If there had been a law which could have given life, verily righteousness would have been by the law. Nay, I have to thank the law, for giving me a knowledge of sin, and a sense of duty which I should not otherwise have attained. Without the law, I had not known lust; I had not known the sinful nature of vehement, unregulated desire.5

Still this law, though showing what sin was, could not prevent sin. Nay, its very prohibitions inflamed the desires which they were intended to restrain. The evil disposition made the law a source of transgression.

8. But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.

9. For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.

10. And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.

11. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived mc, and by it slew me.

Without the law-till the law, by showing what was right, showed also what was wrong-sin was dead; it did not put forth its strength; not because it did not exist, but because it did not exert itself: like a serpent in a dormant state, it seemed to have no power. For till I became, through the law, acquainted with the extent and true nature of holiness,

5

4 νόμος άμαρτιας κατηγορος.—Theod.

Becoming more violent because of contradiction. áμapria, ἐπι το χειρον όρμη. Theoph.

6 έφανη αμαρτια. Ib.

I was alive, I thought my state to be a lively flourishing state. But when the commandment came and reached my conscience, sin, that had been dead, revived, showed its nature, and its power; and I that had been alive, now died; felt myself "guilty of death." The law which would have been life to me if I had fulfilled it, became death to me because I had transgressed it. For sinful nature, taking occasion by the commandment, averse to the strictness of the law, deceived me into various transgressions, and so increased my condemnation.

12. Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.

13. Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. 7

The malignity of the disorder is then most clearly seen, when the skill which is used to cure it fails.

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7 It is satisfactory to know how a sentence of so much difficulty as this and the eighth verse presents, was interpreted in the earlier ages of the church. Chrysostom's commentary is as follows. "Sin, taking occasion, increased evil desire, èπovμιav, and the contrary took place to that which was the intent of the law not from the fault, but the weakness of the law. For when we desire a thing, and are prevented from possessing it, the ardour of desire is more enkindled: but this is not by the law. For that forbade the being hurried away by desire. But sin, i. e. our weakness and bad disposition, used the good to produce evil. The physician is not to be accused for this: but the patient who makes an ill use of the medicine. For the law was not ordained to inflame desire, but to extinguish it. The contrary has occurred; this is not the law's fault, but ours."-Ad. Rom. Hom. xii.

But the fault is in the constitution, not in the physician. The perfect standard condemns what does not come up to it, or agree with it: but the standard is right, the work wrong: though the wrong might not appear unless the standard discovered it. The standard shows the greatness of the error: as the magnifying glass betrays the defects of the surface: as the strong light discloses the motes and atoms in the air.

Here then is the conclusion. The law is holy, and "the commandment holy, and just, and good." He would be a happy man, who should live according to all the things that are written in the law to do them. And he alone is in a safe state, who makes this law the mark to which he is constantly pressing forward. But we have "not attained, neither are already perfect." So far from it, "by the law is the knowledge of sin." When the commandment comes, we perceive from it, not how correct our course has been, but how far we have deviated from the line prescribed.

See then, says the apostle, why I rejoice that you are delivered from the law by the death of Christ; that you are no longer connected with it as the ground of your everlasting life. For what says the law? "This is the first and great commandment. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and all thy mind, and all thy soul, and all thy strength. And the second is like unto it: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." Tried by this law, who shall stand? What man living shall be justified? Here, then, in

7 Matt. xxii. 38,

H

this mirror, I behold the exceeding sinfulness of my nature, and learn to thank God, that "not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us:"8 that he will judge me, not "according to my own righteousness which is of the law," but according to "the faith of Christ :"9 through whom I trust to be absolved from those omissions and transgressions by which, according to the letter of the law, I must be condemned. "For the law was given by Moses; but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." "And by him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses."1

LECTURE XX.

ROMANS vii. 14-25.

THE BONDAGE OF MAN UNDER SIN: AND HIS DELIVERANCE THROUGH JESUS CHRIST.

14. For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.

15. For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not: but what I hate, that do I.

16. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.

17. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

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.

19. For the good that I would I do not; but the evil that 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.

Such must be the feelings of the awakened mind, trying to make out a title to salvation through obedience to the law, but foiled at every step. The apostle's object from the beginning of the chapter is to show the blessedness of being delivered from the law and here he describes the perplexity of one not so delivered. He would say, The law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin: betrayed by my first parent, and enslaved to Satan through the corruption so brought upon my nature. For that which I do I allow not: God and my conscience forbid it: but my evil nature prevails against my conscience: for what I would, that I do not; but what I hate, that do I. I consent unto the law that it is good. I agree with our own David when he says, "The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes." But how to perform that which is good I find not. I have too often cause to say again with David, "I have sinned against the Lord." "I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.'

These are very far from being the reflections of every sinner. Many understand little of God's law, and are not aware of the holiness which he requires. The Pharisees, who disputed against our Lord, be2 Ps. li. 3.

1 Ps. xix. 8.