, St. John, altogether drops out of 
 sight after his visit to Samaria in the company of St. Peter, to the 
 close of the history, a period, according to Usher, of thirty-two years, 
 and Simon Peter himself is only once mentioned from the death of 
 Herod in a.d. 44 to the close (the single mention being that of his 
 presence in the council), a period of twenty-one years. Common 
 sense tells us that such a Church could not have remained imvisited 
 
X INTEODUCTION. 
 
 either in person or by a sufficiently empowered representative, by 
 men who had any respect for the Apostolic function which Christ 
 had commissioned them to exercise ; and that someone must have 
 conferred upon the Eoman Christians the gifts alluded to in Eom. 
 lii. 6, is plain. 
 
 The early settlement of the Eoman Church is by many ancient 
 writers associated with St. Peter in conjunction with St. Paul. 
 Three times by Eusebius ; first in the following : " But the holy 
 Apostles and disciples of our Saviour being scattered over the 
 whole world, Thomas, according to tradition, received Parthia as 
 his allotted region ; Andrew received Scythia, and John, Asia, 
 where, after continuing for some time, he died at Ephesus. Peter 
 appears to have preached through Pontus, Galatia, Bithynia, Cap- 
 padocia, and Asia, to the Jews which were scattered abroad, who 
 also, finally coming to Eome, was crucified with his head down- 
 wards, having requested of himself to suffer in this way. Why 
 should we speak of Paul spreading the Gospel of Christ from Jeru- 
 salem to lUyricum, and finally suffering martyrdom at Rome under 
 Nero ? This account is given by Origen in the third book of his 
 Exposition of Genesis. After the martyrdom of Paul and Peter, 
 Linus was the first that received the Episcopate at Eome. Paul 
 makes mention of him in his Epistle from Eome to Timothy, in the 
 address at the close of the Epistle, saying, ' Eubulus and Pudens, 
 and Linus, and Claudia, salute thee.' " (Bk. iii. ch. i. 2.) 
 
 The second : " Dm-ing this time (Trajan's reign) Clement was yet 
 Bishop of the Eomans, who was also the third that held the Epis- 
 copate there after Paul and Peter, Linus being the first, and Anen- 
 cUtusnextin order." (Book iii. c. 21.) 
 
 The third is a quotation by Eusebius from. Irenaeus: "The 
 blessed Apostles having founded and established the Church of 
 Rome, transmitted the office of the Episcopate to Linus. Of this 
 Linus Paul makes mention in his Epistles to Timothy. He was 
 succeeded by Anenclitus, and after him Clement held the Episcopate, 
 the third from the Apostles." (Irenaeus " Against Heresies," Book 
 iii. ch. 3, quoted in Eusebius, B. v. ch. 6.) 
 
 Now the reader should remember that Eusebius was an eccle- 
 Biastical historian who was born within two hundred years of St. 
 Paul's imprisonment in Rome, and that Irenaeus, in his youth, 
 could have conversed with men who had seen both Apostles. 
 
 I cannot but think that it is very probable, then, that St. Peter 
 
INTRODUCTION. XI 
 
 visited Kome some time during that long period of his active minis- 
 terial Ufe, of which no mention is made by St. Luke, verj^ probably 
 during the six years between his deliverance from prison on the 
 death of Herod and his presence at the council. If any Church, 
 from its situation, natural influence, and piety, demanded his pre- 
 sence, this Church of Kome did. People who write as if they be- 
 lieved that St. Peter could not visit Kome except to organize a 
 papacy, and that his presence in the city would have sanctioned all 
 the extravagances of the Bishops of Kome during the last thousand 
 years, seem to me to play into the hands of Romanists. A man 
 who had been a disciple of the Baptist, who had been chosen by the 
 Lord Himselffrom amongst those disciples, who had seen the whole 
 life of the Lord during His entire ministerial career, in whose house 
 the Lord had constantly lodged, who had heard all His discourses 
 and His parables and seen all His miracles, who, though not the 
 Prince of the Apostles, was undoubtedly their leader and spokesman 
 — to whom first of the Apostles the Lord appeared on the day of 
 His Kesurrection, and who had received such a commission as that 
 given by the lake of Galilee, who was commissioned by the Lord to 
 open the door of faith — first to the Jews, then to the Gentiles — 
 surely the presence of such an one would be most edifying to any 
 Church, even though he had nothing like the controversial abiUty 
 of St. Paul, and was perhaps his inferior in decisiveness of action. 
 
 TIME AND PLACE OF WKITING. 
 
 All expositors are of one mind, that this Epistle was written 
 during the three months of the Apostle's stay in Greece, at Corinth, 
 mentioned in Acts xx. 3. 
 
 That it was written fi'om Corinth appears from the fact that it 
 was conveyed to the Koman Church by Phoebe, a deaconess of the 
 Church at Cenchrea, the port of Corinth, on the east side of the 
 isthmus. Gains, in whose house St. Paul was lodged at the time 
 (xvi. 23), is probably the person mentioned as one of the chief 
 members of the Corinthian Church in 1 Cor. 1, 14., though the name 
 was very common. Erastus, here designated the treasurer of the city 
 {oiKovo/jiog^ xvi. 23, E. V. " chamberlain "), is elsewhere mentioned 
 in connection with Corinth (2 Tim, iv. 20) ; see also Acts xix. 22. 
 
 Secondly, having thus determined the place of writing to be 
 
XU INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Corinth, we have no hesitation in fixing upon the visit recorded in 
 Acts XX. 3 during the winter and spring following the Apostle's 
 long residence at Ephesus, as the time during which the Epistle 
 was written. For St. Paul, when he wrote the letter, was on the 
 point of carrying the contributions of Macedonia and Achaia to 
 Jerusalem (xv. 25, 27). And a comparison with Acts xx. 22, xxiv. 
 17 and also with 1 Cor. xvi. 4, 2 Cor. viii. 1, 2, ix. gg^,, shows that 
 he was so engaged at this period of his life (see Paley's " Hone 
 Paulinae," ch. ii. 1). Moreover, in this Epistle he declares his in- 
 tention of visiting the Eomans after he has been at Jerusalem (xv. 
 23-25), and that such was his design at this particular time appears 
 from a casual notice in Acts xix. 21. 
 
 " The Epistle then was written from Corinth during St. Paul's 
 third missionary journey, on the occasion of the second of the two 
 visits recorded in the Acts. On this occasion he remained three 
 months in Greece (Acts xx. 3). When he left the sea was already 
 navigable, for he was on the point of sailing for Jerusalem when he 
 was obHged to change his plans. On the other hand it cannot have 
 been late in the spring, because, after passing through Macedonia, 
 and visiting several places on the coast of Asia Minor, he still hoped 
 to reach Jerusalem by Pentecost (xx. 16). It was, therefore, in the 
 winter or early spring of the year that the Epistle to the Romans 
 was written. According to the most probable system of chronology 
 adopted by Anger and Wieseler this would be the year a.d. 58." — 
 Smith's "Dictionary of the Bible," article by Dr. Lightfoot. 
 
 THE PURPOSE FOR WHICH THE EPISTLE WAS 
 WRITTEN. 
 
 The purpose for which St. Paul was directed by God to write this 
 Epistle was intimately connected with the great controversy or 
 struggle then going on respecting the Church, whether it was to be 
 a Catholic body, on its inner or spiritual side the mystical body of 
 Christ, inheriting all the privileges of the Sion of the Prophets, 
 or whether it was to be an appanage of Judaism. On the settle- 
 ment of this controvery hung all the future of the Church, as One, 
 Cathohc, and Apostolic. The purpose of the Epistle, it seems to 
 me, was to assure the Gentiles that being justified by faith they 
 possessed the only true Justification, and having accepted Christ 
 
INTRODUCTION. XIU 
 
 and been grafted into Him as the True Vine, and Divine Olive-tree 
 of grace, they were the true elect people of God. 
 
 Very few writers seem to me to write with any idea of the 
 difficulty of the questions of Justification and Election in the 
 infancy of the Church from the power of the Judaizing faction 
 everywhere ; for I think it is very plain that few Jews, even when 
 thoroughly converted, and sincerely Christian, could rise completely 
 above their prejudices as St. Paul did, and welcome unreservedly 
 every converted Gentile as a trophy to the power of Christ. 
 
 One of the strongholds of the Judaizer seems to have been the 
 letter of the Old Testament, coupled with the absence for at least 
 half a century of anything but a mere fragment of our New 
 Testament. For instance, it must have been many years after the 
 death of St. Paul before all his Epistles were collected and distri- 
 buted amongst the Churches : St. John's Gospel was not generally 
 received before the close of the century, and the Apocalypse and 
 Epistles of Peter and John certainly not till the same time. Now 
 during the whole of this period the Scriptures would be the Old 
 Testament — the Prophets and other books of the Old Testament 
 would form by far the greater part of the reading of Scripture in 
 the Churches (Justin Martyr), the Psalms would form the leading 
 feature in the daily service. During this time the definite instruc- 
 tion about the person and work of Christ would be from one 
 Gospel, which in the Churches of Jewish origin would be, I believe, 
 St. Matthew, in the Churches founded by St. Paul it would be 
 (latterly, of course) St. Luke. I find that many write as if they 
 imagined that immediately on the publication of a book of the New 
 Testament it must be assumed to be known everywhere ; but this 
 seems a great mistake. It would take many years before the 
 Pauline Epistles would be received ex animo by Churches in which 
 the Jewish element prevailed to any considerable extent. 
 
 Now let us see how this bears on the retention of circumcision 
 under the New Covenant and on Justification by Faith. In the roll 
 of the Scriptures in every Church would be read (Gen. xvii. 7-13) : 
 " I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed 
 after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a 
 God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. This is my covenant 
 .... Every man child among you shall be circumcised .... And 
 my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant." 
 How could this be met ? It is generally supposed that St. Paul 
 
XIV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 meets it sufficiently when he cites Abraham as an example of 
 one who was justified before he was circumcised, *' He received the 
 sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which 
 he had, being yet uncircumcised." But see how the Judaizer would 
 rejoin. He would say, " It is all very well to cite Abraham as a 
 solitary instance of justification before circumcision, but this can be 
 no rule for any of his descendants, whether fleshly or spiritual, 
 because God, in commanding him to be circumcised, commanded 
 all his descendants. 'I will establish my covenant between me 
 and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations.' " 
 
 Now the full and efl'ectual answer to the Judaizer is not in a 
 solitary text, or an inference from such text, but in the Catholic 
 faith. St. Paul's opening words of this Epistle settle everything to 
 a real believer in his Gospel : " The gospel of God, concerning his 
 Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David 
 according to the flesh ; and declared to be the Son of God with 
 power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from 
 the dead." Now if such an One came into the world to establish a 
 covenant of salvation, as He assuredly did, it is clear that His 
 covenant must supersede all others. Moses was esteemed by the 
 Jews the greatest man that God had ever raised up ; but if St. 
 Paul's Gospel be true he was a mere servant ; whereas He Whose 
 faith or Gospel St. Paul preached was the Son, the only Son, 
 a Son over His own house — the own Son of God — the Eternal Son, 
 Who was in the bosom of the Father, and had come down to be 
 the Light and Life of men. His covenant then must supersede 
 every preceding one, and if He ordained a sign or sacrament 
 to initiate men into it such sign or seal must render every other 
 one obsolete. For a Gentile to receive circumcision after he had 
 received baptism, was not only unbelief, but impertinent folly. 
 
 So far for circumcision, and now about Justification. Nothing 
 can be clearer than that very much in the Old Testament is on the 
 side of Justification by the works of the law; thus "ye shall keep 
 my statutes and my judgments which, if a man do, he shall live in 
 them " (Levit. xviii. 5, and Deut iv. i. ; vi. 1, 2 ; Psalm i., xv., cxix. 
 passim ; Ezekiel xviii. passim). Now how did the Apostle meet this ? 
 Not, as is usual in these latter days, by citing passages which show 
 the unsatisfactoriness of all human works — far less by telling them, 
 as Luther did, that when God demanded works He spoke ironically, 
 or that works done before Justification are splendid sins ; but by 
 
INTRODUCTION. XV 
 
 showing them that by the coming of the Sou of God amongst us in 
 our nature, by His having assumed a Body for us, and by having 
 in this passible Body offered Himself as a Sacrifice for sin, and 
 having been raised again in this Body, but in an exalted and 
 glorified state, He has put us in possession, if we will but receive it, 
 of an infinitely higher and better righteousness, even the righteous- 
 ness of God, which, if we accept it, will enable us to fulfil the law, 
 not in the letter, but in the spirit. The words by which St. Paul 
 really sets aside justification by the law, or by any law, are an 
 embodiment of the Catholic faith, and are, " What the law could not 
 do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son 
 in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the 
 flesh ; that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who 
 walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." It is clear that if, 
 for purposes of Justification, we can be made partakers of the 
 righteousness of a Person in the Trinity, all reliance on any other 
 method is a virtual refusal of the grace of God in its highest possible 
 manifestation. 
 
 Such is the procedure of the Apostle with respect to Judaism and 
 Judaizing. He meets it with the faith — not faith, but the faith. 
 Faith in the own Son of God, the Eternal Son, to be apprehended 
 by our faith, and when apprehended, to be in us the power of the 
 highest imaginable righteousness — the righteousness of God. Now 
 it is because of all this that the Apostle lays such stress in his 
 preaching upon the Lord's Eesurrection. It is God's seal to the 
 truth of all that His Son assumed to be and to do. It is the proof 
 of His Incarnation, Atonement, and future Judgment. It is also 
 the means by which the grace of Justification reaches us. 
 
 But, notwithstanding all this, the difficulty in the matter of Judaism 
 was not fully met. There was another very formidable question, that 
 of Apostolic authority. The Judaizers everywhere disparaged the 
 Apostleship of St. Paul. He was inferior to the twelve, especially 
 to their leader, and to the Bishop of Jerusalem, the Lord's brother. 
 He had not seen the Lord, as the others had. Now it was of vital 
 importance that this should be met, and it could only be met in one 
 way, and that is, by the evidence of miracles. And in this way 
 St. Paul meets it. "In nothing am I behind the very chiefest 
 apostles, though I be nothing. Truly the signs of an apostle were 
 wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and 
 mighty deeds " (2 Cor. xii. 12), and again in this Epistl«., "Througn 
 
XVI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God ; so that 
 from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully 
 preached the gospel of Christ " (xv. 19). 
 
 Now this is what he appealed to in the matter of Justification 
 by faith in his Epistle to the Galatians : " He therefore that 
 ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, 
 doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith ? " 
 (Gal. iii. 5.) 
 
 And no doubt this was what lay at the root of his desiring to see 
 them, " that he might impaH unto them some spiritual gift, to the end 
 that they might he established.'' It is to be remembered that at 
 this early time no Church which contained any Jewish element 
 could be thoroughly established unless a final decision had been 
 come to respecting this Judaical question, and one of the first 
 elements in this decision was the Apostolate of St. Paul, and there 
 was but one absolute and incontrovertible seal to his Apostleship, 
 and that was the power of doing the same mighty works which 
 SS. Peter and John did. 
 
 The full and free acknowledgment of his Apostleship, then, was 
 essential to the unity, purity, and Catholicity of the Church. It 
 was in no spirit of self-assertion, no matter how lawful, that he 
 insisted upon his Apostleship, but because " a dispensation had 
 been committed to him." It would have been treason to his 
 Master if he had been behindhand in this matter. 
 
 And now again we see how it is that he gave such prominence 
 to the preaching of the Kesurrection. It is not only because 
 through His Eesurrection the life-giving Nature of the Lord is 
 made over to us, to be in us a new power to do the will of God ; 
 but it is also because the Lord's Resurrection is that article of the 
 faith which sets its seal to the truth of all the rest. How do we 
 know that Jesus is the very Son of God — His Only Son — that His 
 Death is all-atoning. His Body and Blood capable of being received 
 by all His people for their Spiritual food and sustenance, and that 
 at the last day He will raise aU men from the dead, and judge 
 them for the deeds done in the body ? Simply and solely because 
 of His Eesurrection. If He be dead then the Apostolic witness 
 and preaching is vain, we are yet in our sins. If He lives we shall 
 live also. 
 
 Such, then, is the purpose of the Epistle to the Bomans. It was 
 
INTRODUCTION. xvu 
 
 written for the assurance of the Church of Christ, that its children 
 were the true children of Abraham, and that it possessed the true 
 election — that the Church itseK and every member of it might 
 claim a part in the words, *' Israel mine elect." " Mine elect 
 shall inherit it." "Jacob, whom I have chosen." "Fear not 
 Jacob, my servant, and thou Jeshurun whom I have chosen." " The 
 Lord hath chosen Zion to be an habitation for himself — he hath 
 longed for her. This shall be my rest for ever, here will I dwell, 
 for I have a delight therein." 
 
 And it has not failed. It has established the Church in its right 
 to be the inheritrix of all the ancient promises. Now take as one 
 illustration of this the universal, the Catholic use of the book of 
 Psalms. Anyone unacquainted with the Church in its final de- 
 velopment in the New Testament as Catholic and Apostolic, would, 
 if he looked over the Book of Psalms, pronounce it to be the book of 
 devotion of a local religious community. He would ask, What right 
 have Christians all over the world to claim the promises made to 
 Zion and to Jerusalem, and to use the book as if they had an interest 
 in it all ? And yet it would be the gravest loss to us if we could 
 not, for no words, if spiritually used, can bring us so near to God. 
 Let the reader turn to two Psalms — the sixty-second and sixty- 
 third — and say how can anyone imagine sweeter intercourse with 
 God ? Now the use of this book, with all the promises of it, and of 
 all the other books, such as Isaiah, we can claim to be absolutely 
 ours. They belong to us far more than they can possibly belong 
 to any earthly city of God. And under God, the man who claimed 
 them for us, and by his determination and courage won them for 
 us, was St. Paul — not, of course, apart from other inspired teachers, 
 but still he was foremost among them to claim for the Catholic 
 Church its full rights in the Word of God. 
 
 We do not sufficiently realize this because we tacitly assume 
 that we enter into all the promises of God to Israel as a matter of 
 course ; but God in the New Testament teaches us that this is by 
 no means a matter of course. In the earliest stage of the Church 
 it was fiercely disputed, and even St. Paul himself tells us that 
 we are not a tree of God in our own right, but come in to fill a 
 blank place in the original one, where some of its branches had 
 been broken off. (Bom. xi.) 
 
 Perhaps we are tempted to think that when God introduced a 
 New Dispensation, He should have discarded the use of the terms 
 
 b 
 
xvin INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of the Old — that there should have been an entirely new nomen- 
 clature of love and grace — but it is not so ; God judged otherwise. 
 The Head and Minister is Joshua, the Messiah. He is our Pass- 
 over, our sin-offering, our Melchizedec, our David. His Church is 
 the Israel of God — the Jerusalem from above — the Mount Zion. 
 His people are not only the good, the virtuous, the devout, but the 
 elect, the called, the flock, the bride, the children of Abraham. 
 
 MANUSCBIPTS AND ANCIENT VERSIONS OF ST. PAUL'S 
 EPISTLES. 
 
 A. Codex Alexandrinus. See Scrivener's Introduction, pp. 93- 
 101. 2 Cor. iv. 13 — xii. 6 wanting. 
 
 H. Codex Sinaiticus. Scrivener, pp. 86-93. 
 
 B. Codex Vaticanus. Scrivener, pp. 101-117. Wants the whole 
 of the two Epistles to Timothy, and those to Titus and Philemon ; 
 also Hebrews ix. 14 to end. 
 
 C. Codex Ephraemi rescriptus. Scrivener, p. 119. 
 
 D. Codex Claromontanus. Scrivener, pp. 163-166. In Royal 
 Library at Paris (not D. Codex Bezas). Middle of sixth century, 
 Greek and Latin. 
 
 E. Codex Sangermanensis now Petropolitanus. Scrivener, p. 
 166. Ninth century, a Greek Latin MS. Defective in Rom. viii. 
 21-23, xi. 15-25, nearly all of first Epistle to Timothy, Hebr. xii. 8- 
 xiii. 25. 
 
 F. Codex Augiensis. Scrivener, p. 167. Greek and Latin. End 
 of ninth century. 
 
 G. Codex Boernerianus. At Dresden. End of ninth century. 
 Scrivener, pp. 169-172. 
 
 H. Codex Coislinianus. Only a few fragments, in all 56 verses. 
 Scrivener, p. 172. 
 
 I. Only fragments. 
 
 K. Codex Mosquensis. Ninth century. Scrivener, p. 162. 
 
 L. Codex Angelicus. At Rome. Ninth century. Scrivener, 
 p. 162. 
 
 M. N. 0. Q. Fragments. 
 
 P. Codex Porphyrianus. A Palimpsest, beginning of ninth 
 century. Scrivener, p. 162. 
 
INTRODUCTION. XIX 
 
 Of Cnrsives Scrivener enumerates 295, 
 
 Jjatin Versions. 
 
 d. Latin of Codex Claramontanus. 
 
 e. Latin of Codex Sangermanensis. 
 /. Latin of Codex Augiensis. 
 
 g. Latin of Boernerianus. 
 Vulg. Amiatinus, Fuldensis, &c. 
 
p 
 
 A COMMENTARY. 
 
 THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 
 
 CHAP I. 
 AUL, a servant of Jesus Christ, ^ called to he Anno 
 
 Domini 
 
 60. 
 
 a Acts xxii. 21, 
 1 Cor. i. 1. 
 
 1. ** Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ," &c. A servant, ?^: '• \- , , 
 
 1 Tim. 1. 11. 
 
 literally, a bondman, a slave. He was not a hired & ii. 7. 2 Tim. 
 servant who sold his services to a master for wages, ^' ^^' 
 whilst retaining the Hberty of leaving his household when it suited 
 him; but a slave, the property of his master. Now it was he 
 whom we especially look upon as the Apostle of Christian liberty 
 who thus described himself, and if any man ever served Jesus in 
 the spirit of freedom it was this man ; so that the word " slave," 
 by which he here calls himself, does not look to the spirit of his 
 service, but to the fact that as a slave he was the absolute property 
 of his Divine Master. He held that he was bought with that Master's 
 Plood, and that besides this he was under the greatest conceivable 
 obligations to Him, for in redeeming him Jesus Christ had restored 
 to Paul his true self, so that from the time when Christ claimed 
 him, his soul was restored to union with the Father of spirits, and 
 he had a place in His family for ever as His son. 
 
 "A servant of Jesus Christ." Here we have the Lord's Godhead 
 asserted by implication. How could Paul call himself the slave or 
 property of anyone in the unseen and eternal world, except of God? 
 We have only to conceive of the Apostle calling himself the servant 
 of some angel, or archangel, or principality, or power, to see how 
 utterly impossible such a thing could be, and that no one can say 
 that he serves any being in heaven except the God of heaven. 
 
 B 
 
2 CALLED TO BE AN APOSTLE. [Romans. 
 
 b Acts ix. 15. an apostle, ** separated unto the gospel of G-od. 
 i.15. ' " 
 
 " Called to be an apostle." St. Paul here j.>esert8 that " blas- 
 phemer and injurious " though he had once beer . Christ had seen 
 fit to call him to exercise that unique ministry tw which He had 
 designated the twelve. To him, as much as to them, belonged the 
 words " As my Father sent me, so send I you ;" " He that heareth 
 you heareth me;" and to him there belonged more particularly 
 and personally the commission, "Go ye and teach all nations;" 
 " Go ye to all the world ; " for he was the Apostle of the Gen- 
 tiles, not of any particular tribe, or race, or nation, but ** of the 
 Gentiles." 
 
 St. Paul was called at his conversion, for then the Lord said of 
 him to Ananias, " Go thy way ; for he is a chosen vessel unto me, 
 to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children 
 of Israel " (Acts ix. 15). 
 
 " Separated unto the gospel of God." He says of himself (Gal. i. 
 15) that God had separated him from his mother's womb. He 
 was separated both secretly and openly — secretly, in God's 
 election, as Jeremiah had been (Jerem. i. 5), but God openly mani- 
 fested the fact of this election when the Holy Ghost said, *' Sepa- 
 rate me Barnabas and Saul to the work whereunto I have called 
 them." There may be also a reference to St. Paul's nurture and 
 education, his preservation from actual defilement by gross sin, his 
 education so that he should be brought up in the knowledge of 
 Eabbinical traditions at the foot of Gamahel, and yet be acquainted 
 with Greek literature and philosophy. All this, coming to pass by 
 God's all-ruling providence, set him apart, long before he was con- 
 scious of it, as a fitting instnmaent for the accompUshment of God's 
 purposes of grace. 
 
 "The gospel of God." The gospel here is opposed to the law; 
 and means not only the verbal message respecting Christ, and the 
 proclamation of that message by word of mouth, but the whole 
 system of means of grace, ministries of reconciliation, bonds of 
 union, and accounts of the life and works of Jesus, which is called 
 sometimes the Gospel dispensation, sometimes the kingdom of 
 God. 
 
 2. " "Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy 
 scriptures." It is one of the great anxieties of the Apostle to show 
 
Chap. I.] CONCERNING HIS SON. 3 
 
 2 (^ Which he had promised afore ^ by his « see on Act« 
 
 XXVI, 6» Xit, 
 
 prophets in the holy scriptures,) i. 2. 
 
 3 Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, &xvi"26. 
 'which was ^made of the seed of David according fnatt f 6 le 
 to the flesh; ^tf ' 
 
 2 Tim. ii. 8. 
 
 t John i, 14. 
 Gal. iv. 4. 
 
 8. " Jesns Christ our Lord." These words in the Revised Version are placed at the end 
 of the fourth verse. This is the order of the words in the Greek. 
 " Which was made." " Which was born." 
 
 that the Gospel was not a new thing, an invention of his time, but 
 foretold by the Spirit through the utterances of all the prophets, 
 from Moses to the seer whose short prophecy was the last added 
 to the roll. The very form which the propagation of the Gospel 
 took — that of preaching — was predicted : thus Isaiah, " How beauti- 
 ful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good 
 tidings " (Is. lii. 7), and " Who hath believed our report? " (liii. 1) 
 In this matter of preaching consisted the great contrast between 
 the old and the new dispensations : Aaron and his successors were 
 never commanded to preach, the prophets who were sent to com- 
 fort or reprove the chosen people were never commanded to dis- 
 ciple the heathen ; but the inauguration of the new state of things 
 was in the words " Go ye and disciple all nations ; " " Go ye into 
 all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." 
 
 And now the Apostle comes to lay down the contents of the mes- 
 sage. It is all 
 
 3. " Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made 
 of the seed," &c. " Which was made," rather, which was " born " 
 of the seed of David. Inasmuch as Mary and not Joseph was His 
 parent, St. Paul here asserts that she was of the house and lineage 
 of David, as well as her husband. 
 
 " According to the flesh." The flesh here signifies the whole and 
 perfect human nature; as the Creed words it, "Perfect man, of a 
 reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting." Thus the Apostle 
 enunciates the Incarnation, the Son of God was made man ; and 
 now he proceeds to set forth, as the counterpart to this, not eo 
 much the Godhead or Natural Sonship, which he had already done 
 in calling Him the Son of God, as the declaration and demonstra- 
 tion of that Sonship. 
 
.4 THE SON OF GOD WITH POWER. [Romans. 
 
 t Qr. deter- 4 ji^j^^ + s declared to he the Son of God with 
 
 mined. ' 
 
 g Acts xiii. 33. 
 
 4. " And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to 
 the Spirit of holiness," &c. This word " declared " is the translation 
 of bplliiv, to define, separate, limit, and may be translated " and 
 was separated " from all other beings to be the Son of God, and so 
 was defined or marked to be the Son of God. And thus we come to 
 the rendering of the two Greek Fathers Chrysostom and Theodoret. 
 Ghrysostom, "What, then, is the being * declared? ' It is being shown, 
 being manifested, being judged, being confessed, by the feelings and 
 suffrage of all, by Prophets, by the marvellous Birth after the 
 flesh, by the power which was in the miracles, by the Spirit through 
 which He gave Sanctification, by the Resurrection through which 
 He put an end to the tyranny of death." 
 
 Theodoret's exposition seems to me admirable. "Before His 
 Cross and Passion the Lord Christ, not only to the other Jews, but 
 to the Apostles themselves, did not seem to be God. For they 
 stumbled at His human weaknesses when they saw Him eating 
 and drinking, and sleeping, and weary, and not even the very 
 miracles led them on to the opinion that He was God. And so 
 when they had seen the miracle wrought on the sea of Galilee 
 they said, * What manner of man is this that even the winds and 
 the sea obey him ? ' and so also the Lord said to them, ' I have 
 many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. How- 
 beit, when he the Spirit of truth shall come, he will guide you into 
 all the truth.' And again, * Abide here in this city until ye be en- 
 dued with power from on high, when the Holy Ghost shall come 
 upon you.' Before His Passion, then, their opinions respecting Him 
 were of such a sort as those. But after His Resurrection and As- 
 cension into heaven, and the coming of the Spirit, and the miracles 
 of every kind which they performed by the invocation of His 
 Adorable Name, all they who believed acknowledged that He was 
 God, and the only begotten Son of God. This, then, the Divine 
 Apostle taught, that He Who was named the Son of David accord- 
 ing to the flesh, was defined and demonstrated to be the Son of 
 God, through the power which they exercised by the Holy Spirit 
 after the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead." 
 
 " With power." Various significations are given to these words : 
 some hold that there is an implied contrast between the weak- 
 ness of the nature according to the flesh and the power of the 
 
Chap. I.] BY THE RESURRECTION. 5 
 
 power, according ^ to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrec- 
 tion from the dead : ^ Heb. ix. i4. 
 
 Divine Sonship ; others that " with power " signifies that He was 
 manifested in impressive fashion, powerfully, strikingly ; but there 
 is little real difference between these. 
 
 *' According to the Spirit of hohness." This seems to signify that 
 it was by the Holy Spirit, Who was the immediate Agent in His 
 Resurrection, that He was declared to be the Son of God. It would 
 then signify " according to the witness of the Holy Spirit." Many, 
 on the contrary, consider that there is an implied contrast between 
 '• according to the flesh " and *' according to the Spirit ;" and that 
 as the first undoubtedly means according to His human or lower 
 nature, so the second signifies according to His higher or Divine 
 nature ; and John iv. 24 is cited, where He says that *' God is a 
 spirit." The objection to this latter view seems to be that the 
 Divine Nature in our Lord is never called the " Spirit of Holiness," 
 though, of course. His Spirit is divinely holy. Christ has, as man, 
 a perfectly holy human spirit, but the Resurrection was noi in- 
 tended to demonstrate this, but that He was the Son of God in 
 deed and in truth, God's own proper begotten Son. Now Christ 
 had prophesied that the third Person in the Godhead, the Com- 
 forter, the Holy Spirit, should " glorify him " (John xvi. 14) ; and 
 if the Holy Spirit be the immediate Agent in the Resurrection of 
 Christ, as He undoubtedly will be in our resurrection (Rom. viii. 
 11), then, with all deference to the good and learned men who have 
 held the contrary, we must believe that the Spirit of Holiness here 
 means the Holy Spirit.^ 
 
 " By the Resurrection from the dead." Christ, if we may so 
 speak, had rested the truth of all His claims, especially His claims 
 to be the Son of God, and the Christ, on His Resurrection ; so that, 
 however we take the intermediate words "with power," and 
 
 1 There is another objection which seems to me very weighty against nnderstanding 
 the Spirit of Holiness to be the Divine Nature of the Lord. If we take " according to the 
 flesh" to be according to His human nature, and "according to the Spirit of holiness" to 
 be according to His spiritual Divine existence, do we not seem to deny that, accordiog 
 to his whole manhood. He is the Son of God ? God and man is one Son of God^one 
 Christ— and thus in St. Luke (St. Paul's Gospel) we read, " the Holy Ghost shall come 
 upon thee, and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee, therefore also that Holy 
 Thing which shall be bom of thee, shall be called the Son of God." 
 
6 GRACE AND APOSTLESHIP. [Romans. 
 
 1 ch. xu. 3. & 5 By whom ' we have received grace and apostle- 
 
 xv! lo! Gal. i. 
 
 15. & ii. 9. 
 
 Eph. iii. 8. 
 
 " according to the Spirit of holiness," Jesus Christ is defined or 
 determined to be the Son of God by His Eesurrection from the 
 dead.' 
 
 Such is the Gospel of St. Paul. It may be asked, Why does he 
 make no mention of the atoning Death ? Because both the Incar- 
 nation and the Eesurrection imply the atoning Death. He took 
 upon Him a nature of flesh and blood which could be separated in 
 death, and being the flesh and blood which was assumed by the 
 Eternal Son, that Death could be no ordinary death, but its virtues 
 must be as far reaching as the effects of the sin for which God 
 ordained it to be the remedy ; and the Eesurrection implies the 
 previous Death, and stamps it with God's seal of all- sufficiency. 
 But, undoubtedly, we learn from this stress laid upon the Eesur- 
 rection, that St. Paul held it to be the leading feature of his Gospel 
 in its aspect of being good tidings. The proclamation of the Cruci- 
 fixion by itself could be no good tidings, because death was the 
 common lot of all men ; but if it was followed by the Eesurrection, 
 it was the best of all possible good tidings to a sinful race, for it 
 assured them that the Son of God had on the cross effected that for 
 which He had been nailed to it, even reconciliation with God. 
 
 I have dwelt thus at large upon this declaration of the Gospel on 
 the part of St. Paul, because in it he sets forth his Gospel as con- 
 sisting primarily of outward objective facts, and not of abstract 
 doctrines, much less of inward experiences. The Gospel, according 
 to St. Paul, was not justification by faith, though that was a direct 
 and necessary deduction from his doctrine, neither was it a sense 
 of assurance, but what he says that it was when he categorically de- 
 scribes it in his First Epistle to the Corinthians as the evidence of 
 the Eesurrection (1 Cor. xv. 1-11). The fullest conceivable embodi- 
 ment of it is the creed of the Catholic Church. 
 
 5. " By whom we have received grace and apostleship," &c. By 
 whom, i.e., through Christ as the Mediator and Head of the Church. 
 
 ' Some take the resurrection from the dead here to be notour Lord's Resurrection, hut 
 the resurrection of all men in Him ; but this seems impossible, for St. Paul is speaking oif 
 the manifestation of Christ as the Son of God in the preached Gospel. Now He will not 
 be manifested as the Resurrection of all men, till the last day : at present His own 
 Resurrection is taken as the pledge of it. 
 
Chap. I.] OBEDIENCE TO THE FAITH. 7 
 
 ship, II for '^obedience to the faith among all nations, ^for 
 
 Hsname: l£l^enfof 
 
 6 Amonsr whom are ye also the called of Jesus /«**'^- 
 
 o J k Arts VI. 7. 
 
 Christ : ch. xvl 26. 
 
 I Acts ix. 15. 
 
 The nltimate source of grace is God the Father, " Thiue they were, 
 and thou gavest them me " (John xvii. 6). 
 
 " Grace and apostleship." Some, as Augustine, take this to 
 mean that he first received grace — the common grace of the dispen- 
 sation, as forgiveness, membership in the Body of Christ and the Holy 
 Spirit for his personal sanctification, and then also apostleship, which 
 was an unique gift, in which, so far as the Eoman Christians were 
 concerned, he stood alone. He asserts this apostleship as a reason 
 why he wrote to persons whom he had never seen, with the autho- 
 rity which he assumes throughout his Epistle. Some think that 
 the words describe one thing, " the grace of apostleship ;" thus 
 Theodoret : *' For he himself has appointed us to be preachers, 
 committing to us the salvation of all the Gentiles, and bestowing 
 grace analogous to the preaching." 
 
 " For obedience to the faith among all nations." Some sup^.V)se 
 that only the reception of the faith is here meant ; for when men 
 receive and believe the preaching, they obey God, their faith itself 
 being an act of obedience to a Divine command ; but must we not 
 rather interpret it by the similar expression in chap. xv. 18, " to 
 make the Gentiles obedient by word and deed "? Each particular 
 of the Gospel has not only to be received but to be obeyed. The 
 Death of Christ is to make us each personally die to sin, the Cruci- 
 fixion is that they who are Christ's should crucify the flesh with 
 its affections and lusts ; the Resurrection of Christ should oblige us 
 to walk in newness of life ; the abiding of Christ in heaven is that 
 we should set our affections on things above, 
 
 "For his name," i.e., that the name of Christ may be glorified. 
 This is a proof of the Lord's Godhead, that as the Name of God is 
 dishonoured or honoured by the wickedness or holiness of those who 
 name it (Rom. ii. 24), so it is with the Lord's Name. 
 
 " Among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ." " Among 
 numberless other Gentiles who have received the faith are ye also 
 who through the preaching of the word have received the calling of 
 Jesus Christ." This he says in order to include them under his com- 
 mission. 
 
8 BELOVED OF GOD. [Romans. 
 
 mch.ix 24. 7 To all tliat be in Eome, beloved of God, 
 
 1 Cor. 1. 2. 
 
 1 Thes. iv. 7. ^ called to be saints : ° G-race to you and peace 
 
 2 Cor. i'. 2. ' from G-od our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 o 1 cor.'i. 4. 8 First, ° I thank my God through Jesus Christ 
 
 Phil. i. 3." Col. 
 
 1.3,4. IThes. 
 
 i.2. Philem.4. 
 
 7. " To all that be in Eome, beloved of God, called to be saints." 
 If anyone had in such a city as Eome separated himself from the 
 heathenism and wickedness around him, and embraced the Gospel, 
 it was a sure sign of God's grace working in him, and that he was 
 " beloved of God," and must " abide in His Love." 
 
 *' Called to be saints." " Saints " is here used, not in its modem 
 sense of very holy and devout persons, but as signifying Christians, 
 who by their profession and their baptism are assumed to be sepa- 
 rated from the world. Thus the Jews were to God " a kingdom of 
 saints and an holy people," and throughout the book of the Acts 
 " Saints " is the common appellation of Christians (Acts ix. 32, 41). 
 By their calling of God, and their acceptance of the call, they were 
 saints dedicated to God and partakers of all the privileges of the 
 Gospel, for they were part of the Holy Catholic Church. 
 
 " Grace to you and peace from God our Father," &c. Here the 
 Apostle invokes grace and peace upon them equally from God and 
 from Christ, as if they came from both ahke. Thus Chrysostom : 
 " See in this passage the ' from ' is common to the Father and the 
 Son. For he did not say, * Grace be unto you and peace from God 
 the Father through our Lord Jesus Christ,' but 'from God the 
 Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ.' " 
 
 But why is not the Holy Spirit also mentioned ? Because He is 
 the gift here invoked from God and Christ. He is the power pro- 
 ceeding from the Father and the Son, Who comes into the Christian 
 to fill him with grace and peace. 
 
 8. " First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all." 
 An exordium worthy of this blessed spirit, and able to teach all 
 men to offer unto God the firstlings of their good deeds and words, 
 and to render thanks, not only for their own, but also for others* 
 well-doing (inasmuch as the Eomans had not been evangeUzed by 
 St. Paul) ; which also maketh the soul pure from envy, and 
 grudging, and draweth God in a greater measure toward the lovinj,' 
 spirit of them that so render thanks (Chrysostom). 
 
 " Through Jesus Christ." That is, through Him as the One 
 
Chap. L] GOD IS MY WITNESS. 9 
 
 for you all, that ^ your faith is spoken of tbrough- p ch. x^■i. 19. 
 out the -whole world. 
 
 9 For "^God is my witness, 'whom I serve 2Cor.'L23. 
 
 Phil. i. 8. 
 
 1 Thes. ii. 5. 
 
 ' Acts xxvii. 
 23. 2Tim. i. 3. 
 8. " Is spoken of." Bather, " proclaimed, announced." "Vulg., annunciatur. 
 
 Mediator : all intercourse with God, whether prayer, intercession, 
 praise, thanksgiving, or eucharists, must be offered in His Name to 
 God, inasmuch as all grace comes from God through Him. 
 
 "That your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world." 
 Many treat this world-wide fame of the Christians of Kome as if it 
 was natural, because of Kome being the centre and metropolis of 
 the world ; but there seem to be many indications of the fact that 
 the Eoman Christians were pre-eminent amongst Gentile Churches 
 for faith and hoUness ; and what wonder ? If there was any place 
 upon earth of which it might be said that Satan's seat was there, 
 surely it would be Rome, and so that would be the very place 
 where God would raise up a special witness to the power of His 
 truth. We can scarcely account for the Apostle's earnest desire to 
 see Rome, except there was something very exceptional in the 
 faith of the Church there. This is one of those places from which 
 we learn that the progress of Christianity attracted far more atten- 
 tion than the infrequency of the notices of it in heathen writers 
 would lead us to believe. 
 
 9. " For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the 
 gospel of his Son, that," &c. It has been surmised that St. Paul 
 here calls God to witness to the truth of a comparatively unimpor- 
 tant fact; but nothing can be unimportant which brings out the spiri- 
 tual unity of the Church, and the care which its members have for 
 one another's advancement in the Divine life. Chrysostom asks : 
 " Will, then, any one of us be able to boast that he remembers, 
 when praying at his house, the entire body of the Church? I think 
 not. But Paul drew near to God ia behalf, not of one city only, but 
 of the whole world, and this not once, or twice, or thrice, but con- 
 tinually." It is worthy of notice that St. Paul, in several of his 
 Epistles to particular Churches, mentions what he prays for on 
 behalf of each Church, and each prayer is different, showing that 
 he did not pray for them in general terms, but according to his 
 knowledge of their particular wants. 
 
10 WITHOUT CEASING. [Romans. 
 
 11 with my spirit in tlie gospel of his Son, that ^ without 
 II Or, in my ceasing I make mention of you always in my 
 
 spirit, John iv. 
 
 23, 24. Phil, prayers ; 
 
 8 iThes.iii.io. 10 * Making request, if by any means now at 
 
 iTheT'i?'K?" l^^^g^li ^ might have a prosperous journey ''by 
 
 « James iv. 15. the wiU of Grod to come unto you. 
 
 9. " Always in my prayers." The Revisers of 1881 take this with beginning of next 
 verse, "Always in my prayers making request." 
 
 •' Whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son." This is 
 not said as bringing the vain worship of the heathen or empty forms 
 of the Pharisaic Jew into contrast with his purer spiritual worship, 
 but as strongly asserting his own sincerity in his prayers for them. 
 He worshipped God in the spirit, in that part of his nature which 
 God had expressly fitted to have communion with the Father of 
 spirits. 
 
 " In the gospel." This, of course, means not only in preaching, 
 but in building men up, and in uniting them to the Christ Who 
 was preached. Preaching is not mere proclamation or heralding, 
 but proclamation for an end, the gathering together of souls, and 
 uniting them to Christ. 
 
 10. " Making request, if by any means now at length." Here he 
 specifies one of the desires which he prayed to have accomphshed, 
 but which seems to have been constantly thwarted ("by any 
 means," "now," "at length"). The first recorded expression of 
 this desire is in Acts xix. 21, when he was in Ephesus. It was his 
 intention to go to Rome as soon as he had paid his next visit to 
 Jerusalem, but such was not God's will. There must intervene 
 the two years at Jerusalem, and the, to all appearance, most disas- 
 trous voyage in which he was shipwrecked ; but was this voyage 
 really disastrous ? Not a hair of his head, or of those that were 
 with him, perished. God gave him, we beHeve, not the bodies 
 only, but the souls of all that sailed with him ; and we know 
 not how different his reception at Rome might have been if he 
 had not come under the protection and patronage of JuHus, whose 
 friendship he made in this voyage. His prayers were answered in 
 a way he httle thought, but so that the " things which happened 
 unto him fell out rather unto the furtherance of the Gospel" 
 (Phil. i. 12). 
 
Chap. I.] OFTENTIMES I PURPOSED. 11 
 
 11 For I long to see you, that "" I may impart unto you 
 some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be estab- * ch. xv. 29. 
 lished ; 
 
 12 That is, that I may be comforted together 
 
 1 1 with you by ^ the mutual faith both of you and me. I! Or, in you. 
 
 13 Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, 2 Pet*. V. i". 
 that ' oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, « ch. xv. 23. 
 (but * was let hitherto,) that I might have some y.^Txhes.'^l!' 
 ** fruit II among you also, even as among other J%yi j^ j- 
 
 Gentiles. II Or, in you. 
 
 12. "Mutual faith." Rather, "common faith." 
 
 13. "Let hitherto," "hindered hitherto." 
 
 11. " For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some 
 spiritual gift." The German commentators warn us that we are 
 not to take " spiritual gift " in its natural acceptation of " miracu- 
 lous gift," which only Apostles could impart, but simply of the 
 mutual comfort which any ordinary Christian could give to, and 
 take from, those with whom he was holding converse. But why is 
 this ? The Apostle would not come to them as an Apostle if he 
 did not impart to them something special ; and he evidently in- 
 tended to come to them as an Apostle, and not as an ordinary 
 minister. And surely the imparting to them some such spiritual 
 gift as those which he imparted to other Churches would not hinder 
 him from enjoying mutual comfort with them through their mutual 
 faith. If he enabled some of them to prophesy and others to heal 
 the sick, their faith in Him Who sent him could not fail to be in- 
 creased, and his comfort in seeing that Christ acknowledged him 
 as their Apostle would be increased also ; which comfort would be 
 the fruit of the faith common to them and to himself, which faith, 
 even in an Apostle, admitted of some increase. I do not think 
 then that the Apostle spoke words of mere Christian courtesy in 
 reminding them that the benefit would not be wholly on their side, 
 but words of truth, if, as we must suppose, the grace of faith in all 
 imperfect human beings is capable of increase. 
 
 13. " Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that often- 
 times I purposed," &c. He throws this in as a vindication of him- 
 self ; he said he had longed to see them; why, then, had he not 
 visited them long before this ? The answer is, he had hitherto been 
 
12 I AM DEBTOR. [Romans. 
 
 14 *^ I am debtor both to the G-reeks, and to the Barba- 
 « 1 Cor. ix. 16. rians ; both to the wise, and to the unwise. 
 
 15 So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the 
 gospel to you that are at Eome also. 
 
 nSk vVif'38^' ^^ ^^^ ^ ^ ^^ ^^* ashamed of the gospel of 
 2 Tim. i. 8. Christ : for ^ it is the power of Grod unto salvation 
 
 e 1 Cor. i. 18. ^ 
 
 & XV. 2. 
 
 16. "Of Christ" omitted by H, A., B., C, D., E., G., 5, 17, 67, 137, 171, 178, d, e, g, 
 Vulg., Syriac, Copt., Arm. ; retained by K., L., P., and most Cursives. 
 
 hindered, for he greatly desired to have, as the Apostle of the Gen- 
 tiles, some fruit among them. He trusted, if he preached in 
 Eome, to win some more souls to Christ, who should be his hope, 
 his joy, his crown of rejoicing, in the day of the Lord (1 Thess. 
 ii. 19). 
 
 14. " I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians ; 
 both to the wise," &c. The Greeks called all those who spoke any 
 other language than Greek barbarians ; so here the Apostle divides 
 the whole Gentile world into two divisions, and there is no doubt 
 that he repeats the idea in the latter clause. The Greeks assumed 
 to be the wise of the earth. Philosophy seemed to be exclusively 
 theirs. The Romans sent their youth to Greek sobools or univer- 
 sities, so the Apostle for the time honoured their claim. It may be 
 asked, however, seeing that he is writing to Eome, why he does not 
 mention the Eomans : and the answer is very interesting : for very 
 many years the Eoman Church was Greek in its language, and pro- 
 bably recruited itself mainly from the Greek-speaking population. 
 It used, for instance, a Greek liturgy, and the Eoman-speaking 
 Church was African. 
 
 15. " So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to 
 you that are at Eome also." The strict grammatical rendering of 
 this verse is difficult : the sense, however, is plain, and is that which 
 is given in our Authorized, to which the Eevisers have suggested no 
 alteration. " I have no control over the circumstances of my life, I 
 must leave all to the providence of God, but as far as I myself per- 
 sonally am concerned, I am ready to preach the gospel to you at 
 Eome." 
 
 16. " For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ," &c. It may be 
 asked, how came he to write this, seeing that he wrote, *' God forbid 
 that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ," &c. 
 
CuAP. I.] THE JEW FIRST. 13 
 
 to every one tliat believeth; 'to the Jew first, and also to 
 the Greek. l^t"'^'^^-' 
 
 31, 32. & XXIV, 
 
 17 For ^ therein is the righteousness of G-od re- ^7. Actsiii. 
 
 ° 26. & xui. 26, 
 46. eh. ii. 9. 
 8 ch. iii. 21. 
 
 16. " To the Jew first." " First " omitted by B. and G. only. 
 
 We shall see if we remember what the Gospel was. It was the 
 proclamation that a crucified Jew, one of a despised and hated race, 
 had reconciled all men to God by His Death, and the proof of this 
 reconciliation was His Kesurrection. The unbelieving Jew re- 
 ceived this announcement with unbounded hatred and scorn, the 
 Greek with all possible superciliousness and contempt. And so 
 one who did not fully beUeve the Gospel would be ashamed of pro- 
 claiming such a salvation. St. Paul believed that this seeming 
 weakness — this foolishness — of the Gospel of a crucified and risen 
 Jesus, was power, and not human power but the power of God — the 
 power of God to save the human race from all its evils, even from 
 sin and death. 
 
 " To the Jew first and also to the Greek." This was the rule 
 ever observed by the Apostle. He first sought out the synagogue, and 
 preached to his countrymen or to the religious proselytes, hoping that 
 through their conversion a freer course might be given to the word 
 of God. In the beginning of this Epistle, in which he will have to 
 say so much to humble the pride of the Jews, he asserts this prin- 
 ciple of God's deahngs, in order to show that he desired to keep for 
 the Jew the pre-eminence which God had assigned to him. 
 
 17. " For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith 
 to fatth," &c. The words "the righteousness of God" taken by 
 themselves, without any reference to any context, or the known 
 opinions of the writer or utterer of them, can have but one meaning, 
 which is, the good, holy, and just character of Almighty God, but 
 throughout this Epistle the Apostle seems to connect two other 
 ideas with this righteousness ; that it can be imputed or at least 
 that, as it exists in Jesus Christ, it can ; and that it can be imparted ; 
 but no matter what shades of meaning the term may bear, its root 
 is always in the perfectly just and holy character of God. 
 
 There can, I think, be no doubt that the Apostle here does 
 not mean merely that the righteousness of God is revealed in the 
 Gospel (which no doubt it is, and in all its perfection), but that it 
 
14 FROM FAITH TO FAITH. [Romans. 
 
 T ?*^-*L*- vealed from faith to faith : as it is written, ^ The 
 
 John 111. 36. 
 Gal. iii. 11. 
 
 Phil. iii. 9. 
 
 Heb. X. 38. 
 
 is revealed so as, in some sense, to be made onrs, to be brought within 
 our reach, so that we should possess it within ourselves. Calvin has 
 an admirable note upon this : " This is an explanation and a confir- 
 mation of the preceding clause, that * the Gospel is the power of God 
 unto salvation.' For if we seek salvation, that is, life with God, righ- 
 teousness must be first sought, by which being reconciled to Him, 
 we may through Him being propitious to us, obtain that life which 
 consists only in His favour ; for in order to be loved by God we 
 must first become righteous, since He regards unrighteousness with 
 hatred," and in order that his readers might not think that he con- 
 siders this bestowal of righteousness as a matter of mere imputation, 
 he adds, " this righteousness does not only consist in the free remis- 
 sion of sins, but also, in part, includes the grace of regeneration." 
 Calvin may not adhere to this : he may, as is probable, somewhere 
 afterwards nullify his own words, but he has here written an axiom 
 which is absolutely true in itself when he says, " In order to be 
 loved by God we must first become righteous, since He regards un- 
 righteousness with hatred." This does not for a moment affect the 
 glorious truth that " we love Him because He first loved us," and 
 that all good proceeds originally and directly from Him, but it 
 asserts the plain palpable truth that " the righteous Lord loveth 
 righteousness ; " " The Lord loveth the righteous ; " " The eyes of 
 the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open to their 
 prayers." 
 
 " From faith to faith." This, I think, is best explained by the 
 " fi-om glory to glory " of 2 Corinth, iii. 18—" from one degree of 
 faith to another." God's revelation of his righteousness to man's 
 soul begins with something comparatively feeble, and goes on from 
 strength to strength, as our faith makes progress, and as it advances 
 in knowledge, so the righteousness of God increases in us at the same 
 time, and the possession of it is in a manner confirmed. There is 
 another explanation of the words, however, which seems to me very 
 good, which is that of Augustine : " From the faith of those who 
 preach to the faith of those who hear and believe." The prophets 
 were men of faith, and the Apostles were men of faith, and the evi- 
 dent fire of their faith kindled the faith of those who heard them, 
 
 " As it is written, The just shall Hve by faith." This is the text 
 
Chap. I.] THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH. 15 
 
 just shall live by faith. 
 
 of all the rest of the Epistle. With these words the great argument 
 respecting sin and righteousness, faith and works, the law and 
 faith, the being in Adam and the being in Christ, commences (i.-vii.), 
 and from it the discussion respecting the older election and the 
 election according to grace branches out (viii.-xi.), and it con- 
 cludes with the accounts of the fruits of faith in the daily life which 
 are produced by him who lives by faith (xii.-xiv.). 
 
 The words are taken from the prophecy of Habakkuk. During 
 his time the iniquity of the Jews and their kings had provoked God 
 to cast them away for a time by the Babylonish captivity, but He 
 consoled the righteous among them by the promise that they should 
 live by faith. What the Lord meant by this, so far as concerns the 
 righteous Jews of the times of Habakkuk, whether He meant 
 that they should be providentially preserved alive during the in- 
 vasion and desolation by the " bitter and hasty nation ; " or that, no 
 matter what their outward calamities, they should have a life of 
 God in their souls by which they should enjoy peace and tran- 
 quillity, we cannot say ; but the meaning of St. Paul, or rather of 
 God speaking by him, admits of not the smallest doubt. It is that 
 the root, and the continuance, and the perfection of the life of God 
 in the soul of the just man is by faith, i.e., not by education or 
 by mere precept, or by any system of outward law, but by the 
 operation of that faculty which God has given to men whereby they 
 are enabled to lay hold of and realize whatever God reveals to them 
 respecting Himself, and His nature, and His designs. 
 
 The just then means the " justified " person spoken of throughout 
 the rest of the Epistle. 
 
 The living (" shall live ") means living with the hfe of God, and 
 consequently hving soberly, righteously, and godly. 
 
 •• Faith " means believing, (not primarily trusting, relying on, 
 hoping, loving, obeying; all these come afterwards in their course,) 
 but believing in the ordinary sense of the word, as when we say to 
 a person, " I beheve that what you say is true ; " "I do not believe 
 that what you say is true." 
 
 Now faith or belief, by its very nature, must have something to 
 rest itself upon or lay hold of. You say, " I believe." " Believe 
 what ? " I rejoin ; " what do you believe ? " This faith, this belief 
 by which the just man lives ia the Gospel, or rather the Loi"d 
 
16 THE WRATH OF GOD. [Romans. 
 
 18. ^ For the wrath of G-od is revealed from heaven against 
 > Acts xvii. 30. all "ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who 
 
 Eph. V. 6. 
 
 :oi. iii. 6. hold the truth in unrighteousness ; 
 
 Jesus, about Whom is the Gospel as it is set forth in verses 3 and 4 
 of this Epistle ; which account of the Gospel, as the object of 
 faith, we shall see the Apostle has before him and recurs to, all 
 through the Epistle. 
 
 I shall take up the fuller consideration of justification in a note 
 or excursus further on ; but before leaving this verse shall ask the 
 reader to notice that in this prophecy, cited no less than three times 
 in the New Testament, Justification is set forth as a matter of life — 
 not of imputation merely, or of pardon, or of acceptance, or of 
 acquittal, but of life. 
 
 18. " For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all 
 ungodliness," &c. The "for" no doubt refers to the revelation of 
 righteousness in the last verse. There is a revelation of the righteous- 
 ness of God, because there has been a revelation of the just anger 
 of God, as revealed from heaven against those who wilfuUy sin. 
 WTien was it thus revealed ? We answer, in every way and on every 
 occasion on which the God of heaven made His will known against 
 sin. Did God speak from heaven when He gave the law ? It was 
 to declare His anger against sin. Did God speak in the prophets 
 by the Spirit which He sent down from heaven ? It was to warn 
 them of the fast- coming punishment of sin. Did God send His Son 
 from heaven ? It was before He saved men to declare to them the 
 wrath of God in far more awful terms than He had ever set it 
 forth by any angel or prophet ; and the day in which Christ will 
 come from heaven to judge is called in this Epistle " the day of 
 wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God." 
 
 •• Who hold the truth in unrighteousness." Most commentators 
 translate " hold " in the sense of holding back, detaining, even im- 
 prisoning the truth, i.e., not allowing it to have its natural effect ; 
 but in several places it simply means to possess or retain, as in 
 1 Cor. vii. 30, " they that buy, as though they possessed not." 
 
 What follows to the middle of the third chapter seems to me to 
 be written not merely to bring the Gentiles, and then the Jews 
 under sin, but to show the weakness and insufficiency to produce 
 righteousness of any mere law, whether it be the original law given 
 
Chap. I.] GOD HATH SHEWED IT. 17 
 
 19 Because ^ that wliicli may be known of Grod is manifest 
 II in them ; for ^ Grod hath shewed it unto them. ^ Acts xiv. 17. 
 
 20 For "^ the invisible things of him from the I'^C^T' 
 creation of the world are clearly seen, beinff under- ^ ps. xix. 1, 
 
 •' ° &c. Acta XIV. 
 
 17. & XTii. 27. 
 
 20. " From the creation." Since creation, but still they are knowu by the marks of 
 design and goodness in the creation. 
 
 to all men at the beginning, the knowledge of God manifest in 
 them ; or whether it be a law given through Eevelation, as the 
 Jewish Eevelation — it was weak through the flesh, and shut men 
 up to the righteousness which was afterwards to be revealed. 
 
 19, 20. " Because that which may be known of God is manifest 
 in them .... so that they are without excuse." " That which may 
 be known of God," does not mean, of course, the knowledge of all 
 God's attributes and perfections. It required Eevelation to teach all 
 this, but it means the two attributes, or rather three, ascribed to Him 
 at the end of the 20th verse. His Eternal Power and Godhead, that is, 
 His Eternity, Power, and Divinity. These the Apostle declares to 
 be so set forth by His works of creation, that aU men can, if they 
 will, read them there. To this Aristotle, for instance, bears witness 
 when he writes : " God, Who is invisible, becomes visible from His 
 very works to every mortal nature" ("De Mundo," ch.vi.). Socrates : 
 " Learn, therefore, not to despise those things which you cannot 
 see ; judge of the greatness of the power by the effects which are 
 produced, and reverence the Deity" ("Memorabilia," iv. 3). 
 Thales : "God is the oldest of existences, for He is unbegotten; 
 the world is the most beautiful, for it is the work of God " (Thales, 
 in "Diog. Laertius," quoted in "Pearson on the Creed," 20, notes). 
 It may be said that these are the words of great philosophers, but I 
 think that they rather represent the common sense of mankind. 
 Men, unless their minds are utterly perverted by atheistical sophistry, 
 can plainly see that a house must be builded by someone, and that a 
 machine, whether of iron or of flesh, must be devised by some inven- 
 tive mind, and that life cannot come from dead matter, and that 
 laws which regulate all visible things so as to make them act 
 together in some sort of system, must be imposed from without ; 
 and that if we require some intelligence to understand design, and 
 to appreciate beauty, design and beauty must exist by the will of 
 
 c 
 
18 WITHOUT EXCUSE. [Romans. 
 
 stood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and 
 M Or, that they Godhead ; || SO that they are without excuse : 
 "^^ ** 21 Because that, when they knew God, they 
 
 some infinitely more wise and powerful intelHgence than our- 
 selves. 
 
 The question arises whether St. Paul means to bring in here the 
 moral sense or original light respecting good and evil, right and 
 wrong, which God at the first gave to man. I can only say that 
 these two verses do not express this. They only express that witness 
 of the outward creation to the perfections of God, which, if duly con- 
 sidered, would have kept men from the idolatry which the Apostle 
 proceeds to stigmatize as the root of such frightful moral evil. 
 
 " So that they are without excuse." " What will the Greeks say 
 in that day ? That we were ignorant of thee ? Did ye, then, not 
 hear the heavens sending forth a voice by the sight, while the well- 
 ordered harmony of all things spake out more clearly than a trum- 
 pet ? Did ye not see the hours of night and day abiding unmoved 
 continually, the goodly order of winter, spring, and the other sea- 
 sons, which is both sure and unmoved, the tractableness of the sea 
 amid all its turbulence and waves. All things abiding in order, and 
 by their beauty and their grandeur preaching aloud of the Creator." 
 — Chrysostom. 
 
 " So that they are without excuse." The margin reads, " that 
 they may be without excuse." A difficulty has been made of this, 
 and it has been asked. Did God make men see or apprehend His 
 power and divinity simply that they might be inexcusable, and so 
 that He might condemn them ? Assuredly not. The place is easy 
 enough if we understand, *' if they did not believe and obey." But 
 even supposing that one great design of God was to bring man in 
 guilty before Him, we must remember that this was for a most 
 merciful purpose, to prepare them to receive a fuller revelation in 
 Eedemption. 
 
 21. " Because that, when they knew God, they glorified bim not 
 as God," &c. Could it be ever said that the Gentiles knew God ? 
 St. Paul here assumes that they could, and the oldest forms of idolatry 
 seem to be but perversions of the truth. God was first one and above 
 nature ; then this idea being too spiritual for carnal minds, was 
 perverted, and He was identified with nature ; then the divinity 
 
Chap. I.] VAIN IN THEIR IMAGINATIONS. 19 
 
 glorified him not as Grod, neither were thankful ; but "^ be- 
 came vain in their imaginations, and their foolish ° 2 Kings xvii. 
 
 ° 15. Jer. ii. 5. 
 
 heart was darkened. Eph. iv. 17, is. 
 
 was parted, as it were, amongst the forces of nature, and the mind 
 of man, continuing in its downward course, invested these deities 
 with the worst vices of mankind.^ 
 
 Thus they glorified Him not as God. If they believed Him, 
 however dimly, to have brought aU things into being, it was clearly 
 wrong to represent Him under any form, for how could One "Who 
 possessed such virtual omnipresence and infinity as to be able to 
 create the universe, be represented under the form of any of the 
 creatures which He had made ? It was clearly, then, their duty to 
 glorify Him under the highest conception which they could form of 
 Him, and this would be a divine and spiritual conception. 
 
 *' Neither were thankful." If they acknowledged a supreme 
 Being at Whose will all living creatm'es existed, such a Being, if He 
 could receive them, was worthy of thanks and praise. It was only 
 due to Him for men to acknowledge that they received all bless- 
 ings from His hands. " As therefore amongst men we best make 
 trial of the affection and gratitude of our neighbour by showing 
 him kindness, and discover his wisdom by consulting him in dis- 
 tress, do thou, in hke manner, behave towards the gods ; and if 
 
 » My friend Canon Cook, in his ** Origin of Languages and Religion," has clearly shown 
 that some of the earliest Vedic hjrmns representing the primitive ■worship of the Ar3^n 
 race were addressed to one Deity, Varuna, who seems to have been possessed of the 
 highest moral attributes. His worship, however, gradually gave way to that of such gross 
 impersonations of what is lowest in man, as we have in Vishnu and Siva. The following 
 u a Vedic Hymn to Varuna, translated by Monier Williams : — 
 
 " The mighty Varuna, who rules above, looks down 
 Upon these worlds, his kingdom, as if close at hand. 
 When men imagine they do ought by stealth, he knows it. 
 No one can stand or walk or softly glide along. 
 Or hide in dark recess, or lurk in secret cell. 
 But Varuna detects him, and his movements spies. 
 Two persons may devise some plot, together sitting. 
 And think themselves alone ; but he, the king, is there — 
 A third— and sees it all. His messengers descend 
 Countless from his abode, for ever traversing 
 And scanning with a thousand eyes its inmates. 
 Whoever exists within this earth, and all within the sky 
 Yea, all that is beyond, King Varuna perceives. 
 The winking of men's eyes are numbered all by him." 
 
20 THEY BECAME FOOLS. [Romans. 
 
 22 ° Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 
 o Jer. X. 14. 23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible 
 
 &c. ^ Ps.T^. ' P G-od into an image made like to corruptible man, 
 25! Jer. H.' 11! and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping 
 
 Ezek. viii. 10. ,-,. 
 Acts xvii. 29. tningS. 
 
 thou wouldst experience what their wisdom and what their love, 
 render thyself deserving the communication of some of those divine 
 secrets which may not be penetrated by man, and are imparted to 
 those alone who consult, who adore, who obey the Deity. Then 
 shalt thou, my Aristodemus, understand there is a Being whose 
 eye pierceth throughout all nature, and whose ear is open to every 
 sound ; extended to all places, extending through all time ; and 
 whose bounty and care can know no other bounds than those fixed 
 by his own creation.'^ (Socrates in " Memorabilia," i. 4.) 
 
 21. " But became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish 
 heart was darkened." The words "vanity," "became vain," &c., 
 are Old Testament expressions, denoting the worthlessness and the 
 nothingness of the false gods and idols for whom the Israelites so 
 constantly forsook Jehovah, and in this sense of nothingness and 
 so worthlessness and emptiness St. Paul used it here, as in 1 Corinth, 
 viii. 4, " We know that an idol is nothing in the world." They 
 became empty and windy in their conceits, 
 
 " And their fooUsh heart was darkened," because, of course, they 
 determinedly shut out the light. 
 
 22. " Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools." This 
 seems to mean that, whilst boasting or proclaiming their natural wis- 
 dom, and considering themselves too wise to honour the " unknown 
 and unknowable," God gave them up to their vanity, and they be- 
 came fools, and their folly culminated in this, 
 
 23. " And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an 
 image," &c. No folly seems so great as this, that men should 
 change the highest spiritual, or at least immaterial, conception to 
 a low material one ; but it is in accordance with that evil principle 
 within us which is wearied with contemplating what is lofty and 
 unapproachable, and seeks refuge in that which is in our sphere, 
 and, as it were, more on our own level. 
 
 In providing against this we see the Divine Wisdom of Chris- 
 tianity, which, in the life and character of Jesus Christ, sets before 
 
Chap. I.] GOD GAVE THEM UP. 21 
 
 24 ' Wlierefore God also gave them up to un- ^ Ps. ixxxi. 12. 
 
 ° ^ Acts vii. 42. 
 
 Eph. iv. 18, 19. 
 
 2 Thes. ii. 11, 
 
 12. 
 
 24. "Wherefore God also." "Also" [xa)] omitted by ti, A., B,, C, a few Cursives, 
 Vulg., Copt., Syriac, Arm.; bat retained by D., E., G,, K., L., P., and most Cursives, 
 and d, e, g. 
 
 US a worthy and fitting image of the invisible God. The Incar- 
 nate Son has revealed Him Whom no man hath seen, nor can see. 
 
 The heathen to whom St. Paul alludes had not this unspeakable 
 advantage, and so they did what was in accordance with corrupt 
 and fallen human nature. This place clearly shows us that poly- 
 theism and idolatry were not the original form of the rehgious 
 worship of the Gentiles, but a corruption. They must have had 
 to some extent an idea of the glory of the incorruptible God before 
 they could change it. Godet well remarks : " Futility of thought 
 had reached the height of folly. What, in fact, is polytheism 
 except a sort of permanent hallucination, a collective delirium, or, 
 as is so well said by M. Nicolas, a possession on a great scale ? and 
 this mental disorder rose to a kind of perfection among the very 
 peoples who, more than others, laid claim to the glory of wisdom. 
 When he ssijB^ professing to he wise, Paul does not mean to stigmatize 
 ancient philosophy absolutely ; he only means that all that labour 
 of the sages did not prevent the most civilized nations, Egyptians, 
 Greeks, Eomans, from being at the same time the most idolatrous 
 of antiquity. The popular imagination, agreeably served by priests 
 and poets, did not allow the efforts of the wise to dissipate this 
 dehrium." 
 
 *' Corruptible " — " uncorruptible." There seems to be something 
 more in this contrast than the idea of mere bodily decay or cor- 
 ruption. " Paul sets not the immortality of God in opposition to the 
 mortality of man, but that glory which is subject to no defects he 
 contrasts with the most wretched condition of man" (Calvin), and 
 certainly the image of corruptible man, which the Greeks wor- 
 shipped, embodied his worst moral corruptions. 
 
 "And to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things." 
 Here, no doubt, the Apostle had in his mind the Egyptian idolatry, 
 which made images of the bull Apis, the hawk, the ibis, and the 
 scarabaeus. 
 
 24. " Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through 
 the lusts," &c. St. Paul here asserts the punishment to which God 
 
22 THE LUSTS OF THEIR HEARTS. [Romans. 
 
 T 1 Cor. vi. 18. cleanness througli the lusts of their own hearts, ' to 
 
 1 Thes. iy. 4. ° 
 
 1 Pet. iT. 3. 
 
 gave them over. He surrendered them, He gave them over to them- 
 selves. He did, that is, to the Gentiles, what He had done to His 
 people Israel. " My people would not hear my voice, and Israel 
 would none of me. So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lusts, 
 and they walked in their own counsels." (Ps. Ixxxi. 12.) 
 
 In the case of the heathen the punishment was analogous to the 
 sin. They dishonoured God by debasing Him to the level of His 
 creatures, and God gave them over to the most debasing lusts. 
 They had dishonoured Him, the Eternal Spirit, by worshipping 
 bodily forms, and God suffered them to dishonour their own bodies. 
 They became more and more unclean and polluted in their worship, 
 and God gave them over to their own inherent uncleanness. 
 
 Now in examining this terrible passage I desire the reader to 
 give due weight to the following : — 
 
 1. The seeds of this uncleanness were already in themselves. 
 It was not that God permitted Satan to tempt them to the commis- 
 sion of new sins. He simply gave them up to that which was 
 already within them. Hitherto He had restrained their innate 
 lusts from breaking out into these horrid forms : now, in just 
 punishment for their having so wickedly dishonoured Him, He no 
 longer restrained them. In this He did what we ourselves con- 
 stantly do. We know and have an interest in someone who will 
 take his own bad course : we remonstrate, we threaten, we use what 
 punishment is in our power, but it is to no purpose, and we leave 
 him to himself. Some commentator notices that this was exactly 
 the conduct of the father in the parable of the Prodigal Son. It 
 stands to reason that the Prodigal could not have become at once 
 such a libertine. He very probably showed many signs of wilful- 
 ness and selfishness long before he asked for his portion of goods ; 
 and it was given to him, knowing that he would squander all in 
 vice and prodigality, and that the want which would naturally 
 ensue would be the only way of bringing him to himself. With 
 respect to these particular forms of sin or punishment we must re- 
 member that the innate propensity implied in "the lusts of their 
 own hearts " will, unless restrained by Divine grace, or by self- 
 respect, or strong Christian public opinion, constantly break out 
 into what is unnatural. Instances of this in the midst of Christian 
 society perpetually come to light, and those who receive confessions 
 
Chap.l] their own bodies. 23 
 
 dishonour their own bodies * between them- •Lev.xviu.aa 
 selves : 
 
 know too weU what a multitude do not come to light in this world. 
 In writing this, let it not be supposed for a moment that I ignore 
 the change made by Christianity. It can scarcely be overrated ; but 
 what I do assert is, that the deep-seated uncleanness of human 
 nature would, if God was to withdraw His grace, be manifested in 
 the same crimes. At least, it always has been, and it is so to this day. 
 
 2. Then we are to remember that God thus left the heathen to 
 themselves in a certain way of mercy, as regards their final doom. 
 The worst case conceivable is not that of a wicked man, but of one 
 who goes on in his wickedness in spite of the misgivings of con- 
 science, or in spite of the remonstrances of the Spirit of God. When 
 God has withdrawn His Spirit, the man or the community thus left 
 to themselves have clearly not the continued resistance to the Holy 
 Spirit to answer for. And we are also to remember that St. Paul, 
 in these verses, seems to lose sight ol the sin of individuals in that 
 of a community. Now, a man bom and bred in a community 
 steeped in moral pollution is in a very different case to a man who 
 has been born and bred in a community permeated with Christian 
 teaching which takes as its standard the life and character of 
 Christ. 
 
 Again the Apostle represents the withdrawal of God's Spirit so 
 that men should be abandoned to these sins as itself a fearful 
 punishment. Now the spurious liberaUty of this our day — the oft- 
 repeated excuse that religion is wholly a matter between each man 
 and God — that we must respect the convictions of each man's con- 
 science, and so on, has a tendency to make us invest the Deity 
 Himself with these lax feelings, so that we secretly think He is in- 
 different to the manner of men's worship, provided they worship at 
 all. 
 
 Now the Scriptures teach us that in this matter of worship God 
 is a jealous God, and is offended and angry, and most reasonably 
 so, when men change the glory of the incorruptible into some form 
 of corruption. It is, I say it with all reverence, a personal insult 
 to Him, and He resents it as such. 
 
 These and other considerations, which I cannot now dwell upon, 
 are to be taken into account if we would form some judgment of 
 the righteousness of God's dealings in this fearful matter. And we 
 
24 WOESHIPPING THE CREATURE. [Romans. 
 
 25 Who changed ^ the truth of G-od '' into a lie, and wor- 
 • 1 Thes. i. 9. shipped and served the creature || more than the 
 u isa°xUy. 20. Crcator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. 
 
 Jer. X. 14. & ' 
 
 xiii. 25. Amos 
 
 u. 4. 
 
 I Or, rather. 
 
 must form some judgment on it, for it is the Reprobation of Scrip- 
 ture. It comes before us here in the matter of God's deahngs 
 with the Gentiles in, perhaps, prehistoric times, and it reappears in 
 the book of Exodus in God's dealings with Pharaoh, and St. 
 Stephen recognized it when he told the Jews that God turned and 
 gave them up to worship the host of heaven (Acts vii. 42), and 
 Isaiah recognized it in the hardening of the hearts of the Israelites, 
 that they might suffer the full punishment due to their idolatry.^ 
 There is nothing strange or abnormal, then, in St. Paul recognizing 
 it in the fast approaching rejection of his countrymen and co- 
 religionists, because of their unbehef in the Son of God. 
 
 I humbly ask the forgiveness of our Heavenly Father if I am in 
 any way misrepresenting His truth in this matter when I say that 
 this reprobation, or giving men up to themselves, never contemplates 
 the everlasting punishment in Gehenna of individuals. In almost all 
 the cases referred to in Scripture it has to do with communities, 
 and the common life or mind of communities by which they, as one 
 man, at times embrace certain sins, is a very dark mystery indeed.^ 
 
 25. "Who changed the truth of God into a He." God is an 
 eternal, all-perfect, all- wise Intelligence, and any representation of 
 Him, either as a human being or an animal, is a He, because a 
 most abominable misrepresentation. 
 
 " Who is blessed for ever." Two reasons have been given why 
 St. Paul here interjects this short doxology. One as a sort of act 
 of amends to God and relief to his own spirit, in that he was forced 
 to write such things in connection with God's Name : the other, that 
 he desired to show that God's blessedness was in no real way in- 
 jured or even lowered by this changing of God's truth into a He. 
 
 1 See my notes on Matth. xiii. 14, 15. 
 
 8 It has not been sufficiently noticed that God not only hardened the heart of Pharaoh, 
 bnt that of his servants, and that of his people. Thns Exod. x. 1, " I have hardened his 
 heart, and the heart of his servants." Again, xiv. 17, "And I, behold, I will harden the 
 hearts of the Egyptians." And to this the book of Samuel witnesses : " Wherefore then 
 harden ye your hearts, as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts?" fte. 
 (1 Sam. Ti. 6.) 
 
Chap. I.] GOD GAVE THEM UP. 25 
 
 26 For this cause God gave them up unto ^ vile affections : 
 for even their women did change the natural use »Lev.xviii.22, 
 
 ,,.,.. 23. Eph.v.l2. 
 
 into that which is against nature : Jude lo. 
 
 27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of 
 tihe woman, burned in their lust one toward another ; men 
 with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in 
 themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. 
 
 28 And even as they did not like 11 to retain God II Or, to ac- 
 
 knowledge. 
 in tlieir knowledge, God gave them over to || a | or, a mind 
 
 void ofjudg- 
 — ment. 
 
 Though men so grievously dishonoured Him, He abode in eternal 
 blessedness. Similarly with regard to God's truth, the Apostle 
 writes : " If we believe not [i.e., are unfaithful), yet he abideth 
 faithful, he cannot deny himself." (2 Tim. ii. 13.) 
 
 26, 27. "For this cause God gave them up ... . their error 
 which was meet." Upon these verses it will be sufficient to remark 
 that heathen writers, both Greek and Latin, abundantly confirm 
 what is here asserted by the Apostle. I have also heard from one 
 who travelled in Egypt that there are dehneations of these sins on 
 the walls of their temples and tombs. And education and culture, 
 and even philosophy, could not save men from this fearful gulf of 
 sin. CorneUus k Lapide gives (principally from Diogenes Laertius), 
 notices of philosophers of eminence who thus dishonoured their 
 bodies. 
 
 The word error is much too mild a term. " The original Trkdvt] 
 expresses in Scripture that sort of delusion which is at once wilful, 
 immoral, and corrupting " (Dean Vaughan, who quotes 1 Thess. 
 ii. 3, where -KXavt} is associated with ^6\oq and ctKaQapoia) : and in 
 Jude 11 the word is appHed to the extreme wickedness of Balaam. 
 
 28. " And even as they did not like to retain God in their know- 
 ledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind." The Apostle 
 here enters upon a new count against the GentUes. His withdrawal 
 of grace. His leaving of them to themselves, not only brought out 
 the wickedness of the natural man in that he delighted to wallow 
 in filthy lusts, but also in that he surrendered himself to every 
 other sort of evil. There is the same parallel drawn by the Apostle 
 here in the original between the forsaking of God by men, and His 
 forsaking them, but it is not observable in our English translations. 
 
26 A REPROBATE MIND. [Romans. 
 
 reprobate mind, to do those things ^ which are not con- 
 1 Eph. V. 4. venient ; 
 
 29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, 
 wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness ; full of envy, 
 murder, debate, deceit, malignity ; whisperers, 
 
 30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, 
 inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 
 
 29. " Fornication" omitted by N, A., B., C, K., 17, 23, 26, 67**, 73, 117, Copt., Mth. ; 
 retained by L. and most Cursives, and placed after "wickedness" by D., E., G., alew 
 Cursives, d, e, g, Vulg. 
 
 30. " Haters of God." See below. 
 
 We might render it, "as they did not approve to retain God in their 
 knowledge, God gave them over to an unapproved mind," only the 
 word " unapproved" is far too weak to express God's utter disap- 
 proval, His abhorrence of their state of heart. 
 
 " To do those things which are not convenient." " Convenient," 
 according to our use of the word, has a meaning so inadequate as 
 to be almost absurd. Disgraceful, or unsuited to a reasonable 
 creature, formed in the image of God, more correctly expresses the 
 idea. 
 
 29. " Being filledwith all unrighteousness [i.e., injustice] , fornica- 
 tion." This reading is doubtful, as the reader will see by referring to 
 the critical notes. " Debate," i.e., contention or strife. "Haters of 
 God," this word is also of doubtful meaning; it may mean, haters 
 of God, or hated of God. We are told that it has always a passive 
 sense, hated of God, and yet a contemporary of St. Paul, Clement 
 of Rome, in his Epistle to the Corinthians, ch. xxxv., undoubtedly 
 understands it actively, " casting away from us all hatred of God;" 
 and also Theodoret, " who are of a hostile mind towards God." It 
 has its place in a black Hst of sins committed by man, and so 
 would seem to be a sin committed by him rather than the effect of 
 his sin upon the mind of God. " Despiteful" is usually translated 
 insolent or injurious. " Disobedient to parents." This must be no 
 smaU sin, though lightly thought of in these days, if it is found in 
 such a catalogue. " Without understanding." Used not of dulness of 
 comprehension, but in a moral sense, as it is often found in the 
 book of Proverbs, and in Wisdom, i. 5. 
 
Chap. I.] KNOWING THE JUDGMENT OF GOD. 27 
 
 31 Without Tinderstandiiig, covenantbreakers, |{ without 
 natural affection, implacable, unmerciful : I Or, wn- 
 
 __^ . . sociable, 
 
 32 Who ' knowing the judgment of God, that % ch. u. 2. 
 they which commit such things * are worthy of » ch, vi. 21. 
 death, not only do the same, but || ^ have pleasure wul'thSnT^ 
 in them that do them. uos.'yk^t 
 
 81. " Implacable" omitted by H, A., B., D., E., G., d, e, g, Copt., Syriac ; bnt retained 
 by C, K., L., P., most Cnrsives, Vulg., &c, 
 32. " Them that do them." '* Practise them," Revisers. 
 
 32. " Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which do 
 such things are worthy of death," &c. How can the heathen be 
 said to know this judgment of God ? 
 
 Probably the Apostle here refers to the universal belief in a Hades 
 of punishment, as well as of reward ; a Tartarus in which fierce 
 retribution will be exacted of those who have escaped punishment 
 here. " What appeals to God's justice do we find in the writings 
 of Gentile historians and philosophers! What a description of the 
 punishments inflicted on malefactors in Tartarus ! . . . Death here 
 denotes death as God only can inflict it," &c. — Godet. 
 
 "Not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do 
 them." This is the climax of evil. They are not only led by the 
 flesh to do the works of the flesb, but their mind or spirit is 
 so perverted that they have pleasure in contemplating the practis- 
 ing of these evil things by others. Such a mind is Hke that of 
 Satan, whom the poet represents as saying " Evil, be thou my 
 good." To approve of — to applaud evil for its own sake above and 
 beyond our own gratification in the commission of it, seems the 
 death of the moral sense within us, and the lowest depth to whicL 
 any human being can descend. 
 
28 THOU CONDEMNEST THYSELF. [Romans 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 THEEEFOEE thou art * inexcusable, man, whosoever 
 thou art that judgest : ^ for wherein thou judgest an- 
 • ch. i. 20. other, thou condemnest thyself ; for thou that 
 6, 6, 7™'Matt. judgest doest the same things. 
 
 Tii. 1, 2. John 
 
 viii. 9. 
 
 1. " Therefore thou art inexcusable, man, whosoever .... 
 doest the same things." The Apostle has now finished his count 
 against the Gentiles, and he turns to the Jews, but instead of treat- 
 ing them as a community which had fallen from God, he indivi- 
 dualizes. He singles out a particular Jew whom he supposes to be 
 standing by him, and brings to bear upon him the judgment he 
 passes on others, as his own condemnation. It seems to me a 
 mistake to suppose that the Apostle treats the Jew as a hypocrite : 
 he rather considers him to be a proud, overweening, censorious, 
 seK- righteous person who supposed that his election, his knowledge 
 of Scripture, his circumcision, his Sabbath observance entitled him to 
 consider any Gentile he might meet as unholy and unclean, a sinner 
 to whom he was fully entitled to say, " Stand by thyself, come not 
 near to me, for I am holier than thou." This judging, this cen- 
 soriousness seems to have been in the Lord's time a special 
 characteristic of all strict Judaism. They judged the Lord Himself, 
 they judged His Apostles. They were ever on the watch to assert 
 their superiority and to find fault. Were there then no humble- 
 minded rehgious Jews who were " Jews inwardly," and were "cir- 
 cumcised in heart " ? Very few, I believe, and for this reason, 
 that all who were led by the Spirit had become or were fast be- 
 coming Christians, and the typical, the normal, the Pharisaic Jew 
 was, we may say, invariably a judge. St. James, supposed to be of all 
 others the one who would be lenient with his co-religionists, and do 
 them justice, warns even the converted Jews against this national sin, 
 " He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, 
 speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law : but if thou judge the 
 law, thou art not a doer of the law but a judge . . . who art thou 
 that judgeth another ? " (iv. 11, 12). But could it be said that the 
 
Chap, n.] THINKEST THOU THIS? 29 
 
 2 But we are sure that the judgment of Grod is according 
 to truth against them which commit such things. 
 
 3 And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which 
 do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape 
 the judgment of God ? 
 
 2. " But we are sure." So A., B., D., E., G., K., L., P„ most Cursives ; but N, C, some 
 Cursives, 7, 17, 26, 37, 62, 80, 122, 179, d, e, m, Vulg., Copt., Arm., read, "for"— "for 
 we are sure." 
 
 JewB had so forsaken the true worship of God as to be given up by 
 Him to unnatural lust ? No, it may not have been so, but never- 
 theless the Lord, Who seeth the heart, when He sojourned among 
 them, brought them in guilty of the state of mind and heart set 
 forth in the 29th, 30th, and Slst verse of the last chapter, full of 
 unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, mahciousness, full of 
 envy, deceit, despiteful, proud, disobedient to parents, so that they 
 made void the law in order to excuse themselves when they with- 
 held from their parents needful sustenance. 
 
 " Wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself . . . 
 same things." It is not likely that any Jew whom St. Paul might 
 cite as a type of his countrymen would have within him the whole 
 of this evil mind : but he would assuredly have sufficient to bring 
 him in guilty before God on the principle " Whosoever shall keep 
 the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." 
 (James ii. 10.) 
 
 2. " But we are sure that the judgment of God is according," &C' 
 That is, it will be perfect and impartial, not allowing any sinner to 
 escape because of religious privileges, or religious ancestry, but 
 rather holding him the more guilty for having sinned against so 
 much clearer light. 
 
 3. " And thinkest thou this, man, that judgest . . . escape the 
 judgment of God ? " TJiis is what the Jew actually did think. It 
 was rooted in his belief that Israelites, as such, in virtue of their 
 descent from Abraham, would never suffer the punishment of 
 Gehenna.^ This was the very crown of their election, and this 
 
 1 No principle was more fully established in the popular conviction than that all Israel 
 had part in the world to come (Sanh. x. 1), and this specifically, because of their connec- 
 tion with Abraham. This appears not only from the New Testament, from Philo and 
 JosephaSj bat from many Rabbinical passages. " The merits of the Fathers " is one of the 
 
30 DESPISEST THOU? [Romans. 
 
 4 Or despisest thou '^ tlie riclies of his goodness and ^ f or- 
 cch. ix. 23. bearance and * longsuffering ; ^not knowing that 
 ii. 4/7.' ' the goodness of Grod leadeth thee to repentance ? 
 
 d ch. iii. 25. 
 
 e Ex. xxxiv. 6. 
 
 f Is. XXX. IS. 
 a Pet. iii. 9, 15. 
 
 must be ever borne in mind in all the subsequent parts of thie 
 Epistle which bear on Election, that the Apostle, so far from asserting 
 an absolute decree of Election irrespective of falling from God, was 
 combating the idea of such a doctrine extensively, if not univer- 
 sally, held by his countrymen. 
 
 With respect to the principle, the common sense of the Jew, we 
 should think, would have taught him that his judgment of what 
 was right and wrong in others, would at least have made him 
 surmise, that God would deal with him as he dealt with them. 
 
 4. " Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness ? " &c. De- 
 spisest thoTl ? dost thou make light of — dost thou take no notice of, 
 the riches of His goodness? " The riches of his goodness." This is a 
 phrase peculiar to St. Paul ; thus Ephes. i. 7, 18, " The riches of 
 his grace," "the riches of the glory of his inheritance." 
 
 ** Goodness and forbearance and long-suffering." This may mean 
 that God keeps them in life in order that they may be brought to 
 hear and accept the Gospel, or that He yet mercifully delays His 
 vengeance on the guilty nation in order that a still greater 
 number may be induced to " save themselves from this untoward 
 generation." 
 
 " Not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repen- 
 tance." Thus 2 Peter, iii. 9, " Account that the long-suffering of 
 our Lord is salvation." " Not willing that any should perish, but 
 that all should oome to repentance." The wilful sinner does not 
 understand this. He in his secret heart attributes the long-suffer- 
 ing of God which has not, as yet, called him to account, to God's 
 indifference to sin. " This is the notion that goes about, that God 
 doth not exact justice, because He is good and long-suffering. But, 
 in saying this, he would answer. You do but mention what will 
 make the vengeance intenser. For God showeth this goodness 
 
 commonest phj?ases in the mouth of the Rabbins. Abraham was represented as sitting at 
 the Gate of Gehenna, to deliver any Israelite who otherwise might have been consigned 
 to its terrors. (Edersheim, "Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah," book ii. ch. xi. 
 p. 271.) 
 
Chap. II.] TREASURING WRATH. 31 
 
 5 But after thy hardness and impenitent heart ^ treasurest 
 up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath f,^}"'- '''''^"• 
 and revelation of the righteous judgment of 
 
 ^~ -, h Job xxxiv. IL 
 
 VtOCl ; Ps. Ixii. 12. 
 
 6 ^ Who will render to every man according to je?.\xvu."i*o. ' 
 
 1 • T -J & xxxii. 19. 
 
 ms deeds: Matt. xvi.27. 
 
 ch. xiv. 12. 
 
 1 Cor. iii, 8. 
 
 2 Cor. V. 10. 
 
 that you may get free from your sins, not that yon |^J^ ^ki^ 
 may add to them." — Chrysostom. xxu. 12. ' 
 
 5. •• But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up 
 unto thyself," &c. " What," asks St. Bernard, " is a hard heart? 
 It is that heart which is neither broken by compunction, nor 
 softened by pity, nor is it moved by prayers, nor does it yield to 
 threats, it is hardened by stripes, ungrateful for kindnesses." As 
 treasures of reward can be laid up in heaven, so can treasures of 
 wrath, and as surely as God will repay the one in full so also He 
 will the other. Every day of hardness and impenitence lays up its 
 evil account, so every day of devotion and prayer and Christian 
 duty lays up its good. And not only does the record of wilful sins 
 and unrestrained evil passions add to this fearful treasure, but 
 covetousness and selfishness do also. St. James on this matter 
 illustrates the teaching of his brother Apostle : " Your riches are 
 corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. Your gold and 
 silver is cankered : and the rust of them shall be a witness against 
 you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped 
 treasure together for the last days " (v. 2, 3). 
 
 6. '* Who will render to every man according to his deeds." The 
 doctrine here stated of a judgment strictly according to works is 
 Pauline — not that it is not recognized by SS. James, Peter, and 
 John in their respective Epistles, but that Christ's teaching respect- 
 ing it seems far more clearly and categorically reproduced by St. Paul 
 than by any other New Testament writer. The following are some 
 instances : " Every man shall receive his own reward according to 
 his own labouJr " (1 Cor. iii. 8) ; "We must all appear before the judg- 
 ment-seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in 
 his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad " 
 (2 Cor. V. 10), *' He that judgeth me is the Lord ; therefore, judge 
 nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who will bring to 
 light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the 
 
32 PATIENT CONTINUANCE. [Romans. 
 
 7 To them wlio by patient continiiance in well doing seek 
 for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life : 
 
 coimsels of the hearts, and then shall every man have praise of God " 
 (1 Cor. iv. 5). Again, " Knowing that whatsoever good thing any 
 man doeth the same shall he receive of the Lord" (Ephes. vi. 8). 
 Again, " Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not 
 mito men. Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward 
 of the inheritance : for ye serve the Lord Christ" (Col. iii. 23). 
 "Be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man 
 soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to the flesh 
 shall of the flesh reap corruption ; but he that soweth to the Spirit 
 shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting" (Gal. vi. 7, 8). I could 
 have given twice as many, but I will add one more assertion from 
 this Epistle : " We shall aU stand before the judgment-seat of 
 Christ. For it is written. As I live, saith the Lord, Every knee 
 shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then 
 every one of us shall give account of himself to God " (xiv. 10, 11). 
 I have given these passages in fall as corroborating from his 
 own writings the assertion of the Apostle in verse 6, because this 
 verse, with the four verses which follow, are of unspeakable im- 
 portance in settling the relations of the doctrine of St. Paul with 
 that of his Master and with that of his brother Apostle. If we 
 take them as we find them, and understand them according to 
 their seemingly plain meaning, they are, if we except the sayings 
 of the Lord Himself, the strongest words in the New Testament on 
 the side of good works, and the necessity of a holy Hfe if we are to 
 be saved at the last great day. They are much stronger on the 
 side of a final justification by works than the single assertion of St. 
 James, " Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not 
 by faith only." The slightest acquaintance with them, connected, 
 of course, with what we find in the rest of the Pauline Epistles, 
 ought to have saved many estimable Church writers from hazarding 
 such teaching as that St. Paul's doctrine of Justification needs to 
 be corrected or supplemented by that of St. James — that if taken 
 by itself it leads to Antinomianism, and so forth. I myself have heard 
 such statements, and I have been told that it was no uncommon 
 thing to hear such absurdities in the University pulpits. It makes 
 one think that men who could say such things could never have 
 once carefully read the Pauline Epistles — certainly never seriously 
 
Chap. II.] INDIGNATION AND WRATH. 33 
 
 8 But unto tliem that are contentious, and ' do not obey 
 the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation iJobxxiv.13. 
 and wrath, 2 Thes. i. 8. 
 
 compared them with themselves, and with the rest of Scripture, but 
 taken their ideas of the Apostle's doctrine at second-hand, from 
 the assertions of Antinomians and Solifidians. 
 
 But some of the foremost German Lutherans have treated this 
 place as if it did not represent St. Paul's real sentiments. He speaks 
 here, they think, not as a Christian from the Christian standpoint, 
 but as a Jew : but if this be so, then the Apostle unequivocally de- 
 clares that men can be justified and attain eternal life by the law, 
 and that too after Pentecost — after the promulgation of faith in 
 Christ as the one thing needful. Now, if it be really needful to 
 reconcile the Apostle to himself, we have only to ask, why did St. 
 Paul preach Christ ? Evidently that men might Hve Christian 
 lives — not merely that they might be washed from sin or pardoned, 
 but that they might partake of His power and grace and so " Uve 
 soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world." This is 
 what the Apostle declares in the very centre of this Epistle : " What 
 the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, 
 sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin [or as 
 a sin-offering] condemned sin in the flesh : that the righteousness of 
 the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but 
 after the Spirit " (Kom. viii. 1-4). 
 
 When then St. Paul says that " God will render eternal life to 
 them who, by patient continuance in well-doing, seek glory, honour, 
 and immortality" (or incorruption), he means those who by 
 repentance, and faith, and prayer, and careful continuance ir 
 the Body of Christ, and endeavom-s to keep the unity of the Spuit in 
 the bond of peace, and constant watchfulness lest they fall, and 
 dihgent use of the means of grace, seek for glory and immortahty. 
 All these things are included under that "law of the Spirit of hfe in 
 Christ Jesus," which " makes us free from the law of sin and death." 
 St. Paul here unequivocally declares that patient continuance in 
 well-doing is what God will reward ; but it is impossible to imagine 
 that he meant to teach that this might take place independently of 
 the grace of Christ. 
 
 8, 9. "But unto them that are contentious . . . of the Gentile." 
 *' Contentious " here signifies dividing into factions and being ani- 
 
 D 
 
34 THE JEW FIRST. [Romans. 
 
 9 Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that 
 kAmosiii 2. doeth evil, of the Jew "first, and also of the 
 
 Luke xii. 47, 
 
 48. iPet.iv. f Gentile; 
 
 t Gr. Greek. " 
 
 mated by party spirit. It is very noteworthy that a sin which 
 very many professing Christians accomit to be no sin at all, is 
 singled out from all others as one that will be punished by God at the 
 last ; but so it is, and this is in accordance with very much that is 
 in the writings of this Apostle ; as, for instance, he writes to the 
 Corinthians : " Ye are yet carnal ; for whereas there is among you 
 envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal and walk as 
 men ? " (1 Cor. iii. 3) and he includes strife {ipiQnai, same word) as 
 among the works of the flesh which will prevent men from inherit- 
 ing the kingdom of God (Gal. v. 20). According to this men 
 require to be converted from a factious, cabalhng, schismatical spirit 
 as much as they require to be converted from covetousness or forni- 
 cation, and indeed it was when the Apostles exhibited this spirit in 
 seeking the highest places that the Lord laid down the need of their 
 conversion: "Except ye be converted and become as little children 
 ye shall not enter into the kingdom of God" (Matth. xviii. 3). 
 
 " And do not obey the truth." The truth of God has not only to 
 be believed in, held, pondered over, but obeyed. Do we hold, for 
 instance, the great truth of God that He sent His Son to redeem us 
 from sin ? we only obey this truth — we only let it rule supreme in 
 our hearts, when we renounce and fight against that sin from the 
 dominion of which He died to save us. 
 
 9. " Tribulation and anguish." The indignation and wrath is in 
 the mind of the Judge — the tribulation and anguish is that which 
 Fie inflicts as a punishment. 
 
 " Upon every soul of man that doeth evil." So that no one shall 
 escape, unless, that is, he has repented of and forsaken his sin, and 
 come to God for remission and grace. " To the Jew first," i.e., be- 
 cause he has sinned against the clearer light and the greater love 
 of God manifested in the election of the seed of Abraham to be the 
 people of God. 
 
 " And also to the Gentile." As the knowledge of the Jew will 
 not for a moment be accepted instead of love and obedience, so the 
 ignorance of the Gentile, his non-election, his vain conversation 
 received from his forefathers, will be no excuse, because by faith, 
 followed by Baptism, he can become as fully as the Jew a 
 member of the mystical body of Christ. 
 
Chap. IL] NO RESPECT OF PERSONS. 35 
 
 10 'But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that 
 "worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the 1 1 Pet. i. 7. 
 
 taentne: l^v. Greek. 
 
 11 For ™ there is no respect of persons with ^0^^°*- ^^J^; 
 
 (3-od. ^^^ xxxiv. 19. 
 
 Acts X. 34. 
 
 12 For as many as have sinned without law Gai. ii. 6. 
 
 -^ Eph. vi. 9. 
 
 Col. iii. 25. 
 
 1 Pet. i. 17. 
 
 10. *' But glory, honour, and peace." The Apostle will not 
 allow vengeance to have the last word ; so he returns again to the 
 brighter side of judgment, that which judges and rewards rather 
 than judges and punishes. 
 
 11. " For there is no respect of persons with God." God will 
 deal impartially with all. In pronouncing judgment He will take 
 everything into account, whether as enhancing or extenuating. 
 This truth appears for the first time in Deut. x. 17, where God is 
 said to " regard not persons, nor take reward." Again St. Peter 
 repeats it to himself when he perceived that God was about to 
 open the door of faith to the Gentiles (Acts x. 34). Again 
 (Gal. ii. 6) with respect to the very Apostles themselves, St. Paul 
 says, " God accepteth no man's person." Amongst many appHca- 
 tions of it two require notice. It must be taken into account at 
 every step of the argument in this Epistle, and elsewhere, respect- 
 ing Election. God elects to nothing so absolutely, that His elec- 
 tion should not require to be " continued in " (Eom. xi. 22), or 
 *' made sure " (2 Pet. i. 10). This is what the Jews never could 
 realize. In spite of all warning they clung tenaciously to the 
 delusion that God was bound to deal with them differently to the 
 way in which He would deal with the Gentiles. 
 
 But, secondly, there is an innate persuasion in the hearts of most 
 of us that God will deal strictly with our neighbours, but leniently 
 with ourselves. We freely judge others and condemn them, but 
 we console ourselves in thinking that He will not thus judge and 
 condemn us. We have need constantly to remind ourselves that in 
 the matter of the sins of our daily life — in the secret sins of our 
 own souls, God is no respecter of persons. It is safest to be severe 
 with ourselves. If we are to escape the severity of His judgment, 
 it must be by judging ourselves and condemning ourselves. 
 
 12. •' For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish 
 without law." The being " without law " does not mean that they 
 have no inward law written on their hearts by which they will be 
 
36 NOT HEARERS BUT DOERS. [Romans. 
 
 shall also perish without law : a.nd as many as have sinned 
 
 in the law shall be judged by the law ; 
 
 a Matt.vii. 21. 13 (For '^not the hearers of the law are iust 
 
 James i. 22, 23, ^ 
 
 25. iJohn before Grod, but the doers of the law shall be 
 justified. 
 
 judged, but that they have no revealed law as the Jews had. The 
 meaning of the Apostle seems to be that the Gentiles, because of 
 their being without the pale of the law, wiU have no unfair advan- 
 tage. If they have sinned against conscience and internal light, 
 they will be punished in just proportion to their sin ; but this we 
 must leave entirely to God. The "perish " cannot possibly mean 
 in every case everlasting destruction in Gehenna. In by far the 
 greater part of cases where the word is used it means simply 
 perishing by death, and the nearest approach which we can make 
 to an explanation is that they will " die in their sins," and be sub- 
 ject to such punishment as God in His combined justice and mercy 
 will award. This seems saying little, but it is all that we have any 
 business to say. To say that they will not be punished at all, is to 
 stultify the Apostle for having written the sentence : and yet 
 virtually to say that God has put it out of His power to inflict any 
 but the extremest punishment of everlasting torture leads to the 
 denial of the existence of God. 
 
 " And as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the 
 law." " In the law," evidently means in or under the dispensation 
 of the written law of Moses. For instance, in the matter of con- 
 fessing but one true God and of idolatry, the Jew who has had the 
 first and second commandments, and has had the long experience 
 of his race and nation, will be in a very much worse position than 
 the Gentile who has known no other religion except polytheism and 
 idolatry. The Jew also will be judged according to the letter and 
 spirit of the law of the Sabbath, which was utterly unknown to the 
 Gentile. The increased sanction also given by the revelation on 
 Sinai to the natural duties of the Second Table must increase the 
 guilt of the Jew who has broken them. 
 
 13. " For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the 
 doers of the law shall be justified." St. Paul here is laying down 
 not so much a theological as a general truth, that, not they who 
 merely hear any law, but they who do it, are right, quoad the 
 
Chap. II.] A LAW UNTO THEMSELVES. 37 
 
 14 For when tlie G-entiles, whicli have not the law, do by 
 nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the 
 law, are a law unto themselves : 
 
 particular law. It is quite clear that a law is given not to be heard 
 only, but to be obeyed, and that those hearers only who obey fulfil 
 the purpose of the Giver of the law. 
 
 It has been asked whether it is not a paradox that the Apostle 
 should say here " the doers of the law shall be justified " when we 
 find him laying down in the next chapter, " By the deeds of the law 
 shall no flesh be justified." But the Apostle does not say abso- 
 lutely the doers of the law shall be justified, as if it was an inde- 
 pendent truth. He says it with reference to " hearing " without 
 " doing." It is quite conceivable that a law might be given by God 
 which a man could do in his natural strength. If a man obeyed 
 such a law he would be justified so far as that law was concerned. 
 Howthis justification would bear upon his eternal interests is another 
 matter altogether. But an unprejudiced Christian, who under- 
 stands the whole argument of the Apostle, need not entertain the 
 question. By doers of the law he understands those who do whal 
 is good and right in the sight of God by the power of Christ's risen 
 Life and the grace of the Holy Spirit, according to the words of the 
 Apostle I have quoted above, " God sent His own Son in the like- 
 ness of sinful flesh .... that the righteousness of the law may be 
 fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit " 
 (Eom. viii. 4). 
 
 14, 15. "For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by 
 nature the things .... accusing or else excusing one another." 
 These words are put in by way of parenthesis. In verse 13 the 
 Apostle had laid down that not hearers of the law, but doers, shall 
 be justified. It may be asked, then, whether the Gentiles can be 
 judged, seeing they have no revealed law. St. Paul says that they 
 have a law, and that the conduct of some of them — how many we 
 know not — shows that this law, though not given in letters on stone, 
 or written on parchment, is written on their hearts ; " their con- 
 science also bears witness," for, however it may be now utterly 
 hardened in some of them, yet, in a general way, it witnesses to 
 the goodness of virtue and to the evil of sin ; and there is also a 
 sort of court within them in which their actions are tried, and in 
 this court their thoughts or reasonings are advocates, taking one 
 
38 ACCUSING OR EXCUSING. [Romans. 
 
 15 Whicli shew the work of the law written in their hearts, 
 
 lonlcimte W '^^^^^ conscionce also bearing witness, and their 
 
 ZfSS thoughts II the mean while accusing or else 
 
 !i Or, beticeen excusiug ouo another ;) 
 
 themselves. 
 
 side or another. This is most graphically described by Godet: 
 "The soul of the Gentile is also an arena of discussions. The 
 thoughts {\oyi<Tfioi) denote the judgments of a moral nature which 
 are passed by the Gentiles on their own acts, either, as is most 
 usually the case, acknowledging their guilt, or also sometimes pro- 
 nouncing them innocent. Most commonly the voice within said: 
 That was bad ! Sometimes, also, this voice becomes that of defence, 
 and says : No, it was good ! Then before this inner court the 
 different thoughts accuse or justify, make replies and rejoinders, 
 exactly as advocates before a seat of judgment handle the text of 
 the law. And all this forensic debating proves to a demonstration, 
 not only that the code is there, but that it is read and understood 
 since its application is thus discussed." 
 
 It has been asked. Do not the words " do by nature the things 
 contained in the law," "these, having not the law, are a law unto 
 themselves, which shew the work of the law written in their 
 hearts " — do not these words seem to mean that natural religion, 
 or natural virtuous principles, or the hght of conscience, apart from 
 revelation, is sufficient ? No, certainly not. The light of nature, 
 though given by God at the first, was like the Jewish law, only 
 preparatory. It was to convince men of sin, and to lead them to 
 desire more light to understand the will of the Supreme Being, 
 and more power to fulfil it, both of which were given only in Christ. 
 But though it did not cover the whole ground of human life, it was 
 good, so far as it reached, for it was light from God Himself. And 
 not only was it light from God, but it was light from Christ. It 
 was the light of the Indwelling Word, the pre-existent Word or Son. 
 
 We must acknowledge this if we give its due weight to the state- 
 ment of St. John that " the life " which was in Christ " was the 
 light of men," and that Christ in His pre-existent state was the 
 light which "lighteth every man that cometh into the world" 
 (John i. 4, 8). This is acknowledged by one of the earliest of 
 Christian writers, a philosophical believer in the best sense. 
 "Whatever," he writes, "either lawgivers or philosophers uttered 
 
Chap. II.] THE DAY WHEN GOD SHALL JUDGE. 39 
 16 ° In the day wlieii God shall ludsre the ° Eccies. xii. 
 
 *" ° 14. Matt. XXV, 
 
 31. John xii. 
 
 48. ch. iii. 6. 
 
 1 Cor. iv. 5. 
 
 Rev. XX. 12. 
 
 well, they elaborated by finding and contemplating some part of 
 the Word. But since they did not know the whole of the Word, 
 which is Christ, they often contradicted themselves." And again, 
 " No one trusted in Socrates so as to die for this doctrine, but in 
 Christ, who was partially known even by Socrates, for he was and 
 is the Word Who is in every man," &c. "For each man [he has 
 particularly named Plato] spoke well in proportion to the share he 
 had of the Spermatic Word; " and again, " For all the writers were 
 able to see realities darkly through the sowing of the implanted 
 Word that was in them " (Justin Martyr, Apol. ii. ch. 10, 13). This 
 seems to be a reproduction of what we find in the book of Proverbs, 
 where the Divine Wisdom is represented as saying, " Then was I 
 by him, as one brought up with him ; and I was daily his delight, 
 rejoicing always before him ; Eejoicing in the habitable part of his 
 earth; and my delights were with the sons of men " (Prov. viii. 31). 
 ^Vhen, then, we are told that it is impossible to suppose that the 
 Apostle here means that these good and virtuous persons among 
 the heathen were saved or justified by doing " by nature the things 
 contained in the law," because men can only be saved by Christ, 
 we answer that we can never know in the case of any heathen man 
 whether his goodness may not be from Christ, and that "by 
 nature " does not mean by unaided nature, but by such aid as God 
 the Father of Lights may see fit to give, though He may not see fit 
 to reveal it to us. If it be rejoined that they certainly had not the 
 conscious knowledge of Christ, we reply, No more have Christian 
 infants, whom yet we believe to be in a state of salvation. 
 
 One correction which has an important bearing on the meaning 
 of the latter part of the 15th verse requires notice. The word "the 
 meanwhile" [fiera^v] shouldrather be rendered "one with another," 
 or "between themselves:" perhaps we might say, mutually. It 
 has no reference to the "day" when God shall judge, in the next 
 verse. Their thoughts accuse or condemn them among themselves, 
 now in this present time. 
 
 16. " In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men, by 
 Jesus Christ," &c. A difficulty has been made respecting the con 
 nection of this verse with what precedes. It has been supposed to 
 
40 ACCORDING TO MY GOSPEL. [Eomans, 
 
 P John T. 22. secrets of men ^ by Jesus Christ ^ according' to my 
 
 Acts X. 42. & ^ 
 
 ypii.31. 2Tim. gOSpei. 
 
 iv. 1, 8. 1 Pet. ° ^ 
 
 q ch. xvi. 25. 
 
 1 Tim. i. 11. 
 
 2 Tim. ii. 8. 
 
 depend upon "shew" in the 15th verse — God will shew in the 
 day of judgment that the work of the law has been written on the 
 hearts of the Gentiles, which thing cannot be shown before ; but 
 though I believe that this verse is not without reference to what 
 is contained in verses 14 and 15, yet that it really carries on and 
 completes the meaning of verse 13. " The doers of the law shall 
 be justified." When? No doubt "in the day when God shall 
 judge the secrets of men." Justification is not here in this life 
 awarded to those who have been "doers of the law," or else all 
 penitent sinners would be shut out from justification : but at the 
 last day works will be the test whether men have rightly used the 
 grace of God given to them, whatever it be : and this judgment 
 will be of the Gentiles, because they, too, have had some grace 
 from God in the law written on their hearts, and the witness of 
 their consciences. 
 
 " The secrets of men." God will then " bring to light the hidden 
 things of darkness, and make manifest the counsels of the hearts " 
 (1 Cor. iv. 5). " Now let each man enter into his own conscience, and 
 reckon up his transgressions, let him call himself to a strict account 
 that he be not condemned with the world. For fearful is that 
 com-t, awful the tribunal, full of trembling the accounts, a river of 
 fire rolls along. A brother doth not redeem, shall man redeem ? 
 Call then to mind what is said in the Gospel of the angels running 
 to and fro, of the bridechamber being opened, of the lamps which 
 are extinguished, of the powers which drag to the flames. And 
 consider this, that if a secret deed of any one of us were brought 
 forth into the midst, to-day, before the Church only, how would 
 the doer pray to perish, and would he not offer to have the earth 
 gape upon him, rather than to have so many witnesses of his 
 wickedness? How then shall we feel, when, before the whole 
 world, all things are brought into the midst, in such a theatre, so 
 bright and open, with both those known and those unknown to us 
 seeing into everything" (Chrysostom). 
 
 "According to my Gospel." St. Paul's Gospel is, as I have 
 noticed, the Gospel of the Kesurrection of Christ. This is its 
 
Chap. II.] THOU ART CALLED A JEW. 41 
 
 17 Behold, "" thou art called a Jew, and * restest «• Matt. iu. 9. 
 
 John viii. 33. 
 
 in the law, ^ and makest thy boast of Grod, eh. ix. 6, 7. 
 
 •^ 2Cor. xi. 22. 
 
 1 Mic. iii. 11. 
 
 ch. ix. 4. 
 
 17. "Behold thou art called." Only Dc, L., and a few Cursives read V^%^li'2^' 
 this (TJe) ; but K, A., B., D*, E., K., most Cursives, d, e, g, Vulg., John viii. 41. 
 Syriac, Copt., Arm., read, " now if" (el 51). 
 
 leading feature : but this Kesurrection of the Lord assures us of 
 two things — perfect forgiveness through His Blood (Acts xiii. 37, 
 38), and a perfect judgment to be exercised by Him at the last. 
 Thus at Athens St. Paul preaches that " God hath appointed a day 
 in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man 
 whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance unto all 
 men in that he hath raised him from the dead " (Acts xvii. 81). 
 
 Notice here that St. Paul's Gospel is not merely one of grace 
 and forgiveness, but of strict judgment of every man at the last. 
 The certainty of judgment to be exercised on believers and un- 
 behevers alike has, to a great extent, dropped out of the popular 
 teaching of the day, and yet there can be no true conception of 
 Almighty God without it. 
 
 17. " Behold [or, Now if] thou art called a Jew, and restest in 
 the law," &c. It was before the coming of Christ the most honour- 
 able thing to be called a Jew. He belonged to the one elect race. 
 His very name, Jehodah, is "the praised one." "He whom his 
 brethren shall praise" is a title significant of his high position. 
 
 " And restest upon (or in) the law." This denotes the confidence 
 which the Jews had in the fact that the law was given to their ances- 
 tors. Now this confidence or " resting in," might not be evil at all, 
 though as a rule, the stiff-necked part of the nation used it for an 
 evil purpose. If they used the fact of their having had the gift 
 from God as a sign of God's favour, without respect to their keep- 
 ing the law, then they used it to their destruction ; but if they con- 
 sidered that God gave them the law as a sign that He desired to 
 bring them nearer to Himself, and did their best to submit them- 
 selves to this expressed will of God, then this was a natural source 
 of confidence to them. They might rest in it till God revealed 
 Himself more fully. 
 
 "And makest thy boast of God." It was quite right that they 
 should make their boast of God, the one true God, as their God, if 
 this boast of the exclusive knowledge of God made them humblo 
 
42 A GUIDE 01 THE BLIND. [Eomans. 
 
 18 And "knowest his will, and ||^approvest the things 
 
 u Dent. iv. 8. that are more excellent, being instructed out of 
 
 Ps. cxlvii. 19, ° 
 
 :iO- the law ; 
 
 theWvg! 19 And ^art confident that thou thyself art b. 
 
 x^hu^!'io guide of the blind, a light of them which are in 
 
 y Matt. XV. 14. darkuess, 
 
 & xxiii. IH, 17, 
 
 19,24. John 20 An instructor of the foolish, a teacher of 
 
 z ch. vi. 17. babes, ' which hast the form of knowledge and of 
 
 & ill 5!' ' the truth in the law. 
 
 and God-fearing, and merciful in their judgment of those to whom 
 God had not as yet given so inestimable a privilege. 
 
