ness of God leadeth (ought to lead) thee to repentance.2 Cor. iii. 18. 1 Cor. v. 7. Col. iii. 3. Heb. xiii. 14. 1 Peter i. 6. 1 John ii. 15. iii. 9. and v. 4. 18. 66 II.-12. As many as have sinned in the law, shall be judged by the law." As the English Translation is not always correct in the use or omission of the definite article; and, as St. Paul, in his epistles-particularly the present-uses the word law in various senses, it may be necessary to make some remarks as a guide to the reader on this subject:-Whenever the word law refers to that published in the Pentateuch, or to the whole body of the Jewish Scriptures, the definite article should be used in English. When, however, the word law refers to the different rules of life, with which the Gentiles and Jews had respectively been furnished, and the word law is first introduced into the argument, the definite article should not be used in English. But when, in the latter case, the word law, meaning any indefinite law, is again referred to, the article should be used in English; since such reference makes it definite. The following mode of speaking, illustrative of the above, is correct and agreeable to most languages: Thus, Yesterday, I wrote a letter to a friend; to-day, my friend will receive the letter,—namely, the one which I wrote yesterday. Accordingly, the passage above, should be read thus: As many as have sinned in a law, shall be judged by the law; namely, by that law in which they have sinned, whatever that law may be. Bp. Middleton thinks that the law at the 13th verse, is, by way of eminence, used for the law itself; for by such reference, St. Paul intended to reprove the Jews who thought that they were sure of eternal life, because God had favoured them with such a revelation of his will. II.-18. "And approvest the things that are more excellent." More correctly, And provest or tryest the things which differ: Thus Beza, et exploras quæ discrepant. According to Locke, thus: Thou hast the touchstone of things excellent; i. e. thou knowest the difference between right and wrong, between lawful and unlawful. II.-25. "If thou keep the law." As the Greek word, here rendered the law, has not the article, we are to understand, says Bp. Middleton, not the law itself, but moral obedience, or virtue, such as it was the object of the law to inculcate, and of which circumcision was the outward and visible sign. This remark may be applied to the 27th verse. III.-20. -20. "By the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. Bp. Middleton is of opinion that the word law should not have the article before it; since the purpose of St. Paul is to show that no man whatever can be justified by the works either of the Jewish law, or of any other. The word law, in the next verse, which is used in the Greek without the article, and which should not have the definite article in English, is well explained by Macknight, to signify perfect moral obedience. But in that very verse, where the law, meaning the Pentateuch, is mentioned, we have "by the law;" and which, very properly, has the definite article in English. The critical reader may see more on this in Valpy's Greek Testament. Also refer to the remarks at Romans ii. 12. HI.-31. "Do we then make void the law through faith?" Here the word translated the law, has not the article in Greek; and, according to Bp. Middleton, must be taken in the sense of moral obedience, as is plain from the context, for it is opposed to faith.-See Valpy's Greek Testament. IV.-5. "Justifieth the ungodly."-Namely, those that have been ungodly.-Ostervald. IV. 10. "Not in circumcision but in uncircumcision." Abraham was justified by faith thirteen years, at least, before he and Ishmael his son were circumcised. See Gen. xv. 6. and xvii. 23, and following verses. Faith, therefore, and not works, has always, and will continue to be the instrumental ground of man's acceptance with God. Works, however, are the test of a living and availing faith; "for as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also." James ii. 26. IV.-25. Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification." As Christ by dying in our stead, bore the curse of the law; so, by his rising again, we receive our acquittal from the hand of the judge. His death was our payment, his resurrection our discharge.— Ostervald. V.-7. "Scarcely for a righteous man, &c." Righteousness, or justice, is doing all that good to others which they have any claim of right to demand; but goodness is doing them all that good which is any ways right, and fit, and reasonable for us to bestow.-Ostervald. V.13. "For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed where there is no law." In the first clause the word law, having the definite article before it, refers to the law of Moses; but in the second clause, the word without the definite article refers to any revealed law; but generally, to that universal law which Adam had, and which the Apostle proves not only affected him, but also all his offspring. St. Paul argues thus: sin is not imputed when there is no law; but until the law of Moses, sin and its penalty death were in the world therefore some law binding men to obedience did really exist before the law of Moses. V.-20. "The law entered, that the offence might abound." More correctly: the law entered so that the of fence abounds, i. e. becomes more manifestly sinful. Or, since the offence would abound, the law entered, i. e. that it might appear an offence, so that no one could justify himself before God by pleading ignorance. Some think that this was the law of man's nature. VI. 13. "Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin." The word translated instruments signifies arms or weapons. The antients formerly reckoned arms or weapons the members of soldiers. To this the apostle may allude.-See Burder's Oriental Customs, vol. ii. page 363. VI.-17. "But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin; but ye have obeyed from the heart, &c." The Apostle does not thank God because they were sinners; but, because, being once so, they had repented and, by faith, had embraced the Gospel. There is an ellipsis in the Greek text which our translators should have supplied. Beza renders it thus: Gratia autem sit Deo, quòd fuistis quidèm servi peccati, sed, &c.; i. e. But God be thanked, since ye were indeed the servants of sin, but, &c. VII. 1. "For I speak to them that know the law, how that the law, &c."-See remarks at Romans ii. 12. Respecting the rest of this chapter, the following extract from Bishop Sherlock's sermon on Romans viii. 16. may prove useful: "In the latter part of the 7th chap. St. Paul describes the state of an unregenerate Jew, or heathen; for what he says, equally belongs to both. This he does in order to shew them the necessity of redemption through Christ, inasmuch as neither the law of Moses nor of Nature could free them from the power and dominion of sin, nor consequently from death, which ever follows close at the heels of sin. That this was the Apostle's intent, appears from the lamentation he makes over the state of Nature, and the remedy he immediately proposes of faith through Christ." The Bishop clearly proves in his sermon, from this chapter, that there exists in man a witness distinct from the spirit of God, and which bears the same evidence as to his moral state and conduct.-See Romans viii. 16. VII.-24. "Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" The following document from Virgil, Æn. viii. 1. 483. clearly proves that it was once a practice to tie a dead carcase to a living body : Quid memorem infandas cædes? quid facta tyranni Thus it may be Englished: Why should I mention the unutterable cruelties? Why the tyrant's barbarous deeds? May the gods recompense them on his own head and on his offspring. He even tied dead bodies to the living, adjusting hands to hands and face to face, a species of torture! and these, wasting away with gore and putrefaction in the horrid embrace, with lingering death he thus destroyed. VIII. 3. "And for sin condemned sin in the flesh." More correctly: And for a sin-offering, &c. "Of parallel constructions and figures," says Mr. Horne, in his Introd. vol. ii. page 525. "We have examples in Romans viii. 3. 2. Cor. v. 21. and Hebrews x. 6. in which passages respectively, the Greek word there translated sin, means sacrifices or offerings for sin, agreeably to the idiom of the Hebrew language, in which the same word elliptically signifies both sin and sin-offering." VIII.- -15. "Abba, Father." Among the Jews, they who had been born of a slave, could not assume the name of Abba, which signifies Father. This was the privilege only of such as had a right of inheritance.-Lamy. VIII.- -19. 20. 21. "For the earnest expectation of the creature," &c. The word for creature signifies also creation; which appears to be the meaning of it here, i. e. the Gentile world. The words in hope at the end of the 20th verse, should begin the 21st, and the rest of the 20th, put in a parenthesis. This appears to be Beza's opinion who commences the 21st verse thus: Sub spe quòd et ipse liberabitur, &c. Here quòd that, conveys the meaning of the Greek word erroneously rendered, in our authorized version, because. |