A Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, with Revised Tr

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1855 edition. Excerpt: ...secrets, and most clearly to manifest the way into the holiest of all, to bring life and immortality to light, to send his Son, who lay in his bosom from all eternity, to teach us his will and disclose his mind to us. When we look unto the earth, behold darkness and dimness of anguish (to use the words of Isaiah), but when we look towards heaven, behold light breaking forth upon us like the eyelids of the morning, and spreading its wings over the horizon of mankind, who were lying in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. But, besides this outward revelation of God's will, there is also an inward impression of it upon the minds and spirits of men, which is in a more especial manner attributed to God; we can see divine things only in a divine light; God only can so shine out of himself upon our glassy understandings, as to beget in them a picture of himself, and turn the soul, like wax or clay, to the seal of his own light and love. Men may teach the grammar and the rhetoric, but God teaches the divinity; he alone it is that acquaints the soul with the truths of revelation."--Smith. The apostle has now come back to the point from which he set out, namely, that the Gospel is the mighty instrument framed by divine wisdom and love to effect the salvation of every one that believeth, whether Jew or Gentile (chap. i. 16); and cold must be the heart that, having followed the course of his high argument, does not feel the admirable propriety and beauty of the sublime burst of grateful adoration with which he closes his survey of God's gracious dealings with this fallen world. It is not without reason that Origen alleges the mystery of the triune God to be shadowed in this noble apostrophe--from him as...