1 Timothy 1:9

3. Why, then, did the Lord not form the covenant for the fathers? Because “the law was not established for righteous men.” But the righteous fathers had the meaning of the Decalogue written in their hearts and souls, that is, they loved the God who made them, and did no injury to their neighbour. There was therefore no occasion that they should be cautioned by prohibitory mandates ( correptoriis literis ), because they had the righteousness of the law in themselves. …

The most of men have a disposition unstable and heedless, like the nature of storms. “Want of faith has done many good things, and faith evil things.” And Epicharmus says, “Don’t forget to exercise incredulity; for it is the sinews of the soul.” Now, to disbelieve truth brings death, as to believe, life; and again, to believe the lie and to disbelieve the truth hurries to destruction. The same is the case with self-restraint and licentiousness. To restrain one’s self from doing good is the work of vice; but to keep from wrong is the beginning of salvation. So the Sabbath, by abstinence from evils, seems to indicate self-restraint. …

For this was the law from the first, that virtue should be the object of voluntary choice. Wherefore also the commandments, according to the Law, and before the Law, not given to the upright (for the law is not appointed for a righteous man), ordained that he should receive eternal life and the blessed prize, who chose them.

31. Listen also to what I have to say on this other expression which has been adduced, viz., “Christ, who redeemed us from the curse of the law.” My view of this passage is that Moses, that illustrious servant of God, committed to those who wished to have the right vision, an emblematic law, and also a real law. Thus, to take an example, after God had made the world, and all things that are in it, in the space of six days, He rested on the seventh day from all His works; by which statement I do not mean to affirm that He rested because He was fatigued, but that He did so as having brought to its perfection every creature which He had resolved to introduce. …

Because “for a righteous man the law was not made;” and yet “the law is good, if a man use it lawfully.” Now by connecting together these two seemingly contrary statements, the apostle warns and urges his reader to sift the question and solve it too. For how can it be that “the law is good, if a man use it lawfully,” if what follows is also true: “Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man?” For who but a righteous man lawfully uses the law? Yet it is not for him that it is made, but for the unrighteous. …

22. “Jesus therefore again groaning in Himself, cometh to the tomb.” May His groaning have thee also for its object, if thou wouldst re-enter into life! Every man who lies in that dire moral condition has it said to him, “He cometh to the tomb.” “It was a cave, and a stone had been laid upon it.” Dead under that stone, guilty under the law. For you know that the law, which was given to the Jews, was inscribed on stone. And all the guilty are under the law: the right-living are in harmony with the law. The law is not laid on a righteous man. What mean then the words, “Take ye away the stone”? Preach grace. For the Apostle Paul calleth himself a minister of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the spirit; “for the letter,” he says, “killeth, but the spirit giveth life.” The letter that killeth is like the stone that crusheth. …

2. “But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law will he meditate by day and by night ( ver. 2 ). The law is not made for a righteous man,” says the Apostle. But it is one thing to be in the law, another under the law. Whoso is in the law, acteth according to the law; whoso is under the law, is acted upon according to the law: the one therefore is free, the other a slave. Again, the law, which is written and imposed upon the servant, is one thing; the law, which is mentally discerned by him who needeth not its “letter,” is another thing. “He will meditate by day and by night,” is to be understood either as without ceasing; or “by day” in joy, “by night” in tribulations. For it is said, “Abraham saw my day, and was glad:” and of tribulation it is said, “my reins also have instructed me, even unto the night.”

6. “They have not been hidden from their sons in another generation” ( ver. 4 ). This is our generation wherein there hath been given to us regeneration. “Telling forth the praises of the Lord and His powers, and His wonderful works which He hath done.” The order of the words is, “and our fathers have told unto us, telling forth the praises of the Lord.” The Lord is praised, in order that He may be loved. For what object can be loved more to our health? “And He hath raised up a testimony in Jacob, and hath set a law in Jacob” ( ver. 5 ). This is the beginning whereof hath been spoken above, “I will declare propositions from the beginning.” So then the beginning is the Old Testament, the end is the New. For fear doth prevail in the law. …

2. And both these things are taught us by the Scripture, and by actual experience of recent events. For if, whilst there are magistrates and soldiers living under arms, the madness of a few individuals, a motley crew of adventurers, hath kindled such a fire among us, in so short a moment of time, and raised such a tempest, and made us all to stand in fear of shipwreck, suppose the fear of magistrates to be wholly taken away? To what lengths would they not have gone in their madness? Would they not have overthrown the city from its foundations, turning all things upside down, and have taken our very lives? If you were to abolish the public tribunals, you would abolish all order from our life. …

And full well did he likewise call them, “generation of vipers.” For that animal too is said to destroy the mother that is in travail with her, and eating through her belly, thus to come forth unto light; which kind of thing these men also did being “murderers of fathers, and murderers of mothers,”and destroying their instructors with their own hands.

Here by righteousness He means the whole of virtue; even as also discoursing of Job, He said, “He was a blameless man, righteous.” According to the same signification of the word, Paul also called that man “righteous” for whom, as he said, no law is even set. “For,” saith he, “a law is not made for a righteous man.” And in many other places too one might find this name standing for virtue in general.

“What then,” you will say, “if the adversary be one in high place? Well, for this reason more than all one ought to go to law in Christian courts: for in the courts without he will get the better of you at all events. “But what if he acquiesce not, but both despise those within and forcibly drag the course without?” Better were it to submit willingly to what you are likely to endure by compulsion, and not go to law, that thou mayest have also a reward. For, (St. Matt. v. 40 .) “If any one will go to law with thee, and take away thy coat, thou shalt let him have thy cloak also:” and, ( v. …