he often pours forth a stream of sacred eloquence, which could flow only from a fountain of truth and piety opened by divine mercy in his own breast. That reader has just reason to suspect the reality of his personal attainments in Christian godliness, who can rise, without spiritual improvement, from a perusal of the works of John Goodwin.

Three pieces of this estimable author are here re-published in an elegant and convenient form. The order in which they are arranged is also advantageous. We may consider the first as a copious exposition of the vital doctrine of justification by faith, viewed irrespectively of personal and unconditional election or preterition, and founded on a much-controverted portion of holy writ; the second, as a defence of the same doctrine, examined in its harmonious connexion with all the agencies and instruments which are respectively employed in providing the unspeakable blessing of a present justification, and conveying it to the heart of believing man; and the third is a conciliatory application of the whole, in which the author, without sacrificing one particle of what he deemed to be the truth, endeavours to explain and adjust the points of agreement and of difference, on the whole subject of the quinquarticular controversy, between himself, with the church under his ministerial care, and persons of a contrary persuasion, and to promote, as far as was possible, a spirit of mutual kindness and forbearance. It is our intention, in this paper, to furnish the readers of our periodical with a brief character of the abovenamed pieces, following the order in which they are placed by the Editor.

"An Exposition of the Ninth Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans "is the first, and by far the largest, tract in this selection ;

"Wherein," (to use the author's own language,)" by the tenor and carriage of the contents of the said chapter, from first to last, is plainly showed and proved, that the Apostle's scope therein is to assert and maintain his great doc trine of justification by faith, and that

here he discourseth nothing at all concerning any personal election or reproba tion of men from eternity."

This, then, is an explicit declaration of the object which the author essays. To ascertain how far he has accomplished that object, it may not be amiss to inquire, with a constant eye to his performance, what general rules ought especially to be observed in the interpretation of St. Paul's more close, complex, and difficult discourses.

One of these, beyond all controversy, is, a strict and steady attention to the design which the Apostle mainly pursues in any given portion of his writings. This rule is necessary in the examination of all compositions; and more particularly of such as are profound and comparatively obscure. For this reason the best expositors of Scripture laudably employ so much diligence in striving to trace out the scope and purpose of the sacred penmen, from the notices which are scattered through their writings,-from the testimonies which may be found in other parts of Scripture,-and from the records or intimations which are supplied by uninspired ecclesiastical documents of an ancient date. The question now more immediately before us is, What may we, in all candour and impartiality, suppose that St. Paul's chief design was in writing the ninth chapter of his epistle to the Romans? Omitting all arguments of a doubtful or uncertain nature, we shall confine ourselves to the general drift and purport of the epistle, and to the particular proofs which may be extracted from the chapter itself.

What are the general drift and purport of the epistle to the Romans? In other words, what great truth is it which St. Paul, throughout this epistle, aims more especially to explain, to establish, to defend, and to apply? Undoubtedly it is the jus. tification of a penitent and believing sinner in the sight of God, through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, without the works of the law,―a justification, freely tendered to all, without regard to nation or name,-a justification, which, in its ample offers and

provisions, destroys the temporary distinctions of the Jew, elevates the long-neglected Gentile to an equality with him in religious privileges and hopes, and associates itself with the cheering assurances which have breathed unutterable comfort into myriads of disconsolate human spirits, and which shall breathe unutterable comfort into myriads more, that in the dispensation of the Gospel "there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek;" that "the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him; "" and that "whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." "I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ," says the Apostle, in his first proposition of the subject which he intended to discuss: "for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first," to whom, according to the order of the divine economy, it was first offered," and also to the Greek," or Gentile, to whom it was afterwards extended. "For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith;" or, as Macknight translates the passage, "The righ teousness of God by faith is revealed in it, in order to faith." (Romans i. 16, 17.) "Therefore," says the Apostle again, when he sums up the argument which runs through the first three chapters, "by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight,"-the sight of God: "for by the law is the knowledge of sin," the knowledge of it only, not deliverance from it. "But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the Prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe; "-the light which issues from that blessed" mercy-seat," the evangelical" throne of grace," not only alls "upon" the Jews, who, according to the local and transitory provisions of their law, worshipped near to the sanctuary of God's visible presence, but diffuses itself also "unto" the Gentiles in their more distant court: "for there is no difference: for all have sinned, and come short

of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." "Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also." (Chap. iii. 20-26, 28, 29.) In all the subsequent proofs, illustrations, and guards, which the Apostle employs, he keeps the same momentous subject in view. He knew that it would irritate and vex the unbelieving Jews, as it involved not merely the withdrawment of their peculiar distinctions and privileges, but even their virtual rejection as the sole people and church of God. Is it then surprising that he should speak of them, his beloved countrymen,-the strength of whose prejudices he had himself felt,-with the most tender affection and commiseration? that he should, from a comprehensive review of their own Scriptures, strive to meet and obviate their objections? and that he should use his best efforts to establish the liberal doctrine of justification by faith only beyond all possibility of misconstruction and mistake, unfettered, as that doctrine is, with any partial and national election or rejection of former times? Goodwin argues that this is his design; and what he advances is certainly in full accordance with the general aim and purpose of the epistle.

