Α COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. BY CHARLES HODGE, PROFESSOR OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE IN THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY ABRIDGED BY THE AUTHOR, FOR THE USE OF SUNDAY-SCHOOLS AND BIBLE-CLASSES. TENTH EDITION. PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM S. MARTIEN, PHILADELPHIA, 37 SOUTH SEVENTH ST.-NEW YORK, 23 CENTRE STREET, ENTERED according to Act of Congress, in the year 1836, by CHARLES HODGE, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the District of New Jersey. MAY 14 1828 INTRODUCTION. PAUL. WHEN Paul and the other apostles were called to enter upon their important duties, the world was in a deplorable and yet most interesting state. Both Heathenism and Judaism were in the last stages of decay. The polytheism of the Greeks and Romans had been carried to such an extent as to shock the common sense of mankind, and to lead the more intelligent among them openly to reject and ridicule it. This skepticism had already extended itself to the mass of the people, and become almost universal. As the transition from infidelity to superstition is certain, and generally immediate, all classes of the people were disposed to confide in dreams, enchantments, and other miserable substitutes for religion. The two reigning systems of philosophy, the Stoic and Platonic, were alike insufficient to satisfy the agitated minds of men. The former sternly repressed the best natural feelings of the soul, inculcating nothing but a blind resignation to the unalterable course of things, and promising nothing beyond an unconscious existence hereafter. The latter regarded all religions as but different forms of expressing the same general truths, and represented the whole mythological system as an allegory, as incomprehensible to the common people as the pages of a book to those who cannot read. This system promised more than it could accomplish. It excited feelings which it could not satisfy, and thus contributed to produce that general ferment which existed at this period. Among the Jews, generally, the state of things was hardly much better. They had, indeed, the form of true religion, but were in a great measure destitute of its spirit. The Pharisees were contented with the form; the Sadducees were skeptics; the Essenes were enthusiasts and mystics. Such being the state of the world, men were led to feel the need of some surer guide than either reason or tradition, and some better foundation of confidence than either heathen philosophers or Jewish sects could afford. Hence, when the glorious gospel was revealed, thousands of hearts, in all parts of the world, were prepared by the grace of God to exclaim, This is all our desire and all our salvation. The history of the apostle Paul shows that he was prepared to act in such a state of society. In the first place, he was born and probably educated, in part, at Tarsus, the capital of Cilicia; a city almost on a level with Athens and Alexandria for its literary zeal and advantages. In one 3 |