world, together with other great things that God did in Canaan when the sun stood still, (which was a miracle done in the presence of the whole world,) and Joshua had conquered that land, and multitudes of the inhabitants were driven out, and went some to Africa, to Carthage, and other parts of Africa, and to the isles of the sea, to many parts of Europe as well as Asia, to carry the tidings of those things, and to interpret the miracle of the sun's standing still. So that, in a manner, the whole world heard of these great things. See Deut. ii. 25. "This day will I begin to put the dread of thee and the fear of thee upon the nations that are under the whole heaven, who shall hear report of thee, and shall tremble and be in anguish because of thee." And the memory of these things was kept up a great while among the nations, as appears by the accounts we have of the occasional mention which the neighbouring nations from time to time make of them, till about David's time, when the memory of those things began to be lost among them. And then God did new things to make his people Israel, who had the true religion, taken notice of among the heathen, viz. his subduing all the nations from the Euphrates to Egypt under David, and setting Israel at the head of the greatest empire in the world, in his days and the days of his son Solomon. This there is respect to in many such passages in the Psalms, as that Ps. xcviii. 2, though there be also a prophetic respect to what should be in gospel days and the great wisdom and prosperity of Solomon, and the great things that were done by him, the fame of which filled the world to the utmost bounds of it, though by that time God had enlarged the bounds of their habitation. That one design of Providence in these things was, that the heathen nations might hear the fame of the God of Israel, and so have opportunity to come to the knowledge of him, is confirmed by 1 Kings viii. 41, 42, 43. The memory of these things kept up the fame of that nation and of their God for several hundred years. They were remembered until the Jews were carried captive into Babylon, as appears by the mention that the enemies of the Jews make of them in their letter to Artaxerxes, and by Artaxerxes' answer in the iv. chap. But then when the memory of these things was decaying, and the bounds of the habitation of the heathen nations was enlarged, God altered the place of the habitation of his people, and carried them to Babylon, the mistress of the world, where some of them, especially Daniel and his three companions, raised the fame of the true God, and caused it to go from thence through the world by the great things he wrought by and for them, and also by what he wrought for Daniel in Persia. After this, the appointed bounds of the Jews' habitation were not the limits of any one land, but they were dispersed all over the world, as they

were very much in Esther's time, when they were a people very famous through the world by what was done respecting them in her time, and afterwards were much more dispersed abroad in the world, and so remained till Christ's time; so that the heathen. world had opportunity by them to have come to the knowledge of the true God.

God appointed the particular place of the habitation of the Jews to be as it were in the midst of the earth, between Asia, Africa, and Europe; and in the great contests there were between the great empires of the world, they were always in the way; and before the days of the gospel, the bounds of the world of mankind seem not to have been near so extensive as since; and particularly it is probable that America has been wholly peopled since. See Isai. xlv. 19. Ezek. v. 5.

[318] Romans i. 16, 17, 18. Justification-Christ's righteousness. "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ," &c." For herein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, The just shall live by faith. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men." In these verses I would note two things:

First. That here, in the beginning of this discourse of his of the wickedness of the whole world, both Jews and Gentiles, which is continued from this place to the 19th 20th, and 21st verses of chap. iii., as well as in the conclusion in that part of the iii. chapter, he manifests his design in it all to be to show that all are guilty, and in a state of condemnation, and therefore cannot be saved by their own righteousness; that it must be by the righteousness of God through Christ received by faith alone. He here in the 17th verse asserts that it is thus only that men have justification, and then in the 18th verse enters on the reason why, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness;" and so goes on setting forth the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men through most of those three first chapters, and then at the end concludes his argument as he began it; that, seeing all are under sin, "Therefore by the deeds of the law shall no flesh living be justified in his sight;" but that it is by the righteousness of God which is by the faith of Christ.

Secondly. I observe that, by the righteousness of God, in this place, cannot be meant merely God's way of justifying sinners, but that hereby is meant the moral, legal righteousness which God had provided for sinners, is evident by two things:

1. It is the righteousness or justice which those that are justified have, by which they are righteous or just; as is evident from

the apostle's selecting that passage of the Old Testament to cite on this occasion, "The Just shall live by faith.”

2. It is evident from the antithesis; for here it is most manifest that the righteousness of God, by which God's people are just in one verse, is opposed to the unrighteousness of men, by which they in themselves are unjust, as is evident from the argument of the apostle in those verses. It is a righteousness that believers are vested with, as is evident from chap. iii. 22, 23. The same is also manifest from the antithesis in that place. The same is manifest both those ways from Philip. iii. 9. The same is very manifest from Rom. x. 3, 4. "For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." The antithesis here makes it evident that by God's righteousness, is meant a righteousness, in having which we are righteous. And the 4th verse shows that this righteousness was procured for every believer by Christ, as he was subject to the law; "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness;" the natural meaning of which is, that as to what concerns the elect, or them that believe, the Lawgiver, in making the law and establishing it as a rule for them, had respect to Christ only for its being answered. The law that requires righteousness looks to Christ only to produce that righteousness that it requires; "who, of God, is made to be righteousness," and who is "the Lord, our righteousness." I can find no instance in the New Testament where the word reλos, here translated end, is any where used in scripture for final cause, but it seems properly to signify the final term, finishing, or accomplishing; so that the words might be rendered, Christ is the finishing and completing of the law, as to the righteousness it requires, as it respects all them that believe.

