Romans 9

Romans 9:1

These things being so, that there is no true purity or consequent justification to be had by the law of Moses, nor any way but by Christ, whatsoever ye think of me, (looking on me, I know, with an evil eye, as if I were your enemy,) I protest before Christ, and testify to you, my brethren of the Jewish nation, that truth, of which mine own conscience in the presence of the Holy Ghost (that is privy to and searcher of hearts) is witness to me,

[a] in the Holy Ghost] This special expression of God, in or by the Holy Ghost, which, instead of ὁ Θεός, God, ch. i. 9, is used in this and some other places, doth denote the special office and prerogative of that Holy Spirit, as to plant purity and sincerity in the heart, contrary to all kind of pollution and mixture, especially that of deceit and hypocrisy, so to be privy to the secrets, to take notice of the motions of the heart: and this in proportion with the spirit of a man, of which as Solomon saith that it is the candle of the Lord, searching the inner parts of the belly, so saith the apostle 1 Cor. ii. 11, the spirit of a man knoweth the things of a man, so as no man else knows them; by analogy to which, he infers, that there is no other way of knowing the things of God but by his Spirit’s revealing them to us; for the Spirit search-

Romans 9:2

That the thought of my brethren the Jews, that depend upon the law, and confide in their own righteousness, and will not be brought to look after Christ, and that inward purity by him prescribed, instead of the external circumcision, &c., is matter of great grief and incessant torment to my soul.

Romans 9:3

So far am I from deserving to be thought (as I am) their enemy, that I could be content that I were separate or excommunicate from Christ’s church, not only to want the honour of apostleship, but to be the most abject creature, separate from the body of Christ, the communion of saints, and so delivered up to Satan (see note [e] 1 Cor. v.); or that, as Christ, being not accursed or worthy of any ill, became a curse for us, so after his example, any the saddest condition might fall on me; or, if it were possible, and if it might any way tend to this end, I could, methinks, be content to part with all mine own hopes and interests in Christ, even mine eternal heaven and bliss, on condition my brethren and consanguineans, the Jews, would leave their trust in the law, and in their being Abraham’s seed, and come in to the gospel, and make use of the privileges that are allowed them there. So passionate is my love toward them, that I could endure any loss by way of expiation for them, to rescue them from their infidelity, and the destruction that attends them.

[b] accursed] The phrase ἀνάθεμα εἶναι, to be a curse, in this place, is capable of many significations, each of which may be applicable to the matter in hand, to express the apostle’s fervent affection towards his countrymen. First, it may signify to be excommunicate and cast out of the church: Ἀνάθεμα, ἀκοινώνητος, it signifies excommunicate, saith Hesychius. Thus ἤτω ἀνάθεμα, 1 Cor. xvi. 22, let him be anathema, is, let him be removed from the Christian assemblies, deprived of those privileges of Christians which there are afforded them; and so Gal. i. 8, 9, ἀνάθεμα ἔστω, let him be excommunicated, turned out with the greatest aversation out of the church of God, avoided, separated from; whosoever shall teach any other doctrine, though he were an apostle, or an angel of God, that did it. So in “S. Chrysostom, ἀνάθεμα ἐκκλησίας, ποιήσαντες ἄνθρωπον,” they that excommunicate any man, or make him anathema from the church." If this be the notion, then ἀπὸ Χριστοῦ, from Christ, must signify from the body of Christ, as by a synecdoche the word Christ is used, 1 Cor. xii. 12. Gal. iii. 27; or as it is manifest that Christ being the head of the church, he that is cut off from the body may truly be said to be cut off from Christ. And then he that was by the Jews accused and persecuted for having made a defection and departure from the Mosaical law, and setting up Christian assemblies in opposition to their Judaical service, may here fitly express his kindness to them (and how little pleasure he took in departing from them), in wishing himself ejected from the participation of those most valuable privileges, on condition they might be made capable of them. Secondly, it is known that in those primitive times this anathematizing or excommunicating was attended with the delivering up to Satan, and that with the ὄλεθρος σαρκός, “very sharp, severe inflictions on the flesh, diseases, afflictions,” &c. And therefore anathema in this notion may be taken with this improvement, and so contain all temporal calamities, that he was willing to endure or undergo for their good. That this is the meaning of the place may seem probable by comparing it with a like phrase of Ignatius the holy martyr, in his Epistle to the Romans, where, in an expression of his zeal to Christ, he hath this phrase, Κύλασις τοῦ διαβόλου ἐπ’ ἐμὶ ἐρχίσθω, μόνον ἵνα Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ ἐπιτύχω. “Let the punishment of the devil come upon me, only that I may obtain Christ:” where “the punishment of the devil” cannot be the punishments of hell, which are no way ordinable to the “obtaining of Christ,” but any the greatest torments or inflictions in this life, or even death itself, that ὄλεθρος σαρκός, the destruction of the

a Tom. 6. p. 441. l. 13.

