verse the apostle declares that he also is the father of the cir cumcised, who have not only or barely circumcision, but also walk in the steps of the faith of their father Abraham. So that, put both verses together, this is what the apostle declares, that Abraham received circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of faith, which he had being yet uncircumcised; whereby God sealed to him the promise he made to him, that he should be the father of all such as should believe as he had done, and only to such, whether they were circumcised or not, that he should be the father of the uncircumcised Gentiles, that should believe as he had done, and the father of no more of the circumcised Jews than should believe as he had done.

[83] Rom. v. 18. "Therefore as by the offence of one [judg ment came] upon all men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one [the free gift came] upon all men unto justification of life." Seeing the words judgment, and the free gift, are not in the original, I do not see why it would not have been better construing to have translated it thus, "Therefore as by the offence of one, the offence came upon all men to condemnation, so by the righteousness of one, righteousness came upon all men to justification of life;" and so the word that is understood would have been the same with that that is expressed. The placing of the same word in the 16th verse, gives considerable colour for this translation.

[99] Rom. vi. 8, 9. "Now if we be dead with Christ," &c. These two verses, with the context, seem irrefragably to prove perseverance.

[244] Rom. vi. 14. "For sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law but under grace." The law, or covenant of works, is not a proper means to bring the fallen creature to the service of God. It was a very proper means to be used with men in a state of innocency, but it has no tendency to answer this end in our present weak and sinful state; on the contrary, to have been kept under the law would have had a tendency to hinder it, and would have been a bar in the way of it, and that upon two accounts.

1. It would have tended to discourage persons from any attempts to serve God, because under such a constitution it must necessarily have been looked upon as impossible to please him and serve him to his acceptance; and one in despair of this would have been in no capacity to yield a cheerful service to God, but would rather have been far from any manner of endeavours to serve him at all. But to have abandoned himself

1

to wickedness by such a despair, the dominion of sin would have been dreadfully established, and all yielded up to it as in the damned in hell.

2. God must necessarily have been looked on as an enemy; which would have tended to drive from him and stir up enmity against him. A fallen creature held under the covenant of works cannot look on God as a father and friend, but must necessarily look on him as an enemy; for the least failure of obedience by that constitution, whether past or future, renders him so. But this would greatly establish the dominion of sin or enmity against God in the heart, and indeed it is the law only that makes wicked men hate God. They hate him no otherwise than as they look upon him as acting, either as the giver or judge of the law, and so by the law opposing their sins, and the law tending to establish the hatred of God. Hence it is necessary to be brought from under the dominion of it, in order to a willing serving of God.

Corol. Hence men, when they are convinced of the law, under awakenings, and have God represented to them as a strict lawgiver and judge, before they are convinced of the gospel, have sometimes such sensible exercises of enmity of heart stirred up against God.

But those that are redeemed from the bondage of the law, they have,

1. Great encouragement to serve God, in that their imperfect obedience may be accepted.

poor and

2. They have a great deal to incline them to an ingenuous obedience; for God now represents himself as a merciful God, a God ready to pardon past transgressions and future infirmities, and he promises that if we will yield ourselves willingly to serve him as we are able, he will be our friend, and will treat us as a merciful and gracious father.

If a man does perform an external service while under the bondage of the law, it is no real service, it is merely forced by threats and terrors, it is not performed freely and heartily, but is a dead, lifeless obedience. But a being delivered from the law and brought under grace, tends to win men to serve God from love, and with the whole heart; Rom. vii. 6, "But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held, that we should serve in newness of the spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.

[84] Rom. viii. 15. "For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the spirit of adopion, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." That is, ye have not the - pirit of slaves and boud servants, that work by slavish fear, ut the spirit of children, so that you are not afraid, but dare

cry, Abba, Father; dare as children approach God, with a holy boldness. The spirits are different; one is the spirit of God, the other is not.

[268] 1 Cor. i. 1. "Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ, through the will of God." St. Paul, when he calls himself an apostle, does commonly add some such clause as this, "through the will of God;" so 2 Cor. i. 1, "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God;" and the very samie words, Eph. i. 1; and Colos. i. 1; aud 2 Timothy i. 1; and 1 Tim. i. 1, "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Saviour, and Lord Jesus Christ;" and Rom. i. 1," Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God." Ver. 5, "By whom we have received grace and apostleship;" which was because he continually carried a deep sense of his unworthiness to be an apostle, who before was so great a sinner. And how it was not owing to any thing in him that he was promoted to such dignity, but only to the sovereign will and pleasure and free grace of God, which, of a persecutor of the church, made him an apostle in the church. Therefore, when he takes the honour of the name of an apostle, he ascribes it to God's sovereign pleasure and grace. The cause of it is a sense of what he expresses in 1 Cor. xv. 9, 10, "For I am the least of the apostles, and am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But, by the grace of God, I am what I am;" and Eph. iii. 8, "Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is the grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ."

