A PARAPHRASE AND COMMENTARY UPON THE EPISTLE OF Saint PAVL TO THE ROMANS By William Day M. A. Vicar of Mapledurham in the County of Oxon and Divinity Reader in his Majesties Free Chappel of Saint George within the Castle of Windsor The secret things belong unto the Lord our God But those things which are revealed belong to us and to our Children for ever Deut. 29.29 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theophylact in Argumento Epist ad Romanos LONDON Printed by S. Griffin for Joshua Kirton and are to be sold at his shop at the sign of the Kings Arms in Saint Pauls Church-yard 1666. IMPRIMATUR Perlegi Paraphrasin hanc cum Commentariis in Epistolam ad Romanos in quâ nihil reperio doctrinae disciplinaevè Ecclesiae Anglicanae aut bonis moribus contrarium Joh. Hall Rev. in Christo Pat. Domino Episc Lond. à sac Domest Ex Aedibus Londinens Feb. 20. 1664. Ornatissimis Doctissimis Viris Richardo Allestry D.T. Doctissimo sacrae Theologiae in Academia Oxoniensi Professori Regio Collegii â—egalis de Etona Praeposito Dignissimo Jacobo Fleetwood D. T. Et dignissimo Collegii Regalis de Cantabrigia Praeposito Omnibusque Vtriusque Collegii Sociis Hanc suam Paraphrasin unâ cum Commentariis in Epistolam Sancti Pauli ad Romanos Gulielmus DayVtriusque Collegii olim Alumnus Cantabrigiensis etiam Socius nunc autem Vicarius de Mapledurham in Comitat. Oxoniensi Praelector Theologiae in liberâ Capellâ Regiâ Sancti Georgii infra Castrum de Windesora D. D. D. The PREFACE THis Epistle of Saint Paul to the Romans is set in order of place before all other his Epistles not because it was before all the other in order of time but because it was written unto the Romans whose City at that time excelled all other Cities in dignity and renown and in preheminence of Rule and Dominion for if we look to the order of time in which they were written both the Epistles of Saint Paul to the Corinthians were written before this to the Romans For Saint Paul in his second Epistle to the Corinthians Chap. 8. and 9. Stirreth the Corinthians up to a liberall contribution for the poor Saints at Jerusalem But in his Epistle to the Romans Chap. 15. Ver. 25 26. He telleth the Romans that he was to go to Jerusalem to minister unto the Saints for it had pleased them of Macedonia and Achaia part of which was Corinth to make a certain contribution for the poor Saints which were at Jerusalem This contribution therefore was perfected then when he wrote his Epistle to the Romans which was not made when he wrote to the Corinthians and therefore his Epistles to the Corinthians were in order of time written before his Epistle to the Romans though his Epistle to the Romans hath in order of place the Priority before his Epistles to the Corinthians Saint Paul wrote this Epistle in the Greek tongue though he wrote to the Romans whose language was the Latine Because the principle Subject or Argument of this Epistle was not some occasional matter as the Subject or Argument of other his Epistles was but such a Subject or such an Argument in which there was no Church but was concerned For the principle Subject or Argument of this Epistle conteins in a manner the sum of the Gospel or Doctrine of Christ And therefore though he dedicates it as it were to the Church or Saints which were at Rome because Rome was the head City of all the Gentiles and from thence by the frequency of men of all Nations and Countries resorting thither the truth might be carried and spread abroad among other people yet is it likely that he did intend to communicate it to other Churches also and to send them Copies thereof for their instruction and confirmation And for such a purpose it was more suteable to write in the Greek tongue then in the Latine For the Greek was the tongue which was then most generally known and used which even the Roman women could speak and by which Strangers and Travellers had commerce with and understanding one of another But the Latine tongue though it be now the tongue most generally learned and known yet was it at that time confined within narrow limits and not a generall language which Tully confesseth in his Oration pro Archia Poeta For Graeca saith he leguntur in omnibus fere Gentibus Latina suis finibus exiguis sanè continentur That is The Greek writings are read almost in all Nations but the Latine are contained within their own bounds and those but small ones too But of this See more in Brerewoods Enquiries touching the diversity of Languages Chap. 1. and 3. CHAP. I. As for the Subject of this Epistle it is partly Doctrinal and partly Moral And the Doctrinal part thereof is chiefly concerning Justification which he teacheth to be not by Works of the Law but by the Faith of Christ CHAP. II. and III. He teacheth that Justification is not by the works of the Law for that all had sinned both Jews and Gentiles And this that all had sinned he shews as to the Gentiles Chap. 1. from verse 19. to the end of that Chapter And as to the Jews he sheweth it Chap. 2. and 3. from the first verse of the second Chapter to the one and twentieth of the third And by the way he sheweth also that a Jew is not justified neither as he is a Jew according to the flesh neither as he hath the Law and the knowledge thereof neither as he is circumcised and having shewed both of the Jewes and of the Gentiles that they have all of them sinned he concludes that therefore by the deeds of the Law no flesh shall be justified in the sight of God Chap. 3. ver 20. Then verse 21. He shews That Justification is by the Faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe CHAP. IV. Having shewed that none are justified by the works of the Law but by Faith in the fourth Chapter he proves and makes that good which he had said concerning Justification by the example of Abraham and shewes that Abraham who was not unworthily in high esteem among the Jewes was not justified by the Workes of the Law but by Faith CHAP. V. Having thus done in the fifth Chapter he sheweth the blessedness of those which are justified by faith through Christ And at the 12. verse thereof he shews how that original sin entred into the world through Adam and death by sin declaring thereby what Miserie 's both of Sin and Punishment accrued to us by that first man that he might take occasion from thence to magnifie the benefit which we have by Christ by the gratious pardon not onely of that original sin but also of all our actual sins c. So that when sin abounded Grace as he speaks Chap. 5. verse 20. did much more abound CHAP. VI. But now least any one which had been justified by
there is no proportion betwixt his works and that glory which shall be revealed in the Saints But perhaps you will say that eternal glory would be due to such a one for his works by a contract or covenant of works which God made with Adam But suppose that God had made such a covenant or a contract with Adam yet would not eternal glory be due to the works of such a man of debt without the grace and favour of God For it would have been the meer grace and favour of God to covenant or promise such a reward to such a man for his works nor would that reward which is due even to such works upon this account be due to them of merit which is that which our Apostle means by debt Rom. 4.4 c. but onely by reason of that gratious promise or covenant by which God freely and graciously bound himself to reward the works of such a man with eternal glory so that in our Apostles language the reward would be still of grace For if the covenant or promise which God made to Adam of rewarding such works with eternal glory were enough to make the reward to be due to such works of debt and not of grace Why should not the New Covenant or Promise which God hath made to them which believe that he will reward their Faith if they continue in it to the End with eternal glory as Saint John 3.16 c. make the reward to be due to Faith of debt and not of grace as well as that old Covenant would to works But yet notwithstanding the Apostle saith The reward is therefore of Faith that it might be by grace Rom. 4.16 The Election therefore which the Apostle speaks of Rom. 11.5 cannot be an Election immediately to glory And if the Election there spoken of cannot be immediately to glory then surely neither is the Election here spoken of viz. Rom. 9.11 an Election immediately to eternal glory But may justification be a reward due to works of debt that is suppose that a man did perfectly keep the Law and as exactly as the Law requireth as suppose Adam would have done if he had continued in his innocency would justification be due to him of debt by reason of his works and not of Grace I answer it would be due to him of debt and not of grace For with reverence be it spoken God would be unjust if when such a one as had exactly kept the Law and never broke it at any time in the least tittle thereof should be accused as a sinner before him he should not justifie him that is if he should not acquit him and clear him of sin but should condemn him for a sinner But that there should be unrighteousness with God God forbid for then how should God judge the World And thus by what I have said it may appear that the Election which is spoken of Rom. 9.11 is immediately not to eternal Glory but to justification Now in the last place as God may be said to Elect or choose and doth elect or choose men in time and as he may be said to elect or choose men in being in time to justification and doth so elect them So his Election of such is as I conceive by his actual but free and gratious taking of them by justifying them out of the number of those which are not justified For a man may be said to make choice of a thing by some external but free action of his towards or about the thing which he is said to choose For when certain of those which were bidden to a dinner sat down in the highest places our Saviour is said to have marked them how they chose out the chiefest rooms Luke 14.7 They chose therefore the highest or chiefest rooms by their seating themselves in them For to sit down in the highest Rooms and to choose the highest rooms are there both one And when our Saviour said when thou art bidden to a wedding sit not down in the highest room Luke 14.8 It is as if he should say when thou art bidden to a wedding choose not the highest room Now as a man may be said to make choice of a thing by some external but free action of his towards or about the thing which he is said to choose so may God But to come closser to the business in hand and to shew you how God chooseth whom he chooseth in time It is said to Israel Deut. 7. ver 6 7. Thou art an holy People unto the Lord thy God and the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself above all the Nations that are upon the face of the Earth The Lord did not set his love upon you nor choose you because you were more in number than any people for ye were the fewest of all people but because the Lord loved you and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your Fathers hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of bondage from the hand of Pharaoh King of Aegypt Here we see how God chose Israel it was by bringing them out of Aegypt and redeeming them out of the house of bondage by which he took them to be a peculiar people to himself And so in all those places aforementioned which mention Gods choosing in time we may say that God is said actually to have chosen them of whom he speaks when he did put them into that Estate into which he saith he would choose them But that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be taken and is often taken for the actual choosing of a thing by a real and actual separating of that thing from other things which are left See Badoeus in his Commentaries Page 645. Now the Apostle may seem to make choise of this word Election for Justification in this place of Rom. 9.6 not only to shew Gods free act about the believer viz. that he so justified him as that he might choose whether he would have justified him or no because he could not challenge it of debt But also to shew that whereas one Jew stood for justification because of his discent from Abraham according to the flesh Another because he sought it by works And the Believer sought it by faith God chose the Believer though a Gentile and justified him whereas he passed by those Jews If it be asked therefore who it is which God thus chooseth or purposed thus to Elect to justification I say it is the Believer For whatsoever Gods primary decree was in the execution of that decree and in the bringing of men to justification or salvation in time he justifies none but such as do first truely believe and all such he justifieth and he saveth none but such as do truely believe and persevere therein to the end and all such he will save and so to do in time and to observe that order he purposed to do from eternity
Church of God that is the company of them which served him were to do when the Law was dead or ceased otherwise not to be taken for his Church or any of them for Members thereof Note that the Church of God is but one and was but one from the beginning though that Oeconomy thereof as I may so term it was divers in divers times according to the Will and Wisedom of God Though the greatest part of the Jews were broken off from the Olive-tree by those means which I have spoken of that is by their unbelief and disobedience to the Gospel of Christ yet God left them not without all means of being engraffed into the same again which our Apostle seems to say when he saith If the root be holy so are the branches and that by reason of the promise of God that God would be a God to Abraham and to his seed in their generations and that he would never utterly forsake them to destroy them Of which I have spoken before in the word Foreknow In the first to the Corinthians 7.14 The Apostle saith that the children of such parents whereof one is a Believer the other an Vnbeliever if their Parents live together are holy And therefore are they called holy not because they would otherwise be Bastards but because by reason of their Parents living together they would have by their believing Parent the means of salvation and the opportunity of coming to the knowledge of Christ which the Children of those Parents which were both Infidels or where both were not Infidels yet if they parted one from the other the children being in danger to follow the unbelieving parent had not and now if such children may be called holy because they had this Advantage above the children of Infidels How much more may the Jews be called holy yea even then when they are broken off from the Olive tree and have lost that part of holiness which consisted in being actual members of the Church of God and part of the people which served him during the time of their unbelief when as God hath promised not so to leave them as that they should be utterly without all means of salvation IN. In is a Preposition which the Apostle useth with more variety of significations then the Greeks do their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Latines their In. And this he doth because he useth it as the Hebrews use their praefix Beth which though it doth most commonly signifie In. Yet they put it for almost any Praefix or preposition whatsoever TO JVSTIFIE TO BE JVSTIFIED JVSTIFICATION To justifie as it is most frequently used in this Epistle of Saint Paul is a Law term used and borrowed from Courts of Justice wherein he is said to be justified who is absolved or freed or acquited or cleared from some capitall crime whereof he was accused by the Sentence pronounced by the Judge and being acquited or absolved from the Crime is also absolved or acquited from the punishment which the Accusers asked against him as due to the crime whereof they accused him and is dealt with as with an innocent and upright man Hence to be justified and to be condemned are opposed as contraries one to another as Mat. 12.37 By thy works thou shalt be justified and by thy works thou shalt be condemned To be justified therefore is for a man to be absolved or acquited by the Judge from those crimes and accusations which are laid to his charge by his accusers Now he that is accused may be either an upright and innocent man or he may be a Delinquent or Offender And either of these may be justified that is may be acquited of the crimes laid to his charge and the punishmont due to those crimes by this Judge The former that is to say the upright and innocent man by reason of his innocency or by reason of that that he was not found guilty of the crimes whereof he was accused The other to wit the Delinquent or Offender by reason of the mercy and favour of the Judge to him who notwithstanding that that he was guilty of the crimes laid to his charge did acquit him of the Action or Accusations put in against him and absolve him from it and give him a free pardon of those his offences To the first to be justified or to be cleared or absolved from the accusation wherewith he was accused did appertain of due or of right or of justice For the Judge would have been unjust if he had not acquited him But to the Second to be justified or to be cleared or absolved from the accusation wherewith he was accused was meerly an Act of grace and favour in that the judge did out of Grace and favour acquit him or absolve or clear him from the action or crime laid unto his charge and the punishment thereunto due and did pardon his offences whereas he might justly have condemned him for them Now according to this or in allusion to this which I have said He that doth the works of the Law so strictly and exactly as the Law requireth is said by our Apostle to be justified by his works for the doers of the Law shall be justified saith he Rom. 2.13 That is they shall be justified by their doing the Law And they which are so justified are said to be justified of debt For to him that worketh is the reward which is Justification not reckoned of grace but of debt saith our Apostle Rom. 4.4 And again If it to wit justification be of works then it is not of grace otherwise work is no more work saith he Rom. 11.6 And indeed if Satan should accuse such a one before God as a sinner and require that he might be cast into the same condemnation with himself God would with reverence be it spoken be unjust if he should not acquit him and clear him of that for which Satan accused him and this justification may be called the justification of an innocent or righteous man Again according to that which I said Is he which believeth justified For a man which Believeth is justified by his faith Rom. 3.27 But this justification is not of debt but of Grace For therefore it is of faith that it may be by grace saith our Apostle Rom. 4.16 I say such a man which believeth is said to be justified because though Satan should accuse him before God the Judge of all as such a one who hath broken the Law and should require of him that he should be damned for it yet would God absolve him and give him a free pardon of all his sins and deal with him as with an innocent and righteous man for Jesus Christ his sake in whom he believeth And this may be called the justification of a sinner The justification of the former man is reckoned to him for his works sake The justification of this latter is imputed to him through the Grace and mercy of God in Christ Jesus and
would be due not of debt but of grace But they are not requisite to justification for they follow it But yet they are requisite to Eternal Salvation For If we live after the flesh we shall die but if through the Spirit we mortifie the deeds of the flesh we shall live Rom. 8.13 But yet though the works which Saint Paul speaks of do require a most exact conformity with the Law throughout a mans whole life without the least interruption or deviation from the Law otherwise a man cannot be justified by them yet may a man be saved though after his justification by faith when the works which Saint James speaks of do begin there be some failer in those his works and they do not exactly answer the rigour of the Law To these words which I have treated of might be added the Explication of other words but because they will be found sufficiently explained as I hope in their places in these ensuing Commentaries I add no more But as the Explication of these words afore explained is convenient for the better understanding of divers passages of this Epistle so would the explication of those Figures of Speech which Saint Paul useth be for the Vulgar who are unacquainted with them But because I have been more large upon these elsewhere viz. in the Preface of my aforenamed Book I shall be the briefer here and only give the description of those following to wit Metaschematismus Prosopopoeia Synechdoche with some examples of each METASCHEMATISMVS 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Metaschematismus is a Figure by which a man speaks of that as done by himself and in his own person which was done or acted by others in their persons An evident example of this we have 1 Cor. 4 6. where Saint Paul when he had spoken of some things which were done by others as if they had been done by himself and by Apollos saith And these things Brethren I have in a Figure transferred to my self and to Apollos for your sakes c. This same Figure doth Saint Paul also use Rom. 7. verse 7. c. where he saith I had not known sin but by the Law and so forward For from that place to the end of the Chapter he acts in his own person a Jew or rather the whole people of the Jews among whom were divers of divers dispositions as they lived both before and under the Law and transfers their manners and doings to himself And that it may not seem uncouth for one man to act the part of a whole people and that in several estates in his own single Person That Polite Historian L. Florus considered the people of Rome in their several ages and estates as one single Man For Siquis populum Romanum quasi hominem consideret totamque ejus aetatem percenseat ut coeperit atque adoleverit ut quasi ad inventae florem pervenerit ut postea velut Consenuerit quaâ—â—or gradus processusque ejus inveniet saith he in the Proaeme of his History i. e. If any one shall consider the people of Rome as it were a man and throughly consider its whole age how it began how it grew up to its stripling and how it came to its more manly age and how afterwards it did as it were wax old he shall find as it were four degrees or proceedings thereof c. But that I may take occasion here to speak more fully of those whom Saint Paul personates from the seventh Verse of the seventh Chapter to the Romans to the end thereof I conceive that the Apostle doth from those words of the seventh Verse of that Chapter viz. Nay I had not known sin but by the Law c. and so forward 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that he speaks not in his own peroson but in the person of others that is that he personates here the people of Israel that is the Jews which lived both before the Law and under the Law which was given by Moses and so personates them as if they were but one single Man and yet not all the Jews neither but the greatest part of them and these considered not as they might have been for surely they might have been better if they had put out themselves to the utmost and used their utmost endeavours to have been better but as they were And they were for the most part of them a carnal untoward stubborn and rebellious people and a people of the worst Natures I said first that the Apostle doth not as I conceive speak here in his own person nor yet in the person of a regenerate man for reasons which I gave in my Commentaries on those words Ver. 14. But I am carnal sold under sin Secondly I said that the Apostle doth speak here in the person of the People of Israel or of the Jews for it is most evident that in the former part of the Chapter he spoke of the Jews and they are they who he said were delivered from the Law wherein they were held that they should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the Letter verse 6. And from that that the Apostle said that they had lived in the oldness of the Letter is the ground of that Objection which is made in the seventh verse viz. What shall we say then is the Law sin which Objection the Apostle could not better or more aptly answer than by shewing what kind of people the Jews were both as they lived before and under the Law and thereby clear the Law of sin And therefore doth he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or take upon him their person Thirdly I said that he doth not here personate all the Jews and therefore I said it because all the Jews were not such as he speaks of here to wit carnal and sold under sin and such as in whom sin wrought all manner of concupiscence for it is written of Zachary and Elizabeth his Wife that they were both righteous before God walking in all the ordinances and commandments of the Lord blameless Luke 1.6 Of David it is said that he did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded him all the dayes of his life save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite 1 Kings 15.5 And of Asa that his heart was perfect with the Lord all his dayes ibid. ver 14. The like we read of others which lived under the Law And what shall we say of Isaiah Jeremy and other Prophets of the Lord what of those worthy Jews which the Apostle commendeth Heb. 11. shall we say that they were carnal sold under sin and that they were forges of all manner of concupiscence where doth ever the Scripture speak such things of such men These and all such as these were were not carnal but spiritual and though they lived under the Law that is under the obligation of the Law yet were they not under the imperfection of
And when they avoid Pag 287. col 1. lin 17. read Sanctified or consecrated Pag 288. col 2. lin 38. read Which is of the Dative lin 40. In Latine A PARAPHRASE and EXPOSITION ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS ROMANS CHAP. I. 1. PAul a Servant of Jesus Christ called to be an Apostle separated unto the Gospel of God 1. Paul a Servant of Jesus Christ and an Apostle not which intruded himself into that Office but which was called to the Apostleship and separated by the Holy Ghost unto the Ministery and Preaching of the Gospel of God 2. Which he had promised afore by his Prophets in the holy Scriptures 2. Which Gospel he had promised long before it was revealed by his Prophets in the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament 3. Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh 3. Which Gospell was concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord who was made of the seed or born of the Posterity of David according to his humane Nature 4. And declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of Holinesse by the Resurrection from the dead 4. And was the Son of God and declared so to be by the power which he shewed by his Resurrection from the Dead according to his Divine Nature 5. By whom we have received Grace and Apostleship for Obedience to the faith among all Nations for his name 5. By whom we have received the grace or free gift of Apostleship for this end that all Nations may by our Ministery or Apostleship come to the obedience of the Faith or to belief of the Gospel that so his Name may be glorified throughout all the Earth 6. Among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ 6. Among which Nations are ye also the called of Christ Jesus whom Christ Jesus hath effectually called to the grace of that his Gospel 7 To all that be in Rome beloved of God called to be Saints Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ 7. I Paul I say do wish all happinesse both temporall and eternall to all that be at Rome whether they be Jews or Gentiles Noble or Ignoble Bond or Free which are beloved of God and Saints effectually called to holinesse saying Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ 8. First I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world 8. Now I thank my God through Jesus Christ our only Mediatour for you all that your faith is such and so illustrious as that it is spoken of and talked of throughout the whole world 9. For God is my witnesse whom I serve with my spirit in the Gospel of his Son that without ceasing I make mention of you alwayes in my prayers 9. And think not I pray that when I say I thank my God for this that I do complement with you for God is my witnesse whom I serve with all my heart faithfully and sincerely in the Ministery of the Gospel of his Son that without ceasing I make mention of you alwayes in my prayers giving thanks to him for all the blessings which he hath bestowed upon you 10. Making request if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you 10. And also making request if by any means I might have a prosperous journey to Rome by the good will and pleasure of God to come unto you 11. For I long to see you that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift to the end you may be established 11. For I even long to see you not that I might receive any thing from you but that I may impart some of those spiritual gifts which God hath given me to you for this end that you may be established in the faith of the holy Gospel which ye have received 12. That is that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me 12. That is that we may be comforted together when I am among you by the mutual faith both of you and me I in you when I see the steadfastnesse of your faith and you in me when you see the stedfastnesse of mine 13. Now I would not have you ignorant Brethren that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you but was let hitherto that I might have some fruit among you also even as among other Gentiles 13. Now because I said that I long to see you that you may not think that my heart doth not go along with my words I would have you know Brethren that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you but was let hitherto that I might preach the Gospel to you that so I might have some fruit among you also even as I have among other Gentiles by the joy which I have by their obedience thereunto 14. I am debter both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians both to the wise and to the unwise 14 For I am bound by vertue of my Apostleship and also by the command of God to preach the Gospel to the Greeks and to the Barbarians to the wise and to the unwise 15. So as much as in me is I am ready to preach the Gospel to you that are at Rome also 15. So that as much as is in me I am ready to preach the Gospel not to ignorant people only which dwell in obscure parts of the world who may be easily deceived and before whom a man may freely vent that which he would be ashamed to say before learned and knowing men such at are Citizens or Inhabitants of great and famous Cities and places of literature But to you which are at Rome also the Mistress of the world the Receptacle and Nurse of the highest Wits 16. For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth to the Jew first and also to the Greek 16. For though some account the Gospel of Christ to be meere foolishness yet I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ neither to professe it nor yet to preach it For so far is it from foolishness as that it is a powerful instrument which God useth to bring every one that believeth to salvation the Jew first and then the Gentile 17. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to saith as it is written The just shall live by faith 17. For therein is the righteousness and justification of which God is the Author and by which we are justified before him revealed and made manifest and not onely revealed and made manifest but thereby conveyed and conferred as by an instrument upon men A Righteousnesse and Justification which is of faith and which is revealed to this end that it might gain faith and be believed of them to whom
it is revealed I say a Righteousnesse or Justification which is of faith for that you may know that I speak not of any new thing or that I vent a figment of mine own brain it is written Habakkuk 2.4 That the just shall be justified by their faith 18. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness 18 A man shall not be justified by his works as they teach who are the greatest opposers of righteousnesse or justification by faith for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven both by his word and by the plagues which we see poured down upon sinners against the ungodlinesse and against the unrighteousnesse of all men whether they be Jewes or Gentiles because they hold the known truth which they have both of godlinesse and righteousnesse in ungodlinesse and in unrighteousnesse as in a Prison so that the known truth which they have thereof can no more shew it self nor no more go forth into good or virtuous deeds or actions than a Prisoner can shew himself or go forth which is shut up or imprisoned in a close Prison or Dungeon 19. Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them For God hath shewed it unto them 19. But some man may here object and say That surely the Gentiles do not hold the known truth of godliness and righteousness in ungodliness and unrighteousness for being that they never had the Law given to them as the Jews had they cannot have the true knowledge of godliness and righteousness as the Jews have But to this I answer That the Gentiles though they had not the Law given to them as the Jews had to whom it was given fairly written in Tables of Stone yet they have the true knowledge both of godliness and of righteousness For to speak of Righteousness first which concerns our duty towards our Neighbour the Gentiles have the true knowledge of this because that which God hath appointed by his Law to be done by one neighbour to another is manifest to them for God hath shewed it unto them by that light of Nature which he hath set up in their hearts 20. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the World are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and God-head so that they are without excuse 20. And as for Godlinesse which concerns our duty towards God They have the true knowledge of this also for those things of God which cannot be seen by our bodily eyes nor perceived by our outward senses to wit his eternal power and God-head by which understand his Providence and Goodness to his Creatures too have been ever since the world was made and are clearly known being understood by the things which are created so that the Gentiles are without excuse 21. Because that when they knew God they glorified him not as God neither were thankful but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkned 21. Because that when they knew God to be a powerfull God and a good God ruling by his Providence and providing for his Creatures all things which were necessary and convenient for them they glorified him not neither were thankful to him for his benefits but became vain in their imaginations and had their foolish heart darkned and over-spread with mists of errour 22. Professing themselves to be wise they became fools 22. And though they professed themselves to be wise yet they became fools 23. And changed the Glory of the uncorruptible God into an Image made like to corruptible man and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things 23. For they changed the glorious and incorruptible God whom they should have adored for an Image made like to corruptible man and for birds as the Ibis and for four-footed beasts as Crocodiles Wolves Lions Dogs Cats c. And for creeping things as Serpents Fishes c. And for their Images giving Divine Worship to them 24. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts to dishonour their own bodies between themselves 24. Wherefore God did in the way of retaliation to them give them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts which he restrained not to dishonour their own bodies between themselves 25. Who changed the truth of God into a lie and worshipped and served the Creature more than the Creator who is blessed for ever Amen 25. Because they changed the true God for that which was not God and worshipped and served the creature passing by the Creator so dishonouring him who is blessed for ever though they thus neglect and passe him by And ever may he be blessed Amen 26. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections for even their women did change their naturall use into that with is against nature 26. For this cause I say God gave them up to vile affections and base lusts to be slaves to them and to obey them and to do whatsoever they tempted them or moved them to For even their women did change the natural use of their bodies into that which is against nature carrying themselves as men in those acts which should tend to Generation 27. And likewise also the men leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust one toward another men with men working that which is unseemly and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet 27. And likewise also the men leaving the natural use of the woman which is such as husbands have of their wives became Buggerers Ganimedes and Catamites c. and burned in their lust one towards another men with men working that which is most filthy and more than beastly and receiving by hemselves themselves being the Authors and Actors of their own shame and punishment that recompence of their wickednesse and of their dishonour which they did to God which was meet and answerable in a general way to their sin 28. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledg God gave them over to a Reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient 28. And even as they did not approbate or like to retain God in their knowledge by worshipping him whose worship would have been as a Remembrancer to them of him so he gave them over to a reprobate or base mind a mind so perversly judging of virtue and vice as that it called evill good and good evill light darknesse and darknesse light bitter sweet and sweet bitter that they might do those things which are most foul and worthy even of eternal death 29. Being filled with all unrighteousnesse fornication wickednesse covetousnesse maliciousnesse full of envy murther debate deceit malignity whisperers 29. So that they were filled with all unrighteousnesse fornication wickednesse covetousnesse maliciousnesse and were full of envy murther debate deceit malignity and became
