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,

if it be God's will, that I might now at length have the happiness of coming to you.

for I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, in order to establish you:

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."

for ever since the creation of the world, his eternal power and divinity, things in themselves invisible, are clearly seen, being perceived by the things that are made; so that they are without excuse:

wherefore God abandon'd them to the impure passions of their own hearts, so that they themselves dishonour'd their own bodies;

and the men unnaturally leaving the sex, were inflamed with mutual passions, which they shamefully indulged, and received in their own persons, the retribution that was justly due to such enormities.

who knowing the divine rule of right, did not perceive that they who commit such things are worthy of death, and not only they who do the same, but they who give countenance to those that do them.

Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art, that condemnest another, for by condemning them, you condemn yourself; since you that condemn them, do the same things.

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

do you think then, O man, who do what you condemn in others, that you shall escape the judgment of God?

or do you despise the riches of his kindness, and forbearance, and long-suffering; not considering that the kindness of God invites you to repentance?

tribulation and anguish to every one that doth evil, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile.

but glory, honour, and peace, to every man that acts right, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile:

for they shew that the duties prescrib'd by the law, are written in their hearts, their consciences bearing witness to it, by their own reasonings alternately accusing and excusing them.

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."

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.

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.

Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law: that every one may be silenc'd, and all the world plead guilty before God.

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.

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:

I say, his goodness at this time: that he might appear to be just, and the justifier of him who believes in Jesus.

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

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.

How then can we assert, "that Abraham our father obtained this from circumcision?"

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.

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.

Besides, the promise that he should possess the world, was not made to Abraham, or to his posterity in consideration of the law, but with regard to the righteousness by faith.

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:

he it was who against hope believed in hope, that he should become the father of many nations, according to what was told him, "so shall thy posterity be:"

by the full persuasion he had, that what he had promised, he was able also to perform.

now this saying, "that it was accounted to him," was not written for his sake alone,

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.

and not only so, but we triumph in tribulation also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, probation;

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

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.

the law was introduc'd, that the greatness of the fall might fully appear; but the more sin display'd its enormity, the divine favour was so much the more transcendent.

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?

God forbid, that we who have died to sin should live any longer therein.

don't you know that when we were all baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, we were plunged into a state figurative of his death.

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.

considering this, that our vicious passions were crucified with him, that the body of sin being destroyed, we might not any longer be vassals to sin.

since then we died with Christ, we are persuaded that we shall also live with him:

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

by no means. know ye not, that to whom ye subject your selves vassals at command, his vassals you are whom you thus obey; the vassals either of sin to destruction, or of obedience to justification?

but God be thanked, that you, who were the vassals of sin, have sincerely obeyed in the manner the gospel prescribed.

Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to Jews acquainted with the law) that the law hath authority over a man, till it be abrogated?

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.

for when we were in the carnal state of the law, the sinful passions of that state set our animal faculties to work in the service of death.

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."

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.

what I do I allow not: for what my mind leads me to, that do I not; but what I have an aversion to, that I do.

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.

for the good that I purpose to do, I do not: but the evil which I resolve against, that I do.

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:

O wretched man that I am, what shall deliver me from this body of death?

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:

for they that are sensually affected, abandon themselves to sensuality, but the spiritual pursue their spiritual entertainments.

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

for if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead, dwell in you; he that raised up Christ from the dead, shall likewise restore your mortal bodies to life, by his spirit that dwelleth in you.

for the spirit you have received is not servile to keep you still in fear; but it is the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba, that is, father.

the same spirit testifies to our spirit, that we are the children of God.

and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; although we now suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him.

for I consider, that the sufferings of this present life are infinitely over-ballanc'd by that glory which shall hereafter be discovered to us.

mankind impatiently desire that the divine being would display himself to his creatures,

for we know that the whole creation groans, and labours with general pain even to this day.

and he that penetrates into the heart approves what the spirit desires, because what he demands for the saints is agreeable to the divine will.

We know too, that all things co-operate for the good of those who love God, who, pursuant to his purpose, has now called them:

he that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, will he not with him likewise freely give us all things?

who shall condemn them? shall Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, and makes intercession for us?

yet after all we are more than conquerors, through him that loved us.

for I am fully persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

I call Christ, and the holy spirit to witness with my conscience, that I speak the truth without guile, when I say,

that I have great heaviness, and continual sorrow in my heart.

that is, the children by natural descent are not thereby the children of God: but the children of the promise are alone considered as his posterity.

for before they were born, and had done neither good or evil, that the distinction which God had purposed to make might appear to be, not in consideration of their actions, but of his own free call,

so that this is a matter not dependent on him that wills or runs, but on God, who shews mercy.

for 'tis said in scripture to Pharaoh, "even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth."

nay, but, O man, who art thou, to raise a dust against heaven? shall the pitcher say to him that formed it, "why hast thou made me thus?"

if the divine Being has patiently bore with those objects of his displeasure, that had been working out their own destruction, why may he not reveal himself to make them feel his vindictive power,