his people. Matt. 1: 21. Christ, corresponding to the Hebrew Messias, meaning anointed, the official name of our Lord. His anointing was by the Holy Ghost. He had the spirit without measure, John 3 34. Called to be an apostle. Here the authorised version follows that of Tyndale, Geneva, and Rheims. Cranmer: called to the office of an apostle; Peshito: called and sent; Wiclif: clepid an apostle; Dutch Annotations and Macknight: a called apostle; Stuart: a chosen apostle; Turrettin: an apostle by divine vocation; Beza: an apostle by the call of God. The word is often found in the New Testament, and is not once in the authorized version rendered chosen, but always called, or a few times bidden in the sense of called. It is more than once found in the same verse as the word chosen, and in a sense different from it. Many are called, but few chosen, Matt. 20: 16; 22: 14. They that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful, Rev. 17: 14. In Rom. 8:30 it is carefully distinguished from the purpose of God: Whom he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified. We have the same word in vs. 6, 7. As many questioned Paul's right to teach and act with apostolic authority, he often alleged his divine call to that office. An apostle, one sent; in 1 Cor. 8:23, rendered messenger; the Peshito here and elsewhere has legate. In Heb. 3:1 it is applied to Christ; but in almost every other case where the title is conceded, it designates the office of those thirteen men, who had seen the Lord Jesus, were witnesses that he had risen from the dead, and had authority from Him to reveal his will to the churches. If any man has not been an eye-witness of Christ's resurrection, he cannot be an apostle, so say the Scriptures; they no less declare that Paul had seen him. Acts 1: 8, 22; 2: 32; 3:15; 4:33; 22:14, 15; 26: 16; 1 Cor. 9:1; 15: 8, 15. Whateley justly says: Successors to the apostles there are none. There never has been an apostle on earth since the death of John. Paul was separated unto the Gospel. Separated, Tyndale, Cranmer and Genevan: put apart; Stewart, Conybeare and Howson: set apart; Beza, Doddridge, Macknight: separated. The word may mean chosen, selected, as Hesychius shows. In some of its forms the word occurs ten times in the New Testament and always has the sense of separate, though in Matt. 13: 49 we read the angels shall" sever the wicked from among the just." In Matt. 25: 32 it is for euphony variously rendered: "He shall separate them from one another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats." There are several interpretations. One is that Paul alludes to his having been a pharisee, which means separatist, when he had been separated from all ceremonial defilement and from the mass of the com

mon people; so now he was separated, distinguished from the mass of men to preach the gospel. This is the view taken by Drusius and Whitby. Olshausen wholly rejects this as a mere play upon words. Others think it finds its best interpretation in Acts 13:2. "The Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul, for the work whereunto I have called them." This is the view of Theodoret, Turrettin and Olshausen. The same word is used in Acts 13:2, as in our verse. But Paul is here asserting his plenary apostolic power, and not that he in common with Barnabas had a special designation to go to the heathen. Another interpretation refers the separation to the divine purpose. This is the sense given to the word by Luther in Gal. 1: 15, by the Dutch Annotations, by Guyse and Stuart. This word in no instance has the sense of sanctified or consecrated. Some make it explanatory of the word called. All that can fairly be gotten from the two words called and separated is that Paul was selected, effectually called and divinely appointed to his work. Ferme: The calling is the separation of the person called. Calvin: I cannot agree with those who refer the call of which he speaks to the eternal election of God. He was separated

Unto the gospel of God. Gospel; Conybeare & Howson, Glad tidings. The word is derived from God, good, and spel, or spell, word or speech. Gospel very precisely conveys the sense of the Greek. It is called the gospel of salvation, because it shows that salvation is possible, and in what way. It is called the gospel of Christ, because it is the fruit of Christ's grace and compassion to men, and because Christ's person, work, sufferings, death, exaltation and glory constitute the sum of it. Without Christ there would have been no good news to sinners. It is called here the gospel of God, because God is its author. It is the 'good tidings' sent by God.

2. Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy Scriptures. This verse is clearly parenthetical, and is so put in most editions of the English version. How fully the gospel was promised in the Old Testament appears more and more as we piously study it. It was preached in Eden, Gen. 3: 15; and to Abraham, Gal. 38. When we read David, Isaiah and Zechariah it sometimes seems as if we were reading one of the Gospels. Both Jesus and his apostles often insisted that they proposed nothing contrary to the teachings of the prophets, and nothing which the prophets had not led the church to expect. John 1: 45; 5: 46; 856; 12: 16; Luke 24: 27, 44; Acts 3: 21-24; 10: 43; and often in this epistle. In the holy Scriptures; literally in holy writings; the article is wanting; Wiclif: in holi scripturis. There was

but one set of holy writings, received by the Jewish church. To those, to whom Paul wrote, this designation was clear. The New Testament writers use scripture or scriptures, singular or plural, indiscriminately to designate the word of God; so Paul in this epistle. God is the author of the gospel, yet the great subject matter of it is

3. Concerning his son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh. He, who is substantially right respecting the person, work and glory of Christ, has the substance of the gospel; he, who here errs fundamentally, errs fatally. If Jesus Christ is truly the Son of God, equal with God, having the same nature with the Father, the only begotten of the Father, then he is fit to be our Lord, the absolute proprietor of our persons, worthy to receive all the homage and service we can possibly offer. The word here rendered Lord has a long history and interesting. It is the word used in the Septuagint to translate the words Jehovah and Adonai; the former denoting the self-existent, independent, eternal and unchangeable I AM; the latter expressing his authority and sovereignty over us. It is a title given in

the New Testament to our Saviour hundreds of times. In a few cases it is rendered Master, as "Your Master also is in heaven." Eph. 69. No man in the true sense of terms can say that Jesus Christ is Lord but by the Holy Ghost, I Cor. 12: 3. He is Lord and we should so confess; it is to the glory of the Father, and not in derogation of it. Phil. 2: II. He is no less the Son of God and our Lord because he was made of the seed of David according to the flesh. For made Tyndale has begotten; Peshito, Cranmer, Macknight, Hodge, Conybeare and Howson, born; Dutch Annotations, became. In Rom. 3: 19; 4: 18; 7: 13 it is rendered become; in Rom. 2: 25; 10: 20; 11: 9 made, and often was, hath been, etc. Seed, a word rendered with absolute uniformity in the authorized version. When Christ is said to be of the seed of David, the meaning is, he is of the house and lineage of David, he is of David's posterity, he is of that royal line. According to the flesh, as to his human nature, or so far as he was a man. Had he not been the son of man and the seed of David he would not have met the demands of prophecy. 2 Sam. 7: 16; Isa. II I. One evangelist fitly traces his genealogy to the first pair to prove that he was the seed of the woman; another to David, thus shewing how completely he met the requirements of the Old Testament And all this was settled by a legal process before his birth-by the very process by which the titles to the lands of the country were determined.

