Thomas Gouge (1605-1681) Direct References and Allusions to Romans 2:4

Gouge:

1) Obj. Haply, thou wilt say, though I am not sure to live another day, yet, I am likely, being in good health and strength of body.

Ans. How many as strong and healthful as thyself, have suddenly by death been snatched away? And why may not thou as soon be taken away, having no lease of thy life; who then but: a fool, or a mad-man, would adventure his carnal happiness upon such an hazard? Oh therefore, as thou tenders the everlasting good of thy precious soul, put not off this great and weighty work a day longer: for who knows what a day may bring forth, Prov. xxvii. 1.

Had thou been taken away in the state thou art in, how sad had thy case been? where had thou been at this hour? Certainly thou art not able to conceive the dreadfulness of that misery thou should now have been in. And hast thou lived all this while in so great danger, and wilt thou live in it still? God forbid! Hath a miracle of mercy kept thee out of hell so long; and wilt thou yet continue securely in such danger of it? Oh ungrateful wretch! Questionless, if thou had any ingenuity in thee, thou would be ashamed thus to abuse the patience, and long-suffering of God towards thee; which should have led thee to repentance. Thou should rather take up a resolution, and say, Though I have hitherto abused the patience and long-suffering of God, I will abuse it no more. Though I have often slighted and rejected the gracious invitations of Jesus Christ, yet, through the grace of God, I will reject them no more, but close with them, and give up myself into Christ, from henceforth to be ruled and governed by him.

God hath allotted to every man, A who lives in the bosom of the church, a certain day of grace, and time of repentance; which, whosoever neglects, can never be saved. Ah sinner! as therefore thou would not neglect thine own salvation; neglect not thy day of grace, neither let slip the season of mercy ; but, as the Apostle exhorts, Heb. iii. 15. To-day, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. Behold! now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation: If that be once past, there is no recovering of it. Thomas Gouge, “A Word to Sinners, and a Word to Saints, in The Works of The Latin Reverend and Pious Mr Thomas Gouge, (Albany: George Lindsay, 1815), 31-32.

William Burkitt (1650-1703) on Romans 2:1-5

Burkitt:

THEREFORE thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest, doest the same things.

Lest the Jews should swell and be puffed up with pride, by hearing what the apostle said in the former chapter, of the detestable wickedness of the Gentiles, and the heavy displeasure of God against them for the same, St. Paul in this chapter pronounces the Jews to be guilty of the same sins, of which he had accused the Gentiles, affirming that the Jews had offended as much against the law of Moses, as the Gentiles had offended against the law of nature; and consequently their censuring and judging others, when they did the same thing themselves, would render them totally inexcusable at God’s tribunal: Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, that Judges another, and by doing the same things condemns thyself. Learn hence, 1. That it is too usual and common a practice to condemn that sin in another which men practice themselves. 2. That when persons commit themselves the sins which they censure and condemn in others, they are totally inexcusable, and pronounce sentence against themselves.

2 But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth, against them which commit such things. 3 And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?

As if the apostle had said. We that are Jew know, by the light of the scripture, what the Gentiles knew imperfectly by the light of nature, that the just God judges uprightly, according to truth, and not according to appearance. It is equitable that he should, and certain that he will, deal with men according to his word, and reward every man according to his work. Think not then, O Jew! who judges the Gentiles for doing such things against the law of Moses, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God, which they have so severely felt. Learn hence. That such is

God’s hatred against sin, and such is the impartiality of his justice towards sinners, that no offenders can expect escaping the judgment of God for presumptuous sinning, Think thou, O man, that thou shall escape the judgment of God? No affection, or nearness of relation, can blind God, or put out the eye of his justice. If Gentile or Jew sin together, they shall suffer together 5 for there is no respect of persons with God: God will judge men in truth and righteousness, and condemn every sinner, whatever his knowledge or profession be. Learn, 2. That no man’s zeal in condemning sin in others will justify or save him, if he lives in sin himself: Think not, O man, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God.

4 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? 5 But, after thy hardness and impenitent heart. treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.

