it condemns it damns hereafter. Oh, then, while there is time, fight, fight the good fight of the faith-fight it with all sternness; fight it with all energy; fight it in a spirit the very reverse of compromise, and yet in a temper all imbued with charity. Truth and error are things opposed; honesty of opinion, and laxity of creed, own no bond. of union; but principle and charity are twin sisters, each gaining loveliness and beauty, from the closeness with which their several duties are performed. Let us then, my brethren, never forget that we owe it to our God to be true, and that our incarnate God has shown us, how we owe it to our neighbour that we love him! While none have opportunity to gainsay our courage, let none be able to take exception. to our courtesy. Let us be as conspicuous for charity as zeal, and while with Peter we show ourselves concerned in the vindication of our Master's honour, let us with John seek to impersonate the religion of Jesus as a religion of love! Fight the good fight of faith; halt not in your career; flinch not in your onset; persevere unto the end; fight the christian fight on christian principles; in a word, so fight, that when death summons you to lay down your arms, your accoutrements may be unsullied, your prowess undoubted, your constancy magnanimous, your forbearance the theme of universal praise, your allegiance to the great Captain of our salvation unimpeached and unimpeachable: then you will have so fought the good fight of faith, as to have laid hold on eternal life, whereunto also ye are called!

MISCELLANEOUS.

COMMENTARY OF THEODORET, BISHOP OF CYRUS, IN SYRIA, ON ST. PAUL'S EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

(Continued from page 739.)

5. Whose are the fathers, the renowned, the celebrated, of whom God was called the God (Exod. iii. 15); and then in the last place he adduces the greatest of the blessings, And of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen. And, indeed, the addition of the concerning the flesh had been enough to evidence the divinity of the Lord Christ, yet, as in the opening of the epistle having said, “who was of the seed of David according to the flesh," he subjoined, "and was declared to be the Son of God with power," so here also after the concerning the flesh, he adds, who is over all, God blessed for ever; both exhibiting thereby the difference of the natures, and teaching how just reason he had for his lamentation, since while of them according to the flesh was He who was God over all, they had fallen from their height, and become aliens from that relationship. And herein he imitates the female mourners, who introduce into their funeral songs the beauty of the person, and the flower of the age, and the illustriousness of the ancestry, and the wealth, and the power, of the deceased over whom they lament. Having then thus displayed the love he bore the

Jews, he then begins his proposed design; 6. Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. I indeed, says he, not only could desire, but could also even pray, to be separated from Christ, if it were possible that by this separation of mine the Jews should gain the blessings held out, but nevertheless should they still prove gainsayers, and refuse to receive salvation, the promises made to the fathers would still remain true. How then? For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel. For God seeks not the relationship of nature, but of virtue; and then he teaches this yet more plainly; 7. Neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children, that is of God, as he shows just below, -But in Isaac shall thy seed be called; and having thus stated the promise of God, he now explains it, and renders the saying clear by his exposition thereof. 8. That is, not they which are the children of the flesh are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. By the children of the flesh, he means those that were born after the ordinary course of nature, but of the promise, those that were given by grace. 9. For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sarah shall have a son. For nature having failed, he was constituted a father by the divine bounty; and this shows that Ishmael also was a son to Abraham-aye, and his firstborn son; and wherefore then boastest thou, O Jew, of being alone called the seed of Abraham? But if thou dost imagine that he was rejected from the relationship, as being on one side a bondsman, then thinkest thou not rightly, for Scripture is wont to calculate descent not from the mother's, but the father's side. And so the holy Apostle might have brought forward the children sprung from Keturah, and shown that they also, though born of a free woman, yet were not reckoned as the seed of Abraham; and easy had it been for him to have pointed out the twelve sons of Jacob, born of different mothers, four of them being bondsmen on one side, and yet all called Israel, and receiving no injury from the slavery of their mothers; but contenting himself with fewer instances, all this he has omitted, and beats them down by the ample evidence left. For having mentioned that which had been said by God to Abraham, that in Isaac shall thy seed be called, he shows that neither were the whole of his race partakers of this blessing, seeing that of his own sons the one inherited the privilege, and the other failed of it; for so he subjoins, 10. And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac: 11. For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good, or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of Him that calleth, 12. It was said unto her, that the elder shall serve the younger. If thou thinkest, says he, that, on account of (his birth from) Sarah, Isaac was preferred before Ishmael, and Abraham's other children whom he had by Keturah, what wilt thou say to the case of Rebecca? For here were there the same father and the same mother, and the same one single conception, the children being twins; for this is what he means by having conceived by one, that is conceived both at the same time; but the one nevertheless was beloved of God, and the other unworthy the divine regard; and God waited not for the evidence of events, but while yet they were in the womb predicted the difference between them; and He predicted it from foreknowing their dispositions, for election is not

