Italian in the Vulgar French and in our former English Translation in use before that of King JAMES which leaveth the Greeke and followeth the Latine of Beza Yet in the Translation of King JAMES the Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in other places of the New Testament is rendred in that as Rom. 6.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. for in that hee dyed I live by the faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. I live in the faith for so the Vulgar Latine Italian and French render it The Greeke Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though many times it signifie by or through Yet heere it doth not so for the Apostles meaning is not to shew the meanes whereby hee lived but the manner wherein hee lived And the word faith by way of metonymy or transnomination is heere put for Religion which is the proper and due effect of faith for so faith is taken in divers places as Gal. 1.23 Now preacheth the faith which once hee destroyed i. e. the Religion which once hee destroyed And 1. Tim. 4.1 In the latter times some shall depart from the faith i. e. from the Religion And 1. Tim. 5.8 If any man provide not for his owne especially for those of his owne house hee hath denyed the faith i. e. the Religion of Christ To live in the flesh is to performe the naturall and civill acts of a mortall man who is compassed with flesh and blood as to eate drinke and sleepe to labour traffick or otherwise follow the workes of my worldly calling But to live after the flesh is another and a contrary thing not allowable to any Christian not compatible with mortification nor consistent with salvation For living after the flesh is a continuance in those sinnes which will for certaine exclude the sinner from his divine inheritance in the Kingdome of God as will appeare afterwards in this Epistle cap. 5. vers 19. c. To live in the faith or Religion of Christ is to performe those workes of Love which belong to a Believer professing the faith of Christ as workes of love to himselfe by Patience Temperance Chastity and Humility Love to his brother by Equity Mercy Meekenesse and Kindnesse Love to God by Piety and Devotion in his Worship and Service Or to live in the faith as the Apostle expresseth it in other words Ephes 4.1 Is to walke worthy of the vocation wherewith wee are called with all lowlinesse and meeknesse with long-suffering forbearing one another in love And againe Coloss 1.10 It is to walke worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing being fruitfull in every good worke c. In a word it is to live a religious and holy life according to the profession and obligation of my faith for if my faith have not this effect upon mee to make mee live thus my faith is dead I were as good have no faith as have the Divels faith which justifies not And I were as good againe have no faith as to have such a bare semblance or shadow of a justifying faith which sanctifies me not For my Justification is before my Sanctification not onely in nature and time but also is or ought to bee the cause of it and will bee frustrate unlesse it have that effect An Objecti ∣ on The words then of this clause are another prevention of a tacit objection that might bee made against his former words immediately preceding For some man might thereupon say Seeing you and all other Christians are mortall men cloathed with flesh yee must needes therefore live after the manner of other men by performing those actions which belong to flesh and blood as actions naturall in eating drinking and sleeping and actions civill in discoursing buying selling and negotiating in the works of your calling All which actions and the like seeme nothing pertinent unto Christ and to life spirituall but carnall the Answer To this Objection his Answer seemes to bee thus as for my former sinfull actions they are wholly crucified and mortified for I have utterly renounced them and live not in them at all And as for my naturall and civill actions they are altered and changed for they are not now wholly the same that they were before but are all done in faith for they are as it were animated and quallified with my faith which governeth and ordereth them after a religious way For while I performe those naturall and civill actions which belong to flesh and bloud as necessary to the course of this mortall life I have alwayes a respect to the Faith and Religion of Christ which I professe thereby moderating ordering and ruling all my actions that I may walke worthy of the vocation whereto I am called carrying all things in a due conformity thereto and avoyding all tnat eyther may bring a scandall upon it or bee any way unworthy thereof For even my naturall and civill actions are now all referred unto God and being done in thankefulnesse to him for his grace they serve to declare and advance his glory Whether I eate or eat not to the Lord I eate or eate not and give God thankes Rom. 4.6 Hee that eateth eateth to the Lord for he giveth God thankes and hee that eateth not to the Lord hee eateth not and giveth God thankes This clause therefore of Living in the flesh and yet living in the Faith seemeth to be the same with that 2. Cor. 10.3 Though we walk in the flesh we doe not warre after the flesh Hence it appeeres that Our naturall and civill actions as far as they are capable of morality doe belong unto fayth For even upon such actions faith may have such an influence that they may be done in faith and that action which in one man is meerely naturall may in another be both naturall and religious being cloathed with some circumstance which may make it a service acceptable unto God Although my Faith and Religion oblige me not to undertake every kinde of action yet faith must moderate the maner of every action which I undertake that it be suitable to the will of God and faith must direct the end of every action that it tend to the glory of God Hence the Scripture is copious in her Exhortations that all things be done in a due maner nothing uncharitably Rom. 14.15 If thy brother be grieved with thy meat now walkest thou not charitably Nothing offensively 1. Cor. 10.32 Give no offence neither to the Jewes nor to the Gentiles nor to the Church of God Nothing contentiously Phil. 2.3 Let nothing be done through strife or vaine glory c. And that all things bee done to the right end All unto the Lord Rom. 14.8 Whether wee live wee live unto the Lord or whether wee die we die unto the Lord. All unto his glory 1. Cor. 10.31 Whether yee eate or drinke or whatsoever ye doe doe all to the glory of God All in thankfulnesse to him Col. 3.17 Whatsoever ye doe in word or in deed doe all
God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ Hence also it appeares that the divine service of invocation or prayers is due unto Christ Because this salutation heere is an invocation though indirectly framed wherein Paul prayes for grace and peace unto the Galatians from God and from Christ For Christ as it is evident from these words and from the like in other places wherein the government and care of Gods Church is ascribed unto him doth know the wants and the desires of the faithfull and therefore also doth heare their votes and prayers Now the knowledge and the audience of such things is a ground sufficient for invocation or prayer to bee made unto Christ especially seeing his knowledge and audience are seconded with a power and a will whereby hee is able and ready to helpe and to save those Believers who call upon him Hence Christ commands his Disciples to pray in his name and promiseth to effect their prayer John 14.13 Whatsoever yee shall aske in my name that will I doe that the Father may bee glorified by the Sonne If yee shall aske any thing in my name I will doe it This Invocation was preached by Steven when hee was stoned Act. 7.59 And they stoned Stephen calling and saying Lord Jesus receive my Spirit And practised by Paul when there was given him a thorne in the flesh 2 Cor. 12.8 For this thing I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me They therefore are in an errour who to barre Christ from the honour of Invocation doe read this Text thus From God our Father and of the Lord Jesus Christ referring the Pronoune Our unto God the Father and thereupon construing the words as if the Apostle prayed for grace and peace from the Father onely and not from Christ But would onely intimate that God is the common Father of us and of Christ But this construction is not onely against the sense of the words but also against reason For it is not reason that when the Apostle would call God the Father of Christ and also our Father hee should then first call him our Father before hee called him the Father of Christ Especially in a passage where he intends to magnifie the honour of Christ as by the verse following where he expresly calls God our Father it appeares he intends it This place therefore and the like wherein the Pronoune Our in reference to the Father is omitted doth wholly oppose this construction VERSE 4. Text. Who gave himselfe for our sinnes that hee might deliver us from this present evill world according to the will of God and our Father Sense Who gave himselfe viz. Unto death and died For our sinnes i. e. For the remission or forgivenesse of our sinnes by confirming through his death Gods last Will and Testament wherin the Remission of sinnes was devised unto us That he might deliver us i. e. That he might separate or withdraw us From this present evill world i. e. From the evill of this present world or from the present sinfulnesse or wickednesse commonly practised by the men of this present world In a word That he might draw us to Repentance or holinesse of life or sanctifie us According to the will of God i. e. According to the last Will and Testament of God who therein had expressed his mind and purpose for the Death of Christ for the Remission of our sinnes and for our repentance Of God and our Father i. e. Of God who is our Father viz. By vertue of his last Will and Testament wherein he hath adopted or justified us to be his sonnes and heires Reason Having in the former verse stiled Christ our Lord hee gives heere a tacit reason why hee stiled him so shewing by what right or title he is so namely by right of Redemption Because Christ through his death wrought for us a double deliverance one from the punishment of our sinnes by the remission or forgivenesse of them the other from the servitude of sinne by our Repentance and forsaking of them And further he declares that these three things viz. the Death of Christ the Remission of our sinnes and our Repentance are consequent suitable and according to the last Will and Testament of God wherein these things were thus ordayned Heere therefore are described two finall causes ends or effects of Christs death first the Remission of our sinnes and secondly our Repentance from sin Yet so as the latter is an end or effect subordinate to the former and the condition of it for our sins are remitted or forgiven to this end and upon this condition that wee should Repent and forsake them And unto these finall causes is annexed the efficient cause of Christs death that it was not meerely according to the will of the Jewes who put him to death but it was according to the will of God who in his last Will and Testament had decreed his death for the ends and effects heere specified By all which he would intimate unto the Galatians that for their salvation they were not to adhere unto Moses and to the Ceremonies of the Law according to Gods old testament but must depend upon Christ and the benefits by his death according to Gods last Wil and Testament For Paul intends these words as an Evangelicall attribute or description of Christ our Lord as before ver 1. the words who raysed him from the dead were an Evangelicall attribute unto God the Father Comment Giving is put for Dying The word Remission is sometime silenced sometime expressed sometime implied by Taking away and Bearing away Christ was not punished for our sinnes but onely tooke and bare away the punishment from us as hee tooke away sicknesses and diseases Christs death causeth the forgivenesse of our sinnes and our Repentance which is a Deliverance from sinfulnesse which is wickednes not Locally but Morally Deliverance from evill in the Lords Prayer The nature of Repentance which is really all one with holynesse The Motive to it is our Forgivenes 2 Reasons of it 1 Repentance is the purpose of Forgivenes 2 Repentance is the condition of it and an adequate condition of it Examples of the former Christ is to be Judge of our Repentance Yet he will judge of it in mercy The Alliance between remission and Repentāce Gods will is his Affection Decree Purpose Covenant and Testament Yet so taken chiefely in the Gospell And so here for 3 Reasons And is the efficient cause of Christs death But the principall efficient is God by meanes of the New Testament 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 the Testator the Executor the Forme the Apparance the Legataries the Legacies and Conditions God is our Father Jurally and Morally and to be stiled our Father VVHO gave himselfe Wee must heere supply the word unto death which many times in Scripture is silenced but is supposed and must bee understood when the words of giving himselfe are ascribed unto Christ Of whom they signifie that his death was not wholly