Romans 9:4

They being the people to whom Christ was primarily and principally sent, the posterity of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, (and favoured by God for their fathers’ sakes,) and honoured with the pri-

[c] the glory] That the ark of God, where he was pleased to exhibit himself, is the thing expressed by ἡ δόξα, the glory, is clear by that known place in the Old Testament, The glory is departed from Israel, for the ark of God is taken. And the reason of the appellation is as clear, because the cherubims being placed in the ark on the ἀσσήριον or covering, God was said to be present there in the same manner as on Mount Sinai, (that is, by the visible apparition of angels there,) Acts vii. 53. Gal. iii. 19. Heb. ii. 2. And this presence of his by angels is ordinarily called δόξα, glory, in the New Testament, answerable to שכינה among the rabbins, (from Exod. xxiv. 16, the glory of the Lord ישכן dwelt or abode upon the mount, to which the apostle refers, 2 Cor. iii. 9, where the giving of the law was said to be δόξα, glory,) as may appear by many places. Thus when, Isaiah vi. 1, we read, after the Lord’s sitting on the throne, that his train filled the temple, the Septuagint have πλήρης ὁ οἶκος δόξης αὐτοῦ, the house was full of his glory; and then follows immediately, καὶ σεραφείμ ἡστήκεισαν κύκλῳ αὐτοῦ, the seraphim stood about him: and St. John retains the Septuagint’s reading, John xii. 41, These things spake Isaiah, when he saw his glory, (see note [c] on John i, and note [k] on Matt. iii.) So Matt. xvi. 27, where ἔρχισθαι ἐν δόξη τοῦ Πατρὸς, to come in the glory of the Father, is explained presently by μετ’ ἀγγέλων αὐτοῦ, with his angels; and so Matt. xxv. 31, in his glory, and all his angels with him; and so Mark viii. 38, the glory of the Father, with his holy angels; and ch. xiii. 26, where his coming in the clouds (which belongs to the appearance of angels, which was wont to be in a bright shining cloud, which we ordinarily call a glory) is said to be in power and great glory; and it follows immediately, ver. 27, and then shall he send his angels: and so Luke xxi. 27. So Luke ii. 9, The angel of the Lord appeared, and the glory shone round about. So John i. 19, when he had said of Christ incarnate, ἐσκήνωσε, he dwelt among us, (that Greek word being of the same Hebrew origination with the שכינה,) it follows, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, viz. in the descent of the Holy Ghost (with that satellitium of angels) upon him after his baptism: the like to which, 2 Pet. i. 17, is called a voice from heaven, from the excellent glory. See also 2 Pet. i. 3. and note [f] on 1 Pet. iv. So Acts vii. 55, when it is said of Stephen, that he

Romans 9:5

They coming from the patriarchs, and Christ the (incarnate) Son of God coming from them, taking his flesh, and being born of a Jewish woman, though ho were above and over all creatures in the world, God blessed for ever, the title by which the one supreme God was known and expressed among the Jews.

