with the discernment of a precious adap- they could offer their vows and their tation in this one and that other verse to thanksgivings in the courts of the Lord's his own wants and his own circumstances; house, and in the midst of thee, oh Jeruand this more minute and microscopic salem'-in all this, a Jew might express acquaintance with the truths, and percep- the desires of a fainting and an affectiontion of the excellencies of revelation, ap- ate heart, after that ceremonial in which ply as much to the verses of the Old as it he had been trained, and that service of does to the verses of the New Testament the temple which he loved; and yet in -so that if he just grow in spiritual clear- all this, there is enough to sustain the sightedness, he will have as growing a loftiest flights of devotion in the mind of relish and observation for the one part of a Christian. There is a weight of expresScripture as he has for the other: And sion, altogether commensurate to the feelthus it is, that, unlike to any human com- ings and the ardours and the extacies of a position, an advancing Christian ever soul exercised unto godliness. There is a reads the Bible and the whole Bible, with something to meet the whole varied expea new light upon his understanding, and rience of the spiritual life, in these ages a new impression upon the affections and of a later and more refined dispensation. the principles of his nature. The books And such is the divine skilfulness of these of the former dispensation never stand to compositions, that, while so framed as to him in place of the rudiments of a school- suit and to satisfy the disciples of a ritual boy, which he may now abandon. But and less enlightened worship, there is not written as they are for our admonition on a holy and heavenly disciple of Jesus in whom the latter ends of the world have our day, who will not perceive in the effucome; and maintaining to this very hour sions of the Psalmist, a counterpart to all the high functions and authority of a the alternations of his own religious histeacher, all whose sayings are given by tory-who will not find in his very words, inspiration from God, and all are profita- the fittest vehicles for all the wishes and ble; and still instrumental, in the hands sorrows and agitations to which his own of the Spirit for conveying the whole heart is liable-and thus be taught by a light and power of His demonstrations writer far less advanced in spirituality into the understanding-let us rest assur- than himself, the best utterance of desire ed that the Old Testament is one of the for the manifestation of God's countetwo olive trees planted in the house of nance, the best utterance of gratitude for God, and which is never to be removed; the visitations of spiritual joy, the best and one of the two golden candlesticks lighted most expressive prayers under the disup for the church of Christ upon earth, tress and darkness of spiritual abandonand which while that church has being, ment. will never be taken away.

Let us read over without any comment the whole of the 84th Psalm-and just simply ask you to consider how those very materials which form a most congenial piece of devotion for a Jew, admit of being so impregnated with the life and spirit of a higher economy, that they are able to sustain all the views, and to express all the aspirations of the most spiritual and exercised Christian.

It may illustrate this whole matter, if we look to the book of Psalms, and just think of the various degrees of spirituality and enlargement with which the same composition may be regarded by Jewish and by Christian eyes-how in the praise which waiteth for God in Zion-and in the pleasure which His servants took in her stones, so that her very dust to them was dear-and in the preference which "How amiable are thy tabernacles, O they made of one day in His courts to a Lord of Hosts! My soul longeth, yea, thousand elsewhere-and in the thirsting even fainteth for the courts of the Lord; of their souls to appear before God-and my heart and my flesh crieth out for the in their remembrance of that time when living God. Yea, the sparrow hath found they went to His house with the voice of an house, and the swallow a nest for herjoy and praise, and with the multitude self, where she may lay her young, even that kept holiday-and when exiles from thine altars, O Lord of Hosts, my King, the holy city, they were cast down in spi- and my God. Blessed are they that dwell rit, and cried from the depths of their in thy house: they will be still praising banishment in the land of Jordan-and thee. Blessed is the man whose strength when longing for God, in a dry and thirsty is in thee; in whose heart are the ways land where no water was, they followed of them, who passing through the valley hard after the privilege of again seeing of Baca make it a well; the rain also fillHis power and His glory in the sanctuary eth the pools. They go from strength to -and in the songs of deliverance with strength; every one of them in Zion apwhich they celebrated their own restora-peareth before God. O Lord God of tion, when their bands were loosed, and Hosts, hear my prayer: give ear, O God their feet were set in a sure place, and of Jacob. Behold, O God our shield, and

look upon the face of thine anointed. For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly. O Lord of Hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee."

