wicked men send from their throats. Accordingly, it is added, 'The poison of asps is under their lips.'--Macknight. 14 Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: 15 Their feet are swift to shed blood: 16 Destruction and misery are in their ways: 17 And the way of peace have they not known: 18 There is no fear of God before their eyes. Paul's different manner of describing the characters of the Jews and of the Greeks, is worthy of notice. For, in speaking of the Greeks, he uses the greatest plainness, knowing that it would not offend them, as they did not pique themselves on sanctity of conduct, and were conscious that the things laid to their charge were true. But in speaking of the Jews, as Taylor observes, he couches their character under quotations from their own Sacred Writings, and thereby turns their eyes to ancient rather than to present manners. This method he followed, because, in the ancient manners of the nation, they might, as in a glass, clearly see the very deformed complexion of the then generation.—Ibid. 19 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Sinners, says St. Bernard, now endeavour to excuse their sins thus: 'If it may be,' they will say, 'I did not do it;' or else, It was no sin, but lawful;' or else, I did not do it often ;' or else, "I meant no harm;' or else, I was persuaded by another, and drawn into it by temptation;' but at the great day all such excuses will fall to the ground; then every mouth will be stopped.'L. Every mouth shall be stopped by the Law, either now or hereafter; and all the world shall become sensibly guilty before God,-guilty of death, deserving of damnation. And therefore, if some have been the subjects of a great work of the Law, and have thus become guilty, and their mouths have been stopped, it is no certain sign that ever they have been converted.Pres. Edwards. 20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justifie in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. As sin is merely 'the transgression of the Law;' and as, 'where no law is, there is no transgression ;' it is clear, beyond question, that all knowledge of sin must be derived from the Law. To discern that we are sinful, we must of course know the rule of obedience; and comparing our conduct with that rule, must see in this manner, that our conduct is not conformed to the rule. In this way all knowledge of sin is derived.-Dwight. 21 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets; 22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and all them that believe: for there is no difference: upon It is Christ's Righteousness that is the robe which covers our nakedness, and makes us beautiful in God's eye, only faith hath the honour to put the robe on the soul; and this is no small honour to which faith is preferred above the other graces.-Gurnall. 23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God: 24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 26 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for theremission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; it for comfort and instruction. The first verse I saw was the 25th of the third chapter of Romans. Immediately I received strength to believe, and the full beams of the Sun of Righteousness shone upon me. I saw the sufficiency He had made for my pardon and justification. In a moment I believed, and received the peace of the Gospel. Unless the Almighty arm had been under me, I think I should have been overwhelmed with gratitude and joy.'-Life of Cowper. Cowper, the poet, who had been long depressed by religious melancholy, driving him to a state of despair, gives the following account of his conversion, which will serve to show the practical bearing and value of this important passage: "The happy period, which was to shake off my fetters, and afford me a clear discovery of the free mercy of God in Christ Jesus, was now arrived. I flung myself into a chair near the window, and, seeing a Bible there, ventured once more to apply to 26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. God Himself be against thee, when nall. A truth so strange, 'twere bold to think it true; O what boldness may the believer assume at this declaration! What! is justice the enemy that I feared, that attribute which my thoughts fled from-now become my friend? Then, cheer up, my soul! Who shall condemn, if God justifies? And how can 27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. works? Nay: but by the law of faith. There has been a two-fold law given by God to mankind, as the measure of a universal righteousness, the one made for innocent, the other for fallen man; these are distinguished by the apostle under the names of the law of works,' and the law of faith.' It can never be possible that any of the apostate sons of Adam should be denominated righteous by the former of these laws, the righteousness thereof consisting in a perfect and sinless obedience. The latter of them is the only measure and rule of this righteousness, viz., 'the law of faith.' If not far bolder still to disbelieve. Howe. By what law? of God has enacted a law, called the law of faith,' for saving poor sinners through Christ, and He is under an oath to make it good, both in the salvation of every one that believes in Christ, and damnation of every one that doth not believe; and, to make all sure, He hath given Christ an oath to be faithful in His office,-He was trusted as Priest to procure Redemption,and shall sit as Judge to pronounce the sentence, at the great day, of absolution or condemnation.-Gurnall. 28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. None can ever enter heaven by a lawrighteousness. God hath nailed this door up. This way to heaven is like the northern passage to the Indies; whoever attempts it is sure to be frozen up before he gets half way thither.-Gurnall. 