Ver.14 Paul, in drawing towards the close of his epistle, seems, with the characteristic delicacy which breaks forth in many other passages, to feel that he must apologise for the freedom of his exhortations. The likest thing to it in any of the other apostles, is when Peter tells the disciples to whom he writes, that he addresses them, not to inform as if they were ignorant persons; but to stir up their pure minds in the way of remembrance - and this though they already knew the things of which he was reminding them, and though they were established in the present truth. And so Paul, as if to soften the effect of.his dictations - and, this though his manner was the farthest possible from that of a dictator - tells his converts of his persuasion that they were filled with knowledge and goodness; and that though he took it upon him to admonish them, he was sure nevertheless that they were able to admonish one another. The truth is, that neither the greatest knowledge, nor the greatest goodness, supersedes the necessity of our being often told the same things over again. Men might thoroughly know their duty, and yet stand constantly in need to be reminded of their duty. The great use of moral suasion is not that thereby people shuld be made to know, but should be led to consider. And thus our Sabbaths and other seasons of periodical instruction, are of the greatest possible service although there should be no dealing in novelties at all - though but to recall the sacred truths which are apt to be forgotten, and renew the good impressions which might else be dissipated among the urgencies of the world.

Whether then an apostle should write, or a minister should substantially present the same things, it ought not to be grievous, because it is safe. He speaks but as the helper of his congregation, and not as having dominion over them. He is but an instrument in the hand of the Holy Spirit, whose office it is, not merely to teach what is new, but to recall what is old - to bring all things to remembrance. It is true that they might already have received the gospel, and that in the gospel they stand Yet they shall have believed in vain, unless they keep in memory that which has been preached unto them. In keeping with this, Paul says in the 15th verse that he writes, not to inform but to put in mind.

Ver. 15, 16. 'Nevertheless, brethren, I have written the more boldly unto you in some sort, as putting you in mind, because of the grace that is given to me of God. That I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost.'
Still further to conciliate their toleration for his advices, he tells them of the large warrant that he had received from God Himself and by which he was fully authoriseci to act the part of their instructor. Instead of being dissatisfied, they might well have felt most grateful for the distinction conferred on them by the message of an ambassador invested with such powers and credentials from heaven. At the same time, the special designation of himself, which he here intimates, of Apostle to the Gentiles, while it excused the liberties which he took with them, might help to mitigate the discontent of his other and more impracticable disciples the Jews - inasmuch as it explained and justified his peculiar zeal for their privilege of exemption from the servitudes of the Mosaic ritual, in behalf of those who had been given to him as his own peculiar charge. That he had the Jews in his eye, and was still laying himself out to propitiate their favour, seems probable from the sacrificial style in which he describes the service that had been put into his hands. He represents himself as the minister of Christ - in which office he does the work of a priest with the gospel - his offerings being the Gentile converts, who, anointed by the Holy Ghost, were made acceptable thereby, even as the meat-offering of the Jews, which had oil and frankincense poured upon it, arose with a sweet savour unto the Lord.

Ver. 17. 'I have therefore whereof I may glory through Jesus Christ in those things which pertain to God'.
Paul's object in glorying was not to magnify himself, but to constrain a willing and wholesome submission to the lessons which he gave forth, in his capacity as steward of Heavens high mysteries. His glorying was all through Jesus Christ; and the things of which he was the dispenser did not pertain to him but to God. His functions were wholly ministerial; and nothing can exceed the perfect humility as well as wisdom wherewith he discharged them. All that he arrogated to himself was the office of a servant, though it was a service so honourable and so signalised, as would above measure and unduly have exalted many other men,

