Grace and Free-will. In what sense God blinds men. 339 11, 8. shall be your judges. For to prevent any one from accusing ROM. the nature of the thing, and not their own temper, he points out those who had obtained it. Hence he uses the word a with great propriety, to shew at once the grace from above and the zeal of these. For it is not to deny freewill that he speaks of their having obtained1 it, but to shew the greatness as by of the good things, and that the greater part was of grace, though Gr. iinot the whole. For we too are in the habit of saying, 'so TUXI and so chanced to get"," and so met with,' when the same gain has been a great one. Because it is not by man's labours, but by God's gift, that the greater part was brought about. And the rest were blinded. 2 chance word See how he has been bold enough to tell with his own voice the casting off of the rest. For He had indeed spoken of it already, but it was by bringing the prophets in as accusers. But from this point he declares it in his own person. Still even here he is not content with his own declaration, but brings Isaiah the prophet in again. For after saying, were blinded, he proceeds; according as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber. Now whence came this blinding? He had indeed mentioned the causes of it before, and turned it all upon their own heads, to shew that it was from their unseasonable obstinacy that they had to bear this. And now he speaks of it too. For when he says, Eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, he is but finding fault with their contentious spirit. For when they had eyes to see the miracles, and were possessed of ears to hear that marvellous Teaching, they never used these as were fitting. And the He gave, do not imagine to mean here an agency, but a permission only. But slumber 33 xaráis a name he here gives to the habit of soul inclinable lit. pierto the worse, when incurably and unchangeably so. For in cing another passage David says, that my glory may sing unto Ps. 30, thee, and I may not be put to slumber; that is, I may not LXX. alter, may not be changed. For as a man who is hushed to slumber in a state of pious fear would not easily be made to Or language.' He has before remarked on the term election as implying an approved character; see on v. 5. p. 330. b So on x. 21, but see on viii. 26. and xi. 22. p. 349. νυξις 12. 340 The Jews bowed down' for ever as foretold. HOMIL, change his side; so too he that is slumbering in wickedness XIX. would not change with facility. For to be hushed to slum Ps. 69, ber here is nothing else but to be fixed and rivetted to a thing. In pointing then to the incurable and unchangeable character of their spirit, he calls it a spirit of slumber. Then to shew that for this unbelief they will be most severely punished, he brings the Prophet forward again, threatening the very things which in the event came to pass. Ver. 9. Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, 22.23. and a stumbling-block. That is, let their comforts and all their good things change and perish, and let them be open to attack from any one. And to shew that it is in punishment for sins that they suffer this, he adds, and a recompense unto them. Ver. 10. Let their eyes be darkened that they may not see, and bow Thou down their back alway. Do these things then still require any interpreting? Are they not plain even to those ever so senseless? And before our words, the very issue of facts has anticipated us in bearing witness to what was said. For at what time have they ever been so open to attacks? at what time such an easy prey? at what time hath He so bowed down their backs? At what time have they been set under such bondage? And what is more, there is not to be any unloosing from these terrors. And this the Prophet hath also hinted. For he does not say only, bow Thou down their back, but, for ever bow Thou down. But if thou art disposed to dispute, O Jew, about the issue, from what hath gone before learn also the present case. Thou didst go down to Egypt; and two hundred years passed, and God freed thee speedily from that bondage, and that though thou wert irreligious, and wentest a whoring with the most baneful whoredom. Thou wert freed from Egypt, and thou didst worship the calf, thou didst sacrifice thy sons to Baalpeor, thou didst defile the temple, thou didst go after every sort of vice, thou didst grow not to know Accommodated to the E. V. Gr. to a deep (often Gen. 2, 21. 15, Ps. 76, 7. In Ps. 30, (al. 29,) 13. the verb is DT, which signifies stillness (from horror or amazement). We speak of being penetrated with horror; here the notion of piercing is taken, and applied to fixing. See Schleusner in xaтavúcsoμæi, 11, 10. τείαν Former judgments on the Jews merciful and short. 341 nature itself. The mountains, the groves, the hills, the Roм. springs, the rivers, the gardens didst thou fill with accursed sacrifices, thou didst slay1 the prophets, didst dig down" the1 Sav. conj.and altars, didst exhibit every excess of wickedness and irreligion. Ms. Still, after giving thee up for seventy years to the Babylonians, He brought thee back again to thy former freedom, and gave thee back the temple, and thy country, and thy old form of polity, and there were prophets again, and the gift of the Spirit. Or rather, even in the season of thy captivity thou wert not deserted, but even there were Daniel, and Ezechiel, and in Egypt Jeremiah, and in the desert Moses. After this thou didst revert to thy former vice again, and wert a reveller therein, and didst change thy manner of life' to the2 Grecian in the time of Antiochus the impious. But even then for a three years and a little over only were ye given up to Antiochus, and then by the Maccabees ye raised those bright trophies again. But now there is nothing of the sort, for the