[d] God blessed for ever] This place is so clear a proof of the divinity of Christ, that Proclus, de Fide, p. 53, saith of it, that it convinces all the heresies concerning Christ, καὶ παρεῖσθοις συκοφαντίας ἀποτεχίζει τοῖς φιλολοδώροις, “and it shuts and walls up all passages for calumny from them that love contumely or railing at Christ.” So Theophylact, Καὶ ἐντεῦθεν δὲ κατασχύνεται Ἄρειος, ἄτε τοῦ Παύλου τὸν Χριστὸν ἐπὶ πάντων Θεὸν ἀνακρύπτοντος, “From hence is Arius confuted and put to shame, St. Paul proclaiming Christ to be God over all.” This will more appear, if it be remembered, that it was a custom among the Jews solemnly observed, that whenever the priest in the sanctuary delivered the name of God, the people used some words of blessing or praising him, such as these, ברוך שם כבוד מלכותו לעולם ועד, Benedictum sit nomen gloriæ regni ejus in secula seculorum, “Blessed be the name of the glory of his kingdom for ever and ever.” So in Gemara Babylonica, Rabbi said, כי שם ה’ אקרא &c. “When I call on the name of Jehovah, do you magnify our Lord.” So said Moses to Israel, Deut. xxxii. 3, When I mention the name of the blessed God, do you magnify. So saith Solomon Jarchi, on Deut. xxxii. 3. From that command of Moses it is, that “after the benediction in the sanctuary the people answer ברוך שם, &c. “Blessed be the glorious name of his kingdom.” To these forms were after added the words לעולם ועד, for ever and ever, or to age and age, that is, εἰς αἰῶνος, to ages, here, because (say the rabbins) of the heresy of the Sadducees, who said there was but one age. So Cod. Berachoth, c. 9, “In all the conclusions of the ברכות, benedictions, which were in the sanctuary, they said מן העולם, from age, but after that the Sadducees had perverted that, and said there was but one age, they decreed that they should say, from age to age.” Many evidences of this custom there are in the Old Testament, especially in the Psalms. And the abbreviate of all these forms was, (the words used Rom. i. 25,) ὃς ἐστιν εὐλογητὸς εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας, Ἀμὴν, who is blessed for ever, Amen; and here somewhat more largely, ἡ ὢν ἐπὶ πάντων Θεός, &c. who is above all, God blessed for ever and ever, Amen. Parallel to this are those other, the doxology at the end of the Lord’s Prayer, Matt. vi, and in this Epistle, αὐτῷ ἡ δόξα εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας, Ἀμὴν, to him be glory for ever, Amen, ch. xi. 36, and ch. xvi. 7. and Gal. i. 5. and Eph. iii. 21. Phil. iv. 20. 1 Tim. i. 17. 2 Tim. iv. 18. and Heb. xiii. 21. 1 Pet. iv. 11, and v. 11. and 2 Pet. iii. 18. Jude 25. Rev. i. 6, and vii. 12. In all which places this giving of glory being an acknowledgment of the eternal God, and in several of them being applied peculiarly to Christ, (who is distinctly called God, Acts xx. 28. 1 Tim. iii. 16. Tit. ii. 13.) as here, and Heb. xiii. 21. an

Romans 9:6

But whatsoever becomes of these children of Abraham according to the flesh, yet for all this the promise of God made to him doth no way miscarry, the sins of Abraham’s carnal seed cannot make God’s promise to be frustrated, ch. iii. 3, (from which place to this, the discourse, begun ch. iii. 2, had been interrupted, and not resumed again till now, and here resumed and pursued,) for the promise was not made to his carnal but spiritual seed, to believers begotten after the image of his faith; the privileges made to Israelites do not belong to all that are of the stock of Jacob.

Romans 9:7

Nor doth the adoption (the second privilege, ver. 4.), or the privilege of being received inby God as his peculiar people, belong to all that are come from Abraham; for it was once said to Sarah, Gen. xxi. 12, that the promised seed should be confined to Isaac’s line (or, from Isaac shall come the blessed seed, or, that shall be the blessed seed that comes from Isaac, see note [k] Matt. ii.), and Ishmael, though he were Abraham’s child, should not inherit, nor have any part in it; or, (as Theophylact,) those shall be the seed of Abraham who are born after the manner of Isaac’s birth, that is, by the word or promise of God.

Romans 9:8

Which signifies, that the privilege of adoption belongs not to all Jews, or to men as being born of that stock, but being made over by promise, it belongs to those to whom the promise was made; that is, not to those that expect justification by observation of the ² the worship, ἡ λατρεία. have miscarried, ἐκπέπτακεν. ³ But it is not possible that, Οὐχ οἷον δὲ ὅτι. ⁴ should ⁵ the seed be called to thee, κλῆσθαι σοι σκέρμα.

Romans 9:9

For the birth of Isaac was an act merely of God’s free mercy, a work of extraordinary providence, for which neither Abraham nor Sarah had any ground to hope, but only that promise made, Gen. xvii. 21, and xviii. 10, in these words, According to this time, (that is, the time of bearing children after conception,) I will visit thee, and give thee a son; by which it is clear, that the birth of Isaac was an effect of God’s promise, and nothing else: and so, that they to whom the promise belongs, that is, not the natural sons of Abraham, but the spiritual sons, not they that descend from his loins, but they that follow the example of his faith, whosoever they be, Jews or Gentiles, may (upon obedience to the faith) and shall be accepted for his children, as Abraham was.

