Romans 3

For they are all gone aside, He exclaims, they are all become useless. There is none that understands, there is not so much as one. With their tongues they have practised deceit, their throat is an open sepulchre, the poison of asps is under their lips, destruction and misery are in their paths, and the way of peace they have not known.

It was for this reason, too, that the Lord descended into the regions beneath the earth, preaching His advent there also, and [declaring] the remission of sins received by those who believe in Him. Now all those believed in Him who had hope towards Him, that is, those who proclaimed His advent, and submitted to His dispensations, the righteous men, the prophets, and the patriarchs, to whom He remitted sins in the same way as He did to us, which sins we should not lay to their charge, if we would not despise the grace of God. For as these men did not impute unto us (the Gentiles) our transgressions, which we wrought before Christ was manifested among us, so also it is not right that we should lay blame upon those who sinned before Christ's coming. For "all men come short of the glory of God," and are not justified of themselves, but by the advent of the Lord,-they who earnestly direct their eyes towards His light. And it is for our instruction that their actions have been committed to writing, that we might know, in the first place, that our God and theirs is one, and that sins do not please Him although committed by men of renown; and in the second place, that we should keep from wickedness. For if these men of old time, who preceded us in the gifts [bestowed upon them], and for whom the Son of God had not yet suffered, when they committed any sin and served fleshly lusts, were rendered objects of such disgrace, what shall the men of the present day suffer, who have despised the Lord's coming, and become the slaves of their own lusts? And truly the death of the Lord became [the means of] healing and remission of sins to the former, but Christ shall not die again in behalf of those who now commit sin, for death shall no more have dominion over Him; but the Son shall come in the glory of the Father, requiring from His stewards and dispensers the money which He had entrusted to them, with usury; and from those to whom He had given most shall He demand most. We ought not, therefore, as that presbyter remarks, to be puffed up, nor be severe upon those of old time, but ought ourselves to fear, lest perchance, after [we have come to] the knowledge of Christ, if we do things displeasing to God, we obtain no further forgiveness of sins, but be shut out from His kingdom. And therefore it was that Paul said, "For if [God] spared not the natural branches, [take heed] lest He also spare not thee, who, when thou wert a wild olive tree, wert grafted into the fatness of the olive tree, and wert made a partaker of its fatness."

We ought not, therefore, as that presbyter remarks, to be puffed up, nor be severe upon those of old time, but ought ourselves to fear, lest perchance, after [we have come to] the knowledge of Christ, if we do things displeasing to God, we obtain no further forgiveness of sins, but be shut out from His kingdom.

"God stood in the congregation of the gods, He judges among the gods." He [here] refers to the Father and the Son, and those who have received the adoption; but these are the Church. For she is the synagogue of God, which God-that is, the Son Himself-has gathered by Himself. Of whom He again speaks: "The God of gods, the Lord hath spoken, and hath called the earth." Who is meant by God? He of whom He has said, "God shall come openly, our God, and shall not keep silence;" that is, the Son, who came manifested to men who said, "I have openly appeared to those who seek Me not." But of what gods [does he speak]? [Of those] to whom He says, "I have said, Ye are gods, and all sons of the Most High." To those, no doubt, who have received the grace of the "adoption, by which we cry, Abba Father."

But the servants would then have been proved false, and not sent by the Lord, if Christ on His advent, by being found exactly such as He was previously announced, had not fulfilled their words. Wherefore He said, "Think not that I have come to destroy the law or the prophets; I came not to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Until heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall not pass from the law and the prophets till all come to pass." For by His advent He Himself fulfilled all things, and does still fulfil in the Church the new covenant foretold by the law, onwards to the consummation [of all things]. To this effect also Paul, His apostle, says in the Epistle to the Romans, "But now, without the law, has the righteousness of God been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; for the just shall live by faith." But this fact, that the just shall live by faith, had been previously announced by the prophets.

I judge it necessary to add to these details also what, by garbling passages of Scripture, they try to persuade us concerning their Propator, who was unknown to all before the coming of Christ. Their object in this is to show that our Lord announced another Father than the Maker of this universe, whom, as we said before, they impiously declare to have been the fruit of a defect. For instance, when the prophet Isaiah says, "But Israel hath not known Me, and My people have not understood Me," they pervert his words to mean ignorance of the invisible Bythus. And that which is spoken by Hosea, "There is no truth in them, nor the knowledge of God," they strive to give the same reference. And, "There is none that understandeth, or that seeketh after God: they have all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable," they maintain to be said concerning ignorance of Bythus. Also that which is spoken by Moses, "No man shall see God and live," has, as they would persuade us, the same reference.

For all things had entered upon a new phase, the Word arranging after a new manner the advent in the flesh, that He might win back to God that human nature (hominem) which had departed from God; and therefore men were taught to worship God after a new fashion, but not another god, because in truth there is but "one God, who justifieth the circumcision by faith, and the uncircumcision through faith."

For it was not merely for those who believed on Him in the time of Tiberius Caesar that Christ came, nor did the Father exercise His providence for the men only who are now alive, but for all men altogether, who from the beginning, according to their capacity, in their generation have both feared and loved God, and practised justice and piety towards their neighbours, and have earnestly desired to see Christ, and to hear His voice. Wherefore He shall, at His second coming, first rouse from their sleep all persons of this description, and shall raise them up, as well as the rest who shall be judged, and give them a place in His kingdom. For it is truly "one God who" directed the patriarchs towards His dispensations, and "has justified the circumcision by faith, and the uncircumcision through faith." For as in the first we were prefigured, so, on the other hand, are they represented in us, that is, in the Church, and receive the recompense for those things which they accomplished.

Thus then does the Lord plainly show that it was the true Lord and the one God who had been set forth by the law; for Him whom the law proclaimed as God, the same did Christ point out as the Father, whom also it behoves the disciples of Christ alone to serve. By means of the statements of the law, He put our adversary to utter confusion; and the law directs us to praise God the Creator (Demiurgum), and to serve Him alone. Since this is the case, we must not seek for another Father besides Him, or above Him, since there is one God who justifies the circumcision by faith, and the uncircumcision through faith.

These men, even as the Gentiles, have been sent forth by Satan to bring dishonour upon the Church, so that, in one way or another, men hearing the things which they speak, and imagining that we all are such as they, may turn away their ears from the preaching of the truth; or, again, seeing the things they practise, may speak evil of us all, who have in fact no fellowship with them, either in doctrine or in morals, or in our daily conduct. But they lead a licentious life, and, to conceal their impious doctrines, they abuse the name [of Christ], as a means of hiding their wickedness; so that "their condemnation is just," when they receive from God a recompense suited to their works.

For both the law and the Gospel are the energy of one Lord, who is "the power and wisdom of God;" and the terror which the law begets is merciful and in order to salvation. "Let not alms, and faith, and truth fail thee, but hang them around thy neck." In the same way as Paul, prophecy upbraids the people with not understanding the law. "Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace have they not known." "There is no fear of God before their eyes." "Professing themselves wise, they became fools." "And we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully." "Desiring to be teachers of the law, they understand," says the apostle, "neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm." "Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned."

For both the law and the Gospel are the energy of one Lord, who is "the power and wisdom of God;" and the terror which the law begets is merciful and in order to salvation. "Let not alms, and faith, and truth fail thee, but hang them around thy neck." In the same way as Paul, prophecy upbraids the people with not understanding the law. "Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace have they not known." "There is no fear of God before their eyes." "Professing themselves wise, they became fools." "And we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully." "Desiring to be teachers of the law, they understand," says the apostle, "neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm." "Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned."

It is indisputable, then, that the Lord is the Son of the Creator. And if, the Creator above all is confessed to be just, and the Lord to be the Son of the Creator; then the Lord is the Son of Him who is just. Wherefore also Paul says, "But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested;" and again, that you may better conceive of God, "even the righteousness of God by the faith of Jesus Christ upon all that believe; for there is no difference." And, witnessing further to the truth, he adds after a little, "through the forbearance of God, in order to show that He is just, and that Jesus is the justifier of him who is of faith." And that he knows that what is just is good, appears by his saying, "So that the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good," using both names to denote the same power.

How, then, is the law still said to be not good by certain heresies that clamorously appeal to the apostle, who says, "For by the law is the knowledge of sin?" To whom we say, The law did not cause, but showed sin. For, enjoining what is to be done, it reprehended what ought not to be done. And it is the part of the good to teach what is salutary, and to point out what is deleterious; and to counsel the practice of the one, and to command to shun the other. Now the apostle, whom they do not comprehend, said that by the law the knowledge of sin was manifested, not that from it it derived its existence. And how can the law be not good, which trains, which is given as the instructor to Christ, that being corrected by fear, in the way of discipline, in order to the attainment of the perfection which is by Christ?

Well, the body tills the ground, and hastes to it; but the soul is raised to God: trained in the true philosophy, it speeds to its kindred above, turning away from the lusts of the body, and besides these, from toil and fear, although we have shown that patience and fear belong to the good man. For if "by the law is the knowledge of sin," as those allege who disparage the law, and "till the law sin was in the world;" yet "without the law sin was dead," we oppose them. For when you take away the cause of fear, sin, you have taken away fear; and much more, punishment, when you have taken away that which gives rise to lust.

And God does not inflict punishment from wrath, but for the ends of justice; since it is not expedient that justice should be neglected on our account. Each one of us, who sins, with his own free-will chooses punishment, and the blame lies with him who chooses. God is without blame. "But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous, who taketh vengeance? God forbid." It is clear, then, that those who are not at enmity with the truth, and do not hate the Word, will not hate their own salvation, but will escape the punishment of enmity.

Wherefore also, to those that ask the wisdom that is with us, we are to hold out things suitable, that with the greatest possible ease they may, through their own ideas, be likely to arrive at faith in the truth. For "I became all things to all men, that I might gain all men." Since also "the rain" of the divine grace is sent down "on the just and the unjust." "Is He the God of the Jews only, and not also of the Gentiles? Yes, also of the Gentiles: if indeed He is one God," exclaims the noble apostle.

One righteous man, then, differs not, as righteous, from another righteous man, whether he be of the Law or a Greek. For God is not only Lord of the Jews, but of all men, and more nearly the Father of those who know Him. For if to live well and according to the law is to live, also to live rationally according to the law is to live; and those who lived rightly before the Law were classed under faith, and judged to be righteous,-it is evident that those, too, who were outside of the Law, having lived rightly, in consequence of the peculiar nature of the voice, though they are in Hades and in ward, on hearing the voice of the Lord, whether that of His own person or that acting through His apostles, with all speed turned and believed. For we remember that the Lord is "the power of God," and power can never be weak.

Perhaps it is such people that the apostle attacks in the epistle to the Romans when he writes: "And not as we are blasphemously accused and some assert that we say, Let us do evil that good may come, an argument which is rightly condemned." These are they who when reading the Bible pervert the sense to their own desires by their tone of voice, and by changing certain accents and marks of punctuation twist words that are wise and useful to conform to their own lusts.

But he had withal said above: "Are we, then, making void the law through faith? Far be it; but we are establishing the law " -forsooth in those (points) which, being even now interdicted by the New Testament, are prohibited by an even more emphatic precept: instead of, "Thou shalt not commit adultery," "Whoever shall have seen with a view to concupiscence, hath already committed adultery in his own heart; " and instead of, "Thou shalt not kill," "Whoever shall have said to his brother, Racha, shall be in danger of hell.

It was once the law; now it is "the righteousness of God which is by the faith of (Jesus) Christ." What means this distinction? Has your god been subserving the interests of the Creator's dispensation, by affording time to Him and to His law? Is the "Now" in the hands of Him to whom belonged the "Then"? Surely, then, the law was His, whose is now the righteousness of God.

'" Such and so great futilities of theirs wherewith they flatter God and pander to themselves, effeminating rather than invigorating discipline, with how cogent and contrary (arguments) are we for our part able to rebut,-(arguments) which set before us warningly the "severity" of God, and provoke our own constancy? Because, albeit God is by nature good, still He is "just" too.

Anger has been prohibited, our spirits retained, the petulance of the hand checked, the poison of the tongue extracted.

Whose grace, if not of that God from whom also came the law? Unless it be, forsooth, that the Creator intercalated His law for the mere purpose of producing some employment for the grace of a rival god, an enemy to Himself (I had almost said, a god unknown to Him), "that as sin had" in His own dispensation "reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto (eternal) life by Jesus Christ," His own antagonist! For this (I suppose it was, that) the law of the Creator had "concluded all under sin," and had brought in "all the world as guilty (before God)," and had "stopped every mouth," so that none could glory through it, in order that grace might be maintained to the glory of the Christ, not of the Creator, but of Marcion! I may here anticipate a remark about the substance of Christ, in the prospect of a question which will now turn up.

Is not all humankind one flock of God? Is not the same God both Lord and Shepherd of all nations?

Tell me, is not all mankind one flock of God? Is not the same God both Lord and Shepherd of the universal nations? Who more "perishes" from God than the heathen, so long as he "errs? "Who is more "re-sought" by God than the heathen, when he is recalled by Christ? In fact, it is among heathens that this order finds antecedent place; if, that is, Christians are not otherwise made out of heathens than by being first "lost," and "re-sought" by God, and "carried back" by Christ.

For the apostle says: "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, `I say, 'at this time His righteousness, that He might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus."

Of the Greek: but glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good."

There is, he says, no distinction between Jews and Greeks, since it is established that all alike have been made subject to sin, as was shown above, and that now the righteousness of God, supported by the testimonies of the law and the prophets, has been given through faith in Jesus Christ alike to all. From the fact that all had been made subject to sin, they were without doubt made strangers also to the glory of God, since they could neither receive it in any way nor merit it. For how would a sinner dare to give glory to God, to whom the Prophet says: "But to the sinner God said: Why do you declare my righteous decrees?" And again another Scripture says: "Praise of God is not comely in the mouth of a sinner."

And for this reason I think the Apostle at once added in what follows: "Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid; rather, we establish the law." Since in the foregoing he seemed to refer everything to faith, he himself sets before himself the objection that could be raised by another, and says: If a man is justified through faith and not from the works of the law, and if God justifies circumcision from faith and uncircumcision through faith, do you then, O Paul, destroy the law of Moses through faith? But answering this himself he says: "God forbid; nay rather, we establish the law," that is, we confirm it. But it is worth the effort to see how he declares that he confirms the law, when in the foregoing he had said that a man is not justified from the works of the law. The Savior says in the Gospels that "Moses wrote of me." Therefore he who does not believe in Christ, of whom Moses wrote in the law, destroys the law; but he who believes in Christ, of whom Moses wrote, confirms the law through faith, because he believes in Christ. And by faith we mean a faith in the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit that is whole, full, and perfect, one that professes nothing divergent, nothing discordant or alien within the Trinity. For Marcion, who says that the God of the law is one and the Father of Christ another, does not by his faith establish or confirm the law, but destroys it. This Ebion also does; and so do all who insert some corruption into the catholic faith. I will also fittingly add this, that everyone who, believing in Christ, acts well and keeps himself from every stain of sin, this man confirms the law of God by living rightly; but he who is driven headlong by the vices of sins, and without any restraint of repentance is defiled by the constancy of his crimes, this man, even if he seems to believe in Christ, does not by his faith establish, but destroys the law. But that objection too seems to me by no means to be passed over, which someone can bring forward, saying that the Apostle appears to write things contrary to himself, since in the present passage he says that the law is not destroyed but confirmed, while in the second Epistle to the Corinthians he writes thus: "But if the ministry of death, engraved in letters upon stones, was made in glory, so that the children of Israel could not gaze upon the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which is being done away, how shall the ministry of the Spirit not be rather in glory?" And a little later: "For if that which is being done away is through glory, much more is that which remains in glory." It can therefore be said that the glory of the face of Moses which is being done away, and this which he says, "For if that which is being done away is through glory," seems contrary to that statement in which he declares: We do not destroy the law through faith, but we establish and confirm it. But see whether we may resolve in this way the difficulty that is put to us. It is not the same thing to say, "We destroy the law," and, the law is destroyed. Paul therefore in the present passage declares this, that he himself does not destroy the law. For even if the law is destroyed by that glory which surpasses it, it is not destroyed by Paul, nor by any other of the saints. Whence the Lord himself also said: "I came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it." No one of the saints, therefore, nor the Lord himself, destroys the law; but its temporal and passing glory is destroyed and overcome by the eternal and abiding glory. Whence see how carefully and how keenly the apostolic Writings must be read. He did not say, "For that which was glorious was not glorified," and then fall silent — otherwise it would seem false (for how would that which is glorious not be glorified?) — but he added: "because of the glory that surpasses it," so as to show that the glory of Moses, that is, of the law, is not destroyed by anyone whatever, but, as we have said, that from the comparison of the greater glory which is in Christ, that glory which is in the law is covered over and darkened; and therefore he says: "For if that which is being done away is through glory, much more is that which remains in glory." He says that the things of Christ remain, and that the things of Moses are done away: but done away not by a man, but from the comparison, as we have said, of the glory that supervenes; since indeed "the law was our schoolmaster unto Christ" until "the fullness of the times" should come; and, just as we say that the work of the schoolmaster is necessary so long as he who is under the schoolmaster is a little child, but that the office of the schoolmaster is done away and is no longer necessary when he who was under the schoolmaster has come to maturity, so we say that the work of the law is now done away "when the fullness of time arrived," and the son who once differed nothing from a servant has been made heir of the father's substance. But that these things which the Apostle calls "to be done away" ought to be understood in this way, learn his usage regarding this word in other places also, where he says: "We know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect shall have come, those things which are in part shall be done away." And in this passage Paul's knowledge or prophecy is said to be done away without any injury to the apostolic grace: namely, so that we may understand that in comparison with things perfect, those things which are imperfect are empty and idle. So therefore in the present discourse Paul indeed does not destroy the law, but confirms it. Yet the glory of Christ, when it has been revealed, by the very comparison of itself which surpasses it, both refutes and convicts that glory which appeared in Moses and by which he had been glorified, and shows that it is not even to be reckoned a glory. Of the same sort is what is said elsewhere: "He must increase, but I must decrease"; and what Paul himself says: "But when I became a man, I did away with the things of a child." This the likeness of the schoolmaster also shows, whose work is done away and ceases when the little child has come to the perfect age. Therefore the Apostle said most cautiously: "Do we then destroy the law through faith? God forbid!" — and he did not say, is the law then destroyed through faith, but, "do we then destroy the law?" And again in what follows: "No; rather, we establish the law." For even if the law is destroyed, it is not destroyed through faith, but through the surpassing glory. But through faith the law is not only not destroyed, but is established and confirmed by the apostles: because the Christ whom the law and the prophets foretold would come, these men proclaim to have come already; and it is assuredly a confirmation of the prophecy or of the law, when the things that had been foretold are shown to have been fulfilled.

“Contrition and misery are in their ways: and the way of peace they have not known.” Here he speaks of a contrition, not that by which the spirit is broken over sins in repentance, whence it is said in the Psalms: “A contrite and humbled heart God does not despise;” but he speaks of that contrition by which sinners are said to break the yoke of the Lord and to cast it from their necks. Similarly “misery” also — or, as it is read elsewhere, “wretchedness” — is to be understood as that by which a man has been made wretched and miserable, who “though he was in honor, did not understand,” but “was compared to the senseless beasts, and became like them.”

“All have turned aside, together they have become useless.” It seems to me that he is not said to have turned aside except one who at some time stood on the straight road. From this it appears that that first work of rational nature, which was made by God, was upright, and was set upon the straight road by the gift of the Creator himself. But because it bent its journey away from this road to the left hand of sin, it is now rightly said to have turned aside — as we have an example in the first man, Adam, who from the straight road of paradise turned aside, through the deceit of the evil-counselling serpent, to the crooked and twisting paths of mortal life. Consequently, therefore, all who come into this world by succession from him have turned aside, and together with him have become useless. On this account I think the Lord too gives a command in the Gospels, that when we have done all the precepts, we should nevertheless remember what we are, and say: “We are useless servants: what we ought to have done, we have done.” For so long as anyone does only that which he owes — that is, the things which have been commanded — he is a useless servant. But if you add something to the precepts, then you will no longer be a useless servant, but it will be said to you: “Well done, good and faithful servant.” And what it is that may be added to the precepts and done beyond what is owed, the apostle Paul states: “Concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord: but I give counsel, as one that has obtained mercy from the Lord.” This is a work beyond the precept. Whoever, then, having fulfilled the precepts, adds this also, that he keep virginity, will no longer be called a useless servant, but a good and faithful servant. And again it is commanded that they who announce the Gospel should live by the Gospel; yet Paul says that “I have used none of these things”; and therefore he was not a useless servant, but a faithful and prudent one. “All,” therefore, “have turned aside, together they have become useless.” To which he added: “There is none that does goodness, there is not so much as one.” A weighty statement, and one that can be established only with difficulty. For how does it seem possible that no one at all, not so much as one, whether among the Jews or among the Greeks, could be found who did goodness? Are we so to believe that there was no one who at some time received a stranger, or gave bread to the hungry, or clothed the naked, or snatched an innocent man from the hands of the powerful, or performed some such good work? It does not seem to me that the apostle Paul wished to assert so incredible a statement: but I think it must be understood in this way — that he denies that anyone has *done* goodness. For example: as if someone should lay the foundations of a house, and build up one or two walls, and even bring in some material, will he be said to have made a house, although he seems to have worked on the house? Rather he will be said to have made a house who has brought each and every part of the whole building to completion. So I think the Apostle here too says that no one has done goodness — that is, that by no one has it been consummated to perfection and in its entirety. But if we ask who is truly good, and who has done goodness perfectly, we shall find him alone who says: “I am the good shepherd”; and again: “The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep.”

After these things, what follows seems indeed to have been joined on with less orderly arrangement; for he says: "But let God be true, and every man a liar, as it is written: That you may be justified in your words, and may overcome when you are judged." Nevertheless, by a certain turn of thought we shall attempt to fit this to what precedes. Although, he says, some of the Jews have not believed, yet concerning their unfaithfulness this must be said, that God alone is true, but every man is a liar: because even if someone is just, it is nevertheless necessary that in some point he fall away from the truth, which it is well-nigh impossible for human nature to preserve in all things. Since, therefore, every man is a liar, on this account certain of the Jews, as lying men, did not believe. For since every man is a liar, necessarily on that day, when the Lord shall come to judgment with men, he alone will be justified in his words. For his words are true in all things, because they are the words of truth. But that the Lord comes to judgment with men, the prophet says: "Come, and let us be judged together, says the Lord"; and: "The Lord himself will come to judgment with the elders of the people"; and again: "Remember thou, and let us be judged, says the Lord." These things the Apostle introduced with an eye to that objection which he sets before himself in another place, where he says: "But if our injustice commends the justice of God." Concerning which we shall inquire when we come to its place. Now, therefore, let us see what it is that he says: "But let God become true, and every man a liar." For thus it stands in the Greek copies. For the Latins read "let him be" (sit) instead of "let him become" (fiat). First, then, this is to be known, that what he said, "let it become," he does not say in the imperative mood. For it is foolish if it be thought that God must be commanded to become true. But just as we say: "Thy will be done, as in heaven, so also on earth"; or, as again we say: "Let peace be made in thy strength"—not commanding, but wishing, nay rather declaring, and so forth, since peace cannot be made except in the power of God—so also here the saying is to be taken as that of one declaring: "But let God become true, and every man a liar." But this too is to be known, that this saying, that is, "Every man is a liar," is taken from the one hundred and fifteenth psalm, where it says: "I said in my ecstasy: Every man is a liar." But here, for the more evident illumination of the Apostle's meaning, let it not seem burdensome to readers if we briefly expound the content of the psalm itself, from which he takes his testimony.

It seems to me, then, that the Prophet is announcing some such meaning as this. Although there are, he says, many doctrines among men, and many philosophize about the search for truth, and although in all these questions the Son of God ought to come first: others indeed, who sought without first believing, did not find; but I, because I believed before I sought, therefore found what I was seeking, and not only found it, but also spoke, and announced to the peoples the truth I had found. Nor yet, having found the truth, was I lifted up in wisdom, nor puffed up in my knowledge; but I was all the more humbled, when I recognized and understood that it is the Lord who teaches all knowledge. Then, considering what things and how many the men — whether among the philosophers or among the rest of the barbarians — have said about truth, and that, though saying much with great labor, they found nothing, because they did not believe before they sought: considering all their sayings or writings, and being placed in an ecstasy of mind, that is, struck with astonishment of heart, because all those volumes of the philosophers, which seemed composed in splendid and dazzling speech, stood far off from the truth, being placed in ecstasy and in astonishment of mind I said: "Every man is a liar." But I, to whom God had shown these things, was not ungrateful, but I pondered and inquired within myself what gift I might render to the Lord in return for this, that the Lord had granted me the knowledge of the truth: yet I understood that that eternal nature, mistress of all things, has need of nothing. Therefore I found one thing only which I ought to offer to God, namely, that I should believe concerning him that he can never receive anything from man, but always give; and therefore I said: "I will take the cup of salvation"; as if I were answering him who says, "Can you drink the cup which I am about to drink?" and I should say: I can, Lord. So then I say: I will willingly and with my whole will take up the cup of your passion; and that I may preserve to the very end the grace of your cup, that is, of your passion, I will not act by my own strength, but "I will call upon the name of the Lord." For precious in your sight is the death which is undertaken for piety and for truth. According to this, therefore, the words "Every man is a liar" are also to be taken in the apostolic sayings, whether of him who trusts in the letter of the law without faith, or of him who glories in doctrines and writings of any kind whatever. But it is objected against us: If every man is a liar, then Paul himself, since he is a man, will be a liar. And David too, who said these things, since he was a man — if every man is a liar, he himself will also be a liar, and this very thing false which he says, "Every man is a liar," since he necessarily pronounces himself a liar along with the rest of men; and if he is a liar, surely what is said by a liar will not be true, namely that "every man is a liar." His statement, then, seems to have fallen into the syllogism which is called *aporos*, that is, "insubstantive" (without substance), which is also called false. But if we return to the inner understanding of Scripture, we shall find that all the prophets or apostles are among those to whom the word of God comes, as it is written: "And the word of the Lord came" to this or that prophet. These, then, to whom the word of God comes, the Lord in the Gospel declares to be not men, but gods. For he says thus: "But if he calls them gods to whom the word of God comes, and the Scripture cannot be broken." Since therefore the word of God came both to David as a prophet and to Paul as an apostle, without doubt they were not men, but gods, to whom the word of God came. Therefore, since they were not men but gods, what he pronounces about the rest of men, to whom the word of God did not come, is true, namely that "every man is a liar." But what follows is likewise taken from the fiftieth psalm, that is: "That you may be justified in your words, and may overcome when you are judged." Now the complete sense in the psalm is set down in this way: "Against you only have I sinned, and done evil before you, that you may be justified in your words, and may overcome when you are judged." And since it is a great digression for us to go back to the beginning of the psalm, for the sake of brevity let us examine only this saying which we have set in the middle; in which at the very outset this explanation seems difficult. For if we follow the history which is written in the title of the psalm, it is there reported that, Uriah the Hittite having been killed, David took his wife. How then does he say, "Against you only have I sinned," when surely he sinned also against Uriah himself, and against his kinsmen, and also against Bathsheba herself and her whole house, upon which he seems to have brought the stain of adultery? But it must be known that the content of a psalm does not always follow the history of its title, as anyone who observes will find in a great many psalms. And to speak by way of example, the title of the seventeenth psalm is: "Unto the end," it says, "for David the servant of the Lord, who spoke the words of this song in the day when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul, and he said." But the content of the psalm contains something far other than the title. For what foundations of the mountains were shaken? Or how was the earth made to tremble, when David was fighting against his enemies? Or where is it recorded that there was darkness under the feet of the Lord? Or where is it indicated that he ascended upon the cherubim and flew, or upon the wings of the winds, and nearly all the rest of the things which in every way disagree with the history of the title? In this manner, then, in the fiftieth psalm also there are things which do not fit according to the history. We must consider whether perhaps mention of the woman was made in the title figuratively, so that under this designation some such woman may be understood as either that valiant woman who is described as having made double cloaks for her husband, or certainly one contrary to her, such as those women who are said to have turned aside the heart of Solomon, so that he built altars to the nations, and idols. And these, when taken allegorically, are not from the divine wisdom, but from those things which are contrary to it, that is, sects alien from God. Such, then, can this wife of Uriah the Hittite also be understood to be — of a man alien from Israel — whom David, stationed on the upper places, beheld washing her uncleannesses in the waters and wishing to wash away her filth, and desired her and took her. But because it was not the will of the Lord that sects alien from the truth of God should be brought into the house of David, her first offspring and first fruit is extinguished, so that by a second progeny a wise king might be born of the foreign woman. But it is a long task to pursue the figures and riddles of these things. Yet that which pertains to the matter we shall briefly pursue. Since, he says, there is much subtlety in the variety of the sects, and since it belongs to no one to know or to judge which meaning is according to God and which is alien from God in the treatises and disputations of the wise, save to God alone, who alone can catch the wise in their own craftiness: therefore "against you only have I sinned, and done evil before you," because all the rest, being as they are natural men, cannot pass judgment on me, who am spiritual, even if I have erred: for "the spiritual man judges all things, but he himself is judged by no one." But since Paul adds "spiritual," and says: "But he who judges me is the Lord" — David too, knowing this, that the Lord alone is the one who judges the spiritual man or the prophet, therefore says: "Against you only have I sinned," by whom alone I can be judged. For man's day cannot judge the spiritual man. And what follows also looks to this sense: "That you may be justified in your words, and may overcome when you are judged." For God is judged in the disputations of the wise, while some think of God in this way, others in another, and each one differently. But he overcomes those who pass judgment on him, when, while all go astray, he himself reveals his own verdict concerning himself, how and in what manner he is to be believed and venerated.

“Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.” Of the venom of asps indeed he did not say that their lips were full. For in that vice perhaps many may be found, yet not many who put forth that venom's poison fully and in its entirety. But to have the mouth filled with cursing and bitterness belongs to very many. For who is of so corrected a mouth that the habit of cursing does not tempt him — I will not say against those who are worthy of cursing, but against those whom the Lord has not cursed, that is, just and innocent men? This is a ready and downhill vice of human frailty, especially toward subordinates and inferiors: so that they no longer think this manner of address to be cursing. And therefore their mouth is said to be full, and cursing is said to flow unceasingly as from a full vessel of the mouth. Yet with this bitterness too is joined, because it is drawn out from the gall of wrath. For it is through wrath and fury that the tongue is driven to cursing. And therefore the same Apostle says: “Bless, and do not curse”; and elsewhere: “Lest any root of bitterness springing up hinder you.”

“And the way of peace they have not known.” Christ is our peace. Therefore the way of peace is the way of Christ. But even if we take it that sinners, since they are always pressed by the wars of the vices, do not know the way of peace, we understand rightly. For the prophet says to the Lord: “Much peace to those who love your name, and there is no stumbling-block for them.” Moreover, that people which was led out of Egypt walked by the way of peace, so as to come to the land of promise and dwell in Jerusalem, which is interpreted “vision of peace,” as the Prophet also says: “His place has been made in peace, and his habitation in Sion.” But more fully does he know the way of peace who presses on toward the dwelling of the heavenly Jerusalem, so as to ascend to the holy city of the living God.

In this Epistle Paul, sitting as a kind of arbiter between the Jews and the Greeks — that is, those who believe from among the Gentiles — so summons and invites both to faith in Christ that he neither gives offense to the Jews by utterly destroying the Jewish rites, nor casts the Gentiles into despair by confirming the observance of the law and the letter; and whether he makes mention of the promises or of the punishments, he divides his word to each people. As, for example, when he says: "But to those who are of contention, and who indeed distrust the truth, but believe iniquity, wrath and indignation: tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that worketh evil, of the Jew first, and of the Greek." This concerns the punishments. But concerning the promises he adds: "But glory, and honor, and peace to everyone that worketh good, to the Jew first, and to the Greek." Again he seems to speak of the Gentiles: "For whosoever have sinned without the law, shall perish without the law." And again of the circumcised: "And as many as have sinned in the law, shall be judged by the law." But again, lifting up the Gentiles, he says: "For when the Gentiles, who have not the law, do by nature those things that are of the law, these, not having the law, are a law unto themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts," and so forth. And again he turns his discourse to the Jews, saying: "But if thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law," and the rest, up to that place where he says: "For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you." And lest he should seem to be excessive in his rebukes of the Jews, he says: "Circumcision indeed profiteth, if thou keep the law." But again, lest he should exalt those who place too much glory in circumcision, he added: "But if thou art a transgressor of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision." And in order to lift up a little also the spirits of those who believe from among the Gentiles, he adds: "But if the uncircumcision keep the just ordinances of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be reckoned for circumcision?" And that he might more strongly raise up the spirits of the Gentiles, and that they might know that they can, if they observe the law more perfectly, even become better than the Jews, he says: "And that which by nature is uncircumcision, fulfilling the law, shall judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision art a transgressor of the law." But since he knew that there are many promises in the Law and the Prophets which seem to be made to the Jews, lest the Gentiles should be able to despair as though they had no fellowship in the promises there recorded, he teaches them that according to the mystical reckoning they too are Jews, and have circumcision. Therefore he says: "For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outwardly in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God."

But since in all these things he had in a certain way made the cause of the Gentiles superior, again, as though meeting the complaints of those who are of the circumcision, he sets before himself the things which are contained in the present chapter, saying: "What then is the advantage of the Jew? or what is the profit of circumcision? Much in every way." If therefore, he says, he "who is a Jew outwardly, and that which is circumcision outwardly in the flesh," is not reckoned as such, "but he who is a Jew inwardly, and circumcision of the heart," which is made "in the spirit," is itself the true circumcision, you will say to me: What is the advantage in those Jews who are reckoned by this appellation? or what profit is held in bodily circumcision? To these things, lest he should seem to have sat as a less than just arbiter between the two peoples, he declares what advantage the Jew has, and that circumcision which is in the flesh, and says that they have much advantage in every way. And what that great advantage is he adds: "First," he says, "because the oracles of God were entrusted to them." For although the oracles of God are now entrusted to the Gentiles also, yet to them, he says, they were entrusted first.

Yet I inquire what it means when it is said that to them first the oracles of God were entrusted: whether he says this of the letters and books, or of the sense and understanding of the law. For we see very many of the Jews always learning from infancy even to old age, and never arriving at the knowledge of the truth: and how will that seem to be true which is said, that they have something more in this, that to them first the oracles of God were entrusted, in which they understand "neither the things which they say, nor the things concerning which they affirm"? But if, according to Solomon, he is called wise who "understands the things that are from his own mouth, and" who "carries understanding upon his lips": these things must be understood as said of Moses and the prophets, and the rest like them, to whom the oracles of God were entrusted, since it cannot be doubted that they too were Jews and had circumcision: but also, if there was among them any wise man, and understanding hearer, and wonderful counselor, whom the Lord is said to take away from Jerusalem, being offended at the impieties of the people. For thus says Isaiah: "Behold the sovereign Lord of Sabaoth shall take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the strong and the mighty"; and after a little: "And the prophet," he says, "and the diviner, and the elder, and the captain of fifty, and the wonderful counselor, and the wise architect, and the prudent hearer." To such as these, then, it must be judged that the divine oracles were first entrusted, and in these it must be confessed that there was much advantage in every way; but also if there were any others like these, as the Apostle recalls what is written in the books of Kingdoms: "I have left me seven thousand men, who have not bowed their knees before Baal." But the apostles of Christ themselves also, and Paul himself, the vessel of election, coming from the Jews and from the circumcision, had an advantage in every way over those whom he taught from among the Gentiles. For the oracles of God were entrusted to them.

But this very thing also which he says, "Because the oracles of God were entrusted to them," must be considered: that he did not say that the letters were entrusted, but "the oracles of God." Whence a way is given us of understanding that to those who read and do not understand, and who read and do not believe, the letter alone has been entrusted, that letter of which the Apostle says that "the letter killeth": but the oracles of God have been entrusted to those who, understanding and believing the things which Moses wrote, believe also in Christ, as the Lord also says: "But if you had believed Moses himself, you would surely have believed me also: for he wrote of me." But be it so: let the Jew have an advantage in the letters, let him have something also in the oracles of God: have those who come from among the Gentiles to Christ been utterly abandoned? or is there also for them a place where they have something more?

Hear the Lord saying to the centurion, a believer from among the Gentiles: "Amen I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such faith." See therefore how much more the Gentiles have when it comes to faith; concerning whom the Lord says in another place: "For they shall come from the east and the west, and from the four winds of the earth, and shall recline with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of God: but the sons of the kingdom shall be cast out into the outer darkness." Where, then, it is a question of laws and letters, the Jews have more, "much in every way"; but where it is a question of faith, so that I may speak by way of comparison, the Gentiles have more, "much in every way." It must indeed be asked whether it is also to be said of the Samaritans that to them first the oracles of God were entrusted, since indeed even among them the law of Moses appears to be kept. But of them I would say that not even that letter itself which is said to kill was entrusted to them. For the prophet says of them: "Woe to those who despise Mount Zion, and who trust in the mountain of Samaria"; for they indeed make themselves strangers to "the writings of God," repudiating the prophets. But neither of the heretics, who speak iniquity against the Most High, and who by their impiety divide the unity of the Godhead, and who separate the law from the Gospels, would I say that the oracles of God have been entrusted to them, merely on the ground that the divine volumes appear to be read among them; but since they perceive nothing spiritual in them, nothing worthy of God, I would say that among them only that letter which kills has a place. But if perchance the Jews are unwilling to accept the judgment of our Apostle, which says that "the letter" of the law "kills," and think that an injury is done to the law if it seems to be despised according to the letter, let us return to Moses himself, and let us see how great he himself made the letter of the law; who, when he had received the stone tablets inscribed by the finger of God, paid such honor to the letter of the law that he cast the tablets from his hands, and shattered tablets written indeed by the finger of God, and yet was not on this account charged with the fault of impiety. You see, therefore, that not Paul alone despises the letter of the law, but long before him Moses both despised, and cast away, and ground to pieces the letters of the law, doubtless signifying even then this, that the honor and the power of the law lay not in the letters, but in the spirit. But also the Lord in the Gospel, when he says, speaking to the Jews: "The kingdom of God shall be taken away from you, and shall be given to a nation producing its fruit"—I think that he called the meaning of the law the kingdom of God, which was taken away from the Jews, only the letters of the law remaining with them, and was given to the Gentiles, who are able through faith to produce the fruit of the spirit. Since these things are so, why are we so cowardly and slothful that we do not at last, having cast off all malice, hasten with simplicity and purity of heart to receive the oracles of God, and to grasp from them the mind of Christ, seeing that we hear that in them is the kingdom of God? Certainly let each one, according to his strength, take in what oracles of God he can; and if he is fit for solid food, let him receive those oracles of God which are the wisdom that the Apostle speaks among the perfect. But he who is not yet fit for this, let him receive the oracles of God in which he recognizes nothing more than Christ Jesus, and him crucified. He who cannot do even this, let him receive the oracles of God in such a way that he uses milk and not strong food. But if he is still weak in faith, let him take the oracles of God in vegetables. Only let us all alike know that "the oracles of God" are "chaste oracles," and "silver tried by fire, proved of the earth, purified sevenfold": that is, that in chastity and in holiness of heart and body we may keep the divine oracles.

After these things is added: “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” If there be anyone who always thinks upon the fear of God, who inquires what pleases him and what displeases him, of such a one it is said that the fear of God is before his eyes. But he ought to be skilled and diligently instructed from the law of the Lord, lest perhaps he fear there with fear where fear will not be necessary. Therefore the fear of God is always to be set before the eyes: not these eyes of the flesh (for neither is anything visible or bodily sought), but before the eyes of the mind; by which both the understanding and the teaching of the fear of God are discerned, through which, as we said above, it may be understood what is to be feared or what is not to be feared. He who fears God does not fear the powers of the world. And why do I speak of the powers of the world? He fears neither those principalities, and powers, and rulers of this world, nor the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. And that we may confirm this by the authority of Paul himself, hear how he speaks of human powers: “Do you wish,” he says, “not to fear the power? Do what is good, and you will have praise from it.” And the Prophet says: “The Lord is my helper, I will not fear what man may do to me.” But concerning the adverse powers of the spirits the same Prophet seems to me to have thought, where he says: “Many who war against me from on high shall fear by day;” and again: “If camps stand against me, my heart shall not fear.” It is therefore a great and magnificent work always to have before the eyes of the heart the fear of God: that fear which filled the rod that arose from the root of Jesse, and the flower which arose from his root: concerning which he had said: “And the spirit of the fear of the Lord shall fill him.” And the fear of God renders a man perfect to such a degree that nothing is lacking to him, as the Prophet says, because “nothing is lacking to those who fear him.” These things, as far as we were able, we have fitted to each several point which had been taken up by Paul, showing how they would seem to agree with those of whom he says: “For we have charged that Jews and Greeks are all under sin.” Which things nevertheless I think ought to be understood in this way, not that all these things are proved to have been in individual men, but one thing in one and another in another, yet in such a way that in all of them together this whole range of vices was fulfilled.

There is added in what follows: “Their feet are swift to shed blood.” Yet this crime will perhaps seem unable to be fitted to most of those of whom he said: “For we have charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin”; unless perhaps we understand it thus, that not only is the blood of those shed bodily whose bodies are butchered, but that those also who by any stumbling-block separate a soul from God are called men of blood. For just as he is called a homicide who separates the body from the soul, by which it is given life: so much more truly must he be called a homicide who separates the soul from the true life, which is God. But understand the feet in this place to be those of which the Prophet says: “But my feet were almost moved”; that is, the counsel by which we make the journey of life.

But as to what he says: "Otherwise how shall God judge the world," in this passage by "world" he means the men who are in this world, just as we read elsewhere, "that the whole world lies in the evil one"; which surely shows that the men who dwell in this world are set in wickedness.

“But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed to by the law and the prophets. But the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ unto all and upon all who believe in him. For there is no distinction. For all have sinned and lack the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.” What we established in the earlier discussion, saying that “Whatever things the law says, it says to those who are in the law” was not said of the law of Moses, someone will suppose to have been asserted not so much truly as forcibly, when he sees that now the name of the law is referred not to nature, but to the law of Moses: and he will say that in the present passage the righteousness of God is declared by the Apostle to be manifested through the law, and not only through the law, but also through the prophets, so that without any ambiguity the things that are written are understood to have been said of the law of Moses: from which law the righteousness of God through faith in Christ Jesus is manifested unto all who believe, whether they come from the Jews or from the Gentiles, who nevertheless are justified not from works, but from the grace of God, since Jesus Christ himself has been made their redeemer. These things indeed he will say who accuses us of having forcibly bent the Apostle's meaning in the things we expounded above. But this is what we can steadfastly affirm: that just as those who assert these things suppose that in this saying of the Apostle which we have now set forth nothing can be found by which we may establish that these things were written not of the law of Moses but of the law of nature, so neither will they be able to find anything by which the things said above may seem to look to the law of Moses rather than to the law of nature; and therefore, just as for them the earlier passages will not stand simply because the later ones seem to hold, so neither can the first be thrown into confusion for us, if the second seem not to run along the same track. What then? Shall we say that the Apostle writes things contrary to himself? And this will be the assertion of an excellent expositor! This is what is wont to happen to those who break up the one doctrine of the faith into the divergent meanings of sects, and search out only those testimonies from the divine Scriptures by which they may establish their own doctrine, while as for the resolutions of those statements of divine Scripture which come from the opposite side, they do not touch them even with the tip of the finger, as the Lord says. But he who faithfully and soundly gathers the meaning of the sacred Volumes ought to show how those things which seem to be contrary are not truly contrary. We shall therefore attempt, in the present passage also, to show how this that follows does not conflict with our earlier exposition. We have often said, and said more plainly in the preface, that the Apostle in this Epistle makes mention of many laws in such a way that, when he passes from one to another, it can scarcely be detected except by a sufficiently attentive reader. He had said in the foregoing, that “through the law is the knowledge of sin”; and because he perceived that it could be answered: Therefore if from the natural law there is knowledge of sin, there can be from it also knowledge of righteousness — namely according to that image of the art of medicine which we gave above: that just as through it sickness is known so that health may be found, so also, if through the law of nature knowledge of sin can come about, in like manner knowledge of righteousness can also come about. Since, then, he had seen that this could be objected to him, after he said, “For through the law is the knowledge of sin,” he adds: “But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested.” Such, then, is what he says: Not as the knowledge of sin comes through the law, so also does the manifestation of God's righteousness come through the law; but apart from the law the righteousness of God is manifested. For the law of nature could convict the nature of sin, and display knowledge of it; but the righteousness of God transcends and towers above anything whatsoever that the human mind can probe by natural perceptions alone. For it does not suffice for understanding and considering not just any human righteousness, but the very righteousness of God, and the judgments which descend from it, of which it is said that they are “a great deep,” and that so profound is the righteousness of God and his judgments that the Apostle says: “How unsearchable are the judgments of God!” But Wisdom too speaks to men as though the righteousness of God cannot be known by the motions of nature alone, but must be sought through the pursuit of teaching; and therefore it says: “Learn righteousness, you who judge the earth.” Wherefore for coming to know the righteousness of God the law of nature will help not at all, even though it seems to perceive something about human righteousness. For that law can perceive what is just among men, namely that what a man does not wish to suffer himself, this he should not do to his neighbor. Can it naturally perceive anything of that righteousness which says: “See that you do not do your righteousness before men”; and, “that your left hand may not know what your right hand does”? These and such things the law of nature cannot call just; and therefore the Apostle says: “But now, apart from the law” — that is, of nature — “the righteousness of God has been manifested,” having the testimony of the law of Moses and of the prophets, in which the Holy Spirit had written many things about the righteousness of God through figures and riddles. And I would not have you wonder that one word “law,” placed twice in the same passage, signifies different things. We find this to be the custom of Scripture in other places as well: as there: “Do you not say that there are yet four months until the harvest comes? Lift up your eyes, and see the regions, for they are white unto harvest.” Is not in this place too the harvest, named twice, referred first to the bodily harvest, and second to the spiritual? And again in the Gospel, when the Savior says to the Samaritan woman, “Give me to drink,” and after her reply says again to her: “If you knew who it is that says to you: Give me to drink; you surely would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” And again he added to her: “Everyone who drinks of this water shall thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I give him shall not thirst forever.” Do you see how both “to drink” and “water” are taken now indeed bodily, now spiritually, in one and the same passage? There is a similar instance placed there, where the man blind from birth is healed. After this the Savior says: “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” Is not here too both seeing and not seeing understood now bodily, now spiritually? So therefore also in this place, when the Apostle says that the righteousness of God is manifested apart from the law, the law of nature is understood; but when he says: “Being witnessed to by the law and the prophets,” he designates the law of Moses.

But if what we have said still seems to you insufficiently clear, we shall add these considerations as well: If it appears that the law of which it is said, "But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law," is the same as that of which he says, "attested by the law and the prophets" — then, if indeed it has been manifested apart from the law, it does not receive the testimony of the law; but if it receives testimony from the law, then it has not been manifested apart from the law. Since this difficulty is insoluble and cannot by any reasoning be broken down, it must be said that the righteousness of God is indeed manifested through Christ Jesus, with testimony borne to him not by the law of nature, which is still in every way slight and small, but by the law of Moses — not that law which is according to the letter, but that which is according to the spirit, concerning which the same Apostle says, "For the law is spiritual." And likewise the prophets bear witness through the Spirit of God who spoke in them. There is besides, in the Apostle's usage regarding this expression, a remarkable distinction, if anyone observes it more carefully. It is the custom among the Greeks to place before nouns what they call ἄρθρα (arthra), which among us may be termed "articles." Whenever, therefore, he names the law of Moses, he prefixes to the noun the customary article; but whenever he wishes the natural law to be understood, he names the law without the article. And so in this place too, where he says, "Now apart from law the righteousness of God has been manifested," it has no article; but in what follows, where he says, "attested by the law and the prophets," in this second place he has set "law" with the article. If, then, the difference in the use of the term "law" has been sufficiently made plain, let us now see what righteousness is manifested apart from the natural law. The same apostle Paul says of Christ that he "has been made for us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." This righteousness of God, therefore, which is Christ, is manifested apart from the natural law indeed, yet not apart from the law of Moses or the prophets. For the law gives testimony to him, just as he himself says: "Search the Scriptures; they are the ones that bear witness concerning me." For the natural law can indeed furnish occasions and give understanding, as we have said, either toward those things which equity demands be done among men, or toward this very thing, that one should perceive that God exists. But who can perceive by nature concerning Christ that he is the Son of God? Therefore it is apart from this law that the righteousness of God, which is Christ, has been manifested, attested by the law of Moses and the prophets. But before we hasten on to what follows, it does not seem that even this observation should be passed over: that in the case of sin he set down "recognition," but in the case of righteousness "manifestation." For "everything that is manifested is light"; and if what is manifested is light, then sin, which is not light, is not manifested but recognized. I understand in this way also that saying: "There is nothing hidden that shall not be manifested, nor covered that shall not be revealed." But let us return to our subject.

The law, then, and the prophets are witnesses of the righteousness of God; and this righteousness is manifested through faith in Jesus Christ unto all who believe, among whom there is no distinction, whether they believe from among the Jews or from among the Gentiles. But observe that for the manifesting of God's righteousness he laid down not one cause only, that of faith, but joined to it also the law and the prophets — because neither does faith alone, without the law and the prophets, manifest the righteousness of God, nor again do the law and the prophets without faith: the one therefore cleaves to the other, so that from both there may be perfection.

And he added well, "at this time"; for in the time of the present age the justice of God lies in forbearance, but in the age to come it lies in retribution. For it seemed just in God's sight that, since he had appointed the age to come for judgment, he should assign the present one to forbearance and patience. For if he punished the sinner in this time, it would not seem just to call again to judgment one whom he had punished. But if he forbears and is patient in the present age, he will rightly be a just judge in the age to come. He justifies, therefore, him who is of faith, just as it is written also concerning Abraham, that "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him unto justice." But if Abraham believed, and was justified out of faith, it will without doubt follow that now too he who believes God is justified through the faith of Jesus Christ together with faithful Abraham.

"What then do we hold further? For we have charged that Jews and Greeks are all under sin, as it is written: That there is none righteous, none that understands, none that seeks after God. All have turned aside, they have together become unprofitable; there is none that does goodness, there is not so much as one. Their throat is an open sepulchre, with their tongues they dealt deceitfully, the poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and unhappiness are in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known: there is no fear of God before their eyes." We have already said beforehand that in this Epistle Paul, like a kind of arbiter between those who have believed from the circumcision and those from the Gentiles, always tempers and balances his speech, so that now these, now those he seems to reprove in certain matters, and again he encourages each party with the sure hope of the promise. Since therefore he had seemed in the earlier passages to say that if the uncircumcision keeps the righteous requirements of the law, it shall judge him who in circumcision is a transgressor of the law: again, in order to lift up those whom he had humbled, he added: "What then is the advantage of the Jew? or what is the profit of circumcision? Much in every way. First indeed, because to them were entrusted the oracles of God." After these things, when he had gone on consequently with certain matters connected with these, he now adds and says: "What then do we hold further? For we have charged that Jews and Greeks are all under sin." But if all are under sin, then there will be no cause of boasting for the one against the other, since each comes to salvation not out of his own righteousness, but out of God's mercy. He proved therefore that the Greeks, that is, the Gentiles, are under sin, when he says: "For professing themselves to be wise, they became fools: and they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of corruptible man, and of birds, and of four-footed beasts, and of serpents: wherefore God gave them over to a reprobate mind," and the rest: and the Jews, when he says: "But if you are called a Jew, and rest in the law," and the rest. To which he added: "You therefore who teach another, do you not teach yourself? you who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal?" and so forth. After these things therefore he says that "we have charged that Jews and Greeks are all under sin." But after this, as is his custom, he wishes to confirm from the holy Scriptures what he had said; and at the same time he offers an example to the teachers of the Church, that the things they speak to the people they should bring forward not presumed from their own opinions, but fortified by divine testimonies. For if he himself, so great and such an Apostle, does not believe that the authority of his own words can suffice unless he shows that what he says is written in the Law and the Prophets, "how much more ought we, the least, to observe this, that when we teach we bring forward not our own opinions, but those of the Holy Spirit?" This too we consider must necessarily be pointed out, that in some Latin copies the testimonies which follow are found placed consecutively and in full in the thirteenth psalm; but in almost all the Greek copies there is no more in the thirteenth psalm than up to that verse where it is written: "There is none that does good, there is not so much as one." But also what the Apostle said: "As it is written: That there is none righteous: none that understands, none that seeks after God," is not found in the same words in the psalm, but some are changed, some are taken up, some are left out. And if this be observed rather carefully by any diligent students, I think that apostolic authority is given in this matter, so that when we must use the testimonies of Scripture, we should grasp the sense from it rather than the words. For you will find this frequently done also in the Gospels. In the thirteenth psalm, then, it is thus written: "The Lord looked down from heaven upon the sons of men, to see if there is one that understands, or that seeks after God." But in the fifty-second psalm it says thus: "God looked down from heaven upon the sons of men, to see if there is one that understands, or that seeks after God." And the same sense seems to be preserved also in that which the Apostle set down: "There is none that understands, none that seeks after God." And as for what he said: "There is none righteous," I think that he took it from what is written: "There is none that does goodness, there is not so much as one": in which, even if the wording seems to be altered, nevertheless one and the same sense is preserved. But that which is said in what follows: "Their throat is an open sepulchre, with their tongues they dealt deceitfully," you will find in the fifth psalm. After this: "The poison of asps is under their lips," which I think was itself also taken from some psalm, the wording being changed, as we said above. But what follows: "Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness," seems to be received from the ninth psalm. Then next: "Their feet are swift to shed blood," you will find either in Isaiah or in Proverbs. But also, "Destruction and unhappiness are in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known," I do not indeed fully recall where it is written: I suspect, however, that it can be found in one of the prophets. And in the Psalms it is written: "There is no fear of God before their eyes." Now he seems to have wished to gather all these testimonies for this reason, that he might show that when he charges that "Jews and Greeks are all under sin," he pronounces not so much his own opinion as that of holy Scripture. But let us inquire what this very thing is, to be under sin: for his statement seems to involve all without exception, whether they be Jews or Gentiles. But there meets us another statement of his own, in which he says: "But where there is no law, neither is there transgression." Among the Jews indeed it is manifest that there is the law of Moses: but among the Gentiles he affirms that there is the law of nature, which convicts the offender by the testimony of conscience. Where then do we seek a man in whom there is no law, and who through this may seem not to be in the transgression of sin, since Paul himself also says of himself: "But I was alive without the law once." When did Paul live without the law, who again says of himself: "Circumcised the eighth day, a Hebrew of the Hebrews"? How then will it be true that he once lived without the law, who on the eighth day of his birth received the sign of circumcision according to the law? Whence it is established that a man then comes to be under the law when he has arrived at that age at which he can choose, and discern what the law is: nor does he take upon himself the yoke of that outward law before he begins to have the firmness of the inward and natural law.

