pp ''•'^77"*r> FG33 S. PAUL'S EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS, ILLUSTRATED FROM ©ibmes; of tin Ci)urtl) of en^Iantr^ JAMES FORD, M.A., PREBENDARY OF EXETER CATHEDRAL. LONDON ; JOSEPH MASTERS, ALDERSGATE STREET, AND NEW BOND STREET. oxford: J. H. and J. PARKER. CAMBRIDGE: MACMILLAN AND CO. 1862. LONDON ; PRINTED BY JOSEPH MASTEBS AND CO., ALDEKSGATE STREET. PREFACE. It is probable, that, according to the most ancient order, dating as early as the time of Irenseus in the second century, this Epistle was placed before all the other Epistles of S. Paul, though it was not written before them all. It owes this precedence, in the first place, to the fact of its being addressed to a Church, planted in the Imperial city, the great centre of power, knowledge, and civilization at that period ; for we may apply to the Apostle's writings what Bengel ob- served of his presence — Paulus Rom(s apex Evan- gelii. But, examining its internal merits, we find it has still stronger claims to this pre-eminence. For it surpasses them all in the comprehensive, regular, and noble statements it contains of Christian Doctrine. On this account, some have regarded it, as a key to the right understanding of the other Epistles ; and the excellent Archbishop Ussher' goes so far as to describe it, as being " a perfect Catechism of the Church ;" and as containing " a platform of Christian Doctrine, whereupon all Churches and persons may ' See his Sermons on Gal. iii. 22, and on Rom. viii. 15, 16. iv PREFACE. safely build themselves." It is not surprising, then, that, with these grand characteristics, it should have been always received by Christians, as it now is by ourselves, with such eminent distinction. And this distinction finds a parallel in the Hebrew Scriptures of the Old Testament, where Isaiah, in consequence of the transcendent excellency of his writings, ranks be- fore his other brother- Prophets, some of whom prophe- sied before him. This resemblance between them may be more remarkable, because they w'ere both " moved by the Holy Ghost" to dwell with such peculiar eni- phasis on the same great event — one, surely, of the greatest in the world's religious history — the union of Jews and Gentiles in the Church of the Living God. Indeed the importance of that event, as set forth in the Epistle before us, adds not a little to its exceeding value. In this point of view, it seems beyond all others, to be that Epistle of S. Paul, in which he gives the fullest " proof of his Ministry," as one, called of God to be the Apostle of the Gentiles. He fails not, on other occasions, to shew the heart-felt interest he took in their salvation ; but this feeling (as we shall see) pervades every part of this Divine Scripture, and is interwoven with its main substance and argu- ment. We find him, at other times, engaged in his proper element of preaching the Gospel to them, and of caUing them into Christ's Church; but here we behold him following them with parental watchfulness and care, after they were admitted into the true fold ; and labouring, more especially, to reconcile the pre- judices of the Jewish believers to that admission, and to PREFACE. V unite both classes by the power of a mutual faith, and in the bonds of brotherly love. This surely was a matter of the utmost consequence. It was necessary to their " edification and comfort," in the new relationship they bare to each other : it was necessary, in regard to the very constitution of the Church of Christ, as designed to be Catholic : and it was, we may venture to say, above all, necessary, in order to the production and exhibition, in the sight of the world — from the world's most lofty summit and platform — of that Love among Christians which was to be their distinctive mark, their special glory ; of which our Lord spake, saying, " By this shall all men know, that ye are My disciples, if ye have Love one towards another." It has been asserted and proved by a noble author, that the miraculous conversion of S. Paul and his Mission to the Gentiles furnish evidence to the Divine Truth of our holy Re- hgion, adequate to the conviction of every candid mind. But where, we may ask, do the marvellous fruits of that sudden revolution in the Apostle's character and life appear to greater advantage, than in the outpourings of his innermost soul in this Epistle ? When does he, to use the expression he himself suggests, more abun- dantly magnify his office, as the Minister of Jesus Christ unto the Gentiles? (xi, 13; xv. 16.) Where else do we behold him more alive to the momentous conside- rations of Salvation and of Eternity ; more actuated by a heavenly impulse of faith, and love, and devoted zeal ; more inflamed with an ardent desire to fulfil " the Mi- nistry, he had received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the Gospel of the Grace of God" — in its express ma- VI PREFACE. nifestatioa to that heathen world, that was " dead in trespasses and sins?" These reflections will prepare our way into an in- quiry into the subject and design of this Epistle. It is a matter of thankfulness, whereas we know so little, for certain, respecting the origin of the Church of Rome — when, or by whom it was first founded, and under what particular circumstances^ — that we have yet the means of accurately ascertaining (the point, that chiefly concerns us) its state at the time, when this Epistle was written. We can learn it from the Epistle itself. S. Paul informs us of his anxious desire for many years to visit the Christians at Rome. This visit appeared to him so important, that he made it the constant sub- ject of his prayers, and intreated also for it the most earnest prayers of his brethren (xv. 30). But he was " much hindered from coming to them" (xv. 22). No- thing, however, prevented his writing : and we may fairly conclude, that what he desired to tell them by word of mouth, he would not fail now to communicate in his letter : and thus the Apostolic Epistle seems to supply, in a measure, the place and lack of the Apos- tohc Visitation. What then was the end he proposed to himself in visiting them ? I long, he writes, to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift to the end ye m.ay he established ; that is, that I may be comforted together with you, by the mutual faith, both of you and me. (i. 1 1 — 13 ; Conf. xv. 32.) No doubt, as was the case with other recently founded Churches, he was intent upon confirming the Faith they professed, and confirming them in their profession of it ; espe- PREFACE. Vll cially, as it does not appear that any Apostle had yet visited them. He would be anxious also to increase their knowledge and spiritual graces, out of the fulness of store, given him of the Lord ; and also to arm them against the many temptations to instability and even apostacy, which certainly abided them in such a place, as Rome. Their faith he commends, in the highest terms, " thanking God for them, that it was spoken of throughout the whole world" (i. 3) : and, that it was no mere formal profession or barren faith, is signified to us later in the Epistle — Ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine, v)hichwas delivered you (vi. 17) : Your obedience is come abroad unto all men (xvi. 19) : I am persuaded that ye are full of goodness (xv, 14). In a Church, where such tried servants of the Lord, as Aquila and Priscilla had so great influence (in whose house was the assembly for Worship, and whom he salutes, first of all, in this Epis- tle, xvi. 3 — 5), it is not likely that that faith would be defective in any essential part, so as to call for the authoritative interference and correction of the Apos- tle. This Epistle certainly abounds with statements of Christian truth, designed to establish their faith — and indeed that of all Christians unto the end of the world. But there was a further special design, it seems, included in this. For their faith had evidently miscarried in one of its most necessary effects : it had failed to secure their likemindedness and unanimity, as members of a mixed communion of Jewish and Gentile converts. The force of long-rooted prejudices still made itself painfully felt ; causing, on both sides, VUl PREFACE. jealousies and unbrotherly censures, breaking out into divisions and offences (xvi. 7) "There were at the same time in Rome," writes Bishop Jewel, ^ " a great number both of Jews and Gentiles, and amongst them there was great strife and division. The Jews, on the one side, esteemed not the Gentiles ; the Gentiles, on the other side, despised the Jews. Thus between them the people were di- vided, and rent unto dissension. . . . And this came to pass only through pride. Pride was the cause, that such, as were brethren, fell out with one another. Pride was the cause, that such, as should have died one for another, could not abide one another. Pride was the cause, that such, as before-time were friends, became then open enemies. The Jews, on the one part, were proud, for that they were the children of Abraham ; for that they were under the Law and Pro- mise ; for that they had knowledge of Goo's will by Oracles ; for that God had oftentimes sent His Angels unto them, and spoken by His own mouth unto them. And the Gentiles had none of all these ; they were not of the seed of Abraham ; they were not under the Promise ; they had never knowledge of God's will, neither by Oracle nor Vision. God never spake unto them, nor ever sent His Angels unto them. The Gentiles, on the other side, were as proud, as the Jews. They said that they had wise men amongst them, men of great learning and knowledge ; they had philoso- phers, they had astronomers, they had geometricians and great orators : and so had not the Jews amongst ' See his Sermon on Rom. xii. 16 — 18. PREFACE. IX them. They had no men of great wisdom ; they had no men of any high learning ; they had no philoso- phers, no astronomers, no geometricians, no orators : they were men ignorant and without any knowledge at all. S. Paul, therefore, to set an unity between these two, which were thus far at discord, exhorteth them that they should all think one thing, that they be of like affection one towards another, that they be not high minded, nor wise in their own opinions. For pride it is, that breaketh all love ; and pride it is, that breedeth all dissension. There was never yet division, there was never any discord or dissension, but pride was the first cause and author thereof." We see then from this statement the special need there was of the Apostolic interference and admoni- tion, and may infer from it what was the principal de- sign of this Epistle. We see to what a work S. Paul was now called ; and from the well known powder of pride — whether religious, or intellectual pride — over the wills and affections of men, we may judge of its difficulty. Full well must he have known the divided state of the Roman Christians ; deep must have been the sorrow and even the alarm he felt, on finding the cause of his Divine Master ekposed to scandal and misrepresentation in that city, where it ought to have been displayed with unimpaired lustre. But how nobly does he acquit himself on this trying occasion ! Against the strongholds of Pride he opposes the spiritual wea- pons of Love. We admire the power he displays, as a preacher, his eloquence as an orator, his skill as a disputant ; but it was the spirit of Love, in which he X PREFACE. addressed them, that was calculated to give the pene- tratiiii^ edge to his arguments, and to gain the assent of his brethren by, first of all, gaining their affections — by 'pleasing them for their good to edification (xv. 2). And to this we must ascribe that perfect impartiality, with which, standing as umpire between the contending par- ties, he does justice to both, and, in regard to both, vindicates the cause of God and His Truth. If we see him, now putting himself in the place of the Jew, and now in that of the Gentile, and pleading, as the case of each required, it was, because he had them both equally in his heart, because he had deeply imbibed into his own spirit the Spirit of God, who is " no respecter of persons," but who " doeth good to all." Again, there was another marked effect of his Love towards them. It engaged him to employ the most effective methods of persuasion, for their good. He exhibits in this Epistle a bright example of that ex- cellent virtue, which S. James so beautifully calls " meekness of wisdom." In proportion as pride ob- tains the ascendancy, the office of admonishing or re- proving those under its influence becomes more diffi- cult : for the monitor or reprover challenges for himself a certain superiority ; and to this the proud can ill submit. Hence it becomes necessary, that he should avoid everything like undue assumption : he must temper his advice with humility, with a condescending deference to this known infirmity in our natures. And this is exactly what we find S. Paul here doing. Does he express a wish to impart to them some spiritual gift, to the end that ye may be established ? He explains, PREFACE. XI qualifies, almost retracts this phrase, as from a fear lest they should suspect him of assuming too much, and immediately adds — that is, that I may be comforted together tuith you by the mutual faith both of you and me. He would rather seem to comfort, than to esta- blish them ; and, though so great an Apostle, he iden- tifies himself with their infirmities, as one, desirous of being comforted with them. " Oh, what mighty humble-mindedness !" exclaims S. Chrysostom in his remarks on this passage. " He shewed himself to be in need of them, and not them of him only ; and he puts the disciples in the position of teachers, not let- ting any superiority remain upon his own side, but points out a great matter of equality : for the gain is mutual, he means ; and I need the comfort from you, and you from me." (Conf. xv. 14, 15.) Thus ad- mirably did he observe towards them his own rule — " Brethren, if any man be overtaken in a fault, ye, which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted" (Gal. vi. 1). Having first taught them by his example, most consistently might he then lay down for their guidance this general principle — We that are strong, ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves (xv. 1). It is remarkable how frequently he couples together the name of Jew and Gentile — something quite pecu- liar to this Epistle : and he does it, in connection with the most important doctrines. If at the beginning he announces the Gospel of Christ, as the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth — it is to the Xll PREFACE. Jeiv first, and also to the Gentile (i. 16) : and so, in regard to their being under a religion of rewards and punishments (ii. 6 — IJ), to their sin and guilt under the Law (iii. 9), to their free justification by faith (iii. 29, 30), to their gratuitous election (ix. 24), and to their acceptance, generally, with God (x. 12). All these doctrines, when applied in this pointed manner, seem, in the intent of S. Paul, to have been so many bonds of sympathy and union between the conflicting members of this Church, directing their Faith, which was, in the main, so " well spoken of," to its proper office and work of Love ; just as, in human affairs, we na- turally become attached to those, with whom we are embarked in the same cause, or enlisted under the same master, or subjected, in any way, to the same hopes or fears — fears of danger, or hopes of success. The Apostle, it may be, dwells with a sensible delight on this lovely alliance between names, so long kept asunder and at enmity with each other : he writes, as though he would fain impress on his brethren, by dint of these repetitions, the importance and blessedness of this union ; that they also might view it in the same happy light, and act upon it, and so share in his joy — that (to recur to his own words) I may he com- forted together with you hy the mutual faith both of you and me — of you, by nature Gentiles ; of me, who am of the seed of Abraham ; of us both, as now " made one" in Christ Jesus, fellow-servants of one Lord, fellow-heirs of the same Kingdom ; who are henceforth bound by every strong obhgation and endearing tie to follow after the things ivhich make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another (xiv. 19). PREFACE. XIU In all these respects, he shews himself to be now dead, through Christ, to his former prejudices against the Gentiles, and equally so to his prepossessions in favour of his own Religion, with its arrogant claim to an exclusive salvation. Nor does he content himself with placing them both on the same level, in regard to acceptance with God : he further declares, how they stood mutually indebted to each other for the enjoy- ment of that inestimable privilege. For, if thou, he WTites, being a icild olive-tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive-tree (xi. 17), it is, that hereafter, in the fulness of the time, through your mercy, they also may obtain mercy ; and so all Israel shall be saved : for God hath concluded them all in unbelief (at their several re- spective seasons), that He might (in the end) have mercy upon all (xi. 31, 32), Who can tell what were the intense longings of the Apostle after the healing of every breach between them, when he thus fulfilled (in a secondary sense) his " Ministry of reconcilia- tion ?" What w^ere his feelings, when he charges them thus — Receive ye one another, as Christ also has received us, to the Glory of God (xv. 7) : when he prays for them — The God of Peace be with you all (xv. 33 ; Conf. xvi. 17 — 20) : w'hen he pours out upon them his Apostolic benediction — Noiv the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded, one toward another, according to Christ Jesus, that ye may with one mind and one mouth Glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (xv. 5, 6) ? Hence, too, we learn the one great end, or final cause, with a view to which the blessed Apostle bestows so vast a labour of love XIV PREFACE. upon them throughout this Epistle — the Glory of God: for iu what is the Glory of God more concerned, than in the Unity of His Church ? But, while we dwell on the attractive features of this Epistle, so framed for our mutual edification and comfort, we cannot forget its great acknowledged diffi- culties. Many learned Divines' incline to the opinion that S. Peter had these expressly in view, when he ob- served, that there were " some things hard to be un- derstood" in the writings of his brother Apostle. Yet he did not on this account deter any from reading them ; but only cautioned us against those common dangers, which attend Scripture- obscurities generally, when men " wrest them to their own destruction" (2 S. Pet. iii. 16). These "hard things" are some; not all, not the greater part ; but few, in comparison of the numerous passages, which are stated with the utmost plainness, because they belong to the Credenda and the Agenda, necessary to everlasting Salvation ; which the difficult places do not. We may well be content to remain ignorant, as to certain mysteries, when we remember, that it has baffled the most pow- erful intellects to fathom them ; and that even souls, the most " taught of God," have been compelled to acknowledge " such wisdom to be too excellent for them." Nor have fine-spun distinctions of doctrine, nor metaphysical subtleties, " profited them, that have been occupied therein ;" but, on the contrary, have often fostered a love of speculation and controversy, ' See Bp. Bull's Discourse iii., I faithful, &c." In this Discourse he " Concerning the Spirit of God in the | mentions the particular difficulties. PREFACE. XV and, it may be, something still worse — a spirit, the very opposite to that generous genial temper we have been admiring in the Apostle. The most effectual mode of avoiding these dangers, with the blessing of God, will be for us to keep close to the received Doctrines of our Apostolic Church, as indeed on other grounds we are bound to do. And, where can we find these better explained, according to the Truth of Holy Scripture, than in the writings of her great Divines ; whose pages reflect the piety, learn- ing, and wisdom of Antiquity, whose names are con- secrated in our grateful remembrance, whose authority, as Masters in our Israel, is still happily acknowledged amongst us ? This is the track, this the " good old way," along which the Author of these Illustrations de- sires to walk himself, and to be permitted to lead those among his brethren, who may stand in need of the humble assistance he has here to offer them. On the present occasion, he has thought fit, in the formation of his Notes, to confine himself exclusively to this class of Divines. He did not do so, in his preceding volumes on the Gospels and the Acts ; because he con- sidered that, with their frequent changes of incident and diversities of character introduced, they allowed him more latitude in the choice of his authors. But the very different nature of an Epistle, and especially of this Epistle, suggested to him the propriety of altering and adapting his method of treatment. He felt it now to be highly necessary to avoid everything likely to distract the reader's attention from the thread of the argument, and, with this view, to render his XVI PREFACE. notes as uniform and grave in their character, as he could. He has also thought fit to add to the length of the extracts ; it heing almost impossible in a few words, or in a few sentences, to do justice to the opinions of the writer quoted, and, still less, to the weighty argument of the Apostle. He has discon- tinued an Index of Contents, on the supposition, that to every one, moderately acquainted with the Epistle, the headings of each successive Chapter would be a sufficient guide to particular topics. Instead of this Index, he has appended a list of the writers chiefly quoted, with some information respecting them ; and he hopes that this will impart a fresh interest to their observations. It will be observed, that they are, for the most part, selected from the period of the seven- teenth century, the golden era of matured English Theology ; a large proportion of them being Bishops and Dignitaries of the Church ; men, who laboured for God, under the shade of our venerable Cathedrals, so wisely set apart for the special purpose of devout re- tirement and of learned leisure. In conclusion, he trusts that the alterations, intro- duced for these reasons, will be found improvements, and that the volume may thus become, in its way, a useful contribution to that blessed work of Scripture- elucidation, in which so many, at the present day, have laboured with such great success, to the Glory of God and to the edifying of His Church. LIST OF AUTHORS. N.B. No Author is here mentioned, unless he is quoted in the work four times at least. When I When Born. Died. Times Quoted. Adam, Thomas, Rector ofWintringham, Dioc. Lincoln Allestree, Francis, D.D., Reg. Prof, of Divinity, Oxford Andrewes, Lancelot, D.D., Bishop of Winchester Baily, Lewis, D.D., Bishop of Bangor . Barrow, Isaac, D.D., Master of Trin. College, Cambridge Beveridye, William, D.D., Bishop of S. Asaph Blackwall, Antony, M.A., Rector of Clapham, Dioc Winch. ......... Boys, John, D.D., Dean of Canterbury ... Boyle, Robert, Hon., Philosopher and Mathematician Bramhall. John, D.D., Archbishop of Armagh Brownrigg, Ralph, D.D., Bishop of Exeter Butler, Joseph, D.D., Bishop of Durham Butler, William Archer, M.A., Prof, of Moral Philo- sophy, Univ. Dublin ...... Bull, George, D,D.. Bishop of S. David's . Cave, H'i//ta/w, D.D., Canon of Windsor . Gierke, Richard, D.D., Fellow of Christ's Coll., Cam- bridge ......... Davison, John, B.D., Prebendary of Worcester . Donne, John, D.D., Dean of S. Paul's . . . . Farindon, Antony, B.D., Divinity Reader of his Majesty's Chapel Royal at Windsor Felltham, Owen, Esq Fiddes, Richard, D.D., Rector of Halsham. Dioc. York Frank, Mark, D.D., Master of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge c ]701 1619 1565 1630 1638 1571 16-J7 1593 1592 1692 1814 1634 1637 1777 1573 1576 1671 1613 1784 1680 1626 1632 1677 1707 1730 1625 1691 1663 1659 1752 1848 9 1709 6 1713 5 1634 1834 1631 12 14 20 7 20 5 17 8 7 16 4 13 14 30 1658 24 1678 I 5 1725 I 4 1664 I 14 XVlll LIST OF AUTHORS. WTien Born. When Died. Times Quoted. Gilpin, William, M.A., Prebendary of Salisbury Gurnall, William, M.A., Rector of Lavenham, Dioc. Ely 1724 1616 1804 1679 4 23 //^acAre/, JbAw, D.D., Bishop of Lichfield . 1592 1670 12 i/a/e«, 7oAw, B.D., Canon of Windsor .... 1584 1656 6 i/«//, yose;;/*, D.D., Bishop of Norwich 1574 1656 22 Hammond, Henry, D.D., Canon of Christ Church, Oxford 1605 1660 17 Hickes, George, D.D., Dean of Worcester . 1642 1715 5 Hooker, Richard, M.A., Master of the Temple, London 1553 1600 28 Hopkins, Ezekiel, D.D., Bishop of Londonderry Home, George, D.D., Bishop of Norwich Horneck, Antony, D.D., Prebendary of Exeter . 1633 1730 1641 1690 1792 1696 6 12 4 Horsley, Samuel, D.D., Bishop of S. Asaph . Hurd, Richard, D.D., Bishop of Worcester 1733 1720 1806 1808 6 5 Jackson, Thomas, D.D., Dean of Peterborough 1579 1640 30 /ewe//, /oAw, D.D., Bishop of Salisbury . 1522 1572 7 Jones, William, M.A., Perp. Curate of Nayland, Dioc. Ely 1726 1801 5 Kettlewell, John, Vicar of Coleshill, Dioc. Worcester . 1653 1695 10 King, William, D.D., Archbishop of Dublin . 1650 1729 5 Knox, Alexander, Private Secretary of Lord Castlereigh 1758 1831 7 Lake, Arthur, D.D., Bishop of Bath and Wells . 1567 1626 14 Leighton, Robert, D.D., Archbishop of Glasgow . Lightfoot, John, D.D., Master of Catherine Hall, Cam- 1613 1684 16 bridge 1602 1675 21 Littleton, Adam, D.D., Rector of Chelsea, Dioc. London 16-27 1694 5 Lowth, William, B.D., Prebendary of Winchester 1661 1732 4 Lucas, Richard, D.D., Prebendary of Westminster . 1648 1715 6 Mede, Joseph, B.D., Fellow of Christ Coll., Cambridge . Merf/ey, Jo/m, D.D., Bishop of Fredericton Melvill, Henry, B.D., Canon of S. Paul's, London 1586 1662 10 4 5 Middleton, Thomas Fanshaiv, D.D., Bishop' of Calcutta 1769 1822 7 Miller, John, M.A., Fellow of Worcester Coll., Oxford . 6 Newman, John Henry, M.A., Vicar of S. Mary's, Oxford 15 Norris,John, M.A., Rector of Bemerton, Dioc. Salisbury 1657 1711 9 jPa/ey, PF«7/?aw, D.D., Archdeacon of Carlisle . 1743 1805 10 Pa/rjf^, S'iwoM, D.D., Bishop of Ely . . . . 1626 1707 7 Pearson, John, D.D., Bishop of Chester . 1612 1686 11 Pierce, TAomas, D.D., Dean of Salisbury Pusey, Edward Bouverie, D.D., Canon of Christ Church, 1691 9 Oxford 9 Reading, William, M.A., Librarian of Sion College Rey«o/(Z*, £dward, D.D., Bishop of Norwich 1595 1744 1676 6 15 LIST OF AUTHORS. XIX Sanderson, Robert, D.D., Bishop of Lincoln . Scott, John, D D., Rector of S. Giles's, London Scott, Thomas, Rector of Aston Sandford, Dioc. Oxon. Seeker, Thomas, D.L., Archbishop of Canterbury Seed, Jeremiah, M.A., Rector of Enham, Dioc. Winch Sharp, John, D.D., Archbishop of York Sherlock, Thomas, D.D., Bishop of London Sherlock, William, D.D., Dean of S. Paul's, London Skelton, Philip, M.A., Preb. of Donacavy, Dioc. Clogher Smalridge, George, D.D., Bishop of Bristol . Smith, John, Fellow of Queen's Coll., Camb. South, Robert, D.D., Prebendary of Westminster . Stillingfleet, Edward, D.D., Bishop of Worcester Sumner, John Bird, D.D., Archbishop of Canterbury Taylor, Jeremiah, D.D., Bishop of Down and Connor Tillotson, John, D.D., Archbishop of Canterbury . Ussher, James, D.D., Archbishop of Armagh Venn, John, M.A., Rector of Clapham, Dioc. Winch. Ward, Seth, D.D., Bishop of Salisbury . Waterland, Daniel, D.D., Archdeacon of Middlesex Whately, Richard, D.D., Archbishop of Dublin Whichcote, Benjamin, D.D., Provost of King's College, Cambridge ...,..., Young, Edward, D.D., Dean of Salisbury . When Born. 1587 1638 1747 1693 1644 1678 1641 1706 1666 1618 1633 1635 1613 1620 1580 1759 1617 1683 1609 1642 When Died. 1663 1694 1821 1768 1747 1713 1761 1707 1787 1719 1652 1716 1699 1667 1694 1656 1813 1689 1740 1683 1705 Times Quoted. 25 9 8 4 8 5 14 6 17 14 4 30 5 7 4 4 12 6 13 6 THE EPISTLE OF PAUL THE APOSTLE TO THE ROMANS. INTEODUCTION. In all, that concerns the diffusion of the Gospel and the conduct of the Ministerial ojBice, one naturally turns in the first instance to the history of S. Paul ; and, still more, to those wonderful Letters of his, in which the high principles of the Minister and the tender feelings of the man are so beautifully blended to- gether, and pourtrayed with so subduing a power and impres- siveness. Some of the excellencies of these writings we may indeed owe in no small degree to the very fact that they are letters, and not, as some have vainly desired in their stead, grave didactic treatises on theological truths. There is a most observable wisdom in that arrangement of the Revelation of God to man, by which so large and important a portion of its contents is conveyed in the peculiar form of Epistles ; of Epistles, which, being the exact medium between the familiar flow of ordinary discourse and the methodical precision of the essay, may be said to unite all the characteristic advantages and avoid the peculiar deficiencies of both. Christianity, emi- nently a practical institute, is taught by practical models : its Blessed Founder's precepts live and move embodied in His life : His Apostles, like Himself, are not more the deliverers of doc- B ROMANS. trine, than the earnest leaders of action. And, that we may for ever know them, as such, we have them with us, not merely in the historical portrait of a contemporary, nor yet in elaborate treatises of their own, where the distinctive personality of the writer might be almost wholly absorbed in his subject ; but in letters, that spring out of action, and breathe its earnest spirit ; in letters, where the soul spontaneously paints its own glowing picture ; in letters, the vivid unconscious transcripts of the in- most heart. Letters, too, will naturally enter upon details, to which systematic discourses can rarely descend. And thougli our Blessed Lord's discourses were certainly not systematic ex- positions of truth, from them also the Apostolic Epistles — and eminently those of S. Paul — are in this respect remarkably dis- tinguished. There is, in this point of view, a distinctive appro- priateness in the styles of the Master and His disciples, which, of itself, forms no small internal evidence of the genuineness of both. The LoBD usually delivers broad and comprehensive principles, and truths of universal application — the profound parable, the pithy and almost proverbial maxim — such as became the Founder and Legislator : the Apostles teach in more particular and special detail, as suited the practical appliers of His precepts. They explain — or direct — or predict — detached instances, as those, who are instructed by another. He proclaims from the beginning in His comprehensive formulas . the whole operation of the Christian principles, as befitted the Author and Me- chanist of the entire system ; they are mainly busied with facts ; He, with laws and relations — a difference so pervading at once and so refined, and corresponding so exactly to the respective capacity and dignity of the persons, as, I venture to say, no possible supposition, but that of genuineness and reality, can satisfy. This close and intricate involution of the prin- ciples of Christian duty in the facts, that embody them, may sometimes make it a matter of some difficulty to extract the whole amount of permanent instruction contained in a chapter or a passage of S. Paul ; but, on the other hand, it makes the research always interesting, and it certainly often justifies applications and deductions, which at the first hasty glance might seem not so much inferred, as extorted from the INTRODUCTION. -3 text. The Inspired Word of God bears the same relation to the happiest of human compositions, that His natural creations — His flowers of the field, His insects of the air — bear to our most exquisite mechanical textures : the increasing powers of the microscope but discover increasing beauties in the one ; they but expose yet more and more the hidden defects and blemishes of the other. Wm. Archer Butler. (Serm. on 2 Cor. x. 15, 16.) An ambiguity in the word Gospel is deserving of notice, as it has been the source of much evil in leading to the neglect of the Apostolic Epistles. The word, which signifies, according to its etymology, as well as the Greek term, of which it is a transla- tion, "good tidings," and is thence applied especially to the joyful intelligence of salvation for fallen man through Cueist, has come to be applied, naturally enough, to each of the histories of the life of Him, the Author of our salvation. Hence men are frequently led to seek exclusively, or principally, in those histories for an account of the doctrines of the Christian Reli- gion : for where should they look, they may say, for Gospel truth, but in the Gospels ? And, because it is said that our LoED preached the Gospel, many are led to His discourses alone, or principally, as the storehouse of Divine truth, to the neglect of the other Scriptures of the New Testament. But " the Gospel of the Kingdom," which He preached, was that "the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand ;''"' not that it was ac- tually established ; which was the Gospel preached brj His Apostles, when Cheist, " having been made perfect through sufferings," having laid the key-stone of the Gospel scheme of salvation in His meritorious Sacrifice, as an Atonement for sin, and His Eesurrection from the dead, had " entered into His Kingdom," had " ascended on high, and led captive" the Op- pressor of man, and had " received gifts" to bestow upon them. Our Loed's discourses therefore, while on earth — though they teach, of course, the truth — do not teach, nor could have been meant to teach, the whole truth, as afterwards revealed to His dis- ciples. They could not indeed, consistently with truth, have con- tained the main part of what the Apostles preached ; because that was chiefly founded on events, which had not then taken place. He did indeed hint at the events in His discourses to His dis- B 2 ROMANS. ciples, and to them alone, by way of prophecy ; but we are told that " the saying was hid from them, and they comprehended it not, till after that Christ was risen from the dead." Had our Loed's discourses contained a full account of the Christian faith, there would have been no need of His saying ; " I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit, when He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all (the) truth." And when, through inspiration from on high, the Apostles did understand the Gospel, the true cha- racter of the Redemption, and of the faith, by which we must partake of it, they taught its doctrines in their discourses and in their Epistles. Our chief source of instruction then must be in the Apostolic Epistles. They contain all the doctrines of the Gospel, as far as they have been revealed to men, furnishing us with the means, by a careful and diligent study of those precious remains, of attaining sufficient knowledge of all neces- sary truth, and of becoming " wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Cheist Jestjs " The most precious part of the treasure of Christian doctrine, contained in the Epistles, we have from the pen of the Apostle Paul. Those, who prize the purity of the Gospel, should value his writings the more ; as there is no one of the sacred writers, whose expressions have been so tortured, whose authority has been so much set at nought, as S. Paul's, by those, who reject many of the most characteristic doctrines of the Gospel : which is a plain proof that they find him a formidable opponent ; not, indeed, as the only authority for these great truths, but as par- ticularly full and clear in enforcing them There is good reason to believe that the objection to S. Paul's writings is not from the things ^' hard to be understood," which they contain, but from the things easi/ to be understood, the doctrines, so plainly taught by him, that "by grace we are saved;" that " the wages of sin is death, but eternal life is the gift of God through Jesus Cheist ;" that our most perfect righteousness can never enable us to claim reward at the hand of God, nor our own unaided strength enable us to practise that righteous- ness ; but that the meritorious Sacrifice of Christ is the only foundation of the Christian's hope, and the aid of His Spirit INTRODUCTION. 5 the only support of the Christian's virtue. It is on account of these doctrines that S. Paul's writings are objected to, because they are humbling to the pride of the human heart, and there- fore unacceptable to the natural man ; and therefore they are rejected by many, as leading to an immoral life, and as favour- ing the notion that we may " continue in sin that grace may abound ;" though the moral precepts of S. Paul in every page and his enforcement of a conformity to them, as indispensable to the Christian's acceptance with GrOD, fly in the face of every one, who dares wrest S. Paul to his own destruction. Abp. Whatehj. (Essays on some of the difficulties in the writings of S. Paul, &c. Essay ii. Extract abridged.) Consider the Apostles, as (what they truly are) final and perma- nent interpreters of the Divine counsel ; as the intercommu- nicators between the Incarnate Deity Himself, and the successors of themselves in office, who should presently become subjects of the Spirit's ordinary influence only ; persons, therefore, who should have (in course of time) to uphold the same great cause of Everlasting Truth with themselves — not, as they upheld it, by signs and demonstrations of power, but by merely human and outward means ; when they should be left simply as men among men; not indeed without the Comforter, but without His open warrant, and with nothing, but the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, and the inward confidence vouchsafed to per- sonal integrity and perseverance, in the midst of gainsaying and disobedience. Consider the Epistles, as written under a fore- knowledge, existing somewhere, how these things would be, and how will they appear then ? Is the teuour of their teaching suitable to the existing situation of Christ's Church, as now " militant upon earth ?" Is it suitable to the condition, in which we ourselves, at this day, stand ? Is the physical and moral constitution, which we feel ourselves possessed of and by which we are influenced, that, to which the Apostles make appeal ? With regard to general manner, then, I think it impossible not to perceive, throughout the Epistles of the New Testament (and in those of S. Paul even most particularly), that they address a race of persons under a silent and spiritual Dispensation — per- sons, to whom a fulness of all necessary knowledge is vouch- ROMANS. safed, and to whom no further sign remains in store to be given. Their authors write, as interpreters, and not, as legislators. Wherefore, though from the singularity of the case, their in- terpretations have now the force of law, and are evidently intended to be handed down as such, they add nothing to the original preparation, upon which they proceed, as affecting man's salvation. Do they not seem to proceed upon the suppo- sition of all essential terms being settled and complete ? of a perfect cure provided for the worst extent of man's misery ; but of a perfect liberty, at the same time, in the subjects, to whom it should be offered, to avail or not to avail themselves of its preserving power ? They assume the fall and restoration of man in the most complete manner. Old things are passed away, and all things are become new, if any man he in Christ. (2 Cor. V. 17.) Nothing is now of consequence, but this. And the outward acceptation of that Holy Name being once rightly and duly completed, the subsequent test of a sincere union is the simplest imaginable. These — and these — are the works of the flesh — and these the works of the Spirit ; and they that are Chrisfs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live, therefore, in the Spirit, let us walk in the Spirit. (Gal. V. 19, *&c.) Thus, as though they concluded the proportion between obe- dience asked of the believer, and grace promised to him, to be effectually and intelligibly established, all the practical details of their Epistles — their exhortations, their dissuasions — are the very simplest appeals to common understanding and real life. They do not flatter, but neither do they frighten. They speak the very language of simple honesty and unsuspicious truth. They desire to lead, but not to compel. While there breathes through these sacred compositions a spirit, that becomes all things to all men, that it may by all means save some (1 Cor. ix. 22), not a vestige is to be traced of that indiscriminate and spurious zeal, which would compass sea and land to make one proselyte. (S. Matt, xxiii. 15.) There is no mistake, in them, of vulgarity for humility ; but true condescension and true dignity meet to- gether. Their general manner is, accordingly, that of persuasive and calm appeal — the manner, as we think, proportionate and INTRODUCTION. 7 congenial with the character of the present existing form of the Divine Dispensation. For is not this exactly what our case requires ? Suppose we felt ourselves to be addressed now through a voice tninatori/ and peremptory, to be threatened with immediate retributions and visible avengiogs, should we believe as readily, as now we do ? I am persuaded we should be ensnared to demand the signs of corresponding visible power ; and so, by resistance, to abuse that liberty, of which we cannot but be conscious. Suppose, again, that the Epistles carried this their mildness beyond a cer- tain point, that they were wavering and indecisive in their tone, we might suspect the source of their authority. Suppose that they wandered into flights of mysticism, or were wholly taken up with general and indefinite things, we should deny that they described and addressed ourselves. But tempering, as they do, firmness with candour, faith with reason, modesty with power, justifying and enforcing the peculiar motives, which are above unassisted nature, by strength of the conclusions, which lie within it ; being indulgent, and yet impartial ; not imprudently refraining ^vomfear, yet speaking evidently, by general prefer- ence, as under a dispensation of love ; they meet human nature, as now existing in an awakened and enlightened conscience, in every point. Truly they do indeed " know what is in man ;" and they treat him accordingly. John Miller. (Bampton Lec- tures. Lecture vi. S. John ii. 25.) A remarkable testimony is given by S. Peter (2 S. Pet. iii. 15, 16) of his brother the Apostle Paul. The authority of his writings, as Divinely inspired, is plainly set forth. They are put on the same footing as the other Scriptures. " The wisdom given unto him" is plainly the wisdom of Divine inspiration. Were the writings of S. Paul merely those of a good man under the influence of the Spirit of God, in the same sense as all good men are, it would be too much to speak of men's •' wresting them to their own destruction." Of the Divine Books alone it can be said, that by the right use of them men are guided into the way of Salvation, as by the abuse of them they are led into the paths of destruction We have here a solemn call from the Holy Ghost to reverence and attend with all ROMANS. our might to the writings of S. Paul in general. Great pains have been taken to discredit them. There are those, who pro- fess to regard the four Gospels, and to make light of the Epistles. Unseemly comparisons have been made between them in this view, as if what Cheist spake in person deserved to be much more regarded than what was written by the Apostles. S. Paul is so full and explicit, so direct and explanatory on the great doctrinal truths of Christianity, and strikes so keenly at the root of false religion, that all pretended Christians have ever shown themselves very uneasy on account of his writings, and anxious to discredit their authority. They vainly fancy that they can reconcile their false notions with the other parts of the New Testament. S. Paul, they see, is perfectly contrary to them. But this is not to receive Christianity itself, but to follow a plan of our own. He, who would understand the Scriptures, must first set out with a determination to receive them as the Word of God — the whole of them in general, as they have been delivered unto us. Of S. Paul's right to the character of Divine inspiration there can be no more doubt, than there is of any of the rest. In them all equally Cmusr speaks. He, who believes Cheist to be indeed what He is, will not doubt but that His Spirit could as infallibly dictate to Peter or Paul writing Epistles, as to Matthew and the other Evangelists writing the Pour Gospels. It is then a ground- less distinction, which they attempt to make, between Cheist Himself and His Apostles in this point : for it is well known that our Loed Himself committed nothing to writing. You hear Cheist speaking in one part, as much as in another, by the medium of Divine inspiration. The only difference is, that in the Pour Gospels Cheist speaks to us while on earth ; in the Epistles He speaks to us after His Ascension to heaven. .... Every part of Scripture is profitable, but the writings of S. Paul have a particular use in this respect, that they lay open the whole system of Scripture, and give us in one comprehen- sive view the whole mind of God. Some things indeed, both in them and in the other Scriptures, are " hard to be under- stood," but not impossible. Seek therefore the more carefully to understand them, that you may be grounded in the great INTRODUCTION. 9 thiugs of salvation, always looking up for that spiritual illumi- nation, so often promised in Scripture. Thus you shall find, as thousands have, satisfying knowledge, attended with real holy and comfortable fruits, which men careless of all Scripture, or leaning to their own understanding, while they peruse it, can never find. Joseph Milner. (Serm. on 2 S. Pet. iii. 15, 16.) We have already had several occasions to speak of the great S. Paul ; and what can be said worthy of him ? How shall we begin, or where shall we end ? Shall we admire this noble preacher and champion of the Cross for his perfect knowledge of religion, for the copiousness and variety of his style, for the loftiness of his thought, for the dexterity of his address, for the wonderful extent of his genius, or the more admirable compre- hension of his charity ? He has every charm of eloquence in his writings ; and, when there's occasion, shows himself master of every style. Those transpositions, embarrassments, and, as some people call them, inconsequences, which are found in some of his Epistles, proceed, as S. Irenseus justly observes, from the quickness of his arguings, the fluency of his language, and the Divine zeal and impetuousness of his spirit. Those places, which incompetent judges esteem faulty and solecistical, are generally some of his noblest and sublimest passages ; they proceed from his vehemence, great skill in the Old Testament, the plenty and vivacity of his thoughts. We have paralleled forms of speech in the noblest Greek and Latin authors ; and they 31*6 so far from being prejudicial to a capable reader, that they only raise his curiosity and sharpen his diligence ; which will always be rewarded with discoveries of beauties, and im- provement in the most admirable and useful notions. ..." If any one has thought S. Paul a loose writer, it was only because he was a loose reader. He, that takes notice of S. Paul's design, shall find that there is scarce a word or expression, that he makes use of, but with relation and tendency to his present main purpose." (Mr. Locke, on 1 Cor. i. 10.) The Epistles of S. Paul, I speak the sense of a great critic, are instructive and learned, persuasive and noble : his expression is grave and lofty, uncon- strained and methodical, sententious and full of moving figures. With what winning charity does he temper his rebukes and re- 10 ROMANS. proofs ! The vehemence and force^of his discourse has a happy and equal mixture of prudence and pleasure ; and, when he most exerts his authority, he always most expresses his humi- lity. . . . Grotius says of S. Paul, that he was learned, not in the law only, but the traditions, which more openly taught the resurrection and good things of a future life ; that he knew the Hebrew, Syriac, Greek and Latin tongues ; and that he had read their poets. Excellent is the observation of S. Gregory the great on our Divine Author; "When S. Paul speaks to God, or of God, he raises himself and his reader to heaven by the sublimest contemplations." A. Blackwall. (The Sacred Classics defended and illustrated, ch. 7.) It is certain that S. Paul's Epistles (all, except that to the He- brews) ever were looked upon, as genuine, by uncontroverted written tradition from the time, in which they were published, iu a continued train of vouchers down to the present age ; the very Judaizing Christians, who would not be determined by his authority, as an enemy to those Jewish ceremonies, which they would have incorporated with Christianity, never denying him to be the real author. . . . His very soul speaks in all his writings. There is that undissembled zeal for the glory of God, and the salvation of mankind, that courage, that beautiful disregard to his own interest, when it interfered with higher views, that boldness of expression, that life and spirit, which is hard to be counterfeited. The same force and energy, which animated all his actions, and empowered him to spread the Gospel from East to West, ennobles all his compositions ; and it would be almost as impossible for an impostor to write, as S. Paul did, as it would be to act, as he did. It is very difficult to personate a warm, affectionate, interesting writer. We may trace the same features and an exact resemblance in his speeches in the Acts of the Apostles, and in his Epistles ; which proves them both to be the offspring of the same parent. In both there is the same greatness of spirit, the same glowing language, and elevated thoughts, warm from the heart. In both he either speaks or writes with too animated a zeal to be a cold deceiver, with too much sense, solidity, and consistency to be an enthu- siast. Jer. Seed. (Serm. on 1 Thess. ii. 13.) INTRODUCTION. 11 S. Paul had received the light of the Gospel from the Fountain and Father of light Himself, who had not furnished him in this extraordinary manner, if all this plentiful stock of learning and illumination had been in danger to have been lost, or proved useless, in a jumbled and confused head ; nor have laid up such a store of admirable and useful knowledge in a man, who, for want of method and order, clearness of conception, or perti- nency in discourse, could not draw it out into use with the greatest advantages of force and coherence. ... It is hard to think that a man, that could talk with so much consistency and clearness of conviction, should not be able to write without con- fusion, inextricable obscurity, and perpetual rambling. The force, order, and perspicuity of those discourses of his, which are recorded in the Acts, could not be denied to be very visible. How then came it, that the like was thought much wanting in \xi^ Epistles ? Of this there appears to me this plain reason. The particularities of the history, in which these speeches are inserted, shew S. Paul's end iu speaking, which being seen casts a light on the whole, and shews the pertinency of all he says. But his Epistles not being so circumstantiated — there being no concurrent history, that plainly declares the disposition S. Paul was in, what the actions, expectations, or demands of those to whom he writ required him to speak to, we are nowhere told — all this and a great deal more, necessary to guide us into the true meaning of the Epistles, is to be had only from the Epis- tles themselves, and to be gathered from thence with stubborn attention and more than common application. This being the only safe guide (under the Spieit of God, that dictated these Sacred writings) that can be relied upon, 1 hope I may be excused, if I venture to say that the utmost ought to be done to observe and trace out S. Paul's reasonings, to follow the thread of his discourse in each of his Epistles, to show how it goes on still directed with the same view and perti- nently drawing the several incidents towards the same point. To understand him right, his inferences should be strictly ob- served, and it should be carefully examined from what they are drawn, and what they tend to. He is certainly a coherent, argumentative, pertinent writer ; and care, I think, should be 12 ROMANS. taken, in expounding of him, to show that he is so. But, thougli I say, he has weighty aims in his Epistles, which he steadily keeps in his eye, and drives at in all that he says, yet I do not say that he puts his discourses into an artificial method, or leads his reader into a distinction of his arguments, or gives them notice of new matter by rhetorical or studied transitions. He has no arguments borrowed from the Greek eloquence, no notions of their philosophy mixed with his doctrine, to set it off. The " enticing words of man's wisdom," whereby he means all the studied rules of the Grecian schools, which made them such masters in the art of speaking, he, as he says him- self (L Cor. ii. 4) wholly neglected. The reason whereof he gives in the next verse, and in other places. . . . Yet coherence of discourse, and a direct tendency of all the parts of it to the argument in hand, are most eminently to be found in him. This I take to be his character, and doubt not but he will be found to be so upon diligent examination. And in this, if it be BO, we have a clue, if we will take the pains to find it, that will conduct us with surety through those seemingly dark places and imagined intricacies, in which Christians have wandered so far one from another, as to find quite contrary senses. J. Locke. (An Essay for the understanding S. Paul's Epistles by consult- ing S. Paul himself.) The Epistle to the Romans — a Book of Scripture, in which a view of the Gospel is set forth in all its extent, with a more exact system and method, and a larger compass of doctrine, than is to be found perhaps in any other single Book of the New Testa- ment. Beginning with the principles of the Gospel, it con- cludes with its morals ; those principles, in which are included some of the Eternal counsels of the Almighty ; and morals, by which the Christian life is built up to that practical Holi- ness, which is the effectual working of the Gospel upon earth, the very evidence of its having come from God to man. If the Epistle present to us some doctrines of a kind to exercise our faculties with a stronger sense of adoration than of knowledge in subjects, that may be dark to us " with excess of light," it leaves us not without matter of another kind ; having instruc- tion so evidently measured to our wants, and use, and most in- INTRODUCTION. 13 telUgible character, that we may perceive that the same inspired teacher, who was taken up into heaven, and there heard things above man's utterance, returned from thence charged also with Tables written by the finger of God in his hand, simple, and literal, suited in explanation to the closest view of the frame of our present state, and lending the most direct guidance to us botli in judgment and action — the depth of doctrine, on the one side, shewing that it has reference to the ways of the Al- mighty ; the perspicuity and cogent information, on the other, shewing that it has reference to the ways of man. Davison. (Assize Sermon, Eora. xiii. 3, 4.) This is the last Epistle the Apostle wrote before his apprehension and imprisonment. He wrote it from Corinth, where he touched in his journey to Jerusalem, his last journey thither. He wrote it in the second year of Nero, immediately after Easter, when Claudius, who had hindered " the mystery of iniquity" from its working in its full scope by his discounte- nancing the Jewish nation (Acts xviii. 2), had now been taken away about a year and a half ago. And now that " mystery" did find itself loose, and acted in its full activity ; those of that nation, that had not embraced the Grospel, persecuting it with all virulency, and multitudes of those, that had embraced it, apostatizing from it, and becoming its bitter enemies. This double fruit of gall and wormwood proceeded from one and the same source of bitterness ; that is, their doting upon Judaism — the word taken in a civil sense, as they accounted it a privi- legial excellence to be a Jew : or, in a religious sense, as they expected to be justified by their Judaical works. So that the very season and juncture of afiairs might very well give occasion unto the Apostle to handle the two themes, that faced these two great delusions, so copiously in this Epistle, above all other places — that is, the casting off the Jews and coming in of the Gentiles, to decry their boasting of being Jews — and justifica- tion by faith, to face their dangerous principle of justification by their works. Dr. Lightfoot} (Serm. Rom. v. 1.) Seeing every rational writer, that writes to any good end and pur- ^ For the origin and first planting of the Church at Rome, see Dr. Lightfoot, at xvi. 7. 14 ROMANS. pose, bath always some one or more principles, on which his discourse doth revolve, or settle, (as a sphere or body orbicular doth upon its axis or centre,) the advice, which Cardanus some- where gives to every one, who would take upon him to comment upon any good author, is very useful. And his advice is this ; first, to seek out the main principles (be they few, or more) whereon the Author doth especially rely or ground his discourse or project. There is a rule given long ago by a better author for interpreting Sacred Writ, no way dissonant unto this ad- vice of his. Finis dicendorum optima ratio dictoriim ; the end or scope, at which Sacred writers (in their disputes especially) do aim, is the true fieiphv, or standard, by which their parti- cular sentences or discourses must be measured, the only way for finding out the true and literal meaning of what they say. The non-observance or want of taking these rules into con- sideration hath been the special occasion why S. PauVs Epistle to the Romans hath been, of all other portions of Scripture, the worst interpreted by most, that have undertaken to comment upon it. Dean Jackson. (Works, B. ix. s. 3, ch. 12.) S. Peter knew many "ignorant and unstable" souls had perverted some "hard places" in S. Paul's Epistles, "as they had other Scriptures, to their own destruction." Did he therefore advise them, to whom he thus wrote, not to seek their salvation out of S. Paul's Epistles, but with absolute submission of their judg- ment to his and his successor's prescripts ? Or, doth he not seek to establish them in that Doctrine, which S. Paul had taught '* according to the wisdom given him, in all his Epis- tles?" Or, can any endued with reason doubt, whether S. Paul himself did not expect his writings should be a Rule of Paith to all, who read them, without continuance either of his own or others' actual infallible proposal of them ? He had protested, once for all ; " Though we or an Angel from heaven preach unto you otherwise than we have preached unto you, let him be accursed." He had said before, and yet saith he now again ; " If any man preach unto you otherwise than ye have received, let him be accursed." (Gal. v. 8.) For he had taught them, as their own conscience might witness, the Doc- trine of God and not of man, as he intimateth in the next INTRODUCTION, 15 words. Either S, Paul is not authentic in this protestation ; or else, all stand "accursed" by it, that dare absolutely admit any Doctrine, though from an Angel's mouth, but upon due examination and sure trial, whether consonant or contrary to what S. Paul hath left in writing. His meaning, notwith- standing, in many places, as his fellow Apostle witnesseth, was much perverted. And, seeing what was past could not be amended, it seemed necessary to S. Peter to admonish others, lest they should be entangled in like error. But what means had he left, to prevent this perverting of Scripture in them ? Either none besides ; or, none so good, as diligent reading or hearing the written Word. Eor such was this Epistle, which for tlieir admonition he now wrote, and was desirous, question- less, all of them should with attention hear or read, lest they also might be " plucked away with the error of the wicked, and fall from their wonted steadfastness," from which others had already fallen. . . . Must we abstain from spiritual food and so inevitably starve, because some others by unreasonable or intemperate taking of it have incurred — what ? diseases indeed very grievous ; yet such, as might easily have been cured or prevented, had the diseased been more accustomed to feed upon those plain and easy prescripts, usual in the later part^ of S. Paul's Epistles, as (for example) amongst others upon that most general ; " Through the grace of God that is given unto me, I say unto every one that is among you, that no man presume to understand above that which is meet to understand ; but that he understand ac- cording to sobriety, as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith." (xii. 3.) From careful and assiduous attention upon this and other like elementary precepts those unlearned but 1 Cardinal Pole advised persons to begin always with the latter end of S. PauVs Epistles. By first paying at- tention to what is plain and practical we shall come, by God's blessing, to understand, as far as is meet for us in this present world, what is mysterious and doctrinal. Obedience, in other words, is the sure path to knowledge, the only knowledge worthy of the name. " Moreover by Mem*' (the Statutes and Commandments of the Lord) " is Thy servant taught, and in keeping of them there is gredXreward ;" the reward, be it well considered, pro- mised by God to those, who "do His Will" — that they shall "know of the Doctrine." 16 ROMANS. presumptuous readers of S. Paul's Epistles migbt quickly have grown so wise and well learned in Scripture, as not to have meddled with these h)av6r]-Ta so soon ; at least, not so much ; rather contenting themselves, while such they were, like " new born babes," with his " milk," as much better for their weak digestion than his "strong meat:" so the same Apostle had elsewhere expressly written for their instruction, had they not presumed to know " above that which was written." Erred they had then from the truth, and fallen away from their former steadfastness, not so much by following the hard and difficult, as by not following the plain and easy places of S. Paul, able to conduct them from knowledge to knowledge, whose ma- ture fulness (could they with patience have expected it) might in good time have overgrown the former difficulties There is no occasion or temptation, which may move men to obstinate mistaking or perverting Scriptures to abet conten- tions, but the Scriptures, onewhere or other, have a remedy, as easy as sovereign, prescribed against it ; so men would be dili- gent to seek, or resolute to apply it found, in their practice or course of life. Bean Jackson. (Works, B. ii. ch. 32, s. 8, 9, 10.) Concerning the controversies betwixt the Calvinists and the Re- monstrants about predestination and the coherent doctrines, those, that are truly pious of either party, are perhaps other- wise looked on by God, than they are by one another, as con- tending which of God's attributes should be most respected ; the one seeming to affirm irrespective decrees, to magnify His Goodness ; and the other to deny them, but to secure the credit of His Justice. And, even in honouring the same attribute. His Goodness, these adversaries seem rivals ; the one party supposing it best celebrated by believing it so irresistible, that, to whomsoever it is intended, he cannot but be happy ; and the other thinking it most extolled by being believed so universal, that it will make every man happy, if he pleases : the one party elect- ing (choosing) to honour Eree grace by assigning it (as to men) an unlimitedly-vast extent ; as the other does by ascribing it an infallibly-victorious degree. . . . But the doctrine of predestina- tion is not necessary to justify the freeness and the greatness of God's love. For, so conspicuous and refulgent a truth is that INTRODUCTION. 17 of God's being the Author of man's felicity, that the dispute between the Calvinists and Arminians is not so much concern- ing the thing, as concerning the manner of its being profFer'd ; the former affirming Grace to be irresistibly presented ; the latter, though tliey deny it to be irrejectible, yet granting, not only that it is altogether free and undeserved, but also that the proflfer is made both with a power enabling those, to whom it is rendered, to accept it, and with such engaging invitations, that man at his first conversion need contribute nothing to his feli- city, but the not wilfully refusing it, and may more properly be • said to owe it unto God, than the beggar to owe his alms to his reliever, though he open his hand to receive it, which he might have declined to do, if he would have wilfully courted his own prejudice. . . . 'Tis confess'd on all hands that merit must be disclaimed ; and those, that seem to expect something from God, as a due, acknowledge that, if His promise did not, their actions could not, make it so; and that it is to His Mercy they owe the right they have to confide in His Justice. S. Paul, who, having " fought the good fight, finished his course and kept the faith," expected "a crown of righteousness from the Lord," under the notion of "the righteous Judge;" yet tells us that " by grace we are saved through faith ; and that, not of ourselves ; it is the gift of God ;" whose promises, now they are made us, allow us indeed to expect Heaven from His Justice ; but the making us those " great and precious pro- mises" (as S. Peter justly styles them) must be acknowledged the pure effect of His free and undeserved Goodness ; which, to believe infinite, we need but consider the disproportion betwixt such a recompense as Eternal Glory, and the least imperfect performances of ours ; which, though they needed not pardon, could not at least challenge any reward from Him, who, as our Creator, has such a right to exact of us what services He pleases, without proposing us any recompense, that our exactest obedience to all His commands would yet leave us to confess ourselves "unprofitable servants," who have " done but what it was our duty to do." The Hon. Robert Boyle. (Some mo- tives and incentives to the Love of God, S. 17.) If we were not so ready to anathematize each other, where we c 18 ROMANS. concur not in opinion, we might in hearts be united, though in our tongues we were divided ; and that, with singular profit to all sides. It is " the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace," and not identity of conceit, which the Holy Ghost requires at the hands of Christians. I will give you one instance, in which at this day our Churches are at variance. The Will of GrOD and His manner of proceeding, in Predestination, is undiscern- ible, and shall so remain, until that Day, wherein all knowledge shall be made perfect : yet some there are, who with probability of Scripture teach that the true cause of the final miscarriage of them, that perish, is that original corruption, which befel them at the beginning, increased through the neglect or refusal of Grace oflfered. Others with no less favourable countenance of Scripture make the cause of reprobation to be only the Will of God, determining freely of His own work, as Himself pleases, without respect unto any second cause whatsoever. Were we not ambitiously minded familiam ducere, every one to be lord of a sect, each of these tenets might be profitably taught and heard, and matter of singular exhortation drawn from either : for, on the one part, it is doubtless a pious and religious intent to endeavour to free God from all imputation of unnecessary rigour, and His Justice from seeming injustice and incongruity ; and, on the other side, it is a noble resolution so to humble ourselves under the hand of Almighty God, as that we can with patience hear, yea, think it an honour that so base creatures, as ourselves, should become the instruments of the glory of so great a Majesty, whether it be by eternal Life, or by eternal death, though for no other reason but for God's will and pleasure's sake. The authors of these conceits might both freely (if peace- ably) speak their minds, and both singularly profit the Church : for, since it is impossible, where Scripture is ambiguous, that all conceits should run alike, it remains that we seek out a way, not 80 much to establish an unity of opinion in the minds of all — which I take to be a thing likewise impossible — as to pro- vide that multiplicity of conceit trouble not the Church's peace. A better way my conceit cannot reach unto, than that we should be willing to think that these things, which with some show of probability we deduce from Scripture, are, at the best, but our INTRODUCTION. 19 opinions ; for this peremptory manner of setting down our own conclusions under this commanding form of necessary truths is generally one of the greatest causes, which keeps the Churches* this day so far asunder ; when as a gracious receiving of each other by mutual forbearance in this kind miglit peradventure, in time, bring them nearer together. John Hales. (Serm. on Eom. xiv. 1.) lu the waters of life, the Divine Scriptures, there are shallows, and there are deeps ; shallows, where the lamb may wade, and deeps, where the elephant may swim. If we be not wise to distinguish, we may easily miscarry. He, that can wade over the ford, cannot swim through the deep ; and, if he mistake the passage, he drowns. What infinite mischief hath arisen to the Church of God from the presumption of ignorant and unlet- tered men, that have taken upon them to interpret the most obscure Scriptures, and pertinaciously defended their own sense ! How contrary is this to all practice, in whatsoever vo- cation ! . . . And shall we think it safe that in Divinity, which is the Mistress of all sciences, and in matters, which may con- cern the eternal safety of the soul, every man should take upon him to shape his own coat, to steer his own way, to give his own dose, to put and adjudge his own case ? The old word was, that "artists are worthy to be trusted in their own trade." Wherefore hath God given to men skill in arts and tongues ? Wherefore do the aptest wits spend their time and studies from their infancy upon these Sacred employments, if men, alto- gether inexpert in all the grounds both of art and language, can be able to pass as sound a judgment in the depths of Theo- logical truths, as they ? How happy were it, if we could all • He refers to the disputes, which led to the Synod of Dort, at which place he was present during the dis- cussions, being Chaplain to our am- bassador Sir Dudley Carlton. To him he made a regular report of the proceedings ; and the letters he wrote on this occasion were published after his death, as an appendix to his " Golden Remains." The excellent c2 Antony Farindon was his great friend, and it was by his advice that this Sermon on Rom. xiv. 1 was first printed. Davison (on Prophecy, P. ii. Disc. 4) speaks of him, as " one of the most exact and faithful explorers of Scriptural Theology." His recognised title among our Church worthies is " The memorable John Hales." 20 ROMANS. learn, according bo that word of the Apostle, to " keep ourselves within our own line!" As Christians, the Scriptures are ours; but to use, to enjoy, to read, to hear, to learn, to meditate, to practise ; not to interpret, according to our private conceit : for this faculty we must look higher. " The Priest's lips are to preserve knowledge ; and they shall seek the Law at his mouth : for he is the messenger of the Loed of Hosts." (Mai. ii. 7.) Bp. Hall. (Select Thoughts, 44.) The Holy Spirit, which directed the Apostles and Evangelists to the use of the tongue, which in their day was the most gene- rally understood — the Greek — would for the same reason, it may be presumed, suggest to them a style, which might be ge- nerally perspicuous. It is therefore a principle with me that the true sense of any phrase in the New Testament is, for the most part, what may be called its standing sense ; that, which will be the first to occur to common people of every country and of every age : and I am apt to think that the difference between this standing sense and the Jewish sense will, in all cases, be far less than is imagined, or none at all ; because, though different languages differ widely in their refined and elevated idioms, common speech is in all languages pretty much the same. Bp. Horsley. (Letters in Reply to Dr. Priestley. No. 4.) If we attentively scrutinise that great body of all Christians of every age, which is commonly termed the Catholic or Universal Church, as it was constituted everywhere and always, we shall discover certain common principles, which pervade the whole, and which connect all the parts both mutually with each other, and with the head. In several matters, both of doctrine and discipline, if we would not incur the certainty of error and offence, we must, beyond all doubt, especially beware that we do not over-pertinaciously adhere to the private opinions and conjectures of ourselves or others : we must rather carefully examine what the ancient Church, or, at least, the great ma- jority of Christians, have decided in these matters; and we must acquiesce in that decision, which has obtained the consent of Christians in all ages. Por, as, according to Cicero, the consent of all men in any particular is the voice of nature ; so, INTRODUCTION. 21 in matters of doctrine and discipline, the consent of all Chris- tians may be deservedly accounted the voice of the Gospel. Certain common notions have, from the beginning, been im- planted in the minds of all Christians, not so much from any special passages of Scripture, as from the whole collectively ; from the general scope and tenour of the Gospel ; from the very nature and purpose of the religion therein established ; and finally from the constant tradition of the Apostles, who, toge- ther with the faith, propagated Ecclesiastical rites, and, if we may so speak, general interpretations of the Gospel. Nor in- deed could it be credible, or even possible, on any other sup- position, that these rites and interpretations should, with such unanimous consent, have been received in all places, in all periods, and by all Christians. . . . For, amidst the convulsions of Empires, the destruction of particular Churches, and the per- turbations of all human afiairs, it hath been so ordered by the most wise and merciful providence of God, that from the Apos- tles themselves even to these our times there hath been no age, whose Ecclesiastical memorials have not been preserved ; from which memorials we may conceive a perfect idea of the Uni- versal Church. Bp. Beveridge. (Prooem. ad Cod. Can. apud Collect. Patr. Apost.) 22 ROMANS I. 1. CHAPTER I. pAUL, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to he an Apostle, separated unto the Gospel of God, 2 (Which He had promised afore by His Prophets in the Holy Scriptures,) 3 Concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David, according to the flesh ; 4 And declared to he the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead : 5 By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for His Name : 6 Among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ : 7 To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to he saints : Grace to you and peace from God our Fa- ther, and the Lord Jesus Christ. 1 The greatest writer among the Apostles was S. Paul; and the greatest question hath always been amongst unbelievers con- cerning his calling and the authority of his Gospel. He knew this very well, and therefore we find him asserting both his calling and his Gospel with abundant care and diligence. He affirms himself to have been " an Apostle, not of man, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father" (Gal. i. 1, 11) ; that "by God" Himself he was ''separated to preach," constituted "a preacher," an " Apostle," and a defender of the Gospel. (2 Tim. i. 1 ; Phil. i. 17.) As concerning his Gospel, he professes to have " received it by E^evelation from God." ROMANS I. 1. 23 (Eph. iii. 1.) As for the Spirit, wherewith he wrote and preached, he professed himself ready to " give a proof of Cheist speaking in him." (2. Cor. xiii. 3.) He appealed to the prophetic spirit then in the Church, "If any man think himself a Prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge the things which I write to he the Commandments of God." (1 Cor. xiv. 37.) Out of this assurance it was, that he eujoined his Epistles to be read in the Churches of Colosse, Laodicea, Thessalonica ; and excommu- nicated such, as should be disobedient in that particular. (Col. iv. 16 ; 2 Thess. iii. 14.) And, lest any one should here repeat the objection made against our Saviour, " Thou bearest wit- ness of Thyself; Thy witness is not true," S. Paul, speaking of all the Apostles, affirms that God had set " them in the Church," and that the mystery of the Gospel was revealed to the holy Apostles by the Spirit. Eph. iv. 11 ; iii. 5. Bp. Seth Ward. (Serm. against the Anti-Scripturists, on 2 Tim. iii. 16.) S. Paul was so modest, in his own cause, that he calls himself the greatest sinner and the least saint ; but, in God's cause, per- ceiving that his personal disgrace might tend to the general hurt of the Church and scandal of the Gospel, he doth boast with the proudest ; " In whatsoever any man is bold, I am bold also" (2 Cor. xi. 21 — 23); not out of vain glory to commend himself, but out of a just necessity to stop the mouths of others ; especially, to confound the false teachers. He doth therefore (as T. Aquiuas observes) first confer, then prefer himself before them all. (2 Cor. xv. 10.) Bean Boys. (Exposition of the Dominical Epistles, &c. Sexag. Sunday, Ep.) Religion cannot be at all in communities of men without some to guide, to minister, to preserve, and to prescribe the offices and ministries. What can profane holy things but that, which makes them common ? and what can make them common more, than when common persons handle them, when there is no dis- tinction of persons in their ministration ? .... A holy place is something ; a separate time is something; a prescript form of words is more ; and separate and solemn actions are more yet : but all these are made common by a common person ; and therefore without a distinction of persons have not a natural and reasonable distinction of solemnity and exterior religion. 24 ROMANS I. 1. . . . This, I suppose, to be the great argument for the necessity oi separating a certain order of men for Ecclesiastical tnitiis tries ; and it relies upon these propositions. 1. All power of Ordina- tion descends from God, and He it is, who sanctifies and sepa- rates the person. 2. The Priest by God is separate to be the gracious person to stand between Him and the people. 3. He speaks the Word of God, and returns the prayers and duty of the people, and conveys the blessings of God by his prayer and by his ministry ; so that, although every Christian must pray, and may be heard, yet there is a solemn person appointed to pray in public; and, though God's Spirit is given to all, that ask it, and the promises of the Gospel are verified to all, that obey the Gospel of Jesus, yet God hath appointed Sacraments and solemnities, by which the promises and blessings are mi- nistered more solemnly, and to greater efiects. All the ordi- nary devotions the people may do alone : the solemn ritual and public the appointed Minister only must do. Bp. J. Taylor. (The Divine Institution of the Ministerial Office. S. i. 7.) This acpoptofio'i, this separateness in function, does infer upon us / a separateness in life and consecration : and they, who are thus set apart from the world, must " keep themselves unspotted from the world." To separate and consecrate are but two words for the same thing. " Separate three cities" is the com- mand in Deut. xix. 2 ; and " they sanctified three," Josh. xx. 7. Our offices assume them both ; and all are Holy Orders. . . . Our Saviour says that the community of Christians is "a city upon an hill ;" and there sure the consecrated persons are the Temples of that city, the separate places of it : and then, as they are most in sight — (the Church is ordinarily the most visible building) — so truly he, that sees one of them, it should be, as if he saw an open Church, where there is nothing else but holy duty, as if his life were Liturgy, public Service, and Worship of God Christ calls His nearest officers "Stars" (Eev. i. 20): emblems of a great separateness those, that teach them how far their conversation should be removed from earth ; for they are of another orb. Heaven is the region of stars. But they are emblems of a greater purity. There's nothing in the world so clean, as light. . . . 'Tis a word for ROMANS I. 1. 25 God's purity : only His Light is glory ; and, as His Holiness is so separate, that it is incommunicable, so His Light is in- accessible (1 Tim. vi. 16) : yet sure they, that are " Stars in Christ's right hand," come near, and mix their light with His : and they, of all men, must be pure and holy, whom the Spirit calls to that place, as He does all, whom He calls to that sepa- ration— " Separate Me Barnabas and Saul." Dr. Allestree. (Serm. on Acts xiii. 2.) Persons are separated from a common condition to Holy Offices, that by their ministration souls may be separated from the pol- lutions of sin to holiness of life. So that holiness of office is as distinct from holiness of life, as the cause from the effect : one is given to the Ministry, that the otiier may be produced in the people. Bp. Home. (Serm. on Eph. iv. 7.) 2 How past all contradiction is the ancient witness of all the holy Prophets, answered and confirmed by their events ! Their foresayings, verified in all particular issues, are more than de- monstrative. No art can describe a thing past with more ex- actness than they did this Christ to come. What circum- stance is there, that hath not this prediction ? Have they not forewritten, who should be His mother — a Virgin : of what tribe ? — of Judah : of what house ? — of David : what place ? — Bethlehem : what time ? — when the sceptre should be taken from Judah, or, after sixty-nine weeks : what Name ? — Jesus Immanuel : what habitation ? — Nazareth : what harbinger ? — John, the second Elias : what His business ? — to preach, save, deliver : what entertainment ? — rejection : what death ? — the Cross : what manner ? — piercing the body, not breaking the bones : what company ? — amidst two wicked ones : where — at Jerusalem : whereabouts ? — without the gates : with what words ? — of imploration : what draught ? — of vinegar and gall : who was His traitor and with what success ? If all the Syna- gogues of the Circumcision, all the gates of Hell, can obscure these evidences, let me be a proselyte. Bp. Hall. (Epistles. Decade iii. Ep. 3.) Christ acknowledges " the Law and the Prophets," as the two connecting parts of the existing Moral Eevelation, which He "came not to destroy," but " to complete" and establish for 26 ROMANS I. 3. ever. iii. 21, 31 ; viii. 4. Davison. (Discourses on Prophecy, ii. Jer. xiv. 4.) 3 In this verse S. Paul gives us a plain description of the Person of Jesus Chbist, both as to His human and Divine Nature. Ac- cording to the first, He was of the seed of David ; according to the other, He was the Son of God and declared to be so with power by His Resurrection from the dead — " the Son of God" in that sense, wherein He Himself had often said He was, who called Himself "the only begotten Son of God," and affirmed that God was " His Fathee," and He the Son of God in such terras, that the Jews judged Him to be guilty of blasphemy, and con- demned Him to death for it ; which they could not have done, if they had not understood Him so, as that, according to the common meaning of that phrase in those days, by calling Him- self the Son of God He made Himself God and " equal with God," as they said He did. (S. John v. 18 ; x. 33.) And so verily He did in plain terms, when He said, " I and the Father are One." (S. John x. 30.) Not one Person, but, as the ori- ginal word imports, one thing, one Being, of one Essence ; which was declared or manifested to be true, by His rising from the dead : for, if this, or anything else that He said, had not been perfectly true. He would have been guilty of sin, as . other men are, and so obnoxious to the death, which God hath threatened against all sinners, who shall never rise again, so as to die no more, till the last Day ; and therefore His Kesurrec- tion from the dead, so soon after He died, was as clear a testi- mony, as could be given, that God approved and confirmed all that He had said, and, particularly, that He was indeed, as He had said, the Son of God of one Essence, or substance with the Fathee. (See S. John ii. 18 — 22.) £p. Beveridge. (Serm. on Ps. cxviii. 24.) That the Christian religion be true is the eternal concernment of all those, who believe it and look to be saved by it ; and that it be so, depends upon Jesus Christ's being the true promised Messias (the grand and chief thing asserted by Him in His Gospel) ; and, lastly, Chkist's being the true Messias depends upon His being " the Son of David'^ and "King of the Jews." So that, unless this be evinced, the whole foundation of Chris- ROMANS I. 4. 27 tianity must totter and fall, as being a cheat and an impostor upon the world, . . . The Eoyal line of David by Solomon being extinct in Jeconiah, the crown and kingdom passed into the immediately younger line of Nathan (another son of David) in Salathiel and Zorobabel ; which Zorobabel having two sons, Abiud and Ehesa, the Eoyal dignity descended, of right, upon the line of Abiud, of which Joseph was the last ; who, mar- rying the Virgin Mary, which sprang from the line of Ehesa the younger son of Zorobabel, and withal having no issue him- self, his right passes into the line of Mary, being the next of kin, and by that means upon Jesus her Son. Whereupon He was both naturally "the Son of David," and also legally "the " King of the Jews ;" which latter is accounted to us by S. Matthew, as the former is by S. Luke ; who delivers down the pedigree of Mary the Mother of Jesus, and daughter of Eli ; though Joseph her husband only stands there named, according to the known way of the Jews computing their genealogies. Dr. South. (Serm. on Eev. xxii. 16.) 4 God had before, at the Baptism of Christ and at His Transfigu- ration on the Mount, declared Him to be " His well-beloved Son," in whom He was well pleased ; but at His Eesurrection He was declared not only to be His Son, but to be His Son with power. If you look forward to chapter xiv. of this Epistle, you will find the Apostle's sense of this matter very fully and clearly expressed ; " For to this end Cheist both died, and rose, and revived, that He might be Lobd both of the dead and living." So that the power over all things, the dominion both of the dead and the living, commenced at the Eesurrection, which was indeed the very first step to Glory and Honour, which our Blessed Savioue took after his state of humiliation and suffer- ings, Eor though, according to our conceptions, His pains and sufferings ended in the Cross, yet in the grave there is neither honour nor glory. In His Eesurrection He first and truly ap- peared to be Himself, to be " the Loed of life and glory," Bp. Sherlock. (Discourse I. part 4, on Phil. ii. 6 — 11.) •' If Cheist be not raised, your faith is in vain," saith the Apostle (1 Cor. XV. 17) ; you have a vain faith, if you believe in a dead man. He might be true man, though He remained in death ; 28 ROMANS I. 4. but it concerns you to believe that He was the Son of God too. And He was declared to be the Son of God bij the Resur- rection from the dead. That was the declaration of Himself, His justification; He was "justified by the Spirit," when He was proved to be God, by raising Himself. But thus our jus- tification is also in His Eesurrection. Por, " He was raised from the dead for our justification :" how for ours? " that we should be also in the likeness of His Eesurrection." "What is that ? He hath told us before : our Eesurrection in Cheist is, that we should " walk in newness of life." iv. 25 ; vi. 4 ; viii. 11. Br. Bonne, (Serra. on Eev. xx. 6.) 4 "We must take for our guide a received rule, Talia sunt prcB- dicata, qualia permittuntur esse a subjectis suis. Beath and Resurrection must be limited differently, according to their dif- ferent subjects. And the first subject is Cheist, Death in sin would not agree with Him ; it will not stand with the grace of His Holy "Unction, much less of His Personal union. He was " the Holy One of God" (S. Luke i. 35) : yea, " the Holy of holies" (Dan. ix. 24). Add hereunto, that a sinner implies a contradiction to a Mediator ; neither can they both consist in one : for " such a High Priest it behoved us to have, that was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners" (Heb. vii. 26) ; therefore could He not die that death. As He could not die the death in sin, no more could He undergo all the death for sin : He could not undergo either part of the penal condition : not that of the grave; "His body saw no corruption:" and why ? Though it had sin imputed, yet had it none inherent ; and it is only sin inhereut, that subjects us to that part of death. And, if His body were free from corruption, much more was His soul from torment ; it left the body to take possession of Heaven purchased and Hell conquered upon the Cross : therein His meritorious power after conflict brake the knot, wherewith the dissolution of body and soul came fast clasped with the penal condition — (the double necessity of sufifering torment both in soul and body) : and this He proclaimed in His last speech, Consummatum est (S, John xix. 30) — the Passion is now at full end. There remains then no part of death for Cheist to suflfer, but only the dissolution, the separation of His ROMANS I. 5. 29 soul and body ; and to that He yielded Himself, as an Offerer, that could not be enforced, as a Sufferer. When He had " triumphed over principalities and powers," the fiends of hell, and shewed His murdering crucifiers by the supernatural earthquake and eclipse, how He could rescue Himself from death. He laid down His life in testimony of His love to us, and presented that " Sacri- fice of a sweet smell" to God, which only was able to redeem us. This being the limitation of His death, the limitation of His Resurrection must needs be answerable ; it must be re- strained to the re-union of His body and soul ; and it is no more in effect, than Quod potestate divisit, potestate copulavif, with what power He laid down His life, with the same He took it again. Though the soul were severed from the body, yet was the Godhead from neither : the Hypostatical union persisted still ; His body continued Vitce Sacrarium — He declared Himself mightily to be the Son of God by the Resurrection from the dead. Bp. Lake. (Serm. on 1 Cor. xv. 20.) The best way, perhaps, of understanding how the Divine Sonship of Cheist was especially declared by His Resurrection, will be by regarding that Resurrection, as the express verification of the two remarkable signs, which He Himself gave, in testimony of this great truth. "Destroy this Temple" (the temple of His own Body), "and in three days I will raise it up." (S. John ii. 19, 21.) " As Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of Man be three days aud three nights in the heart of the earth." (S. Matt. xi. 40.) J. F. 5 T\\\s faith is not only fides qua credimus, the grace of faith, by which we are united to Cheist, as the Head of the Invisible Church ; but fides quam credimus, the doctrine of faith, by which we relate to Him, as members of the Visible Church, to which Unity is required. (Conf. verse 8.) Dr. Adam Lit- tleton. Among the Epistles to Churches, handed down to us of the Apostle Paul, this Epistle and the one to the Ephesians are the only instances of his addressing any Churches singly, in his own name. He either mentions the brethren, as at Gal. i. 2 ; or writes in joint partnership with some Apostolic person. And yet, there were many men of note in the Church at this time 30 ROMANS I. 6, 7. with him (A-cts xx. 4) at Corinth ; some of whom are men- tioned at the close of this very Epistle, xvi. 21 — 23. Perhaps, their mention there may supersede the necessity of their names appearing here ; or, perhaps, the Apostle, writing to the great Imperial city of E-ome, would take occasion to manifest the more illustriously " the power, which the Lord had given him ;" that power, which was so " mighty in him" above all the other Apos- tles, ybr obedience to the faith among all nations. Thus at ii. 16 he speaks of his Grospel ; and at xi. 13 declares, "Inasmuch as I am the Apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify my office." J. F. 6 The Scriptures speak of two kinds of vocations, or callings ; the one adfcedus, the other ad miinus. The usual known terms are the general, and the particular calling. Vocatio ad foedus, or the general calling, is that, wherewith God calleth us, either outwardly in the ministry of His Word, or inwardly by the efficacy of His Spirit, or jointly by both, to the faith and obe- dience of the Grospel, and to the embracing of the covenant of grace, and of mercy, and salvation by Jesus Cheist. Our par- ticular calling is that, wherewith God enableth us, and directeth us, and putteth us on some special course and condition of life, wherein to employ ourselves, and to exercise the gifts He hath bestowed upon us to His glory, and the benefit of ourselves and others. Of both which callings there is not (I take it) anywhere in Scripture mention made so expressly and together, as in this passage of our Apostle, especially at the twentieth verse, " Let every one abide in the same calling wherein he was called ;" where, besides the matter, the Apostle's elegancy is observable in using the same word in both significations ; the noun signifying the particular and the verb the general calling. " Let every one abide in the same calling wherein he was called ;" bearing sense, as if the Apostle had said, " Let every man abide in the same particular calling, wherein he stood at the time of his general calling." Bp. Sanderson. (Serm. on 1 Cor. vii. 24.) 7 Beloved of God, called to be saints : neither were they saints only, but saints of the first rank and magnitude, heroes in the faith. (Verse 8.) Yoiw faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. Their faith made Rome no less the metropolis of Chris- tianity, than of the world. The Roman faith and fortitude ROMANS I. 7. 31 equally spread their fame. And as the Pagan Romans overcame the world by their fortitude, so did the Christians by their faith. XV. 14. Dr. South. (Serm. on Eora. xiii. 5.) The two fiends, that torment us, are sin and a bad conscience : Grace releaseth sin ; Peace doth quiet the conscience. S. Paul therefore begins his Epistles with grace and peace, and the Church ends her devotions, either with " the grace of our Lord Jesus Curist," &c., or, " the peace of God which passeth all understanding," &c. But, because there can be no peace with God, except we have the grace of Christ, first and chiefly S. Paul desireth grace ; then, peace. Grace be with you and peace. Because (I say) grace comprehends in it " every good and per- fect gift," " by which alone we are whatsoever we are" (1 Cor. XV. 10), S. Paul doth not only begin, but end his writings also with this one clause especially, " Grace be with you," &c. xv. 33 ; xvi. 24. Dean Boys. (An Exposition of the Morning Service in the Book of Common Prayer ; adjinem.) As Peace is a choice blessing, so this is the choicest Peace, and is the peculiar inseparable efiect of this Grace, with which it is here jointly wished — grace and peace ; the flower of peace, growing upon the root of grace. This spiritual peace hath two things in it — 1. Beconciliation with God. 2. Tranquillity of spirit. The quarrel and matter of enmity, you know, betwixt God and man is the rebellion, the sin of man ; and, he being naturally altogether sinful, there can proceed nothing from him, but what foments and increases the hostility. It is grace alone, the most free grace of God, that contrives, and offers, and makes the peace : else it had never been : we had univer- sally perished without it. Now in this consists the wonder of Divine grace, that the Almighty God seeks agreement, and intreats for it with sinful clay, which He could wholly destroy in a moment, v. 1; xiv. 17. Ahp. Leighton. (Comment, on • S. Pet. i. Ep. i. 2.) Peace is a little word, and spelt but with few letters ; but within the few letters of this little word are comprised all the bless- ings, which God bestows on man — worldly blessings. Peace in proper acceptation is opposed to public hostility and all pri- vate enmity ; but the word reaches to all worldly welfare, all 33 ROMANS I. 8. earthly prosperity. Tet, S. Paul rests not in it for all the large extent; adds to it another word more excellent than it — Grace ; conjoins thera, but gives Grace precedence. Grace and Peace — Grace a Diviner gift ; it means the inward mercies of God, that concern the soul's happiness: he wishes them both jointly to all Churches. Br. Richard Clerke. (Serm. on Ps. cxxii. 6.) 8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. 9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with ray spirit in the gospel of His Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers ; 10 Making request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you. 1 1 For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be esta- blished ; 12 That is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me. 8 Would you know, who is the greatest saint in the world ? It is not he, who prays most, or fasts most ; it is not he, who gives most alms, or is most eminent for temperance, chastity, or justice : but it is he, who is always thankful to God, who wills everything that God willeth, who receives everything, as an instance of God's goodness, and has a heart always ready to praise God for it. All prayer and devotion, fastings and re- pentance, meditation and retirement, and all Sacraments and- Ordinances are but so many means to render the soul thus Divine and conformable to the will of God, and to fill it with thankfulness and praise for everything, that comes from God. This is the perfection of all virtues ; and all virtues, that do not tend to it or proceed from it, are but so many false ornaments ROMANS I. 8. 33 of a soul not converted unto God. ... If any one would tell you the shortest surest way to all happiness and all perfection, he must tell you to make a Rule to yourself to thank and praise God for everything that haj)pens to you. !For it is certain, that, whatever seeming calamity happens to you, if you thank and praise God for it, you turn it into a blessing. Could you therefore work miracles, you could not do more for yourself than by this thankful spirit ; for it heals with a word speaking, and turns all that touches it into happiness, v. 21 ; xiv. 6. Wm. Law. (A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life. Ch. 15.) I seldom allow myself, in ray closet or in my private papers, to use any expression, but what proceeds immediately from ray heart, or to say My God, instead of God ; unless my heart boils with a fulness to express itself in those terms : so that, I trust, these papers are the transcript of my heart. James Bonnell. (His Exemplary Life, by Archdeacon Hamilton. P. 2.) What a glorious sort of professors speaketh he of here ! I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spread over the whole world : yet, there, when he was at Rome at his first appearing before Nero, he complaineth that " all forsook him," 2 Tim. iv. 16. This is the manner of those, that want perseverance : for a while they are hot and zealous ; afterwards they leave S. Paul quite. They have the just resemblance of the image, that Nebuchadnezzar saw, Dan. ii. 32 : his head was of gold, his feet of clay : they begin in gold, but end in dirt. Sure it is, there is none so evil in the whole world, but a beginning he hath in good (S. John i. 9). The light must lighten every one that cometh into the world, so that there is not the worst raan but sometimes he seemeth good, and then he falleth into his former excess of riot again. Bp. Andrewes. (The Moral Law Expounded. Commandment x.) Not that all, in these Churches, were such indeed ; but, because they professed to be such, and by that their profession and calling, as Christians, they were obliged to be such ; and as many of them, as were in any measure true to that their calling and profession, were really such. Besides, it would seem not unworthy of consideration that in all probability there would be fewer false Christians, and the number of true believers would 34 ROMANS I. 8, 9. be usually greater in the Churches in those primitive times, than now in the best reformed Churches ; because there could not then be many of them, that were from their infancy bred in the Christian faith, but the greatest part were such, as being of years of discretion were by the heariug of the Grospel converted from Paganism and Judaism to the Christian religion first, and made a deliberate choice of it ; to which there were at that time no great outward encouragements ; and therefore the less danger of multitudes of hypocrites, which, as vermin in summer, breed most in the time of the Church's prosperity. Abp, Leighton. (Comment, on 1 S. Pet. i. 2.) "What is here written, in praise of ihevc faith is equally applied at xvi. 19 to their obedience. These, in the mind of the Apostle, were one and the same object, though viewed under difierent aspects. He does not exalt faith above obedience ; much less, does he oppose one to the other. Tour faith is spoken of throughout all the world. Tour obedience is come abroad unto all men. What then, Christ and His Apostles have inseparably joined together, as necessary unto everlasting salvation, let not man, by any narrow and artificial distinctions, venture to put asunder : for by so doing we are " corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ," and may come to substitute our own poor theories and systems for the "Word and Commandment of God. i. 5 ; ii. 13 ; iv. 12 ; vi. 17 ; x. 16 ; xvi. 27. Conf. Eom. ii. 8— Gal. iii. 1. J. F. 9 S. Paul, who perfectly understood the mind of God and of our Saviour in my text, yet often swears, or calls God to witness the truth of what he said ; and that too, when he was inspired with the infallible Spirit of God Himself in writing His mind and will ; as where he saith Por God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the Gospel of His Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my pi'ayers ; and elsewhere, " Moreover, I call God to record upon my soul that to spare you I came not as yet to Corinth." (2 Cor. i. 23.) And again : " Now the t"hings which I write unto you, behold before God I lie not " (Gal. i. 20) ; which are all as plain and solemn' oaths, as any man can take. And therefore he that presumes to say it is unlawful to take an oath doth not only condemn S. Paul, ROMANS I. 9, 11. 35 but he blasphemes that Holy Spirit, by which he spake, when he took those oaths : and how great a sin that is, let them look to it, who are guilty of such horrid presumption, ix. 1. Bp. Beveridge. (Senn. on S. Matt. v. 34.) The Apostle now explains the general terra of a servant used at ver. 1 ; he points to the spiritual nature of that service, to its true and only acceptable motive before God, as these were op- posed to the external and self-righteous system grounded on " the works of the Law." I serve with the Spirit in the Gospel of His Son. Here was an early intimation of the Heavenly doctrine to be developed in the sequel of this Epistle, especially at vi. 6, 22 ; viii. 1—4 ; xiv. 7—9. J. F. Every one knows, who has any knowledge of the Gospel, that Prayer is one of its special ordinances ; but every one perhaps has not noticed what kind of prayer its inspired teachers most carefully enjoin. Prayer for self is the most obvious of duties, as soon as leave is given us to pray ; which Christ distinctly and mercifully accorded, when He came. This is plain from the nature of the case ; but He Himself has given us also an express command and promise to " ask, and it shall be given us." Tet it is observable that, though prayer for self is the first and plainest of Christian duties, the Apostles especially insist on another kind of prayer — prayer for others, for ourselves with others, for the Church, and for the world, that it may be brought into the Church. Intercession is the characteristic of Christian worship, the privilege of heavenly adoption, the ex- ercise of the perfect spiritual mind It is the especial observance of the Christian, because he only is in a condition to ofier it. S. John ix. 31 ; xv. 7 — 15 ; S. James v. 16 ; 1 S. John iii. 22. /. H. Newman. (Serm. on Eph. vi. 18.) 11 If an unwearied diligence to promote the Christian religion in the world, an incessant care for preserving it, an universal concern for all, who owned it, and an undaunted spirit in bear- ing the afironts and injuries he underwent for it be any per- suasive arguments of the love a man bears to bis religion, there never was any person, who made a clearer demonstration, than S. Paul did of the truth of his religion, and his sincerity in embracing it. Por his endeavours were suitable to the great- d2 36 ROMANS I. 11, 12. ness of his spirit ; his care as large, as the horizou of the Sun of Eighteousness ; his courage as great, as the malice of his ene- mies. For he was neither afraid of the malice of the Jews, or of the wisdom of the Greeks, or of the power of the Eomans ; but he goes up and down preaching the Gospel, in a sphere, as large as his mind was, and with a zeal only parallel with his former fury. xv. 18—21. Bp. Stillingfieet. (Serra. on Eom. i. 16.) Men of the noblest dispositions think themselves happiest, when others share with them in their happiness. B^. J. Taylor. This cannot well be understood of the conveyance of any strictly Apostolical gift or grace, as some have explained it ; since, in this case, S. Paul would hardly have qualified the expression here used by immediately adding, that he simply contemplated the comfort he expected from personal intercourse, from the blessed exchange of mutual faith and brotherly love. He cer- tainly desired to establish these brethren, the members of a mixed and somewhat divided Church, on the common faith and privileges of the Gospel ; yet, not, it would appear, by the exercise of his authoritative power, but rather by a kindly con- descension to their several infirmities ; as indeed we afterwards find him reasoning with them, and persuading them concerning matters in dispute, speaking in the "spirit of meekness," now, as an Israelite and now as the Apostle of the Gentiles, (xi. 1, 13 ; xv% 1, 5, 6 ; xii. 3.) On a second mention of his intended visit, he expresses himself to the same efiect ; That I may come unto you with joy by the will of God and may with you be re- freshed. XV. 32. How dear was this comfort, this joy and re- freshment to his soul ! J. F. 11, 12 Upon a survey of our own faculties, and with a view of those gifts we have received from God, we cannot but discover that the nature of man is such, that he is both designed and fitted for the offices of society. There are implanted in us very strong desires of a mutual intercourse and reciprocation of good turns one with another. He, who framed our nature and best understood His own work, knew how ill solitude agreed with the soul He had breathed in us, and therefore judged it not meet for man, whom He had formed for a social life, to be alone. ROMANS I. 11, 12. 