Ver. 18, 19. For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ hath not wrought by me, to make the Gentiles obedient, by word and deed, through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God; so that from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ'.
There is a peculiarity in the mode of expression here, which may perhaps be ascribed to the sensitive repugnance of our apostle to aught like the assumption of superiority over other men. There can be no doubt that he was pre-eminently, though not exclusively the apostle of the Gentiles - Yet he will not say that he will dare to speak of the things which Christ had done by him, but that be will not dare to speak of the things which Christ had not done by him - thus modestly recognising the contribution of other men's labours in a cause, where he himself had been the chief labourer; and far the most powerful instrument in the hand of God for its success and advancement in the world. This could not be disguised - so that after leading his readers to understand that there were others who shared along with him in the great achievement of making the Gentiles obedient through mighty signs and wonders, and leaving them to imagine how great this share might be - he could not avoid the direct statement of his own apostolical work, in that from Jerusalem and round about unto Illyricum he had fully preached the gospel of Christ, through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God. It is not likely that Paul would have made mention at all of these miracles, had they not been wrought at Rome us well as in other places along his apostolical tour, where churches had been planted by him. At all events, he in epistles to other churches, does appeal to the miracles, which had been wrought in the midst of them. For example, in the free and fearless remonstrance which he held with the Galatians, he puts the question with all boldness - "O foolish Galatians" - " he that ministereth to you the Spirit and worketh miracles amoug you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of, faith" And in the enumeration which be makes of the powers conferred on various of the church office-bearers, he tells the Corinthians that to one is given by the Spirit of God the working of miracles; and, more specifically still, to another the gifts of healing, and to another divers kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues. And again, in another epistle to the same people, be says, " Truly the signs of an apqstle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds." In this respeet he tells them that they were not.inferior to other churches; nor is it probable, that he would have written of these miracles to his converts at Rome, had they been in this state of inferiority to others.

There cannot then be imagined a more satisfactory historical evidence for these high and undoubted credentials of a divine mission, than we are able to adduce for the miracles which abounded in the primitive churches, and for those in particular which were worked by Paul's own hands. He indeed, in common with the other apostles, possessed the endowment in a degree that might be called transcendental - insomuch as, beside having the gift of miracles, they had the power, by the laying on of their hands, of conferring this gift upon others.

Now whatever exhibition might have been made of such things at Rome - certain it is that for miracles both at Corinth and in Galatia, we have testimony in such a form as makes it quite irresistible. Here we have, in the custody of these two churches from the earliest times, the epistles which they had received from Paul - the original documents having been long in their own possession, while copies of them wore speedily multiplied and diffused over the whole Christian world. In these records do we find Paul in vindication of his own apostleship, and in the course of a severe reckoning with the people whom he addresses, make a confident appeal to the miracles which had been wrought before their eyes. Had there been imposture here, the members of these two churches would not have lent their aid to uphold it. They would not have professed the faith which they did on pretensions which they knew to be false, and that for the support of a claim to divine authority now brought to bear in remonstrance and rebuke against themselves. We might multiply at pleasure our suspicions of Paul, and conjure up all sorts of imaginations against him; but no possible explanation can be found for the acquiescence of his converts in the treachery of the apostle, or rather of their becoming parties to his fabrication, if fabrication indeed it was. One can fancy an interest, which he might have in a scheme of deception; but what earthly interest can we assign for the part which they took in the deception, knowing it to be so! Or on what other hypothesis than the irresistible truth of these miracles, can we explain their adherence to the gospel, and that in the face of losses and persecutions, nay even of cruel martyrdoms - but over and above all this, the taunts and cutting reproaches to the bargain, of the very man who could tell them of the miracles which themselves had seen, as the vouchers of his embassy from God; and threatened, if necessary, to come amongst them with a rod, and make demonstration in the midst of them of his authority and power! Had there been deceit and jugglery in the matter, vhy did they not let out the secret, and rid themselves at once and for ever of this burdensome visitation? The truth is, that the overpowering evidence from without, and their own consciences within, would not let them. There is no other historical evidence whichin clearness and certainty comes near to this. And whether we look to the integrity of these original witnesses, men faithful and tried; or to the abundant and continuous and closely sustained testimony which flowed downward in well filled vehicles from the first age of the apostles - we are compelled to acknowledge a sureness and a stamp of authenticity in the miracles of the gospel, not only unsurpassed but unequalled by any other events, the knowledge of which has been transmitted from ancient to modern times.

