Chapter II
That this covenant is derived unto the churches of the Gentiles, in a conformity
to the Jews privilege as they were a church.
And as thus we have seen the derivation of the covenant to the children of believing parents, founded on a conformity to Abraham s privilege, and so propagated in a family way, in a correspondency unto him and his family, so you shall also see it founded on a conformity to the Jews privilege, as they were a church, and so derived in a church way, as a privilege made to believers as members of churches. This (I take it) will arise out of the
scope of that admonition given the Gentiles, Rom. xi., from the example of the Jews being broken off, and our being engrafted in their stead. The caveat or warning which the apostle there gives is this, that the Gentiles be
ing engrafted on the Jews root, they would look well to their standing in that
grace, ver. 20, and continue in God s goodness vouchsafed, ver. 22, and not boast against the Jews who were broke off, ver. 18.
Now, that you may clearly see that which I seek to prove to arise out of it, I give these observations upon that discourse of the apostle in the chapter, which put together will rise up to a demonstration of it.
1. The first is, that which Calvin also and Beza have observed, though to another purpose, that although the apostle gives this admonition in the
singular number, thou and thee, almost in every verse, yet he speaks not
so much to particular persons singly considered, but to the Gentiles collec
tively in a bulk or body, as distinct here from the body of the Jews. Which
is evident, 1, because he opposeth these unto whom he gives the admo
nition unto the Jews as so considered. 2. Because that boasting (which he forewarns them of, ver. 18, 19) that the Jews were broken off, that
these Gentiles might be engrafted in, cannot be supposed it should be so
gross a way of boasting, as that each particular Roman or Gentile should for
themselves apart, personally and singly considered, glory against the whole
nation of the Jews. And therefore, thirdly, though ver. 17, he speaks in
the singular number, thou, yet he expresseth it thus, Thou having been a
wild olive tree, which evidently implies that he speaks of the bulk and body
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434 OF ELECTION. [BOOK V.
* Thou
of the Gentiles, not to particular persons, for then he would have said,
being a branch of the wild olive.
2. Observe, that though it be to be extended to the whole body of the
Gentiles, in opposition to the whole nation of the Jews, yet it is in the ad monition more particularly intended, directed, and brought home to these Romans to whom this epistle was written ; and these considered as cast
into a body of a church or churches, in opposition to the Jews, as they were considered as once a church unto God ; and therefore this admonition
being given thus to them, is withal directed under them to all Christian churches of the Gentiles. And therefore (1.) he speaks to them as to one man, thou and thee, because he speaks to them as to a collective body ; and
(2.) he speaks of their engrafting, not into the Jews church, as proselytes were of old, that they should be members of that church as if it still stood ; but instead of the Jews church, considered as broken off, and these grow
ing up of themselves on the Jews stock, to be a church of themselves unto God, entire and distinct from that of the Jews, in the room thereof. (3.) Therefore, from occasion of these mercies of God in engrafting them into this
* by the mercies of God vouchsafed them herein (with the admiration of which
body or tree, spoken of in this chapter, he exhorts them, chap, xii.,
mercies, both to Jew and Gentile, he had concluded this discourse, ver. 30, 31 of this llth chapter), to behave themselves answerably as they were a church to God. And so indeed all that first use and application he makes unto them of that his foregoing doctrine, chap, xi., is how to walk as a
church, both officers and members. Thus, chap, xii., an use answering to
this his former doctrine, chap, xi., and as that special mercy vouchsafed
them, even to be planted as a church to Christ, distinct from the Jewish church and in their stead. Now, therefore, as his application and use of
the doctrine is spoken to them as to a church, chap, xii., so the doctrine
itself, which is the thing in hand, chap, xi., that speaks of their engrafting
in, is to be understood. And (4.) I may add this, that all epistles written
by apostles, are written to the Gentile saints considered as churches. So
to the Corinths and to the Galatians, and so this, with all the rest.
