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that the pardon of sin could and should be obtained ONLY by faith in his Son Jesus; and not by any obedience to any law. And the Jews, the descendants of Jacob, who rejected this way of salvation, became precisely like the Edomites, the descendants of Esau; they builded, but God pulled down; their mountains and heritage are Now laid wuste for the dragons of the wilderness; and they properly may now be called the border of wickedness; a people against whom the Lord hath indignation for ever: they have rejected the Lord that bought them; and so have brought upon themselves swift destruction. 7. That no personal, absolute, eternal reprobation of Esau can have been intended, we learn from this; that he was most amply reconciled to his brother, who had so deeply wronged and offended him, by depriving him of his birthright and his blessing; and his having forgiven his brother his trespasses, was no mean proof that God had forgiven him. See our Lord's words, Matt. vi. 14. Therefore, there can be assigned no competent ground of his damnation, much less of his personal reprobation from all eternity. 8. And were such a personal reprobation intended, is it not shocking to suppose, that the God of endless mercy, in whose sight his pious parents had found favour, should inform them, even before their child was born, that he had absolutely consigned him, by an irrevocable decree, to eternal damnation? A message of such horrid import, coming immediately from the mouth of God, to a tender, weak, and delicate woman, whose hour of travail with two children was just at hand, could not have failed to produce abortion, and destroy her life. But the parents perfectly understood their God, and saw no decree of reprobation in his message; two manner of nations are in thy womb-and the elder shall serve || the younger. 9. There is no reason worthy the most wise and gracious God, why he should make known to the world such a thing concerning Esau, who was yet unborn, that he had reprobated him from all eternity. Such a revelation could be of no spiritual advantage, or of edification to mankind, but rather of a malignant influence, as directly occasioning men to judge hardly of their Maker, and to conceive of him as no faithful Creator; as having no care, no love, no bowels of compassion towards the workmanship of his own hands. See Goodwin's Exposition: and see my Notes on Gen. xxvii.

Verse 14. What shall we say then?] To what conclusion shall we come on the facts before us? Shall we suggest that God's bestowing peculiar privileges in this unequal manner, on those who otherwise are in equal circumstances, is inconsistent with justice and equity? By no means. Whatever God does is right, and he may dispense his blessings to whom, and on what terms he pleases.

Verse 15. For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy, &c.] The words of God to Moses, Exod. xxxiii. 19. shew, that God has a right to dispense his blessings as he pleases; for, after he had declared that he would spare the Jews of old, and continue them in the relation of his peculiar people, when they had deserved to have been cut off for their idolatry; he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee; and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy; and I will have compassion, on whom I will have compassion. As if he had said, I will make such a display of my perfections as shall convince you that my nature is kind and beneficent: but know, that I am a debtor to none of my creatures. My benefits and blessings are merely from my own good will: nor can any people, much less a rebellious people, challenge them as their due in justice or equity. And therefore, I now spare the Jews; not because either you, who intercede for them, or they themselves have any claim upon my favour; but, of my own free and sovereign grace, I chuse to show them mercy and compassion. I will give my salvation in my own way, and on my own terms. He that believeth on my son Jesus, shall be saved; and he that believeth not shall be damned. This is God's ultimate design; this purpose he will never change; and this he has fully declared in the everlasting gospel.

Verse 16. So then, it is not of him that willeth, &c.] I conclude, therefore, from these several instances, that the making or continuing any body of men, the peculiar people of God, is righteously determined; not by the judgment, hopes, or wishes of men; but by the will and wisdom of God alone. For, Abraham judged that the blessing ought, and he willed, desired, that it might be given to Ishmael; and Isaac also willed, designed it for his first-born Esau: and Esau wishing and hoping that it might be his, readily went, ran a hunting for venison, that he might have it regularly conveyed to him: but they were all disappointed; Abraham

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and Isaac, who willed, and Esau who ran: for God had originally intended that the blessing of being a great nation, and distinguished people, should, of his mere good pleasure, be given to Isaac and Jacob, and be confirmed in their posterity; and to them it was given. And when, by their apostasy, they had forfeited this privilege, it was not Moses' willing, nor any prior obligation God was under, but his own sovereign mercy, which continued it to them.