because God is the Author of it and because we are thereby justified before God Revealed The Righteousness of God is not only revealed or manifested in the Gospel but it is exhibited also and wrought by the Gospel so that by these words For therein is the Righteousness of God revealed We must understand effectuall Revelation and that justification is not onely manifested in the Gospel but also that it is exhibited and wrought thereby by an Hebrew Syllepsis For the Hebrewes do oftentimes with the Antecedent Sylleptically understand the consequent also Note that the Apostle doth go about here to prove that which he said before in the 16. verse To wit That the Gospel is the power of God to Salvation to every one that believeth But he proveth it by parts For whereas Salvation compleat consisteth of two parts justification and glorification He proves it of justification here in this verse and of glorification Chap. 5. Where he saith that being justified by Faith we rejoyce in the hope of the glory of God which hope maketh not ashamed c. From Faith Repeat those words the Righteousness of God here q. d. I say the Righteousness of God which is not from or by works but from or by Faith Or refer these words from Faith To those the Righteousness of God that the Sentence may run thus therein the Righteousness of God which is from Faith is revealed The words in the Originall are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth here the instrumental cause as some call it Or the Condition required in him that would be justified As others which they so call because Faith is a condition required on our part in that new Covenant which it pleased God to make with us for justification Now that we may understand what that Faith is which is here required and mentioned as a cause or condition of our Justification I say that the faith here required is an explicite and firm assent to the Gospel of God or at least to so much thereof as containeth the New Covenant and all the Essential Parts thereof which it pleased God through Christ to make with man in his Misery for his Salvation and to reveale in the Gospel an assent so firm so strong and arising so high as that it doth immediately and infallibly set the Believer on work as he hath opportunity to do those things which God requireth on mans part to be done in that Covenant He that hath such a faith cannot but trust in God nor can he be without repentance Whosoever hath such a faith as this and thus believeth I doubt not from this and other the like places but that he hath a justifying Faith and that by reason of this his Faith God will deal with him as with a Just and Righteous Man and as though he had never transgressed the Law of God But I dare not call that a Justifying Faith which cometh not up to this There be many which read Histories and give credit to the Histories which they read yet they only read them because they are delighted with them and with the various passages and accidents therein contained without any regard of imitating them or putting what they read in practice If any one should so read or hear the Gospel he may be said so have an Historical Faith but a Justifying Faith he hath not For good works can no more be separated from a true justifying faith than light can from the Sun or heat can from the fire For faith without works is dead James 2.20 And was not Abraham our Father justified by works saith Saint James James 2.20 That is was not Abraham our Father justified by faith such a faith as produceth works For Saint James puts works there by a Metonymie of the effect for a faith which produceth works Object But you will say There is a great deal of strength required to such a faith as this but God accepteth even of a weak faith Answ To this I answer That faith may be considered two manner of wayes First in Genere Entis Secondly in Genere Morum as I may so speak In Genere Entis that is a true faith which assenteth to the word of God as to that which is Truth In Genere Morum that and that onely is a true faith which so assenteth to the word of God as that it setteth the believer infallibly on good works as he hath strength and opportunity to do them The former faith God accepteth not of be it what it will be and as strong as may be while it is only faith in Genere Entis But as for the latter that faith which is true faith in Genere Morum God accepteth of though it be never so weak being sincere From faith to faith i. e. From a faith which ought not to stand at a stay but to go on from a lesser to a greater faith So some which referr the words to faith to the words immediately going before them viz. from faith But I think the words To faith may be better referred to the word revealed than to the words immediately going before them As if he should say Therein is the Righteousness of God revealed a Righteousness which is of faith And it is revealed for this end that men may believe or yield their faith to that which is revealed The last words in the Greek are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which I conceive to be the same for sence with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 verse 5. which is there rendered for Obedience to the faith And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 chap. 16. vers 26. which is there rendered for the Obedience of faith In both which places the end is set down why the Mistery of the Gospel is revealed which is that it might be believed and received by faith And as there so here the end may be set down why the Righteousness of God is revealed in the Gospel which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for faith That is for this end that it may gain faith and be believed of the Sons of Men. Note therefore that the Praeposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is here may be rendred For and be a sign of the Final cause as it is verse 5. of this Chapter and Chap. 16. v. 26. Now if Justification by faith be revealed for faith That is That men may believe Then ought the Apostle to preach the Gospel wherein this Justification is revealed For how shall they believe except they hear and how shall they hear without a Preacher chap. 10.14 By this therefore may the Apostle also intimate that he is a debter and ready to preach the Gospel to the Romans also Justification by faith was the great Controversie at this time between Paul and the Jews and this is that which is the main drift of this Epistle to shew that justification is by Faith and this he now falleth upon as his chief businesse though he seemeth to speak of it
only occasionally For the Apostle is wont by occasion of other matters which he affirmeth and would prove to slip as it were to his main purpose so he doth Gal. 2.16 And in other places as well as here As it is written To wit Habakkuk 2.4 The Just shall live by Faith i. e. The Just-man shall be justified not by his works though he be called just but by Faith Or thus he that shall be justified shall be justified by Faith The Apostle proveth here by the Testimony of the Prophet Habakkuk that the Righteousnesse of God is by Faith But note that these words as they lie in the Prophet as many words and passages in the old Testament do carry a twofold sence with them A Literal and a mysticall In their literal sence they relate to the Jewes which were in Captivitie to the Babilonians In their mystical sence they relate to men as they are under sin and guilty of the punishments due to sin to wit death c. And therefore have these words this double relation because the things thereby signified are One the Type of the Other the former of the latter The Captivity of the Jews under the Babylonians of the Captivity of Man under Sin and Death and him which hath the power of death the Devil For it is very well known that the Captivity of the Jews under the Babilonians was a Type of the Captivity of Man under Sin and Death and him which hath the power of Death the Devil And that the messages and good news which God sent by his Prophets of the delivery of the Jewes out of the Babylonian Captivity was a Type of the Gospel and good newes of Mans salvation out of his spirituall captivity which was preached by Christ and his Apostles and that Cyrus whom God had used as an Instrument to deliver the Jews from the Babylonians was a Type of Christ by whom Man is delivered from Sin and Death and the Devil And when one of these is prophesied of in the Letter the other is prophesied of in the Mysterie Yea and while things of this nature are thus prophesied of the Holy Ghost doth oftentimes so order and guide the Penman of his Prophesies that some passages will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in word agree aswell to the one as to the other aswel to the Type as to the Antitype of which this parcell of Scripture written by the Prophet Habakkuk is one According to the literal sence therefore these words as they lie in the Prophet Habakkuk may be thus expounded They which are just among the Babilonian Captives though they are under them from whom they may fear death through hard usage yea to be put to death by reason of their power being Conquerors yet if they believe the message and good newes of their deliverance by Cyrus out of their captivity which I shall send them by my Prophets They shall be delivered from their Captivity and shall not die under the hands of the Babylonians but live and live a joyfull life According to the Mystical sence which is the sence in which our Apostle takes the words here we may interpret these words thus The Just which believe the Gospel shall be justified from their sins by their Faith The Just According to the frequent use of Holy Scripture he is called a just or Righteous Man who is a man of a good and honest mind and desireth to walk uprightly though he slips yea falls often such a man as this is is ready to receive the message of God whensoever it pleaseth God to send it and doth verily believe it when it is sent Again if we look into the place of Habakkuk beforementioned to wit Habakkuk 2.4 we shall find that our just Man there is opposed to him whose soul is lifted up that is to a proud man and so may be taken for the humble minded man such an one as trusteth not in himself nor boasteth of his own worth And who is more likely to be a Believer than He for Pride is the greatest keeper out of Faith as can be For how can ye believe which seek honour one of another saith our Saviour to the Jewes John 5.24 But besides this the Just may be taken for him which it justified and so may it be taken here when we expound the words in the mystical sence q. d. He that shall be justi ed shall be justified by his Faith Shall live This is as if he should say in our Saviours words He shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death to life John 5.24 That is he shall be justified that is he shall be absolved of his sins he shall not be condemned for them though he hath deserved death by them A man that is arraigned and tried for his life upon some Criminal or Capital matter If he be condemned he is put to death but if he be justified or absolved he liveth To live therefore may be put here Per Metonymiam Consequentis for to be justified That which Saint Paul drives at and for which he produceth the Testimony of the Prophet Habakkuk is as I said to prove that righteousness is of faith or which is the same that he that believeth is accepted of God and freed from sin and death which is the penalty of sin not for his works sake but for his faith And to expresse this freedom the Scripture calls it sometimes by the name of Salvation and Redemption which are words borrowed from Captives which are saved or redeemed whereas by their condition they were as men appointed unto death Sometimes again and that is the tearm most frequently used in this Epistle by the name of Justification which is a name or word borrowed from men as I said immediately before accused of some Capital matter in a Court of Justice where the Person accused is acquitted or absolved of the crimes laid against him and so justified by the Judge and freed from the Censure of the Law viz. Death The words of the Prophet Habakkuk as they are here alledged by our Apostle may in their Mystical sence be interpreted either in allusion to the Salvation or Redemption of Captives or in allusion to the Acquitting Absolving or Justification of a man accused in a Court of Justice of some Capital crime And after which of these ways the Reader will interpret them I leave to his choice for the issue of both is Life By faith i. e By reason of his faith or if he believe the Gospel For the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men The Apostle prevented an objection here For whereas he said that the Righteousness of God is revealed in the Gospel from faith And again it is written The just shall live by faith signifying thereby that the way of obtaining Justification is by faith A man may object and say But why Paul dost thou say that the way of obtaining justification is by faith
justification before God better than the Gentiles because of this No in no wise for we have before accused and charged and that justly too both Jews and Gentiles I speak of such as are out of Christ that they are all under the guilt of sin and so subject to damnation 10. As it is written There is none righteous no not one 10. For that all are under the guilt of sin and so subject to damnation Jews as well as Gentiles I shall besides what I have already said to this prove even out of the Scriptures of the Old Testament For it is written Psalm 14. vers 1 2 3. There is none righteous no not one 11. There is none that understandeth there is none that seeketh after God 11 There is none that understandeth what the will of the Lord is that he may yield obedience thereunto There is none that seeketh after God that he might be instructed by him and do as he would have him 12. They are all gone out of the way they are together become unprofitable there is none that doeth good no not one 12. They are all gone out of the way of Gods commandments which they should walk in they are altogether become unprofitable and not fit for any holy service There is none that doth good no not one 13. Their throat is an open sepulchre with their tongues they have used deceit the poison of Asps is under their lips 13. And Psal 5.9 Their throat is as an open sepulchre out of which not onely soul and filthy words do proceed as filthy and noisome smels proceed out of an open sepulchre wherein dead carkasses have been buried But also as an open Sepulchre is laid open to receive a dead body that it may consume it and bring it to dust So are their throats opened to utter words whereby they may destroy them whom they speak against With their tongues they have used deceit while they speak fair but think foul and would entrap men and bring them into danger and ruine by their flattering speeches Their words are as hurtful as is the poyson of an Aspe to the body that is tainted therewith So that there is as it were the poyson of Asps under their lips poysoning and invenoming their words that they may even kill them of whom or to whom they speak 14. Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness 14. And Psal 10.7 Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness 15. Their feet are swift to shed blood 15. And Isa 59.7 8. They are ready to run upon all occasions to shed innocent blood 16. Destruction and misery are in their ways 16. Which way soever they go they destroy and work misery as a destroying plague 17. And the way of peace have they not known 17. They are Strangers to the way of peace neither can they live peaceably with other men 18. There is no fear of God before their eyes 18. And Psal 36.1 though the fear of God be the only curbe to keep in and refrain us from evil yet there is no fear of God before their eyes 19. Now we know that what things soever the law saith it saith to them who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God 19. But thou wilt object O thou Jew against these testimonies of Scripture and say that these testimonies appertain not unto thee they concern only the wicked Gentiles But thou art under the Law O thou Jew in that thou art a disciple of whatsoever is delivered in the Old Testament for by the Law here I mean whatsoever doctrine or writing is contained in the Old Testament and we know that whatsoever the law saith it saith to them who are under the Law and therefore these testimonies concern thee So that every mouth is stopped No man whatsoever can glory in his righteousness before God yea which is yet less no man can excuse himself from unrighteousness So that all the men in the world having nothing to say for themselves are become apparently guilty of condemnation before God the Judge of all 20. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight for by the law is the knowledge of sin 20. Therefore by what I have said from the beginning of this Epistle hitherto it appeareth that no man is justified in the sight of God by the deeds which he hath done of the law and yet let no man say that the law is needless for by the law is the knowledge of sin and by that we may know what we should do though we do it not 21. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifâ—sted being witnessed by the law and the prophets 21. But thou wilt say if by the deeds of the law no flesh shall be justified in the sight of God then is the condition of man most miserable for how can any one be saved Now therefore to raise all drooping Spirits the righteousness or justification of God that is the righteousness or justification of which God is the Author and which will justifie them even before God which attain to it a righteousness or justification attainable without the works of the Moral law is manifested by the Gospel and to vindicate it from all novelty or phansy of man as the Author of it it is witnessed by the Law and the Prophets 22. Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe for there is no difference 22. Even the righteousness of God who is the Author and Approver thereof which righteousness cometh by the Faith of Jesus Christ that is by the faith of the Gospel of Jesus Christ unto all and onely to all them that believe the Gospel For in the matter of righteousness or justification there is no differenre in the way or means of attaining to it 23. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God 23. For all have sinned and come short of the praise of that is of being praised of him for doing their duty or for keeping the law and doing the works thereof as exactly as the law requireth 24. Being justified freely by his grace through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ 24. So that as many as are justified are justified freely by his grace and favour through that righteousness or justification that Christ Jesus hath merited for us 25. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God 25. Whom God hath given setforth proclaimed by his Ministers to be the Appeasour of his wrath and displeasure and to be enjoyed and made ours as such by the faith which we repose in his death and for this end hath he given him and set him forth to be the Appeasour of his wrath and displeasure that he might
declare his righteousness that is that he might declare his fidelity and his mercy by the remission of those sins which were committed before the Gospel was proclaimed and which went unpunished at that time and went unpunished not for any other reason than because God would forbear to punish them 26. To declare I say at this time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him which helieveth in Jesus 26. Thus he might declare I say at this time the time of the Gospel his righteousness that is his faithfulness and his mercy his faithfulness that he may appear to all to be just and faithfull in performing his promise of remission of sins to the Jews if they do believe And his mercy that he may appear to all to be the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus though he made no such promise to him as he did to the Jew that is that he may appear to be the justifier of the believing Gentile who may thank God for this his mercy 27. Where is boasting then It is excluded By what law of works Nay but by the law of faith 27. Where is boasting then O thou Jew which so much boastest of thy justification It is excluded by what law or by what doctrine or lesson is it excluded Is it excluded by that Law or Doctrine or Lesson which teacheth that a man may be yea is justified by the works of the law Nay for if a man could be justified by the works of the law he had whereof to glory even before God But it is excluded by the law doctrine or lesson which teacheth that a man is justified by faith for he that is justified by faith hath nothing to boast or to glory of 28. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law 28. Therefore we conclude out of what we have said from the beginning hitherto that a Man is justified by faith and not by the deeds of the law 29. Is he the God of the Jews only is he not also of the Gentiles yes of the Gentiles also 29. Now after this our discourse let me ask thee O Jew which wilt not suffer the Gentile to have a part with thee in the favour of God Is God the God of the Jews onely is he not the God of the Gentiles also Yes he is the God not of the Jews only but of the Gentiles also 30. Seeing it is one God which shall justifie the circumcision by faith and uncircumcision through faith 30. Seeing that God is one and the same to both for that he justifieth them both by one and the same means the circumcised Jew by faith and the uncircumcised Gentile by faith likewise 31. Do we then make void the law through faith God forbid yea we establish the law 31. Do we now make the law void and of none effect by that which we have said of Faith God forbid yea we establish the Law and confirm it in its right use for though we deny the law to be the means or cause of our justification yet we allow it to be the director of our lives and manners even after our justification and we teach that by faith we have that strength to performe the precepts of the law which the law it self could not give CHAP. III. Ver. 1. What advantage then hath the Jew or what profit is there of circumcision i. e. What priviledge then hath the Jew by birth above the Gentile or what profit hath he by being circumcised in the foreskin of his flesh The Apostle taught in the former Chapter that a Jew which was only a Jew outwardly could not by being a Jew escape the wrath and judgement of God neither had he the imediate benefit of Justification by being outwardly circumcised whereupon it might be asked what advantage then hath the Jew which is a Jew by birth or what profit is there of outward circumcision which question the Apostle here moveth the better to clear what he had said of the Jew and of circumcision and that he might make way to some other doctrines which he would teach Ver. 2. Much every way Note that these words every way are so to be taken as that they have no other efficacy than to make a strong asseveration or affirmation as if he should say very much Chiefly because unto them were committed the Oracles of God i. e. Chiefly because the Oracles of God were committed to them which were Jews by birth and which were circumciâ—ed By the Oracles of God understand the Word of God written in the Books of the Old Testament but especially the promises therein contained of the Mâ—ssias and of justification and other benefits and blessings which occur by him in which the Jews excelled the Gentiles Of other Priviledges than these that the Jews had we read Rom. 9. v. 4 5. but this the Apostle makes the chiefest These Oracles are said to have been committed to the Jews not as a pledge or thing in trust to the use and benefit only of others but as their own proper goods and as a Treasure to serve them and enrich them So that whatsoever was therein contained appertained to the Jews Promises and all Ver. 3. For what if some did not believe shall their unbelief c Between this and the foregoing verse we must understand an Objection made by a Gentile which had newly received the Gospel of Christ to this effect q. d. Yea but the circumcised Jews have no such Prerogative now For though God committed unto them his Oracles and made the promises which are therein contained of the Messias and of the Redemption which should be by him to them yet now they have deprived themselves of that Prerogative and they have deprived themselves of the benefit which they might have had by those promises because they have not believed them And God because of their unbelief hath utterly cast off all the Jews To this the Apostle here answers q. d. True it is indeed that some of the Jews have not believed but shall their unbelief make the faith of God of none effect so that he shall no longer keep the promises made unto the Fathers concerning the Jews but cast off that whole People What if some did not believe What if some of the circumcised Jews have not believed the promises of God made to them or to their Fathers concerning the Messias and the Redemption which should come by him contained in the Oracles that is in the Word of God which was committed to them c. The words in the Original are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which I have rendred But what if some have not believed The Jews were very incredulous and unbelieving at all times and we finde them often taxed for this sin of unbelief as Deut. 1.32 and 9 23. 2 Kings 17.14 Psalm 78.32 Psalm 106.24 and which makes in its mystical sence greatly to this place Isa 53.1 And which is to our
the Law is only the knowledge of sin So some understanding the word only here q. d. For by the Law we only come to know what sin is that is all that the Law can do it can teach us what sin is indeed but it cannot enable us or give us strength to avoid sin that so we may be justified This then is an Answer to an Objection which some might make saying Why Some men as the Jews for example have the written Law and cannot that enable them to do the deeds of the Law so that they may be justified thereby To this the Apostle answers confirming what he had said No for by the Law is only the knowledge of sin Oâ—hers make this an Answer to an Objection too but thus whereas the Apostle said That no flesh shall be justified by the deeds of the Law A Jew might object and say to what purpose then is the Law if a man cannot be justified thereby then was the Law given in vain To this the Apostle answers q. d. Yet it was not for no purpose or in vain that the Law was given though a man cannot be justified thereby for by the Law we come to know what sin is Others take this as a Reason brought by the Apostle to confirm what he had said to wit That no flesh should be justified in the sight of God And his reason is because every man knows by the Law that he hath sinned For whereas the Law tels every man his duty and his conscience tels him that he hath not done according to the Law what remains but that by the Law he knows that he hath sinned Others take this also as a Reason brought by the Apostle to confirm what he had said to wit That no flesh should be justified in the sight of God But they take the word Law in a larger manner than the former did For they take it for the whole word of God contained in the Old Testament And by the Law so taken it is known that All have sinned because there be many passages in the word of God which shew that all have sinned Ver. 21. But now the righteousness of God without the Law is manifested being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets i e. But yet the righteousness of God without the Law is manifested c The Apostle prevents an Objection here For whereas he said ver 20. That by the deeds of the Law no flesh shall be justified in the sight of God c. A man might object and say if it be so that No flesh can be justified in the sight of God by the deeds of the Law miserable is mans condition For how can a man be justified if not by the Law This Objection I say the Apostle prevents saying But yet the righteousness of God without the Law is manifested Even the righteousness of God which is by faith c. By which he sheweth that a man may be justified by Faith without the Law that is without the strict observation of the Law But now This Particle now is not here an Adverbe of Time but being joyned with But signifieth as much as But yet and so it signifieth also Hebrews 11. ver 16. In these words But now they desire a better Country That is an Heavenly The Righteousness of God Righteousness is taken here for justification as cap. 1.17 and it is called The Righteousness of God because it justifieth before God and God is the Author of it Without the Law That is without the deeds of the Law or without the strict observation of the Law These words answer to those of the twentieth verse viz. By the deeds of the Law And are answered again by those of the two and twentieth verse viz. By the faith of Jesus Christ Is manifested i. e Is plainly and explicitely made known by the preaching of the Gospel Being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets By the Law is here meant especially the Books of Moses in which the Law is written and by the Prophets he meaneth the books writings of the Prophets among which the Books of the Psalms is to be reckoned though sometimes they are distinguished one from another as Luke 24.44 Justification by Faith and so without the Law is attested as out of other places so out of the books of Moses in the History of Abraham Rom. 4.3 And out of the books of the Prophets as out of Habakkuk Hab. 2.4 cited Rom. 1.17 And out of the Psalms Psal 32.1 cited Rom. 4.6 and out of Isaiah Isa 28 16. cited Rom. 9.33 and 10.11 c. The Ceremonies also of the Law witnessed this by the blood of their sacrifices and by their washings and by the covering of the Arke c. The Apostle adds this Being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets to shew that what he taught was no sigment of his own but that which the holy Scriptures did acknowledge and teach Ver. 22. Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ q. d. I say the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ The Apostle resumes here the words which he used in the former verse that he might explain himself what Righteousness of God it was which he said was now manifested For in the former verse he did set it out only Negatively and shew only that it was a Righteousness without works Now therefore he shews what it is affirmatively while he sheweth that it is a Righteousness which is to be obtained by Faith and that the Faith of Jesus Christ By the Faith of Jesus Christ i. e. By the faith of the Gospel whereof Jesus Christ is the Chief and Principall Subject and of which he was the Preacher This Genitive case therefore is Genitivus objecti efficientis The Object of our Faith is the Gospel of Christ chap. 1.16 And Jesus Christ himself is as the Preacher so the Principal Subject of that Gospel Jesus Christ therefore is put here for the Gospel of Jesus Christ Per Synechdochen Partis for think it not enough to justification to believe that Jesus Christ is come into the world No nor that God hath raised him from the dead as Chap. 10 9. But when it is said that we shall be justified by the faith of Jesus or that we shall be saved if we believe that God hath raised him from the dead A part of the Object which we must believe for our justification is put for the whole Vnto all i. e. Which Righteousness is offered to all whether Jews or Gentiles And upon all them which believe i. e. And which righteousness is actually bestowed upon all and only upon all them which believe whether they be Jews or Gentiles Note here that there is a Totall Ellipsis of the Verbs in the Greek which are supplied by some in this manner as I have spoken and they do interpret these words as if by these words Vnto all were intended the offer of righteousness or justification And
as if by these words Vpon all were signified the actual bestowing thereof But others take these words Vpon all to be but a repetition of those words Vnto all and conceive that they were iterated or repeated the more to inculcate the Doctrine of Justification by Faith and the more to comfort and hearten those which believed q.d. which cometh unto all them and upon all them which believe whether they be Jews or Gentiles Yet we must understand the word Only here which is often left to be understood For the Apostle would shew here that they whom God justifieth do not attain to justification by several wayes as the Jews by the Law and the Gentiles by Faith But that both Jews and Gentiles obtain it by one and the same way namely by Faith Wherefore when he saith unto all and upon all them which believe it is as if he should say Vnto all them and only upon all them which believe For there is no difference Supple between Nations or Persons in respect of the way or manner of justification For all whether they be Jews or Gentiles circumcised or uncircumcised or whatsoever they be which are justified are justified after one and the same way or manner to wit by Faith He sheweth the Reason here why he said unto all and only upon all them which believe Ver. 23. For all have sinned He gives a Reason here why there is no difference in the way of justification and the reason is because all have sinned Had not all sinned but some sinned and others lived and continued without sin then had there been a difference in the way of justification For they that had not sinned would have been justified by the works of the Law and they that had sinned would have been justified if they had been justified at all by Faith But being that all have sinned and God hath appointed no other way for the justification of sinners but by Faith all that are justified must be justified by Faith and so after one and the same way or manner of justification And come short of the glory of God That is and come short of fulfilling of the Law or and come short of the praise of God for fulfilling the Law or for their Innocency And come short of the glory of God The words in the Original are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where note that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be taken here for the praise of God that praise wherewith he praiseth and commendeth men for their well-doing as it is also taken John 12.43 Yea for that praise wherewith he praiseth or commendeth men for their innocency or for that that they have perfectly done their duty and failed in nothing at all So that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of God is not here Genitivus Objecti but Genitivus Efficientis as Grammarians speak And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a word which may be rendred Non assequuntur i. e. They attain not to q. d. All have sinned and none hath attained to the praise of God or to that that God should praise him for his innocency or for so doing the Law as that he hath failed in nothing thereof In Courts of Justice where a man is accused of some grievous crime against the Law and he is found innocent and clear of the crime whereof he is accused the Judge useth to commend the party accused and found clear for his innocency and integrity that he may incourage him to persevere and keep himself innocent from the breach of the Law Hence that Rom. 13.3 Do that which is good and thou shalt have praise of the same To this usage doth the Apostle seem here to allude who in the Treaty of Justification which is the main Subject of this his Epistle borroweth many Metaphors from the Courts of Justice Some conceive that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when it is properly taken is spoken of such as running with others in a Race are cast behind through weariness and faintness or some other accident or disability so that they come not to the Goale so as to have any reward or fruit of their pains and labour and to attain the prize So that by putting the Antecedent for the Consequent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Not to attain to The Apostle therefore according to these useth a Metaphor here not from the Courts of Justice but from a Race in which Metaphor Man is as the runner in a Race the Race is the Commandments of God The End of the Race is the perfect keeping of the Commandments the Agonotheta is God himself The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Reward which he propoundeth is his Praise and Approbation The like Metaphor they observe Heb. 4 1. Ver. 24. Being justified freely by his Grace i e. That they may be justified freely by his Grace Supple As many as are justified Being justified The word in the Original is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that is a participle which is as much here as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that they are justified So the Participle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being filled is as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that they are filled chap. 1.29 Freely by his grace i. e. Freely by his Favour and so not of Debt or of Merit He saith both freely and by his grace doubling as it were the same word that he might the more exclude Debt and Merit Through the Redemption which is in Jesus Christ That is By the justification which is by Christ Jesus Note that the word Redemption at it is here taken and justification signifie both one and the same thing to wit a freedom or delivery from the guilt and punishment of sin only the Metaphor is diverse For Justification is a Metaphor taken from Courts of Justice where a man is said to be justified when he is acquitted or absolved from that crime of which he was accused And Redemption is a Metaphor taken from Captives which are redeemed with a price out of the hands of those to whom they were in Captivity and who had power to kill them This Justification or Redemption is said to be by Christ Jesus because we are justified by his merits and we are redeemed by his Blood 1 Pet. 1.18 19. That is in Christ Jesus i. e. That is by Christ Jesus or through Christ Jesus as the meritorious cause thereof Note that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In answereth to the Hebrew Prefix Beth and therefore may be taken for By or Through yea for almost any Preposition whatsoever Ver. 25. Whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation i. e. Whom God hath given set forth and proclaimed to be a means to appease his displeasure God may be said to give set forth and proclaim Christ as a means to appease his displeasure because as he hath appointed and ordained him to be our Propitiator So he gave him and he made it known to all that he had given him to be such by the
