Latest / Homilies on Romans / 033 - Homily 18 Part 1 - Romans 1014-15

Transcript

033 - Homily 18 Part 1 - Romans 1014-15 · Homilies on Romans

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Section thirty three of Homilies on Romans by John Chrysostom,
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: translated by J. B. Morris. This LibriVox recording is in
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: the public domain. Homily eighteen, Part one, Romans ten, Verses
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: fourteen and fifteen. How then shall they call on Him
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: in whom they have not believed? And how shall they
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: they preach except they be sent here? Again, he takes
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: from them all excuse, for since he had said, I
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: bear them record that they have a zeal of God,
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: but not according to knowledge, and that being ignorant of
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: God's righteousness, they submitted not themselves to it. He next
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: shows that for this ignorance itself, they were punishable before God.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: This he does not say, indeed so, but he makes
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: it good by carrying on his discourse in the way
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: of question, and so convincing them more clearly by framing
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: the whole passage out of objections and answers. But consider
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: above he means. The prophet says, whosoever shall call upon
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: the name of the Lord shall be saved. Now, somebody
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: might say, perhaps, but how could they call upon him
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: whom they have not believed. Then there is a question
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: from him after the objection, and why do they not believe?
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: And then an objection again, A person certainly may say,
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: and how could they believe since they had not heard?
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: Yet here they did, he re implies. Then another objection again,
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: and how could they hear without a preacher? Then an
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: answer again. Yet preach they did, And there were many
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: send forth for this very purpose. And whence does it
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: appear that these are those persons sent? Then he brings
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: the prophet in next, who says, how beautiful are a
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: feat of them that preach the gospel of peace and
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: bring glad tidings of good things. You see how by
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: the kind of preaching, he points out the preachers, For
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: there was nothing else that these men went about telling
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: everywhere but those unspeakable good things and the peace made
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: by God with men. And so by disbelieving, it is
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: not we, he implies, whom you disbelieve, but Isaiah, the prophet,
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: who spake many years ago that we were to be
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: sent and to preach and to say what we do
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: say if the being saved, then came of calling upon
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: him and calling upon him from believing and believing from
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: hearing and hearing, from preaching and preaching from being sent.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: And if they were sent and did preach, and the
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: prophet went round with them to point them out and
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: proclaim them, and say that these were they whom they
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: showed off so many ages ago, whose feet even they
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: praised because of the matter of their preaching, then it
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: is quite clear that the not believing was their own
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: fault only, and that because God's part had been fulfilled
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: completely Verses sixteen and seventeen. But they have not all
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah saith, Lord, who hath believed
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: our report? So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: by the word of God, since they pressed him with
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: another objection again to this effect that if these were
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: the persons sent upon the mission by God, all ought
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: to have hearkened to them. Observes Saint Paul's judgment. And
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: see how he shows that this very thing which made
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: the confusion did in fact do away with confusion and embarrassment.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: What offends you, o jeu? He would say, after so
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: great and abundant evidence and demonstration of the points that
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: all did not submit to the gospel. Why this very thing,
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: when taken along with the others, is a force to
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: certify thee of the truth of my statements, even in
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: that some do not believe. For this too the prophet foretold.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: Notice his unspeakable wisdom too, How he shows more than
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: they were looking for or expected him to have to
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: say in reply, For what is it that you say?
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: He means? Is it that all have not believed the Gospel? Well?
