TEXT. 18 And knowest his will, and approvest the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law. 19 And art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness, 20 An instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which hast the form of knowledge, and of the truth in the law. 21 Thou, therefore, which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal? 22 Thou, that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? thou, that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege? 23 Thou, that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law, dishonourest thou God? PARAPHRASE. 18 true God; And thou knowest his will, and hast the touch-stone of things excellent *, having been edu19 cated in the law, And takest upon thee as one, who art a guide to the blind †, a light to the ignorant 20 gentiles, who are in darkness †, An instructor of the foolish †, a teacher of babes †, having an exact draught, and a complete system ‡ of knowledge and 21 truth in the law. Thou, therefore, who art a master in this knowledge, and teachest others, teachest thou not thyself? Thou, that preachest that a man should 22 not steal, dost thou steal? Thou, that declarest adultery to be unlawful, dost thou commit it? Thou, that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege? 23 Thou, who gloriest in the law, dost thou, by break NOTES. 18 * Tà dixpéporla, signifies things excellent, convenient, controverted, or differing. In either of these senses it may be understood here, though the last, viz. their difference in respect of lawful and unlawful, I think may be pitched on, as most suited to the apostle's design here, and that which the jews much stood upon, as giving them one great pre-eminence above the defiled gentiles. 19, 20+"Blind, in darkness, foolish babes," were appellations which the jews gave to the gentiles, signifying how much inferior to themselves they thought them in knowledge. 66 20 + Μόρφωσις, form," seems here to be the same with TúжOs, “form," chap. vi. 17, i. e. "such a draught, as contained and represented the parts and "lineaments of the whole." For it is to be remembered, that the apostle uses these expressions and terms here, in the same sense the jews spoke of themselves, vauntingly, over the gentiles, he thereby aggravating their fault, in judging the gentiles as they did, TEXT. 24 For the name of God is blasphemed among the gentiles, through you, as it is written. 25 For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law: but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncir cumcision. 26 Therefore, if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision? PARAPHRASE. ing of the law, dishonour God? For the name of God is blasphemed amongst the gentiles, by reason 25 of your miscarriages, as it is written, Circumcision indeed, and thy being a jew, profiteth, if thou keep the law: but, if thou be a transgressor of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision; 26 thou art no way better than an heathen. If, therefore, an uncircumcised gentile keep the the moral rectitudes of the law, shall he not be reckoned NOTES. 24 * See 2 Sam. xii. 14, Ezek. xxxvi. 23. 25 Circumcision is here put for "being a jew," as being one of the chief and most discriminating rites of that people. "Profiteth, if thou keep the law;" because a jew, that kept the law, was to have life therein, Lev. xviii. 5. 26 § Tà Sixaipala Te vous, the righteousness of the law." I have taken the liberty to render it, the rectitude of the law, in an appropriated sense of the word, rectitude, in imitation of St. Paul, who uses dinanuala here for all those precepts of the law, which contain in them any part of the natural and eternal rule of rectitude, which is made known to men, by the light of reason. This rule of their actions all mankind, uncircumcised as well as circumcised, had, and is that which St. Paul calls dixaiwμa T E, ch. i. 32. Because it came from God, and was made by him; the moral rule to all mankind being laid within the discovery of their reason, which if they kept to, it was dinalwua, righteousness to them, or they were justified. And this rule of morality, St. Paul says, the gentile world did acknowledge. So that Sinaiwμa To E, ch. i. 32, signifies that rule of right, taken in general; and Sixaμala T vóμe here signifies the particular branches of it contained in the law of Moses. For no other part of the law of Moses could an heathen be supposed to observe, or be concerned in: and, therefore, those only can be the dixanúμala tú vóμe here meant. If we consider the various senses, that translators and expositors have given to this term dixaiwμa, in the several places of St. Paul's epistles, where it occurs, we shall have occasion to think that the apostle used this word with great latitude and variety of significations; whereas I imagine, that, if we carefully read those passages, we shall find, that he used it every where in the same sense, i. e. for that rule, which, if complied with, justified, or rendered perfect, the person, or thing, it referred to. For Example: NOTE. Rom. i. 32. Amaiwμa 8, translated, “the judgment of God," is that rule of right, which, if the heathen world had kept and perfectly obeyed, they had been righteous before God. Rom. ii. 26. Aixaiwμata tỸ véμs," the righteousness of the law," are those precepts of the law of Moses, which, if the uncircumcised, whom he there speaks of, had kept, they had been righteous before God. Rom. v. 16. Eiç Sıxaúpa, “to justification," is to the obtaining of righte ousness. Rom. v. 18. Ai évòs dixanúμalos, "by one righteousness," is by one act, whereby he was justified or completely perfected, to be what he had undertaken to be, viz. the redeemer and saviour of the world. For it was dià walýμator, or, as some copies read it, dià Talhμatos, by his suffering, viz. death on the cross, that he was perfected, Heb. ii. 9, 10, and 14, 15, and v. 7-9, Rom. v. 10, Phil. ii. 8, Col. i. 21, 22. Rom. viii. 4. To Sinaíwμa to voμe, "the righteousness of the law." Here, as Rom. ii. 26, it is that rule of right, contained in the law, which, if a man exactly performed, he was righteous and perfect before God. Heb. ix. 1. Aixaιúμaтa λalpeías, “ordinances of divine service," are those rules, or precepts, concerning the outward worship of God, which, when conformed to, render it perfect, and such as was right and unblameable before God. Heb. ix. 10. Axanúμaтα σαρxòs, "carnal ordinances," are such rules concerning ritual performances, as, when observed, justified the flesh. By these observances, according as they were prescribed, the flesh, or natural outward man, obtained a legal outward holiness, or righteousness; there was no exception against him, but he was freely admitted into the congregation, and into the sanctuary. In the same sense dixaiμará is also used in the Apocalypse. 