18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. Natural men have no principle in them that disposes them to anything that is good. They have no higher principle in their hearts than self-love. And herein they do not excel the devils. The devils love themselves, and love their own happiness, and are afraid of their own misery. And they go no further. The devils would be as religious as the best of natural men, if they were in the same circumstances.-Pres. Edwards. To will perfect obedience to all God's laws was present with Paul; but not to do it. He would be free from every infirmity, but could not. But he never saith, that he would obey sincerely, and could not; or that he would live without heinous sin, and could not. Indeed, in his flesh he saith there dwelleth no good thing;' but that denieth not his spiritual power. Thousands are deceived about their state, by taking every ineffectual desire and wish, and every striving before they sin, to be a mark of saving grace.-Baxter. 19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. 20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. This inward conflict between opposing principles constitutes the very distinction between the regenerate and the unregenerate, and forms part of the recorded experience of the most advanced, and elevated, and spirituallyminded believers. Freedom from this conflict is not to be expected here by any child of God.-Dr. Wardlaw. I sin; I repent of my sins, and sin in my repentance. I pray for forgiveness, and sin in my prayers. I resolve against my future sin, and sin in forming my resolutions. So that, I may say, my whole life is almost a continued course of sin.-Bp. Beveridge. The operations of grace may be interrupted. As long as there are two laws-one of sin in the members, another of grace in the mind; as long as there are two principles in a grand contest-flesh and spirit; as long as our knowledge is imperfect, and our love but of a weak growth; the operation of both cannot be more perfect than the nature of their principle. The vigour of our gracious actions is often enfeebled by the power of the flesh, that we do many times the evil we hate, and omit that good we love. And we cannot deny but that our acts flow oftener from a corrupt than a renewed principle. Yea, and those actions which flow from grace, are so tinctured with the vapours of the other principle, that they seem to partake more of the impressions of the law of sin than of the law of the mind. So that our perseverance is not to be measured from the constant temper of our actions, but from the permanency of the habit. -Anon. If we desire to feel less evil in us than God suffers us to have, we may be assured this desire proceeds either from pride, seeking to glory in our own righteousness, or from an impatient wish to get rid of the trouble of striving always against sin; whereas, it should be enough for us that God suffers it, lays it not to our charge, and carries us through all dangers.-Bogatzky. 28 But I 22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man : see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. In this state, man exhibits to the view of the universe an object unlike anything else which it has ever beheld. All other intelligent creatures, so far as we are informed, are either perfectly virtuous, or wholly destitute of real virtue. But regenerated man is really virtuous, and yet really sinful: his true and entire character being a mixture of moral good and evil.-Dwight. God brings His grace into the heart by conquest. Now, in a conquered city, though some yield and become true subjects to the conqueror, yet others plot how they may shake off the yoke; and therefore it requires the 24 O wretched man that I am! body of this death? same power to keep, as it did to win at first. The Christian hath an unregenerate part, that is discontented at this new change in the heart, and disdains as much to come under the sweet government of Christ's sceptre, as the Sodomites did that Lot should judge them. And Satan heads this mutinous rout against the Christian; so that if God did not continually reinforce this His new planted colony in the heart, the very natives-I mean corruptions-that are left, would come out of their dens and holes where they lie lurking, and eat up the little grace the holiest on earth hath.-Gurnall. who shall deliver me from the in the moral.-Howe. 'I feel my sin a greater burden to me,' said Mr. J. Corbet, 'than my affliction. I had rather have health of soul in a body full of pain, than health and ease of body with a distempered soul. And the sense of my great sinfulness disposeth me to patience under my afflicting infirmities of body.' What an indisputable evidence of sincerity do these words afford, in a man constantly racked with the stone!-L. The death of which the apostle complains is never felt, but where the opposite life hath some place. Total death knows no grievances, makes no complaints. They that lie buried in the earth are in their own element, where no such thing weighs upon them; a terrene carnal mind is no burden to such souls as are quite dead in trespasses and sins; though the souls of men are universally immortal in the natural sense, they are not so 25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin. 