 18. " And knowest his will." There could be no doing of His 
 will with the conscious endeavom* to please Him except they 
 knew it. 
 
 "And approvestthe things that are more excellent." This seems 
 to mean that their knowledge of the law was a Divine sense within 
 them leading them not only to make distinctions between right and 
 wrong ; but also, if two ways of serving God were presented to them, 
 to choose the more excellent, or, if two commands seemed to clash, 
 to know which was really the most important. 
 
 19. " And art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the 
 blind, a light," &c. This confidence would not have been wrong 
 in a Jew who acted upon it in a right spirit, for God most assuredly 
 had given him that pure light of revealed truth which He had not 
 given to the Gentiles. His duty, then, was to instruct the 
 idolaters who came in his way, in a spirit of meekness, remember- 
 ing that this want of a Divine revelation such as he had, was their 
 misfortune rather than their fault. Compared to those who had 
 the teaching of the Old Testament the Gentiles were " in dark- 
 ness," "foolish," "babes;" but this was no reason why the Jew 
 should pride himself, but rather humble himself ; because his exhi- 
 bition of pride and exclusiveness would repel the Gentile world, 
 whereas his humility and charity would attract it. 
 
 20. " Which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the 
 law." This does not mean that he has the form as opposed to the 
 reaUty, but that he has the reahty, as it were, in an outward 
 tangible form in the books of Moses and the rest of the Old Testa- 
 
Chap. II.] TEACHEST THOU NOT THYSELF ? 43 
 
 21 *Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou 
 not thyself ? thou that preachest a man should * ps. 1. 1*3, &c. 
 
 •^ ^ Matt, xxiii. 3, 
 
 not steal, dost thou steal ? &«;• 
 
 22 Thou that sayest a man should not commit 
 adultery, dost thou commit adultery? thou that 
 abhorrest idols, ^ dost thou commit sacrilege ? *» Mai. iu. s. 
 
 ment. The light vouchsafed to the Gentiles being scattered, as it 
 were, in different breasts, could not have the distinct form which 
 the Jews possessed in the Scriptures. 
 
 21. " Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not 
 thyself? thou that preachest," &c. The Apostle in writing this 
 must have had in his mind Psalm 1. 16. "But unto the wicked God 
 saith. What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou 
 shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth ? Seeing thou hatest in- 
 struction and castest my words behind thee. When thou sawest 
 a thief then thou consentedst with him, and hast been partaker 
 with adulterers." St. Paul would not have said this if his country- 
 men could with any show of reason have objected to the covert 
 accusation of theft, or adultery, or sacrilege, which he brings against 
 them. With respect to the second of these charges, adultery, they 
 were literally an adulterous generation. 
 
 When they brought the woman accused of adultery before the 
 Lord and He said, " He that is without sin among you, let him 
 cast the first stone at her," and they all, convicted by their own 
 consciences, went out, there can be no doubt but that their con- 
 sciences convicted them of the same crime as that of which they 
 accused the woman. Godet tells us that adultery is a crime which 
 the Talmud brings home to the three most illustrious Kabbis, Akiba, 
 Mehir, and Eleazar. 
 
 " Thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege ? " We 
 should have rather supposed that the Apostle would have written 
 " Thou that professest to abhor idols, dost thou worship an idol?" 
 But whatever sins the Jews fell into in St. Paul's time, idolatry had 
 certainly no place among them ; the Babylonian captivity seemed 
 to have altogether purged them from the sin of open idolatry. 
 Some have supposed that as the word sacrilege here means the 
 robbing of sacred shrines or temples, allusion is made to the 
 sins of which the last of the prophets accuses them, of robbing 
 
44 DISHONOUEEST THOU GOD ? [Romans 
 
 23 Thou that '^makest thy boast of the law, through 
 c ver. 17. breaking the law dishonourest thou Grod ? 
 
 24 For the name of Grod is blasphemed among 
 {4 ^i^r'^i *-^® G-entiles through you, as it is ^ written. 
 
 Ezek. xxxvi. 
 
 20, 2.3. 
 
 God by withholding the tithes and offerings due to Him, and that 
 they in the persons of the heads of their religion had made sacri- 
 legious gain of part of the area of the Temple courts by letting it 
 out to those who sold sheep, oxen, and doves ; but most probably 
 the Jews were at this time given to assist in the actual robbery of 
 temples. Such is implied in the words of the town clerk of 
 Ephesus : *' Ye have brought hither these men, who are neither 
 robbers of churches," (Acts xix. 37), where the same word is used 
 as here. If they had not been known to take part in such robbery 
 the official would not have thought of making such a denial. Godet 
 eeems to give the meaning in his exposition : " Thy horror of 
 idolatry does not go the length of preventing thee from hailing as 
 a good prize the precious objects which have been used in idola- 
 trous worship, when thou canst make them thine own." The Jews 
 probably did not pillage the Gentile temples themselves, but they 
 filled the place of receivers of the things stolen. 
 
 23. " Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking 
 the law," &c. It is strange that men should boast of that which 
 they disobeyed — of that which condemned them because of their 
 disobedience to it ; but in this very day the whole matter is re- 
 enacted. The Gospel requires as much to be obeyed in the life as 
 the law did, and yet men now are extensively given to boast in the 
 possession of the pure Gospel, as they call it, whilst they cheat, lie, 
 slander, and commit fornication. 
 
 24. " For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles 
 through you," &c. As far as I remember, all the references to the 
 Jews and their religion in classical writers are contemptuous, 
 which could not have been if they had set forth the purer morality 
 of the law in their lives. 
 
 The law of the Jews was so identified with the Eevelation of the 
 One true God, that disobedience to it was accounted as if the God of 
 the Jews was indifferent to His own expressed will. There are seve- 
 ral places where this is "written," particularly Ezekiel xxxvi. 20: 
 " When they entered unto the heathen, whither they went, they 
 
Chap. II.] CIRCUMCISION PROFITETH. 45 
 
 25 ® For circiiincision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law : 
 but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circum- « Gai. v. 3. 
 cision is made uncircumcision. 
 
 26 Therefore ^if the uncircumcision keep the f Acts x. 34, 35. 
 righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircum- 
 cision be counted for circumcision ? 
 
 26. "Keep the righteousness." Revisers, "keep the ordinances;" but this is clearly 
 a misleading translation, for " ordinances " now only mean " outward ceremonies," or are 
 almost universally undei'stood to have this meaning. If the word must be altered, let us 
 have "requirements." 
 
 profaned my holy name, when they said to them, These are the 
 people of the Lord, and are gone forth out of his land." 
 
 25. " For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law : 
 but if thou be," &c. As long as thou observest the law, circum- 
 cision assures thee that thou art one of the elect of God. Thou art 
 included under the covenant of Abraham and art the son of God 
 by adoption, so far as the Old Testament dispensation is concerned. 
 Thou hast an interest in all the promises of God, especially the 
 promise that if thou seekest it God will circumcise thine heart. 
 
 " But if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made," 
 &c. Evidently this must be so, for circumcision made a man a 
 debtor to keep the whole law. If then a Jew wilfully disobeyed 
 the law and continued to do so, he belied his circumcision; so far 
 from profiting him, it witnessed against him. 
 
 There seems to have been a popular opinion among the Jews 
 that no circumcised man could suffer the torments of Gehenna ; but 
 a place from the Schemoth Eabba is quoted by Schoettgen which 
 seems intended to correct this. " Dixit R. Barechias : Ne hasretici 
 et apostates et impii ex Israelitis dicant : quemadmodum circum- 
 cisi sumus in infernum non descendemus. Quid aget Deus 
 Sanctus Benedictus? Mittet angelum, et praeputia ipsorum at- 
 trahet, ita ut ipsi in infernum descendant." (Quoted in Godet.) 
 
 26. " Therefore if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness," 
 &c. This, in St. Paul's view, was not an impossible thing. The 
 Apostle does not mean that he could keep the law perfectly, so as 
 not to need pardon and redemption, but that he could be like 
 Cornelius, like Socrates, like many earnest and devout feelers after 
 the unknown God. 
 
 *' Shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision ? " 
 
46 IF IT FULFIL THE LAW. [Romans. 
 
 27 And shall not uncircumcision whicli is by nature, if 
 g Matt. xii. 41, it fulfil the law, ^ judge thee, who by the letter 
 
 and circumcision dost transgress the law ? 
 h Matt. iii. 9. 28 For ^ he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly ; 
 ch. ix. 6. 7. ' neither is that circumcision, which is outward in 
 
 Gal. vi. 15. J.T. n -u 
 
 Rev. ii. 9. the flcsh t 
 
 The uncircTimcised Gentile who lived, though imperfectly, up to the 
 light which God had vouchsafed to him, fulfilled, though uncon- 
 sciously, the purpose which God had in giving the law and impos- 
 ing circumcision ; and so it seems in accordance with the character 
 of a righteous God, that such an one should be, in His sight, as if he 
 were in covenant with Him. 
 
 27. "And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature," &c. 
 The circumcision of the Jew was not natural — that is, not belonging 
 to the natural order of things, but was part of a system introduced 
 by God into the world, and so, in its origin at least, supernatural. 
 
 Those who are thus in their purely natural state, and yet have 
 obeyed the law written in their hearts, will rise up in the judgment 
 against those who, having the written law and circumcision, trans- 
 gress the law. 
 
 The letter and circumcision were turned against such, and made 
 their sin the more sinful. Thus the Lord says, " Many shall come 
 from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and 
 Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven," &c. (Mattli. viii. 11.) 
 
 28. " For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly ; neither is 
 that circumcision," &c. Though he may be a Jew by nationality, 
 he is not a true Jew unless he answers to the purpose of God in 
 separating the Jews from all other nations, that they should be 
 holy, both in body and soul, before God. 
 
 " Neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh." 
 Circumcision, though not a sacrament, was yet a rite which had 
 a spiritual and moral significance. It had a spiritual significance 
 in that it signified that the descendant of Abraham, when he re- 
 ceived circumcision, was in covenant with God, and could claim all 
 His promises. It had a moral significance in that it signified to the 
 person circumcised that he must cut ofi" and cast away all evil 
 lusts. The mere outward circumcision, then, when held in un- 
 righteousness, was nothing ; rather, it was worse than nothing — it 
 
Chap. II.] WHOSE PRAISE IS OF GOD. 47 
 
 29 But he is a Jew, ' which is one inwardly ; and ^ cir- 
 cumcision is that of the heart, ^ in the spirit, * l,ff •.!"•*• 
 
 ^ k Phil. ui. 3. 
 
 and not in the letter ; "" whose praise is not of men, coi. ii. ii. 
 
 but of God. 2 Cor. iii. 6. 
 
 — m 1 Cor. iv. 5. 
 
 2 Cor. X. 18. 
 1 Thes. ii. 4. 
 
 was a witness against the man who, though a professing Jew, lived 
 the life of a heathen. 
 
 But in all this we must take care that we do not give to the words 
 of the Apostle a meaning which he himself would have been the 
 first to repudiate. Supposing that St. Paul had heard of a Jew 
 who, before the time of Christ, or the preaching of the Gospel, had 
 refased to circumcise his child, or to receive circumcision himself, 
 if in his case it had been neglected, on the ground that circumcision 
 was that of the heart, and the circumcision of the flesh was needless, 
 or obsolete, or unspiritual, what would he have said ? He would 
 have said that such a temper of mind which could say this was 
 utterly Godless and profane. He would have said : By such a 
 refusal you exalt yourself against God, and proudly reject the 
 covenant of His love towards you. For He has solemnly af&rmed, 
 " My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant." 
 
 29. " But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly ; and circmncision 
 is that of the heart," &c. Thus to the Philippians he writes, " We 
 are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in 
 Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh " (iii. 3). 
 
 " Circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the 
 letter." This was the promise of God to the Israelites in the last 
 times : " The Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the 
 heart of thy seed to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and 
 with all thy soul, that thou mayest Hve " (Deut. xxx. 6.) 
 
 " In the spirit, and not in the letter." " In the spirit," of course, 
 means in the inmost soul or spirit, and not the mere compHance 
 with the letter. The words, however, are taken by many to signify 
 in the Holy Spirit, and of course no change like that of spiritual 
 circumcision can be made in any man except by the Holy Spirit. 
 
 "Whose praise is not of men, but of God." Here, again, there 
 seems a reference to the name of Jew as meaning one who is 
 praised, but it is God Who knows the secrets of the heart Who 
 praises him, and not his brethren after the flesh (Gen. xlix. 8). 
 
48 WHAT ADVANTAGE HATH THE JEW? [Romans 
 
 W 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 HAT advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit 
 is there of circumcision ? 
 a Deut. iv 7, 2 Much BYevj waj : chiefly, because that ^ unto 
 19,20. ch. ii, them were committed the oracles of God. 
 b ch. x.'ie. 3 For what if ^ some did not believe ? ^ shall 
 
 cNumb.xxiii. their Unbelief make the faith of God without 
 
 10. ch. ix. 6. pffpr-+ ? 
 
 ii. 13. 
 
 1. " What advantage then hath the Jew ? or what profit is there 
 of circumcision ? " The Apostle now meets an objection which we 
 may say naturally suggests itself. If the uncircumcision so keep 
 the righteousness of the law that his uncircumcision can be counted 
 for circumcision, and the true circumcision be that of the heart, 
 which the Gentile can have as well as the Jew, what advantage has 
 the nation of the Jews, the circumcision ? for I take it that the two 
 questions, what advantage hath the Jew, and what profit of cir- 
 cumcision are the same, " the circumcision " being a name for the 
 circumcised nation. 
 
 The Apostle answers, " Much every way," and this because God 
 gave them His Kevelation. This Eevelation was, of course, above 
 all, the written Word ; but besides this they had other means of 
 ascertaining the will of God, as the inquiry through the priests by 
 the Urim and Thummim, and also the inspired voices of the pro- 
 phets, all through the dispensation, the greater part of whose 
 utterances have not been embodied in the sacred volume. So 
 that it was not merely a book, but other means of guidance and 
 counsel subsidiary to it which God committed to them. 
 
 3. " For what if some did not believe ? shall their unbelief make 
 the faith," &c. But another question arises upon this. The lively 
 oracles, whether the law or the voices of the prophets, were only 
 really accepted and followed by a part of the nation, sometimes by 
 only a small remnant. Does this destroy the benefit ? Verse 3 
 might properly be rendered : What if some were unfaithful, shall 
 
Chap. III.] LET GOD BE TRUE. 49 
 
 4 '' God forbid : yea, let ^ G-od be true, but ' every man 
 a liar ; as it is written, ^ That thou mightest be ^ ^^^ *'; ^^ 
 justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome fps. ixii.9. ' 
 when thou art judged. g^pTii^I' 
 
 their unfaithfulness invalidate the faithfulness of God ? Far be it 
 from us, he answers, to imagine such a thing. 
 
 4. "Let God be true, but every man a liar." I take this to 
 mean, Though all men disbelieved God and discredited His Revela- 
 tion, and so showed their innate falseness and crookedness of heart, 
 yet still there were the oracles, there were the voices of the God- 
 inspired prophets, and if any one single man among them, though 
 he were alone, would but turn from sin and turn to God, and 
 embrace some promise of His word, God would meet that man, 
 and show to him His faithfulness and truth. So that the most 
 wide-spread declension could not undo the fact that God had given 
 to them His word and its promises, and that this word, these 
 oracles, were theirs whenever they chose to turn to God. 
 
 *' As it is written. That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, 
 and mightest overcome when thou art judged." The simplest way 
 of taking this place, and the most consonant to the argument, or 
 rather discussion, in these verses, is that the Holy Ghost here 
 utters a truth of the most general application. Whenever God's 
 sayings are canvassed as regards their truth. He will show that He 
 is justified in having uttered them. Whenever God's words or 
 doings are brought into judgment. He will overcome in that judg- 
 ment, and convince His adversaries that He is right and they are 
 wrong. David's confession that his sin was committed principally 
 against God, so that by his confession of it he also confessed 
 the justice of God, whatever sentence He passed upon him, is only 
 a particular instance in which God is justified in His sayings. But 
 now what are the sayings of God which the Apostle here supposes 
 that men, though wrongly, may arraign ? Evidently those which 
 seem to upset the permanence of all God's promises to Israel, such 
 promises as those in Deut. xxx. 1-6, where God engages that if the 
 Jews — no matter where they may be carried captive for their sins 
 — will return to Him, He will return to them. The seeming non- 
 performance, or holding in abeyance of such promises, is what 
 would make the captious or desponding Jew declare that the un- 
 belief of some invalidated the faithfulness of God. 
 
 E 
 
50 WHY AM I JUDGED AS A SINNER ? [Romans. 
 
 5 But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness 
 of God, what shall we say ? Is Grod unrighteous who taketh 
 h ch, vi. 19. vengeance ? (^ I speak as a man) 
 
 Gal. iii. 1-5. ° ^ ^ . ' 
 
 i Gen. xviii. 6 Grod forbid : for then ' how shall God judge 
 
 25. Job viii. ,-, i n o 
 
 3. & xxxiv. 17. the world t 
 
 7 For if the truth of God hath more abounded through 
 my lie unto his glory ; why yet am I also judged as a sinner ? 
 
 7. " For if the truth." So B., D., E., G., K., L., P., most Cursives, Vulg., Syr. ; but 
 N, A., 5, 23, 57, 74, 124, Cop. read, "but if," 
 
 5, 6. " But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of 
 God . . . God judge the world ? " The Apostle now anticipates 
 another objection, which seems to arise out of the use which he had 
 made of his citation from the 51st Psalm. If sin and xmfaith- 
 fulness on the part of man always bring out into stronger reUef 
 the righteousness of God, -i.e., His faithfulness, is it right that God 
 should punish sin, seeing that sin is the means of establishing tlie 
 righteousness of God? Now it might have been said that the 
 sinner is justly punished for his sin, because it was the furthest 
 from his thought to establish the righteousness of God by his 
 wrong-doing ; he only thought of his own gratification. But St. Paul 
 does not meet the objection in this way. He falls back upon a far 
 higher principle, the judgment of God as the great moral Governor 
 of the universe. It is the first idea of God as the Governor of all 
 intelligences that He will judge all those who are capable of being 
 judged, and who ought to be judged, as the children of men, all 
 of them, assuredly, ought to be : but if we hold that God cannot 
 judge and punish evil actions, because they ultimately commend 
 His righteousness, then He can no longer act as the Supreme 
 Judge. His highest honour is taken away, for His righteousness 
 depends upon His judging all men righteously. 
 
 7, 8. *' For if the truth of God hath more abounded . . . whose 
 damnation is just." Here St. Paul anticipates not so much another 
 objection, as one springing out of the evil thought that, because sin 
 ultimately brings out His righteousness, therefore God ought not 
 to punish it. " If," he says, " the truth," i.e., the whole righteous 
 character of God. " hath more abounded," i.e., hath been more abun- 
 dantly manifested, "through my lie, "i.e., through my whole false un- 
 faithful lile, " unto his glory, why yet am I also judged as a sinner ? " 
 
Chap, in.] ALL UNDER SIN. 51 
 
 8 And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and 
 as some affirm that we say,) ''Let us do evil, that i^.ch. v.20. & 
 good may come ? whose damnation is just. 
 
 9 What then ? are we better than they ? No, in 
 
 no wise : for we have before f proved both Jews t or. charged. 
 and Gentiles, that 'they are all under sin ; & n'\, &c. 
 
 1 ver. 23. Gal. 
 iii. 22, 
 
 9. "Are we better than they?" The word probably is passive, " are we excelled, are we 
 surpassed ?" but the sense is the same. 
 
 My sin has glorified God — it has, so far as a creature can benefit 
 his Creator, benefited Him — for a sinner can only benefit his 
 Creator by advancing His glory: Why, then, am I judged and 
 punished as a sinner, as one who has dishonom^ed God : and, be- 
 sides this, if my false evil life hath brought out so gi-eat a good as 
 the greater glory of God, why may I not always do so ? Why may 
 not this be the rule with me, to do evil that the greater glory of 
 God may ensue ? To this the Apostle deigns only to answer that 
 persons who have got themselves to say such things are reprobate, 
 and deserve to be damned. 
 
 I have not noticed as yet the sentence interjected parenthetically, 
 "As we be slanderously reported, and as some af&rm that we say, 
 Let us do," &c. It is of great importance. It shows that in 
 St. Paul's own time his preaching, because he taught that the law 
 could not justify, was put down as Antinomianism. Here he re- 
 pudiates any such an idea in very strong, indignant language. 
 " He is blasphemed," he says, "by such an imputation reported of 
 him." (fca^wf [3Xa(T(pr][iovixe9a. To be slanderously reported is much 
 too weak an expression.) " Blaspheme " is usually applied to 
 speaking wilfully against God, and we could not with propriety say 
 that a man " spread slanderous reports of God." It is applied to 
 God's Name in the last chapter, verse 24, "For the name of God is 
 blasphemed among the Gentiles," &c. 
 
 9. " What then ? are we better than they ? No, in no wise : for 
 we have," &c. There is much difficulty amongst translators re- 
 specting the proper rendering of TrpoexofieOa. The Vidgate translates 
 it as our Authorized — " do we excel them? " So Wordsworth and 
 Alford — "have we (the Jews) any pre-eminence ? " We have the out- 
 ward and visible advantage of the possession of the oracles of God, 
 but inasmuch as we have not as a nation Hved up to this know- 
 
52 NONE THAT DOETH GOOD. [Romans. 
 
 10 As it is written, "" There is none righteous, no, not one : 
 m Ps. xiv. 1, 11 There is none that understandeth, there is 
 
 ^* ^' *"' ■ none that seeketh after God. 
 
 12 They are all gone out of the way, they are togethei 
 become unprofitable ; there is none that doeth good, no, nol 
 one. 
 
 n Ps. V. 9. 13 ^ Their throat is an open sepulchre ; with 
 
 o^psjcxi. 3. their tongues they have used deceit ; ^ the poison 
 of asps is under their lips : 
 
 ledge, we are equally with them under sin, as we have before 
 proved (ch. i. and ii., 1-10, 21-24). 
 
 10. " As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one," &c. 
 The Apostle now cites against the Jews certain very sweeping 
 assertions of the universality of their guilt. The following words 
 are general assertions, and are not to be taken as if there were no 
 pious God-fearing Jews in the darkest times of their history ; just 
 as in the very midst of the horrible depravity of the Gentile races 
 there were many seekers after God, and witnesses to the truths 
 which He had written on their hearts. 
 
 10-12. "There is none righteous . . . none that doeth good, 
 no, not one." The first clause, " There is none righteous," seems 
 to be an inference from the whole of the 14th and 53rd Psalms. 
 The clause, " There is none that understandeth, there is none that 
 seeketh," &c., seems to be an ir.ference from verses 2 and 3 of Psalm 
 14. The Lord looked down from heaven apon the sons of men to 
 see if there were any that understood or sought after God, but 
 there were none, for " They are all gone out of the way, they are 
 together become unprofitable ; there is none that doeth good, no, 
 not one." 
 
 IB. " Their throat is an open sepulchre ; with their tongues they 
 have used deceit ; the poison of asps is under their lips." The first 
 clause is from the 5th Psalm, 9th verse, and may either signify a 
 tomb yawning to receive its dead, or a tomb casting forth from its 
 mouth putrid, life-destroying vapours. " "With their tongues they 
 have used deceit " seems a reproduction of the next clause (in our 
 Bible version " They flatter with their tongue "). 
 
 The last clause, " the poison of asps is under their lips," is taken 
 
Chap. III.] FULL OF CURSING. 53 
 
 14 P Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness : 
 
 15 •» Their feet are swift to shed blood : ^ p«- *• 7- 
 
 q Prov, i. 16. 
 
 Is. lix. 7, 8. 
 
 from Psalm cxl. 3 : " They have sharpened their tongues like a 
 serpent ; adders' poison is under their lips." 
 
 14, 15. " Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness : Their 
 feet are swift to shed blood." The fourteenth verse is the repro- 
 duction of Psalm X. 7. In the Psalm it is in the singular number, 
 as it may be rendered here, and runs, " His mouth is full of cursing, 
 deceit, and fraud." The fifteenth verse, " Their feet are swift to shed 
 blood," is ahnost verbatim from Proverbs i. 16 : " Their feet run to 
 evil, and make haste to shed blood." But it may be suggested by 
 the eighth verse of Psalm x., " He sittethinthe lurking places of the 
 villages, in the secret places doth he murder the innocent." 
 
 16, 17. " Destruction and misery are in their ways. And the 
 way of peace have they not known." These verses are only to be 
 found in the Septuagint version of Psalm xiv. [xiii.] They are to 
 be found almost verbatim in Isaiah lix. 7, 8. 
 
 18. " There is no fear of God before their eyes." This is taken 
 from Psalm xiv., and also from Ps. xxxvi., verse 1 : " The trans- 
 gression of the wicked saith within my heart, that there is no fear 
 of God before his eyes." 
 
 Such are the places from their own Scriptures quoted by the 
 Apostle with the view of bringing his countrymen, as a nation (or 
 a church), guilty before God. In the Hebrew Scriptures they are 
 not found together, but are scattered about, principally in the 
 Psalms. One (verse 15) is to be found only in the book of Proverb-^, 
 another in Isaiah. But in the Septuagint version of Psalm xiv., 
 they are all collected together as a part of one Psalm.^ 
 
 We learn from this that the Jews to whom the Apostle wrote 
 must have acknowledged the authority of the Septuagint. St. Paul, 
 in bringing them all under sin, must have done so by means of 
 scriptures which they acknowledged. Whether the Septuagint ver- 
 sion differed from the Hebrew in giving the sense of the latter rather 
 than a hteral translation is of no consequence. The fact is clear that 
 if these allegations were true of the people of God in general, they 
 
 1 Some have supposed that St. Paul first collected together this series of passages, nad 
 that they were afterwards inserted into the margin of the Septuagint of Paalm xiv., and 
 partially into the margin of Psalm liii. 
 
54 MISERY IN THEIR WAYS. [Romans. 
 
 16 Destruction and misery are in their ways : 
 
 17 And the way of peace have they not known : 
 
 needed a redemption which would bring down to them and put 
 within their reach a far higher righteousness. 
 
 Another and a deeper question, however, requires to be taken 
 notice of. Certain words of Psalm xiv. are, along with other words 
 not found in the Hebrew version of that Psalm, cited by the Apostles 
 as bringing all men universally under sin, and not only under sin, 
 but if we take verses 13, 14, 15, 16 into account, as alike guilty of 
 very grievous crimes indeed, " the poison of asps under their lips," 
 '• their feet swift to shed blood." Now is this count absolutely 
 universal in .its application ? The second and third verses certainly 
 seem to put this beyond doubt. If we take them literally righteous- 
 ness must have been absolutely extinct ; but the Psalm itself for- 
 bids us to do this, for in the fourth verse there is the usual distinc- 
 tion made between the workers of iniquity and the true people of 
 God. Then in the fifth verse the existence of a " generation of the 
 righteous," in which God dwells, is recognized ; then in the sixth 
 verse the poor are said to have made God their refuge. So great is 
 this contrast that some have supposed that the former part is 
 written of the heathen, but the wording of verse 4, which pre-sup- 
 poses that the wicked must have had knowledge, and that they knew 
 God, so as to be able to call upon Him if they would, renders this im- 
 possible. No : the Apostle's argument does not depend upon every 
 man (for instance, such contemporaries of David as Samuel or 
 Jonathan) being proved to be absolutely devoid of righteousness, 
 but upon the people of Israel in general — perhaps the great majority 
 of them — having become as the Gentiles — not, perhaps, given over 
 to unnatural lusts, but still in such a state of sin that they could 
 not boast themselves against the Gentiles, for they required redemp- 
 tion just as much as did the Gentiles. Now this is St. Paul's mode 
 of bringing all men, Jews and Gentiles alike, under sin. It is ex- 
 ceedingly noteworthy, for it is altogether contrary to the mode 
 adopted by Evangelical divines since the Reformation, in this coun- 
 try at least. The mode adopted to bring all men guilty before God 
 has been, not to set forth the wickedness of the wicked, but the 
 wickedness of the righteous — to show that the seeming righteous- 
 ness of so-called unconverted men is all hollow — not only imperfect, 
 but unreal — in fact, displeasing to God. They almost go to the 
 
Chap. III.] NO FEAR OF GOD, 55 
 
 18 "■ There is no fear of G-od before their eyes. •" Ps. xxxvi. i. 
 
 extent of saying that a man might as well commit a gross sin as 
 live a moral life in his so-called natural state. Now I do not here 
 wish to show the wrongness of all this, I merely desire that the 
 reader should mark its utter contrariety to the teaching of the God- 
 inspired Apostle. I do not remember that the Apostle ever attempts 
 to show the worthlessness of what men are pleased to call natural 
 righteousness : if he did so he would contradict himself, for in two 
 places of this Epistle, ii. 14, 15, 26, he shows its worth, for it turns 
 the uncircumcision of the Gentile into circumcision. If, then, the 
 Apostle had desired to bring in all men guilty before God by show- 
 ing the unrighteousness of seeming righteousness, he would have 
 taken another line altogether, he would have laid himself out to 
 show the imperfection of the righteousness of such men as Samuel 
 and Jonathan and Zadok, and other pious, God-fearing contempo- 
 raries of the Psalmist. If it were urged against the Apostle that, 
 by allowing the righteousness of such God-fearing people, he was 
 undoing the effect of his own preaching of grace, he would have 
 answered. No, not for a moment : whether a man be in the pale of 
 God's covenant or out of it, he cannot be even imperfectly righteous 
 without the inspiration and help of God, which help and grace He 
 vouchsafes to every man as He will. If it were farther objected that 
 such men might rest satisfied without accepting Christ, if He were 
 preached to them, the Apostle would answer : If men, before the 
 Gospel, act under the guidance of the law, then He Who has given 
 to them the law, and the good will to endeavour to obey it, will as- 
 suredly bring it about that the law shall be the schoolmaster of such 
 persons, to lead them to Christ (Gal. iii. 24). If it be further objected 
 that the most righteous commit sin and obey the law imperfectly, and 
 have need of Christ, he would at once say : " I grant it most fully, 
 but how is this sense of the need of Christ to be brought about ? I 
 cannot do it. God must give them repentance unto life. He has 
 not given to me to say that any degree of righteousness is un- 
 righteous ; on the contrary. He has given to me to say what I have 
 said, that the Gentiles, who certainly never have had Christ preached 
 unto them, can do what is in some degree pleasing to Him. I can 
 only deal with men in general — with classes, with religions, with 
 churches — God alone can bring each man's sin, or his latent insin- 
 cerity, or the deficiency of his best doings, home to him." 
 
56 ALL THE WORLD GUILTY. [Romans. 
 
 19 Now we know that what things soever ' the law saith, 
 
 • John X. 34. it saith to them who are under the law : that 
 
 » Job v! 16. ^ every mouth may be stopped, and " all the world 
 
 Ezek!'xv1%3. inay become |1 guilty before God. 
 ch.^i.2o.& 20 Therefore ^by the deeds of the law there 
 
 u V. 9, 23. 
 
 ch. ii.2. 
 
 n Or, subject to ^^ ,,^^ ■, ,■,,■,, ,^ • ,i 
 
 the judgment 19. ' Now WG know that wliat thmgs soever the 
 
 ''^ ^°'^- law saith, it saith," &c. The Apostle had, in the first 
 
 I Ps. cxliii. 2. , .1.1 • ^ T ^1 
 
 Acts xiii. 39. chapter, easily, if one may so say, convicted the 
 m! n"" Epfes. Grentiles of sin. The prevalence of the worst form of 
 ii. 8, 9. Tit. idolatry, and of unnatural crimes, the universal dif- 
 fusion of the sins of unrighteousness, wickedness, 
 mahciousness, covetousness, had made this no difficult task, at 
 least in the eyes of the Jew. But how was the Jew — the Jewish 
 race — the seed of Abraham, to be brought under sin ? Their own 
 law — for the law means here, not only the law of Moses, but the 
 enforcement of that law in the Psalms and Prophets ^ — could do 
 this. The passages respecting the sins of Israel were, of course, 
 said to those who received the law, and so were under it. These 
 passages (and thousands more might have been cited) showed that 
 the Jews, in whose Scriptures these were contained, were as much 
 under sin as the Gentiles. So that every mouth which vaunted 
 of its own righteousness might be stopped, and all the world, 
 Jew and Gentile alike, might become guilty, or rather subject to 
 the judgment of God. 
 
 20. " Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be 
 justified in his sight," &c. The first word, 5t6rt, means rather, 
 " because." It does not introduce a sequence to what has been 
 said, but a reason for it. All the world may become guilty before 
 God. Why ? Because, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh 
 be justified in His sight. And why do not the deeds of the law 
 
 ' The Psalms are called the Law by our Lord Himself in John x. 34, xii. 34, and xv. 25. 
 and Isaiah by St. Paul in 1 Cor. xiv. 21. I confess I cannot understand the difficulty 
 which has been made about this phrase, owing to the first vc/uo; meaning citations from the 
 Psalms, and the second the law of Moses. God spake in the law, and He also spake in the 
 Psalms. They are all in one book, the whole of which is given by iuspiration of God. A 
 man who is under, and spoken to in, the law of Moses, is also under, and spoken to by, 
 and bound to obey, any utterance of God in the Psalms. So Chrysostom, " For what reason 
 did he not say, we know that what things soever the prophet saith, bat what things soever 
 the Law saiih? Jt is because St. Paul uses to call the whole Old Testament the Law." 
 
Chap. III.] THE KNOWLEDGE OF SIN. 57 
 
 shall no flesh be justified in his sight : for ^ by the law is the 
 knowledge of sin. y ch. vii. 7. 
 
 justify ? We shall see afterwards, when we come to consider the 
 Justification of Life of chap. v. Suffice it now to say, because of 
 their insufficiency. They could not be accepted as making atone- 
 ment for sins, and they could not make men partakers of the higher 
 life of the Gospel, which comes to us through the Incarnation of 
 the Lord. Because of the weakness of the flesh (Kom. viii. 3), the 
 law never could do what it was seemingly designed to do. It de- 
 clared the will of God, but it did not renew the will of man, so that 
 it never could justify, but it prepared for Justification through Christ. 
 
 " For by the law is the knowledge of sin." " By the law," or 
 rather by '* law " — any law — whether by that originally written 
 in the heart, or by the revealed law, men know what is wrong, and 
 so they know that they must not commit that which the law 
 coming from God has bid them avoid. But the law has no power 
 in itself to make them do what it commands, or leave undone what 
 it forbids. The law addresses itself to the will, but the strength or 
 the weakness is in the will. The law tells men what is right, but 
 it gives no power to do it. As the Apostle tells the Galatian Chris- 
 tians (iii. 21), it could not give righteousness because it could not 
 givelife. Of course there would be, both among Jews and heathen, men 
 in whom God had implanted strong wills on the side of righteous- 
 ness, but these would be very few, and the great mass would, by the 
 law, be brought under sin rather than delivered from it. 
 
 But now a question of infinite importance meets us. Seeing that 
 the law cannot justify by the deeds which are done in obedience to 
 it, did God when He gave men the law intend them to keep it ? 
 This has been formally denied, especially by Luther and his 
 followers, and by the Kevival preachers of our own day. But a 
 moment's consideration ought to show us, first of all, that if we say 
 that God gives us commands which He does not in reality desire us 
 to obey, we destroy His moral character. How can such a view of 
 Him be compatible either with His truth or His holiness ? and, 
 secondly, we can only practically know sin, that is, its sinfulness, 
 the depth to which it has struck its roots into our nature, our secret 
 love of it, and so the power of our indwelling corruption, by our 
 endeavouring, with all our might, to fulfil the law. Are we then to 
 attempt to fulfil it in our own strength ? Certainly, if God has not 
 
58 THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD. [Romans. 
 
 « Acts XV. 11. 21 But now "^ the righteousness of God without 
 iii.9". Heb. ' the law is manifested, ^ being witnessed by the 
 a John V. 46. law " and the j^rophets ; 
 
 Acts xxvi. 22. 
 
 bch. i. 2. 1 
 
 Pet. i. 10. 
 
 revealed to us His strength, for unless we endeavour to fulfil it as 
 we are, we never can practically know our own weakness — our in- 
 ability in our own strength, and without Christ, to do what God 
 requires. Whensoever the commandment comes to us, whether 
 we are heathen or converted, or unconverted, we are bound to 
 receive it as the will of God, and set ourselves to work to do it 
 without delay. If we attempt this with any sincerity — with any 
 desire to please God, we shall then soon find that " by the law is 
 the knowledge of sin," we shall realize our innate sinfulness, and 
 if we are heathen, and hear the Gospel of Christ, we shall accept it 
 as a means of deliverance and strength, and if we are but nominal 
 Christians, unconscious of the work and claims of Christ, we shall 
 come to Him or to God through Him, for grace and life. 
 
 21. " But now the righteousness of God without the law is mani- 
 fested," &c. Now, 'i.e., in the present time — the time succeeding 
 the Incarnation and Manifestation of the Son of God. 
 
 "The righteousness ofGod,"^'.e., the original uncreated righteous- 
 ness ever existing in the Persons of the Ever-blessed Trinity. 
 
 •' Without the law," ■i.e., apart from it — independent of it. The 
 Gospel is not a part of the law given to supplement it, but a new 
 and original production which, though ever in the mind of God, has 
 been introduced amongst us only in these latter days. 
 
 " Is manifested," has been, and yet continues to be manifested. 
 Manifested in the coming amongst us of the Son of God — in the 
 account of His all-holy Character, in His Death, His Resurrection, 
 in the coming of the Spirit, in the preaching of the Word, in the 
 witness of the Church, particularly in the character of its members. 
 All these things manifest to us the righteousness of God in every 
 way in which it can be conceived of as righteousness. 
 
 " Being witnessed by the law and the prophets." That a righteous- 
 ness at some future time would be given by God is clear from 
 Deut. XXX. 6 : " And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, 
 and tlie heart of thy seed to love the Lord thy God, with all thine 
 heart and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live." In the 
 Prophets, the same is declared in closer connection with the 
 
Chap. III.] BY FAITH. 59 
 
 22 Even the righteousness of God ivMcli is *^by faith of 
 Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that <= th. 4, 
 believe : for ^ there is no difference : d'ch"x.°i2.* 
 
 Gal.*iii.'28. 
 Col.iii. 11. 
 
 22. "And upon all." Omitted by ^f, A., B., C, P., Cop., Arm., ^Etb.; but retaint'd by 
 D., E., F., G., K., L., most Cursives. Theodoret comments on both. With respect to the 
 omission of the words, " and upon all," it has been justly remarked that it would be im- 
 possible to account for their interpolation, as there was nothing in the clause, /or all them, 
 to demand this explanatory addition. It is easy to understand, on the contrary, how these 
 words were omitted, either through a confusion of the two Travraj by the copyists— the 
 Sinaitic abounds in such omissions — or because this clause seemed to be a pleonasm after 
 the preceding. It is quite in keeping with Paul's manner thus to accumulate subor linate 
 ilauses to express by a change of preposition the different aspects of the moral fact which 
 he means to describe. (Godet.) 
 
 coming Messiah in the prophecy of Jeremiah respecting " the Lord 
 our Eighteousness " (xxiii. 6), and that faith is to be the insti-ument 
 I^y which individuals compass this righteousness is shown by the 
 law in the account of Abraham believing in the Lord and it being 
 :iccounted unto him for righteousness ; and in the Prophets by the 
 declaration of Habakkuk, " The just shall live by faith." 
 
 22. "Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus 
 Christ," &c. This is an emphasizing repetition, but with a difference ; 
 in the last verse it was " the righteousness of God, without the law," 
 which is manifested. Now it is the righteousness of God which 
 is (which comes to us) by faith of Jesus Christ. It is not merely 
 manifested, but it comes to us, and the mean is faith. 
 
 " By faith." What is faith ? It is belief, but belief in what ? Not 
 in God as a Father, but in God as the Father of His Only- Begotten, 
 "Whom, out of His Supreme love. He gave for us. It is belief in 
 Jesus Christ as the Only-Begotten Son — in all that is said of Him 
 ill Scripture as Incarnate, Crucified, Eisen and Ascended — not that 
 it embraces the whole revelation respecting Jesus at the first, but it 
 has that in it which will refuse nothing, but will proceed to em- 
 brace and realize all. 
 
 "Unto all and upon all them that believe [dg Travrag Kal Im 
 Travrag]. "Untoall." What is the signification of this" unto"? Surely 
 it cannot mean that the righteousness of God moves towards a 
 man, and stops short of entering into him — that would do him no 
 good. He only receives a benefit when the righteousness enters 
 into him, and subdues him according to the special prophecy re- 
 specting the New Covenant " I will put my law in their hearts and 
 
60 ALL HAVE SINNED. [Homans. 
 
 23 For ^ all have sinned, and come short of the giory of 
 
 * ver. 9. ch. Qod : 
 xi. 32. Gal. 
 
 write it in their minds." Why, then, should not this preposition be 
 here rendered " into " ? In a very, very large number of places it 
 must be rendered " into : " and so in this Epistle : " We have access 
 by faith into this grace," " Sin entered into the world." There is a 
 peculiar reason why in this place it should be rendered " into: " for 
 how comes the righteousness of faith into us ? does it not come in 
 with, and only with, the Author of faith? Does not Christ, '' The 
 Lord our Kighteousness," so come into us that the Apostle could 
 say to the Corinthians : " Know ye not how that Jesus Christ is in 
 you except ye be reprobates ? " 
 
 " And upon all them that beheve." As Philippi says : " It comes 
 unto [into] all, and pours itself upon all like a stream." If both words 
 are retained, " unto all " marks the destination, and "upon all," or 
 " over all" the extension which the righteousness of God is to have. 
 "To vero super omnes, significat sublimitatem justitiae, quod scilicet 
 ilia supra naturae vires et merita, desuper e caslo homini infundatur " 
 (Anselm). 
 
 " For there is no difference." No difference amongst those who 
 believe. Belief unites us to Him " in Whom is neither Jew nor 
 Greek, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all and in 
 all" (Coloss. iii. 11). 
 
 23. "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." 
 The glory of God seems to mean here the glory which God will at 
 last put upon the righteous : " Then shall the righteous shine forth 
 as the sun in the glory of their Father." " Glory, honour, and 
 peace to every man that worketh good." 
 
 The translation " coming short " of our Authorized seems exactly 
 to express the idea of the original. None of themselves, or in 
 their own strength, come up to the mark. 
 
 " In thy sight," the Psalmist says, " shall no man living be 
 justified." "When ye have done all, say. We are unprofitable 
 servants." " In many things we offend all," &c. 
 
 24. " Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption," 
 &c. This, of course, does not mean that all are justified, but that 
 all who are justified are so justified freely by God's grace. 
 
Chap. III.J JUSTIFIED FREELY. 61 
 
 24 Being justified freely ^ by his grace ^ through <" ch. iv. i6. 
 the redemption that is in Christ Jesus : Trt."iri". 5] 7! 
 
 25 Whom God hath || set forth '^^o he a pro- Is^K'^S i. 
 
 7. Col. i. u' 
 
 ITim.ii. 0. 
 
 Heb. ix. J2. 
 1 Pe t i 18 1 Q 
 
 " Freely," that is, without merits of their own. No n Oi,fure-' 
 matter how deeply they have offended God, if they o''^'^""'«'- 
 turn from sin and turn to God, believing in Jesus iJoTnii!2. ^' 
 Christ, they shall be justified. This word freely also ^ ''• ^^• 
 anticipates what is coming respecting the redemption of captives. 
 They are justified freely in that they are required to pay nothing 
 themselves. It is impossible to suppose that anything can be 
 added to that " Blood of God," that Blood of the Eternal Son by 
 which the Church has been purchased. 
 
 " By his grace." The grace is not only the goodwill and loving 
 purpose of God, whereby He graciously regards us, but the going 
 forth of that goodwill in our actual justification. 
 
 " Through the redemption." Kedemption means the buying 
 again of captives. In Wickliffe it is translated the " agenbiyni^e." 
 We were as a race sold to evil — the early Fathers said, sold to Satan 
 — and God, by the Death and Blood-shedding of His Son, in some 
 sense paid what was due from us in the way of punishment ; for, 
 after all, it comes to this, that we are ransomed from sin, from 
 death, from the grave, from the hell of punishment. The theory, 
 as it were, of Kedemption, in the Divine Mind may be infinitely 
 above comprehension ; but the declaration of it in human language 
 can only be by the expression of our being bought again from the 
 dominion of sin and the obligation to be punished, in order that we 
 may become the sons of God and heirs of Eternal Life. 
 
 " In Christ Jesus," that is, in His Death upon the Cross, the 
 efficacy of which depends upon His Divinity and Incarnation, and 
 the proof and assurance of it on His Kesurrection. 
 
 25. " Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith 
 in his blood." In this verse, which seems to contain the whole pith 
 and marrow of the Gospelin its redemptive and propitiatory aspect, 
 the initiative is given to the First Person in the Ever Blessed 
 Trinity — God the Father, as it is in the words of Christ, "God so 
 loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son." (Johniii.l6.) 
 
 " God set forth." This may mean, God foreordained or decreed 
 Him to be the propitiation or mercy seat ; or it may mean, put 
 
62 FAITH IN HIS BLOOD. [Romans. 
 
 i Col. i. 20. pitiation througli faith * in his blood, to declare 
 
 Him before men, manifested Him in His Incarnation, Sufferings, 
 and Exaltation. (Alford.) 
 
 "To be a propitiation." The only other place in which the 
 Greek word (iXaar/'/ptov) is used in the New Testament, is in He- 
 brews ix. 5 : " Over it the cherubims of glory overshadowing the 
 mercy seat." The mercy seat of the Jewish Tabernacle or Temple 
 was the throne of God as peculiarly the God of mercy, where He 
 engaged to meet His people and commune with them, thus, Exod. 
 XXV. 21 : " And thou shalt put the mercy seat above upon the ark 
 . . . And there wiU I meet with thee and I will commune with thee 
 from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims 
 which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which," &c. 
 The mercy seat, therefore, taken in connection with this promise, 
 was the most perfect type of God reconciling men to Himself and 
 taking them into communion with Himself, of all the Old Testa- 
 ment types. It was also an abiding type. The propitiatory 
 sacrifices and burnt offerings all passed away in the offering of 
 them, whereas the mercy seat remained. And so, though the 
 Bloody Sacrifice of the Eternal Son is not repeated, He ever abides 
 as the Hilasterion, the place of meeting in terms of amity between 
 God and His people, which is the effect of the Sacrifice. It is 
 impossible to suppose that St. Paul could write the word Hilaste- 
 rion or mercy seat without having in his mind the one thing which 
 was actually called by the name. All the associations of that 
 most holy thing were those of atonement, propitiation, continued 
 access and communion. It is true that the mercy seat was for 
 centuries behind a veil ; but this veil was rent, and there is now 
 access to the holiest through the Blood of Jesus. 
 
 This agrees with the words " set forth." Christ is now set forth, 
 not under a veil, but plainly. 
 
 "Mercy seat " is the interpretation given by Theodoret and the 
 Syriac. Most moderns, however, content themselves with a pro- 
 pitiation, or a propitiatory sacrifice.^ 
 
 1 Philippi, however, is very strong about the interpretation •' mercy seat." He quotes 
 Henpstenberg as saying, " To the Kapporeth, mercy-seat, all sin and trespass offerings 
 stooil in the closest relation. It formed their objective base, a summons and obligation to 
 present them. What took place outwardly but once a year in the great sacrifice on the day of 
 
Chap. III.] THE FORBEARANCE OF GOD. 63 
 
 his righteousness ^ for the i| remission of ' sins that ^ Acts xiii. 38, 
 
 39. 1 TiiD* 
 
 are past, through the forbearance of Grod ; i. is. 
 
 II Or, passing 
 
 over. 
 
 • Acts xvii. 30. 
 
 Heb. ix. 15. 
 
 "Through faith in his blood." Nowhere else is the Blood of 
 Christ said to be the object of faith, but it is surely a perfectly true 
 and legitimate expression, if we understand it as faith in the efficacy 
 of His Blood, faith in His Blood as atoning and propitiatory. Others, 
 who do not seem desirous to accept a phrase not used in the rest of 
 Scripture, render it a propitiation inorhy His Blood, through faith, 
 i.e., given to those who have faith — faith is the medium through 
 which the propitiating virtue comes to us. 
 
 " To declare his righteousness for the remission [or passing over, 
 see Acts xvii. 30] of sins that are past." This place, difficult 
 though it be in some respects, can have, as far as I can see, but 
 one meaning — that the righteousness of God must be vindicated in 
 that He passed over or remitted past sins (probably the sins of the 
 ages before the coming of Christ) without exacting a penalty. Sin 
 deserves punishment, and a just God must inflict it, and the only 
 way of deliverance for the sinner from the effect of his past sins, is 
 that '* Christ himself bare our sins in his own body on the tree, 
 that we being dead to sin should live to righteousness." But the 
 Scripture idea of satisfaction is not the forensic idea of an angry 
 judge, requiring an exact amount of penalty, but of a God graciously 
 accepting a sacrifice. It is a great mystery, is that of atonement, 
 but the mystery is hidden in the sacrifices of a temple, not in the 
 proceedings of a law court. It is also connected with the fact that 
 God has ordained that men should live as nations, and tribes, and 
 families, each springing from one head, and taking their character 
 in a great degree from that head. This, however, by the way. 
 God had constantly, in eveiy prophet, declared His displeasure 
 against sin, and that it deserved punishment: and yet He had not 
 punished it : now this His conduct towards sinners was not the 
 forgiveness or dcpeaig of their sins, but the Trdpeaig, a word only used 
 here in the New Testament. Godet translates it, the tolerance 
 shown towards sins that were past. St. PaiU here seems to 
 
 atonement, i.e., the sprinkling of blood before the Kapporeth, took place spiritually on 
 all saoi'i flees. Hence, according t« Hebrews iv. 16, it is the type of the heavenly &p6vos rnf 
 
64 HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS. [Komans. 
 
 26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness : that 
 
 assert that the atoning work of Christ was the vindication of God's 
 forbearance. He ]iad not wholly remitted the sins of His people. 
 Hehadforthetiixie passed them over, anticipating through His fore- 
 knowledge that the time was coming when He should lay on 
 the Messiah the iniquity of all. But why is the forbearance 
 through which God passed over past sins specially mentioned ? We 
 answer, Because in the next verse St. Paul declares the present justi- 
 fication of believers through faith, and so he naturally puts in a 
 word for those who " before faith came " (Gal. iii. 23), could not 
 believe as men could after Christ was preached. These ages were 
 not without some benefit from the Infinite Atonement, but their full 
 forgiveness was suspended till the consummation of the Sacrifice, 
 when the veil was rent, which by its existence in the Sanctuary to 
 hide the mercy seat, betokened that perfect reconciliation was not 
 till then effected. 
 
 26. " To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness : that he 
 might be just," &c., i.e., " for declaration of his righteousness." The 
 declaration of the righteousness mentioned in the former verse was 
 for a further purpose. It was to prepare the way for the fuller show- 
 ing forth of His righteousness at the present time ; not merely with 
 reference to vindicating His righteousness in dealing forbearingly 
 with the past sins of the world, but with their present and future 
 sins. " It was partly owing to the long suffering of God that He 
 " winked at " past sins, but there was likewise a further object, that 
 He should set forth His Eighteousness at the time appointed. He 
 hid Himself that He might be revealed. The manifestation of His 
 righteousness was the counterpart of His neglect [to punish] and 
 His longsuffering. When the declaring {'ivceiKig) was first mentioned 
 this point of view was not touched upon, it is now indicated by the 
 article {irpbg t^v ivdei^iv). Compare for a similar mode of con- 
 necting the two halves of the dispensation, chap. v. verse 20, ' The 
 law came in that sin might abound, but where sin abounded grace 
 did much more abound.' " (Jowett.) 
 
 Alford translates, " with a view to the manifestation of His 
 righteousness, in the present time " ; similarly, Archdeacon Gifford 
 in Speaker's Commentary. 
 
 " At this time," i.e., when Christ is fully revealed. 
 
 ** His righteousness : that he might be just, and the justifier of 
 
Chap. III.] JUST AND THE JUSTIFIER. 65 
 
 he miglit be just, and tlie justifier of him which believeth 
 in Jesus. 
 
 27 ™ Where is boasting then? It is excluded, "^ch. ii. 17, 
 
 ° 23. & iv. 2. 
 
 By what law ? of works ? Nay : but by the law of 1 Cor. i. 29, 
 
 /.,, J J 31_ Ephes. 
 
 laitn. u. 9. 
 
 him," &c. His righteousness is now declared that men may see 
 Him to be just, in that He does not pass over sins as if He cared 
 not for them, but that in the very way by which He ordained that 
 forgiveness should reach us — i.e., the way of the Death of Christ, He 
 should magnify the guilt of sin, which requires, in the way of atone- 
 ment and propitiation, such a Sacrifice. 
 
 " The justifier of him which believeth in Jesus," or of him that 
 is of the faith of Jesus. A repetition in other words of the idea in 
 verse 22 — " the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus 
 Christ unto (into) all and upon all them that beheve." He causes 
 His righteousness to come into men as well as to envelop them. By 
 an act of His sovereign grace acting through His Spirit He makes 
 Christ to be unto us " wisdom and righteousness, and sanctifica- 
 tion, and redemption." 
 
 *' To declare . . . his righteousness." " What is declaring of righ- 
 teousness ? It is like the declaring of His riches, not only so as to 
 show Himself as rich Himself, but so also as to make others rich, 
 or declaring of life, not that He only is Himself Uving, but also 
 that He makes the dead to live ; and of His power, not that He 
 only is powerful, but also that He makes the feeble powerful. So 
 also is the declaring of His righteousness, not only that He is Him- 
 self righteous, but that He also maketh them that are filled with 
 the putrefying sores of sin suddenly righteous . . . doubt not then, 
 for it is not of works, but of faith ; and shun not the righteousness 
 of God, for it is a blessing in two ways : it is easy and also open to 
 all men." (Chrysostom.) 
 
 27. " Where is boasting then ? It is excluded. By what law ? 
 of works ? Nay : but," &c. Why does the Apostle thus suddenly 
 bring in " boasting " ? Because boasting is the fruit of pride and 
 self-suf&ciency ; and the Apostle experienced in his inmost soul 
 that the doctrine of Salvation by grace through faith was a hum- 
 bhng doctrine, and he also saw and felt, from his own experience in 
 his Jewish state, that the doctrine which he was opposing, that 
 men were justified or saved by their own deeds, done in their own 
 
 F 
 
66 MAN JUSTIFIED BY FAITH. [Romans. 
 
 n Acts xiii. 38, 28 Therefore we conclude " that a man is iusti- 
 
 39, ver. 20, •' 
 
 21,22. ch. 
 
 viii. 3. Gal. 
 
 ii. 16. 
 
 28. " Therefore we conclude." So B., C, K., L., P.. most Carsives, Syriac ; but N, A., 
 D., E., F., G., several Cursives (5, 9, 33, 38, 39, and d, e, f, g), Vulg., Copt., Arm., read, 
 " for we conclude." 
 
 strength, apart from the strength of Christ, was a self-asserting 
 principle irreconcilable with His Divine Master's first beatitude, 
 " Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." 
 Boasting was the most prominent feature of the Jewish character. 
 It was most painfully conspicuous in the strictest professors. And 
 it was of all evil things within them (except covetousness) the most 
 contrary to the realization of God's grace as given to His creatures. 
 The whole evil, and indeed absurdity of boasting, is contained in 
 the Apostohc question, " Who maketh thee to differ from another, 
 and what hast thou that thou didst not receive ? Now, if thou 
 didst receive it, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received 
 it ? " i.e., " as if it was properly and strictly thine own." (1 Cor.iv. 7.) 
 " By what law ? of works ? Nay, but by the law of faith." The 
 law of faith excludes boasting or self-sufficiency, for its first func- 
 tion is to bring in all men guilty before God. All are in this re- 
 spect on a level. None who apprehend it in the least degree will 
 expect more from God on the ground that they have done more or 
 are more holy ; just as Httle will they presume that they have more 
 faith, more spiritual perception, clearer views, and so are entitled 
 to more consideration from God. The latter is the worst danger 
 to some in these days. 
 
 " Nothing in my hand I bring, 
 Simply to thy Cross I cling." 
 
 28. " Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith 
 without the deeds of the law." There is a difference of reading, as 
 will be seen by the critical note, some MSS. reading " therefore " 
 others " for." Boasting is excluded by the law of faith, for we 
 reckon that there is no room for it, because a man is justified by 
 faith apart from the deeds of the law, or 
 
 " Therefore," from aU that we have been saying, " we conclude 
 that a man is justified," &c. 
 
 " Justified by faith without the deeds of the law." Or rather 
 apart from, independent of, the deeds of the law. 
 
Chap. III.] WITHOUT THE DEEDS OF THE LAW. 67 
 fied by faith without the deeds of the law. 
 
 From the constant reference to the pretentiousness and boasting of 
 the Jews in the preceding verses, and from the question in the suc- 
 ceeding verse (29), we have no doubt that the Apostle by " the 
 works of the law " means the works of the Jewish law, moral as 
 well as ceremonial. 
 
 In commencing our remarks upon this most momentous verse, 
 we shall first have to ask whether "by faith without the works of 
 the law " St. Paul means faith alone, irrespective of anything 
 £lse in the man who is, or desires to be justified, i.e., irrespective of 
 the state of his soul. 
 
 It is impossible to believe such a thing for a moment, for a man's 
 faith, as good or bad, moral or immoral, depends upon the state of 
 the man's soul, whether penitent or impenitent, desirous to be rid of 
 all sin, or hoping that being justified he may continue in the sin 
 which he loves. 
 
 The faith of Mahometans, for instance, is in many respects 
 stronger, in appearance at least, than the faith of most Christians ; 
 but then it is a faith which in no respect purifies the heart. On the 
 contrary, it is the product of an impure heart looking to a god who 
 has no love for hohness, that the man may enjoy after death the 
 carnal dehghts of a sensual paradise. Now the faith of St. Paul is 
 the opposite of this. It is the faith of one to whom God has given 
 such a sense of sin that he earnestly desires to be delivered from its 
 guilt and power, and so he comes to God through Him Whom God 
 has set forth to be a propitiation, and through Him Whom God has 
 set forth to be within us the origin of a new life of real goodness 
 and holiness.^ The relation of faith to a previous repentance is 
 set forth in the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican. 
 
 The man who is not justified is the man who looks at himself 
 and his works with satisfaction, and asserts them even before God ; 
 the man who says " I am no adulterer or fornicator, I keep myself 
 chaste, I am honest and never take advantage of another in my 
 dealings, I never backbite or slander : give me the reward of my 
 just dealing," — this man continues unjustified. Whereas the man 
 who comes feeling and confessing, and deploring the sin of his past 
 
 1 For a full examinatioa of the relations of faith to the state of the soul, see my work 
 on " Justification of Life," chap. iii. 
 
68 FAITH ALONE. [Romans. 
 
 life, and throwing himself upon God's promises declared unto man- 
 kind in Christ Jesus, coming consciously by faith to God through 
 Christ, for pardon through His Blood, and grace and power to serve 
 God through Christ's strength worked in Him, this man is justified. 
 
 I put out of sight here the means of grace, for the means of grace 
 in the Christian Church — notably, the two great Sacraments — are 
 not works, but acts of grace and faith. They are acts of grace on 
 God's part, proffering to us membership with Christ, and His Body 
 and Blood to be our spiritual food and sustenance; and we submit 
 ourselves to this will of God, to give us His grace under such veils, 
 through faith, steadfastly believing the promises of God made to us 
 in the particular Sacrament which we receive. Again, it is quite 
 obvious that we cannot be justified without prayer ; and yet no 
 one that I ever heard of has said that we are justified, either partly 
 or wholly, by prayer. 
 
 Again, and lastly, St. Paul says that the only thing which 
 availeth before God is "faith which worketh by love " (Gal. v. 6) ; 
 and he very distinctly asserts that if a man have faith, so that he 
 could remove mountains (and he evidently means by this the 
 highest faith conceivable), and have not love, he is nothing. Now 
 men have asked, and disputed with, and anathematized one another 
 in their disputes on questions such as these. Does the love which is 
 united to the faith, or is mixed with it, or inherent in it, contribute 
 to the justification, or not ? Surely it is, to say the least, beyond 
 measure impertinent to entertain the question. "Whether there be 
 justifying faith, there is certainly no availing faith, no faith worth 
 anything, without love. We have nothing to do with such analyza- 
 tions, such dividings asunder of what is known only to God or to 
 His Word — quick, powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword 
 — Who alone discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart. 
 What we have to do is to see to it, that we remember, with respect 
 to forgiveness, that the great Dispenser of forgiveness has said : If 
 ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also 
 forgive your trespasses. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, 
 neither will your heavenly Father forgive you your trespasses. 
 
 •' When the expression, ' without the deeds of the law,' is used, 
 does this mean without the deeds of the ceremonial or the moral 
 law, or without the fruits of faith, or without love, or without 
 holiness? Or, when the Apostle says 'justified,' does he mean 
 thereby to distinguish 'justified' from 'sanctified,' or a first 
 
Chap. III.] ONE GOD WHO JUSTIFIES. 69 
 
 29 Is he the Grod of the Jews only ? is he not also of the 
 Gentiles ? Yes, of the G-entiles also : 
 
 30 Seeinsr ° it is one Grod, which shall iustify the " ch. x. 12, 13. 
 
 ° J ./ Qa.1. iii. 8, 20, 
 
 28. 
 
 30. " Seeing [i-trdnsp] it is one God." So D., E., F,, G., K., L., P., most Cursives ; but 
 K, A„ B., C, 5, 6, 47^^', 80, 137, &c., read, " If at least," (efcep) " surely," as implying no 
 doubt. 
 
 from a second justification, or to identify Justification with Bap- 
 tism, or with Conversion? On such questions, in past times, have 
 hung the fates of nations and of Churches. May we venture to 
 supply the Apostle's answer to them ? He might have replied that 
 he meant only that men were justified from within, not from with- 
 out ; from above, not from below ; by the grace of God, and not of 
 themselves; by Christ, not by the law; not by the burden of 
 ordinances, but by the power of an endless life." (Jowett.) 
 
 29. " Is he the God of the Jews only ? is he not also of the Gen- 
 tiles ? " If He be the God of the Gentiles, then He must desire the 
 moral well-being and salvation of the Gentiles. But this would 
 not be consistent with men being justified by the deeds of the law, 
 seeing that the Jews alone had as a body or nation that which could 
 be called "Law," whereas faith was the common faculty of all, 
 and when Jesus Christ was preached unto men, could be exercised 
 by all to their present regeneration and final salvation. 
 
 30. " Seeing it is one God which shall justify," &c. One God; and 
 so His method is one, i.e., justifying men, whether Jews or Gentiles, 
 by faith. 
 
 " Which shall justify the circumcision by faith and uncircum- 
 cision through (the) faith " — hterally, who shall justify the circum- 
 cision of faith (or, out of faith) and uncircumcision through the 
 faith. What is the reason for this difference, for reason there 
 must be ? The Apostle in part of one short verse speaks of the 
 justification of Jews as " of " or " from " faith, and that of the Gen- 
 tiles as "by the faith." The ancient commentators, Chrysostom 
 and Theodoret, take no notice of the difference ; most moderns also 
 say that we are to lay no stress upon the difference, and in some 
 way or other consider the terms as in reality synonymous. Origen, 
 however, cited by Dr. Gifford, says: "It is not to be supposed 
 that St. Paul has varied his use of prepositions at random ; " and, 
 as Dr. Gifford proceeds to say : " His use of the article is equally 
 free from caprice." 
 
70 BY FAITH — THROUGH THE FAITH. [Romans. 
 
 circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision throngh faith. 
 
 I believe that the key to the meaning of the passage is in the use 
 of the article before the second TrlarnoQ. Atd tTiq TrlanuiQ means 
 "through the faith," not faith, not their faith, but the faith — the 
 faith once delivered to the saints, the faith which was not revealed 
 till the coming of Christ, when it first "came " (Gal. iii. 23, 25). 
 The faith was the truth of Jesus Christ, which in its fuln^ess 
 could be more readily apprehended by the Gentiles than by 
 the Jews, simply because the mind of the Gentile was not pre- 
 occupied; it was as a tabula rasa — any belief which might have 
 remained in his mind respecting the old Gentile deities had 
 vanished utterly ; and the Christian conceptions respecting the 
 Trinity and the creation of the world by the Son, and His absolute 
 equality in nature with the Father, and the Divine Headship of 
 Christ over the Church, the people of God, could easily take its place ; 
 but it was by no means so with the Jew. He had been brought up 
 in, as he supposed, a system of strict Monotheism, and though there 
 are intimations that this Monotheism might be consistent with a 
 Second Person being included in this Unity, they are not very clear, 
 and so God dealt very tenderly with his ancient people. As He 
 permitted the Jewish converts to retain their sacrifices, their 
 Jewish purifications, their Temple service, so apparently He did not 
 impose on them at once and at the first the Catholic faith in all its 
 fulness, especially that part of it which sets forth the equality of 
 Christ with God, and His pre-existent state of glory in which He 
 had created all things. Now all this is clear from the comparison 
 of such books of Scripture as the Gospel of St. Matthew and the 
 Epistle of St. James, on the one side, with the Gospel of St. John and 
 the Epistle to the Colossians on the other. The Gospel of St. 
 Matthew contains no absolute explicit statement respecting the 
 Deity and pre-existence of Christ, and His creation of all things, 
 such as that with which St. John's Gospel begins. The Epistle of 
 St. James contains nothing like the theological doctrine respecting 
 the person and works of the Eternal Son which we have in the 
 Epistle to the Colossians. 
 
 But let me not be misunderstood. All the Divine glory of the 
 Eedeemer is contained by implication in the Gospel of Matthew 
 and the Epistle of James ; but it is certainly not on the surface of 
 these books — not on their front, so to speak— as it is with the others 
 
Chap, in.] DO WE MAKE VOID. 71 
 
 31 Do we tlien make void the law through faith? Grod 
 
 I have named. Could, then, the Christian Jews rest in a some- 
 what imperfect realization of the Saviour ? Certainly not ; and 
 they did not. If they followed on to know the Lord, and when 
 Judaism as a system was ready to vanish away, then they could 
 take in and assimilate such meat as the Epistle to the Hebrews. 
 So that, compared with them, the Gentiles were justified did Trjg 
 Triffreujg — the whole system of the Gospel considered as the indepen- 
 dent "law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus;" whereas, in the 
 case of the Jews, ^ Triang was not so pronounced and prominent. 
 It was rather Triarig which for some time had not its full comple- 
 ment in the Catholic faith — the faith once for all delivered to the 
 Saints.^ 
 
 31. *' Do we then make void the law through faith ? God for- 
 bid, "&c. This question seems to come in abruptly; but that would 
 not be altogether contrary to the usage of St. Paul. Some have 
 thought that what follows in the next chapter, respecting Abraham, 
 taken from the first book of the law, was an instance of that 
 establishing of the law by faith which is here asserted. And, if so, 
 it would be parallel to what we find in close connection with this 
 subject in GaL iv. : *' Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, 
 do ye not hear the law?" And then he proceeds to unfold the 
 instruction respecting the bondage of the law, and the freedom of 
 the Gospel, contained in the history of Abraham's household ; but 
 I think that we should rather take the question as one which 
 naturally occm-red to the Apostle's mind. He was profoundly alive 
 to the accusation of Antinomianism brought against the Gospel. 
 He alludes to it here but for a moment, and then sets it aside with 
 his emphatic M?) yevoiTo ; and then returns to it again in chap. vi. 
 and the beginning of chap. viii. And in chap. xiii. we find him 
 applying the law of the Second Table to all Christians, through the 
 summary of it in the law of love : " Thou shalt love thy neighbour 
 as thyself." 
 
 1 Of modern expositors Dr. Vaughan seems to come nearest to the truth. " I'x irtWeu/f, 
 of (as the ontgrowth of) faith. Sa tT}; irlrreui;, through (by means of) the Faith. The 
 two terms are equivalent and convertible, but they differ in form. The one is (1) faith, 
 the act of believing ; the other is (2) the faith, the object of belief in the Gospel. For 
 an illustration of the distinction see Gal. iii. 22-26, »W h e-Trayyehia. ex. '7r('<rr£iuf(l)'I>)o-ou 
 Xpirrov Soflf; . . . .irpo tou 5t IXfleTv rriV ir/oTtv (2) . . . . sJf -niv /;xi^Xoo<rav Tr/irrtv (2) airoxaXut)fl>iv«» .... 
 S'v« Ix virrBiv; Q) Suauu&w/xev .... i\6ovm( Js rUt irwrrewf (2) . . . . yfoi 0eoC erre Stot t^j mWeaif (*)." 
 
72 WE ESTABLISH THE LAW. [Komans. 
 
 forbid : yea, we establish the law. 
 
 How then did the preachers of Justification by faith, apart from 
 the works of the law, estabUsh the law ? They established the law 
 because they put it on a firmer and higher basis as a spiritual law. 
 They established it as a rule of outward and, at the same time, 
 inward life. They extended its application to the most secret 
 thoughts and intents of the heart ; above all, they estabUshed it 
 because they preached that men had through Christ a power of 
 fulfiUing it, and that, at the bar of Christ the Judge, they would be 
 examined as to whether they had spiritually, as well as literally, 
 lived in conformity with it, because of the new power and grace — 
 indeed, the new hfe — which they had received under the Gospel. 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 a Is. 11.2. T T THAT shall we say then that ^Abraham 
 
 Matt, iii, 9. \/\/ 
 
 say 
 
 John viii. 33, V V our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath 
 
 39. 2 Cor. xi. „ ' ' ^ ^ 
 
 22. found t 
 
 1. " Our father, as pertaining," &c. So D.,E., F., G., K., L., P., most Cursives, Vulg.» 
 d, e, f, g, &c. ; but N, A., B., C, 5, 10, 21, 137, Syr., Cop., Arm., read " forefather." 
 Respecting order of words, see below. 
 
 1. " What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertain- 
 ing to the flesh, hath found ? " Some take the words " as pertain- 
 ing to the flesh" with "hath found" — what shall we say that 
 Abraham hath found " as pertaining to the flesh," opposing " the 
 flesh" as meaning his unrenewed nature, to "the spirit" as 
 meaning faith ; but the Apostle has not mentioned hitherto the 
 opposition between flesh and spirit ; nor does he, till the seventh 
 chapter, so that the anticipation of it would be quite out of 
 place. 
 
 "Hath found," i.e., hath attained to, i.e., what righteousness or 
 justification, or acceptance with God hath he received, and how ? 
 
 The Apostle now proceeds to cite and argue upon the strongest 
 case conceivable in the eyes of the Jew. Abraham's righteousness 
 
Chap. IV.] ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD. 73 
 
 2 For if Abraham were ^ justified by works, he hath whereof 
 to glory ; but not before Grod. ^ ch. iii. 20, 
 
 3 For what saith the scripture ? ^ Abraham c Gen. xv. 6. 
 believed God, and it was counted unto him for ja*me'"ii. 23. 
 risfhteousness. 
 
 was considered by the Jew as thrown round and enveloping, or im- 
 puted to all his descendants {i.e., through Isaac and Jacob), so that 
 in the way of imputed righteousness he was to them as Christ is to 
 us. How stands the matter respecting Abraham's justification? 
 Cannot Abraham, at least, boast ? Has he not something to boast 
 of in himself, apart from the help or grace of God ? 
 
 2. " For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to 
 gloiy." By works, of course, are here meant works done before 
 justification or the reception of the Spirit of God — works done in 
 his own strength. 
 
 " But not before God." Even he cannot of himself stand before 
 God, much less boast before Him. 
 
 3. " For what saith the scripture ? Abraham believed God, and 
 it was counted," &c. This account of Abraham's faith is found in 
 Gen. XV. 6. He had had the promise that he should be the father 
 of many nations, and that his seed should possess the land of 
 Canaan, and that in his seed all the families of the earth should be 
 blessed, and yet the fulfilment of this had been delayed so long, 
 that, as regards the begetting of children, his body was now dead, 
 and so was the womb of Sarah. It was after he had generously 
 rescued Lot and the people of the cities of the plain from their 
 invaders, and had received the solemn blessing of Melchisedech the 
 priest of the most high God, the type of the Son of God in His 
 Sacerdotal and Kingly of6.ce, that the word of the Lord came unto 
 him in a vision : "Fear not, Abraham : I am thy shield, and thy 
 exceeding great reward," and to this Abraham replied, " Lord God, 
 what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward 
 of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus ? Behold, to me thou hast 
 given no seed, and lo one born in my house is mine heir. And behold 
 the word of the Lord came unto him, saying. This shall not be thine 
 heir ; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be 
 thine heir. And God brought him forth abroad [i.e., to the door of 
 his tent] and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if 
 
74 TO HIM THAT WORKETH NOT. [Romans. 
 
 4 Now •* to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned 
 d ch. xi. 6. of grace, but of debt. 
 
 5 But to him that worketh not, but believeth 
 e Josh, xxiv.2. on him that justifieth ^the ungodly, his faith is 
 counted for righteousness. 
 
 thou be able to number them : and God said to Abraham, So shall 
 thy seed be. And Abraham beheved in the Lord, and he counted 
 it to him for righteousness." 
 
 This the Apostle takes as meaning that he was justified by faith, 
 and not by works, and it is the one single place where the justifica- 
 tion of Abraham, or righteousness being imputed to him, is men- 
 tioned : the extraordinary significance of this we shall soon see. 
 
 4. "Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of 
 grace, but of debt." The workman who works for hire receives 
 his reward, i.e., his hire, not as a thing given to him out of bene- 
 volence or charity, but as a debt due to him. St. Paul by saying 
 this here, very emphatically separates Abraham from the number 
 of those who served God for rewards of any sort. 
 
 5. " But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that 
 justifieth the ungodly," &c. The solemn accounting of Abraham's 
 faith for righteousness, i.e., his justification by faith, took place (and 
 designedly so on God's part) when Abraham did nothing in the 
 way of work, but only came out at God's bidding to the door of his 
 tent, and believed in the promise of God that his seed should be as 
 the stars of heaven for multitude. Considered with regard to 
 external circumstances, it was as bare an act of faith as could well 
 be imagined : considered, however, with respect to what took place 
 in Abraham's soul, it was indeed a faith which removed mountains; 
 but on this we shall find opportunity to say something when we 
 come to verses 19, 21. Now the significance of this reckoning of 
 Abraham's faith to him for righteousness will be apparent when 
 we consider that there are three instances of Abraham's faith re- 
 corded — the first and third of these, accompanied by marvellous acts 
 of self-denial and self-surrender ; the second, on the contrary, with- 
 out any work accompanying it, was when he took God at His 
 word. The first of these works was when he left his country and his 
 kindred and father's house and lived as a stranger in a strange land, 
 the third when in intention he offered up his son Isaac on the altar ; 
 
Chap. IV.] GOD IMPUTETH. 75 
 
 6 Even as David also describetli the blessedness of tlie 
 man, unto whom God impnteth righteousness without works, 
 
 7 Saying, ^ Blessed are they whose iniquities are ^ ps. xxxU. 
 forgiven, and whose sins are covered. 
 
 8 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. 
 
 but no word is said by St. Paul of his justification in connection with 
 either of these ; whereas, in connection with the second, when he sim- 
 ply believed that his seed should be as the stars of heaven for multi- 
 tude, an expression is used, unique in the Old Testament, "He be- 
 lieved in the Lord, and he counted it to him for righteousness." So 
 unique, I say, is the expression that it startles us. It seems a 
 verse of the New Testament interpolated into the Old. And in 
 point of fact this is not far from the truth, when we remember that 
 St. Paul writes a little farther on, " It was not written for his sake 
 alone, that it was imputed to him, but for us also." There is but 
 one place in the Old Testament which, as regards the efficacy of 
 faith, can come near to it, " The just shall live by faith," and this 
 has been already cited by the Apostle (Kom. i. 17). 
 
 6-8. " Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, 
 unto whom God imputeth righteousness .... will not impute sin." 
 The second case which the Apostle cites as teaching the same 
 lesson is that of David in Psalm xxxii. 
 
 There is no direct mention in this quotation of God imputing 
 faith as righteousness to David, but the imputation takes a negative 
 form. The man who wrote the Psalm had evidently sinned most 
 grievously (verses 5, 6), and yet the Lord had not imputed sin to 
 him, because He had treated him as if he had not sinned, i.e., He 
 had wiped away or blotted out his sin, and having done this, God 
 treated the man as if he were righteous. Now, why had the Lord 
 so passed over the man's sin ? Evidently because he had acknow- 
 ledged and confessed it, as we are told in so many words in verses 5 
 and 6. But as evidently the whole Psalm bears testimony that 
 God imputed the Psalmist's faith to him as righteousness, because 
 there is no Psalm which in so short a space expresses such deep — 
 one may say such Evangelical — faith in God. The Psalmist from 
 beginning to end makes no mention of any works of his own, but 
 simply and merely expresses his faith in God, and throws himself 
 upon His mercy. 
 
76 HOW WAS IT RECKONED ? [Romans. 
 
 9 Cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only^ 
 or upon the uncircumcision also ? for we say that faith was 
 reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. 
 
 10 How was it then reckoned ? when he was in circum- 
 cision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in 
 uncircumcision. 
 
 " I said, I will confess my sins unto the Lord, and so thou for- 
 gavest the iniquity of my sin. . . . Thou art a place to hide me in, 
 thou shalt compass me about with songs of deUverance," and above 
 all, verse 10, " Whoso putteth his trust in the Lord, mercy em- 
 braceth him on every side." 
 
 There is one passage in the Psalm to be noted : I said that justi- 
 fication, though in no respect depending upon works, depends upon 
 the state of a man's soul in God's sight, and this is acknowledged by 
 the Psalmist in the latter clause of the verse quoted by the Apostle 
 in the words, " and in whose spirit there is no guile." Now this 
 undoubtedly means that the justified man whom the utterer of the 
 Psalm represents, was sincere in his profession both of a sense of 
 sin and of trust in God, and in fact that God should justify a man 
 dishonest and insincere, or hypocritical either in profession or 
 practice, is a thing not to be named. 
 
 9, 10. " Cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision . . , 
 not in circumcision but in uncircumcision." This blessedness 
 means this declaration of blessing, this beatification, as some 
 render it. 
 
 The Apostle here anticipates an objection which a Jew was sure 
 to make. The Jew would say, was not Abraham circumcised ? and 
 60 was he not imder the law ? and though that law might not have 
 been given in full till some four hundred years after, still, being 
 circumcised, was he not under the dispensation of the law ? was 
 he not at any rate under a covenant of works ? The Jew, in order 
 that he might exalt the sign and seal of the Mosaic covenant ignored 
 all the life of Abraham till his circumcision ; his blessedness, his 
 covenant with God only dating reaUy, in the Jew's eyes, from the 
 moment of his circumcision. Now St. Paul does not aUow this for 
 a moment. He reminds the Jew that God imputed righteousness 
 to Abraham, ■i.e., He justified him, long before he was circumcised, 
 ijertainly thirteen years before, perhaps more : for Abraham was 
 
Chap. IV.] THE SIGN OF CIRCUMCISION. 77 
 
 11 And ^he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of 
 
 the righteousness of the faith which he had yet « Gen. xvii. 
 
 being uncircumcised : that ^ he might be the h Luke xix, 9. 
 
 father of all them that believe, though they be Gai*. iu.' 7. ' 
 not circumcised; that righteousness might be 
 imputed unto them also : 
 
 justified on his believing the word of God respecting the number of 
 his seed, and then there intervened the birth of Ishmael, and when 
 Ishmael was thirteen years old Abraham circumcised him along 
 with himself (Gen. xvii. 25). What then was circumcision to 
 Abraham? The Apostle answers, 
 
 11. " And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righ- 
 teousness," &c. So then not only was Abraham justified before he 
 was circumcised, but his very circumcision witnessed to the value 
 of his previous righteousness, for God would not make a solemn 
 religious covenant with an unrighteous man, that is, a man Hving 
 wilfully and determinedly in unrighteousness. But what was Abra- 
 ham's righteousness previous to his circumcision ? It was a righ- 
 teousness of faith, not of the law, i.e., it was a righteousness whose 
 root was an acceptance of the promises of God, which raised up 
 Abraham's soul to God and united him to God, and when the need 
 came it appeared in fruits of outward righteousness utterly beyond 
 the power of any mere law to produce, as, for instance, his offering 
 of his son. His circumcision then was the seal of the approval 
 with which God regarded his faith and its fruits, which were the 
 fruits of a higher principle by far than that of the normal Jew, or 
 of the servant who works for hire, or of the slave who works 
 through fear. 
 
 But there was a further reason for God's action in justifying 
 Abraham before his circumcision. The principle of justification by 
 faith was for some time to be somewhat in abeyance, when God 
 brought in the law (Eom. v. 20, Gal. iii. 19, 23), but this was only 
 for a time. As soon as God had reconciled the world to Himself, 
 and Christ His Son had sent His Apostles to preach the Gospel to all, 
 then the old principle of righteousness through faith was restored, 
 and God had prepared for its restoration by causing that the great 
 Father of His chosen people should receive justification before he 
 received circumcision ; by this enabling Abraham to be the father 
 
78 THE HEIR OF THE WORLD. [Romans. 
 
 12 And the father of circumcision to them who are not of 
 the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that 
 faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet un- 
 circumcised. 
 i Gen. xvii. 4, 13 For the promise, that he should be the ^heir 
 
 &c. Gal. iii. ■■• 
 
 29. of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, 
 
 through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. 
 
 of all them that believe, in order that, apart from the law, they 
 might receive justification through faith as Abraham had. 
 
 12. " And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the 
 circumcision only," &c. There is a doubt respecting the exact 
 meaning of this verse. It may mean, "And the father of circum- 
 cision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but to those 
 also who walk in the footsteps of that faith of our father Abraham 
 which he had when he was justified in the state of uncircumcision." 
 In this case the latter clause would refer to the faithful Gentiles, 
 whose uncircumcision would then be counted for circumcision, so 
 as to make them the children of Abraham, so that then Abraham 
 would be the father of all the faithful. 
 
 Or the verse may mean. The father of circumcision not to them 
 who are of the circumcision only, i.e., who have the bare rite and 
 nothing more, but have also the circumcision of the heart, who 
 " walk in the steps of that faith," &c. In the former case the 
 fatherhood of Abraham is extended to all the faithful uncircum- 
 cised. In the latter, the fatherhood of Abraham is restricted to 
 those Jews who walked in the steps of Abraham's faith, according to 
 our Lord's words (John viii. 39), *' If ye were Abraham's children 
 ye would do the works of Abraham." The latter meaning seems 
 most in accordance with strict grammatical accuracy. 
 
 Both meanings are true. Abraham is the spiritual father of all 
 the faithful, but only of the faithful. It is an absolutely Catholic 
 principle, one of the most general application, that faith, which is 
 the faculty of the soul which recognizes God and Christ, and the 
 unseen and eternal world, is the only ground of acceptance with 
 God. 
 
 13. " For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, 
 was," &c. The promise to Abraham that he should be the heir of 
 the world can only be the promise that the Messiah, Who should 
 
Chap. IV.] FAITH MADE VOID. 79 
 
 14 For "^if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is 
 made void, and the promise made of none effect : ^ Oai. iii. is. 
 
 have universal dominion, and in Whom all families of the earth 
 should be blessed, should be his seed ; but this promise was given 
 to him long before he was circumcised, and long (400 years) before 
 the promulgation of the law ; so that whatever righteousness he had 
 then was not through circumcision, which might be taken to be a 
 sort of anticipation of the covenant of Sinai, much less through the 
 covenant of Sinai itself, but through faith. It was a free, loving, 
 fihal laying hold of the promises of God, a realization of His 
 holy character, and a determination to hve with a view to His 
 approval. 
 
 14. " For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made 
 void, and the promise," &c. It seems impossible to suppose 
 that by the law, or rather " law," St. Paul means anything else 
 than the law of Moses. Some suppose that he means law in 
 the abstract, but St. Paul never opposes law, taken abstractedly, to 
 the Gospel. The law written on the heart — the natural law — is 
 never, as far as I can remember, set by him against the Gospel as 
 the law of Moses always is. We must then take this to mean what 
 in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred law means, the law of the 
 Ten Commandments. If they which are under the dispensation of 
 the law, pure and simple, are heirs, faith is made void. What is 
 faith which is here made void ? The word in the Greek has the 
 article just as "promise" has, and the sentence should be trans- 
 lated " The faith is made void, and the promise made of none 
 effect." In this case faith would have the same meaning as it has 
 in Gal. iii. 23, 25 ; and would signify the dispensation of faith — the 
 dispensation of the Gospel — the faith once for all delivered to the 
 saints ; this would be made void, if the law made men heirs of 
 glory, for in that case there would be no reason for the setting 
 aside of the law and the introduction of the Gospel. A further con- 
 sideration will make plain the opposition of the faith to the law in 
 which the Apostle insists. Under the law faith (taken subjectively) 
 was never made void, for it was that disposition of soul which 
 made the keeping of the law, even in an imperfect way, acceptable 
 to God. For instance, what use would the keeping of the first com- 
 mandment be if the man who professed to keep it merely abstained 
 from recognizing any other gods, but did not beheve Jehovah to be 
 
80 THE LAW WORKETH WRATH. [Romans 
 
 » ch. Hi. 20. & 15 Because ' the law worketh wrath : for where 
 
 8. 10. n I no law is, there is no transgression. 
 
 Cor. XV. 56. 
 
 Gal. iji. 10, 19. 
 
 1 John iii. 4. 
 
 15. " For (yap) where no law is." So D., E.. F., G., K., L., P., most Cursires, d, e, f, 
 g, Vnlg., Syriac ; but N, A., B., C, 10, 31, 80, 124, Copt., read, " bat." " But where na 
 law is," &c. 
 
 the one living and true God? Faith then, to a certain extent, 
 existed all through the older dispensation, but the faith did not. It 
 came only when Christ was preached. It consisted in the procla- 
 mation of the Gospel — that the Son of God was, for our Salvation, 
 Incarnate, Crucified, Eisen, and Ascended. This was proposed to 
 men that they should accept it, and be regenerated and renewed by 
 it. The acceptance of it made them enter into all the redeeming 
 love of God. Now if the law had been able to do all that " the 
 faith " did, why should God set it aside as a means of justification ? 
 If the law then justified men, and made them heirs of the king- 
 dom, the faith was useless. Christ came and died and rose again 
 in vain. 
 
 " The promise made of none effect." This probably means that 
 if only those under the law, i.e., Israelites after the flesh, were the 
 seed of Abraham, then the promise that he should be the heir of 
 the world came to nothing, or it may mean that if all mankind 
 were to be saved through the law, then there was no need of any 
 promise. The Apostle opposes the law and the promise in Gala- 
 tians iii. 18, " If the inheritance be of the law it is no more of pro- 
 mise, but God gave it to Abraham by promise." Abraham was justi- 
 fied by faith, and received the promise of the inheritance long before 
 the law came in ; and so both his justification and his inheritance 
 of the world through his seed must be independent of the law. 
 
 15. " Because the law worketh wrath ; for where no law is, there 
 is no transgression." Why does the law work wrath ? Because it 
 calls down punishment upon offenders. This effect of the law is 
 not in the law itself, but in the evil nature of those who come under 
 it. It convinces them of sin, but has no offers of mercy in itself 
 whereby their sins may be pardoned and the power of evil habits 
 broken. These offers of mercy belong to another system, that of 
 grace, or of the Gospel, which, in some respects, was anticipated, 
 though very imperfectly, in the atoning sacrifices of the law. In 
 another way also the law works wrath, for owing to the rebellion 
 
Chap. IV.] OF FAITH — BY GRACE. 81 
 
 16 Therefore it is of faith, that it might he ™by grace; "^to 
 the end the promise might be sure to all the "* ch. lu. 24. 
 
 n Gal. iii. 22. 
 
 against God inherent in our fallen nature, it irritates us into dis- 
 obedience. This, however, I shall have many opportunities of con- 
 sidering further on in this Epistle. 
 
 " Where no law is, there is no transgression." Children, idiots, 
 and the inferior creatures not being able to apprehend any law, are 
 not held to be responsible for their actions. The heathen also 
 having no direct revelation respecting the Unity of the Divine 
 Essence, could not be held to be so sinful as the Jews if they 
 worshipped the gods which their fathers worshipped. 
 
 16. " Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace ; to the 
 end the promise might be sure to all the seed," &c. " Therefore," 
 i.e., from all the preceding argument. All that the Apostle has 
 hitherto written culminates in this, that the law being mere com- 
 mand to do right without imparting grace to obey to creatures 
 whose nature was weakened through sin, could not justify, and be- 
 sides this it could not justify because it was the means of convict- 
 ing those to whom it came of sin, and was further the means of 
 calhng out the sinfulness of their nature. This law, good and holy 
 though it was, as coming from God, must be superseded if all men 
 were to be justified before God and inherit Eternal Life. But 
 what could supersede it ? Evidently something which satisfied 
 these two conditions : first, that it could be attainable by all ; and 
 secondly, that it could impart perfect reconciliation and forgiveness 
 to those who had sinned, and grace and power to those who are 
 weak. Now all this was in the Gospel of the Son of God. It is 
 the good news of the Eternal Son coming amongst us, clothing 
 Himself with our nature, in His life amongst us manifesting the 
 righteousness of God, dying for us as our Sacrifice for sin, rising 
 again to assure us that He had fully atoned for all sin, and 
 could also impart to us the virtue and power of His risen life, and all 
 this to be given to us at once, on our believing it. So that it is " of 
 •Trace " in this way, that a circumcised Jew and an uncircumcised 
 Gentile are at once put on the same level. If they believe and 
 are baptized they are made members of Christ, and they cannot be 
 made anything greater ; and, besides this, they have not to wait for 
 one, or two, or three years, or even months, whilst they are doing good 
 works which may entitle them to be made members of Christ, but 
 
 a 
 
82 THE FATHER OF US ALL. [Romans. 
 
 seed ; not to that only wliicb is of the law, but to that also 
 o isai. u. 2. which is of the faith of Abraham ; ° who is the 
 father of us all, 
 
 they are without further delay entitled to be grafted into His mystical 
 Body in order that they may bring forth fruit unto God. Now God 
 has ordained that for the salvation of every soul this should be ap- 
 prehended by faith, that faith which God has given to all human 
 beings as the means by which they apprehend the things of the 
 eternal world when they are duly presented to them, and this for 
 a. further reason, that it may be " by grace," that is, that they may 
 receive all from God's hands as a free gift ; for it makes the very 
 greatest difference in our conception of God whether we look upon 
 Him as an open-handed, generous God, or as one Who gives the 
 gifts pertaining to salvation tardily, sparingly, almost grudgingly, 
 demanding something first before He bestows even His first gifts. 
 
 In such wise are the words, " it is of faith that it might be by 
 grace," to be understood. But the Apostle proceeds further, "that 
 the promise might be sure to all the seed, not to tbat only which is 
 of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham." 
 What is the faith of Abraham ? At first we should suppose that it 
 was his faith in God as fulfilling His promise, " so shalt thy seed 
 be," and we know also that the true fulfilment of this promise was 
 bound up in the coming of the Messiah out of his loins, because it 
 was only through the Messiah that he became the father of all 
 the faithful, a family infinitely more numerous than the legal or 
 Israelitish family : but must we not look to the next verse, or rather 
 the following verses, for the true interpretation ? What did Abraham 
 really believe, if he believed in the promise that the seed of his 
 own body should be as numerous as the stars ? Evidently in God 
 as the Quickener of the dead, and having in His mind the whole 
 temporal and spiritual seed which should result through that resto- 
 ration to life of what was dead in Abraham's body. Now if there 
 be one thing in the dealings of God with man upon which the 
 Apostle would fix the eye of our faith, it is upon God quickening 
 the dead Body of the Lord Jesus, and through His power quicken- 
 ing first the dead souls, and then the dead bodies of those in Jesus. 
 The same faith in God as the Quickener of the dead which enabled 
 Abraham to embrace God's promise, enables the Christian now to 
 
Chap. IV.] GOD WHO QUICKENETH THE DEAD. 83 
 
 17 (As it is written, ^I have made thee a father of many 
 nations.) 11 before him whom he believed, even p (*en. xvii, s. 
 
 II Or, like unto 
 
 God, ** who qiiickeneth the dead, and calleth those Mm. 
 
 ' things which be not as though they were. EphesT'il'. i, 5, 
 
 18 Who against hope believed in hope, that he J ^^-^^^z ^^• 
 might become the father of many nations, ac- ^ p^*- "• i^- 
 cording to that which was spoken, ^ So shall thy » Gen. xv. 5, 
 seed be. 
 
 embrace the infinitely greater promises of which the Lord's quick- 
 ened Body is the assurance. And so Abraham, because his belief 
 rested in God as the Quickener of the dead, is the father of us all. 
 An examination of verses 16, 17, 20-24, will show the truth of 
 this. 
 
 17. " As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations." 
 This is thrown in by the way, as it were, and is valuable as show- 
 ing that the many nations were not the fleshly descendants of 
 different tribes, as Ishmaelites and Edomites, but the children of 
 God scattered throughout all the world. 
 
 " Before him whom he beheved." This follows upon " The father 
 of many nations." In the sight of God, Who knows all who through 
 faith will belong to Him, though Abraham was then childless, he 
 was yet, in the eyes of God, the father of the whole family of the 
 faithful. 
 
 " Whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and 
 calleth those things," &c. Godet well remarks: "The two divine attri- 
 butes on which the faith of Abraham fastened at this decisive mo- 
 ment were the power to quicken, and the power to create. It was, 
 indeed, in this twofold character that God presented Himself when 
 He addressed to him the words quoted : * I have made thee ' — here 
 is the assurance of a Eesurrection — ' father of many nations,' here is 
 the promise of a creation . . ,. It is in the Patriarch's own person, 
 already a centenarian, and his wife almost as old as he, that a resur- 
 rection must take place if the Divine promise is to be fulfilled." 
 
 18. " Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become 
 the father," &c. " Against hope," i.e., against all earthly human 
 hope, all natural hope, all human probability. 
 
 *' Beheved in hope." Believed in God's words, and so his hope 
 rested in his belief in God's faithfulness and power. 
 
84 NOT WEAK IN FAITH. [Romans. 
 
 19 And being not weak in faith, *he considered not his 
 t Gen. xAii. 17. own bodj now dead, when he was about an hiin- 
 Heb. x'i. li, dred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah*3 
 womb : 
 
 19. '* He considered not." So D., E., F., A., K., L., P., most Cxirsives (d, e, f, g) ; but 
 
 N, A., B., C, 67**, 93, 137, Vnlg. (Cod. Amiat.), Syriac, Copt., omit "not." 
 
 Notice how in this first and greatest act of faith the true nature 
 of faith shines forth in the father of the faithful. It is the evidence 
 of things not seen. According to nature — according to all the 
 sequences, or so-called laws of nature — Abraham could have no 
 son, but Abraham beheved in God, Who being the Author of 
 nature could order it as He pleased ; above all he believed that He 
 could quicken that which was dead. Now all nature with one 
 voice proclaims the absolutely universal and irreversible law that 
 life cannot be restored to the dead, whereas the first truth which 
 the faith of Abraham grasps, is that God quickens the dead. 
 
 " That he might become the father of many nations," &c. " That 
 he might become " should be rendered " in order that he might 
 become." The exercise of his faith on his part was the con- 
 dition on which so infinite an honour was bestowed upon him by 
 God. 
 
 If God can set aside or reverse this sequence — this so-called 
 "law of nature " — He can reverse or set aside all. Nothing can 
 be impossible which He promises. 
 
 19, 20. " And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own 
 body," &c. " He considered not," that is, " he took no account of " — 
 his own deadness as regards the begetting of children presented no 
 difficulty. Such seems the only possible meaning in accordance 
 with what has gone before, especially in verses 17, 18 ; but here we 
 have to face the fact that the principal Uncial MSS. omit the 
 " not," and read, " he considered (or took into account) the dead- 
 ness of his own body, and the deadness of Sarah's womb." So 
 that in this case we should paraphrase it: "Being not weak in 
 faith, he realized his deadness in the matter of procreation ; and 
 yet, notwithstanding this, he was not moved from his faith, be- 
 lieving that nothing is impossible with God." 
 
 In the former case, retaining the negative " not," reference is made 
 to Genesis xv. 6, where there is no hesitation on the part of Abra- 
 
Chap. rV.] GIVING GLOKY TO GOD. 85 
 
 20 He staggered not at tlie promise of Grod through un- 
 belief ; but was strong in faith, p-iving glory to Grod : 
 
 21 And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, 
 •he was able also to perform. " ps. cxv. 3. 
 
 ^ Luke 1. 37, 45. 
 Heb. xi. 19. 
 
 ham expressed or implied ; but if the negative is to be omitted, 
 then it is supposed that the Apostle has in his mind Genesis xvil, 
 where after God had promised that the seed should come from 
 Sarah, Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his 
 heart. Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old, 
 and shall Sarah that is ninety years old bear ? So that here we 
 have a shght staggering at the promise, not as it was originally de- 
 livered, "so shall thy seed be," but that this seed should proceed 
 from Sarah. Abraham did not for a moment doubt respecting the 
 original promise of Genesis xv. 6 ; but he evidently thought that it 
 might come to pass through Ishmael, for he prayed, " that 
 Ishmael might hve before thee ! " St. Paul then must, I think, 
 have written, " He considered not," whichwould be perfectlytrue of 
 the original promise at the tent door, but not so absolutely true of 
 the promise of Gen. xvii., which limited the performance to the 
 child of Sarah. 
 
 *' But was strong in faith, giving glory to God." "Was strong 
 in faith." " See the pertinacity of Paul. For since the discourse 
 was about those that work and those that believe, he shows that 
 the behever works more than the other, and requires more power 
 [from God], and great strength, and sustains no common degree of 
 labour. For they (the Jews) counted faith worthless, as having no 
 labour in it. Insisting, then, upon this (that the believer requires 
 more power) he shows that it is not only he that succeeds in tem- 
 perance, or any other virtue of this sort, but he who displays 
 faith also who requires even greater power. For as the one re- 
 quires strength to break off the reasonings of intemperance, so hath 
 the faithful also need of a soul endued with power that he may 
 thrust aside the suggestions of unbelief. How, then, did he become 
 strong ? By trusting the matter (he replies) to faith, and not to 
 reasonings : else he had fallen." (Chrysostom.) 
 
 *' Giving glory to God:" 
 
 21. " And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he 
 was able," &c. Nothing so glorifies God as behef in His Divine 
 
86 IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS. [Romans. 
 
 22 And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. 
 
 Attributes. Now by this act of faith Abraham beheved in God's 
 truth, His power, His fore-knowledge, His all-ruHng providence, 
 and His goodness. 
 
 *' And being fully persuaded that what he had promised," &c. 
 "What was it that impressed Abraham with this belief in God ? 
 Evidently constant intercourse with Him. We do not know the 
 nature of God's revelations of Himself to Abraham, but when God 
 chose him at the first He chose a noble soul, fitted to receive all 
 that God taught him respecting Himself, desirous of rising up 
 to the greatness of the revelations vouchsafed to him. See how 
 Abraham realized God as a God Who hears and answers prayer in 
 his intercession for Sodom. See how Abraham realized the justice 
 of God's character when he exclaimed, " Shall not the judge of all 
 the earth do right ?" Quesnel says of his faith : " A faith ready with 
 respect to the most difficult things ; undisturbed amidst all the 
 contradictions of human reason ; obedient, so far as to sacrifice 
 everything, persevering under the severest trials ; and constant and 
 faithful amidst the infidelity of the rest of the world : this is the 
 fulness of Abraham's faith : let us study to imitate it that we may 
 be the true children of God." (Quesnel.) 
 
 22. " And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness." 
 We must now carefully consider in what sense faith could be 
 accounted, or reckoned, or imputed unto him for righteousness. 
 
 Now, first of all, it is quite clear that neither faith nor anything 
 else could be reckoned by a righteous God to Abraham in lieu of, or 
 instead of, his ultimately possessing any branch or sort of righteous- 
 ness which an intelligent creature of God ought to possess ; take, 
 for instance, one thing, which shall be the righteous bringing up 
 of, or ruling of, or instructing a family — God, long after He had 
 counted Abraham's faith to him as righteousness, said of Abra- 
 ham, " I know him that he will command his children and his 
 household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do 
 justice and judgment, that the Lord may bring upon Abraham 
 that which he hath spoken of him " (Gen. xviii. 19). And, again, 
 if anything could be imputed to any intelligent creature of God 
 which should be instead of his possessing some department of 
 righteousness, that creature would be irremediably injured by it, be- 
 cause it is to the infinite advantage of any intelligent being that he 
 
Chap. IV.] IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS. 87 
 
 should be morally perfect, because being so he is in accord with the 
 great governing Spirit of the universe. How, for instance, can the 
 righteousness of Christ be imputed to us so that He should be our 
 righteousness, in the sense of honesty or uprightness, whilst we are 
 rogues ? He our purity, whilst we are filthy in heart or life ? He 
 our love or charity, whilst we bite and devour one another ? The 
 idea cannot be entertained for a moment. And yet in one shape or 
 another it is practically entertained by vast numbers of professing 
 Christians. 
 
 Again, if faith is imputed to Abraham, or any other person, for 
 righteousness, that faith must be on the side of righteousness, or 
 calculated, if persevered in, to produce righteousness, or to end in 
 righteousness. The faith which can be imputed for righteousness 
 cannot be indijfferent to righteousness. On the contrary, it must 
 proceed from a soul in its very depths renouncing sin and desirous 
 of righteousness, and in the case of the Christian it must be directed 
 to, and be fastened upon, a Saviour Whose mission is to implant and 
 perfect righteousness in His people. Consequently that faith cannot 
 be imputed for righteousness, which merely or mainly looks upon 
 Christ as a substitute, so that He should be righteous for us whilst 
 we wilfully or knowingly continue unrighteous ; but that faith only 
 can be imputed for righteousness which regards Him as come to 
 make good in each man's case His own beatitude, " Blessed are 
 they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall 
 be fiUed." 
 
 Now the faith which could be imputed unto Abraham for righteous- 
 ness was one which could be imputed in no arbitrary, or forensic, or 
 unreal way, but which could naturally be so imputed by One Who 
 was able to discern it in all its issues — in all its capacities for good. 
 If we in our poor way can impute to a seed which we know to 
 have the germ of life in it the beauty and fruitfulness of the future 
 plant, and so impute life to it as to treat it as if it had the capaci- 
 ties of a living organism latent within it, much more could God, 
 looking into the capacities for good of Abraham's faith, impute it 
 to him for righteousness: and God, if one may so speak, was justified 
 in so doing, for in due time this faith which could believe in God's 
 multiplying the seed of a childless man, so that it should be as the 
 stars of heaven, moved Abraham to surrender at God's bidding his 
 son, his only son, whom he loved, accounting that God was able to 
 raise him from the dead. 
 
88 NOT FOR HIS SAKE ALONE. [Romans. 
 
 28 Now ^ it was not written for his sake alone, that it was 
 
 1 cor^* 6 11 i^P^t'^^J- ^^ ^^ > 
 
 24 But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, 
 7 Acts ii. 84. if WO believe ^ on him that raised up Jesus our 
 
 & xiii. 30. 
 
 Lord from the dead ; 
 
 23. •* Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was im- 
 puted," &c. It was not written merely for Abraham's honour, or 
 the credit of his faith. 
 
 24. " But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe 
 on him," &c. This means not only that he should be an example 
 of faith, that, imitating his faith, we should be justified, but rather 
 that it was recorded as a precedent, that, as so eminent a servant 
 of God was justified by his faith, so should we be — that as one so 
 loved of God had not whereof to glory, so should we lay aside all 
 reliance on self and supposed merit, and plead only the merits of 
 the Son of God. 
 
 " If we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the 
 dead." 
 
 25. " Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again," 
 &c. There is a certain parallel hinted at between the justification 
 of Abraham and ours, in that in each case belief rested on restora- 
 tion of life. In Abraham's case it was God Who restored to Ufe the 
 virtual deadness, as regards procreation, of the bodies of Abraham 
 and Sarah — in ours it is God Who restored the Body of Jesus to life. 
 
 But why is not our faith directed to the Death of the Son of 
 God, seeing that by it we are redeemed ? Because faith in the 
 death of a man would be no faith at all. Death is natural to every 
 human being. It is appointed unto all men once to die ; so that 
 faith in so natural a thing as a man's death would be nothing, 
 whereas faith in the Lord's Eesurrection as brought about by the 
 express will and power of God, is faith in what is not only unseen 
 and supernatural, but in the highest imaginable sphere of the un- 
 seen and supernatural. It is faith in the highest action of God in 
 a matter which most deeply concerns His faithfulness and truth. 
 God had promised a Eedeemer from sin and death ; Jesus Christ 
 in His holy teaching and mighty works exhibited all that could be 
 expected of such a Eedeemer, but He Bucoumbed to death. How 
 then could He redeem from sin and the grave ? The answer is, God 
 
Chap. IV.] DELIVERED FOR OUR OFFENCES. 89 
 
 25 * Wlio was delivered for our offences, and * i"- liii- 5, 6. 
 
 ch. iii. 25. & 
 T. 6. &Tiii.32. 
 aCor. V. 21. 
 
 Gal. i. 4. Heb. 
 
 ix. 28. 1 Pet. 
 ii.24. &iii. 18. 
 
 raist " Him from the dead. He had staked the truth of His claims 
 as th . 'on of God, and the Ransom for Sin, and the Imparter of 
 Life on God's raising Him from the dead. God did so raise Him, 
 and thereby acknowledged Him to be His own and very Son — the 
 Ransom from Sin and the Imparter of Life. And so our faith is 
 fixed not only on the Son but on the Father, according to the Lord's 
 words, "He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me 
 hath everlasting life " (John v. 24). And again, "He that believeth 
 on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me " (John xii. 44). 
 
 It seems to me a grave misfortune that the belief in Jesus has 
 been so often practically separated from that in God the Father. 
 The belief in Jesus, as man, and so capable of receiving human 
 affections, has too often degenerated into fanaticism, fastening upon 
 what is human in the Lord to the exclusion of what is Divine in 
 His relations to His Father, whereas it would not have been so if 
 the ultimate object of faith had been the Eternal Father. Deep- 
 seated awe and reverence would have rendered fanaticism and 
 irreverent familiarity impossible. The ultimate Object of all intelli- 
 gent faith must be God the Father — God the Father sending His 
 Son, laying our sins on His Son, raising Him from the dead, 
 exalting Him to His Right Hand, and committing all judgment to 
 Him. 
 
 25. " Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for 
 our justification." Here, in this most important conclusion of St. 
 Paul's argument, as elsewhere, the functions of the Death and 
 Resurrection are distinguished. He died for, or on account of, our 
 sins — to make atonement for them. He rose again for our justifica- 
 tion, i.e.f to make us partakers of Justification of Life. 
 
 This is the only possible meaning of the passage. It has been 
 explained (by Bishop Horsley in the last century and Godet in this) 
 that He died for our offences, i.e., because we had sinned, and He 
 rose again for our justification, because He had justified the world 
 or the Elect. But this is impossible if we adhere to Scripture ; for 
 all for whom He died are not justified — if, that is, justification is of 
 life— and apparently immense numbers pass out of the world in a 
 
90 RAISED FOR JUSTIFICATION. [Romans. 
 
 • 1 Cor. XV. a was raised ae^ain for our iustification. 
 
 17. 1 Pet. i, s J 
 
 21. 
 
 Btate of sin which cannot possibly be a state of justification. So 
 that the only meaning is that which both Scripture and facts 
 demand. He died for our sins to atone for them and procure our 
 pardon. He rose again for our justification, i.e., to enable us to be 
 justified by the communication to us of His Life.* 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 johnJ^ss"' npHEEEFORE ^ being justified by faith, we 
 ch. iii. 28, 30*. X have ''peace with Grod through our Lord 
 
 bEphes.ii.24. -r i-(V • ^ 
 
 Col. i. 20. Jesus Chnst : 
 
 1. "We have peace " (e'x.om^s")- So corrections of MSS., N, and B., Greek of F. and 
 G. and P. (Cent, ix.), and most Cursives; but " Let us have peace" (li'/wixsv), in S» A., 
 B., C, D., E., K., L., thirty Cursives, d, e, f, g, Vulg., Syriac, Copt., Arm., ^th. 
 
 1. " Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God, 
 through," &c. By faith, that is by the faith just mentioned ; cer- 
 tainly the Apostle does not mean justified by amj faith, but by 
 faith in or believing on " Him Who raised up Jesus our Lord from 
 the dead." Whatever be the teaching respecting faith current now, 
 the faith just before described is what the Apostle set forth for 
 purposes of justification. 
 
 "We have peace with God," or " Let us have peace with God." 
 It is impossible not to take into very full account the difference of 
 reading. According to our Authorized we have an assertion re- 
 
 1 I append some translations by modern scholars : — 
 
 5ta ra . . . 5ia -riw. " For the sake of." In either case the sense suggests the necessary 
 modifications : for the sake of (to take away) oxir offences ; for the sake of (to secure) oor 
 justification.— Dean Vaughan. 
 
 On account of our sins, i.e. to expiate and atone for them ; on account of our jnstificatioa, 
 t.«. to effect it, to convey to us the righteousness of God. — Philippi. 
 
 But this glorification of Christ consisted of two main parts — His Death and His Resar- 
 rection. In the former of these He was made a sacrifice for sin ; in the latter He elevated 
 our humanity into the participation of that Resurrection life, which is also by union with 
 Pirn the life of every jnstified believer.— Alfobd. 
 
Chap. V.] JUSTIFIED BY FAITH. ^1 
 
 specting those who, like St. Paul, are justified, " We have peace." 
 According to a vast preponderance of ancient authorities we have 
 an exhortation, " Let us have peace." But in addition to this we 
 must take into account the different meanings which may properly 
 be given to the word " peace." (1) Does it mean, for instance, a 
 state opposite to warfare or enmity ? Thus in this very chapter, " if 
 when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of 
 his Son." Again (Coloss. i. 21 ), " You that were sometime alienated 
 ftnd enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he 
 reconciled." In this case it is a state of reconciliation. (2) Or it 
 may mean an internal feeling of peace, answering to the peace of 
 a good conscience. Such a peace is that alluded to in Phil. iv. 6, 
 " Be careful for nothing ; but in every thing by prayer and suppli- 
 cation with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto 
 God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall 
 keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." 
 
 In the first case, taking "peace" to mean a state of peace or 
 reconciliation, God reconciled to us, and we continuing in the unity 
 of His Son's Church or Mystical Body, then it is clear that we 
 must read " we have peace," because we have not to enter into, but 
 are already in, such a state of acceptance. 
 
 But if peace means an internal feeling of peace, a sense of God's 
 love fining our minds with holy tranquillity, or, as St. John expresses 
 it, *' perfect love casting out fear," i.e., all slavish tormenting fear, 
 then it is very needful that we should be exhorted to have such a 
 calm, heavenly state of mind, and so inasmuch as so many have, 
 through their own fault, not attained to this, we must read " let us 
 have peace." And how is this to be brought about ? Not by merely 
 resting in justification by faith, but by building upon it (2 Pet. 
 i. 5). The blessing which St. Paul invokes on the PhUippian Chris- 
 tians that " the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, may 
 keep their hearts," follows upon the exhortation, " Be careful for 
 nothing ; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanks- 
 giving let your requests be made known unto God." Such con- 
 stant intercourse with God, such casting all our care respecting 
 everything temporal or spiritual, upon Him, would naturally, one 
 may say, cause peace to flow into us. 
 
 This place is often used as supplying a test whether we are justi- 
 fied, but, in many cases, most wrongly. I have, myself, during the 
 course of my ministry, known many persons who Kved in all good 
 
92 ACCESS BY FAITH. [Romakb. 
 
 2 " By whom also we have access b j faith into this grace 
 ojohnx. 9. & '^wherein we stand, and ^reioice in hope of the 
 
 xiv. 6. Ephes. •• ^ 
 
 ii. 18. & iii. 12. sloYJ of GrOd. 
 Heb. X. 19. ° '' 
 
 d 1 Cor. XV. 1. 
 
 • Heb. iii. 6. 
 
 2. "Access by faith." So ti, A. Qv tT] virrei), C, K., I., P., most Cnrsiyes, Vulg., 
 Syriac, Copt., Arm. " By faitb " omitted by B., D., E., F., G., d, e, f, g. 
 
 conscience towards God, who beheved thoroughly all the truth re- 
 specting Jesus, and who were rich in good works, who perhaps from 
 bodily constitution, perhaps from mental disease, seemed unable to 
 enjoy the comforts of rehgion ; and I have known others who pro- 
 fessed to enjoy them, in whose case, from their manifest living in 
 sin, such a profession was an undoubted delusion. 
 
 I think it is well then to treat the reading as doubtful, particu- 
 larly as many assert that all internal evidence is against the reading 
 "let us have," and to show that whether we read "we have" or 
 " let us have," there is a good and useful meaning. 
 
 2. "By whom also we have access by faith into this grace 
 wherein we stand." "We have," rather "we have had access," 
 t.e., entrance ; compare Ephes. ii., " Through him we both have 
 access by one Spirit unto the Father." 
 
 *' Unto this grace." Unto this state of grace, of justification, of 
 peace with God. 
 
 "Wherein we stand" — stand accepted before God in Christ. 
 Chrysostom speaks of this state as one of knowledge as well as of 
 nearness. " What grace is this ? Tell me. It is the being counted 
 worthy of the knowledge of God, the being forced from error, the 
 coming to a knowledge of the truth, the obtaining of all the blessings 
 which come through Baptism." 
 
