the Lord our God as he hath commanded us Thus speakes the Law it selfe Levit. 18.5 Yee shall therefore keepe my statutes and my Judgements which if a man doe hee shall live in them i. e. By keeping my Lawes you shall continue your right and state of life to prolong the course of it and to secure it from any violent death to be inflicted by the Law Thus the Prophet Ezech. 18.9 He that hath walked in my statutes to deale truly he is just he shall surely live i. e. by his walking in my Lawes hee becomes upright and by his uprightnes hee shall continue and prolong his temporall life which hee not transgressing the Law shall not by the Law bee cut off And thus also the Apostle Rom. 2.13 The doers of the Law shall be justified i. e. shall continue to bee justified for that by the deeds of the Law they could not begin to be justified hee meanes to prove at large in the following chapters of that Epistle And for default of these workes the ten tribes forfeited their right to that Land for ever and the other two tribes were sequestred for the tearme of 70 yeares under their captivity in Babylon But the tenure whereby under the Gospel I hold my state of alliance with God and continue my right of inheritance to the kingdome of Heaven are not the workes of the Law in the literall sense Not her Ceremonies as her Feasts in observing dayes and months and times and yeares and her Fasts in not touching not tasting not handling and her Capitall Ceremony of Circumcision which in Christ Jesus availeth nothing Not her Moralities as to bee no Idolater no perjurer no Sabbath-breaker no murderer adulterer thiefe lyar nor deceiver For a profession of my selfe to bee no sinner will not continue my Justification nay a confession of my selfe to bee a sinner will rather justifie mee then a justifying of my self to be no sinner for upon this ground as I am taught Luke 18.14 The Publican went downe to his house justified rather then the Pharisee But because that Pharisee was an Hypocrite let us heare another kinde of Pharisee who was no Hypocrite and yet confesseth of his Innocency that it justified him not 1. Cor. 4.4 I know nothing by my selfe yet am I not therefore justified I observe the Moralities of the Law because otherwise I should make my selfe a transgressor and thereby destroy my justification for although my innocency in being no Idolater no perjurer no Sabath-breaker c. will neither constitute nor continue my divine alliance and inheritance yet my Transgression in being an idolater a perjurer a murderer or adulterer or the like will discontinue and destroy it The Moralities of the Law therefore I doe and must observe yet I observe them not in duty to the Law because she commands them nor for feare of the Law because she threatens the breach of them For I am not under the Law but am dead to the Law and it is a part of my Justification to bee free from the Law But the workes which continue my Justification are the works of Grace For seeing God hath so highly Graced mee as to make mee his sonne and heyre therefore to shew my gratefulnes and thankefulnes to God for his grace I observe those duties offices and services whatsoever they be whereto not the letter of Gods Law but the spirit of his grace doth move and draw mee those workes which the grace of his Gospel commands and requires from mee for I am under his Grace And the workes which Gods grace causeth in me and requires from me are the acts of Love exercising it selfe in the offices of equity mercy courtesie and kindnesse For seeing God hath so loved and graced me as to make me his son and heire what other workes should his love and grace produce in me but the workes of love for what should love beget but love and what duties should the son doe to his father but the duties of love And these workes of Love have two strange properties for 1. They are super-legall i. e. above and beyond the Law of Moses not only fulfilling but transcending and exceeding it As to feed the hungry and cloath the naked to entertaine the stranger to visit the sicke and releeve the prisoner 2. They are super-naturall i. e. above and beyond the law of Nature for as there is a miraculous faith so there is also a miraculous love which in a maner worketh miracles surpassing the common course of naked nature As not to be Angry not to resist or revenge evill to suffer persecution gladly and joyfully to lay down my life for my brother and therefore much more for my heavenly Father to love mine enemies who hate revile and persecute me and in some case to hate my friends as my father and mother my wife and children my brothers and sisters Luk. 14.26 These and the like workes of Love are not the commands of the Law for they are not there manifested though some of them be there testified But they are the Commands of Grace for they are manifested in the Gospel which contayning the precepts and rules of equity mercy courtesie and kindnesse whereto Gods Grace obligeth and enableth me is therefore called the word of his Grace Hence Christ calls Love a new Commandement John 13.34 A new commandement I give unto you that ye love one another as I have loved you that ye also love one another And Christ calleth it his commandement John 15.12 This is my Commandement that ye love one another as I have loved you And these workes offices and services of Love are the tenure to continue and maintaine my state of Justification For sayth Paul Gal. 5.6 In Christ Jesus neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but faith which worketh by love i. e. The only thing which availeth to make mee continue and abide in Christ is faith working by love And 1. John 2.10 He that loveth his brother abideth in the light i. e. Continueth in his state of light and life And 1. John 4.16 He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him i.e. Hee that continueth in the workes of love continueth in that alliance which is between God and him And when James affirmeth that a man is justified by works he meanes not works of the law but works of love and of such love as is both super-legall and supernaturall according to the two strange properties formerly mentioned For sayth he Jam. 2.21 Was not Abraham our father justified by workes when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar Did not Abraham continue justified by his worke in offering Isaac Was that worke a duty of the Law or was it not a service of love whereby at Gods immediate command he offered unto God his onely sonne in sacrifice Was not his love super-legall above and beyond the Law For did any Law command that a father should sacrifice his son And
indefinite that is not limited to a time certaine And a Law so unlimited is thereupon called perpetuall or according to the phrase of Scripture everlasting to distinguish it from a law temporary whose duration is limited to a time certaine Yet the Perpetuity of a Law doeth never debarre the Law-maker from his power to revoke repeal or alter at his pleasure as cause shall require either the Law it selfe or the duration of it And therefore upon just cause by expunging the clause of limitation hee may advance a Law temporary to become perpetuall or by inserting a clause of limitation hee may reduce a Law perpetuall to bee temporary 2. The duration of it was limited to a time uncertaine the event whereof exceeded humane knowledge For that this kinde of limitation was made it plainly appeares from hence in that the Tabernacle and the services thereto belonging Heb. 9.9 are called a figure for the time present and the rest of the Ceremonies in meats drinkes and washings Heb. 9.10 were imposed untill the time of Reformation Now the period or event of that time present and of the time of Reformation was at the making of the Law so uncertaine that it passed the reach of humane knowledge And that uncertaine time which the duration of the Law was limited was the time of Christ whose time was the time of Reformation For the Law of Moses was but a way leading unto the Gospel of Christ and ended at Christ Rom. 10.4 for Christ is the end of the Law for righteousnesse to every one that beleeveth And as the occasion of the Law was for transgressions so the duration of it was untill the comming of Christ Gal. 3.19 The Law was added because of transgressions till the seed should come to whom the promise was made It was a Schoolemaster to initiate the Jew for a time untill the comming of Christ Gal. 3.24 Wherefore the Law was our Schoolemaster unto Christ And it was a tutor or governour to over-rule the childhood or the Jew for a time the fulnesse whereof was fulfilled at the comming of Christ Gal. 4.2 We when we were children were in bondage under the elements of the world but when the fulnesse of the time was come God sent forth his son made of a woman made under the Law to redeeme them that were under the Law Because then the duration of the Law was not limited to any time certaine therefore it was perpetuall and everlasting and yet because the duration of it was limited to a time uncertaine therefore it was transitory mutable and ceasable Wherefore during the current of that uncertaine time the Law was all that while mortall and at the expiration of that time it expired and died i. e. it was then of no force but frustrate and voyd For as the Obligation or Bond of the Law while it standeth in force is called the life of the Law for hence it is sayd Rom. 7.1 The Law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth i. e. as long as the Law is in force so the cessation of the Law when the force of it is expired is called the death of the Law for hence againe it is sayd Rom. 7.6 But now we are delivered from the Law that being dead wherein we were held i. e. The Law being ceased and dead Wherefore to speak accurately and properly the Law was not abrogated or repealed but of it selfe it expired and ceased because the fulnes of her time was come for that uncertaine terme whereto her duration was limited was by the comming of Christ certainly determined Yet this Expiration or Death of the Law is expressed by severall other words for it is called Abolishing Ephes 2.15 Having abolished in his flesh the enmity even the law of commandements And Cancelling or blotting out Col. 2.14 Blotting out the hand-writing of ordinances that was against us And Disanulling Heb. 7.18 For verily there is a disanulling of the commandement going before for the weaknesse and unprofitablenesse thereof And Antiquating or making old Heb. 8.13 In that he sayth a new Covenant he hath antiquated or made the first old Thus all the Lawes of Moses are as dead as the Lawes of Solon or Lycurgus Yet the death of the Moralityes contained in the Decalogue or elsewhere dispersed must be cautelously understood by distinguishing between the Constitution of a Law whereby it first hath being and the Declaration of a Law whereby that being which it had before is made knowne For according to this distinction we say of Judges that they doe not make Law by constituting it but they onely declare Law by manifesting that to bee Law which was constitute and made before Much more may the Law-maker himselfe in case of ignorance or question declare that to be his Law which hee had constituted for Law before Now the Moralities in the Decalogue had their Constitution at the beginning of the world for they are Lawes of nature which God made at the making of man from whose creation they resulted But they had a declaration in the Decalogue wherein God wrote them and published them to the Israelites that thereby they taking notice of them to bee his Lawes might not make their ignorance an excuse for their transgressions for some Lawes of nature are of themselves obscure and those that are knowne are not to all men equally manifest And they had a new Declaration in the new Covenant for thereby Hebr. 8.10 God hath put them into our mindes and written them in our hearts and lest our owne mindes and hearts should deceive us hee hath sufficiently manifested them by Christ and his Apostles throughout the New Testament The Moralityes then in the Law of Moses are dead as to that declaration which they had there for by vertue thereof they binde no man but they are not dead in respect of two other bonds whereof the one is their new declaration in the New Testament by vertue whereof they binde all Christians and the other their first Constitution as Lawes of nature by vertue whereof they binde all men whatsoever The reason why the Law is dead and why it expired at the death of Christ is because the Gospel published by Christ is the last Will and Testament of God established upon better promises and better Precepts then were in the Law and was confirmed by the death of Christ and therefore the Law which was Gods former Will and Testament is thereby infringed and frustrated For of Persons testable the last and newest Will is alwayes the best and of such validity or force that at the very making of it all former Wills are infringed and at the confirming of it all former are frustrated And Christ who was the Executor of Gods last Will did disanull the first to establish the last Heb. 10.9 Then sayd he Loe I come to doe thy Will O God He taketh away the first that he may establish the second And Christ at his death by one and the
justified by Christ hee doth highly magnifie the benefit and religion of Christ thereby to manifest unto the Galatians their great rashnes and weakenesse in suffering themselves to be seduced from the Religion of Christ and reduced under the Law of Moses Comment Christian crucifying or mortification the Paterne of it the Ground of it the End or Effect of it Of self-love the Nature of it the Necessity of it the Facility and want of it the work of it the Order of that worke the nessity of it and Neglect of it Mortificatiō is true life and really is Sanctification by altering my life to the life of Christ Sense of the Text. Faith put for Religion To live in the flesh To live in the Faith Naturall actions may become religious and be subject to faith An attribute of Christ why given him heere The Religion of Moses servile But that of Christ is liberall and noble Another Attribute of Christ Delivering put for Dying The authors of Christs death Actions are morallized from their causes The end or purpose of it Christ dyed not in my stead But for my sake or for my good to certifie me of blessednes to justifie me to it to Sanctifie me for it to Exemplifie the way to it to glorifie me with it Christ dyed for me eminently More then any other person can Christs love caused his death not excluding Gods love which also caused it and not his Anger God then was not angry with Christ not with us but with the Jewes he was Christ dyed for Paul and for me by my name appellative of a Believer which kinde of Nomination is Certaine and Valid to the Inheritance of Heaven A Prayer unto Christ I Am Crucified The Crosse was an instrument for criminall executions whereon malefactors were put to death a punishment much practised and well knowne among the Romans Greekes and Jewes And to bee Crucified was to bee nayled hand and foot upon the Crosse to suffer thereby a shamefull paynfull and lingring death Hence by way of metaphor or resemblance the Faithfull when they renounce reject and crosse the motions desires and lusts of their carnall or fleshly appetite are sayd in Scripture to crucifie or mortifie the flesh and thereupon they themselves are sayd to bee crucified or mortified For when the Flesh or carnall appetite which is a kinde of Malefactor is so curbed and crossed that she cannot enjoy her former liberty and usuall motions unto sinne then she resembles a man crucified or nayled to the crosse who thereby loseth first his motion and at last his life The Apostle therefore would say My death unto the Law doth so far remove mee from living in sin that I am dead to sin also because I am as it were crucified For as a man that is crucified or nailed to the crosse doth dye a violent and paynfull death so my old man or that man that I was formerly is so bruised and crossed that it is dead not a naturall and easie but a violent and paynfull death For the denyall of my former selfe by crossing the motions desires and lusts of the flesh is unto my sensuall appetite not onely a simple death but a death with violence and torment because when my appetite is crossed she accounts her selfe vexed and tormented With Christ Not really and locally but putatively and quasively for I am mortified in a maner as hee was crucified and so I am for two reasons 1. Because his Crucifying is the Paterne resemblance or likenesse of mine For as Christ was crucified and dyed to his mortall life that he might rise to a new life and live unto God so I am mortified and dead unto sin that I might turne to a new life and live unto God as a new creature And as Christ was crucified but once dying no more but once for death had dominion over him no more but once so I am mortified and dead to sinne once for all and sinne shall never have dominion over mee more because I will never againe returne under the bondage of it For according to these resemblances the Apostle proposeth Christ unto every Christian as the true paterne of mortification Rom. 6.6 Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sinne might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sinne for he that is dead is freed from sinne And againe at the next verse following but one the other resemblance followeth Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dyeth no more death hath no more dominion over him For in that he dyed he dyed unto sinne once but in that hee liveth hee liveth unto God Likewise reckon yee also your selves to bee dead indeede unto sinne but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 2. Because his Crucifying is the cause ground or reason of mine For as through the death of the Law I am dead to the Law so through the Crucifying of Christ I am crucified with Christ i. e. his Crucifying and dying on the Crosse is the cause ground and bond why I must be mortified and dead unto sinne For seeing Christ by his death upon the Crosse did confirme and establish the last Will and Testament of God to the Legacyes and Promises whereof I by fayth am justified to have the same right in God with Christ or as Christ hath namely a right of alliance and inheritance to be the son and heyre of God as Christ is the son and heyre of God and consequently to be the brother of Christ and a co-heyre with him to eternall blessednes Are not these benefits by the death of Christ a cause ground and bond sufficient to engage and oblige mee to crucifie or mortifie my sin Shall I partake in the alliance and inheritance of Christ to bee a co-ally and a co-heire with him and shall I not partake in his obedience to be a sufferer with him especially in this holy suffering whereby my sin onely suffers death For seeing Christ for my sake layd downe his life shall not I for his sake lay downe my sinne Can I possibly doe lesse for his sake who suffered so much for mine then thus to conforme and plant my selfe into the likenesse of his death And can I possibly doe more for my owne sake when by thus conforming and planting my selfe into the likenes of his death Rom. 6.5 I shall be also in the likenesse of his resurrection If Christ dyed for mee then must I dye to sinne because his death bindes mee to it 2 Cor. 5.14 For if one dyed for all then were all dead i. e. then were all to dye or then all ought or must dye to sin for in this place as in divers others the action past is put for the duty to come If Christ have any right in me I must bee thus dead Rom. 8.10 And if Christ bee in you the body is dead because of sinne i. e. the flesh or sensuall appetite is mortified or dead that thereby ye may
