thing to be proved But yet the Apostle goes on and gives a more full account of this matter which leaves the thing without all pretence of doubt as I conceive Ver. 3 4. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh Verse 3 God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did i.e. and for sin condemned sin in the flesh The Explication of this Verse alone clears the whole matter as I judge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 supple 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. What was the impossible thing which the Law could not do Why to justifie or sanctifie a sinner How came it impossible to the Law to effect either of these Why not from any weakness in itself it would have justified innocent Man with good authority But it cannot justifie a sinner that is impossible for then the Law of God would cease to be holy it would have sanctified innocent Man that is have led him on from one kind of holy action to another and made him conversant in and ready at doing the whole Will of God But when it meets with a sinner through the sin which reigns in his flesh it not only condemns him but irritates and provokes Lust till Sin by the Commandment appear in its colours appear Sin and become out of measure sinful as we have at large discoursed this matter in the foregoing Chapter This argues no weakness in the Law that it cannot justifie or sanctifie a sinner for it is weak only through the flesh So that any Man that doth not betake himself to Christ and the Gospel but is only under Convictions from the Law must needs be in such a condition as the seventh Chapter describes But now God in infinite Mercy since the Law under which Man was created was utterly disabled from justifying much more from sanctifying fallen Man sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and by so sending him did that for us which the Law could not do and for sin or as it is in the Margin by a Sin-offering condemned sin in the flesh that is expiated our sins and shewed us a way how we might effectually subdue our lusts or to give you the Paraphrase of the Verse in Dr. Hammond's own words they are these For when through the fleshly desires of Men carrying them headlong into all Sin in despight of the Prohibitions of the Law Chap. 7.14 the Law of Moses was by this means weak and unable to reform and amend Mens Lives then most seasonably God sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh that is in a mortal body which was like sinful flesh and differed nothing from it save only in innocence and that on purpose that he might be a Sacrifice for Sin and by laying our Sins on him shewed a great Example of his Wrath against all carnal Sins by punishing Sin in his flesh that so Men might be perswaded by Love or wrought on by Terrors to forsake their sinful Courses By this means Sin itself is condemned in our flesh that is destroyed as to its guilt and power which before by the Law had condemned us That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh Verse 4 but after the Spirit By this means namely the sending Christ to die and giving us the Gospel which discovers to us his Death and Resurrection and the ends of them we are perswaded the Spirit working together with it in the Preaching of it to betake ourselves to Christ for Pardon and Salvation and for Strength against every Lust of the Flesh and being truly converted by and to the Faith of the Gospel the Righteousness of the Law comes to be fulfilled in us and we are enabled through the Grace of God to do the substance of all that which the Moral Law requires and our Failings are hid by the Intercessions of Christ and we are truly said to walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit And now see if there be not a vast alteration of states from the Man in the seventh of the Romans and the same I in the eighth the one is legal and under the Power of Sin led captive by the Law of Sin the other is set at liberty by the Gospel from the Law of Sin and Death that is that Sin which necessarily ends in Death For the wages of sin is death and this is done by the Law of the Spirit of Life which is only in Christ Jesus and conveyed by his Gospel into the minds of Men. 'T is the new Law the Law of the Spirit so the Gospel is called We are Ministers of the New Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit for the Letter that is the Law killeth but the Spirit that is the Gospel giveth Life 2 Cor. 3.6 The words that I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life John 6. â—â— Tâ—erefore the Gospel coming in power is called the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus and it is also called the Ministration of the Spirit 2 Cor. 3.8 I have now done with the argumentative Part as hoping that the Cause is won which yet whether it be or no I must leave to the serious and candid Reader to determine for himself only I shall desire of any that is unsatisfied to give as fair an Account of his contrary Opinion and Perswasion as I have here done by insisting upon the several Verses of the 7th Chaper especially and let him see if he can make sence of every thing as I have done and not only argue against the whole together by some little Arguments that he may imagine to himself to have some strength in them I have not that I know balked or avoid d any thing in the whole Chapter that looks like an Argument for the Opinion which I contradict And that I may not be alone is this Discourse I thought it convenient to subjoyn out of Dr. Hammond's Commentary what were his Sentiments upon the Subject debated which after I have transcribed I shall willingly follow the Apostle's Discourse throughout the whole eighth Chapter For that therein as I humbly conceive the Apostle pursues the Mystery of the Law of the Spirit of Life which is in Christ Jesus till he makes it evident that this new Law otherwise truly called Gospel and the Ministration of the Spirit carries a Man on not only to a freedom from the Law of Sin and Death or the bondage and power of Corruption but carries him through the whole course of mortification of Sin and vivification even of our natural Flesh bringing it on to the service of the Spirit the Spirit of our Mind or the Law of the Mind and indeed into a rejoycing in the Conduct of the Spirit of God it brings us on to a Spirit of Adoption praying to God with holy Boldness as a Father It carries us on through the heaviest
that But that which I have now to acquaint thee with is That while I was making my Progress in getting and repeating the several Chapters there did a considerable light arise to me concerning the true and genuine sence of the seventh Chapter which I had been often puzzelled about heretofore And this I thought worthy a new Labour to acquaint thee with so here I have given thee the occasion of my writing upon it Now for my Reasons moving me so to do take as followeth First then Reason I I have observed That several Expressions in that seventh Chapter to the Romans are the common shelter of many profligate Persons who would fain pass in their own apprehensions and in the judgment of others for good Men though if they would make any serious Reflections they must needs see themselves in a very evil state When I would do good say they evil is present with me the good that I would I do not and the evil that I would not do that I do so then it is no more I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me With my mind I my self serve the Law of God but with my flesh the Law of Sin And so lick themselves whole presently after every the foulest Commission With an O wretched Man that I am and all because it is allowed by some that St. Paul used these Expressions as speaking in his own person after conversion Now this Scripture is to be wrested out of their hands by shewing them that St. Paul speaks this in the person of an unregenerate Man and therefore 't is a Plaister that will not cover much less heal their Sore Again Secondly I fear that even good People or at least People well inclined Reason II do too easily take comfort after having failed in many Points of their Duty in such Expressions as these When I would do good evil is present with me and I find a Law in my Members warring against the Law of my Mind and bringing me into captivity to the Law of Sin When they ought to take refuge only in a sound Repentance and the Blood of Christ after having humbled themselves and returned to their Duty as they ought And they need not be dispoiled of the Comfort that is ready at hand for them after ordinary failings and sins of infirmity for which I doubt not but there is a Pardon of course for them upon their Confession to God So that these Failings need not make any terrible disorder in their Peace and Comfort and they may have as much relief in Gal. 5.17 as they can justly pretend to have out of the seventh to the Romans Gal. 5.17 you have these words The flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these two are contrary the one to the other so that ye cannot do the things that ye would There is as much comfort in these words as a sound Christian can seek for out of the seventh to the Romans in cases of infirmity And I know no Divine that hinders them of the relief of this Scripture for the Flesh not being perfectly subdued by and to the Spirit may hinder and clog them so as they may fail often and may not come to be so good as they fain would be or do all the good that they fain would do And yet they are not forced to acknowledge that they are sold under sin as the Expression in that seventh to the Romans by which they put a Sword into all wicked persons hands to kill themselves withal and to bear themselves out in their vilest Enormities Thirdly Reas III And indeed let the words in the seventh to the Romans be but allowed to be spoken of St. Paul in and of his own person after conversion and I know not what you can say by way of conviction to the wickedest Man in the World He will tell you when you charge him That he was drunk such a time and filthy such a time and can prove it of him That it is true it was so but he hates it 't was not he that did it but indwelling Sin with his Mind he himself serves the Law of God but with his Flesh the Law of Sin How can you confute him how know you but it is so as be saith and then upon what pretence can you excommunicate him or censure him if he declares his hatred of what he hath done how do you know but he may be a Saint like Saint Paul whenas the Church of God in all Ages hath and doth and ought to proceed in its Censures against Men according to External Actions 1 John 3.7 8. He that doth righteousness is righteousness even as he is righteous He that committeth sin is of the devil Verse 6. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not whosoever sinneth hath not seen him neither known him St. John's Epistle 3d. 11. He that doth good is of God he that doth evil hath not seen God Fourthly Reas IV This taking the seventh to the Romans in the sence above mentioned casts a great disparagement on St. Paul Methinks those two Expressions in the fourteenth Verse of that Chapter can never agree to St. Paul The Law is spiritual but I am carnal sold under sin What was St. Paul carnal after his conversion The highest Christian that can bear that Name St. Paul tells us is but a Babe 1 Cor. 3.1 2 3. And I brethren could not write unto you as unto spiritual but as unto carnal even as unto babes in Christ I have fed you with milk and not with meat c. Verse 3. For ye are yet carnal and whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions are ye not carnal and walk as men What was St. Paul a Babe after he had written all that Epistle to the seventh Chapter But the next Expression is a thousand times worse if St. Paul speaks in his own person as of himself after conversion He is not only carnal but sold under sin a very vile Captive under the slavery of sin I remember such an Expression no where but in Ahab's case who it is said sold himself to work Wickedness And if St. Paul was sold under sin he either sold himself or was sold by another to this slavery And who could sell him after he was become God's but the Holy God which is Blasphemy to affirm or he himself which is to make him another Ahab Then in Verse 15. he explains how it appears that he was sold under sin by the causal Particle For For what I do I allow not for what I would that do I not but what I hate that I do And this is a clear Description of Slavery So Verse 23. the Law in his Members brought him into captivity to the Law of Sin made him a Slave Fifthly Reas V This contradicts all that St. Paul speaks of himself in other places of his Epistles 2 Tim. 4.7 8. I have fought the good fight I have finished my course