remit or forgive our sinnes by doing all such acts whereby we might finally enjoy the benefit thereof when hee shall rayse us from death to give us the possession of eternall life That he might deliver us Heer is another end or effect of Christs death subordinat to the former and therefore somewhat more remote from it namely our deliverance from the servitude of sin which though causally on his part it be a deliverance yet effectually on our part it is our Repentance The Greeke word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth properly signifie to exempt take out or pluck out in delivering from some sodain danger and delivering in a speciall maner namely powerfully and hastily plucking or snatching away the party by force and speed As Peter was delivered by the Angel out of prison from the hand of Herod the night before he should have been slaine wherof Peter making relation useth the same word Act. 12.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sayth he the Lord hath sent his Angel and delivered me out of the hand of Herod Or as Paul was delivered by Lysias the Colonel who with an army or band of men rescued him from the Jewes when they were about to kill him as Lysias relates Acts 23.27 where he useth the same word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sayth he which in our last English Translation is there rendred rescued To the same sense the Scripture useth the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to exempt redeeme or rescue From this present evill world The Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. out of the sinfulnesse that he might deliver or pluck us out of that sinfulnesse which reigneth in the men of this present world For evill is heer put for sinfulnesse and the world for the men of the world or worldly men whose maners conditions and actions are evill sinfull or wicked If our deliverance be good as comming from Christ it must needs be then the terme or state from whence we are delivered must needs be evill Yet the evill heer meant is not the evill of punishment because thence we are delivered by the Remission of sinnes whereby the punishment is taken away as was intimated in the former clause of this verse Nor the evill of Affliction from which we are many times delivered and from which we pray for deliverance as 2. Thess 3.2 That we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men i. e. From the afflictions and violences which we suffer under them But Affliction cannot be heer meant because that is not an end or effect of Christs death for he died not to deliver us from affliction but rather to animate us against it and to encourage us to suffer it But the Evill heer intended is the evill of sin or rather that degree of sin which is wickednesse as it is opposed to sins of Errour and Frailty such wickednesse as Idolatry Murder Adultery c. For so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth properly signifie and the substantive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in King JAMES his Translation is constantly Englished Wickednesse Wherefore To be delivered from this present evill world is not meant locally as if we should be taken away from being in the world or be so separated from worldly men as not to feare any affliction from their violences or any corruption from their examples for then we must altogether go locally out of this world But the words are to be understood Morally for a separation from their wicked courses by abstayning from all wickednesse and in undergoing a course of life contrary to the common course of this present evill world framing our selves to the workes of love and to the wayes of holinesse according to the precepts and rules of Christ This distinction betweene a locall and a morall separation is taught us by Christ when he prayed to his Father for his Disciples Joh. 17.15 I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world but that thou shouldst keepe them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the evill i. e. From doing that evill which is wickednesse And so I understand Christ when he taught us to pray Matt. 6.13 And lead us not into temptation but deliver us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from evill i. e. Not only from suffering of that evil which proceeds from the wickednesse of others but chiefly from our doing of any evill which is wickednesse For we pray that God would not lead us into temptation now when we are tempted whether by meanes of affliction or otherwise the purpose whereat the temptation aymeth is not our suffering of evill but our doing of it See heere the nature of true Repentance Repentance is a separation from wickednesse For it is a deliverance or separation or turning from evill not from that of affliction which is the suffering of evill but from that of sin which is the doing of evill Yet not from all sin in every degree of it as errours and frailties for unto such a Repentance as to bee wholly sinlesse no sinner ever yet did or ever can attaine in this life But it is a separation from that degree of sin which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. malignity malice or wickednesse which consisteth either in a wilfull custome of sin or in the act of some one sin whereof the pravity amounts to a custome Repentance then is a liberty or freedome from wickednesse for when Christ by forgiving our wickednesse delivereth us from it then he causeth our repentance and when we by forsaking wickednesse are delivered from it then are wee come to Repentance Unto this Repentance many have attayned and thereto every Beleever may and must attaine in this life or else his faith is not effectuall unto salvation And this Repentance is really one and the same thing with holinesse though betweene them there may bee some rationall differences as the words in divers mens understandings may bee diversly dilated or restrayned For holinesse may bee in a person who never sinned as is that of God of Christ and of Angels but when the subject of holinesse is a person that was a sinner and the terme from whence it began was sin then such holinesse is repentance and in this life the holinesse of Beleevers is no other although therof there are diverse degrees wherein some far exceed others The Motive unto repentance or holinesse of life or the cause that should invite and draw us unto the workes worthy thereof or which is all one the Means whereby Christ delivereth us from the evill or sinfulnesse of this present world is the remission or forgivenes of our sinnes For to what end or effect did Christ die for us It was to this end to testifie and confirme the New Testament that it might be in force unto us and that we might have a present right to the Legacies therein devised or promised whereon one is the Remission or forgivenesse of our sinnes And to what end or effect are our sinnes forgiven
during or from my time in my mothers wombe for the wombe is not here the tearme of Recesse from whence the Apostle is said to be separate as if the separation were to be understood of his severing from the wombe by the way of his delivery or birth from thence for then it must have been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but his abode in the wombe was the tearme of Time when or during which hee was separated unto the Ministery or rather decreed or designed to be separated thereto But the tearme of Recesse from whence hee was decreed to bee separate was partly his contemporaries whom hee exceeded in the acts of Persecution and partly the rest of the Apostles whom hee exceeded in suffering Persecution And the terme of Accesse whereunto he was separate was his Ministery or Apostleship yet not that simply considered but his separate and singular Apostleship whereby after an extraordinary maner he was singled out from the rest of the Apostles to exercise his Ministery apart from theirs that hee might preach Christ among the heathen or Gentiles as he specifies in the next verse following for unto those words there the words heere of his separating and calling must be referred for their coherence as being the employment and service whereunto hee was separated and called For unto this separate and singular Apostleship to preach Christ among the Gentils Paul was elected as God tells Ananias whom he sent to heale Paul of his blindnesse in Damascus Acts 9.15 and as Ananias reports it unto Paul when he healed him Acts 22.13.14 And unto this he was instituted at Jerusalem when hee was in a trance praying in the Temple where God sayd unto him Make haste and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem for I will send thee farre hence unto the Gentiles Act. 22.17.18.21 And unto this he was ordayned at Antioch when unto the Prophets and Teachers there as they ministred to the Lord and fasted the holy Ghost sayd Separate mee Barnabas and Saul for the worke whereunto I have called them Act. 13.2 For heer and now at this time and place that Separation was actually ordayned or destinated which from his mothers wombe was pre-ordayned or predestinated Hence Paul stiles himselfe the separate Apostle unto the Gospel Rom. 1.1 And hence he professeth with a deepe asseveration that hee was ordayned and appointed a Preacher and an Apostle and a Teacher of the Gentiles See 1. Tim. 2.7 and 2. Tim. 1.11 where by the words ordayned and appointed he seems to explicate the word separated q.d. Before the time that ever I had done any humane act eyther of good or evill in the world yea before the time that I was borne into the world while yet I lay wrapped in my mothers wombe God by his good pleasure and singular favour unto me decreed and designed to separate appoint or ordaine me to a separate and singular Apostleship apart from the rest of the Apostles especially from Peter James and John whose Province it was to preach Christ among the Jewes that mine from theirs should be far remote to preach him among the Gentiles wherto afterward he actually called instituted and ordained me for the actuall execution of that whereto from my Mothers wombe hee had separated and designed mee This hee saith to certifie and make knowne unto the Galatians that his Apostleshippe was no way humane that hee had neither instruction nor authority thereto from those that were the chiefe Apostles as the false Teachers among the Galatians had falsely suggested But the whole frame of his Apostleshippe was wholly divine from the good pleasure of God even from his mothers wombe And in his expression heereof hee seemes to allude to the words of Esay who saith of himselfe The Lord hath called mee from the wombe from the bowells of my Mother hath hee made mention of my name Esay 49.1 Or to the words of Jeremy to whom God saith Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee and before thou camest forth out of the wombe I sanctified thee and I ordained thee a Prophet unto the Nations Jer. 1.5 In the words to Jeremy to sanctifie is the same that to separate is with Paul for to sanctifie there is not to make Jeremy holy and righteous morally but politically to designe and ordain him to a publick Office for there Jeremy is ordained a Prophet unto the Nations and heere Paul is separated a Preacher unto the Gentiles A saying not much unlike to this of himselfe and to those of the Prophets the Apostle hath of Jacob and Esau concerning whom God made a singular appoyntment from their Mothers wombe while the Children were not yet borne neither had done any good or evill Rom. 9.11 But from Gods singular acts upon any of these single persons from their Mothers wombe to collect an universall appoyntment upon all single persons from all eternity is not consequent by any rule of sound reason And called mee by his grace Called mee viz. to my Apostleship by signifying his will to institute mee an Apostle to the Gentiles If wee referre this Calling to the time of his Mothers wombe and make it an adjunct and concurrent with his separation as if from his Mothers wombe God had both separated and called him then the word called cannot signifie the act of his calling that then hee was actually called but onely the Decree of his calling that then God designed him to bee called afterward as it seemes the word is taken Rom. 9.11 But there is no cause to the contrary but that the word called may heere signifie the effect of that separation which God made of him in his Mothers wombe and the time of it fitly referred to those times wherein hee was actually and really called by the intimation unto him of Gods will and pleasure who had elected instituted and ordained him to execute the office of an Apostle to the Gentiles which intimation was made and confirmed unto him at severall times and places as at Damascus by Ananias at Jerusalem by God himselfe in a vision and at Antioch by the Presbytery as was formerly noted And the ground of his Calling to bee an Apostle of Christ was no qualification in himselfe whereby hee was prepared or fitted to preach Christ for hee was wholly ignorant of Christ who now upon his calling was to bee revealed unto him as it appeares by the words next following Nor no act of justice in God whereby God was obliged to recompence any former act done by Paul who had done many acts to the contrary that made him unworthy to bee called an Apostle for although touching the righteousnesse which is in the Law hee was blamelesse Phil. 3.6 Yet touching the Gospel hee was not blamelesse but criminates himselfe for a blasphemer a persecutor and injurious 1. Tim. 1.13 Nor no act of equity in God whereby God stood engaged to his owne decree in separating and designing him to the Apostleship from his Mothers wombe for that decree