37 There are many things necessary or convenient for us, which we have not of ourselves ; and therefore, for a supply of them, must necessarily fly to the assistance of others. Some there- fore have built the necessity of our entering into society purely upon our indigence, and have thought us to be social creatures on no other account, than because we are not able to subsist of ourselves. But it is a gross mistake to think that our wants only and imperfections naturally induce us to seek communion and fellowship with each other. We want society, as well to vent our abundance, as to supply our defects : we are not more willing to sound the notions and sentiments of others, than we are to communicate our own : we are not more at a loss to fill up our emptiness, than we are to impart of our fulness : we do not find more pleasure in learning, than we do in teaching, useful truths ; nor doth he, who receives a benefit, find his soul filled with that joy and satisfaction, which possesses the mind of him, who bestows it. Should God remove us from the so- ciety of intellectual beings, and place us anywhere in solitude, should He there furnish us with plenty of everything, that our nature desires, and only deprive us of the opportunity and satis- faction of communicating our happiness and making others sharers with us, this very want of what our soul, by its make and constitution, so passionately desires, would sour all our other pleasures, and we should burst with that secret joy, which we could not vent. xii. 3 — 8. Bp. Smalridge. (Serm. on Eom. X. 1.) 13 Now 1 would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, (but was let hitherto,) that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles. 14 I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians ; both to the wise, and to the unwise. 15 So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the Gospel to you that are at Rome also. 16 For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ : 38 ROMANS I. 13. for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth ; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. 17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith : as it is written, The just shall live by faith. 13 Between the letters, which bear the name of S. Paul in our collection, and his history in the Acts of the Apostles, there exist many notes of correspondency. The simple perusal of the writings is sufficient to prove that neither the history was taken from the letters, nor the letters from the history. And the undesignedness of the agreements (which undesigned- ness is gathered from their latency, their minuteness, their obliquity, their suitableness of the circumstances, in which they consist, to the places, in which those circumstances occur, and the circuitous references, by which they are traced out) de- monstrate that they have not been produced by meditation, or by any fraudulent contrivance. But coincidences, from which these causes are excluded, and which are too close and too numerous to be accounted for by accidental concurrences of fiction, must necessarily have Truth for their foundation. Wm. Paley. (A View of the Evidences of Christianity, ch. 7.) Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, &c. (i. 13.) Again, But now having no more place in these parts, &c. (xv. 23, 24.) With these passages compare Acts xix. 21. After these things were ended (at Ephesus), Paul purposed in the Spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying, After I have been there, I must also see Rome. Let it be observed that the Epistle to the Eomans purports to have been written at the conclusion of S. Paul's second journey into Greece ; that the quotation from the Acts contains words, said to have been spoken by S. Paul at Ephesus, some time before he set forwards on that journey. Now I contend that it is im- possible that two independent fictions should have attributed to S. Paul the same purpose, especially a purpose so specific and particular as this, which was not merely u general design of visiting Eome after he had passed through Macedonia and ROMANS I. 14. 39 Achaia, and after he had performed a voyage from these coun- tries to Jerusalem. The conformity between the history and the Epistle is perfect. In the first quotation from the Epistle, we find that a design of visiting E-ome had long dwelt in the Apostle's mind : in the quotation from the Acts, we find that design expressed a considerable time before the Epistle was written. In the history we find that the plan, which S. Paul had formed, was to pass through Macedonia and Achaia : after that, to go to Jerusalem ; and, when he had finished his visit there, to sail for Rome. When the Epistle was written, he had executed so much of his plan, as to have passed through Macedonia and Achaia, and was preparing to pursue the re- mainder of it by speedily setting out towards Jerusalem : and, in this point of his travels, he tells his friends at Eome that, when he had completed the business, which carried him to Je- rusalem, he would come to them. Secondly, I say that the very inspection of the passages will satisfy us that they were not made up from one another. Whensoever I take imj journey into Spain, &c. This from the Epistle (xv. 23, 24). Paul purposed in the Spirit, &c. This from the Acts (xix. 21), If the pas- sage in the Epistle was taken from that in the Acts, why was Spain put in ? If the passage in the Acts was taken from that in the Epistle, why was Spain left out ? If the two passages were unknown to each other, nothing can account for their conformity but truth. Whether we suppose the history and the Epistle to be alike fictitious ; or the history to be true, but the Letter spurious ; or the Letter to be genuine, but the history a fable ; the meeting with this circumstance in both, if neither borrowed it from the other, is, upon all these suppo- sitions, equally inexplicable. Wm, Paley. (Horse Paulinas, ch. ii. No. 3.) 14 A faithful Minister's heart runs more on his work, than on himself. That, which he chiefly desires, is how he may best discharge his Ministerial trust. No doubt S. Paul spake '• out of the abundance of his heart :" that comes out first, of which his heart was most full, and for which his thoughts were most solicitous, (xvi. 7 — 9.) . . . He tells them that his very soul and spirit was set upon the work of the Loed ; whom I serve 40 ROMANS I. 14, 15. with my spirit in the Gospel of His Son. Never did auy loug more for preferment in the Church, than he to preach the Gospel to the Church. / ton(/ to see you that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift. He professeth himself a debtor to all sorts of men ; he hath a heart and tongue to preach to all, that have an ear to hear, / am a debtor both to Greeks and to the Barbarians^ to the wise and to the unwise. Tea, he was ready to preach the Gospel at Eome itself, where he should stand in the mouth of death and danger. Gurnall. (The Christian in complete armour. Eph. vi. 19, 20. Ch, iii. S. 1.) In the whole world there is no other distinction, recognised by the Gospel, but those, whom we love, and those, whom we ought to love. Bp. Heber. 15 S. Augustine joined his desire to have heard S. Paul preach with his two other wishes, to have seen Christ in the flesh, and to liave seen Rome in her glory. And S. Chrysostom admires Home, so much admired for other things, for this principally that she had heard S. Paul preach, and that sicut corpus magnum et validum, ita duos haberet illustres oculos ; as she was a great and glorious body, so she had two great and glorious eyes — the presence and the memories of S. Peter and S. Paul. Dr. Donne. (Serm. on Col. i. 24.) Rome, having achieved the empire of the whole world, both for renown and honour, and also for wisdom and learning, which commonly follow the empire, was the noblest and most famous of all other cities ; so for commodity of access out of all king- doms and countries, both of the east and of the west, and also out of Africa, and Egypt, and other countries of the south, and also for receiving of questions and resolutions of doubts, it seemed to be planted in the fittest place of all the world. Eor, as Thucydides calleth the city of Athens, " Grsecia of all Grajcia," so some called the city of Eome, in those days of her honour, " Epitome orbis terrarum," " the abridgement of the whole world." Bp. Jewel. (A reply unto M. Harding's an- swer. Art. 4.) Therefore shall the strong people glorify Thee : the city of the ter- rible nations shall fear Thee. Isa. xxv. 3. So remarkable an in- stance of Thy just judgment upon this obstinate and devoted city ROMANS I. 16. 41 — (Jerusalem) — shall convince the whole world that Thou art of a truth the Son of God. — The conquerors— (the Eomans) — of nations shall submit themselves unto Thee ; they shall "glorify" Him, whom Thy own rebellious subjects have denied. This prediction we have seen long since verified : the very city of Rome, the mistress and metropolis of the world, the chief " city of the terrible nations," and head of the Gentile power, hath " feared" and confessed Him, whom the Jews rejected, blas- phemed, crucified. Wogan. (An Essay on the Proper Lessons appointed by the Liturgy of the Church of England, &c. 3rd Sunday in Advent.) 16 Here is less spoken, and more understood : and this is fre- quent in Scripture. It becomes us, therefore, not to overtalk ourselves ; for you see that Scripture, in things of great mo- ment, is content to speak modestly, I am not ashamed, ^c. " If any man draw back. My soul shall have no pleasure in him," (Heb. X. 38.) Is that the worst ? No, surely God will loathe him and abominate him : so here is less spoken, and more un- derstood; which we call meiosis. Br. Whichcote. (Serm. on Text.) There are three things which S. Paul never speaks of almost, but with great ravishments of affections ; 1. Jesus Christ. It is observed S. Paul still triumphs in that Blessed Name. That Name was as " a precious ointment poured forth ;" it was " as a bundle of myrrh betwixt his breasts ;" it was music in his ear, as Manna to his taste : he still sets himself to magnify that Name, and to make it glorious. S. Augustine reports of him- self that, when he was scarcely in the state of conception, not attained to the new birth of a Christian, that the most eloquent books were distasteful to him, when he could not meet with the Name of Jesus, as Tully's Hortensius. 2. A second thing, which S. Paul mentions with much affection and delight, is free grace. Oh, the grace of God ! S. Paul is evermore advancing that. He calls it " the riches of His grace," Eph. i. 7, " the exceeding riches of His grace," Eph. ii. 7, "the praise of the glory of His grace," Eph. i. 6. Oh, the grace of Christ ! S. Paul felt the power of it, tasted the sweetness, and, as he had great cause, S. Paul highly extols it. 3. A third thing S. Paul 42 ROMANS I. 16. speaks of with greatest affection, it is the Gospel. He still sets himself to magnify that, and make it glorious. He tells us " the ministration of the Gospel," it " exceeds in glory." (2 Cor. iii. 9.) And this S. Paul doth, both as a Christian, and as a minister, ix. 5 ; vii. 25. -Bp. Bi'ownriff. (Serm. on 2 Cor. iv. 3, 4.) The Apostles never dreamt of any Divine goodness, which should make men happy, without Christ. No ; it was their design to persuade men that all the communications of God's goodness to the world were wholly in and through Jesus Christ ; and it is impossible that any should think otherwise, unless Plato knew more of the mind of God than our blessed Saviour, and Plotinus than S. Paul. Can we think now that the Apostles should hazard the reputation of their own wits so much, as they did to the world, and be accounted babblers, and fools, and madmen, for preaching the way of salvation to be only by a per- son crucified between two thieves at Jerusalem, had they not been convinced, not only of the truth but importance of it, and that it concerned men as much to believe it, as it did to avoid eternal misery ? Did S. Paul preach ever the less " the words of truth and soberness," because he was told to his face that his " learning had made him mad ?" But, if he was " beside himself," it was " for Christ :" and what wonder was it, if the love of Christ in the Apostle should make him willing to lose his reputation for Him, seeing Christ " made Himself of no reputation," that He might be in a capacity to do us good ?_ We see the Apostles were not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, because they knew it was the power of God to salvation ; and therefore neither in their preaching or their writings would they omit any of those passages, concerning our Saviour's death, which might be accounted the most dishonourable to His Person, which is certainly as great an evidence of their fidelity, as can be expected ; which makes Origen say that the disciples - of Christ writ all things " with a great deal of candour and love of truth, not concealing from the world those passages of the life of Christ, which would be accounted most foolish and ridiculous." . . . I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ ; that is, though the Gospel of Christ be the only true mystery, ROMANS I. 17. 48 yet I do not by it, as the heathens are wont to do with their famous Eleusinian mysteries, which were kept so seci-et by all the mystce : but, saith the Apostle, I know no reason I have to be ashamed of anything in the Gospel, that I should labour its concealment to advance its veneration ; but, the more public the Gospel is, the more it manifests its power : for through it God is pleased mightily to work, in order to the salvation both of Jew and Gentile. And, of all the success of the Gospel, that upon the hearts and lives of men deserves the greatest consideration. Bp. Stillingfieet. (Origines Sacrse, B. ii. ch. 9.) 17 I shall not critically weigh all the acceptations of the word Righteousness in Scripture, thinking it sufficient to the business in hand to consider the general kinds and degrees of Eighteous- uess. This therefore may be considered either in a judicial, or in a moral sense. Righteousness in a judicial sense imports as much, as a legal discharge ; whereby the person impleaded be- comes right in the Court, or righteous : which legal discharge may be again two ways ; either by remitting a criminal, or by acquitting suspected or accused innocence. These are the two ways of a legal discharge ; and then a person is judicially righ- teous, when he is discharged either of these two ways ; either by the remission of his guilt, or by the declaration of his inno- cence. The latter of these is properly Justification ; though the former be that justification, whereby Christians must expect to stand in the judgment of God, since, in the other sense, "no man living shall be justified." For we are not justified, as in- nocent persons, but as sinners ; and accordingly are not ac- quitted, but pardoned. Eighteousness, in a moral sense, may be supposed to import all those Divine and moral virtues, which are required by the Christian law, consisting of the whole duty of mau to God, himself, and his neighbour, iii. 22, 23 ; viii. 4. John Norris. (Discourses on the Beatitudes, iv.) Righteousness is sometimes used in a borrowed law sense, not for real but imputed righteousness, when a man is cleared in judg- ment, whether by standing upon his justification, or by pleading his pardon. This last is the righteousness of faith in Christ, by which we are justified before God. It is not used in this sense ill the Gospels, nor anywhere else in the New Testament, 44 ROMANS I. 17. except in S. Paul's Epistles ; and when Righteousness is to be understood in this borrowed law sense, the Apostle generally adds some words for the explication of it, calling it the Righ- teousness of faith, or the Righteousness of God, or Righteousness imputed; but uses not the word alone without some addition, or previous or concomitant description, from which we may know that it is to be determined to that sense. James Blair. (Serm. on the Beatitudes, vii.) Revealed in the Gospel, not in the Law. Was there no revelation of justice, till the Gospel came ? Yes ; the Law revealed jus- tice, but it was condemning justice, as that text speaks ; from faith to faith — so from righteousness to righteousness. God's justice was most Divine, that appeared in the Law to " con- demn;" but that justice exceeded in the Gospel to "justify." Where are they, that speak of being justified by their own works ? Then must they have a righteousness of their own, that must outvie condemning justice, which is infinitely just. But His own justifying justice doth outvie it. As it is said, " Where sin abounded, grace did superabound :" so, when con- demning justice was glorious, justifying justice was much more glorious. . . . How are we justified and saved? by mercy: true ; and yet by justice become mercy — not ceasing to be jus- tice, what it was — but becoming mercy, what it was not. Here is a lively copy before you : God so loveth, so acteth justice, that He will satisfy it upon His Son, that He may glorify it by way of mercy in all justified. Dr. Lightfoot. (Serm, on Eev. XX. 4.) The righteousness of God is here mentioned by the Apostle before the wrath of God : the reward of faith precedes the punishment of ungodliness. His Mercy ever goes before His Justice in His dealings with mankind. Thus the promise of eternal life to the obedient comes, in the next chapter, before the sentence of con- demnation upon every soul of man that doeth evil. So again at chap. xi. 22, " Behold the goodness and sevei-ity of God." But He, who is Love Incarnate, who was " sent into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world through Him should be saved," is yet more abundant in His tender mercy: for, when He opened His Divine Commission at Nazareth, He did ROMANS I. 17. 45 not merely put judgment in the background; He omitted it altogether. He was silent, as to " the Day of vengeance of our God ;" He spake only of " the acceptable year of the Loed." ii. 4, 5 ; ix. 13 ; S. Luke iv. 19. (S. Matt. xxv. 33, 34, 41.) /. F. I call this passage in the Book of Habakkuk the Christian prin- ciple, as expressing the habit of faith in God, or His revealed Word ; without annexing to it a knowledge of particular Chris- tian truths, which there is no ground to think the Prophet had in view. It is that virtue of hope and reliance, which moulds itself to the Divine promises and revelations, whatever they are ; that virtue, which has been the strength of good men in every age, and is made most eminent in the Christian system, in which general idea S. Paul enforces the text here cited, and the principle of it. . . . To live by faith, by that degree of know- ledge, which is imparted is the end of it, be it more or less. This is the doctrine of the Prophet, and so much of a Christian principle and sentiment may be traced in what he has written ; whilst the conclusion of his Book rises into a higher strain of the exercise of that habit and duty, w^hich he had previously commended. Por it contains a confession of his own faith, and that faith separated from all earthly and temporal hopes. As such, it is of a pure Evangelical character. The conclusion of Habakkuk is, in fact, a beginning of Christ's proper doctrine ; and whoever will read it, and then pass to the Beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount, will see in both the sanctions of Canaan recede, and the vision of the better Kingdom opened. Davison. (Discourses on Prophecy. Disc. 6, P. 2.) Even such, " as walk in the light," stand in need of cleansing by " the Blood of Christ." 1 S. John i. 6—8. And with re- ference to this place (as I conceive) that maxim of S. Austin, well approved of by the best reformed writers, was first con- ceived by him — " Our Justification consists in the perpetual remission of sin." But an error there is, which I know not when it did first creep into the world ; but creep in it did by the incogitancy or indistinct notions of some late writers, that Justification is but one act, never to be resumed or reiterated. This assertion may be true in respect of that Justification, Qud Beus nos justifcat, or of Justification taken in the active sense, 46 ROMANS I. 17. as it concerns God : for no act of His can be resumed or re- iterated, nor admit of any interpositions or several interims of time. But, if we speak of Justification in the passive sense, or as it is an effect, wrought in our souls by the Spirit of Cheist, there may be and are many acts, many resumptions, or reno- vations of the same act or effect ; all being wrought in us by in- terpositions or several interims of time. Our natural bodies do not require so many refections of meat and drink for continua- tion of life, of health, and strength, as the faith, by which the just do live, and other spiritual graces, which accompany faith in the purification of our souls, do admit, yea, require refections spiritual. Of these refections or refreshments of faith or other graces, some are obtained by our daily prayers ; others, being like extraordinary feasts or banquets, are wrought in the par- ticipation of Christ's Body and Blood, so often as we receive that Blessed Sacrament, as we ought to do. iii. 25 ; iv. 7. Dr. Jackson. (Works, B. x. Ch. 49, S. 8.) S. Bernard's saying we hold ; Justus ex fide sua vivet, utique si vivat et ipsa : aliter quomodo vitam dabit, si ipsa sit mortua ? The just man shall live by his faith ; to wit, if his faith itself live : otherwise, how shall that give life, that is dead itself? iv. 19, 20. Bp. Babington. (Comfortable Notes on the Book of Numbers, Cb. xxi.) 18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness ; 19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them ; for God hath showed it unto them. 20 For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and God- head ; so that they are without excuse : 21 Because that, when they knew God, they glo- rified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but ROMANS I. 18. 47 became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. 23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. 18 In this most accurate Epistle, that ever the pen of man could lay title to, in which all the counsels, and proceedings, and methods of God in the work of our Salvation are described, our Apostle in his discourse goes on the same way, that God is said to do in His Decree ; lays the foundation of it as low and deep as possible, begins with them, as it were, in massu ; and, though they were already Romans and Christians, yet before he openeth Heaven gates to them, and either teaches or suffers them to be " Saints," he stays them awhile in the contemplation of their impurity and damned neglected estate of the stock they come from ; looks upon them, as polluted, or trodden down in their own blood, as the phrase is, Ezek. xvi. 6. He ploughs, and harrows, and digs, as deep as possible, that the seed, which he meant to sow, might be firmly rooted ; that their heaven might be founded in the centre of the earth ; and their faith, being secured by the depth of its foundation, might increase mira- culously both in height and fruitfulness. Thus, in the latter part of this first chapter, doth he shew them the estate, and re- bellions, and punishment of their heathen ancestors, that the unregenerate man may in that glass see his picture at the length, the regenerate humble himself in a thankful horror, overjoyed and wondering to observe himself delivered from such destruction, v. 11 ; vii. 25. Dr. Hammond. (Serm. on Bom. i. 26.) Look into the Scripture, and see the curse, that belongs to sin there described — an " everlasting banishment " from the glory of God's presence ; an " everlasting destruction" by the glory of His power (2 Thess. i. 9) ; the Loed shewing the jealousy 48 ROMANS I. 18. of His justice, the unsearchableness of His severity, the uncon- ceivableness of His strength, the bottomless guilt aud malig- nity of sin, in the everlasting destruction of ungodly men, and in the everlasting preserving of them to feel that destruction. "Who knoweth the power of Thine anger?" saith Moses; "Even according to Thy fear, so is Thy wrath." Ps. xc. 11. It is impossible for the most trembling consciences, or the most jealous fears of a guilty heart, to look beyond the wrath of God, or to conceive more of it than indeed it is. As, in peace of conscience, the mercy of God is revealed unto believers from faith to faith ; so, in anguish of conscience, the wrath of God is revealed uuto sinners from fear to fear. Bp. Reynolds. (Serm. on Hosea xiv. 2.) As we will not hearken to reason, when she would restrain us from sin, so we slight her, when she checketh us for committing it. We will neither give ear to her counsel, and not sin ; nor yet hearken to her reproof, when we have sinned ; neither ob- serve her, as a counsellor, nor as a judge ; neither obey her, as a friend, nor as an enemy. . . . And this is the most miserable condition a sinner can fall into. This is, saith S. Paul, to hold the truth in unrighteous7iess by an habitual course of sin, to de- press and keep under the very principles of goodness and ho- nesty, to hold and have full possession of the truth, but make no use of it, to hide and bury it, as the bad servant did his pound in a napkin ; bury it in the loathsome sepulchre of a rotten and corrupt soul, as if, having a medicine about me, I should choose to take down poison ; having plenty, starve myself to death ; having honey and manna, lay it by till it stink, and feed on husks ; having a conscience, not keep it ; suborn my counsellor to be my parasite ; be endued with reason, and use it only to make me more unreasonable ; neglect and slight it, when it bids me not do this ; and, when I have done it, paint and disguise it, that I may not know the work of mine own hands, nor see that sin, which was the misshapen and deformed issue of ray lust. Farindon. (Serm. on Prov. xxviii. 13.) We have two forms of words in Scripture that are of the worst character, and shew the greatest degeneracy and apostacy from God and the principles of God's creation ; namely, the holding ROMANS T. 19. 49 truth in unrigJUeousness and turning the grace of God into wan- tonness. (S. Jude 4.) We cannot find a worse character ; nor that, which doth denote a more degenerate, wicked, and des- perate condition, than is expressed in these two. . . . For this excellent leaven of Heavenly and Divine knowledge should leaven the whole lump. But knowledge is imprisoned, if it doth not produce goodness : for this is natural to it, and this "judgment should go forth unto victory." x. 16 — 21. Dr. Whichcote. (Discourse on Phil. iii. 7, 8.) 19 God hath appeared and manifested Himself in His creatures in the works of His hands, and is better known by them than Apelles was by his curious line. Every one of them hath this inscription ; " He hath made us, and not we ourselves." This S. Paul calleth ^ivwa-rhv Tov Qeov, that which may he known of God. Hence we may conclude that He is a powerful and in- finite Essence, and hath power over all things. For the invi- sible things of Him are clearly seen by the things that are made : and the same Apostle telleth the Athenians that " God made the world and all things therein" and " made of one blood all nations, that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after Him, and find Him, though He be not far from every one of us ;" not " far from us," if we will seek Him. The Schools call it vehieidum creaturce ; the "chariot of the creature," by which we may be carried up, as Elijah was to Heaven ; by which man, who amongst all creatures was made for a supernatural end, is lifted up nearer to that end. Eor, as the Angels have the knowledge of the creature in the Creator Himself, saith S. Ber- nard ; (for what a poor sight is the creature to an Angel, that seeth the face of Him that made it !) so man by degrees gaineth a view of God by looking on the works of His hands. Again, as God manifesteth Himself in His creature, so He appeareth, as a light, in our very souls. He hath set up a candle there : Solomon calleth it so — " The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly " (Prov. xx. 27) ; a light to all the faculties of the soul, and to all the parts of the body, to guide and direct them in the " seeking after God." By this light it is that thou lookest upon thyself, and art afraid of thyself. By this light they, that are in darkness, 50 ROMANS I. 19. they, that are darkness itself, the profanest atheists iu the world at one time or other behold themselves, as stubble, and Gob, as " a consuming fire;" behold that horror in themselves, which striketh them into a trembling fit. This " caudle " may burn dim, being compassed about with the damp of our corruptions; but it can no more be put out, than the light of the Sun. Fa- rindon. (Serm. on Isa. Iv. 6.) The light of natural understanding, wit, and reason, is from God. He it is, which thereby doth illuminate " every man entering into the world." (S. John i. 9.) If there proceed from us any- thing afterwards corrupt and naught, the mother thereof is our own darkness ; neither doth it proceed from any such cause, whereof God is the author. He is the author of all, that we think or do, by virtue of that light, which Himself hath given. And therefore the laws, which the very heathens did gather to direct their actions by, so far forth as they proceeded from the light of nature, God Himself doth acknowledge to have proceeded even from Himself; and that He was the writer of them in the tables of their hearts. . . . The law of reason doth somewhat direct men how to honour God, as their Creator ; but how to glorify God in such sort, as is required, to the end He may be an everlasting Savioue, this we are taught by Divine law ; which law both ascertaineth the truth, and supplieth unto us the want of that other law. So that, in moral actions. Divine law helpeth exceedingly the law of reason to guide man's life ; but, in supernatural, it alone guideth. Hooker. (Eccl. Pol. B. iii. ch. ix. s. 3 ; and B. i. ch. xvi. s. 5.) Many acts of uncleanness, of intemperance, of contempt of supe- riors, of murder, of false dealing, of swearing and profaning — • (that cheap unprofitable, that untempting and therefore unrea- sonable sin) — many acts, I say, of these open abominable sins, which either custom or human laws make men ashamed of, and the like, the very law of Eeason within us is able to affront, and check, and conquer. That e/LKpvjo^ Kal (pvaiK09 vojjlo^, as Methodius calls it, that " law born with us" — Naturale judica- torium, saith Austin against Pelagius ; L^ix nostri intellectus, say the Schoolmen out of Damascen ; nay, iwar-jr^eKi'u hvOpwTrov, saith the Stoic ; " the promise, that every one makes to nature," ROMANS I. 20. 51 the obligation he is bound in, when he hath first leave to be a man ; or, as Hierocles on the Pythagorean verses, *' that oath, , that' is co-aetaneous and co-essential to all reasonable natures," and engages them " not to transgress the laws, that are set them" — this, I say, is enough to keep us in some terms or compass, to swathe and bind us in, to make us look somewhat like men, and to defeat the devil in many a skirmish. Dr. Hammond. (Serm. on Ezek. xvi. 30.) 20 Princes declare their highness by high extraordinary works. Nebuchadnezzar builds a glorious palace to discover his majesty and great glory ; but alas ! what is this poor pile to the "laying the foundations of the earth," and the creating the glorious fabric of the vast heavens ; which are also the work of God's hands? If we contemplate all these creatures, ^r«^, in God, before they had a being in themselves ; as the idea, or shape, of the work in the artificer's mind, before he puts his baud to frame it, so all creatures were in the Divine understanding : and here, for the farther extolling His height, we may well cry out with the Prophet ; " Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord ? or being His counsellor taught Him ? with whom took He counsel ?" But, all this while, He was like a clasped book, gloriously shining only to Himself Then, secondly, look also upon Him in His creating emanations : this glorious book is unclasped ; and now what was hidden before in God becomes manifest ; so that thereby the invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead ; like Ahasuerus's great feast, whereby he shewed the greatness of his riches and excellency. (Esther i. 4.) And indeed what are the creatures, but the overflowings of God's power and emi- nency, whereby, not contenting Himself with discoveries of His highness and glory in the creation of the heavens and their glorious furniture of Angels, sun, moon, stars, and such like. He hath likewise replenished the earth, which also is "full of His goodness and glory ?" Thomas Hodges. (Serm. on Ps. cxiii. 5, 6.) I deny not but that, if the knowledge of nature falls into the hands of a resolved atheist, of a sensual libertine, he may mis- employ it, to oppugn the grounds or discredit the practice of E 2 52 ROMANS I. 20. Eeligion. But it will fare much otherwise, if a deep insight into nature be acquired by a man of probity and ingenuity ; or, at least, free from prejudices and vices, that may indispose him to entertain and improve those truths of philosophy, which would naturally lead him to sentiments of Religion. For, if a person thus qualified in his morals, and thereby disposed to make use of the knowledge of the creatures to confirm his belief and increase the veneration of the Creator, (and such a person, I here again advertise you and desire you would not forget it, I suppose the Virtuoso, this paper is concerned in, to be,) shall make a great progress in real philosophy, I am per- suaded that nature will be found very loyal to her Author, and, instead of alienating his mind from making religious acknow- ledgments, will furnish him with weighty and uncommon mo- tives to conclude such sentiments to be highly rational and just. On which occasion I must not pretermit that judicious observation of one of the fi^rst and greatest experimental philo- sophers of our age {Sh' Francis Bacon) ; that " God never wrought a miracle to convince atheists, because in His visible works He had placed enough to do it, if they were not wanting to themselves." The reason he gives for which remark I shall confirm by observing that it is intimated in a passage of S. Paul, asserting, both that the invisible things of God are clearly seen from the creation of the world, as tokens and effects (as I remember the particle (itto in the Greek doth elsewhere signify) ; and that His Divinity and Eternal power may be so well under- stood by the things that are made, that the Gentiles, who had but the light of nature to lead them to the acknowledgment of the true God, were excuseless for not being brought by that guide to that acknowledgment. Hon. R. Bogle. (The Chris- tian Virtuoso. Part i.) Prcemisit Deus naturam magistram submissurus et prophetiain (Ter- tuUian). Though God meant to give us degrees in the Uni- versity, that is, increase of knowledge in His Scriptures after, yet He gave us a pedagogy. He sent us to school in nature before, ut facilius credas fropheticB discipulus naturce ; that, coming out of that school, thou mightest profit the better in tbat University ; that, having well considered nature, thou ROMANS I. 20, 21. 53 migbtest be establisbed in tbe Scriptures. He is therefore in- excusable, that considers not God in the creature ; that, coming into a fair garden, says only, " Here is a good gai-dener !" and not "Here is a good God!" and, when he sees any great change, says only, " This is a strange accident ;" and not, " a strange judgment." . . . God is seen per creaturas, ut per specubim ; per Verbum, ut j)er lucem. In the creature and in nature, but by reflection ; in the Word and in the Scriptures, directly. Br. Bonne. (Serm. on 2 Cor. i. 3.) O God, if we cannot see Thee, we cannot but see the world, that Thou bast made ; and in that we see some glimpses of Thee. When we behold some goodly pile of building, or some ad- mirable picture, or some rarely artificial engine, our first ques- tion uses to be, " Who made it ?" and we judge of and admire the skill of the workmen by the excellent contrivance of the work. How can we do otherwise in this mighty and goodly frame of the universe ? Lokd, what a world is this of Thine, which we see ! What a vast, what a beautiful fabric is this, above and about us ! Lo, Thou, that madest such a heaven, canst Thou be other than Infinitely Glorious ? Bp. Hall. (The Eeraedy of Profaneness.) 21 S. Paul argues that God has made, by the works of His hands in the Creation, a natural discovery of Himself to man, and such a discovery, that man might be instructed by it to some worship and glorification of Him. . . . This is contained in the innate sense of our nature, that moral constitution of our souls, which is the transcript, obscured and defaced indeed, but still the transcript, of the great Law of God ; that Law, which the very heathen know, and cannot avoid knowing, because they have the work of it written in their hearts, and their thoughts accusing or excusing them by its dictates. And when S. Paul charges the Gentiles with the knowledge of this law, it is such a knowledge as, in his mind, was sufficient to bring them under the capacity and consequent obligation of some obedience. Otherwise, his whole doctrine and inculcation of that law, as subjecting them to judgment, would be a lifeless argument, and such, as he is little used to employ — " a beating of the air." In a word, the essential principles of Natural Religion are here 54 ROMANS I. 21, 22. recognized in Scripture: and, wliat ia more, they are so recog- nized, as to imply in tliem a practical power and a directing usse. And thus this great monument of S. Paul's inspiration, this Epistle, which gives the most comprehensive view of the entire system of Eevealed Eeligiou, begins with the professed acknow- ledgment, or rather the authoritative assertion, of these two great evidences of Natural lieligion — the one, legible in the Book of the Creation ; the other, indigenous in the soul of man. Davison. (An Inquiry into the Origin and Intent of Primitive Sacrifice, &c., p. 104, Edit. 1825.) To requite so great benefits, as man does daily receive from the goodness of God, 'tis no way in the power of frail mortality ; but to be ever thankful is the best supply for that defect of power. A grateful mind is the best repository, wherein to lay up benefits : like Absalom's pillar, it keeps alive the memory of the donor; and, like a mirror aptly placed, presents the view of all, that is behind you. . . . And, as the reason of God's be- stowing His benefits is not the merit or desert of m.an, but the infinite goodness of His excellent Essence, that takes delight in doing good and obliging, so the efficacy of our thanks could nothing profit either Him or us, but that He is pleased for our avail to set a value on them ; and, by accepting the meaning for the act, reward us, as if we requited Him. Doubtless then the best way of retribution, that is in man, is to show his thanks by confessing the receipt and favour. He, that is a thankful debtor, not only acknowledgeth his bond and want, but declareth what he would do, if he were able. Since then all I have is bounty, let my endeavour be to be always thankful. i. 8 ; xiv. 6. Owen Feltham. (liesolves. Cent, ii. 41.) Infidelity ia the beginning of sin ; folly the foundation of in- fidelity : and the heart is the seat of both. Bp. Home. 22 It may be hard perhaps to account for the general corruption of religion, which prevailed in the world, especially when we consider how absolutely absurd and contrary to common sense many of the superstitious rites were, which had spread themselves among the heathen. . . . But these follies, being once introduced and propagated from father to son, it is easy to account for the great difficulty of removing them. Custom, and education, and ROMANS I. 22, 23. 55 the reverence, which men naturally have for what they esteem to be lieligion, were tbuudations too strong to be removed by the reasoning and speculations of a few, who were something wiser than the rest, and saw perhaps many and great absurdities iu the common practice. And, though there did appear in the heathen world some such great and good men, who were as lights shining iu a dark place, yet was there not one found able to extricate himself from all the superstition of his country ; much less, to reduce the people to a practice consonant to the true principles of natural religion. And it is an observation, true in itself and of great weight in this case, that not one country, nay, not one city ever embraced the principles of pure natural religion upon the strength of their owu reason, or upon conviction from the reason and wisdom of others. And, since the world continued under idolatry for many ages together, before the coming of Cheist, notwithstanding that they had as much sense and reason in those days, as we have in ours, what pretence is there to imagine that they would not have continued in the same state to this day, if the light of the Gospel had not appeared? Bp. Sherlock. (Discourse on 1 Cor. i. 21. Part i.) To be proud of learning is the greatest ignorance in the world. Bp. J. Taylor. 23 When the world, by following their own wisdom, departed from the true God, they left the substance and kept the shadow ; they worshipped the creature, instead of the Creator : but still they were right thus far, in that they retained, as the objects of their worship, those very elements of the natural creation, which had been appropriated to give them ideas of the Creator. In this capacity, as substitutes, they were the truth of God ; but, when deified in themselves, and taken as principals, they were changed into a lie. Fire, light, and air, the Scriptural emblems, were universally adored throughout the heathen world. Moloch in Syria, Jpis in Egypt, Vulcan in Greece and Italy, were names, given to the element of fire. Light was wor- shipped under the names of Apollo, Mithras, &c., and the famous Heliopolis in Egypt was a city with a temple conse- crated to the sun. No Latin scholar need be told that Jupiter was the air ; the poets even using the proper name of Jupiter, 56 ROMANS I. 23. as an appellative term to signify the air, and all the epithets given to him are applicable to the same element. Hence we have the true intention of all that part of their idolatry, which includes the worship of animals ; they having universally taken for this purpose such animals, whose forms and qualities were emblematic of the elementary powers. William Jones (of Nay- land). (A short way to Truth, &c. No. 3.) This state of things, as strange and gross as it was, was intro- duced under the pretences of Wisdom ; professing to he wise they became fools ; and then, as an instance of this, it is added ; they changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into the image of cor- ruptible man and birds and four footed beasts and creeping things. From this it appears that their bringing in of idolatry, although it was the proof of their folly, yet it was the project of their wisdom. It was the vrise amongst them, that formed the design, and address'd to the multitude with a grave appearance, and prevailed (as we may conceive) by some such form of arguing as this — " We are all aware, ye sons of Noah, that Reli- gion is our chief concern ; and therefore it well becomes us to improve and advance that, as much as possible : and, although we h-ave received appointments from God, for the worship that He requires, yet, if these appointments may be altered for His greater glory, who doubts but it will be a commendable piety, so to alter them ? Now our father Noah has instituted us in a religion, which, in truth, is too simple and too unaffecting. It directs us to worship God abstractedly from all sense, and under a confused notion ; under the formality of attributes, as Power, Goodness, Justice, Wisdom, Eternity, and the like — an idea, which we neither sufficiently reach, nor does it sufficiently reach our affections : whereas, in all reason, we ought to wor- ship God more pompously, and more extensively too, than in His own Essence. We ought not only to adore His personal attributes, but likewise all the emanations of them, and all those creatures, by whom they are chiefly represented. This will stir up, and quicken, and direct our devotion. Nor let any say that this method will derogate from the Honour of the Creator. Certainly, it is most expressive of His Honour, when we ac- knowledge, that not only Himself, but even His creatures, are ROMANS I. 23. 57 adorable. We ought therefore (if we will be wise) to worship the Host of heaven ; or rather, to worship God through them; because they are eminent representations of His Glory and Eternity. We ought to worship the elements, because they re- present His benign, and sustaining, and ubiquitary Presence. We ought to worship the ox, and the sheep, and whatever creatures are most beneficial, because they are symbols of His Love and Goodness ; and with no less reason the serpent, the crocodile, and other noxious animals, because they are the sym- bols of His awful anger. Thus it is that we shall worship Him more intensely, and feel and be affected with our worship." Bean Young. (Serm. on the Text.) Oh, what an impudent affront, what an irreverential profaning of that Sacred Celestial beam within thee (that aTT-ay^ao-^m OeoS, as the philosophers call it) is every paltry oath, or rage, or lust, that the secure sinner is so minutely guilty of! Every sin, say the Schools, being in this respect a kind of idolatry, an in- curvation and prostitution of that Heavenly creature (ordained to have nothing but Divinity in its prospect) to the meanest, vilest heathen worship — the crocodile, the cat, the scarabee, the Dii Stercorii — the most noisome abominations under heaven. Br. Hammond. (Serm. on Prov. i. 22.) 24 Wherefore God also gave them up to unclean- ness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dis- honour their own bodies between themselves : 25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. 26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections : for even their women did change the na- tural use into that which is against nature : 27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward an- other ; men with men working that which is unseemly, 58 ROMANS I. 24. and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet. 24 God may make one sin the punishment of another; though it still is to be remembered that it is one thing for God to give a man over to sin, and quite another for God to cause him to sin ; the former importing in it no more, than God's providential ordering of a man's circumstances, so that he shall find no check or hindrance in the course of his sin ; but the latter implying also a positive efficiency towards the commission or production of a sinful act ; which GoD never does, nor can do ; but the other He both may, and in a judicial way very often does. . , . In all which, God is not at all the author of sin, but only pur- sues the great works and righteous ends of His Providence, in disposing of things or objects, in themselves good or indifferent, towards the compassing of the same ; howbeit, through the poison of men's vicious affections, they are turned into the op- portunities and fuel of sin, and made the occasion of their final destruction, ix. 17, 22. Dr. South. (Serra. ii. on 2 Thess. ii. 11.) Wedlock is not only such a covenant, as springeth from reason and policy, but also it is pactum Dei ; it is founded in Religion. Man and woman were at first matched by God Himself; and He matched them, as His children bearing His Image : finally, He matched them, that they might bring forth a holy seed (Mai. ii. 15) such as might be of His Church, and, as the parents, consorts with Angels. So much did religion add unto wedlock before the fall. But, after the fall. Christian religion added much more : by regeneration even our bodies are made "members of Christ" and so become " temples of the Holt Ghost." . . . Fornication rendeth us from the Body of Cheist, and dispossesseth us of the Holt Ghost, if not de facto, at least merito : it is more of God's mercy than our desert, if it prove not so, seeing Christ abhors all impurity, and the Holt Ghost will not abide the defiling of His sanctuary. Well therefore may fornication be called Traces cnifiiwi, a dishonouring lust ; than which no other heapeth so many indignities upon our bodies and, by consequence, upon us. In regard hereof, it is that S. Paul saith, " All other sins are without our bodies, but he ROMANS I 25. 59 that commits fornication sinnetb against his own body," Eor- nication strippeth it of all the fore-named prerogatives directly ; whicli no other sin doth : neither i.s there any carnal sin more opposite to Reason, Policy, Religion. Bp. Lake. (Serm. on 1 Cor. V. 1-5.) 25 These men held the truth iti unricjhteovsness by concealing what they knew. For how rightly soever they might conceive of God, and of virtue, yet the illiterate multitude, who, in such things, must see with better eyes than their own, or see not at all, were never the wiser for it. Whatsoever the inward sen- timents of those sophisters were, they kept them wholly to themselves ; hiding all those important truths, all those useful notions, from the people, and teaching the world much other- wise from what they judged themselves. Though I think a greater truth than this cannot well be uttered — that never any thing or person was really good, which was good only to itself. . . . Socrates was the only martyr for the testimony of any truth, that we read of amongst the heathens, who chose rather to be condemned and to die, than either to renounce or conceal his judgment, touching the unity of the Godhead. But, as for the rest of them, even Zeno and Chrysippus, Plato and Aris- totle, and, generally, all those heroes in philosophy, they swam with the stream (as foul as it ran), leaving the poor vulgar as ignorant and sottish, as vicious and idolatrous, as they first found them. . . . And thus I have shown three notable ways, by which the philosophers and learned men amongst the Gentiles held the truth in ^inrighteousness ; as first, that they did not practise up to it: 2ndly, that they did not improve it: and 3rdly and lastly, that they concealed and dissembled it. And this was that, which prepared and disposed them to greater enor- mities. Por, changing the truth of God into a lie, they became like those, who, by often repeating a lie to others, came at length to believe it themselves. They owned the idolatrous worship of God so long, till by degrees, even in spite of reason and nature, they thought that He ought so to be worshipped. But this stopped not here : for, as one wickedness is naturally a step and introduction to another, they passed into vile affec- tions. Practising vice against nature, and that, in such strange 60 ROMANS I. 25, 26. and abominable instances of sin, that nothing could equal the corruption of their manners, but the delusion of their judg- ments ; both of them the true and proper causes of one another. Dr. South. (Serra. on Eom. i. 20.) Some have thought it better to define man from Eeligion, his chief end, than from reason, his principal faculty ; supposing that by it he may most exactly be distinguished from other animals, that are utterly incapable of Eeligion, but have, some of them, a sagacity; that is, something like man's discursive faculty. "Whatever there is in this nice notion, sure I am, that man's chief prerogative and dignity, which he hath to glory of, is this ; that he is the only creature, in the whole visible world, made to worship and enjoy his Creator. " All the creatures are ser- vants" (Ps. cxix. 91). But man only is a Priest to God : they obey their Creator; he only worships Him. Gurnall. (The Christian in Complete Armour, &c. P. 3, Epistle Dedicatory.) 26 Gob Almighty doth not only punish one sin with another, but, many times, the same sin with itself too, giving up " him, that will be filthy, to be filthy still" (Eev. xxii. 11). (Ex. viii. 15, 32; ix. 12, 34). . . . When the Gentiles had filled up the measure of their iniquities, and with that the vials of God's wrath, God poured out those vials of His wrath by giving them up to their iniquities He gave them up to vile affec- tions, which was to punish sensuality with sensuality. . . . He said by the Prophet Ezekiel, " Because I have purged thee, and thou wouldest not be purged (thy punishment is, that) thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness any more " (xxiv. 13) ; it being a much more fearful thing to fall out of God's hands, than to fall into them. Indeed, we are not only told by the Master of the Sentences, that " our later sins do execute judg- ment upon our former," but a great deal better, even by Seneca himself (Ep. 16), that "the first and greatest punishment of any commission of sin is the sin itself, which is committed :" insomuch that, although there were no hell, 'twere yet a kind of damnation to be a sinner. Dean Pierce. (The Sinner im- pleaded in his own Court. P. i. ch. i. s. 4.) We may here observe the whole state and history of a heathen, natural, unregenerate life, which is a progress and travel from ROMANS I. 27, 28. 61 one stage of sinning to another, beginning in a conternpt of the light of nature, and ending in the brink of hell. Dr. Hammond. (Serm. on text.) 27 Holding the truth in unrighteousness, leaving the natural use, "not discerning the Loed's Body," "not holding the Head;" ** turning the grace of God into lasciviousness" — are charac- teristical forms of speech for specifical miscarriages, in their se- veral instances. Br. Whichcote. (Aphorisms. Cent. xi. 1062.) What made the heathen hum in lust, one towards another, but because the way of nature is finite, but the way of sin infinite ? And infinite lust will breed infinite occasions ; and infinite occasions will require infinite wealth, and infinite wit, and in- finite strength, and infinite instruments to bring them about. vi. 19, Bj). Reynolds. 28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient ; 29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness ; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity ; w^hisperers, 30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to pa- rents, 31 Without understanding, covenant-breakers, with- out natural affection, implacable, unmerciful : 32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. 28 As the providence of GrOD doth concern itself to secure good men from dangerous errors and mistakes in matters of religion, so by a just judgment He gives up those, who allow themselves in vicious practices, to error and infidelity. And this is the 63 ROMANS I. 28. meaning of that passage of the Prophet Isa. vi. 10, so often cited by our Savioub, and applied to the Jews, of " making the heart of that people fat, and their ears heavy, and closing their eyes, lest they should understand and be converted." So again Isa. Ixvi. 3, 4. God threatens the people of Israel that, because they were wicked and abominable in their lives, He would abandon them, and give them over to a spirit of delusion ; *' They have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations : I also will choose their delusions." GoD is said to choose those things for us, which He permits us to fall into. . . . When men abandon themselves to wicked- ness and impiety, God withdraws His grace from them ; and by His secret and just judgment they are deprived of the faculty of discerning between truth and error, between good and evil. 2 Thess. ii. 10 — 12, it is said that " the man of sin should come with all deceiveableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved." And that "for this cause God would send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned, who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." And it is just with God that men of vicious inclinations and practices should be exposed to the cheat of the grossest and vilest impostors. God's providence is cou- cerued for men of honest minds and sincere intentions : but, if men " take pleasure in unrighteousness," God takes no further care of them, but delivers them up to their own hearts' lusts, to be seduced into all those errors, into which their own vain imaginations and their foolish hearts are apt to lead them, xi. 7 — 11. Abp. Tillotson. (Serm. on S. John vii. 17.) Men's lusts and vices have a great influence on their minds, and the chief hand, many times, in moulding of their judgments and opinions. And therefore we may know men's manners by their persuasions about their duty, before ever we see their practices. JFor they, who live wickedly, will quickly bring their minds to think wickedly. Their lusts and vices will soon insinuate them- selves into their judgments and appreheusious ; they will dis- pose their souls to such persuasions, as are most serviceable to them, and win them with ease into a belief of evil things by ROMANS I. 28. 29. 63 making them willing first, and equally desirous to believe them. .... The factious and unpeaceable man will easily persuade himself into that belief, which disturbs peace and opposes go- vernment. The covetous soul will favour any tenet, which pro- motes gain and advances interest. The licentious libertine will snatch at any opinion, that gratifies the flesh and pleads the cause of sensuality and softness. Men's pride and ambition, their fierceness and cruelty, their malice and revenge, their con- tentiousness and faction, their sensuality and covetousness, will make them overlook the humble and lowly, the meek and gentle, the patient and merciful, the quiet and peaceable, the generous and self-denying Laws of Cheist, and greedily imbibe such wicked prejudices and erroneous conceits, as evacuate and over- throw them. . . . This effect is obvious and ordinary ; for not only the nature of things, but even the just judgment of God, concur to it : nothing being more common than for those men, who hold the truth, as S. Paul says, in unrighteousness of living, and even, whilst they know God, do not glorify Him by their service and obedience, which are due to Him, and are our way of glorifying Him, as God, nor are thanhful in their hearts and actions, to lose that knowledge, and to become vain in their, imaginations, their foolish heart being darkened by GoD^S giving them over to a reprobate mind — or a mind void of all true judg- ment— to do those things which are not convenient, not knowing they are so. . . . But, if we will transgress our duty by disbe- lieving it first, and giving credit to such opinions, as destroy the obligation of it, our disbelief of our duty will by no means excuse our sin, or rescue us from condemnation, i. 28 ; 2 Thess. ii. 10—12. J. Kettlewell. (The Measures of Christian Obedi- ence. B. iv. ch. 6.) When the heart forgetteth it is flesh, it becometh a stone The ear is deaf, the mind reprobate ; afTirvTros, saith Theodoret, a " reverberating mind," that violently beateth back the blow, that should soften it. Farindon. (Serm. on 1 S. Pet. i. 6.) 29 Men are too apt to deceive themselves in the judgment they are willing to form, concerning the measures and degrees of guilt. We are wont to esteem sins small, only because they are commonly practised j but neither the opinions nor the prac- 64 ROMANS i. 29. tices of men will be of any weight to justify us before that God, who only "judgeth righteous judgment." Fornication, for in- stance, is a vice, which they who take their measures of guilt from the practice of the world, will be apt to think to be of the smallest size ; but he, who looks into the Holy Scriptures, which are the only sure rule to judge by, will find this vice con- stantly ranked amongst the most capital sins, and equally threatened with the severest punishments. In ch. i. we find it in the front of that black and comprehensive catalogue of sins, which the Apostle there gives us. . . . And in the same order we may see it placed by the same Apostle. Gal. v. 19. " Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness," &e. In Ephes. v. 5, we are taught that " no whoremonger shall have any inherit- ance in the kingdom of Christ and of God," and in Eev. xxi. 8, S.John also hath placed " whoremongers" amongst those enormous sinners, who " shall have their part in the lake, which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." Bp. Smalridge. (Punishments Proportionable to Sins. Serm. on S. Matt. xi. 22.) Whoredom and ybrw2Cff<20w are destructive to the public . . . they are sure to hinder and discourage marriage . . . they are mis- chievous in the highest degree possible to the partner of our guilt. . . . They draw down the mind of the offender himself from all sense of religion, and by degrees loosen and wear away all the good principles, that were in a man. When a man has once been brought to allow himself in habitual whoredom and uncleanness, it is all over with him. . . . This has a more im- mediate tendency, I think, than any other vice, to create a dis- regard to all other breaches of God's Law and to occasion a total neglect of duty. . . . We ought to recollect S. Paul's powerful warning — (spoken in reference to this particular class of sins) — " Let no man deceive you with vain words," with artful salvos and subterfuges, with contrived excuses and ex- tenuations ; for the solemn truth remains, and so you will find it to be, that "because of these things cometh the wrath of God on the children of disobedience." Paley. (Sermons on Eph. V. 6 ; and Heb. xiii. 4.) ROMANS I. 29, 30. 65 " Auger is cruel, and wrath is raging ; but who can stand before envy ?" (Prov. xxvii. 4.) Yea, hence 'tis not unlikely that twice the Apostle joins it with murder ; as if he, that conversed with the envious, went in danger of his life : as indeed he does, being subject to all the disadvantages, that unfortunate man can live under : whatsoever he does well is presently detracted from, till it be lessened and synaloepba'd into nothing. Gal. V. 21. Owen Feltham. (Resolves. Cent. ii. 56.) Scevis inter se convenit ursis — (a concordat) — beasts of one kind devour not another : uvOpwwoi avOpivTrocpar^ioi, men are eaters of men — Cain, Abel's killer ; Esau, Jacob's hater ; Ishmael, Isaac's mocker; Shimei, David's curser; Herod,John'sbeheader; Judas, Cheist's betrayer. Dr. Richard Gierke. The heathen world is described as hemg filled with all unrighteous- ness, full of envy , &c., without understanding, but out of this world the greater part of these Roman believers were taken : accord- ingly, (so wondrous is the operation of faith, and the power of the Holt Ghost) the character we find given them at Ch. XV. is precisely the very opposite to this. S. Paul there ex- presses a firm persuasion that they were now full of goodness, and filled with all knowledge (vi. 17). What a complete and blessed change ! And yet, there is a lesson of distrust and jealous fear, which we Christians may learn from it. For it has been observed that no less than " five of the terms, here applied to the heathen world, (and, in substance, several others,) are found in 2 Tim. iii. 2, 3, in the description of a predicted cor- ruption of the Church itself." Let us then stand in awe, and beware of a relapse. Corruptio optimi pessima. We must diligently co-operate with the grace of God, lest we lose what we have received ; and so our latter end be worse than the first. The heathen were truly in sad case, when reprobate (v. 28) concerning the light of natural conscience ; but Oh, how far more terrible will be the proportionate condemnation of us Christians, if we be found reprobate concerning the faith ! 2 Tim. iii. 8. J. F. 30 All the works of the flesh and whatsoever leads to them, a 11, that is contrary to the Spirit, and does either grieve or ex- tinguish Him, must be rescinded and utterly taken away. Con- r 66 ROMANS I. 30. cerning which, it is necessary that I set down the catalogues, which by Christ and His Apostles are left us, as lights and watch-towers to point out the rocks and quicksands, where our danger is : and this I shall the rather do, not only because they comprehend many evils, which are not observed or feared — some which are commended, and many that are excused — but also because, although they are all marked with the same black cha- racter of death, yet there is some difference in the execution of the sentence, and in the degrees of the condemnation, and of the consequent repentance. S. Matt. xv. 19 ; S. Mark vii. 21 ; Gal. V. 16, 19—21; Eph. iv. 31, &c. ; v. 3—5; 2 Tim. iii. 2—5 ; Kom. i. 29—32 ; 1 Cor. vi. 9 ; Eev. xxi. 8 ; 1 S. Pet. iv. 3, 15. Bp. J. Taylor. (The Doctrine and Practice of Repent- ance. Ch. iv. s. 1.) It is remarkable, that vice, which is the general term for all actions and dispositions, that are contrary to virtue, is not once, that I know of, called by this name in the whole Bible ; but is al- ways expressed by some word, which denotes a deviation from the Will of God ; and so plainly alludes and refers to the breach of that Law, which God originally impressed upon man, or which He hath since revealed. It is usually defined in Scripture by the words " sin," " transgression," " diso- bedience," "iniquity," "faults," "wickedness," "unrighteous- ness," &c. As to the particular kinds of vice, especially as it relates to our moral actions, and so comes more properly under the head of ethics or moral philosophy, they are dis- tinguished by the actions, which flow from the bitter root of sin ; and for that reason are called often in Scripture its "fruits;" or, by their opposition to those virtues, wherein the true righteousness of man consists ; and, in particular, to those seven virtues we have before mentioned; and are called "pride," " envy," " covetousness," "luxury," "gluttony," "anger," and "sloth," in opposition to "humility," "benevolence," "libe- rality," &c. These seven take in all the kinds of moral evil ; but the branches, which are contained under each general head of these seven vices, are very various. Wogan. (An Essay on the Proper Lessons, &c. Pref. 21st Sunday after Trinity.) The bulk of professed Christians are used to speak of man, as of ROMANS I. 31. 67 a being, who, naturally pure and inclined to all virtue, is some- times almost involuntarily drawn out of the right course, or is overpowered by the violence of temptation. Vice with them is rather an accidental and temporary, than a constitutional and habitual distemper ; a noxious plant, which, though found to live and even to thrive in the human mind, ia not the natural growth and production of the soul. Far different is the hu- miliating language of Christianity. From it we learn that man is an apostate creature, fallen from his high original, degraded in his nature, and depraved in his faculties, indisposed to good, and disposed to evil ; prone to vice — it is easy and natural to him — disinclined to virtue — it is difficult and laborious ; that he is tainted with sin, not slightly and superficially, but radically and to the very core, . . . The circumstances of individuals will be found indeed to differ : the servitude of some is more rigo- rous, than that of others ; their bonds more galling, their de- gradation more complete. Some too (it will be remembered, that we are speaking of the natural state of man without tak- ing Christianity into question) have, for a while, appeared al- most to have escaped from their confinement ; but none are altogether free : all without exception, in a greater or less degree, bear about them, more visible or more concealed, the ignominious marks of their captivity. JFm. Wilberforce. (A Practical View of the Prevailing Religious Systems of Profess- ing Christians, &c. S. 1.) 31 If wit, and education, and philosophy had been the most effectual means to reclaim men from sin, where should we have looked more for the flourishing of virtue, than in Greece and Kome ? And yet, in those times, when all the accomplishments of wit were at the highest in those places, the manners of men were sunk into the greatest filth of debauchery. It would make one astonished to read the admirable discourses of their Philosophers, and to consider the strange height, that eloquence and wit were arrived to among their Orators and Poets ; and then to compare the account given of the manners of the Gen- tile world, not only by their own satirists, but by the Apostles in their several Epistles. What a monstrous catalogue of sins do we meet with in the first chapter to the Romans ? Of sins of so r 2 68 ROMANS I. 32. deep a dye, and of so horrid a nature, and such an inventory of all sorts of wickedness, that one might imagine, the Apostle had been rather describing some vision of hell, than the seat of the E-oman Empire. To the same purpose he speaks of the Corinthians and Ephesians, who thought themselves behind none of the Greeks of that age in the breeding then most in vogue (1 Cor. V. 14 : Eph. iv. 17, 18) : but we need not instance par- ticulars, when S. Peter calls it, in general, " the will of the Gentiles" (1 S. Pet. iv. 3) to live " in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, and banquetings," as well as " abo- minable idolatries;" and S. John, in short, saith ; "The whole world lieth in wickedness." 1 S. John v. 19. Bp. Stillingjleet. (Serm. on Heb. iii. 13.) 32 We have here an abridgment of the lives and practices of the whole heathen world ; that is, of all the baseness and villainy, that both the corruption of nature and the instigation of the devil could for so many ages by all the arts and opportunities, all the motives and incentives of sinning, bring the sons of men to. And yet, full and comprehensive as this catalogue of sin seems to be, it is but sin under a limitation ; an universality of sin of a certain kind ; that is, all sins of a direct and personal com- mission. And you will say, is not this a sufficient comprehen- sion of all ? For, is not a man's person the compass of his actions ? Or, can he operate further, than he does exist ? Why, yes ; in some sense he may. He may not only commit such and such sins himself, but also take pleasure in others, that do commit them. Which expression implies these two things : Eirst, that thus to take pleasure in other men's sins is a distinct sin from all the former ; and, secondly, that it is much greater than the former. Eorasmuch as these terms not only do the same, but also take pleasure, &c., import aggravation, as well as distinction, and are properly an advance h minori ad majus, a progress to a further degree. And this, indeed, is the farthest that human pravity can reach ; the highest point of vil- lainy, that the debauched powers of man's mind can ascend unto. For surely that sin, that exceeds idolatry, monstrous unnatural lusts, covetousness, maliciousness, envy, murder, deceit, back- biting, hatred of God, spitefulness, pride, disobedience to pa- ROMANS I. 32. 69 rents, covenant-breaking, want of natural affection, implacable- ness, unmercifuiness, and the like — I say, that sin, that is a pitch beyond all these, must needs be such an one, as must non- plus the devil himself to proceed farther. It is the very ex- tremity, the fulness, and the concluding period of sin ; the last line and finishing stroke of the devil's image, drawn upon the soul of man. Dr. South. (Serm. on Text.) Afterwards this survey of the Works and Word of God (Ps. xix.) the Psalmist comes at last to peruse the third book, the Book of Conscience — a book, which, though wicked men may keep shut up and naturally do not love to look into it, yet will one day be laid open before the great Tribunal in the view of the whole world, to the justifying of God, when He judges, and to impenitent sinners' eternal confusion. And what finds the Psalmist here ? a foul blurr'd copy, that he is puzzled how to read. " Who," says he, " can understand his errors ?" Those notions, which God had with His own hand imprinted upon conscience in legible characters, are partly defaced and slurr'd over with the scribble and interlinings of " secret faults ;" partly obliterated and quite raz'd out with capital crimes, "^re- sumptuous sins.^^ And yet this manuscript cannot be so abused, but it will still give in evidence for God ; there being no argu- ment in the world, that can with more force extort an acknow- ledgment of God from any man's conscience, than the convic- tion of guilt it labours under. For the sinner cannot but know he has transgressed a law, and he finds within him, if he be not past all sense, such apprehensions, that, though at pre- sent he " walk in the ways of his heart and in the sight of his eyes," (as the Wise man ironically advises the young man to do, Eccles. xi. 9), yet he knows (as the same Wise man there from his own experience tells him) that " for all these things God will bring him into judgment." Dr. Adam Littleton. (Serm. on Ps. xix. 13.) I tremble to think how many live, as if they were neither beholden to God, nor afraid of Him ; neither in His debt, nor in danger. It is their least ill to do evil. Behold, they speak for it, joy in it, boast of it, enforce it, as if they would send challenges into heaven, and make love to destruction. Bp. Hall. 70 ROMANS II. 1. CHAPTER II. 'THEREFORE thou art inexcusable, O man, whoso- ever thou art that judgest : for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judg- est doest the same things. 2 But we are sure that the judgment of God is ac- cording to truth against them which commit such things. 3 And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God ? 4 Or despisest thou the riches of His goodness and forbearance and longsuffering ; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance ? 5 But after thy hardness and impenitent heart trea- surest up unto thyself wTath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God ; 1 The scope of this chapter being to assert that the Gentile, as well as the Jew, had a right to be admitted into the Christian Church, and that he was equally entitled to share in the bless- ings of it, the Apostle grounds his arguments upon this prin- ciple, that, in the final judgment, there would be no respect of persons with God, but that Gentiles, as well as Jews, would be recompensed in that day, if not in the same degree, yet by the same rule of proportion ; that is, according to their works. Whence it would follow, that, if this equal measure was to be dealt to both in the future judgment, it could not seem strange, if both were to be admitted to the present benefit and privi- leges of the Gospel. But, to keep ofi" a conclusion so uneasy to his inveterate prejudices, the Jew would object to this rea- ROMANS. II. 1. 71 soning, that the Apostle's assumption must be false ; for that, as God had given the heathen no Law, they were not account- able to Him ; that, as there was no room for punishment, where no law forbade, so there could be no claim to reward, where no law enjoined ; and consequently that the heathen world, being left without law, had no concern in a future recompense at all. This suggestion the Apostle obviates by shewing the incon- sequence of it. His answer is to this effect. You, says he, con- clude that the heathens are not accountable, because they have no law. But it no way follows, because they had no Law extraor- dinary revealed to them from heaven, that therefore the heathens had no law no rule of life at all. For these, having no such Law, were a law unto themselves ; that is, their natural reason and un- derstanding was their law. Bp.Hurd. (Serm. on E-om. ii. 14, 15.) He had already pronounced the Gentile to be without excuse (i. 20). Here he pronounces the Jew also inexcusable ; because of the sin, he condemned in others, he was guilty himself. He abstains at present, for prudence' sake, from accusing the Jew by name. By comparing i. 29, &c., with iii. 9 — 18, we see that the same indictment in substance, and nearly in express terms, is equally brought against both these representative classes of mankind. Thus he prepares the way for the broad unqualified assertion, which lay at the foundation of his argument, that Jew and Gentile had both sinned — sinned, too, inexcusably against light and knowledge — and that there is no difference. They were reduced to the same condition of danger and help- lessness ; and both, if pardoned, must be pardoned on like terms, and accept together one common salvation. J . F. Every one, that taketh upon him the habit or custom of censuring others, is without apology or inexcusable, not only in that he takes upon him that judicature, which God hath not appointed him to exercise (xiv. 4) ; but because it is impossible for any man, much accustomed to judge or censure others, not to do the same things, which he condemns in others. For, as S. James tells us (not excluding himself, who questionless was one of the best men then living), " in many things we oifend all." And, if we offend in many things, and accustom ourselves to censure many, or to pass our sentence upon most things, 73 ROMANS II. 2, 3. which we see amiss, we cannot possibly avoid the condemning of ourselves ; because we cannot possibly avoid some one or other of those faults, which we censure or condemn in others. Bean Jackson. (Works. B. ii. ch. 37, s. 4.) 2 Thou condemnest thyself. Origen after his great fall was si- lenced in the pulpit : for on reading Psalm 1. 16, the conscience of his sill would not suffer him to speak. . . . He cannot be a bold reprover, who is not a conscientious liver. Such a one must speak softly, for fear of awaking his own guilty conscience. GurnalL 3 Whosoever thou art, that thus abusest the Mercy, and despisest the Truth of God, know, that, as His Mercy, so His Truth shall never fail. ... To divorce His Mercy from His Truth is to abuse it. If, when God threateneth, thou layest aside His Truth, and presumest on His bare Mercy, when He punisheth, take heed He do not cry quittance with thee by laying aside His Mercy, and manifesting His bare Truth. God is " patient and merciful" (Ps. cxlviii. 5). Patience will bear much; Mercy forbear much : but, being scorned, and provoked, and dared, Patience itself turneth furious ; and Mercy itself cruel, it is Mercy, that threateneth ; it is Justice, that punisheth. Mercy hath the first turn ; and, if by repentance and faith we lay timely hold of it, we may keep it for ever, and (revenging) Justice will have nothing to do with us. But if, careless and secure, we slip the opportunity and neglect the time of Mercy, the next turn belongeth to Justice, which will render "judg- ment without mercy" to them, that forgat God and despised His mercy. . . . We must take them together, and profit by them together. . . . The consideration of His Truth humbleth us : w ithout it, we would be fearless. The consideration of His Mercy supporteth us : without it, we would be hopeless. Truth begetteth fear and repentance ; Mercy, faith and hope : and these two, faith and repentance, keep the soul even, up- right, and steady, as the ballast and sail do the ship, that, for all the rough waves and weather, that encountereth her in the troublesome sea of this world, she miscarrieth not, but arriveth safe and joyful in the haven, where she would be. xi. 22. Bp. Sanderson. (Serra. ad populum, ] Kings xxi. 29.) ROMANS II. 4. 73 4 Here we learn that God is " rich in goodness," and will not punish His creatures for that, which is His (God's) own act, as if He led them into sin. Secondly, that He suffers and for- bears sinners long, and doth not snatch them away by sudden death, as they deserve ; thirdly, that the reason of God's for- bearance is to bring men to repentance ; fourthly, that hardness of heart and impenitency is not causally from God, but from ourselves ; fifthly, that it is not the insuificient proposal of the means of their conversion on God's part, which is the cause of men's perdition, but their own contempt and despising of these means ; sixthly, that punishment is not an act of absolute do- minion, but an act of righteous judgment whereby God renders to every man according to his own deeds ; wrath to them, and only to them, who treasure up wrath unto themselves, and eternal life to those, who continue patiently in well doing. Abp. Bram- hall. (A Vindication of True Liberty. No, 12.) Does not God, every day, send something of His grace upon us ? Does He not always knock at the doors of our hearts, as long as the day of salvation lasts. Does not He send His Spirit to invite, His arguments to persuade, and His mercies to endear us ? Would He have anything of this lost ? Is it not a sin once to resist the Holt Spirit ? And he, that remembers his sin, and knows it is an offence against God, and yet does not repent at that thought and that knowledge, does not he resist the Holt Spirit of God, so moving, so acting, so insinuating ? Is not every good sermon a part of the grace of God ? " The longer God hath expected our repentance," saith S. Gregory, " the more angry He is, if we do not repent." Now God's anger would not increase, if our sin did not. But I consider, must not a man repent of his resisting God's grace, of his re- fusing to hear, of his not attending, of his neglecting the means of salvation ? And why all this, but that every delay is a quenching of the light of God's Spirit, and every such quench- ing cannot be innocent ? And what can be expounded to be a contempt of God, if this be not — that when God, by His pre- venting. His exciting, His encouraging, His assisting grace, in- vites us to repentance, we nevertheless refuse to mourn for our sins and to repent ? . . . He, who sins and does not repent 74 ROMANS II. 4, 5. speedily, does at least sin twice ; and every day of delay is a further provocation of the wrath of God. To this purpose are those excellent words of S. Paul, Despisest thou, ^c, that is, every action of God's loving kindness and forbearance to thee is an argument for, and an exhortation to, repentance : and the not making use of it is called by the Apostle a despising of His goodness : and the not repenting is, on every day of delay, a treasuring up of wrath, ix. 22. Bp. J. Taylor. (The Rule of Conscience. B. ii. Ch. iii. Rule 16.) Here is a select variety of admirable words, TrXovro^ t^? xpV'^'^°'^V'^°^ Kal T^? avo'xf]'! Kill Tjys fiaiciwdvjiu'a? too Qeov, where the critics tell us that the first word signifies the infinite goodness and gene- rosity of the Divine nature, whereby He is inclined to do good to His creatures, to pity and relieve. The second expresses His oiFers of mercy upon repentance, and the notices and warn- ings sinners have to amend. The third is His bearing the man- ners of bold sinners, waiting long for their reformation, and from year to year deferring to give the final stroke of vengeance. In what an apt opposition do riches of Divine goodness, and treasures of wrath to come, and Divine justice, stand to one an- other ! What a proper motive is the one to lead any temper, that has the least ingenuity, to repentance and to work upon the hopes of mankind ! How proper the other to rouse up the solemn reflections of bold sinners, and to work in them reso- lutions of submission to God, and leading a good life, in order to avoid falling into His hands, who is a consuming fire, and being plunged into the deepest damnation. Blackmail. (The Sacred Classics defended and illustrated. Ch. 5.) 5 There are no immediate visible attestations of God's displea- sure to startle or afiright. Among His judgments, as among His mercies, men are to walk for the most part " by faith, and not by sight." We must believe, not see our doom. And thus we wrest His very patience into a motive for contemning His Majesty : " For My Name^s sake I will defer Mine anger, and for My praise will I refrain" (Isa. xlviii. 8) : but we cannot un- derstand a glory, thus founded on compassionate endurance. " Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do ROMANS II. 5. 75 evil" (Eccl. viii. 11). All our temporary conceptions of the justice of heaven are taken from the tribunals of earth ; and on earth punishment ordinarily dogs the heels of crime. Hence, when the punishment is not direct, we forget that the guilt can have existed. " These things hast thou done, and I kept si- lence ;" and that silence is the ground of the corrupt and in- sulting inference, that forms the sinner's security — " thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thyself" (Ps. 1. 21.) " Have I not held My peace, even of old, and thou fear- est Me not" (Isa. Ivii. 11) ? — the merciful reluctance of our God to avenge becoming itself the perpetual encouragement to despise or forget the vengeance He delays. " Let favour," cries the Prophet, " be shown to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness ;" the favour itself being the too certain reason or the confirmation of his thankless obstinacy (Isa. xxvi. 10). . . . No voice from heaven authenticates the preach- er's message : no consuming fire descends upon the guilty head : the voluptuary, the idolater of gain, the prosperous God- despiser is not stricken in our streets ; and the scoffing sceptic cries, of Jehovah (as the Prophet, of the idol god) " He is talk- ing, or He is pursuing, or He is on a journey, or peradventure He sleepeth, and must be awaked." (1 Kings xix. 27.) Awaked ! He will awake ! Surely the Loed will break forth at length from His hidden Sanctuary, and break forth, as of old upon the Mount, ''in fire and the smoke of a furnace" (Exod. xix. 18.) W. Archer Butler. (Serm. on 1 S. John i. 8.) Conf. i. 18. It is agreed on all hands that the Nature of God, as it is in itself, is incomprehensible by human understanding ; and not only His Nature, but likewise His powers and facul- ties, and the ways and methods, in which He exercises them, are so far beyond our reach, that we are utterly incapable of framing exact and adequate notions of them. ... If we look into the Holy Scriptures, and consider the representations given us there of God, or His attributes, we shall find them to be, generally, plainly borrowed from some resemblance to things, with which we are acquainted by our senses. . . . We find Him represented, as aifected with such passions, as we per- 76 ROMANS II. 5. ceive to be in ourselves ; viz., as angry and pleased, as loving and hating, as repenting and changing His resolutions, as full of mercy and provoked to revenge. And yet, on reflection, we cannot think that any of these passions can literally affect the Divine Nature. But the meaning confessedly is, that He vpill as certainly punish the wicked, as if He were inflamed with the passion of anger against them ; that He will as infallibly reward the good, as we will those, for whom we have a particular and affectionate love : that, when men turn from their wickedness and do what is agreeable to the Divine command. He will as surely change His dispensations towards them, as if He really repented, and had changed His mind. And, as the nature and passions of men are thus by analogy and comparison ascribed to God — because these would in us be the principles of such out- ward actions, as we see He has performed, if we were the authors of them — so in the same manner, and by the same con- descension to the w^eakness of our capacities, we find the powers and operations of our mind ascribed to Him. v. 9. Abp. King. (Serm. on Eom. viii. 29, 30.) 6 Who will render to every man according to his deeds ; 7 To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life ; 8 But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, 9 Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gen- tile; 10 But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gen- tile ; 1 1 For there is no respect of persons with God. ROMANS II. 6. n 6 Temporal evils, though they be sometimes punishments of sin, yet they are not ever sent as punishments (because sometimes they have other ends and uses, and are ordinahilia in melius) ; and, secondly, they are never the only punishments of sin, be- cause there are greater and more lasting punishments reserved for sinners after this life ; of w-hich there is no other use or end but to punish, since they are not ordinabilia in melius. If we will make these temporal evils the measure, whereby to judge of the justice of God, we cannot secure ourselves from erring dangerously ; God's purposes, in the dispensation of these unto particular men, being " unsearchable." (xi. 33.) But those everlasting punishments are they, wherein God's justice shall be manifested to every eye in due time at that last Day ; which is therefore called by S. Paul, the day of wrath and of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God ; implying, that, howsoever God is just in all His judgments and acts of pro- vidence even upon earth, yet the counsels and purposes of God in these things are often secret, and " past finding out ;" but at the last great Day, when He shall render to every man according to his works his everlasting recompense, then His vengeance shall manifest His wrath, and the righteousness of His judg- ment shall be revealed to every eye in the condign punishment of unreconciled sinners. Bp. Sanderson. (Serm. ad populum on 1 Kings xxi. 29.) How can this retribution be called a reward, as if it bore any proportion to our mean services, as wages does to labour ? To this there is a very proper answer by distinguishing between a reward of debt, where the reward is strictly due as an equiva- lent for the service, and a reward of grace or favour, where the generosity and bounty of the rewarder gives much more than the service deserves. This is S. Paul's distinction. " Now to him that worketh," says he, "is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt." (iv. 3.) But this reward in Heaven is a reward of grace, there being infinitely more of bounty in it than desert. Por, first, it proceeds from the goodness of God, and is called His gift, " The wages of sin is death," says S. Paul, " but the gift of God is Eternal life through Jestjs Cheist our Lord." (vi. 23.) Then, it is the purchase, not of our righ- 78 ROMANS II. 7. teousness, but of the merits and performances of Cheist. " He hath made us accepted," says the Apostle, " in the Beloved." (Eph. i, 6.) It is for His sake that our imperfect services are 80 highly rewarded. And, lastly, this reward is owing to the wisdom, justice, and goodness of God : to His wisdom ; that He has thought fit for the better government of mankind to propose such a noble reward : to His justice ; that He is ex- actly and punctually true to His Word : and to His mercy ; that He did not take the forfeiture of our original and actual guilt, . but graciously contrived this way of saving us by a Redeemer, upon very small and disproportioned services of our own. James Blair. (Serm. on S. Matt. v. 12.) 7 As the wicked get nothing by God's forbearing to execute His threatening, but the treasuring up more wrath against the Day of wrath, so the saints lose nothing by not having the promise presently paid in to them ; but rather do, by their forbearing God awhile, treasure up more joy against the joyful Day, when the promise shall be performed ; to them who by patient con- tinuance seek for glory and honour, eternal life. Mark, it is not enough to do well, but to continue therein ; nor that neither, except it be patient continuing in well doing, in the midst of God's seeming delays : and whoever he be, that can do this, shall be rewarded at last for all his patience. . . . There is a double fulness, which the Christian may hope to find in those enjoyments, that he hath with long patience waited for, above another, that cannot stay God's leisure, viii. 25. Gurnall. (The Christian in Complete Armour, Eph. vi. 17, Ch. vii. S. 2.) No virtue is acquired in an instant, but by degrees, step by step ; from the seeds of right instruction and good resolution it springs up, and goes forward by a continual progress of cus- tomary practice. 'Tis a child of patience, a fruit of persever- ance, and, consequently, a work of time ; for enduring implies a good space of time. Dr. Barrow. S. Paul here and at verse 13 obviates betimes the objection, that would arise in the mind of the Jewish legalist to the Christian doctrine of justification " by faith, and not by the works of the Law," by stating in the plainest manner the necessity unto salvation of obedience and good works under the Gospel. But ROMANS II. 8. 79 then, from the motive, which he assigns to the doer of these good works, as rendering them acceptable to God and con- ducive to eternal life, he at once shews their entire distinction from " the works of the Law" and their Divine superiority and excellence. The Christian, walking by faith, seeks for glory and honour and immortality. Is this the language of Mount Sinai ? Where do we find any such motive and lofty aim, assigned to the Legal observer ? It is indeed peculiar to the Gospel ; and by this early mention of it the blessed Apostle already " mag- nifies the Law and makes it honourable," already " establishes the Law" by faith (iii. 31), resting the obedience it demands on new and heavenly sanctions, investing it with the Grace of Christ, with the gift of Eternal Life. Eefer to i. 9. /. F. 8 Christian religion propounds the most powerful arguments to persuade men to the obedience of these laws. The Gospel offers such considerations to us, as are fit to work very forcibly upon two of the most swaying and governing passions in the mind of man — our hopes and our fears. To encourage our hopes, it gives us the highest assurance of the greatest and most lasting happiness in case of obedience ; and, to awaken our fear, it threatens sinners with the most dreadful and durable torments in case of disobedience. This is that, which makes the doctrine of the Gospel so powerful an instrument for the reforming of the world, that it proposes to mankind such glorious rewards, and such terrible punishments, as no religion ever did ; and, to make the consideration of them more effec- tual, it gives lis far greater assurance of the reality and cer- tainty of these things, than ever the world had before. This account the Apostle gives us of the success and efficacy of the Gospel upon the minds of men, and for this reason he calls it "the power of God unto salvation," because therein "the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men" (i. 16, 18). And the firm belief of a future Judgment, which shall render to every man according to his deeds, if it be well considered, is to a reasonable nature the most forcible motive of all other to a good life ; because it is taken from the consideration of the greatest and most lasting happiness and misery, that human nature is capable of. Abp. 80 ROMANS II. 9, 10. Tillotson. (The Excellency of the Christian Religion. Serm. on Phil. iii. 8.) 9 The obedience of creatures unto the Law of nature is the stay of the whole world. And is it possible, that roan, being not only the noblest creature in the world, but even a very world in himself, his transgressing the Law of his nature should draw no manner of harm after it ? Tes ; " tribulation and anguish unto every soul that doeth evil^ Hooker. Every sin, when newly committed, amazes and terrifies the soul, though the sense of it soon wears off. How shall we be able to bear the anguish of all our sins together, when conscience, which forgets and extenuates none, brings them to our remembrance ? Adam. (Private Thoughts. Ch. 5.) 10 And also to the Gentile. When the Apostle in 1 Cor. vi. came to fornicators, that were out of the pale of the Church, he re- fused to judge them, as out of his bounds and jurisdiction. And, I conceive, it may become a charitable Christian, either not to pass a final sentence upon all the heathen, or else to in- cline to charity ; which is the Law of the Gospel. Why may we not argue of faith, as S. Paul does of works ? If the Gen- tiles have a faith in God's Mercy, may they not be saved by that, as Christians by their faith in Chbist, which is but God's Mercy manifested ? And, certainly, without this faith, it will be true what the Father says of their best works, " They are but shining sins." But what is it should hinder now, that this faith may not justify ? As I believe the character and impress of God's Image in them is their law, forbidding their sin and enjoining their duty, so, I also believe, as a needle, once touched, their consciences will direct them to a refuge in their Maker's Mercy. Therefore, I hope, I shall not much err, if I should believe a heathen, which never heard of Christ, labour- ing to keep a clear conscience, truly repentant for his offences, and casting himself with faith upon God's Mercy, may come to live in heaven among the Blessed. If any object, that then 'tis no privilege to be a Christian, I suppose him much mistaken. For, as S. Paul answers for the Jews, it is a chief, that " unto them are committed the oracles of God" (iii. 2.) They are pre-eminenced before the rest of the world. Though a Pagan ROMANS II. 10. 81 possibly may, in the dark night of nature, by God's mercy grope out a way to heaven, yet, without doubt, he ia more happy, that hath a light and a guide to direct him thither. The illuminations of the Gospel are enlivening and instructing be- yond the sullied notions of philosophy. Any man will like his title better, that is declared an heir, than his, that is but in a capability of adoption. Methinks, our suns and favour, that we find from heaven, should make us look upon them with pity and love, rather than with uncharitable and destroying censures. 1 see they live better, by the faint gleams of nature, than many Christians in the coruscations of the Gospel. And why should I think that they, who live better by the dim glimpses of their conscience, and die resigning themselves to God and His Mercy, whom they have spelled out and found in the Book of the creatures and the Book of their conscience, should yet be cast into eternal perdition ? Owen Feltham. (Eesolves. Cent. ii. 19.) Let not God's dealing with the Gentile world, before the revela- tion of Christianity, be alleged as an objection against the good- ness of God, and His tenderness and compassion for mankind. ..." God left not Himself without a witness" (Acts xiv., xvii.) in any age of Gentilism : the heathen were never destitute of so much light, as might have conducted them to God, and that happiness He designed them : for, besides the traditions trans- mitted from Noah to posterity, the Book of Nature and Pro- vidence was ever open to them ; and this did in most legible characters assert the Being of One Supreme God, and instruct them in the knowledge of His power and goodness. . . . 'Tis not in the least to be doubted, but that the nature of their duty, and consequently the condition of their happiness, was proportioned and confirmed to those manifestations, which God made them ; to those obligations, which He laid before them ; and to that strength and assistance, which He vouchsafed them : for God is not "a hard master:" He will not make good the accusation of the " wicked servant ;" " He will not take up what He laid not down, nor reap what He did not sow." (S. Luke xix.) In a word, if God do at the last Day deal with men, according to those several economics of His Providence, 82 ROMANS II. 11. which they were under, and, if He has afforded all nations means proportionable to those duties He required of them, and to those degrees of happiness, to which He designed them, then He was always the " God of the Gentiles," as well as once of the Jews, or now of the Christians ; and there is no one part in the whole series of Providence, which can give us any colour to call into question the care or goodness of God to- wards mankind. Br. Lucas. (An Inquiry into Happiness. Ch. 3, S. 1.) 11 Consider how striking an instance the Jews formed, when the Gospel was offered them, of the general Rule, which I am pointing out. They were rejected. How hard they thought it, S. Paul's Epistles shew. They did not shrink from de- claring, that, if Jesus were the Christ, and the Gentiles made equal with them, God's promise was broken ; and you may imagine how forcibly they might have pleaded the prophecies of the Old Testament, which seemed irreversibly to assign honour and power (not to say, temporal honour and power) to the Is- raelites by name. Alas ! they did not seek out, and use the one clue given them for their religious course, amid all the mysteries both of Scripture and the world — the one solemn Eule of God's dealings with His creatures. They did not listen for that " small still voice," running under all His Dis- pensations, most clear to those, who would listen, amid all the intricacies of His Providence and His promises. Impressed though it be upon the heart by nature, and ever insisted on in Hevelation, as the basis, on which God has established all His decrees, it was to them a hard saying. S. Paul retorts it on their consciences, when they complained. God, he says, will render to evety man according to his deeds, &c., &c. For there is no respect of persons with God (ii. 6 — 11). Such was the unchangeable Rule of God's government, as it is pro- pounded by S. Paul in explanation of the Jewish election, and significantly prefixed to his discourse upon the Christian. Such as was the Mosaic, such also is the Gospel Covenant, made "without respect of persons;" rich indeed in privilege and promise, far above the Elder Dispensation, but bearing on its front the same original avowal of impartial retribution — " Peace ROMANS II. 12. 83 to every man that worketb good" — " wrath to the disobedient •" predestining to glory characters, not persons ; pledging the gift of perseverance, not to individuals, but to a body, of which the separate members might change. This is the doctrine, set before us by that Apostle, to whom was revealed in an extra- ordinary way the nature of the Christian covenant, its peculiar blessedness, gifts, and promises. The New Covenant was, so far, not unlike the Old, as some reasoners in these days would maintain. J, H. Newman. (Divine Decrees. Serm. on Eev. iii. 11.) 12 For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law : and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law ; 13 (For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. 14 For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves : 1 5 Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another ;) 16 In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my Gospel. 12 Cases undoubtedly may be supposed, and cases occur in innu- merable instances, in which the want of faith cannot be attri- buted to the fault of the unbeliever. Whole nations and countries have never yet heard of the Name of Cheist. In countries, in which He has been preached, multitudes have been debarred by invincible impediments from coming to the know- ledge of His religion. To multitudes of others it has never been preached, or proposed truly or fairly. In these and the like cases, it is not for us to say that men will be destroyed for their want of faith. The Scripture has not said so, but the g2 84 ROMANS II. 13. contrary. The Scripture appears to intimate that, which, so far as we can apprehend, is most agreeable to the Divine equity ; that such persons shall respectively be judged, according to the law and rule, with which they were, or (if it had not been their own fault) they might have been acquainted — whether that were simply the law of nature, or any addition made to it by credible revelation. ... In the assignment, both of punish- ment and reward, respect will be had to the law or rule of action, with which they were acquainted ; so that those, who acted conscientiously by that rule, would be accepted : those, who wilfully went against the dictates of their own conscience, would be regarded as transgressors before God, be their con- dition as to religious knowledge and information what it would. In order to understand that this doctrine does not detract from the value of Christianity, so much as at first sight it may seem to do, two considerations are to be attended to, as possessing a material influence upon the subject. One is, that this gracious Dispensation, which comprises all mankind, which so conde- scends to their several difficulties and disadvantages, and is so indulgent to human blindness and wickedness, is procured to the world through the intervention, the mission, death, and mediation of Jestjs Chkist. Cheist is the instrument of salvation to all, who are saved. The obedient Jew, the virtuous heathen, are saved through Him. They do not know this ; nor may it be necessary they should. Yet it may be true in fact. That is one important consideration. The other is, that we are expressly taught in Scripture that there are divers degrees of happiness even in Heaven : which being so, it is not unrea- sonable to expect that faithful followers of Cheist will be ad- vanced to higher rewards than others. This opinion is not repugnant to any ideas we form of distributive justice, and is Scriptural. Still, however, this speculation, though we can- not, I think, easily shut it out from our thoughts, does not touch our own proper concern. Our concern is solely with the question — how a Christian can be saved. Dr. Foley. (Serm. Part 4, on Eom. vi. 1.) 13 It appears that the faith, to which S. Paul attributes justifica- tion, includes obedience in it from this consideration ; that he ROMANS II. 13. 85 himself states that obedience to the precepts of God is neces- sary to justification. For not the hearers of the Law are just before God, hut the doers of the Law shall be justified. (Verse 13.) And that he here restrains the Law to those precepts, that are Moral — those namely which are of universal and perpetual ob- ligation— appears from the whole context of the passage. . . . The words of this verse are connected by the particle (For) with what had gone before ; neither do they assert anything more than what is contained in them. Bucer therefore rightly observes that " this verse depends upon the former one — God will reward every one according to his works. Por hence it follows that God will bestow eternal life upon those, who do the Law, those, that is, who sincerely desire its performance." . , . You may say perhaps ; Can any one perform the Law of God ? Here Bucer shall give the answer ; " As in the preceding verses to do good or evil meant to act with a good or evil design, to be attentive and diligent, so to do the Law, or be a performer of it, is nothing else than to dedicate oneself to the Law, and to meditate upon it, to exist in it, for the purpose of conforming our whole life to it. This evidently is what God everywhere requires in His Law." In a word, this opinion of S. Paul's is the same with that of S. James, which applies with greater force to Christians. " Be ye doers of the Word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves" (S. James ii. 8 ; i. 22. Conf. Eom. xiii. 10 : Gal. v. 14) ; to which the words of Chkist Himself may be added (S. Matt, vii. 21, 24; S. John xiv. 21; xiii. 7). Before I dismiss this remarkable passage, it may be proper to repeat what the learned Estius hath said upon it. "It evidently appears," he says, " that S. Paul hath designedly recommended with such force good works, as indispensably necessary to justification and eternal life, that he might forewarn his reader, lest, by not properly comprehending his teaching, which follows, when he shews jus- tification to be of faith without works, he should be ofiended through misunderstanding him, and shall fall into some error." Bp. Bull. (Harmonia Apostolica. Diss. ii. ch. 4. s. 8.) The way most probable in my conceit — (for the edification and salvation of your people) — is the bringing them acquainted with the difference between the First and Second Covenant ; then, 86 ROMANS II. 13. pitching on the Second as that, which belongs to us Christians, to shew them the condition of the Covenant in the gross — the vofios TTcajews law of faith, made up of commands, as well as promises ; all the Gospel-precepts, that join together to com- plete the Codex, that law of repentance, self-denial, charity, the new creature, which S. Paul interprets Tr/o-Tts iuep^ovfievi] Bi a<^d7rr]9, faith consummate by love ; or, as S. James, TcXeiovfievrj Bt ep'^wv, perfected by works sincere, impartial, constant, though not unsinning perfect obedience. And then, if you will have it in the retail, the Sermon on the Mount (S. Matt, v., vi.) will give it you completely. Were men but possessed that those duties there mentioned — with the " Ego autem, But I say unto you" — were Duties indeed, not only phrases and forms of speech, that they are not only by grace made possible to a Christian (S. Matt. xi. 30 ; Rom. x. 8), but also most indispensably ne- cessary, without which Nemo Deum, none shall see God — God's oath being gone out against all others with a nunquam introi- bunt, they shall never enter into His rest — it would, I conceive, within a while be found necessary to give over pretending to- wards heaven, or else to observe those gesses, that alone, of all others, can bring us thither ; and so the world of Christians be once more divided, as Epiphanius says it was in the first ages, not into orthodox and heretical . . . nor again, into spiritual and carnal . . . but into evae^el^ kuI aaejSeh, godly and ungodly livers : and so, impiety, injustice, and uucharitableness be the grand heresies to be anathematized; and peace and holiness the most orthodox Christian tenets in our religion. Dr. Ham- mond. (The Pastor's Motto. Visitation Sermon on 2 Cor. xii. 14.) It seems quite beneath the gravity and sincerity of the Apostle in the discussion of so momentous a question, as this of Justifica- tion and Eternal Life, to regard him, as using any ambiguous, much less ironical terms. They are to be received in their ob- vious natural sense, and must apply to the doers of the Law, not strictly under the Covenant of the Law, but under the Grace of the Gospel. In the former sense, it is clear none can be righteous before God ; nor in the latter, unless all human merit and "boasting" be excluded, iii. 27; iv. 1, 2. J. F. ROMANS II. 14. 