Preaching of the Gospel See 1 Pet. 1. v. 20 21 22. A Propitiation A Propitiation is put here for a Propitiator or one that doth appease the displeasure of God The Act for the Cause or the Author thereof by a Metalepsis That which is rendred a Propitiation is in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which some render Propitiatorem taking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Masculine Gender as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But most take 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Neuter Gender And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Neuter Gender which in Latin is rendred Propitiatorium the Propitiatory is used by the Greek Interpreters of the Old Testament most commonly for the Cover of the Ark of the Covenant upon which God sat between the wings of the Cherubims as appeareth Exod. 25. v. 17 18 19 20 22 and 31. v. 7. and 35. v. 12. Levit 16.2 Numb 7.89 c. Now the Cover of the Ark did as it were keep from the eyes of God who sat between the Wings of the Cherubims upon that Cover Exod. 25 22. Numb 7.89 whatsoever was in the Ark of the Covenant which was covered therewith And in the Ark of the Covenant there were the Tables of the Covenant that is of the Law Heb. 9.4 This Cover therefore by keeing the Tables of the Covenant or the Law from the eyes of God did in a manner keep the sins of Men from his eyes which were Transgressions of that Covenant or of that Law for what is Sin but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. The Transgression of the Law 1 John 3.4 And what were those Tables of the Covenant but the Tables in which the Law was written And if the Law were kept from his eyes then must the Transgression of the Law be also kept from them For who can see the Transgressions of the Law which seeth not the Law it self Rectum est Index sui obliqui For this reason was that Cover called in Hebrew Capporet a word which is derived from a verb which hath the signification of Expiating and Propitiating and for this reason did the Greek Interpreâ—ers call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Verbal derived from a Verb of the like signification And for this reason was this Cover a Type of Christ whom God had decreed from all eternity to send and in his appointed time did send forth to purchase forgiveness for the sins of his People which forgiveness is often signified by the name of Covering for blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered saith the Psalmist quoted by our Apostle Rom. 4.7 c. In Allusion to this Cover of the Ark and to this use thereof which we have spoken of is our Saviour called here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Note that the Apostle doth in these and in the following words set forth all the causes of Mans justification which he doth therefore because justification is the chief Scope of his Epistle and the main Controversie between him and the Jews The chief and principal cause therefore of our Justification is God himself the Meritorious cause is Christ Jesus his merit is his blood that is his Death and Passion The Material cause or Subject of justification is Man the Formall cause is the Remission of sins The Condition required on mans part is Faith the final cause or End why God did justifie Man is his own Glory for he did it that he might be known to be Just in his promise of justification which sheweth his truth and that he might be known to be the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus which sheweth his mercy and goodness Through Faith q. d. To be enjoyed or made ours through Faith That is to be enjoyed by us and made ours if we believe Here is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By this he excludes Works again We are taught by this that God though he did so love the world as that he gave Jesus Christ to be a Propitiation for the sins thereof yet notwithstanding he requires a condition of them that are to be justified before they shall be justified and have their sins forgiven and that is Faith Or that they must use Faith as an Instrument to apply this Grace which I account as the same In his blood Some refer these words to those whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation And then this Praeposition In is to be taken for through as it is taken ver 24. And the sence is to be this Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through his blood to be enjoyed or made our Propitiation through Faith In the words so construed there must be a Trajection or an Hyberbaton which yet is a figure not unusual with our Apostle who sometimes useth yea often through the ardency of his Spirit to go to a second thing before he hath done with the first and then to return to the first again These words so conjoyned shew how Christ was to be and is our Propitiation or Propitiator or Propitiatory to wit by dying for us and shedding his blood for our sins This Exposition is favoured by that that in the Original as most Expositors read it it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a Tenuis but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with an Asperate But it may be asked what hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if it be either taken for the Cover of the Arke or alludeth thereunto to do with blood Answ I have shewed how that Cover of the Ark was a Propitiatory and why it was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and how it was a Type of Christ and indeed as it was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Propitiatory and as it was a Type of Christ it had nothing significant of blood it did onely signifie that Christ should be our Propitiator or Propitiation but did not signifie how he should be so for Types are for the most part imperfect But what that Type signified not other Types did signifie For the Legall remission of sins which was through the blood of the Beast which was slain for a Sacrifice did Praefigure the Real and Evangelical remission of sins through the blood of Christ who was to be slain for us In that therefore that with the mention of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is mention of blood there is a double allusion an allusion to the Cover of the Ark which was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Propriatory and an allusion to the Sacrifices of the Law wherein was blood by which was a Legal remission of sins And such a mixture of Types and Sences in speech is not unusuall But as some refer these words By his blood by an Hyperbaton to those more remote words Whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation So others refer them to the words which they immediately follow namely to those Through Faith
by the Rites and Expiations of the Law otherwise God would have taken vengeance of their sins long before this To this therefore the Apostle answers That it was not because they had not committed such sins nor because their sins were expiated and purged by the Law that God had not punished them in any grievous manner but it was because of his forbearance and long suffering Note that Christ was not a Propitiation for all sins which were past but only for the sins past of such as repented whose sins God punished not so soon as they were committed and for Gods forbearance to them others which repented not did fare the better in that God did forbear them and the sins of them which repented he punished in Christ Ver. 26. To declare I say at this time his Righteousnes The Apostle resumes here what he spoke in the former verse the better to explain himself This word Righteousness is to be taken here both for the Fidelity or Truth and for the Goodness or Mercy of God as I said before For what he meaneth by Declaring the Righteousness of God he expoundeth by those words that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus Where to be just signifieth the Fidelity and Truth of God in keeping his word To be the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus sheweth the Goodness and Mercy of God Of that that the word Righteousness is sometimes taken for Fidelity and Truth we have an example verse 5. Of that that the word Righteousness is taken for Goodness and Mercy we have an example 2 Cor. 9.9 It may be that the Apostle saith of God That he granted remission of sins that he might appear just in respect of the Jews because of the promise of God made to their Fathers that he would upon their saith and repentance give them remission of sins And that he saith that he granted remission of sins that he might appear the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus in respect especially of the Gentile who had no such promise made to him by God of his justification as the Jew had yet may rejoyce in that that God hath freely justified him At this time By this time he meaneth here the Time of the Gospel and it is opposed to the time of the Law or the time before Christ signified by or intimated in those words of the former verse to wit sins that are past That he might be just q. d That is to say That he might appear to be just That is that he might appear to be True and Faithful in his word These words That is to say are here to be understood and to be is to be taken for To appear to be as ver 4. And Just is to be taken here for True and Faithfull in word as it is also taken 1 John 1.9 And God is said here to be True and Faithfull because he did say and promise in the Law and in the Prophets that he would give remission of sins unto his People and so justifie them and as he said and promised so he did to as many as believed And the Justifi r of him which believeth in Jesus q. d. And that he might appear to be the Justifier of him which believeth in Jesus To justifie is to foâ—gâ—ve sins and to absolve from punishment due unto sins and this is an effect of the great mercy and goodness of God Ver 27. Were is boasting then q. d. Being therefore That all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God and that as many as are justified are justified freely by his Grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus c. Where is Boasting i. e. Where is any just cause of Boasting This is a Corollary drawn from what he said from ver 20. hitherto and the Apostle drawes it to repress the vain boasting of the Jews and to make men seek after Justification not by the Law but by Faith And it is spoken after a kind of insulting manner the Apostle insulting thereby as it were over the Jews who were great boasters Where is boasting Note that the Apostle speaks not here of an unlawfull or unjust or causless boasting or of boasting only before Men for so any man might boast and so did the Jews boast But he speaks of a lawfull just and well grounded boasting and a boasting before God such a boasting where nothing is to be imputed to the grace and favour of God but all to a mans own self And that not in the appearance of man only but in the strict eye and view of God Such a boasting as this is the Apostle demonstratively hath proved cannot have place in a justified Man It is excluded q. d. It hath no place at all in a man which is actually justified but is excluded from his justification By what Law The word Law is to be taken here in a more Lax and Generall signification than commonly it is taken For here are two Species of the Law as it is here used mentioned in this place The Law of works and the Law of faith whereof the Law of works is properly and most usually called the Law and is ordinarily opposed to the Gospel and the other is the Gospel as it is opposed to the Law so strictly taken The word Law therefore is to be taken here for Doctrine q. d. But by what doctrine is boasting excluded That which is here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Law is that which is usual in the Hebrew Torah and Torah signifieth not onely the Law in speciall but any doctrine in generall as I said before ver 19. from whence the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and our English word Law doth often signifie the like as the Hebrew Torah doth in analogy to that Of Works i. e. By the Law of works The word Law is here to be understood from that which went before By the Law of Works is meant that doctrine which teacheth that a Man which is actually Justified is justified by the works of the Law and that he that would be justified must be thereby justified which cannot be except a man hath most exactly kept the whole Law and never failed in any Tittle thereof at any time Nay The Apostle sheweth here that boasting is not excluded by the Law of Works And indeed it implieth a contradiction to say that a justified man or a man that is actually justified according to the Law of Works is excluded from boasting by the Law of Works For he that is justified according to the Law of Works with Reverence be it spoken is not beholding to God for his justification for he hath perfectly observed the Law in every Apex Tittle and Jot of it so that God who is just in his judgement when he is brought before his Tribunal as a Transgressour of the Law must needs justifie him that is must needs acquit him and pronounce him guiltless and God would be unjust
if he did not so Such a man therefore as is justified according to the Law of Works hath good cause of boasting even before God Chapter 4.2 But by the Law of Faith That Law that is that doctrine which teacheth that a man is justified by Faith doth exclude boasting and takes away the cause or ground of boasting from a justified man For it teacheth that he that is justified according to that hath sinned and therefore if he be justified he is justified by Grace that is by the meer favour and mercy of God which cannot stand with boasting It teacheth I say that every man hath sinned and so that every man is under the Curse for cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them Deut 27.25 Galat. 3.10 And being now cursed he cannot get out from under that curse without the favour and mercy of God For having broken the Law he cannot be justified by the Law for that implies a Contradiction And therefore if he be justified he must be justified by Faith and so by the meer grace and favour of God with which boasting cannot consist The Apostles scope in this verse is as I said as to repress the vain boasting of the Jews so to take men off from seeking after justification by works or by the works of the Law and to bring them to seek after justification by Faith and his Argument is valid to this purpose upon supposition which yet he hath proved to be a most certain Truth that all have sinned For if all men have sinned which is an undeniable truth and which the doctrine of Faith teacheth then no man can boast before God for whosoever hath sinned hath need of the grace and favour of God And whosoever receives any thing of the grace and favour of God cannot boast 1 Cor. 4.7 Now if thou canst not boast thou seekest in vain to be justified by the works of the Law for no man can be justified by the works of the Law but he which keepeth the Law and hath always kept it in every point And he that keeps it so may boast Therefore being thou canst not boast seek not for justification by the works of the Law which makes them boast which are justified thereby but seek for it by faith For though thou canst not boast and so canst not be justified by the works of the Law yet thou mayest be justified by Faith It is not unlikely but that among the Jews which were blinded by reason of their unbelief Chap. 11. ver 7. There were some who though they were convinced that they could not boast yet did seek for justification by the Law not perceiving how incompatible these two things are Not to boast or not to have matter of boasting and to be justified by the Law But by the Law of Faith Note that whereas the Apostle might have said thus Where is boasting then It is excluded By what By Works Nay but by Faith He saith Where is boasting then It is excluded By what Law of works Nay but by the Law of Faith And this he doth by a Mimesis mentioning and repeating the word Law that he might in a slighting manner imitate the Jews who did crack of the Law and had the Law alwayes in their mouths though they kept it not intimating thereby that if they gloried in the word Law he could say that they which were Justified were justified by a Law too but not by the Law which they cracked of to wit the Law of Works but by a Law differing from that to wit the Law of Faith Ver. 28. We conclude therefore that a man is justified by faith This conclusion the Apostle draws not from the verse immediately going before but from his whole discourse which he hath had from the 17. verse of the first Chapter of this Epistle hitherto and especially from that which he taught and discoursed of Chap. 3. ver 23 24 25 26. A Man i. e. Any or Every man that is justified The word Man is to be taken here indefinitely q. d. We conclude therefore that a man be he Jew or be he Gentile or whatsoever he is that is justified is justified by Faith without the Works of the Law Without the Works of the Law i. e. Though he be without the Works of the Law that is though he be without that that he hath perfectly observed and kept the Law Without the Works of the Law is the same here as Not by the Works of the Law Gal. 2.16 By the Works of the Law are meant Works done exactly according to the Praescript of the Law so that if a man hath at any time transgressed the Law either positively or privatively he cannot be said to have the works of the Law in the Apostles sence here Ver. 29. Is he the God of the Jews only For God to be the God of any one doth sometimes signifie that God is held as a God and worshipped and obeyed as a God of him whose God he is said to be In this sence Jacob said that the Lord should be his God Gen. 28.21 Sometimes again and that most frequently for God to be the God of any one signifieth that God is an Egregious Benefactor of him whose God he is said to be In which sence it is said Blessed is the Nation whose God is the Lord Psalm 33.12 And in which sence God is said to be the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob Exod 3.6 And in which sence God saith that he would be a God to Abraham and to his Seed after him Gen. 17.7 Now of these two sences the latter is that in which God is said here to be a God of the Jews and not of the Jews only but of the Gentiles also For God is a Benefactor to them both not only in Temporal blessings but in Spiritual blessings also and in such as concern Eternal Salvation The Apostle speaketh by an Interrogative here first to signifie that the thing which he speaks of is so plain as that it cannot be denied Secondly to take up the Jews a little who entertained a base esteem of the Gentiles Is he not of the Gentiles also i e. Is he not the God of the Gentiles also and doth he not wish and do well to them also that they may be saved Yea of the Gentiles also q. d. Yea he is the God of the Gentiles also and wisheth and doth well to them that they may be saved and will be a Benefactor to them in those things which concern their Eternal welfare if they believe As for the Connexion of this verse with what went before It is this The Apostle had said vers 28. That a Man is justified by faith without the deeds of the Law where he took the word Man indefinitely for men of any Nation by reason therefore of that word he had a good opportunity given him to speak to
the Jew of the good will of God towards the Gentiles from that therefore he inferreth this Corollary Is he the God of the Jews only c. As if he should say and now O thou Jew is God the God of the Jews only is he not the God of the Gentiles also Yes he is the God of the Gentiles also seeing it is one God which shall justifie the Circumcision by Faith and the uncircumcision through Faith And this or the like opportunity he takes often to declare the good will and favour of God towards the Gentiles because the Jews counted the Gentiles but as brute Beasts to whom God had no respect in comparison of themselves Ver. 30. Seeing it is one God which shall justifie It would have been better rendred thus Seeing God is one who justifieth c. That is Seeing God is one and the same God which justifieth the Circumcision by Faith and the uncircumcision through Faith God is called One here not in respect of his Essence or in opposition to a multitude of gods but in respect of his carrying himself to all alike whether Jews or Gentiles q. d. Seeing God is one and the same towards all who shall justifie c. Which shall justifie the circumcision by faith Note that the Circumcision is taken here for the Circumcised that is for the Jews who were Circumcised by a Metonymie and that shall justifie is put here for doth justifie A Future for a Present tense after the manner of the Hebrews which use so to do especially when they would signifie a continued Act. And the uncircumcision through faith By the uncircumcision are here meant the Gentiles who used not Circumcision as the Jews did who were enjoyned by God to it but were uncircumcised And yet we read of some Gentiles which were Circumcised as the people of Colchis Aegypt and Aethiopia as Herodotus relates in his Euterpe yet they come under the name of uncircumcision here because the Circumcision which they received they received from among themselves the use thereof was not enjoyned to them of God as that Circumcision which the Jews used was to them Gen. 17. v. 10 11 c. Note that these Phrases By faith and Through faith signifie one and the same thing and that there is no difference in the sence of the Phrases though there be in the words In that God justifieth both Jew and Gentile after the same manner it sheweth him to be the same in his love and affection to both Ver. 31. Do we then make void the Law through faith q. d. Do we then say that the Law is useless and as an idle thing and a thing of no effect by those things which we have said of faith To make void is put here for to say that it is void by a Metalepsis Note that the Apostle doth prevent an Objection here for because he said v. 28. We conclude that a Man is justified by faith without the deeds of the Law And again v. 30. It is one God or God is One which shall justifie the Circumcision by faith and the uncircumcision through faith A Jew might object and say If it be so that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the Law and God doth justifie the Circumcision by faith and the uncircumcision throuh faith then is the Law void for to what end should it stand if it did not justifie a man To this the Apostle answers That notwithstanding that which he had said concerning faith the Law doth stand yea what he said concerning faith doth establish the Law For though the Law doth not justifie a man yet the Doctrine of faith doth enjoyn those which believe to lead a pious godly and religious life according to the Praescript of the Law and to follow those things which the Law commandeth And by faith we attain to more ability for the performance of the Law than the Law it self can give Note that what is here spoken must be understood of the Moral Law Through faith i. e. Throuh the Doctrine of faith or through those things which we have said of faith We establish the Law i. e. We maintain the Law in its standing and keep it up That is we take not the Law away but let it stand in its due place and give it its due honour How Saint Paul established the Law by faith we shewed a little before in the Exposition of this verse He establisheth it by making it or teaching that it is a Rule of our Lives though he denies to be the means of justification And that we attain more ability to the keeping of the Law through faith than the Law it self could give us CHAP. IV. 1. WHat shall we say then that Abraham our Father as pertaining to the flesh hath found 1. We have taught hitherto that the man that is justified is not justified by the works of the Law but by faith And let us now enquire in particular concerning Abraham's justificâ—tion to wit how he was justified How shall we say then that Abraham who is our Father as concerning the flesh attained to justification Shall we say that Abraham attained to justification by works No in no wise 2. For if Abraham were justified by works he hath whereof to glory but not before God 2. For if Abraham were justified by works he hath whereof to glory or boast even before God but he hath not whereof to glory or to boast before God therefore he is not justified by works 3. For what saith the Scripture Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness 3. Now that Abraham hath not whereof to glory or boast before God is apparent for what saith the Scripture It saith that Abraham believed God and that that was set down upon his account to him to receive righteousness or justification for it that is in fewer words it saith That Abraham believed God and for that he was justified Gen. 15.5 4. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt 4. Now to him that worketh the works of the Law so punctually and so exactly as that he never failes at any time in performing the least title of the Law to him indeed the reward that is righteousness or justification is set down upon accompt to be paid him as a thing not of grace and favour but of debt for with reverence be it spoken God would be unjust if he should not justifie him that is if he should not acquit him but condemn him for a sinner who had never sinned So that he indeed hath whereof to glory or boast even before God 5. But to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness 5. But to him that worketh not the works of the Law so punctually and so exactly as the Law requires but believeth on God who justifieth sinners his faith is set down upon accompt to him for him to receive
righteousness or justification for it that is he is justified by his faith So that he hath not whereof to glory or boast before God in the matter of his justification 6. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works 6. But methinks I hear a Jew cavil here and say but what Paul can he be justified that worketh not that is which doth not do the works of the Law so punctually and exactly as the Law requires Can the ungodly and sinner be justified To whom I answer that they may for even David also as well as the Ministers of the Gospel give us a description of the blessedness that is of the justification of a man to whom God imputeth righteousness though he never performed the will of the Lord according to the strict Prescript of the Law saying Psalm 32.1 2. 7. Saying Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered 7. They are blessed and therefore blessed because justified whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered 8. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin 8. Blessed is the man and therefore blessed because justified to whom the Lord imputeth no sin 9. Cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only or upon the uncircumcision also for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness 9. Cometh this blessedness that is cometh this justification then upon those who are circumcised only or upon those that are not circumcised also That is Cometh this justification only upon the Jews or comes it upon the Gentiles also I move this question upon occasion of that which I said verse 3. That faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness 10. How was it then reckoned When he was in circumcision or in uncircumcision not in circumcision but in uncircumcision 10. When was it then reckoned for by the answer to this question we shall know how to answer the former was it reckoned when he was in circumcision that is after he was circumcised or was it reckoned when he was in uncircumcision that is before he was circumcised It was reckoned to him not when he was in circumcision but when he was in uncircumcision that is not after but before he was circumcised 11. And he received the sign of circumcision a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised that he might be the Father of all them that believe though they be not circumcised that righteousness might be imputed unto them also 11. And after that that it was reckoned to him for righteousness or justification he received circumcision which is a sign of that Covenant which God made with him and his seed and which is a sign of distinction whereby he and his posterity are distinguished from all other people he received circumcision I say as a seal of the righteousness or justification which he had by faith while he yet was uncircumcised to testifie and assure him thereby from God that God had even then justified him for his faith And it was so ordered by the providence of God that he should be justified by his faith before he was circumcised and should afterwards receive circumcision as a seal to confirm or assure him of that his justification that he might be a Father of all them which believe in the time or state of uncircumcision that it might appear by the example of Abraham who was justified while he was yet uncircumcised that righteousness or justification should be imputed to them also 12. And the Father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only but also walke in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham which he had being yet uncircumcised 12. And that he might be the Father of those which are circumcised also yet so as that they are not circumcised only as Abraham was but also imitate the faith of Abraham treading in his steps and following him in that faith which he had when he was as yet uncircumcised And now by what I have said we may answer to that question which I propounded verse 9. Cometh this blessedness that is cometh this justification upon those which are circumcised onely or comes it upon them which are uncircumcised also For it cometh not upon the circumcised onely but upon them also which are uncircumcised 13. For the promise that he should be the heir of the World was not to Abraham or to his seed through the Law but through the Righteousness of Faith 13. But because I denyed that Abraham was justified by works verse 2. Thou wilt here object against me that the Land of Canaan was a Type of Justification and that Abraham had that promised to him and his seed through the Law therefore he was justified by the works of the Law but this I deny For the promise that he should be the Owner or Possessor of the Land of Canaan was not made to Abraham or to his seed through the Law or through that that they performed or should perform what the Law exacted but it was made to them through faith which justifieth a Believer And now as the promise that he should be the Owner or Possessor of the Land of Canaan was not made to Abraham or his carnal seed through the Law or through that that they performed or should perform what the Law exacted but it was made to them through faith so the mystical promise of Justification was not made to Abraham or to his spiritual seed through the Law or the works thereof but through Faith which justifieth those which believe 14. For if they which are of the law be heirs Faith is made void and the promise made of none effect 14. For if they be heirs and Enjoyers of Justification and shall inherit that who are the Children of the Law and under that and that by virtue of the Law exactly kept by them then is the way of obtaining just fication by faith void and the promise it self of Justification is of none effect 15 Because the Law worketh wrath for where no Law is there is no Transgression 15. For the Law is so far from making those which are her children acceptable to God and such as may be justified before him as that she occasioneth them to sin the more and so stirreth up the greater wrath of God against them For where there is no Law their is no Transgression nor sin so frequently or so often committed and with so high an hand as where their is a law 16. Therefore it is of Faith that it might be by grace to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed not to that only which is of the Law but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham who is the Father of us all 16. Therefore the promise of Justification was through faith so that it is of Grace for this end that it might be sure by reason of the possibility of the
which they are borrowed For Righteousness i. e. For Justification Supple to be payed or allowed to him in consideration of that his faith Note that the Hebrew Text which our Apostle relates to Gen. 15.6 being translated word for word is thus And he believed in the Lord and he to wit the Lord counted it to him for righteousness But our Apostle followed the Septuagint which was then commonly received among the Jews which speaks thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But which way soever we take these words whether according to the Hebrew or according to the Septuagint the sence is one and the same For it is all one to say It was counted to wit by God and God did count it And these phrases To believe God and To believe in God are often confounded and taken one for the other in Scripture although to believe God properly signifieth to give assent to the words of God And to believe in God signifieth properly to put our hope and affiance in God because when God promiseth any thing to any one he that truly believes his promise cannot but put his trust and affiance in him for performance of that his promise Note that as we have said before the Apostle proveth here the Minâ—r Proposition mentioned in the foregoing verse to wit that Abraham had not in the matter of justification whereof to glory before God And he proves it by this that Abraham's faith was counted to him for righteousness that is that Abraham was justified by his faith And they that are justified by faith cannot glory before God of that their justification because justification is not due to them of debt but is bestowed upon them upon grace and where it is of grace glorying is excluded Ver. 4. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt q. d. Now to him indeed that fulfilleth the works of the Law as the Law commands them to be done justification is reckoned not of grace and favour but of debt and merit Supple therefore he indeed may glory before God in the matter of justificâ—tion He grants that here to him that worketh which he denieth in the next verse to him which believeth To him that worketh By him that worketh is meant here he which doth perfectly perform the Law of God and continue in it for to such a one only doth justification appertain as a debt Not to him that doth a good work now and then no nor to him that hath but once sinned if any such were Is the Reward c. By the Reward is here meant justification For though justification that is Remission of Sins or To be absolved or acquitted from the punishment due to sins is not the whole reward which God giveth to him whom he justifieth yet it is the whole Reward which such a man which hath kept the Law can challenge of debt And this to wit Justification that is an absolution or immunity from punishment is that and that only which the Apostle speaks of and treats of in this place By the reward therefore is here meant Justification and Justification only by a Synechdoche integri Ver. 5 But to him that worketh i. e. But to him which doth not performe the works of the Law as the Law requireth c What is meant by him that worketh not we may understand by him that worketh ver 4. But believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly i. e. But onely believeth God or only believeth in God for these phrases are all one as we said ver 3. which justifieth him who worketh not that is which justifieth him which hath not kept the Law as Abraham had not The ungodly By the ungodly he meaneth here him that worketh not that is him which hath not kept or persevered in keeping of the Law as he should For even such a one may go under the name of an ungodly man especially before he is justifyed His faith is counted for Righteousness This his Faith only to wit without works is counted to him for Righteousness and therefore being that he is justified not by works but only by faith his justification is not of debt or merit but of meer Grace and favour See ver 16. And being that it is not of debt or merit but of meer Grace and Favour he hath not whereof to glory in that matter The Apostle you see is curt here in his expression and leavs much to be understood yet that which may be easily understood by a judicious Reader and which is necessarily implied in what he hath said His Faith i. e. His faith only to wit without works This word onely is often left to be understood Ver. 6. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth Righteousness without works For the connexion of this verse with the former thus it is in the former verse the Apostle said That righteousness was imputed to him that worketh not yea to the ungodly Now a Jew who sought righteousness by the works of the Law chap. 9 32. might object against this and speak thus But what is it that thou sayest Paul Sayest thou that Righteousness may be imputed to him that worketh not and to him that is ungodly To this the Apostle answereth though concisely to this effect Yea I say that Righteousness may be imputed to him that worketh not and is ungodly even as David also describeth the blessedness or righteousness of the man unto whom God imputeth Righteousness without works c. Even as David also describeth i. e. Even as David also in the Psalmes describeth c. The Psalm which the Apostle alluds to is Psal 32. ver 1 2 The blessedness of the man Or the blessedness of a man that is The justification of a sinner Blessedness is to be taken here for justification as will plainly appear both by what went before and by what is said ver 9. Where the Apostle calls that blessedness in the former part of the verse which he calls Righteousness that is justification in the latter part thereof The word Blessedness in its Latitude includes Glorification as well as justification when therefore it is taken for justification barely it is so taken Per Synechdochen integri Vnto whom God imputeth Righteousness i. e. Unto whom God doth as it were set down Righteousness or Justification upon his Accounts which he obligeth himself thereby to give or pay to him The word here rendered imputeth is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth to set down on a Mans account See ver 3. By these words it is most evident that the Apostle takes righteousness and Remission or not imputing of sins for one and the same thing for that which he calls Righteousness here he calls the forgiveness of iniquities and Covering of sins and not imputing of sin or setting down of sin upon accounts in the verses next following Without Works i. e. Without the strict observing of the Law or though he hath not observed the
