Commentary on the Epistles and Revelation of John

CHAP. I. Verse 1. A servant of Jesus Christ.

T His is an higher title th • n Monarch of the world, as Numa, second King of Rome could say.

Verse 2. Promised ] Fore-shown and foreshadowed.

Verse 3. Concerning his Son ] Here's a lofty and lively description of Christ's sacred person. The whole Epistle being the Confession of our Churches, as Melancthon calleth it, who therefore went over it ten several times in his ordinary Lectures: The Epistle being such, as never can any man possibly think, speak or write sufficiently of it's worth and excellency.

Verse 4. Declared to be, &c.] Gr. Defined; for definitions explain obscurities.

With power ] For, Superas evadere ad auras; Hic labor, hoc opus est —a work befitting a God, See Ephes. 1.20. with the Note there.

The Spirit of holiness ] The divine essence of Christ, 2 Cor. 13 4. which sanctifieth the human nature assumed by him.

Verse 5. For obedience to the faith ] That is, to the Gospel (that doctrine of faith) or to Christ, who is oft put for faith (whereof he is the proper object) in this Epistle. Kiss the Son, &c. Hear him.

Verse 6. Ye are the called ] With an high and heavenly calling, Heb. 3.1. See the Note there.

Verse 7. Called to be Saints ] Those then that are called, are Saints, whilst alive, and not only those that are canonized by the Pope after they are dead, In numerum Deorum ab Ecclesia Romana relati, as Bembus profanely speaketh of their Saint Francis, a sorry man, of whom (as once of Becket 48 years after his death) it may well be disputed, Whether he were damned or saved. Pope Callistus 3. sainted some such in his time, as of whom Cardinal Bess • rion, knowing them for naught, said, These new Saints make me doubt much of the old.

Grace he to you, and peace ] See the Note on 1 Cor. 1.2.

Verse 8. Your faith is spoken of ] See chap. 16. and Juvenal, Tacitus, and other profane writers, who bitterly exagitate the doctrines and practices of those Roman Christians.

Verse 9. Whom I serve in my spirit ] That is, with all the faculties of my soul concentred and co-united.

Verse 10 I might have a prosperous journey ] This he prayed, and this he had by such a way as he little dreamt of. Little thought Paul, that when he was bound at Jerusalem, and posted from one prison to another, that God was now sending him to Rome: yet he sent him, and very safe, with a great Convoy. God goes oft another way to work, for our good, then we could imagine.

Verse 11. That I may impart ] There is no envy in spiritual things, because they may be divided in solidum; one may have as much as another, and all alike. Scientiarum (sic & gratiarum) ca vis est & natura, ut quo plus doceas, & alteride tuo largiare, co ditior ac doctior fias, saith Bodine. Such is the nature and property of sciences and graces, that the more you communicate them, the more you increase them.

Verse 12. That I may be comforted ] Or exhorted, Ad communem exhortationem percipiendam, saith Beza out of Bucer, and others. The meanest of Christ's members may contribute somewhat to the edifying even of an Apostle.

Verse 13. But was let hitherto ] Either by Satan, 1 Thess. 2.18. or by the holy Spirit, otherwise disposing of him, as Act. 19.6, 7. or by some intervenient, but important occasion: as Chap. 15.20, 21.

Verse 14. I am debtor ] Because entrusted with talents for that purpose, 1 Cor. 9.16. See the Note there.

Verse 15. So as much ] Quicquid in me situm est, promptum est. A notable expression.

Verse 16. For I am not ashamed ] As men are apt to be; whence that fatherly charge, 2 Tim. 1.8.

For it is the power, &c.] Eternal life is potentially in the Word preached, as the harvest is potentially in the seed.

Verse 17. The just shall live by faith ] Hab. 2.4. that is, they shall enjoy themselves by their faith, in greatest disasters, or dangers, when others are at their wits ends, that's the Prophets sense; and the Apostle not unfitly applieth it to prove justification by faith alone: for if a man live by faith, he is just by faith.

Verse 18. Who hold the truth ] Hold the light of their consciences (which is as a Prophet from God) prisoner. The natural man, that he may sin the more securely, imprisons the truth, which he acknowledgeth, and lays hold on all the principles in his head, that might any way disturb his course in sin, locking them up in restraint. Hence it appears that no man is righteous in himself, or by his own righteousness, which was the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉

Verse 19. Because that which may ] Heathens might know God the Creator, per species creaturarum (as they speak) either in way of negation, or causality, or eminence; not so God the Redeemer.

Verse 20. Are clearly seen ] As in a mirror, or as on a theater. Ut solemn in aquis, sic Deum in operibus contemplamur.

Verse 21. Neither were thankful ] How then shall we answer to God our hateful unthankfulness, which is (saith one) a monster in nature, a solecism in manners, a paradox in divinity, a parching wind to damme up the fountain of divine favors.

But became vain in their imaginations ] Gr. In their reasonings, disputations, discourses upon serious deliberation. They stood not to their own principles (as, That there is one God only, That this God is to be worshipped, &c. ) but were Atheists by night that worshipped the Sun, and Atheists by day that worshipped the Moon, as Cyril saith wittily.

Verse 22. Professing themselves to be wise ] Aristotle, Natures chief Secretary, writeth many things most absurdly concerning God: As, that he is a living creature, That he worketh not freely, but by a kind of servile necessity; and that therefore he deserveth no praise or thanks from men for his many benefits, since he doth but what he must needs do. These are Aristotle's absurd assertions. And yet at Stuckard in Germany, was found a Doctor of Divinity that preached to the people, That the Church might be sufficiently well taught and governed by Aristotle's Ethics, though we had no Bible: And the Collen Divines set forth a book, concerning Aristotle's salvation.

Verse 23. Made like to corruptible man ] God made man in his own image: And (to be even with him, as it were) will needs make God, after his image.

And fourfooted beasts ] God therefore justly gave them up to Sodomy, with did abase them below the beasts: that there might be an analogy between the sin and the punishment. This is called a meet recompense, ver. 27. They dishonored God, they dishonored therefore themselves. They would not know nor honor him, they shall not therefore know, nor spare one another, &c. so severely will God punish the contempt of rebellion against the light.

And creeping things ] In Lapland the people worship that all day for a god, whatsoever they see first in the morning, be it a bird or worm.

Verse 24. Gave them up to uncleanness ] Aristotle confesseth the disability of moral knowledge to rectify the intemperance of nature; and made it good in his practice: for he used a common strumpet to satisfy his lust. Socrates is said to have had his Catamite, Inter Socratices, &c.

Verse 25. Who changed ] They tare out their natural principles and turned Atheists.

Verse 26. Into that which is against nature ] So against nature, that children (natures end) and posterity is utterly lost by it.

Verse 27. Leaving the natural ] As at this day in the Levant, Sodomy is held no sin. The Turkish Basha's have many wives, but more Catamites, which are their serious loves.

Burned in their lust ] Gr. Were scalded. Some men put off all manhood, become dogs, worse then dogs. Hence Deut. 23.18. The price of a dog, that is of a buggerer, as Junius and Deodatus expound it.

Verse 28. To a reprobate mind ] Or, an injudicious mind: Or, a mind rejected, disallowed, abhorred of God: Or a mind that none hath cause to glory in, but rather to be much ashamed of.

Verse 29. With all unrighteousness ] The mother of all the ensuing misrule.

Wickedness ] The Syrian saith, Bitterness. See Ier. 2.19.

Envy, murder ] Three such Agnominations are found in this black bedroll. The Apostle seems delighted with them, as was likewise the Prophet Isaiah. Of which noble two, I may well say, as one doth of Demosthenes and Cicero, Demosthenes Ciceroni praecipust ne esset primus Orator, Cicero Demostheni, ne solus.

Malignity ] Or, Morosity, crossness.

Verse 30. Haters of God ] And so God-murderers, 1 Joh. 3.15. See the Note there.

Verse 31. Implacable ] That will not hear of a truce, much less of a peace.

Verse 32. Have pleasure ] Or, they patronize, applaud and approve: This is set last, as worst of all: it comprehends all kinds of consent. To hold the bag is as bad as to fill it.

CHAP. II. Verse 1. Therefore thou art inexcusable.

THough thou have no pleasure in them that do evil, as Chap. 1. 32. but dost superciliously censure them, being thyself otherwise as bad. Cato is said to have exercised usury, to have prostituted his wife, to have slain himself. God oft sets a Noverint universi upon the worlds wizards, for the foulest fools.

Verse 2. Which commit such ] As Cato, ver. 1. whom yet Velleius affirmeth to have been, hominem virtuti simillimum. But God judgeth not as man.

Verse 3. Thinkest thou ] This is preaching to the conscience, to the quick.

Verse 4. The goodness of God ] Gr. His native goodness, ready to be employed to the behoof and benefit of the creature, Tit. 3.4. Now as the beam of the Sun shining on fire, doth discourage the burning of that; so the shining of God's mercies on us should dishearten and extinguish lust in us. This is so equal, and needful a duty, that Peter picks this flower out of Paul's garden, as one of the choicest, and urgeth it upon those to whom he writes, 2 Pet, 3.15.

Verse 5. Treasurest up unto thyself ] Sicut mittentes pecuniam in gazophyla • ium, quod, ubi jam impletur, confringitu • , saith Stella upon Luke. In treasuring, there is, 1. Laying in. 2. Lying hid. 3. Bringing out again, as there is occasion. Wicked persons, whiles by following their lusts, they think they do somewhat to their happiness, shall in the end find, Pro the sauro carhones, those burning coals, Psal. 140.10.

Verse 6. Who ] See the Note on Mat. 16.27.

Verse 7. Who by patient continuance] Or, By suffering persecution for righteousness sake. Gordius the Martyr said, It is to my loss, if you bate me anything in my sufferings. Majora certamina, majora sequuntur pramia, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , saith Ignatius. Much pains hath much gains.

Verse 8. But unto them that are contentious ] That wrangle and thwartle against clearest truths, searching the devils skull for carnal arguments, as those Athenians, Act. 17. being refractary as Pharaoh, who would not sit down under the miracle, but sent for the Magicians. And though the word doth eat up all they can say, as Moses his rod did, yet harden they their hearts as Pharaoh, and resolve to curse, as Balaam, what ever come of it. These are those contentious ones.

Verse 9. Of the Jew first ] Qui ideo deteriores sunt, quia meliores esse deberent. Who are therefore worse, because they should be better.

Verse 10. Peace ] Safety here, and salvation hereafter.

Verse 11. For ] See the Note on Act. 10.34.

Verse 12. Perish without law ] Or, Though they hall no written law, as that of Moses.

Verse 13. But the doers of the law ] The Scriptures are verba vivenda non l • genda, as Egidius Abbot of Norimberg said of the 119. Psalm. Boni Catholici sunt qui & sidem integram sequuntur, & bonos mores. Lessons of music must be practiced, and a copy not read only, but acted. Divinity must be done as well as known.

Verse 14. Do by nature, &c.] Velleius saith that Cato was, Homo virtuti simillimus, cui id solum visum est rationem habere, quod Haberet justitiam, omnibus humanis vitiis immunis, &c.

Are a law to themselves ] The Thracians glory • • hat they were 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , living laws, walking statutes.

Verse 15. Their thoughts mean while ] Or, Betwixt whiles: Or in every interim of this life. Other faculties may rest; an obscene dream by night shall not scape consciences record, it is index, judex, vindex. God's say, and man's over-seer; and it is better to have it sore, then seared.

Verse 16. According to my Gospel ] Which promiseth heaven to believers. This is comfort to those that are faithful in weakness, though but weak in faith. The sentence of the last day shall be but a more manifest declaration of that judgment that the Lord in this life, most an end, hath passed upon men. Heathens shall be judged by the law of Nature: Prostigate Professors by the law written, and the Word preached: Believers by the Gospel, which saith, If there be a willing mind, God accepteth, &c.

Verse 17. Restest in the law ] So spending thy time in a still dream, but thou shalt have sick waking, then when God shall send out summons for such sleepers. Men dream their Midianitish dreams, and then tell them for law or Gospel to their neighbors.

Verse 18. Being instructed out of the law ] Gr. Being well catechized and principled, thou art able to discern of doctrines, and choose the best.

Verse 19. Of the blind ] The Chinois say, That all other Nations see but with one eye, they with two.

Verse. 20. Which hast the form of knowledge ] A platform of wholesome words, a system, a method artificially molded, such as Tutours and Professors of Arts and Sciences have, and do read over again and again to their Auditors.

Verse 21. Teachest thou not thyself! ] He that knows well, and does worse, is but as a whiffler which carrieth a torch in his hand to show others his own deformities. I have read of a woman, who living in professed doubt of the Godhead, after better illumination and repentance, did often protest, That the vicious life of a great scholar in that town did conjure up those damnable doubts in her soul, Neronis illud (quantus artifex pereo?) quadrabit in te peritum & periturum. That's the best Sermon that's digged out of a man's own breast. Origen's teaching and living were said to be both one.

Verse 22. Dost thou commit sacrilege ] The Chronicler noteth of Q. Mary, that she restored again all Ecclesiastical livings assumed to the Crown, saying, that she set more by the salvation of her own soul, then she did by ten Kingdoms. Shall not she that abhorred not idols, rise up and condemn those that do, and yet commit sacrilege?

Verse 23. Thorow breaking ] By shooting short, or beyond, or wide of the mark, by omission, commission, or failing in the manner.

Verse 24. For the Name of God, &c.] Heretics and hypocrites do still with Judas deliver up the Lord Christ to the scoffs and buffetings of his enemies. Augustine complains of the ancient heretics. that in them many evil-minded men found matter of blaspheming the Name of Christ, because they also pretended to the Christian religion. Epiphanius addeth, That for the looseness of such men's lives, and the baseness of their tenets, many of the Heathens shunned the company of Christians, and would not be drawn to hear their Sermons. Origen before them both cries out, Nunc male audiunt castigantur{que} vulgo Christiani, quod aliter quàm sapientibus convenit, vivant, & vitia sub obtentu nominis celent, &c. There is an ill report goes of Christians for their unchristian conversation, &c. Ammianus Marcellinus a Heathen Historian deeply taxeth the pride, luxury, contentions, covetousness of the Bishops in his time, and the deadly hatreds of common Christians. Nullae infestae hominibus bestiae, ut sunt sibi serales pleri{que} Christiani, saith he. A sad thing that a Heathen should see and detest such hellish miscarriages among Christians.

Verse 25. If thou keep the law ] Which thou art thereby bound to do, either by thyself, or by thy Surety Christ Jesus.

Verse 26. If the uncircumcision ] Which it can never do. But admit it could, &c.

Verse 27. Judge thee ] Men's guilt is increased by their obligations, as was Solomon's in departing from God, who had appeared unto him twice, 1 King. 11 9.

Verse 28. Neither is that circumcision ] See Colos. 2.11. with the Note there. Inward circumcision is (as Origen describeth it) Purgatio animae & abjc ctio vitiorum, or (as S ^t Paul in the place above named) the putting ost old Adam with his actions, by the circumcision of Christ, by his merit and Spirit.

Verse 29. Which is one inwardly ] An Israelite indeed, John. 1. that hath put away the foreskin of his heart, Ier. 4.4.