87 14 Comparing the different states of men we may substitute with S. Paul for the law of revelation, engraved upon tables, the law of nature, written in men's hearts ; for prophetical instructions, the dictates of reason ; for audible admonitions and reproofs, secret whispers of grace, and checks of conscience ; for extra- ordinary instances of Divine power, the ordinary works of the creation, by which Gob's Eternal Divinity and power are dis- cernible ; for the special and occasional influences of Providence, the common and continual expressions of Divine beneficence — then allowing for the disparity (as to measure of evidence and efficacy) in these things — and, as to the rest, the case is the same. If one part hath means more clear and forcible, yet those, which are granted to the other, are not void of use or virtue : by them all men in all places may " seek God, if haply they may feel Him and find Him ;" yea, may, as S. Paul im- plieth, be able to know God and induced to serve Him ; to thank Him and to glorify Him in some measure ; in a measure answerable to such light and strength : no more doth God re- quire ; for no more will He reckon with them. If their helps be deemed more low and scanty, their duty in proportion is less high, and their account will be more easy. Enough cer- tainly they have to excuse God from misprision of not having provided competently for them, to render them, if they do not well use and improve it, inexcusable : and what they have is an effect of God's Mercy, procured and purchased by their Sa- TiouB. Dr. Barrow. (Serm. on 1 Tim. iv. 10.) Power and justice are of themselves fearful ; power, to all men ; justice, to evil men. But justice armed with power — that keeps all in awe. Now, in God, there is power. God's power is manifest even to heathen men. It is part of the f^fwarov -rov QeoD, that, which "may be known of God" (His power) and goes no further but to the work of creation, saith the Apostle, (i. 20.) Every man fears the mighty : for what He will do we know not ; what He can do we know : and that ever presents itself first. And, in God, there is justice and the voice of justice : "If thou do evil," fear. (xiii. 4.) Which justice of God is manifest likewise without Scriptures by "the law written in our hearts," the hearts even of the heathen themselves, saith 88 ROMANS II. 14, 15. the same Apostle; whereby they are either a law to themselves (the better sort of them, Cornelius here) ; or, if not, their own thoughts accuse them for it and their consciences bear witness against them ; and at a sessions, holden in their hearts, they condemn themselves. Which sessions is a forerunner of the great general Sessions, that is to ensue. Bp. Andrewes. (Of the Sending of the Holt Ghost. Serm. Acts x. 34, 35.) The general and perpetual voice of men is as the sentence of God Himself. Por that, which all men have at all times learned, nature herself must needs have taught; and God being the Author of nature, her voice is but His instrument. By her from Him we receive whatsoever in such sort we learn. Infinite duties there are, the goodness whereof is by this rule suffi- ciently manifested, although we had no other warrant besides to approve them. The Apostle S. Paul, having speech con- cerning the heathen, saith of them, they are a law unto them- selves. His meaning is that by force of the light of reason, wherewith God " illuminateth every one, which cometh into the world," men being enabled to know truth from falsehood, and good from evil, do thereby learn in many things what the will of God is ; which will Himself not revealing by any extraordi- nary means unto them, but they by natural discourse attaining the knowledge thereof, seem the makers of those laws, which indeed are His, and they but only the finders of them out. Hooker. (Eccl. Pol. B. i. ch. viii. 3.) There is no sparkle in our nature, which may not be improved, and fixed at last, as a star, in the firmament of our souls. Fai'indon. 15 Every particular person hath a particular remembrancer in himself, as a sufficient testimony of his Creator, Lord, and Judge. We know there is a great force of conscience in all men, by which their thoughts are ever accusing or excusing them : they feel a comfort in those virtuous actions, which they find themselves to have wrought, according to their rule ; a sting and secret remorse for all vicious acts and impious machinations. Nay, those, who strive most to deny a God and to obliterate all sense of Divinity out of their own souls, have not been least sensible of this remembrancer in their breasts. 'Tis true indeed ROMANS II. 15. 89 that a false opinion of God and a superstitious persuasion, which hath nothing of the true God in it, may breed a remorse of conscience in those, who think it true ; and therefore some may hence collect that the force of conscience is only grounded upon an opinion of a Deity, and that opinion may be false. But, if it be a truth, as the testimonies of the wisest writers of most different persuasions and experience of all sorts of persons of most various inclinations do agree, that the remorse of con- science can never be obliterated, then it rather proveth than supposeth an opinion of a Divinity ; and that man, which most peremptorily denieth God's existence, is the greatest argument to himself that there is a God. Let Caligula profess himself an Atheist, and with that profession hide his head or run under his bed, when the thunder strikes his ears, and lightning flashes in his eyes, those terrible works of nature put him in mind of the Power, and his own guilt, of the Justice of God ; whom, while in his wilful opinion he weakly denies, in his involuntary action he strongly asserteth. So that a Deity will either be granted or extorted, and, where it is not acknowledged, it wiU be manifested. Bp. Pearson. (An Exposition of the Creed. Art. i.) I hold it to be most true that, as true Eeligion cannot be without morality, no more can morality, that is right, be without Ee- ligion. I look upon it, as the primitive and everlasting law and religion of man, which, instamped in his soul at his creation, is a ray arising from the Image of God. Till the Law was given, what Eeligion had he but his own morality for almost 2000 years ? It was the world's religion. "What was it else, that taught man to pray, and to humble himself to a Deity, when he had done amiss, to make offertories to appease an angered Godhead, and to think of ways of expiation ? And, when the Law was promulgated in tables of stone to shew the perpetuity of it, was it not the same reduced to literal precepts, which even in the world's infancy was written in the hearts of men ? The judicial and ceremonial Law of the Jews we see abolished at our Satioue's coming. But the Decalogue, because 'tis moral, holds. "SVe find it also barely preceptive and Imperial. " Do this," or, "Do not this," without a reason given (unless in 90 ROMANS II. 15. some out of the consequence) ; because, being moral, there need none. The reason was in each man's heart before ; not only among the Jews, but the Gentiles also. It was the uni- versal religion of the world, which God at first gave man ; so pregnant in the minds of all, that it was sufiScient in some good measure to curb the loose exorbitaucies of depraved nature, and lead her up towards her duty. What barbarous heathen condemns not in his own conscience what the Law prohibits ? or applauds not what it does command ? . . . E-eason can tell us that, having offended, (without satisfaction) we are liable to punishment. It can set us to search for a Savioue, though it cannot find Him for us in His gracious contrivances and sublime immensities. Even the Gospel, in its larger part, is moral. The Law is the compendium of morality ; and the Gospel is the compendium of the Law. . . . This, as the concreated rule with man, is what the Apostle calls " the Eoyal Law," which, if we "fulfil," we "do well." Owen Feltham. (Eesolves. Cent. ii. 3.) The limits of both these (nature and Grace) being distinctly set down, there may safely be acknowledged ; first, a natural power (or, if you will call it, a natural Grace : the Fathers will bear you out in the phrase — Illius est gratia quod creatus est, S. Jerome : Gratia Dei qua fecit nos, S, Augustine ; and Crearis Gratia, S. Bernard ;) and that properly styled. The strength of God, but not of Cheist, enabling us for the works of nature. Br. Hammond. (Serm. Phil. iv. 13.) No soul can plead not guilty here, because no soul is destitute of the seed of goodness. And thus we see in Eom. i., when S. Paul raaketh up that catalogue of foul irregularities ; he drag- geth the unrighteous, the covetous, the malicious, the deceitful, the inventors of evil things, the covenant-breakers to no other tribu- nal, than that of nature, and condemneth them by no other Law than that, which we brought with us into the world. Qucedam jura non scripta, sed omnibus sct'iptis certiora, saith the orator. This law is not written, and therefore is written to all ; and, being connatural to us, is more sure and infallible than those, which are written in wood, or engraven in brass or marble. And one would think, that it were as superfluous and needless ROMANS II. 16. 91 to make any other law to bind us to justice and upright dealing one towards another, as to command children to love their pa- rents, or parents to be indulgent to their children. Por why- should that be urged with such vehemency, to which men's natural bent and inclination carries them, and would certainly continue them, and hold them up in even course of justice and honesty, did not education, and their familiar converse and dalliance with the world, corrupt and blind them ? To this law of nature S, James seemeth to call us back (ch. iii.) where he maketh it as a strange thing to be wondered at, that " the same tongue, that blesseth God, should yet curse men, who are made after the similitude of God :" as if he should have said, curse him not ; deceive him not : for, if thou curse him, if thou deceive him, thou cursest and deceivest God, after whose similitude he is made. " My brethren, these things ought not so to be :" they are as much against nature, as for " the same fountain to send forth sweet and bitter water, or for a fig-tree to bear olives, or a vine figs." S. Paul shutteth up the liar's mouth with the same argument ; " Wherefore cast off lying, and speak truth every one with his neighbour." The reason followeth ; " Por we are members one of another." Thou art a part of him, and he is a part of thee, being both hewn out of the same rock, formed and shaped of the same mould: therefore by lying to thy brother thou puttest a cheat upon thyself, and, as far as in thee lieth, upon that God, who made you both, and gave you tongues ; not to lie, but to in- struct ; and wits, not to deceive, but counsel and help one an- other. And therefore he deterreth men from fraud and violence by no other argument than this ; that " God is the avenger of such things," as if the lie had been told unto, and the cheat put upon, Him. Farindon. (Serm. on Micah vi. 8, Part 4.) 16 This is the Bay, that must make good that great attribute of God, His Justice ; that must reconcile those unanswerable doubts, that torment the wisest understandings, and reduce those seeming inequalities and respective distributions in this world to an equality and recompensive Justice in the nest. This is that one Day, that shall include and comprehend all that went before it, wherein as in the last scene all the actors must 92 ROMANS II. 16. enter, to complete and make up the catastrophe of the great piece. This is the Day, whose memory hath only power to make us honest in the dark and to be virtuous without a wit- ness. Sir T. Browne. (Eeligio medici. s. 47.) There are two great Days, in which the fate of all the world is transacted. This life is man's day, in which man does what he pleases, and God holds His peace. Man destroys his brother, and destroys himself, and confounds governments, and raises armies, and tempts to sin, and delights in it, and drinks drunk, and for- gets his sorrow, and heaps up great estates, and raises a family and a name in the annals, and makes others fear him, and intro- duces new religions, and confounds the old, and changeth Ar- ticles, as his interest requires ; and, all this while, God is silent, save that He is loud and clamorous with His holy precepts, and overrules the event ; but leaves the desires of men to their own choice, and their course of life such as they generally choose. But then God shall have His Day too : "the Day of the Loed shall come," in which He shall speak, and no man shall answer. He shall speak in the voice of thunder and fearful noises ; and man shall do no more, as he pleases, but must suffer, as he hath deserved. When Zedekiah reigned in Jerusalem, and persecuted the Prophets, and destroyed the interests of religion, and put Jeremy into the dungeon, God " held His peace," save only that He warned him of the danger, and told him of the dis- order ; but it was Zedekiah's day, and he was permitted to his pleasure : but, when he was led in chains to Babylon, and his eyes were put out with burning basins and horrible circles of reflected fires, then was God's Day, and His voice was the accent of a fearful anger, that broke him all in pieces. It will be all our cases, unless we hear God speak now, and do His work, and serve His interest, and bear ourselves in our just proportions ; that is, as such, the very end of whose being and all our faculties is to serve God, and to do justice and charities to our brother. For, if we do the work of God in our own day, we shall receive an infinite mercy in the Day of the Loed. Bp. J. Taylor. (Cheist's Advent to Judgment. Serm. on 2 Cor. v. 10.) Whatever men may think of the Ministry and dispensation of the Word, yet undoubtedly the neglect and scorn, which is shewed ROMANS 11. 16. 93 it, is done unto Christ Himself ; and that in His glory (Acts ix. 3, 4) ... . We find the expressions in Scripture promis- cuous ; sometimes " the Gospel of Cheist" (xv. 9) : sometimes my Gospel (ii. 16 ; xvi. 25) : sometimes " the preaching of Je- sus Cheist" (xvi, 25) ; and sometimes "my preaching" (1 Cor. ii. 4). In the virtue of which energy and copartnership (1 Cor. iii. 9 ; 2 Cor. vi. 1) with Cheist and with God, as He saveth, so we save (S. James v. 20) ; as He forgiveth sins, so we for- give them (S. John xx. 23) ; as He judgeth wicked men, so we judge them (Ezek. xx. 4) ; as He beseecheth, so we also beseech (2 Cor. V. 20), saith the Apostle, that ye be " reconciled to God," and " receive not the grace of God in vain" — we, by His grace ; He, by our ministry. He therefore, that despiseth any conviction out of the Book of God — he, that persisteth in any known sin, or in the constant omission of any known duty, — fighteth against Cheist, throweth away his own mercy, stop- peth his ears at the entreaty of the Loed, and committeth a sin directly against Heaven. And, if he so persist, God will make him know there is " a flaming fire," prepared for those, that " obey not the Gospel of our Loed Jesus Cheist." 2 Thess. i. 8. Bp. Reynolds. (An Exposition of Ps. xc.) It may seem to be a title of diminution and disparagement to denominate the Gospel from any man. When men strive for the name of the Gospel, call it by " the name of John" (S. Luke ii. 62, 53) — the Grace of God. . . . S. Paul elsewhere ascribes it to a higher than any earthly authority and owner : he calls it "the Gospel of our Loed Jesus Cheist" (2 Thess. i. 8). He gives it a yet more magnificent title (1 Tim. i. 11) — " The glo- rious Gospel of the ever blessed God," (Rom. xvi. 26) " The Gospel of the everlasting God." 'Tis true : and yet S. Paul calls it in my text, " Our Gospel." So (2 Thess, iii. 14) " He called you by our Gospel," and (Eom. ii. 16) there he calls it my Gospel. 1, 'Tis Paul's Gospel : it was fidei commissum ; it was committed to his care and trust : and so this word " our Gospel" is Vox fidelitatis : he owns the Gospel, as his chief charge, that, which he was mainly entrusted withal (1 Tim, i. 11 ; 2 Tim. i, 14 ; 1 Cor, iv. 1.) . . . 2. He counts the Gospel his : this is Fox amoris ; 'tis a speech and expression of love 94 ROMANS II. 16. and affection. Amor appropriat ; it is the property of love to appropriate what it loves, and to account it its own. 'Twas so with S. Paul. The Gospel was his chief "joy and love." (Acts XX. 24.) He would do anything, suffer anything, for it. 3. " Our Gospel" — 'tis Vox contestationis, a speech of challenge and contestation : he claims and challenges the Gospel to him- self against all carping opposers, against all false Apostles. . . . The Gospel is " ours ;" he will not yield it up. Gal. ii. 5. Periculosum est in rebus Dei jure suo cedere. 4. " Our Gospel" — 'tis Vox certitudinis ; 'tis a speech of confidence and full assurance. Paul is assured that the thing he preached to them was the truth of the Gospel. Paul's preaching and Cheist's Gospel were termini convertibiles : they were all one .... He ia so confident of this, that, if an Angel from heaven should contradict him, he pronounces "a curse" upon him (Gal. i. 8 ; 1 Cor. xiv. 37.) Bp, Brownrig. (Serm. i. on 2 Cor. iv. 3, 4.) 17 Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God. 18 And knowest His will, and approvest the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law ; 19 And art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness, 20 An instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law. 21 Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal ? 22 Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery ? thou that ab- horrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege ? 23 Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonourest thou God ? ROMANS II. 17. 95 24 For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written. 17 Having covertly aimed at " his kinsmen according to the flesh" under the general indictment, " Thou art inexcusable, 0 man, whosoever thou art, that judgest" (V. 1), the Apostle proceeds a step in advance, and charges them by na7ne. Tet, he does not say, ^^ Behold, thou art a Jew;" but, thou art called a Jew ; for to have recognized him, as a Jew, in the proper sense of that illustrious title, would have defeated his own object, which was to convince him of sin, and to bring him in, together with the Grentile, guilty and inexcusable before God. Then, in order to expose the vanity of trusting in a name, especially, when the life was so inconsistent, as to be an evident contradiction to that name, he, soon after, plainly states the essential moral diiference between being called a Jew, and being " an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile." He is not a Jew, that is one out- wardly, &c. (Verses 28, 29.) We find the same radical dis- tinction made in a later part of this Epistle, in order to exclude all Jewish self-confidence, all boasting against the Grentile, on the ground of a national election and of a lineal descent from " the father of the faithful." J. F. And restest in the Law. The Jewish notion, generally, of the Law is this — that in that model of life, contained in that body of laws, distinguished ordinarily into Moral, Judicial, and Cere- monial, was comprised the whole method of raising man to his perfection ; and that they, having only this book of laws with- out them to converse with, needed nothing else to procure Eternal life, perfection, and happiness : as if this had been the only means God had for the saving of men, and making them happy, to set before them in an external way a volume of laws, statutes, and ordinances ; and so to leave them to work out and purchase to themselves eternal life in the observance of them. Now this general notion of theirs we shall unfold in two par- ticulars. First, as a foundation of all the rest, they took up this, as an hypothesis or common principle, that mankind had such an absolute and perfect free-will, and such a sufficient power from within himself to determine himself to virtue and 96 ROMANS II. 18. goodness, as that he only needed some Law, as the matter or object to exercise this innate power about ; and therefore needed not that God should do anything more for him, than merely to acquaint him with His Divine Will and pleasure. . . . The second ground of that Jewish notion of a legal righteousness is this — that the Law delivered to them upon Mount Sinai was a sufficient Dispensation from God, and all, that needed to be done by Him for the advancing of them to a state of perfection and blessedness ; and that the proper scope and end of the Law was nothing but to afford them several ways and means of merit. . . . Thus we have endeavoured to make good that, which we propounded, namely to shew that the grand opinion of the Jews, concerning the way of life and happiness was this — that the Law of God, externally dispensed and only furnished out to them iu tables of stone and a parchment-roll, conjoined with the power of their own free-will, was sufficient both to procure them acceptance with God, and to acquire tnerit enough to carry them with spread sails into the harbour of eternal rest and blessedness. So that, by this time, we may see that those disputes, which S. Paul and other Apostles maintain against the Jews, touching the Law and faith, were not merely about that one question, " whether justification formally and precisely re- spects faith alone ;" but were of a much greater latitude. John Smith. (A Discourse treating of Legal Righteousness, &c. Ch. 2, 3.) 18 The things that are more excellent. The height of our duty is answerable to the greatness of our privileges and advantages : for, as never people had so much Grace given unto them (S. Luke xii. 48) as we Christians have by the Gospel, so never was there of any so much Duty required. The poor heathens, who knew nothing more, either of God's Laws or of His re- wards and encouragements, than they could argue themselves into a belief of by the strength of their own wit and reason, know nothing of, nor shall be condemned for, the transgression of several of those commands, which we shall die for. . . . They shall not be condemned for acting against they knew not what, nor suffer for the breach of such laws, as were not sufficiently published and proclaimed to them. They, that sinned without ROMANS IT. 19. 97 our Law, shall also perish, not by it, but without our Law, ac- cording to the sentence of such other Laws, as are not our own, but their own : and it is only as many, as have sinned in, or under, our Law, that shall be judged and condemned by the Law. Whatsoever they may suffer then for their transgres- sions of their own plain natural laws, which all of them might have known, that had a mind to it, they shall not be punished for an ignorant breach of such as are peculiarly ours ; but that part of their offences shall be overlooked and graciously con- nived at. (Acts svii. 30.) ... As for the Jews, though they had a stricter rule and more perfect precept, answerable to their clearer light and expresser promises, yet were many things still, " for the hardness of their hearts," indulged to them ; for which, without repentance, we shall smart most severely, if we are guilty of them. (S. Matt. xix. 8.) . . . Our Law is the most perfect rule, that ever the world heard of. "VVe Christians must live up to a nobler pitch, than ordinarily either Jew or Gentile did ; or, at the last Day we shall be eternally condemned. For take even sects among the Jews, which in the judgment of S. Paul (Acts xxvi. 5) are the strictest of any in their religion, that is, the Scribes and Pharisees ; and yet, as our Savioue Himself has plainly and peremptorily affirmed, our obedience must of necessity surpass theirs ; " Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." J. Kettle- well. (The Measures of Christian Obedience. B. ii. ch. 6.) 19 The Doctors of the Jews told the wise men, where " Cheist was to be born :" the Magi, they address themselves with haste to see Him and to worship, and the Doctors themselves stir not ; God not only serving Himself with truth out of the mouths of impious persons, but magnifying the recesses of His counsel, and wisdom, and predestination ; who uses the same doctrine to glorify Himself, and to confound His enemies ; to save the scholars, and to condemn the tutors ; to instruct one, and up- braid the other ; making it an instrument of faith, and a con- viction of infidelity ; the sermons of the Doctors, in such cases, being like the spoils of beavers, sheep, and silk-worms, designed to clothe others, and are made the occasions of their own naked- H 98 ROMANS II. 19, 20. ness, and the causes of their death. But, as it is a demonstra- tion of the Divine Wisdom, so it is of human folly ; there being no greater imprudence in the world than to do others' advan- tage, and to neglect our own. " If thou doest well unto thy- self, men will speak good of thee :" but, if thou be like a channel in a garden, through which the water runs to cool and moisten the herbs, but nothing for its own use ; thou buildest a fortune to them upon the ruins of thine own house, while, " after thy preaching to others," thou thyself dost become *' a castaway." Bp. J. Taylor. (The Life of our Blessed Loed and Satioue. S. iv. 8.) S. Bernard thought it a thing prodigious in nature to have the first place and the lowest life ; a high calling and some abject course of living : because the calling to place of dignity doth challenge unto itself the greater excellency. Quid prodest, said S. Augustine, vocari quod non es ? What profiteth thee to be called the thing thou art not ? To bear the title of a Chris- tian, and to be in action nothing less ? To be a Christian in name, but not in deed ? to be a nominal, and not a real ? to seem, and not to be ? to have the voice of Jacob but the hands of Esau ? one thing in show, another in substance ? What dost thou, saith S. Cyprian, rush in with a blind heady zeal thou knowest not whither, nor how, extinguishing peace and charity, the true lights of a Christian life ? Vices certainly — they are, as blemishes in the face of Christian profession. Zeal without knowledge is a blind sacrifice ; and knowledge without zeal is a maimed sacrifice : neither blind nor maimed should be offered to GrOD. X. 2. Dr. Sutton. (Disce Vivere. Ch. 2.) In regard to many sects, confidence is the first, and the second, and the third part of many of their propositions. Bp. J. Taylor. 20 The Jews were domestica Dei gens, as Tertullian calls them, the domestic and peculiar people of God ; like Gideon's fleece, full of the dew of Divine benediction, when all the world was dry besides, (ix. 4.) To them were the oracles given, those oracles, which did foretell the Messias, and by which they might more easily know Him, than the Gentiles. To them per- tained the adoption ; for they were called the children of GoD. ROMANS II. 20. 99 They had the Covenant written in tables of stone, and the giving of the Law, and constitution, which might link and unite them together in a body and society. They had the Service of God ; they had their sacriBces, but especially the Paschal Lamb. For, that their memory might not let slip His statutes and ordi- nances, God did even catechise their eyes, and make the least ceremony a busy remembrancer. Behold a tabernacle erected, Aaron and his sons appointed, sacrifices slain, altars smoking ; all so many ocular sermons. They might behold Aaron and his sons, ascending the Temple, laying all their sins upon the head of a sacred goat, that should carry them out of the city. They might behold him entering the veil with reverence. His gar- ments, his motion, his gesture — all were vocal. Quicquid agebaf, quicquid loquebatur, doetrina erat popitli ; saith S. Jerome. His actions were didactical, as well as his doctrine. The Priest himself was a sermon ; and these were, as so many antidotes against death. Our Prophet reproveth them for their capital and mortal sins, adultery, murder, and idolatry ; and God had sufficiently instructed and fortified them against these. He forbade lust, not only in the Decalogue, but in the sparrow ; murder, in the vulture, and raven, and those birds of prey. Ut Israelite mundarentnr pecora culpata sunt, to sanctify and cleanse His people. He blameth the beasts, as unclean, (which they could not be of themselves, because He made them,) and layeth a blemish upon His other creatures, to keep them undefiled. And, to keep out idolatry. He busied them in those many cere- monies, which He ordained for that end ; ne vacaret idolatrice servire, saith Aquinas, that they might not have the least leisure to be idolaters. So that, to draw up all, they might learn from the Law, they might learn from the Priest, they might learn from the sacrifice, they might learn from each ceremony, they might learn from men, they might learn from beasts, to " turn from their evil ways ;" and God might well cry out, " "What could have been done more that I have not done ?" and speak to them in His grief, and wrath, and indignation ; " Why will ye die, ye house of Israel ?" Farindon. (Serm. on Ezek. xxiiii. 11, Part 7.) The form of knowledge and of the truth. It is not enough to H 2 100 ROMANS II. 21. have got an abstract mathematical scheme, or diagram, of this spiritual building in our brain. It is the mechanical labouring part of religion, that must make up the edifice — the work, and toil, and sweat of the soul — the business, not of the designer, but the carpenter; that, which takes the rough unpolished, though excellent, materials, and trims and fits them for use ; which cuts and polishes the rich, but as yet deformed, jewels of the soul, and makes them shine indeed and sparkle, like stars in the firmament. . . . But the Divinity and learning of these times floats and hovers too much in the brain, hath not weight or sobriety enough in it to sink down and settle it in the heart. We are all for the fieOohiKrj, as Clemens calls it ; the art of sort- ing out and laying in order all intellectual store in our brains, tracing the councils of God, and observing His methods in His secrecies ; but never for the TrpaKriKy, the refunding or pouring out any of that store in the alms, as it were, and liberality of our actions. . . . Gerson, a very learned and pious man, hath de- fined Divinity to be, of all others, an affective, not only specu- lative knowledge (scientia affectiva non speculativa) ; which you will best understand the meaning of by a very ancient writer's words : " The end of Christian Philosophy is to make men better, not more learned — to edify, not to instruct." (Clem. Alex, in Psed.) Br. Hammond. (Serm. on Ezek. xvi. 30, and Practical Catechism, Lib. i. S. 1.) 21 What false measures men may take of themselves, we are ad- vertised in a remarkable instance (Rev. iii. 17), where our Loed speaks of the Laodiceans in these words : " Thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing, and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked?" Now was not this a judgment of themselves wonderfully erroneous ? Would one think it pos- sible that any man should not be able to discern between riches and poverty, sight and blindness, being clothed and being naked? We may justly think it impossible in the literal sense : but how is it then in the moral ? Is it pos- sible for a vicious man to think himself godly ? Is it possible for the churl to account himself liberal ? for the sensual to ac- count himself heavenly-minded ? for the negligent to account ROMANS II. 21. 101 himself devout ? Is not this equally hard ? And yet the Pro- phet Isaiah suggests (xxxii, 4) that " when the eyes of them that see are dim, the churl may account himself liberal :'* and so in the rest ; that is, when once indulged affections have im- posed upon the understanding and darkened the soul, and men are thereupon content to take up with false notions and to judge of themselves by false rules, they may come to esteem them- selves good, though they are absolutely evil ; they may think well of themselves for some casual acts of virtue, though, in the meanwhile, they live under the habit of contrary vices : they may account themselves religious, even while they are carnal, worldly, and immoral. And yet to be religious, and at the same time to be immoral, implies as great a contradiction, as is to be found between riches and poverty, sight and blindness. Bean Toung. (A Sermon, concerning Nature and Grace, on S. Matt, xxvi. 35.) Art thou a Priest, and expectest the reverence, due to that holy calling ? Be holy in that calling. Quomodo potest observari a populo qui nihil habet secretion a popido ? (S. Ambrose, Ep. vi.) How can the people reverence him, whom they see to be just one of them ? Quid in te miretur, si sua in te recognoscit ? If they find no more in thee than in any other, what should they admire in thee ? Si quce in se erubescit in te, quern reverendum arbitratur, offendit ? If they discern those infirmities in thee, which they are ashamed of in themselves, where is there any object, any subject, any exercise of their reverence ? Dr. Bonne. (Serm. on Trinity, 1 S. Pet. i. 17.) This speaks to you, my brethren in the Loed's work ; do nothing, for which God may stop your mouths, when you come into the pulpit. Take heed of any sin smothering in your bosoms ; canst thou believe God will assist thee in His work, who canst lend thine hand to the devil's ? Mayst thou not rather fear He should hang a padlock on thy lips, and strike thee dumb, when thou goest about thy work ? Tou remember the story of Origen, how, after his great fall, he was silenced in the very pulpit: for, at the reading of that Psalm 1. 16— " What hast thou to do to declare My statutes, or that thou shouldest take My Covenant in thy mouth ?" the conscience of his sin would 102 ROMANS II. 21, 22. not suffer him to speak. Oh, 'fcis sad, when the preacher meets his own sin in his subject, and pronounceth sentence against himself, while he reads his text ! If thou wouldst have God assist thee, be zealous and repent : when the trumpet is washed, then the Holt Spirit (thou mayst hope) will again breathe through it. Gurnall. (The Christian in Complete Armour, Eph. vi. 19, 20. Ch. iii. s. 6.) If it is charity to build an ark for our neighbour ; it is madness not to enter it ourselves. Bp. Heber. 22 The prohibition of idolatry, and the discriminative observance of things Sacred — not to profane them by a promiscuous and common use — are derived, both of them, from one and the same principle, which is God's Incommunicableness, which derives a shadow and resemblance upon the things, which have His Name called upon them, to wit, a state of appropriateness and sin- gularity. Wherefore the Apostle not without good reason compares together the transgressions of the one and the other kind, as parallel sins, or sins of affinity. Thou that hatest idols, saith he, dost thou commit sacrilege ? Where by sacrilege un- derstand, not only the usurpation of things Sacred, but the vio- lation of that, which is Sacred, in general. And it is, as if he had said, thou hast mended the matter well indeed ; for still thou dashest against the same principle. Por it is one of the exemplifications of that, he saith in the beginning of the chapter. He that judgeth or condemneth another and doth the same, or the like, himself, is inexcusable. By this it appears how much they are mistaken, who under pretence of avoiding idolatry and superstition, cannot endure that any distinction should be made between things Sacred and common. Is not this to unhallow God's Name one way, that so we might not profane it another ? Far be it from me to be a patron of idolatry or superstition in the least degree : yet I am afraid, lest we, who have reformed the Worship of God from that pol- lution (and blessed be His Name therefore) a/xeTpU t^s dv6o\K)j9, as S. Basil speaks, that is, by bending the crooked stick too much the other way, have run too far into the contrary extreme, and taken away (some of us) all difference in a manner be- tween Sacred and profane ; and by this our transgression in ROMANS II. 22. 103 doing GtOd's work made ourselves liable to that upbraid of the Apostle, Thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege ? that is, profivnest thou GtOd's Name by violating that, which is Sacred ? Let no man think it strange or incredible, that such an enormity should be committed, or an occasion at least given thereof, in the manage of so holy and glorious a work ; seeing that the experience of all ages sufficiently witnesseth, how prone the nature of man is, in flying one extreme, to run too far to- wards the other. J. Mede. (The Sanctification of God's Name. Serm. on S. Matt. vi. 9.) When our Apostle saith (Verse 1) Thou that judgest another doest the same things, his meaning is not, that he doth always the same things — quoad speciem, as we say, in kind, or the same things for outward semblance ; but oft-times the same things by equi- valency, things of the like value or importance. . . . Thou that teachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal ? This imports a committing of the same in kind, for which he judged another. But, when he saith. Thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege ? this cannot be meant of committing the same sin in kind, but only by equivalency : for idolatry and sacrilege are contrary ; the one is the fruit of superstitious zeal or blind de- votion, the other of atheism. But, as divers other contraries, so these two agree too well in one general ; that is, robbing God of His honour. And for this reason, as often as any sa- crilegious persons (suppose the Jews), which robbed God in His tithes and offerings (Mai. iii. 8), did judge or censure the heathen for idolatry, they did condemn themselves : for they did the same, or worse. And it is generally true, that none are so rigid judges, censurers, or reformers of others, as those, that are tainted with the contrary crime or fault. And no marvel, seeing the unwiser sort of men (which are the far greater part) know no other way how to eschew one vice, than by running into the contrary : like that lunatic child in the Gospel, some- times " falling into the water," and then soon after " into the fire" (S. Matt. xvii. 15) ; which was a miserable cure of the harm received in the water. Not much better is the Eeformation, which many in our days seek to make in themselves or others : some, whose zeal in youth had outrun their discretion, have 104 ROMANS II. 23. changed their teraper into retchless profaneness ; others from a dissolute riotous course in life have been transformed into fiery- zealots or seditious schismatics. Dean Jackson. (Works. B. ii. ch. 37, s. 5.) 23 Though it be truly said, Fivimus legibus, non exemplis, and Christ biddeth the people do, as the Pharisees say, not as they do (S. Matt, xxiii. 3), yet the most part of men are of the Civilian's opinion, Quod exemplo Jit jure fieri videtur. Example is a kind of warrant : Suadet loquentis vita, non oratio, saith the poet; jpoTTo?, ov X070S (Menander). It is the life, not the learning of the preacher, that persuades the people. Sin single, in the people, is double in the preacher. Tor he offendeth both peccato et exemplo : it is both scandalum populi et odium Minis- terii — even scandalum in both its senses, an ofience to the people, and a slander to his calling. For the one — (i.e. the offence of the people) — the Minister, as he is Christ's disciple, so should he be His follower, proving those things by his life, which he preacheth by his doctrine ; that he may say unto the people, as Christ doth, not only prceceptum do vobis (S. John xiii. 34), but also exemplum dedi vobis (V. 15). And, as S. Paul said to the Philippians, " Be ye followers of me." Por Vitcs Clericorum should be Libri laicorum ; the lives of the Clergy the books of the laity ; the conversation of the Priest the looking- glass of the people. The preachers are the Lord's builders, and the people are the building (1 Cor. iii. 9). Unless the life of the Minister do edify, as well as his doctrine, if he build up heaven with his voice and hell with his life, saith Nasianzen, he is an evil builder, and plucketh up as much with the one hand, as he buildeth with the other : nay, he shall not convert so many with a hundred of his sermons, as he shall pervert with one of his wicked actions. It is the dishonour of the wicked man (Prov. vi. 13), but it will be the Priest's honour, to speak with his feet, and to teach with his fingers ; that is, to walk and to do according to his own doctrine. Sacerdotis os, mens, ma- nusque concordent {Hier. ad Nepotianum). To be short, if, when the doctrine is mel, the life shall be venenmn, (S. Bern.) he en- venometh the people with his example ; and that is another Jeroboam's sin to " make Israel to sin." Por the other — (i.e. ROMANS II. 23. 105 the slander to his calling)— the evil life of the Minister is the dishonour of God, and the disgrace of His Ministry. For, as at the sight of good works in their preachers, the people do glorify their Fathee, which is in heaven ; so contrary wise, at the view of their wicked lives, they will speak evil of the Gospel, and suspect religion to be but policy to keep men in awe ; as being persuaded that, if their doctrine were true, they would not themselves controul it by their own practice. There is an example. The Israelites abhor the oiferings of the Loed, through the sins of the Priests the sons of Eli. And such a Minister may look for at the mouths of the people, the check in the proverb, Lo- ripedem rectus ; and that, which is S. John ix. 34 — " Thou art altogether a sinner and teachest thou us ?" As it was objected to Plato, Aliter loqueris, aliter vivis, so it will be to him : Quid verba audiatn, cum facta videam ? Why should we heed what thou preachest, when we see how thou livest ? Br. Richard Gierke. (Visitation Serm. Zech. xi. 17.) How shall we — (of the Clergy) — appear before Him with the Blood of Souls upon us, or stand before His tribunal, when our people are standing there, to give evidence against us, and lay their damnation to our charge ? With what face can we then look upon our Master, sitting as Judge, when we shall hear the people say that they were wicked by our evil examples, and that our ungodly lives made them think that we ourselves did not believe the doctrines we preached, and that our scandalous conversation drove them from the temples and altars, where we ministered, and made them loathe the Word and Bread of God ? Certainly, if the Name of God and Religion is dishonoured by us, and the people fall by the stumbling-blocks we lay in their way to heaven, and finally miscarry by our fault, we can, we must expect nothing from our Loed, but the doom of the wicked servant to be cast into utter darkness, where there is no comfort, nothing but the utmost misery, nothing but weep- ing and gnashing of teeth. Let us therefore reflect upon the Sanctity of our Calling, that we may adorn it, and make it venerable by the Sanctity of our lives. Let us first learn to value and revere it, and ourselves for it ; and then our greatest contemners will soon learn to reverence both it and us, and, 106 ROMANS II. 23—27. instead of reproaching or blaspheming our Ministry, glorify God, who hath given such powers and gifts to men. xi. 13. Br. Hickes. (Preface to Three Short Treatises, &c.) One loose erroneous professor doth the devil more service, than a whole troop, who pretend to no religion. Gurnall. 24 The eclipse of the Church is their splendour. They are united by our divisions ; justified by our mutual reproaches ; our scan- dals and schisms objected, proclaimed by ourselves, are their renowned gloried victories and triumphs. Bp. Thomas. (Apo- logy for the Church of England. P. 225, Ed. 1679.) This is the double policy of the spiritual enemy ; either by coun- terfeit holiness of life to establish and authorise errors ; or, by corruption of manners to discredit and draw in question truth and things lawful, xvi. 18. Lord Bacon. (Of Church Con- troversies.) 25 For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law : but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy cir- cumcision is made uncircumcision. 26 Therefore if the uncircumcision keep the righ- teousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision ? 27 And shall not uncircumcision which is by na- ture, if it fulfil the law, judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law ? 28 For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly ; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: 29 But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly ; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter ; whose praise is not of men, but of God. 27 It is a just condemnation to many of us, who call ourselves j Christians and believers, and have many blessed means of direc- m tion and instruction for the due ordering of our hearts and ROMANS II. 28. 107 lives, which those heathens wanted, and who yet come so many paces, nay, leagues short of them, both in the detestation of vicious and gross enormities, and in the conscionable practice of many offices of virtue. Among them, what strictness of justice ? which we either slack or pervert. "What zeal of the common good ? which we put off each man to other, as an un- concerning thing. What remission of private injuries ? which we pursue with implacable revenge. What contempt of honours and riches ? which we so pant after, so adore. What temper- ance and frugality in their provisions ? wherein no excess satis- fieth us. What free beneficence to the poor and to pious uses ? whereto we contribute penuriously and with grudging. What conscience of oaths and promises ? which we so slight. What reverence of their Priests ? whom we count, as the scum of the people. What loathing of swinish drunkenness ? wherein some of us glory. What detestation of usury, as a monster in na- ture ? whereof some of ours make a trade. Particularities are infinite : but what should I say more ? Certainly, unless " our righteousnesses exceed theirs," we shall never come to heaven : but how shall we escape the nethermost hell, if our unrigh- teousnesses exceed theirs ? Make application to thyself, thou, that art Christian. Bp. Sanderson. (Ad populum. Serm. vi. on Gren. xx. 6.) 28 The Pharisees obeyed the commandments in the letter, not in the spirit ; they minded what God spake, but not what He in- tended ; they were busy in the outward work of the hand, but incurious of the afiections and choice of the heart. . . . Their error was plainly this ; they never distinguished duties natural from duties relative ; that is, whether it were commanded for itself, or in order to something, that was better ; whether it were a principal grace, or an instrumental action : so God was served in the letter, they did not much inquire into His pur- pose ; and therefore they were curious to wash their hands, but cared not to " purify their hearts ;" they would give alms, but hate him, who received it ; they would go to the Temple, but did not revere the Glory of God, that " dwelt there be- tween the Cherubims;" they would fast, but not mortify their lusts; they would say good prayers, but not labour for the 108 ROMANS II. 28. grace they prayed for. . . . S. Austin summed up the differ- ence between the Pharisaical and Evangelical righteousness in two words — Brevis differentia inter Legem et Evangelium ; timor et amor. They served the God of their fathers in the spirit of fear ; and we worship the Fathee of our Loed Jestjs Cheist in the spirit of love, and by the spirit of adoption. And, as this slavish principle of theirs was the cause of all their former imperfections, so it finally and chiefly expressed itself in these two particulars : 1. They would do all, that they thought they lawfully could do. 2. They would do nothing, but what was expressly commanded, vii. 6. Bp. J. Taylor. (The Evan- gelical Eighteousness described. Serm. on S. Matt. v. 20.) Seeming and outside sanctity may go together, and consist with inward and spiritual hardness and obstinacy. A man may be very forward in outward acts and appearances of piety, and yet his heart may be dead to all spiritual goodness. 'Tis the true constitution of an hypocrite : he is all for the outside of re- ligion ; there he is excellent : he will outgo and exceed all others in shew ; but look upon his heart, he wholly neglects it : that's full of hardness and stubborn impiety. Cheist com- pares such to "tombs and sepulchres" in Churches. Of all places in the Church a tomb is the fairest and most beautiful ; painted, and carved, and adorned ; but within 'tis the most noi- some and loathsome ; there is nothing within, but rottenness and corruption. . . . S. Paul describes them evTrpoirwTrrjaai, they set a good face on it, they " make a fair shew" (Gral. vi. 12). . . 'Tis the easiest work. Outside work is a great deal more easy. Outward observances, in matters of religion, they cost but little pains ; but to work upon the heart, and to bring that to order, that's painful and laborious. As in the practice of physic and chirurgerie 'tis more easy to cure an outward hurt of the body, that is ill-affected or wounded ; but an inward distemper, when a vein is broken, and it bleeds inward, the curing of this is a great deal more difficult. The outward " circumcision of the flesh" was nothing to the inward "circumcision of the heart ;" the outward — that may be praised of men ; and that is all the hypocrite looks for. To look like a Christian is all he cares for. Bp. Brqwnrig, (Serm. on S. Mark iii. 5.) ROMANS II. 28,;29. 109 The Apostle so excludes the ritual and external works of the Law from justification, as to oppose to them the internal purity of the soul, and those works, which flow from a heart purified by faith and inspired by true charity ; so that what he takes from the former he grants to these ; the former are by no means neces- sary to justification and salvation ; the latter indispensably so : he makes the former of no avail, the latter of the greatest im- portance. This is evident from passages very frequently quoted (Gal. V. 6 ; vi. 16 ; and 1 Cor. vii. 19.) To which you may add the following remarkable passages, deserving of serious atten- tion (Col. ii. 11—13 ; Eom. ii. 28, 29 ; Phil. iii. 2, 8) And, undoubtedly, with no other design did God exact with such severe punishment this external righteousness, prescribed in the Law, but to shew that the spiritual righteousness more clearly revealed in the Gospel, and shadowed out under the Legal Dispensation, was equally and even still more necessary. Circumcision of the heart is no less necessary to us, than cir- cumcision of the flesh to the Jews. Without this, God cut them ofl[" from the external communion of His people : without the former, He will exclude us from the hope of salvation and the kingdom of heaven. Bp. Bull. (Harmonia Apostolica. Diss, ii., ch. 14, s. 4, 5.) The Jewish circumcision were an absurd and unreasonable thing, if it did not intimate and prefigure the circumcision of the heart. Dr. Donne. (Serm. Gen. xvii. 24.) 29 It is not being gilded over with the external profession of Christianity, that will avail us : our religion must be a vital principle inwardly to change and transform us. What the Apostle says concerning circumcision we may apply to them, that are baptized and make an outward profession of Chris- tianity. Baptism verily profiteth, if we obey the Gospel ; but, if we walk contrary to the precepts of it, our Baptism is no Baptism ; and our Christianity is heathenism. If by our lives and actions we contradict that religion, which we profess, we do by this very thing prove ourselves to be counterfeits and hypocrites, and that we have only taken up our religion for a fashion, and received it, according to custom : we were born in a country, where it is reverenced, and therefore we are of it. 110 ROMANS II. 29. And the reason why we are Christians, rather than Jews, or Turks, or Heathens, is because Christian religion had the for- tune to come in our way first, and to bespeak us at our en- trance into the world. Abp. Tillotson. (Of the Obligation of Christians to a Holy Life. Serm. on 2 Tim. ii. 19.) How can the Baptism of any man save him, whose life is one per- petual renunciation of it ? Tor Baptism, which succeeded in the place of Circumcision, takes up the mystery, where that left it. The one sheweth sin cut off, in and with the Body of Cheist ; the other representeth it, as buried in his grave ; and the new man, through the power of His resurrection, risen again " without sin unto salvation." And one cannot but admire the manner, in which S. Paul hath interwoven the spiritual application of these two Sacraments of the Old and New Law. "Te are complete," saith he to the Colossians, "in Christ, who is the head of all principality and power. In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made with- out hands by the circumcision of Cheist, buried with Him in Baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead ; and you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened together with Him, having for- given you all trespasses." We are to labour therefore after the spirit and power of these two Sacraments in our hearts, that they may be manifested in our lives and conversations. Otherwise, the letter of them can only condemn us. For, as he is not a Jew, so neither is he a Christian, who is one out- wardly ; but he is a true Jew, and he is a true Christian, who is so inwardly, from whose heart and members " the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life" are cut off, who is dead and buried to sin, and risen again to righteousness. This blessed work, Sacramentally shewn forth and begun in Baptism, is to be continued through life by the successive re- novations of repentance, by daily accessions of knowledge, faith, and charity, producing and carrying on a gradual growth in grace, until it be perfected. (Verse 17. " Thou art called a Jew.") Bp. Home. (Serm. on S. Luke ii. 21.) 'Twas a shrewd speech of Clemens, that the life of every unre- ROMANS III. 1, 111 generate man is an heathen life, and the sins of junsanctified men are heathen sins, and the estate of a libertine Christian is an heathen estate ; and, unless our resolutions and practices are consonant to our profession of Chbist, we are still hea- thens : and the Loed make us sensible of this our condition ! Dr. Hammond. (Serm. on Ezek. xviii. 31.) CHAPTER III. T17HA.T advantage then hath the Jew ? or what profit is there of circumcision ? 2 Much every way : chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God. 3 For what if some did not beheve? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect ? 4 God forbid : yea, let God be true, but every man a liar ; as it is written. That thou mightest be justi- fied in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged. 1 When the Apostle had proved (ii. 26), that, if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the Law, his uncircumcision would he accounted for circumcision ; that is, if the Gentile observed the moral law, which was his proper rule of life, he would be ac- cepted of God, as well as the Jew, who observed the Mosaic Law, this generous reasoning gave offence, and he was pre- sently asked ; What advantage then hath the Jew ? In like manner, when the same Apostle had been contending in his Epistle to the Galatians, that " the inheritance was not of the Law, but of promise" (iii. 18), that is, that all men, the Gen- tiles as well as Jews, were entitled to the blessings of the Christian Covenant, in virtue of God's promise to Abraham 112 ROMANS III. 1. 2. — that "in his seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed" — and not the Jews exclusively, in virtue of the Mo- saic Law given to them only, the same spirit discovers itself, as before ; and he is again interrogated by his captious disciples, Wherefore then serveth the Law ? If the Grentiles may be jus- tified through faith in Cheist, and so inherit the promise, made to Abraham, as well as the Jews, to what purpose was the Jewish Law given ? Bp. Hurd. (Serm. G-al. iii. 19.) The singular tenderness of the Apostle towards his Jewish breth- ren and the Judaizing Christians, and the dexterity, with which he treats their prejudices, did not escape the acuteness of S. Chrysostom. He observes, " As when speaking of circumcision, he did not say, that circumcision was valueless without a good life ; but that circumcision is of value with a good life, pointing out the same thing, but in a more subdued tone ; and again, if thou be a breaker of the Law, he does not say. Thou art no whit profited by being circumcised, but Thy circumcision is made un- circutncision ; and, after this again, the uncircumcision, saith he, shall judge, not the circumcision, but thee, that dost transgress the Law, so sparing the things of the Law, and smiting the per- sons— so doth he here also. For, after setting before him this objection, and saying, What advantage then hath the Jew ? he says not, none ; but he joins in the argument, and confutes it again by the sequel, and shews that they were even punished owing to this pre-eminence." In confirmation of this comment of S. Chrysostom, we have, close at hand, another instance in the Apostle of the same tenderness, the same wisdom, in dealing with his " kinsmen according to the flesh ;" and how he gently prepares the way in their minds for his more unpalatable and severer doctrine. He asks, ""What, if some did not believe?" when he knew that many, almost all, disbelieved. And after- wards, in due time, when he had gained their hearing, he states the matter more boldly. (See ix. 6, 7, 27 ; x. 18 — 21 ; xi. 1 — 8.) /. F. 2 The benefit and privilege of the Israelite consisted in this ; chiefly because unto them were committed the oracles of God ; and those oracles were a perpetual witness of the better Dispensation. So that the hopes of the ancient believer may be said to have ROMANS III. 2, 3. 113 been always in a state of pilgrimage, travelling onward through the successive periods of revelation, and finding no rest, till they had crossed the barrier flood, which divided the Law and the Grospel, the First Dispensation and the Second. Davison. (Discourses on Prophecy, iii., Gen. xvii. 7.) As it is written. S. Paul takes every opportunity of honouring " his own nation" in the sight of the converted Gentiles, who were too inclined, on their wondrous promotion, to assume (xi. 18 — 22). More especially, he does this in regard to the Scriptures of the Old Testament, which he here specifies, as being the most precious oracular deposit committed by the God of heaven to the ancient Church. Already, at the commencement of this Epistle (i. 2), he had indirectly reminded the Gentiles of the inestimable benefit they had derived, in the confirmation of their faith in Cheist, from the old Prophets; a benefit, which had placed them under a perpetual debt and obligation to their Jewish brethren. Meanwhile, such early appeals to these Sacred Books, such a distinct recognition of their abiding authority in Cheist' s Church, was the likeliest method to win the Jews over to the faith, and to obviate betimes their strong objections to what had the appearance of being a new and hos- tile religion — a religion bringing into discredit things ancient, and approved, and grounded, for a certainty, on the Will and the Inspiration of God. S. Paul hereby shewed them, in limine, that he had no design whatever to 7na/ce void the Scriptures ; but rather (as he more expressly convinced them, in respect of their Law, ver. 31) to establish them. (xv. 4 ; xvi. 26.) The same wise conciliatory method was adopted from the beginning of the Gospel, in order to anticipate and overcome reasonable Jewish prejudices. See Acts ii. 16; iii. 13; vii. 2; xiii. 32 — 41 ; xxiv. 14. J. F. 3 Faith or belief, in general, is defined " an assent to that, which is credible, as credible," i.e., the acknowledging of a thing to be true, not upon the manifestation, but the attestation, of the truth. According as the credibility of the objects is difierent, there must arise a proportionable distinction of assent in the understanding, and consequently a difierent kind of faith. The credibility of the objects varies according to the strength of the I 114 ROMANS III. 4. testimony, on which it is founded. The strength of every testi- mony is measured by the authority of the testifier ; and this depends upon two conditions or qualities — his ability, in know- - ing that, which he delivers ; and his integrity in delivering that, which he knows. Human faith is an assent unto something, as credible, merely upon the testimony of man. By this hu- man faith all things proceed in common life ; all letters and sciences are taught, all justice executed, all commerce main- tained, all business transacted, all great achievements under- taken, all hopes, desires, and inclinations preserved. Tet, since the knowledge of men is ever mixed with imperfection, and the integrity of men ever capable of suspicion, there can be no universal infallible ground of human faith. "If," therefore, " we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater" (S. John V. 9). Divine faith is an assent to something, as credible upon this witness or testimony of God. The testi- mony of God is given by Eevelation, which is nothing else, but the delivery or speech of God unto His creatures ; and is of two kinds, immediate and mediate. Immediate revelation is when God delivereth Himself to man without the intervention of man ; either by Himself, or by an Angel, representing Him and bearing His name, which it is not here necessary to distinguish. Mediate revelation is the conveyance of the counsel of God to man, by man. In the former way God revealed Himself to the Patriarchs, to the Prophets, and to the Apostles ; in the latter to those, who lived under the personal direction of those teachers, and to those, who enjoy the benefit of their inspired writings. So that the true nature of the faith of a Christian, as the condition of Christ's Church now stands, and shall continue to the end of the world, consists in this, that it is an assent to truths, credible upon the testimony of God, delivered unto us in the writings of the Apostles and Prophets. Bp. Pearson. An Exposition of the Creed. Art. i. (passage abridged.) 4 The Justice of God here touched (Ps. li. 4) is i^oioldi— fidelity and integrity. Pidelity is justitia in verbo, a person's being as good, as his word. Integrity is justitia in facto, the uprightness of his deed. God hath the praise of both — of fidelity, for He ROMANS III. 4. 115 is justified, when He si^eaketh ; of integrity, for He is clear, when He judgeth. . . . Now this Justice must have its praise ; as God is "just in speaking," so must He be "justified:" and, as He is clear in judging, so must He be "clarified" (that I may so say), that is, "glorified." These two verbs do not import that the creature can infuse any perfection into the Creator : will we, nill we — these things are in Him. Fidelity is inseparable from His words, and integrity from Hi^ judgments. All, that can be done by us, is cognitio et recognitio : we are bound to take notice of them, and not to smother our know- ledge, but yield God the glory, that is due unto them. To this end doth God manifest His perfections unto the reasonable creature ; and in their own cases do they f^el, and see in other men's cases, the experience of them. S. Paul seemeth to read the latter part of the test otherwise than is here exprest ; for he hath, that Thou might est overcome, when Thou art judged, whereas here it is, that Thou mightest be clear, when Thou judgest. They are not words of a contrary meaning : but S. Paul's text, which followeth the Septuagint, doth add an ob- servation over and above that, which you have heard ; that is — though God be Judge of all the world, yet worldly men stick not to take upon them to judge God : yea, and God is pleased to put His Justice upon trial, as we read, Isa. i., and Micah vi., and elsewhere ; so careful is He, that not only His proceedings be just, but His Justice evident also ; so evident, as that whoso- ever " contendeth with Him in judgment" shall be driven to yield (^that Thou mightest overcome). The best have often doubts and disputes ; they question God's integrity — how the Gospel and the Law can stand together, and God, at the same time, condemn and absolve, and yet be just. God would settle their consciences. Unbelievers not only quarrel with, but deny also, God's integrity ; but " the mouths of all gainsayers shall be stopped ;" they shall be forced to subscribe, to confess that God is "clear in judging," free from all dross of contradiction; that "mercy and truth" may "kiss each other," and the Law go hand in hand with the Gospel, as after appears. Verse 26 ; ii. 3 ; ix. 14, 19, Bp. Lake. (An Exposition of Ps. li.) One great cause of Atheism is superstitious misapprehensions, i2 116 ROMANS III. 4. concerning God ; which, though they are lodged in the mind, yet are most commonly exhaled from the affections, that, like impure fogs, generally breathe up all those meteors, that darken and disturb the region above. And, indeed, most of our ill ap- prehensions of God are transcribed and copied from our own affections. . . . Accordingly, Plutarch well observes that " the Atheist thinks there is no God ; and he, who hath dreadful apprehensions of Him, wishes there were none :" and he, who wishes there were none, is but one remove from believing there is none. Thus you see in what a direct line vice leads to superstition, and superstition to Atheism. Tor pride and wrath, malice and revenge, are naturally apt to engender in men's minds horrid and frightful apprehensions of God, which, working on those sour and rugged passions, that begot them, are as apt to exasperate and enrage them against Him ; and then their reason immediately takes part with their passion, and, to gratify its wish that there were no God, sets itself industriously to argue Him out of His Being. . . . But be not deceived : God will be what He is ; a most perfect, glorious, and amiable Being, however inglorious soever He may appear to you, through the false medium of your own diabolical tem- per ; which, like crimson-coloured glass, will represent the fairest objects to you bloody and terrible. But for you to hate God for no other reason, but because your own hateful passions reflect to you such an inglorious idea of Him, and then to deny Him, because you hate Him, is equally impious and unrea- sonable. Dr. John Scott. (Of the Christian Life. Ch. iii. p. 2, s. 2.) The unfaithfulness of men, in neglecting to do their part (as in not making a good use of the Scriptures (ver. 2), doth no way prejudice, but rather commend the fidelity of God, in allowing them these mercies, which they make so ill use of. Dr. Ham- mond. Justified in Thy saying, and clear when Thou art judged. Here we are prepared betimes with a key for a right understanding of the term Justify, as we find it used in this and the following chapters in its judicial ov forensic sense, as a term of Law, sig- nifying to acquit a person from any accusation, to pronounce ROMANS III. 5. 117 him innocent, and to treat him accordingly. There is another notable passage in this Epistle to the same effect. " Who shall lay anything to the charge of GtOd's Elect ? It is GtOD, that justifiethr (viii. 33.) See also v. 16, where " condemnation" and "justification" are placed in contrast with each other. The settlement of this point is very necessary, before we en- gage in the study of the first portion of the Epistle. /. F. 5 But if our unrighteousness commend the righte- ousness of God, what shall we say ? Is God unrighte- ous who taketh vengeance ? (I speak as a man.) 6 God forbid : for then how shall God judge the world ? 7 For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto His glory ; why yet am I also judged as a sinner ? 8 And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just. 9 What then ? are we better than they ? No, in no wise : for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin ; 5 God does not require any action, which He sees I cannot com- pass without sin ; for He requires no man to sin ; for that were to require that we should break His commands ; and it were a strange obedience to the Lord to disobey Him for His own sake. " Shall I speak wickedly for God," saith Job, (xiii. 7,) "and talk deceitfully for Him ? Will ye accept His person ?" And plainer yet S. Paul (Rom. iii. 5, 6). The argumentation runs thus. If God's way of grace may be thus set out, and more illus- triously seen by the sins of men, why should God thus punish their sins, which so tend to His glory (I recite the objection of some men) : or, if He doth, is it not injustice in Him so to do ? For (say they) if the faithfulness and mercifulness of God, in 118 ROMANS III. 6. performing His promises to Abraham in giving the Messiah, hath appeared more abundantly, and tended more to His glory, by the Jews' sins or infidelity, there will then be no reason why they, that are guilty of such sins so much tending to God's honour, should be complained of, or proceeded with in judg- ment ; but, on the other side, men might do well to commit such sins, from which so much good or glory to God might come. I recite, says the Apostle, a damnable doctrine, and, in opposition, say, that no one sin is to be committed, though in order to, and contemplation of, the greatest good — God's glory. Dr. Allestree. (" The Light of the body is the eye." Serm. on S. Matt. vi. 22, 23.) 6 The reasons of His justice oftentimes may be, oftentimes are, unknown to us : but they never are, they never can be, un- righteous in Him. If, in a deep point of law, a learned dis- creet judge should upon sufiicient grounds give sentence flat contrary to what an ordinary bystander would think reason (as many times it falleth out), it is not for the grieved party to com- plain of injustice done him : he should rather impute what is done to want of skill in himself, than of conscience in the judge. Eight so, if in many things God's proceedings hold not pro- portion with those characters of justice and equity, which our weak and carnal reason would express, we must thence infer our own ignorance, not His injustice. And that so much the rather, because those matters of law are such, as fall within the comprehension of ordinary reason ; whereas " the ways of God are far removed out of our sight," and advanced above our reach ; and, besides, an earthly judge is subject to mis- prision, misinformation, partiality, corruption, and sundry in- firmities, that may vitiate his proceedings ; whereas no such thing can possibly fall upon the Divine Nature. David hath taught us in Ps. xxxvi. that " The righteousness of God is as the great mountains, and His judgments as the great deep." "A great mountain" is easy to be seen; a man, that will but open his eyes, cannot overlook it ; but who can see into the bottom of " the sea," or find out what is done in " the depths" thereof? Whatsoever we do then, let us beware we measure not '^ His ways" by "our ways," nor His works by our works (Isa. Iv. 8, 9). Howsoever they seem to swerve from the rules ROMANS III. 6, 7. 119 of our ways and works, yet still the "Loed is righteous in all His ways and holy in all His works." (Ps. xiv. 5.) Though we cannot fathom the deeps of His judgments (for " the well is deep," and we have not wherewithal to draw, S. John iv. 11) let the assurance of the righteousness of all His proceed- ings stand firm and manifest " as the mountains which cannot be removed" nor hid, but " stand fast" rooted "for evermore." This we must rest upon as a certain truth — Howsoever, whom- soever, whensoever GrOD punisheth, He is never unjust, ii. 2. Bp. Sanderson. (Ad populum. Serm. 3, on 1 Kings xxi. 29.) It is a great truth, both in Divine and human knowledge, that no subject can be adequately understood, unless it be viewed, not only as it is in itself, but also as it is, in relation to the system, of which it forms a part. Br. Ueurtley. 7 This Metaschematism, or speaking things, that are odious, in his own name, when indeed they belong not to him, but to other men, is very usual with the Apostle. For in this disguise he recites a most blasphemous perversion, which some men had made of his own most pious doctrine. If the truth of God, or His faithfulness in performing His covenant with us, hath more abounded to His glory through my lie, or unfaithfulness in breaking my covenant with Him (which makes the most that can be for the honour of GtOd's faithfulness, since no perfidious- ness of ours can weary or provoke Him out of it), %ohy yet am I — not I Paul, who could never act thus falsely, or argue thus profanely, but I blasphemous objector judged, as a sinner? Conf. ch. vii. 14 ; Gal. ii. 17, 18 ; 1 Cor. vi. 12 ; 1 Cor. xiii. 2. Kettlewell. (The Measures of Christian Obedience. B. iii. ch. 4.) If the doctrine, which I teach, be a flower gathered in the garden of the Lord, a part of the saving truth of the Gospel, from whence, notwithstanding, poisonous creatures do suck venom (ver. 13), I can but wish it were otherwise, and content myself with the lot, that hath befallen me ; the rather, because it hath not befallen me alone. S. Paul did preach a truth, and a com- fortable truth, when he taught that the greater our misery is, in respect of our iniquities, the readier is the mercy of God for our release, if we seek unto Him ; the more we have sinned, the more praise, and glory, and honour unto Him, that par- 120 ROMANS III. 8. doneth our sin. But mark what lewd collections were made hereupon by some. Why then am I condemned for a sinner ? And, saith the Apostle, as we are blamed^ &c. He was accused to teach that, which ill-disposed men did gather by his teach- ing, though it were clean not only beside, but against his meaning. The Apostle addeth, their condemnation, which thus do, is just. I am not hasty to apply sentences of condemnation. I wish from my heart their conversion, whosoever are thus per- versely affected. Hooker. (A Learned Discourse of Justifica- tion, &c. Habakkuk i. 4. Sect. 38.) 8 Nothing, that is sinful, may be done to avoid others being scan- dalized ; which is directly the Apostle's doctrine (Rom. iii. 8) : nor is any necessary duty to be omitted out of prudence, or charity to others, lest they, through error or ignorance, be hurt by it. We must not, to prevent the greatest sin in another, commit the least sin ourselves ; nor disobey God's law, and so run the hazard of our own damnation, though it be to save the soul of our Brother. Thus Calvin tells us (Instit. Lib. iii. c. 19), Quce necessaria sunt factu, nulli^is offendiculi timore omittenda sunt ; whatever is necessary to be done, by virtue of God's command, is not to be omitted for fear of offence. And again, iu the same place ;• Hie charitatis rationem haberi decet, sed usque ad aras ; our Charity to our brother ought to be limited by this, that we do not for his sake displease God. The very best things and actions may be perverted by men of ill-disposed or weak minds ; false consequences and unjust inferences may be strained from them, as we know the grace of God in the Gospel was abused into an argument for licentiousness, and Cheist Himself is said to be " set for the fall of many" (S. Luke ii. 24) ; but still, this doth not cancel our obligations to universal obedience to God's law, nor can it alter the nature of good and evil, duty and sin, which are no such uncertain con- tingent things, as to depend upon the constructions others shall make of our actions, or the conclusion they shall draw from them. God Almighty, in the making of His laws, hath a perfect comprehension of all the accidental events, that may happen, either through the weakness or wickedness of men ; and we must not think ourselves to be wiser than God, taking ROMANS III. 8. 121 upon ourselves to dispense with His Commands without any allowance from Him, as if Himself had not foreseen those in- conveniences, which may arise from our doing our duty. It can therefore never be, that obedience to God should give any real scandal ; and, whatever offence may be taken at my doing my duty, it is a contradiction to imagine it imputable to me, as a sin of fault — (for it is to suppose one to disobey God in obeying Him) — but they alone are chargeable, who are offended by it. vi. 1. Dr. Calamy. (Collection of Cases, &c., No. 10. " Considerations about the care of scandal, or giving offence to weak brethren.") I know not which is worse; the bearer of tales, or the re- ceiver : for the one makes the other. We should no less hate to tell, than to hear slanders. If we cannot stop others' mouths, let us stop our own ears. The receiver is as bad, as the thief. Bp. Henshaw. (Horae Successivse. Part i.) Thou art wronged with an unjust disgrace. Have patience awhile : slanders are not long lived. Truth is the child of time : ere long she shall appear, and vindicate thee. "Wait upon the God of Truth, who shall cause "thy light to break forth as the morning, and thine health to spring forth speedily." (Isa. Iviii. 8.) But, if otherwise, what speakest thou of this shame, which, as it is local, so it is momentary ; soon passed over in silence and oblivion. There is a shame, my son, which is worthy of thy fear ; which is both universal before the face of all the ■world, of Angels, and of men ; and beyond the reach of time, Eternal. Fear this, and contemn the other. On the contrary, if fame should befriend thee, so much as to strain her cheeks in sounding thy praises, and should cry thee up for virtuous and eminent every way, Alas, how few shall hear her, and how soon is that noise stilled and forgotten ! (Eccles. ix. 1.) Shortly then, let it be thy main care to demean thyself holily and con- scionably before God and men : leave the rest upon God, who shall be sure to make His "Word good, in spite of men and devils. " The memory of the just is blessed, but the name of the wicked shall rot." (Prov. x. 7.) Bp. Hall. (The Balm of Gilead or the Comforter. Ch. v. s. 9.) The inspired penmen of Holy Writ, of whom it cannot be doubted, 122 ROMANS III. 9. but that they spoke and wrote " in the spirit of meekness," are remarkably severe, whenever they have occasion to touch upon tbis subject. There is a peculiar sharpness of language and acrimony of style observable in their writings, when they ani- madvert upon seducers — (i.e. from the Truth). They, who upon all other occasions breathe nothing but peace, love, gentleness, goodness, meekness, are yet very bitter in their invectives, when they caution their disciples against being misled by such pes- tilent deceivers. . . . (Acts xiii. 9, 10; Gal. i. 7, 8, 9 ; 2 S. Pet. ii. 3 ; S. Jude 12, 13.) I am sensible how ill it becomes the Ministers of the Grospel to be over-liberal in pronouncing against any sort of men the dreadful sentence of dmnnation. As the very sound of it carries with it amazement and terror, so we ought never to utter it without fear and trembling. As it becomes none but madmen to throw about "firebrands, arrows, and death," so it is proper for none, but wild enthusiasts, to thunder out hell and damnation. By being too free in such censures we render them familiar and cheap, and bring them into contempt. . . . But, while we guide ourselves by the infallible Eule of God's Word, whilst we pass no other sentence, than God Himself hath passed, whilst we apply this sentence, not to persons, but to things, whilst we warn men of their sin and danger, not with a design to upbraid or insult them, but with an honest intention of rescuing them, we may, without breach of Christian charity, without transgressing the bounds of mo- deration, pronounce — nay, we cannot without uncharitableness, without betraying our trust, but pronounce — those menaces, which have gone forth from the Throne of the Almighty against false teachers, xi. 9, 10. Bp. Smalridge. ("The se- veral ways of partaking of other men's sins." Serm. on 1 Tim. V. 22.) 9 In his Epistle to the Eomans, S. Paul begins with describing the deplorable corruption of the Gentiles under their apostasy. And, as the Jew was apt to value himself upon comparison with them, the Apostle checks his vanity by informing him that nature is the same in all men. . . . He proceeds to confirm this by an induction of particulars from the writings of the Old Testament; as it is written; there is. none righteous, &c. . . . ROMANS III. 9. 123 These expressions arrange themselves under three distinct heads, and relate, first, to the thoughts of men ; secondly, to their words; and thirdly, to theiv works. The chief thing to be observed is the universality of the corruption asserted ; there is none righteous, no not one. To be righteous is to be clear of the offence, of which any one is accused ; but no man ever was or ever will be qualified by nature to abide such a trial in the sight of God. ... If we now inquire, what are the effects of human depravity and wherein this unrighteousness actually consists, the Apostle proceeds to inform us ; there is none that understandeth. Unrighteousness is the unavoidable consequence of ignorance ; for no man can go farther in his practice, than his understanding and knowledge will carry him. (Job xxviii. 28 ; Gen. vi. 5 ; Hosea xiii. 2 ; Eph. iv. 18 ; Jer. x. 6 — 8.) . . . But the ignorance of the mind is still more aggravated and confirmed by its inattention. There is none that seeketh after God. The affec- tions of man are engaged by other things. " He that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth." (S. John iii. 31.) . . . Ignorance of God and disaffection to the things of heaven, so manifest in all men, while they are in a state of nature, are strong proofs of our original corruption ; to which the Apostle adds that strange propensity to error in opinion, which led mankind intp the abominable errors of idolatry. These seem to have been chiefly alluded to in the words, which follow ; they are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprof table, there is none that doeth good, no not one. They, who depart from God, are unprofitable to themselves and to Him, who created them (vi. 21). . . We have now considered the depravity of human nature, as it shews itself in the thoughts or counsels of men, with respect to God and His religion. It is moreover asserted, that there is none that doeth good, no, not one : and this is proved by a particular induction of their words and their works. Eirst, of their words ; their throat an open sepulchre . . . with their tongues they have spoken deceit ; the poison of asps is under their lips (S. James iii. 3) : then of their works ; their feet are swift to shed blood, &c. We are now arrived at the concluding article (feature) of the human character; there is no fear of God before their eyes. They persist in a course of sin and error 124 ROMANS III. 9. without remorse, as if there were no God to survey the actions of men now, and to require an account of them hereafter. . . . Such is the condition of the natural man, in consequence of the fall. . . . No sort of crime hath here been represented, to which he is not subject, as the lusts of his own heart, inflamed and assisted by the temptations of the devil, draw away and entice him. But it does not follow from hence, that every sensual man must be guilty of every possible crime, only because it is the fruit of his nature ; this is no necessary consequence. Tor death is also the fruit of our nature ; yet all men do not die of the same distemper : neither did any man ever die of all dis- tempers at once, though some cases of mortality, like some cases of guilt, are exceedingly complicated. In diff"erent persons, sin and mortality have various appearances, according to the differ- ence of constitutions, circumstances, and accidents. S. James ii. 10, 11. William Jones. (An Essay on Man. Ch. i.) Assuredly it is not by chance that the most Evangelical of the Prophets (Isa. i.), and the most doctrinal of the Apostles (Rom. iii.), both begin in the same way, by speaking of the sinfulness of man, of the weakness and sickness of our souls. They did it, because they knew it was as necessary for them to begin thus, as for a builder, who would have his house stand, to lay a deep foundation. A. W. Hare. If we were in that state of uprightness, in which man was first created by God, then it would be sufiicient, in order to our happiness, to know the nature of God and the works of crea- tion and providence, and to love, honour, and worship Him, according to the measures of such knowledge. But in the state of sin, into which we are now fallen by the transgression of our first parents, it is necessary that we should also be acquainted with the origin, the nature, and the demerits of sin ; and of these things we have a much clearer manifestation under the Gospel, than the Jews had under the Law. When we read in Moses that " the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of his heart was only evil continually ;" or, when we hear David confessing that he was " born in sin and conceived in wickedness," we may doubt, whether what is, in both places, restrained to some men is to be extended to ROMANS III. 10. 125 all the race of mankind, and whether such expressions amount to a plain and full proof of the ^ewe?'ff^ depravation of human nature ; but all such doubts must be silenced by the plain assertions in the New Testament. (Eom. v. 12 ; vi. 12; v. 18; Eph. ii. 1 ; V. 3.) . . . And, as the Gospel gives us a more distinct account of the origin and demerit of sin than the Law, so also doth it furnish us with a brighter discovery of the methods, whereby the guilt of sin is atoned. And, indeed, it would be no way to our advantage, but rather to our great disadvantage, to be in- formed so fully of the malignity and danger of our disease, if we were not also instructed by what remedies it is to be cured. Bp. Smalridge. (" The Pre-eminence of the Gospel above the Law." Serm. on 2 Cor. iii. 11.) 10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: 1 1 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 12 They are all gone out of the way, they are toge- ther become unprofitable ; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. 13 Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit ; the poison of asps is under their lips : 1 4 Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness : 15 Their feet are swift to shed blood : 16 Destruction and misery are in their ways : 1 7 And the way of peace have they not known : 18 There is no fear of God before their eyes. 10 If we could say we were not guilty of anything at all in our consciences (we know ourselves far from this innocence ; we cannot say we " know nothing of ourselves," but, if we could), should we therefore plead not guilty before the presence of our Judge, that sees farther into our hearts, than we ourselves can 126 ROMANS III. 11. do ? If our hands did never offer violence to our brethren, a bloody thought doth prove U3 murderers before Him : if we had never opened our mouth to utter any scandalous, offensive, or hurtful word, the cry of our secret cogitations is heard in the ears of God : if we did not commit the sins, which daily and hourly, either in deed, word, or thoughts we do commit, yet in the good things, which we do, how many defects are there in- termingled ! God, in that, which is done, respecteth the mind and intention of the doer. Cut off then all those things, wherein we have regarded our own glory, those things, which men do to please men and to satisfy our own liking, those things, which we do for any by-respect, not sincerely and purely for the love of God ; and a small score will serve for the num- ber of our righteous deeds. Let the holiest and best things, which we do, be considered. We are never better affected unto God than when we pray ; yet, when we pray, how are our affections many times distracted ! How little reverence do we show unto the grand Majesty of God, unto whom we speak ! how little remorse of our own miseries ! how little taste of the sweet influence of His tender mercies do we feel ! Are we not as unwilling many times to begin, and as glad to make an end, as if in saying " Call upon Me" He had set us a very bur- densome task ? It may seem somewhat extreme, which I will speak ; therefore let every one judge of it, even as his own heart shall tell him, and no otherwise. I will but only make a demand. If God should yield unto us, not as unto Abraham, if fifty, forty, thirty, twenty, yea, or even if ten good persons could be found in a city, for their sakes this city should not be destroyed — but, and if He should make us an offer thus large — Search all the generations of men, since the fall of our father Adam ; find one man, that hath done one action, which hath passed from him pure, without any stain or blemish at all ; and for that one man's only action neither man nor angel shall feel the torments, which are prepared for both : do you think that this ransom to deliver men and angels could be found among the sons of men ? Hooker. (A Learned Discourse on Justi- fication, &e. S. 7.) 11 None that understandeth. This is that grand contradiction — ROMANS III. 12, 13. 127 that fatal paradox — of the life of man : his very being consists in rationality ; his acting is contrary to all the reasoning in the world. Man only was created under the law of Reason : man only maintains a constant opposition to the law and reason of his creation. " He appointed the moon for certain seasons, and the sun kuoweth his going down." (Ps. civ. 19.) The blus- tering winds, the raging storms, the unruly ocean ; the lion, the tiger, and the bear — all these pursue the law of the creation : these all are " obedient unto His Word" (Ps. cxlviii. 8), charmed to it by that powerful voice, whereby they were created. Man only stops his ears, and refuses " to hear the voice" of this Al- mighty "charmer," charm He never so wisely, so loudly, or so variously, vii. 18 — 23 ; x. 21. Bp. Seth Ward. (Serm. on Eev. ix. 20.) 12 Whosoever will consider the manifold miseries and the ex- treme wickedness of the world ; that the best have great wrong- nesses within themselves, which they complain of, and endeavour to amend, but that the generality grow more corrupt and profli- gate with age ; that heathen moralists thought the present state to be a state of punishment ; and, what might be added, that the earth our habitation has the appearance of being a ruin — whosoever, T say, will consider all these, and some other obvious things, will think that he has little reason to object against the Scripture account, that mankind is in a state of degradation — against this being the fact — how difficult soever he may think it to account for, or even to form a distinct con- ception of, the occasions and circumstances of it. Bp. Butler. (Anal. P. ii. ch. 5.) 13 Sin, what art thou ? Alas, that every man can sooner sin, than tell what it is. When we talk of it, then it grows upon us ; when we forget it, it increaseth more ; when we hate it, then we sin, because we do not hate it, as we ought : but call it in one word, as S. John doth, avofiia, the breach of God's Law, and you have said enough. Methinks Moses made the defini- tion, when spying the trespass, the calf they worshipped in Horeb, he cast the Tables from him, as who should say, " The Law is broken !" Only here is the difierence ; the Tables were cracked in few pieces perhaps, but the Law hath been ground, 128 ROMANS III. 13. like the idol,, into powder ; so that a remnant is not kept whole in man. S. Paul reduceth sin into every part of us, both soul and body, as unto certain common places ; or you may call it the Geography of wickedness. There is none that understandeth : thus our reason is ignorant — none that seeketh after God : our will is disobedient. If the leaven be so bad, what hope re- mains in the lump ? Our tongues have used deceit, and the kisses of our lips envenom, like the asp. Our feet are not lazy, but swift, to shed blood. Our eyes not dim, but wanting before them the veil of reverence — There is no fear of God before our eyes. Our throat, not crammed up or strangled, but wide as an open sepulchre. Was Goliath more furnished to do evil, with that tomb of brass upon his body ? Was Esau more rough and hairy from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot (Isa. i. 6) ? or that Hermogenes, whom the wits of Greece played upon, that the razor knew not where to begin ; for all his body was but one lock ? . . . Aristotle said our soul was like a fair skin of parchment, whereon nothing was written. Oh, that it had been so ! They are rather like Ezekiel's book, within and without written with " woes and lamentations ;" or, as Plato speaks of Dionysius his soul, that it was scribbled all over with evil characters. What an indictment may be made of this cause then, when iniquity is a blemish all over, as the whole bird was dipped in blood (Levit. xiv.), which was an emblem of our pollution. Bp. Hacket. (Serm. on Josh. xxii. 20.) The poison of asps is under their lips. Here we meet with the foul spring, from whence issued the slanderous reports, poured out against the Apostle, mentioned at V. 8. What Bp. Home observes on the original text (Ps. cxl. 3) may here be fitly in- duced. " Slander and calumny must always precede and ac- company persecution ; because malice itself cannot excite people against a good man, as such : to do this, he must first be re- presented, as a bad man. What can be said of those, who are busied in this manner, but that they are 'a generation of vipers,' the brood of the old * serpent,' that grand ' accuser* and calumniator ' of the brethren,' having under their tongues a bag oi poison, conveying instant death to the reputation they fasten upon ?" — It may be here remarked that, among the ROMANS III. 17, 18. 129 brute creation, the asp alone is selected to be the representative of the sin of mankind. And most significantly : for the devil under the serpentine form brought sin into the world, and death by sin. We may trace another allusion of this kind in this Epistle ; but there we have the blessed word of promise. " The God of peace shall bndse Satan under your feet shortly." xvi. 20; Gren. iii. 15. /. F. 17 If any think ignorance justifiable, let this persuade him to the contrary. 1. A sin it must needs be ; else, as it is, Lev. iv. 2, there should not have been a sacrifice for it : yet there, if any had ofieuded through ignorance, a sacrifice was commanded to be made for him. And Ps. Ixxix. 6, if it had been a light ofi'ence, David had made a very uncharitable prayer unto God ; " Pour out Thine indignation on the heathen, that have not known Thee, and the people that have not called on Thy Name." Ignorance is not only sin, but also the cause of sin, and cause of punishment for sin. It is the cause of sin, as Hosea (iv. 1) saith, that " the Lobd hath a controversy with the inhabi- tants of the land, for that there was no mercy ;" and the reason of that was, " because there was no true dealing ;" and the reason of both these was, " because there is no knowledge of God." And, strait after, he telleth them of their destruction for it. So Eom. iii. 17 ; when he had shown all the enormities of the heathen, his conclusion is, because the way of peace they have not known. (Conf. ver, 11.) And it is not the cause of punishment, but as it is the cause of sin: and that is set forth to us in Prov. xiv. 22 ; " Do they not err that imagine evil ?" There is no sin, but there is an error : therefore planting of perfect knowledge would be a cutting away of many sins ; and Augustine says, Non erratur, nisi ignorantid — There is no sin- ning, but through ignorance. Doth not Solomon say ; " Do they not all err, that work wickedness ?" Therefore, that sin may be diminished, knowledge must needs be planted, x. 19 ; xvi. 26. Bp.Andrewes. (The Moral Law Expounded. Commandment i.) 18 To fear God consists in the having such a due sense of the Majesty, and Holiness, and Justice, and Goodness of God, as shall make us throughly fearful to oiFend Him. For each of these attributes of God are proper to raise a suitable fear in K 130 ROMANS III. 19. every cousiderate mind — His Majesty, a fear, lest we aflfront it by being irreverent ; His Holiness, a fear, lest we offend it by being carnal ; His Justice, a fear, lest we provoke it by being presumptuous; and His Goodness, a fear, lest we lose it by being unthankful. Dean Young. (Serm. on Job xxviii. 28.) 19 Now we know that what things soever the Law saith, it saith to them who are under the Law : that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. 20 Therefore by the deeds of the Law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight : for by the Law is the knowledge of sin. 21 But now the righteousness of God without the Law is manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets ; 22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that be- lieve : for there is no difference. 19 This, with the following part of the quotation, is taken out of Ps. xiv. according to the Grreek version ; being indeed added to the Hebrew context — which is, in truth, a thing not unusual either to those interpreters, or the ordinary interpreters in the synagogues. There stood by the reader of the Law and the Prophets in the synagogues an interpreter, that was wont to render what was read to the people in the Hebrew into their own language ; and it was a very usual thing for those inter- preters to expatiate, and by way of comment to preach upon the words, that had been read. . . . That the Greek inter- preters did the same thing upon this Psalm, I do not question : indeed the thing speaks itself ; especially if we take notice of the subject, which is discoursed of there. But let this be taken notice of by the way, that, wherever anything occurs in the Holy Scripture, that is either terrifying, or disgraceful, or threatening, the Jews commonly apply it to the Gentiles ; as ROMANS III. 19. 131 by numberless instances might be confirmed. These inter- preters therefore, having gotten such a subject in this Psalm, and, according to the custom of the nation, applying it to the Gentiles, they heap together passages from other places of the Scriptures, which they either believe, or would have, to look the same way ; loading and stigmatizing the poor heathen with odious characters enough : for to them the Jews made no doubt, but assuredly believed, all those things do belong. Our Apostle follovvs their quotations exactly, transcribes their words, ap- proves the truth of the thing, but disproves the falsehood of the application : ver. 19, as though he had said, " Tou Jews ex- pound these things of the Gentiles only, as if they did not the least belong to yourselves. And with the same design likewise have your interpreters multiplied this heap of quotations, having their eye on them ; but ye must know, that whatever things the Law saith it saith to them, that are under the Law^ Dr. Light- foot. (Hebrew and Talmudical Exercitations upon some few chapters of the Epistle to the Romans.) We have the same nature, that man ever had, and we must begin from the point man ever began from, and work out our sal- vation in the same slow persevering manner. When this is borne in mind, how important the Jewish Law becomes to us Christians ! important in itself, over and above all references contained in it to that Gospel, which it introduced. To this day it fulfils its original purpose of impressing upon man his great guilt and feebleness. Those legal sacrifices and purifica- tions, which are now all done away, are still evidence to us of a fact, which the Gospel has not annulled — our corruption. Let no man lightly pass over the Book of Leviticus, and say it only contains the ceremonial of a national law. Let no one study it merely with a critic's eye, satisfied with connecting it in a nicely arranged system with the Gospel, as though it contained prophecy only. N^o ; it speaks to us. Are we better than the Jews ? Is our nature less unbelieving, sensual, or proud than theirs ? Surely man is at all times the same being, as even the philosophers tell us. And if so, that minute ceremonial of the Law presents us with a picture of our daily life. It impres- sively testifies to our continual sinning, by suggesting that aa k2 132 ROMANS III. 19, 20. expiation is needful in all the most trivial circumstances of our conduct. . . . Consider the ceremony observed on the great day of Atonement, and you will see what was the sinfulness of the Israelites, and, therefore, of all mankind, in God's sight. The High Priest was taken to represent the holiest person of the whole world. The nation itself was holy above the rest of the world ; from it a holy tribe was selected ; from the holy tribe a holy family ; and from that family a holy person. This was the High Priest, who was thus set apart, as the choice spe- cimen of the whole human race : yet even he was not allowed, under pain of death, to approach even the Mercy-seat of God, except once a year ; nor then in his splendid robes, nor without sacrifices for the sins of himself and the people, the blood of which he carried with him into the Holy place. Or consider the sacrifices necessary, according to the Law, for sins of ignorance (Levit. iv.) ; or again for the mere touching any thing, which the Law pronounced unclean, or for bodily disease (Levit. V. 2, 6 ; xiv. 1 — 32) ; and hence learn how sinful our ordinary thoughts and deeds must be, represented to us, as they are, by these outward ceremonial transgressions. Not even their thanksgiving might the Israelites offer without an oflTering of blood to cleanse it ; for our corruption is not merely in this act or that, but in our nature. J. H. Newman. (Sins of Ig- norance and Weakness. Serm. on Heb. x. 22.) Man's natural desire would be to scale the heavens by his own excellence ; it is the will of God that he should first stoop, even to the very dust, from whence he was taken. /. Miller. (Bampton Lectures, iv.) 20 By Law, 'tis plain, he usually understands the Jewish Law, which was a complex body of laws, containing Moral, Cere- monial, and Judicial precepts, each of which had its use and office, as a great instrument of duty ; the Judicial laws being peculiar statutes, accommodated to the state of the Jews' Com- monwealth, as all civil constitutions, restrained men from the external acts of sin ; the Ceremonial Laws came somewhat nearer, and, besides their typical relation to the Evangelical state, by external and symbolical representments signified and exhibited that spiritual impurity, from which men were to ab- ROMANS III. 20. 133 stain ; the Moral laws, founded in the natural notions of men's minds concerning good and evil, directly urged men to duty and prohibited their prevarications. These three made up the entire Code and Pandects of the Jevrish statutes ; all v^hich our Apostle comprehends under the general notion of the Law, and not the Moral Law singly and separately considered ; in which sense it never appears that the Jews expected Justification and Salvation by it ; nay rather, that they looked for it merely from the observance of the Ritual and Ceremonial Law : so that the Moral Law is no further considered^ by him in this question, than as it made up a part of the Mosaical Constitution of that National and Political Covenant, which God made with the Jews at Mount Sinai. Hence the Apostle all along in his dis- courses constantly opposes the Law and the Gospel, and the observation of one to the belief and practice of the other ; Avhich surely he would not have done, had he simply intended the Moral Law, it being more expressly incorporated into the Gospel, than ever it was into the Law of Moses. Br. Cave. (History of the Lives, Acts, and Martyrdoms of the holy Apos- tles. The Life of S. Paul. Sect. ix. 7.) AVe may observe that (as every man hath some phrases and par- ticular forms of speech, in which he delighteth, so) this term is somewhat peculiar to S. Paul, and hardly by the other Apostles applied to that matter, which he expresseth thereby ; they usually ^ It may be questioned, whether, in the view of the Apostle, the Moral Law did not occupy a more prominent position, than the excellent Dr. Cave here assigns to it. Already, in His Sermon on the Mount, our Blessed Lord had sanctioned the treatment of this part of the Mosaic Dispensa- tion in a separate form detached from the rest. Indeed the Moral Law seems to be almost exclusively intended in this Epistle, as the Ceremonial Law is in the corresponding Epistles to the Galatians and the Hebrews. The ex- pressions in Ch. i., ii., vii., will hardly admit of any, but a moral sense and interpretation. The use in the text — " no flesh shall be justified" — of the future tense seems to carry us beyond the Apostle's day and the case of the Jew ; and to pronounce, in a like ab- solute manner, that obedience to any code of moral law, when performed with a view to acceptance with God thereby, and apart from His pardon- ing and assisting Grace, would prove just as insufficient to men, as the ob- servance of the Mosaic Moral Law, in the light of a Covenant of works, had proved, once for all, to the Jews. 134 ROMANS III. 20. in their Sermons and Epistles, do speak the same thing, what- ever it be, in other terms more immediately expressive of the matter. . , . Seeing the term is so proper to S. Paul, in rela- tion to this matter, the right sense and notion thereof seemeth best derivable from considering the drift of his discourse and manner of his reasoning, comparing the other phrases he useth equivalent to this, and interpretative of his meaning. Following this method of inquiry, I do observe and affirm that the last notion (I have noticed) of the word, as it is evidently most usual in the Scripture, so it best suiteth to the meaning of S. Paul here, and otherwhere commonly, where he treateth upon the same matters, that God's justifying doth solely or chiefly import His acquitting us from guilt, condemnation, and pun- ishment, by free pardon and remission of our sins ; accounting us and dealing with us, as just persons, upright and innocent in Plis sight and esteem : the truth of which notion I shall by divers arguments and considerations make good. Ex. xxiii. 