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ROM. 111. 8-11.

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evil-doers, they may be ashamed that | with himself, God, I thank thee, that falsely accuse your good conversation I am not as other men are, extortionin Christ. For it is better, if the willers, unjust, adulterers, or even as this of God be so, that ye suffer for well- Publican. I fast twice in the week, doing than for evil-doing, 1 Pet. iii. I give tithes of all that I possess. 16, 17. And the Publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted, xviii. 9-14. For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it ? 1 Cor. iv. 7.

Moreover the law entered that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound, Rom. v. 20. What then shall we say? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? vi. 1. What then shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid, 15. What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet, vii.7. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ, Jude 4.

VER. 9.

Τί οὖν ; προεχόμεθα ; Οὐ πάντως προςτιασάμεθα γὰρ Ἰουδαίους τε καὶ Ἕλληνας πάντας ὑφ ̓ ἁμαρτίαν εἶναι·

What then? a are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;

a Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God, ver. 22, 23. Which say, Stand by thyself, come not near to me: for I am holier than thou. These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day, Isa. lxv. 5. Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him, saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him for she is a sinner, Luke vii. 39. And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a Publican. The Pharisee stood, and prayed thus

For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them, Gal. iii. 10. But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe, 22.

VER. 10.

Καθὼς γέγραπται· Ὅτι οὐκ ἔστι δίκαιος oude siç

As it is written, a There is none righteous, no, not one:

a See on Matt. vii. ver. 11. clause 1. and ix. ver. 12.

VER. 11.

Οὐκ ἔστιν ὁ συνιῶν, οὐκ ἔστιν ὁ ἐκζητῶν Tv ev.

There is a none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.

a Professing themselves to be wise they became fools, Rom. i. 22. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient, 28. The LonD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread, and call not upon the LORD, Psal. xiv. 2, 4. Understand, ye brutish among the people: and ye fools,

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when will ye be wise? xciv. 8. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction, Prov. i. 7. How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge, 22. For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD. They would none of my counsel : they despised all my reproof, 29, 30. When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off the women come, and set them on fire; for it is a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will shew them no favour, Isa. xxvii. 11. For my people is foolish, they have not known me: they are sottish children, and they have none understanding they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge, Jer. iv. 22. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children, Hos. iv. 6. Therefore speak I to them in parables : because they seeing, see not: and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive, Matt. xiii. 13, 14. When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understand eth it not, then cometh the wicked

one,

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and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way-side, 19. For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another, Tit. iii. 3. And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life, 1 John v. 20.

b Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can

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be, Rom. viii. 7. What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what profit should we have, if we pray unto him? Lo, their good is not in their hand: the counsel of the wicked is far from me, Job xxi. 15, 16. For the people turneth not unto him that smiteth them, neither do they seek the LORD of hosts, Isa. ix. 13. Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the LORD, xxxi. 1. Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near, lv. 6. I am sought of them that asked not for me; I am found of them that sought me not I said, Behold me, behold me, unto a nation that was not called by my name, lxv. 1. And the pride of Israel testifieth to his face: and they do not return to the LORD their God, nor seek him for all this, Hos. vii. 10.

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They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, Exod. xxxii. 8. They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one, Psal. xiv. 3. Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions, Eccl. vii. 29. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all, Isa. liii. 6. The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings; they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace, lix. 8. For my peo

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ROM. III. 12, 13.

ple have committed two evils; they bave forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water, Jer. ii. 13. Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others, Eph. ii. 3. For ye were as sheep going astray but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls, 1 Pet. ii. 25.

b And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day, Gen. i. 31. And it repented the Lorb that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the LORD said, I will destroy man, whom I have created, from the face of the earth; both man and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air: for it repenteth me that I have made them, vi. 6, 7. And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, Matt. xxv. 30. Which in time past was to thee unprofitable, but now profitable to thee and to me, Philem. 11.

A. D. 60. | Phil. ii. 12, 13. Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works, Tit. ii. 13, 14. Do not err, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness neither shadow of turning, Jam. i. 16, 17.

VER. 13.

Τάφος ἀνεωγμένος ὁ λάρυγξ αὐτῶν· ταῖς γλώσσαις αὐτῶν ἐδολιοῦσαν· ἰὲς ἀσπίδων ὑπὸ τὰ χείλη αὐτῶν.

a Their throat is an open sepulchre ; with their tongues they have used deceit ; the poison of asps is under their lips:

a For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part is very wickedness; their throat is an open sepulchre, Psal. v. 9. Their quiver is an open sepulchre, they are all mighty men, Jer. v. 16. Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity, Matt. xxiii. 27, 28.