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: Isiah foretold this too from of old? Or rather not
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: this only, but even much more than this. For the
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: complaint you make is why did not all believe? But
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: Isaiah goes further than this. For what is it, he says,
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: Lord who hath believed our report? Then, since he had
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: ridden himself of this embarrassment by making the offered a
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: bulwark against them, he again keeps to the line he
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: was before upon. For as he had said that they
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: must call upon him, but that they who call must believe,
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: and they who believe must hear first. But they who
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: are to hear must have preachers, and the preachers be sent.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: And as he had shown that they were sent and
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: had preached, as he is going to bring in another
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: objection again, taking occasion first of another quotation from the
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: prophet by which he had met the objections a little back.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: He thus interweaves it and connects it with what went before.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: For since he had produced the prophet as saying, Lord,
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: who hath believed our report? He happily seizes on the
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: quotation as proving what he says. So then faith cometh
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: by hearing. And this he makes not a mere naked statement.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: But as the Jews were forever seeking a sign and
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: the sight of the resurrection, and were gaping after the
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: thing much, he says, Yet the prophet promised no such thing,
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: but that it was by hearing that we were to believe.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: Hence he makes this good first and says, so then
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: faith cometh by hearing. And then, since this seemed a
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: mean thing to say, see how he elevates it. For
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: he says, I was not speaking of mere hearing, nor
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: of the need of hearing men's words and believing them.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: But I mean a great sort of hearing. For the
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: hearing is by the word of God. They were not
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: speaking their own, but they were telling what they learned
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: from God. And this is a higher thing than miracles.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: For we are equally bound to believe and to obey God,
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: whether speaking or working miracles, since both works and miracles
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: come of His words. For both the heaven and everything
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: else was established in this way. After showing then that
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: we ought to believe the prophets who always speak God's words,
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: and not to look after anything more, he proceeds next
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: to the objection I mentioned and says verse eighteen. But
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: I say, have they not heard what he means? If
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: the preachers were sent and did preach what they were bid,
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: and these did not hear, then comes a most perfect
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: reply to the objection. Yes, verily their sound went into
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: all the earth, and their words unto the ends of
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: the world. What do you say he means they have
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: not heard? Why the whole world and the ends of
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: the earth have heard? And have you amongst whom the
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: heralds abode such a long time, and of whose land
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: they were not heard? Now? Can this ever be sure?
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: If the ends of the world heard, much more? Must
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: you then again another objection verse nineteen. But I say,
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: did not Israel know? For what? If they heard but
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: did not know what was said, nor understand that these
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: were the persons sent, are they not to be forgiven
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: for this ignorance? By no means, For Isaiah had described
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: their character in the words, how beautiful are the feet
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: of them that preach the Gospel of peace? And before
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: him the lawgiver himself also hence he proceeds first Moses saith,
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: no people, and by a foolish nation, I will anger you.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: And so they ought even from him to have been
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: able to distinguish the preachers, not from the fact of
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: these disbelieving only, not from the fact of their preaching peace,
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: not from the fact of their bringing the glad tidings
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: of good things, not from the word being sown in
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: every part of the world, but from the very fact
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: of their seeing their inferiors, those of the gentiles, in
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: greater honor for what they had never heard nor their forefathers.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: That wisdom did these on a sudden embrace. And this
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: was a mark of such intense honor as should gall
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: them and lead them to jealousy and to recollection of
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: the prophecy of Moses, which said, I will provoke you
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: to jealousy by them that are no people. For it
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: was not the greatness of the honor alone that was
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: enough to throw them upon jealousy. But the fact too
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: that a nation had come to enjoy these things, which
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: was of so little account that it could hardly be
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: considered a nation at all. For I will provoke you
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: to jealousy, he says, by them which are no nation,
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: and by a foolish nation will I anger you? For
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: what more foolish than the Greeks, or what of less account?
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: See how by every means God had given from of
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: old indications and clear signs at these times in order
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: to remove their blindness. For it was not any little
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: corner in which the thing was done, but in land,
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: and in sea, and in every quarter of the globe.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: And they saw those in the enjoyment of countless blessings
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: now who had formerly been objects of their contempt. One
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: should consider then, that this is that people of which
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: Moses said, I will provoke you to jealousy, by them
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: that are no people, and by a foolish nation will
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: I anger you. Was it Moses only then that said this? No,
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: For Isaiah also after him saith so. And this is
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: why Paul said, at first Moses, to show that a
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: second will come who says the same things in a
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: clearer and plainer way as then he says above that
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: Isaiah crieth so to here verse twenty. But Isaiah's is
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: very bold and saith Now what he means is something
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: of this kind. He puts a violence on himself, and
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: was ambitious to speak, not something veiled over, but to
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: set the things even naked before for your eyes, and
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: choosing rather to run into dangers from being plain spoken,
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: than by looking to his own safety, to leave you
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: any shelter for your impenetrableness. Although it was not the
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: manner of prophecy to say this so clearly, but still
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: to stop your mouths most completely. He tells the whole beforehand,
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: clearly and distinctly, the whole, what hole, why your being
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: cast out, and also their being brought in, speaking as follows,
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: I was found of them that sought me, not I
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: was made manifest of them that asked not after me?