mercy hee saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost i. e. Our finall salvation which God hath decreed or devised unto us and our Sanctification in regenerating or renewing us by his holy Spirit which is the meanes to the former end proceedes not from any workes of ours which wee had done before according to any righteousnesse that was in us But our right thereunto proceedes from Gods worke as an act of his mercy And 1. Pet. 1.3 Blessed bee the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us againe unto a lively hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible c. i. e. Blessed bee God who by the Resurrection of Christ hath begotten and wrought in us a lively hope of eternall life which is an inheritance incorruptible All which proceedes from the abundance of his mercy Now all Mercy is Grace though all Grace bee not Mercy But when grace is so affected with the misery of a miserable person that thereby she is moved to relieve him from his misery then grace becomes mercy Because all mercy is grace to a person in misery 5. Because it comes by Gods Will and Testament John 1.13 Who were borne not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God i. e. Believers are made the sonnes of God not by generation or birth from the will of flesh and blood Nor by any adoption from the will of man But by that adoption which is from the Will and Testament of God And Ephes 1.5 Haveing predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himselfe according to the good pleasure of his Will i. e. Our adoption to bee the sonnes of God and the co-heires with Christ by meanes of Christ is predestinated ordained or devised unto us according to that good pleasure of God which hee hath expressed in his Will and Testament And in the same Chapter vers 11. In whom also wee have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsell of his owne Will i. e. In or through Christ we are made co-heires with Christ unto blessednes wherto we are predestinated instituted and ordained by God who performeth all things according to that purpose counsell or meaning of his which he hath expressed in his Will and Testament Now things conveyed or devised by Will and Testament are not debts and duties whereto the Testator is bound by Law and justice but are gifts and Legacies proceeding from his grace favour and kindnes towards those Legataries unto whom they are devised for hence it is that Wills require a favourable construction or interpretation because they containe matters of favour And Gods grace wherby I am justified unto this Right is rich grace For that is a frequent attribute wherby the Scripture doth commend and magnifie the greatnes plenty and abundance of Gods grace by stiling it the riches of his grace As Rom. 11.12 Now if the fall of them be the richesse of the World and the diminishing of them the richesse of the Gentiles i. e. The fall of the Jewes is the occasion of Gods grace and of the riches or abundance thereof unto the Gentiles and unto all the world besides And Ephes 1.7 In whom wee have redemption through his bloud according to the riches of his grace wherein he hath abounded towards us And Ephes 2.7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindnesse towards us through Jesus Christ i. e. the exceeding plenty and abundance of his grace for although grace and kindnesse be really one and the same thing yet after the word grace the Apostle addeth the word kindnesse that by the abundance of his words he might signifie the abundance of Gods grace Certainely sin aboundeth in the world and hath done so in all ages yet grace doth over-abound it Rom. 3.20 The Law entred that the offence might abound but where sinne abounded grace did much more abound i. e. After the Law was given the event was that sin abounded and after sin had abounded the event was that grace did super-abound by over-reigning over-ruling and overcomming sin because God by his grace doth not only forgive eternall death which is the punishment of sin but over and above he doth give us a right unto eternall life by justifying us thereunto through Christ as it there followeth in the next verse That as sinne hath reigned unto death even so might grace reigne through righteousnesse through a Right unto eternall life And this richnesse or greatnesse of Gods grace appeares from three grounds 1. Because Gods grace is without a cause There was no cause moving God to justifie me for as we sayd before his grace is hereof the supreame or prime cause having no other cause above or beyond it to actuate or move it What moved God to bee so gracious unto mee as to predestinate or devise unto mee in his last Will and Testament this divine state of alliance and inheritance with him Certainely no Merit or desert of mine moved him for it was not for any worke or other act of mine which I had done or which God foresaw I would doe that could deserve this grace Because Gods grace and my workes are in respect of causality so inconsistent and contrary that they cannot both concurre as causes procreant of the same blessing But the claime by one doth necessarily exclude the other For if it bee by workes it is of debt and then it cannot bee of grace Rom. 4.4 Now to him that worketh is the reward reckoned not of grace but of debt But if it bee by grace it is of gift and then it cannot bee of workes Rom. 11.6 And if by grace then it is no more of workes otherwise grace is no more grace No Petition or Request of mine moved him for I never made any motion or suit for it neither was it my counsell or advice that God should devise this Legacy unto mee for Rom. 11.34 Who hath knowne the minde of the Lord or who hath beene his counsellour Neither had I any existence when Gods Will was framed Lastly no inquiry or seeking of mine moved him heereto for I never asked after it nor desired it and I had no desire to it because I had no knowledge of it hence saith God in respect of his grace Rom. 10.20 I was found of them that sought mee not I was made manifest unto them that asked not after mee And when by the preaching of the Gospel God sought mee asked after mee and called mee to accept his grace I was hardly perswaded to believe and receive it And unto this day many Nations cannot bee perswaded of it yea some Christians are not rightly and fully perswaded of it But God was heereto moved of his owne meere and proper motion wherein
THE IUSTIFICATION OF A SINNER Being the Maine ARGUMENT OF THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS By a Reverend and Learned Divine NON ALTVM PETO I.S. LONDON Printed by T. H. and are to be sold at the Gun in Ivy-Lane 1650. THE PREFACE For the Reading of the Epistle to the GALATIANS In five Particulars The situation of Galatia Her Inhabitants Her reception of the Gospel Her false Teachers Their false Doctrine Their Arguments for it Their designe in it The Scope and parts of this Epistle three Pauls Apostleship is immediate from Christ and no way inferiour to the chiefe Apostles Circumcision is of it selfe a thing indifferent Justification makes us a right unto Blessednesse whereto Faith in Christ is our title and workes of Love are our tenure and these two are sufficient But workes of the Law are neither title nor tenure Paul exhorts to severall holy duties He argues variously 1. Gravely 2. Severely 3. Gently For the time and the place 1. The Direction IT is addressed to the Churches of Galatia The Land of Judea extending it so as sometime it is to include Samaria and Galilee is bounded on the South with Arabia the Desert wherein the Famous Mount Sinai is seated But on the North it bordereth upon Syria whereof anciently it was a Province for therefore the King of Syria is by the Prophet Daniel frequently called the King of the North. And North from Syria lies Cilicia the Native Country of St. Paul and North from Cilicia is Galatia whereof the Metropolis or Chiefe City is the Famou◠Ancyrà from whence the people of the whole Country are by some Historians called Ancyrans So that the Countries of Arabia Judea Syria Cilicia and Galatia lye as it were in a Line under the same Meridian successively North-ward the latter still more Northerly then the former Galatia being a large Province of Asia the lesse was originally inhabited by the Greekes But afterward some 360 yeares before Christ was possessed by the Gaules or French who quartering and mingling themselves with Greekes gave occasion that the Countrey was called Gallo-Graecia or Graeco-Gallia i. e. that part of Greece wherein the Gaules lived At last the Jewes whose manner was being a populous Nation to disperse their Families into divers other Countries seated themselves as sojourners or strangers in the chiefe Cities of Galatia where they had their severall Synagogues as the French and Dutch in some Cities of England have their proper Congregations Into this Countrey of Galatia bordering upon Cilicia Paul being a Cilician borne did in discharge of his Ministery make two severall journeys The first by way of Plantation to publish the Gospel and the second by way of Visitation to confirme the Believers in it And those Believers of Galatia who came in unto the Faith whether from the Jewes or from the Gentiles for there came in from both are in respect of their severall Congregations stiled by the Apostle the Churches of Galatia unto whom he directs this Epistle 2. The Occasion AFter Pauls finall departure from Galatia into other Countries to plant and settle the Greeke and Latine Churches there arose in the Congregations of Galatia certaine false Teachers who by Birth and Nation were not Jewes but Proselytes or Strangers who had lived among the Jewes in Judea where by Religion they became Christians and from thence travelled afterward into Galatia amongst whom it seemes by Ecclesiasticall Writers Cerinthus was the leading man The false Doctrine taught by these was That unto Salvation the Ceremonies of the Jewish Law were necessary especially that of Circumcision Yet heerewith they taught not that Faith in Christ and Holynesse of life were either to bee rejected or neglected But approving the necessity of these they pressed their insufficiency alledging that Faith and Holynesse were not sufficient and prevalent to procure us a right interest and claime unto the Blessings promised in the Gospel unlesse to our Faith and Holynesse wee super-added Circumcision Thus they framed a complyance of Christ with Moses to compound the Gospel with the Law or rather if wee consider the moment of the matter to substitute the Law instead of the Gospel for both of them cannot subsist together The Arguments whereby they raised and maintained this Doctrine were chiefely Calumnies against St. Paul partly by extolling Peter James and John as the chiefe Pillars of the Church as Apostles ordained by Christ himselfe as Residentiaries of Jerusalem in the Consistory of Christ partly by disparaging Pauls Apostleship and opposing the authority of the Apostles against his authority as that hee had not the authority of an Apostle or if hee had any it was but derivative onely from them and therefore was inferiour to them That hee was the onely man who opposed the Ceremonies of the Law for the rest of the Apostles allowed of them and indeede for a time they seemed to allow them prudently concealing their minde in that point lest otherwise the Jewes of Judea where they chiefly preached being blindly zealous for the Law should have taken distast against the Gospel That hee in the poynt of Circumcision was inconstant and various sometime urging it as hee did upon Timothy and sometime opposing it as hee did in Titus The Designe or end of this Doctrine was double 1. That by this means these Teachers might render themselves gratious amongst the Jewes who highly esteemed the use of their ancient Lawes and consequently that heereby they might become capable of all Honours Offices Priviledges and Commodities granted then to the Jewes in divers places 2. That heereby they might decline those persecutions and other inconveniences whereto those Christians were subject who professed the purity of the Gospel stripped from the Jewish Ceremonies For in those times by the Civill Lawes of Rome and by the Edicts of the Romane Emperours the Jewes in all places enjoyed the free exercise of their Religion But so did not the Christians who were every where vexed by all Vnbelievers on all hands both by Jewes and Gentiles as appeares throughout the Acts of the Apostles 3. The Intention THE maine Scope of St. Paul in this Epistle is to reduce the Galatians from their Jewish errour in retaining and adhering to the workes and Ceremonies of the Law unto the sincerity and purity of the Gospel as will best appeare in the parts of the Epistle which besides the Salutation and Valediction seeme principally three 1. A Defence of his Apostleship cap. 1. ver 6. c. For because the false teachers by impugning his Apostleship had grounded and raised their errour therefore he with great courage and freedome of language doth vindicate the Office and authority thereof as that hee had not his Apostleship from the Apostles nor by the Apostles but as immediately from Christ as ever they had theirs That hee was no way inferiour to the chiefe of the Apostles either for knowledge in the mysteries of Christ or for power in Preaching the Gospel That they acknowledged the
Doctrine of the Apostles for shee her selfe distinguisheth them from the Precepts of the Apostles For if Pauls Doctrine which contained not those Traditions of the Church were sufficient to salvation with wâ—â—â— authority can those Traditions bee urged as necessary and by what meanes shall they who urge them escape the curse heere menaced But if they alleage that their Traditions are not contrary to the Doctrine of the Apostles but onely additionall even the concession of this is enough for their conviction for in adding to the Doctrine of the Apostles and urging their additions as necessary to salvation they thereby teach besides the Doctrine of Paul as much as they did who unto the faith of Christ would adde the legall Ceremonies which is the maine point in this Epistle condemned because those legall Ceremonies though they were not contrary and against yet were different and besides those things which Paul affirmed as sufficient to salvation But the Galatians by necessitating of their additions must needes deny them sufficient and therefore the Churches of Rome joyne heerein with the Churches of Galatia that unto the Gospel of Christ they make additions though the additions bee not the same Let him bee accursed The censure and doome upon the former presumption that whosoever shall attempt it shall become a curse i. e. an abominable and execrable and devoted thing which no man may or dare touch In poynt of false Doctrine urged against or besides the Gospel of Christ no respect is to bee had to the Dignity or quality of the Person though hee bee an Apostle or an Angel from Heaven for if such Persons as these may by no meanes corrupt the Gospel what person else shall dare to doe it Whosoever therefore shall wittingly and purposely with arrogance and pertinacy attempt this corruption directly or indirectly against or besides the Gospel that person cannot escape the thunder of this curse but hee may escape it who out of ignorance or errour teacheth somewhat which hee thinkes consequent to the Doctrine of the Gospel though indeed it bee repugnant or different from it if afterward upon the sight of his errour hee forsake it and submit to the truth for such a one is not forthwith to bee accursed but must first bee refuted and instructed in the truth VERSE 9. Text. As wee sayd before so say I now againe If any man preach any other Gospell unto you then that you have received let him bee accursed Sense Then that yee have received Viz. from mee who first planted and afterward confirmed it amongst you Reason A Repetition of the former sentence to the same sense yet expressed in words somewhat more generall and full lest any man should thinke that the former clause was too severe and fell from him rashly or unawares VERSE 10. Text. For doe I now perswade men or God or doe I seeke to please men for if I yet pleased men I should not be the servant of Christ Sense Doe I now viz. Since I was made an Apostle Perswade men i. e. Doe I teach humane doctrines or the opinions of men Or God Doe I not teach divine doctrine proceeding from God For if I yet viz. Since I became the servant of Christ Pleased men viz. Against or besides the pleasâ—â—e of Christ I should not be the servant i. e. I would not have been the servant Reason An entrance upon the third part of this Chapter wherein he vindicates the authority both of his Ministery and Doctrine and whereby he will conclude that such a person is worthy to be accursed who shall presume to oppose or corrupt his doctrine by teaching any thing against it or by adding somewhat besides it because his doctrine was altogether divine for he was taught it by God from heaven and by God from heaven he was commanded to publish it Comment The word Now. Men put for humane Doctrines and God for Divine Doctrine Paul was no Men-pleaser The particle yet How farre Men may must bee pleased and how far not Ministers are the servants of Christ FOR doe I now perswade men or God The particle now and the particle yet in the words following though sometime they be taken for the very instant and moment of the time present yet heere in this place they must bee ampliated or extended to a greater latitude to signifie such a time present as comprehendeth some compasse and includeth a certaine state and condition of things which state as long as it lasteth the same is so long accounted the time present See Matt. 3.10 and John 12.31 and Rom. 13.11 and 1. Cor. 13.12.13 and 2. Cor. 6.2 In this place therefore the particle now signifies that space of time from whence the Apostle being made a Minister of Christ did begin to preach the Gospel and yet continued to preach it for it is opposed to that former time when he was a Pharisee and a vehement maintayner of the Law He demands therefore whether now during his Ministery of the Gospel hee perswade men or God which he proposeth by way of Interrogatory signifying thereby that the matter was so evident to the Galatians that they must needs be forced to confesse the truth of it for this Interrogation must bee resolved and construed for two vehement assertions one a Negation thus I doe not now perswade men the other an affirmation repugnant to the former negation thus I doe now perswade God The word Men is here figuratively put for humane doctrines or for those opinions whereof men are the Inventors as wee often use the words Plato and Aristotle for the opinions or writings of Plato and Aristotle And in like manner the word God is put for divine Doctrines and for those verities whereof God is the Authour and Revealer so Christ is sometimes put for the Doctrine of Christ and the preaching of Christ is put for the preaching of his Doctrine See Act. 5.42 and Act. 8.5 and 2 Cor. 4.5 and Phil. 1.15 q. d. When I was a Pharisee zealous of the Law I perswaded and pressed humane Doctrines as the traditions of our Fathers and other opinions of men but now since I was ordained an Apostle and a Minister of Christ I dare urge no humane Doctrine but contrarily the Doctrine which now I urge is wholly Divine whereof God is the Authour and Revealer unto mee This Phrase to perswade men is taken in another sense 2 Cor. 5.11 for there he affirmes that he perswades men which heere he flatly denyes and the reason is because there men are taken for the personall object of his perswasion to whom the matter which he perswaded was piety but heere Men are put for the reall matter of his perswasion that the matter which now he perswaded unto men was not the Doctrine of men Or doe I seeke to please men A reason of his double assertion contained in his former interrogation by removing the cause impulsive which might seeme to move him to perswade humane Doctrines and
during or from my time in my mothers wombe for the wombe is not here the tearme of Recesse from whence the Apostle is said to be separate as if the separation were to be understood of his severing from the wombe by the way of his delivery or birth from thence for then it must have been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but his abode in the wombe was the tearme of Time when or during which hee was separated unto the Ministery or rather decreed or designed to be separated thereto But the tearme of Recesse from whence hee was decreed to bee separate was partly his contemporaries whom hee exceeded in the acts of Persecution and partly the rest of the Apostles whom hee exceeded in suffering Persecution And the terme of Accesse whereunto he was separate was his Ministery or Apostleship yet not that simply considered but his separate and singular Apostleship whereby after an extraordinary maner he was singled out from the rest of the Apostles to exercise his Ministery apart from theirs that hee might preach Christ among the heathen or Gentiles as he specifies in the next verse following for unto those words there the words heere of his separating and calling must be referred for their coherence as being the employment and service whereunto hee was separated and called For unto this separate and singular Apostleship to preach Christ among the Gentils Paul was elected as God tells Ananias whom he sent to heale Paul of his blindnesse in Damascus Acts 9.15 and as Ananias reports it unto Paul when he healed him Acts 22.13.14 And unto this he was instituted at Jerusalem when hee was in a trance praying in the Temple where God sayd unto him Make haste and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem for I will send thee farre hence unto the Gentiles Act. 22.17.18.21 And unto this he was ordayned at Antioch when unto the Prophets and Teachers there as they ministred to the Lord and fasted the holy Ghost sayd Separate mee Barnabas and Saul for the worke whereunto I have called them Act. 13.2 For heer and now at this time and place that Separation was actually ordayned or destinated which from his mothers wombe was pre-ordayned or predestinated Hence Paul stiles himselfe the separate Apostle unto the Gospel Rom. 1.1 And hence he professeth with a deepe asseveration that hee was ordayned and appointed a Preacher and an Apostle and a Teacher of the Gentiles See 1. Tim. 2.7 and 2. Tim. 1.11 where by the words ordayned and appointed he seems to explicate the word separated q.d. Before the time that ever I had done any humane act eyther of good or evill in the world yea before the time that I was borne into the world while yet I lay wrapped in my mothers wombe God by his good pleasure and singular favour unto me decreed and designed to separate appoint or ordaine me to a separate and singular Apostleship apart from the rest of the Apostles especially from Peter James and John whose Province it was to preach Christ among the Jewes that mine from theirs should be far remote to preach him among the Gentiles wherto afterward he actually called instituted and ordained me for the actuall execution of that whereto from my Mothers wombe hee had separated and designed mee This hee saith to certifie and make knowne unto the Galatians that his Apostleshippe was no way humane that hee had neither instruction nor authority thereto from those that were the chiefe Apostles as the false Teachers among the Galatians had falsely suggested But the whole frame of his Apostleshippe was wholly divine from the good pleasure of God even from his mothers wombe And in his expression heereof hee seemes to allude to the words of Esay who saith of himselfe The Lord hath called mee from the wombe from the bowells of my Mother hath hee made mention of my name Esay 49.1 Or to the words of Jeremy to whom God saith Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee and before thou camest forth out of the wombe I sanctified thee and I ordained thee a Prophet unto the Nations Jer. 1.5 In the words to Jeremy to sanctifie is the same that to separate is with Paul for to sanctifie there is not to make Jeremy holy and righteous morally but politically to designe and ordain him to a publick Office for there Jeremy is ordained a Prophet unto the Nations and heere Paul is separated a Preacher unto the Gentiles A saying not much unlike to this of himselfe and to those of the Prophets the Apostle hath of Jacob and Esau concerning whom God made a singular appoyntment from their Mothers wombe while the Children were not yet borne neither had done any good or evill Rom. 9.11 But from Gods singular acts upon any of these single persons from their Mothers wombe to collect an universall appoyntment upon all single persons from all eternity is not consequent by any rule of sound reason And called mee by his grace Called mee viz. to my Apostleship by signifying his will to institute mee an Apostle to the Gentiles If wee referre this Calling to the time of his Mothers wombe and make it an adjunct and concurrent with his separation as if from his Mothers wombe God had both separated and called him then the word called cannot signifie the act of his calling that then hee was actually called but onely the Decree of his calling that then God designed him to bee called afterward as it seemes the word is taken Rom. 9.11 But there is no cause to the contrary but that the word called may heere signifie the effect of that separation which God made of him in his Mothers wombe and the time of it fitly referred to those times wherein hee was actually and really called by the intimation unto him of Gods will and pleasure who had elected instituted and ordained him to execute the office of an Apostle to the Gentiles which intimation was made and confirmed unto him at severall times and places as at Damascus by Ananias at Jerusalem by God himselfe in a vision and at Antioch by the Presbytery as was formerly noted And the ground of his Calling to bee an Apostle of Christ was no qualification in himselfe whereby hee was prepared or fitted to preach Christ for hee was wholly ignorant of Christ who now upon his calling was to bee revealed unto him as it appeares by the words next following Nor no act of justice in God whereby God was obliged to recompence any former act done by Paul who had done many acts to the contrary that made him unworthy to bee called an Apostle for although touching the righteousnesse which is in the Law hee was blamelesse Phil. 3.6 Yet touching the Gospel hee was not blamelesse but criminates himselfe for a blasphemer a persecutor and injurious 1. Tim. 1.13 Nor no act of equity in God whereby God stood engaged to his owne decree in separating and designing him to the Apostleship from his Mothers wombe for that decree
