in a perishing condition, till we believe in Christ. Till we believe in Christ, "we are accursed from Christ,'" and can be saved only through faith in our incarnate God.)
2. What have we felt in reference to our Jewish brethren? — (We should feel as the Apostle did. But, could we adopt his appeal, and " not lie ? " Have we not rather been disposed to deride strong feel- ings and great exertions in others, than to weep over them, and labour for them ourselves ? Rest not till you can make St. Paul's appeal your own.)
Rom. ix. 6. They are not all Israel tvho are of Israel.
EVIL as have been the dispositions of those who have set themselves against the doctrines of the Gospel, we have been greatly indebted to them: since they have called forth statements which we should never otherwise have received ; and have drawn from the Apostles of our Lord a disclosure of their inward motives and principles, which nothing but an absolute necessity for the vindication of their own character could ever have elicited, The epistle before us is full of objections, started against every doctrine which the writer of it maintained. In the former part of the third chapter the objections are urged with a pertinacity and boldness, which com- pelled the Apostle to say respecting the persons who so urged them, that " their damnation was just*." In the sixth and seventh chapters, the objections against both the Law and the Gospel gave rise to an eluci- dation of them, so clear, that there can be no doubt entertained respecting their proper use, or their transcendent excellence. In the chapter which we are about to consider, the Apostle begins with ex- pressing his deep and continual sorrow on account of the judgments impending over the Jews for their obstinate rejection of their Messiah. He then anti- cipates an objection which would be brought against him ; namely, that if, as he had supposed, the Jews
a Rom. iii. S.