Finally, in that passage where he said: “But I was alive without the law once,” he added: “But when the commandment came, sin revived.” In this he shows indeed that in childhood, before one has discernment of good and evil, a person is said to be without law; since even if he sins, because the law is not in him, sin is not imputed to him. But when he has received discernment of good and evil, the law is said to have come to him and to have given him commandments. Now where the force of the commandment is present — that is, a conscience that convicts — sin, which before was dead in him, is said to have revived. From this time on, therefore, if anyone subjects himself to the law of Moses so as to observe it according to the letter, he becomes a Jew outwardly; but if he follows it according to the spirit, he becomes a Jew inwardly. These things are said with respect to what was written: “For we have charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin.” That is, let “all” be understood as spoken of those who, it is agreed, are taught not to sin either by the natural law or by the written law. For concerning the Gentiles too, who are placed under sin, we understand it in the same way we said above: when they have begun to do naturally the things of the law and to be a law to themselves, then they are convicted by conscience in those things which they are seen to do against the law. For this reason those men also seem to me to have judged rightly who call the law of nature the law of God, and call the law of Moses the written law. For if Paul were speaking of the written law, that is, of the law of Moses, when he says: “But sin is not imputed when there is no law,” it will seem that sin was not reckoned to Cain, nor to those who perished in the flood, nor to those whom fire consumed in Sodom. But since we see that not only were sins reckoned to them, but vengeance also was inflicted upon them, it is shown from these things that Paul is speaking of the natural law, which — apart from the first age of childhood — is present in all human beings; and through this he says most rightly: “For we have charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin.” Hence it does not seem to me that a certain one of the wise men defined the matter contrary to reason when he said that in the whole race of mortals, when a person has come to that age at which he receives the discernment of right and wrong by the entrance of the natural law, first of all malice is stirred up, and after this, by teachings, training, and admonitions, it is little by little driven out, and a passage is made to virtue. For Paul too seems to me to have thought in harmony with these things in what he says: “But when the commandment came, sin revived.” And the Savior also, when he says in the Gospels: “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin,” will be seen to have spoken according to this same reasoning: that by that power with which he is said to fill the world, he comes to each individual person and speaks in his heart and teaches the judgment of good and evil.

The oracles of God, therefore, were entrusted to those first ones of whom we spoke above; but some, as he says, did not believe, whether God or the oracles of God. You see that those who do not believe are themselves according to the flesh, of whom he says also elsewhere: "The natural man does not perceive the things which are of the Spirit of God; for it is foolishness to him." But their unbelief does not make void the faith of God. By "the faith of God" we understand either that faith which God has toward those to whom he entrusts his own oracles, or that faith by which those believe God who receive the divine oracles from him. We are admonished, therefore, that when the unfaithfulness of those who either do not come to faith, or fall away from it, perchance mocks us as we perform the works of faith—whether when we fast, or when we do deeds of mercy, or when we devote ourselves to study and to the law of God, or even when we endure torments for the martyrdom of Christ—we should always remember that their unfaithfulness does not make void the faith of God which is in us.

But if to someone it should seem that this was said of human beings alone, both that he said the natural law is present in them and that he takes it as written of them alone, “That every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may become accountable to God,” such a one will take occasion from the words that follow, where he says: “Because by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.” And this will certainly seem to have been said only of those who are placed in the flesh. But those who prefer to hold the former sense will observe more diligently how the Apostle said that no flesh is justified by the works of the law: because the works of the law pertain to those who are in the flesh, whereas to those who are in the spirit — that is, the higher orders of the heavenly ministries — the meaning of the law pertains. Therefore that “by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified in his sight,” I think is to be understood in this way: that everyone who is flesh, and lives according to the flesh, cannot be justified by the law of God, just as the same Apostle says elsewhere, that “those who are in the flesh cannot please God”; and likewise elsewhere: “Because the wisdom of the flesh is an enemy to God, for it is not subject to the law of God: nor indeed can it be”; and the prophet says: “All flesh is grass”; and in the Gospel it is written: “It is the Spirit that gives life; but the flesh profits nothing.” Of these, then, he says that by the law of God “no flesh shall be justified before him.” But this too, that he added “before him,” let it not be passed over idly, as we have now rather frequently admonished, because it is one thing to be justified before God, another before men: that is, in comparison with other men, one man who has lived more blamelessly can seem just; but in comparison with God, not only shall a man not be justified, but even, as Job says: “The stars are not clean in his sight” — those stars which are certainly clean before us, that is, which in comparison with men are held to be clean and holy; but in comparison with God they cannot be clean. “For through the law comes the knowledge of sin.” Let us see how the knowledge of sin comes through the law. While through the law we learn what is to be done and what avoided, at the same time we also come to know what is sin and what is not. Therefore the law is not — as the heretics accuse the God of the law — an evil root, nor an evil tree, through which the knowledge of sin comes: because he did not say, “From the law is the knowledge of sin,” but “through the law,” so that you may know that sin did not arise from it, but was known through it. For example, if we were to say: Through the art of medicine the knowledge of sickness is given, would medicine on that account seem to you to be the cause of the sickness, because through it the character of the sickness is known? But just as it is agreed that the medicine is good which furnishes an understanding of the illness by which weakness may be avoided, so also the law is good through which sin is detected and known. And this kind of exposition preserves, as I think, the consistency also of that explanation which we set forth above concerning what is written: “For we have charged that Jews and Greeks are all under sin, as it is written: That there is none righteous, there is none that understands, there is none that seeks after God.”

Therefore the righteousness of God, coming through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe, whether they be Jews or Greeks, justifies them once cleansed of their former crimes, and makes them capable of the glory of God: and this he does not from their merits, nor for their works, but freely bestows glory upon those who believe. "Through the redemption," he says, "which is in Christ Jesus." Let us consider more attentively what is meant by the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. "Redemption" is the name given to what is handed over to enemies on behalf of those whom they hold in captivity, so that they may restore them to their former liberty. The captive multitude of the human race, then, was being held among enemies, overcome by sin as though by war: the Son of God came, who "was made for us" not only "wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification," but "redemption" as well: and he gave himself as the redemption, that is, he handed himself over to the enemies, and poured out his blood for them as they thirsted for it: and this has become the redemption of believers, just as Peter also writes in his Epistle, saying: "For you were not redeemed with corruptible silver or gold, but with the precious blood of the only-begotten Son of God." Perhaps Solomon too was indicating this under a mystery when he said: "The redemption of a man's soul is his own riches." For if you inquire what the riches of the soul are, you will find that its riches are properly wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification. But all these things the Apostle says are Christ. Christ, then, is the riches of the soul, and therefore he himself is its redemption. For bodily riches are to be believed rather the ruin of the soul than its redemption, unless they be turned to the good work of righteousness and mercy, and be transferred from bodily riches into riches of the soul.

After these things, taking from the fifth psalm, as we said above, he says: “Their throat is an open sepulchre.” In these words, as it seems to me, he describes various sins of the human race. Every sepulchre covers over the uncleanness of a dead corpse; whence the Lord also said in the Gospel concerning the Scribes and Pharisees, that they were whitewashed sepulchres, “which outwardly indeed appear beautiful to men, but within are full of all uncleanness.” But Paul seems in this place to point out something greater of crime in those of whom he speaks, when he calls them a sepulchre not covered nor closed over, but “open.” For those are called closed sepulchres whom some little shame restrains from sinning openly and bringing their crimes out into public. But those are called an open sepulchre who have their uncleannesses and impurities out in the open: from whom constant practice and habit of wickedness — which is the last stage among evils — has taken away even the shame of what they have committed: so that now they do not open their mouth and bring forth the word of God, the living word; but they open their throat and bring forth a dead word, the word of the devil, not from the heart, but from the sepulchre. If, then, you ever see a man flinging out shameless words with a wanton mouth, or, swollen and raging, uttering insults and curses, do not hesitate to say of him that “his throat is an open sepulchre.” For “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” To these things is added: “With their tongues they have acted deceitfully.” Deceit is when someone speaks one thing with the tongue and turns over another in the heart. And this fault I do not know whether it leaves even the just and the elect free of it; but I think that one is more liable, another less, yet no one is perfectly pure of it, save he alone of whom it is written: “Who did no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.” For even if someone be found diligent and cautious, he can perhaps guard himself in the graver matters: but whom will you find who does not fall into these things, either through shame or through negligence? Sometimes even through forgetfulness things that ought to have been attended to are left undone, and, that the fault may not appear, they are excused otherwise than as they were done. Whence Peter also, knowing that these are the varieties of deceit, writes in his Epistle, saying: “Laying aside therefore all deceit, and dissimulation, and envy, and detraction, as newborn infants, rational and without deceit, desire milk, that in it you may grow unto salvation.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” The bite of a serpent destroys the body with venom: the bite of a venomed word slays the soul by its deceit. This can happen both in the case of those who circumvent men with the contrivances of false accusations, and in the case of those who, through heretical teaching infected with the poison of the devil, deceive the souls of the simple.

For this reason, then, Paul says it is written: “Because there is none righteous; there is none that understands, there is none that seeks after God: all have turned aside, together they have become unprofitable”; just as elsewhere the Prophet says: “For in your sight shall no living person be justified.” And this may perhaps seem contrary to other Scriptures, which bear witness to some as though they were righteous — so much so that it is even said to Jerusalem concerning Sodom that “Sodom has been justified more than you.” But consider more carefully the caution of divine Scripture, how it did not say, “Sodom has been justified,” but rather says: Since you commit many crimes, and the things you do are such that you surpass all in the greatness of your sins, by comparison with your crimes Sodom is now justified. And here too, then, when it says, “In your sight shall no living person be justified,” it did not mean this to be understood, that no living person shall be justified, but that “in your sight” — that is, God's — he shall not be justified. For however righteous a person may be, however holy, not only among human beings but even among the higher and more eminent creatures, it is certain that by comparison with God he cannot be justified. Finally, in the Apocalypse of John also, where the sealed book is offered in the sight of the Ancient of Days, and search is made among every tribe, tongue, and people for one who might be able to open it, no one was found except the Lamb alone from the tribe of Judah, who was justified in the sight of God; and he alone was worthy to open the book, who alone is the one “who opens, and no one shuts; who shuts, and no one opens.” Therefore our Savior the Lord Jesus Christ alone is justified in the sight of the Father, because “whatever things the Father does, these the Son likewise does.” But every creature is justified by comparison with those beneath it. As, for example, if we should say: by comparison with the rest of the people, Miriam the sister of Moses was righteous; and again, by comparison with Miriam, Aaron was righteous; and again, by comparison with Aaron, Moses was righteous. Yet blessed is the one who is called righteous by comparison with better people, and not by comparison with the worst, as Sodom, which is recorded as justified by comparison with Jerusalem. Hence I too fear that, because of us who seem to be in the Church of God and to devote our efforts to his law and to serve the evangelical precepts, some of the unbelievers may be found who are to be justified. To speak by way of example: if we are slaves to lust and unchastity, while a pagan who is a stranger to the faith of Christ keeps chastity, that pagan is justified over against us. Likewise, if we are entangled in avarice, rapacity, pride, and other evils of this kind, while a pagan abstains from all these — those who do not know the law of God will be justified over against us, and we shall be condemned by comparison with them. Rather, let us take pains that, just as we go before the Gentiles in faith, so we may excel them in deeds and works, lest our evils become another's goods, and their self-restraint convict our lack of restraint. What he said — “There is none righteous” — or what he says — “In your sight shall no living person be justified” — can still be explained in yet another way: that as long as anyone lives in the body, he cannot be justified nor be pronounced righteous, but only when he has gone out of the body and departed from the contest of this life, as Scripture also says: “Call no one blessed before his death, for you do not know what his last things will be”; and again Ecclesiastes says: “And I praised the dead who are already dead, more than the living who are still alive; but better than both is he who has not yet been born.” You have still another saying of Scripture as well, which says that whoever is least in the kingdom of God is greater than one who is in the body, even if it be that John, than whom there was none greater among those born of women. Therefore “there is none righteous.”

After this let us now see how it was said: "For if the truth of God has abounded in my lie unto His glory." There are in this world many kinds of religions, many sects of philosophers, many teachings handed down with false assertions and composed with lying arguments, whose authors — though under a false title of wisdom — are nevertheless held to be men of no slight or contemptible authority; and it is from their prestige that false things have been received as true, so that they have taken possession of almost the entire world with lying opinions about religion, so that even the elect, if it can be said, were being led into error. Since therefore the truth of God, and His wisdom, and His Word, coming into the world, reproved and refuted every lie, and cut away all the assertions of false teachings by the faith of the truth, through each single lie which had previously been asserted by men the truth of God abounded, by exposing the surreptitious plausibilities and by handing down, in each and every teaching, the simple truth of the faith: and in this way the Apostle says that the truth of God abounded in the lie of men. But, that what we are saying may become still clearer, let us bring forward some things by way of example. There was among men a teaching which declared that the highest good is pleasure; and in this it is consequently asserted also that there is no Providence, since one must live not by laws but by pleasure: and these things are set out through innumerable volumes with such abundant and ornate speech and with the most forceful arguments. But observe now how he who defends the truth of God, and who is a philosopher according to Christ, who is the truth of God and the wisdom of God, teaches men that the highest good is eternal life; and that this is eternal life, that men should know the one only true God, and His Son Jesus Christ: and how with all confidence he asserts the providence of God, saying: "Are not two sparrows sold for a penny, and not one of them falls to the ground without the Father's will?" and that He Himself "commands His sun to rise upon the good and the evil, and rains upon the just and the unjust." Now through each of these things, while those teachings of a false knowledge are refuted, the truth of God abounds in the lie of men. There are likewise others who say that there are three kinds of good: one pertaining to the soul, another pertaining to bodies, a third external. Since each of these is held to be advantageous, they affirm that the highest good consists of them. These men too, cutting back the providence of God, contend that it extends only as far as the sphere of the moon, but that below that, that is, to men, it by no means descends. There are likewise others who say that nothing invisible or incorporeal exists, but assign all things that are to bodies, whence they have also said that God, the Father of all, is a body. But because the consistency of their own reasoning pressed them — by which it stands that every body is corruptible, so that if they assert that God too is a body, they must without doubt confess Him to be corruptible as well — they turned a trick of words, and said that He is indeed of a corruptible nature, yet is not corrupted, because there is nothing superior to Him by which He could be corrupted or dissolved. There are also innumerable other fabrications of men, put together with dialectical subtleties and the deceit of sophisms. And when the truth of God, through churchmen instructed in divine wisdom, convicts each of these, and refutes the snares of their arguments, the truth of God is said to abound in the lie of men — and not only to abound, but to abound unto His glory. Which I think is to be understood in this way: if a teacher of the Church instructs hearers who are simple and not yet taken up with false teachings, and opens to them the account of the divine truth concerning each several matter, in teaching of this kind the truth of God will be seen to abound. But if the discourse is addressed to those who resist the truth, who contradict the words of sound doctrine, and the contradictors are refuted and convicted, so that, forsaking the darkness of their errors, they come to the light of truth; then the truth of God will not only abound, but will abound also unto His glory. For God is glorified through him who, snatched from the error of the lie, has beheld the light of truth.

“But we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are in the law, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may be made subject to God. Therefore from the works of the law no flesh shall be justified in the sight of God. For through the law is the knowledge of sin.” We stated beforehand at the outset that the Apostle in this Epistle would treat of several laws, and that unless their discernment and distinction be maintained in each several passage, it will be able to confound the sense of the reader. Therefore in the present passage also, as to what he says: “But we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are in the law,” we ought to inquire more diligently what that law is which speaks to those who are in the law, and by the fact that it speaks to them strips them of every excuse, so that they cannot find refuges for their sins: for this is what he says: “That every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may be made subject to God.” But if we should wish to understand it of that law which is without doubt the law of Moses, which speaks only to those whom it has circumcised from the mother's womb and taught, how will it seem consistent that through this law, which touches with its ordinances only one nation, every mouth should be stopped, and the whole world through it be held liable to God? For what is to be believed that all the nations have in common with this law, or what the whole world? And how also is the knowledge of sin said to come about through the law of Moses, when very many are found to have known their sin even before it? Cain, finally, when he had sinned, spoke thus: “My sin is greater than that it should be forgiven.” Moreover the patriarchs, when they had gone down to Joseph in Egypt, and were being pressed by the feigned accusation from him, speak thus to one another: “We are in sins on account of our brother, because we despised the tribulation of his soul when he entreated us, and we did not hear him: on this account this tribulation has come upon us.” Moreover Job also, who it is established lived before the law, speaks thus: “Because even if I sinned unwillingly, if I hid my sin, or was confounded by the multitude of the people, so as not to declare my offense.” All of whom are evidently shown to have known their sin. From these things, therefore, it is gathered that Paul the apostle does not say these things of the law of Moses, “That the law speaks to those who are in the law,” but of the natural law which is written in the hearts of men. This law, therefore, whatever it says, it says to those who are in the law. And those are in the law who are of that age at which they may now grasp the discernment of good and evil. But those are without law to whom the perception of such discernment has not yet come, according to what Paul also says: “But I was once alive without the law.” According to this natural law, therefore, the Apostle will consistently be seen to have said that every mouth is to be stopped, and that the whole world will be liable to the judgment of God. For of this law which is naturally implanted in men, no one is destitute, neither of the Jews nor of the Gentiles: and therefore that also seems consistently said, that God may be justified in his words, and may overcome when he is judged. That we may speak, for example's sake: if it be inquired what God has bestowed upon man, and what man has done with those things which he has received from God, God will seem to be judged together with men: and God indeed will be found to have given man all the affections, and all the impulses by which he can strive toward virtue and advance; and moreover to have implanted the force of reason, by which he might know what he ought to do and what to avoid. These things, therefore, God is found to have furnished in common to all men. But if, having received these things, man has neglected to walk the road of virtue, he to whom nothing was lacking from God is himself found to have been lacking to those things which were given him by God. Deservedly, therefore, is it said that in such a judgment God overcomes and is justified in his words. This natural law, therefore, speaks to all who are in the law: from whose precepts infants alone seem to me to become exempt, in whom there is not yet the judgment of right and wrong. But whether to these are also to be joined those who from whatever cause are incapable of mind, do you consider. But apart from these, no one of men seems to me to escape this law. And it is to be considered whether perhaps not only men, but also angels, and every rational creature, whatever it may be, this law binds. For if it has been rightly defined by the wise that law is that which dictates what ought to be done and forbids what ought not to be done, how will such a law not seem implanted also in the higher and heavenly orders; to whom surely there is a discipline both of observing something and of avoiding something? And unless they were held by this law, the divine Scripture would never say of them: “The angels also, who did not keep their principality, but forsook their own dwelling, God has reserved bound in eternal chains under darkness in Tartarus unto the judgment of the great day.” Whence it is established that a law is in them; and this not being observed, they suffered these things which Scripture above has testified. Moreover Paul too, when he says, “Do you not know that we shall judge angels?” what else does he mean, except that he knows those to be placed under law whom he declares are to be led to judgment? But if anyone should confront us on the basis of what we said above, that God is to be judged with men, as though we seem to say that he too is under law, hear how great a caution concerning this is found in the Apostle's Letters, who mentions that Christ is not in the law, but is the fullness of the law; and just as he himself is the righteousness from which all become righteous, and he himself is the truth from which all stand in truth, and he himself is the life from which all live, so also he himself is the law, from which all are in the law. He comes therefore to judgment, not as one who is in the law, but as one who is the law. But I think that those who are already perfect, and joined to the Lord have been made one spirit with him, are not themselves in the law either, but rather they themselves are law, as the same Apostle also says elsewhere: “Because for the just man the law is not laid down.” Thus: “Whatever the law says, it says to those who are in the law, that every mouth may be stopped,” according to what we said above, “that all the world may be made subject,” or, as we read elsewhere, “that all the world may be made liable to God,” which also agrees better with the Greek copies. But let us inquire what he has here called “all the world.” Will it perhaps be thought that by “all the world” this earthly place is to be understood in such a way that the trees also, and the stones, and the plants, and the seeds, and the chaff which are in it, are equally named? For these several things seem to be parts of the world. I do not think anyone is to be found so foolish as to be able to assert this. It remains, therefore, that by “all the world” he means every rational living being: and just as everything which is irrational is excepted from this sense, so no rational creature seems to me to be separated from this condition. The whole world, therefore, becomes accountable to God through the fact that he has implanted the natural law in all: concerning whom he also says in another place, that “at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of things in heaven, things on earth, and things under the earth.” And if anyone does this, he will be seen to have fulfilled the law; if he does not do it, to be accountable to the law — and consequently, through the law, to God as well.

And he added: “There is none that understands.” And indeed, since the Apostle himself says that he knows in part and understands in part, who will there be that may be called understanding? For however much a person may understand, he will be seen to understand in a mirror and in an enigma; because it is only after the laying aside of the earthly body that one is said to understand face to face. But now, as Scripture says: “The corruptible body weighs down the soul, and the earthly dwelling presses down the mind that ponders many things.” Hence it comes about that no one is “understanding,” nor “seeking after God.” For while we are occupied with the anxieties of the body and seek the things that are of human beings, we cannot seek God nor think upon the things that are of God.

"Whom God set forth as a propitiation through faith in his blood, for the showing forth of his righteousness, through the remission of former offenses, in the forbearance of God, for the showing forth of his righteousness at this present time: that he himself may be just, and the one who justifies him who is of the faith of Jesus Christ." When the holy Apostle had taught us many wondrous things about our Lord Jesus Christ, things which are said of him by way of mystery, in this place he has brought forward something still more eminent, which I think is not easily found in other places of Scripture. For whereas above he had said that he gave himself as a redemption for the whole human race, so that he might redeem those who were held in the captivity of sins, since apart from God he tasted death for all, now he adds something more sublime, and says that "God set him forth as a propitiation through faith in his blood": namely, that by the sacrificial offering of his own body he might make God propitious to men, and through this might show forth his righteousness, while he remitted to them their former offenses, which they had contracted by serving the worst of tyrants during that time in which God bore with these things and suffered them to be done.

But he endured this so that afterward, that is, in this present time, he might show his righteousness. For at the consummation of the age, in the last time, God manifested his righteousness, and gave as redemption him whom he made a propitiator: lest perhaps, if he had sent the propitiator earlier, he might not have reconciled to God so great a number of the human race as in these times in which the world now seems filled with people. For God is just, and being just he could not justify the unjust: therefore he willed that there be the intervention of a propitiator, so that through faith in him those might be justified who could not be justified through their own works. Let these things, so far as they pertain to the explanation of the wording itself, be set down first, so that the apostolic reading may become clearer. But now, as is our custom, let us inquire what the inner sense of the apostolic saying contains; and first of all, how it is said: "Whom God set forth as a propitiatory (or propitiator) through faith in his blood." It is certain that in almost every place the Apostle's meaning flows from the treasuries of the Law and the Prophets. Let us therefore inquire where he found the term "propitiatory," and from where he took up this name. I recall the Lord speaking to Moses in Exodus and instructing him in what he ought to do: first indeed to command the ark, and that its poles and rings be made along the sides of the ark; and after this he says: "And you shall make a propitiatory of pure gold, two and a half cubits its length, and one and a half cubits its width. And you shall make two cherubim of beaten gold, and you shall place them upon each side of the propitiatory: one cherub on this side, and the other cherub on the other side of the propitiatory; and you shall make it so that the two cherubim are on its two sides, spreading out their wings and overshadowing the propitiatory; and their faces shall be toward one another over the propitiatory. And you shall make the cherubim, and you shall set the propitiatory upon the ark, and into the ark you shall put the testimonies which I shall give you; and I will make myself known to you from there, and I will speak to you from above the propitiatory, from the midst of the two cherubim which are over the ark of the covenant, according to all that I shall command you for the children of Israel." It plainly appears that the Apostle, having found the name "propitiatory" in these passages, has now placed it in his own Letters, concerning which our discourse is. And it seems that he referred this propitiatory, of which it is written in Exodus, to none other than the Lord Savior, when he says that God set him forth "as a propitiatory through faith." How indeed that which is described in Exodus as made of the purest gold was the form and figure of this true propitiatory is worth investigating. And first indeed it must be considered in which places the gold that is used in the work is called pure gold, and in which places gold alone is set down without any addition. Observing this in many places, I seem to myself to have discovered that wherever with the addition it is called pure gold, it indicates that holy and pure soul of Jesus, which "committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth"; and that these measurements of the length and breadth of the propitiatory fit that soul — although it is arduous to explain these things, and to fit to that holy soul each single detail that is reported about the propitiatory. First, then, let us see what it says: that the length of the propitiatory had neither two cubits only — a number that is customarily applied to bodies that are joined together and generated — nor three whole cubits, a number that is accustomed to exceed the designation of creature, and to be consecrated to incorporeal nature. Two and a half cubits, then, it calls the length of the propitiatory, and one and a half its breadth. Now if in such matters it is lawful to be bold: since the same Apostle says of Christ that he "is the mediator of God and of men," it seems to me that this soul is midway between God and man, being indeed inferior to the nature of the Trinity, having something less, and yet, though it is beneath that, not being mixed with the dual number — which is assigned to those set in a body — apart from the extraordinary and surpassing eminence of its virtues. For this is shown by the fact that its measure is designated as having something above two cubits, though less than three. But also as to its breadth being recorded as having one and a half cubits, by this it is indeed described in terms of its monad and singular standing, yet as not having grown wholly into the dual number, which is sometimes even put for things unclean. For although he took up the flesh of our nature, it was nevertheless assumed from an undefiled Virgin, and formed by the chaste operation of the Holy Spirit. For this reason, therefore, the Apostle too, when discussing the Mediator, marked a plain distinction, saying: "The mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus"; namely, that he might teach that "mediator" is to be referred not to the deity of Christ, but to the humanity, which is his soul. Its length, therefore, is set down, and its breadth. The length signifies that which reaches toward God and is joined to the Trinity; the breadth, that it dwells among men, who are wont to walk the broad and spacious way; and therefore it is rightly called by the name of Mediator, because, as we have said, this holy soul was midway between the divinity of the Trinity and the frailty of humanity. This soul, therefore, can be understood as the propitiatory, according to what we have said above, upon which two cherubim are said to be placed, one on this side and one on the other side. Of what, then, are these two cherubim to be thought to bear the form? For "cherubim," translated into our language, signifies "fullness of knowledge." Where, then, do we speak of a fullness of knowledge, except in him of whom the Apostle says, "In whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge"? The Apostle assuredly says these things of the Word of God. But he writes similar things also of the Holy Spirit when he says: "But God has revealed it to us through his Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God." It is signified, therefore, as I think, in that propitiatory — that is, in the soul of Jesus — that the Word of God, who is the only-begotten Son, and his Holy Spirit dwell there always: and this is what the two cherubim placed upon the propitiatory indicate. But observe this also, that he did not say: One cherub on the right side, and the other cherub on the left side; but he says: "One cherub on this side, and the other cherub on the other side" — that he might show that in that propitiatory, that is, in the soul of Christ, there was nothing left-hand. Moreover, these two cherubim are winged; and not only winged, but also spreading out their wings. If any of the saints has deserved to have the highest testimony from God, it is said that God was with him, as is said of Joshua son of Nun: "And God was with him, as he was with Moses his servant." But wherever a promise of a greater gift is given by God, God says: "And I will be in them, and will walk among them." But you will find no soul among men so blessed and so exalted except this one alone, in which the Word of God and the Holy Spirit found so much breadth, so much capacity, that it is said not only to dwell there, but even to spread out its wings, and by a new rite of the mystery at times even to fly.

