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CHA P. IV.

The CONTENTS.

The Apostle goes on to show, That Juftification, and the Favour of God, is not to be obtained by ceremonial Performances, but by religious Faith: From the Inftance of Abraham the Father of the Jewish Church. His Faith made him acceptable to God before ever he was circumcifed. Therefore all that imitate his Faith, by believing in JESUS CHRIST, may be pardoned and faved without Circumcifion. This Faith alone. makes Men his fpiritual Children, according to the Promife. So that to Jay, mere legal Performances can fave the Jews as his Pofterity, is as much as to fay, it was not his religious Faith that juftified and faved him.

4. D. 57. 1.HAT fhall we fay then, that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found?

I.

THA

HAT by your notorious Tranfgreffions of the Law then, the Jews as well as Gentiles are under the abfolute Want of the Gospel-Pardon and Redemption, I have proved (Chap. ii. and iii.) and that the ceremonial Obfervances of the Mofaical Law, are not the thing that can justify and fave you, I shall now further prove to you, from the undeniable Inftance of Abraham the Father of our Nation. I ask therefore, was he juftified and rewarded by Virtue of a mere external Privilege, and the bare Performance of Circumcifion?

2. For if Abraham
were

juftified by
works,

2. If he were indeed, he might have boasted and prided himself above

Ver. 1. Kala sagna, Concerning the Flefb. Whether this Phrafe is to be joined to ang Father, or to sugnxival, bath found, is not abfolutely to be determined. And tho' the latter feems much the more natural Conftruction, I have expreffed them both. See Chap. i. 3.

works, he hath whereof to glory, but not before God.

above all other People, as you now A. D. 57. do. But 'tis plain, Abraham did not do fo; as well knowing it was the free Bounty of God rewarding his moral Obedience, and not any outward Privilege, or Performance, that juftified and faved him.

3. For what faith the fcripture? Abraham believed God and it was counted † unto him for righte

3. But, look upon the Scripture Account of it, and that will make it plainer. It is there faid † (Gen. xv. 6.) That for an eminent Act of Faith, God was fo highly pleafed with him, that, tho' Abraham might have many Failings and Imperfections, be was accepted, as if he were perfectly and compleatly Righteous.

oufnefs.

4. Now to him that worketh, is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.

4. God, I fay, out of perfect Bounty, thus accepted him; for if Abraham † had done any thing that by its own Virtue could have rendered him a perfectly good Man, the Acceptance and Reward had been a just Debt, and not a Favour conferred on him.

5. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that juftifieth the ungodly,

his faith is counted for righteousness.

5. Whereas on the contrary it is evident, God declared him righteous, pardoned and accepted, and then gave him the Cove nant and the Promife, not as one that had abfolutely deserved it by any Performances, or could claim it by any Privilege, but as a free and gracious Reward for his Faith in Him, who by the Goodnefs and Bountifulness of the Divine Nature, is always ready to pardon and accept all thofe who fincerely believe and obey him.

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6, 7

Ver. 1. and 3. Abraham. See the fame Argument made ufe of in Galat. iii.

+ Ver. 3. 'Exoyin, It was counted unto him, Plainly fignifies, The putting or adding to the Balance of one's Account, out of pure Gift and Favour.

Ver. 4, 5. To him that worketh, and, To him that worketh ποι, Τῷ ἐργαζομένῳ, καὶ τῷ μὴ ἐργαζομένω, νικ τῷ ̓Αβρααμ, as the Connexion of the Apostle's Difcourfe plainly requires.

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11. And he received the fign of circumcifion, a feal of the righteousness of the yet being uncircumcifed: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcifed: that righteoufnefs might be imputed unto them alfo:

faith, which he had

6, 7 & 8. And this Manner of God's pardoning or juftifying Men is the fame that David means (Pfalm xxxii. 1, 2.) even while your Law was in force; for you cannot understand thofe Words of the Man that is justified by Virtue of his own compleat Holinefs (much lefs any external Privileges of the Law) but of the fincere Man, that is pardoned for his paft Sins, by the Mercy of God upon the Sincerity of his Repentance and Faith.