'The law of sin.' If there be such a law in believers, it is doubtless their duty to find it out. It will not at all advantage a man to have a hectic distemper and not to discover it,-a fire burning secretly in his house and not to know it. Upon this one hinge, or finding out and experiencing the power and efficacy of this law of sin, turns the whole course of our lives. Ignorance of it breeds senselessness, carelessness, sloth, security, and pride; all which the Lord abhors. I fear we have few of us a diligence in this matter proportionable to our danger.— Dr. Owen. CHAP. VIII. THERE is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. A soul castled within these walls is impregnable. Justice now hath no mark to level at; God cannot see the sinner, because Christ hides him. This is not the man,' saith Justice, that I am to strike.'-Gurnall. We may suppose the sinner here to be brought to the bar of trial, and Paul acting as his advocate. The sinner's plea is, 'Not guilty,'-he is 'in Christ Jesus.' This is the point the apostle undertakes to establish. The evidence adduced in the prisoner's behalf is that he walks not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.' The ver dict accordingly is: No condemnation," --and the prisoner is discharged.-Rev. W. McCaw. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. It is altogether an inconceivable thing, that when the soul is in union with Christ, and entitled to a righteousness by Him of His working out, it should at the same time continue in a stated rebellion against God, and under the governing power of reigning sin. These things can no longer consist. The reign and power of sin is broken in the same instant that any one's state is changed (ch. vi. 14). At the same time that the sinner ceases to be condemned, sin ceases to reign.Howe. 4 8 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: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. To preach practical sermons, as they are called, that is, sermons upon vir'tues and vices, without inculcating the great Scripture truths of Redemption, Grace, &c., which alone can enable and incite us to forsake sin and follow after righteousness; what is it, but to put together the wheels and set the hands of a watch, forgetting the spring which is to make them all go?-Bp. Horne. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. Every creature hath its proper diet; the lion eats not grass, nor the horse flesh; what is food to the carnal heart, is poison to the gracious; and that which is pleasing to the gracious, is distasteful to the carnal.-Gurnall. One of the distinctive characters of 6 physical life is its power of assimilating materials of different natures to its own substance; like that, the regenerated soul is endowed with the power of converting the various events of time into the mysterious means of its nourishment.-Dr. J. Harris. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. A wicked man is dead as a soul may be said to die; and it is a death to the soul when it is plunged and immersed in the body, so as to be sunk down into matter and replete with it.Seneca. My whole employment is to persuade the young and old against too much love for the body, for riches, and all other precarious things, of whatsoever nature they be; and against too little regard for the soul, which ought to be the object of their affection.-Socrates. As the higher heavens are more tranquil, where there are neither clouds, nor winds, nor storms, nor tempests; even so the sublime and heavenly mind is placed in a calm and quiet station.-Seneca. You cannot separate life and peace from such a mind; it hath no principle of death or trouble in it. Let such as know anything of this blessed temper and complexion of soul, compare this Scripture and their own experience together, when at any time they find their souls under the empire and dominion of a spiritual mind. Are not their souls the very region of life and peace? both these in conjunction, life and peace? not raging life, nor stupid peace; but a placid, peaceful life; a vital, vigorous rest and peace: 'tis not the life of a fury, nor the peace of a stone; but life that hath peace in it, and peace that hath life in it. Now the soul can say, 'I feel myself well.'-Howe. 'Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. As this is universally true of every carnal mind, it is so of all the motions and thoughts of it; even where it seems to agree with God, yet it is still contrary; if it acknowledge and conform to His ordinances, yet, even in so doing, it is in direct opposite terms to Him, particularly in this, that that which He esteems most in them, the carnal mind makes least account of.Leighton. The wisdom of the flesh-the very best thing in man-is enmity to God. And this enmity is manifested in contradicting the will of God, and running cross to His commands; for if this be our love to God, as the apostle says, 'that we keep His commands' (1 John v. 3), then this is hatred of God, that we will not keep them.-D. Clarkson. It is never possible that any can join themselves to God as their God, without having their minds spiritualized and refined into such a temper as can agree with Him. There will be perpetual tumultuations and regrets against His authority and laws, till this transforming work hath passed upon them.