7 ; Deut. XXV. 1 ; 1 Kings viii. 32 ; 2 Chron. vi. 23 ; Prov. xvii. 15 ; S. Matt. xii. 37 ; xi. 19 ; Acts xiii. 39. Dr. Barrow. (Of Jus- tification by Eaith. Serm. on E,om. v. 1.) It is a good rule in Divinity, that these harbingers, or attendants on God's apparitions (Exod. xix. 16) are an image not only of His greatness, but of His Providence also. In them, as in a looking-glass, you may behold the work, which He hath in hand. I will show it you in the present one. Tou may make use of this rule in understanding other of God's works. God was now about to deliver His Law ; and these harbingers represented the dreadfulness thereof. The dreadfulness of the precept — that is noticed first, by the lightning ; then, by the thunder : by the lightning ; for the precepts of God are like fire ; they search and discover the duty of a man. It is a shallow conceit that the natural man hath of his duty to God or to his neigh- bour. S. Paul confesseth what a stranger he was in it, till he was better nurtured by the Law, and giveth this for a general rule, Bi/ the Law cometh the knowledge of sin ; so that the Law sufiereth not a man to be ignorant of his obligation, but set- teth it most legible before his eyes. This is the lightning of the precept of the Law. And this lightning cometh not with- ROMANS III. 21. 135 out a clap of thunder ; for when a man from the Law reflecteth upon himself, and seeth how short he cometh of fulfilling the Law, what perplexing terrors will arise in his thoughts ! what unquietness will distress his soul ! His spirit within will be overwhelmed, and the tumult of his conscience will drown the sound of all consolation, that shall be ministered unto it : many have had woeful experience hereof (vii. 9, 24). As you have seen the image of the precept of the Law, so must you also behold the image of the sanction. Por the tnimpet calleth to judgment ; the flaming fire is an image of the doom. The wicked shall be summoned with much terror, and they shall be sent into endless torments. For the summons shall be by the trumpet, and the wicked shall "go into everlasting fire." ii. 8, 9. Bp. Lake. (An Exposition of ch. xix. of Exodus. Serm.x.) 21 Being witnessed by the law and the prophets. This moral reve- lation, made by the succession of prophets, holds an interme- diate place between the Law of Moses and the Gospel itself. It is a step in progress beyond the Law, and preparatory to the Gospel : it is a step beyond the Law, in respect of the greater distinctness and fulness of some of its doctrines and precepts : it is a more perfect exposition of the principles of personal holiness and virtue ; the sanctions of it have less of an exclu- sive reference to temporal promises, and incline more to Evan- gelical : the Eitual of the Law begins to be discountenanced by it ; the superior value of the Moral commandment to be en- forced ; and altogether it bears a more spiritual and a more instructive character than the original Law given by Moses. The Law had said, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy strength." Nothing can go beyond this commandment in the extent of it ; but, where nothing is to be added to extend a law, much may be added to expound it, and to animate its spirit, and to fill up or direct its practice. The habits of love and the sentiments of obedience to the commandment may be further informed, the obligations may be improved, the practical force of the law exalted. It is such an improvement as this, made by the Pro- phets upon the Law of Moses, whose authority they every- where recognize, which the attentive reader is invited to con- 136 ROMANS III. 21. aider. Perbaps I only multiply words to express the simple important fact, namely, that in the Prophets there is a more harmonious, a more perfectly reasoned rule of life and faith, than in the primary Law ; and therefore that GtOd's moral revelation was progressive. It is more perfect in the Prophets, than in the Law ; more perfect in the Gospel, than in either. Ver. 31 ; i. 2 ; XV. 4, 8, 9. Davison. (Discourses on Prophecy, &c. Discourse ii. p. 1.) Prophecy from the beginning spoke of a Eedeemer, and in a later age it spoke of His Sacrifice of atonement. The Legal sacri- fices prefigured that atonement, and by their reference of simi- litude to the Christian Sacrifice they were hallowed to the in- ferior ends of the first Dispensation, in which they had their use. But the power of the Eedeeraer's Blood they had not communicated to them ; nor had they a tongue to represent the power of that Blood to the conscience of a sinner. That was a mystery of God's mercy, which holy men were permitted to see and know, when the Redeemer Himself came into the world. Meanwhile, the oblations of the Levitical sanctuary were, like Zacharias, one of the latest Priests and Ministers of them, dumb for a season (S. Luke i. 20) ; till they found their voice, as he did, at the Evangelical Advent : for then the time was fully come to " give knowledge of Salvation to the people of God by the remission of sins.'^ ... In the age of the Prophets and their volume of Prophecy the Gospel Economy breaks forth in accessions of information. The vicarious silverings and ap- pointed death of the Messiah are now introduced ; the atoning power of His Passion is declared ; and the cardinal principles of the Christian Doctrine — Sacrifice and Expiation — embodied in the prediction of His Eedemptiou. The Prophetic Volume hereby becomes the unambiguous witness of the Gospel Doc- trine. It does not speak in figure, as the Hites of the Law, but in the more direct oracles of truth. The Law foreshadowed. The Prophets foretold. This is the difference between those connected members of the predictive Economy of Revelation. Nor perhaps shall I exceed the truth, if I state that there is a discernible progress in all the communications made concern- ing this very doctrine of the Atonement. For the Prophetic ROMANS III. 21. 137 Psalms embrace the sufferings of the Messiah. But we do not read tliero the expiatory office of those sufferings. That is an addition made by later prophecy. Thus, in one brief view, we have the Atoning Sacrifice simply foreshadowed in the Law ; the sufferings of the Messiah depicted in the Psalms; His Pas- sion and Atonement united together in the later prophecy. In conformity with this account, I shall observe that one chapter of the Prophet Isaiah — the 53rd — or perhaps a single text of that chapter — " Thou shalt make Ris soul an offering for sin," comprehends more of the real disclosure of this Christian prin- ciple, than could be previously gathered from all the Law and the Prophets. The BooIjs of Isaiah, Daniel, and Zechariah, taken together, complete the scheme of Revealed truth in the Covenant of Grace. And, as all the Christian promises, such as are the pardon of sin, the gift of eternal life, and the supply of spiritual aid, are included in some or other of the represen- tations of Prophecy, the foundation of those promises, in the Atoning Death of the Redeemer, is made conspicuous among them, and completes their system. In this manner was Chris- tianity witnessed by the Law and the Prophets. S. Luke i. 70, 77. Davison. (An Inquiry into the Origin and Intent of Primitive Sacrifice. Pp. 89 and 175. Edit. 1825.) Manifested. (Ver. 25, set forth, declare.) It is obvious that the sufferings and death of Christ might have wrought the same effects in the Divine dispensations, though a knowledge of that event had never been communicated to man. God might have been just and the justijier of sinners without exhibiting to His creatures the method, by which the perfection and moral har- mony of His character are secured. Tet, though the mercy of our heavenly Pathee is in its nature quite distinct from, and wholly independent of, the acquaintance we may happen to have with the method ordained for providing it, we find that the writers of the New Testament uniformly represent the promul- gation to man of the doctrine of Atonement by the Blood of Jesus, as a most signal instance of Divine bounty. . . . This doctrine — the knowledge of that great truth, which unknown might have wrought inestimable good for man — has a peculiar and most powerful tendency to excite an ardent love of God, a 138 ROMANS III. 22. deep detestation of sin, patient self-denial, humility, and spi- ritual-mindedness. Let it now be considered how large a por- tion of holiness these graces themselves constitute; and how necessarily they imply or produce the rest ; and, if the Scripture account of happiness be true, we shall no longer feel any diffi- culty in understanding why the Apostles have declared a *' knowledge of Christ Crucified" to be so inestimable a bless- ing, i. 5 ; X. 15 ; xvi. 26. John Bowdler. (Practical View of the Doctrine of the Atonement.) 22 That we may the more distinctly unfold the diflference between that righteousness, which is of the Law, and that, which is of faith, and so better shew how the Apostle undermines that fabric of happiness, which the Jews had built up for themselves, we shall observe first, in general, that the main thing, which the Apostle endeavours to beat down, was that proud and arro- gant conceit, which they had of merit, and to advance against it the notion of the Divine Grace and Bounty, as the only foun- tain of all righteousness and happiness. Por indeed that, which all those Jewish notions, we have before taken notice of, aim principally at, was the advancing of the weakened powers of nature to such a height of perfection, as might render them capable o^ meriting at God's hands : and that perfection, which they speak so much of, (as is clear from what hath been said) was nothing else, but a mere sublimation of their own natural powers and principles, performed by the strength of their own fancies. And therefore these contractors with heaven were so pleased to look upon Eternal Life, as a fair purchase, which they might make for themselves at their own charge, as if the spring and rise of all were in themselves : their eyes were so much dazzled with those foolish fires of merit and reward kindled in their own fancies, that they could not see that light of Divine Grace and Bounty, which shone about them. And this fastus and swelling pride of theirs, if I mistake not, is that, which S. Paul principally endeavours to chastise in advancing faith so much, as he doth, in opposition to the works of the Law His end is to establish the foundation of righteousness and happiness upon the free mercy and grace of God : the glorify- ing and magnifying of which, in the real manifestations of it. ROMANS III. 23. 139 he holds forth on all occasions, as the design and plot of the Gospel administration, seeing it is impossible for men by any works, which they can perform, to satisfy God's Justice for those sins, which they have committed against Him ; or truly to comply with His Divine will without His Divine assistance. So that the method of reconciling men to God and seducing of straying souls back again to Him was to be attributed wholly to another original, than that, which the Jews imagined, x. 3. John Smith. (The Difference between the Legal and Evan- gelical Righteousness. Ch. 4.) 23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God ; 24 Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus : 25 Whom God hath set forth to he a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteous- ness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God ; 26 To declare, I say, at this time His righteousness : that He might be just, and the justifier of him which beheveth in Jesus. 23 It is true every good act doth justify a man, so far as it is good ; and God so far esteemeth them holy and good, and taketh notice of His graces in His children. He registereth the patience of Job, the zeal of Phinehas, the devotion of David: not "a cup of cold water," not "a mite" flung into the treasury, but shall "have its reward." But yet, all the works of all the Saints in the world cannot satisfy for the breach of the Law. Por let it once be granted, what cannot be denied, that we are all v7r68iKot, guilty and culpable before God, that all have sinned and are come short of the glory of God, then all that noise concerning merits, and satisfaction, and inherent righteousness, will vanish, as a mist before the sun ; and justification and remission of sins will appear in its 140 ROMANS III. 24. brightness in that form and shape, in which Cheist first left it to His Church. Bring in Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the Patriarchs, and Prophets, and Apostles, and deck them with all those virtues, which made them glorious ; but yet, they sinned. Bring in " the noble army of Martyrs," w^ho shed their blood for Cheist ; but yet, they sinned. " They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, they were slain with the sword ;" but yet, they sinned : and he, that sinneth, is presently "the servant of sin," obnoxious to it for ever, and cannot be redeemed by his own blood, because he sinned ; but by the Blood of Him, in .whom there was "no sin" to be found, Jvs- tijicatio impii — this one form of speech (iv. 5) o^ justifying a sinner doth plainly exclude the Law and the works of it. Farindon. (Serm. i. on S. Matt, vi, 12.) 24 What Gi'ace means S. Paul ? Not emanantem, which are the gifts of God, and are in men ; but immanentem, which is the Love of God, and is in God ; not God's out-flowing grace, but His in-biding grace. The Gospel is the Appearance the Epiphany of that grace, and is therefore called " the Gospel of the grace of God" (Acts xx. 24). The grace of God is the free good will of God, by which He loveth us in Jesus Cheist, giveth us His Spirit, forgiveth us our sins, justifietb us and saveth us ; I say, in Jesus Cheist ; because all grace hath hansell first in Him. Salvation is not of man, but of God ; not of man's merit, but of God's grace : not itself only (Eph. ii. 5) but the decree of it, and the means of it, and the end of it. The decree, t'/cXo7T} x"P"°^t *' the election of grace" (xi. 5) — the means, both vocation, (we are " called," Ku-ra x'^P'-v, " accord- ing to His grace" 2 Tim. i.), and justification is also ttj x"/*"*, freely hy His grace (iii. 24) ; and the end of it. Eternal Life, it is x"/"<^/ii Geo?, it is " the gift of God" (vi. 23). Both begin- ning, and progress, and execution of salvation is all from grace. This is " the riches of God's grace" (Eph. i. 7), yea, wXoSto? vTTep^aXKwv, the exceeding the hyperbolical riches of His grace (Eph. ii. 7), and therefore this attribute is put into God's Style, proclaimed by God Himself (Ex. xxxiv. 6). "The gracious God" — so rich, so exceeding rich in grace, that the Apostles entitle Him " The God of grace," and His Spirit, " the Spirit ROMANS III. 24. 141 of grace," and His Throne "the Throne of grace." Br. Richard Gierke. (Serm. on Titus ii. 11.) By Grace we always understand, as the Word of God teacheth, first, His favour and undeserved mercy towards us : secondly, the blessings of His Holt Spirit, which inwardly worketh : thirdly, the efiects of that Spibit w^hatsoever, but especially saving virtues, such as are faith, charity, and hope : lastly, the free and full remission of all our sins. This is the Grrace, which Sacraments yield, and whereby we are all justified. To be jus- tified is to be made righteous. Because therefore righteousness doth imply, first, remission of sins, and secondly, a sanctified life, the name is sometimes applied severally to the former ; sometimes jointly it comprehendeth both. The general cause, which hath procured our remission of sins, is the Blood of Cheist ; therefore, in His Blood we are justified ; that is to say, cleared and acquitted from all sin. The condition, required in us for our personal qualification hereunto, is faith. Sin, both original and actual, committed before belief in the promise of salvation through Jesus Christ, is through the mere mercy of GrOD taken away from them, which believe : justified they are, and that, not in reward of their good, but through the pardon of their evil, works. Foi', albeit they have disobeyed GrOD, yet our Saviour's death and obedience performed in their behalf doth redound to them ; by believing it they make the benefit thereof to become their own. So that this only thing is imputed unto them for righteousness, because to re- mission of sins there is nothing else required. Remission of sins is ^race, because it is God's own free gift; faith, which qualifieth our minds to receive it, is also grace, because it is an efiect of His gracious Spirit in us: we are therefore justified by faith without works, by grace without merit. Neither is it, as Bellarmine imagineth, a thing impossible that we should attribute any justifying grace to Sacraments, except we first renounce the doctrine of justification by faith only. To the imputation of Christ's death for remission of sins, we teach faith alone necessary : wherein it is not our meaning to separate thereby faith from any other quality or duty, which God re- quireth to be matched therewith, but from faith to seclude, in 142 ROMANS III. 24. justification, the fellowship of worth through precedent works, as the Apostle S. Paul doth. For, in children, God exacteth but Baptism, unto remission of sin : in converts from infidelity, both faith and penitency before Baptism : and, for remission of sins actual after Baptism, penitency in all men, as well as faith. Nor doth any faith justify, but that, wherewith there is joined both hope and love. Yet justified we are by faith alone, be- cause there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither Martyr nor Saint, no man, whose works, in whole or in part clear can make him righteous in God's sight. Now between the grace of this first justification, and the glory of the world to come, whereof we are not capable, unless the rest of our lives be qualified with the righteousness of a second justification con- sisting in good works, therefore, as S. Paul doth dispute for faith without works to the first, so S. James to the second jus- tification is urgent for works with faith. To be justified so far as remission of sins, it sufficeth, if we believe what another hath wrought for us : but whosoever will see God face to face, let him "shew his faith by his works," demonstrate a first justification by a second, as Abraham did : for in this verse " Abraham was jus- tified" (that is to say, his life was sanctified) by works. See at v. 19. Hooker. (Eccl. Pol. B. v. Appendix No. 1. Ed. Keble.) The benefits, which we receive from Cheist, are all most fully expressed by the name of Redemption, which is the freeing us from that miserable bondage and captivity, wherein we were formerly holden by reason of Adam's sin. This bondage was two-fold ; first, in respect of sin, and secondly, in respect of pu- nishment. In respect of sin, we were bondmen to Satan, whose will we did, according to that of the Apostle, " His servants ye are to whom ye obey" (vi. 16). In respect of punishment, we were become bondmen to Almighty God, the righteous Judge of the world, who useth Satan, as an instrument of His wrath and an executioner of His dreadful judgments against such, as do ofi'end Him and provoke Him to wrath. These beiug the kinds of captivity and bondage, wherein we were holden, it will not be hard to see how we are freed and redeemed from the same. There is no Redemption, as the Divines do note, but either by exchange of prisoners, by force and strong hand, or by payment ROMANS III. 25. 143 of a price. Redemption by exchange of prisoners is then, when we set free those, whom we hold as captives taken from our enemies, that they may make free such, as they hold of ours : and this kind of redemption hath no place in the deliver- ance of sinful men from sin and misery ; but their deliverance is only wrought by strong hand and paying of a price. For Christ redeemed us from the bondage of sin, in that by the force and working of His Grace, making us dislike it, hate it, and repent of it, and leave it, He violently took us out of Satan's bands, who tyrannically and unjustly had taken posses- sion of us ; but from the bondage of punishment, in respect whereof we were become bondmen to Almighty God, He re- deemed us, not by force and a strong band, but by paying a price, satisfying His Justice, and suffering what our sins had de- served ; that so, being pacified towards us, He might cease to punish us, and discharge Satan, who was but the executioner of His wrath, from afflicting us any longer. Dr. Field. (Of the Church. Bookv. ch. 21.) 25 God, having by an established law denounced Death to sin, the execution of that law, one way or other, became as neces- sary to the vindication of the Divine attributes, as the first enacting it. For, though the Mercy of God is a gracious con- cern for His creatures and their welfare, yet the Justice of God is a concern for Himself and His own glory : and there- fore it was become necessary that the punishment so threatened to sin should be inflicted, in case of sin ; and no deliverance granted, but on such conditions, as the Deity offended should think equivalent to the punishment of the offender, and there- fore worthy His acceptance. This is what Divines properly call Satisfaction, Expiation, and Atonement ; the necessity of which arises from the necessity of punishment, and the neces- sity of punishment from the Divine denunciation of misery and death to sin, and that denunciation from the infinite Holiness in the Deity. ... As the life of the first pair was absolutely forfeited, and as, in the Divine appointment of things, " with- out shedding of blood there was to be no remission," it became necessary that Blood, which is " the life," should be shed, in order to the remission of their transgression. . . . The Son of 144 ROMANS III. 25. God voluntarily offering His own life a victim to the Divine Justice, the Fatkeb accepted it, as a vicarious ransom. The equity of this commutation or satisfaction has been often de- monstrated, and the fitness and propriety of it are equally conspicuous. For, death being the punishment of sin, an atone- ment for sin could not be made by a sinner, whose life, as such, was forfeited to the Divine Justice, and, consequently, could not have the least pretence to merit and expiation. Hence the impossibility of our being redeemed by man. Cheist there- fore, who " did no sin," when He suffered the punishment of sin, became a proper and meritorious Sacrifice for sinners. Again, as the sins to be atoned for were not only those of our first parents, but of the whole human race, and as every sin ia the greatest aftront to an Infinitely Holy Being, so the Atone- ment was required to be of Infinite value ; which could only arise from the Infinite Dignity of the person so atoning. And hence the impossibility of our being redeemed by angels. The Eedeemer therefore, who appeared in behalf of mankind, seems to be the only one, that could cancel their debts, and offer a plenary satisfaction ; and, being both God from all eternity, and becoming man in the fulness of time, He was partaker of the perfect nature of those beings, for whom, and of that Being, to whom, He was to make an atonement ; and, consequently, could clearly expiate the guilt of the former, and fully satisfy the Justice of the latter, (v. 10 ; viii. 32.) In this short view of the nature of our Kedemption we see all the attributes of the Deity glorified ; " Mercy and truth meeting together ; righteousness and peace kissing each other:" the whole a scheme of the most righteous mercy and the most merciful vengeance ! We see the necessity of a mighty ransom, and (though we acknowledge and adore the free grace of God here- in displayed) we assert that this ransom was fully discharged by the meritorious Death of Christ, the Lamb of God, that expiated the guilt and took away the sin of the world. Not that this taking away sin was literally, or, in a natural sense, true, so that sins committed were rendered uncommitted (which is physically impossible) ; but legally, in a judicial sense ; so that the offenders were absolved from the guilt, and freed from ROMANS III. 25. 145 the punishment of their past sins, and remained, upon their re- pentance and future obedience, fit objects of the Divine favour. Dr. Kennicott. (Dissertation on the. Oblation of Cain and Abel.) It must be granted that personal guilt cannot be transferred, but the legal guilt may ; that is, the obligation to punishment, which results from the violation of the Law. For God does not punish merely for punishing's sake : He does not inflict useless misery upon His creatures : He does not punish merely because He disapproves of, or is displeased with guilt ; but be- cause of the ill consequences, which would follow, if He sufiered guilt to go unpunished. Because it is necessary to vindicate the honour of His government, to support His authority, as Supreme Lawgiver, and to secure the respect due to His laws. Now, if the reverence due to God's laws could be maintained, and all the wise and good ends of punishment answered by the substitution of another person (equal to the mighty province) in the room of the offender, then the Deity might accept of a commutation, remit the punishment to the offender, and transfer it upon his substitute. For, when the reasons of inflicting a penalty are taken off, there the penalty itself undoubtedly may be taken off". The only thing, then, that remains is to prove that our Saviotjb's sufferings were sufficient to secure the honour and respect due to God's laws. Now whatever has a tendency to impress upon our minds a most awful sense of God's aversion to sin has a tendency to preserve a reverence for God's laws. And nothing could have imprinted upon our minds a more awful sense of God's aversion to sin, than that He would not forgive it, notwithstanding our repentance, upon less difficult terms, than the Son of God's giving Himself a ran- som for this world ; that He would not pardon the breach of His laws without our Saviour's offering up what He had as great a value for, as He had a hatred and detestation of the offences com- mitted against His Law. Jer. Seed. (Serm. ii. on 1 S. Pet. iii. 18.) His Death was of sufficient intrinsic worth and value to be an equivalent commutation for the punishment, that w^as due to the whole world of sinners. For the reason why God would not pardon sinners without some commutation for the punish- L 146 ROMANS III. 25. ment, that was due from them to His justice, was that He might preserve and maintain the authority of His laws and govern- ment. For, had He ^exacted the punishment from the sinners themselves, He must have destroyed the whole race of man- kind ; and, had He pardoned them, on the other hand, without any punishment at all. He must have exposed His authority to the contempt and outrage of every bold and insolent offender : and therefore, to avoid these dangerous extremities of severity and impunity, His infinite wisdom found out this expedient to admit of some exchange for our persons and punishment ; that so, some other thing or person being substituted in our stead to suffer and be punished for us, neither we might be destroyed, nor our sins be unpunished. This therefore being the reason of God's admitting of Sacrifice, it was highly requisite that the punishment of the sacrifice should bear some proportion to the guilt of the offenders : otherwise, it will not answer God's reason of admitting it. For to have exacted a small punish- ment for a great demerit would have been, within a few degrees, as destructive to His authority, as to have exacted none at all. To punish but little for great crimes is, within one remove, as mischievous to government, as total impunity ; and therefore to support His own authority over us it was highly requisite that He should exact not only a punishment for our sin, but also a punishment proportionable to the guilt and demerit of it. For there is no doubt but the nearer the punishment is to the demerit of the sin, the greater security it must give to His authority ; and upon this account the sacrifices of the Jews were infinitely short of making a full expiation for their sius ; because, being but brute animals, their death was no way a proportionable punishment to the great demerit of the sins of the people. For what proportion could there be between the momentary suffer- ings of a beast, and those eternal sufferings, which the sins of a man do deserve ? Heb. ix. Dr. John Scott. (Of the Chris- tian Life, &c. Part ii. ch. 7, s. 2.) Oh, what work w\\\ faith make of this Scripture ! A soul castled within these walls is impregnable. First, observe, Cheist is here called a propitiation, or if you will, a propitiatory, IXuaTrjpiov, alluding»to the Mercy-seat, where God promised to meet His ROMANS III. 25. 117 people, that He might converse with them, and no dread from His Majesty fall upon them. (Exod. xxv.) Now you know the Mercy-seat was placed over the Ark to be a cover there- unto ; it being the Ark, wherein the Holy Law of God was kept, from the violation of which all the fears of a guilty soul arise. Therefore 'tis observable that the dimensions of the one were proportioned to the other. The Mercy-seat was to be as long and broad to the full, as the Ark was, that no part thereof might be unshadowed by it (verse 10 compared with 17). Thus, Christ our true Propitiatory covers all the Law, which else would come in to accuse the believer : but not one threatenins: now can arrest him, so long as this screen remains for faith to interpose between God's wrath and the soul. Justice now hath no mark to level at : God cannot see the sinner for Christ, that hides him. Secondly, observe what hand Cheist hath His commission from — Whom God hath set forth, &c. Christ, we see, is the great Ordinance of Heaven. Him the Father hath sealed. He is singled out from all others. Angels and men, and set forth, as the person chosen of God to make atonement for sinners (as the lamb was taken out of the flock and set apart for the Passover). When therefore Satan sets forth the believer's sins in battle-array against him, and confronts him with their greatness, then faith runs under the shelter of this castle, into the holes of this Rock. Surely (saith faith) my Satioue is infinitely greater than my greatest sins. I should impeach the wisdom of God's choice to think otherwise. God, who knew what a heavy burden He had to lay upon His shoulders, was fully satisfied of His strength to bear it. He, that refused " sacrifice and burnt-ofiering" for their insuffi- ciency, would not have called Him, had He not been all-suffi- cient for the work. . . . Indeed, here lies the weight of the whole building : a weak faith muy save ; a weak Saviour can- not. . . . Thirdly, observe the reason, why God chose this way of issuing out His pardoning mercy ; and that is to declare His 1-ighteousness for the remission of sins. Mark, not to declare His mercy : that is obvious to every eye. Every one will be- lieve Him merciful, that is, forgiving ; but to conceive how God should be righteous in forgiving sinners — this lies more L 2 148 ROMANS III. 26. remote from the creature's apprehensions ; and therefore it is ingeminated and repeated verse 26. . . . Oh, what boldness may the believer take at ttis news ! Methinks I see the soul, that was even now pining to death with despair, now revive, and grow young again at these tidings ; as Jacob, when he heard Joseph w^as alive. "What? Is justice (the only enemy I feared, and attribute in God's heart, which my thoughts fled from) now become my friend ? Then cheer up, my soul : who shall condemn, if Gon justifies ? And how can God Himself be against thee, when His very justice acquits thee ? Gurnall. (The Christian in complete Armour, &c., Eph. vi. 16. Ch. 20.) 26 The first end of the Lord's Supper is a continual "remem- brance" of that Propitiatory Sacrifice, which Cheist once offered by His death upon the Cross to reconcile us unto God (S. Matt, xxvi. 26.) " Do this," saitlr Christ, " in remembrance of Me." And, saith the Apostle, " as oft as ye shall eat this Bread and drink this Cup, ye do shew the Lord's death, till He come" (1 Cor. xi. 26). And he saith that (by this Sacrament and the preach- ing of the Word) Jesus Christ was so " evidently set forth" before the eyes of the Galatians (iii. 1), as if He had been crucified among them : for the whole action represents Christ's death ; the breaking of the bread blessed, the crucifying of His Blessed Body ; and the pouring forth of the Sanctified "Wine, the shedding of His Holy Blood. (Heb. i. 3 ; ix. 26 ; x. 12.) Christ was once in Himself realhj offered ; but, as oft as the Sacrament is celebrated, so oft is He spiritually ofi*ered by the faithful. Hence the Lord's Supper is called a Propitiatory Sacrifice, not properly or really, but figuratively, because it is a memorial of that Propitiatory Sacrifice, which Christ offered upon the Cross. And, to distinguish it from that real Sacrifice, the Fathers called it " the unbloody Sacrifice." It is also called " the Eucharist," because that the Church in this action offereth unto God the Sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving for her Re- demption, effected by the true and only expiatory Sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross. If the sight of Moab's king sacri- ficing on his walls his own son to move his god to rescue him (2 Kings iii. 27), moved the assailing kings to such pity, that ROMANS III. 26. 149 they ceased the assault and raised their siege ; how should the spiritual sight of God the Father, sacrificing upon the Cross His only-begotten Son to save thy soul, move thee to love God the Eedeemer, and to leave sin, that could not injustice be ex- piated by any manner of ransom ? Tlie second end of the Lord's Supper is to confirm our faith : for God by this Sacrament does signify and seal unto us from heaven, that, according to the promise and new covenant, which He hath made in Christ, He will truly receive unto His grace and mercy all penitent believers, who duly receive this Holy Sacrament, and that, for the merits of the Death and Passion of Christ, He will as verily forgive them all their sins, as they are made partakers of this Holy Sacrament. In this respect it is called, " The Seal of the new Covenant and remis- 6-ion of sins." In our greatest doubts we are, therefore, in receiv- ing this Sacrament, to say undoubtedly with Samson's mother, "If the Lord would kill us, He would not have received a burnt- offering and a meat-offering at our hands, neither would He have shewed us all these things, nor would as at this time have told us such things as these." (Extract continued at xii. 4.) Bp. Baihj. (Practice of Piety. Medit. 22.) By faith I see, that God, who is invisible, who, though He dwells in Heaven, doth yet humble Himself to behold all that is done upon earth ; nor doth He only behold, but govern all things too: and whilst I contemplate His Wisdom, Power, Truth, Goodness, Holiness, and Justice, manifested to me in the Gospel, I adore and worship Him, I love and fear Him, I call on and rely upon Him, I endeavour to walk before Him and be perfect ; I know nothing like Him, and therefore I desire nothing beside Him, as equal to Him in Heaven or in earth. By faith I see the Son of God abandoning the bosom and the glory of His Father, descending upon earth, and as- suming " the form of a servant," that by His doctrine and example He might propagate righteousness and holiness in the world. I trace Him through all the stages of His sufferings and travails, till I behold Him fastened to the Cross, and bleed- ing out His meek and holy Soul at those painful wounds the nails had made — and all this for my sins and the sins of the 150 ROMANS III. 26. whole world : and then with what a strange mixture of passions that sight fills me ! with grief and shame, and yet with love and hope too : how I am amazed to see what indignation a Holy God hath discovered against sin ! and how my heart bleeds to think that my sins have treated thus despitefully and cruelly my dear Lord and Master ! and with what a melting passion and vigorous resolutions of a fervent industrious service, and an everlasting zeal and devotion, do I behold the amazing instances of my Satiotje's love, whilst with so much afiection and sweet- ness He laid down His life for me. His enemy and His per- secutor ! Oh, how I long to do something for such a Savioue, as this ! to execute my lusts, to bring His and mine enemies before His face, and slay them ! And now, though a survey of my sins hath filled me with amazement and shame, yet since Christ hath died, I look up with comfort and an humble hope — since He hath " died," did I say ? yea rather, since He is " risen again." Por hj faith I see Him breaking forth with power and great glory out of His Sepulchre : I behold Him ascending in triumph up to Heaven : I see with S. Stephen the heavens opened, and my Prince and Saviour sitting at the right hand of power, with one hand dispensing His graces, with the other holding never-fading wreaths to crown the patience of His Saints. And now how I am exalted above nature, transported above the world and flesh ! how this prospect hath disarmed the beauties and glories of this life of all their killing charms and temptations ! how my soul leaps for joy to see a way opened into the Holy of Holies, and to consider the mighty interest I have in heaven ! Br. Lucas. (Practical Christianity, &c. Part i. ch. 4 and 5.) 27 Where is boasting then ? It is excluded. By what law ? of works ? Nay : but by the law of faith. 28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the Law. 29 Is He the God of the Jews only ? is He not also of the Gentiles ? Yes, of the Gentiles also : 30 Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the ROMANS III. 27, 28. 151 circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith. 27 The Apostle spends eh. i. and ii. of this Epistle in drawing up a charge of sucli a nature, both against Gentiles and Jews, but principally against the Jews, who were the grand Justiciaries, that might make them bethink themselves of imploring Mercy, and of laying aside all plea of Law and Justice : and so (ch. iii. 27) he shuts up all with a severe check to such presumptuous arrogance, Where then is boasting P This seems to be the main end, which he everywhere aims at, in opposing /aeYA to the works of the Law ; namely, to establish the foundation of righteous- ness and happiness upon the free Mercy and Grrace of GtOd. John Smith. (The Difference between the Legal and the Evan- gelical Righteousness. Ch. 4.) Eemission of sins hath no relation or dependence on anything, which is in man, is not drawn on or furthered by any merit of ours ; but is an act of the Mercy and Providence of God, by which He is pleased to restore us to His favour, who were under His wrath, to count us righteous, who were guilty of death, and, in Christ, to "reconcile us unto Himself:" and, though He have a record of our sin, yet not to use it, as an in- dictment against us, but so to deal with us, as if His Book were rased, and so to look upon us, as if we bad not sinned at all. Et merebimur admitti jam exclusi ; and we, who were for- merly shut out for our sin, shall be led into " the land of the living" by a merciful, and perfect, and all-suflScient Mediator. It is His Mercy alone, that must save us. This is as the Sanctuary to the legal ofiender. This is as Mount Ararat to Noah's tossed Ark ; as Noah's hand to his weary dove ; as Ahasuerus his golden sceptre, to the humble penitent. Farindon. (Serm. on S. Matt. vi. 12.) 28 The best faith is not worth Heaven. The value of it grows ex pacta — that God hath made that covenant that contract, Crede, et vives, only believe, and thou shalt be safe. Paith is but one of those things, which in several senses are said to jus- tify us. It is truly said of God, Deus solus justijicat, God only justifies us — efficienter ; nothing can effect it, nothing can work 152 ROMANS III. 28. towards it, but only the mere goodness of God. And it is truly said of Christ, Christus solus pistificat, Cheist only jus- tifies us — Materialiter ; nothing enters into the substance and body of the ransom of our sins, but the obedience of Christ. It is also truly said. Sola fides justificat, only faith justifies us — Instrumentaliter ; nothing apprehends, nothing applies the merit of Christ to thee, but thy faith. And lastly, it is as truly said, Sola opera justificant, only our works justify us — Dedaratorih ; only thy good life can assure thy conscience and the world, that thou art justified. As the efficient justification, the gracious purpose of God, had done us no good without the material satisfaction, the Death of Christ, that followed ; and as that material satisfaction, the Death of Christ, would do me no good without the instrumental justification, the appre- hension by faith, so neither would this profit without the de- claratory justification, by which all is pleaded and established. God enters not into our material justification : that is only Christ's. Christ enters not into our instrumental justifica- tion : that is only faith's. Faith enters not into our declaratory justification ; (for faith is secret), and declaration belongs to werks. Neither of these can be said to justify us alone, so, as that we may take the chain in pieces, and think to be justified by any one link thereof — by God, without Christ — by Christ, without faith — or by faith, without works. And yet, every one of these justifies us alone, so, as that none of the rest enter into that way and that means, by which any of these are said to justify us. Br. Bonne. (Serm. ii. on S. John xvi. 8 — 11.) You say, " they believe themselves justified by faith alone, and that by that faith, whereby they believe themselves justified." Some persons, peradventure, do so ; but withal they believe, that that Faith, which is alone and unaccompanied with sincere and universal Obedience, is to be esteemed no faith, but pre- sumption, and is at no hand sufficient for justification ; that, though Charity be not imputed unto justification, yet is it re- quired, as a necessary disposition in the person to be justified ; and that, though, in regard of the imperfection of it, no man can be justified by it, yet that, on the other side, no man can be justified without it. So that, upon the whole matter, a man ROMANS III. 29. 153 may truly say that the doctrine of these Protestants, taken altogether, ia not a doctrine of liberty, not a doctrine, that turns liope into presumption and carnal security ; though it may be justly feared that many licentious persons, taking it by halves, have made this wicked use of it. For my part, I do heartily uish that by public authority it were so ordered that no man should ever preach or print this doctrine, that " faith alone jus- tifies," unless he joins this, together with it, that "universal Obedience is necessary to Salvation :" and, besides, that those chapters of S. Paul, which intreat of justification by faith "with- out the works of the Law," were never read in the Church, but when the thirteenth chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinth- ians, concerning the absolute necessity of Charity, should be, to prevent misprision, read together with them. Chillingworth. (The Religion of Protestants, &c. Ch. vii. part i. s. 32.) 20 Is He not also of the Gentiles ? The ancient apologists, both Jews and Christians, never had a thought that all revealed Tle- ligion had been confined for so many ages past to the Jews only ; but they looked upon the Jews, as the proclaimers and publishers of true Eeligiou to the rest of the world. The Is- raelites were a "kingdom of priests," an "holy nation" (Exod. xix. 6). " They were made the preachers of righteousness to other nations, in order to convey the main substantials of Eeli- gion all over the world. . . . Josephus observes, that, like as the Divine Being pervades the whole Universe, so the Divine Law (given by Moses) passes throughout all mankind." Of the same mind was Theophilus Bishop of Antioch ; and, after him, Origen. Athanasius, of the following century, expresses the same thought. " The Law was not intended for the Jews only, neither were the prophets sent only for their sakes ; but the prophets were sent to the Jews, and were persecuted also by the Jews, while they were in reality a kind of Sacred School to all the world, as to what relates to the knowledge of God and the concerns of the soul." The judicious Theodoret, speaking of the Jews, says, " God ordained this nation to be a guide to all nations in Divine knowledge. For, like as He appointed sometimes Moses, and at other times Joshua, and then Samuel, and afterwards one or other of the prophets, to take charge of 154 ROMANS III. 29. this people, and by a single man of approved wisdom benefited the whole brotherhood ; so by the single nation of Israel did God vouchsafe to call all nations partakers of one common nature to become partners also in the same common religion." From hence may be clearly seen what the current notion was among the ancient most judicious advocates for Divine Eevela- tion ; namely, that, though the Law of Moses was in a peculiar manner designed for one people, (because the select preachers of righteousness, the ministers or publishers of Eeligion, were to be a distinct order of men from the rest,) yet the most ne- cessary points of revealed Religion, which concerned mankind in general, were to be communicated, more or less, to all the world, and that by means of the Jews, after they grew up to be considerable. . . . Though other nations were not obliged to become Jews, they were obliged to admit the true God and the most substantial parts of true Religion ; the knowledge of which had been handed down by tradition, and was often re- newed and revived by means of the Jews, who were the stand- ing witnesses and memorials of it. Dr. Waterland. (The Wisdom of the Ancients borrowed from Divine Revelation. A Charge, &c.) It is plain that many thousands, at the first professing Christian Religion, became afterwards wilful apostates, moved with no other cause of revolt but mere indignation that the Gentiles should enjoy the benefit of the Gospel, as much as they, and yet not be burdened with the yoke of Moses' Law. Hooker. (Eccl. Pol. B. vi. ch. 6, 15.) Certainly those uncharitable judges of all other men, that will afford no salvation to any but themselves, are in the greatest danger to be left out at this general seal (Rev. vii. 3). Nothing hinders our salvation more, than to deny salvation to all but ourselves. Br. Donne. (Serm. on Rev. vii. 9.) There are three different states — the Jews under the Law, the Christians in the Gospel, and the Saints in the life to come ; all which three states are one offspring of Abraham, one people, one Church, one inheritance, all calling upon and glorifying the Name of God and of His Son Jesus Cueist. Therefore S. Augustine saith, *' The people of Israel under the Law were ROMANS III. 29, 30. 155 very Christians, and the Christians in the Gospel are very Is- raelites." The substance of these three states is one: the dif- ference standeth only in quality, or proportion of more or less. The Jews saw Christ in the Law ; the Christians see CnEiST in the Gospel ; the blessed Saints see Ciieist in heaven. The Jews saw Christ darkly, as in a shadow ; the Christians see Christ, as in an image lively pourtrayed ; the holy Saints see Christ in heaven expressly and perfectly, without image or shadow, face to face. Christ, that is seen, is all one : the difference is only in the seers, of whom some see in a dark shadow, some in a perfect image, some in the clear light ; and yet none of them without the sight of Christ. And, as the Jews were in a shadow in comparison of that brightness of light, that we see now, even so are we likewise in a shadow, in comparison of that light, that we hope for and is to come. Bp. Jewel. (Answer to Harding. Article 12.) 30 The whole new Covenant consists in these two words, Christ and faith — Christ, bestowed on God's part ; faith, required on ours — Christ, the matter; faith, the condition of the Cove- nant. Br. Hammond. (Serm. on S. Matt. x. 15.) It may be necessary to explain why it is, that in some parts of S. Paul's Epistles a certain stress is laid upon faith, over and above the other parts of a religious character in our Justifica- tion. The reason seems to be as follows : the Gospel being pre-eminently a Covenant of Grace, faith is of more excellence than other virtues, because it confesses this beyond all others. Works of obedience witness to God's just claims upon us, not to His mercy; but faith comes empty handed, hides even its own worth, and does but point at that precious scheme of Re- demption, which God's love has devised for sinners. Hence, it is the frame of mind especially suited to it, and it is said, in a special way, to justify us, because it glorifies God, wit- nessing that He accepts those only, who confess they are not worthy to be accepted. J. H. Newman. (Serm. on S. Matt. xix. 17.) 31 Do we then make void the Law through faith ? God forhid : yea, we establish the Law. 156 ROMANS III. 31. 31 Few texts of Scripture, when rightly understood, are more im- portaufc than this. Bp. Micldleton. Objections, levelled against the truth of God, whether directly or by insinuation, often serve, as occasions of its being displayed to greater advantage, of causing it to shine forth with increase of lustre. This was seen in our Lord's Ministry. To the in- jurious suggestion of the bigoted legalist we are indebted for this triumphant doctrine of the Apostle, We establish the Law by faith. It may be, however, that by this answer he satisfied, in some instances, the not unreasonable doubts and fears of the conscientious Jew, zealous for what he supposed to be the honour of the God of Israel. Here, in this Epistle, we have evi- dence to shew that the Law, in its integrity, was not made void, but established, by the faith of the Gospel. We have, at ch. viii. 1 — 4, the Moral Law recommended and enforced by new and far higher sanctions — " established on better promises" — and made efiectual by the gift — the charter, so to say — of a Divine strength conferred upon it, as " the Law of Christ." The Ceremonial Law, having received its full completion, once for all, by the "propitiation" set forth by God Himself (ver. 25), now becomes a spiritual worship (Phil. iii. 3), a " reasonable service, acceptable to God," when it constrains the believer in Cueist to offer himself, his soul and body, as a living sacrifice. See xii. 1, 2. And how can any Judicial Law be grounded on a firmer basis, or rendered more obligatory on the consciences of all men, than by the inculcation of that great Christian prin- ciple, that " whosoever resisteth the power resisteth the Ordi- nance of God ?" See xiii. 1 — 7. J. F. We do not teach Christ alone, excluding our own faith unto justification ; Christ alone, excluding our own works unto sanctification ; Christ alone, excluding the one or the other, as unnecessary unto Salvation. It is a childish cavil, wherewith in the matter of justification our adversaries do so greatly please themselves, exclaiming that we tread all Christian virtues under our feet, and require nothing in Christians but faith ; because we teach that faith alone justifieth : whereas, we by this speech never meant to exclude either hope or charity from being always joined, as inseparable mates, with faith in the man, that ROMANS in. 31. 157 is justified ; or works from being added, as necessary duties, required at the hands of every justified man ; but to shew that faith is the only hand, which putteth on Chsist unto justifica- tion ; and CnniST the only garment, which being so put on covereth the shame of our defiled natures, hideth the imperfec- tion of our works, preserveth us blameless in the sight of GrOD, before whom otherwise the very weakness of our faith were cause sufiicient to make us culpable ; yea, to shut us out of the kingdom of heaven, where nothing, that is not absolute, can enter. Hooker. (A Learned Discourse of Justification, &c. Serm. on Habak. i. 4, s. 31.) The Gospel bears the complete fulfilment of the Law, and the satisfying of its highest exactness, in our surety Jestjs Christ ; so that, in that way, nothing is abated. But, besides, in re- ference to ourselves, though it take ofi" the rigour of it from us, because answered by another for us, yet, it doth not abolish the Rule of the Law, but establisheth it. It is so far from tearing, or blotting out, the outward copies of it, that it writes it anew, where it was not before, even within j sets it upon the heart in sure and deep characters. "We see this kind of writing of the Law is a promise for the days of the Gospel, cited out of the prophet Jeremiah, xxxi. 33. There is indeed no such writing of the Law in us, or keeping of it by us, as will hold good in the sight of God for our justification : therefore that other promise runs combined with it — the free forgiveness of iniquity. But, again, there is no such forgiveness, as sets a man free to licentiousness and contempt of God's Law ; but, on the con- trary, binds him more strongly to obedience : therefore, to that sweet promise of the pardon of sin is inseparately joined this other of the inward writing of the Law. The heart is not washed from the guiltiness of sin in the Blood of Christ, that it may wallow and defile itself again in the same puddle ; but it is therefore washed, that the tables and leaves of it may be clean, for receiving the pure characters of that Law of God, which is to be written on it. vi. 17 ; viii. 2 — 4. Jbjp. Leighton. (Serm. on Heb. viii. 10.) Cbristidh liberty may be used, or rather abused, for "a cloak of maliciousness," if we hold ourselves, by virtue thereof, to be dis- 158 ROMANS III. 31. charged from our obedience, either to the whole moral Law of God, or to any part of it. . . . Our Blessed Savioue Himself hath not only professed that He came not to destroy the Law, but expressly forbidden any man to thi7ik so of Him (S. Matt. V. 17). And S. Paul rejecteth the consequence with an absit, as both unreasonable and impious, if any man should conclude that, by preaching the righteousness of faith, the Law were abolished. But the libertines and antinomists interpret those words of CnmsT in this sense, " He came not to destroy, but to fulfil it ;" that is, He came not to destroy it without fulfilling it first, but by fulfilling it in His own person : He hath destroyed it unto the person of every believer ; and therefore is Cheist said to be "the end of the Law to every one that believeth" (Rom. X. 4). Whence it is, that the faithful are said to be " freed from the Law," " dead to the Law," and to be " no longer under the Law" (vii. 6, 4 ; vi. 14 ; Gal. ii. 19 ; v. 18), and other like speeches there are many everywhere in the New Testament. I acknowledge both — their expositions to be just, and all these allegations true ; yet not sufficient to evict their conclusion. . . . One distinction, well heeded and rightly ap- plied, will clear the whole point, concerning the abrogation and obligation of the Moral Law under the New Testament, and cut oS many needless curiosities, which lead men into error. The Law, then, may be considered as a Rule ; or, as a Covenant. Cheist hath freed all believers from the rigour and curse of the Law, considered as a Covenant ; but He hath not freed them from obedience to the Law, considered as a Rule. And all those Scriptures, that speak of the Law, as if it were ab- rogated or annulled, take it, as considered as a Covenant : those, again, that speak of the Law, as if it were still in force, take it, considered as a Rule. The Law, as a Covenant, is rigorous ; and under that rigour we now are not, if we be in Cheist: but the Law, as a Rule, is equal; and under that equity we still are, though we be in Cheist. . . . The Law, considered as a Rule, can no more be abolished or changed, than can the nature of good or evil be abolished or changed. Bp. Sanderson. (Serm. on 1 S. Pet. ii. IG.) We assume that the Bible is what it professes to be — the ROMANS III. 31. 159 Statute-book of an everlasting Kingdom ; and that both of the two very different parts, into which it is divided, proceed and have always been understood to proceed, from the same common Author. . . . We cannot suppose the Divine mind to have set forth two several schemes of moral government dissimilar from the very foundation. The substance of the Divine counsels must be indestructible. The appointment, for a season, of institu- tions, adapted to the state and necessities of man, and their abrogation in the fulness of time, when they had fulfilled a pur- pose intended, this is consistent with every notion we can form of perfect wisdom. But the fundamental will of the Almighty we cannot suppose subject to change ; neither can any voice, that has once " proceeded out of the mouth of God" for the general moral guidance of His creatures, ever sink into a dead letter ; so sink, I mean, as to lose all force of obligation upon subjects, on whose conscience an Eternal Law is written, as it is called, of Nature, with which such moral Word of Revelation is in harmony. " Heaven and earth shall pass away ;" but the "Word, which God hath spoken, shall not pass away. Admitting the latter Testament to be true, and embracing it as such, it appears hardly optional to do otherwise than admit, as a truth involved in this, that the substance of the elder Dispensation must in effect be one and the same with that of the later. Wherein, then, do the two differ ? and wherein do they agree ? An illustration may be borrowed on this point from comparing our Savioue's declaration, that He gave His disciples "a new commandment," with S. John's language in the 1 Ep. ii. 7, 8. It was " a new commandment :" but how ? Not new in letter, or in effect ; but in extent and sanction ; new, in revealed mo- tives ; for it was founded now upon " better promises ;" new, in respect of the example set for its fulfilment, and the encourage- ment offered to the keeping of it ; new also (or comparatively become so) by reason of the practical degradation and disuse, into which it had fallen. But, in purpose and effect, it was " old ;" in respect of its inherent tendency to bring men into present ease and comfort (and as we now know — of a future and glorious enjoyment also) it was " the same, which was from the beginning." John Miller. (Bampton Lectures, ii.) 160 ROMANS IV. 1. To preach Justification by the Law, as a Covenant, is legal, and makes void the death and merits of Jesus Cheist ; but to preach obedience to the Law, as a Eule, is evangelical : and it savours as much of a New Testament spirit to urge the com- mands of the Law, as to display the promises of the Gospel. Bp. Hopkins. CHAPTER IV. ^17HA.T shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found ? 2 For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory ; but not before God. 3 For what saith the Scripture ? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. 1 Our Apostle confirms in this chapter the doctrine, which he de- livered in the former, namely, that a man is not justified by the works of the Law, but freely by grace through faith ; and this he proves by two reasons especially : 1. from David's testi- mony ; Blessed is the man, &c. ; 2. from Abraham's example ; We sag that faith was imputed to Abraham Jb)' righteottsness, &c. Now S. Paul mentioneth Abraham and David in this controversy, because their works were most glorious among the Jews, in so much as they called Abraham " father" (S. Luke iii. 8 ; S. John viii. 53), and David is styled " a man according to God's own heart." (Acts xiii. 22.) The pattern, then, of Abraham ac- counted righteous before God by faith, and the precept of David affirming that our blessedness consists in the remission of our sins and not in the perfection of our virtues, are both exceeding fit and well accommodated unto the present pur- pose. Dea7i Bogs. (An Exposition of the Festival Epistles ROMANS IV. 1. 161 and Gospels used in our English Liturgy. Ep. for Circumcision of Chbist.) There were Patriarchs before Abraham, and Patriarchs, that came after him ; yet none left behind them so honourable a name. If you look to the Patriarchs, that lived before him, they had the same Covenant in substance ; but in ceremonies and cir- cumstances, wherewith God was pleased to clothe His Cove- nant, Abraham did excel them. As for the Patriarchs, that succeeded, though they did partake of all that Abraham had, yet this was Abraham's advantage, that God first gave these things to him, and only confirmed them unto them — and that too for his sake. But, to speak more distinctly, S. Chrysostora observes, that Abraham was the tenth from Noah ; and that God took him out of that profane age and place, wherein he lived, as His own portion ; for the tithe is sacred unto God. Noah was such a tithe before, in whom God began the new world. Abraham, then, was a person, sacred unto God ; and not only so, but consecrated also by God Himself: for Euse- bius in his Chronicle observeth that Abraham was the first Pro- phet, to whom the Son of God appeared in the shape of a man, at what time He invested him with the Patriarchship. Now of a person so sacred, so consecrated we must look to hear of something more than ordinary ; and indeed S. Augustine telleth us that whatever the Scripture reporteth of Abraham it is factum et prophetia, a prophetical fact ; it concerneth not only the time present, but the time to come — as well his, as him. But two things principally set forth Abraham's prerogative ; the first is, that his family was to be the depository of God's Covenant ; the second is, that his virtues were to be exemplary to the whole Church. Touching the first, the promise is plain that in his seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. The Prophets, usually meaning the Gentiles, call them " Israel ;" and the Apostle saith, that " the branches of the wild olive tree must be engrafted into the new" (Eom. xi. 17). It is not enough that "the partition wall" is broken down, but we must be incorporated into the same body ; for God is not pleased that any shall ordinarily be saved, except he be of Abraham's family. Secondly, of those, which are of Abraham's family, it 162 ROMANS IV. 2. i3 not God's pleasure that any should be saved, that doth not exemplify Abraham's virtues in his life : for Abraham's virtues were to be exemplary. Of his virtues, in general, S. Chrysostom observeth, that " any man might take a pattern of any virtue from him ; for they were limned with lively colours in him." But, of his virtues, S. Paul doth especially insist upon his faith — S. James, upon his charity — our Saviour Cheist, upon both : both are saving virtues, and no hope without them of entering into " Abraham's bosom ;" no hope, I say, to attain this, but by con- forming our lives to Abraham's in such a faith, as *' worketh by charity." Therefore S. G-regory Nyssen calletli him viamfidei, the path of faith ; S. Irenseus saith that his faith was prophetia Jidei ; S. Ambrose that he wo,^ forma credentium : but S. Augus- tine observeth well that duplex prophetia facta est Abrahce, carnaUs et spiritualis ; he w' as a most noble Patriarch corporally, but spiritually he was much more noble ; yea, whatsoever he was corporally was but a type of that, which he was spiritually. Observe in the points of his prerogative — the Sacrament, a pledge of God's Covenant — the Sacrifices, types of his virtues. Bp. Lake. (Serm. on S. Luke iii. 7 — 9. Serm. 4.) 2 Not before God. The true righteousness, as saith S. Paul, is not of man's device, but hath his witness from the Law and the Prophets ; which he therefore proceedeth to shew, out of the ex- ample, first, of Abraham, and after, of David. In the Scripture then there is a double righteousness set down, both in the Old and in the New Testament. In the Old, and in the very first place, that righteousness is named in the Bible ; Abraham be- lieved God, and it loas accounted to him for righteousness — a righteousness accounted ; and again, in the very next line, it is mentioned Abraham will " teach his house to do righteousness" — a righteousness done. In the New likewise. The former in one chapter (even the fourth to the Romans) no fewer than eleven times ; Reputatutn est illi ad justitiam — a reputed righteousness. The latter, in S. John : " My beloved, let no man deceive you : he that doeth righteousness is righteous" — a righteousness done : which is nothing else, but our just dealing, upright carriage, honest conversation. Of these, the latter the Philosophers themselves conceived, and acknowledged : the other is proper to Christians ROMANS IV. 2. 163 only, and altogether unknown in Philosophy. The one is a quality of the party : the other an act of the Judge, declaring or pro- nouncing righteous : the one our3 by influence, or infusion ; the other, by account, or imputation. That both these there are, there is no question. The question is, whether of these the Prophet here (Jer. xxiii. 6) principally meaneth, in this Name (The Lord our Righteousness) . This we shall best inform our- selves of by looking back to the verse before ; and without so looking back we shall never do it to purpose. There the Pro- phet setteth one before us in His Royal Judicial power, in the person of a King, and of a King set down to execute judgment : and this he telleth us, before he think meet to tell us His Name. Before this King, thus set down on His throne, the righteousness, that will stand against the Law, or conscience, Satan, sin, the gates of hell, and the power of darkness — and 80 stand, that we may be delivered by it from death, despair, and damnation, and entitled by it to life, salvation, and happi- ness eternal — that is Righteousness indeed : that is it we seek for, if we may find it. And that is not this latter, but the former only ; and, therefore, that is the true interpretation of Jehova Justitia nostra, the Lord our Righteousness. Look but how S. Augustine and the rest of the Fathers, when they have occa- sion to mention that place in the Proverbs " A king that sit- teth in the throne of Judgment — who can say, I have made my heart clean?" (xx. 8, 9.) — look how they interpret it then, and it will give us light to understand this Name ; and we shall see that no Name will serve then, but this Name (Acts iv. 12) : nor this Name neither, but with this interpretation of it. And that the Holt Ghost would have it ever thus under- stood, and us ever to represent before our eyes this King thus " sitting in His Judgment-seat," when we speak of this righte- ousness, it is plain, two ways. Por the tenour of the Scripture, touching o\xv justification, all along runneth in judicial terms, to admonish us still what to set before us. The usual joining of justice and judgment continually all along the Scriptures shew it is 3^ judical justice we are to set before us. The terms of " a Judge," " it is the Loed that judgeth me ;" a " prison," " kept and shut up" under Moses ; " a bar," " we must all M 2 164 ROMANS IV. 2. appear before the bar ;" "a proclamation," who will "lay any- thing" to the prisoner's charge ? an " accuser, " the accuser of our brethren ;" a " witness," our conscience " bearing witness ;" an "indictment" upon these, " Cursed be he that continueth not in all the words of this Law to do them ;" and again, " He that breaketh one is guilty of all ;" a conviction, that all may be vTToBiKoi, " guilty^' or culpable before God; yea, the very delivering of our sins under the name of "debts;" of the Law under the name of a " handwriting ;" the very terms of an "advocate," of a " surety made under the Law," of a "par- don," or being "justified from those things, which by the Law we could not" — all these, wherein for the most part this is still expressed, what speak they, but that the sense of this Name cannot be rightly understood, nor what manner of righte- ousness is in question, except we still have before our eyes this same Coram Regejusto judicium faciente ? Bp. Andrewes. (Of Justification in Cheist's Name. Serm. on Jer. xxiii. 6.) Abraham might boldly contest, as Job did, and every godly man yet safely may, with others for integrity of life and plenty of works, in which he might justly rejoice or glory : yet with men, not with God. In this sense, their resolution, which say we are justified by works before men, not before God, is most true and warranted by that place of S. Paul. . . . His drift and scope in E,om iii., iv., is only this ; that, although men may be truly just and holy in respect of others, and rich in all manner of works that are good, as Abraham was thus far known and approved, not by men only, but by God, yet, when they appear before His Tribunal, who beet knows as well the imperfection as the truth of their integrity, they must still frame their sup- plications sub formd pauperis, yea, sub forma itnpii, always ac- knowledging themselves to be " unprofitable servants," always praying " Lobd, forgive us our sins," and " Be merciful to us miserable sinners." . . . The man then, in whose spirit is no guile, for of such the Psalmist speaketh, {^justified, not because of his sincerity, but because the Loed imputeth not that sin unto him, which he still unfeignedly acknowledgeth to be in him, continually praying, " Loed, enter not into judgment with Thy servant:" always confessing " Loed, In Thy sight shall no ROMANS IV, 3. 165 flesh living be justified ;" to wit, otherwise, than by not entering into judgment, or by non-imputation of" his sins. Thus you see, even the best of God's Saints seek justification only by faith, with S. Paul ; and yet require thereto, with S. James, " Pure religion and undefiled in the sight of God even the Fathee." This reconcilement of the seeming contradiction between these two Apostles doth voluntarily present itself to such, as consider the several occasions of their writings. . . . For one and the same Physician to prescribe medicines much different to diseases altogether diverse or quite contrary, would neither impeach hira of unskilfuluess or unconstancy. The very contrariety of their errors, with whom these two Apostles had to deal, would draw speeches from any one of us, that should, severally, intend their refutation, in form as contradictory as theirs be ; yet both fully consonant to the truth, because rightly proportioned to their opposite ends. Dean Jackson. (Works. B. iv. ch. vi. s. 6, 7.) In every age of the world it has held good, that " the just shall live by faith :" yet it was determined in the deep counsels of GrOD that for a while this truth should be partially obscured, as far as His revelations went ; that man should live by sight, miracles, and worldly ordinances, taking the place of silent pro- vidences and spiritual services. In the later times of the Jew- ish Law, the original doctrine was brought to light ; and, when the Divine object of faith was born into the world, it was au- thoritatively set forth by His Apostles, as the basis of all ac- ceptable worship. But observe, it had been already anticipated in the instance of Abraham. The Evangelical covenant, which was not to be preached till near two thousand years afterwards, was revealed and transacted in his person. Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. "Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it, and was glad." (S. John viii. 56.) Nay, in the commanded sacrifice of his beloved son was shadowed out the true Lamb, which God had provided for a burnt-oftering. Thus, in the call of the Patriarch, in whose seed " all the nations of the earth should be blessed," the great outlines of the Gospel were anticipated ; in that he was called in uncircumcision, he was justified by faith, he trusted in God's 166 ROMANS IV. 4. power to raise the dead, he looked forward to the Day of Cheist, and he was vouchsafed a vision of the atoning Sacri- fice on CaTvary. "We call these notices prophecy, popularly speaking, and doubtless such they are to us, and to be received and used thankfully ; but, more properly, perhaps, they are merely instances of the harmonious movement of God's word and deed ; His sealing up events from the first ; His intro- ducing them, once and for all, though they are but gradually unfolded to our limited faculties, and in this transitory scene. J. H. Newman, (The Epiphany. Serm. on Isa. xl. 1.) 4 Now to him that worketh is the reward not reck- oned of grace, but of debt. 5 But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. 6 Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, 7 Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are for- given, and whose sins are covered. 8 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. 4) One condition required to render an action meritorious is, that there be an equal proportion of value between the action, and the reward ; this being evident from the foundation already laid by us, to wit, that the nature of merit consists properly in exchange ; and that, we know, must proceed according to a parity of worth on both sides ; commutation being most pro- perly between things equivalent. But now the prize we run for in all our religious performances is no less a thing than Life Eternal and a Beatific enjoyment of God Himself for ever : and can any man, not quite abandoned by his reason, imagine a few, weak, broken actions a competent price for Heaven and Immortality ? and fit to be laid in the balance with an " exceeding ROMANS IV. 4. 167 and eternal weight of Glory ?" Is there anything iu dust and ashes, that can deserve to dwell with God and to converse with Angels ? Or, can we, who live by sense, and act by sense, do anything worthy of those joys, which not only exceed our senses, but also transcend our intellectuals ? Can we do beyond what we can think, and deserve beyond what we can do ? For, let us rate our best and most exact services, according to the strict rules of morality, and what man is able to carry so steady a hand in any religious performance, as to observe all those con- ditions, that are absolutely necessary to answer the full mea- sures of the Law ? No, this is such a pitch of acting, as the present strength of nature must not pretend to. And, if not, how can an action short of complete morality set up for meri- torious? Dr. South. (The Doctrine of Merit Stated. Serm. on Job xxii. 2.) Of all the fruits of this blessedness (ver. 9), there is no other root but the goodness of Gob Himself; but yet they grow in no other ground, than in that man, in cujus spiritu non est dolus, "in whose spirit there is no guile." The comment and inter- pretation of S. Paul hath made the sense and meaning of this place clear ; to him that worketh the reward is of debt ; but to him that believeth and worketh not his faith is accounted for righteous- ness : even as David describeth the blessedness of man, says the Apostle there, and so proceeds with the very words of this text. Doth the Apostle then, in this text, exclude the co-operation of man ? Differs this proposition — that the man, in whom God imprints these beams of blessedness — must be without guile in his spirit, from those other propositions, Si vis ingredi " If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments ;" and male- dictus qui non, " Cursed is he that performs not all ?" Grows not the blessedness of this text from the same root, as the blessedness in the 119th Psalm, ver. 1, "Blessed are they, who walk in the way of the Lord?" Or, doth S. Paul take David to speak of any other blessedness in our text, than him- self speaks of — " If through the Spirit ye mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live" (viii. 13) ? Doth S. Paul require no- thing out of this text to be done by man ? Surely he does : and these propositions are truly all one; Tantum credideris, 168 ROMANS IV. 5. "only believe," and you shall be saved; and Fac hoc et vives, " Do this and you shall be saved." . . . For, without works, how much soever he magnify his faith, there is Dolus in spiritu, guile in his spirit. Dr. Donne. (On the Penitential Psalms. Serra. on Ps. vi. 8—10.) 5 S. Paul enlarges on the case of this illustrious Patriarch, as the aptest exemplification, which could be adduced, of the manner and grounds of our becoming accepted of GrOD ; and he dis- tinctly enumerates some of the most valuable moral qualities, that Abraham's faith involved ; and then directly tells us that therefore it was reckoned to him for righteousness ; that it was reckoned for righteousness, because it was such essentially and eminently. But what S. Paul really meant, I conceive, was to ascribe o\xv first admission to GtOd's approbation and favour to the principle of faith abstracted from all its outward fruits ; that is, he intended to maintain that God accounts us righteous, so soon as He finds true and living faith in our hearts, without waiting for any of the results of actual conduct, to which faith leads ; or, more strictly, with which, if vital, it is pregnant : and, in my mind, no idea could have been more important, more beautiful, or more exquisitely philosophical. His object was to guard the minds of his readers against the dry, selfish, servile, superficial religion of the Jewish Pharisees, which he every- where denominates the righteousness of the laiv, and to lead them effectually from this wretched self-working mechanism to that vitalizing spirit of goodness, that principle of new life and a heavenly nature, which the Gospel was formed to communicate, and of which the Eternal Word " made flesh" was the living source. He therefore sets himself to press the acquirement of the simple central principle, without regard for the present to any other object. He not only directs them to look for it, to expect it, and to rely upon its eflUcacy, when obtained, without regard to their own previous character or conduct, whether good or evil ; but also, with a certain unconcern even about the duties and virtues, which were to follow ; not because these were in any respect of small value, but because they would be far more effectually attained by pursuing them, not immediately and in themselves, but in the principle, which would sponta- ROMANS IV. 5. 169 neously produce them. To all which, as a crowning motive intelligible to all, he adds this great consideration : that, if the favour of God was the object pursued, it was the same vital prin- ciple, that could alone obtain it : he, who was possessed of this, though till then " ungodly,'^ and though perhaps, like the thief upon the cross, beyond the opportunity of performing one out- ward act of obedience, being imraediately and infallibly accepted. Alexander Knox. (Letter to Major Woodward on Doctrinal points. Eemains, vol. iii. p. 34.) Though " the works of Abraham" are honourably recorded both in the Old and New Testament, yet the fact stands recorded also that, before his being called of GrOD and justified, he was an idolater (Josh. xxiv. 23), " a child of wrath, even as others," and that GrOD, of His own free grace and mercy, had taken him from that sinful state, that " readiness to perish" (Deut. xxvi. 5). Abraham truly had been one of those, before whose eyes the visible things of GrOD had proclaimed the Invisible (i. 19, 20) ; one of those, born with a natural capacity for attaining, through such means, some just notions of his religious duty (ii. 14, 15) ; but who, nevertheless, as sinning thus against light and know- ledge, was "without excuse." Him, therefore, the Loed jus- tified when ungodly. Now it may be remarked, in connection with the argument of this Epistle, that, when Abraham made confession unto God of his own unworthiness, the occasion was one, which, at the same time, drew forth his feelings of good- will and compassion towards the Gentiles — the guilty inhabit- ants of the condemned Sodom. So far was he, in his day, from despising and casting out the Gentiles, that he seems, in his memorable intercession on their behalf, almost to identify him- self with them in their misery. " Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Loed, who am but dust and ashes. Peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty righteous, wilt Thou destroy all the city for the lack of five ?" (Gen. xviii. 27, 28.) The great exemplar of Faith is here seen to be no less the pattern of Charity, shewing us in his own person the inse- parable union between the two ; but — which is the point we would chiefly notice — instructing betimes his " seed after the flesh," his stock by lineal descent, that they must not pride 170 ROMANS IV. C. themselves on their national privileges, so as " to despise others," nor with Pharisaic intolerance denounce and excommunicate the " sinners of the Gentiles" (Gal. ii. 15) ; but rather learn to cherish towards them a kindly fellow feeling, to pity them, to pray for them ; for this did their father Abraham. And, in doing this, he seems to confirm the main design of S. Paul in this Epistle ; which was to break down every wall of partition, still standing between the Jew and the Gentile, and to bind them both more closely together in the bonds of mutual sym- pathy and afi"ection ? What then ? Are we better than they ? no ; in no wise : for we have before proved both Jews and Gen- tiles, that they are all under sin . . . for there is no difference ; for all have simied, and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace. The prayer of David (Ps. cxxxix. 19 — 24), who is associated by S. Paul in this chapter with the patriarch Abraham, breathes the same spirit of unfeigned humility ; teach- ing us, that no man, however holy, while contemplating or re- proving the sins of others, should ever lose sight of his own frailty and unworthiness. These are blessed signs, whereby to know whether we really believe in Him, who justifieth the un- godly. J. F. 6 To him, that considers the drift and force of S. Paul's discourse (Eom. iv. 6), it will clearly appear that justification, imputing righteousness, not imputing sin, and remission of sin are the same thing : otherwise, the Apostle's discourse would not sig- nify or conclude anything. Dr. Barrow. (Serm. on B-om. v. 1.) This word justificare, to justify, may be well considered in three ways : 1, as it is verbum vulgare, as it hath an ordinary and common sense (S. Luke vii. 29) ; and then, as it is verbum forense, as it hath a civil and legal use (Prov. xvii. 15). Neither of these two ways are we justified : we cannot be averred to be just : God Himself cannot say so of us — of us, as we are (Exod. xxiii. 7) ; nor, consider us standing in judgment before Gob, can any be acquitted for want of evidence (Ps. cxliii. 2). . . . But then there is a third sense of the word, as it is verbum Ecclesiasticum, a word, which S. Paul, and the other Scriptures, and the Church, and Ecclesiastical writers have used to express our righteousness our justification by. And that is only by the ROMANS IV. 6. 171 way of pardon and remission of sins, sealed to us in the Blood of Christ. By that pardon His Righteousness is ours. But how the Eighteousness of Christ is made ours, or by what name we shall call our title, or estate, or interest, in His Righ- teousness, let us not inquire. The terms of satisfaction in Christ, of acceptation in the Father, of imputation to us, or inhesion in us, are all pious and religious phrases, and some- thing they express ; but yet, none of them will reach home to satisfy them, that will needs inquire. Quo modo ? by what means Christ's Righteousness is made ours ? This is as far, as we need go, Ad eundem modum justi sumus coram Deo, quo coram Eo Christus fuit peecator, so, as God made Christ sin for us, we are made the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. v. 21) : so ; but how was that ? He, that can find no comfort in this doc- trine, till he find how Christ was made sin, and we righteous- nesvs, till he can express Quo modo, robs himself of a great deal of peaceful refreshing, which his conscience might receive in tasting the thing itself in a holy and humble simplicity, without vexing his own, or other men's consciences, or troubling the peace of the Church with impertinent and inextricable cu- riosities. Br. Bonne. (Serm. on S. John xvi. 8 — 11.) Instead of attempting any logical and metaphysical explanation of Justification by the imputed righteousness of Christ, all which attempts have human infirmity stamped upon them, I would look at the subject in the great and impressive light, in which Scripture places it before me. It teaches me to regard the in- tervention of Christ for me, as the sole ground of all expecta- tion from GrOD. In consideration of His sufferings, my guilt is remitted, and I am restored to that, which I had lost by sin. Let us add to this, that the sufferings of Christ were in our stead ; and we shall see the point of view, in which Scripture sets Him forth, as the deserver and procurer to us of all pardon and grace. The thing is declared, not explained. Let us not therefore darken a subject, which is held forth in a prominent light, by our idle endeavours to make it better understood. R. Cecil. (Remains, Miscellanies.) It is necessary, first, to believe that no 7nan can be justified by the works of the Law : in this all agree. 2. It is necessary to be- 172 ROMANS IV. 7. lieve that we are not justified hy the Law of Moses, either by itself, or joined with faith in Chbist : and in this all agree. 3. It is necessary to believe that Justification is by faith in Christ : and in this all agree. 4. That Justification is not without remission of sins and imputation of righteousness : and in this all agree. 5. That a dead faith doth not justify : and here there is no difference. 6. That that is a dead faith, which is not accompanied with good works, and a holy and serious purpose of good life. 7. Lastly, that faith in Cheist Jesus implieth an advised and deliberate assent that Christ is our Prophet, Priest, and King — our Prophet, who hath fully deli- vered the Will of His Pather to us in His Gospel, the know- ledge of all His precepts and promises — our Priest, to free us from the guilt and condemnation of death by His Blood and Intercession — our King and Lawgiver, governing us by His Word and Spirit, by the virtue and power of which we shall be redeemed from death, and translated into the kingdom of heaven : and in this all agree. Da, si quid idti'u est : and is there yet any more ? All this, which is necessary, is plainly delivered in the Gospel. . . . Et quod a Deo discitur totum est. We can learn no more, than God will teach us. . . . What is more is but a vapour of curiosity, a busy idleness punishing itself; which, when there is "a wide door and effectual," is ever ven- turing at " the needle's eye." x. 6 — 10 ; xiv. 1. Farindon. (Serm. on S. James i. 25 ; P. ii.) 7 The Apostles in their writings follow the steps of their Loed and Master, and prove the truths of the Gospel against the Jews, who gainsaid them, not from any passages in the Old Testament, in which the Gospel-truths are expressly and in so many words laid down, but by arguments and reasons drawn from the writings of Moses and the prophets. . . . S. Paul proves that we are justified, not by the law, but by grace, from those words of the Psalmist, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered (iv. 7; Ps. xxxii. 1). He proves the rejection of the Jews from the prophecy of Isaiah, "Behold I lay in Zion a stumbling-stone and rock of offence" (ix. 33 ; Isa. xxviii. 16) ; and the vocation of the Gentiles from Hosea's having brought in God, saying, " I will call them My ROMANS IV. 7. 173 people, which were not My people" (ix. 25 ; Hos. ii. 23), The whole Epistle of S. Paul to the Hebrews is made up of such proofs as these. From that passage of the Psalmist, " Thou art My Son ; this day have I begotten Thee," he infers the pre- eminence of Cheist above the Angels (Ps. ii. 7 ; Heb. v. 5) : from the history of Melchizedeck, as related by Moses, he proves the Eternal Priesthood of Cheist (Gen. xiv. 18 ; Heb. vii. 21) ; and from the oath of God mentioned by David, "The LoED hath sworn, and will not repent" (Ps. ex. 4), he argues for the immutability and perpetuity of the Gospel dispensation. This way of arguing he at all times and in all parts of his writings makes use of. Prom those truths, which are expressly read in Scripture, by the laws of reasoning he infers other doc- trines, which are not there formally read, but which follow from them, and are therefore in them virtually contained. This was his constant and known method of instructing his hearers. Bp. Smalridge. (Serm. on Acts xvii. 2.) That sinners may more clearly apprehend and more easily and firmly believe a thing, which seems so difficult to admit, as the free and full remission of sin, it is pointed out by various beau- tiful expressions and figures in the Sacred Scriptures — " wash- ing," "cleansing," "blotting out," "scattering like a cloud," ** entirely forgetting," "casting into the bottom of the sea;" and here by that of taking away and covering, and by that phrase, which explains both — of not imputing them. And this expression of covering them is with great propriety added to the former phrase of lightening the sinner of the burden of them, that there may be no fear of their returning again, or coming into sight, since God has not only taken the heavy load from our shoulders, but for ever hidden it from His own eyes, and the vail of mercy has taken it away ; that great covering of Divine Love, which is large enough to overspread so many and so great ofiences. Thus it does, as it were, turn away the penetrating eye of His justice, which the most secret inquiry could not elude, did not He Himself in pity voluntarily avert it. But you will know what is our Propitiatory, what the coverin^oi the Mercy-seat, even Jesus, who was typified by that Caporeth in the Temple, which the Septuagint render IXaarrj- 174 ROMANS IV. 8. piov eTTiOefia, a propitiatory covering, by which title our great Redeemer is marked out ; as the same Hebrew word Caphar signifies both to cover, and to expiate. Verse 25. Abp. Leigh- ton. (Medit. on Ps. xxxii.) 8 Our sins a.ve forgiven^ in respect of the wrong done to God, and covered, in respect of the shame due to us ; ut sic velentur, ne in judicio revelentur (Hieron. in Ps. xxxi.) Por in sin three things are to be considered especially : 1. An injury done to God, and that is forgiven. 2. An inordinate act, the which, being once done, cannot be undone ; but it is a blot or stain, whereby the soul is defiled ; and that is said here to be covered, and elsewhere to be washed away (1 S. John i. 17). 3. The guilt of Eternal Death, and that is not imputed. Whosoever then is in Cheist hath all his sin and everything in all his sin forgiven, covered, not imputed : for these three signify the same ; because that, which is covered, is not seen ; and that, which is not seen, is not imputed ; and that, which is not imputed, is forgiven ... in the words of S. Augustine ; Si texit peccata Deus, noluit adver- tere ; si noluit advertere, noluit animadvertere ; si noluit animad- vertere, noluit punire, noluit agnoscere ; maluit ignoscere ; so that the saying of the prophet — Blessed is the man whose unrighteous- ness is forgiven and whose sin is covered — containeth a definition of justification. Bean Boys. (An Exposition, &c. Epistle for the Circumcision of Chbist.) Being justified, all our iniquities are covered. God beholdeth us in the righteousness, that is imputed; and not, in the sins, which we have committed. Hooker. (Discourse on Justifi- cation.) 9 Cometh this blessedness then upon the circum- cision only; or upon the uncircumcision also ? for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteous- ness. 10 How was it then reckoned ? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision ? Not in circum- cision, but in uncircumcision. ROMANS IV. 9, 10. 175 1 1 And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised : that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised ; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also : 12 And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised. 9 It must not pass unobserved, that in bis corresponding Epistle to the Church of Galatia S. Paul twice mentions this same Blessedness ; but here, he identifies it with the forgiveness of iniquity ; there, with the gift of the Spieit (iii. 1 — 9, 14). The blessing pronounced by David appears, in particular, to have conveyed the former grace; '•the blessing of Abraham^'' the latter. Thus justification and sanctification are united and blessed together. On his second mention of the term (iv. 15), he appeals to the experience of the Gralatians, " Where is then the blessedness ye spake of?" But here, in the fulness of hia soul, he himself speaks of it, and displays at length its most precious fruits under a variety of particulars — " peace with G-od" — "joy in God" — "rejoicing in hope" — "glorying in tribulations" — "freedom from the law of sin and of death," &c. Have we any share in all this Blessedness ? xv. 13. /. F. All men seek for Blessedness. It is the sum and collection of all desires : a man loveth nothing, but in order and subordination to that. And, by nature, we are all " children of wrath," and held under a curse ; so many sins we have committed — so many deaths and curses have we heaped on our souls — so many walls of separation have we set up between us and God, who ia the fountain of all Blessedness. Till all be covered, removed, forgiven, and forgotten, the creature cannot be Blessed. Bp. Reynolds. 10 Can we believe the Mosaical dispensation was the utmost of what God did intend, when God had before promised that the 176 ROMANS IV. 10. blessing of Abraham should come upon us Gentiles also ? It is evident that the great blessings promised to Abraham did not respect him merely, as progenitor of the Israelites, but in a higher capacity, as Father of the faithful ; and that the ground of his acceptance with God did not depend on any ceremonial rite, such as circumcision was, God imputing his faith for righ- teousness before his being circumcised. But, because the time was not yet come, wherein that great mystery of man's salvation by the Death of the Son of God was to be revealed, therefore, when God called the nation of the Jews from their bondage, He made choice of a more obscure way of representing this mystery to them through all the umbrages of the Law : and withal enforced His precepts with such terrible sanctions of curses to all, that " continued not in all that was written in that Law to do it," to make them the more apprehensive that the ground of their acceptance with God could not be the per- formances of the precepts of that Law; but they ought to breathe after that higher Dispensation, wherein the way and method of man's salvation should be fully revealed, when " the fulness of time" was come. Now therefore God left them under the tutorage and pedagogy of the Law, which spoke so severely to them, that they might not think this was all God intended, in order to the happiness of men ; but that He did reserve some greater thing in store to be enjoyed by His people, when they were come to age. Bp. Stillingfleet. (Origines SacrsB. B. ii. c. 5.) That the heathens were included in this league, the modern Jew cannot deny. For not only Abraham's son, but every male in his family, though bought with money, was to receive the sign of this covenant iu his flesh. But, saith the Jew, seeing they came into this league by receiving circumcision, what is this to you Gentiles, which will not be circumcised ? The Apostle S. Paul hath most Divinely dissolved this knot (Eom. iv. 10). His words are so plain that they need no comment, but only to add this circumstance, which is likely S. Paul took for granted, when he made that excellent comment upon Moses his words. Gen. XV. 6 ; Abraham^ saith Moses, believed in God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness. Seeing the Scripture, as ROMANS IV. 11. 177 S. James tells us, was fulfilled, when Abraham offered up his son Isaac (S. James ii. 23), why was not this testimony of GrOD concerning Abraham reserved to that fact, or, at least, to Abra- ham's obedience in circumcising himself and his sou Isaac ? Both these facts include a greater measure of belief in GtOd's promises than Abraham gave proof of in the fore-cited place, and was therefore more capable of that praise or apprehension. But, if that approbation of Abraham's faith had been deferred, until the covenant of Circumcision had been subscribed unto by Abraham, the Jews might with more probability have con- ceived that this righteousness, which God imputes unto Abra- ham, had come by the deeds of the laws ; that none, but such as are circumcised, could be partakers of it : whereas, on the con- trary, this testimony being given unto Abraham, before he was circumcised, cuts off the Jew's title of boasting in Circum- cision. Bean Jackson. (Works. B. vii. s. 4, ch. 35.) II According to the Greek, this, verbatim, is to be rendered thus. He received the sign of a circumcision, a seal of the unrighteous- ness of faith in the uncircumcision, and not to be understood of the righteousness of faith, which Abraham had in his uncircum- cision — though, it is true, he had it — but a seal of the righteous- ness of faith, which was to be in the uncircumcision, or in the believing Gentiles. . . . Ponder the words, and the context, and the story of the institution of the Circumcision well (Gen. xvii. 4), and you will find this to be the main aim and end of it. ii. 27 ; iii. 29. Br. Lightfoot. (Serm. 2 S. Pet. iii. 13.) This Sacrament of Circumcision was a seal of God's promise to Abraham, and a seal of Abraham's faith and obedience towards God. By this Sacrament man was bound to the Loed, and by the same Sacrament God vouchsafed to bind Himself to man. . . . By Sacraments, as they are seals and confirmations of God's promise, we stop the mouth of heretics. Por, if they deny that our Loed Jesus C5heist was "delivered" to death for our sins, and is "risen again for our justification," we show them our Sacraments, that they were ordained to put us " in Eemembrance" of Cheist, and that by the use of them we "shew the Loed's Death, till He come." We tell them these are proofs and signs that Cheist suffered Death for us on the 178 ROMANS IV. 11. Cro33. As Chryaostom saith, " Laying out these mysteries, we stop their mouths." What ! Are they nothing else, but bare and naked signs ? God forbid! They are the seals of GtOd's Heavenly tokens, and signs of the Grrace, and righteousness, and mercy imputed to us. Circumcision was not a bare sign (Rom. ii. 28 ; Col, ii. 11) : even so is not Baptism any bare sign. Baptisma Ejus, saith Chrysostom, etiam Passio Ejus est. Christ's Baptism is Christ's Passion. They are not bare signs : it were a blasphemy so to say. The Grace of God doth always work with His Sacraments. But we are taught, not to seek that grace in the sign, but to assure ourselves, by receiving the sign, that it is given us by the thing signified. "We are not washed from our sins by the water ; we are not fed to Eternal Life by the bread and wine ; but by the precious Blood of our Saviour Christ, that lieth hid in these Sacraments, vi, 3. Bp. Jewel. (A Treatise of the Sacraments.) Sacraments are thus distinguished — into such as went before the fall of Adam, and such as went after. Before the fall there was one Sacrament, and no more : that was " the Tree of Life," or- dained to be a sign of the Covenant of works. After the fall God did not make a Covenant of works, but of Grace with man, and, ever since, the Sacraments are Covenants of Grace, and seals of the same. And they of the Old Testament be- token the Covenant promised to our forefathers ; they of the New Testament do imply the Covenant performed. Let me distinguish again, that in the Old Testament all the sacrifices, and a great part of the shadows and types, are sometimes in the Fathers called Sacraments, because they had a signification of Christ to come ; but Circumcision and the Paschal Lamb they only had the promise of grace and reconciliation annexed unto them ; which is a great deal more than bare signification. And, as S. Paul speaks honourably of Circumcision that it was a seal of the righteousness of faith, so our Church thinks it not fit to speak contemptibly of the faith of the righteous men under the Law, nor of those visible signs, which God appointed to esta- blish His promise unto them. . . . According as their faith did apply the promise unto them, their Sacraments were as profit- able for salvation, as ours. Only, these are circumstantial dif- ROMANS IV. 12. 179 ferences. 1. That our Sacraments are merely spiritual, which betoken nothing of this world. The Jews' Sacraments had somewhat in them both, which belonged to the body, as well as to the soul ; for Abraham received the sign of Circumcision that he should be " the father of many nations ;" and the Paschal Lamb was a remembrance that they came out of Egypt out of the house of bondage. 2. As the light of faith is brighter with us, the measure of the Spirit more abundant, so our Sacraments are justly said to be virtute majora, more efficacious ; because we are endued with better means of application. 3. Our Sa- craments are actu faciliora : to wash and be clean, to eat bread and drink wine, are performed with more facility than cutting the foreskin of infants, or the slaying a lamb to eat it with sour herbs. 4. Take all the types and sacrifices of the Jews toge- ther, which were a heavy burden because of their multitude, then our Sacraments are numero pauciora : we have but twain, and so their number is not troublesome. These are accidental differences : but otherwise, as S. Austin said of Manna, that it was to them, as the Lord's Supper is to us; in signis diversis fides eadem ; the elements were divers, but such as begot the same faith, and are tokens of the same Loed Jesus Chkist, and beget the same salvation. Bp. Racket. (Serm. i. on S. Matt. iii. 13.) 12 Christ, though lie took " the seed of the woman," yet doth not benefit any, but "the seed of Abraham," even those, that follow the steps of his faith. Eor by faith Abraham took hold of Him, by whom he was in mercy taken hold of. Et tu mitte fidem, et tenuisti, saith S. Augustine. That faith of his to him was accounted for righteousness. To him was, and to us shall be, saith the Apostle, if we be in like sort apprehensive of Him, either, as Abraham, or, as the true seed of Abraham (Jacob) was, that took such hold of Him, as he said plainly, (Gen. xxxii. 26,) Non demittam Te, nisi benedlxeris mihi ; without a blessing he would not let Him go. Surely, not the Hebrews alone ; nay, not the Hebrews at all, for all their carnal pro- pagation. They only are Abraham's seed, that lay hold of " the word of promise." And the Galatians so doing, though they were mere heathen men (as we be), yet he telleth them they n2 180 ROMANS IV. 12. are "Abraham's seed," and shall be blessed together with him. (Gal. iii. 6.) But that is not all : there goeth more to the making us "Abraham's seed," as Cheist Himself the true " Seed" teacheth both them and us. Saith He, " If ye be Abraham's sons, then must ye do the works of Abraham " (S. John viii. 39) : which the Apostle well calleth the steps or im- pressions of Abraham's faith ; or, we may call them the fruits of this seed. So reasoneth our Savioue, Hoc non fecit Abra- ham, " This did not he :" if ye do it, ye are not his seed. " This did he :" do ye the like ; and his seed ye are. So here is a double apprehension, one of S. Paul ; the other, of S. James ; work for both hands to apprehend — both Charitas qucB ex Fide, and Fides, quce per Charitatem operatur. By which we shall be able, saith S. Paul, to " lay hold of eternal life" (1 Tim. vi. 10) ; and so be Abrahams seed, here at the first, and come to Abra- ham's bosom, there at the last. So have we a brief of Semen Ahrahce. Bp. Andrewes. (Of the Nativity. Serm. on Heb. ii. 16.) To believe in Cheist is nothing else but to believe the Gospel, and to set ourselves to live according to it ; so to assent to the truth of the Scriptures, as to be induced thereby seriously to apply our minds to the " denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, and living soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world." This, I say, is the notion of faith in Cheist, wherever it is spoken of, as the condition of salvation. This is S. Paul's faith made perfect by Love, by which, he saith, we are to be saved. And this is S. James's good works proceeding from a lively faith, by which, he saith, we are to be justified. S. Paul's faith and S. James's good works are perfectly the same thing — to us, at least, who are already Christians. Abp. Sharp. (Serm. on Acts xvi. 31.) 13 For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, ivas not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. 14 For if they which are of the law he heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect : ROMANS IV. 13. 181 15 Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression. 13 The original of the Jewish Church is to be referred to Ab}'a- ham the Father of the faithful, purely considered as a Church. But, if it be considered as a Commonwealth, or, as a Church under such a political regulation, then it is to be referred unto Moses, who was called, even by heathen writers, the Legislator of the Jews. These two considerations of the Jewish Church, purely as a Church and as a Commonwealth, or as a Church under such a mixture with a Commonwealth, ought heedfuUy to be distinguished. . . . There is a plain difference made at Gal. iii. 17 between the Covenant or promise, which God made with Abraham and his seed, when He separated him from the world unto Himself, and that political one, which He afterwards made with the Jews, when He gave them the Laio. And this difference is also observed at Eom. iv. 13, The promise that he, &c. . . . The way to find out the nature of the Abraham- ical, or pure Jewish Church, is to consider the nature of the covenant or promise, upon which it was founded : and, if we examine the Scriptures, we shall find that it was an Evangelical Covenant ; for substance the same with that, which is since made betwixt God and us through Christ. This will appear upon a review of those Scriptures, which teach us ; thsiX, faith was the condition of the Abrahamical covenant ; that it was made with Abraham as the Father of the faithful, and in him to all believers with his spiritual as well as carnal seed, proceeding from him by spiritual, as well as natural generation (Gentile, as well as Jew) ; and that the blessings or promises of this covenant belonged unto them upon the same account of their faith. (Collection of Cases, &c. No. 15. The Case of Infant Baptism.) What, in nature, pleasure and pain are among the passions, that, in Eeligion, faith is among the graces ; namely, the source, root, and groundwork, of all the rest ; which are only its dif- ferent expressions, according to its various aspects, as it looks several ways, and is conversant about several objects. For, as pleasure simply offered and apprehended begets love ; if offered 182 ROMANS IV. 14. as absent, especially as remote, it turns desire ; if as attainable, chiefly when that attainment seems near, it becomes hope ; if, as attainable surely, confidence ; and as pain doth the like with the passions opposite ; so faith, when it is of God's precepts, turns obedience ; when of His threatenings, fear and holy awe ; when of His promises, hope and trust ; when the things pro- mised are to be sought of Him, it becomes prayers and devo- tions ; when they are delayed, patience and perseverance ; when they are bestowed and received, thankfulness ; when 'tis of His Providence, it turns contentedness ; when of the horrible nature and eiFects of sin, repentance ; when of the spotless rewards of the other world, purification of our hearts and lives ; when of the last Judgment, universal innocence, that may stand the trial of it ; when of God's purity and perfection, imitation of Him, or being " righteous, as He is ;" when of Christ the Loed and His Laws, keeping the Commandments ; when of the Holt Spieit and His assistance, godly care and good endea- vours ; when of the Communion of Saints, keeping unity in the Church and attending public ordinances — so that, according to several objects and occasions, this one principle of faith trans- forms itself into all shapes and becomes all duties, which are all therefore ascribed to it in the Holy Scriptures. As when it is said to " quench the fiery darts of the wicked" (Ephes. vi. 16), to " overcome the world" (1 S, John v. 4), to " purify the heart" (Acts XV. 9), to be the grand parent of all righteous doings, which are therefore called an obedience or righteousness of faith. i. 5 ; iv. 12 ; X. 16 ; xvi. 26. John Kettlewell. (The Practical Believer, &c. P. i. ch. i.) 14 The word faith excludes merit in this sense also, because, so far as it refers to a free promise, it expects its reward only from the free gift of God, who promises. And this is, if I mistake not, the chief reason why the Holt Ghost is wont to express all the obedience, taught in the Gospel, by the word faith; namely, that it might be declared by this word that the obe- dience we pay to God does not obtain righteousness and sal- vation by its own force or merit, but by force of the covenant or free pi'omise, which is received by faith. This is what S. Paul means, when he opposes the law to the promise. (See Gal. iii. ROMANS IV. 14, 15. 