But if it be asked respecting individuals, “How any one could be cut off from the grafting, and
how, after excision, he could be grafted again,” — bear in mind, that there are three modes of
insition, and two modes of excision. For instance, the children of the faithful are ingrafted, to whom
the promise belongs according to the covenant made with the fathers; ingrafted are also they who
indeed receive the seed of the gospel, but it strikes no root, or it is choked before it brings any fruit;
and thirdly, the elect are ingrafted, who are illuminated unto eternal life according to the immutable
purpose of God. The first are cut off, when they refuse the promise given to their fathers, or do not
receive it on account of their ingratitude; the second are cut off, when the seed is withered and
destroyed; and as the danger of this impends over all, with regard to their own nature, it must be
allowed that this warning which Paul gives belongs in a certain way to the faithful, lest they indulge
themselves in the sloth of the flesh. But with regard to the present passage, it is enough for us to
know, that the vengeance which God had executed on the Jews, is pronounced on the Gentiles, in
case they become like them.
- For God is able, etc. Frigid would this argument be to the profane; for however they may
concede power to God, yet as they view it at a distance, shut up as it were in heaven, they do for
the most part rob it of its effect. But as the faithful, whenever they hear God’s power named, look
on it as in present operation, he thought that this reason was sufficient to strike their minds. We
may add, that he assumes this as an acknowledged axiom, — that God had so punished the unbelief
of his people as not to forget his mercy; according to what he had done before, having often restored
the Jews, after he had apparently banished them from his kingdom. And he shows at the same time
by the comparison, how much more easy it would be to reverse the present state of things than to
have introduced it; that is, how much easier it would be for the natural branches, if they were again
put in the place from which they had been cut off, to draw substance from their own root, than for
the wild and the unfruitful, from a foreign stock: for such is the comparison made between the Jews
and the Gentiles.
Romans 11:25-27
- Nolo euim vos ignorare, fratres,
mysterium hoc, ut ne apud vosmetipsos - For I would not, brethren, that ye should
be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise
superbiatis, quod caecitas ex parte Israeli contigit,
donec plenitudo gentium ingrediatur:
in your own conceits, that blindness in part is
happened to Israel, until the fulness of the
Gentiles be come in.- Atque ita universus Israel salvus fiet;
quemadmodum scriptum est, Veniet ex Sion is
qui liberat, et avertet impietates a Iacob: - And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is
written, There shall come out of Sion the
Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from
Jacob: - Et hoc illis a me testamentum, quum
abstulero peccata eorum. - For this is my covenant unto them, when
I shall take away their sins.
25.I would not, etc. Here he rouses his hearers to a greater attention, while he avows that he is
going to declare something that was secret. Nor did he do this without reason; for he wished to