-Howe. The carnal mind is not only an enemy, for so possibly some reconciliation of it unto God might be made; but it is enmity itself, and so not capable of accepting any terms of peace. Enemies may be reconciled, but enmity cannot; yea, the only way to reconcile enemies is to destroy their enmity. The carnal mind hath chosen a great Enemy indeed!-Dr. Owen. cannot please God. The best duties of unbelievers are but white sins.-Dr. Owen. So then they that are in the flesh Though the righteousness of a man's person can never make a bad action good, yet the wickedness of a man's person does always make a good action bad; and, therefore, though a good man may perform a bad action, a bad, unregenerate man can never perform a spiritually good action, and such as is pleasing to God.-Bp. Beveridge. The heart of man in its unregenerate state may be compared to the soil of a certain district in Africa, which is said to have become so infected from local causes, that it poisons its own productions.-L. I've seen luxuriant grasses growing. on the tops of graves; I've seen flowers springing from the crevices of tombs ; and like these are the fair and lovely moralities, and the social virtues which adorn the character of him who is not born of God's Spirit. The corpse, with its corruptions, its wasting flesh and its decaying bones, is beneath the fragrant flowers.-H. W. Beecher. There is no medium between pleas ing God and displeasing Him.Leisure Hour. '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. You may as well call him a man whose soul is not in him, as you may call that man a Christian who hath not the Spirit of Christ.-Richard Alleine. 10 And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. "But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. 12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. V. 12. We owe nothing to the flesh; we have given it more than belongs to it; but we owe many an hour, many a 13 For if ye live after the flesh, the Spirit do mortify the deeds of The sharpest, the most afflicting, and at the same time the most interesting part of a Christian's duty, is the mortification of sin. It is, as it were, a man's weeding not his garden but his heart; and heart-work is always hard work. He will find innate corruption a growing evil; an evil which, by cursed fertility, will sprout out after cutting. Scarce any weed is fetcht up at once; the gardener's hand and hook must be constantly at work, and he accounts his ground preserved if it is not over-run.-Anon. Follow but this work conscientiously in thy Christian course, making it thy endeavour, as constantly as the labouring man goes out every day to work in the field where his calling lies, to watch thy heart, and use all means for the discovery of sin; and as it breaks forth, apply the axe of mortification; and thou shalt see, by the blessing of God, what a change for the better there will be in the constitution of thy grace; thou, who art now so poor, so pale, that thou art afraid to see thy own long face in the glass of thy own conscience, shalt then reflect with joy upon thy own conscience, and dare to con 14 For as many as are led by the of God. It is observable how the apostle argues in this and the preceding verse. He takes for granted that those who are led by the Spirit are the begotten sons of God; and 'tis as if he had said: What! do you think the sons of God shall not live? Hath He begotten any mortal sons, or such as can corrupt and die?'-Howe. The Spirit's working, though not palpable to any of our bodily senses, is not imperceptible by the mind. The love which He produces to God and care, many a deep thought to our souls, which we have defrauded them of for the vile body's sake.-Flavel. ye shall die: but if ye through the body, ye shall live. verse with thyself without those surprisals of horror which before did appal thee; thy grace, though it shall not be thy rejoicing, yet will be thy evidence for Christ, in whom it is, and lead thee with boldness to lay claim to Him; while the loose Christian, whose grace is overgrown with lusts, for want of this weeding-hook, shall stand trembling at the door, questioning whether his grace be true or no; and from that doubt of his welcome.-Gurnall. No sinner will be content to die to sin, if that be all; but if it be passing to a more excellent life, then he gaineth; and it were a folly not to seek this death. It was a strange power in Plato's discourse of the soul's immortality, that moved a young man upon reading it to throw himself into the sea, that he might leap through it to that immortality: but, truly, were this life of God, this life of righteousness, and the excellence and delight of it known, it would persuade many minds to this death, whereby we step into it.-Leighton. The resurrection of the flesh hereafter is a powerful motive to live after the Spirit here.-Dr. Owen. Spirit of God, they are the sons Christ; the sense of insufficiency for any good works in ourselves; the conscious dependence of the soul upon the Redeemer's grace; the spirit of supplication, and the spirit of filial affection felt in supplication; the earnest longing of the soul after spiritual things, and after the graces of the Spirit in particular; the drawing of the heart to the Divine Word, and to the ordinances of Religion-the house, the people, and the service of God-when these are not for ostentation, nor for |