CHAP. III. Verse 1. What advantage]

GR. What odds, singular thing, prerogative? See my True Treasure, Chap. 7. Sect. 2.

Verse 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, because without those lively oracles, 2 Chron. 15.3. Ephes. 2.12. Prize we this privilege, and improve it. You must never expect another edition of the faith once received, Jude 3, once for all.

Verse 3. The faith of God ] That is, his faithful promises, opposed to man's perfidy.

Verse 4. Every man a liar ] viz. By nature. But Isa. 63.8. God's people are children that will not lie, they will die rather. Non ideo negare volo, ne peream: sed ideo mentiri nolo ne peccem, saith she upon the rack, of whom S ^t Hieron • writeth. The officers of Merindol answered the Bishop that moved them to abjure, That they marvelled much that he would persuade them to lie to God and the world. And albeit that all men by nature are liars, yet they had learned by the Word of God, that they ought diligently to take heed of lying in any matter, be it never so small, &c.

That thou mayest be justified in thy sayings ] David speaketh of the truth of Nathan's reprehension; Paul applies it to the truth of God in his promises also. Let us give him a testimonial, John. 3.33. Such as is that Deut. 32.4. A God of truth, and without iniquity, just and right is he.

And mightest overcome ] Mayest be pure, saith David. Zacah in the Syriac is used for overcoming. Vincit veritas, & dare non dignis res mage digna Deo est.

Verse 5. Is God unrighteous ] Such heart-boilings there were in the rejected Jews. And Job said little lesle, till God over-hearing him, steps, as it were, from behind the hangings, and takes him up for it, Job 38.2. Who is this, saith he, that talketh thus? How now?

Verse 6. I speak as a man ] q. d. Is there not such language heard in some men's hearts?

Verse 7. For if the truth of God ] Here the former objection is repeated, explicated, and more fully answered, that every month might be stopped. Ferunt ranas lampade supra lacum, in quo tumultuantur, appensâ, illius sulgore repercussas conticescere. So gain-sayers are silenced, when the truth is thoroughly cleared.

Verse 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 Preface: Eudaemon Johannes against Casaubon, & Calvino-Turcismum, &c.

Whose damnation is just ] In the year of grace 1525. a Monk of Berline in Germany, who in the Pulpit charged S ^t Paul with a lie, was suddenly smitten with an apoplex, whiles the word was yet in his mouth, and fell down dead in the place on S. Stevens day, as they call it.

Verse 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 then a filthy dunghill of all abominable vices. His heart the devils storehouse, throne, nest. His eyes great thorowfares of lust, pride, vanity, &c. His life a long chain of sinful actions, a web of wickedness spun out and made up by the hands of the devil and the flesh, an evil spinner, and a worse Weaver.

Verse 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, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉

Verse 11. None that seeketh ] That seeketh and fetcheth him out of his retiring-room, as she did, Mark 7.24, 25.

Verse 12. Become unprosimble ] Or rotten, nasty, stinking, as the Hebrew hath it, Psalm 14.3. The old world was grown so foul, that God was forced to wash it with a deluge.

Verse 13. The poison of Asps ] Of that sort of Asps that spit their venom far from them upon the by standers. There is a great deal of such vermin and venom in that new found world of wickedness, the tongue, I am. 3. It is easy to observe, that S. Paul here making the anatomy of a natural man, stands more on the organs of speaking then all other members, and showeth how his tongue is tipped with fraud, his lips tainted with venom, his mouth full of gall, his throat a gaping grave, his tongue as a rapier to run men thorough with, and his throat as a sepulcher to bury them in. As for the Asp, they write of her, That whereas her poison is so deadly, that the part infected cannot be cured, but by cutting off, succurrit periclit •• tibus benignior natura, & noxiosissimo animali caliginosos obtutus dedit. Aspidi (saith Psiny) hebetes oculi dati, co • {que} non in front, sed in temporibus habet.

Verse 14. Full ] As a ship that hath it's full fraught and lading.

Verse 15. Swift to shed blood ] As Paul, till God stopped him in his cursed career.

Verse 16. They mind nothing but mischief. ]

Verse 17. They are restless and troublesome. ]

Verse 18. There is no fear of God ] This is set last, as the source of all the former evils.

Verse 19. Guilty ] Culpable, and such as cannot plead their own cause without an advocate.

Verse 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 then lose their labor that built religious houses, Pro remission & redemptione peccatorum, pro remedio & liberatione animae, in eleemosynam animae, pro salute & requie animarum patrum & matrum, fratrum & sororum, &c. These were the ends that they aimed at, as appears in stories.

Verse 21. But now ] Since Christ came.

Verse 22. Upon all ] So that none shall hinder their happiness.

Verse 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 of the glory of God ] i. e. Of his image now obliterated, or of his kingdom, upon the golden pavement whereof no dirty dog must ever trample. It is an inheritance undefiled, 1 Pet. 1.4.

Verse 24. Being justified freely ] Because the Apostles word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , is expounded by Varinus to be 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , therefore Thammerus will needs conclude from this text, that God by justifying us, doth but pay us for our pains, give us what we have earned. Coelum gratis non accipiam, saith Vega. Opera bona sunt Coeli mercatura, saith another. Heaven is the purchase of good works.

By the redemption ] That is, By faith applying this redemption, wrapping herself in the golden Fleece of that Lamb of God.

Verse 25. To be a propitiation ] Or a covering, in allusion to the Law; where the Ark covering the two Tables within it, the Mercy-seat covering the Ark, and the Cherubims covering the Mercy-seat and one another, showed Christ covering the curses of the Law, in whom is the ground of all mercy; which things the Angels desire to pry into, as into the pattern of God's deep wisdom.

For the remission of sins ] Gr. For the relaxation or releasment of sins, as of bonds or fetters.

Verse 26. To declare ] Gr. For a clear demonstration or pointing out with the finger.

Verse 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 short-hand-writing, Ubi est gloriatio • ? Ecclesia est, for exclusa est.

Verse 28. A man is justified by faith ] Here S ^t 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 of zeal and eagerness beyond all compass in most of his disputes, that there was no great reckoning to be made of his Assertions. Yea, he was dangerous to read, as savouring of heresy in some places, and better perhaps he had never written. Four years before the Council of Trent, Cardinal Conturenus, asserted the doctrine of justification by faith alone, in a just tractate, and was therefore soon after poisoned. Cardinal Pool is thought to have been sound in this point. Bellarmine reproves Pighius for consenting to Luther herein, whom he undertook to confute: and yet Bellarmine himself with his tutissimumest, doth as much upon the matter. Magna est veritas & valebit, Great is the truth, and shall prevail.

Verse 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, declaratively by good works. The School-men are very unsound in this capital Article of Justification, and are therefore the less to be regarded. Nam quae de gratia Dei justificante scolastici scribunt, commentitia universa existimo, saith Cardinal Pighius, who is therefore much condemned by Bellarmine, but without cause.

Verse 30. And uncircumcision ] All by one way, lest he should seem not to be one, but alius & alius.

Verse 31. We establish the law ] Which yet the Antinomians cry down, calling repentance a legal grace, humiliation a backdore to heaven; grieving that they have grieved so much for their sins, &c.

CHAP. IV. Verse 1. As pertaining to the flesh.]

THat is, As touching his works, v. 2. called also the letter, cha. 2.27. and the Law a carnal commandment, Heb. 7.16.

Verse 2. But not before God ] Who when he begins to search our lacks, as the steward did Benjamins, can find out those out thieveries that we thought not of; bring to mind and light those sins that we had forgot, or not observed. When he comes to turn the bottom of the bag upwards, it will be bitter with us. Abimelech's excuse was accepted, and yet his sin was chastised, Gen. 20.6.

Verse 3. Abraham believed God ] Latomus of Lovan was not ashamed to write, That there was no other faith in Abraham, then what was in Cicero. And yet our Savior saith, Abraham saw my day, and rejoiced, so did Cicero never. Another wrote an apology for Cicero, and would needs prove him to have been a pious and penitent person, because in one place he hath these words, Reprehendo peccata mea, quod Pompeio confisus, ejus{que} par • es secutus suerim. A poor proof: Hoc argumentum tam facile diluitur, quàm vulpes comest pyrum.

Verse 4. Now to him that worketh ] Yet it is an act of mercy in God to render to a man according to his works, Ps. 62.12. Exo. 206. God's kingdom is not partum, but paratum, Mat. 25.34. not acquired, but prepared.

But of debt ] Not so indeed, Rom. 11.31. but according to the opinion of the merit-monger, who saith as Vega, Coelum gratis non accipiam.

Verse 5. His faith ] Yet not as a work, nor in a proper sense, as Arminius and Bertius held, but as an act of receiving Christ.

Verse 6. Unto whom God imputeth ] Ten times the Apostle mentioneth this grace of imputed righteousness in this Chapter: Yet the Papists jear it, calling it putative righteousness, so speaking evil of the things they know not. Stories tell us of a Popish Bishop that lighting by chance upon this Chapter, threw away the book in great displeasure, and said O Paul, an tu quo{que} Lutheanus sactus es? Art thou also a Lutheran, Paul? But if the faith of another may be profitable to infants at their baptism, as Bellarmine holdeth, why should it seem so absurd a thing, that Christ's righteousness imputed, should profit those that believe on him? The Jews indeed at this day being asked, Whether they believe to be saved by Christ's righteousness? They answer, That every Fox must pay his own skin to the flaier. Thus they reject the righteousness of God, Rom. 10.3. As their Fathers did, so do they, Act. 7.51. The Lord open their eyes, that they may convert and be saved.

Verse 7. Are covered ] Sic velantur ut in judicio non revelentur: So covered as that he never see them again, but as the Israclites saw the Egyptians dead on the shore.

Verse 8. Imputeth not ] Chargeth it not, setteth it not upon his score, 2 Cor. 5.19.

Verse 9. Cometh this blessedness ] This is the third time that the Apostle avoucheth the universality of the subject of justification. For this he had done once before, Chap. 3.23. and again, cha. 3.29 30, 31.

Verse 10. In circumcisi • n ] As the Jew would have it: No such matter.

Verse 11. A seal of the righteousness ] Circumcision is called a sign, and a • eal by a Dectour of the Jews, more ancient then their Talmud. Zohar, Gen. 17.

That righteousness might be imputed ] How foolish is that inference of Thammerus, that because the word here used to signify imputed, comes of a word that signifies reason, therefore the righteousness of faith must be such as a man may understand and comprehend by reason?

Verse 12. Walk in the steps ] That herein personate and express him to the life, as Constantine's children (saith Eusebius ) did their father.

Verse 13. Heir of the world ] That is, Of heaven, say some; of Canaan, say others, the pleasant Land, more esteemed of God, then all the world besides, because it was the seat of the Church. As man is called every creature, Mark 16.15. the Church is called all things, Col. 1. So Canaan is called the world, and Tabor and Hermon, put for the East and West of the whole world, Psal. 89.12.

Verse 14. Faith is made void ] See the Note on Gal. 3.12. and 5.2.

Verse 15. No transgression ] sc. Is imputed by men where there is no law written, See Chap. 5.13.

Verse 16. It is of faith ] Fides mendicâ manu.

Verse 17. Who quickeneth the dead ] As he doth, when he maketh a man a believer, Ephes. 1.19. he fetcheth heart of Oak out of a hollow tree, and a spiritual man out of a wild-asse-colt. See both these metaphors, Job 11, 12.

Verse 18. Who against hope, &c.] Elegans antunaclasis propter speciem contradictionis, saith Piscator. Spes in terrenis, incerti nomen boni: spes in divinis, nomen est certissimi, saith another.

Verse 19. He considered not ] Gr. He cared not for his own body, &c. he never thought of that.

Verse 20. Giving glory to God ] Confessing and exalting God, as Luk. 17.18 giving him a testimonial, as it were, John. 3.33. with Deut. 32.4.

Verse 21. Being fully persuaded ] Gr. Being carried on with full sail, and going gallantly towards heaven.

Verse 22. See the Note on Vers. 5, 6.

Verse 23. For his sake alone ] But for our instruction and encouragement, Rom 15.4. See the Note there.

Verse 24. That raised up Jesus ] And with him all believers Col. 3.1. Rom. 6.4.

Verse 25. Who was delivered, &c.] Not that his death had no hand in our justifying: but because our justification begun in his death, was perfected by his resurrection. Redemption we have by Christ's abasement, application of it by his advancement. This one verse is an abridgement of the whole Gospel, the sum of all the good news in the world. The grand inquest of all the ancient Prophets, 1 Pet. 1.11. Adore we the fullness of the holy Scriptures.

CHAP. V. Verse 1. Being justified by faith.]

AS he had said, Chap. 4.24.

We have peace with God ] A blessed calm lodged in our consciences: Like as when Jonah was cast overboard, there followed a tranquility.

Verse 2. We have access ] Christ leading us by the hand, and presenting us to the Father, with, Behold, here am I, and the children whom thou hast given me, Ephes. 2.18.

Verse 3. We glory in tribulations ] As an old soldier doth in his scars of honor. See Gal. 6, 17. 2 Cor. 7.4.

Verse 4. And experience, hope ] Without hope patience is cold almost in the fourth degree, and that is but a little from poison.

Verse 5. Hope maketh not ashamed ] As among men, many lie languishing at Hopes hospital, as he did at the Pool of Bethesda, Joh. 5. and return as they did from the brooks of Tema, Job 6.17. Or, as men go to a Lottery with heads full of hopes, but return with hearts full of blanks. The Dutch have a Proverb to this purpose, Sperare & expectare, multos reddit stultos. And we say, He that hopes for dead men's shoes may hap go bare-foot. Bad men's hopes may hop headlesle, they may perish in the height of their expectancies. Not so those that hope in God: they shall yet praise him who is the help of their countenance, and their God, Ps. 43 ult. Nunquam confusi, Deo confisi.

Verse 6. Christ died for ] A sufficient evidence of God's dearest and deepest love shed abroad in our hearts, as a most sweet ointment.

Verse 7. Yet per adventure for a good man ] For a public person. Lilloe stepped between the murderer and King Edwin his master to intercept the deadly thrust. A common soldier lost his life at Musselborough field to save the Earl of Huntlies life: so did Nicolas Ribische to rescue Prince Maurice at the siege of Pista.

Verse 8. God commendeth, &c.] Herein God lays naked to us, the tenderest bowels of his fatherly compassions, as in an anatomy.

Verse 9. Much more then ] It is a greater work of God to bring men to grace, then being in the state of grace, to bring them to glory; because sin is far more distant from grace, then grace is from glory.

Verse 10. We shall be saved ] Here the Apostle reasoneth from regeneration to eternal life, as the lesser.

Verse 11. Not only so ] Not in tribulation only do we glory (as v. 3.) but in the whole course of our lives.

Verse 12. As by one man ] Yet Anabaptists deny original sin, as did also the Pelag • ans of old, consuted by Augustine. Egranus a German Preacher said (as Melancthon reporteth) that original sin is a mere fiction of Augustine, and other Divines; and that, because there was no such word found in the Scriptures. Papists say that original sin is the smallest of all sins, not deserving anymore of God's wrath, then only a want of his beatifical-presence: and that too, without any pain or sorrow of mind from the apprehension of so great a loss. There have been amongst us, that have said, that original sin is not forbidden by the Law. Directly indeed, and immediately it is not: but forbidden it is, because cursed and condemned by the Law. In original sin is a tacit consent (eminently) to all actual sin. And some understand this text of all sin, both original and actual.