* stand and
Wherefore, 3, observe this his exhortation or covenant, to
continue in God s goodness, that as it was not spoken so much to the par ticular persons of these Romans singly considered, so answerably it is not intended of their falling personally away, and in that respect to be cut off
singly and apart, though that I exclude not, but it is spoken in relation to
succession, and so of their continuance as a church before God in after ages, and in their posterity. As if he had said, Let every one look to it (and upon that consideration look to it) to continue in the stock into which they were engrafted, and to propagate this privilege to posterity; for
(1.) This continuing thus, and taking heed of being cut off, must answer
to the example of the Jews, whom he sets before them as broke off, for them
to take heed lest they came so to be broken off as they were. Now the Jews breaking off, and the severity of it, mentioned ver. 22, is to be understood principally to consist in this, that not only the persons of the
present Jews were broken off, but likewise a stop put to the nation to be a church in respect to succession of posterity, and so their children broken off with them from being any longer a church unto Christ ; God had cast them
off, and their posterity after them. And if the goodness or privilege vouch
safed the Gentiles had not been like to that of the Jews even in this respect, what ground or appearance had there been of their boasting, or equalling themselves to the Jews (who for two thousand years had enjoyed this privi
lege of continuance), if the promise to these Romans were to have it but in
CHAP. II.] OF ELECTION. 435
their own persons, and reached but to an age, if they might not by standin m the faith have continued it to others after them. There had neither been such cause to compare this goodness or favour vouchsafed them with that to the Jews, nor had it been any way answerable to the severity towards the Jews with which he threateneth them, ver. 22, if this goodness were not meant of a continuance of this grace to them and theirs, as the severity was a breaking off of the Jews and theirs also.
And (2.) herein how proper was this admonition to this church of Rome ; which the apostle knew would in after ages become the greatest apostate church in the world, and the mother of all apostatising churches, as John hath it, which yet makes this very boast (not against Jews only, but against other churches of the Gentiles also), of her standing more firm and sure than the Jews ever did whom God rejected, that against her the gates of hell shall not prevail. Yea, and in distinct terms she boasts of this very thing, namely, her continuance and succession in all ages. And so the caveat about boasting here is thus peculiarly directed to these Romans, and that as a church in Rome, for as so considered she boasteth of herself.
And whereas it may be objected that though a continuance of succession is here to be understood, yet that it follows not it should be meant of their children in a way of propagation, seeing there is another way of continuing this privilege of grace among the Gentiles, and may be understood to be intended in this Roman church, namely, by a new addition of converts daily added to the church, who should stand up after them. This I exclude not. 4. Yet further, in the fourth place, observe, that a promise of succession to their children as the continuers of this church is here meant.
For, first, it is this way of succession by children which he maketh ex
press mention of here in this discourse, neither doth he mention any other. So, ver. 16,
* If the root be holy, so are the branches, speaking of the fathers and children of the Jewish nation, ver. 27.
And, secondly, the law of opposition argues it, for the breaking off the Jews mentioned, is to be understood of a putting a stop unto, and the not
continuing it to them and to their children ; for otherwise their children are not more broken off to this day than the children of us Gentiles are. And then the cutting off with which he threatens the Romans in the same 22d
* shalt be cut off, must answerably be so meant. And then, accordingly, their engrafting also must be so in
verse, Thou also (or, in like manner)
tended, for none are capable of being cut off but those who are engrafted on the stock.
And, thirdly, the engrafting in again of the Jews (which he promiseth under the gospel as to come) is promised to be not in respect of a succession in others, as succedanean proselytes to them, but of their own children. For the
place which he quotes, ver. 26, out of Isa. lix. 21, hath it thus, This is my covenant, that my Spirit and word shall not depart out of the mouth of thy
seed, and of thy seed s seed, henceforth for ever. Which words of Isaiah Paul here briefly shuts up in this interpretation, All Israel shall be saved, that is, they and their posterity after them. So as this kind of succession and continuing a church is the goodness or favour which he hath in his eye throughout this discourse.
5. And then withal observe, that he attributes to the Gentile churches
the very same privilege by their grafting in which the Jews once had, and which shall one day take hold again upon them. Which covenant, ver. 16, he declares to consist in this, If the root be holy, then so are the branches, and thereupon immediately in the next verses subjoins concerning the
Gentiles,
436 OF ELECTION. [BOOK Y.
(1.) That they were grafted in among them, that is, the Jews, or for them, ver. 17, ev aiiro/&, for OLVT! avruv, which (as the Syriac also expounds
it) is in loco eorum, in the Jews stead and room, that is, to continue a church unto God, by virtue of the same covenant in this respect which the Jews before had done. And as he had before planted the Jews to continue, so now that he had planted the Gentile churches, and particularly that of
the Romans. And so in our margin you have it varied for them, that is, in their stead.
