Rom. iii. 8 as some affirm that come? whose dam 36 It will be no excuse, that we do evil that good may come. SECT. tended with such happy consequences?" [And 8 And not rather, vi. why may I not say,] (as we are calumniated, (as we be slanderand some most injuriously affirm, that we main- ously reported, and tain) "let us do evil things, that good conse- we say,) Let us do quences may come from them?" You may ea- evil, that good may sily see, that principles like these would justi- nation is just. f the greatest crimes in the world, if they might be so overruled as to prove the occasion of good; and consequently, would so entirely confound the nature of good and evil, that I think it not worth while to argue with such persons; whose condemnation is indeed so apparently just, that I leave them to be convinced, and silenced, by their own consciences; and only mention such a detestable principle, solemnly to warn you against it. 9 9 What then? are no, in no wise : for are all under sin; But, to return from this long digression: If the question I mentioned before be repeated, we better than they? and any say, "What then, upon the whole, have we have before provwe Jews the advantage of the Gentiles so far, ed both Jews and that in consequence of having these oracles of Gentiles, that they God which we have received, the promises which he will never fail to observe, and the principles of righteousness, which he will never himself violate in his conduct, we can claim justification before God by virtue of our obedience to his law?" Not at all; for we have before proved that fews and Gentiles are all under sin, and have placed them as convicted 10 criminals at the Divine bar; As it is written, (Psal. xiv. 1,) in a variety of passages which may be applied to the present occasion, f Whose condemnation is just.] I think this must imply, that there are certain rules which God has laid down for us, disobedience to which in any imaginable circumstances is universally a moral evil; even though the quantity of good arising from thence to our fellow creatures, should be greater than that arising from observ. ing those rules. For if this be not allow ed, there can be no shadow of force in the apostle's conclusion. & As it is written.] These scriptures are collected from different parts of the Old Testament; but there are many editions of the Seventy in which they all stand together, in the xivth or according to their order, xiiith Psalm; which has given some occasion to think, that other alterations 10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no not one : may have been made in that Greek version, to render it more agreeable to the New Testament; though many passages might escape the notice of such as made this attempt, if it were really made. But it must have been, as we see in this instance it was, a fruitless one; considering how wide such copies were dispersed, and how different the religious sentiments of the persons with whom they were lodged. It seems much more reasonable, to account for the diversity we find between the original and quotations, by supposing the sense, rather than words, intentionally regarded; and some accidental alterations have happened since in the Hebrew copies, which in several places may make the difference greater than it originally was. The Old Testament asserts the universal depravity of mankind. seeketh after God. 12 They are all vour. one. 37 There SECT. vi. Rom. 11 There is none" There is none righteous, no not one; that understandeth, is none that understandeth his duty and his true there is none that interest ; there is none that seeketh after God,h and constantly endeavoureth to secure his fa- iii. 11 They are all declined from that moral 12 gone out of the way, rectitude, which is the glory of the rational nathey are together become unprofitable; ture; they are altogether become useless as to there is none that the great end for which they were made, so doeth good, no not that there is none that practiseth good, there is not so much as one. (Psal. xiv. 1—3; liii. 1— 13 Their throat is 3.) Their throat [is] noisome and dangerous 15 an open sepulchre; as an open sepulchre, gaping to swallow them with their tongues they have used de. up, or poison them with its infected air; with ceit; the poison of their tongues they have used the most mischievasps i under their ous deceit; and while they make the fairest Jips: profession of friendship, the mortal venom of asps [is] hid under their lips, which utter the most infectious and fatal slanders. (Psal. cxl. 14 14 Whose mouth 3.) They are men whose mouth is full of cursis full of cursing and ing and bitterness; (Psal. x. 7;) so that the most shocking prophaneness mingles itself with that malignity of heart towards their fellow 15 Their feet are men, which breathes in every word. Their feet 15 Swift to shed blood: [are] swift to run towards the places where they have appointed to shed the blood of the in16 Destruction and nocent. (Prov. i. 16, 18.) Ruin and misery 16 misery are in their [are] on the whole in all their ways; they bring it upon others, and so, by an inevitable 17 And the way consequence, upon themselves at last. of peace have they as for the way of peace and happiness, they have not known or regarded it. (Isa. lix. 7, 18 There is no 8.) And, to sum up all in one word, the 18 fear of God before great cause of all this degeneracy is, that the fear of God is not before their eyes, but they are utterly destitute of any true principle of religion, of any reverence and love to the great and adorable Object of it." (Psal. xxxvi. 