out but withall it is also true that the persons who are to doe this are not men but Angels and the time for the doing of it is not now but at the end of the world For till then both men and Angels must let them alone let both grow together Compare Mat. 13.29.30 c. with Mat. 15.13.14 2. Not to condemne either for seeing both those parties profest the faith of Christ therefore both also are the servants of Christ and Rom. 14.4 Who art thou that judgest another mans servant To his owne Master hee standeth or falleth yea hee shall bee holden up for God is able to make him stand 3. Not to offend either for in Christ either is thy brother and Rom. 14.21 thou must not bee a scandall whereby thy brother stumbleth or is offended or is made weake to fall from that state wherein he stood and 1 Cor. 10.32 thou must give no offence neither to the Jewes nor to the Gentiles nor to the Church of God Yet when there is a concurrence of such a counter-necessity that thou must needs give offence to one Party then thou must exercise thy discretion to offend on that side where thy offence may be least offensive 4. But to love both exercising towards both all the offices of Charity equity and courtesie bearing with both pleasing both and edifying both For Rom 15.1 Wee that are strong ought to beare the infirmities of the weake and not to please our selves let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification for even Christ pleased not himselfe For according unto these rules the Apostles carried themselves towards these two opposite parties accommodating and applying themselves sometime to the one and sometime to the other as the opportunities of persons times and places required In patience and meekenesse instructing those that opposed themselves one while with great authority rebuking and reproving them and another time with sutable gravity comforting and commending them Alwayes moderating and tempering their speeches and writings with such wisedome and discretion that neither of these partyes might be lost from the Gospel but both retained in the profession of it and both reduced to the sincerity of it and others who had not yet received it might be gained to the reception of it Heare how Paul relateth his applications and cariage toward both of them 1 Cor. 9.19 Though I be free from all men yet have I made my selfe servant unto all that I might gaine the more unto 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 to them that are without Law as without Law being not without Law to God but under the Law to Christ that I might gaine them that are without Law to the weake became I as weake that I might gaine the weake I am made all things to all men that I might by all meanes save some and this I doe for the Gospels sake c. And when he forbids all scandall or giving offence either to the Jewes or to the Gentiles he produceth an example from himselfe 1 Cor. 10.33 even as I please all men in all things not seeking mine owne profit but the profit of many that they may be saved And under these Applications the Apostles exercised their Christian liberty to Circumcise or not Circumcise to eate or not eate with this or that party as occasion served and as farre as they might preserve that liberty without scandall or giving offence Yet when they fell upon a necessity of giving offence to one party then they offended that way where the offence would be least considering all circumstances and this required such circumspection that sometime a good man might mistake For herein was the mistake of Peter at Antioch for which Paul withstood him to the face and for which he was too blame for before that certaine Jewes came from James he did eate with the Gentiles but when they were come he withdrew and separated himselfe from the Gentiles fearing to give offence to the Jewes not considering that thereby he gave a greater offence to the Gentiles as the case then stood at Antioch where the Gentiles were the greater number and the weaker Christians and therefore in that place the more to be respected and the lesse to be offended The like mistake was also in the other Jewes there who being sincere Christians for their Religion dissembled with Peter and in Barnabas also who was carryed away with their dissimulation To be a sincere Christian no way leavened either with Judaisme or Gentilisme and to walke without scandall not giving offence to either of these Sects and when there is a necessity of offence then to give that which is least these are three degrees of difficulty whereof the last is the highest Yet concerning the Judaizers we are further to note that they in respect of their nation or birth were of two sorts For some and the major part were by nation birth or descent Jewes who were borne and bred up under the Ceremonies and works of the Law but afterward were converted to the faith of the Gospel And therefore their Judaizing in walking and living as did the Jewes i. e. as themselves had lived formerly deserved for a while some toleration connivence and sufferance because they lived so out of infirmity or weaknesse and in conscience of that Religion wherein they were borne and bred Towards these Paul and the rest of the Apostles observed all those rules of charity formerly mentioned no way offending but by all meanes gaining them Others were by nation birth or descent Gentiles borne and bred up in Idolatry yet for their Countrey they were Countrey-men to the Jewes being borne and bred in those places where the Jewes had either full Synagogues or Oratories as in Judea and Galilee in Galatia and Macedonia in Creet and Rome by which meanes they were well acquainted with the Lawes and Customes of the Jewes These being converted unto the Faith of Christ did for their life and walking side with the Jewish Judaizers to reâ—aine the Jewish Ceremonies and to impose them upon the believing Gentiles comming into Christ Out of these some tooke on them the Ministery of the Gospel and preaching Christ taught withall the necessity of Circumcision pressing the matter by way of controversie declaring themselves manifest adversaries to Paul by opposing his Doctrine and disparaging his calling to the Ministery for they preached Christ not of good will and sincerity but out of envy and strife supposing to adde affliction to his bonds Phil. 1.15.16 The cause why these Gentilish Judaizers exercised the Ministery and taught Judaisme was not for piety and conscience as did the Jewish Judaizers but partly for policy that by liveing as did the Jewes they might enjoy those exemptions and priviledges which the Romane Emperours had granted to the Jews and consequently that thereby
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
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
Certainly not to this that thereupon we should imagine Repentance or holinesse to be a thing impossible or should esteeme good works not necessary or should differ from the evill men of this present world in nothing but in our faith taking liberty to live licentiously without feare of punishment that grace may abound and God may have all the glory of it as the false teachers among the Galatians who besides the faith of the Gospel urged the works of the Law conceived of Pauls doctrine and in the next Chapter ver 17. will object it against him But the end or effect which the remission of our sinnes should have upon us is to move and draw us to Repentance or holinesse of life For Christ died or gave himselfe for the remission of our sinnes that hee might deliver us from that servitude of sin wherin the men of this present world are enthralled Now this deliverance is done only by Repentance because Repentance only doth separate and withdraw us from the service of sin and wickednes And the Reasons why the forgivenesse of our sinnes should cause our Repentance are two 1. Because the forgivenesse of our sinnes is granted us in relation to our repentance It hath been the businesse of Gods spirit in all ages to struggle with man and to draw him from wickednesse Under the Law God ordayned severall punishments by violent death for it but this was a base and servile way for Gods people to be kept in aw only through feare and it was a defective faulty or weak way because those penalties by death could not doe the deed to deliver or withdraw men from wickednesse Under the Gospel therefore God proceeds in a contrary course by reversing all penalties and granting a generall