Observe here, 1. The indulgent carriage of Almighty God towards poor sinners, discovered in the vast expense of the riches of his goodness and bounty upon them, and in the patient exercise of his forbearance and long-suffering towards them. Observe, 2. The gracious end and design of God in this expense of his goodness, and in the exercise of his patience and forbearance ; namely, To lead sinners to repentance. The end of goodness is to oblige and engage persons to love and serve their benefactor; this is the most natural and unconstrained consequence that the mind of man can infer from God’s bounty and sparing mercy: The goodness of God leads to repentance. Observe, 3. The unanswerable and undue returns which sinners make to God for the exercise of so much goodness and forbearance towards them: they despise the riches of his goodness and long-suffering. They despise it by being unthankful for it, and not improving of it; and by misimproving or sinning against it, they melt the mercies of God into bullets, and shoot them at the breast of the Almighty. Observe, 4. The sad and fatal consequence of these undue returns made to God by sinners: hereby they treasure up wrath against the day of-wrath. As if the apostle had said, “The more patience God expends upon thee, if perverted and abused by thee, the greater wrath is treasured up for thee; which, the longer it has been treasured up, will break forth the more fiercely and violently to consume thee.” Observe, 5. The description given by the apostle of the day of judgment; he calls it, a revelation of the righteous judgment of God. The judgment of God is righteous now, but it is not always revealed and openly made manifest now; therefore a time shall come, when there shall be a revelation of his righteous judgment fully. From the whole, note, 1. That the goodness of God is a natural and genuine motive to repentance. 2. That not to be persuaded by, is in God’s account to despise, his goodness. Note, 3. That this despising of goodness by delaying our repentance, is the treasuring up of wrath against the day of wrath. As sinners have treasures of sin, so God has treasures of wrath for sinners. Note, lastly, That the day of judgment will be a day of revelation, a day in which the righteousness of God’s proceedings shall be universally manifested and magnified: then will all the divine attributes be conspicuously glorified; his wonderful clemency sweetly displayed; his exact justice terribly demonstrated; his perfect wisdom clearly unfolded; all the knotty intricacies of providence wisely resolved; all the mysterious depths of divine counsels fully discovered; and the injured honor and glory of Almighty God visibly cleared and repaired, to the joyful satisfaction of all good men, and to the dreadful consternation and confusion of the wicked and impenitent world: O how well might the apostle call this day. The revelation of the righteous judgment of God.

William Burkitt, Expository Notes With Practical Observations on the New Testament (Philadelphia: Published by Thomas Wardle, 1835), 2:13-14. [Some spelling modernized, italics original, and underlining mine.]

William Sclater on Roms 2:4-5

Sclater

There follows now a denunciation of certain and most severe judgment upon hypocrites, and is disposed very fitly unto a Rhetorical Dialogue, and communication. Wherein first he preoccupies the foolish thoughts of these hypocrites, after resolves of the certain issue, on this manner.

Tell me hypocrite, think you that when God’s judgment is against all that do such things, you shall amongst all be exempted? or that you shall escape the judgment of God? what madness is this? when as other men’s facts escape not your censure, which are but a man, you should thing your own evil deeds should escape the judgment of GOD; or how else? think you that because the Lord has hitherto forborne you, and heaped his blessings upon you, therefore he approves your courses? and sends these as testimonies of your righteousness? here see how ignorantly you abuse, and mistake the end and use of God’s bountifulness; which tends indeed, to bring you to repentance, no way either justifies your courses, or secures you from future judgment. The resolution follows: well how ever it be, whether one or other, this I am sure of, you by your hardness and unrepentance heart, heaps upon upon yourself a treasure of wrath,against the day of wrath, &c., this the disposition of the Text; in the words may be observed: first, an expressing of a secure hypocrite’s thoughts, with a confutation of them annexed: secondly, a denunciation of certain and most heavy judgment to be inflicted, and impenitency: secondly, the same pointed at, in the day of wrath, &c.

Vers. 3.
Obser.

Thinking thou this that thou shall escape?

Where first note, the fond perversion of a foolish hypocrite, thinking that though all other men’s sins be punished, yet he alone may escape God’s wrath: the Prophet Isaiah thus brings in these men triumphing we have made a Covenant with death, and with hell we are at agreement, though a scourge run over, and pass through, it shall not come to us; for we have made falsehood our refuge, and under vanity we hid [Isa. 28:15]: so little thing they of God’s impartial justice, all-seeing providence, and irresistible power.

Application.

And is not this conceit of our own people? still promising themselves impunity, even in those sins for which God’s wrath even in this world lights on some of the children of disobedience? how many drunkards see we clothed with rags? adulterers filled with rottenness, and brought to a morsel of bread? Robbers trussed at the gallows? Usurers plagued in their posterity, &c., and yet for all that, men living in the same sins, think they can escape the same judgment of God. The heathen could say and truly, Rex Jupiter omnibus idem; and here the Apostle, with God there is no respect of persons.

A second fond thought of a hypocrite here mentioned, is this; that as he escapes man’s judgment, so he may God’s; and things all well so man justify him, &c. But how vainly, the Apostle here shows by their own fact; reasoning from the less to the greater, you a man as another, judge the facts of others, and nothing can pass your censure, how then can you think that you can escape the strict censure and judgment of the Lord Almighty: John John’s speech is not much unlike, 1 Joh. 3:20. Compare it.

