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TEXT.

4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

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PARAPHRASE.

and sending him also to be an offering" for sin, he put to death, or extinguished, or suppressed sin in the flesh, i. e. sending his Son into the world, with the body, wherein the flesh could never prevail to the producing of any one sin; 4 To the end that, under this example of the flesh, wherein sin was perfectly mastered and excluded from any life, the moral rectitude of the law P might be conformed to by us, who, abandoning the lusts of the flesh, follow the guidance of the Spirit, in the law of our minds, and make it our

NOTES.

m Kai, "and," joins here, "in the likeness," &c. with "to be an offering;" whereas, if "and" be made to copulate "sending" and "condemned," neither grammar nor sense would permit it. Nor can it be imagined the apostle should speak thus: God sending his Son, and condemned sin: But "God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh," and sending him to be an offering for sin, with very good sense, joins the manner and end of his sending.

Пlepì ápaplías, which in the text is translated, "for sin," signifies an offering for sin, as the margin of our Bibles takes notice: See 2 Cor. v. 21. Heb. x. 5-10. So that the plain sense is, God sent his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and sent him an offering for sin.

• Kalexpive, "condemned." The prosopopoeia, whereby sin was considered as a person, all the foregoing chapter, being continued here, the condemning of sin here, cannot mean, as some would have it, that Christ was condemned for sin, or in the place of sin; for that would be to save sin, and leave that person alive which Christ came to destroy. But the plain meaning is, that sin itself was condemned, or put to death, in his flesh, i. e. was suffered to have no life, nor being, in the flesh of our Saviour: he was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin, Heb. iv. 15. By the Spirit of God, the motions of the flesh were suppressed in him, sin was crushed in the egg, and could never fasten, in the least, upon him. This farther appears to be the sense, by the following words. This antithesis between xalάxpiμa, ver. 1, and xalixpive, here, will also show why that word is used here to express the death or no being of sin in our Saviour, 2 Cor. v. 2. 1 Pet. ii. 22. That St. Paul sometimes uses condemnation for putting to death, see chap. v. 16 and 18.

4. P Tò dixalwμa to vμou, “the righteousness of the law." See note, chap. ii. 26. ¶ "Fulfilled," does not here signify a complete, exact obedience, but such an unblamable life, by sincere endeavours after righteousness, as shows us to be the faithful subjects of Christ, exempt from the dominion of sin; see chap. xiii. 8. Gal. vi. 2. A description of such, who thus fulfilled" the righteousness of the law," we have Luke i. 6. As Christ in the flesh was wholly exempt from all taint of sin; so we, by that Spirit which was in him, shall be exempt from the dominion of our carnal lusts, if we make it our choice and endeavour to live after the Spirit, ver. 9, 10, 11. For that, which we are to perform by that Spirit, is the mortification of the deeds of the body, ver. 13.

TEXT.

5 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.

6 For to be carnally minded, is death; but to be spiritually minded, is life and peace:

7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

PARAPHRASE.

5 business to live, not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For as for those who are still under the direction of the flesh and its sinful appetites, who are under obedience to the law in their members, they have the thoughts and bent of their minds set upon the things of the flesh, to obey it in the lusts of it but they, who are under the spiritual law of their minds, the thoughts and bent of their hearts is to follow the 6 dictates of the Spirit in that law. Fors to have our minds set upon the satisfaction of the lusts of the flesh, in a slavish obedience to them, does certainly produce and bring death upon us; but our setting ourselves, seriously and sincerely, to obey the dictates and direction of the Spirit, produces life and peace, which are not to be had in the contrary, carnal 7 state: Because to be carnally minded " is direct enmity and opposition against God; for such a temper of mind, given up to the lusts of the flesh, is in no subjection to the law of God, nor indeed can be ", it having a quite contrary tendency.

NOTES.

5 r Oi xalà σápno oles, "those that are after the flesh," and "those that are after the Spirit," are the same with those that walk after the flesh, and after the Spirit." A description of these two different sorts of Christians, see Gal. v. 16— 26.

6" For" joins what follows here to ver. 1, as the reason of what is here laid down, viz. deliverance from condemnation is to such Christian converts only, "who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For," &c.

See Gal. vi. 8.