his Revelation and calling to preach the Gospel not onely Historically but Argumentatively that by an Argument a minori hee might firmely prove his principall assertion that his Gospel was not humane or taught by man because hee discovered not his calling thereto to any mortall man and therefore much lesse did hee consult any man for instruction therein and therefore againe much lesse durst any man attempt to instruct him q. d. When God at Damascus had revealed his sonne in mee and designed mee to preach him among the Gentiles immediately thereupon at least after my baptisme there I went from Damascus into Arabia to preach him among the Gentiles and thence I returned againe to Damascus but during all that time I discovered not the Revelation to any mortall man that I was called to the Gospel much lesse did I consult or confer with any man for any further instruction in the knowledge of Christ or for my proceeding in the exercise of my Ministery among the Gentiles as if in any poynt I were either ignorant or doubtfull and much lesse durst any man attempt to instruct mee for no man knew that I was called to the Gospel excepting Ananias of Damascus but all other men knew that I had authority to binde all that professed it and all men must needes imagine that I still continued in the same minde and therefore all must needs be afraid and actually were afraid of me But for my knowledge in Christ and his Gospell I did wholly acquiesce and rest upon God as abundantly instructed by his Revelation and fully satisfied with his Commission by the sole vertue whereof I preached the Gospel before I made any discovery of my calling to it otherwise then by my preaching of it VERSE 17. Text. Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were Apostles before mee but I went into Arabia and returned againe unto Damascus Sense Went I up The Greeke is neither returned I. Apostles before mee i. e. Ancienter then I or before mee in time And returned i. e. Retired secretly Reason An illustration in particular of that whereof hee mentioned before in generall namely how hee disposed of himselfe immediately after his calling to the Apostleship Comment Paul being made an Apostle went not to Jerusalem to consult the Apostles there But went into Arabia and why so Thence unto Damascus and why so NEither went I up to Jerusalem Went I up The Greeke is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Neither returned I to Jerusalem for from Jerusalem hee came when hee made that journey to Damascus wherein by the way hee was converted and called to his Apostleship and therefore his not going to Jerusalem at that time must needes bee a not returning thither And thither hee returned not from Damascus immediately after his calling and baptisme there by Ananias although three yeares after that time hee returned to Jerusalem as will appeare in the next verse following To them which were Apostles before mee At Jerusalem was the Oracle as formerly of the Law so then of the Gospel seated in the Apostles of Christ whom Christ before his ascention had personally inspired with his Spirit and ordained by his owne hand Hee denyes therefore that hee went to the Apostles either because his adversaries who magnified them so much for divine men exempted from the ranke of ordinary persons might also remember that they were not yet exempted from the appellation of flesh and blood although they were qualified with extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost or because the chiefe suspicion against Paul might arise concerning the Apostles that hee to them made some addresse and by them was instructed in the doctrine of the Gospel This suspition therefore Paul cleares by these words that by this his denyall no man might affirme that ever hee was a Disciple to the Apostles thereby to diminish his reputation especially if in any poynt his Doctrine seemed different from theirs as was the suggestion of his adversaries Before mee i. e. For their time or standing in the Apostleship which hee mentions therefore because from their seniority and Antiquity in their Apostleship Pauls adversaries had taken occasion to disparage him as a novice and a puny or a pupill to some of the Apostles who for their standing in the Ministery were all his Seniors and Ancients This objection hee refells by declaring that although the Apostles were all his Seniors yet hee was Disciple or pupill to none of them for hee never came at them to learne any thing from them neither immediately after his calling nor at any time afterward for when afterward hee was at Jerusalem with them about the controversie of circumcision the chiefest of them who seemed to bee somewhat in conference added nothing to him as it is expressed in the next Chapter following vers 6. But I went into Arabia These words as was noted before must cohere in sense with the word immediately in the former verse for the affirmative of Pauls first action after his conversion for the two clauses intervening betweene that word and these are both negatives of what actions hee did not q. d. When it pleased God to reveale his Sonne in mee and to give mee my charge for preaching the Gospel among the Gentiles then after my baptisme and a little refreshment in Damascus to recover my strength whereof the Lord by my dejection had deprived mee the first action which I did was this that immediately I went into Arabia where certainely I could finde no instructions for the Gospel to bee gathered from a people uncivill and wild who were wholly ignorant of the Gospel who had never heard any thing of Christ and who excepting some Proselites who came yearely to Jerusalem were all wholly devoted to idolatry and superstition By the adversative particle but he plainly declares that unto his not going to Jerusalem hee opposeth his going into Arabia whereby hee seems to prefer Arabia the basenesse of the Gentiles before Jerusalem the glory of the Jews that by this intimation hee might either abolish or abate the boasting of his adversaries who imagined that the truth of the Gospel was topicall and calculated onely for the Meridian of Jerusalem and therefore afterward againe Arabia and Jerusalem are compared together in a matter of higher moment and are both made equall to stand in the same ranke of basenesse and bondage The end why immediately hee went into Arabia was this that being made a seperate Apostle from the rest hee might according to his calling and the charge layd upon him preach the Gospel among the Gentiles or Heathen and of all the Gentiles they of Arabia were in a manner most Heathenish But why hee chose to preach the Gospel there rather then elsewhere the reason might bee because Arabia was much remote and quite contrary to Cilicia wherein stood the famous Tarsus where Paul was borne and well knowne for hee was a Citizen of that City but Arabia was as it were an Angle of
before even then when his persecution was in action for the deede thereof being done at Jerusalem the same thereof came presently to the Churches of Judea and afterwards spread beyond Syria and Cilicia even to the Churches of Galatia who had also heard of it as hee mentions it unto them before in this Chapter vers 13. But of his latter action in preaching the faith the Churches of Judea for the space of three yeares after hee began to preach it heard not a word or if they heard any thing thereof they beleft it not for when Paul after three yeares of preaching the Gospel in Arabia and Damascus came from Damascus into Jerusalem neither the Churches of Judea nor those of Jerusalem had heard of it for the faithfull at Jerusalem were all afraid of him and beleeved not that hee was a Christian as was shewed before from Acts 9.26 But upon that returne of Paul to Jerusalem the Church of Jerusalem first heard of his Preaching the Faith and she heard of it by Barnabas who brought Paul to the Apostles and declared unto them both his calling and his Preaching how wonderfully Christ had called him and how powerfully he had Preached Christ at Damascus Act. 9.27 And from the Church of Jerusalem the Churches of Judea circumjacent might easily heare the report of it That he which persecuted us in times past These words are related here by Paul but are the words spoken by the Churches of Judea containing the report they had heard of Paul Paul before in this Chap. vers 13. saith to the Galatians that he had persecuted the Church of God and here he saith that the Churches of Judea had heard of him he which persecuted us yet between his saying and theirs there is no difference concerning the object of his persecution or the persons by him persecuted who in his saying and theirs are still the same because the Churches of Judea were the Churches of God for they were particular Churches of that universall Church which Paul in particular places persecuted in times past And very probable it is that some single persons either teachers or Members in those Churches of Judea were by Paul actually persecuted and forced from Jerusalem upon the Martyrdome of Stephen because the times past were not long past for it was but a matter of three yeares before And those Saints which then were not at Jerusalem were notwithstanding persecuted in that persecution for as when one member of the body suffereth all the members suffer with it so when any one part of the Church is persecuted all the faithfull who are the members thereof and Christ himselfe who is the head thereof is also persecuted for Christ complained that in that very persecution himselfe was persecuted see Act. 9.5 Now the Apostle inculcates the memory of his former persecution into the mindes of the Galatians thereby to maintaine their perswasion of him that so great a Zelot for the Law of Moses as therefore to persecute the Church of Christ had not cast off his patronage of the Law or layd aside his malice against the Gospel without just and weighty causes Now preacheth the Faith which once he destroyed The Faith i. e. the Doctrine of faith or the Gospel of Christ for so it is recorded of Paul that at Damascus he had preached Christ and in the name of the Lord Jesus Acts 9.20.27 For in Scripture Faith is often taken for the Motive whereby we believe and for the matter which we believe whether that matter be a single verity or the whole body of the Gospel See Gal. 3.2.5.23 and Ephes 4.5 Which once The Greeke is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. in times past for so it was translated in the words immediatly going before in reference to the persecution and seeing here is the same word in the same sense why should it not here have the same expression for where the elegancies in the Language of the holy Ghost may be fully expressed in our native language there is no reason we should decline them Hee destroyed The Greeke is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. wasted for so it was rendred before in this translation verse 13. and he wasted the Faith or the Doctrine of it by using all meanes either by himself or by his Friends to withdraw men from the profession of it and by labouring to being a great destruction upon them for therein consisteth the nature of wasting as was shewed before verse 13. And the words of this verse are serviceable to continue his argument q. d. The Christian Churches in Judea knew me not by face but only by heare-say yet they heard nothing how I learned the Gospel but only that I taught and preached it VERSE 24. Text. And they glorified God in mee Sense They. i. e. The Churches of Judea In mee i. e. In my behalfe for me or by reason of me Reason A Christian consequent of Devotion in the Churches of Judea to praise God for his mercy to his Church Comment AND they glorified God The Churches of Judea hearing that Paul preached the Faith did thereupon glorifie and praise God for it was an ancient custome among the people of God to give praise and thankes to God for any extraordinary worke of God See Mat. 9.8 and Mat. 15.31 and Luk. 7.16 and Acts 4.21 particularly upon the same of a sinners repentance or of any mans conversion to the faith especially if he had been a persecutor of it because such a conversion hath in it more then ordinary and is an immediate worke of God And such was Pauls conversion wherein the good grace of God was extreamly powerfull by drawing him from one extreame to another that is from being a Persecutor of the Faith not only to the state of a Beleever but beyond that state to become a Preacher of it In mee The Greeke is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. in my behalfe by reason or because of me for the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is here put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. because in which sense this phrase is an Hebraisme noting any kinde of causality especially that which is rationall and so it is used elsewhere See and compare John 13.31 32. and John 17.10 and 2. Cor. 12.9 and Ephes 3.13 The ground or reason why the Churches of Judea glorified God was because of Gods grace to Paul in converting him to the Faith and because of Gods grace to his Church by Pauls Preaching of the Faith The Contents of this First Chapter 1. Preface Wherein are contayned 1. Authour Paul an Apostle not of men neither by man but by Jesus Christ and God the Father verse 1. 2. Approvers All the brethren which are with me verse 2. 3. Direction Vnto the Churches of Galatia verse 2. 4. Salutation Grace bee to you and peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ who gave himselfe for our sins that c. vers 3.4 5. Devotion To God bee
glory for ever and ever Amen vers 5. 2. History Paul marvels that the Galatians are so soone removed from Christ who called them by his grace vers 6. 1. Because the Gospel wherto they were removed was not another but only there were some who troubled them and would pervert the Gospel of Christ vers 7. 2. Because though Paul himselfe or an Angel from heaven should preach any other Gospel then hee had preached to the Galatians he was to bee accursed ver 8.9 3. Because the matter which he therein perswaded was not man but God against whom he that shall seeke to please men cannot be the servant of Christ ver 10. 3. History The Gospel which Paul Preached was not humane or after man ver 11. 1. Because hee neither received nor was taught it by man ver 12. 2. Because he received and was taught it by the revelation of Jesus Christ ver eod 3. Because during his former conversation in the Jewish religion he excessively persecuted the Church of God and wasted it ver 13. 4. Because he prevayled for the Jewes religion above many his contemporaries among his owne nation being more exceedingly zealous for the ceremonies of Moses and the Jewish traditions ver 14. 5. Because it pleased God who designed him a separate Apostle from his mothers wombe and called him by his grace to reveale his sonne unto him that hee might preach among the Gentiles ver 15.16 4. History When Paul was called to preach Christ among the Gentiles he did not immediatly confer with flesh and bloud ver 16. 1. Because from Damascus where hee was called hee went not immediatly to Jerusalem to them who were Apostles before him ver 17. 2. Because immediatly hee went from Damascus into Arabia and from thence returned to Damascus v. eod 3. Because it was three yeares after he had preached the Gospel before he went to Jerusalem to see Peter with whom he abode but fifteene dayes and there saw no other Apostle save only James our Lords brother ver 18.19 4. Because he would take his oath before God that these things were true and that he lied not ver 20. 5. Because from Jerusalem hee came into the Regions of Syria and Cilicia for unto the Churches of Judea he was unknown by face but only they had heard of him that now he preached the fayth which before he wasted and they glorified God for him ver 21.22.23.24 GAL. CHAP. 2. VERSE 1. Text. Then fourteene yeares after I went up againe to Jerusalem with Barnabas and tooke Titus with mee also Sense Fourteene yeares after Viz. After my conversion Againe i. e. Besides my journy thither three yeares after my conversion Reason A prosecution of his former argument to prove the Divinity of his Ministery and Doctrine because in a solemne Synod or Assembly of the Apostles and Elders at Jerusalem whereat himselfe was present and wherein were made speciall Acts concerning the Ceremonies of the Law there was nothing added by the Apostles to the Doctrine which hee had taught nor any act done that declared his Doctrine in any one point either redundant or defective but rather both his Ministery and Doctrine received in that Synod a full approbation whereby hee would infer that he was inferiour to none of the Apostles Comment The tearme from these yeares are to be reckoned probably from Pauls conversion The eminency of Jerusalem Pauls several journies thither 1. To visite Peter 2. To carry almes 3. To call a Synod there concerning circumcision This last why mentioned and why Titus accompanied him THen foureteene yeares after The Greeke is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Literally foureteene years betweene or the space of fourteene interposed but the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is heere put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies after and is truely so rendred for so yee have it Mat. 26.61 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. After three dayes and Mar. 2.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. After some dayes and Act. 24.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. After many yeares But from whence or from what tearme of time these fourteene years are to bee computed whether from Pauls first conversion to the faith or from his former being at Jerusalem to visit Peter three yeares after his conversion which hee mentioned before cap. 1.18 it appeares not from Scripture neither is the knowledge thereof any way elementary or serviceable to the poynt heere prosecuted or to any other poynt elsewhere in Scripture heereby to bee illustrated Yet the greater probability of the two is that these yeares are to bee reckoned from Pauls conversion 1. Because Pauls conversion was a most memorable action especially unto Paul and fit to stand for an epocha unto him from whence hee had good cause to compute all the acts of his Ministery during his life for all epochaes are fixed at a time of some notable conversion in the World that from thence in the memory thereof future times may afterward bee computed 2. Because the yeares remaining betweene this journy to Jerusalem and his last thither when there hee was apprehended and afterward sent Prisoner to Rome will bee too few for those many actions and travells which by Luke are recorded of him especially if wee consider that of those few yeares hee was one and a halfe at Corinth and three at Ephesus See Act. 18.11 and Act. 20.31 Yet Paul heere mentions the space of time to bee fourteene yeares least his adversaries should quarrell at his words whereto all words of actions iterated and frequented are subject if by their severall times they bee not distinguished for by this space of fourteene yeares this journy to Jerusalem with Barnabas is distinguished from a former journy of his to Jerusalem with Barnabas which was before this and therefore lesse then foureteene yeares from his conversion See and compare Act. 11.30 and Act. 12.25 I went up againe to Jerusalem with Barnabas All travelling toward Jerusalem is called ascending or going up not for any locall altitude as if the City and Territory about it were a higher ground then other places but for the jurall eminency or jurisdiction of the Courts there seated consisting of eminent persons for Jerusalem was the Metrople of all the Jewes during the time of the Law and of all the Christians during the plantation of the Gospel and the time of the Apostles Unto Jerusalem Paul after his conversion made severall journies whereof this heere seemes the third 1. His first journey thither was from Damascus and therein either hee had no company at all or none that is named and specified in the Scripture and his businesse was only by way of visit to see Peter and that journy hee mentions in this Epistle cap. 1. vers 18. Because from thence he would have no man gather that hee went thither to learne from the Apostles that Doctrine which for the space of three yeares hee had already preached 2. His second journy thither