are much the same What need of so much caution and exhortation to avoid a thing that shall never come to pass Why truly because though you may certainly avoid and escape the dominion and reigning power of sin by care and diligence watchfulness and holy activity still praying for depending upon and making use of the Grace of God yet if you be not thus employed however you may seem to your selves and others to have clean escaped those that live in error 2 Pet. 2.18 and to have escaped the pollutions that are in the world through lust the evil spirit will return and take with him seven other spirits worse than ever he was and will take possession of his swept and garnished old mansion and sin will again have dominion and reign over you To recite the whole Verse For sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the law but under grace Verse 14 Here the Apostle expresses the great reason why true Christians may be and are freed from the dominion of sin it is because they are not under the Law and seek not to be justified by the Law but under Grace Justification and Sanctification have one and the same Root Source and Foundation Jesus Christ is made of God unto us wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption 1 Cor. 1.30 So the Apostle hath well confuted that Paralogism in the first Verse Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound by turning it into a Violentum He takes the Enemies Cannon and turns them upon themselves therefore you must not continue in sin because grace hath abounded and doth abound For sin shall not have dominion over you because ye are under grace I shall need here to say something to make it appear how the Dominion of Sin is destroyed by Grace and not by the Law though I know I shall have much more occasion several times to speak to this in the seventh Chapter which indeed cannot be made intelligible without the unfolding of this Mystery And first for the explication of it I shall give a parallel place it is Gal. 5.16 18. Verse 16. This I say then walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh Verse 18. If ye be led by the spirit ye are not under the law The Apostle had before been exhorting them to love one another because Love was the fulfilling of the Law and tells them further in Verse 15. If they did bite and devour one another there was a great danger they would be consumed one of another Now for prevention hereof the Apostle adds Verse 16. This I say then walk in spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh that is that lust of envy and bitterness Verse 17. For the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other so that ye cannot do the things that ye would Even in good Men there is a remainder of flesh as it is taken in an ill sence which hinders them from doing much of that good which they would fain do when they are more themselves But then the Apostle minds them of what he had said before in the sixteenth Verse as the Apostle loves to inculcate and repeat If you be led by the spirit or walk in the spirit which I take to be all one if ye be led by the spirit ye are not under the law Which I take to be all one with the other part of the sixteenth Verse Ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh And accordingly he reckons up the lusts of the flesh which when brought into act are the works of the flesh In the next Verse 19. Now the works of the flesh are manifest c. But the parallel I seem to my self to find in these words of the Epistle to the Galatians compared with those in Romans 6.14 appears thus in Ep. to Gal. t is If ye be led by the spirit ye are not under the law or ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh to be under the law and to fulfil the lusts of the flesh are consequent one upon another and therefore used as synonimous or equivalent Expressions and if so they fully answer the words that I am now upon Rom. 6.14 Sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the law but under grace Now if not to be under the law and not to fulfil the lusts of the flesh be all one then to be under the law and to fulfil the lusts of the flesh are all one for Contrariorum contrariae sunt rationes and if to be under the law and to fulfil the lusts of the flesh are all one that is in the way of inferring one another as Posita causa ponitur effectus being under the law is the cause fulfilling the lusts of the flesh is the effect I say if these are all one or rather if they do mutuo se ponere tollere then the Apostle's is a good Argument in the Text before us Rom. 6.14 Sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under the law but under grace But I shall leave the Argument from a parallel which serves only to prove the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that so it is that he that is under the Law as his way of justification will certainly fulfil the lusts of the flesh and that sin shall not have dominion over him that is not under the law and come to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the reason why it is so which evermore proves the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it is so Now the reason why it is so that he that is under the law will always and cannot but fulfil the lusts of the flesh and that he that walks in the spirit is led by the spirit or under the conduct of grace and the promise for justification and sanctification will not and cannot whilst such yield himself a slave to his lusts and suffer sin to have dominion over him is this because a sinner as we are all sinners that is under the law and betakes himself to the law for justification and goes no farther is not well schooled under the law so as to betake himself to Christ and Grace for a righteousness as the law is only a Schoolmaster to bring us to Christ that we may be justified by faith Gal. 3.24 he finds the law commands him to be holy persectly holy and threatens every sin with death and gives him no strength nor hope without perfect unerring obedience besides all the wrath that the law is charged with against him for his past sins And here the poor Man finding it his duty to abstain from all evil and do all that is good and having no strength and no hope but in the way of perfect unerring obedience besides the making amends and giving satisfaction for his past sins he grows sad and mad and desperate and falls to
seems to turn his Speech into a figurative Expression as I have noted above out of Doctor Hammond and chuseth rather to say Ye are become dead to the Law by the Body of Christ crucified for else there would have been no similitude in this Case for the Matter to which the Apostle doth assimulate the Case of every true Christian was to that of a Wife who was once bound to an Husband but by the death of her Husband became free to be married to another the word ye therefore answers to the Wife therefore when he says ye are dead to the Law the meaning is the Law is dead to you for else he would not speak of the death of the Husband but of the death of the Wife And accordingly the Apostle continues the Allegory in the next two Verses For when we were in the flesh Verse 5 the motions of sin which were by the law did work in our members to bring ferth fruit unto death But now we are delivered from the law Verse 6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We are cancelled to the Law signifieth saith Dr. Hammond the Law is cancelled to us that being dead wherein we were held that is the Law which was our first Husband being dead wherein we were held or to which we were obliged as a Wife to a Husband during his life that we should serve in newness of spirit that is according to a free ingenious Gospel-Principle of Love and not in the oldness of the Letter that is according to the severity and rigour of the Law written in Tables of Stone which was our old and first Husband So that in this Antapodosis or Reddition which is here made by way of Similitude to the Case of an Husband and Wife I take it we have these several Propositions clearly expressed or strongly inferrible 1. The Law is a Man's first Husband 2. The Law is every Man's Husband that is his Soul's Husband till he betake himself to Christ by Faith for there is no middle State every Man is either under the Law or under Grace 3. The Law is a rigid and severe Husband 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Verse 6. Wherein we were held Gal. 3.23 24. Before Faith came we were kept under the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Law had set a guard upon us shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed shut up as it were in Prison in Salva Custodia Verse 24. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ and a severe Schoolmaster 4. That whilst we are under the Law and before we betake ourselves to Christ by Faith we can do nothing but Sin Verse 5. For when we were in the flesh the motions of sin which were by the law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death Whilst we are under the Law we are in the Flesh wholly carnal and then the motions of Sin did work and nothing but they and did bring forth Fruit unto Death This is the Issue of our Wedlock whilst we sinners have no other Husband but only the Law 5. That the Law was in very good earnest since killed as to the condemning power of it for all Mankind by the Body of Christ crucified 6. That every Man in the World where the Gospel is preached is declared to be free from the condemnation of the Law upon condition that he betake himself to Christ as an Husband and a Lord. And this I take to be the greatest thing in the Gospel 7. That till a Man repent and believe this Gospel and be joyned to the Lord Christ as one Spirit with him he can never bring forth fruit unto God Verse 4. Wherefore my brethren ye also are become dead to the law or rather the Law is dead to you by the body of Christ that ye should be married to another even to him that is raised from the dead that we should bring forth fruit unto God This is the Fruit of the New Wedlock and without this change of State there can be no such Fruit. All these severally I take to be included in the Apostle's Similitude and so I come to the seventh Verse wherein the Apostle answers a terrible Objection which seems to arise rationally against what he had said What shall we say then Verse 7 is the law sin God forbid The Objection rises naturally thus You have said above That when we were in the Flesh the Motions of Sin which were by the Law did so work as to bring forth Fruit unto Death and that we need to be delivered from the Law even by the death of it as an Husband that so we may serve God with a new Spirit and bring forth Fruit to God Why what a strange kind of thing do you make the Law to be Quod efficit tale est magis tale That which is the cause of any thing and brings it forth into being is much more such a thing as that is which is produced and effected by it What shall we say then is the Law Sin or a sinful thing or the direct cause of Sin This Question or Objection the Apostle answers with an abhorrence Verse 7 God forbid and then gives a very substantial reason for it Nay I had not known sin but by the law for I had not known lust except the law had said Thou shalt not covet So that it is as much as if the Apostle had said 't is true if this bringing forth Fruit unto Death had been the natural and kindly Effect of the Law as a Cause it would be so it could no be freed from this aspersion of being a very sinful thing nay Sin itself in the abstract If innocent Man and the Law meeting together the natural product of the Law should be Sin the Law would indeed deserve the name of sinful and of sin but it is not the univocal natural kindly Product of the Law upon a Man but the accidental Effect of the Law upon a Sinner But sin taking occasion by the commandment wrought in me all manner of concupiscence The Law is so far from deserving the name of sin or sinful saith the Apostle that I had not known sin but by the law for I had not known lust except the law had said Thou shalt not covet The natural Effect of the Law is first to forbid Sin and to command all that is holy just and good and in the next place to discover Sin to convince and condemn the sinner which is quite contrary to the promoting encouraging and producing Sin Well then having removed Sin far enough away from being the natural Effect of the Law he comes to shew how the Law did occasionally and accidentally produce Sin But sin taking occasion by the commandment wrought in me all manner of concupiscence Verse 8 for without the law sin was dead or is dead there is neither of them no Verb substantive in the Original And here I think it a very fit occasion to set
