f the Epistle
ignores. And the final doxology appears in different places in
different MSS., a fact which suggests that the early Church doubted
where the Epistle ended. No real importance need be attached to
another argument used by some critics, viz. that Marcion omitted xv.
and xvi. He would have rejected them, whether genuine or not, on
account of the sanction given to the Old Testament in xv. 4.

On the other hand, the integrity of the Epistle is maintained by some
of the best recent critics, including Sanday, Zahn, and Godet. The
best MSS. place the final doxology in its present position. The fact
that the majority of cursive MSS. and some valuable versions, such as
the later Syriac and the Armenian, place it at the end of xiv. seems to
be accounted for by the fact that the last two chapters were often
omitted in the lessons read in church, being considered unimportant for
the purposes of general edification. The fact that the Epistle seems
to come to an end at xv. 33, and also at xvi. 20, before the final
doxology in xvi. 27, suggests the best solution. It is that the
apostle, after concluding the argument of the Epistle, made various
{160} additions of a personal nature with reference to himself and his
friends as they occurred to his mind. He then summed up the whole
argument in xvi. 25-27, where the obedience of _faith_ is stated to be
the purpose of God's final revelation. The number of friends mentioned
in xvi. is not incredibly large when we remember the easy and frequent
intercourse which existed between Rome and the east.

[Sidenote: To whom written.]

"To all that are in Rome, beloved by God, called to be saints." It has
been well said that the universality of the gospel made St. Paul desire
to preach it in the universal city. He longed to "see Rome;" he was
conscious that Christ had called him to "bear witness at Rome." He
himself had the freedom of the city of Rome, and he was inspired with
the hope, which was fulfilled three hundred years afterwards, that the
religion of Christ would be the religion of the Roman empire. The
territory then ruled by Rome more nearly embraced the whole of the
civilized world than any empire that has since been seen. It included
London and Toledo, Constantinople and Jerusalem. Roman soldiers kept
their watch on the blue Danube, and were planting outposts on the
far-off grey Euphrates. The city of Rome itself contained about a
million and a half of inhab