183 18.) . . . Melancthon, therefore, rightly says of the word faith ; "When we say we are justified by faith, we point to the Son of God sitting at the right hand of His Father interceding for us : we say, that we are reconciled on His account, and thus take the merit of reconciliation from our own virtues, however numerous." And in this sense the Gospel obedience, ex- pressed in the word faith, excludes that obedience and all those works, which are repugnant to the free promise of, and reliance on, Christ the Mediator ; i.e., those, which are performed with any confidence and opinion of our own merit. Bp. Bull. (Har- monia Apostolica. Dissert, ii. ch. v. s. 5.) Christianity, which, in strictness, is nothing but the doctrine of the Mediation, together with its appendant duties, is as ancient as the fall. It was then preached to Adam in that dark and mysterious promise (Gen. iii. 15.) After which, it was a little more clearly repeated, though very obscurely still, in God's Covenant with Abraham ; and again, after that, it was much more amply revealed in the types and figures of the Law of Moses, which yet, like painted glass in a window, did, under their pompous shew, still darken and obscure the holy mysteries within them, which were nothing but the doctrines and laws of the Christian Religion : so that Judaism was only Chris- tianity veiled ; and Christianity is only Judaism revealed. Br. J. Scott. (Of the Christian Life. P. ii. ch. ii.) 15 The Law of God is the rule of the actions of men, and any aberration from that rule is sin. The Law of God is pure, and whatsoever is contrary to that Law is impure. Whatsoever therefore is done by man, or is in man, having any contrariety or opposition to the Law of God, is sin. Every action, every word, every thought against the Law is a sin of commission, as it is terminated to an object dissonant from, and contrary to, the prohibition of the Law, or a negative precept. Every omission of duty required of us is a sin, as being contrary to the commanding part of the Law, or an affirmative precept. Every evil habit, contracted in the soul of man by the actions com- mitted against the Law of God, is a sin, constituting a man truly a sinner, even then, when he actually sinneth not. Any corruption and inclination in the soul to do that, which God 184 ROMANS IV. 15. forbiddeth, and to omit that, whicli God comraandetb, how- soever such corruption and evil inclination came into the soul, whether by an act of his own will, or by an act of the will of another, is a sin, as being something dissonant, and repugnant to, the Law of God. And this I conceive sufficient, to declare the nature of sin. Bp. Pearson. (An Exposition of the Creed. Art. X.) All things whatsoever, which are either good or evil, rewardable or punishable, are made so by some law : for good and evil, virtue and vice, obedience and sin — which are only so many different names for the same thing — have all relation to a Commandment. Virtue and obedience is the performance, as vice and sin is the transgression, of it. Where there is no law, saith the Apostle, there is no transgression ; and " no man sins," as saith another Apostle, " but he that transgresseth the Law ; for sin is the transgression of the Law" (1 S. John iii. 4). And, as Law is the measure of sin and duty, so it is likewise of reward and punishment. Eor God never afflicts and torments the children of men out of the inclination of His Nature, but only out of the necessity of Government. He is the Euler of the world and the Lord of men ; and therefore He must maintain His own laws, and punish the evil doers. . . . But let us consider the very nature of a Law, and we shall find that in all those actions, whereon it is imposed, it supposeth them, who exert — (? perform) — them, to have a power of choice. . . . Those actions and tempers, which are not subject to men's own choice,, nor under the power of their own wills, are no fit matter of a Law, nor fall under the force of a Commandment. . . . That, whereby God looks upon His Laws, to be either broken or kept, is the choice and consent of the heart (1 Sara. xvi. 7 ; S. Matt. XV. 18—20; S. James i. 15) The lusts of our flesh must gain the consent of our wills, before they become deadly sins and consummate transgressions. . . , God never did, nor ever will, condemn any man for the transgression of a parti- cular Law, before he has had all due means and necessary op- portunities, such as may be sufficient to any honest and willing heart to understand it. (S. John ix. 41 ; xv. 22 — 24 ; Eom. i. 19, 21, 32 ; ii. 12, 18 ; iii. 19, 20 ; v. 13). J. Kettlewell. (The ROMANS IV. 16. 185 Measures of Christian Obedience. B. iv. eh. 2 ; and B. iv. ch.5.) 16 Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace ; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed ; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham ; who is the father of us all, 17 (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before Him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. 18 Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. 19 And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hun- dred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb : 20 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbeUef; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God. 21 And being fully persuaded that, what He had promised. He was able to perform. 22 And therefore it was imputed to him for righ- teousness. 16 " God hath respect to the low estate of His hand-maiden." It was reason that He should choose the lowest and the mean- est among other virtues. He selected that so mean a thing, as a poor beggar's hand, should bring man to justification. If is of faith that it might be of grace ; for, when thou bringest no- thing but a bare hand ready to receive a pardon, this must 186 ROMANS IV. 17. needs be of grace. Paith hath two faculties : 1. It opens itself to let fall all other things. As if a man were ready to be drowned, there is a cable cast to him to lay hold on ; and he, laying hold on it, is drawn safe to land : but he must first let go all his other holds. Thus must a man do, and then lay fast hold on Jesus Cheist. (Phil. iii. 4 — 8.) And, 2. when it is a naked hand layeth hold on Christ, then it is filled with Cheist. . . . Another thing the Apostle adds, that the promise may be sure. What is the reason why people doubt and think nothing sure ? It is, because they come not with a naked hand. I must have such a measure of humiliation, of patience ; all to bring some- what with us. But you must let all fall, not trusting to it, as to make you worthier to receive Christ, (as some think.) If the bare acceptation of Cheist with a trembling hand will not make thee sure, thou understandest not the excellency of that very treasure, whereof thou art possessed. What canst thou have more than the bare receiving of such a gift hy faith ? The reason why we are not now sure, is because we come not with a naked hand. . . . Por, when we say faith is an instrument, we must understand it right well : it is not an instrument to work my justification. Cheist alone must do this: it is no act of ours ; nothing in us. Faith is said to be an instrument, whereby we get our justification, in regard to the object : it is a nearing us to Cheist. It is the instrument of application, the only instrument, whereby we apply the medicine and the plaister of Cheist's Blood ; whereby we, that were " strangers and afar off," are " made near." Paith is the only hand, that receiveth Cheist. When the hand layeth hold on a thing, it layeth hold on a thing out of itself So faith is a naked hand ; not as a hand, that gets a man's living ; but like a beggar's hand, that receives a free alms given by the donor. Abp. Usher. (Serm. on Horn. V. 1, and viii. 15, 16.) 17 It is not with God, as it is with man. With man, who mea- sureth his actions by time, or whose actions are the measure of time, (for time is nothing but duration,) something is past, something present, something to come: but with God, who calleth the things that are not as if they were, as the Apostle speaketh, there is no difierence of times ; nothing past, nothing ROMANS IV. 18. 187 to come ; all is present ; no such thing with Him as first and last, who is Alpha and Omega, both first and last. He, that foretelleth things to come, it mattereth not whether they come to pass ten, or a hundred, or a thousand years after, (piia una est scientiafuturorum, because the knowledge of things to come is one and the same, saith S. Jerome. Adam, the first man, who was created, and whosoever he shall be, that shall stand last upon the earth, are to God both alilce. They, that walk in valleys and low places, see no more ground than what is near them ; and they, that are in deep wells, see only that part of the heaven, which is over their head ; but he, that is on the top of some exceeding high mountain, seeth the whole country, which is about him. So it standeth between us and our in- comprehensible God. . . . He, who by reason of His wonderful nature, is very high exalted, wairep 4^ aTroirJOV Ttvo? Kal fie^^dXrjs ■jrepiwTTTjv, as from some exceeding high mountain, as Nazianzen speaketh, seeth at once all men, all actions, all causalities, pre- sent and to come, and with one cast of His eye measureth them all. Furindon. (Serm. S. Matt. xxiv. 25.) 18 The Faith, which made Abraham be called " the friend of God" (S. James ii. 23), was a faith perfected by doing (V. 22) ; a faith, that*made him "offer up his only son upon the altar," 'Tis true, he did in hope believe against hope ; so that his faith was stronger than a contradiction : but yet his resolutions of obedience seem stronger than his faith ; for he did that, even to the cutting off the grounds of all his faith and hope. He trusted God would make all His promise good to him, make " all the nations of the earth be blessed in the seed of Isaac," though Isaac had no seed, nor could have, if he should be slain. And he resolved, at God's command, himself to slay that Isaac, so to make him have no seed. His faith indeed did not dispute the great impossibility ; but his obedience caused it. He did not question, how can God perform with me, when I have offered my son ? I cannot look that a large progeny should rise out of the ashes on the altar ; nor will those flames, that devour all my seed at once, make my seed numerous, last- ing, and glorious, as " the stars in heaven" (Gen. xv. 5) ; which He promised me. But much less did he question, 188 ROMANS IV. 18. why should I obey in this ? He, that doth His commands, can but expect what He promised ; but, if I should do this com- mand and slay my son, I make His promise void, and destroy my own expectation : and, if I disobey, I can but suffer what He bids me do : my own obedience will execute all, that His in- dignation would threaten to my disobedience. Though Abra- ham had three days time and journey to the altar (Gen. xxii, 4), that nature might have leisure, the meanwhile, to reason with the precept thus, and his affection might struggle with his duty, yet he goes on, resolving to tear out his own bowels, and cut off his hopes, will sacrifice his " only son," and sacrifice God's promises to His commands. Dr. Allestree. (Serm. on S. John XV. 14.) This sentence hoping against hope has from the beginning been a kind of watchword in the camp and city of the great King ; a sen- tence inscribed, as one may say, upon the wayside Crosses, which are set as marks here and there on either hand of the road to the Heavenly Jerusalem. It is, in a certain sense, more than faith ; for faith simply taken only goes beyond what we see, but this hope goes against it also. Hope, such as Abraham had, such as S. Paul here describes, is an actual throwing off and mastering the impression of importunate present evils. It lifts and buoys up the whole man towards the good, which faith only discerns. It not only realises but appropriates the unseen good. It is therefore both a more immediate spring of action, and, as recognising God's unchangeable goodness, more inti- mately tied to love, " the end of the Commandment" and "the bond of all perfectness." And when Scripture speaks of hoping against hope, or, in kindred phrase, of glorxjing and rejoicing in tribulations, let us not imagine that it contemplates external and temporal difficulties only. The history indeed of the Old Testament turns our attention chiefly to these, and there is no doubt that in all times and under all dispensations pain, and loss, and bereavement, and ill-usage, and the other calamities of social and bodily life, have been a great field and nursery for Saintly hope. Still, we are warranted in believing that those outward trials were typical of our spiritual ones, ... In the re- generate the evil mind of the flesh remains. And perhaps it ROMANS IV. 18, 19. 189 would not be too rash a saying, were one to suggest that a claim to be free from all this, whenever and wheresoever found, is a suspicious rather than an attractive circumstance ; as, in medi- cine, wise men look coldly on remedies, which profess to be quite perfect and infallible. In fact, such a claim appears in some degree to deprive Christ's people, in ordinary times, of one of their most salutary trials. Where we have infallible assurance, no perplexity or misgiving at all, there, it would seem, can be no room for hoping against hope ; no opportunity of " patiently enduring," and of so being "blessed with faithful Abraham." viii. 24, 25. John Keble. (Serm. on the Text.) Faith apprehends the present truth of the Divine promises, and so makes the things to come present ; and hope looks out to their after accomplishment, which, if the promises be true, as faith avers, then hope hath good reason firmly to expect. This desire and hope are the very wheels of the soul, which carry it on ; and faith is the common axis, on which they rest. v. 1 — 4. Ahp. Leighton. (Comment. 1 S. Pet. i. 8, 9.) It is thus with every good man, who views the Christian Dis- pensation, as he ought. When he contemplates the scheme of man's Redemption in all its vastness, the wonderful means em- ployed, and the immensity of the views it opens, he recoils at his own insignificance, and thinks it against hope to believe that such a creature, as he feels himself, can ever be the object of such Divine beneficence. On the other band, when he con- siders the Love of God to man in his creation, which could have no end but man's happiness ; when he considers that the very act of his creation is an assurance of God's future protection ; when he reflects on the numerous promises of the Gospel, of the truth of which he is clearly convinced by abundant evi- dence, his diffidence vanishes, and he cannot help, against hope, believing in hope. xv. 13 ; Ps. viii. 1 — 4. Wm. Gilpin. (Hints for Sermons, xxviii.) 19 The shield (Eph. vi. 16) is not for the defence of any particular part of the body, as almost all the other pieces are — helmet, fitted for the head ; plate, designed for the breast ; and so others ; they have their several parts, which they are fastened to. But the shield is a piece, that is intended for the defence 190 ROMANS IV. 20. of the whole body. It was used therefore to be made very large ; for its broadness called Ovpeo^, of Ovpa, a gate or door, because so long and large, as, in a manner, to cover the whole body. To which that place alludes (Ps. v. 12), " Thou, Loed, wilt bless the righteous, with favour Thou wilt compass him as with a shield." And, if the shield were not large enough at once to cover every part, yet, being a moveable piece of armour, the skilful soldier might turn it this way or that way to catch the blow or arrow from lighting on any part they were directed to. And indeed this doth excellently well set forth the uni- versal use, that faith is to the Christian. It defends the whole man ; every part of the Christian by it is preserved. Some- times the temptation is^levelled at his head. Satan will be dis- puting against this truth and that, to make the Christian, if he can, call them in question, merely because his reason and understanding cannot comprehend them ; and he prevails with some, that do not think themselves the unwisest in the world, upon this very account to blot the Deity of Cheist, with other mysterious truths of the Gospel, quite out of their Creed. Now faith interposeth between the Christian and this arrow. It comes in to the relief of the Christian's weak understaudincr, as seasonably, as Zeruiah's son did to David, when the giant Ishbi- benob thought to have slain him. " I'll trust the "Word of God," saith the believer, " rather than my own purblind reason." Abraham not being weak in faith considered not his own body now dead. If sense should have had the hearing of that busi- ness ; yea, if that holy man had put it to a reference between sense and reason also, — what resolution his thoughts should come to concerning this strange message, that was brought him — he would have been in danger of calling the truth of it iu question, though God Himself was the messenger. But faith brought him honourably off. Gurnall. (The Christian in com- plete Armour, &c. Eph. vi. 16, ch 2.) 20 It might be taken for granted, I conceive, that S. Paul's view of justification would not be very different from that of our Savioub. But this complete argument will be strikingly evinced by comparing what S. Paul says in the passage already adduced, respecting Abraham's justification, with our Loed's account of ROMANS IV. 20. 191 the publican (S. Luke xviii. 13, 14). It was a right disposition, which, according to S. Paul, recommended Abraham to the ap- probation of the Searcher of hearts. God had said to him in a remarkable manner, " Seek ye My face ;" and his heart no less remarkably replied, " Thy face, Loed, will I seek." Every discouragement lay in his way ; but his heart clave steadfastly to God in spite of appearances. Thus was he strong in faith giving glory to God, and therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness ; that is, because it was the very essence of all genuiue righteousness. And do not our Lobd's words evidently imply that the all-seeing eye of God discovered a principle of rectitude, akin to that of the faithful Abraham, in the breast of the publican ? His words are few indeed ; but his very movement speaks and satisfies us far more than verbal expres- sion could do, that, whatever he might have done, he now fears God, hates sin, and is, in the highest degree possible, of an humble and contrite spirit. Thus he "pleased God;" for "he went down to his house justified." (In the common translation it would seem only comparative, but in the original it is more absolute). But " without faith it is impossible to please God, for he that cometh to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." It fol- lows therefore, that the publican, participating of Abraham's disposition, found, in his degree, the same gracious acceptance. And we are authorized to conclude, with no less certainty on the whole, that whenever S. Paul speaks of justification he must be in unison with his Master and with himself: and there- fore must continually suppose this blessing to belong to those, and those only, who have such a faith, as the above-quoted Scriptures describe . . . while we keep in mind, that we can obtain from God alone, through the Grace of His Eternal Son and Spibit, this qualification. Alexander Knox. (On the Theo- logy of the New Testament. Remains, vol. iii. 90.) "What distinct notion Abraham had of the Blessing, promised to all nations through him and his seed, what he thought of the manner and method, by which it should be effected, we cannot pretend to say. But that he understood it to be a promise of restoring mankind and delivering them from the remaining 193 ROMANS IV. 20. curse of the fall there can be little doubt. He knew that '• death had entered by sin ;" he knew that GTod had promised victory and redemption to " the seed of the woman :" upon the hopes of this restoration the religion of his ancestors was founded : and when God, from whom this blessing on all men was expected, did expressly promise a blessing on all men, and in this promise founded His everlasting Covenant, what could Abraham else expect but the completion in his seed of that ancient promise and prophecy, concerning the victory to be obtained by the woman's seed ? The curse of the ground was expiated by the flood, and the earth restored with a blessing, which was the foundation of the temporal covenant with Noah ; a large share of which God expressly grants to Abraham and his posterity particularly, together with a promise, by their means, to bring a new and further blessing upon the whole race of men. Lay these things together, and say, what less could be expected from the new promise or prophecy, given to Abraham, than a deliverance from that part of the curse, still remaining on man, " dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return ?" In virtue of this Covenant, Abraham and his posterity had reason to expect that the time would come, when man should be " called from his dust again :" for this expectation they had His assur- ance, who gave the Covenant, that He would be their God for ever. Bp. Sherlock. (Discourses on Prophecy.) If we will follow the sense of Scripture, we shall now see how God, without having granted to those Patriarchs the explicit Revelation of an Eternal Heavenly state — a Revelation, which is nowhere exhibited in the Pentateuch — trained them to the aim and implicit persuasion of that Eternal state by la7'ffe and indefinite promises of " being their God, and their great re- ward;" promises, to which the present life, as to thetn, fur- nished no adequate completion. This therefore is that inter- mediate faith, strong, though dim-sighted, which S. Paul so admirably describes in the distant vision and the unsatisfied longings and aspirations of Patriarchal belief (see Heb. xi. 13). These, that I may borrow some expressive language, were the " graspings and reachings of a vivacious mind," in which Abra- ham and other saints of old died ; and God was not ashamed ROMANS IV. 21. ' 193 to be " called their God," because all that He had promised, and all that they had hoped upon the warrant of His truth, was verified to the full in the event of its after consummation, although it had not been explicitly revealed. Davison. (An Enquiry into the Origin and Intent of Primitive Sacrifice, p. 121. Edit. 1825.) 21 No strength of faith can exclude some doubtings. GrOD had said, " I will make thee a great nation :" Abraham says, " the Egyptians shall kill me." (Gen. xii. 12.) He, that lived by his faith, yet shrinketh and sinneth. How vainly shall we hope to believe without all fear, and to live without infirmities ! Some little aspersions of unbelief cannot hinder the praise and power of faith. Abraham believed, and it was imputed to him for righteousness. He, that through inconsiderateness doubted twice of his own life, doubted not the life of his seed, even from the dead and dry womb of Sarah ; yet was it more difficult that his posterity should live in Sarah, than that Sarah's husband should live in Egypt : this was above nature, yet he believes it. Some- times the believer sticks at easy trials, and yet breaks through the greatest temptations (Gen. xxi. 1) without fe^r. Abraham was old, ere this promise and hope of a son ; and still the older, the more incapable ; yet God makes him wait twenty-five years for performance. No time is lost to faith, which had learned to defer hopes without fainting and irksomeness. Bp. Hall. (Contemplations. B. ii. c. 4.) Every tree doth not shoot out its roots, as far as another ; and yet it may be firm in the ground, and live as well as that, whose root is largest. So every faith stretcheth not out the arms of particular assurance to embrace Christ alike ; and yet it may be a true faith, living by charity, repentance, and good works. Some faith abounds with some sort of fruits, some with another. God is delighted with all, that are good ; and He will reward them. . . . There is a fair pretence, that causeth divers men rather to leave place in themselves for some distrust, than to aim at strong assurance ; because it relisheth much more of humility to be cast down at the recognition of our manifold sins. Indeed it is good to ponder our own unworthiness and imbecility, so far as to make us humble, and to acknowledge no o 194 ROMANS IV. 21, 22. good can come to us from anything, that is in ourselves ; but it is a false humility, that makes us doubt of the faithfulness of God's promises. So to be humbled is a fearful sin ; and, per- haps a greater sin than any, for which a man is humbled. If we stay more upon ourselves than upon God, we shall distrust: if more upon God than upon ourselves, we shall believe. Keep your humility you speak of, and lose it not : yet rule it by this ; oppose not any difficulty in yourself, as if it could make frus- trate the power and goodness of God. Bp. Hacket. (Serm. on S. Matt. iv. 3.) I doubt not that tbe Spirit of God, being implored by devout and bumble prayer and sincere obedience, may and will, by degrees, advance His servants higher, and give them a certainty of ad- herence, beyond their certainty of evidence. But what God gives, as a reward to believers, is one thing ; and what He re- quires of all men, as their duty, is another : and what He will accept of, out of grace and favour, is yet another. To those, that believe, and live according to their faith. He gives by de- grees the spii'it of obsignation and confirmation, which makes them know, (though how, they know not), what they did but believe; and so to be as fully and resolutely assured of the Gospel of Christ, as those, which heard it from Cheist Him- self with their ears, which saw it with their eyes, which looked upon it, and whose hands handled the Word of Life. He re- quires of all, that their faith should be proportionable to the motives and reasons enforcing to it. He will accept of the weakest and lowest degrees of faith (xiv. 1 — 3; Heb. xi. 6), if it be living and effectual unto true obedience. ... As no- thing avails with Him, but " faith, which worketh by love :" so any faith, if it be but as " a grain of mustard seed," if it " work by love," shall certainly avail with Him, and be accepted by Him. Chillingioorth. (The Eeligion of Protestants a Safe Way to Salvation, &c. Ch. i. Part i. 5, 8.) 22 No good work can be produced, but in the life and faith of the Gospel. In all the works of faith God is the immediate object : in all other works He has no share, and He hath pro- mised no reward. He owes no man anything ; but He accepts and rewards everything in those, that believe in " and diligently ROMANS IV. 23. 195 seek Him" (Heb. xi. 6). He called Abraham from "his coun- try," and from " his kindred," and from his "father's house" (Gen. xii. 1). And " he went out, not knowing whither he went" (Heb. xi. 8), but readily obeying such commands, as he could not thoroughly comprehend : he believed God, and it was im- puted to him or accounted for righteousness, and he is proposed as a pattern to all believers. There is, strictly speaking, no such thing as righteousness in the world. There is "none righteous, no not one" (Rom. x. 3) ; but the act of faith is accounted for it, because it shews a love and friendship to God, and it is that only, which He regards. With faith a man sees everything, he receives everything, he is content with every- thing, he loves everything, that comes from God. . . . Without faith in a man, though a matter be incontestably proved even to the senses, it makes no difference : it is not received, unless there be in the heart that principle, which believes God on His own testimony. William Jones. (The Age of Unbelief. Serm. on S. Luke xviii. 8.) 23 Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him ; 24 But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead ; 25 Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. 23 That Paul, wheresoever he attributes justification to faith alone, always includes the principal object of true faith, as the sole immediate cause, whereby, of men justifiable, because ac- tually partakers of God's graces, we become actually justified or absolved, his comment upon these words of Moses — Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness — doth put it out of controversy. Was it therefore such righteousness, as deserved absolution or reward ? E-ather rewarded, as such, by gracious acceptance, as is there implied. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt, bvt to o 2 196 ROMANS IV. 24, 25. him that worketh not — to the loiterer or idle person ? no — to him, that faithfully works, as Abraham did, and yet seeks sal- vation only by firm faith in Him, ^^hich. justifies the ungodly, his faith, thus set upon its proper objects, is imputed to him for righteousnesses. . . . Now it was not written for his sake alone that it (to wit, the strength and full assurance of his faith) was imputed to him for righteousness, but also for us, to whom it (the like faith) shall be imputed for righteousness, if we believe in Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. The ground of the Apostle's reasoning, or similitude here mentioned, sup- poseth all our righteousness, whether actual or habitual, should be as unapt to attain everlasting life or salvation (which is the end of all graces bestowed upon us), as Abraham! s decrepid body was to produce so many nations : yet as he, only by believing God, who was able to effect thus much and more, obtained the promise, and was blessed with more children from Sarah's dead womb than the most fruitful parents, that lived before, or should come after them ; so we, only by like firm belief in the same GrOD, which raised up our Lord Jesus from the dead, shall be partakers of the Promise made in Him, heirs of Eternal life : whereto, seeing our inherent righteousness hath no proportion, it must, for this reason, still be sued for, as a mere gift of GrOD, farther exceeding all desert of any supernatural grace in us than the mighty increase of Abraham's seed did the strength of his decayed nature. Dean Jackson. (Works. B. iv. eh. vi. s. 4, 5.) 24 Study that graud doctrine of a soul's justification before God. Acquaint thyself with this in all its causes — the moving cause, the free mercy of God, " being justified freely by His Grace ;" the meritorious, which is " the Blood of Christ ;" and the instrumental — "faith," with all the sweet privileges, that flow from it (Rom. v. 1 — 6). . . . Get into this tower of the Gos- pel Covenant ; and roll this truth (as she, that stone on the head of Abimelech) on the head of Satan. Gurnall. (On the Christian Armour. Eph. vi. 14.) 25 It is the constant tenour of Scripture that atonement for the sins of the world was made by our great High Priest upon the Cross, that His death was our Eedemption, and His Blood the price paid for us. So that, when we consider the Eedemption, ROMANS IV. 25. 197 which includes our justification, with respect to Cheist, the Author and Finisher of it, it must be ascribed to His Death and Passion. But, as to ourselves, our title and interest in this common salvation being grounded on faith, our justification, though purchased by the Blood of Christ, must be appropri- ated to ourselves through faith in that Blood. For the same Apostle, who has told us that we are "justified freely through the Eedemption which is in Christ Jesus," hath likewise told us that God hath " set Him forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood." For this reason we are said to be "justi- fied by faith ;" not that our faith is the purchase of justifica- tion, which we owe to the Blood of Christ alone ; but because through faith we obtain the benefit of the Eedemption wrought by Jesus Christ. Now, though the death of Christ was the reconciling of the world to God, yet the Eesurrection of Christ is the great and solid foundation of our hope and faith in Him ; even of our faith in His Blood, by which He made the pro- pitiation for our sins. And, although Christ died for our offences and by His precious Blood made atonement for our sins, yet, since our faith in His death, our hope in His Blood, by which hope and faith we are justified, are built upon the truth and credit of His Eesurrection, it is very properly said that He rose again for our justification. For the death of Christ would have been no justification to us, nor could we have had hope or faith in it, but for the power and glory of the Eesur- rection, which has wiped away the scandal and ignominy of the Cross, and made it a rational act of faith to hope for life and immortality from Him, who Himself once died upon the tree. For the truth of this exposition I appeal to S. Paul, who (1 Cor. XV. 17) has told us that " if Christ be not risen, our faith is vain : we are yet in our sins." So that faith in the death of Christ, not grounded on the assurance of His Ee- surrection, is a vain faith, and such an one, as cannot deliver us from our sins : nay, that the death of Christ could not have been a propitiation for sin, without His Eesurrection, he ex- pressly teaches in the next verse, saying that " If Christ be not raised, then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished." Bj). Sherlock. (Discourse on the text.) 198 ROMANS IV. 25. By our Lord's Resurrection we may be assured concerning the efficacy of His undertakings for us : for, considering it we may not doubt of God's being reconciled to us, of obtaining the pardon of our sins and acceptance of our prayers, of receiving all helps conducible to our sanctification, of attaining final hap- piness, (in case we are not on our parts deficient) ; all these benefits by our Loed's Eesurrection, as a certain seal, being ratified to us, and in a manner conferred on us. As God, in the death of our Lord, did manifest His wrath towards us, and execute His justice upon us, so, in raising Him thence, cor- respondently God did express Himself appeased, and His law to be satisfied : as we in His suffering were punished, the "iniquity of us all being laid upon Him," (Isa. liii. 6) so iu His Resurrection we were acquitted and restored to grace. As Cheist did merit the remission of our sins and the acceptance of our persons by His Passion, so God did consign them to us in His Eesurrection ; it being that formal act of grace, whereby, having sustained the brunt of God's displeasure. He was so- lemnly reinstated in favour, and we representatively, or vir- tually, in Him ; ao that, supposing our due qualifications and the performances requisite on our parts, we thence become completely justified, having not only a just title to what justifi- cation doth impart, but a real instalment therein, confirmed by the Eesurrection of our Savioue. ... Our justification and absolution are, ye see, rather ascribed to the Eesurrection of Cheist than to His death ; for that indeed His death was a ground of bestowing them, but His Eesurrection did accom- plish the collation of them : for since (doth the Apostle argue) God hath acknowledged satisfaction done to His justice by dis- charging our surety from restraint and from all farther prosecu- tion ; since in a manner so notorious God hath declared His favour towards our proxy ; what pretence can be alleged against us ? what suspicion of displeasure can remain ? v. 8, 9 ; viii. 34. Br. Barrow. (Sermons on the Creed. 30.) We may boldly say there is a proper efficiency in Cheist' s Ee- surrection, an influence and virtue flowing from it upon us ; "a dew," as the prophet calleth it, a dew on our souls and a dew on our bodies ; a dew, which will recover a withered soul ROMANS IV. 25. 199 and make a dead body grow again. Our Apostle plainly saith (Eom. iv. 25), By it we are justified, and by it we are raised. For, if there went forth virtue from His very garment, why may not a power proceed also from His Resurrection ? I know Christ is " all in all," not bound nor confined to any instru- ment. If He had not risen, yet as God He might have raised us. But, when He dieth and riseth again for our sakes, when He useth this to this end, we may well call it an efiicient cause, because He made it so. — But did not Cheist "finish" all upon the Cross ? Nor do I attribute all to His Eesurrection, but a power to perform something after the Conswnmatum est, when all was done ; a power to apply His merits, and make His satis- faction sure pay ; as the stamp and character doth not better a piece of gold, but makes it current. I told you before, the whole work of our Redemption, though the passages be various, is in esteem but one continued act: nor, in laying out the causes of our salvation, must we sever and divide the Passion from the Resurrection : and yet we never read that either the Resurrection did satisfy, or the Passion raise us ; and we may be bold to say, without any derogation to Chbist's Death and Passion, that we are raised again by the power of His Resur- rection. Farindon. (Serm. on Phil. iii. 10, 11.) Cheist died for the establishment of the New Covenant His Testament, and rose again to be His own executor of it. Dr. Whichcote. (Aphorisms. Cent, xii., 1132.) CHAPTER V. T'HEREFORE being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ : 2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 200 ROMANS V. 1. 1 Till such time, as our Saviour had procured for us the New Covenant, by which God had solemnly obliged Himself to par- don us upon our repentance, sinful men, though true penitents, could never have arrived at that degree of security, that God was reconciled to them, as is necessary to set their minds at rest, and free them from anxiety. For, though to repent is the best thing a sinner can do, yet this doth not at all alter the nature of the sin he repents of, so as to render it less evil, or less deserving of punishment. And, so long as the desert of punishment remains, God hath a natural right to execute it ; and so long we can never be certain, whether He will exact it, or no. Some wavering hopes a poor penitent might have ar- rived to, upon the consideration of the infinite benignity of the Divine Nature ; but the utmost comfort he could have given himself was that of the penitent King of Nineveh, " Who can tell, if God will turn and repent and turn away from His fierce auger, that we perish not" (Jonah iii, 9) ? But alas ! when a man's mind is hagg'd and ridden with his guilts, " Who can tell .^" is such a poor belief, as must necessarily leave it ex- tremely anxious and desponding. But now, upon our Sayioue's procuring for us the New Covenant, you, and I, and every one of us can tell — and that with as much certainty, as that God is true — that, if we do repent and turn from our evil ways, God will turn and repent of His anger and displeasure against us. So that now all we have to do is to reflect upon ourselves, and examine whether we are true penitents or no, whether we have submitted our will to God's with a full purpose and resolution to fly whatever He forbids, and to follow whatever He com- mands us ; and, if we have, we may upon the terms of the New Covenant from thence as certainly conclude that He is recon- ciled to us, and that His high displeasure against us is all con- verted into the dearest kindness and complacency, as we can that He is God, or, which is all one, that He is true and faithful : which doubtless is one of the most solid foundations of peace and satisfaction in the world. ... Our Blessed Sa- VIOUE, by washing away our guilt in His own Blood, hath opened to us a safe retreat within our own breasts ; that of a quiet and serene conscience, whereunto we may easily retire, ROMANS V. 1. 201 and house ourselves, when we are persecuted with storms and , tempests from without, xiv. 17. Dr. John Scott. (Discourse upon S, John xiv. 27.) We Christians have clearer notions of the expiation of sins, than had the Jew : so, by consequence, must our assurances of our being justified or having our sins pardoned, be stronger, than were theirs. Religious persons, who lived before the coming of Chkist, knew that they were sinners, and that therefore they had need of the favour and mercy of God for the re- mission of their sins. This mercy they probably expected from that promised Seed, who was to " bruise the serpent's head ;" but they were only superficially instructed in the methods, by which this promise was to be fulfilled. Hence they must ne- cessarily groan sore under the weight of their sins. Severe curses were denounced in the Law against all, who should transgress it : these curses were plain and easy to be under- stood ; but the promises of pardon through the merits of a Savioue were more intricate and involved. When therefore the danger, that threatened them, was so apparent, and the methods of their escape so obscurely notified to them, it is no wonder, if their fears did very much overbalance their hopes. Hence is it, that the spirit, by which they were governed, is in the Gospel represented as " a spirit of bondage :" but the Spirit, by which we Christians are influenced, is " a Spirit of adop- tion." (^Now received the atonement, ver. 11.) iii. 21, 26 ; viii. 1, 15, 16. Bjo. Smalridge. (The Pre-eminence of the Gospel above the Law, &c. Serm. on 2 Cor. iii. 11.) An Infinite Justice is ofiended ; an Infinite Justice hath satisfied ; an Infinite Mercy hath applied it. Take thou hold, by the hand of faith, on that infinite Mercy and Justice of thy Sa- vioue: the work of His Justice shall be thy peace. (Isa. sxxii. 17.) Fly about, whither thou wilt, 0 thou weary dove, through all the wide regions of the heavens and waters, thou shalt nowhere find " rest for the soles of thy feet," but in this Ark of Cheist's perfect Eighteousness. In vain shalt thou seek it in schools of morality, in learned libraries, in spacious fields and forests, in pleasant gardens, in sullen retiredness, in witty conversation, in wanton theatres, in drunken cellars, in 202 ROMANS V. 1. tables of gluttony, in beds of lust, chests of Mammon, whiffs and draughts of intoxication, songs of ribaldry, sports of re- creation : no, no ; the more thou seekest it in most of these, the farther it flies from thee, the farther thou art from finding it: and, if these things may give some poor truce to thy thoughts, it shall soon end in a more direful war. " There is no peace,'"" saith my God, "to the wicked." Stray whither thou wilt, O thou wounded hart, through the lands and wood, alas ! the shaft sticks still in thee ; or, if that be shaken out, the head, None but the sovereign dittany of thy Savioue's Righteousness can drive it out ; and, till it be out, thou canst have no peace. In plain terms, wouldst thou have peace? None but Christ can give it thee. He will give it to none, but the penitent ; none, but the faithful. Ob, spend thyself into the sighs and tears of true repentance ; and then raise thy humbled soul to a lively confidence in thine all-sufficient Ee- deemer. Set thy Lord Jesus betwixt God and thy sins. God cannot see thy debt, but through thine acquittance. " By His stripes we are healed ;" by His wounds we are staunched ; by His death we are quickened ; by His righteousness we are dis- charged. "The work of His righteousness is our^eaee." Bp. Hall. (The True Peace-maker. Serm. on Isa. xxxii. 17.) I give not the whole definition of peace with God, unless to God reconciled to man, I add man reconciled to God. We may observe how the Holt Ghost expresses the great reconcilia- tion : the main stress lies in the reconciliation of man to God. (Col. i. 20.) " God through the blood of the Cross hath recon- ciled all things to Himself." He saith not, hath "reconciled Himself to all things," but "all things to Himself ;" and in 2 Cor. v. 19, " God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself:" He saith not "reconciling Himself to the world;" and ver. 20, " We pray you, in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled unto God." The great business is for man to be reconciled unto God — Absalom unto David. Here then is the main trial — to know whether God be at peace with you : see, if you be at peace with God. This is the note in the index ; and, if we find it, then we may be sure to find the other in the book. As he, that looked westward for the rising of the sun, saw it sooner ROMANS V. 2. 203 gilding the tops of the mountains, than they, that looked for it in the east ; so this is the best way to see whether God be at peace with us : let us look back upon ourselves, and see how our condition is towards God. Some hold that the answer by tJrim and Thummim was by the rising of the stones in the High Priest's breast-plate. Though I am not of their mind, yet I may allude unto it in the case in hand : look into thine own breast : make thine observation thence : see how thy heart stands affected towards God ; and by that thou mayest un- derstand, what God's answer to thy question is — whether He be at peace with thee. Br. Lightfoot. (Serm. on Eom. V. 1.) 2 Access hj faith. Let us not so wholly fix our minds on the known necessity oi faith, as to imagine that nothing but faith is necessary for the attainment of all grace ; since it is a branch of belief that Sacraments are, in their place, no less required than belief itself. . . . The Justification, which S. Paul discourseth of, seemeth in his meaning, only or especially, to be that act of grace, which is dispensed to persons at their Baptism, or at their entrance into the Church, when they, openly professing their faith and undertaking the practice of Christian duty, God most solemnly and formally doth absolve them from all guilt, and accepteth them into a state of favour with Him. . . . The immediate consequence of faith is Baptism : therefore dispens- ing the benefits consigned in Baptism is coincident with Justi- fication ; and that dispensation is frequently signified to be the cleansing from sin by entire remission thereof. Hooker. (Eccl. Pol. B. V. ch, 60 ; and Discourse on Justification.) Oh, think, to what an excellency doth Grace advance the soul even in this life, and make Christians as much above other men, as other men are above beasts ! Consider what a high honour and privilege it is that you should be admitted to attend imme- diately upon the service of the King of kings. Tou are called to wait about His throne. His throne of Grace, to which you have always free access, to converse and commune with God, by maintaining fellowship with Him in the performance of holy duties : which is a dignity so high, that human nature is ca- pable but of one preferment more ; and that is of being re- 204 ROMANS V. 2. moved from one throne to the other, from attending on the Throne of Grace to attend on the Throne of Glory. And then think, 0 soul, if it be possible to think, what neither eye hath seen, nor ear hath heard, neither hath it nor can it enter into the heart of man to conceive ; think how transcendently Blessed thy estate shall be, when the will of thy God, which was here thy duty, shall there be thy nature ; when thy obligation to do it shall be turned into a happy necessity of doing it ; when all thy thoughts and affections shall be centred in God for ever, and not the least motion of thy soul shall so much as twinkle or waver from the Eternal contemplation and fruition of the Infinite Deity. Bp. Hopkins. (On the Lobd's Prayer, 3rd Petition.) According to the terms of our Common Law, there be two sorts of Free-hold — a Pree-hold in deed, when a man hath entered into lands and tenements, and is seised thereof actually and really — a Free-hold in law, when a man hath right to lands or tenements, but hath not yet made his actual entry. Now the Kingdom of Heaven is our Free-hold in law, though as yet, while we live, we cannot actually be seised thereof. It is ours, as being prepared for us by God the Fathbe (S. Matt. xxv. 34). It is ours, as being purchased in our behalf by God the Son (1 S. Pet. i. 19). It is ours, as being assured to our spirit by God the Holy Ghost (Eom. viii. 16, 17). "We have now right to this inheritance ; Habemus Jus ad rem (as Melancthon acutely), nondum in re : or, as Augustine and other of the Fa- thers usually, the Kingdom of Heaven is ours already, non in re, sed in spe. The Scripture saith as much in plain terms ; " We are saved by hope" (viii. 24), by " blessed " hope (Titus ii. 13), which is " immoveable" (Col. i. 23), " without wavering" (Heb, X. 23). Fides intuetur verbum rei ; spes verb rem verbi. And we may well under hope rejoice, seeing our reward, when our fight is finished, is no less than a Kingdom. The citizens of Tyrus are described by the prophet (Isa. xxiii. 8) to have been companions unto Nobles and Princes ; but in that Heavenly Jerusalem every burgess by his second birth is brother of a King, the son of a King, and himself a King (S. John iii. 3 ; Heb. ii. 17 ; Rom. viii. 14), having, in token thereof, a triumph- ROMANS V. 3. 205 ant palm in hia band and a golden crown on his head (Rev. vii. 9 ; iv. 4). . . . As the blessed Apostle calleth every Chris- tian, in the Church militant, enduring the cross patiently, " more than a conqueror" (viii. 17, 37), even so vpe may call every Saint in the Church triumphant "more than an Em- peror;" for the good things in earthly kingdoms are temporal, but the happiness of Heaven is Eternal. Dean Boys. (Ex- position of the Festival Epistles, &c. ; All Saints' Day: and Ascension Day ; Psalms, M. Prayer.) 3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also : knowing that tribulation worketh patience ; 4 And patience, experience ; and experience, hope : 5 And hope maketh not ashamed ; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. 3 Many rooms he passeth, before he comes to this, which indeed joins upon Heaven itself. Faith is the key, which lets him into all. Eirst, it opens the door o^ justification, and lets him into a state of peace and reconciliation with God through Jesus Cheist (Verse 1) : through this he passeth on to another, the Presence-chamber of God's favour, and is admitted nigh unto Him, as a traitor once pardoned is, by whom, &c., (Verse 2.) That is, we have not only our sins pardoned and our persons reconciled to God by faith in Cheist ; butnow, under Cheist's wing, we are brought to Court, as it were, and stand in His Grace, as favourites before their Prince, This opens into a third, and rejoice in the hope of glory : we do not only at pre- sent enjoy the grace and favour of God, and communion with Him here, but have from this a hope firmly planted in our hearts for heaven's glory hereafter. Now he is brought to the most inward room of all, which none can come at, but he, that goes through all the former (Verse 3). And not only so, but we glory in tribulation also. If thou hast not entered at these doors, thou art " a thief and a robber :" thou gettest 206 ROMANS V. A. tby confidence too quickly, to have it brought to thy hand by God. If God means thee well for eternity, He will make thee smart for this thy boldness, as He did Jacob for stealing his father's blessing. Gurnall. (The Christian in Complete Armour. Eph. vi. 14. Ch. 10.) 4 You shall rarely find a man eminent in sundry faculties of the mind or sundry activities of the hand. . . . With spiritual gifts it is otherwise : which are so chained together, that he, who excels in one, hath some eminency in more ; yea, in all. Look upon faith : she is attended with a bevy of graces. He, that believes, cannot but have hope; if hope, patience : he, that believes and hopes, must needs find_/oy in God : if joy, love of God. He, that loves God, cannot but love his brother also : his love to God breeds piety and care to please, sorrow for ofiending, fear to ofiend ; his love to man, fidelity and Chris- tian beneficence. Vices are seldom single, but virtues ever go in troops : they go so thick, that sometimes they are lost in the crowd ; which yet are, but appear not. They may be shut out from sight : they cannot be severed, vi. 19. Conf. i. 8 — xv. 14. Bp. Hall. (Holy Observations. No. 7.) Nihil est fertilius Sanctitate. Every good thought may beget a good intention : every good intention may raise itself up to the strength of a resolution : every resolution may bring on per- severance : every good action looks forward to another ; and that to a third. Patience hegQt^ experience; experience, Aope ; hope, confidence. Farindon. A man is not only unknown to others, but to himself, that hath never met with such difficulties, as require faith, and Christian fortitude, and patience to surmount them. How shall a man know, whether his meekness and calmness of spirit be real or not, while he meets with no provocation ; nothing, that con- tradicts, or crosses him ? But, when something sets upon him, that is in itself very unpleasant ^nd grievous to him, and yet, if in that case he retains his moderation of spirit and flies not out into impatience, either against God or men, this gives ex- periment of the truth and soundness of that grace within him ; whereas standing water, which is clear at top, while it is un- touched, yet, if it have mud at the bottom, stir it a little, and it ROMANS V. 5. 207 rises presently. . . . "The children of Ephraim being armed and carrying bows," (says the Psalmist, Ps. Ixxviii. 9,) "yet turned back in the day of battle." It is the battle tries the soldier, and the storm the pilot. How would it appear that Christians can be themselves not only patient, but cheerful in poverty, in disgrace, and temptations, and persecutions, if it were not often their lot to meet with them ? He, who framed the heart, knows it to be but deceitful ; and He, who gives grace, knows the weakness and strength of it exactly ; yet He is pleased to speak thus, that by afflictions and hard tasks He tries what is in the hearts of His children. For the Word of God speaks to men, and therefore it speaks the language of the children of men : thus Gen. xxii. 12, " Now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son thine only son from Me." Jbp. Leighton. (A Commentary on 1 Ep. S. Peter, ch. i. 6.) 5 True hope in Cheist should be rightly ordered ; first faith, then hope, then rejoicing in hope, then assurance — not assurance at the first dash, nor rejoicing neither. . . . 'Till you have been tried and tried again, patiently endured affliction and tempta- tion, till your patience be grown into experience, till you are become an experienced Christian, have had experience both of God's favours and His frowns, and are become an experienced soldier in the Christian warfare, are well versed in that holy trade, you cannot have the hope, that maketh not ashamed. All hope, that rises not in the Apostle's order, will but shame you. If your hope be grounded on opinion only, it will scarce hold a shaking fit. In a word, first, "the hope of righteousness;" then, the blessed "hope of glory." ii. 7; xv. 4. Br. Mark Frank. (On Easter Day. Serm. on 1 Cor. xv. 19.) "We read at Deut. xxx. 6, how the Loed distinctly covenanted with His people, that He would in the latter day shed abroad the Love of God in their hearts. Here we see that stipulation fulfilled. Now this was to be their only true and saving Cir- cumcision. "The Loed thy God will circumcise thine heart and the heart of thy seed to love the Loed thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live." S. Paul, then, here certifies his brethren — the Jew first, and also 208 ROMANS V. 5, the Gentile, but both alike — that, having received this seal, they were thereby " all the children of God by faith in Cheist Jesus" — " the Circumcision" (as opposed to " the concision," Phil. iii. 2, 3 ; Gal. v. 6) — Abraham's spiritual seed, and " heirs according to the promise." What is here said of the work of the Holy Ghost, in shedding abroad the love of God in men's hearts, to assure them of their adoption by grace, is elsewhere ascribed to that other work of writing the Law of God in their hearts (Heb. viii. 10 ; x. 16) : but, as " Love is the fulfilling of the Law^'' so the two blessed promises here meet, and are united, xiii. 10 ; ii. 28, 29. J. F. In a Sacrament, the " outward and visible sign" is intended to introduce us to " the inward and spiritual grace," figured by it, as a sign ; conveyed by it, as a means ; and insured by it, as a pledge. And what the inward and spiritual grace, signified by circumcision, was, not only S. Paul, but Moses himself will tell us, who in Deut. x. 16 expresseth himself in these terms, " Cir- cumcise the foreskin of your heart and be no more stiflf-necked ;" and again, (xxx. 6,) " The Loed thy God will circumcise thine heart and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live." From these passages laid together the following truths seem to be fairly deducible ; namely, first, that Circumcision was an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace to be wrought in the heart : secondly, that this inward and spiritual grace was the cutting off and casting away sin : thirdly, that for this work they were not sufficient, as of themselves, but their sufficiency was of " the Loed their God," who would work in them and with them, through faith, by the Holy Spieit: fourthly, that the effect and consequence of this spiritual Cir- cumcision would be the love of God shed abroad in their hearts, with its genuine fruit of unfeigned obedience to His Command- ments : and, lastly, that this would prepare the way to eternal life — " that thou mayest live," saith Moses, that thou mayest live, not only on earth under grace, but hereafter in glory; since purification of the heart is in order to a better life in that celestial Canaan, the ultimate end of all the promises ; that good land, which the Loed our God shall give to every " Israelite ROMANS V. 5. 209 indeed," and in which He Himself, after having been the "shield" of Abraham and his seed, shall be their "exceeding great reward." And so it is written, " Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." Thus do these two texts from the writings of Moses involve in them the substance of the Gospel : they begin with the cleansing of the heart from sin ; thence proceeding on to the Love of God, till they terminate in the Beatific Vision of Him in an endless life. Bp. Ho?'ne. (Serm. on S. Luke ii. 21.) Ask an afflicted conscience, if Jesus, that is, a Saviour, be not a precious word, that hath a sovereign value, both a refreshing smell and a healing virtue. . . . Tbat other Name, Christ, well may it be called "an ointment poured out;" for it signifies His anointing. . . . Being extended on the Cross and His Body pierced in divers places. His precious ointments were shed abroad towards all quarters of the world (i. 8) : their smell reached both Heaven and the visible earth. In these His suf- ferings did the obedience, patience, and love, and all the graces and the Name of our Savioub most clearly manifest themselves to the world. ... As this Name is poured forth in the Gospel preached, so in the Sacraments annexed to it. . . . Yet there is one way more, without which all the rest are ineffectual : it is this ; the secret and powerful working of the Spirit of God in the soul. The Ordinances and means of Salvation do indeed pour forth the Name of Christ round about a man ; but, till the Spirit concur with them, not one drop falls within the soul. And is he not so much the more miserable, who hears much of Christ, and partakes nothing of Him ? Tes, surely. A man may have much common knowledge of Christ, and may un- derstand well, yea, may preach well, concerning His worth and graces, and yet not love Him. But there is a particular know- ledge of Him, by the infusion of the Spirit ; and where the smallest measure of this is, it presently wins the afiection. There is a shedding abroad of the love of God in our hearts : and this draws us after Him ; for our love to God is nothing else but the reflection of His love to us. ii. 13 ; x. 18. Abp. Leighton. (The Name of Jesus fragrant. Serm. on Cant. i.3.) p 210 ROMANS V. 6. 6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die : yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. 8 But God commendeth His love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, being now justified by His Blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. 10 For if, when we were enemies, we were recon- ciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. 6 At times, the Sacred writers deliver themselves with all the heightenings of oratory ; as particularly Job, when he is de- scribing the infinite Power of God, and S. Paul, when he is setting forth the Love of the Deity, manifested in the Redemp- tion of man : not that they affected eloquence ; but, when the Spirit of God came upon them, and impregnated their minds with great ideas, they naturally broke out into such lofty and corresponding expressions, as might be a proper clothing for their thoughts : as when our Saviour was Transfigured, and "His face shone as the sun," His "raiment," too, became as white, as snow. Jer. Seed. (Serqi. on 1 S. Pet. iii. 15.) Unconscious, perhaps, of the full import and distinct application of all, which they {the old Prophets) delivered, " the holy men of God spake, as they were moved by the Holt Ghost:" com- mitting themselves to the Sacred ecstasies, which possessed their soul, they were borne along on the tide of Inspiration into remote developments of the wisdom and mercy of God ; and future ages were to admire and adore the power, which could thus establish its claim to our faith and awe. Bp. Middleton. (Serm. on Isaiah Ixii. 1.) Sometimes the Prophets, in the midst of mention of particular mercies promised to, or judgments denounced against, the people of God, sally out into pathetical excursions, relating to ROMANS V. 6, 7. 211 the Messiah. These seem extremely abrupt, and incoherent with the rest, to them, that consider not how seasonable the mention of Christ may be, both in that of the Mercies of God — of which He is the foundation and pinnacle, the ground and consummation — (and the promise made of Him taught the faithful to reason thus with the Apostle ; He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things ? viii. 32) — and with the threats of the Judgments of God, in which He was His people's grand consolation, Hon. R. Boyle. (Considerations touching the Style of the Holy Scripture. P. 58, Edit. 1662.) In due time. The promise of Redemption was made, but its accom- plishment was postponed ; postponed, let it be remembered, only in the performance of the event foretold, not in its operation : for, of all the sons of Adam, none hath ever yet been born, to whom the merits of a crucified Redeemer must not have reached to render even his best actions acceptable. Why the actual Advent of our Savioue in the flesh was thus long postponed, it is perhaps presumptuous to inquire. God may surely be allowed to direct that mystery, of the benefits of which we are unmerited partakers ; which He only could have invented, and which He only can comprehend ; yet sufficient reasons are not wanting, even on this dark subject, by which unauthorised curiosity may be silenced. Had the event promised been im- mediately fulfilled, and the life and death of our Savioue been coeval with the sin of Adam, the whole world, humanly speak- ing, must at the present hour have been plunged in the darkest gloom of Heathen idolatry. The direct and proper evidences of Christianity are prophecies and miracles ; but the first of these must have been lost for want of an object ; the second, for want of attestation. This is sufficient to shew the diffi- culties attendant on the Advent of the Messiah at that period ; and, thus much being granted, it is but presumptuous folly to ask, why the period assigned should be rather four thousand years after the creation than any other era. John Bowdler. (Theological Tracts on the Atonement.) 7 That one person should undergo pains and hardships for the sake of others, and a good person sufi"er many things to prevent p2 212 ROMANS V. 7. the misery and promote the happiness of bad ones, is so com- mon in lower instances, that, though we could not have ex- pected, we may well believe this high degree of God's love towards us ; that, lohile we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. We see not indeed how His death produces our salvation ; nor do many people ever know how the steps, taken for their pardon or advancement, proved effectual ; yet they are not the less effectual on that account. But thus much, however, we see daily that, from regard to the services, and sufferings, and in- tercessions of some persons, others have favours done them, very wisely and justly, which else neither wisdom nor justice would have permitted. And why should it not be a fit recom- pense (as undoubtedly it must be the most acceptable one pos- sible) to our Blessed Lobd, for what He so cheerfully under- took and went through, that mankind, to whom He had made himself related in so extraordinary a manner, with so amiable an intention, should be treated the more kindly on His account ; that, " when He had made Himself an offering for sin, He should see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied, by the knowledge of Himself justifying many ?" (Isa. liii. 10, 11.) For, observe, no one will ever become righteous for His sake, who doth not in fact become righteous by His means. And rewarding His Incarnation and Death, by putting sinners into His hands to be made happy, on condition that He should first make them holy, doth no less honour to the Justice of God than to His Mercy. Abp. Seeker. (Serm. on 2 Cor. v. 21.) The Scriptures often speak of a good man, as one different in some respects from other servants of God. . . . The great Apostle of the Gentiles with his vast powers of mind, his copious faculty of speaking, his undaunted courage, was qualified for first planting the Gospel ; but Barnabas — the good, kind-hearted, tender Barnabas — was designed for the work of " consolation" (Acts ii. 36 ; ix. 27 ; xi. 23, 24). The specific difference be- tween him and some other Apostles and Evangelists was not in their doctrines, nor in the amount of labour among the people, but in his peculiarly bland and engaging temper. No one of the others is expressly designated by this particular commenda- tion; " he was c ^006? Mjaw." . . . In the language of the world. ROMANS V. 8. 213 we know that the term a good man too often means merely a kind-hearted person, au affable friendly man ; be his religious sentiments, his spirit, his life, as a professed believer in lleve- lation, what it may. In the eye of the world, also, a Minister of Religion is a good man, who is attentive to his official duties, decorous in his conduct, and benevolent to the poor ; whatever his doctrines be, . . . But not so, in the eye of God (see Eccles. ii. 26.) No one deserves the name, who does not unite the suavity and benevolence, designated by that title, with submission of heart to Cheist, and a distinct faith in His Gospel. And, in the Minister of Religion still more is required. The good man, in the office of a Shepherd of the flock, must resemble Barnabas. His natural sweetness must be corrected, strengthened, elevated by a clear conception of the doctrines of the Gospel, by a tho- rough dedication of himself to the Pastoral duties, and by a holy consistency and spirituality in his conduct. Bp. B. Wil- son. (Serm. on Acts xi. 24 ; Preached at the Funeral of the Rev. Basil Woodd.) S. Gregory saith. Magnum est vinculum charitatis quo et Ipse Deus ligari se voluit ; strong is the bond of love, seeing God Himself will be bound with it. This affection, saith S. Bernard, solus triumphal de Deo, doth only get the victory over God ; and, as he also saith, Nescio quid magis did debeat in laude tuu O ! Charitas. I know not what can be spoken more in thy praise, Divine Love, than that thou hast brought God out of heaven into earth, and hast lift up man from earth into heaven. Ho- minem Deo 7-econciliasti et Deum homini pacasti. Therefore, as on this side, we are to consider how willing God is that this should grow in us, so now we must consider what is on God's behalf performed to stir us up unto it. The heathen say, magnes amoris amor ; nothing is more effectual to move love than to love : and therefore that is it, that continually is first set down on God's part— i.e., where the Love of God is beaten on, that, on God's part, is set first : which, how great it is, it appeareth by nothing more than that of S. Bernard. He in his book De diligendo Deo sets it down in these six — quod nos 1. prius dilexit, 2. tantus, 3. tantillos, 4. tales, 5. tantum, G. gratis. Bp, An- drewes. (On the Moral Law. 1 Commandment.) 214 ROMANS V. 8. So little could we at first deserve God's love, that He loved us, even before we had a being ; and our felicity, in His decrees, preceded our existence in this world. God loved you numerous ages, before you were ; and His goodness is so entirely its own motive, that even your creation (since which time alone you cau pretend to merit His love) is the effect of it. . . . But God, to confer on us in the most excellent and endearing man- ner the blessing promised to His ancient people, when He vouchsafed to assure them that He would " love them freely" (Hos. xiv. 4), was pleased to love us, not only when we were not at all, but when we were His enemies. If, when we were enemies (saith S. Paul) we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, &c. Our inexistence, indeed, was a condition, wherein nothing in us was capable of being a motive of God's love. But our enmity proceeded further, and made us worthy of His detestation ; as if His love were nothing, unless it van- quished obstacles, as well as wanted motives. This gave the Apostle just cause to say, that God commendeth His love to us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us ; that is, when we wanted all motives to invite His love, unless our very want of them should pass for one. And how did God express His love unto us ? Even by the gift of the Son of His love. " Por God so loved the world" (says the Divine token of His love) " that He gave His only begotten Son." And how did that Son love it ? " He," says the Apostle, " being in the form of God thought it no robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. And, being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross ;" that is, that He would love at no less rate than death ; and from the supereminent height of Glory stooped and abased Himself to the sufferance of the extremest indignities, and sunk Himself to the bottom of abjectedness, to exalt our condition to the contrary extreme. . . . Men, having displeased God, and con- sequently forfeited all right and natural possibility to happiness, even whilst they completed the forlornness of their condition by the lethargy of not being sensible of it, and were as careless ROMANS V. 8, 9. 215 to seek means of recovery, as they had been unable to devise them of themselves — even then, His restless Love would never be quiet, till it had set His Omniscience on work to con- trive expedients, and find out a way to reconcile His Justice and His Mercy, in reconciling sinners to Himself. And this merciful design, by the Incarnation of His Son, He prosecuted in a way so worthy of Himself, and so advantageous to us, that our just wonder at it may keep us from having any, when we find that, as S. Peter informs us, the very Angels (prompted, questionless, by a religious curiosity) ardently " desire to look into" those Divine mysteries. 1 S. Pet. i. 11. Hon. Robert Boyle. (Some Motives and Incentives to the Love of God.) 0 altitudo ! Love incomprehensible ! It swalloweth up the sense and understanding of men and Angels ; fitter to be admired, and adored with silence, than blemished with any of our weak expressions ! Bp. Sanderson. 0 ! Blessed Jesus, let us judge of Thy Love by Thy sufferings ; and of both, by the impossibility of fully comprehending either. Bp. Home. 9 Expiation of sin is made, when, upon something done or suffered (either or both), according to God's pleasure, appointment, and acceptance, God is pacified ; the fault is pardoned ; the guilt extinguished ; the punishment prevented ; and the sinner re- leased. ('ATToXuTpwffts, Eph. i. 7 ; Col. i. 14 ; Heb. ix. 12. Ka6afit(T/Lio9, Titus ii. 14 ; Heb. i. .3 ; 1 S. John i. 7. 'A^iia." Yet see, be- loved, with how great strength this mortal weakness is re- paired ! For thus to be able to encounter with Death, the fear- fuUest of all God's curses, and through Christ to overcome it, as all true Christians do, to turn the greatest curse into the greatest Blessing, is more than Immortality. Verse 6 ; viii. 36 — 39. John Hales. (Christian Omnipotency. Serm. on Phil. iv. 13.) What then ? Shall we fear death ourselves, or grieve excessively at the departure of our Christian friends, when we see that by dying both we and they become Immortal ? No, sure ; we will rather sing that triumph now by faith, which the prophet fore- tells we may actually use hereafter, and say ; O Death ! which hast laid so many thousands of all ages prostrate at thy feet, thou hast struck them once, and where is thy sting ? thou hast utterly lost it by using it once, and canst never hurt any more, since all have put on Immortality. O Gi'ave ! thou strict keeper of all those, whom Death sent prisoners to thee, where are all those captives committed to thy custody ? where is that trophy of thy victory — the bodies of the Saints, that fell into thy power ? Are all thy prisoners fled ? not one left in thy keep- ing ? They have all put on incorruption, and taken their leave of thee for ever. 'Tis true Death was once armed with a just power, as the executioner of God's wrath on sinful mankind ; but now it is as justly disarmed ; since Jesus hath satisfied for our sins, so that it hath no power at all to hurt us: for the sting 240 ROMANS V. 21. of this scorpion Death, and that, which enabled it first to smite U8, is sin, which deserved Death temporal and eternal ; and the strength of sin, (iii. 19, 20 ; v. 13 ; vii. 5,) which enabled it to pull us under the feet of Death and makes us captives to it, is the Law of God, by the breach and transgression whereof we became sinners, and obnoxious to the punishment of Death, which God hath annexed thereto. But our Blessed Eedeemer, having fulfilled the Law and submitted to the punishment of Death due to us, for the breaking thereof, hath now taken away both "the sting of death" and "the strength of sin." Let us therefore with all possible joy and gratitude say. Thanks be to God our merciful Fathke, who appointed His dear Son to fight this great battle, and who giveth us poor mortal creatures the victory over this mighty foe ; which we could never have ob- tained, but through our Lord Jesus Christ, who by His precious Death and Burial hath so absolutely conquered Death and the Grave, that they cannot hold us under their power, but we shall certainly be raised up again to live with Him in all felicity for ever and ever. Dean Comber. (A Companion to the Temple. P. iv. The Office for the Burial of the Dead.) CHAPTER VI. T\7HAT shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound ? 2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein ? 3 Know ye not, that so many of us as w^ere baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death : that like as Christ was raised up from ROMANS VI. 1. 241 the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 1 The Jewish objection, anticipated at iii. 31, Do we then make void the law through faith ? together with this licentious per- version of the truth, Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound ? may both alike have originated from the same impure source, the heresy of the G-nostics ; perhaps the earliest, cer- tainly the most dangerous, corruption of the Grospel of Christ. By a strange inconsistency the Gnostics, while addicted to the most vicious habits of life, were very zealous for the observance of the Law ; and, consequently, they would retain it, as a Cove- nant of formal works, but could not do otherwise than reject it, as a Eule of holy living. Already had S. Paul rebuked a kin- dred spirit of Antinomianism ; •' Despisest thou the riches of His goodness and forbearance and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance ?^^ (ii. 4). By his now employing an entire chapter, to serve as an antidote for ever to this moral infection, he seems to have been gifted with some foreknowledge of its wide spreading in the Church, and of the vast havoek, it would make of the souls of men, in future ages — even, alas ! to our present time. We have two remarkable instances of his manner of guarding from misinter- pretation and abuse the great doctrine of Justification by faith (see Eph. ii. 8 — 10 ; Titus iii. 5 — 8) ; nor is it improbable that the Reformers of our Church had his holy care and vigilance in their recollection, when in the eleventh Article — where this doctrine is stated in general terms — they refer, for a right un- derstanding of it, to the Homily " Of the Salvation of man- kind." In the second part of that Homily it is written ; " Al- though this doctrine be never so true, (as it is most true indeed), that we be justified freely, without all merit of our good works, (as S. Paul doth express it), and freely, by this lively and per- fect faith in Christ only, (as the ancient authors use to speak), yet this true doctrine must be also truly understood, and most plainly declared ; lest carnal men should take unjustly occasion thereby to live carnally after the appetite and will of the world, the flesh, and the devil." /. F. s 242 ROMANS VI. 1, 2. When an answer is to be given to those, who so interpret certain passages of the Apostolic writings, especially the passages, which speak of the efficacy of the death of Christ, or draw sucli inferences from these passages, as amount to a dispensing with the obligations of virtue, then the best method of proving that their's cannot be a right interpretation, nor their's a just inference, is by shewing (which fortunately we are able to do) that it is the very interpretation, and these the very inferences, which the Apostles were themselves aware of, which they pro- vided against, and which they protested against, iii. 1, 31 ; iv. 1; xi. 1. Dr. Paley. (Serm. on Text.) 1 see, at this day, the very opposers of the Gospel stand among the proofs of it. The vagrant and stumbling Jew, the super- cilious Greek, the disputatious heretic, the sneering infidel, the loose professor, all these become involuntary witnesses, that the Author of this Book is a searcher of hearts. He has ex- pressly written their history, and accurately drawn their cha- racters, before they were born ; and, were not such characters afterwards to appear, the Scriptures would be unintelligible, ix. 19 ; xvi. 17, 18. R. Cecil. (Reasons for Repose.) 2 There is not a more tried shaft in all the devil's quiver, than this ; a persuasion to men to bear themselves too bold upon the favour of God. xi. 19, 20. Bp. Hall. In the last chapter he had spoken particularly of the abounding of Grace beyond the abounding of transgression ; in that it availed, through one great act of righteousness or of justifica- tion on the part of Christ, to redeem those, who had been guilty of many sins. And he had said that the very multipli- cation of ofi"ences, that is, of known and marked ofiences by the Law, thus tended to the glory of the Divine grace. But would it be the same with transgressions under grace ? Would grace be more glorified by their abounding ? He rejects the thought with indignation : for how shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein ? . . . The very partaking of death, in respect of sin, implies that we have done with it: going on in sin is living to sin, and wants another death to cure it. But Christ has died, once for all ; and the purpose, at least, of the Gospel is, that we should, once for all, accept death unto sin ROMANS VI. .3. 243 with Him, and then live the life of grace in Him. C. Marriott. (Lectures on the Epistle to the Eomans. 9.) This new Covenant is then consigned to us, when we first come to Cheist ; that is, when we first profess ourselves His dis- ciples and His servants, disciples of His doctrine and servants of His institution ; that is, in Baptism, in which Christ, who died for our sins, makes us partakers of His death. For we are buried by Baptism into His death, saith S. Paul. Which was also represented in ceremony by the immersion, appointed to be the rite of that Sacrament. And then it is, that GrOD pours forth, together with the Sacramental waters, a salutary and holy fountain of Grace to wash the soul from all its stains and impure adherences. And therefore this first access to Cheist is in the style of Scripture called " regeneration, the new birth, redemption, renovation, expiation, or atonement with God, and justification." And these words in the New Testa- ment relate principally and properly to the abolition of sins committed before Baptism. For we are "justified freely by His grace through the redemption, that is in Jesus Christ, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation, to declare His righteous- ness for the remission of sins that are past : to declare, I say, at this time His righteousness." And this is that, which S. Paul calls "justification by faith," that " boasting might be excluded," and the Grace of God by Jesus made exceeding glorious (iii. 24 — 28.) Por, this being the proper work of Christ, the first entertainment of a disciple, and manifestation of that state, which is first given him as a favour, and next intended as a duty, is a total abolition of the precedent guilt of sin, and leaves nothing remaining, that can condemn : we then freely receive the entire and perfect efiect of that Atonement, which Christ made for us ; we are put into a condition of innocence and favour. And this, I say, is done regularly in Baptism, and S. Paul expresses it in this sense : after he had enumerated a series of vices subjected in many, he adds, " And such were some of you, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified" (1 Cor. vi. 11.) There is nothing of the old guilt remanent : when ye were " washed," ye were " sanctified ;" or, as the Scripture calls it in another place, "ye were redeemed from your vain converaa- R 2 244 ROMANS VI. 3, 4. tion." (1 S. Pet. i. 28.) Bp. J. Taylor. (The Life of our Blessed Lord, &c. P. ii. s. xii. Disc. 9.) Baptism, considered in the first sense of the three general instru- ments of Holiness or preservatives against sin, contains a solemn profession of the Christian faith, and actual renunciation of those enemies of Christianity, the world, the flesh, and the devil ; it is a listing oneself into the service and obedience of Cheist. And, because I cannot think that there is any essen- tial part in the system of Christianity merely ceremonial, I cannot think, but that, besides the admission into the Church, which is the Body of Christ, and consequently a title to all the glorious privileges of its members, both which we derive from Baptism, our Blessed Saviour doth endow the person baptized with power from on high to perform all those great engagements he takes upon him : as will appear to any one, who shall consider ; 1. The nature of Christianity, which doth alway annex a grace to the external mean or instrument ; or, 2. The great things spoken of this Sacrament ; or, 3. The value all understanding Christians have had for it, or for the efiects, which followed it, when practised in the infancy of the Church : and I humbly conceive this to be the sense of the Church of England, which supposes the things, signified by the outward ceremony of Baptism, to be " a death unto sin and a new birth unto righteousness." Dr. Lucas. (Practical Christi- anity, &c. P. iv. ch. i.) The Western Church, after S. Augustine, spake of the blessing of Baptism, as the remission of sin ; the Eastern Church, as the introduction of a new principle of life : but both, as flowing from our engrafting into Christ. Dr. Pusey. 4 Christ calleth His death a Baptism (S. Luke xii. 50) : so S. Augustine calls our Baptism a Death. Quod Christo crux et se- pulchrum, id nobis Baptisma. Baptism, says he, is our cross, and our passion, and our burial ; that is, in that we are conformed to Christ, as He suff"ered, died, and was buried. Because, if we be so baptized into His Name and into His death, we are thereby dead to sin, and have died the death of the righteous. Dr. Donne. (Serm. on G-al. iii. 27.) Let us never lose sight of this great and simple view, which the ROMANS VI. 4. 245 whole of Scripture sets before us. What was actually done by Cheist in the flesh, eighteen hundred years ag6, is in type and resemblance really wrought in us, one by one, even to the end of time. He was born of the Spirit, and we too are born of the Spirit. He was justified by the Spirit, and so are we. He was pronounced the " well-beloved Son," when the Holt Ghost descended on Him, and we too cry " Abba, Fathee," through the Spirit sent into our hearts. He was led into the wilderness by the Spirit, He did great works by the Spirit, He offered Himself to death by the Eternal Spirit, He was raised from the dead by the Spirit, He was declared to be the Son of God by the Spirit of holiness on His resurrection ; we too are led by the same Spirit into and through this world's temptations ; we too do our works of obedience by the Spirit ; we die from sin, we rise again unto righteousness through the Spirit ; and we are declared to be God's sons — declared, pronounced, dealt with as righteous — through our resurrection unto holiness in the Spirit. Or, to express the same great truth in other words, Christ Himself vouchsafes to repeat in each of us, in figure and mystery, all, that He did and suffered in the flesh. He is formed in us, born in us, suffers in us, rises again in us, lives in us ; and this, not by a succession of events, but all at once : for He comes to us, as a Spirit, all dying, all rising again, all living. We are ever being born, ever being justified, ever being renewed, dying to sin, rising to righteousness. His whole eco- nomy in all its parts is ever in us all, at once : and this Divine Presence constitutes the title of each of us to heaven : this is what He will acknowledge and accept at the last Day. He will acknowledge Himself — His image in us — as though we re- flected Him, and He, on looking round about, discerned at once who were His ; those, namely, who gave back to Him His image. He impresses us with the seal of the Spirit, in order to avouch that we are His. As the king's image appropriates the coin to him, so the likeness of Cheist in us separates us from the world, and assigns us over to the kingdom of heaven, vi. 4 — 6. (Refer to lUustr. S. John xvii. 16. Valdesso. Pascal.) J. H. Newman. (Eighteousness not of us, but in us. Serm. on 1 Cor. i. 30, 31.) The power, by which Christians are enabled to walk in newness of 246 ROMANS VI. 5. life^ is always attributed to the effectual operation of God's in- dwelling Spirit ; the same Spirit, to whom the Resurrection of Chbist is more peculiarly and emphatically ascribed (i. 4 ; viii. 11). . . . It follows therefore that, in this text, ^Ae . 309 undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven." (1 S. Pet. i. 3.) A third doth say, " We know that we are trans- lated from death unto life." (1 S. John iii. 14.) All sing and say with Zacharie, " Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He hath visited and redeemed His people." (S. Luke i. 68.) xiv, 17; XV. 29. Bean Boys. (Exposition of the Dominical Epistles, &c. Ep. Sixteenth Sunday after Trin.) Three considerations of great importance seemingly forbid our applying the melancholy picture, which S. Paul in this chapter draws of human weakness and inconsistency, to his own moral state at the time being, or to the state of any person, at any time, living under the light and grace of the Gospel. Eor, 1. Such an interpretation is wholly repugnant to what S. Paul elsewhere affirms of himself and of all true Christians.^ 2. To understand the regenerate, as serving ivith the flesh the law of sin (BovXevwi'), is to defeat the Apostle's object, who in ch, vi. — viii., would set forth the necessity of holiness in believers, the provision made for it in the Gospel, together with the deficiency and failure of the Law in this respect, and its proved tendency to discover and provoke sin ; to condemn, rather than to con- vert, the sinner. 3. The total absence of all mention of the Spirit in this chapter — the conflict here not being between " the flesh and the Spirit," when the Spirit comes off" victorious ; but between natural reason and partially enlightened conscience (" the inward man"), on the one hand, and the mighty prin- ciple of natural lust and concupiscence (" the flesh"), on the other. (See Gal. vi. 16 — 18, and Dr. Hammond at verse 15.) The sanctifying work of the Spirit is reserved for mention, till the next chapter (viii. 1 — 13), where it completes the Apostle's argument, shewing us how we are " set free from the Law of sin and of death," and obtain power not to " fulfil the lusts of the flesh," provided we make a good use of that power, given us, through Christ, in the Gospel. Still, though these strong ' The reader is referred to Kettle- truth of what is here asserted, and well's " Measures of Christian Obedi- j gives an exposition and copious para- ence," where this whole question is i phrase of chapters vi. 14 to viii. 4, fully considered : B. iii. Ch. 4. The i inclusive, excellent author proves, in detail, the ' 310 ROMANS VII. 25. expressions are, in their literal strictness and primary meaning, inapplicable to true Christians, yet they may be accommodated to them nnder peculiar trials, and derelictions, and assaults of the enemy, when they most painfully feel their remaining frail- ties and imperfections — what they are in themselves. In this manner, the best Christians have used it : in this manner, the best Divines have allowed its use, while, at the same time they have rightly distinguished between sins of infirmity and pre- sumptuous sins ; between sin, being and dwelling in the Chris- tian, and sin, reigning and having dominion over him ; between the flesh in the regenerate, which is not subject to the law of God, and that Spirit of Grace in them, whereby they trium- phantly oppose and throw off the evil. J. F. The simple obvious meaning of the whole passage and the teach- ing of the Church are one ; that S. Paul in this place is speaking of the people under the Law, not under the Grospel ; and not only so, but that it should not be the case of persons under the Gospel. . . . When I say its meaning, I intend its chief mean- ing, that, which is the primary and prominent meaning of the whole passage, taken together in its fullest sense. For all say- ings of Holy Scripture have manifold meanings and applications ; they fit to the one or the other case ; or rather the one and the other case comes under them. They have higher and lower meanings ; they take in the highest, and yet do not shut out the lowest ; they apply to all our wants, all our little daily trials and difficulties, all the many thousand emergencies of the many thousands of Christians at all times ; they are written to suit all our countless minds, and characters, and dispositions, and frames of mind ; to correct all, amend all, satisfy all our lawful cravings ; they have depths for the profoundest, yea, it seems, which " Angels desire to look into ;" yet they have that on the surface, wherein the " wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err." The same words are " milk for babes," and " strong meat for those of full age ;" they are the food of our childhood ; and, since their depths have been never exhausted, no, not by the meditative wisdom of the whole Christian Church, it would seem, as though it were to be a joy to us to know " the mani- fold wisdom of God " therein, even when we see Himself in ROMANS VIII. 1. 311 heaven : and so, being adapted to so many varied ends, the same words present so many different faces, as it were, accordingly as they are differently viewed It may then be sadly true that the words of this description of man's weakness, separately and by themselves, suit too well what Christians feel in them- selves at times ; or, they may altogether describe what too many, who have been made Christians, have brought themselves to ; or they may suit a part of the life of the regenerate, but not the whole; his condition, as to some remaining infirmity; and this more or less, but not his whole self; or some parts may suit the confessions of eminent Saints, yet not the whole ; or they might belong to them in a lower degree or sense, not in the full meaning, which they have in the plan of Holy Scrip- ture itself, taken as a whole. Dr. Puseij. (Christian Life a struggle. Serm. on Eom. vii. 22 — 25.) CHAPTER VIII. ^HERE is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. 1 The Jewish Law not only prepared for the introduction of the Gospel by its types and prophecies, and by preserving the prin- ciples of sound theology and pure morals, which, without it, would probably have been almost irrevocably banished from the earth ; but, by the strictness of its moral prohibitions and its denunciations of Gron's displeasure against sin, it probed and exposed the moral maladies of man. It proved to him by de- cisive experience his proneness to violate the Commands of his 312 ROMANS VIIT. 1. God, even when most distinctly promulgated, and his culpable neglect of duties of the most obvious necessity ; so that he could not but acknowledge how infinitely improbable it was that he could by his own unassisted strength escape sin ; and that, con- sequently, far from being able to claim eternal happiness, as a reward, which human merit might challenge from Divine jus- tice, he was liable to condemnation and punishment. Thus the Law prepared men to hail with fervent gratitude the glad tidings of the Gospel of peace, which oflfers the aid of the Divine Spirit, to assist the weakness of those who will humbly implore and diligently improve it, and proclaims fi'ee pardon to all, who, repenting of their sins, and acknowledging their own in- ability to escape from their power or expiate their guilt, em- brace with faith and joy those gracious terms of pardon and acceptance, offered by the mediation of that Jestjs, " who was delivered for their offences, and raised again for their justifica- tion." X. 4. Dean Graves. (Lectures on the Four last Books of the Pentateuch. Part iii., Lecture 6.) Christianity is that period of the Wisdom and Providence of Goi), wherein the animal life is remarkably insulted and triumphed over by the Divine. Dr. H. More. Promises are made, and privileges belong to characters, not to persons. Seldom or never in the Word of God is any con- solation proposed to God's people or children otherwise, than by some distinguishing mark of their character, by which they diff"er from all hypocrites. " All things work together for good" — to whom ? to God's people ? Yes : but they are such, as "love God." There is no condemnation — to whom? to be- lievers ? Tes : but they are such, as walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. "Like as a father pitieth his own children, even so the LoKD pitieth" — whom? His children? Tes: but this is their character ; " those, that fear Him." Are they, who " walk in darkness and have no light," encouraged to •' trust in the Name of the Loed, and to stay upon their God ?" Yes : but they must be such, as " fear the Loed, and obey the voice of His servant." This is universally the method of Scrip- ture ; and well had it been for the souls of men, if it had been always imitated, and consolation never proposed in general ROMANS VIII. 1. 313 terms to the children of God, simply as such, and without any further description, but to persons, who are of such a character, liave such inward experiences, longing desires, breathings after God and holiness ; and from this inward source produce habi- tually the fruits of edifying conversation and holy conduct. The contrary course has an evident tendency to bolster up the confidence of the presumptuous hypocrite, who, like a greedy dog, devours "the children's food" without fear or shame, and, when rebuked for it, is ready to "turn again and rend" the faithful servant of God ; while the humble fearful believer, not daring to think himself a child, for want of having the evidences of it pointed out to him, stands trembling at a distance, and dares not venture to taste a morsel of wliat all belongs exclu- sively to him. Most assuredly this undistinguishing way of preaching is " casting that, which is holy, unto the dogs ;" and I am deeply convinced is one of the worst mistakes a preacher can fall into ; tending most directly to stupify the consciences and harden the hearts of the ungodly, and to " strengthen their hands, that they should not return from their evil way ;" and, in proportion, discouraging the heart of the humble, broken, con- trite believer. Would we be "as God's mouth," let us learn to distinguish between " the precious and the vile." Thomas Scott. (Extracts from an unpublished Work. P. ii. See his Works, vol. xii. p. 440.) The reader will have observed how the fundamental truth of the Doctrine of the Ever-Blessed Trinity springs up, as it were, spontaneously in the course of this Epistle. Nowhere formally stated, its golden thread is interwoven in the main outline and substance of the argument. The Epistle to the Eomans then confirms our excellent Church Catechism ; nor w'ere we wrongly taught, when learning the Apostolic Creed, that we should, first, believe in God, the Father, who hath made me and all the world ; secondly, in God, the Son, loho hath redeemed me and all man- kind; thirdly, in God, the Holy Ghost, who sanetifieth me and all the Elect people of God. The two first chapters of this Epistle bear witness to the "Eternal Power and Godhead" of the Ea- THEE, the source and fountain of the Deity. What then follows after, to the end of the fifth chapter, leads us to contemplate 314 ROMANS VIII. 1. 2. "the grace of our Loed Jesus Christ," "the Second Adam," in His atoning work of Universal Redemption. And here, in the chapter now before us, have we not that other correspond- ing and completing work of the Holt Spieit ; who is therefore called Holy, because He makes us holy, and sets us free from the Law of sin and of death ? xv. 30. J. F. The Blessed Jesus came into the world, on the part of God, to declare pardon and salvation to the forfeited posterity of Adam. He testified the truth of His mission by amazing miracles, and sealed man's Eedemption in His Blood by the more amazing Sacrifice of Himself upon the Cross. But, as the Eedemption so procured could only operate on each individual under certain conditions of faith and obedience, very repugnant to our cor- rupt nature, the Blessed E-edeemer on leaving the world pro- mised to His followers His intercession with the Pathee to send amongst them another Divine Person, on the part of man ; namely, the Holt Ghost, called the Spirit of Truth and the Comforter, who, agreeably to the import of these appellations, should co-operate with man in establishing his faith and in per- fecting his obedience ; or, in other words, should Sanctify him to Eedemption. This is a succinct account of the economy of Grace, entirely consonant to our most approved conceptions of the Divine Nature and of the human condition. For, if man was to be reinstated in a free-gift, which had been justly for- feited, we cannot but confess that, as, on the one hand, the restoration might be made on what conditions best pleased the giver, so, on the other, that God would graciously provide that it should not be made in vain. An Atonement therefore for the offended Majesty of the Fathee was first to be procured ; and this was the work of the Son : and then a remedy was to be provided for that helpless condition of man, which hindered the Atonement from producing its efieet ; and this was the office of the Holt Ghost ; so that both were joint workers in the great business of Eeconciling God to man. Bp. Warburton. (A Discourse concerning the Office and Operations of the Holt Spieit.) 2 As Cueist hath purchased Him a people by victory, so His Eegal office is considerable in the government of His people. ROMANS Vlll. 2. 315 that He hath so acquired. He hath given them a Law to live by, the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus, which makes them free from the law of sin and death ; the law of God, vin- dicated from the false glosses, which the corruption of men had in succession of time put upon it ; a law, sweetened, and strengthened, and actuated by the love of God wrought in the soul ; a law, though of the highest perfection and purity, yet accompanied with the merits of Christ to pardon, and the righteousness of Chbist to cover, our defects in our perform- ance of it. He hath given them "a new heart," and this law of His written in this heart. He hath given them of His own Spirit a spirit of life, to quicken them, and of power to enable them to obey. And because, notwithstanding this conquest of Christ of a people to Himself, they are still beset with ene- mies, that would reduce them to their former bondage. He watcheth over them and in them by His grace, wasting, and weakening, and resisting their corruptions, by new supplies and influences from Him ; quickening their hearts by renewed de- rivations of life and spirit from Him, which otherwise would sink and die under the weight of their own earth ; encounter- ing temptations, that, like fogs and vapours, arise out of our own flesh, or, like storms or snares, raised or placed by the devil against us — either by diverting them, or by giving suffi- cient grace to oppose them. These and the like administrations doth our Saviour use, which, though they are secret and not easily discerned by us, and though they are ordered without any noise or appearance, yet they are works of greater power, and of greater concernment, and of equal reality with all the visible administrations of things in this world, which are more obvious to our own sense. . . . This is that kingdom of God " within them" (S. Luke xvii. 21) consisting " in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holt Ghost" (Horn. xiv. 17), " casting down imaginations and every high thing, that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ" (2 Cor. x. 5). Sir Matthew Hale. (Medit. on the Lord's Prayer.) 3 For what the law could not do, in that it was 316 ROMANS VIII 3. weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh : 4 That the righteousness of the law might be ful- filled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 3 Let us inquire, whether the several ends were not fully com- passed by the sufferings of Cheist, which might be promoted by the personal sufferings of sinners. What then are the ends of punishment ? The maintenance of Law, no doubt ; and to prevent the violation of it. They were threatened with this view, and they are executed for the same reasons. Where punishments are not eternal, they may serve for the sinner's own amendment ; or, if you please, to prevent his own future offences. And, where they are eternal, they may serve to im- press an awe on others, and to preserve them in a continual state of obedience. But are not these ends as fully answered by the sufferings of Cheist, as by the sufferings of the sinner ? Can the strict righteousness of GrOD, His unalterable love of virtue, and His inilexible aversion to sin, be more clearly evi- denced, than by not " sparing His own Son" (viii. 32), when He sustained the character of sinners ? After this, can any hope to escape the indignation and severity of God, if he still goes on wilfully in his sins ? And can there be any higher motives proposed, whereby either to confirm the innocent, or to reclaim the offender ? If not, we may affirm, that the suffer- ings of Cheist in our stead have answered every purpose, which could be answered by the punishment of ourselves. . . . On account of this, the sufferings of Cheist may, not unfitly, be said to make " a full, perfect, and sufficient satisfaction for the sins of the whole world." ... To satisfy, is a payment made, in one kind or way, for somewhat due in another. Such a satisfaction hath Cheist made — a satisfaction for the punish- ment of sin, by bearing it Himself — and a satisfaction, in some sort, for sin committed — by taking away all the ill consequences of that sin, by asserting the cause of virtue in the strongest ROMANS VIII. 3. 317 manner, by restoring Law to its original dignity, and by pro- curing to the Divine Perfections the profouudest veneration — to Holiness, whose laws had been violated ; to Justice, whose severity bad been despised ; to Wisdom, whose precepts had been neglected ; and to Goodness, whose favours had been re- ceived indeed, but forgotten. And, if this be not a full and perfect, and, of consequence, a sufficient satisfaction, it ia im- possible to say what can be sufficient ; or, indeed, what satis- faction means at all. Bp. Conybeare. (Serm. on 1 S. Pet. iii. 18.) This is not a Satisfaction, that will give us leave to enjoy our vices, and atone for us ; a price, that will buy off the guilt of all our sins, and let us have them. The Satisfaction of this In- finite value looks at the vindication of God's Honour and His Laws, and serves the end of government, and assures the sinner, who amends not, that he must for ever perish. And thus this Sacrifice for sin condemned sin to death, by His own Death, which Death, that we would imitate, we did engage in Baptism. Dr. Allestree. (Baptism a Death to Sin. Serm. on Eom. vi. 3.) What possibility is there for us to keep the Commandments ? S. Paul tells us of to Ativva-rov 70V vofiov, the impossibility of the Law, in respect of our inability to perform and fulfil it. S. Peter tells us of the yoke of the Law, that it was insupportable (Acts XV. 10). I answer, the Law of God is, in itselfj a heavy burden ; but yet a heavy burden may be made tolerable two ways ; and both of them are here in the text (S. John xiv. 15, 16). 1. The Love of CiiiiiST endues the soul with much strength. In amove aut non laboratur, aut labor ipse amatiir. Love never complains of labour. Love enables us to labour, to bear, to endure, to suffer. It will " bear all things :" it will "endure all things" (1 Cor. xiii. 7). 2. Love doth alleviate and lighten the burden of the Law. This is implied in the text, Mea, My Commandments : that's both a lightening and a sweetening word. The Law, as enjoined by Moses, 'tis insup- portable ; but, as Cheist imposes it in the gracious equity of the Gospel, 'tis a gentle yoke, and so an easy burden. Chkist abates the rigour, takes off the terror of Moses' Law. " Let not God speak to us ;" nay, let not Moses speak to us, " lest we 318 ROMANS VIII. 3. die;" but let Cheist speak to us. Thus Augustine prays. Legem mihi constitue in Christo. Lex in Christo est Lex cum misericordid. The Law from Sinai is a dreadful Law, but the Law from Sion is a gracious Law, when it is delivered to us in the hand of such a Mediator, as Cheist is,'with those gracious condescensions to our weakness and merciful allowances for our imperfections, which the Gospel affords us. Though we can- not perform His Commandments to a just satisfaction, yet we may perform them to a gracious acceptation. This made S. Paul say, " I can do all things through Cheist, that strengthens me" (Phil. iv. 13). Through Cheist abating and through Cheist enabling, we may " do all things," Bp. Brownriff. (Serm. on S. John xiv. 15, 16.) Grace makes us love our dut^^, and so takes place of the Law. We want no law to make us eat and drink : so long as our bodies are in health, the natural appetite comes instead of the law ; and how much surer and better does it accomplish its purpose ! So it is with our souls. When they have gained a spiritual ap- petite for their food, the law is then dead to them, and their own inclination is far better, than the law. . . . But how was this wonderful change to be brought about ? Or, how can we, who are evil, be thus made to love good things ? The Apostle will tell us this also. God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, hut after the Spirit. There is much con- tained in these few words ; no less indeed, than the whole sub- stance of the Gospel. Cheist was in the likeness of sinfid flesh, and, as such. He died ; but He was the Son of God also, and therefore He rose again. He put Himself in our place ; He died therefore, as we are all destined to die : but, because He rose, that was a sign that sin was conquered, and that we should all rise to life also. But He rose, because of the Divine Spirit within Him ; and, in order to enable us to rise, the same Spirit, though in far inferior measure, is given also to us. So then, because Cheist died, we are forgiven ; because Cheist rose, we have the Spirit of God given to us also, that we may rise, as He did. And how does the Spirit act upon us, but by "taking ROMANS VIII. 3. 