to the apostleship. He was then set apart by Christ himself for the special service of his truth; and from that time considered himself as wholly dedicated to that one work. And it is in this that the true ordination and separation of ministers consists. They are henceforward to be men of one business; separated from worldly pursuits and the worldly spirit, that they may give themselves up wholly to the ministry of the word. No other distinction by which they are separated from the rest of mankind is of any value without this. It is true that St. Paul sometimes made tents after he was an apostle; but not for his own benefit, but that he might not be burdensome to the churches; and only from necessity, subordinating that, as well as every thing else, to his great work. As a Pharisee, he had been professedly a separated man, (w separavit,) but he was so truly and in a higher sense. The gospel is here called the gospel of God, not because God and his gracious purposes to men are the subjects which it reveals, but because of its DIVINE AUTHORITY. The subject is declared in verse 3. It is the gospel of God concerning his Son Jesus Christ.

Verse 2. Which was promised afore, &c. -To the Jew this point, being established, was a conclusive argument. If the Christian system were the subject of the ancient prophetic promises of God made to all their fathers, and expatiated upon and repeated by all their prophets in succession, then the objection drawn from the supposed contrariety of the new doctrine to the old, was at once removed. Nothing was lost to the believing Jew but types and shadows, for which he obtained the great substance and end of the

law for righteousness; and the exact accomplishment of the ancient revelations in the gospel established and harmonized the divine authority of both. To the Gentile this was a cogent argument. To him it could be shown that the principles of Christ's religion had existed, and had been gradually developed through successive revelations, all recorded in a series of sacred books of undoubted antiquity, all preserved with the utmost care; and in the hands of the Jewish people,— men who generally were agreed to reject, and in the most malignant spirit to persecute, Christianity, so that their treatment of Christ and his religion was a sufficient guarantee that they had not interpolated these sacred books in their favour. The attention of reflecting Gentiles would, no doubt, in the first place, be attracted by the miracles wrought by the first preachers; but the evidence from ancient promises and prophecies would come in mightily to confirm their faith. The prophets here mentioned are the inspired writers of the Old Testament, including also the fathers, as the patriarchs, the revelations and promises to whom those writers record.

Verse 4. Declared to be the Son of God with power.—Opiw signifies to fix limits, and mark boundaries; and hence it is used for showing things to be what they really are. Our Lord is here said to have been declared to be the Son of God with power by his resurrection. That is, this was a declaration of this fact by evidence of the most powerful kind; and by that it was confirmed and established. That our Lord was not constituted the Son of God by the resurrection, is clear from the fact that he had previously assumed that

character, and was believed in as such by his disciples: "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." Whatever therefore was the import of that high title, and in previous notes it has been proved to refer immediately to his Deity,—it was confirmed to our Lord by the irresistible proof of his resurrection from the dead; which, by establishing this, rendered all his other claims for ever indisputable, and exhibited him before the world as an infallible TEACHER, a divine SACRIFICE, the all-meritorious INTERCESSOR, and the Almighty REDEEMER of men. The clause, according to the spirit of holiness, has been taken in two views; either "according to his holy spiritual nature," in which sense it declares that Christ is the Son of God as to his divinity; or "according to the Holy Spirit" in his miraculous operations, in raising him from the dead, and in the church as the consequence of his resurrection and ascension. These are the only two interpretations which are worthy consideration, several others which have been advanced being evidently forced and erroneous. The question between the two leading interpretations seems to be determined by the apparent antithesis which the apostle adopts, and that manifestly for the purpose of making the strongest distinction between the two clauses, kala σаρка, according to the flesh, and kala пvevμɑ ɑyıwovvns, according to the spirit of holiness. Our Lord was the son of David according to the flesh, or human nature; but he was the Son of God, according to the spirit of holiness, which stands in direct opposition and contrast to the flesh, or human nature, of Christ. Now the operations of the Holy Ghost, however they might demonstrate the truth of Christ's claims, and among the rest that of being the Son of God, in a sense which implied the divinity of that relation, cannot be placed in contrast with his flesh or human nature. As in respect of, or according to the flesh, he was the son of David, so in respect of, or according to something else, which was essential to himself, he was the Son of God; of which sonship the resurrection from the dead was the proof. The operation