Ver. 20, 21. 'Yea, so have I strived to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named; lest I should build upon another mans foundation; but, as it is written, To whom he was not spoken of, they shall see; and they that have not heard shall understand'.
Not that Paul would have withheld the benefit of his instructions from those who were already Christians, if they came in his way. But what he strove for and sought after, was to enter on altogether new ground - deeming it more his vocation to extend and spread abroad Christianity, by the planting of new churches - than to build up or perfect the churches which had been already founded. There seems to have been an emulation in these days among the first teachers of the gospel, which betokens that even they were not altogether free from the leaven which Paul had detected in his own converts, when he charged them with being yet carnal There was something amongst them like a vain-glorious rivalship in the work of proselytising - insomuch that the credit of their respective shares in the formation of a Christian church was a matter of competition and jealousy. Our apostle wanted to keep altogether clear of this, and to be wholly aloof from the temptation of it - as indeed he himself intimates in 2 Cor. x, 15, 16, where he tells us that he would not boast of other mens labours, or in another man's line of things made ready to his hand. Certain it is, that while he refrained from building on another man's foundation, he experienced no little disturbance from other men building on the foundation which he himself had laid - and these not only the false teachers, but even men who were true at bottom - yet would, like Peter at Antioch, have laid some of their wood and hay and stubble thereupon.

The prophet from whom Paul here quotes, had the Gentiles chiefly in his eye; and to be their apostle was his peculiar destination. This, however, was not a mere arbitrary appointment; for we read that he was chosen to this office, because of his peculiar qualifications. He was a wise master-builder, who could lay well the foundation. He had the talent beyond other men to begin at the beginning - or to lay down what he himself calls the principles of the doctrine of Christ. No one could excel him in the admirable skill wherewith he made his first contact, when reasoning with those to whom the doctrine of Christ was as yet a perfect novelty; and such being his forte, if we may thus express ourselves on such a subject, we cannot wonder that it was also his favourite walk to speak unto those who had not yet seen or heard the truth, and address himself to those who had no previous notice or understanding of it. We meet with manifold traces of this distinct and distinguishing power in our great apostle - the power of taking up a right vantage-ground whence to date his argument, or on which to rear his demonstration in behalf of the gospel. We can discern the faculty of which we now speak, in his speech before Agrippa and his address to the people of Athens.

But it was a faculty which availed him in his converse with Jews as well as Gentiles - the former in fact often standing at as great, and in some respects a greater distance than the latter from the first rudiments, or as he himself terms it, the first principles of the oracles of God. It is obvious that thus to commence aright with any one respect must be had to his special state or habitudes of mind - so as to fit in the initial consideration with the initial prejudices or tendencies of those whom he was addressing. We have repeated exhibitions of this in the history of Paul - of the judgment wherewith he took a right point of departure; or set up a right starting-post, when his object was to find an access and an acceptance into the minds of men for the truth of Christianity - as with idolaters, when he reasoned with them out of their own superstition; or with scholars, when he reasoned with them out of their own literature; or with Pharisees, when he reasoned with them from the tenets of their own sect ; or with Israelites in general, when he reasoned with them out of their own Scriptures. But the amplest memorials of this rare and remarkable gift, in the most gifted of all the apostles, are his epistles to the Romans and Galatians, and most of all his epistle to the Hebrews - in all of which he lays himself out more expressly, it is true, for the Jewish understanding; but in that way of skilful opening, as well as skilful adaptation and approach, which showed that he stood the highest of all his colleagues as an accomplished tactician in the warfare of minds - or who best knew how he should address himself to this work of laying siege, as it seems to men's understandings, and this for the achievement of a victory over them - And so could be all things to all men, that he might gain some.- No wonder then that his delight and his preference was to put himself to the task he was best fitted for - whether to make a first encounter with Jewish prejudices or as a pioneer in the wildernss of heathenism. To express it otherwise, -if there was one stage, in the process of the spiritual manufacture which liked better to deal with than another, it seems to have been the first stage of it; when he had to deal with the raw material, or with minds in the greatet possible state of rudeness - and, alienation from the gospel of Jesus Christ - whether, by grossest ignorance, as with barbarians; or by contempt and bigotry as with Jews upon the other hand, awl yet unconverted Greeks upon other,