319 of the things of Cheist and shewing them to us ?" It points out Christ dying for us, that we might live : it points out God opening His arras to receive us, forgiving all our sins, and call- ing us no longer servants, but children, heirs of His own king- dom, of His own immortality, of His own holiness. Thus shew- ing to us the infinite mercy and love of GrOD, it awakens an answering love in our own bosoms ; and holding out such a glorious prospect of our becoming hereafter the sons of God in glory, and happiness, and holiness, as we are already regarded by Him with the affection of a Fathee, so we strive to " purify ourselves, even as He is pure ;" and the glorious hope thus set before us throws into the shade all earthly hopes and desires, that might have before engrossed us. But more than this : the Spirit helps our infirmities, and works a secret change within us, without which the love of God and the glories of His king- dom would have been offered to our eyes in vain. Br. Arnold. (Serm. on Rom. vi. 14.) From comparing Deut. ix. 24 with Phil. i. 5 we shall derive a striking confirmation of this truth ; namely, the inefficiency of the Moral Law in the hands of Moses, and then the power of the Gospel as "the Law of Cheist," ministered by S. Paul. What is the language of Moses ? " Te have been rebellious against the Loed from the day that I hiew yoxC (see also xxxi. 27). How writes S. Paul? "I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all, making request with joy, for your fellowship hi the Gospel from the first day until tiow.^' (Conf. Col. i. 6.) But why does S. Paul call the Gospel " the Law of Cheist" (Gal. vi. 2) ? and why does he call the Christian religion, under its two main branches of Justification and Sanctification, " the Law of Paith" (iii. 27) and " the Law of the Spirit of Life ?" Have we not, in this, another proof of his anxiety to consult the pre- possessions of the Jew in favour of a Law ; so that, by applying that term to the Doctrine he taught, he might gradually smooth the way for its reception among his brethren, and make the transition, as from one law to another, less perceptible, less ab- rupt, less repugnant to their feelings ? We know the import- ance and value attached to a name. Does the Apostle here act 320 ROMANS VIII. 4. upon this knowledge ? Does this instance confirm what he elsewhere asserts of himself; " Unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews ; to them that are under the Law, as under the Law, that I might gain them that are under the Law'' (1 Cor. ix. 20) ? ii. 17. J. F. 4 All the Old Testament is fulfilled ; each part, as it is capable of fulfilment. The types are fulfilled in Cheist, and in His Body the Church. The prophecies are fulfilled, and are fulfilling in Cheist, and the onward course of Christianity, and its im- pressions on the world. The precepts of the Ceremonial Law are some of them abrogated by the fulfilment of their types ; their spirit is incorporated into the larger system of the Gospel ; and the commands of the Moral Law are fulfilled by our obe- dience to it. Eor the notion of moral duties being fulfilled in any way, but by obedience, seems to me, I confess, not worth refuting. . . . The Old Testament intimates ; but the New Testament enlarges and expands, gives the shadow to its body, gives to the command its motive and extent. . . . The Gospel is a Covenant, " established upon better promises ;" better in their object, better in the means of accomplishing it, better in their endurance and everlasting stability. Bp. Medley. (Serm. on E-om.xv. 4 ; on Gal. iii. 17; and on Ps. cxix. 97 — 105.) Seeing, that justification, which is by faith in CnEiST, so much pressed by S. Paul, presupposeth that state of integrity, or quality for acceptance with God, whereunto S. James requireth works, or (to use his words) " the fulfilling of the Eoyal law of liberty," without respect of persons, or reserved indulgence to our desires, it will be necessary briefly to examine how far the Law may be fulfilled by us in this life ; or, which is all one, with what measure of inherent righteousness or sanctifying grace that faith, which only justifieth, must be accompanied. Now seeing the Law is but the image of God's Will, or of that internal law of righteousness, which was in Cheist, whereunto faith includes a conformity, such a fulfilling of the Law in this life, as may witness our true imitation of Divine goodness — not in good will or mind only, but in good works — is in this life not only possible, but requisite. We must be " perfect, as our Heavenly Fathee is perfect" (S. Matt. v. 48) — which speech ROMANS VIII. 4. 321 of our Saviouk cannot be understood, according to the measure of perfection — (nor was He Himself, as man, so holy and per- fect as God His Father) — but according to the truth of the proposition: for vero nihil verius ; we must be as truly perfect and holy, according to that imperfect measure, which our pol- luted nature is capable of, as God is, according to the infinite or absolute perfection of holiness : yet, we are not holy, after the manner Cheist was holy ; or Adam, in the state of his in- tegrity. It is a very fit distinction used by divines in this argument, that there is a two-fold perfection ; one, of parts ; another, of degrees: whereof the former is as necessary, as the latter is impossible, to all in this life. The perfection of parts may, in general, be illustrated by a child, or infant, which, though wanting the strength and agility, hath the true life and right proportion of man in every part, and able, in some sort, to move every member it hath, though not by perfect motion ... or, as with our best righteousness there is a mixture of sin inherent, this perfection of parts may more aptly be com- pared unto a child, endued with life and rightly proportioned, yet subject to some disease or infirmity ; able to walk, but prone to stumble and fall. Dean Jackson. (Works. B. iv. ch. 8, s. 1.) Here is the proper answer, once for all, to the serious demand of the Jew — Bo toe make void the Law through faith ? (iii. 31.) The /.postle might have retorted against the objector another question ; one he had already employed on a similar occasion ; Received ye the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by the hearing of faith? (Gal. iii. 2.) Under the Law, they were left to their own unassisted strength, with no Divine help to enable them to perform a perfect unsinning obedience. Under the Gospel, when the same obedience was enjoined, dat Dominus quodjnbet. It is God, who " worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure" (Phil. ii. 13) — the expressions seem mercifully ordered to meet the very wants and complaints of the preceding chapter (vii. 18). And what is this " good pleasure," but His very Covenant of grace and mercy ; His sure promise to " put His laws into our minds and to write them in our hearts" (Heb. viii. 10), and thus to make us a will- Y 322 * ROMANS VIII. 5. ing and an obedient people, " in the Day of His Power" (Ps. ex. 3), that is, of the manifestation of His Power by the Gospel ? By virtue of this Covenant, when not frustrated through our neglect and ingratitude, God Himself establishes His own Law by the means of our faith. He makes it more, than prac- ticable ; He makes it " an easy yoke and a light burden" to the soul, that loveth Him. /. F. 5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh ; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. 6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spmtually minded is life and peace. 7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God : for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. 8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please • God. 5 The marks and signs of grace have made a great part of some men's divinity, and they are generally such, as do not want for latitude and comprehensiveness : to be sure, they contrived their business, so as to take in themselves and their own party. But certainly there is not a more notorious criterion, whereby to distinguish the prevalency either of the animal or of the Divine life, than to consider how the moral taste and relish — that which the Platonists call ar^aOoeiSes, the boni/orm faculty of the soul — stands affected. 'Tis a shrewd symptom of an ill habit of body, when the taste comes to be so vitiated, as to de- light to feed upon trash and unwholesome things ; and so 'tis in the state of the mind. The animal and sensualised man, as he does not perceive, so neither does he relish the things of God : they have no cougruity with that life and sense, that is most invigorated and awakened in him ; and therefore he pre- fers his husks and acorns, before the hidden Manna and the food of Angels. . . . This is a short and compendious, but a ROMANS VIII 6. 323 very great test of spiritual life, and that, whereby we may dis- tinguish a vital sense of religion from a formal profession. John Norris. (Serm. on Phil. iii. 20.) 6 I dare say you have observed the beautiful Epanodos in our Lord's admonition, " Behold, I send you forth," &c., " Be ye therefore wise as serpents," because ye are among wolves; but still "harmless as doves," because ye yourselves are as sheep. Did I ever direct your attention to a structure somewhat of this nature in Eom. viii. 6, 7 ? Or, may be, you have observed it yourself. To be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life, says S. Paul : just so much then is strictly equi- ponderant; but he adds, and peace. This, however, by itself would destroy the poise, and of course injure both the philo- logical and philosophical symmetry of the sentence. But mark, how he restores both the poise and symmetry forthwith, by immediately adding an antipode to ^jmce, of exactly the same nature with that, which already made the contrast to life, namely, Because the carnal mind is enmity against God — the direct opposite to " the grace of God, which passes all under- standing." This again leads me to observe, though it is not quite to your purpose, that we have here with perfect exactness the distinction of the Schoolmen, expressed by the term sub- jective and objective, in both instances of misery and happi- ness ; the subjective misery and happiness being death and life ; the objective happiness and misery being ^jmee and enmity to God ; which passage, by the way, I cannot help considering, as the most strictly elementary position, comprehending both the evil and the good, in the New Testament ; on the side of good, that Beatitude of our Eedeemer, " Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God," is still more profound and consummate. Alexander Knox. (Correspondence, &c. Letter 152.) Observe man's depravity in his punishment. In our present con- dition we can only relish earthly things ; and they* all conspire to disappoint our expectations. There must therefore, of ne- cessity, be a change both in the faculty and in the object, if ever we be happy : and our business here is not to accumulate riches, or fly from the sight of ourselves to amusements, but to acquire a true taste for things, that are excellent. . . . The Y 2 3.24 ROMANS VIII. 7. carnal mind is the life of sense, by wlaich is not meant gross sensuality, or immorality, but acquiescence in our state, as such, without any thought or desire of a change, loving and adhering to the world, a full relish of earthly enjoyments, and a fondness of earthly comforts and the means of procuring them. If this is the prevailing habit and temper of mind, God is fatally ex- cluded, let a man think what he will of himself, or what fair pretences soever he make of religion. . . , Opposition to the will of God is the essence and sole cause of all our misery. There is no possibility of happiness, but in compliance with it ; and yet there can be none in a forced conformity to it. . . . Wretched mankind! who, in your natural state, can only be happy in opposition to the will of God. iii. 17. Adam. (Private Thoughts on Eeligion. Ch. 4.) 7 2'he carnal mind. There is no wider nor more distinguishable diflerence, than that between the mind of Christ, and the mind of the unregenerate. The dishonest have not His mind, which is truth and light itself. The incontinent have not His mind ; for He is purity in perfection. The proud have not the mind of Christ, who washed the feet of His own disciples. The revengeful have not the mind of Christ, who loved, prayed for, and healed His enemies. The despiser of God's Word, the breaker of His Sabbath, the neglecter of His Table, have not the mind of Christ, are by no means united to His Body ; inasmuch as it is by these that the mind and Spirit of Christ conveys itself through all the true and living members of that Body. The idolizer of his own reason hath not the mind of Christ, who had infinite wisdom and humility together ; whereas in this man there is nothing but ignorance and con- ceit ; or he could never have formed an high opinion of his own understanding. All these are, more or less, disposed to infi- delity, and particularly to take offence at the Cross of Christ. The dishonest worldling cannot think of forsaking all, and fol- lowing Christ with a cross upon his shoulders. The incon- tinent is with difficulty brought to believe, that God requires the denial and mortification of passions, made by Himself a part of our nature. The proud, who will not suffer the smallest inconvenience from his inferiors, cannot believe, that God ROMANS VIII. 7. 325 could stoop to such indignities from men. The ill-natured, who will even take pains to hurt and afflict others, cannot con- ceive that any being could suffer so much to make others happy. The revengeful, who is so delighted with retorting injuries, hath no notion, that Christ meant to save His murderers. The conceited disputer of this world cannot see the necessity of an Atonement for one so righteous, nor of instruction for one so wise, as he is : and what he cannot see, he will not believe. P. Skelton. (Serm. on Acts xvii. 3.) Carnal wisdom carries in it a greater opposition to the means of grace, than carnal corruption ; inasmuch as there is more hope of the conversion of a sensualist, than of a resolved atheist. For, since the notions of carnal wisdom are more refined, and always seem to wear the face of reason, which has more to say for itself than concupiscence has, or can have, hence it is that one thus principled is more hardly convinced than another. . . . The subtlety of the world loathes the simplicity of the Gospel : hence in the number of those, who are to be saved, we have " not many wise, not many great, not many noble" (1 Cor. i. 26). And, for the most part, of these are the men, who are so much acted by this carnal wisdom. Such men are usually too wise and politic to be saved. The Cross of Christ is to the Greek, to the learned Athenian, "foolishness" (1 Cor. i. 23). He cannot find any convincing reason, why a man should prefer duty before interest ; despise the splendour of worldly enjoyments to assume a cross. . . . Policy, the great idol of carnal reason, is that, which insensibly works the soul to a despisal of religion. . . . The design of religion is continually to urge a denial of self; but all the maxims of carnal wisdom tend to, and termi- nate in, the advancement of self. It is this alone, that is more amiable than either the practice or the rewards of holiness. Purity must here give place to profit ; love of present posses- sions outweighs the hope of future felicity. Every man is na- turally wise to catch hold of any present enjoyment, rather than venture his happiness upon expectation. There is none, that will forsake father or mother, the least piece of the world, the most inconsiderate profit or pleasure, that he may secure an in- terest in Christ, and in the great things of the Gospel, if he 326 ROMANS VIII. 7, 8, should be ruled by the guidance of his carnal wisdom. From hence it is clear that there is such a fixed antipathy m nature against the spirituality of the ways of God, that, unless it be wrought out by the Spirit's giving us a new heart to perceive and eyes to see, there is no possibility of ever reconcihng these together. Dr. South. (Serm. on Deut. xxix. 4.) Enmity with Righteousness is enmity with GoD. Br. Whichcote. (Aphorisms. Cent. ii. 101.) 8 When it has been once settled, that by the flesh we are to un- derstand that depraved nature, of which we all partake, as de- scended from the fallen Adam, the asserting that they, that are in the flesh, cannot please God, seems to furnish the just account of what is often misunderstood and often misrepresented. There is nothing, upon which, if we may judge by popular feeling, it is harder to come to a just conclusion than upon the moral consequences of Adam's apostacy, upon the nature and extent of the corruption, which that apostacy entailed upon a I men. It seems so unjust to put all men on the same level, to gather under the same condemnation the amiable and the unamiable, just as if no preference was given to virtues, which sweeten and adorn human life, above vices, which embitter and distract it, that you can hardly handle this doctrine of the equal depravity of all men by nature, without appearing to lay your- self open to the charge of gross exaggeration and even of ut- terly confounding right and wrong. But our text, by making its whole definition of human depravity consist of one charac teristic of inability to please God, eftectually guards against both exaggeration and mistake. There is no countenance in Scripture for those very harsh decryings of natural virtue, or those contemptuous denials of natural excellence, which are sometimes advanced, as the dictates of an accurate theology : on the contrary, they are just those allowances in the Bible of the. existence of "lovely things" and of "things of good report (Phil iv. 8), which shew that the inspired writers had no wish to involve all men in the same indiscriminate charge of utter worthlessness, as though there were no moral difference, or Bone deserving mention, between the gentle and the generous being who sheds blessings on a neighbourhood, and the fierce ROMANS VIII. 9. 327 and vindictive, who outrages its peace. The Bible does not contend for anything, like an equal development or manifesta- tion of depravity ; and therefore, when it would give a definition, that should include all men without exception, it does not deal with them, as members of society ; for thus considered they may widely differ : it deals with them only, as creatures of God ; creatures, bound to love and please God ; and trying them by this criterion brings them all under one and the same emphatic condemnation. Here it is, that we have to lay a charge against you all, though, in respect of natural tempers and virtues, and of attention to the relative duties of life, you may be separated from each other by every possible variety. We accuse you all of being, by nature, at enmity with God, destitute of all love to God, and therefore incapable oi pleasing God. . . . If you will only examine the natural mind by the love, which it bears to God, by its desire to obtain His approval, by its readiness to perform His will, we are persuaded there is not one of you, who will be able to satisfy himself that it contains anything like a principle of friendship to the Almighty ; nay, that it does not contain a principle of hostility : and thus we shall have all of you confessing the justice of the very sweeping and unquali- fied declaration — So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. H. Melvill. (Serm. on Text.) 9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. 10 And if Christ he in you, the body is dead be- cause of sin ; but the Spirit is life because of righ- teousness. 1 1 But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you. He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you. 9 For the question — when this new principle enters — you are to 328 ROMANS VIII. 9. know, it comes into the heart in a threefold condition ; as an harbinger, as a private guest, as an inhabitant or house keeper. . . . "The Spirit," saith Austin, "first is in us; then dwells in us : before it dwells, it helps us to believe : when it dwells, it helps, and perfects, and improves our faith, and accomplishes it with all other concomitant graces." So I say here. The Spirit is then said to inhabit, and keep house in us, not as soon as it is entertained and received ; but when it breaks forth into acts, and declares itself before all men ; when " men see our good works, and glorify our Fathee" (S. Matt. v. 16). Before we were said to " live " in the Spirit, now to " walk;" as you shall see the phrases distinctly used. Gal. v. 25. Dr. Ham- mond. (Serm. on Gal. vi. 15.) Having the Spirit presupposeth having of Christ. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of Chrisfs : et contra, If any have the Spirit, he hath Christ. These terras are con- vertible. He, that hath Cheist, hath the Spirit ; he, that hath the Spirit, hath Cheist ; as he, that hath the Fathee, hath the Son, and he, that hath the Son, hath the Fathee also (1 S. John ii. 23 ; 2 S. John 9). As Son and Spirit co-operated in man's creation, so in his renovation. Personal works are distinct, but never separate. Cheist to justify : the Spirit to sanctify : but never one without the other. The Spirit is called the Spirit of Christ. Is it possible then to have the Spirit, absque Christo, without having Cheist ? And He is called " His" Spirit, not only quia procedit a Filio, because He pro- ceeded from the Son ; but because He gives Him, and is a pur- chase of His Blood. As the Spirit moved on the waters (Gen. i. 2), so He moves on the Blood of Cheist. He comes swim- ming in that ; and it is ex merito Sanyuinis, from the merit of His Blood, whosoever hath Him. See God's way of cleansing the leper (Lev. xiv. 14, 15, 17), which is an emblem of cleansing a sinner. " And the priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering, and the priest shall put it upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, &e. And the priest shall take some of the log of oil, &c., and the priest shall put it on the tip of the right ear," &c. First, blood ; and then, oil. On whom is the unction of the Spirit, on him is first the unc- ROMANS VIII. 10, II. 329 tion of Blood. As the person is accepted, before his service — (The LoKi) had respect unto Abel and his offering. Gen. iv. 4) — so the person is first justified, before sanctified. God doLh not new-create a person, whom He accepts not. xv. IG. Dr. Liyhtfoot. (Serm. on Eom. viii. 23.) 10 We partake of the death of CuiiiST by passing into the Spirit of Cheist. The great work of Cheist in us lies in implant- ing His own life (lively nature) in the lapsed degenerate souls of men. Cheist is not to be as in a notio!i or history ; but as a principle, a vital influence. Dr. Whichcote. (Aphorisms. Cent. viii. 742.) 11 Christ is in us, by our flesh ; and we in Him, by His Spirit. . . His Spirit then we must possess ourselves of; and we must do that here ; for it is but one and the same Spirit, that raiseth our souls here from the death of sin, and the same, that shall raise our bodies there from the dust of death. Of which Spirit there is first fruits (to retain the words of the text) and a ful- ness: but the fulness in this life we shall never attain. Our highest degree here is but to be of the number, whereof he was, who said, et nos habentes primitias Spiritus (Eom. viii. 23). These first fruits we first receive in our Baptism, which is to us our laver of Regeneration and of our renewing by the Holt Ghost, where we are made and consecrate Primitive. Bp. An- drewes. (Of the Resurrection. Serm. on 1 Cor. xv. 20.) As the general Resurrection is evidenced by the rising of Cheist, (Acts xvii. 31), so, in a more special and peculiar manner, the Resurrection of the chosen saints and servants of God is de- monstrated thereby. For He is risen, not only as their Loed and Judge, but as their Head, to which they are united as mem- bers of His Body : for " He is the head of the body the Church, who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead" (Col. i. 18) ; as "the first-fruits," by which all the lump is sanctified and accepted (Lev. xxiii. 10) : for " now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept" (1 Cor. xv. 20). The saints of God are endued with the Spirit of Cheist, and thereby their bodies become the " temples of the Holt Ghost." 'Now, as the promise of the Spirit was upon the Resurrection of Cheist, so the gift and possession of the Spirit 330 . ROMANS VIII. 11. is an assurance of the Resurrection of the Christian, i. 4. Bp. Pearson. (An Exposition of the Creed. Art. xi.) The Spirit, which gives the adoption here, is the germ of the Spirit, which gives the Resurrection hereafter ; and the Resurrection itself is but the adoption made visible in glory. . . . There is a power now within us in the germ, of which our celestial Im- mortality shall be the proper fruit. The dawn of heaven hath already begun in all, who are yet to rejoice in its noontide glory. V. 2, 9. TV. Archer Butler. (Serra. on S. Luke i. 35 and on Col. i. 12.) We are taught in Holy Scripture to regard the Holy Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ, as one very especial safeguard . for the sleeping, until they wake ; and for the dead, until they rise again. In this sense, more particularly, may it be said to Jesus Cheist ; " Thou, Loed, ouly makest me dwell in safety." Tor, '* as the Fathee hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself." The Word of God made flesh, the last Adam, is " a quickening," a life-giving " Spirit." He quickens our very mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in us. Now this blessing He Himself assures us depends on our partaking of His Body and Blood (S. John vi). . . . It is then in those, who worthily receive it, as a seed of Heavenly life, whether they wake or whether they sleep ; by virtue of that Holy Communion they are the Loed's. And shall we suppose that its virtue ends, when we go out of this world ? Surely the nearer we draw to Cheist, the more powerfully may we expect His blessed influences to work upon us. And we have warrant of Scripture for our hope. The Holt Ghost by S. Paul has taught us to think of the burial of a Christian, as of sowing seed ; sowing that, which will indeed outwardly and visibly crumble, decay, and die ; but which has yet in it, through all those changes, something, which keeps it in a manner alive, which prepares it for a new manifestation of the life, that is in it, and a far better one, before long. Cheist' s Body, received, as He has commanded, is to our bodies " a quickening Spirit." "Does any man doubt," says the excellent Hooker, "but that even from the flesh of Cheist our very bodies do receive that life, which shall make them glorious at the latter day, and for ROMANS VIII. 12. 331 which they are already accounted parts of His Blessed Body ? Our corruptible bodies could never live the life they shall live, were it not that here they are joined with His Body, which is incorruptible." If we cannot understand how this should be, neither can we understand how, whilst we live, we should be truly members of Christ deriving heavenly life from Him. Plain Sermons. (Oxford, No. 175. Ps. iv. 8,) 12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. 13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die : but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. 14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. 12 Death, whicii is the separation of soul and body, is the pun- ishment of sin, and indeed the cure of it too ; for sin is such a leprosy, as cannot be perfectly cleansed without pulling down the house, which it has once infected. But, if we would have these bodies I'aised up immortal and glorious, we must begin the cleansing and purification of them here. We must be " sanc- tified throughout, both in body, soul and spirit." (1 Thess. v. 23.) Our bodies must be " the temples of the Holt Ghost," must be holy and consecrated places (1 Cor. vi. 7), must not be polluted with filthy lusts, if we would have them rebuilt by the Divine Spirit, after the desolations, which sin hath made. Thus S. Paul tells us at large ; And if Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness ; that is, that Divine and holy nature, which we receive from Christ, will secure the life of our souls, and translate us to a happy state after death ; but it will not secure us from the ne- cessity of dying. Our bodies must die, as a punishment of sin, and putrify in the grave ; but yet they are not lost for ever. Por if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit which dwelleth in you ; that is, 332 ROMANS VIII. 13. if your bodies be cleansed, and sanctified, and are " the temples of the Holt Spirit," He will raise them up to a new life. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh, for if ye live after the flesh ye shall die ; but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body ye shall live. If ye subdue the carnal principle, if ye bring the flesh into sub- jection to the Spirit, not only your souls shall live, but your bodies be raised to immortal life. And this is a great obliga- tion to us, if we love our bodies, and would have them glorious and immortal, not to pamper the flesh, and gratify its appetites and lusts, not to " yield your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity," but to yield your members "ser- vants to righteousness unto holiness ; that being made free from sin and becoming the servants of God, you may have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life," as the same Apostle speaks (vi. 19, 22). It is our relation to Chkist, that our bodies are His " members ;" and it is our relation to the Holt Spirit, that our bodies are His " temples," which entitles our bodies to a glorious Resurrection. But will Cheist own such bodies for His members, as are members of a harlot ? Will the Holt Spirit dwell in a temple defiled with impure lusts ? And there- fore such polluted bodies will rise, as they lay down, in dis- honour; will rise, not to immortal life but to eternal death. Bean Sherlock. (A Practical Discourse concerning Death. Ch. i. s. 2.) 13 He saith not, " If ye have lived after the flesh, ye shall die ;" for this had been rather a certain prognostic of death, than any medicinal advice or prescripts unto his patients. One man there was (and no more), who was first good, and afterwards bad : this was the first Adam. Another there is, (and no more), who was never bad, always good : this is the Second Adam, Christ Jestis blessed for ever. Of all the rest, that is most true, which a Father hath, Nemo unquam bonus, qui non anth flit malus ; no son of Adam ever proved good, who was not sometimes bad. The Apostle's saying is in this case true; •'Eirst, is that, which is natural ; then, that, which is spiritual." "We, even the elect themselves, were the sons of Adam, before they were the Sons of God in Christ. All, or most, have lived ROMANS VIII, 13. 333 to the flesh, before they come to live after the Spirit, . . . In- asmuch as mortification of the flesh is necessary to all, it is pre- supposed that all have a flesh, which may be mortified, or a life of the flesh : seeing nothing can be mortified but that, which hath life in it. Again, our Apostle saith not, " If the deeds of the flesh be mortified in you by the Spirit, ye shall live." For so we might have happily dreamed of a mortification already wrought in us, or to be wrought in us, without our consent and endeavours. . . . Every man must mortify his own flesh, al- though he cannot mortify it but through the Spirit. It is the Spirit alone, which giveth victory ; yet this does not privilege us from being His soldiers. It is the Spirit of God, which works in us the will and the deed ; yet this doth not licence us to be idle. Pight we must, not with our own shadows, but every man with his own body ; not with a body already dead and mortified, but a living active body, that may be mortified. And this disadvantage we have that our adversaries are got within us, before we are aware of them ; so that we cannot fetch such fierce blows at them, as may kill them at once, or, as we say, out of hand. Sometimes our adversaries lie so close, that we can hardly hurt them without danger of hurting ourselves ; as some, by oflering too much violence to their bodies, have ensnared their own souls. But this is no usual fault of this age or of this nation. Dean Jackson. (Works. B. x. ch. 27. s. 5, G.) It is not said (Col. iii. 5) occidite, but mortificate. We must not destroy nature by casting ourselves out of the world, but mor- tify sin by casting the world out of us. Dean Boys. For stating cases of conscience, (not for dealing betwixt man and man, but) betwixt the Judge of quick and dead, and our own souls, I know no portion of Scripture, whether in the Old or New Testament, of better or more frequent use than this thir- teenth verse. Let such, as are so minded, maintain tenets already set on foot, or multiply questions to the world's end, about the certainty of their personal estate in Grace, or final Salvation ; or bestow their marks and tokens whether of abso- lute Election or Reprobation, as they please ; yet unto honest- hearted Christians, or such as desire so to be, there can be no 331- ROMANS VIII. 13. sign or token of Salvation either firmer in itself, or more cer- tain to them, than the right computation of their constant progress in the mortifying of the flesh by the Spirit (Conf. v. 17) . . . The sum of all, that can be said on this point, is, that no man can be a partaker of the promise of life, but he, that faithfully seeks for mercy in Christ Jesus : and no man can faithfully seek for mercy in Cheist, but he, that sincerely renounceth his own works and merits, but he, that is industrious and laborious in these works of mortification here enjoined. Hypocrites and ungodly persons will be ready in the Day of Trial to deny all salvation by works or confidence in merits ; but, as was intimated before (Ch. xxxvi. s. 7), no man can be truly said to renounce those good works, which he hath left undone, but those works, which he hath done. No man can truly deny himself, but he, that exerciseth himself in these works of mortification. We cannot possibly know our own impotency, or want of strength to perform these works of mor- tification, as we ought, unless we make full proof or trial of our strength in working them, as we can. The more we try our strength, the more insufficient shall we find ourselves ; and, the better experience we have of our own iusufiiciency, the more earnestly shall we then (if we do, as we ought, for our own good) crave the assistance of God's Spirit ; the more faithfully shall we rely on Cheist, who is our strength and the rock of our Salvation ; and so, not presume. Dean Jackson. (Works. B. X. s. v. ch. 28, and ch. 37.) This mortification takes a high rank, and almost stands by itself, among Christian duties. It is " the true Circumcision of the Spirit," which makes us to be " Abraham's seed, and heirs ac- cording to the promise." Moreover, by mortifjing the deeds of the body, we " do the M^orks of Abraham ;" the sacrifice we make, at the command of God, of whatever is dearest in our aftections being the truth and the substance of the patriarch's symbolical act, when he "offered Isaac his son upon the altar;" by which particular act of his life his faith in God was made perfect, so as to justify him. (S. James ii. 21 — 23.) We can- not then but see the extreme importauce of this duty. By it, as being the internal seal of the Covenant, and also the ROMANS VI 11. 14. 335 genuine work of a lively faith, we must try ourselves, whether we are very sons of "our Father, which is in heaven." It is to be noted, that, in the corresponding Epistle to the G-alatians, where we again read of Circumcision and of the seed of Abra- ham, in connection with the doctrine of Justification, S. Paul insists much, in the same way, on the necessity of our " cru- cifying the flesh with the aflfeetions and lusts" (ver. 24) ; and he uses words, which closely correspond with this text, when he says, " He, that soweth to his flesh, shall of the flesh reap cor- ruption ; and he, that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting" (vi. 8). J. F. 14 Dvcuntiir non trahuntur. Dens non necessitat, sed facilitat. The Spirit cannot lead us to the flesh ; nor to the world, which spreads a bed of roses for the flesh to lie down and sport in : for this is against the very nature of the Spirit, as much as it is for light bodies to descend, or heavy ones to move upwards. Tire may descend ; the earth may be removed out of its place ; the sun may stand still, or go back ; the sweet influences of the Pleiades may be bound, and the bands of Orion may be loosened : nature may change its course at the Word and beck of the God of nature ; but this is one thing, which God cannot do. He cannot change Himself. The Spirit of God is a lover of man, a hater of the world ; and from the world He leads man to Himself. Farindon. (Serm. on S. Luke iv. 1, 2.) God's children are not violently compelled against their wills, but sweetly drawn, moved, and induced to do what is good. This word then implies both an act of God's Spirit working in us, and our complying with that act in an obedient and ready conformity thereunto. For, wherever the Spirit of God is, it is not idle and ineffectual ; but it is still directing, and inclining unto God ; and whosoever is led by that Spirit yields himself to the mo- tions and guidance. Acti agimus ; as the old word is. In all leading therefore, and so in this, there must be a hand to guide, and a foot to follow; good motions, on God's part; and mo- tions in good, on ours : both these must go together ; else there is no leading by the Spirit of God.' It is not enough that good thoughts are injected into us by the Holy Spirit ; yea, it is so far from availing us, as that a man is so much the worse for 336 ROMANS VIII. 15. those good motions he entertains not, as the motions are more excellent and Divine. But those good injections must be re- ceived, embraced, and delighted in, and followed home, in a constant and habitual practice, with a resolute rejection and detestation of the contrary. Bp. Hall. (The Sons of God led, &c. Serm. on Text.) 15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear ; but ye have received the Spirit of adop- tion, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. 16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God : 17 And if children, then heirs ; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together. 15 There is one very remarkable difference, by which all the cele- brated religious systems of Paganism are distinguished, in their mode of operation, from the Christian faith : I mean, that, under whatever form they exhibit the Divinity, He is still merely an object of terror. Fear is the only principle, which actuates the worshipper : fear it is, which offers the sacrifice, and piety is but penance and suffering. The delight, experienced in the contemplation of the Divine mercies, seems to be un- known, and, after all our researches into the sacred books of the heathen, which seem indeed to be directed by Providence to the confirmation of our faith in Christ, it will probably remain peculiar to the Gospel to have declared, in the comprehensive sense of Scripture, that " God is Love." The religion of the Old Testament was in some measure a religion of fear ; and, with reference to Pagan systems, in more than one of the an- cient languages, fear and superstitious worship, having been observed to be kindred feelings, are designated by kindred terms : idols were denominated Terrors ; whereas it is the pri- vilege of the disciples of Cheist to '• serve God without fear in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of their lives." Consider, then, what is the natural operation of this ROMANS VIII. 15. 337 * defect of Paganism upon the mind and heart of the worshippers. Under every mode of religious belief, the character of man will very much depend upon his notions of GrOD ; and the devotion paid to the gods of Paganism will differ from that of the Chris- tian, as the obedience extorted by the dread of a gloomy and capricious despot will fall short of the cheerful service, which anticipates the wishes of a Master, whom we love. Under the influence of mere terror, the virtues of man will be rather ne- gations of what may be supposed to provoke displeasure, than a warm desire to obtain favour by running in the path of posi- tive commandments. Pear will endeavour to hide itself from God, while love will seek communion with Him, and to be "like unto Him," and will desire to be admitted into His pre- sence. " Be ye perfect, even as your Pathee which is in hea- ven is perfect" (S. Matt. v. 48) could never be preached with eifect, or meaning, to the votaries of a thrilling superstition. Bp. Middleton. (Serm. on Isa. Ixii. 1,) We must distinguish of a double fear. 1. An anxious, distract- ing, amazing fear, in respect of which Moses, upon the sight of God in the terrible and fiery promulgation of the Law from Mount Sinai, said in Heb. xii. 21, "I exceedingly fear and tremble." In respect of this also, David says in Psalm cxix. 120, " I am afraid of Thy judgments." Such a fear also was it, that possessed Christ in His agony and in the time of His dereliction, when He cried out upon the cross (S. Matt, xxvii. 46) "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" In short, it is such a kind of fear, as possesses those, who lie under the tortures of a guilty troubled conscience. ... 2. There is a slavish and servile fear, such an one, as is called the spirit of hondaye, and, in respect of which, S. John says (1 S. John iv. 18) that " he that fears is not perfect," and in the same verse, that " love casts out fear." As, on the contrar}', w here this fear is predominant, it expels and casts out love ; for there is so direct a contrariety between these two affections, that the increase of one is always built upon the decrease of the other. And indeed fear, for the most part, is the cause of hatred, but always the concomitant. ... 3. And lastly, therefore, there is a filial reverential fear ; such an one, as is enlivened with a z 338 ROMANS VIII. 15. principle of love, quickened and acted with that contrary affec- tion, that is styled the spirit of adoption. Now there is this difference between these three sorts of fear ; that the first is properly the fear of a malefactor ; the second, of a slave ; and this last, of a son. xi. 20. Br. South. (Serra. on Ps. cxxx. 4.) Most of us know not Him, as our Eedeemer, because we know not ourselves, nor that miserable bondage of servitude, which He did dissolve for us all. And this we know not, because we consider not the state and condition of legal servants unto cruel and tyrannical lords. We were servants to a most cruel tyrant. And the Son of God for our Redemption became truly and properly a servant to His Father, before He became our Loed in special ; and so must we be servants to Him in special, before we become the sons of GrOD. For we must be sons, before we be heirs ; and sons by adoption, before we be made •' Kings and . Priests" unto His Fathee. I never read that passage of our Apostle, Te have not received the Spirit of bondage, &c., but I always conceived there was something more in it, than was to be found in any lexicon or vulgar scholiast : yet what it should be in particular, I learned of late from a learned Professor^ of another faculty, which he hath adorned by his more than ordi- nary skill in sacred antiquity and miscellane philology. Now, if we value the Apostle's words — per quem clamamus, " Abba, Pater^^ — whereby we cry, " Abba, Father''^ — with reference to the legal custom or manner, by which some sort of slaves, by birth and condition, did claim the privilege of manumission, or of adoption, among the ancient Jews, the expression is full of elegancy and most Divine. The manner of their adoption to hereditaments temporal was a kind of typical prophecy of our adoption to our eternal inheritance in the heavens. Dean Jackson. (Works. B. vii. ch. ii. s. 9.) The name " Father''' is Sanctum et suave Nomen : its highest sense belongs to God, in comparison of whom none is to be called or counted a Father, as Cheist spake (S. Matt, xxiii. 9). Nefno tam Pater, nemo tam inus, as TertuUian : ambitiosus Patris nomen (pxam Domini et heri exigit. God hath an ambition rather ' Joan. Seldemis : de successionibus in bona defuncti, etc., ad leges Hebrseo- nim. C. iv. ROMANS VIII. 15, IG. . 339 to be called Fathee by us and so treated, than Loed and Master. Therefore our Savioue begins our prayer with " Our Father." This venerable name breathes all comforts ; it mindeth us of, and bindeth us to, all filial love ; it racks us from the sour dregs of servile fear. He, that can say this proem, or first word, " Our Father" with true faith to God and charity to man, need not doubt to go on in that perfect prayer. . . . No man is, nor can be, further happy, than he hath and owns God for his Fathee ; 1. In Creation and Providence, Fathee of the whole family in heaven and in earth ; 2. In Cheist, as sending His Son into the world, a Eedeemer for all men with- out exception, in the value, merit, and ofier of His sufierings, and in that conditionate capacity, into which every one is by Cheist put upon his faith and repentance, to be saved and owned, as the brother of Christ and son of God ; and lastly, God is a Fathee, by those special effects of Eegeneration and Grace, which follow that immortal seed of His Word and mo- tions of His Spirit — those holy means, that are both able and apt to work the life of faith, repentance, and love, in a rea- sonable soul. Bp. Gauden. (Serm. on 2 Kings ii. 12 ; preached at the Funeral of Bp. Brownrig.) We ought to approach the Majesty of God with all humility, ac- knowledging that 'tis through His mercy we presume to call Him Father ; a name, which the Jews never used in prayer, having received the spirit of bondage to fear ; whereas, we Chris- tians have received, at our Baptism, the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, " Abba, Father." And, for this reason, the Catechumens in the ancient Church, though embracing the faith and taught therein, yet, being unbaptized and so incapable to call God Fathee, were not allowed to be present at the Loed's Prayer; that Prayer being then used only at the Communion Service, which began, after the Catechumens were dismissed. Dr. Bisse. (On the Beauty of Holiness in the Common Prayer. Serm. 3.) 16 The Spirit of God witnesses that we are the sons of God, first, by those gracious fruits and effects, which it hath wrought in us ; which, when we discern and perceive, we do, or may, from them conclude that we are the sons of God, those fruits and effects being the sure badges and livery of His children : se- z 2 340 ROMANS VIII. 16. condly, by enlighteniug our understandings and assisting the faculties of our souls, as need requires, to discern those gra- cious fruits and effects He hath wrought in us. . . . 'Twould be but little comfort to us, that the characters of God's Spirit are written upon our minds, if we ourselves do not arrive at the knowledge of them. Now this is the case of many Christians of known piety, but of weak understandings : they have the fruits of the Spirit flourishing in them ; but take no satisfaction from them, because they do not perceive and discern them. When therefore it is of use and expediency to them, that they should have a better knowledge of themselves, the Spirit of God is pleased to shine upon their understandings, and raise and strengthen the faculties of their souls to an apprehension and lively sense of those graces, which He hath wrought in them. How and after what manner He doth this I dare not undertake to tell ; but, though the manner of it cannot be explained, yet the thing is certain, and ought not to be denied We ought, in these happy intervals, when our understandings are irradiated and enlightened, to make a judgment of the state and condition of our souls in the sight of God ; and not to take our estimate of it, when our understandings are eclipsed, and we are overshadowed with a dark cloud of sadness and melancholy. Bp. Bull. (The Testimony of the Spirit of God in the Faithful. Discourse iii.) It is a notable part of the Holt Spirit's office to assure us of God's love and favour, that we are His children; and to confirm us in the hopes of our everlasting inheritance. We, feeling ourselves to live by Him, to love God and goodness, to desire and to delight in pleasing God, are thereby raised to hope that God loves and favours us ; and that He, having by so authentic a seal ratified His Word and promise, having already bestowed so sure a pledge, so precious an earnest, so plentiful first-fruits, will not fail to make good the remainder, designed and pro- mised us, of everlasting joy and bliss, v. 10. Dr. Barrow. (Exposition of the Creed. Art. viii.) A doctrine having been a shelter for enthusiasm, or made to serve the purposes of superstition, is no proof of the falsity of it. Bji. Butler. ROMANS VIII. 17. 341 17 Although He hath perfectly satisfied for ua, and saved us by His sufierings, yet this conformity to Him in the way of suffer- ing is most reasonable. . . . Our sufferings bear a very con- gruous likeness to Him, though in no way as an accession to His in expiation, yet, as a part of His Image; and therefore the Apostle says, even in this respect, that we are 'predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son (Rom. viii. 29). Is it fit that we should not follow, where our Captain led, and went first ; but that He should lead through rugged thorny ways, and we pass about to get away through flowery meadows ? As His natural body shared with His head in His sufferings, so ought His Body mystical to share with Him, as its Head — the buffet- ings and spittings on His face, the thorny crown on His head, a pierced side, nailed hands and feet : if we be parts of Him, can we think that a body, finding nothing but ease and bathing in delights, can agree to a Head so tormented ? I remember what that pious Duke said at Jerusalem, when they ofiered to crown him there ; Nolo aureatn, ubi Ch'istus spineam. " No crown of gold, where Christ Jesus was crowned with thorns." Ver. 36. Abp. Leighton. (Comment, on 1 S. Pet. iv. 12, 13.) To die a martyr, to fall a sacrifice to God, is a glorious death : this is not yielding to the laws of mortality and corruption, but to give back our bodies to God, who gave them : and He will keep such, as have been committed to His care, to a glorious Eesurrection ; and it will be with an effulgence inexpressible that such bodies will be raised, as have suffered for their Loed ; iov if we suffer with Him we shall be glorified together; which seems to imply, that those shall nearest resemble the Glory of Cueist, who suffer, as He did. Bean Sherlock. (A Practical Discourse on Death. Ch. i. s. 2.) It behoves us to treat suffering, whether in ourselves or others, in a much more solemn way than the generality, even of serious Christians, are wont to do. In itself, it were a punishment for sin, oppressive, hopeless : through His mercy in Christ, it is His healing medicine to burn out our wounds, and purify us for His Presence. All are tokens of His Presence ; the great Phy- sician of our souls, looking graciously upon our spots and sores, checking our diseases, ere they take deep root, or cutting 342 ROMANS VIII. 17. deeply and healthfully into our very souls, if He have compas- sion upon us, when we have deeply offended Him. All, from the most passing pain of the body to the most deep-seated anguish of the soul, are messengers from Him : some spread over life to temper our enjoyments, lest we seek our joys here : some follow closely upon what is wrong (as discomfort upon excess) ; some gradually thicken upon us, if we neglect the first warnings ; some come suddenly on an instant, to startle people out of their lethargy and careless ways, and shew them that the life, which they are wasting, is an earnest thing ; some in the natural order of His Providence, as the loss of parents ; some contrary to what seems that order, as that of children ; some, a new thing, as when He makes our sun to go down, while it is yet day ; some, it seems, the immediate preparation for His Holy Presence ; whence perhaps old age is so generally a period of suffering, and the last illness has mostly so much of heavy suffering — yet all, if we will regard it. His Fatherly care, tempering our cup with pain and sorrow, as He sees most needful for us all, in their degree, loosening our hold of this life (as all pain is an earnest and preparation for our final dis- solution) ; all leading up thitherward, where there shall be no pain ; all humbling us, as being creatures, who require it and deserve far more ; all teaching us to look into ourselves, to see for what disease in us this medicine has been sent. xii. 15. Dr. Piisey. (Oxford Plain Sermons. Serm. on S. Luke ii. 21.) 18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to he compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. 19 For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. 20 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope. 21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered ROMANS VIII. 18. 343 from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 18 If children^ then heirs. This is such a trausceudent privilege, that the soul, to whom the joj'ful news of it comes, is lifted up above the amazing and aiFrightening fears of any suffering. The Apostle, having but a little sweetened his thoughts with a few meditations on this soul-ravishing subject, see how his blessed soul is raised into a holy slighting of all the troubles of this life; I recJwn, &c. He will not allow his own soul, or any, that hath the hope of this inheritance, so far to undervalue the Glory thereof, or the Love of God, that settled it on them, as to mention the greatness of their sufferings in any way of pity- ing themselves for them. As if he had said, " Hath God made us His heirs, and bestowed heaven upon us for reversion, and shall we be so poor-spirited, as to sit down and bemoan our- selves for our present sorrows, that are no more to be compared with the Glory, that we are going to, than the little point of time (into which our short life with all our sufferings are con- tracted) is to be compared with the vast circumference of that Eternity, which we are to spend in endless bliss and happiness ? He is a poor man, we say, that one or two petty losses quite undo : and he is a poor Christian, that cries out he is undone by any cross in this life. We may safely conclude such a one either is heir to nothing in the other world, or hath little or no evidence for what he hath there. Gurnall. (The Christian in Complete Armour, &c. Eph. vi. 15. Ch. 18.) I reckon. What we shall suffer hereafter for our sins is as much beyond anything we can suffer here by giving them up, as the destruction of the whole body is beyond the loss of a single limb. And then, surely, our Savioue had a right to charge us to suffer the one, rather than suffer the other. It is to be la- mented that men cannot be brought to understand that they are to act, in the business of their religion, only upon the same principles and grounds, that they act upon in their own com- mon concerns and transactions. A situation or pursuit, how- ever pleasant and delightful at present, if we foresaw that it would lead to nothing but ruin and disgrace, we should quit 344 ROMANS VIII. 18, 19. most certainly in common prudence. In like manner, if we had made any advantages for the present, though apparently considerable ; and if we observed that they were very uncer- tain advantages, which the next day or even hour might take away, I suppose that we should prefer a smaller but more re- gular return, which might be trusted to always. . . . Now it is but this, and no more than this, that we are required to do by Christ's command. Sin, be it ever so pleasurable or ever so profitable, must not be long: its pleasures and its profits must end with our lives, generally much sooner : but who shall count, who shall say what or when will be the end of the misery it brings us to ? If we " gain the whole world, and lose our own souls," you may remember Who it is, that hath said "it pro- fiteth nothing." Dr. Paley. (Serm. on S. Matt. v. 29.) The Saints shall be raised in glory, whereby their bodies shall shine as bright as the sun in the firmament ; and which, being made transparent, their souls shall shine through, far more glorious than their bodies. Three glimpses of which glory were seen: first, in Moses' face; secondly, in the Transfiguration; thirdly, in Stephen's countenance — three instances and assur- ances of the glorification of our bodies at that glorious Day. Then shall David lay aside his shepherd's weed, and put on the robe of the King's Son Jesus ; not Jonathan's (2 Sam. xviii. 4). Then every true Mordecai, who mourned under the sackcloth of his corrupt fietih, shall be arrayed with the King's Eoyal ap- parel, and have the crown-Hoyal set upon his head, that all the world may see, " how it shall be done to him, whom the King of kings delighteth to honour " (Esth. vi. 4). If now the rising of one sun make the morning so glorious, how glorious shall that Day be, when innumerable millions of millions of bodies of Saiuts and Angels shall appear, more glorious, than the bright of the sun ; the Body of Chkist in Glory surpassing them all ! Bp. Baily. (The Practice of Piety. Medit. 3.) 19 This Apostle calls it a most earnest expectation. So the aTTOKupaBoKia of the creature (Rom. viii. 19) is expounded by CEcumenius to be its exceeding, intense, and vehement desire and expectance of the revelation of the sons of God ; that is, says he, of the conclusion of all, when it shall be clearly seen ROMANS VIII. 19. 345 who are the sons of God and who the sons of the devil : which is a good to be wished for so much above all other, that the heaven, the earth, the sea, the air, the sun, the moon, all the visible creation, together with all that is invisible, the Angels, Archangels, Powers, Principalities, Dominions, all these expect our perfection. They are the words of Theodoret, who (with other of the ancients) looks upon the whole creation, as brought in here, expecting our future happiness by such a figure, as the Prophets use, when they introduce the woods rejoicing, the mountains leaping, the floods clapping their hands, to express the exceeding great joy, that should be among mankind at the first coming of our Loed. Bp. Patrick. (The Glorious Epi- phany, &c. Ch. X. s. 2.) Though we doubt not that the spirits of good men inhabiting the separate state, in which the righteous expect the consummation of all things, enjoy much of that, which can be enjoyed by none but the children of God, yet we believe that their happiness is incomplete, and that they eagerly long for that manifestation^ of which our text speaks. They listen for the trump of the Re- surrection— the Jubilee trump to them, as well as to this op- pressed and groaning creation. They know that, at the peal of that trump, the stamp and finish, already graven splendidly on themselves, will be communicated to every atom of that dust, which constituted the tabernacles, that enclosed them on earth. And that suddenly, the spirit, rushing into this renewed home, there will be presented to the universe, man — the fallen thing, the dissolved thing — radiant as the ofispring of God, and that beheld by this universe, as in every lineament a child of the Most High, the manifestation will take place amid the melodies of Saints, and it will be consigned to a Glory exceeding that of Angels. ... If we would console those, who are mourning over bereavement, we speak of the blessed estate of the eman- cipated spirit : our discourse turns almost exclusively on the soul, and scarcely a solitary word is given to the body, which is regarded with melancholy, and almost with disgust, and has been left to corruption. It was not thus with S. Paul, when death had entered the Thessalonian family, and he desired to speak peace to the mourners. And the words, which were em- 346 ROMANS VIII. 20. ployed, were undoubtedly intended to serve as a model for a consolatory discourse ; for he concludes by saying, " Wherefore comfort ye one another with these words." What were these " words ?" Not words on the happiness of the separate state ; not words on its deep and rapturous repose. They were words on the Resurrection. I hear in thein the shout of the descend- ing Mediator, "the voice of the Archangel, the trump of God." The Apostle makes no reference to the soul, and he speaks only of the body — that the grave shall be emptied, that the Saints " found alive at the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them that are asleep," and that " the dead in Christ shall rise first." These are the topics, by which he would animate the Thes- salonians, that they might " not sorrow, even as others which have no hope." Why did he fetch forth his consolation from tlie Eesurrection of the body ? Because it was death, which had brought sorrow into these families. If then he would " comfort" them, let him shew them death vanquished and death destroyed. Many hopes and many joys had gone down into the grave. Let him then irradiate that grave and strip it of its terrors. . . . The quickening of the buried dust will be the manifestation of the sons of God. H. Melvill. (Serm. on the Text.) 20 God made everything in itself very good, and therefore very fit for the desires of man, some way or other, to take satisfaction from. . . . The meanest of the creatures were at first filled with so much goodness, as did not only declare the glory of God, but, in their rank, likewise minister content to the miud of man. It was the sin of man, that filled the creature with vanity ; and it is the vanity of the creature, that fills the soul of man with vexation. As sin makes man " come short of glory" (iii. 2.3), which is the rest of the soul in the fruition of God in Himself; so doth it make him come short of contentation too, which is the rest of the soul in the fruition of God in His creatures. Sin took away God's fiivour from the soul, and His blessing from the creature : it put bitterness into the soul, that it cannot relish the creature ; and it put vanity into the crea- ture, that it cannot nourish nor satisfy the soul. Bp. Rerjnolds. (Three Treatises, Serm. i. on Eccles. i. 14.) ROMANS VIII. 21. 347 He doth attribute unto them how they look for the perfection of our salvation ; how that they are subject to vanity ; how that they ^roa?i and travail: attributing these things unto the sense- less creatures, by translation from man, to signify the society, cognation, and consent, which all and every creature hath with man ; that, as every and all things were made for man, so by the Man Christ all and everything, both earthly and heavenly, shall be restored. John Bradford. (Letters.) 21 In Adam's censure, the whole earth is cursed for Adam's sake (Gen. iii. 17). But what had the earth done? or, how was it guilty of Adam's transgression ? Again, in ch. vi. it is ex- pressly said, that " because God saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth. He said, I will destroy both man and beast, and the creeping things and the fowls of the air." How were these creatures partakers of man's wickedness ? What had they done more, than been abused by him — which they could not avoid, he being their Lord and Master ? . . . How this may stand with God's Justice, comes now to be resolved. First, we know that all the beasts of the field, all the fowls of the air, and the fishes of the sea, were made for the use and service of man in one kind or another, as he should have occa- sion to use them. Secondly, if man had stood in his first creation, the service of the creatures should have been suitable to his excellency and integrity ; and so far more noble, than now it is, that even the creatures might be partakers of his happiness then, since they yet look for the glorious liberty of the sons of God to come. Thirdly ; but, when man was once fallen, the service of the creature was altered, and became a bondage of corruption, as S. Paul terms it ; that is, ignoble and suitable to the corrupt condition of man, under sin. Those, which should have been employed excellently for the use of his integrity, are now to serve him ignominiously, according to his sin and misery ; namely, either to be the meaus to punish him for his sin, or to relieve him in his misery. To punish him, all the creatures for his use are become base, corruptible, and un- worthy ; and so nothing so useful for him, as they had been. The earth will not bring forth for him, but with his labour and toil ; and then, too, when it should bear him corn, it brings 348 ROMANS VIII. 21. forth thorns and thistles. The creatures, which should serve and honour him, do often seize upon him and destroy him. And thus are the creatures employed for man's use indeed — but a woeful use — to afflict and punish him for his sin all the days of his life. Another way, notwithstanding, they are useful and serviceable for his good, as helps to relieve and better him in this his condition of sin ; as to be made documents of the wrath of God to move him to repentance, and emblems to know the condition of his most deadly enemy the devil, and how he ought to abhor and hate him, and the hope and expecta- tion of conquering and triumphing over him in the Blessed Seed of the woman. And for this use and service was the Serpent abased and made vile, according to the curse pronounced on him ; that, as he was made excellent to serve man in his inte- grity, so he was now abased to be made fit to do him the best service in his misery. And what injustice could this be in God ? When He made him at first so, as He made him for the service of man, and now, when He marred him. He marred him likewise for man's service. Jos. Mede. (Serm. on Gen. iii. 13—15.) The Holt Ghosx could not express more danger in a man, than when He calls him filium sceculi, " the child of this world" (S. Luke xvi. 18) ; nor a worse disposition, than when He calls him filium diffidentice, the child of diffidence and distrust in God (Eph. V. 6) ; nor a worse pursuer of that ill disposition, than when He calls him filium Biaboli (as S. Peter calls Elymas), the child of the devil (Acts xiii. 10) ; nor a worse possessing of the devil, than when He calls him filium perditionis, the child of perdition (S. John xvii.) ; nor a worse execution of all this, than when He calls him filium GehenncB, the child of hell. The child of this world, the child of desperation, the child of the devil, the child of perdition, the child of hell, is a high express- ing, a deep aggravating of his damnation ; that his damnation is not only his purchase, as he hath acquired it, but it is his in- heritance ; he is the child of damnation. So it is also a high exaltation, when the Holt Guost draws our pedigree from any good thing, and calls us the children of that; as when He calls nsfilios Lucis, the children of Light (S. John xii. 36), that ROMANS VIII. 22. 349 ■we have seen the Day-star arise ; when He calls us flios Sponsce, the children of the Bride-chamber, begot in lawful marriage upon the true Church. These are fair approaches to the high- est title of all — to be Filii Dei, the children of God ; and not children of Gron per fiUationem vestigii, (so every creature is a child of God), by having an image and impression of God in the very being thereof; but children so, as that we are heirs ; and heirs so, that we are co-heirs with Christ, as it follows in the next verse, and is implied in this name children of God. Dr. Donne. (Serm. on Eora. viii. 16.) 22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. 23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. 24 For we are saved by hope : but hope that is seen is not hope : for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for ? 25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. 22 Nature and Grace alike proclaim a Glorified Messiah, as in- dispensable to complete their appointed course. Nature through all her regions — uncorrupted nature — cries aloud for Him, who is to rectify her unwilling disorders, to restore her oppressed energies, to vindicate her voice of conscience long despised, her sublime testimony to the Creator so long questioned and overlooked. But what is even this to the demand of Grace for the coming of Him, who is not only the great God, but our Sayioite ? If the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain for the manifestation of the soiis of God, what shall be the desire of the sons of God themselves ? Wliat shall be their ardour to realise that liberty of the children of God, of which 350 ROMANS VIII. 22. such great things are spoken ? . . . Yes, all proclaims and de- mands the return of Cheist to the world ; all, but the unsanc- tified heart of man. There alone no voice is heard to welcome the mighty Stranger ; there alone the dawn of this Eternal orb is contemplated with hatred, horror, and dismay. Hearts, that are inured to the world's corruptions — how shall they hail an immortality of meekness, simplicity, and love? Spirits, habi- tuated to seek unholy ends by means yet more unholy — how shall they endure the " bringing in of an everlasting righteous- ness ?" Those, whose hopes, prospects, and calculations are bound up with the fortunes of the world, as it is — how shall they regard otherwise than with terror this awful revolution in the administration of the universe ? TF. Archer Butler. (Serm. on 1 Cor. i. 7.) If you take the whole passage concerning the Gentiles, breathing after the Evangelical liberty of the sons of God, you render the sense very easy, and very agreeable to the mind of the Apostle, and to the signification of the word Traaa kt'oii (S. Mark xvi. 15 ; S. Matt, xxviii. 9 ; Col. i. 23), creature, or creation ; when they, that render it otherwise, dash upon, I know not, what rough and knotty sense. Let me thus paraphrase the whole place : For the earnest expectation of the creature (or of the heathen world) waiteth for the revelation of the sons of God. Eor God had promised, and had very often pronounced by His Prophets, that He would gather together and adopt to Himself innumerable sons among the Gentiles. Therefore the whole Gentile world doth now greedily expect the revelation and pro- duction of those sons. For the creature (the whole heathen world) was subjected to the vanity of their mind (Horn. i. 21, Gr.), "became vain in their imaginations ;" and (Ephes. iv. 17,) " the Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind" — not willingly, but because of him that subjected it : under hope, because the creature also (or that heathen world) shall be freed from the ser- vice of (sinful) corruption, " which is in the world through lust" (2 S. Pet. i. 4) into the (Gospel) liberty of the sons of God ; from the service of Satan, of idols, and of lusts, into the liberty, which the sons of God enjoy through the Gospel. For toe know that the whole creation (or heathen world) groaneth together and ROMANS VIII. 23. 351 travaileth, and as it were, with a convex weight, boweth down, unto this very time, to be born and brought forth. Neither the Gentiles only, but we Jews also (however we belong to a nation envious of the heathen), to whom God hath granted the first- fruits of the Spirit, we sigh among ourselves for their sakes, waiting for the adoption, that is, the redemption of our (mystical) body, whereof the Gentiles make a very great part. Conf. Heb. xi. 40 ; Ephes. iv. 13. Dr. Lightfoot. (Exercitations upon S. Mark xvi. 13.) 23 We may wonder at this, that God should have such a care to dignify, and to crown, and to associate to His own everlasting Presence, the body of man. God Himself is a Spirit, and Heaven is His place ; my soul is a spirit, and so, proportioned to that place : that God, or Angels, or our souls, which are spirits, should be in Heaven, never wonder at that. But, since we wonder, and justly, that some late philosophers have re- moved the whole earth from the centre, and carried it up and placed it in one of the spheres of Heaven, that this clod of earth, this body of ours, should be carried up to the highest Heaven, placed in the eye of God, set down at the right hand of God — wonder at this : that God, all spirit, served with spirits, associated to spirits, should have such an afiection, such a love to this body, this earthly body — this deserves our wonder. The Eathee was pleased to breathe into this body, at first, in the Creation. The Son was pleased to assume this body, after, in Eedemption. The Holt Ghost is pleased to consecrate this body and make it His temple by His Sanctification. In that Faciamus hominem, "Let us" (all us) "make man," that consultation of the whole Trinity in making man, is exercised even upon this lower part of man, the dignifying of his body. Br. Bonne. (On Easter-day. Serm. on S. John v. 28, 29.) A man, by the original constitution of his nature, consists of a soul and body ; and therefore his perfect happiness requires the united glory and happiness of both parts, of the whole man ; which is not considered by those, who cannot apprehend any necessity, why the body should rise again ; since, as they conceive, the soul might be as completely and perfectly happy without it. But yet the soul would not be an entire and perfect man ; for 353 ROMANS VIII. 23. a man consists of soul and body. A soul in a state of separa- tion, how happy it might otherwise be, has still the mark of God's displeasure on it, that it has lost its body ; and there- fore the reunion of our souls and bodies has at least this ad- vantage iu it, that it is a perfect restoring us to the Divine favour ; that the badge or memorial of our sin and apostacy is done away in the resurrection of our bodies ; and therefore this is called the adoption, that is, the redemption of our body. For theu it is, that God publicly owns us for His sons, when He raises our dead bodies into a glorious and immortal life. And, besides this, I think we have no reason to doubt but that the re-union of soul and body will be a new addition of happi- ness and glory : for, though we cannot guess what the pleasures of glorified bodies are, yet surely we cannot imagine, that, when these earthly bodies are the instruments of so many pleasures, a spiritual and glorified body should be of no use. Dean Sher- lock. (A Practical Discourse on Death. Ch. i. s. 2.) Oh, the mysterious greatness of our nature, that the disembodied spirit, even with Christ Himself and contemplating in Him the ever blessed Tbinity, should not yet have its fullest happi- ness, until this mortal flesh, conceived in sin, ever prone to rebel, the heir of corruption, be restored to it, purified, glori- fied, Deified ! Oh, the sti*ange condescension of God, that the SoK of God should take our nature, fulfilling the fallen spirit's deceitful promise, "Te shall be as Gods," making us temples of His Spirit here, and hereafter conforming our vile bodies to be " like unto His glorious Body," in which " the fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily." Oh, the awful Sacredness of this poor body, which men so defile, misuse, deck, trick out, pamper, sur- feit, subject to vanity and corruption, that here it is to be by Baptism the indwelling place of the ever blessed Tkinitt : into it our Lord Himself deigns to enter : it hereafter is to become all spiritual : though a body still, it is to be attempered to a spirit, and the spirit to God ; and soul, body, and spirit are to be full of God and partake of God. Oh, the miserable deceit- fulness of sin, which, when for the endurance of a few short years, all this eternal likeness, participation, oneness with God, are held out to it, will tempt the many to exchange all this and ROMANS VIII. 24. 353 the soul itself for its passing bitter pleasures, to forfeit the spirit, and corrupt the soul, until it becomes decayed, earthly, sensual, devilish ; and that, which was once the habitation of the Blessed Trinity, be the abode of all filthinoss and unclean- ness, the dwelling-place of devils : its spiritual nature becomes fleshly, and the high prerogatives, which it once had, remain only in that it is capable of an immortality of suftering. xii. 1. Dr. Pusey. (Oxford Plain Sermons, Serm. on S. Matt. xvii. 1,2.) 24 We arc saved by the exercise of a principle, which we are in some measure instinctively inclined to make the source of our earthly happiness ; but which, as yet, we have known as little more than the harbinger of disappointment. That our hope in Christ is no such delusion, I am not about now to argue. I am only inviting your attention to its admirable aptitude to our condition, as employing that machinery of hope and trust, which nature before possessed for higher objects than nature ever con- templated. The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews describes Christians as those, who have " fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before them, which hope they have, as an anchor of the soul sure and stedfast." The hope, which deserves such cha- racters, is in its nature, as a feeling of the soul, the same, as that, which we waste upon the emptiest dreams of time: but it was He, who is our Hope, that first taught the feeling to be "sure and stedfast," that first made it indeed "the anchor of the soul ;" because He first made it (as the passage goes on to say) a hope, which " entereth into that within the veil." .... Hope is the consoling and fortifying power. She prepares for heaven by maintaining the constant desire and expectation of its promised enjoyments. As faith dwells in the testimony of the glory to come, hope reposes on the glory itself. In hours of sorrow and trial, the magnificent vision still brightens through all their clouds, until, as it were, wrought into the substance of the soul, it becomes a part of its better nature ; and, colouring it with its anticipated heaven, fits it by the very earnestness of desire for the glory it desires, xv. 13. W. Archer Butler. (Serm. on Jer. xxx. 17 and Col. i. 12.) Hope is only, or prjnci]mlly, of invisible things ; for hope thaf is 354 ROMANS VIII. 24. seen is not hope . . . spes venice, a hope of pardon for that, which is past ; and then spes gratiee, a hope of grace to esta- blish me in that state with God, in which His pardon hath placed me ; and lastly a spes glorice, a hope that this pardon and this grace shall lead rae to that everlasting glory, which shall admit no night, no eclipse, no cloud, iv. 18. Dr. Donne. (Serm. on Job xiii. 15.) It is plain we have a prospect and eager desire of a future life, and in many circumstances there is nothing but that hope can make the present tolerable to us. But natural religion can neither give us any certain clear security of it, nor means to attain it. Eevealed gives both ; and the view is so comfortable to a good man and so useful to the world, that it seems to be an imitation of the devil's spite and malice to go about to deprive U3 of it. 'Tis this hope only can make all men equally happy, and send the poor, the unfortunate as to the circumstances of this world, and the oppressed, to bed, as contented as the greatest prince. 'Tis this only, that can make us cheerfully dispense with the miseries and hardships of life, and think of death with comfort. Except therefore these patrons of natural Eeligion can shew us sure and effectual means to comfort us on these occasions, as Eevealed Eeligion affords us, they are spiteful and unreasonable : for they go about to take from us that, which gives us patience in our sickness, relief in our distresses, and hope in our death ; and offer us nothing in lieu of it. If a man be oppressed by his enemies, if he be in sickness, pain, or an- guish, if the agonies and terrors of death approach him, what comfort or support can he have without religion ? What a dismal thing must it be to tell a man that there is no help, no hope for him, to bid him despair and die, and there is an end of him. Such reflections may make a man sullen, mad, curse himself and nature ; but can never give him any satisfaction with- out a well grounded hope of a Blessed immortality. Now Eevela- tion can give the generality of mankind, especially the unphi- losophical part of it, who are not capable of long or subtle reasoning, such a clear and well grounded hope. For we may add to this that, if we take natural religion with all the advan- tages, that reason can give it, yet the rewards and punishments ROMANS VIII. 25. 355 discoverable by it are not so clear or determined, as to be a sufficient encouragement to such as are good, or discouragement to the evil. Eevealed Eeligion serves all these ends, and there- fore we ought firmly to adhere to it, and not hearken to wicked and unreasonable men, or suifer them to wrest it out of our hands. It is our joy, our comfort, and our life ; it carries us beyond death and secures our eternal felicity. Justice, and charity, and peace are the fruits of it here, and glory here- after. Abp. King. (On the Pall of Man. Serm. on Gen. ii. 16, 17.) 25 Truly the saints' way to salvation lies in the same road, that Ckeist went in ; only with this advantage, that His going before hath beaten it plain, so that now it may be forded ; which, but for Him, had been utterly impassable to us. Afflictions understood with this notion about them, that they are as neces- sary for our waffcage to glory, as water is to carry the ship to her port . . . this notion, I say, well understood would recon- cile the greatest afflictions to our thoughts, and make us delight to' walk in their company. This knowledge Parisiensis calls, IJnus de sept em radiis doni scientice, one of the seven beams of Divine knowledge, for the want of which we " call good evil and evil good ;" think God blesseth us, when we are in the sun- shine of prosperity ; and curseth us, when our condition is overcast with a few clouds of adversity. But hope hath an eye, that can see heaven in a cloudy day, and an anchor, that can find firm land under a weight of waters to hold by : it can ex- pect good out of evil. The Jews open their windows, when it thunders and lightens, expecting, they say, their Messiah to come at such a time to them. I am sure hope opens her win- dows widest in a day of storm and tempest ; (Zeph. iii. 12 ; Micah vii. 7). See what strong hold the anchor of hope takes. " Therefore," if you observe the place in Micah, because all things were at so desperate a pass in the Church's aiFairs — as there you will find them to be, to man's thinking — " therefore," saith the saint, "I will look, I will wait." GurnalL (The Christian in Complete Armour. Eph. vi. 17. Ch. 6.) Here we meet with the very patience, that ch. ii. 7 has already prepared us to expect, as a necessary qualification for continu- A A 2 356 ROMANS VIII. 20. ance in well doing, and in order to the blessed hope of everlast- ing Life. It is through patience, as well as faith, that we in- herit the promises ; and again, " Te have need o^ patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the pro- mise" (Heb. vi. 12 ; x. 36). IJow wonderful is the harmony of Scripture ! xv. 4, 5. /. F. 26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities : for we know not what we should pray for as we ought : but the Spirit itself raaketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. 27 And He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh interces- sion for the saints according to the will of God. 26 Whenever God's Spirit bath given us any capacities or assist- ance, any documents, motions, desires, or any aids whatsoever, they are therefore given us with a purpose we should by our industry, skill, and labour improve them ; because without such co-operation the intention is made void, and the work imperfect. And this is exactly the doctrine I plainly gather from the words of S. Paul, The Spirit helpeth our infirmities — avvavTiXa^i^a- verai, collaborantem adjuvat. It is an ingeminate expression of our labours, and that supposes us to have faculties capable of improvement, and an obligation to labour ; and that the effect of having the gift of prayer depends upon the mutual course, that is, upon God's blessing our powers and endeavours. . . . The Holt Ghost is called " the Spirit of prayer" by the same reason, as He is " the Spirit of faith, of prudence, of know- ledge, of understauding," and the like; because He gives us assistances for the acquiring of these graces, and furnishes us with revelations by way of object and instruction. ... In the mean time, if we may lose the gifts of God by our own fault, we may purchase them by our diligence ; if we may lessen them by our incuriousuess, we may increase them by study ; if we may quench the Spirit, then we may also rekindle it: all which ROMANS VIII. 26. 357 arc evident probation that the Holt Ghost gives us assistances, to improve our natural powers, and to promote our acquisite ; and His aids are not inspirations of the habit, or infusions of a perfect gift, but a subliming of what Gron gave us in the stock of nature and art, to make it in a sufficient order to an end supernatural and Divine. Bp. J. Taylor. (An Apology for Authorized and Set Forms of Liturgy. Question i. s. 24, 25, 37, 22.) We are said to pray in or by the Holt Ghost (S. Jude 20), be- cause all the proper graces and affections of prayer are excited in us by Him. And this His excitation of the graces of prayer in us is called His making intercession for us ; which imports no more than His enabling us to offer up matter of our prayers to God in a most devout and affectionate manner ; or, as He there explains Himself, with sighs and groans that are not to be ut- tered; that is, with such earnest and flagrant aflections, as are too big for words to express. And this is properly to intercede for us. For, as Christ, who is our advocate in heaven, doth offer up our prayers to the Father, and enforce them with His own intercessions ; so His Spirit, who is our advocate on earth, begets in us these affections, which render our prayers preva- lent, and wings them with fervour and ardency : the one pleads for God with us in our own hearts by kindling such desires there, as render our prayers acceptable to Him ; and the other pleads with Him/o?- us in heaven by representing these desires, and soliciting their supply and acceptance. Now this inter- cession of the Holt Ghost is also performed by suggesting to, and imprinting such thoughts upon, our minds, as are most apt to raise and excite our affections ; which thoughts He often urges with that vehemence and presses with tliat reiterated importunity, that, if we do not wilfully repel them from our minds, and refuse their admittance to our hearts and affections, they cannot fliil to stir up in us all the graces of prayer, and inflame our souls with a fervent devotion ; and, accordingly, whenever we harbour these suggestions of the Spirit and by seriously attending to them cherish and encourage them, we find by experience they so affect and influence our devotions, as that in every prayer our souls take wing, and, like the Angel, 358 ROMANS VIII. 26, 27. that appeared to Manoah, fly up to heaven in the flames of our sacrifice. Dr. John Scott. (Of the Christian Life. P. ii. ch, 7. s. i.) If we look up, we have a Comforter in heaven ; even Cheist Him- self: and, if we look down, we have a Comforter on earth — His Spirit : and so we are at anchor in both. For, as He doth in heaven for us, so doth the Spirit on earth in us ; frame our pe- titions, and make intercession /or us with sighs that cannot be expressed. And, as Christ is our witness in heaven, so is the Spirit here on earth, witnessing to our spirits that we pertain to the adoption and are the children of God ; evermore, in the midst of sorrows, that are in our hearts, with His comforts refreshiug our souls ; yet not filling them with false comforts, but (as Christ's advocate here on earth) soliciting us daily, and calling upon us, to look to His commandments and keep them ; wherein standeth much of our comfort, even in the testimony of a good conscience. And thus these two — this one and this other — this second and that first — -yield plentiful supply to all our wants. Bp. Andrewes. (Serm. on S. John xiv. 15, 16.) As without the intercession of Christ we cannot have our prayer accepted, so without the intercession of the Spirit we cannot pray. No prayer can find the way to heaven, but such, as first come from thence. Every sincere prayer is a beam of the Sun of Eighteousness, darted into our hearts, and from thence reflected back again. Br. South. (Serm. on Ps. Ixvi. 18.) 27 We must pray in faith and in the spirit : that is the language, that God understandeth. He knoweth the meaning of the Spirit, and knoweth none else, but that. Many men are wondrously deceived in that, which they call " the spirit of prayer." One thinks it is a faculty to set out one's desires in fair words, shewing earnestness, and speaking much in an extemporary prayer. One, that shall never come to heaven, may be more ready in this, than the child of God ; for it is a matter of skill and exercise. The spirit of prayer is another thing. . . . The Holt Ghost makes us groan, and, though we speak not a word, yet so enlarges our hearts, as that we send up volleys of sighs and groans, which reach the throne of Grace. And this is the spirit of prayer, when with these sighs and groans, I beg, as it ROMANS VIII. 27. 359 were, for my life, . . . Prayer availeth much, if it be ci/e/)- o/ovficvij, fervent. In the ancient Churches, those, that were pos- sessed with an evil spirit, were called cvepyovjueuoi ; because that caught them up, and made them do actions not suitable to their nature. Prayer is a fire from heaven, which, if thou hast it, will carry all heaven before it. There is nothing so strong in the world, as a Christian thus praying. Abp. TJssher. (Serm. on Heb. iv. 16.) God's will is either hidden and secret, or revealed and open : the one is that, which the Prophet calls " the counsel or thought of His heart" (Ps. xxxiii. 11) ; the other is that will of His "Word, wherein He declareth and openeth to men what His will is. His secret will is voluntas beneplaciti ; " the good pleasure of His will." His revealed will is voluntas signi, which is disclosed to us. His secret will is voluntas quam Beus vult ; that will, which God willeth. His revealed will is voluntas quam Ipse nos ve/le vult ; that will, which He willeth us to will. The secret will of His heart is, voluntas adoranda non scrutanda, *' He, that curiously searcheth the glory of heavenly things, shall not enter into glory. Prov. xsv. 27. But the open and the re- vealed will of God is voluntas scrutanda et /acienda, both to be searched out, and done of us." " Be not unwise, but un- derstanding what the will of the Loed is" (Eph. v. 17). The knowledge of His will is not enough ; but, as Cheist saitb, "If ye know these things, blessed are ye, if ye do them" (S. John xiii. 17). Of the secret wall of God that is true, which the Apostle saith, Who hath resisted His will? and therefore we pray not, that that will may be done. Of His revealed will that is verified, which Cheist complaineth ; " How often would I have gathered you together, but ye would not" (S. Matt, xxiii. 37.) God often willeth when we will not ; and therefore we have need to pray, that His revealed will may be accomplished in us. Moses thus distinguishes God's will ; " The things that are secret belong to God, but the revealed are for us and our children" (Deut. xxix. 29). The secret will of the Fathee is, that " of all that He hath given Me I should lose nothing:" the revealed will of Him, that sent Me, is that " everi/ one that seeth the Son, and believeth in Him, should not perish, but 360 ROMANS VIII. 28. have everlastuig life." (S. John vi. 39, 40.) Bp. Andrewes. (Sermons on the Lord's Prayer. Serm. ii.) 28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. 29 For whom He did foreknow He also did pre- destinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called : and whom He called, them He also jus- tified : and whom He justified, them He also glorified. 28 All that love GtOd, God loves : and, seeing He loves them, He makes all things concur to their advantage. For which pur- pose by His good providence He makes them of such a temper, as will best suit with the circumstances He designs for them ; or else, orders their circumstances so, as will best suit with the temper He made them of. He measures out such a proportion of the good things of this life to them, as He knows will be good for them, and no more. He allots them such a place to live in upon earth, where they may enjoy the means, whereby to obtain grace and salvation by His Son. He keeps them from falling into any evil ; and all evil from falling upon them. He defends them from all their enemies ; or else, turns their hearts and makes them to become their friends. He infatuates the counsels and defeats all the ill designs, that men or devils Clin form against them. He hears the prayers they put up unto Him in His Son's Name, and for His sake accepts of all the duties they perform to Him. He is with them, wheresoever they are, to direct, assist, and prosper them in whatsoever they do. He sanctifieth and blesseth all manner of occurrences to them, so that everything, which happens, is, all things con- sidered, the best, that could happen to them. . . . Thus He, one way or other, always preserves those He loves from all things, that may hurt them, and withholds nothing from them, ROMANS VIII. 28, 29. 361 that will really do them good : but He carries them through all the changes and chances of this mortal life, so as to bring them at last to Heaven, where they clearly see His love in every- thing, that ever befel them, continually praise and adore Him for it, and are eternally happy in the perfect enjoyment of it. Bp. Beveridge. (The Sacerdotal Blessing in the Name of the Trinity. Serm. on 2 Cor. xiii. 14.) All things, that is, all providences especially, work together for good to them that love God. And how do they work for their good, but by making them more good and more holy ? Pro- vidences are good and evil to us, as they find or make us better or worse : nothing is good to him, that is evil. As God makes use of all the seasons of the year for the harvest — the frost and cold of winter, as well as the heat of the summer — so doth He of fair and foul, pleasing and uupleasing, providences for pro- moting holiness. Winter-providences kill the weeds of lusts, and summer-providences ripen and mellow " the fruits of righ- teousness." "When He afflicts, 'tis for our profit ; to make us " partakers of His holiness." ... It is a sweet meditation Pa- risiensis hath upon Eom. viii. 28. " When, 0 my soul, should- est thou be more satisfied, free of care and fear, than when thou art among thy fellow labourers, and those, that come to help thee to attain thy so much desired salvation ; which thy afflic- tions do ? They work together with ordinances and other pro- vidential dealings of God for good ; yea, thy chief good : and thou couldst as ill spare their help, as any other means, which God appoints thee." Gurnall. (The Christian in Com- plete Armour. Ephes. vi. 12, ch. 3, and 17, ch. 6.) This unfeigned love of God, raised from belief of His loving kind- ness towards us, is as the first conception or plantation of true happiness ; to which, once truly planted, whatsoever in this life can befall us serves as nutriment. Bean Jackson. (Works. B. vi. c. 18, s. 4.) 29 To foresee a thing, before it be actually effected, comes to pass in a threefold manner ; either by the insight of natural causes — so artists can foretell at what day and hour eclipses of the sun and moon will happen— or, by rational sagacity, as a prudent man can espy how affairs will succeed, when a good foundation 362 ROMANS VIII. 30. is laid ; or, by Divine inspiration, when the Lord from above doth give a spirit to Hia Prophets to behold things to come, as if they were present before their eyes. These three are thus laid down, after the measure of our own understanding ; but, when we speak of GfOJ)' ^ fore-knowledge, it is of another fadom (depth). For, first, all things, that were, that are, that shall be, are present to Him at one instant : those successions of time — past, present, and to come — which are differences to us, are none at all to God. His knowledge, which is eternal, reacheth with one simple act even to the producing of effects in time without all variation ; and therefore is called " prescience" very improperly, and with much dissimilitude from human ways of prescience. Secondly, our foresight is bare fore-knowledge, not able to put forward a good event, and as unable to prevent a calamity. Abraham could truly presage, that Israel should come out of Egyptian bondage ; but he could not hasten the time of their return. Israel could foretell, that Judah should be led away into captivity ; but he could not mitigate their bondage : but GtOd's fore-knowledge hath His hand and power always an- nexed to it. . . . He doth not only foresee good, how like it is unto Himself, and evil per dissimilitudinem Sni, how unlike it is unto Himself; but His Providence intervenes, and manageth that evil, which He foresees will arise out of the corrupt and depraved will of the creature, to His own glory. . . . Now Providence is the ordaining of all things to a good end ; but Predestination is the ordaining of God's chosen portion to a Blessed end. iv. 17 ; xi. 29. Bp. Hacket. (Serm. v. on the Passion. Acts ii. 23.) These two links of the chain (Forehiowledge and Salvation) are up in heaven, in God's own hand ; but this middle one (calling) is let down to earth into the hearts of His children ; and they, laying hold on it, have sure hold on the other two : for no power can sever them. If therefore they can read the characters of God's Image in their own souls, those are the counterpart of the golden characters of His love, in which their names are written in the Book of Life. Their believing writes their names under the promises of the Revealed Book of Life — the Scrip- tures ; and so ascertains them, that the same names are in the ROMANS VIII. 30. 363 secret Book of Life, which God hath by Himself from eternity. So that, finding the stream of grace in their hearts, though they see not the fountain whence it flows, nor the ocean into which it returns, yet they know that it hath its source, and shall re- turn to that ocean, which ariseth from their eternal Election, and shall empty itself into that eternity of happiness and sal- vation. . . . Therefore make your calling sure, and by that your election j for that being done, this follows of itself. We are not to pry immediately into the Decree, but to read it in the per- formance. Though the mariner sees not the pole-star, yet the needle of the compass, that points to it, tells him which way he sails. Thus the heart, that is touched with the loadstone of Divine love, trembling with godly fear, and yet still looking to- wards God by fixed believing, points at the love of election, and tells the soul that its course is heaven-ward, towards the haven of eternal rest. He, that loves, may be sure he was loved first ; and he, that chooses God for his delight and portion, may con- fidently conclude, that God hath chosen him to be one of those, that shall enjoy Him and be happy in Him for ever : for that our love and electing of Him is but the return and repercussion of the beams of His Love shining upon us. Pind thou but within thee " Sanctification by the Spirit," and this argues ne- cessarily both *' Justification by the Son," and " the Election of God the Father." Abp. Leighton. (Comment, on 1 S. Pet. i. 2.) "We are nowhere commanded to pry into these secrets, but the wholesome counsel and advice given us is this — to " make our calling and election sure." We have no warrant in Scripture to peep into these hidden EoUs and Volumes of Eternity, and to make it our first thing we do, when we come to Cheist, to spell out our names in the stars, and to persuade ourselves that we are certainly elected unto everlasting happiness ; before we see " the Image of God in righteousness and true holiness" shaped in our hearts. God's everlasting Decree is too dazzling and bright an object for us at first to set our eyes upon : it is far easier and safer for us to look upon the rays of His Good- ness and Holiness, as they are reflected in our own hearts, and there to read the mild and gentle characters of God's love to us in our love to Him, and our hearty compliance with His 36-1 ROMANS VIII. 29, 30. Heavenly Will. As it is safer for us, if we would see the sun, to look upon it here in a pail of water, than to cast up our daring eyes upon the hody of the sun itself, which is too radiant and scorching for us. The best assurance any one can have of his interest in God is, doubtless, the conformity of his soul to Him. . . . The way to obtain a good assurance indeed of our title to heaven is not to clamber up to it by a ladder of our own ungrounded persuasions, but to dig as low, as hell, by humility and self-denial in our own hearts ; and, though this may seem to be the furthest way about, yet it is indeed the nearest and safest way to it. We must ava^ai'veiv kcitw and Kara/iatveiv avw, as the Grreek epigram speaks, " ascend downward and de- scend upward," if we would indeed come to heaven, or get any true persuasion of our title to it. Ralph Cudworth. (Serm. on 1 S. John ii. 34.) (Conf. ver. 17.) The duty of conforming unto Christ consists not only in doing, as He did, but suffering also, as He hath done (1 S. Pet. ii. 20 ; IS. John iii. 16). And this conformity and sam- pling (as I may say) of Cheist extends, not only to those acts of His, which He did, as man, where the imitation is plain and direct, but in a certain sort to those supernatural ones, which exceed the nature of mere man, and were done by the concur- rence and power of His Grodhead ; which, because otherwise unimitable, we must express by way of a mystical resemblance. Thus are we to imitate His expiatory death and burial (Rotfi. vi. 1). To the same purpose (1 S. Pet. iv. 1). So likewise, suffering one for another (Eph. v. 1). In the like manner, His Eesurrection and Ascension (Rom. vi. 4) ; accordingly, Col. iii. 1. All which, you see, are grounded upon this one prin- ciple, " Learn of Me." ... In the mystical Body of Cheist, every character in the Head Cheist must have something answerable to it in His Body the Church, vi. 3 — 5 ; xiii. 14. Joseph Mede. (S. Matt. xi. 28, 29.) 30 The Christian Church had in the day of its nativity all that fulness of holiness and peace named upon it, and sealed up to it, which beseemed it, viewed as God's design ; viewed in its essence, as it is realised at all times, and under whatever circumstances ; viewed as God's work without man's co-operation, viewed as ROMANS VIII. 30. 365 God's work in its tendency and in its ultimate blessedness : so that the titles given it upon earth are a picture of what it will be absolutely in heaven. . . . The same interpretation will apply to the Scripture account of the " elect people" of God, which is but the Church of Cheist under another name. On them, upon their election, are bestowed, as on a body, the gifts of justification, holiness, and final salvation. The perfections of Cheist are shed around them. His Image is reflected from them ; so that they receive His Name, as being " in Him," and beloved of God " in the Beloved." Thus in their election are sealed up, to be unrolled and enjoyed in due season, the succes- sive privileges of the heirs of light. In God's purpose — ac- cording to His grace — in the tendency and ultimate efiects of His dispensation — to be called and chosen is to be saved. Whom He did foreknow, lie also did 'predestinate ; whom He did predestinate, them He also called ; whom He called, them He also justified ; whom He justified, them He also glorified. Ob- serve, the whole scheme is spoken of, as of a thing past ; for in His deep counsel He contemplated from everlasting the one entire work, and, having decreed it, it is but a matter of time, of sooner or later, when it will be realised. As " the Lamb" was " slain from the foundation of the world," so also were His redeemed gathered in from the first, according to His fore- knowledge ; and it is not more inconsistent with the solemn announcement of the text just cited, that some once elected should fall away (as we know they do), than that an event should be spoken of in it as past and perfect, which is incom- plete and future. All accidents are excluded, when He speaks ; the present and the time to come, delays and failures, vanish before the thought of His perfect work. And hence it happens, that the word " elect" in Scripture has two senses, standing both for those, who are called in order to salvation, and for those, who at the last day shall be the actually resulting fruit of that holy call. Por God's Providence moves by great and comprehensive laws ; and His Word is the mirror of His de- signs, not of man's partial success in thwarting His gracious Will. iv. 17. /. H. Netvman. (The Epiphany, &c. Serm. on Isa. Ix. I.) 366 ROMANS VIII. 30. This declares the regular event, or, at least, the order of things, and the design of God ; but not the actual verification of it to all persons. Bp. J. Taylor. (Life of Cueist. Disc. vi. p. 2.) Tou have several words in Scripture to express the same state, and they only differ in notion : they do not differ materially, but they are in substance the same. And if it be so, then it is not greatly material, whether the one be first or not, whether one be named or the other. For they belong to the same state ; the notion only is different ; or, the several words do import the several degrees of the same perfection. I will produce ten words in Scripture, that come into my mind, which it may trouble you to distinguish ; and they are all belonging to the self-same state: they differ but notionally or gradually; or, as to our apprehension only. They are these — regeneration, con- version, adoption, vocation, sanctijication, justification, recon- ciliation, redemption, salvation, glorification. Tou have all these words in Scripture. Now all these belong to the same state, though they have different ax^o^i's, different re- lations and respects ; but they all import the same spiritual life, health, and state ; they import the same thing for sub- stance, but in different respects, or in several degrees of perfec- tion. Therefore, to stand upon nice or accurate distinction of them, it is superfluous, needless, and useless, since Scripture uses them indifferently. But, if you speak accurately, I will tell you the import of them. Regeneration is used to distin- guish the Divine heavenly life from the natural and animal. Conversion — that imports a regenerate one, that had departed from God and righteousness ; and he is reduced from the prac- tice of iniquity to his duty and to God. Adoption — that inti- mates, that a man hath broke with God and parted from Him ; and here is again the renewal of the former relation to God ; he is again made the son of God. Vocation — that imports the taking a man off from the ill-usage and guise of the world. Sanctification — that imports the renewal of us in the spirit of our minds. Justification imports pardon of sin. Redemption imports rescuing us from the slavery of the devil. Salvation denotes holiness here, and happiness hereafter. Reconciliation implies peace restored with God, and with our consciences. ROMANS VIII. 30. 