pardon for all sinnes to the end that what the Law could not doe by way of feare that the Gospel might effect by reasons of Gods love that wee in thankfulnesse for so great a blessing might answer his love with our love and therupon for his sake might forsake the wayes of wickednesse And God sealed this Pardon with the bloud of Christ that his love in not sparing his own Son and the love of Christ in laying downe his life for us might the more endeare and engage us to the works of Repentance and holinesse Unto which effect what further means are there conducent besides the feare of God in punishing sin and the love of God in forgiving it 2. Because our Repentance or holinesse is the condition wherupon the forgivenesse of our sinnes is to take effect Every Beleever by vertue of his beliefe or faith hath a present right to the future forgivenesse of his sinnes and his present right to that forgivenesse is absolute or simple without any condition For his beliefe or faith is not the condition thereof but the nomination whereby the Right of forgivenesse and the rest of the Legacies devised in Gods Will are assigned unto him for that and the rest are setled upon all the faithfull by their name of Beleevers But the future fruition of that forgivenesse is conditionall for it is limited or restrayned unto the condition of Repentance or holinesse for though all Beleevers have a present right to the forgivenesse of their sins yet only those Beleevers who are penitent or holy shall enjoy the future benefit of that Right By reason of which limitation the benefit or effect of actuall forgivenesse is suspended untill the condition of holinesse bee accomplished Which condition being never performed God stands no way engaged for the future to forgive actually those sinnes unto the forgivenesse whereof the Beleever had once a present Right Hence Christ makes our Forgiving of one another an adequate condition of Gods forgiving us that if we forgive one another which act in us is a good degree of our repentance or holinesse then will God forgive us but if we forgive not God will not forgive us what former promise soever he hath made or what present right soever we have thereto Matt. 6.14 If yee forgive men their trespasses your heavenly Father will also forgive you but if yee forgive not men their trespasses neither will your Father forgive your trespasses If Gods forgivenesse heere mentioned be not conditionall then must wee needs averre that either there is no such thing as a condition or that hitherto the thing is not rightly understood what it meaneth Likewise every time wee pray to God for forgivenesse as Christ taught us to pray for it we aske it upon this condition of forgiving others Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespasse against us Or if on our part this condition be not expressed yet on Gods part it is alwayes implied and understood But if in this life our sinnes bee absolutely and actually forgiven there can bee no cause why wee should dayly pray for their forgivenes because no man prayes for what he already hath and enjoyeth But because Gods promise to forgive us is conditionall therefore we dayly pray that God would finally performe his promise upon our performance of the condition Heerupon it is that Christ makes the forgivenes of sinnes a Motive unto Repentance in saying to the Cripple whom he had healed John 5.14 Thou art now made whole sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee Under the words Thou art made whole Christ comprehendeth the forgivenes of his sinnes because the ordinary forme of words wherewith Christ healed was by saying Thy sinnes are forgiven thee Peter also presseth the same doctrine that the forgivenesse of our sinnes should make us to repent or die to sin 1. Pet. 2.24 Who his own selfe bare or tooke away our sinnes in his owne body on the tree that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousnesse The word heere in the originall for dead doth properly signifie departed but is elegantly Englished dead because it is opposed to live in the clause following but especially because all the dead are departed and therefore all that are dead to sin are departed from sin which makes the nature of repentance And the woman who had beene a sinner did carefully put this doctrine in practice and shewed us an example of it in her owne person for she upon the forgivenesse of her sinnes was thereby moved unto acts of holinesse in the works of love and because her sinnes were many her love was so much the more in washing and wiping in kissing and anointing the feet of Christ And Christ afterward declared that her motive to this great love was the forgivenesse of her many sinnes adding withall this verity Luke 7.47 To whom little is forgiven the same loveth little From whence it followeth that hee who loveth not to him nothing is forgiven or at least the forgivenesse will come to nothing because if it come to something it must needs come to some love And Christ must bee the Judge of the condition For his office it is to examine the reality of it whether
it have beene truly performed according to the precept of the New Testament wherein the forgivenesse of sinnes is promised Because Christ is the sole Executor of that Testament and unto the Executor it belongeth to examine judge and allow the conditions of Legacies conditionall that accordingly hee may discharge them for the discharge of Legacies lies alwayes upon the Executor And at the day of judgement when Christ shall sit Judge of the quicke and the dead hee will also discusse the condition of our repentance or holynesse judging thereof by the workes of love in giving meate to the hungry drinke to the thirsty clothing to the naked c. as it is largely described Mat. 25.35 And accordingly hee will frame the finall sentence either for the remission of sinnes unto the inheritance of everlasting life or for the retention of sinnes unto the punishment of eternall death Yet Christ will not examine the condition of our repentance or holynesse by the Rules of severity and rigour but of grace mercy and kindnesse accepting and allowing of a competent holynesse in a meane degree though it have not beene precisely performed Because the New Testament is a Testament ad pias causis or for charitable uses and such Testaments admit of this priviledge that their conditions are at the mercy of the Executor and hee hath power to allow them though they bee not precisely performed Thus Remission of sinnes and Repentance are of such neare relation that they goe hand in hand as the blessing and the condition of it being in severall passages of the New Testament joyned and coupled together as the two maine poynts or substantialls thereof and as the two maine subjects which make up the worke of preaching the Gospel For the New Testament being commonly distributed into the two maine branches of Promises and Precepts or which is all one of Legacies and conditions remission of sinnes is many times put for all the promises or legacies and repentance for all the precepts or conditions Hence these two made up the preaching of John the Baptist Luk. 3.3 And hee came into all the Countrey about Jordan preaching the Baptisme of Repentance for the remission of sinnes Hence these two made up the summe of that Gospel which the Apostles were to preach in the name of Christ Luk. 24.46 And Christ sayd unto them thus it is written and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day and that repentance and remission of sinnes should bee preached in his Name among all Nations Hence for the execution and effecting of these two Christ was exalted to bee a Prince and a Saviour Act. 5.31 Him hath God exalted with his right hand to bee a Prince and a Saviour for to give repentance to Israel and forgivenesse of sinnes According to the will of God The will of God will not admit of a definition for it is not definite to bee defined but rather definitive and doth define and therefore it must bee designed by such markes as may notifie it and they are chiefely three Namely his Affects Decrees and Purposes For 1. Every affect of God is his will as his Love Grace and Mercy his Hatred and Anger 2. Every Decree of God is his will as his Promises Precepts and Judgements 3. Every purpose of God is his will as his Precognition Prevision and Predestination which Acts being the forethoughts or counsells of his will whereby hee constituteth his Decrees doe note an