[e] At this time] What is meant by κατὰ τὸν καιρὸν τοῦτον, according to this season, will best appear by Gen. xvii. 21. and xviii. 10; in the former of which it is rendered in the Greek εἰς τὸν καιρὸν τοῦτον ἐν τῷ ἐνιαντῷ ἑτέρφ, according to this time in another year; in the latter, κατὰ τὸν καιρὸν τοῦτον εἰς ὥρας, according to this season for times, which, I suppose, is corruptly set out for τῆς ὥρας, of time, ὥρα being a season or time of year, and so the meaning will be, according to this time of the year. The Hebrew reads it, ch. xvii, לְכוֹעֵד הוּא, literally, κατὰ καιρὸν τοῦτον, according to this season, the word rendered καιρὸς signifying indifferently time, (though, coming from a root that signifies constituit, it be ordinarily rendered appointed time,) and in ch. xviii. it is כַּעַת חַיָּה, we render it, according to the time of life, the Jerusalem Targum, quasi hoc tempore quo vos vivitis, “as it were at this time wherein ye live,” (unless perhaps that be capable of an emendation, and should be הוּא or הוֹאָת, according to this time; for so Rabbi Solomon כַּעַת הוֹאָת, &c. secundum hoc tempus anni futuri, “according to this time of the future year;” and Aben Ezra כַּעַת הוֹאָת, juxta tempus hoc in anno sequenti, cum Sarah erit viva, “about this time in the year following, when Sarah shall be alive,” taking in the reading of חַיָּה also.) All this seems to denote, not that time twelvemonth, but the next year at the time of childbirth, reckoning from that time wherein the promise was made, (see Paulus Fagius in Collat.) And so, 2 Kings iv. 16, the like phrase, About this season, according to the time of life, thou shalt embrace a son, is by the Hebrews interpreted, “after the time wherein the fruit shall be quickened in the womb, and come to a perfect firmness of parts, and so come to birth, thou shalt embrace or have a son.” So that according to the time of life may most fitly signify “according to the manner or course of children’s being formed in the womb, quickened, and born.”

Romans 9:10

Another type there was, and proof of this, in the children of Rebecca, twins, which she conceived by our father Isaac, to wit, Esau and Jacob;

[f] by one] Some other ways of rendering these words ἐξ ἑνός, of one, have been thought of by learned men, which it will not be unfit to mention; as that ἑνός should be all one with μονογενοῦς, for so יְחִיד, unigenitus, was the title of Isaac among the Jews, Gen. xxii. 2. Heb. xi. 17; and from thence Ἰεοῦδ, in Philo Byblius, by the Tyrian dialect, for Ἰεοῦδ, and then the sense will be, “Rebecca having conceived by the only-begotten,” to wit, “Isaac our father,” or, “by Isaac the only-begotten of our father.” But ἐξ ἑνός seems rather to be taken adverbially, to signify at once, (there being no priority in their conception on which to ground any favour to one above another,) and best agrees with the design or argument which that is brought to confirm here. As for κοίτην ἔχειν, that is but a modest circumlocution, to express that which is not wont to be plainly spoken, as we find κοίτη, a bed, used ch. xiii. 13. and Heb. xiii. 4.

Romans 9:11

For before their birth, and when neither had done good or evil, (which notes the Jews and Gentiles, the one considered without any respect of their legal services, the other of their idolatries,) that the intention and resolution of God to prefer one before the other might appear to be not on consideration of their (nor consequently of the Jews’ and Gentiles’) performances, but as an act of his own free disposal, in dispensing that greater measure of his favours as seemed best to him, (for that is meant by calling, see note [e] Matt. xx,) even to the Gentiles, which had done a great deal of ill, and not to the Jews when they rejected Christ, even though they performed some external obediences;

[g] election] The Hebrew בַּחַר signifies both to choose and to prefer, and is therefore rendered not only ἐκλέγειν, to choose, but also προαίρειν, to prefer, Deut. vii. 6 and x. 15. Prov. i. 29; and agreeable to that, ἐκλογή, election, here signifies prelation, and ἡ κατ’ ἐκλογὴν Θεοῦ

Romans 9:12

It was revealed to her by God, that the elder of the twins should be inferior to the younger, (which ⁶ speech was a speech of promise, ἕναγγελλαι γὰρ ὁ λόγος οὗτος. time, Κατὰ τὸν καιρὸν τοῦτον. ⁸ but also Rebecca conceiving at once. ¹⁰ not from works, but from him, οὐκ δὲ ἔργων, ἀλλ’ ἐκ τοῦ. ⁷ According to this ⁹ abide, μέρη.

