O the 33

their earlier position in the majestic plan of revelation, nor the Gentiles any cause to despise the Jews because they had welcomed Christianity more cordially than the mass of the children of Abraham. The lesson to both sides was humility, solicitude to be faithful, gratitude to God, and mutual fraternity. What a different history would the last nineteen centuries have recorded, if the reasonable and merciful counsels of Paul had prevailed instead of those malignant and persecuting passions which, under the holy garb and in the sacred name of the Prince of Peace, waged the wars of the Crusades, built the Inquisition, banished and killed the Jews, and dyed every Christian country with streams of human blood! And now, will not mankind cease their horrid fratricide, and henceforth learn to abstain from the hatred that twice curses; that curses him that indulges it, and curses him that suffers from it? The dark clouds of war rolling up the Eastern horizon, and enveloping all Europe and no small part of Asia and Africa in their folds, declare the yet virtual Paganism of Christian nations, and reveal the immense extent of that spiritual regeneration and pacification of the human family which Paul did so much to further, but which is still to be the work of ages to come. That he might have mercy upon all. The word all is not indeed to be urged in such cases beyond its natural and easy import into an extreme literalness; but one cannot help remarking that the mercy is spoken of as commensurate with the unbelief, and keeping even step with it in the unfolding of the glorious scheme of salvation. Gal. iii. 22. It is difficult to understand

the force of such passages, unless they contemplate in the boundless range of the future a final and entire restoration of all the human family, Jews and Gentiles, and all the individuals of each class, under the educational and disciplinary nurture of God to holiness and happiness. But with such a belief, they become truly a Gospel, glad tidings of great joy, and they furnish the most encouraging and heart-cheering motives to exertion in the cause of human redemption.

33. O the depth of the riches, &c. Job xi. 7-9; Isa. lv. 8, 9. This forms the concluding strain of the Apostle's inference, from the whole doctrinal ground he had been surveying, of the relations of Christianity to the two principal parties concerned with it; namely, the Jews, already favored with a preparatory revelation, and the Gentiles, who had been trying their natural experiments of civilization in Greece, Rome, and other countries. Both had signally failed of achieving, under their respective systems of Law and of Wisdom, the highest objects contemplated in man's position in this world, and had demonstrated the need of the superior system of faith offered by Christianity. All were included in unbelief, and upon all God had mercy in sending his Son into the world, not to condemn, but to save it, and at once to be a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of his people Israel. As the Apostle looked upon this entire map of Divine Providence, and saw its seeming discords resolved into a higher harmony, and all its parts combining together in the disclosure of the glorious intentions of God, and in the development of the holiness and

blessedness of mankind, he breaks forth into exclamations of gratitude and joy, of wonder and adoration, before such infinite greatness and goodness. There is a most valuable lesson taught by this passage. For if the Apostle, after so many chapters of discussion and argument, in which he would seem to have made everything clear to his own mind, if not to that of his readers, is yet obliged to fall back and repose in the boundless wisdom, power, and goodness of Almighty God, as the best explanation of all difficulties, and the most satisfactory justification of the whole plan of life, revelation, and futurity, then how appropriate it is for eyery humbler student of the same divine lore to have more faith than knowledge, and more charity than dogmatism, upon questions of such scope and perplexity!

34, 35. See Isa. xl. 13; Job. xv. 8, xli. 11; 1 Cor. ii. 16. The Apostle quotes freely from the elder Scriptures such sentences as illustrated the infinite sufficiency and wisdom of the Divine plan, and the necessary dependence and obligation of man to the Giver of all good. The language is not exact, and it shows conclusively that the quotations were probably made from memory, and that no such claim as that of plenary inspiration or perfect verbal accuracy can be maintained for the Epistles; as, indeed, what use would they subserve, if they could be made good, that is not better fulfilled by the moral and spiritual inspiration of truth and love which it is universally conceded animates every sentence with life and power?

as such it is much more worthy of general use than such ascriptions as terminate the prayers, chants, and graces of many modern Christians, and are designed to teach or insinuate the unscriptural doctrine of the Trinity. For example, “For Christ's sake," a phrase occurring only once in the New Testament, Eph. iv. 32, and mistranslated there for in or through Christ: also, "Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end”;- "To whom, with Thee and the Holy Ghost, be all honor and glory, world without end." Why do our fellow-Christians persist in using so many of these unauthorized and unscriptural phrases, instead of returning to the simplicity and beauty of the sacred word. Are all things, &c. I. e. from God as the Source, through him as the Means or Instrument, and to him as the End, are all things. Dr. Samuel Johnson has well paraphrased the sentiment in the words:

"From thee, Great God, we spring; to thee we tend,

Path, Motive, Guide, Original, and End."

an entire restoration. If only some, or but a few in all, are blessed, how is God's wisdom to become manifest in the result? But if all become blessed, without prejudice to free-will or justice, this assuredly appears as a miracle of God. The doctrine of a restoration has very many passages of St. Paul's Epistles apparently in its favor."