of the Holy Ghost was indeed connected with the resurrection, and his pentecostal effusion was its consequence; and by all these he was declared to be the Son of God: but that which declared, defined, and marked him out with its powerful evidence as having the peculiar relation of a son of God in that higher nature which thus stands distinguished from the human, is manifestly distinct from that on which that relation itself rested. It is objected that the spirit of holiness is an unusual phrase by which to designate the divine nature of the Son; to which it may be replied, that it is equally singular if considered as used of the third person of the Trinity, who is constantly called the Holy Spirit, but not the Spirit of Holiness. "Holiness" is used in several passages of the Old Testament, for the divine Majesty; and we shall see reason to conclude, when we come to the passage, that in the epistle to the Hebrews St. Paul designates the higher and superior nature of Christ, "the eternal spirit." That is certainly the only true interpretation which preserves the antithesis between the divine and human nature of Christ in the two clauses, according to the flesh, and according to the spirit of holiness, which would otherwise be lost; but the doctrine of the divine sonship of Christ is plainly enough asserted in this passage, independent of the clause in question. For let it be remarked, that the apostle is speaking of what Christ is personally and essentially; for the authority of his official claims depends upon the truth of his personal ones, and if he be a divine person he is every thing beside which he claimed to be. He is therefore considered by the apostle, distinctly in his two natures, as the son of David, and as the Son of God, which, with the Jews every where, at Rome or Jerusalem, implied divinity. To prove that he was the son of David, no evidence was necessary but the Jewish genealogies; to prove him divine, or, what was the same thing, the Son of God, as he himself professed before the Jewish council,-which condemned him on that very account as a blasphemer,-evidence of the strongest kind was necessary, and

it was given in his resurrection from the dead.

Verse 5. Grace and apostleship.-Grace includes the personal salvation of St. Paul, and his spiritual endowments. The GRACE comes first, then the OFFICE; for no man was ever by Christ sent forth as his minister, without previous experience of that grace which bringeth salvation. Nor is the case of Judas an exception, since there is just the same reason to conclude that, in the first stage of his apostleship, he was as sincere and enlightened as the rest. Those who would restrict grace here to miraculous gifts, do not appear to consider the superior importance of that effectual religious influence by which the heart of man is renewed "in knowledge and true holiness," to the office of the ministry in all its stages, not excluding, however, all necessary qualifications. The word may indeed be taken in its primary sense of favour; as when St. Paul says, "Unto me who am the least of all saints is this GRACE given, that I should preach," &c. But this favour necessarily implies personal reconciliation with God, and the communication of divine hallowing influence, without which man can neither fully know nor effectually teach the truths of Christianity.

The apostleship was one of those offices which did not descend to a future age. Its nature indicated its temporary character. The apostles were to lay the FOUNDATION of the Christian church, and appoint those who were to build upon it. They had, as eye-witnesses, to testify the resurrection of Christ, which was the great demonstrative fact of the truth of Christianity; and to qualify him for this, St Paul had a vision of Christ in his glory. They were also to work miracles in the name of Christ, and thus to establish the truth of the facts and doctrines of which they were made the teachers. They too had an authority which no other

ministers possessed. Under special inspiration they explained the doctrines of Christ, laid down the terms of man's salvation, promulged the Christian law, and whatever things they thus "bound” or "loosed "" on earth, that is, declared obligatory or otherwise upon men, were "bound" and "loosed" in heaven; so that God, in his moral government, deals with men according to the principles and rules they laid down in their preaching, and embodied in their writings, for the guidance of all future ages. This authority was peculiar to the apostles only, and given to them by an express act of Christ.

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For obedience to the faith.-The end of the Christian ministry is to produce a true, firm faith in Christ; which is called the obedience to the faith, or rather the obedience of faith, because to believe is enforced by God's command. Christianity does not therefore stand on the sa ground as systems of human opinion and man's wisdom, which no one is bound to believe, and from the rejection of which no evil, in the way of penalty, would result. Faith in Christ is the grand law of the new dispensation, and it is enforced under the highest sanctions. "He that believ eth shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned." No respect is here paid to the principle of the mental innocence of infidelity. That may apply to unauthorized systems; but he that made man, and knows man's heart, has arranged the evidence of Christianity. To those who regard it seriously and honestly, it is sufficiently powerful to command entire faith; and when that does not follow, the fault is not in the weakness of the evidence, but in the state of the hearts of those who remain either in entire unbelief, or with whom faith is nominal and inoperative. They are therefore justly charged with criminality. They not only put away from them that salvation which God has connected with

faith, but manifest a slight and contempt of the most stupendous displays of the divine mercy, which places them under direct and eternal malediction.

For his name.-The preposition veр is best taken here in the sense of on account of; and the name of Christ, for the honour of Christ. The gospel was preached to bring all nations to the obedience of faith, on account of the name or glorious honour of Christ, who is appointed the universal Saviour and King, to whose NAME "every knee" is ultimately to "bow."