are not only circumcised but also c. Of the Circumcision To be of the circumcision is as much to say as to be children of the circumcision and to be Children of the circumcision is as much to say as to be circumcised by an Hebrew kind of phrase or speech which we meet with often in Saint Pauls Epistles But also in the steps of that faith of our Father Abraham which he had being yet uncircumcised i e. But also imitate our Father Abraham and follow his example in so believing as he believed while he was yet uncircumcised This Phrase To walk in the steps is Metaphorical taken from one which following another close steppeth in the steps of him which went before and it signifieth to imitate Note that those words that righteousness might be imputed to them also which are expressed in the latter end of the eleventh verse are to be repeated or understood here in the latter end of this verse also The Apostle because there were such of the circumcision that is such of the circumcised Jews as were circumcised and did not believe And others which were both circumcised and did believe also doth shew here to which of these two Abraham was to be accounted a Father He was to be accounted a Father not to those which were only circumcised but to those which were circumcised and did believe too Ver. 13. For the promise that he should be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his Seed through the Law but through the righteousness of faith i. e. For the promise which was made to Abraham or to his Seed to wit That he should be Lord or Owner of the Land of Canaan was not made to Abraham or to his Seed through the Law which was given by Moses or for that that he or they kept the Law of Moses fully and exactly as the Law requireth but through faith that is for that that he or they believed God This is another Argument by which the Apostle proveth that Abraham was not justified by works And it hath its immediate relation to the second verse that which cometh in between coming in by the current of his speech and that which he gathers out of it For whereas he saith in the second verse that if Abraham were justified by works he had whereof to glory c. A Jew might say but how could he otherwise be justified than by works when as the promise that he and his Seed should be heirs of the world which was a Type of their justification was through the Law of Moses To this the Apostle here answers by denying that the promise was to Abraham and his Seed through the Law and by affirming that it was through the righteousness of faith For the promise that he should be heir of the world saith he was not to Abraham or his Seed through the Law c. That he should be the heir By He is meant Abraham and by an Heir is meant the Lord here that is the Owner or Possessor of a thing For both the Hebrews and also the ancient Latins called Lords Haeredes Heirs And according to this a Possession is called an Inheritance Psalm 2. v. 8. Where it is said Ask of me and I will give thee the Heathen for thine Inheritance that is for thy Possession Of the world By the World is meant here the Land of Canaan which was but a part yea a little part though once a fruitful part and containing in it many petty Kingdoms of this Transitory World by a Synechdoche Was not to Abraham or his Seed That is was not made to Abraham or to his Children to wit Isaac and Jocob c. The promise of the Land of Canaan was made to Abraham and his Children Isaac and Jacob. And not for their own righteousness but for the promise made to Abraham Isaac and Jacob their forefathers did the Israelites afterwards possess that Land Deut. 9.5 Through the Law i e. Through the works of the Law or because they had kept the Law which was given by Moses strictly and exactly as it ought to be kept Nor Abraham nor Isaac nor Jacob could be said to keep the Law which was given by Moses for it was not given till a long time after their death and that the promise of the Land of Canaan was made to them before the giving of the Law it was a Type that justification which was typified by the Land of Canaan should not be by the Law or to them which were under the Law as such The Land of Canaan was a Type of all Spiritual and Heavenly Happiness and therefore a Type not of justification only but of glorification also but it is here put only as a Type of justification by a kind of Synechdoche But through the righteousness of faith That is but through faith which justifieth a man The Righteousness of Faith is put here Per Metonymiam effectus for Faith it self which conferreth or procureth Righteousness or Justification Note â—hat that which the Apostle hath said in this verse is the literal or Historical sence of what he saith out of which he leavs us to gather the Spiritual or Mystical sence which is this Now as the Promise that he should be heir of the Land of Canaan was not made to Abraham or to his carnal seed through the Law but through the righteousnesse of faith So the Spiritual or Mystical promise of Justification was not made to Abraham or his Spiritual seed through the Law or with respect to that no not when the Law should come but through faith and with respect only to that which should not fail to justify those that believed Ver. 14. For if they which are of the Law be heirs i. e. For if they shall be the Heirs to wit of justification which was typified by the Land of Canaan and shall inherit that who are the Children of the Law and under that and that by vertue of the Law c. These Words have their dependance upon the verse going next before but not as it is taken in the Literal sence but in the Mystical sence which we gave of it For the Apostle leaving the literal sence of what he said there comes here to the Mystical sence Faith is made void The way of obtaining Justification by Faith which was the way by which Abraham was justified and by which God promised to justifie his children is made void And therefore is it made void because God hath appointed but one way for justification for there is no difference of wayes as to that Chap 3. ver 22 And Faith and the Law are so different as that they cannot stand together for faith supposeth sin in him that is to be justified but the Law excludes all sin So that he that is justified by the Law is supposed never to have sinned Read Chapter 10. from ver 5 to ver 12. And the promise made of none effect i e. And the promise of
any man of years was justified without saith Nor ever any man was justified without the merits of Christ And that whosoever is justified now under the Gospel by faith must have an Explicit and particular faith of Jesus Christ yet before the Gospel a General faith was sufficient to justification For as the Gospel was but rudely drawn to them which lived before Christ So was the faith required of them but rude as I may say and general and such as if they did believe the general promises of God made to them and relie upon them and live or resolve to live as those that did expect the performance of those promises their faith should for Christs sake which was to come be counted to them for Righteousness Ver. 23. Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was counted to him c. Now this that the faith or belief of Abraham was imputed or counted rather to him for Righteousness was written indeed for Abraham's sake Gen. 15.6 But it was not written for Abraham's sake alone that it was imputed or counted to him for Righteousness but for our sakes also c. That which is written Gen. 15.6 That Abraham believed in the Lord and he counted it to him for Righteousness was written for Abraham's sake that Abraham might be praised and had in repute amongst men for this his faith and accounted by them worthy to be the Father of many Nations But yet it was not written for his sake alone or for this end only that he might be praised and had in repute among men and accounted by them worthy to be the Father of many Nations But it was written for our sakes also to assure us that if we believe the Gospel as firmly as Abraham believed what God promised him we shall be justified by our faith as Abraham was by his Ver. 24. But for us also i. e. But for our sakes also To whom it shall be imputed i. e. To whom that that we believe shall be imputed or counted for Righteousness If we believe on him i. e. If we rely on him and trust on him for the performance of his promises made to us Whom he means by Him he sheweth in the next words If we truly believe the promises of God we cannot but trust in God and rely on him for performance of those his promises Wherefore as I have observed before by reason of the near connexion of these two one with the other To rely on God and trust in him or believe in him is often put Per Metonymiam Consequentis for to believe him and his promises Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead By this Periphrasis he meaneth God for God is said to have raised up Jesus having loosed the pains of death Acts 2.24 He describeth God here by this That he raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead because it containeth a notable Argument to induce us to believe in God as Saint Peter teacheth 1 Pet. 1.21 And because this that he raised up Christ from the dead is as it were a Compendium of our faith For he that believeth this believeth that Jesus is the Christ and that he is the Saviour of the world who dyed and rose again for our Salvation and that he shall be our Judge at the last day Acts 17.31 c. Again he describeth God by this That he raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead in this place because he would allude to that which Abraham believed here who though he saw both his own Body now dead and the deadness of Sarah's Womb v. 19. yet he believed that God could raise them both from that death or deadness Ver. 25. Who was delivered To wit to death Jesus Christ was delivered to death by God the Father Rom. 8.32 The Apostle had rather say who was delivered to wit to death than who dyed because the Expiation of our sins did depend upon the good pleasure of God who would this way be appeased for the sins of Man For our offences i. e. For the Expiation and taking away of our sins Metonymia Objecti And rose again To wit from the dead For our Justification i. e. For the Remission of our sins This is as if he should have said who both dyed through the appointment of God and rose again for our justification or for the remission of our sins The Apostle therefore expresseth one and the same thing here by two several phrases the like to which he did Chap. 3. verse 30. Christ dyed that he might as a Surety for us pay the debt which was due from us for our sins to wit death and so deliver us from those our sins hence Christ is said to redeem us from the Curse of the Law being made a Curse for us Gal. 3.13 But yet the death of Christ and his undergoing the Curse of the Law for us would have availed us nothing if that Christ had alwayes lyen under death and alwayes lyen under the Curse of the Law as being overcome and conquered and kept Captive thereby For to be detained alwayes a Prisoner in that Prison from whence there is no coming forth before the payment of the uttermost farthing Mat. 5.26 is to be always under execution and to evacuate and null the Plea of the full payment of our debt for which our Surety stood engaged for us Therefore it was necessary that Christ that he might redeem us fully and pay our full debt should not only dye for us but also rise again and upon this ground doth our Apostle rightly conclude that if Christ be not raised our faith is vain we are yet in our sins 1 Cor. 15.17 And hence it is that he saith Rom 8.34 It is Christ that dyed yea rather that is risen again And not only for this reason may Christ be said to rise again for our justification but also for that That he when he arose from the dead he arose that he might ascend into Heaven there to appear in the presence of God for us Heb. 9.24 Where he is at the right hand of God and maketh intercession for us Rom. 8.38 CHAP. V. 1. THerefore being justified by saith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ 1. I have shewed you hitherto that we are not justified by works but by faith And now that I have shewed you that we are justified by faith let me shew you how many and great benefits do accrue to us by this justification Therefore being justified by faith the wrath of God is appeased towards us and God is at peace with us for our Lord Jesus Christs sake 2. By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoyce in hope of the glory of God 2. By whom also we have access by faith into this grace and favour of Justification wherein we stand And we have hope of the glory of God to wit that we shall one day enjoy it and be
which is the wages of sin and which never falls upon any one but for sin reigned over all men from the days of Adam to the days of Moses though they had not sinned as Adam had who transgressed against a law which God gave him to keep with his own mouth which Adam was a Figure of Christ who indeed was then to come but is since come among us And therefore was he a Figure of Christ because as Christ derived something to his children so did Adam before Christ came derive something to his But yet if we come to particulars that which Christ derived to his children was Grace and the free gift of God But that which Adam derived to his was Original sin which I call here the Offence 15. But not as the offence so also is the free gift For if through the offence of one many be dead much more the grace of God and the gift by grace which is by one man Jesus Christ hath abounded unto many 15. But yet not as the offence which Adam derived to his Children so also is the free gift which Christ derived to his for equality but this much exceeds that For if by the offence which was caused by one to wit Adam and by him derived to his Children many to wit so many as are born of him are either already dead or shall surely die In a much higher degree and more plentiful though contrary manner hath the grace of God that is the gift of grace which is by one man Jesus Christ abounded unto many even to so many as are born of Christ that they might live 16. And not as it was by one that sinned so is the gift for the judgment was by one to condemnation but the free gift is of many offences unto justification 16. Not I say as was the offence or sin which was by one to wit Adam So is the gift which is by one to wit Christ Jesus For the Judgement of God passed upon the Children of Adam to their condemnation by reason of that one sin or offence which Adam derived to them But the free gift or pardon which is derived by Christ to his Children is the remission or pardon not of that one only offence but of many other offences to their justification 17. For if by one mans offence death reigned by one much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ 17. Again if by that one sin or offence death reigned by reason of one man to wit Adam who was the cause of that sin or offence and who derived it to his Children over all the Children of Adam After a far more bountiful and glorious manner shall life reign by one to wit Jesus Christ over all the Children of Christ who receive by him abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness by the remission and pardon of their many sins and offences 18. Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life 18. Therefore that I may resume and perfect what I began to say but left unperfect verse 12. As by reason of that original sin or offence which was caused by one and by that one to wit Adam derived to all his Children judgement came upon all men which were born of Adam whereby they were condemned to death Even so by reason of that righteousness or justification which was purchased by one even Jesus Christ and by that one derived to all his Children the pardon or remission of sins which was a free gift from God came upon all men which are born of Jesus Christ so that they are thereby justified and translated from death to life 19. For as by one mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous 19. I said by reason of the offence which was caused by one to wit Adam and I said by reason of the righteousness or justification which was purchased by one to wit Jesus Christ For as by the disobedience of one man that one man Adam who disobeyed God by eating of the Tree concerning which God had said Thou shalt not eat thereof many yea so many as were born of Adam were made sinners through the offence which was caused by him So by the obedience of one even Jesus Christ who obeyed God unto death even the death of the Cross shall many yea as many as are born of him be justified from their sins through the righteousness which was purchased by him 20 Moreover the Law entred that the offence might abound but where sin abounded grace did much more abound 20. Moreover least any one should say that though sin was in the world untill the Law yet surely when the Law was once entred sin was taken away let me tell you that the Law was so far from taking away sin that sin did abound by the entring in of the Law But yet to our comfort when sin abounded the Grace and Mercy of God through Christ did much more abound 21. That as sin hath reigned unto death even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. 21. So that as sin hath reigned unto death by Adam even so the grace and favor of God hath reigned through justification and remission of sins unto Eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. CHAP. V. Vers 1. Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with The Apostle having shewed in the foregoing part of this Epistle that we are justified not by the works of the Law but by faith cometh here to shew the fruit and excellent effects which follow or come by that Justification Being justified c. Concerning the signification of this word See Chapter 6. ver 7. We have peace with God That is God is at peace with us so that though we have sinned yet God will nor pour out his wrath upon us for our sins as he will upon other sinners because we are justified by Faith These words are not so to be understood as though the meaning thereof were that we were peaceably affected towards God But so as that God is peaceably affected towards us And the word Peace here is opposed to Wrath to wit the Wrath of God of which he speaks ver 9. And not God but we are the Object of this Peace or they to whom this peace is shewed and God is as the Subject so when we say we have favour with God God is the Subject we the Object to whom this favour is shewed Through our Lord Jesus Christ i. e. Through the merits and mediation of our Lord Jesus Christ Jesus Christ is called here our Lord because he bought us with a Price 1 Cor. 6.20 2 Pet. 2.1 which Price was his own blood with which price he redeemed us out of the bondage
of the Devil and of sin and of death and challenged us as it were and owned and asserted us for his peculiar Servants before Gods Tribunal He may be also called our Lord because of the Power which God gave him over all things in Heaven and in Earth Acts 10.36 Vert 2. By whom also we have access by Faith into this Grace wherein we stand The Grace which here he speaks of and wherein he saith we stand is the Grace of justification q. d. Through whom also we have this Grace or this free gift which we enjoy to wit That we are justified by Faith Though we are justified by â—aith yet it is by the Grace and Favour of God towards us through the merits and mediation of Christ that we are thus justified For what is Faith that it should justifie us without Gods Favour and without Christs Merit and Mediation I conceive that these words By whom also we have an access by faith into this Grace wherein we stand are best to be read with a Parenthesis And we rejoyce in the hope of the Glory of God q. d. And God hath promised to give us eternall glory by Christ in hope of which glory we rejoyce Of the Glory of God By Glory is here meant that Glorious state of Life which we shall with all Saints enjoy in the Kingdome of Heaven And he calls it The glory of God because it is promised by God and shall be performed by God in his good time Ver. 3 And not only so but we glory in Tribulations also q d. And we have not only peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ and rejoyce through him in the hope of the Glory of God But that ye may not think that we neither have peace with God nor can have any sound hope of the Glory of God therein to rejoice because we are afflicted with Tribulations more than any men know that we glory in Tribulations also The Apostle doth with much art prevent an Objection here For whereas he said ver 1. That being justified by Faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ And ver 2. We rejoyce in hope of the Glory of God A man might object and say How can you say Paul that ye which are justifyed by faith have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ and that ye rejoyce in hope of the glo of God through him whereas no men are more under tribulations than ye are for Christs sake which sheweth that ye have no peace with God and that ye have no sound hope of the glory of God through Christ to rejoyce in To this the Apostle answereth thus q. d. Notwithstanding these our Tribulations we have peace with God and rejoyce in hope of the glory of God For the Tribulations which befall us for Christs sake are not the signes of Gods displeasure but of his good will to us and thereby we come to know that he loves us and therefore we rejoyce in Tribulations for Christs sake whereas other men groan under the Tribulations which they suffer and are cast down and discontented at them But we glory in Tribulations also i. e. But we rejoyce also by reason of those Tribulations which we suffer for Christs sake Note that it is the same word to wit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is rendred we rejoyce in verse 2. and we glory in in this verse In tribulation i. e. By reason of Tribulation Supple Which befalls us for Christs sake or for Gods sake or for Righteousness sake And in such Tribulations do Christians rejoyce as in some great good so did the Apostles rejoyce because they were counted worthy to suffer shame for Christs sake Acts 5.41 And hence is that admonition of Saint James My Brethren count it all joy when ye fall into divers tâ—mptations that is into diverse Tribulations James 1.2 Knowing that Tribulation worketh Patience By Patience understand patient bearing of evils q. d. Knowing that Tribulation worketh Patience in us and maketh us to suffer those Evils Patiently which we suffer for Christs sake c. Tribulatiâ—ns in their own nature are apt to breed impatience rather than patience in men But yet in the faithfull and such as are justified by faith they bring forth patience for such in their tribulations and by reason of their tribulations meditate on this that tribulations befall them by the will and dispensation of God and on this that by them God would have them like unto his own Son and their own Head and eldest Brother Christ Jesus And on this that God will never leave them nor forsake them Heb. 13.5 And on this that our light afflictions or tribulations work for us a far more exceeding weight of Glory 2 Cor. 4.17 By which means they through the operation of Gods spirit learn patience and patiently endure whatsoever tribulation doth befall them Ver. 4. And patience experience Experience of what For it is not here expressed Answ Experience of those Gifts and Graces which God hath given us by his Spirit as we may gather from what we read in the latter part of the fifth verse as the sincerity of our faith Our trust and confidence in God Our ardency in prayer our love even to our enemies Our contempt of worldly things c. All which do accompany our patience and patient bearing of tribulations and do then most evidently shew themselves when we are patient in tribulations And experience hope i. e. And the experience or experimental knowledge of those gifts and graces which God hath given us by his Spirit worketh or produceth in us hope that is to say hope of the Glory of God But why should the experience or experimental knowledge of those gifts and graces which God hath given us by his Spirit work or produce in us hope of the Glory of God Answ Because they are tokens of the love of God to us in Christ as it followeth in the next verse and for those whom God loveth in Christ he hath prepared eternall glory And of this Glory those gifts and graces are also Pledges Ver. 5. And hope maketh not ashamed q. d. And hope that is And this our hope of eternal Glory or of the Glory of God shall not fall or prove a vain hope but we shall enjoy that which we hope for in due season Because men which entertain great hopes of a thing are ashamed when those their great hopes fail them hence hope is said to make a man ashamed when it faileth him and he attains not to what he hopes for By a Metonymy Because the Love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given us By the love of God we must understand here not the love with which we love God but the love with which God loveth us Is shed abroad c. To be shed abroad is the same as to be poured out for the word in the Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And that
in them And because they were made Sinners therefore the judgement of God came upon them to condemnation ver 18. By the obedience of one This one is Christ Jesus and this his obedience is that which we read Philip. 2.8 whereby he was obedient unto death even the death of the Cross Shall many be made righteous i. e. Shall many be justified The Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is asmuch as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is shall be justified So also is the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taken Chap. 2.13 The righteousness here spoken of is that Righteousness which is called also justification and which consists in the pardon of or absolution from Sins and it is the effect of the obedience of that One that is of Christ Jesus This righteousness did Jesus Christ purchase for us by this his obedience and conferreth on all them which believe in him By the disobedience therefore of Adam were many made Sinners in that by his disobedience the offence that is Original Sin came upon them And by the obedience of Christ were many made righteous in that by his obedience they attained to that righteousness or justification by which they are freed acquitted and absolved from all both Original and Actual Sins Ver. 20. Moreover the Law entred that the offence might abound i. e. Moreover when the Law entred the offence did abound Note that the particle that is a sign here not of the intent but of the event so that the sence of this place is this q. d. The Law which forbiddeth Sin entred into the world in the middle time between Adam and Christ yet the event or issue of that was only this That Sin did abound He speaks here of the Law which was given by Moses and prevents an objection for whereas it was tacitly objected between the 12 and 13 verses That Sin was not in the world before the Law which objection the Apostle answered in the 13 and 14 verses It might be thus objected upon the Apostles answer But if we grant Sin to have been in the world before the Law yet surely when the Law came Sin was then no more in the world for the Law is a perfect remedy against Sin To this the Apostle here answereth that though the Law entred yet when it had entred it was so far from being a remedy against Sin as that Sin did abound and became more abundant by the Law than it was before I have said that these words are an answer to a tacit objection springing from the Apostles answer to a former objection supposed to arise between the 12 and 13 verses But some make them an answer to an objection supposed to arise out of the last words of the 19 verse viz. By the obedience of one man many were made righteous For a man may object from those words and say But why dost thou Paul say that by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous that is many shall be justified For there is no need of the obedience of another that any should be made righteous or that any should be justified since the Law was given for the Law is enough to make men righteous and is sufficient it self to preserve them from Sin To this the Apostle answereth q. d. The Law is so far from making men righteous and from preserving them from Sin as that the Law since it entred hath been an occasion that Sin hath much more abounded than it did before But which way soever of the two we conceive this objection to be raised or whether both ways it skills not much the matter tending still to the same purpose The Law entred that the offence might abound i. e. The Law entred that Sin might abound And therefore did Sin abound when the Law entred Because the Law worketh wrath for where there is no Law there is no Transgression as our Apostle speaketh Chap. 4.15 By the offence he means Actual Sin or Sins And that which he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the offence here he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sin in the following words But where Sin abounded i. e. But when sin abounded Where is put here for When an Adverb of place for an Adverb of time That which he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here as was there observed Grace did much more abound By Grace understand here the grace and favour of God which is said here to abound by reason of its effects to wit Remission of Sins or Justification whereby the Sinner which believeth is justified from all his sins or hath all his Sins forgiven him By how much the more and greater the Sins of a Sinner are By so much the greater and more abundant is the grace and favour of him which forgiveth them And by how much the greater Sinner a man acknowledgeth himself to have been so much the greater grace and favour and mercy doth he confess that he hath received by the remission and forgiveness of his sins as we may learn by the example of the woman which was a Sinner Luke 7. ver 38 c. And by the example of the Apostle himself 1 Tim. 1.12 He saith of the offence or of Sin that it did abound and of grace that it did much more abound Supple than Sin did And this he doth because the grace and mercy of God did prevail above the Sins of men though they did very much prevail and was more powerful than they For the grace and mercy of God did take away the guilt of all sins in the believer and therefore was more powerful in him to justifie him than all his Sins were to condemn him V. 21. That as sin hath reigned unto death i e. That as Sin hath shewed her power which was as the power of Queen over men by bâ—inging them to death and destruction through her guilt Even so might grace reign through Righteousness unto eternal life i. e. Even so might the grace or favour of God towards men like a Queen shew her power in them which believe in bringing them through the remission of their Sins and of the guilt thereof to eternal life By Righteousness is here meant Justification or Remission of sins See verses 17 and 18. And grace is said to bring men to eternal life through Righteousness that is by Remission of Sins or Justification Because God glorifieth none whom he doth not Justifie And because he doth not only vouchsafe to justifie Sinners from their sins if they believe But doth also bring them when he hath Justified them to life eternal if they persist in their faith Note here that when the Apostle saith that grace reigneth through righteousness unto everlasting life his meaning is not that grace exempteth us so from death as that we shall never die but his meaning is that grace doth confer life so unto us and so exempt us from death as that death shall not always have dominion
Fathers in a second sence interpret of Christ c. See Bishop Andrews's sermon upon that Text being his Second Sermon of the Passion V. 30. Whom he did predestinate To wit to be conformed to the image of his Son in sufferings Them also he called To wit to that to which they were predestinated that is to be conformed or to be made like to the image of his Son that is to suffer whereby they might be made conform and like to Christ Or to put on the image or likeness of Christ in suffâ—rings Hereunto are we called to wit to suffer saith Saint Peter 1 Pet. 2.21 using the same word which Saint Paul useth here in the same sence as he doth And yourselves know that we are appointed to wit to afflictions saith Saint Paul in the like sence 1 Thes 3.3 And whâ—m he called q. d. But whom he called to wit to be conformed or to be made like to the image of his Son that is to suffer c. Them he also justified i. e. Them because they are accounted by the world as the Chief of sinners by reason of their sufferings And because the world thinks that their sufferings befall them by reason of some enormous wickedness in them will God justifie and clear from the hâ—rd and unjust censure of the world And he will clear them from this That he called them to suffer because they were the worst of men And whom he justified To wit from the hard and unjust censure of the world Them he also glorified Them will he also glorifie And so glorifie that the greater their afflictions and sufferings are here the greater shall their glory be hereafter Our light afflictions which are but for a moment work for us a far more exceeding weight of Glory saith our Apostle 2 Cor. 4.17 Note that he puts here a Praeterperfect tense for a future to shew that what he speaks of shall as surely come to pass as if it were already done Ver. 31. What shall we then say to these things i e. What shall I say more or what shall I add to these things which I have already said that is What shall I say more in this case q d. I need not say more yet will I add what followeth in way of triumph If God be for us who can be against us i e. Seeing that God is for us who can be against us to wit so as to hurt us Note that the Conjunction If is not put doubtingly here but affirmingly and is as much to say as Seeing that Who can be against us i. e. Who can be against us so as to do us any hurt for otherwise the faithfull have many Adversaries In these words If God be for us who can be against us The Apostle seemeth to allude to an Advocate in a Court of Justice who faithfully pleadeth the cause of his Client Ver. 32. He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all i. e. He that did not pity his own Son for the love which he bore to us but delivered him up to death for the good of us all That spared not God is said not to have spared his own Son not because he saw in him that which was worthy to be punished but because he delivered him to death though in himself most innocent for our sakes His own Son There is an Emphasis in these words His own Son for by these he signifies not a common Son as they are which are his Sons by adoption or which are called his Sons in Scripture by reason of some Praerogative bestowed upon them but his Peculiar Son which is his naturall Son But delivered him up God is said to have delivered his Son up to wit to death because he having decreed from all eternity that he should die for our sins did by his Providence so order it that he should and did die by the hands of wicked men How shall he not freely with him give us all things q. d. How can he stick to give us and that most freely and most liberally too all things which we stand in need of or which may be any way beneficial to us when he hath given to us his own Son in comparison of whom all things else are as nothing Ver. 33. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect i. e. Who shall accuse or lay to the charge of those whom God hath elected and made choice of to Justification any crime whatsoever it be whether they have commited or not commited it so that thereby they shall be condemned for it Of Gods Elect He seemeth to speak here of such as are actually elected not such as are elected only in the decree and purpose of God and the immediate object of this election seemes to me to be Justification For our Apostles scope from the beginning of the fift chapter hitherto is to shew the Priviledges and happiness of those which are justified by faith Note that the words elâ—ct and electon do not in themselves signifie the Object to which the Election tends nor do they signifie or specifie the Persons elected what they are nor the Author of the election who he is These things must be gathered from the circumstances of the place When therefore the Apostle treats here of such as are justified by faith the Author of this election is God the Parties elected are Believers the Object or that to which they are immediately elected is Justification See Chap. 11. ver 5. Three sorts of People we read of in this Epistle which look and stand as I may say for Justification First some Jews pretending the works of the Law Secondly Other Jews as they are the Sons of Abraham or Israâ—lites by birth And thirdly the faithful Believers God may confer Justification upon every one of these or deny it to every one if he pleaseth But omitting the other two he makes choice only of the faithfull believer that he may justifie him therefore may be well be called the Elect of God In those words Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect. The Apostle alludes to the manner of Courts of Justice and the pleadings and impeachings there used It is God that justifieth Supple Them that is It is God which absolveth them from all which is laid to their charge whether it be true or salfe That it is God which justifieth them which believe or those that are justified by faith the Apostle teacheth Chap. 5. ver 2 6. And being it is God which justifies them or absolves them from all accusations which are laid against them all the charges and accusations of their adversaries can do them no harm For there is no power like to the power of God He speaks here of God as of a Judge yea as of supream King and Judge alluding notwithstanding to Courts of Justice Ver. 34. Who is he that condemneth i. e. Who is he that can condemn us either by his Oratory or by
the Sea wherein they were wont to drown those which were accounted Malefactours and were persons condemned to die Others by height understand heaven by depth hell And by those again such as were in heaven and in hell q. d. Nor can heaven nor hell that is nor can any in heaven or in hell if they should set themselves against us be able to separate us c. Nor any other Creature i. e. Nor any other thing whatsoever From the Love of God i. e. From the love which God sheweth us Which is in Christ Jesus i. e. Which love he sheweth to or towards us for Christ Jesus our Lords sake The Preposition In is taken here after the Hebrew manner for For the sake of For the Hebrews take this Preposition In for almost any Preposition whatsoever CHAP. IX 1. I Say the truth in Christ I lie not my conscience also bearing me witness in the holy Ghost 1. I have hitherto plainly and undeniably shewed that Justification is not by works but by faith And I have declared the rich blessings and mercies which God bestoweth on them which are Justified by faith wherefore I say the truth in the sight of Christ my conscience also bearing me witness before the holy Ghost who knows my heart and will require it of me If I say false 2. That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart 2. That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart 3. For I could wish that my self were accursed from Christ for my brethren my kinsmen according to the flesh 3. For my brethren the Jews who are my kinsmen according to the flesh for I could wish if yet I might lawfully wish it that I were accursed and everlastingly separated from Christ for them 4 Who are Israelites to whom pertaineth the adoption and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the service of God and the promises 4. Who are so great priviledges and prerogatives have they above all people the children of Israel which was the friend of God by true lineal descent of blood and to whom pertaineth the Adoption by which they are made Sons of God And the glory which appertaineth to them which are Gods people and the Morall Law which was given by Moses in Tables of Stone And the Judicial Law which was given them for the maintainance of Civil Society among themselves and the Ceremonial Law which taught them the manner of Gods service and worship and all the promises contained in the books of the Old Testament 5. Whose are the fathers and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came who is over all God blessed for ever Amen 5. Whose are the Fathers those Ancient Patriarchs Abraham Isaac and Jacob and of whom Christ was born as he was Man even Christ who is Lord over all and God as well as Man yea God blessed for evemore Amen 6. Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect For they are not all Israel which are of Israel 6. But here before I can finish my sentence and speak out my mind which I will do Chap. 10. ver 1 2 3. I must prevent an Objection which here ariseth For whereas my Brethren the Jews know that I exclude them all from Justification which seek not after it by faith They will be ready to tell me that whereas I said that the promises appertain to them I make the promises of God of none effect except I grant them to be justified for among the promises of God there is a promise made to the Israelites which they say they are that he will cleanse them from all their iniquity and pardon all their sins Jer. 31. ver 31 34. Jer. 33.4 Micah 7.18 But for an answer to this though I say that the promises appertain to them and do acknowledge such a promise as they make mention of yet let no man think that I have so spoken as that it may be gathered from my words that the promise of God is of none effect because I will not grant them to be justified for though that promâ—se of God be made to all Israel and so to them upon condition yet if we speak of that promise absolutely All they which are descended from Israel by lineal succession of blood are not that Israel or those sons of Israel to whom that promise of Righteousness or Justification doth absolutely belong 7. Neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children but in Isaac shall thy seed be called 7. For neither are they which are of Abraham upon that meer account that they are descended from Abraham by carnal Generation to be accounted that seed and those children of Abraham to whom the Spiritual promise of justification doth absolutely belong For the seed or children of Abraham to whom the promise of the Land of Canaan did appertain were not that seed or those children of Abraham which were in the loins of Ishmael which yet came our of the loins of Abraham but that seed or those chidren of Abraham which were in the loines of Isaac according to that which was said to Abraham by the Angel Gen. 21.12 But in Isaac shall thy seed be to wit that seed of thine which shall inherit the Land of Canaan which I have promised to thee and to thy children 8. That is they which are the children of the flesh these are noâ— the children of God but the children of the promise are counted for the seed 8. That is according to the Mystical meaning of the words for not the literal but the Mystical sence is that which makes for my purpose and that for which I alledge these words they which are the children of Abraham according to the flesh which children were typified in Ishmael these are not the children of Abraham to which God promised that spiritual gift of justification which was typified by the Land of Canaan But those spiritual children which God promised to Abraham in a Mystical sence Genes 17.5 When he said I have made thee a Faâ—her of many Nations that is the faithful or they which are of faith whether they be Jews or whether they be Gentiles by birth and which were typified by Isaac they and they only are to be accounted that seed of Abraham to which the promise of justification doth absolutely belong 9 For this is the word of promise At this time will I come and Sara shall have a son 9. I say which were typified by Isaac for Iâ—aac was a son of promise that is Isaac was born to Abraham by vertue of Gods promise whereby he said by his Angel to him at this time the next year will I come unto thee And then Sara thy wife shall have a son whom thou shalt call Isaac Gen. 18.10 And because Isaac was a son of promise or because he was born of Abraham's body by vertue of Gods promise made to Abraham his Father He was a type of that spiritual seed to