antecesse of time that the Decree thereby constituted was a long time predestinated or purposed before it was destinated or ordained Hence it will follow that every Covenant of God is his Will because his Covenant is his present Decree for things to bee done for the future And every testament of God is his will because his testament is his present decree for things to bee done after death for that futurity which is limited unto death doth specifie Gods Testament from his Covenant For Gods Testament and his Covenant are not wills opposite or divers but subordinate or graduous because his Covenant is more ample and large for all Gods Covenants are not Testaments but all his Testaments are his Covenants And every Testament whatsoever when it takes effect becomes a Covenant because when the Executor undertakes it there is a full agreement betweene his will and the testators will for the performance of the whole Testament and an agreement of Wills makes up a full Covenant The will of God in expresse tearmes is no where mentioned either in the Law or the Prophets or in the Old Testament excepting onely once Ezra 7.18 But in the New Testament we frequently finde the word and there it is commonly taken for the New Testament it selfe or for that will of God which is his last will and testament So John 1.13 Which were borne not of bloud nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God i. e. of Gods last will and testament And John 6.38 I came downe from Heaven not to doe mine owne will but the will of him that sent mee i e. to execute and fullfill the last will and testament of God And Rom. 12.2 That yee may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God i. e. What are the Precepts or Commands of his last will and testament And Ephes 1.5 According to the good pleasure of his will i. e. of his last will and testament in which sence it is also taken in the same Chapter vers 9.11 And 1 Thes 4.3 This is the will of God even your sanctification i. e. This is a Precept of Gods last will and testament And Heb. 10.9 Then sayd hee â—e I come to the thy will O God i. e. to execute and performe thy last will and testament as by the words following is plainely declared Hee taketh away the first that hee may establish the second i. e. Hee taketh away the Old Testament which was the first will of God that hee may establish the New which is his second and last will And in this sence is the will of God taken heere when Paul saith according to the will of God and that for three Reasons 1. Because Christ gave himselfe to death according to no other will of God then his last Will and Testament for Christ dyed for this end or effect that by the meanes of his death hee might testifie confirme and execute the New Testament that thereupon it might bee in force and take effect according to the purpose or meaning of God therein expressed 2. Because remission of sinnes for which Christ is heere sayd to dye is according to no other will of God then his last Will and Testament for the Old Testament or Covenant of workes allowed not the remission of all sinnes but onely Errours and Frailties and those also were not remitted unlesse they were expiated by the meanes of a sinne offering and in case of damage of a
is all Inheritance for all the Inheritance and goods of his Master discends to his Masters sonnes or in case hee have no sonnes it passeth to some stranger of his kindred and not to the servant though he live in the family Which we have in Christ Jesus i. e. our Christian liberty for after this manner he describes it afterward calling it the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free cap. 5. vers 1. and this adjunct he atributes unto it both here and there to determine and specifie what kind of liberty he understands for he speaks not of liberty in generall but only of that speciall liberty which is Christian liberty which we have in and by Christ Jesus which is not a carnall liberty of action to be licentious and loose from the just and wholesome Lawes of man nor a Mundane liberty of right to have the right of a sonne in some worldly family or the right of a freeman in some worldly policy but it is a spirituall liberty of action to be loose from the Lawes of Moses as from circumcision and the rest of the legal observances whereto the false Brethren would have necessitated the Gentiles and particularly Titus contrary to the state of their Christian liberty which they had in Christ and it is a ccelestiall liberty of right to have a right of inheritance to the Kingdome of Heaven as the adopted sonnes of God and co-heirs with Christ to the inheritance of blessednesse And it is called our Christian liberty or the liberty we have in Christ Jesus because Christ is the Authour of it not only to publish to the world the good will and grace of God concerning 〈◊〉 but also to collate the state of it upon all the faithfull who believe in him and by him as their Mediatour covenant with God to be the sons of God and because Christ is the Patterne of it for we are the adoptive sonnes and heires of God after the image and likenesse of Christ who is the naturall sonne and heire of God and whatsoever liberty and right Christ the native sonne of God hath in his Father the same or the like rights are imputed unto us who are the adoptive sonnes of God whereby we are made coheires with Christ unto the inheritance of Christ and this imputation of these rights of Christ unto us shall be afterward called our justification The Priviledges or particular rights appendant and consequent to our state of Christian liberty are severall and singular but hereof we shall speake more fully afterwards in the body of this Epistle cap. 5. vers 1. because the Apostle here seemes to mention it but in transitu or occasionally so farre as it concluceth to his historicall narration which is but introductive to the rest of the Epistle The purpose then of the false Brethren in comming in upon the by to the private meeting where Paul had his conference was but to act the part of Spyes to make some discovery upon the state of our Christian liberty or filiation to view the condition of is and to finde out by what occasion they might oppose it and by what meanes they might oppresse it for herewith afterward he chargeth the false teachers that they troubled the Galatians that they might subvert their Christian liberty See cap. 5. vers 10. and vers 12. That they might bring us into bondage A further end of their comming in subordinate to the former was to enthrall us or bring us into bondage i. e. subject and necessitate us to the Law of Moses which subjection he calleth a bondage because those Lawes were servile and the necessity to their observance was a grievous servitude hence afterward he will call those Lawes worldly rudiments weake and beggarly elements under which Gods people were in bondage and he will tearme them a yoke of bondage wherewith Gods people were entangled â—ee afterward cap. 4.3 and cap. 4.9 and cap. 4.24 and cap. 5.1 For the Jewes although they were the people of God yet they were not the sonnes of God in a right of plenage or state of liberty but onely the children of God in a state of pupillage or minority and were under the Lawes of Moses in a servile condition as children are under Tutors and governours which subjection being nothing different from servitude is therefore a bondage because as was shewed before all servitude is a bondage for it is quite contrary to liberty which is a loosenesse He saith us as he sayd before our liberty that he might include himselfe and all other Christians as well believing Jewes as Gentiles of which number was Titus The purpose then of the false brethren was to continue upon the Jewes and to impose upon the Gentiles the whole observance of the ceremoniall Law whereof the indifferency to performe some act of it upon some occasion is a liberty but the necessity of that Law to be compelled and alwayes bound unto all the precepts of it is a bondage VERSE 5. Text. To whom we gave place by subjection â—o not for an houre that the truth of the Gospel might continue with you Sense To whom i. e. To the false Brethren urging circumcision Wee i. e. I and Barnabas Gave place i. e. Yielded not By subjection i. e. To be necessitated and compelled to it For an houre i. e. For a time though never so little The truth i. e. The sincerity or the Gospel in the sincerity thereof might continue With you i. e. The