which they regarded as their national glory-in such an epistle, written in such circumstances by the accomplished Paul, when we may be sure he would bring up his efforts to the greatness of the occasion, it is natural to look for all the conviction and all the light that such an able and intellectual champion is fitted to throw over the cause which he has undertaken. And yet what would be the result in a We think it necessary to say thus much discussion of science or politics or law, we -lest the Old Testament should ever be will not find to be the result in a discusdegraded below its rightful place in your sion of Christianity, without such a preestimation-lest any of you should turn paration and such an accompaniment as away from it, as not fitted to augment the are not essential to our progress in this faith and the holiness of those, who lie world's scholarship. To be a disciple in under a better and a brighter dispensation the school of Christ, there must be an -lest you should abstain from the habit affectionate embracing of truth with the of reading that letter of the Old Testa- heart; and there must be a knowledge ment, which is abundantly capable of which puffeth not up, but humbles and being infused with the same evangelical edifies; and there must be a teaching of spirit, that gives all its power to the letter the Spirit of God, distinct from all those of the New Testament. And be assured, unsanctified acquirements, which we lathat, if you want to catch in all its height | bour to win and to defend, in the strife it and in all its celestial purity the raptures may be of logical contention. For, let it of a sustained and spiritual intercourse be observed, that the wisdom of the New with Him who sitteth upon the throne, we Testament is characterized by moral know nothing fitter to guide your ascend-attributes. It is pure and peaceable and ing way, than those psalms and those prophecies, which shone at one time in a dark place; but may now, upon the earnest heed of him who attentively regards them, cause the day to dawn and the day-star to arise in his heart.

In turning now to one of the fullest expositions of Christian doctrine which is to be found in the New Testament; and which was drawn up for the edification of the most interesting of the early churches; and where, in the conduct of his argument, Paul seems to have been fully aware of all those elements both of intolerance and philosophy which were in array against him; and where, as his manner was, he suits and manages his reasoning, with the full consciousness of the kind and metal of resistance that were opposed to him; and where he had to steer his dexterous way through a heterogeneous assemblage of Gentiles on the one hand, enlightened up to the whole literature and theology of the times, and of Jews on the other, most fiercely and proudly tenacious of that sectarianism

gentle, and easy to be entreated, and full of mercy and good fruits, and without partiality and without hypocrisy. Let us not confound the illumination of natural argument, with that which warms the heart as well as informs the understanding-for it is a very truth, that the whole demonstration of orthodoxy may be assented to by him, who is not spiritual but carnal. And while we are yet on the threshold of by far the mightiest and closest of those demonstrations, that ever were offered to the world, let us "bow the knee to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that He would grant us according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith; that, being rooted and grounded in love, we may be able to comprehend with all saints, what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ which passeth all knowledge, that we may be filled with all the fulness of God.”

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LECTURE II.

ROMANS i, 1-7.

"Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, (which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,) 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: by whom we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for his name: among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ: To all that be in Rome beloved of God: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."

here is not applied to the personal, but the official character. It is not to moralize the heart, but merely to set apart to an employment; and thus bears application to the apostle Christ, as to the apostles whom he was addressing.

'Gospel,' a message of good news.

V. 2. "Which He had promised afore by His prophets in the holy scriptures." Which' refers to gospel-which gospel he had promised.

We now enter upon the work of expo- | held, in the language of the ceremonial sition. law, to be synonymous. And it is thus that People, in reading the Bible, are often the devoting, or setting apart of an aposnot conscious of the extreme listlessness tle to his office, is expressed by the conwith which they pass along the familiar secration of him to it; and even, in one and oft repeated words of Scripture, with- part of the New Testament, by the sanctiout the impression of their meaning being fying of him to it. This explains a pasat all present with the thoughts-and how, sage that might be otherwise difficult, during the mechanical currency of the John xvii, 17-20. "Sanctify them through verses through their lips, the thinking thy truth: thy word is truth." To sanctify power is often asleep for whole passages together. And you will therefore allow me, at least at the commencement of this lectureship, first to read over a paragraph; and then to fasten the import of certain of its particular phrases upon your attention, even though these phrases may heretofore have been regarded as so intelligible, that you never thought of bestowing an effort or dwelling one moment upon their signification; and then of reading the passage over again, in such extended or such substituted language, as may give us another chance of the sense of it at least being rivetted on your under- This verse gives us the subject of the standings. We shall generally endeavour message, or what the message is about— to press home upon you, in the way of or, omitting the second verse as a parenapplication, some leading truth or argu- thesis, separated unto the work of proment which may occur in any such por-mulgating God's message of good news, tion of the epistle as we may have been about His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.' enabled to overtake. The phrase which was made' might have been rendered which became' of the seed of David in respect of His flesh, or His human nature. He took it upon Him. He received from this descent all that other men receive of natural faculty--or, in other words, the term flesh comprehends the human soul as well as the human body of our Redeemer. 'According to,' is, 'in respect of.'