And so death passed upon all men ] As a sentence of death on a condemned malefactor 1 or, as those diseases that are called by Physicians, Corruptio totius substantiae; or as the rot overrunneth the whole flock.

Verse 13. Sin is not imputed ] In men's esteem, as Chap. 4 15.

Verse 14. Death reigned ] From the reign of death, he concludes the reign of sin. Infants are no innocents: the first sheet or blanket wherein they are covered is woven of sin, shame, blood and filth, Ezek. 16.4.6.

Verse 15. Many be dead ] Many is here put for all, as all for many, 1 Tim. 2.3.

Verse 16. Of many • ffences ] i.e. Of all, whether imputed to us, inherent in us, or issuing from us.

Verse 17. Abundance ] That is, abundant grace.

Verse 18. By the offense of one ] We were all in Adam, as the whole country in a Parliament-man. And although we chose not, God chose for us.

Verse 19. Many ] That is, All, except Christ, sinners, tainted with sins, guilt and filth.

Verse 20. But where sin abounded ] But then it is where sin that abounded in the life, abounds in the conscience in grief and detestation of it, as the greatest evil. Bonner objected to M ^r Philpot, Marytyr, that he found written in his book, In me Joanne Philpotto ubi abundavit peccatum, superabundavit & gratia. This he said was an arrogant speech, Novum crimen, C. Caesar.

Verse 21. That as sin hath reigned ] That is, the wrath of God by sin.

Through righteousness ] Imputed and imparted.

By J • sus Christ ] See how sweetly the end answers the beginning of the Chapter, and how Christ is both author and finisher, &c.

CHAP. VI. Verse 1. Shall we continue]

QUasi dicat, That were most unreasonable, and to an ingenious nature, impossible. To argue from mercy to liberty is the devils Logic. Should we not after deliverance yield obedience, said holy Ezra? Chap. 9.13, 14. A man may as truly say, the sea burns, or fire cools, as that certainty of salvation breeds security and looseness.

Verse 2. Live any longer therein ] Fall into it we may and shall: but it is not the falling into the water that drowns, but lying in it: so it is not falling into sin that damns, but living in it.

Verse 3. Baptized into his death ] Hoc est baptizaripro mortuis, saith Beza, to be buried with Christ in baptism, Col 2.12. in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh verse 11.

Verse 4. We are buried ] Burial is a continuing under death; so is mortification a continuate dying to sin, Mors quaedam perpetuata; Sin is by degrees abated, and at length abolished, when once our earthly tabernacles are dissolved.

Walk in newness of life ] Resurrectione Domini configuratur vita, quae hic geritur. Walk as Christ walked after his resurrection.

Verse 5. For if we have been planted ] Burying is a kind of planting.

Verse 6. The body of sin ] For whole evil is in man, and whole man in evil.

Verse 7. Is freed from sin ] Anacreon saith the like, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ; Death is the accomplishment of mortification. It doth at once, what death doth by degrees. Herbs and flowers breed worms, which yet at last kill the herbs and flowers: So sin bred death: but at last death will kill sin. A mud-wall whiles it standeth, harboreth much vermin; which when it falleth, flee away: So doth corruption, when once these cottages of clay fall to ruin.

Verse 8. We shall also live ] Then we are said properly to live, when our regeneration is perfected in heaven. To live here, is but to lie a dying.

Verse 9. Death hath no more, &c.] Christ, being life essential, swallowed up death in victory, as the fire swalloweth up the fuel, and as Moses his serpent swallowed up the Sorcerers serpents.

Verse 10. He died unto sin ] That is, To abolish sin, as Chap. 8.2.

Verse 11. Reckon ye also ] By faith, reason and reckon yourselves wholly dead in and through Christ, who once died perfectly to sin, as a common person.

Verse 12. Let not sin therefore ] As if the Apostle should say, we preach purity and not liberty, as the adversary suggesteth, v. 1. of this Chapter with Chap. 3.8.

Verse 13. Unto sin ] As Satan's General, who hath his trenches, 2 Cor. 10.4. His Commanders, as here, and his fighting soldiers, 1 Pet. 2.11. His weapons, as here.

Verse 14. Sin shall not have dominion ] Rebell it may, but reign it shall not in any Saint. It fareth with sin in the regenerate, as with those beasts, Dan. 7.12. they had their dominion taken away, yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time.

Ye are not under the Law ] i.e. Under the rigor, irritation, curse of the Law, Quatenùs est virtus peccati.

Verse 15. Shall we sin, because, &c.] Some Antinomian Libertines would persuade men, That God is never displeased with his people, though they fall into adultery, or the like sin, no not with a fatherly displeasure: That God never chastiseth his people for any sin, no not with a fatherly chastisement.

Verse 16. His sevants ye are ] Sinners, though not drunk, yet are not their own men, but at Satan's beck and check, whom they seem to defy, but indeed defy.

Verse 17. That form of doctrine ] Gr. That type or mould; The Doctrine is the mould, hearers the metal, which takes impression from it in one part, as well as another. And as the metal hath been sufficiently in the furnace, when it's not only purged from the dross, but willingly receiveth the form and figure of that which it is cast and poured into: so here.

Verse 18. Versus est planus, saith Pareus.

Verse 19. After the manner of men ] That is vulgarly, Crassiùs & rudiùs loquor, by a similitude drawn from human affairs of easy and ordinary observation.

To uncleanness, and to iniquity ] Mark the opposition: there are three To's in the expression of the service to sin: but in the service of God only two. Wicked men take great pains for hell: would they but take the same for heaven, they could not, likely, miss of it.

Verse 20. Free from righteousness ] That is, Utterly void of grace, and did therefore sin lustily and horribly, earnestly opposing with crest and breast, whatsoever stood in the way of their sins and lusts.

Verse 21. Whereof ye are ashamed ] Where sin is in the saddle, shame is on the crupper. Men would have the sweet, but not the shame of sin, and the credit of religion, but not go to the cost of it.

Verse 22. Become servants to God ] Phrasis vulgatissima est, Deum colere. Non secùs at{que} agri fertiles inprimis & optimi, sic Deicultus, fructus fert at vitam aeternam uberrimos.

Ye have your fruit unto holiness ] Every good work increaseth our holiness, and so hability for obedience.

Verse 23. For the wages of sin ] The best largesse or congiary that sin gives to his soldiers, is death of all sorts. This is the just hire of the least sin. The Jesuits would persuade us, that some sins against which the Law thundereth and lighteneth, are so light in their own nature, Ut factores nec sordidos, nec malos, nec impios, nec Deo exosos reddere possint. But as there is the same roundness in a little ball, as in a great one: so the same disobedience in a small sin, as in a greater. Indeed there is no sin little, because no little God to sin against.

CHAP. VII. Verse 1. Know ye not Brethren]

BEllarmine saith of his Romans (more true perhaps of these) Romani sicut non acumina, ita nec imposturas habent. As they are not very knowing, so not cunning to deceive.

Verse 2. She is loosed, &c.] And so at liberty to marry again, though Jerome compare such to the unclean beasts in the Ark, and to vessels of dishonor in an house, yea to dogs that return to their vomit, which was his error. Patres legendi cum veniâ, saith one.

Verse 3. So then if ] The Sectaries then are out, that say now-a-days, that if they have husbands and wives that will not turn Saints, that is Sectaries, they may leave them, and marry others.

Verse 4. That we should bring forth fruit ] The Ministry of the Word, saith one, is the bridal-bed; wherein God by his Spirit doth communicate with our souls his sweetest favors, and maketh them be conceived with fruits of righteousness to everlasting life.

Verse 5. In the flesh ] In our pure naturals.

The motions of sin ] Those maladies of the soul.

By the law ] By the irritation of the law.

Did work ] Gr. D • d inwardly work.

Verse 6. Not in the oldness of the letter ] That is, Not in that old kind of life that we lived under subjection to the law, to the irritation, coaction, and curse of it.

Verse 7. I had not known lust ] Involuntary evil motions. The Apostle calleth concupiscence sin, saith Possevine the Jesuit: but we may not say so. Most of the most dangerous opinions of Popery spring from hence, that they have slight conceits of concupiscence, as a condition of nature. But inward bleeding will kill a man, so will concupiscence, if not bewailed. The Council of Trent saith, That it is not truly and properly a sin, albeit it be so called, because it proceeds from sin, and inclines a man to sin. Neither want there amongst us that say, That original sin is not forbidden by the law: Directly indeed, and immediately it is not: but forbidden it is, because cursed and condemned by the law.

Verse 8. By the commandment ] Not Commandments. Papists abolishing, or at least destroying the sense of the second Commandment by making it a member of the first, that they may retain the number of ten words (so loath are heretics to have their Asses ears seen) they divide this last; which yet Paul here calls the Commandment; and sure he knew better then they, the Analysis of the law.

Verse 9. For I was alive ] As being without sense of sin, and conscience of duty.

Sin revived ] sc. In sense and appearance.

And I died ] sc. In pride and self justice.

Verse 10. Ordained to life ] By life and death, understand peace and perturbation.

Verse 11. Deceived me ] Irritated my corrupt nature, and made me sin the more, per accidens, as Pharaoh was the worse for a message of dismission.

Verse 12. The Commandment ] Vis legis in mandando & praecipiendo. The word properly signifieth an affirmative precept.

Verse 13. Exceeding sinsull ] Sin is so evil that it cannot have a worse Epithite given it. Paul can call it no worse then by it's own name, sinful sin.

Verse 14. Sold under sin ] But yet ill-apaid of my slavery, and lusting after liberty.

Verse 15. I allow not ] Gr. I know not, as being preoccupated, Gal. 6.1. wherried and whirled away by sin before I am aware, or have time to consider.

Verse 16. I consent unto the law ] I vote with it, and for it, as the rule of right, I wish also well to the observance of it, as David did, Psal. 119 4.5.

Verse 17. It is no more I ] M ^r Bradford Martyr, in a certain Letter thus comforteth his friend; At this present, my dear heart in the Lord, you are in a blessed estate; although it seem otherwise to you, or rather to your old Adam; the which I dare now be bold to discern from you, because you would have it not only discerned, but also utterly destroyed. God (saith another reverend man) puts a difference between us, and sin in us, as betwixt poison, and the box that holds it.

Sin that dwelleth in me ] An ill inmate that will not out, till the house falleth on the head of it. As the fretting leprosy in the walls of an house would not out, till the house itself were demolished. Sin, as Hagar will dwell with grace, as Sarah, till death beat it out of doors.

Verse 18. Dwelleth no good thing ] Horreo quicquid de meo est, ut sim meus, saith Bernard. It was no ill wish of him that desired God to free him from an ill man, himself. For, though engraffed into Christ, yet we carry about us a relish of the old stock still. Corruption is though dejected from it's regency, yet not ejected from it's inherency: It intermingleth with our best works.

How to perform ] Gr. To do it thoroughly; though I am doing at it, as I can.

Verse 19. For the good, &c.] Nature, like Eve and Jobs wife is always drawing us from God. As the ferry-man plies the oar, and eyes the shore homeward, where he would be, yet there comes a gust of wind that carries him back again: so it is with a Christian. Corruption edge'd with a temptation, gets as it were the hill, and the wind, and, upon such advantages, too oft prevaileth.

Verse 20. It is no more I ] Every new man is two men. See the Note above on Vers. 17.

Verse 21. When I would do good ] Something lay at the fountain head, as it were, and stopped him when he would do his duty. But God valueth a man by his desires.

Evil is present ] We can stay no more from sinning, then the heart can from panting, and the pulse from beating. Our lives are fuller of sins then the firmament of stars, or the furnace of sparks. Erasmus was utterly out, that said with Origen, Paulum hoc sermon balbutire, quum ipse potiùs ineptiat, saith learned Beza. So Joannes Sylvius Aegranus, a learned, but a profane person, reprehended Paul for want of learning, and said, Quod usus sit declamatorijs verbis, non congr •• ntibus ad rem • , &c. Nominabat sophisma, quod diceremus homines non posse implere legem, &c.

Verse 22. I delight ] Germanicus reigned in the Romans hearts, Tiberius but in the Provinces. So here.

Verse 23. A law in my members ] Called the deeds of the body, Rom. 8.13. because corruption acteth and uttereth itself by the m • mbers of the body. The 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (vox Empedoclea) is within, but easily and often budgeth and breaketh out.

Warring against the law ] The regenerate part. Plato in Cratylo pulchre ait: Ut mentem appellamus 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , ita legem dicimus 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , quasi 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , alioqui men's hominum vagatur.

And bringing me into captivity ] The sins of the Saints (those of daily incursion) are either of precipitancy, as Gal. 6.1. or of infirmity, when a man wrestles, and hath some time to fight it out, but for want of breath and strength, falls, and is in some captivity to the law of sin. This is the worse.

Verse 24. O wretched man ] We must discontentedly be contented to be exercised with sin, while we are here. It is so bred in the bone, that till our bones, as Josephs, be carried out of the Egypt of this world, it will not out. The Romans so conquered Chosroes the Persian, that he made a law, that never any King of Persia should move war against the Romans. But let us do what we can to subdue sin, it will be a Jebu • te, a false borderer, yea, a rank traitor rebelling against the Spirit. Only this we may take for a comfortable sign of future victory, when we are discontent with our present ill estate. Grace will get the upper hand, as nature doth, when the humors are disturbed, and after many fits. And as till then there is no rest to the body: so neither is there to the soul.

Who shall deliver me ] Nothing cleaves more pertinaciously, or is more inexpugnable then a strong lust.

From this body of death ] Or, this dead body, by an H • braisme, this carcase of sin to which I am tied and lungold: as noi • ome every whit to my soul, as a dead body to my senses; and as burdensome, as a withered arm, or mortified lim, which hangs on a man, as a lump of lead.

Verse 25. I think God, &c.] The Grecians being delivered but from bodily servitude by Flaminias the Roman • enerall, called him their Savior: and so rang out, Savior, Savior, that the Fowls in the a • r fell down dead with the cry. How much greater cause have we to magnify the grace of Christ, &c.

So then, with the mind, &c.] The stars by their proper motion are carried from the West to the East: And yet by the motion of obedience to the first mover, they pass along from the East unto the West. The waters by their natural course follow the center of the earth, yet yielding to the Moon, they are subject to her motions: So are Saints to God's holy will, though corrupt nature repine and resist.

CHAP. VIII. Verse 1. There is therefore now]

NOw, after such bloody wounds and gashes, chronicled Chap. 7. Though carried captive, and sold under sin, yet not condemned, as might well have been expected. This the Apostle doth here worthily admire.

Verse 2. For the Law of the Spirit ] That is, Christ revived and risen hath justified me. See the Note on Chap. 4.25.

Verse 3. It was weak through the flesh ] Which was irritated by the law, and took occasion thereby.

Verse 4. Might be fulfilled ] In us applicative, in Christ inhaesive.

Verse 5. Do mind the things ] For want of a better principle. The stream riseth not above the spring.