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: Who then are they that sought not? Who then that
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: asked not after him? Clearly not the Jews, but they
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: of the gentiles who hitherto had not known him, As
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: then Moses gave their characteristic mark in the words, no
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: people and a foolish nation. So here also he takes
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: the same ground to point them out from viz. Their
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: extreme ignorance. And this was a very great blame to
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: attach to the Jews, that they who sought him not
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: found him, and they who sought him lost him Verse
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: twenty one. But unto Israel he saith all the day long,
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: have I stretched forth my hands under a disobedient and
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: gainsaying people. Observe now that difficulty which so many make
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: a subject of question, is discovered, laid up from of
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: old in the words of the prophet, and with a
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: clear solution to it too. And what is this you
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: heard Paul say before? What shall we say then, that
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: the gentiles which followed not after righteousness have attained unto righteousness.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: not attained to the law of righteousness. This Isias also
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: says here, For to say I was fond of them
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: that sought me, not I was made manifest unto them
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: which asked not after me. Is the same with saying
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: that the gentiles which followed not after righteousness have attained
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: unto righteousness. Then to show that what was happening was
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: not of God's grace only, but also of the temper
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: of those who came to him, as also the casting
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: off of the others came to the disputatiousness of those
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: who disobeyed. Here what he proceeds with. But to Israel,
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: he saith, all day long, have I stretched forth my
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: hands to a disobedient and gainsaying people here, meaning by
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: the day the whole period of the former dispensation. But
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: the stretching out of their hands means calling and drawing
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: them to him, and inviting them then, to show that
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: the fault was all their own, he says, to a
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: disobedient and gainsaying people, you see what a great charge
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: this is against them, For they did not obey him
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: even when he invited them, But they gainsaid him, and
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: that when they saw him doing so, not once or
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: twice or thrice, but the whole period. But others who
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: had never known him had the power to draw him
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: to them, not that he says, they had the power
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: to do it, but to take away lofty imaginings, even
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: from those of the gentiles, and to show that it
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: was his grace that roared the whole. He says, I
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: was made manifest, and I was found. It may be said,
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: were they then void of everything by no means for
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: the taking of the things found, and the getting a
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: knowledge of what was manifested to them was what they
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: contributed themselves. Then to prevent these saying, but why was
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: he not made manifest to us? Also? He sets down,
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: what is more than this? That I not only was
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: made manifest, but I even continued with my hands stretched out,
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: inviting them and displaying all the concern of an affectionate
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: father and a mother that is set on her child.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: See how he has brought us a most lucid answer
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: to all the difficulties before raised, by showing that it
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: was from their own temper that Ruin had befallen them,
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: and that they are wholly undeserving of pardon. For though
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: they had both heard and understood what was said, still
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: not even then were they minded to come to him.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: And what is far more, he did not cause them
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: to hear these things and to understand them, only but
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: a thing which hath more force to rouse them up
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: and draw them to him. When they were disobedient and gainsaying,
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: he added to the others, now, what is this? It
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: is his exasperating them and making them jealous, For we
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: know the domineering might of the passion, And how great
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: the power is which jealousy is naturally possessed of, for
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: bringing all disputatiousness to an end, and rousing those who
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: have grown remiss. And why need one say this of man,
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: when in brutes without reason, and children before they are
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: of full age, the power it shows is so great.
