a

that they may be united to Christ.

An.Olymp. cir. CCIX.2. A.U.C.cir.811.

4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also A.D. cir. 08. are become 'dead to the law by the body of Christ; that should be marye ried to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

5 For, when we were in the flesh, the motions

a Matt. 5. 32.- - ch. 8. 2. Gal. 2. 19. & 5. 18. Eph. 2. 15. Col. 2. 14.

ciples of sin, ver. 7. 2. That it subjected the sinner to death, ver. 8-12. without the expectation of pardon. 3. He shews the reason why the Jew was put under it, ver. 13. 4. He proves that the law, considered as a rule of action, || though it was spiritual, just, holy, and good in itself, yet was insufficient for sanctification, or for freeing a man from the power of inbred sin. For, as the prevalency of sensual appetites cannot wholly extinguish the voice of reason and conscience; a man may acknowledge the law to be holy, just and good, and yet his passions reign within him, keeping him in the most painful and degrading servitude, while the law supplied no power to deliver him from them, ver. 14-24. as that power can only be supplied by the grace of Jesus Christ, ver. 25. See Taylor.

Verse 1. For I speak to them that know the law] This is a proof that the apostle directs this part of his discourse to the Jews.

As long as he liveth] Or as long as Ir liveth, law does not extend its influence to the dead; nor do abrogated laws bind. It is all the same whether we understand these words as speaking of a law abrogated, so that it cannot command; or of its objects, being dead, so that it has none to bind. In either case the law has no force.

Verse 2. For the woman which hath a husband] The apostle illustrates his meaning by a familiar instance. A married woman is bound to her husband while he lives; but when her husband is dead, she is discharged from the law, by which she was bound to him alone.

Verse 3. So then, if, while her husband liveth] The object of the apostle's similitude is to shew, that each party is equally bound to the other; but that the death of either dissolves the engagement.

So-she is no adulteress, though she be married to another] And do not imagine that this change would argue any disloyalty in you to your Maker; for, as he has determined that this law of ordinances shall cease, you are no more bound to it than a woman is to a deceased husband; and are as free to receive the gospel of Christ, as a woman, in such circumstances, would be to re-marry.

f

e

© Gal. 5. 22.4 Gr. passions.- ch. 6. 13. ch. 6. 21. Gal. 5. 19. Jam. 1. 15.

Verse 4. Wherefore, my brethren] This is a parallel case. You were once under the law of Moses, and were bound by its. injunctions; but now ye are become dead to that law; a modest inoffensive mode of speech, for the law, which was once your husband, is dead; God has determined that it shall be no longer in force; so that now, as a woman whose husband is dead, is freed from the law of that husband, or from her conjugal vow, and may legally be married to another: So God, who gave the law under which ye have hitherto lived, designed that it should be in force only till the advent of the Messiah; that advent has taken place, the law has, consequently, ceased, and now ye are called to take on you the yoke of the gospel, and lay down the yoke of the law; and this is the design of God, that should do so. you

That ye should be married to another—who is raised from the dead] As Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth, the object of God in giving the law, was to unite you to Christ; and as he has died, he has not only abolished that law which condemns every transgressor to death, without any hope of a revival; but he has also made that atonement for sin by his own death, which is represented in the sacrifices prescribed by the law. And as Jesus Christ is risen again from the dead he has thereby given the fullest proof, that by his death he has procured the resurrection of mankind; and made that atonement required by the law. That we should bring forth fruit unto God; we, Jews, who believe in Christ, have, in consequence of our union with him, received the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit; so that we bring forth that fruit of holiness unto God, which, without this union, it would be impossible for us to produce. Here is a delicate allusion to the case of a promising and numerous progeny, from a legitimate and happy marriage.

Verse 5. For, when we were in the flesh] When we were without the gospel, in our carnal unregenerated state, though believing the law of Moses, and performing the rites and offices of our religion.