367 Glorifcation is a consummation and accomplishment of them all. So all these are concerned in the different notions and conceptions, in the state of religion here and hereafter ; are not distinguished as separable or divisible things, in respect of actual existence, but oidy formal, notional, and mental appre- hension : for they are all competible to the same person, in re- spect to the state of religion ; and wheresoever one is, all are ; and all upon the same account, materially and substantially : only they have different relations and habitudes ; or they speak the same thing in different states. Br. Whichcote. (The Na- ture of Salvation by Cheist. Serm. on 2 Tim. i. 9, 10.) "Were we to climb up unto the highest heavens, we should not be able to comprehend the mysteries of Mercij, revealed in the work of our Redemption and Salvation ; but still revealed, as mysteries to be partly known and partly believed. Or, were we to dive into the deepest hell, we should never be able to comprehend the mysteries of Justice, threatened ; but still threatened, as mysteries, in the punishment of the guilty, which we can only conceive in part, and believe in part. All true religion, rightly understood, takes its rise from Predestination, rightly understood. On the part of God, what is true Reli- gion, but that immense plan, whereby, ere the world was made, He purposed to create and govern all things ? Every act of His Providence — the Paradisaical state — the Pirst and Second Covenant, the Judgment to come — were predetermined. These predeterminations — all of them just and good — were founded on infinite and perfect knowledge, which could not have been either infinite or perfect, if all was not perfectly and certainly foreseen. On the part of man, all true Eeligion is founded on such knowledge of God and His Will, as man can acquire, and on faith, where knowledge fails. To man, too, as a necessary part of Eeligion, a foreknowledge of such events, as concern him most, is imparted : and on these two is erected the pre- destination, or predetermination freely made in the breast of every Christian, to keep the Covenant between God and his soul, to lead, as far forth as he is able, a new and holy life, and to stand issue, at the last Day, for all the thoughts, words, and actions of that life. On these terms, as not only just, 368 ROMANS VIII. 30, 31. but good and gracious also, every believer freely embraces the Covenant, in his judgment, an infinite and wholly unde- served benefit. P. Skelton. (Eeflections on Predestination.) Sir, in these matters — (referring to the doctrines of election and final perseverance) — I am so fearful, that I dare not speak further, yea, almost none otherwise, than the very Text doth, as it were, lead me by the hand. Bp. Ridley. (Letter to John Bradford.) Do not expect too much certainty on topics, which have exercised the sagacity of men for many ages, without any agreement being produced among them : but, if you still find perplexities beyond your power, dismiss them from your mind, as things, that cannot concern you. " Secret things belong to the Lord our GrOD ;" but on the necessity of an Atonement, on Justifica- tion by faith, and on the obligation, which lies on us to work out with fear and trembling the Salvation, thus begun in us, no real difficulties exist, and by these, on every system, our en- trance to heaven is to be secured. Bp. Heber. (Life, by his widow. Ch. 17.) 31 What shall we then say to these things ? If God he for us, who can he against us ? 32 He that spared not His own Son, but deUvered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things ? 33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect ? It is God that justifieth. 34 Who is he that condemneth ? It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. 31 In the last verse of this Psalm (Ixii.) David says, " God hath spoken once, and twice have I heard Him." God hath said enough at " once," but " twice" in this Psalm hath He repeated this (second and sixth verses) ; " He only is my rock, and my ROMANS VIII. 32. 369 salvation, and my defence ;" and, as it is enlarged in ver, 7, " my refuge and my glory." If my "refuge," what enemy can pursue me? If my " defence," what temptation will wound me? If my "rock," what storm can shake me? If my "sal- vation," what melancholy shall deject me ? If my " glory," what calumny shall defame me ? I must not stay you, now to infuse into you the several consolations of these several names and notions of GrOD towards you. But go your several ways home, and let every soul take with him that name, which may minister most comfort to him. Let him, that is pursued with any particular temptation, invest God, as God is a "refuge," a sanctuary. Let him, that is buffeted with the messenger of Satan, battered with his own concupiscence, receive God, as God is his " defence" and target. Let him, that is shaked with perplexities in his understanding or scruples in his con- science, lay hold upon God, as God is his "rock" and his anchor. Let him, that hath any diffident jealousy or suspicion of the free and full mercy of God, apprehend God, as God is his " Salvation." And let him, that walks in the ingloriousness and contempt of the world, contemplate God, as God is his "glory." Any of these notions is enough to any man; but God is all these, and all else, that souls can think, to every man. xv. 5, 13. Dr. Donne. (Serm. on Ps. Ixii. 9.) 32 There is one degree of sonship founded on creation ; and that is the lowest, as belonging unto all, both good and bad : another degree above that there is, grounded upon regeneration, or adop- tion, belonging only to the truly faithful in this life : and a third above the rest, founded on the Eesurrection, or collation of the eternal inheritance, and the similitude of God ; appertaining to the saints alone in the world to come. For " we are now the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him." And there is yet another degree of filiation, of a greater eminency and a different nature, appertaining properly to none of these, but to the true " Son of God" alone, who, amongst all His brethren, hath only received the title of His own Son, and a singular tes- timony from heaven " This is My beloved Son," even in the pre- sence of John the Baptist, even in the midst of Moses and Elias, B B 370 ROMANS VIII. 32, who are certainly "the sons of God" by all the three other de- grees of filiation ; and, therefore, He called GrOD after a peculiar way " His own Pathee." (S. John v. 18.) Bp. Pearson. (Ex- position of the Creed. Art. 1.) If we look upon all this as nothing else, but that God should cause a man to be born after another manner, than other men ; and, when he was so born after a peculiar manner, yet a mortal man, should deliver him to die for the sins of the world ; I see no such great expression of His Love in this way of Redemp- tion, more than would have appeared, if He had redeemed us any other way. 'Tis true indeed that the reparation of lapsed man is no act of absolute necessity, in respect of God, but that He hath as freely designed our Eedemption, as our Creation. Considering the misery, from which we are redeemed and the happiness, to which we are invited, we cannot but acknowledge the singular love of God even in the act of Redemption itself; but yet the Apostles have raised that consideration higher, and placed the choicest mark of the love of God in the choosing such means, and performing in that manner our reparation, by sending His only begotten into the world, by not sparing His own Son, by giving Him up to be scourged and crucified for us : and the estimation of this act of God's love must necessarily increase proportionably to the dignity of the Soisr so sent into the world ; because, the more worthy the person of Christ be- fore He suff'ered, the greater His condescension unto such a suffering condition ; and, the nearer His relation to the Fathee, the greater His love to us, for whose sakes He sent Him so to suffer. Wherefore, to derogate any way from the person and nature of our Savioue, before He suffered, is so far to under- value the love of God, and consequently to come short of that acknowledgment and thanksgiving, which is due unto Him for it. If then the sending of Cheist into the world were the highest act of the love of God, which could be expressed ; if we be obliged unto a return of thankfulness some way correspondent to such infinite love ; if such a return can never be made with- out a true sense of that infinity, and a sense of that infinity of love cannot consist without an apprehension of an infinite dignity of nature in the person sent ; then it is absolutely ne- ROMANS VIII. 32. 371 oessary to believe that Cueist is so " the Only-begotten Son of the Fathee," as to be of the same substance with Him, of Glory equal, of Majesty co-eternal. Bp. Pearson. (An Expo- sition of the Creed. Art ii.) We learn from this that sin must be something far more hateful in its nature, something of a deeper malignity, than is generally understood. It could be no inconsiderable evil, that could re- quire such a remedy as the humiliation of the Second Person of the Godhead. It is not to be supposed that any light cause would move the merciful Father of the universe to expose even an innocent man to unmerited sufferings. What must be the enormity of that guilt, which God's mercy could not pardon, till the only-begotten Son of God had undergone its punish- ment ? How great must be the load of crime, which could find no adequate atonement, till the Son of God descended from the bosom of the Father, clothed Himself with flesh, and, " being found in fashion as a man," submitted to a life of hard- ship and contempt, to a death of ignominy and pain ? Again, we learn that the good or ill conduct of man is a thing of far more importance and concern in the moral system, than is gene- rally imagined. Man's deviation from his duty was a disorder, it seems, in the moral system of the universe, for which nothing less than Divine wisdom could devise a remedy — the remedy devised nothing less than Divine love and power could apply. Man's disobedience was in the moral world what it would be in the natural, if a planet were to wander from its orbit, or the constellations to start from their appointed seats. It was an evil, for which the regular constitution of the world had no cure ; which nothing, but the immediate interposition of Pro- vidence, could repair. Bp. Horsley. (Serm. on Rom. iv. 25.) Here Love was in its zenith, in its vertical point ; and in a direct line it casts its rays of comfort on His lost creature. Here the argument is at its highest, and S. Paul draws it down a majori ad minus, and the conclusion is full, full of comfort to all. He, that gives a talent, will certainly give a mite : He, that gives His Son, will also give salvation : and He, that gives salvation, will give all things, which may work it out. Qui tradidit. He that delivered His Son, is followed with a quomodo non — how c B 2 372 ROMANS VIII. 32. shall He not loith Him give us all things ? Qttomodo non ? It is impossible it should be otherwise : so that Christ comes not naked, but clothed with blessings ; He comes not empty, but with the riches of heaven, with the treasures of wisdom and happi- ness. Cheist comes not alone, but with troops of Angels, with glorious promises and blessings ; nay, to make good the Quomodo non ? to make it unanswerable, unquestionable, it is His naked- ness, that clotheth us ; His poverty, that enricheth us ; His no- reputation, that ennobles us ; His minoration, that makes us great; and His exinanition, His emptying Himself, that fills us : and the Tradidit is an instrument of vengeance — His being de- livered for us delivers to us the possession of all things All things is of large compass, large enough to take in the whole world ; but then, it is the world transformed and altered, the world conquered by faith, the world in subjection to Christ. "All things are our's, when we are Christ's" (1 Cor. iii. 21 — 23). There is a Civil dominion and right to these things, and this we have jure creationis, by right of creation. For " the earth is the Lord's, and He hath given it to the sons of men" (Ps. xxiv. 1 ; cxv. 16). And there is an Evangelical dominion ; not the power of having them, but the power of using them to God's glory, that they may be a gift : and this we have jure Adoptionis, by right of adoption, as the sons of God, begotten in Christ. Christ came not into the world to purchase it for us, or enstate us in it. He did not suffer, that we might be wanton ; nor was poor, that we might be rich ; nor was brought to the dust of death, that we might be set in high places. Such a Messias did the Jews look for. . . . Christ never drew any such conveyance. The Gospel brought no such tidings. But, when honest labour and industry have brought riches in, Christ setteth a seal, imprinteth a blessing on them, sanctifieth them unto us by the Word and Prayer; and so maketh them ours — our servants to minister unto us, and our friends to promote U3 to " everlasting habitations." Our Charter is large enough, and we need not interline it with those glosses, which the flesh and love of the world will soon suggest. With Christ we have all things, which work to that end, for which He was delivered. . . And the Apostle doth not only tell us, that God doth give us ROMANS VIII. 33, 34. 373 them, but, to put it out of doubt, has a Quomodo non ? chal- lengeth, as it were, the whole world to shew, how it should be otherwise ; How shall He not with Him also freely give us all things P This question addeth energy, and weight, and em- phasis. . . . It is impossible, but He should give us all things. It is more possible for a city upon a hill to be hid, than for Him to hide His favour from us ; more possible for heaven to sink into hell, or for hell to raise itself up to God's mercy-seat, than for Him to withhold anything from them, to whom He has given His Son . , . When Cheist is given, all things are given with Him ; nay, more, than all things — more, than we can de- sire ; more, than we can conceive, v. 10. Farindon. (On the Passion. Serm. on Text.) 33 The acts of our Loed's Priestly office are chiefly two, as being proportionable to the defect and necessity of man the offender — that is, to satisfy, and to intercede. Go forth now, my soul, and bid defiance to all thy enemies. For the shield of thy faith shall receive all their dents without any danger to thee, retort- ing them back even into the adversaries' faces. Appear now with confidence before the Judgment-seat of God, bringing with thee to the bar of mercy thy Advocate Christ Jesus. Thither summons sin, that tyrant, whom, whilst thou wast a traitor to thy Maker, thou didst serve ; together with those homicides. Death and Hell. Let him bring his parent with him also, even Satan his agent, thy accuser ; yea, let thine own con- science be called, as a witness. Lastly, let the Law be preferred, as thy indictment. Against all those let thy Saviouk propose Himself, and, maugre their objections and accusations, plead thy innoceucy, that so, " thy righteousness may break forth as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday." For He shall trample them and His enemies under His feet, and destroy them with the two-edged sword of His Word. xvi. 20. Sir James Harrington. (Divine Meditations on Faith. P. 59. Edit. 1682.) 34 If, while ray soul lies groaning under fearful apprehensions oi its forfeiture, casting about for help and finding none upon the earth, if it look upwards, and inquire, " Whom have I iu Hea- ven ?" Have I none there, but my offended adversary God? 374 ROMANS VIII. 34. It may resolve itself with comfort, he hath other interests there. For, first, I have an Intercessor there, a master of Eequests, one, that will not only hand in my petitions, get access for my prayers and my tears to God, but will make them effectual. Por, saith S. Paul, " Seeing we have a great High Priest that is passed into the heavens, let us come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need." (Heb. iv. 14, 16.) For, though my supplications have not strength nor ardour, that can mount them into heaven, and are too impure, however washed in my repenting tears to draw nigh to the LoED, yet, being put into the High Priest's censer with the altar-coals to give them holy flame, and wrapped up in His cloud and smoke of incense, that will cover all the failings of my prayers, they may get access into His ears and His com- passions. Indeed, how can they choose, when Cheist does join His Intercession ? For my requests will go, where the High Priest's do go : He carries them, now He Himself doth sit at the right hand of God. The intercessions, that are made for me, are made upon the Throne, and therefore cannot be repulsed from thence ; and such desires commend, and they create, efiects. But, should my prayers fail, and should God hide Himself from my petitions, withdraw Himself and hide His face from them, although they be ever before His face ; yet, secondly, I have an Advocate there too. (1 S. John ii. 1, 2.) " If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Eathee, Jesus Cheist the righteous, and He is the propitiation for our sins ;" one, that not only pleads for me, but brings the satisfaction of my forfeiture in His hands, makes the just value plead, appears there with His Blood, and proves a recompense ! 'Tis Jesus Cheist the righ- teous advocate, that does propitiate and atone for, what He pleads for ; purchase, what He begs. " 'Tis true, that poor worm," saith He, " hath provoked Thee often, Loed ; but Thou didst smite ' the Man, that is Thy fellow' for it. Behold My hands, and look into My sides ; see there Thy recompense ! "Wilt Thou refuse that satisfaction. Thyself didst contrive, and Thy beloved Son did make ? Why did a Person of the Blessed Teitstity descend from heaven and Divinity, to be ' made sin' and be ' a curse,' but to redeem him from the curse and sin, ROMANS VIII. 34. 375 and to entitle him again to the possession of heaven and God ? Why was I crucified, but that Thou mightest be atoned, and he be pardoned ?" Thus He solicits for us there, presents Himself in our stead, as our Attorney. He was not a public person, only on the Cross ; but He is so at the right hand of God : as He was there our representative and bore our sins, so He is here our representative and bears our wants ; was there our proxy to the wrath of God, is here our proxy to His mercies and compassions. Br. Allestree. (Serm. on Ps. Ixxiii. 25.) The Divinity of Cheist's person, and the surpassing value of His merits, put a commanding Sovereignty into all His desires ; so that everything, which He asked of His Fathee, was indeed a Petition of Right ; and, since His Divinity made Him able to give, it was one part of His humiliation, that He vouchsafed to ask. And, for this reason, some of His requests run Stylo Im- j)eratorio, in a Kingly dialect ; and we sometimes find Him, not only preaching, but also praying, as one having authority (S. John xvii. 24), " Pathee, I will that those whom Thou hast given Me be with Me to behold My glory." It was not a mere prayer, but a kind of compound address, made up of petition and demand. Dr, South. (Discourse ii. on Temptation. 2 S. Pet. ii. 9.) Though there are other limbs of truth, which make up the body of Christian faith, yet, if any man ask me about faith, as one asked Cheist about the Commandments — " "Which is the first and greatest Commandment ?" — so, in the point of belief, if any man shall say, " Which is the first and great Article of the Creed ?" I would boldly reply — This before any other ; " The third day He rose again from the deadP x. 9. Bp. Racket. (Serm. vi. on the Resurrection. S. Matt, xxviii. 3, 4.) 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword ? 36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long ; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. 376 ROMANS VIII. 35. 37 Nay, in all these things we are more than con- querors through Him that loved us. 35 Is this he, who so lately cried out, " O wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me ?" who now triumphs ? 0 happy man ! Who shall separate us from the love of Chnst ? Tes, it is the same. Pained then with the thoughts of that miserable conjunction with a body of death, and so crying out, "who will deliver, who will separate me from that ?" now, now he hath found a Deliverer to do that for him ; to whom he is for ever united ; and he glories now in His inseparable union and un- alterable love, which none can divide him from. Tea, it is through Him, that, presently after that word of complaint, he praises God ; and now, in Him he triumphs. So vast a differ- ence is there betwixt a Christian taken in himself, and in Christ ! When he views himself in himself, then he is no- thing, but a poor, miserable, polluted, perishing wretch ; but then he looks again, and sees himself in Cheist ; and there he is rich, and safe, and happy ; he triumphs and he glories in it, above all the painted prosperities, and against all the horrid ad- versities of the world. . . . And he extends his triumph ; he makes a common good of it to all believers, speaks it in their name ; " Who shall separate us ?" and would have them partake of the same confidence, and speak in the same style with him. It is vain, that men fancy these to be expressions of revelations, or some singularly privileged assurances then : they would not suit their end, which is clearly and undoubtedly the encourage- ment of all the children of God upon grounds, that are pecu- liar to them from all the rest of the world, but common to them all, in all ages, and all varieties of condition, Abp. Leighton. (The Christian Triumph, Serm. on Text.) Who shall separate? As Divine love doth advance and elevate the soul, so it is that alone, which can make it happy. The highest and most rational pleasures, the most solid and sub- stantial delights, that human nature is capable of, are those, which arise from the endearments of a well-placed and suc- cessful affection. That, which embitters love, and makes it a very troublesome and hurtful passion, is the placing it on those, ROMANS VIII. 35, 36. 377 who have not worth enough to deserve it, or affection and gra- titude to requite it ; or, whose absence may deprive us of the pleasure of tlieir converse ; or their miseries occasion our trouble. To all these evils they are exposed, whose chief and supreme affection is placed on creatures like themselves : but the Love of God delivers us from them all. Scougal. (Tlie Life of God in the Soul of Man. S. 18.) Quit not your religion, your trust in God, your virtue, for any pleasure or profit, which this world can give, for the world itself. For all the profit and pleasure this world can give, this world itself may shortly be nothing to you ; but religion and virtue will make you happy, when life's idle employments and its idler follies, when the world, when time shall be no more. False friends will forsake you, and true friends may either leave you through necessary avocations, or they may be divided from you by death. False friends will " stand afar off" in the day of trouble, and even true friends can in some cases " stand" only " looking upon" your misery, afflicted indeed in all your afl3.ictions, but without any power to ease your calamities. But God is a present friend, infinitely powerful and good, in all cases, and at all times, and in all places. He is able to hear us wheresoever dispersed, and to relieve us howsoever distressed. Almost anything may separate us from other friends, but neither life nor death, nor principalities nor powers, nothing but sin can separate us from Him and the blessed influences of His Presence. Jer. Seed. (Serm. on 1 Tim. i. 19.) 36 Tn composing this Psalm (Ps. xliv.), the Korhites (the sons of Korah), of the days of Ahaz (2 Chron. xxviii.), not only had regard to their own sufferings and to those of their contem- porary brethren, but also spoke and, to some extent, consciously, iu the name of the faithful persecuted of all future time. From their own traditionary use of the Psalms of David they must have felt that whatever they themselves uttered in the name of the whole Church, they uttered in the name of the Church for ever. If the Church were one, of how many members soever it might consist, it was also one, for how many ages it might endure. The language, which originally depicted the sufferings of the faithful under Ahaz, may have been in great measure 378 ROMANS VIII. 36, 37. again literally fulfilled in the persecutions under Antiochus Epipbanes ; but it was certainly also yet more deeply, though perhaps less visibly, exemplified in the extremities endured by the Christian martyrs. S. Paul felt the force of the Psalm in his own person. He regards it, as applying both to himself and to all his Christian brethren ; and, as the faithful under Ahaz were resolved that the sufferings they had endured should not cause them to swerve from their allegiance to God (Ps. xliv. 17 — 20), so, while contemplating his own afl&ictions, the Apostle triumphantly asks. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ ? To the GoD, from whom reproach and persecution could not make them swerve, the Jewish faithful looked for de- liverance : in the love, from which affliction cannot dissever him, the Christian also beholds at once the means and the pledge of victory. /. F. Thrupp. (An Introduction to the Study and Use of the Psalms. Book ii. Ps. xliv.) Truth is, there are but two great periods, in which Faith demon- strates itself to be a powerful and mighty grace. These are persecution, and the approaches of death, for the passive part ; and a temptation, for the active. In the day of pleasure and the night of pain, faith is to fight her agonisticon, to contend for mastery ; and faith overcomes all alluring and fond tempta- tions to sin ; and faith overcomes all our weaknesses and faint- ing in our troubles. Bp. J, Taylor. 37 This word of doing in my text (Phil. iv. 13) signifies, not only sufferings and patience : this were to make a Christian, but a kind of stone. A Christian hath not only a buckler to resist, but he must have a sword to strike. "Wherefore this word of doing must signify yet further some action and life ; and so in- deed it doth : for it notes unto us the most glorious and emi- nent kind of Christian action, victory, and conquest ; and when my Apostle here saith, "I can do all things," his meaning is, "I can overcome and conquer all things." And here is the second and most glorious part of Christian Omnipotency : never was any true Christian overcome, or can be ; for look, how much he yields unto his enemy, so much he fails of his profes- sion and title. David complains of Joab and his brethren, "These sons of Zeruiah are too strong for me" (2 Sam, iii. 39). ROMANS VIII. 37. 379 But, Beloved, a Christian raan finds none of these sous of Zeruiah, whom he needs to fear, or of whom he ueeds to com- plain ; for, as Aristotle tells us, that a magnanimous man is lie w ovtev ju-er/a, who thinks nothing great, but conceits all things, as interior to himself. So may we define a true Chris- tian to be such a one, as to whom nothing is dreadful, in whose eye nothing under God carries any show of greatness. Con- (juerors (Rom. viii. 37) is too mean a word : vTreppiKw/nev. We are more than conquerors : /ter' ev/coX/a? Inraarf^ uvev ttovwv kui IbpwTwv, saith S. Chrysostom ; we conquer them with ease, without any pain or sweat. Paucas Victoria dextras . . exigit : we shall not need to bring forth against them all our forces ; a small part of them will be sufficient to gain the day, and not only overcome them, but turn them to our benefit and behoof. John Hales. (Christian Omnipotency. Serm. on Phil. iv. 13.) Could the poor demoniac, that lived in the graves, by the power of the devil break his chains in pieces ? and cannot he, who hath the Spirit of God, dissolve the chains of sin ? " Through Cueist that strengtheneth me, I can do all things," saith S. Paul. Satis sibi copiarum cum Puhlio Decio, et nunquam nimium hostium fore, said one in Livy ; which is best rendered by S. Paul, If God be for us, &c. Nay, there is an vTrepviKwfiev in S. Paul, We are more than conquerors. . . . Non solum viper am terimus, sed ex eCi antidotum conficimus. We kill the viper, and make treacle of him ; that is, not only escape from, but get ad- vantages by, temptations. Bp. J. Taylor. (Serm. on Rom. vii. 19.) Tlie three-headed monster, that fights against us, is the strength of sin, and death, and hell put together. Sin must not reign. Death must no more sever soul and body. Hell must have no power to receive and torment us. All these must be van- quished ; or else, Satan's kingdom is not quite destroyed : and Cueist subdued them all. But the greatest and most perfect conquest, that He made, whereof we most triumph in this life, is that He overcame hell, or loosened the sorrows of hell ; for sin doth remain in us here, though the force be broken : death also prevails against our body, though it shall be but for a time ; but here is the fulness of our Eedemption, and of Cheist's 380 ROMANS VIII. 38, 39. victory — that hell is absolutely conquered, and shall never lay hold of tbem, that believe, v. 21;svi.20. Bp. Racket. (On the Eesurrection. Serra. on Acts ii. 24.) 38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor hfe, nor angels, nor principaUties, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord, 38 Death is a passage to the Father, a chariot to heaven, the Lobd's messenger, a leader unto Cheist, a going to our home, a deliverance from bondage and prison, a dismission from war, a security from all sorrows, and a manumission from all misery. /. Bradford. (Letters in Prison.) Is Death the gate, that leadeth to Judgment ? I will enter it : it shall turn unto my gain ; for the Tribunal of GrOD is but the theatre, whereon I shall be crowned. Tea, Christ hath so altered both death and judgment, that well may I say, Periissem, nisi periissem, I had never tasted of such a Life, had 1 not been subjected to such a death ! And how much of my Glory should I have lost, if I should never have been brought to God's bar ? 0 ! Jesu, how wonderful is Thy virtue ! What strange effects proceed from Thee ! Bp. Lake. (Medit. upon Phil. i. 21.) 39 It was not the meaning of our Lord and Saviour in saying, " Father, keep them in Thy Name," that we should be care- less to keep ourselves. To our own safety our own sedulity is required. And then blessed for ever and ever be that mother's child, whose faith hath made him the child of God ! The earth may shake, the pillars of the world may tremble under us, the countenance of the heaven may be appalled, the sun may lose his light, the moon her beauty, the stars their glory ; but, con- cerning the man, that trusteth in God, if the fire have pro- claimed itself unable as much as to singe a hair of his head, if lions, beasts ravenous by nature and keen with hunger, being ROMANS VIII. 39. 381 set to devour, have, as it were, religiously adored the very flesh of the faithful man, what is there in the world, that shall change his heart, overthrow his faith, alter his affection towards God, or the affection of God to him ? If I be of this note, who shall make a separation between me and my God ? Shall tribula- tion, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword ? No : I am persuaded that neither tribulation, &e., shall ever prevail so far over me. " I know in whom I have believed." I am not ignorant whose precious Blood hath been shed for me. I have a Shepherd full of kindness, full of care, and full of power. Unto Him I commit myself. His own finger hath engraven this sentence in the tables of my heart, " Satan hath desired to winnow thee, as wheat, but I have prayed that thy faith fail not." Therefore the assurance of my hope I will labour to keep, as a jewel, unto the end ; and by labour, through the gracious mediation of His prayer, I shall keep it. Hooker. (The Certainty and Perpetuity of Eaith in the Elect. Serm. on Habak. i. 4.) When S. Paul resolves that nothing shall ever separate him from the love of God, sin^ is then left out of the catalogue. Be he never so well possessed of that inheritance, for aught he knows, this very confidence may root him out again (xi. 19 — 22). . . . In the 17th of Exodus, the Israelites prevailed against Amalek, and that miraculously, without any sensible means ; and ver. 16 the promise is made for the future, that " the Loed will fight against Amalek for ever." . . . And this may be ground enough for the Christian. Christ hath prayed, and God promised, that your " faith shall not fail." But then, all this while, the story will tell us, on what terms this security of victory stood — if so be Moses continue to hold up his hands ; noting, 1, the power of prayer ; 2, of obedience ; 3, of perseverance : and upon these terms even a Pharisee may be confident without presumption. Dr. Hammond. (Serm. on S. Luke xviii. 11.) ' /S". ^erwarrf, in a beautiful passage, I himself from the love of God. Quoting has anticipated the salvo, here pro- i this text he says; Sed attende quanta vided by the excellent Doctor ; with I enumeravit Apostolus, minime tamen this mere verbal difference, that man \ adjiciens '^tiec nos ipsi.'^ Nimirum himself may, by his fi-ee will, separate ! hhat we should understand, that God is in no way obliged to give us an account of His actions ; that we are no more to inquire into the reasons of His dealing with His creatures, than if He really treated them in this arbitrary method. By the same we are taught to acknowledge, that our salvation as entirely depends on Him, and that we owe it as much to His pleasure, as if He had bestowed it upon us with- out any other consideration, than His own will to do so (see S. James i. IS; Eph. ii. 10). . . . All these representations are designed, as a scheme, to make us conceive the obligations we owe to God, and how little we can contribute to our own hap- piness. And, to make us apprehend this to be His meaning, 408 ROMANS IX. 16. He has, on other occasions, given us an account of His dealings with men, not only different, but seemingly contradictory to this. Thus He frequently represents Himself, as proposing nothing for His own pleasure or advantage, in His transactions with His creatures ; as having no other design in them, but to do those creatures good ; as earnestly desiring and prosecuting that end only. Nay, He represents Himself unto us, as if He were uneasy and troubled, when we failed to answer His expec- tations ; as we may conceive a good, merciful, and beneficent Prince, that had only his subjects' happiness in view, would be, when they refused to join with him for promoting their own interest. And God, farther to express His tenderness towards us, and how far He is from imposing anything on us, lets us know, that He has left us to our own freedom and choice ; and, to convince us of His impartiality declares, that He acts, as a just and equal Judge, that He hath " no respect of persons," and favours none ; but rewards and punishes all men, not ac- cording to His own pleasure, but according to their deserts, and "in every nation he that fears Him and worketh righteousness is accepted of Him" (see Job xxii. 2, 3 ; xxxv. 6, 7 ; Deut. xxx. 19 ; Ezek. xxxiii. 11). Every one may see how distant this view of God and of His dealings with His creatures is from the former ; and yet, if we consider it, as a scheme framed to make us conceive how graciously, mercifully, and justly God treats us, notwithstanding the supreme and absolute dominion He hath over us, there will be no inconsistency between the two. You see here, that, though the creatures be in His hand, as clay in the potter's, of which he may make vessels of honour or dishonour, without any injury, or being accountable, yet He uses that Power with all the compassionate Love and concern, that parents shew towards their children : and therefore we are to conceive of Him, as having all the tenderness of affection, that parents feel in their hearts towards their young ones ; and that, if He had been so affected. He could not (considering our circumstances) have gone farther than He has done to save us ; that our destruction is entirely due to ourselves, as if we were out of God's Power, and absolutely in the hand of our own counsel. Abp. King. (Divine Predestination and Fore-Know- ROMANS IX. 17. 409 ledge, consistent with the freedom of Man's Will. Serm. on Eora. viii. 29, 30.) 17 That Pharaoh was made such an example, and that he is re- corded for a warning to others, and that it was just with God to do all this, cannot be questioned, from the scope of the whole narrative. But it seems inconsistent with the Divine goodness to say, that GrOD created him for this very end, that he might be such a monument of His anger. For, according to a rule in philosophy. Qui vuli Jinem vult media ; He, that wills the end, wills the means, that lead to that end. Now the means or meritorious cause, whereby Pharaoh came to be such an ex- ample of Divine vengeance, was his obstinacy, which made him hold out from one judgment to another, inflexible and deaf to the command of God. But we cannot say that his obstinacy was agreeable to the Divine will, without asserting God to be the author of sin, or, at least, that He takes pleasure and de- light in it; which is impossible. It is not possible that God should condemn and punish, as He did Pharaoh, for that, which He makes necessary to be done, or is any way pleased with. This would be contrary both to His holiness and justice. Other interpreters therefore, both Jews and Christians, put the fore- going verse and this together, and paraphrase upon them thus : " I stretched forth My hand against thee and thy people in My late pestilence, by which I had then quite destroyed you from the face of the earth, had it not been My resolution to reserve you for further punishments. For which very cause I raised you up again, when thou wast falling ; that is, I kept thee from perishing by the former judgments, that I might inflict more and greater upon thee, and make thy destruction the more re- markable to all the world." We see, then, that, when God says He raised up Pharaoh for this cause, that He might mag- nify His power and glory in his punishment, He does not mean that He made him either a man, or a king with such a view ; but that He preserved him from the fatal stroke of former visi- tations, that he might not expire under them ; but his life was prolonged for further trials and exercises of this kind. Wm. Reading. (Sermons preached out of the First Lessons, &c. Sixth Sunday in Lent.) 410 ROMANS IX. 17. There is no contradiction between these two propositions. — God, from all eternity, did will the death of Pharaoh — God, from all eternity, did not will the death, but rather the life of Pharaoh. For, albeit Pharaoh continued one and the same man from his birth unto his death, yet he did not, all this time, continue one and the same object of God's immutable Will and eternal Decree. This object did alter, as Pharaoh's dispositions or affections to- wards God or his neighbours altered. There is no contrariety, much less, any contradiction, between these — God unfeignedly loveth all men ; God doth not love, but hate the reprobate, al- though they be men, yea, the greatest part of men — for here the object of His love and hate is not the same. He loves all men unfeignedly, as they are men, or, as men, who have not made up the full measure of iniquity ; but, having made up that, or, having their souls betrothed unto wickedness, He hates them. His hate of them, as reprobates, is no less necessary or usual, than His love of them, as men. But, though He necessarily hates them, being once become reprobates, or having made the full measure of iniquity, yet was there no necessity, laid upon them by His Eternal Decree, to make up such a measure of iniquity. . . . He, which made all things without invitation, out of mere love, made nothing hateful ; nor is it possible that the unerring fountain of truth and love should cast His dislike, mucb less, fix His hatred, upon anything, that was in its nature odious. Nothing can make the creature hateful or odious to the Creator, besides its hatred or enmity of that love, by which it was created, or by which He sought the restoration of it, when it was lost. Nor is it every degree of man's hatred or enmity unto God, but a full measure of it, which utterly ex- empts man from His love. Dean Jackson. (Works. B. vi. ch. XV.) The power of God alone, without other help, is suificient jus- tification of any action, that He doth. That, which men make among themselves here by facts and covenants, and call by the name of justice, and according whereunto men are counted and termed rightly just and unjust, is not that, by which God Al- mighty's actions are to be measured or called just; no more than His counsels are to be measured by human wisdom. That, ROMANS IX. 17. 411 which He does, is made just by His doing ; j ust, I say, in Ilim ; not always just in us by the example: for a man, that shall command a tiling openly, and plot secretly the hindrance of the same, if he punish him, he so commanded, for not doing it, is unjust. So also His counsels. They be therefore not in vain, because they be His ; whether we see the use of them, or not. When God afflicted Job, He did object no sin in him, but jus- tified that afflicting him by telling him of His power. " Hast thou," says GrOD, " an arm like Mine?" " "Where wast thou, when I laid the foundations of the earth ?" (x. 9 ; xxxviii. 4, &c.,) and the like. So our Savioub, concerning the man, that was born blind, said, it was not for his sin, nor his parents' sin, but that " the power of GtOD might be shown in him" (S. John ix. 3). Beasts are subject to death and torment; yet they cannot sin. It was God's Will it should be so. Power irresistible justifieth all actions really and properly, in whom- soever it is found. Less power does not. And, because such power is in God only, He must needs be just in all His actions. And we, that, not comprehending His counsels, call Him to the bar, commit injustice in it. Abp. Bramhall. (A Vindication of True Liberty, &c. No. xii.) As we are expressly told, that God hardened Pharaoh's heart, merely to make His power known and His Name to be declared throughout all the earth, it is evident, that the invisible hand of God, acting by hardening his heart, could not have had this effect. It could make God's power known, because no man could know it. But, when a wicked man hardens himself, God may make His power known throughout all the earth, by raising that man to a high station, and holding him out, as an example to the world. Thus God's power and Name were made known by the great superiority of the miracles of Moses over the in- cantations of Pharaoh. Where God therefore is represented kas hardening men^s hearts, it is only a Jewish mode of speaking for leaving them at liberty to harden their own hearts, if they are so disposed. ... In various parts of Scripture, men are said to be placed in different circumstances of life to promote the glory of God. (See S. John ix. 3 ; xxi. 19.) God always uses man, as His instrument ; but in no case controls his spi- 412 ROMANS IX. 18, 19. ritual concerns. Tf^m. Gilpin. (Analysis of S. Paul's Epistle to the Romans.) 18 You know God's attributes — power, mercy, and justice. Now God acteth not any of His attributes, according to the utmost extent of the infiniteness of it ; but according to the most wise and righteous counsel and disposal of His own will. God never acted His power, according to the utmost infinity of His power: for else, whereas He made one world, He might have made a thousand. He never acted His mercy, according to the utmost infinity of His mercy : for then, whereas He saveth but " a little flock," He might have saved all men and devils. Nor did He ever act His justice, according to the utmost infinity of His justice : for then " all flesh would fail before Him, and the spirits that He had created." But His Will, as I may speak, acts as queen-regent in the midst of His attributes, and limits and confines their actings, according to the sacred disposal of that. So that He sheweth His power, not when and where He can ; but when, and where, and how. He will shew His power. He sheweth His justice, not when and where He can, but when and where He will shew His justice : and He will shew mercy, not on whom He can, but on whom He will shew mercy. Dr. Lightfoot. (Serm. on Eev. xx. 4.) 19 Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth He yet find fault ? For who hath resisted His will ? 20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God ? Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it, Why hast Thou made me thus ? 21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and an- other unto dishonour ? 19 In the first ages of Christianity, when its apologists and teachers applied the argument from prophecy to demonstrate its truth, a discussion was soon introduced, as to the recon- cileableness of the Divine foreknowledge with the liberty of ROMANS IX. 19. 413 human action. . . . The ancient Fathers of the Church met this question wisely and most reasonably. They stood upon the proofs of God's Prescience, which authentic and unam- biguous prophecies supplied ; they maintained the liberty of human action, without which they saw there could be no re- ligion ; and, whatever solutions or qualifications they attempted to give of the apparent difficulty subsisting in their view of the case, they sought no relief of it whatever by going to invalidate the one principle or the other — the prerogative of the Divine foreknowledge, or the responsible freedom of man's moral agency. Justin Martyr, Origen, Eusebius, all concur in this judgment ; and even Augustine, when he argues most coolly, does not dissent from them. " Wherefore we are by no means obliged either, retaining the Prescience of God, to deny the liberty of the will ; or, retaining the liberty of the will, to deny to God, which piety forbids, the Prescience of future things." (De Civit. Dei, Lib. v. c. 9, 10.) Such is the conclusion, to which Augustine brings his inquiry on the question proposed — An voluntatibus hominum aliqua dominetur necessitas .''.,." I own freely," says that excellent philosopher, Mr. Locke, " the weakness of my understanding ; that, though it be unquestion- able that there is Omnipotence and Omniscience in God our Maker, and I cannot have a clearer perception of any thing, than that I am free, yet I cannot make freedom in man con- sistent with Omnipotence and Omniscience in God, though I am as fully persuaded of both, as of any truths I most firmly assent to." Davison. (On Prophecy. Part iv., Discourse 7.) So far are the creatures of God from being able to resist His will (I do not speak of His conditional, but of His absolute will ; as that, by which He determined the expiation of our sins), that, whilst they offend it, they fuljil it. And, if this seems obscure, the ordinary distinction will make it clear. There is of God's will an antecedent, and a subsequent act. By the first. He de- sireth the repentance of a sinner; by the second, He deter- mineth the destruction of the impenitent : by that. He desireth to glorify His mercy ; by this, He resolveth to satisfy His jus- tice. In a word, His consequent will doth punish, whom His antecedent doth not reclaim. Thus the blood-thirsty Jews, 414 ROMANS IX. 20, 21. by disobeying His Commandment, and resisting His first will, did fulfil His decree, and so incurred His second. Cheist would lay down His life, because He would ; and, because they would, they would take it away : that was the mercy of His free offer ; and this was the iniquity of their free will, (for, where there is a necessity, there cannot be any guilt.) God, in foresight of their sins, did will their national destruction ; and they, in prosecuting their sins, did will it too. See Acts iv. 27, 28. Dean Pierce. (The Sinner Impleaded, &c. Part ii. ch. ii. s. 11.) 20 If any man will not stay here, but will search further, and ask a reason of this the Loed's doing — why He rejecteth any, all being equal His workmanship, and alike by nature — to these the wise and sober Apostle answereth no otherwise, but He willed, because He willed; noting thereby, that His will should content us, which He hath revealed, without any reason, which is not revealed. And, if it do not, then hear, I pray you, what S. Augustine saith to such curious inquirers ; " Thou, O man, lookest for an answer from me ; and I myself also am a man. Therefore, both thou and I, let us hearken to him, that saith ; Oman, who art thou that disputest with God? Melior est fidelis ignorantia, qumn temeraria scientia ; better far is faithful igno- rance, than rash knowledge. Seek for merit ; thou shalt find but punishment. Oh, depth ! S. Peter denieth ; the thief be- lieveth. Oh, depth ! Thou seekest a reason for this : I will tremble at the deepness. Thou reasonest : I will wonder. Thou disputest : T will believe. A depth I see ; to the bottom I cannot come. S. Paul calleth them the ' unsearchable ways of God ;' and thou wilt search them ! Whosoever is not satis- fied with this answer, let him seek for one better learned than I am ; but let him take heed, that he find not a more pre- sumer." Bp. Bahington. (A Sermon at Paul's Cross on S. John vi. 37.) The great Doctor of the Gentiles, when he cannot sound the bottom, stands by the brink, and cries— O^, the depth ! xi. 33. T)r. Tuchiey. (Serra. on Phil. iii. 8.) 21 Another reason why God, without impeachment to His jus- tice, doth still augment Pharaoh's punishment, as if it were ROMANS IX. 21. 415 now as possible for him to repent, as once it was, is intimated by S. Paul to be this — that by this lenity {Jong -suffering) to- wards Pharaoh He might shew His lorath and declare His power against such sinners, as he was ; that all the world might " hear and fear," and learn by his overthrow not to strive against their Maker, not to dally with His fearful warnings. Had Pharaoh and his people died of the pestilence or other disease, when the cattle perished of the murrain, the terror of GtGd's powerful wrath had not been so manifest and visible to all the world, as it was in the overthrowing the whole strength of Egypt, which had taken arms and set themselves in battle against Him. Now, the more strange the infatuation, the more fearful and ignominious the destruction of these vessels of wrath did appear to the world ; the more brightly did the riches of God's gloi'y shine to the Israelites, whom He was now preparing for vessels of mercij ; the hearts of whose posterity He did not so effectually fit or season for the infusion of His sanctifying grace by any secondary means whatsoever, as by the perpetual memory of this glorious Victory over Pharaoh and his mighty host. But this faithless generation (whose reformation our Apostle so anxiously seeks), did take all these glorious tokens of God's extraordinary free love and mercy towards their fathers for irrevocable earnests or obligements to effect their absolute Predestination unto honour and glory, and to prepare the Gentiles to be vessels of infamy and destruction. Now our Apostle's earnest desire and unquenchable zeal to prevent this dangerous presumption in his countrymen, enforceth him (in- stead of applying this second answer to the point in question) to advertise them, for conclusion, that the Egyptian's case was now to become theirs ; and that the Gentiles should be made vessels of mercy and glory in their stead. All which the event has proved most true. For have not the sons of Jacob been hardened as strangely, as Pharaoh was ? Have they not been reserved as spectacles of terror to most nations, after they had deserved to have been utterly cut off from the earth ? yea — to have gone down quick into hell ? Nor have the riches of God's mercy towards us Gentiles been more manifested by any other apparent or visible document, than by scattering of these Jews 416 ROMANS IX. 21, 22. throughout those countries, wherein the seed of the Gospel hath been sown. Dean Jackson. (Works. B. x. ch. xli. s. 13.) The Scriptural similitude of the potter and the clay is often triumphantly appealed to, as a proof, that God has from eter- nity decreed, and, what is more, has revealed to us that He has so decreed, the salvation or perdition of each individual without any other reason assigned, than such is His will and pleasure. " We are in His hands," say these predestinariaus, " as clay in the patterns, who hath power of the same lump to make one vessel to honour and another to dishonour''^ — not observing, in their hasty eagerness to seize on every apparent confirmation of their sys- tem, that this similitude, as far as it goes, rather makes against them ; since the potter never makes any vessel for the express purpose of being broken and destroyed. The comparison, ac- cordingly, agrees much better with the view here taken. The potter, according to his own arbitrary choice, makes of the same lump one vessel to honour, and another to dishonour ; that is, some to nobler and some to meaner uses ; but all for some use ; none with the design, that it should be cast away, and dashed to pieces. Even so the Almighty, of His own arbitrary choice, causes some to be born to wealth and rank, others to poverty and obscurity ; some in a heathen, and others in a Christian country. The advantages and privileges bestowed on each are various, and, as far as we can see, arbitrarily dispensed : the final re- wards or punishments depend, as we are plainly taught, on the use or abuse of these advantages. Abp. Whately. (Essays on some of the difficulties in the writings of S. Paul. Essay iii.) 22 What if God, willing to show His wrath, and to make His power known, endured with much long- suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction : 23 And that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had afore prepared unto glory, 22 God delays the punishment of wickedness, and does not strike presently, in gloriam patienticB, for a glorious manifestation of ROMANS IX. 22. 417 His holy attribute of Patience. His two great attributes of Justice and Mercy, the full season of their manifestation upon the vessels of wrath and mercy (ix. 22, 23), is at the end, at the great Day of reckoning. In the meantime, there are some glimpses and appearances of them ; but then they shall shine forth most gloriously. In the meantime, His long-suffering and patience shall have its " perfect work." . . . This forbearance of GrOD, 'tis a fruit of His goodness to the sons of men, as they are His creatures. Wicked men are the workmanship of His hands, and accordingly He dealeth with them in this life : Cor- ripit, nt Suurn ; nan ahjicit, ut alienum. (Tertullian.) ... It is invitatorium poenitentice. 'Tis to give the wicked opportunities of repentance. Patience, is vagina justitice — the scabbard, wherein He sheathes His justice. He will rather scare us with the scabbard, than smite us with the sword ; to try, if that may bring us to repentance. Patience in God expects repentance from man. If this prevails not, then God uses this delay in punishing wicked men, ut cequius et gravius puniatur. If they will not be reclaimed, then His Patience hath this use and end : it justifies God's proceedings against them, and makes them the more inexcusable. Had He presently struck them down to hell, it had been just ; but now, thus long to expect their con- version, to wait upon the hardness of their hearts, to try, if they will return, to hold open a possibility of entrance into heaven, surely the contempt of such patience must exceedingly justify their condemnation, and make it most equal. If they return not, this patience makes them fill up the measure of their iniquity. All this delay bodes them no good : all this while, " the pit is digging up for the ungodly." ii. 4, 5, 16 ; X. 21. Bp. Brownrig. (Serm. on Eccles. viii. 11.) The goodness of God is the most fearful of His attributes or plagues ; for, where it does not better, there it hardens. So S. Paul says ; and Origen proves this very thing did harden Pharaoh's heart : indulgence was his induration. Now indu- ration is the being put into hell upon the earth. There is the same impenitence in both; and judgment is pronounced al- ready on the hardened ; and the life, that they lead, is but the interval betwixt the sentence and the execution ; and all their £ £ 418 ROMANS IX. 22, 23. sunshine of prosperity is but the kindled brimstone, only with- out the stench, xi. 22. Br. AUestree. (Serm. on S. Matt. V. 44.) There is a most material difference between the potter's vessel, as at first made to dishonour, and the same vessel, when after- wards become a vessel of wrath, Jit ted for destruction. We view it, under the former aspect, in relation to the Will of GrOD, who chose for it a certain condition, possessing less advantages, it may be, of religion, but still, never without helps sufficient unto salvation. We then view it, as the subject of its own free will, and trace the deadly effect, produced by a voluntary rejection of the grace and help afforded it : it is now become a vessel of wrath, fitted (self-fitted) for destruction. Perhaps, in these difficult matters, which have so much gendered strife among brethren, and which, after all, form no part of the Creed, and no bond in the Communion of Saints, it would be a wise and safe course, if, instead of laying the chief stress, as many do, on the application of these doctrines to individuals at the present time, we were content to consider them more in their primary and unquestionable relation to Jews and Gentiles of old, among whom, in the inscrutable Providence of God, the selection, according to His rights of Sovereignty, was made. And this remark, if there is any truth or weight in it, may be extended to our treatment of the Epistle generally. It seems, that we too much overlook the original design and national ap- plication ; that we are over-fond of drawing the Apostle's doctrine into particulars and systems afiecting ourselves, when our cir- cumstances differ so widely from those of the first Christians, and of the persons here addressed. In regard to this chapter, it may be well to bear in mind, that " the secret counsels of God were revealed to S. Paul, for the sole purpose of recon- ciling the Jews to the calling of the Gentiles, which they could never bear to hear of" J. F. 23 It might almost be questioned, whether God could choose but create the world ; not to put a necessity or compulsion upon God, who doth freely whatever He doth, and hath no other tie upon Him for His actings, than His own will. But in re- gard of that Infinite goodness, that is in God, could that do ROMANS IX. 23. 419 other, than flow out upon the creature ? God from all eter- nity dwelt in and with Himself, Blessed, for ever Blessed, in the enjoyment of Himself, and needed nothing besides Himself. But could that Infinite ocean of goodness, that was in Him, be kept within those bounds of self-enjoyment, and not communi- cate itself to the creature ? . . . He was willing to make known His goodness : it was His pleasure to create the world, that He might communicate the riches of His glory. God would give being to creatures, that He might glorify His own Being; would communicate of His goodness to His creatures, that He might glorify His own goodness. So all terminates and cen- tres in that great end — His own glory. He created the world, to glorify His Power (i. 20) ; gave being to His creatures, that He might glorify His own Being ; shews goodness to them, that He may glorify His own Goodness, and receive glorifying from them ; and at last will destroy the world, to glorify His Power and Justice ; damn the wicked, to glorify His Truth and Justice ; and glorify His saints, to glorify His Grace. So that God " made all things for Himself," that is, for His own glory ; doth all things for His own glory ; created thee, and me, and all flesh, that He might reap glory from us. i. 21 ; xi. 36 ; xvi. 27. Dr. Lightfoot. (Serm. on Esod. xx. 14.) God is so infinitely happy in Himself, that He can neither con- ceive nor desire any good for Himself, beyond what is contained within the immensity of His own Being and Perfections ; so that He can have no self-ends to serve. . . . He can desire no- thing without Himself, as an addition to His own Beatitude, which is so infinite already that it will admit of no increase. . . . But doth not the Scripture tell us that " He doth all things for His own glory .!"' and that He obtains this end, as well by pun- ishing as by rewarding His creatures ? Very true. But then it is to be considered that the glory He aims at consists, not in receiving of any good from us, but in doing and in communi- cating of all good to us. Por infinite goodness can no other- wise be glorified than by its own overflowing and free communi- cations ; and it can no otherwise be glorified in the punishment of its creatures, but only as it doeth good by it. For, should it punish without good reason, it would reproach and vilify itself; E E 2 420 ROMANS IX. 23. but, if it doeth it for good reason, it must be, because it is good either for itself, or others. Por itself it cannot be ; for how- can an infinitely happy Being reap any good from another's misery ? and therefore it must be for the good of others ; either to reduce those, who are punished, or to warn others by their example from running away from their duty and happiness. So that to do good is the end of GtOd's punishment; and, be- cause it is so. He is glorified by it, and, considering that He is so infinitely happy that He can no way serve Himself by our miseries, it is impossible He should have any other end in con- cerning Himself about us, but only the great and godlike one of doing us good and making us happy. For the very notion of an end includes good ; and therefore, since the end of God's concern about us cannot be His own good, it must necessarily be ours. iii. 23. Br. John Scott. (Discourse on S. Luke xxii. 42.) The scope of the Divine Justice ia nothing else, but to assert and establish Eternal Law and Eight, and to preserve the integrity thereof: it is no design of vengeance, which, though GrOD takes on wicked men, yet He delights not in. The Divine Justice first prescribes that, which is most conformable to the Divine Na- ture, and mainly pursues the conservation of Righteousness. ... To intend punishmetit, properly and directly, might rather seem cruelty than justice ; and therefore justice takes not up punishment, but only for a security of performance of righteous laws ; that is, either for the amendment of the person trans- gressing, or a due example to others to keep them from trans- gression. . . . Again, Justice is the Justice of goodness, and so cannot delight to punish : it aims at nothing more than the maintaining and promoting the laws of goodness, and hath always some good end before it, and therefore would never punish, except some further good were in view. True Jus- tice never supplants any, that it might itself appear more glorious in their ruins ; for this would be to make Justice love something better than Eighteousness, and to advance and mag- nify itself in something, which is not itself, but rather an aber- ration from itself: and therefore God Himself so earnestly contends with the Jews about the equity of His own ways, with ROMANS IX. 25. 431 frequent asseverations that His Justice is thirsty after no man's blood, but rather that sinners would repent, turn from their evil ways, and live. And then Justice is most advanced, when the contents of it are fulfilled ; and, though it does not and will not acquit the guilty without repentance, yet the design of it is to encourage innocency, and promote true goodness. John Smith. (Select Discourses. No. 5. Of the Existence and Nature of God. Ch. 7.) 24 Even us, whom He hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles. 25 As He saith also in Osee, I will call them My people which were not My people ; and her beloved, which was not beloved. 26 And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them. Ye are not My people ; there shall they be called the children of the living God. 27 Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved : 28 For He will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth. 29 And as Esaias said before. Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha. 25 His Fathee at the first had given Him the Jews only, but now " the heathen also are His inheritance, and His possession the ends of the earth" (Ps. ii. 8). G-OD put a letter into Abram's name, and called him Abraham ; that letter beginneth the Hebrew word, which signifieth " a multitude." The Lobs Himself expoundeth it, " Thou shalt be the Father of many 422 ROMANS IX. 25, 26. nations." The Egyptian, the Babylonian, the Ethiopian, and the Philistine are born in Sion (Ps. Ixxxvii.) : all nations are made joint-tenants of the Gospel — avfifii-Tox"- and avf/KXrjpo'vofia — co-partners of the promise and co-heirs of salvation. We, sometimes Lo-ammi and Lo-ruhamah, neither of GtOd's people nor in His mercy, are now become brethren and sisters unto the Jews. "The door of faith is opened unto us Gentiles" (Acts xiv. 27) ; and that door openeth the wombs of Sarah, Ee- becca, and Rachel, to bear out of this land, out of this town, out of this assembly, children unto Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Br. Richard Gierke. (Serm. on S. Luke ii. 32.) As is usual with the Prophets, Hosea is raised up by the Spirit of God from the temporal troubles and deliverances of the Israelites, to consider and foretell tbat great restoration, wrought by Jesus Christ, in purchasing a new people unto Himself, made up both of Jews and Gentiles, who believe : and there- fore the prophecy is fit and applicable unto both. So that the debate is altogether needless, whether it concerns the Jews or Gentiles ; for, in its spiritual sense, as relating to the kingdom of Cheist, it foretells the making of the Gentiles, who were not so before, the people of God; and the recovery of the Jews likewise, who, by their apostacies, and the captivities and dis- persions, which came upon them, as just punishments of those apostacies, were degraded from the outward dignities they had as the people of God, and withal were spiritually miserable and captives by nature, and so, in both respects, laid (? made) equal with the Gentiles, and stood as much in need of this res- titution, as they. S. Paul useth the passage concerning the calling of the Gentiles, Eom. ix. 25. And here S. Peter, writing, as is most probable, particularly to the dispersed Jews, applies it to them, as being, in the very reference it bears to the Jews, truly fulfilled in those alone, who were believers ; faith making them a part of the true •' Israel of God" to which the promises do peculiarly belong, as the Apostle S. Paul argues at large, Eom. ix. Abp. Leighton. (Comment on 1 S. Pet. ii. 10.) 26 Both the times here spoken of by the Prophet Hosea, were yet future ; for Israel, although they had apostatized from God, ROMANS IX. 28. 423 had not yet been disowned by God, who was still sending to them prophets to reclaim them. They ceased to be owned, as God's people, when being dispersed abroad they had no share in the sacrifices, no Temple worship, no prophets, no typical recon- ciliation for sin, God took no more notice of them, than of the heathen. The Prophet then speaks of two futures ; one, when it shall be said to them, " ye are not My people ;" and a yet further future, in which it should be said, " ye are the sons of the Living God." The place of both was to be the same. The place of their rejection — the dispersion — was to be the place of their restoration. And so S. Peter says, that this Scripture was fulfilled in them, while still " scattered abroad through Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia." The place then, where they should be called the sons of the Living God, is wheresoever they should believe in Cheist, Although separate4 in body, they were united by faith. And so it shall be unto the end. " Nothing now constraineth to go up to Jerusalem, and still to seek for the temple of stones ; for neither will they worship God, as aforetime, by sacrifices of sheep or oxen ; but their worship will be faith in Cheist and in His Commandments, and the sanctification in the Spirit, and the regeneration through Holy Baptism, making the glory of sonship theirs, who are called to be saints by the Loed." (S. Cyril.) Dr. Pusey. (Note on Hosea i. 10.) 28 This verse, usually and, no doubt, correctly understood of the vast majority of the Jews, who rejected the Gospel and were accordingly punished, is supposed by some not to relate to this matter at all ; but rather to harmonise with the consoling pro- phecy of Hosea, in speaking of their final conversion and res- toration to the favour of the Living God. In this sense it in- timates the marvellous quick, and also simultaneous, manner, in which that conversion will be effected by the putting forth of Divine power ; when, " as it is written, the Deliverer shall come out of Sion, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob." xi. 26. A work, finished out of hand, of such extent and diffi- culty, while so totally differing from the ordinary process of a national reformation, accords with the express prophecy of Isaiah, concerning the Jews — " Shall a nation be born at once ? 424 ROMANS IX. 28. Tor, as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children" (Ixvi. 8). It also further corresponds with the suddenness and completeness of those two former special deliverances, which were intended types of this last and greatest — the one, from Egyptian bondage ; the other, from Babylonish captivity. Like an irresistible torrent, swollen with the confluent streams, from every side, of the in-coming "fulness of the Gentiles" (xi. 25) the believing Jewish Church shall be carried triumphantly on its way ; till both, in one glorious body, pour themselves toge- ther into the ocean of eternity, and there find their rest. J. F. Some will say, " What are all these things to us P We are none of those, who crucified Chkist, or justify the doing it. Thanks be to GrOD, the Kingdom of Gron is not taken from us ; but we enjoy what was taken from them." — To which I answer: if we really were what we pretend to be, these things are of great consequence to be considered by us. For is it nothing to us to have so great an argument of the truth of our Religion, as the sufferings of the Jews to this day is for the sin of crucify- ing Cheist ? As often as we think of them, we ought to con- sider the danger of infidelity, and the heavy judgments, which that brings upon a people. We may take some estimate of the wrath of GrOD against that sin by the desolation of the country, and the miseries of the inhabitants of it. When you think it a small sin to despise the Son of God, to revile His Doctrine, and reproach His Miracles, consider then, what the Jews have suffered for these sins. ... It may be one of the ends of God's dispersing them among almost all nations, that, as often as they see and despise them, they may have a care of those sins, which have made them a by-word and teproach among men ; who were once a nation, beloved of God, and feared by men. See, what it is to despise the oflfers of grace, to reproach and ill use the messengers of it, who have no other errand, but to persuade men to accept that grace and bring forth the fruits thereof. See, what it is for men to be slaves to their own lusts, which makes them not only neglect their own truest interest, but that of their nation too. . . . See, what it is for a people to be high in conceit of themselves, and to presume upon God's favour towards them. For there never was a nation more self-opinion- ROMANS IX. 30. 425 ated, as to their wisdom, goodness, and interest with God, than the Jews were, when they hegan their war ; and the confidence of this made them think it long, till they had destroyed them- selves. See, what it is to be once engaged too far in a bad cause ; how hard it is, though they suffer never so much for it, afterwards for them to repent of it. We might have thought the Jews, when they had seen the destruction of Jerusalem, would have come off from their obstinacy ; but how very few in comparison, from that time to this, have sincerely repented of the sins of their forefathers in the Death of Cheist. See, how hard a matter it is to conquer the prejudices of education, and to condemn the most unjust actions of those, when we come to understanding, whom from our infancy we had in veneration. For it is in great measure, because they were their ancestors, that the Jews, to this day, are so hardly convinced they could be guilty of so foul a sin, as crucifying the Messiah. Bp. Stilling fleet. (Serm. on S. Matt. xxi. 43.) 30 What shall we say then ? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. 31 But Israel, which followed after the law of righ- teousness, hath not attained to the law of righteous- ness. 32 Wherefore ? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone ; 33 As it is written. Behold, I lay in Sion a stum- blingstone and rock of offence : and whosoever be- lieveth on Him shall not be ashamed. 30 Faith, by S. Paul's account of it (Heb. xi. 1), " is" the sub- stance of things hoped for," as making the things subsist, as it were, with certain effect in the mind. It is " the evidence of things not seen," being, as it were, the mind of the eye, look- 426 ROMANS IX. 30. ing to the Blood of Cheist, and thereby inwardly warming the affections to a firm reliance upon it, and acquiescence in it (iii. 25). But this is to be understood of a firm and vigorous faith (iv. 20), and, at the same time, well grounded. Faith is said to "embrace" (salute, welcome) the things promised of God (Heb. xi. 13, 14), as things present to view, or near at hand. There is no other faculty, virtue, act, or exercise of the mind, which so properly does it, as faith does : therefore faith particularly is represented as that, by which the Gentile converts laid hold on justification, and brought it home to themselves. And, as faith is said to have healed many in a bodily sense (S. Matt. ix. 22 ; S. Luke vii. 50 ; viii. 48 ; xvii. 19 ; xviii. 42 ; S. Mark v. 34 ; x. 52), so may it be said also to heal men in a spiritual way ; that is, to justify, being immediately instru- mental in the reception of that grace, more than any other virtues are. For, as when persons were healed by looking on the brazen serpent (Numb. xxi. 8, 9 ; Conf. Isa. xlv. 22 ; S. John iii. 14), their eyes were particularly instrumental to their cure, more than the whole body ; so faith, the eye of the mind, is particularly instrumental in this affair, more than the whole body of graces, with which it is accompanied ; not for any super-eminent excellency of faith above every other virtue (for charity is greater, xiii. 10 ; 1 Cor. xiii. 13), but for its parti- cular aptness, in the very nature of it, to make things distant become near, and to admit them into close embraces. Br. Waterland. (A Summary View of the Doctrine of Justifi- cation.) To make a wicked and a sinful man most holy, through his 5e- lieving, is more than to create a world of nothing. Our " most holy faith!" Surely Solomon could not shew the Queen of Sheba so much treasure in all his kingdom, as is lapt up in these words. Oh, that our hearts were stretched out like tents, and that the eyes of our understanding were as bright as the sun, that we might thoroughly know the riches of the glorious inheritance of Saints, and what is "the exceeding greatness of His power" towards us, whom He accepteth for pure and most holy, through our believing ! Oh, that the Spirit of the Loud would give this doctrine entrance into the stony ROMANS IX. 30. 427 and brazen heart of the Jew, which followeth the law of righ- teoiisness, but cannot attain unto the righteousness of the law ! Wherefore, saith the Apostle, they seek righteousness ; and not by faith. Wherefore they stumble at Cheist, they are bruised, shivered to pieces, as a ship, that hath run herself upon a rock. Oh, that God would cast down the eyes of the proud, and humble the souls of the high-minded! that they might at length abhor the garments of their own flesh, which cannot hide their nakedness, and put on the faith of Cheist Jesus, as he did put it on, which hath said, " Doubtless I think all things but loss for the excellent knowledge' sake of Cheist Jesus my Loed, for whom I have counted all things but loss, and do judge them to be dung, that I might win Cheist, and might be found in Him ; not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Cheist, even the righteousness, which is of God through faith," Oh, that God would open the ark of mercy, wherein this doc- trine lieth, and set it wide before the eyes of poor afflicted con- sciences, which fly up and down upon the water of their afflic- tions, and can see nothing, but only the gulf and deluge of their sins, wherein there is no place for them to rest their feet ! The God of pity and compassion give you all strength and courage, every day, and every hour, and every moment, to build and edify yourselves in this most pure and holy faith. Hooker. (Serm. ii. on S. Jude 17—21.) It requires a very deep sense of the holiness of God, of the sin- fulness of man, and the awfulness of standing in judgment before the Divine tribunal, in order justly to value such a Savioue, as Jesus Cheist. He is a Saviour of sinners, making atonement for sin by the Sacrifice of His own most precious life ; and rising again, to intercede in the courts of heaven for those, who should believe on Him. Now it is evi- dent that, where the mind is either not sensible of its sin, or not convinced of its need of such a Mediator and Sacrifice, as the Loed Jesus Cheist, there will be little disposition to come to Him, and to build all our hopes upon Him. Hence those persons, who think themselves comparatively innocent — I 428 ROMANS IX. 30. ness of the Law of God — will place no proper reliance on Christ. Their confidence is reposed in their own virtue and innocence. Those also, who, like the Pharisees of old, and like some devotees of the present day, rely solely, as a compensation for sin, on a round of forms and ceremonies, and on a punctual attendance at Church, without the essential dispositions, which the Gospel requires, are disqualified from coming to Cheist, as the only Savioue : they substitute in His place a mere cere- monial righteousness. Those also, who have formed, as too many now do, loose and unfounded conceptions of the mercy of God, as if He were so indulgent to the frailties and sins of His creatures, as readily to overlook them ; or, who entertain such slight thoughts of the evil of sin, as to think it of no great im- portance, and that it is sufiiciently punished by the evil con- sequences, which usually follow it, such persons are necessarily indisposed for receiving Cheist, as the only Savioue and Me- diator between God and man. Those, in like manner, who conceive that repentance is, of itself, available for the remission of sins, and that all the ends of the Divine administration are answered, when the ofiender is brought to see the necessity of avoiding sin for the future, are indisposed to come to Cheist, and to regard His death, as an atonement for their sins, or to trust in Him, as their Intercessor with God. They may look with much respect on the character of Cheist, as a Teacher of righteousness, and admire the example, which He set to man- kind ; but " they will not come to Him, that they may have life." To repose proper confidence in Cheist requires a con- viction founded, first, upon the testimony of Revelation, and confirmed by the clearest evidence of miracles, that Jesus Cheist was the Son of the Most High God, that He was sent into the world both to teach mankind the way of salvation, and to make expiation for their sins by His death ; that He is the only Savioue, and that " none can come unto the Fathee but by Him ;" and this conviction must meet with a suitable frame of mind, with a corresponding sense of our sinfulness and of our need of such a Savioue. True faith in Cheist is founded on the union of this conviction with this frame of mind ; and wherever they are found together there will be found also a ROMANS IX. 32. 429 cordial acceptance of Cheist, a supreme devotednesa to Him and a perfect reliance upon Him, as " able to save to the utter- most all that come to God by Him." Cheist will then be all in all to the soul ; " the wisdom of GrOD and the power of God unto salvation." He will be " made unto us wisdom, righ- teousness, sanctification, and redemption." John Venn. (Serm. on S. John v. 40.) 32 It was in the Books of the Prophets, and not in the writings of Moses, that the Jews must have sought for indications of a future state. ... In the Prophets there are many allusions to a future state, which were so understood by the inspired authors themselves, as they are by us Christian readers ; but it does not follow, that the great mass of the people — any, besides the studious and discerning few — would be able clearly to per- ceive such meaning, especially when a different interpretation of those very passages, as applicable to temporal deliverances, might without destroying their sense be adopted. Nothing appears to us more evident, than the description in Isaiah, for instance, of a suffering Messiah : yet we well know, that a prosperous and triumphant temporal prince was generally ex- pected by the Jews, and that the frustration of this hope was the grand stumbling-block of the unbelieving among them, . . . In fact, all the temporal promises of the Mosaic Law have a spiritual signification. The land of Canaan, and the victory and prosperity, to which the Israelites were invited, are types of the future glories prepared by Cheist for His followers ; but then the law, which they were to observe, as their part of the Cove- nant, with all its sacrifices and purifications, had a correspond- ing spiritual signification also ; being types of the Redeeming Sacrifice of Cheist, and of the faith and holiness of heart re- quired of His followers. Those, who understood both parts literally were right, as far as they went ; for the observance of the law did literally bring these promised temporal blessings as a reward : and those also are right and are further enlightened, who perceive the spiritual significance of both parts : but it is an error to couple the spiritual interpretation of one part with the literal interpretation of the other ; as those of the Jews did, who imagined that Eternal life was the promised reward of 430 ROMANS IX. 32, 33. obedience to the Law of Moses, and who looked for immortal happiness, as the sanction of a religion to be propagated and up- held by a temporal Messiah. This incongruous mixture of part of the shadow with part of the substance appears to have been an error of the Jews of our Loed's time, which not only pre- vented most of them from believing in Him, but in great degree clung to those even, who admitted His pretensions. The effi- cacy of the observance of the law in procuring the blessings of the life to come — blessings, which were never promised as any part of the sanction of that law — was so inveterate a persuasion among them, that they were for superadding these extinct legal observances to their faith in Christ, and even persuaded many of the G-entile converts (among the Galatians especially) that their profession of Christianity required them to be " circum- cised and keep the law," as a condition of salvation. So far then as any of the Jews disjoined the prophetic annunciations of immortality from those relating to the spiritual kingdom of Christ, and looked for eternal rewards, as earned by obedience to the Mosaic Law, so far their expectations were groundless, their faith erroneous ; even though resting on the authority of such parts of Scripture, as, in a different sense, do relate to the doctrine in question. Abp. Whately. (Essay on some of the peculiarities of the Christian Religion. No. 1.) S. Paul told the Jews of his day, that Justification was hj faith only, and not by the works of the Law. Suppose now they had understood this assertion of the Ceremonial Law, (as many have done since), might they not very justly have said, "Nei- ther do we look to be justified or accepted with God for our observation of the Ceremonial part of the Law, but for our obedience to the whole Law, and, especially, the Moral ?" It is plain, therefore, that S. Paul, in speaking of this matter, al- ways means the whole Law rotundb, as Martin Luther says : or else, the dispute between them would soon have been at an end. He would only have afiirmed what they never denied. Adam. (Private Thoughts on Eeligion. Ch. 7.) 33 The Jews fancied a Messiah should come, in whom the cha- racters of a Moses and a David should meet, that he should raise the honour of their nation, and establish the observances of their ROMANS IX. 33. 431 laws. There were three things in our Saviotte and His doc- trine, any one of which was sufficient to disgust them. 1, His mean and humble appearance ; whereas they looked for a glo- rious Conqueror and magnificent Prince. "When He made no- thing of " paying tribute to Caesar," and despised the ofiers of a Crown, they could not but despise Him for it, according to their notions. 2. His seeming to set a low value on the ob- servances of the Law, and His disciples' setting the Gentiles at liberty from them, was, of all things, that, which appeared to thera the most odious and impious. They were so accustomed to a reverence for those rites, that no sort of immorality could strike them, so much as a coldness in them; and therefore they could not bear some liberties, which our Saviotjr or His disciples took on the Sabbath Day, even though those could have well been reconciled to the letter of the Law. And 3. Besides the common fondness, that all men have for their coun- try, they had so particular a value for their own, for Abraham's circumcised posterity, and such a contempt for all the heathen nations, who were no better than dogs in their esteem, that the many broad hints, that appeared in our Sayioue's parables and discourses, in favour of the Gentiles, and the open decla- ration, which the Apostles made soon after of bringing them into an equality of dignity and privileges with themselves, was such a stone of stumbling to every natural Jew, that nothing besides a full and uncontested evidence could have balanced it. Bp. Burnet. (Four Discourses delivered to the Clergy of the Diocese of Sarum. Disc, i.) The Messiah was "set" (S. Luke ii. 34) for the resurrection of all, Trpoffr^ovfievwi, by aprimary intention ; but to the " fall of many," TrapaKoXovOrjaettis, only bi/ way of consecution : that is to say, He was meant for a Sanctuary to all, that would receive Him ; but for a trap and a gin to all, that wilfully would refuse Him. He is a Eock to all ; and, as a rock hath two properties — either to split, or shelter — so, according as He is used, He either sus- taineth, or else is stumbled at ; and He always ruineth whom He doth not uphold. A conditional Savioue is not profitable to any, who are not so qualified, as He would have them. . . . If we take Him upon His terms, He is our Sanctuary, (and a I 433 ROMANS IX. 33. Sanctuary He is called Isa. viii. 14) but, if we take Him upon our terms, He is a stone of stumbling, "a gin, and a snare ;" and so He is called too in the very same verse. To " the wis- dom of this world, which is earthly, sensual, devilish," He is indeed very " foolishness ;" but " to them, that are called" (out of uncleanness unto holiness, 1 Thess. iv. 7) He is " Cheist the power of God, and the wisdom of God." He is a Savioith, by design ; and a condemner, only by accident (S. John iii. 19). He is the Savioue of all (1 Tim. iv. 10) through His mere mercy ; and a condemner of many, through their mere fault. For, though the will of the most perverse cannot hinder God's Grace from being infused, when God shall please, yet can he hinder it from taking its designed effect: not because God cannot, but will not, compel him to be happy. It was fitly said by S. Augustine in his Book of Eetractations, that to be- lieve and to will are both from God, and from ourselves : they are both from God, because it is He, that prepares our wills ; and they are both from ourselves, because they are not wrought in us, unless we are willing. As we cannot do good without His suggestion, so neither can we do it without our own consent. And even then, when we are working according to God's im- pulsions, we have the liberty to work against them. Dean Pierce. (The Sinner Impleaded, &c. Part ii. ch. ii. s. 9.) CHAPTER X. "DRETHREN, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. 2 For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. 3 For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, ¥ ROMANS X. 1. 433 have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. 1 S. Paul, Laving, iu the chapter before, sufficiently discoursed of the rejection of the Jews a priori, from God's absolute decree (ix. 18), he Cometh in this present to demonstrate the same point a posteriori, from their obstinate incredulity, stablishing their own righteousness, and not submitting themselves unto the Righteousness of God in Cheist, (to be) apprehended and ap- plied by faith only, declaring itself in a twofold act ; one, which is outward, to eoiifess with the mouth ; another, which is inward, to believe with the heart. Dean Boys. (On the Epist. for S. Andrew's Day.) The obscurities in the last two chapters are considerably cleared up, and its difficulties lessened, by the light now thrown on the dealings of GrOB with mankind. The Apostle's prayer to God for Israel shews, that the destiny of the unbelieving Jews was not so irrevocably fixed, as to render their case hopeless. They had not, it would appear, sinned " a sin unto death ;" or, S. Paul would not have prayed for them (1 S. John v. 7), and still sought their conversion (xi. 14). Again, we here find their re- jection not ascribed to the will of God — " As if Predestination ovemil'd Their will, dispos'd by absolute decrees Of high foreknowledge — " but to that freedom of choice, in which God has left us all, as we are moral, and not necessary, agents. If then they were hardened, it was because they would not submit them- selves unto the righteousness of God (ix. 32), but were a disobe- dient and stiffnecTted people (ver. 3, 21). Lastly, the inherit- ance of faith, limited apparently, in the preceding chapter, to a select " remnant " or privileged few, is now thrown open to all, " without respect of persons ;" for whosoever believeth — whoso- ever shall call upon the name of the Lord — shall be saved. Surely this chapter must have furnished the chief warrant for that wholesome rule, appended to the Article of our Church, " Of Predestination and Election," which so wisely cautions us, that " we must receive God's promises in such wise, as they be 434 ROMANS X. 1. generally set forth in Holy Scripture;" and that, "in our doings, that Will of God is to be followed, which we have expressly declared unto us in the Word of God." Then, just as these subsequent statements of the Apostle, in ch. x., guard us against limiting the grace of God, so his preceding state- ments, in ch. viii., guard us against the still greater danger, also noticed in the Article, of perverting it to the purpose of licentious living, on the presumption of God's Predestination. For, at ver. 1, 10, 13, 17, of that chapter, the moral character and the holy life of those, to whom only the promise is " sure," is as clearly set forth, as the promise itself. The Symbolical mysteries of the Apocalypse are guarded, we know, on each side, from the vanity of mere speculation by the practical les- sons, set before us at the beginning and close of the Book. In a similar way God has here fenced in, on both sides, the Sacred enclosure of Apostolic Doctrine, aa if He would have us read His blessed promises in the conditions and tempers of mind annexed to them ; constantly remembering, that " the secret things belong unto the Lord our God, but those things, which are revealed, belong unto us and our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this Law." Deut. xxix. 20. J.F. How unchangeable soever the purposes of God are, they are not so absolute, as to exclude all conditions. He determines to bestow His favours upon men, but not on men indiscriminately, but on men, so and so qualified. As, for instance, God determines to give grace to the humble, and pardon to the penitent : hu- mility and repentance are therefore the conditions on man's part, on which depends his receiving grace and remission from God. When man, of proud, becomes humble ; of a sinner, penitent ; God confers that grace on the one, and forgiveness on the other, which, without such qualifications in man. He would not have bestowed : so that God doth not change His purposes, but man changes his way ; and by changing becomes such a person, as God, according to His unchangeable purpose, determined to bestow His favours upon. Bp. Smalridge. (The Profitableness of Prayer not inconsistent with the Unchange- ableness of God. Serm. on Job xxi. 15.) ROMANS X. 2. 435 S. Paul, in his Epistle to the Eoraans, represents the degeneracy of mankind as so great, in consequence of the fall, that, if Grou had been pleased to make an arbitrary selection of certain per- sons to be admitted to mercy upon their repentance, and had consigned the rest to the natural punishment of their guilt, the proceeding could not have been taxed with cruelty or injustice. But he affirms, that GrOD hath actually dealt with mankind in a far milder and more equitable way, admitting all, without ex- ception, who are willing to repent, unto repentance, and all, who do repent, to the benefit of our Lord's Atonement ; in- viting all men to accept the promised mercy, bearing with repeated provocation and afi"ront, and leaving none, but the hardened and incorrigible, exposed to final wrath and puuish- ment. This being the true representation of God's dealings with mankind, the happiness of the future life being open to all men upon the condition of faith, repentance, and amendment, the degrees of that happiness will unquestionably be propor- tioned to the proficiency, that each man shall have made, in the emendation of his heart and his manners by the rule of the Gospel. Those, therefore, " for whom it is -prepared to sit upon our Loed's right hand and His left," cannot be any certain persons unconditionally predestined to situations of glory in the life to come, whatever their conduct may have been. ii. 11. Bp. Horsley. (Serm. on S. Matt. xx. 23.) 2 The practice and carriage of the Apostles towards these igno- rant zealots ought to be a rule for us to walk by, in the like cases. If men be of a difierent way from us, as to Eeligion ; if they hold other opinions, or, though they be of another com- munion from us, and though too we are sure they are mistaken — nay, and dangerously mistaken too — yet, if they have a zeal of God, if they be serious and sincere in their way, if their errors in Religion be the pure results of a misinformed conscience, let us, as the Apostle here did, take occasion from hence to pity them, and to put up hearty prayers to God for them, and to endeavour all we can by gentle methods to reduce them to the right way ; but by no means to express contempt or hatred of them, or to treat them with violence and outrage. So far as their zeal is for God, let us so far shew tenderness and com- r p 2 436 ROMANS X. 2, 3. passion to them ; and, if their zeal be iu such instances, as are really commendable, let us in such instances not only bear with them, but propose them for our examples. This, I say, was the Apostle's practice ; and I think it so agreeable to the spirit and temper of our great Lokd and Master Jesus Cheist, that it will become us, in like cases, to act accordingly. Abp. Sharp. (Serm. on Text.) The philosopher telleth us, that truth and falsehood are nigh neighbours, and dwell one by the other : the outer porch of the one is like the porch of the other ; yet their way is contrary : the one leadeth to life, the other leadeth to death : they differ little to the show, save that ofttimes the door of falsehood is fair painted, graven, and beautifully adorned ; but the door or fore-front of truth is plain and homely. Thereby it happeneth, that men be deceived : they mistake the door, and go into error's house, where they seek truth. They call evil good, false- hood truth, and darkness light. They forsake that is good, deny the truth, and love not the light. This moved S. Paul to say of his brethren the Jews, I bear them record, that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge : they have the care and fear of God, they are zealous in their doings, they have de- votion, they pretend conscience, they think they do well, that they please God. When they "professed themselves to be wise, they became fools." Bp. Jewel. (A Treatise of the Holy Scriptures.) 3 The Law is not satisfied with an outward observation of it, but by the inward disposition of the heart : we break it as much by a bare outward keeping of it only, as by living in the avowed neglect of it. Perhaps the best of men may find, that they never performed one act of true and pure obedience in all their lives. What conviction is here ! and what a terrible blow is this to our pride ! . . . Justification by faith can never be re- ceived, desired, sought after, or even understood, till the soul has been well disciplined and broken under the pressure of the Law, and brought to a full sight and experience of its inability to answer the demands of it. . . . When we find out our sin in one instance, it should convince us of the guilt of more yet undiscovered, and lead us to the accursed root of all. . . . The great danger of miscarrying in the saving knowledge of Cheist ROMANS X. 3. 437 is by passing too cursorily over the first step, healing our wounds slightly, and justifying ourselves too hastily. Adam. (Private Thoughts on Eeligion. Ch. 5.) The controul of sinful appetites and desires does indeed demand a man's constant care and vigilance ; but it is the pride of his heart, which presents the chief obstacle. He cannot bear to be told that his nature is a corrupt, a fallen, a sinful nature ; that the carnal, or in other words the natural mind, is " at enmity with God ;" that, if he seeks to be reconciled with God, he must seek it alone through the merits of a Redeemer, To Him, not to his own doings, however diligently he may labour in the regulation of his own mind, or in the service of his fellow- creatures, to his Savioue he must refer the whole merit and the whole efficacy of his salvation. That Savioue hath said that He came "to seek and to save them that were lost." And every man, who would be His disciple, let him be the wisest and the most virtuous of men, must believe that he himself was one of those lost creatures, whom Cheist came to save. He must not only acknowledge with his lips, but in his heart he must feel, that in the sight of God his best deeds are nothing worth — that, however they may tend, as they certainly will tend, to make him happier upon earth, they have no power whatever to raise him to heaven : nay, more than this, if he trust to himself, if he indulge himself in setting a value before God upon any- thing that he does, these very deeds will be the instrumental cause of his own ruin : they will lead him from that gate, through which alone he can enter, and will carry him farther and farther in a wrong direction. . . . Cheist "is the way, the truth and the life," He is emphatically called "the door of the kingdom of heaven." "No man cometh to the Eathee, but by Him." If then there be in any man's breast a secret long- ing after self-righteousness — if there be a disposition, however faint, to justify himself by his own performance — any lurking conceit that he, being so much better than others, stands less in need of that atoning merit, than the worst of his fellow- creatures, "let not such an one think that he will receive any- thing from the Loed." He may perhaps upon examination find that he has exercised himself in doing what he thinks his duty — that he has abstained from excess — that he has dealt 438 ROMANS X. 3. justly and worked diligently for the good of mankind — that he has even practised many of those virtues, which are most truly Christian — that he has been kind, patient, humble, charitable, meek, forgiving — yet, if his heart be a stranger to God, giving its affections not to things above but to things on the earth, if he suffer it to plead any of these services, as entitled to re- ward from God, or as fit even to bear His inspection, he is still in his sins ; he will be left to wander on according to his own wayward fancies, and will never find the gate of salvation. Bp. Copleston. (Serm. on S. Luke xiii. 23, 24.) We must not think in a giant-like pride to scale the walls of heaven by our own works, and by force thereof to take the strong fort of Blessedness, and wrest the crown of Glory out of God's hands, whether He will, or no. We must not think to commence a suit in heaven for happiness upon such a poor and weak plea, as our own external compliance with the old Law is. We must not think to deal with God in the method of commutative justice, and to challenge Eternal Life as the just reward of our great merits, and the hire due to us for our labour and toil we have took in God's vineyard. No ; " God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble." It must be an humble and self-denying address of a soul, dissolved into a deep and piercing sense of its own nothingness and unprofit- ableness, that can be capable of the Divine bounty. " He fills the hungry with good things, but the rich He sends empty away." They are the " hungry and thirsty souls," always gasping after the living springs of Divine Grace, as the parched ground in the desert doth for the dew of heaven, ready to drink them in by a constant depeudance upon God. . . . These are the spiritual seed of faithful Abraham, the sons of the " free woman," and " heirs of the promises," to whom all are made "Tea and Amen in Christ Jesus." These are they, which shall "abide in the house for ever," when the sons of the bond- woman, those, who are only Arabian proselytes, shall be cast out. John Smith. (A Discourse of Legal Eighteousness, &c. Ch. 6.) There is no man's case so dangerous as his, whom Satan hath per- suaded that his own righteousness shall present him pure and blameless in the sight of God, Hooker. ROMANS X. 3, 4. 439 It is Satan's policy to crack the breastplate of our own righteous- ness, by beating it out further than the metal will bear. Eph. vi. 14. Gurnall. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteous- ness to every one that beheveth. 5 For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth these things shall Uve by them. 6 But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven ? (that is, to bring Christ down from above :) 7 Or, who shall descend into the deep ? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) 4 In the Law there were two sorts of oblations unto God ; one gratulatory, for the donation of gifts ; another expiatory, for the condonation (pardon) of sins — a peace-offering, and a sin offer- ing. 7rpoa(popa. signifieth, as interpreters observe, the first kind ; Ovaia the latter. In Cheist then all sacrifices have their end. He " gave Himself for us an offering, and a sacrifice." (Eph. V. 2.) The last character of the Hebrew alphabet was a plain figure of Cheist's Cross, to signify that Christ is the end of the Law written in Hebrew. ... In His life He was an " offer- ing ;" in His death a " sacrifice." The whole course of His life was gratulatory to God, in word (see S. Matt. xi. 25 ; S. John xi. 41) and deed (see S. John xvii. 4 ; Heb. x. 9). He was an " offering" for us, all His life ; but His death especially was a " sacrifice" for our sins. . . . He gave Himself for us often an Eucharistical, once an Expiatory sacrifice ; doing in the first all, that we should do ; suffering for us in the second all, that we should suffer — non identitate pcencp, sed dignitate personce. Bean Boys. (Exposition of the Dominical Epistles, &c. Epist. Third Sunday in Lent.) The Law, as great a favour, as it was, Ps. cxlvii. 20, was but the 440 ROMANS X. 4, 5. Law still ; full of shadows and imperfections, full of rigours, without ability to perform them. That'came by Chbist ; the very grace, and beauty, and glory of the law was Christ : the grace of the Gospel — that was it, which was the perfection of the law, the fulness of the adoption, the performance of the Covenants, the finishing bringing in a better Service, the fulfilling of the promises, the expectation of the Fathers, the fulness of Christ : not according to the weakness of the flesh, but accord- ing to the power of the Spirit and of an endless grace. This is de plenitudine right, over and above all graces and favours, that were shewed before ; all, that ever any received before us. vii. 6; viii. 3; ix. 4. Dr. Mark Frank. (On Christmas Day. Serm. on S. John i. 16.) A true faith is to believe salvation to be attained through obedi- ence to God in Jesus Cheist, who by His merits and satis- faction for sin makes ourselves and our works acceptable to God His Tathee. A saving and justifying faith is to believe this, so as to embrace and lay hold upon Cheist for that end, to apply ourselves unto Him and rely upon Him, that we may through Him perform those works of obedience, which God hath promised to reward with eternal life. Tor justifying faith stays not only in the brain, but stirs up the will to receive and enjoy the good believed, according as it is promised. This mo- tion or election of the will is that, which maketh the difference between a saving faith, which joins us to Cheist, and that, which is true indeed, but not saving, but dogmatical and opin- ionative only. And this motion, or applying of the will to Cheist, this embracing of Cheist and the promises of the Gospel through Him, is that, which the Scripture, when it speaks of this faith, calleth " coming unto Cheist," or the " receiving of Him." Jos. Mede. (Discourse on S. Mark i. 14, 15.) 5 The Apostle, wishing to prove the easiness of justification by the Gospel, above that by the Law, after he had observed in ver. 5, For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, that the man which doeth those things shall live by them, immediately adds. But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, &c. But what saith it ? The word ROMANS X. 5. 