Satisfactory, however, as the serious inquirer may deem the evidence which has just been produced, he cannot but feel that it is extremely desirable, for the confirmation of his views, to extract still more distinct and particular proofs from the contents of the chapter itself. This also he is able to do. Let him examine the conclusion of the chapter without any bias of partiality or pre

possession. "What shall we say then?"-Be it remembered that this is a phrase which properly marks the summing up and recapitulation of a subject, and that it is repeatedly used by the Apostle for such an intent in the course of this very epistle." What shall we say then?" What shall we regard as the sum and result of all the facts and arguments which have been advanced ?- "That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore?" Why, not even in this case in consequence of any arbitrary and unconditional decree; but "because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone; as it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed." (Chap. ix. 30-33.) So full was the Apostle's mind of this theme, that he pursues it, and, if possible, still more explicitly, in the next chapters. (Chaps. x., xi., passim.) It appears, then, that our author has duly observed the first general rule of interpretation which we mentioned; and that by endeavouring, as he has done, at the very outset of his work, to ascertain and fix the true design of the Apostle, he has greatly facilitated and prepared the way for his succeeding investigations in reference to his subject.

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But a second general rule, which it is indispensably necessary to observe in the study of St. Paul's writings, teaches us to pay a continual regard to the peculiar form and character of his argumentation, as subordinate and auxiliary to his principal design. His mind was naturally of a very high order; and when it was raised and enlarged by divine inspiration, it became perhaps the most exalted and capacious that ever tenanted a merely human bosom. It was fitted to receive and communicate "the whole counsel of God." Accordingly, this Apostle

He

loves to expatiate in the pure and unconfined regions of truth. surveys the manifold dispensations which God has vouchsafed to the human race, in their regular and unbroken succession; he traces their entire and unimpaired concatenation and harmony; and he always discovers their full maturity and consummation in the Gospel of Christ. Consistently with these expansive views, he advances arguments, brief in words, but richly fraught with meaning;-he passes from one to another with a rapid and apparently abrupt transition, like one who wished to "touch and glance" on every part of an almost endless theme, and to crowd a world of thought into the smallest possible compass; he sometimes refers to passages of Old Testament writ by a significant allusion or short quotation, when he evidently expects that his readers will examine them, as they ought to do, in their proper connexion, and compare them with the course and tenor of his own instructions; and he not unfrequently gives an allegorical application to the names of persons and places celebrated in the more ancient Scriptures,-an application, not fanciful or arbitrary, but strictly consistent with the evangelical impress which is stamped on the whole frame-work and substance of divine revelation. If the discourses of this inspired Teacher should occasionally seem difficult and perplexing, it is not because they are veiled in needless and avoidable obscurity, but because they are profound. They enter into the depths of divine wisdom. To the sincere and diligent inquirer, their very difficulty yields an incalculable advantage. It calls forth meditation,gives discipline to the intellectual faculties,-expands and invigorates all the powers of thought,-and opens a way for the more ready transmission of truth, in its light and efficacy, to the heart. St. Peter acknowledges that there are "6 some things hard to be understood" in the epistles of him whom he affectionately styles "our beloved brother Paul;" and that the "unlearned and unstable,” oi àμaleîs kal åσTHPINTOL,

the unteachable and inconstant, "wrest them, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction." But the docile and stayed Christian rejoices to follow this holy Apostle in his magnificent and sublime discoveries, until he also exclaims, as the Apostle himself does, in concluding the doctrinal part of his epistle, "O the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen." (Rom. xi. 33-36.) It is only common justice to say, that, in his observance of the rule now under consideration, our author is truly exemplary. We cannot but admire the patience and ability with which he pursues the Apostle's track, until he clearly discerns, and, as we think, triumphantly proves, that the entire series of argument which runs through this chapter is subservient, in all its parts, to the great design which has already been ascertained. All the lines converge to this one point. In this respect, more especially, our author's work may be recommended as an admirable specimen of luminous Scripture exposition.

We venture to name a third general rule which claims particular attention in the perusal of many parts of St. Paul's epistles,-that a reader should carefully examine the several words and phrases which the Apos. tle uses in the progress of his argu. ment, and should labour to discover their legitimate and appropriate meaning. As a minute investigation of the argument employed will serve to illustrate and fix the writer's main design, so a similar investigation of words and phrases will tend to unfold the successive parts of the argument itself, and will thus afford additional confirmation to the whole. On this point we presume to think that capital mistakes have sometimes been inadvertently committed.

