Romans 9

And as a man that refuses his food murders himself, so he that refuses to work out his salvation does destroy himself. The vessels of mercy are said to be prepared to glory (Romans 9:23) — how are they prepared, but by being sanctified, and that cannot be but in the use of means…

Before I proceed to the questions, I shall lay down three positions: 1. Adoption takes in all nations: At first adoption was confined to the people of the Jews; they only were grafted in to the true Olive, and were dignified with glorious privileges (Romans 9:4). Who are Israeli…

Which of these two is fittest to take place, God's Justice or man's reason? (Romans 9:20) Who are you, O man, that dispute against God? The plumb line of our reason is too short to fathom the depth of God's Justice, (Romans 11:33) How unsearchable are his Judgments!

God's power is a glorious power (Colossians 1:11). 1. It is an irresistible power (Romans 9:19). Who has resisted his will.

Objection. It is said, Christ died for all; he is the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world, (John 1:29). How does this consist with God's truth, when some are vessels of wrath? (Romans 9:22). Answer. 1. We must distinguish of world.

1. It is to be preferred before life; we pray, Hallowed be your Name, before we pray, Give us this day our daily bread. 2. It is to be preferred before salvation (Romans 9:1): God's glory is more worth than the salvation of all men's souls. As Christ said of love (Matthew 22:37)…

Resp. The party baptized has, (1.) an entrance into the visible body of the Church. (2.) The party baptized has a right sealed to the ordinances, which is a privilege full of glory (Romans 9:4). (3.) The child baptized is under a more special providential care of Christ, who app…

(5.) God's will is an irresistible will; we may oppose it, but we cannot hinder it. The rising of the wave cannot stop the ship when it is in full sail; so the rising up of our will against God cannot stop the execution of his will (Romans 9:19). Who has resisted his will?

So likewise on the contrary, darkness and distress of conscience is but a temporal chastisement as outward crosses are, differing from them only in the subject matter — the one being conversant about things of the outward man, this about the inward, namely, a man's spiritual sta…

For the first: Abraham was called, the son of Terah: but neither his father Terah, nor his brother Nahor were called, but Abraham alone. But it may worthily be demanded, why God should not call his Father and his kindred: there can be no answer but this, that the Apostle gives,…

As it is said of Abraham, and in him, of all the faithful; The blessing of Abraham came on the Gentiles, through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the spirit, through faith: Galatians 3.14. Further observe, the Holy Ghost setteth down that particular promise whi…

Nay, such is the power of love to God when it is fervent, that it makes a man so zealous of God's glory, that if there were no other way to glorify God, than by sufferings; the child of God would rather yield himself to endure the torments of the damned, than suffer God to lose…

Saint Paul counted Gold and Pearl but dung for Christ, Philippians 3:8. Yea, he was so inflamed in love to God, that he could have wished himself accursed from Christ, for his Brethren the Jews, Romans 9:3. Not that he could be accursed from Christ; but such was his fervent love…

Hence again we learn, that they which persuade themselves that they are in the favor of God, because they live at ease in wealth and prosperity, are far deceived. For saint Paul says, God suffers with long patience the vessels of wrath prepared to destruction, to make known his…

Oh then what manner of persons ought you to be! You have many eyes over you: the omniscient eye of God that searches the heart and minds (Revelation 2:23); the vigilant eye of Satan (Job 1:7-8); the envious eyes of enemies that curiously observe you (Psalm 5:8); the quick and ob…

For, for one thing to be first wrought in order to another, is a preparation to it. Now says the text, He has wrought us for this thing; and Romans 9:23, it is in terminis, the vessels of mercy, which he had before prepared to glory; which was by working holiness: for it follows…

First, his indisputable sovereignty over them. Romans 9:20: Who are you, O man, who disputes with God? He speaks this in the matters of eternal election and reprobation.

The glorious sovereignty of God is illustriously displayed in two things, his decrees, and his providences. With respect to the first he says (Romans 9:15), I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. Here is no ground of disputing with him; for so it is said, verse 20, Who are…

I will take one of a city, and two of a family, and bring you to Zion, says the Lord; it's two or three in the corner of a parish, or in the end of a town, to speak so, who are converted, and the rest are suffered to lie in black nature. If the reason thereof be inquired after,…

As Christ says (John 6:44), "No man can come to me" — that is, no man can believe in me — "except the Father who has sent me draw him;" yes, why does God find fault with men for their unbelief? For answer, it has been no new thing for men to start questions and objections agains…

For the first, when we say to all that hears this Gospel that there is a necessity of a powerful work of grace before this Word can be profitable, you should 1. Abstain from, and lay aside curiosity in seeking satisfying answers to all these objections that are moved against it,…

There are four qualifications or properties in this doctrine, which will serve to clear it. 1. When we say there is such a decree of election, we say that it is a discriminating or differencing decree; wherein, or whereby there is a taking of some, and not all, a taking of one,…

There is a world of reprobates whom Christ never loved with peculiar love, and sure for these he did not die. Jacob have I loved but Esau have I hated, says the Lord (Romans 9:13), which the Apostle holds forth as a sort of copy of God's dealing in reprobation and election in re…

But to give obedience to the command of believing they mind it not; they can live, and die without it. This was the woeful, and soul-ruining practice of the Jews of old, as we are told, (Romans 9). They took much pains to come by righteousness, but they attained it not, because…

And how is it that many of you win so easily at it? Seeing the Apostle (Romans 9) calls it, a stumbling stone to many, and a rock of offence; surely, [reconstructed: if] it be so, your coming at it by guess, and ignorantly is to be suspected. And therefore on this consideration…