441 is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart, &c. As if he had said ; the righteousness of the law prescribes many im- portant and severe precepts, but contains no promise of Eternal Life, by which we may be animated to perform them : it only says, If you do these things, you shall live ; that is, shall be long lived, have in this world a long and happy life, but of Eternal Life it says not one word. But the righteousness of faith is far more easy to be performed ; for it only contains such precepts, as commend themselves to us by their own excellence, and be- sides (which is of the greatest importance) it encourages us to perform these precepts by most certain and most valuable pro- mises. The foundation and root of this Gospel-Righteousness, from which it naturally arises, is nothing, but that faith, where- by you believe that it is possible for a man to ascend into heaven, and, after he goes down into the grave, to return thence again. And this is so evidently proved by the ascent of Cheist into heaven, by His death, and by His rising again, that any one de- nying it does the same, as if he would draw Christ down again from heaven, and deny either that He died, or rose again. But this is so certain, that God seems to have engraved it in our hearts, that we should believe it ; and placed it in our mouths, that we should confess it. Since then these things are so mani- fest, from which depends the truth of those points, which are the principal Articles of our faith, and from which piety almost necessarily arises, it follows, that faith itself and piety must be easy to us. For, since that is easy, upon which the rest in a certain manner depends, then everything else must be easy too. This interpretation of the above passage seems clearly, in my opinion, to be preferred, as by far the most easy and apparent, and the most agreeable to the Apostle's reasoning. Bp. Bull. (Harm. Apost. Diss. ii. ch. v. s. 3.) The Law requires exact and perfect obedience from us unto every punctilio and circumstance of it, and threatens death and de- struction to every one, that doth not punctually observe every- thing prescribed in it. But the Gospel is, as it were, a Court of Chancery, which mitigates the rigour of the Common Law, accepting of our sincerity, instead of perfection, and promising pardon and forgiveness to all such, as sincerely endeavour to do 442 ROMANS X. 6, 7. what they can, and trust in the merits and mediation of Jesus Cheist for the acceptance of what they do. By which means we are all now in a capacity, though not of performing perfect obedience, yet of performing such an obedience, as for Christ's sake may be accepted of, in lieu of perfect : which is certainly the highest act of grace and favour, which could possibly be shewn to mankind ; we being now put into the way of being restored to that happiness, which by our sins we are fallen from ; so that our sins may be all pardoned, our persons justified, our duties accepted, and so our souls eternally saved, ii. 7. Bp. Beveridge. (Serm. i. on Titus ii. 11, 12.)^ 6, 7 Plain truths lose much of their weight, when they are rari- fied in subtilties, and their strength is impaired, when they are spun into too fine a thread. The arguments, which must pre- vail with mankind, must be plain and evident, easy and yet powerful. The natural sense of good and evil in men is oft- times dulled by disputes, and only awakened by a powerful re- presentation of an Infinite Being, and a future judgment ; and that by such a way of proof, as all persons are equal judges of the truth and validity of it : such, as the Resurrection of Christ is in the Gospel. Bp. Stillingjleet. (Serm. on Rom. i. 16.) Abstruse speculations, whatever they may have at the bottom of solidity and truth, suit not the capacities of the many, and influence the wants of none. Bp. Horsley. Such as love piety will, as much as in them lieth, know all things that God commandeth ; but, especially, the duties of service, which they owe to God. As for His dark and hidden works, they prefer, as becometh them in such cases, simplicity of faith before that knowledge, which, curiously sifting what it should adore, and disputing too boldly of that which the wit of man cannot search, chilleth, for the most part, all warmth of zeal, and bringeth soundness of belief many times into great hazard. Hooker. 8 But what saith it ? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart : that is, the word of faith, which we preach : ROMANS X. 8. 443 9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteous- ness ; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 1 1 For the Scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed. 8 We might have expected that the Apostle, having so fully de- clared the great office oi faith in our Justification, and the inestimable blessings flowing from it, would have left none in ignorance of its true nature, and have taken care to distinguish it from every counterfeit. Accordingly, we find him in this chapter, before he finally dismisses the subject of our Eighte- ousness by Cheist, employed in setting before us a complete history and definition of true saving faith. He tells us of its Divine origin and foundation — the Word of God, preached and heard (ver. 8, 17) ; of its seat, where it dwells — the heart (ver. 10) ; of its external manifestation by the confession of the mouth (ver. 10) ; of the language it speaks — that oi prayer (ver. 13) ; of its one, great, glorious object, to which it ever looks — the Death and Resurrection of the Lord Jesus (ver. 9) ; and, lastly, of its ever blessed end and sure reward — Salvation (ver. 9, 10, 13). He has not been less careful to supply us with a corres- ponding description and pedigree of the sister, or rather filial, grace of Charity. " Now the end of the Commandment is Charity out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and of faith unfeigned." (1 Tim. i. 5.) /. F. Faith is an earnest persuasion of mind, concerning the truth of some matter propounded. . . . From faith doth naturally and duly result a satisfaction or acquiescence in the matter en- joined, as best to be done ; a choice and resolution to comply with God's appointment ; an efiectual obedience ; a cheerful expectation of a good issue thereupon. Dr. Barrow. That ihj faith may not deceive thee, take along with thee these marks of trial. 1. A true faith embraces Christ in all the 444 ROMANS X. 8. capacities of His Mediatorial Office ; as King, Priest, and Prophet. 2. It takes in the whole compass of Gospel-dispen- sations ; commands and threats, as well as promises ; Sacra- ments, and all other Ordinances alike. 3. It engages the whole man ; the assent of the understanding, the compliance of the will, the regularity of the affections, and the composure of the outward behaviour. 4. It is always accompanied with serious repentance for sin, and a frank expression and exercise of charity, according to the sense a man has of the love of God towards himself. Dost thou find, then, that by thy faith thou ownest and acceptest thy Saviour in all His three Offices ; that thou art as content to submit to Him, as a Prophet to teach and instruct thee, a King to rule and govern thee, as thou art glad to have Him thy Priest to satisfy for thee and bless thee ? Art thou willing to be saved His way, and to conform to His me- thods ; so as to engage in "working out thy own salvation" (Phil. ii. 12) ? And art thou convinced thou oughtest to do some- thing for thy own sake, something for His, who has done so much for thee ? Has thy faith an equal impartial respect to Christ's commands, as to His promises ? And dost thou take as much delight in the obedience of faith, as thou dost in its assurance ? Dost thou consider, though it be "a Covenant of Grace" thou standest under, yet 'tis a Covenant, and ties thee up to conditions ; and that, though the Gospel be " a Law of liberty," 'tis as a Law still (S. James i. 25) ; and that Christian liberty does not give thee a freedom from duty, but from sin, and is not to be used, as " a cloak of malice and licentiousness" (1 S. Pet. ii. 16) ? Hast thou an even regard to all the means of Grace, and a desire to profit by them all ; and dost not, by a wanton preference of one Ordinance to another, forfeit the benefit of all the rest ? Canst thou tell where to find thy faith — in what part of thee 'tis seated ? Does it swim, as an empty notion in thy head only, or has it by serious resolutions sunk down into thy heart, and thence flows it into all thy outward parts to the government of thy thoughts and desires, thy words and actions ? Dost thou use to call thy sins to account, and, think- ing on them and thy Saviour's sufferings together, set open the sluices of grief, and mourn over thy wounded conscience ROMANS X. 9. 445 and thy crucified Jesus ? And, lastly, hast thou such a sense of God's love to thee in the pardon of thy sins, that thou canst freely forgive all offences done against thee ; and for His sake, who for them has not spared His Son, cheerfully part with all thou hast, and resign up all thy concerns in His hands for His uses, when He calls for them ? And is thy faith a " faith work- ing by charity" (Gral. v. 6), that puts forth vital acts, and evi- dences and justifies itself by good works to be a living and a true faith ? For, though it be faith alone, that justifies, yet 'tis no true faith, that is alone ; and, as a man is not justified for his good works, so no man must hope to be justified without them. If thy faith be such a faith, as will abide this trial, and answer this description, then 'tis a faith thou mayest trust to, and thou hast reason to believe thyself a believer, and God will improve and build up thy faith to blessed assurances of pardon and peace, of Grace and Glory, i. 17. Dr. Adam Littleton. (Serm. on Acts xiii. 39.)' 9 To Believe, as the word stands in the front of the Creed, and not only so, but is diff'used through every article and proposition of it, is to assent to the whole and every part of it, as to a certain and infallible truth, revealed by God, (who by reason of His infinite knowledge cannot be deceived, and by reason of His transcendent holiness cannot deceive) and delivered unto us in the writings of the blessed Apostles and Prophets imme- diately inspired, moved, and acted by God ; out of whose writ- ings this brief sum of necessary points of Faith was first collected. And this is properly to Believe : so to say, I believe, is to make a Confession or external expression of the Faith. . . Faith is an habit of the intellectual part of man, and therefore of itself invisible ; and to believe is a spiritual act, and con- sequently immanent, and internal, and known to no man, but him, who believeth. " For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of a man that is in him ?" (1 Cor. ii. 3), Wherefore Christ, being not only the great Apostle sent to deliver these revealed truths, and so the Author of our Faith, but also the Head of the Church, whose Body consisteth of faithful members, and so the Author of union and communion, which principally hath relation to the unity of Faith, He must 446 ROMANS X. 9. be imagined to have appointed some external expression and communication of it ; especially considering, that " the sound of the Apostles was to go forth unto the ends of the world," and " all nations" to be called to the profession of the Gospel, and gathered into the Church of Cheist — which cannot be performed without an acknowledgment of the Truth and a pro- fession of Paith, without which no entrance into the Church, no admittance to Baptism. (Acts viii. 36, 37.) . . . The belief of the heart is the internal habit residing in the soul ; an act of faith proceeding from it, but terminated in the same. The confession of the mouth is an external signification of the in- ward habit, or act of Faith, by words expressing an acknow- ledgment of those truths, which we believe or assent to in our souls. The ear receiveth the Word : faith cometh by hearing : the ear conveyeth it to the heart, which, being opened, receiveth it ; receiving, believeth it : and then " out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." In the heart faith is seated : with the tongue confession is made : between these two salva- tion is completed. The faith of the heart — every one ought and is presumed to have : this confession of the mouth — every one is known to make, when he pronounceth these words of the Creed, " / believe ;" and, if true, he may with comfort say, The word of faith is nigh me, even in my mouth and in my heart ; first, in my heart, really assenting ; then in my mouth, clearly and sin- cerely professing with the Prophet David, " I have believed ; therefore have I spoken." Bp. Pearson. (Exposition of the Creed. Art. i.) If we observe the Creeds or symbols of belief, that are in the New Testament, we shall find them very short ; " Loed, I believe that Thou art the Son of God who was to come into the world :" that was Martha's Creed (S. John xi. 26, 27). "Thou art Cheist, the Son of the Living God :" that was S. Peter's Creed (S. Matt. xvi. 16). " We know and believe that Thou art Cheist, the Son of the Living God :" that was the Creed of all the Apostles (S. John vi. 69). " This is life eternal, that they know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Cheist whom Thou hast sent:" this was the Creed, which our Blessed Loed Himself propounded (S. John xvii. 3). And again, "I am the ROMANS X. 9. 447 Eesurrection and the Life ; he that believeth in Me, though he were dead yet shall he live, and he that liveth and believeth in Me shall not die" (for ever) : that was the Catechism, that Cheist made for Martha, and questioned her upon the Article — " Believest thou this ?" And this belief was the end of the Gospel, and in sufficient order to eternal life. For so S. John ; " These things were written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life through His Name" (xx.'31). For "this is the word of faith, which we preach, namely, if you with the mouth con- fess Jesus to be the Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved :" that was S. Paul's Creed, and that, which he recommends to the Church of Rome to prevent factions, and pride, and schism. The same course he takes with the Corinthian Church ; " I make known unto you the Gospel, which I preached unto you ; which ye have received, in which ye stand, and by which ye are saved, if ye hold what I delivered unto you," &c. (1 Cor. xv. 1). "Well ; what is that Gospel, by which they should be saved ? It was but this — that Christ died for our sins — and that He was buried — that He rose again the third day, &c. So that the sum is this. The Gentiles' Creed, or th? Creed in the Natural Law, is that, which S. Paul sets down in the Epistle to the Hebrews, " Deum esse, et esse Remuneratorem ;^^ that " God is," and that " God is a Eewarder." Add to this the Christian Creed, that Jesus is the Lord — that He is the Christ of God — that He died for our sins — that He rose again from the dead — and there is no question, but he, that believes this heartily, and confesses it constantly, and lives accordingly, shall be saved : we cannot be deceived : it is so plainly so certainly affirmed in Scripture, that there is no place left for hesitation, vi. 17. Bp. J. Taylor. (The Eule of Conscience. B. ii. ch. iii. Eule 14.) It is from the heart — the heart only — that tvMQ faith can proceed. . . . How far beyond any human power, beyond any power is it, but that of the Almighty ! It is Divinity in the heart, this believing with the heart. ... If you think you have this faith, take a criterion, by which it may be tested. Know ye what it is to confess Christ with the mouth ? It is not the joining in 448 ROMANS X. 10. the anthem, when a thousand voices shall swell His praises. It is not the joining in the crowd, when an assembled multi- tude professes a belief in Him, as a Mediator. This indeed is, in its measure, confessing Christ with the mouth ; but it comes far short of what this confession must be. To confess Christ with the mouth is to own oneself His disciple in the face of unpopularity, disgrace, and insult ; not to be ashamed of Him amongst those, who deride Him ; to maintain His autho- rity, when it is despised ; to rebuke His enemies, wherever we meet them. " Who is sufficient for these things ?" No man, of himself: but He, who implants the faith, will clothe the tongue in answer to earnest supplication. .Only deceive not yourselves : dream not of believing without confessing ; for the Spirit, who dictated the words, If thou shall believe with thine heart that God raised Him from the dead, dictated also, If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, thou shalt be saved. H. Melvill. (Serm. on Text.) 10 Assent to the truth of the "Word is but an act of the under- standing, which devils and reprobates may exercise. But jus- tifying faith is a compounded habit, and hath its seat both in the understanding and will. Philip said, " If thou believest with all thy heart, thou mayest" (Acts viii. 37). Faith takes in all the powers of the soul. There is a double object in the promise ; one, proper to the understanding to move that ; an- other, proper to the will to excite and work upon that. As the promise is true, so it calls for an act of assent from the under- standing ; and as it is good, as well as true, so it calls for an act of the will to embrace and receive it. Therefore he, which only notionally knows the promise, and speculatively assents to the truth of it, without clinging to it and embracing it, he doth not believe savingly, and can have no moi*e benefit from the promise, than any nourishment from the food he sees and ac- knowledges to be wholesome, but eats none of it. Gurnall. (The Christian in Complete Armour. Eph. vi. 16. Ch. i. s. 2.) S. Paul, in this Epistle, opposes the Word of faith to the Moral Law of the Jews ; in his Epistle to the Hebrews, he opposes it to the Ceremonial. In each case the contrast is remarkable. What a difference is there between the absolute legal demand ROMANS X. 11. 449 of a perfect obedience — with no adequate motive, no requisite strength provided ua for the same — and the generous and genial appeal, which Cubist makes to us in His Gospel, in- viting our confidence, as well as our obedience, on the ground of what He has done and suffered for us, and, besides giving us the motive, working in us " botli to will and to do of His good pleasure." And then, how striking is the contrast presented between the Ceremonial Law, on the one hand, with its nu- merous minute observances — (such as required the worshipper to be continually inquiring about his duty) — and those far better provisions of tlie new Covenant, by virtue of which, as it is written, " they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, ' Know the Lord ;' for all shall know Me from the least unto the greatest ; for I will be mer- ciful unto their unrighteousness, and their sins and iniquities I will remember no more." (Heb. viii. 11, 12.) The Word of faith eases our shoulder from this heavy yoke and slavish burden. It reduces our entire obedience to a few simple prin- ciples of duty ; principles, possessing an intrinsic worth, ex- ercising a living power over us ; so clear, too, and reasonable, that every one, " from the least unto the greatest," let him only have a willing mind, and an honest and good heart, may readily understand them, and live according to them. How can we sufficiently bless and thank God, who has delivered us from the Jewish bondage, and " hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son !" J. F. 11 Faith is the beginning and root of all Gospel-righteousness, without which no virtue contributing to salvation can exist in a man, and which, therefore, if it be not impeded, will attract all other virtues to it. . . . Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed. Tliis is explained in the thirteenth verse ; Whosoever shall call vpon the Name of the Lord, that is, sincerely worship God, shall be saved. Calling upon the Name of the Lord, in this and other passages, evidently signifies the entire and com- plete worship of God. (Conf. Ps. siv. 4 ; liii. 4 ; Isa. xliii. 22 ; Jer. X. 25 ; 1 Cor. i. 2). So S. Paul, when he attributes salva- tion to faith, means that faith, which unites to itself the worship of God in Christ, and according to the direction of the G G 450 ROMANS X. 11. Gospel. "What then, you will say, does the Apostle mean by expressing all this by the word faith ? In the fourteenth verse he gives you the reason ; How shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed ? Clearly without this faith no one can properly worship God in Cheist, and it naturally produces this worship. For it can never happen that he should worship, who does not believe ; and it seldom happens that he, who be- lieves, does not worship. Here we must observe, by the way, that three things are mentioned in this sentence by the Apostle — prayer, faith, and hearing or knowledge ; each of which is ne- cessary unto salvation : but on different accounts ; namely, knowledge and faith are necessary only as means, because with- out them no man can perform that worship, which is acceptable with God unto salvation ; but worship is necessary of itself alone, and reaches most nearly the effect of salvation by the power of the Gospel Covenant. Bp. Bull. (Harmonia Apos- tolica. Dissert, ii. ch. 5, s. 1.) The best method, as yet I know, for establishing true confidence will be this. As often as we think of that fundamental Oracle of Life, Whosoever believes in Him shall not be ashamed, to con- sider withal, that the true crisis of such a constitution, as the Prophet there speaks of, will not be till the Day of Cheist's appearance (Isa. xxviii. 16). Whence, lest we should over- reach ourselves in confident persuasions, by suffering our minds to run too much upon the former promise without a counter- poise to try their strength, let us balance our apprehension of it with this truth — He only believes aright in Christ, that will not be ashamed at His appearance. The inference, thence naturally issuing, is our Savioue's, not mine. " Watch therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man." From this conclusion we may resume our former assertion, as a necessary corollary ; that, besides Justification habitual, there is a Justification virtual, which hath a permanent duration, and consists in the perpetuity of watchfulness and prayer ; that the foundation of it, as of our confidence, is union with Cheist by a faith fructifying in conversation and works conformable' to Him ; as the disciple, whom He loved, hath ROMANS X. 11. 451 most Divinely instructed us ; " And now, little children, abide in Him, that, when He shall appear, ye may have confidence, and not be ashamed before Him at His coming. If ye know that He is righteous, know ye that whosoever doeth righteous- ness is born of Him." (See also 2 S. John iv. 17.) Bean Jackson. (Works. B. iv. ch. ix. s. 4.) If the most part be damned, the fault is not in GrOD, but in them- selves ; for it is written, " GrOD would have all men to be saved." But they themselves procure their own damnation. . . . Think, that God hath chosen those, that believe in Cheist, and that CuKiST is the Book of Life. If thou believest in Him — (with a persevering faith) — then thou art in the Book of Life and shalt be saved. So we need not to go about to trouble our- selves with curious questions of the Predestination of God. . . . Cheist only, and no man else, merited remission, justification, and eternal felicity for as many, as will believe the same. They, that will not believe it, shall not have it ; for it is no more, but believe and have. For Christ shed as much blood for Judas, as He did for S. Peter. S. Peter believed it, and therefore he was saved : Judas would not believe ; and therefore he was condemned, the fault being in him only, and in no one else. Bp. Latimer. (Serm. First Sunday after Epiph. and Twenty-third Sunday after Trinity.) 12 For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek : for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him. 13 For whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved. 14 How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed ? and how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard ? and how shall they hear without a preacher ? 15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent ? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them G, G 2 452 ROMANS X. 12. that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things 1 12 There was no difference hetiveen the Jew and the Greek, as to theiv sins; iii. 9, 22. There is now no difference between them, as to their salvation. But this chapter shews, in other respects, how things agree. Justification and salvation are here iden- tified. " With the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth" — a simultaneous act, for "out of the abun- dance of the heart the mouth speaketh" — "confession is made unto salvation." Again, faith and obedience, in the mind and argument of the Apostle throughout this Epistle, are all one. " They have not all obeyed the Gospel ; for Esaias saith, Loud, who hath believed our report ?" The same faith is inseparably connected with calling upon God, hearing the Word preached, and receiving the preacher sent. J. F. It is not for a great man of an opulent fortune to give sparingly : wherefore, God out of the riches of His glory gives liberally (S. James i. 5). Eor, "if He spared not His own Son," but gave Him up for us all to death, how shall He not with Him give us all things also ? (viii. 32.) The King of Glory cannot, ex opulentid gloriosd, give but " exceeding abundantly above all we ask or think" (Eph. iii. 20). S. Paul's addition is more re- markable— " the riches of His glory." For, as he shewetb else- where, the goodness of God towards us is not a bare, but " a rich mercy" (Eph. ii. 14) ; not a little, but " a great love ;" not a naked or a single, but a "sufficient," yea, " superabundant grace" (2 Cor. xii. 9; Rom. v. 20). So long, then, as God is rich in mercy, s^ith S. Bernard, I cannot be poor in merit. Bean Boys. (Exposition of the Dominical Epistles, &c. Ep. Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity.) It is a mystery, that, whereas faith is not the same for degree and measure in all, that believe, yet Justification is the same in all, that believe ; though their belief be in different measures and degrees. So once in the wilderness all gathered not Manna in the same measure ; yet, when all came to measure, they had all alike ; none above an omer, none under. Sauctification in- deed receiveth magis et minus, and one hath a greater degree or ROMANS X. 13. 453 less of holiness, than another; but justification not so: for all are justified alike ; the truth of faith justifying, not the measure. So actual sinfulness reci2nt mayis et minus : and so some are greater sinners, some less ; but oriyine sui it is not so ; but sin is alike in all. Br. Liyhtfoot. (Serm. on Eom. v. 1.) 13 The Prophet Joel, speaking of the blessings of the Messiah's day, saith. And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord — in the orig. '■Jehovah' — shall be delivered. Here the Holy Spikit hath vouchsafed to be His own interpreter : and His interpretation, one would think, might be decisive. S. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans al- leges this passage of Joel to prove that all men shall be saved by believing in Christ Jesus. But how is the Apostle's as- sertion, that all men shall be saved by faith in Chbist, con- firmed by the Prophet's promise and deliverance to all, who should devoutly invocate " Jehovah," unless Christ were, in the judgment of S. Paul, the " Jehovah" of the Prophet Joel ? Bp. Horsley. (Serm. i. on Mai. iii. 2.) To call npon the Name of the Lord is to worship Him, as He Is, depending upon Him. The Name of the Lord expresses His true Being — that, which He Is. Hence so very often in Holy Scripture men are said to " call on the Name of the Loed," to " bless the Name of the Lord," to "praise the Name of the Lord," to " sing praises to His Name," to " make mention of His Name," to "tell of His Name," to "know His Name;" but it is rarely said, "I will praise the Name of God." For the Name rendered the Lord expresses that He Is, and that He alone Is, the Self-same, the Unchangeable. The name ren- dered God is not the special Name of God. ... To call, then, upon the Name of the Lord implies right faith ; to call upon Him, as He Is — right trust in Him ; leaning upon Him — right devo- tion; calling upon Him, as He has appointed — right life; our- selves, who call upon Him, being, or becoming by His Grace, what He wills. They call not npon the Name of the Lord, but upon some idol of their own imagining, who call upon Him, as other than He has revealed Himself, or remaining themselves other than those, whom He has declared that He will hear. For such deny the very primary attribute of God — His Truth. 454 ROMANS X. 13, 14. . . . "Whom the Lord shall call" (Joel ii. 32). He had said before, " Whosoever shall call on the Name of the Lord shall be delivered." Here he says that they, who should so call on GrOD, shall themselves have been first " called by God." So S. Paul ; " To them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be Saints, with all, that in every place call upon the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord (1 Cor. i. 2). It is all of grace. God must first call us by His grace : then we obey His call, and call upon Him : and He has said, " Call upon Me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me" (Ps. 1. 15). God accounts our salvation His own glory. Dr. Pusey. (Comment, on the Minor Prophets. Joel ii. 32.) The promises are so laid, that, like a well-drawn picture, they look on all, that look on them by an eye of faith. The Gos- pel's joy is thy joy, that hast but faith to receive it. Gurnall. As kings, when they publish acts of grace and oblivion, do not only set and appoint, but limit out, the time for subjects to come in, submit, and return to their fidelity and allegiance — which time, if once elapsed, they are incapable of any benefit by any such grant ; cannot, at least, plead it — so, it seems, God does too ; and it is not sure that whosoever, at what time soever, calls upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved ; but, as King David told Him, " They shall make their prayer to Thee in a time of finding" (Ps. xxxii. 6), "in a time, when His good pleasure is," (Ps. Ixix. 13) — the very word here (2 Cor. vi. 2). And this time S. Paul restrains to the present — now ; meaning, not only, in the general, now, in times, while they are " under Grace" (for, while the light of the Gospel shines upon them, the day of salvation may be quite gone out) ; but pointing out no other sure way, but by seizing on the present ; " Behold, now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation." Conf. ver. 21. Dr. Allestree. (Serm. on 2 Cor. vi. 2.) 14 We all confess there be means ; as " they, which will not work, may not eat" (2 Thess. iii. 10). In warfare, there is no victory to be hoped for without fight, building of rampiers, and making of darts and shields (2 Chron. xxiii. 5). Only in spiritual matters we think we do well enough, though we never put to our en- deavour. We lay all upon God, aud trouble not ourselves — ROMANS X. 14, 15. 455 " There is but one degree or step in all Christianity : it is no more, but out of the Font to leap straight into Heaven : from Predestination we leap straight to Glorification (viii. 30). It is no matter for Mortification (viii. 13). There be no such mean degrees" — But S. Paul tells, it is so high that we had need of a ladder, in which be many steps ; insomuch, as he puts a \_E.ow shalf] to every step ; How shall they call upon God, on whom they have not believed? There must be calling on God, believing on Him, hearing His Word, There must be ordinary means : and there is a ladder of practice, as well as of specu- lation or contemplation ; " Join virtue with your faith, and with virtue knowledge, and with knowledge temperance," and so " patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love" (1 S. Pet. i. 5, 6). " If these things be in you," you shall not be idle and fruitless in the knowledge of Christ: for he, that hath not these things, is blind ; he goeth blindfold to the wood, and may chance hap beside heaven, or step beside the ladder. Bp. An- dreives. (Serm. v. on the Temptation. S. Matt. iv. 7.) The voice of God, the hearing of man, the consequent belief — are the three necessary links in the golden chain of revealed salva- tion. Sever the continuity of any two, and the electric spark cannot be transferred across the interval. Prom the Throne of the Most High to the ear of man, from the ear to the heart, is the luminous pathway of the Spirit. How shall they believe in Him, of whom they have not heard ? W.Archer Butler. (Serm. on Text.) Taking our hint from the last note, we may observe in this Epistle three blessed consecutives : the first, in the regular order of the dealings of God with His people (viii. 29, 30) ; the second, in the beautiful chain of Evangelical graces (v. 8 — 5) ; the third, in our well-ordered progress, from stage to stage, towards the land of our heavenly inheritance (vi. 22). J. F. 15 Are we Ministers Ambassadors ? This shews the Gospel Ministry to be an office peculiar to some ; not a work, common to all. An ambassador, we know, is one, that hath his com- mission and credential-letters from his Prince to shew for his employment. 'Tis not a man's skill in state afiairs, that makes him an ambassador ; nor ability in the law, that makes him a 456 ROMANS X. 15. magistrate ; but their call to these places : neither do gifts make a man a Minister, but his Mission. The rules, which the Spirit of God gives about the Minister's admission into his function, were all to no purpose, if it lay open to every man's choice to make him a Preacher. . . . AVhy should any be set apart for that, which every one may do ? (i. 1.) Gurnall. (The Chris- tian in Complete Armour. Eph. vi. 19, 20. Ch. 13.) If those, who perform the part of Ministers in any congregation, without being Episcopally ordained, have, nevertheless, power to rule and to feed the flock of Cheist, and to administer the Sa- craments, I ask again, who gave it them ? From man they could not receive it : that is certain. And, if they say, from Cheist, we ask them to show us their credentials. Are they ordinary, or extraordinary ? That they have not received their Commission in the ordinary way, that is, through the Bishops of the Church, in regular succession from the Apostles, they themselves confess. Their calling and mission, if it be from Cheist, and not from man, must therefore be extraordinary, that is, miraculous : and, if in this way they can prove to us that Cheist has sent them, then, and not till theUj we may re- ceive them, as His Ambassadors. Meanwhile, instead of trou- bling ourselves about " those, that are without," let us look to the advantages, which the Church possesses in her threefold Orders of Ministers, whose institution we trace upwards, through an unbroken line of Bishops, to the Apostles and to Cheist Himself. . . . Let us consider the great happiness we enjoy in the assurance that the promise of Cheist is fulfilled to His Church, and that He is always present with His Ministers to bless their ministrations to His people. ... In magnifying our office, we magnify Cheist and Him only ; for it is He alone, who gives to our various ministrations all their force and effi- cacy. . . . And I am deeply convinced, that no man will ever '^ fidfil the ministry, which he has received of the Loed," unless, under an awful sense of his great responsibility he habitually considers, that he is always acting by Cheist' s authority com- mitted to him, as a messenger from Him to men, and as a steward, who must give account to the Loed. Bean Lowe. (Visitation Serm. at Exeter, on S. Matt, xxviii. 20.) ROMANS X. 15. 457 The Prophet Isaiah spake of them, that foretold of the delivery of Israel out of the Babylonish Captivity : and, if those messen- gers were welcome, that uttered things concerning bodily feli- city, much more shall their coming be acceptable, that solace the inward man, the heart and soul. !^eauty is that, which attracts affections to it ; so the Apostles are said to be beau- tiful, because they drew the world unto them : and it was proper concerning them to say, How beautiful are their feet, rather than their lips ; for they did not rest in one place, but took the whole world for their circuit from city to city : and, because of their dangerous travel by sea and land, the Prophet said. How beautiful are their feet ! Despise not therefore such, as succeed them, though much unworthy, in the same errand ; but have them in honour for their welcome message (xv. 19). Though Chbist hath not washed our feet to make them beau- tiful, as He did His disciples', yet the very Word, that we have to say, doth honour our lips : for they are "good tidings." . . . The Septuagint, according to some editions, read it ws wpa iv TO?? opeai — what a spring was there in the mountains, when He was preached! Whereupon says S. Cyril, as the spring cheers up the hearts of men, beautifies the earth and the fields after the desolating frosts of a wasteful winter, so the preaching of Christ's Nativity made everything to flourish, after the bitter blasting fronts of the Law. Bp. Hachet. (Upon the Incarna- tion. Serm. on S. Luke ii. 10.) If Sj\iQfeet of them, that preach peace, be beautiful — (and Oh, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach peace ? the Prophet asks the question ; and the Prophet Nahum asks it, i. 15 ; and the Apostle S. Paul asks it : they all ask it, but none answer it) — who shall answer us, if we ask. How beautiful is the face of Him, who is the Author of this peace, when we shall see that in the glory of Heaven, the centre of all true peace ? It was the inheritance of Christ Jestjs upon the earth. He had it at His Birth. He brought it with Him — " Grlory to God on High, Peace on earth." It was His purchase upon earth. He "made peace" — (indeed He bought peace) — "through the Blood of His Cross." It was His Testament, when He went from earth — '• Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto 458 ROMANS X. 15, 16. you." Divide with Him in that blessed inheritance ; partake with Him in that blessed purchase ; enrich thyself with that blessed legacy — His peace, xv. 33 ; xvi. 20 ; xv. 13. Dr. Donne. (Serm. on 1 Cor. xv. 26.) Oportet stantem optare : a sedentary desire, it may be, we have ; but are loth to leave our cushion. Utinam hoc esset laborare, said one, that lay along and stretched himself: so say we. Peace we would have, but standing is painful : our wish hath lips, but no legs. But it could not be said. Beautiful are the feet of them that bring peace, if the feet had nothing to do in this business. With sitting and wishing, it will not be had. Peace will hide itself (Ps. xxxiv. 14) ; it must be " sought out :" it will fly away; it must be pursued. . . . We see Cheist sheweth His hands and His feet, to shew what must be done with both for it. xii. 11. Bp. Andrewes. (On the Resurrec- tion. Serm. iv. S. John xx. 19.) 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith. Lord, who hath believed our report ? 17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. 18 But I say. Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world. 16 There is scarce any other proposition, that is so often repeated in the Scriptures, as this ; Lord, who hath believed our report ? For it is, first, in the Prophet Isaiah (liii. 1) : there he is in holy throes, and pangs, and agonies, 'till he be delivered of that prophecy — the Coming of the Messiah, the Incarnation of Christ Jesus ; and yet, he is put to this exclamation, Lord, who hath believed our report ? And then you have these words in the Grospel of S. John (xii. 88) ; where we are not put upon the consideration of a future Cheist in prophecy, but the Evangelist exhibits Cheist in person, actually, really, visibly, evidently, doing great works, executing great judgments, mul- tiplying great miracles ; and yet, he is put to the application of ROMANS X. 16. 459 this exclamation, Who hath believed this report P And then you have these words also in S. Paul, where we do not consider a prophecy of a future Cheist, nor a history of a present Chkist, but an application of that whole Cheist to every soul, in the settling of a Church, in that concatenation of means for the infusion of faith, expressed in that chapter, sending, and preaching, and hearing; and yet, for all these powerful and familiar assistances, Lord, who hath believed "that" report ? . . . You have the text in three places — in the great Prophet, in Isaiah ; in the great Evangelist, in S. John ; and in the great Apostle, in S. Paul. ... In all three the words are of a sad and serious expostulation of the Minister of GrOD with God Himself, that His means and His Ordinances, powerfully com- mitted to him, being faithfully transmitted by him to the people, were, nevertheless, fruitless and ineffectual. " I do, Loed, as Thou biddest me," says the Prophet Isaiah : " I prophesy, I foretell the coming of the Messiah, the Incarnation of Thy Son for the Salvation of the world ; and I know, that none of them, that hear me, can imagine or conceive any other way for the Eedemption of the world, by satisfaction to Thy Justice, but this — and yet. Lord, who hath believed my report .^" " I do, Loed, as Thou biddest Me," says Cheist Himself in S. John : " I come in person. I glorify Thy Name. I do Thy will. I preach Thy Gospel. I confirm My doctrine with evident mi- racles ; and I seal those seals, I confirm those miracles, with My Blood — and yet. Lord, who hath believed My report ?" " I do, Loed, as Thou biddest me," says every one of us, who, as we have received mercy, have received the Ministry, " I obey the inward call of the Spirit. I accept the outward calling of the Church. Furnished and established with both these, I come into the world ; I preach absolution of sins to every re- pentant soul ; I offer the seals of reconciliation to every con- trite spirit — and yet, Lord, who hath believed''^ my " report P" Indeed it is a sad contemplation, and must necessarily produce a serious and a vehement expostulation, when the predictions of Gob's future judgments — (as in Isaiah) — when the exertions of God's ^9?-ese?2# judgments — (as in S.John) — when the ordi- nances of God for the relief of any soul, in any judgment, in 460 ROMANS X. 16. His Church, are not believed. To say, "I believe you not," amounts to a lie. Not to believe God's warnings before — not to believe God's pi'esent judgments — not to believe that God hath established a way to come to Him in all distress — this is to give God the lie : and with this is the world charged in this text, Lord, who hath believed our report P ix. 1, 2. Dr. Donne. (On the Nativity. Serm. on Text.) Who hath believed our report? As to the nature of faith, 'tis plain that it is a moral virtue, as being that natural homage, which the understanding or will (for I need not here dispute which), pays to God in receiving and assenting to what He re- veals upon His bare word or authority. It is an humiliation of ourselves, and a glorification of God (iv. 20) — an humiliation of ourselves, as it implies a submission of our own reason and un- derstanding to the Divine ; and a glorification of God, as 'tis a confession and acknowledgment of His truth and veracity. For faith gives testimony to the truth of God ; according to that of S. John, " He that hath received His testimony has set to his seal that God is true" (iii. 33). As, on the contrary, unbelief dishonours and reproaches Him, as one, that is false and deceitful, and not fit to be trusted ; according to what is elsewhere said, " He that believeth not God hath made Him a liar" (1 S. John v. 10). This is the proper immorality of in- fidelity, and was the bin of Adam, before he broke the positive Command of God in eating of the forbidden fruit. And, in the other, consists the morality of faith, which, though as to the exercise of it or explicit act, it supposes a Revelation, yet it has its ground and foundation in natural religion, as being as much a natural Duty, which we owe to God, as to love Him, or to fear Him, or anything else. But, as 'tis a moral, so 'tis a Christian virtue, as being a duty commanded in the Gospel, and an act of Christian humility submitting our wills, denying our inclinations and interests; yea, and if need be, our reason and understanding too, and " bringing into captivity every thought to the Obedience of Cheist." For indeed faith is an act of Ciiristian obedience, and as much a work of the Gospel, as anything else is. And accordingly the Apostle tells us of "the obedience of faith" (Rom. xvi. 26), and our Saviour ROMANS X. 16, 17. 461 Christ Himself calls it the work of God, "This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath seat" (S. John vi. 29). John Norris. (A. Treatise of Christian Prudence. Ch. 6.) Surely if in all these places of the Old and New Testament, wherein salvation is ascribed to faith, or unto faith alone, the Apostle or Prophet had substituted obedience, instead of faith, there could have been no dangerous niisnomure : for, as the faith is, such is the obedience ; and e contra. Both terms equally imply two (the same) things necessary to salvation — First, a submission of our wills to God's will, or a readiness to do His will revealed. Secondly, when we have done as well as we can, to deny ourselves, and renounce all confidence in our best works, whether of faith or obedience. 1 S. Pet. ii. 7. Dean Jackson. (Works. B. ix. ch. v. s. 1.) The Christian's worship and works are acts of faith, and avail to his salvation ; because he does not do them, as availing. S. Matt. XXV. 37. J. H. Newman. 17 Those, who have wrote concerning the Art of Ehetorick, have been very diligent to lay down certain rules and precepts, by the careful observance of which men might so speak, as to per- suade. But, since persuasion depends much more upon the disposition of the hearers, than it doth upon the skill of the speaker, it seems very requisite that the Art of Hearing, should be as much studied, as the art of speaking ; and that rules should be proposed for the direction of men how to hear, as well as for their instruction, how to speak. "When the minds of those, who are spoken to, are rightly prepared, then less skill in the speaker will suiBce to work upon them ; but, when men's understandings are prejudiced, when their affections are cor- rupted, when their wills are biassed, then the power of elo- quence, be it never so great in itself, is wholly lost upon them ; and " they are like the deaf adder, that stoppeth his ear, which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely" (Ps. Iviii. 4, 5). That the Word of God, preached in these our days, is not so prevalent, as it was, when preached by the Apostles and Ministers of the Gospel in the first ages of the Church, is confessedly in great measure owing to the un- 462 ROMANS X. 17. skilfulness, to the infirmities, and to the defaults of those, who preach it. We do not speak, as the Apostles and first Chris- tians spoke ; and — which is still worse — we do not live, as the Apostles lived ; and therefore, though we teach the same doc- trines, which they taught, though we enforce them with the same motives, as they used, yet the Word in our mouths has not that power and efficacy, which it had in theirs. This is a truth, not to be dissembled by us without the utmost pitch of arrogauce and hypocrisy ; and, at the same time, not to be acknowledged without some shame and confusion of face : but then, on the other hand, it must also be owned, that the un- fruitfulness of our preaching is in some measure owing to the indispositions, to the inadvertencies, and to the prepossessions of those, to whom we preach. The Gospel of Christ preached by us is not heard with that gladness of mind, with that sim- plicity, with that meekness, with that reverence, with that eagerness of desire, with that purpose of improvement, with which it was heard by the first disciples of Cheist ; and for these reasons, as well as for the disabilities of the preachers thereof, it proves less effectual to the saving of souls. B^. Smalridge. (Serm. on S. Luke viii. 18.) In hearing the Word, apply every speech, as spoken to thy- self rather by GrOD, than by man ; and labour not so much to hear the word of the preacher, sounded in thine ears, as to feel the operation of the Spirit, working in thine heart. Therefore it is said so often, " Let him, that hath an ear, hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches" (Eev. ii. 7) ; and, " Did not our hearts burn within us, whilst He opened unto us the Scrip- tures ?" (S. Luke xxiv. 32.) And thus to hear the Word hath a blessing promised thereto (S. Luke xi. 28). It is the accept- ablest sacrificing ourselves to God (Rom. xv. 16). It is the surest note of Christ's Saints, the truest mark of Christ's sheep (Deut. xxxiii. 3 ; S. John x. 17), the apparentest sign of God's Elect (S. John vii. 17 ; xviii. 37), the very blood, as it were, which uniteth us to be the spiritual kindred, brethren, and sisters of the Son of God (S. Luke viii. 21 ; S. Mark iii. 33). This is the best Art of Memory for a good hearer. Bp. Baily. (Practice of Piety. Medit. 18.) ROMANS X. 17, 18. 463 Our eye is our best guide to God our Creator ; but our ear it is, that leads us to God our Redeemer, (i. 20.) Bp. Hall. 18 The sound is not only gone into all lands, but hath been heard in all ages. Before the flood, it sounded in Enoch, a Prophet (S. Jude 14), and Noah, a preacher of righteousness (2 S. Pet. ii. 5). All the Law long it sounded in them, by whom " Moses was preached every Sabbath day" (Acts xv. 21). The very beginning of the Gospel was with a sound — Vox clamantis (S. Matt, iii. 3) : and, but for this sound, S. Paul knoweth not how we should do ; How shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard ? And without a sound there is no hearing. There came a sound, but not any sound : it will not be amiss to weigh what kind of sound is expressed in the word, here used {rjxos). You know what sound an echo is; a sound at the second hand, a sound at the rebound. The Word of the Loed Cometh to us. There is the first sound "to us:" and our's (that of the preacher) but the echo, the reflection of it to you. God's, first ; and then ours, second. Tor, if it come from us directly, and not from Him to us first, and from us then to you (ecAo-wise), it is to be suspected. A sound it may be. The Holt Ghost cometh not with it : His forerunner it is not ; for, that is ^/x*"- • • • As the line^ of the Creator is said to have ffone into all lands (Ps. xix. 4) ; so is the sound of the Apostles said likewise to have gone as far : the one, to proclaim the Creation ; the other, the Redemption of the world : and so, by speaking all tongues, they have gathered a Church, that speak- eth all tongues ; a thing, much tending to the glory of God. (See 1 Thess. i. 8). £p. Andrewes. (Of the sending of the Holt Ghost. Serm. on Acts ii. 1 — 4.) See a difierence between the typical and the true Eedemptiou. The typical extended to one nation ; and Moses' Law went no farther : the true reacheth all mankind, and the Gospel must be carried as far. . . . The Apostles must be " the light of the world ;" or rather, carry the Sun of Eighteousness round about the world : and they must be " the salt of the earth," that must season all mankind, which Cheist sanctified in His Person ; ' Rule or direction. Marg. Author. Vers. 464 ROMANS X. 18. and, though by others He were called "the Son of David," yet the name, which He commonly giveth Himself, is '' the Son of man." i. 5 ; xvi. 25. Bp. Lake. (Serm. on S. Matt, xxviii. 18-20.) Have they not heard? Did not Israel know ? They, whenever heard of the interposition of Christ, may possibly derive some benefit from it on a general application, that God will be mer- ciful to them in such a manner, as He shall think proper. But of us will be required an explicit petition for that mercy, which He hath offered, in that form, which He hath directed. And if, instead of this, we will rest our cause solely on the footing of our own righteousness, or our own repentance, imperfect as we know, or easily may know, they both are ; if we refuse to ac- knowledge that efficacy in the Death of our Blessed Savioue, which He and His Apostles have ascribed to it, from what cause soever this proceeds, other than excusable mistake — whe- ther from a slight opinion of the desert of sin, from a high notion of luiman virtue, from unwillingness to confess obliga- tions, or from the mere pride of these poor shallow understand- ings of ours, claiming to know every reason that GrOD hath for His actions, while yet we know completely no one thing around us — it is a presumptuous neglect, full of guilt. And one mo- tive for making our salvation dependent on another, and the manner of His obtaining it for us incomprehensible to our- selves, might well be to check that swelling vanity of our hearts, which is the parent of almost all our sin and misery, and to teach man to " walk humbly with his God." Ahp. Seeker. (Serm. on 2 Cor. v. 21.) I hold it to be a most certain rule of interpreting Scripture, that it never speaks of persons, when there is a physical impos- sibility of its speaking to them. ... So the heathen, who died before the Word was spoken, and in whose land it has never been preached, are dead to the Word : it concerns them not at all ; but the moment it can reach them, then it is theirs, and for them, and we are bound to spread it — not from general consi- derations of their fate without it, but because Christ has com- manded us to spread it, and because we see that Christianity has the promise of both worlds, raising men's nature, and ROMANS X. 19. 465 fitting them for communion with God hereafter, revealing Him in His Son. Br. Arnold. (Life by Dr. Stanley. Letters, 65.) 19 But I say, Did not Israel know? First Moses saith, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you. 20 But Esaias is very bold, and saith, I was found of them that sought Me not ; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after Me. 21 But to Israel He saith, All day long I have stretched forth My hands unto a disobedient and gain- saying people. 19 He, that sins out of ignorance, is rather to be pitied, than punished. Is any father so cruel, so hard-hearted, as to disown and cast off his son, because he is a fool ? No ; an innocent ignorance excuses from sin, both before God and man; and God Himself will own that maxim of equity, Ignorantia excusat peccatum. But then there is another sort of ignorance, which is not an ignorance of an empty understanding, but of a de- praved heart ; such an ignorance, as does not only consist in a bare privation, but in a corrupt disposition, where the under- standing is like that sort of blind serpent's, whose blindness is attended with much venom and malignity. This was such a blindness, as struck the Sodomites : there was darkness in their eyes, and withal villany in their hearts. There is an ignorance, that could not be remedied : the Schools call it an invincible ignorance ; and this excuses from sin, and that deservedly : for this is a man's unhappiness, not his fault. But there is also an affected ignorance, such an one, as is contracted by a wilful neglect of the means ; and this is not excusing, but condemning. Such a want of understanding it was, that is here charged upon the Jews, as the sad occasion of this wilful punishment : for they had large and enriching means of grace ; the mysteries of God, the Arcana Coeli were entrusted with them, and explained to them : the fountains of this great deep of knowledge were H H 466 ROMANS X. 20. broken up before them. And in this case to be ignorant — in the midst of light to be in darkness — for an Israel to have an Egypt in a Goshen — this is highly provoking, and may justly cause GrOD to " lay hold on vengeance." ii. 17, 18 ; iii. 2. Br. South. (Serm. on Isa. xxvii. 11.) 20 The preaching of the Gospel to the Gentiles was so contrary to the general opinion of the Jews, that they thought their Messiah should only " subdue the nations," and " rule over them with a rod of iron ;" but never admit them to the same privileges with His ancient people. For many ages they were so far from entertaining the thought of such an Universal Church, that they could not endure to hear of it. S. Paul carries this Jewish aversion to the Gentiles as high, as the age of Isaiah ; for he says the prophet was vertj bold, when he de- clared that Cheist should manifest Himself and oifer His salvation to a people, who had never known God before, nor called upon His Name. S. Paul had reason to call the prophet very bold for making this declaration. Por, when this Apostle gave an account to the Jews at Jerusalem, how he was con- verted to Christianity, and came to that part of his apology, where the Loed appeared to him, and told him He would send him to preach to the Gentiles, the whole audience lifted up their voices, and said, " Away with such a fellow from the earth ; for it is not fit that he should live !" So impatient were they to hear that the Gentiles should be taken into covenant with God, and so incredulous that He should give any revelation or in- struction to that purpose. . . . Though God had revealed Him- self to the Jews in such an extraordinary manner, yet they did not make this revelation the rule of their faith and practice ; but were as atheistical in their principles and immoral in their lives, as those, who never heard of Him. And, though He was continually spreading forth His hands to them, partly as a boun- tiful Benefactor in showering down His blessings upon them and working great deliverances for them, partly, as a powerful Orator, to entreat and persuade them to leave their destructive courses and come into the way of His prescribing, wherein they should find health and salvation ; yet, under all these endearing methods, they proved a deaf, rebellious, and inflexible people. ROMANS X. 20. 467 But we must remember that these words were spoken by the Son of God : and this will lead us to observe, how He spread forth His hands to this people, in becoming like pne of them, in going about to preach, to work miracles, and to do all good offices among them. In this sort He spread forth His hands to recover "the lost sheep of the house of Israel." And, finally. He spread them forth upon the Cross ; that He might gather all the children of God, both Jews and Gentiles, into " one fold," and offer up Himself a Sacrifice for their sins, that " who- soever believeth in Him might not perish, but have everlasting life." Wm. Reading. (Sermons preached out of the First Les- sons, &c. Sixth Sunday after Epiphany.) Moses not only exhorted, but commanded the Israelites (Deut. iv. 32), that they should inquire into all antiquities, and in all parts and ends of the world, whether there were any such re- ligion, as theirs ; and that they had nothing, but Truth itself and "Wisdom itself. So that this is the first thing ; that no man do suppose, that he \idtth. found the truth, before he hath sought it : and (S. Matt. vii. 7) he, that seeJceth for it, he hath a pro- mise, that he shall find it. As there is inquisitio dubiiy so there is examinatio veri. The promise of the calling of the Gentiles, that God would \iq found of them that sought Him not is not a pattern for us in this case : but, as we are to inquire into all doubts, so are we to examine all truths. Among the pearls, that sundry shew us, and promise us that they have worthy stuff for us, we must take that course, that we can distinguish, that all those are not such pearls, as that a man should " sell all that he hath" for them ; but that we indeed have the ines- timable pearl, that the merchant found, and bought with all that he had. Hereditary religion, religion upon offence, or re- ligion upon a suddeyi — these three, at this day, occupy the greatest persons of mankind, and most of mankind : either be- cause they ai*e of Auxentius's mind. In hue fide natus sum, in hdc item moriar — " This faith was I born in, and in this will I die." So we see sundry, either to this or to the other part inclined, because it was the religion of their ancestors and of their country : this they were taught, and this they will keep. This religion findeth iis, and we find not it. Or, on the other n n 2 468 ROMANS X. 20. side ; when it is not sought, but because we find some grief and crosses in some religion ; and because we have sustained loss by it, we will be revenged of it by leaving it. And the third (that, which we find so soon, as if we should stumble on it) they go over seas, and in one or two years, they come, and have sought, and found the pearl, and are able to defend it — this is religio repentina, this is a stumbling upon religion. Now-a-days Eeve- lations are but few, or none : we must have an ordinary time, and study, and ordinary means ; and, according to them, we must address ourselves to find it : otherwise, he hath no promise. Bj), Jndrewes. (The Moral Law Expounded. Commandment i.) Nullum certius testimonium graticB, quam desiderium gratice, saith S. Bernard. The desires of Grace are sure signs of Grace ; as the rivers by secret passages come first from the sea, then by more open conveyances return thither again. S. Augustine resolves it, Fides et non petita conceditur, ut ei peteiiti alia concedantur. The first motions of grace prevent our wills, and beget our prayers ; but the after-supplies of grace are obtained by prayer. In the first gift of grace He bids Himself to us, as He did to Zacchseus ; but for after-accessions of grace He looks to be invited, ere He comes unto us. In prima conversa- tione, He knocks at our doors ; in subsequent grace, by prayer we knock at His door. " Knock, and it shall be opened unto you." " Satisfy my soul in drought, that my soul may be as a watered garden." " Oh, turn in, my Lord, turn in to me." In our first conversion, we are like the child in the womb, nourished by the navel, not by the mouth ; but afterwards, like new-born babes, we must crave and desire after spiritual nourish- ment, that we may " grow" by it (1 S. Pet. ii. 2, 3). Our Sa- TiouB expresses it in two similitudes, S. Matt. xiii. 44 : there grace is Thesaurus inventus ; 'tis like " a treasure, that a man found in the field," when he little thought of it. But then, ver. 45, Grace is Marguerita qucesita ; 'tis as a merchant, that searches for precious pearls : it costs him much pains and travel, ere he can obtain it. Peto ut accipiam, et cum accepero rursus peto : quantb plus bibero, tantb plus sitio, saith S. Jerome. Like Achsah's prayer to lier father Caleb, Terrain siccam dedistimihi ; des scaturigines aquarum (Judg. i. 15). The thirstings for grace ROMANS X. 21. 469 Thou hast given rae ; give me also the " springs" of grace and refreshings. Bp. Brownrig. (On Whitsunday. Serm. on S. Luke xi. 13.) 21 / have stretched forth My hands. As the ^natters themselves are of an excellent nature, so is the manner, wherein they are revealed in the Scriptures. ... It is (for instance) in a per- suasive and convincing manner : and that, these ways, 1. Bring- ing Divine truths down to our capacity, clothing spiritual matter in familiar expressions and similitudes ; that so they might have the easier admission into our minds. 2. Propounding things as our interest, which are our duty : thence God so frequently in Scripture recommends our duties to us under all those motives, which are wont to have the greatest force on the minds of men, and annexeth gracious promises to our performance of them ; and those, of the most weighty and concerning things— of grace, favour, protection, deliverance, audience of prayers, and eternal happiness : and, if these will not prevail with men, what mo- tives will ? 3. Courting us to obedience, when He might not only command us to obey, but punish presently for disobedience. Hence are all those most pathetical and affectionate strains we read in Scripture ; " Oh, that there were such a heart within them, that they would fear Me and keep all My commandments always, that it might go well with them and with their children after them !" " Woe unto thee, 0 Jerusalem, wilt thou not be made clean ? when shall it once be ? Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways ; for why will ye die, O house of Israel ? How shall I shall give thee up, Ephraim ? how shall I deliver thee, Israel ? how shall I make thee, as Admah ? how shall I set thee, as Zeboim ? Mine heart is turned within Me. My repentings are kindled together." " 0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!" What Ma- jesty, and yet what sweetness and condescension is there in these expressions ! What obstinacy and rebellion is it in men for them to stand out against God, when He thus comes down from His Throne of Majesty and wooes rebellious sinners to return unto Him, that they may be pardoned ! Such a match- less and unparalleled strain of rhetoric is there in the Scriptures, 470 ROMANS X. 21. far above the arts and insinuations of the most admired orators. Thus we see the peculiar excellency of the manner, wherein the matters, contained in Scripture, are revealed to us:. thus we have considered the excellency of the Scripture, as it is a dis- covery of God's mind to the world, xii. 1. Bp. Stillingjleet. (Origiues Sacrse. B. iii. ch. vi. s. 9.) Cheist comes with a blessing in each hand — forgiveness in one ; holiness in the other : and He never gives either to any, who will not take both, vi. 22. Adam. (Private Thoughts. Ch. 6.) The general method of God's proceeding with men is to treat them, as reasonable and accountable beings ; as beings, capable of judging, if they please, concerning evidence produced ; and, consequently, as answerable to God for the conduct of the un- derstanding, as well as will. In this way He dealt with the Jews. When He sent His Son into the world. He afforded suflB.cient marks of distinction, whereby He might be known to be such ; and, when this was done, the whole blame of His rejection must rest on those, whose ignorance was affected. Let us consider, that by the common principles of our nature every man is con- cerned to search after and to admit the truth ; to keep himself clear of unreasonable prejudices and prepossessions ; and to subdue those appetites and passions, which blind the under- standing, and corrupt the will. We therefore are alone ac- countable for all the ill consequences, which follow from our heedless conduct ; and God is no more concerned to force truth upon us in spite of the difficulties, which we throw in the way, than He is to overrule us in our actions, and to make us vir- tuous, whether we will or no. In both respects He is pleased to leave us in a great measure to ourselves ; without which, there would be no merit,i either in our faith or obedience : and, in ' Merit must not be understood here i better way, however, of shewing the in its legal Pharisaic sense ; but, as necessity of a free choice and a free simply denoting that good quality in I will in man may, perhaps, be found in our actions, which entitles them to [ the very nature of that service, which reward (not from their real value, as a matter of debt, but) from the un- bounded goodness of God, and His God requires of us. In order to please Him, it must not be done "of con- straint, but willingly," as the homage of strict fidelity to His promises. The a willing subject, rather than the forced ROMANS X. 21. 471 truth, to speak strictly, unless we are allowed the use of our liberty, the actions, which were thought to proceed from ua, would not be properly ours. The notion of a necessary agent seems to imply a contradiction ; the action, on this supposition, really proceeding from that cause, which imposed the necessity. The consequence must be this : to necessitate men to the per- formance of things, in themselves fit and proper, must destroy all virtue in the supposed agents, and render them incapable of objects of reward. It would be inconsistent with the moral government of God, and destroy the honour of His wisdom, as much as it could be supposed to advance the credit of His power. Bji. Comjbeare. (Serm. on S. John i. 11.) CHAPTER XI. f SAY then, hath God cast away His people ? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. submission of a slave. God is repre- sented by our great sacred poet, as sit- ting on His throne, and clearing His Justice and Wisdom from all imputa- tion, in regard to the fall of Angels and of men, in these words : " I made him just and right. Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall. Such I created all th' ethereal Powers And Spirits — both them, who stood, and them, who fail'd — Freely they stood, who stood ; and fell, who fell ; Not free, what proof could they have giv'n sincere Of true allegiance, constant faith, or love, Where only what they needs mtist do appear'd, Not what they would ? what praise could they receive ? What pleasure I from such obedience paid. Where will and Reason, (Reason also is choice). Useless and vain, of freedom both de- spoil'd. Made passive both, had served neces- sity. Not Me." (Parad. Lost. B. iii. 98—111.) 472 ROMANS XI. 1. 2 God hath not cast away His people which He foreknew. Wot ye not what the Scripture saith of Ehas ? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying, 3 Lord, they have killed Thy prophets, and digged down Thine altars ; and 1 am left alone, and they seek my life. 1 Having given God His prerogative, and the preacher his due, by shewing how he is morally instrumental to the work of the sinner's conversion, by persuading, I infer the necessity of those fore-mentioned abilities and preparations for preaching, as being the most proper means and instruments of persuasion. See this exemplified in S. Paul himself, and in him observe, when he deals with the Jews, how he endeavours to insinuate what he says, by pleading his own kindred with them, speaking ho- nourably of Abraham, and of the Law, and calling the Gospel "the Law of faith," and affirming that it did "establish the Law." All which was the true art of natural rhetoric ; thus to convey his sense under those names and notions, which he knew were highly pleasing to them. But then, on the other hand, when he would win over the Gentiles, forasmuch as there was a standing feud between them and the Jews, (the Jews, like the men here of late, for ever unsainting all the world, be- sides themselves), observe how he deals with them. He tells them of the rejection of the Jews, and the Gentiles being en- grafted in their place: and that "Abraham believed" unto justification, before he was " circumcised ;" and therefore was no less the father of the " uncircumcised" believers, than of the *' circumcised." He tells them also that the believing Gentiles were his spiritual seed ; but the Jews, as such, were only his carnal. He takes occasion also to undervalue circumcision and the Ceremonial Law, as abused by the Jews, and, in themselves, things most hateful to other nations. Now all this was hugely pleasing to the Gentiles, and therefore very apt to persuade. But, had not S. Paul been a man of learning and skill in the art and methods of rhetoric, he could not have suited such op- ROMANS XI. 1. 473 posite exhortations to such different sorts of men with so much dexterity, xv. 2. Dr. South. (Serra. on S. Matt. xiii. 52.) Let us consider what a fearful woe this is, for GrOD thus to leave a people. It is, of all other, the most comprehensive, eminently containing in it all other woes ; as God's presence doth all other comforts. This is the most comprehensive promise in the Co- venant of grace ; " I will be their God :" and this the most comprehensive threatening ; " I will depart. I will love them no more." The Apostle calls it " wrath to the uttermost" (1 Thess. ii. 16). The Prophet wants words to express it, and veils it over with this black and dismal introduction ; " Thus will I do unto thee" (Amos iv. 12). When they scornfully asked the prophets, what burden they had from the Loed to deliver uuto them, the Loed gives them this, as a burden of burdens, a curse of curses ; " I will forsake you, saith the Loed" (Jer. xxiii, 33). It cuts off our relation uuto God (Hos. i. 9), and our communion with Him (Job xxi. 14 : Isa. xxx. 11) ; it cuts off the glory and renown of a people (Deut. iv. 6 ; Isa. xliii. 4) ; together with the comfort of all our enjoyments (Eccl. V. 13, 17 ; Isa. 1. 11) : it seals us up under wrath and judgment (1 Sam. xxviii. 15 ; Zech. v. 8) : it shuts out our prayers (Prov. i. 28 ; Jer, xi. 14 ; Ezek. viii. 18) together with the prayers of holy men for us (Jer. vii. 16 ; xv. 50 ; Ezek. xiv. 14) : it opens an inlet for all other miseries and troubles, and, as in Noah's flood, " breaks up the fountains of the great deep." (Deut. xxxi. 17.) Bp. Reynolds. (The Misery of a Deserted People. Serm. on Hos. ix. 12.) God forbid ! A manner of speech familiar and almost peculiar to S. Paul, frequently employed by him in his writings, thrice in this Epistle to the Galatians ; never, but when he intends with a particular degree of earnestness and vehemence to condemn some doctrine or practice, imputed to Christians or prevailing among them, by which he thought Christianity highly dishon- oured. In such cases, it is usual with him to express his dis- like, his detestation of such doctrine or practice, by this em- phatical phrase yti?) ^eVotTo, which we translate God forbid ! iii. 4, 31 ; vi. 15 ; vii. 7 ; ix. 14. Bp. Atterburij. (Serm. on Gal. vi. 14.) 474 ROMANS XI. 2. 2 We cannot argue from God's absolute promise of eternal life in Cubist to the absolute salvation of particular persons. God absolutely determined, that Cheist should be born, suffer, and die for the salvation of mankind, and that all those, who be- lieve in Him and obey Him, shall be saved ; but we nowhere read, that He has determined, that this or that person shall be saved. God made an absolute promise that Israel should enter the promised land, and He made it, before the Israelites quitted Egypt ; yet only two of that generation really entered it : the rest fell in the wilderness. Yet, there was no unfaithfulness in God. The promise was absolute, as to the event of their entrance into Canaan, and conditional, as to the persons, of whom Israel was composed. They were disobedient, and so fell ; and their children enjoyed the promise. The same sort of conditional promise seems to me to apply to all God's deal- ings with the Jews. There are many very strong assurances of their restoration to their own land. Partially they were restored, and, had the people been obedient, God would have fulfilled His promise to the letter ; but they were disobedient, and so the Covenant was changed ; and, after the crucifixion of Cheist the Lokd of Glory, the whole promise was changed, and turned into a spiritual promise to the true Israel of God. And you will find, that, though there are several intimations of the conversion of the Jews, there is not a word in the New Testament, that I know of, which intimates their return now to their own land, as a nation. This silence is remarkable, because it seems to strengthen the view I have been proposing. The conversion of Israel seems an absolute promise — God hath con- cluded all in unbelief, that He might have mercy upon all. The restoration of the Jewish nation to temporal privileges was a conditional promise, and is not renewed under the charter of the New Testament dispensation. If it be objected, that this notion of conditional promises leaves us, after all, in a state of painful doubt and uncertainty, I answer, that the objection goes further, and applies to the whole state of trial and probation, in which Golf's providence has placed us, and which must be, as long as it continues, a state of uncertainty, although of hope. Bp. Medley. (Serm. on Gal. iii. 17.) ROMANS XI. 3. 475 3 When religious persons look at the wickedness of the times, the general corruption of the world, the infidelity of the age, or the failings and infirmities of their brethren, tlrey are too apt to condemn all, but themselves : /, even I (1 Kings xix. 10) is the sentence they pass on their own goodness, when they make the comparison between others and themselves. This is a dan- gerous liberty, which the best of men, though holy as tlie great Elijah, ought to be aware of, and avoid. This made S. Augus- tine say, " Take away this pride : be not worse, than the very wickedness you blame : say not, I alone''' (Noli solum te dicere). And the Saint tells us, " There is but one remedy against this secret self-justification ; and that is, not to entertain any dis- advantageous sentiments of our brethren, but rather to look into ourselves, and strive to be what we wish in others : and then we shall not so much think of their being what we are not." (Aug. in Ps. xxx.) It is indeed a virtue to be singular, when the service of God is grown out of fashion ; but it is a vice to reflect on it, as a virtue peculiar to ourselves. The Gospel-spirit is more candid and ingenuous, than the Law. Hence it is, that we find S. Paul (the greater S. Paul) say. Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not, &c. Let us not judye one another any more." (xiv. 3.) And elsewhere he saith, " Yea, I judge not mine own self," &c. (1 Cor. iv. 3.) But " forgetting those things which are -behind, and reaching forth unto those things that are before, I press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil, iii. 13, 14). "Let us, therefore, as many as be perfect," (or who think themselves so,) " be thus minded," as he advises, ver. 15. xii. 16. TVoyan. (Essay on the Proper Lessons, &c. Ninth Sunday after Trinity.) 4 But what saith the answer of God unto him ? I have reserved to Myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. 5 Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. 6 And if by grace, then is it no more of works : 476 ROMANS XI. 4. otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace : otherwise work is no more work. 4 GrOD hath ever had, and shall have, some Church visible upon earth. When the people of God worshipped the calf in the wilderness, when they adored the brazen serpent, when they served the gods of nations, when they bowed their knees to Baal, when they burnt incense and offered sacrifice unto idols — true it is, the wrath of God was most fiercely inflamed against them : their prophets justly condemned them, as an adulterous seed, and a wicked generation of miscreants, which had for- saken the living God, and of Him were likewise forsaken, in respect of that singular mercy, wherewith He kindly and lov- ingly embraced His faithful children. Howbeit, retaining the Law, and the holy seal of His Covenant, (ix. 4, 5) the sheep of His visible flock they continued, even in the depth of their dis- obedience and rebellion. Wherefore, not only amongst them God always had His Church, because He had thousands which had never bowed the knee to Baal ; but, whose knees were bowed unto Baal, even they were also of the visible Church of God. Nor did the Prophet so complain, as of that Church that had been quite and clean extinguished, but he took it, as though there had not been remaining in the world any, besides himself, that carried a true and an upright heart towards God, with a care to serve Him, according to His holy will. For lack of diligent observing the difference, first, between the Church of God mystical and visible ; then, between the visible, sound and corrupted, sometimes more, sometimes less ; the oversights are neither few nor light, that have been committed. Hooker. (Eccl. Pol. B. iii. ch. 1. s. 8, 9.) Thou art deceived, 0 ! Elijah. Thou art not left alone : neither is all Israel tainted. God hath children and prophets in Israel, though thou see them not. Those clear eyes of the Seer dis- cern not the secret story of God. They looked not into Oba- diah's caves ; they looked not into the closets of the religious Israelites. He, that sees the heart, can say, I have left Me ROMANS XI. 4, 5. 477 seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him. According to the fashion of the wealthy, God pleaseth Himself in hidden treasures. It is enough that His own eyes behold His riches. Never did He, never will He, leave Himself unfurnished with holy clients in the midst of the foulest depravations of His Church. The sight of His faithful ones hath sometimes been lost ; never, the being. Do your worst, 0 ! ye gates of Hell : God will have " His own." He, that could have more, will have some. That foundation is sure, " God knoweth who are His." It was a true cordial for Elijah's solitariness, that he had seven thousand invisible abettors : neither is it a small com- fort to our weakness to have companions in good. Bp. Hull. (Contemplations on the Old Testament. B. xviii. 8.) Cheist was Cheist to a believing Jew, before His coming, as well as now to a Christian ; nay, the faith of a Jew seems to have been of a more excellent kind, as it had a thicker vail to penetrate through. Adam. (Private Thoughts on Eeligion. Ch. 6.) 5 I consider that the word remnant, so constantly used in Scrip- ture, is the token of the identity of the Church in the mind of her Divine Creator, before and after the coming of Cheist. Express and precise as are the Sacred writers in declaring that the Gentiles shall be called, and again that the Jews, as a body, shall be rejected ; still, instead of stating the solemn appoint- ment of God in a simple contrast, like this, and thus drawing a line of demarcation between His two Dispensations, they are accustomed to speak of the remnant of Israel, inheriting the Gentiles ; as if to make the Law run into the Gospel, and to teach us, as S. Paul expressly inculcates, that the promises made to Israel are really accomplished, without any evasion, in the Divine protection accorded to Christians. /. H. Newman. (The Christian Church a Continuation of the Jewish. Serm. on Isa. xxxvii. 31.) This is a summary of the declaration of the Prophets. . . . While foretelling His mercies in Cheist, God foi-etells also, that " few they be that find" them. It is evermore a remnant, a residue, a body, which escapes. All prophecy echoes the words of Joel 478 ROMANS XI. 5. (ii. 32). All history exemplifies thera. Isaiah, Mieah, Zepha- niah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Zeehariah, all foretell with one voice that a remnant, and a remnant only, shall be left. In those earlier dispensations of God, in the flood, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha, in His dealings with Israel himself at the entrance of the promised land, the return from the cap- tivity, the first preaching of the Gospel, the destruction of Je- rusalem, a remnant only was saved. It is said, in tones of com- passion and mercy, that a remnant should be saved. [See Isa. x. 20—22 ; vi. 9—13, &c. ; xxviii. 5 ; xi. 11, 16 ; Jer. xxiii. 3 ; xxxi. 7 ; Ezek. vi. 8 ; xiv. 22 ; Micah iii. 12 ; iv. 7 ; v. 3, 7, 8 ; vii. 18 ; Zeph. iii. 13 ; ii. 9 ; Zech. xiv, 2.] Br. Pusey. (Com- ment, on the Minor Prophets. Joel ii. 32.) That, which in the time of the ancient Fathers, was accounted to be truly and properly Catholic, namely that, which was believed everywhere, always, and by all — that in the succeeding ages hath evermore been preserved ; and is at this day entirely professed in our Church. And it is well observed by a learned man, who hath written a full discourse of this argument, that whatso- ever the father of lies either hath attempted or shall attempt, yet neither hath he hitherto efi"ected, nor shall ever bring it to pass hereafter, that this Catholic doctrine, ratified by the com- mon consent of Christians always and everywhere, should be abolished ; but that, in the thickest mist rather of the most perplexed troubles, it still obtained victory, both in the minds and open confession of all Christians, no ways overturned in the foundation thereof ; and that in this verity that One Church of Christ was preserved in the midst of the tempests of the most cruel winter, or in the thickest darkness of her wanings. . . . Now these common principles of the Christian faith, which we call KoiuoTTiffTa, or things generally believed of all, as they have " Universality," and "Antiquity," and "Consent," con- curring with them, (which by Vincentius's rule are the special characters of that, which is truly and properly Catholic), so, for their duration, we are sure, that they have still held out and been kept, as the seminary of the Catholic Church, in the darkest and the difiicultest times, that have ever been ; where, if the Lord of Hosts had not in His mercy reserved this seed unto ROMANS XI. 6. 479 US, we sliould long since have been as Sodom and should have been like unto Gomorrah (ix. 29). It cannot be denied indeed, that Satan and his instruments have used their 'utmost endea- vour, either to hide this light from men's eyes by keeping them in gross ignorance, or to deprave it by bringing in pernicious heresies ; and that in these latter ages they have much prevailed both vrays, as well in the west and north, as in the east and south. Yet far be it, for all this, for any man to think, that God should so cast away His people, that in those times there should not be left a remnant according to the election of grace. Abp. Ussher. (Serm. preached before the King on Eph. iv. 13.) 6 Grace is a free gift : it is such a gift, as can neither be deserved beforehand, nor be requited, after it is received. Between men there pass three sorts of gifts. The first is Salarium ; where a man giveth that, which another hath earned : of which the rule is, " the labourer is worthy of his hire." Such a gift grace is not : for, though God impose works upon us, yet they are not, as they ought, done by any of us. Adam failed ; much more do we : we can claim no salary. The second kind of gift is Honorai'ium : it is such a gift, as testifieth the inferior's reverent regard for his superior's eminency ; such a gift grace is not : for, if the Angel's light be darkness in comparison of God, and their perfection is imperfection (as Job teacheth), how vile and base is man, who is but dust and worm's meat ? There is no- thing, which God should honour iu him. The third gift is Eleemosynarium, the alms, which the rich give to the poor : this comes nearest to the nature of grace, and yet it comes far short of it. Por the rich are bound to relieve the poor, partly by God's Law, and partly out of a consideration reflecting upon themselves ; be they never so rich, they may become poor, and stand in need of the same relief, which they afford to others. But God is bound to none : neither can He possibly need the help of any. Therefore His gift, and only His, is properly Grace, and comes within S. Augustine's definition, that tells us, that Non est Gratia ullo modo, si non sit ornni modo gratuita — no gift deserves the name of Grace, except it be absolutely free : and such are God's gifts. The more we are indebted, if we received them, and the less proud should we be : for whereof 480 ROMANS XI. 6. should we be proud, whose tenure is altogether ^wra et perpetua Eleemosyna ; mere alius, and the most free charity of God ? vi. 23. Bp. Lake. (Serm. on Eph. iv. 7, 8.) God's Grace hath no dependence out of God's self, but solely and wholly relieth on God's pleasure. For how shall the effect father his own cause ? All grace in man doth issue from grace in God ; which therefore cannot rise from aught in man. God's will is the womb, that first conceived it : His Beneplacitum be- gat it first, and as the prima matrix ; so it is the prima matrix, the first mover of God's mercy. Grace then is free. It is S. Augustine's speech, Gratia, si nou est gratis, non est Gratia. Grace is no debt. God owes it not. Wrath is a debt ; o06t\o- fiilvT} oprjij : but grace is no debt ; ovk o0et\o/t6V?; aroprjri, saith S. Basil. And it seems that S. Augustine hath translated it ; for he calls poenam debitam, but gratiam indebitam. Death is a pain : God owes us that ; but life is a favour ; and God owes not it ; Exercet debitam severitatem, exhibet indebitam pietatem, saith the same father. Salvation is like the rain : God sends it freely. It costs no price, no pains : man buys it not ; man earns it not. We have it dwpeav, saith the Apostle (iii. 24), that is of gift : and what is freer than gift ? . . . Death is ocpeiXrj/na, a debt to sin ; but life is xdpto-^ta, a frank and free favour, not mer- ces operantis, saith S. Ambrose, but munus largientis ; not a wages, but a largess. Br. Richd. Gierke. (Serm. on Titus ii. 11.) 7 What then ? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for ; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded, 8 (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear ;) unto this day. 9 And David saith. Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumbling-block, and a recompence unto them : 10 Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back alway. ROMANS XI. 7. 481 There is so long a time of tiie exclusion of the Jews — so few of them do come in, since Cheist came into the.world — as that we may with S. Augustine interpret that place in Genesis, where Abraham's seed is compared both to " the stars of hea- ven," and to "the dust of the earth," that "the stars of heaven" signify those, that shall be saved in heaven, and "the dust of the earth" those, that perish : and the dust of the earth may be more than the Stars of heaven ; though (by the way) there are an infinite number of stars more than we can distin- guish ; and so, by God's grace, there may be an infinite number of souls saved more than those, of whose salvation we discern the ways and the means Even those places, which are ordinarily understood of the paucity of the Jews, that shall be saved, will receive a charitable interpretation and extension. God says in Jeremiah (iii. 17), " I will take you one out of a city and two out of a family ;" yet He says. He will do this therefore, " because He is married to them ;" so that this seems to be an act of His love : and therefore I had rather take it that God would take a particular care of them, " one by one," than that He would take in " one and one :" as it is in that place of Isaiah, "In that day ye shall be gathered one by- one, 0 ye children of Israel" (xxvii. 12) ; that is, in the day of Cheist, of His coming to and toward judgment. Howsoever they came in thinly yet by the way, yet the Apostle pleads in their behalf thus ; Hath God cast away His jteople ? God for- bid ! At this present, says he, there is a remnant. Then, when they had newly crucified Cheist, God had a care of them. God hath given them the spirit of slumber, says he also : it is but slumber ; not a death, not a dead sleep. Have they stumbled that they should fall ? Fall utterly ? God forbid ! But, says he, as concerning the Gospel they are enemies for your sokes ; that is, that room might be made for you the Gentiles; but «■$. touching Election they are beloved for their Fathers'' sokes ; that is, they have interest by an ancient title, which God will never disannul. And therefore a great part of the ancient, and later men, too, interpret divers passages in S. Paul of a general salvation of the Jews, that all shall be effectually wrought upon to salvation before the second coming of Cheist. Br. Donne, (Serm. on Rev. vii. 9.) I I 482 ROMANS XI. 7, 8. Blindness of mind is of divers sorts. The eye of the body is sub- ject to manifold distempera, that hinder the sight. So is like- wise the eye of our soul. We will reduce them all to a three- fold blindness : 1. Ccecitas natures There is a film of ignorance over our minds by nature, which makes us unapprehen- sive of spiritual truths (1 Cor. ii. 14). 2. Ccecitas voluntaria, a willing, voluntary, affected blindness, when men close up their eyes, refuse to look out, and behold the light of saving truth (Isa. xxvi. 30 ; 2 S. Pet. iii. 5 ; Job xx. 14). ... 3. Ccecitas in- flicta, an inflicted blindness, when men are struck blind ; and this follows upon the former. Voluntary blindness brings penal blindness (S. John xii. 39). . . . This spiritual blindness is, as S. Augustine observes, both peccatum, and pcena et causa peccati. . . . Now the sinfulness of it belongs to us and Satan : God only orders the penal respect of it : but yet neither doth He actually and really blind men's eyes, or harden men's hearts. God begets not, nor infuses any such wicked dispositions in us. He is said to blind men ; 1. non illuminando, because He doth not enlighten them (Deut. xxix. 4) ; 2. tollendo lucem, by de- priving them of that light, which He afforded them, and they abused (S. John xii. 35) : 3. occasiones ministrando, by a holy and wise administration of occasions, which wicked men abuse to their own further blindness (Ps. Ixix. 23). . . . Lastly, 4. tradendo seductoribus, by forsaking them, and giving them over to deluders, impostors, and spirits of error. (Hos. ix. 7 ; Ezek. xiv.) ... So He gave over Ahab to lying spirits ; Saul, to an evil spirit. Thus God may be said to blind men. Bp. Brownrig, (Serm. on 2 Cor. iv. 3, 4.) 8 The case, that is represented (Isa. vi. 9, 10), all desperate cases refer to. And He said. Go, tell this people. Hear ye in- deed, but understand not ; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed. All desperate cases refer to this : every one of the four Evan- gelists relate, that our Savioue refers cases to it. It is re- ferred to in the Acts of the Apostles (xxviii. 26, 27), and in the Eomans (xi. 8). Here (Ps. xxxix. 11) it is in the first ROMANS XI. 9. 483 copy, and all after-instances are after this example. When men dally in religion, dissemble with God, give God high offence provoke and exasperate Him to displeasure by their trifling, hypocrisy, dissimulation, and irreligion, then it comes to the case, which is represented in the Prophet Isaiah. . . . And it is reasonable, that God should recompense spiritual sins by spiritual judgments : and these are — a reprobate state, a seared conscience, a blinded understanding ; and that is the worst condition ; for this man is remotest from repentance ; and re- pentance is the recovery. Or else, that they be under the dreadful and fearful apprehensions of an illuminated and mis- giving mind ; and so upon a continual rack and torture. Now these mental judgments have a peculiarity to the Visible Church, and are much more within the compass of the Visible Church, than in the wilderness of the world. Br. Whichcote. (The Se- cret Blasting of men. Serm. on Ps. xxxix. 11.) 9 The fall of man brought a pollution upon the creatures, a curse upon the stone and timber of a man's house, a snare upon his table, a poison and bitterness upon his meat, distractions and terrors upon his bed, emptiness and vexation upon all his estate ; which cleaves as fast thereunto, as blackness to the skin of an Ethiopian, or sin to the soul of man. Por all the creatures of God are by sin mischievously converted into the instruments and provisions of lust — the sun and all the glorious lights of nature, but instruments to serve the pride, covetousness, adul- tery, vanity of a lustful eye ; all the delicacies, which the earth, air, or sea can afford, but materials to feed the luxury and in- temperance of a lustful body ; all the honours and promotions of the world, but fuel to satisfy the haughtiness and ambition of a lustful heart. That "Word then, which can fetch out this leprosy from the creatures, and put life, strength, and comfort into them again, must needs be Virga virtutis, '* a rod of strength." viii. 20 ; xiv. 23. Bp. Reynolds. (An Exposition of Ps. ex.) Their bread (of ungodly rich men, S. James v. 2) is kneaded up with a curse, aud their wiue mingled and tempered with a curse : there is poison in their meat, and death in their physic : their table is their snare, their estate their fetters ; and whatsoever I I 2 484 ROMANS XI. 10. should have been for their welfare proves only a gin and a trap to them : for the wrath of God is one direful ingredient of all they possess. Bp. Hopkins. 10 At Ps. Ixix. 22, beginneth a prediction of those dreadful judg- ments, which heaven has since inflicted upon the crucifiers of " the LoED of Glory," . . . Hcec non optando sunt dicta, writes S. Augustine, sed optandi specie, prophetando ; these things are not said by way of wishing, but under the shew or scheme of wishing, by prophecy. . . . By " their table becoming a snare and their peace-offerings a trap," (Heb.) is pointed out the con- sequence of the Jews adhering to the legal services in opposi- tion to Him, who is " the end of the Law for righteousness." After His sufferings and exaltation to continue under the Law became not only unprofitable, but destructive ; inasmuch as it implied a denial of the Messiah's advent, and a renunciation of every Evangelical benefit and blessing. The religion of God's own appointment was an abomination to Him, when reduced to a form of godliness deserted by its power. Christians, who pride themselves in one, while they deny and deride the other, would do well to consider this. Ver. 23. They, who loved darkness rather than light, by the righteous judgment of God were permitted to walk on in darkness, while the blind led the blind. And such still continues to be the state of the Jews, notwithstanding that intolerable weight of woe, which made "their loins to shake," and bowed down their back to the earth. " The veil remaineth yet upon their hearts, in the reading of the Old Testament," nor can they see therein " the things, which belong to their peace," Bp. Home. (Comment, on Ps. Ixix. 22, 23.) The Jews yet live, and are known : they have their Law and lan- guage, bearing witness to them, and they to it ; they are cir- cumcised to this day, and expect the promises of the Scripture : their country also is known ; the places and rivers travelled unto, and frequented by others, but to them an impenetrable rock, an inaccessible desert. Wherefore, if the Jews live, all the great wonders of old live in them : and then, who can deny the stretched-out arm of a mighty God ? especially, since it may be a just doubt, whether, considering the stubbornness of ROMANS XI. 11. 485 the nation, their living then iu their country under so many miracles, were a stranger thing, than their present exile, and disability to live in their country. And it is ' observable this very thing was intended by God, that the Jews should be His proof and " witnesses," as He calls them (Isa. sliii. 12) ; and their very dispersion in all lands was intended not only for a punishment to them, but for an exciting of others by their sight to the acknowledging of GrOD and His power (Ps. lix. 11) : and, therefore, this kind of punishment was chosen, rather than the other. G. Herbert. (A Priest to the Temple, &c. Ch. 34.) Ill say then, Have they stuaibled that they should fall ? God forbid : but rather through their fall sal- vation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy. 12 Now if the fall of them he the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles ; how much more their fulness ? 13 For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the Apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office : 14 If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them. 15 For if the casting away of them he the recon- ciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them hey but life from the dead ? 11 After the Jewish nation had obstinately rejected the Messiah, rebelled against His authority, and in opposition to His Reli- gion maintained that the perpetual observance of the Mosaic ritual was an indispensable condition of Divine acceptance, and their own nation exclusively the people of God, it was indis- pensably necessary to put an end to their national establish- ment, and to destroy that Temple, with which the observance of their ritual was essentially connected ; in order to maintain 486 ROMANS XL 11, 12. the universal Sovereignty of the Messiah, in opposition to their rebellion, as well as to prevent all possibility of corrupting Christianity by the adoption of their errors, and of their now burdensome because useless ceremonies. Whoever observes the struggles of the Judaizing Christians thus to encumber the Eeligion of Christ, and the extreme difficulty, with which their efforts were resisted, even by direct B/Cvelation and Apos- tolic authority, in the very first and purest era of the Church, will easily perceive the necessity of this precaution, to preserve the purity and extend the dominion of the Gospel ; and that, in this view, through the fall of the Jews, salvation is come unto the Grentiles. Bean Graves. (Lectures on the four last Books of the Pentateuch. Part iii. Lect. 6.) Sem was the father of the Jews, and Japheth of the Gen- tiles : and God hath seated Japheth in the tents of Sem (Gen. ix. 27), hath joined both their seeds into one Church. . . . Nay, the Jews are cast off, and the Gentiles are made Israel. ... It was, before, the dispersion of the Gentiles (S. John vii. 35) ; but, after it, came the dispersion of the tribes, the dispersion of the Jews. . . . Christ's back upon the Cross was turned to- wards Jerusalem, as forsaking the Jews ; and His face towards the west, as then coming to the Gentiles. . . . The dew was first only on the fleece, and not on the ground ; but after, on the ground, and not on the fleece. The Jews are the fleece, the Gentiles are the ground, and the dew is grace, saith Theo- doret. T/30X0V r^eveaews:, the wheel of the world (S. James iii. 6), is turned quite contrary. The sun long since is set in the east, and risen in the west. Dr. Richard Gierke. (Serm. on S. Luke ii. 32.) 12 The monuments of sin and unbelief are set up around us. The casting away of the Jews was the reconciling of the Gen- tiles. The fall of one nation is the conversion of another. The Church loses old branches, and gains new. God works, ac- cording to His own inscrutable pleasure. He has left the east, and manifested Himself westward. Thus the Christian of every age is but the successor of the lost and of the dead. How long we of this country shall be put in trust with the Gospel, we know not ; but, while we have the privilege, as- ROMANS XI. 13. 487 auredly we do but stand in the place of Christians, who have either utterly fallen away, or are so corrupted, as scarcely to let their light shine before men. We are, at pfeseut, witnesses of the Truth, and our very glory is our warning. By the su- perstitious, the profanities, the indifierence, the unbelief of the world, called Christian, we are called upon to be lowly minded, while we preach aloud, and to tremble, while we rejoice. Let us then, as a Church and as individuals, one and all, look to Him, who alone can " keep us from falling." Let us with single heart look up to Christ our Savioue, and put ourselves into His hands, from whom all our strength and wisdom is de- rived. Let us avoid the beginnings of temptation: let us watch and pray, lest we enter into it. Avoiding all speculations, which are above us, let us follow what tends to edifying. Let us receive into our hearts the great truth, that we, who have been freely accepted and sanctified, as members of Christ, shall hereafter be judged by our works, done in and through Him ; that the Sacraments unite us to Him ; and that faith makes the Sacraments open their hidden virtue, and flow forth in pardon and grace. Beydnd this we may not inquire, how it is, one man perseveres, and another falls ; what are the exact limits and character of our natural corruption : these are over- subtle questions, while we know, for certain, that, though we can do nothing of ourselves, yet that salvation is in our own power : for, however deep and far-spreading is the root of evil in us, God's Grace will be sufficient for our need. J. H. New- man. (The Feast of S. Matthias the Apostle. Serm. on Rev. iii. 11.) 13 S. Paul, although as having an immediate calling from Christ to the office of Apostolate, at large calls himself " the Apostle of Jesus Christ ;" yet, when he was sent to preach to the Gentiles, by the particular direction indeed of the Holt Ghost, but by human constitution and imposition of hands (Acts xiii. 2, 3), in relation to that part of his office and his cure of the uncircumcision, he limits his Apostolate to his diocese, and calls himself the Apostle of the Gentiles ; as S. Peter, for the same reason, and in the same modification, is called " the Apostle of those, who were of the Circumcision." xv. 16. Bp. J. 488 ROMANS XI. 13, 14. Taylor. (Of the Sacred Order and Offices of Episcopacy, s. 4.) S. Paul had never preached to the Colossians, never seen them. Epaphras had laid the foundation amongst them, and Archippus was working at the upper building. Epaphras had planted; Archippus watered. How entered S. Paul ? Eirst, as an Apostle, he had a general jurisdiction and superintendency over them, and over all the Grentiles, and over all the Church ;i and then, as a man, whose miraculous conversion, and religious con- versation, whose incessant preaching, and whose constant suf- fering, had made famous and reverent over the whole Church of God, all, that proceeded from him, had much authority and power in all places, to which it was directed. As himself says of Andronicus and Junia his kinsmen, that they were nobiles in Apostolis, nobly spoken of among the Apostles (xvi. 7). So S. Paul himself was nobilis Apostolus in discipulis, reverently esteemed among all the disciples for a laborious Apostle. Dr. Bonne. (Serm. on Col. i. 21.) 14 The Jewish people are rejected, because they refused to re- ceive salvation through Christ, and to lay aside their dependance on the Mosaic Law ; but those are not cast away, who (as the converts S. Paul was addressing) have embraced justification by faith, which is of grace, and not of works. The question then, that remains, is this — Who are the foreknown ? what is the na- ture of their election ? We shall soon find reason to conclude, that the Apostle used this word according to the association, invariably united with it in his mind and in the ideas of all the Jews, not in the technical sense, which it has derived from theological disputes ; but to signify those, who enjoyed the favour of God, an honour, which was formerly common to all the nation, as " an elect people," " a holy nation ;" but was now proper to those alone, who received the faith of Cheist, and with them was common to the converted Gentiles. Eor, if we proceed a few verses onward, we fi.ud him expressing his ' It may be noticed, that it is to the fact of S. Paul's special call and mission to be the Apostle of the Gen- tiles, that we are probably indebted to him, under God, for this Epistle. But for that call and mission, it may be doubted, whether he possessed the authority thus to address them. ROMANS XI. 11. 489 earnest desire to excite his countrymen to join themselves to this "election." Now, if the remnant according to the election of grace were already known and elected, and Ike rest hlinded by the refusal of efficacious grace, S. Paul must have been aware that there was no room left to excite others by the example of Gentile converts, and no hope of any, but those already chosen, being saved, x. 1. Ahp. Sumner. (Apostolical Preaching Considered, &c. Ch. ii. Part 2.) Examples provoke emulation, which is another strong spring of activity, moving us earnestly to desire (and thence eagerly to pursue) whatever good privilege, or advantage, we see another to enjoy. To observe another, of the same nature and capa- cities with ourselves, to have shone with an illustrious virtue, to be consecrated to posterity by a lasting fame, and to be crowned with glorious rewards above — what other reflections of thought can it produce in us than such, as these ; " Shall he, a man like myself, endued with the same faculties, appetites, and passions, subject to the same infirmities, temptations, needs, cares, and incumbrances of life, shall he by aioble dispositions of soul and worthy performances render himself highly consider- able, while I by sordid qualities and unworthy practices debase and render myself despicable ? Shall he leave behind him mo- numents of eternal praise, while I do nothing worthy of regard or memory ? Shall he enjoy the favour of the great God and the comforts of a blessed Eternity ; but I be wholly deprived of that joyful estate, and plunged into endless sorrow and des- perate misery ? . . . Why shall not I become as good, as com- mendable, as happy, as any other man ?" . . . S. Paul em- ployed this passion of emulation, as an engine for the conversion of his dear countrymen, whom, by raising in them a jealousy of being outstripped (in God's favour and its effects) by the Gentiles, he endeavoureth to provoke to the embracing of the Christian faith. I speak to you Gentiles, he saith, inasmuch as I am the Apostle of the Gentiles : I magnify my office, if by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them. And S. James instigateth us unto fervency of prayer by minding us, that " Elias was a man of 4ike passions with ourselves" (v. 17) ; yet was able by his 490 ROMANS XI. 15. prayers to shut and open Heaven, to procure barrenness and fertility to the earth. And the Apostle to the Hebrews chargeth us to " consider one another, e