Commentary on Romans, Biblical exegesis 2 · Chapter 12 · Section 3 · Subsection 8 – Subsection 9
Quest. 8. Of these words, That ye may prooue, what the good will of God is, acceptable and perfect, &c. v. 2.
1. That yee. 1. which some thinke is put foreign, to shewe the ende of this their renovation, Mart. Pareus. 2. Theodoret will hauehave it the effect: and that the Apostle sheweth cui rei conducat, &c. to what purpose this renovation of the minde is profitable. 3. Chrysostome maketh it to be the cause, sic poteritis renouari, &c. by this meanes ye may be renewed, if ye learne what Gods will is, so also Tolet annot. 6. 4. Gryneus maketh it an adiunct and propertie of renouation: for they which are not renewed, cannot vnderstand what the good will of God is: and Melanchton maketh it a part of our renovation: haec vera est, &c. this is the true renovation of the minde, to preferre the will of God before our owne, &c. and Beza maketh it a part of the exhortation, be ye transformed, &c. and doe your endeauour to prooue, what Gods will is, &c. that like as they which fashion themselues to the world, followe the will thereof, so you should transforme your selues, by the newenes of your minde to the will of God: and this sense is most agreeable: so this is added both as a principall part and cause of our renovation, and it is a fruit also thereof, a further degree of more perfect knowing the will of God: as our Sauiour saith, Ioh. 9.17. If any man doe his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God.
2. May prooue, foreign. 1. he neither meaneth a curious probation, to trie whether a thing be so or not, for this were to doubt of the will of God, whether it were good and perfect. 2. neither is it taken onelyonly for to search and consider: for a man cannot be renewed at all, that hath not alreadie searched out the good will of God. 3. not yet doe we vnderstand a bare knowledge of the will of God: for many which are not regenerate doe knowe Gods will, and yet doe it not, as the Apostle, c. 2. reprooued the Iewes for teaching the lawe to others, and not knowing it themselues. 4. nor yet doth it signifie onelyonly an experimentall knowledge, as the interlinearie gloss. and Lyranus, for he that is renewed cannot but hauehave experience of the will of God. 5. but this probation signifieth a discerning with iudgmēt, of those things which are good, as S. Paul saith, Phil. 1.10. that ye may discern things that are excellent: as he that hath a perfect tast discerneth of the goodnes of meates.
3. What is the good will of God, and acceptable, and perfect. 1. Concerning the reading of these words: some will not hauehave these epithets, good, perfect, acceptable, to be ioyned vntounto the will of God, but to be referred to all the cause before going, as to the offring vp of their bodies a liuing seruice, not to fashion themselues to this world, and to be renewed in the mind, all this is good, acceptable, and perfect, so Augustine epist. 85. and Ambrose: some doe make it an absolute sentence by it selfe, adding the coniūction, and, and what is good, acceptable, perfect, &c. Bucer: But the vsuall reading is the best, which the vulgar Latine followeth: to make these three epithets and attributes of the will of God: thus also reade Clemens lib. 2. stromat. Basil regul. brev. resp. 276. Chrysost. serm. 12. Cyprian epist. 77.2. by the will of God, we vnderstand not here that facultie and power in God whereby he willeth, but the thing which he willeth: in which sense, we say in the Lords prayer, thy will be done, Matth. 6. and Matth 12.50. Whosoeuer doth the will of my father, &c.
4. The good will, &c. 1. Origen here distinguisheth betweene the will of God simply so called, and his good and acceptable will: for it is the will of God when he inflicteth punishment: but that is his good and acceptable will when he doth any thing in merciemercy. 2. Chrysostome also will hauehave the old lawe to be the good will of God, but the acceptable and perfect will of God, is his will reuealed in the new testament. 3. Basil regul. brev. 276. make three degrees of things agreeable to Gods will: some good, some are better, some best of all, which are called perfect: as Tolet giueth this instance, to louelove our friend is a good thing, to doe well vntounto him is better, to louelove our enemie, is the best and most perfect. 4. Anselme referreth it to the three states incipientium, proficientium, perfectorum, of beginners, of those that goe forward, and of such as are perfect: or to three conditions of life, of the married, the continent, and virgins. 5. Lyranus vnderstandeth the first, of bona natura, the good things of nature, the second, of the good things of grace, the third, of the good things appertaning to glorie: But all these observations are curious, neither to the Apostles minde: who doth here commend vntounto vsus the will of God, reuealed in the old and newe testament, as a perfect rule of all our actions: which is called good, because the word of God prescribeth nothing, but that which is good; and it is acceptable, because nothing is pleasing vntounto God, but that which he himselfe prescribeth, and is agreeable to his will: this rule also is perfect, because the word of God containeth all things, which tend to the perfection of the creature: so that all other helpes are vaine, idle, and superfluous.
Quest. 9. What the Apostle vnderstandeth by grace, I say by grace, &c.
1. Origen by grace vnderstandeth virtutem sermonis, the vertue and power of speach, which was giuen to the Apostle; one may speake eloquently and learnedly, and yet not with grace to edifie the hearers. 2. Ambrose interpreteth grace, of the gift of wisedome giuen to the Apostle: this sense Haymo also followeth: as S. Peter giueth this testimonie of S. Paul how he wrote according to the wisedome of God giuen vntounto him: but Chrysostome refuseth this: the Apostle saith not, I say by the wisedome giuen vntounto me. 3. he therefore as also Theodoret, vnderstandeth the grace of the spirit. 4. but more particularly the Apostle vnderstandeth the speciall grace of his Apostleship, which was committed vntounto him: in which sense the Apostle saith, Rom. 11.16. Thorough the grace that is giuen me of God, that I should be the minister of Iesus Christ: so here is a metonymie, the cause is put for the effect: and that the Apostle ascribeth his calling vntounto grace, he thereby both freeth himselfe from all ambition, that he intrudeth not himselfe, as also presseth his Apostolike authoritie, that they might more readily obey, Mart. Calv.
I say: which some thinke to be an exposition of the former words, that now the Apostle beginneth to shew what the good and perfect will of God is, Tolet: but the Apostle rather entreth into a newe matter, that as hitherto he had generally exhorted to common duties, so now he descendeth to speciall, Mart. and here dicere, to say, is taken for iubere, to command, Calvin: Gorrhan taketh it for prohibeo, I forbid: but there followe many precepts, as well as prohibitions, to the which this preface of the Apostle hath reference.
To everie one among you: the Latine translator readeth to all, but not so fitly: for now the Apostle in saying to euerie one, speaketh to all in generall, and to euerie one in particular: Origens obseruation here is somewhat curious, all among you, that is, they which are in God, that is, the faithfull, for they onelyonly are said to be: the Apostle noteth all indifferently, noble, vnnoble, high or lowe, which were among them, Chrysostome.