Verse 19. Why doth he yet find fault?] The apostle here introduces the Jew making an objection similar to that in chap. iii. 7. If the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory, that is, if God's faithfulness is glorified by my wickedness, why yet am I also judged as a sinner? Why am I condemned for that which brings so much glory to him? The question here is, if. God's glory be so highly promoted and manifested by our obstinacy, and he suffers us to proceed in our hardness and infidelity, why does he find fault with us? or punish us for that which is according to his good pleasure ?

Verse 17. For the Scripture saith unto Pharaoh] Instead of shewing the Israelites mercy, he might justly have suffered them to have gone on in sin, till he should have signalized his wisdom and justice in their destruction; as ap- Verse 20. Nay but, O man, who art thou] As if he pears from what God in his word declares concerning his || had said-weak, ignorant man, darest thou retort on the dealings with Pharaoh and the Egyptians, Exod. ix. 15, 16. || infinitely good and righteous GOD? Reflect on thyself ; For now, saith the Lord, I had stretched forth my hand, (in || and tell me, after thou hast abused the grace of God, and the plague of boils and blains,) and I had smitten thee and transgressed his laws, wilt thou cavil at his dispensations? thy people with the pestilence; and thou hadst, (by this God hath made, created, formed the Jewish nation: and plague,) been cut off from the earth, (as thy cattle were by shall the thing formed, when it hath corrupted itself, pretend the murrain,) but in very deed, for this cause have I raised to correct the wise and gracious Author of its being ; and thee up. I have restored thee to health, by removing the say, Why hast thou made me thus? Why hast thou conboils and blains, and by respiting thy deserved destruction to stituted me in this manner? Thou hast doue me wrong in a longer day, that I may, in thy instance, give such a demon-giving me my being under such and such conditions. stration of my power, in thy final overthrow, that all manOld John Goodwin's note on this passage is at least kind may learn that I am God, the righteous Judge of curious: "I scarce, (says he,) know any passage of the all the earth, the avenger of wickedness. See this trans-Scripture more frequently abused than this. When men, in lation of the original vindicated in my notes on Exod. ix. 15, 16. And about the hardening of Pharaoh, see the notes on those places where the words occur in the same book. Verse 18. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will]|| This is the apostle's conclusion from the facts already laid down: that God, according to his own will and wisdom, in || perfect righteousness bestows mercy; that is to say, his blessings upon one part of mankind, (the Jews of old, and the Gentiles of the present time;) while he suffers another part, (the Egyptians of old, and the Jews of the present day,) to go on in the abuse of his goodness and forbearance, hardening themselves in sin, till he brings upon them a most just and exemplary punishment.

the great questions of predestination and reprobation, bring forth any text of scripture, which they conceive makes for their notion; though the sense which they put upon it be ever so uncouth and dissonant from the true meaning of the Holy Ghost; yet, if any man contradict, they frequently fall upon him with Nay but, O man, who art thou? As if St. Paul had left them his heirs and successors in the infallibility of his Spirit! But when men shall call a solid answer to their groundless conceits, about the meaning of the Scriptures, a replying against God; it savours more of the spirit who was seen falling like lightning from heaven, than of His, who saw him in this his fall.”

Verse 21. Hath not the potter power over the clay?] The

God bears long with the disobedient,

A. M.cir.4062.

A. D. cir. 58. An. Olymp. cir.CCIX. 2.

CHAP. IX.

b

before he punishes them.

unto honour, and another unto dis- of wrath fitted to destruction :
honour?
23 And that he might make known

A. M. cir. 4062.
A. D. cir. 58.
An. Olymp.
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the riches of his glory on the ves- A.U.C.cir.811. sels of mercy, which he had afore prepared