thou that repliest against God shall the thing formed say to him that formed it why hast thou made me thus 20. Nay but that I may reply O man who art thou that repliest against God and choppest Logick with him Shall the thing formed if it likes not its shape say to him which formed it Why hast thou made me thus 21 Hath not the potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour and another unto dishonour 21. Hath not the Potter power of the clay out of which he makes his pots and dishes of the same lump of clay to make one pot or dish for an honourable use to wit to hold wine or meat for the Table or the like And another to abase and dishonourable use as to receive the excrements of the belly or the urine or the like Now then if the potter have this power over the clay Much more hath God power over the mass of sinfull men who are all sinners and none of them deserve to be justified to make one as a vessel of Honour by justifying him and another as a vessel of dishonour by hardening him 22. What if God willing to shew his wrath and to make his power known endurâ—d with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction 22. But what if God willing to shew his anger and to make his power known in their destruction hath hardned by enduring them with a great deal of patience and long suffering the vessells of wrath fitted to destruction I mean those who do not obey or believe the the truth but obey unrighteousness or believe a falshood whose portion is indignation and wrath What I say if God hath hardened them what unrighteousness canst thou find in God for so doing 23. And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he had afore prepared unto glory 23. And what if God that he might make known the abundance of his goodness on the vessels of mercy whom he decreed from all aeternity to fit and prepare for Glory by justifying them hath justified them and so fitted and prepared them for Glory as he hath decreed What unrighteousness is there in God for this 24. Even us whom he hath called not only of the Jews but also of the Gentiles 24. Which vessells of mercy we are Whom God hath effectually called to the grace of the Gospel so that we do truely believe We I say not of the Jewes only but also of the Gentiles 25. As he saith also in Osee I will call them my people which were not my people and her beloved which was not beloved 25. For whatsoever some perswade themselves to the contrary God hath effectually called the Gentiles and foretold long ago that he would make them his people as he saith in Osee Osee 1.23 speaking of them I will make them my people which are not my people and her beloved which was not beloved 26. And it shall come to pass that in the place where it was said unto them ye are not my people there shall they be called the children of the living God 26. And ver 10 It shall come to pass that in the place were it was said unto them ye are not my people there shall they be called the Children of the living God 27. Esaias also crieth concerning Israel Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the Sea a remnant shall be saved 27. But as for the Jews Esaias which pierceth my heart for grief to think of crieth concerning them Chap. 10 ver 22. Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the Sea for multitude yet a very few of them and a remnant only shall be saved from their sins 28. For he will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth 28. For the Lord will finish the work which he intendeth with them and will cut it short in rigour yea a short work will the Lord make with them upon the earth 29. And as Esaias said before Except the Lord of sabbaoth had left us a seed we had been as Sodoma and been made like unto Gomorrah 29. And Esaias also said before he said this to wit Chap. 1. ver 9. Except the Lord of hosts had left us a seed which is but little in respect of the whole harvest we the people of Israel had been as Sodom was utterly consumed and we had been made like unto Gommorrah an utter desolation 30. What shall we say then That the Gentiles which followed not after righteousness have attained to righteousness even the righteousness which is of faith 30. What shall we say then or what shall we collect out of these Scriptures we collect this to wit That the Gentiles which followed not after Justification in fore time have now attained to Justification if you ask what Justification I answer even the Justification which is of Faith 31. But Israel which followed after the law of righteousness hath not attained to the law of righteousness 31. But the Jews which followed and sought after Justification all this while have not attained to Justification 32. Wherefore because they sought it not by faith but as it were by the works of the law for they stumbled at that stumbling stone 32. And wherefore have they not attained to it because they sought it not by faith but by the works of the Law And therefore sought they it nor by faith because they stumbled at the stumbling block that is they were offended at Christ and believed not in him who is the object of our belief for Christ was a stumdling block to the Jews 33. As it is written behold I lay in Sion a stumbling stone and rock of offence and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed 33. As it is written of him Isaiah 28.16 Behold I lay in Sion a stumbling block and rock of offence yet notwithstanding that that he was a stumbling block to the Jews for a great part of them whosoever believeth and relies on him for Justification shall not be dispointed of it CHAP. IX Ver. 1. I say the trueth in Christ c. The Apostle having shewed in the beginning of this Epistle That Justification is not to be attained by works but by faith only and having set out from the beginning of the fift Chapter hitherto the great benefits and happiness which accrue to them which are justified by faith breaks out here into a Patheticall expression of exceeding great grief which he hath for his brethren and Kinsmen the Jews to think that their is no way to attain to Justification but by Faith and that yet they have not submitted themselves to this way nor will imbrace it And he shews this his exceeding great grief that he might therby induce the Jews to consider how miserable and deplorable their condition is that they might at length
joyned with the same testimony which he produced for that purpose he doth here recite them yet not for the purpose aforesaid but to stir up others to believe in Christ and to comfort those which did believe It may be objected that these words are otherwise expounded here of Christ in the Mystical than they were of Hezekiah in the literal sence and not according to the same similitude For though it be said in the litteral sence that whosoever believeth c. yet it is not meant whosoever believeth on Hezekiah though he were a Type of Christ But in the Mysticall sence it is here expounded of Christ whosoever believeth in Christ Therefore one of the Expositions may seem faulty and not agreable to the Prophets meaning But for answer to this I say That when one place carrieth two severall sences with it one litteral the other mystical the words may yea must be often times otherwise construed and interpreted in the Mystical sence than they are or were in the litteral which I have observed and treated of else where Wherefore that which is objected is no sound argument against the Exposition given CHAP. X. 1. BRethren my hearts desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved 1. And now that I may resume that which I left unperfect in the beginning of the ninth chapter though in other words and may here perfect it Brethren my hearts desire and prayer for the Jews is that they may be justified 2. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God but not according to knowledge 2. For though there is talk of their zeal towards God as though such zealous men could not but be justified I am also ready to bear them witness that they have a zeal of God yet are they not therefore justified because their zeal is not according to knowledge 3. For they being ignorant of Gods righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God 3. For they being ignorant of the way of Justification which God hath appointed and as it were scored out to us and going about to establish and maintain that way of Justification which they themselves have invented and chosen to themselves they have not submitted themselves to that way of Justification which God hath appointed to approve thereof and walk therein 4. For Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth 4. For whereas Christ is set forth to be the way of Justification through faith in him to every one that believeth and the Law it self pointed at him for this as its end the Jews have rejected him and refused to believe in him 5 For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the Law that the man which doth those things shall live by them 5. But though I said that the Law it self pointed at Christ for this as at its end let no man therefore think that the way of Justification which the Law prescribeth and the way of Justification which is by Faith and which the Gospel holds out to us is all one for Moses describeth the way of Justification which is of the Law in this manner saying that the man which doth those things exactly and without the least failer in that which the law requireth shall be justified by them 6. But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise Say not in thine heart who shall ascend into heaven That is to bring Christ down from above 6. But the Preacher of that Justification which is by faith saith but that thou maist not think that this justification which is by the faith of Christ is as far from being attained as that which is by the Law say not in thine heart who shall ascend into heaven to wit to bring down Christ from above 7. Or who shall descend into the deep That is to bring Christ again from the dead 7. Or who shall descend into Hell to bring up Christ again from the dead as though it were any way necessary for us for the attaining of justification by faith that Christ should be bodily present with us 8. But what saith it The word is nigh thee even in thy mouth and in thine heart that is the word of faith which we preach 8. But what saith the Preacher of justification by faith thou needest not to go far to know what he saith for the word which he speaketh is nigh to thee for it is in thy mouth for thou talkest of it and it is in thy heart for thou thinkest of it To be short that is the word which the Preacher of justification which is by faith preacheth 9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved 8. This which we which are the Apostles of Christ do preach viz. If thou shalt confess with thy mouth That Jesus is the Lord and shalt unfeignedly believe that God hath raised him from the dead Thou shalt be justified 10. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation 10. For with the heart man believeth unto Justification and with the mouth confession is made to salvation 11. For the Scripture saith whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed 11. For the Scripture saith Isaiah 28.16 Whosoever believeth on him shall be sure to obtain justification 12. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him 12. I say whosoever believeth on him for there is no difference between the Jew and the Gentile in this matter For the same Lord being Lord over all is rich unto all whatsoever they are which call upon him for salvation 13. For whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved 13. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord that he may be saved whether he be Jew or whether he be Gentile shall be saved from his sins as it is written Joel 2.32 14. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard and how shall they hear without a Preacher 14. And note here the Jews which are so much against the Gentiles and would not that Preachers should be sent to them that when the Scripture saith whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved It saith that the Gentiles shall call upon the name of the Lord for salvation aswel as the Jews But now how shall they call on him for salvation in whom they have not believed And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard And how shall they hear without a preacher 15. And how shall they preach except they be sent As it is written How beautiful are the feet
they be Gentiles Now because the same or another Jew might reply upon this and say Yea but for all thy saying Paul though I should grant that that promise doth not belong to us Jewes as we are the Children of Jacob or of Abraham according to the Flesh as Such yet surely it doth appertain to us as we seek justification by the works of the Law and we are or shall be justified by so doing To this objection the Apostle answers verse 10 11 12 13. to this effect No neither shall ye be justified for this neither which may be proved by that which God said unto Rebecca while she had two Twins Esau and Jacob the heads of two People in her womb For at that time when the Children were not yet born before they had done either good or evil he said unto her The Elder shall serve the Younger and this God said to her at that time to signifie in a type that his purpose concerning his actual Electing men to Justification which Election is performed in time by justifying them was and should be to elect or justifie them not for their workes sake for which no man can be justified and if he could he might claim justification of debt but for his own Mercy and Grace sake who calleth us by the preaching of his Gospel that we may believe and believing may be justified and hath appointed that to be our way for Justification But because a Jew would be apt to say that if it were so as St. Paul had said Viz. That God would not justifie a Jew though he were a Jew by birth and though he did moreover seek justification by works if he believed not and yet would justifie every one which believeth though he were a Gentile Then there would be unrighteousness with God Saint Paul takes away this objection shewing first That there is no unrighteousness with God in justifying those which believe though they be Gentiles for he may justly have mercy on whom he will have mercy ver 15. And by the by ver 16 he shews them who being ignorant of Gods way of Righteousness or Justification went about to establish a way of their own that it was not in them who chose a way of Righteousness or Justification of their own though they were zealous in that way and run earnestly in it to attain to Justification but it was onely in God who sheweth mercy to whom he will and to what way he will Then as he had shewed that there was no unrighteousness in God if he did justifie those which did believe though they were Gentiles He shewes verse 17. by the Example which God shewed upon Pharaoh that there is no unrighteousness in God if he did not justifie a Jew though he were a Jew by birth and sought Justification by works if he believed not And concludeth verse 18. That God doth justly justifie whom he will and doth justly deny justification to whom he will yea and harden them too And now being that God doth every where complain of the Jewes and threatneth to destroy them for the hardness of their heart A malepart Jew starts up and hearing Paul say that God hardeneth whom he will Sayes But if God hardeneth whom he will why doth he now find fault with us and threatneth us for our hardness of heart For it is he that hardneth whom he will and if he will harden us how can we help it are we able to resist him To this objectian made verse 19. Saint Paul answers first by rebuking the Objector for his Sauciness who dares to chop Logick thus with God verse 20 21. Then verse 22 23. he gives a more direct answer by which he shews that God did harden them onely occasionally in that he did not cut them off but did endure them with much long-suffering by which those vessels of wrath that is they which were contentious and obeyed not the truth but obeyed unrighteousness fitted themselves for destruction for though by his long-suffering God led them to repentance yet they by the abuse thereof contracted hardness and an impoenitent hearts upon themselves heaping up wrath against the day of wrath and Revelation of the Righteous judgement of God and therefore there was no unrighteousness in God if he being willing to shew his wrath upon those vessels of wrath if they would not repent he found fault with them when they repented not And if by so doing he shewed the abundance of his goodness also to the vessels of mercy by justifying them and so preparing them to glory as he had before determined Which vessels of mercy he shews verse 24. to be them which believe not of the Jswes onely but of the Gentiles also Then to confirm what he had said concerning those disobedient Jews and the believing Gentiles he brings divers testimonies out of the Scriptures verses 25 26 27 28 29. And then he gathers out of what he had said that the believing Gentiles had attained to Justification by their Faith ver 30. But the Jewes for the greatest part of them missed of Justification because they sought it not by Faith but by the works of the Law And so having made way to that which he left imperfect at the sixth verse of this Chapter CHAP. X. In the tenth Chapter he sheweth what that was which he said in the beginning of the ninth did grieve him for the Jews which was this that they being ignorant of Gods way of Righteousness and going about to establish their own way of Righteousness submitted not themselves unto that way of Righteousness which God had appointed verse 3. but he ushereth it in Verse 1 2. with other words then he used in the beginning of the ninth Chapter Then verse 4. he sheweth why they submitted not themselves to that way of Righteousness or Justification which God had appointed The reason was because they were offended at Christ who was the end of the Law for Righteousness Then he shews that the Righteousness of the Law and the Righteousness of Faith are not all one Verse 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14. Then from verse 14 to the end he sheweth that the Gospel ought to be preached to the Gentiles and was preached to them and they received it gladly But though it was preached to the Jewes yet they refused it and would have none of it Wherefore because some might doubt concerning the perversness of the Jewes whether God had not or would not cast them off wholly for this their perverseness CHAP. XI The Apostle in the eleventh Chapter moves the question whether God had cast off his people the Jews or no And answers it in the negative verse 1. And to prove that he had not cast them all off he shews that he was a Jew and yet was accepted of God And that the Jews were a people whom God did foreknow that is whom God did determine from eternity so to love as not utterly to forsake them verse 2. and
that even then there were a Remnant of Jewes whom God had justified verses 2 3 4 5 6. But yet he saith that the Jews for the greatest part of them which sought for Justification by works obteined it not but those few which believed atteined to it and the rest were blinded and fell verses 7 8 9 10. and that into their place the Gentiles were received verse 11. But yet he saith that they fell not so as that they should not rise again but might recover their fall and this he proveth by the calling of the Gentiles which were called and received that they might provoke the Jews to jealousie and make them to strive to hold or regain the love of God which they had lost or well nigh lost verses 11 12. He proves it also by the end of his own preaching which was that if by any means he could he might save some of them verses 13 14 15. He proves it also by that that they were the branches of an holy root that is that they were the children of Abraham which was holy and therefore of the Church or People of God which was holy verse 16. But yet because some of the branches of that tree were broken off and cast out of the number of Gods people or Church and the Gentiles were grafted in in their room he admonisheth the Gentiles not to boast against the Jewes but rather to fear For as the Jewes were cut off by reason of their unbelief and as they were grafted into their room and stood because of their Faith So might they be cut off again if they fell back into unbelief and the Jewes be grafted in again if they would believe verses 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24. Then verses 25 26 27. he returns to prove that God had not utterly cast off his people because he intends to send them a Deliverer by whom they shall be saved from their sins when the fullness of the Gentiles is come in And because they were a People whom God had elected to be a peculiar people to himself and such as that he would not utterly leave destitute without the means of Salvation though many of them fell from the Society of that people by unbelief and that for their Fathers sake verse 28 29. and because though God had concluded them for the greatest part in unbelief yet he did it for this end that he might have mercy upon them verses 30 31 32. Which dispensations he saith were done in wisedome by God though his Counsel and Wisedome is unsearchable therein verse 33. Thus having finished the Doctrinal part of this his Epistle he comes artificially in the twelfth Chapter to the second part thereof to wit the moral part which he continues from thence to the End of his Epistle Saint Peter in his second Epistle Chap. 3. ver 15 16. Saith that in the Epistle which Paul wrote to the Jews as also in all other his Epistles there are some things hard to be understood which they which are unlearned and unstable wrest as they do all other Scriptures unto their own destruction Whether this Epistle of Saint Paul be the peculiar Epistle which Saint Peter meant by that which Saint Paul wrote to the Jewes as some would have it Or whether the Epistle to the Hebrews as others or no. Sure it is that in this Epistle of his to the Romans there be some things hard to be understood and there be things which they which are unlearned and unstable have wrested to their own destruction For because that Saint Paul declares in this his Epistle that Justification is not by the workes of the Law but by Faith and so by Grace to omit many other errors falsely collected out of other passages of this his Epistle not well understood some have contented themselves with the empty name of Faith as though that were enough not only to Justifie them but to save them and have altogether neglected good workes and even fought against them For that there were those even in the Apostles time which taught that a barren Faith which produceth not works was sufficient to salvation We may learn both from Saint James and from Saint Jude in their Epistles and Saint Augustine sheweth as much in his book De Vnico Baptismo contra Petilianum Cap. 10. Tom. 7 page 85. col 2. A. This was Simon Magus's doctrine or wicked heresie rather and the doctrine and heresie of his Disciples called from him Simoniani as also of the Menandrians Basilidians Gnosticks Manichees Aetians and Eunomians All or some of which did willingly embrace all manner of sin and turpitude as the fruit of the grace of God by which we are saved Such Hereticks did the ages following bring forth and to Skip to later times such were and are they which are called Antinomians whose Tenets concerning good works and faith among other are these That the Law is not given to Christians That the ten Commandments ought not to be taught in Churches That it is sufficient for a wicked man to believe and not to doubt of his Salvation That neither good works profit to Salvation neither ill workes do no hurt That to say that the Law is a rule of life is blasphemy in Divinity c. Then which nothing can be more destructive of a man's Salvation and these their Heresies they drew from the misunderstanding of Saint Pauls words in this his Epistle But because in this Epistle of Saint Paul's there are many things which are hard to be understood for the better understanding of this Epistle it will be expedient to know First What is the main Scope of the doctrinal part at least of this Epistle of Saint Paul Secondly How one thing hangs or depends upon another Thirdly How the Scriptures which he alledgeth so often make for the proofs for which he alledgeth them Fourthly How he useth many words which he useth and in what sense For the first of these that short Epitome which I have given of the eleven first Chapters may suffice As for the second know first that it is the manner of the Apostle as in other of his Epistles so especially in this to prevent objections which may arise out of that which he said either immediately or a little before which objections because he doth not express but pass them over in silence and onely give the answer in express terms makes the greater Hiatus and seeming independence of one sentence upon another to be in his writings which would not have been if he had expressed the objections as well as he doth the answers And the variety of mens conjectures what the objection in every place from whence it ariseth is I conceive to be one great cause that men so much differ in their judgements concerning the interpretation of divers places of this Epistle But the objections which the Apostle prevents or answers are not made alwaies in the person of one sort of men but sometimes in the person
notwitststanding any Antecedent purpose or decree of his going any way before But yet our Apostle attributes our justification wholly to God who calleth Rom. 9.11 And this he doth to signifie that it is wholly of God to prescribe the way to justification who hath prescribed faith to be the way thereunto that justification may be known to be of his meer grace and mercy and that it is not in man to prescribe the way though man makes an account to obtain justification by works as the Jews did who went about to establish their own way to justification Rom. 10.3 and saught it by works Rom. 9.32 which if they could obtain by works the Way of justification would be in man indeed and justification would be not of grace but of debt Again he may ascribe it wholly to God because God is the principle cause thereof For it is usual when two causes concur to the same effect to ascribe the effect wholly to the principal cause yea and so to ascribe it to the principal cause as to deny it to the cause less principal Thus the Apostle saith I labored more then they all yet not I but the grace of God which is in me 1 Cor. 15.10 And again It is no more I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me Rom. 7.17 After this manner I say that justification may be ascribed wholly to God Who calleth though Faith be required thereunto Elected Rom. 8. Is taken for Elected to justification that is for them which are justified The Election Chap. 11. ver 7. Is put for the Elected an abstract for a concrete as Circumcision is put for the circumcised Chap. 3.30 And by the Elected are to be understood such as God according to the order which he observeth or decreed to observe in electing or justifying men in time justified or Elected to justification and they were such as believed Beza in his Notes upon those words Mat. 20.16 Viz. Many are called but few are chosen saith the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. The Elect or chosen are taken there for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. For such as answer Gods call when he cals them to eternall Life i. e. For the faithfull or such as believe and so may we take the Election or Elected there Viz. Rom. 11.7 The Election spoken of Rom. chap. 11.28 Is taken for that Election whereby God chose the Jews to be his Church that is to be a peculiar people to himself to serve him and worship him after a religious manner according to that form or prescript of Religion which he should appoint and to be a people whom he would never quite forsake and leave utterly without all means of Salvation and that for their Fathers sake Abraham Isaac and Jacob. This Election God might make of the Jews for their Fathers sake and for their sakes might he not leave them utterly without all means of Salvation For the Oracles of God which none can deny to be a Means to salvation were committed to the Jewes as they were Jews that is as they were the Children of Abraham Isaac and Jacob according to the flesh Rom. 3. ver 1 2. But yet that they or any of them should be Elected to justification or to eternal Glory I dare not say that it was for any other then for Jesus Christ his sake nor dare I attribute any thing flowing from that Election to any other then to him And if our Interpreters render the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 3.2 right when they render it chiefly The greatest or chiefest good which they received as they were Jews that is as they were the Children of Abraham Isaac and Jacob according to the flesh was this That they had the Oracles of God committed to them FAITH The Object of justifying faith is the whole Gospel of God or at least the essentiall part thereof which conteineth the new Covenant which God was pleased to make with sinfull man in Christ Jesus our Lord. For we read Mark 1.15 Repent and believe the Gospell And Rom. 1.16 I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation unto every one that believeth that is to every one that believeth it And again Rom. 10.16 but they have not all obeyed the Gospel that is they have not all believed the Gospel For Isaiah saith Lord who hath believed our report And it is written Eph. 1.13 Christ in whom ye trusted also after ye heard the word of truth the Gospell of your salvation in whom also after ye believed the said Gospel ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise And Philip. 1.27 Striving together for the faith of the Gospel The Gospel therefore or that essential part thereof to wit the new covenant of God with man is the object of saving or justifying faith Which being so I may say that saving or justifying faith is a full or firm assent of our heart or mind to the Gospel of God or at least to the new Covenant which God was pleased to make with sinful man in Christ Jesus our Lord therein conteined by reason of which we do infallibly set our selves one work one that part of the Covenant which we are to performe according to the ability which God hath given us The new Covenant made by God with man in Christ Jesus consisteth as other Covenants do of two parts One part which God promiseth and covenanteth for himself on his part to perform The other which God requireth us to do and which we must promise and covenant to performe on our part without the performance whereof on our part God is not bound to make good to us what he covenanted and promised to do for us one his part The eye therefore of our Faith must be firmely fixed on both parts of this covenant as well on that part which we our selves are for our part to performe as on that which God is to performe on his part or else our Faith will never avail us to justification But if we look on that part of the Covenant which God hath promised for his part to perform and firmly believe the truth thereof and that our onely happiness consisteth therein And on that part of the Covenant which we for our parts are to performe and firmly believe that by doing our parts we shall attain to that happiness which God for his part promised to bestow upon us and that only by doing so we shall attain to it Surely we shall be justified For this will prove an operative Faith and set us on work according to our power to obtein our only happiness and make us sedulous in the duties of holiness without which no man shall see God Hebrews 12.14 For every one doth naturally desire his own happiness and every one labours for his own blessedness and that so many miss of happiness and come short of blessedness it is not because they desire not to be happy or labour not for it
fitted by themselves to destruction What I say if God be angry or find fault with them for this or what if God be said to harden them because they took occasion from this his long-suffering to harden their own hearts What canst thou say to this or what unrighteousness is there in God for this And what if moreover he did this as it follows verse 23. for this end viz. that he might make known the Riches of his Glory on the Vessels of mercy which he had before prepared to Glory What canst thou say to it or what unrighteousness is there in God for it Note therefore first that the Apostle doth here give in this 22. verse a more direct answer then he did in the two foregoing verses to that saucy question which a malepart Jew made when he heard Saint Paul say of God that whom he will he hardeneth viz. Why doth he yet find fault for who hath resisted his will In which answer he shews that God might justly find fault and be angry with the hardned Jews And that God is not said to harden them because he positively wrought hardness in them but because they themselves hardened their hearts and he suffered them to harden them by his long-suffering to them Note secondly that those Jews whose hardness God is said to complain of Ver. 19. were such as sought justification otherwise than by faith and would not believe the Gospel when it was preached to them but were contentious against it For the Jews for the most part when the Gospel was preached unto them did not onely not believe it but were contentious against it as will appear by the History of the Acts of the Apostles Note thirdly that those Jews are called Vessels of Wrath in opposition to those believers which are called Vessels of mercy ver 32. And they may be called vessels in allusion to Potters Vessels of which he speaks verse 22. And Vessels of wrath because wrath and indignation was denounced against them or such as they are Chap. 2.8 to wit if they repented not Note fourthly That these Vessels of wrath may be said to be fitted to destruction because when God was long-suffering to them thereby to lead them to repentance they abused that long-suffering of God and were so far from being led to repentance as that they hardned their hearts against the Gospel and grew impenitent and by their hardness and impenitent hearts treasured up unto themselves wrath against the day of wrath Chap. 2. ver 5. This account I have given of what I conceived concerning the hardning of Pharaohs heart and of those words Rom. 9.17 Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up c. In my Commentaries But having since the printing of them read and seriously considered the Annotations of that learned industrious judicious and acute Doctor Doctor Hammond upon Rom 9. ver 17.18 who hath given much light to many dark places of Scripture And having the opportunity to do it by reason of the standing of the press since the printing of my Paraphrase and Commentaries by reason of these late sad times I would not hide that singular light which that Reverend Doctor hath given to this place but hold it out here He therefore having judiciously weighed the whole story of Pharaoh written by Moses in his book of Exodus and the severall passages thereof observeth that when God was sending Moses to Pharaoh to let his people go God foretold Moses that Paraoh would harden his heart when he sent to him in those words Exod. 3.19 I am sure that the King of Aegypt will not let you go no not by a mighty hand And he foretold him also that he the Lord would harden Pharaohs heart in those words Exod. 4.21 Do all thy wonders before Pharaoh which I have put into thy hand but I will harden his heart that he shall not let the people go But though God did early foretell that he would harden Pharoahs heart yet as he observeth God did not do it immediately For at the six first plagues or judgements which God sent upon him Pharaoh is said to have hardened his own heart and God is not said to have hardned Pharaohs heart untill the seveneth So that Pharaoh hardned his own heart six times before that God is said to have hardened it And from this observation of the time when God is said to have hardned Pharaohs heart which was not till after Pharaoh had hardned his own heart six times against Gods signs and judgements He gathereth that Gods hardning Pharaohs heart was the total withdrawing of his grace of Repentence from Pharaoh in the same manner as when one is cast into Hell which Pharaoh at that time had been had it not been more for Gods glory to continue him alive a while in that desperate irreversible condition which sure was no whit worse to him but somewhat better and more desirable then to have been adjudged to those flames at that time When therefore God had thus hardned Pharaohs heart He said by Moses unto Pharaoh And now at this time or turn will I pour out all my plagues upon thine heart c. And now I had stretched out my hand and had smitten thee and thy people with the pestilence and thou hadst been cut off from the earth But in very deed for this cause have I made thee stand or kept thee alive to shew or make to be seen my power in thee Exod. 9. ver 16 17. For thus doth he accutely interpret these words But read his own Annotations in which are many things of this kind worthy of observation Thus as he observeth did God harden Pharaohs heart and this was as he observeth a notable and withall as far as we find in Scripture a singular example of Gods dealing with an impoenitent that had filled up his measure keeping him alive but without any Grace and consequent possibility of amending And now say I from Gods thus dealing with Phaaraoh we may conclude that God can deny mercy to whom he will and so by consequence deny remission of sins or justification to those who will not believe the Gospel yea and harden them too in the highest degree if they are obstinately contentious against it But if that passage of Saint Paul taken out of Exod. 9.16 be to be read thus Even for this same purpose have I kept thee alive that I might shew my power in thee c. It may be asked how that conclusion which Saint Paul mentioneth there verse 17. viz. Whom he will he hardeneth can be deduced from thence I answer That that conclusion Whom he will he hardeneth may be deduced from those words For this same purpose have I kept thee alive that I might shew my power in thee c. Those words For this same purpose have I kept thee alive must be considered in relation to the story of Pharaoh as it is recorded in Exodus and then they will imply an hardning For they
