all our opportunities of exerting them, are from God, it is to him that our gratitude is due for every advantage that we procure for ourselves, whether of a temporal or spiritual nature. Of him, and through him, and to him, are all things.

ROMANS.

AFTER writing the second epistle to the Corinthians, which was from Macedonia, Paul went, as he had proposed, to Corinth, where he made some stay, and it was during his residence in Corinth at this time, viz. A. D. 58, that he wrote this epistle to the Romans, the largest of all his epistles. He had never been at Rome himself, nor does it appear who had preached Christianity in that city. But there being a continual conflux of persons, of all kinds, from all parts of the empire to Rome, nothing could be transacted in the most remote provinces, that would not be very soon known there; and Christians, as well as other persons, having business in the metropolis, their zeal would naturally prompt them to teach to others, what they knew and valued themselves; especially as the Christian doctrines were then novel, and on that account excited the greater attention. Indeed, the extent of the Roman empire, which comprehended almost all the civilized part of the world, was a circumstance exceedingly favourable to the propagation of the gospel.

It appears, however, from this epistle, that they were Jews, who had been the most active in preaching the gospel at Rome, and that they had carried their Jewish prejudices along with them, but were not, as far as appears from this epistle, tinctured with any of the peculiar opinions of those who had opposed Paul at Ephesus and Corinth. They had, however, endeavoured to impose the yoke of the law of Moses upon the Gentile Christians, and it was chiefly with a view to correct this great error that Paul, who was properly the apostle of the Gentiles, wrote this epistle.

The greatest part of this epistle is, therefore, argumentative; and the subject of his discussion is such as, at this day, we have nothing to do with. The epistle, however, contains much useful, incidental matter; and it is an object of curiosity at least, to consider the principles on which he reasons, though his arguments are in many places extremely obscure, and in some cases, as I cannot help thinking, inconclusive. Those positions, however, for

which he contends, are undoubtedly just, and the cause for which he contended, was such as abundantly justified the zeal which he discovers in it.

The epistle begins with asserting his call as an apostle, and the extent of his commission, viz. to the whole Gentile world, including Rome, the capital of the empire, and also with expressing a just sense of the value of the gospel which he preached, as it respected the whole world, Jews as well as Gentiles, both of whom stood in great need of it. To make the Christians at Rome sensible of this, he here gives a short, but very dark picture, of the state of the Heathen world in general, in which mankind were addicted to all the vices that are here enumerated.

CHAP. I. 1. Paul† writes the greatest part of this epistle with a particular view to the Jewish teachers, many of whom he knew were ill-affected to him in other places, and, therefore, might be so at Rome. They more particularly questioned his apostleship, as he had not been one of the original twelve, and they might say that there was no evidence but his own, that he was appointed to be one. He had, however, the strongest of all evidence, and to this he frequently appeals, viz. his power as an apostle, evidenced by signs of a miraculous nature.

3. All these circumstances are calculated to recommend the gospel to the Jews, as by them it appeared that Jesus, the founder of it, was the Messiah, promised to them by their prophets.

4. The term Son of God, signifies, in general, a person particularly favoured by God, sometimes an angel, and sometimes a prophet. Christ was declared to be the Son of God, § or a distinguished prophet, and God gave an

"The proper sense of the apostle's phrase, transferred into our language, would be, Set apart to proclaim glad-tidings about religion." Wakefield in Theol. Repos. IV. p. 212. "A called apostle; in contradistinction to those chosen by our Lord upon earth, John vi. 70, and to one appointed by lot, Acts i. 26." Wakefield.

Ce mot et ce qui fuit jusqu'à la fin du ver. 7, est l'inscription de la lettre, à la manière des Grecs et des Romains. Cette inscription est seulement coupée, contre l'usage ordinaire, par une parenthèse assez longue." Le Clerc.

"Which was born of the seed of David." See Augustine from Faustus, in Lardner, III. p. 538. Thus Erasm. Paraph. 1549.

