nity; and its main glory is to be witnessed in souls renewed and saved, and amidst the splendours of heaven. "The work of the Spirit of God on the heart of a rational being is much more important than any dead characters which can be engraved on insensible stones."-Doddridge.

VER. 9. For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.

For if the ministration of condemnation.— Of Moses in giving the law, the effect of which is to produce condemnation.-Law condemns the guilty; it does not save them. It denounces punishment; it contains no provisions of pardon. To pardon is to depart from the law, and must be done under the operation of another system; | since a law which contains a provision for the pardon of offenders, and permits them to escape, would be a burlesque in legislation. The tendency of the Mosaic institutions, therefore, was to produce a sense of condemnation. And so it will be found by all who attempt to be justified by the law. It will tend to, and result in, their condemnation. Be glory.-Be glorious; or be glory itself. It was glorious as a manifestation of the holiness and justice of God; and glorious in the attending circumstances. No event in our world has been more magnificent in the circumstances of external majesty and splendour than the giving of the law on Mount Sinai. The ministration of righteousness.-The gospel; the promulgation of the plan of mercy. It is called the ministration of righteousness," in contradistinction from the law of Moses, which was a "ministration of condemnation." The word "righteousness," however, does not exactly express the force of the original word. That word is curatorivne, and it stands directly opposed to the word karaкpistwę, condemnation. It should be rendered, "the ministration of justification;" the plan by which God justifies men. See Note, Rom. i. 17. The law of Moses condemns; the gospel is the plan by which man is justified. And if that which condemns could be glorious, much more must that be by which men can be justified, acquitted, and saved. The superior glory of the gospel, therefore, consists in the fact that it is a scheme to justify and save lost sinners. And this glory consists, (1.) In the fact that it can be done when all law condemns. (2.) In the showing forth of the divine character while it is done, as just, and merciful, and benevolent in doing it; blending all his great and glorious attributes together; while the law disclosed only one of his attributes, his justice. (3.) In the manner in which it is done. It is by the incarnation of the Son of God; a far more glorious manifestation of Deity than was made on Mount Sinai. It is by the toils, and sufferings, and death of him who made the atonement, and by the circumstances of awful and imposing grandeur which attended his death, when the sun was darkened, and the rocks were rent; far more grand and awful scenes than occurred when the law was given. It is by the resurrection and ascension of the Redeemer;

scenes far more sublime than all the external glories of Sinai when the law was given. (4.) In the effects, or results. The one condemns; the other justifies and saves. The effect of the one is seen in the convictions of conscience, in alarm, in a sense of guilt, in the conscious desert of condemnation, and in the apprehension of eternal punishment. The other is seen in sins forgiven; in peace of conscience; in the joy of pardon; in the hope of heaven; in comfort and triumph on the bed of death, and amidst the glories of heaven.

VER. 10. For even that which was made glori ous had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.

For even that which was made glorious, (rë dedožacμévov.)-That was splendid, excellent, or glorious. This refers, doubtless, to the laws and institutions of Moses, especially to the pri mary giving of the law. Paul does not deny that it had an honour and majesty, such, in some respects, as the Jews claimed for it. It was glorious in the manner in which it was given; it was glorious in the purity of the law itself; and it was glorious or splendid in the magnificent and imposing ritual in which the worship of God was celebrated. But all this was surpassed in the brighter glory of the gospel. Had glory.-Gr. Was not glorious, or splendid, (viii δεδόξασται.) Had comparatively no glory or splendour. Its glory was all eclipsed. It was like the splendour of the moon and stars, compared with the bright light of the sun. By rea son of the glory that excelleth.-In the gospel; in the incarnation, life, sufferings, death, and resur rection of the Lord Jesus; in the pardon of sin; in the peace and joy of the believer; and in the glories of the heavenly world, to which the gos pel elevates dying men.

VER. 11. For if that which is done away glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.

p Rom. v. 20, 21.

For if that which is done away, &c. - The splendour that attended the giving of the law: the bright shining of the face of Moses; and the ritual institutions of his religion. It was to be done away. It was never designed to be perma nent. Every thing in it had a transient existence, and was so designed. Yet it was attended, Paul admits, with much that was magnificent and splendid. He had, in the previous verses, stated several important differences between the law and the gospel. He here states another. The law he calls (rò Karapyovμevor) the thing which was to be made to cease; to be put an end to; to be done away with; to be abolished. It had no permanency; and it was designed to have none. Its glory, therefore, great as in many respects it might be, could not be com pared with that which was to be permanent; as the light of the stars fades away at the rising

sun.