Romans 9:13

According to the prediction of the elder’s serving the younger, Mal. i. 2, 3, which though it had been true in their persons, Jacob getting away the birthright first, then the prime blessing from Esau, yet it had not its primary completion in their persons, (it no way appearing probable, that Esau did in his person forsake the true God, and fall off to idols,) but had its principal and full accomplishment in their posterities, of whom Malachi hath delivered it from God, long after the death of both their persons, that God preferred the Israelites before the Edomites, though indeed their progenitors, Jacob and Esau, were brothers, and Esau the elder of them. By both which typical stories it is plain, that as God binds not himself to observe privileges, to give Ishmael inheritance with Isaac, only because he was born of Abraham as well as he, nor to prefer Esau before Jacob, and the Idumæans before the Israelites, only because they were of the elder house or line; so neither doth he bestow the promises made in Christ either as a prerogative of Israelites or a reward of legal obedience, but leaves himself free to receive Gentiles as well as Jews, nay, to call Gentiles and reject the Jews, and to accept of the Christian faith instead of the Mosaical observances; the internal, sincere, evangelical, instead of the external, legal obedience.

Romans 9:14

But do we not, by saying this, make God unjust? Is it not injustice in him to accept these, to have mercy on believing Gentiles, and to cast off Jews, that are Abraham’s seed, which perform the ordinances of the law, circumcision, &c.? No, certainly; we charge nothing on God by this; that which we say is agreeable to his own words, Exod. xxxiii. 19.

Romans 9:15

For there, upon Moses’s desire to see his glory, he tells him his name by which he will be proclaimed, I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, &c.; and so again, Exod. xxxiv. 6; that is, In shewing mercy I will do what I think good, without giving thee or any man any further account of it than mine own most gracious will and pleasure, (not that I have not

Romans 9:16

From which testimony it is plain, that this mercy is not the merit or due peculiarly of them that most violently pretend to have it so, and strive most for it, (that is, of the Jews, as is implied, ver. 31, though they strive not as they ought to do;) and again, that it is not any thing of merit in the Gentile for which God calls him to Christianity, (now the Jew hath rejected it,) as it was not all that Isaac could do by willing to bestow the blessing on Esau, nor that Esau could do by running to obtain it, when he came running and crying, Hast thou but one blessing &c., (see Chrysost. tom. 5. p. 775,) but only the free mercy of God to undeserving Gentiles, (when the Jews have first had, and contemned this mercy.)

Romans 9:17

And for the other part of the doctrine, against which injustice was objected, viz., that of the rejecting of the Jews, and not justifying them upon observation of Mosaical external performances, without inward purity preached by Christ; there is as plain a testimony again of God’s, concerning his dealing in the like case, viz., shewing exemplary punishments on impenitent sinners (and such were the Jews that would not believe on Christ, but depended on the prerogative of their birth and legal performances): and this is in the case of Pharaoh, Exod. ix. 10, when after the sixth judgment, Pharaoh having hardened his own heart so long, and over and above frustrated Moses’s special last warning, Exod. viii. 29, and hardened his heart that time also, ver. 32, (answerable to which was the Jews’ resisting of Christ also after all the rest of the prophets, stoning the son after the

¹¹ raised thee.

[h] raised] The word ἐξεγείμων signifies not here the raising up, as that notes bringing into the world, but the raising out of some low condition; yet not the grave neither, (though to that the word may properly be applied, where the matter requires it,) but disease or danger, as it is often used, but especially James v. 15, the prayer of faith shall save, that is, deliver, recover, the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up, that is, restore him from that sickness. For the notion of it here, it will appear by the Hebrew word, Exod. ix. 16, העמרתך, I have made thee stand, which the Chaldee renders קומתך, raised thee, (from the danger before spoken of, the pestilential disease or murrain that had lately been upon the land,) and the ancient Latin, Sustentavi te, “I have sustained thee;” but the Septuagint expressly, διατηρήθης, thou wert kept, guarded, not suffered to fall into it, preserved, and kept alive. So Isa. xlix. 8, to raise up or make stand, (the word used there,) is an expression of preserving, rescuing from danger, delivering. (See note [d] on Matt. xxii.) And so this speech must necessarily belong to that part of Pharaoh’s life peculiarly, wherein the murrain fell on Egypt, Exod. ix. 3; at which time he, for his many repeated obdurations of his own heart, was fit to have been delivered up to instant ruin, had not God, for the illustrating of his glory in this vessel of wrath, (thus fitted by himself for destruction,) kept him alive a little longer. Theophylact renders it a little otherwise, εἰς μίσον σε ἤγαγον, I have set thee in the midst, brought thee out as a person to be exemplarily punished.