had said Verse 10. The commandment which was ordained to life I found to be unto death Now here Verse 13. he utterly avoids with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that that which was good that is without all doubt the same Commandment which he says Verse 12. was holy and just and good was made death to him The words in the Greek are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Upon these two the Apostle distinguisheth with a God forbid that they should be the same Therefore we had need you see to be very curious in observing the words of Scripture But the meaning of the distinction or that which the Apostle designs to assert and what to avoid I take to be this The Law was by the perversness of our sinful Nature abusing an Holy Law an occasion of Death But the Apostle abhors to say that that good law is or was death 't was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 't was found to be so in event by accident but was not so in itself for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a Verb Substantive and not a Verb Passive the Verb Substantive predicates in esse the Verb Passive in fieri ab extra So much for the niceness of the Distinction Let us now go on with the 13th Verse which will further confirm what I have written Was that then which is good made death to me or became it death to me Verse 13 Was it death to me God forbid But sin that it might appear sin working death in me by that which is good became or was made death to me This ugly thing called Sin was made or became death The good Law was not made death to me But sin that it might appear sin working death in me by that which is good That sin by the commandment might become out of measure sinful Verse 13 Here in this Verse the Apostle shews his great Subtilty and Acuteness again yea in my mind a Poetical strain of fancy carrying on a Prosopopaeia by which he gives Sin which we all know in the true Philosophical account of it is nothing but a disorderly Action or omission of a Duty or an irregular Affection yet I say he gives Sin a person as if it were a subtle mischievous contriving thing for so the words run It was not the good Law that was made death but Sin was made death or became death Sin I say that it might appear Sin that is that it might appear to be what it was that it might indeed look like it self a most mischievous thing indeed How doth that appear Why it works death in me by that which is good To bring good out of evil is the work of God but to bring evil and the greatest evil out of the greatest good is the work of the Devil or rather the work of Sin that mischievous thing that first made Devils and then made Hell Sin that it might appear Sin the Apostle hath no worse word or name to call Sin by or else it should have had some other dreadful Epithet Now that the Apostle was in such an holy rage against it then it follows with a new Invective in the end of the 13th Verse That sin by the commandment might become out of measure sinful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sin hyperbolically sinful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that you see all that the Apostle is angry with is only Sin but withal it is as apparent that Sin shews all this mischievousness and maliciousness and destructiveness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by occasion of the Law or Commandment which if it had not come to the Man's conscience that is here spoken of whosoever he be this Lyon Sin had lain couchant and as it were dormant that is fast asleep in comparison if the rage and superlative hyperbolical roaring Madness that the Laws put it into I come now to the 14th Verse For we know that the law is spiritual but I am carnal sold under sin Verse 14 For we know he appeals to the sentiments of all Christians and might do of all Men as he does in the second Chapter wherein he sets forth at large That the Gentiles that have not the law do by nature the things contained in the law that is by the dictates of Nature approve of the Law as a holy Rule which they are obliged to obey which shews the work of the law written in their hearts Ver. 14 15 of that Chapter For we know that the Law is spiritual 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is spiritual in its Original dictated by the Spirit of God spiritual in its Conduct it guides the Spirit of a Man to the prosecution of all worthy heavenly and spiritual things that suit the Spirit of a Man feeds it nourishes it strengthens it comforts it as much as sensible and fleshly things do the Body and Senses of a Man The law is spiritual but I am carnal sold under sin and that is the reason that the Law and I can no better agree but as sinful hyperbolically sinful sin is enraged at the presence and convictions and condemnations of the Law so I to be sure that am the sinner sold under sin that am a carnal person and in the flesh Ver. 6. When we were in the flesh the motions of sin which were by the law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death must needs be mightily discomposed inflamed and desperate in sinning at the coming of the Law with its commands without giving strength to obey with its charges and threatnings without any hope of pardon For what the Apostle had figuratively and as it were poetically affixed to Sin giving it a Person doth properly fall upon the Sinner if Sin be said by the Apostle to become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of measure sinful by the Law How much more true is it of the Sinner and shall this Sinner be St. Paul and that after Conversion God forbid What carnal and sold under sin and out of measure sinful When the very Heathens are by the same Apostle affirmed by Nature to do the things contained in the Law no doubt by some special assistances of the Spirit keeping them from these mischievous though accidental effects of the Law whereby it is said in this Chapter to enrage Lust For that which I do Verse 15 I allow not for what I would that do I not but what I hate that I do A goodly description of the Apostle Paul who says Happy is that man which condemneth not himself in the thing which he alloweth and as it might be said in the thing which he alloweth not I know it is spoken in another case viz. in the matter of indifferent things making an ill use of his liberty Rom. 14.20 But how unhappy was St. Paul himself then in this seventh of Romans that did not only what he allowed not but what he hated and could not do what he did allow and
highly approve but the quite contrary He certainly did not only condemn himself but was worthy to be condemned by all that observed it and heard or read him to make such a Description of himself But to speak more closely to the words this is a plain Description of a Man if not maliciously wicked yet at least impotently so and the very Character which Medea the Witch gives of herself in the Poet Video meliora proboque deteriora sequor I see better things and approve of them but I follow worse things Dolus an Virtus quis in hoste requirat What odds is there if an Enemy does us a mischief by Stratagem or by Valour So what odds is it whether a Man does wickedness of choice or because he cannot well or easily help it whilst the Devil himself cannot force us to sin of whatsoever a Man is overcome of the same is he brought under bondage 2 Pet. 2.19 If a Man does the thing that is wicked frequently and omits the good that he should do frequently and usually let him pretend necessity or that he could not help it or indeed let him say what he will in his excuse if he doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the words that can be used to express the doing of a thing and declares he can do no otherwise but omit good and do that which is evil he is a sinner a carnal person a fleshly person or what can be more expressive sold under sin If then I do that which I would not Verse 16 I consent unto the law And what if he do consent unto the Law that it is good Will this make amends for the constant breach of it Is it not an high aggravation of such a one's wickedness Now then Verse 17 it is no more I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me If this should be spoken as an Excuse for the Sin committed that it is not the Sinner's Action but Sin 's Action it would be the most absurd Excuse that ever was offered For what is Sin in any Man is it a Person or Agent or rather a vicious Quality of the Person The latter no doubt See if any one will be content with this Excuse in a matter of Theft or Slander or Wounds to say 'T is not I that stole but my thievish Temper 't is not I that struck you but my angry Passion 't was not I that railed at you or spoke evil falsly of you but my intemperate and malicious Tongue this is a Tale to tell a Child but not to be believed by a Man or admitted for an Excuse in a Court of Justice It is thy angry Person that strikes 't is thy lustful Heart that commits lewdness 't is thy covetous Heart that steals and defrauds 't is thy prophane Heart that blasphemes It will be imputed to thy whole Man what thou dost with thy Hand or Tongue or any Member of thy Body Sin will not be called to account as a Person but the Person for the Sin And therefore to make a little sence of the Excuse here it can only be this That a Man under conviction of Sin may say indeed that he doth not sin with all his heart that he hath a Conscience within him that checks him in and for what he doth But yet if Conscience cannot restrain him from doing evil nor command him to do the good that he should that renitency of Conscience will not excuse him before God but he shall be condemned as a Criminal at last for all his Commissions and Omissions if he doth not get beyond this state of Conviction to a state of Conversion and the renitency and reluctancy of his Conscience will be so far from excusing him that it will be the highest aggravation towards his condemnation For I know Verse 18 that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing Here is another poor Excuse that the Man under legal convictions and not St. Paul converted makes use of to quiet his Conscience or to plead for him with the World whilst he lives in the practice of Sin and in the omission of his Duty I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing I am fleshly and in the flesh and alas in my flesh there dwelleth no good thing and how can I do otherwise than sin the Flesh and the Body is not properly the seat of Religion though after a Man is regenerate it is influenced by religious Principles and brought into good order and into the service of the Spirit as I shall have occasion to shew in the Exposition of the next Chapter but in a state of unregeneracy which I take to be the state of the Man in this Chapter it runs a Man headlong into all impiety and wickedness for it has not on its Bridle And accordingly he confesses further in the end of the Verse For to will is present with me but to perform that which is good I find not Verse 18 To will is present with me this will can only be accounted a Velleity as the Schools speak a wishing and a woulding he would fain do this good and avoid that evil but is perfectly impotent as to the matter of practice and what is this will good for which can bring nothing to effect For the good that I would I do not but the evil which I would not that do I. Ver. 19 20. Now if I do that I would not it is no more I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me This is no more than what was said before and 't is an usual way with the Apostle to repeat to keep things fresh in memory that had been discoursed and an illustration of what had been said in the 18th Verse I find then a law that when I would do good evil is present with me Verse 21 Now the Apostle comes to sum up the Evidence and to put the Matter to an issue And the sum of the Evidence is this I find then a Law The Man that was in the flesh Verse 5. and under the Law 's convictions Verse 9. deceived and slain Verse 11. under the workings of all manner of Concupiscence Verse 8. he finds himself not only under the Law of God in a way of Conviction and Condemnation but under a Law of Sin I find then a law that when I would do good evil is present with me For I delight in the law of God after the inward man but I see another law in my members Ver. 22 23 The inward Man was his Conscience which had some kind of complacency in the Law of God as a just and an holy thing For God keeps that Hold or Garrison in every Man's Breast that is not quite profligate and past all sence of good and evil which yet is very hard for any Man perfectly to attain unto much less for the Man in this Chapter whom all Intepreters will allow to be under strong sore and quick Convictions from the
