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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
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
forth this Mystery How the Law through the corruption of our Nature is accidentally a great provoker to and stirrer up of Sin which I express thus When any Man goes on in his natural Course and lives the common Life of Men in his worldly Occasions and worldly Delights he may go on very smoothly and be all alive I was alive without the law once and well pleased with his Condition especially if the World smiles upon him before he begins to think of another Life and another World and a Day of Judgment when he shall be called to account for all the Irregularities and for all his Talents of Parts and Strength and Wealth and Opportunities of Glorifying God in the World But when he begins seriously to think and consider that he is a sinner that he is under a Law to God in every thing that he doth and speaks and thinks that he must give an Account for every thing that he enjoys or hath the use of and begins to be sensible that he is guilty of many Sins by way of omission and commission and that every Sin deserves Hell lays him under Wrath and an Eternal Curse then here comes the Law in its Convictions chargeth him with Guilt in one Action and another and above all with a Corrupt Nature that is the Scource and Fountain of every Irregularity and Transgression and bids him observe well and do all things that are written and recorded as his Duty and tells him he is damn'd if he do not and tells him he is under a Sentence of Condemnation for every Sin he hath committed for this is the proper Office of the Law to every sinner for it is not to be avoided but that it should be the Duty of every rational Creature Man or Angel to do his Creator's Will and to avoid the doing of every thing that is contrary thereunto and when he hath offended he falls under his Maker's displeasure But this Men do not think upon till Conscience begins to work And this I take to be the Law 's coming to a Man When the commandment came saith the Apostle Verse 9 Verse 9. sin revived and I died I was alive without the law once but when First a Man finds himself lost undone condemned and the Law strictly as a Law having no Pardon nor Mercy nor Hope in it for a poor sinner occasions all his Lusts for which it condemns him to rise up in rebellion against that Law which only forbids and condemns Sin but shews no way to get from under the guilt or power of it A Coward they say when made desperate grows many times very valiant And this is all the way I can conceive of how that the Law that is holy and just and good can work in a Man all manner of Concupiscence It first discovers these to be in the Soul condemns the Soul for them makes him desperate under the Conviction and by occasion enrageth Lust and indeed the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I say the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated occasion signifies impetus aggressio materia occasio opportunitas and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies proficiscor cum impeta quodam an impetuous violent Attempt which is here made by a sinner upon occasion of the Conviction which the Law as doing its proper Office works upon the Conscience So that you see how the Law as an Husband certainly produceth Sin in a sinful Man not directly but accidentally it works all manner of Concupiscence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it doth it effectually though accidentally and occasionally for without the Law saith the Apostle Sin is dead but the Law quickens it not only in its appearing Guilt but in its filthy Life-vigour and Predominancy I was alive without the Law once but as soon as ever the Law came Sin revived and I died I was not only dead in Law but alive in Sin Then it follows Verse 10. And the commandment which was ordained to life Verse 10 I found to be unto death The words are in the Greek thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the Commandment unto Life the same was found to me or by me to death The Holy Law of God which was our Natural Husband in an Estate of Innocency and would have conducted us in all good ways to the pleasing of God and perhaps after some time of probation which the good Angels had would have fixed us in a state of Eternal Life and Blessedness as they are now fixed without any need of pardon This Commandment which in the Ordination of God was intended unto Life and could be intended by him to no other purpose and therefore our Translators add these words was ordained in a smaller Character this Commandment ordained unto Life I found to be unto Death that Law which would have saved innocent Adam killed me a sinful Son of Adam It killed me two several ways it discovered me to be under a Sentence of Death already and it enraged my Lusts and wrought in me all manner of Concupiscence and now every Lust enlivened was a new Death so that the Law killed me a thousand times over Verse 11. The Apostle repeating much the same words that he had spoken in Verse 8. as 't is his usual course in all his Argumentations to inculcate Verse 11 For sin taking