Romans

Chapter 1

Ver. 1. Paul] A little man, it should seem by his name (such as was James the Less, #Mr 15:40): but as the Church of Philadelphia (discommended for nothing), though she had but a little strength, yet had a great door set open; and as Bethlehem was the least, and yet not the least among the princes of Judah; so was this apostle the last, #1Co 15:8 (and perhaps the least in stature), as one born out of due time. {a} But God (who loves to be maximus in minimis the greatest in the least) had designed him to great services, and gifted him accordingly, so that he was no whit behind the very chiefest of the apostles, #2Co 11:5; and for painstaking, he laboured more abundantly than they all, #1Co 15:10. Hence Chrysostom calleth him insatiabilem Dei cultorem, an insatiable servant of Christ. And himself seems as insatiable a praiser of this apostle (the apostle he commonly nameth him "by an excellency"), for he hath written eight homilies in his commendation. And if any think he hath said too much, it is because either they have not read him, or cannot judge his worth. Qui tricubitalis caelos transcendit (as the same father saith), little though he were, yet he got above the heavens. {b}

A servant of Jesus Christ] This is a higher title than monarch of the world, as Numa, second king of Rome, could say. {c} Constantinus, Valentinus, and Theodosius, three emperors, called themselves Vasallos Christi, the vassals of Christ, as Socrates reporteth.

{a} {See Trapp on "Ac 13:9"} #Re 3:9 Mt 2:6 cf. Mic 5:2 1Co 15:8.

{b} Grandior solet esse Deus in parvulis quam in magnis. In formicis maior anima quam in elephantis, in nanis quam in gigantibus. Aut illum non audierunt, aut iudicare non possunt, ut olim de Crasso et Antonio dixit. Cicero de Orat.

{c} του θεου υπηρεσιαν βασιλευειν ενομιζεν. Plut.

Ver. 2. Promised] Foreshowed and foreshadowed in the types of the ceremonial law (which was their gospel, it was Christ in figure), and in the writings of the prophets; only by degrees and piecemeal, πολυμερως. God spake of old to our fathers, by his servants the prophets, #Heb 1:1. All was in riddles to what it is now; and that saying took place, Et latet, et lucet. It is close, and yet clear.

Ver. 3. Concerning his Son] Here is a lofty and lively description of Christ’s sacred person. The whole Epistle being the confession of our Churches, as Melancthon calleth it, who therefore went over it ten different times in his ordinary lectures (Scultet. Annal.): the Epistle being such, as never can any man possibly think, speak, or write sufficiently of its worth and excellency. Mr Perkins adviseth, in reading the Scripture, first to begin with the Gospel of John, and this Epistle to the Romans, as being the keys of the New Testament. And for this Epistle to the Romans, Cardinal Pole adviseth to begin at the twelfth chapter, and read to the end; and practise the precepts of repentance and mortification, and then set upon the former part of the Epistle, where justification and predestination are handled.

According to the flesh] i.e. Either his body or his human nature, called a swift cloud (as some will have it), #Isa 19:1 "Behold, the Lord rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt." And the habitable part of God’s earth, #Pr 8:31. For the Word dwelt among us, #Joh 1:14. And here was habitatio Dei cum carne, God dwelling with flesh, which the magicians held impossible, #Da 2:11. It was much for God to "pour out his Spirit upon all flesh," the best thing upon the basest, #Joe 2:28. But it was more, for the fulness of the Godhead bodily to inhabit it, #Col 2:9. {See Trapp on "1Co 1:2"} St Paul seems to have learned of the holy angels, thus to salute, #Lu 2:14. {See Trapp on "Lu 2:14"}

Ver. 4. Declared to be, &c.] Gr. ορισθεντος, defined; for definitions explain obscurities.

With power] For, Superas evadere ad auras, Hic labor, hoc opus est -a work befitting a God. See #Eph 1:20. {See Trapp on "Eph 1:20"}

The Spirit of holiness] The divine essence of Christ, #2Co 13:4, which sanctifieth the human nature assumed by him.

Ver. 5. For obedience to the faith] That is, to the gospel (that doctrine of faith), or to Christ, who is often put for faith (whereof he is the proper object) in this Epistle. "Kiss the Son," &c. "Hear him," #Ps 2:12 Mt 17:5.

Ver. 6. Ye are the called] With a high and heavenly calling, #Heb 3:1. {See Trapp on "Heb 3:1"}

Ver. 7. Called to be saints] Those then that are called, are saints while alive, and not only those that are canonized by the pope after they are dead in numerum Deorum ab Ecclesia Romana relati, as Bembus profanely speaketh of their St Francis, a sorry man, of whom (as once of Becket 48 years after his death) it may well be disputed whether he were damned or saved. Pope Callistus III sainted some such in his time, as of whom Cardinal Bessarion, knowing them for naught, said, These new saints make me doubt much of the old.

Grace be to you, and peace] {See Trapp on "1Co 1:2"}

Ver. 8. Your faith is spoken of] See #Ro 16:26, and Juvenal, Tacitus, and other profane writers, who bitterly exagitate the doctrines and practices of those Roman Christians. Now that must needs be good that such men speak evil of: and as Jerome writeth to Austin, Quod signum maioris gloriae est, Omnes haeretici me detestantur: the heretics hate me; and that is no small grace to me.

Ver. 9. Whom I serve in my spirit] That is, with all the faculties of my soul concentred and co-united.

Ver. 10. I might have a prosperous journey] This he prayed, and this he had by such a way as he little dreamed of. Little thought Paul, that when he was bound at Jerusalem, and posted from one prison to another, that God was now sending him to Rome; yet he sent him, and very safe with a great convoy. God goes often another way to work for our good than we could imagine.

Ver. 11. That I may impart] There is no envy in spiritual things, because they may be divided in solidum; one may have as much as another, and all alike. Scientiarum (sic et gratiavum) ea vis est naturae et quo plus doceas, et alteri de tuo largiare, eo ditior ac doctior fias, saith Bodina. Such is the nature and property of sciences and graces, that the more you communicate them, the more you increase them.

Ver. 12. That I may be comforted] Or, exhorted, Ad communem exhortationem percipiendam, saith Beza out of Bucer, and others. The meanest of Christ’s members may contribute somewhat to the edifying even of an apostle, #2Jo 12. That favourite of Christ would be furthered and quickened by the graces of a woman. Now when such grandees in grace have benefit by communion of saints, how much more may they whose measures are less! The very angels know not so much but they would know more, #Eph 3:10 1Pe 1:12.

Ver. 13. But was let hitherto] Either by Satan, #1Th 2:18; or by the Holy Spirit otherwise disposing of him, as #Ac 19:6,7; or by some intervenient but important occasion, as #Ro 15:20,21.

Ver. 14. I am debtor] Because intrusted with talents for that purpose, #1Co 9:16. {See Trapp on "1Co 9:16"} It might more truly be said of Paul than it was of Cato, that he did— toti natum se credere mundo, believe himself born for a common good (Lucan); or, than it was said to Bucer by his physicians, Non sibi se, sed multorun utilitati esse natum, that he was born for the benefit of many. (Melch. Adam.)

Ver. 15. So as much] Quicquid in me situm est, promptum est. A notable expression.

Ver. 16. For I am not ashamed] As men are apt to be; whence that fatherly charge, #2Ti 1:8. Do ye think (said John Frith, martyr, to the archbishop’s men that would have let him go) that I am afraid to declare mine opinion unto the bishops of England in a manifest truth? If you should both leave me here, and go tell the bishops that you had lost Frith, I would surely follow as fast after as I might, and bring them news that I had found and brought Frith again.

For it is the power, &c.] Eternal life is potentially in the word preached, as the harvest is potentially in the seed.

Ver. 17. The just shall live by faith] #Hab 2:4, that is, they shall enjoy themselves by their faith, in greatest disasters or dangers, when others are at their wits’ ends. That is the prophet’s sense; and the apostle not unfitly applieth it to prove justification by faith alone, for if a man live by faith he is just by faith.

Ver. 18. Who hold the truth] Hold the light of their conscience (which is as a prophet from God) prisoner. The natural man, that he may sin the more securely, imprisons the truth which he acknowledgeth, and lays hold on all the principles in his head that might any way disturb his course in sin, locking them up in restraint. Hence it appears that no man is righteous in himself, or by his own righteousness, which was the το κρινομενον. Those of the philosophers that knew most, as Socrates, Aristotle, Plato, &c., are belied if they were not vicious in their practice, et de virtute locuti, Clunem agitant. (Juvenal.) Plato had the knowledge of one God; but dared not say so publicly. It is neither easy (saith he) to find out the Creator of all, nor safe to communicate the knowledge of him to the common people. So Seneca wrote a book (now lost) against superstitions; but saith Austin, Libertas affuit scribenti, non viventi: colebat quod reprehendebat, agebat quod arguebat, quod culpabat adorabat: He lived not after his own writings, but worshipped what he reproved; he did what he decried, he bowed before that he blamed; saying (as Domitius Calderinus when he went to mass) Eamus ad eommunem errorem, Let us go to that which we cannot but condemn for a common error. (Bucholcer.)

Ver. 19. Because that which may] Heathens might know God the Creator, per species creaturarum (as they speak), either in way of negation, or causality, or eminence: not so God tile Redeemer.

Ver. 20. Are clearly seen] Pervidentur. As in a mirror, or as on a theatre. Ut solem in aquis, sic Deum in operibus contemplamur. God (saith one) is best seen in his works, as the sun in the west. {a}

{a} Saeculum est speculum, quo Deum intueamur.

Ver. 21. Neither were thankful] How then shall we answer to God our hateful unthankfulness, which is (saith one) "a monster in nature, a solecism in manners, a paradox in divinity, a parching wind to dam up the fountain of divine favours." Woe be to our Solifugae that abuse gospel light; these put not light "under a bushel" (as the poor Paynims did) but under a dunghill; Gravis est lux conscientiae, Heavy is the light of conscience, saith Seneca; but heavier is the light of the gospel, gravior est lux Evangelii, say we. A heavy account will they give that abuse the light of nature; but much heavier they that "receive the grace of God in vain."

But became vain in their imaginations] Gr. διαλογισμοις, in their reasonings, disputations, discourses upon serious deliberation. They stood not to their own principles (as, that there is one God only, that this God is to be worshipped, &c.), but were atheists by night that worshipped the sun, and atheists by day that worshipped the moon, as Cyril saith wittily.

Ver. 22. Professing themselves to be wise] Aristotle, nature’s chief secretary, writeth many things most absurdly concerning God; as, that he is a living creature, that he worketh not freely, but by a kind of servile necessity; and that therefore he deserveth no praise or thanks from men for his many benefits, since he doth but what he must needs do. These are Aristotle’s absurd assertions. And yet at Stuckard in Germany was found a doctor of divinity that preached to the people, that the Church might be sufficiently well taught and governed by Aristotle’s ethics, though we had no Bible. And the Collen divines set forth a book, concerning Aristotle’s salvation, and called him Christ’s forerunner in naturals, as John Baptist had been in supernaturals. But what saith St Paul, #1Co 2:14 "The natural man receiveth not," &c. Gr. ψυχικος, the souly man, that doth excolere animam, improve of the mind, such as Aristotle, Cicero, &c., who the wiser they were, the vainer they were, and the further from God and his kingdom; their learning hung in their light, and served but to light them into utter darkness. {a}

{a} Quanto doctiores tanto nequiores, ut Syri venales apud Ciceronem. Athenaeus brings Plato bewailing his fond love to a filthy harlot.

Ver. 23. Made like to corruptible man] God made man in his own image; and man (to be even with him, as it were) will needs make God after his image.

And four-footed beasts] God therefore justly gave them up to sodomy, which did abase them below the beasts; that there might be an analogy between the sin and the punishment. This is called a "meet recompence," #Ro 1:27. They dishonoured God, they dishonoured therefore themselves. They would not know nor honour him, they shall not therefore know nor spare one another, &c.; so severely will God punish the contempt of and rebellion against the light.

And creeping things] In Lapland the people worship that all day for a god, whatsoever they see first in the morning, be it a bird or worm.

Ver. 24. Gave them up to uncleanness] Aristotle confesseth the disability of moral knowledge to rectify the intemperance of nature; and made it good in his practice; for he used a common strumpet to satisfy his lust. Socrates is said to have had his catamite {a} inter Socraticos, &c. (Juvenal.)

{a} A boy kept for unnatural purposes. ŒD

Ver. 25. Who changed] They tare out their natural principles and turned atheists, as Diagoras, who yet was an atheist more with his tongue than with his heart; for having cried down a deity in a famous oration, he yet suffered himself to be deified by the people for his eloquence. Qua ornari ab eo Diabolus quaerebat, as Austin writeth to a learned but lewd person of his times. See my Common Place of Atheism. Epicurus verbis reliquit Deos re sustulit, saith Cicero (De Nat. Deor.).

Ver. 26. Into that which is against nature] So against nature, that children (natures end) and posterity is utterly lost by it. Paul seems to point here at Messalina (that shame of her sex), the wife of Claudius the emperor.

Ver. 27. Leaving the natural] As at this day in the Levant, sodomy is held no sin. The Turkish pashas have many wives, but more catamites, {a} which are their serious loves. (Blount’s Voyage.)

Burned in their lust] Gr. εξεκαυσθησαν, "were scalded." Some men put off all manhood, become dogs, worse than dogs. Hence #De 23:18 "The price of a dog," that is, of a sodomite, as Junius and Deodatus expound it.

{a} A boy kept for unnatural purposes. ŒD

Ver. 28. To a reprobate mind] Or, an injudicious mind; or, a mind rejected, disallowed, abhorred of God; or a mind that none hath cause to glory in, but rather to be much ashamed of.

Ver. 29. With all unrighteousness] The mother of all the ensuing misrule.

Wickedness] The Syrian saith, "bitterness." See #Jer 2:19. The word πονηρια may be rendered troublesomeness, as the devil is called ο πονηρος, the troublesome one, the molester of God’s people; restless in himself and disquieting others.

Envy, murder] Three such alliterations are found in this black beadroll. {a} {b} The apostle seems delighted with them, as was likewise the prophet Isaiah. Of which noble two, I may well say as one doth of Demosthenes and Cicero, Demosthenes Ciceroni praeripuit ne esset primus orator, Cicero Demostheni, ne solus.

Malignity] Or, morosity, crossness, ill conditions; or an evil disposition, that taketh everything the worst way; whereas a better disposition would make a better exposition, and take things by the right handle.

Whisperers] These are worse than backbiters, because they work underground, like as the wind that creeps in the chinks and crevices in a wall, or the cracks in a window, prove commonly more dangerous than a storm that meets a man in the face upon the champaign. A vento percolato, et ab inimico reconciliato libera nos.

{a} πορνεια, πονηρια. φθονου, φονου. ασυνετους, ασυνθετους. κακοηθεια, κακια.

{b} A list of persons to be specially prayed for ŒD

Ver. 30. Haters of God] And so God-murderers, #1Jo 3:15. {See Trapp on "1Jo 3:15"}

Ver. 31. Implacable] That will not hear of a truce, much less of a peace. Nihil se libentius facere dictitabat Caesar, quam supplicibus ignoscere. (Caesar. Comment.) And surely, as any one is more manly, he is more merciful, as David, #2Sa 1:12. And, on the contrary, the basest natures are most vindictive; neither will they ever be heartily reconciled. Their reconciliations are vulpinae amicitiae, fox-like friendships.

Ver. 32. Have pleasure] Or they patronize, applaud, and approve, συνευδοκουσι this is set last, as worst of all; it comprehends all kinds of consent. (Theop.) To hold the bag is as bad as to fill it. The law of God requires not only our observation but our preservation, to cause others to keep it, as well as ourselves; and to rebuke, at least by a cast of our countenance (as God doth, #Ps 80:16), those that violate it. There is little difference, faveasne sceleri, an illud facias, whether thou commit sin or consent to it.

Chapter 2

Ver. 1. Therefore thou art inexcusable] Though thou have no pleasure in them that do evil, as #Ro 1:32, but dost superciliously censure them, being thyself otherwise as bad. Cato is said to have exercised usury, to have prostituted his wife, to have slain himself. God often sets a Noverint universi "let it be known to the whole world" upon the world’s wizards, for the foulest fools.

Ver. 2. Which commit such] As Cato, #Ro 2:1, whom yet Velleius affirmeth to have been hominem virtuti simillimum. But God judgeth not as man.

Ver. 3. Thinkest thou] This is preaching to the conscience, to the quick. Our exhortations should be as forked arrows to stick in men’s hearts; and not wound only, as other arrows. A poor hermit came to our Richard I, A. D. 1195, and preaching to him the words of eternal life, bade him be mindful of the subversion of Sodom, and to abstain from things unlawful: otherwise, said he, the deserved vengeance of God will come upon thee. The hermit being gone, the king neglected his words. But afterwards falling sick, he more seriously bethought himself, and waxing sound in soul as well as in body, he grew more devout, and charitable to the poor. (Hoveden. Speed.)

Ver. 4. The goodness of God] Gr. το χρηστον, his native goodness, ready to be employed to the behoof and benefit of the creature, #Tit 3:4. Now as the beam of the sun shining on fire doth discourage the burning of that; so the shining of God’s mercies on us should dishearten and extinguish lust in us. This is so equal and needful a duty, that Peter picks this flower out of Paul’s garden, as one of the choicest, and urgeth it upon those to whom he writes, #2Pe 3:15.

Ver. 5. Treasurest up unto thyself] Sicut mittentes pecuniam in gazophylacium, quod, ubi iam impletur, confringitur, saith Stella upon Luke. In treasuring, there is, 1. Laying in; 2. Lying hidden; 3. Bringing out again, as there is occasion. Wicked persons, while by following their lusts they think they do somewhat to their happiness, shall in the end find, pro thesauro carbones, those burning coals, #Ps 140:10.

Ver. 6. Who shall render] The Papists hence infer merit of works. But it is well observed that the Church in the Canticles is nowhere described by the beauty of her hands, or fingers. Christ concealeth the mention of her hands, that is, of her works (Cotton on Canticles): 1. Because he had rather his Church should abound in good works in silence than boast of them (especially when they are wanting), as Rome doth. 2. Because it is he above that worketh all our works for us, #Isa 26:12 Ho 14:4 Joh 15:5. Certum est nos facere quod facimus; sed ille facit, ut faciamus. (Augustine.) We do what we do; but it is he that causeth us so to do. {See Trapp on "Mt 16:27"}

Ver. 7. Who by patient continuance] Or, by suffering persecution for righteousness’ sake. Gordus the martyr said, "It is to my loss, if you bate me anything in nay sufferings." Maiora certamina, maiora sequuntur praemia, οπου πλειων κοπος, πολυ κερδος, saith Ignatius. Much pains hath much gains.

