are to be conceived as two Queen-Regents to one of which every Man and Woman in the World is a Subject and all their Limbs Senses and Faculties of their Bodies and Souls are made Servants to do their Work Now the Work which Uncleanness or Iniquity enjoyns is Iniquity the Work which Righteousness enjoyns is Holiness Therefore says the Apostle with great accuracy as you have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity the Queen or Tyrant rather unto iniquity the Work or rather Drudgery of Uncleanness and Iniquity even so now yield your members servants to righteousness the Queen-Regent in and of your Souls unto holiness the Work of Righteousness This is all I can observe in the difference of to and unto For when ye were the servants of sin Verse 20 ye were free from or free to righteousness That is Righteousness had no command over you What fruit had ye then of those things whereof ye are now ashamed Verse 21 The Apostle now having as it were done with the Description of their Relations of Servants and Mistresses Queen and Subject Services and Works he concludes the Chapter and the whole Discourse with an Account of the Wages paid by each Mistress each Queen to their several Servants What fruit had ye then of these things whereof ye are now ashamed for the end of these things is death That is of those things or services which ye performed or perpetrated to that tyrant sin But now being made free from sin Verse 22 and become the servants of righteousness ye have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life For the wages of sin is death Verse 23 but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. In this Verse the Apostle makes a manifest distinction betwixt the reward of Sin and the reward of Righteousness and Holiness The reward of Sin is in the nature of a due Debt as a Soldier 's Wages are a due Debt Death Temporal Spiritual and Eternal are the bitter Fruit and due Merit of Sin but Eternal Life though it be due to Saints by promise yet not by any desert of theirs it is the free gracious gift of God he gave us a Saviour to redeem us he gave us the Doctrine of the Gospel Faith and Repentance are the gifts of God and every Grace in us is not only gratum faciens but gratis data that which makes us acceptable but freely given us through Jesus Christ our Lord. And now having gone through the Chapter I think fit to re-capitulate a little and make a few Reflections upon what hath been said and so come to the main Chapter And now that we have seen the Doctrine of Universal Holiness so recommended unto us by our very Profession of being Christians that by our Baptism and necessary conformity to Christ in his Death and Burial and Resurection we are perfectly obliged to become dead to every Sin and alive to every Holy Action and Opportunity of bringing Glory to God when we are exhorted to reckon our selves dead unto Sin and alive unto God when we are charged that Sin must not reign in our mortal Body and assured that it shall not for this very reason because we are not under the Law but under Grace and at last told in plain terms that if it be eventually otherwise with us that if we do obey Sin we are the Servants of Sin and that unto Death besides all the rest that follows wherein we are particularly directed not only how to imploy our Minds and Affections but every Member of our Bodies in the Service of God being again and again said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 made Freemen from Sin and entered intirely into the Service of Righteousness If I say after all this it may be truly said of the same persons that they are sold under Sin and carnal persons that they do in a general way things that they hate which Slaves indeed do and cannot do otherwise that they cannot find the way or obtain so much of themselves after all the change of state which they have past under as to perform that which is good I despair of understanding the meaning of any words that I shall ever hereafter meet with But yet I do not doubt to make it appear to any unprejudiced Reader in explaining the next Chapter that these Expressions are not spoken of the same Persons that are spoken to in this fixth Chapter which I here dismiss ROMANS Chap. VII KNow ye not Brethren for I speak to them that know the law how that the law hath dominion over a man so long as he liveth or so long as he liveth that is the Law liveth Verse 1 or as Dr. Hammond saith the Law of Man hath power or force as long as he liveth For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband Verse 2 so long as he liveth but if the husband be dead she is loosed from the law of her husband So then if while her husband liveth she be married to another man Verse 3 she shall be called an adulteress but if her husband be dead she is free from that law so that she is no adulteress though she be married to another man In these three Verses you have the common Case stated betwixt an Husband and Wife to which the Apostle by and by by way of similitude doth accommodate the State and and Case of every true converted Christian the Wife is to keep herself intirely for her husband so long as he liveth but if her Husband be dead she is free to marry whom she pleaseth Wherefore my brethren ye also are become dead to the law That is Verse 4 the Law is become dead to you by the Body of Christ So saith Dr. Hammond upon the place at the first Verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You are put to death to the Law must be interpreted as a figurative Speech the Law is put to death to you The Soul of every Christian is the Wife the Law was her first Husband Christ is the second Husband While the Law was alive it had the power over the Soul as over a Wife but the Law being put to death that is in its Condemning Power by the Suffering of Christ and the Satisfaction that he made to it by enduring the Penalty of it for every Believer every Man is free from the Power of the Law that chuseth to betake himself to Christ as an Husband and to take him for his Lord and Saviour The Verse at large is thus Wherefore my brethren ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ Verse 4 that ye should be married to another even to him who is raised from the dead that we should bring forth fruit unto God The Apostle would not say the Law is dead to you for that had been an invidious Expression amongst the Jews at Rome to say that the Law was dead and therefore he