 "And rejoice in hope of the glory of God." Of the glory that 
 shall be revealed at the last day. It was, in the nature of things, 
 given to those who were converts from heathenism, to realize this 
 more vividly than we who have been brought up in an ancestral 
 Christianity. For the prospect of eternal life and glory was new 
 to them. They once had no hope of the future worth speaking of, 
 and now they were by the Eesurrection of Jesus Christ from the 
 dead, "bom again to a lively hope." They naturally gloried in 
 the assured prospect of such an eternity, and the same hope ought to 
 be ours, and would be if the world was as unfriendly to us as it was 
 to them. They can best rejoice in hope of future happiness to whom 
 
 /T 
 
Chap, v.] WE GLORY IN TRIBULATION. 93 
 
 3 And not only so, but ' we erlory in tribula- ^ Matt. v. ii, 
 
 . -. Ml- 1 -. 12. ActST. 
 
 tions also : ^ knowing that tribulation worketn 4i. 2 Cor. xii. 
 
 ^ 10. Phil.ii. 
 
 patience; i7. Jam.i. 
 
 ^ 2,12. IPet. 
 
 iii. 14. 
 
 s Jam. i. 3. 
 3. "We glory in." So tt. A., D„ E., F., G., K., L., P., forty-two Cursives, Valg., 
 Copt., Arm., .^th. ; bnt B. and C. read, " glorying in." 
 
 this world is a weariness, and they also to whom God has given to 
 feel and to say, " O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver mo 
 from the body of this death ? " and to go on to reahze the truth : " If 
 the Spirit of Him that raised Jesus from the dead dwell in you, 
 He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your 
 mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you." 
 
 3. " And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also : knowing 
 that tribulation," &c. The true Christian who by God's illumina- 
 tion has been led to see all things in their right light, knows that 
 everything which we call tribulation is or may be turned by us 
 into a blessing from God. It, to say the least, reminds us that our 
 heaven is not here. The Church brings this very closely home to 
 us in the Office for the Visitation of the Sick : " There should be no 
 greater comfort to Christian persons than to be made like unto 
 Christ, by suffering patiently adversities, troubles, and sicknesses. 
 For He Himself went not up to joy, but first He suffered pain. He 
 entered not into His glory before He was crucified. So truly our 
 way to eternal life is to suffer here with Christ ; and our door to 
 enter eternal life is gladly to die with Christ," &c. And much more 
 is this true if the suffering, as so frequently in the Apostolic times, 
 is directly for the sake of Christ. St. Paul in another Epistle 
 treats this as a great gift of God. " To you it is given in the behalf 
 of Christ, not only to beheve on him, but also to suffer for his 
 sake " (Phil. i. 29). And again, St. Paul's brother Apostle writes : 
 " Kejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings ; that 
 when His glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with ex- 
 ceeding joy" (1 Pet. iv. 13). 
 
 "Knowing that tribulation worketh patience," i.e., endurance. 
 Tribulation, if received as sent by God, and submitted to as part of 
 the discipline of a Father that loves us, works endurance, or con- 
 stancy, and indeed perseverance. " He that endureth {viro/xeivaQ) 
 to the end the same shall be saved." Again, remember the Lord's 
 message to the Church of Thyatira, "I know thy works, and 
 
94 HOPE MAKETH NOT ASHAMED. [Eomans. 
 
 4 ^ And patience, experience ; and experience, hope : 
 h Jam. i. 12. 5 ' And hope maketh not ashamed ; ^ because 
 
 k 2 Cor. i. 22. *^® ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^ shed abroad in our hearts by 
 Eph.T.'fs 14 ^-^^ Holy Grhost which is given unto us. 
 
 charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience," endurance in 
 Christian graces being the crown of all (Eev. ii. 19). 
 
 4. "And patience, experience," or rather approval, or approved- 
 ness. We may translate " trial well borne." Confidence in self 
 after trial (Jowett). This is the state of a force or virtue which 
 has stood trials (Godet). The radical meaning of doKifirj is testing 
 (1 Cor. xi. 28, 2 Cor. viii. 2), then the word denotes the testing well 
 borne = tried with approval (Phihppi). It can hardly mean ex- 
 perience — certainly not experience in its modern religious signi- 
 fication. 
 
 And " trial well borne," hope. The first entrance into the state 
 of grace was accompanied by rejoicing in hope of the glory of God; 
 but this hope must be tested, for it is possible not to hold fast the 
 confidence of the hope firm unto the end, or we should not be so 
 earnestly exhorted so to do. It is tested or tried by tribulations ; 
 if we receive these tribulations as coming from God and submit to 
 them, then we have the confidence of "trial borne well," and this 
 doubles our hope. We hope not only because of the general pro- 
 mises of the Gospel, but because we are sure from God's having 
 given us such grace to sustain trials and persecutions, that He 
 intends us to partake of the future glory, according to the words of 
 the Apostle, " if we be dead with him we shall also Uve with him — 
 if we suffer we shall also reign with him" (2 Tim. ii. 11, 12). 
 
 5. " And hope maketh not ashamed ; because the love of God is 
 shed abroad," &c. There has been a singular difference of opinion 
 about this verse, or rather about the meaning of the words " the 
 love of God." 
 
 The natural meaning appears to me to be somewhat of this sort. 
 The hope which we not only had at the first, but which has been 
 since strengthened and confirmed by the trials which God has 
 enabled us to bear, never makes ashamed, because, through God's 
 grace, the Spirit of God has diffused in our hearts the love of God. 
 We are conscious that, notwithstanding all mistakes and imper- 
 fections, we love God, and this could not possibly be unless God 
 has first loved us. 
 
Chap, v.] Y-ET WITHOUT STRENGTH. 95 
 
 6 For when we were yet without strength, || in P Or, accord- 
 due time ^ Christ died for the ungodly. Gai. iv. 4, 
 
 1 ver. 8. ch. 
 ■ iv, 25. 
 
 f . ** For when we were." B. alone reads " if." 
 
 It has, however, been asserted, and great names are quoted as 
 bearing out the assertion, that the love of God which is said to be 
 shed abroad in our hearts, and by the Holy Spirit, too, is God's 
 love to us, and not ours to God ; but it seems to me that the thing 
 is inconceivable. 
 
 Supposing that God by His Spirit diffuses His love into our 
 hearts, surely it cannot be a diffusion of God's love without a sense 
 of His love, and if God thus diffuses a sense of His love into a 
 sinner's heart, and the sinner's heart does in no way respond to it, 
 then I contend that the man in whom this takes place is iipso facto 
 reprobate. 
 
 This love cannot be shed abroad in the heart without some sen- 
 sible effect upon the heart, and what can such effect be except the 
 exciting of a counter love, a love to meet the love of God? If such 
 be the effect, then the soul in which this takes place will be prepared 
 for the glory for which it hopes, and its hope will not be ashamed ; 
 but if not, then the soul will not be prepared for the glory to be re- 
 vealed, because its faith does not work by love. Christ would say, 
 if such a thing were possible, to such souls, ** I know you that ye 
 have not the love of God in you." 
 
 One question more respecting this verse has to be considered. 
 Are those and those only justified by faith of whom these verses 3, 
 4, and 5 are true? Certainly not. In these verses we have not 
 justifying faith, ^^er se, but the faith which justifies working by love. 
 These three verses show what justifying faith ought to work up to ; 
 but to say that they describe justifying faith so that as soon as a 
 man is justified he at once necessarily glories in tribulation, is 
 without warrant from Scripture. A soul may produce the fruits of 
 mature faith at the moment of justification, but we have no right 
 to demand it. 
 
 6. " For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ 
 died for the ungodly." " When we were yet without strength," i.e., 
 before the strengthening power of the Incarnation was applied and 
 made over to us by the Spirit. 
 
 There seems to be a reminiscence of Ezekiel xvi. 4, *' As for thy 
 
96 GOD COMMENDETH HIS LOVE. [Romans. 
 
 7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die : yet perad- 
 venture for a good man some would even dare to die. 
 m John XV. 13. 8 But ™ Grod commendeth his love toward us, 
 1 John iVi. 16. in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died 
 
 & iv. 9, 10. 
 
 for us. 
 
 nativity . . . neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee . . . 
 None eye pitied thee, to do any of these things unto thee, to have 
 compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out in the open field," &c. 
 
 " In due time." This may mean either at the time appointed, 
 or when iniquity was at its height, and the long-suffering of God 
 well nigh exhausted. 
 
 " Christ died for the ungodly." Not so much in the place of the 
 ungodly, as on their behalf, to reconcile them to God by the sacrifice 
 of Himself. 
 
 7. " For scarcely for a righteous man will one die : yet peradven- 
 ture for a good man," &c. The righteous man here signifies the 
 just, who, however, may be severe, stem, and unyielding, one 
 whom we only respect and may not love ; the good man signifies 
 one who in addition to righteous qualities has amiable ones, so 
 that we not only respect, but love him. Some, however, as Jowett, 
 think that we must lay no stress upon the difference, but why then 
 should the Apostle make it ? 
 
 8. " But God commendeth his love towards us, in that, while we 
 were," &c. God manifests, or commends, or establishes His love 
 towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, and so enemies to 
 God, and turning away from Him, and rejecting Him, Christ died 
 for us. 
 
 I cannot help thinking that there is some contrast implied be- 
 tween the good man (6 ayaObg), for whom his one friend would ^er- 
 haj)s die, and the multitude of sinners for whom Christ died. In 
 the case of the man dying for his good friend there was friendship, 
 but there could be no such distinguishing friendship in Christ 
 dying for a whole world, lying in wickedness. In Him it would be 
 pure philanthropy. First, the love of God to His fallen creatures, 
 because of their destitution, then the love to the race whose nature 
 He had assumed. 
 
 Notice also how God commends His love in giving His Son. 
 This can only be feebly entered into by those who contemplate 
 
Chap, v.] JUSTIFIED BY HIS BLOOD. 97 
 
 9 Much more then, being now justified ° by his "" ch.jii. 25. 
 blood, we shall be saved °from wrath through Heb.'ix. u*. 
 
 1 John i. 7. 
 
 him. o cb. i, 18. 
 
 1 Thes. L 10. 
 
 the love which the Persons of the Godhead have to one another. 
 " The Father loveth the Son" (John iii. 35). Again, " The Father 
 loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things," &c. (v. 20). Again, 
 " Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, 
 that I might take it again " (x. 17). 
 
 " While we were yet sinners." He who would estimate the force 
 of this sentence must know something of the wickedness of the time 
 in which the Lord came amongst us. The "iniquity of the 
 Amorites " was then full indeed. The first chapter of this Epistle 
 tells us the kind of sinners they were for whom Christ died. The 
 pages of Josephus tell us something of the state of degradation 
 into which the Jews had fallen. The satires of Horace and Juvenal 
 and the histories of Tacitus and Suetonius witness to the state of 
 the heathen world. 
 
 9. •' Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall 
 be saved from wrath," &c. " Being now justified." How is it that 
 here the Blood of Christ is said to have justified us, whereas in the 
 last chapter it is His Life which is set forth as justifying ? To 
 which we answer, the power of His Life to justify depends upon 
 His Sacrifice, which was the shedding of His Blood. His Sacrifice 
 was the meritorious cause which won for His Eesurrection His re- 
 newed Life that It should justify. We may be said to be justified 
 by His Blood, but through His Eesurrection. He died to rise 
 again with a justifying Life. He rose again because not two whole 
 days before He had died an all-atoning Death. But if the Apostle 
 speaks of justification, why does he not bring in faith ? Because 
 he had said enough about it to satisfy any reasonable person. He 
 mentions only the Blood, i.e., the Sacrifice, because in the Sacrifice 
 was involved the Eesurrection, and its consequent Life on the one 
 side, and this Life being made over to us by way of grace on 
 the other. 
 
 " We shall be saved from wrath." From the wrath, i.e., from the 
 wrath of the judgment day — from the wrath of the world to come. 
 
 If God has given His Son to die for us, He will see to it that He 
 shall receive the full reward of such sufi'erings. " He shall see of the 
 travail of His soul and be satisfied." And that reward of His 
 
 H 
 
98 WHEN WE WEKE ENEMIES. [Romans. 
 
 P ch. viii. 32. 10 For ^ if, wlien we were enemies, '^ we were 
 
 19? %'h!'ii\^' reconciled to G-od by the death of his Son, much 
 
 16. Col. i. 
 
 20, 21. 
 
 Sufferings, that satisfaction of His Soul, is the present hohness and 
 future blessedness of those who repent and believe. Compare viii. 34, 
 " Who is he that condemneth ? It is Christ that died, yea rather, 
 that is risen again. Who is even at the right hand of God, Who also 
 maketh intercession for us." God having done so much to make 
 a way for His mercy to reach us, will not allow what He has done 
 to be frustrated, and certainly not in the case of those who, 
 through His grace, have been led to plead His Son's Blood. 
 
 10. " For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God 
 by the death," &c. " We were reconciled to God." Does this 
 mean that the enmity or anger of God to man is pacified, or that 
 our enmity to God which all have, more or less, who are living in 
 sin, is done away through that result of our Lord's Death which 
 consists in our being turned from sin and turned to God ? We are 
 constantly told that nowhere in Scripture is it said that God is 
 reconciled to us. But then what is the meaning of such a phrase 
 as " children of wrath "? Of whose wrath are we children, if it 
 be not that of God ? But it appears to me that all difficulty is 
 removed if we take an illustration from the conduct of earthly 
 fathers to earthly sons. A wayward son may be under the serious 
 displeasure of his father, and yet intensely loved by that father. 
 The father may be so displeased with the son as not to admit him 
 into his house, or into his presence, and yet may be supporting 
 him, and using all sorts of means to bring his son to a better mind. 
 And so though in one sense we are all children of wrath, yet, in 
 aaother, "the Lord is loving unto every man," and still more we 
 are so under the love of God that " God sent not his Son into the 
 world to condemn the world, but that the world through him 
 migbt be saved " (John iii. 17). 
 
 The Death of Christ opened the way for God's mercy to reach 
 us, and the same Death of Christ opened the way for our return in 
 heart and soul to God. 
 
 " Much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life." 
 Here we have a return to the distinction which the Apostle had 
 made in iv. 25 respecting the different effects of the Death and 
 Resurrection of Christ. "He was delivered for our offences" 
 answers to "We were reconciled to God by the death of his Son." 
 
Chap, v.] SAVED BY HIS LIFE. 99 
 
 more, being reconciled, we shall be saved '" by his ■• John v. 26. 
 
 ,.j, "^ &xiv. 19. 2 
 
 llie. Cor. iy. 10, 11. 
 
 "He was raised again for our justification" answers to "We shall 
 be saved by his life." Justification, as we shall soon see more 
 clearly (on verse 18), is Justification of Life. It is here called, or 
 impUed to be, salvation, because, if the Life of Christ be com- 
 municated to us, we cannot but be saved. His Life is the Life of 
 reconciliation and holiness in our souls, and the Life of Eesur- 
 rection in our bodies. 
 
 This verse is of unspeakable importance as distinguishing between 
 Reconciliation and Justification. It is the root — it is the warrant 
 and vindication of the CathoUc view of Justification — that it is a 
 matter of Life rather than of mere imputation. The law could 
 not justify, because it could not give Ufe, for St. Paul expressly says 
 that the law would have justified if it could have given life (GaL 
 iii. 21). But what the law could not do, God did by the gift of His 
 Son — not surely in His Death only, for death cannot give Hfe, a 
 living thing only can communicate life (" Because I live ye shall 
 Hve also "), but in His Resurrection, and God has brought about 
 by His power that His Son's risen Body should give life. And so 
 St. Paul here introduces in effect what forms the theme of the 
 remainder of this chapter, that there are two Adams set opposite 
 to one another ; one by the commimication of his nature diffusing 
 sin and death, the other by the supernatural communication of His 
 nature diffusing righteousness and Life. The means for the com- 
 munication of this Life we shall consider shortly ; sufl&ce it, before 
 leaving this verse, to draw attention to the expression "much 
 more." The Death of Christ was that which, reverently speaking, 
 was attended on God's part with infinite cost. The gift of His Son 
 to suffer and die was ten thousandfold more than the gift of the 
 whole universe, whereas the present communication of His Life 
 costs Him nothing in the way of humiliation, pain, or distress, but 
 is simply the putting forth of His power. 
 
 It is clear, I think, that those commentators are wrong who 
 explain this Life of His Life of Glory in heaven, i.e., His ruling 
 over all things and His Intercession on behalf of His Church. If 
 the Apostle had meant this he would have said it, and the Life, 
 with which the remainder of this chapter is occupied, is that of 
 the Second Adam, communicated to us to counteract the evil nature 
 
100 THE ATONEMENT. [Romans. 
 
 «ch. ii. 17. & 11 And not only so, but we also Hoy in God 
 
 iii. 29, 30. J ' J J 
 
 Gal. iv. 9. through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have 
 
 dimtion^T. now received the || atonement. 
 
 10. 2 Cor. 
 
 V. 18. 19. 
 
 of the first Adam's life which we received on our coming into the 
 world. 
 
 11. "And not only so, but we also joy in God," &c. We have 
 not only peace with God — we not only rejoice in the prospect of 
 His glory being revealed, but we rejoice in the thought of God 
 Himself. God, though an object of the utmost reverence, is no 
 longer an object of terror ; on the contrary our sin, even if we hate 
 it and desire to be rid of it, does not prevent us from rejoicing in 
 God — but not in a God known only by reason — not in the God of 
 the Law of Sinai, but the God revealed in Jesus Christ, according 
 to the Apostle's expression, "the light of the knowledge of the 
 glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." (2 Cor. iv. 6.) 
 
 " By whom we have now received the atonement." This is the 
 only place where this remarkable word is used. The reader, of 
 course, knows that it is two words in one : the at-one-ment. To 
 atone is a very old word, signifying to make at one, i.e., to reconcile. 
 Thus in Shakespeare, Eichard III. i. 3 : — 
 
 " He desires to make atonement 
 Between the Duke of Gloucester and your brothers." 
 
 The word is now only used theologically, to express the recon- 
 ciliation brought about by the Death of Christ. As thus restricted 
 it is a most suggestive word, signifying that there is not only an 
 external, but the closest internal reconciliation. "God was in 
 Christ reconciling the world to himself" on the one side, and "ye 
 in me and I in you " on the other. 
 
 12-21. We have now to enter upon by far the most important 
 and the most difficult place in the Epistle. 
 
 The most important, for it gives the reason why St. Paul was 
 able to write respecting our Saviour : " All have sinned and come 
 short of the glory of God. Being justified freely by his grace . . ." 
 " Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his 
 blood," and "in due time Christ died for the ungodly," "While we 
 were yet sinners Christ died for the ungodly." It was not because 
 the Death of Christ was the Death of the best and wisest of men, 
 
Chap, v.] ADAM AND CHRIST. 101 
 
 neither was it because He was the Eternal Son in our Nature, but 
 because God in His all-wise counsels had appointed Him to be the 
 Second Head of the human race, so that " as in Adam all die, even 
 so in Him should all be made alive." 
 
 Being the new Head of the race He was able to be their surety 
 or ransom, so that His Life, Sufferings, and Death should be 
 accepted on their account to deliver them from sin and to endow 
 them with immortality. 
 
 But this is not all or nearly all ; for if Adam and Christ be 
 counterparts of one another, as the respective heads of the race, or 
 of those who are " in " the one, and " in " the other, then there 
 must be in Christ that principle of the transmission of His nature 
 which there was in Adam. For Adam transmitted his nature — his 
 sinful and mortal nature — to all in him, i.e., to all his descendants. 
 Now he, the first Adam, did this in what we call the course of 
 nature. He was the natural physical fountain and source of the 
 nature of flesh and blood of all his family, that is, of all mankind ; 
 but how was the action of the Second Adam on the human race to 
 be analogous to this, seeing He had no descendants after the flesh ? 
 It could not be in the way of natm'e, but it was very likely to be so 
 in the way of grace. For if the Second Adam be the Son of God, 
 His only Son, manifest in the flesh, if He be the Lord of Glory, and 
 if in Him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, then it is 
 only likely that there should be in Him the capacity of diffusing 
 this better and holier nature of His ; indeed, it is difficult to see 
 how He could be properly an Adam if He does not so diffuse His 
 nature. For the characteristic feature of Adam's relation to us is 
 that we should partake of his flesh and blood ; and so of his 
 weak and sinful and mortal life. Now the Lord Himself, in the 
 most mysterious discourse in all Scripture, lays it upon us that we 
 are to eat His Flesh and drink His Blood, or we have not His Life 
 in us, and again in His equally mysterious parable of the " Vine 
 and the Branches," He lays it upon us that we are to be in Him, 
 and united to Him, not as disciples by merely receiving knowledge, 
 nor as individual sinners by merely receiving atonement, nor even 
 as subjects by being under Him as a King, or sheep, by being led 
 and pastured by Him as our Shepherd, but we are to be in Him as 
 parts of one living thing, which has one life in all its parts — which 
 life flows from one centre to the remotest part of the organism: 
 
 The Second Adam then is the source of life to all in Him, by 
 
102 BY ONE MAN SIN ENTEEED. [Romans. 
 
 » Gen. iii. 6. 12 Wherefore, as * by one man sin entered into 
 
 1 Cor. XT. 21. '' 
 
 conuaEiimicating to them His holy and immortal Life, just as the 
 fiist Adam is the source of death to all in him by commimicating 
 to them his unholy and mortal life. 
 
 Now this analogy between Adam and Christ as transmitters of 
 nature is to be realized, if we would in the least degree enter into 
 something of the meaning of what is coming. It seems to me to 
 be a passage which rises above criticism, and requires something of 
 the Apostle's inspiration. 8ursum cor da. 
 
 1 said at the outset that this passage is not only exceedingly 
 important, but also exceedingly difficult, and well it may be, for it 
 deals with the most mysterious problem that can be treated of by 
 man's intellect — the problem of human nature — how whilst all 
 other creatures in the world Hve according to the perfection of their 
 nature, man lives contrary to the perfection of his, and how a being 
 who by his Divine intelligence and moral faculties seems destined 
 to live for ever is invariably cut off in the midst of his days. If 
 then such a multitude of insoluble questions crop up, as it were, in 
 every sentence of what is coming, we must neither marvel nor 
 complain : the issue is clear, and that is, that, " as sin hath reigned 
 unto death, so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal 
 life through Jesus Christ our Lord." 
 
 12. "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and 
 death by sin," &c. " Wherefore," i.e., on this account, as a deduc- 
 tion from what has been laid down in the Apostle's words : " If 
 when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of 
 His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His 
 life." 
 
 " As by one man sin entered into the world." This is the reason 
 why we were enemies. It was because of the unity of mankind in 
 having one father, by whose one transgression sin entered into him, 
 and in him into all his descendants, and this sin is the root of all 
 enmity to God. 
 
 In this way St. Paul, in accordance with the teaching of the Old 
 Testament, accounts for the sinfulness of the human race. Now the 
 sinfulness of man must be accounted for, for it is by far the most 
 mysterious phenomenon which presents itself to us. It is no other 
 than this : that whilst all other creatures in the world live accord- 
 ing to the type or perfection of their nature, man alone, the reason* 
 
Chap. V.] DEATH PASSED UPON ALL MEN. 103 
 
 the world, and ^ death bj sin ; and so death passed upon all 
 men, 11 for that all have sinned : « Gen. ii. 17. 
 
 " ch. vi. 23. 
 
 1 Cor. XV. 21. 
 I Or, in whom. 
 
 ing, the governing creature, violates the supreme law of his nature. 
 For reason and conscience and the moral sense are in human 
 beings what thek instincts are to the inferior creatures, and whilst 
 all the inferior creatures Uve according to their instincts, man alone 
 does not live according to his. In writing this I am, of course, not 
 writing for Atheists or Agnostics — such have nothing to do with the 
 Epistle to the Komans — but I am writing for those who believe in 
 God and the obligation of the moral law and the supremacy of 
 conscience and the certainty of a judgment. Such persons will 
 readily acknowledge that the great problem of human nature is the 
 prevalence of sin in a race of reasonable beings who acknowledge 
 the obhgations of morality. St. Paul, following the Old Testament, 
 sets forth that the principle through which evil has infected the 
 whole race is that of heredity, the principle of inheritance through 
 which races derive from their progenitor their physical and moral 
 peculiarities. 
 
 This, I need hardly tell the reader, is in accord with the most 
 advanced science of the day. 
 
 But then the Apostle proceeds. 
 
 "And death by sin." Now, the unreasoning and irresponsible 
 animals are subject to death : how is it that man is not similarly 
 subject, but that his death is treated as a punishment ? In answer 
 to this, we say that a being endowed with reason and conscience, 
 and having the moral law written in his heart, could not but have 
 a very different destiny to the unreasoning part of the creation. 
 How man would have increased and multiphed on the earth, un- 
 checked by death, we do not know ; but the things in which man 
 differs from the brutes pertain to a higher, because a spiritual state 
 of things, and so savom' of immortahty. The entrance of death 
 through sin is not in itself so great a mystery as would have been 
 the decrepitude, disease, and death of sinless beings created in God's 
 image. It is a matter of revelation, but is in accordance with 
 reason, that moral and spiritual death go together. 
 
 "And so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." 
 The universaUty of death is ascribed by the Apostle to the uni- 
 versahty of sin. 
 
104 SIN WAS IN THE WORLD. [Romans. 
 
 13 (For until tlie law sin was in tlie world : but ^ sin is 
 1 ch. iv. 15. not imputed when there is no law. 
 
 14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to 
 Moses, even over them that had not sinned after 
 yiCor.xT. the similitude of Adam's transgression, ^who is 
 the figure of him that was to come. 
 
 13, 14. " For until the law sin was in the world . . . figure of him 
 that was to come." And now here the Apostle does not finish the 
 reasoning with which he began, for in such a case the verse would 
 have ended with, "so by one man righteousness entered into the 
 world, and eternal life by his righteousness ; " but he turns aside 
 in his argument, as he very frequently does (see Eph. iii. 1), and 
 asserts the reign of death because of the reign of sin. And then he 
 goes on to assert that this reign of sin and death was prior to the 
 giving of the law, and so could not have been occasioned by trans- 
 gressions of the law of Moses. If then sin, as he says, was not 
 imputed where there is no law, how came all men to die ? For 
 death, the consequence of sin, reigned from Adam to Moses, and 
 reigned not only over wilful sinners, but over infants, who must 
 be meant by "those that had not sinned after the similitude of 
 Adam's transgression." There can be but one answer: Death 
 reigned not only by reason of actual, but by reason of original 
 sin. The life of the race was poisoned at its fountain-head. The 
 seeds of sin and its companion, death, were in every human being 
 coming into the world. Now this does not mean that Adam's sin 
 was imputed to infants, but that the poison of Adam's nature 
 passed into infants, rendering them mortal in their bodies, and 
 liable to sin in their souls. 
 
 Now why does St. Paul in such sweeping terms assert the uni- 
 versality of sin in the race which God had created in their fore- 
 father in His image after His hkeness ? Simply and for no other 
 purpose than to enliance the universality of the remedy, ■i.e., of 
 redemption, for he finishes with " Adam, who is the figure of Him 
 which was to come." 
 
 In what sense, then, was Adam the figure of Him that was to 
 come ? Principally, if not entirely, in this — that as Adam was the 
 transmitter of sin, so Christ is the transmitter of righteousness ; but 
 Adam was the transmitter of sin because he was the transmitter of 
 
Chap, v.] THE OFFENCE . . . THE FREE GIFT. 105 
 
 15 But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For 
 if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the 
 
 15. " Many be dead ; " rather, " the many." 
 
 his own nature, and so, if the parallel is to hold good, Christ must 
 be the transmitter of righteousness because the transmitter of His 
 Nature. Adam transmitted sin not by example, but by generation ; 
 and Christ, if He is an Adam, must transmit righteousness in some 
 way analogous, though Spiritual. 
 
 But there must be, I think, a further analogy. Adam trans- 
 mitted an evil nature to those who had never sinned consciously ; 
 and if the Second Adam be in this as in other respects superior to 
 the first, He, too, must be able to transmit His grace and righteous- 
 ness to those in a like state of unconsciousness — to those who have 
 not sinned wilfully, i.e., to infants. 
 
 15. " But not as the offence, so also is the free gift . . . abounded 
 unto many." Offence should rather be translated trespass, or 
 transgression. 
 
 The offence of one is the one sin of Adam. The free gift is the 
 gift of Christ, and the wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and 
 redemption which He is made unto us (1 Corinth, i. 30). 
 
 •' For if through the offence of one many be dead." The many 
 [oi TToXAoi], for all have died or die. 
 
 " Much more the grace of God and the gift by grace, which is by 
 one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto the many." Not " unto 
 many," as if without the article, but unto " the many " [dg tovq 
 ttoWovqI , " the many " in the first clause corresponding to, and appa- 
 rently being the same as " the many " in the second. Chrysostom's 
 exposition should be reproduced here : — " If sin had so extensive 
 effects, and the sin of one man, too, how can grace, and that the 
 grace of God — not the Father only, but also the Son — do other- 
 wise than be the more abundant of the two ? for the latter is far 
 the more reasonable supposition. For that one man should be 
 punished on account of another does not seem to be much in ac- 
 cordance with reason; but for one to be saved on account of 
 another is at once more suitable and more reasonable. If, then, 
 the former took place, much more may the latter." 
 
 As this verse is the text, as it were, of the succeeding verses, we 
 had better now consider it more closely ; and there is, at the very 
 
106 THE GIFT BY GRACE. [Romams. 
 
 grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, 
 
 outset, this very great difficulty — that the sin of Adam and its 
 effects are matters of sight, whereas the grace of God in Christ and 
 its effects are matters of faith. We see disease, decrepitude, death, 
 but we do not see the glory of the righteous, the astonishing power 
 of their risen bodies, made Hke unto the angels ; nay rather, made 
 after the likeness of Christ's glorious Body. 
 
 And then the question of the respective numbers on each side, 
 i.e., of the lost in Adam, and the saved in Christ, though ignored 
 by most commentators, ought to be honestly faced; for to all 
 appearance those who contiaue in the grace of Baptism are very 
 small compared to those who fall away, and then by far the greater 
 part of the inhabitants of the world are not even nominal Christians, 
 but are Buddhists, or Mahometans, or Idolaters : and as to those 
 who are esteemed believers by the Evangelical commen'tators on 
 this Epistle, we may safely say that they are not one in ten of 
 those who heartily believe the creed, and strive in God's strength 
 to keep the commandments. 
 
 We will, first of all then, endeavour to see how the abounding 
 grace of God in Christ in those who receive it exceeds the evil 
 transmitted by Adam to his descendants. First, they have an 
 union with God in Christ, and a security of soul against tempta- 
 tion infinitely exceeding that of Adam, if these things could at 
 aU be predicated of him. Adam seems to have yielded at once 
 — indeed, if we take the short account in Gen. iii., there was 
 little or no moral or spiritual struggle. Adam, perhaps perceiving 
 that his wife did not die as soon as she sinned, seems to have taken 
 and eaten without the smallest misgiving. Then, after the sin, 
 there was no repentance, only the fear generated by aUenation, and 
 such was their view of God's Omniscience that they thought a few 
 thick bushes would effectually conceal them from Him. Then 
 there was no trace of repentance, Adam at once laying all the 
 blame upon his helpmeet — or rather upon God for having given to 
 him such an one ("the woman whom thou gavest to be with me") 
 — Eve also taking not the smallest blame to herself, but laying 
 all on the serpent. Now contrast this with the conduct of any 
 sincere Christian under temptation. First see his watchfulness 
 and prayer — then his pleading the Name and Merits of Christ, 
 and if, through the weakness of his nature, he has fallen— see 
 
Chap, v.] BY ONE MAN, JESUS CHKIST. 107 
 
 Jesus Christ, hath abounded ^ unto many. "■ is. Hii. ii. 
 
 •' Matt. XX. 28. 
 _^.^_ & xxvi. 28. 
 
 15. " Unto many ; " rather, " unto the many." 
 
 his shame, his unbaring his breast to the scrutiny of the Searcher 
 of hearts, to cleanse the thoughts of his heart — then his casting 
 aside any and every excuse, and taking to himself alone all the 
 blame. Now this insight into ourselves, this fear of ourselves, this 
 running to meet God with confession and tears, is, under the cir- 
 cumstances, the greatest blessing in which " the grace of God and 
 the gift by grace by Jesus Christ " can abound to a man. It is one 
 who has the knowledge of good and evil, holding fast to God and 
 abhorring the smallest trace of evil. 
 
 It is impossible to go further with this comparison, because 
 nothing is told us respecting the spiritual state of Adam, except his 
 conduct under the one temptation ; but we know the further life 
 of the Christian, how if he is sincere, it is a daily adding to his 
 faith, virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge, tem- 
 perance, &c. 
 
 And then with respect to the body. Christ brings to it an im- 
 mortality not in a gross and earthly, but in an ethereal body, " sown 
 in corruption and raised in incorruption ; sown in weakness and 
 raised in power ; sown in dishonour, raised in glory ; sown a 
 natural, and raised a spiritual body," equal to the frames of the 
 angels — nay, changed by the power of Christ, that it may be like 
 unto His glorious Body ; the Lord Himself predicting of it that 
 the righteous shall shine forth as the sun, in the kingdom of their 
 Father. (Matth. xiii. 43.) 
 
 Such is " the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by 
 one man, Jesus Christ, abounding" in soul and body unto the 
 many — taking the many to be the righteous, ■i.e., true Christians 
 and sincere believers. 
 
 But about the numbers in Adam and in Christ respectively, and 
 by " in Christ," I mean, of course, those who are new creatures in 
 Him — at first sight the number of those who are in Adam Only 
 seems enormously greater than those who are beneficially and 
 spiritually in Christ ; but we must remember that this is a matter, 
 not of 1,800 years, but of untold ages, even the ages of eternity. 
 We must remember that evil, if not annihilated, will be cast out, 
 confined — in fact, as the Vision in the Kevelation tells us, chained, 
 
108 GRACE ABOUNDED. [Romans 
 
 whereas good, and this good the goodness of Christ in His own, 
 will be ever growing and increasing, doubtless in other worlds 
 besides this. 
 
 With respect to the numbers partaking of the grace of God by 
 Christ, one who is undoubtedly of all English commentators " of 
 the straitest sect of our religion," Thomas Scott, has some words, 
 which though of no particular weight in themselyes, are valuable 
 as coming from one whose prejudices lead him to make the number 
 of the saved as few as possible. He writes : " If we omit the con- 
 sideration of the number who perish in ' the first Adam,' or are 
 saved in the ' second Adam,' if we wholly leave this to the wise, 
 righteous, and merciful Creator, and Judge of all men, as one 
 of those secret things which belong to Him, and not to us ; and if 
 we exclusively consider the benefits which helievers derive from 
 Christ, as compared with the loss sustained in Adam hy the human 
 race, we shall then see the passage open most perspicuously and 
 gloriously to our view. For the thought of the supposed immense 
 majority of those who shall eventually perish, is apt to encumber 
 the mind in these contemplations. I say supposed, for possiUy we 
 shall find our calculations erroneous, when the doom of men through 
 all ages and nations shall be finally determined." 
 
 These verses, 15-21, look not to individuals merely, but to the 
 future of the race, and certainly the last two chapters of the book 
 of the Kevelation open out to us a very different prospect to that 
 which we receive from the popular idea, that the earth is to be 
 annihilated, that the saved — a very small remnant — are draughted 
 away as they die to a far-off heaven, and that the lost, the infinitely 
 greater number, are all alike shut up in a Gehenna of inexpressible 
 torment. The Apostle, in these verses, does not teach universal 
 salvation, for, in another place, he contemplates the case of those 
 who finally "know not God, and obey not the Gospel of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ." The grace of God and the gift by gi-ace in Jesus 
 Christ has, through their own fault, not abounded to them, for they 
 shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence 
 of the Lord, and from the glory of his power (2 Thess. i. 7, 8, 9) ; 
 but he assuredly contemplates a final result of blessing to the whole 
 race, which far exceeds the highest views of those who are most 
 hopeful respecting the future of mankind. 
 
 16. " And not as it was by one that sinned . . . many offences 
 unto justification." It was the one sin of Adam which brought 
 
Chap, v.] NOT AS BY ONE THAT SINNED. 109 
 
 16 And not as it was by one that sinned, so is tlie gift : for 
 the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift 
 is of many offences unto justification. 
 
 17 For if 11 by one man's offence death reigned iior.&y one 
 by one ; much more they which receive abundance 
 
 of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life 
 by one, Jesus Christ.) 
 
 condemnation ' but the redemption by Christ atones for not only 
 that one sin, but all other sins, which we must account to be 
 absolutely innumerable. It was, in the words of our Consecration 
 prayer, "a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satis- 
 faction for the sins of the whole world." 
 
 Adam brought himself under condemnation and death by one 
 sin, whereas the Kedemption of Christ has atoned for the evil lives 
 of all Adam's posterity. For before he had said, that if one man's 
 sin slew all, much more will the grace of One have the power to 
 save. After that he shows that it was not that one sin only that 
 was done away by the grace, but all the rest too, and that it was 
 not that the sins were done away only, but that righteousness was 
 given. And Christ did not only do the same amount of good that 
 Adam did of harm, but far more and greater good. (Chrysostom.) 
 
 17. " For if by one man's offence death reigned by one . . . 
 life by one, Jesus Christ." Here another idea is brought in — that 
 of reigning in a kingdom. One man's sin brings in the reign of 
 death. Jesus Christ, through the abundance of grace and the gift 
 of righteousness, brings in the reign in life of those who accept His 
 gifts, who, from aU that we can learn from this chapter, will ulti- 
 mately be very many. There is an immense amount of unreality 
 connected with this idea of Christians reigning with Christ. The 
 future state is assumed to be one immense assembly congregated 
 in one vast hall. Now if this be all, there can be no reigning, 
 in the proper sense of the word, in such a state — indeed, one 
 good man explains it that we shall rule over ourselves or our pas- 
 sions ; but if we take as our guide to the future state of the blessed, 
 the Lord's promises in the parable of the Pounds : " Be thou ruler 
 over ten cities," " Be thou ruler over five cities," or, as in the 
 parable of the Talents, "I will make thee ruler over many things," 
 or the hint given to us in 1 Cor. vi. 3, that we shall judge angels, 
 
110 BY ONE OFFENCE. TRomans. 
 
 18 Therefore as || by the offence of one judgment came 
 I Or, by one upon all men to condemnation; even so || by the 
 
 offence. 
 
 I Or, by one 
 
 righteousness. 
 
 then the case is altered. There is a sphere or spheres in which 
 reigning in the true sense of the word is possible, which cannot be 
 conceived of under the common notions of heaven. Suppose, then, 
 that we take this "reigning " to mean exerting the most widespread 
 and kingly influence for good, then in the ages of eternity the power 
 for good of those who reign through Christ, may far exceed the 
 power for evil of the one man Adam through his sin. 
 
 Notice particularly that it is not the grace and the gift of 
 righteousness which reigns, but those persons who receive this 
 grace and gift of righteousness. 
 
 18. "Therefore as by the offence of one (judgment came) upon 
 all men to condemnation . . . justification of life." First, with 
 reference to the exact translation of this verse. 
 
 Most expositors now render the words, " the offence of one," by 
 the words " one offence," and " by the righteousness of one " hy 
 the words, "by one righteousness." But there is a considerable 
 difference about the meaning of "the one righteousness." Some 
 (Vaughan, and Godet, and Alford) explain it as "by one righteous 
 act," i.e., the Death of Christ as the acme of His obedience. Others 
 " one justificatory sentence," as if on the Eesurrection of Christ a 
 sentence of justification was passed upon all, which each particular 
 soul receives a part in on its believing. It seems to me rather the 
 former, in which case one transgression issuing in condemnation is 
 counteracted by one righteousness of Christ issuing in justification 
 of life. 
 
 Then we have to consider what are the words which have to be 
 supplied to complete the sense of each clause. Our translators 
 render in italics "judgment came" in the first clause, and "the 
 free gift came" in the second. But that which we supply in 
 each clause should be, if possible, the same ; and so it is rendered 
 by some " as by one offence the issue came upon all men to con- 
 demnation, so by one righteousness the issue came," &c. 
 
 " Justification of life," not merely justification which issues in 
 eternal life at last, but a present justification of life as opposed to 
 the " condemnation " of the previous clause. It consequently must 
 include all that we receive by virtue of our union with Christ ; and, 
 
Chap, v.] BY ONE RIGHTEOUSNESS. Ill 
 
 righteousness of one the free gift came * upon all men unto 
 justification of life. u£lCl' ^^' 
 
 as I shall show in an excursus at the end of this volume, it must 
 be life from Christ as the Second Adam — that life which is power to 
 fulfil the holy law or will of God (viii. 1-4). This is admirably 
 expressed in the words of an exposition of this Epistle by a priest of 
 a sister Church, " Condemnation — Justification. The words must 
 be taken with all which they imply : the condemnation of Adam 
 conveys to us the idea of his sentence, and also of aU its con- 
 sequences, misery, sorrow, depravity, Physical and Spiritual Death. 
 So the word Justification expresses, first, the act of pardon and 
 forgiveness, and then includes the gift of the New Life, the sancti- 
 fying and cleansing of the inner man, as well as the sealing of the 
 mortal frame for a blessed and happy resurrection " (Kev. Morgan 
 Dix). 
 
 The numerical comparison in this verse is the strongest of any in 
 this part of the epistle, for " the free gift upon all men " is put over 
 against the "judgment upon all men." Now two remarks may be 
 made upon this ; 1st, that it is impossible to suppose that the 
 Apostle meant that all men in his day were justified, for he con- 
 stantly assumes that even his converts may be falling into deadly 
 sin, as, for instance, the Corinthians, where he says to them, 
 '* Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the king- 
 dom of God," and this with express reference to the unrighteousness 
 amongst themselves, from which they had been cleansed, and yet 
 into which they were continually relapsing. 
 
 2ndly. It is impossible to imagine that he should have made this 
 comparison at all between all men [etc TrdvraQ avOpihirovg] on the one 
 side, and all men [fig TrdvTag dvOpoJ-n-ovg] on the other, if he con- 
 sidered that those in Christ the Second Adam were only that 
 exceedingly small number whom Evangelical commentators, such 
 as Godet and PhiUppi, and, amongst ourselves, T. Scott, Bishop 
 Eyle, and others designate as " believers ; " or such as Eomanists 
 would consider to be saved by reason of their accepting the Eoman 
 obedience in addition to the Catholic faith. The Holy Spirit, Who, 
 if He inspired any part of Scripture, inspired these words, seems to 
 have regard to some hidden mystery respecting the diffusion of the 
 gi-ace of Christ which God has withheld from us. 
 
11.2 MANY MADE RIGHTEOUS. [Romans. 
 
 19 For as by one man's disobedience many were made 
 sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made 
 righteous. 
 V- ""o^-*.^^- 20 Moreover ^ the law entered, that the offence 
 
 ch.iii. 20. & 
 
 iv. 15. & vii. 8. 
 
 Gal. iii. 19, 23. 
 
 20. "The law entered ; " rather, " the law came in beside." See notes below. 
 
 19. " For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, 
 so by," &c. This verse contains the last of these astonishing 
 parallels, and it fixes the meaning of them, especially the last, and 
 in this respect : By Adam the many were made sinners, not by 
 imputation, but actually through the transfusion of his sinful nature 
 into all who were his descendants ; they were made sinners be- 
 cause, through their connection with him, the evil nature which 
 they received at their conception developed into some sin or other, 
 even in the most righteous. Now Christ is said to be through His 
 righteousness the remedy of this state of things, and so, it is said, 
 through the obedience of One shall many — the many — be made 
 righteous — " made righteous," of course, in the sense that the many 
 were made sinners — that is, by having righteousness transfused into 
 them, by their being grafted into Christ, and so made partakers of 
 His righteousness, so that they might bring forth fruit, the fruit of 
 holy Hves and good works. 
 
 This fixes the meaning of the Justification of the previous 
 verses. It cannot be merely, or even chiefly, the imputation of 
 another righteousness ; it must be the transfusion into them of 
 that righteousness which they need. It must, as I have shown, be 
 life, the life of the New Man, to the end that the righteousness of 
 the law may be fulfilled in those who walk not after the flesh, but 
 after the Spirit. 
 
 20. " Moreover the law entered that the offence might abound 
 . . . grace did much more abound." Here the Apostle returns to 
 the subject of verse 13. Sin which was in the world hefore the 
 law, hy the law was not only shown to be sinful, but was actually 
 increased in intensity, because men's natural corruption chafed 
 against the good and holy commandment of God, and so their 
 gudt was increased. It was, at first — that is, before the law was 
 given — simply transgression against a feeling of right within them, 
 which was at the best feeble, of which feeling of right they did not 
 know the author, and so did not recognize the sanction. 
 
Chap, v.] WHEEE SIN ABOUNDED. 113 
 
 miglit abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much 
 " more abound : ^ ^""^^ .^ij- 47. 
 
 1 Tim. 1. 14. 
 
 When the law was given, it was seen clearly to come from God, 
 and was promulgated under the most tremendous of sanctions — the 
 anger of God if they disobeyed — the favour of God if they were 
 obedient. Now God knew that the children of Israel would not 
 obey ; why, then, did Ho give the law, seeing that He clearlj^ fore- 
 saw that it would increase transgressions, and make sin more sinful ? 
 He did it to prepare men for — and, as St. Paul expresses it (Gal. iii. 
 23), shut them up to — the faith which should afterwards be revealed. 
 He acted as good physicians do who know that their patients 
 cannot be healed unless the disease comes to a crisis, and He gave 
 that which would hasten the crisis, and so the sooner bring in 
 health. 
 
 Still it may be objected. Did God mean when He said " Thou 
 shalt not commit idolatry or adultery " to restrain men from wor- 
 shipping idols or defiling their bodies ? Yes, undoubtedly He did ; 
 but His commands against these sins were only received and acted 
 upon by a remnant, and the great mass of His people disre- 
 garded them. God foresaw this, and yet He gave the command- 
 ment. Why ? Evidently that by the action of the commandment 
 a state of things might eventually be brought in which established, 
 as nothing else could do, purity of worship and purity of life. 
 " The law came that the offence might abound, or as we might ex- 
 press it, that men might awaken to their real state " (Jowett). 
 
 Here we have to notice the expression "entered ;" it really means 
 "entered beside," i.e., by the way, parenthetically. It was not 
 the original state of things, nor was it the final. It came in as if 
 by the way, and for a particular purpose (Vaughan) ; which pur- 
 pose, however, was necessary in order that men might see the ab- 
 solute necessity of something which could give life and power. It 
 was an experiment, as it were, God showing in the case of a parti- 
 cular people whom He had placed under the most favourable ^cir- 
 cumstances for obeying Him, that without the gift of a new nature 
 in a Second Adam, they could not. And so the way was prepared 
 for the reign of grace, that where sin abounded, as in the case of 
 those under the law, grace might much more abound, as it did 
 even in the lifetime of the Apostle in those who accepted the 
 Gospel. 
 
114 GRACE REIGNING. [Romans. 
 
 21 That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might 
 grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus 
 Christ our Lord. 
 
 21. " Unto death ;" rather, " in death." 
 
 21. " That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace 
 reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our 
 Lord." This is the last parallel, and sums up all. 
 
 Sin and grace here are directly opposed ; sin reigning in, or by, 
 death, grace reigning through life. Theodoret takes this as mean- 
 ing that sin reigned in mortal bodies, bodies made mortal through 
 it, and so showed its destructive power for a time, but that grace 
 in its reign far exceeds this. Grace reigns through righteousness, 
 righteousness being, as it were, the instrument by which grace 
 reigns, and reigns not for a short time, some three score years and 
 ten, but unto eternal life, through countless ages. 
 
 Notice how grace reigns, not instead of, but through righteous- 
 ness : the reign of grace was, or rather, is, to produce righteous- 
 ness in each soul, without which there can be no real reconciliation 
 of each soul to God, and consequently no eternal life ; and this 
 "through Jesus Christ our Lord," not merely through His merits but 
 throui^h His Person, Himself Incarnate, Crucified, Eisen, Ascended, 
 and so transmitting His good and holy Nature into His brethren. 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 • ch. iii. 8. "\ 1 T'HAT shall we say then ? ^ Shall we continue 
 * ^ in sin, that grace may abound ? 
 
 1. "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin,, that 
 grace may abound?" The Apostle here meets, and shows the 
 wickedness of, that perversion of the doctrine of free grace which 
 through the corruption and love of sin of the human heart natu- 
 rally accompanies the Gospel. This perversion we call Antino- 
 
Chap. VI.] WE WHO DIED TO SIN. 115 
 
 2 God forbid. How shall we, that are Mead l^;^(.}l' 
 to sin, live any longer therein ? S^h"' ^coi* 
 
 iii. 3.' 1 Pet. 
 
 ii. 24. 
 
 2. " Are dead," Rather, "died; " i.e. they may not be dead now, but they died once, 
 
 mianism, and it is now as rife in Christian England as it could 
 have been in Kome or Corinth in Apostolic days. 
 
 There are people in this very town in which I am writing who 
 say, and who are encouraged by their teachers to say, " If I believe 
 I can no longer sin — sin is not sin in me, since Christ died for me 
 and I believe in Him." There are persons who even go so far as to 
 say that fornication is not sin in the believer, and they certainly 
 show no shame for having committed it. The Apostle in asking 
 this question very probably has in his mind what he had said in 
 cli. V. 20, " The law entered that the offence might abound. But 
 where sin abounded grace did much more abound." If this took 
 place before the gift of Christ, why not after? 
 
 2. " God forbid. How shall we, that are dead [died] to sin, live any 
 longer therein ? " To this the Apostle answers that the grace of 
 God through Christ is, in its whole nature and power and manifes- 
 tation, against sin and for righteousness. It is not mere favour or 
 kindness, as men may be favourable or kind to one another, quite 
 apart from their moral character. So far from being indifferent to 
 sin, it is death to it ; so far from being indifferent to righteousness, 
 its end is righteousness. 
 
 " We, that are dead to sin." The right translation is, " how shall 
 we who died to sin ? " not " are dead " to it. If all who are bap- 
 tised into the Name of Christ are dead now to sin, then there need 
 be no protest against any sort of Antinomianism ; for there could 
 be Done, if all Christians were as indifferent to sin as a dead body 
 is to the lusts and appetites which ruled it when it was yet 
 ahve. 
 
 The words " died to sin " must refer to some period in the past 
 when this took place. Now in an important sense all died to sin 
 when Christ died. He died because of sin, for He died to put it 
 away, and to destroy it, and He was the representative Man, the 
 Head of the race, so that His Death to sin has opened the way to 
 the salvation of all mankind from sin ; so that each one to whom 
 His Death is proclaimed should actually and morally die to sin by 
 believing in Him and being united to Him. 
 
116 BAPTIZED INTO HIS DEATH. [Romans. 
 
 3 Know ye not, that ^ so many of us as || were baptized 
 c Gal. iii. 27. into Jesus Christ ^ were baptized into his death ? 
 
 II Or, are. 
 
 d 1 Cor. XV, — 
 
 29. 
 
 8. "Know ye not, that so many of ns as were baptized." Rather, as Re^-isers. "Or 
 are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized." All have been baptized, and all bap- 
 tized into His death ; none are excluded. 
 
 It is, however, as clear as possible that whatever secret effects 
 known only to God, the Death of Christ may have on the whole 
 race, yet wilful sinners, slaves of sin, not only have no present 
 benefit from that Death, but crucify afresh Him Who died for 
 them. Can there then be another and a further meaning of this 
 term "died to sin"? Yes, the Apostle proceeds to show that 
 there can. 
 
 3, 4. " Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized unto 
 Jesus Christ .... newness of life." 
 
 To be baptized into Christ, is to be baptized so as as to become a 
 member of Christ, so that a part in the past death of Christ to sin 
 and the present life of Christ to God becomes ours. This is well 
 expressed by Philippi, a German Evangelical : " He refers to the 
 Baptismal act, because by it the Christian has been taken into 
 union with Christ. From its import, therefore, the nature of the 
 Christian position must needs be clearly apparent. If, according 
 to St. Paul's mode of view. Baptism was merely a symbolical attes- 
 tation to the fact of regeneration which has previously taken place, 
 and not rather, as is expressly stated (Titus iii. 5 ; Ephes. v. 26), 
 the effectual medium by which the new birth is accomplished, the 
 Apostle would more aptly have reminded the Church of the 
 moment of their believing, than of the moment of their Baptism. 
 . . . Elsewhere also Paul reminds the churches of Baptism as the 
 Sacrament of their initiation into communion with Christ (Gal. iii. 
 27, Ephes. iv. 5), and the passage analogous to the present one is 
 Col. ii. 11, 12." 
 
 " While then in the preceding verse he only said in general terms 
 that they actually died to sin, in this verse he intimates that this 
 took place in Baptism, because what took place iu them as Chris- 
 tians must certainly make itself known as having taken place in 
 Baptism, the sacrament of their incorporation into Christ. This 
 holds true especially of Infant Baptism preceding the ministry of 
 the word. But even the word which precedes the Baptism of 
 
Chap. VI.] BURIED WITH HIM BY BAPTISM. 117 
 
 4 Therefore we are ^buried with him by baptism into 
 death : that * like as Christ was raised up from « Coi. a. 12. 
 
 f ch. viii. 11. 
 
 1 Cor. vi. U. 
 
 2 Cor. xiii. 4. 
 
 4. "Are bnried ; " properly, " were buried." The Authorized rather implies that we 
 continue buried, whereas in the same baptism we have emerged from the tomb. 
 
 adults is merely preparatory to Baptism as the real crowning act, 
 just as the word following Baptism simply points back to Baptism, 
 bj' way of continuous exposition and application. The word that 
 goes before offers to all collectively the gracious gift which Baptism 
 conveys to the particular definite individual. Faith before Baptism 
 accepts for itself also the gift promised in the word to all : faith in 
 and after Baptism accepts the blessing given by God Himself to it 
 specially. In the former case takes place a subjective and human 
 (though one willed and brought about by God) in the latter an objec- 
 tive and divine individual application of the blessing of salvation." 
 
 4. " Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death : that 
 Hke as Christ was raised up," &c. The former verse says, " we were 
 baptized into his Death," ^■.e., His Death to sin — His atoning 
 Death, the Death which reconciled us to God. 
 
 Now Christ's Death culminated in His Burial in the sealed and 
 guarded tomb in which His Body slept for a short space till, on the 
 third day, He broke the bands of death on His Kesurrection, and 
 came forth endowed again with life. 
 
 Now we were buried with Him in Baptism not that we should 
 continue dead merely, but that we should rise again with Him. 
 Christ descended into the grave in order that He might emerge 
 from it endowed with a new and almighty power of Life, and we 
 share the one with Him, the Death and Burial, in order that we 
 may share the other — the newness of Life. 
 
 This verse must be compared with Col. ii. 12, where the rising 
 from the dead with Christ in the sacrament of Baptism is expressly 
 declared: "Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye 'are 
 risen with him through the faith of the operation of God Who hath 
 raised him from the dead." So putting the two statements (Rom. 
 vi. 4 and Coloss. ii. 12) together, the verse before us comprehends 
 both Death and Resurrection with Christ — a share in His Death 
 and a share in H!is Resm-rection. Whatever difficulty there is 
 about the meaning of this verse arises not from want of intelligible- 
 ness in the passage, but from our want of faith — the plain mean- 
 
118 NEWNESS OF LIFE. [Romaks. 
 
 g John ii. 11. the dead by ^ the srlory of the Father, ^ even so 
 
 & xi. 40. J & ^ ' 
 
 h Gal. Ti. 15. we also should walk in newness of life. 
 
 Eph. ir. 22, 
 
 23,24. Cor. 
 
 iii. 10. 
 
 ing of the verse being that in Baptism there is a mystical Burial 
 and Kesurrection with Christ, that we may be dead to sin through 
 His Death and alive unto God through Christ's new Life imparted to 
 us. Now it is clear from tbis that the Baptismal Death and Burial 
 with Christ are not figurative but real. A spiritual reality takes 
 place in every Christian's Baptism, by which the benefits of the 
 Death and Eesurrection of Christ are made his ; so that for the 
 future he should not only no longer live to sin, but live a new and 
 holy life to God. 
 
 Now all this, of course, is a matter of faith. It pertains to our 
 Justification by faith — to our Salvation by grace through faith. In 
 order to see this we have only to ask such questions as, Who was 
 He Who ordained Baptism ? For what purpose did He ordain it ? 
 Is He or His Spirit everywhere present to see to it that a rite 
 ministered by weak human beings should be accompanied by an 
 act of His power in which He grafts us into Himself, the true Vine, 
 and makes us members of His Body? 
 
 But can we believe in such exuberance of grace ? We can, if we 
 beUeve what St. Paul has just written : " Where sin abounded grace 
 did much more abound." Who ordained the Sacraments? If it 
 was the Eternal Son of God, is it safe to take as low a view of their 
 operation as we can ? Is not the highest view, if consistent with 
 faith and holiness, the one most in accord with the mystery of the 
 United Godhead and Manhood — the Holy Incarnation of Him Who 
 ordained them ? 
 
 To believe respecting Baptism, that it is a mystical Death and Burial 
 and Kesurrection with the Lord, requires, of course, a special act of 
 faith — a faith in Christ, God and Man, as everywhere present, and 
 everywhere operative. This special faith is clearly recognized in 
 the Catechism of the Church of England : " What is required of 
 persons to be baptized ? Eepentance whereby they forsake sin, and 
 faith whereby they steadfastly believe the promises of God made to 
 them in that Sacrament." 
 
 But I shall dwell upon this, and also upon the application of it to 
 that form of Baptism which is almost universal amongst us — the 
 Baptism of Infants — at some length, further on. 
 
CiiAP. YL] OUR OLD MAN CRUCIFIED. 119 
 
 5 ^ For if we have been planted together in the likeness of 
 
 his death, we shall be also in the likeness of Ms » Phii. iii. lo, 
 
 11. 
 resurrection. 
 
 6 Knowing this, that ^ our old man is crucified ^ Gai. ii. 20. 
 
 ° ' & V. 24. & vi. 
 
 14. Eph. iv. 
 
 22. Col. iii. 
 
 5,9. 
 
 5. " Planted together." Rather, " united " or "grafted." See below. 
 
 6. " Is erntifled." Rather, " was crucified." 
 
 " By the glory of the Father." This, probably, means by the 
 power of the Father, or by the Spirit of the Father. Chrysostom 
 explains " Them he also glorified " in chap. viii. 30, by "to whom 
 He gave His Spirit." 
 
 •'Newness of life." This does not mean the outward life [iSiog) 
 considered as so much time lived, but the principle of life, ?w?}, as 
 when we say that such a thing begins to show signs of life. Our new 
 life is the infusion into us of the Eesurrection Life of the Lord. 
 
 " For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his 
 death." Planted together does not mean planted side by side with 
 Him as trees are planted side by side in a wood, but it means 
 nearly the same as being grafted, for it signifies being united to 
 Him so as to grow in Him, and together with Him. If we have 
 been united to Him in, or by, the likeness of His Death, we shall be 
 also in that of His Eesurrection. Others translate it, " If we have 
 been," or, " as surely as we have been" (for no doubt is insinuated), 
 — as surely as we have been united in the likeness of His death we 
 shall be also in His Eesurrection. There is a difference between 
 the likeness of His Death and that of His Eesurrection : His actual 
 Death is past and gone, so we can only be united to Him in its 
 liheness; but His Eesurrection is present. He lives now in the 
 power and vitality of it, and so we are united to it not figuratively 
 but actually. " If thou hast shared in Death, much more wilt thou 
 in Eesm-rection and Life. For now that the greater is done away 
 with, the sin I mean, it is not right to doubt any longer about the 
 lesser, the doing away of death " (Chrysostom). 
 
 6. " Knowing this, that our old man is [was] crucified with him." 
 "We who are united to Christ, or grafted into the likeness of His 
 Death, have two natures, the old and the new. It was the old 
 nature — the body of sin and death — which was crucified with 
 Christ, that is, which partook of His Crucifixion, and to this end, 
 
120 WE SHOULD NOT SERVE SIN. [Romans. 
 
 with him, that Hhe body of sin might be destroyed, that 
 
 I Col. ii. 11. henceforth we should not serve sin. 
 
 ♦ Oct Just! ficci ^ ^^^ "' ^^^ ^^^^* ^^ dead is f freed from sin. 
 
 ' IMight be destroyed." " Might be done away," Revisers. 
 
 that the body of sin might be destroyed. It might be wickedly 
 said that, since Christ was crucified for us, we need have no care 
 about mortifying our evil propensities. " No," says the Apostle, 
 " our old man was crucified in His Crucifixion, that the body of 
 sin might be destroyed." St. Paul here uses a figure which is re- 
 produced in Coloss. iii. 5, where the totality of sin is supposed to 
 be a body, and the different particular sins the various members of 
 that body : well, our old man is crucified with Christ, that all these 
 members of the body of sin should be destroyed, that " henceforth 
 we should not serve sin." When the body of sin within us uses 
 any of these its members (and the Apostle particularizes them in 
 Col. iii. 5) — fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, con- 
 cupiscence and covetousness — then it serves sin, and it has been 
 crucified in Christ's Crucifixion for this one purpose, that it should 
 not serve sin. If we had continued innocent, we should have had 
 no old man, and Christ need not have died, and we need not have 
 been baptized into His Death ; but since the human race fell in 
 Adam it was needful that a Second Adam should be given, in 
 Whom the sin of the race should receive its penalty, and so each 
 one of us received that penalty in our Head for this purpose, that we 
 should contract no further guilt by yielding to sin. 
 
 " That henceforth we should not serve sin." I take this to mean 
 that Christ must suffer for sin, and we, -i.e., om' old man of sin, must 
 suffer in Him before He could be raised from the dead, and we par- 
 take of His Kesurrection Life. This verse seems to re-embody the 
 idea of v. 10, " If when we were enemies, we were reconciled to 
 God by the death of his Son, much more being reconciled we shall 
 be saved by his life." The Death of Christ does not impart to us 
 of His Life, but the Death is the necessary prelude to that Ke- 
 surrection by the power of which we are enabled to live by His 
 Life, and so to serve sin no longer. 
 
 7. " For he that is dead is freed from sin," that is, is justified 
 from sin. 
 
CHAf. VL] CHRIST DIETH NO MORE. 121 
 
 8 Now "if we be dead with Chnst, we believe that we 
 shall also live with him : " 2 Tim. ii. 
 
 9 Knowing that ° Christ being raised from the o Rev. i. is. 
 dead dieth no more ; death hath no more dominion 
 
 over him. 
 
 8. " Now if we be dead." Rather, " if we died." 
 
 St. Paul here seems to mean that as long as men haveunrepented 
 and unforsaken sin upon them, they are under the dominion and 
 penalty of sin. This penalty is removed on their repentance, 
 whereby they forsake sin, and on their faith, i.e., their accepting 
 the promises of deliverance from the guilt and power of sin, whicli 
 are embodied in Baptism. Christ is assumed to have died with 
 the weight of our sins upon Him. He discharged this debt by His 
 Death, and emerged from the tomb free from the burden of our 
 sins. And as He was then by death freed or justified from sin 
 [our sins] , so we who are in Him are freed from, or justified from, 
 our sins in and by His Deat^i, for we were baptized and so made 
 one with Him in His Death. 
 
 8. *' Now if we be dead [died] with Christ, we believe that we shall 
 also live with him." Christ ordained the Sacrament of Baptism 
 as the means whereby we should be united to Him in His Deatli 
 to sin, and so be partakers of the atonement wrought by that 
 Death ; but the Baptism which Christ ordained is into a Death 
 followed by a Kesurrection. We continue under the water, or have 
 the water poured over us, only for a moment — we emerge from it, 
 and that emerging is also with Christ, that we may partake of the 
 Life which He assumed on the third day. 
 
 9, 10. " Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead .... 
 he hveth unto God." Why does Christ, once raised, die no more ? 
 Because His Death has been an all-suf&cient atonement. Christ 
 was such a representative Man — a Second Adam — that, if it be lawful 
 to utter such a thing, if any sin had remained He would have yet 
 been subject to death ; but His Resurrection, after He had taken 
 upon Him and borne our sins, was the outward visible sign that sin 
 was put away, and God reconciled. 
 
 " Death hath no more dominion over him." Death had domi- 
 nion over Him for a very short time, but such was the Godhead, 
 such the holiness, such the merit, of Him over Whom it had this 
 three days' dominion, that its very conquest destroyed itself. 
 
122 RECKON YE YOURSELVES. [Romans. 
 
 10 For in that lie died, ^ lie died unto sin once : but in that 
 P Heb. ix. 27, he liveth, '^ he liveth unto God. 
 
 28. 
 
 «j Luke XX. 38. H Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be 
 
 10. "For in that," &c. Revisers translate, "The death which he died, he died Hnto 
 sin once, but the life which he liveth, he liveth unto God." 
 
 10. " For in that he died, he died unto sin once," &c. Most com- 
 mentators are agreed that this should be rendered by " The death 
 which he died he died unto sin once," and "in that he liveth" by 
 '* the life which he liveth," &c. 
 
 " He died unto sin once," once for all, that is, as we commonly 
 say, " it is done with." He suffered and died, and all that is done 
 with, so far as regards its pain and shame. It is impossible to 
 imagine that it can occur again. His Death was momentary and 
 all-suliicient, but not so His Life. It is eternal. " He liveth." 
 He ever liveth to God. " I am he that liveth, and was dead, and 
 behold I am ahve for evermore." He liveth an endless life, in 
 which He carries out the purposes of God towards the Church and 
 the Universe. And the Apostle tells us that it is by the power of 
 this endless life that we live. God, when we were dead in sin, 
 hath quickened us — hath, that is, made us alive with or in Christ 
 (Ephes. ii. 5-7). So in Coloss. iii. 1-3, " Christ who is our life," 
 " Christ liveth in me," and our Lord tells us the same, " Because I 
 live ye shall also live." 
 
 11. " Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto 
 sin," &c. This is the practical conclusion of this whole matter 
 respecting Christ's Death and Kesurrection and our Baptism. We 
 are to reckon, to think, to assume, ourselves dead indeed unto sin, 
 but alive unto God. Now we cannot get a true and firm grasp of 
 the whole matter unless we realize what this death to sin means. 
 
 There are three ways in which a man may be " dead to sin." 
 
 1. He may be dead to sin by being actually and physically dead, 
 i.e., his body may be, for if he has died in sin, sin in terrible ways 
 may have dominion over him in the world of spirits. However, 
 his body, if he be dead, is actually dead to sin, as to everything 
 else. If the temptation to his most darhng sin is brought close to 
 his body, he has no consciousness of it, and is unmoved by it. 
 
 2. A Christian may be dead to sin, because he has so subdued it, 
 80 crucified it, that he no longer feels its suggestions. Such Cliris 
 
Chap.vl] dead to sin. 123 
 
 ' dead indeed unto sin, but ' alive unto God through ' ver. 2. 
 
 ' Gal. ii, 19. 
 
 tians are perfect Christians, and they are very few indeed. But it 
 is very frequently the case that a man through Divine Grace, or 
 through self-disciphne, or through age, may be quite dead to the 
 power of some particular temptation ; but even in such cases it 
 may revive, which shows that there is not an absolute and com- 
 plete death. 
 
 Now this death, or any form of it, cannot be what the Apostle 
 means, for he alludes to something which is now making itself felt, 
 and must be fought and prayed against, or it may reassert its 
 dominion. We have been baptized in order that the body of sin 
 may be destroyed, and yet notwithstanding our Baptism, and its 
 grace of co-burial and co-resurrection in Christ, we may forget it, 
 and fall from it, and again serve sin. It is the height of incon- 
 sistency in a human being which has been united to Christ, even 
 in figure, so to do ; but at every point we have to assume the 
 existence of, and to meet, human inconsistency. The old man 
 exists yet, not only in the baptized, but in the converted, in those 
 who give every sign of having had some conscious change in them. 
 There is apparently no Christian who has not some need of the 
 exhortations, " Put off the old man," " Be renewed in the spirit of 
 your mind," " Put on the new man." 
 
 3. What then is this death to sin ? It is a Sacramental Death, an 
 union with Christ in His atoning Death, so that we die in Him, 
 and in the same short moment of Baptism are raised again with 
 Him, and so partake of His Resurrection Life. When then does 
 a man reckon himself dead to sin, and alive unto God ? When he 
 remembers that at a certain time of his past life, when he was 
 brought under the Christian covenant and made a member of 
 Christ, he was endowed with a power against sin which he has to 
 fall back upon, as it were, and to plead with God, and to stir up 
 by prayer and faith (2 Tim. i. 6).^ We have need constantly to 
 make an act of faith in God's work in us in our Baptism, that God 
 did actually then make us members of a Christ once dead, but 
 now alive with a Life in which we have received a part. 
 
 1 This passage, 2 Tim. i. 6, refers to the grace received in ordination ; but it must be 
 applicable to every other rite or Sacrament, such as Baptism and Confirmation, which ia 
 only administered once in a life-time. 
 
124 ALIVE UNTO GOD. [Romans. 
 
 Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 11. " Through Jesus Christ ; " or, " ia Jesus Christ." 
 
 This seems to me to be what the Apostle alludes to when he says 
 in the sister passage in the Epistle to the Colossians, " Buried with 
 him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the 
 faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead " 
 (ii. 12). Baptism meets our faith in the Eesurrection of Christ as 
 being for us. The heathen, or unbaptized convert, saw in the Baptism 
 which he sought, the likeness of the Death and Resurrection ; but 
 not a mere outward typical likeness, but an efficacious one, effica- 
 cious to infuse into him a new power of life, through the same 
 power and will of God by which Christ Himself was raised ; but 
 inasmuch as Baptism was only administered once in a man's Ufe, 
 in order that it might be efficacious through the remainder of his 
 life, he must renew its power by faith — by conscious acts of faith 
 in that Eesurrection of Christ into the power of which he was 
 baptized. 
 
 And now an objection occurs, which must be fully met and 
 answered. Those who came to receive Holy Baptism in St. Paul's 
 time were (it is supposed) mostly adults, exercising conscious faith, 
 and those who come now, come through the faith of others. It has 
 been asserted, then, by writers on this very passage, that the bene- 
 fits ascribed to Baptism belong only to that of penitent and 
 beheving adults, and that the same cannot be said of the Baptism 
 of Infants — so that though a man baptized in riper years, can and 
 ought to reckon himself to have died to sin and risen again with 
 Christ, a person baptized in infancy cannot, and has no warrant for 
 exercising any such faith, or at least that there is such doubt about 
 it that any reference to his Baptism is practically useless. 
 
 Let the reader give due attention to the following questions : — 
 
 Did Christ intend His Baptism to be a permanent institution ? 
 Did He intend that it should be this in its fulness, so that through- 
 out all time till His second coming, successive generations of bap- 
 tized men should become members of His Body, and reckon them- 
 selves for moral and spiritual purposes to be such ? He must have 
 foreseen that in a few generations His Church would not consist 
 (except in a few instances) of those who received Christianity in 
 riper years, but of those who, being born of Christian parents, were 
 
Chap. VI.] LET NOT SIN EEIGN. 125 
 
 12 * Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodj, that 
 ye should obev it in the lusts thereof. * ^^•. ^^^-J^- 
 
 J " & cxix, 13b 
 
 12. " Obey it in the lusts thereof." So K., L., P., and most Cursives ; but a. A., B., 
 C, a few Cursives, 4, 39, 47, 67, 80, 137, 179, Vulg., Sah., Copt., Syriac, &c. read, " obey 
 the lusts thereof." 
 
 brought up in it. He must have also foreseen that from the 
 Apostles' times successive generations of Christians, professing to 
 receive it from them, would practise Infant Baj)tism. 
 
 If then, Infant Baptism be either a mutilated rite, deprived of the 
 grace accompanying Baptism in the Apostolic times, or if the grace 
 associated with it by St. Paul and his brother Apostles be a matter 
 of uncertainty, then we should have expected some caution against 
 the practice, but we have none. 
 
 On the contrary, the conduct of our Lord to infants in blessing 
 them before they could understand the blessing they received, the 
 notices of the Baptism of households in the Book of the Acts, the 
 analogy of circumcision, and, above all, the doctrine of the Lord 
 being the Second Adam, so that as the first Adam communicates 
 his sinful nature to all in a state of infancy, so the Second Adam 
 would find means to communicate His Nature also to those in the 
 same state, in order that they might grow up in Him — all this seems 
 to necessitate that the doctrine contained in this chapter should be 
 as applicable to those baptized in a state of infancy as to those bap- 
 tized in riper years. ^ 
 
 The extreme importance of this verse 11 must be my excuse for 
 having considered it at such length. It is the practical application 
 of all that has gone before. 
 
 12. " Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye 
 should obey it," &c. This is a continuation of the same argument. 
 If you had no power from Christ your Head against sin, then it 
 might reign ; but you have this power, and you must as you value 
 the continuance of your union with your Head, both here and 
 hereafter, see that sin does not reign within you. 
 
 " That ye should obey it in the lusts thereof." There is a re- 
 mainder of sin which, at times, will make itself felt through its 
 
 ' For the fall explication of this I would direct the reader to two works pub- 
 lished by myself many years ugo, "The Sacrament of Responsibility " and •♦ The Second 
 Adam and the New Birth ; " also to a chapter on the Scripturalness of the Baptismal 
 Services of the Church in " Church Doctrine Bible Truth." 
 
126 YIELD YOUESELVES TO GOD. [Romans. 
 
 13 Neither yield ye your "members as f instruments of 
 
 u ch. yii. 5. unrighteousness unto sin : but ^ yield yourselves 
 
 Jam. iv. i. unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, 
 
 or?!^e?/^i. and your members as instruments of righteous- 
 
 X ch. xii. 1 jiess unto Grod. 
 
 1 Pet. 11. 24. 
 & iv. 2. 
 
 13. " Instruments." Properly, " arms." " Neither yield ye your members unto sin as 
 instruments of unrighteousness." Personifying the arms. 
 
 " As those that are alive from the dead." So D., E., F., G., K., L., P., and most 
 Cursives; but K, A., B., C, and four Cursives, 16, 47, 73, 93 read, "as if alive from the 
 dead." 
 
 suggestions to indulgence. If through faith in the power of Christ 
 within you, you deny and so mortify these desires, then you will 
 not obey it ; on the contrary, you will conquer it, and through 
 Christ's aid cast it out. " The law of sinhves in the greatest saints 
 during this life : Who has not reason to tremble ? Who will dare 
 exalt himself ? but it reigns only in him who yields thereto, and 
 who by sinning becomes its slave." 
 
 13. " Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrigh- 
 teousness unto sin : but yield yourselves unto God," &c. This im- 
 plies that there are the two men — the old and the new — within us, 
 each issuing his commands ; we yield to the one, or to the other, by 
 yielding our members to fulfil the behests of the one or the other. 
 
 The word '* instruments " signifies *' arms." If we [i.e., our wills, 
 the ego within us] yield our members so that they commit sin, then 
 we fight against God and Christ ; but if we yield ourselves to God 
 as those that are living with the life of Christ, then we yield our 
 members also as arms of righteousness to fight on the side of God 
 and Christ. 
 
 But notice, we yield our members as arms in the service of un- 
 righteousness, but in the other case we yield ourselves first to God 
 as those alive from the dead. Let us ever remember the words, " I 
 beseech you . . . that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, 
 acceptable unto God." When we do this we yield our members as 
 instruments of righteousness to fight God's battles. By yielding 
 ourselves to God, if we do it sincerely, we engage His help, and shall 
 be victorious. Chrysostom has a noble passage bringing out this : 
 " See how by his bare words he exhorts them — on that side naming 
 sin, and on this God, For by showing what a difference there is 
 
Chap. VI.] UNDER GRACE. 127 
 
 14 For ^ sin shall not have dominion over you : for ye are 
 not under the law, but under srace. y «h. vii. 4, 6. 
 
 15 What then r shall we sm, * because we are v. is. 
 
 not under the law, but under grace ? Grod forbid. ^ '^^' ^^' ' 
 
 16 Bjiow ye not, that * to whom ye yield your- » Matt. vi. 24. 
 selves servants to obey, his servants ye are to 2 Pet. ii. 19. 
 
 between the rulers, he casts out of all excuse the soldier that leaveth 
 God, and desireth to serve under the dominion of sin . . . For con- 
 sider, says he, what you were and what you have been made. What 
 then were ye ? Dead and ruined by a destruction which could not 
 from any quarter be repaired. For neither was there any one who 
 had the power to assist you. And what have ye been made out of 
 these dead ones ? Alive with immortal life. And by whom ? By 
 the all-powerful God. Ye ought therefore to marshal yourselves 
 under Him with as much cheerful readiness as men would who had 
 been made ahve from being dead .... For this reason we need 
 strong armour, and also a noble spirit, and one acquainted too with 
 the ways of this warfare, and above all we need a commander. 
 The Commander, however, is standing by, ever ready to help us, 
 and abiding unconquerable, and has furnished us with strong arms 
 likewise. Further, we have need of a purpose of mind to handle 
 them as should be, so that we may both obey our Commander, and 
 take the field for our country." 
 
 14. " For sin shall not have dominion over you : for ye are not 
 under the law, but under grace." This is one of the most absolute 
 promises of the Word of God, and most precious to the struggling 
 Christian. Every Christian should have it constantly in mind — 
 to plead it with God, and to encom'age himself by it. Observe the 
 reason why sin is not to have dominion. We are not under the 
 law, but under grace. The law can only threaten and terrify, and 
 judge, and condemn. It is uttered, but there is no grace, no power 
 to fulfil it, accompanying the utterance ; whereas the moment the 
 Christian is brought under the New Covenant, grace to do t>he will 
 of God is assigned to him. 
 
 15, 16. " What then ? shall we sin, because we are not under the 
 law .... obedience unto righteousness." To understand the 
 force of this appeal we must remember what St. Paul considered 
 to be liberty, and what he considered to be slavery. What the 
 
128 THAT FORM OF DOCTRINE. [Romans. 
 
 whom ye obey ; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience 
 unto righteousness ? 
 
 17 But Grod be thanked, that ye were the sei*vants of sin, 
 b 2 Tim. i. 13. but yo have obeyed from the heart ^ that form 
 T/e we^ede- ° of doctriue f which was dehvered you. 
 
 livered. 
 
 17. "That ye were." Properly, "that whereas je were the servants of sia, ye have 
 obeyed," &e, 
 
 world calls liberty he would call slavery. The world would call 
 the power to follow, if we chose to do so, the kists of our unre- 
 generate nature, Hberty ; and so the man who does so to the full 
 is called a libertine ; but St. Paul would call this slavery, because if 
 we yielded our members servants to sin to do the will of the flesh, 
 we, ifso fado, become the servants of sin. But the carnal mind 
 may urge. May I not commit sin when I please, and do good when 
 I please, and is not this liberty ? No, because, as the Lord has 
 said, Ye cannot serve two masters, and He for His part will accept 
 no such divided service. On the contrary, those who attempt thus 
 to serve God and sin. He will at once deliver up to the power of 
 sin, so that they shall be its slaves. There is no middle position — 
 no neutrality — in this war. If ye yield yourselves unto sin in anj' 
 the least degree (consciously, that is) then ye yield yourselves unto 
 death, ye forfeit your part in the Life of Christ both here and 
 hereafter. But if, on the contrary, ye yield yourselves unto 
 obedience, then it will be to righteousness, to conformity with the 
 will, and consequently to enjoy the everlasting favour, of God. 
 
 17. " But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, 
 but," &c. Ye were the servants of sin, i.e., in your heathen state, 
 just as the Colossians were to whom the Apostles wrote as walking 
 and living once in fornication, uncleanness, and other vices (Coloss. 
 iii. 5, 8). 
 
 " But ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine," &c. 
 The form of doctrine was the Gospel of Christ Incarnate, Crucified, 
 Risen, Ascended, and coming again to judge. ' In all probability it 
 was put into a few simple words or propositions that a Christian 
 could easily remember, and repeat to himself. This form of 
 doctrine must have been respecting God's Son, Jesus Christ, as St. 
 Paul says in i. 3 that his Gospel was. It was given not only to be 
 
Chjlp.VL] yield your MEMBERS. 129 
 
 18 Being then ^ made free from sin, ye became the servants 
 of righteousness. « John viii. 
 
 ° 32. 1 Cor. vii. 
 
 19 I speak after the manner of men because of 22. oai. v. 1. 
 the infirmity of your flesh : for as ye have yielded 
 
 your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto 
 iniquity ; even so now yield your members servants to righ- 
 teousness unto holiness. 
 
 believed in, but to be obeyed, and the obedience to it was the re- 
 nunciation of sin and the cultivation of holiness. 
 
 The best translation of the latter part of this verse is, " Ye have 
 obeyed from the heart that form of teaching to which ye were 
 delivered." The idea is supposed to be suggested by the founding of 
 brass statues in Corinth, from which city the Apostle wrote this 
 Epistle. " You readily obeyed the mould of Christian faith and 
 practice, into which, at your Baptism, you were poured, as it were, 
 like soft, ductile, and fluent metal, in order to be cast, and take its 
 form. You obeyed this mould, you were not rigid and obstinate, 
 but were plastic and pliant, and assumed it readily " (Words- 
 worth). 
 
 18. " Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of 
 righteousness." " Free from sin," by having the sins of your past 
 life forgiven, and by being yourselves endowed with grace sufficient 
 to free you from the love of sin, and enable you to please God with 
 a willing service. 
 
 Notice how the service of righteousness and the service of God are 
 the same. We can only serve God by doing His will, which is 
 some form of righteousness. 
 
 19. " I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of 
 your flesh : for as ye have," &c. This expression, " I speak after 
 the manner of men," is very difficult. It may mean, you are not 
 yet perfectly spiritual — the infirmity of your flesh, its weakness, 
 owing to sin remaining in it, makes you unable to take in spiritual 
 truths as they are, and so they must be presented to you under 
 Buch figures as I am now using, particularly this contrast between 
 liberty and slavery — slavery to sin, and liberty to righteous- 
 ness. Perhaps he means to hint that there can be properly no 
 slavery to righteousness, because in his view righteousness is 
 
 K 
 
130 WHAT FRUIT HAD YE THEN. [Romans. 
 
 20 For when ye were ** the servants of sin, ye were free 
 d John viii. f from righteousness. 
 
 4. Gr. to 21 ® What fruit had ye then in those things 
 
 elh'™''" wheroof ye are now ashamed? for *the end of 
 f ch. i. 32. those things is death. 
 
 21. " What frnit had ye then in those things." " What fruit then had ye at that time 
 in the things," &c. 
 
 freedom (as we have in our Collect, " Whose service is perfect 
 freedom "). 
 
 Or it may mean, on account of the weakness of your flesh 
 through original sin yet being within you, I lay upon you no 
 heavier burden than what, with God's help, ye are well able to 
 bear, and that is, that your service of righteousness should corre- 
 spond to your former service of iniquity (or lawlessness, avo^ia). As 
 ye yielded your members servants to uncleanness, so now yield the 
 same members servants to righteousness. In Cornelius a Lapide we 
 find a good exposition from Anselm, following Augustine : " No fear 
 in your former days drove you to sin, but the lust of it, and the 
 delight of committing it. So let not the fear of punishment urge 
 you to live righteously, but let the delight in righteousness and the 
 love of it lead you so to do. For as he is most wicked whom not 
 even temporal punishments deter from the filthy works of degraded 
 pleasures, so he is most righteous whom not even the fear of 
 temporal punishments recals from the holy works of the brightest 
 charity." 
 
 20. " For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from (or 
 to) righteousness." The serving of sin of course implies the serving 
 it as its slave. And as no one can have two masters, when they 
 served sin they did not serve righteousness, that is, they were free as 
 respects the service of righteousness. If rendered " ye were firee with 
 respect to righteousness," it must not be taken to mean **ye were 
 free to do righteousness when ye pleased," for that is just what they 
 were not, but they obeyed sin as their master, and did not obey 
 the commands of righteousness. 
 
 21. "What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now 
 ashamed?" What fruit or advantage had ye in the gratification 
 of sinful appetites ? No fruit except your own degradation. Now 
 that ye have come to a better mind, ye are ashamed of them, and 
 
Chap. VI.] FRUIT UNTO HOLINESS. 131 
 
 22 But now ^ being made free from sin, and become ser- 
 vants to Grod, ye have your fruit unto holiness, e John viii. 
 
 and the end everlasting Hfe. h oen. a. 17. 
 
 23 For ^ the wages of sin is death ; but ^ the jaiZ'i. 15. 
 
 iJ^if t of Grod is eternal life through Jesus Christ '^^'Jy'ai^'* 
 
 our Lord. Pet. 'i. 4. 
 
 earnestly wish that the time spent in this indulgence might be 
 restored, so that ye might live it over again profitably. 
 
 "The end of those things is death." And punishment after- 
 wards. So that all that you got was shame when you looked back 
 at your past sinful enjoyments, and unless the grace of God had 
 separated you from this shameful past, the fruit would have been 
 eternal ruin. 
 
 22. " But now being made free from sin, and become servants to 
 God, ye have your fruit unto holiness." Every service which in 
 our justified or Christian state we render to God, is fruitful. It is 
 fruitful in our own progress in holiness, and our progress in holiness 
 is our progress in the love of God, and the capacity for sharing His 
 happiness. The works of the servants of God follow them into the 
 eternal world. They are all in the mind and memory of God, and 
 the least of them shall be sensibly felt in the sum of the eternal 
 recompense. 
 
 " And the end everlasting life." Here the Apostle repeats what 
 he had written before. " To them who by patient continuance in 
 well doing seek for glory, honour, and immortality, God will render 
 eternal life " : but not in the way of wages which a man has 
 earned, but as a gift to one who by God's grace has fitted himself 
 to receive it and enjoy it, for the Apostle concludes : — 
 
 23. " For the wages of sin is death ; but the gift of God is eternal 
 life," &c. Notice how wages and gift are contrasted. "Wages are 
 earned and are due, and by serving sin men earn death. They 
 will not be able to refuse it when the time of payment comes, 
 they must receive it. 
 
 Whereas eternal life is not wages, but a gift. How is this ? Is 
 it not said in the place I have just quoted that God will " render 
 to every man according to his deeds " ? Yes, but the shape and 
 aspect which eternal life assumes is infinitely beyond the reach of 
 any service which a creature can render. For it is not a dreamy 
 
132 BAPTISM AND THE GOSPEL. [Romans. 
 
 life — the existence of a shadow in a heathen Elysium — or even of 
 a blessed soul in a Jewish paradise ; but it is a share in the Life of 
 the Only Begotten Son. It is being made a veritable member of 
 His Body. It is actually eating His Flesh and drinking His Blood 
 to eternal life. It is being raised up in the likeness of His Eesur- 
 rection. It is our vile body being raised up in the likeness of His 
 glorious Body. No service can win this as its wages. It must in 
 the nature of things be a gift — the gift of God — the highest gift 
 which God can give. 
 
 As we have now finished the examination of the chapter in 
 which is set forth the fact of sacramental union with Christ and its 
 practical bearing, it will be necessary to draw attention to two or 
 three matters involved in the Apostle's reasoning. 
 
 1. It is clear that the Apostolic doctrine of our union with Christ 
 in Baptism is a part of the Gospel, if this Epistle is occupied with 
 the Gospel, and consequently that no one who does not preach or 
 teach it, preaches or teaches St. Paul's Gospel. We ought to esteem 
 it " good news " that at the very outset of our Christian career, 
 whether it is to be dated from the time of our Baptism as infants, 
 born in a Christian land or community, or from the time of our 
 Baptism as heathens, first having the Gospel presented to us in 
 our riper years — from the very first we were made members oi 
 Christ, so that we should be brought up and educated as members 
 of Christ. So that not only should parents rejoice in the fact that 
 in the Baptism of their children Christ took them up in the arms 
 of His mercy, whereby they were sure of being saved, if they were 
 prematurely cut off, but the same parents should see to it that 
 they guard their children from every evil influence — that they 
 should pray for their children, not as they would pray for heathens 
 who had to be converted, but they should pray that they might 
 continue in the grace into which Christ has brought them ; and 
 that they should instruct their children in the knowledge of such 
 truths as that they have already been brought into the Church or 
 Body of the Redeemer, and try to convince them in a simple way 
 ol the holiness of the Christian's body, because in a measure a part 
 of Christ's Body. 
 
 And now with respect to Baptism and conversion. Their rela- 
 tions to one another may be illustrated by the following anecdote. 
 A celebrated revivalist asked a brother clergyman whether he had 
 
Chap. VI.] BAPTISM AND CONVERSION. 133 
 
 been converted? "Yes," he said, " I am ashamed to say that I 
 was converted when I was twenty years old." " Ashamed! " the 
 revivalist exclaimed with a start. " Yes, ashamed, for what was I 
 doing between the time of my Baptism, and the time of my con- 
 version? I will tell you what I was doing. I was contracting 
 habits, the evil savour of which at times makes itself felt even now, 
 when I am free and am the servant of God." " But were you 
 never reminded of your Baptismal obligations ? " " Never," was 
 the reply. " To my certain knowledge I never heard Baptism 
 alluded to except in the way of warning us lest we should connect 
 any grace of God with it." 
 
 It may be said against this, was there not all this time instruction 
 in the Catechism ? ^ There might be, but it was understood that the 
 Church formularies respecting this Sacrament contained many 
 remnants of Popish error, and to say the least, that many of these 
 statements must be received with extreme distrust. 
 
 2. Then, in the next place, it is clear from the whole reasoning 
 throughout this chapter that the Apostle assumes that in all cases 
 God accompanied Baptism with grace, whatever that grace might 
 be. Whatever individual Christians might be deficient in, they all 
 had Baptism, and they all had that particular grace of Baptism, 
 which the Apostle expresses in such unique and extraordinary terms 
 as being co-buried and co-raised again in Christ. We were all 
 buried with Him, and all raised again with Him, that we might all 
 walk in newness of life. Now unless this connection (as a rule) of 
 the outward sign with the inward grace is recognized, we are unable 
 to make the smallest use of the doctrine of Baptism, as a doctrine 
 binding all Christians to be holy in body and soul. Some years ago, 
 at the time of what is called the Gorham controversy, a very large 
 party in the Church of England, headed by some of the best men 
 of the day, contended that the outward visible sign and the inward 
 spiritual grace need not be, and (I think I am not doing these good 
 men wrong in saying this) as a rule were not, united ; that they 
 were only united when a decree (secret to us) had been pronounced 
 by God in favour of the imion, so that it never could be known in 
 
 1 An evangelical clergyman of the deepest piety and highest position, in fact one of the 
 leading men of his county, told me that he once thought it necessary to say some words 
 respecting the doctrine of Baptism in a sermon ; and that from that day he lost one of his 
 leading parishioners, who informed him that he could not stay in a Choxeli wliei« he 
 might be subjected to hearing such superstition. 
 
134 FAITH AND BAPTISM. [Romans. 
 
 the case of any child, whether the administration of Baptism had 
 been a Christian sacrament or an empty ceremony, and so the 
 doctrine of Baptism in this Epistle of St. Paul never could be 
 brought to bear upon any professing Christian, and as far as my 
 experience went, it never was. 
 
 Now the mischief of this is known only to God, for in His word, 
 baptismal obligations depend upon baptismal grace, and cannot be 
 enforced without the assumption that it has been received. "Know 
 ye not that so many of us," i.e., all the baptized, "were baptized into 
 His death that we might walk in newness of life ?" The obligation 
 contracted in Baptism to live holily does not depend upon any 
 vows taken in it, but upon grace bestowed in it, so that if the be- 
 stowal of grace is uncertain so is the obligation. 
 
 3. Then, in the last place, what is the relation between faith and 
 Baptism ? To which we reply, the most direct and intimate 
 possible. Baptism, of course, may be received without a particle 
 of faith by parents who solicit it for their children, and by persons 
 of riper years, who think that in their case something has been 
 omitted which ought to be supplied ; but for any one in his own 
 case to realize the grace of Baptism in the shape in which the 
 Apostle presents it in this chapter, that he is to reckon himself dead 
 to sin and alive unto God, requires in these days, when the doctrine 
 of Baptismal grace is so extensively denied in the religious world, a 
 high degree of faith. 
 
 But this faith will not be difficult, if a man begins at the begin- 
 ning, and ascends step by step as God in the Scriptures leads him 
 up. Does a man believe that God's own and very Son came into the 
 world in the way of the Incarnation ; that He took our flesh and 
 blood ; that He died for us all ; that He rose again for us all ; that 
 He ascended for us all ; that He sits at the right hand of God ; that 
 before He left the world He ordained a Church or Society which 
 was to have a certain mysterious relation to Himself, just as the 
 branch of a vine has to its stem, and the body to its head ; that He 
 ordained Baptism to be the outward and visible entrance into this 
 Vine, this Body ; that being God and Man He is always present in 
 the plenitude of power to make every Baptism a reality — so that the 
 Baptism of the nineteenth century should be the same in gijace as 
 that of the first, so that the Baptism of the deacon, or indeed lay- 
 man, should be the same as that of an Apostle, so far as this, 
 that the person baptized should be received into an Evangelical 
 
Chap. VI.] EVANGELICAL USE OF BAPTISM. 135 
 
 state or condition in which he is by an act of faith to reckon him- 
 self dead to sin and alive to God? 
 
 There is no diflBculty in all this if we take the first step, if we 
 believe in the mystery of our Lord's Holy Incarnation, for if the 
 Eternal Son came amongst us, then everything must be in conso- 
 nance with such a mystery of grace. His Life must be the Life of 
 God amongst us, His Death must be all-atoning, Hlo Eesurrection 
 must be life-imparting; and if He ordained any kingdom or 
 church, then it is only likely that this kingdom or church, though 
 existing in this fallen world, and administered by feeble, fallible 
 men, should be alive with His Life, and permeated with His power. 
 If it is a part of faith to believe that He is the Son of God, and 
 Saviour of the world, it is equally a part of faith to believe in the 
 permanency of His presence to make His Sacraments good to the 
 end- 
 
 Does, then, the grace of the sacraments depend upon the faith of 
 the receiver ? Certainly not ; because, if so, the sacraments would 
 be no sacraments. We could exercise no faith in the promises of 
 God made to us in them. But though the grace of sacraments de- 
 pends not on our faith, the beneficial consideration of them does, 
 The grace which God gives them has to be stirred up by acts of 
 faith and prayer. And this seems very easy, for when a man is 
 tempted to commit sin, or to be slothful, or to neglect any Christian 
 obligations, he has to say to himself, as in the sight of God, '* I 
 reckon myself dead unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus 
 Christ my Lord. I desire that God would renew in me whatsoever 
 has been decayed by the fraud and malice of the devil, or by my 
 own carnal will and frailty." 
 
 This is unquestionably the Evangelical use of Baptism in after 
 life, and we must take care that no other consideration respecting 
 Baptism supersedes it. For instance, there is a great temptation 
 amongst a certain class of Church people to base the obligations of 
 Baptism on the vows undertaken in the name of the child, and 
 afterwards ratified in Confirmation. This is a fatal mistake. It 
 goes far to make Baptism a legal rite, in fact mere circumcision 
 under another form. It transfers Holy Baptism out of the province 
 of the Gospel into that of the law. The great consideration respec- 
 ting Baptism is not that we vow either by ourselves or by proxy, 
 but that we are grafted into the second Adam, that we may partake 
 of His Life. 
 
136 THE LAW HATH DOMINION. [Romans. 
 
 One more objection must be met. 
 
 If such grace is bestowed on all the baptized, how is it that so 
 many fall away ? We answer unhesitatingly : in no one case be- 
 cause God has withheld His grace. In every case the lapse took 
 place through the fault of man, or indifferent teaching, in many 
 cases unbelieving, in many anti-sacramental ; or through evil ex- 
 ample, or through the fault of the Church itself, its laxity, its 
 worldliness, its want of discipline ; in every case must we ascribe a 
 lapse to the fault or sin on the part of man, in no case to the with- 
 drawal of grace on the part of God. 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 KNOW ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know 
 the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man 
 as long as he liveth ? 
 
 1. " Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know 
 the law)." The Apostle uses this interrogative form as implying 
 that those who were ignorant of what he asserts must be in a state 
 of extreme ignorance indeed ; so vi. 3 and 16. 
 
 " I speak to them that know the law." This need not imply 
 that all the Eoman Christians were of Hebrew origin, and so edu- 
 cated in Judaism. We must remember that the Jewish Scriptures, 
 interpreted according to the light of the Gospel, were the principal 
 spiritual nourishment of the Gentile Churches for many years 
 before the books of the New Testament were collected and dis- 
 tributed amongst the Churches. 
 
 The first seven verses of this chapter belong, so far as the argu- 
 ment is concerned, to the former chapter. Both are concerned 
 with bearing fruit to God. In the preceding chapter the idea is 
 the graft growing up with Christ in the Hkeness of His Death and 
 His Resurrection — ^in this it is our being delivered from our 
 marriage union with the law, that we should be married to another, 
 even to Christ, and so bring forth worthier fruit to God. 
 
 " How that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he 
 liveth?" 
 
Chap. VII.J DEAD TO THE LAW. 137 
 
 2 For * the woman wMch hath an husband is bound by 
 the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but » i cor.%'ii. 
 if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the 
 
 law of her husband. 
 
 3 So then ^ if, while her husband liveth, she be " Matt. v. 32. 
 married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: 
 but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law ; so 
 that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another 
 man. 
 
 4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become *^dead to 
 the law by the body of Christ ; that ye should « ch. viu. 2. 
 
 -' -^ 'J Gal. ii. 19. 
 
 & V. 18. Eph. 
 
 ii. 15. Col. 
 
 ii. 14. 
 
 2. " For the woman which hath an husband .... law of her 
 
 husband." There may be some confusion in the understanding of 
 this verse, owing to the translation " man " in the first verse. The 
 word {tov avOpojTTov) thus translated means "man " as representing 
 any human being; and to avoid any possible misunderstanding 
 should perhaps be rendered "person." "Know ye not that the 
 law hath dominion over the person who is born in it, and is 
 initiated into its covenant, so long as he (or she) hveth? " and he 
 illustrates it by the covenant of marriage. The married woman 
 is bound to one husband so long as that husband liveth, but, 
 if the husband be dead, her former marriage contract no longer 
 exists. 
 
 " She is loosed from the law of her husband." That is, she is 
 loosed from the contract which obliges her to have one husband 
 only, and that the man she was married to, and then the Apostle 
 proceeds : — 
 
 3. " So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to 
 another man, she shall be called an adulteress," &c. The marriage 
 contract does not reach into the future state. Death at once, and 
 for ever, does away with it, because, in the Kesurrection state, they 
 neither marry, nor are given in marriage, i.e., camaUy, but are as 
 the angels of God. 
 
 4. " Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law 
 by the Body of Christ ; that ye should be married to another .... 
 bring forth fruit unto God." From what has gone before we should 
 
138 MARRIED TO ANOTHER. L^omaks. 
 
 be married to another, even to him who is raised from the 
 
 * Gal. V. 22. dead, that we should '^ bring forth fruit unto God. 
 
 t Gr, passions. 5 For when we were in the flesh, the f motions 
 
 « ch. vi. 13. of sins, which were by the law, •" did work in our 
 
 G^f\^*i9^' members *^to bring forth fruit unto death. 
 
 Jam. i. 15. 
 
 have expected that the Apostle would have proceeded to speak of 
 the law having died ; but, instead of this, he speaks of the Church 
 having itself in Christ died to the law. The severance from the 
 dominion of the law is not effected by the cessation of the obligation 
 of the law, because the obligation of the moral law never ceases. 
 It ceases as the means of justification, but not as the rule of sancti- 
 fication ; on the contrary, it is never truly fulfilled except by those 
 in Christ — then, when we are truly abiding in Him, the righteous- 
 ness of the law is fulfilled in us. But the severance is made by 
 Christ having borne the penalty of the law by His Death ; and we 
 are in the same position as regards the law, by our union with Him 
 in our Baptism into His Death, as He is. 
 
 We have become dead to the law by the death of the Body of 
 Christ, Who died to the law (Christ hath redeemed us from the 
 curse of the law, being made a curse for us), that, passing through 
 Death, He might rise from the dead into a sphere for serving God, 
 and with powers for serving God, to which His sphere and His 
 powers when living upon earth under the law were as nothing ; as 
 He Himself intimates when He says : '* I have a baptism to be 
 baptized with, and how am I straitened till it be accomplished" 
 (Luke xii. 50). 
 
 And now we, in and through His Death, are dead to the law and 
 to every other system which is apart from Him, that we should be 
 united to another, even to Him that is raised from the dead. As 
 the Apostle had said : " If we are planted together in the likeness 
 of his Death, we shall be also in the likeness of His Resurrection," 
 so now he says, If we, once married to the law, have died with 
 Christ to the law, it is not that we should be barren, but that we 
 should be the wife of Him Who was raised from the dead, that we 
 should bring forth fruit unto God. 
 
 5. " For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which 
 were by the law," &c. " When we were in the flesh." That is, in 
 our unrenewed or unregenerate state. St. Paul describes this as 
 
Chap. Vn.] IN NEWNESS OF SPIRIT. 139 
 
 6 But now "we are delivered from the law, || that being 
 dead wherein we were held ; that we should serve II Or, being 
 
 . dead to that. 
 
 ^ m newness of spirit, and not m the oldness of g ch. ii. 29. 
 the letter. 2Cor.iii.6. 
 
 6. H, A., B., C, K., L., P., seventy Cursives, Vulg., Syriao, Copt., Arm. read as in 
 margin, "being dead to that in which we were held." 
 
 belonging to Jews and Gentiles alike in Ephes. ii. 3 : " Among 
 whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts 
 of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind." 
 When we were in this state, the motions or passions of sin, which 
 were by the law (that is, were shown to be sin, and so made 
 sin, and were also, owing to the rebelliousness of our nature, aggra- 
 vated and incited to sin by the law) these motions or passions 
 worked in our members, so as to produce actions worthy of death 
 — they deadened our souls to God and righteousness, and they 
 earned for us the wages of sin, which is death. 
 
 6. " But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead " [or 
 rather, " being dead to that in which we were held "] , &c. We 
 should rather have expected that the Apostle would have written 
 being delivered from sin, rather than from the law ; but the reason 
 why he specifically mentions the law is, that he looked to the 
 service with which, when we were in union v/ith Christ, we should 
 serve God — that it should be in a far more exalted spirit, and have 
 a far wider range of action. This he describes as newness of the 
 Spirit as distinguished from oldness of the letter. The Jew, i.e. 
 the typical Jew, thought he served God well if he kept to the 
 letter ; the Christian is altogether unsatisfied with mere literal 
 obedience, but desires to go far beyond the letter, and reach to the 
 spirit of each command. 
 
 7. "What shall we say, then ? Is the law sin? God forbid. 
 Nay I had," &c. The remainder of this chapter seems to have 
 been written for two purposes. 
 
 (1.) To rectify any wrong conclusions which the readers of his 
 Epistle might have drawn fi:om St. Paul's words respecting the 
 law, as if it were sinful in itself. He had said that " by the deeds 
 of the law should no flesh be justified ; " he had also said that 
 ** the law entered that the offence might abound ;" he had also said 
 that sin should not have dominion over Christians, " for they were 
 
140 OF WHOM DOES HE SPEAK ? [Romans. 
 
 not under the law but under gi-ace." It might then be asked, Was 
 the law something evil in itself? and, in order to answer this, he 
 shows, V. 7 — 14 or 16, that it was not. But then he feels himself ob- 
 liged to go further. (2.) The Gospel had not done in man, i.e., in all 
 men, all that might have been expected. St. Paul had said, " Much 
 more having been reconciled, we shall be saved through His hfe." 
 He had said respecting all Christians, " We have been buried with 
 Him by Baptism into death, that Uke as Christ was raised up from 
 the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in 
 newness of life." He had said universally to all the Roman Chris- 
 tians, " Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but 
 alive unto God ; " and " Sin shall not have dominion over you, for 
 ye are not under the law, but under gi-ace." Now that the Gospel 
 had not produced its full and perfect effect is clear from this, that 
 the Apostle had occasion to say to these very Roman Christians, 
 " Let not sin reign in your mortal bodies, that ye should obey it in 
 the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments 
 of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God." If 
 St. Paul saw it needful to speak such words to these Roman Chris- 
 tians, there must have been a need, and what was that need? We 
 have it in the last words of this chapter. After he had given thanks 
 for the victory, or rather for the deliverance, he yet concludes with, 
 " So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with 
 the flesh the law of sin." And this is said, not merely with re- 
 ference to the legal, but to the evangelical state ; for he says to 
 them in viii. 13, " If ye live after the flesh ye shall die ; but if 
 ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall 
 Hve." 
 
 One more question must be answered, or an attempt must be 
 made to answer it. Of whom does the Apostle speak when all 
 through he uses the first person singular, and in the latter part the 
 present tense ? Does he speak of himself, or of some other man ? 
 To which we answer, he speaks of himself, or in his own person, 
 but in this way : he throws himself, with a power and sincerity 
 which no other human being, except the Lord, ever possessed, into 
 the position of all his brethren — all the children of Adam — whom 
 God has enlightened as to such things as sin, God, salvation, re- 
 demption. In all men — heathen, Jew, or Christian — thus en- 
 lightened by God with any portion of that " life which is the light 
 of men," there must be a seeming duality, the higher nature, the 
 
Chap. VIL] IS THE LAW SIN? 141 
 
 7 What shall we say then ? Is the law sin ? God forbid. 
 Nay, ^ I had not known sin, but by the law : for »> «h. Ui. 20. 
 I had not known || lust, except the law had said, piscenTJ!"' 
 ' Thou Shalt not covet. 'J.^t.nt.\-. 
 
 21. Acts XX. 
 — 33. ch. xiii. 9. 
 
 spirit which has received the light, asserting its rightful dominion, 
 and demanding obedience ; and the lower, called the flesh, includ- 
 ing, of course, the fleshly or animal soul, as well as the body, re- 
 belling or refusing obedience, or yielding it reluctantly, or so morti- 
 fied and subdued as to be weU nigh crushed, but never apparently 
 absolutely dead, so as to be incapable of revival, till the day of the 
 resurrection of the body. 
 
 We shall now proceed to the examination. 
 
 " What shall we say then ? Is the law sin ? God forbid. Nay, 
 I had not known sin," &c. Sin can only be revealed by contrast 
 with righteousness, which is the opposite to sin. If t!ie law 
 were sin it would share in the inherent deceit of sin, and so 
 Bin and the law would, joined together, add to the deceit practised 
 on the victim ; but the first thing which the law does is to 
 undeceive. It strips ofi" the disguise of sin, and shows it to the 
 human spirit in its true ligbt, as contrary to God and to man's 
 highest nature and best interests. 
 
 " I had not known sin, but by the law." Sin is in mankind, but 
 they only know it to be sin because the law of God, either written 
 in their hearts, or given by revelation, shows it to be contrary to 
 the rule of right. The inferior creatures with which we are sur- 
 rounded cannot be said to sin in the true sense of the word, because 
 God has not revealed to them either Himself or His will. Sin is 
 the transgression of God's law. It is opposition to His will, as the 
 will of the Supreme. What appears to be sinful in animals, as the 
 ravening in wild beasts, is so far from being sin, that it is an in- 
 stinct implanted in them by God to enable them to keep down the 
 number of other creatures, who would otherwise increase and 
 multiply beyond their means of subsistence. 
 
 " For I had not known lust, except the law had said. Thou shalt 
 not covet." This would with more clearness be rendered, " I had 
 not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not lust." 
 The law against evil lust or inordinate desire is in the tenth com- 
 mandment. It is the natural guard and enforcement of the sixth. 
 
142 WITHOUT THE LAW SIN WAS DEAD. [Romans. 
 
 8 But ^ sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrouglit 
 
 k ch. iv. 15. in me all manner of concupiscence. For ' without 
 &V.20. , , . ^ _ ^ 
 
 1 1 Cor. XT. the law sm was dead. 
 
 56. 
 
 9 For I was alive without the law once 
 
 8. " By the commandment," &c. The Revisers point this, " But sin, finding ocx-'asion, 
 wrought in me through the commandment all manner," &c. 
 
 9. " Without the law ; " i.e. apart from the law, before it came to me in moral power. 
 
 seventh, and eighth commandments, i.e,, the commandments upon 
 which human society, with all its advantages, depends. God, for 
 the infinite good of mankind, endowed man with certain rights — 
 the right of life, the right of the family, the right of property ; and 
 the tenth commandment shows that the evil desire to transgress 
 these commandments is contrary to the will of God, because it 
 tends to destroy His own ordinance of human society, and so is 
 sin. 
 
 8. " But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in 
 me," &c. Sin is here represented as an evil living thing which 
 before the coming of the law was in a dormant state, but when the 
 commandment came it roused itself into activity : it took occasion, 
 it seized the opportunity afforded it by that secret wrong desire of 
 the soul to do what is forbidden simply because it is forbidden, to 
 work all manner of concupiscence. 
 
 " For without the law sin was dead." Dormnnt, motionless, 
 — waiting for the coming of law to the conscience to be raised 
 into activity. Could not then a man, before the coming of law to 
 his conscience, commit sin ? If we remember that law here in- 
 cludes the law written in the heart, as well as the law properly so 
 called, he could not. He would be like an animal, and God would 
 hold him to be such, and not judge and condenm him according to 
 a law of which he was not conscious. There never was a time in 
 the history of the race when this was so. But it was quite possible 
 that there could be this state in each particular man sufficient for 
 St. Paul's argument, and so he says : — 
 
 9. " For I was ahve without the law once." I cannot but 
 think that this was the state of childish innocence. In childhood 
 a man speaks as a child, thinks as a child, understands as a child. 
 Theologically speaking, of course there is no such thing as a state 
 of innocence, because all are conceived and born in sin — the sin of 
 
Chap. VIL] SIN REVIVED AND I DIED. 143 
 
 but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I 
 died. 
 
 10 And the commandment, "* which was ordained ™ i-ev. xviu. 
 
 5. Ezek. XX. 
 
 to life, I found to he unto death. ii, i^, 21. 
 
 2 Cor. ui. 7. 
 
 Adam. But neither did our Blessed Lord, nor do we, treat 
 children otherwise than as in a state of comparative innocence. 
 Things which we should punish very severely in men and women, 
 we never think of visiting upon children. Some, however, explain 
 this differently. " I was alive," that is, " in mine own eyes." I 
 thought it was well with me — I seemed to myself to live and to be 
 safe, because I had not yet realized God, and His will, and His 
 judgments. 
 
 " But when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died." 
 When the commandment, in which I had probably been instructed, 
 came home to me, when I perceived that the keeping of it was a 
 matter between me and God ; *' sin revived" — was seen to be sin 
 — the transgression of God's law. " Eevived " means, came to Ufe 
 again. ** It was not the birth of sin, but only its revival, the 
 beginning of its action in the form of positive transgression." 
 (Vaughan.) 
 
 " And I died." In the sense that Adam did when he had eaten 
 of the forbidden fruit. He died in spirit to God, being alienated 
 from Him, and the sign of this was that he hid himself from the pre- 
 sence of the Lord God. Does this " coming home " of the command- 
 ment mean conviction of sin ? No. Conviction of sin, as we always 
 understand the term, is the first step in repentance unto life ; and 
 St. Paul does not mean that he began to repent, but that he began 
 to live consciously apart from God. 
 
 10. " And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found 
 to be," &c. God expressly tells us Jhis in several places in the Old 
 Testament. Thus Levit. xviii. 5, "Ye shall therefore keep my 
 statutes and my judgments, which, if a man do, he shall Uve in 
 them ;" and Ezek. xx. 11, " I gave them my statutes, and shewed 
 them my judgments, which, if a man do, he shall even Hve in 
 them." And our Lord Himself says : " If thou wilt enter into life, 
 keep the comandments " (Matth. xix. 17). This place is of very 
 great importance, as showing indisputably that notwithstanding 
 any perverse interpretation which Antinojnians put on suchexpree- 
 
144 THE LAW IS HOLY. [Romans. 
 
 11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived 
 me, and by it slew me. 
 
 n Ps. xix 8. 12 Wherefore "^the law is holy, and the coni- 
 
 1 Tim.'i. 8. ' mandment holy, and just, and good. 
 
 sions as *' The law entered that the offence might abound," yet 
 St. Paul most thoroughly believed and reahzed that God gave men 
 the law for one purpose, that they should obey it. It has another 
 purpose — to convince men of their sin and weakness, and to lead 
 them to Christ, but this is only fulfilled in those who attempt to 
 obey the law sincerely. 
 
 " I found to be unto death." I found that, owing to my trans- 
 gression of it, so far from having obtained eternal life through it, I 
 was brought by it under the sentence of death. 
 
 11. " For sin taking occasion by the commandment, deceived 
 me, and by it slew me." Sin is so personified here as deceiving 
 before it slew, that we cannot help remembering how the author 
 of sin deceived our first parents before he was able to slay them. 
 He deceived them with respect to the commandment, ■i.e., he used 
 it as his means of attack in two ways. He represented it to be a 
 commandment which was contrary to their happiness, " Yea, hath 
 God," — your good God — "said, ye shall not eat of every tree?" 
 and he also told them that if they transgressed it, God would 
 not hold to His threat that they should die. And the same 
 deceit is re-enacted whenever men begin a course of sin. Satan 
 represents the prohibitions of God's law as hard and unjust in 
 depriving men of pleasure in the fruition of their desires, and he 
 also tells them that God will not be so severe as to visit their 
 trifling indulgence in the desires which they inherit by their very 
 nature, witii so terrible a penalty as death. 
 
 12. " Wherefore the law is holy," &c. The law seems to mean 
 the whole law, which contained various commandments, and 
 sanctions, and examples. 
 
 "And the commandment holy, and just, and good." The com- 
 mandment is holy, as proceeding from a holy God, and designed 
 to make men partakers of His holiness. 
 
 *' And just." As defining, on righteous or just principles, men's 
 duties to God, to one another, and to themselves. 
 
 " And good." Good, as looking to the best interests of God's 
 
Chap. VII.] SIN WORKING DEATH IN ME. 145 
 
 13 Was then that which is good made death Tinto me? 
 G-od forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working 
 death in me by that which is good ; that sin by the com- 
 mandment might become exceeding sinful. 
 
 14 For we know that the law is spiritual : but I am carnal, 
 ° sold under sin. ° i Kings xxi. 
 
 20, 25. 2 
 Kings xvii. 17. 
 
 reasonable creatures, as restraining them from what will ultimately 
 destroy their happiness, as leading them on to attain to the 
 character and enjoy the favour of God. 
 