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: For a child often will not submit to its father
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: when it is called, but continues obstinate. But when another
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: child has notice taken of it, then it, even though
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: not called, comes to its father's bosom. And what calling
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: could not do provoking to jealousy? Will this then God
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: also did, For he not only called and stretched out
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: his hands, but stirred up in them the feeling of jealousy,
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: also by bringing those far inferior to them, a thing
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: which makes men excessively jealous, not into their good things,
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: but what was a much stronger step, and makes the
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: feelings even more domineering, into much greater good things, and
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: of greater necessity than theirs, And such as they had
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: never even fancied in a dream. But still they did
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: not submit. What pardon then, do they deserve, who exhibit
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: such excessive obstinacy. None? Yet this he does not say,
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: but leads it to the consciences of his hearers to
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: gather it from the conclusion of what he had stated,
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: and again also confirms it by what he goes on
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: to in his usual wisdom. And this he did also
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: above by introducing objections, both in the case of the
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: law and of the people, which presented an accusation beyond
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: the true one, yielding as much as he pleased, and
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: is the case allowed, so as to make what he
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: was saying not unwelcome. And this he doth hear, writing
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: as follows, Chapter eleven, Verse one. I say, then, hath
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: God cast away his people whom he fore knew? God forbid?
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: And he introduces the form a person would use in doubt,
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: as though taking occasion from what had been said. And
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: after making this alarming statement, by the denial of it,
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: he causes the sequel to be allowed with readiness. And
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: what by all the former arguments he had been laboring
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: to show that he makes good here? Also, what then
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: is this that even if there be but a few saved,
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: the promise yet stands good. This is why he does
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: not merely say people, but people which he foreknew. Then
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: proceeding with proof that the people were not cast off.
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: For I also am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham,
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: of the tribe of Benjamin A. He says the instructor
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: the preacher. Now, since this seemed contrary to what was
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: said before, in the words, who hath believed our report?
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: And all the day long have I stretched forth my
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: hands to a disobedient and gainsaying people, And I will
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: provoke you to jealousy by them which are no people.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: He was not satisfied with the deprecation, nor with having
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: said God forbid, but makes it good by taking it
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: up again and saying, God hath not cast away his people.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: But this is not a confirmation, men may say, but
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: an assertion observed. Then the confirmation both the first and
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: that which follows it. For the first is that he
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: was himself of that race. But he would not if,
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: on the point of casting them off, have chosen from
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: them him to whom he entrusted all the preaching, and
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: the affairs of the world, and all mysteries and the
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: whole economy. This then is one proof. But the next
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: after it is his saying that people whom he foreknew,
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: that is, who he knew clearly was suited to it
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: and would receive the faith. For three four even ten
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: thousand were believers from among them. And so to prevent
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: any from saying, art thou the people? Then, and because
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: thou hast been called, hath the nation been called? He
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: proceeds those two. He hath not cast off his people,
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: whom he foreknew, as though he said, I have with
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: me three five or ten thousand, What then has the
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: people come to be three five or ten thousand, that
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: seed that compared with the stars of heaven for multitude
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: or the sand of the sea. Is this the way
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: you deceive us and put a cheat upon us, by
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: making the whole people thyself and the very few that
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: are with thee. And didst thou inflate us with idle
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: hopes and say that the promise has been fulfilled when
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: all are perishing and the salvation comes down to a few.
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: This is all bombast and vanity. We cannot away with
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: such sophistry as this, now that they may not say this.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: See how in the sequel he proceeds to the answer,
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: not giving the objection indeed, but before it, grounding the
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: answer to it upon ancient history. What then is The
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: answer thus is two to five. What he not he
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: says what the scriptures saith of Elias, How he maketh
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: intercession to God against Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: thy prophets and dig down thine altars, and I am
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: left alone, and they seek my life. But what saith
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: the answer of God? Unto him, I have reserved to
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the need
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: to the image of Bowel. Even so, then at this
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: present time also there is a remnant according to the
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: election of Grace. What he means is nearly this. God
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: hath not cast off his people, for had he done so,
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: he would have admitted none of them. But if he
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: did admit some, he hath not cast them off. Still,
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: it is said, if he had not cast off, he
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: would have admitted all. This does not follow, since in Eli,
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: which is time, the part to be saved had come
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: down to seven thousand and now. Also, there are probably
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: many that believe that if you do not know who
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: they are, this is no wonder for that prophet, who
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: was so great and good a man did not know.