arbitrary, but in accordance to the disposition of men ;* and then he adduces the testimony of the prophet, (Mal. i. 3,) 13. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. He heeds not, therefore, the (bare descent of) nature, but virtue only is it that He requires; for this he confirms by many instances.

14. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. The divine decision, says he, has nothing unjust in it, but is graced with perfect equity. And this indeed, though having it in his power to point out and teach clearly, that it is not the custom with God to pay attention to bare birth, but that He looks for the best disposition, as well as to remind them that oftentimes they had been delivered up to many enemies, without being at all spared for the sake of their forefathers, seeing that they imitated not their virtue; and that the whole nation had been allowed to be taken captive by the Babylonians, while Abimelech, on the other hand, though a slave and an Ethiopian, had been saved through his piety; he yet refrains from so doing, as not wishing too much to cast them down; but shows instead that the divine dispensations exceed the reckonings of man, and while many commit iniquity, yet not all are made to suffer vengeance for it; for so in the wilderness the greater part worshipped, for God, the image of the calf, yet not of all was punishment exacted, but some being made to suffer, others by those sufferings of their's were reformed; and so in avenging himself on Pharaoh, He brought by him great benefit to many; and these instances, accordingly, the holy Apostle places before them; and thus he speaks, 15. For he saith to Moses, (Exod. xxxiii. 19,) I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. These words God spake concerning the making of the calf. And it was necessary that he should mention Moses's name here, in order to show the trustworthiness of what he was alleging, by the testimony of Him who spoke, and him who heard; and then he draws the conclusion, 16. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. And he brings not yet the resolution of all this, but continues still the whole question by the addition of what follows, 17. For the Scripture saith unto Pharaoh, (Exod. ix. 16,) Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show My power in thee, and that My name might be declared throughout all the earth. And then again he adds as a deduction, 18. Therefore hath IIe mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth. Unquestionable, says he, are these scriptures, for what I advance is collected from thence, and from thence only. Thou hast heard God Himself declaring, "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion," and His again are the things spoken concerning Pharaoh. He, passing by Ishmael and the children by Keturah, chose Isaac; and He again preferred Jacob to Esau, although both received their being

* Οὐ γὰρ ἄδικος ἡ ἐκλογὴ, ἀλλὰ τῇ προθέσει τῶν ἀνθρώπων συμβαίνουσα, and so just before, τὴν τούτων πρόθεσιν προμαθών, and see on Jer. i. 5. Οὐκ ἄδικος ἡ ἐκλογή προύλαβε γὰρ ταύτην ἡ γνῶσις ἔγνω γὰρ καὶ τότε ἡγίασεν ἐπειδὴ γινώσκει πάντα πριν γενέσεως αὐτῶν· τὸ δὲ ἡγίασα ἀντὶ τοῦ ἀφώρισα τέθεικεν. -Query, did Theodoret read the text, ἵνα ή κατὰ πρόθεσιν ἐκλογὴ τοῦ Θεοῦ μένῃ ?-Ε.Β.

Most probably Ebed-melech. See Jer. xxxviii. 7-9. and xxxix. 16, 17.—E.B.

