tions about it, till we have arrived at the things hard to be understood which are found therein. But let us also follow the apostle, in that fainter and more temporary notice which he takes of these things on the present occasion-when before completing his proof that both Jews and Gentiles were under sin, he both affirms that God was glorified upon the former in spite of their unrighteousness; and yet deals with that unrighteousness as if it was an offence to Him—that even out of their disobedience an actual honour accrues to Himself; and yet that the vengeance of His wrath is due to that disobedience that let the worthlessness of man be what it may, the vindication and the victory will be God's; and yet upon this very element of worthlessness, which serves to illustrate the glories of His character, will He lay the burden of a righte- | ous indignation. There was something in the subtlety of the Jewish doctors of that age, which stood nearly allied with the infidel metaphysics of the present; and which would attempt to darken and to overthrow all moral distinctions, and to dethrone God from that eminence, which, as the moral governor of the world, belongs to Him. And it is well that the apostle gives us a specimen of his treatment of this sophistry, that, when exposed to it ourselves, we may know what is the scriptural way of meeting it, and what are he scriptural grounds on which its influence may be warded away from us.

The truth is, that, in the days of the apostle as well as in our own days, speculative difficulties were made use of to darken and confound the clearest moral principles; and, then as well as now, did the imagination of men travel into a region that was beyond them, whence they fetched conceits and suppositions of their own framing, for the purpose of extinguishing the light that was near and round about them. And some there were who took refuge from the conviction of sin, in the mazes of a sophistry, by which they tried to perplex both themselves and others | out of the plainest intimations of conscience and common sense. There is no man of a fair and honest understanding, who, if not carried beyond his depth by the subtleties of a science falsely so called, does not yield his immediate consent, and with all the readiness he would do in a first principle, to the position that God is the rightful judge of His own creatures; and that it is altogether for Him to place the authority of a law over them, and to punish their violations; and that it is an unrighteous thing in us to set our will in opposition to His will, and a righteous thing in Him to avenge Himself of this disobedience. These are what any plain

man will readily take up with, as being among the certainties of the Divine Government; and not till he bewilders himself by attempting to explain the secrecies of the Divine Government, will the impression of these certainties be at all deafened or effaced from the feelings of his moral nature. Now what the apostle appears to be employed about in this passage, is just to defend our moral nature against an invasion upon the authority of its clearest and most powerful suggestions. The antagonists against whom he here sets himself, feel themselves pursued by his allegations of their guilt; and try to make their escape from a reproachful sense of their own sinfulness; and, for this purpose, would they ambitiously lift up the endeavours of their understanding towards the more high and unsearchable counsels of God. It is very true, that, however sinfully men may conduct themselves, He will get a glory to His own attributes from all His dealings with them. It is very true, that, like as the wrath of man shall be made to praise Him, so shall the worthlessness of man be made to redound to the honour of God's truth and of God's righteousness. Should even all men be liars, the veracity of God will be the more illustrated by its contrast with this surrounding evil, and by the fulfilment upon it of all His denunciations. The Holiness of the Divinity will blazen forth as it were into brighter conspicuousness, on the dark ground of human guilt and human turpitude. God manifests the dignity of His character, in His manifested abhorrence against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men. In the last day the glory of His power will be made known, when the Judge cometh in flaming fire to take vengeance on those who disobey Him; and even the very retribution which He deals forth on the heads of the rebellious, will be to Him the trophies of an awful and lofty vindication.

Now the objection reiterated in the various questions of this passage is, that if out of the unrighteousness of man, such a revenue as it were of fame and character shall accrue to the Deity-why should He be offended? Why should He inflict so much severity on the sin, which after all serves to illustrate His own sacredness, and to exalt His own majesty? Why should He lay such a weight of guilt on those, who, it would appear, are to be the instruments of His glory? Is not sin, if not a good thing in itself, at least a good thing in its consequences, when it thus serves to swell the pomp of the Eternal, and throw a brighter radiance around His ways? And might not we then do this evil thing that the final and the resulting good may emerge out of it? And might

not that sin, which we have been taught enter. But we may at least remark, tha to shun as dishonouring to God, be therefore chosen on the very opposite principle, of doing that which will ultimately bring a reversion of honour to His character, and of credit and triumph to all His administrations?

this treatment of his adversaries by the apostle is consonant with the soundest maxims of philosophy. We know not a better way of characterizing the spirit of that sound and humble and sober philosophy, which has conducted the human mind to its best acquisitions on the field of natural truth, than simply to say of it, that it ever prefers the certainty of experience, to the visions of a conjectural imagination-that it cautiously keeps within the line which separates the known from the unknown, and would never suffer a suspicion fetched from the latter region, to militate against a plain certainty that stands clearly and obviously before

