Anf-01 iii.ii.ix Pg 2
Otto refers for a like contrast between these two times to Rom. iii. 21–26, Rom. v. 20 and Gal. iv. 4. [Comp. Acts xvii. 30.]
endured, He permitted us to be borne along by unruly impulses, being drawn away by the desire of pleasure and various lusts. This was not that He at all delighted in our sins, but that He simply endured them; nor that He approved the time of working iniquity which then was, but that He sought to form a mind conscious of righteousness,310 310 The reading and sense are doubtful.
so that being convinced in that time of our unworthiness of attaining life through our own works, it should now, through the kindness of God, be vouchsafed to us; and having made it manifest that in ourselves we were unable to enter into the kingdom of God, we might through the power of God be made able. But when our wickedness had reached its height, and it had been clearly shown that its reward,311 311 Both the text and rendering are here somewhat doubtful, but the sense will in any case be much the same.
punishment and death, was impending over us; and when the time had come which God had before appointed for manifesting His own kindness and power, how312 312 Many variations here occur in the way in which the lacuna of the mss. is to be supplied. They do not, however, greatly affect the meaning.
the one love of God, through exceeding regard for men, did not regard us with hatred, nor thrust us away, nor remember our iniquity against us, but showed great long-suffering, and bore with us,313 313
Anf-03 v.iv.vi.xiii Pg 32
Tertullian, by the word “enjoins” (monet), seems to have read the passage in Rom. v. 1 in the hortatory sense with ἔχωμεν, “let us have peace with God.” If so, his authority must be added to that exceedingly strong ms. authority which Dean Alford (Greek Test. in loc.) regrets to find overpowering the received reading of ἔχομεν, “we have,” etc. We subjoin Alford’s critical note in support of the ἔχωμεν, which (with Lachmann) he yet admits into his more recent text: “AB (originally) CDKLfh (originally) m 17 latt (including F-lat); of the versions the older Syriac (Peschito) (and Copt;of the fathers, Chrysostom, Cyril, Theodoret, Damascene, Thephylact, Œcumenius, Rufinus, Pelagius, Orosius, Augustine, Cassiodorus,” before whom I would insert Tertullian, and the Codex Sinaiticus, in its original state; although, like its great rival in authority, the Codex Vaticanus, it afterwards received the reading ἔχομεν. These second readings of these mss., and the later Syriac (Philoxenian), with Epiphanius, Didymus, and Sedulius, are the almost only authorities quoted for the received text. [Dr. H. over-estimates the “rival” Codices.]
With what God? Him whose enemies we have never, in any dispensation,5815 5815 Nusquam.
been? Or Him against whom we have rebelled, both in relation to His written law and His law of nature? Now, as peace is only possible towards Him with whom there once was war, we shall be both justified by Him, and to Him also will belong the Christ, in whom we are justified by faith, and through whom alone God’s5816 5816 Ejus.
enemies can ever be reduced to peace. “Moreover,” says he, “the law entered, that the offence might abound.”5817 5817
Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge, Chapter 4
VERSE (16) - Ro 3:24-26; 5:1 Ga 3:7-12,22 Eph 2:5,8 Tit 3:7
