married to him, and are one with him in his resurrection. Christ is now their lawful husband according to the clear illustration employed by the Apostle respecting the institution of marriage, so that, though now married to him, no fault can be found in respect to their original connexion with their first husband, which has been dissolved by death. To believers this is a most consoling truth. They are as completely and as blamelessly free from the covenant of the law as if they had never been under it. Thus the Apostle fully explains here what he had briefly announced in the 14th verse of the preceding chapter, "ye are not under the law, but under grace." From the covenant of Adam or of works, believers have been transferred to the covenant of Christ or of grace. I will "give thee for a covenant of the people"—all the redeemed people of God.

Before the coming of Christ, those who relied on the promise concerning him, likewise partook of all the blessings of the marriage union with him, and were, therefore, admitted to heavenly glory, though as to their title to it not "made perfect" (Heb. xii. 23) till he died under the law, and put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Till that period there was in the Jewish ceremonial law a perpetual recognition of sin, and of a future expiation which had not been made while that economy subsisted. It was, so to speak, the bond of acknowledgment for the debt yet unpaidthe handwriting of ordinances which Jesus Christ, in paying the debt, cancelled and tore asunder, "nailing it to his cross," Col. ii. 14, as a trophy of the victory he had accomplished.

Christ, then, is the husband of the church; and un

der this figure his marriage relation to his people is very frequently referred to in Scripture. Thus it was exhibited in the marriage of our first parents. In the same way it is represented in the book of Psalms, and the Song of Solomon, and in the New Testament, where Christ is so often spoken of under the character of " the bridegroom," and where the church is called "the bride, the Lamb's wife." What ignorance, then, does it argue in some to deny the inspiration and authenticity of the Song of Solomon, because of the use of this figure.*

But though believers, in virtue of their marriage with Christ, are no longer under the law in respect to its power to award life or death, they are, as the Apostle says, 1 Cor. ix. 21, "Not without law to God, but under law to Christ." They receive it from his hand as the rule of their duty, and are taught by his grace to love and delight in it; and being delivered from its curse, they are engaged by the strongest additional motives to yield to it obedience. He hath made it the inviolable law of his kingdom. When Luther discovered the distinction between the law as a covenant and as a rule, it gave such relief to his mind, that he considered himself as at the gate of paradise.

That we should bring forth fruit unto God.-One of the great ends of marriage was to people the world, and the end of the marriage of believers to Christ is

* On the genuineness and authenticity of the Song of Solomon, see the author's work on "The Books of the Old and New Testament proved to be canonical, and their Verbal Inspiration maintained and established; with an Account of the introduction and character of the Apocrypha." Fourth edition, enlarged, 3s. 6d. And also his Work of Evidences, &c., vol. i. p. 164. Third edition.

that they may bring forth fruit to God, John, xv. 4–8. From this it is evident that no work is recognized as fruit unto God before union with Christ. All works that appear to be good previous to this union with Christ, are "dead works," proceeding from self-love, self-gratification, pride, self-righteousness, or other such motives. "They that are in the flesh cannot please God." "The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." We can never look upon the law with a friendly eye, till we see it disarmed of the sting of death; and never can bear fruit unto God, nor delight in the law as a rule, till we are freed from it as a covenant, and are thus dead unto sin. How important, then, is the injunction" Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin,-and this applies equally to the law, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord," chap. vi. 11.

What

"It is impossible," says Luther, "for a man to be a Christian without having Christ, and if he has Christ, he has at the same time all that is in Christ. gives peace to the conscience is, that by faith our sins are no more ours, but Christ's, upon whom God has laid them all; and that, on the other hand, all Christ's righteousness is ours, to whom God hath given it. Christ lays his hand upon us, and we are healed. He casts his mantle upon us, and we are clothed; for he is the glorious Saviour, blessed for ever. Many wish to do good works before their sins are forgiven them, whilst it is indispensible that our sins be pardoned before good works can be done; for good works must be done with a joyful heart, and a good conscience toward God, that is, with remission of sins."

V. 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.

When we were in the flesh, that is, in our natural state. The flesh here means the corrupt state of nature, not "the subjects of God's temporal kingdom," as paraphrased by Dr Macknight, to which many of those whom the Apostle was addressing never belonged. Flesh is often opposed to spirit which indicates that new and holy nature communicated by the Spirit of God in the new birth. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit," John, iii. 6. In these words our Lord points out the necessity of regeneration, in order to our becoming subjects of his spiritual kingdom. The nature of man since the fall, when left to itself, possesses no renovating principle of holiness, but is essentially corrupt and entirely depraved. On this account, the word flesh here signifies man in his ruined condition, or that state of total corruption in which all the children of Adam are born. On the other hand, the word spirit has acquired the meaning of a holy and divine principle, or a new nature, because it comes not from man, but from God, who communicates it by the living and permanent influence of his Holy Spirit. Hence the Apostle Peter, in addressing believers, speaks of them as " partakers of the divine nature."

The motions of sins, or affections or feelings of sins. When the Apostle and the believers at Rome were in the flesh, the desires or affections forbidden by the law forcibly operated in all the faculties of their depraved nature, subjecting them to death by its sentence. Dr Macknight and Mr Stuart translate this our "sinful

passions." But this has the appearance of asserting that the evil passions of our nature have their origin in the law. The Apostle does not mean what, in English, is understood by the passions, but the working of the passions. Which were by the law, rather through the law. Dr Macknight translates the original thus, "which we had under the law." But the meaning is not which we had under the law, but that were through the law. The motions of sin, or those sinful thoughts or desires, on our knowing that the things desired are forbidden, are called into action through the law. That it is thus natural to the corrupt mind to desire what is forbidden is a fact attested by experience, and is here the clear testimony of Scripture. With the philosophy of the question we have nothing to do. Why, or how this should be is a question we are not called to resolve. Thus, the law as a covenant of works not only cannot produce fruits of righteousness in those who are under it, but excites in them the motions of sin, bringing forth fruit unto death. Did work in our members.-The sinful desires of the mind actuate the members of the body, to gratify them, in a manner adapted to different occasions and constitutions. Members appear to be mentioned here rather than body, to denote that sin, by the impulse of their various evil desires, employs as its slaves all the different members of the body. To bring forth fruit unto death.—In the same way as bringing forth fruit unto God is spoken of in the 4th verse, so here the Apostle speaks of bringing forth fruit unto death, that is, doing works which issue in death. parent of the works. parents of the works.

Death is not viewed as the It is the desires that are the

This is contrasted with fruit