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TEXT.

8 For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth. 9 For we are glad, when we are weak, and ye are strong and this also we wish, even your perfection.

10 Therefore I write these things, being absent; lest, being present, I should use sharpness, according to the power, which the Lord hath given me, to edification, and not to destruction.

PARAPHRASE.

8 power. For though I have the power of punishing supernaturally, I cannot show this power upon any of you, unless it be that you are offenders, and your 9 punishment be for the advantage of the gospel. I am, therefore, glad, when I am weak, and can inflict no punishment upon you; and you are so strong, i. e. clear of faults, that ye cannot be touched. For all the power I have is only for promoting the truth of the gospel; whoever are faithful and obedient to that, I can do nothing to; I cannot make examples of them, by all the extraordinary power I have, if I would: nay, this also I wish, even your perfection. 10 These things, therefore, I write to you, being absent, that when I come, I may not use severity, according to the power which the Lord hath given me, for edification, not for destruction.

NOTE.

ment the apostle is here upon; but the word adóximos is here used for one that cannot give proof of Christ being in him; one that is destitute of a supernatural power: for thus stands. St. Paul's discourse, ver. 3, étel doxiμǹy (nleite, ver. 6, γνώσεσθε ὅτι ἐκ ἀδοκιμοι ἐσμὲν, "Since you seek a proof, you shall know, that "I am not destitute of a proof."

SECT. V.

CHAP. XIII. 11-14.

CONCLUSION.

TEXT.

11 Finally, brethren, farewell; be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you.

12 Greet one another with an holy kiss.

13 All the saints salute you.

14 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.

PARAPHRASE.

11 Finally, brethren, farewell: bring yourselves into one well-united, firm, unjarring society *; be of good comfort; be of one mind; live in peace, and 12 the God of love and peace shall be with you. Salute 13 one another with an holy kiss: All the saints salute 14 you. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.

NOTE.

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The same, that he exhorts them to, in the beginning of the first epistle,

ch. i. ver. 10.

A

PARAPHRASE

AND

NOTES

ON THE

EPISTLE OF ST. PAUL

TO THE

ROMANS.

THE

EPISTLE OF ST. PAUL

TO THE

ROMANS;

WRIT IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 57, OF NERO III.

SYNOPSIS.

BEFORE We take into consideration the epistle to the Romans in particular, it may not be amiss to premise, that the miraculous birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ, were all events, that came to pass within the confines of Judea; and that the ancient writings of the jewish nation; allowed by the christians to be of divine original, were appealed to, as witnessing the truth of his mission and doctrine; whereby it was manifest, that the jews were the depositaries of the proofs of the christian religion. This could not choose but give the jews, who were owned to be the people of God, even in the days of our Saviour, a great authority among the convert gentiles, who knew nothing of the Messiah, they were to believe in, but what they derived from that nation, out of which he and his doctrine sprung. Nor did the jews fail to make use of this advantage, several ways to the disturbance of the gentiles, that embraced christianity. The jews, even those of them that received the gospel, were for the most part, so devoted to the law of Moses and their ancient rites, that they could by no means, bring themselves to think, that they were to be laid aside. They were, every-where, stiff and zealous for them, and contended that they were necessary to be observed, even by christians, by all that pretended to be the people of God, and hoped to be accepted by him. This gave no

small trouble to the newly-converted gentiles, and was

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