needest it, not it thee. 19. Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in. 20. Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not high-minded, but fear. Infidelity has rendered them aliens from the root, and faith has connected thee with the root, and made thee to share in its richness; it behoves thee therefore not to become self-sufficient, but to fear and tremble. Wherefore? 21. For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest He also spare not thee. For if the connexion of nature profited them not at all, because they retained not the same character and disposition, much more thou, if thou preservest not that grace, shalt become an alien from the root. 22. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but towards thee, goodness, if thou continue in His goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. Behold now how God has cut them off, because they followed not the faith of their forefathers, and how He has conferred on thee the blessing of his loving-kindness, and made thee to share in a root not appertaining to thee, from which thou wilt be altogether severed again, if thou keepest not the gift bestowed on thee. 23. And they also, if they abide not in unbelief, shall be grafted in. For it becomes the righteousness of God, both to sever again from the root thee, who contrary to hope wert blessed with the privilege of that root, if thou thereafter preserve not the grace given; and to join them again to it, if they renounce their infidelity. And aptly does he use the words grafted in as regards them also, infidelity having altogether severed them from, and faith exactly, as in the case of the Gentiles, connecting them with, the root. For God is able to graft them in again. By mentioning the power of God, he shows the ease with which this would be done; and gives an instance, not one removed far from them, and of ancient times, but one which comes home, and was recent, for he calls themselves as witnesses to this; and says, 24. For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree, which is wild by nature, and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree; how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree? If thou, being a wild olive-for thou hadst not the law tending thee, nor the prophets, watering, and pruning, and taking all needful care about thee,-hast been detached from unholy ancestors and relations, and made a partaker in the faith of Abraham, and boastest in him as thy father and ancestor, not by the natural course of the law, but by the divine loving-kindness; much more probable and natural must it be, that they, on believing, should be united again to their own root. And all this, as I before remarked, he says in order to teach humility to the Gentile converts, and exhort to salvation the disbelievers among the Jews; and with this agrees what follows, 25. For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits. A mystery is a thing not known to all, but to those only who are entrusted with it. What he means then is, that I wish you to understand the mystery I am aware of as regards these things, that you may

̓Αλλὰ μόνοις τοῖς θαῤῥουμένοις. So on 1 Cor. xv. 51, μυστήριον λέγεται, τὶ μὴ πᾶσι δηλούμενον, ἀλλὰ μόνοις τοῖς φίλοις θαῤῥούμενον, and on 4 Kings xviii. 15, εὔνοιαν δείξας τοῖς Ασσυρίοις τὴν στρατηγίαν θαῤῥηθείς.-Ε. Β.

not over-estimate your own spiritual knowledge, and hence be puffed up with self-sufficiency. And what is the mystery? That blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in, and so all Israel shall be saved. He puts the in part, to show that not all had disbelieved, for many even among them had believed; and he bids them not despair of the salvation of the rest. For when the Gentile nation shall have received the gospel, then they also shall believe, the great Elias having come* and brought instruction in the faith to them, for so the Lord also said in the holy gospels (Matt. xvii. 1), "Elias cometh and shall restore all things;" and he adds also the testimony of the prophet (Isa. lix. 20,) 26. As it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob; 27. For this is My covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. If the polity of the law gives forgiveness of sins, that it is, which the speech of the prophet predicted; but if the law punishes those that transgress it, and the Jews ever lay under the accusation of such transgression, it is plain that the sentence points out the forgiveness which arises from baptism. And by all Israel, he means such as believe, whether they were of the Jews, as having a natural descent from Israel, or of the Gentiles, as connected with him by the relationship of faith. 28. As concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election they are beloved for the fathers' sakes. When I look to you, with whose instruction I am entrusted, I consider them as enemies and hateful, as doing all in their power to your injury; but when I turn to their forefathers, and reflect how God chose them from among the whole earth, on their account I love even these. 29. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. All this he says as an incitement to the Jews; for that the blessings which God gives he again resumes, when He sees those that have received them infected with ingratitude, Saul is a proof, who, having enjoyed spiritual† grace, was afterwards deprived thereof; and Solomon in like manner, who, having obtained peace through the divine loving-kindness, after his transgression was stripped of that grace; and indeed the Jews themselves, who, ever having enjoyed the fostering care of the prophets, at that present time had been bereaved of this guardianship. And the same he had also, just before threatened to the believers among the Gentiles, "if thou continue," says he, "in His goodness; otherwise thou also shalt be cut off." 30. For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief, 31. Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. Remember indeed how for so long a period all of you lived in sin, and yet the merciful Lord looked not to that lengthened and bitter ungodliness, but blessed with his unspeakable loving-kindness such as were willing to receive it, and when these (the Jews) would not believe, called you in their room; nothing inconsistent then were it, that these also, who now gainsay, should be accepted of God whenever willing to believe, and so inherit the divine loving-kindness. And the that he here again uses in

