Love, says the apostle, ver. 10, doth not injure another. Therefore love is the sum, or substance of the law; or love is that which fulfills the law, that is, satisfies it. But surely to do no injury to another 26 does not satisfy the divine law. The apostle appears to be treating, in this place, of those duties which individuals owe to individuals in society, and by the performance of which peace and harmony among men are promoted. For having spoken of the duties which men owe to magistrates, ver. 1, he proceeds, in ver. 8, to treat of those social duties which would be discharged by owing no man any thing but the love which the law of Christ requires. Possessing

26 That the law is fulfilled by love, is proved from this, that love doth not injure any one. From whence it appears, that the law concerning which the apostle is speaking cannot be the divine law, which requires the performance of all duties positive as well as negative, but the civil, which, as far as relates to the mutual duties of citizens, especially requires that one shall not injure another. But the meaning of Gal. v. 14 is different. For there the whole law is said to be fulfilled (§ xi.) by one precept, namely this-thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. This certainly means more than not to injure any one, and expresses the spirit of the law of Christ (vi. 2.) There are two things (ver. 6. 1 John iii. 23. Eph. i. 15. Col. i. 4) which the gospel requires ;-faith towards Christ and love towards men. Gratitude for favours received, and love towards a benefactor, arise spontaneously [1 John iv. 16, comp. with 9, &c.] But if together with faith, which the apostles assume as the foundation, a man have love to God, he will not only be observant of those things which relate immediately to God, but he will endeavour to keep all the other commands of God. Whoever loves God truly, will study to do his will (1 John v. 3), nor can he be negligent of the duties which he owes to his neighbour (iv. 29; ii. 9; iii. 10, 14, 17.)

this love, Christians at Rome would certainly fulfil those duties which, according to the civil law, they owed to their fellow citizens. For all the divine commandments, which have also the authority of civil law, as far as they relate to the public good, and those statutes of the nation which contemplate the mutual duties of citizens, are contained in this one precept thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself? ver. 9. The requirements of the civil law amount to this, that one should do no injury to another. He therefore is certainly free from a violation of this law, who proceeds further, and endeavours to love others. It is plain then, that love satisfies the civil law which prescribes the mutual duties of citizens.

§ XIV.

ROMANS XI. 25; xv. 29.

Finally, since the word λngwua may be applied to a multitude of material things, or to any thing which occupies space, (§ iv. viii); it may also be applied to a multitude of all other things. Accordingly we read in Rom. xi. 25, that blindness has happened, not to all Israel, but to a part, until rò λńgwμa rãv iDvõv, the multitude of the Gentiles, that is, many Gentiles have come in, that is, into the society of that better part of Israel to which blindness has not happened, ver. 5, 7, Or, according to the metaphor here used by the Apostle, until many Gentiles shall have been grafted into the good olive tree, some of whose branches have been broken off.

The same signification of the word λngwua appears in xv. 29, where the Apostle expresses a hope that he should come, with a multitude of the blessings, v tλngúμarı evλoyías, of the Gospel, to Rome; that is, that he should bring to them the richest blessings of the Gospel. We are not unwilling, however, that the word λngwua should here be considered as denoting a supplement (§ iv. vi.) and should be thus interpreted ; -I trust that when I come, I shall bring with me a supply of the blessings of the Gospel of Christ, that is, the remaining xagioμara TVEUμarinà, Rom. i. 11, which the church at Rome, for the most part, needed. For the church of Rome had not yet been visited by any one of the apostles, whose peculiar office it was, as we learn from a few remarkable facts, 2 Tim. i. 6, to impart extraordinary gifts.

ON THE

INTERPRETATION OF ISAIAH,

CHAP. LII. 12.-LIII.

BY ERNEST WILHELM HENGSTENBERG,

PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY AT BERLIN.

TRANSLATED BY

JAMES F. WARNER,

OF THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, ANDOVER.