This whole chapter, filled with the salutations of
respect and cordiality - not only from Paul direct to his correspondents, but
from the friends and companions who were with Paul to those whom he was
addressing - evinces how much Christianity is fitted to promote the interchange
of such feelings between man and man. We are here presented with the form and
homages of our own modern politeness, animated by the spirit and sincerity of
the gospel - forms which, though but in themselves the dry bones of Ezekiel's
vision, are yet befitting vehicles for the best and highest of our mutual
affections, after that the breath of life has been infused into them.
Altogether we hold this chapter to be a singularly valuable document - as
proving how capable the usages of a Christian church are of being amalgamated
with the graces, and the amenities, and the complimentary expressions of the
every-day intercourse that takes place in general Society.
Ver.
2. 'I commend unto you Phebe our sister, which is a servant of the church
which is at Cenchrea: that ye receive her in the Lord; as becometh saints, and
that ye assist her in whatsoever business she hath need of you for she hath
been a succourer of many, and of myself also.'
And here too we are presented
with another most useful indication - the employment of female agency, under
the eye and with the sanction of an apostle, in the business of a church. It is
well to have inspired authority for a practice too little known and too little
proceeded on in modern times. Phebe belonged to the order of deaconesses - in
which capacity she had been the helper of many, including Paul himself. In what
respect she served them is not particularly specified. Like the women in the
Gospels who waited upon oux Saviour she may have ministered to them of her
substance - though there can be little doubt, that as the holder, of an
official station in their church, she ministered to them of her services also.
They to whom she was commended by Paul were to receive her as becometh saints,
or with all that respect and delicacy which were due to a Christian female; and
also to render her all that assistance which her business, not here specified,
might require at their hands.
Ver. 3, 4. 'Greet Priscilla and
Aquila my helpers in Christ Jesus; who have for life laid down their own necks:
unto who not only I give thanks, but also all the church of the
Gentiles.'
Aquila and Priscilla must this time have been at Rome. They had
formerly been at Corinth, where Paul was their guest, and then at Ephesus,
whither they accompanied Paul, and where he left them - to which place they
afterwards returned, if we may conclude from the salutation sent to them from
Rome by Paul, in his letter to Timothy, when he was bishop of the Ephesians.
Both at Corinth and Ephesus they had been the helpers of Paul in Christ Jesus -
his helpers, we presume, chiefly in things temporal - at least not in spiritual
things, as they had been to Apollos, when they expounded to him the way of God
more perfectly. Our great apostle did not require this at their hands - yet may
they have been of most important use to him even as the ministers of holy
things, in refreshing and confirming the souls of his disciples. And here it
should be remarked, that Priscilla, the wife of Aquilla, is joined to him in
this work, seeing they are both represented in the book of Acts as contributing
to the further instruction of Apollos, even after that he had signalised
himself by his might in the Scriptures, and his eloquence in speaking the
things of the Lord. Much more then might she be qualified to officiate as a
teacher of her own sex, and more particularly of children. We cannot think then
that the service of females in the Christian church was restricted to the mere
office of deaconeses, who ministered to the sick and the destitute. They also
laboured in a higher vocation; and should be enlisted still in the business of
a parish, as most invaluable auxiliaries in dispensing both religious comfort
and religious instruction, within such spheres as might with all fitness and
propriety be assigned to them. In particular, they will be found the most
efficient of all civilisers among the families of a now outlandish, because
heretofore neglected population - and this whether as the visitors of sewing
and reading, or as themselves the teachers of Sabbath-schools - Or in the
former capacity as the patronesses of week-day and common, and in the latter
the direct agents of christian education.
It appears that Aquila and
Priscilla had exposed their own lives to jeopardy for the safety of Paul's. The
special occasion on which this took place is not certainly known. There is
abundant evidence of their having both had a will to have braved this hazard at
any time for the sake of their beloved apostle. And we can be at no loss to
imagine a way in which this might have been brought to the proof, when we read
of the insurrection at Corinth against Paul, where Aquila and Priscilla both
were; and whence they accompanied him to Ephesus, where they probably were
also, at the time when such a fearful outbreak was made upon him in that city
by a riotous and enraged multitude. Whatever the occasion was on which they
thus signalised themselves, it must have been some signal deliverance or
service to Paul of which they were the instruments, that called forth so
memorable an expression of gratitude, not alone from Paul individually, but
probably and with open manifestation from all the churches.
Ver.
