These are the meanings found in the apostle Paul's Letter to the Romans. First of all, let each reader understand that the question being turned over in this letter is that of the works of the law and grace.

1. 1. [1.] As for what he says, according to the Spirit of sanctification by the resurrection of the dead (Rom 1:4), this means that they received the gift of the Spirit after his resurrection; and he mentions the resurrection of the dead because in him we have all been crucified and have risen again.

2. 2. [2.] As for what he says, that I may impart to you some spiritual grace (Rom 1:11), namely the love of God and of neighbor, this is so that through the love of Christ they might not in the least begrudge the gentiles their being called into the Gospel.

3. 3. [3.] As for what he says, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all impiety (Rom 1:18) and so on, Solomon too says of the wise of this world, If they had power to know so much that they could estimate the world, how did they not more readily find the Lord and Creator of the world itself? (Wis 13:9) But those whom Solomon reproves did not come to know the Creator through the creation; whereas those whom the Apostle reproves did know him, but did not give thanks, and claiming to be wise they became fools and fell away into the worship of idols. For that the wise of the gentiles could find the Creator the same Apostle shows plainly when he was speaking with the Athenians. For when he had said, For in him we live and move and have our being, he added, as even some of your own have said (Acts 17:28). Now his purpose in first reproving the impiety of the gentiles is to prove from it that, once converted, they too can attain to grace. For it would be unjust that they should undergo the penalty of impiety and not receive the reward of faith.

4. 4. [4.] As for what he says, knowing God they did not glorify him as God or give thanks (Rom 1:21), this is the head of sin, of which it is said, The beginning of all sin is pride (Sir 10:13). Had they given thanks to God, who had given this wisdom, they would not have attributed anything to themselves in their thoughts. For this reason they were handed over by the Lord to the desires of their heart, so that they did what was not fitting.

5. 5. [5.] As for what he says, he handed them over (Rom 1:24), it is to be understood as: he let them go into the desires of their heart. And he says that in return they received a recompense from God, namely that one was handed over to the desires of one's own heart.

6. 6. [6.] As for what he finally says, God handed them over to a base mind (Rom 1:28) and so on, filled, he says, with all iniquity (Rom 1:29), we are given to understand that these things which he now mentions, that is, the crimes, pertain to doing harm. Earlier he was speaking of the corruptions that are called shameful deeds, from which one comes to crimes, since whoever pursues the ruinous sweetness of shameful deeds, in trying to remove the persons who stand in his way, proceeds to crime. This is how that passage too is distinguished in the Wisdom of Solomon, where, after enumerating the shameful deeds above, he says, Let us lie in wait for the poor righteous man, for he is useless to us (Wis 2:12) and so on.

7. 7. [7.-8.] As for what he says, not only those who do these things but also those who consent to those who do them (Rom 1:32), this means that whatever they have done was not done unwillingly, but rather, when they consent to evil deeds, they also approve even those they have not themselves done; and so, speaking now of sins already brought to completion, he says, Therefore you are without excuse, O man, whoever you are who judge (Rom 2:1). And when he says whoever, he is now bringing in, so as to show, not only the gentile but also the Jew, who wanted to judge the gentiles according to the law.

8. 8. [9.] As for what he says, you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath (Rom 2:5), everywhere he uses the wrath of God to mean punishment. That is why he says, of the righteous judgment of God (Rom 2:5). It should be noted that the wrath of God is mentioned in the New Testament too; for when people who oppose the old law read of it in the Old, they suppose it ought to be blamed, although God of course is not subject to disturbances as we are, since Solomon says, But you, Lord of hosts, judge with tranquillity (Wis 12:18). But wrath, as has been said, is used in the sense of punishment.

9. 9. [10.] As for what he says, their conscience also bearing witness (Rom 2:15), he speaks in line with that passage of the apostle John where he says, Beloved, if our heart blames us, God is greater than our conscience (See 1 John 3:20) and so on.

10. 10. [11.] As for what he says, in the spirit, not the letter (Rom 2:29), this means that the law is to be understood according to the spirit, not according to what the letter has—which is just what befell those who received circumcision in a carnal rather than a spiritual way.

11. 11. [12.] As for what he says, whose praise is not from men but from God (Rom 2:29), this fits with what he says, he who is a Jew in secret (Rom 2:29).

12. 12. [13.-18.] As for what he says, For no flesh will be justified in the law before him; for through the law comes the knowledge of sin (Rom 3:20) and other things like it, which some think are to be cast up as a reproach against the law, these are to be read with sufficient care, so that neither does the law appear to be condemned by the Apostle nor is free choice taken away from man. Let us therefore distinguish these four stages of man: before the law, under the law, under grace, in peace. Before the law we follow the desire of the flesh; under the law we are dragged by it; under grace we neither follow it nor are dragged by it; in peace there is no desire of the flesh. Before the law, then, we do not fight, because we not only desire and sin but even approve of our sins. Under the law we fight, but we are defeated; for we acknowledge that what we do is evil, and by acknowledging it to be evil we of course do not want to do it, but because grace is not yet present, we are overcome. At this stage it is shown to us how prostrate we lie, and while we want to rise and yet fall, we are afflicted more grievously. Hence it is said here, The law slipped in, so that the offense might abound (Rom 5:20). Hence too what is now set down, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin (Rom 3:20)—for it is not the taking away of sin, since it is by grace alone that sin is taken away. The law is therefore good, because it forbids what ought to be forbidden and commands what ought to be commanded. But when anyone supposes that he fulfills it by his own strength and not through the grace of his Liberator, this presumption does him no good; indeed, it even does him so much harm that he is both carried off by a more vehement desire for sin and found to be a transgressor as well in his sins. For where there is no law, neither is there transgression (Rom 4:15). Thus, then, lying prostrate, when anyone comes to recognize that by himself he cannot rise, let him implore the help of his Liberator. Grace therefore comes, which forgives past sins, helps the one who strives, grants the love of righteousness, and takes away fear. When this happens, then, although certain desires of the flesh, while we are in this life, fight against our spirit so as to lead it into sin, nevertheless the spirit, not consenting to these desires, since it is fixed in the grace and love of God, ceases to sin. For we sin not in the evil desire itself, but in our consenting to it. To this purpose serves what the same Apostle says, Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its desires (Rom 6:12). For here he shows that there are desires which, by not obeying them, we do not allow sin to reign in us. But since these desires arise from the mortality of the flesh, which we draw from the first sin of the first man, from whom we are born in a carnal way, they will not come to an end until by the resurrection of the body we attain that transformation which is promised to us, where there will be perfect peace, when we are established in the fourth stage. And the reason the peace is perfect is that nothing will resist us when we do not resist God. This is what the Apostle says, The body indeed is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. If then the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Jesus Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you (Rom 8:10-11). Free choice, then, was present in its perfection in the first man; but in us, before grace, there is no free choice such that we may not sin, but only such that we may not want to sin. Grace, however, brings it about that we not only want to do right but are also able to—not by our own strength, but by the help of our Liberator, who will also grant us perfect peace in the resurrection, which perfect peace follows upon a good will. For Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will (Luke 2:14).

13. 13. [19.] As for what he says, Do we then nullify the law through faith? Far from it! Rather, we establish the law (Rom 3:31)—that is, we confirm it. But how was the law to be confirmed except through righteousness? And through the righteousness that comes by faith, because those very things that could not be fulfilled through the law have been fulfilled through faith.