Galatians Reason The constancy and courage of Paul in opposing the endeavour of the false brethren for circumcision namely he would not yield to them in any thing because he would continue the Gospel in the sincerity thereof Comment How far opposites are to be opposed and why so The Truth of the Gospel It must bee maintained TO whom wee gave place by subjection no not for an houre The purpose of the false brethren in comming in upon the by to that private meeting was to spie out the priviledges of Christian liberty that by some one act at first and afterward by degrees they might subvert the whole and at last wholly bring the faithfull into the servitude or bondage of the Law And the meanes whereby they would effect this was by urging Circumcision upon Titus as if they would require it but only of that person and only at that time But their further intention was that if they could obtaine it upon those tearmes then for the future they would presse for a precedent that person and that time whereby to necessitate Circumcision and consequently the rest of the legall ceremonies upon other persons at other times Paul therefore and Barnabas stoutly oppose them in this motion and by way of subjection to be necessitated will yield to them in nothing neither for the person nor for the time q. d. Although by way of toleration or sufferance we might have been entreated to something yet by way of subjection we would be compelled to nothing
appeare afterward vers 14. Neither was it dissembled or feigned betweene them to cast a feare upon the believing Jewes in seeing Peter thus reproved as Jerome pretends it but it was serious and reall with intent to reprove not onely the Jewes but Peter also for otherwise Paul should have used one dissimulation wherewith to reprove another seeing the thing it selfe which hee reproved was a dissimulation as afterward it will appeare vers 13. q. d. When I was at Jerusalem Peter reproved not mee either for my Doctrine or for my Conversation but when Peter came to Antioch I reproved him for his Conversation and I condemned a carriage of his not clancularly behinde his back nor generally in tearmes indefinite but particularly and openly even in his presence to his face For I was confident of my authority to reprove him and of my equity in the cause of it which otherwise I should never have done in that manner had I beene conscious to my soule that in poynt of the legall Ceremonies his judgement was contrary to mine For then though his fact had disliked mee I should not have dared to have reproved him openly to his face as knowing that way would availe mee nothing but to make my cause worse and render me odious Because hee was to bee blamed A reason in generall of the former words why hee reproved Peter before his face namely because hee was to bee blamed The Greeke is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Literally hee was condemned for so elsewhere the word is alwayes rendred in our last English Translation See 1. John 3.20 21. For hee that reproves another man doth give as it were a judgement or sentence against him which the Greekes call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and wee Blaming or Condemning But really the sense is not preteritively that hee was blamed before Paul reproved him but futurely hee was to bee blamed when Paul did actually reprove him then hee was worthy of reproofe and deserved to bee blamed For many time a Greeke participle passive of the preter tense is in imitation of the Hebrewes put for a Noune verball which the Latine sometime expresseth by the future in dus and wee in English thus is or was to bee so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which are saved i. e. which are to bee saved 1. Cor. 1.18 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in them that perish i. e. in them that are to perish 2. Cor. 2.15 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 them that are sanctified i. e. them that are to bee sanctified Heb. 10.14 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. to bee reserved 2. Pet. 2.4 So heere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hee was blamed is rightly rendred hee was to bee blamed q. d. I reproved Peter because concerning some of the legall Ceremonies his carriage was so various and different from it selfe that although in one respect he was to be commended yet in another he was to be blamed VERSE 12. Text. For before that certaine came from James hee did eate with the Gentiles but when they were come hee withdrew and separated himselfe fearing them which were of the Circumcision Sense Certaine i. e. Believing Jewes who were but weake Christians and observers of the legall Ceremonies Did eate Viz. All manner of meates indifferently With the Gentiles i. e. With the Christian Gentiles after their manner and in their company who made no distinction of meats as did the Jewish Christians Withdrew and separated himselfe Viz. From eating with them after their manner and in their company Fearing them i. e. Fearing to offend or grieve them Reason Of the Circumcision i. e. The believing Jewes who yet were observers of Circumcision A more particular reason why hee reproved Peter expressing the fact for which hee was to bee blamed namely because hee knowing that the legall difference of meates was ceased yet withdrew himselfe from eating indifferently all manner of meats in the company of the Gentiles and after their manner and restrained himselfe only to the Jewish meats Comment Peter eates with the believing Gentiles and afterward withdrew from them fearing to offend the believing Jewes who yet cōceived thēselves bound to the Law FOR before that certaine came from James These were by their birth Jewes who had been bred up in the Jewish Religion but by their faith they were Christians but as it seemes so lately converted that they were yet but weake in the faith and therefore continued observers of the Jewish ceremonies These men came to Antioch from Jerusalem while Peter was at Antioch but whether they came thither as Emissaries sent from James or as voluntaries of their owne accord either as spies or for other businesse it appeares not from Scripture Yet from James they are said to come either authoritatively because they might have some direction or addresse from him or locally because they came from the Church at Jerusalem where James was the President or chiefe Pastor He did eate with the Gentiles He did eate i. e. Peter did freely eare any manner of meates though forbidden by the Law of Moses With the Gentiles with the Christian Gentiles in their company after their maner and of their meates altogether as they did eate who observed not the differences of meats nor other legall ceremonies This action of Peter was very commendable for although the Jewes by their Law esteemed it unlawful to eate of some meates supposing themselves thereby polluted because they were forbidden by the Law of Moses yet unto the Christians of all sorts to whom the Law was now expired it was by the Gospel fully allowable to eate of any meate and particularly unto Peter it was most warrantable by reason of his vision of the great sheet wherein were all maner of meates as Beasts creeping things and Fowles which God had cleansed commanding him to kill and eate See Acts 10.11.12.13 But when they were come hee withdrew and separated himselfe When those Christian Jewes were come from Jerusalem to Antioch Peter who before did there eate with the Christian Gentiles did then privily withdraw and separate himselfe from the company and from the fare of the Christian Gentiles carrying himselfe as a strict observer of the Legall Ceremonies and particularly of the differences of meates This action in Peter was the thing that was blameable and for which hee was by Paul reproved for by this fact Peter might and did very much blemish the truth and sincerity of the Gospel by endangering the liberty therof whilest by his ouermuch indulgence to the Jewes who were the minor part he seemed to betray the liberty of the Gospel and to give occasion of scruple to the Christian Gentiles who were far the major part and far more considerable Fearing them of the circumcision The occasion of Peters fact in withdrawing himselfe from eating with the Christian Gentiles namely because he feared those Christian Jewes of the Circumcision who came from James and were yet but weake Christians and were consequently earnest