It is implied here, that it was originally | designed that the Mosaic institutions should not be permanent; that they should be mere sha

dows and types of better things; and that when the things which they adumbrated should appear, the shadows would vanish of course. This idea is one which prevails every where in the New Testament, and which the sacred writers are often at great pains to demonstrate. Was glorious.-Gr. By glory, (ĉià đóžŋc.) That is, it was attended by glory; it was introduced by glory; it was encompassed with glory when it was established. The idea here is, not that it was glorious in itself, but that it was accompanied with splendour and majesty. That which remaineth. The gospel, (rò μivov.) The thing that is to remain; that is permanent, abiding, perpetual; that has no principle of decay, and whose characteristic it is, that it is everlasting. The gospel is permanent, or abiding, (1.) Because it is designed to remain immutable through the remotest ages. It is not to be superseded by any new economy or institution. It is the dispensation under which the affairs of the world are to be wound up, and under which the world is to close. See Note, 1 Cor. xv. 51. (2.) Its effects on the heart are permanent. |plete in itself. It is not to be succeeded by any other system, and it looks to no other system in order to complete or perfect its operations on the soul. (3.) Its effects are to abide for ever. They will exist in heaven. They are to be seen in the soul that shall be recovered from sin, and that shall be glorious in the bosom of God for ever and ever. The Mosaic system, glorious as it was, shall be remembered as introducing the gospel; the gospel shall be remembered as directly fitting for heaven. Its most great and glorious results shall be seen in the permanent and eternal joys of heaven. The gospel contemplates a great, permanent, and eternal good, adapted to all ages, all climes, all people, and all worlds. It is, therefore, so much more glorious than the limited, temporary, and partial good of the Mosaic system, that that may be said in comparison to have had no glory.

It is com

means the honourable employment of an apostle and minister of the gospel, or the glory belonging to the ministry in the gospel: and that his calling it "hope" instead of "glory" which the connexion would seem to demand, is the language of modesty. Rosenmüller understands it of the hope of the perpetual continuance of the gospel dispensation. Macknight renders it "persuasion," and explains it as meaning the full persuasion or assurance that the gospel excels the law in the manner of its introduction; its permanency, &c. A few remarks may, perhaps, make it clear. (1.) It refers primarily to Paul, and the other ministers of the gospel. It is not properly the Christian hope as such to which he refers, but it is that which the ministers of the gospel had. (2.) It refers to all that he had said before about the superiority of the gospel to the law; and is designed to express the result of all that on his mind, and on the minds of his fellow-labourers. (3.) It refers to the prospect, confidence, persuasion, anticipation which he had as the effect of what he had just said. It is the prospect of eternal life; the clear expectation of acceptance, and the anticipation of heaven, based on the fact that this was a ministry of the Spirit, (ver. 8 ;) that it was a ministry showing the way of justification, (ver. 9;) and that it was never to be done away, but to abide for ever, (ver. 11.) On all these this strong hope was founded; and in view of these, Paul expressed himself clearly, not enigmatically; and not in types and figures, as Moses did. Every thing about the gospel was clear and plain; and this led to the confident expectation and assurance of heaven. The word hope, therefore, in this place will express the effect on the mind of Paul in regard to the work of the ministry, produced by the group of considerations which he had suggested, showing that the gospel was superior to the law; and that it was the ground of more clear and certain confidence and hope than any thing which the law could furnish. We use. We employ; we are accustomed to. He refers to the manner in

q Or, boldness.

Seeing then that we have such hope.-Hope properly is a compound emotion, made up of a desire for an object, and an expectation of obtaining it. If there is no desire for it; or if the object is not pleasant and agreeable, there is no hope, though there may be expectation-as in the expectation of the pestilence, of famine, or sickness, or death. If there is no expectation of it, but a strong desire, there is no hope as in cases where there is a strong desire of wealth, or fame, or pleasure; or where a man is condemned for murder, and has a strong desire but no prospect of pardon; or where a man is shipwrecked, and has a strong desire but no expectation of again seeing his family and friends. In such cases, despondency or despair are the results.

It

is the union of the two feelings in proper proportion which constitutes hope. There has been considerable variety of views among expositors in regard to the proper meaning of the word in this place. Mr. Locke supposes that Paul here

of speech.-Marg. boldness. We use the word "plainness" as applied to speech chiefly in two senses, (1.) To denote boldness, faithfulness, candour; in opposition to trimming, timidity, and unfaithfulness; and, (2.) To denote clearness, intelligibleness, and simplicity, in opposition to obscurity, mist, and highly-wrought and laboured forms of expression. The connexion here shows that the latter is the sense in which the phrase here is to be understood. (See ver. 13.) It denotes openness, simplicity, freedom from the obscurity which arises from enigmatical, and parabolical, and typical modes of speaking. This stands in opposition to figure, metaphor, and allegory-to an affected and laboured concealment of the idea in the manner which was common among the Jewish doctors and heathen philosophers, where their meaning was carefully concealed from the vulgar, and from all except the initiated. It stands opposed also to the necessary obscurity arising from typical institutions like those of Moses. And the doctrine of the passage is, that such is the clearness and fulness of the Christian revelation, arising from