14. 14. [20.] As for what he says, For if Abraham was justified by works, he has glory, but not before God (Rom 4:2), this means that, since Abraham, apart from the law, does not win glory from the works of the law as though he fulfilled the law by his own strength—seeing that this law had not yet been given—the glory is God's, not his own. For he was justified not by his own merit, as it were from works, but by the grace of God through faith.

15. 15. [21.] As for what he says, But to him who works, the wages are not reckoned according to grace but according to debt (Rom 4:4), he said this with reference to the way men render wages to men. For God gave through grace, because he gave to sinners that they might live righteously through faith, that is, do good works. So what we do well, once grace has been received, is to be attributed not to us but to him who justified us through grace. For if he wanted to render the wages that were due, he would render to sinners the penalty that is due.

16. 16. [22.] As for what he says, who justifies the impious (Rom 4:5), this means that he makes the pious out of the impious, so that from then on he may remain in that very piety and righteousness; for he was justified for this purpose, that he might be righteous, not that he might suppose he is permitted to sin.

17. 17. [23.] As for what he says, For the law works wrath (Rom 4:15), this signifies punishment and pertains to that stage when anyone is under the law.

18. 18. [24.] As for what he says, before God, in whom he believed (Rom 4:17), he signified that faith is in the inner man, in the sight of God, not in display before men, as is the circumcision of the flesh.

19. 19. [25.] As for what he says of Abraham, giving glory to God (Rom 4:20), this is set against those who sought their own glory from the works of the law before men.

20. 20. [26.] As for what he says, And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations (Rom 5:3) and so on, by stages he leads up to the love of God, which love he says we have through the gift of the Spirit, and he shows that all those things which we might attribute to ourselves are to be attributed to God, who has deigned to give grace through the Holy Spirit.

21. 21. [27.-28.] As for what he says, For until the law sin was in the world (Rom 5:13), it is to be understood as: until grace should come. For this is said against those who suppose that sins could have been taken away through the law. For the Apostle says that sins were made manifest through the law, but not taken away, when he says, But sin was not reckoned when there was no law (Rom 5:13). For he does not say: There was no sin, but: it was not reckoned. Nor was it taken away when the law was given, but it began to be reckoned, that is, to appear. Let us not, then, suppose that until the law is said as though under the law there were no longer sin, but it is said in this way—until the law—so that you reckon the whole time of the law, up to the end of the law, which is Christ.

22. 22. [29. 1.] As for what he says, But death reigned from Adam to Moses even over those who did not sin in the likeness of the transgression of Adam (Rom 5:14), this is distinguished in two ways: either, In the likeness of the transgression of Adam death reigned, because even those who did not sin died from the origin of mortality in Adam; or else, Death reigned even over those who did not sin in the likeness of the transgression of Adam, but who sinned before the law, so that those who received the law are understood to have sinned in the likeness of the transgression of Adam, since Adam too sinned once the law of the commandment had been received. And of course what was said, to Moses, is to be understood as the whole time of the law. Now Adam is called the type of the one to come (Rom 5:14), but by way of contrast: that as through him came death, so through our Lord came life.

23. 23. [29. 2.] As for what he says, But the gift is not like the offense (Rom 5:15), the gift surpasses it in two ways: either in that grace abounds much more, because through it one lives forever, whereas through Adam's death death reigned only for a time; or in that, by the condemnation of one offense, the death of many came about through Adam, whereas through our Lord Jesus Christ grace given by the forgiveness of many offenses came unto eternal life. He sets out the other difference thus, saying, And the gift is not like what came through the one who sinned. For the judgment indeed was from one unto condemnation, but the grace is from many offenses unto justification (Rom 5:16). So when he says from one, "offense" is understood, because there follows, but the grace is from many offenses. This therefore is the difference: that in Adam one offense was condemned, but by the Lord many were forgiven. What follows, then, holds both of these differences, so that it is set out thus: For if by one man's offense death reigned through one, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of righteousness reign in life through one, Jesus Christ (Rom 5:17). So when he said, much more will they reign, this pertains to eternal life; and when he said, they receive the abundance of grace, this pertains to the forgiveness of many offenses. After setting out these differences, he returns to the figure from which he had begun, whose sequence he had held in suspense when he said, For as through one man sin entered into this world, and through sin death (Rom 5:12). To this he now returns when he says, Therefore as through the offense of one upon all men unto condemnation, so also through the righteousness of one upon all men unto justification of life. For as through the disobedience of one man many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of one many will be made righteous (Rom 5:18-19). This is the type of the Adam to come, of which he had begun to speak above and, inserting some of its differences, had deferred its sequence, to which now returning he concluded, saying, Therefore as through the offense of one upon all men (Rom 5:18) and so on.

24. 24. [30.] As for what he says, The law slipped in, so that the offense might abound (Rom 5:20), by this very word he signified plainly enough that the Jews did not know by what dispensation the law was given. For it was not given as something able to give life, since grace gives life through faith; rather, the law was given to show by how many and how tight bonds of sins those were bound who presumed by their own strength to fulfill righteousness. Thus sin abounded, since both desire grew more ardent from the prohibition and the charge of transgression was added against those who sinned against the law. He who considers the second stage among those four stages understands this.

25. 25. [31.] As for what he says, What then shall we say? Shall we remain in sin, that grace may abound? Far from it! We who have died to sin, how shall we live in it? (Rom 6:1-2) By this he shows that what came about with regard to past sins was that they were forgiven, and that grace superabounded in this, that past sins were remitted. So whoever still seeks an increase of sin in order to feel an increase of grace does not understand that he is acting in such a way that grace works nothing in him. For it is the work of grace that we should die to sin.

26. 26. [32.-34.] As for what he says, knowing this, that our old man was crucified together with him, so that the body of sin might be done away (Rom 6:6), this refers to what was said through Moses, Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree (Deut 21:23). For the crucifixion of the old man was signified in the cross of the Lord, just as the renewal of the new man was signified in the resurrection. And it is plain that we act as the old man, who is cursed, in the way described; on whose account no one doubts that it was said of the Lord too that he bore our sins, and was made sin for us, and from sin condemned sin. But what does it mean, "to do away the body of sin"? He himself explained it: that we may no longer be slaves to sin (Rom 6:6). And as for what he says, If we have died with Christ (Rom 6:8), this means: if we have been crucified with Christ. For he says in another place, Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified their flesh with its vices and desires (Gal 5:24). So Moses did not curse the Lord, but prophesied what his crucifixion would show.

27. 27. [35.] As for what he says, For sin will not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law but under grace (Rom 6:14), this of course pertains already to that third stage, where a man now serves the law of God with his mind, although with the flesh he serves the law of sin. For he does not heed the desire of sin, although desires still solicit him and provoke him to consent, until the body too is given life and death is swallowed up in victory. Because, then, we do not consent to evil desires, we are in grace, and sin does not reign in our mortal body; and altogether, from that passage where he says, We who have died to sin, how shall we live in it? (Rom 6:2), he describes the one who is established under grace. But the one over whom sin has dominion, although he may wish to resist sin, is still under the law, not yet under grace.