preaching among the Gentiles and they among the Jewes And this order wee concluded not originally from our selves but consequently and subordinatly to that former Ordinance of God whereby the Gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto mee as the Gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter as it is before vers 7. VERSE 10. Text. Onely they would that we should remember the poore the same which I also was forward to doe Sense Remember viz. To collect almes among the Gentiles The poore viz. Of the believing Jewes in Judea Reason An exception from his formal universall negation of adding nothing to him at Jerusalem excepting onely this that we should remember the poore of Judea Comment To remember put for taking care Ministers must be care full for the poore ONely they would that wee should remember the poore They would In the Greek there is no Verb expressed nor none supplied in the French translation but in the Italian it is supplied thus They admonished which word in our English apprehension is somewhat too high for equalls and fellowes doe not admonish or at least in this sense and therfore our English supply is more proper they would or requested Remember i. e. Be carefull viz. to make provision for the poor by collecting almes for them for to remember is often used both in the Scripture and in our vulgar speech for being carefull as contrarily to forget is used for be negligent The poore i. e. those poore Christian Jewes in Judea who believed the Gospel and were driven into poverty either by the fury of the persecution there or by the misery of the famine against they had formerly beene supplied by a collection at Antioch brought from thence to Jerusalem by Paul and Barnabas as was noted before q. d. All that which the Apostles at Jerusalem added there unto mee and Barnabas was onely this and yet this was no matter of Doctrine but of common Charity that wee should be mindfull and carefull of the poore among the believing Jewes who lived in Judea to collect almes for them among the believing Gentiles whose duty it was to minister to the Jewes in carnall things because they were made partakers of their spiritual things Rom. 15.27 And this was all our message from the Apostles to the Gentiles onely to collect almes among them and not to impose any legall ceremonies on them The same which I also was forward to doe The same which The Greeke is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Relative 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is here redundant according to the manner of the Hebrewes as it is elsewhere in divers places See Mat. 6.4 and Act. 10.38 and 1. Pet. 2.20 q. d. This care for the poore wee willingly undertooke and carefully executed the charge thereof not failing in any place where wee could make any advantage for a collection in their behalfe as bound to this office not so much by any obligation layd on us by the Apostles as by the Law of Charity And heereunto there needed no Memento unto me for I for my part endeavoured it before and faythfully continued the practice of it afterward See Rom. 15.25 26. and 1. Cor. 16 1. and 2. Cor. 8. per tot and 2. Cor. 9. per tot And I suppose that Barnabas also continued it for his part though of him I can averre nothing for certaine because he and I departed one from another at Antioch and exercised our Ministery among the Gentiles severall wayes for hee went toward Cyprus and I toward Syria Act. 15.39 VERSE 11. Text. But when Peter was come to Antioch I withstood him to the face because he was to be blamed Sense Withstood him i. e. Reproved him To the face i. e. Openly in a publick audience and before his face or in his presence To be blamed i. e. To be condemned Reason Another maine argument to assert his authority and his doctrine to be divine for having formerly declared his action at Jerusalem with the Apostles and therein shewed that he was no way inferiour to any of them but that the chiefest of them acknowledged him for their equall and fellow-Apostle hee now relates another action of his at Antioch where hee dealt with Peter as superiour unto him in reproving him publickly for a matter concerning the former Ceremonies and in shewing Peter his errour therein Whereby he would infer that he learned no point of doctrine from Peter but rather Peter was instructed by him Comment Peter at Antioch was opposed by Paul and justly blamed BVT when Peter was come to Antioch The time of this history of Peters comming to Antioch hath no certainty from the Scripture that I can finde yet the greatest probability is that it was after the Councell or Synod at Jerusalem concerning the acts whereof Paul hath treated hitherto because this is most agreeable to Pauls narration in recounting all his actions with the Apostles wherein hee seemes to follow the order and course of time according whereto they fell out for after the dissolution of the Councell at Jerusalem Paul and Barnabas immediately returned with Decrees unto Antioch where for a time they continued teaching and preaching the word of the Lord Act. 15.35 During this their continuance at Antioch very probable it seemes that Peter might come thither and then might bee the time of the action related heere betweene him and Paul because Barnabas who was also carried away with the dissimulation of Peter and other Jewes was then with Paul at Antioch after which time wee never finde them together for upon their next departure from Antioch which was not long after they finally departed one from another by reason of their dissenting about John their Minister as hath beene formerly noted And although Paul afterward came againe to Antioch and spent some time there as appeares Act. 18.22.23 Yet this action with Peter could not bee then because then Barnabas was not with him I withstood him to the face Withstood The Greeke is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Literally I resisted or withstood but the sense is I reproved and this appeares partly from the reason in the near words why hee withstood namely Because hee was to bee blamed For to withstand one to bee blamed is to reprove him partly from the speech wherewith hee withstood him which at vers 14. such the forme of a Reproofe and partly from the nature of Reproofe for all Reproofe is a verball resisting or withstanding but not contrarily so that the generall word withstood is heere put for the speciall reproved To the face The Greeke is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before his face face to face or in his presence for one of those wayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is elsewhere rendred in our last English Translation See Luke 2.31 and Act. 3.13 and Act. 25.16 and 2. Cor. 10.1 Yet this Reproofe was not private in the presence of Peter alone betweene him and Paul alone but publick in the presence also of many others as it will
the reproof is by way of Interrogation which therefore redounds to the sharper reprehension for in demanding a reason of his action why he being a Jew compelled the Gentiles he seems to tell him that he had no reason at all for his action but rather his action was against all reason Yet the Interrogatory of his reproofe is but one and that one so concise that the language and the argument of it is contained and couched under a marvelous brevity q. d. seeing thou art a Christian Jew and by vertue of thy Christianity hast relinquished Judaisme and hast hitherto lived after the liberty of the Gentiles eating all sorts of meats after their maner for so thou didst eate till certaine Jewes came from James why art thou now become so contrary to thy selfe as to relapse back againe into Judaisme and in one fact to commit three offences for therein thou dissemblest with thine owne soule seeing thou hast declared thy judgement to the contrary and therein thou confirmest the Jewish Christians in their infirmity for by thy fact they will be hardened and therin thou compellest the Gentile-Christians to Judaize for thereto they are forced by the example of thy fact and for feare of thee Why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as doe the Jewes Why some read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. how but it matters not at all what the Interrogation should be for although the words be Interrogatory yet the sense is reprehensory thus certainely thou art too blame in compelling c. Compellest thou The Greeke is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. necessitatest not by way of violence but by way of example whereby thou dost occasion and move them and by thy fact dost impose a kinde of necessity upon them to doe the like or at least that for fear of thee and of thy authority that dare not do otherwise For he is sayd to necessitate or compell who by force of reason or of example doth vehemently perswade or urge a thing to be done for in this sense the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used See afterward cap. 6. vers 12. and Luke 14.23 and Mat. 14.22 and Marc. 6.45 and Act 28.19 and 2 Cor 12.11 The Gentiles to Judaize i. e. The Christian-Gentiles to abstaine from certaine meats after the Jewish manner seeing neither that Ceremony nor any other part of the Law of Moses was ever by God imposed on the Gentiles for that Law to them was never given nor never binding q. d. Why dost thou now contrary to thy declared judgement and to thy former custome force the Gentiles to forsake their liberty and to apply themselves to the Ceremonies and observances of the Jewish Lawes whereto the Gentiles were never obliged this is not onely against all equity but against the liberty of the Gentiles and against the freedome of the Gospel The Law of Moses did not now binde the Jewes for by the accesse of the new Testament the old ceased and was expired much lesse should the Gentiles be compelled to it now being expired seeing formerly while it was in force it never obliged them But so great was the authority of Peter that any notable act of his was in a maner compulsory to prescribe and impose upon others especially when the rest of the Jewish Christians and even Barnabas himselfe followed the example of it Neither could all know that Peter herein dissembled for they might believe that he did it as moved in conscience and that now he corrected that errour whereinto before he somwhat swerved in love and courtesie to the Gentile-Christians Seeing then this fact of Peter might have occasioned great troubles seeing it might have disquieted the consciences of many and have much hindred the liberty of the Gospel therefore Paul had great reason to pluck off the vizard in publicke and to discover before all men the person which Peter had assumed For necessary it is that even great Persons when their example grows to a publick offence should undergoe a publick reproof yea the greater they are and the greater the danger that may