preaching among the Gentiles and they among the Jewes And this order wee concluded not originally from our selves but consequently and subordinatly to that former Ordinance of God whereby the Gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto mee as the Gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter as it is before vers 7. VERSE 10. Text. Onely they would that we should remember the poore the same which I also was forward to doe Sense Remember viz. To collect almes among the Gentiles The poore viz. Of the believing Jewes in Judea Reason An exception from his formal universall negation of adding nothing to him at Jerusalem excepting onely this that we should remember the poore of Judea Comment To remember put for taking care Ministers must be care full for the poore ONely they would that wee should remember the poore They would In the Greek there is no Verb expressed nor none supplied in the French translation but in the Italian it is supplied thus They admonished which word in our English apprehension is somewhat too high for equalls and fellowes doe not admonish or at least in this sense and therfore our English supply is more proper they would or requested Remember i. e. Be carefull viz. to make provision for the poor by collecting almes for them for to remember is often used both in the Scripture and in our vulgar speech for being carefull as contrarily to forget is used for be negligent The poore i. e. those poore Christian Jewes in Judea who believed the Gospel and were driven into poverty either by the fury of the persecution there or by the misery of the famine against they had formerly beene supplied by a collection at Antioch brought from thence to Jerusalem by Paul and Barnabas as was noted before q. d. All that which the Apostles at Jerusalem added there unto mee and Barnabas was onely this and yet this was no matter of Doctrine but of common Charity that wee should be mindfull and carefull of the poore among the believing Jewes who lived in Judea to collect almes for them among the believing Gentiles whose duty it was to minister to the Jewes in carnall things because they were made partakers of their spiritual things Rom. 15.27 And this was all our message from the Apostles to the Gentiles onely to collect almes among them and not to impose any legall ceremonies on them The same which I also was forward to doe The same which The Greeke is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Relative 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is here redundant according to the manner of the Hebrewes as it is elsewhere in divers places See Mat. 6.4 and Act. 10.38 and 1. Pet. 2.20 q. d. This care for the poore wee willingly undertooke and carefully executed the charge thereof not failing in any place where wee could make any advantage for a collection in their behalfe as bound to this office not so much by any obligation layd on us by the Apostles as by the Law of Charity And heereunto there needed no Memento unto me for I for my part endeavoured it before and faythfully continued the practice of it afterward See Rom. 15.25 26. and 1. Cor. 16 1. and 2. Cor. 8. per tot and 2. Cor. 9. per tot And I suppose that Barnabas also continued it for his part though of him I can averre nothing for certaine because he and I departed one from another at Antioch and exercised our Ministery among the Gentiles severall wayes for hee went toward Cyprus and I toward Syria Act. 15.39 VERSE 11. Text. But when Peter was come to Antioch I withstood him to the face because he was to be blamed Sense Withstood him i. e. Reproved him To the face i. e. Openly in a publick audience and before his face or in his presence To be blamed i. e. To be condemned Reason Another maine argument to assert his authority and his doctrine to be divine for having formerly declared his action at Jerusalem with the Apostles and therein shewed that he was no way inferiour to any of them but that the chiefest of them acknowledged him for their equall and fellow-Apostle hee now relates another action of his at Antioch where hee dealt with Peter as superiour unto him in reproving him publickly for a matter concerning the former Ceremonies and in shewing Peter his errour therein Whereby he would infer that he learned no point of doctrine from Peter but rather Peter was instructed by him Comment Peter at Antioch was opposed by Paul and justly blamed BVT when Peter was come to Antioch The time of this history of Peters comming to Antioch hath no certainty from the Scripture that I can finde yet the greatest probability is that it was after the Councell or Synod at Jerusalem concerning the acts whereof Paul hath treated hitherto because this is most agreeable to Pauls narration in recounting all his actions with the Apostles wherein hee seemes to follow the order and course of time according whereto they fell out for after the dissolution of the Councell at Jerusalem Paul and Barnabas immediately returned with Decrees unto Antioch where for a time they continued teaching and preaching the word of the Lord Act. 15.35 During this their continuance at Antioch very probable it seemes that Peter might come thither and then might bee the time of the action related heere betweene him and Paul because Barnabas who was also carried away with the dissimulation of Peter and other Jewes was then with Paul at Antioch after which time wee never finde them together for upon their next departure from Antioch which was not long after they finally departed one from another by reason of their dissenting about John their Minister as hath beene formerly noted And although Paul afterward came againe to Antioch and spent some time there as appeares Act. 18.22.23 Yet this action with Peter could not bee then because then Barnabas was not with him I withstood him to the face Withstood The Greeke is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Literally I resisted or withstood but the sense is I reproved and this appeares partly from the reason in the near words why hee withstood namely Because hee was to bee blamed For to withstand one to bee blamed is to reprove him partly from the speech wherewith hee withstood him which at vers 14. such the forme of a Reproofe and partly from the nature of Reproofe for all Reproofe is a verball resisting or withstanding but not contrarily so that the generall word withstood is heere put for the speciall reproved To the face The Greeke is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before his face face to face or in his presence for one of those wayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is elsewhere rendred in our last English Translation See Luke 2.31 and Act. 3.13 and Act. 25.16 and 2. Cor. 10.1 Yet this Reproofe was not private in the presence of Peter alone betweene him and Paul alone but publick in the presence also of many others as it will
after the Promise made to Abraham See and compare Gen. 12.2 and Gen. 15.5 6. and Gen. 17.10 and Act. 7.5 6 7 8. and Rom. 4.10 11. and Gal. 3.17 The persons called Jewes who enjoyed these Prerogatives of Rights and Lawes were of two sorts 1. Some were Jewes natively by nature nation or birth who lineally descended from Jacob and of what Tribe soever they were yet from the Tribe of Judah which was the Tribe Royall were called Jewes Thus the Galileans though they were not all of the tribe of Judah but of other tribes were Jewes by nature and Luke 7.3 are called Jewes So Sceva Act. 19.14 who was one of the chiefe Priests and therefore of the tribe of Levi is called a Jew And Paul himselfe Acts 22.3 who was of the tribe of Benjamin and borne at Tarsus in Cilicia calls himselfe a Jew 2. Others were Jewes factively by naturalization denization or ascription who descending from parents that were not Jewes by nature but Gentiles were by favour and grace admitted to bee partakers of the Rights Lawes and Religion of the Jewes as incorporated planted and grafted into the Jewish Nation whereto they were initiated by Circumcision Hence the Jewes by nature are called The naturall branches of the good olive tree whereinto the cions of the wild olive tree i. e. of the Gentiles are grafted contrary to nature Rom. 11.21 24. And these factive or endenized Jewes are commonly called Proselites as Mat. 23.15 Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for yee compasse sea and land to make one proselite i. e. a factive or endenized Jew And Acts 2.10 Strangers of Rome Jewes and proselites i. e. Iewes native and Iewes factive And Acts 13.43 Now when the Congregation was broken up many of the Jewes and religious proselites followed Paul and Barnabas i. e. Iewes native and factive Yet in one place they are called Those under the Law 1. Cor. 9.20 Vnto the Jewes I became as a Jew that I might gaine the Jewes to them that are under the Law as under the Law that I might gaine them that are under the Law i. e. the proselites or Iews factive For the Proselite being initiated by Circumcision became thereby a pertaker of all the Iewish Rights and also a subject to be under all their Lawes Hence sayth the Apostle Gal. 5.3 I testifie againe to every man that is circumcised that he is a debter to doe the whole Law Such a Proselite or Iew factive was Uriah the Hittite and Araunah the Iebusite and Nicholas the Deacon Acts 6.5 who was a Proselite of Antioch for these three and divers others were by Nation and nature Gentiles but by favour and Circumcision Iewes Now Paul in this verse useth the phrase Jewes by nature partly to distinguish them from Proselites who were Iewes by favour and partly to oppose them unto Idolaters who as it followes in the next words were Sinners of the Gentiles And not sinners of the Gentiles The Gentiles in opposition to the Jewes were in like manner of two sorts 1. Some were Worshippers who forsaking the way of Idolatry did worship the God of Israel and thereupon were admitted to sacrifice at the Temple and to assemble at the Synagogues where they heard the Lectures of the Law and the Prophets These were commonly called Strangers within the gates upright in heart fearers of God and devout men Yet because they were not and would not be Circumcised they retained the name of Gentiles and by the Law were accounted uncleane Persons and therefore no Jew would eat or converse with them neither might they come into the inner Court of the Temple but must worship in the outward Court which was therefore called the Court of the Gentiles Such a Worshipper was Naaman the Syrian 2 Kings 5.17 who professed that henceforth hee would offer neither burnt-offerings nor Sacrifice unto other gods but onely unto the Lord. Such the Centurion of Capernaum of whom the Jewes there gave this Testimony Luke 7.5 Hee loveth our Nation and he hath built us a Synagogue Such the Eunuch of Ethiopia Acts 8.27 Who came to Jerusalem for to worship Such Cornelius the Captaine at Cesarea Acts 10.2 Who was a devout man and one that feared God with all his house which gave much alms to the people and prayed to God alway Such a Gentile was the father of Timothy though his Mother were a Jewesse Acts 16.1 And such was Lydia the Purple-seller who heard Paul Preach in the Oratory of Philippi and Acts 16.14 is called a Worshipper of God Such were those devout men out of every Nation under Heaven Acts 2.5 who during the feast of Pentecost were dwelling or abiding for the present at Jerusalem And those of Antioch in Pisidia who hearing Paul preach in the Synagogue there Acts 13.42 besought that those words might be Preached to them the next Sabboth day And that great multitude of Thessalonica who belonged unto the Synagogue of the Jewes there and Acts 17.4 are called devout Greekes 2. Others of the Gentiles were Idolaters who worshipped Images and served the false Gods of the Nation where they lived and casting off all feare of the true God followed the sway of their fleshly lusts These to distinguish them from the former Gentiles who were Worshippers are here called Sinners of the Gentiles and in some places by way of eminency simply Sinners for so our Saviour calleth them Mat. 26.45 The Sonne of man is betrayed into the hands of Sinners i. e. into the hands of the Idolatrous Gentiles True it is that all the Gentiles of what sort soever are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the Lawlesse or those without the Law as 1 Cor. 9.21 To them that are without the Law as without the Law that I might gaine them that are without the Law i. e. the Gentiles who both transgressed opposed the Law Yet the Gentiles were not equally lawlesse or without the Law for the Idolaters who transgressed and opposed the whole Law both the Commandements in the two tables of the Law and the Ceremonies in the Book of the Law were more lawlesse more without the Law then the Worshippers who transgressed opposed only one part of the Law namely the Ceremonies but observed the ten Cōmandements in the two tables of the Law And all the Gentiles are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Sinners as in severall passages of the Evangelists where they are joyned with Publicans See one for all Luke 15.1 Then drew neare unto him all the Publicans and Sinners for to heare him i. e. Publicans and Gentiles Yet all the Gentiles were not equally Sinners for the Idolaters who crucified Christ and transgressed the Commandements and opposed the Ceremonies were more Sinners then the Worshippers who heard Christ and observed the Commandements and opposed only the Ceremonies whereto they would never submit neyther before nor after Christ Such Idolatrous Gentiles were generally all other Nations farre and neer living round about
but are made so by the Will and Testament of God And wee are adopted by his Will Ephes 1.5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himselfe according to the good pleasure of his Will i. e. of his Will and Testament whereto the like saying followeth afterward in the same Chapter vers 13. And wee are begotten by his Will James 1.18 Of his owne Will begat hee us with the word of truth i. e. by his owne Will and Testament Thus having premised the Meaning of the word Justified that it signifies the conveying of a present right to man that the Matter of that Right is a right of state or permanent condition wherein man resteth that the quality of that state is a spirituall franchise or alliance to become the friend son and heyre of God that the priviledges incident to that alliance are the future Remission of his sins the Resurrection of his body and Life everlasting that the degree of his right to these priviledges is a right of Institution or a present right to the future possession of them that the Maner how man hath this state is factively by a testamentary act of God We come now to the Means whereby man hath this state or to that fact of man whereby the fact of God is effected or to the Title whereby man receives and enters this state for on mans part there is required an Act as the Meanes or Title for his reception of this state and concerning this Means or Title was all the controversie between Paul and the false teachers of Galatia against whom hee layes downe this Negative that It is not by the works of the Law as it followeth in the next words Text. Not by the workes of the Law The wrong title to the former state The particle By argues a Cause or Meanes The Nature of a Title exemplified in Lysias and in Paul and of speciall consideration 3. Maine heads of the Law 3. Judgements Two other heads of the Law It was Gods Testament and his Covenant Workes meane good workes Man worketh and the Law worketh in Condemning and Justifying conservantly but not procreantly neither doe mans works so The Law hath two senses 1. The History or letter of it which was well understood and so the Promises were terrene the Precepts were childish as their Moralities and much more their Ceremonies The workes were servile 2. The mystery or spirit of it which was not fully understood And so the Promises were heavenly the Precepts were virile and manly The works to be Cordial Liberall and Perfect No works justifie Procreantly to the heavenly promises nor to the earthly The wrong or false title of man to his spirituall right of franchise and alliance with God that hee hath not that state by the works of the Law For in any right whatsoever whether it be a Right of state of power of honour or of profit a man must have a speciall regard to his Title especially in a Right of this moment which is divine and concernes everlasting blessednesse The particle By doth imply a Meanes and thereby doth intimate unto man that unlesse on his part some Meanes be used or some Act done for his reception of this spirituall and divine state the testamentary acts of God in predestinating or instituting him thereto may become ineffectuall as ineffectuall they must needs become unto all who despise refuse or reject that state as manifest it is that too many have done both of Jewes and Gentiles for all testamentary acts doe leave unto the party instituted a liberty to accept or refuse the Legacy therein devised to him because a Testament carrieth not the force of a Law to constrayne and much lesse of fate to necessitate but passeth in the forme of grace to offer and tender the good will of the Testator And the Meanes heere understood is the meanes acquisitive or cause procreant whereby a right is first acquired initiated commenced entred and had which meanes or cause is commonly called a Title For a Title is that cause or formality whereby a mans right is declared or proved to be true and just whereby it is assured unto the party that hath it and is defended against any that shall impugne it or lay a clayme to dispossesse the possessor of it For in case another man should make a doubt of my right whatsoever it be or question me whether I have and hold it justly if thereupon I shall alleadge unto him the Meanes acquisitive or cause procreant whereby I first acquired entred and had that my right as that I had it by my Birth in inheriting it or by my Worke in earning it or by my Money in buying it or by my Acceptance in receiving the gift of it then such meanes or cause being justly approoved is my Title whereby I have that right and whereby I defend my having of it Lysias the Colonell and Governour of the Temple at Jerusalem had a right of freedome to the City of Rome and his title to that state was by his money for saith he Act. 22.28 with a great summe obtayned I this freedome And Paul his prisoner had the same right of freedome to the very same City but Pauls right came not to him by the same title for when Lysias made a doubt of Pauls freedome and questioned him about it Paul in the defence of his right alleadged his title that it was by Birth and sayd I was free borne In mans Justification therefore wee are to consider his title whereby he hath his right of spirituall State in his divine franchise and alliance with God whereby procreantly and acquisitively the reception of that state is initiated commenced or begun in him But that his title is not by Birth was proved before in the Maner how man hath this state namely not natively in being borne in it but factively in being made to have it and that fact on Gods part was Gods testamentary act in Predestinating or devising it unto man It remaineth therefore that mans title on mans part must bee by some act of his owne whereof the Apostle determineth heere that it is not by the works of the Law The Law was the whole body of those orders and rules for life which God by the meanes of Moses inacted in the Wildernesse for the people of Israel contayning three maine heads 1. Promises of divers blessings which God freely conferred upon that Nation as his owne peculiar people 2. Precepts of divers duties which the people on their part were to performe in respect of those promises of which precepts some were Moralities contayning duties naturall whereto the light of nature binds towards God and man as the ten Commandements of the Decalogue and others of their nature others were Ceremonies imposing duties positive which had little ground in nature but only in Gods pleasure of these the principall was Circumcision which though it were long before inacted in the time of Abraham yet