 13. "Was then that which is good made death unto me? God 
 forbid. But sin," &c. This verse may be explained thus. The 
 holiness and goodness of the law had been laid down in the last 
 verse. Could then, this good holy thing become the cause of 
 death ? No, on no account. It was sin which became the cause 
 of death, and God allowed sin to be the cause of death, that it 
 might be set forth in its triie Hght, as a thing so evil that it worked 
 death in me not by what is evil, but by what is actually holy and 
 good, so that sin, by means of the holy commandment which it 
 tempted me to transgress, is shown to be very deadly indeed, for 
 it can make that which God ordained for life its instrument, or 
 occasion, to inflict upon me death. 
 
 14. " For we know -that the law is spiritual : but I am carnal, 
 sold under sin." We now come to by far the most difficult part of 
 this extraordinary argument, and its difficulty, compared to the 
 difficulty of that which has gone before, seems mainly this — that the 
 tense is changed. The Apostle to this time has been describing a 
 past experience — " Sin wrought in me all manner of concupiscence ;" 
 " I was alive ; " " Sin revived, and I died ; " " Sin taking occasion by 
 the commandment deceived me ; " " Slew me." But now he begins 
 to speak of what is apparently his present experience — "I am 
 carnal, sold under sin ; " " That which I do, I allow not ; " " The 
 good that I would, I do not ; " "I delight in the law of God, after 
 the inward man ; " "I see another law .... bringing me into 
 captivity to the law of sin." Could this have been the experience 
 of the Apostle at the time when he wrote the Epistle ? 
 
 Now, in order to arrive at the only possible solution of this — and 
 a solution which will be found, on examination, to be eminently 
 practical — I will examine the meaning of the concluding words of 
 
 L 
 
146 MY SPIRIT IS RENEWED. [Romans. 
 
 these ten verses — " So then with the mind I myself serve the law 
 of God, but with the flesh the law of sin " (verse 25). Can we put 
 into other words the meaning of this ? Certainly we can ; he means 
 to say, " My spirit is renewed, but my flesh is not. My spirit is 
 renewed by the action, or, rather, the indwelling, of the Holy Spirit, 
 but my body is yet under the bondage of corruption." 
 
 Now we will suppose one coming to the Apostle, and saying to 
 him after he had written this, or something in all respects answering 
 to it, " holy Apostle, I have read your letter. Do you mean that 
 in mind and thought you serve the law of God, you delight in its 
 excellence, you acknowledge its purity, you contemplate it in- 
 wardly as the transcript of the Holy Character of God, and yet in 
 your flesh you wilfully sin, you indulge the desires of the flesh, you 
 gratify your carnal lusts, and you absolve yourself with the 
 words, ' It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.' " 
 The Apostle hears this, and rejoins, " I have heard you patiently, 
 notwithstanding the exceeding foolishness of your way of misre- 
 presenting my teaching. I can only say that, in all godly sincerity, 
 I desire to practise what a little further, if you will read all my 
 letter, you will see that I say to you : ' If ye live after the flesh ye 
 shall die, but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the 
 body, ye shall live.' I, through the Spirit, not in my own strength, 
 but in the power of God's Spirit, mortify the deeds of the body, 
 and (I say it in no boasting spirit) I live." " Well, but," the man 
 rejoins, " If you thus live in the Spirit, how can you say such things 
 of yourself, as that you are carnal, sold under sin, that what you 
 hate, that you do, that in you there dwelleth no good thing?" 
 " Stay," says the Apostle, interrupting the questioner, " you do 
 not reproduce what I said. I did not say absolutely ' in me dwelleth 
 no good thing,' but I was careful to say in me, that is, in my flesh. 
 I should deny the gift of God if I were to say that there was 
 nothing good in my spirit, for God has filled my spirit with the 
 knowledge of His Son my Lord, but this knowledge is not in my 
 flesh. When I am raised up in the likeness of my Lord's Body, 
 there wiU be what is good in my flesh, but at present it is not so. 
 My flesh is not yet renewed. I know that it will be, but at present 
 it is not. So that I say ' in me, that is, in my flesh ' (and the ' I * 
 within me, my person, is not spirit only but flesh), there dwelleth 
 no good thing." 
 
 "But, holy Apostle," the questioner rejoins, "you have seen 
 
Chap. VII.] MY FLESH IS NOT RENEWED. 147 
 
 the Lord with your bodily eyes. The Lord has constantly ap- 
 peared to you and conversed with you. You have been caught up 
 into Paradise — you have heard the unspeakable words — is your 
 flesh the same as ours who are far behind you in nearness to 
 God ? " 
 
 " Yes, yes," rejoins the Apostle, " that is precisely what I am 
 saying in these words respecting which you are questioning me. 
 You may have but lately presented your body a living sacrifice to 
 God, and I may have presented mine years ago. You may be but 
 a private, obscure member of the Church, and I may be in some 
 respects its foremost minister, an Apostle of the world, having the 
 care of all the Churches, but I have written what you have read to 
 assure you that there is no difference at present in our flesh — 
 mine, so far as sin and death are concerned, is the same as yours, 
 and yours as mine. Does your flesh require subduing, so does 
 mine ; does my flesh require disciphne, self-denial, watchfulness, 
 so does yours. Though not experiencing at every moment, or now 
 at any moment, the full bitterness of what I have written, I might 
 at any time experience it partially or wholly, if God were for one 
 day to withdraw His grace. I know He will not take His Holy 
 Spirit from me. I know that He will assuredly keep that which I 
 have committed to Him till the day of the Lord ; but if He did see 
 fit, even for a short time, to withdraw His Spirit, then my flesh, 
 that flesh which is still unrenewed, whose Kedemption I wait for — 
 that flesh at once resumes its supremacy. It becomes the sole 
 * I myself ' within me, and if I am to be saved I have to begin all 
 over again." 
 
 " But, O holy Apostle, do you not exclaim, wretched man 
 that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death ? 
 And do you not praise God for deliverance, when you say, I thank 
 God through Jesus Christ our Lord?" "Unquestionably I do, 
 for He has delivered me ; but what is the deliverance ? He has 
 not slain the flesh. He has not wholly expelled sin from the flesh. 
 He has not renewed the flesh, but He has renewed my spirit, and 
 given that spirit the command over the flesh, and all my allegiance 
 to Christ is in maintaining that command." 
 
 " But, Father in Christ, is sin still so near to you. Apostle as 
 you are, that it is in your flesh ? Cannot you drive it far away 
 and put frontiers, and armies, and walls between it and you?" 
 
 *'No," rejoins the Apostle, " I have written these verses to show 
 
148 I AM CAKNAL, SOLD UNDER SIN. [Romans. 
 
 you that the warfare with sin and the subjugation of sin is not to 
 be looked upon in this light. It is not a battle with an external 
 foe, but a struggle with an internal one. The enemy is part of 
 yourself, for it is in you, in your flesh. It is your old self, your 
 old man, your lower animal nature, your flesh not yet incorruptible. 
 It reigns in your natural body because that body has not yet 
 become a spiritual body." 
 
 *' But, O holy spiritual father, is it ever to be so ? is our fight 
 with sin within only to cease with our lives ? " To which the 
 Apostle may reply, " My son, I cannot say ; God has not shown to 
 me His dealings with each and every particular soul. Only this I 
 say, that if I could decline my warfare, my future reward as a good 
 soldier would be proportionably diminished. It must be so if it 
 was the Holy Ghost Who inspired me when I wrote * Every man 
 shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.' " 
 
 " O holy Apostle," the questioner asks, "I will say but one word 
 more. What instruction in righteousness are we to gather from 
 this your description of our state?" "I marvel," the Apostle 
 would rejoin, " at your want of discernment. I marvel at your 
 forgetfulness of what I so constantly preach. I have written to 
 other Christians, and in some form or other I have taught it daily 
 to you what we are to do in the face of all this. I know that I have 
 to keep under my body, and bring it into subjection, lest by any 
 means having preached to others I myself should be ddoKifiog, un- 
 accepted at last. This is my work, and however spiritual yon 
 think yourself, I would urge you to make it yours." 
 
 We can now, I trust, having examined the scope and conclusion 
 of the whole passage, consider each verse separately. 
 
 14. " For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal," 
 &c. " The law is spiritual," that is, it is addressed to the spirit — to 
 that part of us which can recognize God, and consciously obey His 
 will. 
 
 " But I am carnal, sold under sin." We must necessarily 
 understand here the words of verse 18, " in my flesh." " I am as 
 regards my flesh, in my lower nature, sold under sin." These words 
 were written of Ahab, of whom it was said that " there was none 
 like unto Ahab, who sold himself to do evil." How could they 
 possibly be applied, even remotely, by St. Paul to himself ? To 
 which we answer, " What was the difference between St. Paul and 
 Ahab, for the spirit of each was capable of receiving the law of God, 
 
Chap. VII.] WHAT I WOULD I DO NOT. 149 
 
 15 For that whicli I do I f allow not : for ^ what I would, 
 that do I not ; but what I hate, that do I. t Gr. know, 
 
 ' Ps. i. 6, 
 
 p Gal. V. 17. 
 
 and the flesh of each was unredeemed, sold under sin ? The diffe- 
 rence might all be comprised in this one word — the one lived after 
 the flesh and died, the other, through the Spirit, mortified the deeds 
 of the body, and hved." 
 
 15. " For that which I do I allow not : for what I would, that 
 do I not," &c. "I allow not," properly, " Iknow not." 
 
 If it is to be explained "I allow not," then, after Augustine, we 
 take up an old and famihar use of the word "know," which we 
 find in the first Psalm, " The Lord knoweth the way of the 
 righteous." 
 
 But Chrysostom and most modems explain it as if, owing to this 
 conflict within him, the man with whom St. Paul identifies him- 
 self knows not what he is doing, " What then is this I hnow not ? I 
 get dizzy, he means, I feel carried away, I find a violence done to 
 me, I get tripped up without knowing how. Just as we often say 
 such an one came and carried me away with him without my 
 knowing how ; when it is not ignorance we mean to allege as an 
 excuse, but to show a sort of deceit, and circumvention, and plot." 
 
 " For what I would that do I not (or practise not), but what I 
 hate," &c. This latter clause may be taken in a higher or a lower 
 sense, according as St. Paul speaks of what he is conscious of in 
 himself, or of what through his power of sympathy he knows to be 
 in his more imperfect brethren. If taken in a higher sense, as if 
 St. Paul spoke from his own experience at that time, then it may 
 be referred to concupiscence or evil desire, or immoderate anger, 
 which may rise almost unobserved in the old nature, and be in- 
 stantly and energetically expelled, and yet may have been so 
 dwelt upon, though but for a short time, as to cause deep distress 
 and a consciousness of failure, if not sin. If taken in a lower sense, 
 it may be an actual fall, not into deadly sin, but into something on 
 the way to such sin. The thought of this is hateful, the memory 
 of it shameful, the reproof of the conscience deeply felt. It may, 
 perhaps, be illustrated by the fault or sin of the Corinthian Chris- 
 tians in their criminal laxity in dealing with the incestuous person 
 (2 Cor. vii. 8-12). The former clause, " What I would that do I 
 not," is the constant confession even of good Christians, who never 
 
150 NO MORE I THAT DO IT. [Romans. 
 
 16 If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto 
 the law that it is good. 
 
 17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that 
 dwelleth in me. 
 
 seem to themselves to accomplish the full purpose of grace, and if 
 they can accomplish something, it but too often seems to them a 
 very httle compared to what might have been expected, and that 
 little not carefully, not humbly, not devoutly brought about. 
 
 16. "If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the 
 law," &c. The first " I " here signifies the lower nature or natural 
 man which for the moment, under some sudden gust of passion, 
 takes the lead ; the second is the spiritual man, who is displeased 
 at, and ashamed of, and repents of the evil the moment it is done, 
 because he delights in the law of God. So there is no emphasis to 
 be laid upon the "law " here, as the law of Moses, or the Deca- 
 logue. It means simply any precept or indication of the will of 
 God which is contrary to the natural man or old Adam which 
 remains in the unrenewed body. 
 
 17. " Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth 
 in me." This is one of the most difficult places in the whole range 
 of Scripture, for where are we to draw the line in its appUcation? 
 We require for its perfect elucidation not a logician, not a gram- 
 marian, not even a theologian, but rather some discreet and 
 learned minister to whom men and women have constantly " come 
 and opened their griefs," one ripe in administering " ghostly 
 counsel and advice to the quieting of consciences." ^ 
 
 Now in the first place it is quite clear that St. Paul in this verse 
 does not contemplate any dehberate sin, for if any man plans any 
 such sin as an act of malicious injury, or fornication, or fraud, then 
 that sin is his own. 
 
 Now this is to be held to, and to be put forth very strongly, and 
 very frequently, and very unhesitatingly by all who claim to be 
 preachers of righteousness. It is astonishing to me how commen- 
 tators keep themselves ignorant of the under-current of Antinomian 
 
 1 Several sermons of exceeding value upon particular verses of this passage are to be 
 found in volumes by Dr. Pusey, particularly one in vol. ii. of "Parochial Sermons," Ser- 
 mon xviii., on verses 22 and 23, entitled, " Victory amid Strife ; " but there is not, what 
 we desiderate, a short treatise on the whole passage. 
 
Chap. VII.] SIN THAT DWELLETH IN ME. 151 
 
 feeling which pervades the popular and seemingly religious life in 
 all classes. The misunderstanding of this verse is reproduced daily 
 in the words, " Sin is not sin in believers," that is, fornication, 
 and fraud, and lying, and evil speaking, are no longer sins if a man 
 has "accepted Christ." Now those who desire to preach and 
 teach the Christ of the New Testament, must have no hesitation 
 in preaching and teaching, that if there is any the slightest delibe- 
 ration or planning of any sin, great or small, then instead of " The 
 evil that I would not, that I do," the Apostle's words are changed 
 into, " The evil that I would, that I do." 
 
 But we must now turn to the other side — the side of consolation 
 and good hope. What is that which we earnestly desire not to do, 
 and yet it is done within us, and we look upon it as if it was all our 
 own, and are far more grieved and sorry and ashamed than the 
 man who has planned his sin, and determined in his mind to do it 
 and so made it wholly and entirely his own ? There seems to be no 
 room for doubt about the matter — it is that which takes place in 
 the man which (being contrary to the will or self which consents 
 to the law, if it is not he that does it, but sin that dwelleth in 
 him), must be unpremeditated before it takes place, and must be 
 instantly and energetically disallowed the moment it has taken 
 place. If done against another person, or in the sight of another, 
 or so that another is cognizant, instant confession, or reparation, 
 or acknowledgment, must be made. The longer the time that this 
 is deferred the more likely it is that the wrong thing should be 
 laid at the door of the man himself, as if he consented to it, and so 
 the more place is given for scandal. "With respect to some secret 
 thought of envy suddenly rising up, or causeless anger, or malicious 
 feeUng, or concupiscence, or pleasing memory of past sin, there must 
 be a momentary act of penitent acknowledgment. 
 
 I am glad and thankful that I can reproduce words not my own, 
 but those of one to whom men came from far and near to un- 
 burthen their souls. No words of man can be more judicious, none 
 more sympathizing. " This infection within us, although of ' the 
 nature of sin,' still unless our will consents to its suggestions is not 
 sin. So long as by God's grace we master it, it is not sin, but the 
 occasion of the victories of His grace. People distress themselves 
 by not owning this ; they deceive themselves if they make it the 
 occasion of carelessness. The one says, " My nature is sinful, 
 and therefore I am the object of God's displeasure, and all is 
 
152 THE DUALITY WITHIN US. [Romans. 
 
 ill with me.' The other says : ' My nature is sinful, and therefore 
 I cannot help it, and am not the object of God's displeasure, 
 although I do what is wrong.' The one mistakes sinfulness of 
 nature for actual sin, and accuses himself of that actual sin, on 
 account of that sinfulness of nature. The other excuses actual sin 
 as though it were unavoidable, because his nature is sinful. Each 
 is untrue. A man is not the object of God's displeasure, on account 
 of the remains of his inborn corruption, if he in earnest strives with 
 it. If he strive not in earnest with it, he is the object of God's dis- 
 pleasure, not on account of the sinfulness of his nature, but on 
 account of his own negligence as to that sinfulness of nature, or as 
 to his sinful concurrence with it. Nothing is sin in us which has 
 not some consent of the will. What is done without or against our 
 will rather takes place in us than is done hy us. Even although it 
 be the result of past actual sin it is not sin to us now unless our 
 will in some way go along with it ... . It is miserable to have 
 allowed (in time past) sinful tempers which might have been 
 nipped in the bud to grow to be full blown. Thou canst not nip 
 them in that easy way now. Still they are suffering, not sin. Nay, 
 so long as they are suffering, they are not sin : because what thou 
 MrilLest not, so that thou steadfastly resistest, is not sin. 
 
 *' Thou hast then these two opposite sides, on which by God's grace 
 to guard thyself. Think not lightly of the power of sin, for it 
 threatens thy life. Despond not on account of this power of sin ; 
 for God will keep it chained unless thou thyself free it and invite it 
 unto thee. It does not in itself make thee evil, although it is evil 
 in thee. It is in thee, but, if thou wilt, it may be subdued unto thee. 
 It is present to thee. It is not thine, unless thou make it thine. It 
 does not separate between thee and thy God. ' The law of sin in the 
 members,' although evil, is not thy evil, unless thou will it, and 
 encourage it, and make it the law of thy mind. The law of God, 
 if thou delight in it in the inner man, is God's good in thee, and 
 thine, if thou will it. And mightier wiU be God's good in thee, 
 His power, His grace. His love, His Holy Spirit which He has 
 placed within thee, than the evil of thy nature within thee. No 
 risings then of any passion, yea, though it should rise again and 
 again against thee, and by rising weary thee and almost wear thee 
 out ; no thought by night, when thou hast not power over thy soul, 
 and thy will is not conscious ; no thoughts by day which come to 
 thee again and again, and besiege thee and torment thee, and would 
 
Chap. VII.] HOW TO PERFORM I FIND NOT. 153 
 
 18 For I know tliat "^ in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelletli 
 no good thing : for to will is present with me ; i Gen. \-i. 5. 
 but how to perform that which is good I find not. 
 
 18. " I find not." So D., E., F., G., K., L., P., most Cnrsives, Vulg., Syriac; but h, 
 A., B., C, 47, 67**, 80, Copt., Arm., omit " I find " (" how to perform that which is good 
 not"). 
 
 claim thee for their own ; no distractions in prayer, even if they 
 carry thee away, and thou lose thyself and awake as it were out of 
 a dream, and thy prayer be gone — none of these things are thine. 
 Nothing without thy will is thine or will be imputed unto thee. It 
 is not the mere presence with thee of what thou hatest : it is not 
 the recurrence again and again of what thcu loathest, which will 
 hurt thee ; not even if it seem to come from thy inmost self, unless 
 thy will consent to it." (Pusey, " Parochial Sermons," ii. 18.) 
 
 The reader will thank me for this extract. I know no words 
 which enter so deeply and so satisfactorily into the meaning and 
 spirit of a passage which deals more closely with the conditions 
 under which sin dwells within us than any other in Scripture. 
 
 18. " For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no 
 good thing, for to will," &c. Notice how the Apostle considers the 
 flesh, that is, not only the mere visible tangible flesh of bones and 
 muscles, but the fleshly soul or psyche which is its life and activity 
 — a part of himself. We are compound beings of flesh with its 
 carnal soul, and of spirit in which the Spirit of God, or a spirit 
 utterly antagonistic to God, dwells. The Ego — the I, the will, may 
 be in one or the other. If the will, the I is in the spirit, in- 
 formed and inhabited by the Spirit of God, then the man looks 
 down upon the lower self— the "me, that is, my flesh," — as de- 
 praved and condemned, and not a fit organ for the spirit. In the 
 spirit is the good Spirit of God, but not as yet in the flesh, for " He 
 that raised Christ from the dead hath not yet quickened our 
 mortal bodies by His Spirit which dwelleth in us.*' 
 
 Consequently the will to do all manner of good is present, but 
 how to perform it the man knows not : for the body is the instru- 
 ment of the spirit, but the body is corrupt and unrenewed, and so 
 weak, and cannot rise to the heights of the spirit, or fly with the 
 swiftness of the spirit, or watch with the wakefulness of the spirit. 
 The illustration of all this is the slumber of the Apostles in Gethse- 
 mane : " The spirit truly is willing, but the flesh is weak." 
 
154 EVIL IS PRESENT WITH ME. [Romans. 
 
 19 For the good tliat I would I do not : but the evil which 
 I would not, that I do. 
 
 20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do 
 it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 
 
 21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is 
 present with me. 
 
 " No good thing." No supernatural strength, no self-denial. If 
 the flesh is subdued, it is by the power of the mind or spirit, not of 
 its own inherent power. The body, by its very nature, is all on the 
 side of appetite. 
 
 " But how to perform that which is good I find not," i.e., I find 
 it not in my flesh. I cannot look to my flesh for help or strength, 
 I must look to the Spirit of God. 
 
 19, 20. *' For the good that I would I do not : but the evil .... 
 sin that dwelleth in me." This 19th verse is not a mere repetition 
 of verse 15, or of the latter part of it : for good and evil are here 
 expressly mentioned ; it is not merely " What I would that I do 
 not," but " The good that I would I do not ;" and not merely " What 
 I hate," but "The evil which I would not." The latter part of 
 verse 20 is an exact repetition of part of verse 17. Why is this ? 
 I can see but one reason. The Apostle desires to emphasize as 
 strongly as possible his participation in that common nature of a 
 fleshly and spiritual self, which is the lot of the weakest brother 
 with whose warfare he identifies himself. 
 
 21. " I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is pre- 
 sent with me." This has, by some, been explained as meaning, *' I 
 find then as respects the law — i.e., the Mosaic — that when I would 
 or desire to do good, the law is no assistance, but evil is present 
 with me." 
 
 But the rendering of the Authorized, which is usually followed, 
 seems the best, taking law to mean a force, or an observed sequence, 
 which must be under some regulating power, as the law of gravita- 
 tion. " I find, then, the law, that when I desire to do good, evil is 
 present with me. It is so present with me as to hinder me doing 
 good, or marring the good which I would fain do." 
 
 22. " For I delight in the law of God after the inward man." 
 The inner man which delights in the law can only be, one would 
 think, the mind or spirit informed and renewed by the Spirit of 
 
Chap. VII.] ANOTHER LAW IN MY MEMBERS. 155 
 
 22 For I ""deliglit in the law of God after Hlie inward 
 man : ' Ps- i- 2. 
 
 23 But * I see another law in "" my members, Ephesy'iii.'ie." 
 warring against the law of my mind, and bringing t q'J'X. 17. 
 me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my " <=i^- "^i* i^' 
 members. 
 
 23. " To the law of sin." So A., C, L., most Cursives, Syriac, Arm. ; but \, B., D., 
 E., F., G., K., P., fifteen Cnrsives, d, e, f, g, Vulg., Goth, read, " by the law of sin" [h 
 
 God. Only such a man within us can delight in the law of God. 
 We cannot suppose that by " dehght in the law of God " the Apostle 
 means only a recognition of the law as good, ending in mere barren 
 fruitless acknowledgment or admiration. He must mean such a 
 dehght as would lead us to obey it, and fulfil it in ourselves. 
 
 23. " But I see another law ui my members, warring against the 
 law," &c. I see another, i.e., a different law. Here law means the 
 same as in verse 21, and may be translated " principle of action." 
 
 " In my members," that is in my unrenewed body. The body is 
 composed of members, each having its separate concupiscence, but 
 all obeying the law or principle of sin. 
 
 " Warring against the law of my mind," i.e., the principle of 
 action which governs my mind or inner man, which is, of course, 
 the law of God which the mind has adopted for its own. 
 
 " And bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my 
 members." A very important question arises here. Does this law of 
 sin in the members, which wars against the law of the mind, 
 actually bring the I — the Ego — ^the persons enlightened as to the 
 law of God and delighting in that law, into captivity to the law of 
 sin, or has it a tendency to do so ? St. Paul personally, in his own 
 case, no doubt understands that it has a tendency ; but then he 
 thwarts this tendency, and prevents it leading to a victory, and 
 such consequent captivity as that he is again under the dominion 
 of sin. But then the blessed and holy Apostle, all through this 
 wondrous argument, identifies himself with the weakest and most 
 unstable of all his brethren. He constantly speaks, not as the 
 strong, but as the weak : " I am carnal," " That which I do I know 
 not," "What I hate that I do," " Evil is present with me ; " and bo 
 here, if he were asked, "Are you brought into captivity yourself? " he 
 would answer, " No, not as you my questioner mean ; but if I were to 
 
156 THE BODY OF THIS DEATH. [Romans. 
 
 24 O wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me from 
 
 IPdeaa ^°'^^ II *^® ^^^^ ^^ *^® death ? 
 
 relax my hold on Christ, and my looking to Christ, and my watchfal- 
 ness and prayer, at any moment I might be led captive. But I desire 
 to identify myself with my brethren who struggle and make little 
 way, and are often overcome, and so, as I have written elsewhere, ' to 
 the weak become I as weak, that I may gain the weak. I am made 
 all things to all men, that I may by all means save some ' " ^ (1 
 Corinth, ix. 22). 
 
 24. "0 wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me from the 
 body of this death? " The best way of understanding the expres- 
 sion " body of this death," because most accordant with the reason- 
 ing of this chapter and the next, is to take the body here as the 
 actual body or flesh, in which resides sin and consequently death. 
 This is one of those "groans " to which the Apostle alludes when 
 he writes : "We which have the first fruits of the Spirit, we ourselves 
 groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit the redemp- 
 tion of our body" (viii. 23) ; and, again, "In this (building) we 
 groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which 
 is from heaven " (2 Corinth, v. 2). 
 
 It can hardly allude to any deliverance before the Eesurrection, 
 such as a deliverance from sin so perfect that its motions are no 
 longer felt, and are incapable of being revived. There is no word 
 of such a dehverance till the adoption, the renewal, the Redemption 
 ofthebody (viii. 23). 
 
 Does, then, the Apostle long for death ? No, he longs for the 
 Second Coming and the Resurrection of the body. " From heaven 
 we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change 
 our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body " 
 (Phil. iii. 20, 21). 
 
 25. " I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord." Now for 
 what specific blessing does the Apostle here thank God ? Evi- 
 dently for deliverance from " the body of this death." What was 
 the body of this death which made the Apostle cry out for very 
 
 1 Some Romanist commentators, as Cornelias k Lapide and Bernardino & Piconio, 
 understand this "other" law as concupiscence, and that St. Panl was only led into 
 captivity in so far as he yet felt in his mortal and unrenewed body the motions of con- 
 cupiscence ; but surely of such motions he would say, " It is no more I that do it, but sin 
 that dwelleth in me." 
 
Chap. VII.] WITH THE MIND, WITH THE FLESH. 157 
 
 26 ^ I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then 
 with the mind I myseK serve the law of God ; ^ i cor. xv. 
 but with the flesh the law of sin. 
 
 25. " I thank God." So S, A., K., L., P., most Cursives, Syr., Goth. ; but B. and Sah. 
 read, " thanks to God" [x,af>K ry ©£<?], similarly D., E., 38, d, e, Vulg. 
 
 wretchedness ? It was the long continued violence of the conflict 
 within Vn'm between the flesh and the Spirit. What, then, was the 
 deliverance — the victory ? It was the subjugation of the flesh to 
 the Spirit, so that the Apostle could say, " I keep under my body, 
 and bring it into subjection." Was this a victory once for all, so 
 that from that time he felt no more consciousness of sin within 
 him ? No, it was not ; for, after giving thanks for the dehverance, 
 he yet writes — 
 
 *' So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God ; but with 
 the flesh, the law of sin." Looked at in the light of all that goes 
 before, and of all that comes after, in the eighth chapter, this place 
 has a very simple meaning. It means that the mind or spirit is 
 renewed, and that the body, even of the Apostle, continues un- 
 renewed. The mind or spirit of the Apostle is such that it is 
 altogether conformed to the will of God ; but the body of the 
 Apostle, as of all other Christians whatsoever, is such that he says 
 with truth of himself a little further on, " Ourselves, which have the 
 first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, 
 waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body." 
 
 Again, in another place he says, " We that are in this tabernacle 
 do groan, being burdened : not for that we would be unclothed, but 
 clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life " (2 Cor. 
 V. 4). Now what was the reason why the Apostle exhibited this 
 desire, amounting to such strength and painful longing that it 
 could with any propriety be called " groaning " ? Was it merely his 
 desire to be shining in light proceeding from him as from his Lord 
 on His Transfiguration? Was it merely his desire to be dis- 
 tinguished above his fellows by a brighter crown ? No, it was 
 because he desired to be clothed with a spiritual, and, therefore, 
 sinless body ; a body respecting which he need no longer say, " I 
 keep under my body." He desired to put off a body which was 
 a clog, a dead weight, an hindrance to, and to put on a body which 
 should be an assistance, an helpmeet for, his renewed and glorified 
 spirit. 
 
158 THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT OF LIFE. [Romans. 
 
 CHAP. vni. 
 
 n[^HEBE is therefore now no condemnation to them which 
 ^ are in Christ Jesus, who * walk not after the flesh, but 
 
 ' ver 4. Gal. ^ftcr the Spirit. 
 
 V. 16, 25. ^ 
 
 b John viii, 36. 2 For ^ the law of ^ the Spirit of life in Christ 
 
 ch. vi. 18, 22. 
 Gal. ii. xix. & 
 
 V. 1. 
 
 c 1 Cor. XT. 45. 
 2 Cor. iii. 6. 
 
 1. " Who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Omitted by H, B., C, D., P., 
 G., 47, 67**, 177, d, g, Sah., Cop., ^th. ; but E., K., L., P., most Cursives, e, retam the 
 whole; and A., D.**, 137, d**, f, m, Vulg., Goth., Syriac, omit "but after the Spirit." 
 
 1. " There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are 
 in Christ Jesus," &c. " No condemnation," i.e., no wrath of God 
 abiding on them here, and no punishment in the future state, 
 though they may be conscious of " another law in their members 
 warring against the law of their minds." 
 
 " To them which are in Christ Jesus," i.e., to those who are 
 members of His Body — not only to those once grafted into It, but 
 to those who abide in It, according to the Lord's own words, 
 " Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit 
 of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide 
 in me " (John xv. 4). 
 
 The Apostle dates the engrafting — the commencement of the 
 corporate union — from Baptism ; but he makes the continuance 
 to depend upon our putting off the old man, and putting on the 
 new. 
 
 ♦' Who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." This sen- 
 tence has but Httle manuscript authority ; but it must be under- 
 stood, and it is so important, that it is well to insert it parenthetically 
 here, though it is probably taken or anticipated from verse 4. 
 Chrysostom comments upon it as though it were a part of the 
 text. 
 
 2. "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made 
 me," &c. "We must consider very closely what this " law of the 
 Spirit of life " is, or we may come miserably short of grasping its 
 significance. It is evidently something which is called a law in 
 
Chap. VIII.] FREE FROM THE LAW OF SIN. 159 
 
 Jesus hath made me free from ^ the law of sin and ^ ch. vfi. 24, 
 
 1 1 25. 
 
 death. 
 
 2. "Hath made me." So A., C, D., E., K., L., P., all Cursives, d, e, Vulg., Goth. 
 Sah., Arm. ; but ti, B., F., a, f, g, Syriac, read, " thee " (" made thee free "). 
 
 the sense of an order of things — a sequence, a principle of action, 
 just as the Apostle had been speaking of the "law of the mind,'' 
 and *' the law of sin in the flesh." Is it, then, the same as the 
 " law of the mind " of vii. 23 ? No, certainly not ; though it assists 
 it and may be said to comprehend it. Is it the gift of the Spirit ? 
 No, clearly not. It is given by the Spirit, applied by the Spirit, 
 enforced by the Spirit ; but it is more than the gift of the Spirit 
 as that phrase is commonly understood. What, then, is it ? The 
 Apostle proceeds to tell us. It is the gift of a Person, a Second 
 Adam, the very Son of God Incarnate, '* God sending his own Son 
 in the likeness of sinful flesh (or of the flesh of sin — the flesh in 
 which dwells the law of sin), and for sin (or as a sin offering), con- 
 demned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might 
 be fulfilled in us," &c. 
 
 The law of the Spirit of Life, then, may be understood as the dis- 
 pensation of the Spirit of Life, in which the Son of God is revealed 
 to the soul as incarnate, as crucified, as risen from the dead, as 
 ascended, as coming again in the Spirit, as uniting men to Himself 
 as His Body, as making them partakers of His Life, so that in and 
 from Him they have a new life, whereby to live to God and to 
 fulfil His holy Will. All this, and much more, is comprehended in 
 the dispensation of the Spirit, and in it the Spirit applies the 
 atoning virtues of the Death of Christ and the Justifying and 
 Sanctifying power of the Risen Life of Christ to the individual 
 Christian, so that if he yields himseilf to the influence of the Spirit 
 of God he is grafted into Christ, abides in Christ, partakes of His 
 Body and Blood, subdues the flesh to the Spirit, and lives, grows, 
 and walks in Christ. 
 
 This "law of the Spirit of Life," the Apostle says, has made him 
 free from the law of sin and death. That is, it has made him free 
 from the power of sin. He is not free from the presence of sin, so 
 that he need have no care to be watcliful, for, as we have over and 
 over again said, his body is not yet made a spiritual body. It will 
 be, but it has not yet been so transformed ; but he is free from the 
 law — the command — the powerful infliience of sin and death. 
 
160 CONDEMNED SIN IN THE ELESH. [Romans 
 
 e Acts xiii. 39. 3 For ^ what the law could not do, in that it 
 
 Heb. vii.'is, was Weak through the flesh, ^G-od sending his 
 
 loi 14. ' ' ' own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and || for 
 
 2 Cor". tI'2l' sin, condemned sin in the flesh : 
 
 H Or, by a 
 
 sacrifice for 
 
 3. " For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through 
 the flesh," &c. As the Apostle says in the Epistle to the Galatians, 
 the law could not give life, because it was a mere command, and a 
 command does not carry with it, in the case of such weak, sinful 
 creatures as we are, the will and power to obey the command. 
 This must be by a Person coming amongst us, and then dwelling 
 in us. And so the Apostle proceeds — 
 
 "God sending his own Son" — that Son Who partakes of the 
 Life — Moral, Spiritual, Divine, Eternal — of the Godhead. 
 
 " In the likeness of sinful flesh." In the likeness of the flesh of 
 sin — not in sinful flesh, but in its likeness. God did not send His 
 own Son in the mere likeness of flesh, but in the reaUty of our 
 flesh, howbeit sinless. 
 
 " And for sin." Probably as a sin offering, the term Trepi afiapriag 
 being constantly used in the Septuagint to denote the sin offering : 
 30 Levit. xvi. 5. " And he shall take of the congregation of the 
 children of Israel two kids of the goats for a sin offering" {dvo 
 XifiapovQ 6? alyoJv Trepi afiapriac) ; so also Ps. xl. 6, " burnt offerings 
 and sacrifices for sin," Trepi ajxapriag. 
 
 " Condemned sin in the flesh." Just as the animal sacrificed as 
 the sin offering was treated as if the sin of the offerer was punished 
 and slain in its immolation, so Christ, after He had taken upon 
 Him our nature, suffered as if He was the sin offering of humanity, 
 and bare our sins in Hie own body on the tree. 
 
 " Condemned sin in the flesh." No condemnation of sin can be 
 greater than this, that it required the Death of the Holy One of 
 God to expiate it. But by His expiating it by the suffering of 
 death, it is not only condemned in Him, but in us, who partake of 
 His Death and Eesurrection — who died and rose again in and 
 with Him, so that we should no longer serve this condemed thing, 
 but be emancipated from its dominion. Sin is personified, and is 
 supposed to have a sort of right over us — an usurped right, but an 
 acknowledged one. But our Lord, in offering Himself a sin« 
 
Chap. Vm.] WHO WALK AFTER THE SPIRIT. 161 
 
 4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in 
 us, ^ who walk not after the flesh, but after the s ver. i. 
 Spirit. 
 
 5 For ^ they that are after the flesh do mind ? J"^'^.."^ 6- 
 
 •' 1 Cor. 11. 14. 
 
 4. " The righteousness." Perhaps, rather, the reqnirement, Jixa/w/ixa being not the nsnal 
 vrord for righteousness. The rendering of the Revisers, " ordinance," is misleading, a- 
 ordinance is now always used in the sense of outward ordinance. 
 
 offering condemned it, and delivered us. This is one of the many 
 ways in which the Apostle sets before us Atonement, and our 
 reception of that Atonement. The place exactly parallel to, 
 and illustrative of this is 2 Cor. v. 21 : " God hath made him, 
 who knew no sin, to be sin for us ; that we might be made the 
 righteousness of God in him." 
 
 4. •' That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, 
 who walk," &c. These words, be it remembered, are the words of 
 one who has hitherto been contending for the inabihty of the law 
 to justify — that Christians, if they are to be justified, are not to be 
 "under the law, but under grace," — and yet here he tells us that 
 the very end of the Redemption (that Redemption which involves 
 the Incarnation, Death, and Resurrection of the Eternal Son) is 
 that we might fulfil the requirement of that law which he had 
 seemingly so disparaged; so that, paradoxical though it may 
 sound, it is true that we are delivered from the law in order that 
 we may fulfil it. We are delivered from the law as the means of 
 justification, in order that by God's grace we may attain to the 
 heights of hoUness to which its spirituality would raise us. 
 
 5. *• For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the 
 flesh," &c. This follows and depends upon the last words, that 
 " the righteousness of the law may be fulfilled in us, who walk not 
 after the flesh, but after the Spirit." It was the intention of God in 
 redeeming us by sending His own Son, that we should have His 
 holy will, i.e., the just requirement of the law, fulfilled in us ; but 
 the Apostle faces the fact that it is not so with all who are baptized 
 into Christ. Amongst these there are two classes, those who are 
 after the flesh, and those who are after the Spirit. 
 
 The flesh is that part of our natiu'e which is yet unrenewed. 
 By its very nature, as flesh, it is led by its appetites, and being yet 
 under the law of sin, and not being itself as yet emancipated from 
 
 M 
 
162 THE THINGS OF THE FLESH. [Romam. 
 
 the things of the flesh ; but they that are after the Spirit 
 ^ Gal. T. 22. i tlie things of the Spirit. 
 
 the evil effects of the fall, it is continually rising up against the 
 rightful dominion of the human spirit renewed by the Spirit of 
 God. Those who allow themselves, notwithstanding their bap- 
 tism and the pledges of deliverance and help then received, to be 
 led by it, are " after the flesh," and " mind the things of the 
 flesh." They are either engrossed with the gratification of worldly 
 lusts, as gluttony and good living, and the decking out of their 
 persons, or if they do not live to gratify these low, sensual appe- 
 tites, their one object in living is to hoard up money, or to 
 squander it in worldly amusements. They are lovers of pleasure 
 more than lovers of God ; or their one thought is how they are to 
 get on in society, or to distinguish themselves. They seek to be 
 popular, to please men, or to take the lead. They have men's 
 persons in admiration, because of advantage to themselves. We 
 have the lusts of the flesh enumerated by this Apostle in another 
 place in an epistle not written to heathen but to Christians, and it 
 runs thus : " Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 
 idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, 
 seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, reveUings, and 
 such like " (Gal. v. 19). By these last words, " and such like," the 
 Apostle affirms that this list is not complete. There are many 
 similar evil dispositions, vices, forms of worldliness and vanity, 
 which destroy all spiritual life. They that are after the flesh mind 
 these ; they are not suddenly overtaken, and think of their fall, or 
 compHance, with shame and sorrow ; but they deliberately mind one 
 or other of these evil things. They allow their minds to run 
 unchecked upon them ; they look forward and plan the means of 
 gratification. 
 
 "But they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit." They 
 constantly turn their minds to, and dwell upon the Coming of the 
 Son of God amongst us, and its attendant circumstances, such as 
 His rejection by the world, His Crucifixion, His Eesurrection, His 
 sending the Spirit, His headship of His Church. They dehght to 
 meditate in secret upon the mysteries of the faith. They have 
 constantly in mind the increase of the Spirit's influence. They 
 make a serious business of prayer, thanksgiving, and the reading 
 of God's Word. They make time for such things, no matter how 
 
Chap. VIII.] NOT SUBJECT TO THE LAW OF GOD. 163 
 
 6 For ^ t to be carnally minded is death ; but f to ^ ch. vi. 21. 
 
 ' . ^ ^ *^,.^ , ver. 13. Gal. 
 
 be spiritually minded is life and peace. vi. 8. 
 
 7 Because f ^ tbe carnal mind is enmity against minding of the 
 God: for it is not subject to the law of God, vJr*"7.^° 
 
 «" neither indeed can be. Lwi^SJ'./eA. 
 
 Spirts. 
 
 t Gr. the 
 
 minding of the 
 
 6. "To be carnally minded," prudentia camis; "to be spiritually j j^^ j^ . 
 minded," prudentia spiritus, Vulg. Nothing can be proposed better _ , p' '•• ' 
 than the Authorized or the marginal translation. 14_ 
 
 fall of business is their secular life, and into that secular life they 
 desire to bring their reHgion, so that rehgion may influence every 
 part of it. Such are some, and only some, of the *' mindings " of 
 the Spirit, which occupy the thoughts and govern the outward 
 lives of those who are " after the Spirit." 
 
 6. " For to be carnally minded is death ; but to be spiritually 
 minded is hfe," &c. Death here can only mean the separation 
 of the soul or spirit from God, its true Life. The effect of this 
 separation from God is temporal death, and if continued is eternal 
 death, but the first death is that of the soul, by separation from its 
 true Life. 
 
 And the converse of this is, that the minding of the things of the 
 Spirit is, by its very nature, Hfe and peace — life, because union 
 with the only source of all life, and peace, because being united or 
 reunited to Him, there is nothing between us and God. There is 
 nothing to hinder His love to us and our reciprocating His love ; 
 and in this peace is included peace with one another, because, 
 through the Spirit working in us, we desire the good of all, even 
 of our enemies. 
 
 7. "Because the carnal mind is enmity against God." Thus 
 the Apostle in another place, ** You, that were sometime alienated 
 and enemies in your mind by wicked works " (Coloss. i. 21). We 
 have a secret dislike to those whom we knowingly and wilfully 
 wrong, and by the commission of sin we wrong God, and turn 
 away from Him, and hide ourselves from Him. 
 
 •'For it is not subject to the law of God." It is the "other" 
 law in our members warring against the law of our mind. 
 
 " Neither indeed can be," i.e., as long as the body is unrenewed. 
 In the body, or animal soul (psyche) of the body, the fall yet 
 
164 NONE OF HIS. [Romans. 
 
 8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. 
 
 9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be 
 Jgico^.m. that "the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if 
 
 John iii. 34. any man have not ° the Spirit of Christ, he is 
 
 Gal.iy.6. o .- 
 
 Phil. i. 19. none oi his. 
 
 1 Pet. i. 11. 
 
 remains in its evil force, and it will not be otherwise till the vile 
 body is changed into the hkeness of Christ's Glorious Body. 
 
 8. " So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God." 
 They that are in the flesh, i.e., of course, those who mind 
 supremely the things of the flesh, who live after the flesh, and walk 
 after it. These, in their present state, cannot please God. They 
 may make some show of religion — they may, as Herod, hear the 
 preachers of righteousness, and "observe" them, and "do many 
 things," but if they willingly, and of set purpose serve sin — any 
 sort of sin, whatever it be — they cannot please God — all their ser- 
 vice is unacceptable to God. 
 
 9. " But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that 
 the Spirit," &c. " Ye are not in the flesh," your true self, your 
 Ego is not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of 
 God "dwell in you." If so Almighty a Person as the Holy 
 Ghost dwells in you, you yield yourselves to Him to be inspired 
 and led by Him, or through your grieving Him, and not obeying 
 His leading, you provoke Him to depart. 
 
 " Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of 
 his." Notice how the Spirit of God in the first clause of the verse 
 becomes the Spirit of Christ in the latter. Christ having sojourned 
 upon earth. His character is well known. And the Spirit of 
 Christ, Who proceeds from Him, must be Uke Christ. He must 
 be not only a pure and holy, but a loving, gentle, forgiving Spirit, 
 and must make, or tend to make, those whom He inhabits not 
 only pure and holy, but loving, gentle, forgiving. Thus among 
 the fruits of the Spirit in Gal. v., we have " peace, long-suffering, 
 gentleness, and goodness." 
 
 The dogmatic, or theological teaching of this verse is to be 
 noticed. The Spirit of God is the Spirit of Christ, and this can 
 only be because the Spirit proceeds from the Father and from the 
 Son ; the Son undoubtedly acted as if the Spirit proceeded from 
 Himself when He breathed on the Apostles, and here He is said to 
 be the Spirit of both God and Christ. 
 
Chap. VIU. IF CHRIST BE IN YOU. 165 
 
 10 And if Christ he in you, the body is dead because of 
 sin ; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 
 
 11 But if the Spirit of ^ him that raised up p Acts ii. 24. 
 Jesus from the dead dwell in you, ^ he that raised J cor.^i.*i4.* 
 up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your Ephes.^L'/s.' 
 mortal bodies || by his Spirit that dwelleth in J/^^^^fJ!^^* 
 you. 
 
 11. "He' that raised up Christ" (or, the Christ). So N*. B., Dc, E., F., G., K., L., P., 
 most Cursives ; but N*, A., D*, F. marg., 31, 47, 73, d, e, Vulg., read, "Christ Jesus." 
 
 11. " By his Spirit." So N, A., C, fifteen or sixteen Cursives, Cop., Arm., .^th. ; but 
 B., D., E., F., G., K., L., P., seventy Cursives, d, e, f, g, Vulg., Syr., Sah., read, 
 " because of his Spirit." 
 
 10. "And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; 
 but the Spirit," &c. " If Christ be in you." Christ is in the 
 Christian by His Spirit. 
 
 " The body is dead." Not physically, but as condemned to death, 
 and perhaps as being reckoned dead, for the Christian continually 
 asks with the Apostle, " How shall we who are dead to sin, live 
 any longer therein ? " 
 
 " Because of sin," i.e.y it is not yet renewed, but serves the law 
 of sin (vii. 25). 
 
 " But the Spirit is life, because of righteousness." That is, the 
 human spirit being rendered righteous by the indwelling of God's 
 Spirit, is aUve before God. 
 
 11. " But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead 
 dwell in you," &c. The connection of thought between this and 
 the last verse is this — Your body is dead, because of sin; it is 
 sinful, weak, inglorious, condemned to death, but it shall not always 
 be so. He that raised Christ from the dead raised Him in a spiritual 
 and glorified Body, and this by the action of that Spirit by Which 
 He had anointed Him, and Which dwelt in Him without measure. 
 This Spirit He has abeady given to you, to regenerate and sanctify 
 your spirits, and by this Spirit He shall raise you up to an incor- 
 ruptible and glorious immortality of body. There is a difference of 
 reading in the last clause of the verse, which somewbat affects the 
 sense. If we read with «, A., C, "through his Spirit," then the 
 Spirit is the Agent by which the Eesurrection is brought about. 
 Just as the Spirit is the Agent bringing about our Eegeneration 
 and the Eesurrection of our souls or spirits from the death of sin 
 
166 WE ARE DEBTORS. [Romans. 
 
 12 'Therefore, bretlireii, we are debtors, not to the flesh, 
 r ch. ri. 7, 14. to Hve after the flesh. 
 ^yer.6. Gal. i^ ji^j. s^ ^q ^^^ gfter the flesh, ye shall die: 
 
 to the life of righteousness, so the Resurrection of our bodies will 
 take place by His special working. If, on the contrary, we read 
 with B., D., and later uncials, " because of his Spirit," then the 
 fact of our having received and retained the Spirit, will be the 
 reason for our rising again. The former is theologically far pre- 
 ferable, and the latter does not by any means exclude it, for the 
 Spirit dwelling in us to the end not only entitles us to a Blessed 
 Resurrection of our bodies, but will be the means by which it will 
 be brought about. 
 
 A reason given by Chrysostom for the Apostle using the word 
 " quicken " instead of raising again is worth observing. " What, 
 then, is it which is said ? All shall rise again, yet not all to life, 
 but some to punishment and some to life [John v. 29, Danl. xii. 2]. 
 This is why he did not say ' shall raise up,' but shall quicken. 
 And this is a greater thing than Resurrection, and is given to the 
 just only. And the cause of this honour he adds in the words, 
 ' By his Spirit that dwelleth in you.' And so if while here thou 
 drive away the grace of the Spirit, and do not depart with it still 
 safe, thou wilt assuredly perish, though thou dost rise again. For 
 as He will not endure then, if He see His Spirit shining in thee, to 
 give thee up to punishment, so neither will He allow them if He 
 see it quenched to bring thee into the Bridechamber." 
 
 12. " Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live 
 after the flesh." We are debtors, we are under obHgations, but to 
 whom ? To God and to Christ, and to the Spirit, and to ourselves. 
 To God, Who has given His Son to redeem us from all iniquity, 
 and from eternal ruin. To Christ, Who has assumed our nature, 
 borne our sins, and made us members of His Body. To the Holy 
 Spirit, Who if not driven out by our sins, yet dwells in us. To 
 ourselves, that we should not throw away our hopes of a blessed 
 Eternity. To these we owe it, that we should not live after the 
 flesh, and so undo the work of God, and the suffering of Christ on 
 our behaK. 
 
 13. " For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die," &c. " The life 
 of the flesh does not consist only in intemperance, fornication, and 
 
Chap. Vni.] YE SHALL LIVE. 167 
 
 but if ye through the Spirit do * mortify the deeds of the 
 
 body, ye shall live. l^^^^ *-: ^ 
 
 •^ ' •' 22. Col. ui. 5, 
 
 the other vices of the body, but likewise in a fond adhesion to cor- 
 rupt reason, and to our own will, in pride, ambition, and envy." 
 (Quesnel.) The cultivation of the most refined tastes, if not sub- 
 ordinated to the will of God, and the good of Christ's Church, but 
 pursued solely with a view to our own selfish gratification, may be, 
 and often is, a living after the flesh. " Ye shall die." This cannot 
 mean less than " ye shall have no part in the kingdom of Christ and 
 God." How far it involves actual positive punishment for ever and 
 ever, must be left to God — to His justice. His mercy, His wisdom, 
 and the necessities of the moral government of the universe. 
 
 " But if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body," 
 &c. This means that we are, in dependence upon the power and 
 help of the Spirit, *' to mortify the deeds of the body." We are not 
 to leave all to the Spirit, and take no trouble ourselves ; but we 
 are to use all means set forth in Scripture, such as self-denial, 
 self-disciphne, fasting, watchfulness, prayer, confession, devotional 
 reading of Scripture, so that the Word of God may dwell in us 
 richly, avoiding all scenes, and companies, and places which have 
 been in former times occasions of temptations. It is through such 
 things that the Spirit works. The Lord, Who sends the Spirit, says 
 to Apostles — and, if so, much more to us — *' Watch and pray, lest ye 
 enter into temptation." He says, too, with fearful emphasis, " If 
 thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out. If thy foot . . . thy hand 
 offend thee, cut them off." And His servant says, " Mortify your 
 members which are upon the earth : " " they that are Christ's have 
 crucified the flesh, with its affections and lusts." These endeavours 
 are to be done relying on the Spirit — praying for the Spirit — laying 
 ourselves open for the reception of aU His Holy influences. This 
 doing, we shall mortify the deeds of the body, and we shall live. 
 
 If it be rejoined that aU this is " work," and that we are saved 
 by simple faith in Christ — simple reliance upon Him, and so on — 
 we rejoin, what means the Apostle when he says, " Work out your 
 own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh 
 in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure" ? What God 
 works in us by His Spirit is not a reason for mere idle rehance, 
 but for hard and careful work, even with " fear and trembling." 
 
168 THE SONS OF GOD. [Romans. 
 
 14 For "as many as are led by the Spirit of G-od, they 
 » Gal. T. 18. are the sons of G-od. 
 
 14. " For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the 
 sons of God." This is an inference from the preceding verse, for 
 the Apostle begins it with " for," " for as many as are led," &c. 
 The connection seems to be, " The son of God must hve in God's 
 sight, and consequently they who through the Spirit mortify the 
 deeds of the body are led by the Spirit, and hve in Him, and are 
 the true sons of God. The Spirit, whatever else He works within 
 them, wiU certainly lead them to mortify the deeds of the body." 
 
 This is a place of the utmost practical importance. The Apostle 
 and the Church after him has ever taught that all the baptized are, 
 in a sense, children of God. "Ye are all the children of God by faith 
 in Christ Jesus, for as many of you as have been baptized into 
 Christ have put on Christ " (Gal. iii. 26, 27). But we have to con- 
 tinue in Him into Whom we have once been engrafted, and this 
 continuance is the condition of our present sonship. 
 
 There are, as I have elsewhere taught, four senses in which the 
 children of men are made children of God ; each one leading up to 
 that which follows it. 
 
 1. "We are all children of God, because He made us reasonable 
 beings, capable of knowing and loving Him. Thus Deut. xxxii. 6t 
 Malachi ii. 10. 
 
 2. We are all children of God by adoption, sealed to us in Holy 
 Baptism (Gal. iii. 26, 27). 
 
 3. But we remain children or sons of God only if we put our- 
 selves consciously under the guidance of His Spirit, and follow His 
 leading. We may take two remarkable illustrations from the 
 Sermon on the Mount. The Spmt of God is emphatically a Spirit 
 of peace and love, and the Lord says, respecting the peace-makers, 
 that they shall be called the children of God, and He also says 
 that we are to love our enemies, that we may be the children of 
 God (Matth. v. 44, 45) ; and the Apostle writes in the same spirit 
 to the Phihppians, " Do aU things without murmurings and 
 disputings, that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of 
 God," &c. (Phil. ii. 14, 15). 
 
 4. And, lastly, those who have made their calling and election 
 sure, are estabhshed as the sons of God for ever. Thus our Lord 
 
Chap. VIII.] THE SPIRIT OF ADOPTION. 169 
 
 15 For ^ ye have not received tlie spirit of bond- * i cor. ii. 12. 
 
 •^ -^ , _ _ Hebr, ii. 15. 
 
 age again ^ to fear ; but ye nave received the y 2 Tim. i. 7. 
 * Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, * Abba, , isai^ivi. 5. 
 Father. "^t'l'^C* 
 
 » Mark xjt. 
 
 36. 
 
 15. " Whereby we cry ; " or, perhaps, " wherein we cry." 
 
 says they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world 
 and the Besurrection from the dead .... are equal to the angels, 
 and are the children of God, being the children of the Eesurrection 
 (Luke XX. 36, Eev. xxi. 7). 
 
 15. "For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to 
 fear." This seems to mean "Ye, by receiving Christ, have not 
 received a second mere law to which ye will be in bondage as 
 slaves are, and so be again led by a spirit of bondage to the 
 letter, as the Jews were : but, by being brought into Christ, the be- 
 loved Son, ye have received the adoption of sons, and so God has 
 given to you a spirit answering to your new privileges. Along with 
 adoption in Christ ye have received the spirit of adoption — the filial 
 spirit — which makes you regard God as a Father, and address Him 
 as a Father." The Apostle, no doubt, had in his mind the Lord's 
 Invocation of His Father at Gethsemane, for the words in Syriac and 
 Greek are identical. And no doubt also he remembered the prayer 
 in which the Lord had taught him to invoke God, as no Jewish 
 prayer ever did, for it begins with "Our Father." Nothing can be 
 more remarkable than the paucity of the use of this word " Father" 
 as addressed to God in the Old Testament, particularly when we con- 
 sider the dear and intimate relations which the Jews had towards 
 Him, and the extreme fervency with which at times they expressed 
 those relations. Take the beginning of the 18th Psalm. " I will love 
 thee, O Lord, my strength ; the Lord is my stony rock and my de- 
 fence : my Saviour, my God, and my might, in whom I will trust, 
 my buckler, the horn also of my salvation, and my refuge." How 
 remarkably the term father — the one most familiar with us — is 
 avoided. It seems to be because He had not been revealed as a real 
 actual begetting Father in the manifestation of the Son. The son- 
 ehip of Christians wholly depends upon the Sonship of Christ. " To 
 as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons 
 of God " (John i.), as if it was a new power \i^v<jia\ given by the 
 Son. And, if so, the privilege of adoption or sonship, or at least 
 
170 THE SPIRIT BEARETH WITNESS. [Romans. 
 b 2 Cor. 12. 16 ^ The Spirit itself beareth witness with our 
 
 &T. 5. Ephes. ^ 
 
 i. 13. & jT. 30. spirit, that we are the children of Grod : 
 
 the full and clear revelation of it, must be reserved till He was 
 revealed in Whom we are sons. 
 
 Still it is to be remembered that many in the old dispensa- 
 tion served God in the spirit of sons, whilst many in the new 
 serve God in the spirit of the most abject bondage. And in house- 
 holds and in families many a servant far surpasses in natural 
 and dutiful affection the proud, self- asserting, self-reliant son or 
 daughter. 
 
 16. " The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit." "With 
 our spirit," i.e., both the Spirit of God which God has given to us 
 and our own spirit within us bear a joint testimony to this, that 
 we are the children of God. 
 
 Two questions must be considered. 
 
 What is the witness of God's Spirit — and what is the witness of 
 our own as distinguished from God's Spirit. 
 
 By some the witness of the Spirit has been taken to mean the 
 witness of the dispensation which is altogether the work of the Spirit 
 revealing the Son of God, and the means by which we are made 
 partakers of His Nature and Grace, and in a most important sense 
 this is true, and by no means sufficiently realized by Christians — 
 that the Church and its witness to Christ crucified, risen and 
 ascended, and the Scriptures, and the means of grace all testify to 
 the Christian that he is chosen of God, for it is only through the 
 providence of God that he is in the Church, and beHeves its testi- 
 mony to the Son of God, and accepts the Scriptures, and receives 
 the Sacraments, and he must rely upon God's providence as having 
 thus revealed to him God's gracious intentions respecting himself. 
 This then is the outward objective testimony of the Spirit : but I 
 do not think that it is here so much in the mind of the Apostle, as 
 the unmistakable evidence of the Spirit in the workings to which 
 he had alluded in the last three verses. He had said that true 
 Christians through the Spirit mortify the deeds of the body, that 
 they are led by the Spirit, and that they have received a Spirit 
 which makes them consider God to be, and to invoke Him as, their 
 Father. All this cannot have come from beneath — from the world, 
 from themselves — and it corresponds to and coincides with the 
 
Chap. VIII.] THE WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 171 
 
 testimony of their own spirit which they examine in a hmnble and 
 honest and devout way, which spirit of theirs clearly testifies to 
 them that notwithstanding shortcomings, and temporary declen- 
 sions, and infirmities owing to the fact that they dwell in un- 
 renewed bodies, they are yet on the side of God, and of Christ, and 
 against sin and the world. But does not the Holy Spirit speak 
 directly to the soul ? Yes ; but this speaking is undoubtedly in 
 accordance with His acting and His indwelling. I do not see how 
 He can witness to the sonship of those who do not put themselves 
 under Him to be led by Him, or to the sonship of those who do 
 not sincerely labour to mortify the deeds of the body. 
 
 The present personal appHcation of this verse in our times is very 
 difficult. There are a number of seemingly enlightened and re- 
 ligious persons amongst us who claim to have the witness of the 
 Spirit not only to their present sonship, but to their final accep- 
 tance, no matter what their conduct between now and judgment be 
 —and there are others, including many deeply-religious CathoHc- 
 minded persons, who seeing how dishonestly and dangerously this 
 passage is perverted, all but ignore its teaching altogether. 
 
 Now this should not be. Those who reaUze the Incarnation, the 
 all-atoning Death, the Kesurrection, the present Intercession, the 
 Headship of Christ to the Church — the Sacraments, especially the 
 Eucharist, as bringing about the highest Union betwixt Christ and 
 the Christian, those who realize too that the whole Christian work 
 and conflict requires constant watchfulness, self-denial, and self- 
 discipline — have a right to the comfort and consolation and good 
 hope of this passage, whereas those who look upon Christ princi- 
 pally as a substitute, who believe that He has done all for them in 
 the sense of saving them trouble, and conflict, and self-crucifixion — 
 who look upon salvation as the matter of a moment, not of a life- 
 time — such, it seems to me, have no right to the supposed assurance 
 of this place. Nothing but cherished sin ought to prevent a 
 Christian from having this witness of the Spirit. If we are sincerely 
 putting ourselves under the leading of the Spirit, and striving by 
 the same Spirit to live in the Spirit of adoption, then the Spirit 
 will be ready to witness with our spirit. If, for instance, the 
 Magnificat is true to us, and if we through the grace of the Incar- 
 nation can claim it in some degree as the expression of our state, 
 then, indeed, our souls must say, " He that is mighty hath mag- 
 nified me, and holy is His Name." 
 
172 JOINT HEIRS WITH CHRIST. [Romans. 
 
 17 And if children, then heirs ; heirs of G-od, and joiat- 
 .;^Actsii.i8. 'heirs with Christ; ^ii so be that we suffer with 
 i Acts xiv. 22. hi'in, that we may be also glorified together. 
 
 Phil. i. 29. 
 
 ^ Tim. ii. 11, 
 
 12. 
 
 17. " And if children, then heirs." This is the natural conse- 
 quence amongst men ; the children inherit the property of their 
 fathers on their death, but in spiritual and eternal things, it is far 
 more than this : God is the possessor and owner of all things, and 
 His kingdom and power are boundless, so that He can always give to 
 His children as much as their capacities for enjoyment will allow. 
 " All things," says our Apostle to the Corinthians, " are yours." 
 
 " Heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ." Because we are 
 through His Incarnation, and the possession of His Spmt, His 
 brethren. Thus He describes Himself as saying at the last day, 
 " Inherit the kingdom prepared for you." Eternal blessedness by 
 being called an inheritance is described as much more than a 
 gift given, as it were, on the spur of the moment. It has long been 
 intended for us, prepared for us, laid up for us. God grant that we 
 may not forfeit it (Hebrews xii. 15, 16, 17). 
 
 " If so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified 
 together." If we suffer with Him. This sentiment is repeated by 
 the Apostle in one of his last letters. ''If we be dead with him, 
 we shall also Hve with him : if we suffer we shall also reign with 
 him" (2 Tim. ii. 11, 12). When can we be said to suffer with 
 Christ? When we take what He lays upon us patiently, and as 
 from God (as He said, "The cup which my Father hath given 
 me, shall I not drink it ? ") — when in all our sufferings we remember 
 His, and how by them He atoned for our sins, and was perfected 
 by suffering to be our sympathizing Mediator and Intercessor; 
 when we esteem it a token for good that we partake of the pain 
 which He did. Quesnel writes, " Let us always remember that we 
 are the heirs of the living God Who dwells in heaven, that so we may 
 despise all earthly things. But let us at the same time remember 
 that we are joint heirs with God Who died on the Cross, that so we 
 may not refuse to die with Him on ours. We can have no part in 
 His inheritance if we have none in His sufferings. This is an in- 
 dispensable condition of the New Covenant. This inheritance 
 costs dear to flesh and blood, but does not damnation often cost it 
 dearer?" 
 
Chap. VIII.] I RECKON. 173 
 
 18 For I reckon that ^the sufferings of this present time 
 are not worthy to he compared with the glory « 2 cor. iv. 17. 
 which shall be revealed in us. & iv. 13. ' 
 
 19 For Hhe earnest expectation of the creature ^ 2 Pet. iii. 13. 
 waiteth for the ^ manifestation of the sons of God. s 1 John iii. 2. 
 
 18. " For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not 
 worthy," &c. "I reckon," that is, "I consider." It has not the 
 smallest tinge of deUberation through uncertainty. 
 
 " That the sufferings of this present time." Compare the words 
 ** Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a 
 far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory " (2 Cor. iv. 17). 
 
 " The glory which shall be revealed in us." Glory both of body 
 and spirit. The body shall be raised up in the likeness of Christ's 
 glorious body, in incorruption, in glory, in power ; and the spirit, 
 no longer hampered with an unrenewed frame, shall be clearly 
 seen to reflect the perfect likeness of its Maker. To take the com- 
 parison of the present distress with the future joy, what will be 
 even years of disease with an eternity of health and strength P What 
 decrepitude and old age with an eternity of perpetual youth ? What 
 the short pains of martyrdom, terrific though they be for the mo- 
 ment, with the being with, and reigning with, Christ a thousand 
 years ? 
 
 19. " For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the 
 manifestation," &c. The creature, i.e., the whole creation, is per- 
 sonified, and is supposed to be waiting with outstretched neck, 
 for the renewal which is coming, as spectators stretch their necks 
 to see the runners in a race. 
 
 *' Waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God." Waiteth, 
 that is, not for destruction or annihilation, but for the manifestation 
 of the highest and best part of the creation. 
 
 What is the creature {ktioiq) of this and the following verse ? I 
 think there can be no doubt, if we take into full consideration the 
 significance of the contrast in the beginning of verse 23, "and not 
 only they, but ourselves also, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit," 
 that it is the unrenewed creation. First, then, the creation 
 or creature is man, then the creatures nearest to him, who seem to 
 have souls in sympathy with his, who can in some small degree 
 enter into some of his purposes, and who seem to partake both of 
 
174 SUBJECT TO VANITY. [Romans. 
 
 20 For *tlie creature was made subject to vanity, not 
 
 h ver. 22. willingly, but by reason of him who hath sub- 
 Gen, ui.ig. . , °/^ / , 
 
 jected the same m nope, 
 
 21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from 
 the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the 
 children of God. 
 
 20. "Who hath subjected the same in hope, because," &c., or, "who hath subjected 
 the same in hope that the creature " (Revisers). The Authorized is far preferable. 
 
 21. " Because," J<'ot». So a, D., F., G., ; but A., B., C, E., K., L., P., and all Cnrsivw, 
 
 read " in hope that," ot». 
 
 his virtues and of his vices ; and the rest of the creation cannot be 
 excluded, but is affected according to its nearness to man or its de- 
 pendence upon him. 
 
 20. "The creature was made subject to vanity." This cannot 
 mean vanity ki the sense of mere emptiness, nor can it mean cor- 
 ruption, decay and death, though these contribute to the " vanity " 
 of the state ; but I think it rather means aimlessness, want of true 
 purpose — the creature is out of gear, so to speak, and awaits the 
 restoration of its true aim and significance at the restoration of its 
 head, even man. 
 
 " Not willingly." Here there seems a reference to Adam, who 
 wUHngly ate of the forbidden fruit, and so willingly subjected him- 
 self to evil, whereas the rest of the creation was subjected from with- 
 out, that is by God, to the effects, or some of them, of Adam's fall. 
 
 " But by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope." 
 The extension of the evil of the fall, and its dislocating effects on 
 other creatures beside man was not ordered by God that it should 
 continue so for ever ; as man was subjected to sin in hope that he 
 should be redeemed, so the creation was made subject to vanity in 
 hope that in the fulness of time it might partake of his redemption. 
 
 21. " Because the creature itself also shall be dehvered from the 
 bondage of corruption," &c. This is a great mystery, but it is in 
 accordance with many very distinct intimations of Scripture, as 
 Isaiah xi., where the principal creatures seem to have their natures 
 changed (also Isaiah Ixv. 17, 25 ; Hosea ii. 18). 
 
 There is no reason why it should not be so, if we believe in the 
 omnipotence and infinite goodness of God. 
 
 *' Corruption " must be here decay and death, and from this it is 
 
Chap. Vm.] ALL CREATION GROANETH. 175 
 
 22 For we know that || the whole creation ^groaneth and 
 travaileth in pain together Tintil now. Or, every 
 
 23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which Mark xvi. i5. 
 
 •^ ^ Col. i. 23. 
 > Jer. xji. 11. 
 
 delivered, and into nothing less than the glorious liberty of the 
 children of God. So that there is a most glorious future for 
 this " creature," this ktIgiq, whatever it be, and it must be beings 
 living upon this earth, whether men or animals, who do not at 
 present partake of regeneration. 
 
 " Into the glorious liberty of the children of God." Rather into 
 the hberty of the glory, the bondage of corruption being set against 
 the liberty of glory, glory being here all the moral and physical 
 attributes of the renewed and glorified saint. Of all intelligent 
 beings the children of God (angels or saints) are the freest, because 
 they are under the dominion of nothing which can hurt them, and 
 they are free to do what is in accordance with the most exalted 
 aspirations that created intelligences are capable of. 
 
 22. " For we know that the whole creation groaneth and tra- 
 vaileth in pain," &c. Here we have a further illustration of the 
 expectant state of the lower creation. Before (verse 19) it was 
 *' earnest expectation ; " now it is the groaning and travailing in 
 birth of a woman with child expecting to be delivered. The old 
 creation is supposed to be in the pains of labour, ready to give birth 
 to the new. The sense of want, and imperfection, and distress 
 which permeates a world created by God and pronounced very 
 good by Him cannot remain unsatisfied. The sense of need in the 
 kingdom of so Almighty and good a God points to the satisfaction 
 of that need — the sense of imperfection to the attainment of perfec- 
 tion, of pain to a state of enduring joy.^ 
 
 The words " until now " cannot be taken as if there was a cessation 
 or respite at the Lord's first coming. On the contrary, the gift of 
 the Spirit makes the yearning and longing for the final deliverance 
 more urgent. 
 
 23. "And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first- 
 fruits of the Spirit," &c. " Ourselves who have the firstfruits of 
 the Spirit," must be held to include all who through the coming 
 of Christ and the preaching of His Gospel, are partakers of the 
 
 1 See a sermon of J. Weslej on " The New Creation," No. Ixiv. 
 
176 WAITING FOR THE ADOPTION. [Romans. 
 
 k 2 Cor. T. 5. have ^ tlie firstf ruits of the Spirit, ^ even we our- 
 
 Ephes, i. 14. , . _ ^ "^ . . „ , 
 
 1 2 Cor. V. 2, selves groan within ourselves, ™ waiting for the 
 m Luke XX. adoption, to wit, the "" redemption of our body. 
 3^- 24 For we are saved bv hope : but ° hope that 
 
 n Lnke xxi. » a. a 
 
 28. Ephes. 
 
 iv. 30. 
 
 2 Cor. y. 7. 24. " We are sayed ; " literally, " We vrere saved." 
 
 Hebr. xi. 1. 
 
 Spirit. Abundant though the gifts of the Spirit were in the 
 Apostolic age, they were only the first fruits, and the full harvest 
 wiU not be till the resurrection of our bodies at the time of the 
 restitution of all things. 
 
 " Even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the 
 adoption," &c. The expression of these groans in words is to be 
 found in the concluding verses of the last chapter : " I dehght in 
 the law of God, after the inward man, but I see another law. O 
 wretched man that I am," &c. And also particularly in 2 Corinth, v. 
 2, 4: *'In this tabernacle we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed 
 upon with our house which is from heaven. We that are in this 
 tabernacle do groan, being burdened," &c. 
 
 It is very necessary for the Christian to see that he has something 
 of this experience. If his spirit is truly and really renewed, or in 
 the process of renewal, it stands to reason that he must, at times at 
 least, have the same inward feelings respecting the unrenewed state 
 of his body and the law of sin in his members, which the Apostle 
 predicates of himself and of those with him who have the first- 
 fruits of the Spirit. If we have no inward conflict, no earnest expec- 
 tation, nothing that can be called earnestly desiring or " groaning, 
 being burthened," have we not reason to fear that our lot is not with 
 St. Paul and the saints whom he joins with himself in this ex- 
 perience? 
 
 *• The adoption, to wit, the redemption of our bodies." Notice 
 how the body is to share in the adoption of the Spirit, and also how 
 Redemption is not yet completed. The full price, even the Blood 
 of Christ, is paid, but corruption and the grave have not yet sur- 
 rendered the bodies which, as well as the souls or spirits inhabiting 
 them, belong to Christ. 
 
 24. •' For we are saved by hope : but hope that is seen is not 
 hope." This verse and the following seem to depend upon the 
 mention of "waiting " in the previous verse : "We who have the 
 firstfruits of the Spirit, groan, waiting, as they who are in prison 
 
Chap. VIII.] WE HOPE FOR THAT WE SEE NOT. 177 
 
 is seen is not liope : for what a man seeth, wliy doth he yet 
 hope for ? 
 
 25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with 
 patience wait for it. 
 
 26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities : for 
 
 26. "Onr infirmities." So K., L., P., most Cm^sives, &c. ; but a. A., B., C, D., some 
 Cursives, d, Vulg., Syriac, read, " onr weakness " (singular). 
 
 groan, waiting to be set free." Now this waiting {dTriK^ex^n^Oa) 
 is the very substance and essence of hope ; our full salvation is not 
 yet, it is in, and by, hope. When we believed in Christ, we believed 
 in One Who will return and receive us to Himself. When we were 
 baptized into Christ we were baptized into One Who died and rose 
 again, in the assured hope that if we have been planted into the like- 
 ness of His Death, and been made partakers of it, we shall be also 
 in the likeness of His Eesurrection, and be made at last fully par- 
 takers of it. 
 
 This is in no way contrary to justification by faith, for, as Dean 
 Alford, quoting Tholuck, says, " Hope is, in fact, faith in its prospec- 
 tive attitude. We should not have come to Christ or submitted 
 ourselves to Him unless we hoped to receive salvation from Him. 
 Now this salvation is in part present, inasmuch as we receive justi- 
 fication and renewal now from Him ; but, as regards the adoption 
 and redemption of our bodies, it is future, and so is an object of hope, 
 and so faith, so far as regards the renewal and spiritualizing of the 
 body, is the ' substance of things hoped for.' " (Hebrews xi. 1.) 
 
 " Hope that is seen is not hope." Hope is here put for the ob- 
 ject hoped for, and " seen " means in possession. If we saw and 
 so possessed our spiritual bodies, they would no longer be objects 
 of hope. 
 
 25. " But if we hope for that we see not," &c. This is the prac- 
 tical conclusion from what has gone before. If our hope is a firm, 
 strong, good hope, then we wait with patience for its accompHsh- 
 ment. If our hope is weak, then our faith is weak, and we have 
 no firm hold on the glorious future. 
 
 26. "Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities (or infir- 
 mity) : for we know not," &c. Here is another source of consola- 
 tion and good hope ; for the Christian, owing to the conflict within 
 him, is sometimes distracted with the sense of his utter weakness ; 
 he cannot even pray as he ought, so ignorant is he of what is realty 
 
 N 
 
178 THE SPIRIT INTERCEDING. [Romans. 
 
 p Matt. XX. vy^Q know not wliat we should pray for as we 
 
 22. Jam. iv. ^ »' 
 
 3- ought: but '^ the Spirit itself maketh intercession 
 
 Eph. vi. is! ' for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. 
 xxVui!^9.°' Ps. 27 And "■ he that searcheth the hearts knoweth 
 
 xvii^3. ^Jer.' what is the mind of the Spirit, || because he maketh 
 
 10 ^&'xx.^iT' intercession for the saints ® according to the vnll of 
 
 Acts i. 24. 1 rt^A 
 Thes. ii. 4. ^^^• 
 
 Rev. ii. 23. 
 
 B Or, that. 
 
 s 1 John V. 14. 
 
 necessary for him ; and so God, Who has given him an Intercessor 
 in heaven at His right hand, in the Person of His Son, now gives 
 him an Intercessor within him, in the Person of the Holy Spirit. 
 This Spirit helps him in this his utter weakness. The Holy Ghost 
 leads him to desire things, or, rather, to feel desires which he 
 cannot put in words. He can only express them by inarticulate 
 sighs and moans, but, so far from this weakness of expression 
 being displeasing to His heavenly Father, it is acceptable to Him. 
 He discerns in these inarticulate longings the voice of His Spirit 
 Who has inspired the man with these fervent desires, which, to use a 
 common expression, are too big for utterance. The man knows not 
 what he means in these sighings, but God does. He sees in them 
 the work of His own Spirit, Who has so enlarged the man's desires 
 that his tongue cannot find means to utter them intelligibly. 
 
 "He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the 
 Spirit." God looking into our hearts distinguishes between what 
 is our own and what is the work of His Spirit. Our fellow-crea- 
 tures, if they could read our hearts, would ascribe this venting of 
 desires in sighs, this want of ability to express ourselves in words, 
 to our weakness, whereas God discerns in it the presence and 
 working of the Spirit, and answers it because, as the Apostle goes 
 on to say, the intercession is according to the will of God. 
 
 This whole passage is very conclusive as regards the doctrine of 
 the true personality of the Holy Spirit. He is distinguished from 
 Him Who knows what His, the Spirit's, Mind is, and He is dis- 
 tinguished from the human spirit which He assists and intercedes 
 in as a greater Spirit dwelling in and instructing the lesser — the 
 Divine in the human. 
 
 We have also here the love of the Spirit. He intercedes in us 
 and for us. He is often grieved, and resisted, and some even desire to 
 
Chap. VIII.] PREDESTINATION. 179 
 
 quench Him ; but, notwithstanding these provocations, He con- 
 tinues in us, helping our infirmities, exciting our languid affections, 
 convincing, reproving, comforting, and at the last will be the 
 Divine Agent in accomplishing that for which above all else He makes 
 us long — even the redemption of our bodies. 
 
 28. " And we know that all things work together for good to 
 them," &c. This is a third and last reason for consolation and 
 good hope for true Christians. The witness of the Spirit within 
 them, the groans for deliverance in which all creation joins, the ever 
 animating hopes, are all tokens that they are true children, of 
 God. 
 
 And now there is another and further consideration by which 
 they may take abundant comfort, which is no other than this, 
 that their salvation, in all its various stages, is not a thing of 
 chance, but a matter of God's pre-determination and pre-ordination. 
 This and the following verses are an application to the Roman 
 Christians of the words of St. James: "Known unto God are all 
 his works from the beginning of the world " (Acts xv. 18), and of 
 St. Paul's words to the Philippians, " Being confident of this very 
 thing, that he who hath begun a good work in you will per- 
 form it until the day of Jesus Christ " (Phil. i. 6). 
 
 These words (verses 28, 29, 30, 31) are no doubt predestinarian 
 words, and if we deprive them of their predestinarian meaning we 
 deprive them of all the comfort which God Who inspired them de- 
 signed holy souls to receive from frhem. They have been miserably, 
 indeed, one may say, wickedly perverted, but they are in accor- 
 dance with Catholic truth, and the greatest doctors of the Church — 
 Augustine, Bernard, Anselm, Thomas Aquinas — have used them m 
 setting forth the security of true Christians, and the comfort and 
 joy which such ought to have from the sense of that security. 
 
 I desire, then, that the reader should understand that in what I 
 am writing I desire not for a moment to deny that they must be 
 understood in their natural sense — that God designs salvation for 
 certain persons whose marks are here described, and that, if I show 
 the limitations under which this truth is to be understood, it is to 
 make the truth itself more certain, which is imperilled if it is built 
 on a basis which is partially insecure. 
 
 Before examining the verses word by word, two or three ob- 
 servations will be necessary. 
 
 First then, the Apostle in what he writes has not the least 
 
180 THE OLD TESTAMENT. [Romans. 
 
 intention of dividing the Church of Eome, to which he writes, into 
 two classes — the elect, and the non-elect. On the contrary, he 
 assumes the election of all of them ; for his Epistle is written to 
 "all that be in Eome, beloved of God, called to be saints," and he 
 assumes also that they, as a body, are in a fit state to receive his 
 benediction of grace and peace from God the Father, and the Lord 
 Jesus Christ. If it be answered that this might be dangerous to 
 some Christians of Eome who might presume upon this election 
 when they had no grounds for so doing, we answer, that there are 
 two dangers connected with this matter : 1. To consider election 
 certain when it is not, and 2. To doubt about it, or disbelieve it, 
 or ignore it when it is certain. 
 
 Then, in the next place, we are to remember that the doctrine 
 of Predestination was in no respect a pecuharity of the teaching of 
 St. Paul. It was held by his brother Apostle, St. Peter, as abso-^ 
 lutely as he held it, if we are to judge from the teaching of hia 
 first Epistle, where he speaks of Christians as " elect according 
 to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of 
 the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus 
 Christ " (1 Peter i. 2) ; and he further carries it out in the inference 
 that such elect ones are " kept by the power of God unto salvation " 
 (verse 5). But in saying that Predestination or Election was in no 
 respect distinctively Pauline, I mean that it was a Jewish doctrine 
 derived from the Old Testament, in which, in one shape or another, 
 it occupies a most prominent position both in the Law, properly 
 called, and in the prophets. First of all God chose certainrpefsons 
 before they became nations, and in order that they might become 
 nations ; then in the elect famihes He chose certain children, and 
 passed by others — in the case of Ishmael and Isaac, and then of Esau 
 and Jacob, passing by the elder and selecting the younger. Then 
 Election and Predestination is the theme of the whole latter part 
 of the prophecy of Isaiah. According to his prophecy it extends 
 to the heathen as well as to the Election proper. Cyrus is elected as 
 absolutely as Josiah or Jeremiah, though of course not for the same 
 purpose. I do not, of course, mean that the election of the Old 
 Testament is the same as that of the New : the election of the New 
 is spiritual and not national, though the election of Israel after 
 the flesh was for high moral and spiritual purposes ; but the essen- 
 tial feature was the same, in that God chose or elected men to 
 fulfil His purpose before they came into existence. 
 
Chap. VIIL] THEM THAT LOVE GOD. ] 81 
 
 28 And we know that all things work together for good to 
 them that love G-od, to them * who are the called * ch. ix. 11.23, 
 according to his purpose. i. 9. 
 
 28. " We know that all things work together for good to them," &c. So H, C, D., F., 
 G,, K., L., P., all Cursives, Vulg., Syriac, Copt., Arm.; but A., B., add, "God," "We 
 know that God worketh all things with them for good." 
 
 A third point is, why did St. Paul bring in here the doctrines, 
 and use the Predestinarian terms? Evidently to vindicate the 
 right of all those in Kome who loved God and were members 01 
 His Church, to the comfort of the doctrine. He must have had in 
 his mind that a large number of his co-religionists would absolutely 
 deny to any Eoman Christian, no matter what his love to God, 
 any part in God's Election, just as they would deny that he was 
 justified unless he was circumcised and kept the law : here, then, 
 the Apostle claims for true Christians the true and spiritual 
 Election, just as he claims for the same Christians that they only 
 who are justified by faith are the truly justified. 
 
 28. " And we know that all things work together for good," &c. 
 Some of these " all " things are enumerated in verse 35 : " Tribu- 
 lation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, the sword." 
 
 "Work together for good," i.e., for their ultimate good, their 
 eternal well-being. 
 
 " To them that love God, to them who are the called accord- 
 ing to his purpose." " To them that love God." Let the reader 
 particularly notice that all things work together for good, not to 
 those who believe, but to those whose belief works by love, -i.e., to 
 those whose faith is effectual for the purpose for which God gave it 
 to them. 
 
 This is to be particularly borne in mind. There may be a mis- 
 take about faith, and too often there is ; there may be often a 
 difficulty about distinguishing between a notional, or an historic, 
 and a deep-seated and genuine faith ; but there can be no mistake 
 about love — the love of God — if we attend to the marks of it, for 
 it never is used to signify a mere emotion, but always an obediential 
 reahty. 
 
 '• To them who are the called according to his purpose " (or, 
 according to purpose). Those who love God are not merely seekers 
 after God who have not yet found Him, but they are those who, by 
 the preaching of the word, have had the Father presented to them 
 
182 WHOM HE DID FOREKNOW. [Romans. 
 
 « seeExod 29 For whom ""he did foreknow, *he also did 
 
 XXXlll . i^f x7* 
 
 Ps. i. 6. Jer. 
 
 i.6. Matt. 
 
 2"* 2^Tim^'ii^' as the Father of Jesus Christ, and, because they have 
 19. 1 Pet. seen His love to lost mankind in His Son, have had 
 « Ephes. i. 5, their hearts attracted to Him, and have begun to love 
 "• Him. 
 
 Now this calling was not, as a rule, at least, a secret calling 
 alone, but it was an outward calling, through the ministers of the 
 word, i.e., through human agents who preached the Gospel, and 
 baptized into the Church, for the calling was not a calling to indi- 
 vidual religion only, but into a fellowship, according to the words 
 of the Apostle, " God is faithful, by whom ye were called to the 
 fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord " (1 Cor. i. 9 ; Ephes. 
 iv. 1-4). 
 
 *' According to his purpose." What is this purpose ? It seems 
 to mean design or determination. The key to the meaning of it is 
 to be found in Ephes. iii. 11, " According to the eternal purpose 
 which he pui'posed in Christ Jesus." But what was this purpose — 
 I mean the one alluded to in this latter passage ? The Apostle tells 
 us in the verse before, " To make all men see what is the fellowship 
 (or dispensation) of the mystery, which from the beginning of the 
 world hath been had in God who created all things ... to the 
 intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly 
 places might be known, by the Church, the manifold wisdom of 
 God." 
 
 The idea, then, seems to be this: God had a design in con- 
 atituting the Chm'ch of Christ, and that was, to make known 
 throughout the universe His manifold wisdom ; but to this end 
 those gathered into the Church must be calculated to forward this 
 design (which in its integrity is known only to God). The persons 
 in the Roman and other Churches who were brought into the Body 
 of Christ, did not drop in, as it were, haphazard, but all were 
 chosen with a view of their fulfilling their place in the Church. AU 
 this is clearly indicated in 1 Cor. xii. 11-31. If, then, the Church 
 of God was to answer God's all-wise pm-pose, the members of it 
 must be chosen " according to his purpose ; " and the Apostle here 
 declares that they were so chosen, and so, in strict logical sequence, 
 he proceeds — 
 
 29. " For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be 
 conformed," &c. Some commentators explain this as meaning 
 
Chap. VUL] THE IMAGE OF HIS SON. 183 
 
 predestinate ^ to he conformed to the image of his ^ John xvii. 
 
 ° 22. 2Cor. iii. 
 
 18. Phil. iii. 
 
 21. 1 John 
 
 iii. 2. 
 
 ** whom He did foreknow would be conformed to the image of His 
 Son, them He did predestinate to be so conformed ; " but this can- 
 not be. It would be a sort of truism, it would be inconsistent with 
 the gravity of the passage. It would make the will of God in 
 predestinating to depend upon something which, though good, was 
 independent of God. It seems rather to mean — those whom God fore- 
 knew would answer His high purpose, those He predetermined to 
 advance another stage in the direction of the accomplishment of 
 His purpose ; and this was that He predetermined that they 
 should not serve His purpose in heathenism, or in unbelieving 
 Judaism, but in true spiritual Christianity — in union with His 
 Church under its Head, and under the guidance of His Spirit. 
 For in such an age as the first age, many might ask, " Why cannot 
 I serve God by remaining as I am, by more or less secretly believ- 
 ing and acting on my fellow-men, apart from the Elect Body ? " 
 " No," the Apostle says, " you cannot. Those whom God fore- 
 knows as fit to fulfil His designs, He predetermines that they 
 should be conformed to the image of His Son." This does not 
 merely mean that they should be like His Son in character, but it 
 also means that they should be in a measure conformed to His 
 Son's example in openly opposing the world, and enduring its 
 contempt, enmity, and persecutions. And there is a further mean- 
 ing. The Apostle in writing this cannot have shut out from his 
 mind the sort of , conformity to Christ's Death and Eesurrection 
 which he had insisted on so strongly such a short time before, 
 that they should die and be buried, and be raised again in the 
 image of His Death, Burial, and Eesui-rection. 
 
 " The image of his Son." There would have been nothing like 
 the deep-rooted dislike which many religious persons have exhi- 
 bited towards the doctrine of Predestination, however stated, if it 
 had been borne in mind that the image, to which we are predesti- 
 nated to be conformed, is the image of Christ — of the Son of God — 
 of the meek, lowly, loving, sympathizing, patient Son of God. On 
 the contrary, the characters of those who have at and since the 
 Eeformation, most uncompromisingly set forth the doctrine of 
 God's decrees, have been, as a rule, of the most repulsive and un- 
 charitable type that a Christian can possibly have, and yet be 
 
184 HE MIGHT BE THE FIRST-BORN. [Romans. 
 
 2 Col. i. 15, Son, * that "he miffht be tlie firstborn among many 
 
 18. Hebr. i. , ' ^ ^ J 
 
 6. Rev. i. 5. brethren. 
 
 30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also 
 
 entitled to the name of Christian, and so such men have been 
 morally unable to set forth the character of Christ as portrayed 
 in the Gospels. / 
 
 " That he might be the firstborn 2kV[iojpt^iii2i.-n.y brethren." Who 
 are Christ's brethren ? Many apsWers may be given. They who 
 are sanctified : " Both he -^lat^anctifieth, and they who are sancti- 
 fied are all of one, for ^^hich cause he is not ashamed to call them 
 brethren." Then they who do the will of God : "Who is my mother ? 
 and who are my brethren ? And he stretched forth his hand toward 
 his disciples, and said, Behold my mother, and my brethren. For 
 whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the 
 same is my brother, and sister, and mother " (Matth. xii. 48-50). 
 
 But, no doubt, this "many brethren" denotes that they should 
 be all one family, one Church, united in upholding the honour, and 
 following the leadership of the great Elder Brother. 
 
 30. " Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called." 
 " Them he also called," that is, as I said, not by a call in their 
 secret chambers, or in the recesses of their hearts only, but by an 
 outward, audible call, in which Christ spoke through ministers, or 
 prophets, or evangelists, and accompanied the words of His 
 minister with a power exercised upon their wills, so that they 
 accepted the Lord as the Son of God, and surrendered themselves 
 to Him, so as to be enrolled in His Church, and be made members 
 of His Body. 
 
 If it be objected that I ought not to insist on this latter, as in- 
 volved in the calling, I answer, it is so insisted on by the Apostle 
 himself when he writes to the Ephesian Christians, " I beseech you, 
 that ye walk worthy of the calling wherewith ye are called, with all 
 lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering . . . endeavouring to 
 keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one 
 body and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your 
 calling, one Lord, one faith, one Baptism," &c. (Ephes. iv. 1-5.) 
 The calhng was not a calhng to a place in some infinitely distant 
 heaven when they died, but to a place in Christ's mystical Body 
 on earth whilst they Hved. 
 
 Those, then, whom God predestinated He called, that they might 
 
Chap. VIII.] CALLED, JUSTIFIED, GLORIFIED. 185 
 
 * called : and whom lie called, them he also » ch. i. 6. & 
 
 ix. 24. EphtfS. 
 
 ** justified: and whom he justified, them he also jv. 4. Hebr. 
 
 • glorified. u. 9. 
 
 b 1 Cor. yi. 11. 
 c John XA-ii. 
 22. Epbes. 
 ii. 6. 
 
 hear/ might obey the calling, and belong to that mysterious fel- 
 lowship through, and by means of which, the wisdom of God 
 might be further revealed to the various ranks of angels (Ephes, 
 iii. 10). 
 
 " And whom he called, them he also justified." " By granting to 
 them, on their so believing as to obey the call. Justification of Life. 
 The most mysterious of all God's gifts in this world was on their be- 
 lieving bestowed on them, that they should partake oftheKesurrec- 
 tion Life of the Lord, so that they might not only be pardoned, but 
 endowed with a new gift of power — even the Lord's Life — to do 
 the will of God. This was bestowed upon them when they were 
 grafted unto Christ — when by Baptism they put on Christ, when as 
 members of the mystical Body they were sanctified and cleansed 
 with the washing of water by the Word, and when they were saved 
 by the bath of Kegeneration and Eenewing of the Holy Ghost." 
 
 "And whom he justified, them he also glorified." There is very 
 considerable doubt respecting the meaning of this " glorified." By 
 some (Chrysostom, Theodoret, &c.), it is held to be a present bless- 
 ing or glory, and this agrees with the fact that the rest of the 
 stages of salvation are aU in past time — He foreknew. He predes- 
 tinated. He called. He justified. Why then, it is asked, should " He 
 glorified," refer to the future, if an adequate sense of "glorify" 
 can belong to the present state of things ? It so happens, though 
 this may be accidental, that the Greek word So^dZdv is never ap- 
 plied to what takes place in Christians, either at death or at the 
 last day. There can be no doubt that the gift of the Spirit, and 
 the consequent adoption and conformity to the mind of God and 
 the image of Christ, is a glory taking place now, which is con- 
 
 1 It is not sufficiently considered that the calling which reached the outward ear 
 depended upon the foreknowledge and predestination of God. Thus, in one chapter of 
 the Acts, we read that God ordained, and, therefore, had predestinated, that two large 
 and important provinces of the Roman world, Asia and Bithynia, should not at that time 
 hare the Gospel preached unto them : in other words, that the inhabitants of these pro- 
 vinces should not tken be called, justified, and glorified (Acts xvi. 6, 7). 
 
186 THE GLORY OF ADOPTION. [Romans. 
 
 stantly referred to by St. Paul, particularly in 2 Cor. iii., where it 
 is said that the ministration of the Spirit, compared to that of 
 Moses, is so much more glorious, that " the ministration of righteous- 
 ness exceeds in glory" — that "that which remaineth," i.e., the 
 present dispensation of the Spirit, is " in glory," and finally, *' we 
 all," i.e. J all who continue partakers of the Spirit, are changed from 
 glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord. Our Lord undoubtedly 
 refers to the sonship which He had conferred upon the Apostles, 
 and not to their final beatification, when He says, '* The glory that 
 thou gavest me I have given them " (John xvii. 22).' 
 
 Again, Ephes. i. 18 and ii. 6, and Coloss. i. 11, *' the glory of his 
 power," and again, verse 27, " the riches of the glory of this 
 mystery," all refer to present glory put upon the Church. And 
 again, the reader will remember how Our Lord is said to have been 
 raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, meaning, no doubt, 
 by the Spirit of the Father. These considerations make it exceed- 
 ingly probable (I think certain) that Chrysostom and Theodoret are 
 right when the first interprets it by " He glorified them by the 
 gift," i.e., by the adoption; and the latter by "those whom He 
 justified He glorified, calhng them sons, and giving them the grace 
 of the Holy Spirit." 
 
 "We will now endeavour to put into other words the Apostle's 
 argument. The tribulations which you endure from without, and 
 the conflict you feel within you between the flesh and the Spirit, at 
 times cast you down, and make you tempted to think that God 
 has no regard for you ; but it is not so ; for how is it that you 
 love God ? It is most assuredly not of yourselves, for first of all 
 you must have been called to the knowledge of Himself and faith 
 in Him. If anything in the world takes place through the provi- 
 dence of God, it is the proclamation of the Gospel to you from 
 without, and the power to accept it working within. And this 
 calhrig was followed by your regeneration — you were made new 
 creatures in Christ, the old things of your heathen state, your 
 heathen misbeliefs, your dim and uncertain knowledge of the future, 
 passed away, and all things became new ; above all, you were 
 gifted with a new power against sin. And you were called to no 
 common fellowship, but to the foUowship of His own Son. That 
 Son was called to suffering. He endured the cross, despising the 
 
 1 This, with Ephes. ii. 6, are the only places referred to in the old marginal references 
 in oar Bibles.. 
 
Chap. VIII.] GOD FOR US, WHO AGAINST US? 187 
 
 31 What shall we then say to these things ? *^ tf Grod he 
 for us, who can he against ns ? ^ Num. xiv. 
 
 ^ 9. Ps. exviii. 
 
 32 ® He that spared not his own Son, but ^ de- 
 ?-ered him up for us all, how si 
 him also freely give us all things 
 
 livered him up for us all, how shall he not with 1 1^' .^' ^^ 
 
 shame, and your partaking of the same sufferings as He did, 
 because of His witness for God, stamps you as one of His many 
 brethren. If God, then, has any plan, any foreseen and fore-ordained 
 plan, in the sending of His Son amongst us, and the foundation 
 and continuance of the Church of that Son which is His Body and 
 His Bride, you are part of that plan. As all things work together 
 for the good of the Church of Christ, as all the providential dispen- 
 sations of this world are shaped with a view to its final beatifica- 
 tion, so all things, no matter how seemingly contrary, work together 
 for your good. 
 
 Some further necessary remarks I shall make at the end of the 
 chapter. 
 
 31. " What shall we then say to these things ? If God be for 
 us, who," &c. "What shall we say? " he asks, and the answer is, 
 "If God be for us, who can be against us?" The reader will 
 notice here, and, indeed to the end of this chapter, that the Apostle 
 never contemplates danger from within, from the remainder of sin, 
 but only from without. He assumes that, no matter how the world 
 rages and persecutes, the spirit cleaveth steadfastly unto God. 
 " The Lord is on my side, I will not fear what man doeth imto 
 me." 
 
 32. " He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for 
 us all, how," &c. Here the Apostle leaves the particular calling, 
 and election, and predestination, and falls back on that which is at 
 once the root and the crowning mercy of all. " For reflect what 
 goodness it is not to spare even His own Son, but to give Him up, 
 and to give Him up for all, and those worthless and unfeeling, 
 and enemies, and blasphemers. If He gave His own Son, and 
 not merely gave Him, but gave Him to death, why doubt any 
 more about the rest, since thou hast the Master ? Why be dubious 
 about the chattels when thou hast the Lord ? For He that gave 
 the greater things to His enemies, how shall He do else than give 
 the lesser things to his friends ? " (Chrysostom.) "And that person 
 
188 GOD THAT JUSTIFIETH. [Romans. 
 
 33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of G-od's elect ? 
 g isai. 1. 8. 9. s ji {g Q.Q(j that lustifieth. 
 
 Rev. xii. 10, ** 
 
 11. 
 
 33. The marginal reading of the Revisers is, " Who shall lay anything to the charge of 
 God's elect ? Shall God, that justifieth? Who is he that shall oondemn? Shall Christ 
 that died, yea rather, that was raised from the dead," &c. 
 
 fears nothing from the world, and hopes for everything from God, 
 who understands, esteems, and cultivates as he ought this unspeak- 
 able gift of God." (Quesnel.) Philippi, with very good reason, 
 sees a reference to Abraham not sparing Isaac. God there says to 
 him, ovK e(i>tiaiD Tov vlov aov rov dyaTrrjTov, " Thou hast not spared 
 (withheld) thy son, thy beloved son." This correspondence can 
 scarcely be deemed accidental. Bather is it in the highest degree 
 probable that a reference to the passage in Genesis is to be sup- 
 posed ; God Himself has done what, in Abraham's typical act. He 
 declared to be the highest proof of love. 
 
 33. " Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect ? It 
 is God that justifieth." The elect — those, that is, who love God — 
 are here supposed to be brought before the tribunal, and accu- 
 sations are called for, just as it happened in the case of their 
 Master ; but of what worth are such, or any accusations, since God 
 has justified them, that is, has pardoned them, and given them a 
 new life, whereby they live to Him by an holiness surpassing any- 
 thing that has ever been seen before in this world ? Who are sup- 
 posed to be the accusers ? If it is Satan, then God will answer, 
 " I have justified them against you. Their transgressions were 
 against me, not against you, and I have seen fit to pardon them, 
 and to work in them, at their own desire, that holiness which you 
 have lost. A. place of repentance and restoration has been found 
 for them, and they have availed themselves of it." 
 
 Does the law — do the Jews accuse them ? The answer is, they 
 have the true circumcision, the all-availing Blood of Atonement, 
 and the law written in the heart. 
 
 Do the heathen accuse them as being atheists, and neglecters 
 of the gods ? The answer is, they neglect gods that are no gods, 
 and worship Him Who liveth for ever and ever. 
 
 Do their consciences accuse them of past sins ? The answer is, 
 they have a Blood which was shed for the remission of sins that 
 are past, and which now purges their consciences from dead works 
 to serve the living God. 
 
Chap. VIII.] CHRIST THAT DIED. 189 
 
 34 ^ Wlio is he that condemneth ? It is Christ ^ Job xxxiv. 
 
 29. 
 
 that died, yea rather, that is risen again, ' who is i Mark xyi. 
 even at the right hand of God, ^ who also maketh Hebr. i * 3. & ' 
 
 . , . ^ viii. 1. & xii. 
 
 intercession tor ns. 2. 1 Pet. lii. 
 
 35 Who shall separate us from the love of 
 
 22. 
 
 k Hebr. vii. 
 25. & ix. 24. 
 1 Jehu ii. 1. 
 
 34. "It is Christ that died." So B., D., E., K., most Cursives, d, e, Syriae ; but H, 
 A., C, F., G., L., 5, 17, 31, 33, 67**, 73, 80, f, g, Vulg., Copt., Arm., ^th., read, " Christ 
 Jesus." 
 
 34. "Risen again." So B., D., E., F., G., K., L., most Cursives; but ti, A., C, 17, 
 81, 39, 73, 115, Cop,, ^th., add, " from the dead." 
 
 84. " Even " (mi). Omitted by S, A., C. ; retained by B., D., E., F., G., K., L., most 
 Cursives, e, f, g, Vulg. (Cod. Amiat.), &c. 
 
 35. " From the love of Christ." So A., C, D., E., F., G., K., L., most Cursives, d, e, 
 f, g, Vulg., Goth., Syriae, Cop., Arm., .■Eth. ; but H, B, 7, 74, 76, 91, 123, 238, &c., read, 
 "of God." 
 
 34. " Who is he that condemneth ? " No human tribunal, no 
 earthly judge can condemn. All judgment is committed to the 
 Son. And He died to save them from being condemned for sins 
 which they repent of. Nay, rather, He is risen again to exhibit to 
 all the efficacy of His Death, and to endow them with a new Hfe, 
 I.e., a new power against sin and for God. 
 
 " Who is even at the right hand of God " as Head of that mystical 
 Body of which He has made them members. " Who also maketh 
 intercession." In heaven He appears as the Lamb standing as 
 slain, to plead on our belhalf the efficacy of His sacrifice. 
 
 An alteration has been suggested in the punctuation, making the 
 second clauses questions. Who shall lay anything to the charge 
 of God's elect ? Is it God that justifieth ? Can He at once justify 
 and accuse ? Who is he that condemneth ? Is it Christ that died 
 and rose again ? Can He at the same time condemn and inter- 
 cede ? But the sense is, as far as I can see, not altered. 
 
 35. " Who shall separate us from the love of Christ ? shall tribu- 
 lation," &c. It is singular that there should have been two opinions 
 respecting the import of this question. It seems to mean, "Can 
 any thing whatsoever which happens to us in this world diminish 
 Christ's love to us, much less destroy it ? " It has been urged that 
 such a question is futile. Who would ever imagine that any suffer- 
 ing which we endure should ever prevent Christ's love from reach- 
 ing us and resting on us ? To this we answer that in times of 
 
190 WHO SHALL SEPARATE US ? [Romans. 
 
 Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or 
 
 famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword ? 
 
 1 Ps. xiir. 22. 36 As it is written, ' For thy sake we are killed 
 
 1 Cor. XV. 30, „ , , , *^ , T , „ 
 
 31. 2 Cor. all the day long ; we are accounted as sheep for 
 the slaughter. 
 
 persecution with us, who have within ourselves such a strange mix- 
 ture of belief and unbeUef, nothing is more common than to think, 
 and even to exclaim, that we are deserted, or cast off, by God, which 
 is the same as saying that we are separated from the love of Christ, 
 Who is our Intercessor with God. The other meaning given is, 
 '* What shall diminish or destroy our love to Christ ? " but the 
 Apostle all through the chapter is dwelling upon God's love to us, 
 God's hold upon us, God's constancy to us, so that the first meaning 
 seems on all accounts preferable. 
 
 " Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine," &c. 
 All these are tribulations from without, and some of them, as perse- 
 cution, would come upon Christians, owing to their open profession 
 of the faith of Christ. It is to be remembered that the law of 
 Moses promised freedom from distress and abundant temporal 
 blessings as the reward of serving God faithfully, and the heathen 
 converts had been brought up in the belief that such things as dis- 
 tress, famine, and the sword, were undoubted signs of the anger of 
 the gods against those who had displeased them. In the case of 
 Christians in the Apostohc and following ages, the whole signi- 
 ficance of God's dealings was reversed. The key to all is in such 
 passages as, " If we suffer we shall also reign with him," " What 
 son is he whom the father chasteneth not ? " (2 Tim. ii. 12 ; Heb. 
 xii. 7). 
 
 36. "As it is written. For thy sake we are killed all the day 
 long." The Apostle quotes this as showing that even in the times 
 of the old dispensation the people of God were hated and per- 
 secuted. He quotes it, however, as simply proving the fact, for the 
 tone of the Psalm is one of remonstrance — the people of God had 
 faithfully adhered to Him, and why, then, did He allow them to be 
 trampled on ? — showing that in times of persecution we may pray 
 to God for the removal of the present distress and the triumph of 
 His Church. 
 
 37. " Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors," &c. 
 
Chap. VIII.] MORE THAN CONQUERORS. 191 
 
 37 ""Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors 
 through him that loved us. "" i Cor. xv. 
 
 '=' 1 . 1 T 1 57. 2 Cor. 11. 
 
 38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor u. i John 
 
 ^ . . ,. . iv. 4. &V.4, 5. 
 
 life, nor angels, nor '^ prmcipahties, nor powers. Rev. xii. ii. 
 nor things present, nor things to come, & vu'i^'^Coi'. 
 
 i. 16. & ii. 15. 
 iPet. iii. 22. 
 
 38. " Nor powers." S, A., B., C, D., E., F., G., 37, 47, 73, 137, 179, d, e, f, g, Vnlg. 
 (Amiat.), Copt., place this after " things to come ; " but K., L., and most Cursives retain 
 it in its place in the Authorized after " principalities." 
 
 Alford translates this, "we are far the conquerors." " The wrath 
 and ijersecutions of our adversaries only add to the brightness of 
 our crown. This was a new rule of victory for men to prevail by 
 their adversaries, and in no instance to be overcome, but to go 
 forth in their struggles, as if they themselves had the issue in their 
 own hands." — Chrysostom. 
 
 38, 39. " For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor 
 angels, .... the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." 
 It seems absurd, as some do, to take to pieces this sublime passage. 
 It simply means that nothing in God's universe can separate us 
 from the love of Him Who created that universe, if He has seen fit 
 to set His love upon us. 
 
 "Death nor life." The mention of death seems to mean that 
 God will see to it that through no pains of death shall we fall from 
 Him. " Though I walk through the valley of the shadow, I will 
 fear no evil, for thou art with me." Life seems to mean the perils, 
 the vicissitudes, the " changes and chances of this mortal life." 
 The interpretation given by Grotius, after Jerome, " neither the 
 fear of death nor the hope of life " is, according to Philippi, a 
 correct paraphrase of the sense ; but I think the former is pre- 
 ferable. 
 
 " Nor angels nor principaUties." It has been asked whether 
 this means good or evil angels ; good angels would not endeavour 
 to separate us from the love of God, and it is said that evil spirits 
 are never called angels by St. Paul ; but this seems to be said in 
 forgetfulness of 1 Corinth, vi. 3 : " Know ye not that we shall judge 
 angels ? " and it cannot be supposed that we shall judge the elect 
 angels. But it is the power, not the character of angelic beings to 
 which St. Paul refers here. If it could be supposed for a moment 
 that they should desire to pluck us out of the hand of God, the 
 
192 NOR ANY OTHER CREATURE. [Romans. 
 
 39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall he 
 able to separate ns from the love of Grod, which is in Christ 
 Jesus our Lord. 
 
 united force of all the armies of heaven or of hell would not be able 
 to do so. 
 
 " Nor things present, nor things to come." Nothing in time 
 present or futm-e. 
 
 " Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature (parallel to 
 Phil. ii. 10 : " Things in heaven, and things in earth, and things 
 under the earth,") shall be able to separate us from the love of God 
 which is in Christ Jesus." The significance is two-fold. It is the 
 love of God manifested in Christ, more particularly in giving Him 
 through His Incarnation and Death, and it is the love of God to 
 those whom He hath chosen in Christ. 
 
 And now let us review the teaching of this passage with respect 
 to that doctrine of election which has been most life amongst us, 
 viz., Calvinistic Election. I shall here take no notice of dogmatic 
 statements of Divines, and simply confine myself to the bearing of 
 the passage upon what is popularly held with reference to election 
 and predestination by those who hold these doctrines at all.^ It 
 may be fairly stated to be this, that when once a man has been 
 converted or saved, he is sure to be welcomed into heaven at last, 
 no matter what sins he may commit between the time of his con- 
 version and the moment of his death. K he falls, no matter how 
 grievously, he will certainly be restored before he is called to leave 
 this world. According to this, exactly the same number of those 
 who are foreknown by God are called, aU to a man who are called 
 are justified, and all who are justified will be glorified : the past 
 tense of the last being used to denote the absolute certainty — in His 
 eternal purpose He has glorified them as certainly as He has called 
 them and justified them. Now what we have at present to do with 
 is, not whether the passage logically involves all this, according to the 
 fashion with which we apply our logic to the oracles of God — that 
 is another question — but whether it was in the Apostohc mind. 
 
 1 The vast mass of those who make a show of using this high and holy doctrine in their 
 daily life, care nothing about the guarded statements and balancings and reservations of 
 the learned ; and at once take these passages as they wish to take them, as designed t© 
 Bave them all trouble and anxiety about their final sahation. 
 
CHAr. VIII.] SECURITY. 193 
 
 It most certainly was not, and for this reason, that in the 
 catalogue of the things which are supposed to be able to separate 
 us from the love of Christ, there is the most significant of all 
 omissions, that is, of the all-important word " sin," or what would be 
 equivalent, of the word "self." Now, it may be asked, is not fall- 
 ing away through sin and self covered by " neither death, nor 
 life," or " by things to come," or by " any other creature "? No, we 
 answer, and for two reasons : first, St. Paul would certainly never 
 call sin a KTicng, a creature, for by this word he invariably means a 
 creation of God ; and, secondly, that at the conclusion of this 
 argument respecting election, in chap. xi. 20-22, the Apostle 
 assumes that sin, or self yielding to sin, may nullify God's election, 
 and separate those who " stand by faith " from the goodness of God : 
 " Thou standest by faith. Be not high-minded, but fear. For if 
 God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare 
 not thee. Behold, therefore, the goodness and severity of God ; 
 on them which fell severity, but toward thee, goodness, if thou con- 
 tinue in his goodness : otherwise thou also shalt be cut off." The 
 reader will see that the Apostle, having up to this point spoken 
 generally, turns to the individual Christian, who stands by faith, 
 and who must therefore be a partaker not merely of outward call- 
 ing, but of inward grace, and speaks to him as to one having free 
 will, and warns him that God will have respect unto that free 
 will, without which any service of God, Who reads the hearts, must 
 be worthless. Now this part of chap, xi., which I have cited, is 
 part of the same context as the latter part of chap, viii., all having 
 to do with Predestination and Election. It proves this, beyond all 
 doubt, that the omission of the all-important words "sin" and "self" 
 ill the two lists, in verses 35, 38, and 39, is not accidental — not an 
 oversight — but intentional on the part of St. Paul, or of the Spirit 
 Who inspired him. But that place (xi. 20, 21, 22) is not alone in 
 the writings of St. Paul in its teaching of humble-mindedness and 
 constant fear of coming short of the Divine goodness ; one may say 
 it is but one of fifty, in which the danger of the tendencies of the 
 evil self — of the yet indwelling old man — is recognized. What is 
 to mo a far stronger passage than this on the side of Christian 
 security, is followed with the same wise and salutary caution. The 
 Apostle writes to the Philippians : " Being confident of this very 
 thing, that he who hath begun a good work in you, will perform it 
 untii ♦Jie day of Jesus Christ " (i. 6) ; but in the next chapter the 
 
 o 
 
194 FREE WILL. [Romans. 
 
 Apostle sees it necessary to assure them that the working of God 
 within them is a matter on no account to be trifled with : " Work 
 out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that 
 worketh in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure " (ii. 12, 
 13). It is a fearful gift is this free will — this liberty — and the best 
 Christians are often tempted to wish that they had it not, but it is 
 apparently one of the terms of our existence as intelligent creatures 
 fitted to serve God with a willing service. Godet has a very re- 
 markable passage bearing upon the certainty of ultimate salvation, 
 notwithstanding persecution and other incentives to fall away : '* It 
 will, perhaps, be asked, if a Christian has never been known to 
 deny his faith in suffering and persecution ? Yes, and it is not a 
 mathematical certainty which the Apostle wishes to state here. It 
 is a fact of the moral life which is in question, and in this life 
 liberty has always its part to play, as it had from the first moment 
 of faith. What Paul means is, that nothing will tear us from the 
 arms of Christ against our will, and so long as we shall not refuse 
 to abide in them ourselves." If the Calvinist refuses to accept any- 
 thing short of final perseverance assigned to him at the first, inde- 
 pendent of his own watchfulness and faithfulness, we can only re- 
 mind him that he cannot in reason expect that Christ will deal with 
 him more favourably than He did with His own Apostles, whose 
 future acceptance He made conditional when He said to them: '*If 
 ye continue in my word then are ye my disciples indeed " (John viii. 
 31) ; and when He said to them, " As my Father hath loved me, so 
 have I loved you ; continue ye in my love. If ye keep my com- 
 mandments ye shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my 
 Father's commandments, and abide in his love " (John xv. 9, 10). 
 If any soul says : " I know perfectly that no persecution, or dis- 
 tress, or tribulation shall separate me from the love of Christ. I 
 want something further." " Wait," the Apostle might answer, 
 '* in all probability you do not know it, or you would not speak so 
 self-confidently. Your life, compared to that of the Christians for 
 whose consolation I wrote what I have written in this Epistle, 
 has been comparatively easy, painless, untried; human government, 
 human law, human society, which have made your life so serene, 
 put them in danger of death for the sake of Christ every day of 
 their lives. If you had their experience, you might be thankful for 
 their consolations." 
 
Chap. IX.] INTRODUCTORY. 195 
 
 CHAPTERS IX..XI. 
 