Law of God But to what purpose was this small delight in the Law of God which had no influence upon Practice or the mortification of his Flesh for he plainly acknowledges that he saw another Law in his Members warring against the Law of his Mind Verse 23 The Law of his Mind was a Rule in his Conscience that he ought to do all good and to avoid and eschew all evil But the Question is Which Law prevails Why he tells us plainly and why should we not believe him And bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members The two Laws indeed did both war but the Law of Sin was the conqueror And of whom a man is overcome of the same is he brought under bondage 2 Pet. 2.19 And then being captivated no wonder he crys out in the 24th Verse Verse 24 O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death or this Body of Death Now when the Law hath perfectly left him for dead in a spiritual sence a condemned Wretch strugling for life by the help of the Holy Law which yet could afford him no comfort nor help here we must imagine as I conceive that God in wonderful Mercy made a discovery of Christ and Grace to him the Law was his School-master to bring him to Christ Now Christ is precious to him as the only Saviour that was before utterly lost and undone in himself and as to all hopes from the Law Now I suppose this Verse is that which hath misled all those Interpreters and good Christians that mistook this Chapter as if St. Paul had spoken it of himself after conversion The Expression indeed is admirable and truly Evangelical but I take it as I said before as a new discovery made to him under his Bondage and Captivity under Sin by which he might attain unto true deliverance from the guilt and power of Sin I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Verse 25 Not a word of Christ before in all this struggle and agony wherein the personation is made of one under Convictions and Condemnations and Irritations unto Sin accidentally from the Law till the Man is utterly undone and crys out for deliverance I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Verse 25 So then with my mind I my self serve the law of God but with my flesh the law of sin This I take to be added in the close of this Chapter as the summa totalis or the Epitome of all the foregoing Discourse But yet even in it though there is one little word added 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I my self because the Mind is indeed more principally a Man's self than his Flesh or Body is yet it is to me very insignificant to prove what Men would have for as long as the Law of the Members prevails against the Law of the Mind and brings the Man into captivity to the Law of Sin What is that Service of God with his Mind worth 'T is the predominant Party in the Man that denominates him spiritual or carnal and indeed he allows the Denomination quae sumitur a Majori in the fourteenth Verse I am carnal and I am a person sold under sin And so I dismiss the seventh Chapter and hasten out of this cold shivering Water as I called it above into the other hot Bath of the eighth Chapter which will more evidently and demonstratively clear the sence and importance of the seventh and was given us as I said above as another surety for the seventh that the seeming ill sence of that might have no evil influence upon us nor give any disparagement to our noble Gospel-Religion But I shall take along with me as Ariadnes thread that Expression which was put into the dying and otherwise despairing Man's mouth in the 23th Verse of the seventh Chapter when he had said gaspingly O miserable man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. And from that Expression I take my rise to begin to explain the first Verse of the eighth Chapter ROMANS Chap. VIII THere is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus Verse 1 Now I see by this last discovery made to me when I was even giving up all for lost that to avoid condemnation which the Law inflicted and could not otherwise chuse but thunder out against a sinner we must all betake ourselves to Christ so the Illative therefore may well convert this eighth Chapter with that Expression in Verse 25. of the foregoing Chapter Therefore if you will flee from condemnation you must flee to Christ for there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Why who are they that are in Christ Jesus It follows who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit Ay they are the Men indeed and none but they free from condemnation The Man in the seventh Chapter was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 carnal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the flesh Verse 5. and therefore was followed with condemnation but they that are in Christ Jesus walk after the Spirit their state is altered and therefore no wonder they are freed from their Desperations But the second Verse makes all clear For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus Verse 2 hath made me free from the law of sin and death There are several things very observable in this Verse 1. Here is the personation continued in the first person I and me hath set me free as much as to say I that before was a captive to Sin under the Law of Sin and Death am set free 2. Here is a quite different Law never before mentioned viz. The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus 3. The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus sets the person free that was captive under the Law of Sin and Death Now let it be allowed Disputandi Causa that the word or person I all along the seventh Chapter was St. Paul yet sure they will not deny that me which is but the Accusative Case of I is St. Paul also Let all then depend upon this word And then it will plainly appear that Ego non sum Ego The I in the seventh Chapter though spoken of the same person is not spoken of the same person in the same state here In the seventh Chapter he is led into Captivity to the Law of Sin and Death In this Chapter the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath set him free from the Law of Sin and Death Therefore the Man in the seventh Chapter that was led into captivity to the Law of Sin Verse 23. needed the Gospel which is here called the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus to set him at liberty from this Law of Sin Therefore he was before only a miserable Man under the convictions and condemnations of the Law and not converted which was the
having as I have above declared setled the Doctrin of Justification by Faith and ended the Discourse in tryumph at the end of the fifth Chapter and proceeded in the sixth Chapter to shew at large how Holiness and Sanctification also necessarily and effectually follows upon the hearty embracing the Doctrine of the Gospel thereby they are baptized into the Death of Christ and profess themselves dead to Sin and are actually set free from Sin and become the Servants of Righteousness and yield themselves unto God and their Members Instruments of Righteousness unto God Ver. 13 14. and have their Fruit unto Holiness Verse 22. He as in a Parenthesis in the seventh Chapter gives you a Parable of a Man endeavouring to be holy by the Law but is utterly defeated of his design and instead of attaining Holiness thereby loseth all his comfort and hope and is plung'd into a far worse condition as to Holiness than he was in before and being brought into a state of desperation thereby betakes himself to Christ then in the very nick of time revealed to him and by betaking himself to Christ is set at liberty from Condemnation and Desperation and also from the Law of Sin and Death which he acknowledged himself before to be led into captivity unto after a fierce Battel betwixt the Law of the Members and the Law of the Mind and so finds by blessed experience that he is one of them in whom the Righteousness of the Law is now fulfilled which Righteousness by the Law could never have been effected accomplished and fulfilled The Righteousness of the Law can never be fulfilled in any mortal Man but by the Grace of the Gospel received that is a Man can never become holy but by Faith Acts 15.9 Purifying their Hearts by Faith Gal. 5.6.6.15 Faith working by Love to the keeping the Commandments of God is the new Creature Compare those two places in Gal. Such Men as have this Faith they walk not after the Flesh any longer but after the Spirit For they that are after the flesh Verse 5 do mind the things of the flesh but they that This Particle for is a causal Particle and shews the Reason of the Assertion going before The Assertion before in the fourth Verse is this The righteousness of the law is or that it might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit Now this is proved to be so because they that are after the Flesh do â—ind the things of the Flesh and they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit Therefore they who are after the Spirit do truly attain unto the Holiness and Righteousness of the Law which is a Spiritual and an Holy Law because their whole Mind is set upon spiritual things or the things of the Spirit but for carnal Men or Men that are after the flesh their whole mind is upon fleshly or carnal things and accordingly as Mens minds are set if they have undertaken a feasible thing such will their attainments be They that are after the Flesh as all those are that are under the Law Rom. 7.5 When we were in the flesh the motions of sin which were by the law did work do mind the things of the Flesh * Cogitant desiderant curant sapiunt they savour and relish and give their mind to nothing but †Carnalia bona mundana honores opes c. Corpores Voluptates vel opera Carnis ad quae Concupiscencia Carnalis inclinat ut peccata omnia fleshly things they cannot freely lift up their Heart to God and heavenly or spiritual things but true Saints of God that have received the Spirit of Life which is in Christ Jesus have embraced Gospel-Principles with a Spirit of Faith and Love and so walk after the Spirit their mind is wholly or at least chiefly ser upon the things of the Spirit which I take in other words to signifie Matters of Religion And therefore since their minds are wholly set upon them no wonder they make great attainments in them so as to have the righteousness of the Law fulfilled in them For to be carnally minded is death Verse 6 but to be spiritually minded is life and peace For a Man to be carnally minded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the carnal mind or carnal mindedness or to be wholly set upon carnal things is a stare of Spiritual Death and will end if continued in in Eternal Death There can be no life in Religion where the mind is carnal and his tendency is altogether towards and his relish is only of carnal things But to be spiritually minded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the whole tendency of a Man indued with the Spirit and that hath heartily embraced Gospel-Principles is towards heavenly life and living unto God and as he hath a lively activity for God so his comforts accordingly grow upon him to be spiritually minded is not only full of life and activity for God but full of peace and comfort ordinarily Great peace have they that keep thy law and nothing shall offend them Psalm 119.165 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the law of God Verse 7 neither indeed can be It is no wonder that the carnal mind should have no activity for God and so consequently no peace whilest it is enmity against God yea neither is subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be Why what is this carnal mind Here I must make a grand Enquiry that we may find out if it so please God what this carnal mind is for if we know not the Subject spoken of we can never well understand what that is which is predicated or affirmed and asserted of it at least not the manner how it is affirmed of it For non entis nulla sunt attributa and non esse non apparere idem est What then is meant by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nay what is meant by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is but an accident or attrioute We may know what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is best by knowing what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Now in Verse 27 of this Chapter it is said God that searcheth the Hearts knoweth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what is the Mind of the Spirit when it maketh Intercessions for us within us and doubtless there the meaning is what the Spirit would have So here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is what the Flesh would have the relish savour or tendency of the Flesh What is this that is here called Flesh which hath in it such a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such a tendency such a relish such a savour as neither is nor can be subject to the Law of God Till this Question be well answered till this Enquiry be prudently and satisfactorily made I despair of ever giving a right Paraphrase or Interpretation of this Verse or any of the like nature Caro saith Vorstius