1.) bitterness: ways; not known: their eyes. And 17 There is none that seeketh after God, that if Israel in David's time, which was &c] It is allowed, that this passage only one of its best ages, was so bad, Gentile proves directly, what was the character nations were still worse; and in all these of the Jews in David's time; but it views, it was much to the apostle's purplainly shews that the wrath of God was pose to produce the passage. The like awakened against them, as well as others, observation is in a great measure applifor their sins: it proves also, that a gen. cable to all the following quotations; as eral degeneracy might prevail among the paraphrase on ver. 19, suggests, or them, though by profession God's peo- rather, as the apostle himself there eviple; and it suggests a strong presumption, dently insinuates. 28 SECT. vi. 19 Now we know, What the scripture saith is to convict the world. This, my brethren, is in general the sad character of mankind in their fallen state; and that what things so the representation is the more striking, as it is ever the law saith, it iii. 19 borrowed from the sacred writings. Rom. saith to them who Now we are under the law: mouth know, that what the law saith in such passages that every as these, it saith to those that were under the may be stopped, and law, they do not immediately relate to the become guilty before all the world may heathen, but contain the character of those that God. were at that time the professing people of God. And as most of these passages are borrowed from the writings of David, Solomon, or Isaiah, it appears, that even in the best days of their state, they had a great deal of enormous wickedness among them. And if Israel, even at such a time, could not justify itself, much less can it be imagined that the idolatrous nations of the Gentiles should be able to do it: so that every mouth must be stopped, and the whole world stand convicted before God as guilty, and acknowledge itself obnoxious to a dreadful sentence from his tribunal. Now I earnestly desire to bring every reader under a sense of this, as what is of the highest importance, in order to receiving the gospel with becoming gratitude and joy. IMPROVEMENT. WHO can read this melancholy picture of human nature, copied by the hand of an apostle from the lines first drawn by inspirverse ed prophets, without deep humility, and lamentation? To this 10,11 18 was it sunk, that there was none righteous, no not one; none disposed to seek after God, or to cultivate his fear. And from this bitter root, the apostacy of our nature from God, what detesta13,14 ble fruit proceeds! The throat which is like an open sepulchre, the deceitful tongue, the envenomed lips, the malicious heart, the murderous hand! And who can wonder, that such rebels to their heavenly Father should sometimes prove ruffians to their brethren! Let us bless God that we have been preserved from falling into such enormities, and from falling by them. His grace has restrained us from sinning against him in such an aggravated manner; his Providence has guarded us from those whose feet are iWhat the law saith.] It appears here, that this word law doth sometimes signify the Old Testament in general; for not one of the quotations above is taken from the pentateuch. Six TWO seems exactly to signify. * Stand convicted before God.] SO UTGArchbishop Tillotson would render it, liable to Divine justice; which is the same in sense. See his Works, Vol. I. p. 126. Reflections on the scripture account of men's degeneracy. 39 swift to shed blood, and in whose paths there is destruction and SECT. misery. vi. verse Let us remember the view in which these instances were brought; even to evince this deplorable, but undeniable truth, 15,16 that Jews and Gentiles are all under sin. The purpose of con- 19 viction therefore being answered on our hearts, let us humble ourselves before God, as those that stand guilty in his presence, and obnoxious to his judgment. Thankfully let us own the inestimable goodness of God in having favoured us with his sacred oracles, and endeavour to 2 improve in the knowledge of them. Thus instructed, let us be careful to form the most honourable notion of God, as the worthy and universal Judge, who will never fail to do right; and may these views of him produce an abhorrence of every thing evil which must necessarily be displeasing to him. Nor let us ever allow ourselves to be brought under the influence of those