and it is distinct in line. ing thus, with clear moral outlines written down, moral out and the facts of the Christian life and story less distinct, or only expressed so as to be understood by the Church he had already instructed-was he not Divinely guided in this? To have written everything for the Christians at Corinth, at that moment, might have been to harm the cause of the Gospel there. The gifts of the Spirit, and the Apostolate among believers, supplied the spiritual need, if only Christians would yield themselves to God,' and wait and do His will. His posi tion of suspense. After his grand and comprehensive attempt to regulate the internal morality of the Christian system, on the feeling that all was provisional, we cannot wonder that the Apostle should hold himself and his Corinthian friends in a kind of suspense. They had to practise what he had said, instead of speculating further; for they were not able to bear it.' They stand in expectation of the end, like men who hold their breath at some mighty catastrophe about to roll down before their eyes.-As for S. Paul himself at this crisis, he is not exulting at his successes. He tells of his 'trials and distresses' chiefly, 'his shipwrecks and troubles,' and his conviction that he yet has much to do,-together with a 'longing to depart and be with Christ.' He is like a mariner heavily toiling in a storm at sea, the stars clouded above him, his vessel moving on, the darkness scarcely clearing to the upward gaze, and he wishing for the Day!' LECTURE IV. Ἡ δὲ ἐκλογὴ ἐπέτυχεν. I. PREVIOUS QUESTIONS AS TO PROBATION. 2. First Thesis: 6 ALL HAD COME SHORT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS;' 3. Second Thesis: AN ELECTION OBTAINS IT IN CHRIST;' 4. Third Thesis: 'THE REST ARE BLINDED.' OUTLINE. I. S. Paul's position now.-Previous questions as to Probation. II. The Apostle's first Thesis. 'All come short of righteousness.' Not denied by the best heathen: Proved against the Jews also: Power to be righteous only arises from Faith in God. 110 111 III 112 113 114 114 115 116 118 118 119 120 121 123 124 124 Analysis of Faith; and it reaches towards a world beyond the Renewal to righteousness-both moral and Divine. Both as to the victory over sin and over death. The Apostle's second Thesis. The election obtains "righteousness The Jewish rejection of Christ, and S. Paul's grief. Their mistaking the Divine plan. God governs the world according to a plan. The Jews' place in that plan from the first; God has choice. God's election, from among the Jews first,' then the Gentiles. IV. The Apostle's third Thesis. The rest were blinded.' Certain questions in suspense awhile, as to the unbelieving world. 133 S. Paul's career tends to their solution. LECTURE IV. PREVIOUS QUESTIONS AS TO PROBATION. The election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded. I. S. Paul's I WE are following the great career of the Apostle of the nations, and marking how his teaching ex- position pands. further examined. S. Paul's second letter to Corinth preceded his arrival by a very few weeks, his whole stay in Greece at this time being but three months. Having there accomplished what he intended, and completed his arrangements for his visit to Jerusalem which he regarded as important, he sent forward to Troas his friend Timothy and some Ephesians who were with hima. His messenger Titus who had preceded him to Corinth, he there left behind' for a mission in Crete, and then went northward to Macedonia and so passed into Asia, rejoining the Ephesian party at Troas. But before making and carrying out these arrangements, and while Timothy was still with him in Greece, he wrote an Apostolic letter to the Christians in Rome whose instruction he was unwilling to delay as to some of the grave questions then opening on Christianity and even Questions pressing for solution. His right so to teach the Romans solution. a See App., Preface to Romans, waiting for he claims at the outset, on the ground of his Divine Apostolate. This letter was sent by a trusted mesRom. xvi. 1. senger, a deaconess of Cenchrea. ch. i. I. The Rome, There was no difficulty in addressing the Epistle; for, though the Apostle had never been in Rome, some of his friends had just gone there. During friends his five or six years' residence, at Corinth first and had gone to then at Ephesus, from the time of the decree of Claudius banishing the Jews from the capital, to the later edict which gave them favour, S. Paul had continued in intimate friendship with Priscilla and Aquila, persons of some influence, who had formerly lived in Rome, and now returned there. By them he would naturally have been informed that the growth of Christianity in the Imperial city dated from the Pentecost, when 'strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes' visiting Jerusalem, had there heard the preaching of S. Peter. The earliest Roman Christians thus having been Jews, must have found their religious association greatly broken up by being scattered more than once from their Roman homes; and this may account for S. Paul's not writing to them as a Church,' but to all that be in Rome,' that is, all believers there. The existence of Christians A.D. 58. in the capital of the Empire was a fact likely to be widely known; and all the more, no doubt, in consequence of the dispersions both in Europe and Asia. Of S. Peter in Rome there is no trace. κλητοῖς ἁγίοις. ch. i. 7. ch. i. 8. and had prepared his way. At the time of Aquila and Priscilla returning thither with their friends, the visit of S. Paul was b Suetonius, Claud. 25; Josephus, Ant. xix. 5. |