 Though St. Paul in these chapters may be said to be discussing 
 the doctrines of Predestination and Election, it is upon very different 
 grounds to that on which he rested his arguments in the latter 
 verses of the preceding chapter. There he had before him the con- 
 solation and good hope of the Roman Christians in all their trials 
 and persecutions. If they loved God they were the called accord- 
 ing to His purpose — foreknown, predestinated, called, justified, 
 adopted to fulfil His gracious purposes in His Church. But now 
 he has to face the fact that God in predestinating and calling a 
 Church from among the Gentiles, was, apparently, changing His 
 purposes ; hitherto Israel, after the flesh, had been the election, as 
 Christ Himself had said, " I am not sent but to the lost sheep of 
 the house of Israel." But the exclusive privileges of Israel were to 
 exist no longer. God was now widening the basis, so to speak, of 
 His Election, so that the Gentiles, if they believed in and loved God, 
 were as much the chosen of God and heirs of His promises as the 
 Jews. Now this, in the Apostle's view of matters, required to be 
 proved. But there was another, and a far more fearful fact inti- 
 mately connected with the election of the Gentiles, and this was 
 the casting away of the Jews. It was not that the Gentiles were 
 elected into the Church along with the Jews, but that, if St. Paul's 
 teaching was true, that the Gentiles were elected in Christ — then 
 the Jews were forfeiting, or had already forfeited, their election as a 
 nation. The mass of them had rejected Christ, so that if, in future, 
 election was to be "in Christ," they were excluded from the ranks 
 of the people of God. The mistake which the Jews made, was the 
 natural but fatal one of supposing that God's election was absolute, 
 and so irreversible, that it had no respect to character or will, or 
 continuance in the favour of God — above aU that it was independent 
 of the acceptance or rejection of the Messiah, which Messiah was 
 God's only Son — God manifest in the flesh, God blessed for ever. 
 This was far worse than falling deeper and deeper into sin — for it 
 was rejecting the remedy against sin, it was rejecting the offer of 
 the Life of God to be imparted to them. It was rejecting the 
 highest conceivable manifestation of the love of God. 
 
 Again, there was another matter to which St. Paul constantly 
 
196 GKEAT HEAVINESS. [Romans. 
 
 refers, which is that God's election is not a mere matter of number 
 — nor, in fact, of absolute majorities or minorities. The great 
 majority might fall, but a minority, sometimes a small one, a 
 remnant, might be sufi&cient for His purposes. 
 
 Again, it is very remarkable, and we shall have to revert to this 
 again, that there is throughout the argument of these three chapters 
 the (one might almost say, studious) avoidance of any reference to 
 a future life, to any place in Heaven or Paradise, or in hell or 
 punishment. It is impossible to suppose that if St. Paul's view 
 respecting these high and inscrutable matters was what is com- 
 monly called Calvinistic, there should have been such an omission. 
 
 The above considerations the reader will find it necessary to 
 carry along with him in the examination of the meaning of these 
 chapters. 
 
 » ch. i. 9 
 Cor. i. 23 
 
 CHAP. IX. 
 
 * SAY the truth in Christ, I lie not, my con- 
 &'xi'. 3i7& X science also bearing; me witness in the Holy 
 
 xji. 19. Gal. ^, , "^ 
 
 i. 20. Phil. G-nost. 
 
 ii. 7. 2 ^ That I have great heaviness and continual 
 
 b eh. X. 1. sorrow in my heart. 
 
 I 
 
 1. "I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also 
 bearing me witness," &c. Why should the Apostle begin with 
 such strong asseverations respecting his love to his people ? Be- 
 cause his adversaries were constantly accusing him of enmity to 
 his countrymen and disregard of their position among the nations. 
 Thus, when they found him in the temple, they cried : " Men of 
 Israel, help, this is the man that teacheth all men everywhere 
 against the people and the law, and this jjlace " (Acts xxi. 28). 
 
 " In Christ." This is more than " as a Christian." It is as if 
 Ch ist — the truth — was the element in which the Apostle lived, and 
 thought, and spoke. 
 
 2. " That I have great heaviness, and continual sorrow in my 
 heart." What a world of conflicting emotions must there have been 
 
Chap. IX.] ACCURSED FOR MY BRETHREN. lo^^g 
 
 3 For *^I could wish that myself were || accursed from 
 Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to ^g^^- ^^'^"• 
 
 the flesh : ll Or, sepa- 
 
 4 ^ Who are Israelites; ''to whom pertaineth the a ceut. ^li. 6. 
 
 e Ex. iv, 22. 
 
 Deut. xiv. 1. 
 
 Jer. xxxi. 9. 
 
 in the breast of the Apostle — perpetually rejoicing in Christ, always 
 being made by God to triumph in Him, thanking God always, and 
 yet continually sorrowing for those out of Christ, particularly his 
 own countrymen, to whom he held that Christ especially belonged. 
 
 3. " For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ," 
 &c. Thus Moses intercedes for Israel in language exactly similar. 
 " Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sins, and if not, blot me, I 
 pray thee, out of thy book, which thou hast written." The 
 words of St. Paul are by many considered too strong, even ap- 
 proaching to impiety, and so many attempts have been made to 
 deprive them of their obvious meaning, but to no purpose. We 
 are to remember that St. Paul does not say deliberately " I wish," 
 or " I pray," but " I could wish — sometimes the thought of their 
 rejection so overwhelms me that I could wish to be separated from 
 Christ instead of them. If it be asked, does St. Paul offer himself 
 to endure eternal condemnation on their account ? we answer, as we 
 said at the commencement of this chapter, that eternal condemna- 
 tion is not once mentioned throughout this argument, and we have 
 no right to assume nothing short of it here. 
 
 " My brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh." The 
 deepest and most fervent Christianity does not, or is not intended, 
 to destroy the ties of natural affection. They are nothing to the 
 bands which unite us to Christ, but where they can be cherished 
 without disloyalty to Christ they must be. 
 
 4. " Who are Israelites ; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and 
 the glory." The word Israelite is compared with Jew — an honour- 
 able name. Thus our Lord says of Nathanael, " Behold an 
 Israelite indeed." St. Paul then most appropriately puts it as the 
 first designation of those whose privileges as the people of God he 
 was about to recount. It was also the name of election. '* Israel 
 mine elect " (Isaiah xlv. 4). 
 
 " To whom pertaineth the adoption." Thus God sent to Pharaoh 
 through Moses, " Israel is my son, my first-born," (Exod. iv. 22 
 and Jerem. xxxi. 9j, " I am a father to Israel," and Isaiah i. 2, ** I 
 
^ (5 ADOPTION, GLORY, COVENANTS. [Romans. 
 
 fisa. iv. 21. adoption, and ^the glory, and ^the || covenants, 
 Ps. ikiii. 2. * and ^ the giving of the law, and ' the service of 
 
 & Ixxviii. 61. -y , 1 k J.1 
 
 g Acts iii. 25. (^od, and " the promises ; 
 
 Heb. viii. 8, 
 
 », 10. 
 
 II Or, testa- 
 
 rF^s!cxlTii. Jl^^"^® nourished and brought up children." How is it 
 19. then that the true sonship seems to be restricted to 
 
 k A*t " xri^ those who beheve in Christ ? Perhaps the key may 
 32. ch. iii'. 2. be found in Gal. iii. 23, to iv. 5. " The Old Testa- 
 ^ * "* * ment shows us man at the beginning of his sonship, 
 but still under the servile tutorship of the Law — the New Testament 
 on the completeness of his sonship as one of full age." — PhiHppi. 
 
 " And the glory." This may mean the honour which God put 
 upon them by making them His people — His peculiar people — or it 
 may refer to the visible glory which was the symbol of the presence 
 of God Himself in their midst. This glory appeared to Moses, and 
 communicated itself, in a measure, to him, so that when he came 
 down from the mount his face shone. It appeared also to Isaiah 
 (vi.), and Ezekiel (i.), and was seen by the High Priest over the 
 ark when, on the great day of atonement, he went within the veil. 
 It was such a pledge of the peculiar presence of God that He was 
 called the God that dwelleth between the cherubims (Exod. xxv. 
 20-22). The glory was not the mere shining of a bright hght, but 
 the peculiar presence of God, of which it was the pledge. 
 
 **And the covenants." Why is it said "the covenants," in the 
 plural ? There was a continual renewal of the original covenant 
 with Abraham (Gen. xv. 18) in different forms, as when God gave 
 him circumcision (xvii. 13, 14), and renewed His covenant with the 
 whole house of Israel in blood (Exod. xxiv. 1-8). And may it not 
 be because the New Covenant promised in the times of the Messiah, 
 belonged first to the house of Israel and of Judah also ? ( Jerem. 
 xxxi. 31-34). 
 
 "And the giving of the law." The Apostle here, no doubt, 
 alludes not only to the contents of the law, but to the manner in 
 which God gave it. Never was the Supreme Being manifested 
 with such outward signs of pomp, and terror, and majesty. " Did 
 ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the 
 fire, as thou hast heard, and live ?" (Deut. iv. 33). 
 
 " And the service of God." It was an especial honour that God 
 put upon them that He prescribed their service in the tabernacle 
 
Chap. IX.] CHRIST, WHO IS OVER ALL. 199 
 
 5 ^ Whose are the fathers, and ™ of whom as » Dent. x. 15. 
 concerning the flesh Christ came, "^ who is over all, m Lnke ui. 23. 
 God blessed for ever. Amen. ch.i. 3. 
 
 n Jer. xxui. 6, 
 John i. 1. 
 
 , Acts XX. 28. 
 
 ■ Heb. i. 8. 
 
 1 John V. 20. 
 
 6. " Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever." The order of words should 
 rather be, " Christ came, who is God over all, blessed for ever." 'O wv sm iravrtov ©so,- being 
 a similar phrase to tt|v tou Qeov 5ixaio<ruv>)v, and ^ |x irirrsuK; Sncotto<r6vY\ of the next chapter, 
 verses 3 and 6. 
 
 The rendering, *' God be blessed for ever," severing the connection of the blessing from 
 Christ, is a distinctly Socinian gloss, defensible, as I ha^e shown below, on Socinian 
 grounds only. 
 
 and temple even to its minutest particulars. He showed Moses the 
 pattern of the tabernacle, and He raised up men specialty endowed 
 by His Spirit with wisdom to carry out His directions (Exod. xxxv. 
 30). He ordained the ministers and the ministry, the sacrifices, 
 the altar, the very vessels of Divine service. 
 
 "And the promises." Especially the promises of the Messiah, 
 which almost all belonged to the Jew, as in the 2nd Psalm, " I have 
 set my king upon my holy hill of Sion." The 110th, " The Lord shall 
 send the rod of thy power out of Sion." Isaiah ix., " Unto us a 
 child is bom ... of the increase of his government and peace there 
 shall be no end, upon the throne of David," and Jerem. xxiii., " I 
 will raise unto David a righteous branch. ... In his days Judah 
 shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely," &c. 
 
 " WTiose are the fathers." Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the fathers 
 of the twelve tribes, and Joseph and Benjamin. Even the holy men 
 of old whose descent was not reckoned from Abraham, such as Mel- 
 chizedec and Job, seem to belong to the chosen people rather than 
 to those without the pale. 
 
 *' And of whom as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over 
 all, God blessed for ever." The rendering of our Authorized is in 
 strict accordance with the original, and is required by the sense of 
 the passage. It is the natural translation, and so is rendered by 
 the Fathers, whose vernacular was Greek. Chrysostom, " After 
 taking all these things into consideration, and reflecting how ear- 
 nest God, along with His Son, had been for their salvation, he 
 lifts up his voice aloud, and says, Who is blessed for ever, Amen. 
 So himself ofi'ering thanksgi^dng for all men unto the only begot- 
 ten Son of God." Also Athanasius, " This too, in confutation of 
 
200 GOD BLESSED FOR EVER. [Romans. 
 
 the Jews hath Paul written in his Epistle to the Eomans (' Of whom 
 as concerning the flesh, Christ, Who is over all, God blessed for 
 ever.') " — "Discourses against the Arians" (Disc. i. ch. ii. sec. 2). 
 And Theodoret, "And indeed it was sufficient to declare the 
 Divinity of the Lord Christ, that he had added ' according to the 
 flesh.' But as in the exordium when he had said, * made of the 
 seed of David according to the flesh,' he subjoined, ' Who was pre- 
 destinated to be the Son of God with power,' so here when he had 
 said ' according to the flesh,' he added, * Who is over all God 
 blessed for ever,' both showing the difference of nature, and teach- 
 ing that he very rightly lamented that whilst He Who was God 
 over aU, had, according to the flesh, proceeded from amongst them, 
 they had fallen from such nobility and were estranged from that 
 relationship." 
 
 The Vulgate translation also, which was made when Greek was 
 a living language, gives, " Christ, according to the flesh, Who is 
 over all, God blessed for ever (Christus secundum carnem, qui est 
 super omnia Deus benedictus in ssecula. Amen.") And the Syriac, 
 " Christ, according to the flesh. Who is God above all. To Whom 
 are praises and blessings for ever and ever." 
 
 The sense of the whole passage also absolutely requires the usually 
 received translation. For St. Paul is recounting the privileges of 
 the Jews, the adoption, the glory, the giving of the law. Amongst 
 these, or, rather, as the last and crowning one, exceeding all, he 
 reckons the Messiah as born of the nation, and he uses the term 
 "according to the flesh." This " according to the flesh " requires, 
 as Theodoret has shown, a something according to the Spirit, or ac- 
 cording to the Divine Nature, to correspond to it, for their relation- 
 ship to the Messiah was no particular honour if He was only " as 
 one of the prophets," and so this " according to the flesh " requires 
 to complete the sense, something Hke " according to His higher 
 Nature, which Nature is that of ' God over all blessed for ever.' " 
 
 The objections to the ancient rendering are dogmatic on the side 
 of Socinianism. It is said, " Had St. Paul ever spoken of Christ as 
 God, he would many times have spoken of Him as such, not once 
 only, and that by accident " ( Jowett). Now St. Paul in so many 
 words speaks of Christ as God twice, once here, and once in Titus 
 ii. 13 : " Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of 
 the great God and Saviour of us, Jesus Christ," and this is exactly the 
 number of times that He is directly named God in St. John's 
 
Chap. IX.] NOT ALL ISRAEL. 201 
 
 6 ° Not as thougli the word of God hath taken none 
 effect. For ^they are not all Israel, which are ^a^""?- ''•^"l- 
 
 •^ ' 19. ch. 111. 3. 
 
 of Israel : P John viii. .39. 
 
 ch. ii. 28, 29. 
 
 & iv. 12, 16. 
 Gal, vi. 16. 
 
 Gospel, John i. 1, xx. 28, and yet St. John's Gospel has in all ages 
 of tlie Church been considered to have been written for the sake of 
 setting forth the highest conceivable view of the Person of Christ, 
 and of His relations to His Father and to the Universe. St. John's 
 Revelation of the Divine glory of Christ and St, Paul's are identical. 
 Both call Him by the name " God." Both call Him Lord, in the 
 highest Divine sense of the word as the reproduction of the Old 
 Testament word Lord. Both call Him the own Son {'idioc) of God, 
 John V. 18, Eom. viii. 3. Both alike ascribe to Christ the three 
 highest works of God — Creation, John i. 3, Coloss. i. 16 ; Salvation, 
 John iv. 42, God our Saviour, Christ our Saviour, Titus i. 3, 4 ; 
 iii. 4, 6 ; Universal Judgment, John v. 22, 23 ; Eom. ii. 3, 16 ; 
 2 Cor. V. 10. 
 
 Again, what in St. John's Gospel is stronger on the side of the 
 Divinity of Christ than " Who being in the form of God thought it 
 not robbery (or a thing to be tenaciously grasped or held fast), the 
 being equal with God" (Phil. ii. 6), or, "In him dwelleth all the 
 fulness of the Godhead bodily " (Coloss. ii. 9) ? 
 
 So that what St. Paul has here written, i'f we understand it as 
 giving Divine glory to Christ, is in perfect accordance with all the 
 rest of his Epistles.^ 
 
 6. " Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For 
 they are not," &c. " I have said that I lament with great heaviness 
 and continual sorrow, the defection of a nation on whom God has 
 bestowed such abundant honour. But because I thus lament, and 
 at times would have wished myself accursed if I could not save 
 them, you are not to suppose that I think that the purpose of God 
 has failed. You mistake the purpose of God altogether if you think 
 that it is His unalterable decree that all the fleshly seed of Abra- 
 ham, no matter what their conduct, should be His instruments for 
 carrying out His purpose." 
 
 " For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel." There is a 
 
 1 The reader will find at the end of this volume an Excursus respecting the Christology 
 of St. Paul. 
 
202 IN ISAAC. [Romans. 
 
 7 ^ Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are 
 q Gal. i%-, 23. they all children : but, In ^ Isaac shall thy seed 
 
 r Gen. xxi. 12. i * n -j 
 
 Heb. xi. 18. be caileu.. 
 
 8 That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these 
 
 spiritual Israel, a true Israel of God which alone answers to the 
 high purposes of God, and is the only Israel worthy of the name. 
 And there are intimations of this election within an election aU 
 through the history of the Old Testament, and so St. Paul says : — 
 
 " Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all 
 children," &c. When God made promises to Abraham, they were 
 to his seed ; but God narrowed this to his seed by Sarah, for when 
 Sarah saw that the Lord had restrained her from bearing, and 
 took her own way of impatience and want of faith, God did not 
 recognize the issue as the true seed to whom He had made the 
 promise, but deferred for some years the fulfilment of His word, 
 which, in some way not revealed to us, depended upon the faith of 
 Sarah as well as on that of Abraham (Hebrews xi. 11). So that 
 at the very outset certain spiritual, or quasi-spiritual, considera- 
 tions came in, which shut out half of Abraham's seed from the 
 election. 
 
 " In Isaac shall thy seed be called." That is, thy true seed shall 
 be accounted to be that of Isaac, not of Ishmael. It may be well to 
 direct attention here to the fact that this election of the seed of 
 Isaac and rejection of that of Ishmael had nothing whatsoever to 
 do with the eternal salvation of their descendants, for if God had 
 intended to shut out Ishmael from His eternal mercies, would He 
 have said, " Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruit- 
 ful," &c. And also '* of the son of the bondwoman, will I make a 
 nation, because he is thy seed," Gen. xxi. 13. And a Uttle further, 
 ** God hath heard the voice of the lad," and verse 20, " God was 
 with the lad." 
 
 To settle it firmly in our minds that non- election on God's part 
 is not for a moment to be held necessarily to imply eternal condem- 
 nation, is the first step to enable us to take a calm and dispassionate 
 view of the following verses. 
 
 8. " That is. They which are the children of the flesh, these are 
 not the children of God," &c. "That is." It is signified, or 
 typified, or involved, in this rejection of Ishmael and acceptance of 
 
Chap. IX.] SARAH SHALL HAVE A SON. 203 
 
 are not the children of Grod : but ^ the children of the promise 
 are counted for the seed. " Gai. iv. 28. 
 
 9 For this is the word of promise, * At this time « Gen. xviii. 
 will I come, and Sarah shall have a son. 
 
 10 And not only this ; but when " Eebecca " Gen. xxt. 
 
 21. 
 also had conceived by one, even by our father 
 
 Isaac : 
 
 Isaac, that fleshly descent or natnral generation does not make 
 men, whether Jews or Gentiles, cluldren of God, but the children 
 of God are the children of the promise. 
 
 9. " For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, 
 and Sarah," &c. We must very carefully consider the import of 
 this verse. At first sight it seems to undo what the Apostle had 
 just said, that the children of the flesh are not the children of God ; 
 for assuredly Isaac as much as Ishmael was begotten by fleshly 
 generation ; but the meaning seems to be somewhat of this sort. 
 Abraham, in taking Hagar to have seed by her, had no promise of 
 God for what he did. It was altogether a very fleshly suggestion, 
 and, in its religious aspect, a very doubtful one ; whereas, in the 
 case of Isaac, we are expressly told that Sarah's faith came in, as 
 we read, " Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to 
 conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, 
 because she judged him faithful who had promised." (Heb. xi. 11.) 
 
 " For this is the word of promise." This should rather be trans- 
 lated, " For of promise," as distinguished from mere natural se- 
 quence, *' is this word." 
 
 " At this time will I come [i.e., with miraculous power to annul 
 the barrenness of Sarah] , and Sarah shall have a son." 
 
 10. ** And not only this ; but when Eebecca also had conceived 
 by one, even," &c. He now proceeds to take a still more remarkable 
 case, illustrating the perfect freedom of God's election. When 
 Ishmael was rejected, and Isaac elected to be the depositary of the 
 promise, it might be said that this was natural, for Ishmael was, in 
 a sense, illegitimate, being born of a concubine, and Isaac legiti- 
 mate, being the child of the lawful wife ; but, in the case of the 
 twin children of Isaac and Rebecca, such a thing could not be 
 said. When they were in the womb it was pronounced that the 
 elder should serve the younger, and so the election could not have 
 
204 JACOB HAVE I LOVED. [Romans. 
 
 11 (For the children being not yet born, neither having 
 done any good or evil, that the purpose of Grod according to 
 X ch. iv. 17. election mi^ht stand, not of works, but of * him 
 
 Aviii. 28. , -n t x 
 
 that calleth ;) 
 y Gen. XXV. \2 It was said unto her, ''The H elder shall 
 
 23. 
 
 I Or, greater, serve the || JOUUgCr. 
 
 I M^Z-X's. 1^ ^s it is written, " Jacob have I loved, but 
 
 See Deut. xxi. ^^^-^ ^^^^ J hated, 
 lo. Prov. xiu. 
 24. Matt. X, 
 
 37. Luke xiv. 
 
 26. John xii. 
 25. 
 
 been because either had fulfilled the demands of the law, or done 
 any works whatsoe\£r. In other words, neither had any claim 
 upon God, and so the case of these two brothers, very early in the 
 sacred history, set aside, and effectually one would think, any such 
 claims as the Jews were continually putting forward, grounded on 
 the supposed fulfilment of the law. It was the strongest precedent 
 conceivable for God to hold Himself unfettered in the matter of 
 the choice of the persons who would serve His purposes. 
 
 12. " It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger." 
 Here a»ain it is asserted as plainly as possible that what was in 
 the contemplation of the Apostle was not eternal reward or punish- 
 ment, but fitness to serve the purposes of God. 
 
 13. " As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I 
 hated." This is taken from the prophet Malachi, and, by turning 
 to the passage, we shall see in what way God's hatred showed 
 itself: " Wherein hast thou loved us ? Was not Esau Jacob's 
 brother, saith the Lord : yet I loved Jacob. And I hated Esau aud 
 laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the 
 wilderness. Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished, but we 
 will return and build the waste places. Thus saith the Lord of 
 hosts, they shall build, but I will throw down ; and they shall call 
 them. The border of wickedness, and, The people against whom 
 the Lord hath indignation for ever." We must assume, then, that 
 the perpetual indignation was because of the great and continued 
 wickedness. 
 
 And now let us look more closely into this matter of the election 
 of Jacob and the reprobation of Esau. Why this difference made 
 between two brothers in the womb— the difference affecting the races 
 
Chap. IX.] ESAU HAVE I HATED. 205 
 
 which sprang from them, until nearly the time of Christ ? There 
 must have been a reason, for God cannot act without reason, and 
 this reason must have been one in God's foreknowledge, for He 
 wottld not act on the mere impulse of the moment, and it must 
 have been one connected with the character of Esau and of his 
 descendants, and Jacob and his descendants, for, assuming the 
 truth of the Revelation of God's character in the Scriptures, no 
 other reason can be imagined. Different reasons have been as- 
 signed. Though neither child had done, or could have done, good 
 works, yet Philippi supposes that " the Divine provision, on which 
 election rests, relates not to any work whatever, as being able to 
 establish some merit in favour of the elect, but to his faith, which 
 cannot (?) be a merit, since faith consists precisely in renouncing all 
 merit [In the Scripture it is described as being not the renunciation 
 of merit, but the evidence of things not seen] in the humble ac- 
 ceptance of the free gift. Faith foreseen is therefore a wholly 
 different thing from works foreseen." 
 
 Alford pronounces this assigning of foreseen faith to be the 
 Pelagianism of the Romanists, who, by mnking our faith as fore- 
 seen by God the cause of our election, affirm it to be l^ tpywv. 
 But whatever was the secret and mysterious cause in the mind 
 of God, was His choice vindicated by the course of events? 
 Unquestionably it was : for what does the history teach us ? In 
 the first place we find in Esau the most utter contempt for the 
 religion of the family, for we read that when he was forty years old 
 he took to wife two Hittites, and it is significantly said that these 
 were a grief of mind to Isaac and Rebecca. Now why this grief? 
 No doubt because all sorts of profanities, of idolatrous rites — very 
 probably of filthy orgies — were going on in the tents of the only 
 family upon earth which belonged to the true God. Then comes 
 the selling of his birthright. He came, faint from hunting, to the 
 tents of his rich and prosperous father. He would not wait two 
 minutes till some slave ran for some refreshment. What good was 
 this ridiculous birthright ? He did not believe in it in the least. 
 It was not worth a basin of broth, and so, in boastful and profane 
 contempt, he sold it. Then, so little had Esau impressed any 
 traditions of reverence for Jehovah amongst the people which 
 sprung from him, that Edom refused to allow Israel to pass through 
 his borders on their way to Canaan, or even to drink of the wells 
 on the roadside. The Edomites are always found among the enemies 
 
206 UNEIGHTEOUSNESS WITH GOD. [Romans. 
 
 a Deut. xxxii. 14 What shall we say then ? * Js there un- 
 
 4. 2 Chron. "^ 
 
 xix. 7. Job righteousness with God ? G-od forbid. 
 
 viii. 3. & xxxiv, 
 
 10. Ps. xcii. 
 
 15. 
 
 of Israel, they seem to have excelled the rest of the heathen in bitter 
 hatredto Jerusalem itself (Psalm Ixxxiii. 6 ; cxxxvii. 7 ; Amos i. 11) ; 
 and this notwithstanding that in the very law itself there was a com- 
 mand to the Israelites to deal friendly with them (Deut. xxiii. 7), 
 which wehaveno reason tobelievewasnot acted upon. It is quite clear 
 that if it was the principal design of God in choosing the Israelites, 
 to prepare a place among them for the Messiah, and in a measure 
 to prepare the Gentiles for receiving the knowledge of Him through 
 the dispersion, which kept alive in every city of the heathen a 
 nucleus of true worshippers, some of whom received and acted upon 
 the Apostolic Gospel, such a design could not have been fulfilled 
 by the Edomites ; and whereas Israel, notwithstanding all its declen- 
 sions, gave birth to a long series of illustrious heroes and prophets, 
 the Edomites produced only Doeg and the Herods: so that the 
 wisdom of God, in passing over the eldest brother, is amply vin- 
 dicated by the course of events. 
 
 Their conduct, with reference to the people of God, stands in 
 remarkable contrast with that of the Kenites, and we may say also 
 with that of Tyre and Egypt. 
 
 14. " What shall we say then ? Is there unrighteousness with 
 God ? God forbid." This, following upon what has gone before 
 about Jacob and Esau, means, Was God unrighteous in preferring 
 Jacob to Esau as the depositary of the Messianic promise ? And 
 he answers emphatically, " Let not such a thing be imagined," 
 giving as a reason the passage, " For he saith to Moses, I will 
 have mercy upon whom I will have mercy," &c. 
 
 This quotation is taken from Exod. xxxiii. 19. The whole verse 
 reads, " I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will 
 proclaim the name of the Lord before thee, and will be gracious 
 to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will 
 shew mercy." It is plain, I think, that St. Paul quotes the passage, 
 not with regard to its context, but as expressing a great general 
 truth, that God will allow nothing to prevent His mercy reaching 
 those whom He, in His wisdom, sees to be in a fit state to receive 
 it. It may be asked why, seeing that God executes judgment as 
 weU as mercy, a text is chosen which exhibits only one side of His 
 
Chap. IX.] I WILL HAVE MERCY. 207 
 
 15 For lie saitb to Moses, ** I will have mercy on J^^''- *^*'"- 
 
 dealings, and the answer is, that the whole controversy arose out 
 of the exclusiveness of the Jews, who, as far as in them lay, would 
 not allow God to have mercy on the Gentiles. This was, in fact, 
 the crown of their wickedness, as the Apostle writes, '* They please 
 not God, and are contrary to all men : Forbidding us to speak 
 to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins 
 alway : for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost " 
 (1 Thess. ii. 16). 
 
 And now with respect to the significance of this verse. A Being 
 Who is infinite in all His attributes, Who has not only absolute 
 power, but absolute wisdom, absolute goodness, absolute foreknow- 
 ledge, claims to do what He pleases in the matter of showing 
 mercy and if of showing mercy, of course of withholding mercy. 
 
 Now on what ground does God claim this, because in vast num- 
 bers of cases He tells us the motives which induced Him to adopt 
 such or such a line of conduct, and He has given to us inquiring, 
 intelligent spirits, which compel us, though it may be secretly, to 
 inquire into the reason even lor Ilis actions ? 
 
 Two grounds have been assigned. The one I shall give in the 
 words of Calvin, who states the reason as clearly, as directly, and 
 as dogmatically as it can well be : " It may, indeed, appear a frigid 
 defence that God is not unjust, because He is merciful to whom 
 He pleases ; but as God regards His authority alone as abundantly 
 sufficient, so that He needs the defence of none, Paul thought it 
 enough to appoint Him the vindicator of His own right. Now 
 Paul brings forward here the answer which Moses received from 
 the Lord when he prayed for the salvation of the whole people,' 
 ' I will shew mercy,' was God's answer, ' on whom I will shew 
 mercy, and I will have compassion upon whom I will have com- 
 
 1 This is a falsehood, and Calvin must have known it to be so when he wrote it. There 
 is no word in Exodus xxxiii. of Moses praying for the salvation of all Israel. God gave the 
 answer to the prayer of Moses, " I beseech thee shew me thy glory ; " and God had (in the 
 four previous verses) as good as declared the acceptance of the whole people as his people. 
 Moses says, verse 15:— "If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. For 
 wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? Is 
 it not in that thon goest with us? so shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the 
 people that are upon the face of the earth. And the Lord said unto Moses, I will do this 
 thing also tlmt thou hast spoken," ic. So that it is abs.>lately false to assign the meaning 
 which Calviu gives. 
 
208 I WILL HAVE COMPASSION. [Romans. 
 
 whom I will liave mercy, and I will have compassion on 
 whom I will have compassion. 
 
 passion.' By this oracle the Lord declared that He is a debtor to 
 none of mankind, and that whatever He gives is a gratuitous 
 benefit, and then that His kindness is free, so that He can confer 
 it on whom He pleases ; and lastly, that no cause higher than His 
 own Will can be thought of why He does good and shows favour to 
 some men, but not to all. The words, indeed, mean as much as 
 though He said : ' From him to whom I have once purposed to 
 show mercy I will never take it away, and with perpetual kindness 
 I will follow him to whom I have determined to be kind.' And 
 thus He assigns the highest reason for imparting grace, even His 
 own voluntary purpose, and also intimates that He has designed 
 His mercy peculiarly for some, for it is a way of speaking which 
 excludes outward causes, as when we claim to ourselves the free 
 power of acting, we say, * I will do what I mean to do.' " 
 
 This passage is remarkable, if for nothing else, for its thorough- 
 ness. I will draw attention to one sentence. " No cause higher 
 than His own will can be thought of, why He does good, and shews 
 favour to some men and not to all." But this is directly contrary 
 to the whole of the Scriptures of God — to what Moses, David, 
 Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, have written. It is directly contrary to 
 every word of our Lord's teaching. If there be one passage of 
 God's Word to which it is more in opposition than another, it is 
 to the words of the Apostle in this very Epistle, when he writes, " To 
 them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory, 
 honour, and immortality, God will render eternal life." The 
 fallacy in the whole passage is, that Calvin contends not for the 
 Will of God, that is, for a most righteous, most merciful, most 
 wise Will of a most benevolent Creator, but (if the words may be 
 written without sin) for His wilfulness — in fact, that He has a right 
 to deal with spirits into whom He has infused a sense of justice, 
 however that sense of justice may be at times obscured, in a spirit 
 of mere caprice, and that even when it involves their eternal 
 misery through ages of ages. 
 
 There must be a way of understanding this declaration of God 
 more in consonance with all His other declarations, and it is not 
 far to seek, for it naturally suggests itself. It is " I am a righteous 
 judge, and My mercy is over all My works ; as such I will deal 
 
Chap. IX.] OF GOD THAT SHEWETH MERCY. 209 
 
 16 So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that 
 runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. 
 
 ■*ha,ra.nh. 
 
 8,22. 
 
 17 For nhe Scripture saith unto Pharaoh, <= see Gai. m. 
 
 rigliteously and mercifully. I will have mercy upon whom I will 
 have mercy, because no one except Myself knows who needs 
 mercj', and the sort of mercy he needs ; no one but Myself knows 
 who needs discipline, and the kind of discipliu.e he needs ; no one but 
 Myself knows who have so rebelled against My Spirit, that in mercy 
 to themselves I must withdraw Him, lest they add to their condem- 
 nation by further resistance. I will have mercy upon whom I will 
 have mercy ; that is, I do not at present reveal to you the reasons why 
 I deal in mercy with one and in severity with another ; but a time 
 will come when you shall know those reasons, for I have put within 
 you a spirit to which I have given the power of reflecting on My 
 dealings, and even of judging respecting them, whether they are in 
 accordance with what I have told you respecting Myself. 
 
 So then it comes to this : when Calvin writes, " No higher cause 
 than His own Will can be thought of," we answer. No. Having 
 regard to the way in which you have put the matter, a much 
 higher cause can be thought of, and that is not the mere will, but 
 t]ie will which is the expression of God's love, justice, mercy, 
 wisdom — in fact, of all the moral attributes of God — which in this 
 passage Calvin, for reasons best known to himself, has kept alto- 
 gether out of sight. 
 
 16. " So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that 
 runneth," &c. This place has been taken to refer to the will of 
 Isaac that Esau, the eldest, should receive the blessing, and tliat 
 Jacob and Esau both hasted to get the savoury meat, but that the 
 issue was that which God had fore-ordained ; but it contains an 
 axiom so universal, that it has but one exception. The axiom is that 
 expressed in the terse words of the Book of Proverbs, " There are 
 many devices in a man's heart, but the counsel of the Lord, that 
 shall stand" (xix. 21). There is, however, one exception — an 
 amazing one. It is " of him that willeth " if he earnestly wills the 
 salvation of his soul, for then his will meets and coalesces with 
 the Will of Him Who wills all men to be saved. It is of him that 
 runneth if he " so runs that he may obtain." 
 
 17. " For the Scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for tliis pur- 
 pose have I raised," &c. God's dealings with Pharaoh, though they 
 
 p 
 
210 MY POWER IN THEE. [Romans. 
 
 ^ Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I 
 d Exod. ix. might shew my power in thee, and that my name 
 might be declared throughout all the earth. 
 
 17. '• Have I raised thee up." This does not mean " brought thee into existence," for 
 then an altogether different phras-e would have been used ; but " raised thee to thy present 
 high place." 
 
 never can be wholly divested of deep mystery, will be rendered 
 much plainer and more entirely consonant with His justice, if we 
 go sufficiently far back in the history. The nation of Egypt had 
 been saved from destruction by an Israelite, Joseph, who, by a 
 course of circumstances in which the finger of God is traceable at 
 every point, was raised to the second place in the kingdom, and 
 had all the affairs of Egypt placed in his hand. Through his 
 counsels the food of the plenteous years was not wasted, as it 
 would have been if he had not been at the head of affairs, but laid 
 up in store for the years of famine. Now the Egyptians repaid this 
 kindness with the blackest ingratitude ; they enslaved the nation of 
 their benefactor, murdered their children, and ground them down 
 with oppression and cruelty. But God had foreseen all this, and 
 foretold both the oppression of the Israelites and the manner of 
 their deliverance and the punishment of the Egyptians. " That 
 nation whom they shall serve will I judge, and afterward shall 
 they come out with great substance " (Gen. xv. 14). 
 
 The judgment of God on the Egyptians consisted in the plagues, 
 whereby the nation of Egypt, as it deserved, was well-nigh de- 
 stroyed. And through the fame of these plagues, and the subse- 
 quent safe passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea, and the 
 destruction of the Egyptians therein, a warning was given to the 
 guilty races of Canaan, that they should flee from the land y/hich 
 God had given to another people ; the memory of which, and its 
 significance, was fresh forty years after, as we learn from the 
 account of Rahab in the Book of Joshua (ii. 10). 
 
 Now, in order that the Egyptians might suffer the righteous 
 retribution due to their wicked treatment of Israel, God did not 
 allow His severe judgments to have that effect upon Pharaoh which 
 they were, in the ordinary course of events, calculated to produce. 
 The first two or three plagues would naturally have been suffi- 
 cient; but God supernaturally upheld him in his resistance to the 
 effect of the signs and wonders which came to pass at the word of 
 
Chap. IX.] WHOM HE WILL HE HARDENETH. 211 
 
 18 Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, 
 and whom he will he hardeneth. 
 
 God's servant, and ceased at his word. This was the hardening oj 
 Fharaoh's heart. It was more than a natural hardening, more 
 than Pharaoh hardening his own heart. It was an action of God, 
 to uphold him in resistance, so that he was not able to turn back, 
 but must go on in rebellion till the Egyptians had suffered what 
 they deserved, and all the neighbouring kingdoms, Amalekites, 
 Edomites, Moabites, Canaanites, had heard the report of what God 
 was doing on behalf of the seed of Israel, and ought to have set 
 their own houses in order accordingly. 
 
 One thing we must be quite sure about, that God would not hold 
 Pharaoh responsible in the spiritual world for that part of his 
 hardening which came through the external action of God, over 
 and above what was due to the action of his own evil spirit on 
 himself. If Pharaoh was reprobate in the matter of future judg- 
 ment, that reprobation was fully consummated long before his first 
 interview with Moses. Not a word is said throughout the narra- 
 tive respecting future reward or punishment, or turning to God» 
 or a future Messiah, and such things — the one sole word is, " Let 
 My people go, that they may serve Me," and we have not the 
 smallest right to assume any other. 
 
 18. *' Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, 
 and whom," &c. He had mercy upon Isaac, upon Jacob, upon the 
 twelve sons of Jacob, so that, notwithstanding their provocations 
 • — notwithstanding their treatment of then* father and Joseph 
 —notwithstanding the profligacy of Judah, and Eeuben, and the 
 treachery of Simeon and Levi in the matter of the Shechemites, 
 the promise of the Messiah, and the wondrous future which led to 
 its accomplishment, was theirs. 
 
 And He hardened not only Pharaoh, but his servants and his 
 people, for Pharaoh was the representative of his people. They, 
 of course, would not willingly part with several hundred thousand 
 slaves. Their labour was an immense public profit, and in all pro- 
 bability a great private advantage to a great part of the Egyptians. 
 He hardened them so that they were judged for their oppression, 
 and their captives went out with much substance — some very sUght 
 repayment for their centuries of bondage. 
 
212 WHY DOTH HE YET FIND FAULT? [Romans. 
 
 * 2 chron 19 Thou wilt sav then unto me, Why doth he 
 
 XX. 6. Job -^ ■^ 
 
 ix. 12. & xxiii. yet find fault ? For ^ who hath resisted his will ? 
 
 13. Dan. iv. '' 
 35. 
 
 19, 20, 21. " Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find 
 fault ? . . . one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? " 
 
 Before entering upon the closer exposition of these verses, it may 
 be well to examine carefully the passages in which this figure of 
 the potter and the clay is used in the sacred writings. At first 
 sight it seems to preclude all action whatsoever, except that of 
 Almighty God. The sinner, or the nation, or the Church, must, we 
 should suppose, be altogether passive, for no will, no action in the 
 way of either obedience or resistance can be supposed to reside in 
 the clay. If it refers to the individual soul, that soul must be 
 moulded totally independently of its own will in the matter of its 
 choice or its after-treatment. There is a basin or vessel of soft clay 
 carefully prepared, so as to be of the same consistence throughout. 
 Into this the potter thrusts his hands, and draws out a portion 
 corresponding to the size of the vessel he intends to make, which 
 vessel, as to its use and size, he must have determined upon before- 
 hand. 
 
 So that taking the simple figure by itself, it seems to preclude all 
 power of choice, all power of influencing the Being represented by 
 the potter — above all, all power of remonstrance. For man to 
 remoustrate with God is not so much wickedness as absurdity — as 
 absurd as if the clay under the potter's hands were to remonstrate 
 with him. 
 
 Now there are six places in the Scripture — four in the Old Testa- 
 ment, two in the New — in which this figure is used, and in all 
 these places free-will, i.e.^ the power on the part of the clay to choose 
 for itself whether it will submit to the hand of the potter to be 
 made by him what he is pleased to make it, or resist his action, is 
 very distinctly asserted or implied. 
 
 The first of these places is Jeremiah xviii. 1-10. This is by far 
 the most important, as it is the only one in which the potter is 
 supposed to make different vessels of the same lump. I will give 
 it in full. It is certainly the one which the Apostle had princi- 
 pally, if not entirely, in his mind : " The word which came to 
 Jeremiah from the Lord, saying. Arise, and go down to the potter's 
 house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. Then I went 
 
Chap. IX.] WHO HATH RESISTED HIS WILL? 213 
 
 down to the potter's house, and, behold, he wrought a work on 
 the wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in 
 the hand of the potter : so he made it again another vessel, as 
 seemed good to the potter to make it. Then the word of the Lord 
 came to me, saying, house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this 
 potter? saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's 
 hand, so are ye in mine hand, house of Israel. At what instant 
 I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to 
 pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it ; if that nation, 
 against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent 
 of the evil that I thought to do unto them. And at what instant 
 I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to 
 build, and to plant it ; if it do evil in my sight, that it obey not 
 my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would 
 benefit them." 
 
 So that in the prophecy from which St. Paul takes this figure of 
 the potter dealing with the clay, not only is free-will recognized, 
 but the whole action of the potter, so far as it is appealed to to 
 teach human beings, is made to depend upon the will of the clay. 
 " If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their 
 evil, I will repent of the evil ... At what instant I shall speak con- 
 cerning a nation ... to build and to plant. If it do evil ... I will 
 repent of the good," &c. The place, then, in Jeremiah from which 
 the Apostle takes his illustration, bears the strongest testimony 
 imaginable to the fact that, in all His dealings, God has respect to 
 the exercise of free-will on the part of His creatures. 
 
 The second place in which the potter and the clay are referred to 
 is very obscure, and the translation diflBicult. It is in Isaiah xxix. 
 15, 16 : " Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the 
 Lord, and their works are in the dark, and they say. Who seeth us ? 
 and who knoweth us ? Surely your turning of things upside down 
 shall be esteemed as the potter's clay : for shall the work say of 
 him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say 
 of him that framed it. He had no understanding? " Whatever be the 
 meaning of this verse, it presupposes the energetic free-will of the 
 clay. Matthew Pool, a Calvinist commentator, paraphrases it 
 thus: "Your turning of things upside down; aU your subtle 
 devices, by which you turn yourselves into all shapes and turn your 
 thoughts hither and thither, and pervert the order which God has 
 appointed, is no more to me than the clay is to the potter, who can 
 
214 WHO AET THOU THAT EBPLIEST ? [Romans. 
 
 not only discern it thoroughly, but alter and dispose it as lie seeth 
 fit ; and no less absurd and ridiculous is your conceit, that I your 
 Maker and supreme Governor cannot discover and control all your 
 artifices at my pleasure." 
 
 The third place, Isaiah xlv. 9, equally demands the free-will of 
 the clay : " Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker ! Let the 
 potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay 
 say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou ? or thy work, He 
 hath no hands." Calvin certainly interprets it on the principles of 
 free-will. His words are : "A more simple view appears to me to 
 be to understand that the prophet restrains the complaints of men 
 who in adversity murmur and strive with God. This was a season- 
 able warning that the Jews, by patiently and calmly bearing the 
 cross, might receive the consolation which was offered to them, for 
 whenever God holds us in suspense the flesh prompts us to grumble, 
 ' Why does he not do more quickly what He intends to do ? of what 
 benefit is it to Him to torture us by His delay ? ' The prophet, 
 therefore, in order to chastize this insolence, says, ' Does the pot- 
 sherd dispute with the potter ? Do sons debate with their fathers ? 
 Has not God a right to treat us as He thinks fit ? What remains 
 but that we should bear patiently the punishments which He 
 inflicts on us.' "^ 
 
 The fourth place is yet more remarkable, for in it the clay, so 
 far from being impassive, is supposed to pray — to confess God and to 
 earnestly deprecate His wrath (Isaiah Ixiv. 8.) " But now, Lord, 
 thou art our father ; we are the clay, and thou our potter ; and we 
 aU are the work of thy hand. Be not wroth very sore, Lord, 
 neither remember iniquity for ever : behold, see, we beseech thee, 
 we are all thy people." 
 
 The fifth place is still more expressive of the free-will of the clay. 
 It is in St. Paul's own writings — in his second Epistle to Timothy 
 (ii. 20, 21). " In a great house there are not only vessels of gold 
 and of silver, but also of wood and of earth ; and some to honour and 
 some to dishonour. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he 
 shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master's 
 use, and prepared unto every good work." This is the most re- 
 
 1 Thomas Erskine, of Linlathen. explains the place with its context differently. He 
 supposes that it alludes to the rebellious thoughts of the Jews in that their deliverance 
 came through the heathen Cyrus, and not through some divinely-commissioned leader of 
 their own natioa. 
 
Chap. IX.] WHY HAST THOU MADE ME THUS? 215 
 
 20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that || repliest I! Or, answer- 
 against God ? ^ Shall the thing formed say to or, disputest 
 him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus ? Job xxxiii! 13. 
 
 f Is. xxix. 16. 
 
 & xlv. 9, & 
 
 Ixiv. 8. 
 
 markable of all the places we have examined, for instead of regard- 
 ing the nature and use and destiny of the potter's vessels as fixed 
 from the first, he actually lays it down that a vessel may change 
 itself. By purging himself from false doctrine (that of Hymenaeus 
 and Philetus) and a fortiori from bad practices, a man from being a 
 vessel of dishonour may become a vessel of honour. The asser- 
 tion of free-will can scarcely go further. 
 
 The sixth and last place is the one in this chapter where, after 
 speaking of the potter having power over the clay to make one vessel 
 to honour and another to dishonour, he speaks of God " enduring 
 with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction." 
 Now supposing that these vessels were souls whom God had pre- 
 destinated to destruction in hell, and that for His glory, and had, as 
 certainly as the potter moulds his clay, fitted them for such destruc- 
 tion, could it possibly be said that '* He endured them with much 
 long suffering," seeing that by continuing as they were they ful- 
 filled His purpose in making them to dishonour by infusing sin 
 into them ? If He endm-ed them with much long-suffering, it must 
 have been because it was in their power to repent and turn, and 
 they would not, according to the Lord's remonstrance : " Ye wiU not 
 come unto me that ye might have life." 
 
 From this examination of the use of this figure in every place in 
 which it occurs, a very remarkable lesson is taught us, viz., that 
 when free-will is not only not asserted, but seems not so much as 
 implied — nay, when it appears contrary to the analogy of the figure 
 employed (for the action of the potter on the clay seems to exclude 
 free-will, or, indeed, anything except the mere power of the potter) 
 — yet, notwithstanding this, free-will may be implied, and not only 
 implied but may regulate the whole action of the Divine Being, 
 Whose absolute Omnipotence in dealing with us is typified by the 
 action of the potter. 
 
 We now proceed to the examination of the passage clause by 
 clause. 
 
 19. " Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault, 
 for who," &c. Who is the objector here? It is assuredly not an 
 
216 HATH NOT THE POTTER POWER? [Romans. 
 
 21 Hath not tlie " potter power over tlie clay, of the same 
 i Pro. xvi. 4. lump to make ^ one vessel unto honour, and an- 
 
 Jer. xviii. 6. ^ 
 
 1 2 Tim. ii. othor unto dishouour ? 
 
 objector who takes similar ground to a modern anti-predestinarian, 
 or anti-Calvinist, who has been shocked beyond measure at some 
 enunciation of the " horribile decretum/' and asks how can such a 
 representation of God's deaUngs with souls be consistent with the 
 whole teaching of Scripture. Neither can it be an Antinomian who 
 3ays, " Seeing that God has made me a vessel of wrath, what have 
 I to do but conduct myself as such, and indulge my inclinations to 
 the full ? " Such suppositions are simple anachronisms — the credit- 
 ing of the first centmy with the perverse interpretations of the 
 sixteenth and seventeenth. 
 
 There cannot be the smallest doubt but that the objector is a 
 Jew, who very naturally, but very wrongly, opposed the inference 
 which he would foresee St. Paul was about to draw from God's 
 dealings with the reprobate, i.e., the non-elect, persons he had just 
 alluded to, Ishmael and Esau, and above all with Pharaoh, who so 
 far from resisting God's will, had actually, though unwillingly, 
 carried it out. The Jew could see in a moment what the Apostle 
 was coming to. It was, that, if Pliaraoh was hardened, so that he 
 became a vessel of wrath, and yet was the instrument through 
 whom God showed His power, and made His Name declared 
 throughout all the earth, might not the very same action of God be 
 taking place then, even before their eyes, and they themselves be the 
 instruments for bringing God's purposes about ? The salvation of 
 the Israelites in the time of Pharaoh was not to be named by the 
 side of what had taken place in their own days. In the matter of 
 the Sacrifice of His Son, and the salvation which sprang directly 
 from it, and the dispersion of the Christians, so that the Word of 
 God was preached everywhere, God made the greatest use, not only 
 of good, but rather of wicked mdn — of very wicked men. Well, 
 then, the Jew might say, " If we, our chief priests, our elders, the 
 whole populace of Jerusalem, the rulers of our synagogues, every- 
 where supported by the frequenters of the synagogues, are un- 
 consciously carrying out God's purposes, first in the Sacrifice of 
 Christ, then in the universal difiusion of the knowledge of that 
 Sacrifice, why does God cast us off — treat us as reprobate — as 
 vessels of wrath fitted for destruction V " To which the Apostle 
 
Chap. IX.] WILLING TO SHEW HIS WRATH. 217 
 
 22 What if Grod, willing to shew his wrath, and to 
 
 answers, " You do not realize the lesson which your whole history 
 should have taught you, that God makes all things serve His pur- 
 poses. He desires that men should serve Him willingly, and 
 consciously submit to His will. They are the clay in His hands, 
 but not mere earthy inanimate clay, but clay to which He has 
 given the power of confessing Him, and acknowledging His Father- 
 hood — clay that can say to Him, ' Now, Lord, thou art our Father. 
 We are the clay, and Thou our potter, and we are all the work of 
 thine hand.' " Nay, even more than this, if they are already made 
 into vessels of dishonour, by self-purification they can change their 
 spiritual condition, and become vessels unto honour, sanctified and 
 meet for the master's use (2 Tim. ii. 21). 
 
 Still, was God just in punishing those who thus carried out His 
 purposes ? Certainly, because in the exercise of their free-will they 
 were only intent on carrying out their own wicked purposes — their 
 purposes of covetousness, as Judas — of malice and envy, as the 
 chief priests — of dislike of spiritual traths, as the Scribes — of blood- 
 thirstiness, as the populace. God's intention in making use of 
 them to bring good out of evil did not, in the least degree, diminish 
 their wickedness, and ought not, on principles of pure justice, to 
 diminish their punishment. 
 
 22. " What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his 
 power known," &c. To what particular action of God does the 
 Apostle here allude ? A moment's consideration will convince us 
 that it must be to something occurring in the present state of things, 
 as God's action in the matter of Pharaoh did. In the case of 
 Pharaoh, God did not show His wrath by exhibiting Pharaoh as 
 enduring the punishment due to him in a future world ; and so with 
 the Jews. If God willed to show His wrath and make His power 
 known in them, it must be by some endurance with them here in 
 this present state of things, some respite to them as the ancient 
 people of God ; for God keeps the final doom of sinners in Hades 
 known only to Himself, and He could not show His wrath and 
 make His power, in this respect, known, till the consummation of 
 all things. I think, then, there can be but one opinion as to what 
 must be meant; by this endurance, with much long-sufi'ering, of the 
 vessels of wrath. What can it be but the forty years' respite be- 
 tween the descent of the Holy Spirit and that final withdrawal of 
 
218 MUCH LONG SUFFERING. [Romans. 
 
 make his power known, endured with much longsuffering 
 
 God's presence, when in the destruction of their place and nation 
 the wrath came upon them to the uttermost ? 
 
 Our Lord, on two occasions, treats the Jews of His time, i.e., the 
 mass of them — the nation — as reprobate ; once in Matth. xiii. 15 : 
 " Tins people's heart is waxed gross . . . lest at any time they should 
 see with their eyes, and should be converted," &c. This place is 
 also cited by St. Paul himself in Acts xxviii. 27, and with exactly 
 the same significance. Again, the Apostle St. John cites it in xii. 
 39, 40, for the same purpose. The reader will find a very full ex- 
 amination of the bearing of this hardening in my notes on these 
 places. Again, the Jews and their rulers are held to be vessels of 
 wrath, who yet carried out the determinate counsel and fore-know- 
 ledge of God in St. Peter's address on the day of Pentecost [Acts 
 ii. 23, and in the Apostolic Hymn in Acts iv. 27] : " Against thy 
 holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius 
 Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered to- 
 gether, for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined 
 before to be done." And yet, to this reprobate nation, to these 
 very vessels of wrath, God was long-sufi"ering, not willing that any 
 should perish, but that all should come to repentance. His Son 
 beheld the city, and wept over it. " If thou hadst known, even 
 thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy 
 peace" (Luke xix. 41). The Lord also said, "Ye will not come 
 unto me, that ye might have life " (John v. 40). Again, St. Paul 
 and the other Apostles were sent to the Jews first. Again, the deep 
 and bitter grief, so that Paul almost, at times, desired to be accursed 
 from Christ for his brethren, and his heart's desire for their salva- 
 tion, were exhibitions of the same long-sufiering of God on behalf of 
 reprobate Israel. 
 
 There is no use, of course, in our attempting either to solve or to 
 ignore the mystery of God thus dealing in long-suffering with souls 
 that were, to all appearance, doomed. It seems as if God, or 
 Christ, knowing their future, dealt with them exactly as if He did 
 not know it. The case of Judas is, perhaps, the strongest in point, 
 and the clearest. God gave him to His Son to be His Apostle, and 
 so a vessel of the highest conceivable honour, and yet he became 
 the traitor. He became the traitor because he would not, being a 
 vessel of election, purge himself from his love of money. And 
 
Chap. IX.] THE VESSELS OF WRATH. 219 
 
 ^ the vessels of wrath || ^ fitted to destruction : * i Thess. v. 9. 
 
 R Or, made up. 
 
 kiPet. ii. 8. 
 
 Jnde 4. 
 
 Christ gave more warnings against covetousness than He did against 
 any other sin, Christ, as God, knowing the end of this man, did 
 not expel him from the elect company, but allowed him to continue 
 in it, though constantly the Lord said to him what, if he had had 
 any feeling, would have made him withdraw himself. Up to the 
 last, i.e., to the moment when he made the bargain, he might have 
 withdrawn. His wickedness was his own — if we are sure of any- 
 thing we are sure of that — and yet, in God's all- wise and all-merciful 
 purposes, it brought about the Eedemption of the world. And if 
 his fall was his own, so were Christ's warnings His own also — all 
 from His heart — all given in all sincerity, all intended by Him to 
 save the man, that, if possible, he should not go to his own place. 
 
 Here, then, we have the actual case of a vessel of wrath fitted to 
 destruction, and yet endured with all long-suffering. Now this 
 man was not an inferior, but one of the chiefest instruments in 
 carrying out the determinate counsel of God. He was side by side 
 with Annas, Caiaphas, the other chief priests, and Pontius Pilate. 
 If we had revealed to us, as we may have in the future world, the 
 interior history of this man from moment to moment, from his 
 birth, his first struggles with, or yieldings to, evil, his first hearing 
 of Christ, his first contact with Him — all his thoughts afterwards, 
 as they are known to God — all the thoughts due to his own will — 
 all the thoughts suggested by Satan — all the thoughts infased by 
 the Holy Spirit — every piercing word of Christ, and the process of 
 the quenching of its power within ; and if God gave us faculties for 
 comprehending all this, then we should see how perfectly just, and 
 righteous, and kind, and long-suffering God was in dealing with 
 him. So that his fulfilment of God's counsel in the matter of the 
 betrayal was, so far as its wickedness was concerned, in no way 
 due to God. The man brought the wickedness — all the wicked- 
 ness ; God brought, through His providence, the circumstances 
 under which it conduced to Eedemption. And as it was with 
 Judas, so it was with Annas, with Caiaphas, with every chief 
 priest, with every malignant scribe, with eveiy Jew who had 
 the power and the will to persecute and so disperse the first 
 preachers of the Gospel, that the Name of Christ might be known 
 evervwhere. 
 
220 THE VESSELS OF MERCY. [Eomans. 
 
 23 And that he might make known ^ the riches of his glory 
 • ch. ii. 4. on the vessels of mercy, which he had ^ afore pre- 
 
 Eph.i. 7. .XT 
 
 Col. i. 27. pared unto glory, 
 
 m ch. viii. 28, 
 
 29, 30. 
 
 23. " And that he might make known the riches of his glory on 
 the vessels," &c. This also has a present significance. It means a 
 glory conferred in this Ufe, which might be seen and known of all 
 men. For the work of the Holy Ghost in creating and estabUshing 
 the Church of Christ was indeed a glorifying work. We again refer 
 to the teaching of 2 Corinth, iii. 9: "If the ministration of con- 
 demnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteous- 
 ness exceed in glory. For even that which was made glorious had 
 no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth. For 
 if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which re- 
 mameth is glorious." "We all ... . are changed [of course, 
 now, in this present time] , from glory to glory, even as by the 
 Spirit of the Lord." It was, indeed, when we come to think of it, 
 an amazing glory put upon the spirit of man, that one belonging to 
 the narrowest and blindest sect of a narrow and blind nation, should 
 be able to treat upon the ideas which form the substance of this 
 Epistle ; and that Gentiles brought up in ignorance and filthiness, 
 should be so purified as to be able to entertain these ideas. When 
 we consider this astonishing miracle in the matter of knowledge — 
 of knowledge so new, so far extended, so various, so soul-trans- 
 forming — and when we consider the mythologies, the superstitions, 
 the impurities, the scepticism, and agnosticism in which these con- 
 verts had been brought up, we cannot but acknowledge what a 
 glory that is with which God has invested man. And when we 
 add to this the miraculous works of the Spirit, and, notwithstand- 
 ing all opposition, the Gospel spreading everywhere, and godless 
 men having such a knowledge and love of God, and hopeless men 
 having such bright, such transcendent hopes, and a new power in 
 the world against sin and on the side of righteousness, we may 
 well say that the human instruments of all this — the vessels of 
 mercy— made known the riches of God's glory. 
 
 "Which he had afore prepared unto glory." That men should 
 carry out such purposes must not be left to chance, to hap-hazard, 
 to blind fate, or there might have been no instruments at all for 
 carrying out the will of the All-merciful God, and so, according as 
 
Chaf. IX.] US, WHOM HE HATH CALLED. 221 
 
 24 Even us, whom he hath called, "^ not of the Jews only, 
 but also of the Gentiles ? « ch. m. 29. 
 
 25 As he saith also in Osee, ^ I will call them <> Hos. u. 2.3. 
 my people, which were not my people ; and her 
 beloved, which was not beloved. 
 
 was before said, they were foreknown, predestinated, called, justi- 
 fied, and glorified. 
 
 24. " Even us, whom he hath called," &c. This verse could not 
 well have been written, except St. Paul had chiefly in his mind not 
 abstract principles, but a course of events which was then taking 
 place, which was most distasteful to the Jewish mind, and to justify 
 which he proceeds to appeal to some plain passages in the pro- 
 phets — first in Hosea. 
 
 25. " As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which," 
 &c. Here is a difficulty, because if we turn to Hosea, we shall see 
 that the prophet was not speaking of Gentiles, but of the house of 
 Israel, and not that part of it wliich had adhered to the covenant of 
 Moses and the house of David, but that which had revolted from 
 God ; but the truth, on account of which the Apostle cites the pas- 
 sage, is that which it bears on its surface — that God might so far 
 change His plans, as to make those who were utterly alienated 
 from His people, to be a part of His people. The case ot the ten 
 tribes, which is in the mind of the prophet, or rather of God 
 speaking by him, seems much more hopeless than that of the 
 Gentiles. They apostatized from the moment that they became a 
 separate nation. They cut themselves off from their glorious past. 
 They repudiated Moses, Joshua, Samuel, David. They were, by 
 far the greatest part of them, apparently amalgamated with the 
 heathen, and those who adhered to God retained nothing of their 
 former separate nationality, and became Jews. So that the words 
 of the prophet cited by the Apostle, were as applicable to the Gen- 
 tiles as to such purely heathen Israelites.^ 
 
 1 Whether the descendants of the ten tribes who were dispersed at the Nineveh inva- 
 sion, yet exist either in separate localities or amalgamated with the tribes of Jndah and 
 Benjamin, is known only to God. Dr. Wolff, the Jewish missionary, told me that the 
 Jews of Bokhara were descendants of the ten tribes, but in no way distinguishable from 
 other Jews in ritual or traditions. Of course only those who are totally ignorant of history 
 and of every science connected with it, such as ethnology, can be the dupes of the Angl«>- 
 Israelite craze. 
 
222 A KEMNANT SHALL BE SAVED. [Romaks. 
 
 26 P And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it 
 
 p Hos. i. 10. was said unto thera, Ye are not my people ; 
 
 there shall they be called the children of the 
 
 living G-od. 
 
 q Is. X. 22, 27 Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, * Though 
 
 the number of the children of Israel be as the 
 
 r ch. xi. 5. sand of the sea, *" a remnant shall be saved : 
 
 \OT,theac- 28 For he will finish lithe work, and cut it 
 
 count. , . 
 
 s Is. xxviii. short in righteousness : ^because a short work vnll 
 the Lord make upon the earth. 
 
 28. "For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short 
 work will the Lord," &e. So D., E., F., G., K., L., P., most Cursives, d, e, f, g, Vulg., 
 Goth., Arm.; but ^f, A., B., 23, 47, 67, Syr., Copt., ^^Ith., omit "in righteousness: 
 because a short work," so that the verse reads, " For the Lord will execute his work upon 
 the earth, finishing it and cutting it short." 
 
 26. "And it shall come to pass . . . children of the hving God." 
 Chrysostom's remarks here are much to the point : " But if they 
 should assert that this was said of those of the Jews who believed, 
 even then the argument stands. For if with those who after so 
 many benefits were hard-hearted and estranged, and had lost their 
 being as a people, so great a change was wrought, what is there to 
 prevent even those who were not estranged, after being taken to 
 Him, but were originally aliens, from being called, and, provided 
 they obey, from being counted worthy of the same blessings? " 
 
 27. " Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number 
 of the children," &c. The Apostle now proceeds to cite some pro- 
 phetic declarations of Isaiah having quite a difi"erent significance. 
 In the last two verses he had quoted the prophet as declaring that 
 if the ancient people apostatized from God, He would have a new 
 people, who should be His true children, and fulfil His purpose. 
 Now He declares that the promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob 
 would be continued to the nation, but only through a remnant. 
 No matter how populous the land should be, the mass of the nation 
 will fall away, and the real inheritors of the promises who 
 should transmit them to their descendants would be a small 
 remnant. 
 
 28. '* For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteous- 
 ness," &c. St. Paul here quotes from the Septuagint, but the 
 
Chap. IX.] WE HAD BEEN AS SODOMA. 223 
 
 29 And as Esaias said before, ^ Except the Lord of Sabaoth 
 bad left us a seed, ""we had been as Sodoma, and \^^- '•..?•., 
 been made like unto Gomorrha. " is. xiii. 19. 
 
 Jer. 1. 40. 
 
 30 What shall we say then ? "^ That the Gen- x eh. iv. 11. 
 tiles, which followed not after righteousness, have ' ^- - • 
 attained to righteousness, ^even the righteousness y ch. 1. 17. 
 which is of faith. 
 
 31 But Israel, ' which followed after the law of ^ ch. x. 2. & 
 
 xi. 7. 
 
 righteousness, ^ hath not attained to the law of a Gai. v. 4. 
 righteousness. 
 
 31. "Not attaiued to the law of righteousness." " Righteousness " omitted by .V, A., 
 B., D., E., G., some Cursives, d*, e, g, Copt. ; but reUined by F,, K., L., P., most Cur- 
 sives, Vulg., Syriac, Goth. 
 
 " work " should rather be translated " word," and the Septuagint 
 may be rendered hterally " accomplishing, and cutting short (the) 
 decree in righteousness, because the Lord will make a rapidly 
 accomplished decree in all the world " (or inhabited land, o'lKovfikvy). 
 The decree in both clauses signifies the execution of the decree, 
 which on the part of God will be rapid and decisive. It means 
 what the Septuagint expresses quaintly and literally, "a short work 
 will the Lord make upon the earth." Alford interprets it thus : — 
 " This verse is adduced by the x\postle as confirming the certaint}' 
 of the salvation of the remnant of Israel, seeing that now as then, 
 He with Whom a thousand years are as a day, will swiftly accom- 
 plish His prophetic Word in righteousness." 
 
 29. "And as Esaias said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had 
 left," &c. This is a verse much to be noted, for it seems to assert thai 
 naturally, r.e., in the ordinary course of God's dealings with wicked 
 nations, Israel would have been like Sodom — that is, annihilated, 
 but in order to preserve them as the depositary of His promises. 
 He had decreed in His foreknowledge and brought about by His 
 calling, that there should be a remnant which should, notwith- 
 standing the falling away of the nation, be accounted the true 
 Israel — so that the election is all on the side of mercy. 
 
 30, 31. "What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which 
 followed not," &c. What shall we say then to the fact that the 
 Gentiles are now being accepted by God, and the Jews rejected? 
 
224 THEY SOUGHT IT NOT BY FAITH. [Eomans. 
 
 32 Wherefore ? Because they sought it not by faith, but 
 b Luke ii. 34. as it wcre by the works of the law. ^For they 
 c ps. cxviii! 22. stumbled at that stumbling-stone ; 
 xlTiii!'i6^" *" 33 As it is written, ^Behold, I lay in Sion a 
 fpet* h'' 6,^^' stumbhngstone and rock of offence: and "^who- 
 ''' ^- soever believeth on him shall not be 11 ashamed. 
 
 d ch. X. 11. " 
 
 II Or, C071- 
 
 JFounded. 
 
 32. " By the works of the law," " Of thelaw " omitted by N, A., B., F., G., f, g, Vulg., 
 Copt. ; retained by D., E., K., L., P., most Cursives, Syriac, Arm. 
 
 This seems unfair, for the Gentiles have attained that which they 
 did not seek, even righteousness ; and Israel, which followed ap- 
 parently after righteousness, and by the way which God had ap- 
 parently given them, that is, the law, have not attained to the 
 law, that is, to the true practice of it. This seems unjust. " No," 
 the Apostle goes on to say, " it was perfectly right on God's part 
 thus to deal with them, because they did not seek the true righteous- 
 ness in the right way. God sent His Son amongst them with 
 every credential as the Messiah which they could possibly expect. 
 They would not come unto Him that they might have life, and so 
 they rejected the counsel of God against themselves." 
 
 32, 33. "Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith . . . not 
 be ashamed." The Apostle here amalgamates, as it were, two pas- 
 sages. The first (Isaiah viii. 13-14), in which the Lord of Hosts is 
 said to be given for two purposes. First, for a sanctuary ; but 
 then inasmuch as all did not take refuge in Him as their sanctuary, 
 for those who did not so take refuge, for a stone of stumbling and 
 for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, &c. In the second 
 passage God says : — " Behold I lay in Zion for a foundation a 
 stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation ; " 
 and in the Septuagint this verse concludes with : — " And he that 
 believes on him shall by no means be ashamed." So that taking 
 some of the teaching of each passage, the great twofold truth is 
 set before the Jews, that they cannot reject the counsel of God in 
 the giving of His Son with impunity. He is either their sanc- 
 tuary, into the protection of which they run by faith and are never 
 ashamed ; or He is their stone of stumbling and rock of offence, 
 against which they stumble and fall, and lose their caUing and 
 election, as the people of God. 
 
Chap. X.] A ZEAL OF GOD. 225 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 BEETHEEN, my heart's desire and prayer to Grod for 
 Israel is, that they might be saved. 
 
 2 For I bear them record ""that they have a !Actsxxi.20, 
 
 •' & xxw. 3, Gal. 
 
 zeal of Grod, but not according to knowledge. i- h.&it. 17. 
 
 ^ , See ch. ix. 31. 
 
 3 For they being ignorant of ^ G-od's righteous- b ch. i. 17, & 
 
 ness, and going about to establish their own 
 
 ix. 30. 
 
 1. "For Israel." So K., L., most Cursives; but N, A., B., D., E., F., G., P., a few 
 Cnrsives (6, 10, 17, 47, 71, 93, 137), d, e, f, g, Valg., Goth., Syriac, Copt., Arm., read, 
 " for them." 
 
 1. " Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, 
 that," &c. Why does the Apostle here interject, as it were, this 
 expression of strong desire? It is in the same spirit as the 
 sorrowful longing for the salvation of Israel expressed at the com- 
 mencement of the last chapter. No doubt because he had just 
 been forced to write severe things respecting Israel after the flesh ; 
 and so he strongly reasserts that, though his duty required him to 
 assert bitter and unwelcome truth, his affection for his countrymen 
 was as strong as ever. 
 
 " Desire " (evdoKia). No better translation can be suggested than 
 that of the Authorized. 
 
 •* That they might be saved " — literally, " for salvation," The 
 latter rendeiring is greatly to be preferred, as St. Paul had hitherto, 
 as much as possible, avoided reference to the particular salvation 
 of individual IsraeUtes, and dwelt on the casting away or accept- 
 ance of bodies or peoples ; and certainly the translation, " for sal- 
 vation," is more in accord with this than "that they may bo saved." 
 
 2. " For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but 
 not according," &c. A zeal of God, i.e., for His Unity — the purity 
 of His worship, as free from idolatry — the keeping of the Sabbath. 
 
 "Not according to knowledge." Knowledge here signifies 
 better, more perfect knowledge. The word is " epignosis," 
 whereas the common word, implying the less perfect knowledge, is 
 "gnosis." 
 
 3, 4. " For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going 
 
226 THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD. [Romans. 
 
 • righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righ- 
 
 e PhU. hi. 9. tCOUSUeSS of God. 
 
 about to establish. . . . For Christ is the end of the law for 
 
 righteousness to every one that believeth." God's righteousness 
 here is, of course, " the righteousness of God which is by faith of 
 Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe " (iii. 22). As 
 it is only attained to by believing in Jesus Christ, the Jews had it 
 not, because they rejected Christ. 
 
 The Apostle here seems to lay the blame on their ignorance ; but 
 it was not likely that God would cast away His ancient people for 
 mere ignorance. There must have been something wilful, some- 
 thing immoral, something even wicked in their ignorance ; and in 
 the words of Isaiah, cited by the Lord and by St. Paul, it is said : 
 " They have closed their eyes lest they should see with their eyes," 
 &c. — which impUes that it was very wilful, and very determined 
 indeed. 
 
 The key to solving the question seems to me in the words, 
 " have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God." 
 The righteousness which the Jew desired for himself was one 
 which, being mainly, if not altogether, external and negative, was 
 one which required no effort, no self-denial, no change of will. It 
 was a righteousness which, above aU, fell in with their exclusive- 
 ness and pride of privilege on which they could boast themselves, 
 and make a fair show, as they thought, before the sinners of the 
 Gentiles. It consisted in observing the letter of the ten command- 
 ments, and, if this was inconvenient, there were means of absolving 
 themselves from obedience even to the mere letter, as our Lord 
 denounces in the matter of the fifth commandment (Matthew xv. 
 3-8). Whereas the righteousness of God revealed in Jesus Christ, 
 and given in Him, was a very diffeient thing indeed. It was the 
 righteousness, not of mere external or negative commands, but of 
 the Beatitudes. It consequently required a new Hfe, and that the 
 life of a risen Christ in the man, and not merely enveloping him. 
 It required regeneration — a grafting into Christ, an union with 
 Him, internal and external. 
 
 Now this righteousness was, of course, by its very nature, in- 
 separable from Christ ; and the Jewish heads of Church and State, 
 the traditional leaders, as the high priests, and the self-appointed 
 leaders, as the Rabbis, Scribes, and Pharisees, had rejected Christ, 
 
Chap. X.] CHRIST THE END OF THE LAW. 227 
 
 4 For ^ Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to 
 every one that believeth. l¥*^*-«; ^^* 
 
 •^ Q&\. ui. 24. 
 
 crucified Him, and denounced all that believed in Him as apostate 
 and excommunicated. 
 
 The Jew, then, if he would be saved, must submit to this 
 righteousness which God ofi'ered him through Christ — this hum- 
 bUng, purifying, self- crucifying righteousness, and yet this exalting, 
 ennobhng, glorifying righteousness, for it raised him up far above 
 the world, subdued the sinfulness and consequent degradation 
 of his flesh, and made him a member of One at the right hand of 
 God. The acceptance of this, involving the submission of his whole 
 soul and spirit, the idea of which he detested, made him more and 
 more unwilling to accept Jesus as the Christ. He would not give 
 up his little righteousness, which was, indeed, a " dangerous 
 thing" to him, to receive the highest righteousness — the righteous- 
 ness of God ; and so the rejection of righteousness in the rejection 
 of Christ, whilst it seemed to assert morality, was a sign of the 
 deepest immorality, because the most deep-seated alienation from 
 God. 
 
 4. " For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every 
 one that believeth." The end of the law is, I think, the final pur- 
 pose of the law — the end for bringing about which the law was 
 given. 
 
 Now the Apostle in the last chapter had said, respecting God's 
 ordaining the law, that it was ordained unto life ; and though St. 
 Paul found it to be " unto death," that was not because of any fault 
 in the law, for he said that the law was holy, and the command- 
 ment holy, and just, and good ; but because of his own internal 
 sinfulness, which made the law weak (viii. 3). For what purpose, 
 then, did God give the law ? Evidently to prepare men for Christ. 
 God, above all things, desired righteousness — the highest righteous- 
 ness, even His own righteousness, if it could be communicated to 
 His intelligent creatures. To this end He gave the law which in 
 many ways prepared for Christ. Its types pointed to Him, its 
 Bacrifices foreshadowed His; but above all its moral precepts, if 
 men attempted to sincerely obey thsm, were as the schoolmaster 
 (paedagogus, Gal. iii. 24), to lead men to Christ. 
 
 So that Christ was the end of the law, in that if He was received 
 
228 THE MAN WHICH DOETH. [Romans. 
 
 5 For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the 
 
 • Lev. xviii. 5. law, ^ That the man which doeth those things shall 
 
 Neh.ix. 29. ,. \ 
 
 Ezek. XX. 11, hve by them. 
 
 13,21. Gal. ui. *^ 
 
 12. 
 
 5. Revised version, " For Moses writeth that the man that doeth the righteousness of 
 the law shall live thereby." 
 
 by men, and dwelt in them, then the righteousness of the law would 
 be fulfilled in them — they, of course, walking not after the flesh, 
 but after the Spirit. Christ, then, was the " end of the law " to 
 those who by faith received Him. Because they truly believed in 
 Him, they were grafted into Him, and they abode in Him, and 
 that which He Himself had promised was fulfilled in them : "■ He 
 that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much 
 fruit, for without me ye can do nothing " (John xv. 5). 
 
 5-8. " For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the 
 law . . . the word of faith which we preach." The Apostle in 
 these verses describes the easy attainment of the knowledge of the 
 Gospel in the same terms in which Moses had described the easy 
 attainment of the knowledge of the law. Both were nigh, both 
 were within reach of the comprehension of the most ignorant. 
 Both consisted — so far, that is, as these first principles were con- 
 cerned — in household words easily learnt and easily remembered. 
 *' Moses describeth the righteousness of the law ;" or, according to 
 another reading, '* Moses writeth that the man that doeth the 
 righteousness of the law shall live thereby." There were a few 
 plain precepts which no one could fail to understand: "Thou shalt 
 have no other gods but me ; " " Thou shalt not make any graven 
 image ; " " Thou shalt not kill — commit adultery — steal." And 
 the righteousness of the law consisted in the simple doing of these 
 precepts (Levit. xviii. 5), "Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and 
 my judgments, which, if a man do, he shall even hve in them." 
 But the law-giver, in another place (Deut. xxx. 11), describes the 
 nearness of the commandments, in that every Israelite, unless he 
 kept his ears from his very childhood wilfully shut, must know 
 these commandments. "For this commandment which I com- 
 mand thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. 
 It is not in heaven that thou shouldest say. Who shall go up for us 
 to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it ? 
 Neither is it beyond the sea that thou shouldest say, Who shall go 
 
Chap.X.] the word is NIGH THEE. 229 
 
 6 But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this 
 wise, ^Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend f Deut.xxx.ia, 
 
 *' 13. 
 
 into heaven ? (that is, to bring Christ down from 
 above ;) 
 
 7 Or, Who shall descend into the deep ? (that is, to bring 
 up Christ again from the dead.) 
 
 8 But what saith it ? ^ The word is nigh thee, ^ Deut. xxx. 
 even in thy mouth, and in thy heart : that is, the 
 
 word of faith, which we preach ; 
 
 over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and 
 do it ? But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in 
 thy heart, that thou mayest do it." The Apostle appHes this with 
 some alterations, and some words thrown in parenthetically, to the 
 Gospel : "The righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise." 
 Here "the righteousness of faith — meaning, I think, the dispensa- 
 tion of faith which he personifies — speaketh on this wise : Say not 
 in thine heart. Who shall ascend into heaven ? (that is, to bring 
 Christ down from above)." This means Christ is the righteousness 
 of God, because He is the Son of God ; and God has sent Him down 
 from heaven, and given Him to us to be our righteousness. We 
 have not to ascend into heaven to bring Him down. We have not 
 even to beseech God with earnest prayers to send Him. He is 
 sent. He has come down, He has taken our nature, He is ours. 
 
 7. " Or, Who shall descend into the deep ? (that is, to bring up 
 Christ again)," &c. The words in Deuteronomy corresponding to 
 this are (Sept.) : '' Neither is it beyond the sea, saying, Who wiU go 
 over for us to the other side of the sea, and take it for us, and 
 make it audible to us? " But the Apostle having in mind that 
 Christ went not over the sea, but descended into the abyss, turns 
 it, " Who shall descend into the deep," i.e., to bring up Christ from 
 the dead. The Resurrection of Christ has not to be brought about, 
 but is accomplished, aod is ours. We liave been even made par- 
 takers of it by faith and Baptism. 
 
 8. " But what saith it ? The word is nigh thee, even in thy 
 mouth," &c. The Apostle here appropriates the word of Moses 
 respecting the nearness of the law, to the nearness of the Gospel. 
 Only in the latter case it is not the word of mere precept — of mere 
 
230 IF THOU SHALT CONFESS. [Romaks. 
 
 h Matt. X. 32. 9 That ^ if thou shalt confess with thy mouth 
 
 Luke xii. 8. tiutt • -, • -, 
 
 Acts viii. 37. the Lord Jesus, and shalt beueve m thine heart 
 
 hard, powerless precept, but the word of faith — of the Gospel. 
 Believe God's goodness in the gift of His Son, believe that the Son 
 of God has come, has been crucified, has risen. If thou knowest 
 anything, thou knowest this. 
 
 9. " That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, 
 and shalt believe in thine heart," &c. The belief must come before 
 the profession, but the confession is here mentioned first, because 
 in the place of Deuteronomy quoted in verse 8, " In thy mouth," 
 comes before " in thine heart." And so the word or profession of 
 the Gospel must be in the mouth as well as in the heart. 
 
 9. " That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth," &c. "What is 
 .♦his confession? There can be little doubt that the common 
 symbol, or united confession of Christians, was something closely 
 answering to our Apostles' Creed. It certainly was conterminous 
 with the Gospel, and was consequently the Coming of the Son of 
 God in the flesh of the seed of David (Kom. i. 3) ; the death for our 
 sine, the burial, the Eesurrection (1 Cor. xv.), and the Judgment 
 (Eom. ii. 16). But chiefly was it the Eesurrection of the Lord. That 
 was the article on which, by St. Paul at least, by far the most stress 
 was laid, for it involved the truth of, or rather what was supernatural 
 in, all the rest. The death of a man by crucifixion might be, and, 
 indeed was, quite natural, but the Eesurrection raised the Death of 
 Christ into the highest sphere of the Divine and supernatural, for 
 it transformed a death which the Lord shared with innumerable 
 malefactors, into a Death which was all-propitiatory and all- 
 reconciling. 
 
 Now to confess this required at times the greatest possible moral 
 courage; but it must be done, for Christ had said, " Whosoever shall 
 confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father 
 which is in heaven ; but whosoever shall deny me before men, him 
 will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven " (Matth. x. 
 32). But there must have been some form of words embodying it, 
 which would distinguish Christ from all other men. Caiaphas and 
 Pilate would readily have confessed that they believed that there was 
 a man called Jesus, Who professed to be the Christ. So in fact could 
 every Jew, but what was this worth ? The truth which the Chris- 
 tian confessed was, that this crucified Jesus was the Christ of God, 
 
Chap. X.] THOU SHALT BE SAVED. 231 
 
 > that Grod hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be 
 saved. 
 
 and that this was proved by His Kesurrection, which showed also 
 that He was the very Son of God, and that He would judge all 
 men at the last day. 
 
 For the whole body of Scripture truth respecting the person and 
 work of Christ is involved in the one fact of His Eesurrection. 
 By it He was declared to be the Son of God with power, i.e., God's 
 own very Son, sharing, as every real proper son does. His Father's 
 Nature, and so a partaker of all His attributes. By it His Life on 
 earth was shown to be righteous, and His Death the ransom of a 
 world of sinners. By it, united with His Ascension, we are assured 
 that we have part in His Kisen Life, and in His Mediation and 
 Intercession, and that we shall be judged by Him at the last. A 
 true behef in the Eesurrection involves all this. The belief in the 
 Eesurrection of Christ with the heart, accepts all which it involves 
 respecting the glory and power of Jesus. 
 
 But it cannot be with the heart only. It must be also with the 
 Hps. It must be public and unreserved. Christ Himself requires 
 this when He says, " Whosoever shall confess me before men, him 
 will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven." It was 
 not by a secret doctrine whispered from one man to another, that 
 the Gospel was to be propagated, and men saved. It must be 
 proclaimed upon the house-tops. If God had thus interfered, and 
 Christ had thus humbled Himself, the least that men could do was 
 to confess this, and not be ashamed of it, but glory in it. Now 
 this at times demanded the utmost moral courage. To confess 
 that they received salvation and righteousness through a Jew, a 
 member of the most despised of nations, and through a Jew also 
 put to the vilest of deaths, was at times a work indeed — a work 
 demanding the most determined courage, and the most unreserved 
 self- surrender, even of life ; but the Lord Himself demanded it. 
 *' He that findeth his life shall lose it, and he that loseth his life 
 for my sake, shall find it " (Matth. x. 39). 
 
 But why is " confessing " put before "believing"? Evidently 
 because in the words which St. Paul had just quoted, "in thy 
 mouth," is put before "in thine heart." In the next verse the 
 Apostle observes the more logical order, putting " with the heart 
 man believeth," before " with the mouth confession is made." 
 
232 BELIEF — CONFESSION. [Romans. 
 
 10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness ; 
 and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 
 
 Let the reader notice what the believer has to believe. Many 
 have said in these latter days that he is now required to beheve 
 that Christ died for him in particular, and that his particular sins, 
 as distinguished from those of others, are blotted out ; but this is 
 what the Apostles neither say nor mean. They delight rather to 
 beheve, and to express the belief, that Christ died for all. "He died 
 for all." " He is the propitiation for our sins." " He himself bare 
 our sins." He died for me is an isolating, a separating formula. 
 He died for all, for the world, for the Church, for the many, is an 
 unifying one. But the Apostle passes on to the Kesurrection, and 
 the significance of this is given in this very Epistle, " To this end 
 Christ died, and rose again, and revived, that he might be Lord 
 both of the dead and living " (xiv. 9). 
 
 10. " For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness ; 
 and," &c. This verse, literally translated, is, " With the heart it is 
 believed unto righteousness, and with the mouth it is confessed unto 
 salvation." All belief, such as God acknowledges, must of necessity 
 be *' of the heart." This seems to exclude not an hypocritical or 
 feigned beHef only, but an otiose belief — a mere historical assent ; 
 and yet this historical assent must be held to, for where it exists 
 there is a foundation upon which, by God's grace, something may 
 be built. We naturally and rightly look upon the so-called nomi- 
 nal beHever as in a far different position to the man who rejects 
 altogether the Divine Origin and Mission of Jesus of Nazareth. 
 The latter is an infidel. He rejects of set purpose the Eevelation 
 of the love of God in the gift of His Son. He rejects the only 
 remedy worth speaking of for moral evil which has appeared in the 
 world. He deliberately puts from him the honour which God has 
 put upon our race, by causing His Son to take the nature of man 
 upon Him. 
 
 " With the mouth confession is made unto salvation." Is this 
 confession, then, to be confined to the repetition of creeds in public 
 worship, or even the reception of the Eucharist? No, by no means. 
 Wherever the name of Christ, or His Salvation, or His Godhead, 
 or Miracles, or Resurrection are called in question, there must be, 
 if we are to be faithful, a distinct counter assertion that what is 
 
Chap.X.] the scripture SMTH. 233 
 
 11 For the scripture saith/ Whosoever believetli ^i^^j^j^J; 
 on him shaU not be ashamed. |j"- 7. ch. ix. 
 
 12 For *" there is no difference between the k Acts xv. 9, 
 Jew and the G-reek: for ^ the same Lord over all lu^] ^' 
 
 "" is rich unto all that call upon him. ch^ ^^29^^* 
 
 1 Tim. ii. 5. 
 
 «" Eph. i. 7, & 
 
 ii. 4. 7. 
 
 said of Him in Scripture, or accepted by the Church, is true, and 
 for our Hfe, and that it is due to His Father Who gave Him, and 
 to Him Who was given, to beheve this, and confess the goodness of 
 God in the whole matter. Must, then, Christians constantly 
 obtrude sacred truth before all societies? No, they must remember 
 the words of the Lord, not to cast pearls before swine; but all 
 Christians, even imperfect ones, cannot be classed as swine, and we 
 must be on the watch for opportunities of asserting the providence 
 of God, and the truth of the Catholic faith, and, if need be, the 
 anger of God against the impenitent and unbelieving.^ 
 
 11. " For the Scripture saith. Whosoever beheveth on him shall 
 not be ashamed." The stress is to be laid on whosoever, i.e., no 
 matter of what nation or people he is : (the word, however, is not 
 in the original Hebrew or Septuagint). 
 
 " Shall not be ashamed," i.e., he shall not be ashamed in the 
 sense that those are who have relied on some promise, and are dis- 
 appointed. The Hebrew reads, "shall not make haste" (u;"'n^); 
 the Septuagint translators, by the alteration of a letter, changing 
 this into u;u\ 
 
 12, 13. '* For there is no difference between the Jew and the 
 Greek : for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon 
 
 1 May I be permitted here to reproduce what I have wi-itten on Luke xii, 9, page 319. 
 " In Christian England the confession of Christ has assumed a different form, but it equally 
 requires sincerity and courage to make it : a Christian has now to profess the creating 
 power of God amongst Evolutionists, and the all-raling providence of God in the company 
 of unbelieving Scientists. In some companies he has to brave the ridicule attached to the 
 belief in miracles. In the society of filthy-minded men he has to uphold the purity of 
 Christ, and in the society of worldlings he may be called upon to uphold the rooted antago- 
 nism between the world and Christ. These may seem very poor and mild ways of con- 
 fessing Christ compared to what our forefathers in the faith had to endure, but they all 
 try the mettle of the Christian. If he is faithful in confessing Christ in these compara- 
 tively little matters, he may have a good hope that God would, if called upon, give him 
 grace to make a bolder and more public dangerous confession, if it was laid upon him so 
 to do." 
 
234 WHOSOEVER SHALL CALL. [Romans. 
 
 13 "" For whosoever shall call ° upon the name of the Lord 
 
 n joeiii. 32. shall be saved. 
 
 Acta ix. 14. 14 How then shall they call on him in whom 
 
 they have not believed ? and how shall they be- 
 lieve in him of whom they have not heard ? and 
 
 r Tit. i. 8. how shall they hear p without a preacher ? 
 
 him . . . shall be saved." " There is no difference," i.e., notwith- 
 standing the difference in their privileges in the matter of revela- 
 tion, and of purer worship, they are all personally alike in the 
 sight of God, so that if they come to Him, forsaking their sins, they 
 will be alike accepted by Him. 
 
 13. "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord 
 shah be saved." " Call upon the name of the Lord," i.e., invoke 
 His help for deliverance from sin. Calling upon the Name of God 
 is the first and surest sign of behef in Him. The promise is taken 
 from Joel ii. 32, and forms part of a prophecy of the signs and 
 wonders which were to take place on the day of Pentecost. 
 
 To call upon the name of the Lord is the first thing we have to 
 do in the matter of our salvation. It is the first act of true behef, 
 and yet, rightly understood, it involves all religion. For to *' call 
 upon the name of the Lord," if we continue in this habit of calling, 
 *' implies right faith, to call upon Him as He is ; right trust in Him, 
 leaning upon Him ; right devotion, calling upon Him as He has 
 appointed ; right life, ourselves who call upon Him being, or be- 
 coming by His grace, what He wills " (Pusey's " Minor Prophets," 
 in loco). So that to call upon the name of the Lord includes the first 
 earnest call of the newly- awakened sinner, and the last com- 
 mendation of his spirit to his Father of the saint ripe for glory and 
 immortality. 
 
 14, 15. " How then shall they call on him in whom they have not 
 believed? . . . glad tidings of good things." These two verseR 
 entirely depend on the last verse, " whosoever shall call," &c., 
 which sets forth a benefit unspeakably great, and of the first im- 
 portance to every responsible being who has sinned, and who will 
 have to be judged. If the promise that aU who call upon God, and are 
 beard by Him, is for all, it ought to be proclaimed, i.e., preached, to 
 all, because the calling upon God on the part of men depends upon 
 their believing in Him, and their believing in Him depends upon 
 
Chap. X.] HOW SHALL THEY PREACH? 235 
 
 15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent ? as it 
 is written, "^How beautiful are the feet of them q isa.iii. 7. 
 
 Nah. 1. 15. 
 
 that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad 
 tidings of good things ! 
 
 15. ♦' That preach the gospel of peace." Omitted by K, A., B., C, Sah., Copt., .^th. ; 
 but retained by D., E., F., G., K„ L., P., and most all Cursives, d, e, f, g, Vulg., Syriac, 
 Arm., Goth. 
 
 their hearing about Him and His Salvation. But if they are to 
 hear about God and His Salvation, someone must preach it to 
 them — and the word "preach" signifies to "herald it to them," 
 to act like a herald in proclaiming the message of a sovereign ; and 
 if they are thus to be heralded, i.e., to receive the message of the 
 Sovereign's grace, the herald must be sent. Without laying undue 
 stress upon this mission of the herald, or the one sent, it is clear 
 that the Apostle himself considered it of primary importance that he 
 did not go to the Gentiles on the prompting of his own will. He 
 quotes before the Jews the words of Christ, "Depart, for I will 
 send thee far hence unto the Gentiles " (Acts xxii. 21). He is the 
 Apostle, or one sent of Jesus Christ. He is sent "not of men, neither 
 by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, Who hath raised 
 Him from the dead " (Gal. i. 1). We would not forbid anyone going 
 amongst the heathen to proclaim to them Christ; but we would bid 
 Buch persons remember that they seriously hinder the cause of 
 Christ if they multiply among the heathen the same divisions as 
 we have at home. St. Paul not only proclaimed to all who heard 
 him the same Gospel as did Peter and John, but he united men in 
 the same Church, for he was emphatically the Apostle of the Church's 
 Unity (1 Cor. i. 10-17 ; xii. 12, 25 ; Ephes. iv. 3-6). 
 
 " How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of 
 peace," &c. This passage is quoted, not as bearing upon the mis- 
 sion of heralds or preachers, but on their function of preaching ; for 
 it is to be remembered that, as far as we can gather, preaching or 
 heralding was a new thing — certainly the preaching of the Gospel 
 to all was absolutely new. Even in Isaiah, the evangehcal prophet, 
 there are comparatively few places which prophecy of an universal 
 proclamation of the Salvation of God. 
 
 Here, then, we have not only a prophecy of the fact that a day 
 
236 FAITH COMETH BY HEARING. [Romans. 
 
 r ch. iii, 3. 16 But "■ they liave not all obeyed the gospel. 
 
 » Is. liii. 1. For Esaias saith, "Lord, who hath believed f our 
 
 John xii. 38. ,, , o 
 
 IGr.tkehear- ll^eport? 
 
 ingo/us? 17 go then faith cometh by hearing, and hear- 
 
 II Or preach- .,.-, jpz-ij 
 
 ing? mg by the word of Grod. 
 
 Matt.^xliv.H, 18 But I say, Have they not heard? Yes, 
 
 MaS xvi!t5. verily, * their sound went into all the earth, *" and 
 
 ,?"c ^'^'J^' their words unto the ends of the world. 
 
 » See 1 Km. 
 
 xviii. 10. 
 
 Matt. iv. 8. 
 
 17. " The word of God." So A., K., L., P., most Cursives, Syriac ; bnt N, B., C, 
 D., E., several Cursives (6, 9, 23, 47, 49, 57, 67**), d, e, Vulg., Goth., Sah., Copt., Arm., 
 read " the word of Christ." 
 
 will come when preaching or heralding God's truth will be an 
 ordinance of God, but also witness borne to the glory and excellency 
 of that ordinance. The very feet of those who carry on their lips 
 such a message of redemption are beautiful. 
 
 16. " But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith," 
 &c. How was it, then, seeing that whosoever calleth upon the 
 Name of the Lord shall be saved — seeing that the feet of those who 
 pubHsh peace were actively going to and fro in their midst, that 
 they were not all saved ? Because they did not all beheve. The 
 same prophet who foretold the blessedness and extent of the 
 preaching proclaimed its rejection by the vast majority, so that he 
 commenced the most evangeUcal message which he was commis- 
 sioned to dehver with the words, "Who hath believed our report?" 
 as if few, very few, had accepted the message of salvation. 
 
 17. " So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word 
 of God." The " hearing " of this verse is the same as the " report " 
 of the last. " Who hath believed our hearing, that is, the thing 
 uttered by us with the intent that it should pierce men's ears ? " 
 
 18. " But I say. Have they not heard ? Yes, verily, their sound 
 went into all," &c. This is a quotation from Psalm xix., and is 
 spoken by David of the glories of the material heaven, which 
 preach to all men, if they will hear it, of the power and greatness 
 of God. But the Apostle here seems to use the words by accom- 
 modation. '* We may," he seems to say, " describe the almost 
 universal preaching of the Gospel in the words of the Psalmist, 
 
Chap. X.] ESAIAS IS VERY BOLD. 237 
 
 19 But I say, Did not Israel know? First Moses saith, 
 * I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are ^ Dent, xxxii. 
 no people, and by a ^ foolish nation I will anger y ^it! lii.^s! 
 you. 
 
 20 But Esaias is very bold, and saitb, ^ I was ^isa. ixv. i. 
 
 •^ ch. IX. 30. 
 
 found of them that sought me not ; I was made 
 manifest unto them that asked not after me. 
 
 speaking of the witness of the heavens to the glory of God, 
 ' Their sound is gone out into all lands, and their words unto the 
 ends of the world.' " 
 
 19. •' But I say, Did not Israel know ? First Moses saith, I will 
 provoke," &c. If any Israelite had carefully, and in a believing 
 spirit, considered the words of Moses thus quoted by the Apostle, 
 he would have assuredly gathered from them that God intended to 
 withdraw His favour from those who had hitherto been His people, 
 and to give it to those who had hitherto been not His people — as 
 Hosea expresses it (chap, ii.) a no-people. Now this exactly de- 
 scribed the state of things then existing. Thus Acts xiii. 44, 45, 
 "And the next sabbath day came almost the whole city together to 
 hear tlie Word of God. But when the Jews saw the multiti-des, 
 they were filled with envy," &c. So that the Jews had then before 
 their eyes the fulfilment of one of their most ancient prophecies — 
 the Jews shutting their ears to the message of salvation ; the Gen- 
 tiles, tiU then no-people, listening and believing, and the Jews full 
 of envy and jealousy, enraged at the reception, on the Gentiles' 
 part, of the very Gospel which they rejected. 
 
 Some of our leading critics are pronouncing the Apostle's cita- 
 tions inapposite ; on the contrary, no quotations could be more 
 apposite. The preaching in every city and its consequences bore 
 testimony to their truth. A foolish nation signifies, of course, an 
 idolatrous one, for what can exceed the folly of degrading the 
 Deity to the likeness of one of His creatures ? 
 
 20, 21. " But Esaias is very bold, and saith, ... a disobedient and 
 gainsaying people." The words of Isaiah express the same truth 
 as those of Moses. They first assert the acceptance of the Gentiles, 
 who had not sought God, and had not asked after Him, because 
 they had had no law from God — no prophetical messengers ; no 
 
238 HATH GOD CAST AWAY HIS PEOPLE? [Romans. 
 
 ■21 But to Israel he saith, ^ All day long I have stretched 
 • Is. ixv. 2. forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying 
 people. 
 
 appointed shrine or ordained ritual, in the due use of which they 
 might find God. Whereas the Jews had the law, the prophets, the 
 Temple, the ritual, by aU which God, as it were, stretched out His 
 hands to them, inviting them to come back to His Bosom. 
 
 CHAP. XI. 
 
 I SAY then, * Hath Grod cast away his people ? G-od forbid. 
 For •'I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, 
 Je/xxxi'^si^^' o/the tribe of Benjamin. 
 b 2 Cor. xi. 22. 2 Grod hath not cast away his people which 
 
 Phil. iii. 5. "^ ^ ^ 
 
 1. " I say then, Hath God cast away his people ? . . . Ben- 
 jamin." What the Apostle had been laying down seemed to lead 
 to this one conclusion, that Israel was finally cast away. 
 
 " No," the Apostle answers, "such a thing cannot be. I myself 
 am, in my own person, a proof to the contrary. I, who am a 
 Christian, separated to the Gospel of God, am also an Israehte of 
 the seed of Abraham and of the tribe of Benjamin. I belong to 
 one of the two tribes that continued, in a manner, faithful to God, 
 and to the house of David." 
 
 To this it might be replied, " You are but one." " No," the 
 Apostle, in effect, answers, " I am one of a vast number who keep 
 up the true continuity of the people of God." 
 
 2. " God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew," 
 &c. (or rather preordained). There is a difference of opinion 
 amongst expositors as to whom the Apostle alludes in the words, 
 "his people which he foreknew." Some suppose that he means 
 the elect remnant, the comparatively small minority who had 
 accepted Jesus of Nazareth ; others, that he means the fore- 
 ordained or elect nation (" Israel, mine elect "), but, after all, both 
 
Chap. XL] THE ELECTION OF GRACE. 239 
 
 •lie foreknew. Wot ye not what the scripture saith fof 
 Elias ? how he maketh intercession to Grod against « ch. viii. 29. 
 
 _ , . + Gt. in Elias f 
 
 Israel, saying, 
 
 3 ^Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and jq^,^'°-*"- 
 digged down thine altars ; and I am left alone, 
 
 and they seek my life. 
 
 4 But what saith the answer of God unto him ? 
 
 * I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, • 1 Kin. xix. 
 who have not bowed the knee to the image of 
 Baal. . 
 
 5 ^ Even so then at this present time also there ' ch. ix. 27. 
 is a remnant according to the election of grace. 
 
 amount to the same, for the nation, as a nation, was elected, but 
 God continued the election through the remnant. 
 
 The argument throughout this eleventh chapter is clearlyin favour 
 of the nation being the elect. Their casting away was but temporary, 
 and their final reinstatement sure and certain. 
 
 " Wot ye not what the Scripture saith of Elias ? . . . they seek 
 my life." EUas, or Elijah, supposed that he was the only servant 
 of God in apostate Israel, but God assured him that there were no 
 less than seven thousand who, like himself, had not bowed the 
 knee to Baal. 
 
 And the Apostle's inference from what he knew of the state of 
 the chosen people, was 
 
 5. " Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant," &c. 
 This may mean that the Jews or Israelites who believe in Christ, do 
 so because, through God's grace, they are chosen individually out of 
 the mass of unbelieving ones ; or it may mean that the election of 
 Israel to be the people of God, is continued, not through the un- 
 believing mass, but through the believing remnant. Both these 
 meanings, as I have shown, come to the same thing in the end. 
 But we will now take it as if the first hypothesis were the right one, 
 that the election is of individuals selected each one by himself out 
 of the mass. On account of what were they selected ? On what 
 principle? if it may be lawful, even for a moment, to entertain 
 the question. On what principle did God elect one Jew and not 
 another ? There must have been some reason, and that reason 
 
240 THE EEST WERE BLINDED. [Romans. 
 
 6 And * if by grace, then is it no more of works : other- 
 g ch. iv. 4, 5. wise srrace is no more grace. But ]f it he oi 
 
 Gal. V.4. See ^ . ^ j.x. ■ i 
 
 Deut. ix. 4, 6. works, then is it no more grace : otherwise work 
 
 is no more work, 
 h eh. ix. 31, & 7 What then ? ^ Israel hath not obtained that 
 
 which he seeketh for ; but the election hath ob- 
 2 Cor^'m'^ir'^' "fc^i^^^ i*' ^^^ *^^ ^6st were || blinded. 
 
 6. " But if it be of works, then it is no more grace : otherwise work is no more work." 
 This half of the verse omitted by N, A., C, D., E., F., G., P., 47 text, d, e, f, g, Vulg., 
 Sah., Copt., Arm.; but retained by B., partially L., almost all Cursives, and Syriacs. 
 
 something; in the man chosen, for it is not possible to imagine that 
 God chose them, as it were, at random ; or as men chose others, 
 by drawing lots. Now the Apostle tells us that it was by grace ; 
 but this, by the surest implication, demands that it should be 
 through faith, for faith is, with St. Paul, the means by which 
 grace reaches the soul. The remnant in the Apostle's days 
 entirely consisted of those who believed in Christ, and by this sub- 
 mitted themselves to the righteousness of God (x. 3). It was not 
 of works — that is, of the works of the law, or any other works, other- 
 wise it would not have been free and unmerited. It was of faith 
 that it might be by grace. 
 
 7. " What then ? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh 
 for," &c. What was it that Israel sought ? It may have been the 
 righteousness of God — i.e., justification, or it may have been the 
 Messiah ; but these may be reckoned the same, for they received 
 the righteousness of God only through the reception of the Messiah. 
 It was the same evil frame of mind which made them reject the 
 Messiah, and reject the righteousness of God. They rejected tbe 
 Messiah because they rejected with their whole souls the sort of 
 righteousness with which He desired to endow them — a righteous- 
 ness of poverty of spirit, of mourning for sin, of meekness, of earnest 
 craving for righteousness. All these the grace of the Son of God 
 would work in them, but they sought it not. They sought a worldly 
 Messiah, and they sought an outside righteousness, and so they ob 
 tained not that which God designed for them. 
 
 " The election hath obtained it." The election, as we gather 
 from some passages in the Acts of the Apostles, though by far the 
 minority, seems to have been considerable in numbers. Thus St. 
 
Chap. XL] THE SPIRIT OF SLUMBER. 241 
 
 8 (According as it is written, 'G-od liath given them the 
 spirit of II slumber, ^ eyes that they should not ^ is. xxix. lo. 
 see, and ears that they should not hear ;) unto 1 oeuT'xx^x^ 
 this day. L/v"br'' 
 
 9 And David saith, > Let their table be made a Man.'^ii. h 
 snare, and a trap, and a stumblingblock, and a i^ts'^vifi^k 
 recompence unto them : 27. 
 
 ^ 1 Ps. Ixix. 22. 
 
 9. " A trap." Properly a net. 
 
 James says to St. Paul (Acts xxi. 20) : " Thou seest, brother, how 
 many myriads (ixvpiddeg) of Jews there are which believe." " A great 
 company of the priests were obedient to the faith" (Acts vi. 7). 
 
 " And the rest were bHnded." 
 
 8-10. " According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit 
 of slumber .... bow down their back alway." The two verses 
 with the quotations they contain are proofs or illustrations of the 
 words, " The rest were hardened." Would God harden the hearts 
 of His people ? The Apostle cites the Jewish Scriptures to show 
 that such hardening had taken place in former times ; and, if so, it 
 was not contrary to God's justice or mercy, and might take place 
 now. 
 
 The first clause of verse 8 is from Isaiah xxix. 10, " The Lord 
 hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep," and the latter 
 clauses from Deut. xxix. 4. It may be weU to give some of the 
 context : " Moses called unto all Israel, and said unto them. Ye 
 have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land 
 of Egypt unto Pharaoh, and unto all his servants, and unto all his 
 land ; the great temptations which thine eyes have seen, the 
 signs, and those great miracles. Yet the Lord hath not given you an 
 heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day." 
 
 The ninth and tenth verses are taken from Psalm Ixix. : " Let 
 their table be made a snare and a trap (or net) and a stumbling- 
 block, and a recompence unto them. Let their eyes be darkened, 
 that they may not see, and bow down their back alway." This is 
 quoted from the Septuagint, and is in the Psalm, which is a Messi- 
 anic one, put into the lips of the Messiah Himself. For the verse 
 before these two is, " They gave me also gall for my meat, and in 
 ray thirst they gave me vinegar to drink." Our Lord Jesus Christ 
 Bpeaks in the Scriptures in two capacities : most frequently He 
 
242 LET THEIR EYES BE DARKENED. [Romans. 
 
 10 "" Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, 
 m Ps. ixix, 23. and bow down their back alway. 
 
 speaks as the Mediator, drawing all men to God through the accents 
 of tender invitation, but sometimes He speaks as the just and severe 
 Judge, and He does so in this Psalm. The people of God had com- 
 mitted a fearful crime in rejecting and crucifying Him, and though 
 a door of repentance was opened very wide to receive them back, 
 yet it was a very few who availed themselves of it, and the rest 
 were reprobated, and the Messiah here, from His very Cross of 
 Mercy, pronounces their doom. 
 
 Now these three verses contain a very fearful truth, which is, 
 that certain states of soul in which men are unable to receive the 
 plainest truths, or to receive the lessons of the plainest providential 
 dispensations, are penal. The key to this is in certain well- 
 known words of our Lord, three times, at least, repeated by Him : 
 "Whosoever hath, to him shall be given, but whosoever hath not, 
 from him shall be taken away, even that he hath " [or seemeth to 
 have, or thinks that he has — Luke] . (Matth. xiii. 12 ; Mark iv. 25 ; 
 Luke viii. 18.) 
 
 What is it which the disciples — representing the elect remnant of 
 the Jews — had, and which the body of the nation had not ? 
 Evidently this one thing, sincere, humble, childlike faith. God gave 
 to the Jews the Scriptures, which testified to two things in particular 
 — to the holy, righteous, and just character of God, and to the 
 Messiah, Whom He was about to send. 
 
 But these Scriptures were to the people to whom they were given 
 according to what the people were in themselves. Those who had 
 anything of God in them heard in these Scriptures the message of a 
 holy, pure, loving God, and they accepted the words of Scripture as 
 designed to lead them to Him, and conform them to His character, 
 and so, being thus prepared, they heard, in the accents of Christ, 
 the voice of One sent from God, and accepted Him. This is the 
 account or solution which our Lord gives of the difference between 
 Jew and Jew, why one accepted Him and another rejected Him. 
 (John viii. 47.) We cannot go deeper than this. We cannot penetrate 
 further into the secrets of God on the one hand, and of the sold on 
 the other. If we attempt to go further back and say that God has 
 made one soul to be of Himself, and another not, then stiU the 
 question remains, what induced God to make so exceedingly awful 
 
Chap. XL HARDENING. 243 
 
 a difference in souls fresh from His hand, that one should be for 
 eternal life, and another for eternal death ? and if we say that the 
 difference is in the soul itself, the answer is, that the soul did not 
 make itself — and so we must be content to treat the mystery as un- 
 thinkable. 
 
 But the teaching of these verses is something above and beyond 
 this. It is that not the future, but the present state of the souls 
 who abide in impenitence and unbeUef, is penal. The present 
 state is the consequence of the past. In the past history of the 
 soul it has accepted or rejected some action of God upon it, and its 
 present state is turned Godwards, or turned from God, accordingly. 
 But this is not owing to the past actions of the soul alone. It is in 
 a measure owing to God, for the seventh verse says, " The rest 
 were hardened ;" and the eighth, " God hath given to them the 
 spirit of slumber ;" and the ninth, that their table, i.e., their means 
 of sustenance, is a snare ; and the tenth, that their eyes are 
 darkened. So that here is the direct action of God in the matter 
 of their continuance in unbeUef. Now I humbly conceive that the 
 following — though I would not put it forth for a moment as the 
 solution of the mystery — may in some way serve to mitigate its 
 severity. Men receive illumination from God in two ways. They 
 receive it as they receive other mental light or knowledge, as we 
 say, intellectually, and they receive it morally. If they receive it 
 intellectually only, it has still a marvellous effect upon them ; for 
 a new world — the unseen and supernatural world — is opened out 
 to them. They have new views respecting the greatest things 
 which can occupy the human mind. But this accession of illumina- 
 tion has to be received morally. It has all to be acted upon in the 
 heart or will, and it rtiay not be, in numberless instances it is not, thus 
 acted upon. But the moment the truth, whatever it be, is revealed 
 to the mind or understanding, the moral reception of it is bound to 
 follow. If it does not — as in vast numbers of cases it does not 
 • — the man is in a worse condition. He has, to use the words of one 
 Apostle, "known the way of righteousness, and yet turned from 
 the holy commandment given to him;" to use the words of another, 
 " He holds the truth in unrighteousness." 
 
 Now our Lord had regard to this in this matter'of hardening the 
 hearts of the Jews, and closing their eyes ; and I believe that this 
 hardening on God's part was done, not in judgment merely, but in 
 judgment tempered with mercy. If the normal typical Jew of our 
 
244 THE NATION AS SUCH UNFIT. [Romans. 
 
 Lord's day had accepted Jesus as the Messiah, he would assuredly 
 have accepted Him wrongly and perversely. In his then state of 
 heart, without repentance, without any true faith in God as hating 
 sin and loving righteousness, without a particle of real spiritual 
 perception, he would have accepted Him, if he accepted Him in 
 His sacrificial aspect, as a mere substitute — the Messiah atoning for 
 his sins, whilst he continued in them ; if he accepted Christ as a 
 King it would be as a Jewish king, upholding the national carnal 
 ascendency, and with it the national pride and exclusiveness. 
 What is the significance of the ministry of St. John the Baptist ? It 
 is that the way of Christ has to be prepared, and that by repen- 
 tance ; or otherwise, Christ may be received to men's injury, be- 
 cause received carnally. So that it was not only in judgment, but 
 in some degree of mercy that God poured upon the unhumbled, 
 self-sufficient, carping, questioning Jews the spirit of slumber, and 
 gave them darkened eyes, and backs bowed down as in crouching 
 mental slavery. I have noticed (on p. 182) that the election of God, 
 as set forth in the Apostolical Epistles, was not so much to a place 
 in heaven, as to a place in His Church here, which Church was to 
 be the means whereby His manifold wisdom was to be made known 
 to the angelic world. Now nothing, humanly speaking, could have 
 been more disastrous than the admission of the Jewish nation as such, 
 in its then carnal state, into the mystical body ; to say the least, it 
 would have destroyed the catholicity of the Church from the very 
 first. Even the remnant of believing Jews seem never to have taken 
 cordially to the unreserved acceptance of the Gentiles ; and so, what 
 difficulties would there have been if the power of the whole nation 
 had been thrown into the scale of exclusiveness I 
 
 With respect to the future state of those thus hardened, we must 
 remember that if the Scriptures teach us one thing more than 
 another respecting the character of Almighty God, it is that He is 
 just, and so we may trust with the utmost confidence that no action 
 of His upon the soul, apart from its own action upon itself, will in 
 the least degree add to the severity with which its final impenitence 
 wiU be visited. 
 
 Such is the great argument respecting God's election and repro- 
 bation, but it is by no means concluded, for he proceeds : 
 
 11. "I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall?'* 
 i.e., that they should fall finally as a nation from the favour of 
 God. 
 
Chap. XL] THROUGH THEIR FALL. 245 
 
 111 say then, Have they stumbled tliat they should fall ? 
 God forbid : but rather ^ through their fall salva- "^ Acts xiu. 46. 
 tion %s come unto the G-entiles, for to provoke xxu. is, 21. 
 
 ^, ^ . , ^ &xxviii.24, 
 
 them to jealousy. 28. ch. x. 19. 
 
 11. "Have they stumbled that they should fall?" "Did they stumble that thejT 
 might fall ? " Revisers. 
 
 "God forbid; but rather through their fall salvation is come 
 unto the Gentiles," &c. The elect nation of Israel has not fallen 
 irrevocably from grace. This was far from God's intention in 
 hardening the majority, and giving them the spirit of slumber ; 
 rather the restraining of His mercies to them was but for a season, 
 and took place in order that He might enlarge His mercies by in- 
 viting the whole Gentile world to partake of them. It has been 
 noticed how the opposition of the Jews to the Gospel was the occa- 
 sion of its spreading the more widely. Thus on the persecution 
 under the preaching of Stephen, they that were scattered abroad 
 went everywhere preaching the word (Acts viii. 4). It was the 
 opposition of the Jews to the preaching of St. Paul in Jerusalem 
 which caused the Lord to send him at once to the Gentiles. It was 
 the opposition of Elymas which confirmed Sergius Paulus in the 
 faith. It was the jealousy and bitterness of the Jewish hatred 
 which in Antioch of Pisidia caused the whole city to crowd to hear 
 the Word of God (xiii. 44); but still all this does not meet the 
 difficulty, which is, why was it necessary that the Jews should re- 
 ject the truth before the Gentiles could be brought in to fill the 
 places at the Gospel banquet, vacant through their rejection of it ? 
 Has God in each generation only a certain number of souls, and 
 some must fall away before others can be brought in ? Not so. The 
 solution seems to be that the nation, as a nation, was not ripe for 
 serving the purposes of God in His Church. That generation in- 
 herited the evil of all before it : they had rejected the prophets, 
 they had rejected John and his preaching of repentance, which was 
 to prepare them for Christ : they had rejected the life, the example, 
 the patience, the meekness of Christ. If they had believed, after 
 a fashion, in Him, so as to have crowded into the Church, they 
 would have flooded it with their own pride and exclusiveness, and 
 in all probability through adherence to their prejudices and false 
 traditions, occasioned a schism in it from the very first. 
 
