,st4 ,paul's ,epistle to the ,romans ,a ,practical ,exposition ,,by ,,charles ,,gore1 ,m4,a41 ,d4,d4 ,,of ,,the ,,community ,,of ,,the ,,resurrection ,,canon ,,of ,,westminster2 ,,chaplain ,,to ,,the ,,king ,,vol4 ,,ii 7,,chapters ,,ix-,,xvi7 ,,new ,,impression ,,london ,,john ,,murray1 ,,albemarle ,,street #aija ,,oxford ,,horace ,,hart1 ,,printer ,,to ,,the ,,university v ,,preface ,there would be no need for a preface to this second volume were it not that a very kindly and careful review of the first volume in ,the ,guardian of ,may #bd last1 requires a word of notice4 ,the reviewer warns me off 'the dialogue system of exegesis4' ,now no doubt this principle1 like every other1 may be abused4 ',the ,jewish objector' may1 as the reviewer complains1 be allowed to 'run riot4' ,still ,i cannot doubt that the ,jewish objector is a reality of an illuminative kind in the argument of such passages as ,romans iii4 #a-h1 or the great passage 7ix-xi71 to which the first part of this volume is devoted4 ,of the other points of detail noticed by the reviewer--which a volume of this kind is not the place to discuss--many are confessedly doubtful1 and some unimportant4 ,on most of vi them ,i am still disposed to retain my former opinion1 but ,i would1 in accordance with my critic's wishes1 alter 'the actual life' 7vol4 i4 p4 #bjc7 into 'the principle of life1' and 7p4 #bac7 instead of saying that the principle of living by dying 'belongs only to a fallen world' say that 'it belongs1 as ,st4 ,paul views it1 though probably not in its ultimate law1 to a fallen world4' ,i agree that in its deepest sense the principle appears to be an ultimate law of all created life of which the conditions are known to us4 ,c4 ,g4 ,,westminster ,,abbey1 ,conversion of ,st4 ,paul1 #aijj4 vii ,,table ,,of ,,contents ,,the ,,epistle ,,to ,,the ,,romans4 ,,page ,,division ,,iv ,the theodicy or justification of ,god for ,his dealings with the ,jews 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #a ,,chapter ,,ix4 #a-ac #a ,the present rejection of ,israelites no breach of a divine promise 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #ad #ad-bi #b ,god's liberty in showing mercy and judgement always retained and asserted 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #ca #cj-x4#ba #c ,lack of faith the reason of ,israel's rejection #dd ,,xi4 #a-ab #d ,god's judgement on ,israel neither universal nor final 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #ei #ac-cf #e ,god's present purpose for the ,jews through the ,gentiles3 and so for all humanity 4 4 4 4 4 #fh ,,division ,v ,practical exhortation 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #ie ,,xii4 #a-b #a ,self-surrender in response to ,god 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #ig #c-ba #b ,the community spirit 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #ajc ,,xiii4 #a-g #c ,the ,christians and the imperial power 4 4 4 4 4 #aaf #h-aj #d ,the summary debt 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #abg #aa-ad #e ,the approach of the day 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #acc ,,xiv4 #a-bc #f ,mutual toleration 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #acg ,,xv4 #a-ac #g ,unselfish forbearance and inclusiveness 4 4 4 4 #aei viii ,,division ,,vi ,conclusion 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #agj ,,xv4 #d-cc #a ,st4 ,paul's excuse for writing1 and his hope of coming 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #aga ,,xvi4 #a-b #b ,a commendation 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #ahi #c-af #c ,personal greetings 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #aia #ag-bj #d ,final warning 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #aih #ba-bc #e ,salutations from companions 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #bjj #be-bg #f ,final doxology 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #bja ,,appended ,,notes3-- ,a4 ,the meanings of the word 'faith' 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #bje ,b4 ,the use of the word 'conscience' 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #bjg ,c4 ,recent reactions from the teaching about hell 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #baj ,d4 ,difficulties about the doctrine of the atonement 4 4 4 4 4 4 #bae ,e4 ,evolution and the ,christian doctrine of the ,fall 4 4 4 4 4 4 #bai ,f4 ,baptism by immersion and by affusion 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #bcg ,g4 ,a prayer of ,jeremy ,taylor 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #bch ,h4 ,the origin of the maxim ',in necessariis unitas1 c4' 4 4 4 4 #bci ,i4 ,st4 ,augustine's teaching that ',the ,church is the body of ,christ offered in the eucharist' 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #bdj #a ,,the ,,epistle ,,to ,,the ,,romans ,,division ,,iv4 ,,chapters ,,ix-,,xi4 ,the theodicy or justification of ,god for ,his dealings with the ,jews4 ,st4 ,paul has concluded his great exposition of the meaning of 'the gospel'3 that in it is the disclosure of a divine righteousness into which all mankind--,jews and ,gentiles on the same level of need and sin--are to be freely admitted by simply believing in ,jesus4 ,the believer in ,jesus first welcomes the absolute and unmerited forgiveness of his sins1 which his redeemer has won for him1 and thus acquitted passes into the spiritual strength and joy and fellowship of the new life1 the life of the redeemed humanity1 lived in ,jesus ,christ1 the second ,adam or head of our race4 ,the #b contemplation of the present moral freedom1 and the glorious future prospect1 of this catholic body--the elect of ,god in ,jesus ,christ--has in the eighth chapter filled the apostle's language with the glow of an enthusiasm almost unparalleled in all the compass of his epistles4 ,and he is intending to pass on to interpret to the representatives of this church of ,christ at ,rome some of the moral obligations which follow most clearly from the consideration of what their faith really means4 ,this ethical division of the epistle begins with chapter xii4 ,the interval 7ix-xi7 is occupied with a discussion which is an episode1 in the sense that the epistle might be read without it and no feeling of a broken unity would force itself upon us4 ,none the less the discussion not only confronts and silences an obvious objection to ,st4 ,paul's teaching1 but also brings out ideas about the meaning of the divine election1 and the responsibility involved in it1 which are vital and necessary for the true understanding of the 'free grace of ,god4' ,for these chapters serve really to safeguard the all-important sense of our human responsibility under the rich and unmerited conditions of divine privilege in which we find ourselves4 #c ,st4 ,paul's argument so far has involved an obvious conclusion4 ,god's elect are no longer the ,jews in particular4 ,on the contrary1 the ,jews in bulk have lost their position and become apostates in rejecting the ,christ4 ,this result in the first place cuts ,st4 ,paul to the heart1 for his religious patriotism was peculiarly intense4 ,but in the second place it furnishes an objection in the mouth of the ,jew against ,st4 ,paul's whole message4 ,for if ,god had really rejected ,his chosen people1 ,he had broken ,his word in so doing4 ,god had pledged ,himself to ,israel3 the ,old ,testament scriptures were full of passages which might be quoted to this effect4 ,thus-- ',my mercy will ,i not utterly take from ,david ',nor suffer my faithfulness to fail4 ',my covenant will ,i not break1 ',nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips4 ',once have ,i sworn by my holiness2 ',i will not lie unto ,david2 ',his seed shall endure for ever1 ',and his throne as the sun before me4 ',it shall be established for ever as the moon1 ',and as the faithful witness in the sky#a4' ,but according to ,st4 ,paul's teaching1 had not ,god 'broken ,his covenant'8 ,what had #d become of the 'faithful witness'8 ,to this objection1 then1 ,st4 ,paul sets himself to reply4 ,the chapters we are now to consider may be best represented as an animated defence of his teaching directed toward a ,jew who pleads this objection4 ,st4 ,paul1 no doubt1 had heard too much of it since he began to preach the gospel1 and had felt it too deeply in his own mind in the earlier days1 when the word of ,jesus was as a goad against which he was kicking1 for it to be possible for him to pass it by4 ,and his defence--his 'theodicy' or justification of ,god--is in brief this3 ,god never committed ,himself or tied ,himself to ,israel physically understood4 ,he always kept hanging over their heads declarations of ,his own freedom in choosing ,his instruments1 and warnings of possible rejection1 such as ought to have prevented their resting satisfied with merely having ',abraham to their father' 7ix74 ,and if the question be asked3 ,why has ,israel been rejected8 ,the answer is3 ,that so far as actual ,israel has fallen out of the elect body1 it is because they refused to exhibit the correspondence of faith 7x72 but also ,israel1 as such1 has not been rejected2 for1 as of old1 so now there is a faithful remnant4 ,nor again is the partial alienation of ,israel which #e has occurred final4 ,god is simply waiting for their recovery of faith1 to restore them to their ancient and inalienable position of election4 ,meanwhile ,he uses their temporary alienation as the opportunity of the ,gentiles1 who in their turn can only retain their newly won position by maintaining the correspondence of faith with the purposes of ,god1 and who also wait for their fulfilment and the perfecting of their joy upon the recovery of ,israel as a body4 ,thus through all stages of election and rejection--by both methods of mercy and of judgement--,god1 in ,his inscrutable wisdom1 works steadily for the opportunity of showing ,his mercy upon all men4 ,when we have a brief analysis of the argument of these chapters under our eyes1 we may well rub them in astonishment1 and look again1 and ask why1 in the reaction against ,calvinism#b1 we had come 7to put it frankly7 to dislike these chapters so much4 ,we know that as a fact these chapters have been taken as a stronghold of the ,calvinistic position by both its #f friends and foes4 ,they have come to constitute in modern literature a sort of reproach upon ,christianity#c1 just on the ground on which the best ,christian conscience of our time is most sensitive4 ,many of us would have to admit that we have shrunk from these chapters as we have heard them read1 and probably avoided them in our own reading4 ,we have shrunk from the sound of the words--'the children being not yet born1 neither having done anything good or bad1 that the purpose of ,god according to election might stand1 not of works but of him that calleth'--',jacob have ,i loved1 and ,esau have ,i hated'--',whom he will he hardeneth'--',hath not the potter power over the clay4' ,yet these texts1 with their arbitrary1 unfair and narrow sound1 appear as steps in an argument which has for its conclusion the most universal conception possible of the purpose of the divine love4 ',god shut up all unto disobedience1 that he might have mercy upon all4' ,the conclusion of the argument is so unmistakable1 and so plain against any ,calvinistic attribution to ,god of #g a narrow and arbitrary favouritism1 that there must have been some great mistake in our understanding of its main point and drift4 ,it is worth while then to indicate at starting where the error has lain4 #a4 ,it has been in part owing to our mistaken habit of taking isolated 'texts' out of their connexion1 as if they were detached aphorisms4 ,now ,st4 ,john1 in his meditative method1 does very generally round off a fundamental ,christian truth into an aphorism which really admits of being detached and quoted apart from its context4 ,and no doubt there are in ,st4 ,paul detachable texts4 ,but on the whole ,st4 ,paul1 least of all men1 admits of being judged by detached fragments4 ,his thought is always in process4 ,it looks before and after4 ,he is seriously wronged by the mere fact of his epistles being divided into separate verses1 and sometimes arbitrary chapters1 as in the ,authorized ,version4 ,thus in the case of these three chapters1 the common mistake as to the meaning of particular phrases could hardly have arisen if the argument had been kept in mind as a whole1 and especially its conclusion as to the universal purpose of divine love--'to have mercy upon all4' #b4 ,for1 among other things1 the true meaning #h of 'election' in these chapters would then have been apparent4 ,st4 ,paul has been popularly misunderstood to be referring to ,god's 'election' of some individual men to salvation in heaven1 and ,his abandonment of the rest to hell4 ,whereas the argument as a whole and its conclusion make it quite certain that what he is speaking of is the election of men in nations or churches 7only subordinately of individuals7#d to a position of special spiritual privilege and responsibility in this world1 such as the ,jews had formerly occupied1 and the ,christians were occupying now--an election to be the people of ,god1 and bear ,his name in the face of the world--the sort of election which carries with it a great joy and a special opportunity1 but not by any means a certainty of final personal acceptableness to #i ,god1 apart from moral faithfulness4 ,apart from such faithfulness the 'children of the kingdom shall be cast into the outer darkness1' and the highest shall be put lowest1 while the lowest are raised highest4 #c4 ,another cause of misunderstanding has been forgetfulness of the point of view of the opponent with whom ,st4 ,paul is arguing4 ,in modern times assertions of divine absoluteness1 like ,st4 ,paul's1 have been made by teachers who were refusing to recognize any such freedom of the will in the individual human being--any such power to control his own personal destiny--as seems to our common sense to be involved in moral responsibility in any real sense4 ,st4 ,paul has therefore been supposed1 like these more recent teachers1 to be asserting divine absoluteness1 or the unrestricted freedom of divine choice1 as against human freedom1 or in such a way as to destroy the idea of moral responsibility4 ,but in fact ,st4 ,paul is vindicating moral responsibility4 ,his opponent is the ,jew1 who holds that ,god had so tied ,his hands and lost ,his liberty in choosing ,israel once for all for ,his elect people1 that every child of ,abraham can at all times claim the privileges of his election for no other reason than because of his #aj genealogy4 ,such a doctrine of election does indeed destroy all real moral responsibility in the subject of it1 and all freedom of moral choice in ,god4 ,st4 ,paul1 on the other hand1 asserts that ,god remains free and absolute to elect and to reject1 irrespective of all questions of race1 where ,he will and as ,he will4 ,the absolute reason of ,god's selections1 the reason why certain races and individuals are chosen for special privileges and as special instruments of the divine purpose1 lies in a region into which we cannot penetrate4 ,but because ,god has shown us ,his moral character and requirement1 we can know how1 and how only1 we may hope to retain any position which ,god has given us2 it is by exhibiting moral correspondence with ,his purpose--that is faith--or malleability under ,his hand4 ,this is a doctrine then which lays upon 'the elect1' at any particular moment1 the moral responsibility of correspondence with a divine purpose4 ,in a word1 ,st4 ,paul asserts divine sovereignty in such a sense as vindicates instead of destroying moral responsibility1 while his opponent is claiming for ,israel a sort of freedom from being interfered with1 which would really destroy their moral responsibility altogether4 #aa ,thus1 as has already been pointed out#e1 nothing can well be more important than to keep clearly in mind1 here as elsewhere1 with whom ,st4 ,paul is arguing4 #d4 ,it is worth while remarking1 before we apply ourselves to ,st4 ,paul's argument in detail1 that it is essentially 'apologetic'3 it is a justification of ,god in view of certain felt difficulties3 and it is an argument ad hominem1 that is an argument with certain people on their own assumptions1 the sort of argument which takes the form of saying1 'you at least have no right on your own principles to urge such and such difficulties4' ,now we are bound to recognize how very important at all periods this ad hominem appeal is3 how very important it is to get men to see what their own principles really involve4 ,a great part of the evil of the world comes through people not thinking out what they really mean and believe4 ,but on the other hand1 this sort of argument1 which proceeds upon a certain set of assumptions1 has often a merely temporary force1 and carries with it an accompanying danger4 ,when the state of mind contemplated becomes a matter of history1 the argument based on its assumption has lost its power4 ,in #ab view of a quite different set of assumptions it may become even misleading4 ,for example1 ,bishop ,butler argued for the truths of natural and revealed religion1 on the analogy of the facts of nature and on the assumption of a divine author of nature1 thus--,if1 as you admit1 ,god made nature1 and yet nature is shown to contain such and such facts or processes1 how can you argue against the divine authorship of natural religion and revelation on the ground that it attributes to ,god similar facts and processes8 ,this was a very effective argument so long as men did treat the doctrine of ,god having created the world as a matter of course4 ,but when 'agnosticism' arose--when men ceased to discover in nature any decisive argument for ,god or against ,god1 and professed only an inability to draw any conclusion at all1 ,butler's argument had lost its force1 and the difficulties in nature and religion to which he called attention could even be used against ascribing a divine authorship to either4 ,apologetic arguments are always liable to this peril4 ,thus ,st4 ,paul's arguments1 based on an unhesitating belief that the ,old ,testament contained really the words of ,god1 that what they asserted about ,god was certainly true1 and that ,god was certainly just #ac and the standard of justice1 may have an effect very contrary to his intention when they are applied to people who feel no such certainties4 ,st4 ,paul may seem to be making the difficulties of believing in the ,bible only more obvious1 by calling attention to its 'harsh and unedifying' elements4 ,but this unfortunate result of most 'apologies' is1 at least in the case of ,st4 ,paul and ,bishop ,butler1 only superficial4 ,if the apologetic argument is really deep1 it retains1 if not exactly its original value1 yet a value not the less real4 ,butler's indications of the profound analogy which holds between the doctrines of religion and the facts of nature1 can never be out of place or lose force4 ,still less can men ever cease to learn the deepest lessons from his temper of mind and method4 ,and that it is so with ,st4 ,paul's apology--that it contains the profoundest and most abiding lessons about the responsibility and danger of all elect bodies and individuals--will appear plainly enough in what follows1 now that we are in a position to approach his argument in detail4 #a ,ps4 lxxxix4 #cc-g4 #b ,by this phrase is commonly meant the doctrine that ,god created some men absolutely and irresistibly predestined to eternal life and joy1 and created the rest of mankind absolutely and hopelessly abandoned to eternal misery4 #c ,matthew ,arnold1 ,st4 ,paul and ,protestantism 7,smith1 ,elder1 #ahgj71 p4 #ii1 admits that ,st4 ,paul 'falls into ,calvinism1' but patronizingly excuses him on the ground that this ,calvinism is with him secondary1 or even less than secondary4 #d ,of course the election of the nation or the church is felt1 especially in the ,new ,testament1 or whenever in the ,old ,testament individuality is fully realized1 to involve the election of each of the persons composing the nation or the church4 ,but still their election is a challenge to their faith1 and no guarantee of ultimate salvation4 ,st4 ,paul is left praying and suffering 'for the elect's sake that they also may obtain the salvation 444 with eternal glory' 7#b ,tim4 ii4 #aj74 ,the elect have to 'make their calling and election sure' 7#b ,peter i4 #aj74 ,it should1 however1 be noticed that election may be1 and in the ,gospels is1 used to describe the final selection of those who are proved worthy of the 'marriage supper of the ,lamb4' 7,matt4 xxii4 #ad47 #e ,vol4 i4 pp4 #aad f4 #ad ,,division ,,iv4 #a4 ,,chapter ,,ix4 #a-ac4 ,the present rejection of ,israelites no breach of a divine promise4 ,st4 ,paul has finished his glowing description of the position and prospects of the elect people of ,god4 ,and then1 by contrast1 the misery of the outcast people once called elect--his own people--wrings his heart with pain4 ,the very idea that in his new enthusiasm for the catholic church he can be supposed to be forgetting those who are of his own flesh and blood1 stirs him to a profound protest4 ,he solemnly asseverates that the pain which ,israel's rejection causes him is acute and continuous4 ,he has caught himself at the point of praying to be himself an outcast from ,christ1 if so be he could bring the people of his own kindred and blood into the ,church4 ,for who indeed could seem to have so good a title to be there8 ,they are the ,israelites--that is ,god's own people3 the eye of ,god was so specially upon this race #ae that ,he redeemed it and made it ,his own son#a3 to them was vouchsafed the shining of ,his continual presence in the tabernacle#b3 to them1 in the persons of the patriarchs and of ,moses1 ,god gave special covenants1 that is to say1 pledged ,his word to them in an unmistakable manner and repeatedly that ,he should be their ,god and they should be ,his people3 thus in pursuance of a divine purpose they were brought under the education of the divinely given law and ritual worship3 and all this with direct and repeated promises of a more glorious position in the future to be brought about by the divine king1 the ,christ who was to be4 ,to them finally belongs all the sanctity which can attach to a people from having numbered among its members the holy ones of ,god3 for of this race were the patriarchs1 the friends of ,god2 and of this race1 so far as human birth is concerned1 came in fact the ,christ who1 born a ,jew1 is sovereign of the universe and ever blessed ,god4 ,surely then1 ,st4 ,paul implies1 that this race1 now that the ,christ they were expecting is at last come1 now that the goal of all ,god's dealings with them is at last reached1 should have fallen outside the circle of ,his people and be no longer sharers in #af the sonship or the election1 would seem a result too monstrous to contemplate4 ,the contrast between what they were and were intended for1 and what in present appearance they are1 is indeed appalling4 ,yet the natural conclusion for the ,jew to draw1 which at this point flashes into ,st4 ,paul's mind1 the conclusion that ,god has proved unfaithful1 is not the true one4 ,no3 ,god's word1 ,god's promise1 has not broken down4 ,for1 if the facts are looked at1 it appears quite plainly that the ,israel of ,god was never simply the ,israel of physical descent1 nor the children of ,abraham simply his physical seed4 ,plainly not4 ,for ,isaac and ,ishmael were equally ,abraham's seed1 physically considered1 but for the purpose of ,god the promise is given only to the family of the younger son1 ,isaac 7,gen4 xxi4 #ab71 who moreover was born1 not in the mere natural order1 but under circumstances of special divine promise and intervention 7,gen4 xviii4 #aj74 ,and if in this case it be said that the younger son ,isaac was the only son of ,sarah1 the wife and free woman1 and therefore had a natural prerogative over ,ishmael1 yet the same inscrutable principle of selection is apparent in the next generation1 in a case where there is no possible inequality #ag of natural claim--in the case of the two sons born simultaneously to ,isaac of the same mother4 ,prior to their birth1 and prior therefore to any possible merit or demerit on their own part--so that ,god's absolute freedom of choice should appear quite conspicuously--the younger ,jacob was deliberately preferred over the elder ,esau 7,gen4 xxv4 #bc74 ,and in fact this race of ,esau1 this ,edom--though they were ,israelites after the flesh--appear in history as something much worse than merely secondary to the true ,israel2 for ,god speaks by ,malachi and declares that1 whereas ,israel is ,his beloved son1 ,esau1 that is ,edom1 ,he has 'hated' 7,mal4 i4 #c74 ,no ,israelite therefore who reads his scriptures 7,st4 ,paul would conclude7 ought to have failed to perceive an inscrutable element in ,god's choice of his chosen people4 ,he ought not to have felt in his own case1 any more than in that of the first children of ,abraham or ,isaac1 that he could be sure of membership in the people of ,god merely because of his physical descent4 ,i say the truth in ,christ1 ,i lie not1 my conscience bearing witness with me in the ,holy ,ghost1 that ,i have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart4 ,for ,i could wish#c that ,i myself were anathema from ,christ for my #ah brethren's sake1 my kinsmen according to the flesh3 who are ,israelites2 whose is the adoption1 and the glory1 and the covenants1 and the giving of the law1 and the service of ,god1 and the promises2 whose are the fathers1 and of whom is ,christ as concerning the flesh1 who is over all1 ,god blessed for ever4 ,amen4 ,but it is not as though the word of ,god hath come to nought4 ,for they are not all ,israel1 which are of ,israel3 neither1 because they are ,abraham's seed1 are they all children3 but1 ,in ,isaac shall thy seed be called4 ,that is1 it is not the children of the flesh that are children of ,god2 but the children of the promise are reckoned for a seed4 ,for this is a word of promise1 ,according to this season will ,i come1 and ,sarah shall have a son4 ,and not only so2 but ,rebecca also having conceived by one1 even by our father ,isaac--for the children being not yet born1 neither having done anything good or bad1 that the purpose of ,god according to election might stand1 not of works1 but of him that calleth1 it was said unto her1 ,the elder shall serve the younger4 ,even as it is written1 ,jacob ,i loved1 but ,esau ,i hated4 #a4 ,st4 ,paul's earnest asseveration is very noticeable in form4 ,it shows so much of his instinctive inward life4 ,he lives 'in ,christ1' who is light as well as life#d1 and to speak the truth is the very atmosphere of this new life#e4 ,as it comes natural to many people to say 'upon my word as a gentleman1' it comes natural to ,st4 ,paul to say1 'speaking as in ,christ1 who is the light4' ,and his natural conscience--that is the faculty of passing judgement on one's own actions1 #ai which in ,st4 ,paul's case bears witness to the truth of what he says by passing no censure on him--that too does not act of itself merely1 but in the ,spirit of the new life1 the ,holy ,spirit of ,christ1 which inspires and ratifies the moral judgement1 otherwise so liable to be degraded or perverted or silenced3 his conscience bears witness with his word in the ,holy ,ghost4 ,here1 then1 is the whole secret of ,christian truthfulness4 ,the ,christian is truthful because he lives and speaks in ,god1 in ,christ1 in the ,spirit4 ,as to ,st4 ,paul's half-expressed prayer 7',i was praying1' he says1 i4e4 ',i caught myself praying'71 it resembles that of ,moses for his rebellious people#f4 ',and now1 ,o ,lord1 if thou wilt forgive their sin--2 and if not1 blot me1 ,i pray thee1 out of thy book which thou hast written4' ,but ,st4 ,paul's instinctive desire is not apparently like that of ,moses1 to perish with his people rather than be saved without them2 but to offer himself for rejection with a view to their salvation4 ,the prayer is1 as ,st4 ,paul implies1 an impossible prayer1 but it expresses1 as hardly anything else could1 the intensity of his feeling4 ,and such intensity of feeling was natural to the deep religious patriotism of a ,jew4 #bj ,we may illustrate ,st4 ,paul's feeling by comparing a fine expression of a more commonplace sorrow over the ruin of ,israel from a period after the destruction of ,jerusalem#g4 ',now therefore ,i will speak2 touching man in general1 thou knowest best2 but touching thy people will ,i speak1 for whose sake ,i am sorry2 and for thine inheritance1 for whose cause ,i mourn2 and for ,israel1 for whom ,i am heavy2 and for the seed of ,jacob1 for whose sake ,i am troubled4' ',thou seest that our sanctuary is laid waste1 our altar broken down1 our temple destroyed2 our psaltery is brought low1 our song is put to silence1 our rejoicing is at an end2 the light of our candlestick is put out1 the ark of our covenant is spoiled1 our holy things are defiled1 and the name that is called upon us is profaned2 our freemen are despitefully treated1 our priests are burnt1 our ,levites are gone into captivity1 our virgins are defiled1 and our wives ravished2 our righteous men carried away1 our little ones betrayed1 our young men are brought into bondage1 and our strong men are become weak2 and1 what is more than all1 the seal of ,sion--for she hath now lost the seal of her #ba honour1 and is delivered into the hands of them that hate us4' #b4 ,as we read ,st4 ,paul's enumeration of the glories of ,israel1 it is of course obvious for us to pursue the line of thought taught us elsewhere by ,st4 ,paul1 and in the ,epistle to the ,hebrews2 and to recognize how each element of the 'glory1' which belonged once to the ,jewish 'ministration of condemnation1' belongs in deeper and fuller measure to the ,christian 'ministration of the ,spirit#h4' ,ours is the vocation of the chosen people2 ours is the sonship to ,god2 and the perpetual presence2 and the security of divine covenant2 ours is the divine law1 and with it1 what is much better1 the ,spirit for its accomplishment2 ours is the corporate worship in spirit and in truth1 the ,church's eucharist2 for us1 too1 are promises which the realization of those of the first covenant has made 'more sure'2 ours finally is the communion of the saints from ,abraham onward into the body of ,christ4 ,and in proportion therefore to the greatness of our privileges1 even as compared with those of the older covenant1 is the greatness of our responsibility2 ',for ,i would not1 brethren1 have you ignorant#i1' ,st4 ,paul would #bb say2 he would not have us fail to profit by the warnings of old days4 ,and another voice warns us ',of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy1 who hath trodden under foot the ,son of ,god1 and hath counted the blood of the covenant1 wherewith he was sanctified1 an unholy thing1 and hath done despite unto the ,spirit of grace#aj4' #c4 ,there has been amongst critics1 since ,erasmus1 much controversy over the clause1 'who is over all1 ,god blessed for ever4' ,there is no doubt that it is translated most naturally1 and most agreeably to the balance and movement of the sentence1 if we attribute it to ,christ1 as above4 ,but many critics1 including some who were orthodox1 have stumbled at the idea of ,st4 ,paul speaking of ,christ straight out as 'over all1 ,god blessed for ever4' ,generally no doubt ',god' is used by ,st4 ,paul as a proper name of the ,father4 ,but ,christ is continually recognized as possessing strictly divine attributes1 and exercising strictly divine functions2 and in all ,st4 ,paul's epistles1 beginning with his earliest to the ,thessalonians1 ,he is ,god's ,son1 ,his own or proper ,son#aa4 ,his blood1 as shed for our ransoming1 is ,god's own blood1 or #bc 7possibly7 the blood of one who is ',his own'#ab4 ,he subsisted eternally in the form1 or essential attributes1 of ,god1 and in possession of equality with ,him2 and ,he possesses now1 as glorified in humanity1 the divine name of universal sovereignty1 the object of universal worship#ac4 ,therefore ,he is in the strictest sense divine2 and whatever or1 ,i should say1 whoever is essentially divine and proper to the being of ,god1 can rightly be called ,god4 ,for1 indeed1 there is nothing in the strict sense divine but ,god ,himself4 ,it was then merely a question of time when ,christians would become sufficiently familiar with the new revelation of the threefold name to apply the word ,god to the ,son and the ,spirit as naturally as to the ,father4 ,and there is nothing really to surprise us in ,st4 ,paul here applying it to ,christ#ad3 nothing certainly to warrant us in doing violence to the sentence1 in order to obviate the conclusion that he did so1 by putting a full stop after 'flesh1' and then supposing an abrupt exclamation ',he who is over all is ,god blessed for ever#ae6' #bd ,let it be recognized1 then1 that ,st4 ,paul here plainly speaks of ,christ as 'over all1' i4e4 in ,his glorified manhood1 and also as ',god blessed for ever'--that is1 as the one proper and eternal object of human praise2 and that he speaks of ,him again elsewhere#af1 as 'our great ,god and ,saviour4' ,it was only because ,he was essentially and eternally ',god' that ,he could1 in our manhood and as the reward of ,his human obedience1 be exalted to divine sovereignty and be 'over all4' #d4 ,in the rest of the section ,st4 ,paul is arguing with a ,jew1 who makes the claim that because of the divine covenant ,god is bound to the ,israelites1 and to all ,israelites for ever4 ',we have ,abraham to our father1' and that is enough#ag4 ,the higher prophetic spirit of the ,old ,testament had already realized that ,god's election of ,israel was a challenge to her to prove herself worthy of an undeserved privilege#ah1 and that1 though a faithful remnant would #be never fail1 yet unfaithfulness in the bulk of the nation would bring destruction upon them and loss of ,god's favour#ai4 ,the prophetic spirit had realized also that ,god's servant ,israel was not 'called' for his own selfish honour's sake1 but was entrusted with a divine ministry to fulfil for all the nations of the earth#bj4 ,it is to this higher sense of what ,israel's position meant1 and the perils it involved1 that ,john the ,baptist and our ,lord ,himself had sought to recall the ,jews4 ,they must not 'think to say within themselves1 ,they had ,abraham for their ,father2 for ,god was able of the stones to raise up children unto ,abraham4' ,for 'many should come from the east and the west1 and sit down with ,abraham1 and ,isaac1 and ,jacob1 in the kingdom of ,god1 and the sons of the kingdom should be cast into #bf the outer darkness#ba4' ,but it is evident that this higher meaning of the doctrine of election had been forgotten by contemporary ,judaism1 and they would not be recalled to it4 ,they refused to contemplate the spiritual risk of missing their vocation1 or the universal purpose for which it was given4 ,they chose to think that ,israel1 i4e4 the actual ,israelites in bulk1 must remain ,god's elect2 that the ,christ1 when ,he came1 must come to exalt their race and nation3 that they were bound to inherit the blessings of the world to come3 that the divine government of the world existed for their sakes#bb4 ,st4 ,paul1 then1 is here intending to vindicate the real meaning of election1 in the sense in which it is bound up with the ethical character of ,god and carries with it a deepened feeling of responsibility in those who are the subjects of it4 #bg ,but his argument is directed1 first of all1 to one point only--to bringing the eyes of the ,jews straight up to their own scriptures1 and forcing them to see that they do not justify the idea of election purely by race4 ,it is not all of a certain seed1 but only part of it1 that is chosen4 ,there is nothing to hinder a great part of the race again becoming as ,ishmael or as ,edom by the side of ,israel4 ,ultimately1 no doubt1 there are two points to be proved4 ,first1 that ,god's method of choosing an elect body to be ,his people in the world is inscrutable1 so that we cannot produce or determine ,his election by any calculation1 or by any real or supposed merits1 of ours2 secondly1 that though we cannot create our vocation1 we can retain it by moral correspondence or faith1 and by that only4 ,but at present it is only the first point that is insisted upon--the absolute1 inscrutable element in the divine choice4 ,and that1 we should notice1 is a fact not merely of scriptural evidence but of common experience4 ,men are born to higher and lower positions of privilege and opportunity4 ,they are born ,jacobs or ,esaus1 in respect of moral1 intellectual1 religious1 or physical endowment--with ten talents1 or five1 or two1 or one2 and ,god does not often give us so #bh much as a glimpse of the reason why4 ,all ,he does make clear to us is that the determination of human vocations1 higher or lower1 is in wiser hands than ours4 ,it is of course evident1 as has already been said1 that what ,st4 ,paul is speaking about is the election of men1 and specially races or nations of men1 to a position of spiritual privilege in this world4 ,we know now1 better than the ,jews of the ,old ,covenant could know it1 that behind all the apparent injustices and inequalities of this world lies the rectifying equity of ,god4 ,st4 ,peter had come to believe that the divine mercy had rectified in the world beyond death the apparently rough and heavy handed judgement upon the rejected mass of mankind in the time of the ,flood4 ,that physical catastrophe at least was an instrument of mercy in disguise#bc4 ,st4 ,paul believed the same about all ,god's rejections1 as well as elections1 in this world4 ,they served one universal purpose3 ',that he might have mercy upon all#bd4' ,but #bi all the same here and now in this world ,god does work by means of enormous inequalities4 ,there are ,jacobs whom ,he plainly loves1 upon whom ,he showers all ,his richest blessings1 and ,esaus whom1 to judge from present evidence1 we should say ,he hates--whom ,he sets to live in hardest and most cramping surroundings4 ,and no man can determine which lot he shall enjoy4 ,that lies in the inscrutable selectiveness of ,god4 ,that there is no question at all about the eternal welfare of the individual ,esau's soul--that the question is simply of the comparative status of ,israel and ,edom in this world--appears plainly in the passage of ,malachi1 which ,st4 ,paul quotes4 ,and we must notice how unexpected an application ,st4 ,paul gives to this passage in a direction most unfamiliar to ,jewish thought4 ,for ,edom was to the ,jew the very type of all that was most hateful4 ,he anticipated for the ,edomites ,god's worst vengeance1 as for ,israel ,god's best blessings4 ,but ,st4 ,paul forces him to think--,why should he assume that he will be better off than ,edom8 ,edom was once physically on ,israel's level1 or his superior in claim1 when their first fathers were but just born infants4 ,but ,god chose one #cj and not the other4 ,he may exercise the like unscrutable selectiveness upon the seed of ,israel to-day4 ,and ,edom did not remain in a merely secondary position4 ,he sank to be a byword for all that is most hateful to ,god4 ,be warned1 ,st4 ,paul would say1 it may be that 'with change of name the tale is told of thee#be4' #a ,exod4 iv4 #bc2 ,hos4 xi4 #a4 #b ,exod4 xvi4 #aj4 #c ,or 'pray' 7marg47 literally ',i was praying4' #d ,cf4 ,eph4 v4 #h-ad4 #e ,cf4 ,col4 iii4 #i4 #f ,exod4 xxxii4 #cb4 #g #b ,esdr4 viii4 #ae-af1 x4 #ba-bc4 ,the latter passage is not spoken to ,god1 but by one ,jew to another4 #h #b ,cor4 iii4 #h4 #i ,see #a ,cor4 x4 #a-ac4 #aj ,heb4 x4 #bi4 #aa #a ,thess4 i4 #aj2 ,rom4 viii4 #c4 #ab ,acts xx4 #bh4 #ac ,phil4 ii4 #f-aa4 #ad ,without the article which makes it a proper name of the ,father4 #ae ,r4 ,v4 margin#b4 ,it does further violence to the ,greek to translate as ,r4 ,v4 margin#a1 ',he who is ,god over all is 7be7 blessed for ever4' ,i have nothing to add on the matter to ,s4 and ,h4 in loc41 especially p4 #bcf4 #af ,tit4 ii4 #ac4 ,this is probably the right rendering4 #ag ,st4 ,matt4 iii4 #i4 #ah ,great stress was laid by the prophets on the absence of any original merit or power in ,israel1 which caused the divine election2 see ,ezek4 xvi1 ,deut4 xxvi4 #e4 #ai ,see especially ,amos ix4 #g-aj3 ',are ye not as the children of the ,ethiopians unto me1 ,o children of ,israel8 saith the ,lord4 ,have not ,i brought up ,israel out of the land of ,egypt1 and the ,philistines from ,caphtor1 and