7 "pornμa tus capaòs should have been translated here "to be carnally minded," as it is in the foregoing verse, which is justified by oparodai tà tñs cagnòs, “do mind the things of the flesh," ver. 5, which signifies the employing the bent of their minds, or subjecting the mind entirely to the fulfilling the lusts of the flesh. Here the apostle gives the reason why even those that are in Christ Jesus, have received the Gospel, and are Christians, (for to such he is here speaking) are not saved, unless they cease to walk after the flesh, because that runs directly counter to the law of God, and can never be brought into conformity and subjection to his commands. Such a settled contravention to his precepts cannot be suffered by the supreme Lord and Governor of the world, in any of his creatures, without foregoing his sovereignty, and giving up the eternal, immutable rule of right, to the overturning the very foundations of all order and moral rectitude in the intellectual world. This, even in the judgment of men them

TEXT.

8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

9 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.

10 And if Christ be in you, the body is dead, because of sin; but the Spirit is life, because of righteousness.

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PARAPHRASE.

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8 So then they that are in the flesh, i. e. under the fleshly dispensation of the law, without regarding Christ, the Spirit 9 of it, in it cannot please God. But ye are not in that state of having all your expectation from the law, and the benefits that are to be obtained barely by that; but are in the spiritual state of the law, i. e. the Gospel, which is the end of the law, and to which the law leads you. And so having received the Gospel, you have therewith received the Spirit of God: for as many as receive Christ, he gives power to become the sons of God: and to those that are his sons God gives 10 his Spirit b. And if Christ be in you by his Spirit, the body

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NOTES.

selves, will be always thought a necessary piece of justice, for the keeping out of anarchy, disorder, and confusion, that those refractory subjects, who set up their own inclinations for their rule against the law, which was made to restrain those very inclinations, should feel the severity of the law, without which the authority of the law, and law-maker, cannot be preserved.

8 This is a conclusion drawn from what went before. The whole argumentation stands thus: "They that are under the dominion of their carnal lusts cannot please God; therefore they who are under the carnal or literal dispensation of the law, cannot please God; because they have not the spirit of God: now it is the spirit of God alone that enlivens men, so as to enable them to cast off the dominion of their lusts." See Gal. iv. 3-6.

Oi iv capul örles, "They that are in the flesh." He that shall consider that this phrase is applied, chap. vii. 5, to the Jews, as resting in the bare, literal, or carnal sense and observance of the law, will not be averse to the understanding the same phrase in the same sense here, which I think is the only place besides in the New Testament where i capì elva is used in a moral sense. This I dare say, it is hard to produce any one text wherein vai iv caprì is used to signify a man's being under the power of his lusts, which is the sense wherein it is and must be taken here, if what I propose be rejected. Let it be also remembered, that St. Paul makes it the chief business of this epistle (and he seldom forgets the design he is upon) to persuade both Jew and Gentile from a subjection to the law, and that the argument he is upon here is the weakness and insufficiency of the law to deliver men from the power of sin, and then, perhaps, it will not be judged, that the interpretation I have given of these words is altogether remote from the apostle's sense.

9 See 2 Cor. iii. 6-18, particularly ver. 6, 13, 16.

2

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See John i. 12.

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TEXT.

11 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.

PARAPHRASE.

is dead as to all activity to sin, sin no longer reigns in it, but your sinful, carnal lusts are mortified. But the spirit of your mind liveth, i. e. is enlivened, in order 11 to righteousness, or living righteously. But if the Spirit of God, who had power able to raise Jesus Christ from the dead, dwell in you, as certainly it does, he that raised Christ from the dead is certainly able, and will, by his Spirit that dwells in you, enliven even yourf mortal bo

NOTES.

10 See chap. vi. 1-14, which explains this place, particularly ver. 2, 6, 11, 12. Gal. ii. 20. Eph. iv. 22, 23. Col. ii. 11, and iii. 8-10.

See Eph. iv. 23.

:

11 To lead us into the true sense of this verse, we need only observe, that St. Paul having, in the four first chapters of this epistle, shown that neither Jew nor Gentile could be justified by the law, and in the 5th chapter how sin entered into the world by Adam, and reigned by death, from which it was grace and not the law that delivered men in the 6th chapter he showeth the convert Gentiles, that, though they were not under the law, but under grace, yet they could not be saved unless they cast off the dominion of sin, and became the devoted servants of righteousness, which was what their very baptism taught and required of them and in chap. vii. he declares to the Jews the weakness of the law, which they so much stood upon; and shows that the law could not deliver them from the dominion of sin; that deliverance was only by the grace of God, through Jesus Christ; from whence he draws the consequence which begins this eighth chapter, and so goes ou with it here in two branches relating to his discourse in the foregoing chapter, that complete it in this. The one is to show, "that the law of the Spirit of life," i. e. the new covenant in the Gospel, required that those that are in Christ Jesus, "should not live after the flesh, but after the Spirit." The other is to show how, and by whom, since the law was weak, and could not enable those under the law to do it, they are enabled to keep sin from reigning in their "mortal bodies," which is the sanctification required. And here he shows that Christians are delivered from the dominion of their carnal, sinful lusts, by the Spirit of God that is given to them, and dwells in them, as a new, quickening principle and power, by which they are put into the state of a spiritual life, wherein their members are made capable of being made the instruments of righteousness, if they please, as living men, alive now to righteousness, so to employ them. If this be not the sense of this chapter to ver. 14, I desire to know how apa vv in the 1st verse comes in, and what coherence there is in what is here said? Besides the connexion of this to the former chapter, contained in the illative "therefore," the very antithesis of the expressions, in one and the other, shows that St. Paul, in writing this very verse, had an eye to the foregoing chapter. There it was, "sin that dwelleth in me," that was the acting and over-ruling principle: here it is " the Spirit of God that dwelleth in you," that is the principle of your spiritual life. There it was, "who shall deliver me from this body of death?" here it is, "God, by his Spirit, shall