28. 28. [36.] As for what he says, For a woman, while her husband lives, is bound by law to her husband; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband (Rom 7:2) and so on, it must be noted that this comparison differs from the matter for which it is brought in, in that here he says the husband dies, so that the woman may marry whom she will, being now released from the law of her husband; whereas there, when he sets up the soul as, so to speak, the woman, but the passions of sins—which work in our members so that they may bear fruit unto death—as, so to speak, the husband (that is, so that from such a marriage offspring worthy of it may be born), and the law as the law of the husband, which was given not to take away sin or to free from sin, but to show sin before grace, by which it came about that those set under the law were carried off by a more vehement desire to sin and sinned even more by transgression; since, then, there too there are three things—the soul as the woman, the passions of sins as the husband, and the law as the law of the husband—nevertheless he does not there say that the soul is freed by the death of the sins as by the death of the husband, but that the soul itself dies to sin and is freed from the law, so that it may belong to another husband, that is, Christ, when it has died to sin, although that very sin is still, as it were, alive; which happens when, with desires and certain incitements to sin still remaining in us, we nevertheless do not obey them nor consent, serving the law of God with our mind, because we have died to sin. But sin too will die when the reformation of the body has come about in the resurrection, of which he says afterward, He will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who remains in you (Rom 8:11).

29. 29. [37. 1.] As for what he says, But sin, finding occasion, worked in me through the commandment every kind of desire (Rom 7:8), it is to be understood that not all desire was present before it was increased by the prohibition. For desire is increased by the prohibition when the grace of the one who frees is absent; therefore it is not yet "every kind" before it is prohibited. But when it has been prohibited, grace—as we said—being absent, desire grows so great that thus in its own kind it becomes every kind, that is, brought to completion, so that it acts even against the law and heaps up guilt by transgression.

30. 30. [37. 2.] As for what he says, For apart from the law sin is dead (Rom 7:8), he did not say it is dead because it does not exist, but because it lies hidden, which he makes clear in what follows when he says, But sin, that it might appear as sin, worked death in me through what is good (Rom 7:13). For the law is good, but without grace it only shows sins; it does not take them away.

31. 31. [38.] As for what he says, But I was once alive apart from the law (Rom 7:9), it is to be understood: it seemed to me that I was alive, because before the commandment sin lay hidden. And as for what he says, but when the commandment came, sin came back to life, and I died (Rom 7:9-10), it is to be understood: sin began to appear, and I came to know that I was dead.

32. 32. [39.] As for what he says, For sin, finding occasion through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me (Rom 7:11), this was said because the fruit of forbidden desire is the sweeter. Hence too whatever sins are committed in secret are the sweeter, although this sweetness is deadly. Hence in Solomon the woman sitting as an image of deceptive teaching and inviting the foolish to come to her is written to say, Eat hidden bread gladly and drink sweet stolen water (Prov 9:17). This sweetness is the occasion of sin found through the commandment, which, when it is sought after, of course deceives and turns into greater bitterness.

33. 33. [40.] As for what he says, Did then what is good become death to me? Far from it! But sin, that it might appear as sin, worked death in me through what is good (Rom 7:13), here he plainly shows that what he had said above, For apart from the law sin is dead (Rom 7:8), he said for this reason, that it lies hidden, since he now says that it was not that good thing, that is, the law, that became death to him, but that sin worked death through the good of the law, that is, so that the sin which lay hidden apart from the law might appear. For then anyone comes to know that he is dead when he cannot fulfill what he confesses to have been rightly commanded, and he sins more by the charge of transgression than if he were not forbidden. This is what he says in what follows, that sin, or the sinner, might become sinful beyond measure through the commandment (Rom 7:13)—which before the commandment was less, because where there is no law, neither is there transgression.

34. 34. [41.] As for what he says, We know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal (Rom 7:14), he shows well enough that the law cannot be fulfilled except by the spiritual, such as the grace of God makes them. For anyone made like the law itself easily fulfills what it commands; nor will he be under it but with it. And this is the one who is no longer captivated by temporal goods nor terrified by temporal evils.

35. 35. [42.] As for what he says, I have been sold under sin (Rom 7:14), it is to be understood that everyone, by sinning, sells his soul to the devil, having received, as it were as a price, the sweetness of temporal pleasure. Hence our Lord too was called Redeemer, because we had been sold in the manner described.

36. 36. [43.] As for what he says, For what I do, I do not know (Rom 7:15), this can seem to those of less understanding to be contrary to that statement in which he said, sin, that it might appear as sin, worked death in me through what is good (Rom 7:13). For how does it appear, if it is not known? But I do not know is said in this place so that it may be understood: I do not approve. For just as darkness is not seen but is perceived by comparison with light—and to perceive darkness is precisely not to see—so too sin, because it is not illumined by the light of righteousness, is recognized not by understanding it, just as darkness was said to be perceived by not seeing. And to this pertains what is said in a Psalm, Who understands his faults? (Ps 19:12 (18:13))

37. 37. [44.] As for what he says, For I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate. But if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good (Rom 7:15-16), the law is indeed sufficiently defended from every accusation; but care must be taken that no one suppose that by these words free choice of the will is taken away from us, which is not the case. For man is here described as set under the law before grace; for he is then overcome by sins, while he tries by his own strength to live righteously without the help of God's freeing grace. By free choice, however, he has it within him to believe the Liberator and receive grace, so that now, by the freeing and helping of him who gives it, he may not sin, and so may cease to be under the law, but with the law, or in the law, fulfilling it by the love of God, which he could not do by fear.

38. 38. [45.-46.] As for what he says, I see another law in my members fighting against the law of my mind and taking me captive under the law of sin, which is in my members (Rom 7:23), he calls "the law of sin" that by which everyone is bound, entangled by carnal habit. He says that this fights against the law of his mind and takes him captive under the law of sin, from which it is understood that the man being described is one who is not yet under grace. For if carnal habit only fought and did not take captive, there would be no condemnation. For the condemnation lies in this, that we comply with and serve evil carnal desires. But if such desires exist and are not absent, yet we do not obey them, we are not taken captive and are already under grace, of which he will speak when he has cried out and implored the help of the Liberator, so that through grace love may do what fear could not do through the law. For he said, Wretched man that I am, who will free me from the body of this death? (Rom 7:24) And he added, The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom 7:25). Then he begins to describe the man established under grace, which is the third of those four stages we distinguished above. To this stage already pertains what he immediately adds, So then I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh the law of sin (Rom 7:25), because, although carnal desires exist, he no longer serves them by consenting, so as to commit sin—he who, established under grace, serves the law of God with his mind, but with his flesh the law of sin. And he calls "the law of sin" the mortal condition arising from Adam's transgression, by which we were made mortal. For from this defect of the flesh carnal desire solicits us, and in keeping with this he says in another place, We too were by nature children of wrath, like the rest (Eph 2:3).

39. 39. [47.] As for what he says, There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:1), he shows well enough that there is no condemnation if carnal desires exist, but only if they are obeyed unto sinning. This is what befalls those who are established under the law, not yet under grace. For those established under the law not only have desire fighting against them, but are also led captive, when they comply with it. But this does not befall those who serve the law of God with their mind.

