with relation to his son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was of the lineage of David as to his body,

but as to his holy spirit miraculously declared to be the son of God, by his resurrection from the dead:

by whose favour I have received the office of an apostle to bring the Gentiles every where to the obedience of faith preached in his name:

First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is celebrated through the whole world.

for God is my witness, to whom I am entirely devoted, in preaching the gospel of his son, that I constantly make mention of you, in my prayers, requesting,

or indeed that we may have mutual consolation from the faith which is in common to you and to me.

now I would not have you ignorant, my brethren, that I often purposed to come to you, tho' I have been hindered hitherto, that I might be useful among you as well as among other Gentiles.

so, that as far as it depends upon me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you also, who are at Rome.

for I am not ashamed of the gospel, since it is divinely effectual to salvation, to everyone that believes, to the Jew first, and then to the Gentile.

There it is that divine justification is revealed to be wholly by faith: as it is written, " the just shall live by faith."

there the divine wrath is revealed from heaven against all impiety, and injustice of men, who wickedly suppress the truth.

because when they knew God, they did not with gratitude glorify him as God, but their reasoning became extravagance, and their minds, void of judgment, were involv'd in darkness.

pretending to be wise, they became fools:

the honour due to God, who is immortal, they transferr'd to idols representing men, who are mortal, to birds, and beasts, and insects.

they changed the true God for an idol, and adored and served the creature more than the creator, who is blessed for ever.

As they did not seek the favour of God, by worshipping him, God gave them over to a depraved sense, to act unworthy of human nature;

but we know that the judgment of God against those who commit such crimes, is just.

since with God there is no respect of persons.

For as many as have sinned without the law, shall also perish without the law: and as many as have sinned under the law, shall be condemned by the law,

for not the bare hearers of the law, but they who observe the law, are such as shall be justified, before God.

you know the divine will, and what is contrary thereto, having been educated in the law:

for (as it is written) the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles by your miscarriages.

Circumcision indeed is an advantage, if you keep the law: but if you violate the law, your being a Jew makes you no better than a heathen.

if therefore an uncircumcised Gentile keep the moral precepts contained in the law, shall not he be reckon'd, as if he were circumcised?

and shall not a Gentile, tho' he is not actually circumcised, if he fulfil the law, condemn thee, who, tho' literally circumcised, dost yet transgress the law?

for it is not the Jew in outward appearance, neither is it the external mark of circumcision:

but it is the Jew, who is so inwardly, and it is the circumcision of the heart, according to the spiritual, not the literal sense, which have the approbation, I do not say of men, but of God.

What advantage then hath the Jew? or what benefit is there from circumcision?

the faithfulness of God of no effect? by no means; yea, let God be acknowledged to be true, tho' men should be all deceivers; as it is written, " that you might be justified in your sayings, and might overcome when you are judged."

but say you, "if our unfaithfulness displays the veracity of God, what shall we say? is it not injustice in God to inflict punishment?"

"but, say you, if the veracity of God hath appeared more illustrious thro' my unfaithfulness, why then am I condemned as a sinner?

and why may we not do evil, that good may come?" which is slanderously reported to be our maxim, by some, whose condemnation is just.

as it is written, " there is none righteous, no not one:

there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.

they are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable, there is none that doth good, no not one.

their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:

whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.

there is no fear of God before their eyes."

for by the observation of the law no one shall be justified in his sight, since it is the law that takes cognizance of sin.

but the divine justification certified by the law and the prophets, is now clearly proposed independently of the law:

that divine justification, which by faith in Jesus Christ is extended to all, that believe; for there is no distinction:

being justified by his unmerited favour through the redemption that is by Jesus Christ:

what reason then is there for boasting? it is excluded. what, by the ceremonial law? no: but by the law of faith.

for we conclude, that a man is justified by faith, without observing the legal rites.

is God the God of the Jews only, and not of the Gentiles? surely he is of the Gentiles too;

since it is one God, who will justify both the Jews and the Gentiles, through faith.

do we then make the law useless by our doctrine of faith? by no means; on the contrary, it is we that observe the law.

the reward is not counted as a favour to him that has done good actions, but as a debt:

whereas he that trusts in God to be made righteous, tho' he has not done such actions, shall find his faith accounted as righteousness.

even as David also speaks of the happiness of the man whom God accounted righteous independently of his works,

" happy are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.

happy is the man to whom the Lord will not account sin."

