in

dead to the law, he intended to teach that their justification was complete, he proves, by what he says the concluding parts of both chapters, that their sanctification was incomplete. And as, referring to himself personally, he proves the incompleteness of the sanctification of believers, by looking forward to a future period of deliverance, saying, who shall deliver me; so, referring to himself personally in the beginning of the second verse of the next chapter, he proves the completeness of their justification, by speaking of his deliverance in respect to it as past, saying, "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death."

The view which the Apostle here gives of his own experience clearly demonstrates, that the pain experienced by believers in their internal conflicts is quite compatible with the blessed and consolatory assurance of eternal life. This he also proves, in those passages above quoted, 2 Cor. v. 1, "We know, that, if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this (tabernacle) we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house, which is from heaven. And in chapter viii. 23, where he says, "ourselves also which have the first fruits of the Spirit; even we ourselves groan within ourselves." It was, then, to confirm the faith of the disciples, and furnish a living exhibition of their spiritual conflict, that Paul here lays open his own heart, and discloses the working of those two warring principles, which to a greater or less extent contend for the mastery in the bosom of every child of God. Every perversion then of this highly important part of the Divine

testimony ought to be most strenuously opposed. It is not an insulated passage; it contains the clear development of a great general principle which belongs to the whole of Divine revelation, and is essential to its truth— a principle of the utmost importance in christian experience. "Blessed be God," says Mr Romaine, "for the 7th chapter of the Romans."

The wisdom discovered in making the present experience of Paul the object of contemplation ought to awaken in our hearts feelings of the liveliest gratitude. Had we been presented with a spectacle of the internal feelings of one less eminently holy, the effect would have been greatly weakened. But when this Apostle, whose life was spent in labouring for the glory of God; when he, whose blameless conduct was such as to confound his enemies who sought occasion against him; when he, who finished his course with joy, having fought a good fight, and kept the faith; when he, whose conscience enabled him to look back with satisfaction on the past, and forward with joy to the future; when he, who stood ready to receive the crown of righteousness which, by the eye of faith, he beheld laid up for him in heaven; when one so favoured, so distinguished, as the great Apostle of the Gentiles, is himself constrained, in turning his eye inward upon the rebellious strivings of his old nature, to cry out, "O wretched man that I am!"-what a wonderful exhibition do we behold of the malignity of that sin, which has so deeply poisoned and corrupted our original nature, that death itself is needful in order to sever its chains and destroy its power in the soul!

This passage, then, is peculiarly fitted to comfort those who are oppressed with a sense of indwelling sin

in the midst of their spiritual conflicts, unknown to all except themselves and the Searcher of hearts. There may be some believers who, not having examined it with sufficient care, or being misled by false interpretations, mistake its natural and obvious meaning, and fear to apply the words which it contains to Paul as an Apostle. When these shall have viewed this portion of the Divine Word in its true light, they will bless God for the instruction and consolation it is calculated to afford; while the whole of the representation, under this aspect, will appear foolishness to all who are Christians only in name, and who never experienced in themselves that internal conflict which the Apostle here describes. It is a conflict from which not one of the people of God, since the fall of the first man, was ever exempted—a conflict which He alone never experienced who is called "the Son of the Highest," of whom, notwithstanding, it has of late been impiously affirmed, that he also was subjected to it.

CHAPTER VIII.

THIS chapter presents a glorious display of the power of divine grace; and of the provision which God has made for the consolation of his people. While the Apostle had proved, in the 6th, that his previous doctrine gave no license to believers to continue in sin, he had still kept in view his main purpose of establishing their free justification. In the 7th he had prosecuted the same object, declaring that by their marriage with Christ they were delivered from the law as a covenant of life or death, while he vindicated its character, use, and authority. In this chapter, he continues the subject of justification, and resumes that of the believer's assurance of his salvation, of which he had spoken in the 5th, establishing it on new grounds; and from the whole train of his argument from the commencement of the Epistle, he now draws the general conclusion, that to them who are in Christ Jesus there is no condemnation. While this could not have been accomplished by the law, he shows that it had been effected by the incarnation of the Son of God, by whom the law has been fulfilled for all who are one with him as members of his body. Paul next points out the difference of character between those who, being in their natural state under the law

and under sin, are carnally-minded; and those who, being renewed by grace, in whom the law has been fulfilled, are spiritually-minded. The condition of the former is death, that of the latter life and peace. Of these last he proceeds, through the remainder of the chapter, to assert the high privileges and absolute security.

Those who are spiritually-minded have the Spirit of Christ, and possess spiritual life. Although their bodies must return to the dust, they shall be raised up again. They are led by the Spirit; they are the sons of God, and in his service are delivered from a spirit of bondage. They look to him as their Father; are heirs of God; and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ. To encourage believers to sustain the sufferings to which, while in this world, they are exposed, the most varied and abundant consolations are exhibited. Their salva

tion is declared to have taken its rise in the eternal councils of God, by whom, through all its steps, it is carried into effect. Their condemnation, then, is impossible, for who shall condemn those whom God justifieth-for whom Christ died and rose, and intercedes? The Apostle concludes by defying the whole universe to separate believers from the love of God, in Christ Jesus our Lord. In this manner he follows out, in this chapter, what had been his grand object through all the preceding part of the Epistle.

V. 1.-There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

Therefore-This is an inference from the general strain of the doctrine which the Apostle had been teaching in the preceding part of the Epistle ;-especially, it follows from what he had asserted, in the sixth and

VOL. II.

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