2. The next thing we meet withal in the words is the persons to Avhom this duty is prescribed, and that is expressed in the word " Ye," in the original included in the verb, ^avarovn, "if ye mortify ;" — that is, ye believers ; ye to whom " there is no condemnation," verse 1 ; ye that are " not in the flesh, but in the Spirit," verse 9; who ai*e "quick- ened by the Spirit of Christ," verses 10, 11 ; to you is this duty pre- scribed. The pressing of this duty immediately on any other is a notable fruit of that superstition and self-righteousness that the world
ROMANS VIII. 13 EXPLAINED. 7
is full of, — the great work and design of devout men ignorant of the gospel, Rom. x. 3, 4; John xv. 5. Now, this description of the persons, in conjunction with the prescription of the duty, is the main foundation of the ensuing discourse, as it lies in this thesis or pro- position : —
The choicest believers, tvho are assm^edly freed from the condemn- ing power of sin, ought yet to make it their business all their dags to mortify the indiuelling poiuer of sin.
3. The principal efficient cause of the performance of this duty is the Spirit: E/ ds Uvsv/j^an, — " If by the Spirit." The Spirit here is the Spirit mentioned verse 11, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of God, that "dwells in us," verse 9, that "quickens us," verse 11; "the Holy Ghost," verse 14;^ the "Spirit of adoption," verse 15 ; the Spirit " that maketh intercession for us," verse 26. All other ways of mor- tification are vain, all helps leave us helpless ; it must he done by the Spirit. Men, as the apostle intimates, Rom. ix. 30-82, may attempt this work on other principles, by means and advantages administered on other accounts, as they always have done, and do : but, saith he, " This is the work of the Spirit; by him alone is it to be wrought, and by no other power is it to be brought about." Mortification from a self-strength, carried on by ways of self-invention, unto the end of a self-righteousness, is the soul and substance of all false religion in the world. And this is a second principle of my ensuing discourse.
4. The duty itself, " Mortify the deeds of the body," is nextly to be remarked.
Three things are here to be inquired into: — (1.) What is meant by the body; (2.) What by the deeds of the body; (3.) What by mo7-- tifying of them,
(1.) The body in the close of the verse is the same with the flesh in the beginning: " If ye live after the flesh ye shall die; but if ye .... mortify the deeds of the body," — that is, of the flesh. It is that which the apostle hath all along discoursed of under the name of the flesh; which is evident from the prosecution of the antithesis between the Spirit and the flesh, before and after. The body, then, here is taken for that corruption and depravity of our natures whereof the body, in a great part, is the seat and instrument, the very members of the body being made servants unto unrighteousness thereby, Rom. vi. 19. It is indwelling sin, the corrupted flesh or lust, that is in- tended. Many reasons might be given of this metonymical expres- sion, that I shall not now insist on. The "body" here is the same with iraXaihg avOpojTog, and CcTj/xa r^s a/Ji^ntpriag, the " old man," and the " body of sin," Rom. vi. 6 ; or it may synecdochically express the
' There seems to be an oversight here, as the expression " Holy Ghost" does not occur in the verse cited. — Ed.
8 MORTIFICATION OF SIN IN EELIEVERS.
whole person considered as corrupted, and the seat of hists and dis- tempered affections.
(2.) The deeds of the body. The word is irpa^ng, which, indeed, denoteth the outward actions chiefly, "the works of the flesh," as they are called, rd 'ipya rng capy.og, Gal. V. 19; Avhich are there said to be " manifest," and are enumerated. Now, though the outward deeds are here only expressed, yet the inward and next causes are chiefly intended; the " axe is to be laid to the root of the tree," — the deeds of the flesh are to be mortified in their causes, from whence they spring. The apostle calls them deeds, as that which every lust tends unto ; though it do but conceive and prove abortive, it aims to bring forth a perfect sin.
Having, both in the seventh and the beginning of this chapter, treated of indwelling lust and sin as the fountain and principle of all sinful actions, he here mentions its destruction under the name of the effects which it doth produce. Upd^sig rov (xw/xaros are, as much as (ppovrnia TT^g aapxog, Rom. viii. 6, the " wisdom of the flesh," by a me- tonymy of the same nature with the former; or as the cra^j^/zara and Jcr/^u/A/a/, the " passions and lusts of the flesh," Gal. v. 24, whence the deeds and fruits of it do arise; and in this sense is the body used, Rom. viii. 10: " The body is dead because of sin."