because after long disuse it was againe revived by Moses is called by Christ a Law of Moses Joh. 7.23 3. Judgements of divers curses penalties and punishments which in respect of those precepts were to be inflicted on the transgressours of them The word Law therefore is in respect of these three heads variously taken sometime strictly for some one of them singly sometime largely for two of them together sometime amply for all three and sometime extraordinarily eyther for the five Bookes of Moses or for all the Historicall Bookes of the old Testament as they are opposed to the Psalmes and the Prophets But among these varieties which of the senses ought to be taken in this or that place of Scripture must bee collected from the words annexed In this place heer it seemes to signifie strictly for that head which containes the precepts yet with some reflection also upon the promises Another distribution of the Law is into the Tables of the Law contayning the Decalogue or ten Commandements which were kept in the Arke and into the booke of the Law comprising all the residue which was kept by the High Priest Yet this Law in respect of the promises therein conveyed was also the Testament of God partly because those promises were workes of his kindnesse conferred upon the Israelites by way of legacies or blessings but chiefly because according to the nature of a Testament they were a just sentence of Gods will touching what he would have done after death yet not after his owne death because God is necessarily immortall and ever-living but after the death of some other creature who being mortall should die in his stead to confirme and establish his Will because all Testaments are established by death And although among men that establishment be alwayes made by the death of the Testator yet Gods Testament being a divine Will had therefore this prerogative that it might be established by the death of some other in his stead and thereupon it was actually established by the death and bloud of Calves and Goats sprinkled on the Booke of the Law and on the people Compare Exod. 24.5.6.7.8 with Heb. 9.19.20 In which respect the Law hath not only the definition but also the appellation of a Testament for hence 2. Cor. 3.14 it is called the old Testament and Heb. 9.18 the first Testament Againe the Law in respect of the other two heads viz. of the Precepts and the Judgements was also the Covenant of God because unto Gods Will for the observance of those precepts and judgements there was an agreement of the peoples will to observe them for to this purpose they professe their agreement Exod. 19.8 All that the Lord hath spoken we will doe And againe Exod. 24.7 All that the Lord hath sayd will we doe and be obedient And an agreement of Wills upon a just cause makes up the nature of a Covenant Yet the Law hath also the name of Gods Covenant most frequently in Scripture and the Arke which kept the Tables of the Law is commonly called the Arke of the Covenant and the Booke of the Law kept by the Priest is also called the Booke of the Covenant For this old and first Testament and Covenant of the Law was but the crayon or first draught of Gods Will to stand in force awhile untill the time of Reformation by his New and last Testament which for a distinction from the Old is named the Gospel and the Old to distinguish it from the New is called the Law By workes wee are to understand good workes because evill workes are not workes of the Law but against the Law And good workes taken generally and absolutely by themselves are of a larger extent then workes of the Law whereunto workes are heere restrained For before the Law of Moses was inacted those of the Patriarks who walked in a continuall obedience of God doing all those duties which by the light of nature or by divine Revelation they knew would bee acceptable and pleasing to him had good workes as had Abel Enoch and Noah And now since that Law is expired they who neglecting the Ceremonies thereof walke according to the Precepts of the Gospel persevering in the duties thereof have good workes and may bee rich in good workes The workes therefore of the Law doe implye two sorts of workes flowing from two severall Agents which working reciprocally one upon another are both heere excluded from Justifying or making free One sort is all workes or legall acts of man done by man in obedience to the Precepts of the Law The other sort is all workes or legitimate acts of the Law done by the Promises of the Law in recompence of mans obedience to the Precepts For as man hath his workes upon the Law to transgresse or obey it So reciprocally the Law hath her workes and effects upon man to condemne or justifie him because the Law is not onely a rule whereby man workes but is also a kinde of Ruler and Actor to worke upon man according to his workes When therefore the worke of man is sinne a worke contrary to the Precept of the Law then the worke of the Law is to Condemne and punish him for his worke hence saith Paul Rom. 4.15 The Law worketh wrath i. e. It is a worke or effect of the Law to punish the worke of sinne And when the worke of man is uprightnesse a worke according to the Precept of the Law then the work of the Law is to Justifie him conservantly by continuing and maintaining that right of freedome unto him which hee had before hence saith the Law Levit. 18.5 Yee shall therefore keepe my statutes and my judgements which if a man doe hee shall live in them i. e. Hee shall thereby continue and prolong his life which hee enjoyed before secure from any violent death to bee inflicted by those Statutes and Judgements and againe Ezech. 18.9 Hee that hath walked in my Statutes and hath kept my Judgements to deale truely hee is just hee shall surely live i. e. Hee is thereby upright and by his uprightnes hee shall continue maintaine and prolong his life which hee had before on earth But when againe the worke of man is uprightnesse according to the Precepts of Law then for sound Doctrine wee must lay downe this Negative It is not the worke of the Law to justifie man procreantly to create constitute or make unto him any new right which hee had not before to bee acquired initiated and had by title of his uprightnesse or weighing the workes in the other skale let them bee referred unto man and then though the Negative vary in words yet the truth will bee the same It is not the worke or effect of mans legall workes to justifie man procreantly to create unto him the right of divine freedome by the title of his uprightnesse Thus wee have the meaning of the Apostles Negative concerning Justification by the workes of the Law but hee writing to the
Believing Jewes who knew the Law and were well acquainted with the tearmes and phrases of those times seemes very concise in his expressions sparing and couching his words as his maner is that unto them he might not seeme tedious though thereby unto us of these times hee becomes in many poynts obscure But for our further and clearer understanding of the Apostles Negative that a man is not justified by the works of the Law we are to observe that of the Law there is made in Scripture a two fold sense I say not a two fold sense of every part of the Scripture but of that part which is here called the Law whereat we are the lesse to marvell because in a manner there is the like difference of sense in the Lawes that are made by man for the remedy whereof in all well ordered States the Courts of Equity are erected The first sense of Gods Law is the History saying writing or as Paul calls it Rom. 2.29 and Rom. 7.6 and 2. Cor. 3.6 the letter of the Law according to the proper signification and vulgar acception of those words and clauses wherewith the Law was first published spoken or written This sense of the letter was from the very beginning of the Law intelligible unto all the Israelites of ordinary discretion apprehended of all and acknowledged of all throughout all the passages of the Law excepting onely those ambiguities and doubts which fell out afterward in poynt of practice wherein the Priest or the Judge was to pronounce or declare that sense which they conceived For in vaine are those Lawes which carry not with them a literall sense because when that sense is not understood by the people on whom such Lawes are imposed the Lawes themselves can neither bee approved nor obeyed According to this sense of the letter the Promises of the Law were for terrene and temporall blessings consisting of a long and happy life abounding with plenty of all earthly things resting under the peculiar protection of God in peace and safety secured from the violences and injuries either of a Forraigne Enemy or of a Domestick Warre as any man may easily perceive who shall consult Levit. cap. 26. and Deut. cap. 28. and shall thence consider the large Declarations there expressed concerning the Legall Promises Yea the Originall Promises made unto Abraham long before the time of the Law were for the letter of them terrene and carnall namely the donation of the Land of Canaan for an Inheritance to him and his Heires for ever and a legitimate issue of his owne body that should multiply into a Nation to possesse it Contrarily the Judgements Penalties or Curses of the Law were for the letter quite contrary to the former blessings for their ordinary Penalties to bee executed by the Ruler upon Offendors were either a violent and untimely death by hanging burning stoning c. or corporall Corrections by Roddes and Whippes but their extraordinary Judgements inflicted on them by the hand of God when the Rulers hand was corrupt or remisse were all the miserable calamities of a wretched life by Warre Famine Plague and Diseases with divers other distresses which crossed the happynesse of this life as it plainely appeares in the two forecited Chapters The Precepts of the Law for the letter were terrene and carnall commandements proportioned to the nature of the Promises so fitted and suited to the rudenesse and childishnesse of the Nation that they did not much exceed the quality of humane Lawes and therefore afterward in this Epistle cap. 4. vers 3.9 they will bee called beggerly rudiments and elements of the world Their Moralities or morall Precepts of the Decalogue were the least and lowest commandements that are to bee found in the Law of Nature or rather were restraints from acts unnaturall ordained for men not of any good but of a bad and lewd condition for the tables of the Law were either barres from impiety to keepe men from being Atheists Idolaters perjurious and prophane or they were bridles from inhumanity to curbe men from being disobedient to Parents from being Murderers and Adulterers from being Thieves Lyars and Deceivers hence it is sayd 1. Tim. 1.9 The Law is not made for a righteous man but for the lawlesse and disobedient for the ungodly and for sinners for unholy and prophane for murderers of Fathers and murderers of Mothers for manslayers for whoremongers for them that defile themselves with mankinde for men-stealers for lyars for perjured persons c. Yea their generall or capitall Moralities of Loving God with all their heart and of loving their neighbour as themselves which were the great Commandements of their Law are to bee taken in a construction accommodate and agreeable to the speciall Precepts of the Decalogue for those two generalls containe in them no more then all these specialls joyntly together Their Ceremonies were odious Institutes or Statutes positive so numerous chargeable and troublesome that they were like yokes on their necks and burdens on their shoulders and are in Scripture so called for they were all carnall Ordinances or Lawes upon the flesh serving either for carnall distinction to difference them from other Nations or for carnall oblations in sacrificing the flesh and blood of Beasts or for carnall purifications in washing their owne flesh and their cloaths Insomuch that the Priests of the Law though their Function were glorious yet compared to the Ministers of the Gospel whose Function is more glorious seemed but a kinde of Butchers Cookes and Laundresses Lastly the workes of the Law done in duty to the Precepts thereof were for the Letter externall and servile by a kinde of eye-service performed out of feare under the spirit of bondage Yea the best of their workes as their Moralityes were not really workes but properly not-workes as not to have many gods not to worship images not to be forsworne not to worke on the Sabbath not to murther not steale not lye not defraud for all these and the like were meere Innocencies or abstinencies from wickednesse which make but a negative and beggarly holinesse As for any positive holinesse they had little or none for their Priests and Levites who went for the holiest persons amongst them untill afterward the Pharisees by an Hypocriticall holinesse exceeded them in the opinion of the people were acquainted with no workes of kindnes or mercy though they met with a man in extream distresse by thieves stripped wounded and halfe dead as Christ discovers them in the parable of the good Samaritan Luke 10.30 c. And yet their workes how poore soever had a large abatement or allowance not onely of all errours and frailties but of some willfull trespasses for which God in his mercy granted the legall favours of Expiation by certaine sin-Offerings and trespas-Offerings which remitted onely temporall penalties and mitigated besides the rigour of the Law in exacting of those workes The second sense of the Law is the mystery minde meaning or as Paul
calls it Rom. 2.29 and Rom. 7.6 and 2. Cor. 3.6 the spirit of the Law according to the tacit intent true meaning and purpose of the Law-giver for times and things future above and beyond the common construction which the words and clauses of the Law afford This mysticall sense for the spirit of the Law was not understood at least not plainly and fully by the people of Israel to whom the Law was given neither could it be understood of any unlesse God revealed it from Heaven in a way extraordinary as privately was done in some measure unto some speciall persons but publickly it was never revealed untill it was Preached and published by Christ who was the first that did away the vaile of the Law and brought to light that true sense and minde of the Law whereof the former sense which even unto this day 2. Cor. 3.15 is a vaile upon the heart of the Jew was a figure and a shadow in foreshewing some representment of those things which should have a future existence under the new covenant which is little else but the new and true sense of the old For according to this sense of the spirit the Promises of the Law were to be Celestiall and eternall blessings in the Kingdome of Heaven whereof the principall and finall is a divine holinesse like that of the Angels pure and perfect without any spot or staine of sin and the accessories to that blessed state in Heaven are eternall life eternall rest eternall joy and eternall glory in the eternall company of eternall persons The judgements penalties or curses of the Law for the spirit of it were to be infernall and eternall death with all the losses and miseries thereto incident quite contrary to the former blessings The Precepts of the Law for the spirit of it were to be all Moralities for the legall moralities and all the ceremonies excepting onely those which were especiall figures of Christ were to be refined and exalted into the evangelicall moralities of poorenesse of spirit purenesse of heart mourning meekenesse hunger and thirst after righteousnes mercifulnes peaceablenes and gladnes under persecution for none of all these are Counsels or advises left unto mans choyse to be done or not done but all of them are Precepts or commands injoyned by Christ who thereupon assureth heavenly blessednes Mat. 5.3 And unto all these the generall or capitall morality is the new Commandement of Love refined also and exalted above and beyond the legall love yea above and beyond that love which moves and workes by the Law of nature as to love mine enemies to blesse them that curse me to benefit them that hate me to pray for them that despite me and persecute me to lay downe my life for my Brother and therefore much more for my heavenly Father whensoever a just cause shall require it Lastly the workes of the Law for the spirit of it were to be Cordiall wrought inwardly in and upon my heart by Circumcising of my heart by Sacrificing of my heart by Expiating of my heart in cutting killing and cleansing away the lusts motions and affections of sin And the workes were to be Liberall done in the free and noble way of love answerable to that love and kindnes which appeareth in God in condescending to this divine alliance of being my heavenly Father and of promising me an heavenly Inheritance and answerable to that love and duty which is due from me who am made the son of God and his heyre to eternall blessednes And finally the works were to be Perfect so exact and compleat as to performe an universall and perpetuall obedience to every precept not transgressing any one at any time so sinlesse and blamelesse that none of them should need any pardon or forgivenesse so upright and holy in the sight of God as to merit and deserve those divine and heavenly blessings as their proper and due wages The full meaning therefore of the Apostles Negative in this verse is this A man is not justified by any workes whatsoever no not by the spirituall workes of the Law i. e. his Moralities or morall workes by poorenes of spirit meekenes purenes of heart meeknes mercifulnes c. being measured by the spirituall sense of Gods Law are not cordiall liberall and perfect enough to make him a title whereby to acquire and have a true right of divine alliance with God and of the heavenly Inheritance consequent to that state This Negative the Apostle proves in this Chapter by three severall arguments which are not to be here anticipated but shall be specified in their due places in all which he mentions workes with restraint of them to the Law but his arguments hold against works in generall and in his Epistle to the Romans he handles the very same Doctrine of workes in generall without any restraint of them to the Law proving it there by the same arguments alleaged heere yet because there he produceth two arguments which here are omitted I shall therefore mention those two and but onely mention them One is Rom. 3.27 and the same is also alleaged Ephes 2.9 If mans title or cause procreant whereby he acquireth or hath a right of divine alliance and inheritance with God come by his owne workes then all boasting on mans part cannot be excluded for man doth naturally boast of his works particularly of such workes whereby he acquires some great alliance and inheritance especially of such as would make him a divine alliance to be the son and heire of God The other is Rom. 4.4 If mans title c. be by his workes then by the Law of equity heavenly blessednes becomes a debt and is due unto him as his wages which he hath earned by his worke Now these two respects that man should be able either to boast of his blessednes or to earne it are both derogatory to the love grace mercy and kindnes of God for where is Gods grace and his kindnes when either I can boast of my earnings or he is drawne to pay his debt But concerning the literall workes of the Law there may hereupon be inferred these two consequences 1. That the literall workes of the Law are no title whereby a man is justified procreantly or acquisitively to the spirituall promises thereof For if the spirituall workes which are farre more sublime and more pleasing to God make man no title to the spirituall promises as was proved before much lesse can the literall workes doe it which are farre lesse 2. That the literall workes of the Law were no title whereby the Israelites were acquisitively justified to the temporall promises thereof For when God gave them the Land of Canaan to possesse it hee utterly disclaymes their workes and their uprightnes from being any title whereby they acquired their right of possession Deut. 9.5 Not for thy righteousnesse or for the uprightnesse of thy heart doest thou goe to possesse their Land but for the wickednesse of these Nations the