-5. 'Likewise greet the church that is in their house.'
It would appear
from this, that in these days, Christian congregations met and had their
religious services done to them in dwellinghouses. It was the practice for
Aquila and Priscilla to have a church in their house elsewhere too - as here in
Rome, and also in Asia, when Paul wrote his first epistle to the Corinthians,
and sends the church there a salutation from the church held in the house
ofthese devoted followers of our Lord. We have traces of the same practice in
other places of the New Testament. "Salute Nymphas and the church which is in
his house." "Paul unto Philemon, and to the Church in thy house."Then follows a
list of salutations, in the course of which some brief notices are given as if
casually and incidentally, yet which are by no means devoid of interest. As
when he salutes Epenetus, he signalises him by an epithet - well-beloved -
Which marks him out as an object of the apostle's special and superlative
affection. It is like the love which one has for a first-born - he having been
the first of Paul's spiritual children in Achaia. It is true that the house of
Stephanas is elsewhere termed the first-fruits of Achaia. It is possible that
Epenetus may have been of the household of Stephanas, or at all events may have
been converted at the same time, or time of the first conversion which took
place in Achaia under Paul's ministry. Some critics find an explanation in the
circumstance that there are Greek manuscripts which present us with Asia
instead of Achaia.
We also gather from this enumeration additional
evidence for the agency of females in these days - of Mary, who bestowed much
labour as well as Tryphena and Tryphosa, who laboured; and Persis, who laboured
much in the Lord. This may have, been the labour of mere deaconship - as that
of Stephanas was at the time when he was the bearer of a supply for the
apostle's wants, and of whole family it is said that they addicted themselves
to the ministry of the saints. It may however have been more than this - a
ministration in spiritual as well as temporal good things. The passage before
is scarcely allows of any specific determination on this point. To labour in
the Lord gives no decision. To assist the disciples of Christ in things,
necessary for the present life is part of that labour in the Lord which shall
not be in vain. " In as much as ye have done it unto one of these my brethren,
ye have done it unto me." We may here add, that in the 6th verse there occurs a
variation of reading - some manuscripts bearing that Mary bestowed much labour
among you, instead of on us. That is, she may have been helpful to the members
of the church, whether spiritually or temporally; or in the latter of these two
senses, may have been helpful to Paul himself.
Ver. 7. We have no
taste for ascertaining that which the Bible has left uncertain, and on which
ecclesiastical antiquity throws no light whatever. Why supersaturate the world
with conjectures on matters which have no ground of evidence to stand upon - as
whether Andronicus and Junia were man and wife; whether Junia was not Julia, or
if she was a woman at all; whether they were claimed by Paul as of kin to
himself, because Israelites, or because of still nearer affinity; whether they
were of note among the apostles, because, being converted before Paul, they
might have been of the seventy disciples; and lastly, what the occasion of
their imprisonment along with the apostle. Enough for us the generalities of
Scripture, which are at the same time of themselves sufficiently interesting.
Ver. 8. 'Beloved in the Lord.'
This expression denotes a
purely spiritual relationship, as distinguished from the natural relationship
adverted to in the preceding verse. The two verses together suggest the two
distinct grounds on which one might be the object of affection. Both might be
united in the same person; and this reminds us of what Paul says respecting
Onesimus, that he should be received by Philemon as a brother beloved, "both in
the flesh and in the Lord." It is pleasing to observe the former of these two
affections thus legitimised by the apostle - or the sanction given by him to
the natural as well as spiritual love - to the love of friendship and
relationship, as well as that love of Christians which is emphatically termed
the love of the brethren, and is singled out by St. John as an evidence of our
having passed from death unto life.
Ver. 9. 'Our helper in
Christ.'
This expression, even in our English Bible, powerfully suggests
that the help given by Urbane to Paul was in his apostolic work. But the
original fixes this more surely. He was the fellow-worker of the apostle.
Ver. 10. 'Approved in Christ' - or found. He was one of those
whom Paul here distinguishes by the special proof which he had given of his
discipleship.
Ver. 11. 'Which are in the Lord.'
This
adjunct to the household of Narcissus, and not of Aristobulus, would imply that
only a part of Narcissus family had been converted - whereas all of the other
household had been turned to the faith. We may here observe, that Paul confines
these salutations only to brethren in Christ - though none more courteous than
he to them who were without. His were not common letters, but written for the
use of the churches.
Ver. 13. 'Chosen in the Lord.'