246 HOW MUCH MORE THEIR FULNESS? [Romans. 
 
 12 Now if the fall of them he the riches of the world, and 
 g Or, decay, the || diminishing of them the riches of the Glen- 
 tiles ; how much more their fuhiess ? 
 
 " To provoke them to jealousy." That is, to provoke the Jews 
 themselves. The Jews can only be provoked to jealousy at the 
 sight of Gentile Christians possessing their privileges. If those 
 Christians by their life and conduct exhibit manifestly the grace of 
 God which was forfeited by His ancient people, may not the con- 
 version of the Jews be indefinitely retarded by the irreUgion, the 
 coldness, and the divisions of Christians ? 
 
 12. " Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the 
 diminishing .... their fuhiess," &c. Various significations have 
 been given to this verse according as commentators have under- 
 stood the words " diminishing " and " fulness." It may mean with 
 Olshausen : " If so small a number of Israelites has been able to 
 effect so much in the Gentile world, what will Israel effect when 
 the whole body comes to act ? " Or it may be explained somewhat 
 in this way, " When the whole world sees the prophecies respecting 
 Israel fulfilled, and their pre-eminence restored to them, and the 
 nation all righteous, inheriting the land of Abraham, will they not 
 aU be compelled to acknowledge the God of Israel and accept His 
 Christ?" 
 
 Bishop Butler has a remarkable argument respecting the effect 
 of the example of a perfectly righteous nation, in which virtue 
 and wisdom rule all councils, and everyone, from the least to 
 the greatest, works for the public good. He concludes with the 
 words, " And thus, for instance, the wonderful prosperity promised 
 to the Jewish nation in the Scriptures, would be, in a great 
 measure, the consequence of what is predicted of them, that ' the 
 people should be aU righteous, and inherit the land for ever.' The 
 predictions of this kind, for there are many of them, cannot come 
 to pass in the present known course of nature ; but suppose these 
 come to pass, and then the prosperity promised must naturally 
 follow, to a very considerable degree." ("Analogy," ch. iii.) 
 
 13, 14. " For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the 
 apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine of&ce : If by any means,'* 
 &c. It is difficult to explain how St. Paul, by magnifying his office 
 of Apostle of the Gentiles, could aim at provoking to jealousy some 
 of his own countrymen, or, as he here more endearingly calls them, 
 
Chap. XL] I MAGNIFY MINE OFFICE. 247 
 
 13 For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmucli as °1 sun. the 
 apostle of tlie G-entiles, I magnify mine office : ° Acts ix. 15. 
 
 14 If by any means I may provoke to emula- xxii. 21.' ch. 
 tion them which are my flesh, and p might save i. ie. & ii. 2,* 
 
 - . , 7, 8. 9. Ephes. 
 
 some of them. ui. s. 1 Tim. 
 
 15 For if the casting away of them he the re- i'!'ii' "' ^^' 
 conciling of the world, what shall the receiving of l^^ ^°^^ 22* 
 them he, but life from the dead ? \ ^im. ivri'e. 
 
 ' James v. 20, 
 
 13. "For I speak." So D., E., F., G., L., most Cursives, d, e, f, g, Vulg., Goth.; but 
 H, A., B., P., four Cursives, 10, 31, 47, 73, Syr., Copt., Arm., read, " but I speak." 
 13. " The Apostle of the Gentiles." Revisers, " An Apostle of Gentiles." 
 
 his own flesh. In what way did he magnify his office or glorify his 
 \ tninistry ? Some have explained it as if he magnified his office by 
 N. lot confining his ministrations to the Gentiles, but by extending it 
 >yjo the Jews, inasmuch as the Lord had sent him not only to Gen- 
 tiles and kings, but also to the children of Israel. But may it not 
 be somewhat in this way ? "When the Jews saw a man, who was in 
 labours equal to or beyond the chiefest of the Apostles, laying himself 
 out heart and soul for the conversion of the Gentiles, would they not 
 be provoked to say within themselves. Why does this man lay him- 
 self out for the conversion of aliens ? If he is from God, as his 
 miracles seem to show, why does he not chiefly attach himself to 
 us ? And so this jealousy might lead to examination and so to faith, 
 and so some of them, if not all, might be saved. That such was 
 the effect of St. Paul's earnestness in asserting his mission to the 
 Gentiles upon those of the Jews who were somewhat wavering, and 
 inclined to believe, might surely have been the case. 
 
 15. " For if the casting away of them be the reconcihng of the 
 world," &c. It is impossible, here, to help reverting to Kom. v. 10 : 
 *' If when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death 
 of His Son, much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his 
 life." 
 
 How was the casting away of the Jews the reconciling of the 
 world? Somewhat in this way I conceive. The crucifixion of 
 Christ by which the world was reconciled to God was a great 
 national crime, and must be visited on the nation as such. It was 
 so visited. They bore the punishment of it in their national 
 rejection. God imputed to them the crime, but He imputed not 
 
248 THE ROOT — THE BRANCHES. [Romans. 
 
 16 For if ** the firstfruit he holy, the lump is also holy : 
 •1 Lev. xxiii. and if the root he holy, so are the branches. 
 
 10. Namb. "^ 
 
 XV. 16, 19, 20, 
 
 21. 
 
 the crime, but the atonement, to the Gentiles, and so the casting away 
 of the Jews was the reconciling of the world ; but when the crime 
 is, in a sense, atoned for by the casting away of Israel as a people, 
 and their subsequent miseries, then they are to be received back, and 
 their ultimate reception will be the occasion of such overflowing 
 mercies that it will be life to a dead world. 
 
 I do not think that either a mere spiritual revival, or the resur- 
 rection of the body, are alluded to in the terms " life from the dead." 
 It is rather an immense extension of the same life as accrued to the 
 world by the labours of the elect remnant, but commensurate with 
 the vastly greater number of the restored nation. 
 
 16. " For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy : and if 
 the root be holy," &c. We have in this verse, if rightly considered, 
 a twofold reason for the restoration of Israel. 
 
 (1.) From the use of the firstfruits of the dough. Thus in 
 Numbers xv. 20, " It shall be, that, when ye eat of the bread of the 
 land, ye shall offer up an heave offering unto the Lord. Ye shall 
 offer up a cake of the first of your dough for an heave offering : as 
 ye do the heave offering of the threshingfloor so shall ye heave it." 
 The heave offering they offered was assumed to consecrate the whole 
 of the dough of the year to the Lord. 
 
 (2.) From the analogy of the root. The plant is what it is be- 
 cause of its root. The term holy, of course, does not mean moral 
 or spiritual holiness, but dedication to God. Under the Jewish 
 dispensation the altar, the vestments of the priest, the oil of anoint- 
 ing, were considered holy, because dedicated to the service of God. 
 This signification of relative holiness survives in the New Testa- 
 ment. The Christians of any particular place were accounted holy 
 people or saints, not because they were all pure in heart, but 
 because they were dedicated or separated to God that they might 
 be so. 
 
 And now what is the dough made into the offering of firstfruits, 
 and what is the root ? They cannot well be both the same (except 
 in one way), for the cake made from the dough is the opposite of 
 the root. It is the ultimate production of the root. The root is in 
 the ground, and bears the stem, the branches, the flower, the fruit, 
 
Chap. XI.] A WILD OLIVE TREE. 249 
 
 17 And if ' some of the brandies be broken off, •' Jer. xi. le. 
 • and thou, beinsr a wild olive tree, wert erraffed " Acts ii. 39. 
 
 " Ephes. ii. 12, 
 
 13. 
 
 and then the fruit by being made into dough becomes serviceable 
 to man. 
 
 Now the dough, or heave offering, taken from it, seems to signify 
 the elect remnant. Taken from the lump, or body of the people of 
 Israel, they were taken by God as the firstfruits to Himself and to 
 Christ ; and if they were then taken and accepted by God, so will 
 all Israel be when God's time comes; for these firstfruits, the 
 Apostles, the first disciples, St. Paul, and the early converts, 
 sanctified the nation, as the offering of the firstfruits of the dough 
 sanctified all the bread of the year. 
 
 But what is the root ? Evidently Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in 
 whom God chose the Jewish race, and for whose sake and not their 
 own they were accepted and loved. Now is it possible for these 
 two things, so far apart, to coalesce ? Yes. They coalesce in Christ. 
 No Christian can so much as think of the Jewish remnant without 
 thinking of Him Who called the Apostles His brethren. So far 
 as His human nature was concerned He was the fruit of the Jewish 
 system ; His parentage. His education. His worship were Jewish, 
 " Of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came." 
 
 And He is equally the root. If He was the root and the offspring 
 of David, so was He of Abraham. From Him came the call, the 
 election, the law, the Presence in the Temple, the promises. And 
 yet not in an exclusive sense, for He was the firstfruits of Israel, 
 but also the firstfruits of humanity. He was the Eoot of David 
 and of Abraham, but also of all human nature, " He is before all 
 things, and by Him all things consist." (Coloss. i. 17.) 
 
 17, 18. " And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, 
 being a wild olive tree, .... but the root thee." The Apostle 
 here compares the Gentiles to a wild, uncultivated olive tree, i.e., 
 the oleaster, and the Jewish stock, derived from Christ, to a good 
 olive tree, of which some of the branches were broken off, and 
 branches of the wild oUve grafted into their place, thus partaking 
 of the richer sap and goodness of the cultivated tree. 
 
 Attention has been drawn to the fact that, in the process of 
 grafting, the branch from the good stock, whatever it be, is always 
 grafted on the wild stock ; but sufficient evidence is produced from 
 
250 THE KOOT AND FATNESS. [Romans. 
 
 in II among them, and with them partakest of the root and 
 II Ot,for them, f atness of the olive tree ; 
 
 early writers on husbandry to show that it was the practice to graft 
 branches of the oleaster into the cultivated ohve, though not for the 
 sake of the engrafted branches, but for the original good tree which 
 was supposed to benefit by it.^ We need not, however, press this too 
 closely. St. Paul has to do with the fact that branches from the 
 wild tree were grafted into the cultivated tree, and this was enough 
 for his purpose. The branches so engrafted did partake of the 
 superior richness of the juices of the good olive. Augustine notices 
 this seeming incongruity in the figure, and explains it by the term 
 " contrary to nature," Trapa (pvmv, " Quis inseret oleastrum in 
 oliva? Oliva solet in oleastro, oleastrum in oUva nunquam vidimus. 
 Quisquis fecerit non inveniet baccas nisi oleastri. Hoc ostendens 
 Apostolus ad omnipotentiam Dei revocans, *' Si tu . . . . contra 
 naturamy (Aug. on Psalm Ixxii., quoted in Wordsworth.) It is clear, 
 however, from the testimony of Columella and Palladius, that 
 Augustine was mistaken in supposing that branches of the oleaster 
 were never grafted into the ohve. The figure is no doubt used 
 by St. Paul after Jeremiah, " The Lord called thy name a green 
 olive tree, fair and of goodly fruit : with the noise of a great tumult 
 he hath kindled fire upon it, and the branches of it are broken." 
 (Jer. xi. 16.) 
 
 And now what is this olive tree from which certain branches, the 
 unbeheving Jews, were broken off, and into which certain believing 
 Gentiles were inserted? It cannot, I think, be the family of Abra- 
 ham, because the Gentiles, though made the children of Abraham 
 by faith, were not grafted into Abraham. They could not be said, 
 without something approaching to blasphemy, to receive of the 
 root and fatness of Abraham. No, a Greater than Abraham is 
 here. And yet we have a difficulty in saying that the olive tree 
 is Christ Himself, inasmuch as the branches broken off were never 
 in Him. May not the olive tree signify the Church of God ? or rather, 
 
 1 Thus Columella, " De Re Rustic^," v. 9 : " Solent etiam quamvis laetse arbores frnc- 
 tnm non afferre. Eas terebrari gallica terebra convenit, atque ita in foramen viridem 
 taleam oleastri arete demitti. Sic velut inita arbor faeenndo semine fertilior extat." So 
 ♦•Palladius de Insitione," xiv. 53, 54 : " Faecnndat sterilis pingnes oleaster olivas, et quae 
 non novit munera ferre docet," quoted in Philippi. 
 
Chap. XI.] BOAST NOT. 251 
 
 18 * Boast r.ci :i^:nst the branches. But if thou boast, 
 thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. * i cor. x. 12. 
 
 19 Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, 
 that I might be graffed in. 
 
 perhaps, the body abiding in the favour of God which in a certain 
 sense was one both in the times before and after Christ ; though 
 by the coming of Christ, He, rather than Abraham, became its 
 centre or stem ? 
 
 18. " Boast not against the branches .... but the root thee." 
 Though boasting was usually the fault of the Jews, yet it is too 
 probable that the Gentile believers would recriminate, and urge 
 against the Jews their exclusion, brought about, according to this 
 Epistle, that room might be made for the Gentiles. St. Paul meets 
 this by a remarkable assertion of the supreme place of the Jew in 
 the Divine Economy. "We do not do justice to this place if we 
 narrow it to the reception of the Gentiles among the spiritual seed 
 of Abraham — it rather seems to mean that the whole Christian 
 Economy has its root or foundation in the Jewish. Not only was 
 Abraham the spiritual father of all the faithful ; not only was the 
 Bedeemer a Jew, and all the Apostles and first teachers of Chris- 
 tianity, Jews, but every one of the books of Scripture, both of the 
 Old and New Testament, was written by Jews. The book of Psalms 
 was the Christian hymn-book for centuries before any Christian 
 author, Greek or Latin, contributed a word to the devotional store. 
 It seems as if for some mysterious reason it was given to the Jewish 
 mind only to apprehend God, His unity, His will. His holiness. 
 
 19-23. We now come to the conclusion of the argument respecting 
 the defection of Israel and the call of the Gentiles. It may be 
 properly said to end with verses 23 or 24. For the remainder of 
 the chapter is a prophecy of what was then in the very far future. 
 These verses are of very great importance, as they teach us the pro- 
 found differences between the views of the Apostle on this whole 
 matter, and those which in modem times have been attributed to 
 him. It is quite clear that the Apostle never could have written 
 these verses if he had entertained the views of a modern Calvinist 
 or Predestinarian who held that grace or saving faith is indefectible, 
 for here we are taught that those who are taken out of the wild 
 natural olive and are grafted into the good olive tree and " stand 
 
252 THE CONCLUSION. [Romans. 
 
 by faith," have to take warning by God's severity to the members 
 of the older election who were broken off because of unbelief, and 
 must take heed to continue in His goodness, otherwise the same 
 severity will overtake them. 
 
 It is remarkable that the Apostle, who had hitherto been speaking 
 respecting bodies of men, now for the first time begins to indi- 
 viduaUze: "Thou wert graffed in," "If thou boast," "Thou wilt 
 say," " I might be graffed in," " Thou standest by faith," " Take 
 heed lest he spare not thee," " Toward thee goodness," " If thou 
 continue." The change is most marked: there has been as yet 
 nothing Uke it throughout the Epistle, and as far as I can see, it 
 can teach but one lesson, that however God may secretly foreknow 
 or determine upon the salvation of individuals, that foreknowledge 
 or predetermination is secret to us — we cannot rely upon it so as 
 to say " I shall certainly be saved," — so as to put aside fear and 
 hearty endeavours to continue in His goodness. For, consider, 
 how can you describe the safety of a particular Christian at any 
 time in more distinct terms than that " he stands by faith," and 
 that whilst God exhibits to certain other persons who have fallen 
 away, severity, to him God exhibits goodness. Now in this goodness 
 he has to continue, otherwise he will be cut off after the example 
 of others who did not continue in God's goodness and were cut off. 
 The Apostle here follows up the teaching of our Blessed Lord 
 Himself in the parable of the vine and its branches. " I am the 
 Vine, ye are the branches." " If a man abide not in me, he is cast 
 forth as a branch and is withered." 
 
 Now from aU this it seems to be abundantly manifest that the elec- 
 tion which St. Paul has in view all through this long argument is not 
 one which has for its chief element indefectible grace, or indefectible 
 faith, just as we have shown that it cannot be an election in which 
 God's will overpowers that of the individual, so that he should be 
 in the position of mere lifeless clay, in which the exercise of will, 
 or freedom, or acquiescence, or rejection, cannot be taken into 
 account. 
 
 Again, according to St. Paul's view, there was a national election, 
 which, as we shall see, was in a sense absolute as regards the 
 nation or Church (which might be regarded as identical), but 
 was consistent with the falling away of individuals, and in our 
 Lord's time many did so fall — in fact, the great majority. By 
 their fall a gap, as it were, was left in the sides of the goodly 
 
Chap. XI.] BE NOT HIGHMINDED. 253 
 
 20 Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and 
 thou standest by faith. "" Be not highminded, " ch. xii. le. 
 
 - , ^ - * Prov.xxviii, 
 
 but ^ fear : 14. isai. ixvi. 
 
 2. Phil. ii. 
 _ 12. 
 
 olive tree, which was filled up, not by a nation, but by indi- 
 vidual believers, who accepted Christ, and so stood by faith. Now 
 we should have supposed that such, having accepted Christ willingly, 
 and exa animo, and in the face of very great danger to Hfe and 
 property, and very bitter persecutions from their heathen fellow- 
 countrymen, would possess, if any did, indefectible faith; but, 
 according to the Apostle, it was not so. He speaks to them words 
 of serious warning, much more serious than we should have sup- 
 posed they needed. We will now examine each of these verses 
 singly. 
 
 19. " Thou wilt say then, the branches were broken off that I 
 might be graffed in." This seemed to be the fact, but it was not so. 
 The truth really was the branches were broken off, and they were 
 graffed in. The branches were broken off for no other reason than 
 their refusal to believe in Him Whom God sent, and the Gentiles 
 were graffed in, in accordance with the Lord's saying, " Go out 
 into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in, that 
 my house may be filled." 
 
 20. " Well ; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou 
 standest by faith," &c. "Thou standest by faith." Nothing 
 stronger can be said of anyone's faith than that he stands by it ; 
 he stands justified. " We have access by faith unto this grace wherein 
 we stand" (v. 2). " By faith ye stand " (2 Corinth, i. 24). Some, 
 remarking on this passage, have said, that by faith the Apostle 
 here means professed faith, and not real faith. But how can men 
 stand by anything but real faith ? Professed faith, if not sincere, 
 must be hypocritical, or, at least, worthless ; but the faith here is so 
 availing, that because of it God exhibits His goodness to them, as 
 distinguished from those to whom He exhibits severity. 
 
 " Be not highminded," &c. As if God had some personal pre- 
 ference for thee apart from thy love, or godly fear, or good works. 
 
 ** But fear." The Lord, in the most solemn, earnest way, bids 
 His own Apostles fear : " I say unto you, my friends. Be not afraid 
 of them that kill the body — fear him which, after he hath killed, 
 hath power to cast into hell ; yea, I say imto you, fear him." 
 
254 GOODNESS AND SEVERITY. [Komans. 
 
 21 For if Grod spared not the natural branches, take heed 
 lest he also spare not thee. 
 
 22 Behold therefore the goodness and severity of Grod : on 
 them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, ^if 
 7 1 Cor. XV. 2. thou continue in his sroodness ; otherwise ^ thou 
 
 Hebr. iii. 6, «. 
 
 14. also shalt be cut off. 
 
 z John XV. 2. 
 
 21. "Take heed lest he also spare not thee;" rather, " Neither will he spare thee," 
 Revisers, after a. A., B., C, D., F., G., L., P., and many (seventy-five) Cursives. 
 
 22. "Toward thee, goodness." H, A., B., C, D., d, Valg., Cop., Arm., read, "good- 
 ness of God ; " but F., G., L., most Cursives, Goth., Syr., .^Eth., as in Rec. Text. 
 
 (Luke xii. 4, 6.) Again, " Work out your own salvation with fear." 
 (Phil. ii. 12.) Again, " Pass the term of your sojourning here in 
 fear." (1 Pet. i. 17.) And yet this fear is in no way inconsistent 
 with rejoicing in God: " Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice unto 
 him with reverence," nor with the highest comforts of reUgion, for 
 the primitive churches, " walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the 
 comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiphed " (Acts ix. 31). 
 
 21. " For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed," &c. 
 The use of the word " natural " applied to the elder election is re- 
 markable. The promises of God to Abraham and to his seed were 
 aU out of the usual course of nature, but the length of time which 
 had elapsed since the original call, had made the reception of grace 
 on the part of the Jews, in a measure, natural in the sense of ac- 
 cording to the course of things. And if we believe in God as the 
 Creator, so it is with all natural sequences. God first established 
 them by His fiat, and it is only because of their long and uninter- 
 rupted continuance that they are now called natural. 
 
 " Take heed, lest he also spare not thee." The natural, -i.e., the 
 older branches, might be supposed to have a sort of natural claim 
 which the engrafted branches had not. 
 
 22. " Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God : on 
 them which fell," &c. " On them which fell," i.e., by not accepting 
 Christ, which we have seen arose from the hard and impenitent 
 state of their hearts. 
 
 " But toward thee, goodness," &c. In the gift of the Holy Spirit 
 issuing in their conversion and continuance in the faith to that 
 present time. Again I desire the reader to mark how he speaks of 
 those who fell in the plural number, but to the Gentile singly, "to- 
 ward thee, goodness." 
 
Chap. XL] GOD IS ABLE. 255 
 
 23 And they also, ^ if they abide not still in unbelief, shall 
 be graffed in : for God is able to graff them in » 2 Cor. iu. le. 
 again. 
 
 24 For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild 
 by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good 
 olive tree : how much more shall these, which be the natural 
 branches, be graffed into their own olive tree ? 
 
 " If thou continue in his goodness," &c. If thou continue in faith — 
 in the faith, in faith working by love. Kather, perhaps, in Christ, 
 according to the Lord's words, " Abide in me and I in you," or 
 those of His servant, " And now, httle children, abide in him." 
 
 This, then, is the conclusion of this long and deep argument 
 respecting the election and the casting away of God's ancient 
 people. Not knowing the whole of the Apostle's mind upon this 
 great mystery, inasmuch as in these chapters we have nothing like 
 a set treatise upon it, conceived and planned to elucidate sixteenth or 
 seventeenth century controversies, we can only say that the Apostle 
 says nothing respecting indefectible grace or faith, that for some 
 reason or other he seems carefully to exclude from his purview 
 the final condition of individual souls, on or after the Day of 
 Judgment, and that the acceptance or rejection of persons, so far 
 as it is foreseen, is because of their character. 
 
 23. " And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be 
 graffed in . . . again." Notice here how the Apostle does not say, 
 "they if they abide not in unbelief shall be received into heaven," 
 but " shall be graffed in again," that is, into the olive-tree of God's 
 favour, or family, or into His Church, if that is, as is most probable, 
 the olive-tree of St. Paul corresponds to the Vine and the branches 
 of his Divine Master. 
 
 " God is able to grafif them in again." What is the meaning of 
 this reference to God's power ? We should rather have expected 
 a reference to His willingness. It probably means " consistently 
 with His justice." They have not so sinned, but that God can, con- 
 sistently with His moral attributes, restore them. 
 
 24. " For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree . . . graffed into 
 their own olive tree ? " Gentilism, as opposed to Judaism, is here 
 called *' wild by nature." The Jews, from the time of Abraham 
 to that of Christ, had been well cared for by God. They were His 
 
256 I WOULD NOT HAVE YOU IGNORANT. [Romans. 
 26 For I would not, brethren, tliat ye should be ignorant 
 
 vineyard (Isaiah v. 1-8 ; Matth. xxi. 33), His fig-tree (Lukexiii. 6), 
 and so might be called a good olive tree, in the sense of a cultivated 
 one. The Gentilets, on the contrary, had been left to themselves, 
 having only to guide them that light of nature which, though it 
 comes from God, is exceedingly deficient in the matter both of 
 clearness and authority, as compared with the light of Eevelation 
 vouchsafed to the Jews through Moses and the prophets. Now, 
 inasmuch as the Eevelation of God in Moses and the prophets was 
 to prepare the Jews for Christ, one may say that naturally, i.e., ac- 
 cording to the settled course of God's providential dealings, Chris- 
 tianity, or the Christian Church, belonged to Israel, as the olive tree 
 tended by God, and those who were taken out of Gentilism, and 
 grafted into the Church, were so treated iirapd (pvaiv, beside nature, 
 out of the usual course of nature. Philippi's comment is excellent : 
 " The Jews, as natural descendants of the patriarchs, have a prior 
 right, confirmed by Divine choice and promise, to share in the 
 Messianic kingdom and salvation, just because their forefathers 
 received the promise on behalf of them — their posterity — as well as 
 on their own account. If God in this way placed BQimself in a 
 closer relation to Israel, He will the more certainly maintain this 
 relation, and make Israel partaker in the blessing pertaining to it, 
 since He Himself endowed with this blessing the Gentiles, who are 
 further removed from Him." 
 
 25. " For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of 
 this mystery . . . fulness of the Gentiles be come in." What is 
 the mystery ? It is that blindness has (in part) happened unto 
 Israel ; in other words, that a nation whom God has chosen to be 
 His own people are incapable of discerning as others may, and do, 
 discern, truths of God which are by right pecuharly theirs, and 
 that this blindness is not natural, but an infliction on God's part by 
 way of penalty for their national rejection of His Son and His 
 Spirit. This is, in itself, a most mysterious action on the part of God, 
 and never can be understood by us in our present state, in which 
 the mode and manner in which God enlightens the mind, or pre- 
 vents it from receiving light, is wholly unknown to us, and is a 
 very deep moral mystery, as well as a mental one.^ It is expressed 
 
 1 As this is the first instance of the oct-urrence of this word " mystery" in the Epistles, 
 
Chap. XL] WISE IN YOUR OWN CONCEITS. 257 
 
 of this mystery, lest ye should be ''wise in your own 
 
 conceits ; that ^ || blindness in part is happened ^ ch. xu. le. 
 
 to Israel, "^ until the fulness of the Gentiles be co^n'^i'ii.'ii. 
 
 come in. " °''' '^«'-^««««- 
 
 d Lake xxi. 
 
 24. Rev. vii. 9. 
 
 in different language in 2 Cor. iii. 15, " But even unto this day, 
 when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart." 
 
 " Lest ye should be wise in your own conceits," ^.e., lest yo 
 should think that the deepest things of God are on a level with your 
 understandings. The Gentiles might say, " It is through our intel- 
 lect, our wisdom " [1 Cor. i. 22, " The Greeks seek after wisdom"] , 
 **that we have attained to the knowledge of Christ ; and that these 
 stupid, besotted Jews have not, is through their dulness of compre- 
 hension." " No," the Apostle says, " what you have received is 
 through faith, a gift of God, and, for their sins bhndness has 
 happened unto them. It is a judicial bhndness, and is only for a 
 time." 
 
 *' Until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in." Our Blessed 
 Lord is reported in St. Luke's Gospel to have thus expressed Him- 
 self: " And they [the Jews] shall fall by the edge of the sword, and 
 
 many commentators give a definition of it which goes far, if accepted, to remove all 
 mysteryfrom the deepest truths of Christianity, and place them entirely within the reach 
 of the ordinary human intellect. Thus Philippi, " Paul uses the word ' mystery ' to desig- 
 nate the fact he is about to announce. He does not mean by this, as might be thought 
 from the meaning this term has taken in ecclesiastical language, that this fact represents 
 something incomprehensible to reason. In the New Testament the word denotes a truth 
 or fact which can only be known by man through a communication from above, but 
 which, after this revelation has taken place, falls into the domain of the understanding." 
 But, we must ask, is it a fact that the truth or fact, after it is revealed, falls into the 
 domain of the understanding? Take what St. Paul calls the mystery of the Gospel. Is 
 it a fact that any one article of the great mystery of godliness is level with human com- 
 prehension? That the Word was made flesh — that after being so made He could say, "land 
 my Father are one " — that His Death could atone for all sin — and that by His Resurrection 
 He could impart His own Life to all that receive Him — that His Body was so spiritualized 
 that it could pass through the closed door — that in this Body He ascended far above ah 
 heavens — that in Him dwells the fulness of the Godhead bodily — that He has a knowledge 
 of mankind so infinite that He can understand and sympathize with all their wants, and 
 intercede with His Father for each one in particular — surely none of these revealed 
 facts can rightly be said to fall into the domain of the understanding. By being revealed 
 they lose none of their real inherent mystery. And so with the mystery that " blindness 
 in part has happened unto Israel." What the vail on their hearts really is, how God 
 draws it over their hearts, how God holds it over them, and how God removes it and 
 why He does all this, and does not take some other way of pimishing them, is an amaaing 
 mystery. 
 
 8 
 
258 ALL ISRAEL SHALL BE SAVED. [Romans. 
 
 26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, 
 isai. lix. 20. ^ There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, 
 
 See Ps. xiv. 7. 
 
 and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob : 
 
 shall be led away captive into all nations : and Jerusalem shall be 
 trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be ful- 
 filled." (Luke xxi. 24). Daniel also seems to prophesy the resto- 
 ration of the Jews, both to spiritual belief and to temporal prospe- 
 rity, in the words, " And at that time shall Michael stand up, the 
 great prince which standeth for the children of thy people ; and there 
 shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a 
 nation even to that same time : and at that time thy people shall be 
 delivered, every one that shall be found written inthebook"(xu. 1). 
 All these three places, in St. Paul, in St. Luke, and in Daniel, seem 
 to refer to the same time — a time which, perhaps, St. Paul deemed 
 to be closer at hand than it really was. 
 
 The fulness of the Gentiles does not seem to refer to the whole 
 body of the Gentile nations, but to the true elect people of God 
 amongst them. 
 
 26. "And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written. There 
 shall come," &c. This verse, fairly interpreted, can, it seems to 
 me, have but one meaning — that there will be a restoration of Israel, 
 as a nation, to their lost privileges as the ancient people of God. 
 Israel in this verse cannot possibly mean the whole Catholic Church, 
 Jew and Gentile, considered as one body in Christ, in which there 
 is neither Jew nor Greek, because the Apostle has been dwelling 
 on the mystery of the acceptance of the elect Gentiles, and their 
 being grafted into the Body, and then of the Jews or Israel as 
 broken off, and now he predicts the restoration of those broken off, 
 and prophesies that it will be national in contrast with the blind- 
 ness, which has been only in part. There will thus be salvation, 
 not of a mere remnant, but of the whole people ; and as the matter 
 is clearly in the future, and so in its details known only to God, I 
 do not see that we have any right to limit that to which God has 
 set no limits. 
 
 There are several distinct prophecies that the conversion or re- 
 generation of the nation will be of a kind such as the world has 
 never seen before. Thus Isaiah Ix. 21, " Thy people shall be all 
 righteous : they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of my 
 planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified." And 
 
Chap. XL] THIS IS MY COVENANT. 259 
 
 27 ^For this is my covenant unto them, when f isai. xxvii. 9. 
 
 *' _ Jer. xxxi. 31, 
 
 I shall take away their sins. &c. Hebr. 
 
 •^ ^iii. 8. & X. 16. 
 
 again Isaiah Ixvi. 8, " Who hath heard such a thing ? who hath 
 seen such things ? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one 
 day ? or shall a nation be born at once ? for as soon as Zion tra- 
 vailed, she brought forth her children." Again, in the last verses 
 of several of the Minor Prophets, a restoration of Israel is foretold, 
 compared to which the restoration after the Babylonish captivity 
 seems as nothing. Thus the last verses of Hosea xiv. 4, " I wiU 
 heal their backsliding, I will love them freely : for mine anger is 
 turned away from him. I will be as the dew unto Israel : he shall 
 grow as the hly, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon." And Joel 
 iii, 21, " I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed : for the 
 Lord dwelleth in Zion." So also with the last words in the pro- 
 phecies of Amos, of Obadiah, of Micah, of Zephaniah, of Zechariah, 
 and especially Hosea iii. 5, to which I have before referred. 
 
 There may be difficulties as to the time of this restoration and 
 regeneration. Sometimes it seems connected with the Second Ad- 
 vent and the Judgment. Some have speculated wildly upon it and 
 have pronounced it Pre -Millennial or Post-Millennial : some that it 
 will take place in the present course of things, others, as Bishop 
 Butler, that *' These things cannot come to pass in the present 
 known course of nature." But I cannot see that these difficulties, 
 which are all in our own minds, and are entirely owing to our want 
 of knowledge of the future, can affect declarations in Scripture very 
 plain and very numerous. 
 
 " As it is written. There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and 
 shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob." This quotation agrees 
 more with the Septuagint than with the Hebrew. In the former 
 it reads, " And the deUverer shall come for Zion's sake, and shall 
 turn away ungodliness from Jacob." The Hebrew reads, " Thy 
 Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from trans- 
 gression in Jacob." Both renderings are alike in their spiritual 
 meaning — the Kedeemer comes to them that turn from transgres- 
 sion, and His spiritual approach to them is the cause of their 
 turning from transgression. The Eedeemer comes out of Zion and 
 turns away ungodhness by His coming. 
 
 27. " For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away 
 their sins." This is a very obscure place, and being such is passed 
 
260 ENEMIES FOE YOUR SAKES. [Romans. 
 
 28 As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your 
 
 s Dent. vii. 8. sakcs : but as toucTiiTig the election, they are * be- 
 & ix. 5. & X. ° ^ ^ 
 
 15. loved for the fathers' sakes. 
 
 over by several commentators. It seems to refer to the last verse 
 and to the words " to tm:n away migodliness from Jacob," and is 
 thus a reproduction of the sense of the words of Jeremiah xxxi. 31 : 
 " Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new 
 covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah. 
 .... I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their 
 
 hearts I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin 
 
 no more." It seems simply to mean, " When I take away their sins 
 I will remember the covenant made with their fathers, that they 
 shall be all righteous and all My people." ^ 
 
 28. "As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes," 
 &c. How can this be ? I think in this way. The extension of the 
 Gospel and the Church to the Gentiles more than all else hardened 
 the Jews in unbelief, and made them reject the preaching of Christ, 
 and so they continued in their national alienation from God. This 
 was for your sakes, {pi vficig,) because the Jews would, humanly 
 speaking, have far more widely accepted Christ if the acceptance 
 of Him had not been united with the acceptance of the equality 
 of the Gentiles with them in Christ. 
 
 *' But as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' 
 sakes." We can find no better illustration of this than in Levit. 
 xxvi. 41 : " If their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they 
 then accept of the punishment of their iniquity : then wiU I re- 
 member my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, 
 and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember." And 
 again, " Only the Lord^had a delight in thy fathers to love them, 
 and he chose their seed after them, even you above all people, as it 
 is this day." (Deut. x. 15.) 
 
 Notice here St. Paul's view of election. It is a body of people 
 chosen in a particular man ; first in Abraham, then in Isaac, then 
 in Jacob. The history seems to tell us that in no particular genera- 
 tion did the mass of the people adhere to God, but God^ continued 
 
 l It has been supposed that the Apostle cites Isaiah xxvii. 9 in the Septuagint; 
 " Therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be taken away : and this is his blessing when I 
 shall have taken away his sin ; " but there is no mention of a covenant, as would seem 
 necessary. 
 
Chap. XI.] WITHOUT REPENTANCE. 261 
 
 29 For tlie gifts and calling of God are ^ witli- ^ Num. xxiii. 
 out repentance. 
 
 the election through a small minority, so that there never failed to 
 be a remnant in whom He made good His word and promises. 
 
 29. " For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance." 
 The calling is, of course, the calling of the Israelites in Abraham 
 to be the people of God. This is irrevocable. Even in their then 
 state of unbelief and opposition to the Gospel, " God hath not cast 
 away His people." There was even then, and has ever been since, 
 a remnant according to the election of grace, and when the times 
 of the Gentiles are fulfilled, the whole elect nation as one man will 
 return. But what are the gifts which are irrevocable ? Godet has 
 a remarkable exposition, which is, that they are special gifts for 
 making known the truth of God : " Who can fail to see that the 
 people of Israel are really endowed with singular qualities for then- 
 mission as the Salvation-people? The Greeks, the Komans, the 
 Phoenicians, had their special gifts in the different domains of 
 science and art, law and poHtics, industry and commerce. Israel, 
 without being destitute of the powers related to those spheres of 
 mundane activity, have received a higher gift, the organ for the 
 Divine, and the intuition of holiness. The calling of God is on the 
 one hand the cause, on the other the effect of those gifts. It is 
 because God called this people in His eternal counsel that He en- 
 trusted the gifts to them, and it is because He enriched them with 
 these gifts that in the course of time He called on them to fulfil the 
 task of initiating the world in the way of salvation, and of preparing 
 salvation for the world. Of this august mission, they have been, 
 for the time, deprived ; instead of entering first, they will enter last. 
 But their destination is, nevertheless, irrevocable; and through the 
 overflowing of Divine mercy (ch. v. 20) it will be realized in them 
 at the period announced by the Apostle, when saved themselves 
 they will become a stream of life from above to flow into the hearts 
 of Gentile Christendom." 
 
 With respect to the calling and gifts of^individuals, it is impossible 
 to speak so absolutely in the face of such passages as the 22nd 
 verse of this very chapter, and in the face of such words as those of 
 the Lord, "From him that hath not, shall be taken away even that 
 which he hath," and " Take from him the pound, and give it to him 
 that hath ten pounds." (Luke xix. 24.) StiU, if God has given to 
 
262 THEY MAY OBTAIN MERCY. [Romans. 
 
 30 For as ye 4n times past liave not || believed Grod, yet 
 
 iEphes. ii. 2. have now obtained mercy through their unbelief : 
 
 d °di^obe]/ed. 31 Even so have these also now not || believed, 
 
 [ Or, obeyed, ^jj^g^^ through your mercy they also may obtain 
 
 mercy. 
 
 men repentance and faith, it is a plain proof of His desire that they 
 should serve Him in this world, and enjoy the fruits of so doing in 
 the next ; and though we are utterly unable to make the indefecti- 
 bihty of grace a dogma, yet we can take abundant comfort from the 
 assertion " He that hath begun a good work in you, will perform 
 it until the day of Jesus Christ." (Phil. i. 6.) 
 
 30, 31. " For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet 
 have now obtained mercy," &c. This may be rendered, " As ye 
 have not obeyed God, and through their disobedience," &c. How 
 was it that the Gentiles obtained mercy through the faithlessness 
 or disobedience of the Jews ? Supposing that the Jews had believed 
 in, and, consequently, obeyed Christ, could not the Gentiles have 
 been converted ? Humanly speaking, they might, but it seems to 
 have been required by the hidden wisdom and secret counsel of 
 God that what is implied in the figure of the olive tree with its 
 broken branches, and the wild branches fiUing up the vacancy, 
 must take place. Godet throws out the hint " that time of dis- 
 obedience has now taken end; the Gentiles have found grace. 
 But at what price ? By means of the disobedience of the Jews. 
 We have seen this, indeed : God needed to make the temporary 
 sacrifice of His elect people, in order to disentangle the Gospel 
 from the legal forms in which they wished to keep it imprisoned." 
 This is what I have said, that the influx of the majority of the 
 Jewish people at the first, in their then state of indomitable pre- 
 judice, would have rendered the Catholicity of the Church impossible. 
 But may it not be that it was Jewish unbelief which brought 
 about the Crucifixion and Death of Christ, and through it, mercy 
 to the world ? 
 
 "Even so have these also now not believed [or obeyed], that 
 through your mercy," &c. This seems to refer to the dispensation 
 of God alluded to in the words of Moses, cited in x. 19, that the 
 Jews should be provoked to jealousy by seeing the grace of God 
 -manifestly displayed in the conversion of the Gentiles. 
 
Chap. XL] MERCY UPON ALL. 263 
 
 32 For ^ God hatli || concluded them all in unbelief, that 
 he might have mercy upon all. ^ ch. m. 9. 
 
 33 the depth of the riches both of the wisdom n or. s'hut'tkm 
 and knowledge of God! ^how unsearchable are rps"VxxvtT 
 his judgments, and " his ways past finding out ! "» Job xi. 7. 
 
 32. " For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he 
 might," &c. This seems to have somewhat of the same significance 
 as Gal. iii. 22, 23, " The Scripture hath concluded all under sin, 
 that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them 
 that believe. But before [the] faith came we were kept under the 
 law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed." 
 It pleased God to account all as sinners, that aU might be saved 
 by grace, for the repentance, and the shame, and humbleness of 
 mind which attend true conviction of sin, all which is of grace, is 
 far more receptive of the righteousness of God than an inferior 
 outside righteousness attained by mere hiunan endeavour. Both 
 Chrysostom and Theodoret understand the word concluded [ovve- 
 k\h(T£v] in the sense of convicted or convinced. Chrysostom, " Hath 
 concluded them all in unbelief, that is, hath convinced them, hath 
 shown them disobedient ; not that they may remain in disobedience, 
 but that He may save the one by the captiousness of the other, 
 these by those, and those by these. Now consider, ye were dis- 
 obedient, and they were saved. Again, they have been disobedient, 
 and ye have been saved. Yet ye have not been so saved, as to be put 
 away again, as the Jews were, but so as to draw them over through 
 jealousy, while ye abide." 
 
 And Theodoret, " He has put the word ' concluded ' instead of 
 ' convicted.' " This verse is not to be taken in an universalist 
 sense, but with reference to Jews and Gentiles as bodies of men. 
 He hath concluded all in unbelief ; not that He might save all in 
 impenitence, but that He might save all by grace — all, that is, who 
 submit to be so saved. 
 
 33. " the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and know- 
 ledge of God ! " Most expositors make St. Paul's exclamation of 
 wonder and admiration to apply to three things — not the riches of 
 the wisdom and knowledge, but God's riches, and His wisdom and 
 His knowledge. His riches being, as it were, the infinite variety 
 of His resources, His wisdom " denotes the admirable skill with 
 
264 WHO HATH BEEN HIS COUNSELLOR? [Eomans. 
 
 n Job XT. 8. 34 '^ For who hatli known the mind of the Lord ? 
 
 Isai. xl. 13. 
 
 jer. xxiii. 18. or ° who hath been his counsellor ? 
 
 o Job xxxvi. 35 Or P who hath first given to him, and it 
 
 l%oh XXXV 7. shall be recompensed unto him again ? 
 
 &xli. 11. 
 
 which God weaves into His plans the free actions of man, and 
 transforms them into so many means for the accomplishment of 
 the excellent end which He set originally before Him, whilst His 
 knowledge refers especially to the Divine foreknowledge, which 
 God has of the free determinations of men, whether as individuals 
 or as nations." (Godet.) 
 
 "Judgments" seem to mean decisions or decrees, and taking 
 into account the things which the Apostle has been considering in 
 the three chapters, they must be judicial decisions or decrees. Take, 
 for instance, the blinding or hardening of the Jews — ^here His 
 decrees or decisions are unsearchable: it is infinitely above the 
 human comprehension, and the way in which He accomplished it 
 is untrackable, and yet we must rest in the goodness and justice of 
 all He has decided or decreed, and believe that He has ordained 
 all, both means and end, in the most far-seeing mercy. 
 
 St. Paul could not possibly have written this doxology if he 
 desired to uphold the mere wilfulness for which Calvin contends. 
 Mere wilfulness would cut short everything, whereas here St. Paul 
 worships a will which takes everything into account, and whose end 
 is, even when concluding all men in unbehef, to have mercy 
 upon all. 
 
 34. " For who hath known the mind of the Lord ? or who hath 
 been his counsellor ? " This seems to refer to Isaiah xl. 13, " Who 
 hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counsellor hath 
 taught him ? " Or as it is in the Septuagint, " Who hath known the 
 mind (vovv) of the Lord, and who has been his counsellor ? " And 
 yet there was one Who knew His Mind, and with Whom He took 
 counsel, even that Word, Who was in the beginning with God, and 
 Who was God, by Whom all things were made : and when that 
 Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us. He said, *' The 
 Father loveth the Son, and sheweth Him all things that Himself 
 doeth." 
 
 35. " Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed," 
 &o. This is taken from Job xli. 11, "Who hath prevented me, 
 
Chap. XII.] I BESEECH YOU. 265 
 
 36 For '^ of him, and through him, and to him, 1 1 Cor. viii. 
 
 6. Col. I. 16. 
 
 are all things : "■ to t whom he fflory for ever, r Gai. i. 5. 
 
 1 Tim. i. 17. 
 
 Amen. 2 Tim. iv. is. 
 
 ■ Hebr. xiii. 21. 
 
 1 Pet. V. 11. 
 
 [that is, hath been beforehand with me, in a matter j^jg xxv\ 
 of bounty] that I should repay him ? whatsoever is ^^'^- i- ^• 
 under the whole heaven is mine." It seems to mean, ^* ^^' 
 in accordance with the doctrine of the rest of this Epistle, Who 
 can claim anything of God, in the way of merit, or as wages for 
 work done ? 
 
 36. " For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things," &c. 
 "Of him," as their origin; "through him," inasmuch as He up- 
 holds them in existence; and "to him," inasmuch as all things 
 subserve His purposes, and willingly or unwillingly contribute to 
 His glory. 
 
 I 
 
 CHAP. XII. 
 * BESEECH you therefore, brethren, by the »2Cor. x. i. 
 
 1. " I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God," 
 &c. The Apostle now turns from his deep argument respecting 
 the casting away of God's ancient people, and the caUing of the 
 Gentiles, to the practical conclusion of it all. And this conclusion 
 is one of mercy. In looking back on all that he has written, he 
 sees not the assertion of mere will — of iron will, unbending, un- 
 alterable, unswervable — but of mercy. And so he beseeches them, 
 not by the predestination, but by the mercies of God. 
 
 "I beseech you." This may mean either beseech (ohsecro) or 
 exhort. Chrysostom, Theodoret, the Vulgate, and Syriac, all render 
 it by " beseech." Chrysostom applies this very beautifully : " And 
 though he is so great and good a person, yet he does not decline 
 beseeching them, and that not for any enjoyment he was likely to 
 get himself, but for that they would have to gain. And why 
 wonder that he does not decline beseeching, where he is even 
 
266 BY THE MERCIES OF GOD. [Romans. 
 
 b 1 Pet. ii. 5. mercies of God, ^ that ye ^ present your bodies 
 
 c Ps. 1. 13, 14. 
 ch. vi. 1.3, 16, 
 
 19. 1 Cor. vi. 
 
 13, 20. 
 
 putting God's mercies before them ? For since, he means, it is from 
 this you have those numberless blessings, from the mercies of God, 
 reverence them, be moved to compassion by them. For they them- 
 selves take the attitude of suppliants that you would show no con- 
 duct unworthy of them. ' I entreat you, then,' he means, * by the 
 very things through which you were saved.' " 
 
 " By the mercies of God." What were these mercies ? Of course 
 they were, first of all, the mercies which he had been describing. 
 The mercy of having been engrafted into the good olive tree of 
 God — into the Church of Abraham and the Patriarchs ; above all, 
 into the Church of Christ and His Apostles. Then following upon 
 this the mercy of justification by faith, sealed in Baptism — the 
 mercy of a new nature, and full and perfect forgiveness, not bestowed 
 according to desert, in which case they would have been destitute 
 of God's gifts, but solely through grace — that is, bestowed freely ; 
 and then the source of all this, God sending His own Son in the 
 likeness of sinful flesh, this Son dying for our sins, and rising again 
 for our Justification, and entering the most holy place as our fore- 
 runner, and sitting there as our Advocate. And for what purpose 
 does the Apostle appeal to all this ? he tells us, " That ye present 
 your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God," in contrast 
 with all known sacrifices, Jewish or heathen, which consisted in 
 the offering of bodies from which the life blood had been drawn. 
 
 Some commentators, as Phihppi, assert that "your bodies" 
 means "yourselves," your entire personality as both soul and body. 
 But the Apostle assumes that they had aheady presented their 
 souls and spirits by their belief or acceptance of Christ. This 
 offering of the soul, the will, the heart, was to be daily, constantly 
 consummated by the presenting of their bodies, and was to be 
 accomplished by the mortification of the corrupt desires which 
 resided in their bodies. 
 
 It is what the Apostle had expressed a little before in the 
 words, " Let not sin reign in your mortal body, that ye should 
 obey it in the lusts thereof; neither yield ye your members as 
 instruments ol unrighteousness unto sin : but yield yourselves unto 
 God, as those that are aUve from the dead, and your members as 
 instruments of righteousness unto God" (vi. 12, 13). 
 
Chap. Xn.] A LIVING SACRIFICE. 267 
 
 ^ a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your 
 reasonable service. «^ Hebr. x. 20. 
 
 " Present your bodies a living sacrifice." And how is the body, 
 it may be said, to become a sacrifice ? " Let thy eye look upon no 
 evil thing, and it hath become a sacrifice ; let thy tongue speak 
 nothing filthy, and it hath become an ofiering ; let thy hand do no 
 lawless deed, and it hath become a whole burnt-offering. Or rather, 
 this is not enough, but we must have good works also ; let the 
 hand do alms, the mouth bless them that cross one, and the hear- 
 ing find leisure evermore for reading of Scripture. Again, [the 
 Jews] presented the thing sacrificed dead, this maketh the thing 
 sacrificed to be living. For when we have mortified our members 
 then shall we be able to live. For the law of this sacrifice is new, 
 and so the sort of fire is a marvellous one. For it needeth no 
 wood or matter under it, but our fire liveth of itself, and doth not 
 burn up the victim, but rather quickeneth it." 
 
 " Holy." Dedicated to God by being surrendered to His service, 
 and sanctified by the constant indwelling of His Holy Spirit. 
 
 " Acceptable unto God." Because resting on and in connection 
 with His Son's Sacrifice. 
 
 " Your reasonable service." This may be said in contrast with 
 the Jewish and heathen sacrifices of irrational creatures, whose 
 wills were of no account in the service, whereas the essence of the 
 Christian's sacrifice of his body is in the will being subdued to 
 God's will, prompting the ofl'ering. In the one case the thing offered 
 was unreasoning, in the other the reason itself, the man's highest 
 faculty, presents the offering. The reader will remember how we 
 are privileged to offer this sacrifice in our highest service of praise 
 and thanksgiving : " And here we offer and present unto Thee, 
 Lord, ourselves, our souls, and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and 
 lively sacrifice unto Thee." They are the most difficult words of the 
 service, because requiring the deepest spirit of self-surrender. 
 
 2. " And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed," 
 &c. " This world " comprehended the whole course of the un- 
 regenerate society, heathen or Jewish, which was not ruled by the 
 Spirit of God. The Christian was not to be fashioned in his life and 
 conversation by this society. He must keep out of it as much as 
 he could. If obUged to mix in it for a time, he must do so, as it 
 were, under protest, for he would be liable to be led into com- 
 
268 BE NOT CONFORMED. [Romans. 
 
 e 1 Pet. i. 14. 2 And ^ be not conformed to this world : but 
 
 1 John ii. 15. 
 
 pliances which were idolatrous and sinful. The words of St. John 
 were literally true, " The world liethin wickedness," "the world lieth 
 in the wicked one." Everything by which the world acted or 
 showed itself— the concourse of men, their assemblies, their amuse- 
 ments — were all deeply tainted with evil. Architecture, painting, 
 statuary, poetry, even philosophy, all were evil, all unregenerate, 
 and must be shunned if men would maintain a consistent profession 
 of Christ. But is it so now, now that the world is baptized, and 
 nations profess Christianity ? If all the baptized lived to the grace 
 given to them and ever remembered their vows, the world would 
 be Christian ; but if the vast mass of the baptized live as if they 
 were not members of Christ, and disregard their vows, then the 
 world is as dangerous now as it was then, and all who would be 
 true Christians must take heed lest they be conformed to it. There is 
 the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, as much 
 in the Christian world as in the heathen, only under another 
 form. 
 
 " The world without God, is false, impure, and turbulent, a 
 mighty heaving confusion of fallen spirits, wrestling with each other 
 and with God. As such, this world is in eternal opposition to 
 Him. It can only be reconciled by passing out of itself into His 
 kingdom ; by receiving the laws of truth and obedience, of holiness 
 and order, that is, in ceasing to be the world, and being taken into the 
 will of God. Besides the grosser kinds of sensual and spiritual evil, 
 this world has a multitude of refined and subtle powers of enmity 
 against the Divine Will. There is, besides the lust of the flesh, 
 also the lust of the eyes ; the vain-glory, pomp, glitter, ostentation, 
 of ease, luxury, and self-pleasing ; and there is, moreover, the pride 
 of life, the stately self- worship, the fastidious self-contemplation of 
 intellectual or secular men. And with this comes also a throng of 
 less elevated sins — levity, love of pleasure, full fare, a thirst for 
 money, a hunger for popularity, and its debasing successes. These 
 things steal away the heart, and make men false to their Heavenly 
 Master. Their obedience becomes habitually double, vain-glorious, 
 seK-advancing, or heartless, hoUow, and reluctant. If they do not 
 by express acts betray Him, it is either because they are not 
 tempted, or because they would lose in the scale of the world's 
 esteem or their own." (Manning's " Sermons," vol. iii. p. 49.) 
 
Chap. XII.] BE YE TRANSFORMED. 269 
 
 ' be ye transformed "by the renewing of your mind, ' Ephes. i. is. 
 
 i. 21, 22. & iii.' 
 10. 
 
 " But be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind." There 
 is not the same relation between the words, " conformed," " trans- 
 formed," in the Greek as there is in the EngHsh. The former word for 
 conformed {avtrxniiaTi^eaOt) would be best represented by the EngHsh 
 word " fashion." " In the use of his consecrated body, the believer 
 has first an everywhere -present model to be rejected, then a 
 new type to be discerned and realized. The model to be rejected 
 is that presented to him by the present world, or, as we should say 
 the reigning fashion, taking this word in its widest sense. The 
 term (jxnixa denotes the manner of holding one's self, attitude, pose, 
 and the verb axm^i^TileaQaL, derived from it, the adoption or imita- 
 tion of this pose, or received mode of conduct. ... It is this mode 
 of living anterior to regeneration which the believer is not to imi- 
 tate in the use which he makes of his body. And what is he to do ? 
 To seek a new model, a superior type, to be realized by means of a 
 power acting within him. He is to be transformed, hterally meta- 
 morphosed. The term fiop(p7], form, strictly denotes, not an external 
 pose, suitable for imitation, like axrjfia, attitude, but an organic 
 form, the natural product of a principle of life which manifests 
 itself thus. It is not by looking around him, to the right and left, 
 that the believer is to learn to use his body, but by putting himself 
 under the dominion of a new power, which will, by an inward 
 necessity, transform this use." (Godet). 
 
 Chrysostoni'also, in plainer language, goes deeper, and is more 
 practical. " He says not change the fashion, but be transformed, 
 to show that the world's ways are a fashion, but virtue's not a 
 fashion, but a real form, with a natural beauty of its own, lacking 
 not the trickeries and fashions of outward things, which no sooner 
 appear than they go to nought. For all these things, even before 
 they come to light, are dissolving {i.e., approaching dissolution). 
 If then thou throwest the fashion aside, thou wilt speedily come to 
 the form. For nothing is more strengthless than vice, nothing so 
 easily wears old." 
 
 " By the renewing of your mind," i.e., by the power of God's 
 Holy Spirit, according to the words of the Apostle in Titus iii. 5 : 
 '* By his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and 
 renewing of the Holy Ghost." For this we pray in the Collect for 
 
270 GOOD, ACCEPTABLE, PERFECT. [Romans. 
 
 g Ephes. V. 10, that ye may ^ prove what is that good, and ac- 
 iT.* 8. ' ceptable, and perfect, will of G-od. 
 XV* iV.' ^i Cor. 3 For I say, ^ through the grace given unto me, 
 lo'/aai.lT.'g. to every man that is among you, ^not to think of 
 Ephes. HI. 2, Jii^self more highly than he ought to think ; but 
 
 > Prov. xxA'. 
 
 27. Ecdes. 
 
 \i\. 16. ch.xi. 
 20. 
 
 Christmas Day : " That we being regenerate, and made Thy 
 children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by Thy 
 Holy Spirit." 
 
 "That ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and 
 perfect, will of God." *' Prove," i.e., appreciate, discern, with the 
 view of fulfilling it. 
 
 " Good, and acceptable, and perfect will." Wesley has an admi- 
 rable pithy note : " The will of God is here to be understood of all 
 the preceptive part of Christianity, which is in itself so excellently 
 good, so acceptable to God, and so perfective of our nature." 
 
 3. " For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man 
 that is among you." This grace can be no other than the grace of 
 the Apostles. " By whom we have received grace and apostleship " 
 (1. 5). It comprehended, of course, the oversight of all other 
 ministries. The Apostle was, so far as any man could be, in the 
 place of Christ. 
 
 *• To every man that is among you." In this he claims the power 
 of acting for Christ with respect to every member of the mystical 
 body, even though he had never been in Rome, nor seen the Church 
 there. 
 
 " Not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, 
 but to think soberiy." The translation of the Revisers represents 
 more closely the words of the original : " Not to think of himself 
 more highly than he ought to think : but so to think as to think 
 soberly." What a difference it would have made in Christendom, 
 if the prelates of this very Church had acted on the Apostle's 
 strongly expressed warning ! With the history of the Papacy before 
 us, it is impossible to shut our eyes to the fact that the tremendous 
 pretensions were, in very many cases, the result of personal 
 ambition and self-assertion. 
 
 Chrysostom draws a remarkable parallel between what the Lord 
 in His Sermon on the Mount and the Apostle here put in the first 
 
Chap. XII.] THE MEASURE OF FAITH. 271 
 
 to think t soberly, according as G-od hath dealt t Gr. to so- 
 ^ to every man the measure of faith. k i cor. xii. 
 
 4 For ^ as we have many members in one body, iv. 7.* 
 
 1 1 Cor. xii. 12. 
 
 7,11. Ephes. 
 iv. 7. 
 
 1 1 Cor. xii. 12. 
 Ephes. iv. 16. 
 
 place. " Here he is bringing before us the mother of good deeds, 
 which is lowliness of mind, in imitation of his own Master. For as 
 He, when He went up into the mountain, and was going to give a 
 tissue of moral precepts, took this for His first beginning, and made 
 this the foundation in the words, ' Blessed are the poor in spirit,' so 
 Paul, too .... began from lowliness of mind as from the head." 
 
 "According as God hath dealt to every man the measure of 
 faith." This faith cannot well mean saving faith — the faith in the 
 exercise of which each soul lays hold on Christ ; but it must rather 
 mean the faith in each one, qualifying him for receiving and using 
 aright the gifts which God gave for the instruction, the rule, the 
 confirmation, the direction, the extension of the Church. This 
 faith was given in different measures or proportions, according to 
 the wise, but secret determination of God. This is the faith to 
 which our Lord alludes : *' If ye had faith as a grain of mustard 
 seed, ye would say to this mountain," &c. And St. Paul seems to 
 allude to it rather than to sanctifying faith, when he says, "If I had 
 faith so that I could remove mountains." (1 Cor. xiii.) 
 
 But what St. Paul seems here to call attention to is, not the 
 nature or strength of this faith, but that it is, in all its degrees, a 
 gift of God ; and, being a Divine gift, no one can boast of it, as if it 
 was one of the faculties of his own mind. Wordsworth has a good 
 note : " The measure of faith which God has allotted to each man 
 (and not the amount of mere unregenerate reason, or of pride and 
 confidence which he has in his own intelUgence) is to be the rule 
 according to which he is to be minded." 
 
 4, 5. " For as we have many members in one body, and all 
 members have not," &c. Here we have the special doctrine of this 
 Apostle, which is that Christ is the Head of a Mystical Body, the 
 Church, which consists of human beings who believe in Him, are 
 baptized into His Death and Eesurrection, put themselves under 
 His guidance, so as to be led by His Spirit, and partake of that 
 Body and Blood without which they can have no life, 
 
 I say that it is the special doctrine of this Apostle, for no other 
 sacred writers of the New Testament have been led to express 
 
272 HAVE NOT THE SAME OFFICE. [Eomans. 
 
 and all members have not the same office : 
 
 themselves about it in the plain terms which he uses. Justification 
 by Faith is in an important sense subordinate to it, for justification 
 by Faith is a means to an end, and that end is participation in the 
 Risen Life of the Son of God ; and this Life we partake of because, 
 and as long as, we are in Him as members of His Body. 
 
 " As we have many members in one body, and all members," &c. 
 The idea of membership in the Body of the Son of God is so 
 thoroughly worked out on its human side by this Apostle in the 
 twelfth chapter of his first Epistle to the Corinvhians, that a fuller 
 doctrinal examination must be reserved to my not(X3 on that Epistle, 
 if God spares me to write them. 
 
 Its Divine side — that is, beginning with Christ as the Head, and 
 then contemplating the members as one in Him, and receiving 
 grace from Him — is the subject of two Epistles, those to the Ephe- 
 sians and Colossians. It will be well, however, to notice here in 
 passing that the Headship of the Lord Jesus to the Church, and the 
 inherence of the various members in Him as one Body under one 
 Head, is not an illustration of a fact, but the fact itself, so far as 
 such a fact can be expressed in human language. For instance, 
 heathen writers have described the social or political state of a 
 nation under the same figures of a number of hmbs or members 
 united in a body, and so mutually dependent upon one another ; 
 but there is, in such a case, no mysterious and necessary relation 
 to one head : if the head were removed, any head or another form 
 of headship, i.e., of government, might take its place, whereas the 
 Pauline doctrine not only depends on One ever-living Christ, but on 
 the Church being in Him. In Him it lives, and moves, and has its 
 being. United to Him, a branch or a limb lives, and performs its 
 functions ; sundered from Him, it dies. The body politic or social 
 is like an organism. The Church under Christ is an organism. 
 
 There is a real flowing of spiritual strength and grace from Christ 
 the Head into each and every member. This is the New Life. 
 This is the Life of Justification. This Life when it enters into each 
 member produces spiritual power in two ways: firstly, that by 
 which the man works out his own salvation ; and, secondly, that 
 by which he is enabled to perform aright his particular function in 
 the Body. 
 
 " All members have not the same office." The thinking of him- 
 
Chap. XII.] ONE BODY IN CHRIST. 273 
 
 5 So " we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every 
 one members one of another. «» i cor. x. 17. 
 
 & xii. 20, 27. 
 Ephes. i. 23. 
 — — ■ & iv. 25. 
 
 self more highly than he ought to think is the evil disposition 
 which would make a man think that he is able to perform all 
 offices, and so intrude into all, and criticize freely, and most pro- 
 bably uncharitably, the action of all other members. 
 
 The best condition of any part of the Church is when it supplies 
 spheres of action to all its members, and gives them free scope in 
 their respective spheres, and yet holds aU under discipline ; but still 
 we are to remember that a member of Christ may be useful and 
 necessary though he holds no office whatsoever, not even that of a 
 teacher — for influence for good by no means entirely depends upon 
 office. It depends upon holiness and goodness, upon secret prayer, 
 upon wisdom in advising, upon the power of sympathizing, upon 
 liberahty in the disposal of worldly goods, upon self-denial and 
 humility, and self-control in the matter both of the tongue and the 
 temper, upon the ruling of an household well, and a hundred other 
 things, quite apart from office, diocesan or parochial. 
 
 5. " So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one 
 members," &c. One body in Christ, t'.e., in mystical and spiritual 
 union with Him in His Church, not working as if we were separate 
 units, unconnected with the Body, for if so, our spiritual gifts will 
 end in what our Lord prays against and all His Apostles reprobate, 
 the division of the Church. 
 
 " Every one members one of another." Our hold on Christ — I 
 mean our separate individual hold — is not to be considered as if 
 it belonged to us apart from our fellows, and to be regarded as 
 isolating us ; but we are rather to reahze that we partake of a com- 
 mon grace, that of the Holy Spirit, which all Scripture would lead 
 U8 to believe to be widely, rather than sparsely diffused amongst 
 professing Christians. (Titus iii. 6.) 
 
 If it be objected to this, that the Church now is so different as 
 respects unity to what it was in Apostolic days, that such words 
 of St. Paul as these respecting the Mystical Body, are not applic- 
 able to Christian practice now as then, we answer, that the 
 Head is the same, and the Spirit is the same, and the Apostohc 
 government is the same, and the faith is the same, and the hope 
 the same, and the Sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist are 
 
 T 
 
274 MEMBERS ONE OF ANOTHER. [Romans; 
 
 the same, and the Scriptures the same. Why, then, should not the 
 Mystical Body be the same, and what hinders our addressing the 
 members of the Church in the same practical terms as the Apostle 
 used ? It would be a very serious thing if it be not in our power so 
 to do ; for if so, such a parable as that of the Vine and the Branches, 
 and far above half the ApostoHc Epistles would be rendered useless 
 for practical purposes. Consider for what holy purposes St. Paul 
 uses the fact that all the members of the visible Church are mem- 
 bers of Christ. He uses it here for purposes of humiUty, that each 
 one should think soberly, i.e., humbly of himself. In 1 Cor. he 
 uses it to show that each member should keep both body and spirit 
 pure and holy (1 Cor. vi. 15-20). In another part of the same 
 epistle he uses it to inculcate upon all of them mutual sympathy 
 (1 Cor. xii. 12-27). In the Epistle to the Ephesians he tells his 
 converts that they are to forbear one another in love, and to 
 endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, 
 lecause there is one Body, one Spirit, one hope (Ephes. iv. 2, 3, 4), 
 and we are to put away lying, not merely because it is mean and 
 disgraceful, but because we are in Christ members one of another 
 (iv. 25). Husbands are to love their wives, and wives to reverence 
 their husbands, because Christ is the Head of the Church (v. 22-30). 
 All the holy teaching of Coloss. iii. is grounded on the truth of there 
 being a mysterious life from, or rather *' in " Christ, which belongs to 
 all the members of His Body. 
 
 So that it is a very serious thing if so sanctifying purifying 
 and unifying a truth, though it be abundantly clear in the pages 
 of the New Testament, is no longer to be a part of Christian teach- 
 ing. Thanks be to God, this Apostolic teaching is so reproduced in 
 the Prayer Book, that it cannot be ignored except by those who 
 are wilfully unfaithful to their ordination vows. It forms a leading 
 featm-e of the baptismal offices — "that he may be received into 
 Christ's Holy Church " — " Seeing now, dearly beloved, that this 
 child is regenerate, and grafted into the body of Christ's Church." 
 It is the first teaching addressed to the Christian child in the 
 Catechism [" wherein I was made a member of Christ "] to prepare 
 him for Confirmation. It is the great benefit of the Eucharist 
 [" Then we spiritually eat the flesh of Christ and drink His Blood ; 
 then we dwell in Christ and Christ in us ; we are one with Christ 
 and Christ with us." — " Grant us, therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat 
 the Flesh of thy dear Son Jesus Christ, and to drink his Blood, 
 
Chap. XIL] GIFTS. 275 
 
 6 "* Having then gifts differing ° according to " i Cor. xu. 4. 
 11. * * ' 
 
 o ver. 3. 
 
 that ... we may evermore dwell in Him, and He in us." — " Dost 
 assure us thereby . . . that we are very members incorporate in the 
 Mystical Body of Thy dear Son, which is the blessed company of 
 all faithfiil people."] Again, in the Solemnization of Matrimony, 
 "That such persons as have not the gift of continency, might 
 marry, and keep themselves undefiled members of Christ's Body." 
 And in the same of&ce the Scripture portions read instead of a 
 sermon are those which set forth the duties of husbands towards 
 their wives, and wives towards their husbands, as following upon 
 the mystical relations betwixt Christ the Head, and His Church 
 the members. In the Visitation of the Sick the Priest prays: 
 " Continue this sick member in the unity of the Church." It is 
 recognized in the Ordination of Priests : " The Church and congre- 
 gation whom you must serve is His Spouse and His Body."— 
 "Wherefore consider with yourselves the end of your ministry 
 toward the children of God, towards the Spouse and Body of 
 Christ." 
 
 Such is the doctrine of the Head and the members. I have said 
 that it is the special Pauhne doctrine, and so without doubt it is, 
 for in Ephes. iii. St. Paul speaks of it as the mystery of Christ, hidden 
 from ages and generations, but now made known to the Holy 
 Apostles and himself especially, and the mystery is " that the Gen- 
 tiles should be fellow-heirs and of the same hody, and partakers of 
 his promise in Christ by the Gospel." 
 
 6. " Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is 
 given to us," &c. The gifts differing according to the particular 
 grace given to each one, are evidently analogous to the functions of 
 the various members of the body. Each member of the body re- 
 quires not only its particular life, but its ability to discharge its proper 
 function ; and so the various members of the mystical Body have 
 gifts differing according to the differences in their respective duties 
 or of&ces. 
 
 The first of these gifts mentioned is prc-phecy. It is the first 
 mentioned because in the first age it was by far the most important, 
 but its form then was temporary. It has since ceased, because we 
 have a " more sure word of prophecy to which we must take 
 heed." 
 
276 PROPHECY. [RoMAHs. 
 
 p Acts xi. 27. the grace that is given to us, whether ^ prophecy, 
 
 28. &'xiii.'2. ' let us prophesy according to the proportion of 
 
 81."''' ' ' ' faith: 
 
 Prophecy, as tar as we can gather from the few clear notices 
 which have come down to us, was the inspired teaching of the first 
 age. It answered to our preaching, but was, if the prophet sub- 
 mitted to the entire guidance of the Holy Spirit, more authorita- 
 tive and came more directly from the Spirit. It was absolutely 
 necessary before the various books of the New Testament were 
 collected and distributed amongst the Churches, that in each local 
 Church men should be raised up having a deeper insight than their 
 fellows into the spiritual meaning of the facts of the Lord's God- 
 head, Incarnation, Life, Death, Eesurrection, Ascension, Inter- 
 cession, and Second Coming, and the place of the Holy Spirit in 
 the Godhead, and in the Church. God, according to the needs of 
 the then existing Church, raised up such men, till the Gospels and 
 the letters of the Apostles were collected and diffused throughout the 
 Church. When this took place, prophecy apparently ceased, and 
 preaching took its place — preaching, that is, in the sense of ex- 
 plaining and practically enforcing upon Christians the truths con- 
 tained in the Gospels and Epistles. It may be asked, then. How is 
 it that none of these prophecies of these innumerable prophets have 
 come down to us ? We answer. Because we have in a permanent 
 form the prophecies of the greatest and most inspired amongst 
 them. The Epistles of Paul, Peter, John, and James, contain what 
 they prophesied put into a permanent form ; for it is not for a 
 moment to be supposed that they preached anything whatsoever 
 different from what they wrote in their letters. 
 
 St. Paul, in thus exhorting these prophets of local Churches to 
 prophesy according to the analogy of the faith (not faith, but the 
 faith) gave them a most necessary command ; for, if there were 
 any doctrines of the Gospel taught in the primitive Church, some 
 must have been of primary or overwhelming importance compared 
 with others. 
 
 Thus St. John evidently considers that no prophet is a true 
 one who does not confess that " Jesus Christ is come in the flesh " 
 (1 John iv. 1, 2) ; and all these prophetic utterances, according to 
 him, must be tried — but according to what rule or standard? 
 There must have been a common standard, and we have constant 
 
Chap. XII.] MINISTRY. 277 
 
 7 Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering : or ** he that 
 teacheth, on teaching ; i Acts xn\. i. 
 
 Gal. vi. 6. 
 Ephes. iv. 11 
 1 Tim, V. 17. 
 
 references to that standard. Thus St. Paul speaks of there being 
 " One Lord, onefaith," i.e., one faith or truth held throughout the 
 Church. St. John declares that the truth which he had seen and 
 heard, and which he declared in order that his converts might have 
 fellowship with the Apostles, and through them with the Father 
 and with His Son Jesus Christ, was that the Eternal Word was 
 so incarnate that men " saw with their eyes, looked upon, and 
 their hands had handled of the Word of Life." St. Jude bids 
 Christians contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the 
 saints (Ephes. iv. 4 ; 1 John i. 1-3 ; Jude 3). 
 
 So that it is evident that the Apostle means that prophets should 
 prophesy, not according to the analogy of each one's particular 
 faith, which never could be separated from each one's private 
 idiosyncrasies, but according to the analogy of the faith, and if they 
 did this, the truths of the most overwhelming importance would 
 occupy their right position in the public teaching of the Church. 
 
 7. ** Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering," &c. There is 
 some doubt as to the meaning of this word " ministry." Some 
 suppose it to mean any ministry, taking ministry to include all 
 Church working, as in 1 Corinth, xii. 5, " There are differences of 
 administrations (or ministries, or workings), but the same Lord." 
 But, probably, it is used here more technically, referring to the 
 office held by Stephen and his coadjutors, of superintending the 
 giving of alms, and other duties of a Hke nature. 
 
 The reader will remember that when the necessity for appointing 
 the Seven arose, the Apostles directed the multitude to look out 
 seven men " of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom," 
 and the distribution of alms, if it is not to be harmful, especially 
 requires insight into character, and discretion. Those who exercise 
 this ministry must wait on their ministering, must be in it, as the 
 original has it, i.e., absorbed by it, and perform it most carefully 
 and conscientiously. 
 
 '* Or he that teacheth, on teaching." Most probably this refers 
 to a teaching other than that in pubUc, as the preparation of 
 catechumens for baptism. In 1 Cor. xii. 28, the office of teachers 
 is mentioned as third, " first Apostles, secondarily prophets, 
 
278 EXHORTATION. [Romans. 
 
 t Acts XT. 32. 8 Or ''he that exhorteth, on exhortation : ^ he 
 • Matt. Ti! 1, that II giveth, let him do it \\ with simplicity ; ^ he 
 
 2,3. 
 
 I Or, im- 
 
 parteth. 
 
 II Or, liberally. 
 
 a Cor. viii. 2. thirdly, teachers ; " and after it come miracles, gifts of 
 iT?m"'n' heaUng, &c. So that taking Apostles, prophets, and 
 Hebr. xiii. 7, teachers to be all ministers of the word, the last has 
 T^'a. ^ **■ the more restricted office. Blunt supposes that he 
 may bear the same office as the catechist of later 
 times. Theodoret speaks of him as instructing in Divine dogmas 
 {jSiSaoKaXlav^ twv Osiojv doyfidrojv rrjv fidQrjcnv). 
 
 " Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation." This seems to indicate 
 what we now call preaching, and yet it succeeds teaching. It 
 seems strange that one man should teach and another exhort. 
 Should not the teacher exhort, and the exhorter teach ? But here, 
 probably, the Apostle ceases to refer to the offices and alludes rather 
 to the gifts, and from our present experience of the ministration of 
 the word in the Church, we see that the especial gift of some is to 
 expound such doctrines as'the Incarnation and the Atonement, and 
 the New Life in Christ, so that the souls of the hearers may be 
 raised up to God by these truths, and of others, the practical 
 application of the Christian faith in the duties of every- day life. 
 But we are to remember that exhorting may mean " comforting," 
 and if any Christian had particular gifts for comforting those that 
 mourned or were afflicted, this ministry would of necessity be 
 exercised more in private, if it was to be effectual. So that the 
 Apostle means, whatever gift a Christian has, let him look upon 
 it as a gift, and so not to be boasted of, but to be carefully 
 cultivated, ever realizing that he will have to give account for 
 its use. 
 
 " He that giveth, let him do it with simpHcity." It has been 
 made a question whether the person here in the Apostle's mind be 
 one that distributes the public alms of the Church, or gives out of 
 his more ample private means. It seems to be the latter if we are 
 to make any distinction between it and the exercise of the diaconia 
 of verse seven. If a man gives out of his own store, let him do so 
 with a single eye to the glory of God, and to the good of him to 
 whom he giveth. " The man who gives with simplicity," says 
 Anselm (quoted in Cornelius k Lapide), " is one who does not con- 
 sider whether he to whom he gives be his friend or his famihar, or 
 
Chap. XII.] EULING. 279 
 
 that ruleth, with diligence ; he that sheweth mercy, " with 
 cheerfulness. » 2 Cor. ix. 7. 
 
 one who will be of advantage to him or useful, or whether he will 
 be grateful, but whether he is in need." 
 
 " He that ruleth, with diUgence." The word translated ruleth 
 literally signifies one standing before others, or one who is set before 
 them, and so one presiding. Chrysostom has a remarkable inter- 
 pretation : " He that defendeth with diligence, for it is not enough 
 to undertake the defence, unless he do it with diligence and zeal." 
 Of course he derives this meaning of defending from the idea of 
 standing before. A man stands before others both to preside over 
 them and to defend them. I think in every case in which this 
 word occurs its root idea is that of standing before or pre- 
 siding, so that it might be rendered " leading." This, of course, im- 
 phes the exercise of authority ; but we must remember that another 
 word {'s^ovcrla) is mostly used to express authority. I desire to bring 
 the following considerations before the reader as tending to eluci- 
 date this matter. The Eoman Church at this time probably con- 
 sisted of several thousand persons, and these must have met both 
 for instruction and worship in very many comparatively small 
 rooms, or courts of private houses : for a large public building 
 capable of containing one of our modem congregations, could not 
 have been erected for very many years. Now Justin Martyr, about 
 one hundred years after the writing of this Epistle, speaking of the 
 Eucharist, describes it thus : " And on the day called Sunday all 
 who live in cities, or in the country, gather together in one place, 
 and the memoirs of the Apostles or the writings of the prophets 
 are read, as long as time permits ; then when the reader has ceased, 
 the president verbally instructs .... bread and wine are brought 
 in, and the president in like manner offers prayers," &c. &c. Now 
 Justin here used the word Trpoearojg^ which is translated president ; 
 but, as in this place, it signifies rather standing before, or set before as 
 leader. Now, seeing that there were very probably in Eome twentj- 
 or thirty of such congregations at the least, may not the Apostle 
 mean, he that presideth over the congregation, or leads public 
 worship ? 
 
 Of course it is very probable that the leader or president 
 (o irpdiaTcinevog) presided in other ways, as, for instance, in exercising 
 discipUne ; but it appears to me that if we are to adhere to the 
 
280 ABHOR THAT WHICH IS EVIL. [Romaks. 
 
 « 1 Tim. i. 6. 9 * Let love be without dissimulation. ^ Abhor 
 y Ps. Mxiv. that wliich is evil ; cleave to that which is good. 
 
 14. & xxxvi. 4. 
 
 k xcvii. 10. 
 
 Amos V. 15, 
 
 original idea of Trpoiariifii, we must put presiding in or leading the 
 Church in the first place. He is to do this with diligence, or rather 
 with earnestness. He must throw himself with all his force into 
 his Eucharistic ministrations. 
 
 "He that sheweth mercy with cheerfulness." If this refers to 
 showing mercy in the shape of visiting, reheving, and consoUng 
 the sick, the wisdom of it is manifest. Cheerfulness in dispensing 
 merciful assistance seems to double its value, and certainly tends 
 to a far more ready reception of spiritual counsel and advice on the 
 part of the succoured one. 
 
 9. "Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor [or abhorring] 
 that which is evil ; cleave [or cleaving] to that which is good." 
 The three clauses are all to be connected. Let love be unfeigned, 
 and it cannot be true Christian love except in one who abhors that 
 which is evil, and cleaves to that which is good. By such an 
 understanding of the verse, the force of the participles [dTroffrvyovvregt 
 Ko\kwfi(voi) is preserved. " Then since there is a love for evil things 
 such as is that of the intemperate, that of those who are of one 
 mind for money and for plunder's sake, and for revels and drinking 
 clubs, he clears it of all these by saying, ' Abhor that which is 
 evil.' And he does not speak of refraining firom it, but of abhorring 
 it, that is, bating it, and hating it exceedingly. For this word 
 dird is often of intensive force with him, as when he speaks of 
 earnest expectation {ccTroKapaooKia, Rom. viii. 19), looking out for 
 {direicSexoiJ^yoiy Rom. viii. 23) (complete) redemption {dTroXvTpuxris, 
 Rom. viii. 24). For since many who do not evil things stiQ have a 
 desire after them, therefore he says abhor. But what he wants is 
 to purify the thought, and that we should have a mighty enmity, 
 hatred, and war, against vice. For do not fancy, he means, because 
 I said Love one. another, that I mean you to go so far as to co- 
 operate even in bad actions with one another ; for the law that I 
 am laying down is just the reverse ; since it would have you an 
 alien, not from the action only, but even from the inchnation 
 towards vice ; and not merely an alien from the same inclination, 
 but to have an excessive aversion and hatred of it too," (Chry- 
 sostom). 
 
CHAP.Xn.] BE KINDLY AFFECTIONED. 281 
 
 10 ^ Be kindly affectioned one to another || with » Heb. xui. i. 
 
 , _ -^ . , „ . " IPet.i. 22. & 
 
 brotherly love ; * in honour preferring one an- ii. n. & lii. 8. 
 
 other ; jl Or, in the 
 
 love of the 
 
 brethren. 
 
 • Phil. ii. 3. 
 1 Pet. V. 5. 
 
 " Cleave to that which is good." Be united to or one with it, as 
 a man cleaves to his wife, as men should cleave unto the Lord. 
 Cleave not to one form of goodness which may be in accordance 
 with your natural disposition, but to all good. " Whatsoever things 
 are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, 
 whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatso- 
 ever things are of good report, .... think on these things " (Phil, 
 iv. 8), for the thinking on them is the first step to be joined in heart 
 and will to them. 
 
 10, " Be kindly aflfectioned one to another with brotherly love." 
 ** Ye are brethren, he says, and have come of the same pangs. Do 
 not wait to be loved by another, but leap at it thyself, and be the 
 first to begin it. For so wilt thou reap the wages of his love also." 
 (Chrysostom.) Love one another with a love not only sincere, but 
 fraternal — as children of the same heavenly Father, as brethren of 
 the same Son of God and Son of man. 
 
 " In honour preferring one another." " Which you will do if you 
 habitually consider what is good in others and what is evil in 
 yourself." (Wesley.) " For this is the way that affection is pro- 
 duced, and also when produced abideth. And there is nothing 
 which makes friends so much as the earnest endeavour to overcome 
 one's neighbour in honouring him." (Chrysostom.) " They ought 
 to yield that respect and precedency to others which ambitious men 
 claim to themselves; and readily honour, and induce others to 
 honour, the estimable conduct of their brethren, who, on one 
 account or another, were disregarded or discouraged." (Scott.) 
 
 11. " Not slothful in business." To render the word (nrovSr) by 
 " business " might convey a false impression to the reader: the word 
 rather means zeal or diligence, or earnestness — " In zeal, not back- 
 ward or remiss." The Kevisers translate it somewhat clumsily, '* In 
 diligence not slothful." " Not backward in zeal. For this also 
 gendereth love, when with honour we also show a readiness to 
 protect : as there is nothing that makes men beloved so much as 
 honour and forethought. For to love is not enough, but there 
 
282 FERVENT IN SriRIT. [Romaks. 
 
 11 Not slothful in business ; fervent in spirit ; serving the 
 Lord ; 
 
 must be this also ; or rather this also comes of loving, as also loving 
 has its warmth from this, and they are confirmative one of another." 
 (Chrysostom.) " No reason exists for explaining crrovSr) in any 
 limited sense of zeal in preaching and disseminating the Gospel, or 
 of zeal in Christian devotion. Eather it is zeal in the discharge of 
 any Christian duty whatever." (Philippi.) 
 
 " Fervent in spirit." Literally, boiling up in spirit. God is not 
 well served in a cold, calculating, measured way, but by enthusiasm. 
 This only kindles warmth and zeal. The enthusiastic man may be 
 rash, and make mistakes, but this is more than atoned for by the 
 fire he kindles in many breasts. One is tempted to say that if there 
 is true love there must be fervency. 
 
 " Serving the Lord." Let all your service, even if it be the ser- 
 vice, i.e., the lawful service of men, be "to the Lord." The Apostle, 
 in another Epistle, shows how servants, or slaves, in serving their 
 masters according to the flesh, may yet serve God, and be rewarded 
 for so serving Him, in the eternal world. (See Ephes. vi. 5-8 ; 
 Coloss. iii. 22-24.) And if it be so with the household duties of 
 slaves, so also with all other work which men have to do. It must 
 be sanctified with the definite intention of being done to God, as in 
 His sight, and to be ordered by Him, so as to promote His glory. 
 
 A few MSS. read, serving the time, i.e., the opportunity. Luther, 
 for instance, translates after them, " accommodate yourselves to the 
 time ; " but it seems, beyond measure, unlikely that amongst such 
 precepts Paul should have written one with this meaning. If a 
 man is always thinking of accommodating himself to the times, he 
 is not Hkely to be fervent in spirit, or as follows, " rejoicing in hope, 
 continuing instant in prayer." 
 
 12. " Rejoicing in hope." That is, in the hope of a joyful resur- 
 rection. The sense of present sin, of a conflict between the flesh 
 and spirit, is not to prevent us rejoicing if we have taken the side of 
 Christ, and have surrendered ourselves to Him. But, of course, 
 those who, if there was no resurrection of the dead, were of aU men 
 most miserable, must have had far brighter and more vivid hopes 
 than we who have comparatively so few persecutions and distresses 
 to remind us that this is not our rest ; and so the Apostle in con- 
 nection with hope makes mention of the tribulations which made 
 
Chap. Xn.] REJOICING IN HOPE. 283 
 
 12 ^ Eejoicing in hope ; '^ patient in tribulation ; *» Lake x. 20. 
 ^ continuing instant in prayer ; 13.' Phu. iu. 1. 
 
 13 ® Distributing to the necessity of saints ; Thess. V. le. 
 
 f . . T_ •. ■,.. Heb. iii. 6. 
 
 ' given to hospitality. 1 Pet. iv. 13. 
 
 c Lake zxi. 19. 
 
 1 Tim. vi. 11. 
 
 Heb. X. 36. 
 
 men long so earnestly for the coming of the Lord, and i. t]\ v. 7.*™* 
 writes, i^^^t. ii! 19, 
 
 " Patient in tribulation." *' There should be no greater a Luke xviii. 
 comfort to Christian persons than to be made like ^x^"? "bd' 
 unto Christ, by suffering patiently adversities, troubles, iy. 2. Eph. 
 and sicknesses. For He Himself went not up to joy, Thess". v. 17. 
 but first He suffered pain. He entered not into His • 1 Cor. xvi. 1. 
 glory before He was crucified. So truly our way to Heb. *^. 10'. 
 eternal joy is to suffer here with Christ." (Visitation joS^iiS^'n.^ 
 of the Sick.) t 1 Tim. iii. 2. 
 
 "Continuing instant in prayer." Constant inter- Si' 2 ^'1 Pet!' 
 course with God in prayer is the secret of the Chris- iv. '9. 
 tian life. By bringing before God all our wants, all our troubles, 
 even our Uttle troubles, all our secret sins and infirmities, all our 
 worldly and spiritual concerns, we do as He desires us to do ; we 
 treat Him as our God, in Whose eyes nothing that concerns His 
 children is of small account, and Whose providence rules the 
 minutest matters that can befall them. Let us remember Nehe- 
 miah, who, when the heathen king asked him for what he made 
 request, f/rst prayed to the God of heaven, and then said, " If it please 
 the king, send me unto the city of my fathers' sepulchres." 
 
 There was, nearly fifty years ago, a saintly priest of our Churoh,a 
 fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, who, when anyone sought 
 an interview with him, retired to his bedroom for but a few moments, 
 that he might commend the interview to God. 
 
 13. " Distributing to the necessity of saints." Literally, sharing 
 in, and so, by an easy transition, making them partakers of your 
 good things. " Saints '* here means all bearing the Name of 
 Christ, all Christians, as in Acts ix. 32 and 41. It was one of the 
 great objects of St. Paul's ministry to make Christians in far dis- 
 tant churches assist one another in temporal things. 
 
 *' Given to hospitality." Hospitality was especially needed in 
 the first ages, when Christians were so bitterly persecuted, and had 
 to flee from one city to another. In a strange city they must starve 
 
284 BLESS, AND CURSE NOT. [Romans. 
 
 B Matt. V. 44. 14 e Bless them whicli persecute you : bless, and 
 
 Luke VI. 28, r j f 
 
 & xxiii. 34. curse llOt. 
 
 Acts vii. 60. 
 1 Cor. iv. 12. 
 
 1 Pet. ii. 23. 
 
 & iii. 9. 
 
 with cold and hunger unless the Christians of the city opened their 
 houses to them. The word " given " is not sufficiently strong. It 
 is "pursuing" hospitality. Chrysostom remarks, "He does not 
 say doing it, but given to it, so as to instruct us not to wait for 
 those that shall ask it, and see when they will come to us, but to 
 run to them, and be given to finding them." 
 
 14. " Bless them which persecute you : bless, and curse not." It 
 has been made a question whether St. Paul here quotes Matthew 
 V. 44, or Luke vi. 28. When he was dictating this part of his Epistle 
 he certainly did not stop and refer to the passage and reproduce it 
 verbatim. For in St. Matthew it appears as " Pray for them that 
 (despitefully use you and) persecute you," and in St. Luke as "Bless 
 them that curse you." No doubt the A-postle knew that the Lord 
 had said these words, and he reproduced them freely. He first 
 cited " Bless" (fuXoyflrt), but instead of following it up with " them 
 that curse you," he changed this into "those that persecute," 
 simply because his last word in the preceding verse was ditoKovrae, 
 the transition being most natural from pursuing hospitality to 
 being pursued by evil-minded men. The word in one meaning 
 suggesting the word in another. " He did not say, be not spiteful or 
 revengeful, but required something far better. For that a man which 
 was wise might do, but this is quite an angel's part. And after say- 
 ing hless, he proceeds and " curse not," lest we should do both the one 
 and the other, and not the former only. For they that persecute 
 us are purveyors of a reward to us. But if thou art sober-minded, 
 there will be another reward after that, one which thou wilt gain 
 thyself. For he will yield thee that for persecution, but thou wilt 
 yield thyself the one from the blessing of another, in that thou 
 bringest forth a very great sign of love to Christ. For as he that 
 curseth his persecutor showeth that he is not much pleased at 
 sufi'ering this for Christ, thus he that blesseth showeth a great love. 
 Do not, then, abuse him, that thou thyself mayest gain the greater 
 reward, and mayest teach him that the thing is matter of inclina- 
 tion, not of necessity, of holiday and feast, not of calamity or 
 dejection." (Chrysostom.) 
 
 " Bless, and curse not." Here the Apostle turns the particular 
 
Chap. XII.] WEEP WITH THEM THAT WEEP. 285 
 
 15 ^ Eejoice with thftm that do rejoice, and ^ i Cor. xii. 
 weep with them that weep. 
 
 16 ^Be of the same miad one toward another. icor!T.'i6. 
 
 Phil ii. 2. & 
 
 iii, 16. 1 Pet. 
 
 iii. 8. 
 
 precept respecting not cursing, but blessing our persecutors, into a 
 general one. The Christian is to wish for and to pray for good to 
 everyone. He is never to wish for or to pray for evil to any. 
 
 15. " Eejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that 
 weep." Thus did the Lord at the grave of Lazarus. He wept with 
 those that wept, out of mere sympathy, for He was about to raise 
 bim from the dead. And at the very commencement of His ministry 
 He rejoiced with those at the marriage feast ; nay, He added to 
 their innocent joy by turning the water into wine. 
 
 Chrysostom illustrates well this sentiment. " Yes," it will be 
 said, " but to join in the sorrows of mourners one can see why he 
 ordered them, but why ever did he command them the other thing, 
 when it is no such great matter ? Aye, but that requires more of a 
 high Christian temper, to rejoice with them that do rejoice, ihanto 
 weep with them that weep. For this nature itself fulfils perfectly : 
 and there is none so hard-hearted as not to weep over him that is in 
 calamity : but the other requires a very noble soul, so as not only to 
 keep from envying, but even to feel pleasure with the person that 
 is in esteem." 
 
 16. " Be of the same mind one toward another." Various shades 
 of meaning have been given to this place. Some, as Williams, take 
 it, as enjoining on men sympathy not only in their joys and sorrows, 
 but also in their affections and pursuits, and an endeavour to have a 
 fellow feeling with others, as in another place, " Remember them 
 that are in bonds, as bound with them." Others, as Philippi, see 
 in it an inculcation of modesty : " Be so minded one towards 
 another, that the one places himself on a level with the other, and 
 ascribes no more to himself than to him." Jowett suggests a 
 counsel not so much of humility as of unity, of which humihty 
 is also a part. Chrysostom, whose comments on the precepts in 
 this chapter are unapproachable, writes : " Has a poor man come 
 into thine house? Be like him in thy bearing. Do not put 
 on any unusual pompous air on account of thy riches. There is 
 no rich and poor in Christ. Be not thou ashamed of him because 
 of his external dress, but receive him because of his inward faith." 
 
286 MIND NOT HIGH THINGS. [Komans. 
 
 k ps. cxxxi. 1, ^ Mind not high things, but || condescend to men 
 II "or.le con- * of low estate. ^Be not wise in your own con- 
 
 tented with • , 
 
 mean things. CCltS. 
 1 Prov. iii. 7. 
 
 & xxvi. 12. 
 
 Isai. V. 21. 
 ch. xi. 25. 
 
 " Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate." 
 High things are here taken to mean worldly honours and distinc- 
 tions, and such things, and to mind them not, does not simply 
 mean " do not desire them or pursue them," but *' be not influenced 
 by them." For instance, in a Church assembly, defer not in the least 
 to the opinion of those who have worldly rank or influence, but 
 look at everything simply in the light of God's truth.^ 
 
 " Condescend to men of low estate." It is doubtful whether we 
 should render it " to men of low estate," or to things of low con- 
 dition. But the word Tairsivog is never in the New Testament 
 applied to things. Chrysostom understands it of persons : " Briag 
 thyself down to their humble condition, ride or walk with them, 
 be not humbled in mind only, but help them also and reach forth 
 thy hand to them, not by means of others, but in thine own 
 person, as a father taking care of a child, as the head taking care 
 of the body." 
 
 The word condescending means rather to be carried away with, 
 •' The reference is to the most indigent and ignorant, and least 
 influential in the Church. It is to them the believer ought to feel 
 most drawn. The antipathy felt by the Apostle to every sort of 
 spiritual aristocracy, to every caste and distinction in the Church, 
 breaks out again in the last words." (Godet.) 
 
 " Be not wise in your own conceits." " Especially they should 
 avoid all conceit of their own wisdom, as if they were above ordi- 
 nary rules, had no occasion to ask wisdom of God, or to regard the 
 counsel of their brethren ; or, as if they ought to be at the head of 
 every business, and nothing could be well done if they were not 
 consulted or employed about it." (T. Scott.) 
 
 1 Godet has an interesting illnstration : " There frequently forms in the congregations 
 of believers an aristocratic tendency, everyone striving, by means of the Christian 
 brotherhood, to associate with those who by their gifts or fortune occupy a higher position. 
 Hence small coteries, animated by a proud spirit, and having for their result chilling 
 exclnsiveness." The Apostle knows these littlenesses, and vrishes to prevent them ; he 
 recommends the members of f>« Church to attath themselves to all alike. 
 
Chap. XII.] IF POSSIBLE LIVE PEACEABLY. 287 
 
 17 "" Eecompense to no man evil for evil. "^ Pro- 22^^^kn'T 
 vide things honest in the sight of all men. 39.^^1 xhess. 
 
 18 If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, "i- 9- 
 
 „,. 1 T -.1 n " eh. xiv. 16. 
 
 ° live peaceably with ail men. 2 cor. viii. 21. 
 
 o Mark ix. 50. 
 
 ch. xiv. 19. 
 
 Hebr. xii. 14. 
 
 17. " Eecompense to no man evil for evil." This naturally fol- 
 lows upon precepts of humility. Pride and self-consequence lead 
 to retahation. The proud man is almost necessarily resentful. 
 This word, "to no man," was evidently intended to embrace the 
 heathen around them, to whom they were to commend practically 
 the Gospel of God's forbearance and forgiveness, by being forbear- 
 ing and forgiving themselves. 
 
 "Provide things honest in the sight of all men." Or, as the 
 Eevised Version has it, " Take thought for things honourable in the 
 sight of all men." St. Paul set an example of this by not carrying 
 up the contribution of the Gentiles to the Saints of Jerusalem by 
 himself alone, but by associating others to travel with him with the 
 money, so that no one should have the opportunity of saying that 
 they took any of it for the supply of their private needs. " Avoid- 
 ing this, that no man should blame us in this abundance which 
 is administered by us : providing for honest things, not only in the 
 sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men " (2 Cor. viii. 20, 21). 
 
 The Apostle exhorts the Church to be mindful of what is good, 
 i.e., of an upright, honourable walk before the eyes, or in the 
 opinion of all men — not merely before Christians, but also before 
 Jews and Gentiles. Whilst he is so concerned for their own 
 reputation, he is withal in the last resort equally concerned for the 
 honour of their God, Who by the evil walk of His people is 
 scandalized before unbelievers (Kom. ii. 24), and for their neigh- 
 bours' salvation, which is furthered by the sight of their good walk 
 (Matth. V. 16). 
 
 18. " If it be possible, as much as Ueth in you, live peaceably 
 with aU men." It may not always be possible, for St. James says : 
 "The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable" 
 (James iii. 17). If then we assert heavenly wisdom in its purity, 
 it may rouse up opposition, it may bring to pass the Lord's words, 
 ** I came not to send peace, but a sword." And yet the truth must 
 be spoken in love, or we may lose our reward. It must be also 
 spoken in meekness. " In meekness instructing those that oppose 
 
288 AVENGE NOT YOURSELVES. fRoMANS. 
 
 19 Dearly beloved, ^ avenge not yourselves, but rather give 
 P Lev. xix. 18. placc uuto wrath : for it is written, '^ Vengeance 
 
 Prov. xxiv. 29. 5 . x -n -^-u j-T, T J 
 
 ver. 17. IS mine ; I will repay, saitn the Jjord. 
 
 4 Dent, xxxii. 
 
 35. Hebr. X. 
 
 30. 
 
 themselves, if God peradventure will give them repentance to the 
 acknowledging of the truth " (2 Tim. ii. 25). " By the most harm- 
 less and forbearing conduct, and by every sacrifice and concession 
 they ought, if possible, to avoid all quarrels and litigations, and to 
 live at peace amongst their most unreasonable and injurious neigh- 
 bours ; avoiding all contention as the greatest evil to their own 
 souls, and to the cause of true religion, except it were a meek but 
 steadfast contention for the truth. (T. Scott.) 
 
 19. " Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place 
 unto wrath." " Dearly beloved." Notice the affection in the address. 
 He had at the beginning merely called them "brethren." Now 
 he uses a more endearing word, '* beloved," as if he would press 
 upon them the importance of what he was saying with all tender- 
 ness and earnestness. It was a matter of feeUng, and he exhibits 
 thus his deep feeling. 
 
 *' But rather give place unto wrath : for it is written, Vengeance 
 is mine," &c. This giving place unto wrath must be closely con- 
 nected with what follows. Give place, "for it is written, Vengeance 
 is mine," &c. The Apostle means to say, " Vengeance does not 
 belong to man. It belongs to the Supreme Judge, and if a man 
 avenges himself, he intrudes into the office of that Judge." But it 
 does not follow from this that the Apostle desires the Christian to 
 think and hope that God will avenge him. If so, why should he 
 be bidden to pray for " those that despitefuUy use him and perse- 
 cute him " ? It rather means, give place to your enemies' wrath ; 
 allow it to run its course rather than avenge yourself, because, if 
 so, you intrude into God's office and injure yourself in His sight. 
 Ty opyy then, does not mean primarily the wrath of God, though 
 it has the article, " the wrath." You are to leave the matter to 
 God, to give your enemy repentance, or to avenge you, as He 
 pleases. Consciously to hope that God will avenge is hardly 
 Christian. The quotation is taken freely from Dent, xxxii. 35, and 
 is said there of God's avenging the people of Israel upon their 
 enemies, " To me belongeth vengeance and recompense ; their foot 
 shall slide in due time," &c. 
 
Chap. XII.] BE NOT OVERCOME OF EVIL. 289 
 
 20 "■ Therefore if tiiine enemy hunger, feed him ; if he thirst, 
 give him drink : for in so doing thou shalt heap ' Exod. xxUi. 
 coals of fire on his head. xW! 21, 22! 
 
 21 Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil 
 with. good. 
 
 20. "Therefore." "But" read by a, A., B., P., 5, 10, 23, 37, 57, 67**, 73, d*, Vnlg., 
 Cop., Arm. ; " therefore " by E., L., most Cursives. 
 
 20. " Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him ; if he thirst, 
 give him drink," &c. This is taken from Proverbs xxv. 21. 
 (Sept.) The heaping of coals of fire on the enemy's head cannot 
 be in the way of punishment : such a meaning is directly contrary 
 to all that the Apostle or his Master inculcates. The coals of fire 
 are to be understood of shame, as we say, "burning shame." 
 St. Augustine says, *' You will melt your enemy by the fire of God's 
 love, the coals from His altar, which we may consider to be the 
 love of Christ crucified ; you will bring down his proud head to 
 repentance." " Such coals of fire were heaped on Saul's head by 
 David (1 Sam. sxvi. 7-21). And they burned brightly for a time 
 (verse 25), but were unhappily quenched at last. Such coals of 
 fire the Son of David endeavoured to kindle on the head of Judas 
 (John xiii. 26; Matth. xxvi. 50). But they were smothered by 
 covetousness, and went out in smoke." (Wordsworth.) 
 
 21. "Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good." 
 Taken in connection with what has gone before, this means : If you 
 allow the injury and malice of your adversary to work in you a 
 feeling of hatred and a desire of vengeance, then you are overcome 
 by his evil : instead of being brought nearer to God by resistance 
 in spirit to an evil spirit of revenge, you yield to the spirit, and 
 your enemy works a far greater spiritual injury upon you than any 
 temporal evil he may have inflicted. But if when hated and injured 
 by another you call on God's help to smother all desires of re- 
 taliation, if you force yourself to pray for him, and mortify your 
 natural pride by doing him some kindness, then you overcome evil 
 with good. He hates, and speaks evil words, and detracts and 
 slanders, and, if he has opportunity, injm'es you in reputation or 
 property ; but if you, following the example of your forgiving 
 Saviour, are led by His Spirit to be humble and peaceable, then 
 "the Lord thy God will turn the curse into a blessing unto thee " 
 (Deut. xxiii. 5). 
 
 u 
 
290 NO POWER BUT OF GOD. [Romans. 
 
 But this precept is capable of the most general application. We 
 are in an evil world, surrounded with evil, permeated as to our 
 fleshly nature with evil, but God has given to us good whereby 
 this evil may be overcome. He has given to us the faith, and the 
 Scriptures, and the Church, and the Sacraments ; by these we may 
 drive away Satan, overcome the world, subdue the flesh, and, by 
 acquitting ourselves well in the fight, gain a more abundant 
 reward. 
 
 I cannot conclude this chapter without one remark. There is 
 one day which, as a day of the month, occurs but once in four 
 years — the 29th February. The Church of England, in accordance 
 with her plan of the daily reading of Scripture, must choose some 
 lesson out of the ordinary course for this day, and this only. She 
 has fixed upon the seventh of St. Matthew for her morning second 
 lesson, and this tweKth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans for 
 her evening one. So that, according to her mind, this chapter out 
 of all the chapters of the Apostolical Epistles is the one to be re- 
 membered. In addition to this, three Epistles — those for the first, 
 second, and third Sunday after Epiphany — are taken from this 
 chapter. The whole of it is thus embodied in the Eucharistic 
 service of the Church. 
 
 CHAP. XIII. 
 
 a Tit. in. 1. T ET every soul ^ be subiect unto the hisrher 
 
 I Pet.ii. 13. I -r^ L .-, . 1 . o 
 
 b proT. viii. J y powers. 1 or ^ there is no power but oi 
 
 ii%L"&?v*°32. Grod: the powers that be are || ordained of Grod. 
 
 John xix. 11. 
 
 II Or, ordered. 
 
 1-4. " Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For 
 there is no power but of God ... a revenger to execute wrath 
 upon him that doeth evil." At first sight the Apostle seems to lay 
 down the principle of passive obedience to the civil power, no 
 matter who wields it, and no matter what it decrees. But this 
 could not be, for he himself suffered martyrdom, because he per- 
 sisted in spreading a religion whose first principle was that the 
 gods of Caesar and those under him were no gods, and that to 
 
Chap. XIII.] WHOSOEVER RESISTETH. 291 
 
 2 Whosoever therefore resisteth ^ the power, re- « Tit. iii. i. 
 
 worship them was treason against the God of heaven. All diffi- 
 culty vanishes if we consider that the Apostle, in these verses, 
 asserts two things. First he asserts a great principle good for all 
 time, and then he asserts how it is to be carried out at that par- 
 ticular time. 
 
 The principle is that civil government is ordained by God, and 
 that it is necessary not only for the good, but for the existence, 
 of mankind. Even under the worst forms of government, ad- 
 ministered by the worst persons, the governor is to the vast mass 
 of those under him "the minister of God for good." He can, 
 ordinarily, only oppress or rob or tyrannize over a few, whereas 
 he protects the vast body of his subjects from the greatest curse 
 which can befall a state, and that is anarchy. Anarchy enables the 
 worst and most unscrupulous of men to bear rule, to rob, to 
 plunder, to massacre, at their will ; whereas it was in the interest 
 of such governors of men as then existed (and worse could hardly 
 be conceived) — Tiberius, Claudius, Nero — to keep the peace be- 
 tween man and man, to restrain the violent, and to maintain some 
 sort of order. Such was the principle, but the Apostle writes to 
 show how it was then to be carried out by the Christians of Kome. 
 
 Now some, perhaps a considerable number, of these Christians 
 were Jews, who, whilst living in their own country of Judaea and 
 Galilee, were always permeated by a spirit of insubordination 
 to the imperial power. They looked upon the great heathen 
 monarchies which had succeeded one another in the government 
 of the world as spiritually evil, and especially at that time, both in 
 Palestine, and out of it, were they restless and insubordinate- 
 "The spirit of rebellion, against which the Apostle is warning 
 them, was not a mere misconception of the teaching of the Gospel ; 
 it lay deep in the circumstances of the age, and in the temper of 
 the Jewish people. It is impossible to forget, however shght may 
 be their historical groundwork, the well-known words of Suetonius 
 (Claud, c. 25), ' Judseos impulsore Chresto assidue tumultuantes, 
 Roma expuht.' The narration of Scripture itself affords indica- 
 tions of similar agitations, so far as they can be expected to cross 
 the peaceful path of our Saviour and His disciples," &c. (Jowett.) 
 
 The Apostle, then, having regard to this spirit of rebellion, which 
 might carry away with it the Christian Jews of Rome, and even 
 
292 THEY THAT RESIST. [Romans. 
 
 sisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall 
 receive to themselves damnation. 
 
 extend to their GentUe brethren when under persecution, warns 
 them of the sin as well as futility of all attempts at resistance to 
 the civil power. The time would come, if they were assiduous in 
 spreading the Gospel, that the "powers that be" might become 
 Christian, but armed resistance on their part might indefinitely 
 postpone such an issue. 
 
 It should be said at the outset that nothing which the Apostle 
 here writes can be quoted against needful or beneficial changes in 
 the government of a Christian country. If a monarch does not 
 observe the conditions under which he rules, there is nothing here to 
 hinder the majority of his subjects compelling him to observe these 
 conditions. If the "powers that be " take the republican shape, 
 there is nothing to hinder the great body of the people changing 
 this if they think well so to do. The Apostle here lays down no 
 principle except this, that civil government is an institution of 
 God, and in its worst forms is better than no government at all ; 
 and, subordinately to this, that for Christians to take part in 
 tumults and rebellions is contrary to the will of God, and will 
 bring discredit on the Gospel, and retard its progress. 
 
 Let us now consider each verse separately. 
 
 " Let every soul be subject to the higher powers." " Every soul," 
 i.e., every person, Jew, Christian, or heathen. 
 
 " To the higher powers." As expressed by the Apostle St. Peter, 
 " Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake : 
 whether it be to the king, as supreme ; or unto governors, as unto 
 them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for 
 the praise of them that do well." (1 Pet. ii. 13-14.) 
 
 " For the Lord's sake." That is, for the honour of the Name and 
 of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which would be seriously hindered in 
 its progress by Christians taking part in civil tumults. 
 
 " There is no power but of God." If any supreme worldly power 
 exists, carrying out the will of God in maintaining order and 
 saving men from anarchy, it exists by the providence of God. 
 
 2. "Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordi- 
 nance of God," — i.e., the ordinance by which society is held 
 together, and quiet, well-disposed men are protected from the 
 tyranny of their evil neighbours. 
 
CHAP.Xin.] DO THAT WHICH IS GOOD. 293 
 
 3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. 
 Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power ? ^ do ^ i Pet. u. i4. 
 
 ^ & iii. 13. 
 
 that which is good, and thou shalt have praise 
 of the same : 
 
 4 For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But 
 
 " And they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation." 
 Not, of course, eternal condemnation in hell, but judgment in the 
 sense of being punished by the infliction of the ruler's judgment, 
 death by the sword, imprisonment, or banishment ; but we are to 
 remember that all wilful continued resistance to the declared wiU 
 of God is rebellion against Him, and provokes Him to withdraw 
 His Spirit from us. 
 
 3. " For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil 
 .... praise of the same." Civil governors exist to administer the 
 laws of human society, and these laws almost universally tend to 
 the protection of those who live in it. They consequently dis- 
 courage all vices which tend to the disruption of society, and en- 
 courage such virtues as mutual forbearance, self-control, and care for 
 one another's welfare, which tend to hold it together and to secure 
 to men its advantages. The Apostle, be it remembered, is here 
 not writing a treatise on politics, but asserting a principle which, 
 as a rule, pervades all bodies politic, that they encourage what tends 
 to their preservation and prosperity, and frown upon that which 
 tends to their dissolution. "Whence, too, has he the name of 
 rmnister ? Consider this : I (Chrysostom, the preacher) give yon 
 counsel to be sober-minded, and he, by the laws, speaks the same 
 language. I (the preacher) exhort you not to be rapacious and 
 grasping. And he sits in judgment in such cases, and so is a worker 
 together with us (preachers) and an assistant to us, and has been 
 commissioned by God for this end." (Chrysostom.) 
 
 4. " He beareth not the sword in vain." It has been inferred from 
 this place, and very rightly, that the civil magistrate may inflict 
 death, and in cases where life has been taken away he seems bound 
 to do so, for it is a primeval law : " Whoso sheddeth man's blood, 
 by man shall his blood be shed : for in the image of God made 
 he man." (Gen. ix. 6.) 
 
 " He is the minister of God .... a revenger," &c. So that the civil 
 governor is a minister both of the mercy and the justice of God. 
 
294 HE IS THE MINISTER OF GOD. [Romans. 
 
 if thou do tliat which is evil, be afraid ; for he beareth not 
 the sword in vain : for he is the minister of God, a revenger 
 to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil, 
 e Eccies. viii. 6 Wherefore ® ye must needs be subject, not 
 f 1 Pet. ii. 19. only for wrath, ^ but also for conscience sake. 
 
 6 For for this cause pay ye tribute also : for they are God*s 
 ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. 
 
 He is the minister of God's mercy, in that he preserves to man the 
 inestimable blessing of well-ordered human society, and he is the 
 minister of the justice of God, for the temporal punishment which 
 he inflicts is the expression of the righteous anger of God against 
 evil-doing. 
 
 5. " Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but 
 also for conscience sake." " Not only for wrath," i.e., not only 
 through fear of his wrath which he can give effect to by punishing 
 you, but also for conscience sake. Mark these words of the Apostle. 
 How often do men urge their conscientious convictions on the side 
 of disobedience ! He, on the contrary, cites conscience on the side 
 of obedience to the rulers of this world. And yet this very man a 
 few years after submitted to death rather than disobey the ruling 
 of his conscience. 
 
 6. " For for this cause pay ye tribute also : for they are God's 
 ministers," &c. This " pay " is by most expositors considered to be 
 indicative, not imperative — "for this cause ye pay tribute," that is, 
 to maintain them, and to furnish them with the means of repressing 
 disorder and violence, and protecting the persons and property of 
 quiet citizens. 
 
 " For they are God's ministers." " Note how constantly he repeats 
 this, but here he employs a stronger word. In verse four he had 
 used the word Slchcovoq, here Xeirovpyia a word pertaining to the ser- 
 vice of God in His Sanctuary, as if such governors were to be 
 looked upon by us as performing a divine service to Him, and to 
 be honoured as such." (Williams.) 
 
 " Attending continually upon this very thing." Their whole busi- 
 ness is to protect and take care of you in the place which God has 
 assigned them. 
 
 7. " Render therefore to all their dues : tribute to whom tribute 
 
Chap. XIIL] RENDER TO ALL THEIR DUES. 295 
 
 7 ^Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom 
 tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to oi^^i^t*^'- 
 
 ' 21. Mark xu. 
 
 whom fear ; honour to whom honour. ^- ^^^^ **• 
 
 8 Owe no man any thing, but to love one 
 another: for ^he that loveth another hath fulfilled ^ ver.io. Gai. 
 
 ^, . V. 14. Col. 
 
 the law. iii. 14. 1 Tim. 
 
 9 For this, ' Thou shalt not commit adultery, li. 8. 
 Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not steal. Thou L^"" Den^.V?' 
 shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet ; Ux.\l'. ^*''' 
 
 7. " Render therefore." So E., F., G., L., P., almost all Cursives, d, e, f, g, Syriac, 
 Arm., Goth. ; but " therefore " omitted by S, A., B., D., 67, Vulg. (Cod. Amiat.), Sah., 
 Copt. 
 
 is due." " Tribute," any direct tax on person or real property. It 
 refers to the annual capitations. 
 
 "Custom to whom custom." Any indirect tax or toll on goods, 
 "Fear" expresses the feeling due to the highest authorities, to 
 supreme magistrates before whom the lictors walk, and who are 
 invested with the power of life and death. 
 