A.U.C.cir.811. 22 What if God, willing to shew
his wrath, and to make his power known,
endured with much long suffering the vessels unto glory,

a

1 Thes. 5. 9.- b Or, made up.-
.- 1 Pet. 2. 8. Jude 4.

the

Ch. 2. 4. Eph. 1. 7. Col. 1. 27.- - ch. 8. 28, 29, 30.

justice of God inflicted; after he had endured their obstinate rebellion, with much long-suffering: which is a most absolute proof, that the hardening of their hearts, and their ultimate punishment, were the consequences of their obstinate refusal of his grace, and abuse of his goodness; as the

apostle's time had sinned, after the similitude of the Egyptians, hardening their hearts and abusing his goodness, after every display of his long-suffering kindness, being now fitted for destruction, they were ripe for punishment; and that power, which God was making known for their salvation, having been so long and so much abused and provoked, was now about to shew itself in their destruction as a nation. But, even in this case, there is not a word of their final damnation; much less that either they, or any others, were, by a sovereign decree, reprobated from all eternity; and that their very sins, the proximate cause of their punishment, were the necessary effect of that decree, which had, from all eternity, doomed them to endless torments. As such a doctrine could never come from God, so it never can be found in the words of his apostle.

apostle continues his answer to the Jew-Hath not God shewn, by the parable of the potter, Jerem. xviii. 1, &c. that he may justly dispose of nations, and of the Jews in particular; according as he, in his infinite wisdom, may judge most right and fitting; even as the potter has a right, out of the same lump of clay, to make one vessel to a more honour-history in Exodus sufficiently shews. As the Jews of the able, and another to a less honourable use; as his own judgment and skill may direct: for no potter will take pains to make a vessel merely that he may shew that he has power to dash it to pieces. For the word came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, Arise, go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. Then I went down to the potter's house, and behold he wrought a work upon wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay, was marred in the hands of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. It was not fit for the more honourable place in the mansion; and, therefore, he made it for a less honourable place: but as necessary for the master's use there, as it could have been in a more honourable situation. Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in my hand, O house of Israel. At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; if that nation against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. And, at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation—to build and to plant it, if it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then will I repent of the good wherewith I said I would benefit them. The reference to this parable shews, most positively, that the apostle is speaking of men not individually, but nationally; and it is strange that men should have given his words any other application, with this Scripture before their eyes.

Verse 23. And that he might make known] God endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath; 1. To shew his wrath, and to make his power known: And also, 2. That he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy.

Which he had afore prepared unto glory] The Jews were fitted for destruction long before; but the fittest time to destroy them was after he had prepared the believing Gentiles unto glory. For, the Rod of the Messiah's strength was to be sent out of Zion, Psal. cx. 2. The Jewish nation was to supply the first preachers of the gospel; and from Jerusalem their sound was to go forth into all the earth. Therefore, the Jewish state, notwithstanding its corruptions, was to be preserved till the Messiah came; and even till Verse 22. What, if God willing to shew his wrath] The the gospel preached by the apostles, had taken deep root in apostle refers here to the case of Pharaoh and the Egyp- the Gentile world. Another thing which rendered the time, tians; and to which he applies Jeremiah's parable of the when the Jewish polity was overthrown, the most proper, potter and, from them, to the then state of the Jews. was this, because then, the immediate occasion of it was the Pharaoh and the Egyptians were vessels of wrath, persons extensiveness of the divine grace. They would not have the deeply guilty before God; and, by their obstinate refusal of Gentiles admitted into the church of God; but contradicthis grace, and abuse of his goodness, they had fitted them-ed and blasphemed, and rejected the Lord that bought them: selves for that destruction which the wrath, the vindictive thus then, the extensiveness of the divine grace occasioned

The prophets foretold

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ROMANS.

24 Even us, whom he hath called,

An. Olymp, not of the Jews only, but also of the
cir. CCIX. 2.
A.U.C.cir.811. Gentiles?

25 As he saith also in Osee, 'I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved.

26 And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God.

the calling of the Gentiles.

