on.
At the date of this epistle Paul had not visited it. Chaps. 1:10-15;
15:23, 24. Of its _composition_, however, we have more certain
knowledge. Founded in the metropolis of the Roman empire, where, as we
know from many notices of ancient writers, many Jews resided, it must
have been of a mixed character, embracing both Jews and Gentiles; with
this agree the contents of the present epistle. That the Gentile element
largely predominated in the church at Rome appears from the general
tenor of the epistle. Chaps. 1:13; 11:13-25, 30, 31; 15:16. That it had
also a Jewish element is plain from the whole of chap 2, and the
precepts in chap. 14.

9. The _occasion_ of writing seems to have been of a general character.
The apostle had often purposed to visit Rome, but had been as often
hindered. Chap. 1:13. To compensate in part for this failure, he wrote
the present epistle, having, as it appears, an opportunity to send it by
Phebe, a deaconess of the church at Cenchrea. Chap. 16:1. The apostle's
_design_, like the occasion of his writing, was general. It was natural
that, in addressing a church which he had long desired to visit, he
should lay himself out to unfold the gospel of Christ in its deep
foundation principles, as a plan of salvation provided for the whole
world, and designed to unite Jews and Gentiles in one harmonious body,
on the common platform of faith in Christ. He first shows that the
Gentiles are under the dominion of sin (chap. 1:18-32), and the Jews
also (chap. 2), so that both alike are shut up to salvation by grace.
Chap. 3. He connects the gospel plan of salvation immediately with the
Old Testament by showing that Abraham, the father of the Israelitish
people, was justified by faith, not by the works of the law or any
outward rite; so that he is the father of all who walk in the steps of
his faith, whether Jews or Gentiles. Chap. 4. He then sets forth the
love of God in Christ, who is the second Adam, sent to restore the race
from the ruin into which it was brought by the sin of the first Adam
(chap. 5); and shows that to fallen sinful men the law cannot give
deliverance from either its condemnatory sentence or the reigning power
of sin, so that its only effect is to work wrath, while the
righteousness which God gives through faith in Christ sets men free from
both the curse of the law and the inward power of sin, thus bringing
them into a blessed state of justification, sanctification, and holy
communi