36 A PARAPHRASE OF THE NINTH CHAPTER TO THE ROMANS.

to believe on him; concerning whom, notwithstanding, God himself had given them warning of old by one of his greatest Prophets that, in the house and line of David their King, he would raise up and establish with power and authority for ever such a person who, by reason of that poor and mean condition wherein he should appear in the world, would be obnoxious to be despised and rejected by unwary and inconsiderate men to their destruction and ruin; who, notwithstanding, should be a blessed Author of life, and peace, and glory, unto all those who should receive and acknowledge him by believing on him.

AN EXPOSITION

OF

THE NINTH CHAPTER OF THE EPISTLE OF PAUL TO THE ROMANS.

CONCERNING THE SCOPE OF THE CHAPTER.

It is a saying, though common, yet of worthy consequence, and this in cases of several imports, "A wise man should still begin at the end."* A man of understanding being to write or to speak will first diligently consider what his end is in either, what it is that he proposeth unto himself to obtain by the one or the other, and will accordingly form his discourse in all the parts and carriages of it. By means hereof all uncomely extravagancies and tedious impertinencies of words will be prevented, and only such things delivered which have a close and acceptable proportion unto his end. And, doubtless, he that desires. clearly and without mistake to understand the particular passages or sayings in the discourse of a wise and sober man, which in themselves, simply considered, may be somewhat obscure and of a doubtful interpretation, shall put himself into the best posture of advantage for compassing this his end, if he can discover the end of the speaker, and carry along with him the consideration hereof to the said passages. I confess that, in such cases, where the end and main intent of the speaker is otherwise doubtful and hard to be known, it is to be inquired after, and may very possibly be so discovered and found out, in the tenor, strain, and tendency of the passages themselves of the discourse.

There is no one thing of a richer conducement to a true

Sapiens debet incipere a fine.

understanding of this ninth chapter to the Romans, especially in those passages which are more difficult and obscure, than a clear, steady, and distinct knowledge of the Apostle's scope herein, and what doctrine or conclusion it is which the Holy Ghost seeks to prove, explicate, or establish, throughout this contexture of Scripture. The reason hereof is, because all parts of the discourse must be carried in their respective interpretations, as it were, in a straight line upon that which is the scope and end thereof, so that what sense or meaning of words or phrases, though otherwise consistent enough with the letter, simply considered, yea, or with the truth itself in other points, yet shall be found to stand off from the said scope, and be irrelative to it, may hereby clearly be detected not to be the genuine or true sense or meaning of the Holy Ghost in those words. Therefore, by way of preface to our explication of the chapter itself, we shall inquire a little after the main drift and intent of the Apostle herein; concerning which I find only these two different opinions, in the general, amongst expositors; nor, indeed, do I conceive any place left in reason, or with any colour of reason, for a third, at least, materially differing both from the one and the other.

First. Some conceive that the Apostle, in this chapter, from the rejection of the Jewish nation out of the love and favour of God, (insinuated verses 2, 3,) who had for many ages past been a peculiar and chosen people unto him, together with the calling and assuming the Gentiles in their stead, takes occasion to declare and open unto the world the original fountain or supreme cause hereof, namely, the absolute and eternal purpose and decree of God, according unto which he hath predestinated such and such persons, as it were by name, unto eternal life and glory, and such and such others unto eternal death and misery. From this absolute decree of predestination in God it comes to pass, as they conceive and teach, that some persons, namely, those who are predestinated unto life, have such means of grace vouchsafed unto them by God, by which they are infallibly, and without all possibility of miscarrying, brought to repent and believe; as, on the contrary, that others, namely, who are not predestinated unto life, but unto death and eternal condemnation, must, of necessity, remain in impenitency and unbelief, and consequently be at last rejected by God and perish everlastingly. This is the brief of the account which this opinion

gives of the rejection of the Jews and calling of the Gentiles, namely, the election of the one and reprobation of the other from eternity, and this according to the absolute and mere will and pleasure of God; from which different purpose in God towards the one and the other it comes to pass, saith this opinion, that the one, as, namely, the Gentiles, that is, great numbers of them, are brought to believe, and hereby become the people of God; and the other, namely, the Jews, a small remnant only excepted, remain hardened in unbelief, and so are cast off by God and perish. The discussion of this business, the opinion we speak of supposeth to be the sovereign drift and scope of the Apostle in the present chapter.

The other opinion conceiveth, That the crown which the Apostle runs for in this chapter is partly the preventing, partly the satisfying, of such objections which he knew the Jews either had made, or very probably might make, against that main doctrine of justification by faith alone in Christ without the works of the law, which he had argued and asserted hitherto, with some occasional insertions of other matters nearly relating hereunto, and for the obstinate and wilful rejection whereof, being now so plainly and fully preached and opened unto them, he certainly knew that their rejection and casting off by God approached, and was even at the door.

That this, and not the other, is the genuine, proper, and direct scope of the Apostle in the chapter in hand will be sufficiently evidenced by these considerations; especially in conjunction with that natural correspondency and agreement which we shall find in all the principal passages of the chapter therewith, when we come particularly to examine and unfold them.

1. The doctrine of such a predestination as the former opinion notioneth and contendeth for, as the subject-matter of the chapter, hath nothing at all in it to convince the Jews of any rebellion or disobedience against God, in rejecting the doctrine of justification by faith in Christ, or in cleaving so pertinaciously as they did to the observation of the law for their justification. For, that some are elected by God, others reprobated, no ways proveth either that they who embrace the doctrine of justification by faith are they that are elected by him or approved of him, nor yet that they who depend upon the law for their justification are those that are reprobated by him, or rebel against him. Now it is as clear as the light of the

sun that Paul, both in this and the two next following chapters, labours mightily to convince the Jews of their obstinacy against God, in rejecting his counsel concerning their justification by faith, and that this obstinacy of theirs was the cause of their casting out of the favour of God, and of the investing of the Gentiles, at this time, with their privileges. Nay,

2. Such a doctrine of election and reprobation, as that specified, is so far from having any thing in it whereby the Jews should be convinced of disobedience against God by rejecting the Gospel, and justification by faith, that of the two it hath rather a tendency of a contrary import, as, namely, to strengthen their hand under this their rejection, and to harden them in their rebellion yet more. For, might not they, upon a very plausible account, argue and conclude that they who continued in the law and ordinances of God, given unto their forefathers, and who sought for righteousness by the observation of them, were the elect of God; and, on the contrary, that himself and such of their nation who apostatized from the religion of their forefathers, and went an whoring after a strange god and a strange law, for thus they interpreted their believing in Jesus Christ and profession of the Gospel, were the persons reprobated by God, and therefore destitute of his grace and Spirit? Doubtless the Apostle who professed, and this with all sacred solemnity, as we shall hear in the opening of the beginning of the chapter, such a transcendency of love to his brethren, that he could wish to be an anathema from Christ for their sakes, was far from delivering any such doctrine unto them, which, in case they believed it, might, on the one hand, so easily, as we heard, prove a snare unto them and harden them in the contempt of the Gospel, but, on the other hand, could no ways profit or advantage them in their spiritual estate, in case they had received it. For what benefit could it have been to a Jew, refractory against the Gospel, or of what tendency towards his reducement, to be informed that God of his mere pleasure, without any consideration of sin, elected some and reprobated others from eternity? Is there any thing in such a doctrine as this either to mollify his heart, or to over-rule his judgment, towards an embracing of the Gospel? Therefore, certainly the asserting of this doctrine was no part of the Apostle's intendment in this chapter. But,

3. For a person who at present is an enemy to the Gospel,