One would have thought, that the obvious answer to all this sophistry, was, that if you take away from God the prerogative of judging and condemning and nflicting vengeance, you take away from Him all the ultimate glory which He ever can derive, from the sinfulness of His own creatures—that the very way in which the presence of sin sets forth the sacredness of the Deity, is by the abhorrence that He manifests towards it-that the unright-it on the former region. And when it eousness of man commendeth the right- carries its attention from natural to moral eousness of God, only by God dealing science, it never will consent to a princiwith this unrighteousness, in the capacity ple of sure and authoritative guidance for of a judge and of a lawgiver-that if you the heart and conduct of man in the strip Him of the power of punishment, present time, to be subverted by any you strip Him of the power of rendering difficulty drawn from a theme so inac such a vindication of His attributes, as cessible as the unrevealed purposes of will make Him venerable and holy in the God, or from a field of contemplation sc eyes of His own subjects-that, in fact, remote, as the glories which are eventhere remains no possibility of God fetch-tually to redound to the character of God ing any triumph to Himself, from the re- at the final winding up of His adminisbelliousness of His creatures, if He can-tration.

not proceed in the work of moral govern- It is not for man to hold at obeyance ment against their rebellion. And thus, if God may not find fault, and if His judicial administration of the world is to be overthrown, there will none of that glory come to Him out of human sinfulness, which the gainsayer of our text pleads in mitigation of human sinfulness.

This Paul might have said. But it is instructive to perceive, that, instead of this, he satisfies himself with simply affirming the first principles of the question. He counts it enough barely to state, that if there was anything in the reason ing of his opponent, then God's right of judging the world would be taken away. He holds this to be a full condemnation of the whole sophistry, that, if it were admitted, how then could God judge the world? With the announcement of what is plain to a man of plain understanding, does he silence an argument which can only proceed from a man of subtle understanding. And in reply to the maxim, let us do evil that good may come,' he enters into no depths of jurisprudence or moral argumentation upon the subject; but simply affirms that the condemnation of all who should do so were a righteous condemnation.

It is not for us to enter on the philosophy of any subject, upon which Paul does not

the prompt decisions of moral sense, till he make out an adjustment between them and such endless fancies as may be conjured up from the gulphs of misty and metaphysical speculation. Both piety and philosophy lend their concurrence to the truth, that secret things belong to God, and revealed things only belong to us and to our children. He has written, not merely on the book of His revealed testimony, but he has written on the book of our own consciences the lesson, that He is rightfully the governor of the world, and that we are rightfully the subjects of that government. There is a monitor within, who, with a still and a small but nevertheless a powerful voice, tells that if we disobey Him we do wrong. There is a voice of the heart which awards to Him the place of sovereign, and to us the place of servants. If He ought not to judge, and may not impose the penalties of disobedience, this relationship is altogether dissolved. And it is too much for man to fetch, either from the aerial region that is above him, or from the dark and hidden futurity that is before him, a principle which shall lay prostrate the authority of conscience, and infuse the baleful elements of darkness and distrust into its clearest intimations.

LECTURE X.

ROMANS iii, 9—19.

What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin: as it is written, There is none righteous, no not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are al. gone out o: the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre with their tongues they have used deceit: the poison of asps is under their lips: whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: their feet are swift to shed blood destruction and misery are in their ways: and the way of peace have they not known: there is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know, that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.”

V. 9. ‘Better,' in respect of having a righteousness before God. We have before charged Jews and Gentiles with being under sin. We affirmed it to their own conscience. We now prove it to the Jews from their own revelation. The following is the paraphrase of this passage.

We here remark, in the first place, that Paul had already, in the second chapter, affirmed the guilt of the Jews, and condescended upon the instances of it. He can scarcely be said to have proved their guilt; he had only charged them with it; and yet through the conscience of those whom we address, it is very possible that a charge may no sooner be uttered, than a

What then! are we Jews better than those Gentiles in respect of our justification by our own obedience? Not at all-conviction on the part of those against for we before charged both Jews and Gen- whom we are directing the charge, may tiles with being under sin. And we prove come immediately on the back of it. There it from God's written revelation, where it is often a power in a bare statement, is affirmed, that there are none who have a which is not at all bettered but rather imrighteousness that He will accept-not even paired by the accompaniment of reasonone. There are none who are thus satisfied ing. If what you say of a man agree with with themselves, and feel no need of such his own bosom experience that it is really a justification as we propose, that really so, there is a weight in your simple affirunderstandeth, or truly seeketh after God. mation which needs not the enforcing of They are all gone out of the way and any argument. It is this which gives such have become unprofitable, and there is authority to those sermons even still, that none of them that doeth what is substan- recommend themselves to the conscience; tially and religiously good-no, not one. and it was this, in fact, which gained more From their mouths there proceedeth every credit and acceptance for the apostles abomination; and they speak deceitfully than did all their miracles. They revealed with their tongues; and the poison of to men the secrets of their own hearts; malignity distils from their lips; and and what the inspired teacher said they their mouth is full of imprecation upon were, they felt themselves to be; and others, and of bitterness against them. nothing brings so ready and entire an And they not only speak mischief, but homage to the truth at is spoken, as the they do it; for they eagerly run to the agreement of its simple assertions with shedding of blood; and their way may be the finding of a man's own conscience. tracked, as it were, by the destruction and This manifestation of the truth unto the the wretchedness which mark the progress conscience, which was the grand instruof it; and they know not and love not the ment of discipleship in the first ages of way of peace; and as to the fear of God, the church, is the grand instrument still; He is not looked to or regarded by them. and it is thus that an unlearned hearer, Now all this is charged upon men by the who just knows his own mind, may be book of the Jewish law. We are only re-touched as effectually to his conviction, peating quotations out of their own Scriptures; and as what the law saith is intended for those who are under the law, and not for those who are strangers to it and beyond the reach of its announcements all these sayings must be applied to Jews; and they prove that it is not the mere possession of a law, but the keeping of it which secures the justification of those over whom it has authority. Their mouths, therefore, must also be stopped; and the whole world, consisting of Jews and Gentiles, must all be brought in as guilty before God.'