4. And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the

spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. Declared, this word is preferred by Chrysostom, Theodoret, Tyndale, Cranmer, the Genevan, Calvin, Beza, Diodati, Brown of Wamphray, Tholuck and Hodge. The Assembly's Annotations and J. Owen follow the margin and read, determined; Le Clerc, Elsner, Doddridge, Conybeare and Howson, marked out; Origen, Cyril and Boothroyd, proved; Macknight, made to appear what he is; Ferme, Burkitt, Whitby and Cox, demonstrated; Peshito, made known as. All these substantially agree. There is no good reason for rendering the word predestinated, as do Irenæus, Epiphanius, Augustine, Vulgate, Doway and Rheims. It is mournful to find Stuart rendering it constituted, and contending for it at great length. The verb signifies to mark off, bound, define, and so to declare, or determine. He was declared to be the Son of God with power. On the phrase Son of God see on v. 3. The phrase with power [or in power] has been variously explained. The larger number connect it with declared. Guyse paraphrases the whole thus-determinately avowed, openly proclaimed and convincingly demonstrated; Burkitt, mightily and powerfully demonstrated; Doddridge, determinately, and in the most convincing manner marked out as the Son of God, with the most astonishing display of divine power; Macknight, declared, with great power of evidence; Genevan, declared mightily; Hodge, clearly declared. It is best to connect the words declared and with power. All this was done according to the spirit of holiness. Wiclif: bi the spirit of halowynge; Tyndale: with power of the holy goost that sanctifieth; Cranmer: after the sprete that sanctyfyeth; Genevan: touching the Spirite that sanctifieth; Rheims according to the spirit of sanctification; Peshito: by the Holy Spirit; Beza agrees with the authorized version; Ferme : his own sanctifying spirit; Stuart: as to his holy spiritual nature Three methods have been adopted for explaining this phrase. 1. Some think it points to our Lord's personal sanctity as a man. This was indeed perfect; but where do we learn that the phrase spirit of holiness simply denotes personal purity? 2. Others explain it of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. This is admissible; as Paul often uses such Hebrew forms of speech. This gives a good sense, according to the teachings of other parts of God's word. Christ said that the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, should testify of him. John 15: 26. He did so on the day of Pentecost. The same truth is elsewhere declared, Heb. 2: 3, 4. In creation, in providence, in raising Jesus from the dead, and in the resurrection of the saints at the last day, the Scriptures teach a concurrence of all the persons of the Godhead. Speaking

I.

of our Lord, Paul once says God the Father raised him up, Gal. II. Jesus claimed and exercised the power to raise his own body, John 2: 19; 10: 18. The Scriptures no less clearly say that the body of Christ was raised, and that the bodies of the saints shall be raised by the power of the Holy Ghost. Rom. 8: 11. Just so we acknowledge God the Father Almighty as Maker of heaven and earth, yet without the Word was not any thing made that was made, and God's Spirit garnished the heavens, moved upon the face of the deep, and filled it with living things. 3. Others explain the phrase of the divine nature of our Lord.

In favor of the second of these explanations we have Calvin, Burkitt, Doddridge, Scott, Williams and others; in favor of the third, Diodati, Beza, Pool, Hammond, Ferme, Guyse, the Dutch Annotations, the Assembly's Annotations, Locke, Alford, Olshausen, Stuart, Haldane and Hodge. Several of these cite in proof 1 Tim. 3: 16; Heb. 9: 14; and 1 Pet. 3 : 18; and Haldane quotes 1 Cor. 15: 45, and 2 Cor. 3 : 17 to show that Christ is explicitly called a Spirit. Gill regards either the second or the third view as admissible. The great argument for the third view is taken from the apparent antithesis between the flesh and the spirit in vs. 3, 4. If this contrast was intended by the apostle, the argument is conclusive. Certainly in some other places the same form of words indicates intended antithesis. Matt. 12: 32; Rom. 4:4; 8: 1, 4, 5. This view is therefore preferred. By the resurrection from the dead; Peshito: who rose from the dead, Jesus Messiah, our Lord; Coverdale, Tyndale, and Cranmer render the clause, since the time that he rose, &c. Theodoret, Luther, Grotius: from and after; Stuart: after; Hammond: after, and through, and by. The great mass of commentators agree with the authorized version. The latter phrase in the clause is literally the resurrection of the dead; but this phrase more than once means the resurrection from the dead. 1 Cor. 15: 42; Heb. 6:2. The resurrection of Jesus Christ settles his divine sonship in the clearest manner. 1. It was a very remarkable display of the power of God, and so the Scriptures speak of it. Eph. I 19, 20. 2. Jesus Christ had foretold that he would arise by his own power; so that his omnipotence is the same as that of the Father. 3. Jesus Christ was the surety of his people, and eternal justice would not have released him till his humiliation was completed. 4. During his ministry our Lord had said and done many things contrary to the notions of the masses of men, and had set up the highest claims to reverence, worship and obedience from men. If he were not truly and properly divine, all these claims were those of a deceiver. But his resurrection confirmed them every one. 5. So great was the import