(2.) He says that they are made partakers with them, namely, with the
< both of the root and of
Jews, cuyxo/vuvoi, communicating of a like interest
the fatness of the olive tree. By the root it is plain he means their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, for so he had called them, ver. 16. And to be
partaker of the root must necessarily be interpreted by what went afore,
namely, to partake of this covenant made with the Jews for their fathers
sakes, that if the root be holy, so are the branches. For that speech is
spoken of the fathers deriving of this covenant to their children ; hence,
therefore, this is argued to be the privilege of this Roman church, to have
the same covenant that the Jews had in these their roots, the same that
these the natural branches once had. And therefore, as the covenant of the Jews was for them and their children, because Abraham s covenant descended
to them (he being their root), so Abraham becoming the root of us Gentiles
also, the same covenant descends to us. And so thou partakest, saith he, from this root the same fatness, that is, the same spiritual privileges and
promises made to the Jews, whereof this is the main, which the similitude
of fatness imports, that branch would spread out of branch, as the Jewish
root and branches had done, so conveying juice or fatness to others, age after age ; for of a fatness, to this very end, to spread itself into branches, he chiefly and evidently speaks, for this was that fatness which, when he
speaks of the Jewish church, he intended ; this, therefore, must needs be meant of the fatness the church of the Gentiles did partake in, if they con
tinued to believe.
Then (3.) our engrafting in, and the Jews their cutting off, are made
answerable one to the other ; and the goodness shewn to the Gentile churches must be suitable to the severity shewn against the Jewish. Now then, if God s severity to them (for their unbelief) lay in this chiefly, to cut them
off from continuing a church in their posterity, then God s goodness in our
engrafting in, must accordingly lie in this, to derive the covenant down to our children and posterity, or else the apostle had not spoke ad idem, which,
ver. 17, he professeth to do. Yea, if it be but granted, that our cutting off, threatened ver. 22, should be, if executed, such a cutting off as was theirs
* Thou also shalt be cut off ), then it must neces
(as it is plain it is, for he says,
sarily include the cutting off our children. And then if the threatening be
to cut off our children, as he had done theirs, then our children must be
supposed to be by God s promise engrafted in, for none are capable of be
ing cut off, but such as are engrafted in.
And (4.) the metaphor he expresseth this privilege to the Gentile churches
by, implies it to be by propagation, and so of their children chiefly, as
members, to continue it. This church privilege is compared to an olive tree,
spreading into branches, ver. 17, only with this difference from that of the Jews (which difference is found in the growing up of other trees), that some
trees grow up of branches, but engrafted upon a root such are the Gentile churches ; others consist of branches naturally growing out of a root such were the Jews. But when they that are engrafted on the stock or root do
once take, they then partake of the same natural privilege, to spread into
CHAP. II.] OF ELECTION. 437
new branches, branch after branch, in the same natural way that the branches of those trees do which grow naturally out of their root ; so as, though indeed the first engrafting or implanting of a wild olive branch, as he calls the Gentiles, ver. 24, be not by natural succession, yet after it is implanted it is continued, as a tree, by as natural spreading as was at first in the natural tree, the branches whereof are cut off. For otherwise, if the privilege of the Gentiles church to continue were but only by the addition ofwild branches, such as at the first the new converted Gentiles themselves were, newly converted to the faith, and so not by their children chiefly in a natural succession, then the continuance of all Gentile churches in the next suc cession were still by a new engrafting only such as at first, whereas when once grafted in, the apostle makes it to be continued in a natural way, from the root, which Abraham is become to be to us as well as to them , to shew that if believers continue in faith, that God will continue his name on their children, who are (according to the psalmist s comparison also) the olive branches about their table.
Neither (5.) had the arguments or motives which he useth to the Eomans, to stand in the faith, and thereby to continue a church, had that force in them to prevail with them, if not meant of their children succeeding them, but only of other Gentiles vagd, and at large, that should rise up as converts of the same nation. Or, how would this threatening of cutting them off have so much concerned them, or have been so pungent to move them, as if sup posed to be meant of their own children so dear to them ? This must needs have a far stronger efficacy in it to engage them to stand, seeing their chil dren s hopes depended so much upon their father s faith, which surely is his meaning, because he sharpens this admonition with the example of the cut
ting off the Jews and their children.
Yea, (6.) how would this have provoked the Jews to emulation (as, ver. 14, he says he intended to do), if the same favour had not been vouchsafed to the Gentiles now that had been formerly unto the Jews in this respect ; for emulation is always about the same kind of excellency, which we properly affect, or once had, and are now competitors for.
And whereas the objection may be, that the Jews only are called the
* natural branches, ver. 24, as if that way were only proper to them, the answer is, that that title is given them in respect that they were the first
primitive branches, and that Abraham, the first root out of which they had their spiritual covenant derived, was also their natural father, which to us he was not, but we are engrafted after their cutting off ; yet so as it hinders
not, that when we are once engrafted in, that then branches should grow out of us in the same way, even by a propagated succession, that they did among them ; for so, as was afore observed, engrafted branches use to do. For we
partake of the root and of the same fatness, only still with this difference
(as I said at first, which the apostle here acknowlegeth), which maketh this
their privilege to be more eminent than ours in these particulars
[l.J In that Abraham, our common root, was their root originally; ver. 24,
it is called their own. They were natural branches, we after many hun
dred years engrafted.
