not to any works of their own, that they are to ascribe their acceptance with God; they would be ready, after the example of the apostle, sometimes to turn, as it were, out of the way, to dwell a little upon a thought, at once so humbling and so reviving ! 1 When St. Paul here places works in opposition to grace, it is plain that he intends, not works simply considered, as the necessary fruit of a true and lively faith, but the merit of works, or meritorious works; and he justly affirms that works, as a title to justification, can be no more works, if they need in any measure the help of grace. This view of the apostle's language is admirably expressed in the following paraphrase of the devout Bishop Hall: If they be elected out of God's free grace, then not out of any merit of their own works; otherwise grace should not be free, but earned, and so no grace at all. But if it be of the merit of works, then it is not of his free grace; for else work should not be work, and not meritorious at all; neither can there be any mixture of the merit of works and the free grace of God, but one of these excludes the other.' 2 This then is the substance of the truth contained in the apostle's declaration; viz. that the same benefit cannot, at the same time, be derived from both; in other words, that grace and works, as causes, mutually destroy each other. Grace,' 1 Doddridge in loc. 2 Bishop Hall in loc. 6 says Augustine, is not grace at all, unless it be altogether gratuitous.' And the more we consider the character of grace and works, the more we must see how utterly incompatible they are one with another. For grace gives a favour which is not due; while works challenge a reward as a debt. The nature of grace is to be free; but the nature of works is to make indebted. Hence it irresistibly follows, (and it is this conclusion which shews the importance of the subject before us,) that if election be merely of grace, corrupt flesh must cease to boast of the merit of works, and all the glory must be ascribed to him, who has "made bare his holy arm for man's salvation ! Taking up the line of his argument again from the fifth verse, where he had said, that even at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace, the apostle thus proceeds; What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded (according as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day. And David saith,6 Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumbling-block, and a recompence unto them; 3 Gratia non est gratia ullo modo, nisi sit gratuita omni modo. *See Note 62. 4 Is. lii. 10. 5 Is. xxix. 10; vi. 9; and Deut. xxix. 4. 6 Ps. Ixix. 22, 23. let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back alway. Behold, in this passage, an affecting representation of the general state of the Jewish nation. Though there was, at that time, a remnant of converted Jews, who, together with the believing Gentiles, had been chosen to be God's peculiar people, what was the state of the great body of that nation? It had happened to them according to the word of prophecy: they were hardened and blinded judicially, in consequence of their impenitence, and their obstinate rejection of all the means employed by God for their conversion. I say, hardened and blinded judicially; for, as I observed in a former section, 8 such is the obvious purport of all those passages in Scripture, which speak of the judgments of God upon the children of men; insomuch that no authority or example can be produced to prove that God did actually harden, or had a will to harden, any but those who had abused his patience, despised his gracious invitations, and perversely chosen to "love darkness rather than light !" As it is so strongly expressed in the first chapter of this epistle, in all such cases God “ gives them up" to follow the devices and desires of their own sinful hearts. 1 Yea, he endures with much long-suffering these "vessels of wrath fitted to destruction ;" 7 Ver. 7-10 . 9 8 Sect. xxix.; and see Jas. i. 13-18. 9 John iii. 19. 2 Chap. ix. 22. and when they have obstinately "put away from themselves" 3 all his mercies, and have "despised the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-suffering,"4 then it is, and not till then, that he judicially abandons them to all the blindness and the hardness of a reprobate mind.” And O, my brethren, how awful is the condition of those who are visited with this judicial blindness of heart! How awful is the state of those whom God, as a just judge, has delivered up to Satan and to their own lusts, to be blinded more and more! To speak in the language of that psalm, to which the apostle here refers, "the very things that should have been for their wealth, are unto them an occasion of falling." 5 Not only does their "table" become " a snare before them," but the very provision made for their souls, as well as their temporal plenty, is, in righteous judgment, made the occasion of their being more deeply ensnared in guilt, and of their sinking under more dreadful condemnation, as the recompence of their unbelief! The light of the gospel still shines around them; but as they have loved "darkness rather than light," and have chosen, therefore, to close their eyes against its beams, their eyes are now darkened, that they cannot see; their senses 3 See Acts xiii. 46. 4 Chap. ii. 4. 5 Ps. lxix. 23. Prayer Book translation. 6 John iii. 19. are locked up in a state of stupor; 7 and their backs are bowed down continually under the yoke of sin and Satan! SECTION XXXIV. CHAP. XI. VER. 11-21. THE REJECTION OF THE JEWS IS NOT FINAL. As I mentioned in the last section, St. Paul shews, in this chapter, that the Jews are not rejected from being God's people, either totally, or for ever. The former of these two propositions is set forth in the first ten verses of the chapter; and we now enter upon the latter proposition, which is to form the subject of this and the following section; viz. that God has not finally cast off his chosen and beloved people. I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy. Considering, in this verse, the end of God's righteous dispensation, in his present 7 The Greek word (kaтavugis) rendered slumber in the eighth vers e, denotes the deadly sleep of a person stung by some poison ous creature. I Ver. 11. |