Romans 3:1
What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit _is there_ of circumcision? Ver. 1. _What advantage_] Gr. το περισσον, what odds, singular thing, prerogative?... [ Continue Reading ]
What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit _is there_ of circumcision? Ver. 1. _What advantage_] Gr. το περισσον, what odds, singular thing, prerogative?... [ Continue Reading ]
Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God. 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, beca... [ Continue Reading ]
For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? 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.... [ Continue Reading ]
God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged. Ver. 4. _Every man a liar_] viz. By nature. But,Isaiah 63:8, God's people are "children that will not lie," they will die rather. _No... [ Continue Reading ]
But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? _Is_ God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man) 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, fr... [ Continue Reading ]
God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world? 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? Hebrews 2:2. God's will is th... [ Continue Reading ]
For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner? 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... [ Continue Reading ]
And not _rather_, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just. 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... [ Continue Reading ]
What then? are we better _than they_ ? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; 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... [ Continue Reading ]
As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: 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.)... [ Continue Reading ]
There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. Ver. 11. _None that seeketh_] That seeketh and fetcheth him out of his retiring room, as she did, Mark 7:24,25 .... [ Continue Reading ]
They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Ver. 12. _Become unprofitable_] Or rotten, nasty, stinking, as the Hebrew hath it,Psalms 14:3. The old world was grown so foul, that God was forced to wash it with a deluge.... [ Continue Reading ]
Their throat _is_ an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps _is_ under their lips: 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 tha... [ Continue Reading ]
Whose mouth _is_ full of cursing and bitterness: Ver. 14. _Full_] Γεμει, As a ship that hath its full freight and lading.... [ Continue Reading ]
Their feet _are_ swift to shed blood: Ver. 15. _Swift to shed blood_] As Paul, till God stopped him in his cursed career.... [ Continue Reading ]
Destruction and misery _are_ in their ways: Ver. 16. _They mind nothing but mischief._]... [ Continue Reading ]
And the way of peace have they not known: Ver. 17. _They are restless and troublesome._]... [ Continue Reading ]
There is no fear of God before their eyes. Ver. 18. _There is no fear of God_] This is set last, as the source of all the former evils.... [ Continue Reading ]
Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Ver. 19. _Guilty_] Culpable, and such as cannot plead their own cause without an advocate. (Chrysos.)... [ Continue Reading ]
Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law _is_ the knowledge of sin. 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 labo... [ Continue Reading ]
But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Ver. 21. _But now_] Since Christ came.... [ Continue Reading ]
Even the righteousness of God _which is_ by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: Ver. 22. _Upon all_] So that none shall hinder their happiness.... [ Continue Reading ]
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 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 o... [ Continue Reading ]
Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 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 ou... [ Continue Reading ]
Whom God hath set forth _to be_ a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance 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, t... [ Continue Reading ]
To declare, _I say_, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Ver. 26. _To declare_] Gr. ενδειξις, for a clear demonstration or pointing out with the finger.... [ Continue Reading ]
Where _is_ boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. 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... [ Continue Reading ]
Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. 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... [ Continue Reading ]
_Is he_ the God of the Jews only? _is he_ not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also: 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... [ Continue Reading ]
Seeing _it is_ one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith. Ver. 30. _And uncircumcision_] All by one way, lest he should seem not to be one, but _alius et alius._... [ Continue Reading ]
Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law. 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 pra... [ Continue Reading ]