Romans 9:18

From which speech of God’s to Pharaoh it is evident, that as God in shewing mercy is not bound to render any reason of it beyond his own will, ver. 15, so when he delivers up an obdurate sinner to the obduration of his heart, this he may justly do if he please, especially when all that is done in this is not by infusing any quality into him, but by leaving him now to himself who had so often held out against God, and by inflicting that judgment on him on earth which had otherwise been at this time his portion in hell: and this for ends formerly mentioned, ver. 17. Whereas to many others, not so far advanced in obduration, he continueth his admonitions and chastisements, and by that means brings them to reformation. (And as this was most visibly true on one side in Pharaoh, and on many other men on the other side, to whom God shews himself thus merciful, infinitely beyond their merit, of which no account can be given by us, but only God’s free mercy; so in the case in hand of the Jews and Gentiles, it is most observable, God’s free undeserved grace is his only motive to shew mercy to the Gentiles, to call them to the gospel, and his free pleasure to deal thus with the incredulous obdurate Jews, to leave them at last to themselves, (upon their hardening themselves so oft, despising the prophets, crucifying the Son of God, and at last rejecting the apostles, and in them the Holy Ghost coming to them, fortified with that great testimony,

[i] hardeneth] God’s hardening of Pharaoh’s heart in this place is that which befell Pharaoh, Exod. x. 1, when God saith of him, I have hardened his heart. This was indeed foretold by God from the first of his sending Moses to him, ch. iv. 21, Do all the wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put into thine hand: but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go: and again, ch. vii. 3, I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply my signs, and &c. But this foretelling it so early is no argument that it was immediately done, but on the contrary, his own hardening his own heart is also foretold, Exod. iii. 19, I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no not by a mighty hand. And accordingly so the story proceeds: God shews miracles and signs before Pharaoh, Exod. vii. 10; and because the magicians of Egypt did the like with their enchantments, it follows, Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, (not he (as if it were God) hardened Pharaoh’s heart, but) ויחזק לב פרעה, Pharaoh’s heart waxed hard or strong, was hardened, or, by an ordinary acception of kal for hithpahel, Pharaoh’s heart hardened itself. And so it follows, ver. 14, The Lord said unto Moses, Pharaoh’s heart is waxen hard, he refuseth, &c. (and so the very same words are rendered by our English, ch. vii. 22, and ch. viii. 19, was hardened, in the passive, or hardened itself, in the reciprocal, (not actively, he hardened,) and he hearkened not unto them.) After his hardening his heart thus against this first sign and command, God proceeds to a judgment of turning their water into blood, Exod. vii. 16, 17, and this as a sufficient conviction to Pharaoh; for so saith God, Hitherto thou wouldst not hear; but in this thou shalt know that I am the Lord: behold I will smite &c. And yet after this, Pharaoh’s heart was hardened or hardened itself, ver. 22; neither did he set his heart to

Romans 9:19

But upon this passage of Pharaoh it is or may be objected, If God after the sixth judgment hardened Pharaoh’s heart, why doth he then expostulate or chide with him after that, as it is clear he doth, Exod. ix. 17, As yet exaltest thou thyself? for then God might be said to will his obduration, which he had inflicted on him as a punishment, and then what possibility was there for him to resist his will, that God should still find fault? (Parallel to this it may perhaps be objected in respect of the Jews, who, after God’s delivering up the Jews to that obduration, foretold, Matt. xiii. 14, and intimated, (though not yet, at the speaking of those words, come to pass,) Luke xix. 42, that after the apostles’ departing from them and preaching to the Gentiles, Acts xiii. 46, he yet by himself and his apostles reproves and chides them, when now the prediction of their subversion and total destruction is irreversibly gone out against them, Luke xxiii. 44.) To this objection most clearly and punctually proposed, (as it concerns Pharaoh at that time of his life, when God said, As yet exaltest thou thyself? and by intimation and analogy, as it concerns the Jews, his parallel,) and indeed to the whole matter before set down, the apostle answers, 1. by way of indignation against the objector, to repel the force of his argument, thus:

Romans 9:20

In matters that thus belong to the wisdom of God and his dispensations, what man shall dare object any thing against his proceedings? Shall the creature dispute with the Creator, or question him to what end he hath thus and thus dealt with him? Is there any reason to find fault with God (or so much as to make any reply to him) for asking that question of Pharaoh after that time, or doing any thing proportionable to that, to the Jews after judgment was gone out against them? In matters of just and equal God is willing to appeal to and to be judged by us, Isa. v. 3, Ezek. xviii. 25; but in matters of wisdom,

