* God.
11:36 Ga 1:4,5 Eph 3:20,21 Php 4:20 1Ti 1:17 6:16 2Ti 4:18
Heb 13:15,21 1Pe 2:5 5:10,11 2Pe 3:18 Re 1:5,6 4:9-11 5:9-14
Re 7:10-12 19:1-6
* only.
11:33,34 Ps 147:5 Eph 1:7,8 3:10 Col 2:2,3 Jude 1:25
CONCLUDING REMARKS ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.
The Epistle to the Romans is "a writing," says Dr. Macknight,
"which, for sublimity and truth of sentiment, for brevity and
strength of expression, for regularity in its structure, but
above all, for the unspeakable importance of the discoveries
which it contains, stands unrivalled by any mere human
composition, and as far exceeds the most celebrated productions
of the learned Greeks and Romans, as the shining of the sun
exceeds the twinkling of the stars." "The plan of it is very
extensive; and it is surprising to see what a spacious field of
knowledge is comprised, and how many various designs, arguments,
explications, instructions, and exhortations, are executed in so
small a compass....The whole Epistle is to be taken in
connection, or considered as one continued discourse; and the
sense of every part must be taken from the drift of the whole.
Every sentence, or verse, is not to be regarded as a distinct
mathematical proposition, or theorem, or as a sentence in the
book of Proverbs, whose sense is absolute, and independent of
what goes before, or comes after: but we must remember, that
every sentence, especially in the argumentative part, bears
relation to, and is dependent upon, the whole discourse, and
cannot be rightly understood unless we understand the scope and
drift of the whole; and therefore, the whole Epistle, or at
least the eleven first chapters of it, ought to be read over at
once, without stopping. As to the use and excellency of this
Epistle, I shall leave it to speak for itself, when the reader
has studied and well digested its contents....This Epistle will
not be difficult to understand, if our minds are unprejudiced,
and at liberty to attend to the subject, and to the current
scriptural sense of the words used. Great care is taken to
guard and explain every part of the subject; no part of it is
left unexplained or unguarded. Sometimes notes are written upon
a sentence, liable to exception and wanting explanation, as ch.
2:12-16. Here the 13th and 15th verses are a comment upon the
former part of it. Sometimes are found comments upon a single
word; as ch. 10:11-13. The 12th and 13th verses are a comment
upon [pas [,] every one, in the 11th.
This Epistle displays a perspicuous brevity, as ch. 5:13, 14.
For until the law sin was in the world, etc. Surely never was
there a greater variety of useful sentiments crowded into a
smaller compass; and yet so skilfully, that one part very
clearly explains another....It is by the Holy Spirit's
influence, that the apostle has brought such a variety of
arguments, instructions, and sentiments, all stated, proved, and
sufficiently guarded, explained, and defended, within the limits
of a letter; which has made it a magazine of the most real,
extensive, useful, profitable, and divine knowledge. The Jews
are treated with great caution and tenderness....The transitions
and advances to an ungrateful subject are very interesting; as
ch. 2:1-17; 8:17. Here is found complicated design, and while
teaching one thing, gives us an opportunity of learning one or
two more. So ch. 13:1-8, is taught the duty of subjects, and at
the same time magistrates are instructed in their duty, and the
grounds of their authority. The inspired writer never loses
sight of his subject, and writes under a deep and lively sense
of the truth and importance of the Gospel, as a man who clearly
understood it, and in whose heart and affections it reigned far
superior to all temporal considerations."
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