176 ROMANS 7: 14—25.

Tupt in man, his unsanctified nature ; the former must mean here, as in V. 23, that nature as renewed. In every believer, and in no one else, there are these two principles, grace and sin, the flesh and spirit, the law in the members and the law in the mind ; these are contrary the one to the other. ' / myself,'' says the apostle, or ' I one and the same man, feel both of these principles within me. With the one, I serve the law of God ; with the other, the law of sin, that is, sin itself, which, as a law in my members, essays to control my conduct.' This, in few words, is the sum of what the apostle has said from v. 14. Such is the state in which the law leaves the believer ; such the effect of the mere objective and preceptive presentation of truth. The law excites in the unrenewed mind opposition and hatred ; in the pious mind complacency and delight ; but in neither case can it break the power of sin, or introduce the soul into the true liberty of the children of God.