TEXT.

23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

24 For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?

25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.

26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us, with groanings which cannot be uttered. 27 And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints, according to the will of God.

PARAPHRASE.

a

gether, and unto this day are in pain, as a woman in labour, to be delivered out of the uneasiness of this mortal state. 23 And not only they, but even those who have the first fruits of the Spirit, and therein the earnest of eternal life, we ourselves groan b within ourselves, waiting for the fruit of our adoption, which is, that as we are by adoption made sons and co-heirs with Jesus Christ, so we may have bodies like 24 unto his most glorious body, spiritual and immortal. But we

must wait with patience, for we have hitherto been saved but in hope and expectation: but hope is of things not in present possession, or enjoyment. For what a man hath and seeth 25 in his own hands, he no longer hopes for. But if we hope

for what is out of sight, and yet to come, then do we with 26 patience wait for it. Such therefore are our groans, which the Spirit, in aid to our infirmity, makes use of. For we know not what prayers to make as we ought, but the Spirit itself layeth for us our requests before God, in groans that 27 cannot be expressed in words. And God, the searcher of hearts, who understandeth this language of the Spirit, knoweth what the Spirit would have, because the Spirit is wont to make

NOTES.

mouth; so that even those who have not the first fruits of the Spirit, whereby they are assured of a future happy life in glory, do also desire to be freed from a subjection to corruption, and have uneasy longings after immortality.

b Read the parallel place, 2 Cor. iv. 17, and v. 5.

25 What he says here of hope, is to show them, that the groaning in the children of God, before spoken of, was not the groaning of impatience, but such, wherewith the Spirit of God makes intercession for us, better than if we expressed ourselves in words, ver. 19-23.

TEXT.

28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. 29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

30 Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.

31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?

32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

PARAPHRASE.

28 intercession for the saints, acceptably to God. Bear, therefore, your sufferings with patience and constancy, for we certainly know that all things work together for good, to those that love God, who are called according to his purpose 29 of calling the Gentiles. In which purpose the Gentiles, whom he foreknew, as he did the Jews, with an intention of his kindness, and of making them his people, he preordained to be conformable to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born, the chief amongst many brethren §. 30 Moreover whom he did thus pre-ordain to be his people, them he also called, by sending preachers of the Gospel to them and whom he called, if they obeyed the truth", he also justified, by counting their faith for righteousness: and whom he justified, them he also glorified, viz. in his 31 purpose. What shall we say then to these things? If God

those

be for us, as, by what he has already done for us, it appears 32 he is, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up to death for us all, Gentiles as well as Jews, how shall he not with him also give us all things?

NOTES.

27 "The Spirit," promised in the time of the Gospel, is called the "Spirit of supplications," Zach. xii. 10.

e

28 Which "

29

purpose" was declared to Abraham, Gen. xviii. 18, and is largely insisted on by St. Paul, Eph. iii. 1-11. This, and the remainder of this chapter, seems said to confirm the Gentile converts in the assurance of the favour and love of God to them, through Christ, though they were not under the law. See chap. xi. 2. Amos iii. 2.

See Eph. i. 3-7.

30 "Many are called, and few are chosen," says our Saviour, Matth. xx. 16. Many, both Jews and Gentiles, were called, that did not obey the call. And therefore, ver. 32, it is those who are chosen who (he saith) are "justified,” i. e. such as were called, and obeyed, and consequently were chosen.

TEXT.

33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth:

34 Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.

35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 (As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter).

37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors, through him that loved us.

38 For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor

principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

PARAPHRASE.

33 Who shall be the prosecutor of those, whom God hath chosen? 34 Shall God, who justifieth them1? Who, as judge, shall con

demn them? Christ that died for us, yea rather that is risen again for our justification, and is at the right hand of God, 35 making intercession for us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, 36 or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? For this is our

lot, as it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long, 37 we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these

things, we are already more than conquerors, by the grace and 38 assistance of him that loved us. For I am stedfastly persuaded, that neither the terrors of death, nor the allurements of life, nor angels, nor the princes and powers of this world; 39 nor things present; nor any thing future; Nor the height of prosperity; nor the depth of misery; nor any thing else whatsoever; shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

i

NOTE.

