Paul's love to the church at rome.
Rom. i. 9 — 12. God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the Gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers ; making request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you. For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established ; that is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.
IT has been thought by some, that it would have been better for the Church if the Gospels only had been transmitted to posterity, and the Epistles had perished in oblivion. This impious sentiment origi- nates altogether in men's hatred of the truth ; and it argues as much ignorance of the Gospels, as it does ingratitude to God. The Gospels contain all the same truths as the Epistles ; but the Epistles render them more clear. Never should we have had so complete a view of the correspondence between the Jewish and Christian dispensations, as we are favoured with in the Epistle to the Hebrews : nor would the doctrine of justification by faith alone have been so clearly denned, or so incontrovertibly established, if the Epistles to the Romans and the Galatians had never existed. We are moreover indebted to the Epistles for a much clearer insight into practical religion, than