v9. d, T accommodate my ſelf to your capacity, becauſe of the weakneſs of your underſtand in ſpiritual things; therefore IT uſe this familiar ſimilitude of ſervice and freedom, that by theſe {cular and civil things you might the better underſtand ſuch as are ipuritual, wid. John 3. 12. w 4. d. The great thing that I G&lirc of you (and 'tis moſt reaſonable) is this, that you would be 5 ſedulous and careful now to obey God,as you have formerly been t0 obey and ſerve fin ; to do good as you have been to do evil, « To fleſhly luſts which defile you. 7 5. e. Adding one fin toan- her, oc elſe by the former you may underſtand original, by the litter acual fin. He uſerh three words about the ſervice of Sin, and but two about the ſervice of God; wicked men take great pains tor Hell. Oh that we would take the ſame for Heaven.
20 For when ye were the ſervants of fin, ye were lee + trom righteouſneſs &.
2, 9. 4, When you ſerved ſin, you knew that God and Righte- oulnels had no whit of your ſervice, why then ſhould Sz have any 0! your ſervice now when ye have delivered up your ſelves to
ighteouſneſs or Godlinels, to be the obſervant followers thereof ? Why ſhould not ye now abſtain as ſtriftly from all Sin, as then ye Ud from all good.
21 Whac fruit had ye then in thoſe things, whereof
49. 4. And this will be much more equal and reaſonable, if you
AN S.
conſider, theſe three things » the remembrance of them.
true or no, I appeal to your felves.
the end everlaſting life b
perceive a difference. For,
then, 2. At your death you ſhall have evrlafing Life,
Lord.
Servants) is eternal Life, through Jeſus - Chri(t our Lord. word properly ſignifies /7&uals.
Vice: afterward they gave them Moone
4
ſoever.
bur that ir is the gracious or free Gift of God.
Works. GH aPM. VI.
but unto God, 1
: 13. He Spirit, and groaneth under it, 14 for deliverance already obtained, — 25.
over a man 6b, as long as he liveth ?
Law, becauſe that was dead to them, and they ro ir.
ed to either, for both ate ſubje& to the aforementioned Law.
husband e.
Mat. 5. 32. marriage.
her husband be dead , ſhe is free from that law fo thac ſhe is no adultreſs, though the be married to 2nother man,
the dead, that we ſhould * bring forth fruit unto
God h.
f i.e. Ye are taken off from all hopes of Juſtification by ir, and from your confidence in obedience to it. Ga/. 2. 19. The Op- poſition ſeems to require that he ſhould have ſaid The Law is dead 70 us, Burt theſe two Phraſes are much the ſame. 2. What Law doth he mean? 4. Not only the Ceremonial, but the Moral Law, for in that he inſtanceth,' v. 7. The moral Law is in force ſtill. Chri/t came to confirm , and not to deſtroy it : Bur Believers are freed from the malediQion, from the rigid exation, and from the irritation thereof. Of this laſt he ſpeaks, v. 8, 9. and fromir we are freed but in part. g #. e. By the Sacrifice of Chriſts Body Law, an the
Val.-1L,
| upon the Croſs ; thereby he — us from the
tre ſente
þ q. d. But now on the contrary being ſet at liberty from the ſer vice of Sin, and admitted to be the Servants of God, you plainly r. In your life time you increaſe in Grace and Holineſs; and that is no tmall fruit or Advantage. And
c 9. d. Now therefore compare the Wages of both theſe ſervices together, and you ſhall eaſily fee which Matter 1s beſt to ſerve and obey ; the Wages that fin will pay you, in the end, 1s Death; bur ,'Qq, the reward that God will freely beilow upon you, (if you be his ,,,..:. d The aud fre: The Romans of old paid their ,-> ' Souldiers with Provition and Vituals in recompence ot their ler- **
y, bur i!] the old rerm was
No Law hath power over us any longer than we live: but a Wife is fre? from the Dominion of her dead Husbarnd: We are dead to the Law ; Married to Chriſt, that we might not bring forth fruit unto Death, 6. Tet is not the Law Sin; but it diſcovers Sin which elje appeareth not : And 1s holy, juſt and gaod, and ordain- ed unto Life: but through our Corruption worketh Sin and Death, deſcribeth the Combate between the Fleſh and 24. Giveth thanks to God
I Now ye not brethren, (for I ſpeak to them that know the law ) how that thelaw ahath dominion
The Apoſtle having ſhewed in the former Chapter how Believers are freed trom the Dominion of Sin, he proceeds in this Chapter, to declare, that they are free alſo from the Yoak of the Mofaical This he il- luſtrates, and proceeds by the familiar Allegory of a Husband and his Wife : Look as a Wife is free from her Husband when he is dad and may then marry another, and be no Adultreſs; So Believers are dead to the Law, and are free to be Married to another, even to Chriſt, that is raiſed from the dead, that upon their happy Marriage, they may bring forth fruit unto God. @ By the Law here he means the Law of Wedlock, or the Law of Moſes about that matter, as appears by the inſtance given in the next verſe, b the word Man here is common to both Sexes, and may be apply-
2 For c the woman which hath an husband, is bound by the law to her husband 4 ſo long as he liveth 2 but if the husband be dead, - ſhe is looſed from the Law cf her
c He here exemplifies and illuftrates the foregoing aſſertion, d See a parallel place, 1 Cor. 7. 39. This is the general rule, yet there is an exception in the caſe of Fornication or Defertion. wid. 1 Cor. 7. 15. e From the obligation of the Law of
3 Sothen if while her husband liveth, ſhe be married to another man, ſhe ſhall be called an adultrefs: bur if
3 3. How death, ye erernal doarh ind damnation (unleſs pardoning Grace and mercy prevents it,) wi; be the certain conclution of them ; and whether rheſe rhings ar:
22 But new being made free from fin, and become? ſervants to God, ye have your fruit unto holineſs, a:id
Cl p.
15.