that is wholly addicted to and commanded by the lusts or desires of their flesh I take it to be all one with that Expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they that are after the flesh only there may be this little difference that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies the state and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies conversation as walking after the flesh or according to the motions and dictates of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Piscator and Beza say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so then or therefore but others sav 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is never taken for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and then it must be translated Now they that are in the flesh cannot please God and therefore the righteousness of the Law is not fulfilled in them This I take to be the most genuine Interpretation And this Verse is confessed to be the Conclusion of the whole Argumentation of the Verses foregoing But ye are not in the flesh but in the spirit if so be the spirit of God dwell in you Now the Apostle hath done with the Argumentation beginning from the first Verse which Argumentation I take to be directed against the state of the Man under convictions in the seventh Chapter And so speaks to his converted Romans Ye are not in the flesh but in the spirit with this caution If so be that the spirit of God dwell in you For every Man that hath received the Gospel sincerely and betaken himself to Christ and his Righteousness from the Condemnations and accidental Irritations of the Law hath the Spirit of God dwelling in him for the Gospel is the Ministration of the Spirit which the Law is not Gal. 3.2 This only would I learn of you Received ye the spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his Verse 9 This Expression you see is doubled and therefore needs the greater consideration and serious reflection of every Man upon himself to know his state by I cannot here stay to make discovery how a Man may come to know whether he hath the Spirit of God and of Christ which is much or all one and it is the less necessary for me to do it because the Apostle himself in several Verses following makes the discovery himself by several high and glorious effects of the Spirit 's inhabitation And if Christ be in you that is by his Spirit the body is dead because of sin Verse 10 but the spirit is life because of righteousness I fancy or apprehend this to be the meaning of these dark Expressions for which I shall seriously consult Expositors Dr. Hammond Pole and Marlorate and give any thing that I find in them which I think considerable But I presume first here to give my own thoughts for which I beg the Reader 's pardon If Christ be in you by his Spirit the body is dead because of sin that is your Flesh and Body by which you were heretofore strongly impelled and as it were forced on to the commission of all sorts of sin is dead * Piscator 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quod ad peccâ—tion scuratione peccati ne scilicet possit amplius nos impellere ad petulanter peccandum as to sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because of sin propter or secundum where I imagine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to have the force of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And this I am sure is less straining than to use 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Piscator and Beza do and our English Translators in the eighth Verse So then they c. Tho' Pole tells us from another Author Tolet that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as I take it is never so used But to make good this Exposition see how the sence seems to force it If Christ be in you the body is dead because of or as to sin That is the Flesh in its Lusts is mortified I am sure this is true Divinity But the spirit is life in the abstract or alive in the concrete that it may answer to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dead in the Antithesis in the words that is Whereas when you were without the Spirit of Christ the Flesh and the Body was alive and regnant and the Law of the Members warred against the Law of the Mind or Spirit and had the better of it and brought you into captivity to the Law of Sin which Law of Sin was in the Members in the Flesh and Body Now this Body this rampant Flesh unbridled Lust which had cast off the Bridle of the Spirit and the Law of the Mind and Conscience which ought to have ruled the Flesh this Body is dead not simply but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Body is dead in the matter of Sin so that you need not obey Sin in the lustings of the Body though the Body hath its desires still of eating and drinking c. yet it hath not those strong impetuous irregular desires that it had but is dead in a great measure because of Sin or as to Sin But the * Significat spiritum hominis tum ob Antithesin Corporis Spiritus tum extollat v. seq Animam five rationalem partem gratia Christi renovatam Estius ex Oecumen Cass spirit is life or greatly alive because of righteousness or as to the matter of Righteousness Now the Law of the Mind prevails over the Law of the Members you are alive to God and Righteousness and Holiness But if the spirit of him that is God the Father that raised up Christ from the dead Verse 11 dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your morted bâ—dies by his spirit that dwelleth in you Here I confess I have a peculiar Notion which I have been hammering at these thirty Years but I will assure thee Reader that it is honest and will lead thee into no dangerous Errour and therefore consider it If the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you That is in your mortal Body in which the Apostle forbids that Sin should reign Rom. 6.12 I say this mortal Body shall not only be dead as to the matter of Sin which is affirmed in the 10th Verse and is a great attainment by the Spirit of Christ's dwelling in us The World is well altered with such a Man that whereas his Flesh did rule and lead him captive to the Law of Sin now this Flesh and this mortal Body of his should be dead as to the matter of Sin this I say is a great attainment and a blessed alteration from his former state But this is not all no the chiefest thing is yet behind
flies from one Country to another with her Familiars and Enchantments and exerciseth such mad passions as I confess I cannot bear the Description of in reading them without a great discomposure of thoughts And where is then the Stoick or Peripatetick with their two distinct wayes But now when we come to Christ who hath satisfied the Law and leave our old Schoolmaster our old Husband as being dead in all its Condemnation by the Body of Christ crucified and do not so much as pretend to exact Obedience to the Law but yet honestly endeavour to give all due Conformity to its Precepts yet without the fear of being cast into Hell for every Failure serve Christ and God in him as an honest Son serveth his Father or an honest Servant his Master allowing ourselves no idle haunts no extravagant ouâ—lets of any kind enjoy the good things of this Life as other Men do but in moderation do the work of our Callings Trades Occupations Studies but without carking cares as being assured that if we be diligent God will provide and will let us want for nothing Here all is quiet we have or may and ought to have a sweet Calm nothing disturbs us If we walk according to this Rule To do all to the Glory of God and in dependance upon him giving Thanks for so great a Saviour peace shall be upon us as upon the whole Israel of God If we are guilty of Negligence we must presently go to God by Prayer confess our sins charge ourselves honestly severely bitterly according to the neglect but we must not despond but endeavour to double our Diligence and Watchfulness In this way God hath the true Glory of an hearty Obedience the Law of God is no whit dishonoured for we bid not the least defiance deny no Duty of Conformity to it but we are free from the danger of its Condemnation being secured by a Surety and Advocate Thus the Righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in us who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit And whilst we remain faithful to our God in this way of fincere constant uniform Obedience we have free Access to God as a Father If we presume to Sin wickedly against our God we must expect to be dealt with as Deserters and Apostates and though even some of those may possibly be renewed again unto and by repentance yet it is an evil and bitter state indeed and God alone knows when they shall recover their boldness and liberty of Access to God by a Spirit of Adoption And in this plain Account I hope is contained the true Moral Philosophy or rather Theosophy which we need all to learn and practise by And here I hope I may with very good pretence make an humble Address to the Reverend Heads of Colleges and learned Tutors in the Universities which I would do with the most submiss Deference to intreat them That in preparing Instructers of the People for the next Generation they would teach them the Truth as it is in Jesus and I would bespeak them in the words of the Apostle Paul Ephes 4.20 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where the Apostle is speaking of the evil state and conversation of the Gentiles But ye have not so learned Christ By learning Christ I doubt not is meant their learning the Doctrine of and concerning Christ as Scholars and Students learn Authors and study Philosophers Ver. 21. If so be that ye have heard him The Ephesians never heard Christ in person but they heard him preached And been taught by him or in him How could they be taught by Christ Only by his Word and by his Spirit And what were they taught by him The Answer follows As the truth is in Jesus This is the greatest thing that you Scholars are to learn and you are to teach I say not that it is the only thing But this is the true Philosophy without which all that they can learn is perfect folly Rom. 1.22 speaking professedly of the Philosophers I do not pretend to teach you but only humbly to mind you of that which you cannot but know I humbly beg you for God's sake for the Honour of our Lord Jesus and for the Interest of so many Souls as all Yourselves and present Pupils may be concerned with and for in Preaching and in the Press that you make a most accurate distinction betwixt Law and Gospel that Moses may not sit in our Saviour's Seat You see how the Law-Preachers among the Galatians blended the Law and Gospel together and thereby transferred their Auditors from him that had called them unto the Grace of Christ or in the Grace of Christ to another Gospel Gal. 1.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ver. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which is not another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 diversum non aliud There was but one Gospel and could be but one yet this might be so diversified by legal mixtures as to be called another Gospel And. I shall give no further proof of this at present than the foregoing Discourse which I have thought necessary or at least convenient to make in which I hope I have made it appear That the seventh Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans is not to be understood of St. Paul as in his regenerate Estate but as under legal Convictions or rather of a third person personated in the first which is so far from being rightly understood that perhaps the greater half of Divines understand it of St. Paul himself So subtile an evil is that of Legality or seeking to be justified by the Law that it cannot easily be understood in the clearest Gospel-light But Qui bene distinguit bene docet and if any Monopoly be fit to be claimed by an Academy I humbly conceive it is that of Distinctions Your Students are taught learned and polite Ethicks but if they be not taught how to avoid the Condemning Power of the Law by the Grace of the Gospel the Law will condemn them If they be not well warned of the enraging irritating force of the Law occasionally upon all their Lusts when they seek to be reformed by it alone that which was ordained unto Life will be found Death unto them and Sin taking occasion from the Commandment will work in them all manner of Concupiscence and Sin that it may appear Sin working Death in them by that which is good will by the Commandment become out of measure sinful Rom. 7.10.8.13 Here I have a very fair and just occasion to speak to those that I doubt will have little mind to hear or read what they should Use VI but if any such chance to read this Paper let them consider it If those that endeavour in some seriousness and earnest to reform themselves by the Law yet for want of understanding the Grace of Christ cannot attain unto true Holiness and Peace What Peace what Comfort belongs to those that heed not either the Precepts of