66 Τὰ δικαιώματα σε ἐφανερώθησαν, thy judgments are made "manifest," i. e. those terms whereupon men are to be justified before God, were clearly and fully made known, under the gospel. Here, as Rom. i. they are called Sixaéμara e, the terms which God had prescribed to men, for their justification. And Rev. xix. 8. Tà diαιúμaтα тwy άyiwv, "the righteousness of the saints," i. e. the performances, whereby the saints stand justified before God. So that, if we will observe it, Sinaíwua is the rule of right; as having God for its author, it is dixaíμa ; as contained in the precepts of the law, it is Sinaiúpara tữ vóμs; as it concerns the external, instituted rites of the levitical worship of God, it is dixanúμara λaтpɛías; as it contains the outward, ¡legal, or ritual holiness of the jews, it is dinαiwμaτa σaprès; as it is in holy men made perfect, it is δικαιώματα ἁγίων. It may not be amiss to take a little notice also of St. Paul's use of the other term here, uos, "law," which he commonly puts for a positive rule given to men, with the sanction of a penalty annexed; and in particular, frequently (sometimes with, sometimes without, the particle) for the law of Moses, without naming what law he means, as if there had been no other law in the world, as indeed there was not any other in St. Paul's notion of the law, from the fall to our Saviour's time, but only the law, given by God to the israelites, by the hand of Moses. Under the gospel the law of Moses was abrogated ; but yet the δικαιώματα το νόμο were not abrogated. The δικαιώμα το Θεό ποτ only stood firm, but was, by the divine authority, promulgated anew, by Jesus Christ, the King and Saviour of the world. For it is of this that he says, "that he is not come to destroy the law, but to fulfil it," i.e. to give it positively and plainly, in its full latitude and extent, and set these dinaiμara tê vóμ in their due light and full force; and accordingly, we see all the branches of it more expressly commanded, and with penalt es more vigorously inforced, on all his subjects, by our Saviour and his apostles, than they were in the law of Moses. TEXT. 27 And shall not uncircumcision, which is by nature, if it fulfil the law, judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law? 28 For he is not a jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh : 29 But he is a jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God. PARAPHRASE. and accounted of, as if he were circumcised, and every 27 way a jew? And shall not a gentile, who, in his natural state of uncircumcision, fulfils the law, condemn thee, who, notwithstanding the advantage of having the law and circumcision †, art a trans28 gressor of the law? For he is not a jew, who is one in outward appearance and conformity, nor is that the circumcision, which renders a man acceptable to 29 God, which is outwardly in the flesh. But he is a jew, and one of the people of God, who is one in an inward conformity to the law and that is the circumcision which avails a man, which is of the heart §, according to the spiritual sense of the law, which is the purging our hearts from iniquity, by faith in Jesus Christ, and not in an external observance NOTES. Thus we see that, by the doctrine of St. Paul and the New Testament, there is one and the same rule of rectitude set to the actions of all mankind, jews, gentiles, and christians; and that failing of a complete obedience to it in every tittle, makes a man unrighteous, the consequence whereof is death. For the gentiles, that have sinned without a law, shall perish without a law; the jews, that have sinned, having a law, shall be judged by that law; but that both jews and gentiles shall be saved from death, if they believe in Jesus Christ, and sincerely endeavour after righteousness, though they do not attain unto it; their faith being accounted to them for righteousness, Rom. iii. 19-24. 27 * "Judge thee." This he saith, prosecuting the design he began with, ver. 1, of showing the folly and unreasonableness of the jews, in judging the gentiles, and denying them admittance and fellowship with themselves, in the kingdom of the Messias. + It is plain that "by nature," and " by the letter and circumcision," are there opposed to one another, and mean the one, a man, in his natural state, wholly a stranger to the law of God revealed by Moses; and the other, a jew, observing the external rites contained in the letter of the law. 21 Vid. chap. ix. 6, 7, Gal. vi. 15, 16. 29 St. Paul's exposition of this, see Phil. iii. 3, Col. ii. 11. PARAPHRASE. of the letter*, by which a man cannot attain life; such true israelites as these, though they are judged, condemned, and rejected by men of the jewish nation, are nevertheless honoured and accepted by God. NOTE. "Letter," vid. ch. vii. 6, 2 Cor. iii. 6, 7, compared with 17. SECT. CHAP. III. 1-31. CONTENTS. IN this third chapter, St. Paul goes on to show, that the national privileges the jews had over the gentiles, in being the people of God, gave them no peculiar right, or better title to the kingdom of the Messias, than what the gentiles had. Because they, as well as the gentiles, all sinned, and, not being able to attain righteousness by the deeds of the law, more than the gentiles, justification was to be had, only by the free grace of God, through faith in Jesus Christ; so that, upon their believing, God, who is the God not of the jews alone, but also of the gentiles, accepted the gentiles, as well as the jews; and now admits all, who profess faith in Jesus Christ, to be equally his people. To clear his way to this, he begins, with removing an objection of the jews, ready to say: "if it be so, as ye "have told us in the foregoing section, that it is the "circumcision of the heart alone that availeth, what 66 advantage have the jews, who keep to the circumci"sion of the flesh, and the other observances of the law, by being the people of God?" To which he answers, that the jews had many advantages above the gentiles; but yet that, in respect of their acceptance with God under the gospel, they had none at all. declares that both jews and gentiles are sinners, both He |