You may thus briefly untie this knot, — that the origin of the impiety which provokes God’s
displeasure, is the perversity of nature when forsaken by God. Paul therefore, while speaking of
eternal reprobation, has not without reason referred to those things which proceed from it, as fruit
from the tree or river from the fountain. The ungodly are indeed, for their sins, visited by God’s
judgment with blindness; but if we seek for the source of their ruin, we must come to this, — that
being accursed by God, they cannot by all their deeds, sayings, and purposes, get and obtain any
thing but a curse. Yet the cause of eternal reprobation is so hidden from us, that nothing remains
for us but to wonder at the incomprehensible purpose of God, as we shall at length see by the
conclusion. But they reason absurdly who, whenever a word is said of the proximate causes, strive,
by bringing forward these, to cover the first, which is hid from our view; as though God had not,
before the fall of Adam, freely determined to do what seemed good to him with respect to the whole
human race on this account, — because he condemns his corrupt and depraved seed, and also,
because he repays to individuals the reward which their sins have deserved.^346
8.Given them has God, etc. There is no doubt, I think, but that the passage quoted here from
Isaiah is that which Luke refers to in Acts, as quoted from him, only the words are somewhat altered.
Nor does he record here what we find in the Prophet, but only collects from him this sentiment, —
that they were imbued from above with the spirit of maliciousness, so that they continued dull in
seeing and hearing. The Prophet was indeed bidden to harden the heart of the people: but Paul
penetrates to the very fountain, — that brutal stupor seizes on all the senses of men, after they are
given up to this madness, so that they excite themselves by virulent stimulants against the truth.
For he does not call it the spirit of giddiness, but of compunction, when the bitterness of gall shows
itself; yea, when there is also a fury in rejecting the truth. And he declares, that by the secret judgment
of God the reprobate are so demented, that being stupified, they are incapable of forming a judgment;
for when it is said, that by seeing they see nothing, the dullness of their senses is thereby intimated.
347
Then Paul himself adds, to this very day, lest any one should object and say, that this prophecy
had been formerly fulfilled, and that it was therefore absurd to apply it to the time of the gospel:
this objection he anticipates, by subjoining, that it was not only a blindness of one day, which is
described, but that it had continued, together with the unhealable obstinacy of the people, to the
coming of Christ.^348
(^346) The foregoing reasoning is not satisfactory: it goes beyond the evident meaning of the Apostle. He no doubt quoted the
texts according to their original design, and to say he did not is to assert what is incapable of being proved, and what is even
contrary to the Apostle’s reasoning throughout. The hardening or blinding spoken of by the Prophets, is stated uniformly as a
punishment for previous unbelief and impenitence, as admitted by our author himself, and the obvious fact as to the Jews in the
Apostle’s days, was an evidence of the same, and though he states not this fact here, he states it in the sequel of this Epistle. But
why some were hardened, and others were softened, is what must be resolved altogether to the will of God. This, and no more
than this, is what the Apostle evidently teaches here: and it is neither wise nor right to go beyond what is expressly taught,
especially on a subject of a nature so mysterious and incomprehensible. — Ed.
(^347) The quotation in this verse is taken from two passages: the first clause is from Isaiah 29:10, and the rest from Isaiah 6:9,
or Deuteronomy 29:4. The first clause is not exactly according to the Hebrew or the Septuagint; instead of “God gave them,”
etc., it is in the Septuagint, “the Lord hath made you drink,” etc., and in Hebrew, “Jehovah has poured upon you,” etc. It is the
“spirit of slumber” in both, or rather, “of deep sleep” — , a dead or an overwhelming sleep; and , though not as to its
primary sense the same, is yet used according to this meaning. The verb means to puncture, to prick, either with grief or remorse,
and also to affect with stupor. The latter idea the noun must have in this place, for the Hebrew does not admit of the other. The
latter part is found in substance, though not in the same form of words in the two places referred to. — Ed.
(^348) Some consider this passage as taken from Deuteronomy 29:4, and regard the last words as part of the quotation. — Ed.