to the Divine activity : God is the potter, and the whole world with all its contents but as the plastic clay which He moulds to His own ends ; so that whatsoever comes into being, and whatsoever uses are served by the things that exist, are all alike of Him. In accordance with this world - view St. Paul's doctrine of salvation must necessarily be interpreted ; and, in very fact, he gives it its accordant expression in every instance in which he speaks of it.
There are especially three chief pnssarjes in M-hich the apostle so fully expounds his ftinilamental teaching as to the relation of salvation to the purpose of God, that they may fairly claim our primary attention.
(a) l^he first of these — Ro 8®- "'—emerges as part of the encouragement which the apostle offers to his readers in the sad state in which thej- find themselves in this world, afilicted with fears within and fightings without. He reminds them that they are not left to their weakness, but the Spirit comes to their aid: 'and we know,' adds the apostle.^it is no matter of conjecture, but of assured knowledge, — ' that with them that love God, God co-operates with respect to all things for good, since they are indeed tiie called according to [His] purpose.' The appeal is obviously pri- marily to the universal government of God : nothing takes place save by His direction, and even what seems to be grievous comes fiom the Father's hand. Secondarily, the appeal is to the assured position of his readers within the fatherly care of God : they have not come into this blessed relation with God accidentally or by the force of their own choice ; they have been 'called' into it by Himself, and that by no thoughtless, inad- vertent, meaningless, or changeable call ; it was a call 'according to purpose,' — where the anar- throusness of the noun throws stress on the pur- posiveness of the call. What has been denominated ' the golden chain of salvation ' that is attached to this declaration by the particle ' because ' can therefore have no otlier end than more fully to develop and more firmly to ground the assurance thus (quickened in the hearts of the readers : it accordingly enumerates the steps of the saving process in the purpose of God, and carries it thus successively through the stages of appropriating foreknowledge, — for ' foreknow ' is undoubtedly used here in that pregnant sense we have already seen it to bear in similar connexions in NT,— pre- destination to conformity with tlie image of God's Son, calling, justifying, glorifying ; all of which are cast in the past tense of a purjiose in principle executed when formed, and are bound together aa mutually Lm]]licative, so that, where one is present, all are in principle present with it. It accordingly follows that, in St. Paul's conception, glorifica- tion rests on justification, which in turn rests on vocation, while vocation comes only to those who had previou.sly been predestinated to conformity with (iod's Son, and this predestination to ch.aracter and destiny only to those afore chosen by God a loving regard. It is obviously a strict doctrine of predestiiiiition that is taught. This conclusion can be avoided only by assigning a sense to the ' fore- knowing' that lies at the root of the whole process, which is certainly out of accord not merely with its ordinary import in similar connexions in the NT, nor merely with the context, but with the very purpose for which the declaration is made, namely, to enhearten the struggling saint by assuring him that he is not committed to his own power, or rather weakness, but is in the sure hands of the Almighty Father. It would seem little short of absurd to hang on the merely con- templative foresight of God a declaration adduced to support the assertion that the lovers of tlod
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are something deeper and finer than even lovers of God, namely, * the called according to purpose^* and itself educing the joyful cry, * If God is fur us, who is ajrainst us?' and grounding a conlident cl.iim upon the gift of all tilings from His hands.
(h) The even more famous section, Ro 9. 10. 11, following closely upon this strong allirmation of the suspension of the whole saving process on the predetermination of God, oflers, on the face of it, a yet sharper assertion of predestination, raising it. moreover, out of the circle of tlie merely in- dividual salvation into the broader region of the histoi'ical development of the kingdom of God. The problem wliich St. Paul here faces grew so directly out of his fundamental doctrine of justi- tiiatiou by faith alone, with complete disregard of all question of merit or vested privilege, that it must have often forced itself upon his atten- tion,— himself a Jew with a higli estimate of a .lew's privileges and a passionate love for his people. He could not but iiave pcmdered it fre- q«»;iitly and deeply, and least of all could he have failed to give it treatment in an Epistle like this, which undertakes to provide a somewhat formal exposition of his whole doctrine of justiiication. Having shown the necessity of such a method of salvation as he jToclaimed, if sinful men were to be saved at all (1*"*-;P'), and then exptiunded its nature and evidence (3-^-5-'), and afterwards discussed its intensive ellccts (G'-8'^), he could not fail furtiicr to explain its extensive eHecta — especially when they appeared to be of so portentous a character as to imply a reversal of what was widely believed to have lieen God's mode of working heretofore, the rejection of His people whom lie foreknew, and the substitution of tlie alien in tlieir place. St. Paul's solution of the problem is, brieHy, that tlie situa- tion has been gravely misconceived by those wlio 80 represent it; that nothing of the sort thus described has happened or will happen ; that wliat has lia|)|)ened is merely tliat in the consti- tution of that people whom He lias chosen to Himself and is fashioning to His will, God has again exercised that sovereignty which He had previously often exercised, and which He had always expressly reserved to Himself and fre- quently proclaimed as the nrinciple of His dealings with the people emphatically of His choice. In his exposition of this solution St. Paul lirst defends the propriety of God's action (O^^^), then turns to stop the mouth of the objecting Jew by exposing tlio manifested unfitness of the Jewish people for the kingdom (9^-10-'), and tinally expounds with great ricliness theamelioratingcircumstanccsinthewliole transaction (IP^^'*). In the course of his defence of God's rejection of the mass of contemporary Israel, he sets forth the sovereignty of God in the whole matter of salvation — * that the purpose of God according to electi<m might stand, not of works, but of Him tiiat calleth'— with a sharpness of assertion and a clearness of illustration wliieh leave nothing to be added in order to tlirow it out in tlie full strength of it? conception. We are jpointed illustratively to the sovereign acceptance of Isaac and rejection of Ishmael, and to the choice of Jacob and not of Esau before their birth and therefore before either had done good or bad ; we are explicitly told that in the matter of salva- tion it is M<»t of him that wills, or of him that runs, but of God tliat shows mercj', and that lias mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens; we are pointedly directed to behold in (iod the potter who makes the vessels which jirix-eed from His hand each for an end of His a])pointmcnt, that He may work out His Mill upon theiii. It is safe to say that language cannot bo chosen better adapted to teach predestination at its height.