Gospel which is preached by the Servants of God is a powerful instrument for the Salvation of such as believe And they which believe do attain to Salvation by the Gospel The Gospel is called the Power of God not because there is any natural or physical power in the words of the Gospel But because God sheweth his power in those that believe the Gospel in saving them that is in delivering them from all evil both of Sin and Punishment and in bringing them at last to everlasting joy and happiness And well may this be called the Power of God for what created power can save us from our sins who hath power enough to deliver us out of the Claws of the Devil to whom we were captive at his will 2 Tim. 2.26 who hath power to keep us safe from him that goeth about a roaring Lion seeking whom he way devour who hath power to free us from the miseries of this mortall body who can raise us up from the dead after death who hath power to change these vile bodies of ours into glorious bodies and this corruptible of ours into incorruptible who hath power to carry us up into heaven there to enjoy bliss for evermore but God who is Omnipotent and able to subdue all things to himself and to do whatsoever he pleaseth in Heaven and in Earth The Gospel therefore is called the Power of God Metonymically that is to say because the power of God is so joyned with it as that God will so shew his power in saving them that believe it as that he will bring them to everlasting Salvation They therefore which interpret the power of God to Salvation of a powerful instrument to save men must not take it for a Physical instrument but for a Moral instrument as I may so call it that is for such a thing with which God will so go along with his power as that he will save them which believe the Gospel even because they believe it We know that the Power of God did go along in the Primitive times with the preaching of the Gospel in that God did bear the preachers of it witness both with Signs and Wonders and with divers Miracles and gifts of the Holy-ghost according to his own will Heb. 2.4 But this is not the power here spoken of but that which we have already mentioned for signs are not for those which believe but for those which believe not 1 Cor. 14.22 but the Power of God in this place is for them which believe Vnto Salvation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. For Salvation or for this end that it may bring men unto Salvation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is here a Note of the final cause or of the end The Schools use to distinguish of a double Salvation the one Inchoate the other Consummate Salvation Inchoate consisteth in Remission of sins or Justification c. and may be had in this life In this sence the Apostle saith By Grace ye are saved through faith Ephes 2.8 And again Not by works of Righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us Titus 3.5 But Salvation Consummate is only to be had in the life to come and consists in Eternal life Now some understand this place only of Salvation Inchoate not Consummate But it is better to take it for our full and whole Salvation To every one that believeth i e. To every one that believeth the Gospel As a Medicine doth not profit how good soever it be except it be taken down So doth not the Gospel profit though it be the Power of God unto Salvation except it be believed and embraced To the Jew first and also to the Greek i. e. To the Jew first and then to the Greek And also is put here for Then or Afterwards The like manner of speech we read the 2 Cor. 8.5 They first gave their own selves to the Lord and unto us i. e. They did first give themselves to the Lord and then to us his Ministers Note that by the Greek is here meant all the Gentiles per Synedochen Species and to is the Greek to be taken so often as he is opposed to the Jew and therefore is the Greek put for all the Gentiles the rather than any other Nation because the Greek tongue was at this time from the time of Alexander the Great most generally used amongst all Nations as also because the Greeks were now of a long time more known to the Jews than any other People were by the Jew therefore and the Greek all the People of the World are here meant There is a Praerogative here given to the Jew above the Gentile which Praerogative consisteth in this that the Gospel was preached and to be preached to the Jew before it was preached or to be preached to the Gentile Acts 13.46 And in that that the Gospel did appertain to the Jew which believed more peculiarly than it did to the Gentile by reason of particular promises thereof made to them But it doth not consist in this that the believing Jew did or should obtain more exuberance of grace or greater salvation than the believing Gentile should Ver. 17. For therein is the Righteousness of God revealed For therein is Justification effectually revealed and thereby performed and wrought That which is here rendred Righteousness is in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which cometh from the verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 justificare to justifie So that Righteousness may be and is to be taken here for justification and justification signifieth with our Apostle remission of sins or absolution from sins and it is a tearm borrowed from the Law courts and is opposed to condemnation That which is called Righteousness or Justification is also called Redemption Chap. 3.24 Ephes 1.7 c. And it is called Salvation Math. 1.21 c. And both by a metaphor taken from Prisoners or Captives or Slaves which were under hard imprisonment or bondage or slavery and were as men appointed unto death but are delivered and redeemed with a price or saved by might out of that miserable condition and a condition no better than theirs were we in while we were under sin So that the Remission of our sins may be called as Righteousness or justification so Redemtion and Salvation too And note now that Salvation and Righteousness are often put for one and the same thing as Psal 98.2 The Lord hath made known his Salvation his Righteousness hath he openly shewed in the sight of the Heathen and Isaiah 56.1 My Salvation is near to come and my Righteousness to be revealed And Isaih 61.10 He hath clothed me with the garments of Salvation He hath covered me with the robe of Righteousness which I observe that it might seem strange to none that besides the derivation of the Greek word Righteousness should be put or taken for justification or redemption and Salvation from sins The Righteousness of God He calls it the Righteousness of God
and not by works rather seeing that the Law saith that the man that doth the things of the Law shall live by them To this the Apostle here answers q. d. I therefore said not that the way of obtaining justification is by works because no man can be justified by works for the wrath of God is revealed against all the ungodliness and unrighteousnes of men c. Where note that the Apostle by this his answer to this objection cometh to treat of one main Subject of this his Epistle to wit that justification is not by works A way which he often useth in teaching what he hath to teach And by proving that justification is not by works he doth by consequence confirm his former Thesis viz. that justification is by faith by destroying that which was most opposed against it which was justification by works Note here that he which looks for righteousness from his works must so perform the works of the Law as the Law requireth and therefore he must so perform them as that he breaks not the least commandment at any time For cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them Deut 27 26. Galat. 3.10 Now then if a man hath sined but in one sin at any time he cannot be justified by the Law or by Works For the man that is justified is blessed Rom. 4. v. 6 7. But he that hath sinned though but in one sin and that but once is cursed untill he cometh to be justified by Faith The wrath of God is revealed from heaven Referr those words from heaven to these the wrath of God q. d. The wrath of God which is from heaven is revealed against all ungodliness c. By saying that the wrath of God is from heaven he sheweth the heaviness and grievousness of this wrath for if this wrath is from heaven it is greater than that which can come out from man Note that the word Revealed signifieth that which is made manifest by its effects as well as that which is made manifest by words And both these wayes is the wrath of God revealed against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men for it is made manifest by the punishments which God inflicteth upon sinners some of which we read of in this Chapter vers 24 26 28 c. And it is made manifest also by the word of God for God hath often in his word and by his word threatned all manner of sinners with judgment which judgment he will be sure to execute upon them if not before yet at the last day 2 Thes 1.8 c. Against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of Men Note that the word ungodliness is to be taken here for those sins which are committed immediately against God And unrighteousness for those sins which are commited immediately against our Neighbour and when he saith al ungodliness and unrighteousness of Men he signifies that the ungodliness and unrighteousness of Men was manifold by reason of their manifold sins Of Men He speaks indefinitely and therefore he is to be understood as if he spoke of all Men or else we must say that there is an Hypallage here and that the Apostle saith against all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of Men For against the ungodliness and unrighteousness of all Men. Note that out of this Generality of Men they are to be excepted who believe for though no other are to be excepted yet they are to be excepted as appeareth as in general by the main Scope of the Apostle here so in particular by Chap. 5 ver 1. c. And by the words immediately following for they which truly believe hold not the truth in unrighteousness Who hold the truth in unrighteousness By Truth I understand here the truth or true knowledge which these men had of godliness and of righteousness and by unrighteousness I understand both the ungodliness and unrighteousness which he spoke of before and therefore unrighteousness is to be taken in a larger signification here than it was immediately before They are said to hold the truth in unrighteousness who have the true knowledge of Godliness and righteousness but by their ungodliness and unrighteousness do so keep in this knowledge and so imprison it as it were as that it cannot go out into act or shew it self or any more be seen than a Prisoner can go out or be seen or shew himself to those which are without when he is kept in and imprisoned in some dark prison or dungeon Knowledge of things to be done cannot be made manifest but by our Actions which are the fruits thereof Therefore evill actions do not manifest but obscure and hide as in a Prison such a Knowledge Note that when he saith who hold the truth in unrighteousness he doth not intend to exempt any man except Believers from what he said as though there were some others who believed not and yet held not the Truth in unrighteousness But he doth it either to declare the common condition of all men that they are such as hold the truth in unrighteousness Or else to give a reason why the wrath of God was revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men which was because they held the truth in unrighteousness For the Pronoune which is sometime put 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as a sign of the cause Ver. 19. For that which may be known of God is manifest in them Between this and the foregoing verse understand these or the like words For even the Gentiles have the truth of righteousness q d. For even the Gentiles have the truth of righteousness for that which may be known of God is manifest in them Where note that the Apostle prevents an Objestion here For whereas he said in the foregoing verse generally of all men except Believers to this purpose viz. That they held the Truth to wit of Godliness and righteousnesse in ungodliness and unrighteousness A man might object and say But how can the Gentiles hold the Truth of Godliness in ungodliness or of Righteousness in unrighteousnesse whereas the Gentiles had not the truth either of godliness or of righteousness for they had not the Law to teach them these Truths as the Jews had To this whole Objections the Apostle here answers by Parts And first to that Part of it which concerneth the truth or true knowledge of righteousness he answereth in this verse And Secondly to that part of it which concerns the Truth or true knowledge of godliness he answereth in the verses following That which may be known of God The Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which as I conceive is meant either the Law of Nature or that which is commanded by the Law of Nature in order to our Neighbour The verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among other things signifieth statuere constituere decernere to ordain constitute decree Hence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is derived from thence may
none but such can so seek as to obtain And he speaks of them and their reward here to encourage those that believe in their holy faith and to induce others to the same which yet blieved not Ver. 8. Vnto them that are contentious i e. Unto them who having heard the truth that is the Gospel of Christ and are contentious and fight against it By them that are contentious he seemeth to understand such as did obstinately resist the Truth that is the Gospel when it was preached and did strive against it wherefore he adds and dâ— not obey the truth Of such as resisted and strove against the truth that is the Gospel we have examples Acts Chap. 14.2 and 17.5 and 19 9 And obey not the truth By the truth understand the Gospel here which is the word of God and therefore truth and which in respect of eminency of the subject of it may be called the truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus is the Gospel called the word of Truth Eph. 1.13 The Gospel may be also called the Truth in opposition to those figments and lies which are in the Theology of the Heathen and to those fancies which Men of their own heads set up against the Gospel They are said not to obey the truth who when it is preached to them refuse to assent to it and to receive it He seems to speak of truth here as of a Person yea as of a Lady or Mistress which is to be obeyed by a Prosopopaeia This he speaks chiefly by reason of those Jews which when the Gospel was preached to them received it not but opposed it with all contention And he speaks it to the end that he might deterr the Jews from so doing by consideration of the Judgments which should befall them for it Note that when the Apostle speaks of not believing or not obeying the Gospel he speaks for the most part of them to whom the Gospel was preached and by them rejected But obey unrighteousness Vnrighteousness is taken sometimes for Falshood as it is taken John 7.18 It may be happily so taken here and signifie any false Doctrine contrary to or dissonant from the Doctrin of the Gospel and especially that which teacheth a way to Justification contrary to or dissonant from that which the Gospel teacheth which is by Faith He seems to speak of unrighteousness here as of a Person as he did of truth before Indignation and wrath Supple shall be rendered He changeth here his manner of speaking Indignation and wrath are put here Per Metonymiam Efficientis for punishment yea grievous punishment proceeding from indignation and wrath to wit the indigantion and wrath of God V. 9. Tribulation and anguish q. d. That is Tribulation and anguish shall be upon every man that doth evil What he called indignation and wrath immediately before he calleth tribulation and anguish here Vpon every soul of man i. e. Shall be or shall fall upon every man Put an Emphasis upon the word Every The Soul of man is put here by a Synechdoche for Man himself A part for the whole Yet we may take the Soul here properly as if the Apostle intending to speak of the greatness of the Punishment of these men should say that it should reach not to the Body only but to the Soul also The Apostle in the former verse spake only of those in particular who received not the Gospel when it was preached to them but opposed it here he seems to speak of all evil men in general whether they had heard of the Gospel and resisted it or no. q. d. Yea tribulation and anguish shall be upon every Soul of man that doth evil whether he hath heard of the Gospel and resisted it or no. And this he doth least any one should think that all other wicked men should escape punishment if so be they were not contentious against the Gospel and disobeyed it not which might be if they never heard of it That doth evil Note that he saith not That have done evil for then who would be saved But that doth evil that is which continueth and persevereth in doing evil not breaking off his evil course of life by true and hearty repentance Of the Jew first and also of the Gentile i. e. Upon the Soul of the Jew firist and then of the Gentile See of this Phrase Chap 1.16 He doth yet more fully shew that none that doth evil shall escape by saying that neither Jew nor Gentile shall escape He saith here that this punishment shall fall first upon the Jew and the reason is because the Jew was before the Gentile in the blessing of God and in the means of holiness and as his sin is greatest who hath the greater means of holiness and is not holy so shall his punishment be the greater Ver. 10. But glory and honour and peace to every man that worketh good i e. But as I said verse 7. glory honour and peace to every one that worketh good The Apostle repeateth what he said verse 7. the more to enforce what he said there And Peace By Peace is understood according to the Hebrew Phrase Felicity and Happiness yea a Congeries of all good things By Glâ—ry Honour and Peace are meant here that which he called Eternal life v. 7. To every man That is shall be to every man That worketh good See verse 7. To the Jew first and also to the Gentile i e. To the Jew first then to the Gentile Ver. 11. For there is no respect of Persons with God i. e. For God will respect neither the Jew as he is a Jew nor the Gentile as he is a Gentile But if a mâ—n do evil he will punâ—sh him for his evil though he be a Jew and if he worketh good he will reward him for so working though he be a Gentile The Apostle prevents a tacite Objection here for whereas he had joyned the Gentile with the Jew both in the reward and in the punishment and so had made them in those things alike A Jew might Object and say How is it Paul that thou makest us like to the Gentiles or the Gentiles like to us Are not we the Children of Abraham c. How is it therefore that thou sayest that we shall be punished like to the Gentiles or that the Gentiles shall be rewarded like unto us for we Jews are of a more holy Stock than that we should be ranked with the Gentiles To this the Apostle answers even from Deut 10 17. with God there is no respect of Persons q. d. In that Judgment which God will pass upon all men he will not have any respect to the Stock or Parentage of any man or to any such like thing so as to accept of a wicked man for his Stock sake or to reject a good man because of his Parentage but he will reward them every man according to his works which he hath done Respect of Persons or rather respect of Faces for this is
am I also judged as a Sinner i. e. With what right or with what justice can I be punished as a sinner Supple whereas I advance the Glory of God by my Lie or by my Sin Why yet am I also Note that this word Also is either redundant or else so to be understood as if he should say Why yâ—t are not onâ—ly others whose sins dishonour God but I also who bring Glory to God by my Lie judged as a Sinner and still ly under judgement Ver. 8. And not rather as we be slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say let us do evill that good may come Here are these or the like words left to be understood viz. Encouraged by God to say q d. And why am not I and such as I am rather encouraged to say as we Christians be slanderously reported and as some affirme that we say Let us do evill that good may come thereof Or else leaving out those words a while which are here brought in by a Parenthesis to wit As we be slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say we may thus expound the other words q. d. And not rather do evill that good may come that is And why rather do I not evill with the praise and approbation of God that good may come thereof Where note that these words let us do evill that good may come being that they were the words which others had or were said to have often in their mouthes may be cited by Saint Paul as they spoke them or were said to speak them and they may be used by him without consideration of the Syntax of the place in which he useth them leaving that to the judgement of his Readers See what I said before ver 4. in the like matter As we be slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say Saint Paul speaks this in the person of all Christians who were calumniated by the Heathen as though they taught that it was lawful for a man to do evil if good could come thereof and as though they encouraged one another to evill with these words Let us do evill that good may come whereas the words immediately going before were spoken in the person of a wicked Heathen yet imitating a Christian as I said ver 5. These words therefore are to be read with a Parenthesis Whose damnation is just Note that this relative whose is to be referred to that pronoun or antecedent Some in those words And as some affirm as we say and the sence of the words is this q d. Who are already damned for this their thus slandering us and thus affirming that we say Let us do evil that good may come and their damnation is just Their damnation is just because they thus slandered Christians who would not have deserved damnation for saying this of Christians if Christians had taught or held any such thing Note that because the absurdity of the Objectors Argument was plain and manifest yea plain and manifest even to those that brought that slanderous report upon Christians to wit that Christians said among themselves Let us do evil that good may come as though they taught that a man might lawfully do evil if good could accrue thereby The Apostle doth not think this Argument of the Objector worth a direct answer But being contented with the rejection and detestation of that which it did conclude doth only pronounce them that brought up that slanderous report upon Christians and affirmed that they said Let us do evil that good may come thereon worthy of damnation A good Disputant as he will answer directly to those things which deserve a direct answer So he will contemn and slight those things which are manifestly absurd and not worth an Answer and so doth the Apostle here But if any one should desire a formal answer to this Argument the Answer may be this though the truth of God doth more abound to his Glory by a mans Lie yet ought not man for this end to do any kind of evil or to tell lies But if he doth so he may be justly judged of God as a Sinner for the lies which man tels and the evil which he doth are not the Genuine cause but occasions onely of illustrating and setting forth the truth and Glory of God so that if God be glorified either by the Lie or by any sin of a Sinner it is not out of the nature of his sins but by accident altogether that God came to be thereby glorified and therefore though God be glorified by them the Sinner is and may be justly judged for them Ver. 9. What then are we better than they These words are to be referred to the second verse of this Chapter as having their immediate connexion with that for that which cometh between commeth in as it were by the by by reason of Objections arising What then q. d But what shall we gather from hence or what shall we say by reason of that That the Oracles of God were committed to the circumcised Jews Are we better than they q. d shall we Jews who have been circumcised gather from hence That we are better than they that is that we are better than the uncircumcised Gentiles The betterness here spoken of is to be understood in respect of Justification before God And in this respect the circumcised Jews which had not the Faith of the Gospel though they had the Oracles of God committed to them and though they did surpasse the Gentiles in other outward Praerogatives were not better than the Gentiles for they had sinned as well as the Gentiles Saint Paul doth make himself here by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one of the number of those Jews whose condition was no better than the Gentiles that he might give no offence to the Jews which were his flesh For we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles that they are all under sin q. d. For we have upon good grounds and good evidence charged both Jews and Gentiles that they are all of them guilty of sin The Gentiles we charged in the first chapter the Jews in the second And if they are all guilty of sin than is not one better than another in matter of Justification untill he receives the Gospel of Ghrist by Faith that he might be thereby justified We have before proved The word in the Original is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is a Law terme And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is usually said of those which are Accusers who accuse or charge the Defendant with what they have to say against him Well doth Saint Paul use a Law term here in this his Treatise or Dispute of Justification when as the word Justification it self is a Law term and there is in it an allusion to the custome and practice of courts of Justice and whereas he doth appeal both Jew and Gentile at Gods Tribunal Note that the Apostle speaks here of himself in the plural number as
is judged modestly to his own innocency not to the pardon or favour or indulgence of the Judge when he is asked How he came to be acquitted in Judgement For otherwise to vaunt and glory would savour of Pride and so be it self sin for which he would come into condemnation and so could not be justified which is against the Apostles supposition A man may glory of his innocency before men who hath not perfectly and sincerely kept the Law but kept it onely in outward appearance for when man cannot see to the Heart and to the thoughts and Intentions but only to the outward appearance of Actions he cannot condemn him who in outward appearance hath kept the Law though inwardly he hath broke it in every point but he that can justly glory before God must perfectly and sincerely keep the Law as well in his inward heart and thoughts as in his outward words and deeds And he that hath done so may glory in that sence which we have spoken of For our Apostle faith it here and Chap 3 ver 27. He saith that boasting that is that Glorying for the Greek words in both places are as one being derived from the same fountain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the other is not excluded by works Note that the Apostle doth prove in this verse that Negative answer which we must suppose him to give to the Question made in the former verse that is That Abraham did not obtain justification by works And this he doth by this Syllogisme If Abraham where justified by works then he hath whereof to glory even before God But Abraham hath not whereof to glory before God Therefore Abraham is not justified by Works The Major and Minor Proposition of this Syllogisme the Apostle hath here set down in this verse but not so but that we must understand something of the Major Proposition from the Minor and something of the Minor Proposition from the Major The Conclusion is totally left to be understood If Abraham were justified by works he hath whereof to glory this is the Major Proposition which I spoke of and this is defective in its words and the defect is to be made up from that which we have in this verse of the Minor Proposition namely from that But not before God from which words we make the Major Proposition entire thus If Abraham were justified by works he had whereof to Glory even before God But not before God This is the Minor Proposition or Assumption which we spoke of which is also defective in its words and to be made up from the Major Proposition as the Major was from this This Minor Proposition or Assumption therefore entire is thus viz. But Abraham hath not whereof to glory before God This Minor Proposition or Assumption the Apostle proveth in the verses following Ver. 3. For what saith the Scripture Supple Gen. 15.6 Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness q. d. Abraham believed God and that that he believed God was that which God counted or reckoned to him for justification Supple Therefore being that that that Abraham believed God was counted to him for justification Abraham had not whereof to glory Abraham believed God We read Gen. 15 5. That God brought Abraham forth abroad and said Look now toward Heaven and tell the Stars if thou art able to number them And he said to him so shall thy seed be Then followeth that which is here quoted by the Apostle viz. He believed in the Lord and he counted it to him for righteousness That therefore for which Abraham was justified of God here was this and this only that Abraham believed God when he promised him that his Seed should be as the Stars of heaven for multitude See more of this v. 18. of this Chapter And it was counted unto him for righteousness i. e. And it was accounted to Abraham to wit by God Gen. 15.6 at such a rate as that God did set down upon his accounts to Abraham that he would repay or requite him for that his belief only with justification The meaning of this whole verse is this That Abraham did believe God and God did so value and respect this that Abraham did believe him as that he was pleased in his Grace and Favour to recompence this faith of Abraham though it were but for this with justification that is to justifie Abraham from all his sins and to deal with him as with a just man which had never transgressed the Law in any point only because he had thus believed him Note if God did justifie Abraham only for this that he did thus believe him Abraham had not whereof to glory before God in matter of justification For he could not claim justification by debt and he which cannot claim justification of debt but hath it of grace and favour he cannot glory of his justification before God The Law requireth exact obedience whether it be the Law of Nature or the written Law of Moses so that he is cursed which continueth not in all things which the Law commandeth and therefore he which hath broken the Law in the least tittle thereof is cursed and being now cursed he cannot be justified but by grace and favour If God therefore accept of our faith for or to justification so that he justifieth us because we believe it is the meer Grace and Favour of God and of such justification we cannot glory as we might do in our Apostles sence if we had so kept the Law as that we had never broke the least Apex of it Note that this Phrase It was counted to him for righteousness is Metaphorical and it is drawn from Merchants or Tradesmen or the like where one accounts with the other for what he hath received of him and in his accounts enters or sets down that for such or such a parcel of Wares or in consideration of such or such a thing done from him he is indebted to him and will willingly repay him such or such a summe of money in lieu thereof or requite him after such or such a way For the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the original cometh from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which among other things signifieth Alicujus rationibus inferre that is to bring or enter such or such a thing upon the accounts of such or such a man But let no man mistake here as though because this phrase is drawn from this Metaphor it would thence follow that Abraham's faith was equivalent to his justification and of as great value as that For even in such accounts as we have spoken of men will often when they are well pleased set down more for themselves to pay than the thing which they have received or which was due from them is worth However this is to be remembred that Similitudes run not as they say upon four feet nor do Metaphors agree in every particular with the things from
Law as he ought to do and as the Law requireth Ver. 7. Blessed are thâ—y That is Just are they or rather they are Justified See the notes on that word Blessedness ver 5. Whose Inquities are forgiven Then are Iniquities said to be forgiven when God doth pardon him that commits them and punisheth him not for them according to his desert And Iniquities are here likened to a debt which the Creditor forgiveth and sets not down upon Accounts And whose sins are covered These words are the same for sence with those Whose iniquities are forgiven When God is said not to behold or not to see iniquity in sinful men he doth forgive them Numb 23.21 The contrary whereof is when he is said to set mens iniquities in His sight as Psal 90.8 Now because when a thing is covered a man cannot see it therefore when our sins are said to be covered they are forgiven So when Hezekiah said Thou hast cast all my sins behinde thy back Isai 38.17 It is as if he should say Thou hast forgiven me my sins for we see not those things which are behind our back So when David saith Hide thy face from my sins Psal 51.9 It is as if he should say Pardon my sins for we see not those things from which we turn our face V. 8. To whom the Lord will not impute sin i e. Upon whose account the Lord will not set down sin as a debt for him to pay or satisfie by punishment For that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth most properly to wit to set down upon account as a debt That sins are often called debts we may learn Matth. 6.12 and as of such doth the Apostle speak of them here V. 9. Cometh this blessedness then upon the Circumcision onely or upon the uncircumcision also q. d Cometh then this justification which is by faith upon those onely that are circumcised or upon those also which are not circumcised This blessedness By Blessedness is here meant Righteousness or justification for he calls that Blessedness here which he calleth Righteousness in the last word of this verse See ver 6. Vpon the Circumcision By the Circumcision are here meant the Jews which were circumcised Per Metonymiam Adjuncti as Chap. 2.27 Vpon the uncircumcision By the uncircumcision are meant the Gentiles which were not circumcised by the same figure as Chap. 3.30 Note that the Jews even they which were converted to Christianity could not be perswaded that the uncircumcised that is the Gentiles whom they held as unclean could have any benefit of the Messiah which is Christ but held and maintained the contrary Therefore Saint Paul as often as he hath occasion in this his Epistle doth confute this their erronious Tenet and Perswasion And it stood him upon so to do For whereas he wrote to the Romans which were Gentiles but among whom many Jews of this judgment and perswasion lived to convert some to and confirm others in Christianity his labour might have proved in vain if he had not confuted those Jews and made it appear that the believing Gentiles though they were not circumcised had as great benefit in matter of justification as the Jews had which were circumcised For we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for Righteousness That which he saith concerning this That faith was reckoned to Abraham for Righteousness he saith ver 3. from thence therefore doth the Apostle take an occasion to shew here that the uncircumcised Gentiles were through their faith accepted of God for Righteousness aswell as the circumcised Jews For here by these words which we have in hand He declares upon what occasion he moveth the Question which he moved in the former part of the verse And to the third verse doth that which he here saith relate Only he makes use of the word blessedness for justification by occasion of the word so used ver 6. For Righteousness i. e. For justification This is that which he called Blessedness in the former part of this verse V. 10. How was it then reckoned i. e. When was this faith then reckoned to Abraham for Righteousness How is put here for when Reckoned i. e. Counted The Greek word is the same here as ver 3. When he was in Circumcision or in uncircumcision i. e. Was faith then first reckoned to Abraham for Righteousness when he was in Circumcision that is when he was circumcised or was it reckoned to him when he was in uncircumcision That is before he was circumcised The Apostle moves this question to resolve that question which he made ver 9. to wit Cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only or upon the uncircumcision also For by the Answer which he will give to this Question it will appear for resolution of the first Question That this Blessedness cometh aswel upon the uncircumcision which believeth as upon the Circumcision Not in Circumcision but in uncircumcision i. e. Faith was then first reckoned to Abraham when he was in uncircumcision that is before he was circumcised The truth of this Answer will appear out of the History of Abraham and of his Circumcision which we read of Gen. 15.16 17. And by this Answer it is evident that if a Man which is uncircumcised believes God his uncircumcision shall not hinder his faith from being imputed to him for Righteousness V. 11. And he received the Sign of circumcision a seal of the Righteousness which he had yet being uncircumcised i. e. And he was circumcised not before but after that he had believed And after that that God had imputed this his belief unto him for Righteousness And this his Circumcision was a seal or testimony to confirm unto him from God that God had accepted that belief of his which he had of his promises in the time of his uncircumcision for Righteousness and that he had justified him for that The Sign of uncircumcision That is circumcision which is a Sign Circumcision is the cutting off of the Foreskin which covereth the head or nut of a mans yard Gen. 17.11 And Circumcision is here called a Sign First because it was a Sign between God on the one partâ— and Abraham and his children on the other part of that Covenant which God made with Abraham and his seed Gen. 17.11 Secondly because it was a Sign of distinction whereby the seed of Abraham were distinguished from other People Thirdly it is called a Sign here because it was a Sign that God did accept of the faith of Abraham for Righteousness A seal of the Righteousness of Faith c. That is as a seal or testimony to confirm or assure to Abraham that God did accept of that faith which he had while he was yet uncricumcised for Righteousness Among divers uses of a Seal this is one to confirm and ratifie that to which it is put Abraham therefore is said to have received Circumcision as a Seal of the Righteousness of the faith which he had being yet