There is one place where the same word in the original is used as here, and also speaking of the end of the law, or commandment, that exceedingly confirms this interpretation, viz. 1 Tim. i. 5. "Now the end of the commandments is love;" i. e. the accomplishment or fulfillment of the law; as the same apostle says, "Love is the fulfilling of the law," in this epistle of Romans xiii. 8. 10. So that it is manifest from this place that that righteousness, which this apostle calls the righteousness of God, consists in Christ's fulfilling or answering the law; and therefore that it is the same thing with what we call the righteousness of Christ.

This righteousness of God, which the apostle so often speaks of in the matter of our justification is in Christ. 2 Cor. v. 21. "He was made sin for us, that we might be the righteousness of God in him." "He was made sin," i. e. sin was imputed to

So we

him; and what sin was it? Why that sin that was in us. are made the righteousness of God. But what righteousness of God is it that we are made? Why that which was in Christ our Mediator.

It is not called by the apostle Christ's righteousness; because the righteousness, by which a believer stands just before God, does but in part consist in that which can properly be called Christ's righteousness, for it is only the obedience of Christ that is properly his righteousness. But this is not all that, by which we stand just before God; for, beside this, his sufferings as our atonement were necessary. Without this we are not righteous, but must appear sinful before God, because our old sins would remain. Those sufferings, abating the obedience that was in them, were not in themselves Christ's righteousness, and therefore the scripture does not ordinarily call them so; but calls the whole of the provision made of God as in Christ, for our appearing just, consisting both in his obedience and atonement, God's righteousness and the righteousness of God, which is by the faith of Christ. Chap. iii. 22. See Note on chap. x. 3.

[365] Rom. ii. 29, 30. "But he is a Jew which is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God." That by this last expression, "Whose praise is not of men, but of God," the apostle has respect to the insufficiency of man, to judge concerning him, whether he be inwardly a Jew or no, and would signify that it belongs to God alone to give a voice in that matter; is confirmed by the same apostle's use of the like phrase, in 1 Cor. iv. 5, "Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts, and then shall every man have praise of God. The apostle in the two foregoing verses says, "But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man's judgment; yea, I judge not mine own self, yet am I not hereby justified, but he that judgeth me is the Lord." And again, it is further confirined, because the apostle in this ii. chapter to the Romans, directs himself especially to those that had a high conceit of their own holiness, that made their boast of God, and were confident of their own discerning, and that they knew God's will, and approved the things that were more excellent, or tried the things that differ, as it is in the margin, verse 18, and were confident that they were guides of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness, instructors of the foolish, teachers of babes; and so took upon them to judge others. See verse 1, and 17, 18, 19, 20. These things show that for any to take upon themselves, by only a little occasional con

versation with others, that are professors of godliness, to judge them as hypocrites, unexperienced and unconverted men, is a great error. The same is confirmed by 1 Cor. ii. 15, "But he that is spiritual judgeth [discerneth] all things, but he himself is judged of no man,' or (as it is in the margin) is discerned of no

Every thing in the Christian, that belongs to the spiritual and divine life, is spoken of in scripture as being hidden, known only to God and to himself. His life is said to be hid with Christ in God, but to appear, and to be made manifest at the day of judg ment, when Christ shall appear. Col. iii. 3, 4. Their joy is said to be what others intermeddle not with. Their spiritual food is said to be hidden. Rev. ii. 17. "To him that overcometh, will I give to eat of the hidden manna.” So Christ told his disciples that he had meat to eat, that they knew not of. And their new name, which is the name they have as new creatures, as born again, is said to be what no man knows but he that receives it. Rev. ii. 17. The heart, which is the thing that God looks at, and in which are those spiritual ornaments and graces, by which persons are sincere Christians, is called the hidden mun. 1 Peter iii. 4. "But let it be the hidden man of the heart in that which is not corruptible," &c.

Again: The same is confirmed from that in the parable of the good seed, and the tares, in the xiii. chap. of Matthew, 28, 29, 30th verses. "The servants said unto him, Wilt thou that we go and gather them up? But, he said, Nay, lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and in the time of harvest, I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together, first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn." The servants of the householder can be interpreted of nothing better than ministers, who were represented by Abraham's servant; and by the servants of the householder in the parable of the king, that made a wedding for his son, and sent forth his servants to call guests; and by the servant of the man that made a great supper in the xiv. of Luke; and by the servants of the householder, to whom he committed the care of his family when travelling into a far country; and by the servants of the householder that waited for the coming of their Lord in the xii. chapter of Luke; and by the servant or steward in the same chapter, that gives to every one his portion of meat in due season; and by the servant that beat his fellow-servant; and by the servants of the householder, that dressed and adorned, and fed the returning prodigal, and by the servants that were sent to receive the fruit of the vineyard, Luke xx. The same that were there to take care of the fruit of the vineyard, are those that in