Lord thy God doth drive them out before thee and that he may performe the word which the Lord sware unto thy fathers Abraham Isaac and Jacob. The right therefore which the Israelites had to enter that Land proceeded not from their workes but descended from that right which was before in their fathers Nay Abraham himselfe to whom God gave the originall right to that Land and by whose right the Israelites possessed it had not his title to that right by vertue of the literall worke of Circumcision for manifest it is he had that right before his Circumcision Rom. 4.11 and he received the signe of Circumcision as a seale of the righteousnesse of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised i. e. As a seale of the right or title which he had by faith for faith is the right title whereby a man is justified as will appeare in the words following Text. But by the faith The right title to the former state to be understood Exclusively The particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Faith needs not be defined Neither can it be defined Yet it may be designed a wayes 1 An high esteem of God is faith exemplified in the Ninevites and the Devils 2. An acceptance of Gods promise is faith Explicated the Nature of Gods Promise and of his Precept and illustrated 3 wayes 1 From the common definition of it 2 From the ConcurreÌ„ce of it to a Promise 3. From Examples in the Old Testament and in the New Faith is a Passive act of Receiveing and Embracing in an easie and noble maner Yet faith hath mighty effects yet only jurally and of grace and they are chiefly 4. 1 It enters Gods Covenant of grace that why so called and how it differs from that of works 2 It assures Gods promise for the possession of it against all difficulties exemplified in Abraham Amen what it signifies 3 〈◊〉 obligeâ—â—â—oth parties 1. God who bindes himselfe by his Promise and by his Oath 2. The Faithfull who is bound by his Acceptance which makes a Contract and by his Baptisme 4. It justifies the faithfull as his Title exemplified in the Old Testament and in the New The faithful are heires of God The second assertion for the Affirmative touching the doctrine of Justification wherein is declared the true and right title whereby a man is justified i. e. whereby procreantly and acquisitively he is made to have a right of divine alliance to bee the son and heire of God namely that this title is by Faith because faith is the cause efficient procreant or meanes acquisitive whereby the right of this state is first acquired initiated commenced or had for what person soever whatsoever act or whatsoever thing is eyther a cause or a meanes of mans Justifying by such person act or thing a man is sayd to be justified and because faith is that act of man therefore a man is justified by faith And this Affirmative amounts to an Exclusive That a man is justified by faith only to exclude and debarre from Justifying all those acts of man which before were called the workes of the Law unto which faith is heer opposed For although the Schoolmen in their Arguments call Faith a Worke and from thence would inferre that a man justified by faith is consequently justified by workes yet the Apostle in his arguments will not endure that faith should be a worke but makes them as contrary in Divinity though both be acts of man as fire and water are in Philosophy though both bee elements of the world Which God continuing his light unto us shall be further made evident in our following Exposition of this clause The particle But hath in the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is commonly a word of excepting and signifies unlesse and thereupon to that sense it is generally rendred by the Romish Translators as if the meaning of the Apostle were that A man is not justified by the workes of the Law unlesse to such workes hee adde his faith in Christ. But this cannot bee the meaning in this place for two reasons 1. Because the Apostle argues against this assertion and produceth severall reasons to overthrow it all which were inconclusive by admitting of that meaning 2. Because such a sense would have made no controversie betweene Paul and the false Teachers of Galatia whom hee heere opposeth but would have beene very pleasing unto them and have sided with their opinion For they maintained not that a man should forsake his faith in Christ but that unto his workes of the Law he should adde his faith in Christ and bee justified by virtue of both together joyntly Wherefore the Greeke particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not in this place signifie exceptively but adversatively and is put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies But as it doth in many other passages of the New Testament and is so translated See Mat. 12.4 and John 5.19 and 1. Cor. 7.17 and Revel 9.4 In all which plaplaces and more the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth signifie and is Englished But. There is no more necessity of defining Faith which unto mans Right of alliance with God is his right title then there was before of defining workes which were the wrong title For mans Justification is commonly in Scripture referred disjunctively to one of these three titles that it is either by Birth or by Workes or by Faith and the Scripture doth cleerely disclaime the two former titles by Birth and Workes to inferre the latter by Faith The title by Birth is disclaimed Rom. 9.6.7.8 For they are not all Israel which are of Israel neither because they are the seede of Abraham are they all children but in Isaac shall thy seede bee called i. e. They which are the children of the flesh these are not the children of God but the children of the Promise are counted for the seede And the title by Workes is excluded Rom. 3.19.20 Now wee know that what things soever the Law saith it saith to them who are under the Law that every mouth may bee stopped and all the World may become guilty before God therefore by the deedes of the Law there shall no flesh bee justified in his sight for by the Law is the knowledge of sinne And therefore according to that right reasoning which is framed in a disjunction the conclusion must needes inferre the remaining title by faith for so the Apostle concludes Rom. 3.28 Therefore wee conclude that a man is justified by faith As therefore there needes no definition to open the nature of Birth and Workes because those things are sufficiently knowne of themselves and therefore all Writers passe them over undefined So there needes no definition to declare the nature of Faith Because Faith is either manifest enough of it selfe or sufficiently poynted out by the contradistinction of it as it stands opposed to Birth and Workes for things contradistinct and opposite are or should bee equally knowne Neither is there possibility
him both Jewes and Gentiles have an accesse by one spirit unto the Father and 1. Pet. 1.21 By Christ wee doe believe in God that our faith and hope in Christ might bee faith and hope in God Hence Christ saith that our faith in him is not faith in him John 12.44 Hee that believeth on mee believeth not on me but on him that sent mee i. e. Hee believeth not on mee ultimately and finally but his faith is carryed through and beyond mee to determine and end finally in him that sent me 2. It is called the faith of Christ because Christ is the Authour or Beginner of it who worketh it in us who by his publishing and preaching of Gods promises doth invite call and draw us to that acceptance of them which is our faith For some may peradventure say how shall a man know whether the promises of the Gospel come from God and whether the beetle Will and Testament of God seeing many things are imposed on the World for the will of God which either are not his will or are not sufficiently declared and proved to bee his will Unto this query the answer is That Christ hath abundantly made full faith unto the World both of his person that hee was the Sonne of God and of his Message that it was the Will and Testament of God and consequently on his part doth sufficiently worke in us that faith whereby wee accept the Legacies or Promises therein contained and devised unto us And Christ was the Founder or Beginner of this faith who first made it unto the World For that faith which is wrought in us by reading those Evangelists and Apostles who have written the Gospel or by hearing those Ministers who preach the Gospel is but a derivation and propagation of that faith which was originally and primitively taught by Christ From whom the Apostles and all the Ministers of the Gospel since succeeding have their Commission and Authority to teach it and unto whom they are Witnesses to attest that truth which was first testified by Christ as the first person that made faith of it And Christ hath made faith of Gods last Will and Testament by two Acts. 1. By Declaring Gods Will. The last Will and Testament of God was decreed or determined long since even from the foundation of the World But during many Ages and Generations it was but a Mystery namely a Will sealed up concealed and kept secret For hence it is called Gods secret Will the purpose and counsell of his Will and hence the Apostle calls it Col. 1.26 The Mystery which hath beene hidden from Ages and from Generations Knowne it was in generall that there was such a Will for the Being of it was witnessed by the Law and by the Prophets Yet the contents of it in particular were not knowne But in the last Age of the World God nuncupated his Will unto Christ by expressing unto him particularly the decree purpose or counsell thereof which in former Ages had beene so long concealed And Christ by speciall Commission from his Father sent into the World revealed published declared and made knowne that Will to worke in us our faith of it For first hee made it knowne unto his Apostles John 15.15 All things that I have heard of my Father have I made knowne unto you And againe John 17.8 I have given unto them the words which thou gavest mee and they have received them and have knowne surely that I came out from thee and they have believed that thou didst send mee And afterward hee commanded his Apostles to make the same Will knowne to all Nations for the obedience of faith Rom. 16.25 Now to him that is of power to establish you according to my Gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the Revelation of the Mystery which was kept secret since the World began but now is made manifest and by the Scriptures and by the Prophets according to the commandement of the everlasting God made knowne to all Nations for the obedience of faith And againe Ephes 1.9 Having made knowne unto us the Mystery of his Will according to his good pleasure which hee hath purposed in himselfe 2. The second Act whereby Christ makes faith of Gods Will is by Proving it for as hee was the Publisher of that Will to declare the matter of it So hee was the Probator to certifie the verity of it that it was the true whole and last Will of God All which hee hath proved so fully that never any Will in the World whether Will of man or the first Will of God had such a probation for thereof Christ hath made faith five wayes 1. By his Witnesses For hee had the Testimony of John Baptist who John 1.6.7 was sent from God and came for a witnesse to beare witnesse of the Light that all men through him might believe And John witnessed of him John 1.29 that hee was the Lambe of God which taketh away the sinne of the World And heereof John was not an eare-witnesse who heard it from others but an eye-witnesse who John 1.31 saw the spirit descending from Heaven like a Dove and it abode upon him And Christ had the Testimony of God the Father who by a voice from Heaven witnessed of him at his Baptisme saying Mat. 3.17 This is my beloved Sonne in whom I am well pleased And his Father witnessed of him againe at his transfiguration on the Mount saying Mat. 17.5 This is my beloved sonne in whom I am well pleased heare yee him Hence saith Christ John 5.36 I have greater witnesse then that of John for the Father himselfe who hath sent mee hath borne witnesse of mee Now if wee receive the witnesse of men for the proofe of mens Wils and Testaments as commonly wee doe much greater is the witnesse of God for the proofe of Gods Will. And if at the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall bee established Much more shall a Will bee established when one of the Witnesses is God himselfe Hence saith the Apostle 1. John 5.10 Hee that believeth not God heerein hath made him a Lyar because hee believeth not the Record that God gave of his Son 2. By his Miracles The signes and wonders which Christ wrought were not bare signes but full proofes to make faith that his message was from God For he rebuked the windes and the Sea from a great tempest into a great calme hee cast out Divels from the possessed and they obeyed his command hee cured the sicke of diseases incurable and hee raysed the dead who had lyen in the grave Now if two or three miracles of Moses made faith of his message as they did for Exod. 4.30 When he did them in the sight of the people the people beleeved much more the many marvellous and mighty workes of Christ are of power to produce faith in Christ Because they were so incomparable that by the confession of multitudes Mat. 9.33 the like had never
Gods act before the world began Tit. 1.2 God that cannot lye promised us eternall life before the world began And the Testament wherein these promises are predestinated or devised unto us is the Will and Testament of God for wee are made the sonnes of God not by Birth but by Will Yet not by mans Will but by Gods Will John 1.13 Which were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God But the Ministeriall Person who doth justifie us is Christ For hee also by our faith in him doth give us our present right to our future blessednesse Hence saith the Prophet Esay 53.11 By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many and answerably heereunto the Apostle saith Rom. 5.19 By the obedience of Christ shall many bee made righteous i. e. many shall bee justified And Acts 13.39 By Christ all that believe are justified from all things from which yee could not bee justified by the Law of Moses and according to the Apostles mind in this Epistle we may truely adde the opposite tearme of Justification and affirme that by Christ all that believe are justified unto all things unto which they could not bee justified by the Law of Moses For heare what Christ himselfe saith John 3.36 Hee that believeth on the Sonne hath everlasting life i. e. is justified unto everlasting life for a Believer upon the act of his beliefe hath not everlasting life actually but jurally i. e. hee hath a present right to the future possession of it which is the nature of Justifying and heare how his beloved Disciple seconds that saying 1. John 5.12 Hee that hath the Sonne hath life i. e. hath a present right to the future possession of it or which is all one is justified unto it And againe John 1.12 As many as received him to them gave hee power to become the Sons of God i. e. Christ did justifie them by adopting them or by giving them a present right to become the sons of God for all adopting is Justifying but not contrarily because adoption is but one kinde and the noblest kinde of Justification Yet this act of Christ in Justifying us is but ministeriall unto God for God is the Authour or principall person in our Justifying and Christ is the Mediatour or Minister by or through whom God doth justifie us Unto us our Justifying is free because wee use no meanes for it But God useth a meanes for it and that meanes is through Christ Rom. 3.24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ And eternall life is the gift of God but that gift is handed unto us through Jesus Christ Rom. 6.23 but the gift of God is eternall life through Jesus Christ our Lord. The Promises whereto wee are justified shew the exceeding riches of Gods grace and kindenesse But his grace and kindenesse towards us is through Jesus Christ Ephes 2.7 That in the Ages to come hee might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindenesse towards us through Jesus Christ And God hath appoynted us to obtaine salvation but wee must obtaine it through our Lord Jesus Christ 1. Thess 5.9 For God hath not appoynted us to wrath but to obtaine salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ Hence Christ saith of his Doctrin John 7.16 My Doctrine is not mine but his that sent mee i. e. The Doctrine hee taught was his Fathers principally for the framing of it and his Ministerially for the teaching of it And hee saith of his Actions John 6.38 I came downe from Heaven not to doe mine owne will but the will of him that sent mee i. e. The will hee did was principally his Fathers because it was his Fathers command but Ministerially it was his will because hee was to execute it And hee saith of himselfe Mat. 20.28 The Sonne of man came not to bee ministered unto but to minister And the Apostle saith of him Rom. 15.8 Now I say that Jesus Christ was a Minister of the Circumcision for the truth of God Hence also his Mediatorship of the New Testament is called his Ministery Heb. 8.6 But now hath hee obtained a more excellent Ministery by how much also hee is the Mediatour of a better Testament established upon better Promises And the Ministeriall Acts whereby Christ doth justifie us are chiefely two 1. By confirming Gods Will and Testament thereby to establish and settle upon us our present right or interest to the Legacies or Promises thereof Upon the act of our faith in accepting the promises our present right to the blessings promised becomes firme and sure for it is the nature of faith to put a fiat to the promises accepted by making them firme and sure But in a matter of such moment as is an inheritance to Heaven it is fit that something more should bee done on the promisers part to make the promise thereof more firme and more sure by confirming and assuring it For a Promise may by the Promiser bee revoked and voyded untill by him it bee confirmed But being once by him confirmed it becomes irrevocable and unchangeable because his act of Confirmation doth defeat and extinguish in him all power to revoke it And those promises which in a Will or Testament are framed into Legacies whatsoever the faith of the Legatary bee to accept them are of no force at all untill the Testament bee confirmed for untill a confirmation of it it is alwayes in the power of the Testator to alter it at his pleasure Now the person who makes this confirmation of Gods Testament and of the promises therein devised is Jesus Christ for of him the Prophet foretells it Dan. 9.27 And hee shall confirme the Covenant with many for one Weeke or in the beginning of his last Weeke And the Apostle testifies Rom. 15.8 That Jesus Christ was a Minister for the truth of God on purpose to confirme the promises made unto the Fathers And the Meanes whereby Christ confirmes Gods Will and Testament is by his death because all wills and testaments are confirmed by death as at the last verse of this Chapter shall more largely bee declared The second act whereby Christ is ministeriall to God in our Justifying that it may take effect in us is the Performance of Gods Will and Testament and of the promises therein contayned by delivering or giving us possession of that future blessednesse which by vertue of Gods promise is devised unto us and whereto by faith we have a present right or interest For as God by the Meanes of Christ doth confirme his Testament and promises so by the same Christ he performes them and wee from Christ must expect them by placing in him all our hope and trust for this performance For after the devise or grant of a promise there remaine on the promisers part no more acts to bee done but only these two namely to Confirme his promise and to Performe it And by this