arise from their example so much the greater should our care be that their authority which otherwise is to be maintained for the publicke good be not turned to the publicke ruine Hence for our better understanding of the former foure verses and of divers passages in the Acts and Epistles of the Apostles wee may and must observe that in the Church of Christ there then were and still are and ever will bee three sorts of Christians or three severall parties which agreeing all in the faith of Christ differed much among themselves 1. The sincere Christian who was intirely and wholly a Christian believing in Christ and walking in Christ or as from Pauls words in this verse they may bee described who believed uprightly and walked uprightly according to the truth of the Gospel edifying their faith and composing their life according to the Doctrines Precepts and Rules delivered by Christ and his Apostles These laboured for the sincerity and purity of the Gospel to preserve the truth therof clean and free from the admixture leaven of all Religions Opiniōs whatsoever that therunto were alien and forraine These were inoffensive peaceable and quiet giving no scandall to any party who differed from them in judgement or practice not busying their mindes with foolish questions and fruitlesse disputes to no profit but exercising themselves not in the workes of the Law but in the workes of their callings and in the good workes of the Gospel by doing all Offices and Services of Love Charity Equity Mercy Courtesie and Kindenesse towards all men but especially towards the houshold of faith and chiefely one toward another These were the children of the Kingdome the good seede which Christ sowed in the field of the world and they were the Wheate among which his Enemy sowed Tares Of this sort were the Friends Landlords and Companions of Paul to whom and from whom in his Epistles hee sendeth salutes also Aquila and Priscilla and the Church in their house also the houshold of Cloe of Crispus Gaius and Stephanas in the Church of Corinth also the house of Onesiphorus and all those in the Church of Ephesus whom Paul salutes in these words Ephes 6.24 Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity and also those in the Church of Philippi to whom hee writes thus Phil. 1.9.10 And this I pray that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgement that yee may approve things that are excellent that yee may bee sincere and without offence till the day of Christ 2. The second party of Christians were the Judaizers for by that name Paul seemes to denote them heere by using the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. to judaize or to live as doe the Jewes These in respect of their faith were Christians but by their life they were Jewish for they did believe
receive it and the beleeving Jewes were ready to desert it and by both the name of God and his doctrine was blasphemed Whereupon wee are further to observe that these two last Christian parties namely the Judaizers and Gentilizers agreed in effect For although betweene themselves they were extreamly opposite in many opinions and practises touching Religion Policy and Customes whereby they became bitterly odious one to another yet under this opposition there were many resemblances wherein they agreed 1. Both were Christians for both embraced the fayth of Christ each acknowledged the grace of the Gospel each pretended the truth of it each endeavoured the growth of it and each had a forme of godlinesse 2. Both were erroneous for each labouring to make a compliance betweene the Gospel and that Religion from whence each was converted they both corrupted defiled and leavened the sincerity of the Gospel wherein though both were opposite yet both were in an errour For opposite parties love to make their opinions extreamly opposite i. e. not only contradictory but quite contrary till both become equally erroneous To say in the sense of the Judaizer that works did every way justifie and to say in the sense of the Gentilizer that works did no way justifie were opinions equally erroneous In no case to eat of meat offered unto Idols and in every place to eat meat offered unto Idols were practises equally erroneous And these two opposite erroneous Parties were the two Seminaries of all errors and sects in the Church of Christ for since the first planting of the Gospel unto this very day what errour or what sect did ever trouble and vex the Church which was not a branch either of Judaisme or Gentilisme 3. Both were Contentious for each labouring to maintayne their owne errour and each to obtrude theirs upon the other they did both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. teach erroneously and corruptly neyther of them consenting to the wholesome words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the doctrine which is according to godlinesse but doting about questions and strifes of words whereof came envy strife raylings evill surmisings and perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth 1. Tim. 6.3 4 5. For their needles Controversies and foolish questions and doubtfull disputations did commonly conclude and end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. in vaine janglings and vaine bablings having no other profit but the subverting of the hearers Yet in such contentions some of them were so arrogant or proud and yet so ignorant or knowing nothing that 1. Tim. 1.7 they desired to bee teachers of the Law understanding neither what they sayd nor whereof they affirmed i. e. not knowing which was the subject and which the predicat of the question 4. Both were malicious for each transgressing the Rules of Charity whose office is not to behave it selfe unseemely but to beare all things and to endure all things they both walked in the way of scandall giving mutuall offence grieving vexing and wounding each others conscience The Judaizer judged and condemned the Gentilizer for a prophane and wicked sinner and the Gentilizer despised and scorned the Judaizer for a superstitious and weake idiot Whereupon at first they shunned one anothers company each separating themselves and each excommunicating the other from their Assemblies but at last they laboured to extirpate and destroy one another For in after times when the Heathenish persecution against the Christians ceased then these two opposite Christians fell to persecute one another and wheresoever either party prevailed that condemned the other of Heresie and the other exclaimed against that for Tyranny Thus one toward another these two opposite parties were ravening Wolves in sheepes clothing 5. But in respect of the sincere Christian both were the Tares or the children of the wicked one which Sathan the Enemy of Christ sowed among the Wheat in the field of Christ For as a right faith and a holy life is the seede and Wheate of Christ So Errours and Vices in not walking uprightly according to the truth of the Gospel how opposite or contrary so ever they bee one to another are the seed and tares of Sathan which hee soweth to annoy the Wheate of Christ For Tares or rather Juray or Darnell are a vitious graine of a destructive nature annoying cumbring hindring and pulling downe not onely one another but any other Corne among which they grow but especially Wheate So Judaisme and Gentilisme were Errours and Vices sowed by Sathan which annoyed cumbred and hindred not onely one another but also the truth and sincerity of the Gospel Yet when the question was moved for the extirpation or rooting out of the Tares Christ denies it and hee denies it for the Wheates sake Mat. 13.29 Lest while yee gather up the Tares yee roote up also the Wheate with them For the Tares are rooted into the roote of the Wheate both having one common root one and the same Faith one and the same Head Christ Jesus And the Tares themselves of both sides deny it for their owne sakes one against another Yet both parties deny it not at one and the same time but each party denies it then when hee is deprest and feares to bee extirpated And againe both parties also affirme it one against another yet both affirme it not in one and the same place But each party affirmes it there where hee prevailes and hopes to extirpate the other By such turnings and windings of Doctrine the mystery of iniquity worketh affirming and denying the same thing at severall times and varying their tenets as their advantages vary professing in words the Rule of Equity in Doing to others whatsoever they would that others should doe unto them But denying it in workes and doing the quite contrary For they finde by experience that the common capacities upon whom they worke have not judgement enough to discover the mystery of this iniquity but are rather children tossed too and fro and carried about with every winde of Doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftinesse whereby they lye in waite to deceive Ephes 4.14 But thou who art a sincere Christian and livest among these Tares growing betweene them and bordering upon both must carry thy selfe towards both according to those Rules of Charity which the Gospel of Christ prescribeth 1. Not to extirpate either for since the planting of the Gospel this was never done neither till the end of the world shall it bee done neither till then must it bee done lest saith Christ While yee extirpate the Tares yee roote up also the Wheate with them and when it is done the deed is not a worke of men but of Angels Mat. 13.40.41 So shall it bee in the end of this World the Sonne of man shall send forth his Angels and they shall gather out of his Kingdome all things that offend and them which doe iniquity True it is that every plant which God hath not planted shall bee rooted
an upright man and of Zacharias and Elizabeth it is said Luke 1.6 They were both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 righteous before God i.e. upright walking in all the commandements and ordinances of the Lord blamelesse and Rom. 2.13 Not the hearers of the Law are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 just before God i. e. upright before God And as in the concrete the righteous is put for the upright so in the abstract the word righteousnesse is put for uprightnesse Thus saith Jacob Gen. 30.33 So shall Zidkathi my righteousnesse answer for mee i. e. my uprightnesse And so Deut. 9.5 Not for thy righteousnesse i. e. not for thy uprightnesse And Psal 45.7 thou lovest Zedek righteousnesse i. e. uprightnesse And Prov. 16.8 Better is a little Bezedakah with righteousnesse i. e. with uprightnesse And Esay 5.7 and he looked Lizdakah for righteousnesse and behold a cry i. e. he looked for uprightnesse And Acts 17.31 He hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in righteousnesse i. e. in uprightnesse And 1 John 3.7 Hee that doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 righteousnes is righteous i. e. he that dealeth in uprightnes is upright And in this sense the word righteous is opposed to the legall sinner who because he walketh not according to the Law but transgresseth it is therefore unjust and unrighteous 2. The word Righteous signifies morally quoad mores for one who is kinde and courteous liberall and bounteous by doing acts of benefit and mercy who is not onely ruled by the Law to give every man his due by Law but in many cases is over-ruled by his love to give men more then their due more good and lesse evill then by the Law is due unto them whose maner is to conferre and convey rights unto men by bestowing benefits and doing kindnesses by giving favours and forgiving trespasses For he who out of his love bestows some benefit favor or kindenesse upon me doth thereby create in me a right interest or claime unto the thing bestowed and consequently is thence rightly denominated a righteous man for if he be a righteous man who is upright and deales with me according to that right or claime which by Law I had before much more is he righteous and properly so called who by conferring some benefit or gift upon me doth create some right or claime which before by Law I had not and he that forgives my trespasse doth against the right of the Law give me a right of Release from that penalty which he by the Law might have exacted from me Now as all men ought to be legally righteous i. e. upright according to the Law so ought all men to be morally righteous i. e. kind and curteous according to good maners for no man upon earth is so indigent or poore as not to bee able some way or other to doe a kindenesse as at least to forgive a trespasse Yet eminently this vertue is required from persons of ability and principally from Princes whose