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A

COMMENTARY

ON THE

EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

WITH

A REVISED TRANSLATION.

BY

THE REV. EDWARD PURDUE, A.M.,

MASTER OF THE ENDOWED SCHOOL, KINSALE.

SAMUEL B.

DUBLIN:

OLDHAM, 8, SUFFOLK-STREET.

LONDON: SEELEY, JACKSON, AND HALLIDAY.
EDINBURGH: R. GRANT AND SON.

1855.

101.b.285.

DUBLIN:

PRINTED BY ROE AND BRIERLEY,

42. Mabbot-street.

PREFACE.

VERY many Commentaries have been written on St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, but I have never met with a person of competent judgment who would maintain that any of them affords so complete an exposition of the sentiments of the apostle as to render it superfluous to attempt further to explain or illustrate his meaning; on the contrary, it seems to be generally regarded as a reproach to scholars and divines, that the interpretation of so many passages, in this, as well as in other parts of the Sacred Volume, should continue still to be involved in uncertainty, and to afford occasion for dispute. Happily, this uncertainty in no wise attaches to the leading truths of the Gospel embodied in the creeds; these are so fully, and so clearly revealed, that no person, who has had opportunity to study the Bible, can justly complain of want of sufficient instruction on any essential point of doctrine or of duty; and although, when different interpretations of the same passage of Scripture are proposed, only one of them can truly represent the mind of the inspired writer, and it may happen, that they are all erroneous; yet even when expositors fail to discern the precise meaning of a difficult text, it does not often happen, at least in the case of honest inquirers, that their deviation from it is such, as to lead them to a statement that is absolutely false; so effectual a restraint is laid on the licence of interpretation by the force of those truths that are clearly revealed. But although a remedy is provided, in the clearness of the leading truths of revelation, against much of the mischief that might result

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