The motions of sins, which were by the law] Ta rabquara Twv apaρriw, the passions of sins, the evil propensities to sins; to every particular sin, there is a propensity; one pro

pensity does not excite to all kinds of sinful acts; hence the apostle uses the plural number, the PASSIONS or propensities of SINS; sins being not more various than their propensities in the unregenerate heart, which excite to them. These abruara, propensities, constitute the fallen nature; they are the disease of the heart; the pollution and corruption of the soul. Did work in our members] The evil propensity acts, Ev TOIS EXEσ in the whole nervous and muscular system; applying that stimulus to every part, which is necessary to

excite them to action.

To bring forth fruit unto death.] To produce those acts of transgression which subject the sinner to death temporal and eternal. When the apostle says the motions of sin which were by the law; he points out a most striking and invariable characteristic of sin; viz. its rebellious nature; it ever acts against law, and the most powerfully against known law. Because the law requires obedience; therefore, it will transgress. The law is equally against evil passions and evil actions; and both these exert themselves against it. So, these motions which were by the law, became roused into the most powerful activity, by the prohibitions of the law. They were comparatively dormant till the law said thou shalt NOT do this, thou shalt Do that; then, the rebellious principle in the evil propensity became roused, and acts of transgression and omissions of duty were the immediate consequences.

Verse 6. But now we are delivered from the law] We, who have believed in Christ Jesus, are delivered from that yoke by which we were bound, which sentenced every transgressor to perdition, but provided no pardon even for the penitent; and no sanctification for those who are weary of their inbred corruptions.

That being dead wherein we were held] To us believers in Christ, this commandment is abrogated; we are transferred to another constitution; that law which kills, ceases to bind us; it is dead to us who have believed in Christ Jesus, who is the end of the law for justification aud salvation to every one that believes.

That we should serve in newness of spirit] We are now brought under a more spiritual dispensation; now we know the spiritual import of all the Mosaic precepts. We see that the law referred to the gospel, and can only be fulfilled by the gospel.

The oldness of the letter.] The merely literal rites, ceremonies, and sacrifices are now done away; and the newness of the Spirit, the true intent and meaning of all are now fully disclosed; so that we are got from an imperfect state into a state of perfection and excellence. We sought justification and sanctification, pardon and holiness, by the law; and have found that the law could not give them we have sought these in the gospel scheme, and we have found them. We serve God now, not according to the old literal sense, but in the true spiritual meaning.

Verse 7. Is the law sin?] The apostle had said, ver. 5, The motions of sin, which were by the law, did bring forth fruit unto death; and now he anticipates an objection, "is therefore the law sin?" to which he answers, as usual, un YEVOITO, by no means. Law is only the means of disclosing this sinful propensity, not of producing it; as a bright beam of the sun introduced into a room, shews millions of motes which appear to be dancing in it in all directions; but these were not introduced by the light, they were there before; only there was not light enough to make them manifest; so the evil propensity was there before, but there was not light sufficient to discover it.

I had not known sin, but by the law] Mr. Locke and Dr. Taylor have properly remarked the skill used by St. Paul in dextrously avoiding, as much as possible, the giving offence to the Jews: and this is particularly evident in his use of the word I in this place. In the beginning of the chapter, where he mentions their knowledge of the law, he says YE. In the 4th verse he joins himself with them, and says we; but here, and so to the end of the chapter, where he represents the power of sin, and the inability of the law to subdue it, he appears to leave them out, and speaks altogether in the first person, though it is plain he means all those who were under the law. So chap. iii. 7. he uses the singular pronoun, why am I judged a sinner? when he evidently means the whole body of unbelieving Jews.

