treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.

Observe here, 1. The indulgent carriage of Almighty God towards poor sinners, discovered in the vast expense of the riches of his goodness and bounty upon them, and in the patient exercise of his forbearance and long-suffering towards them. Observe, 2. The gracious end and design of God in this expense of his goodness, and in the exercise of his patience and for bearance; namely, To lead sinners to repentance. The end of goodness is to oblige and engage persons to love and serve their benefactor; this is the most natural and unconstrained consequence that the mind of man can infer from God's bounty and sparing mercy: The goodness of God leadeth to repentance. Observe, 3. The unanswerable and undue returns which sinners make to God for the exercise of so much goodness and forbearance towards them they despise the riches of his goodness and long-suffering. They despise it by being unthankful for it, and not improving of it; and by misimproving or sinning against it, they melt the mercies of God into bullets, and shoot them at the breast of the Almighty. Observe, 4. The sad and fatal consequence of these undue returns made to God by sinners: hereby they treasure up wrath against the day of wrath. As if the apostle had said, "The more patience God expends upon thee, if perverted and abused by thee, the greater wrath is treasured up for thee; which, the longer it has been treasured up, will break forth the more fiercely and violently to consume thee." Observe, 5. The description given by the apostle of the day of judgment; he calls it, a revelation of the righteous judgment of God. The judgment of God is righteous now, but it is not always revealed and openly made manifest now; therefore a time shall come, when there shall be a revelation of his righteous judgment fully. From the whole, note, 1. That the goodness of God is a natural and genuine motive to repentance. 2. That not to be persuaded by, is in God's account to despise, his goodness. Note, 3. That this despising of goodness by delaying our repentance, is the treasuring up of wrath against the day of wrath. As sinners have treasures of sin, so God has treasures of wrath for sinners. Note, lastly,

That the day of judgment will be a day of revelation, a day in which the righteousness of God's proceedings shall be universally manifested and magnified: then will all the divine attributes be conspicuously glorified; his wonderful clemency sweetly displayed; his exact justice terribly demonstrated; his perfect wisdom clearly unfolded; all the knotty intricacies of providence wisely resolved; all the mysterious depths of divine counsels fully discovered; and the injured honour and glory of Almighty God visibly cleared and repaired, to the joyful satisfaction of all good men, and to the dreadful consternation and confusion of the wicked and impenitent world: O how well might the apostle call this day, The revelation of the righteous judgment of God.

8

6 Who will render to every man according to his deeds: 7 To them, who, by patient continuance in welldoing, seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life; But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness; indignation and wrath, 9 Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil; of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile ; 10 But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile; 11 For there is no respect of persons with God.

The apostle in the foregoing verse had given a description of the general day of judgment, which he called a revelation of the righteous judgment of God. Here he acquaints us with the impartiality and uprightness of God in the distribution of rewards and punishments in that day; according to the merits and deserts of men ; Who will render to every man according to his deeds; that is, according to the kind and quality, and according to the measures and degrees, of every man's works. Where note, He doth not say, God will render to every man a reward for his works, but according to his works: works are regulo retributionis, non causa mercedis; "Our works are the rule of God's proceedings, but not the cause of his rewards." Having thus described the impartiality of the judge,

unwritten, the Mosaical law written, and the evangelical law both written and preached, shall lie under greater guilt, and receive a more aggravated condemnation. Christ will exactly proportion every man's hell hereafter to his sin committed here; the greater light we have quenched, the greater darkness will be inflicted, Heb. ii. 3. How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?

13 For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. That is, not the bare hearers of the law shall upon that account be just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified that is, accepted of God as acting suitably to their holy profession. It is notoriously known, the Jews gloried in, and rested upon, their outward privileges for salvation : because they were Abraham's seed, because they were circumcised, because they were employed in reading and hearing of the law, they concluded this sufficient to render them acceptable with God; therefore, says the apostle, not the hearers, but doers of the law, shall be justified; that is, the persons whom God will accept and account righteous for the sake of Christ. Note here, That the doers of the law or word of God are the best hearers, yea, the only hearers in the account of God. Hearing is good, but it must not be rested in a great understanding may a man have by much reading the word and law of God; but a good understanding only have they that do the word and will of God; the praise and fruit of that endureth for ever, Psal. cxi. 10.

a law.