the fact, that it is the last economy, and that it does not look to the future, that its ministers may and should use clear and intelligible language. They should not use language abounding in metaphor and allegory. They should not use unusual terms. They should not draw their words and illustrations from science. They should not use mere technical language. They should not attempt to veil, or cloak their meaning. They should not seek a refined and overwrought style. They should use expressions which other men use; and express themselves as far as possible in the language of common life. What is preaching worth that is not understood? Why should a man talk at all unless he is intelligible? Who was ever more plain and simple in his words and illustrations than the Lord Jesus?

VER. 13. And not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished

Rom. x. 4.

And not as Moses.-Our conduct is not like that of Moses. We make no attempt to conceal any thing in regard to the nature, design, and duration of the gospel. We leave nothing designedly in mystery. Which put a veil over his face. That is, when he came down from Mount Sinai, and when his face shone. (Exod. xxxiv. 33.) "And till Moses had done speaking with them, he put a veil on his face." This veil he put off when he went to speak with God, but put on again when he delivered his commands to the people. What was the design of this, Moses has not himself declared. The statement which he makes in Exodus would lead us to suppose that it was on account of the exceeding brightness and dazzling splendour which shone around him, and which made it difficult to look intently upon him; and that this was in part the reason, even Paul himself seems to intimate in ver. 7. He, however, in this verse intimates that there was another design, which was that he might be, as Doddridge expresses it, "a kind of type and figure of his own dispensation." That the children of Israel.-Mr. Locke understands this of the apostles, and supposes that it means, "We do not veil the light, so that the obscurity of what we deliver should hinder the children of Israel from seeing in the law which was to be done away, Christ who is the end of the law." But this interpretation is forced and unnatural. The phrase rendered “that,” (πpòg rò,) evidently connects what is affirmed here with the statement about Moses; and shows that the apostle means to say that Moses put the veil on his face in order that the children of Israel should not be able to see to the end of his institutions. That Moses had such a design, and that the putting on of the veil was emblematic of the nature of his institutions, Paul here distinctly affirms. No one can prove that this was not his design; and in a land and time when types, and emblems, and allegorical modes of speech were much used, it is highly probable that Moses meant to intimate that the end and full purpose of his institu

tions were designedly concealed. Could not stedfastly look.-Could not gaze intently upon, (ȧrevioαi,) See Note on ver. 7. They could not clearly discern it; there was obscurity arising from the fact of the designed concealment. He did not intend that they should clearly see the full purport and design of the institutions which he established. To the end, (ɛiç rò réλog.)—Unto the end, purpose, design, or ultimate result of the law which he established. A great many different interpretations have been proposed of this. The meaning seems to me to be this: There was a glory and splendour in that which the institutions of Moses typified, which the children of Israel were not permitted then to behold. There was a splendour and lustre in the face of Moses. which they could not gaze upon, and therefore he put a veil over it to diminish its intense brightness. In like manner there was a glory and splendour in the ultimate design and scope of h's institutions, in that to which they referred, which they were not then able, i. e. prepared to look on, and the exceeding brightness of which he of design concealed. This was done by obscure types and figures, that resembled a veil thrown over a dazzling and splendid object. The word, "end,” then, I suppose, does not refer to termination, or close, but to the design, scope, or purpose of the Mosaic institutions; to that which they were intended to introduce and adumbrate. That end was the Messiah, and the glory of his institutions. See Note on Rom. x. "Christ is the end of the law." And the meaning of Paul, I take to be, is that there was a splendour and a glory in the gospel which the Mosaic institutions were designed to typify, which was so great that the children of Israel were not fully prepared to see it, and that he designedly threw over that glory the veil of obscure types and figures; as he threw over his face a veil that partially concealed its splendour. Thus interpreted there is a consistency in the entire passage, and very great beauty. Paul, in the following verses, proceeds to state that the veil to the view of the Jews of his time was not removed; that they still looked to the obscure types and institutions of the Mosaic law rather than on the glory which they were designed to adumbrate; as if they should choose to look on the veil on the face of Moses rather than on the splendour which it concealed. Of that which is abolished.— Or rather to be abolished, (rev Karapуovμivov,) whose nature, design, and intention it was that it should be abolished. It was never designed to be permanent; and Paul speaks of it here as a thing that was known and indisputable that the Mosaic institutions were designed to be abolished.

VER. 14. But their minds were blinded: * for

until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament; which veil is done away in Christ.

Rom. xi. 7, 8, 25.