It is customary with some interpreters to give a new, unauthorized, and perhaps uncouth, explanation of certain terms and clauses, from a notion that such an explanation agrees best with the context. In other words, they make the context, which ought indeed to be sedulously examined, the sole, or at least the principal, rule of exposition. Such a practice is seldom commendable. It is felt to be unsatisfactory. One is compelled to suspect that an expositor has misapprehended the true import of the context, when he finds it necessary to assign a forced and unwarranted construction or interpretation to particular expressions, in order to make them quadrate and agree with what he understands to be the writer's current mind and intention. No intelligent author, and least of all one that is divinely in spired, ought lightly to be charged with so unskilful an application of language. On this point, as well as on some others of no trifling moment in sound and accurate Scripture interpretation, we think that the celebrated lexicographer Schleusner often fails. We admire the extensive erudition of that distinguished writer, and greatly value the ample collection of critical materials with which he has supplied his readers, both in his lexicon to the New Testament, and in the one which he has compiled, after Biel and others, to the version of the Seventy, &c. ; yet we cannot but admit that in attributing an unwonted signification to certain terms and forms of speech, drawn solely from his own view of the context, as well as in making many expressions synonymous, in which there is obviously, according to the peculiar nature of Scripture parallels, considerable variety of meaning, he has justly merited the reprehension of the learned. The context ought, without question, to be carefully weighed for the purpose of ascertaining what particular meaning it is, among all such as are supported by due authority, that the writer assigns to any given word or phrase; but the notion which an interpreter may perchance form of the scope and bear

ing of the context, is certainly not sufficient to justify or warrant a novel and unsupported application of particular terms and clauses.

Nor is it always safe, with some other expositors, to subject the language of this confessedly learned Apostle to the strict test of classical usage, a practice which prevailed to a considerable extent at one period, and to which an observable tendency has been manifested by a few writers in the present day. We have no inclination to disparage St. Paul's attainments in Grecian literature, for they were undoubtedly far more extensive than some authors are willing to allow; but we believe that he, by design, chiefly confined himself, in his writings, to the rich and plentiful stores of Hebrew erudition. The Greek which he uses is the Greek of the synagogue, distinguished by a strong infusion of the Hebrew idiom, and shaped and coloured by his own peculiar habits of thought. He freely avails himself, in his quotations and allusions, of the Greek version of the Seventy, which had for a long time been read in the public assemblies and private families of his countrymen residing in foreign parts, and which, from its literal accuracy, necessarily partakes largely of the Hebrew idiom; but he departs from it whenever he sees occasion, and not only in his references to the Old Testament Scriptures, but in his general style, draws from the more remote and hidden sources of Hebrew lore. The student, who clearly follows him in this track, will find his toil abundantly rewarded: he will more clearly than ever discern that the strictest harmony pervades every part of the sacred volume; that Scripture is in all respects its own best interpreter; and that it is from the pages of inspiration itself, and not from the monuinents of pagan antiquity, how valuable soever for many purposes, even of Biblical criticism, they may be, that the purest light falls on not a few important passages, otherwise overspread with deep and unremovable obscurity. The Rabbinical writers may also be of service in these studies; but they ought not to

be overrated. They emit but a few dim and reflected rays; and are chiefly useful for a partial illustration of certain opinions, practices, and forms of speech, to which the Apostle may occasionally allude.

Judging from the conduct of some interpreters, we are constrained to infer that they are unable or unwilling to encounter the labour-inviting and delightful as that labour is

which such an examination of St. Paul's language as that just suggested indispensably requires; and that, consequently, they satisfy themselves with the most obvious scriptural meaning of any word or phrase, and resolutely adhere to it, with true literal tenacity, through darkness and through light, with or without perspicuity as the case may happen, wherever that word or phrase is used. We cheerfully award to these sagacious expositors their due meed of commendation. They are genuine disciples of Montanus and Pagninus. It should be remembered, however, that though the Apostle employed the most copious and expressive language perhaps ever spoken by man, and though he raised and strengthened it by the compact and forcible peculiarities of the Hebrew diction, he often found it but an imperfect vehicle of his transcendent sentiments. Sometimes it fairly sinks beneath their weight. Generally, as such a writer might be expected to do, he uses a term or form of expression in its most comprehensive sense; and then, while he pays a faithful attention to its radical scriptural import, he pursues it into its regular and consistent ramifications, and presses them all into the elucidation and establishment of that truth which he aims to convey, in its entire fulness and energy, to the minds of his readers. We have ventured to enter our protest against novel and unauthorized interpretations; but we think that a student of St. Paul's writings cannot bestow too much attention, first, on the pri mary meaning, and, afterwards, on the derivative applications, comprehending the various aspects or phases of the nervous and powerful