NOTE.

quicken your mortal bodies," i. e. bodies which, as the seat and harbour of sin ful lusts that possess it, are indisposed and dead to the actions of a spiritual life, and have a natural tendency to death. In the same sense, and upon the same account, he calls the bodies of the Gentiles "their mortal bodies," chap. vi. 12, where his subject is, as here, "freedom from the reign of sin," upon which To make it yet account they are styled, ver. 13, "alive from the dead." clearer that it is deliverance from the reign of sin in our bodies, that St. Paul speaks of here, I desire any one to read what he says, chap. vi. 1-14, to the Gentiles on the same subject, and compare it with the thirteen first verses of this chapter, and then tell me whether they have not a mutual correspondence, and do not give a great light one to another? If this be too much pains, let him at least read the two next verses, and see how they could possibly be, as they are, an inference from this 11th verse, if the "quickening of your mortal bodies," in it, mean any thing but a "quickening to a newness of life, or to a spiritual life of righteousness." This being so, I cannot but wonder to see a late learned commentator and paraphrast positive that ζωοποιήσει τὰ θνητὰ σώματα ὑμῶν, “ shall quicken your mortal bodies," does here signify, "shall raise your dead bodies out of the grave," as he contends in his preface to his paraphrase on the epistles to the Corinthians, wowote, "quicken," he says, imports the same with ἐγείρειν, "raise." His way of proving it is very remarkable: his words are "Swool and yeipen are as to this matter [viz. the resurrection] words of the same import," i. e. where in discoursing of the resurrection, wow, “quicken," is used, it is of the same import with yelpen, "raise." But what if St. Paul, which is the question, be not here speaking of the resurrection? why then, according to our author's own confession, wc, "quicken," does not necessarily import the same with yeípe, "raise." So that this argument to prove that St. Paul here, by the words in question, means the raising of their dead bodies out of the grave, is hut a fair begging of the question, which is enough, I think, for a commentator that hunts out of his way for controversy. He might, therefore, have spared the wooy, "quicken," which he produces out of St. John v. 21, as of no force to his purpose, till he had proved that St. Paul here in Romans viii. 11, was speaking of the resurrection of men's bodies out of the grave, which he will never do till he can prove that là, "mortal," here signifies the same with νεκρά, "dead." And I demand of him to show SunToy, "mortal," any where in the New Testament, attributed to any thing void of life; now, "mortal," always signifies the thing it is joined to, to be living; so that ζωοποιήσει καὶ τὰ πνηλὰ σώματα ὑμῶν, "shall quicken even your mortal bodies," in that learned author's interpretation of these words of St. Paul, here siguify, "God shall raise to life your living, dead bodies," which no one can think, in the softest terms can be given to it, a very proper way of speaking; though it be very good sense and very emphatical to say, God shall by his Spirit put into even your mortal bodies a principle of immortality, or spiritual life, which is the sense of the apostle here see Gal. vi. 8. And so he may find worñσ used, Gal. iii. 21, to the same purpose it is here. I next desire to know of this learned writer, how he will bring in the resurrection of the dead into this place, and to show what coherence it has with St. Paul's discourse here, and how he can join this verse with the immediately preceding and following, when the words under consideration are rendered, "shall raise your dead bodies out of their graves at the last day?" It seems as if he himself found this would make but an awkward sense, standing in this place with the rest of St. Paul's words here, and so never attempted it by any sort of paraphrase, but has barely given us the English translation to help us, as it can, to so uncouth a meaning as he would put upon this passage, which must make St. Paul, in the midst of a very serious, strong, and coherent discourse, concerning "walking not after the flesh, but after the Spirit," skip on a sudden into the mention of "the

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