 " Honour " applies generally to all men in of&ce. St. Peter 
 makes the precept general, " Honour all men." 
 
 " Owe no man any thing." Keep out of debt. 
 
 " But to love one another." There is one debt, however, which 
 you can never discharge, ■i.e., the debt of love. You owe it to all 
 who are created in the image of God ; you owe it to all who are 
 redeemed by the Blood of Christ, especially do you owe it to all 
 who are fellow-members of Christ, that you should love them. 
 This debt you can never discharge, so that you should be free from 
 the obligation to love your brethren and your fellow-creatures. 
 
 " He that loveth another hath fulfilled the law." Notice how 
 the Apostle, who has throughout all the Epistle rejected the law as 
 a"means of justification, here upholds it as a rule of sanctification. 
 
 " He that loveth another hath fulfilled the law," for he proceeds 
 to say, 
 
 9. " For this. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not 
 kill, Thou shalt not steal .... Thou shalt love thy neighbour as 
 thyself." How is it that St. Paul draws attention to the com- 
 mandments of the second table only ? for it is these commandments 
 which are covered by the more general precept, " Thou shalt love 
 
296 KNOWING THE TIME. [Romans. 
 
 and if there he any other commandment, it is briefly compre- 
 hended in this saying, namely,^ Thou shalt love thy neighbour 
 
 k Ler. xix. 18. aS thvself . 
 
 Matt, xxii, 39. ^ ^ -r i i mi i • - -, i i 
 
 Markxii. 31. 10 Lovc worketh no ill to his neighbour: there- 
 
 Gal. V. 14. 
 
 Jam. i'i. 8.' foro ^ love IS the fulfilling of the law. 
 
 40. ver. 8^"* H And that, knowing the time, that now it is 
 
 9. " Thon shalt not bear false witness." Omitted by A., B., D., E., F., G., L,, thirty- 
 five Corsives, Vulg. (Cod. Amiat,), d, e, f, g, Syriac (Schaaf), Sah. ; but S, P., most 
 Cursives, Copt., Arm., ^th. i-etain. 
 
 thy neighbour as thyself." It might be sufficient to answer that 
 his Lord had done precisely the same when he tried the young 
 ruler by the commandments of the second table only (Matth. xix. 
 18) ; but is it not the fact that the real test is the second table ? St. 
 John seems to think so when he writes : " If a man say I love God 
 and hateth his brother, he is a liar, for he that loveth not his 
 brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath 
 not seen ? " (1 John iv. 20.) The commandments of the second table 
 are especially those which require self-command and self-restraint* 
 and a conscience determined to be void of offence both towards 
 God and towards men. Lively feelings may deceive a man as to 
 his love to God ; but there can be no self-deception in the matter 
 of a man striving to avoid doing the very least harm to his neigh- 
 bour, and doing him all the good he can. 
 
 11. " And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to 
 awake," &c. " And that " {kuI tovto), rather " and this " — this should 
 we do, this mind of obedience should we have, since we know the 
 time, that the end draws near. The day of Christ's appearing was 
 at hand when we first heard the Gospel, for part of that Gospel was 
 " The day of the Lord cometh as a thief in the night." " Take ye 
 heed, watch and pray, for ye know not when the time cometh." If 
 we were bound to look for it and live in expectation of it then, 
 much more should we do so now. 
 
 But had not the Eoman Christians b8®a awakened out of sleep 
 when they were converted and baptized ? Yes ; but as Godet says, the 
 most awakened in the Church has still need of awakening, and hence 
 the Apostle reminds his readers that there are degrees even in this. 
 It was said of some leading Christian at the beginning of this cen- 
 toryj that, looking at the state of things then existing, and thit 
 
Chap. XIII.] THE NIGHT IS FAR SPENT. 297 
 
 high time ™ to awake out of sleep : for now is our salvation 
 nearer than when we behoved. "^ i Cor. xv. 
 
 34. Eph. V. 
 
 12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand ; i4. i xhess. 
 
 V. 5, 6. 
 
 comparative apathy even of such as himself, he said to one who 
 knew him well, " Brother, brother, we are not haK-awake." In 
 accordance with this, the Apostle reminds the Ephesian Christians 
 of the words, " Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, 
 and Christ shall give thee light." (v. 14.) 
 
 " For now is our salvation nearer than when we believed," i.e., our 
 full salvation. This is never connected with any crisis of the spiritual 
 life here, or with death, but with the Lord's second coming, and 
 om* resurrection in our spiritual bodies. 
 
 12. " The night is far spent, the day is at hand." The present 
 time is called the night, and the coming of the Lord the day. Now 
 this time, night though it is called, is a day of grace. It is a day of 
 acceptance and salvation. " Now is the accepted time, now is the 
 day of salvation." (2 Cor. vi. 2.) We have much light in this night. 
 We have the light of God's truth, of the Scriptures, of the Church, 
 of the Holy Spirit. Twilight though it be, compared to the blaze 
 of day which will soon burst upon us, we have hght enough 
 whereby to do our work. And it is remarkable that our Lord 
 calls the present time day, " I must work the works of him that 
 sent me while it is day. The night cometh when no man can 
 work" (John ix. 4.) Night though it be, there is work to be 
 done in it which cannot be done when the eternal day has come. 
 Why, then, does the Apostle call this time of probation night ? 
 Because it is the time in which deeds of darkness are done. It is 
 the night of sin and evil to the inhabitants of the world, and many 
 Christians walk in darkness because they walk more or less accord- 
 ing to the world. And it is night when compared with the clear- 
 ness and brightness of the future day. " Now we see through a 
 glass darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then 
 shall I know even as also I am known." (1 Cor. xiii. 12.) 
 
 " The day is at hand." " What wonderful things will the light of 
 that day reveal, which we now only see darkly, or feel around I 
 What a new world will burst upon us : what faces, what eyes, what 
 companies, of which we can now form no idea, and ourselves also 
 like to blind men seeing for the first time of.r own cotmtenances in 
 
298 LET us WALK HONESTLY. [Romans. 
 
 n Eph. V. 11. »* let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, 
 
 Eph. vi. 13. and ° let us put on the armour of light. 
 
 1 PhiUy?8^' 1^ ^ ^e* ^s walk II honestly, as in the day; *> not 
 pin ^12 ^^* ^^ rioting and drunkenness, "" not in chambering 
 
 B Or, decently, and wautonuess, * not in strife and envying. 
 
 1 Prov. xxiii. 
 
 20. Luke xxi. 
 
 34. 1 Pet. 
 
 *^: ^* . „ a mirror." (Williams.) This state is ever'nearer and 
 
 ' 1 Cor. VI. 9. ^ , . . . . » -I 
 
 Eph. V. 5. nearer, is fast approaching, is just appearmg. And 
 8 Jam. iii. 14. jjgre it is, as if there were signs of the coming dawn, 
 at least to some amongst us. As Chrysostom says : " The birds 
 twittering under the roof, or such other tokens that the night is 
 on the wane, and men awaking each other, and saying, * It is now 
 time to arise, it is time to put on our armour for the day.' " 
 
 " Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness." By repentance, 
 by confession, by faith, by constant and unremitting watchfulness 
 and prayer, by self-denial, by using every means of gi'ace. 
 
 " And let us put on the armour of light." The arms or weapons of 
 attack as well as armour merely defensive. St. Paul, in Ephesians vi., 
 calls it the panoply of God, and he enumerates the various parts of 
 it as truth, as righteousness, as the Gospel of peace, as faith, as 
 salvation, as the word of God. 
 
 13. "Let us walk honestly, as in the day." "Honestly," 
 rather becomingly, putting away everything indecent and out of 
 keeping with the light in which Christians ought to Uve ; avoiding 
 every word or action even remotely tending to evil ; doing our best 
 to commend our faith to others by remembering such words as "Let 
 your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, 
 and glorify your Father which is in heaven," or "Abstain from 
 every appearance of evil," or " See that ye walk circumspectly." 
 
 " Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wan- 
 tonness," &c. The works of darkness are enumerated in pairs ; 
 first intemperance and excess in feasting and banqueting ; then 
 fornication and its attendant lasciviousness, and then what natu- 
 rally would arise from such indulgences, strife and envying, or 
 rather jealousies. This passage is remarkable in that it was the 
 means used by God for converting St. Augustine. I give the full 
 account in a note taken from his Confessions.-^ 
 
 1 " I cast myself down I know not how, under a certain fig-tree, and gave run to my 
 tears ; and the floods of mine eyes broke for 'an acceptable sacrifice to thee ' (Ps. li. 19). 
 
Chap. XIII.] PUT YE ON THE LOUD JESUS. 299 
 
 14 But * put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and * g&i. m. 27. 
 
 ^ *' Eph. iv. 24. 
 Col. iii. 10. 
 
 14. ** But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ." But have we not, 
 according to the Apostle's own words, put Him on in baptism? 
 (Gal. iii.) Yes, but He has to be put on not once, but constantly — 
 once sacramentally at the font, but constantly by being conformed 
 to the example of His most holy Life. So also it is with the evil 
 things which the Apostle had but just mentioned. They have been 
 once for all put off in baptism, or in conversion, and yet, if we are 
 not watchful and prayerful, they may return and re-assert their 
 dominion, and, in the Lord's own words, our last state may be 
 worse than the first. 
 
 "Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ." By daily setting before 
 yourselves His holy example, and that example reflected in His 
 saints. Wesley has a valuable note : *' Herein is contained the 
 whole of our salvation. It is a strong and beautiful expression for 
 the most intimate union with Him, and being clothed with all the 
 graces which were with Him. The Apostle does not say, ' put on 
 purity and sobriety, peacefulness, and benevolence.' But he says, 
 all this and a thousand times more at once in saying, ' Put on 
 Christ.' " 
 
 And not, indeed, in these words, yet to this purpose, spake I much unto thee : ' And thou, 
 O Lord, how long ? how long wilt thou be angry for ever ? O remember not against os 
 former iniquities ' (Ps, Ixxix, 6, 8), for I felt that I was holden by them. I kept on utter- 
 ing wretched exclamations : 'How long? how long ? to-morrow and to-morrow ? Why 
 not now ? why not this hour make an end of mine uncleanness? ' 
 
 " Such words I spake the while I wept in most bitter contrition of my heart. And lo, 
 firom a neighbouring house, I heard a voice, as of a boy or girl, I know not, singing and 
 oft repeating, ' Take, read ; take, read.' Instantly with a changed countenance I began 
 to think most intently, whether boys in any kind of game used to sing such a phrase ; nor 
 could I remember ever to have heard the like. So checking the torrent of my tears, I 
 arose ; interpreting it to be no other than a Divine command to open the book, and read 
 the first chapter I should find. For I had heard of Antony, that he had happeaed to 
 come in during the reading of the Gospel, and had taken the passage read as a warning 
 spoken to himself, ' Go, sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt hare 
 treasure in heaven, and come and follow me ' (St. Matthew xix. 21), and by such oraole 
 he was forthwith converted unto Thee. With such an inspiration then I returned to the 
 place where Alypius was sitting ; for there I had laid the volume of the Apostle, -when I 
 arose thence. I seized, opened, and in silence read the passage upon which my eyes first 
 fell : ' Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife 
 and enrying : but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the fiesh, 
 to fulfil the lusts thereof.' No further would I read ; nor was there need, for instantly, 
 at the end of this sentence,Jas though my heart were flooded with a light of peace, all 
 the shadows of doubt melted away." 
 
300 PROVISION FOR THE FLESH. [Romans. 
 
 nGai.y. 16. "make not provision for the flesh, to fuljil the 
 lusts thereof. 
 
 " And make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof." 
 This does not, of course, mean that we are not to be industrious 
 and economical, that we may have wherewith to live, but it means 
 that we are not to amass money or property, in order that we may 
 have more to spend on bodily, sensual, animal gratifications. As 
 Quesnel says, " To satisfy both reason and faith, by giving to the 
 body what necessity requires, and refusing it what sensuality 
 craves, is to obey God Himself; to make provision for the corrupt 
 inclination which reigns in the body, is to make ourselves the slaves 
 of sin." See my notes on Luke xii. 16, &c. 
 
 CHAP. XIV. 
 
 a ch. XV. 1, 7. XX I^ *^^* ** ^^ weak in the faith receive ye, hut 
 
 1 Cor. viii. 9, 
 
 H 
 
 11. &*ix. 22. ' X X II not to doubtful disputations. 
 
 II Or, not to 
 
 Judge his doubt- 
 
 ful thoughts. 
 
 The Apostle now enters upon a matter apparently new, and 
 commentators have much difficulty in finding the Hnk between 
 what he has just written and what he is about to write. But why 
 should there be any difficulty ? The Apostle is about to conclude 
 his letter ; he knew from his experience in Corinth, from whence 
 he was writing, that there was especial difficulty in maintaining 
 the unity and peace of the Church in the matter of meats, and 
 drinks, and holy days. He perhaps knew for certain, he certainly 
 thought it most probable, that such difficulties were present in the 
 Roman Church, and he gives such directions as would, on the one 
 side, not press heavily on individual consciences, and on the other 
 obviate schism. 
 
 The question has been much debated who the persons were who 
 went to the extreme of abstinence or asceticism; some suppose 
 that they were Jews with Ebionite tendencies, others that they had 
 in their heathen state been Pythagoreans ; others that the Dualistic 
 errors and heresieSj which soon occasioned such trouble, were be- 
 
Chap. XIV.] EATETH ALL THINGS. 301 
 
 2 For one believeth tliat he ^ may eat all *> ver. i4. 
 
 , . , -,11 lCor.x.25. 
 
 tniners : another, who is weak, eateth herbs. i Tim. iv. 4. 
 
 ° Tit. i. 15. 
 
 ginning to assert themselves amongst the converts. It seems to me 
 that there can be no doubt but that the abstainers from meats were 
 the same as regarded certain days, and if so they must have been 
 Jews, for though the Apostle might deal tenderly with those who, 
 in a mixed Church, still kept new moons and Sabbaths, he would 
 not for a moment tolerate the keeping of days on purely heathen 
 gi'ounds. The Jews, when abroad, constantly abstained from all 
 animal food, either because it was not killed according to their 
 rules, or because it might contain elements of pollution. Thus 
 Daniel and his three friends refused meat even from the king's 
 table. Thus Tobit kept himself from eating the bread of the Gen- 
 tiles, (i. 10, 11.) Thus also the Maccabees. (2 Mace. v. 27.) John 
 the Baptist fed on locusts and wild honey. Clement of Alexandria 
 speaks of the Apostle St. Matthew abstaining from all animal 
 food. 
 
 1. " Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubt- 
 ful disputations." " Him that is weak in the faith," that is, one 
 whose faith has not so grasped the great truths of the Catholic 
 faith, that he is above having regard to distinctions of meats and 
 drinks. Such persons would not be Jews only, but often religious 
 proselytes who would cling to such distinctions more tenaciously 
 than the born Jews. 
 
 " Eeceive ye." Admit him freely to your feUowship and good 
 offices. 
 
 " But not to doubtful disputations." Some interpret, " not 
 to discussions of doubts," others, "not to discussion of opinions." 
 It requires to be paraphrased, " not so as to worry him and unsettle 
 him in endeavouring to bring him over to your opinions, but leave 
 his faith to work greater strength and decision in him." 
 
 2. " For one believeth that he may eat aU things : another, who 
 is weak," &c. One, in accepting Christ, has had faith to accept aU 
 His words, such, particularly, as " not that which entereth into a 
 man defileth him." Another has not yet fully accepted Christ as 
 his Dehverer from the burdensome yoke of the law, and is tor- 
 mented with scruples about "meats and drinks, and divers 
 washings." 
 
 "Another, who is weak, eateth herbs." It is remarkable that 
 
302 GOD HATH EECEIVED HIM. [Romans. 
 
 3 Let not him tliat eateth despise him that eateth not; 
 • Col. ii. 16. and *^ let not him which eateth not judge him that 
 
 eateth : for Grod hath received him. 
 d Jam. iv. 12. 4 ^ Who art thou that judgest another man's 
 
 the Apostle here takes exactly opposite ground to what we in 
 England in this century do. He looks upon the total abstainer as 
 the weak man, and rightly so, because in this matter of meats the 
 total abstainer was the over-scrupulous, indeed, the superstitiously 
 scrupulous man. Because there was a danger that the beast in 
 being killed might not have lost all its blood ; because it might 
 have been cooked with something from a forbidden creature, he 
 abstains from all meats whatsoever. Now by this he showed that 
 he was not strong in Christ, that faith in Christ as the only begotten 
 Son had not taken such hold upon him that he looked upon old 
 things as passed away, and all things as having become new in 
 Christ. He had a lurking idea that the system of Moses was not 
 superseded by that of Christ. Now the Apostle deals very tenderly 
 with him, very differently from what he would have done with^ a 
 convert from pure heathenism, for having commanded that the 
 Church should receive him, and to receive him generously and 
 freely ("not to doubtful disputation "), he bids them not even look 
 down upon him. 
 
 3. " Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not .... 
 God hath received him." Notice the difference in the expressions. 
 The strong despises the weak : the weak judges (in the sense of con- 
 demning) the strong. The strong, i.e., the Christian firmly estab- 
 lished in the Catholic faith, despises the man who is yet somewhat 
 in bondage to a system which is decaying or vanishing away : the 
 weak, 'i.e., the abstainer, condemns the one who has no religious 
 scruples about what he eats, as indifferent to certain plain Scripture 
 precepts. 
 
 " God hath received him," by opening his eyes to receive the 
 truth of the Gospel, and by receiving him into the Church by 
 Baptism. The words must be taken to refer both to the man who 
 eats all things, and to the abstainer ; for God hath received both, so 
 that neither must look down upon or condemn the other. 
 
 4. " Who art thou that judgest another man's servant ? To his 
 own master he standeth," &e. This must, of course, be taken 
 
Chap. XIV.] HE SHALL BE HOLDEN UP. 303 
 
 servant ? to his own master lie standeth or falleth. Yea, ho 
 shall be holden up : for God is able to make him stand. 
 5 ® One man esteemeth one day above another ; ^^*!: ^J'^^*^- 
 
 4. "God is able." So D., E., F., G., L.,far the most Cursives, d, e, f, g, Vulg. ; but 
 W, A., B., C, P., Sah., Cop., Arm,, Goth., Syr. read, " the Lord." 
 
 within the limitation of the things (or things of an exactly similar 
 character), which are treated of in this chapter, ^.e., things indif- 
 ferent in themselves. It cannot refer to open sins, which must be 
 pronomiced upon as wrong by all Christians who are cognizant of 
 them, and by the Church, if they are within the range of Church 
 censures. 
 
 Things upon which the Lord has not pronounced a decision, but 
 manifestly left open, it is not for us to decide upon. All Christians 
 are the servants of Christ. He has ministers under Him to rule 
 His Church, of which ministers He has said, " Whatsoever ye 
 shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever ye 
 shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven ; " but this subordina- 
 tion in the Church does not undo the fact that Christ is the Lord of 
 each particular servant, and each individual soul has to stand in 
 His grace, or fall from His grace. In indifferent matters Christ 
 leaves His servants at liberty, and if any one of their fellow servants 
 presumes to deprive them of this liberty, he puts himself between 
 them and Christ, and this intrusion Christ will sooner or later 
 resent. Jowett has an admirable note : " ' It is no concern of yours : 
 not to you, but to his own master, he is accountable, whether he 
 stand or fall ; ' and then, as if it were a word of ill omen even to 
 suggest that he should fall, he adds, * But he shaU stand, as we may 
 in faith beUeve, for God is able to make him stand.' He is a weak 
 brother, I speak as a man, therefore he is likely to fall. But behev- 
 ing in the omnipotence of God, I say he is so much more Ukely to 
 stand also, for ' my strength is made perfect in weakness.' '* 
 
 5. "One man esteemeth one day above another: another es- 
 teemeth every day alike." There is some difficulty respecting the 
 translation of this verse. It is asserted that the words tifispav Trap 
 rjfikpav, cannot mean one day above another, but rather mean 
 alternate days ; " one man judges or distinguishes alternate days, 
 another every day." But neither of the Greek commentators 
 Chrysostom or Theodoret take it in this way. They both seem to 
 
304 EVERY DAY ALIKE. [Romans. 
 
 another esteemetli every day alike. Let every man be || fully 
 
 II Ov, fully persuaded in his own mind. 
 
 f Gal. iv. 10. 6 He that ^ \\ regardeth the day, regardeth it 
 
 Or, ob- 
 
 serveth. 
 
 understand it as it is translated both in the Authorized and by the 
 Eevisers of 1881. Most of the earlier commentators, I know not 
 for what reason, consider the days to be fasting days ; but if the 
 error or weakness be the same as that alluded to in Coloss. ii. 16, 
 " Let no man judge you in meat or in drink, or in respect of an 
 holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days," then the 
 term " day " covers all days of Jewish religious observance. 
 
 Among the converts from Judaism there would be great difficulty 
 in beheving that the obligation of the Saturday as a day of absolute 
 cessation from all worldly employment had ceased, and so with the 
 new moons, and the days of Atonement, Passover, and Pentecost. 
 We are to remember that the principal Scripture of the Eoman Chris- 
 tians at that time was the volume of the Old Testament. By no 
 possibihty could they have had more than one of our Grospels, and 
 very probably not one of the Apostolical Epistles. Here, then, 
 their only Scriptures were full of the sanctity of the Saturday, or 
 seventh day. Surely, then, the Apostle was wise in vindicating the 
 right of what was probably the minority to keep the day which 
 their forefathers had been so long commanded to observe. With 
 respect to the observance of Sunday, or the first day, that would be 
 partly provided for by the weekly Eucharistic celebration, but as 
 yet there was no Church law on the keeping of Sunday as a day of 
 rest. 
 
 " Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind." Because, 
 if not, his conscience would be perpetually burdened with a sense 
 of sin in the matter of the observance or non-observance of the 
 day. This is well expressed by Philippi, " If the weaker one permits 
 himself to be led away with a doubtful conscience to a freer mode 
 of life, he commits sin (verses 20-23), and the same if the freer one 
 is not confident as to the case in hand, before the Lord has set him 
 free, but merely gives himself to a freer course of life from casual 
 wantonness, and with a guilty conscience." 
 
 6. " He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord," 
 i.e., he considers that it is the wiU of Christ that he should 
 observe it. 
 
Chap. XIV.] NONE LIVETH TO HIMSELF. 305 
 
 unto the Lord ; and lie that regardeth not the day, to the 
 Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the 
 Lord, for ^he giveth God thanks; and he that sicor. x. 31. 
 eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth 
 Grod thanks. 
 
 7 For ^ none of ns liveth to himself, and no man 1 1 Cor. vi. 19, 
 
 J- xt, A -u- i£ 20. Gal. ii.20. 
 
 aietn to himseli. 1 Thess. v. 10. 
 
 1 Pet. iv. 2. 
 
 6. " And he that regardeth not the day . . . regard it." This clause omitted by X, A., 
 B., C, E., F.. G., d, e, f, g, Vulg., Copt., ^th. ; but retained by L., P., most Cursives, 
 Syriac, and Arm. 
 
 " And he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not 
 regard it." The reader will see that the genuineness of this part of 
 the verse is very doubtful. It is, however, the proper complement 
 of the last clause. He that regardeth not some Jewish day of 
 obligation, does so because he believes that Christ has delivered 
 him from the yoke of a state of things of which it forms a part, and 
 so he thinks that he most honours the authority of Christ by its 
 non-observance. 
 
 " He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks." 
 Which he could not do unless he believed that he received his meat, 
 whatever it was, from the hand of God. The giving thanks to God 
 for our meat hallows it, and the sense of our receiving it from God, 
 if we duly considered it, would keep us from all excess in things 
 lawful. And so we should *' eat to the Lord," — as the Apostle else- 
 where says : " Whether ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do 
 all to the glory of God." 
 
 " And he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth 
 God thanks." He acknowledges, by his giving thanks, that he 
 receives his herbs from God as much as if he had given thanks for 
 animal food, and so his strictness must not be despised ; the Lord, 
 in due time, may lead him into a higher state of liberty. 
 
 7, 8. " For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to him- 
 self .... we are the Lord's." This is to be understood in a 
 Christian sense, i.e., of a conscious living to Christ. It does not 
 mean that all men are under the rule of Christ, though, of coiu'se, 
 such is the fact, because all things are put under His feet, but it 
 means that the universal Christian principle is that we have sm*- 
 rendered body, soul and spirit, life and death, into His hands, and 
 so are not our own, but His. 
 
306 LORD OF DEAD AND LIVING. [Romahs. 
 
 8 For whether we live, we live unto the Lord ; and whether 
 we die, we die unto the Lord : whether we live therefore, or 
 die, we are the Lord's. 
 
 > 2 Cor. V. 15. 9 For ' to this end Christ both died, and rose, 
 » Acts X. 36. and revived, that he might be ^ Lord both of the 
 dead and living. 
 
 10 But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost 
 
 9. " Christ both died, and rose, and revived." N, A., B., C, Copt., Arm., ^th. read, 
 "died and lived." Considerable difference in ancient authorities; some Cursives, and 
 Syriac (virtually) read as in Text. Rec; but L., P., and most Cursives, "died, and ros« 
 again, and lived." 
 
 But what is the meaning of *' whether we die, we die unto the 
 Lord" ? Does it mean that we so surrender ourselves to Him as 
 joyfully to lay down our lives when and how He pleases, it may be 
 by a natural death, it may be by martyrdom ? I think from the next 
 verse we should rather gather that it means that the state into 
 which we shall be ushered by death is as much a part of His 
 domain as is this present world, and so His Mastership over us 
 will never cease. 
 
 9. "For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, 
 that," &c. He died to purchase us, and He rose again that He 
 might rule over and mould to His purposes those whom He has 
 purchased. 
 
 The true reading probably is, " To this end Christ died and 
 lived — i.e., after death — that he might," &c. But, though we are 
 not to separate the two as if He died to rule over the dead, and 
 lived to be Lord of the living, yet we should remember that be- 
 tween His Death and His Rising again He exercised Lordship in 
 the realms of the departed, and that the new Life which He re- 
 ceived at His Resurrection He imparts to us now, that we should 
 serve Him in this our present life by walking in newness of 
 Life. 
 
 19. "But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou 
 set at nought," &c. We shall all of us stand at the judgment seat 
 of Christ to receive the things done in the body. How foolish, 
 then, for those who are in the position (for the time at least) of 
 fellow-prisoners before the same tribunal to judge one another, or 
 to despise one another, about things indifferent ; for that this dis> 
 
Chap. XIV.] AS I LIVE, SAITH THE LORD. 307 
 
 thou set at nought thy brother ? for ^ we shall i Matt. xxv. 
 
 31 32. Acts 
 
 all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. x.42.'&xvii. 
 
 11 For it is written, ™ J.s I live, saith the Lord, lo.' jnde xiv". 
 
 15. 
 na Is. xIt. 24. 
 
 10. "Judgment seat of Christ." So L., P., all Cursives, Syriac, Arm., Goth.; but 
 H, A., B., C, D., E., F., G., d, e, f, g, Vulg. (Cod. Amiat.) read, " of God." 
 
 cussion is about things indifferent, and not about good and bad 
 deeds, is clear from verse 14. 
 
 "For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ." 
 The difference of reading requires serious attention. The principal 
 Uncials read " God ; " the Cursives read '* Christ." This is at- 
 tempted to be accounted for by the supposition that the minds of 
 the later scribes ran on 2 Corinth, v. 10 ; but is not the reading 
 *' Christ " in accordance with almost all the rest of the New Testa- 
 ment ? The Father certainly does not judge visibly, for Christ 
 says, " The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judg- 
 ment to the Son " (John v. 22). Again, St. Paul says in this very 
 Epistle, " In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by 
 Jesus Christ according to my Gospel" (ii. 16). The Son does 
 nothing without the Father, and the Father does all things by 
 the Son : but the Son as distinguished from the Father will sit on 
 the throne of His Glory (Matth. xxv. 31). Again, all the context 
 of this place is about the supreme Lordship of Christ, " Whether we 
 live, we Hve unto the Lord .... He is the Lord of the dead, and 
 therefore of those who will stand at the bar of judgment after 
 death." Again, take the citation from Isaiah in the next verse, 
 *' As I hve, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every 
 tongue shall confess to God ! " This is specially applied to Christ 
 in Phil. ii. 11. The fact is that the three greatest functions of 
 Peity — those of Creation, Kedemption, and Judgment — are applied 
 to God and to Christ as the Son of God with absolute indifference, 
 as if He possesses Divine power, knowledge, and omnipresence, as 
 His Father does, which, of course, we confess in the creeds of the 
 Catholic Church. The difference of reading, then, is remarkable 
 as exhibiting the absolute indifference of Scripture language on 
 this matter. 
 
 11. " For it is written. As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall 
 bow to me," &c. This is taken from Isaiah xlv. 23, but is quoted 
 freely. The Septuagint is, " By myself I swear, righteousness shall 
 
308 LET us NOT JUDGE ONE ANOTHER. [Romans. 
 
 every knee sliall bow to ine, and every tongue shall confess 
 
 to aod. 
 
 n Matt. xii. 12 So then "" every one of us shall i^ive account 
 
 36. Gal. vi. 5. „ , , , . ^ -, 
 
 1 Pet. iv. 5. of himself to Grod. 
 
 13 Let us not therefore judge one another any more : but 
 o 1 Cor. viii. judgc this rather, that ° no man put a stumbling- 
 block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way. 
 
 surely proceed out of my mouth, my words shall not he frustrated : 
 That to me every knee shall bend, and every tongue shall swear 
 by God." I have shown in the last verse that this is applied to 
 our Lord Jesus Christ. He then, to Whom every knee shall bend, 
 is the Son of God in human form, not apart from God, but acting 
 in the place of God, the Judge of all. 
 
 12. " So then every one of us shall give account of himself to 
 God." The stress is to be laid upon "of himself." We sbaU each 
 one have to give account of ourselves, so that we must prepare 
 ourselves, and attend to ourselves, and leave our brother to His 
 own Master and Judge. 
 
 I would notice, in passing, that the Apostle is here writing of 
 behevers, of whom he is one, and when he writes to them " every 
 one of us shall give account," he includes himself not only among 
 believers, but amongst those believers that will be judged. How is 
 it, then, that men have ventured to say that believers are raised 
 into a sphere above judgment ? (See my notes on John iii. 18, 19, 
 p. 78, and on v. 24, p. 130.) The Apostle St. Paul not only here, 
 but elsewhere, asserts that he shall be judged. " He that judgeth 
 me is the Lord." "We must all appear before the judgment seat 
 of Christ." " I keep under my body and bring it into subjection, 
 lest that by any means having preached to others I myself should 
 be a castaway." " A crown of righteousness which the Lord, the 
 righteous judge, shall give me in that day." 
 
 It is to be remembered that the reward of the righteous is as 
 much the issue of a just judgment as the condemnation of the 
 wicked. 
 
 13. " Let us not therefore judge one another .... but judge this 
 rather," &c. Notice the play on the word judge : the first means 
 to pass a judicial judgment, the second to form a moral judgment 
 against ourselves in the matter of our conduct with respeet to our 
 
Chap. XIV.] NOTHING UNCLEAN OF ITSELF. 309 
 
 14 I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, '''tliat 
 there is nothing t unclean of itself : but ^ to Mm p ^"^^ ^•^^• 
 
 o ' ver. 11. 20. 
 
 that esteemeth any thinff to be t unclean, to him } Cor. x. 25. 
 
 J c) ' 1 Tim. IV. 4. 
 
 it is unclean. Tit. 1. 15. 
 
 t Gt. common. 
 
 q 1 Cor. viii. 
 
 7,10. 
 
 t Gr. common. 
 
 brethren. There is no perceptible difference between a stumbling- 
 block, and the occasion to fall. They both signify something that 
 incites lo sin. 
 
 14. " I know, and am persuaded by (or in) the Lord Jesus, that 
 there is nothing unclean of itself." Was this a spiritual revelation 
 made to St. Paul's spirit owing to his union with Christ, or was it 
 the Spirit bringing some external teaching of the Lord home to 
 him ? Undoubtedly the latter, for the Lord had said, " There is 
 nothing from without a man that, entering into him, can defile 
 him." This is the widest and most dogmatic assertion possible, 
 and St. Paul, if he knew anything whatsoever respecting our Lord's 
 life and words, must have known it, and here he reproduces its 
 spirit and essence. 
 
 *' To him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is 
 unclean." Is, then, each man's private conscience the sole judge 
 of right and wrong? No, by no means. But we must remember 
 that this matter of clean or unclean meats was then, before the 
 Catholic Church was firmly established and had given her decisions, 
 a matter of extreme difficulty. The only Scripture (except, per- 
 haps, one Gospel) which the Koman Christians had, contained these 
 distinctions of meats and of days. The New Testament was not 
 then in its fulness side by side with the Old, and accepted by all 
 as the necessary comment upon, and correction of, the Old. Let 
 us remember that St. Paul, in the Epistle to the Galatians, in 
 proving the inability of the law to justify, had to appeal not only 
 to Scripture, but to his own Apostolical authority as proved by 
 his miracles, " He therefore that ministereth to you the spirit, and 
 worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the 
 law, or by the hearing of faith ? " (Gal. iii. 5.) This has passed 
 away, and hberty and scrupulosity now appear under other 
 forms. 
 
 15. " But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now," &c 
 Almost all Uncial MSS. read " for " (yap), instead of " but " {Ss), 
 
310 DESTKOY NOT WITH THY MEAT. [Romans. 
 
 15 But if thy brother be grieved with ihy meat, now 
 t Gr. accord- walkest thou Hot t charitably. "■ Destroy not him 
 
 ing to charity. •' . t j 
 
 "• 1 Cor. viii. -y^th thy meat, for whom Chnst died. 
 
 15. " But if thy brother." So most Cnrsives, Syriac and Goth. ; but H, A., B., C, D., 
 E., F., Q., P., about ten Cursives, d, e, f, g, Vulg., Copt., Arm. read, "For if thy 
 brother." 
 
 If " for " is read, we must suppose that the Apostle goes hack to 
 the thought at the end of verse 13, " Judge this, rather that no man 
 put a stumblingblock," &c. 
 
 •' Be grieved," &c. Not in the sense of pained, but of *' hurt" 
 or " injured." 
 
 " Now walkest thou not charitably" (i.e., if thou eatest that which 
 gives him offence). Does this mean that the bulk of the Eoman 
 Christians were to abstain from all animal food because a small 
 minority, recently converted from Judaism, considered it imlawful ? 
 Impossible. It can only mean that the strong who have no scruples 
 should not eat what the weak considered to be unlawful in their 
 presence, or when sitting at meat in the house with them, or the 
 strong should not press the weak to partake of what in their secret 
 hearts they believed to be forbidden by God. 
 
 "Destroy him not with thy meat, for whom Christ died." Could 
 then a soul be destroyed by another partaking of what was lawful 
 or indifferent ? Certainly ; and in this way. Either the weak one 
 would be made to regard the strong, who thus indulged in his 
 presence, with aversion, and this might set him against the Christian 
 faith altogether, or else the weak would be led by his example or 
 importunity to partake of what his secret conscience forbade him 
 to eat ; and so, going constantly against his conscience, he would 
 lose his religion, and so there might be the foundation laid for a 
 serious declension from God. In 1 Corinth, viii. 10, the offence is 
 supposed to be given, not in a private house, but in the idol's 
 temple. 
 
 The precept " Destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ 
 died," is capable of a very wide apphcation. It may be taken *' De- 
 stroy not thy Christian brother's soul with thy self-indulgence, with 
 thy going to the extremest verge of what is lawful, with thy doing 
 what is equivocal or doubtful, or which thy brother is sure to mis- 
 understand." 
 
Chap. XIV.] THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 311 
 
 16 ' Let not then your good be evil spoken of : » ch. xii. 17. 
 
 17 ^For the kingdom of God is not meat and ' icor. viii. s. 
 drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in 
 
 the Holy Ghost. 
 
 18 For he that in these things serveth Christ 
 
 *w acceptable to God, and approved of men. " 2 Cor. vUi. 
 
 18. " In these things." So E., L., most Cursives, Goth., Syriac, Arm. ; but N, A., B., 
 0., D., F., G., P., d, e, f, g, Vnlg., Sah., Copt, read, " in this." 
 
 16. "Let not then your good be evil spoken of." Some under- 
 stand by your (or our) " good " our Christian liberty. Let it not be 
 so maintained as to occasion slander and reviHng, and so bring dis- 
 credit upon your profession, especially, of course, among the un- 
 converted Jews. 
 
 Others understand it of the whole faith or profession of the 
 Gospel. Let not the faith be evil spoken of owing to the divisions 
 and unseemly contests amongst its professors respecting things 
 indifferent. 
 
 17. " For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink ; but righ- 
 teousness," &c. " Meat and drink " should rather be translated, 
 " eating and drinking." 
 
 This means that the essence of the kingdom of God can be nothing 
 external, but only in that internal conformity to the will of God, 
 which everything external in the kingdom — such as sacraments — 
 is designed to bring about. The hohest of all eating, the reception 
 of the consecrated Elements, is that Christ may dwell in us, and 
 we in Him, and if He be within us then there is righteousness, 
 then there is peace, then there is joy in the Holy Ghost. It has 
 been made a question whether these three spiritual affections are 
 towards our brethren or towards God ; but the things cannot be 
 separated. He that is righteous towards men in all his temporal 
 and spiritual relations to them is also righteous towards God. 
 He that is at peace towards his Christian brethren in the true 
 sense of the word, must have the peace of God ruling within him. 
 If anyone can have true Christian joy in converse or communion 
 with his brethren, it must be joy in the Holy Ghost. 
 
 18. " For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to 
 God, and approved," &c. " In these things " (or in this), i.e., in 
 righteousness, peace, and joy. 
 
312 ALL THINGS ARE PURE. [Romans. 
 
 X Ps. xxxiv. 19 ^ Let us therefore follow after the things 
 
 y vh. XV. 2. which make for peace, and things wherewith ^ one 
 
 1 ihesa!\'. 11. iiiay edify another. 
 
 .ver.i5. 20 "For meat destroy not the work of God. 
 
 • Matt. XV. 11. Ki . .-1 /. 
 
 Acts X. 15. ^ All thmgs indeed are pure ; ° but it is evil for 
 
 i. 15. * that man who eateth with offence. 
 
 9, io,Ti7i2.' 21 It is good neither to eat '^ flesh, nor to drink 
 
 c 1 Cor. Tiii. 
 
 13. 
 
 19. " Let us therefore follow after." So C, D., E., by far the most Cursives, d, e, f, 
 g, Vulg. ; but ti. A., B., F., G., L., P., 39, 43, 73, 116, 238 read, "we follow." 
 
 "Serveth Christ." Notice here how men serve Christ in the 
 highest spiritual graces, just as they serve God, and this, of course, 
 is because Christ is God. 
 
 " Is acceptable to God, and approved of men," i.e., of Christian 
 good men. Thus our great Exemplar " increased in favour with 
 God and man," Luke ii. 52. 
 
 19. " Let us therefore follow after the things which make for 
 peace." This, of course, applies to both parties. " Let us follow 
 after things which make for peace " by not obtruding our diffe- 
 rences, by not blaming others for enjoying that which Christ has 
 allowed, by not being censorious, and by not being regardless of 
 wounding the religious feelings of others. 
 
 " And things wherewith one may edify another." If we ab- 
 stain, in his presence, from what our weak brother considers un- 
 lawful, we assure him of our Christian love, and of our desire that 
 he should look upon us as much more regardful of his feelings than 
 of our own private gratification, and the consciousness of this 
 edifies him, i.e., builds him up in Christ, to whose fellowship we 
 both belong. 
 
 20, 21. " For meat destroy not the work of God . . . made 
 weak." A question arises upon the meaning of these verses which 
 should be considered, though I do not see that any commentators 
 notice it. The Apostle is here, as in verse 15, and the next chapter 
 verse 1, taking the side of the weak. Now the " weak " eat only 
 herbs ; did he, then, mean to advise the whole Church to abstain 
 from animal food in order not to give offence to these weak 
 brethren ? Impossible. In such a case he who of all men asserted 
 the Hberty of the Gentiles would go beyond the Jews themselves 
 
Chap. XIV.] HAST THOU FAITH? 313 
 
 wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is 
 offended, or is made weak. 
 
 22 Hast thou faith ? have it to thyself before Grod. '^ Happy 
 is he that condemneth not himself in that thin^ff "^ Uohniii. 
 
 ° 21. 
 
 which he alloweth. 
 
 21. "Or is offended, or is made weak." So B., D., E., F., G., L,, P., most Cursives; 
 but H, A., C, Syr., Copt., Mih. omit. 
 
 22. " Hast thou faith ? " So D., E., F., G., L., P., all Cursives, d, e, f, g, Vulg., Syr., 
 Sah., Arm.; but H, A., B,, C, Copt, read, " The faith which thou hast, have it," &c. 
 
 {i.e., most of them) in the matter of Judaizing. Where then is the 
 limitation ? I think we must take as om* guide, as I have noticed 
 a little before, 1 Cor. viii. 10, " If any man see thee which hast 
 knowledge sitting at meat in the idol's temple, shall not the con- 
 science of him that is weak be emboldened to eat those things 
 which are offered to idols?" It is quite clear from this that the 
 evil was in the seeing of the eating. Gentiles, for instance, might 
 eat the flesh of swine when eating with one another ; but if they 
 invited a weak brother to a feast, and set before him what he con- 
 sidered to be unlawful food, and partook of it themselves, boasting 
 of their greater liberty, they did what they could either to wound 
 his feelings, or make him sin against his conscience. 
 
 If anyone reading this objects to the explanation given above, 
 he is bound to say whether he believes that by what the Apostle 
 writes here he means to ask the Gentile Roman Christians to take 
 as their rule of meats Leviticus xi., for nothing short of this would 
 satisfy the scrupulous Judaizer. If not, then the Apostle must 
 refer to private meals to which weak brethren were invited. 
 
 22. " Hast thou faith ? have it to thyself before God." Faith 
 here means, of course, not the faith of the Gospel, but confidence 
 that God in that Gospel has so made all things new that there is 
 nothing now common or unclean, but all may be partaken of with- 
 out scruple. 
 
 "Have it to thyself before God." Do not boast of thy liberty 
 before the weak. 
 
 " Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which 
 he alloweth." The man who condemneth himself, and yet alloweth 
 himself to eat, is the man of doubtful mind, the man who eats with 
 misgivings. Such an one should earnestly pray that his doubts 
 may be set perfectly at rest. 
 
314 HE EATETH NOT OF FAITH. [Romans. 
 
 23 And he tliat || doubteth is damned if he eat, because he 
 I Or, dis- eateth not of faith: for ^whatsoevar is not of 
 
 eemetfi ana 
 
 putteth a dif- faith is sin. 
 
 ference between 
 
 meats. 
 
 e Tit. i. 15. 
 
 One or two Cursives, and some Greek Fathers, as Chrysostom and Theodoret, insert 
 there the doxology of xvi. 25, &c. I shall examine this in its proper place. 
 
 23. " And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth 
 not of faith," i.e., he eateth not with the full conviction that be is 
 doing right. 
 
 " For whatsoever is not of faith is sin." Everything which is 
 not done from a conviction that it is right, is sin (Vaughan). 
 " When a person does not feel sure, nor believe that a thing is clean, 
 how can he do else than sin (if he partake of it) ? Now all these 
 things have been spoken by Paul of the subject in hand, not of 
 every thing." (Chrysostom.) 
 
 The reader should mark this last sentence out of Chrysostom, for 
 another Father, of equal, if not greater eminence (Augustine), has, 
 in his zeal for the faith of the Gospel, given so general an applica- 
 tion of these words, and turned them into so absolute an aphorism, 
 that he uses them to show that no heathen man, even one who is 
 not within sound of the preaching of the Gospel, can do a good 
 thing. Now, if by this it is meant that he cannot do a perfectly 
 good thing, it may be true : but surely, if one heathen man tells 
 an untruth, and another heathen man, his neighbour, adheres to 
 the truth, even though he may have to suffer for it, the one is 
 more acceptable to God than the other. What would Augustine 
 have the heathen to do ? It is not through their fault that they have 
 not heard the Gospel. Through God's election they have not been 
 chosen to hear it. Are they to do nothing ? Are they to commit 
 sin ? Are they to put an end to themselves ? If the reader chooses, 
 he will see many pages devoted to the discussion of this question 
 in the second book of Hooker's " Eccles. Polity." The question 
 seems settled by our Apostle in chap. ii. 14, 15, and 27. 
 
 Note. 
 
 It is a wonderful fact, in the history of the world, that this matter 
 of meats, clean and unclean, is as unsettled now as it was in the 
 first century. There are two hundred and fifty millions of our 
 
Chap. XIV.] MEATS. 315 
 
 fellow-subjects in Hindostan, to whom it is a subject of vital 
 religious interest. The very last missionary that I conversed with 
 told me that a Hindoo who desired baptism said to him, all in one 
 breath, *' Sir, I wish to become a Christian, but must I eat pork ? " 
 We had visiting amongst us some twelve years ago, or perhaps 
 a little more, a remarkable Hindoo, Chunder Sen, the founder of a 
 new religion there, the Bramo Somaj. This new creed is simply a 
 form of modern English Unitarianism, from which, to all appear- 
 ance, every particle of distinctive Christianity has been eliminated. 
 He rejects not only all human priesthood, but the priesthood of 
 Christ Himself. He holds (or held) that all mediation, even that 
 of the Son of God, is an intrusion between God and the soul. He 
 rejects as superstition, every approach to sacrificial atonement. 
 He was admitted freely into the highest society, secular and reli- 
 gious. After spending some time here, and learning all he could 
 about our institutions, our education, and such things, he went back 
 to India, and at his arrival in Bombay he made known his views 
 respecting the English to a large meeting of his co-religionists. 
 His account of us was anything but flattering to our vanity. But 
 what was the chief offence of all ? Not our selfishness, not our party 
 divisions, not our social estrangements, not the vast masses outside 
 the pale of our own, or any Church, not our extravagance, our 
 gambling, our horse-racing, our betting — but what does the Chris- 
 tian reader suppose ? — Why, the huge pieces of beef put upon our 
 tables. He could endure everything but this. So that whilst he 
 utterly rejected the holiness of Sacraments, Bible, Churches, and 
 Creeds, he adhered firmly to the intrinsic hoHness of the cow. All 
 this is no exaggeration. Having known something of English Uni- 
 tarianism in early years, I got to know all I could about the man 
 and his opinions, and till I read the account of his description of 
 ourselves, I never realized how deeply this doctrine of the distinc- 
 tions of meats had struck its roots into a large portion of humanity. 
 Now, how is this to be met ? In writing on this chapter, I write 
 without any idea of how it is practically met, or whether, amongst 
 our missionaries, there is any uniform rule on the subject. But I 
 have in my possession journals of missionaries of the seventeenth 
 century — Eoman Catholics, of course — who, when they went amongst 
 the Hindoos to convert them, in order to meet their prejudices re- 
 specting meats and drinks, ate nothing but rice, and their preaching 
 seems to have had astonishing success. It was no uncommon thing 
 
316 CHRIST PLEASED NOT HIMSELF. [Romaks, 
 
 to make five hundred converts in one place in a year. I heard also 
 from the best authority, that one belonging to the so-called salvation 
 army, had adopted the same course of self-denial, and was similarly 
 rewarded. 
 
 CHAP. XV. 
 
 » Gal, vi. 1, \ "\ T"-^ ^ then that are strong ought to bear the 
 b L-h. xiv. 1. V V ^ infirmities of the weak, and not to please 
 
 ourselves. 
 1} ^°^- i^' i^ 2 *^ Let every one of us please Ms neiarhbour for 
 
 22. & X, 24, 33. . . 
 
 & xiii. 5. Phil. Ms STOod *^ to edificatiou. 
 
 ii. 4, 6, ^ 
 
 d ch. xiv. 19. 3 '^ For even Christ pleased not himself ; but, 
 
 as it is written, ^ The repi 
 proached thee fell on me. 
 
 39 John"^!' ^® ^* ^^ written, ^ The reproaches of them that re- 
 
 30.'&yi. 38,' 
 f Ps. Ixix. £ 
 
 1, 2. '* We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities," &c. 
 The first seven verses of this chapter deal with the subjects treated 
 of in chapter xiv., and ought to have been joined with it in one 
 chapter. 
 
 The Apostle, in the first verses, adds another consideration to 
 what has gone before. We ought not to be intent upon pleasing 
 ourselves. We ought rather to aim at pleasing others, if, by so 
 doing, we can build them up in the faith, and this after the example 
 of Christ Himself. 
 
 3. " For even Christ pleased not himself .... fell on me." 
 This passage is cited, not with reference to abstinence or liberty, 
 but simply to bring the example of Christ to bear upon those to 
 whom the Apostle is writing. So far from pleasing Himself, Christ 
 did all things, and endured all things, for God's sake, even so far as 
 receiving on Himself, in His own person, the reproaches aimed at 
 God. But when and how did Christ thus receive the reproaches 
 aimed at God ? We answer that the hatred with which the un- 
 beUeving Jews pursued Christ, was because of their deep-seated 
 alienation from God, as He says, *' he that hateth me hateth my 
 Father also." It was because He had exhibited, as no man ever 
 
Chap. XV.] PATIENCE AND COMFORT. 317 
 
 4 For ^whatsover things were written aforetime were 
 written for our learning, that we through pa- « ch. iv. 23. 
 
 r. f • . -. -, 24. ICor. ix. 
 
 tience and comfort of the scriptures might have 9, 10. & x. 11. 
 
 ^ ° 2Tim. iii. 16, 
 
 hope. 17. 
 
 5 ^ Now the Grod of patience and consolation 1 cor.Tio^' 
 grant you to be likeminded one toward another ^^^^' "'' ^^' 
 II according to Christ Jesus : Ixampicof. 
 
 before had done, the holy character of God, that it could be said, 
 " Now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father." 
 
 4. " For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written 
 , . . . hope." " Whatsoever things," &c. Eemember, " All Scrij)- 
 ture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, 
 for reproof," &c. 
 
 But what is meant by patience and comfort of the Scriptures ? It 
 may be the patience and comfort of which the Scriptures are full. 
 AU the saints whose lives are given in Scripture — Abraham, Isaac, 
 Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Job, David, Samuel — were at some time of 
 their lives afflicted or persecuted persons, and so had need of 
 patience, and after enduring patiently, were all comforted by 
 God : or it may mean the patience and comfort with which the 
 contemplation of these Scripture examples inspires us. The great 
 lesson of the Scriptures is reflected in the progress towards perfec- 
 tion of the Christian soul. We glory in tribulations also (as Job 
 and David did), knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and 
 patience experience, and experience hope, &c. (ch. v. 3-4.) 
 
 5. " Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be 
 likeminded," &c. St. Paul had written " patience and comfort of 
 the Scriptures," now he designates God, Whose gift the Scripture is, 
 as the God of patience and consolation. 
 
 " Grant you to be likeminded one toward another." To be of the 
 same mind, esteeming all alike. " God is characterized as the true 
 source of these two graces, which are communicated to us through 
 the channel of the Scriptures. To get them we must, therefore, go, 
 not only to the Scriptures, but to Himself. There is a close rela- 
 tion in a Church between the consolation and the union of its 
 members. When all are inwardly consoled from above, the way is 
 paved for communion of hearts, all together aspiring vehemently 
 after the same supreme good." 
 
318 KECEIVE YE ONE ANOTHER. [Komans. 
 
 6 That ye may ^with one mind and one mouth glorify 
 
 i Acts iv. 21, Grod, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 32, 
 
 k ch. xiT. 1, 3, 7 Wherefore ^ receive ye one another, ^ as 
 
 ch V. 2. Christ also received us to the fflory of G-od. 
 
 m Matt. XV. ^ -' 
 
 24. John i. 8 Now I say that "* Jesus Christ was a minister 
 
 11. Acts ui. *' 
 
 25, 26. & xiii. of the circumcision for the truth of G-od, " to con- 
 
 46. 
 
 n ch. iii. 3. firm the promises made unto the fathers : 
 
 2 Cor. i. 20. 
 
 7. " Hath received us." So B., D., P., many Cnrsives ; but S, A., C, E., P., G., L., 
 most Cnrsives, d, e, f, g, Vulg., Syriac, Copt., Goth., Arm., ^th. read, " you." 
 
 8. •' Now I say." So L., most Cursives, Syriac, Arm. ; but H, A., B., C, D., E., F., 
 G., P., 5, 6, 19, 73, d, e, f, g, Vulg., Copt., Goth, read, " For 1 say." 
 
 "According to Christ Jesus." According to His example, and 
 by His Spirit. 
 
 6. " That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God." 
 As if ye were also so one that one mind and one utterance were 
 common to all. 
 
 " God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." This should be 
 rendered " the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." And this 
 would be quite in accordance with the Catholic faith ; for the Son 
 of God, by taking upon Him our nature, became the creature of 
 God His Father, as we are. He depended upon His Father, He 
 prayed to Him. At death He committed His Spirit to His Father's 
 safe keeping. One of His last words upon the cross was, " My God, 
 my God, why hast thou forsaken me ? " and one of His first words 
 after His Kesurrection was, " I ascend unto my Father and your 
 Father, and to my God and your God." (John xx. 17.) 
 
 7. " Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received 
 us to the glory of God." Christ by the Eedemption and the 
 communication of His Life and Spirit to each one hath received us 
 into one holy fellowship, and so we must receive one another, " for- 
 bearing one another, forgiving one another, helping, sympathizing 
 with, consoling, edifying one another." 
 
 8. *' Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circum- 
 cision," &c. That is, Jesus Christ first ministered as a Jew, as one 
 circumcised, as one made under the law, as one "Who kept the law, 
 to confirm to His countrymen the promises made to the fathers, 
 which He did by His Birth, Life, Death, and Eesurrection, and the 
 pouring out of the Holy Ghost : but, besides this, He came a " light 
 to lighten the Gentiles," and so He came, as the next verse reads, 
 
Chap. XV.] A ROOT OF JESSE. 319 
 
 9 And ** that the Gentiles might glorify Grod for his mercy ; 
 as it is written, ^ For this cause I will confess to " Joha x. le. 
 
 ch. ix. 23. 
 
 thee among the Gentiles, and sing unto thy name, p ps. xviii. 49. 
 
 10 And again he saith, ** Eejoice, ye Gentiles, *i i^eut. xxxn. 
 with his people. 
 
 11 And again, "" Praise the Lord, all ye Gen- "• Ps. cxvii. 1. 
 tiles ; and laud him, all ye people. 
 
 12 And again, Esaias saith, * There shall be a ^ isai. xi. 1, 
 
 ° 10. Rev. V. 
 
 root of Jesse, and he that shall rise to reign over 5. & xxii. i6. 
 the Gentiles ; in him shall the Gentiles trust. 
 
 13 Now the God of hope fill you with all ^ joy * eh. xii. 12. 
 and peace in believing, that ye may abound in 
 
 hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 9-12. " That the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy ; as it 
 is written," &c. Here are four prophecies which cannot be true, 
 unless the Gentiles are, through the Messiah, received into the 
 favour of God. The first of these (in verse 9) implies that the 
 Gentiles would be gathered together into a holy congregation, and 
 that the Messiah or the Psalmist would lead this worship. In the 
 second (verse 10), Moses calls upon the Gentiles, along with the 
 people of Israel, to rejoice in God. In the third (verse 11) the 
 Gentiles are similarly called to join in the worship of God, and in 
 the fourth, if we read according to the Septuagint, we learn, "in 
 him (the Messiah) shall the Gentiles hope or trust ;" or if according 
 fco the Hebrew, " To it," i.e., to the rod of Jesse, " shall the Gentiles 
 
 These last words, in which the Gentiles are said to hope in the 
 Messiah, give occasion to the Apostle to pray to God as the God of 
 hope. 
 
 13. " Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in be- 
 lieving, that ye," &c. God is emphatically a God of hope. He leads 
 all His intelligent creatures, no matter what present blessings they 
 may have, to hope for still greater blessings in the future. 
 
 " Joy and peace." These go together amongst the fruits of the 
 Spirit — love, joy, peace. 
 
 " In believing." In believing what ? Evidently in the Christ in 
 
320 AS PUTTING YOU IN MIND. [Romans. 
 
 14 And ^ I myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren, 
 u 2 Pet. i. 12. that ye also are full of eroodness, "^ filled with all 
 
 iJohnii. 21. "^ ^ 
 
 w I Cor. viii. knowledge, able also to admonish one another. 
 ' ' ■ 15 Nevertheless, brethren, I have written the 
 
 more boldly unto you in some sort, as putting 
 X ch. i. 5. & you in mind, "" because of the grace that is given 
 
 xii. 3. Gal. 
 
 i. 15. Ephes. to me of G-od. 
 
 15. " Brethren " omitted by >f. A., B., C, Cop., ^th. ; bnt retained by D., E., F., G., 
 L., P., almost all Cursives, d, e, f, g, Vulg., Syr., Arm. 
 
 "Whom are contained and fulfilled all the promises of God, and in 
 those promises themselves as belonging to them as Gentiles. 
 
 " That ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy 
 Ghost." Hope was what they especially required, living in a city 
 in which all the present powers and fascinations of this evil world 
 were dominant: but hope " through the power of the Holy Ghost." 
 This is the great proof of the Godhead of the Holy Spirit, in that 
 everywhere throughout the world He works in the hearts of men such 
 things as repentance, faith, hope, love, joy, peace ; how omnipotent 
 must He be thus to transform the hearts of men ; how omnipresent 
 to work in them wherever they are ; how omniscient to know the 
 secrets of all hearts. 
 
 14. "And I myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren, that 
 ye also are," &c. This is not flattery or mere compliment. He 
 had spoken in the beginning of the Epistle of their faith being 
 spoken of throughout the whole world, and if they had such excel- 
 lent faith, it was but likely that they would have the fruits of such 
 faith, in goodness, in knowledge, and in ability to apply to one 
 another the truths which they knew so well. He had little need 
 to admonish them, seeing they had such excellent gifts of the 
 Spirit. 
 
 15. •' Nevertheless, brethren, I have written the more boldly 
 unto you in some sort," &c. Notice the gentle, somewhat depre- 
 cating tone of this verse. "I have written the more boldly — not 
 altogether, but in some sort — in part," that is, parts of this Epistle 
 being more authoritative in the way of injunction than others. 
 aTTo fispov^ is taken by Jowett as signifying in some degree, to a 
 certain extent, as if he had ventured only to teach them. 
 
Chap. XV.] THE MINISTER OF CHRIST. 321 
 
 16 That ^ I should be the minister of Jesus y ch. xi. 13. 
 Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of 1 Tim.ii.'i.' 
 God, that the || ^offering up of the Gentiles might |, o^saa-i' 
 be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost, -f^"^.- ^^^ 
 
 20. Phil. ii. 
 17. 
 
 16. " That I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gen- 
 tiles, ministering," &c. St. Paul here speaks sacerdotally in a very 
 marked way. He considers himself to be a priest, and the Gentiles 
 to be the victim, and by the Gospel he consecrates them to God, 
 so that they should be an acceptable sacrifice to God ; sanctified, 
 not with material oil, but by the Holy Spirit, Who by the preaching 
 and invocation of the Apostle was made to descend upon them. 
 Upon this place the late Dean Alford writes : " The language is 
 evidently figurative, and can by no possibility be taken as a sanc- 
 tion for any view of the Christian minister as a sacrificing priest, 
 otherwise than according to that figure, viz., that he offers to God 
 the acceptable sacrifice of those who by his means believe on 
 Christ." We must ask, however, What is a sacrificing priest ? 
 Does any minister of Christ now offer bullocks or lambs to God, 
 or does any minister of Christ who believes that the celebration of 
 the Eucharist is a sacrificial action, believe that in it he repeats the 
 Sacrifice of Christ in those things which constituted its atoning 
 value — its bitter pain, and shame, and death? No, no one, no 
 Romanist, believes that he repeats the Sacrifice, only that he re- 
 presents it before God and the Church. But let the reader ask 
 himself this, Is it possible to suppose that if the Apostle believed 
 that the Lord's priesthood was such that all sacrificial or sacer- 
 dotal terms are to be confined solely to Him and to His Sacrifice, 
 that he could have used such language as this respecting his Apos- 
 tolical functions ? For, consider, who can offer up the Gentiles to 
 God as an acceptable sacrifice? Surely our Great High Priest 
 alone can say that He can do such a thing, and yet the Apostle 
 here ventures to say that he does it. How can He use such 
 language ? Simply because Christ said to His Apostles, " As my 
 Father sent me, so send I you ; " simply because the Apostle 
 believed that Christ had no jealousy that sacerdotal functions 
 ascribed to His minister could possibly trench upon the uniqueness 
 of His all-prevailing atonement. Surely to offer up the Gentiles 
 is an infinitely more sacerdotal thing than the representation 01 
 
 T 
 
322 I HAVE WHEREOF I MAY GLORY. [Romans. 
 
 17 I liave therefore whereof I may glory through Jesus 
 a Hebr. v. 1. Christ * in those things which pertain to G-od. 
 
 18 For I will not dare to speak of any of those 
 b Acts xxi. 19. things ^ which Christ hath not wrought by me, 
 c ( h. i. 5. \ * to make the Grentiles obedient, by word and deed, 
 
 xvi. 26. 
 
 the sufferings of theLord in the Eucharist. " Oh, but," it is answered, 
 " the one is figurative." Yes, but it has an underlying reaUty, and 
 so has the other — the Eucharistic Oblation.' 
 
 17. *' I have therefore whereof I may glory through Jesus Christ 
 in those things," &c. If Christ had appointed him priest to offer 
 up the Gentiles, he had, indeed, something to glory in, but only in 
 Christ. He usually, indeed almost always, sunk all considerations 
 of his own credit, but at times he must assert himself, particularly 
 when his Apostolate, which was not assumed by himself, but given 
 him by Christ, was called in question. (1 Thess. ii. 6 ; 2 Cor. xi. 
 17, 18-29, xii. 1, &c.) 
 
 18. *' For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which 
 Christ hath not wrought," &c. The Apostle, as the Apostle of the 
 Gentiles, might have reasonably spoken of the work which had 
 been going on everywhere among the Gentiles by his subordinates 
 and those under his direction ; but he will not do this, he wiU 
 only bring forward what has been actually wrought by himself, 
 and this, humanly speaking, was more than enough, and so he 
 proceeds 
 
 1 The following extract from Godet, an Ultra-Prctestant Swiss commentator, may be 
 
 helpful. 
 
 " The grace of Apostleship had been given to Paul for the accomplishment of a sublime 
 task. The word Xeiroupyoj denotes a public functionary. In this case the function involved 
 is nothing less than presenting to God the Gentile world as an offering which may be 
 acceptable to Him. This world-wide service to which Christ Himself had called St. 
 Paul, was not only that of a preacher, it had a priestly chaj-acter. This is certainly what 
 is expressed by the term lEpovpystv (see Meyer): 'to offer sacerdotally : ' not that the 
 preacher of the Gospel is a Mediator who comes between God and the believer ; but his 
 function does not consist in simple teaching ; each time it is an act of consecration 
 whereby the messenger of salvation offers to God his own person, as well as the person of 
 all his hearers. We know how Paul prayed constantly for the Churches which he had 
 already founded (comp. i. 8-10 and the beginning of all the Epistles), and we can thus 
 imagine what the work of thus founding was. Thus was his whole Apostolate a priestly 
 function" (Godet m Zoco). This writer, however, appears not to remember that whilst 
 priesthood wrongly used may come between Christ and the soul so as to intercept between 
 it and Ood, priesthood rightly used may bring the soul nearer to God. 
 
Chap. XV.] BY THE POWER OF THE SPIRIT. 323 
 
 19 *^ Through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of 
 the Spirit of God ; so that from Jerusalem, and "^ Acts xix. ii. 
 
 2 Cor. xii. 12. 
 
 round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached 
 the gospel of Christ. 
 
 20 Yea, so have I strived to preach the gospel, « 2Cor. x. 13, 
 not where Christ was named, ^ lest I should build 
 
 upon another man's foundation : 
 
 21 But as it is written, ^ To whom he was not f isai. hi. is. 
 spoken of, they shall see : and they that have not 
 
 heard shall understand. 
 
 19. " Through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the 
 Sx^irit of God ; so that," &c. When he spake of being Christ's 
 ministering priest to offer up the Gentiles, he did not speak of what 
 had been done by others, or of a thing of which the testimony was 
 conversion only, but along with the preaching of the Gospel there 
 were the miraculous attestations of the Spirit. So that if anyone 
 objected that he took too much upon himself by assuming to be a 
 priest offering up the whole Gentile Church, he would have answered, 
 God has given to me to say this, and not unreasonably, for all the 
 regions of the Eoman world east of Italy, have been partly or wholly 
 evangelized by me, and in the performance of this work I have the 
 testimony of the Spirit in "mighty signs and wonders " far exceeding 
 those of any other Evangelist, and abundantly proving that God is 
 with me in my offering. Jerusalem and Illyricum are mentioned 
 as the furthest points ; but he had penetrated into the central 
 regions of Asia Minor, and had established churches in Galatia and 
 contiguous districts. 
 
 20, 21. " Yea, so have I strived to preach the gospel, not where 
 Christ," &c. This is somewhat clearer if we adopt the Revisers' 
 rendering, " Making it my aim to preach the gospel, or being 
 ambitious to preach the gospel, not where Christ was already 
 named, lest I should build," &c. No doubt he was over careful 
 about this, so as to avoid all reproach and slander, and the accusa- 
 tion that he unduly interfered in the province of other men. 
 
 " But as It is written, To whom he was not spoken of, they shall 
 see," &c. This is a literal translation from the Septuagint. The 
 Hebrew has exactly the same meaning: "That which had not 
 
324 I HAVE BEEN MUCH HINDERED. [Romans. 
 
 22 For whicli cause also ^ I have been || much hindered 
 « ch. i. 13. from cominff to you. 
 
 1 Thess. ii. 17, ^^ ^ , . i • , 
 
 18. 23 But now having no more place m these 
 
 ways,^!^^ten- parts, and ^having a great desire these many 
 
 fll xix. 21. years to come unto you ; 
 
 yer 32. ch. 24 Whensoever I take my journey into Spain, 
 
 I will come to you : for I trust to see you in my 
 
 1 Acts XV. 3. journey, *and to be brought on my way thither- 
 
 t Gr. with ward by you, if first I be somewhat filled f with 
 
 you ver.32. '' •' 
 
 your company. 
 
 24. " I will come to you " omitted by \, A., B., C, D., B., F., G., P., d, e, f, g, Vulg., 
 Syriac ; retained by L,, and most Cursives. 
 
 been told them shall they see, and that which they had not heard 
 shall they consider." It is cited by St. Paul as illustrative of his 
 course of action, not as a prophecy. 
 
 22. "For which cause also I have been much hindered from 
 coming to you." So many places in which there has been no 
 preaching of Christ require my labours, that I have been much, or 
 oftentimes, delayed. 
 
 23, 24. "But now having no more place in these parts." Pro- 
 perly " room " in these parts. Churches are planted everywhere, so 
 that there is no reason for him to delay his journey to Rome. 
 There is no place or room for him if he has no special Apostolic 
 work there. 
 
 "And having a great desire these many years to come unto 
 you." This desire is expressed in Acts xix. 21, " Paul purposed 
 in the spirit when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia 
 to go to Jerusalem, saying, After I have been there I must also see 
 Rome." 
 
 He purposed to see the Church of Rome by the way, as it were, 
 on his journey to the far west. But God, Who alone disposes, saw fit 
 that he should arrive there after a sea voyage of extraordinary 
 peril, and live with them two years as a prisoner. 
 
 " To be brought on my way thitherward by you." Thus to the 
 Corinthians he writes : " And it may be that I will abide, yea, and 
 winter with you, that ye may bring me on my journey whither- 
 soever I go " (1 Cor. xvi. 6). " If first I be somewhat filled with your 
 
Chap. XV.] I GO UNTO JERUSALEM. 325 
 
 26 But now ^ I go unto Jerusalem to minister unto the 
 
 saints. Itf22!&''' 
 
 26 ForHt hath pleased them of Macedonia and xxiv. 17. 
 Achaia to make a certain contribution for the 1,2, 2Cor'. 
 poor saints which are at Jerusalem. 2,12.' 
 
 27 It hath pleased them verily; and their 
 debtors they are. For " if the G-entiles have been •" «h. xi. 17. 
 made partakers of their spiritual things, ''their J^^^^j^'Jj g 
 duty is also to minister unto them in carnal 
 
 things. 
 
 company." " This does not mean that he is doubtful whether he 
 shall enjoy his Christian intercourse with them, but the contrary — 
 he is sure he shall not be sufficiently able to enjoy it. By saying 
 * he filled,' he shows that he was eager for their love, and not only 
 was eager for it, but exceedingly so. And this is why he does not 
 say ' be filled,' but be somewhat so. That is, no length of 
 time can fill me, or create in me a satiety of your company." 
 (Chrysostom.) 
 
 25, 26. " But now I go unto Jerusalem .... poor saints which 
 are at Jerusalem." " To minister," rather " ministering," — not to 
 the wants of their souls as an Apostle, but to their bodily needs, 
 for owing to the famine, they were in great distress, being a 
 Church composed principally of poor members, and so the Christians 
 of Macedonia and Achaia had made a contribution for their rehef, 
 which they sent by the hands of the Apostle himself.^ The poor 
 saints should properly be rendered the poor among the saints. 
 
 27. " It hath pleased them verily ; and their debtors they are. 
 For if the Gentiles," &c. The Apostle restates the fact that the 
 Christians of Macedonia and Achaia had made this contribution, in 
 order that he might further assert that it was only right and what 
 was due from them, for they had, by becoming Christians, been 
 made partakers of the spiritual blessings which of right and in the 
 first place belonged to the Jews, and so their duty was to reUeve 
 their temporal wants. The Apostle here follows up the Hne which 
 
 1 There is a very interesting examination and comparison of the passages in the Acts 
 and Epistles to the Romans, Corinthians, and Galatians relating to this collection in 
 Paley's " Horae Paulinae," proving beyond all doubt the genuineness of these Epistles. 
 
326 I WILL COME BY YOU INTO SPAIN. [Romans. 
 
 28 Wlien therefore I have performed this, and have sealed 
 Phil. iT. 17. to them ° this fruit, I will come by you into 
 
 Spain. 
 t ch. i. 11. 29 ^ And I am sure that, when I come unto 
 
 you, I shall come in the fulness of the blessing of 
 the G-ospel of Christ. 
 
 30 Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord 
 tPhii.ii. 1. Jesus Christ's sake, and ''for the love of the 
 ' 2 Cor. i. 11. Spirit, "■ that ye strive toerether with me in your 
 
 Col.iT.12. . n A ^ 
 
 prayers to (jod tor me ; 
 
 29. "Blessing of the Gospel." So L., almost all Cursives, Syriac ; but " of the Gospel" 
 omitted by n. A., B., C, D., E., F., G., P., 67**, 179, d, e, f, g, Vulg. (Cod. Amiat.), 
 Copt., Arm., &c. 
 
 he had taken in Chap, xi., where he lays down that the Gentiles 
 did not partake of their spiritual blessings independently, but, after 
 some of the original branches had been broken off, had been grafted 
 into their place in the ohve tree of God's grace. 
 
 28. " When therefore I have performed this, and have sealed to 
 them this fruit," i.e., the fruit of the faith and love of the Gentile 
 churches — " Sealed unto them." *' That is, when I have laid it 
 up, as it were, in the royal treasuries, as in a place secure from 
 robbers and danger." (Chrysostom.) 
 
 Respecting the question whether he ever was able to accomplish 
 his journey to Spain, see my excursus on the later years of St. 
 Paul's hfe in notes on the Acts, p. 506. 
 
 29. " And I am sure that, when I come unto you, I shall come 
 in the fulness," &c. This means not only with the fulness of 
 spiritual comfort and edification, but with those miraculous gifts of 
 the Spirit which an Apostle only could impart. It may also imply 
 that he is confident that no conduct on their part will hinder the 
 flow of all manner of gifts and graces into them and upon them. 
 
 30. "Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's 
 sake," &c. " For the love of the Spirit." This is usually inter- 
 preted as the love shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Spirit ; 
 but why may it not mean the love of the Third Person of the 
 Trinity to them? Surely the Spirit must Himself love those in 
 whom He works, and for whom He deigns to intercede "with 
 groanings which cannot be uUered." 
 
Chap. XV.] ACCEPTED OF THE SAINTS. 327 
 
 31 ^That I may be delivered from them that » 2Thess.iii.2. 
 [| do not believe in Judaea ; and that * my service obedlmt. 
 which I have for Jerusalem may be accepted of ' ^,^°^- """'• *• 
 
 '' ^ « ch. 1. 10. 
 
 the saints ; x Acts xviii. 
 
 32 ''That I may come unto you with joy'^by 19', jam.'iv.' 
 the will of Grod, and may with you be ^ refreshed. j[ ^^^^ ^^,^ 
 
 18. 2 Cor. vii. 
 
 13. 2 Tim. 
 
 i. 16. Philem. 
 vii. 20. 
 32. " By the will of God." So A., C, L., P., all Cursives, Vulg., Syriac ; but B., D., 
 E., F., G. read, " by the will of Jesus Christ," or " Christ Jesus," or the " Lord Jesus." 
 32. "And may with you be refreshed " omitted by B. only. 
 
 " That ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for 
 me." How earnestly and how frequently does St. Paul ask the 
 Christians to whom he writes to give him their prayers : " Brethren, 
 pray for us." " Praying for me that utterance may be given to 
 me." " I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your 
 prayer." (2 Thess. iii. 1 ; Ephes. vi. 19 ; Phil. i. 19.) 
 
 And ought not, after his example, pastors to ask in their sermons 
 the prayers of their people that the work of God may prosper in 
 their hands ? 
 
 31. *' That I may be delivered from them Lhat do not believe in 
 Judaea." This prayer was answered, but how differently from what 
 he exxDected ! He was delivered from the hands of his unbelieving 
 countrymen, by whom he would have been torn to pieces, by the 
 intervention of the Eoman power. By that power he was kept in 
 safety for some time, and by that power he was brought to Eome, 
 to the Church he had so longed to visit. 
 
 " And that my service which I have for Jerusalem may be 
 accepted," &c. Such was the prejudice against him, because he 
 asserted the freedom of the Gentiles from the yoke of the law, that 
 he feared that even the alms and offerings which he brought would 
 not assure him a welcome. He seems to have been doubtful whether 
 they would be accepted. 
 
 32. " That I may come unto you with joy by the will of God," 
 &c. " With joy." It would be a deep sorrow if he should come 
 to Kome after his mission to the Church of Jerusalem had been 
 rejected with scorn. This would be indeed to come under a cloud. 
 But when he did at last come, it was with a certain holy joy. All 
 his utterances to his fellow -voyagers during the many fearful days 
 
328 THE GOD OF PEACE BE WITH YOU. [Eomans. 
 
 z ch. xvi. 20. 33 Now ^ tlie Grod of peace he with you all. 
 
 iCor. xiv. 33. ^ ^ '' 
 
 2 Cor. xiii. 11. Allien. 
 Phil. iv. 9. 
 
 1 Thess. V. 23. 
 
 2 Thess. iii. 16. 
 
 Heb. xiii. 20. 
 
 passed in the tempest-tossed ship, were the expressions of a cheer- 
 ful spirit, and when he saw the brethren trooping to meet him at 
 Appii Forum he " thanked God and took courage." 
 
 "And may with you be refreshed." By seeing your faith, and 
 love, and unity. 
 
 33. "Now the God of peace be with you all." We are led to 
 suppose that this is a closing salutation, and that the next chapter 
 was added as a sort of postscript. Such benedictions, prompted by 
 the overflowing of his heart at the moment, are common through- 
 out the Epistles. Thus Eom. ix. 5, xi. 36 ; Ephes. iii. 20, 21. 
 
 CHAP. XVI. 
 
 I COMMEND unto you Phebe our sister, which is a ser- 
 vant of the church which is at * Cenchrea : 
 • Acts xviii. 2 ^ That ye receive her in the Lord, as be- 
 
 bphii.ii. 29. comcth saiuts, and that ye assist her in whatso- 
 3 John o. 6. ^^gj. business she hath need of you : for she hath 
 been a succourer of many, and of myself also. 
 
 1-2. " I commend unto you Phebe our sister .... and of my&clf 
 also." Phebe was probably the bearer of the letter. 
 
 " Servant," or " deaconess," an institution of the Church from its 
 very beginning. Thus in the letter of Pliny to Trajan, we read: "Upon 
 receiving this account, I judged it the more necessary to examine, and 
 that by torture,- two maid-servants who were called ministers." 
 
 " Church which is at Cenchrea" (or Kenchreae). The eastern port 
 of Corinth, on the Saronic Gulf, about nine miles from the city. 
 
 " That ye receive her in the Lord, as becometh saints," ue., with 
 the utmost Christian kindness and hospitality. 
 
 Objection has been raised that if Phebe went to Rome she 
 
Chap. XVI.] PKISCILLA AND AQUILA. 329 
 
 3 Greet ^ Priscilla and Aquila my helpers in Christ Jesus : 
 
 4 Who have for my life laid down their own c Attsxviu.2. 
 
 •^ . 18, 26. 2 Tim. 
 
 necks : unto whom not only I give thanks, but iv. i9 
 also all the churches of the G-entiles. 
 
 5 Likewise qreet *^the church that is in their ^ i cor. xvi. 19. 
 
 •^ Col. iv. 15. 
 
 house. Salute my wellbeloved Epaenetus, who is Phiiem. 2. 
 ® the firstfruits of Achaia unto Christ. * 1 Cor. xvi. 
 
 15. 
 
 3. " Priscilla." So many Cursives, Syriac, ^th. ; but fi. A., B., C, D., E., F., G., 
 L., P., with the great majority of Cursives, Ital., Vulg., Copt., Arm. read, " Prisca." 
 
 5. " Firstfruits of Achaia." N, A., B., C, D., F., G., 67**, d, e, f, g, Vulg., Copt., 
 Arm., ^th, read, "of Asia;" but L., P., almost all Cursives, and Syriac read, "of 
 Achaia,, 
 
 would not sail from Cenchrea, but it is not said that she did, but 
 simply that she was a deaconess of that place ; she would more 
 probably have sailed from Lecheum, the port of Corinth on the 
 other side of the isthmus. 
 
 3, 4. " Greet Priscilla (Prisca) and Aquila, my helpers in Jesus 
 Christ .... also all the churches of the Gentiles." Priscilla and 
 Aquila are first mentioned in Acts xviii. 2 as living then in Corinth, 
 because Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome. 
 He afterwards sailed in their company to Ephesus, and left them 
 there, whilst he himself went up to Jerusalem. During the time 
 of his absence they were instrumental in bringing ApoUos to a 
 more perfect knowledge of the Gospel. They now appear to have 
 retm-ned to Eome. It is impossible to say to what the Apostle 
 aUudes when he writes, " Who have for my Hfe laid down their 
 own necks." It is conjectured to be an allusion to something which 
 occurred in the tumult at Ephesus. 
 
 5. " Likewise greet the church that is in their house." This 
 was one of the many private dwellings in which the Christians of 
 Eome assembled for worship before they were able to erect any 
 public building. Alford quotes a passage from the Acta Martyrii 
 S. Justini in Ruinart. " Being asked by the Prefect Rusticus 
 * Where do you assemble ? ' He answered, ' Where each one can 
 and will. You believe, no doubt, that we all meet together in one 
 place ; but it is not so, for the God of the Christians is not shut up 
 in a room, but, being invisible. He fills both heaven and earth, and 
 is honoured everywhere by the faithful.' " 
 
 " Salute my well-beloved Epaenetus, who is the firstfruits of 
 
330 IN CHRIST BEFORE ME. [Romans. 
 
 6 G-reet Marj, who bestowed mucli labour on us. 
 
 7 Salute Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen, and my 
 fellowprisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who 
 f Gal. i. 22. also *" were in Christ before me. 
 
 8 G-reet Amplias my beloved in the Lord. 
 
 6. "On us." So L. and most Cursives ; but t<. A., B., C, D., E., F., a.. P., &c, read, 
 *'onyou." See below. 
 
 8. "Amplias." So D., E., L., P., almost all Cursives, Syr., Arm. ; but S, A., B., F., 
 G., d, e, f, g, Vulg., Cop., Mth. read, " Ampliatns." 
 
 Achaia [Asia] unto Christ." The great majority of the oldest 
 authorities read, " of Asia." Probably Achaia was early substituted 
 because of the mention of the house of Stephanas as " the firstfruits 
 of Achaia " in 1 Cor. xvi. 15. Of this Epeenetas nothing whatsoever 
 is known. 
 
 6. *' Greet Mary, who bestowed much labour on us." *' Mary," 
 from her name, no doubt, a Jewess by birth. There is some 
 doubt whether we ought to read, " on us," or " on you." The latter 
 has the most ancient Manuscript authority, but the former the most 
 intrinsic probability. St. Paul would far more probably send a 
 salutation to one who had laboured in Corinth for himself and the 
 Church there, than for one who had laboured in Eome, of whose 
 work he could not, probably, have had much knowledge. 
 
 7. " Salute Andronicus and Junia [or Junias, a man's name] , 
 my kinsmen, and my fellowprisoners." That is, on some occasion 
 they had been immured in prison with the Apostle. This is not at 
 all improbable : for twice (2 Cor. vi. 5, and xi. 23) he speaks of 
 imprisonments as if they were a common thing with him. With 
 respect to their being his kinsmen, he may use the word as em- 
 bracing all his fellow countrynaen, as in Eom. ix., " my brethren, 
 my kinsmen according to the flesh ; " but it is not improbable that 
 persons related to the Apostle more or less distantly might have 
 lived in Kome. 
 
 "Who are of note among the Apostles." This may mean 
 " 'vere" well-known to the Apostles, having been very early con- 
 verts, for they were converted before St. Paul himself; or the 
 word " Apostle " may be used in a very wide sense, as one sent by 
 tlie Church for the conversion of the heathen. 
 
 8. '* Greet Amplias my beloved in the Lord." A shortened form 
 of Ampliatus. 
 
Chap. XVI.] URBANE. STACHYS. 331 
 
 9 Salute Urbane, our helper in Christ, and Stachys mj 
 beloved. 
 
 10 Salute Apelles approved in Christ. Salute them which 
 are of Aristobulus' || household. II Or, friends. 
 
 11 Salute Herodion my kinsman. Greet them 
 
 that be of the || household of Narcissus, which are ii Ov,fi-iends. 
 in the Lord. 
 
 12 Salute Tryphena and Tryphosa, who labour in the Lord. 
 Salute the beloved Per sis, which laboured much in the Lord. 
 
 9. " Salute Urbane, our helper in Christ, and Stachys my beloved." 
 Archdeacon Gifford notices that Amplias and Urbane are found in 
 juxta-position, as here, in a list of imperial freedmen on an inscrip- 
 tion, A.D. 115. 
 
 10. " Salute Apelles approved in Christ," i.e., a tried Christian, 
 who to merit such a word of commendation had gone through 
 persecution in the cause of Christ. 
 
 " Salute them which are of Aristobulus' household." Very pro- 
 bably his slaves or freedmen. It was a large house, Jewish, per- 
 haps, to which the Gospel had found access. From the form of the 
 salutation it was probable that Aristobulus himself was not a 
 Christian, or he would have been saluted with his household. 
 
 11. " Salute Herodion my kinsman." Probably a Jew, and 
 called by St. Paul "kinsman," in the sense of Eom. ix. 3, before 
 alluded to. 
 
 " Greet them that be of the household of Narcissus, which are 
 in the Lord." Narcissus is by many supposed to have been the 
 wealthy freedman of Claudius, who was put to death in prison be- 
 fore the writing of this Epistle, in a.d. 55. Either by confiscation, 
 or by the law of succession, the household of the freedman of Claudius 
 would pass into the possession of Nero, retaining the name of their 
 deceased owner under the form Narcissiani. (Gifford.) 
 
 12. " Salute Tryphena and Tryphosa, who labour in the Lord." 
 These were probably sisters ; their names come from the Greek 
 rpv<f>av, to hve voluptuously. Paul evidently wishes to contrast this 
 meaning of their name with that of the epithet KomcJaag, who work 
 laboriously. They are in Christ the very opposite of what their 
 name expresses. 
 
 " Salute the beloved Persis, which laboured much in the Lord." 
 
332 RUFUS CHOSEN IN THE LORD. [Romans- 
 
 13 Salute E-uf us ^ chosen in tlie Lord, and his mother and 
 c 2 John 1. mine. 
 
 14 Salute Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermas, Patrobas, Hermes, 
 and the brethren which are with them. 
 
 15 Salute Philologus, and Julia, Nereus, and his sister, 
 and Olympas, and all the saints which are with them. 
 
 14. There is some confusion between the Hermas and Hermes of this verse, a, A., B., 
 C, D., F., G., P., d, e, f, g, &c. reading, "Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas;" and E., L., 
 most Cursives, and Syriac reading, "Hermas, Patrobas, Hermes." 
 
 That is, in past days, when she was able, in contrast with the other 
 two women, who are now labouring. 
 
 13. " Salute Eufus chosen in the Lord." The elect of the Lord. 
 He is supposed to have been the son of Simon of Gyrene, whom 
 Mark, writing his Gospel in Rome, mentions as the father of 
 Alexander and Rufus. If so, he was probably a leading Christian 
 of the Church of Rome. 
 
 "And his mother and mine." The Apostle, perhaps, in early 
 youth, had received much motherly care and kindness in the house 
 of the mother of Rufus, and widow of Simon, the Lord's cross- 
 bearer. 
 
 14. " Salute Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermas, Patrobas, Hermes, 
 und the brethren which are with them." Nothing whatsoever is 
 known of any of these Christians. Hermas is supposed by Origen 
 to have been the author of " The Shepherd," a work looked upon by 
 many in the early Church as an inspired writing. But it seems 
 now to be established from the Canon of Muratori, that this writing 
 is of much later date, and written by one Hermas, who was the 
 brother of Pius the ninth Bishop of Rome. 
 
 " And the brethren which are with them." Are these the Chris- 
 tian persons who lived in their houses as relatives, or lodgers, or 
 are these five brethren the heads or presidents of Churches, whicli 
 met in their houses ? 
 
 15. " Salute Philologus, and Julia, Nereus, and his sister, and 
 Olympas," &c. Nothing is known of any one of these Christians 
 except their names. Olympas is the name of a man, probably the 
 shortened form of Olympiodorus, 
 
 16. " Salute one another with an holy kiss." Not a m^re spiritual 
 
Chap. XVI.] DIVISIONS AND OFFENCES. 333 
 
 16 ^ Salute one another with an holy kiss. The |' i cor. xvi. 
 churches of Christ salute you. xiu. 12. 1' 
 
 17 Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them iPet.'v.'u." 
 
 ^ which cause divisions and offences contrary to 24^''^i Sm!' ^' 
 
 the doctrine which ye have learned; and '^ avoid 7'',^A 
 
 •' ' k 1 Cor. V. 
 
 them. 9, 11. 2 Thes. 
 
 iii. 6, 14. 
 
 18 For they that are such serve not our Lord 2 Tim. iii. 5. 
 Jesus Christ, but ^ their own belly ; and "by good 2 John 10.' 
 words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the iTim] vl'.s.' 
 simple. 
 
 m Cor. ii. 4. 
 2 Tim. iii. 6. 
 
 Tit. i. 10. 
 
 2 Pet. ii. 3. 
 
 salutation, but an outward rite. Tertullian thus mentions it : 
 ** Another custom hath now gained strength. They that are fasting 
 having prayed with their brethren, withdraw the kiss of peace, 
 which is the seal of prayer .... What prayer is perfect when 
 severed from the holy kiss ? " (" De Orat." ch. xviii.) 
 
 17. "Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause 
 divisions," &c. There is some difference of opinion as to who these 
 were, and what pernicious doctrines they taught. Now throughout 
 this Epistle the Apostle had warned the Eoman Christians against 
 two sorts of false teachers, and two only, viz., those who taught 
 Justification by the works of the law, and those who Judaized on 
 the matter of clean and unclean meats ; but the latter, as we have 
 seen, he treats very tenderly — in fact, as if they were to be indulged 
 rather than otherwise ; so that these false teachers must, in all pro- 
 bability, have been the same as those who troubled the Christians 
 of Galatia and Philippi. The words divisions and offences have 
 both the article, so the Apostle seems to allude to well-known causes 
 of schism. 
 
 18. " For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but 
 their own belly." One of the most deplorable features of a schism 
 is, that teachers who depend upon the offerings of those who belong 
 to it, have an interest in keeping wide the rent by perpetuating the 
 teaching of the false doctrine. 
 
 " By good words and fair speeches." Teachers of schism would 
 not be believed unless they bid for the favour of their hearers by 
 good words and fair speeches, which promise salvation upon easy 
 terms. 
 
334 TIMOTHEUS MY WOEKFELLOW. [Romans. 
 
 nch.i. 8. 19 For ""your obedience is come abroad unto 
 
 1 Co? xiv'. 2o'. all men. I am glad therefore on your behalf: 
 y Or, harmless, ^y^^^ ygt I would havo vou ° wise uuto that which 
 
 P eh. XV. 33. *^ . ., 
 
 q Gen.iii. 15. is good, and II simple concerning evil. 
 
 ! °'; ^gf''- 20 And P the God of peace '^ shaU 1| bruise Satan 
 
 1 Cor. xvi. 23. under your feet shortly. '" The grace of our Lord 
 
 2 Cor. xiu. 14. •' J D 
 
 Phil. iv. 23. Jesus Christ he with you. Amen. 
 
 1 Thess. V. 28. '' 
 
 2 Thess. iii. 18. 21 'Timotheus my workfellow, and * Lucius, 
 
 Rev. xxii. 21. '' 
 
 ^ Acts xvi. 1, 
 
 Col. i. 1. 
 Phil. ii. 19. 
 
 1 Thess. iii. 2. 20. " The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with yoa." So H, A., B., 
 
 1 Tim. i. 2^ q^ j^ p^ almost all Cursives, and Vulg. ; bat D., E., F., G., &c., omit. 
 
 Heb. xiu. 23. «Amen" omitted by N, A., B., C, L., P., most Cursives, d, e, f, 
 
 Ac s xni. . ^^ Vulg., Copt., Syriac, &c. ; and a few Cursives only retain it. 
 
 19. " For your obedience is come abroad unto all raen." This is 
 the third time he praises their faith and obedience, once, i. 8, then 
 XV. 14, and now. 
 
 " I am glad therefore on your behalf," &c. Eather " I rejoice 
 therefore over you." 
 
 20. "And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet 
 shortly." In evident allusion to the promise to our first parents, 
 " He shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." 
 
 Notice how here as elsewhere the Apostle looks upon all divisions 
 in the Church as coming from beneath, and never from above. 
 
 " The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you." This also is 
 a direct testimony to the Godhead of the Lord : for He is invoked 
 as the fountain of grace to His Church. How can His grace be 
 invoked along with that of God, except He partakes fully of the 
 Divine Nature ? 
 
 21. " Timotheus my workfellow, and Lucius, and Jason," &c. 
 It has been asked, if Timothy was with the Apostle when he wrote 
 this letter, how is it that St. Paul does not associate him with him- 
 self in the address ? The answer is that Timothy was not known 
 to the Eoman Christians as he was to the members of other 
 Churches, and St. Paul ventured to write to them as having had 
 the Apostolate of the Gentiles committed to him by Christ, which 
 Timothy had not. 
 
 " Lucius." Not the Evangelist St. Luke, but, perhaps, as some 
 suppose, the Lucius of Cyrene, of Acts xiii. 1. 
 
Chap. XVI.] TERTIUS. GAIUS. ERASTUS. 335 
 
 and "* Jason, and ^ Sosipater, my kinsmen, salute " Acts xvii, 5. 
 
 X Acts XX. 4. 
 
 you. 
 
 22 I Tertius, who wrote this epistle, salute you 
 in the Lord. 
 
 23 ^ Gains mine host, and of the whole church, r 1 Cor. i. 14. 
 saluteth you. ^ Erastus the chamberlain of the ' Acts xix. 22. 
 
 11 T /^ 2Tim. iv. 20. 
 
 City saluteth you, and Quartus a brother. 
 
 " Jason." Supposed to be the same as the Jason of Acts xvii. 5, 
 ** Sosipater." Perhaps the Sopater of Beraea. (Acts xx. 4.) 
 " My kinsmen." Most probably in the sense in which it is used 
 in verses 7 and 11. 
 
 22. " I, Tertius, who wrote this epistle, salute you in the Lord." 
 *' There is nothing strange," says Alford, " in this salutation being 
 inserted in the first person. It would be natural enough that 
 Tertius, the amanuensis, instead of writing ' Tertius, the writer of 
 this epistle, salutes you,' should change it into the first person. 
 The words * in the Lord ' are to be connected with the immediately 
 preceding words. The work of an amanuensis, as well as of an 
 Apostle, may be done, and ought to be done, in the Lord, as a 
 labour of love for the Lord, and for the Church. 
 
 23. " Gains mine host, and of the whole church, saluteth you." 
 The Apostle lodged at his house, in which, probably, one of the 
 assemblies of the Corinthian Church was held, or it may be that he 
 was ready to welcome and entertain all who visited the Apostle. 
 Most probably he was the Christian mentioned in 1 Cor. i. 14 as 
 one whom the Apostle baptized with his own hand. 
 
 " Erastus the chamberlain of the city saluteth you, and Quartus 
 a brother." "The chamberlain," rather the steward or treasurer 
 of the city. An Erastus is mentioned in Acts xix. 22 as one of those 
 who ministered to St. Paul, but he could scarcely have travelled 
 with the Apostle and at the same time filled the office of treasurer 
 to the city of Corinth. 
 
 "Quartus a brother," i.e., a brother in the Lord, a member of 
 the Church. 
 
 24. " The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all." 
 The genuineness of this second repetition of the "grace" is some- 
 what doubtful. 
 
336 POWER TO STABLISH YOU. [Romans. 
 
 » ver. 20. 24 * The ffrace of our Lord Jesus Christ he with 
 
 1 Thess. V. 28. „ . ^ 
 
 b Eph. iii. 20. you all. Amen. 
 
 iS.'iLn!* 25 Now Ho him that is of power to stablish 
 
 & lii. 3. Jude y^^ c according to my gospel, and the preaching 
 
 ^ th. ii. 16. of Jesus Christ, ^ according to the revelation of 
 
 Aiii'!3'4. 5. the mystery, *" which was kept secret since the 
 
 Col. i. 27. ^A^ 
 
 eicor.ii.7. world began, 
 
 Eph. iii. 5,9. 
 
 Col. i. 26. 
 
 24. "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen " omitted by H, A., 
 B., C, 5, 137, Vulg. (Cod. Amiat.), Copt., ^th. ; but retained by D., E.. F., G-., L., 
 most Cursives, d, e, f, g. 
 
 25. " Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to 
 my gospel," &c. This doxology is the doctrine of this Epistle 
 turned into a gloria to Him that is of power to stablish. Such is the 
 weak nature of man, such is the subtlety of Satan, such is the con- 
 trariety between the Gospel of God and the natural pride of the 
 human heart, that it requires a putting forth of God's ability 
 or power to establish either a Church or a soul in the truth of 
 God. 
 
 *' My gospel." St. Paul's Gospel, as we have seen, is emphati- 
 cally the Gospel of the Eesurrection (Rom. i. 2, 3, 4 ; 2 Tim. 
 ii. 8 ; 1 Corinth, xv. 1-10), and that Resurrection is in all senses 
 the most establishing thing in the whole Revelation. It esta- 
 blishes the truth of all that Christ and His Apostles have 
 taught. 
 
 " And the preaching of Jesus Christ." The preaching of Jesus 
 Christ may mean the Holy Doctrine which He preached while on 
 earth, or it may mean the whole body of Christian doctrine, 
 beginning with His Incarnation, and going on to His Atoning 
 Death and Life-imparting Resurrection, and His Ascension, and 
 consequent Headship over the Church, and His return to judge. 
 All these in their due proportion formed the subject matter of St. 
 Paul's preaching. 
 
 " According to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept 
 secret." This passage is reproducer in Epaes. iii. 4 : " The mystery 
 of Christ which in other ages was not n/^de known unto the sons 
 of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets 
 by the Spirit; that the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of 
 
Chap. XVI.] THE OBEDIENCE OF FAITH. 337 
 
 26 But 'now is made manifest, and by the scriptures 
 of ttie prophets, according to the commandment ^ Eph. i. 9. 
 of the everlasting G-od, made known to all na- Tit. i. '2,* 3.* 
 tions for ^ the obedience of faith : g Acts vi. 7. 
 
 ch. i. 5. & XV. 
 
 18. 
 
 the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the 
 gospel." 
 
 This was the mystery. It was kept secret. There were intima- 
 tions of it, but these intimations were rather for us than for those 
 of old, as St. Peter assures us when he says, " Unto whom it was 
 revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister 
 the things which are now reported unto you by them that have 
 preached the gospel unto you." (1 Pet. i. 12.) 
 
 This glorious truth, that all should be gathered together in one 
 body in Christ, was a hidden mystery. 
 
 26. " But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the 
 prophets," &c. If one thing more than another is characteristic of 
 the Apostle's teaching it is that he finds the calling and election of 
 the Gentiles everywhere in the Jewish prophets. 
 
 "According to the commandment of the everlasting God, made 
 known to all nations." This commandment of the everlasting God 
 was the command to carry out His eternal purpose in the word of 
 His Son when He said, *' Go ye and teach all nations." 
 
 " For the obedience of faith." Faith is not given to be buried or 
 nursed in the soul, but to be manifested in the life, and every part 
 of the faith has its particular obedience. The Son of God was In- 
 carnate, made flesh — that He might hallow our very flesh ; He 
 lived amongst us that we might follow His example ; He died, not 
 only to atone, but that we might die to sin in ourselves — crucifying 
 the flesh with its affections and lusts ; He rose again that we might 
 rise to righteousness ; He ascended that, with Him, we might in 
 heart and mind ascend ; He comes to judge, and our lives are to be 
 a preparation for that Judgment. 
 
 27. " To God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ for ever." 
 Tlie translation of the verse is very difiScult. Taken verbatim it 
 runs, " To God only wise, through Jesus Christ, to whom (be) the 
 glory for ages of ages." This would make the glory to be given to 
 Christ, but in that case there would be no glory specifically given 
 to God, and so we must consider "through Jesus Christ," as in a 
 
 z 
 
338 GOD ONLY WISE. [Romans. 
 
 h 1 Tim. i. 17. 27 To *" God only wise, he fflory throuffli Jesus 
 
 & vi. 16. ^, . ^ A c? ^ D 
 
 Jnde 25. Cnrist for ever. Amen. 
 
 ^ Written to tlie Eomans from Corintlms, and sent by 
 Pliebe servant of tlie clinrcli at Cenchrea. 
 
 parenthesis, and so understand it, To God only wise, to Whom or to 
 Him be the glory. 
 
 Grammarians see much difficulty in this doxology, and no doubt 
 the Apostle, as is not unfrequently the case with him, does not 
 adhere to the construction with which he began. I am writing for 
 English readers, and so cannot examine the Greek construction. 
 The Eevisers of 1881 give almost exactly the same rendering as the 
 Authorized. 
 
 This d>xology (verses 25, 26, 27) is found in this place in n, B., C, D*, E., some Cur- 
 sives (d, e, f), Vulg., Syriac (Schaaf), Copt., ^th. It is inserted at the end of chap. xiv. 
 in L., in 200 Cursives and Lectionaries, whilst A., P., Cursives 5, 17, and some Armenian 
 insert it in both places. Chrysostom and Theodoret comment upon it at the end of 
 chap. xiv. 
 
 Much has been made of the doubtfulness of its position. It has even been used by some 
 German unbelieving critics to discredit the last two chapters, though, if any part of the 
 Apostle's writings bears the impress of St. Paul's idiosyncrasy, it is surely chap, xv. 
 For what conceivable purpose would anyone have forged such a passage, so full of 
 personality ? 
 
 The following extract from Bishop Lightfoot's article in Smith's " Dictionary of the 
 Bible," explains, in few words, the supposed state of the case : — "In the received text a 
 doxology stands at the close of the Epistle. The preponderance of evidence is in favour of 
 this position, but tliere is respectable authority for placing it at the end of chap. xiv. In 
 some texts it is found in both places, while others omit it entirely. How can we account 
 for this ? It has been thought by some to discredit the genuineness of the doxology itself, 
 but there is no sufficient gi-onnd for the view. The arguments against its genuineness on 
 the ground of style, advanced by Reiske, are met and refuted by Fritzche (Rom. vol. i. 
 p. xxxv). Baur goes further still, and rejects the two last chapters, but such an inference 
 falls without the range of sober criticism. The phenomena of the MSS. seem best ex 
 plained by supposing that the latter was circulated at an early date (whether during the 
 Apostle's lifetime or not it is idle to inquire) in two forms, both with and without the two 
 last chapters. In the shorter form it was divested as far as possible of its epistolary 
 character by abstracting the personal matter addressed especially to the Romans, the 
 doxology being retained at the close." 
 
 One very strong argument against this conjecture seems to me to be the fact that the 
 two last chapters are in all known MSS. and versions. Whereas, if at an early date it 
 had been published in the truncated form, some MSS. at least would, we should think, 
 have been copied from this form and have come down to us. 
 
 Some have thought that the part of chap. xvi. which contains the salutations is not 
 genuine, because they imagine that St. Paul, who had never been in Rome, could not 
 have been acquainted with twenty-five or thirty persons in the imperial city : but they 
 •who urge this altogether forget the exceedingly personal character of St. Paul's ministry. 
 
EXCURSUS ON JUSTIFICATION. 339 
 
 It was not a mere preaching to crowds in synagogues or places of public resort ; this was 
 followed up by personal acquaintance, as far as possible, with all the converts : so, at least, 
 he intimates in Acts xx. 30, 31. Now, considering the constant intercourse between the 
 large cities of the empire and the capital, in all probability he was personally known to 
 lar more than the few to whom he sends Christian greetings in this chapter. 
 
 EXCUESUS I. 
 
 ST. PAUL AND JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 In this excursus I shall consider, not the whole subject of Justifi- 
 cation, but Justification as it appears in the Epistles of St. Paul. 
 
 In order to do this it is necessary to examine the question, Why 
 could not men be justified by the law, for if the law was given to 
 make men obey the holy and righteous will of God, why could it 
 not justify ? The Apostle himself answers this question, and yet 
 his answer has been all but ignored by the bulk of divines who 
 have written on this subject, and for a reason which we shall after- 
 wards notice. 
 
 The answer which the Apostle gives to the question, " Why could 
 not the law justify ? " is to be found in Galatians iii. 21, " If there 
 had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteous- 
 ness should have been by the law." 
 
 The law, when it addressed itself to men, addressed itself to 
 those who were virtually dead. Eighteousness, i.e., any righteous- 
 ness which God could accept as men's justification in His sight, 
 could not be by any mere law, or under the dispensation of the 
 law, because the law (any mere law) was conmiand or precept 
 only, and did and could not, from its very nature, give power to 
 men to fulfil its commands. Such a power must be more than mere 
 command, it must be life. All life is power ; the smallest animalcule 
 exhibits a power of motion and volition which no lifeless thing 
 possesses ; and so in spiritual things the only real power is spiritual 
 life. 
 
 Now in the Epistle to the Eomans there is a declaration on the 
 subject which reasserts the doctrine contained in the Epistle to the 
 Galatians, and expands it. It is in Eom. viii. 1-4 : " There is, there- 
 fore, now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus .... 
 JFor the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath made me free 
 
340 EXCUESUS ON JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in 
 that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in 
 the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. 
 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk 
 not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." 
 
 This declaration exactly corresponds to that in the Epistle to 
 the Galatians. It identifies the doctrine of the two Epistles. It 
 expands that contained in the short declaration of the first Epistle, 
 BO that it covers the whole Pauline doctrine. 
 
 The law could not justify, not because it was not a holy, perfect 
 law, but because of the moral and spiritual weakness, through the 
 fall, of the men to whom it came ; it was weak through the flesh, 
 it could not of itself give life to those who were dead in sins. The 
 law was to them a mere letter, a dead letter, and to remedy this 
 state of things God sent not a law, but a Person. He sent amongst 
 us the New Man in Whom humanity could take a new start. 
 This was His Son, His own Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh. Who 
 for sin, that is, as a sin offering (by making Himself an offering for 
 sin), condemned sin in the flesh — condemned it so that it should 
 be mortified and cast out — that the righteousness of the law might 
 be fulfilled in us, &c. 
 
 Such is the justification of this Epistle. It is the remedy for the 
 weakness of the law by the Gift of One Who is the very Life and 
 Power of God amongst us : so that the righteousness which the 
 law could not impart to us, because of its want of life, might be 
 imparted to us by our connection with Him Who is the Life, and 
 60 be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the 
 Spirit. 
 
 Putting these two passages. Gal. iii.21, and Rom. viii. 1-4, together, 
 we should gather that the Justification of the Apostle is Justifica- 
 tion of Life — not forensic Justification — not Justification of mere 
 imputation, but that Justification which consists in the Life of 
 ChriBt being imparted to us. 
 
 Now this is precisely what the Apostle says that justification is, 
 when he writes : " Therefore as by the offence of one, judgment 
 came upon all men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness 
 of one the free gift came upon all men to justification of life " — " Unto 
 Justification of Life " (elg diKaiuxnv K<or}g) ; justification, not of the out- 
 ward life, ^iog, but justification which consists in /^(orj, the principle, 
 the power of a new life, even the life of Christ, the New Adam, 
 
EXCURSUS ON JUSTIFICATION. 341 
 
 within lis. Justification, then, so far, seems a matter of life im- 
 parted rather than of righteousness imputed, and the two are dis- 
 tinguished by the Apostle in chap. v. 10 : " If, when we were 
 enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much 
 more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life." But it is to 
 be remembered that we require two things, pardon and life ; and 
 so the Apostle had written in the previous verse : " Being now 
 justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him." 
 "Justified" here evidently means pardoned — pardoned because of 
 the atonement wrought through the Blood of Christ shed in death. 
 It was solely through the Death of Christ, in which He offered 
 Himself a sacrifice to God, that He was enabled to impart to us of 
 the Life of His Kisen Body. 
 
 The Death and Eesurrection of the Lord are, in point of fact, in- 
 separable ; indeed, it may be said that the Incarnation, the Death, 
 and the Eesurrection, constitute one redeeming act, the Death 
 owing all its redeeming virtue to the Godhead of the Sufferer, "Who 
 by His Incarnation received a Body in which He could die ; and 
 the Eesurrection was the Eesurrection of One Who had Himself 
 borne our sins in His own Body on the tree. The humiliation and 
 Death of God's own Son were the necessary prelude to His impart- 
 ing His Life to us after His Eesurrection. 
 
 And now we have to consider another point. The gift of God's 
 Son to be to us what the law could not be, owing to the weakness 
 of our flesh, was a gift to the world. It was given before any 
 human being could understand it or apprehend it. How was it, 
 or rather, how was He to become the property of each one, so that 
 each one who received Him should receive a benefit in Christ 
 corresponding to his loss in Adam, so that Christ should be to each 
 one who received Him " wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctifi- 
 cation, and redemption " (1 Cor. i. 30) ? Now the Apostle answers 
 this question respecting how men are to receive Christ in one way 
 only, they are to receive Him, and all which God has treasured up in 
 Him for us, through faith — faith as opposed to, or rather as inde- 
 pendent of, the works of the law, and by the law is meant, no 
 doubt, the moral law, the Decalogue ; and if St. Paul had had in 
 view any claims in regard of virtue put forth by the Gentiles, he 
 would have said " any law," any body of mere commands or mere 
 precepts. Now the reason of this is obvious. The gift of Justifica- 
 tion of Life in Christ is not a reward, but a capacity ; not the re- 
 
342 EXCURSUS ON JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 ward of previous works done in the past, but tlie power to produce 
 them in the future. 
 
 It is the intention of God in this dispensation to justify not the 
 godly, but the ungodly (Matth. ix. 13) ; not, of course, those who 
 determine to continue in their ungodliness, but those who desire 
 to be free from it, and to be separated wholly and completely 
 from their past evil lives. And it is in the nature of things most 
 desirable that this should take place at once, on their first believing, 
 so that they who turn away from ungodliness may at once com- 
 mence afresh with all the life and power which they can have 
 from the Second Adam. Now such in Apostolic times had not to 
 wait till they had done such or so many good works, but they had 
 at once to be joined to Christ, to be brought into Him as branches 
 of the true Vine, or Olive-tree of grace, in order that they might 
 bring forth fruit unto God. 
 
 If St. Paul be inspired by the Si)irit of God to teach the Church 
 the doctrine of Justification, we are justified by faith ; but this does 
 not mean that any or every faith justifies, as we shall see, but it 
 must be a faith which has respect to the gift which God offers in 
 Christ, which is not a gift of pardon merely, but of a renewed 
 nature, of power through the gift of Christ to fulfil the holy Will of 
 God. Now it stands to reason that this faith must proceed from a 
 certain state of the soul. It cannot be the faith of a soul in- 
 different to good and evil. It cannot be the faith of a soul which 
 desires merely to escape punishment in the world to come, though 
 the fear of punishment may, through God's mercy, lead to a better 
 state of the soul. It must be a faith which springs from repentance, 
 because faith is the looking out of the soul for something which it 
 needs, and repentance is a profound sense of the soul's utter desti- 
 tution and the need of internal goodness and holiness ; and the 
 soul which has no such sense of need will not look out of itself for 
 the supply of the need, whilst the soul which has this sense of need 
 wiU. 
 
 Now this, I may say in passing, seems to me to be the reason why 
 such multitudes of supposed conversions under the immense amount 
 of the preaching of Christ in the present day are so abortive. It was 
 said some time ago in my hearing — and I do not think that the state 
 of the case has altered for the better — that revival preachers never 
 expect more than one out of ten of their converts to persevere. 
 May not this be because there is no foundation laid in repentance ? 
 
EXCURSUS ON JUSTIFICATION. 343 
 
 One proof of this which is particularly noticeable, is that vast num- 
 bers of their converts speak with no shame of past sin — in fact, in 
 many cases, boast of it. 
 
 True saving faith, then, must spring from repentance, because 
 repentance is the soul turning from sin to a just and holy God, 
 Who, when He pardons the past, gives power and grace to do 
 better in the future. But, then, what is faith ? I mean the faith 
 insisted on in the Epistle to the Romans. It is belief (iv. 24 ; x. 9). 
 But then believing postulates something to be believed. What is 
 faith to believe in order that it may justify ? " Believe in the Lord 
 Jesus Christ ; " but what about Him ? Not surely that He was a 
 good and holy man Who lived to set us a good example, and died 
 to teach us patience. This is not that about Him which St. Paul 
 insists on our believing in order to our justification ; no, nor does 
 the Apostle insist specifically on our believing in His Incarnation, 
 or in His Death — for death is the common lot of all men — or in 
 His being a King, or even in His being a Person in the Trinity ; 
 but the fact respecting Christ which the Apostle at the conclusion 
 of his argument respecting justification by faith, at the end of 
 chap, iv., insists on, is, that our faith must fasten upon His Resur- 
 rection, i.e., God raising Him from the dead. The words are : " If 
 we believe on him that raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, who 
 was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justifica- 
 tion." And this he says not once nor twice. " If thou shalt con- 
 fess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine 
 heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be 
 saved " (x. 9) ; and also in contrast with His Death, " It is Christ 
 that died; yea, rather, that is risen again" (Rom. viii. 34). "If 
 Christ be not raised, your f^ith is vain ; ye are yet in your sins" 
 (1 Cor. XV. 17) ; and, again, St. Paul's brother Apostle : " Who by him 
 do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him 
 glory ; that your faith and hope might be in God " (1 Peter i. 21). 
 
 And now is it given to us to see why our faith is to fasten on the 
 Resurrection rather than on the Death of the Lord? Clearly, for 
 the Resurrection of the Lord is the Restoration of the Lord to Life, 
 and Justification is Justification of Life. 
 
 The Resurrection of Christ has a twofold significance. It assures 
 us that the Death of the Lord is all-atoning, and it assures us that 
 Christ rose to be our life. Without the Resurrection of the Lord, 
 His promise could not come true, " Because I live, ye shall live also." 
 
344 EXCURSUS ON JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 And now a further question. Is justifying faith supposed by the 
 Apostle to be an act of God, in answer to our faith, entirely con- 
 fined to the inmost recesses of our souls ? Do we exercise faith, and 
 does God, because of this our faith, justify us by an act taking place 
 within us, and only within us ; or do God's grace and our faith 
 meet in some outward visible act or sign? Unquestionably the 
 latter, and this outward sign is the reception of the Sacrament of 
 Baptism, according to the words of the Lord, " He that believeth 
 and is baptized shall be saved ; " and other words of the Lord : 
 ** Go ye and disciple all nations, baptizing them ; " and other words 
 of the Lord : *' Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he 
 cannot enter into the kingdom of God." These words of the Lord 
 are reproduced by His Apostle, St. Peter : " Eepent, and be bap- 
 tized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ, for the remis- 
 sion of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost '• 
 (Acts ii.) ; and in his Epistle : " Baptism doth also now save us 
 (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a 
 good conscience toward God), by the Eesurrection of Jesus Christ '' 
 (1 Peter iii. 21) ; and by St. Paul, when he writes : " According to 
 his mercy he saved us by the bath of regeneration and renewing of 
 the Holy Ghost " (Tit. iii. 5) ; and in several other places. 
 