Ver. 8. But unto them that are contentious] That wrangle and thwartle against clearest truths, searching the devil’s skull for carnal arguments, as those Athenians, #Ac 17:16-21; being refractory as Pharaoh, who would not sit down under the miracle, but sent for the magicians. And though the word doth eat up all they say, as Moses’s rod did, yet harden they their hearts, as Pharaoh, and resolve to curse, as Balaam, whatever come of it. These are those contentious ones, εξ εριθειας.

Ver. 9. Of the Jew first] Qui ideo deteriores sunt, quia meliores esse deberent. Who are therefore worse, because they should be better. Salvian.

Ver. 10. Peace] Safety here and salvation hereafter.

To every man that worketh good] Yet not for his work’s sake, because no proportion between the work and the wages; no more than between in a nutshell. That wretched monk therefore died blasphemously, who said, Redde mihi aeternam vitam quam debes, Pay me eternal life, that thou owest me. And how dare Bellarmine say, that good works are mercatura regni caelestis, the price we pay for heaven? or that other Papist, God forbid, that we should enjoy heaven as of mere alms to us: no, we have it by conquest. Strange impudence!

Ver. 11. For] {See Trapp on "Ac 10:34"}

Ver. 12. Perish without law] Or, though they had no written law, as that of Moses.

Ver. 13. But the doers of the law] The Scriptures are verba vivenda non legenda, as Egidins, Abbot of Nuremberg, said of the 119th Psalm. Boni Catholici sunt qui et fidem integram sequunfur, et bones mores. (Aug.) Lessons of music must be practised, and a copy not read only but acted. Divinity must be done as well as known.

Ver. 14. Do by nature, &c.] Velleius saith that Cato was Homo virtuti simillimus, cui id solum visum est rationem habere, quod haberet iustiam, omnibus humanis vitiis immunis, &c. Aristides, Phocion, and Socrates were famous for their integrity. (Plin. vii. 31.)

Are a law to themselves] The Thracians gloried that they were αυτονομοι living laws, walking statutes.

Ver. 15. Their thoughts meanwhile] Or, between whiles: or in every interim of this life, μεταξυ. Other faculties may rest; an obscene dream by night shall not escape conscience’s record; it is index, iudex, vindex, informer, judge and defender, God’s spy and man’s overseer; and it is better to have it sore than seared.

Ver. 16. According to my gospel] Which promiseth heaven to believers. This is comfort to those that are faithful in weakness, though but weak in faith. The sentence of the last day shall be but a more manifest declaration of that judgment that the Lord in this life, most an end, hath passed upon men. Heathens shall be judged by the law of nature; profligate professors by the law written, and the word preached; believers by the gospel, which saith, "If there be a willing mind, God accepteth," &c.

Ver. 17. Restest in the law] So spending thy time in a still dream, but thou shalt have sick waking, then when God shall send out summons for such sleepers. Men dream their Midianitish dreams, and tell them for law or gospel to their neighbours, #Jud 7:13.

Ver. 18. Being instructed out of the law] Gr. κατηχουμενος, Being well catechised and principled, thou art able to discern the doctrines, and choose the best. Luther somewhere professeth himself to be discipulum catechismi, a scholar to the catechism; and those that are not well seen in the principles, can make no good progress in religion.

Ver. 19. Of the blind] The Chinese say that all other nations see but with one eye, they with two. The Pharisees were called Pekachin aperti, open-eyed: because they only saw. One of them was called Or hagnolam, "The light of the world." In Scripture, wise men only are termed Seers, Pekakim, #Ex 23:8 "Are we also blind?" say they to our Saviour; q.d. No, we scorn it: and yet how often hear we in that one chapter, #Mt 23:16,17,19,24,26 "Thou blind Pharisee, Ye fools and blind."

Ver. 20. Which hast the form of knowledge] A platform of wholesome words, a system, a method artificially moulded, μορφωσις, such as tutors and professors of arts and sciences have, and do read over again and again to their auditors.

Ver. 21. Teachest thou not thyself?] He that knows well and does worse is but as a whiner which carrieth a torch in his hand to show others his own deformities. I have read of a woman, who living in professed doubt of the Godhead, after better illumination and repentance, did often protest that the vicious life of a great scholar in that town did conjure up those damnable doubts in her soul. Neronis illud (quautus artifex pereo?) quadrabit in te peritum et periturum. That is the best sermon that is digged out of a man’s own breast. Origen’s teaching and living were said to be both one. Eusebius said that he preached not by his words only, but by his practice; and that thereby he had almost persuaded Alexander Severus the emperor to be a Christian; his mother Mammaea he fully persuaded. But Ferdinand I, emperor, complained of some divines that they were in sua ipsorum vitia fecundi satis, bitter against those vices in others which they too much favoured in themselves. {a}

{a} Non verbis solum sed exemplis Grammatici de Ulisis erroribus disserentes suos non vident. Bern.

Ver. 22. Thou that sayest] Hypocrites can talk of religion, as if their tongues did run upon pattens, they are fair professors, but foul sinners; as was that carnal cardinal Cremensis, the pope’s envoy, sent hither, A. D. 1114, to interdict priests’ marriages, and being taken in the act with a common strumpet, he excused it by saying he was no priest himself, but a correcter of them.

Dost thou commit sacrilege?] The chronicler noteth of Queen Mary, that she restored again all ecclesiastical livings assumed to the crown, saying that she set more by the salvation of her own soul than she did by ten kingdoms. Shall not she that abhorred not idols rise up and condemn those that do, and yet commit sacrilege? (Speed’s Chron.)

Ver. 23. Through breaking] By shooting short, or beyond, or wide of the mark; by omission, commission, or failing in the manner.

Ver. 24. For the name of God, &c.] Heretics and hypocrites do still with Judas deliver up the Lord Christ to the scoffs and buffetings of his enemies. Augustine (De Civ. Dei, i. 52) complains of the ancient heretics, that in them many evil-minded men found matter of blaspheming the name of Christ because they also pretended to the Christian religion. Epiphanius addeth, that for the looseness of such men’s lives, and the baseness of their tenets, many of the heathens shunned the company of Christians, and would not be drawn to hear their sermons. Origen before them both cries out, Nunc male audiunt, castiganturque vulgo Christiani, quod aliter quam sapientibus convenit vivant, et vitia sub obtentu nominis celent, &c. There is an ill report goes of Christians for their unchristian conversation, &c. Ammianus Marcellinus, a heathen historian, deeply taxeth the pride, luxury, contentions, covetousness of the bishops in his time, and the deadly hatreds of common Christians. Nullae infestae hominibus bestiae sunt, ut sibi ferales plerique Christiani, saith he. A sad thing that a heathen should see and detest such hellish miscarriages among Christians. Bellarmine telleth us of certain hereties anciently called Christianocategori, that is, accusers of Christians, because for their sakes Christians were accused as worshippers of idols. {a} Papists give the same offence to Jews, who call scandal Chillul Hesham, a profaning of God’s name, which they hold the greatest of sins.

{a} De Eccles. Triumph. lib. ii. 11.

Ver. 25. If thou keep the law] Which thou art thereby bound to do, either by thyself, or by thy surety Christ Jesus.

Thy circumcision is made uncircumcision] Thou art no whit privileged by it. Unregenerate Israel is to God as Ethiopia, #Am 9:7.

Ver. 26. If the uncircumcision] Which it can never do. But admit it could, &c.

Ver. 27. Judge thee] Men’s guilt is increased by their obligations, as was Solomon’s in departing from Gad, who had appeared unto him twice, #1Ki 11:9.

Ver. 28. Neither is that circumcision] See #Col 2:11. {See Trapp on "Col 2:11"} Inward circumcision is (as Origen describeth it) Purgatio animae et abiectio vitiorum, or (as St Paul in the place above named) the putting off old Adam with his actions, by the circumcision of Christ, by his merit and Spirit.

Ver. 29. Which is one inwardly] An Israelite indeed, #Joh 1:47, that hath put away the foreskin of his heart, #Jer 4:4. That worshippeth God in spirit, rejoiceth in Christ Jesus, and hath no confidence in the flesh, #Php 3:3.

Whose praise is not] He seeks not the applause of men, but God’s approbation; and holds the Euge well done of conscience far better than the world’s Hic est. Here is. The holy virgin was so far from affecting the vain praises of men, that she was troubled when truly praised of an angel.

Chapter 3

Ver. 1. What advantage] Gr. το περισσον, what odds, singular thing, prerogative?

Ver. 2. Chiefly, because that, &c.] This was their prime privilege, that they were God’s library keepers, that this heavenly treasure was concredited unto them. Other nations are said to have been without God, because without those lively oracles, #2Ch 15:3 Eph 2:12. Prize we this privilege, and improve it. You must never expect another edition of the faith once received, #Jude 3, once for all.

Ver. 3. The faith of God] That is, his faithful promises, opposed to man’s perfidy. Fides quia fit quod dictum est. God is faithful, saith the apostle often.

Ver. 4. Every man a liar] viz. By nature. But, #Isa 63:8, God’s people are "children that will not lie," they will die rather. Non ideo negare volo ne peream, sed ideo mentiri nolo ne peccem, saith she upon the rack, of whom St Jerome writeth. The officers of Merindol answered the bishop that moved them to abjure, that they marvelled much that he would persuade them to lie to God and the world. And albeit that all men by nature are liars, yet they had learned by the word of God that they ought diligently to take heed of lying in any matter, be it never so small, &c.

Every man a liar] So he is either by imposture, and so in purpose, or by impotence, and so in the event, deceiving those that rely upon him, #Ps 62:9.

That thou mayest be justified in thy sayings] David speaketh of the truth of Nathan’s reprehension; Paul applies it to the truth of God in his promises also. Let us give him a testimonial, #Joh 3:33; such as is that #De 32:4 "A God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he."

And mightest overcome] Mayest be pure, saith David, #Ps 51:4. Zacah in the Syriac is used for overcoming. Vincit veritas, et dare non dignis res mage digna Deo est.

Ver. 5. Is God unrighteous] Such heart boilings there were in the rejected Jews. And Job said little less, till God, overhearing him, steps, as it were, from behind the curtains, and takes him up for it, #Job 38:2 "Who is this," saith he, that talketh thus? How now?

Ver. 6. I speak as a man] q.d. Is there not such language heard in some men’s hearts?

For then how shall God judge the world] How shall every transgression and disobedience receive a just recompence of reward? #Heb 2:2. God’s will is the absolute rule of right, nec tantum recta, sed regula. (Bonav.)

Ver. 7. For if the truth of God] Here the former objection is repeated, explicated, and more fully answered, that every mouth might be stopped. Ferunt ranas lampade supra lacum, in quo tumultuantur, appensa, illius fulgore repercussas conticescere. (Lomelius.) So gainsayers are silenced, when the truth is thoroughly cleared.

Ver. 8. As we be slanderously reported] So are the reformed Churches by the black mouthed Papists. See the Abatement of Popish Brags, by Alex. Cook, the Preface; Eudaemon Joannes against Casaubon, and Calvino-Turcismum, &c.

Whose damnation is just] In the year of grace 1552, a monk of Berlin in Germany, who in the pulpit charged St Paul with a lie, was suddenly smitten with an apoplexy, while the word was yet in his mouth, and fell down dead in the place on St Stephen’s day, as they call it. (Scultet. Annal.)

Ver. 9. That they are all under sin] Whole evil is in man, and whole man in evil. Homo est inversus decalogus. Man by nature is no better than a filthy dunghill of all abominable vices. His heart is the devil’s storehouse, throne, nest. His eyes great thoroughfares of lust, pride, vanity, &c. His life a long chain of sinful actions, a web of wickedness spun out and made up by the hands of the devil and the flesh, an evil spinner, and a worse weaver. (Mr Whately’s New Birth.)

Ver. 10. As it is written] What the prophets had said of some particular people or person is here applied to the whole race of mankind, because by nature there is never a better of us. Κακοι μεν θριπες, κακοι δε και ιπες. (Eras. Adag.)

Ver. 11. None that seeketh] That seeketh and fetcheth him out of his retiring room, as she did, #Mr 7:24,25.

Ver. 12. Become unprofitable] Or rotten, nasty, stinking, as the Hebrew hath it, #Ps 14:3. The old world was grown so foul, that God was forced to wash it with a deluge.

Ver. 13. The poison of the asps] Of that sort of asps that spit their venom far from them upon the bystanders. (πρυαδες.) There is a great deal of such vermin and venom in that newly found world of wickedness, the tongue, #Jas 3:6. It is easy to observe that St Paul here, making the anatomy of a natural man, stands more on the organs of speaking than all other members, and showeth how his tongue is tipped with fraud, his lips tainted with venom, his mouth full of gall, his throat a gaping grave, his tongue as a rapier to run men through with, and his throat as a sepulchre to bury them in. As for the asp, they write of her, That whereas her poison is so deadly, that the part infected cannot be cured but by cutting off, succurrit periclitantibus benignior natura, et noxiosissimo animali caliginosos obtutus dedit. (Jo. Wover.) Aspidi (saith Pliny, viii. 23) hebetes oculi dati, eosque non in fronte, sed in temporibus habet.

Ver. 14. Full] Γεμει, As a ship that hath its full freight and lading.

Ver. 15. Swift to shed blood] As Paul, till God stopped him in his cursed career.

Ver. 16. They mind nothing but mischief.]

Ver. 17. They are restless and troublesome.]

Ver. 18. There is no fear of God] This is set last, as the source of all the former evils.

Ver. 19. Guilty] Culpable, and such as cannot plead their own cause without an advocate. (Chrysos.)

Ver. 20. Therefore by the deeds of the law] This is directly against Popish justification by works, merits, &c. Those misled and muzzled souls did worse than lose their labour that built religious houses, Pro remissione et redemptione peccatorum, pro remedio et liberatione animae, in eleemosynam animae, pro salute et requie animarum patrum et matrum, fratrum et sororum, &c. These were the ends that they aimed at, as appears in stories. And here observe how the once faithful city of Rome is now become a harlot, #Isa 1:21,22; her silver is become dross, her wine mixed with water, yet with blood, now since the Council of Trent, #Re 16:3,5; and this Epistle of Paul to the Romans is now become the Epistle of Paul against the Romans; like as Roma Rome is become Amor inversus. love perverted.

Ver. 21. But now] Since Christ came.

Ver. 22. Upon all] So that none shall hinder their happiness.

Ver. 23. All have sinned] The first man defiled the nature, and ever since the nature defileth the man. Adam was a parent, a public person, a parliament man, as it were; the whole country of mankind was in him, and fell with him.

Short of the glory of God] i.e. Of his image now obliterated, or of his kingdom, upon the golden pavement whereof no dirty dog must ever trample. It is an inheritance undefiled, #1Pe 1:4.

Ver. 24. Being justified freely] Because the apostle’s word δωρεα is expounded by Varinus to be χαριτος αλλαγη, therefore Thammerus will needs conclude from this text that God by justifying us, doth but pay for our pains, give us what we have earned. Caelum gratis non accipiam, saith Vega. Opera bona sunt caeli mercatura, saith another. Heaven is the purchase of good works.

By the redemption] i.e. By faith applying this redemption, wrapping herself in the golden fleece of that Lamb of God.

Ver. 25. To be a propitiation] Or a covering, in allusion to the law; where the ark covering the two tables within it, the mercy seat covering the ark, and the cherubims covering the mercy seat and one another, showed Christ covering the curses of the law, in whom is the ground of all mercy; which things the angels desire to pry into, as into the pattern of God’s deep wisdom.

For the remission of sins] Gr. παρεσιν, for the relaxation or releasement of sins, as of bonds or fetters.

Ver. 26. To declare] Gr. ενδειξις, for a clear demonstration or pointing out with the finger.

Ver. 27. Where is boasting then, &c.] A certain sophister would hence prove the authority of the Church. He read the words thus, by a mistake of their shorthand writing, Ubi est gloriatio? Ecclesia est, Where is boasting, it is the church, for exclusa est. it is excluded.

Ver. 28. A man is justified by faith] Here St Paul shows himself a pure Lutheran, and is therefore sharply and blasphemously censured by some Jesuits for a hot-headed person, who was so transported with the pangs of zeal and eagerness beyond all compass in most of his disputes, that there was no great reckoning to be made of his assertions. (Speculum Europae.) Yea, he was dangerous to read, as savouring of heresy in some places, and better perhaps he had never written. Four years before the Council of Trent, Cardinal Contarenus asserted the doctrine of justification by faith alone, in a just treatise, and was therefore soon after poisoned. Cardinal Pole is thought to have been sound in this point. Bellarmine reproves Pighius for consenting to Luther herein, whom he undertook to confute, and yet Bellarmine himself with his tutissimum est, it is most safe. doth as much upon the matter. Magna est veritas, et valebit, Great is the truth, and shall prevail.

Ver. 29. Is he the God of the Jews only] That is, Doth he justify the Jews only? For he is their God only whom he justifieth. Now men are said to be justified effectively by God, apprehensively by faith, declaratively by good works. The schoolmen are very unsound in this capital article of justification, and are therefore the less to be regarded. Nam quae de gratia Dei iustificante scholastici seribunt, commentitia universa existimo, saith Cardinal Pighius, who is therefore much condemned by Bellarmine, but without cause.

Ver. 30. And uncircumcision] All by one way, lest he should seem not to be one, but alius et alius.