29 Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also: Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith. 31 Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law. They who affirm that the Gospel discharges them from the Law as a rule of life, virtually declare that it legalizes vice, that it grants them a patent to sin under its own broad seal, that it naturalizes the alien and eternal outlaw, sin, and makes it a denizen of the kingdom of God. This, it must be confessed, is a doctrine of devils;' it partakes of the infernal too palpably to be mistaken; like a stream of volcanic lava, it may be traced directly to the mouth of the pit which disgorged it, to scorch and desolate the earth in its progress. If demons can rejoice, the successful introduction of this error into the Church must have furnished them with an occasion for exultation not less triumphant than that of the first transgression; it WHAT taught them that the paradise of the new creation is as accessible as the original Eden, that the upas can be grafted on the tree of life, that they might confidently repose on the success of this experiment, and regard it as final, secure that, after this, there is nothing too monstrous to be believed, or too good to be perverted, when human credulity and depravity are the materials to be employed.-Dr. J. Harris. One of the chief glories of the Gospel plan of Salvation is, that while it justifies the sinner, it brings a new set of influences from heaven, more tender and mighty than can be drawn from any other source, to produce obedience to the Law of God.-Barnes. CHAP. IV. HAT shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. For what saith the Scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. • What saith the Scripture?'-Rica, having been to visit the library of a French convent, wrote thus to his friend in Persia concerning what had passed: Father,' said I to the librarian, what are these huge volumes which fill the whole side of the library?' 'These,' said he, 'are the interpreters of the Scriptures.' There is a prodigious number of them,' replied I; 'the Scriptures must have been very dark formerly, and very clear at present. Do there remain still any doubts? Are there now any points 5 contested? Are there?' answered he with surprise, are there? There are almost as many as there are lines.' 'You astonish me,' said I; 'what then have all these authors been doing?' These authors,' returned he, 'never searched the Scriptures for what ought to be believed, but for what they did believe themselves. They did not consider them as a book wherein were contained the doctrines which they ought to receive, but as a work which might be made to authorize their own ideas.'-Anecdotes. "Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. 6 By Him that worketh not,' is not meant a slothful, lazy sinner, who hath no disposition to work; nor a rebellious sinner, whose heart riseth against the work, which the whole law of God would employ him in; but the humble sinner, who desires and endeavours to work, but is not able to do the task which the Law as a covenant sets him; and therefore he is said, in a law sense, not to work, because he doth not work to the Law's purpose, so as to answer its demands, which will accept nothing short of perfect obedience; this man's faith on Christ is accepted for righteousness; that is, God reckons him so, and so he shall pass at the great day by the Judge's sentence, as if he had never trodden one step out of the path of his duty. -Gurnall. 7 6 Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. *Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. 10 How was it then reckoned? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. "And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also: 12 And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised. 18 For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect: 15 Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression. V. 15. It is equally true that where there is no law, there is no obligation. But we are not without law. We are under constitutional law-the law of the mind-if I may thus venture to call it; that is, we have the precepts of law in our natural and necessary judgments of right and wrong, and the sanctions of law in the delightful feeling of self-approbation which rewards the right action, and in the dreadful feeling of remorse which punnishes the wrong action. We are 14 16 Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all. 'It is therefore free, that it might be sure.' This, I confess, according to the manner of men, would not be thought good logic. Things in refer ence to which men act freely, or are left to their liberty, one would think were very unsure. But it is not so with the blessed God in this case. The Salvation of believers is so much the more sure by how much it has its foundation in the Divine covenant of grace.-Howe. 17 (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. 18 Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. There is hope against hope;' hope grounded on faith against hope grounded on reason. Hope grounded on reason would have made Abraham expect that the promise should surely have been ineffectual, because of the deadness of Abraham's body and of the barrenness of Sarah's womb. But he hoped against the difficulty, by hope that sprang by faith, which confided in the promise and power of God, and so overcame the difficulty, and, indeed, obtained the promise.Bunyan. 19 And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb: 20 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; 21 And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. 22 It is imputed to the strength of Abraham's faith, that he would not suffer his own narrow reason to have the hearing of the business, when God promised him a Michaelmas springas I may say-a son in his old age. Skilful swimmers are not afraid to go 24 beyond their depth; whereas, young learners feel for the ground, and are loth to go far from the bank-side. Strong faith fears not, when God carries the creature beyond the depth of his reason.-Gurnall. 23 Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; 25 Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. The Resurrection of Christ, as a means of Redemption, was important in several respects. By this event He conquered death in its own domain, and manifested His supremacy over the powers of darkness. He demonstrated the Divinity of His mission, and the dignity of His filial relation to the Father. He gave a pledge to His people of their own final deliverance from the grave, for He was the first-fruits of them that slept; and then He likewise furnished decisive evidence that His death had answered all the redeeming purposes for which He had submitted to it.-Rouse. We have here the grand answer of a good conscience; and in point of justifying us before God, there can be no answer but this. What have any to say to thee? thy debt is paid by Him that undertook it, and He is free. Answer all accusations with this, Christ is risen.-Leighton. |