Both cherubim are also said to have their faces turned toward one another above this blessed soul, whereby a concordant and harmonious perception of the divinity is poured into it from the Son of God and from the Holy Spirit. But where is this soul set, the soul full of God, in which it pleased all the fullness of the Godhead to dwell? "Above the ark," he says, "of the testament." The ark of the testament can be understood as his holy flesh, in which this blessed soul is placed, having within itself the testimonies of God — by which are understood those sufferings of Christ which he bore in the flesh, foretold long before by the divine testimonies. The heavenly powers too can be understood as the ark of God, since they also are indeed capable of receiving the Word of God and the Holy Spirit; yet the soul of Jesus is set above them, and it is through her, in a certain manner, as mediatrix, that they receive the grace of the divine bounty. After this he says: "And I will make myself known to you from thence, and I will speak to you from above the propitiatory." Not to Moses only, but to each one of the saints who is a servant of God, God makes himself known from no other place, nor is he known from any other source, save from that propitiatory which we have expounded above, and from the midst of the cherubim. This the prophet Habakkuk also signifies where he says: "In the midst of two living creatures you shall be known; when the years draw near you shall be known, and when the time is at hand you shall be shown forth." For "no one knows the Father except the Son, and he to whom the Son shall be pleased to reveal him." But Paul too says that "God has revealed it to us through his Spirit." For this reason, therefore, he says, "I will make myself known to you from thence, and I will speak to you from above the propitiatory, between the two cherubim which are over the ark of the testament." And I think it was not out of place that the things we took from Exodus have been expounded, so that the sense might become plain in what way the Apostle in the present passage has taken up the name "propitiatory," when he says: "Whom God set forth as a propitiatory through faith." But this very word which he used, "set forth" (proposuit), is felt to be said rather of the soul of Jesus than of his deity. For "set forth" is understood as though "placed beforehand," that is, before it existed. For what already is, is placed; what does not yet exist is set forth beforehand. It is not fitting, then, that of him who always was — that is, of the Word of God — it should be said that he was set forth; but it is said of his soul, which, although it is inseparable from the Word of God, was nevertheless created, and is posterior to the deity of the Only-begotten. Nor will it seem unfitting that it be said of her that before she existed she was set forth and preordained to be a propitiatory. Since, therefore, according to what we have expounded above, "God set forth" Jesus Christ "as a propitiatory through faith in his blood," it seems necessary to inquire from the divine laws what that propitiation is which is made through blood, so that from these things we may be able to gather in what way propitiation has been made through the blood of Jesus also. It is written in Leviticus, after the sacrifice of the high priest: "But if the whole assembly of Israel shall be in ignorance, and the matter be hidden from its eyes, and they shall do one of those things among the Lord's commandments which ought not to be done, and shall offend, and the sin which they have sinned becomes known to them, the assembly shall bring a bull calf from the herd for sin"; and a little later: "And the priest who has been anointed shall bring in of the blood of the calf into the tabernacle of witness"; and again a little later: "And he shall do with the calf," he says, "just as he did with the calf for sin, and the priest shall make propitiation for them, and it shall be forgiven them." Through blood, then, the priest makes propitiation for the whole assembly, that it may be forgiven them. Let us now examine each of the several names which are written concerning the Savior, and let us contemplate more diligently, in each of the titles, what things they are that are designated. You will find, therefore, since indeed it pleased all the fullness of the divinity to dwell in him bodily, that he himself is both the propitiatory, and the high priest, and the victim "which is offered for the people." And concerning the propitiatory enough has already been said. But concerning the high priest, David in the Psalm writes plainly, and the apostle Paul to the Hebrews. And that he is also the victim, John testifies, saying: "This is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." According, therefore, to that whereby he is a victim, propitiation is effected by the pouring out of his blood, in that he gives remission of former offenses; which propitiation, nevertheless, comes to each one of the believers by the way of faith. For unless he were to give remission of former offenses, the propitiation would not be proved to have been effected. But since remission of sins is granted, it is certain that the propitiation has been fulfilled by the outpouring of the sacred blood: for "without the shedding of blood," as the Apostle says, "there is no remission" of sins. But lest Paul should seem to you to have been the only one to venture upon the name of propitiation in Christ, hear how John too speaks in harmony with this sense when he says: "My little children, these things I write to you, that you may not sin. But if anyone shall have sinned, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the just; and he is the propitiation for our sins; and not only for ours, but also for those of the whole world." With one and the same sense, therefore, the apostles name Christ "propitiatory," or "propitiation," or — as is more frequently found in the Latin manuscripts — "Propitiator." But it makes no difference whether "propitiator" or "propitiatory" or "propitiation" or even "entreaty" be written, since among the Greeks it is always expressed by one and the same word. Unless perhaps it should seem to some that "propitiation" is his divine substance itself, while "propitiator" is understood of him when he fulfills the dispensations among men. But that also which John said, that "he himself is the entreaty (or propitiation) for our sins; and not only for ours, but also for those of the whole world," seems to have brought us a certain enlargement of the mystery, so as to show that Jesus is the propitiator not only of believers, but of the whole world as well; yet not first of the world, and then ours, but first ours, and only so at last of the whole world. For although the whole creation awaits the grace of the Redeemer, nevertheless each one will come to salvation in his own order. This I judge to be indicated in Leviticus also, where the victims of propitiation are commanded to be offered through the high priest. Nor yet in these is a confused order of sacrifices set forth; but first he says what the propitiation is, and what kind of victim is to be offered if the priest has sinned. Second, if the whole assembly has offended through ignorance, with what sort of victims God is appeased. Third, if a ruler has sinned, it is written in what order he is to be purified. Fourth, if a single soul has sinned, concerning this too the rite of expiation is set out. These several things, in their mystical understanding, designate by certain fixed orders and modes and causes the future propitiation of Christ, not only for our sins but also for the whole world — provided, however, that one look upon them, illuminated by the Holy Spirit, according to that revelation which is said to have been shown to Moses on the mountain. There comes about, therefore, through the propitiation of the blood of Christ, the remission "of former offenses, in the forbearance of God, for the showing forth of his justice." The forbearance of God is where the sinner is not punished the moment he sins, but, according to what the Apostle said in that same place, is led by the patience of God to repentance; and in this God is said to show forth his justice.

"But if our iniquity commends the justice of God, what shall we say? Is God unjust, who inflicts wrath? I speak according to man. God forbid. Otherwise, how shall God judge this world? For if the truth of God has abounded through my lie unto his glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner? and not (as we are blasphemed, and as some affirm that we say) let us do evil that good may come? whose condemnation is just." Perhaps the order of speaking arranged by the apostle Paul through nearly the whole text of this Epistle will seem highly inconsequent, since his discourse is now directed against the Gentiles, now moderated on behalf of the Gentiles, and again is set against the Jews, and again concerning the Jews, or even on behalf of the Jews; and of these same people he calls some worthy of praise and censures others. And this variety of meanings will again be thought to have led him outside the lines of the subject he had proposed — as when he employs that exclamation in which he says: "But let God be true, and every man a liar"; or even that which he consequently adds when he says: "But if our iniquity commends the justice of God," and the rest, so that by this he may seem to have slipped from one digression into another. But we who believe him when he says that "he has made us fit ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the spirit," find his meaning far loftier than the method of human art is believed to possess. For through the whole text of this Epistle he wishes to trace what salvation there was even before the coming of Christ for those living according to the law; or how, through the coming of the Savior, salvation is in turn conferred upon the Gentiles out of the unbelief of Israel; and again, that neither do the Gentiles come to salvation in their entirety, but only those who have believed; nor is Israel cast off in its entirety, but "the remnant" of believers "shall be saved." And for this reason the order of speaking seems, as I said, confused, while he pursues the diversities of believers and unbelievers on both sides. In these matters he necessarily turns his discourse also to God, so that amid all these differences of acceptances and rejections he may teach that the judgments of God are indeed true and just, but that much falsehood abounds among men; and therefore he says: "But let God be true, and every man a liar; as it is written: That thou mayest be justified in thy words, and mayest overcome when thou art judged" — concerning which we have spoken above as far as we were able. Seeing then that a plausible objection could be raised against him from the contrary side — namely, that if it is necessary for every man to be a liar in order that God may be true, and if the justice of God is commended through the injustice of men, then God will seem unjust who inflicts wrath upon men, since he sees his own justice approved through the injustice of men: for if our injustice, that is, the injustice of men, commends the justice of God, then surely those men will not seem worthy of punishment through whom the justice of God is held to be more provable and more manifest — But God forbid, he says, that we should accept it thus, that God should seem unjust who brings wrath against men. For how shall he be thought unjust who judges the world, since by the very name of judge it is shown that he does nothing without judgment? And where there is judgment, it is agreed that there is justice; for justice is named both judge and judgment. If then, as unjust men, he says, happen to assert of us, "the truth of God has abounded through my lie," then it is superfluous that "I am judged as a sinner." But rather that will be seen wherein they blaspheme us, he says, as though we were seen to say this: if the truth of God is more displayed in the lie of men, and his justice is proved through the injustice of men, then let us "do evil, that" out of evils "good may come"; and let us lie, so that from our lie the truth of God may shine forth. But these things indeed they invent about us who blaspheme us, as though these things seemed to be said, or to follow, from the logic of our own assertion. But the reasoning of our teaching in no way admits this, since we understand God to be a just and true judge. It should surely be known that in certain Greek copies it is found thus: "Is God unjust, who inflicts wrath against men?" And according to this sense the things we have said will seem to fit better. But according to what we find in the Latin copies, and in some of the Greek: "Is God unjust, who inflicts wrath? I speak according to man. God forbid" — it seems it must be understood in this way. This statement that "God is unjust who inflicts wrath," on the ground that "our injustice commends the justice of God," is not said according to God, nor according to the wisdom of God, but "according to man," and according to that which is said, "every man is a liar." Now these things we have said while still treating the very order of the discourses and the sequence of the statements, so that the division itself of the words might make the way of understanding more open to us. But now let us inquire what sense is to be held in these discourses according to apostolic worth. Every discipline consists of favorable things and of adverse or contrary ones. For example: medicine professes the knowledge not only of health but also of sickness; and although it pursues the study of health, it nevertheless cannot be ignorant of what belongs to sickness. Similarly prudence too consists in the knowledge of good and evil; and temperance knows what things are to be chosen and what are to be avoided; and fortitude is not ignorant of what pertains to fear. So also justice. If we wish to know what justice is, it is necessary for us to know what injustice is; and when we have grasped the full knowledge of injustice, from that very thing we shall come to know what justice also is; for when it has become clear what is unjust, consequently what is just also will appear. And since justice is in God, whose nature is inaccessible to human perception, but injustice is found in us men, or even in every rational creature, it is from this injustice of ours, which is known to us, that that justice of God which is, as it were, inaccessible and incomprehensible to us is known and commended, and as it were the contrary is disclosed from its contrary. The apostle Paul therefore marks the ignorance of those who raise an inconsequent question, thinking that God is unjust who brings wrath upon men, on the ground that his justice is commended from our injustice; not knowing, however, that it comes about not by the benefit of our sins but by the very nature of reason, that contraries are proved from contraries. Therefore the Apostle speaks thus: "But if our injustice commends the justice of God, what shall we say? Is God unjust, who inflicts wrath? I speak according to man. God forbid. Otherwise, how shall God judge the world?" God is therefore not proved unjust in this, if the method of instruction proves contraries from contraries, and commends justice from injustice; but rather, with full consistency, justice is worthily and deservedly hostile to injustice and opposed to it, just as life is hostile and opposed to death, and light to darkness. And therefore God, in whom righteousness resides, is said to bring wrath upon those men in whom unrighteousness dwells. For these two are by nature opposed to one another. And how, even on this very account, will God appear unrighteous, who opposes unrighteousness? And for this reason perhaps the Apostle did not say that we unrighteous men commend the righteousness of God; but he says: "If our unrighteousness commends the righteousness of God" — so as to show that it is not God who is contrary to men, but righteousness that is contrary to unrighteousness; and that wrath is brought upon men because they have given a place to unrighteousness within themselves. God therefore, who is righteousness, will not appear unrighteous when He is angry against unrighteousness, toward which it is not fitting that He should be favorable; but this wrath reaches even to those men who have offered themselves as ministers of the unrighteousness at which God is angry. For in no one can unrighteousness and righteousness both subsist; but just as righteousness is the effect of a righteous and upright work, which is found first in God, and then also in those who imitate Him, so too unrighteousness is the effect of an unrighteous and crooked work, which is detected first in the devil, and then also in those who are willing to imitate him. And therefore wrath is deservedly said to be brought upon them, even though out of their unrighteousness, as by way of contrast, the righteousness of God seems to have shone forth. For they might, just as they received into themselves the disposition of an unrighteous and crooked work, much more have received that of a righteous and upright one. Justly, therefore, is wrath said to be brought by God upon all men. For those in whom wrath has no place are already to be called not men, but above men. And for this reason perhaps the same apostle Paul makes his pronouncement concerning all men, saying that "we were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest." For he did not say, "We were children of wrath," but he added: "We were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest." For all men have been made by nature children of wrath, from the fact that they were gods and sons of the Most High, and through this were called men. For attend more diligently to how he says: "I said: You are gods, and sons of the Most High"; and he added, "all of you." This addition signifies the whole human race bound together at once under this title. Finally, in what follows he says: "But you shall die like men." Hence also that which is written: "And God reflected that He had made man upon the earth; and it repented Him in His heart, and God said: I will blot out man whom I have made from the face of the earth" — this I think was said not only with reference to the destruction of the flood, but that something was also foretold by it, under a mystery, concerning things to come: so that what is said, "I will blot out man," may be understood in the same way as when God says through the prophet: "For behold, I blot out your iniquities like a cloud"; that He may be seen to blot him out according to that which is man, so as afterwards to make him god, at that time when "God will be all in all." And to this sense may also be applied what is said in Genesis: "The time of every man has come before my sight" — so that it may be thought to have been said not only about that time of the flood then, but also about the mystery of baptism; just as the apostle Peter says that, as Noah was then saved from the flood, so now also in like manner believers are saved through baptism. And thus what he says, that "the time of every man" has come, can be understood with reference to salvation, so that believers are understood, through the grace of baptism, to be destined to be changed from men into a higher order, when the day of resurrection shall have come, where all the saints "shall be as the angels of God." Let this be what has been said, so far as it could occur to us, concerning that which was stated: "Is God unrighteous who brings wrath," or "against men," as we said is read in certain copies, or, as we have it, "I speak after the manner of man. God forbid."

Hence he also fittingly adds in what follows: "Or is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also. Since indeed there is one God, who justifies the circumcision from faith, and the uncircumcision through faith." For those who would have the God of the Jews to be one and the God of the Gentiles another — that is, one God of the Law and another of the Gospels — the reply on this point will be narrow and confining enough, since the apostle Paul gives his verdict abundantly enough when he not only says that there is one God of Jews and of Gentiles, but also adds that it is one and the same God who justifies the circumcision from faith and the uncircumcision through faith. And if they should wish to take "circumcision" by way of allegory, so as to say that by this word he called all the holy and spiritual ones, they will at once find a stumbling block in what follows. For if he called the holy ones — or, as they name them, the spiritual ones — "circumcision," it follows that by "uncircumcision" he meant sinners, whom they call "animal" (of the soul). And how will it be fitting that the good God should justify spiritual and animal alike? For them, then, there will be an inextricable knot in these words of the Apostle. But according to us, who say that "circumcision" means those who have believed from among the Jews, and "uncircumcision" no less means those who have been called from among the Gentiles to the faith, the exposition will be plain and easy. For it is one and the same God who justifies believers from either people, not by the privilege of circumcision or of uncircumcision, but by the regard for faith alone. There remains also the difference of a single syllable, in which the Apostle seems to have varied his expression. Let it not pass us by idly that he says God justifies the circumcision *from* faith, and not *through* faith; but the uncircumcision *through* faith, and not *from* faith. For this exchange of prepositions does not seem to me to be held superfluous in his usage, since we find that in other places too they are set down by him not at random but observantly, and that the difference of this distinction is of necessity preserved — as when, speaking of God, he says: "Since from him, and through himself, and in him are all things." And again elsewhere he says: "For as the woman is from the man, so also the man is through the woman; but all things are from God." Of the same sort is what he writes to the Corinthians: "To one indeed through the Spirit is given the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith in the same Spirit." And not only does the apostle Paul maintain the observance of these distinctions, but John also, who, though he says of the Word of God that "all things were made through him," testifies that life was made not *through* him but *in* him, saying: "That which was made, in him was life." And since it would take much to expound the passages we have now brought forward by way of example, let us gather their sense briefly, so far as our capacity allows. When it is said "from him," something primary seems to be shown by the beginning of this preposition. But when "through him" is said, the understanding of a subsequent cause is designated — that is, of the cause which comes after the primary one. So that, to speak by way of example concerning what he says, "From him and through him and in him are all things": by "from him" he gave the signification of the first creation of all things, and of this very fact, that the things which exist began to be from God; by "through him," that those things which had earlier been made are governed and administered through him from whom they draw the beginning of their subsistence; by "in him," that those who have now been corrected and amended stand fast in his perfection. Thus, therefore, we are taught that these words maintain distinctions of the fullest reasonableness, so that our subsisting is said to be had "from God"; that we are administered and governed is designated as coming about "through him"; but that we stand in the summit of perfection is declared to be "in him." In the present passage too a certain such distinction can be observed, so that the circumcision, which is justified as it were in the first place and order, is mentioned as to be justified *from* faith and not *through* faith; while the uncircumcision, which is drawn to justification in the second place, is said to be justified not *from* faith but *through* faith. And I think that in that difference which we mentioned above — "For as the woman is from the man, so also the man is through the woman" — these things are more fully designated. For in the first place stands the man, from whom the woman is said to descend, and not *through* the man. But in the second place the man is through the woman; because the woman seems in a certain way to minister to the man as author, and therefore the man is said to be born *through* the woman, and not *from* the woman. But perhaps someone may meet this exposition of ours concerning the woman and the man, and object what the Apostle said concerning Christ: "Made from a woman, made under the law"; and he did not say, made *through* a woman. To him I think the answer must be given in this way. Of every man indeed it will be fitting to say that he was made through a woman, since indeed, before he was born through a woman, he took his beginning from a man; but Christ, who did not take the origin of his flesh from the seed of a man, is rightly said to have been made "from a woman." For to her, that is, to the woman, the very primary origin of his flesh is ascribed, and rightly is he mentioned by the Apostle as made not *through* a woman but "from a woman." One and the same God, therefore, justifies the circumcision from faith and the uncircumcision through faith. But if anyone should inquire rather curiously by whom those who are justified from faith are justified, and again from whom those who are justified through faith are justified — although perhaps much curiosity may seem to be in this, nevertheless we can suitably say that those who are justified from faith, having taken their beginning from faith, are brought to completion through the fulfillment of good works; and those who are justified through faith, having begun from good works, receive the summit of perfection through faith. Thus each, cleaving to the other, is brought to completion from the other.

"Where then is your boasting? It has been shut out. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we reckon that a man is justified by faith without the works of the law." Again and yet more often we admonish those who desire to attend more carefully to Paul's writings to hold more tenaciously to that distinction which we spoke of above — how he pursues now the case of circumcision, now that of uncircumcision, that is, of the Jews or of the Gentiles, always along a separate track. For if even a little should escape the reader, at once this narrow and slender footpath of understanding will be thrown into confusion. Therefore, when the Apostle had shown above what is the Jew's advantage, or what the usefulness of circumcision, and had taught that to those first ones the oracles of God were entrusted, and by these things had seemed to exalt that vaunting of theirs by which they are wont to raise themselves against the Gentiles; and again, in what follows, had set against these things the objection that the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ is unto all who believe, and that there is no distinction, but that all have sinned, both Jews and Greeks, and lack the glory of God, and are justified through the grace and redemption which is in Christ Jesus; and that he himself is the propitiatory through faith, and that every one who is of faith is justified by him — now at last, setting down as it were the conclusion of his assertions, he says in this place: "Where then is your boasting? It has been shut out. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we reckon that a man is justified by faith without the works of the law": and he says that the justification of faith alone suffices, so that one who merely believes is justified, even if no work at all has been completed by him. It presses upon us, therefore, who strive to assert that the Apostle's Scripture is whole and entire, and that all of it stands together in its own order, to inquire who has been justified by faith alone without works. So far, then, as concerns an example, I think that thief suffices who, crucified with Christ, cried out to him from the cross: "Lord Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." Nor is any other good work of his described in the Gospels, but for this faith alone Jesus says to him: "Truly I say to you: Today you shall be with me in paradise." Let us now, if it seems good, fit the words of the apostle Paul to the case of this thief, and say to the Jew: "Where then is your boasting?" Certainly it has been shut out; and shut out not by the law of works, but by the law of faith. For by faith this thief was justified without the works of the law: because concerning this the Lord did not inquire what he had previously done; nor did he wait to see what work he might complete once he had believed, but, as he was about to enter paradise, he took him as his companion, justified by confession alone. But also that woman of whom it is related in the Gospel according to Luke, that "when she had learned that Jesus reclined at table in the house of the Pharisee, she brought a vessel of ointment, and standing behind at his feet and weeping, she washed his feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head, and kissed them and anointed them with the ointment. But the Pharisee who had invited him, seeing this, said within himself: If this man were a prophet, he would surely know who and what sort of woman she is who touches his feet, for she is a sinner." But Jesus spoke to him the parable of the five hundred or the fifty denarii; and from no work of the law, but for faith alone, he says to her: "Your sins are forgiven you"; and again: "Your faith has saved you, go in peace." But also in many places of the Gospel we read that the Savior used this expression, so that he calls the faith of the believer the cause of his salvation. From all which it is clear that the Apostle rightly reckons that a man is justified by faith without the works of the law. But perhaps someone hearing these things may grow slack and take up a negligence of doing well, since indeed faith alone suffices for justification. To him we shall say that after justification, if anyone acts unjustly, without doubt he has despised the grace of justification. For no one receives pardon of sins for this purpose, that he should think license to sin has again been given him. For indulgence is granted not for future but for past offenses. Therefore, to return to our subject, a man is justified by faith, and the works of the law contribute nothing to him for justification. But where there is not the faith which justifies the believer, even if a man has works from the law, yet because they are not built upon the foundation of faith, although they may seem to be good, nevertheless they cannot justify the one who works them, because faith is lacking to them, which is the seal of those who are justified by God, as we said above, because "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him unto righteousness." So much is this so, that he who is justified by the grace of faith says, according to Paul, that "the grace of God which was given to me was not in vain." Therefore every boasting which comes from the works of the law is shut out. And that what we say may become still more evident, we shall give an example from those things which are written in the Gospel, where the Pharisee and the Publican went up to the temple of God; "and the Pharisee," he says, "standing in the midst, said: God, I give you thanks, because I am not as the rest of men, robbers, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican: I fast twice in the week; I give tithes of all that I possess," and the rest. And these things perhaps he may have said truly, but according to the Lord's sentence, being corrupted by the disease of vaunting, he did not go down from the temple justified. Such boasting, therefore, as came from the works of the law is shut out, because it does not have the humility of the cross of Christ; and hear what he says who boasts in that cross: "But far be it from me to boast, save in the cross of my Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." You see the Apostle not boasting over his righteousness, nor over his chastity, nor over his wisdom, nor over his other virtues or acts, but most openly declaring and saying: "He who boasts, let him boast in the Lord." And thus Jewish boasting has been shut out, not by the law of works, but by the law of faith which is in Christ Jesus, in whose cross the Apostle boasts. For who will rightly boast even over his own chastity, when he reads it written, that "if anyone looks upon a woman to desire her, he has already committed adultery with her in his heart"? Whence also the prophet says: "How shall anyone boast that he has a chaste heart?" Or who will boast over wisdom, when he sees it written, that "the world through wisdom did not know God: and therefore it pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe"? And again: "The foolish things of the world God has chosen, that he may confound the wise"? And who will boast even over his own righteousness, when he hears God saying through the prophet, that "all your righteousness is as the cloth of a menstruous woman"? The only just boasting, therefore, is in the faith of the cross of Christ, which shuts out all that boasting which comes down from the works of the law. And these things have been said by us because the Apostle spoke as it were in the language of one questioning: "Where then is your boasting?" And to this he himself answered himself: "It has been shut out." And again, as though he were questioning himself, he says: "By what law? Of works?" And he answered himself: "No, but by the law of faith. For we reckon that a man is justified by faith without the works of the law." Of these things we have already spoken above. But as to the fact that in the present place also he makes mention again of two laws, and speaks of the law of works and the law of faith, consider also for yourself, you who read, whether this discourse ought to be inclined toward the law of Moses and the natural law, or toward the law of the letter and the law of the spirit: because the law of the letter kills, and works death; but the law of the spirit of life sets free from the law of sin and death.

Hence he also fittingly adds in what follows: "Or is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also. Since indeed there is one God, who justifies the circumcision from faith, and the uncircumcision through faith." For those who would have the God of the Jews to be one and the God of the Gentiles another — that is, one God of the Law and another of the Gospels — the reply on this point will be narrow and confining enough, since the apostle Paul gives his verdict abundantly enough when he not only says that there is one God of Jews and of Gentiles, but also adds that it is one and the same God who justifies the circumcision from faith and the uncircumcision through faith. And if they should wish to take "circumcision" by way of allegory, so as to say that by this word he called all the holy and spiritual ones, they will at once find a stumbling block in what follows. For if he called the holy ones — or, as they name them, the spiritual ones — "circumcision," it follows that by "uncircumcision" he meant sinners, whom they call "animal" (of the soul). And how will it be fitting that the good God should justify spiritual and animal alike? For them, then, there will be an inextricable knot in these words of the Apostle. But according to us, who say that "circumcision" means those who have believed from among the Jews, and "uncircumcision" no less means those who have been called from among the Gentiles to the faith, the exposition will be plain and easy. For it is one and the same God who justifies believers from either people, not by the privilege of circumcision or of uncircumcision, but by the regard for faith alone. There remains also the difference of a single syllable, in which the Apostle seems to have varied his expression. Let it not pass us by idly that he says God justifies the circumcision *from* faith, and not *through* faith; but the uncircumcision *through* faith, and not *from* faith. For this exchange of prepositions does not seem to me to be held superfluous in his usage, since we find that in other places too they are set down by him not at random but observantly, and that the difference of this distinction is of necessity preserved — as when, speaking of God, he says: "Since from him, and through himself, and in him are all things." And again elsewhere he says: "For as the woman is from the man, so also the man is through the woman; but all things are from God." Of the same sort is what he writes to the Corinthians: "To one indeed through the Spirit is given the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith in the same Spirit." And not only does the apostle Paul maintain the observance of these distinctions, but John also, who, though he says of the Word of God that "all things were made through him," testifies that life was made not *through* him but *in* him, saying: "That which was made, in him was life." And since it would take much to expound the passages we have now brought forward by way of example, let us gather their sense briefly, so far as our capacity allows. When it is said "from him," something primary seems to be shown by the beginning of this preposition. But when "through him" is said, the understanding of a subsequent cause is designated — that is, of the cause which comes after the primary one. So that, to speak by way of example concerning what he says, "From him and through him and in him are all things": by "from him" he gave the signification of the first creation of all things, and of this very fact, that the things which exist began to be from God; by "through him," that those things which had earlier been made are governed and administered through him from whom they draw the beginning of their subsistence; by "in him," that those who have now been corrected and amended stand fast in his perfection. Thus, therefore, we are taught that these words maintain distinctions of the fullest reasonableness, so that our subsisting is said to be had "from God"; that we are administered and governed is designated as coming about "through him"; but that we stand in the summit of perfection is declared to be "in him." In the present passage too a certain such distinction can be observed, so that the circumcision, which is justified as it were in the first place and order, is mentioned as to be justified *from* faith and not *through* faith; while the uncircumcision, which is drawn to justification in the second place, is said to be justified not *from* faith but *through* faith. And I think that in that difference which we mentioned above — "For as the woman is from the man, so also the man is through the woman" — these things are more fully designated. For in the first place stands the man, from whom the woman is said to descend, and not *through* the man. But in the second place the man is through the woman; because the woman seems in a certain way to minister to the man as author, and therefore the man is said to be born *through* the woman, and not *from* the woman. But perhaps someone may meet this exposition of ours concerning the woman and the man, and object what the Apostle said concerning Christ: "Made from a woman, made under the law"; and he did not say, made *through* a woman. To him I think the answer must be given in this way. Of every man indeed it will be fitting to say that he was made through a woman, since indeed, before he was born through a woman, he took his beginning from a man; but Christ, who did not take the origin of his flesh from the seed of a man, is rightly said to have been made "from a woman." For to her, that is, to the woman, the very primary origin of his flesh is ascribed, and rightly is he mentioned by the Apostle as made not *through* a woman but "from a woman." One and the same God, therefore, justifies the circumcision from faith and the uncircumcision through faith. But if anyone should inquire rather curiously by whom those who are justified from faith are justified, and again from whom those who are justified through faith are justified — although perhaps much curiosity may seem to be in this, nevertheless we can suitably say that those who are justified from faith, having taken their beginning from faith, are brought to completion through the fulfillment of good works; and those who are justified through faith, having begun from good works, receive the summit of perfection through faith. Thus each, cleaving to the other, is brought to completion from the other.