Ver. 31. We establish the law] Which yet the Antinomians cry down, calling repentance a legal grace, humiliation a backdoor to heaven; grieving that they have grieved so much for their sins, &c., that they have prayed so often, and done other holy duties. Islebius Agricola (the first Antinomian that ever was) and his followers held these unsound opinions; That the law and works belong only to the court of Rome; that as soon as a man begins to think how to live godlily and modestly, he presently wandereth from the gospel; that a man was never truly mortified till he had put out all sense of conscience for sin; that if his conscience troubled him, that was his imperfection, he was not mortified enough; that St Peter understood not Christian liberty when he wrote those words, "Make your calling and election sure"; that good works were perniciosa ad salutatem, destructive to men’s souls; with a deal of such trash. All which, this Islebius afterwards condemned and recanted in a public auditory, and printed his revocation. Yet when Luther was dead, he relapsed into the same error, and hath to this day among us too many disciples. We have need, therefore, to take St Paul’s part, to establish the law, to settle it, now that it is falling (as the Greek word, ιστωμεν, signifies), to make it valid, ικανωμεν (as some copies have it), sufficient and effectual to those ends for which it was given, viz. to discover transgression and to restrain it, #Ga 3:19; to humble men for sin, #Ro 3:19,20; to be a schoolmaster to Christ, and a rule of life, that, according to his royal law, #Jas 2:8, we may live royally above the rank of men, in obedience; while by the gospel, we obtain grace in some measure to fulfil the law; having a counterpart of it in our hearts, and a disposition answerable to it in all things, #Heb 8:8-10 cf. 2Co 3:2,3; as the lead answers to the mould, as tally answers tally, indenture indenture. That was a good saying of Luther’s, Walk in the heaven of the promise, but in the earth of the law; that in respect of believing, this of obeying. Another of his sayings was, That in the justification of a sinner, Christ and faith were alone tanquam sponsus cum sponsa in thalamo, as the bridegroom and bride in the bed; howbeit it is such a faith as works by love. A third golden saying of his was, He that can rightly distinguish between law and gospel, let him praise God for his skill, and know himself to be a good divine.

Chapter 4

Ver. 1. As pertaining to the flesh] That is, As touching his works, #Ro 4:2, called also the letter, #Ro 2:27, and the law a carnal commandment, #Heb 7:16.

Ver. 2. But not before God] Who when he begins to search our sacks, as the steward did Benjamin’s, can find out those our thieveries that we thought not of; bring to mind and light those sins that we had forgotten, or not observed. When he comes to turn the bottom of the bag upwards it will be bitter with us. Abimelech’s excuse was accepted, and yet his sin was chastised, #Ge 20:6. Vae hominum vitae quantumvis laudabili, si remora misericordia iudicetur. The best lamb should abide the slaughter, except the rams were sacrificed, that Isaac might be saved.

Ver. 3. Abraham believed God] Latomus of Louvain was not ashamed to write that there was no other faith in Abraham than what was in Cicero. And yet our Saviour saith, Abraham saw my day and rejoiced; so did Cicero never. Another wrote an apology for Cicero, and would needs prove him to have been a pious and penitent person, because in one place he hath these words, Reprehendo peccata mea, quod Pompeio confisus, eiusque partes secutus fuerim. A poor proof: Hoc argumentum tam facile diluitur, quam vulpes comest pyrum. (Joh. Manl.)

Ver. 4. Now to him that worketh] Yet it is an act of mercy in God to render to a man according to his works, #Ps 62:12 Ex 20:6. God’s kingdom is not partum, but paratum, #Mt 25:34, not acquired, but prepared.

But of debt] Not so indeed, #Ro 11:31, but according to the opinion of the merit monger, who saith as Vega, Caelum gratis non accipiam. I may not receive heaven by grace.

Ver. 5. His faith] Yet not as a work, not in a proper sense, as Arminius and Bertius held, but as an act of receiving Christ.

That justifieth the ungodly] i.e. Him that was ungodly; but being justified is made godly also; or the ungodly, that is, him that is not perfectly godly; for Abraham is here made the ungodly person.

Ver. 6. Unto whom God imputeth] Ten times the apostle mentioneth this grace of imputed righteousness in this chapter. Yet the Papists jeer it, calling it putative righteousness, so speaking evil of the things they know not. Stories tell us of a Popish bishop that lighting by chance upon this chapter, threw away the book in great displeasure, and said, O Paule, an tu quoque Lutheranus factus es? Art thou also a Lutheran, Paul? But if the faith of another may be profitable to infants at their baptism, as Bellarmine holdeth, why should it seem so absurd a thing, that Christ’s righteousness imputed should profit those that believe on him? The Jews indeed at this day being asked, Whether they believe to be saved by Christ’s righteousness? They answer, That every fox must pay his own skin to the slayer. Thus they reject the righteousness of God, #Ro 10:3. As their fathers did, so do they, #Ac 7:51. The Lord open their eyes, that they may convert and be saved.

Ver. 7. Are covered] Sic velantur ut in iudicio non revelentur; so covered as that he never see them again, but as the Israelites saw the Egyptians dead on the shore.

Ver. 8. Imputeth not] Chargeth it not, setteth it not upon his score, #2Co 5:19.

Ver. 9. Cometh this blessedness] This is the third time that the apostle avoucheth the universality of the subject of justification. For this he had done once before, #Ro 3:23, and again, #Ro 3:29-31. The Scripture doth not use, saith one, to kill flies with beetles, to cleave straws with wedges of iron, to spend many words where there is no need.

Ver. 10. In, circumcision] As the Jew would have it. No such matter.

Ver. 11. A seal of the righteousness] Circumcision is called a sign and a seal by a doctor of the Jews more ancient than their Talmud Zohar, #Ge 17:9-14

That righteousness might be imputed] How foolish is that inference of Thammerus, that because the word here used to signify imputed comes of a word that signifies reason, therefore the righteousness of faith must be such as a man may understand and comprehend by reason (λογισθηναι, λογος).

Ver. 12. Walk in the steps] That herein personate and express him to the life, as Constantine’s children, saith Eusebius, did their father.

Ver. 13. Heir of the world] That is, of heaven, say some; of Canaan, say others, the pleasant land, more esteemed of God than all the world besides, because it was the seat of the Church. A man is called every creature, #Mr 16:15; the Church is called all things, #Col 1:18. So Canaan is called the world, and Tabor and Hermon put for the east and west of the whole world, #Ps 89:12.

Ver. 14. Faith is made void] {See Trapp on "Ga 3:12"} {See Trapp on "Ga 5:2"} That Epistle to the Galatians is an epitome of this to the Romans, and lends light to it. It is compendium, sed non dispendium.

Ver. 15. No transgression] sc. Is imputed by men where there is no law written. See #Ro 5:13.

The law worketh wrath] That is, manifesteth it, and so seemeth to work it, as likewise affliction doth corruption in God’s children; stir the puddle with a stick, and the mud will soon be on the top of the water. Rub the brand, and sparkles will fly abroad.

Ver. 16. It is of faith] Fidei mendica manu.

That it might be by grace] Paul was a great advancer of the grace of God, and abaser of man. For he knew that as wax and water cannot meet together, so neither can Christ and anything else in the work of man’s salvation.

Ver. 17. Who quickeneth the dead] As he doth when he maketh a man a believer, #Eph 1:19; he fetcheth heart of oak out of a hollow tree, and a spiritual man out of a wild ass colt. See both these metaphors, #Job 11:12.

Ver. 18. Who against hope, &c.] Elegans Antanaclasis propter speciem contradietionis, saith Piscator. Spes in terrenis, incerti nomen boni; spes in divinis, nomen est certissimi, saith another.

Believed in hope] It is the nature of faith to believe God upon his bare word; and that against sense in things invisible, against reason in things incredible: sense corrects imagination, reason corrects sense, but faith corrects both. It will not be, saith sense; it cannot be, saith reason; it both can and will be, saith faith, for I have a promise for it.

Ver. 19. He considered not] Gr. ου κατενοησε, He cared not for all his own body, &c.; he never thought of that.

When he was about a hundred years old] This the Scripture makes a great matter; whereas Terah was a hundred and thirty when he begat Abraham; but because Abraham had his child by faith, therefore was it a great matter. And so, saith a divine, in all ather things that we have, do, or suffer, if they he by faith, they are great things.

Ver. 20. Giving glory to God] Confessing and exalting God, as #Lu 17:18, giving him a testimonial, as it were, #Joh 3:33 cf. #De 32:4.

Ver. 21. Being fully persuaded] Gr. πληροφαρηθεις, being carried on with full sail, and going gallantly towards heaven.

Ver. 22. {See Trapp on "Ro 4:5"} {See Trapp on "Ro 4:6"} God, by reason of his faith, held him to be as sufficiently disposed to obtain the accomplishment of his promises, as if he had had all the righteousness required by the law to receive God’s benefits. (Diodat.)

Ver. 23. For his sake alone] But for our instruction and encouragement, #Ro 15:4. {See Trapp on "Ro 15:4"}

Ver. 24. That raised up Jesus] And with him all believers, #Col 3:1 Ro 6:4.

Ver. 25. Who was delivered, &c.] Not that his death had no hand in our justifying, but because our justification, begun in his death, was perfected by his resurrection. Redemption we have by Christ’s abasement, application of it by his advancement. This one verse is an abridgment of the whole gospel, the sum of all the good news in the world, the grand inquest of all the ancient prophets, #1Pe 1:11. Adore we the fulness of the Holy Scriptures.

Chapter 5

Ver. 1. Being justified by faith] As he had said, #Ro 4:24.

We have peace with God] A blessed calm lodged in our consciences; like as when Jonah was cast overboard, there followed a tranquillity. This is that continual feast, a very heaven beforehand, an anticipation of glory, ουρανος προ ουρανου.

Ver. 2. We have access] προσαγωγην, Christ leading us by the hand, and presenting us to the Father, with, "Behold, here am I, and the children whom thou hast given me." #Eph 2:18.

Wherein we stand] εστηκαμεν, not stirring a foot, for any temptation or percention. A metaphor from soldiers keeping their station in the battle.

Ver. 3. We glory in tribulations] As an old soldier doth in his scars of honour. See #Ga 6:17 2Co 7:4. Feri, Domine, feri; nam a peccatis absolutus sum, saith Luther: Strike, Lord, and spare not, since I am acquitted by thee from my sins. Seca ambas, Cut of both, cried out that good bishop, when his hand was threatened to be cut off. A man that hath got his pardon is not troubled though he lose his glove or handkerchief, nor though it should prove a rainy day.

Ver. 4. And experience, hope] Without hope patience is cold almost in the fourth degree, and that is but a little from poison.

Ver. 5. Hope maketh not ashamed] As among men, many lie languishing at hope’s hospital, as he did at the pool of Bethesda, #Joh 5:1-9, and return as they did from the brooks of Tema, #Job 6:17. Or, as men go to a lottery with heads full of hopes, but return with hearts full of blanks. The Dutch have a proverb to this purpose, Sperare et expectare, multos reddit stultos. And we say, He that hopes for dead men’s shoes, may hap go barefoot. Bad men’s hopes may hop headless, they may perish in the height of their expectancies. Not so those that hope in God; they shall yet praise him who is the help of their countenance, and their God, #Ps 43:5. Nunquam confusi, Deo confisi. Never preplexed, having trusted in God.

Ver. 6. Christ died for] A sufficient evidence of God’s dearest and deepest love shed abroad in our hearts, as a most sweet ointment.

Ver. 7. Yet peradventure for a good man] For a public person. Lilloe stepped between the murderer and King Edwin his master to intercept the deadly thrust. (Speed’s Chron.) A common soldier lost his life at Musselborough field to save the Earl of Huntly’s life; so did Nicolas Ribische to rescue Prince Maurice at the siege of Pista.

Ver. 8. God commendeth, &c.] Herein God lays naked to us the tenderest heart of his fatherly compassions, as in an anatomy. A young student in history (saith Polybius) should have the whole history of the world under his view; and should reduce all into one body. {a} God, by giving his Son for us, showed us all his love at once, as it were embodied. All other spiritual blessings meet in this, as the lines in the centre, as the streams in the fountain. If the centurion were held worthy of respect because he loved our nation (said they) and built us a synagogue, what shall we say of Almighty God, who so loved our souls that he gave his only begotten Son, &c.

Christ died for us] "Behold how he loved him," said those Jews, when they saw Christ weep for him, #Joh 11:37. What shall we say of this love of his beyond compare, in bleeding for us? Ama amorem illius, &c. Oh love that love of his, and never leave meditating on it, donec totus fixus in corde, qui totus fixus in cruce, till he be wholly fixed in your hearts, who was wholly fastened to the tree for your sakes. (Bernard.)

{a} υρο μιαν ουνοψεν αγειν και σωματοροιεν

Ver. 9. Much more then] It is a greater work of God to bring men to grace, than, being in the state of grace, to bring them to glory; because sin is far more distant from grace than grace is from glory.

Ver. 10. We shall be saved] Here the apostle reasoneth from regeneration to eternal life, as the lesser.

Ver. 11. Not only so] Not in tribulation only do we glory, {as #Ro 5:3} but in the whole course of our lives. Yet not without some damps and dumps, while here. While I live (saith Rollec) I never look to see perfect reformation in the Church, or feel perfect ravishing joys in mine heart. Here Christ comes to his Spouse as a wooer only, and gives her no more than the prelibations and foretastes of his love, as a bunch of the grapes of Canaan.

Ver. 12. As by one man] Yet Anabaptists deny original sin, as did also the Pelagians of old, confuted by Augustine. Egranus, a German preacher, said (as Melancthon reporteth) that original sin is a mere fiction of Augustine and other divines; and that, because there was no such word found in the Scriptures. (Joh. Manl.) Papists say that original sin is the smallest of all sins, not deserving any more of God’s wrath, than only a want of his beatifical presence; and that, too, without any pain or sorrow of mind from the apprehension of so great a loss. There have been among us that have said, that original sin is not forbidden by the law. Directly, indeed, and immediately it is not; but forbidden it is, because cursed and condemned by the law. In original sin is a tacit consent (eminently) to all actual sin. And some understand this text of all sin, both original and actual.

And so death, passed upon all men] As a sentence of death on a condemned malefactor; or, as those diseases that are called by physicians corruptio totius substantiae; or as the rot overrunneth the whole flock, διηλθεν.

Ver. 13. Sin is not imputed] In men’s esteem, as #Ro 4:15.

Ver. 14. Death reigned] From the reign of death, he concludes the reign of sin. Infants are no innocents; the first sheet or blanket wherein they are covered is woven of sin, shame, blood, and filth, #Eze 16:4-6.

Ver. 15. Many be dead] Many is here put for all, as all for many, #1Ti 2:3.

Ver. 16. Of many offences] i.e. Of all, whether imputed to us, inherent in us, or issuing from us,

Ver. 17. Abundance] That is, abundant grace.

Ver. 18. By the offence of one] We were all in Adam, as the whole country in a parliamentman. And although we chose not, God chose for us.

Ver. 19. Many] That is, all except Christ, sinners, tainted with sins, guilt, and filth.

Ver. 20. But where sin abounded] But then where sin that abounded in the life, it abounds in the conscience in grief and detestation of it, as the greatest evil. Bonner objected to Mr Philpot, martyr, that he found written in his book, In me Ioanne Philpotto ubi abundavit peccatum, superabundavit et gratia. In me John Philpot, where sin abounds, even grace superabounds. This he said was an arrogant speech. Novum crimen, C. Caesar. Fresh sin, Gaius Caesar. (Acts and Mon.)

That the offence might abound] Either by accident, through man’s corruption, and not of God’s intention, #Ro 7:13. Or if ινα be taken causally, it must be interpreted by #Ga 3:19. God gave the law after the promise, to advance the promise. The law was added because of transgression, sc. that hereby guilt and danger being discovered, we might acknowledge the riches of free grace and mercy.

Ver. 21. That as sin hath reigned] That is, the wrath of God by sin.

Through righteousness] Imputed and imparted.

By Jesus Christ] See how sweetly the end answers the beginning of the chapter, and how Christ is both author and finisher, &c.

Chapter 6

Ver. 1. Shall we continue] Quasi dicat, that were most unreasonable, and to an ingenuous nature, impossible. To argue from mercy to liberty, is the devil’s logic. Should we not after deliverance yield obedience? said holy Ezra, #Ezr 9:13,14. A man may as truly say, the sea burns, or fire cools, as that certainty of salvation breeds security and looseness.

Ver. 2. Live any longer therein] Fall into it we may and shall; but it is not the falling into the water that drowns, but lying in it; so it is not falling into sin that damns, but living in it.

Ver. 3. Baptized into his death] Hoc est baptizari pro mortuis, saith Beza, to be buried with Christ in baptism, #Col 2:12, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, #Ro 6:11.

Ver. 4. We are buried] Burial is a continuing under death, so is mortification a continuation of dying to sin, Mors quaedam perpetuata; sin is by degrees abated, and at length abolished, when once our earthly tabernacles are dissolved.

Walk in newness of life] Resurrectione Domini configuratur vita, quae hic geritur. Walk as Christ walked after his resurrection.

Ver. 5. For if we have been planted] Burying is a kind of planting. The Dutch call the burial place God’s Acre.

Ver. 6. The body of sin] For whole evil is in man, and whole man in evil.

Is crucified] Which is a lingering but a sure death.

Should not serve sin] As those do that commit it, #Joh 8:34; not only act it, but are acted by it, having as many lords as lusts, victors as vices. #Tit 3:3.

Ver. 7. Is freed from sin] Anacreon saith the like, ο θανων ουκ επιθυμει; death is the accomplishment of mortification. It doth at once what death doth by degrees. Herbs and flowers breed worms, which yet at last kill the herbs and flowers. So sin bred death, but at last death will kill sin. A mud wall, while it standeth, harboureth much vermin, which when it falleth fly away; so doth corruption, when once these cottages of clay fall to ruin.

Ver. 8. We shall also live] Then we are said properly to live, when our regeneration is perfected in heaven. To live here is but to lie a dying.

Ver. 9. Death hath no more, &c.] Christ, being the life essential, swallowed up death in victory, as the fire swalloweth up the fuel, and as Moses’ serpent swallowed up the sorcerers’ serpents.

Ver. 10. He died unto sin] That is, to abolish sin, as #Ro 8:2.

Ver. 11. Reckon ye also] By faith, reason and reckon yourselves wholly dead in and through Christ, who once died perfectly to sin, as a common person.

Ver. 12. Let not sin therefore] As if the apostle should say, we preach purity and not liberty, as the adversary suggesteth, #Ro 6:1 cf. 3:8. Let not sin reign; rebel it will; but do not actively obey and embrace the commands of sin, as subjects to your king. Let sin be dejected from its regency, though not utterly ejected from its residency. Give it such a deadly wound that it may be sure to die within a year and a day. Sprunt it may, and flutter as a bird when the neck is broken, but live it must not.

Ver. 13. Unto sin] As Satan’s general, who hath his trenches, #2Co 10:4; his commanders, as here, and his fighting soldiers, #1Pe 2:11; his weapons, as here.

Ver. 14. Sin shall not have dominion] Rebel it may, but reign it shall not in any saint. It fareth with sin in the regenerate, as with those beasts, #Da 7:12; they had their dominion taken away, yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time.

Ye are not under the law] i.e. Under the rigour, irritation, curse of the law, Quatenus est virtue peccati. Or, "ye are not under the law," sc. of sin, as #Ro 7:23,25.