§ "The cause why Jesus is the Son of God, is alleged to be, that he was raised from the dead. That this reason hath nothing common with the generation out of the essence of God, is apparent enough from the thing itself, since the resurrection is a thing of a certain time, not done from eternity, and is not ascribed unto Christ, as the true author, but to God the Father; and it is so far from arguing Christ to be the most high God, as that it rather demonstrateth him not to be so." Crellius, (B. i. Sect. ii. Ch. xxxi.) p. 150. See Ibid. pp. 157, 158; Lindsey on Robinson, pp. 159, 160; Wakefield.

attestation to his divine mission, by the miraculous gifts which were bestowed upon him, usually called the gifts of the spirit, and in this place the spirit of holiness, or the Holy Spirit; but the more particular attestation of his divine mission, was his resurrection from the dead,† an event which he had himself foretold, as intended to answer this purpose.

5, 6. That is, from him I have received the favour of an apostleship with respect to the whole Gentile world, which includes the people at Rome.

7. Saints meant originally, persons set apart as devoted to God, and thereby distinguished from others. The Jews had been in that situation, and in a similar one are all Christians. §

11. As no apostle had been at Rome, and the gifts of the spirit were not usually communicated but by apostles, it having pleased God to distinguish those extraordinary ministers by that privilege, the Christians at Rome had hitherto wanted that confirmation of the gospel, which those at Corinth, and other places, where Paul had preached, had been possessed of.||

12. That is, that we may confirm one another in the faith and hope of the gospel.

14. I consider myself as devoted to the service of all men, in the gospel, without any distinction of Greeks or Barbarians, learned or unlearned.

16. Here the power of God, may mean simply, a great, extraordinary and effectual power.¶ But all power is from God, and this was the power that God more particularly employed to reform and save the world.

17. For in the gospel is revealed to us the method by which God saved sinners: and this has always been by what is called faith.** It was so in the time of the prophets,

See Clarke, (S. D.) 1013; Doddridge.

+ See Eph. i. 19, 20; Locke. "Gr. By a resurrection of dead men.' Hallett, By a resurrection from among the dead." p. 212. See Lardner (Logos), XI. pp. 116, 117;

I. p. 83.

IV.

66

457; Impr. Vers.

Wakefield in Theol. Repos.
Com. und Ess. 11. pp. 456,

"Les dons spirituels nécessaires pour annoncer l'évangile, avec l'ordre d'en aller faire usage, par toute la terre." Le Clerc. See Doddridge; Wakefield in Theol. Repos. IV. p. 213; also in loc.

§ See Vol. XIII. p. 7, Note †; Newcome in Impr. Vers.

See Locke; Doddridge.

¶"A divine power." Wakefield in Theol. Repos. IV. p. 214.

** See Locke; Hallett, I. pp. 15-18; Doddridge. "The gospel, from a state of ignorance or infidelity, creates faith; it does not bring us from faith to faith. Eig y is an explanation from the margin, as 2 Cor. iii. 18, and John i. 16. Wall, Crit. Notes." Bowyer. "God's method of justification by faith is revealed to our faith." Pilkington, p. 183.

for Habakkuk [ii. 4] says, the just shall live by his faith.* This was intended to caution the Christians at Rome not to think that their acceptance with God depended upon their submitting to the law of Moses, since even under that law, men were not justified by any thing peculiar to it, but by those principles which are inculcated in the gospel. The prophet Habakkuk, in the passage here referred to, says, that we must patiently wait the fulfilment of God's promises, exercising faith in his veracity; and faith of this kind is the great principle of all religion, viz. a firm belief in the being, perfections, and moral government of God..

The apostle now proceeds to shew that all men stand in need of the gospel, in order to be reformed, and thereby brought into a state of favour with God.

19. Mr. Wakefield, according to the Ethiopic version, translates, and shew not in their conduct that knowledge of God which is displayed to them by God himself.