14 For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are unto themselves : 15 Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing, or else excusing one another ;

The sense is, that the Gentiles, which have not the law of Moses promulged, are yet not without a law ingrafted in their consciences; and although they have not a written law, yet are they a law that is, a rule of living, to themselves; doing those

things which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their consciences bearing witness to it, and their natural rea son either accusing or defending of them from it. Learn, 1. That there is a law of nature ingrafted, and written by God in the hearts of men, whereby the common notions of good and evil are found with them. Learn, 2. That this law of nature serveth for the instigation and provocation towards God and man. of men to many good actions and duties 3. That to rebel against, and not walk in conformity unto this ingrafted law of nature, is a God-provoking, and a wrath-procuring sin. That although many of the Gentiles gave themselves over to all manner of uncleanness, yet others showed the works of the law written in their hearts. They showed it two ways: 1. By their temperance, righteousness, and moral honesty; wherein, (to our shame) they excelled many of us who are called christians. 2. In the effi

4.

cacy of their conscience; which as it cleared and comforted them for things well donc, so it witnessed against them, yea, judged and condemned them, for doing evil. And these evidences of a law written on the heart, are every where to be found, wherever men are found: The Gentiles having not a written law, are a law unto themselves, and show the work of the law

written in their hearts.

16 In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men, by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.

As if the apostle had said, If any shall ask, When shall rewards and punishments be distributed to Jew or Gentile? The answer is, In that day when God shall judge the secrets of men's hearts by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel; that is, as my gospel testifies he will most certainly do. Here observe, 1. A fundamental doctrine asserted, That there will be a day of judgment, in which the secrets of all men's hearts shall be judged by Jesus Christ as Mediator. All the thoughts, words, and works of all men, that lived from the beginning of the world, or shall live to the end of the world, will then be produced in judgment; and if so, may we not infer, that the day of judgment must certainly and necessarily take up a vast space of time? For if all records and registers now made shall then be opened and read, and all the witnesses for and against

a man shall be then examined and heard, what a vast space of time then must that great day take up! Some divines are of opinion that the day of judgment may last as long as the world lasted. This we may depend upon, that things will not be huddled up, nor shuffled over in haste; but as sinners have taken their time for sinning, so God will take his time for judging. Observe, 2. The proof and confirmation of this doctrine of a future judgment: According to my gospel; that is, as certainly as I have foretold you of it in the doctrine which I have preached, so certainly shall all men, and the secrets of all men's hearts, be judged by Jesus Christ. But was it not a presumption in St. Paul, to call the gospel his gospel? Answer, He means that he was the publisher, not the author of it; it was God's in respect of authority, St. Paul's in respect of ministry. It was God's in respect of revelation; his only in respect of dispensation.

17 Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God, 18 And knowest his will, and approvest the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law; 19 And art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness, 20 An instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which hast the form of knowledge, and of the truth in the

law:

Here the apostle proceeds in his former argument; namely, to prove that the Jews could no more rationally expect to be justified before God by the law of Moses, than the Gentiles by the law of nature: the apostle allows them all their privileges which they so much doted upon, boasted of, and gloried in; but withal, assures them, that these, all these, yea, more than these, were insufficient to justify them before God. As if the apostle had said, "Thou bearest thyself mightily upon this, that thou art called a Jew, that is, a professor of the true religion, and a worshipper of the true God; thou restest in the law, that is, either in the divineness and perfection of it, or in thy external obedience to it, and in the outward performances of it: thou makest thy boast of God, as a God in covenant

VOL. II.