Ver. 15. Shall we sin, because, &c.] Some Antinomian libertines would persuade men that God is never displeased with his people, though they fall into adultery, or the like sin, no, not with a fatherly displeasure; that God never chastiseth his people for any sin, no, not with a fatherly chastisement; that God seeth no sin in his elect; that the very being of their sin is abolished out of God’s sight; that they cannot sin, or if they do, it is not they, but "sin that dwelleth in them," &c. What is this but to "turn the grace of God into wantonness," which there hence becometh the savour of death to death unto them; like as Moses’ rod, cast on the ground, turned to a serpent; or as dead men’s bodies, when the marrow melteth, do bring forth serpents? Corruptio optimi pessima.

Ver. 16. His servants ye are] Sinners, though not drunk, yet are not their own men, but at Satan’s beck and check, whom they seem to defy, but indeed deify.

Ver. 17. That form of doctrine] Gr. "That type or mould"; the doctrine is the mould, hearers the metal, which takes impression from it in one part as well as another. And as the metal hath been sufficiently in the furnace, when it is not only purged from the dross, but willingly receiveth the form and figure of that which it is cast and poured into, so here.

Ver. 18. Versus est planus, saith Pareus.

Ver. 19. After the manner of men] That is commonly, Crassius et rudius loquor, by a similitude drawn from human affairs of easy and ordinary observation.

To uncleanness, and to iniquity] Mark the opposition, there are three tos in the expression of the service to sin; but in the service of God only two. Wicked men take great pains for hell; would they but take the same for heaven, they could not likely miss it.

Ver. 20. Free from righteousness] That is, utterly void of grace, and did therefore sin lustily and horribly, earnestly opposing with crest and breast whatsoever stood in the way of their sins and lusts.

Ver. 21. Whereof ye are ashamed] Where sin is in the saddle, shame is on the crupper. Men would have the sweet, but not the shame of sin; and the credit of religion, but not go to the cost of it.

Ver. 22. Become servants to God] Phrasis vulgatissima est, Deum colere. Non secus atque agri fertiles inprimis et optimi, sic Dei cultus, fructus fert ad vitam aeternam uberrimos.

Ye have your fruit unto holiness] Every good work increaseth our holiness, and so hability for obedience.

Ver. 23. For the wages of sin] The best largesse or congiary (οψωνιον) that sin gives to his soldiers is death of all sorts. This is the just hire of the least sin. {a} The Jesuits would persuade us, that some sins against which the law thundereth and lighteneth, are so light in their own nature, Ut factores nec sordidos, nec malos, nec impios, nec Deo exosos reddere possint. (Chemnit. de Theol. Jesuitar.) But as there is the same roundness in a little ball as in a great one; so the same disobedience in a small sin as in a greater. Indeed there is no sin little, because no little God to sin against. Every sin hales hell at the very heels of it.

{a} αμαρτια ψυχη θανατου, και Θανατος ψυχης Nazianzen

Chapter 7

Ver. 1. Know ye not, brethren] Bellarmine saith of his Romans (more true perhaps of these), Romani sicut non acumina, ita nec imposturas habent. As they are not very knowing, so not cunning to deceive.

Ver. 2. She is loosed, &c.] And so at liberty to marry again, though Jerome compare such to the unclean beasts in the ark, and to vessels of dishonour in a house, yea, to dogs that return to their vomit; which was his error. Patres legendi cum venia, saith one.

Ver. 3. So then if] The sects then are out that say today, that if they have husbands and wives that will not turn saints, that is, sects, they may leave them, and marry others.

Ver. 4. That we should bring forth fruit] The ministry of the word, saith one, is the bridal bed; wherein God by his Spirit doth communicate with our souls his sweetest favours, and maketh them be conceived with the fruits of righteousness to everlasting life.

Ver. 5. In the flesh] In our pure naturals.

The motions of sin] Those maladies of the soul (παθηματα).

By the law] By the irritation of the law.

Did work] Gr. did inwardly work (ενηργειτο).

Ver. 6. Not in the oldness of the letter] That is, not in that old kind of life that we lived under subjection to the law, to the irritation, co-action, and curse of it.

Ver. 7. I had not known lust] Involuntary evil motions. The apostle calleth concupiscence sin, saith Possevine the Jesuit, but we may not say so. Most of the most dangerous opinions of Popery spring from hence, that they have slight conceits of concupiscence, as a condition of nature. But inward bleeding will kill a man, so will concupiscence, if not bewailed. The Council of Trent saith, that it is not truly and properly a sin, albeit it be so called, because it proceeds from sin, and inclines a man to sin. Neither want there among us that say, that original sin is not forbidden by the law; directly indeed, and immediately, it is not; but forbidden it is, because cursed and condemned by the law.

I had not known sin] The law of nature discovers not original sin with its evil lusts. True it is that a philosopher could say (Timon apud Laertium),

παντων μεν πρωτιστα κακων επιθυμια εστιν,

Concupiscence is the root of all evil; but whether he understood what himself said, I greatly question. Erras, si tecum vitia nasci putas, saith Seneca; supervenerunt, ingesta sunt: Thou mistakest if thou thinkest that thy vices were born with thee, they came in since, they were brought into thee. Tam sine vitio quam sine virtute nascimur, saith another; We were born as well without vice as without virtue. Quintilian saith it is more marvel that one man sinneth, than that all men should live honestly; sin is so against the nature of man.

Thou shalt not covet] The word concupisco is inceptive: to show (saith one) that the very first motion is sin, though no consent be yielded.

Ver. 8. By the commandment] Not commandments. Papists abolishing, or at least destroying, the sense of the second commandment, by making it a member of the first, that they may retain the number of ten words (so loth are heretics to have their asses’ ears seen) they divide this last; which yet Paul here calls the commandment; and sure he knew better than they the analysis of the law.

Wrought in me all manner of concupiscence] The more the law would dam up the torrent of sinful lusts, the higher did they swell. ( Nitimur in vetitum.) Corruption doth increase and begin by the law. The more God forbids sin, the more we bid for it: as if we did sin on purpose to provoke God; as if God had need deal with us as he did in the story, who was wont to command the contrary when he would have anything done, because he knew they would cross him. Howbeit, although sin thus take occasion by the law, yet this is per accidens, as in the dropsy, it is not the drink that is to be blamed for increasing the disease, but the ill distemper of the body.

Ver. 9. For I was alive] As being without sense of sin, and conscience of duty.

Sin revived] sc. In sense and appearance.

And I died] sc. In pride and self-justice.

Ver. 10. Ordained to life] By life and death understand peace and perturbation.

Ver. 11. Deceived me] Irritated my corrupt nature, and made me sin the more, per accidens, as Pharaoh was the worse for a message of dismission.

Ver. 12. The commandment] Vis legis in mandando et praecipiendo. The word (εντολη) properly signifieth an affirmative precept.

Ver. 13. Exceeding sinful] Sin is so evil that it cannot have a worse epithet given it. Paul can call it no worse than by its own name, "sinful sin."

Ver. 14. Sold under sin] But yet ill paid of my slavery, and lusting after liberty.

Ver. 15. I allow not] Gr. ου γινωσκω, I know not, as being preoccupated, #Ga 6:1, wherried and whirled away by sin before I am aware or have time to consider.

Ver. 16. I consent unto the law] I vote with it, and for it, as the rule of right; I wish also well to the observance of it, as David did, #Ps 119:45.

Ver. 17. It is no more I] Mr Bradford, martyr, in a certain letter thus comforteth his friend: At this present, my dear heart in the Lord, you are in a blessed estate, although it seem otherwise to you, or rather to your old Adam; the which I dare now be bold to discern from you, because you would have it not only discerned, but also utterly destroyed. God (saith another reverend man) puts a difference between us and sin in us, as between poison and the box that holds it.

Sin that dwelleth in me] An ill inmate that will not leave, till the house falleth on tho head of it; as the fretting leprosy in the walls of a house would not leave till the house itself were demolished. Sin, as Hagar, will dwell with grace, as Sarah, till death beat it out of doors.

Ver. 18. Dwelleth no good thing] Horreo quicquid de meo est, ut sim meus, saith Bernard. It was no ill wish of him that desired God to free him from an ill man, himself, {a} For, though ingrafted into Christ, yet we carry about us a relish of the old stock still. Corruption is, though dejected from its regency, yet not ejected from its inherency; it intermingleth with our best works.

How to perform] Gr. κατεργαζεσθαι, to do it thoroughly; though I am doing at it, as I can.

{a} Domine, libera me a malo homine, meipso.

Ver. 19. For the good, &c.] Nature, like Eve and Job’s wife, is always drawing us from God. As the ferryman plies the oar, and eyes the shore homeward, where he would be, yet there comes a gust of wind that carries him back again; so it is with a Christian. Corruption, egged with a temptation, gets as it were the hill, and the wind, and, upon such advantages, too often prevaileth.

Ver. 20. It is no more I] Every new man is two men. {See Trapp on "Ro 7:17"}

But sin that dwelleth in me] A scripture ill applied by that female Antinomian; who when her mistress charged her for stealing her linens and other things which she found in her chest or trunk, she denied that she stole them; and when she was asked how they came to be laid and locked up there? Did not you do this? No, said she, "it was not I, but sin that dwelleth in me." {See Trapp on "Ro 6:15"} {See Trapp on "Ro 7:17"}

Ver. 21. When I would do good] Something lay at the fountain head, as it were, and stopped him when he would do his duty. But God valueth a man by his desires. {a} There often cometh a prohibition from Chancery to stay proceedings at common law, so here; when we would pray, meditate, confer, &c., we are hindered and interrupted. But God considereth it; and as the service of a sick child is doubly accepted, so here.

Evil is present] We can stay no more from sinning than the heart can from punting and the pulse from beating. Our lives are fuller of sins than the firmament of stars or the furnace of sparks. Erasmus was utterly out, that said with Origen, Paulum hoc sermone balbutire; quam ipse potius ineptiat, saith learned Beza. So Joannes Sylvius Aegranus, a learned but a profane person, reprehended Paul for want of learning, and said, Quod usus sit declamatoriis verbis, non congruentibus ad rem, &c. Nominabat sophisms, quod diceremus homines non posse implere legem. (Joh. Manl.)

{a} Tota vita boni Christiani sanctum desiderium est. Aug.

Ver. 22. I delight] Germanicus reigned in the Romans’ hearts, but Tiberius in the provinces. So here.

Ver. 23. A law in my members] Called the deeds of the body, #Ro 8:13, because corruption acteth and uttereth itself by the members of the body. {a} The πανσπερμια ( vox Empedoclea) is within, but easily and often budgeth and breaketh out.

Warring against the law] The regenerate part. Plato in Cratylo pulchre ait; Ut mentem appellamus νοον, ita legem dicimus νομον, quasi μενοντα νοον, alioqui mens hominum vagatur.

And bringing me into captivity] The sins of the saints (those of daily incursion) are either of precipitancy, as #Ga 6:1, or of infirmity; when a man wrestles, and hath some time to fight it out, but for want of breath and strength, falls, and is in some captivity to the law of sin; this is the worse.

{a} επιθυμιαν Plato πολυκεφαλον appellat.

Ver. 24. O wretched man] We must discontentedly be contented to be exercised with sin while we are here. It is so bred in the bone, that till our bones, as Joseph’s, be carried out of the Egypt of this world, it will not leave. The Romans so conquered Chosroes the Persian, that he made a law, that never any king of Persia should make war against the Romans. (Evagrius.) But let us do what we can to subdue sin, it will be a Jebusite, a false borderer, yea, a rank traitor, rebelling against the Spirit. Only this we may take for a comfortable sign of future victory, when we are discontent with our present ill estate, grace will get the upper hand; as nature doth, when the humours are disturbed, and after many fit. And as till then there is no rest to the body, so neither is there to the soul. The conflict between flesh and spirit is as when two opposite things meet together (cold saltpetre and hot brimstone), they make a great noise. So doth Paul here, Miserable me, &c. Basil fitly compareth him to a man thrown off his horse, and dragged after him crying out for help. Another, to one that is troubled with a disease called the mare, or Ephialtes; which (in his slumber) maketh him think that he feels a thing as big as a mountain lying on his breast, which he can no way remove, but would fain be rid of.

Who shall deliver me] Nothing cleaves more pertinaciously, or is more inexpugnable, than a strong lust.

From this body of death] Or, this dead body, by a Hebraism, this carcase of sin to which I am tied and long held, as noisome every whit to my soul as a dead body to my senses; and as burdensome as a withered arm or mortified limb, which hangs on a man as a lump of lead. Some remnants of sin God hath left in us, to clear to us his justifying grace by Christ’s righteousness. This the apostle falls admiring, #Ro 8:1 "Now then there is no condemnation," &c.; as I might well have expected, being carried captive to the law of sin. Herein also Christ deals as some conquerors, who had taken their enemies prisoners, but yet killed them not immediately, till the day of triumph came. This will keep the saints nothing in their own eyes, even when they are filled brimfull with grace and glory in another world.

Ver. 25. I thank God, &c.] The Grecians being delivered but from bodily servitude by Flaminius the Roman general, called him their saviour; and so rang out, Saviour, saviour, that the fowls in the air fell down dead with the cry. How much greater cause have we to magnify the grace of Christ, &c.

So then, with the mind, &c.] The stars by their proper motion are carried from the west to the east; and yet by the motion of obedience unto the first mover, they pass along from the east unto the west. The waters by their natural course follow the centre of the earth, yet yielding to the moon, they are subject to her motions; so are saints to God’s holy will, though corrupt nature repine and resist. Grace is the prince in the regenerate soul. The will may sometimes be drawn away from the king and fly to the enemy, as David fled to Achish for fear; yet when he went abroad to fight, he killed the Philistines in the south country, and he carried still a loyal heart to his king; so in this case. A ravished woman vexari potest, violari non potest, may be vexed, but not violated. We read of one that (when she could not otherwise help herself) thrust her shears into the belly of an unclean bishop that would have forced her.

Chapter 8

Ver. 1. There is therefore now] Now, after such bloody wounds and gashes, chronicled #Ro 7. Though carried captive, and sold under sin, yet not condemned, as might well have been expected. This the apostle doth here worthily admire.

No condemnation] Non una condemnatio; ουδεν κατακριμα, not one condemnation. There is none in heaven, God doth not condemn them: none on earth, their own heart and conscience doth not condemn them: no word, no commandment, no threatening. An unbeliever shall have a double condemnation; one from the law which he hath transgressed, and another from the gospel, which he hath despised: as a malefactor, that being condemned and dead in law, rejecteth his prince’s pardon. But it is otherwise with those that are in Christ Jesus. The law cannot condemn them, because they have appealed: the gospel cannot, because they have believed. God will "cast out condemnation for ever," as one renders that place, #Mt 12:10, εως αν εκβαλη εις νικος την κρισιν. (Lud. de Dieu.)

Ver. 2. For the law of the Spirit] That is, Christ revived and risen hath justified me. {See Trapp on "Ro 4:25"}

Ver. 3. It was weak through the flesh] Which was irritated by the law, and took occasion thereby.

In the likeness of sinful flesh] Christ condescended to our rags, sordes nostras induit, took our passions and infirmities natural, but not sinful. He was in all things like unto us, but in sin: as the brazen serpent was like the fiery serpents, but only it had no sting.

Ver. 4. Might be fulfilled] In us applicative, in Christ inhaesive.

Ver. 5. Do mind the things] For want of a better principle. The stream riseth not above the spring.

Ver. 6. To be carnally] The quintessence of the flesh’s wittiness, or rather wickedness, φρονημα.

Ver. 7. Because the carnal mind] The best of a bad man is not only averse, but utterly adverse to all goodness. Homo est inversus decalogus, #Job 11:12, an ass’s foal for rudeness, a wild ass’s for unruliness.

Neither indeed can be] Spiritual arguments to a carnal heart are but warm clothes to a dead man. He hath brought a miserable necessity of sinning upon himself: his soul and all the powers thereof being but the shop of sin; his body and all the parts thereof tools of sin; his life and all his actions of both soul and body a trade of sin.

Ver. 8. Cannot please God] Their best works are but dead works, saith the author to the Hebrews; but silken sins, saith Augustine. Lombard citeth that Father, saying thus, Omnis vita infidelium peccatum est: et nihil bonum sine summe bone. The whole life of unbelievers is sin: neither is there anything good without the chiefest good. Ambrose Spiera, a Popish postiller, censureth this for a bloody sentence, Crudelis est illa sententia, Harsh is that opinion, saith he.

Ver. 9. He is none of his] As the merchant sets his seal upon his goods, so doth God his Spirit upon all his people, #Eph 1:13.

Ver. 10. The body is dead] Death to the saints is neither total, but of the body only, nor perpetual, but for a season only, #Ro 8:11.

Ver. 11. Your mortal bodies] As he hath already quickened your souls.

Ver. 12. Not to the flesh] We owe the flesh nothing but stripes, nothing but the blue eye that St Paul gave it. It must be mastered and mortified. Drive this Hagar out of doors, when once it grows haughty.

Ver. 13. If we live after the flesh] We must not think to pass E coeno ad Caelum, from the mire to heaven, to dance with the devil all day, and sup with Christ at night, to fly to heaven with pleasant wings. Beetles love dunghills better than ointments; and swine love mud better than a garden; so do swinish people their lusts, better than the lives of their souls. At Paris ut vivat regnetque beatus, Cogi posse negat. (Horat.) That carnal cardinal said, that he would not part with his part in Paris for Paradise.

But if ye mortify the deeds, &c.] Either a man must kill here, or be killed, Aut fer, aut feri, as Queen Elizabeth often sighed and said to herself concerning the Queen of Scots. Valentinian the emperor dying, gloried about one victory above the rest, and that was his victory over the flesh. Inimicorum nequissimum devici, carnem meam, said he. Be always an enemy to the devil and the world, but specially to your own flesh, said Robert Smith, martyr, in a letter to his wife. Surely, as the Prince of Orange said to his soldiers at the battle of Newport when they had the sea on the one side and the Spaniards on the other; If, saith he, you will live, you must either eat up these Spaniards, or drink up this sea; so must men either eat up their fleshly lusts, or drink of the burning lake: Fire and brimstone shall be else the portion of their cup, #Ps 11:6.

Ver. 14. For as many as are led] As great men suffer their sons to go along with them, but set tutors to overlook and order them; so dealeth God by his; the Spirit leadeth them into all goodness, righteousness, and truth, #Eph 5:9, and fetcheth them again in their wanderings.