wherein Christ is the Precedent or Patterne according to whose right we are made to have our right in being made co-heires with him 4. Because Christ is the Person who by our faith doth Ministerially justifie us by Confirming unto us Gods last Will and Testament and by performing unto us the promises thereof for of Gods last Will Christ is the whole and sole Executor to publish prove and performe it And not by the workes of the Law Seeing the title whereby we are justified is our faith in Christ therefore all title by the workes of the Law is hereby excluded for where two titles unto any right are incompatible and cannot stand together he that claymeth by the one must necessarily relinquish the other No workes therefore of the Law in what sense soever we take it whether in the literall sense as it was delivered by Moses and understood by the Israelites or in the spirituall sense as it was declared by Christ and is now understood by the faithfull are of that efficacy and vertue to make us a true title whereby to acquire and have a true right and claym unto heavenly blessednesse And consequently seeing the finall cause or end of our faith in Christ is to be justified therefore a further end of our faith in Christ subordinate unto the former is no longer to rest in the literall works of the Law but wholy to relinquish it as an act of God which now unto us is expired and dead for so the Apostle would be here understood as appeareth by his reasoning at the 19. verse next following And seeing God by Christ hath declared and published his new Will and Testament of the Gospel therefore hereby his former Will of the Law though for the time of it very good and usefull is utterly infringed cancelled and voyd For by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified The particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek which is heer rendred For being a Conjunction causall doth playnly shew that the truth of this clause is the cause or reason of that truth which was delivered in some former clause For the principall Doctrine of this whole epistle concernes the title whereby a man is justified which for the clearer evidence thereof the Apostle delivers bipartitely in two severall assertions Whereof the first is a Negative that A man is not justified by the works of the Law and the second an Affirmative that He is justified by the faith of Jesus Christ These being thus proposed his next businesse is to produce arguments or reasons for the confirmation and proofe of these two severall assertions but first he begins with the first which is the Negative that A man is not justified by the workes of the Law And this Negative he proveth in the following verses of this chapter by three severall arguments or reasons whereof the first is contained in this clause For by the workes of the Law shall no flesh be justified No flesh i. e. No living man whose life is mortall For to call man flesh is an Hebraisme to put man in minde of his mortality because seeing hee is framed of flesh and blood which are materialls but weake and fraile therefore hee must needes decay and dye Be justified i. e. bee declared upright No mortall man whose life is tryed by the Law shall by his worke in observance thereof bee found so compleat and perfect as to bee pronounced upright and sinlesse For his workes shall never appeare so cordiall so liberall and so perfect as to have performed an universall and perpetuall obedience to every Precept of the Law in every sense thereof without transgressing any one at any time Formerly it hath beene shewed that the word Justified hath in the Scripture severall senses the Apostle therefore haveing in the former parts of this verse taken this word in a jurall sence for the imputing or conveying of a right interest or claim doth now in this last clause take the same word in a legall sense for declaring or pronouncing upright innocent or sinlesse For when a word doth beare severall senses and the Apostle hath expressed it in some one sense hee loves for the greater elegancy to repeate the same word againe in another sense if the matter will admit it as heere it will and doth for otherwise wee faile of the Apostles intent and lose all the force of his argument If therefore in this last clause of the verse the word Justified bee taken in the very same sense which it carryed in the first clause then is this last clause but a bare repetition of the first and no confirmation of it at all For of this assertion that A man is not justified by the workes of the Law how can this bee a reason or proofe For by the workes of the Law no flesh shall bee justified if in both clauses the word justified carry one and the same sense But if the sense be varied as we have glossed it then will this latter clause bee a pregnant proofe of the former and consequently it will excellently suit with the scope and minde of the Apostle And the Greeke particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which elsewhere is constantly rendred Because doth both require and inforce this sense And that this Proofe or reason may carry the greater authority for the confirmation of his former Negative hee seemes to ground it on a testimony of Scripture and to produce it from Psalm 143.2 Enter not into judgement with thy servant i. e. Doe not arraigne mee before thy Tribunall or Seat of Judgement to try my workes by the rigour of the Law and then to handle mee according to my deserts For in thy sight shall no man living bee justified i. e. Because if thou in thine owne person or before thy selfe shalt take the cognisance of any mans workes to examine them throughly by the rule of thy Law and to give sentence upon him according to his workes no man living can by thy mouth bee declared or pronounced upright or innocent So that Paul hath in a manner explained the sense of Davids saying in adding these words by the workes of the Law The reason therefore whereby the Apostle argues heere seemes to runne thus If a man will bee jurally justified by the workes of the Law i. e. If hee will clayme from God a present right to the future Inheritance of Heaven by the title of his workes then God entring into judgement with him and in the sight or knowledge of God hee must by his workes bee legally justified i. e. Hee must bee declared or pronounced upright and innocent never to have beene an offendor against any Law of God For supposing but not granting that it is an effect or worke of the Law to Justifie a man jurally i. e. To give him a present right to the future Inheritance of Heaven Yet certainely the Law cannot produce this effect but onely in those who by the workes of the Law are legally
justified i. e. Are declared upright and innocent in the sight and knowledge of God For if in the sight of God a man bee found an offender or peccant against any one Law of God then in that case the effect or worke of the Law upon him is to Condemne him by imputing unto him a present guilt of a future punishment which is an effect quite contrary to that of jurall Justifying which imputes a present right to a future blessing For saith the Apostle Rom. 4.15 The Law worketh wrath i. e. It is an effect or worke of the Law to bring the punishment of death upon every transgressour of it though hee offend but in some one poynt of it as it is expressed Jam. 2.10 Whosoever shall keepe the whole Law and yet offend in one poynt hee is guilty of all i. e. Hee that offends against one single Law whereof the penalty is death is in as bad a case as if hee had offended against all for by the breach of that one Law hee is guilty of death and of more punishment hee could not bee guilty if hee had beene guilty of breaking all the rest Because death is a finall punishment beyond which there is no other But to come now to the Assumption though before men at their seats of Judgement in their sight and knowledge of the cause some man may be and hath beene legally justified i. e. declared upright and innocent for in this sence Paul testifies of himselfe Phil. 3.6 that touching the righteousnesse which is in the Law he was blamelesse not that hee was blamelesse in the sight and knowledge of God but in the knowledge of men and of his owne conscience in that neyther himselfe nor any other man could iustly lay any legall blame unto him and in this sense God himselfe testifies of Job Job 1.8 that hee was a perfect and an upright man yet Gods testimony of Job must not be so understood as if Job were perfect and upright in the sight and knowledge of God for that sense Job himselfe doth afterward disclaime but God saw and knew Job to be perfect and upright in the sight and knowledge of men in that no man could charge him with the breach of any Law and the like sense is to be conceived of Zacharias and Elizabeth of whom it is reported Luk. 1.6 that they were both righteous before God walking in all the commandements and ordinances of the Lord blamelesse Yet before God at his seat of Judgement or upon his sight and knowledge of the cause no man living except Jesus Christ ever was or ever shall be Legally justified i. e. declared and pronounced perfect and upright to be a man sinlesse and blamelesse no way peccant against any Law of God For by the sentence of God delivered in the Scriptures all men living of what Nation or Religion soever are declared sinners against his law and guilty of death For such are the Gentiles declared who had not the law but in doing by nature the things contayned in the law were a law unto themselves and such are the Jewes declared who rested in the law and made their boast of God See Rom. cap. 1. and cap. 2. per totum Yea the Jewes are declared in no wise better then the Gentiles but of both it is proved that they were all under sin Rom. 3.9 And the end of that declaration is to stop all mouths and to find all the world guilty Rom. 3.19 that every mouth might be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God and the reason of that guiltinesse is because all have sinned Rom. 3.23 For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God But the finall or last end of that Declaration is that mans right to the inheritance of Heaven should come by promise and gift and his title to that right should bee by faith of Jesus Christ Gal. 3.22 But the Scripture hath concluded all under sinne that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might bee given to them that believe Therefore to adde the Conclusion no man living shall bee jurally justified i. e. Shall have a present right to the future estate of blessednesse by the title of his workes The summe of the Apostles argument is briefely thus If a man have a right to everlasting life by the title of his workes then hee must by his workes in the sight of God bee declared upright But no man living can by his workes in the sight of God be declared upright Therefore no man living can have a right to everlasting life by the title of his workes This is the debility of mans workes if wee consider them as a title whereby hee acquires and hath that right But if wee consider them as a tenure wherby hee preserves and holds his right then they may and must be of some efficacy as will appear afterward in this Chapter at the 18. verse VERSE 17. Text. But if while wee seeke to bee justified by Christ wee our selves also are found sinners is therefore Christ the Minister of sinne God forbid Sense Found sinners i. e. Found continuers in sin Is therefore Christ i. e. Himselfe and his Doctrine The Minister of sinne i. e. One that gives occasion and licence unto sin even unto impiety and wickednesse Reason These words are and well enough may bee translated interrogatively But as I conceive they are rather to bee understood illatively thus But if while wee seeke to bee justified by Christ wee our selves are found sinners then it will necessarily follow that therefore Christ is the Minister of sinne An objecti ∣ on Yet whether of these two wayes soever wee take them they containe an objection which would seeme to weaken and crosse the former Doctrine about Justification by the faith of Christ and not by the workes of the Law for against that Doctrine some men did or might argue thus Yee that are Jewes by nature seeke to bee justified i. e. ye seeke a state of divine liberty or freedome whereby yee have a present right to the future possession of heavenly blessednesse whereof one particular is the Pardon of all your sinnes past present and to come And yee seeke this right by the title of your faith in Christ i. e. By your high esteeme of him for the sonne of God and by your acceptance of those promises wherein hee gives this divine state And yee make this faith your sole and onely title excluding all workes of the Law from any concurrence therewith But while yee have this present right to blessednesse and seeke the future possession of it by faith onely whereby yee are certaine and assured of it then hence it will follow that in the meane time yee may continue in sinfullnesse living in all kind of licentiousnesse as the sinners of the Gentiles lived before their accesse unto Christ And it seemes yee make account to live thus because yee speake so much against the Law which would bridle yee
same act effected both these things for by his suffering on the Crosse hee confirmed the New Will and Testament for hence his bloud is called the bloud of the New Testament and the Wine at the Communion is the memoriall of that Bloud Mat. 26.27 And hee tooke the cup and gave thankes and gave it to them saying Drinke ye all of it for this is the bloud of the New Testament And by the same suffering hee cancelled the first Will and Testament Col. 2.14 Blotting out the handwriting of Ordinances which was against us which was contrary to us and tooke it out of the way nayling it to his Crosse Yet hee cancelled the first Will but onely Consequently i. e. upon his confirmation of the last Will it followed necessarily that thereby the first was cancelled and frustrated Am dead to the Law In respect of the Law I am putatively or as it were a dead person who am no way acted or moved at any thing in the Law not at her Promises nor her Judgements nor her Precepts in any kind whether for matter of Policy Ceremony or Morality For I regard neither what she promiseth nor what she threatneth not what she commands nor what she forbids And these words of mine are not presumptuous nor any way opprobrious or reproachfull to the Law because the Law it selfe is the cause why I am thus dead unto the Law namely because the Law it selfe is dead for through her death to me I to her am dead Yet my Person is not dead but my subjection to the Law is dead for my subjection was correlative to her dominion and Relatives as they mutually give being one to another so they mutually take away each others being for when either of the Relatives faile the whole Relation ceaseth the dominion therefore of the Law being dead doth make my subjection to dye with it As by the death of the Husband the Wife also dyeth Yet not in her person as she is a woman but in her relation as she is a wife for she ceaseth to bee a wife though still she remaine a woman For by this comparison the Apostle doth elegantly illustrate both the death of the Law and the death of the Jew unto the Law Rom. 7.2 For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the Law to her husband so long as hee liveth But if the husband bee dead she is loosed from the Law of her husband i. e. Shee ceaseth to bee his wife And from hence hee inferres this conclusion vers 4. Wherefore my brethren yee also are become dead to the Law by the body of Christ That I might live unto God These words are a tacit prevention of an objection that might bee made against his former words For some man might say unto him if the Law bee dead and you dead to the Law and free from the dominion of it then you may freely sinne without controule Heereto his answer is I am not dead to the Law for that purpose that I might sinne But contrarily I am dead to the law that I might not sinne but might dye as well to sinne as to the Law For I am therefore dead unto the Law that I might live unto God by framing all my actions according to his grations Will his last Will and Testament which is the Will that hee hath surrogated to the deceased Law of Moses that was his former Will but is now infringed and which is the Rule whereby I am now to walke that my wayes may bee acceptable and pleasing unto God For to this very end the Old Law is dead and I am dead to the Law that I might become a new Creature to live a new life in the service of God To serve him not carnally after the old way in the Old Testament but spiritually after the new way declared in the New Testament Rom. 7.6 But now wee are delivered from the Law that being dead wherein wee were held that wee should serve in newnesse of spirit and not in the oldnesse of the letter A like expression to the words in hand wee have Rom. 6 11. Likewise reckon yee your selves to bee dead indeed unto sinne but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. And another afterward Rom. 6.13 Neither yield yee your members as instruments of unrighteousnesse unto sinne but yield your selves unto God as those that are alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousnesse unto God VERSE 20. Text. I am crucified with Christ Neverthelesse I live yet not I but Christ liveth in mee and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Sonne of God who loved me and gave himselfe for me Sense I am crucified i. e. Quasily or in a maner for my old man or the man that I was is mortified or put to death With Christ i. e. By way of resemblance as Christ was put to death and because he was put to death Neverthelesse I live 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. But I live viz. a temporall life in this world Yet not I. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. No more I or no longer the same man that I was before when sinne lived in me But Christ lived in mee i. e. Christ by his spirit and by his doctrine is the guide and rule of all my life And the life which I now live in the flesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. But in that I now live in my mortall body or body of flesh I live by the faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. I live in the Faith or in the Religion q. d. though I live in a body of flesh Yet my life is not fleshly but religious Of the Sonne of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. That of the Sonne of God q. d. the Religion wherein I now live is not that of Moses but that of Christ who is the son of God And gave himselfe for mee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. And delivered himselfe for mee viz. unto death or suffered death for my sake Reason This Verse is a Confirmation of his words in the former wherein hee affirmed that hee was dead unto the Law not to this end that hee might freely sinne but to this that hee might afterward live in the service of God the reason is saith hee because I am crucified with Christ For his being crucified doth argue or prove him dead because all Crucifying is dying and being crucified effectually is being dead though all dying bee not crucifying for crucifying is but one kinde of violent dying And his being crucified with Christ doth argue or prove that hee lived to God Because Christ though hee dyed on the Crosse yet now liveth unto God The rest of the Verse being a further Declaration of this first clause is adorned and varied with pathetick expressions arguing his divine and pious affections wherein by continuing his former Personation in transferring upon himselfe the person of a man
man much lesse can hee bee certaine that any thing is doubtfull This nomination of mee by the common name of a Believer is fully sufficient to convey unto mee a proper right to everlasting blessednesse My Father by his last Will setled his estate upon my elder Brother and upon his heires but my Brother dying without issue I came to enjoy my fathers estate Because I was named to it in his Will yet not by my single or proper name but by my appellative or common name of Heire for collaterally by my birth I was heire to my Brother But because this is a parable therefore it is not necessary that the Argument of it should agree with the thing it should argue in every particular circumstance but it shall suffice that it hold in the maine purpose and scope of it My heavenly Father by his last Will setled the Kingdome of Heaven upon Christ my elder Brother and upon his Heires and heereby the inheritance of Heaven is assured unto mee Because in Gods Will I am named to it not by my single or proper name but by my appellative or common name of heire to Christ for having God my Father by faith I consequently become Brother to Christ and co-heire with him And an heire by faith when the Testator is pleased so to assigne it is jurally as sure as an heire by birth and in the case present much surer because the assignation is universall to all in generall Whosoever believeth in Christ shall not perish but have everlasting life And the righteousnes of God unto all and upon all them that believe If therefore a common name written in mans will be of force to convey and assure an estate much more shall it doe the like in Gods Will. Oh my deare and blessed Lord who hast loved mee and given thy selfe for mee and therefore wilt give mee any thing else beside grant mee the spirit of thy love that thine to mee may beget mine to thee But let mine bee a soveraigne love to adhere to thee against all the world and let it bee a diligent love not in word but in deed to serve thee faithfully in all thy commands Grant mee also the virtue of thy death to worke in mee my death to sinne that as thou for my sake didst lay downe thy life so I for thy sake may lay downe my sinne Let the sprinkling of thy blood fall upon my heart to withdraw mee from the course of the world to cleanse mee from all vaine conversation to purifie mee from sinne and iniquity to consecrate and dedicate my soule to holynesse that as Adams sinne made mee guilty so thy death may make mee holy And when my naturall death approacheth seeing thou hast tasted death for mee bee pleased to succour mee at the houre of mine Let mee not feare or grieve or grudge to dye but answering the way of thy love let mee give my selfe for mee and then Lord Jesus receive my spirit for which thou didst vouchsafe to dye VERSE 21. Text. I doe not frustrate the grace of God For if righteousnesse come by the Law then Christ is dead in vaine Sense I do not frustrate the grace of God i. e. I make it not vaine or voyd by despising or rejecting it in attributing that blessing unto Gods Law which proceedeth from his grace For if righteousnesse come by the Law i. e. If the Right whereto Gods righteousnesse or kindnesse justifieth come by the Law or if Justification come by the Law as an effect of the Law Then Christ is dead in vaine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. dyed without a cause then Christ who dyed on the Crosse to settle that Will and Testament of God whereby this Right was conveyed dyed without a cause or there was no sufficient reason why he should so dye Reason These words containe the third and last Argument in this Chapter whereby he proves the Negative of his principall Assertion concerning Justification that A man is not Justified by the works of the Law and consequent y that he himself was not so justified For the Apostle according to his former personation continueth his argument in his owne person concluding his Negative from an absurdity which must necessarily follow upon the contrary Affirmative of it For if I am justified by the workes of the Law then it must needs follow that thereby I doe frustrate or made voyd the grace of God because the Law of God and the Grace of God make such opposite titles that if I claime by his Law I must needs disclaime his Grace The Necessity of this consequence he further declares and confirmes by instancing in the gracious Meanes whereby this divine Right of Inheritance to Blessednes is conveyed and setled upon me namely by the bitter death of Christ upon the Crosse wherein God shewed the riches of his grace when by the death of his owne Son he testified and confirmed that Will and Testament wherein this Inheritance was devised unto mee For if my Right of Inheritance came by reason of the Law then Christ who died to settle this Right upon me dyed without any cause on Gods part and there was no sufficient reason why his Father who so dearly loved him should expose him unto death much lesse unto such a bitter death if therefore I frustrate the death of Christ I thereby also frustrate the grace of God And for this argument from Gods grace hee seemes to take occasion from the last words of the former verse wherein hee mentioned the love of Christ because all grace is love Comment Frustrate ampliated to 4 senses which really are the same Grace put for it selfe and for all the effects of it Of Justification the Matter the Title the Tenure the Author the Motive is meere Grace The Nature of grace in 2. things Testimonies for it No causes for it Yet reasons 5. 1. From Gods gift 2. from his good pleasure 3. from his goodnes or kindnes 4. from his Mercy 5. From his Will and Testament Gods grace is rich Testimonies hereof and Reasons 3. 1 It is without cause Not from Merit nor Request nor Inquiry But from Gods proper motion According to his owne will which otherwise were not his but ours 2. Rich for the Effect of Alliance and Inheritance seated most gloriously 3. For the Meanes which was costly precious Why Grace is not caused by my Works nor by my Will but is onely Gratis for Thankes 〈◊〉 what 〈◊〉 are Yet they follow not necessarily why not Grace how frustrated Righteousnesse put sometime for Uprightnes Faithfulnes Kindnes Heere for a Right For so it is taken in the Old Testament So in the New And sometime is so Englished So also here and why 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies without desert here without cause Christs death ampliated to his other actiōs Especially to his Resurrection Causes of Christs death fit to be knowne the ◠Causes humane the Divine which must be 1. Consequent to Gods
