exposition of this passage :-ποια οργῇ; τη του θεου, επειδη γαρ τουτο μαλιστα επιθυμει ὁ αδικηθεις, εκδικιας ἑαυτον απολαυοντα, τουτο αυτω μετα πολλης διδωσι περιουσίας, αν γαρ αυτος μη αμυνῃ θεος εσται τιμωρος, "To συγχώρησον ουν αυτω φησιν επεξελθειν—Give place unto wrath. what wrath? to the wrath of God; for since what the injured party most desires is that he should himself enjoy the satisfaction of revenge, the apostle gives him this satisfaction much more abundantly; for if he forbear to avenge himself, God will be his avenger; therefore, saith he, leave it to him to avenge thy wrong." In this view of the passage, the Greek father has been followed by many eminent men. "Vengeance," says Taylor, "belongs to God, and to that wrath we must give place, that is, in welldoing and evil-suffering commit ourselves to his righteous judgment, leaving room for his execution who will certainly do it, if we snatch not the sword from his arm." "Do not anticipate the ways of God," says Olshausen, "allow time and space to his righteous retribution.” But surely they have mistaken the letter, as well as the spirit of the apostle's precept, misled, perhaps, by the quotation which follows, and which was designed, not to encourage the hope that God will take vengeance on our enemies, but to serve as a warning against our assuming to ourselves God's prerogative of visiting men with meet retribution. The apostle inculcates a spirit of forgiveness and of love, which should lead us, after the example of our blessed Lord, to implore pardon for our enemies, rather than to look to heaven for vengeance. According to Mr. Alford, the passage means— "interpose delay to anger-give wrath room-proceed not to execute it hastily, but leave it for its legitimate time, when he whose it is to avenge will execute it." In support of which view, he quotes Livy viii. 32—orabant, ut rem in posterum diem differet, et iræ suæ spatium et consilio tempus, daret." He might have added Virgil's― "Tempus inane peto, requiem spatiumque furori, ENEID, iv. But though the Latin "spatium," like the English word "space," is equally applicable to the modes of duration and of expansion, it does not appear that the Greek TоTOS admits of a like diversity of application; it is, I believe, never used to designate time. The precept of the apostle is in fact equivalent to that of our blessed Lord, in his Sermon on the Mount"resist not evil; but whoever will smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also." The expression dоTE TOжOv occurs but once again in the writings of St. Paul—μητε διδοτε τοπον τω διαβόλω (Eph. iv. 27) "neither give place to the devil," ie., do not yield to his temptations, but resist him ;" SOTE TOжOν, therefore, would signify "yield,” “do not resist,' which accords exactly with its meaning here. It is found with a like meaning Judges xx. 36-κ -και εδωκεν ανηρ Ισραηλ το Βενιαμιν τοπον— "and the men of Israel gave place to the Benjamites," i.e., "gave ground,” or fled before them. Compare Luke xiv. 9; Ecclesiasticus xiii. 22; xix. 17; xxxviii. 12; where it has a meaning, not exactly the same, but very much akin to this. opyn here denotes the "injurious treatment" to which anger prompts our enemy, as in chap. xiii. 4, 5, it denotes the "punishment” which the magistrate inflicts on the disobedient. Verse 20-Is a quotation from Prov. xxv. 21, 22; of which passage, Grotius, as quoted by Whitby, says, "apparet de pœnâ divinâ agi"-" it is evident the wise man speaks of the divine vengeance"-but, pace tanti viri, it is by no means evident that the wise man, by his "coals of fire,” meant anything more than the pangs of remorse, though they too, indeed, are a punishment from heaven upon the heads of the guilty. But the wise man promises a far more solid reward to the exercise of our benevolence, namely, a blessing from the Lord”ὁ δε κυριος ανταποδώσει σοι αγαθα —which certainly accords much better with his wisdom than the questionable advice to load our enemy with benefits, that he may the more surely be consumed by divine vengeance. 66 CHAP. XIII. Verse 1.—It has been alleged, that the use of the term eέovoia here affords no sufficient reason for concluding that St. Paul spoke of legitimate authority, as distinguished from mere force, because the same term is used by him in speaking of the powers of darkness, as in Acts xxvi. 18; Eph. ii. 2; Col. i. 13; and by St. Luke (xxii. 53); but even the powers of darkness may have an authority (eέovoria) conceded of God to trouble the wicked, who range themselves under their banner. Verse 5.-opyn here denotes the punishment that ensues from the ruler's anger. Verse 7.-Απόδοτε πασιν οφειλας, τω τον φορον τον φορ., &c. Mr. Alford tells us to supply airovvr before the accusatives, as the correlative to αποδ., but αιτουντι does not harmonize with φοβον, nor should we delay the performance of duty until it has been demanded of us. It seems better, therefore, to supply the ellipsis in the ordinary way, scil., TO TOV popov οφειλομένῳ τον φορ. αποδοτε, &c. Verse 8.-Compare Paradise Lost, book iv., verse 55— 8 уap ayaπWν TOV érepov, “for he that loveth his fellow-man." Bishop Middleton accounts for the article prefixed to repov, in such cases as this, and chap. ii. 1; on the ground that two persons are supposed, who stand in a certain relation the one to the other. Verse 9.—eɩɩs, like the Latin siquis, may be translated, "whatever,” "every." και Verse 11.—kaι Tovto, scil., toɩnowμev, "and this let us do,” i.e., love our neighbour as ourselves. Verse 12.