3 And thinkest thou 3. And then how is it possible that thou shouldest this, O man, that judge the pure Christian to be a breaker of the law, judgest them which do such things, and and thereupon in a damnable estate, only for not being doest the same, that circumcised, and yet deem thyself safe, when thou art thou shalt escape the guilty of those filthinesses which were most eminently judgment of God? prohibited by the law of circumcision?

4 Ör despisest thou

the riches of his. 4. Or shall God's great patience and longanimity goodness and for- in deferring his vengeance on unbelievers, and his bearance and long- forbearing so long to punish thy sinful course, be cast suffering; not know- away upon thee, be despised and not made use of by ing that the good- thee? Dost thou not consider that all this longsuffering of God to thee is purposely designed to bring thee to 5 But after thy reformation, and if it work not that effect will tend to hardness and impe- thy heavier ruin?

ness of God leadeth

thee to repentance?

nitent heart treasur

Wilt thou thus go on in obdurate resisting of all est up unto thyself God's methods, and be never the better by his deferwrath against the day of wrath and ring these judgments so long, but only to add more revelation of the weight to thy ruin when it comes?

righteous judgment 6. Who shall not consider circumcision or uncircumof God; 6 Who will render cision, but punish or reward every man according to

to every man accord

his actions.

ing to his deeds: 7. To them that by constancy of pure Christian 7 To them who by performances, and by patient bearing of the persecupatient continuance tions that fall upon them for that profession, go on in in well doing seek for glory and honour pursuit of that reward which Christ hath promised to and immortality, e- such, he shall bestow another life upon the loss of this, eternal bliss in the world to come :

ternal life:

8 But unto them 8-10. But to schismatical factious men, which are that are contentious, and do not obey the as it were born and composed and made up of contruth, but obey un- tention, (as the Gnostics are,) that resist the right righteousness, in- way, deny the Christians the liberty of not being cirdignation and wrath, cumcised, and themselves live in all unnatural sins, 9 Tribulation and those that do thus renounce the gospel, and live conanguish, upon every soul of man that trary to the law, to such all judgments must be ex7 doeth evil, of the pected, desolations and destructions here in a most Jew first, and also eminent manner, and eternal misery attending them. of the Gentile; 8 And as the Jew shall have had the privilege to be 10 But glory, ho- first rewarded for his good performances, (as appears nour, and peace, to every man that work- by Christ's being first revealed to him, in whom coneth good, to the Jew sequently and proportionably he shall have all spiritfirst, and also to the ual grace and crown, if he embrace Christ, and live exactly and constantly according to his directions,) so must he also expect to have his punishment and detr uction first, and that a sad one at this present by

9 Gentile :

3 according to, KATά.

4 Or, retribution of: for the 5 patience of the good work, úñоμovýν épyov ȧyaboû. tention, τοῖς ἐξ ἐριθείας.

7 worketh, κατεργαζομένου.

King's MS. reads, avtañodóσews. 6 those that are of, or, from con"EAλnvos, Greek. 9 Greek.

II For there is no

with God.

the Roman armies upon their final rejecting and refusing Christ. The greater his privileges are, the greater also his provocations and his guilt will be. And then the Gnostic also that takes part with the Jew shall bear him company in the vengeance. As for the Gentiles, as they are put after the Jews only (and not left out) in the mercies of God, particularly in the revealing of Christ, so shall their punishments upon their provocations only come after the punishment of the Jews, not be wholly superseded, (and accordingly it is to be seen in the predictions of both their ruins, in the Revelation, the Jewish unbelievers and Gnostics are punished first, and then the Gentiles and carnal Christians with them also.)

11. For God's rewards and punishments are not respect of persons conferred by any uncertain rule of arbitrary favour or displeasure, neither depend they upon any outward privileges or performances, as either having or not having received the law, being or not being circumcised, but are exactly proportioned according to men's inward qualifications or demeanours.

without law: and as

12 For as many as 12. For all those of the Gentile world, who having have sinned without not received the Mosaical law of circumcision, have law shall also perish sinned against that knowledge of God which hath many as have sinned otherwise been afforded them, shall be adjudged to in the law shall be perdition, though not by the law of Moses, (it shall judged by the law; never be laid to their charge that they have not been circumcised,) or though they be punished, yet shall not they have that aggravation of their sin and punishment which belongs to those which have received the law of Moses, they shall only be judged for their not observing the law of nature, (see Theophylact,) the law of Moses being not able to accuse them. And those who having received the law of Moses, and in it the sign of the covenant, circumcision, do not yet live according to it, (such are these unbelieving Jews and Judaizing Gnostics,) all the benefit that they shall reap by their having received the law and circumcision shall be to have that their accuser, by which they may be condemned the deeper, instead of their advocate to plead for them.