2d Chapter must be meant the Moral Law and this was all they could ever be alive or become dead to 'T is true the Jews might be said to become dead to the Ceremonial Law too by the Body of Christ crucified But this was as nothing to the Romans or mecr Gentiles To leave then this Argument from the persons to whom he wrote being Gentiles and to speak only to the nature of the thing in Rom. 7.5 It is said For when we were in the flesh the motions of sins which were by the law did work c. What motions of sins can we suppose to be wrought by the Ceremonial or Judicial Law more than as they commanded Duties but gave no strength to perform which is the cause why the Moral Law wrought the same Effect Doth there appear any peculiar reason for this Effect from either of these Laws which is not found in the Moral Law Or if there do how doth this affect the Romans that were never under them Again Verse 7. What shall we say then is the law sin God forbid nay I had not known sin but by the law for I had not known lust except the law had said Thou shalt not covet What Law saith this Why it is the Tenth Commandment of the Moral Law Therefore it is the Moral Law that is the first Husband spoken of Again Verse 8. But sin taking occasion by the commandment wrought in me all manner of concupiscence For without the law sin is dead Can all this be colourably said of the Ceremonial Law and not rather of the Moral Law As it forbids all Sin and commands all Duty and gives neither Strength nor Pardon Whereas the Ceremonial Law doth not command so much and yet gives some intimations of Pardon by the Sacrifices which it enjoys Verse 12. Wherefore the law is holy and the commandment holy and just and good I question whether this can be Scripturally and Theologically spoken of the Ceremonial Law which in a Sence is said not to be good Ezek. 20.25 Wherefore I gave them statutes that were not good and judgments whereby they should not live Dedi eis praecepta non bona id est Praecepta Ceremonialia saith Pole in Loc. Verse 14. For we know that the law is spiritual This is truly said of the Moral Law but it said of the Ceremonial Law that it was a carnal commandment Heb. 7.16 and Heb. 9 10. It is called carnal ordinances Rites or Ceremonies Again Verse 9. of Rom. 7. For I was alive without the law once Let us suppose for the present that the Apostle speaks properly in his own Name When was ever the Apostle alive without the Ceremonial or Moral Law who was bred up at the strictest rate under them both as a Pharisee The meaning therefore is he was alive without the Law that is before the Law came with its pressing Convictions and what shall we imagine that these Convictions were What That the Ceremonial Law came with its Convictions That he had neglected so many Washings and Sacrifices c. Who ever understood it so Is it not rather understood by all that the Moral Law came in upon his Conscience as a spiritual and Holy Law and the very Transcript of the Holiness of God and charged him with that as Sin which he never understood to be Sin before as he instanceth in Lust and Coveting and so made him appear guilty before the Holy God so as he could never hope to be accepted with God without Pardon and a Saviour And what other Law could this be which should be said to come thus but the Moral Law That which was ordained to be Life to Adam he found to be Death to him being once indeed and so often broken by his first Parents and by himself So by all these Texts out of the chief Chapter which I have in the foregoing Discourse been explaining I apprehend it is evident That the Apostle speaks chiefly if not only of the Moral Law Therefore the Moral Law was their Husband which 〈…〉 sake and to be married to another even Christ in order to Justification 〈…〉 we and all Men in the World for there is par ratio a like and 〈…〉 us If any shall doubt of the Evidence here given I queâ—â—â—â—◠〈…〉 by those several other places where the Apostle mannages the 〈…〉 the Subject of Justification by Faith A Second APPENDIX ANother of my worthy Friends to whom I communicated my Manuscript for his judgment of it questioned whether it could be made to appear that the Law did so much as accidentally enrage Lust and occasion greater sinning in those that seek to be justified by the Law and was inclined to think that the Law did only aggravate the guilt of any Sin and so wound the Conscience and that this should be all the meaning of those words When the commandment came sin revived and I died and the commandment which was ordained to life I found to be unto death Rom. 7.9 10. But I am still of opinion that there is and must needs be a farther sence in the words and that when a Man seeks to be justified by the Law which is a Distemper very incident to Humane Nature under divers shapes and forms and the most subtile and unaccountable Disease of Mankind the Law instead of justifying which it can by no means effect doth not only aggravate Sin and kill a Man as a Ministration of Condemnation but doth though accidentally yet certainly work in us all manner of Concupiscence and doth bring forth new Fruit unto Death as well as discover the old for which I think there are several very considerable Proofs in this seventh Chapter to the Romans and I shall take them as they lye in order Verse 5. When we were in the flesh the motions of sin which were by the law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death When we were in the flesh that is in a state of Unregeneracy and so under the Law had not betaken ourselves to Christ for an Husband the motions of sin did work This methinks cannot be understood of past-Past-sins that we were then convinced of them by the Law but they are Motions or Inclinations towards sinning so the Expression is continued they did work in ordine ad to bring forth fruit unto death That is towards new Commissions and these Motions of Sin are said to be by the Law How can this be interpreted of laying on guilt or charging us with guilt for Sins already committed So accordingly the Antithesis in the next Verse seems to carry it Verse 6. But now we are delivered from the law that did thus produce and not only discover Sin that being dead wherein we were held that is the Law that we should serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter or as it is in Verse 4. That we should bring forth fruit unto God This part of the Antithesis speaks clearly of
buried together with Christ or baptized to his Death that so we may live that regenerate new Life answerable to Christ's Resurrection which consists in a Course of all Sanctity a constant Christian Walk all our days This is enough for Explication Now the Argumentation of the Apostle seems to lye here A Christian by his Profession is not only dead to Sin but he is buried too and risen to a new Life and therefore 't is absurd and monstrous to see him live in any Sin as terrible monstrous absurd and intolerable as it were for us that have buried our Friends with all proper Solemnities to see them again come to our Houses and haunt us from Room to Room and appear to us where-ever we go or abide this were enough to frighten us out of our Life Even so monstrous and horrible a thing would it seem to us if we had the sence of spiritual things as we have of natural to see any Man that professeth himself a Christian to live in any known Sin But what an Age do we live in and how absurd I had almost said is this Doctrine now How strangely sounding in our Ears Where the Professor that endeavoars to live as one dead and buried unto Sin looks rather like a Spectre or Ghost than a Man that proclaims his Sin as Sodom But let us leave the Age and return to the Apostle and to the Rule For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death Verse 5 we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection Excellent Reason still and well recommended to our very fincy where the Apostle drop another Nemplior in his Allegorical Argumentation We have not only been buried in and raised our of the Water of Baptism which is a transiend way of being conformed to the death of Christ but we have been planted together with him in the likeness of his death which insinuates a permanent way of estating us in this Mortification and Vivification wherein we are to simbolize with or be made like unto Christ in a death unto Sin and a life unto Righteousness and under these Figures the reason of the thing is still illustrated and conâ—inued that it is our Duty by our Christian Profession to become utter strangers to all sin and very conversant in all the parts and exercises of an holy Life for it would be a strange thing that we should be only dead and buried with Christ and not live with him for so our Christian Religion and Profession would bring us to nothing we should only become dead and not live and then Religion doth nothing for us Therefore if we have been planted together in the likeness of his Death we shall be also in the I keness of his Besurrection which he brings in with as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is more emphaâ—ical than the word also and yet that is all that is put for it in the Translation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alone signifies also but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being a Discretive places more weight in that part of the sentence with which it is conjoined and is much of kin with the Expletive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Copulative 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that it is much as if it had been thus said For if we have been planted together with Christ in the likeness of his Death we shall then most certainly or much rather be in the likeness of his Resurrection But the Apostle hath not yet done with the Allegory but bestows new fresh and fragrant Flowers upon our crucified Lord Verse 6. Knowing this that our old man is or was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 crucified with him Verse 6 that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin This is a matter of knowledge if we know any thing of the mystery and meaning of the Gospel that when Christ was crucified and died for our sins he did not only die as a sacrifice for sin which was one principal end of his death but he did then seal the truth of the Gospel with his Blood the New Testament came to bear by the death of the Testator and there is this signification eminently in his death That whosoever should afterwards pretend to a benefit by his death which was chiefly for the expiation of sin should count himself indispensibly obliged never to indulge or allow himself in any sin which was the death of his Saviour as all sin was Let him that nameth the Name of Christ depart from iniquity 2 Cor. 5.14 1â— For the love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one died for all then were all dead They must reckon themselves as dying with Christ to sin when he died for sin Verse 15. And that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which died for them and rose again Which is a plain parallel Scripture to that before us In this Rom. 6.6 Knowing this that our old man was crucified with him I connot conceive how this our our old man that is out corrupt nature or humane nature as corrupt can be said properly to be crucified with Christ when he died any otherwise than by signification except it be by way of influence as his death confirmed the Gospel and the Gospel perswades and assists us to holiness as I have explained it Our old man that is those corrupt Affections and Inclinations which we had in us before conversion were crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed which is much the same with with our old Man's being crucified for our old Man was consistent of a Body with all its Limbs and Members that belong to a Body and this must now be destroyed to the intent that we should not henceforth serve sin For he that is dead is freed from sin Verse 7 The Apostle loves the figurative way of Argumentation which indeed is very acceptable and pleasant If a Man be dead he is justly freed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from whatsoever old Master he had Before we were converted to Christ we lived in sin and served sin as a Master but when we are joined to Christ by Repentance and Faith we are crucified dead and buried as to sin sin can claim no right to our service and we profess in Baptism to be baptized into this death and by our conformity to Christ to have been crucified dead and buried with him Now if we be dead with Christ Verse 8 we believe that we shall also live with him because we are also planted with him in the likeness of his Resurrection Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead Verse 9 dieth no more death hath no more dominion over him So if you be raised with Christ as you are representatively or significatively in Baptisin therefore as you have died unto sin so you must die no more for the next