Verse 6. To be carnally ] The quintessence of the fleshes witinesse, or rather wickedness.

Verse 7. Because the carnal mind ] The best of a bad man, is not only averse, but utterly adverse to all goodness. Homo est inversus decalogus, Job 11.12. an asses soal for rudeness, a wild asses for unrulines.

Verse 8. Cannot please God ] Their best works are but dead works, saith the Author to the Hebrews; but silken sins, saith Augustine. Lombard citeth that Father, saying thus, Omnis vitae infid lium peccatum est: & nihil bonum sine summo bono. The whole life of unbelievers is sin; neither is there anything good without the chiefest good. Ambrose Spiera a Popish Postiller, censureth this for a bloody sentence, Crudelis est illa sententia, saith he.

Verse 9. He is none of his ] As the Merchant sets his seal upon his goods: So doth God his Spirit upon all his people, Ephes. 1.13.

Verse 10. The body is dead ] Death to the Saints is neither total, but of the body only, nor perpetual, but for a season only, verse. 11.

Verse 11. Your mortal bodies ] As he hath already quickened your souls.

Verse 12. Not to the flesh ] We owe the flesh nothing but stripes, nothing but the blew eye that S ^t Paul gave it. It must be mastered and mortified. Drive this Hagar out of doors, when once it grows haunty.

Verse 13. If ye live after the flesh ] We must not think to pass e coeno ad Coelum, to dance with the devil all day, and sup with Christ at night, to fly to heaven with pleasant wings. Beetles love dunghills better then ointments: and swine love mud better then a garden, so do swinish people their lusts, better then the lives of their souls. At Paris ut vivat regnet{que} beatus, Cogi posse negat. That carnal Cardinal said, That he would not part with his part in Paris for Paradise.

But if ye mortify the deeds, &c.] Either a man must kill here, or be killed, Aut for, aut feri, as Q. Elizabeth often sighed and said to herself concerning the Queen of Scots. Valentinian the Emperor dying, gloried of one victory above the rest, and that was his victory over the flesh. Inimicorum nequissimum devici, carnem meam, said he. Be always an enemy to the devil, and the world, but specially to your own flesh, said Rob. Smith, Martyr, in a letter to his wife.

Verse 14. For as many as are led ] As great men suffer their sons to go along with them, but set tutours to overlook and order them: So dealeth God by his; the Spirit leadeth them into all goodness, righteousness and truth, Ephes. 5.9, and fetcheth them again in their cu • straies.

Verse 15. The spirit of bondage ] 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as 2 Tim. 1.7. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The law will convince the judgment: but 'tis the Gospel that convinceth the lust and the affection, and so sendeth us to treat with God as a Father, by fervent prayer.

Verse 16. Beareth witness ] What an honor is this to the Saints, that the holy Ghost should bear witness at the bar of their consciences.

Verse 17. And if sons, then heirs ] All God's sons are heirs; not so the sons of earthly Princes. Jehoshaphat gave his younger sons great gifts of silver, of gold, and of precious things, with fenced Cities in Jud • h; but the Kingdom gave he to Jehoram, because he was the first-born, 2 Chron. 21.3. God's children are all higher then the Kings of the earth, Ps. 89 27.

Verse 18. Are not worthy to be, &c.] Heaven will pay for all: hold out therefore faith and patience. When Saul had the Kingdom, some despised him, but he held his peace, though a man afterwards froward enough. What is a drop of vinegar put into an ocean of wine? What is it for one to have a rainy day, who is going to take possession of a kingdom. Pericula non resp • cit. Martyr, coronas respicit, saith Basil. A Dutch martyr seeing the flame to come to his beard, Ah, said he, what a small pain is this to be compared to the glory to come?

Verse 19. For the earnest expectation ] Gr. The intent expectation of the creature expecteth; an hebrew pleonasme, and withal, a metaphor either from birds that thrust a long neck out of a Cage, as laboring for liberty; or else from those that earnestly look and long for some special friends coming, as Sisera's mother, who looked out at a window, and cried thorough the lattesse, Why is his charet so long in coming? Judge. 5.28.

Verse 20. Subject to vanity ] The creature is defiled by man's sin, and must therefore be purged by the fire of the last day; as the vessels that held the sin-offering were purged by the fire of the Sanctuary.

Verse 21. Because the creature itself ] See M ^r Wilcox his Discourse upon these words, printed together with his Exposition of the Psalms, Proverbs, &c. in Folio.

Verse 22. The whole creature groaneth ] Even the very heavens are not without their feebleness, and the manifest effects of fainting old-age. It is observed that since the days of Ptolemy the Sun runs nearer the earth by 9976. Germane miles; and therefore the heavens have not kept their first perfection.

Verse 23. The first fruits ] Which the creatures have not, and yet they groan, how much more we?

The redemption ] Our full and final deliverance.

Verse 24 For we are saved by hope ] Hope is the daughter of faith, but such as is a staff to her aged mother.

Verse 25. Then do we with patience ] Religious men find it more easy to bear evil, then to wait till the promised good be enjoyed, Heb. 10 36. The spoiling of their goods required patience; but this, more then ordinary.

Verse 26. Helpeth our infirmities ] Lifts with us, and be fore us in our prayers: Or helpeth us, as the Nurse helpeth her little child, upholding it by the sleeve.

For we know not what, &c.] The flesh with her murmurings maketh such a din, that we can hardly hear the voice of the spirit, mixing with the fl • shes roarings and repinings, his praying, sighs and sobbings.

But the Spirit itself ] Prayer is the breath of the Spirit, who doth superexpostulate for us, enditing our prayers. We cannot so much as suspirare, unless he do first inspirare, breathe out a sigh for sin, if he breathe it not into us.

With groanings that cannot be uttered ] He that would have unspeakable joy, 1 Pet. 1.8. must by the Spirit stir up unutterable groanings.

Verse 27. Knoweth the mind, &c.] Quomodo enim non exauditur spiritus à patre, qui exaudit cum patre?

Verse 28. All things work together ] Not affliction only (as some would here restrain it) but sin, Satan, all. Venenum aliquando pro remedio suit, saith Seneca. Medici pedes & alas Cantharidis, cum sit ipsa mortifera, prodesse dicunt. The drinking of that wine wherein a viper hath been drowned, cureth the leprosy. The Scorpion healeth his own wounds: and the viper (the head and tail being cut off) beaten and applied, cureth her own biting. God changeth our grisly wounds into spangles of beauty: and maketh the horrible sting of Satan to be like a pearl-pin, to pin upon us the long white robe of Christ, and to dress us with the garment of gladness.

Verse 29. Conformed to the image ] In holiness, say some; in glory, say others, in affliction is the Apostles meaning. Art not thou glad to fare as Phocion? said he to one that was to die with him. May not Christ better say so to his co-sufferers?

Verse 30. Them also he called, &c.] If ye feel not faith (said that holy Martyr) then know that predestination is too high a matter for you to be disputers of, until you have been better scholars in the School-house of repentance and justification, which is the Grammar-school wherein we must be conversant and learned, before we go to the university of God's most holy predestination and providence.

Them he also justified ] Vocation precedeth Justification. Deus justificat fide jam donatos, sicut damnat priùs induratos.

Them he also glorified ] That is, He keepeth them glorious by his glorious Spirit, even in this life, from impenitent sin, and maketh them stable and constant in godliness.

Verse 31. What shall we say then? ] q. d. Predestination, Vocation, Justification, Glorification? What things be these? We cannot tell what to say to these things, so much we are amazed at the greatness of God's love in them. A brave conclusion of the whole disputation concerning justification by faith alone.

If God be for us &c.] Maximilian the Emperor so admired this sentence, that he caused it to be set in Checker-work upon a Table, at which he used to dine and sup: that having it so often in his eye, he might always have it in mind also.

Verse 32. He that spared not ] Qui misit unigenitum, immisit spiritum, promisit vultum, quid tandem tibi negaturus est? saith Bernard. Nihil unquam ei negasse credendum est, quem ad vituli hortatur esum, saith Jerome.

Verse 33. Who shall lay anything ] This is that confident interrogatory of a good conscience, 1 Pet. 3.21.

It is God that justifieth ] Some read it questionwise thus, Shall God that justifieth? No such matter. And if the Judge acquit a prisoner, he cares not though the Jailer or fellow-prisoners condemn him: So here.

Verse 34. Who is he that condemneth? ] To the sentence of death he opposeth Christ his death.

Who is even at the right hand ] And as Christ is at the right hand of his Father: so is the Church at the right hand of Christ, Ps. 45.10 a place of dignity and safety.

Verse 35. Who shall separate us ] Who shall separate me? saith the Syriac.

Verse 36. We are killed all the day ] In Dioclesians days 17000 Christians are said to have been slain in the space of a month: In the Parisian Massacre 30000 in as little space, and within the year 300000.

As sheep to the slaughter ] That lamentable story of the Christians of Calabria that suffered persecution, anno 1560. comes home to this text. For being all thrust up in one house together, as in a sheep-fold, the executioner comes in, and among them takes one and blind-folds him with a muffler about his eyes, and so leadeth him forth to a larger place, where he commandeth him to kneel down. Which being done, he cutteth his throat, and so leaveth him half dead: and taking his butchers knife, and muffler all of gore blood, he cometh again to the rest; and so leading them one after another, he dispatcheth them to the number of eighty eight, no otherwise then doth a butcher kill his calves and sheep.

Verse 37. We are more then Conquerors ] What is that? Triumphers, 2 Cor. 2.14. We do over-overcome: because through faith in Christ we overcome before we fight, and are secure of victory.

Verse 38. For I am persuaded ] Or, I am sure by what I have heard out of God's Word. He that hath this full assurance of faith goes gallantly to heaven. What (saith the world) should a rich man ail? The Irish ask such, What they mean to die? But I wonder more at such as have the riches of full assurance, yea, that have but the assurance of adherence, though not of evidence, what they mean to walk heavily. M ^r Latimer says, That the assurance of heaven is the sweet-meats of the feast of a good conscience: There are other dainty dishes in this feast, but this is the banquet.

Verse 39. From the love of God ] viz. Wherewith he loved us. For he loveth his own to the end, and in the end, Joh. 13.1. See the Note there. The wife of Camerarius heard Sarcerius interpreting this text, and verse. 35. thus, and was much comforted after a sore conflict.

CHAP. IX. Verse 1. I say the truth, &c. ]

AS any one is more assured of his own salvation, the more he desireth the salvation of others. Charity is no churl; as we see herein Paul.

Verse 2. Continuall sorrow ] Such as a woman in travail hath. So Gal. 4 19.

Verse 3. Were accursed, ] Devoted to destruction, as those malefactors among the Heathens were, that in time of common calamity were sacrificed to their infernal gods, for pacifying their displeasure, that the plague might cease. Out of greatest zeal to God, and love to his country-men, the Apostle wisheth himself Anathema, that is, not to be separated from the Spirit and grace of Christ (for so he should have sinned) but from the comforts of Christ, the happiness that comes in by Christ, as one well interpreteth it.

Verse 4. The adoption ] For Israel was God's first-born, and so higher then the Kings of the earth, Ps. 89 27.

And the glory ] The Ark of the Covenant, 1 Sam. 4.21. whence Judea is called the glorious land, Dan. 11.41.

The Covenants ] The moral law in two tables.

The giving of the law ] The judicial law.

The service ] The ceremonial law.

The promises ] Of the Gospel made to Abraham, and his seed forever. These promises are a precious book, every lear whereof drops mirth and mercy.

Verse 5. Of whom is Christ ] This is as great an honor to all mankind (how much more to the Jews?) as if the King sh • uld marry into some poor family of his Subjects.

Verse 6. Not as though the word ] That word of promise, v. 4. which is sure-hold, Ye • and Amen.

For they are not all Israel ] Multi sacerdotes & panci sacer dotes, saith Chrysostom, multi in nominc, & panci in opere. So here.

Verse 7. Neither because they are ] This profiteth them no more then it did Dives, that Abraham called him Son.

Verse 8. The children of the promise ] Abraham by believing God's promise, begat, after a sort, all believers, yea Christ himself, the head of his seed, his Son according to the flesh, but more according to the faith.

Verse 9. At this time ] See the Note on Gen. 18.10.

Verse 10. But when Rebecca ] She, and not Isaac is named, because she received the Oracle; whether from the mouth of Melchizedek, or some other way, I have not to determine.

Verse 11. For the children, &c.] Here the Apostle wadeth into that profundum sine fundo, Predestination.

Being not yet born ] Sapores son of Misdates, King of Persia, began his reign before his life. For his father dying left his mother with child, and the Persian Nobility set the Crown on his mothers belly, acknowledging thereby her issue for their Prince, before she as yet had felt herself quick. God elects not of foreseen faith or works, but of free grace.

Verse 12. Shall serve ] Servitude came in with a curse, and figureth reprobation, Gen. 9 25. Joh. 8 34 35. Gal. 4.30.

Verse 13. Esau have I hated ] i. e. I have not loved him, but passed him by: and this praecerition is properly opposed to election.

Verse 14. Is there ] Carnal reason dares reprehend what it does not comprehend.

Verse 15. I will have mercy, &c.] Dei voluntas est ratio rationum, nec tantùm recta, sed regula.

Verse 16. So then it is not, &c.] Nec volentis, nec volantis (as a Noble-man gave it for his Motto) though a man could run as fast as a bird can fire.

Verse 17. Raised thee up ] For a vessel of wrath, and an instance of my justice.

Verse 18. Therefore ] God being a free agent, cannot be unjust: he is bound to none.

Verse 19. Why doth he yet find fault? ] Queritur, saith the Vulgar: which interpretation cozened Aquinas, as if it had been written Quaeritur. So Luk. 15.8. Gregory the great and others, for Everrit, read Evertit: which mistake produced many groundless glos • es.

Verse 20. That repliest against God ] Gr. That chattest and wordest it with him?

Verse 21. Of the same lump ] The Apostle alludeth to man's creation, and therehence ascendeth to God's eternal decree of predestination.

Verse 22. Fitted to destruction ] Non dicit Deum eos aptasse ad interitum, ne videretur dicere Deum eis indidisse peccatum, quo ad exitium praeparentur.

Verse 23. And that he might ] He rejected some, that his mercy might the more appear in the election of others.

Verse 24. Even us ] Not me Paul only hath he assured of vocation, and so consequently of election to eternal life.

Verse 25. And her beloved ] Jer. 12.7. God calls the Church, the beloved of his soul, or (as the Septuagint and Vulgar read it) his beloved soul.

Verse 26. The children, &c.] This is such a royalty, John 1.12. as the Apostle worthily wondereth at, and sets an Ecce upon it.

Verse 27. Aremnant ] Reserved for royal use. Diaconos, paucitas honorabiles fecit, saith Jerome: Sic & sanctos, say I.

Verse 28. A short work ] When once he sets to work to cut off hypocrites.

Verse 29. Except the Lord of Sabaoth ] That is, Of Hosts. God is Commander in chief of all creatures. The Rabbins well observe that he hath Magnleh Cheloth, and Matteh Cheloth, two general troops, as his horse and foot, the upper and lower troops ready pressed.

Verse 30. Which is of faith ] Faith wraps itself in the righteousness of Christ, and so justifieth us.