Elect -
it is not said beloved, as with many of the others. The two expressions
harmonise. They who are loved now were loved before the foundation of the
world. They who were loved then, are loved even unto the end. 'His mother and
mine.' The mother of Rufus by birth, of Paul by affection - a claim of
relationship by which he delicately and beautifully propounds the love that he
bore to her. Rufus is understood to have been the son of Simon, who was
compelled to bear the cross of our Saviour.
We may close these remarks,
by observing that these names are not without their use - in clearing up
certain points, or at least furnishing ground for certain plausible
conjectures, both in the evangelic and in ecclesiastical history. As an example
of the latter, there is no reason for doubting the testiniony of the ancients -
that the Hermas to whom Paul here sends his respects, is identical with the
apostolic father of that name, whose works have come down to us. For specimens
of the help which these names afford, in establishing certain connections and
references - so as to harmonise some of the distant places and passages of the
New Testament, and thus elicit a confirmatory evidence for the truth of the
evangelic story, see Dr. Paleys Horin Pauline.
Ver. 16. 'Salute
one another with an holy kiss.'
The customary method of salutation in these
days - exchanged, however, only between those of the same sex. It is remarkable
that, by the testimony of Suetonius, an edict was published by one of the Roman
emperors for the abolition of this practice among his subjects - perhaps in
order to check abuses, for the prevention of which our apostle enjoins that it
shall be a holy salutation. It is a custom advrted to in other places of the
New Testament.
"The churches of Christ salute you" - Those churches probably
to whom he had made known his purpose of writing to the church at Rome - whose
faith was spoken of throughout the whole world. We might well imagine the
satisfaction which would be spread abroad among the disciples everywhere, when
they heard of the progress which Christianity was making in the metropolis of
the empire; and with what cordiality they would send their gratulations to the
believers there.
Ver. 17. ' Now I beseech you, brethren, mark
them which cause divisions and offcnces contrary to the doctrine which ye have
learned; and avoid them.'
Paul recurs to the topic of his unceasing
earnestness and desire - the peace or unanimity of the church. He had just
finished a long series of salutations, and enjoined them to exchange these
tokens of mutual affection with each other - when, as if the more strikingly to
mark his adverse feeling towards the authors and promoters of dissension in
their society, he points them out as men, with whom, instead of the signs or
interchanges of regard, they were to hold no fellowship. He who before had told
them whom they were to receive, now tells them whom they are to reject or
avoid. The doctrine which they had just learned from him was that of
forbearance, one for another, in the matter of certain Jewish observances - the
doctrine of that charity which endureth all things, save that spirit which is
hostile to its own, and wherewith it must ever be, at antipodes. For them who
caused divisions, such as the judaising teachers who would have forced their
own burdensome ritual on all the converts; or for them who caused offences,
such as those Gentile believers, who, in the wantonness of their liberty, cared
not to insult and to wound the consciences of their weaker brethren - for
neither of these could our apostle feel the slightest complacency or
toleration. They were marked men in his estimation - notorious in the sinister
sense of the term: And it strongly evinces the value that he had for unbroken
concord in every Christian society - when, in point both of reckoning and
treatment, he puts these disturbers of the peace on the same level with those
profligates whom he would cast out from the attentions of all the brethren.
Ver. 18. 'For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus
Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the
hearts of the simple.'
He obviously refers here to the judaising teachers -
because to them who deceived the hearts of the simple, that is, of the
scrupulous or weak, who refrained from meats, and attached a religious
importance to the eating of herbs. There were false teachers in these days, to
whose inroads the earlier churches stood peculiarly exposed. They practised on
those of a tender conscience, making a trade as it were of their superstitious
fears; and made unhallowed use of the ill-gotten ascendancy which they obtained
over them. Their object, as the apostle here tells us, was not to serve the
Lord Jesus Christ, but to make out a lazy and luxurious livelihood for
themselves - and that at the expence of those, whom by good words and fair
speeches they had deceived. No wonder that the noble, manly, disinterested
Paul, and withal so jealous as he was for the maintenance of the pure truth of
the gospel, should, on so many occasions, have protested with such vigour and
vehemence against them. It is of such that he seems to speak in Philippians,
iii, 18, 19, where he denounces the enemies of the cross of Christ, "whose god
is their belly;" and in Gal. vi, 1 2 - where he tells of those who "desire to
make a fair show." They were the troublers of whom he desired that they should
even be cut off - the perverters of the gospel of Christ, who preached another
gospel, and whom he pronounces to be accursed. These deceivers were specially
of the circumcision, who subverted whole houses, and taught things which they
ought not, for filthy lucre's sake. We can quite imagine them to be of that
sort who entered into houses and led captive silly women. Our knowledge of such
characters and such doings furnishes a clue to the explanation of other
passages. They were of such impostors that Peter speaks, and who seem to have
taken a most shameful advantage over their dupes or victims - " beguiling
unstable souls" - given to "covetous practices" - " sporting themselves with
their own deceivings, while feasting" with the deceived - and "speaking great
swelling words of vanity."