40. 40. [48.] As for what he says, For what was impossible for the law, in that it was weakened through the flesh, God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and from sin, condemned sin in the flesh, so that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the spirit (Rom 8:3-4), he teaches most plainly that the very precepts of the law were therefore not fulfilled, though they ought to have been, because those to whom the law was given before grace were given over to carnal goods and desired to acquire happiness from them, and feared nothing except when adversity threatened such goods; and therefore, when those temporal goods were disturbed, they easily withdrew from the precepts of the law. The law, then, was weakened—failing to fulfill what it commanded—not through its own fault but through the flesh, that is, through those men who, in desiring carnal goods, did not love the righteousness of the law but preferred temporal advantages to it. Therefore our Liberator the Lord Jesus Christ, by taking on mortal flesh, came in the likeness of sinful flesh. For death is owed to sinful flesh. But that death of the Lord was of his gracious condescension, not of debt; and yet the Apostle calls even this 'sin,' the taking on of mortal—though not sinful—flesh, for this reason: that the immortal one, in dying, does as it were what sin does. But from sin, he says, he condemned sin in the flesh (Rom 8:3). For this is what the death of the Lord accomplished: that death should not be feared, and that from then on temporal goods should not be desired nor temporal evils feared—in which lay that carnal prudence in which the precepts of the law could not be fulfilled. But once this prudence in the man of the Lord was destroyed and removed, the righteousness of the law is fulfilled, when one walks not according to the flesh but according to the spirit. Hence it was said most truly, I have not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it (Matt 5:17). The fullness of the law, therefore, is love (Rom 13:10). And love belongs to those who walk according to the spirit. For this pertains to the grace of the Holy Spirit. For when there was not the love of righteousness but fear, the law was not fulfilled.

41. 41. [49.] As for what he says, For the prudence of the flesh is hostile to God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can it be (Rom 8:7), he shows what he meant by hostile, lest anyone suppose that, as from an opposing principle, some nature which God did not create wages enmity against God. He is therefore called an enemy of God who does not comply with his law, and this through the prudence of the flesh, that is, when he desires temporal goods and fears temporal evils. For the definition of prudence is usually set out in terms of desiring goods and avoiding evils. Therefore the Apostle rightly calls it the prudence of the flesh, by which these things are desired as great goods, which do not endure with man, and by which one fears to lose them, which must at some point be lost. But such prudence cannot comply with the law of God; rather, the law is complied with when this prudence has been extinguished, so that the prudence of the spirit may succeed it, by which our hope is neither in temporal goods nor our fear in temporal evils. For one and the same nature of the soul has both the prudence of the flesh, when it pursues lower things, and the prudence of the spirit, when it chooses higher things—just as one and the same nature of water both freezes by cold and melts by heat. So, then, it was said, The prudence of the flesh is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can it be (Rom 8:7), in the way one would rightly say that snow cannot be made warm, nor indeed can it be; but when, heat being applied, it dissolves and the water grows warm, no one can now call it snow.

42. 42. [50.] As for what he says, The body indeed is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness (Rom 8:10), the body is called dead in the sense of mortal. For from its very mortality the need of earthly things solicits the soul and stirs up certain desires, which he who now serves the law of God with his mind does not comply with unto sinning.

43. 43. [51.] As for what he says, If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus Christ from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Jesus Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you (Rom 8:11), he now points to the fourth stage among those four we distinguished above. But this stage is not found in this life. For it pertains to the hope by which we await the redemption of our body, when this corruptible will put on incorruption and this mortal will put on immortality. There peace is perfect, because the soul suffers no troubles from the body, which is now given life and changed into the heavenly quality.

44. 44. [52.] As for what he says, For you did not receive a spirit of slavery unto fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption as sons, in whom we cry, Abba, Father! (Rom 8:15) the times of the two Testaments are most plainly distinguished: for the one pertains to fear, but the New to love. But it is asked, what is the spirit of slavery? For the Spirit of adoption as sons is of course the Holy Spirit; the spirit of slavery unto fear, then, is the one who has the power of death, since by that very fear those who lived under the law and not under grace were throughout their whole life liable to slavery. Nor is it to be wondered at that, by divine providence, those who pursued temporal goods received him—not because the law and the commandment are his. For the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good (Rom 7:12), whereas that spirit of slavery is by no means good, the one whom those receive who cannot fulfill the precepts of the law that was given, while they serve carnal desires, not yet being taken up by the grace of the Liberator into the adoption of sons; for that spirit of slavery itself has no one in its power except him who has been handed over to it by the order of divine providence, God's justice rendering to each his own. The Apostle had received this power when he says of certain men, Whom I have handed over to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme (1 Tim 1:20), and again of another, I have already judged, he says, to hand over such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that the soul may be saved (1 Cor 5:3-5). Those, then, who are not yet under grace and, being established under the law, are overcome by sins unto obeying carnal desires, and who by transgression increase the guilt of their crimes, have received the spirit of slavery, that is, the spirit of him who has the power of death. For if we understand by the spirit of slavery the spirit of the man himself, then the spirit of adoption too begins to be understood as that same spirit changed for the better. But because we take the spirit of adoption to be the Holy Spirit, which he plainly shows when he says, The Spirit himself bears witness to our spirit (Rom 8:16), it remains that we understand by the spirit of slavery the one whom sinners serve, so that, just as the Holy Spirit delivers from the fear of death, so the spirit of slavery, which has the power of death, holds the guilty bound by the terror of that same death, so that everyone may turn to the help of the Liberator—even against the will of the devil himself, who desires always to have him in his power.

45. 45. [53.] As for what he says, For the expectation of the creature awaits the revelation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly (Rom 8:19-20), and so on up to where he says, And we ourselves groan within ourselves, awaiting adoption, the redemption of our body (Rom 8:23), it is to be understood in this way: that we neither suppose there to be any sense of pain and groaning in trees and vegetables and stones and other creatures of this kind—for this is the error of the Manichees—nor think that the holy angels are subjected to vanity, supposing of them that they will be freed from the slavery of corruption, since they are of course not going to perish; rather, let us think, without any cavil, of every creature as being in man himself. For no creature can exist except either spiritual, which excels in the angels, or animal, which appears clearly enough also in the life of the beasts, or corporeal, which can be seen or touched; and all of these are also in man, because man consists of spirit and soul and body. Therefore the creature awaits the revelation of the sons of God—whatever now labors in man and lies subject to corruption—that is, that manifestation of which the same Apostle says, For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God; when Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with him in glory (Col 3:3-4). John too says, Beloved, now we are sons of God, and it has not yet appeared what we shall be; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is (1 John 3:2). This revelation of the sons of God, then, the creature awaits, which in man is now made subject to vanity, so long as it is given over to temporal things, which pass away like a shadow. Hence too it is said in a Psalm, Man has been made like to vanity; his days pass away like a shadow (Ps 144:4 (143:4)). Solomon too speaks of vanity when he says, Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity; what abundance has a man in all his labor with which he labors under the sun? (Eccl 1:2-3) Of which David likewise says, Why do you love vanity and seek a lie? (Ps 4:2 (4:3)) He says that the creature was made subject to vanity not willingly, since this subjection is penal. For man was not condemned willingly as he sinned willingly; yet this condemnation was not imposed on our nature without hope of repair. And therefore, because of him, he says, who subjected it in hope, since the creature itself also will be freed from the slavery of corruption into the freedom of the glory of the sons of God (Rom 8:20-21)—that is, even that which is only creature, not yet gathered by faith into the number of the sons of God, but which nevertheless the Apostle saw in those who were going to believe; this is what he says: that the creature will be freed from the slavery of corruption, so that it may not serve corruption, which all sinners serve. For to the sinner it was said, By death you shall die (Gen 2:17). And it will be freed into the freedom of the glory of the sons of God, that is, so that it too may come to the freedom of the glory of the sons of God through faith, which faith, when it was not in it, made it be called only creature. And to it he refers what follows, For we know that the creature groans together and suffers pain even until now (Rom 8:22). For there were still those going to believe who in their spirit too lay subject to toilsome errors. But lest anyone suppose this was said only of their toil, he adds also concerning those who had already believed. For although in spirit, that is, in mind, they served the law of God, nevertheless, because with the flesh the law of sin is served so long as we suffer the troubles and solicitations of our mortality, he therefore added, saying, And not only that, but we ourselves also, having the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves (Rom 8:23). So not only does that which in men who have not yet believed—and therefore are not yet established in the number of the sons of God—is called only creature groan and suffer pain, he says, but we ourselves too, who believe and have the firstfruits of the Spirit, because in spirit we now cleave to God through faith, and therefore are no longer called creature but sons of God; nevertheless we ourselves also groan within ourselves, awaiting adoption, the redemption of our body (Rom 8:23). For this adoption, which has already taken place in those who have believed, has been accomplished in spirit, not in body. For the body has not yet been reformed into that heavenly transformation, as the spirit has already been changed, converted from errors to God by the reconciliation of faith. Therefore even in those who have believed, that manifestation is still awaited which will come about in the resurrection of the body, which pertains to that fourth stage, where there will be wholly perfect peace and eternal rest, with no corruption resisting us in any part nor any trouble soliciting us.