He therefore who has understood in this way will certainly not say what is put forward in what follows as a foolish objection: "Why am I still also judged as a sinner?" but he perceives that he is deservedly to be judged, if he remains in the lie of men: and he who, according to what we have expounded above, being convicted by the truth of God perceives that he has erred, turning from his error glorifies the true God when the truth is recognized, and no longer blasphemes those who preach the truth, as though they said: "Let us do evil that good may come," knowing that in such a saying the condemnation of the blasphemer is just. It must also be observed that of those who preach the truth he said not so much that they are spoken ill of, which pertains to men, but that they are blasphemed, which pertains to God.

That it is impossible to attain to God the Father, except by His Son Jesus Christ. In the Gospel: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one cometh to the Father but by me." Also in the same place: "I am the door: by me if any man shall enter in, he shall be saved." Also in the same place: "Many prophets and righteous men have desired to see the things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them." Also in the same place: "He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life: he that is not obedient in word to the Son hath not life; but the wrath of God shall abide upon him." Also Paul to the Ephesians: "And when He had come, He preached peace to you, to those which are afar off, and peace to those which are near, because through Him we both have access in one Spirit unto the Father." Also to the Romans: "For all have sinned, and fail of the glory of God; but they are justified by His gift and grace, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus." Also in the Epistle of Peter the apostle: "Christ hath died once for our sins, the just for the unjust, that He might present us to God." Also in the same place: "For in this also was it preached to them that are dead, that they might be raised again." Also in the Epistle of John: "Whosoever denieth the Son, the same also hath not the Father. He that confesseth the Son, hath both the Son and the Father."

If every man is a liar and God alone is true, what else ought we servants and bishops of God to do except to reject human errors and lies and to remain in the truth of God, obeying the precepts of the Lord?

Nor ought it, my dearest brother, to disturb any one who is faithful and mindful of the Gospel, and retains the commands of the apostle who forewarns us; if in the last days certain persons, proud, contumacious, and enemies of God's priests, either depart from the Church or act against the Church, since both the Lord and His apostles have previously foretold that there should be such. Nor let any one wonder that the servant placed over them should be forsaken by some, when His own disciples forsook the Lord Himself, who performed such great and wonderful works, and illustrated the attributes of God the Father by the testimony of His doings. And yet He did not rebuke them when they went away, nor even severely threaten them; but rather, turning to His apostles, He said, "Will ye also go away? " manifestly observing the law whereby a man left to his own liberty, and established in his own choice, himself desires for himself either death or salvation. Nevertheless, Peter, upon whom by the same Lord the Church had been built, speaking one for all, and answering with the voice of the Church, says, "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life; and we believe, and are sure that Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God: " signifying, doubtless, and showing that those who departed from Christ perished by their own fault, yet that the Church which believes on Christ, and holds that which it has once learned, never departs from Him at all, and that those are the Church who remain in the house of God; but that, on the other hand, they are not the plantation planted by God the Father, whom we see not to be established with the stability of wheat, but blown about like chaff by the breath of the enemy scattering them, of whom John also in his epistle says, "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, no doubt they would have continued with us." Paul also warns us, when evil men perish out of the Church, not to be disturbed, nor to let our faith be lessened by the departure of the faithless. "For what," he says, "if some of them have departed from the faith? Hath their unbelief made the faith of God of none effect? God forbid! For God is true, but every man a liar."

Yet although, in these last times, evangelic rigour has not so failed in the Church of God, nor the strength of Christian virtue or faith so languished, that there is not left a portion of the priests which in no respect gives way under these ruins of things and wrecks of faith; but, bold and stedfast, they maintain the honour of the divine majesty and the priestly dignity, with full observance of fear. We remember and keep in view that, although others succumbed and yielded, Mattathias boldly vindicated God's law; that Elias, when the Jews gave way and departed from the divine religion, stood and nobly contended; that Daniel, deterred neither by the loneliness of a foreign country nor by the harassment of continual persecution, frequently and gloriously suffered martyrdoms; also that the three youths, subdued neither by their tender years nor by threats, stood up faithfully against the Babylonian fires, and conquered the victor king even in their very captivity itself. Let the number either of prevaricators or of traitors see to it, who have now begun to rise in the Church against the Church, and to corrupt as well the faith as the truth. Among very many there still remains a sincere mind and a substantial religion, and a spirit devoted to nothing but the Lord and its God. Nor does the perfidy of others press down the Christian faith into ruin, but rather stimulates and exalts it to glory, according to what the blessed Apostle Paul exhorts, and says: "For what if some of these have fallen from their faith: hath their unbelief made the faith of God of none effect? God forbid. For God is true, but every man a liar." But if every man is a liar,and God only true, what else ought we, the servants, and especially the priests, of God, to do, than forsake human errors and lies, and continue in the truth of God, keeping the Lord's precepts?

You have written also, that on my account the Church has now a portion of herself in a state of dispersion, although the whole people of the Church are collected, and united, and joined to itself in an undivided concord: they alone have remained without, who even, if they had been within, would have had to be cast out. Nor does the Lord, the protector of His people, and their guardian, suffer the wheat to be snatched from His floor; but the chaff alone can be separated from the Church, since also the apostle says, "For what if some of them have departed from the faith? shall their unbelief make the faith of God of none effect? God forbid; for God is true, but every man a liar." And the Lord also in the Gospel, when disciples forsook Him as He spoke, turning to the twelve, said, "Will ye also go away? "then Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the word of eternal life; and we believe, and are sure, that Thou art the Son of the living God." Peter speaks there, on whom the Church was to be built, teaching and showing in the name of the Church, that although a rebellious and arrogant multitude of those who will not hear and obey may depart, yet the Church does not depart from Christ; and they are the Church who are a people united to the priest, and the flock which adheres to its pastor. Whence you ought to know that the bishop is in the Church, and the Church in the bishop; and if any one be not with the bishop, that he is not in the Church, and that those flatter themselves in vain who creep in, not having peace with God's priests, and think that they communicate secretly with some; while the Church, which is Catholic and one, is not cut nor divided, but is indeed connected and bound together by the cement of priests who cohere with one another.

For the Lord chose Judas also among the apostles, and yet afterwards Judas betrayed the Lord. Yet not on that account did the faith and firmness of the apostles fail, because the traitor Judas failed from their fellowship: so also in the case in question the holiness and dignity of confessors is not forthwith diminished, because the faith of some of them is broken. The blessed Apostle Paul in his epistle speaks in this manner: "For what if some of them fall away from the faith, shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid: for God is true, though every man be a liar." The greater and better part of the confessors stand firm in the strength of their faith, and in the truth of the law and discipline of the Lord; neither do they depart from the peace of the Church, who remember that they have obtained grace in the Church by the condescension of God; and by this very thing they obtain a higher praise of their faith, that they have separated from the faithlessness of those who have been associated with them in the fellowship of confession, and withdrawn from the contagion of crime. Illuminated by the true light of the Gospel, shone upon with the Lord's pure and white brightness, they are as praiseworthy in maintaining the peace of Christ, as they have been victorious in their combat with the devil.

Paulus of Obba said: It does not disturb me if any man does not assert the faith and truth of the Church, since the apostle says, "For what if some of them have fallen away from the faith? Has their unbelief made the faith of God of no effect? By no means. For God is true, but every man a liar." But if God is true, how can the truth of baptism be among the heretics, among whom God is not?

Hence the threatening countenance, the lowering aspect, pallor in the face, trembling on the lips, gnashing of the teeth, mad words, unbridled revilings, a hand prompt for the violence of slaughter; even if for the time deprived of a sword, yet armed with the hatred of an infuriate mind. And accordingly the Holy Spirit says in the Psalms: "Be not jealous against him who walketh prosperously in his way." And again: "The wicked shall observe the righteous, and shall gnash upon him with his teeth. But God shall laugh at him; for He seeth that his day is coming." The blessed Apostle Paul designates and points out these when he says, "The poison of asps is under their lips, and their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in their ways, who have not known the way of peace; neither is the fear of God before their eyes."

That the catechumen ought now no longer to sin. In the Epistle of Paul to the Romans: "Let us do evil until the good things come; whose condemnation is just."

Even if all men loved a lie before the coming of the truth, the true God nevertheless remained just, holding fast to the things which were proper to God and fulfilling everything which was said that was fitting.

When Paul says "To begin with," he does not go on to list a second or third item. He means rather that what he begins with is comprehensive of all good things. For what could be better than to believe the words of God?

Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace have they not known. The fear of God is not before their eyes.

[The righteousness of God] has not been manifested in opposition to the law but as an increase of good and as the free gift of God, so that we may no longer be judged according to human righteousness, which is always under judgment, but that we may be made perfect by the righteousness which comes from God. For this is the righteousness which comes by faith in Christ to all who believe and which dwells in them all.

Let it be agreed, Paul says, that God is faithful and true in every case, whereas men have been judged as unfaithful and untrue, so that God by his goodness may conquer the self-righteousness of men by bestowing his own righteousness upon them.

This includes both Jews and Greeks. For all here includes even the saints in order to show that nobody can keep the law without faith. For the law was given in such a way that faith was also embedded in it. This faith looked toward a future salvation. Thus the death of Christ benefits everyone, because it has here in this world taught what is to be believed and observed, and in the future it will deliver everyone from hell.

Paul says that the law is not nullified by faith but fulfilled. For its status is confirmed when faith bears witness that what it said would come has actually happened. Paul says this because of the Jews who thought that faith in Christ was inimical to the law because they did not understand the true meaning of the law. For Paul does not nullify the law when he says that it must come to an end, because he asserts that at the time it was given it was rightly given, but now it does not have to be kept any longer. In the law itself it is said that a time would come when the promise would be fulfilled and the law would no longer have to be kept.… "Behold the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers."

Since they hastened to do evil, Paul called their path a ruinous and unhappy way.

No one doubts that those who do not look to God for help are inclined to seek help from vain things, and vanity is an idol. Thus they become useless. Once that happens they cannot do good either, for those who have already fallen just go from bad to worse.

Because God is true, he gives what he has promised. To fail is human, for the times and the foolishness of nature make man unstable in that he does not have foreknowledge. But God, for whom there is no future, remains unchanging, as he says: "I the Lord do not change." Therefore Paul says that all men are liars, and this is true. For nature is fallible and is not unreasonably called a liar. It may be a liar intentionally or accidentally, but we must not expect God to be like that, for he is perfect and full of good will and will accomplish what he has promised. He even confirms this by the prophetic oracle: "Thou art justified in thy sentence and blameless in thy judgment."

It is clear and obvious that evil people are always throwing curses and bitterness at the good in an attempt to harm and distract them.

Having chosen the way of hostility, along which they were heading toward the second death, they did not want to know about the way which leads to eternal life. This is called the way of peace, because with God as its guardian it will have no disturbance. Those who will the good have this rest with God.

Although Paul says that there are many things which pertain to the honor and merit of the seed of Abraham, he records only one of them openly, because it is their greatest boast: They were judged worthy to receive the law, by which they learned to distinguish right from wrong. Only after that was it possible for the value of other things to be understood. But as far as the Jews according to the flesh are concerned (that is, the unbelievers among them), Paul shows that the witness of their race is of no advantage to them. But so as not to appear to be treating them all, including the believers among them, badly, he teaches that the law is very useful to Jewish believers, because they are children of Abraham.For it was to them that the oracles of God were entrusted. It is by the merits of their ancestors that they received the law and were called God's people.… Egypt was hit by different plagues because of the wrongs which it did to them. They dined on heavenly manna; they were a terror to all nations, as Rahab the harlot bore witness. Moreover, it was to them that Christ the Savior was promised for their sanctification. Therefore Paul says that in many ways it was useful to the Jews, because they were the children of Abraham and came before the Gentiles.

Since people of this kind have no sense, they have no fear of God. For "the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom," says Solomon. But Scripture did not say that they did not have the fear of God. It said: "There is no fear of God before their eyes." For seeing how evil their works were and not being horrified by them, they are said not to have the fear of God before their eyes.

Scripture says this about the murder of the prophets, whom they killed without hesitation—"slow to do good but swift to murder."

It is true that it would not have been just if God had judged the world if its sins were of some benefit to him, so that whenever sinners received forgiveness at his nod, God would appear to be good. Then if they had not sinned, according to this reasoning, he would not appear to be righteous. For if they had not sinned there would be nothing to forgive, and God would not be good. But this kind of thinking is absurd!

Paul says that a Gentile can be sure that he is justified by faith without doing the works of the law, e. g., circumcision or new moons or the veneration of the sabbath.

It is clear that the righteousness of God has now appeared apart from the law, but this means apart from the law of the sabbath, the circumcision, the new moon and revenge, not apart from the sacrament of God's divinity, because the righteousness of God is all about God's divinity. For when the law held them guilty, the righteousness of God forgave them and did so apart from the law so that until the law was brought to bear God forgave them their sin. And lest someone think that this was done against the law, Paul added that the righteousness of God had a witness in the Law and the Prophets, which means that the law itself had said that in the future someone would come who would save mankind. But it was not allowed for the law to forgive sin.Therefore, what is called the righteousness of God appears to be mercy because it has its origin in the promise, and when God's promise is fulfilled it is called "the righteousness of God." For it is righteousness when what is promised has been delivered. And when God accepts those who flee to him for refuge, this is called righteousness, because wickedness would not accept such people.

What else comes through faith in Jesus Christ except the righteousness of God which is the revelation of Christ? For it is by faith in the revelation of Jesus Christ that the gift long ago promised by God is acknowledged and received.

The present time means our time, in which God has given what long before he had promised to give at the time at which he gave it. Paul has rightly said that God gave what he promised in order to be revealed as righteous. For he had promised that he would justify those who believe in Christ, as he says in Habakkuk: "The righteous will live by faith in me." Whoever has faith in God and Christ is righteous.

Paul is saying: "Why go on talking like this? For we have shown by the examples given that all, Jews and Gentiles alike, are guilty and that the law is being pursued in vain." For Paul first showed that the Gentiles are guilty according to the law of nature and also because they did not accept the law of Moses, for which reason their case is very dire indeed. Then he showed that the Jews were also guilty. While they appeared to be living under God's law and defended their privilege by the merit of their ancestors, they in fact brought the grace of God into disrepute because they rejected the promise made to their ancestors.

Paul says this because it was not foreordained that believing Jews would not be thought worthy of receiving what God had promised just because the others were unbelieving, for the promise was such that the gift of grace would be given to those who believed.Therefore God is not put out because of the unbelief of the Jews and will grant eternal life to their believers, which he promised would be given to those who believed in Christ. Those who did not believe excluded themselves from consideration without doing the rest any injury. Having said this, Paul commends Jewish believers, because it was not their fault that many of their kinsmen refused to believe.

Paul never says that they will not be justified before God because they have not kept the law of righteousness in the commandments but because they have refused to believe the sacrament of the mystery of God, which is in Christ. For God has declared that they should be justified by Christ and not by the law, which may justify for a time, but not before God. Therefore those who keep the law are justified in time, not before God, because faith, by which they are justified before God, is not in them. For faith is greater than the law. The law pertains to us but faith pertains to God. The law has a temporary righteousness, but faith has an eternal one. When Paul says "all flesh" he means every human being … but when he says "in the flesh" he means those who are bound by sin. For just as righteousness makes them spiritual, so also sins make them carnal, and they take the name from the deed.By faith the law is abolished, and faith then follows. What then is this law through which he says that sin is made known? Made known how? It is evident that long before Moses the patriarchs were not ignorant of sin. Joseph was thrown into prison, albeit by the wickedness of others, and both the butler and the baker of Pharaoh were in prison because of their sins. In what way then did sin lie dormant?
In fact, the law has three aspects to it. The first concerns the mystery of God's divinity. The second is what is fitting according to natural law, which forbids sin. And the third is the deeds of the law, e. g., sabbaths, new moons, circumcision, etc. Here Paul refers to the natural law which was partly reformed and partly confirmed by Moses, which made sin known to all who were bound in wickedness.… The law shows the coming judgment of God and that no sinner will escape punishment, in case someone who has escaped for a time thinks that the law is an illusion. This is what the law shows: that sin will be dealt with by God.

They are justified freely because they have not done anything nor given anything in return, but by faith alone they have been made holy by the gift of God. Paul testifies that the grace of God is in Christ, because we have been redeemed by Christ according to the will of God so that once set free we may be justified, as he says to the Galatians: "Christ redeemed us by offering himself for us." For he achieved this despite the fierce attacks of the devil, who was outwitted. For the devil received Christ (in hell) thinking that he could hold him there, but because he could not withstand his power he lost not only Christ but all those whom he held at the same time.

Paul tells those who live under the law that they have no reason to boast basing themselves on the law and claiming to be of the race of Abraham, seeing that no one is justified before God except by faith.

Already chained to evil, they wanted if possible to devour the good, so that just as a sepulchre is open to receive corpses, so their throat is open to devour the good.… The words of men are like tiny mice. They speak in order to deceive, and just as poison flows from the lips of a serpent, so trickery and deceit flow from their lips.

From unrighteousness Paul goes on to list their evil deeds and even adds some worse ones, in order to show that there was no hope for them unless they cried out for the mercy of Christ, who forgives sins.

It is clear that the law censures those who did not believe first of all their leader Moses nor their ancestors the prophets, whom they killed, nor the apostles who were their kinsmen according to the flesh, whose blood they spilled. They were always ungodly and rebellious against God, so as to be condemned by the law whose authority they thought should be despised.Paul says this because with the Jews bound in sin the whole world has become subject to God. For there is no doubt that the pagans were immersed in sins and wickedness and that for that reason the whole world bowed before God in order to obtain forgiveness. The "whole world" means Jews and Gentiles, from whom believers are set apart. Therefore when Paul affirms that the Jews, who had received God's law and to whom the promise had been given, were bound in sin, there is no doubt that all the Gentiles were guilty of death … for all have been found guilty and need the mercy of God, whether they be Jews or Gentiles.

Seek God. Do not be like Asa the king of Judah, who after receiving many blessings from God fell so far that when he suffered lameness in his feet he would not seek God even though there was a prophet present.

Paul says this, because in Christ God put forward, i.e., appointed, himself as a future expiation for the human race if they believed. This expiation was by his blood. We have been set free by his death so that God might reveal him and condemn death by his passion. This was in order to make his promise clear, by which he set us free from sin as he had promised before. And when he fulfilled this promise he showed himself to be righteous.God knew the purpose of his lovingkindness, by which he determined to come to the rescue of sinners, both those living on earth and those who were held bound in hell. He waited a very long time for both. He nullified the sentence by which it seemed just that everyone should be condemned in order to show us that long ago he had decided to liberate the human race, as he promised through Jeremiah the prophet, saying: "I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more." And in case it might be thought that this promise was for the Jews only, he said through Isaiah: "My house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples."26
For although the promise was made to the Jews, God knew in advance that the ungodly Jews would reject his gift. Therefore he promised that he would allow the Gentiles to share in his grace. In view of this the ungodly negligence of the Jews was thwarted.

David had sinned in the case of Uriah the Hittite. Because he knew that the promise would not be given to sinners, he pleaded that the righteousness of the words of God might overrule the judgment which said that the promise should not be given to sinners and that it might sanctify the penitent in order to give him what God had promised he would give to the righteous. To this Paul adds that … if God is justified because we are sinners, it would be wrong of him to pardon us on that account. If it can really be said that our wickedness is of some advantage to God, then there is some measure of truth in this reasoning. But it is dangerous to speak like that. God is not unjust if he judges, because our unrighteousness is of no benefit to him. It is not as if he would somehow be justified by our sins or as if he would somehow rejoice at our sins, by which he alone would then appear to be righteous.This way of thinking suits men but not God, because it does not happen that God should ever be unjust, only man. Nor does our unrighteousness make God righteous if he gives to us sinners what he promised to the saints, for although we are sinners, we are reformed by repentance so that it is not as sinners but as those who have been cleansed that we are readied to receive the promise.

By "the circumcised" Paul means the Jews who have been justified by their faith in the promise and who believe that Jesus is the Christ whom God had promised in the law. By "the uncircumcised" he means the Gentiles who have been justified with God by their faith in Christ. Thus God has justified both Jews and Gentiles. For because God is one, everyone has been justified in the same way. What benefit then is there in circumcision? Or what disadvantage is there in uncircumcision when only faith produces worthiness and merit?

Undoubtedly there is only one God for everybody. For even the Jews cannot claim that their God is not the God of the Gentiles also, because they believe that the origin of all people is from the one Adam and that no one who comes willingly to the law may be prevented from accepting it. Some Gentiles actually went with the Israelites into the desert of Egypt, and the Israelites were ordered to accept them as long as they agreed to be circumcised and eat unleavened bread, or the Passover, together with the rest of them. Then again Cornelius, a Gentile who was not judaized, received the gift of God, and it is clear from holy Scripture that he was justified.

This is why the apostle asked himself this question. The matter was raised by opponents, as if this were the meaning of the preaching of the forgiveness of sins—that they should do evil and good would come of it. That is, they should sin so that by forgiving their sins God should appear to be good, according to what has just been said above. Paul calls this blasphemy and rejects it as a bad interpretation of God's teaching. Faith is not meant to encourage people to sin by preaching that God will ultimately be vindicated. Rather, it gives sinners a remedy so that having recovered their health they may live under the law of God and not sin again.

Christ, being an "expiation by his blood," teaches each one thinking of this to become himself a propitiation, sanctifying his soul by the mortification of his members.

Does God lie? Truly He lies not, because it is impossible for God to lie. And further, does this impossibility arise from infirmity? No, truly, for how can He be Almighty if He cannot do all things? What then is impossible to Him? Not that which is difficult to His Power, but what is contrary to His Nature. It is impossible, it is said, for Him to lie. This impossibility comes not of infirmity, but of Power and Majesty, for truth admits not of falsehood, nor God's Power of the weakness of error. Wherefore let God be true and every man a liar.

"Do we then," he says, "make void the Law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the Law." Do you see his varied and unspeakable judgment? For the bare use of the word "establish" shows that it was not then standing, but was worn out. And note also Paul's exceeding power, and how superabundantly he maintains what he wishes. For here he shows that the faith, so far from doing any disparagement to the "Law," even assists it, as it on the other hand paved the way for the faith. For as the Law itself before bore witness to it (for he saith, "being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets"), so here this establisheth that, now that it is unnerved. And how did it establish? he would say. What was the object of the Law and what the scope of all its enactments? Why, to make man righteous. But this it had no power to do. "For all," it says, "have sinned:" but faith when it came accomplished it. For when a man is once a believer, he is straightway justified. The intention then of the Law it did establish, and what all its enactments aim after, this hath it brought to a consummation. Consequently it has not disannulled, but perfected it. Here then three points he has demonstrated; first, that without the Law it is possible to be justified; next, that this the Law could not effect; and, that faith is not opposed to the Law.

"Much every way: chiefly, because that they were entrusted with the oracles of God." Do you see that, as I said above, it is not their well doings, but the benefits of God, that he everywhere counts up? And what is the word "entrusted?" It means, that they had the Law put into their hands because He held them to be of so much account that He entrusted to them oracles which came down from above. I know indeed that some take the "entrusted" not of the Jews, but of the oracles, as much as to say, the Law was believed in. But the context does not admit of this being held good. For in the first place he is saying this with a view to accuse them, and to show that, though in the enjoyment of many a blessing from above, they yet showed great ingratitude. Then, the context also makes this clear. For he goes on to say, "For what if some did not believe?" If they did not believe, how do some say, the oracles were believed in? What does he mean then? Why that God entrusted the same to them, and not that they trusted to the oracles.

"Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the Law." When he had shown that by faith they were superior to the Jews, then he goes on with great confidence to discourse upon it also, and what seemed therein to annoy he again heals up. For these two things were what confused the Jews; one, if it were possible for men, who with works were not saved, to be saved without them, and another, if it were just for the uncircumcised to enjoy the same blessings with those, who had during so long a period been nurtured in the Law; which last confused them more by far than the former. And on this ground having proved the former, he goes on to the other next, which perplexed the Jews so far, that they even complained on account of this position against Peter after they believed. What does he say then? "Therefore we conclude, that by faith a man is justified." He does not say, a Jew, or one under the Law, but after leading forth his discourse into a large room, and opening the doors of faith to the world, he says "a man," the name common to our race.

After saying, "the righteousness of God," he adds straightway, "by faith unto all and upon all that believe." Here again the Jew is alarmed by his not having anything better than the rest, and being numbered with the whole world. Now that he may not feel this, he again lowers him with fear by adding, "For there is no difference, for all have sinned." For tell me not that it is such and such a Greek, such and such a Scythian, such and such a Thracian, for all are in the same plight. For even if you have received the Law, one thing alone is there which you have learnt from the Law-to know sin, not to flee from it. Next, that they may say, "even if we have sinned, still it is not in the same way that they did," he added, "and have come short of the glory of God." So that even if you have not done the same sins as others, still you are alike bereft of the glory, since you belong to those who have offended, and he that hath offended belongeth not to such as are glorified, but to such as are put to shame. Yet, be not afraid: for the reason of my saying this was not that I might thrust you into despair, but that I might show the love of the Lord toward man.

"But now the righteousness of God without the Law is manifested." Here he utters a great thing, and such as needed much proof. For if they that lived in the Law not only did not escape punishment, but were even the more weighed down thereby, how without the Law is it possible not only to escape vengeance, but even to be justified? For he has here set down two high points, the being justified, and the obtaining these blessings, without the Law. And this is why he does not say righteousness simply, but the righteousness of God, so by the worthiness of the Person displaying the greater degree of the grace, and the possibility of the promise. For to Him all things are possible. And he does not say, "was given," but "is manifested," so cutting away the accusation of novelty. For that which is manifested, is so as being old, but concealed. And it is not this only, but the sequel that shows that this is no recent thing. For after saying, "is manifested," he proceeds: "Being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets." Do not be troubled, he means, because it has but now been given, nor be affrighted as though at a thing new and strange. For of old both the Law and the Prophets foretold it.

"For what if some did not believe?" And what comes next makes the same point clear. For he again adds and follows; "Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid." The word "entrusted," then, proclaims God's gift. And I would have you here also note his judgment. For again he does not bring in his accusation of them on his own part, but as it were by way of objection, as if he said, But perhaps you will say, `What then is the use of this circumcision since they used it not as was fitting, since they were trusted with the Law and were unfaithful to the trust?' And hitherto he is not a severe accuser, but as if to clear God of complaints against Him, he by this means turns the whole of the accusation round upon themselves. For why, he would say, do you complain that they did not believe? and how doth this affect God? For as for His benefit, doth the ingratitude of those benefited overturn it? Or doth it make the honor to be no honor? For this is what the words, "Shall their unfaithfulness make the faith of God without effect," amount to. "God forbid." As if one should say, I have honored such an one. And if he did not receive the honor, this gives no ground for accusing me, nor impairs my kindness, but shows his want of feeling. But Paul does not say this merely, but what is much more. That not only does their unbelief not leave the soil of complaint upon God, but even shows His honor and love of man to be the greater, in that He is seen to have bestowed honor upon one who would dishonor Him.