the ,syrians from ,kir8 ,behold1 the eyes of the ,lord ,god are upon the sinful kingdom1 and ,i will destroy it from off the face of the earth2 saving that ,i will not utterly destroy the house of ,jacob1 saith the ,lord4 ,for1 lo1 ,i will command1 and ,i will sift the house of ,israel among all the nations1 like as corn is sifted in a sieve1 yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth4 ,all the sinners of my people shall die by the sword1 which say1 ,the evil shall not overtake nor prevent us4' #bj ,gen4 xii4 #c2 ,isa4 lxvi4 #ah2 ,zech4 viii4 #bc1 c4 #ba ,matt4 viii4 #aa1 #ab4 #bb ,in ,weber's ,jdische ,theologie 7,leipzig1 #ahig1 formerly called ,system der ,altsynagog4 ,palstin4 ,theol4 or ,die ,lehre des ,talmud71 pp4 #ea ff1 there are striking illustrations from the ,talmud of this fixed tendency of thought among the ,jews4 ,thus 'there exists no clearer proof of the ,talmudic conviction of the absolutely holy character of ,israel than that in all the places of ,scripture in which ,israel is reproved and has evil attributed to it1 the expression1 the haters of ,israel1 is substituted for ,israel4' ',we read3 ,isaiah was punished1 because he called ,israel a people of unclean lips1' c4 ,cf4 ,s4 and ,h41 p4 #bdi1 and my ,ephesians1 p4 #bfa4 #bc #a ,pet4 iv4 #f4 ',the gospel was preached to' these 'dead men that they might be judged according to men in the flesh1' i4e4 by perishing in the flood1 'but live according to ,god in the spirit1' i4e4 through our ,lord's preaching in ,hades4 ,there is1 ,i think1 so far1 no ambiguity about this passage4 #bd ,not1 however1 without regard to man's will to respond to the divine offer1 see later1 p4 #hb ff4 #be ,mal4 i4 #b1 #c4 ',was not ,esau ,jacob's brother8 saith the ,lord3 yet ,i loved ,jacob2 but ,esau ,i hated1 and made his mountains a desolation1 and gave his heritage to the jackals of the wilderness4 ,whereas ,edom saith1 ,we are beaten down1 but we will return1' c4 ,this passage 7#a7 plainly refers to ,esau as meaning ,edom1 the people2 7#b7 describes not the original lot of ,esau1 which was secondary indeed1 but highly blessed 7,gen4 xxvii4 #ci1 #dj72 but the ultimate lot of ,esau when he had misused his original endowment in violence and cruelty4 #ca ,,division ,,iv4 #b4 ,,chapter ,,ix4 #ad-bi4 ,god's liberty in showing mercy and judgement always retained and asserted4 ,but the obvious reply of the ,jewish objector to ,st4 ,paul's assertion of the absolute and apparently arbitrary freedom of ,god's election is that it is unfair4 ,it convicts ,god of unrighteousness4 ,to this objection 7ver4 #ad71 which ,st4 ,paul deprecates with horror1 he replies not by any large consideration of divine justice1 but still by keeping the ,jew to his own scriptures4 ,the ,god revealed in scripture must be to the objector still the just ,god4 ,he cannot call ,god unjust if ,his method as it now appears is that to which ,he called attention long ago4 ,look back1 then1 at the past records4 ,did ,god disclose ,himself as bound to show mercy on ,moses the ,israelite1 or to harden and judicially condemn ,pharaoh the ,egyptian8 ,no1 ,he declares to ,moses ,his unrestricted freedom to exhibit ,his #cb compassion on whom ,he will 7,exod4 xxxiii4 #ai74 ,men cannot by any choice or efforts of their own produce an exhibition of divine favour such as was shown to ,moses the leader of ,israel3 the absolute initiative must come from ,god1 and in taking that initiative ,he declares ,himself absolutely free4 ,in the same way ,god implicitly asserts ,his sovereign freedom when ,he brings ,pharaoh out upon the stage of history as an example of the way in which ,he hardens men's hearts with a hardening which is the prelude to overthrow1 that men all over the world may see and tremble at the divine power4 ,it is not because ,pharaoh is an ,egyptian that he is hardened4 ,he is hardened1 as ,moses has compassion shown him1 simply because it is the will of ,god so to do in his case4 ,but the objector comes forward again 7ver4 #ai73 ',if this is the arbitrary method of ,god--if we are simply powerless puppets in the hands of an absolute and arbitrary will1 to be saved or be destroyed--at any rate ,he has no reason to complain of us4 ,if all the power is ,his1 so is the responsibility4' ,now ,st4 ,paul has it in his hand to show that there remains to man a very real power to retain his position1 and consequently a very real responsibility and room for #cc being blamed or praised3 for if we cannot create our vocation1 we can and we are required to correspond with it in a reverent and docile faith2 and it was exactly here that the ,jews had failed1 in spite of all their prophets had taught them4 ,but he keeps back this answer awhile1 because he finds the attitude of such an objector toward ,god in itself so reprehensible4 ,such an one has not given consideration to what the relation of man to ,god really is--the creature to the creator4 ,his critical1 complaining attitude is nothing better than foolish4 ,thus he takes his antagonist back upon the old prophetic metaphor of the potter and his clay1 with which ,isaiah and ,jeremiah had rebuked the arrogance and impatience of men long ago3 ',shall the thing framed say of him that framed it1 ,he hath no understanding2 and shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it1 ,what makest thou#a8' ,he follows1 however1 most closely upon the later writer of the ,book of ,wisdom3 ',for a potter1 kneading soft earth1 laboriously mouldeth each several vessel for our service3 nay1 out of the same clay doth fashion both the vessels that minister to clean uses1 and those of a contrary sort4 ,all in #cd like manner2 but what shall be the use of each vessel of either sort1 the craftsman himself is the judge#b4' ,the thought was often in ,st4 ,paul's mind of the inequality of lots in the world and the ,church4 ,there are more and less honourable limbs in the body politic3 there are vessels for honourable and vessels for dishonourable purposes in the great social economy#c4 ,so it is with the races of men4 ,they are all of one blood--of the one lump4 ,but some have high and others low vocations1 and the right to determine of what sort the lot shall be in each case lies absolutely with the ,divine ,potter4 ,it is childish to dispute ,his title4 ,and not only so3 when the potter1 whom ,jeremiah was ordered to observe1 found a vessel he was making marred under his hand1 'he made it again another vessel1 as seemed good to the potter to make it#d4' ,accordingly1 when the chosen material 7i4e4 the ,jews7 would not mould to the high purpose for which the ,potter was fashioning it1 who shall complain if ,he diverted it to lower uses or threw it away to destruction1 and produced out #ce of ,his stores other vessels which ,he had already prepared and destined for glorious functions 7that is to say1 the ,gentile ,christians78 ,but the case is even stronger than this4 ,who indeed shall complain if1 when the vessels originally destined for the higher uses prove fit for nothing but destruction1 the ,divine ,potter--though willing1 now as in the case of ,pharaoh1 to let ,his wrath fall and to manifest ,his power--yet shows almost unlimited forbearance with them 7as in fact ,god did with the ,jews72 and when at last ,he does let ,his wrath fall1 only does so in order to manifest anew the resourcefulness of ,his mercy#e upon a new and larger ,israel1 gathered not from among the ,jews only1 but from among all nations1 to be the object of ,his compassionate regard8 ,indeed1 the prophet ,hosea 7ii4 #bc1 i4 #aj7 foresaw this choice of a yet unrecognized people to be ,god's people4 ,isaiah again 7x4 #bb7 anticipated no more than a remnant surviving of all the multitudes of ,israel1 because of the sharpness and conclusiveness of the divine judgement upon them4 ,and 7i4 #i7 it is only to the compassion of ,god that he attributes their exemption by means #cf of the faithful remnant from entire annihilation1 like that of the ,cities of the ,plain4 ,what shall we say then8 ,is there unrighteousness with ,god8 ,god forbid4 ,for he saith to ,moses1 ,i will have mercy on whom ,i have mercy1 and ,i will have compassion on whom ,i have compassion4 ,so then it is not of him that willeth1 nor of him that runneth1 but of ,god that hath mercy4 ,for the scripture saith unto ,pharaoh1 ,for this very purpose did ,i raise thee up1 that ,i might shew in thee my power1 and that my name might be published abroad in all the earth4 ,so then he hath mercy on whom he will1 and whom he will he hardeneth4 ,thou wilt say then unto me1 ,why doth he still find fault8 ,for who withstandeth his will8 ,nay but1 ,o man1 who art thou that repliest against ,god8 ,shall the thing formed say to him that formed it1 ,why didst thou make me thus8 ,or hath not the potter a right over the clay1 from the same lump to make one part a vessel unto honour1 and another unto dishonour8 ,what if ,god1 willing to shew his wrath1 and to make his power known1 endured with much longsuffering vessels of wrath fitted unto destruction3 and that he might make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy1 which he afore prepared unto glory1 even us1 whom he also called1 not from the ,jews only1 but also from the ,gentiles8 ,as he saith also in ,hosea1 ,i will call that my people1 which was not my people2 ,and her beloved1 which was not beloved4 ,and it shall be1 that in the place where it was said unto them1 ,ye are not my people1 ,there shall they be called sons of the living ,god4 ,and ,isaiah crieth concerning ,israel1 ,if the number of the children of ,israel be as the sand of the sea1 it is the #cg remnant that shall be saved3 for the ,lord will execute his word upon the earth1 finishing it and cutting it short4 ,and1 as ,isaiah hath said before1 ,except the ,lord of ,sabaoth had left us a seed1 ,we had become as ,sodom1 and had been made like unto ,gomorrah4 ,what has been already said will have been enough to guard against the main sources of mistake in reading this section4 ,st4 ,paul might have much to say about ,god's righteousness in general1 and large ways of vindicating it4 ,but here he holds fast to the single aspect of righteousness according to which it means that ,god has been true to the original principles of ,his covenant4 ,the ,god who chose ,abraham and ,moses is the ,god who is now1 and rightly on ,his own declared principles of government1 rejecting the greater part of the people of ,abraham and ,moses4 ,this--faithfulness to ,his own declared principles--is what ,st4 ,paul here means by ,his righteousness4 ,and as it was ,god's declared principle to retain ,his own liberty to show mercy on men according to ,his free will1 inside or outside the chosen people1 so on the other hand ,he retained ,his liberty to exhibit ,his judgement of hardening according to ,his will inside or outside the chosen people4 ,he who brought ,pharaoh the ,egyptian upon the stage #ch of history#f1 as an example of hardening judgement1 is within ,his right in doing the same now with 7the mass of7 the people of ,his choice4 ,the liberty asserted for ,god is wholly consistent with ,his being found1 in fact1 to have 'hardened' those only who have deserved hardening by their own wilfulness4 ,it was for such a moral cause that ,god hardened the hearts of the ,jews1 that 'seeing they might not see1 and hearing they might not hear#g4' ,we can feel no doubt that some similar moral cause underlay the hardening of ,pharaoh4 ,but this is not ,st4 ,paul's present point4 ,all his argument is directed to asserting ,god's liberty to show mercy or harden1 irrespectively of considerations of race1 when and where ,he in ,his sovereign moral will chooses4 ,we should notice that ,st4 ,paul's method is here1 as elsewhere1 what is called ideal or abstract1 in the sense that he makes abstraction #ci of a particular point of view2 and1 apparently indifferent to being misunderstood1 substantiates his argument upon the particular aspect which he has taken apart from the whole matter in hand1 till it is done with1 and then other points can be taken in their turn4 ,and he does not1 as a modern writer would do1 painfully correlate the various aspects of the subject#h4 ,by means of the famous simile of the potter ,st4 ,paul asserts two principles about ,god3 7#a7 that ,god is free1 and condescends to give no account to ,his creatures1 in absolutely determining the high or low vocations of men4 ,to one man or nation ,he gives five talents1 to another two1 to another one4 ,he makes vessels to honourable and vessels to 7comparatively7 dishonourable uses4 ,he makes men ,jews or ,assyrians1 ,englishmen or ,hottentots1 at ,his absolute discretion4 7#b7 ,that ,god is absolutely free1 when the human material which ,he is moulding for ,his purposes proves intractable1 to repudiate and reject what has1 by its refusal to mould1 become a 'vessel of wrath' fit 'to be taken and destroyed4' ,and it is only by a voluntary limitation of this freedom that ,he exhibits long toleration with the intractable and #dj obstinate1 and is longsuffering with them even when ,his wrath is ready and waiting to show itself4 ,these are the two distinct points in the simile of the potter4 ,we must distinguish carefully between the 'vessels destined for dishonour'--the 'less honourable limbs' of humanity--and the 'vessels of wrath1' or 'vessels fitted for destruction1' i4e4 those which have proved themselves unfit for the vocation to which they were destined and have to be rejected4 ,we note that ,st4 ,paul does not say that ,god fitted vessels for destruction1 but that ,he bore long with those which had so become fitted4 ,st4 ,paul never gives us any real justification--if we look at his language carefully--for the idea of any predestination to rejection1 as distinct from predestination to higher or lower purposes4 ,and the ,new ,testament is full of assurances that a predestination to a low vocation in this world may be a predestination to high glory in eternity1 if the humble calling is faithfully followed4 ,it ought not to be denied1 however1 that in all this passage ,st4 ,paul's feet1 as he moves along his argument1 are dogged by the metaphysical difficulty of finding room for human free-will inside the universal scope of the divine action and the prescience of the divine wisdom4 ,this #da is a perennial difficulty4 ,but ,st4 ,paul does not touch it4 ,he does not even touch the question of whether ,god does actually 7in our sense7 foreknow the final destiny of every individual1 and how he will act on each occasion#i2 he does not touch the question how or how far human wilfulness can be allowed to disturb the divine order4 ,in the ,pharisaic schools he would certainly have been brought up1 as ,josephus tells us1 both to 'attribute everything to fate and ,god1' and also to recognize that it 'lay with men for the most part to do right or wrong'3 to believe that 'everything was foreseen1' and also that 'free-will was given'2 or1 as ,josephus elsewhere puts it 7as if it made no difference71 to believe 'that some things1 but not all1 are the work of fate1 and other things are in men's own power and need not happen#aj4' ,that is to say1 he would have been educated to believe both in predestination and in freedom1 without any #db special attempt to reconcile the two4 ,we can tell for certain that this inherited belief was further moralized in ,st4 ,paul's case by his enlarged view of the divine purpose as working through high and low estates alike1 for the final good of all men2 and by his deepened perception of the correspondence with ,god's purpose1 which1 in the exercise of our freedom1 is required of us4 ,but1 so far as we know1 ,st4 ,paul left the strictly metaphysical question exactly where he found it--as an imperfectly reconciled antithesis4 ,and there perhaps we men shall always have to leave it1 or at least till we come to know even as we are known4 ,in the quotations from the ,old ,testament1 with which the section concludes1 we notice that ,st4 ,paul varies the original application of the passages from ,hosea4 ,in the prophet they refer to the recovery of dejected and dishonoured ,israel1 while the apostle applies them to the exaltation of the ,gentiles from their low estate4 ,as is often the case1 while other passages in the prophets were there to prove exactly what he wanted#aa1 ,st4 ,paul takes the words which come #dc into his mind with a considerable latitude of application1 and without any critical argument4 ,thus1 if he makes somewhat free with the particular texts1 it is in order to vindicate the real teaching of the ,old ,testament4 ,he has1 if not exact criticism1 what is much better1 profound spiritual insight4 ,the passages quoted from ,isaiah are characteristic and central4 ,this great prophet first clearly perceived that most striking law of human history--that progress comes1 not mostly through the majority of a nation1 but through the faithful remnant4 ,it is the few best through whom alone ,god can freely work4 ,it is the best who in the long run determine the moral level of the nation1 and either keep the mass of men around them from corruption1 or1 if that is impossible1 provide a fresh point of departure and hope in a society now inevitably1 as a whole1 hastening to decay and judgement4 ',as a terebinth1 and as an oak1 whose stock remaineth1 when they are felled2 so the holy seed is the stock thereof#ab4' #a ,isa4 xxix4 #af1 xlv4 #i1 lxiv4 #h2 ,jer4 xviii4 #f2 ,ecclus4 xxxiii4 #ac4 #b xv4 #g4 #c #a ,cor4 xii4 #bb-e2 #b ,tim4 ii4 #bj4 #d ,jer4 xviii4 #d4 ,the passage continues with a strong assertion of ,god's freedom to govern the destinies of nations on moral principles4 #e ,when ,moses asked to see ,god's glory 7,exod4 xxxiii4 #ah71 what was revealed to him was ,his goodness and free mercy1 and what ,st4 ,paul here means by ,god's glory is ,his mercy especially4 #f ,in the original the words run1 ',for this cause have ,i made thee to stand1' i4e4 probably1 ',i have preserved thy life under the plague of boils1 and other plagues1 in order to make thee an example of a more conspicuous judgement4' ,but ,st4 ,paul1 departing from the ,greek ,bible1 uses a word 'raised thee up1' which in ,pharaoh's case1 or in that of ,cyrus1 means to bring upon the stage of history4 ,isa4 xli4 #b2 cf4 ,jer4 #a4 xxvii in the ,greek #da2 ,hab4 i4 #f4 #g ,see ,matt4 xiii4 #ad1 #ae2 ,mark iv4 #ab2 ,john xii4 #dj4 #h ,cf4 vol4 i4 p4 #ge4 #i ,on the meaning of divine foreknowledge in ,st4 ,paul see vol4 i4 p4 #cag4 #aj ,see ,joseph4 ,antiq4 xiii4 #e1 #i2 xviii4 #a1 #c2 ,bell4 ,jud4 ii4 #h1 #ad4 ,cf4 ,schrer1 ,jewish ,people 7,english trans471 ,div4 ii4 vol4 ii4 pp4#ad ff42 ,james and ,ryle1 ,ps4 of ,solomon1 p4 #if4 ,the ,essenes1 ,josephus says1 believed in fate1 and not in free-will2 the ,sadducees in free-will and not in fate2 but the ,pharisees in both4 ,no doubt ,josephus is importing ,greek philosophical views into his account of ,jewish parties1 but substantially his account is probably true4 #aa e4g4 ,isa4 xix4 #bd2 ,ezek4 xvi4 #ee4 7,the exaltation into the fellowship of the chosen people of ,egypt1 ,assyria1 ,sodom1 and ,samaria47 #ab ,isa4 vi4 #ac4 #dd ,,division ,,iv4 #c4 ,,chapter ,,ix4 #cj-,x4 #ba4 ,lack of faith the reason of ,israel's rejection4 ,what is to be our conclusion then8 ,that ,gentiles1 men beyond the pale of ,god's covenant1 who made no pretension of pursuing righteousness1 all at once laid hold on righteousness and made it their own1 simply by accepting in faith the divine offer which came their way2 while ,israel1 the chosen people1 devoted to pursuing a law of righteousness1 never caught up with that of which it was in pursuit4 ,the result seems strange enough4 ,but the reason of it is apparent4 ,israel#a had been put under a divine election1 which required of them the open ear1 the responsive will1 of faith4 ,but instead of cultivating this temper of faith1 they fastened upon the specified #de observances of the ,mosaic law1 and blindly adhered to them1 as if ,god had nothing deeper or greater to teach them1 and they had nothing deeper or greater to receive4 ,thus1 when the ,christ came1 with ,his completer light and claims1 they would not have ,him4 ,they wanted nothing further1 nothing more than they were accustomed to4 ,and thus ,isaiah's prophecy was fulfilled1 that the ,christ1 the tried foundation stone1 the destined security of all who should believe in ,him1 would turn out to be a stone at which the chosen people should stumble1 and a rock on which it should meet disaster#b 7ix4 #cj-cc74 ,and here is the pathos of the situation4 ,here is what puts passion into ,st4 ,paul's desire and his prayer for ,israel's entrance into the great deliverance4 ,it is that they have such a real zeal for ,god1 though without any spiritual insight to guide it4 ,a real zeal for ,god6 of that ,st4 ,paul's own experience qualified him to testify4 ,but in what sense without insight8 ,in the sense that with ,jesus of ,nazareth there appeared a divine righteousness1 which ,god was communicating to men#c2 but the ,jews1 #df preoccupied with maintaining a standard of righteousness which they had taken for their own--which had become identified1 that is to say1 with their own self-satisfaction and pride of privilege and independence of interference--failed to perceive the divine purpose1 and1 in fact1 refused to submit themselves to it4 ,for that principle of law which the ,jews had come to regard as ,god's final word1 ,he really intended only as a temporary discipline to be brought to an end by the coming of the ,christ1 and by the disclosure of the real righteousness which1 in ,christ1 ,god should offer and man should simply accept in faith4 ,law and faith are in sharp and intelligible contrast4 ,under the law of works a man1 as ,moses says#d1 stands to preserve his life 7or save his soul7 according as he performs the specified requirements 7as if man were an independent being who could thus stand over against ,god on his merits74 ,but faith1 attributing nothing to itself1 simply accepts the offer of ,god1 the divine message of compassion brought near to it4 ,moses of old told the ,israelites#e that the commandment was not #dg too hard for them1 neither was it far off4 ,it was not in heaven1 that they should say1 who shall go up for us to heaven1 and bring it unto us1 and make us to hear it1 that we may do it8 ,neither was it beyond the sea1 that they should say1 who shall go over the sea for us1 and bring it unto us1 and make us to hear it that we may do it8 ,but the word was very nigh unto them1 in their mouth and in their heart1 that they might do it4 ,these words really describe the character of the ,christian message of faith1 of which the apostles are the heralds4 ,truly there is no need for the believer in ,jesus to seek some one to scale heaven to reach a remote ,god1 for ,christ is come down4 ,or to descend into the abyss to seek a ,christ dead and lost1 for ,christ is risen4 ,the great deliverance is offered to us on very easy terms4 ,a man has only openly to confess that the human ,jesus is really the divine ,lord1 and heartily to believe that ,god raised ,him from the dead4 ,let him heartily accept that message1 and the fellowship in the divine righteousness is his4 ,let him publicly confess that creed1 and the great salvation is open to him4 ,it is the old teaching of ,isaiah#f--;if a man but believe 7in the ,christ7 there is no #dh fear of his being put to shame4 ,and here ,jews and ,greeks are all on the same level of need and opportunity4 ,there is over all the same ,lord ,christ1 with the same inexhaustible good will towards all who simply call on ,him4 ,again the old scripture testifies that it is every one who calls on the name of the ,lord who shall be saved#g4 ,the conditions then are very simple4 ,to call on the ,lord1 we may say1 men must believe in ,him4 ,to have the opportunity of believing on ,him1 they must have heard about ,him4 ,to hear about ,him1 they need one to speak in ,his name4 ,and how can men speak in the name of ,god except as ,his apostles1 as men commissioned and sent from ,him8 ,and these terms we know well enough have all been fulfilled4 ,the commissioned heralds of the good tidings of ,god have gone forth1 so that all men may hear and believe and call out to ,god4 ,truly ,isaiah's vision of the welcome preacher of good tidings#h is realized to-day 7x4 #a-ae74 ,now we have clear before us the simplicity of the gospel1 the message to faith4 ,and we have before us the plain fact that the ,israelitish people1 preoccupied with their own temporary #di and misunderstood standard of the law1 have not generally accepted it4 ,but this is no more than ,isaiah led us to expect4 ',lord1' he cries1 'who gave credence to our message#i8' 7,faith1 you see1 according to the prophet1 requires just a listening to a divine message2 and this message has come to men by the preaching about ,christ47 ,and can it be pleaded that the ,jews have not had the opportunity of hearing the message8 ,no1 truly1 as the ,psalmist says1 the voice of ,god's messengers has gone over all the earth1 and their words to the end of the inhabited world#aj4 ,or can it be said that ,israel did not know that a preaching to the ,gentiles was to be looked for8 ,no1 a succession of warnings had reached them4 ,thus ,moses foretold that it should be a nation which 7religiously speaking7 was no nation1 a people without understanding1 that ,god would use to provoke ,his people to jealousy1 and stimulate their emulation#aa4 ,again1 ,isaiah uses startling words1 and declares that ,god has been discovered by those who never sought ,him1 and revealed to those who never asked for ,him#ab--that is the ,gentiles4 ,but the words of ,isaiah #ej that follow describe truly the relation of ,god and ,israel4 ,god has tenderly and persistently been offering ,his love to them1 but they have proved themselves only rebellious and full of contradiction 7x4 #af-ba74 ,this1 then1 is the plain summary4 ,israel is rejected because1 after every offer1 and with every opportunity1 they have refused ,god's leading1 refused to be docile1 refused to believe1 refused to obey4 ,what shall we say then8 ,that the ,gentiles1 which followed not after righteousness1 attained to righteousness1 even the righteousness which is of faith3 but ,israel1 following after a law of righteousness1 did not arrive at that law4 ,wherefore8 ,because they sought it not by faith1 but as it were by works4 ,they stumbled at the stone of stumbling2 even as it is written1 ,behold1 ,i lay in ,zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence3 ,and he that believeth on him shall not be put to shame4 ,brethren1 my heart's desire and my supplication to ,god is for them1 that they may be saved4 ,for ,i bear them witness that they have a zeal for ,god1 but not according to knowledge4 ,for being ignorant of ,god's righteousness1 and seeking to establish their own1 they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of ,god4 ,for ,christ is the end of the law unto righteousness to every one that believeth4 ,for ,moses writeth that the man that doeth the righteousness which is of the law shall live thereby4 ,but the righteousness which is of #ea faith saith thus1 ,say not in thy heart1 ,who shall ascend into heaven8 7that is1 to bring ,christ down37 or1 ,who shall descend into the abyss8 7that is1 to bring ,christ up from the dead47 ,but what saith it8 ,the word is nigh thee1 in thy mouth1 and in thy heart3 that is1 the word of faith1 which we preach3 because if thou shalt confess with thy mouth ,jesus as ,lord1 and shalt believe in thy heart that ,god raised him from the dead1 thou shalt be saved3 for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness2 and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation4 ,for the scripture saith1 ,whosoever believeth on him shall not be put to shame4 ,for there is no distinction between ,jew and ,greek3 for the same ,lord is ,lord of all1 and is rich unto all that call upon him3 for1 ,whosoever shall call upon the name of the ,lord shall be saved4 ,how then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed8 and how shall they believe in him whom they have not heard8 and how shall they hear without a preacher8 and how shall they preach1 except they be sent8 even as it is written1 ,how beautiful are the feet of them that bring glad tidings of good things6 ,but they did not all hearken to the glad tidings4 ,for ,isaiah saith1 ,lord1 who hath believed our report8 ,so belief cometh of hearing1 and hearing by the word of ,christ4 ,but ,i say1 ,did they not hear8 ,yea1 verily1 ,their sound went out into all the earth1 ,and their words unto the ends of the world4 ,but ,i say1 ,did ,israel not know8 ,first ,moses saith1 ,i will provoke you to jealousy with that which is no nation1 ,with a nation void of understanding will ,i anger you4 ,and ,isaiah is very bold1 and saith1 ,i was found of them that sought me not2 ,i became manifest unto them that asked not of me4 #eb ,but as to ,israel he saith1 ,all the day long did ,i spread out my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people4 ,in this passage ,st4 ,paul gives us the other side of the question of the rejection of the ,israelites4 ,god had retained an absolute freedom1 not to be questioned by men1 to reject whom ,he willed4 ,that was the first point4 ,but can we see whom our ,god wills to reject1 or why in particular ,he rejected 7though not finally1 as will appear7 the chosen people8 ,it is because they failed in faith4 ,and faith is precisely that which is necessary to maintain correspondence with ,god--it is the faculty of fellowship with ,him4 ,they failed because the false principle of justification by works had obscured in their minds the need and meaning of faith4 ,the false principle meant1 as we have already seen1 the maintaining an accepted standard of conduct and divine service1 especially in outward matters1 and for the rest claiming to be left alone4 ,the accepted standard was that which distinguished ,israel from the rest of the world1 and what they had become accustomed to4 ,it was a righteousness of 'their own4' ,they prided themselves on it4 ,their public opinion required its observance4 ,it had come to usurp the place of any direct #ec relationship to the voice of ,god4 ,they had no idea that ,god could have anything more or deeper to require of them4 ,they had lost personal touch with ,him4 ,therefore seeking to establish this1 their own righteousness1 they failed to submit themselves to the 7now newly revealed7 righteousness of ,god in ,christ4 ,this unprogressiveness of the ,jewish ideal1 this substitution of the accepted standard under the law for the word of ,god1 on the part of the ,pharisees1 the religious representatives of ,israel1 is precisely what the pages of the ,gospel record4 ,therefore the 'corner stone of sure foundation' for the divine building became to them the stone on which they stumbled and fell4 ,and yet that the law was a temporary expedient1 and not the whole counsel of ,god1 was the deepest witness of the ,old ,testament2 and in being false to the further revelation of the will of ,god in ,christ1 they were false to their own deepest principles4 ,all this ground we have gone over already1 and need not traverse again#ac4 ,so also we have already become familiar with the simplicity of the message of ,god in ,christ1 and the simplicity of the faith which1 #ed rooted in the consciousness of sin and need1 and equally possible for all men who can share this consciousness1 is required to welcome ,god's offer1 and so be brought by ,christ into living union with ,him4 ,all this ,st4 ,paul has already elaborated1 and is here only resuming and recapitulating by the way4 ,but one or two points in the recapitulation require notice4 #a4 ,st4 ,paul takes the basis of his statement of the principle of grace and faith out of the heart of the books of ,moses--the idea of the 'word very nigh thee1' of the simple message claiming only to be simply accepted1 and of the 'very present help' of a gracious ,god needing only to be welcomed4 ,the fact is that ,st4 ,paul usually idealizes when he treats of 'the law of ,moses'2 as1 for example1 when he here says that ',moses writeth that the man that doeth the righteousness 444 shall live thereby1' as if that was all that ,moses said4 ,the principle of law1 as ,saul the ,pharisee had learned to understand it1 is the dominant principle in the five ,books of the ,law1 but not the only one4 ',grace1 already existing in the ,jewish theocracy1 was the fruitful germ deposited under the surface1 which was one day to burst forth and become the peculiar character #ee of the new covenant#ad4' ,the ,god of the new covenant is the ,god also of the old1 and was there already intimating ,his truer and deeper character4 ,to this ,st4 ,paul bears witness by resting his statement of the principle of the new covenant upon the words of the old4 #b4 ,in this passage we have the germ of what we call the creed4 ,the lordship of ,jesus1 in the sense which implies ,his proper divinity1 and ,his resurrection and triumph over death--was already matter of public confession in the ,christian church3 to make profession that ',jesus is ,lord' qualified for 'the salvation'#ae3 and in this lay hid all that is essential to the ,christian creed4 ,already then in the earliest church subjective faith involved a certain objective and public creed#af which came very soon to be called 'the faith4' ,in this passage also1 as in xiv4 #i and in ,st4 ,peter's epistle1 we recognize1 as an element in the common tradition1 the belief in the ,descent into ,hades 7the abyss74 #c4 ,st4 ,paul incidentally shows us his #ef instinctive feeling that to be a trustworthy ambassador for ,god one needs 'apostolate4' ',how shall they preach except they be sent8' ,and this apostolate1 as he uses it1 means not only an inward sense of mission1 but an external sending by ,christ ,himself2 and in pursuance of the same principle1 when once the ,church has been established1 it would mean a sending by those authorized to send in ,his name4 ,this is the root principle of the ,christian 'stewardship4' ,as the subapostolic ,clement expresses it1 ',christ 7was sent7 from ,god1 and the apostles from ,christ4 ,each came in due order from the will of ,god4 ,therefore1 having received the words of command1 and having been fully convinced by the resurrection of our ,lord ,jesus ,christ1 and been assured in the message of ,god with conviction of the ,holy ,ghost1 they came forth1 preaching the gospel that the kingdom of ,god was to come4 ,therefore as they preached in country and towns they established their first-fruits1 when they had put them to the proof1 to be bishops 7i4e4 presbyters71 and deacons of those who were to come to the faith4' ,and afterwards1 in view of disputes over the presbyteral office1 which divine inspiration enabled them to anticipate1 they made provision for a due succession #eg in the 'episcopate' on the death of those first appointed#ag4 #d4 ,st4 ,paul's singularly free1 but deeply inspired1 manner of applying texts from the ,old ,testament is especially illustrated in this passage4 ,thus the passages quoted from ,isaiah about the ,stone1 which ,st4 ,paul applies to ,christ1 refer originally to ,jehovah simply in one case 7,isa4 viii4 #ad71 and probably to ,his will and covenant as the foundation of ,israel's polity in the other 7,isa4 xxviii4 #af74 ,jewish tradition had possibly already referred them to the ,christ#ah2 and certainly our ,lord's use of ,ps4 cxviii4 #bb--',the stone which the builders rejected'--as applying to ,his own rejection1 made the reference more obvious4 ,it is indeed in deepest accordance with the spirit of ,isaiah3 and ,st4 ,peter 7#a ,peter ii4 #f71 we notice1 follows ,st4 ,paul in the use of them4 ,another passage 7lii4 #g7 about 'the feet of those who preach good tidings' is transferred1 with added meaning1 from the heralds of the redemption from ,babylon1 to the heralds of the greater redemption4 ,and the opening of chapter lxv1 which originally refers altogether to apostate ,israel1 is divided1 #eh and applied in part to the ,gentiles1 in part to the ,jews4 7,other passages in the prophets1 we should observe1 would justify the former application47 ,again1 a passage from ,ps4 xix is transferred very beautifully from the witness of the heavens to the witness of the ,gospel2 as if ,st4 ,paul would say--grace is become as universal as nature4 ,the language of a passage from ,deuteronomy1 as we have seen1 is taken from the law to express the spirit of the gospel4 ,the calling upon ,jehovah in ,joel becomes in ,st4 ,paul's quotation the calling upon ,christ4 ,all this free citation1 uncritical according to our ideas and methods1 yet rests upon a profoundly right apprehension of the meaning of the ,old ,testament as a whole4 ,the appeal to the ,old ,testament1 even if not to the particular passage1 is justified by the strictest criticism4 #a ,i have endeavoured sometimes in this analysis to expand what ,st4 ,paul means by 'pursuing righteousness1' by 'works' and by 'faith1' in accordance with the meaning already assigned to these words2 see vol4 i4 pp4 #g-bd4 #b ,isa4 viii4 #ad2 xxviii4 #af4 ,cf4 ,matt4 xi4 #f4 #c ,see above1 vol4 i4 p4 #ag4 #d ,levit4 xviii4 #e4 #e ,deut4 xxx4 #aa-ad4 ,i have italicized the words substantially reproduced by ,st4 ,paul1 but ,i have quoted the whole passage because its whole meaning is in his mind4 #f ,isa4 xxviii4 #af4 #g ,joel ii4 #cb4 #h ,isa4 lii4 #g4 #i ,isa4 liii4 #a4 #aj ,ps4 xix4 #d4 #aa ,deut4 xxxii4 #ba4 #ab ,isa4 lxv4 #a1 #b4 #ac ,see vol4 i4 pp4 #g ff41 #afe f41 #bej ff4 #ad ,godet in loc4 #ae ,cf4 #a ,cor4 xii4 #c4 ,the lordship of ,jesus1 we see in this passage1 means that ,he can have applied to ,him the sayings of the ,old ,testament about the ,lord ,jehovah2 and can be 'called upon' as such in prayer 7,joel ii4 #cb74 #af ,cf4 #a ,cor4 xv4 #a-c4 #ag ,clem1 ad ,cor4 #db1 #dd4 #ah ,see ,s4 and ,h4 in loc4 #ei ,,division ,,iv4 #d4 ,,chapter ,,xi4 #a-ab4 ,god's judgement on ,israel neither universal nor final4 ,but if ,israel has thus by her own fault fallen from her high estate1 are we then to suppose that ,god has simply rejected ,his own chosen people8 ,such a thought cannot be entertained4 ,how could it have been in the mind of such an ,israelite as ,st4 ,paul1 one who came of ,abraham's genuine seed1 and of the tribe which held so fast by ,judah8 ,no3 the people on whom from eternity ,god's eye rested1 to mark them out for ,himself and for ,his purposes1 assuredly cannot1 as a people1 have been cast away#a4 ,what has happened now is only what is recorded long ago in the history of ,elijah4 ,then1 as now1 a general unfaithfulness in the bulk of the nation concealed the existence of a faithful remnant4 ,yet ,god had1 as ,he assured the prophet1 #fj reserved for ,himself such a remnant1 and of very considerable numbers4 ,and now also such a remnant of true ,israelites exists in accordance with the selective action of grace--that is to say1 ,god's gratuitous and unmerited good will4 ,yes3 let there be no mistake about it2 their position is due to nothing else than the original and continuous action of ,god's grace2 and grace means ,god's absolutely gratuitous and unmerited good will 7which may therefore come upon ,gentiles equally with ,jews74 ,it excludes the idea of these remnants owing their position to previous merits1 or of its being in any way ,god's response to an antecedent claim#b4 ,this then is what we have to recognize4 ,what ,israel in bulk sought for 7by way of its supposed merit71 that it did not get1 but a select remnant got it2 and upon the rest there fell that judicial hardening--that reversal of their true relation to ,god--which ,moses and ,isaiah already discerned in the chosen people#c3 an abiding #fa stupor1 and deafness1 and blindness1 with regard to ,god's purpose and will for them4 ,david too1 as ,god's righteous servant1 demands1 as a divine requital upon his bitter and cruel enemies1 that their very abundance should betray them into captivity and prove their stumblingblock2 that their spiritual vision should be lost and their backs bent downward to the ground4 ,which is just what has happened to ,israel through their rejection of the ,son of ,david4 ,the bulk of the people then has stumbled4 ,but we must not exaggerate what has happened4 ,as it is not all of them who have stumbled1 so also it is not for ever4 ,their stumbling is not equivalent to a final fall4 ,already we can perceive how it may be reversed4 ,the refusal of the ,jews to recognize the ,christ has been the occasion for a turning to the ,gentiles4 ,thus the salvation of the ,christ has come to them4 ,and this has happened in the divine providence in order that1 as ,moses anticipated1 they may in their turn provoke the ,jews to jealousy--to a jealous determination not to lose their old #fb privileges4 ,thus if even the transgression of ,israel has proved the occasion for enriching the world as a whole1 if even the deficiency of ,israel 7leaving vacant space1 as it were1 in the ,church7 has proved the occasion for enriching the ,gentiles1 how much more enrichment is to be expected when the chosen people are recovered in their full number8 ,i say then1 ,did ,god cast off his people8 ,god forbid4 ,for ,i also am an ,israelite1 of the seed of ,abraham1 of the tribe of ,benjamin4 ,god did not cast off his people which he foreknew4 ,or wot ye not what the scripture saith of ,elijah#d8 how he pleadeth with ,god against ,israel1 ,lord1 they have killed thy prophets1 they have digged down thine altars3 and ,i am left alone1 and they seek my life4 ,but what saith the answer of ,god unto him8 ,i have left for myself seven thousand men1 who have not bowed the knee to ,baal4 ,even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace4 ,but if it is by grace1 it is no more of works3 otherwise grace is no more grace4 ,what then8 ,that which ,israel seeketh for1 that he obtained not2 but the election obtained it1 and the rest were hardened3 according as it is written1 ,god gave them a spirit of stupor1 eyes that they should not see1 and ears that they should not hear1 unto this very day4 ,and ,david saith1 ,let their table be made a snare1 and a trap1 ,and a stumblingblock1 and a recompense unto them3 #fc ,let their eyes be darkened1 that they may not see1 ,and bow thou down their back alway4 ,i say then1 ,did they stumble that they might fall8 ,god forbid3 but by their fall salvation is come unto the ,gentiles1 for to provoke them to jealousy4 ,now if their fall is the riches of the world1 and their loss the riches of the ,gentiles2 how much more their fulness8 #a4 ,we learn a little more exactly about ,st4 ,paul's doctrine of election in this chapter4 ,god's final purpose for good is1 as we shall see at the end of the chapter--and in what sense we shall have to consider--upon all men whatsoever4 ,but this universal purpose is worked out through special 'elect' instruments4 ,thus ,god recognized#e ,israel beforehand1 i4e4 in ,his eternal counsels1 as the people to bear ,his name in the world4 ,this was the selection of ,israel1 and was an act of which the initiative was wholly on ,god's side4 ,it was a pure act of the divine favour4 ,this 'selection of grace' was upon ,israel as a whole1 but at later stages of the history1 frequently enough1 owing to the disobedience and apostasy of the majority1 it is found to rest in an effective sense only upon a 'remnant' whom ,god has reserved for ,himself1 because they have not utterly refused to #fd correspond to the original and continuous call of the divine grace4 ,for the rest their privileges become the occasion of their fall3 their light becomes their darkness4 ,for judgement always and inevitably waits upon any form of misused privilege4 ,thus1 when the ,christ came1 only an elect remnant of the nation welcomed ,him4 ,the rest fell under judgement4 ,but ,god overrules even this apostasy4 ,he takes the opportunity of the absence of those who should have been at the marriage supper of the king's son1 to fill the great vacancy from the ,gentile world4 ,they are brought within the scope of the selecting call4 ,but ,god's original vocation is still irrevocably upon apostate ,israel4 ,the new ,gentile converts are to stimulate them to recover their lost privileges4 ,their wilfulness and obstinacy is to give place to humility and faith2 and ,jew and ,gentile all together are to constitute the elect catholic church4 ,this is very simple and cheerful teaching4 ,it leaves for us to consider later the question whether ,god's original and special vocation resting upon the ,jews is finally to constrain them all to conversion1 and whether in the same way ,his ultimate purpose of salvation for all men is to take place infallibly in all cases4 ,this #fe question is still to be considered4 ,but at any rate the doctrine of election has lost all that gave it a colouring of arbitrariness and injustice and narrow sympathies4 ,we ought to notice in the above passage how ,st4 ,paul1 in recalling the continual obstinacy and hardening of the majority of the chosen people1 is following on the lines of ,st4 ,stephen's speech 7,acts vii4 #ea74 #b4 ,the imprecatory psalms are1 especially in our ,anglican public services1 a great stumblingblock to many--especially the #fith 7here cited by ,st4 ,paul7 and the #ajith4 ,these psalms do not represent barely the cry of an individual sufferer invoking ,god's curse upon his private enemies4 ,the sufferer1 who is the psalmist1 or with whom at least the psalmist identifies himself1 represents afflicted righteousness4 ,it is ,god's people1 ,his 'servant' and 'son' according to the language of the ,old ,testament1 that is under persecution from the enemies of ,god4 ,and he calls upon ,god to vindicate ,himself by punishing the adversary2 to let it be seen that ,his word and promise is truth4 ',how long1 ,o ,god1 holy and true1 dost thou not judge and avenge8' ,even from this point of view1 however1 when with the assistance #ff of the modern critics we have in the main purged away the element of private vindictiveness1 these psalms no doubt remain with the stamp of narrowness and bitterness upon them4 ,they have none of the larger ,new ,testament sense that the worst enemies of the ,church may be converted and live3 that our attitude towards all men is to wish them good1 purely good and not evil1 even though it be under the form of judgement3 ',rejoice when men revile you and persecute you'2 ',bless them that curse you1 do good to them that hate you1 pray for them which despitefully use you'2 ',that by your good works which they shall behold1 they may glorify ,god in the day of visitation4' ,but granted the limitation and bitterness still remaining in these psalms1 their citation in the ,new ,testament shows us what is for us the right use of them4 ,they are by implication taken up--where we should least expect them--into the mouth of the ,son of ,man#f4 ,that is to say1 it is ,his enemies on whom the judgements are imprecated4 ,there is a wrath of the ,lamb4 ,there is a divine sword of judgement which proceeds out of ,his mouth4 ,he1 the administrator of the righteousness of ,god1 #fg expects from ,his ,father judgement on ,his enemies4 ,it is not necessarily1 as ,st4 ,paul here indicates1 final judgement3 the judgement upon the ,jews was not yet that2 but judgement of some sort--temporal or final--upon ,his wilful adversaries1 the ,son expects of the ,father4 ,and we men1 as we repeat these psalms1 are1 like the first ,christians in face of the suicide of ,judas1 to identify ourselves with the divine righteousness and accept the law of just retribution4 ,this is the deepest and truest sense in which we can still say the imprecatory psalms2 and in these days of a philanthropy that often lacks the stern savour of righteousness1 it is very necessary that we should make this sense our own4 #a ,three times--#a ,sam4 xii4 #bb1 ,ps4 xciv4 #ad1 xcv4 #c 7in the ,greek7--the promise occurs ',the ,lord will not cast away ,his people4' #b ,the vocation and election which made ,israel the chosen people were absolutely of ,god4 ,what distinguished the faithful remnant from the bulk of the nation was simply that they had not altogether failed in faith1 so that the unchanging election was not in their cases practically suspended1 but ,god 'reserved them for ,himself4' #c ,st4 ,paul refers chiefly to ,isa4 xxix4 #aj--the description of a besotted people whose prophets are eyes that cannot see1 and their seers ears that cannot hear2 so that the word of ,god has become as a sealed book2 cf4 also ,isa4 vi4 #i4 ,but there is a similar passage in ,deut4 xxix4 #d1 which partly moulds his language1 and supplies the words 'unto this day4' #d ,rather1 as margin1 in ,elijah1 i4e4 the passage of ,scripture about ,elijah4 #e ,this--to recognize or mark out beforehand--is the meaning of divine 'foreknowing' in ,st4 ,paul4 ,see vol4 i4 pp4 #cag f4 #f ,both in this passage and in ,acts i4 #bj4 #fh ,,division ,,iv4 #ea4 ,,chapter ,,xi4 #ac-cf4 ,god's present purpose for the ,jews through the ,gentiles3 and so for all humanity4 ,st4 ,paul would not have it supposed that1 in his zeal for the recovery of ,israel1 he was proving faithless to his vocation as the apostle of the ,gentiles4 ,on the contrary1 he explains 7assuming the ,roman ,christians to be ,gentiles in the mass7 that he is1 by this very zeal1 fulfilling that vocation4 ,the conversion of the ,gentiles was meant to react as a stimulus on the ,jews4 ,when ,st4 ,paul magnifies his ,gentile ministry1 he does so always with the motive of stinging the jealousy of his own people1 and so bringing some of them to salvation4 ,how can such a consummation be too eagerly desired8 ,for if even so pitiable an event as their rejection has yet1 in ,god's providence1 been overruled for #fi a good end--the bringing back of the outside world into the fellowship of ,god#b3 can we doubt that so happy an event as their recovery would be indeed 7what ,ezekiel saw in vision in the valley of the dry bones7 a veritable resurrection8 ,for the consecration of ,god is still upon them4 ,the holy 7i4e4 consecrated7 people they still remain4 ,as the 'heave offering' of the 'first of the dough'#c consecrates the whole lump1 so the first of the nation offered to ,god--,abraham1 ,isaac1 and ,jacob--have consecrated the whole nation4 ,the holiness of the root of ,god's olive tree#d has passed to the latest branches4 ,it is quite true that some of these branches of the ,jewish olive tree were broken off1 and that the ,gentiles were introduced in their place2 like a wild olive grafted upon the root of a cultivated plant1 and so sharing its rich sap4 ,but that--to let the metaphor continue--gives the wild olive no ground for an insolent contempt of the branches which naturally belonged to the tree4 ,what advantage it now has it wholly derives from that which it is #gj affecting to despise4 ,it is the root that supports it1 not it the root4 ,and are the ,gentiles disposed to argue that these rejected ,jewish branches were broken off in order that they might take their place2 and that they1 the ,gentiles1 are thus plainly preferred by ,god to the ,jews8 ,the answer is plain4 ,why were they broken off8 ,because they would not maintain the correspondence of faith with the purpose of ,god2 and it is simply by maintaining this attitude that the newly introduced ,gentiles can hope to retain their place4 ,they had better exhibit1 not a groundless pride1 but a reasonable fear4 ,is ,god likely to be more sparing towards them than towards ,his first chosen8 ,god has displayed before their eyes both ,his attributes of severity and goodness1 and they must take note of both4 ,at the present moment it is severity towards ,jews1 goodness towards ,gentiles4 ,yes1 goodness towards ,gentiles2 but so long only as they abide faithfully in ,his goodness1 no longer4 ,when they fail of faithfulness1 they too1 like their ,jewish predecessors1 shall be cut off4 ,and1 on the other hand1 when those ,jews change their attitude1 and their hardness melts and faith returns1 they shall be recovered and reingrafted into the old olive tree4 ,if ,god #ga could graft into it branches cut out of an alien and inferior stock1 how much more easily can ,he reingraft into it what is really part of its very self8 ,here then we have a real disclosure of a divine secret#e1 to which the ,gentiles would do well to keep their eyes open1 lest 7like the ,jews before them7 they mistake for wisdom their own self-conceit4 ,the hardening of the ,jews has been used by ,god as an opportunity for the gathering in of the full number of the nations of the earth2 and that with the further purpose that1 when the nations are gathered in1 ,israel in all its completeness should be recovered too4 ,and so shall be fulfilled ,isaiah's prophecy of a redeemer from ,zion1 who should restore ,israel1 and of a new covenant with them1 based on a fresh forgiveness of their sins#f4 ,thus if we think of the actual relation of the ,jews to the present preaching of the ,gospel1 we must think of them as ,god's enemies1 and as having by their very enmity secured the ,gentiles their opportunity2 but if we think of them in relation #gb to ,god's eternal choice1 they still must appear as sharing the divine love which rests on the people of ,abraham1 ,isaac1 and ,jacob4 ,god's gifts and vocation do not admit of being repented of and recalled4 ,thus we know what to expect4 ,as the ,gentiles passed out from disobedience under the divine compassion through the opportunity afforded by the disobedience of the ,jews2 so now the divine compassion which rests on the ,gentiles is intended 7by stimulating the ,jews to recover their lost privileges7 to prove the means of recovering them too out of their disobedience into the shelter of the divine compassion which is the common heritage of all4 ,we see1 in fact1 all men in turn shut up in disobedience to ,god1 as in a prison house3 it is ,god who has so shut them up2 but it is done in view of the largest and most compassionate purpose which can be even conceived4 ,it is done that 7when men have become wearied of their own wilfulness1 and have experienced their own need7 the divine mercy may welcome and embrace all alike at last4 ,and if this is the purpose of ,god disclosed to us1 how can we fail to adore the fathomless resourcefulness of ,his wisdom in determining how to act1 and ,his skill in executing what ,he #gc has determined8 ,how can we fail to recognize our utter incompetence to explore ,his judgement1 or track out ,his ways8 ,like inspired men of old#g we must recognize that the absolute initiative is ,his1 and our only reasonable attitude the humblest correspondence4 ,truly in counsel and operation we have contributed to ,god nothing of our own3 we have no claim with which to approach ,him4 ,he is the unique source of whatever is1 and the sole executor of whatever takes place1 and the only end to which all things tend3 and to ,him1 therefore1 alone all praise is due1 and shall be given4 ,but ,i speak to you that are ,gentiles4 ,inasmuch then as ,i am an apostle of ,gentiles1 ,i glorify my ministry3 if by any means ,i may provoke to jealousy them that are my flesh1 and may save some of them4 ,for if the casting away of them is the reconciling of the world1 what shall the receiving of them be1 but life from the dead8 ,and if the firstfruit is holy1 so is the lump3 and if the root is holy1 so are the branches4 ,but if some of the branches were broken off1 and thou1 being a wild olive1 wast grafted in among them1 and didst become partaker with them of the root of the fatness of the olive tree2 glory not over the branches3 but if thou gloriest1 it is not thou that bearest the root1 but the root thee4 ,thou wilt say then1 ,branches were broken off1 that ,i might be grafted in4 ,well2 by their unbelief they were broken off1 and thou standest by thy faith4 ,be not highminded1 but fear3 for #gd if ,god spared not the natural branches1 neither will he spare thee4 ,behold then the goodness and severity of ,god3 toward them that fell1 severity2 but toward thee1 ,god's goodness1 if thou continue in his goodness3 otherwise thou also shalt be cut off4 ,and they also1 if they continue not in their unbelief1 shall be grafted in3 for ,god is able to graft them in again4 ,for if thou wast cut out of that which is by nature a wild olive tree1 and wast grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree3 how much more shall these1 which are the natural branches1 be grafted into their own olive tree8 ,for ,i would not1 brethren1 have you ignorant of this mystery1 lest ye be wise in your own conceits1 that a hardening in part hath befallen ,israel1 until the fulness of the ,gentiles be come in2 and so all ,israel shall be saved1 even as it is written1 ,there shall come out of ,zion the ,deliverer2 ,he shall turn away ungodliness from ,jacob3 ,and this is my covenant unto them1 ,when ,i shall take away their sins4 ,as touching the gospel1 they are enemies for your sake3 but as touching the election1 they are beloved for the fathers' sake4 ,for the gifts and the calling of ,god are without repentance4 ,for as ye in time past were disobedient to ,god1 but now have obtained mercy by their disobedience1 even so have these also now been disobedient1 that by the mercy shewn to you they also may now obtain mercy4 ,for ,god hath shut up all unto disobedience1 that he might have mercy upon all4 ,o the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of ,god6 how unsearchable are his judgements1 and his ways past tracing out6 ,for who hath known the mind of the ,lord8 or who hath been his counsellor8 or who hath first given to him1 and it shall be recompensed #ge unto him again8 ,for of him1 and through him1 and unto him1 are all things4 ,to him be the glory for ever4 ,amen4 #a4 ,there is a true patriotism which must at times be content to wear the guise of disloyalty2 and not even ,jeremiah 'weakening the hands of the men of war#h' in the conflict with the power of ,babylon1 while all the time his very heart was bleeding for ,jerusalem1 presents a more pathetic and moving picture of such patriotism than does ,st4 ,paul as he here shows himself to us4 ,while he was shaking off the dust of his feet1 as he left the synagogues to turn to the ,gentiles1 while he was throwing all his tremendous energy into the apostolate of the nations1 and vindicating their cause1 even to fierceness1 against the narrowness of his own nation1 all the time the thought which buoyed him up was that when the catholic church had become an established fact--when it should have become plain1 even to ,jewish eyes1 that the elect people of ,god is now a fraternity of all nations1 and not their own race only--then it could not fail to happen1 that the members of the ancient people1 finding themselves in their turn 'alienated1' 'strangers1' and 'far off1' while #gf they knew so well1 and needed so deeply1 the fellowship of the covenant1 should be stimulated to resume their former privileges4 ,surely then at last ,israel 'should remember her way and be ashamed1' and 'receive' her ,gentile 'sisters1' though they had been to her as ',sodom and ,samaria1' and though they were now given to her for 'daughters1 but not by her covenant'--not by any means on her own terms#i4 ,all the time that ,st4 ,paul is fighting ,judaism and vindicating ,catholicism1 laying down the lines of the great church of the nations1 this is the vision that cheers him--an ,israel1 penitent1 humbled1 worshipping the ,christ whom she had crucified1 and therefore welcomed back again with the honour due to her great memories and her inextinguishable vocation4 ,but we notice by the way1 as throwing an unmistakable light on the circumstances of ,roman ,christianity1 that while ,st4 ,paul thus shows his own ,jewish feeling1 he speaks to the ,roman ,christian as in the mass ,gentile#aj4 #b4 ,if so miserable an event1 one so revolting to the divine heart1 as the apostasy of ,israel1 had yet in the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of ,god been overruled so as to #gg become the occasion for the calling of the ,gentiles1 it must needs be1 ,st4 ,paul argues1 that an event so dear to the heart of ,god as the recovery of ,israel1 would have a result even more blessed1 nothing less than 'life from the dead4' ,what does this last expression mean8 ,does ,st4 ,paul mean that when once the chosen people was recovered into a really catholic church1 there would be no further delay--the consummation would be reached1 the resurrection of the dead which is to accompany the 7second7 coming of the ,christ would take place at once8 ,this thought would be very natural to ,st4 ,paul1 and thoroughly agreeable to the old ,messianic expectation2 and it would give1 as nothing else gives so well1 the needed climax to the sentence4 ,moreover it cannot be said that the idea of the resurrection was not intimately associated among ,christians with the return of the ,christ in glory4 ,but1 on the other hand1 nowhere else does ,st4 ,paul speak of 'the resurrection' so absolutely and without explanation as the goal of all things2 and1 if he had meant so to speak of it here1 he would surely have said 'the resurrection1' and not used the vaguer expression 'life from the dead4' ,as he has used this we must interpret it in terms #gh of ,ezekiel's vision#aa3 the recovery of ,israel will be nothing less than a case of dead men coming to life again1 of dry bones revivified4 ,the only drawback to this interpretation is--what need not trouble us much--the failure of rhetorical climax4 ,this revival of dead ,israel is hardly a greater thing than the reconciliation of an alienated world4 ,and1 though it would improve the rhetorical climax to interpret the phrase as meaning that the whole catholic church would have new life put into it by ,israel's recovery1 and though we should expect this idea to prove true1 yet ,i do not think it is natural to introduce it here4 #c4 ,st4 ,paul's language--'beloved for the fathers' sake1' 'if the root be holy1 so are the branches'--comes very close to the current ,jewish language about 'the merits of the fathers1' and yet is deeply distinguished from it4 ,the ,jews as represented in the ,talmud--and the belief goes back to ,st4 ,paul's time#ab--;believed that no prayer was so effective as that which was offered in the name of 'the fathers4' ,thus3 ',how many prayers did ,elijah speak on ,mount ,carmel that fire might fall from heaven1 and he was not heard2 but when he mentioned #gi the name of the dead1 and called ,jehovah the ,god of ,abraham1 ,isaac and ,jacob1 then at once he was heard4 ,so was it in the case of ,moses4 ,when the ,israelites had accomplished that bad work1 ,moses stood up and spoke for their justification forty days and forty nights1 and was not heard4 ,but when he mentioned the dead1 he was at once heard4444 ,therefore as the living vine supports itself on a dead stock 7i4e4 grows out of a stock dry and seemingly dead71 so ,israel lives and supports itself on the fathers since they are dead#ac4' ,the individual ,israelite1 moreover1 could supply his own deficiencies in righteousness out of the treasury of merits which belonged to him in virtue of his descent from the common fathers of the race1 or the holy progenitors of his own family4 ,in other words the ,israelites in various ways and senses depended for salvation on having ',abraham to their father4' ,and it has already appeared sufficiently how dangerous this belief was2 and how utterly ,st4 ,paul1 like ,ezekiel#ad and ,john #hj the ,baptist before him1 repudiated this idea of genealogical and traditional merit as a ground of confidence before ,god4 ,on the other hand1 this belief in the transference of merit was based on a true idea of the organic unity of the race4 ,the ,jewish race was bound up into one with its great progenitors2 and it is these men who are its true representatives4 ,they show what their race can be and is meant to be1 and along what lines it is meant to move4 ,their election and walk with ,god laid a consecration on all who came after them2 as ,st4 ,paul elsewhere says that the children of a ,christian parent in a mixed marriage are holy1 i4e4 have a consecration laid upon them by their partly ,christian parentage#ae4 ,the patriarchs exhibit ,israel as ,god means it to be4 ,and ,god1 so to speak1 cannot forget that every ,israelite is a child of ,abraham and ,isaac and ,jacob1 and that in their faith and religion lies his possibility and his glory4 ,thus stated1 the idea of the 'communion of saints' in the ,jewish race is nothing else than a ground of hope1 and a stimulus to recovery4 ,and the idea admits at once of being transferred to the catholic ,israel1 as in fact its ,jewish #ha parody has1 at certain periods1 been only too fully and fatally transferred4 ,i say1 the true idea admits of being transferred4 ,we belong to the same body as the apostles and martyrs1 the virgins and saints1 the ,jewish patriarchs and prophets also4 ,their possibilities are ours4 ,their ,god is our ,god for ever and ever4 ,and ,god looks on us as in one body with them4 ,we too are beloved for these our fathers' sakes4 ,and they too1 we cannot doubt1 are conscious of our fellowship with them1 and if we are trying to live in the same spirit with them1 we must believe1 all the limitations of our knowledge notwithstanding1 that they are supporting and helping us1 as in ,christ our sympathetic advocates and allies4 #d4 ,the metaphor of the olive and the grafting is intelligible enough without explanation4 ,we know how often the olive and the vine are taken in the ,old ,testament and in other ,jewish writings--as in the passage just quoted from the ,talmud--for a symbol of ,israel2 we must frankly recognize that ,st4 ,paul1 apparently in forgetfulness and not by design1 accommodates the physical process of grafting to its spiritual counterpart2 for in physical fact1 of course1 the ingrafted shoot 7which represents the ,gentiles71 #hb and not the stock upon which it is grafted 7which represents the ,jews71 would determine the character and produce of the tree3 but when this is once recognized it may be forgotten1 and the metaphor is as intelligible to us as if the physical process of grafting were really as ,st4 ,paul represents it4 #e4 ,as we read the words1 ',and so all ,israel shall be saved1' we cannot help asking ourselves--,does ,st4 ,paul mean us to believe this of all ,israelites without exception1 or even of ,israel in general with an absolute necessity8 ,i think the answer should be a negative in both cases#af4 ,just above ,st4 ,paul says1 looking at the matter from the side of ,israel1 ',they also1 if they continue not in unbelief1 shall be grafted in4' ,here he is looking at the matter from the side of ,god4 ,it lies in the divine purpose that the establishment of the catholic church1 and the experience of alienation on the part of the ,jews1 should stimulate them to regain their ancient privileges on a new basis2 'and so1' looking at the matter from the point of view of the divine intention1 'all ,israel shall be saved4' ,just below1 from the same point of view1 it is stated to be ,god's purpose #hc 'to have mercy upon all men4' ,but1 in interpreting this latter passage1 we are doing violence to what ,st4 ,paul says elsewhere with emphatic distinctness1 if we imagine that he asserts that all individual men without exception shall ultimately attain the end of their being and the fellowship of ,god4 ,in these passages1 as elsewhere1 ,st4 ,paul looks at things from two points of view1 without attempting to present us with a harmony of them4 ,from one point of view we have spread out before us the 'mystery1' or revealed secret of ,god1 and discern the purpose of ,his love working on1 and finding its opportunities even in the gravest moral disasters4 ,from the other point of view we detect human wilfulness1 able in a measure1 but never completely or on the whole1 to baffle and thwart the divine purpose4 ,st4 ,paul1 ,i say1 is content to recognize both points of view1 and not to hold them in complete combination4 ,he uses the perception of the divine purpose--in this case1 the recovery of the ,jews--as a motive for hope and thankfulness and renewed energy2 but he does not1 apparently1 ask himself the metaphysical questions whether ,god foreknows how particular individuals or groups of men will act1 or1 if we must say that ,god does so foreknow how each #hd man will act1 how this is reconcilable with his moral freedom4 ,he is content to adore the divine purpose1 and rest upon it2 and recognize1 on the other hand1 the thwarting power of human wilfulness4 ,from the point of view of ,god's patiently loving purpose1 then1 a great and fresh opportunity is being prepared for the recovery of the whole of ,israel1 when 'the times of the ,gentiles' are fulfilled and the ,church stands really catholic before their eyes4 ,just in the same way1 in the larger field of all mankind1 the purpose of ,god is at work through all rejections1 and all judgements of hardening1 to convince all men of their need of ,god1 and so prepare their hearts 'that he might have mercy upon all4' ,but from the other point of view ,god respects human freedom4 ,thus over against the divine purpose stands the ambiguous human 'if'--'if they continue not in their unbelief4' ,this ambiguous human element is a prominent feature in ,old ,testament prophecy1 though there too the thwarting power of man's perverseness is limited4 ,if not in one way then in another1 if not through one set of agents then through others--on the whole the purpose of ,god finds its sure way to accomplishment4 #he 99 99 99 99 99 ,retrospect over the argument ,and now that we have given all the pains we can to entering into the spirit of these chapters1 may we not say that they have become no longer repellent but deeply attractive8 ,where could we find a more liberating outlook over the wide purpose of ,god in redeeming the world8 ,sin is a stern fact1 and demands stern dealing to overcome it by moral discipline4 ,men of all sorts must be brought to realize their need of ,god1 utterly to expel the false dream of independence1 and humbly to welcome the unmerited bounty of the divine 'mercy1' the free gift of pardon and new life4 ,this then is the way in which the fundamental purpose of ,god for man shows itself in a world of sin2 it is by a discipline preparing men to welcome a divine mercy of which they have learnt to know their need4 ',that he may have mercy upon all'--this is the generous end upon which all the divine dealings with men converge4 ,the ,jews by one kind of discipline while they still were standing together as the elect people of ,god1 and by another when1 having rejected the ,christ and fallen out of their religious leadership1 they were to be stirred to #hf jealousy by the spectacle of a divine fellowship from which they were excluded3 the ,gentiles by a different sort of discipline1 and each separate race by its own2 nay more1 every individual1 ,jew and ,greek1 ,englishman or ,hindoo1 by a distinctive personal chastening1 in as many ways as man is various and ,god is resourceful3 all men are so to be dealt with as that all men shall be brought to confess themselves to be as they are in ,god's sight1 and surrender themselves to ,him to be refashioned after the divine image4 ,through all national and personal vocations realized1 by which human character is educated3 through all national and personal humiliations1 which are divine judgements by which human character is corrected and made docile3 ,god's untiring patience and forbearance1 in sternness and in love1 works on to the one universal end--that ,he might have mercy upon all4 ,the uttermost and most pitiable collapse1 even the imminence of death itself1 may be1 nay certainly in ,god's intention is1 ,his remedy for human wilfulness3 a means by which-- ',god unmakes but to remake the soul ,he else made first in vain1 which must not be#ag4' #hg --must not be1 that is1 so far as the resourcefulness of divine love1 going all lengths short of destroying the fundamental moral choice of the soul1 can avail to prevent it4 ,this teaching of ,st4 ,paul suggests a wonderful way of reading human history1 and inspires us with the right sort of patience and hopefulness in our attitude towards the wider problems of missionary work and our own dealings with individuals4 ,the races to whose conversion we would fain minister seem so immovable and so indifferent4 ,the men and women whom we would fain help seem so hardened or so weak4 ,but 'the gifts and callings of ,god' within them and about them1 'are without repentance4' ,god's remedies for them are not yet exhausted4 ,we therefore have a right to hope and labour on1 'never despairing#ah4' ,and where is a nobler presentation to be found than here of the idea of divine election8 ,that in the great household of the world there are magnificent and 7comparatively1 at least7 ignominious vocations among races and individuals2 #hh that some men are born for the top1 and other men for the bottom of society2 that there are 'honourable' and 'dishonourable' limbs in the body of humanity1 the latter fulfilling their necessary function no less than the former1 is an indisputable fact4 ,it is no use challenging it1 any more than any other fundamental law of the universe4 ,and1 if we can see why certain races and certain individuals are fitted for certain tasks1 yet on the whole we can advance but a very little way in seeing the reason of human inequalities as in fact they exist4 ,all that lies in the inscrutable and free counsels of ,god1 and the responsibility is--in spite of the modifying effects of human sin--ultimately ,his#ai4 ,but in ,st4 ,paul's treatment of it1 the recognition of the fact that ,god works universal ends through selected races and individuals1 is robbed of all that ministers to pride and narrowness in the elect1 or to hopelessness and a sense of injustice in the rest4 ,the ,new ,testament writers in general would teach us that with ,god is no respect of persons2 #hi so that the lowest vocation may result in the highest glory1 where it is faithfully fulfilled1 and the highest vocation1 misused1 in the deepest degradation2 but ,st4 ,paul in particular makes us feel the humbling responsibility which attaches necessarily to any state of election4 ,the ,jews failed because they lacked the faith and docility which would have enabled them to correspond to ,god's larger leading4 ,the time came when ,god who had1 'through the ,jews1 prepared the ,christ for the world1' had also1 'through the ,gentiles1 prepared the world for ,christ'2 but the ,jews were ready neither to welcome the ,christ1 nor to 'receive' the world4 ,thus the richest ministry ever vouchsafed to a race was waiting for the ,jews1 and they proved false to it1 because they had turned their privileges into an occasion for pride and selfishness1 and would not learn the new truth or rise to the new opportunity4 ,here is a serious warning to the 'elect' of every age4 ,how often has the church at large1 or a national church1 refused the call to expansion1 and lost some rich part of its heritage because it was self-satisfied1 and therefore blind8 ,how often does a 'good catholic' fail to recognize that he is utterly misusing the gifts of grace1 #ij if his ,catholicism does not mean a generous and self-sacrificing desire to win the lost and save the world8 ,how often has the profession of being 'saved' put an end to spiritual growth and the struggle with sin8 ,how many religious orders and societies have lived on the reputation of the past1 and appeared to fancy that the achievements of their founders--'the merits of the fathers'--would justify the apathy and carelessness of those who had inherited an honourable name8 ,indeed1 to whatever we are elect--whether national1 or ecclesiastical1 or personal privileges--the temptation dogs us to rest on our inherited merits and have no open ear to the guiding voice of ,god1 as it calls us to fresh ventures and renewed sacrifices1 like those which laid the basis of the position of which we now make our empty or insolent boast4 ,but thus to evade the uncomfortable requirements of the present by an appeal to the achievements of the past--whether it be the past of catholic tradition or 'the ,reformation settlement'--is to expose ourselves inevitably to divine condemnation4 ,those who keep the open ear are the 'remnant' in every age and church and nation4 ,they are the men who refuse to 'make the word of ,god #ia of none effect1' because of the blinding1 deadening force of social tradition4 ,they are alive and awake to 'buy up the opportunity1' as it presents itself4 ,and for such ,st4 ,paul's teaching1 inherited from the prophets1 of the function of the remnant is full of encouragement4 ,the ,bible is a book contemptuous of majorities4 ,the mass of men1 conventional1 easily satisfied1 self-centred1 accomplish nothing1 redeem and regenerate nothing4 ,but those who have ears to hear have every motive1 though they be few in number1 to live at the highest level possible1 and believe to the full that the purpose of ,god can be realized4 ,god's purpose can work1 and has in history worked1 through small minorities1 through single individuals4 ,they are the true representatives of their church1 their nation1 their class4 ,and when the inner history of any epoch comes to be known1 while the inert mass of people1 'important' or 'unimportant1' is lost in the dim background1 they will be seen distinctive in the foreground3 the real movement of ,god in history1 the real witness of the truth1 the real spiritual succession of the kingdom of ,god1 will be seen to have been carried on through them for the enriching of the whole world4 ,i would add two reflections on subordinate1 #ib but still important points4 ,it is the function of the catholic church to let its light so shine before men that it shall 'provoke to jealousy1' by the manifest presence of ,god in the midst of it1 the ancient and now alienated people1 the ,jews4 ,at the moment1 with the anti-semite cry strong throughout ,europe1 and on the morrow of the 'affaire ,dreyfus1' these words ring with a bitter irony4 ,and in our own ,east ,london how utterly unlikely it is that the spectacle of our ,christianity should make the ,jews feel that ,christian society cannot but be divine6 ,indeed1 the unfulfilled debt ,christendom owes to the ,jews is appalling4 ,that ancient and indomitable race retains1 with all its faults1 its close-knitting sense of brotherhood1 its faith1 its frugality1 its industry1 its patience1 its heroism4 ,we are meant to show it the greater glories of the ,new ,covenant1 the splendour of the purity1 the unworldliness1 the expansiveness1 the love of the brotherhood of ,christ4 ,and we do show it--what8 ,is there that in our common ,christianity1 as they see it1 which should obviously make ,judaism ashamed of itself8 ,could ,st4 ,paul1 looking at our ,christendom1 have expected 'all ,israel to be saved' by the spectacle of a catholic church8 ,these are considerations #ic which indeed should drive us to bitter penitence and earnest prayer4 ,finally1 before we leave these chapters1 we shall do well to look steadily at ,st4 ,paul's habit of mind in dealing with antithetic or complementary truths4 ,no one could believe with a more glorious conviction than ,st4 ,paul in the dominance of the purpose of ,god in the world3 in the certainty of the accomplishment of what ,god has predestined4 ,if the very rejection of the ,christ by the ,jews was turned into an opportunity for the conversion of the ,gentiles1 what crime can be too great for the divine wisdom to overrule it for good8 ,no one1 on the other hand1 could realize more deeply the responsibility which lies upon men3 their strange power to correspond with ,god1 or partly thwart ,his purpose for them and through them4 ,my point is only this3 he is true to both sides of an antithesis1 even though the exact relationship and interworking of the twin truths is necessarily and finally obscure4 ,he refuses to be one-sided at the requirement of an incomplete human logic4 ,it has been often pointed out1 and in many directions1 how prone we all are to take up with one side of truth--with predestination or free-will1 with the divinity or the manhood #id of ,christ1 with the unity or the trinity of the ,godhead1 with sacraments or conversion1 with authority or personal judgement2 and if we are intellectually disposed1 we call our one-sidedness 'being logical4' ,but we had better let ,st4 ,paul teach us once for all that impartiality is a greater thing than this cheap logic2 even as ,church history teaches us that a sharp-witted but one-sided zeal for truth is one main cause of bitterness1 narrowness1 and schism4 #a ,i follow1 by preference1 the paragraphs of the ,r4,v41 unless there is very strong reason to the contrary4 #b ,cf4 #b ,cor4 v4 #ai1 ',god was in ,christ reconciling the world unto ,himself4' #c ,num4 xv4 #bj1 #ba4 #d ',the ,lord called thy name ,a green olive tree4' ,jer4 xi4 #af2 ,hos4 xiv4 #f4 #e ,on 'mystery1' see ,ephesians1 p4 #gc4 ,it means a divine secret disclosed to the elect4 #f ,isa4 lix4 #bj1 according to