Justification which God made to Abraham and to his children is become of none effect the condition thereunto required being changed from faith or believing to the exact fulfilling of the Law That the condition required to justification being changed from faith or believing to the exact fulfilling of the Law the promise it self of justification is made of none effect the Apostle shews in the next words Justification if it be by the Law cannot be properly called a Promise Gal. 3.18 yet he calls it so here materialiter as not knowing well how to call it otherwise in this his discourse Ver. 15. Because the Law worketh wrath i e. Because the Law is so far from making them acceptable to God which are of or under the Law that they may be justified by him and so receive the promise of justification which he promised to Abraham and his children as that it stirs up Gods anger against them The Law stirs up Gods anger against them that are under it not onely in that the Law calls for punishment against them which transgress it but also because it is an occasion to them which are under it to sin more and more and more grievously than otherwise they would do For I was a live without the Law once saith the Apostle but when the Commandment came sin revived and I died Rom. 7 9. And again ver 8. Sin taking occasion by the commandment wrought in me all manner of Concupiscence But now that this fell out thus by the Law the fault was not in the Law but in the vitiousness of those which were under it or to whom it was given See those places Rom. 7 For where there is no Law there is no transgression When he saith Where there is no Law there is no transgression he leaves us togather that where there is a Law there is transgression and that frequent transgression too 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a Transgression signifieth here not every sin which is committed by a Man but such a sin as he commits against a Law plainly given either by word of mouth or by hand-writing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Transgression being a sin committed against a Law plainly and distinctly given and that either by word of mouth or by hand writing is Caeteris paribus a more hainous and grievous sin than that which is committed against a Law which is not so given and redounds more to the dishonour of the Law-giver The Apostle by that which he saith here proves that which he said immediately before to wit that the Law worketh wrath For if where the Law is there are transgressions and there be no such sins as transgressions where the Law is not it is evident that the Law is the occasion thereof though not by its own fault yet by the fault of the man to whom it is given And therefore the Law worketh wrath in that it doth not only multiply sins occasionally but elevate those sins to an higher nature and makes them Transgressions as I shewed before Ver 16. Therefore it is of Faith Therefore the promise of Justification which God made to Abraham and to his children is of faith that is is to be attained by faith There is no way of obtaining justification which is the promise which God made to Abraham and to his children but either by the Law or by faith Being therefore that the Apostle hath proved that it cannot be obtained by the Law he may well conclude that it is to be obtained by Faith which is that which he sayes when he sayes Therefore it is of Faith That it might be by grace If it had been by the Law it would not have been of Grace but of debt ver 4. To the end the promise might be sure i. e. To the end that the promise of justification which God made to Abraham and to his children or his seed might be sure Sure The Greek word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 firm He sayes that the Promise which he speaks off may be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is sure or firm in the regard of the condition required to the obtaining of it for the condition of it being of Faith is such as may be performed and so the promise obtained and sure whereas if it had been of the Law it would not have been so He opposeth here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sure or firm promise to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the promise made of none effect verse 14. though not in words yet in sence To all the Seed By Seed he meaneth not the bodily seed or the children born of Abrahams body as he did ver 13. But he meaneth the spiritual seed or spiritual children of Abraham that is all such as believe the word of God as Abraham did and imitate his faith I say he means all such whether they be Jews or Gentiles under the Law or without the Law Not to that only which is of the Law i e. Not to that only which are the children of the Law that is which are under the Law or to which the Law is given By this he means the Jews Note that this Phrase which is of the Law is the same for substance with that which we read ver 14. But yet there is this difference that there is meant by such as are of the Law such as being under the Law sought for justification by the Law Here are meant such as though they were under the Law yet sought not for justification by the Law but by Faith in Christ But to that also which is of the faith of Abraham i. e. But to that also which only believeth as Abraham did Supple though they are not of or under the Law or though they never had the Law given them as the Jews had By these he means the Gentiles Who is the Father of us all Who is the Father of us all which believe whether we be of the Law or not of the Law that is whether we be Jews or Gentiles He speaks not of Abraham neither doth he call him the Father of us all in the like sence here as he did ver 1. For there he spoke of him in the vulgar manner as he was the Father of all the Jews according to the flesh and called him the Father of all the Jews whether they did believe or no. Here he speaks of him as he was a Father in a Mysticall sence That is as he was the spiritual father of all which believed whether they were Jews or Gentiles under the Law or without the Law V. 17. As it is written To wit Gen. 17.5 I have made thee a Father of many Nations i. e. I will surely make thee a Father of many Nations A Praeterpersect tense is put here for a Future to shew the certainty of the Event of that of which he speaks of Those words as they lie in Genesis carry a double sence with them to wit a Literal or Historical sence and a Mystical or
of men far from Righteousness that is as of men far from Justification and Remission of sins yet thou sayest that ours are the promises If therefore we are far from Righteousness or Justification that is if we are far from Remission of sins and yet thou sayest the Promises are ours Then must thou say that the word of God hath taken none effect that is That the Promise of God made to Israel concerning Remission of sins that is concerning Justification is a void promise and that God is not in that his promise as good as his word for God hath promised to remit the sins of Israel This objection the Apostle here preventeth when he saith Not as though the word of God hath taken none â—ffect The word of God That is The promise of God to wit Of pardoning the sins of the Israelites The word of God is often put by a Synechdoche Generis for the promise of God as Psal 12.6 The words of the Lord are pure words c. Isaiah 4.8 The word of the Lord shall be for ever c. Hath taken none effect i. e. Is a void word or an empty word without performance For they are not all Israel which are of Israel For all they which are born of Israel and so are called Israel or Israelites by reason of their natural descent from him are not that Israel or those Israelites to which the Promise of Remission of sins that is of Justification doth absolutely and immediately belong He gives a reason here why the word of God hath taken none effect That is why the word of God is true notwithstanding that the Jews are far from Righteousness or Justification Note here that this Promise of Remission of sins or Justification was made to all the Sons of Israel that is to all the Israelites conditionally that is upon this condition if they would believe in Christ for the promise is to you and to your children saith Saint Peter to the Jews Acts 2.32 But the absolute and immediate promise of Remission of sins that is of Justification appertaineth only to Believers that is to such as believe in Christ which are Israelites in that that they imitate the Faith of Israel and so it appertaineth not to unbelieving Jews though they are Israelites in that that they descend by true naturall Propagation from the Patriarch Jacob who was called also Israel Now our Apostle when he saith Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect He speaketh of the word of God that is of the promise of God concerning Justification or Remission of sin as it is an absolute and immediate promise and so it belongs only to the faithful which are the spiritual Israel though while it was conditional it belonged even to the Israelites which was or is Israel after the flesh They are not all Israel i. e. They are not all those Israelites or that People or those Sons of Israel to wit to whom the absolute and immediate promise of Remisssion of sins that is of Justification doth belong Israel is put here for the Israelites the Father for the Children per metonymiam efficientis Of Israel Israel is taken here in the second place for the Patriarch Jacob himself who was also called Israel It is our Apostles manner as we have observed before to teach truths and confute errors by raising objections and answering them and this hath he done especially in this Epistle Now because many of the Jews were conceited that it was enough for them that they should be justified from all their sins whereas the Gentiles should be damned for theirs that they were of the stock of Abraham or Abrahams children according to the Flesh the Apostle confutes this their errour taking occasion from an Objection which he here maketh by the by and answers I say by the by For that which the Apostle intended in the beginning of this chapter was as I said a little before to draw the Jews from that error which was most generall among them to wit that Justification was to be sought by works and not by faith which way most of them taking miss'd of what they sought for That there was an opinion among the Jews that it was enough for a Jew to be of the seed of Abraham that he might be justified appears by what John Baptist said to those which came to his Baptism Think not to say within your selves we have Abraham for our father Matth. 3.9 But see further what I said on those words Chap. 2. v. 17. Thou art called a Jew The Jews therefore for the greatest part did think to obtain Justification by works but some thought it enough for Justification that they were Abrahams or Jacobs childring according to the flesh Or if this was a General opinion among them as some say it was then the Jews thought that they had two strings to their bow or two titles to Justification though neither of them was good as the Apostle shews Ver. 7. Neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all Children i. e. Neither are all they which are the seed of Abraham children of Abraham because they are the seed of Abraham that is neither are all they which are born of Abraham come out of his loins the children of Abraham to wit those children to which the promises of Justificatlon or remission of sins belonged though they were born of Abraham according to the flesh and came out of his loins Because they are the seed of Abraham That is because they are sprung out of the loins or seed of Abraham by natural generation as children spring out of the loins or seed of their Fathers In the word seed there is Metonymia materiae Are they all children Supple Of Abraham to wit such children as to whom the promise of Remission of sins or Justification doth immediately and absolutely belong They must needs be the Children of Abraham in some regard or other which are the seed of Abraham that is which came out of Abrahams loins therefore the Apostle doth not absolutely deny here that they which are of Abraham are all Children but only in some certain respect that is in regard of the Promise of Justification and Remission of sins made to Abraham and to his seed But in Isaac shall thy seed be called The Apostle after he had said they are not all Israel which are of Israel saith neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children that he might thereby bring an Argument which they call à minori to prove that all are not Israel which are of Israel For if they which are of Abrahams seed are not all the Children of Abraham much less are all they Israel which are of Israel for the promise was first made to Abraham and to his seed and it was made to Israel only as Israel was of the seed of Abraham But in Isaac shall thy seed be called That is but they which were once in the loins
Justification which were figured by the Land of Canaan But those spiritual children which God promised to Abraham that is the faithful those which are like to Abraham in faith and which are typified in Isaac who was a child of promise they and they only are to be counted and are indeed the seed of Abraham to which God made that spiritual promise of Justification That is q. d. That is to say by Interpretation They which are the children of the Flesh i. e They which are the children of Abraham descended of the flesh of Abraham Or taking a Substantive of the Genitive case after the Hebrew manner for an Adjective they which are the Fleshly and Bodily children of Abraham and sprung out of Abrahams loins by bodily or fleshly Generation as such Such children as these were which were children of Abraham only because they descended out of the loins of Abraham were typified by Ishmael whom Abraham begot by the ordinary course of nature while nature was strong in him and he needed not any extraordinary renewing of his strength from God as he needed when he begat Isaac These are not the children of God i. e. These are not the children of Abraham whom God promised to bless with the Spiritual blessing of Justification which was typified by the Land of Canaan But the children of the promise i. e. But the spiritual children which God promised to Abraham that is the faithful they are they to whom God promised the blessing of justification In these word to wit the Children of the Promise these words viz. of the promise are put for promised after the manner of the Hebrews who put a Substantive of the Genitive case often for an Adjective or Participle You will ask who or what are these children of Abraham which are called here the children of the promise I answer They which are of the faith of Abraham that is the faithful and such as believe they are the children of Abraham which are called here The children of promise whether they be Jews or whether they be Gentiles See for this Rom. 4.16 Gal. 3.7 where it is said that they which are of Faith the same are the children of Abraham You will ask again Why they are called the children of promise I answer because they are not such as were born of Abraham by carnal Propagation But such as God gave him by promise and called his Children only because they imitated his vertues but principally his faith You will ask yet again where God promised these or such children as these are to Abraham I answer He promised them Gen. 17.5 Where he saith to Abraham I will make thee a Father of many Nations for proof of this read Rom. 4. verse 16 17. These children were typified in Isaac and Isaac in that he was promised to Abraham before he was born when Abrahams body and Sarahs womb were now both dead Gen. 18.10 Rom. 4.19 might be in particular a Type of that Spiritual seed which God promisâ—d to Abraham that is of the Faithful Ver. 9. For this is the word of promise at this time will I come and Sara shall have a Son q. d. For Isaac was a Son of Promise as appeareth by that word of promise which we read Gen. 18. ver 8 10. where God or an Angel in the person or behalf of God said to Abraham and to Sarah his wife At this time the next year I will come and Sarah shall have a son which son was Isaac As Isaac was a son of promise so are they which are typified in Isaac the children of promise And therefore as not any other sons of Abraham but only Isaac who was born by Vertue of Gods promise and the seed in him had the promise of the Land of Canaan So they only which are the children of the promise that is the faithful which were typified in Isaac have the spiritual promises of justification which was typified by the Land of Canaan Ver. 10. And not only this but when Rebecca also had conceived c. The Apostle in this and the Verses next Following prevents and answers an objection For whereas he had shewed in the foregoing verses that the promise of justification belonged not to the Jews or to the Israelites as they were Israel according to the Flesh It might be objected that though it were granted that the promise of justification belonged not to them meerly as they were the children of Israel according to the Flesh yet surely it belonged to them and they would be justified as They sought justification by their works This objection I say The Apostle here prevents and answers after this manner q. d. But as the promise of justification did not belong to the Jews or children of Israel according to the Flesh as such So neither shall they be justified though they seek justification by their works For when Rebecca her self who was the wife of Isaac had conceived by our Father Isaac her husband It was said unto her when she had coâ—ceived and while two twins were in her womb The elder which was Esau who was a type of the Jâ—ws or Israelites according to the Flesh shall serve the younger which was Jacob who was a type of the faithful with which sayings both shall accord which was written afterwards Jacob have I loved but Esau have I hated Now in that it was then said to Rebecca The elder shall serve the younger when she had conceived It is an Argument to prove that the Jews or Israelites according to the Flesh should not be justified by their works Though they sought justification thereby For it was therefore said unto Rebecca by the word of God the elder shall serve the younger at that time when she had conceived when the children of which she conceived were not yet born neiâ—her had done either good or evil To signifie in a type or mystery that the purpose of God concerning the election of men to justification was and always should be to elect them not for their works sake but for his own mercy and good pleasure sake who calleth us to the Grace and promises of the Gospel that we might believe by the preaching thereof and so be justified by his mercy But when Rebecca also had conceived by one c. Rebecca was the wife of Isaac who conceived at this time by Isaac her husband and conceived of two children which children between the time of her conception and their birth kept a great strugling and striving in her womb at which Rebecca was much troubled and desiring to know what it meant she went to enquire of the Lord and the Lord said unto her Two Nations that is the heads of two Nations are in thy womb and two manner of people that is And two twins from whom two manner of people shall proceed shall come out of thy bowels and the one people shall be stronger than the other And the elder that is they which shall be born of the
ex vi terminorum or by necessary consequence to shew that the Election of God was not of works or for works because it was said to Rebecca while her two children were in her womb the Elder shall serve the younger his Argument would not have been solide because God might foresee what workes a man would do after his birth even before he was born But it was not the Apostles intent to draw such an argument from hence but onely to use argumentum a typo or Argumentum a signo which consisteth only in the setting out or declaring of Gods intent Viz. That intent which he had in giving that Answer to Rebecca to wit that the Elder shall serve the younger before the children were born whose intent was to signifie or typifie thereby that his purpose concerning election of man to justification was and should so remain to be to elect not for mans work sake but for his own good will and pleasures sake But whereas we said that the Apostle meaneth here by Election Election to justification and whereas where he speaks of Justificati n he saith every where that that is of faith not of works it may be objected that by Election the Apostle cannot mean here Election to justification because he never excludes faith when he speaks of justification but includes it and asserts it rather But here when it is said that the Children being not yet born not having done any good or evil it was said the Elder shall serve the younger Faith is excluded from the El ction here mentioned as well as works For as a child cannot work before he is born the consideration whereof seemeth to be that that made the Apostle to infer here that Election was not of works so can he not believe before he is born Answ I said that the Argument which the Apostle here useth is not Argumentum à natura rei or ex vi terminorum or an argument of necessary consquence when he proves that the purpose of God concerning Election was not of Works because it was said unto Rebecca while the children were yet in her womb before they had done any good or evil the Elder shall serve the Younger But it was only Argumentum à Typo or Argumentum à Signo An Argument from a Type for there are verbal types as well as real or an argument from a sign Now to a Type or Signe there are two things required First the Aptitude of the thing which is to be a Sign or Type to signifie or represent the thing to be typified or signified And secondly the actual application by God of that sign or type to signifie or typifie that thing if either of these be wanting it is not a type or sign and this is plain to reason for were all the things in the world which might have been types or Signs types or signs indeed Surely no and what is the reason Not because all things wanted aptitude to typifie or signifie which were not actual signs or types but because they were not actually applyed thereunto Now this that God said to Rebecca the Elder shall serve the Younger before the Children were yet born and before they had done any good or evil hath indeed an aptitude to signifie the exclusion of Faith from the purpose of God concerning Election as well as of works but yet because they are not actually applyed by God so to do they may not do it but exclude works only and not faith But of him that calleth i. e. But of for and from the mercy and the good pleasure of God who calleth us to the grace of the Gospel that we might believe through the preaching of it and believing it might be justified That to which this call is is the grace of the gospel and the precious promises therein contained This is most frequently taken for the objest of Gods call in our Apostles writings if the circumstance of the place hold not out another object In these words but of him that calleth it is intimated that God had respect to faith in this Election to justification For God doth therefore call men to the grace of the Gospel and the promises therein conteined that they might believe them and believing might be justified Ver. 12. It was said unto her the elder shall serve the Younger These words have a double or twofold relation for they relate to the tenth verse and they relate to the eleventh verse The manner how is this q. d. When Rebecca had conceived by one even by our Father Isaac it was said unto her the Elder shall serve the Younger I say when she had conceived for it was said unto her the Elder shall serve the Younger when she had conceived that is while the children being in her womb were not yet born neither had done any gord or evil And that to signifie that the purpose of God concerning election should stand not of works but of him that calleth It was said unto her Viz. By God Gen. 25.23 The children being not yet born neither having done either good or evil The Elder shall serve the Younger i. e. Esau in his Posterity shall serve Jacob in his This which is here said of the Elder serving the Younger is to be understood of Esau and Jacob but not of Esau and Jacob in their persons but in their posterities For if we consider Jacob in his person Jacob might be said to serve Esau rather than Esau Jacob for he termed himself Esau's servant Gen. 32.18 And he called Esau his Lord Gen. 33. v. 13 14. And he did him homage bowing himself down to the ground many times before him Gen. 33.3 And where the words cited by the Apostle are read Gen 25.23 It is plain that they extend rather to the Nations that should come from Jacob and Esau than that they are tyed up to Esau and Jacob themselves Though therefore Esau in his person served not Jacob in his person yet the posterity of Esau served the Posterity of Jacob in Davids time when the Idumaeans or Edomites which were of the Posterity of Esau were subdued by the Israelites which were the Posterity of Jacob and brought under their Subjection made servants to them 2 Sam. 8.14 Esau and his posterity as they were descended from Isaac according to the Flesh to whom the promise of the Land of Canaan was made as well as to Abraham do signifie or typifie here the children of the flesh as Ishmael did in the Story before And Jacob signifieth or typifieth the spiritual seed or the faithful which were called the Children of Promise ver 8. As did his Father Isaac in the former story And by Esaus servitude is meant or typified the continuing of such as were typified by Esau that is of the children according to the flesh under sin as under a Tyrant as under a Lord without deliverance from either the dominion or Guilt of it And by Jacob's being a Lord and so free is meant
the Lord of hosts who is able to restrain the fury of the sword Had left us a seed i. e. Had left us Jews a very few or a very small number which escaped the sword of Senacherib the Assyrian These few Jews in the literal sence were those which believed the Lord when he promised to keep Jerusalem safe from the fury of the Assyrians and so escaped the fury of the Assyrians by being at that time in Jerusalem But being that these Jews which escaped the fury of the Assyrians by reason of the belief which they had of God promising to save Jerusalem from the Assyrians were a Type of such Jews as believed in the days of the Gospel and so were saved from their sins whereas they which believed not were not saved these words in the Mysticall sence may be interpreted of these few Jews which attained through faith to salvation from their sins in the days of the Gospel whereas the far greatest part were not so saved because of their unbeliâ—f Had left us a seed Isaiah being a Jew speaks here of the Jews so as that he makes himself of their number and though this was spoken by him in the literal or Historical sence yet may we and we must understand it here as spoken also in a mystical sence A seed That is a small Remnant or a small parcel The seed which is reserved to sow the ground after harvest is but a little in comparison of the Corn of the harvest Therefore is seed taken here for a little parcel or Remnant as he speaks ver 27. We had been as Sodom and been made like to Gommorrah i. e. We had been utterly destroyed by the sword of the Assyrians as Sodome and Gomorrah or the People of Sodom and Gomorrah were by fire from Heaven thus in the litteral In the mystical sence thus we had been utterly cut off from being the People of God by Gods Judgement as Sodom and Gomorrah were utterly cut off as I may so say by fire Sodom and Gomorrah were two Cities of Decapolis in the Land of Canaan which were destroyâ—d by fire and brimstone from heaven for the wickedness of the inhabitants thereof The story you may read Gen. 19 24. c. Ver. 30 What shall we say then i e. What shall we then infer from that which I have alleadged out of the Prophets Answ This we may inser viz. that the Gentiles c. The Gentiles which followed not after Righteousness have attained to righteousness i. e. The Gentiles which did not heretofore seek after Justification have now attained to Justification This that the Gentiles have attained to Justification will follow out of that which was alledged out of the Prophet Hosea Hos 2.23 quoted here ver 25 26. For if the Gentiles be made the People of God and his beloved then certainly they are justified The Gentiles which followed not after Righteousness By following after is here meant seeking so Psal 34.14 In these words seek peace and pursue it where to pursue is the same as to seek And by Righeeousness he meaneth here Justification as the word signifieth almost every where in this Epistle The Gentiles heretofore sought not righteousness nor asked after it when God suffered the Nations to walk in their own wayes Act. 14.16 But now that he hath sent his Gospell among them they have attained unto righteousness through belief of the Gospel Even the righteousness which is of faith Thas is even to that righteousness or Justification which is to be attained by Faith The Apostle prevents a Question or objection here for it might be objected or asked how could the Gentiles which were sinners attain to Righteousness or Justification and what Righteousness or Justification is that This the Apostle prevents when he saith Even the Righteousness which is of Faith And the Apostle raiseth this Question or Objection and answereth it here that he might usher in what he had to say of the Jews in the words following Note that as the Apostle might deduce or prove from that which he quotes out of Hosea ver 25. Viz. I will call them my people which was not my People c. That the Gentiles which followed not after Righteousness should attain or had attained unto Righteousness because the Israelites there spoken of whom God had rejected or sorsaken for a while and afterwards received into favour were a type of the Gentiles whom God so far received into favour as to justifie them So might the faith of those Israelites by which they believed the Prophets which the Lord sent to them to tell them that he would receive them again in to his favour be a type of the faith which the Gentiles yielded to the Gospel whereby they attained to righteousness that is whereby they were justified Ver 31. But Israel which followed after the Law of Righteousness hath not attained to the Law of Rightâ—ousness i e. But the Jews which are the Children of Israel according to the Flesh who sought after Righteousness or Justification the Jews I say for the greatest part of them have not attained to Righteousness or Justification This inference followeth out of what the Apostle alleadged out of the Prophet Isaiah ver 27 28. in the Mystical sence thereof Israel By Israel are here meant the Jews which were the children of Israel that is of Jacob according to the flesh per Metonymiam Efficientis yet by Israel understand not all Israel that is all the Jews but by a Synechdoche take Israel for the greatest part only of Israel that is of the Jews For all Israel that is all the Jews missed not of Righteousness or Justification as appears Chap. 11. v. 1 2 c. Which followed after To follow after is to be taken here for to seek ver 30. The Law of Righteousness That is Righteousness or Justification for the Law of Righteousness or Justification is no more here than if he had barely said Righteousness or Justification Note that the Apostle when he spoke of the Gentiles he said barely Righteousness But when he speaks of the Jews he saith The Law of Righteousness And thus he seemeth to speak when he speaks of the Righteousness which the Jews so â— ght after by a kind of Mimesis because the Jews would every where mention and crack of the Law so the Apostle said by the Law of faith Chap. 3.27 when it had been enough to say only by Faith Hath not attained to the Law of Righteousness i e. That is have not attained to Righteousness or Justification This is as I said The inference which the Apostle draws concerning the Jews out of what he alleadged from the Prophet Isaiah v 27 28 29. Ver. 32. Wherefore because they sought it not c. q. d. But why or wherefore have they not attained to Righteousness or Justification Answer Because they sought it not by faith c. This which the Apostle saith in this verse is not part of the inference mentioned ver
31. But is an objection or question which might arise from that which was said ver 31. which question the Apostle here moves and answereth that he might yet more artificially usher in what he hath to say in the beginning of the Tenth Chapter Because they sought it not by faith i. e. Because they sought it not by the faith of Christ or by faith in Christ which is the only way to obtain Justificatiâ—n But as it were by the works of the Law i. e. But because they sought it by the works of the Law thinking thereby to obtain it without the faith of or in Christ As it were by the works of the Law These words as it were do sometimes signifie the truth and reality of a thing as John 7.9 sometimes an appearance of a thing only And I conceive that they are put here to signifie an appearance only though the Jews might think that when they sougâ—t righteousness by the Law as they did they sought it truly and as they ought to seek it They that truly seek Justification or Righteousness for these two words signifie both one and the same thing by the works of the Law they must so keep the Law as that they never break it at any time no not in the least tittle thereof for if they break it in the least tittle thereof they are cursed by the Law Galath 3.10 And therefore such can never be justified by the works of the Law Now the Jews had sinned every one of them And now having once sinned they could not really and truly and according to knowledge seek for Justification by the works of the Law But being that though they had sinned yet nevertheless they sought for Justification by the works of the Law the Apostle may say not that they sought it by the works of the Law But that they sought it as it were by the works of the Law For they stumbled at the stumbling stone i. e. For they stumbled and were offended at Christ who was to them as a Stumbling-block or stone of Offence in the way to Righteousness This Particle For relates to those words Because they sought it not by faith viz. The faith of Christ And are a Reason why they did not seek after Righteousness by faith The reason why the Jews did not seek after righteousness by faith was that they were offended at Christ by the faith of whom only Justification is to be had and rejected him and evilly entreated him to their own hurt and ruine by bringing a sin upon their head and putting away from them the only means of obtaining Remission of sins The reason why the Jews rejected Christ and were offended at him was because Christ came in such a poor and mean manner without any wordly Pomp being born according to the flesh of poor parentage and having not an house of his own where to lay his head Whereas they looked for a Pompous Messiah to come with all worldly Glory and Lustre mistaking the prophesies concerning Christ which spoke gloriously of him and interpreting them of Earthly Outward or worldly Glory when they were to be taken in a Mystical sence for Heavenly Inward and Spiritual Glory They stumbled at the stumbling stone By this stumbling block or stumbling stone is meant Christ who is here called and likened to a stumbling block or stumbling stone because as a man who in the way which he goes stumbles at a stone or a block which lies in his way comes to hurt So did the Jews stumbling as it were at Christ while they walked after justification get hurt thereby while they were offended at him and rejected him as though he were an Impostor and not the true Christ or Messiah promised by God They stumbled at i. e. They are said to have stumbled at Christ because they rejected Christ and persecuted him and so brought sin upon their head which was hurt to them as a man taketh hurt which stumbleth at a Stone or a Block in the way Ver. 33. As it is written behold I say c. Before these words understand these or the like words viz. For Christ was a stumbling stone to the Jews q. d For Christ was a stumbling Stone to the Jews as it is written Behold I lay in Sion a stumbling stone and Rock of Offence As it is written viz. Isaiah 28.16 But yet the Testimony here alleadged is not to be found there word for word as it is here quoted as they that will compare the places may observe For these words a stumbling block and a Rock of Offence are not there to be found Wherefore most Interpreters do take this Testimony not as a simple testimony taken out of any one place but as a testimony compounded of two parts part whereof is taken out of Isaiah Chap. 28.16 Part out of Isaiah 8.14 Where we have these words A stone of stumbling and a Rock of Offence But yet notwithstanding this we cannot find the whole testimony word for word in or to be made out of those two places conjoyned Yet nevertheless we may find the whole sence of the words even in Isaiah 28.16 mystically expounded and therefore I conceive that the Apostle takes his testimony wholly from thence though to explain the mystical sence thereof he may borrow some words from Isaiah 8.14 The words therefore as they are read in Isaiah Chap. 28.16 are these Behold I the Lord lay in Sion for a foundation a stone a tried stone A pretious corner stone a sure foundation He that believeth shall not make haste Which words in the first and literal sence are spoken of Ezâ—kiah King of Judah who when the Assyrians were in the Land of Judah wasting and destroying the Land yet did believe the word of the Lord that he notwithstanding would defend and keep Jerusalem and so was saved when most of the Jews which would not bâ—lieve were destroyed Hezekiah therefore in the literal sence was called here a Foundation in Sion because he dwelt in Sion that is in Hierusalem and was a Foundation that is a cause of safety to them which flew thither for safety for for Hezekiahs sake did God keep Hierusalem safe at that time He might be called also a Foundation because he was the Chiefest of them which believed in Hierusalem that Hierusalem should not be destroyed by the Assyrians but saved by the Lord from being destroyed by them And was by his example and counsel an inducement also to others to believe and to stand fast and strong in their belief For as a company of men knit or combined together in one are likened sometimes to a natural body and the Chief of them to the head of that body So are they sometimes likened to an House and the chief of them to the Foundation of that house And thus might Hezekiah also be likened to the Foundation of an house because he was the Chief of those believers which were in Hierusalem when the Assyrians wasted the Land of Judah