Verse 31. The law of righteousness ] That is, The righteousness of the law.

Verse 32. For they stumbled ] So they do to this day. So do Papists and carnal Protestants. Non frustrà Lutherus in libris toties vaticinatus videtur, sese vereri dictitans, ne se extincto verailla justificationis disciplina prorsus apud Christianos exolescat.

Verse 33. See the Note on 1 Pet. 2.6.

CHAP. X. Verse 1. My hearts desire]

SO it should be ours. See my True Treasure, Chapter 7. Sect. 2.

Verse 2. They have a zeal of God ] So had those two Rabbins, David Rubenita, and Shelomoh Molchu that set upon the Emperor Charles the fifth, to persuade him to Judaism, and were therefore put to a cruel death, anno 1530. So had Latimer before his conversion: I was as obstinate a Papist, saith he, as any was in England: Insomuch that when I should be made Bachelor in Divinity, my whole Oration went against Philip Melancthon, and his opinions, &c. Being a Priest, and using to say Mass, he thought he had never sufficiently mingled his massing wine with water: and moreover that he should never be damned, if he were once a professed Frier; with divers such superstitious phantasies. Zeal without knowledge is as wild-fire in a fools hand; it is like the devil in the demoniac, that casts him sometimes into the fire, and sometimes into the water.

Verse 3. For they being ignorant ] The soul that is without knowledge is not good, and he that (without knowledge) hasteth with his feet, sinneth, Prov. 19.2. the faster he goeth, the farther he is out.

Verse 4. For Christ is the end, &c.] q. d. By, and for Christ's sake, is the righteousness of God. But the Jews submit not to Christ, therefore not to the righteousness of God.

Verse 5. Shall live by them ] This do and live; that is, saith Luther, morere, die out of hand: for there is no man lives and sins not. We can as little cease to sin, as the pulse to beat, heart to pant, &c.

Verse 6. Say not in thine heart ] The law preacheth faith in Christ, as well as the Gospel.

Verse 7. Into the deep ] Those deeps of the earth, Ps. 71.20.

Verse 8. The word is nigh thee ] Moses meant it of the law, but it more fitly agreeth to the Gospel. The Babe of Bethlehem is swathed up in the bands of both Testaments: he is author, object, matter and mark of both. Therefore if we will profit in hearing, teaching, reading, we must have the eye of our minds turned toward Christ, as the faces of the Cherubims were toward the Mercy-seat.

Verse 9. That if thou shalt confess ] That is, If thou shalt call upon the name of the Lord, as it is expounded, v. 13.

Verse 10. For with the heart, &c.] Pluturch tells us, that of all plants in Egypt, that they call Persica is consecrated to their goddess Isis, and that for this reason, because the fruit of it is like an heart, the leaf like a tongue.

Verse 11. Shall not be ashamed ] Maketh not haste, saith the Prophet. Shame and confusion follow haste and procipitancy: Sed Deo confisi nunquam confusi.

Verse 12. Is rich unto all, &c.] He cannot therefore be poor that can pray: for he shall have out his prayer, either in money or moneys-worth.

Verse 13. Shall be saved ] Though he miss of that particular mercy he asketh, he is certainly sealed up to salvation.

Verse 14. How shall they hear, &c.] The word read, is of divine use and efficacy: but of preaching we may say as David did of Goliath's sword, There's none to that.

Verse 15. How beautiful are the jeet ] How much more their faces? Surely I have seen thy face as the face of God, said Jacob to Esau, Gen. 33.10. that is, honorable and comfortable. We know how Cornelius received Peter; and the Galatians, Paul, till they were bewitched from him, Gal. 4.14. But it must be remembered that we glorify the Word, not the Preacher, Act. 13.48.

Verse 16. Who hath believed our report! ] Gr. Our hearing. Passively taken. So Caesar and Cicero use auditio, for report and rumour. Some sit before a preacher as senseless as the seats they sit on, pillars they lean to, dead bodies they tread on. Others rage, Tange montes & fumig abunt, &c.

Verse 17. By the word of God ] That is, By the Word of God's command sending out preachers gifted for the purpose, and saying to them, Go. preach, &c.

Verse 18. Yes verily; their sound, &c.] Sonus, tonus. David saith only, Their line, Psal. 19.2. That accurate and artificial frame of the heaven preacheth, as it were, the infinite wisdom and power of the Creator. All God's works are his Regij professores, his Catholic Preachers, or real Postilles (as one calleth them) of his Divinity. The world (saith Clem. Alex. ) is Dei Scriptura, God's great Bible with three great leaves, heaven, earth and hell.

Verse 19. Did not Israel know ] sc. That the Gentiles were to be called? They were oft told it.

Verse 20. Is very bold ] So that for his boldness he was sawn asunder, saith Jerome.

Verse 21. Stretched ] A metaphor from a mother.

CHAP. XI. Verse 1. I say then, Hath God, &c. ]

AS I may seem to have said, Chap. 10. Ministers must do their utmost to prevent mistakes. Zwingli, when in his Sermons he had terrified the wicked, was wont to shut up with Bone vi • , hoc nihil ad te, Thou good man, I mean not thee.

Verse 2. Saith of Elias ] A man of such transcendent zeal, that to heighten the expression thereof, some have legended of him, that when he drew his mothers breasts, he was seen to suck in fire.

Verse 3. And I am left alone ] To withstand and reform the common corruptions. Some have commended it to our consideration, that from the first service in the Temple, when it was built, and the time of Elijah's Reformation, was about an hundred years: And from the Reformation in K. Edward the sixth's days until now, is about the same proportion of time.

Verse 4. The image of Baal ] 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , to that Lady, as our modern Idolaters also call the virgin Mary, whom they despite with seeming honors. They would persuade the world, that Christ by dying obeyed not his Father only, but his mother too, that she is the complement of the Trinity, that she entreateth not, but commandeth her Son, is the most imperious Mother of our Judge, with many like horrid blasphemies, which I tremble to relate.

Verse 5. According to the election of grace ] S ^t Paul was Constantissimus gratiae praedicator, as Austin calleth him, a most constant preacher of God's free grace.

Verse 6. Then is it no more of works ] Whatsoever conferrumination of grace and works Papists dream of. They think, that as he that standeth on two firm branches of a tree, is surer then he that standeth upon one only: So he that trusteth to Christ and works too, is in the safest condition. But, 1. They are fallen from Christ that trust to works, Gal. 5.4. 2. He that hath one foot on a firm branch, and another on a rotten one, stands not so sure as if he stood wholly on that which is sound. But let them be Moses's Disciples, let us be Christ's: Set not up a candle to this Sun of righteousness: mix not thy puddle with his purple blood, thy rags with his raiment, thy Pigeons plumes with his Eagles-feathers. He can and will save his to the utmost, Heb. 7.25. Detest all mock-stays.

Verse 7. Israel ] i. e. The carnal Israelite.

He seeketh for ] viz. Righteousness and salvation by works.

Hardened ] By a judiciary hardness.

Verse 8. The Spirit of slumber ] So that with those Bears in Pliny they cannot be awakened with the sharpest prickles: and with those Asses in Hetruria, that feeding upon hen-bane, they he for dead, and awake not till half-hileded. Such a dead Lethargy is now befallen Papists.

Verse 9. Be made a snare ] As the bait is to the birds.

Verse 10. Bow down ] i. e. Bring them into bondage and misery. Compare Lev. 26.13.

Verse 11. Have they stumbled ] He that stumbleth and comes not down, gets ground.

Verse 12. How much more their fullness ] O dieculam illam! dexter mihi prae laetitia salit oculus. How long, Lord, holy and true?

Verse 13. I magnify mine office ] I make the utmost of it by gaining souls to Christ.

Verse 14. And might save some ] Ministers must turn themselves as it were into all shapes and fashions both of spirit and speech to win people to God.

Verse 15. Be the reconciling ] Not as a cause, but as an occasion.

Life from the dead ] That is, Res sum bona, saith Phocius, a special good thing.

Verse 16. If the first fruit be holy ] Not with a natural, but federal holiness, as 1 Cor. 7.14.

Verse 17. Wert graffed in ] Gr. Pricked into the middle, the center of the Olive.

Verse 18. Boast not ] Gr. Throw not up thy neck, in a scornful insulting way, but rather pity and pray for them.

Verse 19. Thou wilt say ] Carnal reason will have ever somewhat to say, and is not easily set down.

Verse 20. Be not high-minded, but fear ] Alterius perditio tua sit cautio, saith one. Ruina majorum sit cantela minorum, saith another, Seest thou thy brother shipwrecked? look well to thy tackling.

Verse 21. Take heed lest ] Cavebis autem si pavehis.

Verse 22. Severity ] Gr. Resection or cutting off, as a Chyrurgian cutteth off proud and dead flesh.

Verse 23. God is able ] He can fetch heart of oak out of an hollow tree, and of carnal make a people created again, Psal. 102.18. Eph. 2.10.

Verse 24. Contrary ] Therefore nature contributes nothing toward the work of conversion.

Verse 25. That blindness in part ] It is neither total nor perpetual. Lyra was a famous English Jew. Tremellius was also a Jew born; they are but Methe mispar, a very few that are yet converted. They pretend (but maliciously) that those few that turn Christians in • taly, are none other then poor Christians hired from other cities to personate their part. But when God shall have united those two sticks, Ezek. 37.19. and made way for those Kings of the East, Rev. 16.12. then it shall be said of Jacob and Israel, What hath God wrought! Numb. 23.23.

Verse 26. Shall turn away ungodliness ] That is, He shall pardon their sin. The Prophet Isaiah hath it, Unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, &c. They whose persons are justified, have their lusts mortified.

Verse 27. When I shall take ] By the spirit of judgment and of burning, Isa. 4.4. with 27.9.

Verse 28. They are enemies ] i. e. Hated of God, as appears by the opposition; and banished, as it were, by a common consent of Nations, out of human society. See 1 Thess. 2.15, 16.

Verse 29. Are without repentance ] When God is said to repent, it is Mutatiorei non Dei, effectus non affectus, facti non consilij, a change not of his will, but of his work. Repentance with man, is the change of his will: Repentance with God, is the willing of a change.

Verse 30. Through their ] By occasion of their unbelief. Pungit Judaeos & humiliat Gentes, saith one.

Verse 31. That they also ] It noteth not the cause, but the event, as 1 Cor. 11.19.

Verse 32. For God hath concluded ] Or locked them all up in the laws dark dungeon, Gal. 3.22. Unbelief breaks all the law at an instant by rejecting Christ, as the first act of faith obeys all the law at an instant in Christ.

That he might have mercy upon all ] Luther in a very great conflict was relieved and comforted by the often repeating of this sweet sentence.

Verse 33. O the depth of the riches ] The Romans dedicated a certain lake, the depth whereof they knew not, to victory, so should we the unsearchable counsels of God, being subdued to that, which we cannot subdue to our understandings.

Verse 34. Who hath been his Counselor ] Alphonso the wise (the fool rather) was heard blasphemously to say, That if he had been of God's counsel at the Creation, he could have advised and ordered many things much better then they now are.

Verse 35 Who hath first given to him ] Do we not owe him all that we have and are? And can a man merit by paying his debts?

Verse 36. For of him ] As the efficient cause, and (through him) as the administering cause, and (to him) as the final cause are all things. A wise Philosopher could say, That man is the end of all in a semicircle; that is, All things in the world are made for him, and he is made for God.

To whom be glory forever ] God (saith one) counts the works and fruits that come from us to be ours: because the judgment and resolution of will, whereby we do them is ours: This he doth to encourage us. But because the grace whereby we judge and will aright, comes from God, ascribe we all to him: So shall he loose no praise, we no encouragement.

CHAP. XII. Verse 1. That ye present]

AS they of old did their sacrifices at the altar. With the burnt offering, w ^ch signified the sacrificing of the flesh, was joined the sin-offering, that is, Christ, Faith applies Christ to the believer, & the believer to Christ.

Your bodies ] That is, your whole person. Cainistae sunt, saith Luther, offerentes non personam, sed opus personae. They are Cainists that offer to God the work done, but do not offer themselves to God.

A living sacrifice ] In the old law they had many kinds of Sacrifices killed and offered. Now (saith Origen ) instead of a Ram we kill our ireful passions: instead of a Goat our unclean affections: instead of sling fowls our idle thoughts, &c.

Verse 2. To this world ] To the corrupt customs and courses of wicked wordlings. See them set forth, Rom 13.13. Ephes. 4.18, 19, 20. 1 Pet. 4.3. and shun them.

But be ye transformed ] Gr. Metamorphosed, the old frame being diflolved, and a new form aquitted.

That ye may prove ] sc. By your practice.

Verse 3. But to think soberly ] Gr. To be wise to sobriety. Socrates made no distinction between wisdom and sobriety, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 non distinguebat.

Verse 4. For as we have, &c.] See 1 Cor. 12.12, which is a Commentary on this text.

Verse 5. One body in Christ ] See the Note on 1 Cor. 12.12, 13.

Verse 6. According to the proportion ] That form of sound words, 2 Tim. 1.13. those principles of the doctrine of Christ, Heb. 6.1. with which all interpretations of Scripture must bear due proportion.

Verse 7. Or Ministry ] Take it either largely for the whole ministry, as 1 Cor. 12.5, Act. 1.17. Or more strictly for the office of a Deacon, as Act. 6.

Verse 8. Or he that exhorteth ] The Pastor properly so called. See the Note on Eph. 4.11.

Verse 9. Abhor that which is evil ] Hate it as hell itself: so the word signifies, Mihi certe Auxentius nunquam aliud quam • abolus erit, quia Arrianus, saith Hilary, I shall look upon Auxemius no otherwise then as upon a devil, so long as he is an Arian.

Verse 10. Be kindly affectioned ] As natural brethren and more. Arctior est copula cordis quam corporis. We are brethren in Adam according to the flesh, in and by Christ according to the Spirit.

Verse 11. Not slothful ] Or, Not driving off till it be too late. Charles the son of Charles Duke of Aniou, who was King of Sicily and Jerusalem, was called, Carolus cunctator, not in the sense as Fabius, because he staid till opportunity came, but because he staid till opportunity was lost.

Fervent in spirit ] Gr. Seething hot. God, who is himself a pure act, loveth activenes in men: the very rest of heavenly bodies is in motion in their proper places.

Verse 12. Rejoicing in hope ] Hope makes absent joys present, wants plenitudes, and beguiles calamity as good company doth the time.

Patient in tribulation ] Bearing up under pressures, as among many other Martyrs Nicolas Burton, who by the way to the stake, and in the s • ame was so patient and cheerful, that the tormentors said, the devil had his soul before he came to the fire, and therefore his senses of feeling were past.

Continuing instant in prayer ] Constant and instant. A metaphor from hunting dogs, that give not over the game till they have got it. Nazianzen saith of his sister Gorgonia, that she was so given to prayer, that her knees seemed to grow to the very ground. Of Trasilla it is reported, that being dead she was found to have her elbows as hard as horn, by leaning to a desk at which she used to pray. S ^t James is said to have had knees as hard as Camels knees, by his continual kneeling in prayer. And Paul the eremite was sound dead kneeling upon his knees, holding up his hands, lifting up his eye: so that the very dead corps seemed yet to live, and to pray to God.