Ver. 22 - 24. - 'For which cause also I have been much hindered from coming to you but now having no more place in these parts and having a great desire these many years to come unto you; whensoever I take my journey into Spain, I will come to you: '
It is obvious; that in the multitude of engagements, he could not be so frequent in his attentions or visits to the churches that had been, already formed. And it is accordingly on this ground that he apologises for his lengthened absence from the Christians at Rome. 'For which cause also I have been much hindered from coming to you.' He had had a great desire for many yearsto make out a visit; and states this in the next verse, in order that they might accept of the will for the deed. He pleads the hindrance of his incessant occupation in those regions where Christ had not been before named; and it is interesting to note what it was that released him from this hindrance. It was because that now he had no more place in these parts. Paul might come to know, by a direct intimation from the Spirit, that God had no more work to do in these parts - even as we read in the book of Acts of his being bidden go to some places and restrained or hindered from others. It is not to be supposed that Paul filled up the various regions which he had visited with the preaching of the gospel - though he might have left a church in each of the larger towns, as a centre of emanation whence others might propagate the religion of Jesus Christ through the countries around them. And even where he preached with little or no success, he might be said to have no more place in that part - no more, for example, at Athens, although he left it a mass of nearly unalleviated darkness - just as our Lord's immediate apostles might well be said to have no more place in those towns that rejected their testimony, and against which they were called to shake off the dust of their feet, and then to take their departure - fleeing from the cities which either refused or persecuted them, and turning to others. The way in fact of apostles or ministers, the outward instruments in the teaching of Christianity, is the same with the way of the Spirit, who is the real agent in this teaching, by giving to their word all its efficacy. He may visit every man; but withdraws Himself from those who resist Him - just as the missionaries of the gospel might visit every place, and have fulfilled their work even in those places where the gospel has been put to scorn, and so become the savour of death unto death to the people who live in them. Yet we must not slacken in our endeavours for the evangelisation of the whole earth although the only effect should be that the gospel will be preached unto all nations for a witness, and the success of the enterprise will be limited by the gathering in of the elect from the four corners of heaven.

It is a matter of unsettled controversy whether Paul ever was in Spain, or was able to fulfil his purpose of a free and voluntary journey to Rome - his only recorded journey there being when taken up as a prisoner in chains. At the beginning of the epistle he tells them of his prayer; and here expresses his hope of again seeing them in circumstances of prosperity, when, after a full and satisfactory enjoyment of their society, he might be helped forward by them on his way to the country beyond. Let me here notice in passing, how accordant the movements both of Paul beyond Judea, and of our Saviour and the apostles within its limits, as described in the Gospels and Acts - are with the abiding geography of towns and countries still before our eyes. It is in itself a pleasing exercise to trace this harmony of Scripture with the known bearings and distances of places still; and even serves the purpose of confirmation as a monumental evidence to the truth of Christianity.

