salvation on the obedience of my blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ*.'
To this state he is brought, partly by the law itself, which cuts him off from all possible hope from his own obedience to it1, and partly by the death of Christ, which has totally cancelled the law, as a covenant, for all those who believe in him : so that, as a woman is released from all obligation to her husband when he is dead, and may, if she please, unite herself to another ; so the believer ceases to have any connexion with the law of God, now that it is cancelled by Christ m: the law is dead to him ; or, to use the language of our text, he is crucified to it.]
2. To sin—
[The believer, previous to his conversion, had no wish beyond the things of time and sense. He " walked according to the course of this world," " fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind.'' He possibly might be pure from gross acts of sin ; but all his actions, of whatever kind they were, sprang from self, and terminated in self: self-seeking, and self-pleasing, constituted the sum total of his life. He possessed no higher principle than self; the stream therefore could rise no higher than the fountain-head. But now he feels the influence of nobler principles, and determines to " live no longer to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. The time past suffices to have wrought his own will":" and henceforth he desires to have, not only every action, but " every thought, brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ0." He now " crucifies the flesh with the affections and lusts p." They form what the Scriptures call " the old man ;" and this " old man is crucified with Christ, that the body of sin may be destroyed, that hence- forth he should not serve sinq." Even the things that are innocent, are yet among the number of those things to which the believer is crucified. He enjoys them indeed ; (for " God has given him all things richly to enjoy ;") but he will not be in bondage to them ; he will not serve them ; he will not regard them as constituting his happiness, no, nor as essential to his happiness: if he possess (as he may very innocently do) the plea- sures, the riches, or the honours of the world, he does not set his affections upon them ; he regards them rather with a holy jealousy, lest they should ensnare him, and alienate his heart
k Phil. iii. 9. Rom. v. 19. 2 Cor. v. 21. 1 ver. 19. with Gal. iii. 24. m Rom. vii. 1 — 4.
n 1 Pet. iv. 2, 3. ° 2 Cor. x. 5.
p Gal. v. 24. This is spoken of all true Christians without ex- ception.
i Rom. vi. 6.