V. 1. "Paul a servant of Jesus Christ called to be an apostle separated unto the gospel of God."

An apostle-one who is sent, one who obtains, not a commision to do, but a commission to go-Go and preach the gospel unto every creature.' Jesus Christ is an apostle-because sent-and is therefore called not merely the High Priest, but the Apostle of our profession. God sent his Son unto the world. The call of Paul you read of several times in the Acts, both in the direct narrative of that book, and in his own account of it. And it is to be remarked that as he got his commission in a peculiar way, so he evidently feels himself more called upon than the other apostles, to assert and to vindicate its authenticity. 'Separated unto'-set apart to a particular work. You know that holiness, in its original meaning, just signifies separation from the mass. It is thus that the vessels of the temple are holy-it is thus that the terms, common and unclean, are

V. 3. " Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh."

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V. 4. "And declared to be the Son of God with power according the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead."

'Declared,' or determinately marked out to be the Son of God and with power. The thing was demonstrated by an evidence, the exhibition of which required a putting forth of power, which Paul in another place represents as a very great and strenuous exertion. "According to the working of His mighty power when He raised Him from the dead." "The spirit of holiness'-or the Holy Spirit. It was through the operation of the Holy

V. 5. "By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations for his name." 'Grace,' sometimes signifies the kindness which prompts a gift, and sometimes the gift itself. We say that we receive kindness from a man, when, in fact, all that we can personally and bodily lay hold of, is the fruit of his kindness. Here it signifies the fruit-a spiritual giftability, in fact, to discharge the office of an apostleship, or other duties attached to an apostle's commission. He laboured with success at this vocation, because he could strive mightily according to His working that wrought in him mightily. This commission was granted to him for the purpose of producing an obedience unto the faith among all nations, for the purpose of rendering all nations obedient unto the faith--and all this for the further purpose of magnifying His name.

Spirit, that the divine nature was infused | digression from the main current of his into the human at the birth of Jesus argument; and a single word of that train Christ; and the very same agent, it is re- often suggests to him another; and thus markable, was employed in the work of does he accumulate one subsequent clause the resurrection. 'Put to death in the of an episode upon a foregoing; and flesh,' says Peter, and quickened by the branches out in so many successive deSpirit.' We have only to do with the facts partures, till, after a period of indulgence of the case. He was demonstrated to be in this way of it, he recalls himself and the Son of God, by the power of the Spirit falls in again to the capital stream of his having been put forth in raising Him from observations. The interval between the the dead. first and seventh verses may be looked to, as filled up with a set of parentheses; and they will read therefore very well in succession. Paul a servant of Jesus. Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, to all that be in Rome beloved of God called to be saints: grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." In like manner, several of the intermediate verses are capable of being omitted, without breaking the line of continuity. But the occurrence of the term Gospel at the end of the first verse, is followed up in the second by his mention of the antiquity of it, and in the third by his mention of the subject of it; and in this verse the single introduction of our Saviour's name, leads him to assert in this and the following verse His divine and human natures, and to state in the fifth verse that from. Him he had received a commission to preach unto all nations, and to instance in the sixth verse the people whom he was addressing as one of these nations. And it is not till after he has completed this circle of deviations, but at the same time enriched the whole of its course with the effusions of a mind stored in the truths of revelation, that he resumes in the seventh that rectilineal track, by which the writer who announced himself in the first verse, sends in the seventh his Christian salutations to the correspondents whom he is addressing.

V. 6. "Among whom are ye also the I called of Jesus Christ."

Called' externally-if addressing the whole church, of whom it is very possible that some may not have been called effectually. Or if restricted as in the following verse, only the latter-though he might presume to address all in visible communion with the church as beloved of God and as called to be saints.