A spirit of energetic hope and of boundless love heaves in the breast of the Apostle, and we cannot reconcile his large and general terms with the supposition that there will not be a final restoration of the human family to virtue and eternal life. He speaks in the doctrinal part of the Epistle, which is here concluded, of election and condemnation, but in most instances he evidently refers to the possession and use, or the reverse, of spiritual privileges in the present life, not to the final condition of the soul in a future world; and where he does enter the vast scenes of futurity, whether here or hereafter, he lifts up such a strain of devout and jubilant praise to the Almighty Father, as seems only to meet with its full justification in the restitution of all things, and the reconciliation of the whole family of mankind to the love, trust, and obedience of the holy and benevolent Father, through his Son Jesus Christ. 1 Cor. xv. 24-28; Eph. i. 20-23; 2 Tim. i. 10.

CHAPTER XII.

HAVING Completed the doctrinal portion of his letter to the Roman Christians, St. Paul proceeds to discuss the ethics of the Gospel, and their relations and applications to all the conditions in which his hearers

and readers were situated. But the life of mankind on earth is in its essential characteristics so nearly alike in every age and country, that the duties here inculcated and minutely specified are such as are obligatory in their general outlines, if not in all their details, upon the Christian Church everywhere. In this chapter he expounds the duties of the disciples, first to God, ver. 1-8, and then more at length their social and religious obligations to one another, ver. 9-21. Chapter xiii. treats of the Christian's duty to the state, and the general embodiment of all service and obligation in the law of love. Chapters xiv. and xv. relate to the condition of Paul's converts in heathen communities, and their duties thence arising, with personal matters touching his writing to them, and his promised visit at Rome. Chapter xvi. ends the Epistle with friendly salutations, cautions, and benedictions.

1. I beseech you therefore, &c. He earnestly entreats his brethren, whose hearts might be supposed to be touched by the powerful arguments and appeals he had thus far addressed to them, to give attention to the exhortations which follow, and the logical inference from the views of God's mercy which had been presented was, that they should fulfil their part in self-consecration, faith, and obedience. If, then, any conclusion could be drawn from his remarks upon faith in previous chapters, or the election to religious privileges, unfavorable to the practical duties of life, it is entirely corrected by the lessons now given. Paul was not opposed to good works as works, but to works from such a principle as the Law, that

did not cover the whole of human nature, or go down to its deepest roots, as compared with works from the living motives of faith, that encompassed all faculties, and laid hold of higher powers in God and Christ, and reached forward to another life. The law of Christian duty was not to be less, but more, strict than the law of Jewish duty; but it was re-enforced in its practical workings by more persuasive and powerful motives. The Old Testament cannot furnish such a catalogue of good works to be done, as this discourse of the Apostle of faith; nor can the classic or Oriental literature produce such an essay upon ethics. These considerations should react upon the foregoing chapters of the doctrines of Paul, and should teach us what a wrong we do him, and what a wresting we make of his words, when we cite him as an authority against the value, necessity, and imperative obligation of good works. On the contrary, he digged deep and laid his foundation of Christian truth firm and broad, in order that he might raise the noblest superstructure of character and life, which the world had seen since the incarnation. - Your bodies, i. e. because they stand simply for yourselves; or because the body of the animal was the offering made in the heathen and Jewish sacrifices; or because the body was the lowest part of human nature, and most required this spiritual sanctification. A combination of such reasons may have determined the choice of the word. A living sacrifice, in contradistinction to the dead animals which were offered at the altars. Holy, i. e. free from blemish or defect, as was required of the offerings made to the gods among the heathen, or in the temple service at Jerusalem. Mal. i. 7, 8.- Accept

able unto God. That is, well-pleasing to him. Your reasonable service, your spiritual ministry, your service of the mind and heart, and not mere external observances. This is the summary of what went before. It is in reference to the same thought, that the Apostle says elsewhere, "Bodily exercise profiteth little," 1 Tim. iv. 8. By which he meant that the ascetic and sacrificial ordinances of religion could not compare in value with the interior and spiritual exercises of faith, charity, and hope. All the services and duties enjoined by Christianity are eminently reasonable, and require for their performance, not only deep religious faith, but strong common sense. In this opening verse is unfolded in few, but fit, words the entire programme of practical Christianity. Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. The system of an exclusive priesthood, of sacrifices of the dead bodies of animals and the fruits of the earth, and of painful and expensive pilgrimages, bodily austerities, and macerations, had been superseded by the reasonable service and worship of the Gospel, in which all were priests unto God, and the offering was to be a willing and pure-minded dedication of one's self, all the powers of body and mind, all possessions, and influences, and gifts, to the service of God, and Christ, and mankind. The succeeding specifications of duty were but the branches, boughs, leaves, flowers, and fruits of the one total consecration and act of faith, which constituted the main trunk of the Christian tree.

2. The first obstruction to this superior life of self-consecration comes from the world, the circumstances around one, and therefore the warning of the Apostle is here given