necessarily dependant and consequent upon Faith and Grace as Justification it self is In the seventh Chapter after the Apostle had setled the matter of Sanctification in the sixth as indispensibly necessary and naturally flowing from the Doctrine of Grace and Justification by Faith he is pleased according to the Wisdom given to him to bring in an Instance of an Ineffectual Attempt towards Sanctification by a Man under Convictions from the Law as he had before shewn at large the folly of the Jews and Judaizing Christians in seeking Justification by the Law and indeed he words the matter in a way of personation in his own person whereupon several have mistaken the Apostle's design thinking that he spake all those things of himself after he was converted and in an estate of Regeneration whereas it is very clear to me and indeed I find to many learned and godly Men that the Apostle is only in his own Person personating a Man that is not truly converted but strugling with his Corruptions in his own strength being terrified by the Law which only convinceth of Sin and is a ministration of Condemnation and so no wonder that he is so overcome and brought into Bondage as he acknowledgeth himself to be in that Chapter But this I speak here but precariously till I shall afterwards have made it to appear In the eighth Chapter the Apostle after he had set forth the convinced Person in such a struggle with his Corruptions in his own Strength the Law affording him neither Strength nor Hope after he had set him forth as overcome and captivated and brought into desperation he gives him a glimpse of Christ gives him a Plank after his Shipwreck and in the very latter end of the seventh and beginning of the eighth Chapter brings him off clear from those Rocks and Shelves upon which he had been in utmost danger of perishing Which is all I shall say by way of Introduction and Analysis Sanctification by Faith VINDICATED IN A DISCOURSE ON THE Seventh Chapter of the Epistle OF St. PAVL to the ROMANS c. ROMANS Chap. VI. WHat shall we say then shall we continue in sin that grace may abound God forbid Verse 1 The Apostle had in the former Chapter made it his Design from the twelfth Verse to the end to shew that though the World had suffered much by the first Adam by whom Sin came into the World yet through the Grace of God the World that is especially those of it that receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness Verse 17. receive far more advantage by the second Adam than ever they had lost by the first Verse 18. Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation even so by the righteousness of one the free-free-gift came upon all men unto justification of life Verse 20. Moreover the law entred that the offence might abound but where sin abounded grace did much more abound Verse 21. That as sin hath reigned unto death even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord And with these words in triumph concludes his Discourse of Justification by Faith and Grace Upon which the Apostle starts a thought that might enter into the heart of a foolish person What shall we say then shall we continue in sin that grace may abound This the Apostle answers with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 6.2 God forbid We have three such Questions together within the compass of six Verses in the third Chapter of this Epistle which the Apostle rejects with an abhorrency Rom. 3.3 What if some did not believe shall their unbelief make the faith or faithfulness of God without effect God forbid Verse 5. If our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God what shall we say then Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance God forbid Verse 7. If the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory why yet am I also judged as a sinner A foolish way of freeing himself from judgment Nay it seems the People were so used in the Apostle's days to these Paralogisms and foolish Ratiocinations that they presumed to affix them even upon the Apostles themselves Verse 8. And not as we be slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say Let us do evil that good may come whose damnation is just To return therefore to our sixth Chapter Verse 1 Verse 1. What shall we say then shall we continue in sin that grace may abound Since God hath made Grace to abound much more than Sin where-ever Sin hath abounded shall we resolve to continue in Sin that so God may continue to make his Gâ—â—â—e to abound towards us God forbid saith the Apostle God may for once having made Man a free Agent though holy as nothing else could come out of God's hand after his voluntary Defection and wicked Rebellion give him a Saviour and send us a second Adam the Lord from Heaven that should do us infinitely more good than ever the first earthly Adam d d us hurt but if we abuse his Grace and turn it into Wantonness the Grace will cease and only prove a greater aggravation of our Sin and Judgment But let us follow the Apostle's argumentation How shall we Verse 2 that are dead to sin live any longer therein This second Question strikes the first Question dead and is a full Answer to it How can Men that are dead to any thing live any longer in it or unto that to which they are dead It is a perfect contradiction to their being dead to it to live in it This is a Paraphrase and Comment enough for the second Verse Know ye not Verse 3 that so many as were or are baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death This is a full Argument again by way of Question for the proof of the Assertion uttered by way of Question in the second Verse viz. That all Saints as such are dead to sin for that when they were baptized into Christ they were baptized into his Death and so are by profession dead to Sin This is more fully exprest in the next Verse Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death Verse 4 that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life Here iâ— a plain Allusion made to the ancient way of Baptizing which was by dipping under Water called here burying and rising or being raised up I shall give this Explication in the Words of Dr. Hammond upon the Text the third and fourth Verses 'T is a thing saith he that every Christian knows that the Innersion in Baptism refers to the Death of Christ the putting the Person baptized into the Water denotes and proclaims the Death and Burial of Christ and signifies our undertaking in Baptism that we will give over all the Sins of our former Lives which is our being