fallacious and pernicious maxims which would persuade us, that the goodness of the intention sanctifies the badness of the action; or that the pretended benevolence of the end will justify irregularities in the means. God's judgment and decision is final; and an inspired apostle's authority is an answer to a thousand subtilties, which might attempt to turn us from the strictest rules of that immutable rectitude on which it always proceeds. SECT. VII. From the representation made above, of the guilt and misery of mankind, the apostle deduces the necessity of seeking justification by the gospel, and consequently the excellency of that dispensation, as exhibiting the method of it. Rom. III. 20, to the end. ROMANS III. 20. by the deeds of ROMANS III. 20. THEREFORE HAVE just been proposing to you convince SECT. that the whole world must stand convicted be- Rom. iii. 20 Be justified, &c.] The learned Vi- cxliii. 2, and must therefore signify to retringa hath with great propriety observed, ceive the testimony of being righteous from that this word is borrowed from Psalm a judge, and cannot merely signify to ob 40 No flesh to be justified by the law. SECT. Works of complete obedience to the law of God, in his sight: for by vii. whether natural or revealed. For, instead of the law is the knowl Rom. justifying any man, it only anticipates, in a ii. 20 more obvious and affecting manner, the sense of his condemnation; as by the law is the knowledge of sin, it discovers to us how grievous a thing it is, and exhibits the righteous displeasure of God against it. 21 : edge of sin. 21 But now the the law But yet, blessed be God, every door of hope is not shut against the sinner, convicted by the righteousness of God law for the righteousness of God, that is, the without is manifested, being manner of becoming righteous, which God witnessed by the hath ordained and appointed in his gospel, law and the proph without that perfect obedience which the law ets; requires, is now made manifest; being indeed attested by the whole tenour of the law and the prophets, which join in leading our eyes to the tain mercy. To be justified, also sometimes signifies to overcome in judgment, Psal. li. 4, and the expression of being just before God implies the same. And that this is the sense of the word in this epistle, appears from several passages; particularly Rom. ii. 3. So that on the whole, as he argues, justification is not a phrase parallel to forgiveness, but refers to a judicial process, and carries in it the idea of acquittal, praise, and reward. And indeed it seems to me always ultimately to refer to the being pronounced, and treated as righteous, in the great day of God's universal judgment. See Rom. ii. 13, 16. By works of the law.] I think with Mr. Locke, that the word law must here be taken in this extent, comprehending ceremonial and moral, revealed and natural. And this I conclude, not so much from the omission of the article, (compare Rom. ii. 12, 14, 25, 27; chap. iii. 31; chap. v. 13, 20; in all which places, and many more, vou without the article signifies the Mosaic law, as the sense evidently proves,) but from the conclusion which the apostle draws, and the whole tenor of his subsequent argu. ment; which would have very little weight, if there were room to object, though we cannot be justified by our obedience to the law of Moses, we may be justified by our obedience to God's natural law. And nothing can be more evident, than that the premises, from which this conclusion is drawn, refer to the Gentiles as well as the Jews; and consequently, that law has here, and in many subsequent passages, that general sense. A very learned person has lately proposed to render pv vous by the law of works; pleading Barloμav didaxs (Heb. vi. 2) as a parallel instance; but I have declined this rendering, as (ver. 27) the apostle expresses the law of works by words placed in a different order, your Two extor, opposed to roue πιςέως; and (ver. 28) χωρις εργων νομο is plainly, as we render it, without the works of the law; as the continuation of the apostle's argument, in reference to Abraham shews. Nor can I see what great end could be served by allowing this criticism; since the apostle else where asserts justification xwpis play without works. (chap. iv. 6.) And to say that spev is put eliptically for vous plov (that is, works for the law of works) is very arbitrary. Nor can I conceive, that any one can be justified by the law of works, without being justified by the works or vice versa; and this is expressly Paul's assertion, chap. iv. 4, 5. By the law is the knowledge of sin.] This strongly implies the broken and disjointed state of human nature, in consequence of which the precepts which God gives us, will, on the whole, only serve to convict us of guilt, but not to produce an obedience by which we can finally be ac. quitted and accepted. Some render it, the law takes cognizance of sin. Attested by the law and the prophets.] See in this view, Gen. xv. 6; Isa. liii. ult.. Dan. ix. 24. |