Because, not any Saint on earth can be so united personally to God, as the Son of Man; for he being made of a woman, of the seed of David, the Son of Man, he, and not any but he, is the eternal Son of God, God blessed for ever. The Child born to us, is the mighty God, the Father…

Assertion 2. No man but Pelagians, Arminians, and such do teach that if any shall improve their natural abilities to the uttermost, and stir up themselves in good earnest to seek the grace of conversion, and Christ the wisdom of God, they shall certainly, and without miscarrying…

Arg. 9. The Scripture right down determines this controversy. Romans 9: No man has resisted his will; and It is not in him that wills. Augustine uses three adverbs in the Lord's manner of turning the heart; Omnipotenter, Indeclinabiliter, Insuperabiliter; Omnipotently, Indeclina…

Arminians hold, that the Lord's decree of election of men to glory is general, conditional, incomplete, changeable, while he foresees they have ended their course in the faith, and then peremptorily, and irrevocably, he passes a fixed decree to save such, and not others. We deny…

Also they that were at Jerusalem complained of Peter for that he went into men uncircumcised and did eat with them (Acts 11:3): but when they heard the matter declared by Peter in order as it was done touching Cornelius, they marveled, and glorified God saying (verse 18): Then h…

Therefore we must always believe, and always hope: we must always take hold of Christ as the head and fountain of our righteousness. He that believes in him shall not be ashamed (Romans 9:33). Moreover, we must labor to be outwardly righteous also: that is to say, not to consent…

It seems to reason that it is a matter of small importance. Therefore if the Holy Spirit does not magnify it (Romans 9:23), and add a weight to it, it is contemned.

This glorious boasting then: We are the seed of Abraham, is to no purpose. This argument Paul sets out plainly in Romans 9 by two examples of the holy scripture. The first is of Ishmael and Isaac, which were both the seed and natural children of Abraham, and yet notwithstanding…

Answer: God has given to the Church the power of building, and it has 4 degrees — admonition, suspension from the sacraments, excommunication, anathema. And this last is a censure or judgment of the Church, whereby it pronounces a man severed from Christ and adjudged to eternal…

Answer: Here the Jews are opposed to sinners of the Gentiles: and therefore by the Jews, are meant a holy, and peculiar people. The distinction therefore lies in this, that the one was holy, the other profane: the one in the covenant, the other out of the covenant (Romans 9:4-5;…

Cor 5:17. flesh, and the new creature are opposed. And Paul says, Rom 9:29. He is a Iew, that is a lew within, in the spirit, hauing the circumcision of the heart.

Teachers must show their love, by tendering the salvation of the people by all means, even as their own souls. Paul could have found in his heart to have been accursed for his countrymen the Jews (Romans 9). He desired that he might be offered up as a drink offering upon the sac…

III. Rom. 9. God chose Jacob, and hated Esau: and we must be like to God.

3. for men of the same country. Thus all the Jews are called brethren one to another (Deuteronomy 17:15), From among your brethren shall you make a king over you, and (Deuteronomy 23:19), You shall not give to usury to your brother, and (Romans 9:1), Paul says, he could wish him…

Thus it pleases the Lord to keep his hand in; to the end he may still continue a Church in the world. And Saint Paul also who is the best expositor of this place yields the same reason: for alleging it in the Epistle to the Romans (Romans 9:29), he beats down the insolence of th…

For he takes the midst of the earth for the heart of it, that is to say, for the places most strong and best fortified. Many think the word Consumption should be an adjective: but I had rather affirm that it is a substantive, according to which sense it is taken in Daniel (Danie…

Whereas he puts the whole land for Babylon, he has respect to the largeness of the kingdom, that they might not think to prevent the assaults of the enemies by means of the provinces with which they were environed on every side: indeed, notwithstanding that he shows the calamity…

No question but the Prophets feared the vengeance of God of which they were the Heralds, more than any other: and however they sharply threatened the people as in regard of the person they sustained, yet did they never so cast off the affection of love, but they always had compa…

As often then as they allege a text out of the Old Testament, they diligently retain both the end and use of it. The Apostle alleging this prophecy translated it according to the Greek: Whoever believes, shall not be confounded (Romans 9:33) which agrees with the Prophet: for wi…

In the third place he adds, the seed of Abraham, to teach us, that election depends upon the free promise of God: not that the promise goes before election (which is from everlasting) but because the Lord makes known his favor in respect of his promise: for to Abraham he said, I…

Saint Paul uses the same similitude, but it is in a matter of a higher nature, for he disputes about the point of God's eternal predestination, and manifests men's blind conceits, who reason with God why he has chosen some, and rejected others. Then he shows, that men at the lea…

For mine house shall be called, &c.] The Temple was only destined to the Jews, by whom the Lord would especially be called upon. And therefore when Paul would show that the Jews were above the Gentiles in dignity, he says, that to them belonged the service of God: (Romans 9:4).…

I answer, that the Apostle retains the Prophet's true meaning, Answer. if all be well considered: for the Jews are said to be far off here, because they seemed to be banished out from the house of the Lord: and in this respect their condition was like to that of the Gentiles. Se…

But the Prophet uses a phrase of speech very ordinary. For the Holy Spirit is wont to say, that God causes men to err, hardens, and gives men up into a reprobate mind (2 Thessalonians 2:11; Romans 9:18 and 1:28). Now when the faithful speak thus, they mean nothing less than to m…

So then as well the great, as the small, who had always obstinately resisted God, did yet more licentiously overflow at that time; so as being come to the top, in the day of their destruction, they were wholly forsaken of God, whose Son they had willfully rejected. And from henc…