occasion by tâ—â— commandment deceived me and by it slew me What greater deceit could there possibly be put upon a Man than to bring Death upon him by that which was professedly by the great God of Heaven ordained to be put unto Life What greater deceit than to make a Man a thousand times more a sinner than ever he would have been else by that which is holy just and good and the very transcript of the Holiness of God And yet this cheat Sin puts upon every Man by the Law when a Man struggles with the Law alone being under conviction of â—in from it it must needs be a killing deceit that Sin puts upon a Man in such a case and the Law deservedly called a Killing Letter and a Ministration of Death and Condemnation 2 Cor. 3.6 7 9. Wherefore the Law is holy Ver. 12 13. and the commandment holy and just and good Was that then which is good made death to me God forbid See here the accuteness of the Apostle Paul and his great curiosity and niceness and subtilty in distinguishing If I may so express my self concerning an Author which I acknowledge with all sincerity to be divinely inspired But yet there is so much of the Man appears innocently in his Writings as it may be truly said his Writings do redolere or sapere genium scribentis And perhaps it may be said so of divers of the Penmen of Holy Writ Isaiah the Courtier Amos the Herdsman and Daniel the Statesman c. without any dishonour offered to the Divine Spirit that yet held the Pen of the Amanuenses I say observe here our Doctor subtilis in his distinguishing He
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
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
conclude that not only all these things mentioned but all other things whatsoever do work together for good to them that love God The whole Creation groans for their Deliverance they Groan within themselves for their glorious State and the Spirit helps them in their Groanings and to further Groanings in Prayer beyond all Words and Expressions even to meanings which God knows and God alone and they shall all be answered in full Returns not a Sigh or a Groan lost sent out from them that love God from them that are effectually called according to his purpose For I question not but all things are done according to purpose which lies hid as I may humbly say in the breast of God According to the purpose of Eternal Ages as the Phrase is Eph. 3.11 Which he made or purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Then it follows as it were occasionally from this Expression called according to his purpose Ver. 29. For whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son Verse 29 that he might be the first-born amongst many brethren Moreover whom he did predestinate them he also called and whem he called Verse 30 them he also justified and whom he justified them he also glorified The Purpose of God is so strongly made that it goes thorough and thorough with the whole train of Successive glorious Effects and this demonstrates a Wonderful Co-operation for good to those that love God to those that are called according to his Purpose Onely I must here honestly offer my Apprehensions in this most profound-Matter for I would deal honestly with all the World and especially with the Church of God And my chief Observation upon this Golden Chain as it is well called is this That the first Link of the Chain which is fastened to the Mercy-seat and all the World can never loose it thence is fore-knowledge whom he did fore-know which I humbly conceive is meant of God's fore-sight * Quos praescivit nempe tales per ductum Gratiae suae consensum liberae Voluntatis futuros bene victuros vel Gratiae oblatae assensuros vel credituros in fide perseveraturos Sic exponunt Chrysost Theodoret. Hieronymus c. Pole in loc The English is this Whom he did fore-know viz. that they would be such through the conduct of Grace and the consent of their own Free-will as would live well assent to Grace offered would believe and persevere in Faith what Men would do placed under such and such circumstances and thereupon did predestinate call justifie and glorifie in his eternal and irrefragable Purpose And so I dismiss the great Subject of these two Verses only I shall remark upon the 29th Verse Whom he did fore-know he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son that he might be the first-born amongst many brethren That though Men have a true liberty of will in their choice of and adhering unto Christ yet God did not leave the whole issue and success of things to the liberty of Men but fore-seeing what Men would do purposed and decreed to do more for them infinitely than they could themselves do in carrying on the work of Grace in them so that Christ should not be an Head without a Body and a First-born without Brethren but the First-born amongst many Brethren And this fore-knowledge of God what Men would do in believing and returning to God is as easie for us to conceive of as it is how God should foresee that Adam would certainly fall when it was in his power to have stood and yet this certain fore-knowledge of God must be allowed in a matter perfectly free for ought that we know or else the purpose of sending Christ as a Saviour which was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 could never have been made by the All-wise Jehovah What shall we say then Verse 31 if God be for us who can be against us As much as to say The whole matter of our salvation is a certain well-laid inexpugnable thing if we are but once brought over to God if we are once well convinced of sin by the Law and see our need of Christ if Christ become precious to us and our only deliverer if we are by him freed from the Curse and Condemnation of the Law and have the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus setting us free from the Law of Sin and Death if we have the impossible thing of the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wrought in us that is if we are enabled to walk after the Spirit and no longer after the Flesh if we have been taught to mortifie the Deeds of the Body and so come to be led by the Spirit to call God Father by a Spirit of Adoption are content to suffer with Christ to long for his presence and groan after it we need not question but all things shall work together for our good we shall find ourselves effectually called and therefore elected Make your calling and election sure 2 Pet. 1.10 We have no other way to know our Election but by our Calling and then and not till then can we take comfort in the Doctrine of Election namely when we may have ground to hope that the golden Chain hath fastened upon us and if so what can harm us if God be for us who can be against us unless they can be too hard for God Now from hence the Apostle runs on with a clear and triumphant Argumentation Verse 32. He that spared not his own Son Verse 32 but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things This is the clearest Argument in the World we have no reason to doubt of the good will of God for our final salvation and therefore present happiness for he that gives us the greatest gift he could give will never deny us the small matters of the World if they be good for us This Argument is like that of our Saviour's He that gave us Life will give us Food he that gave us Body will give us Rayment a majori ad minus Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect It is God that justifies Verse 33 And if we be interested in election by effectual calling who shall lay any thing to our charge in judgment when he that is to be our judge and whose approbation alone justifies will justifie us Who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died and so took off our condemnation Verse 34 by suffering the penalty of out sin and he that died is not dead yea rather that is risen again who is ever at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us The Spirit in us and for us here on Earth and Christ for us in Heaven What abundant Consolation is here He that died for us on Earth to free us from Death and Hell is ascended to Heaven and there maketh intercession for us
the Law or the Promises of the Gospel What though they call themselves Churchmen and Sons of the Church What if they be of separate Assemblies if they walk not after the Spirit but after the Flesh they are the Devil's Slaves and Firebrands of Hell There is no peace saith my God to the wicked Isai 48.22 Without holiness no man shall see the Lord Holiness is the true end of all Religion we must attain unto Holiness or we can never please God in any Religion that we profess Cease to do evil learn to do well put away the evil of your doings Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow though they be red like crimson they shall be as wool Esai 1.16 17 18. There is no communion with God no Fellowship or Converse with or Approach unto God for all these I take to be understood by Reasoning together without washing and cleansing ourselves Before this in the 11 12 13 14 15 Verses God renounceth all Acceptance of any thing they did in Religion To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me c. saith the Lord. Men may use some kind of honest Endeavours after Holiness and fail of attaining what they seek after Thus the Apostle witnesses of the Jews Rom. 9.31 But Israel which followed after the law of righteousness hath not attained to the law of righteousness Verse 32. Wherefore because they sought it not by faith but as it were by the works of the law Now for these the Aposile had a great deal of Pitty and Commiseration as you may see Rom. 9.1 2 3. I say the truth in Christ I lye not my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren my kinsmen according to the flesh who are Israelites c. And so Rom. 10.1 2 3. Brethren my hearts desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God but not according to the knowledge For they being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God Now I have made these two last Quotations to prove That Men may in some sort and way have a great Zeal and Endeavour to please God and to be the Favorites of Heaven and yet lose their labour What shall become then of those that take no pains in Religion at all and indeed do not truly endeavour to become universally Holy but please themselves with some poor low ends in their Profession short of this only worthy design I shall conclude this Application with those words of the Apostle in Rom. 6.21 22. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed What real Profit or what real Comfort had ye in those sinful Pleasures and wicked Courses wherein once in the State of Unregeneracy ye indulged yourselves Wicked Men of the World take a great deal of pains to get Profits and Pleasures and Honours and what doth it afford them What comfort have they of it at the very time upon a sober Review and Consideration The Answer is None at all and besides now ye are ashamed of what ye then did then it was no matter of Comfort and now 't is a matter of Shame But what follows Ver. 22. But now being made free from sin Who is free from sin Answer Every Saint of God is free from Sin in the Apostle's sence not in the sence of a quarrelsome Scholastick and become servants to God you have your fruit unto holiness That is a present rich Fruit indeed that by turning to God and exercising ourselves unto Righteousness we attain unto an Holy Frame and Temper and Readiness to every good Work And the end everlasting Life The Law teacheth Holiness and the Gospel effects it and though some may lose their labour that are at some pains in Religion for want of diligent Enquiry after the right way as the Jews did and all that seek to be justified and sanctified by the Law will do yet they that are at no pains at all in Religion are sure to tumble into Hell Strive to enter in at the strait gate sa it our Saviour for many I say unto you shall seek to enter in but shall not be able Luke 13.21 If seeking will not do but we must also strive to enter what will become of those that do not so much as seek And now I would end this Subject Use VII Of Consolation which is grown under my hand to double the largeness that I intended it with a Use of Consolation to all the true Saints of God Are there any as I hope there are many that have been duly convinced of Sin how great an Evil it is how it hath dishonoured God and defiled and debased their Nature and Noble Soul which is God's Off-spring and endangered their sinking under the Divine Displeasure to Eternity and especially of the great Sin of not believing in Christ but rather seeking to be justified by the Works of the Law have they at last found themselves killed by the Law with a Thousand Deaths and been driven to flee from the Wrath that is certainly to come unto the Hope that is set before them in the Gospel Have they been couvinced of Righteousness because Christ is gone to the Father and we are to see him no more till his second coming and from hence conclude that he hath brought about Everlasting Righteousness by his Death for else how could he upon whom his Father laid the Iniquities of us all and did while he was punishing him upon the Cross as it were forsake him be admitted again into his Father's presence as an Advocate for us Have they been convinced of Judgment as knowing that because Christ hath died and is again gone to the Father that therefore the Prince of this World the Devil is judged and condemned and shall be cast out of his Tyranny over Men all Men that betake themselves to Christ the Captain of their Salvation who by Death destroyed him that had the power of Death that is the Devil that he might deliver them who through fear of death are all their life-time subject to bondage Heb. 2.14 15. And so have they betaken themselves to Christ as their Head and Husband and only Saviour that he may be made of God unto them Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption Why unto you is the Word of this Salvation sent You are the blessed of the Lord and ye shall be blessed and the Gates of Hell shall never prevail against you You are called to resist the Devil to fight against Principalities and Powers and the Rulers of the Darkness of this World and against Spiritual Wickedness in high places
Ephes 6.10 11 12. And for this end you have a Suit of Spiritual Armour the Armour of God on the Right-hand and on the left from Head to Foot and ye shall be made more than Conquerors through him that hath loved you to the Death of the Cross Rejoyce in the Lord always and again I say rejoyce Read the eighth Chapter to the Romans and take Courage and Everlasting Consolation All things are made sure for your good and interest Be but faithful to God and never fear his Grace to you Sing your Triumphant Songs the Song of Moses and the Lamb both Law and Gospel shall comfort you If God be for us who can be against us He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things We are the circumcision that worship God in the spirit and rejoyce in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh Phil. 3.3 I will lead you to one rich Walk where you may expatiate and deliciate your holy Souls For I speak here to none but those that are sanctified and effectually called It is Gal. 3.1 2 3 to the 7th inclusive Now I say that the heir as long as he is a child differeth nothing from a servant though he be lord of all but is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father even so we when we were children were in bondage under the elements of the world but when the fulness of the time was come God sent