See on Dan. xii. 1, where this opinion, (one entertained by some both among Jews and Christians, see Calmet " Elijah,") that in the times of Antichrist, Elijah will come as his opponent, is more fully dilated on.—E. B.

+1 Sam. x. 10, and xviii. 10, 12.

1 Kings ii. 9; xv. 23-26.

the idiom and sense familiar to him,* for they did not therefore disbelieve, in order that they might find mercy, but they disbelieved because of the hardness of their hearts, and will find mercy by turning to a change of mind. 32. For God hath concluded all in unbelief, that He might have mercy upon all. Concluded he puts for convicted. For He convicted the Gentiles, as having both received natural judgment, and had the creation teaching them the knowledge of God, and yet from neither the one nor the other having derived benefit; and He convicted the Jews likewise, as having enjoyed yet more instruction, in that in addition to nature and the creation, they had received the prophets also teaching what was right, and so become obnoxious to the heavier vengeance; while at the same time both these and those, thus deserving total destruction, has He blessed with the privilege of salvation, provided only they were willing to believe. Having thus fully gone through these things, and contemplating the profundity of the divine lovingkindness, and how incomprehensible is His wisdom, he cries out, 33. O the depth of the riches, and of the wisdom, and of the knowledge of God! For of old, and from the beginning, has He foreknown all these things, and foreknowing has wisely disposed, and in that dispensation manifested the riches of His loving-kindness. How unsearchable are his judgments, and His ways past finding out! The scheme of the divine economy surpasses man's understanding; nor even by the invisible powers is the providence of the God of all things fully reached unto. 34. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been His counsellor ? 35. Or who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? These three he puts as answering to the former three, the "riches," and the " wisdom," and the "knowledge:" the who hath known the mind of the Lord, to the knowledge; the who hath been His counsellor, to the wisdom; and the who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed to him again, to the riches. For so immense are the riches of His goodress, that both to them that were not, has He given existence, and on such as are, of His free grace bestowed wellbeing. And not as really due to us for any thing we have first given, but of His own free kindness does He confer His blessings, although in mercy condescending to call each such free gift, the repayment of ourselves. 36. For of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen. For He created all things, and He continues governing all that He thus created. To Him we ought to look, confessing our gratitude for all we already have enjoyed, and begging for His future providence; and to Him we ought to offer up also the praise and honour due.-Now in the words above, the holy apostle shows that he recognised not any difference between the expressions of whom and through whom, as though the former, as indicating some

See ch. iii. v. 19.

† Τοῖς μὴ οὐσι τὸ εἶναι δέδωκε, καὶ τοῖς γεγονόσι τὸ εὖ εἶναι χαρίζεται, created us from nothing in the first instance, and when created, blessed with a state and means of well-being, both as regards present life and eternity.-E. B.