V. 7. "To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you, and peace, from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ." Loving kindness to you is manifested in those peculiar influences which the Spirit confers on believers; and either real peace, or a sense of it in your hearts, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

So minute an exposition may not be called for afterwards: we may not therefore persevere in it long. We have now gone in detail over the words that seemed to require it, to prepare the way for repeating the whole passage to you, either in extended or in substituted language. But before we do so, we would bid you remark a peculiarity, which we often meet with in the compositions of this apostle. He deals very much in what might be called the excursive style. One word often suggests to him a train of

We conclude with the following paraphrase.

Paul a servant of Jesus Christ, called. to be an apostle, and set apart to the work of conveying God's message of good tidings-which message He had promised before in His holy scriptures, and which message relates to His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who in respect of His human nature, was descended of David-but was. evinced to be descended of God in respect of that divine nature with which the Holy Spirit impregnated His humanity at the first; and which He afterwards, by His power, still associated with His humanity, in raising Him from the dead. By this Jesus Christ have I received the favour to be an apostle, and ability for the office of spreading obedience unto the faith among all nations for the glory of His

name. Among these nations are ye Romans also the called of Jesus Christ, and to all of you in Rome, beloved of God,

and called to be saints, do I wish grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."

LECTURE III.

ROMANS i, 8-17.

"First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my Spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers; making request (f by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God) to come unto you. For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established; that is, that I may be comforted together with you, by the mutual faith both of you and me. Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, (but was let hitherto,) that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles. I am a debtor both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise. So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith."

Ir does not require much in the way of exposition to set forth the meaning of these verses. The spiritual gift, mentioned in the 11th verse, is one of those gifts by the Holy Ghost, which the apostles had it in their power to transmit to their disciples a power which seems to have signalized them above all the Christians of that period. Many could speak tongues and work miracles; but they could not make others either speak tongues or work miracles. The gifts themselves it was competent for them to have, but not the faculty of communicating them. This seems to have been the peculiar prerogative of apostles-which Simon Magus desired to have, but could not purchase. It was thus, perhaps, that an apostolical visit was necessary for the introduction of these powers into any church or congregation of Christians; and, if so, we would infer that the season of miracles must have passed away with those Christians, who had been in personal contact with, and were the immediate descendants of the apostles of our Lord. They left the gift of miracles behind them-but if they did not leave the power of transmitting this gift behind them, it might have disappeared with the dying away of all those men on whom they had actually laid their hands.

is one sense assigned to this expression, very consistent certainly with the general truth of the gospel-but which can scarcely be admitted in this place, save by that kind of hurried acquiescence, which is too often rendered on the part of those, who like no better way of disposing of a passage than to get over it easily. The righteousness of God is certainly that, in which He hath appointed us sinners to appear before Him; and which is the only righteousness that He will accept of at our hands, as our meritorious title to His favour and friendship. Now it is very true, that this righteousness becomes ours wholly by faith, that by faith it is received on our part, and by faith it is retained on our part; and that neither works before faith, nor works after it, have any part in our justification-and that, therefore, it is not by passing onwards from faith to works that we further the concern of our justifying righteousness before God; but only by holding fast the beginning of our confidence even unto the end, and not casting it away; and if there be any lack in our faith, perfecting that which is lacking therein-so that it may hold true of us, as it did of the primitive Christians, of whom it was recorded that their faith groweth exceedingly. with these views in their mind, do some In the 14th verse, the phrase 'I am hold, that the righteousness of God being debtor,' may be turned into the phrase- revealed from faith to faith, signifies that 'I am bound' or 'I am under obligation,' as it is made known and discerned at first laid upon me by the duties of my office, in the act of our believing, so the revelato preach both to Greeks and Barbarians, tion of it becomes more distinct and maboth to the wise and the unwise. Woe nifest, just as the faith becomes stronger unto me if I preach not the gospel'-a-the things to be discerned being seen in necessity is laid upon me.

The only other phrase that requires explanation, and about which indeed there is a difference of interpretation, is in the 17th verse from faith to faith.' There

And

greater brightness and evidence, as the organ of discernment grows in clearness and power-not, say they, from faith unto works, but from faith to faith-marking what is very true, that our righteousness