forth his Son made of a woman made under the law to redeem them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons Under the times and dispensations of the Old Testament till the coming of Christ in the flesh the People of God even the true Saints of God were like Children though great Heirs kept at School bred up at a distance from their Father's House in a state of darkness fear and bondage knew little of their Priviledges and Inheritance tho' they were saved by Faith and had the Gospel preached to them in an obscure way yet it lookt all like Law till Christ the Eternal Son of God was made of a Woman and made under the Law they also were as it were under the Law But now in the days of the Gospel especially since the Ascension of Christ and his Mission of the Spirit the Dispensation is quite altered and they are like Heirs called home to the possession of their Inheritance to live like those that are Lords of all Now they are endued with a Spirit of Adoption by which they come to know themselves Sons and Daughters unto God Almighty Verse 6. And because ye are sons God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba Father Abba Syriack 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greek for Father That is Father in all Languages to Saints of all Nations Verse 8. Wherefore thou art no more a servant but a son and if a son then an heir of God through Christ. In the days of the Gospel heavenly things are brought down to us in the greatest plainness so that a truly holy Soul may converse and treat with them with great freedom Ephes 2.5 6. In two Verses you have three of the greatest Priviledges expressed that the mind of Man can possibly conceive We are said there to be quickned together with Christ to be raised up together and made sit together in heavenly places with him Can there be a nearer approach of an Heir to his heavenly Inheritance Col. 2.20 If therefore ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world why as though living in the world are ye subject to ordinances Col. 3.1 If ye be therefore risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right-hand of God Verse 3. For ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God We must live as those that live in Heaven with Christ Phil. 3.20 For our conversation is in heaven 1 Cor. 3.3 Are ye not carnal and walk as men Saints should not live like other Men no not like Men You are Sons and Heirs and have liberty to call God Father Our Lord hath taught us to begin our Prayers to God with this rich and high Appellation of Our Father Endeavour therefore but to live like Children of God and you may with holy boldness call God Father and if you can look up to God as your Father you highly dishonour him and disparage yourselves to doubt or fear of what may betide you from Men or Devils all your life long Therefore I say it to all the Saints of God and I humbly beg of God that I may ever attend the Exhortation Endeavour to walk worthy of God unto all pleasing keep your Watch strictly over your Hearts and Ways and go on your Way rejoycing through Thick and Thin through Fire and Water through Troops and Armies of Men and Devils the World is conquered for you Devils and Principalities are triumphed over your own innate and inbred Lusts shall not be too strong for you if you still by the Spirit faithfully endeavour to mortifie the Deeds of the Body Heaven stands open to you Mansions are prepared Angels are ready for your safe Convoy Die you must but Death hath lost its Sting and there is no greater Friend than Death itself next to a Holy Life for Death is also Yours and that is the Porter that lets you into your Resting-place The Law cannot condemn you and the Gospel will save you AN APPENDIX THat the assertion of the Apostle in Rom. 7.9 When the commandment came sin reviv'd and I died is plainly meant of the Moral Law I shall now endeavour to make appear For this I reckon there are several proofs in this 7th Chapter to the Romans First if we consider to whom this Epistle was written it was to the Romans who were certainly as much Gentiles as Jews and more Rom. 11.13 The Apostle tells them I speak to you Gentiles forasmuch as I am the Apostle of the Gentiles I magnifie mine office Now to these he saith Rom. 7.4 Wherefore my brethren ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ that ye should be married to another even to him that is raised from the dead c. How could they become dead to the Law that were never alive to it or to whom the Law was never alive For the Law was never alive to them except the Moral Law written in the Heart They were never under the Ceremonial Law but under the Moral Law they were born Rom. 2.14 For the Gentiles which have not the law do by nature the things contained in the law these having not the law are a law unto themselves Verse 15. Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts c. The Ceremonial Law was not written in the Heart of Man Therefore here by Law viz. in the
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-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
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-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