46. 46. [54.] As for what he says, Likewise the Spirit too helps our weakness; for we do not know what we should pray for as we ought (Rom 8:26), it is plain that he is speaking of the Holy Spirit, which is clear from what follows, where he says, since he intercedes for the saints according to God (Rom 8:27). We, then, do not know what we should pray for as we ought for two reasons: both because what we hope will be, and toward which we tend, does not yet appear; and because in this very life many things can seem to us favorable which are adverse, and adverse which are favorable. For when tribulation befalls a servant of God for his testing or correction, it sometimes seems useless to those of less understanding; but if it is referred to what was said, Give us help from tribulation, for vain is the salvation of man (Ps 60:11 (59:13)), it is understood that God very often helps us by tribulation, and that salvation is desired in vain when it is sometimes adverse, since by the delight and love of this life it entangles the soul. Hence too there is this, I found tribulation and sorrow, and I called upon the name of the Lord (Ps 116:3-4 (114:3-4)). For when he says I found, he signifies it was useful; for we do not rightly rejoice at having found anything except what we were seeking. Therefore we do not know what we should pray for as we ought. For God knows both what is profitable for us in this life and what he is going to give after this life. But the Spirit himself intercedes with unutterable groanings (Rom 8:26). He says the Spirit groans because he makes us groan, stirring up by love a desire for the life to come, just as he says, The Lord your God tests you, that he may know whether you love him (Deut 13:3), that is, that he may make you know it. For nothing is hidden from God.

47. 47. [55.] As for what he says, those whom he called, them he also justified (Rom 8:30), one may be moved to ask whether all who are called are justified. But elsewhere we read, Many are called, but few are chosen (Matt 22:14). Yet because the chosen too are of course called, it is plain that none are justified except the called—although not all the called, but those who are called according to the purpose (Rom 8:28), as he said above. And the purpose is to be understood as God's, not their own. He himself explains what "according to the purpose" means when he says, For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son (Rom 8:29). For not all who are called are called according to the purpose; for this purpose pertains to the foreknowledge and predestination of God. Nor did he predestine anyone except him whom he foreknew would believe and would follow his calling—those whom he also calls the chosen. For many do not come, though they have been called; but no one comes who has not been called.

48. 48. [56.] As for what he says, so that he might be the firstborn among many brothers (Rom 8:29), he teaches well enough that our Lord is to be understood as only-begotten in one way, and as firstborn in another. For where he is called Only-Begotten, he has no brothers and is by nature the Son of God, the Word in the beginning, through whom all things were made. But according to the taking on of man and the dispensation of the incarnation—through which he deigned to call us, who are not sons by nature, into the adoption of sons—he is called firstborn, with the addition of brothers. For where he is called first, he is of course not alone, but with brothers who will follow into that which he himself went before. Hence in another place too he calls him the firstborn from the dead, so that he himself may hold the primacy. For there was no resurrection of the dead—such that they die no more—before him; but after him there is the resurrection of many saints, whom he is not ashamed to call brothers because of that very sharing of humanity.

49. 49. [57.] As for what he says, Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation, or distress, or persecution? (Rom 8:35) and so on, this depends on the earlier statement where he says, If indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified; for I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come, which will be revealed in us (Rom 8:17-18). For the whole intent of this passage is directed to that exhortation, lest those to whom he speaks be broken by persecutions, were they to live according to the prudence of the flesh, by which temporal goods are desired and temporal evils feared.

50. 50. [58.] As for what he says, For I am certain (Rom 8:38)—and he did not say, For I think—he held with full faith that neither death of any kind, nor any promised temporal life, nor the rest that follow, can turn the believer away from the love of God. No one, then, separates us: neither he who threatens death, because he who believes in Christ, though he die, will live; nor he who promises life, because he gives eternal life. For the promise of temporal life is to be despised in comparison with the eternal. Nor does an angel separate us, because even if an angel, he says, should come down from heaven and announce to you anything other than what you received, let him be anathema (Gal 1:8). Nor do principalities, that is, the adverse ones, because he himself stripped off these principalities and powers, triumphing over them in himself. Nor things present nor things to come, that is, temporal things, whether they delight or oppress, whether they give hope or strike fear. Nor any power (and here too the adverse power must be understood, in keeping with which he says, No one will plunder the goods of the strong man unless he first binds the strong man (Matt 12:29)), nor height nor depth. For very often an empty curiosity about those things which cannot be found, or which are even found in vain, whether in heaven or in the abyss, separates us from God, unless love conquers, which invites us to the sure spiritual things not by the vanity of things that are without but by the inner man. Nor any other creature. This can be understood in two ways: either the visible creature, since we too, that is, the soul, are a creature, but an invisible one, so that he meant that no other creature separates us, that is, the love of bodies; or else, that no other creature separates us from the love of God, in that there is no other creature between us and God which sets itself in opposition and shuts us out from his embrace. For above human minds, which are rational, there is now no creature, but God.

51. 51. [59.] As for what he says, whose are the fathers, from whom is Christ according to the flesh (Rom 9:5), and added, who is over all things God blessed forever (Rom 9:5), he commends the fullest faith, because we confess our Lord both, according to the taking on of flesh, the Son of man, and, according to eternity, the Word in the beginning, God blessed over all forever. Now since the Jews held only part of this confession, they are refuted by the Lord. For when he had asked them whose son they said the Christ was, they answered, David's (Matt 22:42). But this is according to the flesh. Of his divinity, however, that he is God, they answered nothing. Therefore the Lord says to them, How then does David in the spirit call him Lord? (Matt 22:43) So that they might understand that they had confessed only this, that Christ is the son of David, but had been silent about this, that Christ is the Lord of David himself. For the former is according to the taking on of flesh, the latter according to the eternity of the divinity.