Ver. 15. The spirit of bondage] Δουλειας, as #2Ti 1:7, Δειλειας. The law will convince the judgment; but it is the gospel that convinceth the lust and the affection, and so sendeth us to treat with God as a Father, by fervent prayer. The Spirit is here called a "spirit of bondage"; because by the law he enlighteneth a man to see his bondage and slavery to sin and Satan, and his subjection to God’s wrath and vengeance.

Ver. 16. Beareth witness] What an honour is this to the saints, that the Holy Ghost should bear witness at the bar of their consciences.

Ver. 17. And if sons, then heirs] All God’s sons are heirs; not so the sons of earthly princes. Jehoshaphat gave his younger sons great gifts of silver, of gold, and of precious things, with fenced cities in Judah; but the kingdom gave he to Jehoram, because he was the firstborn, #2Ch 21:3. God’s children are all higher than the kings of the earth, #Ps 89:27.

Ver. 18. Are not worthy to be, &c.] Heaven will pay for all; hold out therefore, faith and patience. When Saul had the kingdom, some despised him, but he held his peace, though a man afterwards froward enough. What is a drop of vinegar put into an ocean of wine? What is it for one to have a rainy day, who is going to take possession of a kingdom? Pericula non respicit martyr, coronas respicit, saith Basil A Dutch martyr feeling the flame to come to his beard, Ah, said he, what a small pain is this to be compared to the glory to come! Luther said he would not take all the world for one leaf of the Bible. What then would he take for the glory that it revealeth? St Paul useth a word here that signifieth (upon a good account justly cast up, and the matter well weighed) to conclude, resolve, and determine, as #Ro 3:28 6:11, λογιζομαι. The globe of the earth is, as mathematicians compute, 21,000 miles in compass, and above: yet compared to the greatness of the starry sky, it is but as a centre or little prick to the circle, to which it beareth no proportion; much less do our afflictions to heaven’s happiness.

Ver. 19. For the earnest expectation] Gr. "The intent expectation of the creature expecteth": a Hebrew pleonasm, {a} and also a metaphor either from birds that thrust a long neck out of a cage, as labouring for liberty; or else from those that earnestly look and long for some special friends coming, as Sisera’s mother, who looked out at a window, and cried through the lattice, "Why is his chariot so long in coming?" #Jud 5:28.

{a} Superfluity, redundancy, excess; something superfluous or redundant. ŒD

Ver. 20. Subject to vanity] The creature is defiled by man’s sin, and must therefore be purged by the fire of the last day; as the vessels that held the sin offering were purged by the fire of the sanctuary.

Ver. 21. Because the creature itself] See Mr Wilcox’s discourse upon these words, printed, together with his Exposition of the Psalms, Proverbs, &c., in folio. The creature is said to be subject to vanity and bondage of corruption, 1. As corruptible. 2. As teachers of men, and they will not learn; so that they lose their labour. 3. As they are instruments of man’s punishment. 4. As they are forced to serve wicked men’s turns and uses, who have no peace with the creature, and should have no service from them.

Ver. 22. The whole creation groaneth] Even the very heavens are not without their feebleness and the manifest effects of fainting old age. It is observed that since the days of Ptolemy, the sun runs nearer the earth by 9976 German miles, and therefore the heavens have not kept their first perfection.

And travaileth] How Mr Bradshaw pitied the poor beast he rode on, and said, that men take too much liberty in killing and misusing some contemptible creatures, see in his Life by Mr. Clark, p. 130.

Ver. 23. The firstfruits] Which the creatures have not, and yet they groan: how much more we!

The redemption] Our full and final deliverance.

Ver. 24. For we are saved by hope] Hope is the daughter of faith, but such as is a staff to her aged mother.

Ver. 25. Then do we with patience] Religious men find it more easy to bear evil than to wait till the promised good be enjoyed, #Heb 10:36. The spoiling of their goods required patience; but this more than ordinary.

Ver. 26. Helpeth our infirmities] Lifts with us and before us in our prayers. Or helpeth us as the nurse helpeth her little child, upholding it by the sleeve. (συναντιλαμβανεται. Beza.)

For we know not what, &c.] The flesh with her murmurings maketh such a din that we can hardly hear the voice of the Spirit, mixing with the flesh’s roarings and repinings, his praying, sighs, and sobbings.

But the Spirit itself] Prayer is the breath of the Spirit, who doth super expostulate for us, υπερεντυγχανει, inditing our prayers. We cannot so much as suspirare, a sigh unless he do first inspirare, breathe out a sigh for sin, if he breathe it not into us.

With groanings that cannot be uttered] He that would have unspeakable joy, #1Pe 1:8, must by the Spirit stir up unutterable groanings.

Ver. 27. Knoweth the mind, &c.] Quomodo enim non exauditur spiritus a patre, qui exaudit cum patre? (Augustine.)

Ver. 28. All things work together] Not affliction only (as some would here restrain it), but sin, Satan, all. Venenum aliquando pro remedio fuit, saith Seneca. Medici pedes et alas cantharidis, cum sit ipsa mortifera, prodesse dicunt. The drinking of that wine wherein a viper hath, been drowned cureth the leprosy. The scorpion healeth his own wounds, and the viper (the head and tail being cut off), beaten and applied, cureth her own biting. God changeth our grisly wounds into spangles of beauty, and maketh the horrible sting of Satan to be like a pearl pin, to pin upon us the long white robe of Christ, and to dress us with the garment of gladness.

Ver. 29. Conformed to the image] In holiness, say some; in glory, say others; in affliction, is the apostle’s meaning. Art not thou glad to fare as Phocion? said he to one that was to die with him. (Plut. in Apophtheg.) May not Christ better say so to his co-sufferers?

Ver. 30. Them also he called, &c.] If ye feel not faith (said that holy martyr), then know that predestination is too high a matter for you to be disputers of, until you have been better scholars in the school house of repentance and justification, which is the grammar school wherein we must be conversant and learned, before we go to the university of God’s most holy predestination and providence.

Them he also justified] Vocation precedeth justification. Deus iustificat fide iam donatos, sicut damnat prius indurates. (Cameron.)

Them he also glorified] That is, he keepeth them glorious by his glorious Spirit, even in this life, from impenitent sin, and maketh them stable and constant in godliness.

Ver. 31. What shall we say then?] q.d. Predestination, vocation, justification, glorification? What things be these? We cannot tell what to say to these things, so much we are amazed at the greatness of God’s love in them. A brave conclusion of the whole disputation concerning justification by faith alone.

If God be for us, &c.] Maximilian the emperor so admired this sentence, that he caused it to be set in chequer work upon a table, at which he used to dine and sup, that having it so often in his eye, he might always have it in mind also.

Ver. 32. He that spared not] Qui misit unigenitum, immisit spiritum, promisit vultum, quid tandem tibi negaturus est? saith Bernard. Nihil unquam ei negasse credendum est, quem ad vituli hortatur esum, saith Jerome.

Ver. 33. Who shall lay anything] This is that confident interrogatory of a good conscience, επερωτημα, #1Pe 3:21.

It is God that justifieth] Some read it questionwise thus, Shall God that justifieth? No such matter. And if the judge acquit a prisoner, he cares not though the jailor or fellow prisoners condemn him; so here.

Ver. 34. Who is he that condemneth?] To the sentence of death he opposeth Christ’s death.

Who is even at the right hand] And as Christ is at the right hand of his Father, so is the Chruch at the right hand of Christ, #Ps 45:9, a place of dignity and safety.

Ver. 35. Who shall separate us] Who shall separate me? saith the Syriac.

Ver. 36. We are killed all the day] In Diocletian’s days 17,000 Christians are said to have been slain in one month. In the Parisian massacre 30,000 in as little time, and within the year 300,000.

As sheep to the slaughter] That lamentable story of the Christians of Calabria that suffered persecution, A. D. 1560, comes home to this text. For being all thrust up in one house together, as in a sheepfold, the executioner comes in, and among them takes one, and blindfolds him with a muffler about his eyes, and so leadeth him forth to a larger place, where he commandeth him to kneel down. Which being done, he cutteth his throat, and so leaveth him half dead; and taking his butcher’s knife and muffler all of gore blood, he cometh again to the rest, and so leading them one after another, he despatcheth them, to the number of 88, no otherwise than doth a butcher kill his calves and sheep.

Ver. 37. We are more than conquerors] What is that? Triumphers, #2Co 2:14. We do over overcome; because through faith in Christ we overcome before we fight, and are secure of victory. {a} And again, "we are more than conquerors," because we gather strength by our opposition (as that giant that fought with Hercules is fabled to do, by his falling to the earth), we conquer in being conquered. The tormentors were tired in torturing Blandina: and, We are ashamed, O emperor; the Christians laugh at your cruelty and grow the more resolute, said one of Julian’s nobles to him.

{a} υπερνικωμεν Super superamus. Super vincimus.

Ver. 38. For I am persuaded] Or, I am sure by what I have heard out of God’s word. {a} He that hath this full assurance of faith goes gallantly to heaven. What (saith the world) should a rich man all? The Irish ask such, What they mean to die? But I wonder more at such as have the riches of full assurance, yea, that have but the assurance of adherence, though not of evidence, what they mean to walk heavily. Mr Latimer says that the assurance of heaven is the desert of the feast of a good conscience. There are other dainty dishes in this feast, but this is the banquet.

{a} πεπεισμαι, scil. Ex verbi praedicatione efficaci ut indicat tacite hoc verbo. Beza.

Ver. 39. For the love of God] viz. Wherewith he loved us. For he loveth his own to the end, and in the end, #Joh 13:1. See the note there. The wife of Camerarius heard Sarcerius interpreting this text and #Ro 8:35 thus, and was much comforted after a sore conflict. (Joh. Manlii, loc. com.)

Chapter 9

Ver. 1. I say the truth, &c.] As any one is more assured of his own salvation, the more he desireth the salvation of others. Charity is no churl; as we see here in Paul.

Ver. 2. Continual sorrow] Such as a woman in travail hath, οδυνη. So #Ga 4:19.

Ver. 3. Were accursed] Devoted to destruction, αναθεμα, as those malefactors among the heathens were, that in time of common calamity were sacrificed to their infernal gods, for pacifying their displeasure, that the plague might cease. Out of greatest zeal to God and love to his countrymen, the apostle wisheth himself anathema, that is, not to be separated from the Spirit and grace of Christ (for so he should have sinned), but from the comforts of Christ, the happiness that comes in by Christ, as one well interpreteth it. Charitas exuberans optat etiam impossibilia, saith Luther; his over abounding charity wishs impossibilities; but his wish was voluntas conditionata, saith one. His love to the Church was like the ivy, which if it cleave to a stone or an old wall, will rather die than forsake it. Somewhat like to this holy wish was that of Ambrose, that the fire of contentions kindled in the Churches might (if it were the will of God) be quenched with his blood. And that of Nazianzen, that (Jonah-like) he might be cast into the sea, so by it all might be calm in the public.

Ver. 4. The adoption] For Israel was God’s firstborn, and so "higher than the kings of the earth," #Ps 89:27.

And the glory] The ark of the covenant, #1Sa 4:21, whence Judea is called "the glorious land," #Da 11:41. As for the ark, it is elsewhere called God’s face, #Ps 105:4. Yea, God himself, #Ps 132:5.

The covenants] The moral law in two tables.

The giving of the law] The judicial law.

The service] The ceremonial law.

The promises] Of the gospel made to Abraham, and his seed for ever. These promises are a precious book, every leaf whereof drops myrrh and mercy.

Ver. 5. Of whom is Christ] This is as great an honour to all mankind (how much more to the Jews!) as if the king should marry into some poor family of his subjects.

Ver. 6. Not as though the word] That word of promise, #Ro 9:4, which is sure hold, "Yea and Amen."

For they are not all Israel] Multi sacerdotes, et pauci sacerdotes, Many priests and few priests, saith Chrysostom, multi in nomine, et pauci in opere, many in name and few in work. So here.

Ver. 7. Neither because they are] This profiteth them no more than it did Dives that Abraham called him son.

Ver. 8. The children of the promise] Abraham by believing God’s promise, begat, after a sort, all believers, yea, Christ himself, the head of his seed, his Son according to the flesh, but more according to the faith.

Ver. 9. At this time] {See Trapp on "Ge 18:10"}

Ver. 10. But when Rebecca] She, and not Isaac, is named, because she received the oracle, whether from the mouth of Melchisedec or some other way, I have not to determine.

Ver. 11. For the children, &c.] Here the apostle wadeth into that profundum sine fundo, bottomless subject, predestination.

Being not yet born] Sapores son of Misdates, king of Persia, began his reign before his life. For his father dying, left his mother with child, and the Persian nobility set the crown on his mother’s belly, acknowledging thereby her issue for their prince, before she as yet had felt herself quick. God elects not of foreseen faith or works, but of free grace.

Ver. 12. Shall serve] Servitude came in with a curse, and figureth reprobation, #Ge 9:25 Joh 8:34,35 Ga 4:30.

Ver. 13. Esau have I hated] i.e. I have not loved him, but passed him by; and this preterition is properly opposed to election.

As it is written] Malachi is alleged to explain Moses. It was rightly observed by Pareus (in the close of his Comment upon Genesis) that all the following Scriptures are but expositions of that first book. {a}

{a} Quicquid dehinc scripturarum est, huius est commentarius.

Ver. 14. ls there] Carnal reason dares reprehend what it does not comprehend. (Para.)

Ver. 15. I will have mercy, &c.] Dei voluntas est ratio rationum, nec tantum recta, sed regula. The will of God is the rule of his plan, neither only right but his rule.

Ver. 16. So then it is not, &c.] Nec volentis, nec volantis (as a nobleman gave it for his motto), though a man could run as fast as a bird can fly.

Ver. 17. Raised thee up] For a vessel of wrath, and an instance of my justice.

Ver. 18. Therefore] God being a free agent, cannot be unjust; he is bound to none.

Whom he will, he hardeneth] There is a threefold hardness of the heart: 1. Natural and hereditary, whereby all men are by nature not only averse from, but also adverse to, the motions of grace; this is called a neck possessed with an iron sinew, #Isa 48:4 2. Actual, adventitious, voluntary; which is, when, by often choking good motions, a man hath quit his heart of them; being arrived at that dead and dedolent disposition, #Eph 4:18, past feeling, and ripe for destruction. This is called a brow of brass in the above named text, #Isa 48:4 3. Judiciary, penal hardness; happens when God, for a punishment of the former, withholds his graces, and delivers a man up to Satan to be further hardened, and to his own heart’s lusts, which is worse. The incestuous person was delivered up to Satan, and yet repented; but he that is delivered up to his own heart, to a reprobate mind, cannot be renewed by repentance; but is in the ready road to that unpardonable sin. And this last is here meant.

Ver. 19. Why doth he yet find fault] Queritur, Complain, saith the Vulgate; which interpretation deceived Aquinas, as if it had been written Quaeritur. Be sought for. #Lu 15:8. Gregory the Great and others, for Everrit, swept away, read Evertit; destroyed, which mistake produced many groundless glosses.

Ver. 20. That repliest against God] Gr. Ανταποκρινομενος, chattest and wordest it with him?

Ver. 21. Of the same lump] The apostle alludeth to man’s creation, and therehence ascendeth to God’s eternal decree of predestination.

Ver. 22. Fitted to destruction] Non dicit Deum eos aptasse ad interitum, ne videretur dicere Deum eis indidisse peccatum, quo ad exitum praeparentur. (Molinaeus.)

Ver. 23. And that he might] He rejected some, that his mercy might the more appear in the election of others.

The riches of his glory] That is, of his mercy wherein he principally glorieth, and for the which he is most of all glorified.

Ver. 24. Even us] Not me Paul only hath he assured of vocation, and so consequently of election to eternal life.

Ver. 25. And her beloved] #Jer 12:7. God calls the Church the beloved of his soul, or (as the Septuagint and Vulgate read it) his beloved soul, την ψυχην την ηγαπημενην.

Ver. 26. The children, &c.] This is such a royalty, #Joh 1:12, as the apostle worthily wondereth at, and sets an Ecce Behold, upon it.

Ver. 27. A remnant] Reserved for royal use. Diaconos paucitas honorabiles fecit saith Jerome. Sic et sanctos, say I

Ver. 28. A short work] When once he sets to work to cut off hypocrites.

Ver. 29. Except the Lord of Sabaoth] That is, of hosts. God is commander-in-chief of all creatures. The Rabbis well observe that he hath Magnleh Cheloth, and Matteh Cheloth, two general troops, as his horse and foot, the upper and lower troops ready pressed. (Kimchi.)

Ver. 30. Which is of faith] Faith wraps itself in the righteousness of Christ, and so justifieth us.

Ver. 31. The law of righteousness] That is, the righteousness of the law.

Ver. 32. For they stumbled] So they do to this day. So do Papists and carnal Protestants, Non frustra Lutherus in libris toties vaticinatus videtur, sese vereri dictitans, ne se extincto vera illa iustificationis disciplina prorsus apud Christianos exolescat. {a}

{a} John Fox, Christus Triumphans, Epist.

Ver. 33.] {See Trapp on "1Pe 2:6"}

Shall not be ashamed] That is, shall be confirmed, comforted, established. The Scripture loves to speak with the least in promising good to God’s people: or else by way of exclamation, "Oh how great is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee!" q.d. it is unutterable; fitter to be believed than possible to be discoursed, #Ps 31:19.

Chapter 10

Ver. 1. My heart’s desire] So it should be ours. See my True Treasure, chap. vii. sect. 2.

Ver. 2. They have a zeal of God] So had those two Rabbis, David Rubenita and Shelomoh Molchu, that set upon the Emperor Charles v. to persuade him to Judaism, and were therefore put to a cruel death, A. D. 1530. (Alsted. Chron.) So had Latimer before his conversion: I was as obstinate a Papist, saith he, as any was in England: insomuch that when I should be made Bachelor in Divinity, my whole oration went against Philip Melancthon and his opinions, &c. Being a priest, and using to say mass, he thought he had never sufficiently mingled his massing wine with water: and moreover that he should never be dammed, if he were once a professed friar; with various such superstitious fantasies. (Acts and Mon.) Zeal without knowledge is as wild fire in a fool’s hand; it is like the devil in the demoniac, that casts him sometimes into the fire and sometimes into the water.

Ver. 3. For they being ignorant] The soul that is without knowledge is not good, and he that (without knowledge) hasteth with his feet, sinneth, #Pr 19:2; the faster he goeth, the farther he is out.

Ver. 4. For Christ is the end, &c.] q.d. Ay, and for Christ’s sake, is the righteousness of God. But the Jews submit not to Christ, therefore not to the righteousness of God. Christ, saith Austin, is Legis finis interficiens, et perficiens. The ceremonial law he hath slain and taken out of the way: the moral law he hath fulfilled for us, and we by him, so by faith in his name, which maketh his obedience to become ours.