[2.J That we being but engrafted branches, and having once been wild
branches, both we and our posterity are in a greater danger (intimated ver.
21) more speedily to be cut off, not continuing in faith. A few generations may make a stop, a breaking off in our prosperity, whereas they had con
tinued many hundreds of years. Theirs was a covenant sure, as David
says, though his house was not so, that is, not such to God, as God s
438 OF ELECTION. [BOOK V.
covenant required of them, but had many unbelievers in his line ; yet God re vived it in the virgin Mary and others, to the last. And [3.] that our danger is, never to be engrafted in again, if once our succession fail to continue in his goodness, and so to be broken off for ever, or
at least not to continue in that strength and firmness as theirs, as that after
sixteen hundred years interruption, they should be engrafted in again, ver. 25-27, and this
* for their father s sake, ver. 28, and all Israel shall be
saved, ver. 26. All which agrees with that limitation which I gave at first. And thus out of this place you see, that this covenant to our children is not only derived to us Gentiles as a family privilege only, in conformity to Abraham s family (as I shewed before), but also by virtue of a church privi lege in a conformity to the Jews as grown a church, as grown up into a tree, which consists of many arms, having lesser branches or families thereon, God promising to the Gentiles, till they cut themselves off by unbelief, to continue and keep up the succession of churches out of their loins. There
fore further, Eph. ii. 12, &c., we are said to partake of their commonwealth or city privilege, we are of the commonwealth of Israel, and have the cove nant of the promise, the 12th, 13th, 14th, and 19th verses compared, and are of
the same body with them, chap. iii. 6, which are spoken because God hath
estated us into these their privileges, as all those expressions carry it ; for if we have their commonwealth or city estate or privilege, then those societies or churches, under the gospel (which therefore inherit the name and title of the city of God, &c.) are admitted to the same spiritual rights that be
longed to their nation, city, or commonwealth ; and a church is now called a city, because as a city consists of many families, so a church. Now this
in all nations is one privilege of a city, and the common privilege to all
* I was born a Roman, says Paul.
citizens, that their children are free burghers
Yea, he further adds, that we have the testaments of promise. Mark how he useth the same expression which he had used of the Jews, when he
yet set out the eminent privilege of their nation, in respect of their birth, Rom. ix. 4, that to them pertained the testaments, or covenants,
* and the
promise. He useth the word testaments in the plural nnmber, because all the sorts of blessings in things spiritual belong unto them, and of promises, are, or may be, esteemed privileges, whereof we are made partakers as well as they, though they more eminently, as Rom. ix. 4 he shews, yet we in a
conformity to them. Now was not this one covenant with them, and one
great promise, that God would be a God of them and of their seed ? And, are we debarred of it ? If so, then are we still strangers from this particu lar covenant, and from this promise. Yea further, yet to strengthen this, as we are the sons of Abraham, so children of the Jews also, 1 Cor. x. 1. They are called our fathers. The apostle speaks to the Corinthian Gen
tiles, and yet calls the Jews their fathers, and we come in as their children, as truly as those of their nation did. I now urge not much that more noticed place in Peter s sermon to the Jews (because I shall do it in a sub
sequent treatise of baptism, if God enable me), Acts ii. 38, 39, where, ex
horting the Jews to come into the embracement of the new covenant of the
gospel then first delivered, and to receive baptism, the seal of it, for the for
giveness of sins, he speaks thus, For the promise is to you and your children ; and then extends the same promise to the Gentiles also,
* and to
all that are afar off, and to as many as God shall call, namely, of the Gen
tiles, who, in that Eph. ii. 17, are said to have been afar off. Now if the Jews covenant, still under the gospel, continues to be to them and their
seed, and the same promise belongeth to the Gentiles when called, then to
CHAP. III.] OF ELECTION. 439
their children also. And the reason is strong, for else the Jews should once have had promises, yea, and this under the gospel too, which we have not. Whereas you have heard it proved, that we are of their commonwealth, yea, we are their children, they our fathers, and the same promises and testaments given to us that were given to them ; so as this privilege comes by a double right to us, by God s covenant a Christian family in conformity unto Abraham, and by his covenant also a church in conformity to the Jews.
This Paul shews to have been the ancient promise to the church of Rome ; and they possessed this privilege more eminently than any other churches for four hundred years, till she began to spread herself too" far into unnatu ral branches, to enlarge herself and to overshadow other trees, and usurping over other churches, like to Nebuchadnezzar s tree, not keeping within those bounds of extent wherein God had planted her.