dead to sin, but alive to God. When, therefore, he here urges them not to allow sin to reign in their bodies, and designates their bodies as mortal, it may be that he means to intimate either that their struggle with sin, which will only continue while they are in the body, will be short, or to contrast the present state of the body with its future spiritual state. As in its future glorified state it is to live entirely to God, and to be without sin, so it follows that, even in its present mortal state, sin should not have it in subjection. Calvin is undoubtedly wrong in saying that the word body here is not taken in the sense of flesh, skin, and bones; but means, if I may be allowed the expression, the whole › mass of the man;' that is, man as soul and body in his present earthly state. This would import that the soul is now mortal.

Sin reign.-Sin is here personified and viewed as a King. Such a ruler is sin over all the world, except those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, 1 John v. 19. This is the reason why men will spend their substance and their labour in the works of the flesh. Sin rules in them as a sovereign; and they of their own accord with eagerness pursue every ungodly course to which their corrupt nature leads them; and in the service of sin they will often ruin their health as well as their fortune. That ye should obey it,

or so as to obey it.-Sin is still a law in their members to believers, but it is not to be allowed to reign. It must be constantly resisted. Obey it in the lusts thereof.-That is to obey sin in the lusts of the body. Sin is obeyed in gratifying the lusts or corrupt appetites of the body.

V. 13. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. To, scila

Neither yield. That is, do not present, afford, or make a donation of your members. Instruments or weapons, or organs, to be employed in works of unrighteousness. Unto sin.—This surrender, against which the believer is cau tioned, is to sin. They who employ the mem-" bers of their bodies in doing the works of the flesh, present their bodies to sin as their king. Members. There is no occasion, with Dr Macknight and others, to suppose that the word members here includes the faculties of the mind as well as the members of the body. It is of the body that the Apostle is speaking. It follows, indeed, as a consequence, that if sin is not to be practised through the members of the body, neither is it to be indulged in the thoughts of the mind, for it is the latter that leads to the former. The word instruments evidently confines the expression to the members of the body.

But yield yourselves unto God.-Yield yourselves soul and body. The exhortation, as it respected the service of sin, mentions only the members of the body which are the instruments of gratifying the corruptions of the mind. But this, as was observed, sufficiently implies that we are forbid to employ the faculties of the soul in the service of sin, as well as the members of the body. There can be no doubt but that all we are commanded to give to God we are prohibited from giving to sin. If we are commanded to present ourselves unto God, then we are forbid to present either the faculties of the mind or the members of the body to sin. The believer is to give himself up to God, without any reservation. He is to employ both body and mind, in every work that God by his word requires of him. He must decline no labour that God sets before him, no trial to which he calls him, no cross which he lays upon him. He is not to count even his life dear if God demands it from him.

As those that are alive from the dead.-Here again Christians are addressed as those who know their state. They are already in one sense raised from the dead. They have a spiritual life, of which they were born entirely destitute, and of which unbelievers are not only altogether destitute, but which they cannot

even conceive of. Your members as instruments of righteousness.—The members of the body are not only to be used in the direct worship of God, and in doing those things in which their instrumentality is required, but in every action of life they ought to be employed in this manner, even in the common business of life, in which the glory of God should be constantly kept in view. The labourer when he toils in the field, if he acts with an eye to the glory of God, ought to console himself with the consideration that when he has finished his day to man, he has wrought a day to God. This view of the matter is a great relief under the toils of life. Unto God. That is, yield your members unto God. As the natural man presents his members to sin, so the believer is to present his members to God.

V. 14. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

For sin shall not have dominion over you.Some understand this as a precept, but it is evidently an assertion of a truth. No truth is more certain than that sin shall not have dominion over believers. God's veracity and glory are pledged to prevent this. The first for in this verse gives a reason why believers should exert themselves to give their members to the service of God. They shall not fail in their

attempt, for sin shall not have dominion over them. The next for gives the reason why sin shall not have dominion over them.

For ye are not under the law—literally, under law. A great variety of interpretations are given of this declaration. But the meaning of it cannot be a matter of doubt to those who are well instructed in the nature of salvation by grace. 'It is quite obvious, that the law which believers are here said not to be under, is the moral law, as a covenant of works. To affirm that law here is the legal dispensation, is to say, that all who lived in the time of the law of Moses were under the dominion of sin. In the sense in which law is here understood, the Old Testament saints were not under it. They had the Gospel in figure. They trusted in the promised Saviour, and sought not to justify themselves by their obedience to the law. Besides, all unbelievers, both Jews and Gentiles, are under the law, in the sense in which believers are here said not to be under it. Believers are not under the law, because they have endured its curse, and obeyed its precept in the person of their great Head. But every man, till he is united to Christ, is under the law which condemns him. When united to him, the believer is no longer under the law either to condemn or to justify him. When Mr Stuart says, that it is