Ver. 5. Shall live by them] This do and live; that is, saith Luther, morere, to delay, die out of hand: for there is no man lives and sins not. We can as little cease to sin as the pulse to beat, heart to pant, &c.

Ver. 6. Say not in thine heart] The law preacheth faith in Christ, as well as the gospel.

Ver. 7. Into the deep] Those deeps of the earth, #Ps 71:20.

Ver. 8. The word is nigh thee] Moses meant it of the law, but it more fitly agreeth to the gospel. The babe of Bethlehem is swathed up in the bands of both Testaments: he is author, object, matter, and mark of both. Therefore if we will profit in hearing, teaching, reading, we must have the eye of our minds turned toward Christ, as the faces of the cherubims were toward the mercy seat.

Ver. 9. That if thou shalt confess] That is, if thou shalt call upon the name of the Lord, as it is expounded, #Ro 10:13.

Ver. 10. For with the heart, &c.] Plutarch tells us that of all plants in Egypt, that they call Persica is consecrated to their goddess Isis, and that for this reason, because the fruit of it is like a heart, the leaf like a tongue.

Ver. 11. Shall not be ashamed] Maketh not haste, saith the prophet. Shame and confusion follow haste and precipitancy: Sed Deo confisi nunquam confusi. But trust in God is never confused.

Ver. 12. Is rich unto all, &c.] He cannot therefore be poor that can pray; for he shall have out his prayer, either in money or money’s worth.

Ver. 13. Shall be saved] Though he miss that particular mercy he asked for, he is certainly sealed up to salvation.

Ver. 14. How shall they hear, &c.] The word read is of divine use and efficacy; but of preaching we may say as David did of Goliath’s sword, "There is none to that." Milk warmed is fitter for nourishment; and the rain from heaven hath a fatness with it, and a special influence, more than standing waters; so there is not that life, operation, and blessing in the word read as preached.

And how shall they preach unless they be sent] Here you have that scala caeli, ladder of heaven, as a good old martyr called it; and we must not presume to alter the rounds of this ladder. The apostle holds it for impossible that any should preach that are not sent. Let such look to it, as run before they are sent, press into the pulpit without a call thereunto. Let them remember Nadab and Abihu with their strange fire, Korah and his complices with their dismal usurpations, Uzzah and Uzziah with their exemplary punishmeats, &c. God hanged these up in gibbets, as it were to warn others.

Ver. 15. How beautiful are the feet] How much more their faces! "Surely I have seen thy face as the face of God," said Jacob to Esau, #Ge 33:10, that is, honourable and comfortable. We know how Cornelius received Peter; and the Galatians, Paul, till they were bewitched from him, #Ga 3:1. But it must be remembered that we "glorify the word," not the preacher, #Ac 13:48.

Ver. 16. Who hath believed our report?] Gr. ακοην, our hearing, passively taken. So Caesar and Cicero use auditio for report and rumour. Some sit before a preacher as senseless as the seats they sit on, pillars they lean to, dead bodies they tread on. Others rage, Tange montes et famigabunt, &c.

Ver. 17. By the word of God] That is, by the word of God’s command, sending out preachers gifted for the purpose, and saying to them, "Go preach," &c.

Ver. 18. Yes verily; their sound, &c.] Sonus tonus, οο φθογγος. David saith only, "their line," #Ps 19:2. That accurate and artificial frame of the heaven preacheth, as it were, the infinite wisdom and power of the Creator. All God’s works are his Regii professores, regal preachers, his Catholic preachers, or real expositors (as one calleth them) of his Divinity. The world (saith Clem. Alex.) is Dei Scriptura, writing of God, God’s great Bible with three great leaves—heaven, earth, and hell. David’s words are here very fitly applied to the sound of the gospel; the circle whereof is like that of the sun, universal to the whole world; and the motion not unlike: for it arose in the east of Judea, went thence to the south of Greece, and then to the west of Italy and the Latins; from whence it is come to these northern parts of the world (the very utmost angle of the universe), where that it may continue, let us pray,

“ Vespera nunc venit, nobiscum Christe maneto:

Extingui lucem nec patiare tuam.”

"All that I fear," saith Mr Baxter, "is, lest Mr Herbert be a true prophet, and the gospel be in its solar motion travelling for the American parts, and is quitting its present place of residence and unworthy professors and possessors: and then farewell England." Contempt drove Christ from Nazareth, his own country, which he came purposely to heal. Confer #Jer 51:9 Eze 24:13.

Ver. 19. Did not Israel know] sc. That the Gentiles were to be called? they were often told of it.

Ver. 20. Is very bold] So that for his boldness he was sawn asunder, saith Jerome.

Ver. 21. Stretched] A metaphor from a mother.

Chapter 11

Ver. 1. I say then, Hath God, &c.] As I may seem to have said, #Ro 10 Ministers must do their utmost to prevent mistakes. Zuinglius, when in his sermons he had terrified the wicked, was wont to shut up with Bone vir, hoc nihil ad te, Thou good man, I mean not thee.

Ver. 2. Saith of Elias] A man of such transcendent zeal, that to heighten the expression thereof some have legended of him, that when he drew his mother’s breasts, he was seen to suck in fire.

Ver. 3. And I am left alone] To withstand and reform the common corruptions. Some have commended it to our consideration, that from the first service in the temple when it was built, and the time of Elijah’s reformation, was about a hundred years. And from the reformation in King Edward VI’s days until now is about the same proportion of time.

Ver. 4. The image of Baal] Τη Βααλ, to that lady, as our modern idolaters also call the Virgin Mary, whom they despight with seeming honours. They would persuade the world, that Christ by dying obeyed not his Father only, but his mother too, that she is the complement of the Trinity, that she entreateth not, but commandeth her Son, is the most imperious mother of our Judge, with many like horrid blasphemies, which I tremble to relate. {a}

{a} Salazar Jesuita in #Pr 8:19,23,29.

Ver. 5. According to the election of grace] St Paul was Constantissimus gratiae praedicator, as Austin calleth him, a most constant preacher of God’s free grace.

Ver. 6. Then is it no more of works] Whatsoever conferrumination {a} of grace and works Papists dream of. They think that as he that standeth on two firm branches of a tree is surer than he that standeth upon one only; so he that trusteth to Christ and works too is in the safest condition. But, 1. They are fallen from Christ that trust to works, #Ga 5:4 2. He that hath one foot on a firm branch, and another on a rotten one, stands not so sure as if he stood wholly on that which is sound. But let them be Moses’ disciples, let us be Christ’s. Set not up a candle to this Sun of righteousness; mix not thy puddle with his purple blood, thy rags with his raiment, thy pigeon’s plumes with his eagle’s feathers. He can and will save his to the utmost, #Heb 7:25. Detest all mock stays; and account accursed for ever that blasphemous direction of the Papists to dying people, Coniunge, Domine, obsequium meum cum omnibus quae Christus passus est pro me: Join, Lord, mine obedience with all that Christ hath suffered for me.

{a} Soldering together; fig. intimate union or combination. ŒD

Ver. 7. Israel] i.e. The carnal Israelite.

He seeketh for] viz. Righteousness and salvation by works.

Hardened] By a judiciary hardness.

Ver. 8. The spirit of slumber] So that with those bears in Pliny they cannot be awakened with the sharpest prickles; and with those asses in Etruria, that feeding upon henbane they lie for dead, and awake not till half-hilded. Such a dead lethargy is now befallen Papists.

Ver. 9. Be made a snare] As the bait is to the birds.

Ver. 10. Bow down] i.e. Bring them down into bondage and misery. Compare #Le 26:13.

Ver. 11. Have they stumbled] He that stumbleth and comes not down, gets ground.

Ver. 12. How much more their fulness] O dieculam illam! dexter mihi prae laetitias alit oculus. How long, Lord, holy and true?

Ver. 13. I magnify mine office] I make the utmost of it by gaining souls to Christ.

Ver. 14. And might save some] Ministers must turn themselves as it were into all shapes and fashions, both of spirit and speech, to win people to God.

Ver. 15. Be the reconciling] Not as a cause, but as an occasion.

Life from the dead] That is, Res summe bona, saith Phocius, a special good thing.

Ver. 16. If the firstfruit be holy] Not with a natural, but a federal holiness, as #1Co 7:14.

Ver. 17. Were grafted in] Gr. ενεκεντρισθης, pricked into the middle, the centre of the olive.

Ver. 18. Boast not] Gr. throw not up thy neck, in a scornful insulting way, but rather pity and pray for them. (Isidor. Solil.)

Ver. 19. Thou wilt say] Carnal reason will have ever somewhat to say, and is not easily set down. (Greg. Moral.)

Ver. 20. Be not high-minded, but fear] Alterius perditio tun sit cautio, saith one. Ruina maiorum sit cautela minorum, saith another. Seest thou thy brother shipwrecked? look well to thy tackling.

Ver. 21. Take heed lest] Cavebis autem si pavebis.

Ver. 22. Severity] Gr. Λποτομιαν, Resection or cutting off, as a surgeon cutteth off proud and dead flesh. The dispersion of the Jews for this sixteen hundred years and upward is such, as that one of their own Rabbis concludeth from thence that their Messiah must needs be come; and they must needs suffer so much for killing him. Epiphanius testifieth, that after the destruction of Jerusalem, the Jews of Tiberius had this custom, when any of their friends or kindred were at the point of death, they would secretly whisper them in the ear to this purpose: Believe in Jesus of Nazareth, whom our rulers crucified; for he shall come again to judge thee at the last day. Fincelius also (Lib. iii. de miraculis) tells of a certain converted Jew of Ratisbon, who being demanded (among other questions put to him by the Christians) why the Jews did so exceedingly desire the blood of Christians, answered that that was a great secret among them, known to none but their chiefest Rabbis; but this was their custom, to anoint their dying friends with the blood of Christians, and to use words to this effect: If he that was promised in the law and prophets hath already appeared, and that Jesus who was crucified were the true Messiah, let this blood of an innocent man, who died in the faith of Jesus, cleanse thee from thy sins, and be a means to further thine eternal happiness. Oh, the severity of God! and, oh, the obstinace and misery of this hard hearted people!

Ver. 23. God is able] He can fetch heart of oak out of a hollow tree, and of carnal make a people created again, #Ps 102:18 Eph 2:10.

Ver. 24. Contrary] Therefore nature contributes nothing toward the work of conversion.

Ver. 25. That blindness in part] It is neither total nor perpetual. Lyra was a famous English Jew. Tremellius was also a Jew born; they are but methe mispar, a very few that are yet converted. They pretend (but maliciously) that those few that turn Christians in Italy are none other than poor Christians hired from other cities to impersonate their part. But when God shall have united those two sticks, #Eze 37:19, and made way for those kings of the East, #Re 16:12, then it shall be said of Jacob and Israel, "What hath God wrought?" #Nu 23:23. Jachiades (a Jewish doctor) upon those words, #Da 12:4, would have us believe that God sealed up the time of the coming of the Messiah; that for their sins, which are many, it is deferred, &c., but concludeth his animadversions there with this truth, Verum enimvero Deus nos dignabitur clarissima visione; cum Deus reducet Zionem, tunc intelligemus res ipsas, prout sunt, i.e. God shall vouchsafe us a most clear vision at that time when he shall bring back the captivity of Zion, and then we shall understand things even as they are.

Ver. 26. Shall turn away ungodliness] That is, He shall pardon their sin. The prophet Isaiah hath it, Unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, &c. They whose persons are justified, have their lusts mortified.

Ver. 27. When I shall take] By the spirit of judgment and of burning, #Isa 4:4 cf. 27:9.

Ver. 28. They are enemies] i.e. Hated of God, as appears by the opposition; and banished, as it were, by a common consent of nations, out of human society. See #1Th 2:15,16.

Ver. 29. Are without repentance] When God is said to repent, it is Mutatio rei non Dei, effectus non affectus, facti non consilii, a change, not of his will, but of his work. Repentance with man is the change of his will; repentance with God is the willing of a change. But what a sweet comfort is this, that God’s favour is so constant that what he hath written he hath written, that there is no blotting out of the book of life ( Nulla litura in decretis sapientum, say the Stoicsno erasure of the decrees of the wise,), that it is, I have blessed him, and he shall be blessed; and that his blessing is (as Thucydides saith of a well composed history), κτημα εις αει ξυγκειμενον, an everlasting possession.

Ver. 30. Through their] By occasion of their unbelief. Pungit Iudaeos et humiliat Gentes, saith one.

Ver. 31. That they also] It noteth not the cause, but the event, as #1Co 11:19.

Ver. 32. For God hath concluded] Or locked them all up in the law’s dark dungeon, αυνεκλεισε, #Ga 3:22. Unbelief breaks all the law at an instant by rejecting Christ, as the first act of faith obeys all the law at an instant in Christ.

That he might have mercy upon all] Luther in a very great conflict was relieved and comforted by the often repeating of this sweet sentence.

Ver. 33. O the depth of the riches] The Romans dedicated a certain lake, the depth whereof they knew not, to Victory; so should we admire the unsearchable counsels of God, being subdued to that which we cannot subdue to our understandings. God, saith one, is like the pool Polycritus writeth of, which in compass at first scarcely seemed to exceed the breadth of a shield, but if any went into it to wash, it extended itself more and more. (Aristot. de Mirab. Auscult.) And Chrysostom speaking of the love of God in Christ, Oh, saith he, I am like a man digging in a deep spring; I stand here, and the water riseth up upon me; and I stand there, and still the water riseth upon me. Oh, dive we not into this deep; for here (as in the salt waters), the deeper, the sweeter.

Past finding out] It is with us here as with hounds at a loss, having neither footsteps nor scent left of the game they pursue (ανεξιχνιαστοι). Let it satisfy us for present, that at the last day of judgment we shall see a harmony in this discord of things; and that the reason of God’s ways, now hidden, shall then be made manifest. In the meantime know, that Arcana Dei, Arca Dei (Augustine), secrets of God and the ark of God, of pry not into it, lest ye perish; but hold this for certain, God’s judgments are sometimes secret, always just.

Ver. 34. Who hath been his counsellor] Alphonso the wise (the fool rather) was heard blasphemously to say, that if he had been of God’s counsel at the creation, he could have advised and ordered many things much better than now they are. This Alphonso, the tenth of that name, king of Spain, who by a just hand of God upon him deprived of his kingdom, and died in public hatred and infamy.

Ver. 35. Who hath first given to himJ Do we not owe him all that we have and are? And can a man merit by paying his debts?

Ver. 36. For of him] As the efficient cause, and "through him" as the administering cause, and "to him" as the final cause, are all things. A wise philosopher could say, that man is the end of all in a semicircle; that is, all things in the world are made for him, and he is made for God.

To whom be glory for ever] God, saith one, counts the works and fruits that come from us to be ours, because the judgment and resolution of will whereby we do them is ours. This he doth to encourage us. But because the grace whereby we judge and will aright comes from God, ascribe we all to him. So shall he lose no praise, we no encouragement.

Chapter 12

Ver. 1. I beseech] Volumus et iubemus we wish and we order, became the pope’s style, A. D. 606.

By the mercies of God] His manifold mercies, δια των οικτιρμων. Per miserationes amplificationis causa. (Beza.) We that have received so many mercies, must not only servire Deo, sed et adulate, serve God but even worship him, saith Tertullian. Mercy calls for duty; deliverance commands obedience, and there is so milch disingenuity in the contrary, that holy Ezra thinks heaven and earth would be ashamed of it, #Ezr 9:13,14. The cords of kindness are called "the cords of a man," #Ho 11:4; rational motives befitting the nature of a man. So that to sin against mercy is to sin against humanity; it is bestial, and fits a man for destruction, #Ro 9:22; like as when medicine which should remove the disease, doth co-operate with it, then death comes with the more pain and speed. No excess more dangerous than that of bread: no judgment more terrible than that of mercy despised and abused. Abused mercy turns into fury. Patientia laesa fit furor.

That ye present] As they of old did their sacrifices at the altar. With the burnt offering, which signified the sacrificing of the flesh, was joined the sin offering, that is, Christ. Faith applies Christ to the believer, and the believer to Christ.

Your bodies] That is, your whole person. Cainistce sunt, saith Luther, offerentes non persoham, sed opus personae. They are Cainists that offer to God the work done, but do not offer themselves to God.

A living sacrifice] In the old law they had many kinds of sacrifices killed and offered. Now, saith Origen, instead of a ram we kill our ireful passions; instead of a goat our unclean affections; instead of flying fowls our idle thoughts, &c.

Ver. 2. To this world] To the corrupt customs and courses of wicked worldings. See them set forth, #Ro 13:13 Eph 4:18-20 1Pe 4:3, and shun them. Erasmus rendereth it, Ne accommodetis vos ad figuram, Accommodate not yourselves to the figure and fashion of the world; do not impersonate and act the part of such; as a player doth, when he playeth the drunkard or wanton on the scaffold or stage (so μη συσχηματιζεσθε signifies). St Paul writeth to his Corinthians, not to company with fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or with extortioners, or idolaters, lest they should conform to them, #1Co 5:9,10. For as the creatures living in the several elements are commonly of the temperature of the element they live in (as the fishes, cold and moist like the water; the worms, cold and dry as the earth, &c.), so are we apt to conform to the company we converse with. It is both hard and happy not to do as the rest do; but to be like fishes, that retain their sweetness in the salt sea; like salamanders, that remain unscorched in the fire; like pearls, that growing in the sea, have the colour and brightness of heaven; like oil, that will easily overtop all other liquors, and not commingle; ever holding constant a countermotion to the course of the world and corruptions of the times; that amidst all, a good conscience may be kept, that richest treasure and dearest jewel that ever the heart of man was acquainted with.

But be ye transformed] Gr. metamorphosed, the old frame being dissolved, and a new form acquired.

That ye may prove] so. By your practice.

Ver. 3. But to think soberly] Gr. φρονειν εις το σωφρονειν, to be wise to sobriety. Socrates made no distinction between wisdom and sobriety, σοφιαν και σωφροσυνην non distinguebat. (Xenoph.) We shall be sober, if we take not that upon us that we have not, nor brag of that which we have. There is an elegancy in the original that cannot be rendered.

Ver. 4. For as we have, &e.] See #1Co 12:12, which is a commentary on this text.