the Iewes and some living among them as the Samaritans and many townes in Galilee which Mat. 4.15 was therefore called Galilee of the Gentiles All these idolatrous Gentiles were so abominable and odious unto the Iewes that Paul in contempt and disdayne doth heere tacitly call the false teachers of Galatia Sinners of the Gentiles i. e. Idolaters Because although they were now by fayth Christians and by sect Iudaizers yet by birth they were Idolaters for unto Christians they were not converted from being Iewes but from being Gentiles and from that sinfull sort of Gentiles who were not worshippers but Idolaters For in saying Wee who are Jewes by nature and not sinners of the Gentiles he sufficiently insinuates that those Iudaizers were once such sinners and therefore were once men of the basest and lewdest life in the world as persons most distant and remote from the Jewes by nature who by the prerogative of their birth accounted themselves in the highest degree of all those who worshipped God to be a holy Nation and the Saints of the Lord. The sence of the whole verse is q. d. Wee who are Jewes in the best and fullest maner both in respect of our Nation as wee are the seede of Abraham Jewes in respect of our Rights which God hath setled upon us and Jewes in respect of our Lawes which God hath prescribed us for Religion and Justice wee who have these advantages by the best title even by Nature and Birth-right as wee are borne to those Rights and under those Lawes wee who were never sinfull Gentiles borne and bred up in Idolatry as were the Judaizing false Teachers and therefore have better meanes then they to know by what meanes a man is justified Even wee have beene forced to forsake all these advantages even the workes of our Law and the wayes of our Religion to flye unto the faith of Christ for our justification that by faith in him wee may attaine to that Blessednesse which was promised to our Father Abraham No reason is there then that the Gentiles who heeretofore were alwayes aliens and strangers to God and our Lawes but now by Gods grace manifested in the Gospel are admitted unto Christ and endenized into the Kingdome of Heaven being made fellow-citizens with the Saints and of the houshold of God should thereupon bee constrained to the workes of our Law and to the wayes of our Religion considering that those workes and wayes were unto justification so unavailable and so unprofitable that wee our selves have utterly forsaken them for how can those things advantage them which unto us were no benefit But in the word Sinners there is yet couched a further emphasis whereby the Apostle would prepare and lay a ground for his future Doctrine in the next verse concerning Justification whereof a Sinner is the proper subject and the onely person capable of that blessing That therefore wee may bee the better provided to understand what Justification is and what is the Justification of a Sinner wee must observe that in the Scriptures the word Sinner and his Synonyma's or equivalents beare three severall senses viz. a legall a morall and a jurall sense according to the three generall and notable words Lex Mos Jus. 1. The word sinner signifies legally quoad leges for one who is a transgressour in not doing that right which hee should and ought to doe by the Rules of the Lawes Statutes and Justice For hee that doth not right according to the Rules of Law and Justice hee is unrighteous and a person unrighteous is a sinner And the fact which doth constitute or make a man thus a legall sinner to bee a transgressor is some unlawfull act of his done by him against the Law Such sinners were our first Parents who by transgressing against the Law of Paradise were of mankinde the first sinners by whom sinne entered into the world Such a Sinner was David who in the case of Uriah transgressed the Laws against murder and adultety Such a Sinner was Jeroboam who made Israel to sinne and such was all Israel who did sinne by transgressing the Law against worshipping of Images Such a Sinner was the woman Luk. 7.37 Who washed the feete of Christ with her teares and wiped them with the haire of her head and kissed them and anointed them with oyntment For shee was an Adulteresse Such a Sinner was the other woman John 8.3 Who was taken in adultery in the very act and was thereupon brought unto Christ to bee censured And such were the Sinners of the Gentiles mentioned before 2. It signifies Morally quoad mores for one who is Improbous in not doing that right which hee might should and ought to doe by the Rules of Morality Equity Decency Charity and Mercy For hee that doth not right according to the Rules of Equity Decency and Mercy hee is unrighteous and the person unrighteous is a Sinner And the fact which doth constitute or make a man to become a sinner morally or improbous is not an act of his that is unlawfull in respect of any Law for the act may bee lawfull and yet sinfull enough to denominate him a sinner But it is an act that is not honest and faire in respect of Equity and Decency Such a Sinner was Cham Gen. 9.22 Who seeing his Fathers nakednesse told his two brethren without This act of his was a sinne for it was punished with a heavy curse of perpetuall slavery Yet this was not a sinne legally against any Law or Statute then being in force which forbad that act but it was a sinne morally against the Rule of good Manners Equity and Charity for a sonne to bee so improbous unnaturall and unkinde as to blab of his fathers fault which hee should have concealed Such Sinners were they 1. Sam. 10.27 Who despised Saul and brought him no Presents This act of theirs was a sinne for at the beginning of the verse the offenders are called the children of Belial Yet this was no sinne legally nor an act unlawfull against any Law of Moses but a morall sinne of improbity against the Rule of Morality Equity and Decency for Subjects to despise their King and upon his Election to bring him no Presents Such a Sinner was Nabal 1. Sam. 25.10 Who sayd who is David and who is the sonne of Jesse There bee many servants now a dayes that breake away every man from his Master Shall I then take my bread and my water and my flesh that I have killed for my Shearers and give it unto men whom I know not whence they bee This saying was a sinne for vers 14. one of Nabals owne servants censureth it for railing and afterward vers 17. hee censureth his Master in these words Hee is such a man of Belial that a man cannot speake to him Yet this sinne of Nabal was no legall sinne against any Law of Moses But a morall sinne of improbity against equity and good manners that a man of a great estate
are not constituted ordained or appointed to sinne as sinne is properly taken but that men are constituted ordained or appointed to dye appeares by many Testimonies of Scripture And generally where wee read the phrase of bearing sinne and iniquity there sinne must not bee taken for the act of sinne but for the effect of it which is punishment or affliction because properly not the act of sinne but the punishment of it is the thing that is to bee borne And universally wheresoever sinne is joyned with forgivenesse or with any other word to that sense there sinne is put for punishment because the thing to bee pardoned or forgiven is not properly the act of sinne but the punishment or affliction which is the effect or consequent of sinne Againe the Calamitous is not a Sinner actively by committing any act of sinne against Law or Equity as were the two former Offenders who were properly sinners But hee is a Sinner passively by suffering that shame paine or losse which is commonly inflicted as a punishment on such as are sinners properly Lastly hee is not a sinner really in whom sinne is inherent for then it must needes follow that hee is properly and actively a Sinner But hee is a Sinner putatively because hee is accounted or reputed a sinner and having done no act of a sinner is put into the state and condition of a sinner to bee handled after the image and likenesse of a transgressour by suffering Afflictions like to those Afflictions which are denounced and executed as Judgements and Punishments upon transgressors as the Beasts which the Law declared uncleane were not in themselves uncleane really and inherently but imaginarily and putatively Thus the Jurall sinner is but a quasi-sinner because hee is so improperly i. e. effectually passively and putatively And of these