 But St. Paul, in his Epistles to the Komans and the Colossians, 
 in a very remarkable way connects both aspects of Justification, its 
 pardon of past sin, and its new life from Christ, with Baptism as a 
 sacramental Death and Eesurrection with Christ. This is the sub- 
 ject of the first part of Eomans vi. : " We died to sin in Christ, we 
 were buried with Him in Baptism, and we rose again in union 
 with His Eesurrection, so that we received a new power of life 
 from Him, on account of which we have power to walk in newness 
 of life, and are to reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive unto God, 
 and are partakers of the promise, ' Sin shall not have dominion 
 over you, for ye are not imder the law, but under grace.' " 
 
 Such is the connection of Baptism with Justification in the view of 
 both SS. Peter and Paul. It was the consummation of faith in their 
 eyes. Owing to very imperfect teaching respecting Baptism, even in 
 our own Church, we are some of us apt to look upon faith and Baptism 
 as in some degree opposed. We have been taught that Baptism 
 is an outward rite, and therefore a work ; but in the Epistle to the 
 Galatians, St. Paul having proved that justification could only be 
 by faith, not by works, proceeds to write : " Ye are all the children 
 
EXCURSUS ON JUSTIFICATION. 345 
 
 of God by faith in Christ Jesns," and substantiates this by saying, 
 " for as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on 
 Christ." It is impossible to suppose that he could imagine any 
 antagonism between faith and Baptism if he could write this ; or 
 much less if, after speaking of justifying faith, as he did in the first 
 five chapters of the Epistle to the Komans, he should at the be- 
 ginning of the sixth destroy what he had built up, which he would 
 do if it was possible for him to suppose any incongruity between 
 faith and Baptism as parts of one justifying act of God — I say "act of 
 God," for Baptism in the New Testament is always assxmied to be 
 an instrument of God. 
 
 St. Paul, in fact, looks upon Circumcision and Baptism as re- 
 spectively the outward and visible embodiments of two opposite 
 systems — Circumcision that of works, and Baptism that of faith. 
 
 Such is the Apostolic doctrine of Justification — the Justification 
 of the first century ; but how about that of the nineteenth ? For 
 there is a great seeming change, both in the faith and in the 
 Baptism. The faith which in the first century was a faith of 
 choice discerning by itself, through the preaching of the Gospel, a 
 particular Death, certified as to its atoning and reconciling power 
 by the Kesurrection of Him Who died, is now an historical faith, an 
 hereditary faith. The appearance of Christ in the world. His 
 Death, and the establishment of His religion by the proclamation 
 of His Eesurrection is the great event of history. It cuts the his- 
 tory of the world into two. Every event, every action, every fact 
 is judged by it, or is supposed to judge it. As to the Baptism 
 there is not so much difference as some suppose; the Baptism 
 of infants certainly took place in Apostolic times, and as certainly 
 was continued without a break from the first age to the present, 
 and, what is more to the purpose, there never has been any dif- 
 ference made in the educational or disciplinary treatment of those 
 baptized in infancy and those in riper years, for the grace accom- 
 panying Baptism has always been supposed to bo the same. 
 
 Is there then any difference between the Justification of the first 
 and that of the nineteenth century ? None, unless such difference is 
 perversely invented and taught. The child is born in a professedly 
 Christian community, in the midst of surroundings more or less 
 Christian. He is Baptized, not by his own choice, just as he was 
 not bom in a Christian land and in a professedly Christian family 
 by his own choice. He receives baptism in infancy just as he re- 
 
346 EXCURSUS ON JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 ceived original sin, or his connection with the first Adam, in his in- 
 fancy. It is the intention of God and of the Church that he should 
 grow in the state into which he has been brought in Baptism by- 
 being brought up in the knowledge and admonition of the Lord. 
 If he does, he continues in the grace of God, and that grace is 
 added to and strengthened by the means of grace ; but if he falls 
 from grace and commits sin, just as a large number of those 
 baptized in riper years in the Apostles' times did, as we learn from 
 every page of the Apostolical Epistles, then he has to be restored — 
 his faith, the faith of his childhood, has to be renewed; such 
 passages as, " If any man sin, we have an advocate with the 
 Father, Jesus Christ the righteous," or such parables as those of 
 the Prodigal Son, or the Pharisee and the Publican, are to be incul- 
 cated into him ; the discipline of the family or of the Church has 
 to be brought to bear upon him. Christian pastors and Christian 
 friends are bound to admonish him from those Scriptures which 
 are profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction 
 in righteousness, and so, by God's mercy, he is, or may be, restored, 
 just as very many of the Corinthian and Galatian Christians had 
 to be restored. I hope I am not saying what is wrong, when I 
 assert that there seems to have been, when one considers the re- 
 spective numbers in the primitive Church and in the modern 
 Churches of Christendom, as much falUng away from the grace of 
 Justification, or union with Christ, in the Churches of the first as in 
 those of the nineteenth century. 
 
 And now a word respecting the preaching of the Lord's Eesur- 
 rection at the present time. Might it not make a great difi"erence 
 both in faith and holiness if the doctrine of the Lord's Resurrec- 
 tion was far more insisted upon than it is ? For the doctrine of 
 the Resurrection is the doctrine of life. The doctrine of the 
 Death of Christ, or the Atonement, may be so preached as to foster 
 antinomianism ; but the doctrine of the Resurrection cannot : it 
 is the transfusion into us of the Life of Christ, and the assurance 
 of our judgment at the seat of Christ for the deeds done in the body, 
 and, besides this, it is the one assurance on God's part that the 
 Sacrifice itself is all-sufficient for forgiveness. (Acts xiii.) 
 
 Such is the doctrine of St. Paul as contained in this and in his 
 other Epistles. I have confined myself in this excursus exclusively 
 to it, and so have not considered that of St. James, or the aspect under 
 which union with Christ appears in St. John's Epistles. Nor have I 
 
EXCUKSUS ON ELECTION. 347 
 
 turned aside to consider St. Augustine's statements, or Luther's, or 
 Calvin's, or those of the Council of Trent, or those in the Articles 
 and Homilies of the Church of England, or Barrow's statements, 
 or Bishop Bull's, or J. H. Newman's. 
 
 And I have given no time to the famous distinction between 
 imputed and imparted righteousness (the righteousness of Justifica- 
 tion perfect, but not inherent, and the righteousness of sanctifica- 
 tion inherent, but not perfect), because the Apostle seems to know 
 nothing whatever about such a mode of dividing the one righteous- 
 ness of the Eternal Son of God. With respect to faith being im- 
 puted for righteousness, I desire to refer the reader to my notes 
 on chap. iv. 22, pp. 86, 87, and with respect to " submission to the 
 righteousness of God," to my notes on chap. x. 3. If anyone 
 desires to see this subject of Justification more fully handled by me, 
 I would direct him to a short treatise of mine, entitled " Justifica- 
 tion of Life," now republished. He will find in it an examination 
 of the various books of the New Testament as to their bearing on 
 it ; also chapters on Justification by faith only ; on works done 
 before Justification; on our Blessed Lord's Moral Teaching; on 
 the Spiritual Status of the members of the Apostohc Churches ; on 
 the relations of Justification to Faith — to the Sacramental system, 
 and to Final Judgment. 
 
 EXCUESUS II. 
 
 ON ELECTION. 
 
 The first thing which strikes us in reading what St. Paul has 
 written on Predestination is the entire absence of any abstract view 
 of this profound subject. He has no doctrine whatsoever upon it 
 except, perhaps, this, that God's choice is not absolute or irrever- 
 sible. This is certainly the inference which we cannot but gather 
 from the whole argument contained in chaps, ix., x., and xi. 
 
 I say that there is an entire absence of any abstract view. Now 
 I will bring this to a point by presenting the reader with an ab- 
 stract view. It is one that must be very familiar to him if he is a 
 clergyman. It is that of the seventeenth Article, and a more 
 reverent and guarded enunciation of the doctrine of Predestina- 
 
348 EXCURSUS ON ELECTION. 
 
 tion and Election — as it is commonly understood — cannot well 
 be conceived. It runs thus : " Predestination to Life is the ever- 
 lasting purpose of God, whereby (before the foundations of the 
 world were laid) he hath constantly decreed by his counsel secret 
 to us, to deHver from curse and damnation those whom he hath 
 chosen in Christ out of mankind, and to bring them by Christ to 
 everlasting salvation, as vessels made to honour. Wherefore, they 
 which be endued with so excellent a benefit of God be called accord- 
 ing to God's purpose by his Spirit working in due season : they 
 through Grace obey the calhng : they be justified freely : they be 
 made sons of God by adoption : they be made like the image of his 
 only begotten Son Jesus Christ : they walk religiously in good 
 works, and at length, by God's mercy, they attain to everlasting 
 felicity." 
 
 Now I say that it is impossible to suppose that the Apostle, in 
 writing upon election, intended to set forth, or to prove, or to con- 
 firm any such a doctrinal statement as this. Not that there is any- 
 thing wrong in this statement of our Article — I mean, anything 
 unscriptural ; for if the reader will look into so common a book as, 
 say, Bailey's "Liturgy compared with the Bible," he will see a 
 goodly array of Scripture texts placed side by side with each para- 
 graph of the Article ; but the Article is the abstract statement of the 
 doctrine carefully worded, so as to take its place amongst nearly 
 forty abstract statements of Christian doctrines. The purpose of 
 the compilers of the Articles was to get the clergy to agree, or at 
 least not openly to dispute, upon certain points of Theology, and 
 BO it was a necessity that they should have an Article upon Election. 
 St. Augustine's view upon God's decrees had been accepted by the 
 Church. All the great mediaeval divines affirmed it, and so the 
 doctrine generally received by the divines of the middle of the six- 
 teenth century must be affirmed, and have a place in any book 
 of outlines of Christian truth, such as the Articles were intended 
 to be. 
 
 But nothing could be further from the mind of the Apostle than 
 to insert any such a doctrinal statement in his Epistle to the 
 Eomans ; for if the Apostle held the truth of Predestination as 
 stated in Article xvii. (and a milder and more guarded account 
 cannot be conceived), and desired to give it a place in his letter to 
 the Eoman Christians, then (I say it with all reverence) never was 
 there an argument so beside the mark. Take the last and crown- 
 
EXCURSUS ON ELECTION. 349 
 
 ing statement of that part of the Article which affirms Predestina- 
 tion. •' They (the elect) walk religiously in good works, and at 
 length, by God's mercy, they attain to everlasting felicity." Some- 
 thing in all respects answering to this must be the crowning state- 
 ment in every account of "Predestination and Election " since the 
 time of Augustine. Now what is the con-esponding statement in 
 the Epistle to the Eomans ? Not one which assumes that the 
 elect must finally persevere, but one which assumes exactly the 
 contrary, that they can fall away, and that they must by their 
 prayers and exertions " continue in his goodness, otherwise they 
 will be cut off." (Eom. xi. 22.) 
 
 Again, it is quite clear that if a writer wishes to give a clear 
 account of personal election he will take care to avoid all extraneous 
 oonsiderationSjWhich can only confuse : such, particularly, as national 
 or Church election, and keep himself to the one point necessary 
 — the final perseverance of all individuals once effectually called. 
 But St. Paul, instead of doing this, occupies by far the greater part 
 of his argument with the election of bodies of men — Jews and Gen- 
 tiles — and never brings in individuals till the conclusion, when he 
 speaks to individual persons, not in the way of assurance, but in the 
 way of warning. 
 
 But we have now a far more difficult matter to face — one 
 too, which cannot be declined, if the subject is to be honestly 
 treated. 
 
 The doctrine of Election has a necessary counterpart in that of 
 Reprobation or Eejection. If out of a certain number of human 
 beings (all, it is assumed, having an equal claim to God's wrath) 
 He chooses some to be delivered from His wrath, He must reject 
 the rest. 
 
 Now the Article of the Church of England entirely ignores this 
 necessary counterpart of Election to Life. It speaks of those who 
 " be endued with so excellent a benefit," but it avoids all mention 
 of those who are not "endued with so excellent a benefit." No 
 doubt mankind are, in the Article, supposed to be under " curse and 
 damnation," and the elect to be the ones delivered from it ; but there 
 is a marked avoidance of the execrable and blasphemous harshness 
 with which most Predestinarians of that time expressed themselves. 
 Now it is to be particularly remarked that St. Paul, so far from 
 avoiding this harsher side, occupies the greater part of his argument 
 with it, and it alone. The whole of the ninth, tenth, and eleventh 
 
350 EXCURSUS ON ELECTION. 
 
 chapters are upon Eeprobation or Eejection, not upon Election to 
 Life. 
 
 We have not the Election of Isaac, but the Eejection of 
 Ishmael ; not the Election of Jacob, but the Eejection of Esau; not 
 the Election of Moses and the Israelites, but the Eeprobation of 
 Pharaoh. 
 
 But the Apostle takes a step far beyond this. The harshest 
 Calvinists never think of making God the author of the hardness of 
 men's hearts. They say that the wickedness of mankind univer- 
 sally is such that He can justly sentence all men to inexpressible 
 torments, but He chooses some out of them to life, and leaves the 
 rest to themselves. But St. Paul does not teach that God left either 
 Pharaoh or the unbelieving Israelites to themselves. He hardens 
 Pharaoh's heart, and He diffuses over reprobate Israel a spirit of 
 slumber, and gives them *' eyes that they should not see, and ears 
 that they should not hear unto this day." If we do not decline the 
 devout consideration of this part of the subject, but duly and 
 reverently face it, we shall find that it gives us a far deeper, more 
 merciful, and more consistent view of the whole matter than we 
 get by ignoring it. 
 
 Some general remarks are now needful. 
 
 How is it that there is, humanly speaking, such a doctrine as that 
 of Election ? How is it possible that men can and must hold it ? 
 The necessity for holding it lies in the religious history of the race. 
 
 1. Whatever revelation of Himself or His law God gave to all 
 men in their first parent, they corrupted it, and each nation took 
 its own way of worshipping God. This we are told by the Apostle, 
 when he said to the idolaters of Lystra, "The living God, who 
 made heaven and earth and the sea, and all things that are therein 
 .... in time past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways" 
 (Acts xiv. 16). 
 
 2. But God had determined from all eternity to send a deliverer 
 from sin and all its consequences in the Person of His Son. This 
 Son of God was the Elect of God. All Election to Life centres in 
 Him, all casting away or rejection is the rejection of Him. 
 
 3. Humanly speaking the Omnipotent Euler of all events might 
 have sent Him into the world at any time, in any nation, under 
 any circumstances ; but, instead of this, God sent Him to redeem 
 us at a particular time, a Member of a particular race, and under 
 circumstances which had been foreappointed. 
 
EXCURSUS ON ELECTION. 351 
 
 4. In order to this God prepared a nation to be a receptacle, as it 
 were, fitted to furnish the surroundings under which he decreed 
 that His Son should be born and brought up. 
 
 5. This nation He chose or elected in the election of their great 
 forefather Abraham. If heads of races can impress their character 
 on their descendants, then this man was eminently fitted to be the 
 ancestor of the elect race. Thus God, speaking by Isaiah, in vindi- 
 cation of Himself against Israel, says, " He planted it " (His vine- 
 yard, at its very beginning) " with the choicest vine " (v. 2) ; and, 
 by Jeremiah, " Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right 
 Beed " (ii. 21). 
 
 6. All through the history of this people God took pains to assure 
 them that He had chosen them in their great ancestor. And that 
 if they departed from Him, yet, if they repented and returned, He 
 would, for the sake of that ancestor, restore them. 
 
 7. But they were not only chosen to be the nation of the Messiah. 
 It was God's intention that they should be witnesses to His truth, 
 holding up the lamp of truth in a very dark world. To this end 
 He gave them a country in the very centre of the world, just where 
 the two great continents meet. Their shore was washed by the sea» 
 wliich was a high road to all iffiurope. They were close to, and had 
 close relations with Tyre, the great maritime city of antiquity. 
 They had constant intercourse with Egypt. It was ordained by 
 God that they should come in successive contact with the four great 
 empires, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Eome, in order that they 
 might impart to them some of their spiritual blessings. This is 
 very remarkably revealed with respect to Babylon. In Jeremiah 
 Ii. 9, we read, "We would have healed Babylon, but she is not 
 healed." How would God have healed Babylon? Evidently by 
 the influence of such men as Daniel and the three holy children. 
 Daniel was ruler over the whole province, and these three holy 
 children were, under him, put over the affairs of the province of 
 Babylon. (Daniel ii. 18, 49.) 
 
 Such is the election which St. Paul learnt from his childhood. 
 He seems to me to add nothing to it ; he looks upon it entirely as 
 it appears in the writings of Moses and the prophets, and never 
 bases it on any abstract philosophical grounds, such as necessity, 
 as held by the Stoics, or that men being all equally wicked and de- 
 serving damnation, God had a right to select whom He would from 
 the general doom. 
 
352 EXCUKSUS ON ELECTION. 
 
 But there are two considerations which we derive from what the 
 Old Testament says of Election which we must now notice. 
 
 (a.) The first of these is this. From the beginning to the end of 
 the Old Testament in all its various references to God's Predestina- 
 tion and Election, there is not one syllable respecting an Election 
 to reward or punishment, to joy or misery, in a future world. There 
 are places which seem to speak of future happiness or misery, such 
 as, " Thou wilt show me the path of life, in thy presence is fulness 
 of joy, at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore." Again, 
 " The patient abiding of the meek shall not perish for ever ; " and 
 on the other side, " The wicked shall be turned into hell [Sheol, 
 Hades] , and all the nations that forget God." But no glimpse ot 
 the future state contains the slightest intimation that men are by a 
 decree of God chosen to a place of happiness or misery in that 
 state. 
 
 And this, as I have noticed, St. Paul carefully avoids. Not one 
 word of a decree assigning some to eternal life irrespective of 
 character, or foreseen faith, or obedience, is to be found in his 
 writings. 
 
 (b.) But the second consideration respecting God's dealings which 
 we gather from the Old Testament, is that God, in carrying out 
 His purposes, reserves to Himself the right of making use of evil 
 men, upholding them as He did Pharaoh, in their resistance to 
 Him, or casting upon them, as He did upon the Israelites, " the 
 siDirit of slumber," so that they should receive the full punishment 
 due to their rejection of Him. For the consideration of this latter 
 I must refer my reader to my notes on Matthew xiii. 15, p. 180, 
 and on the parallel places, Mark iv. 12, John xii. 39, 40, Acts 
 xxviii. 27. 
 
 But on the former (as in the case of the hardening of Pharaoh) 
 I must say a word or two. " Even for this same purpose," God 
 said, " have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, 
 and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth." 
 (Eom. ix. 17, quoting Exod. ix. 16.) Now what was the showing 
 forth of God's power ? It is conceivable that God might have exhi- 
 bited Pharaoh as suffering the vengeance of eternal fire ; but instead 
 of this, God's power was exhibited in the destruction of Pharaoh 
 and his host, so that all the neighbouring kingdoms rang with it, and 
 we have its effect upon one at least of the Canaanites, in the 
 example of Eahab, who said to the spies, " I know that the Lord 
 
EXCURSUS ON ELECTION. 353 
 
 hath given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and 
 that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you, for we 
 have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Eed Sea for 
 you," &c. (Joshua ii. 9, 10.) Now this was forty years after the 
 event, so that if we had the entire history of the neighbouring 
 nations, we should find that many humble-minded persons among 
 them began to fear the God of Israel. 
 
 But there is a well-known passage (1 Kings xxii. 1-36) which 
 shows us how God reserves to Himself the right of choosing evil 
 spirits as well as evil men to carry out His purposes, and not only 
 does it with perfect justice, but allows us to see the equity of His 
 deaUngs. It was the intention of Almighty God to visit Ahab's sin 
 upon him by the hands of the Syrians. The prophets were all 
 assembled, and with one voice proclaimed the success of Ahab's 
 intended expedition. There was one, however, who had not come 
 up. His absence was marked by Jehoshaphat, who asked that he 
 might be sent for ; and when he came, he related the vision of 
 what he had seen in prophetic trance — how that the Lord sat 
 on His throne with all the hosts of heaven surrounding Him, and 
 that when one spirit offered to go and be a lying spirit in the 
 mouths of the prophets, the Lord said, " Thou shalt persuade him 
 and prevail also, go forth and do so." Now, if we may ask the 
 question with the utmost reverence, has God justified this His 
 action to us ? Yes, He has, and abundantly, for when the messenger 
 came to call Micaiah to the king's presence, he gave him what no 
 doubt he thought at the time to be a Uttle sound advice, *' Behold 
 now, the words of the prophets declare good unto the king with 
 one mouth, let thy words, I pray thee, be like the word of one of 
 them, and speak that which is good.'* This lets us into the secret 
 of God's action in the matter. Ahab and reprobate Israel, whilst 
 acknowledging that prophecy came from God, and was His in- 
 stitution, treated it as if it was mere fortune-telling. They played 
 fast and loose, as it were, with the holiest of spiritual gifts, and 
 God chose their delusions. His action towards them was one of 
 the many ways in which He gave them over to a reprobate mind. 
 
 Now, as I have said before, we may be quite sure — indeed it is 
 part of our faith in the justice of God that we should believe it — that 
 God's action in thus hardening, or deluding, in no way increases the 
 eternal misery of those whom God in such a way uses for His pur- 
 poses, but that He reserves to Himself the right of thus dealing with 
 
 A A 
 
354 EXCURSUS ON ELECTION. 
 
 us is most clear. Thus St. Paul, in the Second Epistle to the Thes- 
 salonians, speaks of God sending upon those that receive not the 
 love of the truth, "strong delusion that they should believe a lie, 
 that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had 
 pleasure in unrighteousness." (2 Thess. ii. 11.) And St. John 
 speaks of many false prophets having gone out into the world, and 
 our Lord speaks of false prophets who should deceive, if possible, 
 the elect. (1 John v. 1 ; Matth. xxiv. 24.) 
 
 We thus find that St. Paul's view of Election and Eeprobation is 
 strictly that in which he was educated. He reproduces the Old 
 Testament doctrine in all its features, particularly in these two : — 
 (1) That God, in speaking of the Election of His ancient people, 
 seems to keep out of sight any bearing of that Election on the des- 
 tiny of particular persons in the unseen and eternal world; and (2) 
 that God seems, throughout the Old Testament, to assert very 
 strongly that He has a right over the spirits of men, if they have 
 hardened themselves, to harden them still more or uphold them in 
 resistance ; if they have allowed themselves to be deceived, to keep 
 them in self-deception ; ^ if they deal frowardly, to show Himself 
 froward as respects them. 
 
 Now the key to all this is that God, in the Election of Israel to 
 be His people, had a twofold purpose : — To make the nation as such 
 the instrument of His purpose in upholding His truth in the world, 
 and preparing the world for the Messiah ; and (2) to sanctify the 
 hearts of as many of the Israelites as would submit to the converting 
 power of His word, to be His true servants. 
 
 With respect to the former, God softens the hearts of good men, 
 and hardens the hearts of bad men, i.e., men who had already made 
 themselves very bad, to be His instruments. He has a world-wide 
 purpose, and He makes all sorts of instruments work together for 
 its completion. With respect to the latter, the treatment of indivi- 
 duals, God declares Himself, over and over again, a righteous Judge^ 
 irrespective of persons, assigning to each one his portion in the 
 strictest spirit of equity, ever respecting their free will, behaving 
 to them exactly according as they behave to Him, and to one 
 another. 
 
 Now in the application of the truth of Election and (we may add) 
 
 I See particularly £zekiel xiv., especially verse H, " I the Lord have deceive i tb»< 
 p»-i3phet," 
 
EXCURSUS ON ELECTION. 355 
 
 of Reprobation, to the state of things in his own time, and to the 
 Christian Church, St. Paul works exactly on the principles of the 
 Old Testament Election. Men are not elected to serve God as 
 imits more or less working apart from one another, hut as soon as 
 they believe they are gathered together into the Church. Now the 
 purpose of the Church is twofold ; it is not only that the various 
 members of the Church may pray together, and assist and encourage 
 one another ; but God has a purpose in it as wide as the universe, as 
 high as the instruction of the angelic world. This purpose, the 
 Apostle declares in the words, "Unto me, who am less than the 
 least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among 
 the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ : and to make all men 
 see what is the fellowship (or dispensation) of the mystery, which 
 from the beginning of the world (or from all ages) hath been hid in 
 God, who created all things by Jesus Christ : to the intent that 
 now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be 
 known, by the Church, the manifold wisdom of God." (Ephes. iii. 
 8-10.) Just, then, as God had a plan, a design, a counsel, in the 
 Election of Israel, so He has a plan, a design, a counsel, in the 
 Election of the Catholic Church. 
 
 So that just as Israel was elected to keep alive among men some 
 knowledge of the true God, so the Church has been elected, that 
 its history should set forth the Wisdom of God to other worlds be- 
 sides this, and to beings who are of a higher order than we are. 
 
 But with all this the Church also is designed to receive all the 
 scattered children of God into one fold, so that in that fold they 
 should be fed and tended by the Good Shepherd, and prepared to 
 be judged by Him at His Second Coming. 
 
 God, then, as the Supreme Governor, acts in a twofold way. 
 He rules the Church according to a mighty plan, so that it should 
 exhibit His wisdom and grace to the world of angels, and He rules 
 the same Church as a vast multitude of souls whom He is preparing 
 for eternity, and whom He will judge according as they have made 
 their calling and election sure or not, according as they have done 
 good or evil, so that each should receive his own reward according 
 to his own labour. 
 
 Now a moment's consideration wiU serve to show us that the first 
 of these, God ruling so as to exhibit His Wisdom according to a 
 preconceived and predetermined plan, requires an election very diffe- 
 rent from the other. The plan which extends over all countries. 
 
356 EXCURSUS ON ELECTION. 
 
 and through all the ages between the first and the second coming, 
 requires that God should act through fitting instruments, and that 
 He should know and choose these instruments beforehand, each 
 and all of them, or His whole plan may be frustrated. So that each 
 member of the whole mystical body must be known beforehand, 
 and be put in his place in that body (1 Cor. xii. 12-30), so that all 
 should work together for carrying out the great purpose of God. 
 Election and Predestination, in this aspect, mean the choice of 
 instruments long before and the fitting them for their place and work. 
 But it is also clear that, in carrying out this plan, God must not 
 only work with the good, but overrule the bad ; and, in fact, not 
 only overrule them, but work through them. To take an example 
 from the Old Testament, not only did God work through David, but 
 through Joab and Jeroboam. Jeroboam's schism was a most evil 
 thing, but nevertheless we are expressly told that it was from God, 
 and it affected the religion and fortunes of Israel for ages. 
 
 Now no man that ever lived so influenced the teaching of the 
 Church as St. Augustine. His views upon grace were reproduced 
 in the schoolmen all through the dark ages, as they are called. 
 Thus, humanly speaking, he was the author of the doctrine of 
 Ansehn, Bernard, Aquinas, Peter Lombard, Bradwardine, and 
 many others, all of whom followed him in their views of grace, 
 original sin, election, &c. But if Augustine was an instrument in 
 the hands of God, so must Pelagius have been, for Augustine would 
 have been nothing like what he was without the existence and 
 opinions of Donatus and Pelagius. Was, then, Pelagianism owing 
 to God ? No, certainly it was not owing to God, but to Pelagius him- 
 self ; but his persistence in opinions so opposed to Divine grace may 
 have been owing to God, in order to bring out more clearly the 
 counter truth respecting the necessity of grace taught by Augustine. 
 We know nothing of the internal history of Pelagius ; but, if we 
 did, we might find that he once believed the truth of God, but that 
 he went wrong in matters of such importance as the doctrines of 
 grace, through pride or self-conceit, through refusing to listen to all 
 Scripture as given " for doctrine and reproof." He chose his 
 favourite texts. He turned his ear and heart away when the Spirit 
 of God was desirous to enlighten him; and in the end he so 
 hardened himself against the truth that God withdrew His teach- 
 ing Spirit, and not only allowed him to remain in darkness, but 
 raised him up, as it were, so that in the teaching of the truth by 
 
EXCURSUS ON ELECTION. 357 
 
 men like Augustine, His grace might be known and acknowledged. 
 And so with Athanasius and Arius, and so with all teachers of 
 truth and its opponents. God has, in all ages, made use of the 
 opponents of the truth as instruments to bring out the truth more 
 fully. All religious movements in the Church, or in bodies who 
 have put themselves apart from the Church, God must, if He has 
 any plan such as that described in Ephesians iii. 10, take into full 
 account, as such not only affect the fortunes and the action of the 
 Church, but their members, if truly religious, according to their 
 light, are in a measure belonging to the Church. 
 
 Carrying our thoughts on the lines of all these considerations, we 
 cannot but see that if God has any consistent purpose, any unity in 
 His great plan and counsel, of making His wisdom known to the 
 angelic natures through the Church, then there must be an election 
 of His instruments, and His instruments must be chosen from 
 elect and reprobate ; and He must make use of good and bad now, 
 as He unquestionably did in the times of the Old Covenant, and in 
 the times of Christ. 
 
 But when we turn to contemplate the other side of God's just 
 government of the world — that He is a righteous Judge ; that He 
 will reward every man according to his work ; that He will, as He 
 is bound to do, take into account every thought, every word, every 
 deed ; that every man shall receive his own reward, according to 
 his own labour — then there seems to be no place whatsoever for the 
 doctrine of Election as commonly held. For God as a just Judge 
 cannot possibly decree beforehand that some persons should do 
 good and other persons do evil, and then accept them to happiness 
 or condemn them to inexpressible misery, for what He has decreed 
 that they should do or leave undone. 
 
 We cannot bear to hear of a human judge judging according to 
 what people have been compelled to do or to leave undone by him- 
 self; much more is it intolerable to think of God as acting so con- 
 trary to those principles of justice which He has infused into us, 
 and which, if we are righteous persons, we invariably carry out in 
 our dealings with one another. 
 
 The doctrine of Election, then, whilst it is demanded by the idea 
 of God acting according to a plan or purpose, is utterly inconsistent 
 with the idea of God acting as a judge, and so it is felt to be by all, 
 or almost all, predestinarians. Thus, to refer again to the most 
 guarded and devout statement that I have ever seen, that of our 
 
358 EXCUKSUS ON ELECTION. 
 
 seventeenth Article, there ought to be between the clause " they walk 
 religiouslyin good works," and the clause " at length, by God'smercy, 
 they attain to everlasting felicity," some such clause as " they stand 
 before theLord,the righteous judge, and receive according to the deeds 
 done in the body." For assuredly, whether all the Articles in the 
 world deny it, or pass it over, they will have so to stand and receive. 
 
 Did not, then, the writer of this Article believe that Christ 
 would judge him ? No doubt he said to Christ, probably daily, 
 " Judex crederis esse venturus," or, " From thence He shall come 
 to judge the quick and the dead," or sometimes, "At Whose 
 coming all men shall rise again in their bodies, and shall give 
 account for their own works." Why, then, was no reference 
 made to that which must come between *' walking religiously in 
 good works," and " attaining everlasting felicity " ? Because it 
 would have been utterly incongruous : because it would have intro- 
 duced a consideration alien from the doctrine of Predestination. 
 
 May we then sign, or compel others to sign, such an Article ? 
 
 Certainly, if we remember that no human statement of twenty- 
 two short lines can contain a full account of such a truth. We are 
 bound, if we are Christians, to read within the lines a reference to 
 the Lord Jesus Christ as the Eighteous Judge, Who will render to 
 every man according as his work shall be : for there is no single 
 truth of God so often insisted upon as this. 
 
 And now another matter with respect to Predestination must be 
 oonsidered. Someone may object to what I have written in this 
 excursus, and ask, have you not undone what you have written on 
 page 179 ? *' These words (verses 28, 29, 30, 31), are no doubt Predes- 
 tinarian words, and if we deprive them of their Predestinarian mean- 
 ing, we deprive them of all the comfort which God, Who inspired 
 them, designed holy souls to receive from them. They have been 
 miserably, indeed, one may say, wickedly perverted, but they are 
 in accordance with Catholic truth, and the greatest doctors of the 
 Church — Augustine, Bernard, Anselm, Thomas Aquinas, and others 
 — have used them as setting forth the security of true Christians, 
 and the comfort and joy which such ought to have from the sense 
 of that security." 
 
 If, then, these words are Predestinarian, do they set forth the 
 indefectibility of God's grace ? Do they assert that those in God's 
 Election cannot fall away, and must, of necessity, persevere, and if 
 they fall, no matter how grievously, must be restored at last ? Are 
 
EXCUESUS ON ELECTION. 
 
 359 
 
 they so elected that they need have no anxiety respecting whether 
 they shall endure to the end ? 
 
 Now it seems to me impossible to assert this, not from any con- 
 siderations of abstract doctrine, but simply because of the enormous 
 number of counter-statements, which not only imply, but assert 
 that there is no grace from which men cannot fall. In order that 
 the reader may, in some degree, realize this, I will put before him 
 a table of Predestinarian and Anti-Predestinarian statements of 
 Holy Writ, taken from a book I published many years ago, " The 
 Second Adam and the New Birth." Few, I should think, who read 
 this volume of notes on the Eomans, are hkely to be possessed of 
 that book : if they are, I trust they will pardon the repetition. 
 
 TBXTS ASSERTING ELECTION TO GRACE. 
 
 The Strength of Israel will not lie nor 
 
 BBPENT : FOR HE IS NOT A MAN THAT HE 
 SHOULD REPENT. (1 Sam, XV. 29.) 
 
 I SAID, I WILL NEVER BREAK MY COVE- 
 NANT ■WITH YOU [i.e. to give you the whole 
 land of Palestine], and ye shall make no 
 league, &c. (Judges ii. 1, 2.) 
 
 I am the Lord, I change not ; there- 
 fore, ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. 
 (Malachi iii. 6.) 
 
 For the Lord will not forsake his people, 
 for his great name's sake : because it hath 
 pleased the Lord to make you his people. 
 (1 Sam. xii. 22.) 
 
 And of all my sons (for the Lord hath 
 given me many sons,) he hath chosen 
 Solomon my son to sit upon the throne of 
 the kingdom of the Lord over Israel. And 
 he said unto me, Solomon thy son, he shall 
 build my house and my courts : for I havb 
 chosen HIM TO BE MY SON, AND I WILL 
 BE HIS FATHER. (1 Chron. xxviii. 5, 6.) 
 
 Then the word of the Lord came unto 
 me, saying. Before I foruko theb iir 
 THE BELLY I KNEW THEB ; and before thoa 
 camest forth out of the womb I sanctified 
 thee, and I ordained theb a pbophb* 
 UNTO thb nations. (Jer. i. 4, 6.) 
 
 TEXTS ASSERTING MAN'S LIABILITY TO 
 FALL FROM dfelACE. 
 
 The Lord repented that he had made 
 Saul king over Israel. (I Sam. xv. 35.) 
 
 Wherefore I also said, I will not 
 
 DRIVE them out FROM BEFORE YOU. 
 (Judges ii. 3.) 
 
 As for you, your carcases, they shall fall 
 in this wilderness. . . . Ye shall know 
 my breach of promise. (Numb. xiv. 32, 
 34.) 
 
 Wherefore the Lord God of Israel saith, 
 I SAID INDEED that thy house and the 
 house of thy father should walk before me 
 for ever, but now the Lord saith. Be 
 IT FAR FROM ME. (1 Sam. ii. 30.) 
 
 But if ye shall still do wickedly, ye shall 
 be consumed, both ye and your king. (1 
 Sam. xii. 25.) 
 
 And thou, Solomon my son, know thon 
 the God of thy father, and serve him . . . 
 for if thou seek him he will be found of 
 thee, but IF THOU forsake kim he will 
 cast thee off for ever. (1 Chron. 
 xxvii:. 9 ) 
 
360 
 
 EXCURSUS ON ELECTION. 
 
 I have hallowed this house, which thon 
 hast built, to pot my name there fob 
 EVER. (1 Kings ix. 3.) 
 
 The steps of a good man are ordered by 
 the Lord: and he delighteth in his way. 
 
 ThOUOH HE FALL, HE SHALL NOT BE 
 UTTERLY CAST DOWN : FOB THE LORD UP- 
 HOLDETH HIM WITH HIS HAND. I have 
 
 been young, and now am old ; yet have I 
 not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his 
 seed begging bread. He is ever merciful, 
 and lendeth ; and his seed is blessed. De- 
 part from evil, and do good; and dwell for 
 evermore. For the Lord loveth judg- 
 ment, AND FOBSAKETH NOT HIS SAINTS ; 
 THEY ARE PRESERVED FOR EVER : but the 
 
 seed of the wicked shall be cut off. The 
 righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell 
 therein for ever. The mouth of the 
 righteous speaketh wisdom, and his tongue 
 talketh of judgment. The law of his 
 God is in his heart : none of his steps 
 SHALL slide. (Ps. xxxvii. 23-31.) 
 
 And the vessel that he made of clay was 
 marred in the hands of the potter : so 
 
 HE MADE IT AGAIN ANOTHER VESSEL, AS 
 SEEMED GOOD UNTO THE POTTER TO MAKE 
 
 IT. O house of Israel, cannot I do with 
 you as this potter ? ( Jer. xviii. 4, 6.) 
 
 In that day, saith the Lord of hosts, will 
 I take thee, Zerubbabel, my servant, 
 the son of Shealtiel, saith the Lord, and 
 
 WILL MAKE THEE AS A SIGNET: FOB I 
 HAVE CHOSEN THEE, SAITH THE LoRD OF 
 
 HOSTS. (Hag. ii. 23.) 
 
 But if ye shall at all turn from 
 following me, ye or your children, then 
 . . . this house, which I have hallowed for 
 my name, I will CAST OUT OF mt sight. 
 (1 Kings ix. 6, 7.) 
 
 But when the righteous turnkth 
 AWAY from his RIGHTEOUSNESS, and com- 
 mitteth iniquity, and doeth according to all 
 the abominations that the wicked man 
 doeth, shall he live? All his righteous- 
 ness THAT HE hath DONE SHALL NOT BE 
 
 mentioned : in his trespass that he hath 
 trespassed, and in his sin that he hath 
 sinned, in them shall he die. Yet ye 
 say. The way of the Lord is not equal. 
 Hear now, O house of Israel ; Is not my 
 way equal ? are not your ways unequal ? 
 When a righteous man tubneth away 
 FROM his righteousness, and committetb 
 iniquity, and dieth in them ; for his iniquity 
 that he hath done shall he die. AGAIN, 
 
 WHEN the wicked MAN TURNETH AWAY 
 FROM HIS wickedness THAT HE HATH 
 COMMITTED, AND DOETH THAT WHICH IS 
 
 LAWFUL AND RIGHT, he shall save his soul 
 alive. Because he considereth, and turneth 
 away from all his transgressions that he 
 hath committed, he shall surely live, he 
 shall not die. (Ezek. xviii. 24-28.) 
 
 And at what instant I shall speak con- 
 cerning a nation, and concerning a king- 
 dom, to build and to plant it ; if it do 
 
 EVIL in my sight, THAT IT OBEY NOT MY 
 VOICE, THEN I WILL REPENT OF THE GK)OD, 
 WHEREWITH I SAID I WOULD BENEFIT 
 
 THEM. (Jer. xviii. 9, 10.) 
 
 As I live, saith the Lord, though Goniah 
 the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah werts 
 the SIGNET UPON MY RIGHT HAND, YET 
 WOULD I PLUCK TUEE THENCE. (Jer. XXii. 
 
 24.) 
 
EXCURSUS ON ELECTION. 
 
 361 
 
 NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 " My sheep hear my voice, and I 
 
 KNOW them, and they follow MB : AND 
 I GIVE UNTO THEM ETERNAL LIFE; AND 
 THEY SHALL NEVER PERISH, NEITHER SHALL 
 ANY MAN PLUCK THEM OUT OF MY HAND. 
 
 My Father, which gave them me, is greater 
 than all ; and no man is able to pluck t?ieni 
 out of my Father's hand. (John x. 27-29.) 
 
 * Now before the feast of the passover, 
 when Jesus knew that his hour was come 
 that he should depart oat of this world 
 unto the Father, having loved his own 
 
 WHICH WERE in THE WORLD, HE LOVED 
 THEM UNTO THE END. (Joho xili, 1.) 
 
 * Ye have NOT CHOSEN ME, BUT I HAVE 
 CHOSEN YOU, AND ORDAINED YOU, THAT YE 
 SHOULD GO AND BRING FORTH FRUIT, AND 
 THAT YOUR FRUIT SHOULD REMAIN : that 
 
 whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in 
 my name, he may give it you. (John xv. 
 16.) 
 
 • And we know that all things work 
 together for good to them that love God, 
 
 TO THEM WHO ARE THE CALLED ACCORDING 
 
 TO HIS PURPOSE. For whom he did 
 foreknow, he also did predestinate 
 to be conformed to the image of his 
 Son, that he might be the first-born 
 among many brethren. moreover 
 whom he did predestinate, them he 
 also called : and whom he called, 
 them he also justified : and whom he 
 justified, them he also glorified. 
 What shall we then say to these things ? 
 If God be for us, who can be against us ? 
 (Rom. viii. 28-31.) 
 
 * Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to 
 the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, 
 Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 
 
 How think ye? if a iiAN have an hum- 
 
 DRED SHEEP, AND ONE OF THEM BE GONE 
 
 ASTRAY, doth he not leave the ninety and 
 nine, and goeth into the mountains, and 
 seeketh that -which is gone astray ? And 
 IF so BE THAT HE FIND IT, verily I Say 
 unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, 
 than of the ninety and nine which went 
 not astray. (Matt, xviii. 12, 13.) 
 
 * I am the true vine, and my Father is 
 the husbandman. Every branch in me 
 
 THAT BEARETH NOT FRUIT HE TAKETH 
 
 AWAY: and every branch that beareth 
 fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring 
 forth more fruit. If a man abide not 
 
 IN ME, HE IS CAST FORTH AS A BRANCH, 
 
 AND IS WITHERED ; and men gather them, 
 and cast them into the fire, and they are 
 BURNED. As the Father hath loved me, 
 so have I loved you : continue ye in my 
 LOVE. If y'E keep my commandments, 
 
 YE SHALL ABIDE IN MY LOVE ; even aS I 
 
 have kept my Father's commandments, 
 and abide in his love. (John xv. 1, 2, 6, 
 9, 10.) 
 
 * Well ; because of unbelief they were 
 broken off, and thou standest by faith. 
 Be not highminded, but fear: for if Gi'd 
 spared not the natural branches, take 
 
 HEED LEST he ALSO SPARE NOT THEE. Be- 
 hold therefore the goodness and severity of 
 God: on them which fell, severity; but 
 toward thee, goodness, if thou continue 
 IN HIS GOODNESS: otherwise thon also 
 Shalt be cut off. (Rom. xi. 20-22.; 
 
 » But he that lacketh these things is 
 blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath 
 FORGOTTEN THAT HE WAS PURGED FROM 
 
 * Let the reader particularly notice that the texts in the parallel columns which have an 
 asterisk before them are spoken to the same persons. This applies in a measure to all 
 the texts taken from the Apostolical Epistles, for all the Churches to whom these wer* 
 addressed were in the same ecclesiastical and spiritual state. 
 
362 
 
 EXCURSUS ON ELECTION. 
 
 KIKCT ACCORDIWO TO THE FOREKNOW- 
 LEDGE OF God the Father, through 
 
 SAKCTIFl CATION OF THE SPIRIT, UNTO OBE- 
 DIENCE AND SPRINKLING OF THE BLOOD 
 
 or Jesus Christ : Grace unto you, and 
 peace, be multiplied. Blessed be the God 
 and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which 
 according to his abundant mercy hath be- 
 gotten us again unto a lively hope by the 
 resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 
 to an inheritance incorruptible, and un- 
 defiled, and that fadeth not away, KE- 
 SERVED IN HEAVEN FOR YOU, WHO AEK 
 KEPT BY THE POWER OF GoD THROUGH 
 FAITH UNTO SALVATION READY TO BE 
 REVEALED IN THE LAST TIME. (1 Peter 
 
 i. 1-5.) 
 
 * Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and 
 brother of James, TO them that are 
 
 SANCTIFIED BY GOD THE FATHER, AND 
 
 PRESKRVED IN Jesus Christ, and called. 
 (Jude 1.) 
 
 They went out from us, but they were 
 not of us ; for if they had been of us, 
 
 THEY WOULD {no doubt) HAVE CONTINUED 
 
 WITH US : but they went out, that they 
 might be made manifest that they were 
 not all of us. (1 John ii. 19.) 
 
 Fear not, little flock ; for it is 
 TOUR Father's good pleasure to give 
 YOU the kingdom. Sell that ye have, 
 and give arms ; provide yourselves 
 bags which wax not old, A TREASURE IN 
 the heavens that faileth not, where 
 no thief approacheth, neither moth cor- 
 rupteth. (Luke xii. 32, 33.) 
 
 For there shall arise false Christs, and 
 false prophets, and shall shew gi'eat signs 
 and wonders ; insomuch that, if (it were) 
 
 POSSIBLE, THEY SHALL DECEIVE THE 
 TERY ELECT. (Matt. xxiv. 24.) 
 
 HIS OLD SINS. Wherefore the rather, 
 
 BRETHREN, GIVE DILIGENCE TO MAKE 
 YOUR CALLING AND ELECTION SURE : FOB 
 IF YE DO THESE THINGS, YE SHALL 
 NEVER FALL : for SO an entrance shall be 
 ministered unto yon abundantly into the 
 everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Sa- 
 viour Jesus Christ. (2 Peter i, 9-il.) 
 
 * I will therefore put you in remem- 
 brance, though ye once knew this, how that 
 the Lord, having saved the people out 
 of the land of Egypt, AFTERWARDS DE- 
 STROYED them that believed not. And 
 the ANGELS WHICH KEPT NOT THEIR 
 FIRST ESTATE, but left their own habita- 
 tion, he hath reserved in everlasting chains 
 under darkness unto the judgment of the 
 great day. (Jude 5, 6.) 
 
 These are spots in your feasts of charity, 
 when they feast with yon, feeding them- 
 selves without fear : clouds they are with- 
 out water, carried about of winds ; trees 
 whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice 
 DEAD, plucked up by the roots. (Jude 12.) 
 
 Wherefore WE receiving a kingdom 
 which cannot be moved, let US HAVE 
 GRACE, -whereby we may serve God ac- 
 ceptably with reverence and GODLY FEAR: 
 for OUR GOD IS A CONSUMING FIRB. 
 (Heb. xii. 28, 29.) 
 
 Take heed therefore unto yourselves, 
 
 and to ALL THE FLOCK, OVER THE WHICH 
 
 THE Holy Ghost hath made you over- 
 seers, TO FEED THE CHURCH OF GOD, 
 WHICH HE HATH PURCHASED WITH HIS 
 OWN BLOOD, For I know this, that after 
 my departing shall grievous wolves enter 
 in among you, NOT SPARING THE FLOCK. 
 Also OF YOUR OVTN SELVES shall men arise, 
 ■peaking perverse things, to draw awa^ 
 disciples after them. Therefore watch, 
 bad remember, that by the space of three 
 
EXCURSUS ON ELECTION. 
 
 363 
 
 Being born again, wot of CORRUPTIBLE 
 8BED, BUT OF INCORRUPTIBLE, by the 
 word of God, which liveth and abideth for 
 ever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the 
 glory of man as the flower of grass. The 
 grass withereth, and the flower thereof 
 falleth away : but the word of the Lord 
 endureth for erer. And this is the word 
 which by the gospel is preached unto yon. 
 (1 Peter i. 23-25.) 
 
 For God hath not appointed us to wrath, 
 BUT TO OBTAIX SALVATION BY OUR LoRD 
 
 Jesus Christ, who died for us, that, 
 whether we wake or sleep, we should live 
 together with him. (1 Thess. v. 9, 10.) 
 
 * But we are bound to give thanks alway 
 to Gh)d for you, brethren beloved of the 
 Lord, because GoD hath from thb 
 BKGnrxiNG CHOSEX TOU to SALVATI0:f 
 THROUGH SANCTIFICATION OF THE SPIRIT 
 AND BELIEF OF THE TRUTH : whereunto 
 he called you by our gospel, to the obtain- 
 ing of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 (2 Thess. ii. 13, 14.) 
 
 The Lord is faithful, who shall stab- 
 LISH (a-rrip/lfi) TOU, and keep you from 
 evil. (2 Thess. iii. 3.) 
 
 And the very God of peace sanctify you 
 wholly ; and I pray God your whole spirit 
 and soul and body be preserved blameless 
 UKTO the coming OF OUR LORD JeSUS 
 
 Christ. Faithful is he that calleth 
 
 TOU, WHO ALSO WILL DO IT. ^1 Thess. 
 ▼. 23. 24.) 
 
 years I ceased not to warn EVERT ONE night 
 and day, with tears. (Acts xx. 28-31.) 
 
 This thou knowest, that ALL THET 
 WHICH ARE IN AsiA BE TURNED AWAT 
 FROM ME ; of whom are Phygellus and 
 Hermogenes. (2 Tim. i. 15.) 
 
 ["All they of Asia," that is. Proconsular 
 Asia, including Ephesus, the Church in 
 which city the Apostle addresses as " elect 
 in Christ " and " predestinated."] 
 
 Now the parable is this : the seed IS 
 THE WORD OF GoD. And some fell upon 
 a rock ; and AS SOON AS IT WAS SPRUNG 
 UP, IT WITHERED AWAT, because it lacked 
 moisture. And some fell among thorns; 
 and the thorns sprang up with it, and 
 choked it. (Luke viii. 11, 6, 7.) 
 
 Let us labour therefore to enter into 
 that rest, LEST ANY MAN FALL AFTER 
 THE SAME EXAMPLE OF UNBELIEF. (Heb. 
 iv. 11.) 
 
 * Quench not the Spirit. (1 Thess. 
 V. 19.) 
 
 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that 
 in the latter times some SHALL DEPART 
 FROM THE faith, giving heed to seducing 
 spirits, and doctrines of devils. Having 
 damnation, because they have cast off 
 THEIR FIRST FAITH, For SOME ARE AL- 
 READY TURNED ASIDE AFTER SaTAN. (1 
 Tim. iv. 1; V. 12-15.) 
 
 They that are unlearned and unstable 
 wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, 
 to their own destruction. Ye therefore, 
 BELOVED, seeing ye know these things be- 
 fore, BEWARE LEST YE ALSO, being led 
 away with the error of the wicked, fauc 
 FROM YOUR OWN STEADFASTNESS (too U!o» 
 <rT»f)»y^a). (2 Peter iii. 16, 17.) 
 
 In the body of his flesh through death, 
 to present you holy and nnblameable and 
 unreproveable in his sight: if YE CON- 
 TINUE IN THE FAITH GROUNDED AND 
 SETTLED, AND BE NOT MOVED AWAT 
 FROM THE HOPE OF THK GOSPEL, which 
 ye have heard, and which was preached 
 to every creature which is under heaven ; 
 whereof I Paul am made a minister. (Col. 
 L 23, 23.^ 
 
364 
 
 EXCURSUS ON ELECTION. 
 
 Hath not the potter power over the clay, 
 of the same lump to make one vessel unto 
 honour, and another unto dishonour ? What 
 if God, -willing to shew his wrath, and to 
 make his power known, endured with 
 much longsuffering the vessels of wrath 
 fitted to destruction : AND THAT HE MIGHT 
 MAKE KNOWN THE RICHES OF HIS GLORY 
 ON THE VESSELS OF MERCY, WHICH HK 
 HAD AFORE PREPARED UNTO GLORY, even 
 US, whom he hath called, not of the Jews 
 only, but also of the Gentiles? As he 
 saith also in Osee, I will call them my 
 people, which were not my people ; and 
 her beloved, which was not beloved. (Rom. 
 ix. 21-25.) 
 
 Nevertheless the foundation of God 
 standeth sure, having this seal. The Lord 
 
 KNOWETH THEM THAT ARE HIS. And, 
 Let every one that nameth the name of 
 Christ depart from iniquity. (2 Tim. ii. 
 19.) 
 
 * But we are bound to give thanks 
 alway to God for you, brethren beloved 
 of the Lord, because GoD hath from 
 THE BEGINNING CHOSEN YOU TO SAL- 
 VATION through SANCTIFICATION OF 
 
 THE Spirit and belief of the truth : 
 whereunto he called you by our gospel, to 
 the obtaining of the glory of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ. (2 Thess. ii. 13, 14.) 
 
 But in a great house there are not only 
 vessels of gold and of silver, but also of 
 wood and of earth ; and some to honour, 
 and some to dishonour. If a MAN THERE- 
 FORE PURGE himself FROM THESE, HB 
 SHALL BE A VESSEL UNTO HONOUR, Sanc- 
 tified, and meet for the master's use, and 
 prepared unto every good work. (2 Tim. 
 ii. 20. 2L) 
 
 Wherein God, willing more abundantly 
 to shew unto the heirs of promise the im- 
 mntability of his counsel, confirmed IT 
 BT AN OATH: that by two immutable 
 
 These shall make war with the Lamb, 
 and the Lamb shall overcome them: for 
 he is Lord of lords, and King of kings : and 
 they that are with him are called, and 
 chosen, and FAITHFUL. (Rev. xvii. 14.) 
 
 [Not only called and chosen, but faithfal 
 — i.e. they endure to the end. *' Be thou 
 faithful unto death."] 
 
 * When he shall come to be glori- 
 fied IN his SAINTS, and to be admired in 
 all them that believe (because our testi- 
 mony among you was believed) in that 
 day. Wherefore also we pray al- 
 ways FOR you, THAT OUR GOD WOULD 
 COUNT YOU WORTHY OF THIS CALLING, 
 and fulfil all the good pleasure of his good- 
 ness, and the work of faith with power : 
 that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ 
 may be glorified in yon, and ye in him, 
 according to the grace of our God and the 
 Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Thess. i. 10-12.) 
 
 [Let the reader particularly notice that 
 this place occurs in an epistle written to 
 Christians, of whom the apostle says, 
 •' Knowing, brethren beloved, your elec- 
 tion of God;" and respecting whom he 
 gives thanks, " because God hath fi*»m the 
 beginning chosen them to salvation throngh 
 sanctification of the Spirit." 
 
 He deemed it right to pray for those 
 thus " elect," that God would count them 
 " worthy of this calling " of being glorified 
 at Christ's coming.] 
 
 Wherefore, holy brethren, par- 
 takers OF the heavenly CALLING, 
 consider the Apostle and High Priest of 
 our profession, Christ Jesus. Wherefore 
 
EXCURSUS ON ELECTION. 
 
 865 
 
 things, in which it was impossible for God 
 to lie, WK MIGHT HAVE A STRONG CON- 
 SOLATION, who have fled for refuge to lay 
 hold upon the hope set before us : which 
 hope we have as an anchor of the soul, 
 both sure and steadfast, and which en- 
 tereth into that within the vail. (Heb. ri. 
 17-19.) 
 
 • For by one offering HE hath PER- 
 FECTED FOR EVER THEM THAT ARE 
 SANCTEFIED. Whereof the Holy Ghost 
 also is a witness to us : for after that he 
 hath said before. This is the covenant that 
 I will make with them after those days, 
 saith the Lord, I will put my laws into 
 their hearts, and in their minds will I 
 write them ; and their sins and iniquities 
 will I remember no more. (Heb. x. 14- 
 17.) 
 
 Who shall separate us from the love of 
 Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or 
 persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or 
 peril, or sword? As it is written. For thy 
 sake we are killed all the day long ; we are 
 accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, 
 in all these things we are more than con- 
 querors through him that loved os. For I 
 am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, 
 nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, 
 nor things present, nor things to come, 
 nor height, nor depth, nor any other crea- 
 ture, shall be able to separate us from the 
 love of God, which is in Christ Jesus oor 
 Lord. (Rom. viii. 35-39^ 
 
 (as the Holy Ghost saith, Ti>-day if ye will 
 hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as 
 in the provocation, in the day of tempta- 
 tion in the wilderness : when your fathcrw 
 tempted me, proved me, and saw my works 
 forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with 
 that generation, and said. They do alway 
 err in their heart; and they have not 
 known my ways. So I SWARE IN MY 
 WRATH, They shall not enter into 
 MY rest.) Take heed, brethren, 
 lest there be in any of you an evil 
 heart of unbelief, in departing 
 FROM the living God. But exhort one 
 another daily, while it is called To-day ; 
 lest any of you be hardened through the 
 deceitfulness of sin. For we are made 
 partakers of Christ, if WE HOLD THE BE- 
 GINNING OF OUR CONFIDENCE STEADFAST 
 UNTO THE END. (Heb. iii. 1, 7-14.) 
 
 * He that despised Moses' law died with- 
 out mercy under two or three witnesses : 
 of how much sorer punishment, suppose 
 ye, shall he he thought worthy, WHO 
 hath trodden under foot the son of 
 God, and hath counted the blood of 
 the covenant, wherewith he was 
 sanctified, an unholy thing, and 
 hath done despite unto the spirit 
 OF GRACE ? For we know him that hath 
 said. Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will 
 recompense, saith the Lord. And again. 
 The Lord shall jin)GE his people. 
 U is a fearful thing to fall into the hands 
 of the living God. (Heb. x. 28-31.) 
 
 Who shall separate us from the love of 
 Christ ? shall tribulation, or distress, or 
 persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or 
 peril, or sword ? As it is written. For thy 
 sake we are killed all the day long ; we are 
 accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, 
 in all these things we are more than con- 
 querors through him that loved us. For I 
 am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, 
 nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, 
 nor things present, nor things to come, 
 nor height, nor depth, nor any other crea- 
 ture, shall be able to separate us from the 
 love of God, which is in Christ Jesos our 
 Lord. (Rom. riii, 35-39.) 
 
 [Note — I have inserted this passage in 
 both lists because of the fearfnlly signifi- 
 cant omission of one word from the e«ta- 
 
366 
 
 EXCURSUS ON ELECTION. 
 
 And the Lord shall deliver me from 
 every evil work, and will preserve me unto 
 his heavenly kingdom : to whom be glory 
 for ever and ever. Amen. (2 Tim. iv. 18). 
 
 [Note.— I have inserted this text be- 
 cause I find it usually brought forward in 
 lists of texts on final perseverance. 
 
 If the reader considers that the apostle 
 wrote it on the eve of his martyrdom, 
 when he had just written, " I am now 
 ready to be oflered, and the time of my 
 departure is at hand. I have fought a good 
 fight, I have finished my course, I have 
 kept the faith : " I think he will agree with 
 me that it is very perilous to quote it as 
 decisive in favour of the necessary final 
 perseverance of every one who has once 
 begun the Christian race.] 
 
 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye 
 heard the word of truth, the gospel of 
 your salvation : in whom also after that 
 ye believed, YE WBIRE sealed with that 
 HOLY Spirit of promise, which is the 
 
 EARNEST OF OUR INHERITANCE UNTIL 
 THE REDEMPTION OF THE PURCHASED 
 POSSESSION, onto the praise of his glory. 
 (Ephes. L 13, 14.) 
 
 logue of things here said to be unable to 
 separate us from Christ. That word is 
 " sin." If sin can be properly called " a 
 creature," then this passage is decisive on 
 the final perseverance of the apostle, and 
 those whom he means by " we," " us." If 
 the omission of the word is intentional, 
 the passage is equally strong in the other 
 direction. 
 
 St. Bernard, a strong predestinarian, m 
 commenting on this passage, notices this 
 omission. "He omits to add, 'nor our 
 own selves,' because it must be with our 
 ovm free will that we can alone forsake 
 God. Excepting this free will of onrs, 
 there is nothing, absolutely nothing, f«r 
 us to fear."] 
 
 For it IS impossible for those who were 
 ONCE ENLIGHTENED, AND HAVE TASTED 
 OF THE HEAVENLY GIFT, AND WERE 
 MADE PARTAKERS OF THE HOLY GhoST, 
 
 and have tasted the good word of 
 God, and the powers of the world 
 to come, if they shall fall away, 
 
 to renew them again unto repentance; 
 seeing they crucify to themselves the Son 
 of God afresh, and put him to an open 
 shame. For the earth which DRINK- 
 ETH IN THE RAIN THAT COMETH OFT 
 UPON IT, and bringeth forth herbs meet 
 for them by whom it is dressed, receivetb 
 blessing from God: BUT THAT WHICH 
 BEARETH THORNS AND BRIARS IS RE- 
 JECTED, and IS nigh unto cursing ; whose 
 end /s to be burned. (Heb. vi. 4-8.) 
 
EXCURSUS ON ELECTION. 
 
 367 
 
 Blessed be the God and Father of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us 
 with all SPIRITUAI. BLESSINGS IN HEA- 
 VENIiT PLACES IN CHRIST: ACCORDING 
 AS HE HATH CHOSEN US IN HIM BEFORE 
 THE FOUNDATION OF THE "WORLD, that 
 we should be holy and without blame 
 before him in love: having PREDESTI- 
 KATED us UNTO THE ADOPTION OF CHIL- 
 DREN BY Jesus Christ to himself, ac- 
 cording to the good pleasure of his will, to 
 the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein 
 he hath made us accepted in the beloved. 
 In whom we have redemption through his 
 blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to 
 the riches of his grace ; wherein he hath 
 abounded toward us in all wisdom and 
 prudence ; having made known unto us 
 the mystery of his will, according to his 
 good pleasure which he hath purposed in 
 himself: that in the dispensation of the 
 fulness of times he might gather together 
 in one all things in Christ, both which are 
 in heaven, and which are on earth ; even 
 in him: in WHOM ALSO "WE HA^VTE OB- 
 TAINED AN INHERITANCE, BEING PRE- 
 DESTINATED ACCORDING TO THE PURPOSE 
 OF HIM "WHO "WORKETH ALL THINGS 
 AFTER THE COUNSEL OF HIS O^WN "WILL : 
 THAT "WE SHOULD BE TO THE PRAISE 
 OF HIS GLORY, "WHO FIRST TRUSTED IN 
 
 Christ. (Eph. i. 3-12.) 
 
 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, 
 without which no man shall see the Lord : 
 LOOKING DILIGENTLY LEST ANY MAN 
 FAIL OF THE GRACB OF GoD ; lest any 
 root of bitterness springing up trouble 
 you, and thereby many be defiled ; lest 
 there be any fornicator or profane person, 
 as Esau, "WHO FOB ONE MORSEL OF MEAT 
 SOLD HIS BIRTHRIGHT. For ye know how 
 that afterward, when he would have in- 
 herited the blessing, he was rejected ; for 
 he found no place of repentance, though 
 he sought it carefully with tears. (Heb. 
 xii. 14-17.) 
 
 But "TE ARE COME UNTO MOUNT SlON, 
 and unto the city of the living God, the 
 heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable 
 company of angels, to the general assembly 
 and church of the firstborn, which are 
 written in heaven, and to God the Judge 
 of all, and to the spirits of just men made 
 perfect, AND TO JeSUS THE MEDIATOR 
 
 of the ne"w covenant, and to the 
 blood of sprinkling, that speaketh 
 better things than that of abel. 
 See that ye refuse not him that 
 SPEAKETH. For if they escaped not who 
 refused him that spake on earth, much 
 more shall not we escape, if we turn away 
 from him that speaketh from heaven. 
 (Heb. xii. 22-25). 
 
 But there were false prophets elso 
 among the people, even as there shall be 
 false teachers among you, who privily 
 shall bring in damnable heresies, even 
 DENYING THE LORD THAT BOUGHT THEM, 
 and bring upon themselves swift destruc- 
 tion. And many shall follow their per- 
 nicious ways ; by reason of whom the way 
 of truth shall be evil spoken of. FoR IF 
 God SPARED NOT THE ANGELS THAT 
 SINNED, bujt cast them down to hell, and 
 delivered them into chains of darkness, to 
 be reserved unto judgment. (2 Pet. ii. 1, 
 2,4.) 
 
 Cast not a"way therefore yoitr 
 CONFIDENCE, which hath great recom- 
 pence of reward. For ye have need of 
 patience, that, after ye have done the will 
 of God, ye might receive the promise. 
 For yet a little while, and he that shall 
 come will come, and will not tarry. No"\v 
 THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH : BUT IF 
 
368 
 
 EXCURSUS ON ELECTION. 
 
 Be not thon therpitore ashamed of the 
 testimony of our L-rd, nor of me his 
 prisoner: but be thou partaker of the 
 afflictions of the gospel according to the 
 power of God ; WHO HATH SAVED US, AND 
 CALLED US WITH AN HOLY CALLING, NOT 
 ACCORDING TO OUE WORKS, BUT ACCORD- 
 ING TO HIS OWN PURPOSE AND GRACE, 
 WHICH WAS GIVEN US IN CHRIST JeSUS 
 BEFORE THE WORLD BEGAN, but is now 
 made manifest by the appearing of our 
 Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished 
 death, and hath brought life and immor- 
 tality to light through the gospel : where- 
 unto I am appointed a preacher, and an 
 apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. For 
 the which cause I also suffer these things : 
 nevertheless I am not ashamed: FOR I 
 KNOW WHOM I HAVE BELIEVED, AND AM 
 PERSUADED THAT HE IS ABLE TO KEEP 
 THAT WHICH I HAVE COMMITTED UNTO 
 HIM AGAINST THAT DAT. (2 Tim. i. 8-12.) 
 
 And the GLORY WHICH THOU GAVEST 
 ME I HAVE GIVEN THEM ; that they may 
 be one, even as we are one : I in them, 
 and thon in me, that they may be made 
 perfect in one ; and that the world may 
 know that thou hast sent me, AND HAST 
 LOVED THEM, AS THOU HAST LOVED ME. 
 
 [any man] draw BACK, MY SOUL SHALL 
 HAVE NO PLEASURE IN HIM. (Heb. X. 
 35-38.) 
 
 [Note. — Much of the force of the original 
 is lost by our translators having inserted 
 the words "any man," in italics, in the 
 last verse. In reality, the verse runs : 
 " Now the just shall live by faith : but if 
 he (i.e. o SUawi, the justified man) draw 
 back, my soul shall have no pleasure in 
 him."] 
 
 Take heed unto thyself, and unto the 
 doctrine ; CONTINUE IN THEM : FOR IN 
 DOING THIS THOU SHALT BOTH SAVE 
 THYSELF, and them that hear thee. (1 
 Tim. iv. 16.) 
 
 Hold fast the form of sound 
 WORDS, which thon hast heard of me, in 
 faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. 
 That good thing which was com- 
 mitted UNTO THEE KEEP by the Holy 
 Ghost which dwelleth in us. This thon 
 knowest, that ALL THEY WHICH ARE IN 
 
 Asia be turned away from me; of 
 whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes. If 
 
 A MAN therefore PURGE HIMSELF FROM 
 THESE, HE SHALL BE A VESSEL UNTO 
 HONOUR, sanctified, and meet for the mas- 
 ter's use, and prepared unto every good 
 work. Flee also youthful lusts : 
 but follow righteousness, faith, charity, 
 peace, with them that call on the Lord out 
 of a pure heart. But CONTINUE THOU in 
 the things which thou hast learned and 
 hast been assured of, knowing of whom 
 thou hast learned them. (2 Tim. i. 13-15 ; 
 ii. 21,22; iii. 14.) 
 
 [Timothy was one of the first saints of 
 the apostolic age, but in the epistles ad- 
 dressed to him there is not one word re- 
 specting his final triumph being absolutely 
 assured to him, but many words to exhort 
 him to hold fast, continue, &c. This may 
 not imply any doubt of Timothy's perse- 
 verance, but it certainly does teach modem 
 assertors of this doctrine a strong lesson.] 
 
 Having eyes full of adultery, and that 
 cannot cease from sin ; beguiling nnstable 
 souls : an heart they have exercised with 
 covetous practices : cursed children : WHICH 
 HAVE FORSAKEN THE BIGHT WAY, and 
 are gone astray, following the way of Ba- 
 laam the t'jn of Bosor, who loved the wages 
 
EXCURSUS ON ELECTION. 
 
 369 
 
 Father, I will that they also, whom thou 
 hast given me, be with me where I am ; 
 that they may behold my glory, which 
 thou hast given me : FOR thoxj lovkdst 
 ME BEFORE THE FOUKDATION OP THE 
 WORLD. (John xvii. 22-24.) 
 
 Q\iO HATH NOT CAST AWAY HIS PEOPLE 
 WHICH HE FOREKNEW. Wot ye not what 
 the scripture saith of Elias ? how he maketh 
 intercession to God against Israel, saying. 
 Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and 
 d'gged down thine altars ; and I am left 
 aloue, and they seek my life. But what 
 saith the answer of God unto him ? I have 
 reserved to myself seven thousand men, 
 who have not bowed the knee to the image 
 of Baal. Even so then at this pre- 
 sent TIME ALSO THERE IS A REMNANT 
 ACCORDING TO THE ELECTION OF GRACE. 
 (Rom. xi. 2-5.) 
 
 And this is the Father's will which hath 
 sent me, that of all -which he hath 
 
 GIVEN ME I SHOULD LOSE NOTHING, but 
 should raise it up again at the last day. 
 And this is the will of him that sent me, 
 that EVERY ONE WHICH 8EETH THE SoN, 
 AND BELIEVETH ON HIM, MAY HAVE 
 EVERLASTING LIFE : AND I WILL RAISE 
 HIM VP AT THE LAST DAY. (John vi. 
 ^9, 40.') 
 
 of unrighteousness. For when they speak 
 great swelling words of vanity, they AL- 
 LURE THROUGH the LUSTS OF THE FLESH, 
 through much wantonness, those that 
 
 ■WERE CLEAN ESCAPED FROM THEM who 
 
 live in error. While they promise them 
 liberty, they themselves are the servants 
 of corruption : for of whom a man is over- 
 come, of the same is he brought in bondage. 
 
 For IF AFTER they HAVE ESCAPED THE 
 
 pollutions of the world through 
 the knowledge of the lord and 
 Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again 
 entangled therein, and overcome, 
 the latter end is worse with them 
 THAN THE BEGINNING. For it had been 
 better for them not to have known the 
 way of righteousness, than, after they 
 HAVE KNOWN IT, TO TURN FROM THE 
 holy commandment delivered unto them. 
 But it is happened unto them according 
 to the true proverb. The dog is turned to 
 his own vomit again : and the SOW THAT 
 WAS WASHED to her wallowing in the mire. 
 (2 Peter ii. 14, 15, 18-22.) 
 
 Ye are the salt of the earth : BUT IF 
 THE SALT HAVE LOST HIS SAVOUR, 
 wherewith shall it be salted ? it is thence- 
 forth good for nothing, but to BE CAST 
 OUT, and to be trodden under foot of men. 
 (Matt. V. 13.) 
 
 Salt is good: but if the SALT HAVE 
 LOST HIS SAVOUR, wherewith shall it be 
 seasoned? It is neither fit for the land, 
 nor yet for the dunghill ; but men cast it 
 OUT. He that hath ears to hear, let him 
 hear. (Luke xiv. 34, 35.) 
 
 But the CHILDREN OF THE KINGDOM 
 SHALL BE CAST OUT INTO OUTER DARK- 
 NESS : there shall be weeping and gnashing 
 of teeth. (Matt. viii. 12.) 
 
 And ye shall be hated of all men for my 
 name's sake: but he that endureth 
 
 TO THE END SHALL BE SAVED. (Matt. 
 X. 22.) 
 
 Then his lord, after that he had called 
 him, said unto him, O thou wicked ser- 
 vant, I FORGAVE THEE ALL THAT DEBT, 
 because thou desiredst me : shouldest not 
 thou also have had compassion on thy iel- 
 low-servant, even as I had pity on thee ? 
 And his lord was wroth, and delivered him 
 to the tormentors, till he should pay all 
 
 B B 
 
370 
 
 EXCURSUS ON ELECTION. 
 
 that was due unto him. So LIKEWISE 
 SHAXL MY HEAVENLY FATHER DO ALSO 
 UNTO YOU, IF YE FROM YOUR HEARTS 
 FORGIVE NOT EVERY ONE HIS BROTHER 
 THEIR TRESPASSES. (Matt, x^iii. 32-35.) 
 ' For the kingdom of heaven is as a man 
 
 travelling into a far country, who called 
 HIS OWN SERVANTS, and delivered unto 
 them his goods. And unto one he gave five 
 talents, to another two, and to ANOTHER 
 one ; to EVERY MAN according to his several 
 ability ; and straightway took his journey. 
 . . . And CAST YE THE UNPROFITABLE 
 SERVANT INTO OUTER DARKNESS: there 
 shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 
 (Matt- XXV. 14, 15, 30.) 
 
 And the Lord aaid. Who then IS THAT 
 FAITHFUL AND WISE STEWARD, Whom hiS 
 lord shall make ruler over his household, 
 to give them their portion of meat in due 
 season ? BLESSED IS THAT SERVANT, 
 whom his lord when he cometh shall find 
 so doing. Of a truth I say unto you, that 
 he will make him ruler over all that he 
 hath. But and if that servant say in 
 his heart. My lord delayeth his coming; 
 and shall begin to beat the men-servants 
 and maidens, and to eat and drink, and t@ 
 be drunken ; the lord of that servant will 
 come in a day when he looketh not for 
 '"' Atm, and at an hour when he is not aware, 
 
 and will cut him IN SUNDER, AND 
 WILL APPOINT HIM HIS PORTION WITH 
 THE UNBELIEVERS. (Luke xii. 42-46.) 
 
 Now when the congregation was broken 
 up, many of the Jews and religions prose- 
 lytes followed Paul and Barnabas; who, 
 speaking to them, persuaded them to con- 
 tinue IN THE GRACE OF (JOD. (Acts 
 xiii. *3.) 
 
 Confirming the souls cf the disciples, 
 and exhorting them to continue in THE 
 FAITH, and that we must through much 
 tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. 
 (Acts xiv. 22.) 
 
 For this cause, when I could no longer 
 forbear, I SENT TO know your faith, 
 
 LEST BY SOME MEANS THE TEMPTER 
 HAVE TEMPTED YOU, AND OUR LABOUR 
 BE IN VAIN. For now we live, if ye stand 
 fast in the Lord. (1 Thess. iii. 5, 8.) 
 Being confident of this very But if thy brother be grieved with thy 
 
 TttlNG, that HE WHICH HATH BEGUN meat, now walkest thou not charitablv. 
 
EXCURSUS ON ELECTION. 
 
 371 
 
 A GOOD WORK IN YOU WILL PERFORM 
 IT UNTIL THE DAY OF JeSUS ChRIST : 
 eren as it is meet for me to think this of 
 70uall. (Phil. i. 6. 7.) 
 
 [Do they who cite this text mean to 
 assert that St. Panl predicates this perse- 
 Terance of ALL his Philippian converts? 
 for he distinctly says, " Even as it is meet 
 for me to think this of you all." The 
 apostle cannot mean this : for, in the first 
 place, he bids them " work out their salva- 
 tion with fear and trembling;" then he 
 tells them that he counts not himself to 
 have "attained," or to have "appre- 
 hended." He bids them in this respect 
 (iii. 15, 16) be like-minded with himself; 
 and, above all, he wai-ns them how many 
 walked, of whom he had told them often 
 that " their end was destruction : " and 
 these could not have been the heathen. 
 
 Then, also, on this hypothesis, what an 
 unaccountable difference there must have 
 been between the Philippian and the 
 Corinthian Churches. St. Paul's words of 
 confidence respecting the Corinthians are 
 as strong as those respecting the Philip- 
 pians, when he says to the former, " Jesus 
 Christ: WHO SHALL COITFIRM: you TO 
 THE SKD, that ye may be blameless in the 
 day of our Lord Jesus Christ. GoD IS 
 FAITHFUL, BY WHOM YE WERE CALLED 
 unto the fellowship of His Son Jesus 
 Christ our Lord " (1 Cor. i. 8, 9). And yet 
 we see, by «very chapter of this latter 
 Epistle, that it was far indeed from his 
 thoughts to assert the necessary and pre- 
 destined completion of God's work in each 
 of them.] 
 
 The elders which are among you I ex- 
 hort, who am also an elder, and a witness 
 of the sufferings of Christ, and also a 
 PARTAKER OF THE GLORY THAT SHALL 
 BE REVEALED. (1 Pet. V. 1.) 
 
 Destroy not him with thy meat, for 
 WHOM Christ died. For meat destroy 
 NOT THE WORK OF GoD. All things in- 
 deed are pure ; but it is evil for that man 
 who eateth with offence. (Rom. xiv. 15, 
 20.) 
 
 * And through thy knowledge shall the 
 WEAK BROTHER PERISH, FOR WHOM 
 Christ dikd ? But when ye sin so against 
 the brethren, and wound their weak con- 
 science, YE SIN AGAINST CHRIST. (1 Cor. 
 viii. 11, 12.) 
 
 Know ye not that ye are the 
 TEMPLE of God, and that the Spirit 
 OF God dwelleth in you? If any 
 MAN defile (or destroy, <p6e!pst.') the temple 
 of God, him will God destroy ((piepeT) ; for 
 the temple of God is holy, WHICH TEMPLE 
 YE ARE. (1 Cor. iii. 16, 17.) 
 
 But I keep under my body, and bring 
 it into subjection : LEST THAT BY ANY 
 MEANS, WHEN I HAVE PREACHED TO 
 OTHERS, I MYSELF SHOULD BE A CAST- 
 AWAY. (1 Cor. ix. 27.) 
 
 We then, as workers together vxith him, 
 BESEECH YOU ALSO THAT YE RECEIVE 
 NOT THE GRACE OF GOD IN VAIN. (2 Cor. 
 ^i. 1.) 
 
 Christ is become of no effect unto you, 
 whosoever of yon are justified by the law; 
 YE ARE FALLEN FROM GRACE. (Gal. V.4.) 
 
 Ani all that dwell upon the earth shall 
 worship him, whose names are NOT 
 
 If by any means I might attain unto the 
 resurrection of the dead. Not as 
 
 though I HAD ALREADY ATTAINED, 
 either were already perfect : but I follow 
 after, if that I may apprehend that for 
 which also I am apprehended of Christ 
 Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself 
 TO HAVE APPREHENDED : but this one 
 thing / do, forgetting those things which 
 are behind, and reaching forth unto those 
 things which are before. (Philip, iii. 11- 
 13.) 
 
 He that overcometh, the same shall be 
 clothed in white raiment ; and I wiLI 
 
372 EXCURSUS ON ELECTION. 
 
 WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF LIFE OF THE NOT BLOT OUT HIS NAME OUT OF THE 
 
 Lamb slain fbom the foundation of book of life, but 1 will confess his name 
 THE world. (Rev. xiii. 8.) before my Father, and before his angels. 
 
 He that hath an ear, let him hear what 
 the Spirit saith unto the churches. (Rev. 
 iii. 5, 6.) 
 
 He that ovekcometh shall inherit all 
 things ; and I will be his God, and he shall 
 be my son. (Rev. xxi. 7.) 
 
 And if any man shall take away from 
 the words of the book of this prophecy, 
 God shall take away his part out 
 or the book of life, and out of the 
 HOiY CITY, and/roTM the things which are 
 written in this book. (Rev. xxii. 19.) 
 
 [How can a man's name be blotted out 
 of the book of life, unless it has been once 
 written in that book.? The Canon of the 
 New Testament closes with a warning 
 against Calvinistic perverseness.] 
 
 Now, in reading over these statements and counter-statements, it 
 seems impossible to deny that God has called and chosen some 
 persons, that they should, through His grace, serve Him as His 
 children in this world, and enjoy His presence in the next, and yet 
 it is equally impossible to deny that, no matter in what high terms 
 this election is described, it is not absolutely indefectible. Are they 
 sheep ? they may wander from the fold, and in Matth. xviii. 13 it is 
 implied that it is not absolutely certain that they will be brought 
 back. Are they branches of the true vine ? even that does not de- 
 scribe absolutely indefectible grace. They may be cast forth (John 
 XV. 6). Are they the salt of the earth? it may lose its savour. 
 Do they stand by faith ? they must see that they continue in God's 
 goodness (Eom. xi. 22). Do, then, these counter-statements rob 
 the statements of God's Election of all their comfort ? Only, we 
 answer, in the case of those who have been brought up under, or 
 have put their necks under, Calvinistic error. For the Calvinistic 
 system makes God unreal. His proffers of mercy to all are un- 
 realities, His cautions are unreaUties. The very Judgment of God 
 at the last day is an unreahty. 
 
 The state of the case seems to be this. There is every reason for 
 a devout and sincere Christian, who holds and realizes the Catholic 
 faith, who looks to Christ as his only hope, and prays to God con- 
 tinually, who devoutly uses the means of grace, and is watchful 
 over himself, and is careful to maintain good works ; who, in the 
 
CHRISTOLOGY OF ST. PAUL. 373 
 
 words of this very Apostle, " by patient continuance in well-doing, 
 looks for glory, honour, and immortality," — there is every reason 
 for this man, in all humility, yet in all confidence, to regard himself 
 as foreknown, predestinated, called, justified, and, with the adoption 
 wherewith God has adopted him, glorified ; but this cannot be held 
 as a dogma, universally true, and that because the counter-state- 
 ments are so very numerous, and so directly applied to each 
 Christian as in a state of grace from which he may fall irrevocably. 
 
 EXCURSUS III. 
 
 CHRISTOLOGY OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 As the true interpretation of Romans ix. 5, is important, it may 
 be well to examine, at some length, the Christology of St. Paul, 
 with the view of ascertaining what his views of the Person of 
 our Lord were — whether they were such as would naturally in- 
 spire him to ascribe divine blessedness to Christ as God, or 
 whether they would rather lead him to withhold such a doxology 
 as only due to His Father. A careful examination of all the 
 places in his Epistles bearing on the Lord's Godhead, leads us to 
 this conclusion, that he considers the Lord, Who appeared to him 
 on his conversion, to be reigning side by side with God in heaven, 
 the fountain and bestower of all spiritual grace, ruling and order- 
 ing all things, and, along with God, the object of all that faith, 
 love, hope, obedience, and worship, which, in the Old Testament, 
 are set forth as due only to the Supreme God. Moreover, He is all 
 that to the Church of the New Testament which the Jehovah, or 
 Lord of the Old Testament, was to the Church of the Patriarchs, 
 and exercises all those functions of Supreme Godhead, such as 
 Creation, Redemption, and final Judgment, which God had, in old 
 times, most jealously reserved to Himself. 
 
 Let us take these points in the order in which we have mentioned 
 them. 
 
 1. Christ is, along with God, the Fountain of all spiritual grace, 
 and is constantly invoked as such, and grace is invoked, or called 
 down, from Him, as being the very source and treasury of Divine 
 grace. 
 
 Sometimes this invocation of grace is from Christ only. Thus, 
 
374 CHRISTOLOGY OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 to the Galatians, " Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ he 
 with your spirit " (vi. 18). The same is found in Eom. xvi. 20 and 
 24 ; 1 Cor. i. 3 ; Phil. iv. 23 ; 1 Thess. v. 28 ; 2 Thess. iii. 18. In 
 2 Tim. iv. 22 it appears as " The Lord Jesus he with thy spirit." 
 In Philemon 26, " The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your 
 spirit." 
 
 Sometimes it is from the Father and Christ. Thus, Eom. i. 7, 
 " Grace to you, and peace from God our Father and the Lord 
 Jesus Christ." Thus also 1 Cor. i. 3 ; 2 Cor. i. 2 ; Gal. i. 3 ; 
 Ephes. i. 2, &c. 
 
 In the two Epistles to Timothy, and probably in that to Titus, it 
 is " Grace, mercy, and peace." In Ephes. vi. 23, there is a striking 
 difference : " Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith from 
 God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." 
 
 Once it is from all the three Persons of the Trinity in the well- 
 known words, " The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of 
 God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all,' 
 2 Cor. xiii. 14. 
 
 In accordance with this the kingdom of glory is called indif- 
 ferently, " The kingdom of Christ and of God," Ephes. v. 5. 
 Usually it is the kingdom of God ; but in Coloss. i. 13 it is " The 
 kingdom of his dear Son," and in 2 Tim. iv. 1, we have the explicit 
 mention of God the Father, and yet the Kingdom is assigned to the 
 Son. **I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and 
 his kingdom." 
 
 And again towards the conclusion of the same chapter : " The 
 Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me 
 unto his heavenly kingdom : to whom be glory for ever and ever." 
 Here the Lord is unquestionably the same Lord Who is mentioned 
 all through the chapter — in verse 8 as ** The Lord, the righteous 
 judge," assigning to St. Paul his Crown, and in verse 17 as the 
 Lord Who stood with him at his trial. 
 
 Again, St. Paul accounts himself the servant or minister of this 
 Christ as well as the minister of God. Thus, Rom. i. 1, he calls 
 himself the slave of Christ, and so, Phil. i. 1 ; but in Titus he is the 
 servant or slave of God, i. 1. In 1 Corinth, iv. 1, he asks men to 
 account of him and his fellow- workers as " ministers of Christ, and 
 stewards of the mysteries of God ; " and he considers them all as 
 deacons (or SidKovoi) of God and Christ indifferently, thus, in 2 Cor. 
 
CHRISTOLOGY OF ST. PAUL. 375 
 
 vi. 4 : "In all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God," 
 and in xi. 23, " Are they ministers of Christ ? I am more." 
 
 Again, supreme power is said to reside sometimes in God, some- 
 times in Christ. Thus the Gospel is the power of God unto salva- 
 tion, Rom. i. 16, and in the same chapter we have His (God's) 
 *' eternal power and Godhead." But in 2 Corinth, xii. we have the 
 wonderful assertion of Christ, " My strength is made perfect in 
 weakness," and St. Paul's conclusion from this truth, " Most gladly 
 therefore will I rather glory in mine infirmities, that the power of 
 Christ may rest upon me " (verse 9). 
 
 Again, Christ is, along with God, the object of faith, of love, of 
 hope, of obedience, and of worship. 
 
 Of faith. " Abraham believed God " (Eom. iv, 3). " The Gentiles 
 have not, in time past, believed God " (xi. 30). " They that have be- 
 lieved in God," Tit. iii. 8. But now Jesus Christ seems to have 
 taken the place of God as the object of saving faith. The prophecy 
 of Isaiah, *' He that believeth in him shall not be confounded," is 
 applied exclusively to Christ. By faith in him men are saved, 
 justified, and made the children of God (Eom. iii. 22 ; Gal. ii. 20, 
 iii. 26). By faith in Him men have the Spirit of God (Ephes. i. 
 13^ Dne of the articles of the mystery of Godliness is that He 
 wa8 '** believed on in the world " (1 Tim. iii. 16). 
 
 Then He is the object of supreme love as God is. '* The love of 
 God is shed abroad in our hearts." " All things work together for 
 good to them that love God." But " The love of Christ con- 
 straineth us" (2 Cor. v. 14). "If any man love not the Lord 
 Jesus Christ let him be Anathema " (1 Cor. xvi. 22). 
 
 Again, He is the object of hope, as God is. " We hope (trust, 
 in A. V.) in the living God " (1 Tim. iv. 10). " She that is a 
 widow, indeed, hopeth (trusteth, in A. V.) in God," but, "Kin 
 this life only we have hope in Christ " (1 Cor. xv. 19), and " Christ 
 in you the hope of glory " (Coloss. i. 27). 
 
 And in one remarkable place Christ is said to share in the 
 obedience of the spirit due to God, " Casting down imaginations and 
 every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, 
 and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of 
 Christ "(2 Cor. X. 5). 
 
 Again, all things are to be to the glory of Christ equally with God. 
 Thus God is the God of glory, and Christ is "the Lord of glory " 
 (1 Cor. ii. 8) ; and St. Paul will only glory in the Cross of Christ ; and 
 
376 CHRISTOLOGY OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 again, wicked men " shall be punished with everlasting destruction 
 from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power " 
 (2 Thess. i. 9). 
 
 Following on this, His Name is honoured as if it was the Name of 
 God, for men are besought by His Name as the highest of names 
 (1 Cor. i. 10). In allusion to the greatness of His Name, St. Paul 
 asks indignantly of some schismatical believers : " Were ye baptized 
 in the name of Paul ? " We are to do all in the name of Jesus 
 (Coloss. iii. 17). For the honour of His Name the Gospel is to be 
 preached among all nations (Eom. i. 5). 
 
 And so the preaching of salvation is the preaching of Him, even 
 in the time of His utmost weakness, when He was crucified (1 Cor. 
 i. 23). 
 
 Again, in the Old Testament, God claims for Himself exclusively 
 the name of Saviour : "I, even I, am the Lord, and beside me there 
 is no Saviour " (Isaiah xliii. 11) ; " I am the Holy One of Israel, thy 
 Saviour" (xliii. 3); "A just God and a Saviour, there is none 
 beside me " (xlv. 21). 
 
 Now in the Pauline Epistles this word Saviour is ascribed in- 
 differently, as it were, to God and to Christ. Thus "the living 
 God is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe " (1 Tim. 
 iv. 10). St. Paul's apostleship is " by the commandment of God our 
 Saviour, and Lord Jesus Christ " (1 Tim. i. 1). Prayers for all in 
 authority are acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour, but it is 
 Christ Who is the Saviour of the Body, the Church (Ephes. v. 23). 
 From heaven we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus (Phil. iii. 20). 
 Our Saviour Jesus Christ hath abolished death (2 Tim. i. 10). In 
 the three chapters of the short Epistle to Titus the word Saviour is 
 applied three times to God, three times to Christ : " God our 
 Saviour, Christ our Saviour" (Titus i. 3, 4); "God our Saviour," 
 "the great God and Saviour of us, Jesus Christ" (ii. 10, 13); 
 " God our Saviour," " Jesus Christ our Saviour " (iii. 4, 6). 
 
 Again, in the Old Testament, God claims to be the husband of 
 the Israelitish Church, the Old Mount Zion : " Thy maker is thine 
 husband, the Lord of Hosts is His Name, and thy Eedeemer the 
 Holy One of Israel " (Isaiah liv. 5) ; but in the New Testament an 
 infinitely greater and better Jerusalem is revealed, one compared to 
 which the first was but a bondslave (Gal. iv. 26), and of this Jeru- 
 salem " from above " Jesus Christ is said to be the bridegroom and 
 husband (Ephes. v. 22, 32). Also Eomans vii. 4: " That ye should 
 
CHRISTOLOGY OF ST. PAUL. 377 
 
 be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead." 
 This is the most suggestive argument respecting the Godhead and 
 Incarnation of Christ that we have yet considered. It seems to 
 imply — and indeed to necessitate — that those passages of the Old 
 Testament in which God is said to be the husband of the Church (as 
 Isaiah liv. 5, Jerem. iii. 14, xxxi. 32) in reality were spoken in 
 anticipation of the Incarnation of the Second Person in the Trinity ; 
 He Who, having assumed our humanity, could more properly be 
 said to be united to His Church in such a bond as Marriage. 
 
 Again, as I noticed on page 201, the three highest works of 
 God — Creation, Eedemption, and Final Judgment — are ascribed to 
 Christ. Creation in Col. i. 16 : " For by him were all things 
 created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and 
 invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, 
 or powers ; all things were created by him and for him, and he 
 is before all things, and by him all things consist." I may mention 
 in passing respecting this place, that such a sublime description of 
 creating glory is imrivalled in the sacred volume. "We need cite 
 no more places as to His function of Judgment. He is the Lord 
 "Who, at His coming, *' will bring to light the hidden things of 
 darkness, and make manifest the counsels of the hearts." "He 
 will judge the quick and dead at his coming and his kingdom." 
 He is "the Lord, the righteous judge," Who will give to Apostles 
 the crown of righteousness at that day, the day of His appearing 
 (1 Cor. iv. 5 ; 2 Tim. iv. 1,8). 
 
 Lastly, He is said to bear that very peculiar relation to His 
 people, which implies, if anything can, Divine and Spiritual Omni- 
 presence. There are three Divine Persons in Whom Christians are 
 said to he — God, Christ, and the Holy Ghost. For instance, the 
 two letters to the Thessalonians are written to Christians who are 
 in God the Father, and in the Lord Jesus Christ ; and as regards 
 the Holy Spirit, the Galatians are commanded to walk in the 
 Spirit if they hve in the Spirit. 
 
 But by far the most frequent application of this wonderful phrase 
 is in connection with our relations to Christ. Take the two first 
 chapters of the Epistle to the Ephesians. In these comparatively 
 few verses Christians are said to be " blessed with all spiritual 
 blessings in Christ," " chosen in Him," " accepted in Him as God's 
 beloved." " In Him they have redemption through His blood," 
 *• In Him they have an inheritance," "In Christ they are raised 
 
378 CHRISTOLOGY OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 up together and made to sit together in heavenly places," "In 
 Christ they are made nigh by His blood," " In Christ they are 
 builded together for an habitation of God." 
 
 Conversely, God, Christ, and the Holy Ghost are said to be " in " 
 the Christian. " God is in you of a truth." " One God and Father 
 of all, Who is . . . . ' in ' you all" (1 Cor. xiv. 25 ; Ephes. iv. 6). 
 •' Christ is in you the hope of glory." "Know ye not that Jesus 
 Christ is in you except ye be reprobates ? " (Col. i. 27 ; 2 Cor. 
 xiii. 5). " That good thing keep by the Holy Ghost that dwelleth 
 in us" (2Tim. i. 14). 
 
 Such then is St. Paul's conception of the Person of Christ. Side 
 by side with God in heaven — working every work of God on 
 earth — invoked as the Author and Giver of grace as His Father is 
 — ordering all things in heaven and earth — in fact, directing the 
 whole course of God's providence — the wisdom and power of God — 
 the object of all faith, love, hope and obedience. All to the Church 
 which God can be — its Head, Lord, Husband, Eedeemer, Saviour — 
 in Whom tne Church is as it is in God and in the Spirit. Man, 
 because incarnate, " the man Christ Jesus," and yet His Personality 
 constantly contrasted with man's. Thus St. Paul is an Apostle, 
 " not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the 
 Father, Who raised Him from the dead " (Gal i. 1). 
 
 What is the ground of such a conception ? What foundation has 
 it in fact ? What is there in Christ that He should be capable of 
 all this — ^that all this power and glory could be committed to Him ? 
 Now the conception, the foundation, the underlying fact, is in a 
 sense a natural one. He inherits all this. St. Paul's conception is 
 not that God creates a being Whom He makes capable of receiving 
 all the attributes of God, but that He has a Son Who naturally, 
 as it were, receives them, just as a human son naturally receives the 
 qualities with the nature of his father — thus Christ is the Son of 
 God, the own {Idiog) Son, the Son in the proper sense of Sonship. 
 Abraham, Moses, David are servants. He is the Son. 
 
 Now to what order of being as to His original or pre-exLstent 
 nature could St. Paul have conceived that Christ belonged ? Ho 
 tells us when He speaks of God giving His Son, His own proper 
 Son {Wioq). ' To this Son He could naturally intrust, as He could to 
 no angel, all the functions, prerogatives, powers, and relationships 
 which He Himself exercised. This Son, in His pre-existent state, 
 was in the form of God, which could only mean that He shared in 
 
CHRISTOLOGY OF ST. PAUL. 379 
 
 the Divine Essence of His Father ; and of the Person of this Son of 
 God, St. Paul writes that " in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the 
 Godhead bodily " (Col. ii. 9). 
 
 Now we must remember that St. Paul, in writing all this 
 respecting the place of Christ in the universe, must have written 
 with the full consciousness of what he was putting down or 
 dictating. He could not have been unconscious that before his 
 conversion he would have characterized these expressions respect- 
 ing Christ as the veriest blasphemy, worthy of death, on hear- 
 ing which devout Israelites should rend their garments. It is 
 quite true that he does not express himself on this matter in Post- 
 Nicene language, but his ideas of the Son of God are, if taken 
 seriously, quite as irreconcilable with Socinianism or Rationalism 
 as anything in the creeds of the Catholic Church. 
 
 Putting all these considerations together it seems incumbent upon 
 us to translate Rom. ix. 5 as the Fathers, whose vernacular was 
 Greek, translated it, " Of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ 
 came. Who is God over all, blessed for ever." He Who came in the 
 flesh is God. In humbling Himself for us He parted with some 
 manifestations of God, not with the Godhead, and He now abides 
 for ever with the Father and the Holy Ghost in the blessedness of 
 the One Supreme God. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 i.H:swicK press:— c. whittingham and co., tooks court, chancuby lass. 
 
Ne w and cheaper Issue in Twelve monthly vols. 
 Crown 8vo, red edges, 4 6 each. 
 
 CHURCH COMMENTARY ON THE 
 NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 WITH NOTES, CRITICAL AND PRACTICAL, 
 INTRODUCTIONS, AND EXCURSUSES. 
 
 By the E-ev. M. F. Sadler, 
 
 Late Ecctor of Honiton and Prebeiidary of Wells, 
 
 THE GOSPEL OF ST. MATTHEW. [J/arc/i 28. 
 
 THE GOSPEL OF ST. MARK. [May % 
 
 THE GOSPEL OF ST. LUKE. [.Jnnel. 
 
 THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. [jJuhj 1. 
 
 THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. [Anc).% 
 
 THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. [.Sep/. 1. 
 
 THE EPISTLES TO THE CORINTHIANS. 
 
 [Oct 3. 
 
 THE EPISTLES TO THE GALATIANS, 
 EPHESIANS, AND PHILIPPIANS. [Nov. I. 
 
 THE EPISTLES TO THE COLOSSIANS, 
 THESSALONIANS, AND TIMOTHY. [Dec. 1. 
 
 THE EPISTLES TO TITUS, PHILEMON, AND 
 THE HEBREWS. [Jan. 2, 1899. 
 
 THE EPISTLES OF SS. JAMES, PETER, 
 JOHN, AND JUDE. [Feh.l. 
 
 THE REVELATION OF ST. JOHN THE 
 DIVINE. [Marchl. 
 
 Those who may wish to complete their sets in the original edition will 
 be able to procure any volume at the uniform price of 45. G(7. until 
 after the new issue of that volume has been published, when it will be 
 kept only in the new style. 
 
 LONDON: GEORGE BELL AND SONS, YOUK STREET, 
 COVENT GARDEN. 
 
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 
 
 THE GOSPELS. 
 
 From The Church Quarterly, Octoher, 1883. 
 "It is far the best practical Commentary that we know, being plain- 
 spoken, tearless, and definite, and containing matter very unlike the milk 
 and water which is often served up in [so-called] practical Commentaries. 
 . . . For solid Church teaching it stands unrivalled. Nothing could be 
 better than the notes on the Sermon on the Mount, and the practical lessons 
 drawn with convincing clearness from our Lord's words on the subject of 
 Almsgiving, Prayer, and Fasting. Throughout the whole book the writer 
 is ever i»n the watch for general principles and teaching applicable to the 
 wants ol" our own day, which may legitimately be deduced from the Gospel 
 narrative." 
 
 From The Church Times, February 23rc?, 1883. 
 
 " The question of the origin of the Four Gospels is well treated, and a 
 more succinct account of the real standing of the Evangelists with respect to 
 each other, or to a supposed original document from which all copied, could 
 scarcely be found than that contained in these few pages. Some few pages 
 introductory to the critical poi'tion of the volume, and explaining the 
 elements of textual criticism, bring us to the text of the Commentary itself. 
 Throughout the whole of its pages the same evidence of scholarship and 
 critical acumen, which distinguishes all the author's work, is apparent y 
 while the faculty of conveying such knowledge to the minds of the least 
 learned m a simple and forcible manner, is abundantly preserved, and will 
 jirucure tor this work the position of one of the best of popular commentaries. 
 Many of the notes extend beyond the scope generally implied by the term,, 
 and become full explanations of doctrinal subjects such as will prove of 
 immense value to the student as well as to the general reader. We may 
 cite as an instance of this exhaustive process the lengthy note on St. Matt, 
 xvi. 18, and those notes on the Parables, which, severally treated in their 
 entirety, present a more intelligible meaning than when explained in sliort 
 disjointed notes. Finally, it remains to mention the fact, which, however, 
 goes without saying, that the tone of the Commentary is thoroughly 
 Catholic, so that the reader will find here a firm defence of the supernatural 
 and divine character of the Gospel story, which never condescends to the 
 tone of much of modern criti(!ism, but remains true to primitive Catholic 
 leaching." 
 
 From Church Bells, November ISth, 1882. 
 
 " It is written in a clear and sensible style, with a healthy tone ; and its 
 practical portions are devout without being wearisome or ' goody.' " 
 
 From The Church Review, November, 1883. 
 " A valuable and substantial contribution to the literature of the New 
 Testament is made by Mr. Sadler in the volume now before us. . . . It 
 might be said that every page of the work lights up the grand historical 
 character of the Church as the one supreme authority for the authenticity 
 and interpretation of the books of Scripture." 
 
From The Church Times, Becemher 21st, 1883. 
 " We have much pleasure in announcing the issue of ' Tlie Gospel according 
 to St. John, with Notes, Critical and Practical,' by the Kev. M. F. Sadler 
 (George Bell and Sons), a companion volume to his gloss on St, Matthew, 
 and a redemption of the pledge he gave therein to carry on his labours 
 to the remaining Gospels. This is admirably done, being exactly what 
 is wanted for that large and increasing class of readers who need the results 
 of genuine scholarship and sound vigorous thought, but who are repelled by 
 any surface display of erudition, and still more by dryness of ti-eatment, 
 
 The admirable lucidity, which is the distinctive quality of Mr. 
 
 Sadler's style, comes out markedly in his annotations, whether they take 
 the form of pithy clearings up of verbal difficulties or more elaborate 
 dissertations on important points of doctrine ; and he is a good judge in 
 selecting the best matter supplied by his precursors, such as Olshausen, 
 Stier, Godet, and, above all, St. Augustine, whose commentary on St. John 
 is one of that Father's ablest works. This is much less of a mere 
 grammatical inquiry than Professor Westcott's volume in the ' Speakers 
 Commentary,' but it is much more of a theological explanation, and that of a 
 far sounder and deeper school." 
 
 From The Literary Churchman, December 7th, 1883. 
 "... Apart from these longer and more continuous glosses, the reader 
 constantly meets with single pithy notes, which by their clear common 
 sense solve a difficulty at once, and satisly the understanding promptly, 
 so that this is quite the best popular commentary on S. John we know, 
 without implying by that epithet that even advanced students of Biblical 
 literature will not find ample profit in consulting it." 
 
 From. The Church Times, October Srd, 1884. 
 " We gladly chronicle the third instalment of Prebendary Sadler's cloar 
 and sensible Commentary on the Gospels, which exactly meets the needs 
 of that large and increasing class, which, without pretending any interest 
 in the more abstruse problems of scholarship in connection with the Greek 
 Testament, is desirous of having in its hands a trustworthy guide to the 
 actual meaning of the sacred writers, and some plain statement of the 
 results accepted by that calmer type of scholars who understand the nature 
 of evidence, and are not disposed to admit the validity of unsupported con- 
 jecture, however original and brilliant, as proof. .... The notes, as 
 always with jNIr. Sadler, are singularly lucid, pithy, and to the point." 
 
 From Church Bells, November 227id, 1884. 
 " This is a work of a veteran scholar and divine to whom the Church 
 owes much. Prebendary Sadler's waiting is characterized by great clear- 
 ness of style, and he has a remarkably persuasive way of putting things. 
 His sermons, as well as his ' Church Doctrine Bible Truth,' &c., have done 
 much towards furnishing the parochial clergy with materials for feeding 
 their flocks. In this commentary he aims at a yet more important object, 
 the instruction of the educated classes. He has carefully compared the 
 original Scriptures with the authorized and revised versions, and has set 
 himself to meet objections of scientific sceptics, and he has achieved great 
 
 success The volume is full of thoughts and suggestions for preachers 
 
 as well as for general readers." 
 
From The Saturday Eeview, Fehruarij 21st, 1885. 
 " We can recommend his book to devout and cultivated Churchmen who 
 want to read the Gospels for instruction as well as for edification." 
 
 From The Church Quarterly, January, 1885. 
 
 "In reading the notes upon the text, the feature which strikes us 
 most is their intensely practical character. Mr. Sadler has a remarkable 
 faculty of bringing the teaching of the incidents of our Lord's life on 
 earth to bear upon the circumstances of our own time. Even where 
 the points brought out are well worn and familiar, there is a freshness in 
 his manner of treating them which adds greatly to the charm and value of 
 the Commentary." 
 
 From The Church Times, July 3rd, 1886. 
 " Indeed, one great merit in this commentary and its companion volumes 
 is the frequency with which notes are found, which are capable of being each 
 expanded into useful sermons. They are like very strong essences or tinc- 
 tures, which will bear considerable dilution before being employed medically, 
 though for convenience they are usually kept in the more portable form." 
 
 From. The Church Quarterly, July, 1886. 
 " We must begin our notice of this volume by offering Prebendary Sadler 
 our hearty congratulations on the completion of his work on the four 
 Gospels. The previous volumes were all reviewed in our columns as they 
 appeared, and wo Iiavo no hesitation in extending the welcome which we 
 gave to them to their present companion. It is no slight distinction for a 
 writer, after having made Iiis roputution by what is confessedly the best 
 popular work on Cluirch doctrine, to have produced what we hold to be the 
 best popular commentary on the Gospel narrative. There is no other 
 occupying quite the same ground, and we cordially recommend these four 
 volumes, in the now familiar blue binding, as for practical purposes the 
 most useful to the general reader." 
 
 From Church Bells, July 2nd, 1886. 
 
 " Mr. Sadler's excellent qualities as a theological writer and expositor 
 are so well known that we need only introduce the reader to this, his last 
 Commentary on the Gospel;), completing the series, by saying that it 
 presents the same features as its predecessors. It is somewhat longer than 
 any of the other three, a circumstance quite intelligible to those who con- 
 sider how a commentator's view of his responsibility must enlarge as he 
 proceeds with his work. To begin at the beginning, the Introduction is 
 excellent, clear, concise, and full. In short, it says all that need be said ou 
 the authorship of the Gospel, and says it well." 
 
 From The Irish Ecclesiastical Gazette, Nov. 6th, 1886. 
 
 " Originality of treatment, depth of insight, and thorough grasp of the 
 practical side of Divine truth characterize these commentaries of Mr. Sadler 
 on the four Gospels." 
 
THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES. 
 
 From The Guardian, July, 1887. 
 
 " We find, however, in the notes on St. Luke and the Acts tlie same 
 freshness in thought and style, the same direct and independent considera- 
 tion of tlie themes brought up on the sacred pages, the same knowledge of 
 what has been said by others, the same masterly use, alike without sub- 
 servience and without neglect, of the great and varied stores which our 
 predecessors have left to us of these days who study the Xew Testament. 
 The result is that Mr. Sadler's Commentary is decidedly one of the most 
 unhackneyed and original of any we have. It will often be found to give 
 help where others quite fail to do so, and its special value will be to the 
 preacher or teacher who has to give oral and practical instruction : Mr. 
 Sadler's strong point being decidedly in pointing the application to con- 
 temporary thought and to life, its trials and its duties, of the divine words 
 with which he has to deal." 
 
 From Church Bells, July Sth, 1887. 
 
 " We can hardly imagine a commentary better adapted than Mr. Sadler's 
 for giving to the reader an antidote to that unsettling influence which is 
 now going about in the world, making people have a different set of 
 religious opinions every month or so." 
 
 From The Church Quarterly Reyiew. 
 
 " There is vigour and freshness about his writings which makes it 
 a pleasure to read them, while there is certain to be much that is in- 
 structive, and their tone and tendency are equally certain to be sound and 
 edifying. This short commentary on the Acts of the Apostles is no 
 exception to the rule, and it well supports the established reputation of its 
 author." 
 
 From The Church Times, August 26th, 1887. 
 
 " Prebendary Sadler's useful commentary on the 'New Testament is 
 advanced another important stage by the issue of this volume on the Acts 
 of the Apostles, a part of Scripture whose interest and value seems to 
 increase daily, as investigation into the beginnings of the Christian Church 
 are pressed on with fresh vigour, alike by those who wish to prove 
 Christianity a mere human evolution out of materials lying to hand in 
 the Augustan era, and those who accept it as a divine revelation. Much of 
 the work which has been done of late years in connexion with the Acts and 
 other Pauline records has been devoted chiefly to the externals of history, 
 geography, antiquities, and the like, I'ather than to the religious teaching 
 which they contain ; and this fact makes a gloss from a theologian like 
 Mr. Sadler all the more welcome." 
 
THE EPISTLES. 
 
 From Church Bells, May IStTi, 1888. 
 
 *' Mr. Sadler carries on his work with unabated vigour, and now we have 
 some hope of his being able to give us a commentary on the whole of the 
 New Testament. Undoubtedly such a work when completed will be of 
 great value, as giving a well-thought-out exposition of the whole of the 
 sources from which we derive the history of the founding, as well as the 
 doc-trines, of the Christian Church, and this, too^ an exposition which sup- 
 plies, not the mere personal opinions of its writer, although it is everywhere 
 tinged by his individuality, but the historical meaning of the teaching of 
 individual writers and of the Church at large. The 'introduction' to the 
 prespnt volume is excellent, giving all the requisite information without 
 any unnecessary waste of words." 
 
 From The Church Times, June, 1888. 
 
 " There are three excursuses at the end of the volume, on Justification, 
 on Election, and on the Christology of St. Paul, all carefully written, but 
 with most pains bestowed upon the second. We do not know a better book 
 than this Commentary to put into the hands of an intelligent Evangelical 
 who is beginning to doubt the soundness of the system he has heretofore 
 accepted, and is striving to find his v/ay out and up into a higher and 
 clearer atmosphere." 
 
 From The Church Quarterlf Keview. 
 
 " We hail with pleasure this addition to the Commentary on the New 
 
 Testament We think this volume will certainly sustain the high 
 
 position which Mr. Sadler has gained as a practical interpreter of Holy 
 Scripture." 
 
 From The Irish Ecclesiastical G-azette, April l^th, 1890. 
 "Incomparably the best Commentary on the New Testament extant." 
 
 From The Banner, May 23r(7, 1890. 
 
 " Ordinary readers could hardly have a better exposition of the sacred 
 
 books." 
 
 From The Literary Churchman, February 6th, 1891. 
 
 " This volume will be found to present all the characteristic excellences 
 of Mr. Sadler's method ; and it would be hard, indeed, to find any points of 
 objection to these terse, thoughtful. Church-like notes." 
 
Uniform with the Church Commentary. 
 Second edition. Crown 8vo, 5s. 
 
 SEEMON OUTLINES 
 
 FOR THE CLERGY AND LAY-PREACHERS. 
 
 321 Outlines arranged according to the 
 Church's Year. 
 
 This book, a book of suggestions rather than of mere divi- 
 sions, or skeletons as they were formerly called, has been 
 composed with a view to meeting the objection heard on all 
 sides that sermons at the present day are very deticient in 
 setting forth Christian doctrines. 
 
 From The Guardian, April 12th, 1893. 
 " It is easy to prophesy a considerable sale for this volume. . . . We 
 meet here all the well-known characteristics of his writings. The style is 
 straio;htforward and vij^oi'ous. There is never any doubt about his meaning. 
 His remarks are alwa^^s pointed, and the arrangement of his material is 
 excellent.'' 
 
 From The Church Times, February 17th, 1893. 
 
 '"This volume differs in three respects from most similar volumes: (1) 
 It aims, primarily, at supplying sketches of sermons on Christian Doctrine, 
 couched in clear, definite language. (2) It is a book »if ' huggestions, rather 
 than of mere divisions or skeletons,' (3) It includes lists of texts and 
 sul jects for courses of Lenten and other sermons. The well-earned reputa- 
 tion of its author will be a sufficient guarantee for the soundness and 
 usefulness of the work." 
 
 From Church Bells, December 16th, 1892. 
 
 " They are adequate, and they are helpful ; they set forth the elementary 
 teaching of the Church's seasons, the redemption, salvation, and sanctifica- 
 tion of mankind. Each Sunday of each Church season has several appro- 
 priate texts and heads of discourses, and these aie rich in wise suggestions 
 as to heljjfu! teaching. There is much simplicity and strong meat for 
 learnei-s. Trayer-book lines are made the rule throughout — the best rule 
 of all." 
 
 From The Rock, November 4th, 1892. 
 
 " We should think that it would be difficult to find anywhere such a real 
 help for preachers as these outlines affijrd. . . . Such depth of spiritual 
 teaching is seldom to be found." 
 
 From The Irish Ecclesiastical Gazette, Nov. 11th, 1892. 
 
 " This should be among the must popular and useful of Prebendary 
 Sadler's writings." 
 
 From The Clergyman's Magazine, December, 1892. 
 " These outlines are both Evangelical and doctrinal. They occupy 
 exactly one page of the book, and therefore afford ample opportunity for 
 the preacher's own powers of expansion." 
 
WORKS BY THE REV. M. F. SADLER, 
 
 Rector of Honiton and Prebendary of Wells. 
 
 New and cheaper Issue, price 2s. 
 
 CHURCH DOCTRINE— BIBLE TRUTH. 4m 
 
 Thousand. 
 "Mr. Sadler takes Church Doctrine, specifically so called, subject by subject, and 
 elaborately shows its specially marked Scripturalness. The objective nature of the faith, 
 the Athanasian Creed, the Baptismal Services, the Holy Eucharist, Absolution and the 
 Priesthood, Church Government and Confirmation, are some of the more prominent sub- 
 jects treated. And Mr. Sadler handles each with a marked degi'ee of sound sense, and 
 with a thorough mastery of his subject." — Guardian. , 
 
 New and cheaper Issue, price 2s. 
 THE CHURCH TEACHER'S MANUAL OF 
 
 CHRISTIAN INSTRUCTION. Being the Church Catechism 
 expanded and explained in Question and Answer, for the Use of 
 Clergymen, Parents, and Teachers. 46^A Thousand. 
 " Far the best book of the kind we have ever seen." — Literary Churchman. 
 
 Confirmation : An Extract from the " Church Teacher's 
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 THE ONE OFFERING: a Treatise on the Sacrificial 
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 "A treatise of singular clearness and force, which gives us what we did not really 
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 JUSTIFICATION OF LIFE : its Nature, Antecedents, 
 and Kesults. 2nd Editioii, Revised. Price As. ^d, 
 
 THE SECOND ADAM and THE NEW BIRTH; 
 
 or, The Doctrine of Baptism as contained in Holy Scripture. \2th 
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 " The most striking peculiarity of this useful little work is that its author argues almost 
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 THE SACRAMENT OF RESPONSIBILITY; 
 
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 Cheap Edition. 9,th Edition. Price (>d. 
 
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 A Larger Edition. Ked rubrics. iVap. 8vo. Price 2s. 6d. 
 
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 Abundant Life, and other Sermons. 2nd Edition. Price 6s. 
 
Date Due