Ver. 5. One body in Christ] {See Trapp on "1Co 12:12"} {See Trapp on "1Co 12:13"}

And every one members] Try thy membership, if, 1. Sociable with Christ and Christians. 2. Useful and serviceable to the body. 3. Compassionate, as Paul; "Who is afflicted," saith he, "and I burn not?" I feel twinges when others are hurt; and I hold myself a debtor (as a member) to Greeks and barbarians, to the wise and unwise, be they but of the body, #Ro 1:14.

Ver. 6. According to the proportion] That form of sound words, #2Ti 1:13, those principles of the doctrine of Christ, #Heb 6:1, with which all interpretations of Scripture must bear due proportion.

Ver. 7. Or ministry] Take it either largely for the whole ministry, as #1Co 12:5 Ac 1:24-26 17; or more strictly for the office of a deacon, as #Ac 6:1-6.

Ver. 8. Or he that exhorteth] The pastor properly so called. {See Trapp on "Eph 4:11"}

Ver. 9. Abhor that which is evil] Hate it as hell itself, αποστυγουντες, so the word signifies; Mihi certe Auxentius nunquam aliud quam diabolus erit, quia Arianus, saith Hilary, I shall look upon Auxentius no otherwise than as upon a devil, so long as he is an Arian.

Ver. 10. Be kindly affectioned] As natural brethren and more. Arctior eat copula cordis quam corporis. We are brethren in Adam according to the flesh, in and by Christ according to the Spirit.

Ver. 11. Not slothful] Or, not driving off till it be too late (ακνηρος, cunctator the delayer). Charles, the son of Charles Duke of Anjou, who was king of Sicily and Jerusalem, was called Carolus Cunctator, not in the sense as Fabius, because he stayed till opportunity came, but because he stayed till opportunity was lost.

Fervent in spirit] Gr. ζεοντες, seething hot. God, who is himself a pure act, loveth activeness in men; the very rest of heavenly bodies is in motion in their proper places.

Ver. 12. Rejoicing in hope] Hope makes absent joys present, wants, plenitudes, and beguiles calamity as good company doth the time. But without hope, patience is cold almost in the fourth degree, and that is but a little from poison. It was a dotage of the Stoics, that a wise man should be free, as from fear, so from hope too. How much better the Elpistici, another sort of philosophers, who held hope to be the only stay and staff of man’s life, without which to live were but to lie dying! This life would be little better than hell, saith Bernard, were it not for the hopes of heaven. Sed superest sperare salutem, and this holds head above water, this keeps the heart aloft all floods of afflictions, as the cork doth the line, as bladders do the body in swimming. Ibat ovans animis et spe sua damna levabat, He was going with a rejoicing spirit and hope of being released from his corruptions, saith Bembus concerning St Stephen going to his death. ( Vivere spe vidi qui moriturus erat. Ovid.) I look to live by hope who was about to die. He that seeth visions of glory, and hath sure hopes of heaven, will not matter a shower of stones; he that is to take possession of a kingdom will not stand upon a foul day. Hope unfailable is grounded upon faith unfeigned, which is seldom without its joy unspeakable and full of glory, #1Pe 1:8.

Patient in tribulation] Bearing up under pressures, as among many other martyrs Nicholas Burton, who by the way to the stake, and in the flame, was so patient and cheerful, that the tormentors said, the devil had his soul before he came to the fire, and therefore his senses of feeling were past. (Acts and Mon.)

Continuing instant in prayer] Constant and instant, προσκαρτερουντες. A metaphor from hunting dogs, that give not over the game till they have got it. Nazianzen saith of his sister Gorgonia, that she was so given to prayer, that her knees seemed to grow to the very ground. Of Trasilla, it is reported, that being dead she was found to have her elbows as hard as horn, by leaning to a desk at which she used to pray. St James is said to have had knees as hard as camel’s knees, by his continual kneeling in prayer. And Paul the Eremite was found dead kneeling upon his knees, holding up his hands, lifting up his eyes; so that the very dead corpse seemed yet to live and to pray to God. (Jerome.)

Ver. 13. To the necessity] Gr. χρειαις, to the uses of the saints, not staying till they be in necessity.

Ver. 14. Bless them] {See Trapp on "Mt 5:44"}

Ver. 15. Weep with them that weep] St Cyprian’s compassion is remarkable, Cum singulis pectus meum copulo, maeroris et funeris pondera luctuosa participo: cum plangentibus plango, cum deflentibus defleo, &c. I partake in every man’s grief, and am as much affected and afflicted as if it were mine own case.

Ver. 16. Be of the same] This verse had been easy had not interpreters obscured it, as Origen observeth.

Ver. 17. Recompense to no man] In reason, revenge is but justice; Aristotle commends it, the world calls it manhood; it is doghood rather. The manlier any man is, the milder and more merciful, as David, #2Sa 1:12, and Julius Caesar, who wept over Pompey’s head presented to him, and said, Non mihi placet vindicta, sed victoria, I seek not revenge, but victory.

Ver. 18. As much as lieth in you] Let it not stick on your part. Give not offence carelessly, take not offence causelessly. {See Trapp on "Mt 5:9"} It is the first office of justice, saith Cicero, to hurt nobody, unless first provoked by injury. But how true and trim a sentence, saith Lactantius, hath Cicero here marred by adding the last, "unless!" Mahomet’s laws run thus: Avenge yourselves of your enemies; rather do wrong than take wrong; kill the infidels, &c. Profess love to thine enemy, saith Machiavel; and if he fall into the water up to the knees, give him thine hand to help him out; if up to the waist, help him likewise; but if up to the chin, then lay thine hand upon his head and duck him under the water, and never suffer him to rise again. But we "have not so learned Christ." Seneca could say, Immane verbum est ultio, Revenge is a bloody word; and Qui ulciscitur excusatius peccat, He is somewhat excused (but not altogether) from doing evil, that seeketh revenge.

Ver. 19. Avenge not yourselves] Some take the sword into their own hands; and, lest they should seem Anabaptists in taking two blows for one, will give two blows for one.

Give place to wrath] sc. To the wrath and vengeance of God, which he seemeth to prevent that seeks revenge. Or, "give place to wrath." Do nothing in thine heat, but walk into the garden, as Ahasuerus did, when kindled against Haman, #Es 7:7. Theodosius was advised by Ambrose to say over the Lord’s prayer; Augustus by Athenodoras, to repeat the Greek alphabet, before they determined anything in their anger.

Or, give place to wrath] Currenti cede furori, set not thy wit to his (for anger is a short madness), but bear with his weakness that wrongeth thee.

Ver. 20. Thou shalt heap] Thou shalt melt him, and make him thy friend for ever.

Ver. 21. Be not overcome] In rixa is inferior est, qui victor est, saith Basil. In revenge of injuries, he is the loser that gets the better. Hence the apostle disgraceth it, by a word that signifieth disgrace or loss of victory, ηττημα, #1Co 6:7. When any one provokes us, we use to say, We will be even with him. There is a way whereby we may be, not even with him, but above him; that is, forgive him, feed him with the best morsels, feed him indulgently (so the apostle’s word ψωμιζε in the former verse signifies), feast him, as Elisha did his persecutors; providing a table for them, who had provided a grave for him. "Set bread and water before them," saith he, and mark what followed; "The bands of Syria came no more after that time," by way of ambush or inroad, "into the bounds of Israel," #2Ki 6:22,23. In doing some good to our enemies (saith a grave divine hereupon) we do most to ourselves: God cannot but love in us that imitation of his mercy, who bids his sun to shine on the wicked and unthankful also; and his love is never fruitless. It is not like the winter sun that gives little heat, but like the sun in his strength, that warms and works effectually upon the rest of the creatures.

But overcome evil] This is the most noble victory. Thus David overcame Saul, and Henry VII, emperor of Germany, overcame the priest that poisoned him at the sacrament; for he pardoned him, and bade him be packing. (Fanc. Chron.) So did not Jacup the Persian king, who perceiving himself poisoned by his adulterous wife, enforced her to drink of the same cup; and because he would be sure she should not escape, with his own hand he struck off her head. (Turkish Hist.) But this (to say truth) was not revenge, but justice. Henry IV of France was wont to say, that he made all the days of those golden, who had most offended him; that so, the lead of their wickedness might be darkened by the gold of his goodness.

Chapter 13

Ver. 1. Let every soul be subject] In things lawful only; for else we must answer as those apostles did, #Ac 4:29, and as Polycarp, who being commanded to blaspheme Christ, and to swear by the fortune of Caesar, peremptorily refused, and said, We are taught to give honour to princes and potentates, but such honour as is not contrary to God’s religion.

Ordained of God] In regard of its institution, though for the manner of its constitution it is of man.

Ver. 2. Resisteth the power] His authoritative commands, not his personal.

Receive to themselves damnation] κριμα, #1Co 11:31,32. Poenam sibi auferent, saith Piscator, they shall receive punishment, to wit, from the magistrate; as Aretine deserved to do, who by longer custom of libellous and contumelious speaking against princes, had got such a habit, that at last he came to diminish and disesteem God himself.

Ver. 3. For rulers, are not, &c.] They should not be. But Jeroboam set a net on Mizpeh, and spread a snare upon Tabor, to watch who would go from him to Judah to worship, #Ho 5:1.

A terror to good works, but to the evil] The sword of justice (saith one) must be furbished with the oil of mercy; yet there are cases wherein severity ought to cast the scale. Duresce, Duresce, o infaelix Lantgravie, Be sern, be stern oh unhappy Lantgrave, said the poor smith to the Landgrave of Thuring, more mild than was for his people’s good. Bonis nocet, qui malis parcit. He harms the good who spares the wicked. Edward the Confessor was held a bad prince, not by doing, but enduring ill.

Ver. 4. For he is the minister] It was written upon the sword of Charles the Great, Decem praeceptorum custos Carolus, Charles is Lord Keeper of the Decalogue.

For he beareth not the sword in vain] Like St Paul in a glass window, or St George (as they call him) on a sign post.

A revenger to execute wrath] But now we see how every man almost will be a pope in his own cause, depose the magistrate, at least appeal from him to himself.

Upon him that doeth evil] Whether the evil be civil or religious; Non distinguendum, ubi scriptum non distinguit. Not distinquishing where the law does not distinquich, (See Mr Burroughs’ Heartdivisions.) Note this against those that hold that magistrates have nothing to do in matters of religion. See #De 13:6 Ezr 7:26 Da 3:29 1Pe 2:13,14. Their laws bind the conscience per concomitantiam, by way of concomitancy; because they depend upon the law of God, and are agreeable to it; which primarily and per se bindeth. As the soul is said to be in a place per concomitantiam, because it is in the body; so here.

Ver. 5. But also for conscience sake] Good rulers we must obey as God; bad, for God. δια τον θεον. (Basil.)

Ver. 6. Attending continually] As born for the benefit of many. The Parliament in the 25 Edward III is known to posterity by the name of Benedictam Parliamentum, Blessed Parliament. So shall this present Parliament (A.D. 1646) for their continual attendance upon the Lord’s work, bending themselves to the business (as the word προσκαρτερουντες signifies) and holding out therein with unparalleled patience.

Ver. 7. Render therefore to all their dues] He saith not their unjust exactions. Melancthon makes mention of a cruel prince, that to get money from his subjects, would knock out their teeth, first one tooth and then another, unless they would bring him in such sums of money as he required. {a}

Fear to whom, &c.] i.e. Reverential observance, far beyond that which Quintus Fabius Maximus yielded to his son, when he became consul. (Liv. Decad. iii. lib. 4.)

{a} Primo unum dentem evellebat minitans.

Ver. 8. Owe no man, &c.] The Persians reckoned these two for very great sins: 1. To be in debt. 2. To tell a lie; the latter being often the fruit of the former. (Xenophon, Gell. xii. 1.) By the 12 tables of Rome, he that owed much, and could not pay, was to be cut in pieces, and every creditor was to have a piece of him according to the debt. (Acts and Mon.) When Archbishop Cranmer discerned the storm which afterwards fell upon him in Queen Mary’s days, he took express order for the payment of all his debts; which when it was done, a most joyful man was he; that having set his affairs in order with men, he might consecrate himself more freely to God. (Mr Wilkins’ Debt Book.) Let us therefore (saith a reverend man) be thus far indulgent to ourselves, as to shake off the deadly yoke of bills and obligations, which mancipate the most free and ingenuous spirit, and dry up the very fountains of liberality. Yea, they so put a man out of aim that he cannot set his state in order, but lives and dies entangled and puzzled with cares and snares; and after a tedious and laborious life passed in a circle of fretting thoughts, he leaves at last, instead of better patrimony, a world of intricate troubles to his posterity and to his sureties; which cannot be managed by those who understand them not, but to great disadvantage. We read of a certain Italian gentleman, who being asked how old he was? answered, that he was in health; and to another that asked how rich he was? answered, that he was not in debt: q.d. He is young enough that is in health, and rich enough that is not in debt.

But to love one another] This is that desperate debt that a man cannot discharge himself from, but must ever be paying, and yet ever owing. As we say of thanks, Gratiae habendae et agendae, thanks must be given, and yet held as still due; so must this debt of love.

Ver. 9. Briefly comprehended] Capitulated, fulfilled, saith the Syriac, summed up, ανακεφαλαιουται. St Bartholomew is quoted by Dionysius to have said of divinity, Και πολλην και ελαχιστην, Et magnum esse et minimam, that it was large and yet little, as containing much matter in few words.

Ver. 10. The fulfilling of the law] The filling up of the law in this, that it closeth the duties of the law with the glory of a due manner, and seateth them upon their due subjects, with the unwearied labours of a constant well doing.

Ver. 11. To awake out of sleep] While the crocodile sleepeth with open mouth, the Indian rat gets into his stomach, and eateth through his entrails. While Ishbosheth slept upon his bed at noon, Baanah and Rechab took away his head. Security ushereth in destruction. Go forth and shake yourselves, as Samson did when the Philistines were upon him; lest Satan serve you, at least for your souls, as Captain Drake did the Spaniard at Taurapasa in the West Indies, for his treasure; he found him sleeping securely on the shore, and by him 13 bars of silver to the value of 40,000 ducats, which he commanded to be carried away, not so much as once waking the man. (Camden’s Elisa.) Or lest Christ himself deal by us, as Epaminondas did by the watchman, whom he found asleep; he thrust him through with his sword, and being blamed for so severe a fact, he replied, Talem eum reliqui, qualem inveni, I left him as I found him.

For now is our salvation nearer] Stir up yourselves, therefore, and strain toward the mark. There is a Greek word (νυσσα) signifying the end of a race, which is derived of a word that signifieth to spur or prick forward (νυσσω). Surely, as they that run their horses for a wager, spur hardest at the race’s end; so, sith our salvation is nearer now than ever it was, therefore we should run faster now than ever we did. When a cart is in a quagmire, if the horses feel it coming, they’ll pull the harder; so must we, now that full deliverance is hard at hand. Rivers run more speedily and forcibly when they come near the sea, than they did at the spring; the sun shineth most amiably towards the going down. Tempus iam est (said old Zanchius to his friend Sturmius, who was elder than he) ut ad Christum et caelum stelliferum a terra properemus, &c. It is even high time for you and me to hasten to heaven; as knowing that we shall shortly be with Christ, which is "far far the better," #Php 1:23.

Ver. 12. The night] Here it is taken for all unregeneracy, which (as the night) is full of error, terror, &c. Nox pudore vacat. This night with the saints is far spent, or already past, Transivit, praeteriit, as Cyprian and Jerome here render it.

Ver. 13. Let us walk honestly] Handsomely, fashionably, mannerly, with a holy shamefacedness (ευσχημονως).

Not in chambering] Properly, lying a-bed or long-lying (κοιταις).

Ver. 14. But put ye on] Augustine confesseth that he was converted by reading and pondering this text.

And make not provision] Make not projects, cater not for the flesh.

Chapter 14

Ver. 1. Him that is weak, &c.] That is, not thoroughly persuaded of all things pertaining to Christian liberty about things indifferent.

Receive] Affectu charitatis, put him into your bosoms, bear with his weaknesses, &c. Bucer rejected none, though different in some opinions, in whom he found aliquid Christi, anything of Christ, whose weaklings are to be handled with all tenderness. (Haymo.)

But not to doubtful] Make him not question sick, #1Ti 6:4. Wring not men’s consciences, you may hap to break the wards if you do.

Ver. 2. Eateth herbs] Rather than meats forbidden by the law, #Da 1:11. The ancient Latins were as well paid of herbs to eat, as if they had had all manner of dainties. Green herbs were both food and medicine to them. Holus ab Vegetables from ολον.

Ver. 3. For God hath received him] viz. For his household servant, which David counted a greater dignity than to be king of Israel. And Justinian the emperor styled himself Ultimum servorum Dei, the meanest of God’s servants.

Ver. 4. Who art thou, &c.] The wisdom from above is without censuring, without hypocrisy, saith St James, #Jas 3:17. Intimating, that the greatest censurers are mostly the greatest hypocrites. And as any one is more wise, he is more sparing of his censures.

Ver. 5. Let every man be fully persuaded] It is a safe rule, Quod dubites ne feceris, In doubtful cases be sure to take the surer side. (Plin. Epist.)

Ver. 6. For he giveth God thanks] A custom used by the very heathens to their gods, as is to be read in Homer and Virgil, but grown clean out of use among the Catholics in France and Italy, (Sir Ed. Sands, Spec. Europae.) But if they that give thanks at a meal do eat to God, to whom do they eat that give none?

Ver. 7. For none of us liveth to himself] St Paul stood, as it were, on tiptoes, αποκαραδοκια, #Php 1:20, to see which way he might best glorify God, by life or by death.

Ver. 8. We are the Lord’s] Death divides us not from Christ, but brings us home to him, #2Co 5:6. It is but winking (as that martyr said), and thou shalt be in heaven presently.

Ver. 9. That he might be Lord] He won his crown before he wore it; he fought for it, and having vanquished all enemies, he accomplished and proclaimed the victory in his glorious resurrection, triumphed in his wonderful ascension, leading captivity captive, &c., #Eph 4:8.

Ver. 10. But why dost thou, &c.] Three things are not subject to our judgment: 1. The counsels of God. 2. The Holy Scriptures. 3. The persons of men. Be not therefore rash in rejecting or sour in censuring your fellowservant; but let your moderation herein be known to all men; and the rather, because the Lord is at hand, #Php 4:5.

The judgment seat of Christ] Who gives the Lamb in his escutcheon; and wilt thou give the lion?

Ver. 11. As I live, saith the Lord] As true as I live, is an oath, as appears here, and #Nu 14:21 cf. Ps 95:11. Forbear it, therefore.