52. 52. [60.] As for what he says, For when they were not yet born and had done nothing good or evil, in order that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not from works but from him who calls, it was said to her, The elder will serve the younger; as it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated (Rom 9:11-13), this moves some to suppose that the apostle Paul took away the free choice of the will by which we earn favor with God by the good of piety or offend him by the evil of impiety. For they say that, before any works, whether good or evil, of two not yet born, God loved the one and hated the other. But we answer that it came about by the foreknowledge of God, by which he knows even of the not-yet-born what each one will be. But lest anyone say: Then God chose works in the one whom he loved—although they did not yet exist, since he foreknew they would be; and if he chose works, how does the Apostle say the election was made not from works?—therefore it is to be understood that good works are done through love, and that love is in us through the gift of the Holy Spirit, as the same Apostle says, The love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Rom 5:5). No one, then, ought to glory in works as though they were his own, which he has through the gift of God, since that very love works the good in him. What, then, did God choose? For if he gives the Holy Spirit, through whom love works the good, to whom he wills, how did he choose to whom he should give it? For if it is by no merit, it is not an election; for all are equal before merit, and there can be no election at all among things wholly equal. But since the Holy Spirit is not given except to believers, God indeed did not choose the works which he himself bestows when he gives the Holy Spirit, that through love we may do good works; but nevertheless he chose faith. For unless a person believes in him and remains in the will to receive, he does not receive the gift of God, that is, the Holy Spirit, through whom, love being poured out, he may be able to work the good. God therefore did not choose anyone's works in his foreknowledge, which he himself was going to give, but he chose faith in his foreknowledge, so that the one whom he foreknew would believe in him, him he chose, to whom he would give the Holy Spirit, so that by doing good works he might also attain eternal life. For the same Apostle says, The same God who works all things in all (1 Cor 12:6); but nowhere is it said: God believes all things in all. What we believe, then, is ours; but the good we do is his who gives the Holy Spirit to those who believe in him. Now this example was set before certain Jews who had believed in Christ and gloried in works before grace, and said that they had merited the very grace of the Gospel by their preceding good works—although there can be no good works in anyone except in him who has received grace. And grace is precisely this: that the calling is held out beforehand to the sinner, when his merits have been nothing except such as precede unto condemnation. But if the one called follows the one who calls—which is now within free choice—he will merit the Holy Spirit too, through whom he may be able to do good works; and remaining in this (which is likewise within free choice) he will merit also eternal life, which can be corrupted by no defect.

53. 53. [61.] As for what he says, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will show mercy to whom I will be merciful (Rom 9:15), by this it is shown that there is no injustice with God, which some can say when they hear, Before they were born, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated (Rom 9:11-13). For I will have mercy, he says, on whom I will have mercy. For God first had mercy on us when we were sinners, so as to call us. On whom, then, I will have mercy, he says, so as to call him, I will have mercy on him still further, when he has believed. And how "still further," except so as to give the Holy Spirit to the one who believes and asks? And when this is given, he will show mercy to the one to whom he is merciful, that is, so as to make him merciful, by which he may be able to do good works through love. Let no one, then, dare to attribute to himself the fact that he acts mercifully, because God gave him love through the Holy Spirit, without which no one can be merciful. God therefore did not choose those who do good but rather those who believe, so that he himself may make them do good. For it is ours to believe and to will, but his to give to those who believe and will the capacity to do good through the Holy Spirit, through whom the love of God is poured out in our hearts so as to make us merciful.

54. 54. [62.] As for what he says, It is therefore not of him who wills nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy (Rom 9:16), he does not take away the free choice of the will, but says that our willing is not enough unless God helps by making us merciful unto doing good through the gift of the Holy Spirit, referring this to what he said above, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will show mercy to whom I will be merciful (Rom 9:15). For we cannot even will unless we are called; and when, after the call, we have willed, our will and our running are not enough unless God both gives strength to those who run and brings them to where he calls. It is plain, then, that the good we do is not of him who wills nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy—although our will too is there, which by itself could do nothing. Hence there follows also the testimony about Pharaoh's punishment, when Scripture says of Pharaoh, For this I raised you up, that I might show in you my power, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth (Rom 9:17); for, as we read in Exodus, Pharaoh's heart was hardened so that he was not moved even by such evident signs. The fact, then, that Pharaoh did not at that time comply with the precepts of God was itself coming from punishment. Nor can anyone say that that hardening of heart befell Pharaoh undeservedly, but rather by the judgment of God repaying to his unbelief its due penalty. It is therefore not imputed to him that he did not at that time comply, since with a hardened heart he could not comply, but that he showed himself worthy of having his heart hardened by his prior unfaithfulness. For just as in those whom God chose it is not works but faith that begins the merit, so that through the gift of God they may do good, so in those whom he condemns it is unfaithfulness and impiety that begin the merit of punishment, so that through punishment itself they may even do evil—just as the same Apostle says above, And since they did not see fit to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate sense, to do what is not fitting (Rom 1:28). For this reason the Apostle concludes thus, So then he has mercy on whom he wills and hardens whom he wills (Rom 9:18). For on whom he has mercy he makes him do good, and whom he hardens he abandons so that he does evil. But that mercy is granted to the preceding merit of faith, and this hardening to the preceding impiety, so that we both do good through the gift of God and evil through punishment—while yet free choice of the will is not taken away from man, either unto believing God, so that mercy may follow upon us, or unto impiety, so that punishment may follow. And having drawn this conclusion, he raises an objection as though from one contradicting him. For he says, You therefore say to me, Why then does he still find fault? For who resists his will? (Rom 9:19) To this inquiry he so responds that we may understand that to spiritual men, no longer living according to the earthly man, the first merits of faith and of impiety can lie open—how God in his foreknowledge chooses those who will believe and condemns the unbelieving, neither choosing the former from works nor condemning the latter from works, but granting to the faith of the former that they may do good and, by abandoning them, hardening the impiety of the latter so that they may do evil. And because this understanding, as I have said, lies open to the spiritual but is far removed from carnal prudence, he so refutes the inquirer as to make him understand that he ought first to lay aside the man of clay, so that he may be worthy to investigate these things through the spirit. And so he says, O man, who are you to answer back to God? Does the thing formed say to him who formed it, Why have you made me thus? Or has the potter no power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? (Rom 9:20-21) So long as you are a thing formed, he says, and belong to the lump of clay, not yet brought through to spiritual things, so as to be spiritual, judging all things and judged by no one, you ought to restrain yourself from such inquiry and not answer back to God. He who desires to know God's counsel must first be received into his friendship, which cannot happen except to the spiritual who now bear the image of the heavenly man. For he says, I will not call you servants but friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you (John 15:15). So long, then, as you are an earthen vessel, this very thing must first be ground down in you by that rod of iron of which it was said, You will rule them with a rod of iron, and like a potter's vessel you will grind them (Ps 2:9), so that, the outer man being destroyed and the inner renewed, you may be able, rooted and grounded in love, to comprehend the breadth, length, height, and depth, and to know also the surpassing knowledge of the love of God. So now, when from the same lump God makes some vessels for honor and others for dishonor, it is not yours to examine this, whoever you are who still live according to this lump, that is, who are of earthly sense and are carnally wise.

55. 55. [63.] As for what he says, He bore with much patience the vessels of wrath, which have been made ready for destruction (Rom 9:22), by this he signified well enough that the hardening of heart which came about in Pharaoh came from the merits of a hidden prior impiety, which God nevertheless bore patiently until Pharaoh should be brought to that time at which punishment might fittingly proceed against him—for the correction of those whom he had purposed to free from error, and to bring them back to his worship and piety by lending aid to their prayers and groanings.

56. 56. [64.] As for what he says, whom he also called, namely us, not only from the Jews but also from the gentiles, as he also says in Hosea: I will call the not-my-people my people (Rom 9:24-25) and so on, the aim of this whole argument he brings to this point: that, since he has taught that it is of the mercy of God that we do good, the Jews should not glory as if from works, who, when they had received the Gospel, supposing it was to be attributed to their own merits, were unwilling that it be given to the gentiles; from which pride they ought now to desist, understanding that, since we are called to believe not from works but by the mercy of God, and to those who believe it is granted that they do good, this mercy is not to be begrudged the gentiles as though the Jews had a merit set before them—which is nothing.

