A PARAPHRASE and COMMENT Epistles and Gofpels, Used throughout the Year. VOL. II. The First Sunday after the Epiphany. The COLLECT. Lord, we befeech thee mercifully to receive the Prayers of thy People which call upon thee; and grant that they may both perceive and know what things they ought to do, and also may have Grace and Power faithfully to fulfil the fame through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. I The EPISTLE. Rom. xii. 1. Beseech you therefore, Bretbren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your a living facrifice, boly, acceptable unto God, which is your rea Bodies Rom. xii. 2. PARAPHRASE I. Since then the Goodness of God is fo exceeding great, as the former part of this Epistle hath shewed (in fonable Service. making all Men capable of Salvation by the Righteousness of Faith, delivering us from the Rigour and Bondage of the Law, and admitting Gentiles, as well as Jews, to be Partakers of the Gofpel-Covenant) let me conjure you, by this Goodness, to offer and dedicate to God, your Persons, a living (instead of the formerly dead) Sacrifice, a pure, and holy, (as those were without blemish) and acceptable (for its own fake, which those were not.) For This will be an Oblation of rational, as those were of brute and irrational Creatures; and proceeds upon rational Motives. 1 2. And be not conformed to this World, but be ye transformed, by the renewing of your minds, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect Will of God. 2. The manner of doing this, must be by renouncing the finful Affections and Customs of the Men of this World; and being changed into new Men, by pure and spiritual Affections; that fo ye may difcern, and delight in, and practise those Precepts of substantial and complete Holiness, enjoined by the Gospel. And in order here unto, 3. I (by virtue of that Authority reposed in me, as the Apostle of Chrift) do admonish each of you, not to fet too high a Value upon 3. For I say, through the Grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more bigbly than be ought to think, but to think fober ly, according as God bath dealt to every man the meafure of Faith. himself, nor to despise others; but to be content with that Part and Station, which the Providence of God, and the Gifts vouchsafed him, have allotted to his share. 4. For, as it is in the Natural, so is it likewife in the Mystical Body. 5. There the Members are many, but united under one Head, 4. For as we have many Members in one Body, and all Members have not the fame Office; 5. So we being many, are one Body in Christ, and every one Members one of another. and mutually related to each other: Here again, the Persons are many, but all united in Christ. And, though some be higher and fome lower, fome more and fome less active and honourable; yet still this difference of Place and Office does not hinder the mutual Relation that there is, and the mutual Help and Usefulness that there ought to be, even between those, that are most diftant, in either of the respects abovementioned. T COMMENT. HE Church, when appointing this Portion of Scripture, treads exactly in the Steps of the Bleffed Apostle, that wrote it. He, in the foregoing Chapters, had vindicated, explained, and given due Honour to, the Wisdom and the Mercies of God, manifested in the glorious Privileges and univerfal Extent of the Gospel Difpenfation. He now proceeds to shew, what the Effect of these Confiderations ought to be, upon the Minds and Lives, of all who have embraced it. The Church, in like manner, from celebrating the Goodness of that God, in the Converfion Conversion of, and Manifestation of his Son and his Truth to, the Gentiles; makes it her next Care, to press the fame practical Doctrine, and to infinuate the abfolute Neceffity of walking worthy of the Ephef. iv. 1. Vocation wherewith we are called. I beseech you therefore, Brethren, by the Mercies of God, &c. Epift. for Epiph. That the abounding of Holiness, and Virtue, and every good Word and Work in us, ought to be the Fruit of our clearer Knowledge; and, that the Mercies of God, exhibited to Chriftians are, a Motive, not only proper and natural, but fufficiently strong for that purpose, hath, I hope, been, plainly and largely enough, demonstrated in a late Discourse. The Chapter now before us, is designed to specify the particular good Qualities, they are expected to produce. Which the Apostle hath here so artfully illustrated, that it may very well be looked upon as a perfect, though so short, a Body of Christian Morality. The explaining and urging these several Duties, as they deserve, is an Attempt at present impracticable, and by no means confistent with the Bounds, that ought to be set to Meditations of this kind. But in regard St. Paul reminds us of One Confideration, from whence an Obligation follows to every one (I think) of the Virtues here enjoined: I will make it my endeavour so to infift upon That, as at least to answer the end, though I do not industriously treat of every Part, of the Chapter. This method I the rather chuse, because, in other parts of the New Testament, we find the fame Argument so frequently and folemnly insisted on, as to prove the Weight of it. And that done, upon such Occafions, and to such Purposes, as seem abundantly to justify the Consequences, I am about to draw from it. This wili appear to any, who shall diligently compare this Twelfth to the Romans, with that of the first A 2 1 Cor. xii. Ephef. iva first Epistle to the Corinthians, and the fourth to the Ephesians. Which Passages I shall, as I find occafion, call in to my Assistance, for the better illuftrating and enforcing that which I am now taking in hand. The Foundation then of my Discourses, upon the Epistles for This, and the Two following Sundays, shall be laid in those Words at the fourth and fifth Verses: For as we have many Members in one Body, and all Members have not the fame Office; so we, being many, are one Body in Christ, and every one Members one of another. That these Words have a Retrospect to, and are a Reason for, the Duties that went before; is plain by the Connexion of the fourth with the third Verse, and the Division of the Epistle of the Day, which they close up. That they are manifeftly the Ground of those that follow, is clear from the Beginning of the fixth Verse; and may be yet more fo, from the Reason of the Thing. Now the Improvement I design to make of this Paffage, will fall under the two following Heads. First, The Nature of this Union, and mutual Relation declared here. Secondly, The Obligations arifing from thence, upon the Parties so united and related. 1. First, The Nature of this Union, and mutual Relation declared here, will be best difcerned, by the feveral Passages of Scripture, making mention of it. The principal whereof, besides that we are now treating of, are these that follow : As the Body is one, and bath many Members, and 1 Cor. xii. 12, 13, 14. all the Members of that one Body, being many, are one Body; so also is Chrift: for by one Spirit we are all baptized into one Body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made Ver. 27. to drink into one Spirit. For the Body is not one Member, but many. Now ye are the |