Jurall sinners or Calamitous persons there are foure sorts 1. The Opressed who unjustly against Law and Justice yet under colour of Law and Justice are calumniated criminated condemned and executed as sinners and transgressours Thus after Davids death in case Adonijah had prevailed Bathsheba and Solomon should have beene sinners 1. King 1.21 Otherwise it shall come to passe when my Lord the King shall sleepe with his Fathers that I and my sonne Solomon shall bee counted Offenders Where the Hebrew hath it shall bee sinners as the Margin advertiseth But Naboth de facto was made a sinner for hee really was not a blasphemer Yet by the Letters of Jezabel hee was predestinated ordained and appointed to bee a blasphemer 1. King 21.9 And shee wrot in the Letters saying Proclaime a Fast and set Naboth on high among the People and set two men sonnes of Belial before him to beare witnesse against him saying Thou didst blaspheame God and the King and then carry him out and stone him that hee may dye And in dangerous times when the wicked watch for iniquity a word may make a man a sinner Esay 29.21 All that watch for iniquity are cut off that make a man an offender for a word and lay a snare for him that reproveth And with all Religious reverence bee it written such a sinner was Jesus Christ who although hee were true God and true man the truest and justest man that ever lived one who never did any sinne nor spake any guile Yet hee was made a sinner and suffered as a transgressour Esay 53.12 Hee poured out his soule unto death and was numbred with the transgressours i. e. Hee who really was no transgressour was made a quasi-transgressour and suffered among transgressours And Rom. 8.3 For what the Law could not doe in that it was weake through the flesh God sending his owne Sonne in the likenesse of sinfull flesh i. e. His sonne who really was not sinfull was made quasi-sinfull and suffered after the likenesse and maner of one really sinfull And 2. Cor. 5.21 For hee hath made him to bee sinne for us who knew no sinne i. e. Hee who really was no sinner him God made a quasi-sinner to suffer for us on the Crosse as a reall sinner for sinne in the abstract is heere put for sinner in the concret And Gal. 3.13 Christ hath redeemed us from the Curse of the Law being made a Curse for us i. e. Hee who really was not cursed was made quasi-cursed in hanging on the Crosse as one really cursed 2. The blemished who justly according to the law of Nations are disabled and debarred from the common rights and priviledges of man to abide in that state and condition which is usually made a punishment for offenders In this ranke is a Bastard who being no reall transgressour against the Law is by an act of the Law made a quasi-transgressour whereby hee is debarred from the right of his birth forfeyting that inheritance or portion which by common course belongs to children as their birth-right For the poore Bastard is predestinated prejudicated decreed and doomed for a sinner before he is borne before hee hath done any good or evill before hee hath stirred in his mothers wombe and before his mother hath conceived him And whensoever he is to be conceived hee shall bee conceived a sinner because his conception being unlawfull and sinfull doth ipso facto render his parents actuall transgressours or sinners legally and himselfe a quasi transgressour or sinner jurally to lose his birth-right when he is borne And by the Law of God the Bastard lost not only his right of Birth but his right of Assembly to him and his heires for ever for hee and they successively stood as persons excommunicate and debarred from entrance into the Congregation of the Lord Deut. 23.2 A Bastard shall not enter into the Congregation of the Lord even to his tenth generation shall he not enter i. e. he and his posterity shall never enter for the tenth generation passeth for a perpetuity as the next verse interprets it Such a Sinner is an Alien forreiner or stranger inhabiting a Countrey wherein hee is disabled and debarred from the rights and priviledges of inheritances assemblies societies and other common benefits of the Lawes municipall which the natives of the Land enjoy and consequently he lives in a state and condition which is usually inflicted on sinners as a punishment for sin So the Romans Greeks and other Nations sojourning in Judea were by the Jewes accounted and called sinners because they were aliens and strangers who had no right to the lands and inheritances of that Countrey not to the assemblies congregations and ceremonies of Moses which by the Law were appropriated and entayled to the Nation of the Jewes and to such Proselites as were endenized or made free of their Nation For in this jurall sense the word Sinner is frequently taken in the Evangelists especially where it stands subjoyned with Publicans See Mat. 9.10 and Mat. 11.19 and Marc. 2.15 16. and Luke 5.30 and Luke 15.1 And lastly such a Sinner is a Villain i. e. a bond-slave borne who is no actuall transgressour
their Lord and God and they on their part should be his people and peculiar to have hold and enjoy their estates in fee from him For that in these jurall respects the Israelites are called the Righteous it may appeare from divers testimonies of Scripture as Psal 69.28 Let them be blotted out of the booke of the living and not be written vegnim zaddikim with the righteous i. e. with the Israelites who have the rights of inheritances in the Land as the Owners and Freeholders of it for among the Israelites and other Nations the names not of the legally or morally righteous but of the jurally righteous are written in bookes and entered into Records in respect of their Inheritances and Priviledges And Psal 72.7 In his dayes shall Zaddik the righteous flourish i. e. literally in the dayes of Solomon the Israelites who are the right Heires and Owners of the Land shall abound in peace But mystically the words refer unto Christ and to the Believers in him And Psal 92.12 Zaddik The righteous shall flourish like a Palme-tree i. e. The Israelite shall so flourish for in the Margin of that place there is a reference quoted to a parallell place Hos 14.5 Where the Prophet mentioning the like blessing doth instead of the Righteous put the word Israel I will bee as the dew unto Israel hee shall grow or blossome as the Lilly And Psal 118.20 This gate of the Lord into which Zaddikim the righteous shall enter i. e. The Israelite shall enter who hath the right of entrance for strangers had no right to enter within the gate of the Lord i. e. of the Temple but remained in the outward Court of the Gentiles And Psal 125.3 The rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot hazzard dikim of the righteous i. e. The stranger shall not continue his Dominion and Possession over the Inheritance of the Israelite to whom the right of the Land was allotted And Esay 26.2 Open ye the gates that goi Zaddik the righteous Nation who keepeth the truth may enter in i. e. The Nation who is the right Inhabitant and Owner of the Land though for a time they were exiled and fled because they would not change their Religion but would keepe the truth And Esay 60.21 Thy people also shall bee all Zaddikim righteous they shall inherite the Land for ever i. e. Thy people even all of them who have any right of Inheritance in Judea shall returne from their Captivity in Babylon and shall henceforth enjoy their estates for ever without any more Captivity In all which passages the jurall sense of the word righteous is chiefely respected although the other two senses may bee also included And under the word righteous in this jurall sense are comprehended not onely the Native Israelites who discended from Jacob but also those factive Israelites who by Nation or Birth being Aliens became of the Jewish Religion professing it by the Ceremony of Circumcision and were thereupon by the Septuagint called Proselytes but by the Rabbins gerei Zedek advenae justitiae i. e. strangers of right Because they had a right interest and claime to the Rights Lawes Ceremonies and Priviledges of the Native Israelites and in many particulars the very same Rights with the Natives For the Proselyte had the same right for the Ceremonies as in eating the Passeover Exod. 12.19.48.49 and in keeping the Fast of Expiation Levit. 16.29 and in offering of Sacrifices Numb 15.14.15.16 and in the use of the holy water Numb 19.10 The Proselite had the same right for Judicature For one maner of Law must bee for the Stranger and for the Native Levit. 