when the Gentiles who have not the law, do by nature what the law prescribes, tho' these have not the law, they are a law to themselves:

in these words, "Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars; and I alone am left, and they seek my life also."

for if you were taken from the wild olive, which was natural to you, to be grafted into a good olive-stock of a different nature, with how much greater reason shall these who are the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive-tree?

but now there being no further occasion for me in these parts, and having had a great desire these many years to visit you;

for such as these serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own selfishness; and by flourish and flattery, deceive the open-hearted simple.