the ,greek1 and xxvii4 #i4 ,cf4 ,ezek4 xxxvi4 #be1 #bf4 #g ,isa4 xl4 #ac4 ,cf4 ,job xxxviii4 #d2 xli4 #aa2 ,wisd4 ix4 #ac4 #h ,jer4 xxxviii4 #d4 #i ,ezek4 xvi4 #fa4 #aj ,see above1 vol4 i4 #c4 #aa ,ezek4 xxxvii4 #ab ,see my ,ephesians1 pp4 #beh ff4 #ac ,quoted1 with much other illustrative matter1 by ,weber1 l4c41 pp4 #bic ff4 ,the fancy is based on #a ,kings xix4 #cf2 ,exod4 xxxii4 #ac4 ,cf4 on ,cant4 i4 #e1 ',i am black but comely'--',the congregation of ,israel speaks3 ,i am black through mine own works1 but lovely through the works of my fathers4' #ad ,ezek4 xiv4 #ad4 #ae #a ,cor4 vii4 #ad4 #af ',all ,israel1' in #a ,kings xii4 #a1 #b ,chron4 xii4 #a1 ,dan4 ix4 #aa1 means ',israel in general4' #ag ,these words 7which in their full sense seem to go beyond what we have a right to say7 occur in ,browning's ,ring and the ,book4 ,it is the ,pope's final reflection1 when he condemns ,guido to death1 that his execution may be the one chance for his spiritual recovery-- ',in the main criminal ,i see no chance ,except in such a suddenness of fate4' #ah ,luke vi4 #ce1 or 'despairing of no man1' marg4 ,r4,v4 #ai ,we hold1 therefore1 with regard to the lots of men in this world1 exactly the opposite of what ,plato suggested under the impulse of the doctrine of transmigration1 ',it is the man's own choice1 ,god is blameless4' #ie ,,division ,v4 ,,chapters ,,xii-,,xv4 #ac4 ,practical ,exhortation4 ,we must almost all of us1 in climbing some high hill1 have experienced the necessity for two distinct efforts1 the second more or less unanticipated4 ,we started to climb to the apparent summit1 only to find1 when we got there1 that it was no real summit at all1 but a prominent spur1 and that a second climb was required of us before we were really at the top4 ,an intellectual experience not unlike this is the lot of the student of the ,epistle to the ,romans4 ,the apparent climax of the epistle is the end of chapter viii1 and the student at starting expects his brain to be chiefly taxed in following the closely knit argument which is to lead him thither4 ,but he reaches it only to find another like effort of mind required of him in grasping the meaning of the section 7chapters ix-xi7 in which ,st4 ,paul is occupied in justifying ,god's dealings with the chosen people4 ,but now1 intellectually speaking1 his work is almost over4 #if ,as the climber1 seated on the summit of the hill when at last it is gained1 lets his eye range over a rich and wide prospect1 and takes in its vastness and variety1 or traces below him the delightful descent3 so it is with the reader of this epistle who has entered sincerely into the spirit of ,st4 ,paul4 ,his intellectual scruples as to the divine dealings have been just laid to rest2 before that his mind had been convinced1 and his heart and will attracted and won1 by the unfolding of the divine righteousness1 that is to say of the free grace and love of ,god4 ,and now1 proportionate to the greatness of the effort by which this satisfaction of intellect and heart and will has been won1 is the joy of expansion which remains--the joy of the surrendered mind in appreciating all that is practically possible for it in the light of the love of ,god4 ',i will run the way of thy commandments1 because thou dost enlarge my heart1' that is1 expand it with a sense of liberty and joy#a4 ',all things are ours1' if but once in completeness of self-surrendering faith 'we are ,christ's' as assuredly ',christ is ,god's#b4' ',i can do all things in ,christ that strengtheneth me#c4' #a ,ps4 cxix4 #cb4 ,see ,driver's ,parallel ,psalter1 ,oxford 7#ahih74 #b #a ,cor4 iii4 #ba-c4 #c ,phil4 iv4 #ac4 #ig ,,division ,v4 i4 ,,chapter ,,xii4 #a-b4 ,self-surrender in response to ,god4 ,and first of all the general attitude of mind is defined1 which it befits us to adopt towards ,god as ,he has now revealed ,himself to us4 ,it is the response of entire self-surrender--the response of sacrifice to sacrifice4 ,st4 ,paul 'beseeches1' or rather 'encourages1' or 'summons' the ,roman ,christians1 using for his motive power#a all the rich store of divine compassions which he has just been occupied in disclosing or explaining to them1 to make the only response really possible to such an exhibition of divine love2 and that is to present themselves in sacrifice to ,god4 ,what ,god asks is not dead victims but living men1 in body as well as spirit consecrated to ,his service and rendered acceptable in ,his sight3 and this sort of self-oblation1 #ih on the pattern of ,christ1 is the only reasonable sort of divine service for man to offer4 ,the transitory world1 to which such an ideal is quite alien1 is indeed all around them1 but they are not to suffer themselves to be assimilated to its fleeting fashion4 ,their whole point of view is changed and become new2 and this must result in so thorough a transformation of their old worldly ways of thinking that a new inward light will shine in their hearts1 and they will be able to discriminate and see what ,god's will is1 and so to follow the way of perfection4 ,i beseech you therefore1 brethren1 by the mercies of ,god1 to present your bodies a living sacrifice1 holy1 acceptable to ,god1 which is your reasonable service4 ,and be not fashioned according to this world3 but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind1 that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of ,god4 ,this short paragraph is full of meaning1 and is profoundly characteristic of ,st4 ,paul in thought and language4 ,the 'therefore' is one of the great transitional 'therefores#b' by which ,st4 ,paul shows his constant sense of the inter-connexion of doctrine and life3 the doctrine passing by a clear logic into the practical life1 and the life drawing all its #ii practical motives from the realities disclosed in the doctrine4 ,it is truly nothing whatever but shallowness and 'shortness of thought' which can suffer us to imagine that the ,christian character--,i do not say all morality1 but the ,christian character--could long survive the ,christian creed4 ,and the character of this summary exhortation shows us that any idea of a faith which stops short of moral identification with its object is utterly alien to ,st4 ,paul's mind4 ,faith is no true ,christian faith1 if it is content to receive from the ,father1 or from ,christ1 a gift which leaves it still outside the life of ,god4 ,the faith which ,christ inspires asks for and receives nothing less than real fellowship in ,his divine and human life1 and that life is1 in its joys as well as its sorrows1 a life of self-surrender1 of sacrifice4 ,thus the ,christian only welcomes the gift of pardon through ,christ's sacrifice in order to be admitted into the freedom of the dedicated life in ,christ1 which is the life of sacrifice4 ,it is the sort of sacrifice 7as ,st4 ,paul's language indicates7 which is as different as possible from any such asceticism as is prompted by contempt of the flesh or the body1 or refusal of joy1 or love of death4 ,it is sacrifice which seeks to cultivate #ajj into full vitality every faculty of body as well as of mind 7and that in an active society or brotherhood71 in order to consecrate all we are or can be to the service of ,god1 and so realize in conscious correspondence with the divine will the rational worship for humanity4 ,st4 ,paul's words here about a 'living' as opposed to a bloody1 and a 'rational' as opposed to an animal sacrifice1 may be the basis on which the eucharist1 the ,christian worship 'in spirit and in truth1' was often called in early times the 'reasonable' and 'bloodless sacrifice#c4' ,and whether this be the case or no1 at any rate we must relearn the lesson that ,st4 ,augustine is for ever insisting upon1 that the eucharistic sacrifice essentially involves and implies the offering of the ,church as the body of ,christ1 #aja that is1 the offering of ourselves as members of the body2 and we may feel profoundly thankful that1 in our service of ,holy ,communion1 this truth has been restored to its proper prominence1 after having been1 in the pre-,reformation service1 almost ignored4 ',and here we offer and present unto thee1 ,o ,lord1 ourselves1 our souls and bodies1 to be a reasonable1 holy1 and lively sacrifice unto thee4' ,in this prayer is really the climax of our sacrificial worship#d4 ,the true service of ,god is intelligent correspondence with the divine will--this is perfection2 and to correspond with the divine will we must be able to know it3 and this is what we can do if we are true to the principle of our new birth1 and suffer it radically and permanently to transform us and our point of view 7for nothing less than this is carried by ,st4 ,paul's expression rendered 'transform'74 ,negatively1 this means that we must maintain our separateness from the worldly world1 to which we died at our baptism--the world of human society as it devotes itself to its business and its pleasures1 #ajb leaving ,god out of account#e4 ,for if the worldly world is suffered to fashion us in accordance with its shallow and transitory show 7this is the idea conveyed by the word rendered 'fashion'71 we shall be blinded to what our regeneration ought to have made plain to us4 #a ,for the use of 'by1' cf4 xv4 #cj2 #a ,cor4 i4 #aj 7'through' is the same word72 #b ,cor4 x4 #a4 #b ,see further1 ,ephes4 pp4 #agb ff4 #c ,it is more likely1 however1 that the phrases 'rational worship' and 'bloodless sacrifice' had an earlier ,jewish origin4 ,they occur in ,the ,testament of the ,,xii ,patriarchs1 which is apparently a ,jewish document christianized4 ,there the angels are said 7,levi4 #c7 to 'offer to the ,lord a rational odour of sweet savour and a bloodless offering4' ,philo also1 as ,mr4 ,conybeare points out to me1 in several passages describes the true sacrifices as 'bloodless'3 and by bloodless sacrifices he means either the meal offerings as opposed to the animal sacrifices 7,de ,anim4 ,sacrif4 ed4 ,mangey ii4 #bej71 or truly spiritual acts as opposed to merely outward 7,de ,ebreitate1 i4 p4 #cgj1 cf4 ii4 #bed74 ,these two ideas run easily into one another1 and the earliest uses of the expression 'bloodless sacrifice' for the eucharist have a similar ambiguity4 #d ,see further1 p4 #agi4 ,i may be allowed to express the earnest desire that we might have liberty in our ,church to read both of the ,post-,communion ,prayers1 which seem supplementary rather than alternative to one another4 #e ,see ,ephes4 p4 #ib4 #ajc ,,division ,v4 #b4 ,,chapter ,,xii4 #c-ba4 ,the community spirit4 ,and when ,st4 ,paul1 justifying himself here1 as before and later on1 by the special divine favour which has made him the apostle of the ,gentiles#a1 proceeds to develop his exhortation1 it appears that with him1 as with ,st4 ,james#b1 the form in which 'divine service' shows itself must be love of the brethren4 ,to be called into the body of ,christ--the society which is bound into one by ,his life and spirit--is to be called to social service1 that is1 to live a community life1 and to cultivate the virtues which make true community life possible and healthy4 ,of these the first is humility1 which in this connexion means the viewing oneself in all things as one truly is1 as a part of a whole4 ,of the faith by which the whole body lives1 a share1 but only #ajd a share1 belongs to each member--a certain measure of faith--and he must not strain beyond it4 ,but he is diligently to make the best of his faculty1 and do the work for which his special gift qualifies him1 in due subordination to the welfare of the whole1 whether it be inspired preaching1 or ordinary teaching1 or the distribution of alms1 or presidency1 or some other form of helping others which is his special function4 ,besides humility there are other virtues which make the life of a community healthy and happy1 and ,st4 ,paul enumerates them1 as they occur to his mind1 in no defined order or completeness4 ,there must be sincerity in love1 that is in considering and seeking the real interest of others2 there must be the righteous severity which keeps the moral atmosphere free from taint2 there must be tenderness of feeling1 which makes the community a real family of brothers2 and an absence of all self-assertion1 or desire for personal prominence2 and thorough industry2 and spiritual zeal2 and devotion to ,god's service2 and the cheerfulness which ,christian hope inspires2 and the ready endurance of affliction2 and close application to prayer2 and a love for giving whenever fellow ,christians need2 and an eagerness to entertain them when they are #aje travelling--for 'the community' embraces1 not one church only1 but 'all the churches4' ,nay in a wider sense the community extends itself to all mankind1 even those who persecute#c them4 ,according to his ,lord's precepts1 the ,christian is only to bless his persecutors4 ,generally he is to be1 in the deep1 original sense1 sympathetic with his fellow men everywhere in their joys and sorrows1 and 7to return to the ,christian community7 he is to seek to let it be pervaded by an impartial kindness2 and1 not thinking himself a superior person suited only for superior affairs1 he is to let the current of ordinary human needs bear him along4 ,he is not to set undue store on his own opinions#d2 he is utterly to banish the spirit of retaliation2 he is deliberately to plan so to live as that his life shall prove1 not a stumblingblock1 but a moral attraction to men in general#e2 he is never to quarrel with any one if he can possibly help it2 he is completely to suppress his resentment #ajf when he is wronged1 and simply to leave the matter to the wrath of ,god1 as indeed the law would have him do#f2 so that1 by his very meekness and returning good for evil1 he may1 according to the wise man's saying1 heap burning shame upon his enemy1 like coals of fire#g4 ,evil is all around the ,christian1 and it is a strong man armed2 but the ,christian has with him the forces of good which are yet stronger1 and by no passive withdrawal1 but by the active exercise of good1 he is to win the victory over evil4 ,for ,i say1 through the grace that was given me1 to every man that is among you1 not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think2 but so to think as to think soberly1 according as ,god hath dealt to each man a measure of faith4 ,for even as we have many members in one body1 and all the members have not the same office3 so we1 who are many1 are one body in ,christ1 and severally members one of another4 ,and having gifts differing according to the grace that was given to us1 whether prophecy1 let us prophesy according to the proportion of our faith2 or ministry1 let us give ourselves to our ministry2 or he that teacheth1 to his teaching2 or he that exhorteth1 to his exhorting3 he that giveth1 let him do it with liberality2 he that ruleth1 with diligence2 he that sheweth mercy1 with cheerfulness4 ,let love be without hypocrisy4 ,abhor that which is evil2 cleave to that which is good4 ,in love of the brethren be tenderly affectioned one to another2 in honour preferring one another2 in diligence not slothful2 #ajg fervent in spirit2 serving the ,lord2 rejoicing in hope2 patient in tribulation2 continuing stedfastly in prayer2 communicating to the necessities of the saints2 given to hospitality4 ,bless them that persecute you2 bless1 and curse not4 ,rejoice with them that rejoice2 weep with them that weep4 ,be of the same mind one toward another4 ,set not your mind on high things1 but condescend to things that are lowly4 ,be not wise in your own conceits4 ,render to no man evil for evil4 ,take thought for things honourable in the sight of all men4 ,if it be possible1 as much as in you lieth1 be at peace with all men4 ,avenge not yourselves1 beloved1 but give place unto wrath3 for it is written1 ,vengeance belongeth unto me2 ,i will recompense1 saith the ,lord4 ,but if thine enemy hunger1 feed him2 if he thirst1 give him to drink3 for in so doing thou shall heap coals of fire upon his head4 ,be not overcome of evil1 but overcome evil with good4 7#a7 ,it is the idea of corporate life which dominates all this exhortation4 ,no writing in the ,new ,testament has done more than the ,epistle to the ,romans to strengthen the sense of spiritual individuality1 and to rouse the individual spirit to protest1 as it protested in ,luther1 against spiritual tyranny4 ,but it is a complete mistake to suppose that the epistle is individualistic in tendency4 ,the life into which the individual's faith in ,jesus admits him is the life of a community1 and its virtues are the virtues of community life4 ,the strengthened individuality is to go to enrich an organized society4 #ajh ,this is expressed in the familiar metaphor of the body which had been employed in non-,christian thought before ,st4 ,paul identified it with himself and ,christianity by the vigorous and profound use which he made of it#h4 ,the ,christian community is a body bound together in a common life by a common inspiring presence and spirit4 ,the divine grace and good favour of ,christ shows itself in special 'gifts' 7in the ,greek this word 'charisma' expresses a particular embodiment of the general grace1 'charis1' of ,god72 and no individual member is without his special endowment4 ,it is not a few officers of the community who are gifted1 but all2 and all are to co-operate in the common life and work4 ,of gifts there are various sorts which we hear of in the ,new ,testament4 ,there are the official gifts1 the result of what we call ordination1 as the gift which was 'in' ,timothy 'by the laying on of hands4' ,and those among the ,christians at ,rome1 who 'presided' and 'ministered1' would have been1 we should suppose1 official presbyters or 'bishops1' and deacons4 ,but the ,roman ,christians hardly constituted yet an organized church1 and we cannot tell whence such officers of #aji the community received their appointment4 ,there is no ground for a positive assertion of any kind#i4 ,again we hear of special gifts1 such as powers of healing1 speaking with tongues and prophesying1 which sometimes accompanied the bestowal of the ,spirit1 through the laying on of hands which was given to all4 ,and the gift of prophesying among the ,roman ,christians may have been a gift of this kind4 ,but ,st4 ,paul is perhaps writing with the circumstances of the ,corinthian church1 rather than those of the ,roman ,christians1 in his mind2 and we can gather but little about the exact condition of things at the capital4 ,once more1 ,st4 ,paul uses the word 'gifts' for more personal and moral endowments1 as for the bent of mind which leads men1 under divine guidance1 towards celibacy or marriage#aj4 ,but in this place he is not distinguishing4 ,he is hardly speaking in view of any special circumstances at ,rome4 ,he is but emphasizing the fact which is the basis of all the life of ,christians everywhere--the fact that each individual member of the body has a special gift1 and a special function for the good of the whole body1 by which the gift is to express itself4 ,what every individual ,christian has to do1 #aaj then1 is to realize his own gift and correspond to it4 ,the gift involves a certain 'measure of faith4' ,the faith of each individual ,christian is the same in its basis4 ,it holds him in spiritual allegiance to the same ,lord1 and in confession of the same elemental creed4 ,but1 besides this1 it involves a special insight1 which is the peculiar endowment of the individual4 ,there is something which each man can realize and impart1 as no one else is qualified to do4 ,the ,church is the poorer if he holds back or fails to stir up this gift of his own1 and on the other hand he incurs the peril of presumption if he ventures beyond it4 ,even the inspired man1 the prophet1 must prophesy within the limits of what his own special proportion of faith enables him to perceive and grasp#aa1 even though another prophet with a larger faith might rightly say what he may not venture upon4 ',let each man be fully #aaa persuaded in his own mind4' ,for any assertion which goes beyond what the faith of the individual enables him to be convinced of1 is for him 'sin4' ,we greatly need this exhortation to-day4 ,the convictions of many are vague and uncertain1 and their teaching without heart or force1 because1 like parrots1 they catch up and repeat what others may have insight enough to warrant their asserting1 but they have not4 ,to correspond with one's own personal gift of faith is to realize one's vocation2 and1 by the development of the individual points of view1 inside the common 'tradition1' the fullness and richness of the corporate faith is secured4 ,the cohesion of the body lies in each one's realizing his own gift1 and also reverencing that of others4 ,here is humility4 ,humility is not self-contempt1 or cringing to others4 ,to realize one's own gift1 one's own relation to ,god1 gives to each man a dignity1 a power to stand upright and face the world4 ,the sovereign ,master and ,giver has given me my own life and my own gifts4 ,he is responsible for the existence which ,he gave me1 and ,i am not to shame ,him by shrinking from making the best of it4 ,but also humility is1 in all relations1 truth about ourselves4 ,it is truth about ourselves as regards ,god1 who #aab is simply the giver of whatever we have and are2 and it is truth about ourselves as regards our fellow men--our own gifts being justly appraised only when they are regarded as means of serving the body as a whole1 without any self-aggrandizement1 with a due respect to the gifts of others1 and even a positive will to let them have higher place than ourselves4 ,indeed we shall do well to meditate deeply on this4 ,what good work is there which is not in more or less continual danger of suffering1 or even being abandoned1 because fellow ,christians1 zealous fellow ,christians1 will plainly1 and it must be wilfully1 yield to the ambition to be first3 will not be content to be second or third3 will not do the unobtrusive work3 will think ',how can ,i shine1' rather than ',how can ,i serve'8 ,in fact1 how very unwilling we are to recognize1 in our ideals of education1 and in our theory of grown life1 that ambition1 in the strict sense of the word--the desire to obtain distinction for ourselves1 as distinct from the desire to serve--is not a motive which ,christianity can sanction1 or from which it can hope for a blessing4 ,we linger lovingly1 wistfully1 on the picture of the corporate life of a ,christian community4 ,has it vanished from the earth1 this real fraternal #aac living1 'high and low1 rich and poor1 one with another1' each supplementing the deficiencies of the other1 and receiving of their fullness8 ,may we not do something more than we are doing to realize it in our congregations or parishes8 ,is nearly enough emphasis laid on the social relationship of each congregation of fellow worshippers or each local church8 ,dimly through the mist of ages in old churchwardens' accounts1 in the rare instances where they have been preserved from days before the ,reformation1 we discern what a really fraternal1 self-governing and mutually co-operative community the mediaeval ,english parish was4 ,let me extract a few sentences from the excellent preface#ab which ,bishop ,hobhouse prefixed to an edition of the surviving ,churchwardens' ,accounts of a number of ,somersetshire parishes4 ',the 7parish7 community was completely organized with a constitution which recognized the rights of the whole and of every adult member to a voice in self-government1 but kept the self-governing community under a system of inspection and 7if need should be7 restraint from central authority4' ',the whole adult population were accounted parishioners1 and had an equal voice #aad when assembled for consultation under the rector4 ,seeing that both sexes served the office of warden1 there can be no doubt that both had a vote4' ,the strongly existing spirit of good will and pride in the parish church found all the necessary funds for the maintaining of the church and the services1 and for the provision of often a sumptuous and rich treasury of ornaments4 ,the needs of the ,church were met generally by the local industry of 'such as were wise-hearted'--builders1 carpenters1 workers in gold and silver1 bell-founders1 embroiderers1 writers1 illuminators1 book-binders1 and others4 ,hard by the church the church-house was the centre of the popular recreations of the holy day or holiday4 ,the parish elected and paid its own officers1 except the rector1 and the affairs and ornaments of the church1 even in part the arrangement of the services1 were under the government1 not of the rector1 but of the parish meeting1 of which he was president1 under the restraining hand of the rural dean and archdeacon4 ,the support of the poor or disabled was a wholly voluntary matter4 ',the brotherhood tie was so strongly realized by the community1 that #aae the weaker ones were succoured by the stronger as out of a family store4' ',all the tendency of the feudal system1 working through the machinery of the manorial court1 was to keep the people down4 ,all the tendency of the parochial system1 working through the parish council1 holding its assemblies in the churches1 where the people met on equal terms as children and servants of the living ,god1 and members of one body in ,christ ,jesus1 was to lift the people up4' ,in these assemblies there was no distinction between lord and vassal1 high and low1 rich and poor2 in them the people learnt the worth of being free4 ,here were the schools in which1 in the slow course of centuries1 they were disciplined to self-help1 self-reliance and self-respect#ac4 ,no doubt these descriptions of mediaeval parish life represent an ideal very imperfectly realized4 ,but is it not an ideal we need to recover8 ,is there not a call for ,church reform1 both moral and formal1 to restore to us the community life of our parishes1 and fill ,st4 ,paul's language again with its primary and natural meaning8 #a ,see i4 #e1 #aa-ae2 xv4 #ae-ag4 #b ,jas4 i4 #ag4 #c ,the word is the same as ,st4 ,paul has just used to describe the eager 'pursuit' of opportunities of hospitality by the ,christian4 ,he 'pursues' opportunities of doing good1 while he is himself 'pursued' by enemies to do him evil4 #d ,cf4 xi4 #be1 and ,prov4 iii4 #g4 #e ,prov4 iii4 #d ,,lxx4 ',provide things honourable in the sight of the ,lord and of man4' #f ,deut4 xxxii4 #ce4 #g ,prov4 xxv4 #ba4 #h ,the truth1 however1 which underlies the metaphor of the body is1 we may say1 equally present in all the ,new ,testament writers4 #i ,see1 however1 p4 #aif4 #aj #a ,cor4 vii4 #g4 #aa ,dr4 ,liddon1 with many others1 interprets 'according to the proportion of the faith1' i4e4 according to 'the majestic proportion of the 7objective7 faith4' ,this is the characteristically ,latin1 as against the ,greek1 interpretation1 and the ,greek is certainly to be preferred1 because 'according to the proportion of our faith' follows naturally upon 'according as 444 the measure of faith' just above2 indeed 'faith' in this context can hardly have assigned to it without violence the objective meaning which1 however1 in the context of the ,pastoral ,epistles it no doubt frequently bears4 ,cf4 app4 note ,a1 p4 #bje4 #ab ,somersetshire ,records1 vol4 iv1 #ahij4 #ac ,dr4 ,jessop1 ',parish ,life in ,england before the ,great ,pillage1' ,nineteenth ,century1 ,jan4 #ahih1 p4 #ee2 cf4 also ,dom ,gasquet on ',the ,layman in the ,mediaeval ,period1' ,tablet1 ,sept4 #b1 #ahii4 #aaf ,,division ,v4 #c4 ,,chapter ,,xiii4 #a-g4 ,the ,christians and the imperial power4 ,it is possible that the thought of the innocent victim of injustice and wrong waiting upon the divine wrath1 brings to ,st4 ,paul's mind the idea of the ,state which exists to represent divine justice in the world1 and minister divine wrath on behalf of the innocent4 ,but1 whether this particular connexion of thought was really in ,st4 ,paul's mind or no1 at any rate the previous section has made it plain that the 'love of the brethren' must extend itself to become a right relation to all men1 whether ,christians or not#a4 ,in particular1 therefore1 the relation of the ,christians to the imperial authority could not fail to be a matter which required attention and apostolic counsel4 ,the ,jews1 whose theocratic #aag principles made submission to government by 'the uncircumcised' at least a real abandonment of a religious ideal#b1 had always an instinctive tendency to rebellion2 and the ,christian church built upon ,judaism might easily have inherited this instinct4 ,the catholic church of the new covenant1 might have claimed to be a theocracy like that of the old4 ,especially at ,rome1 where the ,jews were a vast and formidable body who had recently given trouble and been expelled#c1 the attitude of the ,christians1 who were identified with them1 might easily be misunderstood4 ,or on the other hand the ,jews themselves1 at ,rome as at ,thessalonica#d1 might represent the ,christians as disloyal to ,caesar4 ,moreover1 apart from all unjustified slanders1 the spirit of the 'fifth monarchy men' has seldom been altogether absent from periods of ,christian enthusiasm2 and the restless and undisciplined #aah tendencies at ,thessalonica#e1 which the mistaken expectation of the immediate second coming of ,christ had encouraged1 were a sign that ,christians might easily find it difficult to settle down as good citizens in the great empire of the world4 ,st4 ,paul therefore1 here and elsewhere1 would make it quite plain that the catholic church1 if it is like the ancient ,israel1 is like it only as it was in exile--when the children of ,israel were bidden to be good citizens of the ,babylonian empire1 and to seek the peace of the city whither ,god had caused them to be carried away captive1 and to pray unto the ,lord for it1 for in the peace thereof they should have peace#f4 ,thus the ,church was not a theocracy1 but a 'settlement of strangers and exiles#g1' waiting for the visible establishment of the kingdom or city of ,god1 and meanwhile maintaining a polity or ordered social life of their own1 but on a voluntary and catholic 7or non-national7 basis4 ,therefore1 so long as ,god maintains 'the present world1' they must be good citizens of whatever earthly state they happen to live under4 ,on this basis1 then1 ,st4 ,paul reminds each single person #aai of the duty of political loyalty4 ,the earthly state is of ,god's establishing1 as well as the kingdom of ,christ1 and fulfils a divine purpose with divine authority4 ,it exists to suppress moral outrage and lawlessness#h1 to maintain justice and right4 ,its officers are ,god's ministers 7as truly as the officers of the ,church1 though in a different order71 and must be obeyed accordingly1 under peril not only of civil punishment for disobedience1 but under peril of divine judgement also1 and as a matter of conscience4 ,the good man1 and therefore the good ,christian1 has nothing to fear from the empire or its officers4 ,and he will readily1 and as a matter of conscience1 pay his tribute as a subject1 and his taxes as a citizen1 to the proper authorities1 and give to each imperial officer the respect which is his due4 ,let every soul be in subjection to the higher powers3 for there is no power but of ,god2 and the powers that be are ordained of ,god4 ,therefore he that resisteth the power1 withstandeth the ordinance of ,god3 and they that withstand shall receive to themselves judgement4 ,for rulers are not a terror to the good work1 but to the evil4 ,and wouldest thou have no fear of the power8 do #abj that which is good1 and thou shalt have praise from the same3 for he is a minister of ,god to thee for good4 ,but if thou do that which is evil1 be afraid2 for he beareth not the sword in vain3 for he is a minister of ,god1 an avenger for wrath to him that doeth evil4 ,wherefore ye must needs be in subjection1 not only because of the wrath1 but also for conscience sake4 ,for for this cause ye pay tribute also2 for they are ministers of ,god's service1 attending continually upon this very thing4 ,render to all their dues3 tribute to whom tribute is due2 custom to whom custom2 fear to whom fear2 honour to whom honour4 ,our ,lord1 by ,his whole bearing towards ,jewish nationalism and by ,his clear prophecy of the destruction of ,jerusalem1 as well as by ,his particular injunction to 'render unto ,caesar the things that were ,caesar's1' had made it evident to ,his disciples that the sceptre had departed from ,judah1 and had determined the attitude of ,christians towards the empire4 ,they could not indeed be as other inhabitants of the empire1 for they were waiting1 and praying1 and working1 for the visible establishment of a city and kingdom of ,god on earth--little as either the 'times and seasons1' or the character and manner1 of that city and kingdom had been revealed to them4 ,thus the ,roman empire could not but be in their eyes a kingdom of this world destined for overthrow4 ,but it was by the methods of meekness1 and by purely spiritual weapons1 that the kingdom of #aba ,god was to come1 and the great overthrow1 whatever it should prove to be1 was to be effected4 ,this at least was certain2 and meanwhile the ,roman empire represented the divine principle of authority and order1 and must be obeyed4 ,st4 ,paul no doubt had1 more than any other apostle1 a real feeling for the empire and the city of which he was a citizen4 ,moreover1 he saw in the organization of the empire a great framework and vehicle for the establishment and spread of the catholic church4 ,and hitherto certainly 7at least1 since the fatal moment of ,pilate's weakness7 the ,church had continually experienced the assistance of the imperial authorities4 ,it was a misused spiritual authority1 before which the protest had to be made1 ',we must obey ,god rather than man#i4' ,it was the ,jewish authorities who persecuted the ,church4 ,it was the ,jewish king who put ,james to death4 ,at ,paphos1 ,thessalonica1 ,corinth1 ,ephesus1 the imperial authorities had been more or less friendly1 and even at ,philippi they had been reduced to an attitude of apology by the bare mention of ,roman citizenship4 ,st4 ,paul's experiences1 therefore1 had prepared him to 'appeal unto ,caesar1' and to expect justice #abb and freedom for himself and his cause4 ,even the beginnings of the experience of imperial hostility and persecution did not quash or even weaken this attitude in ,st4 ,peter#aj4 ,st4 ,peter and ,st4 ,paul idealize the empire almost as if it could do no wrong1 and the righteous had nothing to fear from it4 ,of course1 when this expectation had been rudely shattered--when the imperial authority had come chiefly to mean the persecution of the saints--an opposite sort of idealism takes place1 and ,rome appears as the great 'beast' of violence in the ,apocalypse of ,john4 ,both idealizations represent truth--the truth of what the ,state is meant to be on the one side1 and of what it may become on the other4 ,but after considerable experience of persecution1 ,clement of ,rome is still full of admiration for the divine order of the imperial rule1 and recognizes the duty of obedience to his 'rulers and governors upon earth1' side by side with the duty of obedience to ',god's almighty and most excellent name'2 and as it is ,god who has given the rulers their authority1 he prays for grace to submit to them1 and offers rich prayer for their welfare and that of the empire4 ,and the spirit lived on in the ,christian #abc church through all the persecutions1 and the apologists for ,christianity loved to protest their loyalty to the empire1 and to think of their church as 'the soul of the world1' maintaining it by prayer and virtue in the midst of impiety and corruption4 ,in ,england this passage has often been put to two conspicuously unjustifiable uses4 ,first1 it was the stronghold of the maintainers of 'the divine right of kings' and of 'passive obedience4' ,in reality it asserts the divine right of civil authority1 but not of any particular kind of civil authority4 ,indeed the government of the empire was still nominally a republic in its fundamental forms1 though it was becoming a despotism in fact4 ,and supposing the senate and people had--as is of course conceivable--reasserted their authority over their 'emperors1' or military officers1 the ,christian doctrine of divine right would have afforded no guidance as to which of the claimants to authority had the divine will on its side4 ,what is barely asserted is the divine right of the existing civil authority1 democratic or regal4 ,and while our passage exalts the normal duty of obedience1 it suggests no answer to the question--,is there not a point where a government so manifestly fails to #abd maintain the divine order in the world1 or to represent the will of ,god and the best interests of the people1 that it deserves to be put an end to8 ,at such a point ,christianity can only serve to reinforce the natural instincts of justice and right4 ,and again1 the words1 'the powers that be are ordained of ,god3 therefore he that resisteth the power withstandeth the ordinance of ,god1' have often been used in ,england to justify a claim on behalf of the ,state to coerce and govern the ,church and the consciences of men in spiritual matters4 ,but such an idea is utterly alien to the mind of the ,new ,testament4 ,in the matters which concern our spiritual salvation1 the authority which is to discipline and control us is the binding and loosing1 absolving and retaining1 authority which is entrusted not to the ,state1 but to the ,church4 ,attempts are recorded in history on the part of the ,state to crush out the ,church1 and on the part of the ,church to usurp the authority of the ,state and use its weapons4 ,such attempts1 we trust1 belong to past history4 ,an attempt1 too1 specially identified with ,england1 has been made to identify a national ,church and ,state as only different aspects of the same society1 so that the government of the national ,church can be more #abe or less fused in that of the ,state4 ,but whatever may be said of such an attempt in the past1 in our modern ,england the plain facts of the political and religious situation are flatly repugnant to it2 and there can evidently be no reasonable religious government in the ,church of ,england till it is conducted again in obedience to the fundamental ,christian principle that our national and local ,church is part of a great catholic society1 which ,christ endowed with an independent spiritual authority1 and a law and constitution and ministers of its own4 ,the ,state may need an established national church as much as ever to enable it to fulfil its highest functions1 but any ',establishment' in these days must be consistent with the fullest recognition of the spiritual and political liberties of those members of the ,state who belong to other religious bodies1 and also must be based upon recognition that the ,church and ,state are fundamentally distinct1 and relatively independent societies4 ,but it behoves us ,churchmen1 not only to assert the spiritual liberties of the ,church1 but also to realize a great deal more fully than we do1 the divine authority of the civil ministers and civil laws in their own department4 ,the ,state #abf exists to embody and represent in the world the divine justice1 which is to be the basis of the government of men4 ,its ministers--magistrates1 legislators1 officers of justice--are ',god's ministers'3 laws which are passed by the ,state in fulfilment of its divine mission--laws intended to maintain the health and prosperity of the people as a whole--have a divine sanction2 and we ,churchmen can only be what the ,church should be1 'the soul of the world1' if we make it a matter of conscience1 a great deal more deliberately than it is at present with most of us1 to aid vigorously in the administration of the good laws which already exist1 national and municipal1 and to promote intelligently and enthusiastically the purposes of civil government by helping towards better laws2 so that our government1 as a whole1 may become a continually completer image of the equitable and impartial righteousness of ,god4 #a ,cf4 #b ,pet4 i4 #g1 ',in your love of the brethren supply love1' i4e4 let the temper bred inside the closer bond of ,christian fellowship extend itself universally4 #b ,deut4 xvii4 #ae1 ',thou mayest not put a foreigner over thee1 which is not thy brother4' #c ,acts xviii4 #b4 ',claudius had commanded all the ,jews to depart from ,rome1' cf4 ,suetonius1 ,claud4 #be4 ',the ,jews who had been persistently breaking into disturbances at the instigation of ,chrestus 7,christ87 he expelled from ,rome4' ,we cannot certainly explain these words1 but ,st4 ,paul knew all about the occurrence from ,priscilla and ,aquila1 whom the expulsion had brought across his path at ,corinth4 #d ,acts xvii4 #g4 #e #a ,thess4 iv4 #aa2 v4 #ad2 #b ,thess4 iii4 #f4 #f ,jer4 xxix4 #g2 cf4 #a ,tim4 ii4 #b4 #g #a ,pet4 i4 #aa4 ,the word for such a 'settlement of strangers1' paroecia1 has become1 by a suggestive history1 our 'parish4' #h ,cf4 #b ,thess4 ii4 #f4 ',that which restraineth' the outbreak of lawlessness is 7almost certainly7 the empire1 and 'he that restraineth' 7ver4 #g7 the emperor4 #i ,acts v4 #bi4 #aj #a ,pet4 ii4 #ac-ag4 #abg ,,division ,v4 #d4 ,,chapter ,,xiii4 #h-aj4 ,the summary debt4 ,christians are willingly to pay tribute and tax as a debt1 a thing due in ,god's sight to ,his ministers4 ,but this obligation is a specimen of innumerable obligations which we owe to our 'neighbours'--debts only limited by human need4 ,and the ,christian is to take a wide view of his obligations1 and to let there be no legitimate claim upon him unfulfilled1 no debt unpaid1 except the one which a man ought always to be paying and still to be owing1 for it is infinite--the debt of love4 ,here1 in loving each other man with the same real regard to his personal interests as we devote to our own1 is the satisfaction of the moral law4 ,all the particular 'commandments'--those of the ,second ,table1 and any other there may be--are comprehended in this one4 ,for love can do no harm to any other1 and can therefore break no commandment4 #abh ,owe no man anything1 save to love one another3 for he that loveth his neighbour hath fulfilled the law4 ,for this1 ,thou shalt not commit adultery1 ,thou shall not kill1 ,thou shalt not steal1 ,thou shalt not covet1 and if there be any other commandment1 it is summed up in this word1 namely1 ,thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself4 ,love worketh no ill to his neighbour3 love therefore is the fulfilment of the law4 ,st4 ,paul gives here a very noticeable expansion to the idea of not being in debt4 ,in its literal sense we have all of us a horror of it1 at least in theory4 ',no debtor's hands are clean ,however white they be4' ,we must both let that theoretic horror of debt dominate our practice in money matters1 and also expand our idea of 'debts4' ,according to ,christ's teaching1 the priest and ,levite did not pay their debt to their ,samaritan neighbour1 because they thought him a stranger with no claim on them4 ,dives ignored his rich man's debt to ,lazarus4 ,of those who are to appear on the left hand of ,christ's judgement-seat1 each will be condemned because he never realized his debt to ,christ in the persons of all those who had needs to which he might have ministered4 ,st4 ,paul1 as an apostle1 acknowledged his debt #abi to all the ,gentile world#a1 and we members of a church1 catholic in idea1 but as yet so far from catholic in fact--we ,englishmen1 members of an imperial and spreading race1 responsible for the name of ,christ all over the world--have a portentous and lamentably unfulfilled debt to the races of ,africa and ,india1 and to the whole world4 ,we can all think of manifold debts--to the lonely whom we might visit1 the misunderstood whom we might sympathize with1 the ignorant whom we might teach1 the weak and oppressed whom we might support and combine1 the sinful whom we might convert and establish in good living2 so many debts to family and friends2 so many debts to ,englishmen and fellow ,christians1 to ,africans and ,asiatics4 ,is it not bewildering even to attempt to realize our debts8 ,and yet1 let a man make a beginning1 and all will be well4 ,let him steadily set himself to behave towards those whom he employs or those who employ him1 towards his domestic servants or his masters1 towards railway porters and shop assistants and others who minister to his convenience1 as being men and women with the same right to courteous treatment1 and to a real opportunity to #acj make the best of themselves1 as he has himself2 let him steadily refuse to 'exploit' those immediately concerned with him1 or treat them as merely means to his ends or instruments of his convenience2 let him thus realize his debts to his nearest 'neighbours1' and the whole idea of humanity1 of brotherhood1 will be deepened and made real to him4 ,serving the few1 he will come to serve the many4 ,his prayers will go before his actions1 and enlarge their scope4 ,he will get a habit of considerateness and thoughtfulness for others1 as belonging to ,christ1 which will express itself habitually towards all1 and especially the weak4 ,his 'neighbour' will come to mean1 as in our ,lord's parable and in ,st4 ,paul's expression in this place1 any 'other man#b4' ,and in our days when the old personal relations of masters to workers have been so largely merged in the relation of companies to unions or to men and women in masses1 we shall never allow ourselves to forget that combinations are combinations of individuals1 and that neither individual responsibility1 nor responsibility for the individual1 can be obliterated by union or by numbers4 ,st4 ,paul1 we notice1 is here plainly #aca reproducing our ,lord's saying about love and the law#c2 and he would seem to have the teaching of the parable about the ,good ,samaritan in his mind2 as in the previous section the saying ',render unto ,caesar the things that are ,caesar's1' and in the end of the preceding one 7xii4 #ad1 #ai7 the prohibition of vengeance and the injunction of love to enemies in the ,sermon on the ,mount4 ,st4 ,paul's ethical teaching is in fact found to be throughout based on our ,lord's1 whether our ,lord's words were with him in a written form or came to him simply in the oral tradition4 ,and we do well to remember1 as we read this familiar passage1 that here is the centre and kernel of ,christianity4 ,it is the revelation of a new and universal duty1 based on a revealed relationship of all men to a common ,father3 the duty which lies upon all men of loving all men1 because ,god loves all men with a father's love1 or rather because ,god is love1 and only by the life of love can we share ,his fellowship#d4 ,the #acb ,christian 'enthusiasm for humanity' has thus its roots in a disclosure of the character of ,god1 and of ,his mind towards every man4 #a ,rom4 i4 #ad4 #b ver4 #h1 'his neighbours'3 margin1 'the other4' #c ,matt4 xxii4 #dj2 cf4 ,gal4 v4 #ad1 and ,james ii4 #h4 #d ,it has been commonly said that ,christianity almost created a new word to express the new duty4 ,but this now appears not to be strictly the case4 ,agape1 love1 is a word unknown indeed to classical writers1 but it is found in the popular speech of ,alexandria in the second century ,b4,c4 ,see ,deissmann1 ,bibelstudien 7,marburg1 #ahie71 p4 #hj4 7,i was referred to this work by ,dr4 ,bernard1 ,pastoral ,epistles1 p4 #bd47 ,hence1 i4e4 from the popular speech of ,greek ,egypt1 it passed into the ,greek ,bible and so into ,christianity4 #acc ,,division ,v4 #e4 ,,chapter ,,xiii4 #aa-ad4 ,the approach of the day4 ,and the motive for paying our debts1 in this wide sense1 is that we must 'agree with our adversary quickly1 while we are with him in the way1' for the day of account is at hand4 ,this worldly world lies asleep to the spiritual realities1 but its short night--the time of darkness--is nearly over4 ,the great deliverance is nearer to us than when we first became ,christians4 ,the day of the ,lord is almost dawning4 ,let us see to it then that all that is only fit for the darkness is stripped off us3 that we are suitably equipped for the day1 so that when it suddenly dawns it shall not put us to shame4 ,sensual lusts and loveless passions indulged--gross sins1 such as none of the ,christian communities had quite got rid of--will appear improper conduct indeed when the sun rises4 ,and there is only one garment proper for the day2 it is the garment of ,christ's righteousness1 or rather of ,christ ,himself1 with whom we must invest #acd ourselves4 ,as for our lower nature1 it is to be our servant merely--not a master1 whose clamorous demands we are to study to satisfy4 ',and this1 knowing the season1 that now it is high time for you to awake out of sleep3 for now is salvation nearer to us than when we first believed4 ,the night is far spent1 and the day is at hand3 let us therefore cast off the works of darkness1 and let us put on the armour of light4 ,let us walk honestly1 as in the day2 not in revelling and drunkenness1 not in chambering and wantonness1 not in strife and jealousy4 ,but put ye on the ,lord ,jesus ,christ1 and make not provision for the flesh1 to fulfil the lusts thereof4 ,st4 ,paul1 no doubt1 was still in eager expectation of the immediate second coming of ,christ2 and that expectation has proved mistaken4 ,now our ,lord plainly did not mean ,his disciples to know when ,his judgement was to be made manifest1 and ,st4 ,paul apparently recognized this#a1 so that his immediate anticipation of the end can never have been part of his faith--never more than the reflection of the eager desire which filled the heart of the ,church4 ,on the other hand1 our ,lord did mean ,his disciples to go on expecting ,him4 ,thus #ace ,st4 ,paul's admonition is as applicable now as ever4 ,the future of the world and of each nation and institution is precarious3 things which seem solid and strong may crumble and melt2 how soon ,god is to make plain ,his judgements1 in part or on the whole1 we do not know2 when each one of us is to pass by death to the great account we do not know4 ,there is no reasonable attitude towards the unknown coming of judgement except to be ready1 and1 though the darkness of the alienated and godless world is all around us1 to live as children of the light eagerly expecting the dawning of the day#b4 ,and to meet ,christ we must be like ,christ4 ,and to be like ,christ we must be in ,christ1 clothed with ,his righteousness1 invested with ,his new nature1 fighting with the weapons of ,his victorious manhood4 ,the 'evil' which is in ourselves1 the unregulated flesh1 we can only 'overcome with good'--the good which is ,jesus ,himself3 for it is no longer we that live in our bare selves1 but ,christ that liveth in us4 ,we are baptized into ,him1 we possess ,his spirit1 we eat ,his flesh and drink ,his blood4 ,what remains is practically to clothe ourselves in #acf ,him#c1 appropriating and drawing out into ourselves by acts of our will ,his very present help in trouble4 ,so can we become like ,him1 and be fitted to see ,him as ,he is#d4 ,this passage played a memorable part in ,st4 ,augustine's life2 for when the child's voice had bidden him 'open and read1' these were the words upon which he opened1 and which sealed his conversion to the faith he served so nobly--'not in rioting and drunkenness1 444 but put ye on the ,lord ,jesus ,christ4' ',i had no wish1' he tells us1 'to read any further1 nor was there any need4 ,for immediately at the end of this sentence1 as if a light of certainty had been poured into my heart1 all the shadows of doubt were scattered#e4' #a #a ,thess4 v4 #a3 ',the day of the ,lord so cometh as a thief in the night4' ,to know this is to have answer enough to questions about the times and seasons of the coming 7v4 #a74 #b ,it is interesting to compare this passage with the closely similar one of ,thess4 v4 #a-d4 ,cf4 ,eph4 v4 #ad ff42 vi4 #aa4 #c ,christ is 'put on' in baptism by all1 ,gal4 iii4 #bg2 but we all still need to appropriate what we have received1 and so 'put ,him on' for ourselves2 cf4 ,eph4 iv4 #bd2 ,col4 iii4 #ab4 #d ,see app4 note ,g1 p4 #bch1 for an admirable prayer by ,jeremy ,taylor based on this thought4 #e ,conf4 viii4 #ab4 #acg ,,division ,v4 #f4 ,,chapter ,,xiv4 #a-bc4 ,mutual toleration4 ,st4 ,paul's practical exhortations show no definite scheme1 but flow out of one another in a natural sequence4 ,he began with the fundamental moral disposition required by life in the ,christian community 7xii74 ,he proceeded to the relation between the ,christian community and the government of the world outside 7xiii4 #a-g74 ,this led him to lay brief and vigorous emphasis upon the universal range of ,christian obligation 7#h-aj71 and the motive which is to make ,christians zealous in rising to its fulfilment 7#aa-ad74 ,now#a he comes back to the difficulties which arise among ,christians--the difficulties in actually living together as members of the same community--difficulties on those small points of religious observance which seem so unimportant #ach in the abstract1 and which1 in the actual experience of intercourse1 prove to be so terribly important1 and so easily give rise to a 'crisis in the ,church4' ,how were the reasonably-minded majority#b1 who thought that all kinds of food were morally indifferent1 to behave towards the scrupulous who would only eat vegetables8 ,how were those ,christians1 who recognized no distinction between one day and another1 to behave towards people who still held the mind of the writer of ,ecclesiasticus1 that 'some days ,god had exalted and hallowed1 and some he had made ordinary days#c'8 ,the problem of 'lawful meats' had often been before the early ,christians4 ,it could not but have been so1 seeing that those among them1 who had passed under ,jewish influences had been brought under a system in which the distinction between clean and unclean meats had been rigorously observed4 ,true1 our ,lord had 'made all meats clean#d1' as ,he had opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers4 ,and the vision which reassured ,st4 ,peter on the #aci latter point1 and forbade him 'to call any man common or unclean#e1' was expressed in a form which implied that the same principle would apply to food4 ,but this fundamental catholic principle1 in its sharp opposition to ,jewish particularism1 was not accepted without a struggle at every point4 ,how hotly1 for a time1 the struggle raged1 we dimly perceive in the narrative of the ,acts1 and especially in ,st4 ,paul's ,epistle to the ,galatians#f4 ,but at the ,jerusalem conference the fundamental catholic principle was unmistakably reaffirmed4 ,gentiles were to be admitted to brotherhood without circumcision or the keeping of the law4 ,henceforth then the reactionaries had no ground to stand on4 ,the law of clean and unclean meats had gone with the rest of the ,jewish laws4 ,but while the ,gentiles won a complete victory on the main principle1 they were required by the apostolic council to make concessions to ,jewish habits in eating1 such as could not affect the main principle4 ,they were to eat meat killed in the ,jewish manner1 with the blood thoroughly drained out4 ,this in itself would probably exclude them from #adj the ,gentile shambles1 where also much of the meat which was for sale would have been offered to idols#g4 ,by the observance of such a concession1 then1 ,jew and ,gentile were to live and eat together in peace4 ,the actual enactment of the ,jerusalem conference had a limited application to the ,gentile ,christians of ,antioch and ,syria and ,cilicia#h4 ,but the principle was a vital and universal one3 to hold firm the catholic or 'indifferentist' principle1 but to make concessions for love's sake and to facilitate mutual fellowship4 ,and this same principle ,st4 ,paul soon had reason to apply again at ,corinth4 ,there the problem was not--,how could ,jew and ,gentile live and eat together8 but ,how far could ,gentiles1 who had become ,christians1 associate with ,gentiles who were still adherents of the old religion1 and eat their meats8 ,st4 ,paul1 in answering this question for the ,corinthians1 strongly asserts the indifferentist principle--that meat of all kinds is ,god's gift and good1 and that it can have contracted no moral pollution through any idolatrous ceremony to which it has been subjected4 ,no questions1 therefore1 are to be asked as to its antecedents4 ,in this physical sense meats which had been #ada offered to idols might be freely eaten4 ,but when such eating could do harm1 when1 for instance1 one man points out to another that a particular portion of food has been part of a sacrifice1 and it is plain he will be scandalized by the eating of it1 then the other must abstain#i1 restricting his own lawful liberty for charity and ,christian brotherhood's sake4 ,now ,st4 ,paul had heard of a new form of the old difficulty at ,rome#aj4 ,there was a ,jewish asceticism--similar to what is found frequently among orientals1 and was practised in ,europe among the ,pythagoreans--which required men to abstain from animal food altogether and from wine4 ,such was probably the rule of the ,essenes in ,palestine#aa1 as of the ,therapeutae in ,egypt1 and such was1 according to a very early authority1 the rule of ,st4 ,james1 the ,lord's brother4 ,such a practice1 then1 had found favour among a minority of ,christians at ,rome4 ,and #adb ,st4 ,paul in the passage we are now to study1 in principle plainly approves of the indifferentist practice of the majority4 ,he knows1 and is persuaded in the ,lord ,jesus1 that nothing is unclean of itself4 ,it is1 he implies1 a weak and unduly scrupulous conscience which makes men vegetarians4 ,but1 on the other hand1 this weaker brother--this man with less clear perception of ,christian principle in the matter--must in no way be alienated4 ,he is to be made welcome4 ,there is no obligation upon him to eat meat4 ,god laid no such requirement upon him when he became a ,christian4 ',god received him4' ,the ,church must continue the like liberality1 and not even seek to pronounce judgement in the matter4 ,in life and death each man is ,christ's servant1 and is responsible to ,god for what he does or does not do4 ,therefore let each man simply be faithful to his own conscience before ,god in this matter1 so that whatever he eats he can 'say his grace1' or 'give thanks1' with a good conscience2 and let him be respectfully tolerant of his brother's practice--the strong not despising the weak1 nor the weak judging and condemning the strong4 ,so far for liberty4 ,but if1 by using our liberty to eat meat1 we are found to run a risk of really #adc troubling our brother1 or even 7what is worse7 leading him to act against his conscience and eat what he feels he ought not#ab1 then we must abstain4 ,this becomes matter of character and peaceable fellowship and spiritual joy1 and these are the really material things in the kingdom of ,god4 ,sooner than do injury to this really divine cause1 sooner than be a hindrance to his brother1 the ,christian had better willingly abstain altogether from flesh and wine too4 ,in passing ,st4 ,paul had noticed another indifferent matter besides the eating of meats4 ,it was the observance of days4 ,st4 ,paul undoubtedly considered that all distinction of high days and common days1 all distinction of the sabbath from other days1 had been in principle abolished by ,christianity4 ,for ,gentile ,christians1 like the ,galatians1 to be 'observing 7,jewish7 days1 and months1 and seasons1 and years#ac1' is to show a miserable disposition to fall back upon a superannuated legal idea of religion--to fall back from the religion of the ,spirit to the religion of the letter2 from the substance to the #add shadow4 ,for the ,christian1 in fundamental principle1 there are no 'sacred days1' for all days are indifferently sacred4 ,as instructed ,christian men could eat all meats1 so they could regard all days as on the same level in ,god's sight4 ,but all ,christians had not the full perception of principle4 ,among the ,galatians1 indeed1 the tendency to observe days is viewed more severely as part of a general reactionary tendency4 ,but at ,rome it appears to have represented simply the practice of a harmless1 if imperfectly enlightened1 minority1 and ,st4 ,paul merely ranks it among things indifferent1 which are to be frankly tolerated4 ,it is to be purely left to the individual conscience4 ,with these preliminary explanations--which in this case will serve our purpose better than an analysis--we can read this section without experiencing any great difficulty4 ,but him that is weak in faith receive ye1 yet not to doubtful disputations#ad4 ,one man hath faith to eat all things3 but he that is weak eateth herbs4 ,let not him that eateth set at nought him that eateth not2 and let not him that eateth not judge him that eateth3 for ,god hath #ade received him4 ,who art thou that judgest the servant of another8 to his own lord he standeth or falleth4 ,yea1 he shall be made to stand2 for the ,lord hath power to make him stand4 ,one man esteemeth one day above another3 another esteemeth every day alike4 ,let each man be fully assured in his own mind4 ,he that regardeth the day1 regardeth it unto the ,lord3 and he that eateth1 eateth unto the ,lord1 for he giveth ,god thanks2 and he that eateth not1 unto the ,lord he eateth not1 and giveth ,god thanks4 ,for none of us liveth to himself1 and none dieth to himself4 ,for whether we live1 we live unto the ,lord2 or whether we die1 we die unto the ,lord3 whether we live therefore1 or die1 we are the ,lord's4 ,for to this end ,christ died1 and lived again1 that he might be ,lord of both the dead and the living4 ,but thou1 why dost thou judge thy brother8 or thou again1 why dost thou set at nought thy brother8 for we shall all stand before the judgement-seat of ,god4 ,for it is written1 ,as ,i live1 saith the ,lord1 to me every knee shall bow1 ,and every tongue shall confess to ,god#ae4 ,so then each one of us shall give account of himself to ,god4 ,let us not therefore judge one another any more3 but judge ye this rather1 that no man put a stumblingblock in his brother's way1 or an occasion of falling4 ,i know1 and am persuaded in the ,lord ,jesus1 that nothing is unclean of itself3 save that to him who accounteth anything to be unclean1 to him it is unclean4 ,for if because of meat thy brother is grieved1 thou walkest no longer in love4 ,destroy not with thy meat him for whom ,christ died4 ,let not then your good be evil spoken of3 for the kingdom of ,god is not eating and drinking1 but righteousness and peace and joy in the ,holy ,ghost4 ,for he that herein #adf serveth ,christ is well-pleasing to ,god1 and approved of men4 ,so then let us follow after things which make for peace1 and things whereby we may edify one another4 ,overthrow not for meat's sake the work of ,god4 ,all things indeed are clean2 howbeit it is evil for that man who eateth with offence4 ,it is good not to eat flesh1 nor to drink wine1 nor to do anything whereby thy brother stumbleth4 ,the faith which thou hast1 have thou to thyself before ,god4 ,happy is he that judgeth not himself in that which he approveth4 ,but he that doubteth is condemned if he eat1 because he eateth not of faith2 and whatsoever is not of faith is sin4 #a4 ,according to ,st4 ,paul a catholic church ought to mean a tolerant church1 and a 'good catholic' a large-hearted ,christian4 ,if men of all races1 with all sorts of traditional instincts and habits1 were to live together in close social cohesion in the ,christian community--and that was essential--this must involve much mutual forbearance1 much self-restraint1 and deliberate toleration of differences#af4 ,st4 ,paul plainly not merely uses1 but loves1 the language of toleration4 ',one man eateth1 another man eateth not1' ',one man esteemeth one day above another2 another esteemeth every day alike4 ,let each man be fully assured in his own mind1' ',receive ye him 444 not with a view to decisions of disputed questions4' ,thoroughly in ,st4 ,paul's spirit is #adg the familiar saying 'in necessary things unity3 in those less than necessary liberty3 in all things charity#ag4' ,in necessary things unity4 ,to ,st4 ,paul this principle meant a clear limit to toleration4 ,there is a common teaching which lies at the basis of the ,church which must not be interfered with1 which is strictly necessary4 ',though we1 or an angel from heaven1 should preach unto you any gospel other than that which we preached unto you1 let him be anathema#ah4' ',how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead8 ,but if there is no resurrection of the dead1 neither hath ,christ been raised3 and if ,christ hath not been raised1 then is our preaching vain1 your faith also is vain#ai4' ,plainly there is an essential fundamental creed which must not be trifled with4 ,the same is true about the moral law4 ,in respect of that also the ,christian body must exercise upon its members the severity of judgement#bj1 that 'he that hath done' the evil deed 'might be taken away from among them1' or excommunicated4 ,once more1 we cannot conceive ,st4 ,paul making the necessity of visible unity a secondary consideration#ba1 nor #adh the recognition of the authority of the apostolic ministry which is to be the centre of unity1 nor the sacraments1 which again are not only means of divine grace to the individual but instruments and bonds of unity4 ,nor again would ,st4 ,paul undervalue the spirit of obedience to the rules of the ,church4 ,he hates the spirit of heresy or separatism4 ',we have no such custom1' he would say to the recalcitrant1 'neither the churches of ,god#bb4' ,once again1 ,st4 ,paul is prepared to let everything turn on even a small and unessential point1 if that point has become the symbol of a vital principle for good or evil4 ,thus1 in itself1 'circumcision was nothing1' but when among the ,galatians the practice of it came to mean a practical ,judaizing--a practical abandonment of the fundamental ,christian principle--then ',behold1 ,i ,paul say unto you1 that1 if ye receive circumcision1 ,christ will profit you nothing#bc4' ,here1 then1 are ,st4 ,paul's essentials1 as to which he is intolerant--a fundamental tradition of faith and morals3 the maintenance of the unity of the body by means of the apostolic stewardship1 and through the 'one baptism1' and the 'one loaf'3 and the spirit of due subordination #adi which is necessary to corporate life4 ,but in a spirit very unlike what has at times become prevalent in the ,church1 he would clearly minimize the action of authority1 and leave large room for the free movement of conscience in ,christians4 ',let us therefore1 as many as be perfect1 be thus minded3 and if in anything ye are otherwise minded1 even this shall ,god reveal unto you3 only1 whereunto we have already attained1 by that same rule let us walk#bd4' ,surely it is not very difficult to apply this spirit of ,st4 ,paul to our own time1 in view of those subordinate points which excite such deep animosities4 ,men are by fundamental disposition1 in great measure1 ritualist or puritan1 ecclesiastically or individually minded1 disciplinarian or mystical4 ,and the ,church should lay on all a certain common law of doctrine and morals and worship1 sufficient to keep them all together in one body4 ,but1 consistently with the coherence of the body1 why should there not be both an ornate and a bare ritual of worship1 both societies of strict observance and individual freedom1 and a wide field of open questions in which we do not even expect 'decisions of doubts'8 ,instead of my own reflections on this #aej subject ,i will ask my readers' attention to the following extracts from a suggestive book#be4 ',at all times there are those to whom what we may call the minor symbolism of ritual is far from being as helpful as it is to others4 ,there is the greatest diversity here4 ,modes of worship1 which repel one man as bleak and bare1 attract another by their very simplicity4 ,the diversity is so natural and so obvious that it calls for neither apology nor explanation2 yet it is easily strained into a cause of disruption4' ',st4 ,paul is speaking of strong brethren and of weak2 of those who need earthly guides and of those who do not2 of those who attach high value to rules and forms and helps2 and of those for whom ordinances have but little significance2 of mystics and disciplinarians4' ',again1 do we not still want a scientific theology8 ,i mean a theology which should do what any scientific treatise does4 ,it should lay down clearly and plainly the essential conditions of unity1 and as regards the unessential should content itself with saying1 ,here men differ2 one thinks thus1 another thus4 444 ,ask yourself1 ,what is it that will carry me1 being #aea what ,i am1 to heaven8 ,what is it will carry my brother here1 who is so unlike me1 to heaven8 ,what is it that will carry us both to heaven8 ,there you will find the essential4' ,st4 ,paul1 we observe1 lays great stress upon honesty of conscience4 ,he wishes men1 even in small matters1 seriously to cultivate a conscience of what is right1 as men should do who even in small things expect a divine judgement2 and seriously also to cultivate the faculty of not interfering with their brother's conscience4 7',hast thou faith8 ,have it to thyself4' ,do not parade your superior enlightenment47 ,he is greatly afraid of people leading others1 or being led for mere agreement's sake1 to do what their own conscience does not justify4 ,and to do even a good thing because another does it whom we want to be like1 without ourselves feeling sure it is good1 or with a doubtful conscience#bf1 this1 ,st4 ,paul says1 is sin4 ,this warning we really need to lay to heart in our age1 when fashion is such a very strong force in religion4 ,this individual follows that individual and 'supposes it must be all right1 as every one seems to do it'2 this congregation follows that #aeb congregation in adopting a popular practice1 without its real basis and justification being considered4 ,but fashion and the influence of members is a great danger in religion4 ',let every man be fully assured in his own mind4' ',whatever is not of faith is sin#bg4' #b4 ,plainly1 when ,st4 ,paul wrote his epistles1 there was no observance of a ,sabbath obligatory upon ,christians#bh4 ,but was there none of ,sunday8 ',the first day of the week' was already 'the ,lord's day1' so far as that ,christians who could not meet to 'break the bread' every day1 met on that day specially to commemorate the death of their risen ,lord till ,he should come again#bi4 ,it was already sufficiently distinctive for ,st4 ,paul to name it as the appropriate day for laying by alms for the poor#cj4 ,but these special observances of it were not obligatory4 ,christians1 when they could meet every day1 might make their eucharist every day4 ,no such observance of ,sunday was yet enjoined as was incompatible with regarding #aec all days of the week alike4 ,nothing less than this can satisfy ,st4 ,paul's words4 ,in principle1 as ,bishop ,lightfoot said#ca1 'the kingdom of ,christ has no sacred days or seasons1 because every time alike is holy4' ,yet the bishop adds1 'appointed days are indispensable to her efficiency4' ,this was soon found to be the case4 ,probably before the end of the first century1 the ,didache mentions not only the observance of ,sunday by the eucharistic service1 but the observance also of the ,wednesday and ,friday fasts4 ,clement1 about the same date1 strongly emphasizes the principle of order in place and time1 as still belonging to ,christian worship4 ',they1 therefore1 that make their offering at the appointed seasons are acceptable and blessed4' ,the ,canons of ,hippolytus show that by the end of the second century there must have been a great development of ecclesiastical regulations1 so far restraining the individual #aed liberty of the earliest days1 and that1 as far as we know1 without protest or sense of alarm4 ,nor need ,st4 ,paul have been in opposition to such church rules4 ,the spirit of regulation is strong in him#cb4 ,on the other hand1 there is no doubt that the ,church has not generally1 one might say has hardly ever1 been conscious1 as ,st4 ,paul was1 of the danger of religious regulations as such4 ,it is so much easier to keep certain rules than to acquire and maintain a certain mind and spirit and principle of action4 ,in the history of the ,church ,st4 ,paul1 we feel1 would very often have been saying1 ',i am afraid of you3 the rules are good in themselves1 but there are dangers attaching to all rules of which you seem to be quite unconscious4 ,there is a lower sort of religion of forms and observances1 and you may fall back into it as easily as the ,galatians4' ,but after all1 rules for living religiously1 private or ecclesiastical1 are1 we all know1 invaluable1 and practically necessary4 ,a man or a church that should attempt to dispense with them would come to disaster4 ,it is very difficult to fathom the depth of the mischief that has come #aee about in the corporate social life of the ,church of ,england1 through the neglect of the surely moderate amount of regulation which was provided for us by the ,prayer ,book in the way of festival and fast days and of daily service4 ,to keep a few simple1 intelligible1 religious rules all together gives almost as much as a common creed the feeling of social coherence4 ,even the extremest ,paulinist need have no fear so long as the ecclesiastical regulations do not reach the point of becoming a burden--so long as no one could be in danger of priding himself on 'acquiring merit' by their mere observance2 and so long also as the principle is kept clearly in view that 'the rules were made for man and not man for the rules4' ,but ,i do not think there can be any reasonable doubt that ,st4 ,paul would repudiate the idea that any rules of worship and observance1 other than those which are necessarily involved in the administration of the sacraments1 can obtain by prescription a right to permanence4 ',they may be changed according to the diversities of countries1 times1 and men's manners4' ,they were made for man2 and the ,church or the churches--with due regard to mutual fellowship--can modify or abolish them4 #aef #c4 ',overthrow not for meat's sake the work of ,god4' ',it is good not to eat flesh nor to drink wine1 nor to do anything whereby thy brother stumbleth4' ',wherefore1 if meat maketh my brother to stumble1 ,i will eat no flesh for evermore1 that ,i make not my brother to stumble#cc4' ,here is the right principle of 'total abstinence' which does not deny the legitimate use of what it yet permanently abandons for love's sake4 ,st4 ,paul would have ,timothy use a little wine when it was for his health's sake1 but when health was not in question1 he would have all men ask1 not how much liberty in this or that is lawful for them1 but how they can avoid causing offence--how they can do most good4 ,this principle admits of application in many directions4 ,for instance1 it may be very hard to determine why certain minor forms of gambling are wrong1 or whether they are positively wrong4 ,but ,st4 ,paul would have the other question asked--,can it be denied that the best way to avoid leading my brother into one of the most common dangers of our time1 is to keep altogether free from a habit which in any case can do no good to body or mind8 #aeg #d4 ,here1 as in x4 #g1 ,st4 ,paul touches upon the descent into ,hades1 and indicates the purpose of it4 ',for this end ,christ died1 that ,he might be ,lord of the dead4' ,it might have been imagined that the dim realms of the dead were outside the jurisdiction of ,christ--that the dead have no king--that the kingdom of redemption does not include them4 ,to obviate such an idea1 to show the universality of ,his realm1 ,christ went down among the dead4 #e4 ,in many places of the ,new ,testament there is mention of the thanksgiving before food--the ,christian's 'saying grace4' ,whether he eat flesh or vegetables he 'giveth ,god thanks#cd4' ,and the word used is the word which1 in its substantive form1 is 'eucharist4' ,and indeed there is meaning in this4 ,the thankful reception by the ,christian of the ordinary bread of his daily life as coming from ,god1 touched his common meals with something of the glory of divine communion2 and the eucharist in its turn #aeh is the common blessing and breaking of the bread1 raised by the ,holy ,spirit to a higher power and consecrated to become the vehicle of the bread of life#ce4 #a ,possibly his mind passes by a natural reaction from the thought of sensual licentiousness 7xiii4 #ac7 to that of unenlightened asceticism4 #b ,it is implied 7xiv4 #a2 xv4 #a and #g7 that the strong-minded brethren were in the ascendant4 ,it is them chiefly to whom ,st4 ,paul addresses himself4 #c ,ecclus4 xxxiii4 #i4 #d ,mark vii4 #ai4 #e ,acts x4 #bh4 #f ,the matter of 'eating with the ,gentiles' was prominent1 cf4 ii4 #ab4 #g #a ,cor4 x4 #be4 #h ,acts xv4 #bc4 #i #a ,cor4 viii1 and x4 #bc-cc4 #aj ,the exact point--abstaining from all flesh meat--is so different from what had presented itself at ,corinth that there must be a particular reference to ,roman circumstances1 of which ,st4 ,paul was probably informed by ,priscilla and ,aquila4 #aa ,this seems to follow from ,philo's statement that they did not make animal sacrifices3 and from ,josephus' description of their way of life as ,pythagorean4 #ab ,cf4 #a ,cor4 viii4 #aj4 #ac ,gal4 iv4 #aj2 cf4 ,col4 ii4 #af1 #ag3 ',let no man therefore judge you in meat1 or in drink1 or in respect of a feast day or a new moon or a sabbath day3 which are a shadow of the things to come2 but the body is ,christ's4' #ad ,or for decisions of doubts1 marg4 ,this1 or something like this1 is the right meaning2 cf4 ,hebr4 v4 #ad3 'for decision between good and evil4' #a ,cor4 xii4 #aj3 'discernings of spirits1' i4e4 decisions as to their true character4 #ae ,from ,isa4 xlv4 #cc4 #af ,cf4 ,ephes4 pp4 #bga f4 #ag ,see app4 note ,h1 p4 #bci4 #ah ,gal4 i4 #h4 #ai #a ,cor4 xv4 #ab1 #ac4 #bj #a ,cor4 v4 #f #ba ,cf4 ,ephes4 p4 #abf4 #bb #a ,cor4 xi4 #af4 #bc ,gal4 v4 #b4 #bd ,phil4 iii4 #ae1 #af4 #be ,unity in ,diversity1 by ,charles ,bigg1 ,d4,d4 7,longmans1 #ahii71 pp4 #hd1 #he1 #ie4 #bf ',whatever is not of faith is sin--that is whatever is against conscience4' ,aquinas1 quoted in ,s4 and ,h4 in loc4 #bg ,cf4 xii4 #f3 ',let us prophesy according to the proportion of our faith4' #bh ,col4 ii4 #af3 ',let no man judge you in respect of a sabbath day4' #bi ,this is probably implied in ,acts xx4 #g4 #cj #a ,cor4 xvi4 #a4 #ca ,philippians1 on 'the ,christian ,ministry1' p4 #aha4 ,the language in the immediate context ,i cannot make my own4 ,but the statement quoted is surely true4 ,and to this day ,i suppose1 for those living in religious communities and similar institutions1 there is very little practical difference between ,sundays and week-days4 ,this almost complete absence of distinction1 however1 must always come about1 if it is to be legitimate1 by raising the week-days to the spiritual level of the ,sundays1 and not by the opposite process4 #cb ,especially in the ,pastoral ,epistles3 but also in the epistles to the ,thessalonians and ,corinthians4 #cc #a ,cor4 viii4 #ac4 #cd ,cf4 #a ,cor4 x4 #cj3 ',why am ,i evil spoken of for that for which ,i give thanks4' #a ,tim4 iv4 #c1 #d3 ',meats1 which ,god created to be received with thanksgiving4444 ,for every creature of ,god is good 444 if it be received with thanksgiving3 for it is sanctified through the word of ,god and prayer4 ,cf4 ,acts xxvii4 #ce3 ',and when he had taken bread1 he gave thanks to ,god in the presence of all3 and he brake it1 and began to eat4' #ce ,matt4 xxvi4 #bf2 cf4 ,luke xxiv4 #cj4 #aei ,,division ,v4 #g4 ,,chapter ,,xv4 #a-ac4 ,unselfish forbearance and inclusiveness4 ,it was essential1 as has been said1 that men whose prejudices and instincts were different should live in the same church and eat at the same love feast4 ,this would require a large-hearted and unselfish self-control4 ,formerly1 as in ,syria and ,palestine1 it was the ,jews who occupied the position of vantage in the ,christian communities1 and were not disposed to tolerate the ways of the ,gentiles4 ,now the tables are turned1 and the ,gentiles are in the majority4 ,the danger is now that those whose instincts are ,gentile should bear hardly upon the minority whose prejudices are more or less ,jewish4 ,such ,st4 ,paul anticipates1 or knows from ,priscilla and ,aquila1 will be the danger among the ,roman ,christians4 ,formerly ,judaic narrowness had been a formidable danger4 ,it had developed a most perilous heresy1 and ,st4 ,paul had dealt with it as a deadly poison4 ,now what remained #afj of ,jewish feeling was a weakness to be generously borne with4 ,it affords ,st4 ,paul an opportunity of falling back on the general principle1 that the measure of ,christian strength and full-grown manhood is the readiness to bear the weaknesses of others4 ,to be told he must not use his normal liberty1 must not eat his usual meal or drink his usual cup of wine1 because it might scandalize some ,christian with the