Which such difference was maintained by those heretics who denied our Lord's consubstantiality and equality with the Father; the of whom indicating, in their opinion, the superiority of the Father commanding; the through whom the inferiority of the Son executing; which, if it were so, would, as our author observes, make that Person in the ever-blessed Trinity here spoken of, if it be the Father, less than

superiority, belonged to the Father; and the latter, as implying some inferiority, were suited to the Son. For he applies both of them to the same Person; whom if, on the one hand, the Arians and Eunomians say is the Father, they will find the through whom joined to the of whom; and if, on the other, they refer it to the Son, they will see then the of whom connected to the through whom. If then the of whom implies any superiority, and the through whom any inferiority, and yet both are spoken of the same Person, He must in all reason be considered greater than Himself, on account of the of whom, and less than Himself on account of the through whom. Let us then, leaving such (arguers) for the present, magnify our Creator and Saviour, to whom belongs glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Himself, by the lower expression being equally here applied to him with the higher; and if the Sou, greater than Himself, by the higher being predicated of Him together with the lower.-E. B.

same quantity of poor rate would be obtained from each land because the tithe would be also rated, which is obtained from the land not tithe free. There the parson has one-tenth of the gross produce which he finds in the field after it has been cultivated; that tenth goes to his stack-yard, and he must pay the poor rate on it. Here, instead of that tenth he gets a certain proportion of the net annual value; that is, of the value of the land to the occupier. The occupier has to lay out so much in cultivation, before he gets the produce; this, and the poor rate which he pays on his titheable land,

will be deducted: then the question is, what he gets ultimately of the gross produce; that is the "annual net value." The parson, therefore, is not rated twice over. In general, net value would be that which is left after deducting, besides the deductions I have mentioned, the tithes also; but that construction cannot be adopted here. The poor rate, therefore, if the parson be rated for the rent, which he receives in lieu of the tenth of the gross produce, will be the same on the farm which is tithe free, and on that which is not tithe free; as it ought to be.

MONTHLY REGISTER.

SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL IN
FOREIGN PARTS.

EXTRACT from a letter of Rev. S. C. Malan, professor at Bishop's College, dated Alexandria, April 26, 1840.

Shortly before my departure from Calcutta, I visited Kishnaghur, and two of the neighbouring villages, Ranabondo and Anondobash; and in both I expounded the Scriptures to the inhabitants, in Bengalee. I was certainly very much pleased with what I saw and heard, though my visit was far too short to enable me to form a correct judgment of things. But if I was pleased with my visit to that most interesting missionary station, I felt, I may say, happy and grateful to our heavenly Father, for what I witnessed on my return, at Barripore, and afterward at Tallygunge. I spent a Sunday with our friend, the Rev. C. Driberg. We went together in the morning to Mograhat, twelve miles distant, where I expounded, in Bengalee, on John xv., to a most attentive and orderly congregation. The attendance is generally 150, from that and two or three neighbouring villages. The very expression and countenance of those dear natives is changed by their sincere conversion to Christianity. The natural self-interestedness and wiliness in the men, and false shame in the women, makes room for frankness and open-heartedness in the one, and true modesty in the other. But this is only in those, of course, who have really tasted that the Lord is good; the difference is great, even in appearance, between them and those who merely profess VOL. XXII. NO. VI.

Christianity. In the afternoon we proceeded to Sulkea, another chief village, where I also expounded in Bengalee, on John x. The inhabitants of this village have given Mr. Driberg the greatest cause for satisfaction and thankfulness to God. In 1832, when a dreadful hurricane swept away this and other christian villages, the landholders were very urgent upon the villagers of Sulkea for the payment of their rents; but they offered to remit it to them, if they would renounce Christianity. They all refused doing so; and the other villagers who had not suffered so much, contributed of their poverty 62 rupees, towards the relief of the brethren at Sulkea. There is also, Mr. Driberg told me, a poor widow in that village, who has learnt to read, and who goes from village to village, teaching gratuitously young women to read, that they may read the Scriptures. A day or two before I went to Barripore, a young woman died there. She had for many years shown a uniform and steady faith. Mr. Driberg visited her daily. One day, after hearing him read the Scripture, she said, "What you have just read to me gives me so much peace, I have neither fear nor doubt." Shortly before her death, she desired her child to be baptized, and educated in the christian faith; and she expired with these words on her lips, "Lord, protect and save me." Another catechist, dying, told Mr. D., who asked him what his faith was, "In my Father's house there are many mansions.".

3 B