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he was left by the Law under the power of the corruption of his nature:

BUT Christians, by the grace of the Spirit of God afforded in the Gospel, are delivered from the reigning power of sin in the members:

THEREFORE Christians are enabled to fulfil the righteousness of the Law, and to please God; and consequently are bound so to do.

THE opening of the Chapter shews it to be a conclusion drawn from what went before:

viii. 1. δεν αρα νυν κατακριμα, &c.

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

Now, therefore, i. e. since the supplies of grace alluded to in ver. 25, of the preceding Chapter, there is no condemnation from God to those that are in Christ Jesus; none previous to baptism, the free-gift of Justification having precluded that; none subsequent to baptism, if only

they be careful to walk, not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. And this, the Apostle means to say, is a thing now no longer impossible :

viii. 2. ó

γαρ νομος το πνευματος, &c.

"For the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus, hath made me free from the law of sin and death :"

That is, the grace of God's Holy Spirit under the Gospel, which is a principle of holiness inhabiting and actuating the Christian man, has enabled us effectually to resist and overcome that force of corrupt nature which enslaved the Jew:

viii. 3. το γαρ αδυνατον το νόμs, &c.

"For what the Law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh; God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:"

i. e. what the Law could never effect, because its force was eluded and defeated by the corruption of nature; that God has effected through the

atonement wrought by the death of his Son, and the consequent sending of the Spirit of his Son into your hearts; (compare Gal. iv. 4, 5, 6.) he has quelled our sinful propensities, and destroyed the reigning power of sin in the members.

MARK now the obligation hence arising to

κατέκρινε την ἁμαρτίαν εν τη σαρκι· κατακρινειν dicitur pro interficere, sicut Karakρμа pro morte; quia damnati interfici solent: interfecit vero, i. e. interficiendi nobis vires præstitit: interficere est efficientiam adimere. Grot.

Simplicissimus itaque loci sensus, hic est: lex nullo modo potuit carnales hominum affectus reprimere, aut a vi ac tyrannide peccati inhabitantis ipsos liberare, atque ad veram justitiam perducere. Hoc præstare potuit, ac revera præstitit, solus Dei Filius; qui non solum merito mortis suæ mortem æternam peccatis nostris debitam a nobis abstulit, sed et ejusdem mortis vi atque efficacia effecit, ut nos ipsi peccato moreremur, ac Deo veræque justitiæ viveremus; vel, ut mox sequitur, v. 4. ut justitia legis impleretur in nobis.

Bp. Bull, Harm. Apost. Diss. 2. cap. 9. § 2.

This interpretation of Grotius and Bp. Bull, is sufficiently confirmed by the evident relation which Kareкpive in ver. 3. has to karakρiμa in ver. 1. The condemnation is taken off from the sinner, and is laid upon Sin; that Person, which was said vii. 13. to be exceeding sinful; and which, vii. 17. is represented as the real author of the sinner's evil deeds. Now as death is properly and intimately connected with judicial con

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Christian holiness; for the very end and purpose for which this grace was given, was this;

viii. 4. ίνα το δικαίωμα το νόμs πληρωθῇ, &c.

"That the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."

THE Jews under the Law were unable to please God, because they were in the flesh, i. e. subject to the power of the corruption of nature, and destitute of the necessary assistance of Divine grace; (see verses 5, 6, 7, 8.) but you Christians are not in that predicament:

viii. 9. ύμεις δε εκ ετε εν σαρκι, &c.

"But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit; if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his :"

demnation; (see v. 12. 16, 17.) Sin, which, as a Person, is condemned in the flesh; is rightly interpreted to be the same with sin killed in the flesh, or the reigning power of sin in the members destroyed.

YE are no longer left in the corruption of your nature, but are sanctified by the Spirit: if at least the Spirit of God be an inhabitant in you: I speak thus doubtingly, as of a thing which may possibly be otherwise; because it is possible that some of you, by the sinful lives you have led since your baptism, may have compelled that Holy Spirit to desert the temple of your body: but, however, of this be assured, that the having, or not having, of the Spirit of Christ is a matter of the very highest conséquence; for if any one have not the Spirit of Christ inhabiting in him, he does not, in fact, belong to Christ, nor will ultimately derive any benefit from him:

viii. 10. ει δε Χρισος εν ύμιν, &c.

"And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness:" *

"And

* I take the general meaning of this 10th verse :—el de Χρισος εν ύμιν, το μεν σωμα νεκρον δὲ ἁμαρτιαν· το δε πνευμα ζωη δια dikaιoovýηy; to be the same with that of Gal. v. 24. they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts." The words may be rendered, “But if Christ

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