with thee above all the nations of the earth; and thou knowest his will, having his word and law in thy hands, the oracles of God committed to thee, and the writings of Moses and the prophets alone found with thee; and approvest the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law; that is, thou thinkest that thou hast such a degree of knowledge of God's word and will, that thou canst clearly discern between sin and duty, and compare one duty with another, preferring that which is most excellent: And art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light to them that are in darkness; that is, thou hast a strong conceit that such are the measures of thy knowledge, that thou art able to be a guide to the blind Gentiles, who sit in darkness, and to be a teacher of babes; that is, such as have little or no knowledge in the matters of religion, conceiting, That thou hast the form of knowledge, and of the truth in the law: that is, such a method and measure of divine knowledge as may enable thee to instruct others, whether Gentiles or Jews, which never reached to thy attainments." Jew rested upon, and thought them suffici These external privileges the presumptuous ent to salvation, though he lived loosely, and his practice gave his profession the lie. Hence learn, 1. That persons are exceedingly prone to be proud of and puffed up with church privileges, glorying in the life they are conformed to the spirituality letter of the law, whilst neither in heart nor of the law. Learn, 2. That gifts, duties, and supposed graces, are the stay and staff which hypocrites rest upon, and repose their trust and confidence in: Thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law; that is, in the outward profession of the law, or in an external obedience to the law; the apostle speaks of this their resting in the law, not barely by way of narration, but by way of reproof, telling us not only what they did, but how ill they did in so doing. The duties which Christ has appointed, are the rest and trust of the hypocrites; but Christ himself is the trust and rest of the upright; they desire to be ever acting graces, never trusting to them; to be much in duty, and yet much above duty; much in it in point of performance, much above it in regard of dependence.

21 Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? Thou that preachest, A man should

C

The apostle proceeds to the end of this chapter to convince the Jews, that they were equally in a sinful and wretched condition with the despised Gentiles, and therefore stood in need of Jesus Christ to justify them by his grace as well as they. And because the Jews were so exceedingly apt to dote upon, and rest in, their external privileges, he did in the foregoing verses recount and reckon up the several privileges which they enjoyed; Thou art called Jew, thou makest thy boast of God, &c. But now, in the verses before us, he takes occasion to aggravate their sins committed, from their high privileges and prerogatives enjoyed, because they sinned against light and knowledge, against the convictions of their own consciences, and contradicted the dictates of their minds, as the Gentiles did; but besides all that, rebelled against the precepts of the written word, which was all in their hands. The law of Moses was near in their mouths, but far from their reins; for thus the apostle expostulates the case with them: Thou that teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? Thou that undertakest to be a teacher of, and a guide unto, the ignorant and blind Gentiles, wilt thou not practise thine own instructions; but condemn thyself out of thine own mouth? "Wilt thou, O Jew! (as if the apostle had said) be guilty of theft, adultery, sacrilege, rapine, and murder, sins which the very heathens condemn, and all this while call yourselves the only people of God? Verily, the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you Jews, who pretend to be the favourites of heaven, whilst you do the works of hell." Learn hence, 1. That it is much easier to instruct and teach others, than to be instructed and receive instruction ourselves. Learn, 2. That it is both sinful and shameful to teach others the right way, and to go in the wrong ourselves It is a double

which he

fault in a private person, when his actions run cross to his profession; but it is an inexcusable, if not an unpardonable fault, condemns in others may be justly charged in a teacher, when the crimes upon himself: Thou that teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? Learn, 3. That the name of God suffers much, very much, yea, by none so much as those who preach and press the duties of christianity upon others, but practise them not

themselves.

The name of the Lord is blasphemed by such preachers, the wicked profane world taking occasion from thence to wound the name of God with the poisoned arrows and darts of reproach. The sins of teachers are teaching sins. True, sin strictly speaking cannot injure the name and glory of God. He is above the reach of any mischief that sin can do him: his essential glory is perfect, and can neither be increased nor diminished by the creatures : God can no more be hurt by our sins, than the sun can be hurt by throwing stones into the air, or the moon hurt by the barking of dogs. But his manifestative glory, or the present manifestations of his glory, these are clouded and eclipsed by sin; and therefore God will deal with knowing sinners, especially with such as undertake to be teachers of others, as with those that have blasphemed his name, wounded his glory, trampled upon his honour, and caused his holy ways to be evil spoken of, by reason of their wicked and unholy lives. Lord, let all that administer unto thee in holy things consider, that they have not only their own sins to account for, but also the sins of their people, if committed by their profligate example.

25 For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision. 26 Therefore, if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law,

shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision? 27 And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfil the law, judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law?

It is sufficiently known what great stress the Jews laid upon circumcision; they taught, that this alone was enough to procure the favour of God, and to free them