Verse 13. To the necessity ] Gr. To the uses of the Saints, not staying till they be in necessity.

Verse 14. Bless them ] See the Note on Mat. 5 44.

Verse 15. Weep with them that weep ] S ^t Cyprians compassion is remarkable, Cum singulis pectus meum copulo, maeroris & funeris pondera luctuosa participo: cum plangentibus plango, cum d slentibus defleo, &c. I partake in every man's grief, and am as much affected and afflicted, as if it were mine own case.

Verse 16. Be of the same ] This verse had been easy, had not Interpreters obscured it, as Origen observeth.

Verse 17. Recompense to no man ] In reason, revenge is but justice: Aristotle commends it: the world calls it Manhood, 'tis doghood rather. The manlier any man is, the milder and more merciful, as David, 2 Sam. 1.12. and Julius Caesar, who wept over Pompey's head presented to him, and said, Non mihi placet vindicta, dicta, sed victoria, I seek not revenge, but victory.

Verse 18. As much as lieth in you ] Let it not stick on your part. • ive not offense carelessly, take not offense causelessly. See the Note on Mat. 5.9

Verse 19. Avenge not yourselves ] Some take the Sword into their own hands: and, lest they should seem Anabaptists in taking two blows for one, will give two blows for one.

Give place to wrath ] sc. To the wrath and vengeance of God, which he seemeth to prevent that seeks revenge.

Verse 20. Thou shalt heap ] Thou shalt melt him, and make him thy friend forever.

Verse 21. Be not overcome ] In rixa is inferior est, qui victor est, saith Basil. In revenge of injuries, he is the loser that gets the better. Hence the Apostle disgraceth it, by a word that signifieth disgrace or loss of victory.

But overcome evil ] This is the most noble victory. Thus David overcame Saul, and Henry the 7 ^th , Emperor of Germany, overcame the Priest that poisoned him at the Sacrament: for he pardoned him, and bad him be packing. So did not Iacup the Persian King, who perceiving himself poisoned by his adulterous wife, enforced her to drink of the same cup: and because he would be sure she should not escape, with his own hand he struck off her head. But this (to say truth) was not revenge, but justice.

CHAP. XIII. Verse 1. Let every soul be subject]

IN things lawful only: for else we must answer as those Apostles did, Act. 3.29. and as Polycarp, who being commanded to blaspheme Christ, and to swear by the fortune of Caesar, peremptorily refused, and said, We are taught to give honor to Princes and Potentates, but such honor as is not contrary to God's religion.

Ordained of God ] In regard of it's institution, though for the manner of it's constitution it is of man.

Verse 2. Resisteth the power ] His authorative commands, not his personal.

Receive to themselves damnation ] Poenam sibi auferent, saith Piscator, they shall receive punishment, to wit from the Magistrate: as Aretine deserved to do, who by longer custom of libellous and contumelious speaking against Princes, had got such a habit, that at last he came to diminish and disesteem God himself.

Verse 3. For Rulers are not, &c.] They should not be. But Jeroboam set a net on Mizpah, and spread a share upon Tabor to watch who would go from him to Judah to worship, Hos 5.1.

A terror to good works, but to the evil ] The Sword of justice (saith one) must be furbished with the oil of mercy: yet there are cases wherein severity ought to cast the scale. Duresce, Duresce, o infoelix Lantgravie, said the poor Smith to the Lantgrave of Thuring, more mild then was for his people's good. Bonis nocet, qui malis parcit. Edward the Confessor was held a bad Prince, not by doing, but enduring ill.

Verse 4. For he is the minister ] It was written upon the sword of Charles the great, Decem praeceptorum custos Carolus, Charles is Lord Keeper of the Decalogue.

For he beareth not the Sword in vain ] Like S ^t Paul in a glass window, or S ^t George (as they call him) in a sign-post.

A revenger to execute wrath ] But now we see how every man almost will be a Pope in his own cause, depose the Magistrate, at least appeal from him to himself.

Verse 5. But also for conscience sake ] Good Rulers we must obey as God, bad, for God.

Verse 6. Attending continually ] As born for the benefit of many. The Parliament in the 25. of Edward 3. is known to posterity by the name of Benedictum Parliamentum: So shall this present • arliament for their continual attendance upon the Lord's work; bending themselves to the business (as the word signifies) and holding cut therein with unparalleled patience.

Verse 7. Render therefore to all their dues ] He saith not their unjust exactions. Melancthon makes mention of a cruel Prince, that to get money of his Subjects, would knock out their teeth; first one tooth, and then another, unless they would bring him in such sums of money as he required.

Fear to whom, &c.] i. e. Reverentiall observance, far beyond that which Q. Fabius Maximus yielded to his son, when he became Consul.

Verse 8. Owe no man, &c.] The Persians reckoned these two for very great sins; 1. To be in debt. 2. To tell a lie; the later being oft the fruit of the former. By the twelve Tables of Rome, he that owed much, and could not pay, was to be cut in pieces, and every creditor was to have a piece of him according to the debt.

Verse 9. Briefly comprehended ] Capitulated, fulfilled, saith the Syriac, summed up. S ^t Bartholomew was quoted by Dionysius to have said of Divinity, Et magnam esse & minimam, that it was large and yet little, as containing much matter in few words.

Verse 10. The 〈◊〉 of the law ] The filling up of the law in this, that it clotheth the duties of the law with the glory of a due manner, and seateth them upon their due subjects, with the unwearied labors of a constant well-doing.

Verse 11. To awake out of sleep ] Whiles the Crocodile sleepeth with open mouth, the Indian rat gets into his stomach, and eateth thorough his entrails. Whiles Ishhosheth slept upon his bed at noon, Baanah and Rechab took a way his head. Security ushereth in destruction. Go forth and shake yourselves as Sampson did, when the Philistines were upon him: lest Satan serve you, at least for your souls, as Captain Drake did the Spaniard at Taurapasa in the West-Indies for his treasure; he found him sleeping securely on the shore, and by him thirteen bars of silver to the value of 400000 duckets, which he commanded to be carried away, not so much as once waking the man. Or lest Christ himself deal by us, as Epaminondas did by the watchman, whom he found asleep: He thrust him thorough with his sword, and being blamed for so severe a fact, he replied, Talem eum reliqui, qualem inveni, I left him, as I found him.

For now is our salvation nearer ] Stir up yourselves therefore, and strain toward the mark. There is a Greek word signifying the end of a race, which is derived of a word that signifieth to spur or prick forward. Surely, as they that run their horses for a wager, spur hardest at the races end: so, since our salvation is nearer now then ever it was, therefore we should run faster now then ever we did.

Verse 12. The night ] Here it is taken for all unregeneracy, which (as the night) is full of error, terror. &c. Nox pudore vacat. This night with the Saints is far spent, or already past, as Cyprian and Jerome here render it.

Verse 13. Let us walk honestly ] Handsomely, fashionably, mannerly, with an holy shamefacednes.

Not in chambering ] Properly, lying a bed, or long-lying.

Verse 14. But put ye on ] Augustine confesseth that he was converted by reading and pondering this text.

And make not provision ] Make not projects, cater not for the flesh.

CHAP XIV. Verse 1. Him that is weak, &c. ]

THat is not thoroughly persuaded of all things pertaining to Christian liberty about things indifferent.

Receive ] Assectu charitatis, put him into your bosoms, bear with his weaknesses, &c, Bucer rejected none, though different in some opinions, in whom he found, Aliquid Christi, anything of Christ, whose weaklings are to be handled with all tenderness.

But not to doubtful ] Make him not Question-sick, 1 Tim. 6.4. Wring not men's consciences, you may hap to break the wards, if you do.

Verse 2. Eateth herbs ] Rather then meats forbidden by the Law. The ancient Latins were as well apaid of herbs to eat, as if they had had all manner of dainties. Green herbs were both food and physic to them.

Verse 3. For God hath received him ] viz. For his household servant, which David counted a greater dignity then to be King of Israel. And Justinian the Emperor styled himself, Ultimum servorum Dei, the meanest of God's servants.

Verse 4. Who art thou, &c.] The wisdom from above is without censuring, without hypocrisy, saith S. James, Chap. 3.17. Intimating, that the greatest censurers are mostly the greatest hypocrites: And as any one is more wise, he is more sparing of his censures.

Verse 5. Let every man be fully persuaded ] It is a safe rule, Quod dubites, ne feceris: In doubtful cases be sure to take the suitor side.

Verse 6. For he giveth God thanks ] A custom used by the very Heathens to their gods, as is to be read in Homer and Virgil: but grown clean out of use among the Catholics in France and Italy. But if they that give thanks at meat do eat to God, to whom do they eat that give none?

Verse 7. For none of us liveth to himself ] S. Paul stood, as it were on tiptoes, Phil. 1.20 to see which way he might best glorify God, by life or by death.

Verse 8. We are the Lord's ] Death divides us not from Christ, but brings us home to him, 2 Cor. 5.6. It is but winking (as that Martyr said) and thou shalt be in heaven presently.

Verse 9. That he might be Lord ] He won his crown before he wore it: he fought for it, and having vanquished all enemies, he accomplished and proclaimed the victory in his glorious resurrection, triumphed in his wonderful ascension leading captivity captive, &c. Eph. 4.7.

Verse 10. But why dost thou, &c.] Three things are not subject to our judgment. 1. The counsels of God. 2. The holy Scriptures. 3. The persons of men. Be not therefore rash in rejecting, or sour in censuring your fellow-servant; but let your moderation herein be known to all men; and the rather, because the Lord is at hand, Phil. 4.5.

Verse 11. As I live, saith the Lord ] As true as I live is an oath, as appears here, and Numb. 14 21. with Ps. 95.11. Forbear it therefore.

Verse 12. So then everyone, &c.] It was excellent counsel that the Orator gave his hearers, I • a vivamus ut ration • m nobis reddendans arbitremur. Let us so live as those that must give an account of all at last.

Verse 13. A stumbling block, or an, &c.] A lighter or greater offense, to make him go halting to heaven.

Verse 14. By the Lord Jesus ] Who hath pulled down the partition-wall, and purchased our Christian liberty.

Verse 15. But if thy brother be grieved ] It is his weakness to be grieved thereat, but gratify him howsoever. What one speaks of a plain place of Scripture, this verse (saith he) had been easy, had not Commentatours made it knotty: the like, saith another of a Christians condition, it is gracious, happy, clear, sure, sweet, did not erroneous judgments vex and unsettle them.

Verse 16. Let not then your good ] That is, Your Christian liberty purchased by Christ.

Be evil spoken of ] Gr. Be blasphemed. Contumely cast upon the people of God is blasphemy in the second Table. God, for the honor that he beareth to his people, counts and calls it so.

Verse 17. For the kingdom of God, &c.] That was a swinish saying of Epicurus, That eternal life should be nothing else but a continual eating of the fat, and drinking of the sweet, even unto an uncessant surfeiting and drunkenness. The Turks at this day promise Paradise to such as die in war for the Mahometan faith, where they shall have delicious fare, pleasant gardens, all sensual delights, eternally to be enjoyed not withstanding any former sins. Fit lettice for such lips.

Verse 18. Is acceptable to God ] And he is an happy man that can be acquitted by himself in private, in public by others, in both by God.

Verse 19. Wherewith one may edify another ] Discords among good people, do edificare in gehennam, as Tertullian phraseth it, build backwards. One of the main scandals the Jews take from Protestants, is their dissention.

Verse 20. The work of God ] That work of faith, 1 Thess. 1.3. wrought by the mighty power of God, Ephes. 1.19. who puts not forth great power, but for great purposes.

Verse 21. It is good neither to eat, &c.] It will be no grief of heart (as she once told David in another case) to have forborne in case of scandal. A great grief it would be if by some rash word we should betray a brother, or smite out the eye of our dearest child. Should we then destroy the life of grace in another by our unadvised walking?

Verse 22. Hast thou faith? ] Posse, & nolle, noble est. Forbear for fear of effence, unless it be in point of necessary duty: For then we may not do evil that good may come, Rom. 3 8.

Verse 23. Is damned ] Both of his doubting conscience, which soundeth heavily, as a shau • m, and of God, who is greater then his conscience.

CHAP. XV. Verse 1. Ought to bear]

AS Porters do their burdens, as pillars do the poise of the house, or rather as parents bear their babes in their arms.

And not to please ourselves ] Bis desipit, qui sibi sapit. Prov. 3.7.

Verse 2. Please his neighbor ] Though he cross himself: this is true Christian love, and driven almost out of the world by sinful self-love, which can eth men to dislike those things in others, that they slatter in themselves.

Verse 3. For even Christ ] And we should express him to the world, preach abroad his virtues by our practice, 1 Pet. 2.9. Our lives should be as so many Sermons upon the life of Christ. This is walk in Christ, Col. 2 6. as Christ, 1 Joh. 3.6.

Verse 4. For whatsoever things, &c.] Here the Apostle meets with an Objection. For some man might say, that that saying of the Psalm pertains to David, how therefore is it applied to Christ? He answers, Whatsoever things, &c. q. d. We must learn to see Christ in David: David in the history, Christ in the mystery; David as the type, Christ the truth.

That we through patience ] Hence the Scriptures are called. The word of Christ's patience, because they patient the heart under God's holy hand: and are better called Physic for the soul, then ever was the library of Alexandria.

And comfort of the Scriptures ] As the blood and spirits are conveyed by the veins and arteries: so is the Spirit by the promises, helping the soul to lay itself upon Christ by faith, which is a grace of union, and so of establishment.

Verse 5. Now the God of patience ] The soul is then only in good plight, when the heaven answers the earth, Hos. 2.21. When. Christ the Sun of righteousness shines into it.

Verse 6. With one mind, and one mouth ] It is recorded to the high commendation of the Church of Scotland, that for this 90 years and upwards, they have kept unity with purity, without schism, much less heresy.

Verse 7. To the glory of God ] That is, Of heaven, the joys whereof it is as impossible to comprehend, as it is to compass the heaven with a span, or contain the Ocean in a nut-shell. Such comfort there is in the presence of Christ (though but in the womb) as it made John to spring: What then shall it be in heaven?

Verse 8. Now I say that Jesus ] Paul proveth particularly in this and the following verses, that Christ hath taken both Jews and Gentiles to his glory.

Verse 9. And that the Gentiles ] Though they had no such promises, might glorify God's free grace in the day of their visitation.

Verse 10. Rejoice ] That your names also are written in heaven, and that ye are enrolled in the records of the new Jerusalem.

Verse 11. All ye Gentiles ] As being received into the glory of God, verse. 7.

Verse 12. In him shall the Gentiles trust ] I saith hath it, To him shall the Gentiles seek; To seek to God then argues trust in God. He that hopes not, prays not, or but faintly.

Verse 13. Fill you with all joy, &c.] Note here that joy and peace are the means, whereby faith worketh hope.

Verse 14. Full of goodness ] The excellency of a godly man is to follow God fully, as Caleb, Numb. 14.24. to have a heart full of goodness, as these Romans, a life full of good works, as Tabitha, Act. 9.36. These shall receive a full reward, 2 Joh. 8.

