To understand then the words, we must note▪ first, that1 there is an opposition between [Greek or Hebrew] & [Greek or Hebrew], those two Clauses in the Text, Once, and When the Commandment came. It is the conceit of msome, that the latter as well as the former is meant of a state of unregeneration; and that Saint Paul all this Chapter over speaketh in the person of an unregenerate man; not intending at all to show the fleshliness and adherency of corruption to the holiest men, but the necessity of righteousness by Christ, without the which, though a man may, when once the Commandment comes and is fully revealed, will good, hate sin; in sinning do that which he would ⟨p. 120⟩not consent unto, and delight in the Law, feel a war in his members, mourn and cry out under the sense of his own wretchedness, yet for all this he is still an unregenerate man: an opinion tending directly to the honour of Pelagianism, and advancement of nature, which made Saint Austen in that ingenuous and noble work of hi• retractations to recant it, and in all his writings against the Pelagians (in which, as in other polemical works, where the vigilancy of an enemy, and fear of advantages makes him more circumspect how he speaks, his expositions of Scripture are usually more literal and solid, then where he allows himself the scope of his own conceits.) He still understands those passages, of the complaints of a regenerate man against his inherent3 concupiscence. We are therefore to resolve that the opposition stands thus. Once in my state of unregeneration, I was without the law, that is, without the spiritual sense of the Law, but when the Lord began to reveal his mercy to me in my conversion, then he gave me eye to understand it in its native and proper compass. The Apostle was never quite without the Law (being an Hebrew, and bred up at the feet of Gamaliel) therefore the difference4 between being without the Law, and the coming of the Law, must be only in modo exhibendi; before he had it in the letter, but after it came in its own spiritual shape. And there is some emphasis in the word ca•e, denoting a vital, moving▪ penetrative power, which the Law had by the spirit of life, and which before it had not as it was a Dead letter.
To understand then the words, we must note▪ first, that1 there is an opposition between 〈non-Latin alphabet〉 & 〈non-Latin alphabet〉, those two Clauses in the Text, Once, and When the Commandement came. It is the conceite of msome, that the latter as well as the former is meant of a state of unregeneration; and that Saint Paul all this Chapter over speaketh in the person of an unregenerate man; not intending at all to shew the fleshlinesse and adherency of corruption to the holiest men, but the necessitie of righteousnesse by Christ, without the which, though a man may, when once the Commandement comes and is fully revealed, will good, hate sinne; in sinning doe that which he would ⟨p. 120⟩not consent unto, and delight in the Law, feele a warre in his members, mourne and cry out under the sense of his owne wretchednesse, yet for all this he is still an unregenerate man: an opinion tending directly to the honour of Pelagianisme, and advancement of nature, which made Saint Austen in that ingenuous and noble worke of hi• retractations to recant it, and in all his writings against the Pelagians (in which, as in other polemicall workes, where the vigilancy of an enemy, and feare of advantages makes him more circumspect how he speaks, his expositions of Scripture are usually more literall and solid, then where he allowes himselfe the scope of his owne conceits.) He still understandes those passages, of the complaints of a regenerate man against his inherent3 concupiscence. We are therefore to resolve that the opposition stands thus. Once in my state of unregeneration, I was without the law, that is, without the spirituall sense of the Law, but when the Lord began to reveale his mercy to me in my conversion, then he gave me eye to understand it in its native and proper compasse. The Apostle was never quite without the Law (being an Hebrew, and bred up at thefeet of Gamali•l) therefore the difference4 betweene being without the Law, and the comming of the Law, must be onely in modo exhibendi; before he had it in the letter, but after it came in its owne spirituall shape. And there is some emphasis in the word cae, denoting a vital, moving penetrative power, which the Law had by the spirit of life, and which before it had not as it was a Dead letter.
- 1Ante omnia opu• est Dei Timore ad ipsum converti, ut eius voluntatem cognoscamus—in tantum non vident in quantum hui• secul• vivunt. Aug. de Doctr. Christi. l. 2 c. 5. Deus nos Adiuvat & ut Sciamus, & Am• mus. epist. 143. Non doctrina extrinsecus insonante, sed inte•na, occulta, mirabili, ine•fabili potestate operatur Deus in cordibus hominum & U•ras Revelations & bonas voluntates. de Grat. Christi. c. 24 And elsewhere he recants his opinion, Quod, ut praedicato Eva•gelio con•tiremus, nostrum esset proprium & ex nobis. Adprosper. & Hilar. lib. 1. cap. 3.Ante omnia opu• est Dei Timore ad ipsum converti, ut eius voluntatem cognoscamus—in tantum non vident in quantum hui• secul• vivunt. Aug. de Doctr. Christi. l. 2 c. 5. Deus nos Adiuvat & ut Sciamus, & Am• mus. epist. 143. Non doctrina extrinsecus insonante, sed inte•na, occulta, mirabili, ine•fabili potestate operatur Deus in cordibus hominum & U•ras Revelationes & bonas voluntates. de Grat. Christi. c. 24 And elsewhere he recants his opinion, Quod, ut praedicato Eva•gelio con•tiremus, nostrum esset proprium & ex nobis. Adprosper. & Hilar. lib. 1. cap. 3.
- mSo•. Armin. Tolet. vid. exam. censur. c. 11. fol. 129.So•. Armin. Tolet. vid. •xam. censur. c. 11. fol. 129.
- 3Contr. Ju•. lib. 6. cap. 23. & cont. 2. Epist. Pelag. lib. •. cap. 8. 9. 10. 11.