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
sinning more than ever whereas the Man that having been stung with the law terrified in his conscience with the thunderings and lightnings of Mount Sinai hath heard of Christ and grace mercy and pardon on him and rich assistance from him to do all that is well-pleasing to God and hath thereupon fled to Christ and put himself under the conduct of grace to be led by the spirit and to walk in the spirit he is not under the dominion of sin he sees no reason to commit iniquity but infinite reason to the contrary he feels the influence of all the Apostle's arguments he is dead to sin he hath been buried in baptism and risen with Christ in that ordinance he looks upon his old Man as crucified with Christ he would have the body of sin utterly destroyed he will serve sin no longer but as Christ ever lives to God so would he he resolves in the strength of God sin shall not reign in his mortal body but he will yield up all his limbs and members and senses and faculties of body and soul unto God Sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the law but under grace I think I have spoken or written that which may suffice for this Subject in this place if I should enlarge further upon it here I shall prevent my self in what I am to speak again in the seventh Chapter What then shall we continue in sin because we are not under the law but under grace Verse 15 God forbid Here we may refresh our selves a little to observe the folly of Men in their foolish arguings they will draw poison out of an antidote that which is the greatest enemy in the world to sin shall be made the patron of sin even the grace of God they will turn the grace of God into lasciviousness and receive not only the grace of God in vain but to wicked purposes this the Apostle therefore rejects with a great abhorrence God forbid and though he had in the first Verse treated the same persons after his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a train of Insinuations and gentle yet powerful Arguments which I have largely paraphrased on yet now when he meets with the same perverse humour the second time he corrects it with a severe and tart check and threatning withal Know ye not that to whom ye yield your selves servants to obey Verse 16 his servants ye are to whom ye obey whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness As much as if he had said If all the Arguments I have used hitherto will not prevail with you to become holy then take only this one more He to whom ye yield your obedience his servants ye are and he will pay you your wages If ye yield your obedience to sin ye are the servants of sin and the wages of sin is death whether the servants of sin unto death or the servants of obedience unto righteousness The Apostle would not dandle them any longer nor dally as it were with pleasing insinuations but tell them whereto they must trust if they would not follow the conduct of the Spirit and go the way that grace led them But yet in the next Verse as if this tender Father that was always so full of bowels had been a little too sharp and severe in his Reprimand Verse 16. in 17. he falls to comforting them again with a God be thanked on their behalf But God be thanked that ye were the servants of sin Verse 17 but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine into which ye were delivered That is God be thanked that though ye were the servants of sin once yet now ye have obeyed c. For it is no matter of thanksgiving to God by it self that they were the servants of sin but the supply of the Ellipsis is very obvious Though they had been so yet now they had obeyed from the heart that form of Doctrine This is the proper matter of thanksgiving that they had obeyed from the heart supple 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they had submitted so entirely and from the heart to the Doctrine of the Gospel as if they had suffered themselves to be melted down by it and cast into the form or mould of the Doctrine of the Gospel as so much Lead or Gold cast into a Mould Metaphora est a Typis vel Auri-fabrorum vel Typographorum saith Pool in Loc. Being then made free from sin ye became the servants of righteousness Verse 18 Ye were the servants of sin but have now obeyed c. being then made free from sin by dying to it For he that is dead is freed from sin Verse 7. Ye became the servants of righteousness Every Man in the World is in the Apostle's language and sence either free from sin and the servant of righteousness or free from righteousness as the Phrase is Verse 20. and the servant of sin I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh Verse 19 for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity even so now yield your members servants of righteousness unto holiness The Apostle in this Verse doubles and trebles what he had said that so they might be sure and not fail to take it in and by such Metaphors of Service and Liberty as were easie to be understood these were such things as they might understand and that practically and experimentally too in their own Hearts and Practice A good Argument is never too often urged till it be answered or admitted a good Lesson is never too often repeated till it be learnt and indeed the Apostle seems to be willing to sum up what he had said throughout the Chapter because he was to take leave of the Subject As ye have therefore yielded your members Instruments it was Ver. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness What is the difference here betwixt to and unto to iniquity unto iniquity to righteousness unto holiness Why the Apostle is very nice and curious and critical many times in his Expressions And the Holy Ghost is pleased often to condescend in the Scripture to observe the Rules of Elegancy and Exactness which Men delight in I could give in my little Observation many Inslances of this the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 12.3 not to be made appear in our Translation may be one Another may be that of the Order observed in the 22 Parts of the 119th Psalm that every Octonary shall begin with the same Letter and every Part begin with the Letter of the Alphabet next succeeding in order to that which went before The like is to be observed in the third Chapter of the Lamentations so here in this Verse Rom. 6.19 to and unto twice applied Iniquity and Righteousness