24.22 and one maner of Judgement Deut. 1.16 and one maner of punishment Numb 15.30 And hee had the same right for Priviledges the very same immunity from oppression Levit. 19.33.34 and the same Reliefe in case of Poverty Levit. 25.35.36 and the same benefit of Sanctuary Numb 35.15 Thus in the Land of Canaan the Native Israelite and the Proselyte are called the Righteous and so heere in England a Subsidy-man who is an Owner and enjoyes an Estate in Lands or Goods to a certaine yearely is in the Writts of our Common Law stiled homo probus legalis which wee can scarce English properly without the word Just or Righteous in this jurall sense or some other word thereto equivalent And as the concrete words Just or Righteous doe concretely signifie a proprietary or owner So the abstract words of the Hebrew Zedakah in the Old Testament and of the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in our Translations are rendred Justice and Righteousnesse doe many times signifie the Latine word Jus whereof the English is a Right Interest or Claime as shall bee more largely declared in the last verse of this Chapter upon these words For if righteousnesse come by the Law Compare we now the Proprietary or Owner who is a just or righteous man jurally with the kinde or bounteous who is a just or righteous morally and we may observe 3 things 1. That the Owner and his property is a necessary effect and consequent flowing from the kinde man and his kindnesse for he who out of his kindnes bestoweth a thing upon me doth thereby transferre his property and right thereto from himselfe and imputeth or conveyeth the right and property thereof unto me whereby necessarily I am made and become the true proprietary or Owner thereof 2. That the Owner who is jurally just or righteous is mainely opposed to the jurall sinner which as was shewed in the verse before signifies a stranger who either absolutely hath no right at all or none respectively to this or that thing in particular when therefore a stranger who before had no right to a thing attaines some right or claime thereto then he becomes just and righteous in a jurall sense 3. That the word Righteous carryes a variety of sense not much unlike to the word Gracious for as the word Gracious doth signifie sometime actively for one who doth shew grace and favour in which sense it is a frequent attribute of God in the Scripture and so a Prince is Gracious to his favourite and sometime passively for one to whom grace and favour is shewed so the Princes favourite is Gracious with his Prince and in this sense the word Gracious is taken Jer. 22.23 How gracious shalt thou bee when pangs come upon thee i. e. no grace nor favour shall be shewed thee in thy distresse so the word Righteous is taken sometime actively for him who is legally upright by doing right to all and for him who is morally kinde by doing kindnesses in granting and giving some right interest and claime and sometime passively for him to whom a kindnes is done to whom some right interest or claime is given or granted and who because he hath such a right is therefore in Scripture called Just or Righteous Thus the Greeke word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereof the English
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
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
it untill it bee accepted for a promise not accepted is not at all obligatory or when it is accepted by some hee is not obliged to performe it to others till they have accepted it for themselves But when his promise is accepted by faith there results from thence a double or mutuall obligation upon both parties whereby each is bound to the other and therefore neither can recede or goe back whereby each becomes debtor to the other and therefore also each is creditor to the other Because as was shewed before by faith thou entrest the Covenant of Gods grace and that Covenant is a contract of alliance wherein God is allyed unto thee as a Father and thou unto him as a Sonne and Heire and contracts breed not a single obligation upon one of the parties onely but a double and mutuall obligation upon both parties whereby each is reciprocally bound to the other As wee see in the contract of Marriage which is the ground of all naturall and legitimate alliance by blood the man is thereby bound to performe unto his Wife all the offices and duties of a Husband and reciprocally the woman is bound to all the offices and duties of a Wife for hence Marriage is called Wedlock because it lockes and bindes the parties wedded And all Alliances are also Contracts because an alliance is alligatio partium i. e. a binding or tying of parties together each to other One obligation resulting from thy faith is upon God who therein becomes thy gratious debtor to owe thee all the blessings which hee was pleased to promise and thereupon doth oblige and binde himselfe to the performance particularly to perform unto thee all the offices of a kinde loving and gratious Father according to thy divine alliance with him which is the fundamentall and leading promise Because as wee shewed before an effect of thy faith is to assure Gods promise by making it firm and sure which certainely is then made firme and sure when God is obliged to performe it and enters bond for thy security And God the more abundantly to corroborate this bond of his promise doth binde it over againe with the bond of his Oath that by two immutable and irrevocable things thou mightest have a strong assurance For thus God bound himselfe to Abraham by making a promise to him and by swearing the performance of it and because hee could sweare by none greater hee sware by himselfe and sayd Gen. 22.16 By my selfe have I sworn saith the Lord for because thou hast done this thing c that in blessing I will blesse thee And after the space of 400. yeares God acknowledged this bond for when hee gave the Israelites possession in the Land of Canaan hee therefore did it that hee might performe his Promise and his Oath made unto their Fathers Deut. 9.5 The Lord thy God doth drive these Nations out from before thee that hee may performe the word which the Lord sware unto thy Fathers Abraham Isaac and Jacob. For if by the Rule of Piety all persons are bound to performe their Promises and Oaths which they sware in the name of God Much more is the most holy God obliged to performe his Promise and Oath which hee sweares by himselfe in his owne name See heere the force and power of faith which though for the essence it bee a passion or sufferance yet for the efficacy is so strong and mighty that it is able to bind Almighty God Almighty God whose liberty and freedome is so transcendent that hee is bound by no Law for all his Lawes are bonds upon the Creature and not upon himselfe is pleased notwithstanding to bee bound by thy faith Search now and peruse all the conveyances evidences and assurances and see if any man living have a better right interest or claime to any estate on earth whereof hee stands not yet possessed then the faithfull have for the future possession of their heavenly inheritance for which they have Assurance from God himselfe by his double bond the bond of his Promise and the bond of his Oath The other Obligation arising from faith is a bond upon the faithfull who therein becomes a debtor unto God to owe unto him all those offices duties and services which are due unto God by the equity and piety of faith For by thy acceptance of Gods promise thou art consequently thereupon obliged and bound to performe all the conditions of the promise or if there bee no conditions expressed the contrary whereof is most manifest yet by virtue of thy faith thou standst bound to performe all those conditions which are necessarily implyed and all other things which naturall equity and piety require to bee done Because as was before shewed by thy promissory faith thou dost enter Gods Covenant of grace and that Covenant is a contract bonae fidei i. e. of speciall confidence and trust because it is perfected by thy sole consent and acceptance and therefore it binds the parties contracting to performe each to other not onely those things which are therein plainely expressed in words but also all things else which according to the rule of naturall equity are due and to bee done And because the Covenant of grace is a contract of alliance whereby