as he lives, and would be justly called an adulteress if she were to connect herself with another man during his life, so are we united in the closest bonds of the law. But, by the coining of the Lord Jesus Christ, and his satisfying all the demands of that law for us, its power over us is annulled, and it becomes, from the very moment of our believing in him, dead with re- spect to us ; so that we are at liberty to be united to Christ, and to enter into a new covenant with him. This benefit, he observes, we derive from Christ. But for what end ? That our obligations to holiness may be vacated ? No ; by no means ; but the very reverse : he conveys this benefit, in order that, in our new-covenant state, we may bring forth that fruit, which we never did, nor could, bring forth in con- nexion with our former husband. Hear his own words : " Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,)" (/ beg you to pay par- ticular attention to this, because it is addressed to those especially who know the law,) " Know ye not how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth ? For the woman who hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth ; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then, if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress : but, if her husband be dead, she is free from that law ; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ" (that is, through the sufferings of Christ, the power of the law over you is cancelled), " that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that ye should bring forth fruit unto Godk." If there were no other passage in all the Scriptures than this, it would be quite sufficient, not only to establish the point in hand, but to silence, for ever, all jealousies respecting the practical intent and tendency of the Gospel. But I must go on yet further to observe, in the
k Rom. vii. 1 — 4. K 2