Romans 9:21

Nay, we give that liberty to an ordinary

tradesman, a potter by name, (God using that resemblance in this matter, Jer. xviii. 3,) of the same lump

of clay to make one vessel for an honourable use, to be employed at the table, &c.; and while the wheel runs, or the stuff grows worse, or miscarries in the hand of the potter, Jer. xviii. 4, and so proves unfit for so

good an employment, to make another for an inferior, less honourable use, as it seems good to him;

and why may we not give God leave to have mercy upon one, who, according to the condition of things laid down in the gospel, is capable of mercy, and so to bring some Jews (a tithe of them, Isa. xvi. 14.) and a multitude of heathens to Christianity and to life, by their performance of those conditions on which God hath promised reception; and on the other side, to reject all obstinate contemners of them, to leave them in their obduration, nay, to deal with them as he did with Pharaoh, by withdrawing all grace, by hiding from their eyes the things that belonged to their peace after they have so long shut their eyes wilfully and resolvedly against the gospel, to harden them irreversibly, to make another kind of vessel of them, to some, though not an honourable use, Jer. xviii. 4, and so to fulfil that prophecy, Isa. vi. 10, Make their hearts fat, &c., and that till their land be utterly

desolate, ver. 11; and all this upon their former obdurating their own hearts, Matt. xiii. 15, which is

meant by the vessels miscarrying in the hand of the potter, that is, while he was doing that toward them which belonged to their peace? This being premised for the repelling of the disputer, he now proceeds to a more punctual, clear, satisfactory answer, by way of question also or interrogation, which may be easily dissolved into this positive conclusion: 22 15 What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known,

Romans 9:22

God, on purpose to express his wrath visibly in this life upon Pharaoh, (and in like manner on the rebellious Jews,) and to make other nations to take

Romans 9:23

There was another more remote end of it (see ch. xi. 11, 12); by this means of discernible severity on them to illustrate and set forth more notably his abundant goodness to others, to afford the gospel, and the benefits of the coming of Christ, and his presence here on earth (for that seems to be the meaning of the word glory, as that notes the presence of God among the Jews, see note [c], and note

Romans 9:24

Even us, to whom God hath vouchsafed this favour of revealing Christ to us, some of us Jews, but the far greater number of the Gentiles, who have made use of that mercy of his, and obeyed his call,

Romans 9:25

According to that prediction in Hosea, ch. ii. 23, where God saith, I will say unto them which were

Romans 9:28

[k] for he will finish] This verse is cited out of Isaiah, ch. x. 22, where the Greek reads it just as it is in the ordinary copies here, only leaving out the γὰρ, for, and instead of ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, on the land, ἐν τῇ οἰκουμένῃ ὅλῃ, on the whole world. As for the γὰρ that is here, it cannot well accord with the ὅτι following, unless the ὅτι be taken in another sense, for an expletive or scilicet, not a causal. But the truth is, the ordinary reading here, beginning with λόγον γὰρ, seems to be the true one so far, but in the process of it to have some words put in out of the Septuagint, viz. ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ ὅτι λόγον συντετμημένον. For without those the king’s MS. reads it perspicuously thus, Λόγον γὰρ συντελῶν καὶ συντέμνων ποιήσει Κύριος ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, “For the Lord shall do upon the land, perfecting and cutting short the account,” (that is, shall perfect and cut short,) or, “the Lord shall make up an account, perfecting and cutting it short upon the land.” Where the use of λόγος for an account, is agreeable to what was observed, ch. iii. note [l]; and συντελεῖν and συντέμνειν λόγον is upon the balancing of accounts, (receipts on one side, and expenses on the other,) “to cut off one from the other, and to set down the remainder,” which is ordinarily (in a steward’s account) a very contemptible low sum; and so is it that the prophets call ΣΗΜ, a remnant, ἐγκατάλειμμα, that which remains of a far greater sum, and so is fit to denote that small number of the Jews which received the faith of Christ, (at the preaching of the gospel then unto them,) in proportion to and comparison with the far greater number that stood out against it. So ch. xi. 4, out of 1 Kings xix. 18, κατέλιπον ἑμαντῷ. I have left or reserved to myself seven thousand men, &c. And accordingly here, ver. 27, they that thus believe are called κατάλειμμα, a remainder, and generally in the prophets are expressed by that and the like words, fetched from this metaphor of accounts.