And so also Jude, in exhorting the disciples
to whom he wrote, that "they should earnestly contend for the faith which was
once delivered to the saints," describes to us the men against whom that
contest had to be maintained - " men crept in unawares," and "who run greedily
after the error of Balaam for reward " - who having insinuated themselves into
the society of the faithful, feasted among them without fear - who with their
mouths spake great swelling words, and flattered men for their own advantage.
Ver. 19. 'For your obedience is come abroad unto all men. I am
glad therefore on your behalf: but yet I would have you wise unto that which is
good, and simple concerning evil. '
What he had before said of their faith,
he now says of their obedience, that it was spoken of everywhere. He is anxious
therefore that they should not tarnish their fair fame - for certain it is that
from the ready and general intercourse which subsisted between Rome and all
parts of the empire, the story of their degeneracies would as speedily go
abroad as did that of the virtues and graces by which they adorned their
profession of the gospel. He rejoices in the praise which they had earned from
all the churches; but proportional would be his grief should they ever forfeit
the reputation which they had acquired. He does not express, however, the same
doubt or diffidence of them which he did of the Galatians - yet for their
greater security he cautions them to be wise unto that which is good, and
simple concerning evil. This last injunction is analogous to that given by our
Saviour to those disciples whom he sent forth as "lambs in the midst of
wolves." "Be wise as serpents and harmless as doves." But though analogous, it
does not seem to be identical. The apostles of our Lord needed the wisdom of
the serpent for their protection from the wiles of their skilful and practised
adversaries, who knew, for they had made a study of it, how best to circumvent
and distress their victims. And they were harmless as doves, because they
neither felt the disposition, nor had ever cultivated the art of malice. It is
thus that they might be wise in one thing and simple in another; and the
application of these qualities to the case before us seems to have lain - First
in ability to discriminate what was really and essentially good from that,
which but claimed or pretended to be so, in virtue of which they cleaved to the
one and rejected the other - Secondly in abstaining from all fellowship, and so
having no knowledge of their ways, with those deep and mischievous designers
who could so sophisticate and so counterfeit evil as to make it pass for that
which was good - imposing on their deluded followers, by a show of will-worship
and zeal for the law, to the utter subversion of the gospel of Christ. By the
first they were men in understanding - proving all things, and holding fast
that which is good. By the second they were children in malice - strangers to
its wishes, and therefore unskilled in its methods or its ways.
Ver.
20. 'And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly.'
A good many manuscripts, and even a warrantable translation of the received
reading, would authorise our turning this clause from a prophecy into a prayer
- May the God of peace bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The reference by
the apostle to the great adversary of human souls was very naturally suggested
by the view he was then taking of those false teachers, whom he elsewhere
designates as the ministers of Satan transformed into angels of light. And the
terms in which the prayer or prophecy is couched, is precisely such as would be
suggested by the prediction in Genesis, iii, 15, "It shall bruise thy head, and
thou shalt bruise his heel." He is the great author of all confusion and
controversy in our churches: And the achievement proper to the God of peace, or
to His Son, who came to destroy the works of the devil, would be to trample
them under foot, and so evolve harmony and order out of all the disturbances by
which he retards, though unable to prevent, the final establishment of the
triumph of Christ over all His enemies. The invocation for His grace to be with
them comes in most appropriately - seeing that this is indeed the great
instrument of Satan's overthrow - the Spirit who is at the giving of Christ,
being the alone victor over the spirit which worketh in the children of
disobedience - the spirit of him who is the god of this world.