Verse 15. Chrysostom truly saith of S ^t Paul that he was insatiabilis Dei cultor, one that thought he could never do God or his Church service enough.

Verse 16. Ministring the Gospel ] Serving about holy things, or doing sacred offices, as the Priests under the Law, to whom the Apostle all along this verse alludes in an elegant allegory: the Ministry is a divine and heavenly function. All other callings are for the world, and draw to the world: but this, both in the preparation and execution, draweth to God, keepeth us with God, and to be ever mindful of the things of God.

Verse 17. I have therefore, &c.] So have all God's faithful Ministers at this day against the contempts and contumelies cast upon them by the mad world, ever besides itself in point of salvation. There is a pamphlet lately published that sticks not to make that sacred and tremend function of the Ministry to be as mere an imposture, as very a mystery of iniquity, as arrant a juggle as the Pa • acy itself.

Verse 18. To make the Gentiles, &c.] Christ by his Gospel subdued the Britons, whom the Romans with all their force could never subdue, as Tertullian observed.

Verse 19. So that from Jerusalem ] Chrysostom observeth, that Plato came three times to Sicily to convert Dionysius the tyrant to moral philosophy, and could not. But Paul fet a great compass, converted many souls, planted many Churches: And why? Christ sat upon him as upon one of his white horses, and went forth conquering and to conquer, Revel 6.2.

Verse 20. Lest I should build [Lest I should seem to do anything unbeseeming the office of an Apostle. There is a decorum to be kept in every calling.

Verse 21. But as it is written ] In obedience to this divine oracle, the Apostle preached to those that had not heard, yet neglected not those that had.

Verse 22. For which cause ] By planting Churches, and preaching where was more need.

Verse 23. These many years ] The Romans were converted to the faith betimes.

Verse 24. For I trust to see you ] Ipse aspectus viri beni delectat, saith Seneca. There is a great deal of sweetness in the society of Saints, and much good to be gotten thereby. Sometimes, (saith a grave Divine) though we know that which we ask of others, as well as they do, yet good speeches will draw us to know it better, by giving occasion to speak more of it; wherewith the spirit works more effectually, and imprints it deeper, so that it shall be a more rooted knowledge then before. For that doth good that is graciously known, and that is graciously known, that the Spirit seals upon our souls.

Verse 25. To minister unto the Saints ] The highest Angel in heaven may not hold himself too good to serve the Saints.

Verse 26. It hath pleased them ] It hath not been squeezed out of them, as verjuice is out of a crab, but freely and cheerfully they have contributed.

Verse 27. Their debtors they are ] And so are we to pity and pray for them. See my True Treasure, Sect. 2. chap.7.

Verse 28. When I have sealed ] That is, Safely delivered, as if it were under seal.

This fruit ] This sweet ripe fruit of their faith and love, their alms

Verse 29. In the fullness of the blessing ] Christ may use one of less grace to do more good then one of more (for there are diversities of operations, as well as of gifts, 2 Cor. 12.6.) but usually he delights to honor those of most sinicerity, with most success, 1 Cor. 15.10.

Verse 30. For the Lord Jesus Christ's sake ] This is one of those passages in S. Paul, then the which there can nothing possibly be imagined more grave, divine, excellent, saith Beza.

That ye strive together ] Even to an agony, as the word imports. Spiritual beggary is the hardest and richest of all trades, as one laid. Learn of this great Apostle to beg prayers with all earnestness. Pray for me, I say, pray for me, I say, quoth father Latimer, Pray for me, pray for me, for God's sake pray for me, said blessed Bradford.

Verse 31. That my service which, &c.] One would have thought that the Apostle coming with alms to them, should easily have been well accepted: but he saw cause to seek God for such a mercy, since it is he alone that fashions men's opinions, and gives favor and kind acceptance. Besides wisdom, he gave Solomon honor.

Verse 32. Be refreshed ] See the Note on Rom. 1.12. and on 2 John. 12.

Verse 33. Now the God of peace ] A sit attribute for the present purpose. It is a commendable policy in Christians, when they pray to propound God to their mind in such notions, and under such titles, as whereby they may see in God the things they desire of God.

CHAP. XVI. Verse 1. Servant of the Church]

A Diaconisse to minister to the sick, as 1 Tim. 5.9. not a praedicantisse, to preach or have Peters keys at her girdle.

Verse 2. As becometh Saints ] Who are great Princes, States, in all lands, Psal 4; and to be observed accordingly, even worthy of God, 3 John. 6.

Verse 3. Salute Priscilla ] She is first mentioned, haply as more forward then her husband in the best things. So was Manoah's wife, and Nazianzens mother.

Verse 4. Who have for my life ] A rare example. Fast friends are in this age for the most part gone on pilgrimage (said one once) and their return is uncertain.

Verse 5. The Church that is in their house ] The house of George Prince of Anhalt, for the good orders therein observed, is said to have been, Ecclesia, Academia, Curia.

The first fruits of Achaia ] The first that received the Gospel there. A singular commendation, a sweet happiness. God's soul hath desired such first ripe fruits, Mic, 7.1. such primroses.

Verse 6. Greet Mary, &c.] It is profitable that men of great parts and place should preserve their memory with others, though it be but in a salutation: for it may be a means to fire up affection to godliness in such whom they so remember.

Verse 7. Who are of note ] Noble, notable Christians, old experienced gray-headed Disciples. Christianity finds or makes us honorable.

Verse 8. Greet Amplias ] Piety is no enemy to courtesy: It doth not remove, but rectify it.

Verse 9. Our helper in Christ ] A sweet sign to him, that his name was written in the book of life, Phil. 4.3.

Verse 10. Approved in Christ ] An high style, far beyond that of the great Turk, with all his big-swoln-titles.

Verse 11. My kinsman ] In the flesh, but more in the faith, that surest tie.

Verse 12. Who labor in the Lord ] Though not so much as Persis did, yet doth he not defraud them of their due commendation, Prima sequentem honestum est in secundis tertiis{que} consislere. Every man must not look to excel: let him be doing, as he is able.

Verse 13. His mother and mine ] His by nature, mine by affection. The Apostles parted with parents and friends at home, found them abroad.

Verse 14. Salute Asyncritus, &c.] Nothing is said of these; for haste perhaps, or else because they were (as one saith of Jesse the father of David) Viri, probi & honesti, minùs • amen clari, Good honest men, but not much noted. Or lastly, for that the Apostle had no very good opinion of them, as he seems not to have had of Demas, Colos. 4.14. who yet would needs be one in the Apostles register there: a place he will have, though it be the last place. Hermas here mentioned, was reputed by some of the Ancients to be the Author of that Apocryphal book called Pastor; wherein he dealt not so fairly and faithfully in relating what he had received from the Apostles, being sublestae fidci author.

Verse 15. And Olympas ] Viri nomen non mulicris. The name not of a woman, but of a man, saith Beza.

Verse 16. With an holy kiss ] The Independents at Arnheim in Holland, propounded this kiss of love to be practiced amongst them. So for anointing the sick with oil, singing of hymns by one man, all the rest being silent, &c.

Verse 17. Mark them which ] Set a watchful and a jealous eye upon them, as upon pests and enemies. And here, let not our Episcopy (whose office it is chiefly) be Aposcopi, over-seers be by-seers, but look well to the slock, lest these wolves worry them.

And avoid them ] Gr. Decline them studiously, as ye would do a serpent in your way, or poison in your meats.

Verse 18 But their own bellies ] They pretend the service of Christ to their worldly and wicked respects, by a dissembled sanctity, which is double iniquity. The Duke of Bavaria is even eaten up with those Popish flesh-shes, Friers and Jesuits.

And by good words, &c.] Those locusts in the Revelation have faces like women, insinuative and flattering. The Valentinian heretics had an art to persuade before they taught, whereas the truth persuadeth by teaching, it doth not teach by persuading.

They deceive ] As cheaters do, by the cogging of a die, Eph. 4.14. Fallax artisicium, vel potiùs artisex fallacia, saith Erasmus on that text, a cunning kind of cez • nage.

Verse 19 For your obedience, &c.] Whereas the Romans might object, Are we also of those simple ones? Your obedience, saith he, is famous all the world over. Howbeit I would have you wise to that which is good, but simple concerning evil. This simplicity is no disparagement, to be unskilled in the devils depths, Revel. 2.24.

Verse 20. Shall bruise Satan ] Sincerity of a little grace shall be rewarded with abundance of greater graces. Christ our Champion hath already won the field, and will shortly set our feet upon the necks of our spiritual enemies. The broken horns of Satan shall be the Trumpets of our triumph, and the Cornets of our joy.

Verse 21. Timothy my work fellow ] Of Timothy, read Act, 16.1, 2. Of Lucius, Act. 13.1. Of Jason, Act. 17.5. Of Sopater, Act. 20 4.

Verse 22. I Tertius who wrote, &c.] Either from the Apostles mouths, or rather out of his foul papers.

Verse 23. Gaius mine host ] Baptized by Paul, for whom therefore, and for other good men he thought he could never do enough. Such another was Phebe, verse 2. who had been a succourer, or an hostesse to many, and to myself, saith Paul.

Verse 24. The grace of our Lord ] This is the seal of all S. Paul's Epistles. 2 Thess. 3.17.

Verse 25. Which was kept secret ] Even from the very Angels, 1 Pet. 1.12. who do daily profit in the knowledge of this secret, Eph. 3.10.

Verse 26. According to the Commandment ] The writings of the Prophets concerning the mystery of Christ were not made known to the world by hap-hazard, but by a special command of God.

Verse 27. To God only wise, &c.] So say I for these few Notes thus finished.

CHAP. I. Verse 1. Sosthenes our brother]

A Nd companion in the kingdom and patience of Christ, Act. 18.17. There he was despitefully entreated, here highly honored. Christ is a liberal pay-master: Never any did or suffered ought for his sake that complained of an hard bargain. It is to my loss (said that Martyr) if you bate me anything in my sufferings. Majora certamina, majora sequuntur praemia, saith Tertullian.

Verse 2. Called to be Saints ] i. e. Either such as are sanctified by habitual infusion, or such as are sanctified by baptismall profession only, that are in Covenant with God by sacrifice, Psal. 506. and are in Christ, though they bear no fruit, John. 15.2. These two sorts of Saints make up a true visible Church.

With all that in every place ] The Apostles then wrote not their Epistles for the particular uses of those times only, as the Jesuits will have it.

Verse 3. Grace be to you and peace ] All peace that flows not from the sense of God's love and favor, is as that of the Romans with the Samnites, unfound and uncertain.

Verse 4. For the grace of God ] Intending to chide them, he first commends them that he may preserve in their hearts an opinion of his love, whilst he rebuked them sharply, that they might be sound in the faith.

Verse 5. Ye are enriched ] See here what is the Christians riches. And so David reckons of his wealth, Psal. 119.32. He cannot be poor in whom the word of God dwells richly, Colos. 3.16. especially if he befrce of discourse, able and willing to communicate. A dumb Christian is to be blamed, as well as a dumb Minister.

Verse 6. The testimony of Christ ] The Gospel, called also the Testimony, Isa. 8.10. To the Law, and to the Testimony.

Verse 7. So that ye come behind, &c.] Yet were babes and carnal, Chap. 3.2, 3. and fell short in many graces. We must distinguish between gifts and graces & covet these rather then those, 1 Co. 13.1.

Verse 8. In the day of our Lord J • sus ] Eleven times in these ten first verses (as Chrysostom well observeth) the Apostle mentioneth the Lord Jesus Christ, who was to him, and should be to us, Mel in ore, melos in aure, jubilum in cord, Honey in the mouth, music in the ear, joy in the heart.

Verse 9. Unto the fellowship ] Union being the ground of communion: so that all that is in him is for us. I give my goods to the Saints, saith David, in the person of Christ.

Verse 10. That there be no divisions ] To break unity in the Church, is to cut asunder the very veins and sinews of the mystical body of Christ.

By the Name of our Lord ] Which is like to suffer by your dissensions, and whereof you ought to be as tender, as of treading upon your parents that begat you.

Perfectly joined ] Schisms dis-joint men.

Verse 11. Of the house of Chloe ] A godly Matron she was no doubt, and a good office herein she did her neighbors: though, likely, she had little thank for her labor; as likewise Joseph had for bringing his brethren's evil report to their father, Gen. 37.2.

That there are contentions ] These oft breed Schisms; as did the contention between Luther and Carolostadius: And many of the ancient heresies, sprang from private grudges and discontents, in sui solatium, for a sorry comfort to those that broached them.

Verse 12. And I of Christ ] q. d. I care neither for Paul nor Apollo, &c. As some say now-a-days, they are neither Papists nor Protestants, but Christians, that is just nothing, slat Atheists. Heraclius the Emperor being imprudently carried away by some Bishops into the opinion of the Monothelites, when that heresy was afterwards condemned by the Council of Jerusalem, the Emperor being ashamed to recant, became a mere Noutralist, and held neither one way nor other.

Verse 13. Baptized in the Name ] Gr. Into the Name, so as to be called by my name. Those then that will needs be called Franciscans, Lutherans &c. do after a sort disclaim their baptism, and become run awaies from Christ.

Verse 14. I thank God ] He noteth and noticeth herein a sweet providence, beyond all that he then imagined, when he was at Corinth. God is to be seen in every special occurrence.

Verse 15. Lest any should say ] q. d. God hath so disposed of it, that none can with any color of cause, or show of sense say such a thing.

Verse 16. Whether I baptized any ] His Colleagues, belike, did it (whiles he was other wise busied) with a particular examination and instruction in those principles, Heb. 6.2.

Verse 17. Not to baptize ] As my chief work, but to preach and plant Churches, wherein he had a very happy hand: as had likewise Farellus among our late Reformers, Qui Mompelgardenses, Aquileienses, Lausannensis, Genevenses, Novocomenses Christo luorisecit, he gained five Cities with their territories to Christ.

Not with wisdom of words ] Which yet S. Paul could have done as well as another; witness his artificial unstarching of the Orators speech, Act. 26. But he liked not to put the Sword of the Spirit into a velvet scabbard, that it could not pierce, to speak Floride potiùs quam solid, as those self-seekers at Corinth did, that sought more to tickle the ear then to affect the heart. It repented Augustine, (and well it might) that when he was young he had preached more, Ut placeret, quam ut doceres, to please, then to profit. And Luther was wont to say, He is the best preacher that preacheth, vulgariter, trivialiter, maxim{que}, ad populi captum. Not but that there is a lawful use of Rhetoric in Sermons, so it be free from ostentation. See the Preface to my God's love tokens.

Verse 18. To them that perish, foolishness ] As it is to the Jews at this day, who rail against Christ's person, calling him the hanged God, the wool and the warp, Levite. 13.52. because these two make the figure of the Cross. And being asked whether they believe to be saved by Christ's righteousness? They answer, That every Fox must pay his own skin to the flaer. The Pagans also jeered at Christ, and his people, as did Julian, Lucian, Porphyry, &c.

Verse 19. For it is written ] Thus the Old Testament is fulfilled in the New, whiles the worlds wizards are dazelled, dulled and disannulled.

Verse 20. Where is the wise? ] The teacher of traditions: the Jews had a Proverb 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 .

Where is the Scribe? ] Or the Text-men, those that proceed according to the literal interpretation.