ascetic prejudices of an ,essene1 or even induce him to do the same against his own conscience--to be told this was annoying to a man who held the 'strong' ,christian conviction that all kinds of food were indifferently allowable4 ,the weak scruple of his brother ,christian had become an annoying burden of self-denial and self-restraint laid on himself4 ,but this1 ,st4 ,paul says1 is how ,christian strength--whether it be the moral strength of clear convictions1 or any other sort of faculty#a--must show itself1 in readiness to suffer on account of other people's deficiencies1 in not resenting the restraints they lay on us1 in not expecting to do as we please1 but being #afa ready to accommodate ourselves to our neighbour's tastes where it is for his good4 ,that is what our great example did4 ,plainly ,his whole human life was putting ,himself under the restraints which our weaknesses and narrownesses and slownesses laid on ,him4 ,the righteous man in the psalm complains that he has to bear all the reproaches of ,god which impatient and rebellious ,israelites might utter2 and that is the picture of ,christ bearing our infirmities4 7,the reproaches which fell on ,him were for the very largeness of ,his love2 'because ,he received sinners1' and because ,he received them on the ,sabbaths as well as on other days4 ,they were reproaches of ,god1 like ,jonah's1 because ,he was too forbearing1 too generous47 ,then ,st4 ,paul pauses a moment to justify his use of the ,psalms4 ,these ancient scriptures did not fulfil their purpose in their own time1 or for the old covenant4 ,god intended them for ,christians4 ,their teaching is what they need4 ,the burdens of life are so many1 its requirements upon their patience so constant1 that they find it hard to maintain their hope4 ,yet what is the ,old ,testament so full of8 ,lessons of endurance and words of encouragement4 ,the encouragement and endurance then1 which they gain from #afb the ,old ,testament1 are to help them to maintain ,christian hope4 ,they must not lose heart4 ,the end is a great one3 it is the maintenance of a united spirit in the ,church1 such as ,christ can approve1 such as can express itself in a really unanimous adoration of ,him whom ,christ recognized as ,his ,god and ,father4 ,may the ,god who inspires endurance and encouragement1 grant them not to fail in this great end6 ,here is the central requirement1 then1 which a catholic church lays on them4 ,it is to be unselfishly inclusive1 to welcome into fellowship people who are not naturally to their taste4 ,our ,lord did not scrutinize us men1 but received us1 of whatever sort we were1 that ,god might be glorified in human brotherhood4 ,he vindicated the truth of ,god by fulfilling the covenant of circumcision3 first1 to confirm the promises given to the fathers of ,israel#b2 and1 secondly1 to enlarge the compass of ,israel1 so that the ,gentiles too might share its blessings1 out of ,god's pure mercy apart from any promises4 ,and this also--the fellowship of ,jew and ,gentile--was matter of ancient prediction by psalmist #afc and prophet4 ,the ,roman ,christians must not therefore let themselves be discouraged because they have a difficult task to fulfil4 ,and the apostle prays that ,god1 the inspirer of hope1 may fill them with such a rich sense of the blessings of believing in ,him1 that ,his ,spirit1 dwelling in them1 may make hope to abound in their hearts4 ,now we that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak1 and not to please ourselves4 ,let each one of us please his neighbour for that which is good1 unto edifying4 ,for ,christ also pleased not himself2 but1 as it is written1 ,the reproaches of them that reproached thee fell upon me4 ,for whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning1 that through patience and through comfort of the scriptures we might have hope4 ,now the ,god of patience and of comfort grant you to be of the same mind one with another according to ,christ ,jesus3 that with one accord ye may with one mouth glorify the ,god and ,father of our ,lord ,jesus ,christ4 ,wherefore receive ye one another1 even as ,christ also received you1 to the glory of ,god4 ,for ,i say that ,christ hath been made a minister of the circumcision for the truth of ,god1 that he might confirm the promises given unto the fathers1 and that the ,gentiles might glorify ,god for his mercy2 as it is written1 ,therefore will ,i give praise unto thee among the ,gentiles1 ,and sing unto thy name4 ,and again he saith1 ,rejoice1 ye ,gentiles1 with his people4 #afd ,and again1 ,praise the ,lord1 all ye ,gentiles2 ,and let all the peoples praise him4 ,and again1 ,isaiah saith1 ,there shall be the root of ,jesse1 ,and he that ariseth to rule over the ,gentiles2 ,on him shall the ,gentiles hope4 ,now the ,god of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing1 that ye may abound in hope1 in the power of the ,holy ,ghost4 #a4 ,the connexion of thought in this passage is undoubtedly somewhat obscure4 ,but we know to-day1 as well as ever1 how difficult it is to bear with what is disagreeable to us in others1 with what seem to us their deficiencies1 without breaking real ,christian brotherhood and co-operation4 ,and we know also that where we are possessed by an enthusiasm for brotherhood such as inspired the early ,christians1 the divisions which small differences tend to produce are peculiarly discouraging1 because they suggest that real brotherhood is impossible where men are so differently constituted4 ,we ought not1 therefore1 to be at a loss to see why ,st4 ,paul should pass so easily from speaking of divisions among ,christians to speak of the grounds of patience and encouragement and hope4 ,the ,christian hope is--in substantial part--the hope #afe of a really catholic church--a real brotherhood among people of different races1 classes1 tastes1 and habits2 and it is this great hope which1 even in ,st4 ,paul's day1 was continually suffering discouragement and continually needed reinforcing4 ,and the reinforcement must be 'supernatural4' ,it is the divine love of the ,spirit possessing us which alone can give it vigour4 ,when we are full of the divine consolation1 then it is that we are least inclined to be critical1 and most disposed 'to receive one another1 as ,christ also received us1 to the glory of ,god4' ,for this is the thought we are to have constantly in view1 when we find people 'aggravating'--,christ received us1 and made the best of those whom ',god gave him1' in spite of the infinite annoyances which we men1 even the apostles1 caused ,him2 ,he dealt with us with infinite patience2 ,he made us welcome2 ,he 'received us4' ,in fact1 the reason why the connexion of thought in this passage seems obscure to us1 is probably in part that we have ceased to think of the real fellowship of the naturally unlike--fellowship in all that makes up human life--as a necessary part of the ,christian religion4 ,but to ,st4 ,paul there was no ,christianity without the reality of catholic brotherhood4 #aff #b4 ,st4 ,paul here1 as in writing to the ,corinthians#c1 shows himself specially anxious that ,gentile ,christians should not think they could make light of the ,old ,testament1 or imagine that ',christ was the end of the law' in any such sense as would make the books of the old covenant superfluous under the new4 ,their value1 he insists1 remains permanent4 ,when he is writing to the ,corinthians1 he finds it in the moral warnings--the warnings of divine judgement upon the chosen people--of which the history is full4 ,in this epistle he is thinking chiefly of the lessons of 'endurance' and divine 'encouragements1' which histories and prophets provide4 ,in his epistle to ,timothy#d he thinks of the books as instruments by the use of which the minister or representative of ,god may become fully educated and equipped for all the purposes of moral supervision and discipline4 ,they can thus educate and equip him1 ,st4 ,paul #afg teaches1 because they were originally written under the influence of a divine inspiration2 but it is only when faith has finally attained its true object in ,jesus ,christ that their real meaning becomes apparent4 ,and this last principle is implied in almost all his use of the ,old ,testament4 ,it is a comfort to perceive that none of the elements of permanent value1 which ,st4 ,paul discerns in the ,old ,testament1 are the least likely to be affected by reasonable criticism of its documents4 ,its history1 critically read1 does not become less truly pregnant with moral warnings or lessons of endurance4 ,the encouragements of the prophets are in no respect reduced in force when they are brought into right relation to their own times4 ,the whole library of books is1 at least1 as capable of educating and equipping the minister of ,christ as ever4 ,their inspiration is still obvious1 when it is interpreted candidly in view of all the facts4 ,and still they can only be rightly regarded when they are looked upon as various elements in a progress which has ,christ for its goal4 ,in his use of particular passages in the ,old ,testament ,st4 ,paul here shows himself as free as ever1 but with the same fundamental #afh adherence to the true tendency of the ,old ,testament as a whole4 ,in quoting ,ps4 lxix4 #i 7ver4 #c7 he is seeing in the afflicted righteous man a type of ,christ4 ,this psalm is constantly cited in the ,new ,testament with the same reference#e4 ,it has been supposed#f that ,st4 ,paul here adopts a cry addressed to ,god by the righteous sufferer in the psalm1 and represents it as addressed by ,christ to his brother man4 ',the reproaches aimed at thee1 my despised brother1 have fallen upon me4' ,but1 as ,i have tried to show in the analysis above1 this supposition is not needed4 ,christ is represented appealing to ,god for succour1 because ,he utterly refuses to take the line of self-pleasing2 but bears all that men's impatience of ,god lays upon ,him--all their 'wild and weak complaining4' ,and it is suggestive to remember1 with ,origen1 that it was ,christ's 'receiving of sinners and eating with them1' receiving them on the ,sabbath as well as other days1 that chiefly brought on ,him the reproaches of men4 ,this was probably in ,st4 ,paul's mind4 ,in ,ps4 xviii4 #di 7quoted ver4 #i7 the victorious #afi king declares that he will praise ,god for his victory 'among the nations4' ,st4 ,paul applies this to ,christ1 whose victory among the nations means their redemption--their becoming ,his people4 ,in ,deut4 xxxii4 #dc 7ver4 #aj7 'the nations are invited to congratulate ,israel on possessing a ,god like ,jehovah1 who will effectually take up ,his people's cause4 ,such an invitation addressed to the nations 7cf4 ,isa4 xlii4 #aj-ab2 ,ps4 xlvii4 #b1 lxvii4 #a-g1 c47 involves implicitly the prophetic truth that ,god's dealings with ,israel have indirectly an interest and importance for the world at large#g4' ,this is still more plainly implied in ,ps4 cxvii4 #a 7ver4 #aa74 ,isa4 xi4 #aj 7ver4 #ab7 is quoted from the ,greek ,bible1 which is paraphrastic2 but the ,hebrew also asserts that the messianic king of ,david's line is to be a 'signal to the nations1' and that they are to 'resort to him' as to an oracle or place of refuge#h4 #a ,we are all 'strong' in some respect1 ,origen remarks1 so that 'ye that are strong bear the infirmities of the weak' comes to be as broad a precept as 'bear ye one another's burdens4' #b ,cf4 ,gal4 iv4 #d1 #e3 ',christ1 born of a woman1 born under the law1 that he might redeem them which were under the law1 that we 7,jews and ,gentiles7 might receive the adoption of sons4' #c #a ,cor4 x4 ii3 ',these things happened unto them 7the ,jews in the ,wilderness7 by way of example2 and they were written for our admonition1 upon whom the ends of the ages are come4' #d #b ,tim4 iii4 #ae-ag4 ',sacred writings which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in ,christ ,jesus4 ,every scripture inspired by ,god is also profitable for teaching1 for reproof1 for correction1 for instruction which is in righteousness3 that the man of ,god may be complete1 furnished completely unto every good work4' #e ,cf4 above1 xi4 #i2 in the ,gospels1 ,matt4 xxvii4 #cd2 ,john ii4 #ag2 xix4 #bh2 also ,acts i4 #bj4 #f ,see ,s4 and ,h4 in loc4 #g ,driver1 in loc4 #h ,cheyne1 in loc4 #agj ,,division ,,vi4 ,,chapters ,,xv4 #ad-,,xvi4 #bg4 ,conclusion4 ,the long letter is almost ended4 ,st4 ,paul has developed the meaning of the revelation of the divine righteousness4 ,he has vindicated the ways of ,god to the ,jews4 ,he has drawn out sufficiently the moral conclusions from ,god's mercy to mankind4 ,now he has only to secure again his good terms with the ,roman ,christians--which he does with the same tact and the same anxiety as at the beginning#a1--to explain his movements1 to send his greetings to individuals1 and to bid farewell4 #a ,vol4 i4 p4 #ec4 #aga ,,division ,,vi4 #a4 ,,chapter ,,xv4 #ad-cc4 ,his excuse for writing and his hope of coming4 ,st4 ,paul is very anxious not to be understood as if1 while giving the ,christians at ,rome these exhortations which we have just been reading1 he stood in any doubt himself of their goodness of heart and full grasp of ,christian principles1 or of their fitness to admonish one another4 ,he has only been bold to put them in mind of what they already knew1 because of the priestly commission on behalf of his ,lord towards all the ,gentiles1 which the divine grace has bestowed upon him as apostle of the ,gentiles4 ,the gospel entrusted to him requires him as a priest to prepare and offer sacrifice2 and the sacrifice which he is to prepare1 which the consecration of the indwelling ,spirit alone can make acceptable1 is that of the whole ,gentile world4 ,the extent to which this great charge laid upon him has been fulfilled1 gives him good reason for #agb boasting as he stands before ,god--not in himself1 but in ,christ ,jesus4 ,his work has been a pioneer's work4 ,he has made it his ambition purely to lay foundations4 ,taking words of ,isaiah#a for his motto1 he had resolved to go nowhere where any other had been before him to make ,christ known4 ,but in that free and open area of a yet unevangelized world1 ,christ had worked through him to bring the ,gentiles to ,his obedience1 and had accompanied his preaching with evidences of miraculous power and with the strong manifestations of the ,spirit4 ,so that in the result the work of proclaiming the gospel had been accomplished1 starting from ,jerusalem1 in an extending circuit#b or irregular progress1 as far as ,illyria4 ,this world-wide mission would give ,st4 ,paul his title to visit ,rome#c4 ,but its very greatness has hitherto hindered him4 ,now however he is hoping to satisfy the desire that has so long possessed him1 and to pay them a visit of some length on his way to ,spain4 ,that is to say1 he hopes to come to them when the task is over #agc which is immediately occupying him4 ,the good will of the churches in ,macedonia and ,achaia has shown itself in a collection of money for the poor ,christians at ,jerusalem4 ,this is really the payment of a debt to those to whom they owe their fellowship in ,christ's salvation4 ,when then ,st4 ,paul has handed over this collection1 and secured to its recipients this fruit of his mission1 he hopes to pass to ,spain by way of ,rome2 and again1 as in his introduction#d1 he expresses his confidence that at ,rome1 as elsewhere1 the fullness of the rich gifts of ,christ will accompany his coming4 ,meanwhile he makes his urgent request1 by their allegiance to ,christ and their fellowship in the spirit of love1 that they will join with him in wrestling with ,god in prayer for the success of his present undertaking--that he may escape the danger to which he is exposed from the hostility of the unbelieving ,jews1 and that the gift1 as ministered by him1 may not prove unacceptable to the ,jerusalem church2 so that he may get happily to ,rome and find repose there with them4 ,and he prays for the blessing of the ,god of peace upon all of them4 #agd ,and ,i myself also am persuaded of you1 my brethren1 that ye yourselves are full of goodness1 filled with all knowledge1 able also to admonish one another4 ,but ,i write the more boldly unto you in some measure1 as putting you again in remembrance1 because of the grace that was given me of ,god1 that ,i should be a minister of ,christ ,jesus unto the ,gentiles1 ministering#e the gospel of ,god1 that the offering up of the ,gentiles might be made acceptable1 being sanctified by the ,holy ,ghost4 ,i have therefore my glorying in ,christ ,jesus in things pertaining to ,god4 ,for ,i will not dare to speak of any things save those which ,christ wrought through me1 for the obedience of the ,gentiles1 by word and deed1 in the power of signs and wonders1 in the power of the ,holy ,ghost2 so that from ,jerusalem1 and round about even unto ,illyricum1 ,i have fully preached the gospel of ,christ2 yea1 making it my aim so to preach the gospel1 not where ,christ was already named1 that ,i might not build upon another man's foundation2 but1 as it is written1 ,they shall see1 to whom no tidings of him came1 ,and they who have not heard shall understand4 ,wherefore also ,i was hindered these many times from coming to you3 but now1 having no more any place in these regions1 and having these many years a longing to come unto you1 whensoever ,i go unto ,spain 7for ,i hope to see you in my journey1 and to be brought on my way thitherward by you1 if first in some measure ,i shall have been satisfied with your company7--but now1 ,i say1 ,i go unto ,jerusalem1 ministering unto the saints4 ,for it hath been the good pleasure of ,macedonia and ,achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints that are at ,jerusalem4 ,yea1 it hath been their good pleasure2 and their debtors they are4 ,for if the ,gentiles have been #age made partakers of their spiritual things1 they owe it to them also to minister unto them in carnal things4 ,when therefore ,i have accomplished this1 and have sealed to them this fruit1 ,i will go on by you unto ,spain4 ,and ,i know that1 when ,i come unto you1 ,i shall come in the fulness of the blessing of ,christ4 ,now ,i beseech you1 brethren1 by our ,lord ,jesus ,christ1 and by the love of the ,spirit1 that ye strive together with me in your prayers to ,god for me2 that ,i may be delivered from them that are disobedient in ,judaea1 and that my ministration which ,i have for ,jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints2 that ,i may come unto you in joy through the will of ,god1 and together with you find rest4 ,now the ,god of peace be with you all4 ,amen4 #a4 ,st4 ,paul has a habit of representing those he writes to in the best light#f4 ,but the words 'full of goodness1' 'filled with all knowledge1' 'able to admonish1' are no idle compliments4 ,it is not too much to suggest that ,st4 ,paul1 as he sees the high part which the church of the capital must play in the world1 perceives also1 in what he hears of the ,roman ,christians1 evidences of the spirit which will enable them to fulfil it4 ,and history verifies the apostle's anticipation4 ,the letter of the ,roman church to the ,corinthians1 which passes under ,clement's name1 and was written some forty years after #agf this letter of ,st4 ,paul's1 is the very embodiment of the spirit of goodness1 knowledge1 and power to admonish4 ,the princely generosity of the ,roman church in all directions was proverbial in the second century#g4 ,if it did not become as distinguished as ,alexandria in theological science1 it did become a chief centre of theological orthodoxy and government4 ,and the repeated evidences we gain that rigorists1 from ,hippolytus to ,novatian1 were so dissatisfied with the policy of the ,roman bishops as to separate themselves from their communion1 give us good reason to believe that the internal policy of this church was1 within just limits1 liberal and tolerant4 #b4 ,st4 ,paul here describes his apostolic commission in priestly language4 ',the sacrificial terminology is far more marked in the original than it can be in a translation#h4' ,the word for 'minister of ,christ ,jesus' is a technical word for priest in the ,greek ,old ,testament#i4 ,the word translated 'ministering' means 'offering sacrifice4' 7,that which ,st4 ,paul describes #agg himself as offering in sacrifice is not the gospel1 as our translation might imply3 the gospel assigns the sphere of the sacrifice#aj1 but the sacrifice he has to offer is that of the ,gentile world1 in ,christ1 consecrated to be a fit sacrifice by the ,spirit47 ,the phrase also1 'in things pertaining to ,god' 7cf4 ,hebr4 ii4 #ag71 is appropriate to the priest as he stands before ,god4 ',but this is all symbolical language1' it is said4 ,that depends on what we take as the standard of reality in the sacrificing priesthood4 ,if ,christ is the standard of priesthood1 and ,his method of making sacrifice the standard method1 then ,st4 ,paul's account of his priestliness is not appreciably metaphorical1 except so far as metaphor belongs to all earthly expressions of heavenly realities2 it is rather true to say that the ,jewish or heathen priest1 with his material victims1 was but the dim shadow of a true priest4 ,the point is that the true ,christian idea of sacrifice makes the substance of it to be always persons returning to ,god the life ,he gave them4 ,if we must offer sacrifices of money and fruits of the earth1 that is because we cannot offer ourselves without our bodies#aa1 or our bodies #agh without the material supplies on which they depend4 ',all things come of ,god1 and of ,his own do we give ,him4' ,and all our labour and prayer for others must be an offering of them1 or a preparation to offer them#ab1 to ,god2 which again is only our assisting them to offer themselves4 ,and all this offering in sacrifice of ourselves and others is rendered possible by the one effectual sacrifice1 through which alone we and all men have access to the ,father4 ,it takes place 'in ,christ ,jesus1' who1 'through eternal ,spirit offered himself without spot to ,god4' ,there1 at the head of all1 is the sacrifice of the person1 and that person the ,son of ,man1 who can take up into ,his very life and sacrifice even all mankind4 ,throughout it is a sacrifice of persons1 or of things only as appertaining to persons4 ,this is the fundamental ,christian idea1 and this at the bottom necessarily forbids us to separate the thing offered from the person offering1 the victim from the priest4 ,the priest is the victim1 for what he offers is himself4 ,it is this idea of sacrifice which is realized in the eucharist4 ,the eucharist is the central sacrifice of the ,christian body4 ,it is to start #agi with a presentation of material things1 bread and wine of the fruits of the earth1 with alms and other offerings it may be3 and these oblations are accompanied with prayers and symbolic rites4 ,but all is done that both by word and act the ,one ,sacrifice may be commemorated and pleaded4 ,the outward rite but finds its meaning and justification in that--the sacrifice of the ,person4 ,again we can only take part in it with any spiritual reality by becoming ourselves sharers of ,his sacrifice--ourselves the sacrifice we offer4 ',and here1' we cry1 'we offer and present unto ,thee ourselves4' ,we men1 ,st4 ,augustine does not scruple to say1 are the body of ,christ1 which is offered in that sacrifice#ac4 ,and a quite new light is shed on intercessory prayer1 in the eucharist and in the rest of life1 when we view it as ,st4 ,paul would have us view it1 as a presenting in sacrifice before ,god those for whom we pray1 according to the true idea of them which the sanctification of the ,spirit would make possible and actual4 ,and a quite new light is shed upon all work for others1 when we regard it as the preparing of such a sacrifice for the ,holy ,spirit to consecrate4 ,from a different point of view ,st4 ,paul's #ahj conception of his mission as the priest of the ,gentile world1 might well suggest reflections to the ,church of ,england4 ,if a ,christian nation in the providence of ,god is to overrun the world and possess the nations not yet ,christian1 it goes with a mission entrusted to it by ,god4 ,its mission may be expressed1 according to ,st4 ,paul's idea1 as that of evangelizing the world1 but also as that of preparing the heathen nations to be offered to ,god4 ,it is the return of all humanity to ,himself that ,god desires1 and we are to be the ministers of this perfected offering4 ,it strikes us with profound humiliation to realize how 'far fetched' ,st4 ,paul's idea would appear to-day to the mass of our nation1 which1 more than any other1 is called by circumstances to an apostolate of the world4 #c4 ,st4 ,paul speaks1 here and in many places elsewhere1 of his grounds for 'glorying1' or rather 'boasting#ad1' in what ,christ has wrought through him1 and of his 'being ambitious' to preach only where no one had been before him#ae4 ,and in reading such passages the question #aha sometimes arises in ,christian minds--was there1 after all1 a strain of egotism unsubdued in ,st4 ,paul's character8 ,now no doubt1 unlike other apostles whose writings remain in the ,new ,testament1 ,st4 ,paul had that sort of passionately personal and individual nature which easily passes into spiritual egotism4 ,this at least is discernible in his epistles4 ,it is also true that the necessity which lay so long upon him of vindicating his own apostolic authority1 makes it necessary for him at times to talk about himself and his experiences and his personal methods in a way that to some minds suggests egotism2 and there is no obligation upon us to maintain that ,st4 ,paul was perfect4 ,but we only understand these passages aright when we remember that there runs through them all a conscious irony4 ,the basis of ,st4 ,paul's whole theology was the denial of any possible ground for a man to boast in himself4 ',where is boasting8 it is excluded4' ',he that boasteth1 let him boast in the ,lord4' ,it is ,christ who 'leads ,st4 ,paul in' ,his 'triumph4' ,what he boasts of is not his own1 but ,christ's4 ,of course1 this sort of language very easily admits of self-deception4 ,st4 ,paul shows himself conscious of its danger#af4 ,but there can #ahb be no question of the vehement sincerity of ,st4 ,paul in repudiating any homage to himself which seemed to put him in the place of ,christ1 or to substitute the teacher for his message#ag4 ,and where his personal gifts of intellect might most easily have shone1 he had determined to abjure all 'the wisdom of men' in the method of his preaching#ah4 ,it is remarkable again that as soon as ever the real peril from ,judaism was over in the ,church1 ,st4 ,paul drops his anti-,judaistic polemic1 and all that brings the personal element into prominence4 ,he is absolutely free from the charge of pursuing his advantage so as to magnify a personal victory4 ,the more thoroughly we grow to know ,st4 ,paul1 the more1 ,i think1 we feel that his profession is true that he will 'boast' only 'in the cross of our ,lord ,jesus ,christ'2 and that truly the world1 with all its personal ambitions1 had been for him nailed to the cross and killed#ai4 ,but what exactly was it that ,st4 ,paul had to 'boast' that ,christ had wrought through him8 ,he had1 he says1 accomplished the preaching of the gospel in an irregular circuit from ,jerusalem to ,illyria4 ,after he had made a beginning of ,christian preaching at ,damascus1 he #ahc had1 in fact1 shared the apostolic preaching at ,jerusalem 7,acts ix4 #bi71 but his own special work began at ,tarsus1 or rather at ,antioch4 ,after that he had 'fulfilled the proclamation of the gospel1' so far1 that is to say1 as it belonged to the apostolic office1 by founding churches in a gradually enlarging circuit1 especially in the chief centres1 as the narrative of the ,acts shows us1 till travelling by the ,egnatian way he would have come within sight of the ,illyrian mountains at ,thessalonica#bj4 ,he may even have entered ,illyria when the ,acts vaguely describes him as going to ,macedonia and then 'passing through those parts#ba'2 but the expression in this epistle does not require this4 ,it is sufficient that the border of ,illyria1 through which the ,egnatian way led to ,rome1 had been so far his nearest point to the capital4 ,st4 ,paul certainly implies that ,rome was included in his province of work1 and that he owed them a yet unpaid debt#bb4 ,this must surely mean1 according to ,st4 ,paul's principle1 that no other of the greater apostles had yet evangelized them or founded the church there#bc4 #ahd ,rome was no other man's foundation4 ,but none the less1 the elements of a church had collected there4 ,the gospel was being preached there by 'apostles' from among his own circle4 ,and ,st4 ,paul1 for this reason1 does not contemplate any permanent stay with the ,romans1 but regards ,rome only as a place where he can rest and refresh himself1 as well as supply deficiencies in the spiritual equipment of the church there1 before he passes further west to the untouched region of ,spain4 ,st4 ,paul1 we see plainly enough1 had no power to foresee the future4 ,but after the long residence at ,rome during his first captivity1 which he did not the least anticipate1 did he1 we ask1 actually get to ,spain8 ,there is certainly no good reason to say he did not1 for his movements are1 in the main1 unknown to us in the last period of his life2 and on the other hand in ,clement's letter to the ,corinthians1 written within the first century1 he is said to have passed before his martyrdom to 'the limits of the west'--the extreme west--which is certainly most naturally interpreted of ,spain#bd4 #d4 ,st4 ,paul speaks of having wrought 'signs and wonders4' ,the two words are habitually #ahe combined in the ,new ,testament4 ,the word 'wonders' describes the miraculous and astonishing character of the events1 while 'signs' indicates that moral witness and significance which distinguishes ,christian miracles from vulgar portents4 ,we read of ,st4 ,paul working miracles in the ,acts4 ,what he says here1 and elsewhere#be1 implies that they were frequently worked1 and especially at ,corinth1 where no such events are recorded in the history4 ,what it is important for us to recognize is1 that ,st4 ,paul so plainly and repeatedly appeals1 in the face of those who could bear witness1 to the fact that he himself had power given to him to work miracles1 as if it were indisputable4 #e4 ,st4 ,paul tells us that he had it specially laid upon him by the apostles of the circumcision that he was to 'remember the poor1' i4e4 the poor ,christians at ,jerusalem2 where poverty was specially rife1 because1 as we should gather1 the wealthier ,jews had held aloof from ,christianity#bf4 ,and this1 he adds1 was the very thing he himself was zealous to do#bg4 ,how much it was in his mind1 both the ,acts and his own epistles bear witness4 ,we hear much in #ahf the epistles to the ,corinthians#bh of the collection made in the churches of ,macedonia and ,achaia4 ,not only was this expression of ,gentile good will intended to conciliate the half-alienated and suspicious ,jewish ,christians of ,jerusalem1 but the acceptance of the gift at ,st4 ,paul's hands1 as the fruit of his own labour1 was to diminish their suspicion of himself4 ,st4 ,paul was at pains to prevent any suspicion attaching to his administration of this bounty1 and at every point we perceive how much trouble he took about the matter4 ,but1 hopeful and zealous as he was about this work of charity1 he did not underrate its dangers4 ,his urgent request for the ,roman ,christians' prayers in this passage1 and his readiness to meet his death1 if need be1 at ,jerusalem1 as expressed in the narrative of the ,acts1 show us that he knew the danger he was incurring from the fierce hostility of the ,jerusalem ,jews4 #f4 ,this passage about the collection#bi1 coupled with the allusion to ,cenchreae1 the port of ,corinth1 at the beginning of the next chapter1 and the allusion to the ,corinthian ,gaius as ,st4 ,paul's host#cj1 enable us to fix the occasion of #ahg the writing of this epistle exactly at the moment recorded in ,acts xx4 #c--the end of his three months' residence in ,greece4 ,we also gather from the ,acts#ca1 as well as from this epistle1 that it was his intention at that period1 when he had paid his visit to ,jerusalem1 to go to ,rome4 ,once more we know from the ,acts#cb that ,sosipater and ,timothy were with him at this point1 and they join in the greetings of the epistle#cc4 ,so that all the indications taken together fix with wonderful accuracy the exact point when the epistle was written#cd4 #g4 ,we do well to note the word used by ,st4 ,paul in asking the ,roman ,christians' prayers4 ,he begs them to 'strive together' with him in their prayers4 ,this word is a derivative of that which describes our ,lord's 'agony' in prayer2 and ,origen's comment upon it is this3 ',hardly any one can pray without some idle and alien thought coming into his mind1 and leading off and interrupting the intended direction of his mind to ,god4444 ,and1 therefore1 prayer is a great striving 7agon1 wrestling71 so that the fixed direction of the soul towards ,god may #ahh be maintained1 in spite of the enemies which interfere and seek to scatter the sense of prayer2 so that one who prays may justly say1 with ,st4 ,paul1 ,i have fought a good fight2 ,i have finished my course4' #a lii4 #ae1 according to the ,greek4 #b ',round about1' literally 'in a circle1' as opposed to a straight course2 cf4 ,mark vi4 #f1 'round about the villages4' #c ,cf4 i4 #ac-af4 #d i4 #aa4 #e ',ministering in sacrifice' marg4 #f ,cf4 the opening of #a ,cor41 a letter which contains on the whole so much blame4 #g ,euseb4 ,h4 ,e4 iv4 #bc4 #h ,sanday1 ,conception of ,priesthood 7,longmans71 p4 #hi4 #i ,like 'agape' 7see above1 p4 #aca1 n4 #b7 so this word 'liturgus' appears to have been adopted in its priestly sense by the ,greek translators of the ,bible from the current ,greek of ,alexandria1 cf4 ,deissmann1 ,bibelstudien1 pp4 #acg f4 #aj ,cf4 ,s4 and ,h4 in loc4 ',making sacrifice as a priest under the ,gospel4' #aa ,cf4 xii4 x4 #ab ,col4 i4 #bh3 ',teaching every man 444 that we may present every man1' i4e4 present him in sacrifice4 #ac ,for his repeated statements see app4 note ,i4 p4 #bdj4 #ad ,cf4 #a ,cor4 ix4 #ae2 xv4 #ca2 #b ,cor4 i4 #ad2 vii4 #d1 #ad2 viii4 #bd2 ix4 #c2 x4 #h1 #ac2 xi4 #aj1 #af-xii4 #i2 ,phil4 ii4 #af2 #a ,thess4 ii4 #ai4 ,these passages are worth examining in connexion4 #ae ,cf4 #b ,cor4 x4 #ae1 #af4 #af ,see #b ,cor4 xi4 #ag2 xii4 #a4 #ag #a ,cor4 i4 #ac ff4 #ah #a ,cor4 ii4 #a-e4 #ai ,gal4 vi4 #ad4 #bj ,see ,s4 and ,h4 in loc4 #ba ,acts xx4 #b4 #bb i4 #ad1 #ae4 #bc ,not ,peter therefore1 though he was doubtless afterwards at ,rome4 #bd ,ad ,cor4 #e1 see ,lightfoot in loc4 #be #b ,cor4 xii4 #ac4 #bf ,cf4 ,jas4 ii4 #e1 #f4 #bg ,gal4 ii4 #aj4 #bh #a ,cor4 xvi4 #a-d2 #b ,cor4 viii1 ix4 #bi ,cf4 ,acts xxiv4 #ag4 #cj ,rom4 xvi4 #bc4 ,cf4 #a ,cor4 i4 #ad1 which shows us a ,gaius at ,corinth4 ,cf4 the allusion to ,erastus in the same verse1 coupled with #b ,tim4 iv4 #bj4 #ca ,acts xix4 #ba4 #cb ,acts xx4 #d4 #cc ,rom4 xvi4 #ba4 #cd ,see further1 on the purpose of the epistle1 vol4 i4 pp4 #d ff4 #ahi ,,division ,,vi4 #b4 ,,chapter ,,xvi4 #a-b4 ,a commendation4 ,one strong link among ,christians of different towns1 constraining them to remember that their brotherhood did not depend on physical nearness or personal acquaintance1 lay in the 'letters of commendation' from one local church to another1 which the ,christian traveller carried with him4 ,and here we have an example of such a letter given by ,st4 ,paul to the ,corinthian deaconess1 ,phoebe1 who was probably the bearer of his letter to the ,roman ,christians4 ,i commend unto you ,phoebe our sister1 who is a servant#a of the church that is at ,cenchreae3 that ye receive her in the ,lord1 worthily of the saints1 and that ye assist her in whatsoever matter she may have need of you3 for she herself also hath been a succourer of many1 and of mine own self4 ,the necessity of instructing women inquirers or catechumens1 visiting them at their homes1 preparing them for baptism1 attending to their #aij unclothing and reclothing at the font1 and looking after them afterwards1 forced upon the ,church the institution of an order of deaconesses1 side by side with the deacons and for similar purposes4 ,pliny found these female officers among the ,christians in ,bithynia in the beginning of the second century1 and there is no reason why already at this date the female order should not have existed#b4 ',here we learn1' says ,origen on this passage1 'that female ministers are recognized in the ,church4' ,phoebe is also called a succourer or 'patroness' of ,christians1 including ,st4 ,paul1 which suggests a woman of wealth and influence4 ,if so1 we have here an example of wealth1 not asserting itself but devoting itself to service1 according to our ,lord's teaching3 ',he that is greatest among you shall be your servant 7deacon7'2 ',i am in the midst of you as he that serveth 7the deacon7#c4' ,such an one is to be received in a manner 'worthy of the saints1' the consecrated family of ,god1 and to be allowed to lack nothing which the ,roman ,christians can supply her with4 #a ,or deaconess1 as margin4 #b ,see on this subject ,deaconess ,cecilia ,robinson1 ,the ,ministry of ,deaconesses 7,methuen1 #ahih71 and ,bernard1 ,pastoral ,epistles1 p4 #ei4 ,with ,lightfoot1 he interprets #a ,tim4 iii4 #aa of deaconesses rather than of the wives of the deacons4 #c ,matt1 xxiii4 #aa2 ,luke xxii4 #cg4 #aia ,,division ,,vi4 #c4 ,,chapter ,,xvi4 #c-af4 ,personal greetings4 ,then ,st4 ,paul1 according to his custom1 winds up his epistle with personal greetings4 ,in this case they are sent to the individual ,christians1 among those who from various parts of the empire had collected at ,rome1 whose names his memory--so retentive of personal relationships--enabled him to recall4 ,salute ,prisca and ,aquila my fellow-workers in ,christ ,jesus1 who for my life laid down their own necks2 unto whom not only ,i give thanks1 but also all the churches of the ,gentiles3 and salute the church that is in their house4 ,salute ,epaenetus my beloved1 who is the firstfruits of ,asia unto ,christ4 ,salute ,mary1 who bestowed much labour on you4 ,salute ,andronicus and ,junias#a1 my kinsmen1 and my fellow-prisoners1 who are of note among the apostles1 who also have been in ,christ before me4 ,salute ,ampliatus my beloved in the ,lord4 ,salute ,urbanus our fellow-worker in ,christ1 and ,stachys my beloved4 ,salute ,apelles the approved in ,christ4 ,salute them which are #aib of the household of ,aristobulus4 ,salute ,herodion my kinsman4 ,salute them of the household of ,narcissus1 which are in the ,lord4 ,salute ,tryphaena and ,tryphosa1 who labour in the ,lord4 ,salute ,persis the beloved1 which laboured much in the ,lord4 ,salute ,rufus the chosen in the ,lord1 and his mother and mine4 ,salute ,asyncritus1 ,phlegon1 ,hermes1 ,patrobas1 ,hermas1 and the brethren that are with them4 ,salute ,philologus and ,julia1 ,nereus and his sister1 and ,olympas1 and all the saints that are with them4 ,salute one another with a holy kiss4 ,all the churches of ,christ salute you4 #a4 ,aquila1 a ,pontic ,jew1 had resided in ,rome1 doubtless in pursuit of his business as a tent-maker2 but the edict of ,claudius had compelled him to quit the capital in common with his brethren1 and he had taken refuge at ,corinth with his wife ,prisca 7as ,st4 ,paul calls her71 or ,priscilla 7according to ,st4 ,luke#b72 and there1 shortly after their arrival1 ,st4 ,paul had found them1 made their acquaintance1 and combined with them in a common trade4 ,to this was possibly due their conversion to ,christianity4 ,when ,st4 ,paul left ,corinth1 they accompanied him to ,ephesus1 and remained there when he left for ,jerusalem2 their influential position in the ,christian community being indicated to us by their dealings with so important a teacher as #aic ,apollos4 ,when ,st4 ,paul had returned to ,ephesus1 and was writing his ,first ,epistle to the ,corinthians1 their house was the centre for a ,christian congregation#c4 ,it was possibly during the ,ephesian disturbances that they risked their lives1 or 'laid down their own necks' for ,st4 ,paul4 ,whether on account of this peril incurred1 or for whatever reason1 they returned1 as they were now free to do1 to ,rome4 ,the ,epistle to the ,romans follows the ,first ,epistle to the ,corinthians by not more than a year1 and it finds ,prisca and ,aquila established at ,rome1 