which God crowns it. In chap. vi. 5, the Apostle teaches, that a conformity to Christ's death, is the true standing in, and following up of this first step. In chap. vii. 6, he teaches that it is by this death alone, that we can serve in the newness of the spirit. In chap. viii. 5 and 6, he shows, that those "who are after the Spirit," that is, those who serve in the newness of the spirit, do thus acquire spiritual-mindedness, which "is life and peace." In verses 16 and 17, we are taught that the witness of the Spirit in those who are spiritually-minded, bears, not only that they are God's children and heirs, but also that they are joint-heirs in the sufferings, as well as in the glory of Christ; thus connecting suffering and glory together, as means to an end, in the minds of believers, and pre- · paring them to receive afflictions, as the way by which God would perfect them in the likeness, and lead them into the glory of Christ. Then take verse 27th, and observe how in it, God is represented as searching for hearts, thus prepared to receive the full training which belongs to the school of Christ, and to drink the cup which Christ drank; and how in it also, the assurance is given, that He will not pass over any who are really yielding themselves to the Spirit—for He knoweth the spiritual mind, and that not by his divine attribute of omniscience merely, but by sympathy, for the Spirit moulds the desires of the saints into a conformity with the will of God, xara Oy, as it is here, and He feels their oneness with Him. Then comes verse 28th, which is most important in connecting what goes before with what follows. "We know that to persons who are in such a state of spiritual mindedness, being xaтa, and who are in this verse described as loving God, and as having accepted His call to enter into His purpose, all things work together for good." That is, God has noticed them, and has taken them under his own especial charge-into the -school of his own children. See 1 Cor. viii. 3, where it is said, that "if any man love God, the same is known of him;" he does not escape God's notice. And God is not satisfied with merely noticing him-He makes all things work together forhis good. He takes him under a special discipline, after he is thus known of Him, έγνωσται ὑπ ἀντου. And this leads us to the 29th and 30th verses, which give the detail of God's dealing towards those in whom he has discovered the spiritual mind: "For whom He has thus known or marked as being already or previously in this prepared state of spiritual mindedness, them He introduces into the discipline, pre-ordained for carrying such learners forward to the perfect likeness of Christ;" which discipline consists in calling them to suffer with Christ, that he may make them partakers in his judicial award of life, and in his glory. This is the evidence from coherence, and from the laws of reasoning, which supports, and to my own reason and conscience, completely vindicates the translation which I have offered. And now, as a grammatical argument in support of this translation of I προγινωσκω, may adduce in addition to the example from Acts xxvi., another instance from chap. xi. 2, of this very Epistle, where I feel persuaded that no other sense, except that which has now been given, will suit the context. The Apostle, in the prospect of the national rejection of the Jews, is vindicating God from any suspicion of unfaithfulness to the spiritual-minded-the true Israel. "God hath not cast off His people,-those in whose hearts He has discovered the spiritual mind. For as in the days of Elias, the searcher of hearts knew and preserved for Himself those who had not bowed to the image of Baal, so now the true Israel may rest assured that He knows those that love Him, and that enter into His purpose, and that He will be with them, and preserve them for Himself, and will show Himself strong in their behalf." See 2 Chron. xvi. 9. It appears also to me, that gays, in 1 Peter i. 2, has a similar signification. Thus, "To the strangers of the dispersion, elect, (according as God the Father has marked them to be entering into His purpose,) to the sanctification of the Spirit, for bringing them into the obedience of Christ, and into a participation of his death," which is the sprinkling of his blood. γινωσκω, - If to know, is taken in the sense which it bears in Matt. vii. 23, and 1 Cor. viii. 3, the compound verb, yox, would necessarily have the sense which I attribute to it. The whole argument for the common translation of the passage, consists in an alleged usus loquendi, or ordinary use of the word, the existence of which usus, I have disproved, as far as the New Testament is concerned; for I have adduced more than one half of the instances in which the word occurs there, in support of the proposed translation. And as to the internal evidence on the question, I am sure that the reader will agree with me when I say, that it is all on the other side; for unquestionably the passage as it stands in our common translation, is as an embankment, drawn across the entire current of the argument of the Apostle, which stops it and prevents its flowing on to the conclusion which he had himself anticipated; it is the introduction of a new subject which supersedes and renders nugatory all that goes before, and infuses contradiction into all that follows; whereas, the interpretation offered, opens a clear unincumbered passage to the stream, receiving that which comes from above, and sending it on to the ground yet to be watered by it. A particular quality, described from its formation, till its developement, has been, through the whole course of the Epistle, held up before us as the object of God's approbation and blessing-and here, at this very point of the argument, which we have now reached, when God Himself, personally, is represented, as searching into the hearts of |