Power and Offices lead them to give and forgive in many cases partly beyond the Law and partly against it So the word righteous is taken Psal 37.2 The wicked borroweth and payeth not againe Vezaddik 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the righteous sheweth mercy and giveth i. e. the kinde and liberall man forgiveeth and giveth and Proverb 21.26 The slothfull coveteth greedily all the day long Vezaddik 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the righteous giveth and spareth i. e. the kinde and liberall man and Mat. 1.19 Joseph the Spouse of the blessed Virgin is stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a just man Then Joseph her Husband being a just man i. e. a just or righteous man morally in being kinde and curteous because hee was not onely upright in accustoming to doe that which was right according to the Law but also exceeded the rule of the Law in being kinde and curteous an example of which kindenesse hee shewed to his Wife in resolving to put her away privily when by the Law hee might justly have questioned her openly And Luk. 23.50 Joseph of Arimathea is stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a good man and a just i. e. kinde and courteous Because hee was not onely upright in not consenting to the sentence of the Sanedrim when they condemned Christ But also further was so kinde and courteous that hee begged a kindnesse to bestow a kindenesse for hee begged the dead body of Christ to bestowe upon it an honourable buriall by wrapping it in linnen and laying it in his owne Sepulcher And Act. 10.22 Cornelius the Captaine is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a just man i. e. a kinde and courteous man for hee was not onely upright in fearing God but also toward men hee was kind and courteous liberall and bounteous in giving much Almes unto the Poore as in the same Chapter is specified at the second verse Furthermore as in the concrete the righteous is put for the kinde man so also in the abstract the word righteousnesse is many times in Scripture put for kindnesse As 1 Sam. 12.7 Samuel speakes thus unto the people Now therefore stand still that I may reason with you before the Lord eth col zedakoth of all the righteousnesses of the Lord which he did to you and to your Fathers i. e. of all the kindnesses which he did to you and to your Fathers where our last English translation in the margin renders it benefits and Psal 24.4 Hee that hath cleane hands c. shall receive the blessing from the Lord and righteousnesse from the God of his salvation i. e. Hee shall receive kindenesse from God and Psal 112.9 Hee hath dispersed hee hath given to the poore Zidkatho his righteousnesse endureth for ever i. e. his kindenesse and bounty shall bee alwayes commemorated And Esay 60.17 I will also make thy Officers peace and thy exactors Zedakah righteousnesse i. e. They who used exaction upon thee shall doe thee kindenesse for unto exaction which takes more then is due kindenesse which gives more then is due is extreamely contrary And Mich. 6.5 That yee may know Zidkoth the righteousnesse of the Lord i. e. the kindnesses of the Lord for the word is of the plurall number And Mat. 6.33 Seeke yee first the Kingdome of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and his righteousnesse i. e. his kindnesse favour and mercy And Rom. 1.17 For therein 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the righteousnesse of God i. e. the kindenesse of God is revealed from faith to faith for so the righteousnesse of God must heere signifie because in the verse following it is opposed to the wrath of God the contrary whereof must bee his kindenesse And Rom. 3.21 But now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the righteousnesse of God without the Law is manifested i. e. the kindenesse of God is manifested for Gods righteousnesse without the Law must needes bee his kindenesse in which sense also the word is often repeated in the following
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
is Just or righteous doth in Scripture signifie in all three wayes 1. Legally quoad leges for one who is upright faciendo by doing right 2. Morally quoad mores for one who is kinde donande by giving a right 3. Jurally quoad jura for one who is an Owner habendo by having a right Yet in that one word in one and the same sentence there may concurre or bee implyed sometime two of those senses sometime all three as the circumstances may require a lesse or more generall acception thereof for one and the same person at the same time may bee a man upright kinde and an Owner Come wee now to the Greeke Verbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is a derivative from the Nowne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to the Latine Verbe Justifico which is a figurative compounded of Justus and facio and then the true genuine English of the Latinisme justified will bee this viz. to bee made just or righteous and because the Nowne Just or righteous hath three senses as was formerly shewed therefore consequently the Verbe justified being thence derived must regularly signifie three wayes Viz. 1. To bee made upright 2. To bee made kinde 3. To bee made an Owner And because the word made doth expresse unto us the forme of the third Conjugation Hiphil and Hophal in the Hebrew which regularly consignifies making therefore from that causall Conjugation wee must observe that in the phrase of the Old Testament and so likewise from the New where it imitates the Old as heere it doth such Making may and must bee understood sometime Declaratively only sometime Efficiently and sometime both wayes For these consignifications modifying the principall sense of the Verbe doe vary it into different and severall senses Yet so as that in some case they may concurre for a man may at once be declaratively pronounced righteous and efficiently made so and in some case againe they may be severed for a man may be declaratively pronounced righteous when he is not efficiently made so and contrarily he may be efficiently made so when declaratively he is not so pronounced For the declaring of a thing is not necessarily efficient to make the being of it as if it had no being before but it causeth that being to appeare which before appeared not by making that manifest and cleare which was in being before but the being was so obscure or doubtfull that it was in question and after that being is duly declared it admits of no proofe to the contrary Wherefore the verb justified besides the 3 principall sences which it derives from the nowne Just or righteous doth in Scripture consignifie chiefly 2 wayes viz. Declaratively onely and Efficiently whether the effect be declared or not 1. Declarative onely by pronouncing a person just or righteous and so it derives from the nown 2 senses 1. A Legall and so he is justified who is declared or pronounced upright to have done that which is just or right not to have offended against the Law nor to have done that wrong wherewith he is charged Hence Exod. 23.7 the Lord professeth of himselfe lo azdick I will not justifie the wicked i. e. I will not declare the wicked to be upright or innocent And Deut. 25.1 If there be a controversie between men and they come into judgement that the Judges may judge them vehizdik eth hazaddik then they shall justifie the righteous i. e. they shall declare him upright who is upright legally And Rom. 2.13 For not the hearers of the Law are just before God but the doers of the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall be justified i. e. the hearers onely of the Law are not upright before God but the doers of the Law if there be any such shall be declared upright And here in the last clause of the verse in hand for by the works of the Law shall no flesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be justified i. e. no flesh shall be declared upright See Job 33.32 and Psal 51.4 and Prov. 17.15 and Esay 5.23 and Esay 43.9 and Mat. 11.19 and Mat. 12.37 and Luke 10.29 and Luke 16.15 In all which places the verb Justifie doth not consignifie efficiently or any way causally to make him upright who before was not upright either by infusing into him a new uprightnes which was no where existent before or by imputing unto him that uprightnes which was before existent in another but it consignifies onely declaratively in pronouncing him upright who was upright before and had the quality of uprightnes inherent in him 2. It declares the Morall sense and so he is justified who is declared kinde bounteous and gratious that he not onely doth right in giving every man his due but also doth more then right in giving men more then their due by bestowing Gifts Graces and benefits upon them Hence Luke 7.29 And all the people that heard him and the Publicans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 justified God being baptised with the Baptisme of John i. e. the people and the Publicans declared God to be kind Gratious and bounteous in that counsell of his will which the Pharisees and Lawyers rejected as it appeares by the verse following and this kindnes bounty and Grace of God they declared by their deed in being baptised with the Baptisme of John and the end why they declared Gods kindnes was that thereby they might glorifie God for he that declares or sets forth Gods kindnes by shewing the goodnes and greatnes thereof doth in effect prayse and glorifie God And 1 Tim. 3.16 God was manifest in the flesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was justified in the spirit i. e. was declared kinde bounteous and Gratious by reason of the various gifts and wonderous workes proceeding from his holy spirit And here as before the verb Justifie doth not consignifie efficiently or any way causally to infuse or impute kindnes to him who was not kinde before but onely declaratively to manifest that kindnes which was before in being 2. The verb Justified consignifies Efficiently by effecting or making a man just or righteous and then it derives from the nowne the jurall sense of it and so he is justified or rather jurified who is efficiently made an Owner or an Heire in respect of some right interest or clayme imputed conveyed or settled upon him whether the effect be declared or not declared and this Jurall justifying is effected or made by the two maine degrees of efficiency 1. Procreantly and so he is justified or rather jurified who is made to have a right when a right clayme or interest which he had not before is created constituted imputed or ordained unto him for by this efficiency his Right is first made to initiate commence or begin unto him so the word is taken Esay 45.25 in the Lord all the seed of Israel Jizdeku shall be justified i. e. all the Faithfull who are the spirituall seed of the true Israel shall be procreantly jurified or made to have a right interest
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