by the accordancy between what a preacher says, and what he himself feels, as the most profound and philosophical member of an accomplished congregation. And thus that obstinacy of unbelief, which we vainly attempt to carry by the power of any elaborate or metaphysical demonstration, may give way, both with the untaught and the cultivated, to the bare statement of the preacher-when he simply avers the selfishness of the human heart; and its pride, and its sensuality, and above all its ungodliness.

But Paul is not satisfied with this alone

He refers the Jews to their own Scriptures. | and no wisdom which he more prizes, or

He deals out quotations chiefly taken from to which he bows more profoundly, than the book of Psalms; and, in so doing, he that which by its piercing and intelligent avails himself of what both he and the glance, can open to him the secrecies of other apostles felt to be a peculiarly fit his own heart, and force him to recognize and proper instrument of conviction, in a marvellous accordancy between its potheir various reasonings with the chil-sitions, and all the varieties of his own dren of Israel. You meet with this style of intimate and home-felt experience. argumentation on many distinct occasions, The question then before us is-Does and often ushered in with the phrase 'as the passage now read bear such an acit is written.' It was thus that Christ ex-cordancy with the real character of man, pounded to his disciples what was written as that which we are now alluding to? It in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, abounds in affirmations of sweeping uniand in the psalms, concerning Him; and versality, and a test of their truth or of that these disciples again went forth upon their falsehood is to be found in every the Jews, armed for their intellectual war-heart. The apostle has here made a most fare out of the Old Testament. In almost adventurous commitment of himself—for, every interview they had with the He- however much he may have asserted about brews, you will meet with this as a pecu- matters that lay beyond the limits of huliarity which is not to be observed, when man experience without the hazard of beepistles are addressed, or conversationsing confronted, the matters which he has are held, with Gentiles only. Thus Stephen gave a long demonstration to his persecutors out of the Jewish history; and Peter rested his argument for Jesus Christ, on the interpretation that he gave of one of the prophetic psalms; and Paul, in his sermon at Antioch, went back to the story of Egyptian bondage and carried his explanation downwards through David and his family, to the doctrine of the remission of sins by the Saviour, who sprang from him; and, in the Jewish synagogue at Thessalonica, did he reason with them three sabbath days out of the Scriptures; and before the judgment-seat of Felix, did he aver, that his belief in Jesus of Nazareth, was that of one who believed all the things that are written in the law and in the prophets; and in argumenting the cause of Christianity before Agrippa, did he rest his vindication on what Agrippa knew of the promises that were found in the Old Testament; and when he met his countrymen at Rome, it was his employment, from morning to evening, to persuade them concerning Jesus both out of the law of Moses and out of the prophets. He who was all things to all men, was a Jew among the Jews. He reasoned with them on their own principles, and no where more frequently than in this Epistle to the Romans-where, though he had previously spoken of their sinfulness to their conscience, he yet adds a number of deponing testimonies to the same effect from their own book of revelation.

It is this agreement between the Bible and a man's own conscience, which stamps upon the book of God one of its most satisfying evidences. It is this perhaps more than any thing else which draws the interest and the notice of men towards it. For after all, there is no way of fixing the attention of man so powerfully as by holding up to him a mirror of himself;

here touched upon all lie within the familiar and well-known chambers of a man's own consciousness. And the positive announcements that he has made are not of some but of all individuals—so that could a single specimen be discovered of a natural man, who was righteous, and who had the fear of God before his eyes, and who either understood or sought after Him, and who was free of all malignity and cruelty and censoriousness-then would this be a refutation in fact of what the apostle assumes and pronounces in argument; and though it requires a minute and multiform and unexcepted agreement between the book of revelation and the book of experience, to make out an evidence in behalf of the former-yet would one single case of disagreement be enough to overthrow all its pretensions, and to depose the apostles and evangelists of Christianity, from all the credit which they have ever held in the estimation of the world.

You know that the apostle's aim in the whole of this argument, is to secure the reception of his own doctrine; and that, for this purpose, he is addressing himself to those who need to be convinced, and are therefore not yet convinced of it. They who have actually submitted themselves to the truth which he is urging, and have come under its influence, have arrived at the very understanding of God which he is labouring to establish. These are in the way to which he is attempting to recal the whole human race, and must therefore be excepted from the charge of being now out of the way. There are many such under the new dispensation; and there were also some such under the old who must also be regarded as being on the side of the apostle, but of whom the apostle affirms, that ere they came over to that side, as he does of every one else.