but the doers of the

13 (For not the 13. For, to speak to the latter first, (see note [b] hearers of the law Matt. vii.,) it is a dangerous unchristian error to are just before God, think that the hearing or knowing their duty, the law shall be justified. having the law delivered to them, (yea, and the seal of the covenant, circumcision in their flesh,) without conscientious practice of the duties thereof, shall

stand them in any stead; no, it is only the living orderly, according to rule and law, that will render any man acceptable in God's sight.

14 For when the 14. And for the former, it is clear, for when the other Gentiles, which have people of the world, which have not had that revelanot the law, do by tion of God's will and law which the Jews had, do withnature the things contained in the law, out that revelation, by the dictate of their reason, and these, having not the those natural notions of good and evil implanted in law, are a law unto them, (and by those precepts of the sons of Adam

themselves :

bearing witness, and

by parents transmitted to children, and so, without any further revelation from heaven, come down unto them,) perform the substantial things required in the law of Moses, and denoted by circumcision and other ceremonies; this is an argument and evidence that these men do to themselves supply the place of Moses's law.

15 Which shew the 15. And that obligation to punishment, which is work of the law writ- ordinarily caused by the law, these men demonstrate ten in their hearts, themselves to have, without help of the Mosaical law; their conscience also from whence also it is, that as conscience (which, ac[c] their thoughts cording to the nature of the word, is a man's knowing the mean while ac- that he hath done or not done what is by law comcusing or else ex-manded) is constantly witness either for or against cusing one another;) them, that they have done or not done their duty; so

Jesus Christ accord

ing to [d] my gospel.

the general notions and instincts of good and evil that are in them, without any light from the Mosaical law, do either accuse them as transgressors of the law of God, or else plead for them that they have not culpably done any thing against it. From whence it appears to be most just, even by their own confession, that they that have sinned without law, transgressed the law of nature, should also be punished, though they never heard of this Mosaical law, (which was the thing affirmed, ver. 12, from whence to ver. 16 all that hath been said is but a parenthesis.)

16 In the day when 16. And when I speak of perishing and judging, God shall judge the ver. 12, I speak of that doom which shall involve all, secrets of men by both Jews and Gentiles, at that great day, when Christ Jesus, being by his Father seated in his regal power, shall at the end of all come forth again to judge the world, not according to outward privileges or performances, but inward qualifications and demeanours, being, as he is, a searcher of hearts; then shall the Jews be dealt with either in judgment. or mercy, as they have lived or not lived according to

10

for

among themselves either accusing or pleading for them, μεταξὺ ἀλλήλων κατηγορούντων, ἢ καὶ ἀπολογουμένων.

the rules of the Mosaical law, and so the Gentiles also, according as they have obeyed or not obeyed the law of nature. (And this is the very doctrine that hath been taught us by Christ, and by me and others preached to the world.)

17 Behold, thou art 17. And thus shall the process be to the Judaizing [e] called a Jew, and Gnostics, in this or the like form. Thou that callest restest in the law, thyself, or sayest thou art a Jew, though indeed thou and makest thy boast of God, art not; thou that dependest on the outward performances of the law, circumcision, &c. as if justification were to be had by that, and could not be had without it; thou that boastest that God is thy father or favourer in a peculiar manner, because thou adherest so faithfully to his law, even in opposition to Christ's reformations (see note [g] Matt. v.);

18 And knowest his

18. Thou that undertakest to know all the mystewill, and [f] ap- ries of God's will, (and thence art by thyself called a provest the things Gnostic, or knowing person,) and upon examination, lent, being instruct- to approve and practise the highest perfections by the ed out of the law; skill which thou hast in the law of Moses;

that are more excel

19 And art confi- 19. And so by that advantage takest thyself to be dent that thou thy a most knowing person, fit to lead all others, and self art a guide of the blind, a light of despising the orthodox Christians for blind and them which are in ignorant (see note [a] James iii.);

darkness,

the foolish, a teacher

20. Assumest great matters to thyself, as having a 20 An instructor of scheme or abstract of all knowledge and true religion of babes, which hast (see note [c] 2 Peter i.) by the knowledge and underthe [g]form of know- standing which thou hast, and by the glosses which ledge and of the truth thou givest of the law;

in the law.