God becomes thy Father and thou his Sonne and Heire if therefore there were no written Law of God in the World to specific or lay downe thy respects unto him Yet by the naturall Law of piety and equity thou standest obliged and bound to performe unto thy heavenly Father all those offices duties and services which are due from a Sonne and Heir And the more abundantly to corroborate thy bond to these duties thou dost binde it over againe with the bond of Baptisme whereby thou takest thy death upon it drowning thy selfe under the water and rising againe to a new life to performe the duties of thy new allyance for Baptisme is not onely a signe of grace received but of a death whereinto thou art buried and of a bond for newnesse of life Rom. 6.4 Therefore wee are buried with him by Baptisme into death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so wee also should walke in newnesse of life If then thy faith oblige thee not to the duties of a sonne it will disoblige God from the blessings of a Father and hee may disinherit thee for thy disobedience 4. The fourth effect is To justifie a man which effect will declare the Affirmative of the Apostles assertion that a man is justified by faith i. e. Faith is the Meanes or cause mediall whereby a man is made jurally righteous to have the right of a spirituall and divine state a state of freedome to the kingdome of Heaven and a state of alliance unto God to be the present son and heire of God having a present right to the future possession of all the blessings annexed to that alliance a present right to the present Regeneration
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
of blessednes whereto I had once a present right nor shall I ever possesse that inheritance whereto I was once a co-heyre with Christ For my faith which was lively and effectuall to procure my present right to blessednes doth by my evill workes become dead voyd and of no effect to the future possession of it Hence the Apostle asketh me 1 Cor. 6.9 if I know not this that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdome of God and he chargeth me to Be not deceived neither fornicators nor adulterers nor idolaters nor effeminate nor abusers of themselves with mankinde nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor revilers nor extortioners shall inherit the Kingdome of God And the same Apostle hath told me Gal. 5.21 that they who doe the workes of the flesh shall not inherit the kingdome of God And this I know Ephes 5.5 that no whoremonger nor uncleane person nor covetous man who is an Idolater hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God let no man deceive me with vaine words c. And by my sinfull acts I destroy not only my state of Right but moreover by them I build againe my state of sin for one sinfull act added to another doth at last build a habit of sin as one stone upon another doth build an habitation Or one single act alone without any more if the sin be heinous and foule is enough to cast me into the state of sin I make my selfe a transgressor By building againe my state of sin I become a transgressor i. e. an exceeding sinfull sinner and a treble offendor against God by sinning first against his written Law and then against the rules of equity and thirdly against the grace of his mercy by a wilfull relapse into that state of sin which he had gratiously pardoned For the word Transgressor is not heere taken simply for one who commits some one act of sin against the Law but for one who after pardon relapseth into sin and thereby drawes upon himselfe the guilt of his sin and bindes himselfe over to the punishment of it without all hope of remedy by the ordinary course of Gods mercy For the transgressor heere is opposed not onely to the Just who is legally and morally righteous but also to the justified who is jurally righteous Am I not by this relapse a revolter from God and a traytor to him when after my amity and alliance with him I desert him and side with his enemy defrauding God of his services to bestow them upon Satan And am I not a felon to my selfe to rob my selfe of all my right to eternall life and cast away my selfe to eternall death For doth not the Law of Nations teach mee that by such facts as these any estate becomes forfeit and doth not the light of Reason teach me that if my Tenure faile my estate must needs escheat And doth not the sacred Scripture teach me that my last state in sin is worth then the first For doth she not playnely tell me Hebr. 10.26 that If I sin wilfully after that I have received the knowledge of the truth there remaineth no more sacrifice for sinne but a certaine fearfull looking far of Judgement and fiery indignation which shall devoure the adversaries And againe 2 Pet. 2.21 that it had been better for me not to have knowne the way of righteousnes then after I have knowne it to turne from the holy Commandement delivered unto me Doth she not cleerly declare this unto me by the horrid and loathsome comparisons of a house haunted with an uncleane spirit who being cast out and re-admitted doth re-enter with seven other spirits more wicked than himselfe Luk. 11.24 Of a Dog licking up his vomit againe and of a Som that after washing walloweth in the mire 2. Pet. 2.22 Yet Christ who justified me is no minister to my sin by justifying me neither is it hee that makes mee a transgressor For the right of Impunity or forgivenes of sins which is one of the Priviledges whereto Christ justified mee gives mee no license to sin As in the family the right of Impunity which the son hath above the servant not to be ejected or punished for every fault as the servant may doth give the son this Priviledge in faults onely such as are ignorances and infirmities but excuseth him not in crimes such as are malignities wickednesses and wilfull misdemeanors But if the son will abuse his Priviledge of Impunity and shall thereupon run into presumptuous and wilfull offences can wee charge the Father as the Minister to his sin that hee makes his son a transgressor Was ever any Father who duly corrected his son though he punished him not mentioned in such a case as this The like may bee sayd of a Malefactor who after pardon relapseth into the same or the like crime whereby his offence is highly aggravated can wee charge his relapse upon the Prince who in mercy granted the pardon to him Or when a bondslave whom his Lord hath infranchised shall afterward sell himselfe for a slave can any man in reason charge his latter slavery upon his first Lord who set him at liberty It is not Christ then who makes mee a Transgressour for my transgression is wholly against his will against the will of his Precepts wherein hee forbids it and against the will of his Judgements wherein hee threatens it with eternall death And my transgression is wholly against his deedes for in Justifying mee by faith hee hath strongly obliged mee against it and in sanctifying mee by his holy spirit hee hath sufficiently enabled mee against it What greater provision can Christ possibly make against my transgression What greater obligation from it could hee lay upon mee then the menace of eternall death in case I commit sinne and the promise of eternall life in case I refraine and destroy it in mee What greater ability in this life can I have to refraine and destroy it then the Power of his holy spirit alwayes resident in mee to inlighten strengthen assist and succour mee against it But on the contrary if upon my continuance in sinne Christ should promise to continue unto mee my right of inheritance to blessednesse and accordingly should afterward settle mee in the possession of it then certainely hee makes mee a transgressour and may thereupon bee justly accounted not onely the Minister of my sinne but also the rewarder of it It is therefore no other but my selfe who by reason of some default predominant in mee doe willfully on my part make my self a transgressor and that default seems twofold 1. My unfaithfulnesse not that I have no faith for then I could not bee justified or that my faith wants truth for a faith not true is all one with none Or that my faith wants strength for it is engaged and obliged by Gods infinite kindenesse in giving mee a right to eternall blessednesse And it is assisted and inabled by Gods holy spirit wherewith hee sanctifieth enlightneth
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
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