"Greater
is he that is in you than he that is in the world." It is not unworthy of
notice that this Epistle to the Romans seems to have had three distinct
conclusions. The first is at the end of the 15th chapter, where the last verse
is quite in the form of a valedictory invocation; but, just as if before the
letter had been sent off, there had occurred time enough for the subjoining of
something more, we find the apostle adding the salutations of the 16th chapter,
from the first to the sixteenth verse. As he had recurred to the letter for the
purpose of sending these salutations, he is revisited while in the act of
penning or rather of dictating them, with that desirousness which he felt so
strongly for the peace of the church at Rome: And this occasions a prolongation
of the letter from the 16th to the 20th verse, which he concludes with a second
farewell salutation - The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.
After this, and with the benefit of a further allowance of time ere the
messenger was despatched, there seems to be a second postscript of more
salutations which occupy three verses, from the 20th to the 24th - where a
third valedictory, the last of all, concludes the epistle.
Ver. 21 -
23. Here follow the salutations, not from Paul himself to the individuals
whom he names - these he had finished already; nor yet from the churches at
large, which also had been given; but from certain Christian friends who were
with him, and were desirous of sending through him their respects to the whole
church at Rome. In the 21st verse, there occur two remarkable scriptural names
- Timothy, who by the consent of all is he to whom he addressed the two
epistles; and Lucius, who though regarded by some as Lucius of Cyrene, is, by
far the greater number of critics, and with more probability, reckoned to be
Luke the Evangelist, author of the Gospel and Acts, and the fellow-traveller of
Paul. We leave the question undecided, whether the kinsmen here mentioned were
nearer relatives, or only Israelites, whom the apostle elsewhere calls his
kinsmen according to the flesh. In the 22nd verse Paul suspends his dictation,
and lets his own amanuensis interpose a salutation from himself to the church
at Rome. In his first epistle to the Corinthians he also suspends his
dictation; and, taking up the pen himself, writes - "The salutation of me Paul
with mine own hand." Gaius mine host, and of the whole church, mentioned in the
23rd verse, is with good reason conceived to be the Gaius of Corinth whom Paul
had baptized; from which city this epistle was written. Paul was at that time
an inmate of his house; and he takes occasion to make honourable mention of his
hospitality to Christians at large - a frequent and most useful virtue, being
much called for by the exigencies of the times. Erastus the chamberlain, or
city treasurer of Corinth, is an example, that though not many of wealth or
high station, yet that some such had become obedient to the faith. As we have
just stated that this epistle was written from Corinth, we might give a
specimen of the way in which this is reasoned out - or of the kind of data on
which such a conclusion is supported. - Paul commends Phebe, who seems to have
been sent with the epistle, to the church at Rome. She was a deaconess of the
church at Cenchrea, the port of Corinth, and a few miles distant from it. Then
Gaius is the host of Paul; and Gaius was baptized by Paul at Corinth. Then
Erastus is chamberlain of the city, which he does not name. It must have been a
well-known city therefore; and in all likelihood this capital of Achaia.
Lastly, Erastus, we are told in 2 Tim. iv, 20, abode at Corinth - though
probably often absent from it, as to all appearance he was a fellow-helper of
Paul, and at times accompanied him in his travels.
Ver. 24 - 27.
'The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. Now to him that is
of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus
Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since
the world began, but now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the
prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to
all nations for the obedience of faith: to God only wise, be glory through
Jesus Christ for ever. Amen.'
The final benediction of Paul comes at
last, and closes the epistle. It begins with a repetition of the same which he
had already given in the 20th verse - imploring upon them all the grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ. What remains is in the general an ascription of glory to the
Father of our Lord - but it is of such a complicated and parethetic structure,
as to require some attention for unravelling the several topics which are
involved in it. 'To him that is of power to stablish you.' This clause is
suspended in Paul's own frequent and characteristic way, by the interposal of
other matter suggested at the time; and which if removed would connect
immediately the words now given with those of the 27th verse. To him that is of
power to stablish you to God only wise, &c. The contiguity only, not the
connection, of these two clauses is broken up by what comes between them. To
him that is of power; or as Jude says in his closing benediction - " To him
that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless." To
establish a man in the faith is to make him stand fast therein - so as that he
shall not fall, or "fall away." It is well thus to connect our perseverance
with the power of God. He who hath begun the good work, can alone confirm and
perfect it. It is by a perpetual reference therefore, in prayer to Him, and for
the strengthening influences of His Spirit, that grace is alimented in the
heart. Let him who thinketh he standeth, thus take heed lest he fall. Let him
work out his salvation with fear and trembling, because sensible of his own
weakness, and so having no confidence in himself. Yet let him mix with his
trembling mirth - because rejoicing in the Lord Jesus, and looking upward to
that God who alone worketh in him to will and to do of His own good pleasure.