A. D. cir. 58. An. Olymp. cir. CCIX. 2.

27 Esaias also crieth concerning Is- A.M.cir.4052. rael, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of A.U.C.cir.811. the sea, a remnant shall be saved:

28 For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.

29 And as Esaias said before, "Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, 'we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrla.

a Ch. 3. 29.- b Ilos. 2. 23. 1 Pet. 2. 10.
22, 23. ch. 11. 5.

e

Hos. 1. 10.

Isai. 10. Or, the account. Isai. 28. 22. Isai. 1.9. Lam. 3. 22. Isai. 15. 19. Jer. 50. 40.

their infidelity, ver. 33. chap. x. 3. xii. 11, 12, 15, 28, 30. Thus the Jews were diminished, by that abundance of grace which has enriched the Gentiles. And so the grace of God was illustrated; or, so God made known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy-the apostles and primitive believers among the Jews, and the Gentile world, which received the gospel by the preaching of the apostles and their suc

cessors.

shall afterwards come to pass, by calling the Gentiles into it. They, the rejected Jews, which had been the people of God, should become a Lo-ammi, not my people. On the contrary they, the Gentiles, who had been a Lo-ammi, not my people, should become the children of the living God. Again chap: ii. 23. I will sow her (the Jewish church) unto me in the earth, (alluding probably to the dispersion of the Jews over all the Roman empire, which proved a fruitful cause of preparing the Gentiles for the reception of the gos pel,) and, or moreover, I will have mercy upon her, the body of the believing Gentiles, that had not obtained mercy. See Taylor.

Verse 24. Even us, whom he hath called] All the Jews and Gentiles who have been invited by the preaching of the gospel to receive justification by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ; and have come to the gospel feast on this invitation. Verse 25. As he saith also in Osee] It is a cause of not a Verse 27. Esaias also crieth] The apostle pursues his little confusion, that a uniformity in the orthography of the argument, which had for its object the proof that God, for proper names of the Old and New Testaments has not been their infidelity, had rejected the great body of the Jews; preserved. What stranger to our sacred books would sup- and that but a few of them would embrace the gospel, and pose that the Osee above, meant the prophet Hosea? from be saved from that besom of destruction which was now comwhom, chap. ii. ver. 23. this quotation is taken; I will have||ing to sweep them and their state away. Dr. Taylor paramercy on her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to phrases this and the following verses thus: And, that but a them which were not my people, Thou art my people. The small remnant of the Jews shall now be taken into the apostle shews that this calling of the Gentiles was no for-church, is agreeable to former dispensations: for the protuitous thing, but a firm purpose in the Divine mind, which phet Isaiah expressly declares concerning the Israelites, chap. he had largely revealed to the prophets: and by opposing x. 22, 23. Though the number of the children of Israel be the calling of the Gentiles, the Jews, in effect, renounced || as the sand of the sea, (for the promise to Abraham has been their prophets, and fought against God. amply fulfilled,) only a remnant shall be saved: the conVerse 26. And it shall come to pass, &c.] These quota-sumption decreed shall overflow in righteousness. For the tions are taken out of Hosea, chap. i. 10. where (immedi- | Lord God of Hosts shall make a consumption, even determinately after God had rejected the ten tribes, or kingdom of || ed in the midst of all the land. Israel, chap. i. 9. then saith God, call his name Lo-ammi; for Verse 28. For he will finish the work, and cut it short, ye are not my people, and I will not be your God:) he adds, || &c.] These appear to be forensic terms, and refer to the conyet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand clusion of a judicial proceeding;-the Lord has tried and of the sea which cannot be measured nor numbered: and it || found them guilty; and will immediately execute upon them shall come to pass, that in the place in which it was said unto them, ye are not my people; there, it shall be said unto them. ye are the sons of the living God. As if he had said, The decrease of numbers in the church, by God's utterly taking away the ten tribes, (ver. 6.) shall be well supplied by what

the punishment due to their transgressions.