There is another circumstance in which his address is peculiarly evident; his demonstrating the insufficiency of the law under colour of vindicating it. He knew that the Jew would take fire at the least reflection on the law, which he held in the highest veneration; and therefore he very naturally introduces. him catching at that expression,

ver. 5, the motions of sins which were by the law; or, notwithstanding the law. "What!" says this Jew, "do you vilify the law, by charging it with favouring sin?" By no means, says the apostle, I am very far from charging the law with favouring sin. The law is holy, and the commandment is holy, just and good, ver. 12. Thus he writes in vindication of the law; and yet at the same time shews, 1. That the law requires the most extensive obedience, discovering and condemning sin in all its most secret and remote branches, verse 7. 2. That it gives sin a deadly force, subjecting every transgression to the penalty of death, verse 8-14. And yet, 3. supplies neither help nor hope to the sinner, but leaves him under the power of sin, and the sentence of death, verse 14, &c. This, says Dr. Taylor, is the most ingenious turn of writing I ever met with. We have another instance of the same sort, chap. xiii. 1-7.

It is not likely that a dark, corrupt human heart, can discern the will of God. His law is his will: It recommends what is just, and right, and good; and forbids what is improper, unjust and injurious. If God had not revealed himself by this law, we should have done precisely what many nations of the earth have done, who have not had this revelation; put darkness for light, and sin for acts of holiness. While the human heart is its own measure, it will rate its workings according to its own propensities; for, itself is its highest rule. But when God gives a true insight of his own perfections, to be applied as a rule, both of passion and practice, then sin is discovered; and discovered too, to be exceedingly sinful. So, strong propensities, because they appear to be inherent in our nature, would have passed for natural and necessary operations; and their sinfulness would not have been discovered, if the law had not said, Thou shalt not covet. And thus determined, that the propensity itself, as well as its outward operations, is sinful. The law is the straight edge which determines the quantum of obliquity in the crooked line to which it is applied.

It is natural for man to do what is unlawful, and to desire especially to do that which is forbidden. The heathens have remarked this propensity in man.

Thus LIvy, xxxiv. 4.

Luxuria-ipsis vinculis sicut fera bestia irritata. "Luxury, like a wild beast, is irritated by its very bonds."

Audax omnia perpeti

Gens humana ruit per vetitum nefas.

"The presumptuous human race obstinately rush into prohibited acts of wickedness." HoR. Carm. lib. 1. Od. iii. ver. 25. And OvID, Amor. lib. ii. Eleg. xix. ver. 3. Quod licet, ingratum est; quod non licet acrius urit. "What is lawful is insipid; the strongest propensity is excited towards that which is prohibited."

And again, Ib. lib. iii. E. iv. ver. 17.

Nitimur in vetitum semper, cupimusque negata. Vice is provoked by every strong restraint, "Sick men long most to drink, who know they mayn't.” The same poet delivers the same sentiment in another place: Acrior admonitu est, irritaturque retenta

Et crescit rabics: remoraminaque ipsa nocebant.

METAM. lib. iii. ver. 566.

"Being admonished, he becomes the more obstinate; and his fierceness is irritated by restraints. Prohibitions become incentives to greater acts of vice." But it is needless to multiply examples; this most wicked principle of a sinful, fallen nature, has been felt and acknowledged by 411 mankind.

Verse 8. Sin, taking occasion by the commandment] I think the pointing, both in this and in the 11th verse, to be wrong: the comma should be after occasion, and not after commandment. But sin taking occasion, wrought in me, by this commandment all manner of concupiscence. There are different opinions concerning the meaning of the word Apopu, which we here translate occasion. Dr. Waterland translates the clause sin, taking ADVANTAGE. Dr. Taylor contends that all commentators have mistaken the meaning of it, and that it should be rendered having received force. For this acceptation of the word, I can find no adequate authority, except in its etymology-ano from, and opμn impetus. The word appears to signify, in general, whatsoever is necessary for the completion or accomplishment of any particular purpose. Xenophon uses apoua 15 TOY Clor, to signify whatever is necessary for the support of life. There is a personification in the text: sin is represented as a murderer, watching for life, and snatching at every means, and embracing every opportunity, to carry his fell purpose into effect. The miserable sinner has a murderer, sin, within him; this murderer can only destroy life in certain circumstances; finding that the law condemns the object of his cruelty to death, he takes occasion from this, to work in the