Ver. 25 - 27. 'But now I go unto Jerusalem to minister unto the saints. For it hath pleased them of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor saints which are at Jerusalem.'
It hath pleased them verily; and their debtors they are. For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal things. Paul however had an intermediate duty to perform, ere he could fulfil his purpose of a journey to Rome. He had to go to Jerusalem with the produce of the charities of the faithful, gathered in Macedonia and Achaia for the necessities of the poor and persecuted Christians in Jerusalem. This very collection is referred to in several other places ; and the comparison of scripture with scripture is also a pleasing and confirmatory exercise. This is not the first time that such an exertion of liberality had been made for the destitute brethren in Judea, as we read in Acts, xi, 30; xii, 25. The truth is, that the Jewish were sooner the objects of persecution than the Gentile Christians - the effects of which seem to have been first felt by the lower classes - deprived in all likelihood of their custom and employment, in consequence of the ill-will conceived against them by those on whom they wont to depend for the means of their subsistence. It was for their relief that the wealthier converts who were beyond the reach of any immediate suffering from this cause, made the generous surrender of all their property. This resource appears to have been at length exhausted, when the appeal in their favour was at, length carried abroad over the Christian world at large. The charity at home, however, nobly did its part, ere the charity at a distance was called for or drawn upon.

'And their debtors they are'. He here accredits the Jewish Christians generally and nationally,as being the dispensers of the gospel to the Gentiles - though properly they were but the teachers and apostles who came forth of Jerusalem that were entitled to the honour of this consideration, and to a grateful return because of it. It is in this more proper and restricted sense that he pleads for the right both of himself and Barnabas to a livelihood from the Church at Corinth. But it is not unnatural, when any signal benefit has been conferred by the members of a certain community, to feel as if an acknowledgment were due on that account to the whole collective body of whom they form a part; and Paul avails himself of this disposition when pleading for the poor saints of Jerusalem, because of the blessings which had emanated from Jerusalem on all the churches, though the great majority of these poor saints had personally no hand in them. it were well if we of the present day felt similarly to this. It is true that they are not the Jews who are now in the world to whom we owe our spiritual privileges as Christians; but still let us indulge the thought of a gratitude being due to them, because of the mighty benefits that we have received from their ancestors, from men of their nation in other days from the prophets and apostles of old, who bequeathed to us the oracles of God; and who in dispensing the word of life among the nations, were chief instruments fr the fulfilment at length of the promise made to their great ancestor - that in him all the families of the earth should be blessed. It is a reproach to Christians that this consideration has not operated more powerfully in favour of the Jewish people - so as to have made them the objects of a far higher benevolence, both in things spiritual and temporal, than they have ever yet experienced at our hands.
For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal things. The comparison in respect of magnitude and worth between spiritual and carnal things, is still more distinctly made in 1 Cor. ix, 2- where the apostle speaks of the right which he and Barnabas had earned to a maintenance from their hands. In this matter too there is great room for the condemnation of professing Christians - because of their gross practical insensibility to the rule of equity here laid down; and which is strikingly evinced throughout Protestant countries in particular, by the extreme feebleness and defect of the voluntary principle for the support of ministers of religion. It is in virtue of this, that the instructors even of large and opulent congregations, have often so pitiful and parsimonious an allowance doled out to them; and if so wretched a proportion of their own carnal be given in return for spiritual things to themselves, we are not to wonder at the still more paltry and inadequate contributions which are made by them for the spiritual things of others. The expence of all missionary schemes and enterprises put together, a mere scantling of the wealth of all Christendom, argues it to be still a day of exceeding small things - a lesson still more forcibly held out to us by the thousands and tens of thousands at our own doors who are perishing for lack of knowledge.

There is a carnal as well as a spiritual benevolence. That the carnal benevolence makes some respectable head against the carnal selfishness of our nature, is evinced by the fact, that so very few are ever known to die of actual starvation. That the spiritual benevolence falls miserably behind the other, is evinced by the fact of those millions and millions -more -in our empire, who, purely from want of the churches which ought to be built, and of ministers who ought to be maintained for them, are left to wander all their days beyond the pale of gospel ordinances - -and so to live in guilt and die in utter darkness. Verily in such a centemplation, it might well be said even of this professing age - Are ye not yet altogether carnal

Ver. 28. 'When therefore I have performed this, and have sealed to them this fruit, I will come by you into Spain.'
To seal here is to make sure or to consummate. When I am conclusively done with this business, when I have brought the fruit of Christian liberality which has been put into my hands to Jerusalem, and delivered it to the apostles there for distribution among the poor saints - then will I come by you into Spain.

