has brought; a wretched family: a name of reproach a ruined fortune: a broken constitution. These earthly consequences of sin are the earnest (so to speak) now given, to testify the will of God, and prove the nature of his government. For these effects of sin are his appointment: he has so ordered the world, that ungodliness has no promise in the present life, any more than in that which is to come. But the sure and settled wages of sin, is death, eternal death; all that Scripture comprises in that term; all that is included in the sentence, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." "Cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness, where is weeping and gnashing of teeth."

From the service of sin, and therefore from death, the wages of that service, these Roman Christians had been delivered. Now being made free from sin, and become servants of God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. For as the wages of sin is death; so, on the other hand, the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The cases, we observe, are not the same. Death is the wages of sin: that which it has deserved or procured. Everlasting life can never be wages; for man can never earn or merit it: but it is the gift of God: the free gift of God, reserved in heaven for those, who, "being justified by faith, have peace with Him, through Jesus Christ;" and "who, by patient continuance in well-doing, seek for glory, and honour, and immortality." For them God has prepared a gift, beyond what we can either desire or deserve; even life eternal.

The argument of the chapter is, that there are two opposite services, and two different masters, to one of which every individual must be engaged. Every one must be either yielding to the dominion of sin, or desiring to serve God and righteousness.

This does not imply, that a man may have made a settled agreement to serve sin, or entered into a regular compact with Satan. No one must feel satisfied with his state, merely because this cannot be charged against him. We too naturally slide into that service; and the danger is lest we go unthinking on till escape is hopeless, and then vainly wish that we had served God as faithfully as we have been serving sin. Sin is our natural master: the burthen lies on us, to show that we have been delivered from it; just as one who has been born a slave must show the tokens of his freedom.

Now the Christian bears about him such a token. He has been baptized into Jesus Christ, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth he might not serve sin. Let him be careful to show that sin has not retained its power, and kept dominion over him. We know how diligently a slave who has been once set free, preserves the certificate of his freedom. So must we all carry the evidence about us, that we continue stedfast in the covenant by which we are bound and can exhibit not the christian name alone, but the christian faith and practice. We must keep so far from the opposite service, that all may see to which master we are engaged. All who know us should know us to be God's servants; who reverence his name; who keep his Sabbaths holy; who love the Book in which his commands are written; who

honour his people; who labour to promote his cause, and bring others over to his service; whose desire is, that "God in all things may be glorified," and Jesus Christ become the universal lord.

1

So living, ye have fruit unto holiness: and "blessed is that servant, whom his lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing. Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods." "An entrance shall be ministered unto him abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."2

LECTURE XIX.

THE CHRISTIAN DISCIPLES NOT SUBJECT TO THE LAW OF MOSES.

ROMANS Vii. 1—13.

1. Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?

2. For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.

3. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, 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.

1 Matt. xxiv. 45.

22 Pet. ii. 11.

4. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; 1 that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

This relates to the change which had now taken place in the state of the Jewish people, which the apostle compares to the change which death makes in the state of married persons. The law given by Moses had bound them under obligations like those to which a woman is bound so long as her husband liveth. So long, but no longer. And now the law had ceased to exist, and therefore they were loosed from the law. It was to last but for a time; till he came for whom it prepared the way: till he came of whom its ordinances were a type and shadow. And so, by the body of Christ crucified, and fulfilling the law, the law had, as it were, expired, and they were free from it. They were dead to the law: like a woman who is dead to her first vows, they have no more power over her; neither had their former obligations to the law any more power over the Jewish people; still less over the Jewish converts; who were married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that they should bring forth fruit unto God.

It had not been always so. They had not always brought forth fruit unto God.

5. For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.

1 By all that which Christ did and suffered for us in the body. Stafford.

6. But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.

The motions of sin, which were by the law, the passions which the law condemned, and showed to be sinful these kept us in a miserable state: the law commanded, and gave no power; and the fruits we brought forth, were not "fruits of the Spirit," but of the flesh.

That

The Gospel delivers from this bondage. which held us, is as it were dead, and can enthral us no longer so that being freed from the letter of the law, we serve God in newness of spirit, not as slaves but as children. For "the letter killeth." The strict exactness of the law must bring condemnation with it. "But the Spirit giveth life." Warmed and animated by filial love, we present ourselves, our souls and bodies, in free and reasonable obedience to his will. This was Paul's own feeling, as appears throughout his epistles. He "lived no longer to himself, but to him who died for him."s

Still he was by birth a Jew, and many of those to whom he wrote had the sentiments of Jews. Moreover "the law came by Moses," and was the law of God. He must guard against misconception.

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.

Do I then seem to be disparaging the law, and to speak slightly of it? This is far from my intention.

? So Chrysostom: who supplies φανερούμενα, νωρισμενα. 3 2 Cor. v. 14.