Is this happiness then for the circumcised only, or for the uncircumcised also? for we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness.

and he received the sign of circumcision, as a seal of the justification by that faith, which the uncircumcised have: that he might be the father of all those who believe, tho' they are uncircumcised, that it might be accounted to them also for righteousness:

and the father of the circumcised, that is of those who are not barely circumcised, but who imitate that faith which our father Abraham had, being yet uncircumcised.

for if they only who are of the law have right of possession, faith is made useless, and the promise becomes of no effect.

because the effect of the law is punishment: for if there had been no law, there could have been no transgression.

therefore the inheritance is of faith, that it might be meerly of favour, to the end the promise might be assured to all his posterity, not to that part only who have the law, but to that also who have the faith of Abraham, the father of us all, as it is written,

" I have made thee a father of many nations," then existing in the sight of God, whom he believed, who gives life to the dead, and calls forth things that are not, as if they were:

but for us also, to whom it shall be accounted, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead,

who has given us access by faith to that degree of favour, we are in, by which we triumph in the hopes of divine glory.

now hope will not deceive us, because the love of God is diffused thro' our hearts, by the holy spirit which is given to us;

for at the appointed time Christ died for us, when we were in a helpless, sinful state.

but herein hath God displayed his love towards us, in that Christ died for us, even while we were yet sinners.

Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, so death by this sin; and thereby death passed upon all men, who all by his means became mortal.

sin indeed was in the world all the time before the law: but then sin is not punished when there is no law.

nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned by violating a positive law, as did Adam, who is

the type of him that was to come: but yet the damage of the fall does not exactly correspond to the advantages of the divine favour: for tho' through the fall of one, mankind became mortal, yet this is greatly over-ballanced by the favour and bounty of God, in the benevolence of one man, Jesus Christ, to all mankind.

neither is the gift, as was the fall by one sin: for the sentence of condemnation, was for one offence; but the divine favour extends to justification from a multitude of sins.

Therefore as by one offence all men fell under condemnation: even so by one act of righteousness, all men are restored to life.

for as by one man's disobedience many receiv'd the punishment of sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many receive the reward of the righteous.

that as sin prevailed unto death, even so might the divine favour prevail by righteousness unto eternal life, thro' Jesus Christ our Lord.

Do we then conclude thus, let us continue in sin, that the divine favour may be more fully display'd?

therefore we are buried with him by being plunged into a sort of death: that as Christ was raised up from the dead into a state of glory with the father, even so we also should proceed to a new state of life.

knowing that Christ being raised from the dead, is to die no more; death hath no more dominion over him.

for as to his death, he died upon the account of sin once for all; but as to his being alive, he lives to the glory of God for ever.

in like manner consider your selves as dead to sin; but alive to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

neither yield your members as instruments to iniquity: but yield yourselves unto God, as being alive after having been dead; and your members as instruments of righteousness.

(I allude to civil affairs, because of your unacquaintedness with spiritual matters:) as then you made your natural faculties subservient to impurity, and all manner of vice; make them now subservient to virtue and holiness.

but now being set free from sin, and actually in the service of God, the present advantage you reap is holiness, and the future everlasting life.

for the wages of sin is death: but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

now a married woman is bound by the law to her living husband: but if her husband dieth, she is released from the marriage-contract.

wherefore she will be reputed an adulteress if she become another man's during her husband's life: but if her husband dies, she is clear from that law, from the imputation of being an adulteress, though she become another man's.

thus, my brethren, the law is become dead with respect to you by the body of Christ; that you might be subject to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

but now we are delivered by the death of the law, which held us in bondage: that we might serve according to the living spirit, and not in the dead letter of the law.

Do we then conclude, that the law is the cause of sin? by no means; but I should not have had such a notion of sin, had it not been for the law: for I should not have known concupiscence was a sin, unless the law had said, "thou shalt not covet."

wherefore the law is holy; and the commandment holy, and just, and good.

was it then good that brought death upon me? no, but it was sin, that sin might show it self by being able to bring death upon me by means of that which is good; that sin, I say, by the commandment might appear to be exceedingly destructive.

for we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold a slave to sin.

if then I do what I in my mind am against, the consent of my mind is, that the law is right.

now then, it is not wholly I that do it, but the sinful passions that dwell in me.

for I experience, that in the carnal part of me dwells no good: for it is familiar to me, to will, but not to execute that which is good.

now if I do that which my mind is against, it is not meerly I that do it, but sin that dwells in me.

I find then a settled custom, that evil is objected in my way whenever I have a mind to act well:

but I perceive in the animal part of me another law warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my animal part.

God having sent his own son invested with a body like that of sinful men, as a sacrifice for sin, thereby destroyed its power; which the law could not effect, human nature being in such a corrupted state.

so that the moral obligations of the law might be fulfilled by us, in living according to the spiritual, and not the carnal tenor thereof:

because a sensual disposition of mind is averse to God: for it is not subject to the divine law, nor indeed can it be.

so that they who are in a carnal state, cannot be acceptable to the divine being. as for you,

you are not in such a state, but in a spiritual one, provided the divine spirit dwell in you. now if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his.