c. That they which are called might receive the promise of eternall inheritance There is in the Divels an estimatory faith of Christ for they have acknowledged and confessed of Christ that he is the holy one of God and the son of God See Marc. 1.24 and Marc. 3.11 And in them there is a preceptory faith of Christ for they yeeld to his authority and when he commanded them out of the possessed they obeyed his command Marc. 1.26.27 And there is in them a juducatory faith in Christ for they beleeve he is their Judge who hath power to condemne and torment them and they submit unto his sentence only they petition him to stay the execution and not torment them before the time Compare Mat. 8.29 and Luk. 8.28 But in them there is no promissory faith eyther in God or in Christ not that they want will to accept Gods promises but that they want promises to accept for the promises of the Gospel are not ordayned or made to them because they are not to be justified to have a present right to any future blessing but are already condemned to have a present doome to a future curse Mat. 25.41 in everlasting fire prepared for them And Jude 6. they now lie in everlasting chaines untill the day of their execution But the right subject of a promissory faith in Christ is man because the promises of the Gospel i. e. the Legacies of Gods last Will and Testament are predestinated devised or bequeathed unto man and therefore man is the person who is to be justified to have a present right unto those future blessings and this right man hath and acquires by the title of his faith in Jesus Christ And his faith is restrayned unto Jesus Christ not to exclude his faith in God for all faith in Jesus Christ is also faith in God but partly to distinguish it from all other faith in God as from the faith of the Patriarcks which was immediate and from the faith of the Jews which was mediate by the means of Moses and partly to determinate it upon Christ as the only Meanes or Mediator of it unto whom under the Gospel faith is restrayned for fowre reasons 1. Because Christ is the Conveyer of it through whom wee believe in God For that our faith may meete with God aright it must passe unto him in the same way whereby his promises are conveyed unto us And Gods promises come unto man two ways one is immediately when God himselfe doth by himselfe declare his promises so God immediately by himselfe declared his promise unto Noah for the saving of him and all his Family in the Arke from the flood Gen. 6.18 and such an immediate promise God gave by himselfe unto Abraham for a Sonne and Heire of his owne body Gen. 15.4 The other way is mediatly when God declares the will of his promise by the meanes of a Mediatour or Messenger whom God employeth on purpose to deliver it Such was Gods promise to the Israelites for their deliverance out of Egypt wherein Moses was imployed as the Mediatour or Messenger to deliver it Exod. 3.16 Such was Gods promise to David by the message of Nathan for the establishing of the Kingdome of Israel upon the seede of David 2. Sam. 7.4 Such was his promise to the Jewes by the message of the Prophet Jeremy for their returne from Captivity Jer. 29.10 Such was Gods promise to Zacharias by the message of the Angel Gabriel that his Wife Elizabeth should beare him a sonne Luk. 1.13 And such are all Gods promises specified in the Gospel unto man by the message of Jesus Christ whose Ministery is more excellent then any of the former because Heb. 8.6 Hee is the Mediatour of a better Covenant established upon better promises Now our faith in God must go Gods way for when his promise is immediate by himselfe our faith in him must bee immediate as was the faith of Noah and Abraham But when Gods promise is mediate by the meanes of a Mediatour or Messenger our faith in God must bee mediate to believe in God by or through his Mediatour or Messenger for by or through the Messenger our faith is conveyed and arriveth at God as by or through the Messenger Gods promise is conveyed and arriveth at us For faith in Gods Messenger is faith in God who sent him as our Saviour plainely delivers it John 13.20 Hee that receiveeth whomsoever I send receiveth mee and hee that receiveth mee receiveth him that sent mee i. e. believeth in him that sent mee And contrarily diffiding or despising of Gods Messenger is diffiding or despising of God himselfe as Christ in another Evangelist tells his Disciples Luk. 10.16 Hee that despiseth you despiseth mee and hee that despiseth mee despiseth him that sent mee i. e. diffideth or not believeth him that sent mee For want of this mediate faith to believe in God by the meanes of his Messenger God threatens a fearefull judgement upon the Jewes Jer. 29.18 To persecute them with the sword with the famine and with the pestilence and to deliver them to bee removed to all the Kingdomes of the Earth to bee a curse and an astonishment and a hissing and a reproach among all Nations because they have not hearkened to my words saith the Lord which I sent unto them by my servants the Prophets rising up early and sending them but yee would not heare i. e. yee would not believe And for want of the like faith Zacharias was for a time strucken dumbe Luk. 1.20 because hee believed not the words of the Angel Gabriel who was a Messenger from God unto him Such a mediate faith in God had the Israelites who believed in Moses by and through whom their faith was conveyed and arrived at God For Moses was the Messenger from God and the Mediatour of Gods Testament and Covenant with them It was Gods will that the people should believe him for therefore he was to worke Miracle after Miracle before them Ex. 4.8 and it was Gods worke that they did believe in Moses for therefore the Lord sayd unto him Exod. 19.9 Loe I come to thee in a thick cloud that the people may heare when I speake with thee and believe thee for ever where the Originall hath it believe in thee though the nicety of Translators spare to expresse it For Christ testifieth of the Jewes John 5.45 That they trusted in Moses Yet this faith of theirs in Moses was not terminated in Moses but in God for God was the end in whom this faith rested and Moses was the Meane through whom it passed And all faith under the Gospel is a mediate faith for although it bee terminated in God to settle and rest in him as in the finall object or last end of it Yet it mediateth in Christ as the Meanes by and through whom it is carryed and conveyed unto God For 2. Cor. 3.4 The trust wee have to God-ward is through Christ and Ephes 2.18 Through
maine argument was that God had raysed him from the dead See Act. 2. and Act. 3. and Act. 4. and Act. 5. and Act. 13. For this is the very life of faith 1. Cor. 15.17 For if Christ be not raysed your faith is vaine ye are yet in your sinnes And it is the very heart of saving faith for Rom. 10.9 If thou shalt confesse with thy mouth that Jesus is the Lord and shalt beleeve in thy heart that God raysed him from the dead thou shalt be saved Shall wee not beleeve one risen from the dead Surely the damned are not so unbeleeving for they seeme to beleeve that one risen from the dead is the fittest person to gaine faith and beliefe Hence Dives requested Abraham to send Lazarus to his five brethren living for he supposed that if one should come to them from the dead they would be more perswaded by him then by Moses all the Prophets Luk. 16.30 Can now the unbelieving Jew believe any thing in the World that he hath not seen Can he believe that Abraham was his Father by whom he had a right to the Kingdome of Canaan And can he not believe that Jesus is the Christ by whom he hath a right to the Kingdome of Heaven Can hee believe that Moses was the man of God by whom God gave his Law And can he not believe that Jesus is the son of God by whom God gives his grace Hath he any grounds to believe in Moses And hath hee not far greater stronger for his faith in Jesus Christ for besides the grounds arguments for faith in Christ which hitherto we have mentioned Christ had also the Testimonies of Moses and the Prophets which were sufficient to make faith of him and by the indication of John the Baptist actually did make it in the first of his Disciples for say they John 1.45 We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and the Prophets did write But the Incredulous Jew gives not full credit to his owne Creed he boasteth of Moses and glorieth in his writings and yet hee believes not the writings of Moses for if hee did hee would also believe in Jesus Christ John 5.46 For had ye believed Moses ye would have believed me for he wrot of me The Reason why Christ doth declare and prove the last Will and Testament of God is because Christ is the Executor of it Seeing that Gods Will is a Testament therefore it must needes have an Executor i. e. a person in the place or stead of God to performe the minde and will of God Because the nominating or appoynting of an Executor is the very essence of a Testament which alone doth make a Will to become a Testament and without which no Will eyther is or can bee rightly tearmed a Testament for by the best Lawyers a Testament is defined to bee a Will wherein an Executor is nominated Now the Executor of Gods last Will and Testament is Jesus Christ who is a person in the place and stead of God to execute and performe the will of God For hence saith Christ John 6.38 I came downe from Heaven not to doe mine owne Will but the Will of him that sent mee and the Will heere mentioned is Gods last Will and Testament for in the next following verses hee expresseth one clause of that will containing the blessed Legacies of the Resurrection from the dead and Everlasting life devised or bequeathed to every believer in Christ And againe the Apostle saith Heb. 7.22 Jesus was made a Surety of a better Testament i. e. In effect the Executor of a better Testament for although every Surety bee not an Executor Yet the surety of a Testament is the very same with an Executor because the Executor of a Will stands bound for the Testator to pay all his Debts Gifts and Legacies as the Surety in a bond stands bound for the principall Debtor And againe Christ professeth that hee came into the World on purpose to bee the Executor of Gods last Will and Testament Heb. 10.9 Then sayd hee Loe I come to doe thy Will O God for by Gods will heere is meant his last Will and Testament even that will whereby hee tooke away the first Will that hee might establish the second as plainely appeares by the rest of the words in that verse Now it is the office of the Executor to declare and prove the Will and Testament of the Testator Seeing then Christ is the Executor of Gods last Will and Testament therefore hee declared and proved it to make faith thereof unto us 3. It is called faith in Christ Because faith in Christ is the Title or appellation whereby men are nominated in Gods last Will and Testament If Gods Will containe Promises Legacies and Gifts as most certainely it doth then the persons to whom those Legacies and Gifts are predestinated or devised must bee really truely and certainely nominated for otherwise neither can the Executor duely performe those Legacies neither can the Legataries know how to claime them It must therefore follow that in Gods last Will and Testament men are really truely and certainely nominated Yet not by their proper names nor by their sirnames but by names appellative or common For they who are predestinated or instituted in Gods will are therein predestinated or instituted by the appellative or common names of the Faithfull in Christ of Believers in Christ of Receivers of Christ or such like words equivalent to these as John 3.16 Whosoever believeth in Christ shall not perish but have everlasting life and John 6.47 He that believeth in me hath everlasting life And Acts 16.31 Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house And Rom. 3.26 That God might be just and the Justifier of him that believeth on Jesus And Rom. 10.9 If thou shalt confesse with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved And 1 John 5.13 These things have I written unto you that believe on the Name of the Son of God that ye may know that ye have eternall life When therefore any man can really truly and certainly be denominated from the appellative or common name of a Believer in Christ or of having faith in Christ the Promises Legacies and Gifts of God are thereby as firme and sure unto him as if he had been nominated in Gods Will by his single or proper name In like maner men are reprobated or disinherited in Gods Will not by their proper or single names but by the appellative or common names of unbelievers in Christ and of Carnall Livers and such like names to these as John 3. 18. He that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the onely begotten Son of God Againe John 3.36 He that believeth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him And John 8.24 If ye believe
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
