of gaining access thereunto, recurs to his usual expedients-speaking to their own familiar recognitions, and reasoning with them out of their own Scriptures.

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He begins this work of quotation at the 5th verse, and continues it downward-till he had established the necessity of sending men over the world, to bring men to the faith of the gospelWhence it follows, as the Gentiles by the new economy were to have a part in the same salvation through the medium of the same faith with the Jews, that, in order to their believing alike, they must be preached unto alike, for how can they believe without hearing, or hear without a preacher?-which preacher or preachers must be sent to them; and this he confirms in the 15th verse by a passage taken from one of the most celebrated of their phets. But here he interposes in verse 16th, a needful and qualifying remark which might have been suggested indeed by another passage from the same prophet very near to the former one, and to which at all events the apostle expressly appeals. It follows not, that though preaching should be the ordinary or even the indispensable prerequisite to faith, it follows not that faith should always be the result of preaching. A given cause might be indispensable to a certain effect, and yet not always produce that effect. Though the hearing of the gospel were necessary to the believing of it, it follows not that all who hear should necessarily believe; and accordingly the apostle tells us, 'They have not all

obeyed the gospel' by which he undoubtedly means, that, of the all who have heard it so many have not obeyed it. And he fortifies this assertion by the quotation from Isaiah, "Who hath believed our report?' The question implies that few had believed; but it also implies, that though belief does not alway follow in the train of a previously heard report, yet that when it does take place, it is always or generally in the order of this succession -Or, in other words-Though hearing is not always followed up by a subsequent faith as its effect -yet that seldom or never does faith arise in the mind, but from an anterior hearing as its cause. And this explains the dependence of the 17th verse on the last clause of the 16th-a dependence more obvious to the reader of the original than it is in the translation; for the word 'report' in the one, and the word 'hearing' in the other, are both rendered from the same term (akoe) in the Greek. It helps also to impress the connection more strongly-that whereas in our English bibles the belief in the one verse and faith in the other, though they signify the same thing yet sound so differently, in the original the same radical is employed in both (episteuse and pistis); and these two verses would therefore have been translated more synonymously at least, if in the 16th it had been translated, Who hath believed in the hearing that we have sounded in his ears, (which though a complaint and implying therefore that few had believed, implies also that belief, if not the actual, was at least the proper

consequent of hearing), which would have brought out the inference in the 17th more palpably, Therefore belief cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. The question, What plants have arisen from the seed which has been cast into the ground?-clearly implies, that, while all seeds do not germinate into plants, yet a plant never arises but from a seed, and that the one is the proper and causal antecedent of the other.

The question then is naturally started at this place, Whether the hearing indispensable to faith, has been carried abroad?-and a reply is given in the affirmative, couched in language all the more congenial to the Jewish ear, that it was taken from Scripture, and which conveys thus much at least, that the gospel ought to go forth as freely and universally throughout the world as the light of the sun is spread abroad over the surface of it. And, in point of fact it had, even when the apostle was writing, been proclaimed far and wide beyond the limits of Judaism; and now there was no let or hindrance, in the nature and design of the economy itself, to restrain the diffusion of it through every place and territory where men were to be found. And accordingly it had sounded forth to the outskirts of the Roman empire, which was then spoken of in terms that properly signified the whole of the habitable earth-insomuch that Paul says of the word of the gospel," which is come unto you as it is in all the world," and "which was preached to every creature which is under heaven.”1 So that 1 Col. i, 6, 23.

to the question, Have men heard the gospel-there could be no difficulty in giving the prompt and decisive reply, Yes verily.'

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Ver. 19. After having replied in the preceding verse generally and for all mankind, the question is reiterated with a special reference to the children of Israel. Did not they in particular know ?—had they also the advantage of being made to hear and be acquainted with the subject-matter of preaching? This Paul might have replied to in a clear and decided affirmative-grounding it on the events of his own age. They had a preference over the Gentiles in every respect. They saw Christ in the fleshthey witnessed His miracles-they heard His discourses-even after his ascension, and a commission was left with the apostles to go and preach the gospel unto all nations, still the priority was given to them: For though the apostles went forth with the message of salvation over all the earth, it was after beginning at Jerusalem; and in every place or nation they came to, it was their practice to seek after the Jews and preach to them first-till wearied out by the obstinate rejection of their doctrine, they made this protest against it-Since you hold yourselves unworthy of eternal life, lo we turn to the Gentiles. Paul could have thus answered in his own person; but as his general manner was, he goes back upon earlier times for even then it may be said that the gospel was preached to those of that remoter period as well as unto us of the present day; and from the mouths of two of their own

most honoured writers, he gives the same answer, and pronounces upon them the same condemnation. First Moses, who, on a former occasion, had said of them, "What nation is so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law which I set before you this day?"-this same Moses, who thus affirmed the knowledge of the people of Israel to be above that of all the other people upon earth, says afterwards, and in the words here quoted, that, as they had abused these privileges, God would transfer them to others who had not been so distinguished, and so provoke them to jealousy by a people who hitherto had been no peculiar people to Him; and anger them by a foolish nation, a nation destitute of the knowledge which had been so plentifully communicated to themselves. And in verses 20th and 21st, Isaiah expresses himself in still bolder and clearer terms. By the boldness which he ascribes to Isaiah, the apostle very distinctly intimates that he felt himself treading on delicate ground-engaged as he was in telling the Jews of their national misconduct, and of the forfeiture which they had thereby incurred of the national honours, which at one time singled them out and signalised them above all the rest of the human family. "I was found of them that sought me not, I was made manifest to them that asked not after me." All day long had God stretched forth His hands unto Israel-addressing them, and bringing Himself near unto them, and giving them the knowledge of His will and of His ways. Verily,