Where is the Disputer? ] The teachers of allegories and mysteries, 1 Tim. 1.4.

Verse 21. The world by wisdom ] Not the Jews by their deep Doctors, nor the Gentiles by their wits and wizards (Qui tanquam noctuae ad solemn caligabant) could grope out God.

By the foolishness of preaching ] An ironicall concession, so the mad world esteemeth it, who shall t • e forever the contempt of it, crying out Nos insensati, &c.

Verse 22. For the Jews require, &c.] The reason of their rejecting the Gospel is, they are prepossessed against it, they look for that, that it affordeth not. A prejudicate opinion bars up the understanding. Intùs existens prohibit alienum: like muddy water in a vessel, that causeth the most precious liquor to run over.

Verse 23. But we preach Christ ] We not only preach of him, but we preach him, we give what we preach. It is the special office of the ministry to lay Christ open, to hold up the tapestry, to unfold the hidden mysteries of Christ. The holy Ghost in them, taketh of that which is Christ's, and showeth to men. Joh. 16.15.

Unto the Jews a stumbling block ] These Philistines cannot conceive how out of the eater should come meat, and out of the strong, sweet. Unto the Greeks ] These jeered at Jesus, and the resurrection, as at a couple of strange gods, Act. 17.18. Cato profanely saith, Stultitia est morte alterius sperare salutem. It is a folly to expect safety by the death of another.

Verse 24. Christ the power of God ] Opposite to the power of miracles required by the Jews.

And the wisdom of God ] Opposite to the Grecians worldly wisdom.

Verse 25. Because the foolishness ] The wisest man compared to God, Simia videbitur, non sapiens, said Hera • litus, as Plato relateth it, He will appear to be an Ape rather then a wise-man.

Verse 26. Not many mighty ] The Eagle and Lion were not offered in sacrifice, as the Lamb and the Dove were. It is hard for great ones to deny themselves. Hence it grew to a Proverb in times of Popery, That hell was paved with Priests shaven crowns, and great men's head-pieces. Indeed if men might pass de deliciis ad delicias, e eaeno ad coelum, as Jerome hath it: If they could dance with the devil all day, and sup with Christ at night: If they might live all their lives long in Delilah's lap, and then go to Abraham's bosom when they die, they would have a sine time of it. But that cannot be: and hence so many mighties miscarry.

Not many noble ] Blessed be God that any: as Galeacius Caracciolus an Italian Marquess, and Nephew to Pope Paul 5. was converted by Peter Martyr reading upon this first Epistle to the Corinthians. George Prince of Anhalt, a pious preaching Prince, converted by Melancthon: Ulysses Martinengus Earl of Baccha another Italian convert, and some few more that might be instanced. But good Nobles are black-swans (saith one) and thinly scattered in the fit mament of a state, even like stars of the first magnitude. We may say of such, as Luther doth of Elizabeth Queen of Denmark, a pious Princesse, Scilicet Christrus etiam aliquando voluit reginam in coelum vehere.

Verse 27. But God hath chosen ] In our Church assemblies the meaner usually, like little fishes, bite more then the greater. The poor are Gospelized, Mat. 11.5.

Verse 28. Things which are not ] i. e. That are naught set by 1 Sam. 25.6. Thus shall ye say to him that liveth, that is, to him that is rich: for poor men are reputed as dead men. They have but prisoners pittances, which will keep them alive, and that's all.

Verse 29. That no flesh ] Proud flesh will soon swell, if it have but anything to fasten on. The devil will also easily blow up such a blab.

Verse 30. But of him are ye ] q. d. Albeit ye have nothing of your own, yet in Christ you have all: for in him is all fullness both repletive and diffusive, both of abundance, and of redundance too, both of plenty and of bounty.

Is made unto us wisdom ] This notes out Christ's Prophetical office.

Righteousness and sanctification ] By his Priestly office.

Redemption ] By his K •• gly office, having fully delivered his from sin, death and hell; all which is not fully done, till after death. And that's the reason why Redemption is here set last. See Rom. 8.23. Luk. 21.28.

Verse 31. Glory in the Lord ] Acquiesce and exult in him, which is the end why God hath done all this for us in Christ.

CHAP. II. Verse 1. Not with excellency]

SAint Paul's speech was ne{que} lict • , ne{que} negl. cta. neither curious nor careless. Politian could say, that it is an ornament to an Epistle to be without ornaments. And yet he had so little grace as to prefer Pindars Odes before David's Psalms. Hosius also the C • dinal, thought David's Psalms unlearned, applying that, Scribrmus indoct • docti{que} pocm • ta passim. Os durum! The holy Scriptures have a grave eloquence, but want those pompous and painted words, that carnal rhetoricians hunt after.

Verse 2. To know anything ] To profess or teach any other skill. All the wisdom of a man is in this one thing, saith Lactartius, Ut Christum cognoscat & colat, That he know and worship Christ. Hoc nostrum dogma, haec sententia est, &c.

Verse 3. In weakness ] In misery, and in a mean condition, laboring with his hands, &c. Act. 18.3.

And in fear ] Of adversaries, or through care of discharging my duty amongst you.

Verse 4. With enticing words ] Religion is not a matter of parts, words or wit. The devil cares not for the sons of Sceva's adjurations. Abanah and Pharphar may scour, but Jord • n only can cure. God's holy things must be handled, Sancte magis quam scite, with fear and reverence, rather then with wit and dalliance.

In demonstration of the spirit ] With demonstrations fetched out of the very marrow of the Scriptures. It must be an elaborate speech that shall work upon the conscience.

Verse 5. That your faith, &c.] A human testimony can breed but a human faith. Aaron's bells were of pure gold; our whole preaching must be Scripture-proof, or it will burn, and none be the better for it.

In the power of God ] In the Gospel that lodgeth a certainty in the soul.

Verse 6. Wisdom among the perfect ] Or those that are grown to maturity. Some think the Apostle borroweth this term from the Pagans superstition, who admitted none to their most secret Ceremonies, but only persons well prepared and purified for many years.

Yet not the wisdom, &c.] Which is like the labor of Moles, that dig dexterously under ground, but are blind above ground.

That come to naught ] That are tumbled into hell with all their learning, which doth but light them into utter darkness.

Verse 7. Wisdom of God in a mystery ] Whiles God did not divide himself into a merciful Father, and a just Judge (as Valerius speaketh of Zaleucus ) but declared himself to be both a perfectly merciful Father, and withal a perfectly just Judge; which was such an act of wisdom as the world never heard of. This is that great mystery of godliness, 1 Tim. 3.16.

Verse 8. Which none of the Princes ] He calleth the Pharisees and Philosophers Princes, for their learning; as being himself a scholar. Only he might well have said of them, as Tuliy of others in another case, Mihi quidem nulli satis eruditi videntur, quibus nostra sunt ignota. I cannot take them for scholars, that partake not of our learning.

None of the Princes of this world knew ] Because their learning hung in their light. So it fared with Vspian the chief Lawyer, Galen the chief Physician, Porphyry the chiefest Aristotelian; and Plotinus the chief Plaionist, who were professed enemies to Christ and his truth. So was Libanius and Lucian the chief scholars of their time. None miscarry oftener then men of greatest parts. None are so deep in hell as those that are most knowing. They see no more into the mystery of Christ, then illiterate men do into the profound points of Astronomy. As a man may look on a trade and never see the mystery of it: or he may look on the letter, and never understand the sense: so here.

Verse 9. Eye hath not seen, &c.] It is reported of one Adrianus, that seeing the Martyrs suffer such grievous things, he asked the cause, one of them answered, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things that God hath prepared for them that love him. The naming of which Text so wrought upon him, that afterward he became a Martyr.

The things which God hath prepared ] As he prepared Paradise for Adam; so heaven for all his. Yet he reserves not all for the life to come, but gives a few grapes of Canaan in this wilderness.

Verse 10. But God hath revealed ] The Chinese use to say of themselves, That all other Nations of the world see but with one eye, they only with two. This is most true of the natural man compared to the spiritual.

Verse 11. Save the Spirit, &c.] Man knows his inward thoughts, purposes and desires; but the frame and disposition of his own heart he knows not, Jer. 17.9.

Knoweth no man ] How can he that cannot tell the form and quintessence, that cannot enter into the depth of the flowers or the grass he treads on, have the wit to enter into the deep things of God, hid from Angels till the discovery, and since that, they are students in it?

But the Spirit of God ] With this heifer of his therefore we must plow, if we will ever understand his riddles.

Verse 12. Not the spirit of the world ] The world lieth down in that unclean one, and is under the power and vassalage of that spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience, as a Smith in his forge, 1 Joh. 5.19. Ephes. 2.2. It is wholly set upon wickedness, as Aaron saith of the people, Exod. 32.22.

That we might know ] A sweet mercy; The Cormorants of the world will not let their heirs know what they will do for them, till they die. But God assures his of heaven afore-hand. Thus we have not received the spirit of this world: we cannot shift and plot as they can; but we have received a better thing, and have no reason to repine.

Verse 13. But which the holy Ghost teacheth ] So that not the matter only, but words also of holy Scripture are dictated by the Spirit, and are therefore to be had in higher estimation, 2 Pet. 1.21.

Comparing ] Or coapting, fitting spiritual words to spiritual matters, that all may savor of the Spirit.

Verse 14. But the natural man ] The mere Animal, that hath no more then a reasonalbe soul, and natural abilities, Jude 19. Such was that sapless fellow, Psal. 14.1. that may have a disciplinary knowledge, that is, by hear-say, as a blind man hath of colors, but not an intuitive per speciem propriam. The water riseth no higher, then the spring whence it came: So natural men can ascend no higher then nature. If the unreasonable creatures could draw a picture of God, said Xenophanes, they would certainly paint him like themselves, Quià scilicet nihil animal animàli superius cogitare potest, because they can think of nothing above themselves.

Neither can he know them ] They that are blear-eyed and weak-sighted, if at any time they set themselves to see better into a thing, they see the worse: So here. Nay more, in our nature there is an antipathy to divine truth. We love the law better then the Gospel, and any truth better then the law.

Because they are spiritually ] Ambrose reads, Because he is spiritually judged, being delivered up to a reprobate sense. But the other reading is be • t • .

Verse 15. Iudgeth all things ] By his spirit of discerning, 1 Cor. 14. his spiritual senses exercised to discern good and evil, Heb. 5.14. his undoubted persuasion of that truth he professeth, Colos. 2.3. and whereof he hath fell • the sweetness, Colos. 1.9.

Is judged of no man ] Of no natural man, who can judge no more of divine truths then a blind man can do of colors, or a sick man of meats. And herein the poorest Idiot (saith one) being a sound Christian goeth beyond the profoundest Clerks that are not sanctified, that he hath his own heart instead of a Commentary, to help to understand even the most needful points of the Scripture.

Verse 16. But we have the mind of Christ ] This is a privilege confined to the communion of Saints, to have communication of Christ's secrets, to be as it were of his Court and Council. One saith of D ^r Sibbs. That he was a man spiritually rational, and rationally spiritual, one that seemed to see the insides of nature and grace, and the world and heaven, by those perfect anatomies he had made of them all.

CHAP. III. Verse 1. Could not speak unto you]

VNlesse I would beat the air, and lose my sweet words, q. d. You quarrel me for a shallow trivial teacher, when yourselves are in fault, as not yet capable of more mysterious matter. Our Savior preached (not as he could have preached, but) as the people were able to hear, Mark 4.33. So the Author to the Hebrews, chap. 5.11. Some impute their not profiting to the Minister, as he in Seneca, that having a thorn in his foot, complained of the roughness of the way, as the cause of his limping. Or as she in the same Author, that being struck with a sudden blindness bad open the windows, when as it was not want of light, but want of sight that troubled her.

As unto carnal, even as unto babes ] Or, At least as unto babes, not yet past the spoon, and that must have their meat masticated for them by their nurses.

Verse 2. I have fed you with milk ] Ministers must condescend to their hearers capacities, though they be slighted for so doing, as Paul was; or jeered, as Isaiah, chap. 28.9, 10. for his line upon line, precept upon precept, Kau lekau, and Zau lezau; The sound of the words carries a taunt, as scornful people by the tone of their voice and riming words, scorn at such as they despise.

Verse 3. For ye are yet carnal ] It is a shame for Christians to be like other men, as Sampson was after he had lost his ha • r.

Envying and strife, &c.] These overflowings of the gall and spleen, came from a fullness of bad humors.

And walk as men ] Christians should be as Saul was, higher then the people by head and shoulders. Something singular is expected from them, Matth. 5.47. they should have their feet where other men's heads are, Prov. 15.24. When we do evil, we work do nostro & secundum hominem, we do our kind, as the devil when he speaks lies, speaks, De suo, of his own, Joh. 8.44.

Verse 4. For when one saith, &c.] So those that will needs be called Lutherans, Jurant{que} in verba magistri. Did not Luther play the man, when he and other Dutch Divines advised Philip Lantgrave of Hesse, a pious Prince to marry a second wife that is an adulteress, whiles his lawful wife was yet alive? And might he not deceive, and be deceived in other things as well as in that?

Are ye not carnal? ] Nay, Will not the world think ye are mad? As the Apostle speaks in a like case, 1 Cor. 14.23.

Verse 5. But Ministers ] Not Masters, as Magistri nostri Parisienses, so the Sorbonists will needs be called, contrary to Jam. 3.1. Bacon the Carmelite was called Doctor resolutissimus, because he would endure no May Bees.

Verse 6. But God gave the increase ] The Harp yields no sound, till it be touched by the hand of the Musician. The heart is never made good, till the heavens answer the earth, Hos. 2.21. till God strike the stroke. Holy Melancthon being newly converted, thought it impossible for his hearers to withstand the evidence of the Gospel. But soon after he complained that old Adam was too hard for young Melancthon.

Verse 7. So then neither is he, &c.] This made Cyril to conclude his Preface to his Catechism, with M • um est docere, vesirum auscultare, Dei perficere. I may teach, and yen hear, but God must do the deed, when all's done. Else, we may preach and pray to the wearing of our tongues to the slumps (as Bradford said) and to no more purpose then Bede did, when he preached to a heap of stones.

Verse 8. And he that watereth are one ] Why then are not you at one? Should ye not follow your leaders, press their footsteps?

Shall receive his own reward ] Those ambitious Doctors that draw disciples after them, hunting after popular applause (that empty blast of stinking breath) shall have that for their reward; let them make them merry with it. When faithful Ministers shall shine as stars, Dan. 12.3.

Verse 9. For we are laborers, &c.] Let Ministers hence learn their, 1. Dignity. 2. Duty. Fructus honos oneris, fructus honoris onus. Who would not work hard with such sweet company?

Verse 10. As a wise master-builder ] Artificers also have their wisdom, as Aristotle yieldeth. For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him, Isa. 28.26. As he did Bezaleel, and Aholiah.

Verse 11. Which is Jesus Christ ] The Doctrine of his person and offices is the foundation of Christian religion: and must therefore be kept pure and entire by all means possible. Arius his 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , would not be yielded: nor Nestorius his 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , for 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 So religious were the old Bishops that they would not alter or exchange a letter or a syllable in these fundamentals. Every particle of truth is precious, and not to be parted with.