A continuation of the exposition of the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the…

The Syriac renders [Greek or Hebrew] by [Greek or Hebrew] perversus, iniquus, it omitteth [Greek or Hebrew] also as doth the vulgar Latin, but expresseth [Greek or Hebrew] emphatically, [Greek or Hebrew] and that your Love. Other material differences among Translators there is not.

The Syriack renders 〈non-Latin alphabet〉 by 〈non-Latin alphabet〉 perversus, iniquus, it omitteth 〈non-Latin alphabet〉 also as doth the vulgar Latine, but expresseth 〈non-Latin alphabet〉 emphatically, 〈non-Latin alphabet〉 and that your Love. Other material differences among Translators there is not.

For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and the labour of that Love which you have (evidently) showed towards his name, in that you have ministered to the Saints and do minister.

For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and the labour of that Love which you have (evidently) shewed towards his name, in that you have ministred to the Saints and do minister.

The Expositors of the Roman Church do greatly perplex themselves and others in their Comments on this Text. They generally agree in an endeavour from hence to prove the merit of works against Protestants, because the Council of Trent applies this Text to that purpose. And none are more confident herein than our Rhemists, who after their usual Reproaches of Protestants, affirm, That good works are meritorious and the very cause of Salvation, so that God should be unjust if he rendered not Heaven for the same. But they are greatly divided among themselves about the state of the persons and kind of the Works here intended. Some contend that the Apostle speaks to, and of such as were fallen out of a state of Justification into a state of deadly sin. And the works of which it is said that God will not forget them, are those which they wrought in that estate from whence they were now supposed to be fallen. For on the account of those former works, God will spare them and not destroy them. And although there be no present merit in these works, whilst those who wrought them are in a state of deadly sin, yet when they shall be recovered by Penance, these works which were before mortified by their falling from Grace, and so became of no use as to present merit, shall recover their former meritorious virtue, as if they had never been forfeited by deadly sin. This therefore is the sense which these persons would affix unto these words. Where any have been in a state of Justification, and have wrought good works therein, meritorious of Eternal Life, if they fall into deadly sin, they immediately lose all the merit and benefit of those works. But notwithstanding God in his Righteousness keeps the Remembrance of these works, so that when such sinners return again by Penance into their first estate, these works shall revive into a condition of merit. This sense is opposed by others. For they think those mentioned are justified persons, and the Apostle expresseth the merit of their present works, with respect unto the Righteousness of God. The Reader who desires to see such Chaff tossed up and down, may find these things debated in Aquinas, Adamus, Estius, A Lapide, Ribera, Maldonat, de Tena, and others of them on the place.