in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thankes to God and the father through him When I live thus ordering my humane actions in this maner and to this end then I may truly say of my selfe In that I now live in the flesh I live in the faith of the son of God as it followeth in the next words Of the Son of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. I live in the faith or religion in that faith or religion of the son of God The particle that being placed after faith doth emphatically determine and specifie the Author of that faith and religion wherein he lived namely in that of the Son of God And there is another emphasis in the article affecting the son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. in that faith or religion of that Son of God that hee might lay out a singular designation of Christ in distinguishing him from other sons of God For he hath reference unto that person whom in this verse hee had before mentioned by the name of Christ in saying I am crucified with Christ and Christ liveth in me Heere therefore hee againe mentions the same person by another name in saying I live in the faith or religion in that of that Son of God who loved mee and gave himselfe for me i.e. of Christ for these words are an eloquent and affectionat circumlocution or description of Christ Wherein are expressed two excellencyes or eminent qualityes of Christ the one of his Birth in relation to God that he was the Son of God the other of his death in relation to man whom he so loved that he dyed for his sake Every Angel every Prophet and every Believer is A son of God but Christ is The or That son of God in a most eminent and singular maner above all other persons that are sons of God whether they be men or Angels Because to omit all other reasons not serving to the Apostles scope in this place hee was begotten on a Virgin not by the power of any man or Angel but by the power of the Highest for as the Angel Gabriel certifies the Virgin Mary his mother Luke 1.35 hee was therefore called the Son of God And heere the Apostle understands no other filiation of Christ then that whereby he was a mortall man because hee argues from his death in saying who loved mee and gave himselfe to death for mee Hee describeth Christ by this attribute of the Son of God that thereby he might expresse another cause that moved him to forsake the Law and Religion of Moses to embrace the faith and Religion of Christ and thereby to regulate all the actions of his life namely because Christ is the Son of God Which first argues for his person that Christ is a person of farre greater dignity then Moses For although Moses were a great Prophet yet his ordinary stile in reference to God runnes but thus that hee was the servant of God and the man of God But the constant title and stile of Christ is to bee the Son of God For from this very difference of condition the Apostle argues the high prerogative of Christ above that of Moses Heb. 3.5 And Moses verily was faithfull in all his house as a servant c. but Christ as a sonne over his owne house And secondly heereby hee highly commends the Religion introduced by Christ beyond that which was setled by Moses as a Religion and service more agreeable to the will and pleasure of God For the Authour to the Hebrewes doth in this respect exalt the Religion of Christ in that God hath delivered the message thereof by his Sonne Heb. 1.1.2 God who spake in time past unto the Fathers by the Prophets hath in these last dayes spoken unto us by his son Hence it will easily bee collected that the Religion of Moses being but the servant of God was but a servile Religion for the services thereof were very servile Heb. 9.10 which stood onely in meates and drinkes and divers washings and carnall ordinances imposed on them untill the time of Reformation Hence that whole Religion is called Rom. 8.15 The spirit of bondage to feare because it wrought in the people a passion of slavish feare such as they commonly have who live under bondage or servitude Hence also the services thereof are called Gal. 4.3 the Elements or Rudiments of the World under which as under Tutors and Governours the Jewes though they were the adopted Children and Heyres of God were held in bondage in a condition nothing different from servants But the Religion of Christ who is that sonne of God is a filial liberall and noble Religion whose services are fitted for the sonnes of God according to the state and degree of sonnes in their plenage who are come to their perfect growth and fullnesse of time For so it followeth in the place fore-cited But when the fulnesse of time was come God sent forth his sonne to redeeme them that were under the Law in the condition of children and servants that they might receive the adoption of sonnes i. e. That they might receive their emancipation from the state of children to have their liberature according to the state and degree of sonnes in their plenage or full age The highest dignity which the Scripture ascribes to the Law or Religion of Moses is taken from the Publication of it in that it was ordayned and spoken by Angels and yet even in this respect she preferres the Religion of Christ before it because this was ordayned and spoken by that son of God who is the Lord not only of men but also of the Angels Heb. 2.2 For if the word spoken by Angels was stedfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward How shall wee escape if wee neglect so great salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord Who loved me and gave himselfe for me Heere hee addeth the other attribute or eminent quality of Christ expressing thereby another motive that caused him to forsake the Religion of Moses and to embrace that of Christ namely because Christ had thereto endeared him by dying for him who sayth he loved me and gave himselfe to death for me Whereby he would insinuate that Christ was far more excellent then Moses not only for the dignity of his person in being the Son of God but also for the dearenesse of his affection in dying for Beleevers for neyther of those are true of Moses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. And delivered himselfe for me Yet heere and elsewhere it is well enough translated gave himselfe because the words give and deliver when they are used in this sense are many times interchanged and one put for the other But in the word Deliver standing thus single and applied to a person there is commonly an ellipsis or defect which is to be supplyed according to the exigency of the matter in hand and which for the most part is some evill
all be made alive But of these words for me the meaning is that Christ delivered himselfe to death and actually died for my sake for my good and for my great benefit which benefit is no lesse unto me then first my Right and afterward my Possession of eternall Blessednesse For by or through his death I collect from Scripture these five benefits 1. Hee Certified mee of blessednesse That the Will and Testament which he published to the World concerning the future blessednesse of heaven was the true whole and last Will and Testament of God seeing hee testified this truth and made faith thereof by his death for because hee witnessed it with his bloud therefore his bloud is sayd to beare witnesse on earth 1 John 5.8 And there are three that beare witnesse on earth the spirit and the water and the bloud 2. He justified me to blessednes For the Will and Testament of God wherein the Legacies or Promises of blessednes are devised unto me was confirmed and established by the bloud and death of Christ who dyed instead of the Testator that the Testament might bee in force and that being in force I am upon my actuall faith actually justified to my Legacies therein for hence wee are sayd to bee justified by the bloud of Christ Rom. 5.9 Being now justified by his bloud we shall be saved from wrath through him 3. He sanctified me for blessednesse For those acts of holinesse which consist in dying to sin and in newnesse of life and which are the conditions and Precepts of Gods Will and Testament whereto the possession of blessednes is limited and without which I shall never possesse it were figured and shaddowed out unto mee by the death and resurrection of Christ For hee that had no sin himselfe how could hee otherwise represent unto me this duty of my death unto sin and newnes of life And that Christ dyed to doe this good upon mee is expresly taught in many places of the Scripture as Gal. 1.4 Who gave himselfe for our sins that he might deliver us from this present evill world And Ephes 5.25 Husbands love your Wives even as Christ also loved the Church and gave himselfe for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse it c. And Tit. 2.14 who gave himselfe for us that he might redeeme us from all iniquity and purifie unto himselfe a peculiar people zealous of good workes And Heb. 9.14 How much more shall the bloud of Christ who through the eternall spirit offered himselfe without spot to God purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God And 1 Pet. 1.18 Ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vaine conversation received by tradition from your fathers but with the precious bloud of Christ. And 1 Pet. 2.24 Who his owne selfe bare our sins in his owne body on the tree that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousnesse 4. He exemplified unto me the way to blessednesse The way leading unto blessednesse is a hard rough and narrow lane beset with many troubles dangers and certaine death through all which hee commands mee to passe A way that unto flesh and bloud is exceeding fearfull and full of horrour for it seemes to lead mee unto utter destruction yet is indeed the right true and onely way to eternall blessednes Now seeing Christ by his death passing this way came thereby to his crowne of glory doth not hee by his example in taking the assay of death and in tasting it for mee encourage me to suffer death and assure unto mee the likenesse of his glory for may I not playnely see this in the death of my Saviour Jesus Christ Heb. 2.9 But we see Jesus who was made a little lower then the Angells for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honour that hee by the grace of God should taste death for every man 5. Hee will glorifie mee with the crowne of blessednesse The Legacies or promises of my future blessednes are to be performed unto me by Christ because he is the sole Executor of that Will and Testament wherein they are devised unto mee and therefore also he is the Captaine of my salvation Unto which Office hee was enabled and perfected through the sufferings of death that after his death he might possesse his owne glory and might also bring me to glory after mine because this was a way beseeming and becomming the good pleasure of God whereby to bring all his sons unto glory Heb. 2.10 For it became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing many sons unto glory to make the Captaine of their salvation perfect through sufferings Christ himselfe having been once dead and gained by his death the power over death doth the more commiserate my death and will be the readier first to succour me at it and hereafter to rayse me from it Heb. 2.18 for in that he himselfe hath suffered being tempted be is able to succour them that are tempted In a word hee therefore dyed and revived that hee might bee my gratious Lord in what state soever I am whether dead or alive Rom. 14.9 For to this end Christ both dyed and rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and the living Yet I am further to conceive that these words Christ gave himselfe or dyed for mee must bee understood of him by way of eminency or excellency in a speciall and singular manner For although some other persons may dye for mee yet they cannot bee sayd to doe it in that maner or in that sense that hee did it Because Christ was the first person who dyed for mee in this kinde and by the meanes of whose death principally and chiefely according to the grace and mercy of God my salvation is established And because Christ was the onely person who dyed for mee to these speciall ends of Justifying Sanctifying and Glorifying of mee as hee was my sole and onely Mediatour without the conjunction of any other person heerein And because this deede of Christ in dying for mee is sometime in Scripture attributed unto Christ as a speciall property peculiar to him for hence it is sayd Rom. 14.15 Destroy not him with thy meate for whom Christ dyed viz. in an eminent and excellent manner And 1. Cor. 1.13 Was Paul crucified for you i. e. Neither Paul nor any other person was crucified for you principally and especially Otherwise besides Christ some other person may also dye for mee and may bee truely sayd to dye for the good of my salvation For touching himselfe Paul saith 2. Cor. 1.6 That hee was afflicted for the consolation and salvation of the Corinthians And 2. Cor. 12.15 That hee would very gladly spend and bee spent for their soules for so the Margin declares the Originall And Ephes 3.1 That hee was the Prisoner of Jesus Christ for the Gentiles and if consequently to his imprisonment hee had suffered
