for if it were absolutely, there would be room for boasting, which is here shown to be out of place : faith , the gift of God, making men humble [could not be such as to give room to boast- ing~J. — sffrr, xag) thou hast obtained and still boldest this standing , contrasted with the words, them , who fell , ver. 22. — ^ u^qXo- (ppove/y dXXd <po(3ou) be not high-minded , but fear ; Prov. iii. 7, firi ttfdt (ppovifiog vapa ffsciurti, <po(3ou S's r'ov §eov, Be not wise in thine own eyes ; but fear God. — po/3oD, fear) Fear is opposed not to confidence, but to superciliousness, and security.
21. M rincog) Repeat, <po[3ou. — pg/<rg rai) The Indicative, the particle ^vug being here in a manner disregarded, [by the Indie, instead of the subjunctive, the regular mood after /*,?}] has a more categorical [positive, unconditional] force. Baunv- garten would rather read (pu^rai with [Mrp7r<jjg. But Mart Crusius shows, that ha, ug, onug, itr\, are sometimes joined with the future indicative, Gram. Gr. Part II. page 867, and beside other examples, he specifies that passage of Demosthenes, onwg rd rrapovra ztfuvopQuQriGirai. Blackwall has collected other examples in the Sacred Classics, p. 432, ed. Woll., where he praises this very passage of Paul on account of its elegance. Certainly lan- guage, framed, as this is, rather categorically, tends to excite fear [more than conditional or potential language, as pg/o^ra/ would be.]
22. XpTjffrorTjra xai d^oro^iav, goodness and severity) An * im- portant disjunction. — thou shalt have continued) To con- tinue is in respect to what is good, in this verse ; in respect to what is evil in the next [zKipzhueiv, abide in unbelief]. The one is described on the part of God, the other on the part of man • comp. ver. 28, 30, etc. The Roman [Church] has not remained in goodness, since the righteousness of wTorks has been intro- duced.— J-7rg /, otherwise) Believers may utterly fall away. — hzo- <7r?iff7iy thou shalt be cut off) by the sword ; not merely, shalt be broken off [sxzXa^ij^], as they were, by the hand. TTD, lxx., g xxoVrw, I cut off, Jer. xliv. 8, not however generally in that sense, in which, I utterly destroy , QgoXoQpzvu), is used.
23. ’Eav jufi, if not) Therefore their conversion will not be [the effect of] irresistible [grace]. — dwarog, [able] powerful) it might be a principal objection : how will the Jews be converted, who for so many ages act so as to withdraw themselves from the