which teachest an

11

22 Thou that say

21, 22. Thou therefore, I say, that pretendest such 21 Thou therefore zeal to and skill in the law, that art so strict for legal other, teachest thou performances, dost thou commit the same sin thyself not thyself? thou (supposing it stealth, &c.) which thou condemnest in that preachest a others? dost thou that condemnest a Christian for not man should not steal, being circumcised commit the great sin forbidden in dost thou steal? the law of circumcision? This is, as if he that preest a man should tended such a pious respect to the place of God's not commit adultery, worship as not to endure with any patience a false dost thou commit god or idol to be set up in it, should yet so much deadultery? thou that abhorrest idols, dost spise the same place as to rob it of those things that thou commit sacri- are consecrated to it: which sure is as absolute a prolege? faning of any holy place as to set up the most heathen 23 Thou that mak- idol in it. est thy boast of the

law, through break

23. Thou that gloriest in thy zeal to the law, dost ing the law dishon- thou commit the most unlawful practices, and by so ourest thou God? doing bring a reproach on all Christian religion?

11 proclaimest, kηpúσσwv.

24 For the name of 24. For the unbelieving Gentiles, seeing and judgGod is blasphemed ing by your evil lives, are aliened from Christianity, among the Gentiles have an evil opinion of the profession, and of Christ, through you, as it is written. whom you worship, and so those scriptures which mention the dishonour of God's name among the Gentiles, Isaiah lii. 5, Ezek. xxxvi. 20. 23, may fitly be accommodated to you.

25 For circumcision 25. For men that thus live it is madness to think verily profiteth, if that circumcision will stand them in any stead: for thou keep the law: circumcision is a sacrament to seal benefits to them but if thou be a breaker of the law, who are circumcised, if the condition required of them thy circumcision is (that is, the sanctity and purity signified thereby) be made uncircumci- performed also; but if not, there is no special advantage comes to them by being circumcised, that is, by thus complying with the Mosaical law.

sion.

12

26 Therefore if the 26. And by the same reason, if those who are not uncircumcision keep observant of the law, or circumcised, viz. the Christhe righteousness tians of the Gentiles, live those lives of purity and of the law, shall not his uncircumcision sanctity which that sacrament was set to engage men be counted for cir- to, they shall be accepted by God as well as if they had been circumcised.

cumcision?

if it fulfil the law,

27 And shall not 27. And those that having not been circumcised, 13 uncircumcision nor received the law of Moses, (see note [g] Matt. v.,) which is by nature, but only those natural dictates and directions which judge thee, 14 who are common to all men, if they yet do the things com[h] by the letter and manded in the law of the Jews, that is, the moral subcircumcision dost stantial part of it, they shall condemn thee, who being transgress the law? in that legal state, and observing not the sense and meaning, but only the letter of the law, art outwardly circumcised, but dost not perform that purity which that ceremony was set to signify, and to engage all that are circumcised to observe it.

28 For he is not a Jew, which is one 15 outwardly; nei- 28. For he is not the child of Abraham, such as to ther is that circum- whom the promises pertain, who is born of his race or cision, which is 16out- seed, and no more; nor is that the available circumcision which is external, that mark imprinted on the flesh:

ward in the flesh :

29 But he is a Jew, which is one 17 inwardly; and circum- 29. But he is the Jew indeed, the true child of cision is that of the Abraham, (who shall be accepted by God,) though heart, in the spirit, he be not so by birth, who in the purity of the heart whose praise is not performs those substantial laws required by God of 18 of men, but of God. the Jews, and revealed to them more distinctly than

and not in the letter;

13 the uncircumcision which is of na

12 ordinances, dikaiάμaтa: see note [b] ch. viii. ture, ἡ ἐκ φύσεως ἀκροβυστία. 14 which art by, or, with, or, in the letter, &c. a transgressor of the law ? τὸν διὰ γράμματος καὶ περιτομῆς παραβάτην νόμου ; 15 in the visible part,

ἐν τῷ φανερῷ.

16 in the visible part, in the flesh, ev tô pavepŵ èv σаρkí. hidden part, ἐν τῷ κρυπτῷ. 18 from, ¿¿.

17 in the