[155] 1 Cor. i. 24. "But unto them which are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God." The power of God answers to a sign or miracle, which ́ the Jews sought after; and the wisdom of God, to the wisdom which the Greeks sought after, mentioned in the last verse but one preceding.

[156] 1 Cor. ii. 15, 16. "For he that is spiritual judgeth all things; but he himself is judged of no man.” He that has the Spirit of God to teach him truth, he is not in those things subject to the judgment or correction of any of the wise men of this world. The instruction and judgment, and correction of a human master, of what he understands, or believes by the Spirit of God, is what he needs not. In this case it does not take place, it will not alter him, for says the apostle, "Who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? for we have the mind of Christ.” A man that has the mind of Christ,

is taught by his Spirit, if he should be subject to the judgment and correction of men, that would argue that the mind of the Lord itself was subject to human correction.

[157] 1 Cor. iv. 6. "And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos, for your sakes, that ye might learn not to think of men above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another." It seems that it was not Paul and Apollos particularly that the Corinthians were divided about; but what the apostle means, when he says, "some say they are of Paul, and others of Apollos," is, that some were for one teacher, others for another; they over valued their teachers, and built their faith upon them. He mentions his own name, and that of Apollos, personating any human teachers whatsoever; he transferred it in a figure to himself and Apollos, that they might not be apt to suspect that he reproved them for being for this and that man, out of respect to himself; he would not have them set too much by men, though it were himself.

[152] 1 Cor. ix. 16. "For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of." That is, In case I had a dependence upon preaching the gospel for a livelihood, then might it be said that necessity is laid upon me. Yea, wo is unto me if I preach not the gospel. That this is what the apostle means, I think is evident by

the context.

[49] 1 Corinth. xi. 14. "Doth not even nature itself teach you that if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?" Having the head covered by long custom, had been used to denote subjection; and as a mark of subjection in man, it was plainly against nature itself. The plain light of nature had taught all nations the superiority of man to woman, and his rights to rule over her. The apostle had been pleading against man's wearing long hair, or his covering the head only on this score, that it was a debasing of man below the place that God had put him in, that it was unnatural and a shame, a debasing of man, and confusion of the order of nature, and in this sense against nature. In this nature teaches the contrary, it is a disgrace to him, asia, to appear below the woman, a debasing of him below his nature, and therefore nature teaches the contrary; not but that, if having the head uncovered were a sign of subjection, it would have been as much against nature for the man to have his head uncovered. And that which is against nature in this sense, is against it in a proper sense. It is against nature in a proper sense, to bow down before an idol, because it is against nature to adore an idol; and bowing down, by universal custom, is used to denote

adoration; but if bowing down by universal custom were used to denote contempt, it would not be against nature.

[305] 1 Corinth. xiii. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. "Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail ;-For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child,Now we see through a glass darkly," &c. There is a twofold failing or ceasing of those miraculous and other common gifts of the Spirit, both of which the apostle has doubtless respect to: one is their failing at the end of the present state of probation, or the present imperfect state of God's people in time, with respect to particular persons that have common gifts, at death, and with respect to the church of God collectively considered, at the end of the world; and the other is the failing of miraculous gifts in the church of Christ, even while yet remaining in its temporary and militant state, as they failed at or about the end of the apostolic age, that first and more imperfect, and less settled and established state of the Christian church, before it was wholly brought out from under the Mosaic dispensation, wherein it was under tutors and governors, and before the canon of the scripture was fully completed, and all parts of it thoroughly collected and established. Miraculous, and other common gifts of the Spirit, cease at the end of the imperfect state of the church; wherein the church knows in part, and is in a state of childhood in comparison of the more perfect state that follows. So there is a twofold perfect state of the church to answer them, wherein the church may be said to be in a state of manhood, with respect to that more imperfect state that they succeed. The first state of the church, in its first age on earth, before the canon of the scripture was completed, &c. is its imperfect state, wherein the church knows in part, and is as a child, and speaks, and understands, and thinks as a child, and sees through a glass darkly, in comparison of the state of the church in its latter ages, wherein it will be in a state of manhood, in a perfect state, and will see face to face in comparison of what it did in its first infant state; and so the gift of prophecy and tongues, &c., ceased at the end of the church's age of childhood, but charity remains when the elder age of the church comes, and when it shall put away childish things. That age shall be an age of love, but there shall be no miraculous gifts of the Spirit, as being needless and more proper helps for the church in a state of infancy, than in that state of manhood.

Again, the church, all the while it remains in a militant state, is in an imperfect state, a state of childhood, sees through a glass darkly, thinks, speaks, and understands as a child in com