"What then have we more than they? For we have proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin. As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one." He had accused the Gentiles, he had accused the Jews; it came next in order to mention the righteousness which is by faith. For if the law of nature availed not, and the written Law was of no advantage, but both weighed down those that used them not aright, and made it plain that they were worthy of greater punishment, then after this the salvation which is by grace was necessary. Speak then of it, O Paul, and display it. But as yet he does not venture, as having an eye to the violence of the Jews, and so turns afresh to his accusation of them; and first he brings in as accuser, David speaking of the same things at length, which Isaiah mentioned all in short compass, so furnishing a strong curb for them, so that they might not bound off, nor any of his hearers, while the matters of faith were laid open to them, might after this start away; being beforehand safely held down by the accusations of the prophets. For there are three excesses which the prophet lays down; he says that all of them together did evil, and that they did not do good indifferently with evil, but that they followed after wickedness alone, and followed it also with all earnestness. And next that they should not say, "What then, if these things were said to others?" he goes on:

"To declare His righteousness." What is declaring of righteousness? Like the declaring of His riches, not only for Him to be rich Himself, but also to make others rich, or of life, not only that He is Himself living, but also that He makes the dead to live; and of His power, not only that He is Himself powerful, but also that He makes the feeble powerful. So also is the declaring of His righteousness not only that He is Himself righteous, but that He doth also make them that are filled with the putrefying sores of sin suddenly righteous. And it is to explain this, viz. what is "declaring," that he has added, "That He might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." Doubt not then: for it is not of works, but of faith: and shun not the righteousness of God, for it is a blessing in two ways; because it is easy, and also open to all men. And be not abashed and shamefaced. For if He Himself openly declareth Himself to do so, and He, so to say, findeth a delight and a pride therein, how comest thou to be dejected and to hide thy face at what thy Master glorieth in?

"For by the Law is the knowledge of sin." He springs upon the Law again, with forbearance however (for what he says is not an accusation of it, but of the listlessness of the Jews). Yet nevertheless he has been earnest here with a view (as he was going to introduce his discourse about faith) to show its utter feebleness. For if thou boastest in the Law, he means, it puts thee to the greater shame: it solemnly parades forth your sins before you. Only he does not word it in this harsh way, but again in a subdued tone; "For by the Law is the knowledge of sin." And so the punishment is greater, but that because of the Jew. For the Law accomplished the disclosure of sin to you, but it was your duty then to flee it. Since then you have not fled you have pulled the punishment more sorely on yourself, and the good deed of the Law has been made to you a supply of greater vengeance. Now then having added to their fear, he next brings in the things of grace, as having brought them to a strong desire of the remission of their sins...

"Where is boasting then? it is excluded," he says. "By what law? of works? Nay, but by the law of faith." Paul is at great pains to show that faith is mighty to a degree which was never even fancied of the Law. For after he had said that God justifieth man by faith, he grapples with the Law again. And he does not say, where then are the well doings. of the Jews? where their righteous dealing? but, "where is then the boasting?" so taking every opportunity of showing, that they do but use great words, as though they had somewhat more than others, and have no work to show. And after saying, "Where then is the boasting?" he does not say, it is put out of sight and hath come to an end, but "it is excluded," which word rather expresses unseasonableness; since the reason for it is no more. For as when the judgment is come they that would repent have not any longer the season for it, thus now the sentence being henceforth passed, and all being upon the point of perishing, and He being at hand Who by grace would break these terrors, they had no longer the season for making a plea of amelioration wrought by the Law. See he calls the faith also a law delighting to keep to the names, and so allay the seeming novelty. But what is the "law of faith?" It is, being saved by grace. Here he shows God's power, in that He has not only saved, but has even justified, and led them to boasting, and this too without needing works, but looking for faith only.

"For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto His glory: why yet am I also judged as a sinner?" For if God, he means is shown to be a Lover of man, and righteous, and good, by your acts of disobedience, you ought not only to be exempt from punishment but even to have good done unto you. But if so, that absurdity will be found to result, which is in circulation with so many, that good comes of evil, and that evil is the cause of good; and one of the two is necessary, either that He be clearly unjust in punishing, or that if He punish not, it is from our vices that He hath the victory. And both of these are absurd to a degree.

"Now we know that what things soever the Law saith, it saith to them who are under the Law." This then is why, next to Isaiah, who confessedly aimed at them, he brought in David; that he might show that these things also belonged to the same subject. For what need was there, he means, that a prophet who was sent for your correction should accuse other people. For neither was the Law given to any else than you. And for what reason did he not say, we know that what things soever the prophet saith, but what things soever the Law saith? It is because Paul uses to call the whole Old Testament the Law. And in another place he says, "Do ye not hear the Law, that Abraham had two sons?" (Gal. iv. 21, 22.) And here he calls the Psalm the Law when he says, "We know that what things soever the Law saith, it saith to them who are under the Law." Next he shows that neither are these things he said merely for accusation's sake, but that he may again be paving the way for faith. So close is the relationship of the Old Testament with the New, since even the accusations and reproofs were entirely with a view to this, that the door of faith might open brightly upon them that hear it.

"Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness." See by how many proofs he makes good what was said. First, from the worthiness of the person, for it is not a man who doeth these things, that He should be too weak for it, but God all-powerful. For it is to God, he says, that the righteousness belongs. Again, from the Law and the Prophets. For you need not be afraid at hearing the "without the Law," inasmuch as the Law itself approves this. Thirdly, from the sacrifices under the old dispensation. For it was on this ground that he said, "In His blood," to call to their minds those sheep and calves. For if the sacrifices of things without reason, he means, cleared from sin, much more would this blood. And he does not say barely "redemption," but "entire redemption," to show that we should come no more into such slavery. And for this same reason he calls it a propitiation, to show that if the type had such force, much more would the reality display the same. But to show again that it was no novel thing or recent, he says, "fore-ordained;" and by saying God "fore-ordained," and showing that the good deed is the Father's, he showeth it to be the Son's also. For the Father "fore-ordained," but Christ in His own blood wrought the whole aright.

"Seeing it is one God." That is, the same is the Master of both these and those. But if you tell me of the ancient state of things, then too the dealings of Providence were shared by both, although in diverse ways. For as to thee was given the written law, so to them was the natural; and they came short in nothing, if, that is, only they were willing, but were even able to surpass thee. And so he proceeds, with an allusion to this very thing, "Who shall justify the circumcision by faith, and the uncircumcision through faith," so reminding them of what he said before about uncircumcision and circumcision, whereby he showed that there was no difference. But if then there was no difference, much less is there any now, And this accordingly he now establishes upon still clearer grounds, and so demonstrates, that either of them stand alike in need of faith.

"What advantage then hath the Jew?" Since he has set all aside, the hearing, the teaching, the name of the Jew, the circumcision, and all the other particulars by his saying that "he is not a Jew which is one outwardly, but he which is one inwardly;" he next sees an objection which starts up, and against this makes his stand. Now what is this objection? If, he means, these things are no use, what reason was there for that nation being called, and the circumcision too being given? What does he then and how does he solve it? By the same means as he did before: for as there, he told, not of their praises, but the benefits of God; nor their well doings (for to be called a Jew and to know His Will and to approve the things which are more excellent, was no well doing of their own, but came of the grace of God: and this the Prophet also says, upbraiding them; "He hath not done so to any nation, neither hath he showed His judgments unto them;" (Ps. cxlvii. 20.) and Moses again; "Ask now whether there hath been any such thing as this?" he says, "did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, and live?") (Deut. iv. 32, Deut. iv. 33), this then he does here also.

"Is He the God of the Jews only?" As if he said, On what foot does it then seem to you amiss that every man should be saved? Is God partial? So showing from this, that in wishing to flout the Gentiles, they are rather offering an insult to God's glory, if, that is, they would not allow Him to be the God of all. But if He is of all, then He taketh care of all; and if He care for all, then He saveth all alike by faith. And this is why he says, "Is He the God of the Jews only? is He not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also." For He is not partial as the fables of the Gentiles (cf. Ov. Tr. I. ii. 5. sqq) are, but common to all, and One...

"If not (as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil that good may come? Whose damnation is just." For whereas Paul said, "where sin abounded grace did much more abound" (Rom. v. 20), in ridicule of him and perverting what he said to another meaning, they said, We must cling to vice that we may get what is good. But Paul said not so; however to correct this notion it is that he says, "What then? shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid!" (ib. vi. 1, 2.) For I said it, he means, of the times which are past, not that we should make this a practice. To lead them away then from this suspicion, he said, that henceforth this was even impossible. For "how shall we," he says, "that are dead unto sin, live any longer therein?" Against the Greeks then he inveighs without difficulty. For their life was exceeding abandoned. But of the Jews, even if their life seemed to have been careless, still they had great means of cloaking these things in the Law and circumcision, and the fact of God having conversed with them, and their being the teachers of all. And this is why he strips them even of these, and shows that for these they were the more punished, and this is the conclusion to which he has here drawn his discussion.

"But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? is God unrighteous Who taketh vengeance? I speak as a man. God forbid." He solves one perplexity by another again. Yet as this is not clear, we must needs declare it more clearly. What is it then he means? God honored the Jews: they did despite to Him. This gives Him the victory, and shows the greatness of His love towards man, in that He honored them even such as they were. Since then, he means, we did despite to Him and wronged Him, God by this very thing became victorious, and His righteousness was shown to be clear. Why then (a man may say) am I to be punished, who have been the cause of His victory by the despite I did Him? Now how does he meet this? It is, as I was saying, by another absurdity again. For if it were you, he says, that were the cause of the victory, and after this are punished, the thing is an act of injustice. But if He is not unjust, and yet you are punished, then you are no more the cause of the victory. And note his apostolic reverence; for after saying, "Is God unrighteous Who taketh vengeance?" he adds, "I speak as a man." As if, he means, any body were to argue in the way men reason. For what things seem with us to be justice, these the just judgment of God far exceedeth, and has certain other unspeakable grounds for it.

All sinners need the glory of God because they do not have their own.

Is the law which enjoins us to be circumcised unnecessary? Not at all! On the contrary, we enable it to stand firm when we show that what it said is true, viz., that (spiritual) law would follow after (physical) law, (spiritual) testament after (physical) testament, (spiritual) circumcision after (physical) circumcision.

"Every man" means the majority. Paul's opponents had quoted this text as if David had meant: "For this reason have I sinned, that thou might appear just in judging me." But the true meaning is that God promised to punish sinners without showing favoritism and that some thought his delay in doing so amounted to a lie. God prevails when he judges the deeds of those from whom no one thought vengeance would ever be exacted. Or it may also mean that God has shown that he is concerned about mankind … and that he has overthrown those who wrongly suggest that he is not interested in human affairs.

There is not just one kind of malicious talk. What is said out of malice is without doubt said recklessly.

Some people misinterpret this verse in order to do away with the works of righteousness, saying that faith by itself is enough, even though Paul says elsewhere: "If I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing." If this seems to contradict the sense of the other [verses], what works did the apostle mean when he said that a man is justified by faith, without works? Obviously, these are the works of circumcision, the sabbath and so on, and not the works of righteousness about which St. James says: "Faith without works is dead." [In this verse] Paul is speaking about the man who comes to Christ and is saved when he first believes by faith alone. But by adding the works of the law Paul is saying that there are also works of grace which believers ought to perform.

The righteousness which has been given to us freely by God, not acquired by our effort, has been made plain without the written law, and having been hidden in the law has been revealed with greater clarity by the examples of Christ, which are more obvious. The law and the prophets foretold that this righteousness would come in the last times, or perhaps this means that they both bore witness to the recognition of sin.

This refers to the faith by which one believes in Jesus Christ. In this there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile.

Paul wants to show that God had waited for sinners to reform themselves but that they had abused his patience and gone on to greater sins. The believer in Jesus is the only one who has been found righteous, and God has justified him not by works but by faith.

Paul finds no reason for saying that the Jews are better than others.… Both Jews and Gentiles are under sin—something we not only deduce by reason but also corroborate by the witness of the Jews themselves.

The faithfulness meant here is that to the promises made to Abraham, to whom it was said that "in your seed all the nations will be blessed."

By the works of the law Paul means circumcision, the sabbath and the other ceremonies, which had less to do with righteousness than with carnal pleasure. Through the law comes neither forgiveness nor sin itself but rather recognition of sin. Through the law a man realizes what sin is, either because the natural law had been forgotten or because before the written law was given, the lesser sins [i.e., the sins which were more harmful to oneself than others, like lust, drunkenness, etc.] were not recognized as sins.

We have been justified without the works of the law, through baptism. In this way God has freely forgiven our sins even though we are undeserving. Christ has redeemed us with the blood of his death.… For we were all condemned to death, to which Christ handed himself over, though he had no need to, in order to redeem us by his blood.… Note also that Christ did not merely buy us but bought us "back," because we were once his by nature, even though we were separated from him by our sins. If we stop sinning, our redemption will indeed be profitable for us.

The stench of their teaching and flattery contaminates and kills those who listen. This is why a grave is carefully sealed, so that it does not continue to breed disease among the living by its odor. They express one thing with their mouths but another with their hearts. The venom of asps is mentioned because it is supposed to be the most harmful.

The psalm from which this quote is taken speaks of the fool. Paul shows that witness to the fool will be fulfilled particularly at the coming of Christ. When he appears, not one righteous person will be found.

In case the Jews might claim that these verses of the psalm were spoken about the Gentiles, Paul indicates that what has been said in the law has been said to those who are under the law. Of course, it is a question as to who is meant by saying that the fool claims that there is no God. The Jews did not say this in words but in deeds, for they claimed to know God but denied it by their behavior. Paul is not talking to the Gentiles here, because he has already made similar statements about them.

One who does not understand does not seek. Or perhaps it is that one does not understand because one does not seek. One seeks for God by enquiring after his will.… The sinner has not known the will of his master. "Know me, know my will," as the popular saying goes.

God has set forth Christ in public so that anyone who wants to be redeemed may draw near to him. Christ performs the work of expiation for all who believe that they need to be set free by his blood. Christ died for our former sins in order to reverse God's judgment, by which he had finally determined to punish us for them.

Jews and Gentiles have both believed in the same God and in the same Christ.

Did God create only the Jews, and is he exclusively concerned with them? For even if the Gentiles sinned, so did the Jews, and even if the Jews repent, so do the Gentiles. If Christ came to the Jews as promised by the law, he came to the Gentiles as well. For the prophets often spoke of the calling of the Gentiles. Paul wants to show the Gentiles that the first saints had not been circumcised and that Abraham was righteous before his circumcision. But he adds "as well," so as not to appear to be excluding the Jews.

Thou wilt destroy all who speak a lie. I see a new thing. He who works evil is held in hatred; he who lies, perishes. Let us see which is more, to be held in hatred by the Lord, or to perish. He who is held in hatred by God is indeed unhappy, because he is held in hatred by the Lord: but he still lives. But he who speaks a lie and perishes, has already ceased to be. Therefore he who speaks a lie is more unhappy than he who works iniquity: for he who works iniquity is held in hatred; but he who speaks a lie, perishes. 'For the mouth that lies kills the soul.' And how is it written, 'That God may be truthful, but every man a liar'? But if whoever speaks a lie already perishes, and kills his own soul, and yet we all lie, then shall we all perish? Therefore, from what he says here, Thou wilt destroy all who speak a lie, and from what follows in the psalm, and from the very order, we can understand that he is speaking of heretics. For he who works iniquity kills only his own soul; but he who is a heretic, and speaks a lie, kills as many men as he has led astray.

Paul shows clearly that righteousness depends not on the merit of man but on the grace of God, who accepts the faith of those who believe without the works of the law.

Paul shows that nature has failed the Gentiles and that both nature and the law have failed the Jews, before going on to mention the grace of the gospel and saying: "What do we have by grace which is special and superior? Faith, made effective by the righteousness of Christ." … Paul does not say that all have broken the law but that all have sinned in a general sense. Now the one who is lacking something tries to make up his deficiency. The Jews had the law, but they were lacking the fullness of grace.

Paul did not treat this passage as if it were prophetic but rather because what David said about transgressors was still a good summary of what was going on in Paul's day. Even now we still cite texts of this kind in our sermons, because what they say can be applied to our congregations.

Paul did not say "we hold" because he was himself uncertain. He said it in order to counter those who concluded from this that anyone who wished to could be justified simply by willing faith. Note carefully that Paul does not say simply "without the law," as if we could just perform virtue by wanting to, nor do we do the works of the law by force. We do them because we have been led to do them by Christ.

Now you say to me (says Paul), What new law has thrown the old one out? For when the ruler adds to the law, the law is changed. Paul answers: When the law of works came in it did not abolish the former law—on the contrary, it actually contained the former law. But when the law of faith appeared it did abolish the earlier law, having overcome the boasting which came from the law of works. These things have been given to us by the grace of God, which our forefathers, however hard they may have tried, were unable to obtain.

How should the law be upheld if not by righteousness? By a righteousness, moreover, which is of faith, for what could not be fulfilled through the law is fulfilled through faith.

Do we then make void freedom of choice through grace? God forbid! Rather, we establish freedom of choice. As the law is not made void by faith, so freedom of choice is not made void but established by grace. Freedom of choice is necessary to the fulfillment of the law. But by the law comes the knowledge of sin; by faith comes the obtaining of grace against sin; by grace comes the healing of the soul from sin's sickness; by the healing of the soul comes freedom of choice; by freedom of choice comes the love of righteousness; by the love of righteousness comes the working of the law. Thus, as the law is not made void but established by faith, since faith obtains the grace whereby the law may be fulfilled, so freedom of choice is not made void but established by grace, since grace heals the will whereby righteousness may freely be loved.

The law is confirmed by faith. Apart from faith the law merely commands, and it holds guilty those who do not fulfill its commands, so that it might thereafter turn to the grace of the Deliverer those groaning in their inability to do what is commanded.

God in himself is true; you in yourself are a liar—in him you can be true!

This must not be understood in such a way as to say that a man who has received faith and continues to live is righteous, even though he leads a wicked life.

The righteousness of God is not that by which God is righteous but that with which he clothes man when he justifies the ungodly. To this the Law and the Prophets bear witness.… The righteousness of God is not manifested outside the law, since in that case it could not have been witnessed to in the law. It is a righteousness of God apart from the law because God confers it on the believer through the Spirit of grace without the help of the law.

How could Paul have promised glory, honor and peace to the good works of Gentiles apart from the grace of the gospel? Because there otherwise is no acceptance of persons with God. And because it is not the hearers but the doers of the law who are justified, he argues that all, whether Jew or Gentile, shall alike have salvation in the gospel.

Some think that statements like this are an attack on the law. But they must be read very carefully, so that neither is the law condemned by the apostle nor is free will taken away from man. Therefore, let us distinguish the following four states of human existence: before the law, under the law, under grace and at rest. Before the law we follow the lust of the flesh. Under the law we are dragged along by it. Under grace we neither follow it nor are dragged along by it. At rest there is no lust of the flesh.Prior to being addressed by the law, we do not struggle, because not only do we lust and sin, we even approve of sinning.
Under the law we struggle but are defeated. We admit that what we do is evil and that we do not want to do it, but because there is as yet no grace, we are defeated. In this state we discover how far down we lie, and when we want to rise up and yet we fall, we are all the more gravely afflicted. The law is good because it forbids what ought to be forbidden and requires what ought to be required. But when anyone thinks he can fulfill the law in his own strength and not through the grace of his Deliverer, this presumption does him no good but rather harms him so much that he is seized by an even stronger desire to sin and by his sins ends up as a transgressor. So when the man who has fallen realizes that he cannot raise himself, let him cry to his Deliverer for help.
Then comes grace, which can pardon previous sins, give aid to the struggling, supplement justice with love and take away fear. When this takes place, although fleshly desires continue to fight against our spirit in this life and try to lead us into sin, yet our spirit does not give in to these desires because it is rooted in the grace and love of God and ceases to sin. For we do not sin by having these perverse desires but by giving in to them.
These desires arise from the mortality of the flesh, which we inherit from the first sin of the first man, which is why we are born carnal. Nor will they cease until, by the resurrection of the body, we shall obtain the transformation which has been promised to us. Then we shall be in the fourth state, where there is perfect peace. Perfect peace is the state in which nothing will resist us because we do not resist God. Free will existed perfectly in the first man, but in us, prior to grace, there is no free will which would enable us not to sin but only enough that we do not want to sin. But grace makes it possible not only for us to want to do what is right but actually to do it not in our own strength but by the help of our Deliverer, who at the resurrection will give us that perfect peace which is the consequence of good will.

For "it is one God which justifies the circumcision by faith, and the uncircumcision through faith;" in which clauses there is no real difference in the sense, as if the phrase "by faith" meant one thing, and "through faith" another, but only a variety of expression. For in one passage, when speaking of the Gentiles,—that is, of the uncircumcision,—he says, "The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen by faith;" and again, in another, when speaking of the circumcision, to which he himself belonged, he says, "We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we believed in Jesus Christ."

On account of his humanity Emmanuel is called a prophet, who following Moses is the mediator between God and humanity. The law was a shadow, but even so it presented an image of the truth. Furthermore, the truth hardly destroys its images; rather it makes-them clearer.

For who will glory, or for what, when everyone has become worthless and gone out of the right way, and nobody does good works anymore? Therefore he says that all glorying is excluded.… How? We have acquired the forgiveness of our former sins and have been justified freely by the mercy and grace of Christ.

Grace is the glory of God, not the merit of him who has been freed.

Human beings are thus given over to their own free will. Hence they are divided into two groups: those who prefer the worship of God and those who take the opposite path and come to a dire end, corresponding to their choice.

God knew in advance who would obey the law and who would break it. Therefore those who did not believe were unable to stand in the way of his blessings.

By "boasting" Paul means the proud spirits of the Jews and their excessive arrogance. For they thought they were the only ones who enjoyed God's providence. But after the divine grace appeared and spread to all nations, the boasting of the Jews ceased.… Paul calls faith a law, recalling the words of the prophet Jeremiah: "Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the House of Israel and the House of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers."

The mercy seat was gold-plated and placed on top of the ark. On each side was the figure of a cherub. When the high priest approached it, the holy kindness of God was revealed.The apostle teaches us that Christ is the true mercy seat, of which the one in the Old Testament was but a type. The name applies to Christ in his humanity, not in his divinity. For as God Christ responded to the expiation made at the mercy seat. It is as man that he receives this label, just as elsewhere he is called a sheep, a lamb, sin and a curse.
Furthermore, the ancient mercy seat was bloodless because it was inanimate. It could only receive the drops of blood pouring from the sacrificial victims. But the Lord Christ is both God and the mercy seat, both the priest and the lamb, and he performed the work of our salvation by his blood, demanding only faith from us.

This was not the intention of the apostles' teaching. On the contrary, they demanded that everyone abstain from all manner of wickedness.

Paul says "for all" meaning first the Jews, in that it was from among them that salvation first arose, and then the Gentiles, in that from the Jews grace had abounded even to them so that now both share in it together. This grace is not given in general but only to those "who believe," but it is common to all these without distinction.

The purpose of the law, says Paul, is to give us a knowledge of sin not only to forbid the doing of things which are inappropriate but also to punish those who do such things.

Pambo said to Antony, 'What shall I do?' Antony said, 'Do not trust in your own righteousness. Do not go on sorrowing over a deed that is past. Keep your tongue and your belly under control.'

When adversities come … or when by God's just judgment hostility, dryness or death is imposed, we should attribute this to our sins rather than to God's injustice.

In the inner place was set the Ark of the Propitiation, which was concealed behind the veil, and was not seen by any one. The Propitiatory was a type of the Lord Christ according to the flesh, as saith the Apostle: Whom God set forth to be a propitiation by his blood; and again the high priest was himself a type of the Lord Christ, according to the Apostle: For, saith he, just as the high priest once a year entereth into the inner Tabernacle, so Christ, having come a high priest of the good things to come through his own blood, entered in once for all into the Holy place, having obtained eternal redemption, as methinks I have frequently mentioned.

For he too sinned, since from the law he learned only how to recognize sin, not how to avoid it. Even if he did not sin in the same way as the Gentile, he is equally deprived of glory, because he offended God, and the offender reaps the fruit not of glory, but of disgrace.

The statement that the law is overthrown by faith threw the Jews into confusion. Therefore he heals them with his great wisdom, saying that faith establishes the law. For what the law also desired, that is, to justify man, but could not do, faith accomplishes. Whoever has believed has already been justified. So faith did not destroy, but established the law. By the expression ίστώμεν he suggests that the law was lying down, and that which is lying down must be raised up and set upright.

"Destruction and misery" is sin, for nothing destroys the soul like sin, by its crooked path. For virtue, as our natural good, prepares for us a smooth and level path, while vice, as something contrary to nature, marked by deficiencies and excesses, causes us sometimes to be carried upward and sometimes downward, and therefore makes our movement uneven and difficult — to say nothing of the fact that it prepares punishment for us afterward.

Furthermore, as soon as anyone turns away from good, he immediately becomes useless. For vice is nothing other than a perversion of the natural impulses toward good; therefore, by driving a person toward what is contrary to nature, it renders him useless. For nature no longer makes use of him, just as it does not make use of those who are sick in the conduct of its affairs.

Above he said that some did not believe. Yet it turns out that not just some, but all proved faithless. Therefore, so as not to grieve the Jews, he speaks wisely and presents what was shown by experience in the form of a supposition. Let us say, he says, that all were faithless. What of it? Even in this case God is justified. That is: if one considers and compares what God bestowed upon the Jews and how they conducted themselves before Him, then righteousness remains on God's side, as David also says (Ps. 50:6).

"They do not know the way of peace," that is, of a godly life; for a godly life is a path of tranquility. "Take," says the Lord, "My yoke... and you will find rest" (Matt. 11:29): this is the way to the true peace of Christ!

He did not say that the Jews greatly surpass the other nations because they carried out such and such things well, but that "to them were entrusted the oracles of God," and this is a benefaction of God, not their own superiority. What does "entrusted" mean? Given, committed to their care; God deemed the Jews worthy and therefore entrusted to them the heavenly revelations.

The Apostle resolves it very wisely and to the reproach of the Jews. From the fact that God punishes you, it does not follow that you are the cause of God's victory; for it would be unjust for a victor to punish the one who was the cause of his victory. But God is not unjust: otherwise, how could God judge the world if He were unjust? Therefore, when God punishes you, and He is not unjust, it follows that you did not become the cause of His victory by sinning, for God could have prevailed otherwise even if you had not turned out to be evil.

Having proved that justification is in the Blood of Christ and not in the works of the law, he concludes his discourse and says: from all that has been said, we conclude that every person is justified by faith. Do not be troubled by this, O Jew, as though it were an absurdity.

If you, O Jew, boast in the law, then know that it serves as the cause of greater punishment for you. For through it you learned of sin, and whoever sins with awareness faces greater punishment. But this happened through your own negligence, for you did not flee from sin once it became known to you, and therefore you brought greater punishment upon yourself. How then will you be freed from this punishment? If you accept the righteousness of God, independent of the law. For God justifies us even if we have no works, because God is almighty. He expressed it beautifully: "has been manifested," in order to show that the righteousness of God existed before, but was hidden. And with the words "to which the law and the prophets bear witness," he also shows that it is not something new, but that both the law of Moses and the prophets spoke of it, and therefore it is worthy of acceptance; for although it is independent of the law, it is nevertheless in complete agreement with the law in its aim of justifying us.

This is true, he says, that is, the justification by which God justified us, descends upon all through faith. When we bring faith, we are all justified, both Jews and Gentiles. "For there is no distinction." The Jew is not preferred over the Gentile because he received the law.

