yet in hope relied on the promise of God; and he thought it a sufficient reason for hoping, that the
Lord had promised, however incredible the thing was in itself.
According to what had been said,etc. So have I preferred to render it, that it may be applied to
the time of Abraham; for Paul meant to say, that Abraham, when many temptations were drawing
him to despair, that he might not fail, turned his thoughts to what had been promised to him, “Thy
seed shall equal the stars of heaven and the sands of the sea;” but he resignedly adduced this
quotation incomplete, in order to stimulate us to read the Scriptures. The Apostles, indeed, at all
times, in quoting the Scriptures, took a scrupulous care to rouse us to a more diligent reading of
them.
Romans 4:19-22
- Ac fide minime debilitatus, non
consideravit suum ipsius corpus jam emortuum, - And being not weak in faith, he
considered not his own body now dead, when he
centenaries quum fere esset, nec emortuam
vulvam Saræ:
was about an hundred years old, neither yet the
deadness of Sarah’s womb:- Nec vero in Dei promissionem nec
emortuam vulvam Sarre: per incredulitatem - He staggered not at the promise of God
through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving
glory to God; disquisivit; sed roboratus est fide, tribuens
gloriam Deo; - Ac certe persuasus, quod ubi quid
promisit, possit etiam præstare. - And being fully persuaded that, what he
had promised, he was able also to perform. - And therefore it was imputed to him for 22. Ideo et imputatum illi est in justitiam.
righteousness.
19.In faith, etc. If you prefer to omit one of the negatives you may render it thus, “Being weak
in faith, he considered not his own body,” etc.; but this makes no sense. He indeed shows now more
fully what might have hindered, yea, and wholly turned Abraham aside from receiving the promise.
A seed from Sarah was promised to him at a time when he was not by nature fit for generating, nor
Sarah for conceiving. Whatever he could see as to himself was opposed to the accomplishment of
the promise. Hence, that he might yield to the truth of God, he withdrew his mind from those things
which presented themselves to his own view, and as it were forgot himself.
You are not however to think, that he had no regard whatever to his own body, now dead, since
Scripture testifies to the contrary; for he reasoned thus with himself, “Shall a child be born to a
man an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, who is ninety, bear a son?” But as he laid aside the
consideration of all this, and resigned his own judgment to the Lord, the Apostle says, that he
considered not, etc.; and truly it was a greater effort to withdraw his thoughts from what of itself
met his eyes, than if such a thing came into his mind.
throughout repudiates with regard to man’s justification. Faith, as it lays hold on God’s promise of free acceptance and forgiveness,
can alone, in the very nature of things, be imputed for righteousness: it is not indispensably necessary that the way, or medium,
or the meritorious cause of acceptance and forgiveness, should be clearly known and distinctly seen; the gracious promise of
God is enough, so that faith may become a justifying faith.