Romans 9:30

To conclude, therefore, that which all this while hath been a proving (and to the proving of which all that hath been said in this chapter must be referred, as premises to infer this conclusion and no other) is this, That the Gentiles, that strove not for justification, that did not so zealously pretend that they were the favourites of God, did attain to it by receiving the faith of Christ: upon which, though they had formerly been idolaters, they were justified.

[l] attained to] Three words there are here together, διώκειν, καταλαμβάνειν, φθάνειν, to follow after, to attain, to be foremost, which are all agonistical, referring to the customs of the Grecian exercises in their Olympian, Nemæan, Isthmian, Pythian games, which are often alluded to in these Epistles. Five of these games there were, cuffing, wrestling, running, coiting, and leaping. That of running, δρόμος or ποδωκεῖη, (in reference to which in Homer Achilles is so constantly called πόδας ὠκύς, swift-footed, to denote his excellence above all in that kind of exercise,) is here specified by διώκειν, pursuing or striving to overtake, as any did in that exercise when he was behind another. In this, as in the other, there was an ἄθλον or βραβεῖον, a reward or prize

Romans 9:31

But the Jews, that did most diligently contend to be justified by the law, did not yet outrun the Gentiles, attain the goal, or get justification before them; but on the contrary, the Gentiles have gotten the advantage of them very much.

Romans 9:32

And why not? Why, because they sought it not by Christ, or by the evangelical way, nay, could not endure that when it was revealed to them, but only by the privileges of being Jews, and performance of external legal observances, and so fell down in the midst of their race, being not patient to believe that their law should be abolished, (or that Christ, that was born, lived, and died in a mean condition, should be the Messias of the world, 1 Cor. i. 23,) but upon that one prejudice casting off all Christianity,

Romans 9:33

According to that which is written, Isaiah xxviii. 16, Behold I lay in Sion a stone, tried and precious, (see note [b] Matt. x,) but such an one as the Jews should stumble at, thinking it contrary to the Mosaical way, and so falling off from and persecuting Christianity; which, notwithstanding, the true orthodox faithful Christian will still adhere to, and hold fast, and never forsake or deny Christ, (see ch. x. 11, and 1 Pet. ii. 6,) nor consequently shall he ever be denied or forsaken by him.

The sum then of this whole chapter will be reduced to these five heads: first, the privileges of the Jews, and among them especially Christ’s being born of that stock; secondly, that those of them which resisted and believed not in Christ were delivered up to obduration by God, and the Gentiles taken in in their stead; thirdly, that it was most just in God to deal thus with them; fourthly, that some of the Jews at that time believed in Christ; fifthly, that the cause that the rest believed not was, that after a pharisaical manner they sought justification by the works of the law, circumcision, &c., despising the faith and doctrine of Christ, and that evangelical way of justification, and so stumbled at the Christian doctrine which they should have believed, were the worse for him, and the preaching of the apostles, by whom they should have been so much the better.

[m] shall not be ashamed] The Hebrew in Isa. xxviii. 16 read יהוש, make haste, but the Greek are thought to have read יביש, which signifies most obviously erubuerunt. So Cappellus citeth it as the opinion of a learned man, and so Grotius’s notes have it. But Mr. Pocock seems to have hit upon the right, (and then there is no need of that conjecture,) that the Hebrew יהוש had anciently three significations, of some affinity one with another, which are all retained in the Arabic haush and hish, which answers it: 1. to make haste; 2. to fear; 3. to be ashamed: and it may well be here used in that sense that comprehends all three; for he that is in a fright or consternation turns this way and that way hastily, and is in confusion of face or shame. In the first of these senses the Syriac interpreter and Chaldee paraphrast understood it: the former read לא נרחל, he shall not fear; the latter, לא יודעין, they shall not be troubled, or in commotion: in the second, the Vulgar, non festinet, “shall not make haste;” in the third, the Greek, (as also the Arabic,) οὐ καταισχυνθῇ, he shall not be ashamed: and this last is here made use of by the apostle, οὐ καταισχυνθήσεται, and so 1 Pet. ii. 6, where the Syriac and Arabic and Vulgar are all to the same purpose. And this is capable of a double sense, either as shame signifies bashfulness, inconfidence, which keeps us from confessing of Christ; and so οὐ καταισχυνθήσεται is, he will never be cowardly or bashful, he will boldly and confidently confess Christ; or else it may signify being put to shame, as any man is that finds himself deceived, that hath miscarried in a matter on which he hath depended; and so it belongs to Christ’s not forsaking him, οὐ καταισχυνθήσεται, he