—It is supposed by some, that vuέ here denotes the state of ignorance, superstition, and wickedness, which overspread the world before the coming of our Lord, while pepa denotes the knowledge of true religion, and the incentives to a holy conversation which were diffused by the Gospel. As the gloom and darkness of the night disappear at the approach of the sun, so the moral gloom in which the nations had been shrouded was dispelled by the bright and cheering influence of the Gospel, wherever its glorious light was received. Bishop Butler, after quoting this text (sermon xi., near the end), explains it thus-"The meaning and force of which exhortation is, that Christianity lays us under new obligations to a good life, as by it the will of God is more clearly revealed, and as it affords additional motives to the practice of it (of a good life), over and above those which arise out of the nature of virtue and vice; I might add, as our Saviour has set us a perfect example of goodness in our own nature." But from the connexion of this verse with the preceding, in which the Christians at Rome are exhorted to greater vigilance as their salvation drew nearer, it is more probable that the day here spoken of is the day of salvation, and the night the present life, which they were in danger of yielding too imprudently to the seductions of sloth. In the next verse, μepa is used in its ordinary sense. CHAP. XIV. Verse 1.-de, moreover; as a further instance of that great law of charity of which our Master, Christ, hath left us so touching an example (see chap. xv. 1-3). For Tрooλaußaveo@e, see Acts xxviii. 2; below, verse 3; chap. xv. 7; and Philem. 17. εις διακρίσεις διαλογισμων. These words have been very variously rendered" to doubtful disputations," "to the strifes of disputations," "to the discussion of differences of opinion," "with a view to discernments of thoughts," i.e., disputes in order to settle the points on which he has scruples, "to judge his doubtful thoughts." This last rendering appears to accord best, not only with the ordinary meaning of the words used by the apostle, but with the whole tenour of his subsequent exhortation, which was intended to restrain those who held different views on points of minor importance from judging each other in an uncharitable spirit. Although the charge is addressed especially to the strong in faith, it was given for the admonition of both parties, as appears from verses 3, 10, 13, 19, and chap. xv. 7. Verse 2.-In this verse, eέeva is to be supplied before payew, and βρωματα after παντα. Verse 5.—кpivEL, "esteemeth." This is an unusual meaning for κрww, but I know of no other that suits the context; it may be explained by supposing an ellipsis of αξιαν τιμης. For παρ' ἡμέραν compare chap. i. 25; Luke xiii. 2, 4; Heb. i. 4, 9. According to Bishop Terrot, the meaning is-"Some consider abstinence as the duty of particular days, others consider all days as alike in this respect;" in support of which, he refers to the following exposition from Theodoret:-δι μεν διηνεγκως απείχοντο των απηγορευμένων ύπο του νόμου βρωματων, οι δε ένιας ἡμερας. “Some used constantly to abstain from the meats forbidden by the law, but others only for certain days." For #λŋpop., see chap. iv. 21; Luke i. 1. From this passage it has been inferred, that the duty of observing a weekly sabbath was not recognized as of divine obligation in apostolic times, either with regard to the first, or the seventh, or any other day of the week; but that to the strong in faith every day was alike. Although this opinion has been maintained by men of eminent piety and learning, both in ancient and modern times, it is extremely doubtful whether it derive any support from the very slight and incidental mention of days that is made in this passage, where they seem to be spoken of only in connexion with the use of, or abstinence from meats; the days meant being probably only those about the observance of which the strong and the weak in faith differed, which were observed as fasts by the latter, but not by the former. If there were any day which all alike dedicated to the worship of God, it would afford no ground of offence to either party, and there would be no occasion to allude to it; and such we have strong reason to believe was the Lord's day. On the very day of the resurrection, when the disciples were assembled, Thomas alone being absent, Jesus, standing in the midst of them, commissioned them to go forth in his name, and with his authority to proclaim the glad tidings of salvation. After eight days, that is, on the first day of the following week, they were again assembled, and Thomas with them, apparently expecting to see the Lord; accordingly, Jesus again stood in their midst, and convinced the doubting Thomas of his resurrection (John xx. 19–29). When the day of Pentecost was come, which was also the first day of the week, they were all with one accord assembled, assuredly for religious worship, and they received the promised gift of the Holy Ghost (Acts ii. 1). Further, St. Paul gave it in charge to the churches of Galatia, and also to the brethren at Corinth, to set apart, on the first day of every week, a portion of the wealth with which God had blessed them, for the relief of their destitute brethren at Jerusalem (1 Cor. xvi. 1), which charge, thus addressed to various churches, implies that the day was considered peculiarly suited for such acts of charity, no doubt because it was devoted to the worship of God, a fact of which the corresponding portion of the apostle's history furnishes a remarkable confirmation; for we read (Acts xx. 7), the assembling of the disciples, on the first day of the week, to break bread, that is, to celebrate the holy communion, spoken of as if it were their usual custom. A further proof of this custom is furnished by Pliny's celebrated letter to Trajan, which informs us, that the Christians used to assemble on a stated day (undoubtedly the first day of the week) to worship Christ as God; on which account this day, already in the time of the apostles, was designated as "the Lord's day" (Rev. i. 10). All these circumstances combined, afford ample ground for the conclusion, that the religious observance of the Lord's day is of divine appointment, and had been established before this epistle was written; so that if St. Paul were asked, whether the observance of it were a matter that might be left to the discretion of each believer, he would have- answered in the negative, and said, that the Lord's day was invested with the same character of holiness under the new covenant as the Jewish sabbath had under the old; but freed from the over-burdensome rigour with which the rest of the Jewish Sabbath was enforced, and assimilated to the simpler ordinance established while man was in a state of innocence (Mark ii. 27). For it must not be |