And this happened "to demonstrate the righteousness" of God, so that not only would God Himself appear righteous, but that He might also raise and justify others who had died in sin, just as the manifestation of wealth consists not only in being rich oneself, but also in being able to make others rich. Therefore, do not be ashamed of being justified in this way. If God claims this work as His own, that is, He exalts and boasts in it, as the One who justifies us "at the present time," that is, when sin had reached its utmost limit and when we were deemed paralyzed and dead, then what is there for you, O Jew, to be ashamed of in such glory of God?

Having said above that the Jews have a certain advantage, because the law was entrusted and committed to them, he now proves that they have no advantage by their deeds. For, as those who did not preserve what was entrusted to them, they will be subjected to great condemnation. Therefore, although they had a certain advantage, as chosen by God, yet since by their deeds they dishonored the One who honored them and chose them, they not only no longer have any advantage, but will also be subjected to greater condemnation.
He speaks as if from the person of the Jews: "What then? Do we have an advantage," do we surpass others, are we more pleasing to God than the rest, we Jews who received the law and circumcision? "Not at all." For the Jews, not to say more, sinned just as the Gentiles did. And from where is this evident? From the prophets, namely David and Isaiah.

Speaking thus, he outwardly defends them; but nevertheless brings forward a new accusation, proving that they did not believe the words of God, which served to their honor. But he presents this accusation not in his own person. He speaks as if to say: what benefit is it to the Jews that they received the oracles of God, when they did not believe them? It seems he resolves this objection as well, vindicating not the Jews, but God. If they did not believe, is this from God? Will their unbelief "nullify the faithfulness of God," that is, the oracles and beneficence entrusted to them? The unbelief of the Jews not only causes God no harm, but on the contrary, demonstrates His great love for mankind, because He does not deprive of His beneficence those who subsequently dishonor Him. Do you see how he accused the Jews by the very thing in which they boasted, that is, by the fact that they received the law?

The Apostle does not mean that they sinned so that their mouths would be stopped; but they were reproved by the prophets so that they would not present their sins as sins of ignorance and boast. And not only the Jews, but "the whole world becomes guilty before God," that is, condemned, lacking boldness, not justified by their own works, but in need of outside help, that is, the grace of Christ. Why then do you, O Jew, boast in the law, when you are equally guilty along with the rest of the world as one not justified by the works of the law?

But do not despair. All are justified freely by the grace of God, and this grace comes through redemption, that is, through the complete liberation accomplished by Christ, for He justified us by giving Himself as a ransom for us.

The Apostle proved that we are justified through faith, which is why he rightly asks the Jew: where then is that in which you would boast and take pride? He does not say: where is virtue? For the Jews did not have virtue, but only boasting. And he continues: "it is excluded," which means: it is no longer the time to boast.
Before Christ it was timely to boast in the law, but now it is no longer timely, for it has become evident that boasting in it is useless. For if the law could justify us, there would be no need for us of Christ. By what law, he asks, is it "excluded"? By the law of works, that is, the one which says that the man who does them shall live by them (Lev. 18:5)? (For this is what the law of Moses said). No, he answers; but by the law of faith, which justifies by grace, and not by works. Behold, he even calls faith a law, because the word "law" was held in honor among the Jews. So boast, O Jew, in faith, which is able to justify you.

For the passage beginning with the words "there is none righteous" and ending with "their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness" belongs to David (Ps. 13:3–5, 9:28, 139:4), while the passage from the words "their feet are swift" to the words "they have not known the way of peace" belongs to Isaiah (Isa. 59:7–8); then again follow the words of David (Ps. 35:2). So, he presents the most notable prophets as accusers of the Jews, and shows that they speak in complete agreement. This is why after the words of Isaiah he again brings in the words of David. For Isaiah speaks clearly about the Jews, and David speaks about them as well.

Again he repeats what was said before, in order to clarify it. If through my transgression God appeared righteous and faithful, then why, after all, condemn me, who has rendered a service to the glory of God? In that case I deserve not condemnation, but a reward.

Lest the Jews be able to object: this is not spoken to us, he declares: "the law, if it says anything, speaks to those who are under the law." What need, he says, is there to speak to others, when the law was given to you? By "law" he means the entire Old Testament, and not the law of Moses alone, just as now he called the prophecies of Isaiah and David "law." With the words "every mouth is stopped" he depicts the boasting of the Jews and the unstoppable impulse of their tongue. With these words the prophet bridled it, like a rushing torrent.

He mentioned purification (the propitiatory sacrifice) and blood in order to convince the Jew that forgiveness and justification are accomplished through Christ. If, he reasons, you believed that sins were absolved by the blood of sheep, then all the more are they absolved by the Blood of Christ, and if the legal purification, being a type of Christ, had such power, then the truth itself has far greater power. The "purification" (mercy seat) was the cover of the ark, adorned with cherubim placed on both sides of it. It pointed to human nature, which was the covering of the Divinity, concealing Him, yet was glorified by the angelic powers that serve it on account of its union with God the Word. He said "set forth" in order to show that redemption by the Blood of Christ was foreordained from of old for the healing of paralysis, that is, the deadening from sins committed before, during the time of God's forbearance. For although we enjoyed much goodness, we nevertheless became like the paralyzed and the dead.

Here he presents one objection. Some could say: if from the fact that God bestowed benefits upon us and we proved ungrateful to Him, He turns out to be even more faithful, then why is He angry, that is, why does He punish us, if we became the cause of His justification and victory? Such is the objection. The words "I speak in human terms" have this meaning. Thus, he says, I answer in God's defense according to human reasoning, that is, as far as a sensible person can answer, for the actions of God have certain grounds incomprehensible to us, surpass human reason, and have no need of our defense.

One, he says, is God, that is, the God of both Jews and Gentiles, Who justifies the circumcised not by the law, but by faith, and accepts the uncircumcised through faith. Having mentioned circumcision and uncircumcision, he also recalls what was said above, where he proved that neither does circumcision bring benefit when there are no works, nor does uncircumcision harm in and of itself. Thus, in both cases faith is needed.

Having cast aside all the ordinances of the law with the words "what advantage is there in being a Jew," he sees an objection naturally arising and forestalls it. What is this objection? The following: if there is not the slightest benefit in those ordinances, then why, after all, was the Jewish people chosen? He resolves this objection with his characteristic wisdom. In words he agrees and says that there is great benefit to the Jew, but as proof of this he brings forward not the merits of the Jews, but the gifts of God.

God is not a partial God, so as to save only you and not every person. Here he also shames the Jews and greatly frightens them as fighters against God, if they do not admit that the Gentiles are saved through faith; for they do not believe that He is the God of all and equally provides for all.

And if this is fair, then what the pagans say about us would also be fair. The pagans, hearing the words of Paul: "where sin abounded, grace did much more abound" (Rom. 5:20), subjected them to ridicule and maintained that Christians say: let us do evil that good may come, let us sin more that grace may abound. These words of the pagans, spoken by them in reproach and mockery of us, are applicable in the present case as well, if one admits that God manifests His goodness thanks to our wickedness and ingratitude. But in reality it is not so. The speech of the pagans is the speech of those who always speak lies. "Whose judgment is just," that is, they will be punished justly. So then, by sinning I do not become the cause of God's justification, because I am condemned as a sinner; for if I were sinning for the glory of God, I would not be condemned.

There is a charity in act, and there is one in affection. And concerning that which is of work, I think the law was given to men and a commandment was formed: for who so possesses it in affection as it is commanded? Therefore the one is commanded for merit, the other is given as a reward. We do not deny that divine grace can grant its beginning indeed, and its progress, to be experienced even in the present life; but its consummation we firmly reserve for future happiness. How then was it right to command what was in no way to be fulfilled? Or if it pleases you more that the commandment was given concerning affectual charity, I do not contend about that, provided that you too agree with me that it could in no way be fulfilled in this life by any man, or could have been. For who would dare arrogate to himself that which Paul himself confesses he has not comprehended? (Phil 3:13.) Nor was the weight of the precept, exceeding the powers of men, hidden from the teacher; but he judged it useful that they be reminded of their own insufficiency from this very thing, and that they might know clearly toward what end of righteousness they ought to strive with their powers. Therefore by commanding impossible things he did not make men transgressors, but humble, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be made subject to God; because by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified before him (Rom 3:19-20). For receiving the commandment, and feeling our transgression, we shall cry out to heaven, and God will have mercy on us: and we shall know in that day, that not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us (Titus 3:5).

The Scripture shut up all things under sin, the first through ignorance, the second through weakness, and the third through malice, so that when Christ came, He could have mercy on them all. And the Apostle wonders at this, and quotes the authority of the Psalm: "All alike have gone astray; they have become perverse; there is not one that does good, not even one."

Where there is no fear, there is neither wisdom nor justice nor grace. "Their throat is an open sepulchre, the poison of asps is under their lips, with their tongues they acted deceitfully, their feet are swift to shed blood: whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness, destruction and unhappiness are in their ways"; "there is no fear of God before their eyes." When a man does not have the fear of God, then his sense is turned to malice and goes forth like the poison of asps. There follows iniquity in deed: whence he says: "With their tongues they acted deceitfully, their feet are swift to shed blood." When a man is disordered in affection with respect to thought, in speech with respect to utterance, and in deed with respect to effect; then he has nothing good. Whence he says: "Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and unhappiness are in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known," namely the way of the grace of the Holy Spirit. And why? Because "there is no fear of God before their eyes."

If you wish to strive to have grace, justice, and wisdom, and these cannot be had without fear: therefore the fear of God is necessary for you. Likewise, where there is no fear, there is foolishness, malice, and iniquity, destruction and unhappiness: but these are to be fled as the worst things.

Since from the beginning Christ was most holy, he could not advance in holiness for himself. He merited, however, for us, who by his merit are justified through grace, advance in justice, and are crowned with eternal glory.

And through this, all our merits are rooted in the merit of Christ, whether satisfactory for punishment or meritorious of eternal life, because we are worthy neither to be absolved from offense against the highest good, nor to gain the immensity of the eternal reward, which is God, except through the merit of the God-man.

First, therefore, he says: it has been stated that the justice of God is in all and above all who believe in Christ. For in this matter there is no distinction between Jew and gentile: in Christ Jesus there is not gentile and Jew (Col 3:11), namely who has some distinction, as though the Jew does not need to be made just by God as the gentile does. For all have sinned, as has been shown above: all we like sheep have gone astray (Isa 53:6) and for this reason need the glory of God, i.e., the justification that redounds to God's glory. Furthermore, man should not ascribe this glory to himself: not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory (Ps 115:1); give glory to God (Ps 66:2).

Then when he says do we then destroy, he excludes an objection. For someone might claim that he is overthrowing the aforementioned law; therefore, he asks: do we then destroy the law through faith, inasmuch as we say that men are justified without the works of the law?

He answers: God forbid! in keeping with Matthew, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law (Matt 5:18). Rather, he adds: but we establish the law, i.e., by faith we complete and fulfill the law, as Matthew says, I have come not to abolish the law but to fulfill it (Matt 5:17).

This is true as regards the ceremonial precepts because, being figures, they were upheld and fulfilled by the fact that the truth signified by them is shown forth in the faith of Christ. This is also true as regards the moral precepts, because the faith of Christ confers the help of grace to fulfill the moral precepts of the law and even adds special counsels, through which the moral precepts are more safely and securely kept.

Second, he touches on the number of injuries they inflict on others when he adds: in their ways, i.e., in their deeds, are destruction; because they crush others by oppressing them: it is in his mind to destroy (Isa 10:7); and misery, inasmuch as they deprive men of their goods and reduce them to wretchedness: they send men away naked, taking away their clothes (Job 24:7).

Yet these two, destruction and misery, can be taken as designating the punishment rather than the sin. Then the sense is: in their paths are destruction and misery, i.e., their deeds, which are signified as paths, lead them to misery. In this case, destruction would refer to the oppressive punishment they suffer for their sins: they shall be broken as a potter's vessel (Isa 30:14) and misery, to the punishment of damnation, because they will be refused eternal happiness: they are miserable, with their hopes set on dead things (Wis 14:10).

Then he removes the good works themselves. First, he cites offenses against the divine law when he says, all have turned out of the way, namely, from regulation by divine law: they have all turned to their own way (Isa 56:11). Second, failure to pursue the end; hence he adds, they have become unprofitable together. For we call unprofitable whatever does not attain its end. Therefore, when men turn from God for whom they were made, they are rendered unprofitable: the brood of the ungodly will be of no use (Wis 4:3). Third, he excludes the good works themselves, when he adds, there is none who does good: they are skilled in doing evil, but how to do good they know not (Jer 4:22).

He adds, not so much as one. This can be taken exclusively, to mean: except the one who alone did good by redeeming the human race: one man among a thousand I found, but a woman among all these I have not found (Eccl 7:28). Or it can be taken inclusively, to mean: there is not even one pure man doing good, i.e., what is perfect: search the squares to see if you can find a man, one who does justice and seeks truth (Jer 5:1).

Then when he says, God forbid! But God is true, he shows that it is unfitting for God's faithfulness to be nullified on account of men's unbelief. First, he gives a reason for this; second, he cites a text, at as it is written; third, he excludes a false understanding of this text, at but if our injustice.

The reason is based on the fact that God in himself is true: the Lord is the true God (Jer 10:10); this is the true God and life eternal (1 John 5:20); and every man a liar: I said in my consternation: men are all a vain hope (Ps 116:11). Hence, it is plain that man's mendacity or unbelief in not adhering to the truth does not nullify God's truth or faithfulness.

This is easier to understand, if we consider that truth implies agreement between thing and understanding. But things are in agreement with our understanding in one way and with God's in another way. For our intellect derives its knowledge from things; consequently, the cause and measure of our truth stems from the thing's being. For an opinion is called true or false depending on whether the thing is as stated or is not. Hence, our understanding can be true or it can be false, for it can be in agreement or disagreement. But whatever is open to being or not being needs someone acting to make it be; otherwise, it continues not to be. For as air without something illuminating it remains dark, so our intellect by itself, unless it is enlightened by the first truth, continues in falseness. Hence, of himself every man is false in his intellect and is true only in virtue of participating in the divine truth: send out your light and your truth (Ps 43:3). The divine intellect, on the other hand, is the cause and measure of things. For this reason it is of itself unfailingly true, and everything else is true inasmuch as it conforms to that intellect. Similarly, considering truth on the part of the thing, man of himself does not have truth, because his nature is convertible into nothing. Only the divine nature, which is not produced from nothing or convertible into nothing, has of itself truth.

Then when he says as it is written, he proves his statement on the authority of a text in a psalm: that you may be justified in your words and may overcome when you are judged (Ps 51:4). How this is to the point can be gathered from considering what the Psalmist had said just ahead of it. For he says just before this, against you, you only, have I sinned, and then: that you may be justified in your words and may overcome when you are judged. For God through the prophet Nathan had promised David that he would establish his kingdom forever in his seed (2 Sam 7:16). But later, when he fell into serious sin, namely, adultery and murder (2 Sam 11:2ff.), some said that on account of these sins God would not keep the promises made to him.

Hence, the Psalmist's intention bears on two things. First, that God's justice, which involves keeping his promises, is not changed on account of sin. Touching on this he says, that you may be justified in your words, i.e., that you may be shown just in your words, since you do not disregard them because of my sins: all the words of my mouth are righteous (Prov 8:8); the Lord is faithful in all his words (Ps 145:13). Second, that God's promise imitates men's judgment. And this is what he says, and may overcome, namely, by keeping your promise, when you are judged, namely, by men, that on account of my sins you did not keep your promises: be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil by good (Rom 12:21), which is said to men. Accordingly, it is truer of God.

It should be noted that God's promise to David was to be fulfilled in Christ's Incarnation. Hence it was a predestinative prophecy, in which something is promised as destined to be fulfilled in every way; whereas something promised or foretold by a prophecy of warning is not predicted as destined to be fulfilled in every way but according to men's merits, which can change. Therefore, if the promise made to David had not been fulfilled, it would have been prejudicial to God's justice; whereas the non-fulfillment of a promise made through a prophecy of warning is not prejudicial to God's justice, but indicates a change in human merits. Hence it is written: if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, and if that nation turns from its evil, I will repent of the evil that I intended to do to it (Jer 18:7). Therefore, it is plain, according to this sense, that man's sin does not exclude God's faithfulness.

Other senses of this text are presented in the Gloss, but they are not closely related to the Apostle's intention. The first is that these words are linked with the words, wash me more thoroughly from my iniquity (Ps 50:4), to the end that you may be justified, i.e., appear just, in your words, in which you promised pardon to sinners not only in Ezekiel, because these words antedated that, but also in Leviticus: if they make amends for their iniquity, then I will remember my covenant (Lev 26:41), and Deuteronomy: if, led by repentance of heart, you turn to God, the Lord your God will bring you back, and have compassion on you (Deut 30:1). Thus you may overcome when you are judged by men that you ought not pardon me.

Second these words are connected with the verse against you only have I sinned, i.e., in comparison with you who alone are just. And this is what he means when he says that you may be justified, i.e., may you appear just in comparison to me and other sinners: the Lord is just, and loves justice (Ps 10:8), and this not only in deeds but also in your words, which is the greatest of all according to James, if anyone does not offend in word (Jas 3:2). And may overcome when you are judged, i.e., when you are compared to anyone else in judgment: judge between me and my vineyard (Isa 5:3).

Third, these words are referred to Christ, who alone is without sin: he committed no sin; no guile was found on his lips (2 Pet 2:22) and is, therefore, justified in his words as compared to all men. And overcome sin, death, and the devil: the Lion of the tribe of Judah has conquered (Rev 5:5), when you are judged unjustly by Pilate: your cause has been judged as that of the wicked (Job 36:17).

Fourth, he designates the abundance of these sins when he says: whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness, because they have a plentiful supply of curses, for they curse in slandering others, contrary to what he says below: bless them and curse not (Rom 12:14). And bitterness, inasmuch as they do not hesitate to say insulting words to their neighbor's face, being provoked by bitterness, contrary to what is written in Ephesians: let all bitterness be put away from you (Eph 4:31).

Third, he shows their persistence in evil, from which men are returned in two ways. In one way by a desire to be at peace with others. Against this he says, the way of peace they have not known, i.e., have not accepted: among those who hate peace I was peaceful (Ps 120:6).

This could also refer in a particular way to the Jews who did not believe Christ, i.e., that they have not known the way of peace, namely, Christ, of whom it is written: he is our peace (Eph 2:14).

Then when he says much every way, he answers the objection: first, in regard to Judaism's prerogative; second, in regard to the value of circumcision, at what shall we say then? (Rom 4:1). In regard to the first he does two things: first, he shows Judaism's prerogative; second, he rejects their boasting over the gentiles, at what then? Do we excel them? (Rom 3:9). In regard to the first he does three things: first, he states his position; second, he explains it, at first indeed; third, he excludes an objection, at for what if some.

First, therefore, he says: the question is raised what advantage has the Jew. The advantage is both quantitative, which is indicated when he says much, and numerical, which is indicated when he says in every way. For they have an advantage both in contemplating divine matters: in Judah God is known (Ps 76:1) and in the provision of temporal things: he has not dealt thus with any other nation (Ps 147:20). They have further advantages relating to their ancestors, to the promises, and to their offspring: to whom belongs the adoption as of children and the glory and the testament (Rom 9:4). In each of these there is no small advantage, but great and important ones, which are summed up when he says much. For man's greatest good lies in knowing God, in clinging to God, and in being instructed by God: blessed is the man whom you teach out of your law (Ps 93:12).

Then when he says first indeed, he explains his statement, saying: first indeed, i.e., the chief advantage is that the words of God were committed to them, as to his friends: I have called you friends (John 15:15). This is important, because the words of God are trustworthy: the ordinances of the Lord are true and just altogether (Ps 19:9) and pleasant: how sweet are your words to my taste (Ps 119:103) and useful for avoiding sin: I have laid up your word in my heart, that I may not sin against you (Ps 119:11).

In another way by the fear of God; but they neither fear God nor regard man (Luke 18:2). Hence he adds, there is no fear of God before their eyes, i.e., in their plans: the fear of the Lord casts out sin; for without fear a person cannot be justified (Sir 1:27).

Then when he says their feet swift he touches on sinful deeds, in regard to which he mentions three things. First, readiness to do wickedly. Hence he says, their feet swift, i.e., their feelings, to shed blood, i.e., to commit any serious sin, because among the sins committed against our neighbor, murder is the most grievous: their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blood (Prov 1:16).

He rejects this unfittingness, when he says God forbid, that God is unjust. I speak according to man, i.e., I say these words not from my understanding but from that of a man in error, as is said: for while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh? (1 Cor 3:3).

He shows that this must not be admitted, adding: otherwise, namely, if God is unjust, how shall God judge this world, i.e., how could he be the universal and supreme judge of the world? For it is necessary that the first and highest item in every class be unerring, just as the first mover is unchangeable. Hence it is written: I will judge the world with justice (Ps 96:13). A like argument is presented in Job: of a truth God will not do wickedly, and the Almighty will not pervert justice. Who gave him charge over the earth and who laid on him the whole world? (Job 34:12). In other words: if he were not to judge justly, it would be necessary to suppose that someone else is judge of the world.

Then when he says, for we account, he shows how the Jews' boasting is excluded by the law of faith, saying: for we apostles, being taught the truth by Christ, account a man, whomsoever he be, whether Jew or gentile, to be justified by faith: he cleansed their hearts by faith (Acts 15:9). And this without the works of the law.

Not only without the ceremonial works, which did not confer grace but only signified it, but also without the works of the moral precepts, as stated in Titus, not because of deeds done by us in justice (Titus 3:5). This, of course, means without works prior to becoming just, but not without works following it, because, as is stated in James: faith without works (Jas 2:26), i.e., subsequent works, is dead, and, consequently, cannot justify.

After showing that Jews and gentiles are equal as far as the state of previous guilt is concerned, the Apostle now shows that they are also equal as far as the state of subsequent grace is concerned. In regard to this he does three things: first, he states his teaching; second, he explains something he had presupposed, at or is he the God of the Jews only? (Rom 3:29). Third, he answers an objection, at do we then destroy the law? (Rom 3:31). In regard to the first he does three things: first, he states his teaching; second, he manifests it, at for there is no distinction; third, he draws the intended conclusion, at where is then your boasting? (Rom 3:27). In regard to the first he does three things: first, he states the relation between justice and the law; second, he gives the cause of justice, at even the justice of God; third, he shows that such justice is available to all, at unto all.

First, he sets down a twofold comparison or relation of justice to the law. The first is that it is not caused by the law. This is what he says: It has been stated that in times past God's justice could not exist in virtue of the works of the law, either because the just one himself fulfills the promises about men's justification: for I say that Christ was minister of the circumcision for the truth of God (Rom 15:8). Or, rather, God's justice, by which a person is justified by God, of which it says below: not knowing the justice of God (Rom 10:3). This justice of God, I say, is now, i.e., in the time of grace, made manifest by the teachings of Christ, by his miracles, as well as by the evidence of the fact, inasmuch as it is evident that many have been divinely made just. And this without the law, i.e., without the law causing justice: you are severed from Christ, you who had been justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace (Gal 5:4); soon my salvation will come, and my justice will be revealed (Isa 56:1).

But lest anyone suppose that this justice is contrary to the law, second, he sets down another relation of justice to the law when he says: being witnessed by the law and the prophets. The law bears witness to Christ's justice by foretelling and prefiguring it: if you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me (John 5:46); and also by its effect, for, since it could not justify, it bore witness that justice was to be sought elsewhere. The prophets bore witness by foretelling it: to him all the prophets bear witness (Acts 10:43).

Then he assigns the cause of this justice, and says the justice of God is through the faith of Christ Jesus, i.e., which he delivered: looking to Jesus the perfecter of our faith (Heb 12:2); or which is held concerning him: for if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved (Rom 10:9).

God's justice is said to exist through faith in Christ Jesus, not as though by faith we merit being justified, as if faith exists from ourselves and through it we merit God's justice, as the Pelagians assert; but because in the very justification, by which we are made just by God, the first motion of the mind toward God is through faith: whoever would draw near to God must believe (Heb 11:6). Hence faith, as the first part of justice, is given to us by God: by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing; for it is the gift of God (Eph 2:8).

But this faith, out of which justice exists, is not the unformed faith about which James says, faith without works is dead (Jas 2:26), but it is faith formed by charity: for in Christ Jesus neither circumcision avails any thing without faith (Gal 5:6), through which Christ dwells in us. That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith (Eph 3:17), which does not happen without charity: he who abides in love abides in God and God in him (1 John 4:16). This is the faith about which it is said, he cleansed their hearts by faith (Acts 15:9), a cleansing that does not occur without charity: love covers all offenses (Prov 10:12).

And lest anyone suppose that only the Jews are made just through this faith, third, he shows that this justice is common, when he adds unto all. In other words, this justice is in the heart, not in fleshly observances, about which Hebrews says that carnal observances were directed to the justification of the flesh, being regulations for the body and imposed until the time of reformation (Heb 9:10). And upon all, because it transcends human power and merit: not that we are sufficient of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us (2 Cor 3:5). He adds, who believe in him, which refers to the living faith, by which man is justified, as has been said.

Then when he says for there is no distinction, he manifests what he had said: first, in regard to the common availability of justice; second, as to its cause, at being justified freely; third, as to its manifestation, at to the showing of his justice.

Second, he shows the time of its manifestation, when he adds: through the forbearance of God, for the showing of his justice in this time. As if to say: former sins before the passion of Christ were through the forbearance of God as, so to speak, under a certain divine support, because he neither damned believers and penitents for them nor completely absolved them, in the sense that, the sins notwithstanding, they might enter into glory.

Or, according to another reading, it can mean that the saintly fathers themselves were in God's forbearance, because they were detained in limbo, not suffering sensible pain but waiting to enter into glory through the passion of Christ: wait for the forbearance of God (Sir 2:3). For this purpose, I say, previous sins and the ancient fathers were through the forbearance of God, namely for the showing of his justice in this time, i.e., that in this time of grace he might manifest his justice perfectly by granting full remission of sins: now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation (2 Cor 6:2). And this is what he had said above, namely that God's justice is now manifest.

Up to this present time former sins had been in the forbearance of God, in order to convince man of his lack of knowledge, since in the time of the law of nature man fell into errors and base sins; and of his lack of power, since after the written law, which gave knowledge of sin, man still sinned through weakness.

Third, he shows that by remitting sins God's justice is shown, whether it be taken as the justice of God by which he himself is just or as the justice by which he justifies others. Hence he continues: that he himself may be just, i.e., that by remitting sins God may appear to be just in himself, both because he remitted sins as he had promised and because it belongs to God's justice to destroy sins by leading men back to his justice: the Lord is righteous, he loves just deeds (Ps 11:7). And also the justifier of him who is of the faith of Jesus Christ, i.e., who approaches God through faith in Jesus Christ: whoever would draw near to God must believe (Heb 11:6).

After showing the Jews' advantage over the gentiles so far as God's blessings are concerned, the Apostle now rejects their vainglory, by which they preferred themselves to gentiles converted to the faith. First, he states his point; second, he proves it, at for we have charged.

First, therefore, he says: I have asked what advantage has the Jew. The first is that God's words were delivered to them. What then shall we Jews say to converts to the faith? Do we excel them, namely, those gentiles converted to the faith? For this was a matter discussed among them: a dispute also rose among them, which of them was to be regarded as the greatest (Luke 23:24). He answers this when he says, no, not so.