22. The philosophers in the Heathen world countenanced the idolatry of the vulgar, and, in general, their systems were but little favourable to the doctrine of a providence here, or a state of rewards and punishments hereafter.†

25. [More than.] That is, instead of the Creator, or to the neglect of the Creator. This has been the case with respect to every species of idolatry, even the Christian, in the Church of Rome. The attention of persons in that communion is almost wholly engrossed with the inferior objects of worship, so that they seldom pray to, or think of, the Supreme Being, but habitually address themselves to the Virgin Mary, or to some particular saint, that they have a fancy for, and who they think attends to the situation they are in.§

28. It is perfectly consistent with the maxims of God's moral government, that men should only have limited

Newcome. See his Note in Min. Proph. "The justified by faith, shall live.” Junius in Bowyer. See Wakefield; Impr. Vers.

+ See Le Clerc on vers. 18, 21. "Though the nations of the Heathens, generally, thought themselves wise, in the religions they embraced; yet, the apostle here, having all along in this and the following chapter, used Greeks for Gentiles, he may be thought to have an eye to the Greeks, among whom the men of study and inquiry had assumed to themselves the name of copo, wise." Locke. See Doddridge. "Those who worship God under a corporeal similitude do belie him. Hence idols, in scripture, are termed lies; as Amos ii. 4." Mede, p. 49. See Jer. xvi. 19, 20; Doddridge; Wakefield in Theol. Repos. IV. pp. 215–217; Impr. Vers.

$ "The Trent Catechism (p. 299) in Latin, where it takes notice of Rom. i. 23, reads changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the similitude of birds,' &c. leaving out the words, into an image made like to corruptible man, which come between. By these means, instead of justice, mercy and humility, people's religion was made to consist in pilgrimages, and the worship of the blessed Virgin, saints and relicks." Young, II. p. 281.

means of improvement, and they who neglect these are justly left to themselves. Indeed, since life is limited, the day of grace, as it is called, must be limited too, and vice and bad habits contribute not a little to limit it still more, by making more time and labour necessary to reformation; and the rules of government with respect to nations, and the whole race of mankind, are the same with those which respect individuals.

29*-32.† That is, they were arrived at the highest degree of profligacy. This picture certainly does not belong to all the Heathen world, but the vices here enumerated were very general; and what particularly deserves our attention, some of the most unnatural of them, the very mention of which is hardly proper at this day, were countenanced by the popular religion of the Heathen world, and practised in the recesses of their temples as parts of their worship. To these abominations in public, which certainly gave countenance to the same things in private, Christianity happily put an end; and it is to be hoped, that in due time, it will put an end to vice and wickedness of every kind, public and private.

II. The great object of the apostle in this epistle was, to repress the pride of the Jewish teachers, who had imposed upon Gentile converts the observance of all the law of Moses. These Jews held the Gentiles in great contempt, and thought them unworthy of the Divine favour. In every thing, therefore, that the apostle had hitherto said of the vices of the Heathen world, the Jews would readily agree with him, and especially those of them whose own characters and conduct were the most reprehensible. The apostle, therefore, proceeding in his argument to shew the value of the gospel, observes, that the Jews, all circumstances considered, were no better than the Gentiles, and stood in as great need of the gospel. And, supposing these censures of the Gentile world to have been urged with the greatest vehemence, by such of the Jews as had nothing to plead besides their attachment to the law, such as those who opposed our Saviour, whose religion was a mere cloak to

* Ver. 31. See Le Clerc. Without understanding. "Not a natural deficiency of understanding-they were void of moral principle,-Paul quotes largely in Ch. iii. from Psalm xiv., which, therefore, he might have in his view in this passage." Com. and Ess. II. pp. 457, 458.

"Who knew the judgment of God to be that they that do such things are worthy of death; and not only they that do them, but they that consent to the actors of them." Erasmus in Bowyer. See Le Clerc; Locke; Doddridge; Lardner, II. p. 34; III. p. 164; V. pp. 188, 231; Wakefield in Theol. Repos. IV. pp.

216, 217.

See Wisd. xiv. 11-31; Locke.