ON THE EPISTLE OF PAUL THE APOSTLE TO THE ROMANS. BY THOMAS CHALMERS, D.D. & LL.D., PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH, VOL. IV. KONINKLIJKE BOLIGA GRAVENHA WILLIAM COLLINS, SOUTH FREDERICK ST. LONDON: WHITTAKER & CO.-HAMILTON, ADAMS, & CO.- SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, & Co. LECTURES ON THE ROMANS. LECTURE LXXVI. ROMANS, X, 1. "Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved." THE words of this text derive a special and an augmented interest from the very position which it here occupies. You will observe that it is at the close of a very elaborate argument held by our apostle on the high topic of predestination; and from which the reader is fully warranted to imagine, that those Israelites, in whose behalf he plies Heaven with such fervent importunity, had already been the objects of Heaven's irrevocable decree. It is altogether worthy of notice, that, in this instance, the preordination of the Creator did not supersede the prayers of the creature; and that he who saw the farthest into the counsels of the Divinity above, saw nothing there which should affect either the diligence or the devotions of any humble worshipper below. We believe that there are some men with loftier reach of intellect than their fellows, who can |