But this seems to be at variance with an earlier statement, which said that their advantage was much every way (Rom 3:2). The Gloss explains that in the first statement the Apostle was thinking of the Jews in the time of the law, but now he is speaking of the time of grace because, as is written in Colossians: in Christ there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised (Col 3:11), since these make no difference so far as the state of grace is concerned. But this explanation does not seem to be altogether in keeping with the Apostle's intention, because later he will show that even while they were under the law, they were under the power of sin, just as the gentiles were, and even more so: this is Jerusalem; I have set her in the center of the nations, with countries round about her. And she has wickedly rebelled against my ordinances and become more wicked than these countries (Ezek 5:5). Hence, it seems that above he was showing the excellence of God's blessings; consequently, he did not say that the Jew was more excellent, but that something greater had been conferred on the Jew. Here he is rejecting the notion that they are excellent persons, because in spite of receiving God's blessings they did not use them properly.

Then when he says for we have charged, he establishes his points: first, that the Jews do not excel the gentiles so far as the state of sin is concerned; second, so far as the state of justice is concerned, at but now, without the law. He establishes the first in two ways: first, from what has been stated above; second, from an authority, at as it is written.

First, therefore, he says: we have charged, i.e., we have supported with reasons, that Jews and Greeks, i.e., gentiles, are all under sin: from the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness in him (Isa 1:6). For he showed, first of all, that the gentiles suppressed the truth they knew by their wickedness and injustice; second, that the Jews, after receiving the law, dishonored God by transgressing it.

Then when he says for what if some of them, he excludes an objection: first, he presents it; second, he rejects it by showing its consequences, at shall their unbelief; third, by showing that the consequence is unfitting, at but God is true.

Someone could belittle the Jews' prerogative by citing their ingratitude, through which they would seem to have set aside the value of God's message. Hence he says, what if some of them have not believed? Does this show that the Jew has no advantage, especially in the light of 2 Peter: it would have been better for them never to have known the way of justice than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandments delivered to them (2 Pet 2:21)? For they did not believe the lawgiver: they had no faith in his promises (Ps 106:24) or the prophets: for you are among unbelievers and destroyers (Ezek 2:6) or the Son of God: if I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? (John 8:46).

Then when he says shall their unbelief, he excludes this objection by showing the unsuitable conclusion it engenders. For if the Jews' prerogative were taken away on account of the unbelief of some, it would follow that man's unbelief would nullify God's faithfulness—which is an unacceptable conclusion. This is what he says: shall their unbelief, namely, of those who have not believed, make the faith of God without effect? This can be understood in two ways: in one way, as referring to the faith by which one believes in God. For the faith of believers is not nullified by those who have not believed, because the evil in some members of society does not nullify the good in other members: some of them he blessed and exalted and some of them he made holy and brought near to himself; some he cursed and brought low, and he turned them out of their place (Sir 33:12). This is against those of whom Augustine says in The Letter to the People of Hippo: what other motive inspires them and what else do they discuss save that when a bishop or cleric or monk or nun falls, they believe that all are such, but not all can be exposed? In another way, it can be understood as referring to the faith with which God is faithful in keeping his promises: he who promised is faithful (Heb 10:23). This faithfulness would be nullified, if it happened that the Jews had no advantage, just because some have not believed. For God promised to multiply that people and make it great: I will multiply your descendants (Gen 22:l6).

Then when he says because by the works of the law, he assigns the reason for these words: first, he assigns the reason; second, he explains it, at for by the law.

First, therefore, he says: the reason there is not any man just is that no flesh shall be justified before him, i.e., according to his judgment, by the works of the law; because, as is stated in Galatians: if justification were through the law, then Christ died to no purpose (Gal 2:21), and in Titus: not because of deeds done by us in justice, but in virtue of his own mercy he saved us (Titus 3:5).

However, a work of the law is of two kinds: one is peculiar to the Mosaic law, as the observance of ceremonial precepts; the other is a work of the law of nature, because it pertains to the natural law, as you shall not kill, you shall not steal, etc. Now some take the Apostle's words as referring to the first works, namely, that the ceremonials did not confer the grace through which men are made just. But this does not seem to be the Apostle's intent, for he immediately adds: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But it is clear that sins are made known through prohibitions contained in the moral precepts. Consequently, the Apostle intends to say that by no works of the law, even those commanded by the moral precepts, is man justified in the sense that justice would be caused in him by works, because, as he states below: and if by grace, it is not now by works (Rom 11:6).

Then when he says, for by the law, he proves his statement, namely, that the works of the law do not justify. For the law is given that man might know what to do and what to avoid: he has not dealt thus with any other nation; they do not know his ordinances (Ps 147:20); the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light and the way of life (Prov 6:23). But from the fact that man knows a sin he should avoid as being forbidden, it does not at once follow that he avoids it (because this pertains to the nature of justice), because concupiscence subverts the judgment of reason, when it bears on a particular moral action as performable. Consequently, the law is not enough to make one just; another remedy is needed to suppress concupiscence.

Consequently, because all have sinned and cannot of themselves be justified, they need some other cause to make them just. This cause he indicates when he continues, being justified. First, he shows that such justification exists without the law, i.e., that it does not come from the works of the law, when he says being justified freely, i.e., without the merit of previous works: you were sold for nothing and you shall be redeemed without money (Isa 52:3). And this is by his grace, namely, God's, to whom glory is due on this account: by the grace of God I am what I am (1 Cor 15:10).

Second, he shows what is the cause of justification. First, he discloses the cause itself, when he says, through the redemption. For as it is said: everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin (John 8:34). From this slavery a man is redeemed, if he makes satisfaction for sin. For example, if a man owes a king a fine for some guilty action, the one who paid the fine would be said to have redeemed him from the debt. Now, this debt involved the whole human race, which was infected by the sin of the first parent. Hence no other person could satisfy for the sin of the entire human race except Christ alone, who was immune from all sin. Hence he adds, that is in Christ Jesus. As if to say: in no other could there be redemption: not with perishable things, such as silver and gold (1 Pet 1:18).

After showing that Jews have no advantage over the gentiles either in regard to sin or to justice, he now presents the intended conclusion, by rejecting the boasts whereby they preferred themselves to the gentiles. He does three things. First, he proposes that this boasting be excluded; second, the reason for this exclusion, at by what law; third, the way it is excluded, at for we account.

In regard to the first he does two things. First, he raises a question: inasmuch as you, Jew, are under sin just as the gentile, and the gentile is made just by faith just as you are, where is then your boasting, whereby you take glory in the law, as stated above, and on this ground wish to prefer yourself to the gentile? Your boasting is not good (1 Cor 5:6); let us have no self-conceit, envying one another (Gal 5:26). Second, he answers this, saying, it is excluded, i.e., is taken away: the glory has been taken away from Israel (1 Sam 4:21); I will change their glory into shame (Hos 4:7). Or excluded, i.e., expressly manifested. For the Jews gloried in the glory and worship of the one God, and he says that their glory was excluded, i.e., pressed out by Christ, as artists who press out an image in silver are called excludors, in accord with the Psalm, that they might exclude those who were tried by silver (Ps 67:31). But the first meaning is more literal.

Then when he says by what law, he states the cause of this exclusion. Since the Jews' boasting was about the law, as has been stated above, it seemed that their boasting had to be excluded by something of the same genre, i.e., by some law. Therefore, he asks by what is their boasting to be excluded? For someone might suppose that the Apostle means their boasting was excluded by certain legal precepts which commanded greater works. That is why he asks, of works? As if to say: do I say that their boasting has been excluded by some law of works? But he answers: no, but by the law of faith.

So it is plain that the Apostle alludes here to two laws, that of works and that of faith. At first glance it would seem that by the law of works is meant the old law and by the law of faith the new law, through which the gentile is made equal to the Jew.

But there is some doubt about this distinction. For even in the old law faith was necessary, just as it is in the new: you who fear the Lord believe him (Sir 2:8); I believed; therefore I have spoken (Ps 116:10). And indeed, works are required in the new law, namely, the works of certain sacraments, as commanded in Luke: do this in memory of me (Luke 22:19) and of moral observances: be doers of the word and not hearers only (Jas 1:22). Consequently, it should be said that what he calls the law of works is the law outwardly presented and written, through which men's external works are directed, when it prescribes what he ought to do and forbids what ought to be avoided. But what he calls the law of faith is the law inwardly written, through which are directed not only external works but even the very motions of the heart, among which the act of faith is first: with the heart, we believe unto justice (Rom 10:10). Of this second law he speaks below: the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:2).

Then when he says their throats, he mentions the sins of commission: first, sins of speech; second, sinful deeds, at their feet swift. The sins of the heart can be gathered from these.

In regard to sins of speech he mentions four things. First, readiness and foulness, when he says: their throat is an open sepulchre. For an open grave has two features. For it is ready to receive the dead. According to this, a man's throat is said to be an open grave, when it is prepared to utter deadly remarks in the manner described by Jeremiah: their quiver is like an open tomb (Jer 5:16). Second, it exudes a foul odor: you are like white-washed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within they are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness (Matt 23:27). Therefore, a person from whose mouth proceeds the foul odor of filthy remarks has a throat which is an open grave: fire and smoke and sulphur issued from their mouths (Rev 9:17).

Second, in regard to sins of speech, he touches on deception when he says, with their tongues they have dealt deceitfully, having one thing in their heart and another in their words: their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaks deceitfully (Jer 9:8).

Third, he mentions the havoc wrought by their words, when he says: the venom of asps is under their lips, because they utter words which kill their neighbor either spiritually or bodily: their wine is the poison of serpents and the cruel venom of asps (Deut 32:33).

Then when he says as it is written, he establishes his point by the authority of the Psalmist: first, he quotes him; second, he explains, at now we know. In regard to the first he does two things: first, he mentions sins of omission; second, sins of commission, at their throat. He touches on the sins of omission in two ways: first, by removing the sources of good works; second, by removing the good works themselves, at all have turned out of the way.

Now there are three sources or principles that make a work good: one of these pertains to the justice of the work, namely, justice, which he says is lacking: there is not any man just (Ps 13:3). The godly man has perished from the earth; and there is none upright among men (Mic 7:2).

No man is just can be interpreted in three ways: in one way as meaning that no one is just within himself and of himself, but of himself everyone is a sinner and it is owing to God that he is righteous: the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty (Exod 34:6). In another way it means that no one is just in every way but has some sin according to Proverbs: who can say: I have made my heart clean? (Prov 20:9), and Ecclesiastes: surely there is not a just man on earth who does good and never sins (Eccl 7:20). In a third way it can be understood as referring to the wicked members of a populace, among which no one is just. For it is the custom of Scripture sometimes to speak of an entire populace in terms of its evil members and sometimes of its good members, as in Jeremiah, where it is stated that when Jeremiah finished saying everything the Lord had commanded him to say to the entire populace, the priests and prophets and the entire people took hold of him and said that he would die the death (Jeremiah 26:8ff.). Then it is added: then the princes and all the people said to the priests and prophets: this man does not deserve the sentence of death (Jer 26:16). However, the first two meanings seem to be more in keeping with the Apostle's intent; and the same must be said for the following.

Then when he says for if the truth, he shows the same on the part of human judgment. He does three things: first, he presents the false understanding of the above words; second, he shows the unfittingness that follows, at why am I also yet judged; third, he shows that it is unfitting, at whose damnation.

He expresses the false understanding according to the comparison of divine truth to human falsity, when he says: but if through my lie, i.e., on account of my falsity, the truth of God, being manifested, has more abounded unto his glory, man's falsity directly obtains an increase of glory. This is contrary to what is stated in Job: does God need you to speak deceitfully for him? (Job 13:7).

Then when he says now we know that what things soever, he explains the text he quoted in three ways: first, by expounding its sense; second, its intention, at that every mouth; third, he gives the reason for his words, at because by the works of the law.

It should be noted that the Jews, against whom the Apostle was speaking, could, to excuse themselves, pervert the sense of the text he cited and claim that it referred to the gentiles, not to the Jews. But the Apostle rejects this, saying: now we know that what things soever the law speaks, it speaks to those who are in the law, i.e., to whom the law is given and who profess the law: when Moses commanded us a law (Deut 33:4). But the gentiles were not under the law; accordingly, the above words pertain to the Jews.

Two objections are raised here. The first is that the above words were not taken from the law but from a psalm. The answer is that the word law is sometimes taken for the entire Old Testament, not for the five books of Moses alone, as in John: it is to fulfill the word that is written in their law: they hated me without cause (John 15:25), which was written in the Old Testament, not in the five books of Moses. This is the way law is taken here. Again, the Old Testament is sometimes divided into three parts, namely, the law, the Psalms, and the prophets, as in Luke: that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled (Luke 24:44). Finally, the entire Old Testament is sometimes divided into two, namely, the law and the prophets, as in Matthew: on these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets (Matt 22:40). In this sense the Psalter is included under the prophets.

The second objection is that in the law, i.e., in the Old Testament, many things are said that pertain to other nations, as is clear in many passages of Isaiah and Jeremiah, where many statements are directed against Babylon and other nations. Therefore, not everything that the law says speaks to those and about those who are under the law. The answer is that whatever it says indeterminately seems to be directed to those to whom the law has been given; but when the Scripture speaks of others it mentions them by name, as when it is written: the burden of Babylon, the burden of Tyre, etc. Furthermore, whatever was said against other nations in the Old Testament was somehow directed to the Jews, inasmuch as ill fortune was foretold for their consolation or fear, just as any preacher should say what pertains to his audience, not what pertains to others: declare to my people their transgressions (Isa 58:1), as if to say: not others' transgressions.

Then when he says that every mouth, he states the intent of the text cited, for Sacred Scripture accuses all of injustice for two reasons. First, to suppress their boasting, by which they considered themselves just, as in Luke: I fast twice a week (Luke 18:12). In regard to this he says, that every mouth may be stopped, which presumptuously ascribes justice to itself: for the mouths of liars will be stopped (Ps 63:11); talk no more so very proudly (1 Sam 2:3). Second, so that recognizing their guilt, they might subject themselves to God as the sick to a physician. Hence he continues: and all the world may be made subject to God, i.e., not only the gentiles but the Jews also, after recognizing their guilt: shall not my soul be subject to God? (Ps 62:1).

The second element that makes a work good is intellectual discernment, whose absence is declared when he says, there is none who understands: they have neither knowledge nor understanding (Ps 82:5); he would not understand (Ps 36:3).

The third element is a right intention, whose absence is described when he says, there is none who seeks after God, namely, by directing his intention toward him: it is time to seek the Lord that he may come and rain salvation upon you (Hos 10:12).

Second, he shows whence this redemption has efficacy, when he says whom God has proposed to be a propitiation. For Christ's satisfaction was efficacious for justifying and redeeming by the fact that God had assigned him to this in his plan, which he designates when he says whom God has proposed to be a propitiation: according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will (Eph 1:11). Or proposed, that is, he put forward for all, because the human race had no way of making satisfaction unless God himself gave them a redeemer and satisfier: he sent redemption to his people (Ps 111:9). And so, while making satisfaction, he redeems us from the debt of sin and obtains pardon for our sins, which the Psalmist begged: be propitious to our sins (Ps 79:9); and this is why he calls him a propitiation: propitiation (1 John 2:2). As a figure of this it was commanded in Exodus that a propitiatory, i.e., Christ, be placed on the ark, i.e., the Church (Exod 25:17).

Third, he indicates how the effect of redemption reached us, when he says, through faith in his blood, i.e., faith concerning his blood poured out for us. For in order to satisfy for us, it was fitting that he undergo the penalty of death for us, a penalty man had incurred by sin, as indicated in Genesis, in the day that you eat of it you shall die (Gen 2:17). Hence 1 Peter states, for Christ also died for sins once for all (1 Pet 3:18). This death of Christ is applied to us through faith, by which we believe that the world has been redeemed by his death: I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me (Gal 2:20). For even among men payment made by one man does not benefit another, unless he considers it valid. And so it is clear how there is justification through faith in Jesus Christ, as has been stated above.

But because he had stated above that God's justice is manifested now, he considers this manifestation. First, he touches on the manner of this manifestation, saying to the showing. As if to say: I say that we are justified by the redemption of Christ and by faith in his blood, to the showing of his justice, i.e., to the end that God might show his justice, and this for the remission of former sins. For in remitting former sins, which the law could not remit or men by their own power sufficiently guard against, God showed that the justice by which they are made just by God is necessary for men. But only through the blood of Christ could sins both present and past be remitted, because the power of Christ's blood works through man's faith, which the men who lived before his passion had, just as we have: since we have the same spirit of faith . . . we too believe (2 Cor 14:13). Hence another way of reading it is: for the remission of the sins of those men who preceded the passion of Christ: he will tread our iniquities under foot and he will cast all our sins into the depth of the sea (Mic 7:19).

Then when he says, but if our wickedness, he excludes a false understanding of the text he cited. For someone might understand these words according to the sense that that would be taken in a causal, not a consecutive, sense. Then it would follow that man's sin would be directly ordained to commend God's justice. But the Apostle shows that this is false. Hence he says that that is used consecutively, on the ground that David sinned and then the manifestation of divine justice followed, but not causally, as if a man's sin commended God's justice.

He proves this by showing that it leads to something unfitting in two ways: first, on the part of divine judgment; second, on the part of human judgment. In regard to the first he does three things: first, he presents the false sense; second, he shows that something unfitting follows from this, at what shall we say? Is God unjust; third, he shows that it is unfitting, at God forbid!

It should be noted that above the Apostle had made two comparisons; in the first he compared divine truth to human falsity when he said: but God is true and every man a liar; in the second, God's justice to human sin, in the words of a psalm, where it is said: against you, you only, have I sinned (Ps 51:4), that you may be justified. In regard to the first comparison he says: if these words are taken to mean that our iniquity directly commends God's justice, what shall we say? In other words, we could not accept the unfittingness that follows. For sin is not necessary for God to have his justice commended: he does not desire a multitude of faithless and useless children (Sir 16:1).

He expresses the unfittingness that follows, when he says: is God unjust, who executes wrath, i.e., vengeance for sin. For this follows from the supposition. For if sin were directly ordained to commending justice, it would not be deserving of punishment but of reward. Consequently, God would be unjust in punishing men for sin, contrary to what is stated in Deuteronomy: God is faithful and without iniquity (Deut 32:4).

Third, at for it is one God, he manifests what he had said with a sign, as if to say: it is clear that he is the God not only of the Jews but also of the gentiles, for it is one God who justifies circumcision, i.e., the Jews, from faith, as is said in Galatians, in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is of any avail (Gal 5:6).

According to the Gloss, from faith and through faith are exactly the same. However, a slight difference can be noted. For the preposition 'from' sometimes designates a remote cause, while the preposition 'through' designates a nearer cause. Therefore, the Jews are said to be justified from faith because faith was the first cause from which circumcision and the other sacraments of the law proceeded; thus, faith justified the Jews as a primary cause through intermediate causes. But the gentiles are justified by faith itself immediately.

After showing that Judaism, which involved receiving the law and circumcision, is not sufficient for salvation without the law's observance, through which the gentile without external Judaism and circumcision obtains the fruit of each, he now objects to his own doctrine: first, he presents the objection; second, he answers it, at much every way.

First, he objects: if what I say is so, i.e., that the true Jew and true circumcision are not something outward but inward in the heart, what advantage then has the Jew, i.e., what has been given to him more than to others? It seems to be nothing. But this is not fitting, since the Lord had said: the Lord, your God, has chosen you to be a people for his own possession (Deut 7:6). Or what is the profit of circumcision, i.e., outward? It seems from his previous teaching that there is no value. But this is not fitting, since it was imposed by God, who says: I am the Lord, your God, who teaches you unto profit (Isa 48:17).

Then when he says or is he the God of the Jews only, he manifests something he had presupposed, namely, that the justice of faith stands in the same common relation to all. He had previously explained this with a reason based on the material cause, when he stated above that all have sinned and need the glory of God (Rom 3:23), i.e., they are sinners, who need to be made just by the grace of God. But a proof based solely on the material cause is not enough, because matter is not moved to a form by itself without an agent cause. Accordingly, he now presents a proof based on the agent cause, i.e., the justifier, who is God: God is he who justifies (Rom 8:33). Now it is manifest that our God by justifying saves those whose God he is, according to a psalm, our God is a God of salvation (Ps 68:20). But he is the God not of the Jews only but of the gentiles also; therefore, he justifies both.

On this point he does three things. First, he raises a question concerning the Jews, when he says, is he the God of Jews only? It might seem that he is, because it says in Exodus, the God of the Hebrews called us (Exod 5:3). Hence it must be said that he was the God of the Jews only by the special worship paid to God by them; hence it is stated in a psalm: in Judah God is known (Ps 76:1); yet he was the God of all by his common reign over all things, as is stated in a psalm: God is king of all the earth (Ps 47:8). Second, he raises the question on the side of the gentiles, saying: is he not also of the gentiles? and he answers: yes, of gentiles also, whom he governs and rules: who would not fear you, O king of the nations? (Jer 10:7).

Then he adds two unfitting conclusions that follow: one is that man should not be regarded a sinner for lying, on the ground that it is directly ordained to God's glory. And this is what he says: why am I, i.e., even now, yet judged by men as a sinner for being false: whereas wickedness is fearful, it bears witness of its condemnation (Wis 17:8), because sinners are condemned by the judgment of all. The other unfitting conclusion is that it lends support to the false accusation leveled against the apostles. For they preached that through the abounding grace of Christ the debt for an abundance of sins was paid, as is stated below: where sin abounded, grace did more abound (Rom 5:20). For this the apostles were blasphemed, as if preaching that men should do evil in order that good be obtained. This would follow, if man's falsehood directly commended God's grace and truth. Therefore, he says: and why not do evil by sinning and teaching falsehood, that there may come good, i.e., that God's truth and justice be commended, as we are slandered: when slandered, we try to conciliate (1 Cor 4:13), and as some affirm that we say, by twisting our words: which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction (2 Pet 3:16).

He rejects these unfitting conclusions when he says whose damnation is just, i.e., those who do evil that good may come. For just as it is not correct to deduce truth from falsity, so it is wrong to reach a good end through evil means: why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all who are treacherous thrive? (Jer 12:1). Or whose, namely, those who accuse us of this falsely, damnation is just. For perverters of sacred doctrine are justly condemned: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book (Rev 22:18).

Men thought mankind wicked because they felt wicked themselves. If a man feels wicked, I cannot see why he should suddenly feel good because somebody tells him that his ancestors once had tails. Man's primary purity and innocence may have dropped off with his tail, for all anybody knows. The only thing we all know about that primary purity and innocence is that we have not got it.

Carlyle said that men were mostly fools. Christianity, with a surer and more reverent realism, says that they are all fools. This doctrine is sometimes called the doctrine of original sin. It may also be described as the doctrine of the equality of men. But the essential point of it is merely this, that whatever primary and far-reaching moral dangers affect any man, affect all men. All men can be criminals, if tempted; all men can be heroes, if inspired.

My religion says nothing about such planes except that all men are on one plane and that by no means a high one. There are saints indeed in my religion: but a saint only means a man who really knows he is a sinner.

The homeless scepticism of our time has reached a sub-conscious feeling that morality is somehow merely a matter of human taste—an accident of psychology. And if goodness only exists in certain human minds, a man wishing to praise goodness will naturally exaggerate the amount of it that there is in human minds or the number of human minds in which it is supreme. Every confession that man is vicious is a confession that virtue is visionary. Every book which admits that evil is real is felt in some vague way to be admitting that good is unreal. The modern instinct is that if the heart of man is evil, there is nothing that remains good. But the older feeling was that if the heart of man was ever so evil, there was something that remained good—goodness remained good. An actual avenging virtue existed outside the human race; to that men rose, or from that men fell away.

Since the Fall no organization or way of life whatever has a natural tendency to go right. In the Middle Ages some people thought that if only they entered a religious order they would find themselves automatically becoming holy and happy: the whole native literature of the period echoes with the exposure of that fatal error. In the nineteenth century some people thought that monogamous family life would automatically make them holy and happy; the savage antidomestic literature of modern times—the Samuel Butlers, the Gosses, the Shaws—delivered the answer. In both cases the "debunkers" may have been wrong about principles and may have forgotten the maxim abusus non tollit usum: but in both cases they were pretty right about matter of fact. Both family life and monastic life were often detestable, and it should be noticed that the serious defenders of both are well aware of the dangers and free of the sentimental illusion. The author of the Imitation of Christ knows (no one better) how easily monastic life goes wrong. Charlotte M. Yonge makes it abundantly clear that domesticity is no passport to heaven on earth but an arduous vocation—a sea full of hidden rocks and perilous ice shores only to be navigated by one who uses a celestial chart. That is the first point on which we must be absolutely clear. The family, like the nation, can be offered to God, can be converted and redeemed, and will then become the channel of particular blessings and graces. But, like everything else that is human, it needs redemption. Unredeemed, it will produce only particular temptations, corruptions, and miseries. Charity begins at home: so does un-charity.

What assurance have we that our masters will or can keep the promise which induced us to sell ourselves? Let us not be deceived by phrases about 'Man taking charge of his own destiny'. All that can really happen is that some men will take charge of the destiny of the others. They will be simply men; none perfect; some greedy, cruel and dishonest. The more completely we are planned the more powerful they will be. Have we discovered some new reason why, this time, power should not corrupt as it has done before?

This sin has been described by Saint Augustine as the result of Pride, of the movement whereby a creature (that is, an essentially dependent being whose principle of existence lies not in itself but in another) tries to set up on its own, to exist for itself. Such a sin requires no complex social conditions, no extended experience, no great intellectual development. From the moment a creature becomes aware of God as God and of itself as self, the terrible alternative of choosing God or self for the centre is opened to it. This sin is committed daily by young children and ignorant peasants as well as by sophisticated persons, by solitaries no less than by those who live in society: it is the fall in every individual life, and in each day of each individual life, the basic sin behind all particular sins: at this very moment you and I are either committing it, or about to commit it, or repenting it.

The moralities accepted among men may differ--though not, at bottom, so widely as is often claimed--but they all agree in prescribing a behaviour which their adherents fail to practise. All men alike stand condemned, not by alien codes of ethics, but by their own, and all men therefore are conscious of guilt.

We must guard against the feeling that there is "safety in numbers". It is natural to feel that if all men are as bad as the Christians say, then badness must be very excusable. If all the boys plough in the examination, surely the papers must have been too hard? And so the masters at that school feel till they learn that there are other schools where ninety per cent. of the boys passed on the same papers. Then they begin to suspect that the fault did not lie with the examiners.

None of us are really keeping the Law of Nature. If there are any exceptions among you, I apologise to them. They had much better read some other book, for nothing I am going to say concerns them. And now, turning to the ordinary human beings who are left: I hope you will not misunderstand what I am going to say. I am not preaching, and Heaven knows I do not pretend to be better than anyone else. I am only trying to call attention to a fact; the fact that this year, or this month, or, more likely, this very day, we have failed to practise ourselves the kind of behaviour we expect from other people.

These, then, are the two points I wanted to make. First, that human beings, all over the earth, have this curious idea that they ought to behave in a certain way, and cannot really get rid of it. Secondly, that they do not in fact behave in that way. They know the Law of Nature; they break it. These two facts are the foundation of all clear thinking about ourselves and the universe we live in.

And he cannot get into the right relation until he has discovered the fact of our bankruptcy. When I say 'discovered', I mean really discovered: not simply said it parrot-fashion. Of course, any child, if given a certain kind of religious education, will soon learn to say that we have nothing to offer to God that is not already His own and that we find ourselves failing to offer even that without keeping something back. But I am talking of really discovering this: really finding out by experience that it is true.

The controversy about faith and works is one that has gone on for a very long time, and it is a highly technical matter. I personally rely on the paradoxical text: "Work out your own salvation... for it is God that worketh in you." [Philippians 2:12] It looks as if in one sense we do nothing, and in another case we do a damned lot. "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling," but you must have it in you before you can work it out.

People who are naturally religious find difficulty in understanding the horror of such a revelation. Amiable agnostics will talk cheerfully about "man's search for God." To me, as I then was, they might as well have talked about the mouse's search for the cat.