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: But God ordered things for himself when even the prophet
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: knew them. Not but consider his judgment. Now, in proving
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: what was before him, he covertly augments the charge against them.
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: For this is why he gave the whole passage, that
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: he might parade before them their untowardness and show that
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: they had been so from of old. For if he
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: had not wished this, but had directed his whole attention
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: to prove that the people lay in the few, he
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: would have said that even in Elijah's time, seven thousand
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: were left. But now he reads to them the passage
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: further back, as having been throughout it pains to show
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: that it was no strange thing that they did with
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: Christ and the apostles about their habitual practice. For to
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: prevent their saying that it was as a deceiver we
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: put Christ to death, and as impostors that we persecure
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: the apostles, he brings forward the text which says, Lord,
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: they have killed thy prophets and dig down thine altars. Then,
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: in order not to make his discourse galling to them,
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: he attaches another reason to thee bringing forward of the text,
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: For he quotes it not as if it was on
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: purpose to accuse them, but as if intent upon showing
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: some other things. And he leaves them without any excuse,
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: even by what had before been done. For observe how
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: strong the accusation is even from the person speaking. For
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: it is neither Paul nor Peter, nor James nor John,
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: but one whom they held in great estimation, the chief
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: of the prophets, the friend of God, a man who
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: had been so very zealous in their behalf as even
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: to be given up to hunger for them, who even
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: to this day hath never died. What then doth this
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: man say, Lord, they have killed thy prophets and dig
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: down thine altars, and I am left alone, and they
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: seek my life. What could be more brutal cruelty than this?
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: For when they should have pursued pardon for the offenses
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: they had already committed, they were minded even to kill him.
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: All these things put them quite beyond pardon. For it
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: was not during the prevalence of the famine, but when
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: the season was favorable, and their shame was done away,
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: and the devils had been put to shame, and the
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: power of God had been shown, and the king had
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: bowed beneath it, that they committed these audacities, passing from
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: murder to murder, and making away with their teachers and
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: such as would bring them to a better mind. What
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: then could they have to say to this? Were they
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: too deceivers? Did they not know whence they were either?
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: But they distressed you? Yes, but they also told you
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: goodly things. But what of the olders? The oldest too
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: did not surely distress you? Did they too exasperate? You see?
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: Of what obstinacy, of what insolence they were ever yielding proofs.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: This is why in another passage too, Paul says, when
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: writing to the Thessalonians, ye also have suffered like things
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews,
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: who both killed the Lord and their own prophets, and
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: have persecuted us and pleased not God and our contrad
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: to all men. Which is what he says here too,
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: that they both dig down the altars and killed the prophets.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: But what saith the answer of God? Unto him? I
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: have reserved to myself seven thousand men who have not
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: bowed the knee to the image of Baal. And what
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: is this to do with the present subject? Some may
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: say it hath a great deal to do with the
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: present subject, For he shows here that it is the
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: worthy that God useth to save, even if the promise
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: be made to the whole nation. And this he pointed
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: out above when he said, though the number of the
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: children of Israel be as the sand of the sea,
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: a remnant shall be saved. And except the Lord of
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: Sabaoath had left us a seed which should have become
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: a sodomer, and he points it out from this passage. Also,
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: wherefore he proceeds to say, even so, then at this
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: present time also there is a remnant according to the
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: election of grace. Observe that each word maintains its own rank,
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: showing at once God's grace and the obedient temper of
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: them that receive salvation. For by saying election, he showed
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: the approval of them, but by saying grace, he showed
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: the gift of God. End of Section thirty three.