with a church meeting at their house4 ,probably they had been ,st4 ,paul's informants as to affairs among the ,roman ,christians4 ,a good many years afterwards1 when ,st4 ,paul was writing his ,second ,epistle to ,timothy#d1 we hear of them again at ,ephesus4 ,so much travelling as we find in their life was not unusual in the ,roman empire1 and perhaps least of all among the ,jews4 ,the fact that ,priscilla is generally mentioned before her husband1 both by ,st4 ,paul and ,st4 ,luke#e1 as if she were more important1 combined with 7#a7 a tradition which connects her with the #aid titulus 7or parish-church7 ,priscae at ,rome1 7#b7 evidence connecting the ,coemeterium ,priscillae with the ,acilian gens1--has led some scholars to believe that ,priscilla was a noble ,roman lady married to a ,jewish husband4 ,but the evidence is not cogent1 and it is more likely that both she and her husband owed their ,roman names to being freedmen#f4 ,it was probably her prominence among the ,christians which led to her name preceding that of her husband4 ,we need only think of ,phoebe and ,priscilla to understand how influential women were in the earliest ,christian churches4 ',the church 7which met7 at their house' is a significant phrase#g4 ,the wealthier ,christians1 or those whose houses were commodious1 turned them into churches1 where the neighbouring ,christians met for worship1 love feast and eucharist4 ,several of the oldest churches #aie in ,rome grew in this manner out of private houses4 #b4 ,st4 ,paul's brief characterizations of individuals are full of personal memory and tenderness--'my beloved1 who is the firstfruits of ,asia unto ,christ#h1' 'who bestowed much labour on you1' 'my kinsmen 7i4e4 ,jews7 and fellow prisoners 7on some occasion which we cannot fix1 but which ,st4 ,paul remembers71 who also were in ,christ before me1' 'our fellow worker1' 'the man approved in ,christ1' who has been tried and found not wanting1 'his mother and mine4' ,st4 ,paul1 notwithstanding his wide ecclesiastical plans and theological labours1 as he thought no pains too much to bestow on the details of his scheme for collecting ,gentile money for the needs of poor ,jews1 so also never lets great designs obscure the memory of persons and their intricate relations to himself4 #c4 ,andronicus and ,junias 7or junianus7 are 'of note among the apostles4' ,there are other indications that the term 'apostle' was not confined to the twelve4 ,not ,st4 ,paul only1 but ,barnabas also1 and the ,lord's brother1 were included in it4 ,later1 in the ,didache1 we find it used in a wide but somewhat dim sense1 for the #aif chief teachers of the ,church who were not settled in particular churches#i4 ,nevertheless1 this passage describing two men of unknown names as 'conspicuous among the apostles' is surprising4 ,probably the real requirement for sharing the title of apostle was to have received commission from the ,lord 7as 'other seventy' did besides the ,twelve71 and to have seen ,him after ,his resurrection4 ,these two--'early disciples' as ,st4 ,paul tells us--may have fulfilled these requirements4 ,they were ,jews like himself1 who with him had laboured and suffered4 ,they would be centres of authority among the ,christians at ,rome#aj3 and possibly to the laying on of their hands other brethren at ,rome who 'ruled' or 'taught' or 'ministered' owed their qualifying gift4 ,chrysostom takes the second name to be a woman's--,junia2 and expresses his astonishment at finding a woman thought worthy of the title of an apostle4 #d4 ',them that are of the household of ,aristobulus4' ,this ,aristobulus was very probably the #aig grandson of ,herod the ,great1 who lived and died at ,rome in a private station1 and whose 'household' would naturally include many ,jews and orientals4 ,the following name of a ,jew suggests connexion with the ,herods4 #e4 ',rufus' may very likely be the son of ,simon of ,cyrene1 whom ,st4 ,mark1 writing probably at ,rome1 refers to as well known#aa4 #f4 ',a holy kiss4' ',it was from this and similar words1' says ,origen1 'that it has been handed down as a custom in the ,church that after the prayer the brethren should welcome one another with a kiss4' ,he goes on to urge that this ritual kiss should be neither unchaste nor without real feeling4 #g4 ',all the churches of ,christ salute you4' ,this unique phrase is probably used1 as ,dr4 ,hort suggests1 to express how 'the church of ,rome was an object of love and respect to ,jewish and ,gentile churches alike4' #a ,or ,junia 7a woman's name71 as margin4 #b ,see the readings of ,rom4 xvi4 #c2 #a ,cor4 xvi4 #ai2 #b ,tim4 iv4 #ai 7in ,r4 ,v4 which is probably right72 and of ,acts xviii4 #b1 #ah1 #bf4 #c #a ,cor4 xvi4 #ai4 #d #b ,tim4 iv4 #ai4 #e ,twice out of three mentions in each case4 #f ,perhaps both freedmen of the same member of the ,acilian gens4 ,for ,priscus or ,prisca 7or ,priscilla7 was a favourite cognomen in the gens1 and the nomen itself was commonly written ,aquilius4 ,this nomen a male slave1 when freed1 would have borne 7besides his own name and his master's praenomen72 and a female could have borne the cognomen ,prisca or ,priscilla4 ',greek ,aklios could be corrupted into ,greek ,aklas1 the ,greek form of a different name ,aquila4 #g ,cf4 ,acts xii4 #ab2 ,col4 iv4 #ae2 ,philem4 #b4 ,see ,s4 and ,h4 in loc4 #h ,cf4 #a ,cor4 xvi4 #ae4 #i ,the term 'apostle' is also used in #b ,cor4 viii4 #bc1 ,phil4 ii4 #be1 apparently in the sense of messenger4 #aj ,others1 including ,liddon1 would translate 'highly esteemed among1 i4e4 by1 the apostles' but this is not probable4 #aa ,mark xv4 #ba4 #aih ,,division ,,vi4 #d4 ,,chapter ,,xvi4 #ag-bj4 ,final warning4 ,something occurred before the letter to the ,romans was concluded and dispatched to make ,st4 ,paul insert a final warning against false teachers1 who were causing divisions and perverting the gospel as all ,christians had at first received it1 in the interests of their personal aggrandizement4 ,st4 ,paul makes a brief but vigorous appeal to the ,romans to be true to their first obedience1 and maintain their reputation unsullied4 ,now ,i beseech you1 brethren1 mark them which are causing the divisions and occasions of stumbling1 contrary to the doctrine which ye learned3 and turn away from them4 ,for they that are such serve not our ,lord ,christ1 but their own belly2 and by their smooth and fair speech they beguile the hearts of the innocent4 ,for your obedience is come abroad unto all men4 ,i rejoice therefore over you3 but ,i would have you wise unto that which is good1 and simple unto that which is evil4 ,and the ,god of peace shall bruise ,satan under your feet shortly4 ,the grace of our ,lord ,jesus ,christ be with you4 #aii ,this abrupt insertion strongly reminds us of the ,epistle to the ,galatians 7see i4 #g-i1 vi4 #ac71 and of the similar outburst in the ,epistle to the ,philippians 7iii4 #a-c74 ,st4 ,paul believed that such ,judaizing teaching was inconsistent with the fundamental ,christian 'tradition4' ,he does not imply that ,rome was already corrupted1 but he scents danger4 #bjj ,,division ,,vi4 #e4 ,,chapter ,,xvi4 #ba-bc4 ,salutations from ,st4 ,paul's companions4 ,timothy my fellow-worker saluteth you2 and ,lucius and ,jason and ,sosipater1 my kinsmen4 ,i ,tertius1 who write the epistle1 salute you in the ,lord4 ,gaius my host1 and of the whole church1 saluteth you4 ,erastus the treasurer of the city saluteth you1 and ,quartus the brother4 ,most of these persons are very probably otherwise known to us4 ,leaving aside the well-known ,timothy1 we find a ,lucius of ,cyrene among the prophets in ,acts xiii4 #aa2 a ,jason at ,thessalonica1 as ,st4 ,paul's host1 in ,acts xvii4 #e ff2 a ,sopater 7or ,sosipater7 of ,beroea1 ,acts xx4 #d4 ,gaius was one of the few whom ,st4 ,paul had baptized at ,corinth 7#a ,cor4 i4 #ad71 and the ,christian church1 it appears1 met at his house4 ,erastus1 the treasurer of ,corinth1 is probably the man mentioned in #b ,tim4 iv4 #bj4 #a ,and closely associated with ,st4 ,paul4 #bja ,,division ,,vi4 #f4 ,,chapter ,,xvi4 #be-bg4 ,final ,doxology4 ,now to him that is able to stablish you according to my gospel and the preaching of ,jesus ,christ1 according to the revelation of the mystery which hath been kept in silence through times eternal1 but now is manifested1 and by the scriptures of the prophets1 according to the commandment of the eternal ,god1 is made known unto all the nations unto obedience of faith2 to the only wise ,god1 through ,jesus ,christ1 to whom#a be the glory for ever4 ,amen4 ,there is no idea in this doxology with which this epistle has not made us familiar in substance4 ,we have been led to think of the gospel1 now proclaimed and entrusted to ,st4 ,paul1 as the disclosure of a divine purpose long working secretly3 we have been bidden to adore the unfathomable resourcefulness of the wisdom of ,god3 we have been constantly referred to the #bjb testimony borne by law and prophets to the gospels3 we have been made familiar with the object of the evangelical preaching1 as being to secure 'the obedience of faith among all the nations4' ,and a particular phrase in an epistle written about the same time#b--',we speak the wisdom of ,god in a mystery1 even the wisdom that hath been hidden1 which ,god foreordained before the worlds unto our glory1 which 444 unto us ,god revealed by his ,spirit1'--is strikingly parallel to the beginning of the doxology4 ,at the same time the elaborate richness of the style1 as well as many of the ideas1 reminds us irresistibly of the ,epistle to the ,ephesians#c4 ,this1 coupled with the fact that there is considerable authority for placing the doxology at the end of chap4 xiv1 has led some scholars to adopt the idea--accepted and elaborated by ,dr4 ,lightfoot--that ,st4 ,paul first wrote the epistle down to xvi4 #bc1 as his ,epistle to the ,romans1 and subsequently1 perhaps during one of his sojourns at ,rome1 turned it into a circular letter1 omitting for this purpose the last two chapters1 with their personal matter1 and adding the doxology in #bjc the rich manner of the ,epistle to the ,ephesians4 ,subsequently the doxology would have been added also to the complete epistle4 ,there are many difficulties in such a theory4 ,especially why should the beginning of chap4 xv be cut off from the end of chap4 xiv1 when there is no break in thought8 ,but ,i do not pursue the subject here#d1 for it would be out of place1 and alien to our practical purpose4 ,there is no ground for doubting that the whole of what we receive as the epistle was written by ,st4 ,paul2 and no ground for thinking that any part of the whole1 down to xvi4 #bc1 was not found in the letter as originally carried by ,phoebe2 but it cannot be denied that some mystery1 not easily solved1 hangs about the manifold and interrupted conclusions of the epistle2 and that the rich style of the doxology is somewhat unlike both the rest of the epistle1 and the other epistles of this period4 ,however1 whether or no it was written at a later date1 at least it forms a splendid summing up of what is probably the greatest and most influential letter ever written4 ,and there is no teaching which we more #bjd urgently need to-day than the teaching of this epistle4 ,whether the need be to expand our personal religion into social service1 and also to reinvigorate our social service with the power of personal religion2 or so to reassert the divine authority of the ,church as never to forget that it depends for its vitality upon personally converted hearts2 or to teach men to remember the inexorable severity of divine judgement1 as well as the depth of the divine compassion2 or to rebuke the shallowness which attempts to separate ,christian character from ,christian doctrine2 or to harmonize individual freedom with the social claim2 or to impart to self-sacrifice the spirit of humility and gladness and indomitable hope2 or at once to exalt and restrict the function of the ,state2 or to emphasize the true grounds and limits of toleration in a catholic church--whatever1 one may almost say1 be the need to which the special deficiencies and perils of our church and age give rise1 or of which at the moment we are most conscious1 the teaching of ,st4 ,paul in this epistle is found to meet it full face4 ,truly we may thank ,god with a continually growing gratitude for the gift to us of a letter so inexhaustibly full of spiritual wealth1 and so complete in its provision for the whole of life4 #a ,if we retain the words 'to whom' the grammar of the sentence breaks down1 but the object to whom praise is ascribed is probably the ,father4 #b #a ,cor4 ii4 #g1 #aj4 #c ,see especially ,eph4 iii4 #a-ac4 ,cf4 also #b ,tim4 i4 #i-aa2 ,titus i4 #b1 #c4 #d ,it is fully treated in ,lightfoot's ,biblical ,essays 7,macmillan1 #ahid71 pp4 #bhg ff1 by ,lightfoot himself and ,hort from different points of view1 and by ,s4 and ,h41 pp4 lxxxv4 ff4 #bje ,,appended ,,notes ,,note ,a4 ,see vol4 i4 p4 #ei4 ,,the ,,meanings ,,of ,,the ,,word ',,faith4' ,the history of the original ,hebrew and ,greek words for believing or faith1 is very interesting4 ,the ,hebrew verb 7'aman'7 means 'to prop' or 'support'#a4 ,now 7#a7 a form of this verb means 'to be supported1' hence 'to be firm1' hence 'to be trustworthy'2 7#b7 another form of the verb means 'to support oneself on1' and hence 'to trust1' 'to believe4' ,from 7#a7 comes the ,hebrew substantive 7'emunah'7 meaning 'faithfulness1' 'trustworthiness1' which is used1 as elsewhere1 so also in ,habakkuk ii4 #d4 ,in that passage it is revealed to the prophet1 that1 while the apparently overwhelming wave of ,chaldaean barbarism rolls over him and passes away1 'the just man shall live 7or save his life7 by his faithfulness4' ,but this faithfulness of the righteous ,israelite means a faithful holding on through the dark days to the word of ,god as to a secure ground of confidence2 and thus the substantive used in this place in the ,greek ,bible 7'pistis'7 tends to pass into the meaning which it mostly1 though not always#b1 has in the ,new ,testament--a meaning derived #bjf not from form 7#a7 but from form 7#b7 of the ,hebrew verb mentioned above 7which however had no corresponding substantive7--trust or faith in the word and promise of another1 especially ,god or ,christ2 or1 still more characteristically1 trust in the person of ,christ and so of ,god4 ,even under this heading of belief or trust the range of the word's meaning is considerable4 ,in one passage of ,st4 ,james' ,epistle it is a bare intellectual recognition of the truth of things1 without any moral value 7'the devils also believe' that ,god is one1 ,james ii4 #ai74 ,more often it is that confidence in the divine word or promise1 by which the good man1 in lack of present evidence1 sustains his courage or his prayer and wins his victory over the world3 so especially in ,hebr4 xi1 ,luke xviii4 #h1 ,james ii4 #bc1 #b ,cor4 v4 #g1 #a ,john v4 #d4 ,but its most characteristic use1 as said above1 is what first appears in the ,gospels4 ,the person of ,jesus is there represented as eliciting from men a supreme trust in ,his power to heal diseases1 and also to satisfy that deeper human need of which the disease is an outward symbol4 ,and this power of ,jesus to heal men in body and soul is seen in the ,gospels to depend upon the extent of their faith3 ',thy faith hath saved thee2' ',according to thy faith be it unto thee4' ,thus ,jesus ,christ appears constantly as inspiring1 requiring1 and rewarding faith in ,himself1 and that as the manifested ,son of ,god1 e4g4 ,john xiv4 #a4 ,this is 'the faith which is through ,him1' i4e4 which ,he produces2 and which as 'faith in ,his name' remains the characteristic ,christian quality when ,he is gone from sight 7,acts iii4 #af74 ',the faith' in the ,acts 7vi4 #g1 xiii4 #h1 xiv4 #bb1 c47 means this ,christian attitude towards the unseen but living and energizing ,christ4 ,thus when ,st4 ,paul came to believe in ,jesus ,christ1 'faith in ,jesus1'--as meaning not merely acceptance of ,his claim or of ,his word or of ,his grace1 but #bjg whole-hearted devotion to ,his person1 entire self-surrender or self-committal to ,christ or ,god in ,christ--became the dominant note of his new state3 ',i know him whom ,i have believed1 and ,i am persuaded that he is able to guard that which ,i have committed unto him against that day' 7#b ,tim4 i4 #abc74 ,and this same devotion to ,christ becomes1 in ,st4 ,paul's theology1 in its various stages1 the only ground of man's acceptance with ,god4 ,and though he uses 'faith' in a morally lower sense1 as distinct from love--the faith which qualifies for miracles 7#a ,cor4 xiii4 #b7--yet in his characteristic sense of the term it involves the deepest love towards its divine object#d4 ,naturally1 as faith is thus the characteristic of ,christianity1 and this faith in a person involves a belief about ,him--,his divine sonship1 ,his resurrection1 ,his mission of the ,spirit--so 'the faith' comes to mean 7objectively7 that which the ,christian believes1 or his creed2 and this sense of the word appears almost in the ,acts1 in ,gal4 i4 #bc1 and in ,eph4 iv4 #e1 and certainly in the ,pastoral ,epistles frequently 7see ,dr4 ,bernard in ,camb4 ,gr4 ,test4 on #a ,tim4 i4 #ai7 and ,st4 ,jude's ,epistle1 verse #b4 #a ,we are familiar with the derived adverb of confirmation1 ',amen4' #b ,in ,rom4 iii4 #c1 ,matt1 xxiii4 #bc1 it is still used for 'faithfulness4' #c ,in spite of ,ellicott1 ,holtzmann1 and ,bernard1 ,i believe this to be the true rendering1 and not that of the ,r4,v4 margin4 #d ,on the development of the principle of faith in the soul1 see vol4 i4 pp4 #bi1 #cj2 and on its naturalness1 in the highest sense1 for man1 see pp4 #ba1 #bb4 ,,note ,b4 ,see vol4 i4 p4 #ajc4 ,,the ,,use ,,of ,,the ,,word ',,conscience4' ,there is no word for conscience in the ,old ,testament4 ',the conception1' says ,delitzsch 7,bibl4 ,psychology1 ,clark's #bjh trans41 p4 #afj71 'is not yet impressed upon it4' ,and he accounts for this by quoting1 ',the positive law took away its significance from the natural moral consciousness4' ,the ,jews1 that is--like other nations at certain stages of their history--lived so constantly under the detailed guidance of a law believed to be divine1 that there was not much room for reflection as to the right and wrong of things4 ,for the idea of conscience to develop1 the will of ,god must be less clearly and decisively pronounced as to the details of conduct4 ,there was1 however1 of course among the ,jews1 in proportion to their belief in a clear divine law1 the consciousness of having done wrong2 and on this account a man's 'heart' is described as 'privy to' an offence1 and as 'reproaching' or 'smiting' him3 see #a ,kings ii4 #dd1 ,job xxvii4 #fa1 #a ,sam4 xxiv4 #e1 xxv4 #ca1 #b ,sam4 xxiv4 #aj4 ,here is the root of the idea of conscience1 i4e4 of something in the man behind his surface self1 reflecting upon what he has done1 a self behind himself acquitting or condemning him1 and so anticipating the divine judgement4 ,for1 as stated above#b1 this was in the main the ,stoic doctrine of conscience1 and it was among them that the idea was first developed4 ,conscience was conceived of as that in man which lay behind his working self and reflected on his actions after they were done1 bringing them into the light of the 'law of nature' or universal divine law for man4 ,there is thus1 as it were1 in each man a double self1 or double consciousness 7conscientia71 so that one can reflect upon himself1 and pass judgement on his own actions4 ,it is in this sense of a self-judging faculty in all men reflecting on what they have done1 anticipating a divine #bji judgement1 that the idea of conscience was acclimatized among the ,jews4 ,thus1 in ,wisdom xvii4 #aa1 we read1 ',for wickedness1 condemned by a witness within1 is a coward thing1 and being pressed hard by conscience1 always forecasteth the worst lot4' ,in ,st4 ,john viii4 #i1 according to one reading1 the ,jews are 'convicted by their own conscience4' ,so ,st4 ,paul1 in the passage discussed above 7ii4 #ae71 seems to distinguish the subsequent reflective 'conscience' from the previous informing reason1 'the effect 7equivalent7 of the law written in their hearts4' ,and in most of the passages of the ,new ,testament1 this meaning of conscience--the faculty by which we sit in judgement on what we have already done--is sufficient4 ,but sometimes1 as also among the ,stoics#c1 the word passes into meaning the positive directing faculty1 as when 7#a ,cor4 viii4 #aj7 a man's 'conscience' is said to be 'emboldened' to adopt a new practice1 or 7,hebr4 ix4 #ad7 to be cleansed for positive service4 ,moreover1 though it is an individual faculty 7see ,rom4 ii4 #ae71 and exists primarily to pass judgement on one's own actions only1 yet perforce it must also look without and condemn or approve the actions of others 7#b ,cor4 iv4 #b1 v4 #aa74 ,st4 ,paul also brings into notice that our conscience is a faculty for the condition of which we are responsible4 ,it is not the voice of ,god1 but a faculty capable of reflecting ,his voice1 if it be well guarded4 ,thus you may have a 'weak' or a 'strong1' i4e4 a more or less enlightened1 conscience 7#a ,cor4 viii74 ,and a man may 'defile' his 'mind and conscience1' i4e4 he may corrupt his moral reason and powers of moral self-judgement 7,tit4 i4 #ae74 #baj ,then the 'conscience' may become hardened and 'seared' 7#a ,tim4 iv4 #b71 so that 'the light that is in' men becomes itself 'darkness' according to our ,lord's warning 7,st4 ,matt4 vi4 #bc74 ,and there is nothing which is more necessary at the present day than to remind men that they are not 'safe' because they are not acting against their conscience1 unless they are also constantly at pains to enlighten their conscience and keep it in the light1 by the help of the best moral thought of their time1 the guidance of the ,church and the word of ,god4 ,our conscience1 if it is rightly to reassure us by its witness1 must1 like ,st4 ,paul's conscience1 bear its witness 'in the ,holy ,ghost' 7,rom4 ix4 #a74 ,with us moderns 'conscience' has generally the wider meaning of the whole practical moral consciousness4 ,it enjoins as well as judges1 and is occupied with the present and the future1 as well as with the past4 #a ,in ,,lxx ,greek ou gr snoida emaut topa prxas4 #b ,vol4 i4 p4 #ajc1 n4 #b4 #c e4g4 when conscience was described by ,epictetus as the grown man's inward tutor pedagogue1 which must obviously mean that it is to instruct as well as reprove4 ,,note ,c4 ,see vol4 i4 p4 #abi4 ,,recent ,,reactions ,,from ,,the ,,teaching ,,about ,,hell4 ,there is no doubt that there has been within the last forty years a great1 and in large measure legitimate1 reaction from the old--mediaeval and ,calvinist--teaching about hell4 ,but one who reads the early chapters of the ,epistle to the ,romans1 or the ,gospels1 or other parts of the ,new ,testament1 in view of this reaction1 will probably feel an uncomfortable sense that it has gone too far4 ,it is worth while then to try and discriminate4 ,to put the matter in as brief a summary as befits a note1 ,i should hold that the reaction has been legitimate so far as it has involved a repudiation of-- #baa 7#a7 the ,calvinist doctrine that ,god has created some men1 no matter whether many or few1 inevitably doomed to everlasting misery4 ,this doctrine is flat contrary to some particular statements of the ,new ,testament 7as to its general spirit7 and is only a misunderstanding of others 7see above1 pp4 #h1 #bi74 7#b7 any such crude idea of the divine judgement as that ,god condemns men for merely external reasons1 e4g4 because in fact1 apart from any question of will1 they were not baptized1 or remained pagans or heretics4 ,such a conception is quite inadequate1 for the divine judgement penetrates to the heart4 ,god is a father3 ,he is absolutely equitable3 ,he judges men in the light of their opportunities4 ,he will reject none whose will is not set to evil4 ',this is the judgement that 444 men loved the darkness rather than the light1 for their works were evil' 7,john iii4 #ai74 7#c7 the tendency to exaggerate what is revealed to us1 and what1 therefore1 we can say we know about the state of man after death4 ,thus 7a7 there is nothing really revealed to us as to the relative proportions of saved and lost4 7b7 ,it is certain that we only know of a probation for man here and now--',now is the accepted time--now is the day of salvation4' ,and the absolutely equitable ,father may see the conditions of an adequate probation equally in every man's earthly lot4 ,it is therefore foolish to entertain1 or encourage any one else to entertain1 an expectation of any other state of probation except that which we certainly have here in this world4 ',it is appointed unto men once to die1 and after that the judgement4' ,but if ,st4 ,peter could speak 7as of a familiar subject7 of the 'gospel' as having been 'preached' by our ,lord's human spirit in ,hades 'to the dead1' i4e4 to those who had perished in their wickedness under the divine judgement of the flood3 and preached with the intention #bab that the judgement might be turned into a blessing and means of spiritual life--and he certainly does speak thus 7#a ,peter iv4 #f1 cf4 iii4 #ai73 ,i do not see how we can deny the possibility at any period1 or in the case of any person1 of an unfulfilled probation being accomplished beyond death4 7c7 ,careful attention to the origin of the doctrine of the necessary immortality or indestructibility of each human soul1 as stated for instance by ,augustine and ,aquinas#a1 will probably convince us that it was no part of the original ,christian message1 or of really catholic doctrine#b4 ,it was rather a speculation of ,platonism taking possession of the ,church4 ,and this consideration leaves open possibilities of the ultimate extinction of personal consciousness in the lost1 which ,augustinianism somewhat rudely1 closed4 ,but to have convicted our forefathers of going1 in certain parts of their teaching1 beyond what was certainly revealed1 affords no justification for doing the same ourselves in an opposite extreme2 by asserting for example positively 7a7 that almost all men will be 'saved'2 or 7b7 that there is probation to be looked for beyond death2 or 7c7 that the souls of 'the lost' will be at the last extinguished4 ,these positive positions are no more justified than those of our forefathers which we have deprecated4 ,we must recognize the limits of positive knowledge4 ,and when we have come to the end of what a legitimate reaction from the teaching of our forefathers restores to us1 in the direction of a 'larger hope1' we are still face to #bac face with the fact of 'eternal judgement4' ,men1 as far as their individual destinies are concerned1 are passing towards one of two ends1 not towards one only--a divine judgement of approval or of condemnation2 and both judgements are represented as final and irreversible2 and they are the inevitable outcome of the moral law by which our probation is realized--that voluntary acts form habits1 and habits stereotype into a fixed character4 ,it is foolish to look to the process or moment of death for redemption from sin2 for death1 as far as we know1 only transplants us with the character we have made for ourselves1 and with continuous consciousness1 into the unknown world2 so that if in this life we have unfitted ourselves for ,god1 we must find it out beyond death1 and know there the full meaning of our awful miscalculation here4 ,and the awakening of the 'lost' to what they have cast away--to the meaning of irreversible self-exclusion from the presence of ,god--is imaged as unspeakably awful2 and their state is pictured in metaphors and phrases descriptive both of torment and finality--'outer darkness1' 'gnawing worm1' 'unquenchable fire1' 'eternal punishment1' 'eternal sin1' 'sin which shall not be forgiven1 neither in this world1 nor in that which is to come1' eternal 'death1' or exclusion from eternal life1 'eternal ruin1' 'wrath and indignation1 tribulation and anguish4' ,in face of all these sayings1 it seems to me indisputable that 'universalism'--the teaching that there are to be none finally lost--is an instance of wilfulness4 ,to speak of that which lies beyond death1 even in the case of the worst and most impenitent criminal1 as a place ',where ,god unmakes but to remake the soul ,he else made first in vain--which must not be1' is1 ,i cannot but feel1 in flat contradiction to the whole tone of the ,new ,testament4 #bad ,it is no doubt true that there is in the ,new ,testament an expectation of a final unity of the whole universe in ,god1 and that we find it hard to conceive the relation of lost souls in hell to this final unity4 ,certainly all legitimate avenues of dim conjecture that a very limited revelation allows to be kept open1 ought to be kept open4 ,certainly we know in part--the partialness of our knowledge can hardly be exaggerated4 ,but we must be true to both elements in what is disclosed to us2 and ,dr4 ,martineau has reminded us#c how deeply 'the belief in a separate heaven and hell1 and a corresponding distribution of men into only two classes of good and bad1 friends and enemies of ,god1' though 'at first sight nothing can appear more unnatural and defiant of all fact1' is yet bound up with 'the inward look' of moral evil and the fundamental reality of moral choice4 ,in fact it seems to be true to say that a really ,christian ,theism1 and a really ,christian doctrine of human freedom1 are inseparable from the belief in the possibility of wilful sin leading to final ruin4 ',it is appointed unto men once to die1 and after that the judgement'2 and this judgement in the case of those of us who have wilfully hardened themselves1 or remained loveless and love-rejecters1 in face of the real offer of ,god to man in ,christ ,jesus1 is a divine condemnation which takes effect in an eternal punishment1 the bitterness as well as the justice of which the soul realizes1 and which--if it does not necessarily mean an everlasting continuance of personal consciousness--is yet final and irreversible1 and unspeakably awful#d4 #a ,summa1 pars4 #a1 qu4 #ge1 art4 #f1 ',respondeo dicendum1 quod necesse est dicere1 animam humanam1 quam dicimus intellectivum principium1 esse incorruptibilem4' #b ,see ,dr4 ,agar ,beet's ,last ,things 7,hodder and ,stoughton1 #ahih71 pp4 #aid ff1 and ,gladstone's ,studies ,subsidiary to ,butler 7,oxford1 #ahif71 part ii4 pp4 #bfj ff4 #c ,see ,types of ,ethical ,theory 7,oxford1 #ahhe71 ii4 pp4 #fj ff4 #d ,the only passage in the ,new ,testament which strongly suggests an everlasting persistence of personal consciousness of pain1 is ,rev4 xx4 #aj1 ',shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever4' ,this is explicit enough4 ,but ,i am persuaded that all the numbers and expressions for periods of time in the ,apocalypse are strictly symbolical4 ',a thousand years1' 'forty and two months1' 'three days and a half1' 'day and night for ever and ever1' are expressions which have to be translated into some moral equivalent before they can be made the basis of literal teaching4 ,thus 'day and night for ever and ever' describes in a picture the completeness of the final overthrow and the anguish of the enemies of the ,lamb4 ,the symbolical character of the expression is further indicated by 'the beast' and 'the false prophet'--themselves symbolical figures--being with the devil the subjects of the torment4 ,some will say that the deterrent effect of the doctrine of hell depends upon its being held to be a state of strictly endless conscious torment4 ,i do not believe this is the case4 ,the language of the ,new ,testament is full enough of deterrent horror if we are faithful to it4 ,and after all1 this is all we have a right to be4 #bae ,,note ,d4 ,see vol4 i4 pp4 #adc ff4 ,,difficulties ,,about ,,the ,,doctrine ,,of ,,the ,,atonement4 ,i have endeavoured above to sketch the positive conception of the ,atonement1 as ,st4 ,paul seems to put it before us4 ,christ inaugurates the church of the new covenant1 the new life of union with ,god4 ,he lays its basis in a great act of reparation to the righteousness of ,god1 which 'the old ,adam' had continually outraged4 ,this act of reparation lies in a moral sacrifice of obedience1 carried to the extreme point by the shedding of ,his blood4 ,this is the great propitiation in virtue of which ,god is enabled1 without moral misunderstanding1 to forgive freely the sins of any one who comes in faith to unite himself to ,christ1 and set him free to begin the new life4 ,the subject is a divine 'mystery1' and we shall never adequately probe it4 ,nay more1 one man's thought will rightly seem inadequate to another1 who has gained1 or thinks he has gained1 some special avenue of insight into #baf the divine depths4 ,but when we pass from special points of view1 which are necessarily more or less individual1 and can never become certainties for men in general--when we pass on to the ground of what should be the common church belief1 the statement of the original revelation1 it is not1 it seems to me1 liable to any of the familiar moral objections1 or indeed a subject of any special difficulty4 ,the difficulties experienced by the moral consciousness of our age have been due to gross and unnecessary misunderstandings1 of which the following are1 perhaps1 the most considerable4 7#a7 ,the propitiation has become separated from the new life1 for which it merely prepares the way4 ,it has been elevated1 with disastrous moral results1 from a means to an end4 ,christ's work for us has been treated apart from ,his work in us1 in which alone it is realized4 ,he alone can act for all men1 because ,he only can be their new life within4 ,but on this see vol4 i4 pp4 #ada f1 and ,ephes4 pp4 #ed ff4 7#b7 ,the idea of injustice has been introduced into the 'transaction' of the ,atonement1 and has been the most fruitful source of difficulty2--but quite unnecessarily4 ,there is a story that when ,edward ,,vi was a child1 and deserved punishment1 another boy was taken and whipped in his place4 ,this monstrously unjust transaction has been taken by ,christian teachers as an illustration of the ,atonement2 and it is truly an illustration of the ,atonement as they misconceived it4 ,but the misconception is gratuitous3 there is no real resemblance in the two cases4 ,for first1 what is represented to us in the ,new ,testament is not that ,jesus ,christ1 an innocent person1 was punished1 without reference to ,his own will1 by a ,god who thus showed ,himself indifferent as to whom ,he punished so long as some one suffered4 ,but ,he1 being ,himself very ,god1 the ,son of the ,father1 the administrator of the #bag moral law and judge of the world1 of ,his own will became man1 and suffered what the sin of the world laid upon ,him1 in order that ,he might lift the world out of sin4 ,voluntary self-sacrifice for others is at least not to be described as injustice4 ,at least we rejoice to recognize that ,god accepts such self-sacrifice4 ,it is to vicarious self-sacrifice like our ,lord's that the human race owes the greater part of whatever moral progress it has hitherto made4 ,secondly1 ,god is not represented as imposing any specially devised punishment on ,his only ,son in our nature4 ,as the matter is stated in the ,new ,testament1 ,he required of ,him obedience1 the obedience proper to man2 and1 if we regard sympathy with our fellow men as a part of our duty to ,god1 we may say obedience only4 ,thus1 ',lo1 ,i come to do thy will1 ,o ,god' is the one cry of the ,christ4 ,in ,his simple acceptance of the whole of human duty lies the moral essence and value of ,his sacrifice4 ,all the physical and mental sufferings of ,christ came out of ,his fulfilment of the human ideal1 ,godward and manward1 and were involved in it4 ,he died because obedience to the terms of ,his mission--'the word of truth1 and meekness1 and righteousness'--in a world of sin such as this is1 involved dying4 ',he was obedient' without reserve--'unto death1 even the death of the cross#a4' ,the value of the bloodshedding lies in this1 so far as ,scripture enables us to judge--that it represents utter obedience under conditions which human sin1 the sin of ,jews and ,gentiles1 laid upon ,him3 and it was in this sense1 which does not leave out of consideration the mental torment caused to ,his sinless spirit by contact with sin#b1 that ,he 'bare our sins in his body #bah on the tree1' and that 'the ,lord made to light on him the iniquity of us all4' ,what is ascribed to the ,father is that ,he 'spared not' ,his only ,son by miraculously exempting ,him from the consequences of ,his mission2 and that ,he foresaw1 overruled1 and used for ,his own wise and loving purposes the sin of men#c4 ,thirdly and lastly1 the ,christ 7as represented in the ,new ,testament7 did not suffer in order that we might be let off the punishment for our own sins1 but in order to bring us to ,god4 ',by his stripes we are'--not excused punishment1 but--'healed4' ,in fact1 there are two distinguishable punishments for sin4 ,there is the spiritual punishment1 which is involved in being morally alienated from ,god1 which may become irreversible and eternal1 but which is gone when the moral alienation is gone4 ,from this ,christ delivers us in making us at one again with the ,father1 but ,he ,himself did not endure it4 ,god forbid that we should imagine such a thing6 ,besides this there is the temporal penalty which our sins bring as inevitable consequences upon ourselves and upon the race4 ,all these consequences of human sin the sinless ,christ bore for us1 but not that we might be let off #bai bearing them4 ,we must bear them too--both the death of the body and the chastisement of particular sins4 ,christ bore the punishment of sins that were not ,his own1 in order that in our case the punishments of sins which are our own might1 through ,his bringing us back to ,god1 be converted into healing chastisements and gracious penances4 ,the record of ,god's dealings with ,his saints is still1 as in ,ps4 xcix4 #h1 that they are heard1 forgiven and punished4 ,how gratuitously then the idea of injustice has been introduced into the doctrine of ,christ's sacrifice for us becomes evident when once it is brought within the scriptural limits4 ,christ suffered voluntarily4 ,he suffered simply what was involved in becoming man in a world of sin4 ,he suffered1 the righteous for the unrighteous1 that ,he might bring us back to ,god1 that so we might have grace to bear our own sufferings and share ,his4 ,this alone1 it seems to me1 is what the ,new ,testament certainly teaches4 ,and the matter of most importance is that1 ridding our minds of distracting and often needless difficulties1 we should drink in1 with heart and intelligence alike1 the full force of what is certainly part of the ,gospel--the doctrine of the one1 full1 perfect1 and sufficient atonement with the ,father1 won for us by the self-sacrifice of the ,christ4 #a ,phil4 ii4 #h2 ,hebr4 x4 #e-i4 #b ,the perfect ,man perfectly realized the misery and horror of the sins on behalf of which ,he suffered4 ,how much is involved in this in the way of detailed realization of each individual sin of each individual sinner1 is a matter on which we have no clear grounds for exact statement4 #c ,i believe that nothing more than this is really suggested by ,scripture4 ,the phrase1 'made sin for us' 7#b ,cor4 v4 #ba71 means1 ,i believe1 according to the clear use of the word in the ,,lxx1 'made a sin-offering for us4' ,the same words in the ,hebrew stand for sin and sin-offering1 and the use of the ,greek follows3 see especially 7in ,,lxx7 ,lev4 iv4 #ca1 ',it is the sin 7 sin-offering7 of the assembly2' #bd1 ',it 7the goat7 is a sin2' #bi1 ',he shall lay his hand upon the head of the sin2' vi4 #be1 ',this is the law of the sin'2 viii4 #ad1 ',the bullock of the sin4' ,cf4 ,hos4 iv4 #h1 c4 ,,note ,e4 ,see vol4 i4 p4 #aif4 ,,evolution ,,and ,,the ,,christian ,,doctrine ,,of ,,the ,,fall4 ,there is a wide-spread and popular notion that a marked contradiction exists between the biological theory #bbj of evolution and the ,christian doctrine of the ,fall1 which may be stated and examined under several heads3-- ,i4--',according to the theory of evolution man began his career at the bottom1 emerging from purely animal life1 and slowly struggled upwards to his present level of attainment4 ,according to the ,christian doctrine1 on the contrary1 he was created perfect1 and then subsequently fell into sin and accompanying misery4 ,thus1 according to one theory1 man began at the bottom2 according to