SECT. 9. Paul’s big words in Rom 3.19-20 are insisted upon.
But Paul goes on to testify that he is speaking of all men, and especially of the best and most excellent of men. 699 He says, “That every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Because by the deeds of the law no flesh is justified before him.” Rom 3.19-20 How is every mouth stopped, I ask, if there still remains a power in us by which we can do something? For a person may say to God,
‘It is not an absolute nothing which is here. Here is something which you cannot condemn, seeing that it is what You yourself have given me, that it might be able to do something. This at least will not be silent, nor should it be guilty before you.’
If this power of Freewill is whole, and can do something, then it is false that the whole world is guilty, or under charge of guilt before God. 700 For this power is no small thing, nor in a small part of the world. But in the whole world, it is a most excellent possession held in common by all, and its mouth should not be stopped. On the other hand, if its mouth should be stopped, then together with the whole world, it must be criminal and guilty before God. But with what right should it be called guilty, unless it is unrighteous and ungodly; that is, worthy of punishment and vengeance? Let her look to it, I beg, by what explanation this power of man’s is absolved from the guilt with which the whole word is charged upon God’s suit, 701 or by what art it is excepted from being enclosed within the circle of the whole world?
These words of Paul’s are mighty thunders and penetrating lightnings, and are truly that “hammer which breaks the rock in pieces,” as Jeremiah says (23.29). “They are all gone out of the way,’ “The whole world is guilty,” “There is none righteous.” By these words, all that is not only in any one man, or in some men, or in some part of them, but all that is in the whole world, in all men, without the exception of a single individual absolutely — is broken in pieces; so that the whole world should tremble, fear, and flee at them. What bigger words, what mightier words, could be uttered than these: the whole world is guilty, all the sons of men are turned aside and unprofitable, none fears God, none is righteous, none understands, none seeks after God? Yet such has been, and still is, the hardness and insensible obstinacy of the human heart, that we neither hear nor perceive these thunders and lightnings, but join in extolling and asserting Freewill and its powers against all these, so as truly to fulfil that saying of Mal 1.4, “They may build, but I will throw down.” 702
There is the same bigness of speech in this saying also: “By the deeds of the law, no flesh is justified before him.” Rom 3.20 It is a big saying, “By the deeds of the law;” just as this is also: ‘The whole world,’ or ‘All the sons of men.’ It is observable that Paul abstains from speaking of persons, and mentions the things they are seeking after — meaning, truly, to involve all persons, and whatever is most excellent in them. For if he had said, ‘the common people among the Jews,’ or ‘the Pharisees,’ or ‘some of the wicked,’ are not justified, then he might seem to have left some out, as not altogether unprofitable, through the power of Freewill and the propping-up of the law. But when he condemns the very deeds of the law, and makes them wicked before God, it becomes manifest that he condemns all who excelled in zeal for the law and its deeds. And yet, those only who were the best and most excellent had a zeal for the law and its deeds; and that was only in the best and most excellent parts of their frames, even their understanding and their will.
If then, those who exercised themselves in the law and its deeds, with the greatest zeal and endeavour of the understanding and of the will — that is, with the whole power of Freewill — and they were even assisted by the law itself, as a sort of divine helper which instructed and encouraged them — if these persons, I say, are charged with ungodliness, in that they are said not to be justified, but are declared to be flesh in the sight of God — then what remains, I ask, in the whole human race, which is not flesh and ungodliness? We see all alike condemned, who are of the deeds of the law. Whether they exercise the greatest zeal, or moderate zeal, or no zeal at all, it does not matter. All could yield only a performance of the deeds of the law; and the deeds of the law do not justify.
If they do not justify, they prove that their fulfillers are ungodly, and leave them so. The ungodly are guilty persons, and deserving of God’s wrath. These things are so plain, that no one can even mutter anything against them. 703
SECT. 10. Evasion that it is the ceremonial law of which Paul speaks.
It is common to elude Paul here, and get out by saying that, ‘the deeds of the law’ means the ceremonial ordinances, which have become deadly since the death of Christ.
I reply. this is that ignorant mistake of Jerome. In spite of Augustine’s bold resistance, it has flowed abroad into the world and continued to this day through God’s departure and Satan’s ascendency. By this it has also been brought to pass, that Paul could not possibly be understood, and that the knowledge of Christ has necessarily been obscured. Indeed, if there had been no error besides this in the church, this one was sufficiently pestilent and powerful to make havoc of the Gospel. Unless a special grace has interposed, Jerome has earned hell rather than heaven for this — so far am I from venturing to canonize him, or call him a saint. It is not true, then, that Paul speaks only of ceremonial works here. Otherwise, how will his argument stand, by which he comes to the conclusion that all are unrighteous, and in need of grace?
A man might say, ‘I grant that we are not justified by ceremonial deeds; still, a man might be justified by the moral deeds of the decalogue. So, you have not proved that grace is necessary to us by your reasoning.’ Besides this, what would be the use of that grace which has only freed us from the ceremonial ordinances? Those are the easiest of all, and may be extorted from us by at least fear, or self-love.
Again, it is a mistake to say that the ceremonial ordinances have died and become unlawful since the death of Christ. Paul never said this. He says that they do not justify; and that they do not profit a man before God, so as to free him from the charge of ungodliness. It is perfectly consistent with this, that a man may do them, and do nothing unlawful in doing so. Just as eating and drinking are works which do not justify, and do not commend us to God; yet a man does not therefore commit an unlawful act in eating and drinking.
They also err, in that the ceremonial works were enjoined and exacted by the old law, equally with the decalogue; so that the decalogue had neither less nor more authority than the ceremonial law. And Paul speaks first to the Jews; as he says in Romans 1.16. 704 Let no one doubt, therefore, “the deeds of the law” means ‘all the works of the whole law.’ For they must not even be called works of the law, if the law has been abolished, and is deadly. An abrogated law is no longer a law, as Paul knew very well. And therefore, he does not speak of an abrogated law when he mentions the deeds of the law, but of a law which is still in force, and regnant. 705
Otherwise, how easy would it have been for him to say, ‘The law itself is now abrogated!’ which would have been plain and clear. But let us adduce Paul himself, his own best interpreter, who says in Gal 3.10, “As many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.” You observe here, where Paul is pleading the same cause as he did to the Romans, and in the same words, that he speaks of all the laws which are written in the book of the law, as often as he