first loved mee therefore I must and doe love him 1. John 4.19 Wee love him because he first loved us And it goeth very well and happily with mee if Gods grace have this effect upon mee to bee seconded and followed with my workes of holinesse by way of gratefulnesse for his grace For this effect doth not follow necessarily but onely contingently which may bee or may bee not Seeing too manifest it is that in some men it followeth not Because otherwise Gods grace could not bee frustrated which the Apostle heere supposeth Yet I must constantly note that although my workes of holinesse bee not the cause procreant to produce the existence of Gods grace towards mee Yet they are the cause conservant to maintaine the continuance of it because otherwise his grace will bee frustrated Seeing then Gods grace is on Gods part the cause of my Justification unto this divine alliance and inheritance with him if therefore unto my workes I ascribe that cause which belongs unto his grace doe I not heereby frustrate the grace of God by denying it that effect which properly it doth produce Am I not heereby a Rejector and a Despiser of Gods grace as a thing superfluous and needlesse And consequently am I not an ungratefull and an ungracious wretch to magnifie the poorenesse of my workes above the richnesse of his grace Seeing unto workes of holinesse I stood bound before by the Law of nature as I am Gods Creature though hee had conferred upon mee no such grace of alliance as to make me his son and heir For if righteousnesse come by the Law A further confirmation and illustration of this last argument in the former clause of this verse comprising withall a prevention of a tacit objection An Obje ∣ ction For by reason of his former words some man might say why doe you speake of frustrating the grace of God Should you frustrate his grace if your right of inheritance should bee conveyed unto you by Gods Law and not by faith in Christ The An ∣ swer Heereto his Answer is affirmative that thereby he should frustrate Gods grace for saith hee if the right of inheritance come by the Law then Christ dyed without a cause and consequently the riches of Gods grace which appeared by the meanes of Christs death should bee made frustrate and void The word Righteousnesse in reference to God doth often signifie that vertue of God which is his Uprightnesse whereby all his actions are just and right according to that holinesse which unto him is naturall Sometime it signifieth his faithfulnesse in keeping and performing that promise which hee hath made But more frequently it signifieth his kindnesse which went before his promise and was the cause why hee made it For why doth God keep his promise The reason is because he is just faithful but why did he first make his promise the reason is because he is kind and gracious Of the word Righteousnesse in this latter sense we spake somewhat largely before in this Chapter verse 16. But heere in this verse the word signifies jurally for that right of alliance and inheritance which on my part is the effect or consequent of Gods kindnesse to mee and whereto his righteousnesse or kindnesse doth justifie mee All which amount in one word unto Justification as if the Apostle had expressed it thus if my Justification or the right whereto Gods kindnesse doth justifie come by the Law For Gods kindnesse his Justfying and my Right thence resulting are in this respect either put for the other Because they are all concurrent unto one and the same purpose for his righteousnesse or kindnesse is the cause whereof my Right is the effect and his Justifying is the act whereby through the meanes of my faith his kindnesse doth convey this Right unto me That therefore wee may heere performe what was before intimated in this Chapter vers 16. Wee are to observe that the Hebrew word Zedakah in the Old Testament and the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the New which in our Translations are commonly Englished by the word Righteousnesse doe many times signifie the Latine word Jus whereof the English is a Right Interest or Claime As Gen. 15.6 And Abraham believed in the Lord and hee counted it to him Zedakah for righteousnesse or a Right i. e. God upon Abrahams faith conveyed unto Abraham a right to the blessing which God had promised And Gen. 30.33 So shall Zidkathi my righteousnesse or right answer for mee in time to come when it shall come for my hire before thy face q. d. All the yong ones of the flock which shall fall out to bee spotted shall bee my hire for keeping the flock and my Right to these shall answer your question concerning my future wages for if you finde with mee any other then such let it bee theft in mee And Psal 35.27 Let them shout for joy and bee glad that favour Zidki my righteousnesse i. e. my right or as it is there translated my righteous cause And Proverb 16.8 Better is a little Bizdekah with righteousnesse i. e. with right for the words following require that sense then great revenues without right And Esay 5.23 Which justifie the wicked for reward and take away Zedakah Zaddikim the righteousnesse of the righteous from him i. e. the right of the righteous from him for no man can take away the uprightnesse or morall righteousnesse of the righteous from him but his jurall right may be and many times is taken from him Likewise in the New Testament the Greeke word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth many times signifie a right As Heb. 11.7 And Noah became Heire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the righteousnesse which is by faith i. e. of the right which hee accepted by his faith For the matter whereto a man becomes heire is some right interest or claime and not uprightnesse or morall righteousnesse because such righteousnesse is not inheritable or deviseable to bee conveyed from one person to another as Rights and Interests may and doe And Rom. 4.4.5 Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt but to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for righteousnesse i. e. for a Right for it hath reference to the thine former words Reward Grace and Debt which are jurall tearmes concerning matters of Right and plainely teach us this comparison betweene the Laborer and the Believer who agree in this that both have a good right interest or claime the Labourer to his wages and the Believer to his promise But in this they differ that the Labourer by title of his worke hath a right to his wages and his right is of debt But the Believer by title of his faith hath a right to his promise and his right is of grace And in the same Chapter vers 11. And Abraham received the signe of circumcision a seale 〈◊〉
Cor. 5.15 And that hee dyed for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which dyed for them and rose againe And 1. Thess 4.14 For if wee believe that Jesus dyed and rose againe even so them also which sleepe in Jesus will God bring with him Yet heere and sometimes elsewhere the Apostle doth mention onely the death of Christ Because above all his other actions his Death was the hardest worke and the greatest argument of his love and therefore his death should most strongly move us to the workes of love and waies of holinesse The Effects and Benefits of Christs death were specified before upon these words of the former verse Who gave himselfe for mee Heere therefore wee shall mention the Causes or Reasons of his death Partly because there is much difference betweene the causes and the effects of the same thing though sometime these to them may bee subordinate Partly because it much conduceth to our understanding and beliefe of a thing to know the causes and reasons of it especially a thing of such moment as is the death of Christ But chiefely because the force of the Apostles argument lyeth in these words that then Christ dyed without a cause Yet heere wee intend not to meddle with the Naturall cause of his death for manifest it is that naturally his Crucifying caused it Nor yet with the voluntary causes of it on the Jewes part For so the causes of it were partly the sentence of Pilate whose will it was to condemne him partly the Malice of the Jewes whose will it was to importune that sentence and partly the Treachery of Judas whose will it was to betray him But our meaning is to declare the voluntary causes of it on Gods part why God had a will to decree the death of Christ and actually to subject him thereunto And the Causes thereof on Gods part if they bee rightly alleadged according to the Scriptures must needes have in them these three qualities 1. They must bee repugnant unto Justifying by the Law for otherwise wee lose the force of the Apostles argument which runnes thus For if righteousnesse or the right whereto a man is justified come by the Law then Christ dyed without a cause i. e. If the Law have this effect to justifie then there is no just cause why Christ dyed and therefore there must bee such a repugnancy betweene that effect of the Law and the cause of Christs death that hee who supposeth the former doth thereby overthrow the latter and contrarily if there bee a cause of Christs death the Law must needes bee without that effect 2. They must bee Consequent to the love and grace of God for otherwise againe wee lose another force of the Apostles reasoning whereby hee inferreth that if Christ dyed without cause then I frustrate the grace of God But I doe not frustrate the grace of God who by the death of Christ conveyeth that grace unto mee For indeede the supreame inward impulsive cause or prime motive of Christs death was the love and grace of God towards us and not his hatred or wrath but of this remote cause wee spake before upon the former verse and therefore shall not insist upon it any further 3. They must bee Respective unto the New Testament Partly because the New Testament is both repugnant to Gods Law and also consequent to Gods grace Partly because the New Testament is that solemne Will and Act of God wherein his love and grace is conveyed and whereon all the actions of Christ reflected Repugnantly therefore to the effect of the Law and consequently to the love and grace of God and respectively to the New Testament the immediate proper finall causes or reasons of Christs death are chiefely three 1. To testifie or prove the truth of the New Testament Every Testament ought to bee sufficiently and solemnly testified for hence by way of eminency it is called a Testament Partly because actively it doth testifie the minde or will of the Testator as the Civill Law delivers it which thereupon saith Testamentum ex eo appellatur quod sit testatio mentis But chiefely under correction because passively it is solemnly testified by the Testimony of severall testable persons who are to attest the truth of it and in case it bee a written Testament actually doe attest it under their hands and seales For the ancient solemnity whereof there are extant severall rules in the Civill Law But unto the New Testament a solemne Testimony was especially requisite Because it was to encounter with strong opposition which Gods people would and did raise against it in defence of the Law which was Gods Testament also and had a solemne Testimony on Mount Sinai wherewith lightning and thunder and the shrill sound of a Trumpet it was testified by an Angel in the audience of all the Nation And besides this solemne testimony the Law had the prescription of being in force for the space of fifteene hundred yeares The New Testament therefore which was to infringe the Old wherein a whole Nation had beene so long interessed had neede of good testimony because men will struggle hard for their Lawes Customes and Religion wherein the graver sort will hardly endure any change And the New Testament though it were not written as was the Old but was nuncupative declared by God onely to Christ Yet it had very sufficient testimony as good and better then the Old For the certainty and truth therof was testified by the Son of God a greater person then any Angel and hee testified it by greater meanes not with lightning and thunder but with workes of wonder such as never were done in the World before such as had they been in Sodome it would have remained untill this day as the strangenesse of his Miracles the holinesse of his life and the solemnity of his death Which solemnity was performed upon Mount Calvary in the view of all the Nation then assembled to eate the passover in a greater Congregation then was at Mount Sinai And that solemnity was attended with greater wonders then were at Mount Sinai for there onely the Ayre was rent with lightnings thunders and the sound of a Trumpet But at the death of Christ there were farre greater and stranger rents for Mat. 27.51 The vaile of the Temple was rent in twaine from the toppe to the bottome and the Earth did quake and the Rocks rent and the Graves were opened and many bodies of the Saints which slept arose For because Christ could not gaine beliefe for Gods New Testament neither by the constancy of his Doctrine nor by the strangenesse of his Miracles nor by the holinesse of his life therefore hee testified it by the solemnity of his death and afterward further attested it by the glory of his Resurrection for thereby his Disciples who stood doubtfull before gave full faith to his testimony and have since co-attested it over all the World Hence Christ
have so often and so much offended should ever restore me to life and translate me unto the Joyes of blessednesse The Scripture therefore is very frequent in pressing the point for the Remission of my sins because my gracious heavenly Father would have me to conceive and embrace a firme sure and stedfast hope of their future forgivenes that by virtue of that hope I might utterly forsake them and seriously devoting my life to holinesse I might cherefully walke on in the way to blessednesse Unto the Remission of my sins I have in this life a present right but the possession and benefit of this right is so future that I shall not enjoy it till the Resurrection and then all my sins past unto this day shall be actually forgiven upon my present forsaking of my sins For this futurity must exercise my hope and my hope of their future forgivenesse must engage me to a present forsaking of them Thus it is evident that Christ dyed not without cause seeing of his death there were three immediate causes and divers other remote causes Now let us consider the Apostles Argument and we shall perceive the force of it from these two points following 1. In that these causes are repugnant to Justifying by the Law For betweene these causes of Christs death and that effect of the Law the repugnancy ariseth thus It is the proper effect of every testament to Iustifie for therein the testator doth give a present right to the future possession of gifts Legacies and Inheritances which he predestinateth ordaineth and deviseth unto those persons whom he loveth and favoureth Hence it was an ancient Law of the twelve tables Vti quisque legassit suae rei ita jus esto i. e. as any man deviseth his estate by his Will so let the right passe and hereto agree both the Law of Nations and of nature That Testament therefore wherein no person is justified is more inofficious then that wherein persons to be necessarily justified are wholly preterited It is therefore the effect of both Gods testaments of the Old and the New of the Law and the Gospel to justifie in their kind But these two Testaments are apparently different Because they Justife differently for they justifie different persons the Old justifying workers onely but the New onely Believers they justifie from different sinnes the Old onely from ignorances and infirmities but the New from all sinnes whatsoever And they justifie unto different inheritances the Old onely to terrene and temporal but the New unto caelestiall and eternall as was largely declared before upon vers 16. Hence of the New Testament it is sayd expresly Heb. 8.6 That it is a better Testament which was established upon better Promises But if betweene the Old and the New there be no difference it cannot be truly sayd of the New that it is a better Testament because of two things that have no difference neither can be better then the other This difference then betweene these two Testaments breeds such a repugnancy between them that they cannot both subsist For when one and the same testator maketh different testaments then the subsistence of either is repugnant to the subsistence and force of the other Because one and the same person especially God who here is the testator cannot at one and the same time have two different Wills or testaments in force But the last and newest testament is alwayes the best and of such force that it wholly infringeth the former though the former at the first making of it were valid and good for when a latter testament is made it necessarily argueth that then at that time there is some defect or fault in the former which is amended in the latter If therefore the Old Testament be still in force or if it be an effect of the Old to justifie unto those better promises or if the right thereto come by the Law then there had beene no cause of making the New Testament and therefore no cause why Christ should dye to testifie confirme and execute it For if a mans first testament bee faultlesse there can bee no cause why hee should make a second because the true cause of making a second is to amend something amisse in the first but in a thing faultlesse there can be nothing amisse and therefore such a thing needs no amending Hence sayth the Apostle Hebr. 8.7 If that first Testament had beene faultlesse then should no place have beene sought for the second But if the two testaments of God be in effect all one as some teach they are then is the Apostles argument apparantly fallacious For then they can have no different effects but whatsoever is the effect of either must be also the effect of the other then the first Testament and the last must equally justifie unto the same blessednes then the Right thereto must come by the Law and consequently Christ dyed without cause For what cause could there be why he should dye for the last Testament if the first stood still in force and could effect as much as the last But if no discreet man will make two testaments that shall be both wholly to one and the same effect for there can be no cause of his so doing much lesse may we imagine this to be done of the most wise God 2. In that these causes were consequent and suitable to the love and grace of God When I was a poore miserable creature in the state of a grievous transgressor who had offended against the Law of God in the state of an improbous sinner who was peccant against the rules of naturall equity in the state of a calamitous sinner who was blemished as an alien and stranger to the Kingdome of God distressed and abandoned to all the miseries of this life tainted in the attainder of Adams sin and borne condemned to eternall death was it not an argument of Gods love and grace that he would so far please to cast his eye upon me as to Justifie me by releasing and freeing me from my state of sinne and death and by giving me besides a present right of alliance and inheritance with him to be his Son and Heire to eternall blessednes Was it not an argument of his love and grace to me that he would justifie me upon the condition of holinesse For seeing he justified me to be his Son and Heire was it not reason I should carry my selfe as his Son and Heire in the wayes of holinesse answerable to the holinesse of my heavenly Father For could it stand with the wisedome and holinesse of God to require any lesse condition of me then to walk worthy of his love and grace towards me And was it not an argument of his further love and grace that he would make my Justification to be Testamentary to convey this Right unto me by his last Will and Testament wherein by way of Legacy he predestinated and devised it unto me For can any conveyance of any estate be