the other1 he began at the top4' ,now there is no doubt that when so stated the evidence is all in favour of the scientific point of view1 and against the ,christian4 ,but such a contrast requires the greatest modification on both sides before it can be taken as truly representing the facts4 ,thus1 it is not the case that the ,bible suggests that man was created perfect1 i4e4 perfectly developed1 and that his later course has been simply the effect of the ,fall1 i4e4 a downward course4 ,leaving first out of account ,gen4 i-iii1 we notice that the ,bible is conspicuously1 and in marked contrast to the religious books of other nations1 the book of development4 ,it looks continuously and systematically forward1 not backward1 for the perfecting of man4 ,it traces the beginning of civilization in ,abel1 the keeper of sheep1 ,cain1 the tiller of the ground1 in ,jabal1 'the father of such as dwell in tents and have cattle1' in ,jubal1 the father of music1 'of all such as handle the harp and pipe1' in ,tubal ,cain1 the first forger of brass and iron work2 it indicates the origin of religious worship 7in some sense7 at the time of ,enoch1 and the origin of building with the tower of ,babel4 ,the names of ,noah1 ,abraham1 ,moses1 ,samuel1 ,david1 c41 represent stages of advance along the line of a chosen people2 and later on it appears also that upon the chosen people centres a hope for all nations1 and a purpose is discovered in universal history4 ,the special #bba intellectual qualities of various races or civilizations1 as of ,egypt and ,tyre1 are recognized by some of the prophets1 and recognized as part of a divine purpose for the world#a4 ,the ,bible then is the book of development2 it looks forward1 not backward4 ,but it is also true that all this development is represented as having been 7we may say7 a second-best thing4 ,it has not been according to ,god's first purpose4 ,there has been a great and continual hindrance1 which has consisted in a persistent rebellion or sin on man's part against ,god2 and this again has had its root in a certain perversion of the heart of mankind which is regarded as approximately universal4 ,if we now take into account again the first three chapters of ,genesis 7which1 however1 have left much less trace than is commonly supposed in the ,old ,testament as a whole#b7 we find that they describe an original act of rebellion on the part of the first human pair1 which is there spoken of as at least entailing external consequences of a penal sort upon their descendants--that is death1 pain1 and the loss of ,paradise2 and that later1 especially in the teaching of ,st4 ,paul1 the universal moral flaw in human nature 7original sin7 is also represented as having its source in this initial act of rebellion4 ,sin is therefore1 according to our ,christian scriptures1 something unnatural to man3 the violation of his nature by his rebellion2 and it is a continual element of deterioration4 ,but the idea that man was created perfect1 i4e4 so as not to need development1 is not suggested4 ,no doubt theologians1 from the age of ,augustine down to recent times1 have done something more than suggest it4 ,thus ,robert ,south supposes that 'an ,aristotle was but the rubbish of an ,adam1 and ,athens but the rudiments of ,paradise'2 and ,milton implanted the idea in the #bbb imagination of ,englishmen2 but it is in no way suggested by the ,bible1 and was expressly repudiated by the earliest ,christian theologians in east and west4 ,thus1 in answer to the question whether ,adam was formed perfect or imperfect1 ,clement of ,alexandria replied1 ',they shall learn from us that he was not perfect in respect of his creation1 but in a fit condition to receive virtue4' ,and ,irenaeus says that it was in the power of ,god to make men perfect from the beginning1 but that such an initial perfection would be contrary to the law of human nature1 which is the law of gradual growth#c4 ,we must therefore modify the statement of ,christian doctrine from which we started1 thus3--,man has been slowly led1 or has slowly developed1 towards the divine ideal of his ,creator2 but his actual development has been much less rapid and constant than it might have been1 owing to the fact of sin from which he might have been free4 ,now1 can it be fairly said that science can take any legitimate exception to such a statement8 ,the progress of man which anthropological science discloses is very broken1 very partial2 if development of some sort is universal1 progress is very rare1 distinct deterioration not uncommon4 ,science1 like poetry and philosophy1 must bear witness to the disappointing element in human nature1 of which ,he was so conscious of whom it is said that ',he did not trust himself to man1 because he needed not that any one should bear witness concerning man1 for he himself knew what was in man'--the sad secret of human untrustworthiness and unsatisfactoriness#d4 ,again1 can science assert that this actual development of man1 so thwarted and tainted and partial1 has been the only possible development1 and that there could not have been a better8 ,if it cannot say this1 there is in the #bbc general view of human progress and deterioration no antagonism between religion and science4 ,,ii4--,but it may be said1 ',science certainly does say that the actual development of man has been the only possible development4 ,science excludes the idea of sin in the sense of something which need not have happened1 because it excludes the idea of freedom or contingency altogether4 ,good and bad characters are like good and bad apples--mere facts of natural growth'2 or more suggestively1 ',sin 7so called7 is only the survival of brute instincts1 which1 from a higher condition of evolution1 men have come to be ashamed of4' ,it cannot be made too emphatic that here is the real battle-ground of religion and science to-day1 though the fact is often concealed in popular controversy4 ,i do not believe there is any real difficulty in adjusting sufficiently the relations of religion and science as to the ,fall when once the idea of sin has been admitted--that is1 the idea of free1 responsible action1 with its correlative1 the possibility of wrong action which might have been avoided4 ,christian and other teachers have1 no doubt1 often failed to see how limited human freedom is1 but they have never been wrong in asserting that the reality of freedom within limits is essential to ,christianity and morality4 ,sin is not a mere fact of nature4 ,it is a perversion which ought not to have been4 ,this subject is not what is directly before us now2 but the heart of the controversy is here2 and ,i will make the following very brief remarks upon it4 7#a7 ,a theory that cannot be put into practice1 or a theory that cannot account for the facts1 is a false or at least inadequate theory4 ,now the theory of necessary determinism cannot be put into practice4 ,to believe that our own conduct is not really under our own control--that the idea of responsibility is at bottom an illusion--is to destroy the basis of human life and education4 ,even #bbd the holders of the theory admit that it must be kept out of sight in practice4 ,further1 it is a theory that cannot account for the facts--viz4 for the existence of the universal sense of responsibility2 and the application to human action of moral blame and praise1 which penetrates the whole of thought and language1 and which holds too large a place in human life to be a delusion4 ,we are not ashamed of a physical accident1 but we are ashamed of telling a lie4 ,and this difference is fundamental and based on reality4 7#b7 ,the ,christian assumption may be stated as follows3 granted that we cannot increase the sum of force which passes from external sources into our system1 and passes out again in manifold forms of human action1 yet within certain limits we can direct it for good or evil--i4e4 the 'voluntary' part of a man's action may be determined from below1 so to speak1 by purely animal motives1 or by rational and spiritual motives4 ,in the latter case1 the action is of the proper human quality1 and stamps a rational and spiritual character upon all that falls within its range4 ,in the former case1 it may be truly regarded as a survival of the physical instincts of animal progenitors1 and no doubt it emerges as a part of the physical order of the world4 ,but1 considered as human action1 it represents a lapse1 a culpable subordination of the higher to the lower in our nature1 a violation of the law proper to manhood#e4 ,this is the point4 ,st4 ,john says1 ',all sin is lawlessness1' and 7by the exact form of expression which he uses7 he implies also that all lawlessness is sin4 ,here1 and here only where voluntary action begins1 do you see violation of law1 and therefore1 within limits1 a disturbance of the divine order--something which ought to have been otherwise4 #bbe 7#c7 ,the belief that the moral evil of our nature does not properly belong to our nature but is its violation1 and that if once the will be set right it can be remedied1 has been the secret of the moral strength of ,christianity4 ,christianity has said to all men1 ,however corrupted your nature1 the corruption does not essentially belong to you4 ,give your wills to ,god1 and1 if slowly1 yet surely1 if not fully in this world1 then beyond it1 all can be set right4 ',according to thy faith be it unto thee4' ,and the practical power of this appeal1 shows its agreement with reality4 7#d7 ,on the other hand1 it cannot be claimed that the theory is contrary to any real scientific knowledge2 for biology confesses that it knows very little as to the actual methods by which force is redistributed in human action4 ,it is contrary only to some large and unverifiable assumptions--assumptions which ignore the abstract character of biological psychology1 as of other sciences4 ,now granted this reality of free voluntary action1 it will hardly be denied that history discloses to us a practically universal prevalence of sin#f1 in the present and in the past2 and we can hardly fail to perceive1 lying behind actual sins1 a tendency to sin--what ,shelley calls 'the ineradicable taint of sin1' a perverse inclination inhering in the stock of our manhood1 which is what theology calls original sin4 ,,iii4--,but here a more modern objection occurs4 ,christianity assumes that this moral flaw or taint1 weakness or grossness1 in human nature is the outcome of actual transgressions1 in other words that original sin is due to actual sin1 whereas the tendency of recent biological science is to deny that acquired characters can be inherited1 and therefore to deny that any acts of any man or men could have any effect on the congenital moral nature of their descendants2 the taint or fault in #bbf human nature1 must be a taint or fault in that original substance which what is called man derived from his pre-human ancestry4 ,to this ,i reply3--,this is no doubt the view which ,professor ,weismann has made more or less prevalent4 ,the substance of heredity 7'germ-plasm'7 is taken to be a substance per se1 which has always occupied a special 'sphere' of its own1 without any contact with that of 'somatoplasm' further than is required for its lodgement or nutrition2 hence it can never be in any degree modified as to its hereditary qualities by use-inheritance4 ,it has been absolutely continuous 'since the first origin of life4' ,but this doctrine does not appear yet to have assumed a fixed form#g2 and in its extreme or absolute form it is highly disputable1 and rejected by large sections of biologists4 ,professor ,haeckel#h declares contemptuously that he should feel it more reasonable to accept the ,mosaic account of special creations6 ,the late ,mr4 ,romanes1 after summing up the evidence on both sides without any contempt1 decides3 ',no one is thus far entitled to conclude against the possible transmission of acquired characters#i4' ,again1 'that this substance of heredity is largely continuous and highly stable1 ,i see many and cogent reasons for believing4 ,but that this substance has been uninterruptedly continuous since the origin of life1 or absolutely stable since the origin of sexual propagation1 ,i see even more and better reasons for disbelieving#aj4' ,and he remarks#aa1 ',i doubt not ,weismann #bbg himself would be the first to allow that his theory of heredity encounters greater difficulties in the domain of ethics than in any other--unless indeed1 it be that of religion4' ,i ought to add1 in view of the apparently improbable event of the doctrine of ,weismann becoming in its absolute form the accepted doctrine of biologists1 that of course it only concerns the material organism4 ,no one who is not a materialist would deny the possibility of the character of the parent modifying at its very root that of the child1 without even the smallest conceivable modification of the physical organism2 because in the origination of a spiritual personality1 and in the link which binds it to the antecedent personalities to which it owes its being1 there is that which lies outside the purview of biological science4 ,there may be an inheritance of sinful tendencies derived from sinful acts in the region of the spiritual personality1 even if no physical transmission is possible4 ,however it be explained1 it appears to be the case that ,christianity is bound to maintain the position that in the region of moral character there is1 in fact1 a solidarity in humanity4 ,we are bound together4 ,our acts1 as they form our own character1 do somehow or other1 however slightly1 modify the characters of our descendants for good or evil4 ,and this modification of the tendencies of the race by the acts of individuals may have been more marked at the beginning than it is to-day4 ,on the other hand ,christianity is not in any way interested in denying that man derives a physical heritage of habits and tendencies from a pre-human ancestry4 ,all ,i imagine that ,christianity is interested in affirming is this--that when the animal organism became the dwelling-place of the human spirit 7so to speak7 that human spirit might have taken one of two courses4 ,it #bbh might have followed the path of the divine will2 and in that case human development would have represented a steady and gradual spiritualizing of the animal nature reaching on towards perfection4 ,it might have taken1 on the other hand1 and did in fact take 7more or less71 the line of wilful disobedience4 ,and the moral effects of this wilfulness and disobedience from the beginning onwards have been felt from parent to son4 ,so that the springs of human conduct have been weakened and perverted1 and no man has started without some bias in the wrong direction which would not have been there if his ancestors for many generations had been true to ,god4 ,it is worth noticing in passing that 'original sin' is not a fixed quantity derived from one lapse of the original man1 but is a moral weakness continually reinforced by every actual transgression1 and1 on the other hand1 reduced in force by moral resistance and self-control4 ,individuals start at very different levels of depravity4 ,only it would appear that practically in no man but ,one is there any reason to believe the fundamental nature immaculate4 ,,iv4--,but it will be said ',you have not yet touched upon a big central contradiction between religion and science4 ,according to the ,christian doctrine mankind is derived from a single specifically human pair1 made human by a special inspiration of the ,divine ,spirit4 ,according to the theory of evolution1 a certain species of apes under specially favourable conditions gradually advanced to become what might be called man1 though of a very low type4' ,to this ,i am inclined to make reply thus3 ,christianity is really bound up with maintaining four positions--7#a7 the reality of moral freedom2 7#b7 the fact of sin1 properly so called as distinct from imperfection2 7#c7 its practical universality1 at least as an inherited tendency2 and 7#d7 the unity of the human race in such #bbi sense that the same postulates may be made with regard to all men1 and the same capacity for moral redemption 7more or less7 assumed to be in them4 ,now1 as regards the first three of these positions enough has been said already1 and the last of them does not appear to be at present in dispute between science and religion4 ,st4 ,paul says1 ',god made of one' 7or 'of one blood1' for this reading is possibly right7 'every nation of men' 7,acts xvii4 #bf74 ,and of one blood1 if not of one individual1 all men are1 according to the present conclusions of biological science4 ,a recent work on ethnology1 by ,mr4 ,keane 7,cambridge ,geographical ,series71 speaks thus3--',the hominidae are not separately evolved in an absolute sense--i4e4 from so many different anthropoid precursors1 but the present primary divisions are separately evolved from so many different pleistocene precursors1 themselves evolved through a single pliocene prototype from a single anthropoid precursor#ab4' ,it does not seem to me1 then1 that ,christianity is really bound up with anything more than the unity of the human race1 which science also strongly asserts4 ,but to pass from these positions1 which may be regarded as certain1 to something more conjectural 7apart from any question of the literary character of ,genesis iii71 we may argue thus3 ,sin is a fact having the same character universally in human history1 though the sense of sin has varied greatly1 reaching back as far as human history extends4 ,this would lead us to suppose that it goes back to the roots of the race4 ,it suggests some original #bcj fall1 some tainting of the race in its origin4 ,i do not see1 then1 anything absurd or contrary to evidence in such a hypothesis as this4--,the ,divine ,spirit is assumed to be at work in all the development of the world4 ,the 'laws of nature' are but ,his methods4 ,at a certain moment a new thing had emerged in the universe hitherto inorganic4 ,it was the fact of life4 ,it was new#ac4 ,but it was in continuity with what had gone before4 ,this principle of life had its great development1 vegetable and animal4 ,it had attained a form in certain anthropoid apes such as we are familiar with in men4 ,suppose then that the ,divine ,spirit breathes ,himself1 again in a new way1 into one single pair or group of these anthropoid animals4 ,there is lodged in them for the first time a germ of spiritual consciousness1 continuous with animal intelligence1 and yet distinct from it4 ,from this pair or group humanity has its origin4 ,if they and their offspring had been true to their spiritual capacities the animal nature would have been more rapidly spiritualized in motives and tendencies4 ,development--physical1 moral1 spiritual--would have been steady and glorious4 ,whereas there was a fall at the very root of our humanity2 and the fall was repeated and reiterated and renewed1 and the development of our manhood was tainted and spoiled4 ,there was a lapse into approximately animal condition1 which is dimly known to us as primitive savagery4 ,so that the condition of savage man is a parody of what ,god intended man in his undeveloped stages to be1 just as the condition of civilized man in ,london and ,paris is a parody of what ,god intended developed man to come to4 ,and there have been long and dreary epochs when men have #bca seemed to lose almost all human ideals and divine aspirations2 when1 in ,st4 ,paul's phrase1 they were 'alive without the law1' living a physical life unvisited by the remorse consequent upon any knowledge of better things4 ,and there have been1 on the other hand1 epochs and special occasions of spiritual opportunity and spiritual restorations4 ,and so1 on the whole1 side by side with the continually deteriorating effect of sin1 has gone on the slow process of redemption1 the undoing of the evil of sin and the realization of the divine purpose for man4 ,such an idea of human history1 partly only hypothetical1 partly assured1 conflicts with no scientific ethnology1 and is but a restatement of old-fashioned ,christianity in all that has religious importance4 ,v4--,of course1 in all this ,i am assuming that the doctrine of sin and of the ,fall in its true importance has a much securer basis than the supposition that ,genesis iii is literal history4 ,the doctrine of the ,fall is1 as ,i have said1 not separable from the doctrine of sin1 or the doctrine of sin from that of moral freedom4 ,it rests upon the broad basis of human experience1 especially upon ,christian experience1 which is bound up with its reality4 ,most of all it rests1 for ,christians1 on the teaching of ,christ4 ,for ,christ's teaching and action postulate throughout the doctrine of sin4 ,but that doctrine in its turn goes back upon the ,old ,testament1 which is full of the truth that the evils of human nature are due1 not to its essential constitution1 but to man's wilfulness and its results2 that the disordering force in human nature has been moral1 the force of sin2 that human history represents in one aspect a fall from a divine purpose1 a fall constantly reiterated and renewed in acts of disobedience4 ,these constant acts of disobedience are in part caused by an evil heart in human nature1 and this in its turn exhibits the fruits of past sins4 ,granted this1 #bcb the story in ,genesis iii1 whether it be historical or whether 7as not only many modern ,christians1 but some of the greatest of early ,christians1 have thought7 it be not an historical account of a single event1 but a generalized account of what is continually happening1 has1 at any rate1 vital spiritual truth4 ,the character of its inspiration is apparent4 ,teach a child what sin is1 first of all on the ground of general ,christian experience and the teaching of ,christ1 and then read to it the story of ,genesis iii1 and the child must perforce recognize the truth in a form in which it cannot be forgotten4 ,there in that story all the main points of truth as to the meaning of sin are suggested1 and the main sources of error precluded4 ,sin is not our nature1 but wilfulness2 sin is disobedience to the divine law1 the refusal of trust in ,god2 there is such a thing as being tempted to sin1 and yielding to it1 and then finding that we have been deceived1 being conscience-stricken and fearing to face ,god2 and the curse of our manhood springs from nowhere ultimately but our own evil heart4 ,and if our sins lay us under an outward discipline1 which is ,god's punishment1 yet in the very discipline lies the hope of our recovery4 ,god the destroyer is also the ,god who promises redemption4 ,thus all that we most need to know about ,god and man1 about obedience and disobedience1 about temptation1 about the blessing and the cursing of human nature1 about conscience good and bad1 is to be found in the story of ,genesis iii1 written in language suitable to the childhood of the individual and of the race4 ,,vi4--,but once more1 and for the last time1 the biologist will reply1 ',you are not going to get off so easily4 ,the fact of physical death is inextricably interwoven into the structural growth of the world long before men appeared4 ,but ,christianity regards it as a mere consequence of human sin4' ,this is not the case4 ,long before science #bcc had investigated the early history of life on our globe1 ,christian teachers both in ,east and in ,west--,st4 ,augustine as well as ,st4 ,athanasius--had taught that death is the law of physical nature1 that it had been in the world before man1 and that 'man was by nature mortal1' because1 as being animal1 he was subject to death4 ,how1 then1 do they interpret the language of ,scripture8 ,in this way3 ,they hold that if man had been true to his spiritual nature1 the supernatural life1 the life in ,god1 would have blunted the forces of corruption1 and lifted him into a higher and immortal state4 ,certainly1 in some sense1 death1 as we know it1 for man1 is regarded1 especially in the ,new ,testament1 as the penalty of sin4 ,but then what do we mean by death8 ,if sin is said to have introduced human death1 ,christ is constantly said to have abolished it4 ',this is the bread that cometh down from heaven1 that a man may eat thereof and not die4' ',whosoever believeth on me shall never die4' ',christ ,jesus abolished death4' ,sin1 then1 we may suppose1 only introduced death in some sense such as that in which ,christ abolished it4 ,christ has not abolished the physical transition from this world to the invisible world1 but ,he has robbed it of its terror1 its sting1 its misery4 ,apart from sin we may suppose man would not have died2 that is1 he would never have had that horrible experience which he has called death4 ,there would have been only some transition full of a glorious hope from one state of being to another4 ,we are again in the region of conjecture4 ,all that ,i am here interested in asserting is that ,christianity never has held to the position that human sin first introduced death into the world4 ,what it has taught is that human death1 as men have known it1 with its horror and its misery1 has represented not ,god's intention for man1 but the curse of sin4 #bcd ,,vii4--,now ,i have endeavoured to face and meet the points which are urged in the name of science against the ,christian doctrine of the ,fall4 ,i have endeavoured to point out that what is essential to ,christianity is to believe in the reality of moral freedom1 and the consequent reality of sin1 as something which need not have been in the individual1 or in the race considered as a unity4 ,this is all that ,christianity is really pledged to maintain4 ,in maintaining this we are maintaining what is absolutely essential to the moral well-being of the race1 and1 moreover1 what has the deepest roots in man's moral experience and in the teaching of ,christ4 ,in holding this we hold the doctrine of the ,fall1 a doctrine1 that is1 that man's condition has been throughout a parody of the divine intention1 owing to the fact of sin tainting and spoiling his development from the root4 ,but ,christianity is not in any kind of way pledged against the doctrine of development1 only against the doctrine which no reasonable science can hold1 that the actual development of man has been the best or only possible one4 ,nor1 ,i have urged1 can it be reasonably said that the ,christian doctrine of sin and of the ,fall is bound up with one particular interpretation of ,genesis iii4 ,all1 then1 that we must admit in the way of collision between ,christianity and science is1 on the one hand1 that ,christianity is not intended to teach men science1 and that when there is any great advance in human knowledge it takes a little while for ,christianity to extricate itself from the meshes of the language and ideas belonging to one stage of scientific knowledge1 and to assimilate the terms and ideas of the new4 ,but1 on the other hand1 there is perennial and necessary warfare between ,christianity and materialistic science1 or a science which denies the reality of moral freedom4 ,and as to ,christianity giving up what is proper to its own ground--its teaching about #bce freedom and sin and the ,fall1 and ,god's purpose for man1 and the love shown in his redemption--to give up this is to give up what is the best and deepest motive of human progress1 and what is most surely certificated by the witness of ,christ and the spiritual experience of ,christendom4 ,indeed all schemes of human improvement are shallow and inadequate1 which do not deal with man as what1 in fact1 he has been proved to be1 a sinful1 that is a fallen1 being1 needing not only education but redemption4 ,before leaving this attempt to show that there is no necessary conflict between biological and theological science1 it is important to call the attention of the intelligent public to the fact that what formerly appeared to be the solid consistency of the ',darwinian' creed1 has been broken up into a state not far removed from chaos4 ,it has become apparent how very little way has really been made towards showing what have been the actual factors in evolution--how the fact of evolution through variation has actually occurred4 ,thus ,mr4 ,bateson#ad remarks1 ',if the study of variation can serve no other end1 it may make us remember that the complexity of the problem of specific difference is hardly less now than it was when ,darwin first showed that natural history is a problem1 and no vain riddle4' ,what is the cause of variations occurring8 ,what law do they exhibit in their occurrence8 ,do variations occur with a certain degree of sudden completeness#ae8 ,or how are we to #bcf explain the maintenance of variations1 which in a more developed stage are to be very useful1 before they can be shown to be useful at all8 ,what is the place held in evolution by 'natural selection'8 ,what1 if any1 the place held by use-inheritance8 ,is the factor of 'mimicry1' supported by ,darwin1 an important or even real factor in evolution8 ,what is to be the issue of the controversy between the biologist and the physicist on the question of the time required for organic development8 ,are we to suppose that organic development at the beginning proceeded very much more rapidly than at a later stage8 ,or even that it exhibited laws of which we have no experience now1 such as would admit of a 'natural' development of life out of what is not living8 ,all these1 and many more questions1 appear to be so completely open that1 granted the general theory of continuous evolution as against special creation1 hardly anything as regards the factors or causes of evolution can be said to be scientifically settled4 ,thus on such subjects as the origin of the human race1 its exact relation to an animal ancestry1 and the right interpretation of the fact of sin1 #bcg before science can make demands on theology1 there must be more agreement in her own camp4 #a ,see especially ,ezekiel xxviii1 xxxi4 #b ,see vol4 i4 p4 #aic4 #c ,clem4 ,alex4 ,strom1 vi4 #ab4 #if2 ,iren4 c4 ,haer4 iv4 #ch4 #d ,see also above1 vol4 i4 pp4 #gh1 #gi4 #e ,on the meaning of 'freedom of will1' see vol4 i4 pp4 #bcj ff4 #f ,see above1 vol4 i4 pp4 #hj-a4 #g ,romanes1 ,examination of ,weismannism 7,longmans1 #ahic71 pp4 #fa-gj1 #aec4 #h ,the ,last ,link 7,black1 #ahii71 p4 #gi4 #i ,romanes1 ,darwin and after ,darwin 7,longmans1 #ahie71 ii4 p4 #bgi4 #aj ,examination of ,weismannism1 pp4 #aad1 #aae4 #aa ,darwin and after ,darwin1 ii4 p4 #ij4 #ab ,see also in ,haeckel1 ,last ,link1 p4 #adh3 ',we assume the single monophyletic origin of mankind at one place1 in one district'2 and passages cited above1 vol4 i4 p4 #aif1 n4 #a4 ,the science of comparative religions also suggests the same conclusion4 ,everywhere common underlying religious needs and tendencies appear4 ,acts xvii4 #bg is justified by a comparison of religions4 #ac ,it must not be left out of sight that the idea of life as naturally derived from what was inorganic1 has not yet been made to appear even scientifically probable1 in view of the evidence4 #ad ,w4 ,bateson1 ,materials for the ,study of ,variations1 treated with especial regard to discontinuity in the origin of species 7,macmillan1 #ahid71 p4 xii4 #ae ,biologists are now apparently more disposed than formerly to admit the sudden appearance of considerable and important modifications and rapid developments4 ,cf4 ,haeckel1 l4 c4 p4 #add1 and ,bateson1 p4 #efh4 ,he concludes that 'discontinuity of species results from discontinuity of variation4' ',the existence1' he says1 'of sudden and discontinuous variation1 the existence1 that is to say1 of new forms having from their first beginning more or less of the kind of perfection which we associate with normality1 is a fact that disposes1 once and for all1 of the attempt to interpret all perfection and definiteness of form as the work of selection4 ,the study of variation leads us into the presence of whole classes of phenomena that are plainly incapable of such interpretation4' ,this relative perfection of variations at starting ,mr4 ,bateson attributes in great measure to the principle of 'symmetry1' or 'repetition of parts' in living things4 ,an organism is symmetrical1 and thus what happens in one of many similar organs repeats itself normally in all the others4 ,change in one part is not an isolated fact1 but there is 'similarity and simultaneity of change4' ,,note ,f4 ,see vol4 i4 p4 #bae4 ,,baptism ,,by ,,immersion ,,and ,,by ,,affusion4 ,the following passage in the ,didache1 c4 #g1 is of the plainest importance for the history of this matter3 ',if thou have not living i4e4 running water1 baptize into other water2 and if thou canst not in cold1 then in warm4 ,and if thou have not either in sufficient amount for baptism1 i4e4 immersion in the water pour forth water thrice upon the head into the name of ,father and ,son and ,holy ,ghost4' ,cf4 ,dr4 ,taylor1 ,teaching of the ,twelve ,apostles 7,cambridge1 #ahhf71 p4 #eb3 ',the primitive mode of baptism was by immersion4 ,according to the ,jewish rite a ring on the finger1 a band confining the hair1 or anything that in the least degree broke the continuity of contact with the water1 was held to invalidate the act4 ,the ,greek word baptize1 like the ,hebrew tabol1 means to dip3 to baptize a ship is to sink it4 ,the construction in the above passage of the ,didache baptize into other water1 points to immersion1 as likewise does ,hermas1 when he writes 7,simil4 #i73 ,they go down therefore into the water dead1 and come up living2 and ,barnabas 7chap4 xi73 ,herein he saith that we go down into the water laden with sins and filthiness1 and come up bearing fruit in our heart1 and having our fear and our hope towards ,jesus in the ,spirit4 ,this was still the normal way of administering the rite1 but it was no longer insisted upon as necessary3 #bch ,if thou have not either1 not enough of living or other water for immersion1 pour water thrice upon the head1 c4' ,,note ,g4 ,see vol4 ii4 p4 #acf4 ,a ,,prayer ,,of ,,jeremy ,,taylor4 ,o holy and almighty ,god1 ,father of mercies1 ,father of our ,lord ,jesus ,christ1 the ,son of ,thy love and eternal mercies1 ,i adore and praise and glorify ,thy infinite and unspeakable love and wisdom2 who hast sent ,thy ,son from the bosom of felicities to take upon ,him our nature and our misery and our guilt1 and hast made the ,son of ,god to become the ,son of ,man1 that we might become the sons of ,god and partakers of the divine nature2 since ,thou hast so exalted human nature be pleased also to sanctify my person1 that by a conformity to the humility and laws and sufferings of my dearest ,saviour ,i may be united to ,his ,spirit1 and be made all one with the most holy ,jesus4 ,amen4 ,o holy and eternal ,jesus1 who didst pity mankind lying in his blood and sin and misery1 and didst choose our sadnesses and sorrows that ,thou mightest make us to partake of ,thy felicities2 ,let ,thine eyes pity me1 ,thy hands support me1 ,thy holy feet tread down all the difficulties in my way to heaven2 let me dwell in ,thy heart1 be instructed with ,thy wisdom1 moved by ,thy affections1 choose with ,thy will1 and be clothed with ,thy righteousness2 that in the day of judgement ,i may be found having on ,thy garments1 sealed with ,thy impression2 and that1 bearing upon every faculty and member the character of #bci my elder ,brother1 ,i may not be cast out with strangers and unbelievers4 ,amen4 ,o holy and ever blessed ,spirit1 who didst overshadow the ,holy ,virgin-mother of our ,lord1 and caused her to conceive by a miraculous and mysterious manner2 be pleased to overshadow my soul1 and enlighten my spirit1 that ,i may conceive the holy ,jesus in my heart1 and may bear ,him in my mind1 and may grow up to the fullness of the stature of ,christ1 to be a perfect man in ,christ ,jesus4 ,amen4 ,to ,god1 the ,father of our ,lord ,jesus ,christ2 to the eternal ,son that was incarnate and born of a virgin2 to the ,spirit of the ,father and the ,son1 be all honour and glory1 worship and adoration1 now and for ever4 ,amen4--,jeremy ,taylor1 ,holy ,living2 see his ,works1 vol4 iii4 p4 #bch4 ,,note ,h4 ,see vol4 ii4 p4 #adg4 ,,the ,,origin ,,of ,,the ,,maxim--',,in ,,necessariis ,,unitas1 ,,etc4' ,the expression ',in necessariis unitas1 in non necessariis libertas1 in omnibus caritas' is cited by ,richard ,baxter in the dedication of ,on the ,true and ,only ,way of ,concord of all ,christian ,churches1 #afgi1 thus1 ',i once more quote you the pacificator's old and despised words4' ,but the pacificator appears to be no one older than a ,protestant who wrote 7#afbj to #afdj71 under the name of ,rupertus ,meldenius1 a ,paraenesis votiva pro pace ecclesiae ad theologos ,augustanae ,confessionis4 ,in the ,paraenesis occurs the sentence 'si nos servaremus in necessariis unitatem1 in non necessariis libertatem1 in utrisque caritatem optimo certe loco essent res nostrae4' ,see ,a4 ,p4 ,stanley in ,macmillan1 #bdj ,sep41 #ahge1 referring to ,g4 ,c4 ,f4 ,lcke1 ,ueber das ,alter1 den ,verfasser1 die ursprngliche ,fonn und den wahren ,sinn des kirchlichen ,friedensspruchs3 'in necessariis unitas c41' ,gttingen1 #ahej4 ,this information was supplied me in correction of a mistaken attribution of the saying of which ,i was guilty in a sermon2 and has been verified for me by ,mr4 ,arthur ,hirtzel4 ,the saying has been commonly attributed to ,st4 ,augustine1 and indeed the matter of it is thoroughly in his spirit2 cf4 my ,ephesians1 p4 #bgb2 and see also ,de ,gen4 ad litt41 viii4 #e3 ',melius est dubitare de occultis quam litigare de incertis4' ,de ,civ4 ,dei1 xix4 #ah3 'qua i4e4 faith in scripture salva atque certa1 de quibusdam rebus quas neque sensu1 neque ratione percepimus1 neque nobis per ,scripturam canonicam claruerunt1 nec per testes1 quibus non credere absurdum est1 in nostram notitiam pervenerunt1 sine iusta reprehensione dubitamus4' ,,note ,i4 ,see vol4 ii4 p4 #agi4 ,,st4 ,,augustine',s ,,teaching ,,that ',,the ,,church ,,is ,,the ,,body ,,of ,,christ ,,offered ,,in ,,the ,,eucharist4' ,the following passages are full of interest3--,de ,civ4 ,d4 x4 #f3 ',so that the whole redeemed city1 that is the congregation and society of the saints1 is offered as a universal sacrifice to ,god by the ,high ,priest1 who offered nothing less than ,himself in suffering for us1 so that we might become the body of so glorious a head1 according to that 'form of a servant' which ,he had taken4 ,for it was this 7our human nature7 that ,he offered1 in this that ,he was offered1 because it is in respect of this that ,he is mediator1 priest and sacrifice4' ,then after a reference to ,rom4 xii4 #a-f #bda he continues1 ',this is the ,christian sacrifice3 the many become one body in ,christ4 ,and it is this that the ,church celebrates by means of the sacrament of the altar1 familiar to the faithful1 where it is shown to her that in what she offers she herself is offered4' ,and x4 #bj3 ,of ,christ's perfect sacrifice of ,himself ',he willed the ,church's sacrifice to be a daily sacrament4 ,for as she is the body of ,him the head1 she learns through ,him to offer up herself4' ,again xix4 #bc3 ',god's most glorious and best sacrifice is we ourselves1 that is ,his city1 of which we celebrate the mystery in our oblations1 which are known to the faithful4' ,cf4 xxii4 #aj3 ',the sacrifice itself is the body of ,christ1 which is not offered to them 7the martyrs71 for they themselves also are it' 7quia hoc sunt et ipsi74 ,cf4 ,serm4 #bbg3 ',if you have well received 7the body of ,christ in the sacrament7 you are what you have received 444 ,he willed us to be ,his sacrifice4' ,in all this we have a very plain and much forgotten teaching4 ,but we must not misunderstand ,st4 ,augustine's use of apparently exclusive language--as if the sacrifice of ourselves was the only sacrifice offered in the eucharist4 ,the sacrifice of the ,church is offered up through ,christ4 ,thus he also speaks of the celebration of the eucharist 7on the occasion of his mother's death1 ,conf4 ix4 #ab7 in the phrase 'the sacrifice of our ransom 7pretii nostri7 was offered for her4' ,we do well to remember by the way that in ,de ,civ4 x4 #e1 #f1 ,st4 ,augustine twice over defines what he means by sacrifice thus3 ',a true sacrifice is everything that is done in order that we may by a holy fellowship inhere in ,god4' ,,oxford3 ,,horace ,,hart ,,printer ,,to ,,the ,,university ,a ,series of ,simple ,expositions of ,portions of the ,new ,testament ,,by ,,the ,,rev4 ,,charles ,,gore4 ,,the ,,sermon ,,on ,,the ,,mount4 ,,the ,,epistle ,,to ,,the ,,ephesians4 ,,the ,,epistle ,,to ,,the ,,romans4 ,in ,two ,vols4 ,,in ,,contemplation4 ,,the ,,epistles ,,of ,,st4 ,,john4