death would be a death unto righteousness unto which you were raised and this death must never be So it follows For in that he died Verse 10 he died unto sin once The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 semel duntaxat only once or once for all he dieth no more but in that he liveth or whatsoever he liveth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he liveth unto God his whole life is consecrated to God and so must yours be and you are no further Christians than you thus do So it follows Likewise reckon ye also your selves to be dead indeed unto sin Verse 11 but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. I know no difficulty in the words but that they may easily be understood by what hath been spoken before only I observe in the words Likewise reckon your selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the great thing that we have to do is to keep the account clear to consider what is the consequence of our Christian Profession if we be wise and pertinent and serious therein we must count it our indispensible Duty to shew a true conformity to the Death Burial and Resurrection of Christ by our being as crucified dead and buried to all sin and alive unto God in all that we live I shall only give a parallel place both for matter and form unto the tenth Verse with this difference that one place speaks of our Saviour the other of St. Paul but each express a Crucifixion Death and Resurrection or living unto God and so pass to the twelfth Verse In the tenth Verse of this Chapter it is thus expressed in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The parallel place is Gal. 2.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am crucified with Christ yet I live no longer I but Christ liveth in me and the life that I now live or what I live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God The other is Christ died to sin once but now what he liveth he liveth unto God Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body Verse 12 The Apostle having hitherto shewn doctrinally the absurdity of that Question in the first Verse Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound from our professed state of Death to Sin declared in Baptism and from our necessary conformity to Christ comes in this Verse as partly in the eleventh to make the Application by way of Exhortation Likewise reckon ye also yourselves And here let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body Here I take the word body not to be the same with the word body in the sixth Verse Our old man was crucified with Christ that the body of sin might be destroyed for there body is called the body of sin but in this Verse sin and body are distinguished one from the other as two different things and separable one from the other whereas in that phrase the body of sin sin cannot be separated from the body for take away sin from the body of sin and there will be no body left for the body of sin is made up of sin in all its variety but we may at least in conception separate sin from our mortal body for the same body in Adam that after he had sinned became mortal was actually without sin before he had sinned therefore it may at least be conceived without sin whereas the body of sin cannot be conceived without sin But this Criticism will more visibly appear if you observe the words of the Text in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which is being exactly interpreted to be read thus Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body that you should obey sin it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the lusts of the body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An English Reader cannot make the distinction which is very apparent in the Greek For he is apt to take it thus Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body that you should obey it that is sin in the lusts thereof that is in the lusts of sin but it is not so but quite otherwise in the Greek in the lusts thereof that is of the body I shall endeavour to explain the matter thus for it is not a meer Nicety but the Observation or Criticism carries a great deal of useful sence in it We are all of us here in this World in a mortal body Whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell God knoweth saith St. Poul 2 Cor. 12.2 I say we are all in a mortal body and this body of ours hath several appetites or designs as eating and drinking c. these designs are called lustings or lusts according to the old English Now the Apostle's advice is that sin reign not in our mortal bodies In the body of sin which is to be destroyed and crucified with Christ there is nothing else but sin reigning sin this therefore must be destroyed but it is no duty but a great sin for us to destroy and kill our mortal body we must nourish it and cherish it in a moderate way only we must have a care that sin reign not in these mortal bodies so as to obey sin in gratifying to excess the innocent lustings or desires of our body The thirteenth Verse illustrates and strengthens this sence that I have given of the twelfth Neither yield ye your members that is the limbs of your mortal body Verse 13 your hands and feet your eyes and ears and tongue Instruments Margin Arms or Weapons of unrighteousness unto sin In this Verse are two Captains Kings Generals or Masters God and Sin You must not yield your members or limbs as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin If by the members here were meant the members of the body of sin it were no good sence to say yield not your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin for how can it be that the members of the body should not yield to the use and service of the body which is only unrighteousness in the body of sin But by our members here is understood the limbs and members of our natural or mortal body Now I shall recite the whole Verse Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin Verse 13 do not obey sin in gratifying the desires of the body but yield your selves unto God as those that are alive from the dead that is from death in sin and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God Use your bodies and every limb and faculty of them to the glory of God whose you are and whom you ought to glorifie with your bodies and spirits which are his For sin shall not have dominion over you Above Verse twelve Verse 14 he had exhorted and cautioned them that sin might not have dominion over them Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body Here he either promises or at least foretells them that it shall not reign for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
Sufferings and teacheth us not only to call them but account them light it teacheth us to live by Faith and Hope it teacheth us lastly fully to acquiesce in the holy Will good Will and Favour of God as unconquerable and invulnerable and makes us to tryumph in God and in our Lord Jesus as inseparable from his Love by all that can befal us here and so makes us the glory of Christ here by bearing and doing all for him which must needs end in being glorified with him in the Heavens The Words which I thought fit to transcribe out of Dr. Hammond's Commentary upon this Subject you may find at the Letter d on the seventh Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans I had not known sin Dr. Hammond Rom. 7.7 It is an ordinary figure saith the Doctor to speak of other Men in the first Person but most frequently in blaming or noting any fault in others for then by the putting it in this disguise fastning it on one's own person it is more likely to be well taken by them to whom it belongs So saith St. Chrysostom of this Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when he mentions things that are any way grievous or likely to be ill taken he doth it in his own person And St. Hierem on Daniel Peccata populi enumerat Persona sua quod Apostolum in Epistola ad Romanoâ— facere legimus Confessing the Sins of the People be doth it in his own person which we read practiced by the Apostle in the Epistle to the Romans that is most probably in this place Thus the same Apostle 1 Cor. 6.12 All things are lawful to me but all things are not expedient that is those things which are by you look'd on as indifferent if they be yielded to may be very hurtful in you And 1 Cor. 13.2 If I have all Faith and have not Charity that is if you want Charity to your other Gifts So Gal. 2.18 If what I have destroyed I build the same again I make myself a transgressor that is whosever doth so or whensoever ye do so it must needs be a fault in you Thus Rom. 3.7 If the truth of God hath more abounded by my lie unto his glory why am I also judged as a sinner Which words are certainly the personating of an impious Objector which speaks or disputes thus not of the Apostle himself And the same Scheme or Fashion of Speech or Writing is very frequent among all Authors Secondly By the severals affirmed in this Chapter which cannot belong to St. Paul it appears that St. Paul did not speak these things of himself For that Paul was at the writing of this a reformed regenerate person there is no doubt but if we compare the severals which are here mentioned with the parts of a regenerate Man's Character given by the same Apostle in other places we shall find them quite contrary Here in the eighth Verse he saith That sin had wrought in him all manner of concupiscence whereas of the regenerate Man it is affirmed Gal. 5.24 they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts Here in the ninth Verse it is said sin revived and I died whereas of the regenerate Man it is said Chap. 6.2 How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein Here in the fourteenth Verse it is said I am carnal whereas of the regenerate Man it is affirmed Chap. 8.1 that he walketh not after the flesh but after the spirit Here again in that fourteenth Verse 't is said I am sold under sin whereas of the regenerate 't is affirmed Chap. 6.18 that be becomes free from sin and becomes the se vant of righteousness Here Verse 20. Sin dwelleth in me and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 accomplisheth worketh that which I will not like not with my mind and conscience And so 't is said Ver. 23 24. That the law of the members carries him into captivity to the law of sin and who shall deliver him from this body of death And so that he is under the power of the law of sin and death that he obeys the law of sin Ver. 25. Whereas Chap. 8.2 of the regenerate 't is affirmed That the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made him free from the law of sin and death Nothing can be more contrary and irreconcilable to a regenerate state in these so many particulars than what is here affirmed of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I he person here represented And indeed unless sinning against Conscience be the only way of alleviating and not aggravating sin it is impossible that the doing that ill he would not the not doing the good he would Ver. 19 20. can be deemed a fit Ingredient in the Character of a regenerate Man 'T is certain this was in the Person of Meâ—ea made by the Heathens the highest pitch of Villany to see and like that which was good and to do the direct contrary and therefore cannot in any reason be thought to be the Apostle's description of a regenerate Man a good Christian I add much less of himself And now methinks these Lines that I have quoted and transcribed out of Dr. Hammond are so grave learn'd and wise that I look upon what I have written as trifliâ—g in comparison with them which in two or three Pages contain in a manner the substance of all that I have written Yet I am not utterly discouraged from making it publick because that may please and convince one that may not have the same influence on another And what I have written I hope I have done in the fear of God and with true zeal for the good of Souls and there is certainly an Use of various ways of Expressing and Arguing for the Information of various Capacities I come now therefore to my promised Work of going through the several Verses of the eighth Chapter for that in that Chapter what follows in several Verses is a mighty confirmation of what hath been delivered and a great improvement of the Discourse by several gradations shewing how the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus sers a Man still more and more at liberty from the Law of Sin and Death and leads him up to his high places as Habakkuk's phrase is Hab. 3.9 The Lord God is my strength and be will make my feet like hind's feet and he will make me to walk upon my high places Proverbs 15.24 The way of life is above to the wise to deliver from hell beneath And indeed till a Man be enlightned in the Gospel and lifted up by the Spirit of God as it were to walk over other Mens heads he is as nothing in the World 1 Cor. 2.19 The spiritual man judgeth all things yet he himself is judged of no man For they that are after the flesh Rom. 8.5 do mind the things of the flesh but they that are after the spirit the things of the spirit The Apostle
