SECTION LXXI.

'What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death: but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.'-ROM. vi. 21-23.

MANY have insisted, that the death here mentioned is eternal death, or endless misery, not considering the contradiction thus involved, inasmuch as the same persons both endured the death, and enjoyed the life. Of the writers quoted below, the two first understand, by death, the unhappy consequences of sin in the present life, as is evident from their representing the persons, of whom the apostle speaks, as having already endured the evil; the last seems to understand the word to mean an utter extinction of being-annihilation-from which men are to be saved by the grace of God, through Jesus Christ. But neither of them appear to have had the least idea, that the apostle was speaking of torment after death.

1. GILPIN. 'Take then a review of your lives, and consider whether any advantages accrued from sin, which were equivalent to its consequences-whether any of its enjoyments could counterbalance misery and death.Consider, also, whether you have any reason to repent of these new engagements, which lead you, through a life of holiness, to everlasting happiness.' Expos. in loc.

2. DIODATI. 'Consider what was the reward you had of your bondage then; it was nothing but death: therefore, by the lamentable and horrible state that you were in then, you may judge what a happy state you are now brought into, to cleave unto the one, and altogether fly the other.' Annot. in ver. 21.

3. HALLET. 'The wages of sin is death-eternal death in the grave, without hope of a resurrection; but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.' Notes, &c., vol. i. p. 325.

SECTION LXXII.

'As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.'-Roм. ix. 13.

THE time has been, when these words were quoted, as affording incontrovertible proof, that some men are elected to endless happiness, and others reprobated to endless misery. I might quote orthodox testimonies to the contrary almost indefinitely; the following, however, may suffice:

1. HAMMOND.

'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,' &c. Par. in loc.

2. GILPIN. 'It is plain, the everlasting state of Jacob and Esau, as individuals, is not here even hinted at.' Note in loc.

3. WHITBY. 'It is evident that the apostle speaks not here of the persons, but of the nations and posterity, of Jacob and Esau; or, not of them personally, but nationally considered.' Annot. in loc.

4. LOCKE. These words- -are to be taken in a national sense, for the preference God gave to the posterity of one of them, to be his people, and mised land before the other.' Note in loc.

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5. CLARKE. 'It incontestibly appears, from these passages, that the prophet does not speak at all of the person of Jacob or Esau, but of their respective posterities. Now, if the prophet speaks neither of the person of the one, nor of the person of the other, but of their posterity

only, then it is evident that the apostle speaks of them in the same way.' Com. in loc.

SECTION LXXIII.

'What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction.'-ROM. ix. 22.

WHEN the doctrine of election and reprobation was in its glory, this was a very popular proof-text. And now that that doctrine is, as much as possible, kept out of sight, by those in whose creeds it exists, yet the text is often alleged in proof of endless misery in the future life. The following named writers, however, assert, that the apostle had no special reference to individuals, but was speaking of the national rejection of the Jews:

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1. MACKNIGHT. The apostle, by giving the Jews the appellation of vessels of wrath, fitted for destruction, carries on the similitude of the potter, by which he had illustrated God's sovereignty in his dealings with nations, ver. 21. For as a potter, when he finds that a vessel which he hath made does not answer the use he intended it for, casts it from him in anger, and breaks it, and hath a just title so to do-God, in like manner, was about to cast the Jewish nation away, and to destroy it in his displeasure; and he had a right so to do, on account of its idolatries and rebellions, and more especially for their crucifying Christ.' Note in loc.

2. LOCKE. 'The apostle, by the instance of a potter's power over his clay, having demonstrated, that God, by his dominion and sovereignty, had a right to set up or pull down what nation he pleased, and might, without any injustice, take one race into his particular favor, to be his peculiar people, or reject them, as he thought fitdoes, in this verse, apply it to the subject in hand, viz., the casting off the Jewish nation, whereof he speaks here,

in terms that plainly make a parallel between this and his dealing with the Egyptians mentioned, ver. 17,' &c. Note in loc..

3. GILPIN. Suppose God, to make his indignation against sin the more exemplary, hath reserved the impenitent Jews, to be punished in one general or national rejection,' &c. Expos. in loc.

4. CLARKE. 'As the Jews of 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 now 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 show 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.' Com. in loc.

5. WHITBY.What injustice, therefore, is it, in God, to deal with you as he dealt with an hardened Pharaoh, you having as oft refused to hearken to his voice, as Pharaoh did? Or, what if he long hath, and still at present bears with, such vessels of wrath, fitted for destruction, till in a more illustrious manner, and with more signal marks of his displeasure, for thus rejecting the gospel and the promised Messiah, he swallow up their nation, their people, their temple, and their holy city, in one general destruction? Is it not for the glory of the divine power and wisdom, to reserve the rejectors of the Messiah sent to bless them, and the persecutors of the Christian faith, to be at last cut off with such a remarkable destruction, as shall render it visible to the world, that God's indignation is incensed against them for this sin, and so shall give to Jew and Gentile a farther motive to believe in Jesus?' Annot. in loc.

6. GROTIUS. Willing to show his severity and power against the impious Jews, in the judgments executed by the Romans; for the apostle here intends the desolation predicted by Daniel and by Christ.' Annot. in loc.

SECTION LXXIV.

'Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.'-ROM. xiii. 2.

It seems to be a strange notion, that a man should incur endless damnation by resisting the authority of the civil government; yet several of the old commentators, and some among the more recent, have attempted to prove that such is the fact, by the text. Whether any among the orthodox hold this opinion now, or whether they admit, that, in this case, damnation does not imply misery after death-as this word is so often alleged as proof of endless misery, it may be well to quote the opinion of a few commentators in regard to its import.

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1. WHITBY. They shall be sentenced, punished, and condemned for it, by the magistrate, who is a terror to all evil works. So the word krima signifies in these words, fearest not thou God, seeing thou art, en auto krimati, under the same sentence of condemnation by the magistrates, Luke xxiii. 40. See note on chap. v. 16. And to this sense the connexion inclines-he shall receive sentence or punishment (from the rulers,) for rulers are a terror to evil works; if, therefore, thou doest evil, be afraid, for he beareth not the sword in vain, but is an avenger of wrath. Or, if he escape the hands of the magistrate, he shall be punished by that God, whose minister and ordinance the power he resisteth is; this follows from the obligation to be subject, not only out of wrath, but also from conscience towards God. But hence it does not follow that he must be damned, as that imports