33 Reading this with an interrogation makes it needless to add any words to the text, to make out the sense, and is more conformable to the scheme of his argu mentation here, as appears by ver. 35, where the interrogation cannot be avoided; and is, as it were, an appeal to them themselves to be judges, whether any of those things he mentions to them (reckoning up these, which had most power to hurt them) could give them just cause of apprehension: "Who shall accuse you? Shall God who justifies you? Who shall condemn you? Christ that died for you?" What can be more absurd than such an imagination?

SECTION VIII.

CHAPTER IX. 1.-X. 21.

CONTENTS.

THERE was nothing more grating and offensive to the Jews, than the thoughts of having the Gentiles joined with them, and partaking equally in the privileges and advantages of the kingdom of the Messiah: and, which was yet worse, to be told that those aliens should be admitted, and they who presumed themselves children of that kingdom, to be shut out. St. Paul, who had insisted much on this doctrine, in all the foregoing chapters of this epistle, to show that he had rot done it out of any aversion or unkindness to his nation and brethren, the Jews, does here express his great affection to them, and declares an extreme concern for their salvation. But withal he shows, that whatever privileges they had received from God, above other nations, whatever expectation the promises, made to their forefathers, might raise in them, they had yet no just reason of complaining of God's dealing with them, now under the Gospel, since it was according to his promise to Abraham, and his frequent declarations in sacred Scripture. Nor was it any injustice to the Jewish nation, if God now acted by the same sovereign power wherewith he preferred Jacob (the younger brother, without any merit of his) and his posterity, to be his people, before Esau and his posterity, whom he rejected. The earth is all his; nor have the nations, that possess it, any title of their own, but what he gives them, to the countries they inhabit, nor the good things they enjoy; and he may dispossess, or exterminate them, when he pleaseth. And as he destroyed the Egyptians, for the glory of his name, in the deliverance of the Israelites; so he may, according to his good pleasure, raise or depress, take into favour or reject, the several nations of this world. And particularly as to the nation of the Jews, all but a small remnant were rejected, and the Gentiles taken in, in their room, to be the people and church of God; because they were a gainsaying and disobedient people, that would not receive the Messiah, whom he had promised, and in the appointed time sent to them. He that will with moderate attention and indifferency of mind read this ninth chapter, will see that what is said, of God's exercising of an absolute power, according to the good pleasure of his will, relates only to nations, or bodies politic of men, incorporated in

civil societies, which feel the effects of it only in the prosperity or calamity they meet with in this world, but extends not to their eternal state, in another world, considered as particular persons, wherein they stand each man by himself, upon his own bottom, and shall so answer separately, at the day of judgment. They may be punished here, with their fellow-citizens, as part of a sinful nation, and that be but temporal chastisement for their good, and yet be advanced to eternal life and bliss, in the world

to come.

TEXT.

1 I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost,

2 That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. 3 For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ, for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh :

4 Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises;

PARAPHRASE.

1 I as a Christian speak truth, and my conscience, guided and enlightened by the Holy Ghost, bears me witness, that I lie 2 not, In my profession of great heaviness and continual sor3 row of heart; I could even wish that the destruction and extermination, to which my brethren the Jews are devoted by Christ, might, if it could save them from ruin, be executed on me, in the stead of those my kinsmen after the flesh 4 Who are Israelites, a nation dignified with these privileges, which were peculiar to them; adoption, whereby they were in a particular manner the sons of God; the glory of the divine presence amongst them; covenants made between them and the great God of heaven and the earth; the moral law, a constitution of civil government, and a form of divine

NOTES.

d

;

3 a 'Aváleμa," accursed;", which the Septuagint render anathema, signifies persons, or things, devoted to destruction and extermination. The Jewish nation were an anathema, destined to destruction. St. Paul, to express his affection to them, says he could wish to save them from it, to become an anathema, and be destroyed himself.

4b" Adoption," Exod. iv. 22. Jer. xxxi. 9.

"Glory," which was present with the Israelites, and appeared to them in a great shining brightness, out of a cloud. Some of the places, which mention it, are the following; Exod. xiii. 21. Lev. ix. 6, and 23, 24. Numb. xvi. 42. 2 Chron. vii. 1-3. Ezek. x. 4, and xliii. 2, 3, compared with chap. i. 4, 28.

e

a" Covenants." See Gen. xvii. 4. Exod. xxxiv. 27.

· Νομοθεσία, "the giving of the law," whether it signifies the extraordinary

giving of the law, by God himself, or the exact constitution of their government,

VOL. VIII.

Ꮓ