reverse hath happened throughout. And this is ground for the greatest surprise, as the vices have ceased, and the punishment hath been increased, and is without any hope of a change. For it is not seventy years only that have passed away, nor a hundred, nor yet twice as many, but three hundred, and a good deal over, and there is no finding even a shadow of a hope of the kind. And this though ye neither are idolaters, nor do the other audacious acts ye did before. What then is the cause? The reality hath succeeded to the type, and grace hath shut out the Law. And this the prophet foretelling from of old said, And ever bow Thou down their back. See the minuteness of prophecy, how it foretels their unbelief, and also points out their disputatiousness, and shews the judgment which should follow, and sets forth the endlessness of the punishment. For as many of the duller sort, through unbelief in what was to come to pass, wished to see things to come by the light of things present, from this point of time Christ3 gave proof of His power on 3 Ms. either part, by lifting those of the Gentiles who believed God XIX. 342 He favours the Jews so as to rebuke their unbelief. HOMIL. above the heaven, but bringing down such of the Jews as believed not to the lowest estate of desolation, and giving them up to evils not to be ended. Having then urged them severely both about their not believing, and about what they had suffered and were yet to suffer, he again allays what he had said by writing as follows: Ver. 11. I say then, Have they stumbled, that they should fall? God forbid. When he has shewn that they were liable to evils without number, then he devises an allayment. And consider the judgment of Paul. The accusation he had introduced from the prophets, but the allayment he makes come from himself. For that they had sinned greatly, he would say, none will gainsay. But let us see if the fall is so great as to be incurable, and quite preclude their being set up again. But nothing of this sort is possible. You see how he is attacking them again, and under the expectation of some allayment he proves them guilty of confessed sins. But let us see what even by way of allayment he does devise for them. Now what is the allayment? When the fulness of the Gentiles, he says, shall have come in, then shall all Israel be saved, at the time of His second coming, and the end of the world. Yet this he does not say at once. But since he had made a hard onset upon them, and linked accusations to accusations, bringing prophets in after prophets crying aloud against them, Isaiah, Elijah, David, Moses, Hosea, not once or twice, but several times; lest in this way he should both by driving these into despair, make a wall to bar their access to the faith, and should further make such of the Gentiles as believed unreasonably elated, and they also by being puffed up should take harm in matter of their faith, he further solaces them by saying, But rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles. But we must not take what is here said literally, but get acquainted with the spirit and object of the speaker, and what he aimed to compass. Which thing I ever entreat of your love. For if with this in our minds we take up what is here said, we shall not find a difficulty in any part of it. For his present anxiety is to remove from those of the Gentiles the haughtiness which might spring in them from what he had said. For in this 343 The Gospel sent first to the Jews, then to others. way they too were more likely to continue unshaken in the Roм. faith, when they had learnt to be reasonable, as also those of the Jews were, when quit of despair, more likely to come with readiness to grace. Having regard then to this object of his, let us so listen to all that is said on this passage. What does he say then? And whence does he shew that their fall was not irremediable, nor their rejection final? He argues from the Gentiles, saying as follows: Through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy. 9. 24. 26. 46. This language is not his own only, but in the Gospels too the parables mean this. For He who made a marriage feast Mat. 22, for His Son, when the guests would not come, called those in the highways. And He who planted the Vineyard, when Mat. 21, the husbandmen slew the Heir, let out His Vineyard to others. And without any parable, He Himself said, I am Mat. 15, not sent but unto the lost sheep of the House of Israel. And to the Syrophoenician woman, when she persevered, He said somewhat further besides. It is not well, He says, to Mat. 15, take the children's bread, and cast it to dogs. And Paul to those of the Jews that raised a sedition. It was necessary Acts 13, that the word of God should first have been spoken unto you; but seeing ye judge yourselves unworthy, lo, we turn unto the Gentiles. And throughout it is clear that the natural course of things was this, that they should be the first to come in, and then those of the Gentiles; but since they disbelieved, the order was reversed; and their unbelief and fall caused these to be brought in first. Hence it is that he says, through their fall salvation is come to the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy. But if he mentions what the course of things issued in, as if the chief design of Providence, do not feel surprised. For he wishes to solace their down-stricken souls, and his meaning is about this. Jesus came to them; they did not receive Him, though He did countless miracles, but crucified Him. Hence He drew the Gentiles to Him, that the honour they had, by cutting them to the heart for their insensibility, might at least out of a moroseness against others persuade them to come over. For they ought to have been first admitted, and then we. And this was why he said, For it is the power of God unto Rom. 1, 16. |