9 & 10. Well then, it will be an eafy Matter to know, whether this great Bleffing of Pardon and Acceptance with God, were intended to be confined to the Jewish Church, and not extended to the Gentile World, purely because they are uncircumcifed. Look upon Abraham's Cafe again, was he accepted before he was circumcifed, or after it? Before it certainly. (Gen. xvi. 6.)

II. And the external Peformance of Circumcifing himself and his Family, was fo far from being any Way the Cause and ReaJon of his fuftification, that it was nothing elfe but a Sign and Pledge that God gave him, to fhew him, and to be a Memorandum to his Pofterity, how acceptable his Faith was, and how fure he would be to reward it in him and them that imitated it. And as Abraham was justified before Circumcifion; it is plain, that all People whatever that

follow

follow his Faith, may be faved without it. For as it 4. D. 57.
was Faith in God that made him the Father and Pattern
of true Believers, fo whoever has that Faith, though
he be a Gentile, is his true Son. *

12. And the father
of the circumcifion to
them who are not of
the circumcifion only,

but also walk in the
fteps of that faith of
our father Abraham,
which be bad being yet
uncircumcifed.

13. For the pro-
mife that he should
be the heir of the
world, was not to A-
braham, or to his feed
through the righte-
urufnels of faith.
14. For if they
which are of the law

12. And then he is the Father of the Jews alfo, but a Spiritual Father, not to all the Nation barely as his Pofterity by Circumimitate that Faith of his that faved cifion; but to fuch Jews only as him, before ever he was circumcifed at all.

13 & 14. For as it would be moft abfurd for you to fay, The Promife of Abraham's being the Father of all true Believers, was given him by Virtue of Circumcifion + that was after it, (much lefs by your whole Law that was given four hundred Years afterward.) But you must make it to have been the Reward of his Faith; fo to fay, this Promise is entailed upon your Nation his natural Pofterity, merely as circumcifed, and as Subjects of the Mofaical Law, is to make his Faith fignify nothing

be heirs, faith is made
void, and the promise
made of none effect.

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* Ver. 11. Εις τὸ εἶναι αυτόν παλέρα πάντων τῶν τις εν όντων - So that he is the Father of all Believers. In the fame Sense of the Phrafe in Chap. i. 20. and in ver. 16. of this Chap-where s T vas ought to be rendered, fo that.

+ Ver. 13, 14 & 15. The Law, may in thefe Verses fignify Circumcifion, as the Sacramental Rite that obliged them to the whole Law, or else the whole Law itself. Certain it is the Apoftle uses this Word in fometimes a fuller, at other Times in a more limited Signification; taking it in fome Paffages for the whole Mafs of the Jewish Law, in others for only the ceremonial Part of it, and in fome for the whole Old Teftament Writings. I have distinguished them in my Paraphrase, as the Senfe and Connexion requires, and refer the Reader to the Particulars in the INDEX.

4. D. 57. thing in the Cafe, and the Promife is to have no Rela

tion to it.

15. Because the law 15. And indeed you cannot worketh wrath for have it by the Law, which is a where no law is, there Difpenfation abounding with Duis no tranfgreffion. ties, and fevere Curfes and Penalties annexed to the Breach of them: And as you have managed yourselves under it, in a wilful Violation of its Precepts, all the Advantage that I fee you have gained by it, is a Load of Guilt, it has laid you under; and had fuch a finful People as you had no Revelation of God's Will at all, you had been much less obnoxious to the divine Pleasure than you now

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* Ver. 16. "Ira nald xaer, fo as to be a purely gracious Difpenfation: Or elfe thus, and fo it (i. e. Juftification) is by Grace, i. e. by the Gofpel Religion.

+ Ver. 17. Before him in whom he believed tion feems plainly to be this, ὅς ἐςι παλὴς ναντι ὗ ἐπίςευσεν θεῖ — The Father of us all Gentiles) in God's Efteem in whom he believed.

The Conftrucπάντων κατέ i. e. Yews and

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