Verse 29. And as Esaias said before] What God designs to do with the Jews at present, because of their obstinacy and rebellion, is similar to what he has done before, to which the same prophet refers, chap. i. 9. Except the Lord

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• Ch. 4. 11. & 10. 20.— ch. 1. 17. ch. 10. 2. & 11. 7. Gal. 5. 4. || Ps. 118. 22. İsai. 8. 14. & 28. 16. Matt. 21. 42. 1 Pet. 2. 6, 7, & tch. 10. 11. Or, confounded.

* Luke 2. 34. 1 Cor. 1. 23.

of Hosts had left us a very small remnant, we should have || received by faith on their part. And so by embracing the been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah: scheme of life, published by the gospel, they are adopted i.e. had not God, who commands and over-rules all the pow-into the family and church of God. Thus the Gentiles are ers in heaven and earth, in mercy preserved a very small called or invited. remnant, to keep up the name and being of the nation, it had been quite cut off and extinct, as Sodom and Gomorrah were. Thus we learn, that it is no new thing with God to abandon the greatest part of the Jewish nation when corrupt; and to confine his favour and blessing to a righteous believing few.

Instead of remnant, sarid, both the Septuagint and the apostle have Tua a seed, intimating that there were left just enow of the righteous, to be a seed for a future harrest of true believers. So, the godly were not destroyed from the land; some remained, and the harvest was in the days of the apostles.

Verse 30. What shall we say then?] What is the final conclusion to be drawn from all these prophecies, facts and reasonings? This, that the Gentiles which followed not after righteousness, &c. This, with the succeeding verses, together with what belongs to the same subject, in the beginning of the following chapter, I have explained at large in the notes on chap. i. 17. to which I must refer the Reader; and shall content myself in this place, with Dr. Taylor's general paraphrase. We may suppose the apostle to express himself to the following effect. Thus I have vindicated the rejection of the Jews, and the calling of the Gentiles, with regard to the divine veracity and justice. Now let us turn our thoughts to the true reason and state of the affair considered in itself. And in the first place; What just notion ought we to have of the calling of the Gentiles, and the rejection of the Jews? I answer, the true notion of the calling or inviting of the Gentiles, is this: whereas they had no apprehension of being reinstated in the privileges of God's peculiar kingdom, and consequently used no endeavours to obtain that blessing; yet nothwithstanding, they have attained to justification, to the remission of sins, and the privileges of God's people:-not on account of their prior worthiness and obedience, but purely by the grace and mercy of God.

Verse 31. But Israel, which followed after] But the Jews who have hitherto been the people of God, though they have been industrious in observing a rule by which they supposed they could secure the blessings of God's peculiar kingdom; yet have not come up to the true and only rule, by which those blessings can be secured.

Verse 32. Wherefore ?] And where lies their mistake? Being ignorant of God's righteousness-of his method of saving sinners by faith in Christ; they went about to establish their own righteousness, their own method of obtaining everlasting salvation. They attend not to the Abrahamic covenant, which stands on the extensive principles of grace and faith; but they turn all their regards to the law of Moses. They imagine that their obedience to that law, gives them a right to the blessings of the Messiah's kingdom. But finding that the gospel sets our special interest in God, and the privileges of his church, on a different footing, they are of fended, and refuse to come into it.

Verse 33. As it is written, Behold I lay in Sion] Christ the Messiah is become a stone of stumbling to them: and thus what is written in the prophecy of Isaiah, is verified in their case, Isai. viii. 14. xxviii. 16. Behold I lay in Zion, i. e. I shall bring in my Messiah, but he shall be a widely dif ferent person from him whom the Jews expect; for whereas they expect the Messiah to be a mighty secular prince, and to set up a secular kingdom, he shall appear a man of sorrows and acquainted with griefs; and redeem mankind, not by his sword or secular power, but by his humiliation, passion and death. Therefore they will be offended at him, and reject him; and think it would be reproachful to trust in such a person for salvation.

And whosoever believeth on him] But so far shall any be from confusion or disappointment who believes in Christ; that on the contrary, every genuine believer shall find salvation: the remission of sins here, and eternal glory hereafter. See the

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