the

though the apostle is there speaking of that overwhelming apostacy of the middle ages, which left so faint and feeble a remainder of light to Christendom for many centuries. And, in like manner, were they the greater number of the Jews, who were only so in the letter, and in the outward cir cumcision; and were not so in spirit, or in the circumcision of the heart. They were greatly the more considerable part who did not believe; and yet, in the face of this heavy deduction from the good actually rendered to the Jews, could the apostle still stand up in the vindication of those promises which God held forth to their ancestors; of a blessing upon those who should come after them-letting us know, that, though they were many who aggravated their own condemnation, and the few who by inheriting the privileges inherited a blessing, yet the truth of God here called the faith of God, was not unfulfilled-that whatever comes in the shape of promise or of prophecy from Him, will have its verification-that whatever be the deceitfulness of man, God will still retain the attribute given to Him by the apostle elsewhere, even that He cannot lie. So that, should it be questioned whether the family of Israel, in consequence of God's dealing with them, had an advantage over all the other families, it will be found in the holy and faithful men of the old dispensation, few as they were; and it will be found on the great day of manifestation, when all the reverses of Jewish history from the first calling forth of Abraham

to their last glorious restoration shall have been accomplished-that He will be justified in every utterance He made respecting them, and that He will overcome when He is judged of it.

'God forbid' is in the original simply Let it

not be.'

In the fifth verse the apostle again brings forward his objector, and puts into his mouth an argument. It is our unrighteousness, says he, which hath made room for God's righteousness in its place, which sets it off as it were, and renders it so worthy of acceptation; and, if this be the case, might it not be said that it is not righteous in God to inflict wrath for that which hath redounded so much to the credit and the manifestation of His own attributes. This objection is brought forward in another form in the 7th verse. If God's truth have been rendered more illustrious by my lie, or by my sin, and so He has been the more glorified in consequence-why does He find fault with me, and punish me for sins which advance eventually His honour? Should not we rather sin that God's righteousness may be exalted, and do the instrumental evil that the ultimate good may come out of it? The apostle gives two distinct answers to these questions, after giving us a passing intimation in the 5th verse, that he is not speaking in his own person as an apostle when he brings forward these objections, but only speaking as a man whom he supposes to set himself against the whole of his argument; and tells us also in the 7th verse that

the maxim of doing evil that good may come, which he here supposes to be pled by an unbelieving Jew, was also charged, but slanderously charged, upon Christians. The way in which he sets aside the objection in the 5th verse is, that, if admitted, God would be deprived of His power of judging the world-and the objection in the 7th and 8th verses is set aside by the simple affirmation, that if there be any who would do evil that good may come, their condemnation is just.

Before urging these lessons any further, let us offer a paraphrase of these verses.

'What is the advantage then possessed by the Jew, it will be said, or what benefit is it to him that he is of the circumcision? We answer that the benefit is great many ways-and chiefly that to that people have been committed the revealed scriptures of God. And even though the greater part did not believe, yet still their unbelief puts no disparagement on the veracity of God. Though all men were liars, this would detract nothing from the glory of God's truth; and, however this objection may be pushed, it will be found in the language of the Psalmist that God will be justified in all his sayings and will overcome when Heis judged. But to this it may further be said, if God do not suffer in His glory by our guilt-nay if, out of the materials of human sinfulness, He can rear a ministration by which He and all His attributes may be exalted-why should He deal in anger against those, whom He can thus turn into the in

struments of His honour? The unrighteousness of man sets off the righteousness of God; and He gets glory to Himself by our doings; and is it therefore a righteous thing in Him to inflict vengeance on account of them? Such is the sophistry of vice, but it cannot be admitted-else the judgment of God over the world is at an end. And it is further said by those who, in the language of a former chapter, have turned God's truth into a lie-that that hath made God's truth to abound the more unto His own glory-that He has so dealt with them as to bring a larger accession of glory to Himself; and where then is the evil of that which finally serves to illustrate and make brighter than before His character? Should I be condemned a sinner, for having done that which glorifies God?―might not I do the instrumental evil, for the sake of the eventual good? Such is the morality that has been charged upon us-but falsely so charged-for it is a morality which ought to be reprobated.'

In this passage the apostle touches, though but slightly and transiently, on a style of scepticism to which he afterwards adverts at greater length in the 9th chapter of this epistle; and we, in like manner, shall defer the great bulk of our observations 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 righteous 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 the 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 imaginations of men travel into a region that was beyond them, whence they fetched conceits and suppositions of their own framing,