57. 57. [65.] As for what he says, But Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: If the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant will be saved (Rom 9:27), he shows how God is the cornerstone joining both walls together in himself. For the testimony of the prophet Hosea was spoken on behalf of the gentiles, I will call the not-my-people my people, and the not-beloved beloved (Rom 9:25), and the testimony of Isaiah was spoken on behalf of Israel, since a remnant will be saved, namely those who believed in Christ, so that they themselves may be reckoned in the seed of Abraham. Thus he makes both peoples to be in concord, in keeping with the Lord's testimony too, who says in the Gospel concerning the gentiles, I have other sheep that are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and there will be one flock and one shepherd (John 10:16).

58. 58. [66.] As for what he says, Brothers, the good will of my heart and my prayer to God on their behalf is for their salvation (Rom 10:1), here he now begins to speak of the hope of the Jews, lest the gentiles too dare to be proud against them. For just as the pride of the Jews, as of those glorying from works, had to be refuted, so the gentiles too must be met, lest they be proud as though set above the Jews.

59. 59. [67.] As for what he says, The word is near, in your mouth and in your heart; this is the word of faith which we preach: that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation (Rom 10:8-10), this whole passage refers to what he said above, For the Lord will make a word that completes and shortens upon the earth (Rom 9:28). For when the innumerable and manifold sacraments by which the Jewish people was burdened had been removed, it came about, through the mercy of God, that by the brevity of the confession of faith we might attain to salvation.

60. 60. [68.] As for what he says, according to the testimony of Moses, I will lead you to rivalry by means of a non-nation; by a foolish nation I will provoke you (Rom 10:19), in saying a foolish nation he explained what he meant by a non-nation, namely that what is foolish is not even to be called a nation. Yet by the faith of this nation he says the Jewish people is to be provoked, because they laid hold of what the Jews rejected. Or else, by means of a non-nation, by a foolish nation, because, although it was a foolish nation—every people worshiping idols—it nevertheless laid aside its heathenism by believing. Hence too there is this, If, then, the uncircumcised man keeps the righteousness of the law, will not his uncircumcision be reckoned as circumcision? (Rom 2:26) So that the sense is this: I will lead you to rivalry by means of that which has been made a non-nation, by laying aside its heathenism through faith in Christ, though it had been a foolish nation by worshiping idols.

61. 61. [69.] As for what he says, Has God then rejected his people? Far from it! For I too am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin (Rom 11:1), this refers to what he said above, But the word of God cannot fail. For not all who are from Israel are Israelites, nor because they are the seed of Abraham are they all sons, but in Isaac shall your seed be called (Rom 9:6-7)—namely, that from the Jewish people itself those are to be reckoned in the seed who believed in the Lord. Of this too he says above, A remnant will be saved (Rom 9:27).

62. 62. [70.] As for what he says, I ask then: Did they so fail as to fall? Far from it! But by their failure salvation has come to the gentiles (Rom 11:11), he does not say this because they did not fall, but because their fall was not in vain, since it profited the salvation of the gentiles. They did not, then, so fail as to fall—that is, only to fall, as if for their own punishment alone—but so that this very fall of theirs might profit the gentiles unto salvation. Then from this point he begins to commend the Jewish people even on the ground of their fall into unfaithfulness, so that the gentiles may not be proud, since even the fall of the Jews proved so precious for the salvation of the gentiles; rather, the gentiles ought the more to take care lest, while they are proud, they fall in like manner.

63. 63. [71.] As for what he says, If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him drink; for by doing this you will heap coals of fire on his head (Rom 12:20), it can seem to many to be opposed to that statement in which the Lord commanded that we love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, or even to this, which the same Apostle said above, Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse (Rom 12:14), and again, Repaying no one evil for evil (Rom 12:17). For how does anyone love the one to whom he gives food and drink for the purpose of heaping coals of fire on his head, if coals of fire in this place signify some grievous punishment? Therefore it is to be understood that this was said for this purpose: that, by doing good to the one who has injured us, we may provoke him to repentance of his deed. For these coals of fire avail unto the burning, that is, the contrition, of the spirit, which is, as it were, the head of the soul, in which all malice is burned away when a man is changed for the better through repentance—such as those coals of fire of which it is said in the Psalms, What shall be given to you, or what added to you, against a deceitful tongue? The sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals that lay waste (Ps 120:3-4 (119:3-4)).

64. 64. [72.] As for what he says, Let every soul be subject to the higher powers; for there is no power except from God (Rom 13:1), he most rightly warns that no one, on the ground that he has been called by his Lord into freedom and made a Christian, should be lifted up into pride and suppose that on the journey of this life his proper order is not to be kept, and think that he is not to be subject to the higher powers, to whom for a time the governance of temporal affairs has been handed over. For since we consist of soul and body, and, so long as we are in this temporal life, make use of temporal things too as a support for living it, it is fitting that we, on the part that pertains to this life, be subject to the powers, that is, to the men who administer human affairs with some honor. But on that part by which we believe God and are called into his kingdom, we ought not to be subject to any man who desires to overthrow in us that very thing which God has deigned to grant unto eternal life. If anyone, then, supposes that, because he is a Christian, he need not pay a toll or tribute, or need not render the honor due to the powers who attend to these matters, he is in great error. Likewise, if anyone supposes that he is to be subject in such a way that he thinks the one who excels in some loftiness in administering temporal affairs has power even over his faith, he falls into a greater error. But this measure is to be kept, which the Lord himself prescribes: that we render to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's. For although we are called to that kingdom where there will be no power of this world, nevertheless on this journey, while we are on the way, until we come to that age in which there is the doing-away of all rule and power, let us bear our condition for the sake of the very order of human affairs, doing nothing for show, and in this very thing complying not so much with men as with God, who commands these things.

65. 65. [73.] As for what he says, Do you wish not to fear the power? Do good, and you will have praise from it (Rom 13:3), this can move some, when they reflect that Christians have often suffered persecution from these powers. Were they then not doing good, since not only were they not praised by these powers, but were even subjected to punishments and put to death? The words of the Apostle, therefore, are to be considered. For he does not say: Do good, and the power will praise you; but he says, Do good, and you will have praise from it. For whether it approve your good deed or persecute it, you will have praise from it—either when you have won it over into obedience to God, or when by its persecution you have merited a crown. This is understood also in what follows, when he says, For it is God's minister to you for good (Rom 13:4)—even if to itself for evil.

66. 66. [74.] As for what he says, Be subject of necessity (Rom 13:5), this avails so that we may understand that it is necessary, for the sake of this life, that we ought to be subject, not resisting if they should wish to take from us anything—in the matter of temporal things over which power has been given them—which, since they pass away, this subjection too is to be reckoned not among goods as though they were going to abide, but among the necessities for this time. Yet because he said, Be subject of necessity, lest anyone become subject to powers of this kind without a whole heart and pure love, he added, saying, not only because of wrath but also because of conscience (Rom 13:5), that is, not only to avert wrath, which can even be done for show, but so that in your conscience you may be certain that you do it out of love for him to whom you have become subject at the command of your Lord, who wills that all be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim 2:4). For when the Apostle said this too, he was dealing with these very powers. This is what he urges upon servants in another place, not serving to the eye as though pleasing men (Eph 6:6), so that in the very fact that they are subject to their masters they may not hate them or desire to win them over by deceits.