first loved mee therefore I must and doe love him 1. John 4.19 Wee love him because he first loved us And it goeth very well and happily with mee if Gods grace have this effect upon mee to bee seconded and followed with my workes of holinesse by way of gratefulnesse for his grace For this effect doth not follow necessarily but onely contingently which may bee or may bee not Seeing too manifest it is that in some men it followeth not Because otherwise Gods grace could not bee frustrated which the Apostle heere supposeth Yet I must constantly note that although my workes of holinesse bee not the cause procreant to produce the existence of Gods grace towards mee Yet they are the cause conservant to maintaine the continuance of it because otherwise his grace will bee frustrated Seeing then Gods grace is on Gods part the cause of my Justification unto this divine alliance and inheritance with him if therefore unto my workes I ascribe that cause which belongs unto his grace doe I not heereby frustrate the grace of God by denying it that effect which properly it doth produce Am I not heereby a Rejector and a Despiser of Gods grace as a thing superfluous and needlesse And consequently am I not an ungratefull and an ungracious wretch to magnifie the poorenesse of my workes above the richnesse of his grace Seeing unto workes of holinesse I stood bound before by the Law of nature as I am Gods Creature though hee had conferred upon mee no such grace of alliance as to make me his son and heir For if righteousnesse come by the Law A further confirmation and illustration of this last argument in the former clause of this verse comprising withall a prevention of a tacit objection An Obje ∣ ction For by reason of his former words some man might say why doe you speake of frustrating the grace of God Should you frustrate his grace if your right of inheritance should bee conveyed unto you by Gods Law and not by faith in Christ The An ∣ swer Heereto his Answer is affirmative that thereby he should frustrate Gods grace for saith hee if the right of inheritance come by the Law then Christ dyed without a cause and consequently the riches of Gods grace which appeared by the meanes of Christs death should bee made frustrate and void The word Righteousnesse in reference to God doth often signifie that vertue of God which is his Uprightnesse whereby all his actions are just and right according to that holinesse which unto him is naturall Sometime it signifieth his faithfulnesse in keeping and performing that promise which hee hath made But more frequently it signifieth his kindnesse which went before his promise and was the cause why hee made it For why doth God keep his promise The reason is because he is just faithful but why did he first make his promise the reason is because he is kind and gracious Of the word Righteousnesse in this latter sense we spake somewhat largely before in this Chapter verse 16. But heere in this verse the word signifies jurally for that right of alliance and inheritance which on my part is the effect or consequent of Gods kindnesse to mee and whereto his righteousnesse or kindnesse doth justifie mee All which amount in one word unto Justification as if the Apostle had expressed it thus if my Justification or the right whereto Gods kindnesse doth justifie come by the Law For Gods kindnesse his Justfying and my Right thence resulting are in this respect either put for the other Because they are all concurrent unto one and the same purpose for his righteousnesse or kindnesse is the cause whereof my Right is the effect and his Justifying is the act whereby through the meanes of my faith his kindnesse doth convey this Right unto me That therefore wee may heere performe what was before intimated in this Chapter vers 16. Wee are to observe that the Hebrew word Zedakah in the Old Testament and the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the New which in our Translations are commonly Englished by the word Righteousnesse doe many times signifie the Latine word Jus whereof the English is a Right Interest or Claime As Gen. 15.6 And Abraham believed in the Lord and hee counted it to him Zedakah for righteousnesse or a Right i. e. God upon Abrahams faith conveyed unto Abraham a right to the blessing which God had promised And Gen. 30.33 So shall Zidkathi my righteousnesse or right answer for mee in time to come when it shall come for my hire before thy face q. d. All the yong ones of the flock which shall fall out to bee spotted shall bee my hire for keeping the flock and my Right to these shall answer your question concerning my future wages for if you finde with mee any other then such let it bee theft in mee And Psal 35.27 Let them shout for joy and bee glad that favour Zidki my righteousnesse i. e. my right or as it is there translated my righteous cause And Proverb 16.8 Better is a little Bizdekah with righteousnesse i. e. with right for the words following require that sense then great revenues without right And Esay 5.23 Which justifie the wicked for reward and take away Zedakah Zaddikim the righteousnesse of the righteous from him i. e. the right of the righteous from him for no man can take away the uprightnesse or morall righteousnesse of the righteous from him but his jurall right may be and many times is taken from him Likewise in the New Testament the Greeke word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth many times signifie a right As Heb. 11.7 And Noah became Heire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the righteousnesse which is by faith i. e. of the right which hee accepted by his faith For the matter whereto a man becomes heire is some right interest or claime and not uprightnesse or morall righteousnesse because such righteousnesse is not inheritable or deviseable to bee conveyed from one person to another as Rights and Interests may and doe And Rom. 4.4.5 Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt but to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for righteousnesse i. e. for a Right for it hath reference to the thine former words Reward Grace and Debt which are jurall tearmes concerning matters of Right and plainely teach us this comparison betweene the Laborer and the Believer who agree in this that both have a good right interest or claime the Labourer to his wages and the Believer to his promise But in this they differ that the Labourer by title of his worke hath a right to his wages and his right is of debt But the Believer by title of his faith hath a right to his promise and his right is of grace And in the same Chapter vers 11. And Abraham received the signe of circumcision a seale 〈◊〉
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the righteousnesse of the faith which hee had being uncircumcised that hee might bee the Father of all them that believe i. e. A seale of the right which hee had by faith being uncircumcised for a seale is not a signe of uprightnesse or morall righteousnesse but of a right interest or claime and the right sealed unto Abraham is heere specified That hee might bee the Father of all them that believe which condition in Abraham was not a morall righteousnesse but a jurall right of dignity And againe vers 13. For the promise that hee should bee the Heire of the World was not to Abraham or to his seeds through the Law but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 through the righteousnesse of faith i. e. through the right which hee had by faith for it hath reference to the two former words Promise and Heire which are jurall tearmes proper to matters of right for a Promise is an act which maketh a Right and an Heir is a person who hath a right The like sense the word Righteousnesse beareth in divers passages of that Epistle the recitall whereof would prove too numerous and tedious Yet for our further confirmation heerein wee may take notice that in the Old Testament the Hebrew word Zedakah doth not onely signifie a right but in King JAMES his translation is sometime so Englished As 2. Sam. 19.28 For all my Fathers house were but dead men before my Lord the King yet didst thou set thy servant among them that did eate at thine owne table mah iesh li Zedakah what right have I therefore yet to cry any more unto the King The Right heere mentioned is the right of Inheritance which Mephibosheth had to his Land whereof he stood then disseised by the treachery and calumny of Ziba as it appeares by the words following And Nehemiah 2.20 Then I answered them and sayd unto them the God of Heaven he will prosper us therefore we his servants will arise and build but you have no portion Uzedakah nor right nor memoriall in Jerusalem The Right heere mentioned was a Right of Inheritance or of some speciall Priviledge which the three persons to whom hee spake could not clayme because they were not Jewes but Strangers for Sanballat was a Samaritan Tobiah an Amonite and Geshem an Arabian And Psal 9.4 For thou hast maintained my right and my cause thou satest in the throne Judging Zedek right And Psal 17.1 Heare Zedek the right O Lord attend unto my cry Thus the Hebrew word Zedakah the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the English righteousnesse doth many times signifie a Right and is sometime so Englished Now that the same word doth also signifie a Right here in the Text which we have now in hand though here it be not so Englished it playnly appeares from a parallell place in the next chapter following verse 18. For if the Inheritance be of the Law it is no more of Promise For first both these sayings carry the same sense because every Inheritance is a Right though not contrarily every Right is not an Inheritance for there be divers other Rights besides Inheritances But an Inheritance is one speciall kind and indeed the best kind of Right when it comes to be in possession because it is an universall and perpetuall Right extended to a whole estate for ever What therefore in one place is meant by the generall word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Right the same is expressed in the other by the speciall word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Inheritance Secondly both these sayings carry the same reason because in both places hee argues for one and the same conclusion namely that a man is not justified by the Law which hee proves from the severall absurdities which upon a supposall of the affirmative will necessarily follow for if a man be justified by the Law or if his right come by the Law or if his Inheritance be of the Law for all these sayings are all one in effect then all is frustrate voyd without cause and of no effect for the grace of God is frustrate faith is made voyd the death of Christ is without cause and the promise is of no effect For when he saith It is no more of Promise hee seemes to say The Promise is of no effect for so hee sayth expresly in a place paralell to both these Rom. 4.14 For if they which be of the Law be heires fayth is made voyd and the Promise made of no effect Then Christ is dead in vaine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Dyed without cause This is the absurdity which will necessarily follow upon the former supposition that the right to blessednesse commeth by the Law The Greeke Adverbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not signifie in vaine for that is in vaine which is without effect neither is it elswhere in the New Testament ever translated in vaine neyther is that sense the minde of the Apostle heere though that sense be a truth and will follow upon the former supposition But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifies gratis i. e. for nothing or of gift without desert reward or recompence and in this sense it is commonly translated by the word freely as Rom. 3.24 being justified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 freely by his grace Yet sometime and so heere in this place it signifieth causelesly or without cause and that is done causlesly or without cause for which there is no reason or at least no just weighty or sufficient reason So the word is rendred John 15.25 they hated me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without a cause and so in this place it stands rendred in that English translation which was here in use before that of King JAMES q. d. If the Right of Inheritance unto blessednesse bee Legitimate and come by the Law then there was no just cause nor no sufficient reason can be given why God should deliver Christ and Christ should deliver himselfe up to death But heere in the Death of Christ must bee tacitly comprehended by way of Synecdoche all those other actions of his without which his death would have failed of that due effect for which it was purposed as his Doctrine before it and especially his Resurrection after it For when the Apostle declares the causes of his Death hee commonly also makes expresse mention of his Resurrection joyning it with his death in respect of causality As Rom. 4.25 Who was delivered for our offences and was raised againe for our justification And Rom. 6.4 Therefore wee are buried with him by baptisme into death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead to the glory of the Father Even so wee also should walke in newnesse of life And Rom. 8.34 Who is hee that condemneth It is Christ that dyed yea rather that is risen againe And Rom. 14.9 For to this end Christ both dyed and rose and revived that hee might bee Lord both of the dead and the living And 2.