According to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ. May He stablish you
in the truths and principles of that system which is agreeable to, so agreeable
as to be identical with my gospel or with the gospel which I preach, and which
Christ also preached
Paul thus affirming his doctrine and Jesus
Christs doctrine to be at one. According to the revelation of the mystery which
was kept secret since the world began, or kept secret in ancient times. He had
before said according to my gospel ; and when he now says according to the
revelation of the mystery, he but substitutes one method of expression for
another - The subject-matter in both being the same, only amplified or
expressed otherwise. This gospel was kept secret, or held back in silence from
the earth - there having been little or nothing said of it to the earlier
generations of our species. - It has been made a matter of discussion what the
mystery here spoken of precisely is. Some would have it specifically to be the
calling of the Gentiles, and for countenance to this their explanation of it
would refer to Ephesians, iii, 9, and Colossians, i, 26. We have no doubt
ourselves, that generally it is the subject-matter of the gospel. But now is
made manifest. That which was profoundly hidden before is now made manifest -
first in a dimmer and lesser degree by the prophets to the Jews; and afterwards
in the fuller light of gospel times made known to all nations. We are not to
wonder that the revelation made to the prophets should be spoken of as only
made now. At the time when this revelation was first given its meaning was
little known even to the prophets through whom it passed. Though ministered by
them it was not unto themselves but unto us. It had been given in words to the
world centuries before the appearance of our Saviour - yet was only made known
for the first time to the disciples of Emmaus, when He opened their
understandings to understand the Scriptures - beginning with Moses and the
Prophets.
What our Saviour did in person to these disciples upon earth,
He afterwards did to believers in general by the Holy Spirit sent down from
heaven, and whose office it is to make the sure word of prophecy obvious to
their view, by causing the day to dawn and the day-star to arise in their
hearts. The gospel might well have been said by the apostle to be manifest by
the scriptures of the prophets only now - for only now were these scriptures
made manifest. "According to the commandment of the everlasting God made known
unto all nations for the obedience of faith." To perfect the revelation of the
gospel, the work of apostles had to be superadded to that of prophets. The
gospel had been witnessed to by the Law and the Prophets - when it lay in
enigma till cleared up by the more explicit statements of those who were
commissioned to go and preach it unto every creature. These three verses (25,
26, and 27) might be rendered thus. - Now to Him who is able to establish you
in the discipleship of my gospel, which is nothing else than the gospel of
Jesus Christ Himself - or in the discipleship of that revelation whereby there
has been divulged the truth that was before hidden, and kept back from men in
the earlier ages of the world; but is now made manifest, both by the prophetic
writings which we in these days have been made more fully to understand - and
also is the proclamation of the same agreeably to the commandment of the
everlasting God, amongst all nations, for the purpose of obtaining their
submission to the faith - To Him, the only wise God, be glory for ever, through
Jesus Christ our Lord.
We may be assured that there is nothing
misplaced or inappropriate in the epithets employed by the apostle; and more
especially in those which he applies to the Divinity. In particular, when he
applies different epithets to Him at different times, there must, we apprehend,
be a discriminative reason for his so doing. In the 26th verse he denominates
Him the everlasting God; and in the 27th, the God only wise. The epithet
everlasting seems to have been suggested to the mind of the apostle, when he
had in view the different and distant ages at which God had His different
dealings with men from the beginning of the world - as keeping them in
ignorance at its earlier periods, and at length in due time making known the
scheme of His salvation. He, the King Eternal, who knows the end from the
beginning, knows what is best and fittest to be done at each of the successive
stages in the process of that great administration whose goings forth have been
of old, and whose issues are from everlasting to everlasting. And He is
denominated the only wise, that we, the short-lived creatures of a day, might
learn to receive with unquestioning silence all the intimations which He has
been pleased to have given us. In particular, it should reconcile the Jews to
the termination of that economy under which they had hitherto lived, and under
which they had vainly arrogated to themselves an exclusive and ever-during
superiority over the rest of the species - whereas it appeared that the middle
wall of partition was now to be broken down; and that their fancied monopoly of
the Divine favour was but a temporary evolution in the history of the Divine
government. And so he concludes his epistle, by calling on both parties in the
church to which he writes it, to unite with him in the one ascription of glory
to the Father through the Son; and that verily a glory which shall never end.
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