But their minds were blinded.-The word here used, (wpów,) means rather to harden; to make hard like stone; and then to make dull or stupid. It is applied to the heart, in Mark vi. 52; viili.

17; to persons, in Rom. xi. 7; and to the eyes, in Job xvii. 7. Paul refers here to the fact that the understandings of the Jews were stupid, dull, and insensible, so that they did not see clearly the design and end of their own institutions. He states simply the fact; he does not refer to the cause of it. The fact that the Jews were thus stupid and dull is often affirmed in the New Testament. For until this day, &c.-The sense of this is, that even to the time when Paul wrote, it was a characteristic of the great mass of the Jewish people, that they did not understand the true sense of their own Scriptures. They did not understand its doctrines in regard to the Messiah. A veil seems to be thrown over the Old Testament when they read it, as there was over the face of Moses, so that the glory of their own Scriptures is concealed from their view, as the glory of the face of Moses was hidden. Of the Old Testament.-Greek, "of the old covenant." See this word "testament," or covenant, ex

plained in the Notes on 1 Cor. xi. 25. This, I believe, is the only instance in which the Scriptures of the Jews are called the "Old Testa

ment," or covenant, in the Bible. It was, of course, not a name which they used, or would use; but it is now with Christians the common appellation. No doubt can be entertained but that Paul uses the terms in the same manner in which we now do, and refers to all the inspired writings of the Jews. Which veil is done away in Christ.-In the manifestation, or appearance of Jesus the Messiah, the veil is removed. The obscurity which rested on the prophecies and types of the former dispensation is withdrawn; and as the face of Moses could have been distinctly seen if the veil on his face had been removed, so it is in regard to the true meaning of the Old Testament by the coming of the Messiah. What was obscure is now made clear; and the prophecies are so completely fulfilled in him, that his coming has removed the covering, and shed a clear light over them all. Many of the prophecies, for example, until the Messiah actually appeared, appeared obscure, and almost contradictory. Those which spoke of him, for illustration, as man and as God; as suffering, and yet reigning; as dying, and yet as ever living; as a mighty Prince, a conqueror, and a king, and yet as a man of sorrows; as humble, and yet glorious all seemed difficult to be reconciled until they were seen to harmonize in Jesus of Nazareth. Then they were plain, and the veil was taken away. Christ is seen to answer all the previous descriptions of him in the Old Testament; and his coming casts a clear light on all which was before obscure.

proofs that the account in the New Testament is true. Of no other people on earth, probably, would a description be accurate eighteen hundred years after it was made. When Moses is read.When the five books of Moses are read, as they were regularly and constantly in their synagogues. See Note on Luke iv. 16. The veil is upon their heart. They do not see the true meaning and beauty of their own Scriptures—a description as applicable to the Jews now as it was to those in the time of Paul.

VER. 16. Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away.'

t Isa. xxv. 7.

Nevertheless. This is not always to continue. their own Scriptures, and see their true beauty. The time is coming when they shall understand When it shall turn to the Lord.-When the Jewish

people shall be converted. The word "it" here the sense is, that their blindness is not always to refers undoubtedly to "Israel" in ver. 13; and remain; there is to be a period when they shall turn to God, and shall understand his promises, and become acquainted with the true nature of their own religion. The subject the apostle has chapter of the epistle to the Romans. See Notes discussed at much greater length in the eleventh on that chapter. The veil shall be taken away.— They shall then understand the true meaning of institutions. They shall see that they refer to the prophecies, and the true nature of their own the Lord Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, and the true Messiah. The genuine sense of their sacred oracles shall break upon their view with full and irresistible light. There may be an allusion in the language here to the declaration in Isa. xxv. 7; " And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations." This the Jews shall be converted to Christianity; exverse teaches, (1.) That the time will come when pressed here by their turning unto the Lord, that is, the Lord Jesus. See Note, Acts i. 24. be a conversion of the people at large; a converIt seems to be implied that their conversion will sion that shall be nearly simultaneous; a conversion en masse. Such a conversion we have reason to anticipate of the Jewish nation. (3.) The effect of this will be to make them acquainted with the true sense of their own scriptures, and the light and beauty of the sayings of their own prophets. Now they are in deep darkness on the subject; then they will see how entirely they meet and harmonize in the Lord Jesus. (4.) The true and only way of having a correct and full mean

(2.)

read, the veil is upon their heart.

But even unto this day.-To the time when Paul wrote this epistle, about thirty years after Christ was put to death. But it is still as true as it was in the time of Paul; and the character and conduct of the Jews now so entirely accords with the description which he gives of them in his time, as to show that he drew from nature, and as to constitute one of the strong incidental

to him, and a disposition to do his wili, is the best means of interpreting the Bible.