Verse 6. The called of Jesus Christ.'Calling" has reference to those parables of our Lord in which the gospel is represented under the figure of a royal feast to which numerous guests are invited. Those who accept the invitation, and are received by the Master of the feast, are denominated THE CALLED, or invited, by way of eminence; and thus, rather than from military levies, or any other custom, was the term brought into the common theological language of the early church. The great invitation to the free participation of evangelical blessings, was, under the authority and in the name of Christ, made by the apostles and first preachers to all nations, without distinction; and those who embraced it were eminently the called of Christ Jesus. Verse 7. To all that be in Rome, &c. To all the Christians in Rome. These were probably, for the most part, converted Jews, whose piety, zeal, and influence had, however, brought over many Gentiles. We have no account of the planting of this celebrated church. From St. Paul expressing his desire to visit them for many years, it is plain that it existed at a very early period; and from its faith being so generally spoken of among Christians every where with admiration, that it had long acquired a noticeable

maturity and stability. "The faith" might be taken back to Rome by some Jew or proselyte present at the day of Pentecost, and there "pricked to the heart" under Peter's sermon, and then, by baptism, added to the church. Or, the dispersion of Christians and their preachers, which took place on the death of Stephen, might lead some to settle in Rome. The intercourse betwixt Judea and the capital of the world was so constant, that Christian Jews, at the earliest period, must have visited it.

Beloved of God, &c.-These expressions show the interesting relations in which every true church stands to God; relations which no other association of men, however composed, or however dignified, can claim; and it affords a most powerful motive to a renunciation of the spirit, example, and sinful society of the world, and to confess Christ by visible fellowship with his true disciples. They are beloved of God, being his adopted children; the called, invited and received at the board of their Sovereign; saints, persons washed and sanctified from common and unholy uses to the peculiar service of God, and to offer to him as his priests the spiritual gifts and sacrifices of prayer, praise, and the obedient subordination of all their active powers to his sole will. This is the character of a true church, and of the true members of which it is composed. And though indeed similar terms are applied collectively to the Jewish nation, who were, in a peculiar sense, his people and church, it does not clearly appear that St. Paul applied these terms to a Christian church, because they were originally applied to the Jewish. They so naturally arose out of the state into which Christianity had brought the members individually, and were so descriptive of it, that none so fit could have

been adopted. But if they were indeed transferred from the Jewish to the Christian church, they must from necessity have been used in a far stricter and special sense. The reason of this is, that the Jewish church was founded upon natural descent from Abraham; the Christian church is composed only of believers, who have undergone a moral change of nature, and who continue its members only so long as they remain vitally united to Christ, and bring forth the fruits of righteousness. There is indeed a visible church connected with this, into which all children are introduced by baptism, and out of which those do not ordinarily pass who, by sins against the laws of Christ, cut themselves off from that true invisible church, the names of whose members are written in heaven; but to be in this church is a state of PRIVILEGE, not necessarily a state of SALVATION. The apostles evidently contemplated the churches to which they wrote, as for the most part at least composed of persons who "knew the grace of God in truth,” and had been reconciled to God, and regenerated by his Spirit. Hence the description of a church collectively was no more than a description of what was taken to be the state of its individual members, at least so many of them as gave a character to the whole society. For as unquestionably the apostles had views so just of Christianity, the grand remedy of the moral evils of human nature, that they thought they laboured wholly in vain unless “they turned men from darkness to light, and the power of Satan unto God," and unless through the gospel published by them, they "obtained forgiveness of sins, and an inheritance among the sanctified" or hallowed ones; so they never could call those beloved of God, who had never been reconciled to God, nor those saints who had not been actually washed from their sins. Nor can there be any perversion of the New Testament more

guilty and fatal than that which would teach us to estimate the effect intended to be produced by Christianity upon the hearts of men, by the force which such terms as beloved of God, or chosen people, or God's sanctified, or the redeemed of the Lord, possess when applied collectively and nationally to the Jews. Such terms in the New Testament must have the force not of the old, but of the new dispensation: the shadow was in the former, the substance in the latter; and let no one deceive himself, for he that is in Christ IS A NEW CREATURE; as this epistle will fully unfold in its subsequent parts.

Grace to you and peace.-All spiritual blessings are summed up in these terms; in this, St. Paul's favourite form of benediction. Grace is that special favour of God which he bears to those who are reconciled to him through the death of his Son, and adopted into his family, with all the benefits consequent upon it,-the gift of the Holy Spirit, the special care and protection of God, and the joyful hope of eternal life. Peace was the usual form of eastern salutation; but it is here raised in its import. It is not a wish or prayer for temporal blessings; but that rich satisfaction and sweet tranquillity of mind which arises from inward intercourse and communion with God, as our Father and Friend, and from those abiding manifestations of his gracious presence, with which the true disciple is favoured.

Verse 8. Through Jesus Christ.-This is to be specially noted as an example of the presentation of an act of thanksgiving to God, THROUGH Jesus Christ. It shows the light in which the apostle regarded the mediation of Jesus Christ; and all acts of prayer and praise are to have respect to him as the MERITORIOUS CAUSE of their acceptance on the part of God.

Your faith is spoken of, &c.-Not merely their belief in Christ's mission, and in Christianity, as of divine author