est Vitiositas nativa seu peccatum Originis a quo nihil boni cogitari praestari potest and this Mr. Pole in his Synopsis leaves for the meaning of it Now this I cannot acquiesce in as a full description of the Subject Flesh here spoken of there is something of the truth in it but it is not satisfactory That it cannot be meant of sinful flesh or a principle or root in us that unavoidably carries sin in it or produceth sin seems apparent to me from the Expression of the Apostle in the latter end of this Verse The carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can be The Apostle makes a great assertion That the carnal mind is enmity against God then he gives a reason Because it is not subject to the Law of God and then follows this reason with an high proof or aggravation which makes the reason very full and evident That it is not only actually not subject but incapable of becoming subject 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither indeed can be Now to me it would be no wonder no high discovery at all to say That a sinful nature cannot be subject to the holy Law for every body knows that that which hath sin necessarily in it cannot be subject to that which is holy for there is a perfect contradiction in one to the other But now if there be such a thing which by nature is indifferent to sin or not to sin but by accidental circumstances becomes sinful and whil'st it is under those accidents and circumstances cannot but be a sinning Principle and productive of variety of sins to assert concerning his that whil'st under these circumstances it cannot be subject to the Law of God This may be a great discovery and worth our best and strictest notice and observation Now such a thing I take the flesh and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be in this Discourse of the Apostle's We know that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 flesh and spirit are the two contradistinct and constituent parts of Man Tee spirit is willing but the flesh is weak Matth. 26.41 Sometimes there are three parts made of a Man Body Soul and Spirit Corpus Arima which make Animals and Spirit which make a Man which is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Thess 5.23 Now there was a time when Flesh and Spirit did sweetly agree in the Service of God and the Flesh was without sin But since Adam fell there was a sad divorce made between the Flesh and the Spirit of a Man and every sinner and unregenerate person adheres to his fleshly part with the neglect of the Soul and Spirit or Mind and Conscience and is led by the inclinations and tendencies of the Flesh and so the Flesh in them is deserted of its Guide the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it hath lost its Bridle and now the Flesh gives the denomination to a carnal Man Nay the Flesh that is as destitute of its Guide which ought to be the Spirit of a Man enlightned and assisted by the Spirit of God is called by the name of a sinning Principle and partly in the Saints themselves for that none of them is perfect So you have it Gal. 5.17 The flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these two are contrary the one to another so that ye cannot do the things that ye would Now Men that are wholly unregenerate are wholly under the command of their fleshly inclinations and they follow the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which the Flesh dictates and commands and this is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be that is whil'st they remain carnal till they have received the Gospel they are in the flesh and walk after the flesh Nay there is a further piece of mystery in this matter that whereas the Flesh according to the order of Nature and institution of God in our first Creation ought to be influenced and guided and ruled by the Spirit in carnal Men the Flesh influenceth and infecteth their very Mind and Conscience which is the only Fort and Garrison that God holdeth in a wicked Man Therefore we hear of a fleshly Mind Col. 2.18 And there even their Minds and Consciences are defiled Tit. 1.15 So that the sence of this seventh Verse seems now somewhat clear to me wherein the Apostle proves what he had asserted in the sixth That to be carnally minded is death namely because it is enmity against God and is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be And therefore what wonder is it that it brings on a spiritual Death whereas on the contrary to be spiritually minded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Life and Peace When a Man hath entertained the Gospel and therewithal received the Spirit of God into his Heart he is alive to God and full of Peace and Joy I might add one thing more which may possibly elucidate this matter and that is this The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the tendency and strong bent of the Flesh or the Flesh itself deserted of the Spirit of a Man and of God is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be because the Flesh is not the immediate Subject of Religion any more than a Brute is the brute Animals are not under any Rule of Religion the Body is but the Soul's Jumentum its inferiour Associate it is not capable of seeing any Beauty or goodness in Religion but when the Mind is convinced and brought over to God the Flesh may and will joyn with the Soul its ancient Friend and Guide even in all its faculties and appetites so long as it is well watcht and guided and prudently provided for accordingly the Apostle adviseth his good holy sanctified Believers Rom. 6.12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body or flesh that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that ye should obey it that is Sin in the lusts or desires of it that is the mortal Body as I have discoursed at large in the sixth Chapter The Paraphrase therefore of this Verse is this The carnal Mind or rather the tendency and humor or mind of the Flesh deserted of the conduct of the Spirit hath set up an interest against God Thence we have it in Greek Latin and English 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Virtutem aspernantes and unbridled Lusts Effraenes cupiditates and is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be Rebus sic stantibus till the Bridle Fraenum that it hath lost be super-induced It is like a mad Horse snuffing up the Wind and taking its Course whither it pleaseth and lusteth So then Verse 8 they that are in the flesh cannot please God No wonder then that they that are in the flesh cannot please God This Inference will be easily admitted They that are in the flesh
the Flesh shall not only not be a clog to the Spirit but it shall be a meet-help it shall not only be dead as to Sin but it shall be quickned up into the Service of the Spirit the Flesh of the Saints in their mortal Body before they have died and past through the Grave shall be brought by the indwelling of the Spirit to an usefulness in the Service of God * Piscator in Polc Certurn est hic non agi de Resurrectione Corporâ—m Calvin Non de ultima Resurrectione hic loquitur sed de continua Spiritus Operatione qua Reliquias Carnis paulatim mortificans Coelestem Vitam in whis instaurat ibid. He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal body while it is mortal it may die and must die By the spirit that dwelleth in you which I take to be an Expression signifying our present State here after Conversion and not a Glorified Estate in Heaven for though the Saints in Heaven shall not be void of the Spirit of God there as we may conceive yet I take it this Phrase by his spirit which dwelleth in you signifies the State of this Life and that whilst we live here and have the Spirit of God and of Christ dwelling in us Our mortal Bodies which are yet only wortalia and not Mortua 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall be quickned into the service of our Spirit which was the design of God in his Creating Man before thâ— rebellion of the Flesh happened and our Spirits led by the Spirit of God So then we shall Eat and Drink to the Glory of God we shall Marry in the Lord 1 Cor. 7.39 Servants shall serve their Master as serving the Lord Christ Col. 3.24 And so I might instance in all the particular actions relating to the Body and the Animal Life If they are Musical they will not endure wanton Songs their very Musick shall be Innocent which is now so much devoted to the Devil to Bacchus and Veaus and Mars the Heathen Deities Therefore brethren we are debtors Verse 12 Now the Apostle comes to make some Application or practical Reflections upon this mysterious and sinewy Discourse we are debtors You see we are all obliged and that greatly we are not our own Men all Men are Debrors engaged one way or another Verse 13 But what are we Christians Debtors to not to the flesh to live after the flesh For if ye live after the flesh ye shall dye but if ye through the spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live The Spirit of God and of Christ dwells in every Saint and we are to make use of the Assistances of the Spirit dwelling in us to mortifie the Deeds and Affections of the Body so far as the Body was engaged in Sin and captivated â—o the Law of Sin Gal. 5.24 They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts and therefore no Doubt also in his deeds Col. 3.9 For as many as are led by the spirit of God Verse 14 they are the sous of God The Apostle still grows in his Sence as the Rule is in Oratory Cresâ—at Oratio The Apostle had before affirmed that if any Man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his and then he tells us That where the Spirit of Christ is the Body is dead because of Sin or as to the matter of Sin and the Spirit is alive as to the matter of Righteousness and that the very mortal Body shall be quickened as I take it in this Life to the Service of the Spirit that is of our natural Spirit and Conscience not excluding but highly including the Spirit of God And now that we shall find our whole selves Debtors or owing ourselves not to the flesh any longer than it must be to the Spirit and in this 14 Verse That we are led by the Spirit go ten under the conduct of it that we are safe indeed unless we wickedly depart from such a Guide And now he takes one step further that by that time we are come thus far we are gotten under a Spirit of Adoption And here I take it the Apostle hath much done with the Discourse of Holiness and Sanctification as brought about by the Gospel and so proceeds to other priviledges which a Saint enjoys and arrives at which I am willing to prosecute to the end of this Chapter for it is a rich Mine and a most luscious Discourse The Lord grant that I may beable to proceed in it more than Notionally and Speculatively that I may have the true enjoyment of these Discourses by being able to apply every thing to my own Soul for my comfort and elevation of Heart in the wayes of God as having a particular Interest and Concern in these Mysteries But before I go any further on in the following Verses I must endeavour to perform my Promise of giving what I find in Hammend Pole and Marlorat considerable and different from my apprehensions here signified upon the 10 and 11 Verses But ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit if so be the Spirit of God dwell in you Verse 9 Now if any man have not the Spirit of God he is none of his Paraphrase But ye Christians under the Gospel if ye have any of that Spiritual Divine Temper Dr. Hammond upon the 9 Ver. hath these words which Christ came to infuse by his Doctrine and Example are thereby engaged to all manner of sincere inward Purity to mortify the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts and if you do not so you live not according to the Gospel and if not so ye may know that you are not Christians Christ will not own you for his however ye have received the Faith and are admitted into the Number And if Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin but the spirit is life Verse 10 because of righteousness Paraphrase But if ye be Christians indeed translated and raised above the pretensions of the Jew to the purity of the Gospel of Christ and your Lives be answerable thereto then though being Sinners the punishment of Sin that is Death befall you and so your bodies dye and return to Dust which is the punishment of Sin yet your Souls shall live for ever an happy and a blessed Life as the reward of your return to Christ in the sincerity of a new and righteous Life to which the Evangelical Justification belongs But if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you Verse 11 he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by the spirit that dwelleth in you Paraphrase And then even for your dead Bodies they shall not finally perish neither they shall be sure to be raised again for the Spirit of God by which ye are to be guided and led is that Divine Omnipotent Spirit that