Vers. 4.

Or despisest thou, &c.

They are said to despise God’s bounty and patience, because they abused it to another end, then it tended unto: for whereas it was vouchsafed unto them to bring them to amendment of life, they abused it, as an occasion to encourage them in their sins.

Andrew Willet on Romans 2:4

Willet:

Quest. 6. Of the reasons why the Lord uses patience and forbearance towards sinners.

1. The Apostle uses three words, chrestotes, goodness, bountifulness, which is seen in the general benefits, which God vouchsafes to the wicked, as in granting them the Sunshine and rain, and such other temporal blessings: anoche, patience and forbearance, which is in bearing with the wicked, and not punishing them in their sins: makrothumia, longamanity, and long sufferance: when God still defers his punishments, though men heap sin to sin: the first and chief cause of this long sufferance, is the expectation of men’s repentance, that they should thereby come to amendment of life, as S. Peter says, 2. epist. c.3.9 “God is patient toward us, and would have no man to perish, but would have all men come to repentance.” 2. As God’s mercy and goodness herein appears so also the malice of men, in abusing the Lord’s patience, and their more just condemnation in the end is made manifest, as the old world was most justly destroyed, after they had been warned an 120. years by the preaching of Noah. 3. God takes occasion by the malice, impenitence, and hardness of heart in the wicked, to show his powerful and wonderful, as Pharaoh’s hardness of heart gave occasion to the Lord, to show his wondrous works in Egypt. 4. While the impenitent abusing God’s longamanity, are more hardened in their sins, others in the mean time make good use of the divine patience, and are converted unto repentance: as in Egypt, though Pharaoh became worse, yet many of the Egyptians were humbled by these plagues, and were turned unto God, and joined unto his people. 5. God uses patience toward some, for the example, encouragement, and confirmation of others, that they should not despair of the goodness of God: as S. Paul says, that “Jesus Christ might first show on me all long suffering, unto the example of them, that in time to come, shall believe in him to eternal life,” 1. Timoth. 1.16.

Quest. 7. Whether the leading of men to repentance by God’s long sufferance, argues that they are not reprobate.

It will be here objected, that seeing the long sufferance of God calls all unto repentance, and whom he would have repent, he would have saved: it seems then, that none are rejected or reprobate, whom the Lord so invites and calls unto repentance.

Answer. 1. Such as are effectually called unto repentance by God’s patience and long suffering, are indeed elected: for the elect only are effectually called to repentance, but such as abuse God’s patience, and are impenitent still, may not withstanding be in the state of reprobation: for though the same means be offered unto them to bring them to repentance, yet they have not the grace: the decree then concerning the rejecting of such impenitent persons, and the offer of such means, as might lead them unto repentance, may very well stand together: because it is of their own hardness of heart that the means offered are not effectual. 2. And thus also another objection may be answered, that if it be God’s will, that such should come to repentance, whether the malice of man therein can resist the will of God: for, if it were God’s absolute will and good pleasure, that such should come unto repentance, no man could resist it: God is able to change and turn the most impenitent and hard heart, if it pleased him: But here we must distinguish between effectual calling, which always takes place and none can hinder it, and calling not effectual, yet sufficient if men did not put in a bar by their own hardness of heart: God’s absolute will then is not resisted, when men come not to repentance: for his will is to leave such to themselves by his just judgment: and not to give them of his effectual grace, Faius. Now hereof no hereof no other reason can be given, why God does not give his effectual grace to all, but his good pleasure, as our Blessed Savior says, Matth. 11.26. “It is so Father, because thy good pleasure is such.

Source: Andrew Willet, Hexapla: That is, A Six-fold Commentarie upon the most Diuine Epistle of the holy Apostle. S. Pavl to the Romanes (Printed by Cantrell Legge, Printer to the the Vniversitie of Cambridge, 1611), 104-105.

John Trapp on Romans 2:4

Trapp:

Verse 4. The goodness of God] Gr. His native goodness, ready to be employed to the behoof and benefit of the creature, Tit. 3.4. Now is the beam of the Sun shining on fire, does discourage the burning of that; so the shining of God’s mercies on us should dishearten and extinguish lust in us. This is so equal, and needful a duty, that Peter picks this flower out of Paul’s garden, as one of the choicest, and urges it upon those who he writes, 2 Pet. 3.15.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition Upon all the Books of the New Testament (London: Printed by R.W. and are to be sold by Nath. Ekins, at the Gun in Pauls Church-yeard, 1656), 621.