Ver. 12. So then every one, &c.] It was excellent counsel that the orator gave his hearers, Ita vivamus ut rationem nobis reddendam arbitremur. (Cic. IV in Ver.) Let us so live as those that must give an account of all at last.

Ver. 13. Any more] As they formerly had done; being overly sour and supercilious.

A stumblingblock, or an occasion &c.] A lighter or greater offence to make him go halting to heaven.

Ver. 14. I know and am persuaded] Many, on the contrary, are persuaded before they know; and such will not be persuaded to know. The Valentinian heretics had a trick to persuade before they taught, as saith Tertullian. The old sectaries had their pithanology, insinuative and persuasive language; so have the modern; and hence so many dissonant opinions among us. If ye speak with several tongues (so hold several opinions) will not he that comes in think ye are mad? #1Co 14:9-11 Dii boni, quomodo hic vivunt gentes! How strangely do people live here, said a stranger, observing our divisions in Henry VIII’s time, which (alas) were nothing comparable to these of our days, and all because simple men and silly women are soon persuaded to that which they understand not. The silly simple believeth everything: weak as water on a table, which with a wet finger may be led any way. {Pethi, #Pr 14:15}

By the Lord Jesus] Who hath pulled down the partition-wall, and purchased our Christian liberty.

Ver. 15. But if thy brother be grieved] It is his weakness to be grieved thereat, but gratify him howsoever. What one speaks of a plain place of Scripture, this verse, saith he, had been easy, had not commentators made it knotty; the like saith another of a Christian’s condition, it is gracious, happy, clear, sure, sweet, did not erroneous judgments vex and unsettle them.

Ver. 16. Let not then your good] That is, your Christian liberty purchased by Christ.

Be evil spoken of] Gr. be blasphemed. Contumely cast upon the people of God is blasphemy in the second table. God, for the honour that he beareth to his people, counts and calls it so.

Ver. 17. For the kingdom of God, &c.] That was a swinish saying of Epicurus, that eternal life should be nothing else but a continual eating of the fat and drinking of the sweet, even unto an incessant surfeiting and drunkenness, κραιπαλην και μεθην αιωνιον. The Turks to this day promise Paradise to such as die in war for the Mahometan faith, where they shall have delicious fare, pleasant gardens, all sensual delights, eternally to be enjoyed, notwithstanding any former sins. Fit lettuce for such lips.

Ver. 18. Is acceptable to God] And he is a happy man that can be acquitted by himself in private, in public by others, in both by God.

Ver. 19. Wherewith one may edify another] Discords among good people do edificare in gehennam, build in hell, as Tertullian phraseth it, build backwards. One of the main scandals the Jews take from Protestants is their dissension.

Ver. 20. The work of God] That work of faith, #1Th 1:3, wrought by the mighty power of God, #Eph 1:19, who puts not forth great power but for great purposes.

Ver. 21. It is good neither to eat, &c.] It will be no grief of heart (as Abigail once told David in another case, #1Sa 25:31) to have forborne in case of scandal. A great grief it would be if by some rash word we should betray a brother, or smite out the eye of our dearest child; should we then destroy the life of grace in another by our unadvised walking?

Ver. 22. Hast thou faith] Posse, et nolle, nobile est. To be able, and unwilling, is noble. Forbear for fear of offence, unless it be in point of necessary duty: for then we may not do evil that good may come, #Ro 3:8.

Ver. 23. Is damned] Both of his doubting conscience, which soundeth heavily, as a shaulm; and of God, who is greater than his conscience.

Chapter 15

Ver. 1. Ought to bear] As porters do their burdens, as pillars do the poise of the house, or rather as parents have their babes in their arms. Βασταζειν.

And not to please ourselves] Bis desipit, qui sibi sapit, He is twice foolish who understands himself. #Pr 3:7.

Ver. 2. Please his neighbour] Though he cross himself: this is true Christian love, and driven almost out of the world by sinful self-love, which causeth men to dislike those things in others that they favour and flatter in themselves.

Ver. 3. For even Christ] And we should express him to the world, preach abroad his virtues by our practice, #1Pe 2:9. Our lives should be as so many sermons upon the life of Christ. This is to walk in Christ, #Col 2:6, as Christ, #1Jo 3:6.

Ver. 4. For whatsoever things, &c.] Here the apostle meets with an objection. For some man might say, that that saying of the Psalms pertains to David, how therefore is it applied to Christ? He answers, Whatsoever things, &c. q.d. We must learn to see Christ in David; David in the history, Christ in the mystery; David as the type, Christ the truth.

That we through patience] Hence the Scriptures are called, The word of Christ’s patience, #Re 3:10, because they patient the heart under God’s holy hand; and are better called medicine for the soul (η της ψυχης ιατρεια) than ever was the library of Alexandria.

And comfort of the Scriptures] As the blood and spirits are conveyed by the veins and arteries, so is the Spirit by the promises, helping the soul to lay itself upon Christ by faith, which is a grace of union, and so of establishment.

Ver. 5. Now the God of patience] The soul is then only in good plight when the heaven answers the earth, #Ho 2:21; when Christ the Sun of righteousness shines into it.

Ver. 6. With one mind and one mouth,] It is recorded to the high commendation of the Church of Scotland, that for this 90 years and upwards they have kept unity with purity without schism, much less heresy. (Syntag. Confession, Prefat.)

Ver. 7. To the glory of God] That is, of heaven, the joys whereof it is as impossible to comprehend as it is to compass the heaven with a span, or contain the ocean in a nut shell. Such comfort there is in the presence of Christ (though but in the womb), as it made John to spring. What then shall it be in heaven?

Ver. 8. Now I say that Jesus] Paul proveth particularly in this and the following verses that Christ hath taken both Jews and Gentiles to his glory.

Ver. 9. And that the Gentiles] Though they had no such promises, might glorify God’s free grace in the day of their visitation.

Ver. 10. Rejoice] That your names are also written in heaven, and that ye are enrolled in the records of the new Jerusalem.

Ver. 11. All ye Gentiles] As being received into the glory of God, #Ro 15:7.

Ver. 12. In him shall the Gentiles trust] Isaiah hath it, "To him shall the Gentiles seek": to seek to God then argues trust in God. He that hopes not, praises not, or but faintly.

Ver. 13. Fill you with all joy, &c.] Note here that joy and peace are the means whereby faith worketh hope.

Ver. 14. Full of goodness] The excellency of a godly man is to follow God fully, as Caleb, #Nu 14:24; to have a heart full of goodness, as these Romans, a life full of good works, as Tabitha, #Ac 9:36. These shall receive a full reward, #2Jo 8.

Ver. 15. Chrysostom truly saith of St Paul, that he was insatiabilis Dei cultor, an insatiable worshipper of God, one that thought he could never do God or his Church service enough.

Ver. 16. Ministering the gospel] Serving about holy things or doing sacred offices, as the priests under the law, to whom the apostle all along this verse alludes in an elegant allegory, ιερουργουντα λειτουργον; the ministry is a divine and heavenly function. All other callings are for the world, and draw to the world; but this, both in the preparation and execution, draweth to God, keepeth us with God, and to be ever mindful of the things of God.

Ver. 17. I have therefore, &c.] So have all God’s faithful ministers at this day against the contempts and contumelies cast upon them by the mad world, ever beside itself in point of salvation. There is a pamphlet lately published that sticks not to make that sacred and tremendous function of the ministry to be as mere an imposture, as very a mystery of iniquity, as arrant a fraud, as the Papacy itself. (The Compas. Samaritan.)

Ver. 18. To make the Gentiles, &c.] Christ by his gospel subdued the Britons, whom the Romans with all their force could never subdue, as Tertullian observed. {a}

{a} Britannorum inaccessa Romanis loca Christo tamen subdita.

Ver. 19. So that from Jerusalem] Chrysostom observeth, that Plato came three times to Sicily to convert Dionysius the tyrant to moral philosophy, and could not. But Paul fetched a great compass, converted many souls, planted many Churches; and why? Christ sat upon him as upon one of his white horses, and went forth conquering and to conquer, #Re 6:2.

Ver. 20. Lest I should build] Lest I should seem to do anything unbeseeming the office of an apostle: there is a decorum to be kept in every calling.

Ver. 21. But as it is written,] In obedience to this divine oracle, the apostle preached to those that had not heard, yet neglected not those that had.

Ver. 22. For which cause] By planting Churches and preaching where was more need.

Ver. 23. These many years] The Romans were converted to the faith betimes. Some of them were "in Christ before Paul," #Ro 16:7. Christ made haste also to convert England, whose religion before was tristissimum superstitionum chaos (as Camden hath it), a most sad chaos of superstitions. Sabellicus testifieth that Brittany was the first of all the provinces that publicly professed Christ. And as we were the first that took upon us the yoke of Papal tyranny (so that England was called the Pope’s Ass), so were we the first that shook it off again.

Ver. 24. For I trust to see you] Ipse aspectus viri boni delectat, He himself delights at the sight of good men, saith Seneca. There is a great deal of sweetness in the society of saints, and much good to be gotten thereby. Sometimes (saith a grave divine) though we know that which we ask of others as well as they do, yet good speeches will draw us to know it better, by giving occasion to speak more of it: wherewith the Spirit works more effectually, and imprints it deeper, so that it shall be a more rooted knowledge than before. For that doth good that is graciously known, and that is graciously known that the Spirit seals upon our souls.

Ver. 25. To minister unto the saints] The highest angel in heaven may not hold himself too good to serve the saints.

Ver. 26. It hath pleased them] It hath not been squeezed out of them as verjuice is out of a crab, but freely and cheerfully they have contributed, ευδοκησαν.

For the poor saints which are at Jerusalem] The Jews do to this day send their alms yearly from all parts to Jerusalem for the maintenance of the poor that live there, and spend their time praying for the welfare of the whole nation.

Ver. 27. Their debtors they are] And so are we to pity and pray for them. See my "True Treasure," sect. 2. chapt. 7.

Ver. 28. When I have sealed] That is, safely delivered, as if it were under seal.

This fruit] This sweet ripe fruit of their faith and love, their alms.

Ver. 29. In the fulness of the blessing] Christ may use one of less grace to do more good than one of more (for there are diversities of operations, as well as of gifts, #1Co 12:6), but usually he delights to honour those of most sincerity, with most success, #1Co 15:10.

Ver. 30. For the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake] This is one of those passages in St Paul, than the which there can nothing possibly be imagined more grave, divine, excellent, saith Beza.

That ye strive together] Even to an agony, as the word συναγωνισασθαι imports. Spiritual beggary is the hardest and richest of all trades, as one said. Learn of this great apostle to beg prayers with all earnestness. Pray for me, I say, pray for me, I say, quoth father Latimer. Pray for me, pray for me, for God’s sake pray for me, said blessed Bradford.

Ver. 31. That my service which, &c.] One would have thought that the apostle coming with alms to them, should easily have been well accepted; but he saw cause to seek God for such a mercy, since it is he alone that fashions men’s opinions, and gives favour and kind acceptance. Besides wisdom, he gave Solomon honour.

Ver. 32. Be refreshed] {See Trapp on "Ro 1:12"} {See Trapp on "2Jo 12"}

Ver. 33. Now the God of peace] A fit attribute for the present purpose. It is a commendable policy in Christians, when they pray, to propound God to their mind in such notions, and under such titles, as whereby they may see in God the things they desire of God.

Chapter 16

Ver. 1. Servant of the Church] A deaconess to minister to the sick, as #1Ti 5:9, not a praedicantisse, to preach or have Peter’s keys on their belt. (Dr Bastwick against Independency.)

Ver. 2. As becometh saints] Who are great princes, states, in all lands, #Ps 45, and to be observed accordingly, even worthy of God, #3Jo 6.

Ver. 3. Salute Priscilla] She is first mentioned, haply as more forward than her husband in the best things. So was Manoah’s wife and Nazianzen’s mother.

Ver. 4. Who have for my life] A rare example. Fast friends are in this age for the most part gone on pilgrimage (said one once), and their return is uncertain.

Ver. 5. The church that is in their house] The house of George Prince of Anhalt, for the good orders therein observed, is said to have been Ecclesia, Academia, Curia. the church, the university and the government.

The first fruits of Achaia] The first that received the gospel there. A singular commendation, a sweet happiness. God’s soul hath desired such first ripe fruits, #Mic 7:1, such primroses.

Ver. 6. Greet Mary, &c.] It is profitable that men of great parts and place should preserve their memory with others, though it be but in a salutation; for it may be a means to fire up affection to godliness in such whom they so remember.

Ver. 7. Who are of note] Επισημοι, noble, notable Christians, old, experienced, gray-headed disciples. Christianity finds or makes us honourable.

Ver. 8. Greet Amplias] Piety is no enemy to courtesy: it doth not remove, but rectify it.

Ver. 9. Our helper in Christ] A sweet sign to him, that his name was written in the book of life, #Php 4:3.

Ver. 10. Approved in Christ] A high style, far beyond that of the Great Turk, with all his big swollen titles.

Ver. 11. My kinsman] In the flesh, but more in the faith, that surest tie.

Ver. 12. Who labour in the Lord] Though not so much as Persis did, yet doth he not defraud them of their due commendation; Prima sequentem honestum est in secundis tertiisque consistere. (Cic. De Orator.) Every man must not look to excel; let him be doing, as he is able.

Ver. 13. His mother and mine] His by nature, mine by affection. The apostles parted with parents and friends at home, found them abroad.

Ver. 14. Salute Asyncritus, &c.] Nothing is said of these; for haste perhaps, or else because they were (as one saith of Jesse, the father of David) Viri, probi et honesti, minus tamen clari, Good honest men, but not much noted. Or, lastly, for that the apostle had no very good opinion of them, as he seems not to have had of Demas, #Col 4:14, 2Ti 4:10, who yet would needs be one in the apostle’s register there; a place he will have, though it be the last place. Hermas here mentioned was reputed by some of the ancients to be the author of that Apocryphal Book called "Pastor"; wherein he dealt not so fairly and faithfully in relating what he had received from the apostles, being sublatae fidei auctor. source of the elevated faith.

Ver. 15. And Olympas] Viri, nomen, non mulieris. The name not of a woman, but of a man, saith Beza.

Ver. 16. With a holy kiss] The Independents at Arnheim in Holland propounded this kiss of love to be practised among them. So for anointing the sick with oil, singing of hymns by one man, all the rest being silent, σκοπειτε.

Ver. 17. Mark them which] Set a watchful and a jealous eye upon them, as upon pests and enemies. And here, let not our episcopi (whose office it is chiefly) be aposcopi, overseers, be byseers, but look well to the flock, lest these wolves worry them, #Ac 20:29.

And avoid them] Gr. εκκλινατε. Decline them studiously, as ye would do a serpent in your way, or poison in your food.

Ver. 18. But their own bellies] They pretend the service of Christ to their worldly and wicked respects, by a dissembled sanctity, which is double iniquity. The Duke of Bavaria is even eaten up with those Popish flesh flies, friars and Jesuits. It was an honest complaint of a Popish writer, We, saith he, handle the Scriptures, tantum ut nos pascat et vestiat, only for a livelihood; we serve God for gain: as children will not say their prayers unless they be promised their breakfasts. Cajetan writing on #Mt 5:13 "Ye are the salt of the earth," confesseth ingenuously of himself and his fellow prelates, that whereas by their places they should have been the salt of the earth, they had lost their savour, and were good for little else but looking after the rites and revenues of the Church. {a} And such were many of our English prelates grown, before their late extirpation. If you put not into the mouths of these Cerberuses, they would even prepare war against you. Therefore their "sun went down, and the day grew dark over them," #Mic 3:5,6. All seducers are self-seekers: "they teach things that they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake," #Tit 1:11. They are like eagles that soar aloft towards heaven, not for any love of heaven, but that they may spy their prey the sooner, seize upon it the better: or like those ravens in Arabia, that, fully gorged, have a tunable sweet record; but empty, they screech horribly. In parabola oves capras suas quaerunt, comparison to a sheep seeking their nanny-goat, as the ferryman looks one way, rows another.

And by good words, &c.] Those locusts in the Revelation have faces like women, insinuative and flattering. The Valentinian heretics had an art to persuade before they taught, whereas the truth persuadeth by teaching, it doth not teach by persuading. (Tertullian.)

They deceive] As cheaters do, by the cogging of a dye, εν τη κυβεια, #Eph 4:14. Fallax artificium, vel potius artifex fallacia, saith Erasmus on that text, a cumfing kind of cozenage.

{a} Evanuimus ac ad nihilum utiles, nisi ad externas ceremonias, externaque bona.

Ver. 19. For your obedience, &c.] Whereas the Romans might object, Are we also of those simple ones? Your obedience, saith he, is famous all the world over. Howbeit I would have you wise to that which is good, but simple concerning evil. This simplicity is no disparagement, to be unskilled in the devil’s depths, #Re 2:24.

Ver. 20. Shall bruise Satan] Sincerity of a little grace shall be rewarded with abundance of greater graces. Christ our champion hath already won the field, and will shortly set our feet upon the necks of our spiritual enemies. The broken horns of Satan shall be the trumpets of our triumph, and the cornets of our joy.

Ver. 21. Timotheus my workfellow] Of Timothy, read #Ac 16:1,2. Of Lucius, #Ac 13:1. Of Jason, #Ac 17:5. Of Sopater, #Ac 20:4.

Ver. 22. I Tertius who wrote, &c.] Either from the apostle’s mouth, or rather out of his foul papers.

Ver. 23. Gaius mine host] Baptized by Paul, for whom therefore, and for other good men, he thought he could never do enough, #1Co 1:14. Such another was Phoebe, #Ro 16:2, who had been a helper, or a hostess, to many, and to myself, saith Paul, Multis hospitium praebuit. provided much hospitality.

Ver. 24. The grace of our Lord] This is the seal of all St Paul’s Epistles, #2Th 3:17.

Ver. 25. Which was kept secret] Even from the very angels, #1Pe 1:12, who do daily profit in the knowledge of this secret, #Eph 3:10.

Ver. 26. According to the commandment] The writings of the prophets concerning the mystery of Christ were not made known to the world by haphazard, but by a special command of God.

For the obedience of faith] Though God purposed good to his people before all worlds, yet that is concealed till such time as they yield this obedience of faith like as water that runs underground, is hidden a long time till it break out suddenly, and then we discover that there was a stream ran underground; as Arethusa and other rivers do.

Ver. 27. To God only wise, &c.] So say I for these few notes thus finished. All that I shall now add is this distich,—

“ Pars superat coepti, pars est exacta laboris:

Hic teneat nostras anchora iacta rates.”

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16