of them that preach the Gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things 15. And how shall any preach except they be sent Wherefore preachers of the Gospel have been sent to the Gentiles And the Gentiles have heard them effectually and believed For they have received the preachers of the Gospel joyfully and have said of them as it is written Isaiah 52.7 How beautiful are the feet of them which preach the Gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things and how wellcome are they to us 16. But they have not all obeyed the Gospel For Esaias saith Lord who hath believed our report 16. But though the Gentiles have heard the preachers of the Gospel joyfully and believed their preaching yet the Jews have not All yea very few of them have believed the Gospel for as Isaiah said of them long since in the person of the preachers of the Gospel Isaiah 53.1 Lord who among them hath believed our report So is it come to pass 17. So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God 17. But when the Prophet saith Lord who hath believed our report note here by the way that that which I treated of a little before is plain from hence also to wit That faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God preached so that it was needful that the word should be preached to the Gentiles that they might believe 18. But I say have they not heard Yes verily their sound went into all the earth and their words unto the ends of the world 18. But to go on Perhaps some will say that if the Jews believe not it is because they have not heard the Gospel preached to them But I say have they not heard the Gospel preached Yes verily they have heard it For the sound of the Apostles is gone into all the earth and their words unto the ends of the world and this could not nor ought to have been before the Gospel had been fully preached to the Jews 19. But I say Did not Israel know First Moses saith I will provoke you to Jealousie by them that are no people and by a foolish nation I will anger you 19. But because the Jews think it strange that the Gentiles should be called by the preaching of the Gospel and the Gospel should be preached to them I ask did not the Jews know of the calling of the Gentiles They must needs know of it they could not be ignorant of it for the Lord saith in the book of Moses called Deuteronomy Chap. 32.21 I will provoke you O ye sons of Israel to jealousie by the heathen which are now no people of mine and by a foolish Nation that is by the Gentiles I will anger you to wit by making them as neer to my self as ye are 20. But Esaias is very bold and saith I was found of them that sought me not I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me 20. Yea Esaias is very bold towards the Jews and saith to them in the person of God nothing fearing them at all I was found of the Heathen that heretofore sought me not I was made manifest to the Gentiles that before this time asked not after me 21. But to Israel he saith All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people 21. But to the Jews he saith of them themselves All the day long have I stretched out my hands and preached to a disobedient and gain saying people which are contentious and obey not the truth CHAP. X. Ver. 1. Brethren my hearts desire and prayer to God is that Israel may be saved The Apostle by this manner of speech As it seems to me resumes the speech which I said he left imperfect in the beginning of the ninth chapter where he shewed the great affection which he had towards the Jews by the sorrow which he had for them and falls here upon that which he intended there but did not prosecute by reason of Emergent objections rising by the way And here he shews his affection which he hath to the Jews too but it is by manifesting his earnest desire and prayer for them that they may be saved from their sins Brethren By this he speaks to all which he wrote to whether Jews or others For all Christians use to call Christians by the name of Brethren For Israel i. e. For the Jews which are the children of Israel Metonymia Efficientis That they might be saved That they might be saved to wit from their sins that is that they might be justified When he saith that they might be saved he signifies that they were out of the way of salvation Ver. 2. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God but not according to knowledge He preventes an objection here for some might say Paul by your wishing or praying that the Jews might be saved you signifie that they are out of the way of salvation But can they be out of the way of salvation who are so zealous of Gods glory beside that that they are the Children of Abraham and of Israel and so desirous to follow his will as they are To this the Apostle answers q. d. yea for though they have a zeal of God which generally is laudable yet their zeal is not according to knowledge And so that zeal of theirs which is in the general laudable by this their ignorance is become vitious and unprofitable for salvation I bare them Record i. e. I confess and am ready to bare them witness That they have a zeal of God i. e. That they have an ardent desire to please God and to do according to his will Zeal signifieth an ardent or vehement desire and endeavour to do a thing And in the General an Ardent and vehement desire to please God and to do according to his will is a thing praise worthy But not according to knowledge i. e. But their ardent desire to please God and to do according to his will is not according to knowledge Though a zeal of God and an ardent desire of pleasing him is good and praise worthy if it be considered in the general yet if it be considered with this particular viz. of not being according to knowledge it is naught How their zeal was not according to knowledge and so vitious or naught he sheweth in the next verse Ver. 3. For they being ignorant of Gods righteousness i. e. For they being ignorant of that way which God hath appointed for obtaining Righteousness or justification Righteousness that is Justification is to be taken here by a Metonymie for the way to Righteousness or Justification The way which God appointeth for obtaining Righteousness or Justification is by faith in Christ which the Jews knew not or at least would not believe and so were willingly ignorant of Going about to establish their own righteousness i. e. Endeavoring or going about to maintain their own way of obtaining
Righteousness or Justification By righteousness that is by justification is here meant the way of righteousness or justification as before The Jews for the greatest part of them would seek righteousness or justification by works Chap. 9.32 which way God approved not nor appointed Chap. 9. ver 11. wherefore the Apostle calleth that their own way which way of theirs they did strive to maintain against the way of faith Have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God i. e. Have not submitted themselves to and to have not followed that way of righteousness which God hath appointed to justification which is by faith He seems to speak of righteousness or of the way of righteousness here as of a person which we ought to obey by a Prosopopoeia Ver. 4. For Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth c. He proveth here that the Jews have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God And the proof runs after this manner They which have not received Christ nor believed in him have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God But the Jews for the greatest part of them have not received Christ nor believed in him therefore the Jews for the greatest part of them have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God This whole Syllogism the Apostle leaveth to be understood as that which may easily be understood by what he hath here said And taking the minor for granted he proves the major here when he saith For Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth For Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth i. e. For Christ was appointed to wit of God to be the Author of righteousness or justification to every one that believeth on him And that the Law it self testifieth because the Law it self points at Christ and did lead us to him for the obtaining of righteousness or justification by him Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness Christ is said to be the end of the Law for righteousness that is for justification because the Moral Law convincing man of sin and laying open his weakness and disability made him to look for righteousness that is for justification and remission of sins from without himself And the Ceremonial Law did prefigure Christ and the cleansing of our sins by him by the sacrifices and washings and other rites which it appointed Or which yet is almost the same with what I have said Christ may be said to be the end of the Law that is the final cause for which it was given to wit of God by Moses Because it was partly given to prefigure Christ Partly to be as a School Master to bring us to Christ Gal. 3.24 This is an Argument to prove that Christ was appointed of God for Righteousness or Justification to wit because the Law which was given of God by Moses did point at him and lead to him for that end Ver. 5. For Moses describeth the Righteousness of the Law c. Because the Apostle said ver 4. That Christ was the end of the Law for righteousness c. A man might object and say that if it be so that Christ was the end of the Law for Righteousness then is the Righteousness of the Law and the righteousness of faith all one that is it is one and the same way which the Law prescribes for Righteousness or Justification And which the Gospel prescribeth And may infer from thence that if it be so then the Jews are not ignorant of the righteousness of God but have submitted themselves thereunto Which was that which the Apostle denied ver 3. The Apostle therefore prevents this Objection and to shew that the Righteousness of the Law And the Righteousness of Faith is not the same or that it is not one and the same way which the Law prescribeth for righteousness and which the Gospel prescribeth saith for Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the Law c. q. d. Neither because I said That Christ is the end of the Law for Righteousness Do I say that the Righteousness of the Law and the Righteousness of Faith are both one or that it is one and the same way which the Law prescribeth for righteousness and which the Gospel prescribeth For Moses describeth the Righteousness which is of the Law after this manner That the man which doth those things shall live by them But the the righteousness which is of faith or but the Preacher of the Gospel speaketh on this wise Viz. If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the Law c. i. e. Moses who was publisher of the law and by whom the Law was given describeth the way of righteousness which the Law sets out or appointeth thus to wit that the man that doth those things shall live by them By the righteousnest of the Law I understand by a Metonymy the way appointed or scored out in the Law or by the Law for obtaining or attaining to righteousness The man which doth those things shall live by them i. e. That man which doth fully and perfectly observe and keep all the Commandments of the Law as fully and exactly as the Law requireth them to be done shall be justified by them This testimony is taken out of Levit. 18.5 where the whole verse runs thus Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgements which if a man do he shall live in them Which doth these things i. e. Which doth the Statutes and judgements that is the commandments of the Lord and doth them most exactly This Sentence is to be understood of exact and perfect keeping of the Law as appeareth by Deuteronomy 27.26 where a curse is denounced against all those which keep not all the words of the Law See Gal 3.8 c. Shall live by them i. e. Shall be justified by them To live signifieth here to be justified as Chap. 1. v. 17. Ver. 6. But the righteousness which is of Faith speaketh on this wise By the righteousness which is of faith I understand by a Metonymy or Prosopopoeia the Preacher of that Righteousness which is of faith and this I do to oppose it to Moses the Preacher or publisher of the Law and the righteousness thereof That which the righteousness of faith or the Preacher of the righteousness which is of faith speaketh is that which is recorded ver 9 viz. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved So that that which is said between this and that is brought in by the way and is to be read as it were with a parenthesis Say not in thine heart who shall ascend into Heaven These
words do not depend upon the words immediately going before but are together with all which is between this and the ninth verse to be read as I said as it were with a parenthesis These words from this place to the ninth verse mutatis mutandis are taken out of Deut. 30.12 c. and here used by an accomodation The Apostle hath shewed before as Cap. 4.14 c. That Justification could not be obtained by the Law Now least any one should say the same of faith he removes here from faith those things which might make it seem impossible to obtain Justification by faith And first because he said that Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth least any might think from thence that Christs bodily prescence were necessary he shews in this and the following verse That for Christ to be bodily present is not necessary at all to this And because though his bodily presence is not necessary yet his word is requisite and some might say that it was no easie matter to come to the knowledge of that his word nor was it an easie matter to find out where that his word was to be had He sheweth ver 8. that his word is not far off but nigh at hand and easie to be obtained by anyone Say not in thy heart i. e. Say not in thy mind or cast not about in thy thoughts saying The heart is put here for the mind or the thoughts after the Hebrew manner Who shall ascend into heaven that is to bring Christ down from above i. e. Who shall ascend into Heaven for us for this end that he might bring down Christ from above as though it were necessary that Christ should be bodily present for thee to obtaâ—n the righteousness which is of faith or that thou canst not know how to obtain that righteousness except he should be bodily present with thee to shew thee Ver. 7. Or who shall descend into the deep that is to bring Christ again from the dead Or who will descend into Hell to bring Christ again from the dead for this end as though it were necessary that Christ should be bodily present for thee to obtain the righteousness which is of Faith or that thou canst not know how to obtain that righteousness except he were bodily present with thee to shew thee By what the Apostle hath said here he shews that it is not needful that Christ should be bodily present with us that we may believe and be saved by the righteousness which is of faith Being that Christ hath left the Earth in hâ—s body he must needs be their in Heaven above or among the dead beneath therefore the Apostle saith Say not in thine heart who shall ascend into heaven that is to bring down Christ from above or who shall descend into the deep that is to bring up Christ again from the dead And nameth no more places Into the deep By the deep understand here the place of the dead For so that which followeth Viz. To bring up Christ again from the dead bids us to interpret it In this Interpretation which I have given of those two verses I point both the end of the seventh and eighth verses with an Interrogatory q. d. Say not in thine heart who shall descend unto Heaven to wit to bring down Christ from above Or who shall descend into the deep to wit to bring Christ again from the dead and for the so pointing of it I have Deut 30.12 for my direction And the Syriack and Ethiopique translations for my warrant Ver. 8. But what saith it That is but what saith the righteousness which is of faith that is but what saith the Preacher of that righteousness which is of faith Metonymia The word is nigh thee c. The Apostle prevents an objection here for a Jew may say whatsoever the righteousness of faith saith the wâ—rd which it saith may be far enough from me and I may never come to hear it or know it or if I do I must spend much labour and travail to find it out this objection I say the Apostle prevents when he saith the word is nigh thee even in thy mouth c. Note that in these words the Apostle alludes to that place of Deut. 30.14 and useth it here by an accommodation as I said before The Word i. e. The word which the Preacher of the Righteousness which is of faith saith Even in thy mouth and in thy heart i. e. The word is so nigh thee as that thou talkest of it with thy mouth and meditatest upon it in thy heart and bearest it in thy memory for thou canst not forget it This seems to be a proverbial kind of speech The Heart is taken here for the mind or memory c. That is the word of Faith which we preach That is the word which the Preacher of the Righteousness which is of Faith preacheth which we which are the Apostles of Christ preach viz c. Note that faith is taken here for the Righteousness of faith and that again for the Preacher of Righteousness of Faith by a Metonymy Ver. 9. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus i. e. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus Supple to be such as the Father hath set him out to be or such as the Gospel doth describe him to be Some interpret the words thus If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus to be the Lord. Jesus is called the Lord because he hath purchased us For he hath purchased us with the price of his blood Note here that it is not absolutely necessary to salvation to confess the Lord Jesus at all times with the mouth but only then when the case requireth it but it is absolutely necessary to confess the Lord Jesus with the mouth in the preparation of the heart that is it is absolutely necessary to be always ready in heart to confess the Lord Jesus with the mouth when the case shall require it and that is when the glory of God would suffer by us if we should not do it I take therefore to confess with the mouth the Lord Jesus here to be to be ready in heart to confess the Lord Jesus with the mouth Note here that to confess the Lord Jesus with the mouth or to be ready in heart so to confess him is the fruit and effect of Faith Therefore here is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when he saith That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath rais-him from the dead For the naturall order of the words should have been this If thou shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised Jesus from the dead and confess the Lord Jesus with thy mouth thou shalt be saved Saving or justifying faith is a faith which as I said Cap. 1. ver 17. comes up
with rejoycing Therefore these words of the Prophet Isaiah may be understood and are to be understood in the second and Sublime sense of the Apostles and Ministers of the Gospel and the believing Gentiles receiving them and their doctrine with faith and joy The Gospel of Peace The Gospel is called the Gospel of peace because it is the good news of that peace which we have with God through Christ And bring glad tidings of good things These good things are of our justification sanctification and hope of glorification through Christ c. Ver. 16. But they have not all obeyed the Gospel But though the Gentiles have yet the Jews have not all believed the Gospel By 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these he meaneth the Jews here of whom he denies that here which he affirmed of the Gentiles just before Though the far greatest part of the Jews believed not yet the Apostle speaks as though there were but few of them which did not believe And this he doth that he might the less Exasperate them For Isaias saith To wit Isaiah 53.1 Lord who hath believed our report This is spoken by the Prophet in the first and litteral sence in the person of the Prophets who preached to the Jews which were in the Babylonish Captivity the good tidings of their deliverance out of that captivity But in the second Mystical and sublime sence it is to be understood as spoken in the person of the Apostles and preachers of the Gospel for the deliverance of the Jews out of the Babylonish Captivity was a Type of mans redemption from sin and the Prophets preaching to the Jews the good tidings of their deliverance out of the Babylonish Captivity were a Type of the Apostles and preachers of the Gospel preaching in the name of Christ Remission of sins or deliverance from Sin Who hath believed c. That is who among the Jews have believed our report That this is to be meant of the Jews Saint John also teacheth John 12.38 Our report i. e. Our report who are the Apostles and preachers of the word concerning the Remission of sins by Christ Jesus This report was not from the Preachers and Apostles as originally from themselves but it was that which they received from God for that did they teach and preach to the Jews as Gods word and that only Ver. 17. So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God This the Apostle gathers out of those words ver 16. Who hath believed our report For the report there is the report of remission of sins and by Christ which report the Apostles and Preachers of the word brought to the Jews from God and it was brought to them that they might hear it and that hearing it they might believe it And this is the only means which God useth for the begetting of faith This is a conclusion which the Apostle gathereth here by the by for it it not pertinent to that business which he is now upon to wit to shew the unbelief of the Jews But it Excellently sheweth that which he handled ver 14.15 To wit That no man can believe except he heareth and no man can hear except he hath a Preacher of the word of God sent to him And here observe again that which I have observed heretofore that the Apostle when he hath treated before of any subject and is passed from it yet though he hath passed from it if any new argument arise which will prove that subject from which he hath passed he doth for the most part take notice of it though it be but by the by and so doth he here to prove what he said ver 14.15 The word of God To wit the word of God preached by such as are sent to preach it Ver. 18. But I say have they not heard i. e. But I say have not the Jews heard the word of God that is the Gospel preached unto them These words relate not to the 17 verse but to the 16 verse of this Chapter And by them the Apostle prevents an objection For whereas he said verse 16. But they have not all obeyed the Gospel For Esaias saith Lord who hath believed our report A man might object and say yea but perhaps they never heard the Gospel preached or the report which the prophet Isaiah speakes of No wonder therefore then Paul that they believe not for how can they believe in him of whom they have not heard as you your self say verse 14. Yes verily Supple they have heard Their sound went out into all the Earth c. For their Sound to wit the sound of the Apostles and Preachers of the word is gone out into all the Earth Understand For here I had rather interpret these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to our vulgar manner of speaking their sound is gone out into all the Earth then their sound went into all the Earth For this signifies a going begun not câ—mpleated or a going still in fieri whereas the other signifies a going past or supposed to be past come to its end And my reason is because the Apostles had not then gone throughout the whole earth in preaching the Gospel though they where gone out of Judaea and from among the the Jews into the dwellings of the Gentiles at this time The words which the Apostle here useth are taken out of the 19. Psalm and the 4. verse and the Psalmist there speaks of the heavens which in their manner speak the power and wisedom of God their maker through out the earth For they are to be seen in every corner of the Earth and wheresoever they are seen they shew forth the wisdom and power of him that made them as a curious piece of work sets forth the cunning or Art of its workeman But the Apostle useth them here by an accommodation of the preaching of the Apostles and he may the better use them so because as in the old creation the Heavens are the highest of all corporeal Creatures So in the new Creation created by Christ Jesus in which we are new Creatures the Apostles were the next after Christ the highest These words then verily their sound is gone out into all the Earth are to be understood as the Apostle here useth them of the preaching of the Apostles q. d. The Preaching of the Apostles is gone out Supple from Judaea or from out from among the Jews into all the Earth c. That the Apostles had gone out of Judaea and from among the Jews to preach to the Gentiles at this time is manifest This Epistle it self will manifest it and so will the place from whence it was written to wit Corinth And now if the Apostles were gone out of Judaea and from among the Jews to preach the Gospel throughout the whole earth to the Gentiles then was the Gospel preached before this to the Jews for the Gospel was to be preached to the Jews before it
continued in his innocency justification would be due to him of debt so that with reverence be it spoken God would be unjust if he when he were accused as a sinner before him should not justifie him that is if he should not acquit him of sin but condemn him as a sinner Of Grace i. e. Of favour or through the favour to wit the favour of God Ver. 6. And if by Grace i. e. And if they are elected to Justification by favour Then it is no more of works i. e. Then truly it is not of works that they are justified or then are they not justified by works The Greek rendred here no more is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies truly not where the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth often times elegantly abound And by works are to be understood works exactly done according as the Law requireth without the least breach thereof for so doth the Apostle call works every where almost in this Epistle which works so done create right to a debt Otherwise Grace is no more Grace That is Otherwise if it were by Grace and yet of works too that they were justified it would follow that Grace were not Grace but Grace falsly so called For Grace and debt are opposite one to the other and can never stand together But if it be of works To wit that they are justified Then is it no more of grace i. e. Then is it not of Grace that they are Justified or then are they not elected to Justification by Grace Otherwise work is no more work By work understand here the work of the Law exactly performed according to the Law which work meriteth Justification of due and creates a right thereunto so that men would be injured if any such were who should not be justified for this there work Otherwise work is no more work q. d. Otherwise if it were by works and yet of grace too it would follow that work which essentially includeth merit would not be truly work but falsly so called What the Apostle hath said here concerning works he said to convince the Jew of his errour who sought Justification by works Ver. 7. What then i. e. What shall we say then or what shall we gather out of what I have said Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for i. e. The Jews for the greatest part of them have not obtained Righteousness or Justification which they seek after By Israel are here meant the Jews which were the Children of Israel that is of Jacob And yet not all the Jews but the greatest part of them only by a Synechdoche And by that which they seek after is meant Righteousness or Justification as appeareth Chap. 9.31 Chap. 10.3 But the Election hath obtained it i. e. But the Remnant or those few which God hath elected to Justification or intended or decreed to Elect which are the faithful or such as are of faith they have obtained what they sought for The Election is put here by an Hebraism for the Elected or those whom God intended or decreed to Elect that is for the Remnant according to the Election of Grace as he called them Ver. 5. And the immediate object of this Election is Justification And the rest were blinded i. e. And the other which were not Elected or whom God intended or decreed not to elect which were they which would not believe the Gospel but were rather contentious against it were blinded Were blinded Supple so that they could not or cannot see the clear light of the Gospel much less believe it This useth to be the punishment of those which will not believe the Gospel when it is preached to them to wit spiritual blindness See Matth. 13. ver 13 14 15 c. And this being a punishment following unbelief is in some wise opposite to Justification which Justification consisteth in the pardon or remssion of his sins which believeth and so is a gratious râ—ward or consequent of faith when as this is a Punishment of unbelief going before Ver. 8 According as it is written Viz. Isaiah 29.10 God hath given them the spirit of slumber Supple by reason of which they are in a Spiritual kind of Slumber and Sleep by which their Senses are so tied up as that they cannot see and perceive that is that they cannot understand and believe what is preached to them It is usual in the Scriptures to express the inward operations of the Reasonable soul by the outward operation of the sensitive soul So to see and perceive are put for to know and understand Matt. 13. v. 14. yea for to believe as will appear by Acts 28. v. 24. And because Sleep or Slumber ties up the outward senses so that they cannot do their office therefore by a Metaphor is Slumber or the Spirit of Slumber put here for such a condition of estate in which whosoever is he cannot understand and believe those things which are preached to him so long as he is in that Estate Note that these words are in the first and Historical sence spoken of such Jews and men of Hierusalem as would not believe the destruction of the Army of the Assyrians which besieged Hierusalem in the days of Hezekiah and the delivery of Hierusalem from that siege though it were preached to them by the Servants of the Lord his Prophets But in the second and Mystical sence they are spoken of such Jews as in the days of our Saviour and his Apostles would not believe the Gospel when it was preached to them which contained the good news of mans Redemption from sin and of the destruction of sin by Christ Where note that the delivery of the Jews from the Assyrians was a type of the delivery of the faithful from their sins Eyes that they should not see and Ears that they should not hear i. e. Eyes so affected as that they should not see with them And ears so affected as that they should not hear with them The eyes and the ears when they are properly taken are spoken of the eyes and ears of the body but here they are Metaphorically to be understood of the mind or understanding of the Reasonable soul These words are taken for their sence for the Apostle doth not always tie himself to the Letter in his citations out of Isaiah 6.9 And they are there spoken of the Jews of his to wit Isaiahs time in the first and Historical sence but in the second and Mystical sence they are taken of the unbelieving Jews in our Saviour and his Apostles time which were typified by those former See what we said immediately before on these words God hath given unto them the spirit of slumber unto this day Some refer these words to the latter part of the seventh verse q. d. And the rest were blinded even unto this day And the Intervening words they read with a Parenthesis But some again refer them to the words immediately going before but
use of others Note that what the Apostle says here he says by the Judgement of Charity not out of any certain or infallible knowledge The Apostle is here very favourable to these Romans which being weak in faith did abstain from meats which were forbidden by the Law of Moses and did observe those days as holy which the Law of Moses commanded to be kept holy and makes an Apologie for them Yet he is very angry with the Galatians for observing Moses Law as may appear by divers passages of the fourth and fifth Chapters of the Epistle written to them A question therefore may be asked why the Apostle should be so favourable to the Romans in this and so sharp to the Galatians Answ They of which the Apostle speaks here were such as were Jews living at Rome and converted from Judaism to Christianity who therefore were brought up under the Law of Moses and accustomed to those things which were commanded and forbidden therein respectively for which cause the Apostle thought it fit to deal gently with them least by harsh and sharp dealing they should forsake the Gospel of Christ and his faith rather than be suddenly brought off from those observances to which they had been accustomed all their days And for that also that he would shew such reverence to the Law of Moses as that it being dead it should be buried as it were with honour But the Galatians to which he wrote were such as were Gentiles and had been all their life-time brought up in Gentilism never in Judaism Therefore he would never suffer the Law of Moses to be imposed upon them but when they seemed to be willing to receive it when false Apostles would have imposed it upon them he rebukes them sharply for it lest if he should seem to tollerate it or wink at it in them it might be thought that the keeping of Moses Law was necessary to Justification to which faith onely is required Yet though the Apostle dealt thus gently and favourably with these Romans that is with these Jews of Rome here and would not have them to be received to doubtful disputations concerning their opinions yet he did suffer them but for a time and did by little and little instruct them in the truth and perswade them concerning the abrogation of the Law of Moses by Christ as he had opportunity That therefore these weak Jews of Rome did observe days and abstain from meats according to the Law of Moses and not according to the liberty or freedom which was purchased by Christ It was not a thing commendable in them for it did proceed from their weakness in the faith ver 1. but was a fault in them rather yet such a fault as the Apostle would excuse and have others which were strong in the faith to excuse also interpreting what they did to the better part and looking charitably to that which was good or might be good in it Ver. 7. For none of us liveth to himself i. e. For none of us which are Christians doth that which he doth while he liveth for his own profit or for his own glory Of us i. e. Of us Christians Liveth i. e. Doth any thing in his life-time To himself i. e. For himself that is for his own profit or for his own glory Vnderstand chiefly or principally or in comparison of what he doth for the glory of God And no man dieth to himself i. e. And no man which is a Christian doth if he dieth by his death seek profit or glory to himself understand chiefly and Principally here too The Apostle speaks here in the person of a good and faithful Christian such as we must take every one to be in Charity while we have evidence to the contrary And what he saith he saith out of his Charity And by what he saith here he would confirm and prove what he said before to wit that both the weak and strong Christian did what they did there to the honour of God the Lord. Ver. 8. For whether we live we live unto the Lord i. e. For whether we live we do what we do all our life-time to the Glory of the Lord that the Lord may be thereby glorified We i. e. We Christians Whether we live we live c. These two words Live and Live are not to be taken here after the same manner or in the same sence but are so to be distinguished and taken as we have shewed a little before Vnto the Lord i. e. Unto the Honour and Glory of the Lord. See verse 6. And whether we die we die unto the Lord i. e. And whether we die we do by our death glorifie the Lord. Whether we live therefâ—re or die we are the Lords This is the conclusion which the Apostle aimed at and gathers from the sixth verse inclusive hitherto And now having proved that all both strong and weak are the Lords he leaves us as a thing most evident to us to conclude and judge that it is not fit for us either to despise or to judge those which are his Servants Ver. 9. For to this end Christ both died and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and the living Between this and the former verse Understand these or the like words And this is but meet and just viz. for us to be his servants q. d. And this is but meet and just for us to be his servants For to this end Christ both lived and rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living c. He saith that Christ died for this end that he might be Lord both of the dead and the living because Christ gave his blood as a price of our redemption to redeem us out of the hands of the Devil that we might be his Servants and a peculiar treasure to him whether we live or whether we die And he is said to rise again and to revive after his death that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living not that he did redeem us by his resurrection or that his Resurrection was the price or part of the price of our Redemption but because by his Resurrection he shewed that he had paid the full price of our Redemption and by that he came to take possession as it were of that which he purchased or redeemed by his death Neither could he have been Lord of us as he was the man Christ Jesus if he had not risen again For he was not man after death till by his Resurrection his body and soul were reunited which had been severed by his death Christ when he redeemed us to be his Servants he did it that we should be his Servants not onely for term of this life which term civil services among men cannot exceed but also that we should be his Servants for the life to come yea for ever and ever And therefore is he said here to die and rise and revive that he