The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity: there is none that doeth good, Psal. liii. 1. For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good and sinneth not, They flatter with their tongue, Eccl. vii. 20. But we are all as an Psal, v. 9. The LORD shall cut off unclean thing, and all our righteous- all flattering lips, and the tongue that nesses are as filthy rags; and we all speaketh proud things. Who have do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, said, With our tongue will we prelike the wind, have taken us away, vail; our lips are our own: who is Isa. Ixiv. 6. For by grace are ye lord over us? xii. 3, 4. The words saved through faith; and that not of of his mouth are iniquity and deceit: yourselves; it is the gift of God: Not of he hath left off to be wise, and to do works, lest any man should boast. good, xxxvi. 3. Thy tongue deviseth For we are his workmanship, created mischiefs; like a sharp razor, workin Christ Jesus unto good works, ing deceitfully, lii. 2. My soul is which God hath before ordained that among lions: and I lie even among we should walk in them, Eph. ii. them that are set on fire, even the sons 8-10. Wherefore, my beloved, as of men, whose teeth are spears and ye have always obeyed, not as in my arrows, and their tongue a sharp presence only, but now much more in sword, ivii. 4. For your hands are my absence, work out your own sal- defiled with blood, and your fingers vation with fear and trembling, For it with iniquity: your lips have spoken is God which worketh in you both to lies, your tongue hath muttered perwill and to do of his good pleasure,verseness, Isa. lix. 3. And they bend

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their tongues like their bow for lies; but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith the LORD. And they will deceive every one his neighbour, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves to commit iniquity, Jer. ix. 3-5. O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things, Matt. xii. 34, 35. Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold how great a matter, a little fire kindleth! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell. For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed, of mankind: But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison, Jam. iii. 5-8.

Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps, Deut. xxxii. 33. Yet his meat in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps within him. He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again: God shall cast them out of his belly. He shall suck the poison of asps the viper's tongue shall slay him, Job xx. 14-16. They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent: adders' poison is under their lips: Selah, Psal. cxl. 3.

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as he delighted not in blessing, so let it be far from him: As he clothed himself with cursing like as with his garment, so let it come into his bowels like water, and like oil into his bones, cix. 17, 18. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be, Jam. iii. 10.

VER. 15.

Οξεῖς οἱ πόδες αὐτῶν ἐκχέαι αἷμα. Their feet are swift to shed blood: a For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood, Prov. i. 16. An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, vi. 18. Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths. The way of peace they know not: and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace, Isa. lix. 7, 8.

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a And Abraham said, Because I in this place; and they will slay me thought, Surely the fear of God is not for my wife's sake, Gen. xx. 11. The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, that there is no fear of God before his eyes, Psal. xxxvi. 1. The fear of the LORD is to hate evil : pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate, Prov. viii. 13. By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the

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a See on chap. ii. ver. 12. clause 2. b God forbid: yea, let God be true, and every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged, ver. 4. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things which are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse, i. 20. Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself ; for thou that judgest doest the same things, ii. 1. He will keep the feet of his saints; and the wicked shall be silent in darkness: for by strength shall no man prevail, 1 Sam. ii. 9. So the poor hath hope, and iniquity stoppeth her mouth, Job v. 16. I know it is so of a truth: but how should man be just with God? If he will contend with him, he cannot answer him one of a thousand, ix. 2, 3. The righteous shall see it, and rejoice: and all iniquity shall stop her mouth, Psal. cvii. 42. That thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord Gon, Ez. xvi. 63. And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither, not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer

A. D. 60. darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, Matt. xxii. 12, 13. And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst, John viii. 9. That no flesh should glory in his presence, 1 Cor.

i. 29.

c What then? Are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin, ver. 9. For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God, 23. Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself: for thou that judgest doest the same things, ii. 1. For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. Gal. iii. 10. But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe, 22.

VER. 20.

Διότι ἐξ ἔργων νόμου οὐ δικαιωθήσεται πᾶσα σὰρξ ἐνώπιον αὐτοῦ· διὰ γὰς νόμου ἐπίγνωσις ἁμαρτίας.

Therefore aby the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

a See on chap. ii. ver. 12. clause 2.

How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman? Job xxv. 4. If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities: O LORD, who should stand? Psal. cxxx. 3. And enter not into judgment with thy servant: for in thy sight shall no man living be justified, cxliii. 2.

What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law, sin was dead. For I was alive without the law once: but when the

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