67. 67. [75.] As for what he says, For he who loves another has fulfilled the law (Rom 13:8), he shows that the completion of the law lies in loving, that is, in love; hence the Lord too says that on those two precepts the whole Law and all the Prophets depend, that is, on the love of God and of neighbor. Hence too he himself, who came to fulfill the law, gave love through the Holy Spirit, so that what fear could not fulfill before, love might fulfill afterward. Hence too there is that saying of the same Apostle, But the fullness of the law is love (Rom 13:10); and that, But the end of the commandment is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned (1 Tim 1:5).

68. 68. [76.] As for what he says, And knowing this season, that it is now the hour for us to rise from sleep (Rom 13:11), this looks to what was said, Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation (2 Cor 6:2). For the time of the Gospel is signified, and that opportune moment for saving those who believe in God.

69. 69. [77.] As for what he says, And do not make provision for the flesh in its desires (Rom 13:14), he shows that provision for the flesh is not to be blamed when provision is made for those things which avail for the necessity of bodily health. But if it is for superfluous delights and excesses, so that one may take joy in those things which the flesh desires, he is rightly reproved, because he makes provision for the flesh in its desires, since he who sows in his flesh will from the flesh reap corruption (Gal 6:8)—that is, he who takes joy in carnal delights.

70. 70. [78.] As for what he says, Receive the one weak in faith, but not in disputes over thoughts (Rom 14:1), he says this so that we may receive the one who is weak in faith and, by our firmness, bear with his weakness, and not pass judgment on his thoughts—that is, as if we should dare to pronounce sentence on another's heart, which we do not see. Therefore there follows, and he says, One indeed believes he may eat all things; but he who is weak, let him eat vegetables (Rom 14:2). For at that time many already firm in faith, knowing, according to the knowledge of the Lord, that it is not what enters the mouth that defiles but what comes out, were eating foods indifferently with a clear conscience. But certain of the weaker abstained from meats and from wine, lest even unknowingly they fall into what had been sacrificed to idols. For at that time all sacrificial meat was sold in the market, and the gentiles poured libations from the firstfruits of wine to their idols and made certain sacrifices at the very winepresses. The Apostle therefore commands both those who with a clear conscience used such foods not to despise the weakness of those who abstained from such foods and drink, and those weak ones not to judge those who did not abstain from meats and drank wine as though they were defiled. To this avails what he says next, Let him who eats not judge—that is, despise—him who does not eat, and let him who does not eat not judge him who eats (Rom 14:3). For the firm contemptuously despised the weaker, and the weak rashly judged the firm.

71. 71. [79.] As for what he says, Who are you to judge another's servant? (Rom 14:4) he says this so that, in those matters which can be done with either a good or an evil mind, we may leave the judgment to God and not dare to pronounce sentence about another's heart, which we do not see. But in those matters which are so understood that it is plain they cannot be done with a good and chaste mind, it is not disapproved if we judge. And so, regarding what he says about foods, because it is not known with what mind it is done, he does not want us to be the judges but God; but concerning that wicked fornication, where someone had had his father's wife, he says one ought to judge by the precepts. For that man could not say that he had committed so monstrous a crime with a good mind. Therefore whatever deeds are so manifest that one cannot say, "I did it with a good mind," are to be judged by us; but whatever are done in such a way that it is uncertain with what mind they are done are not to be judged but reserved to the judgment of God, as it is written, The things that are hidden are for God; the things that are open are for you and your children (Deut 29:29).

72. 72. [80.] As for what he says, One indeed judges between day and day, but another judges every day (Rom 14:5), setting aside for the moment a better consideration, this seems to me to be said not of two men, but of man and God. For he who judges between day and day is man, for he can judge one thing today, another tomorrow—that is, so that whomever he has today condemned, convicted or confessed as evil, tomorrow he may find good, when he has corrected himself; or the reverse, when he has today praised someone as righteous, tomorrow he may find him depraved. But he who judges every day is God, because he knows not only what each one is, but also what he will be on every day. Therefore let each one abound in his own understanding (Rom 14:5), he says—that is, let him dare to judge as far as it is granted to human understanding or to each man. He who is wise about the day, he says, is wise unto the Lord (Rom 14:6)—that is, because this very thing, that he judges the present day well, is wise unto the Lord. And to judge well as to the day is this: that you know one is not to be despaired of for the future as to his correction, when you have in the present judged concerning his manifest fault.

73. 73. [81.] As for what he says, Blessed is he who does not judge himself in that which he approves (Rom 14:22), this is to be referred chiefly to what he said above, Let not our good be blasphemed (Rom 14:16). For this too is what he now says before this statement, Have the faith that you have to yourself before God (Rom 14:22), so that, since this faith is good, by which we believe that all things are clean to the clean (Titus 1:15), and in that faith we approve ourselves, we may use that good of ours well, lest perhaps, when we have abused that good unto the stumbling of weak brothers, we sin against the brothers and in that very good judge ourselves, when we scandalize the weak, in which good we approve ourselves, since that very faith pleases us.

74. 74. [82.] As for what he says, For I say that Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the sake of the truth of God, to confirm the promises to the fathers, but the gentiles glorify God for his mercy (Rom 15:8-9), he says this so that the gentiles may understand that the Lord Christ was sent to the Jews, and may not be proud. For when the Jews rejected what was sent to them, it came about that the Gospel was preached also to the gentiles, which is also written most plainly in the Acts of the Apostles, when the apostles say to the Jews, It was necessary that the word be preached to you first; but since you have judged yourselves unworthy, behold, we turn to the gentiles (Acts 13:46). This is also according to the Lord's own testimonies, when he says, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matt 15:24), and again, It is not good to throw the children's bread to the dogs (Matt 15:26). If the gentiles consider this well, they understand that, by this faith of theirs by which they now believe that all things are clean to the clean (Titus 1:15), they ought not to insult those who, perhaps, are weak from the circumcision, who, on account of fellowship with idols, dare to touch no meats at all.

75. 75. [83.] As for what he says, that I may be a minister of Christ Jesus among the gentiles, consecrating the Gospel of God, so that the offering of the gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified in the Holy Spirit (Rom 15:16), this is understood to mean that the gentiles are offered to God as an acceptable sacrifice, when, believing in Christ, they are sanctified through the Gospel, as he also says above, I beseech you therefore, brothers, by the mercy of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God (Rom 12:1).

76. 76. [84.] As for what he says, I beseech you, brothers, to take note of those who cause dissensions and scandals contrary to the teaching which you have learned (Rom 16:17), he is understood to be speaking of those concerning whom he also wrote to Timothy, saying, As I asked you to remain at Ephesus when I was going into Macedonia, so that you might charge certain ones not to teach otherwise, nor to occupy themselves with fables and endless genealogies, which furnish disputes rather than the edification of God which is in faith (1 Tim 1:3-4); and to Titus, For there are many insubordinate, idle talkers and deceivers of the mind, especially those of the circumcision, who must be refuted, who overturn whole households, teaching what they ought not for the sake of base gain; one of themselves, a prophet of their own, said: Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy bellies (Titus 1:10-12). For to this is referred what he says here too, For these do not serve Christ the Lord but their own belly (Rom 16:18), concerning whom he says in another place, whose God is the belly (Phil 3:19).