"Cæsar's household," he expressly assures them, that what had befallen him, instead of being an hindrance, had so far proved a furtherance of the gospel, that "his bonds in Christ had been made manifest in all Cæsar's court and in all other places." And may we not learn from this how necessary it is that we should continue instant in prayer," under the full persuasion that, in his own time and manner, God will grant that which will be most expedient for us.

Observe also, in the above passage, how the apostle represents himself, as being under the constraining influence of the love of Christ. I am debtor, he says, both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise: 9 i. e. When I speak of myself as earnestly desiring to see you, you must not suppose that the desire so expressed relates wholly and exclusively to yourselves; for I regard it as a solemn duty, which I owe to all nations, to preach unto them the gospel of peace. So, as much as in me is, I am ready, (with an eagerness of desire, as the original word imports,') to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also.2

For, as he adds in the two concluding verses, 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.

6 Phil. iv. 22.
9 Ver. 14.

7 Phil. i. 13. 1 πρόθυμον.

8 Ch. xii. 12.

2 Ver. 15.

For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. It is in these verses, brethren, that the apostle enters upon that which forms the grand subject of the epistle; viz. the doctrine of JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH. And there is something particularly striking in the manner in which he introduces it. He had said, in the fifteenth verse, that he was ready to preach the gospel to them that were at Rome also. But, (as many in that proud city might have objected,) if the gospel is everywhere spoken against, and if its doctrines are treated with derision, how canst thou vainly think to teach us more wisdom by the gospel? I am not ashamed, says the apostle in reply, of the gospel of Christ. Though the inhabitants of Rome were numbered among the great, the learned, and the wise; and though the gospel came in all simplicity amongst them, yet St. Paul was not ashamed to profess himself the publisher of these plain and despised doctrines. And he immediately goes on to shew, that there was no need for him to be ashamed of this gospel, how mean and contemptible soever it might appear to the world, seeing that it is the power of God unto salvation, to every one that believeth. Rome might boast of her arm of flesh, and might extend her work of destruction to the utmost limits of the then known world; but the gospel reveals the arm of God, making itself bare in behalf of all 4 Tholuch, p. xiv.

3 Verses 16, 17.

believers, of all nations and in all ages, to the salvation of body and soul. Yea, 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. In other words, That gracious acceptance, on the part of God, whereby he accounteth believers as righteous in his sight, through the merits of his Son; that wonderful method of salvation, for every one that BELIEVETH, is revealed to us in, and by, this gospel. It is revealed, says the apostle, from faith to faith; that is, from one degree of faith to another; evidently implying, that the sense and assurance of our justification will increase in us, in proportion to the increase of our faith. For faith may be justly described as the way by which we pass from death to life: as it is written, the just shall LIVE by faith. And must it not follow, therefore, that the more we advance in this blessed path, the more we shall know and feel of that spiritual life, of that full assurance of hope, which is at once the pledge, and the foretaste,'of everlasting glory? *

The words here recited, as declarative of the life of faith, are taken from the prophet Habakkuk; 5 and ought not this to remind us that the doctrine of which the apostle here speaks, and which forms, as I have said, the grand subject of this epistle, is

no new doctrine, but a doctrine taught under the old as well as under the new dispensation? Yes, brethren, it was in this very same faith, that those of the elder church lived and died, of whom our apostle speaks in his epistle to the Hebrews; 6 and they are there represented as "a cloud of witnesses" compassing the Christian, while he "runs with patience the race that is set before him." And why is this, but because, ever since the fall of Adam, man has been very far gone from original righteousness, and has been of his own nature inclined to evil?'7 Why is this, but because, ever since the fall of Adam, the best and the holiest of men have been accounted righteous before God, only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, by faith, and not for their own works or deservings;' and because, therefore, whether under the old or new dispensation, Christ has been the "end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth ?" 9

6 See Heb. xi. and xii.

7 Article ix. 9 Rom. x. 4.

8 Article xi.

SECTION III.

CHAPTER i. 18-32.

GOD'S WRATH AGAINST ALL MANNER OF SIN; AND AN AWFUL DESCRIPTION OF THE GENTILE WORLD.

1

ST. PAUL, in speaking of the gospel of Christ, says, in the seventeenth verse, that "therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith." But in vain does the gospel exhort men to seek righteousness and salvation in Christ alone, as apprehended by faith, unless all men shall be previously convicted as guilty of unrighteousness. And accordingly, this the apostle now begins to prove, concluding his argument at the twentieth verse of the third chapter. Attend, then, in this part of the epistle, to the manner in which he establishes this mournful but most important truth, viz. that “all have sinned; 2 and you will be fully prepared to join in the conclusion which he draws; viz. that "by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in God's sight."3 The portion which I have now selected for our meditation is the remainder of the first chapter, beginning at the eighteenth verse; and I pray that, as we dwell on the awful representation which is here given to us of the state of 2 Or, Ch. iii. 23.

Beza in loc.

3 Ch. iii. 20.