his countrymen.

“The additional sentence," he says, "proves the Apostle to be speaking, not of temporal, 'but eternal death; and when he says from Christ, an 'allusion is made to the Greek word anathema, which means a separation from any thing. Does not sepa'ration from Christ mean, being excluded from all hopes ' of salvation?" Such a thing is impossible, and would be highly improper. This would do more than fulfil the demands of the law, it would utterly go beyond the law, and would therefore be sinful; for all our affections ought to be regulated by the law of God. Some understand it of excommunication. But the Apostle could not be excommunicated by Christ, except for a cause which would exclude him from heaven, as well as from the Church on earth. He could not be excommunicated without being guilty of some sin that manifested him to be an unbeliever. It is not possible that one speaking in the Holy Ghost could wish to be in such a state. Paul's affection for his countrymen is here indeed expressed in very strong terms, but the meaning often ascribed to it is not for a moment to be admitted. That any one should desire to be eternally separated from Christ, and consequently punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, is impossible. The law commands us to love our neighbour as ourselves, but not more than ourselves, which would be the case, if to promote his temporal or spiritual benefit we desired to be eternally miserable. It should also be recollected, that it is not only everlasting misery, but desperate and final enmity against God, that is comprised in Paul's wish as it is generally understood. It represents him as loving the creature more than the Creator. But who could ever imagine

that the desire of being eternally wicked, and of indulging everlasting hatred to God, could proceed from love to Christ, and be a proper manner of expressing zeal for his glory? It would be strange indeed if Paul, who had just been affirming, in a tone so triumphant, the impossibility of the combined efforts of creation to separate him from the love of Christ, should the moment after solemnly desire that this separation should take place, for the sake of any creature, however beloved.

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To understand the meaning of this passage, there are three observations to which it is of importance to attend. In the first place, it is the past, and not the present tense, which is employed in the original. What is rendered "I could wish," should be read in the past tense, “I was wishing, or did wish," referring to the Apostle's state before his conversion. The second observation is, that the verb which, in translated "wish," would have been more correctly rendered, in this place, boast; "for I myself boasted, or made it my boast, to be separated from Christ." For this translation, which makes the Apostle's meaning far more explicit, there is the most unquestionable authority.* The third observation is, that the first part of the third verse should be read in a parenthesis, as follows: "I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart (for I myself made it my boast to be separated from Christ) for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh." By the usual interpretation the Apostle is understood to say, "I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart," and without stating for whom,

* See for example the Sixth Book of the Iliad, where the same word occurs, in the dialogue between Diomed and Glaucus, and could not be rendered otherwise.

or for what, to add, "I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren." But it appears evident that these words, for my brethren, form the conclusion of the above expression, I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. Paul had himself formerly made it his boast to be separated from Christ, rejecting him as the Messiah; and to prove how much he sympathized with the situation of his countrymen, in the bosom of his lamentation over their fallen state, he appeals to his former experience, when, before his conversion, he had been in the same unbelief, and personally knew their deplorable condition. He also intimates his sorrow in such a manner, as to show that he is far from glorying over them, having been himself as deeply guilty as they were; while, according to the doctrine he was inculcating, it was in no respect to be ascribed to his own merits, that he was happily delivered from that awful condemnation in which, with grief, he beheld them now standing.

Paul's sorrow was for those whom he calls his brethren. This does not respect a spiritual relationship, as the term brethren so generally denotes in the New Testament, but natural relationship, as Paul here explains it, when he adds, my kinsmen according to the flesh. His sorrow for them is the subject of his testimony, which, in a manner so solemn, he had confirmed in the preceding verse. Instead of glorying over their calamities and rejection, he forgot his own wrongs, and their cruel persecutions, in the inexpressible affliction with which he contemplated their obstinate unbelief with all its fatal consequences. In this we may discern a characteristic of a Christian. He who has no sorrow for the perishing state of sinners, and espe

cially of his kindred, is not a Christian. No man can be a Christian who is unconcerned for the salvation of others.

V. 4.-Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God and the promises.

Paul here recognises and enumerates the great external privileges belonging to the Jews which aggravated his profound sorrow, on account of their rejection of the Messiah, and their consequent deplorable condition. Who are Israelites.-That is, the most honourable people on earth; the descendants of him who as a Prince had power with. God. They had the name, because that of Israel was given to Jacob their father by God, when vouchsafing so striking a pre-intimation of his future manifestation in the flesh. Adoption.-That is, the nation of Israel was a nation adopted by God as a type of the adoption of his children in Christ Jesus, and in that typical sense in which they were the children of God as no other nation ever was, they are frequently spoken of in Scripture, Exod. iv. 22; Jer. xxxi. 9-20. In this way our Lord himself recognizes them, when anticipating their rejection, he says, "The children of "the kingdom shall be cast out," Matt. viii. 12. Glory. -This most probably refers to the manifestation of the glory of God over the mercy-seat in the Sanctuary. God too set his tabernacle among the Israelities, and walked among them, which was their peculiar glory, by which they were distinguished from all other nations, Deut. iv. 32-36. The glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud that went before them in the wilderness. often filled the Tabernacle and the Temple. His house was the place of his glory. Covenants.-The covenant with Abraham, and the covenant at Sinai; in both of

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which they were interested; and all the solemn engagements which God had entered into with mankind were lodged in their hands and committed to their custody. Giving of the law. To them the law was given at Mount Sinai; and they were the only people on earth so distinguished by God. The service of God.-This refers to the Tabernacle and Temple service, or Mosaic institutions of worship. All other nations were left to their own superstitious inventions; the Jews alone had ordinances of worship from God. Promises.-The Jews had received the promises both temporal and spiritual, especially those that related to the Messiah, Acts, ii. 39. V. 5.-Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.

Whose are the fathers.-The Jews numbered among their illustrious progenitors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ; with others to whom God had been pleased to manifest himself in a manner so remarkable. Of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came.—This was the completion of all the privileges which the Apostle here enumerates. It was a signal honour to the Jewish nation, that the Messiah was by descent an Israelite. Concerning the flesh. This declares that he was really a man having truly the human nature, and as a man of Jewish origin. At the same time it imports that he had another nature. Who is over all, God blessed for ever.- -This is a most clear and unequivocal attestation of the Divine nature of our Lord Jesus Christ. Every engine of false criticism has been employed by those who are desirous to evade the obvious meaning of this decisive testimony to the Godhead of our Lord Jesus Christ; but they have never even plausibly succeeded. The awful blindness and obstinacy of Arians and