at the same time, in the same womb; why wonderest thou then, if He hath exactly so done now also, and received those among you who have believed, and rejected those that will not admit that light? But this indeed he does not yet lay down, but continues still adding to the difficulties of the subject, and says, 19. Thou wilt say then unto me, why doth he yet find fault? for who hath resisted his will? For, if "He hath mercy on whom He will, and whom He will hardeneth," man's disposition must depend on His will (say you): and, if so, He cannot with justice inflict punishment on the offenders, for it is not possible for any to resist whatever he thinks fit. Having thus increased the difficulties of the subject by the variety of doubts, and proposed all the objections arising from it, he subjoins, 20. Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Since thou hast asked, says he, "who has resisted His will," tell me what thou art; art thou not a man? How then dost thou reply against, and over-curiously inquirest into the divine dispensations? for if thou wert not a free agent, nor couldest choose by thine own free will what thou wouldest do, but wert enslaved to the compulsion of the divine will, thou wouldest, like the inanimate creation, have been silent, and acquiesced in His dispensations; but since thou art dignified by reason, (therefore it is that) thou both sayest and doest what thou thyself pleasest, and lovest not what has been done, but inquirest into the causes of the divine dispensations. Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? 21. Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? Look at the clay of the potter, which is devoid of rational discrimination; it answers not against its maker, but although set apart for the structure of some base vessel, it receives in silence what is done; but thou opposest and findest fault; therefore art thou not bound by physical necessity, nor transgressest against thine own inclination, but voluntarily embracest vice, and of thine own free choice undergoest the difficulties of virtue. Right, therefore, and just is the sentence of the God of all things, since with equity does he punish sinners as daring so to act of their own will. And in justice also is His loving-kindness, in that when He receives from us an opportunity, He extends His mercy to us. Some, however, interpret the Nay, but O man, who art thou that repliest against God? as spoken in rebuke; for so, say they, having first chidden those who are impertinently curious about divine matters, and shown their meanness, for man's nature differs not from the clay, does he proceed to the reply; and the reply is this-22. What then if? Here we must place a stop, for he means, if thou art desirous to know this, namely, why, when the majority sin, some of them He punishes, and some through their means He benefits; and when many pursue virtue, some of them He renders illustrious, and to some by them sets forth the hopes of the future; hear what follows: God willing to show His wrath, and to make His power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, 23. And that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had afore prepared unto glory; 24. Even us whom He hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles. God, says he, was not the author of Pharaoh's wickedness, but exercised long-suffering towards him as He is wont, but he conceived

that long-suffering weakness, and through it increased his own obstinacy; while at the same time the Governor of all things, in His wisdom both justly inflicted punishment on him, and from his very wickedness drew a preventive medicine to the rest. And thus, as physicians do not themselves make vipers, but from them prepare drugs profitable to men, so God preferred that Pharaoh should not suffer punishment, but, inasmuch as he had fallen into so great brutishness, brought on him retributions of every kind, and manifested at the same time His own power to all men; wherefore He says, "even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show My power in thee, and that My name might be declared throughout all the earth;" the I have raised thee up meaning, I have permitted thee to obtain the throne, and while able to prevent, prevented thee not, foreseeing the advantage that would thence arise to others. And those whom he calls vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, are they, who, by their own free will, have become so, for the same thing also has he written to Timothy, (2 Tim. ii. 20) "But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold, and of silver, but also of wood, and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour;" and, teaching how every one becomes the one or the other of his own free will, he subjoined, "if a man, therefore, purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work ;" and to the Corinthians, in like manner, he writes (1 Cor. iii. 12), "Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble," -clearly teaching the free agency of man. So here does he call those who are worthy of the divine loving-kindness, vessels of mercy. And the hath before prepared unto glory displays the divine foreknowledge, for so had he also said before," for whom He had foreknown He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son;" for the object of the apostle is to prove, that the God of all things alone knows who are worthy of salvation, while among men not a soul. And having stated that He hath called us not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles, he confirms the representation by the testimony of scripture, and says, 25. As He saith also in Osee (ch. ii. 23, and i. 10), I will call them My people, which were not My people, and her beloved, which was not beloved. 26. And it shall come to pass that in the place where it was said unto them, ye are not My people; there shall they be called the children of the living God. And this God spake not of the Gentiles, but of the Jews themselves; for having commanded Hosea to marry an harlot, and indeed even an adulteress, thus did He order the children born from her to be called, the one not a people (Loammi), and the other not beloved (Loruhamah) (ch. i. 9, 6), foretelling what should happen to the Jews; while at the same time He promised them good things again, that the not people should be called a people, and the not beloved, beloved. Observe therefore, says he, that even you have not always enjoyed the same things, but at one time have been reckoned a people, and then not a people, and then a people again; and at one time beloved, and then not beloved, and then beloved again. Nothing then improbable has taken place at present, for you have been cast off in due consistency with all this; but and so if yet you again will it, you shall be reckoned a people, and beloved; for so also the Gentiles who were not a people, now are