Ver. 29. And I am sure that, when I come unto you, I shall come in the fulness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ. There are manuscripts in which the word for gospel is omitted, and where nevertheless a complete sense is retained - I am I sure that when I do come, I shall come in the fulness of the blessing of Christ. Of this one thing, or main thing, he was sure; but there are certain other things of detail and circumstance in this whole anticipation, of which he is not so sure. In chap. i, 10, 11, he speaks of his prosperous journey to Rome as but a prayer and thing of longing desirousncss; in i, 15, of his preaching there as but a purpose; in xv, 23, of his future visit to them as an earnest wish; in xv, 24, of his journey to Spain as being yet a contingency, and his seeing the church at Rome in his way as no more than a confident expectation; lastly, of his coming to them on his road to Spain as a determination:
And, to crown all, as a certainty and absolute certainty - that when he did come, or if he should come, he would come in.the fulness of the blessing of the gospel, or blessing of Him who was the Author and Finisher of the gospel. It marks most strikingly the shortsightedness of men, even of men inspired on certain occasions and for certain purposes, as contrasted with the counsel of that God which alone shall stand - it most emphatically tells of His ways as not being our ways - that the hopes, nay the prayers of an apostle, reinforced by the prayers which he requested from his people for a prosperous journey to Rome, were all frustrated - So that, instead of a joyful procession to his friends in the worlds metropolis, he came to them as a criminal in fetters, a captive in the hands of unbelievers. It is thus that the things of which he was only hopeful or desirous were disposed of; but the thing of which he felt assured had its fixed accomplishment. He did come to Rome fully charged with spiritual blessings, and which he fully and freely delivered to the people there.
"And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all that eane in unto him - preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him."

Ver 30 - 33. Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with virtue in your prayers to God for me; that I may be delivered from them that do not believe in Judea; and that service which I have for Jerusalem may be accemted of the saints; that I may come unto you with joy in the will of God, and may with you be refreshed. - Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen."
He seems to make appeal here to that love in their hearts which the Spirit worketh - the love- more especially - which Christians who have passed from death unto life bear in their hearts for each other; and under the promptings -of which it behoved them to pray for the safety of him who was their spiritual father. His request for such a prayer implies a sense of danger in the mind of the apostle - an apprehension fully warranted by his knowledge of the deadly hatred borne him by the Jews; and against which he in this very journey took the precaution mentioned in Acts, xx, It is perhaps not so easy to explain why he should stand in any doubt of his service being accepted by the saints at Jerusalem. But many of them too were jealous, and did not like his partiality for the Gentiles - nay, it ws possible, - might have disdained the receiving of any charity at their hands.
On this matter therefore, as on every other, he desired to relieve his carefulness, by making his requests known unto God, - both from his own mouth, and through the mouths of his interceding brethren. It is worthy of being noted, that the next object, his coming unto them with joy, he asks to be prayed for with a submissive reference to the will of God. It may be regarded as the sample of a conditional as distinguished from an absolute prayer. We know of certain things which expressly and at all times are agreeable to the will of God, and for these we might pray without any qualification - as for our knowledge of the truth, and our growth in the divine life, and our final salvation; and generally for all spiritual blessings. For temporal blessings we might pray also; but, with the exception of daily bread, and things absolutely needful for the life and the body, respecting which we have the declared will and promise of God - for all other blessings of an earthly description, we should pray with a salvo, laying our wants and wishes before God, while subjecting them withal to God's good pleasure. The things of this class, when prayed for, may or may not be conceded to us; but at all events, as the fruit of this believing intercourse with Heaven, the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep onr hearts and minds through Christ Jesus - even that peace which is the subject of the apostle's closing benediction, and of which no tribulations or adversities can deprive us. And therefore with an unfaltering amen could he pray - The God of peace be with you all.
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