EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.
THE ARGUMENT
With regard to the excellency of this Epistle, I know not whether it would be well for me to
dwell long on the subject; for I fear, lest through my recommendations falling far short of what
they ought to be, I should do nothing but obscure its merits: besides, the Epistle itself, at its very
beginning, explains itself in a much better way than can be done by any words which I can use. It
will then be better for me to pass on to the Argument, or the contents of the Epistle; and it will
hence appear beyond all controversy, that besides other excellencies, and those remarkable, this
can with truth be said of it, and it is what can never be sufficiently appreciated — that when any
one gains a knowledge of this Epistle, he has an entrance opened to him to all the most hidden
treasures of Scripture.
The whole Epistle is so methodical, that even its very beginning is framed according to the
rules of art. As contrivance appears in many parts, which shall be noticed as we proceed, so also
especially in the way in which the main argument is deduced: for having begun with the proof of
his Apostleship, he then comes to the Gospel with the view of recommending it; and as this
necessarily draws with it the subject of faith, he glides into that, being led by the chain of words
as by the hand: and thus he enters on the main subject of the whole Epistle justification by faith;
in treating which he is engaged to the end of the fifth chapter.
The subject then of these chapters may be stated thus, — man’s only righteousness is through
the mercy of God in Christ, which being offered by the Gospel is apprehended by faith.
But as men are asleep in their sins, and flatter and delude themselves with a false notion about
righteousness, so that they think not that they need the righteousness of faith, except they be cast
down from all self-confidence, — and further, as they are inebriated with the sweetness of lusts,
and sunk in deep self-security, so that they are not-easily roused to seek righteousness, except they
are struck down by the terror of divine judgment, — the Apostle proceeds to do two things — to
convince men of iniquity, and to shake off the torpor of those whom he proves guilty.
He first condemns all mankind from the beginning of the world for ingratitude, because they
recognized not the workman in his extraordinary work: nay, when they were constrained to
acknowledge him, they did not duly honor his majesty, but in their vanity profaned and dishonored
it. Thus all became guilty of impiety, a wickedness more detestable than any thing else. And that
he might more clearly show that all had departed from the Lord, he recounts the filthy and horrible
crimes of which men everywhere became guilty: and this is a manifest proof, that they had
degenerated from God, since these sins are evidences of divine wrath, which appear not except in
the ungodly. And as the Jews and some of the Gentiles, while they covered their inward depravity
by the veil of outward holiness, seemed to be in no way chargeable with such crimes, and hence
thought themselves exempt from the common sentence of condemnation, the Apostle directs his
discourse against this fictitious holiness; and as this mask before men cannot be taken away from
saintlings, (sanctulis — petty saints,) he summons them to the tribunal of God, whose eyes no latent
evils can escape. Having afterwards divided his subject, he places apart both the Jews and the
Gentiles before the tribunal of God. He cuts off from the Gentiles the excuse which they pleaded
from ignorance, because conscience was to them a law, and by this they were abundantly convicted
as guilty. He chiefly urges on the Jews that from which they took their defense, even the written