glorified state it is to live entirely to God, and to be without sin, so it follows that, even in its present mortal state, sin should not have it in subjection. Calvin is undoubtedly mistaken in saying that the word body here is not taken in the sense of flesh, skin, and 'bones; but means, if I may be allowed the expression, 'the whole mass of the man;" that is, man as soul and body in his present earthly state. This would import that the soul is now mortal.

Sin reign.-Sin is here personified and viewed as a King. Such a ruler is sin over all the world, except those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, 1 John, v. 19. This is the reason why men will spend their substance and their labour in the works of the flesh. Sin rules in them as a sovereign; and they of their own accord with eagerness pursue every ungodly course to which their corrupt nature impels them; and in the service of sin they will often ruin their health as well as their fortune. That ye should obey it, or so as to obey it. Sin is still a law in the members of believers, but it is not to be allowed to reign. It must be constantly resisted. Obey it in the lusts thereof. That is to obey sin in the lusts of the body. Sin is obeyed in gratifying the lusts or corrupt appetites of the body. The term lusts, imports the inward corrupt inclination to sin from whence the acts of sin proceed; and of which the Apostle speaks particularly in the following chapter, where he shows that till after the commandment came to him in power he had not known that corrupt inclination to be sin. Augustine here remarks that the Apostle does not say that in believers there is no sin, but that it should not reign, because while they live there must be sin in their members.

V. 13.-Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

Neither yield. That is, do not present, afford, or make a donation of your members. Instruments—or weapons, or organs, to be employed in works of unrighteousness. Unto sin.-This surrender, against which the believer is cautioned, is to sin. They who employ the members of their bodies in doing the works of the flesh, present their bodies to sin as their sovereign. Members.-There is no occasion, with Dr Macknight and others, to suppose that the word members here includes the faculties of the mind as well as the members of the body. It is of the body that the Apostle is speaking. It follows, indeed, as a consequence, that if sin is not to be practised through the members of the body, neither is it to be indulged in the thoughts of the mind, for it is the latter that leads to the former. The word instruments evidently limits the expression to the members of the body.

But yield yourselves unto God.-Yield yourselves soul and body. The exhortation, as it respected the service of sin, mentions only the members of the body which are the instruments of gratifying the corruptions of the mind. But this, as was observed, sufficiently implies that we are forbidden to employ the faculties of the soul in the service of sin, as well as the members of the body. There can be no doubt that all we are commanded to give to God we are prohibited from giving to sin. If we are commanded to present ourselves unto God, then we are forbidden to present either the faculties of the mind or the members of the body to sin. The believer is to give himself up to

God, without any reservation. He is to employ both body and mind, in every work required of him by God. He must decline no labour which the Lord sets before him, no trial to which he calls him, no cross which he lays upon him. He is not to count even his life dear

if God demands its sacrifice.

As those that are alive from the dead.-Here again Christians are addressed as those who know their state. They are already in one sense raised from the dead. They have a spiritual life, of which they were by nature entirely destitute, and of which unbelievers are not only altogether destitute, but which they cannot even comprehend. Your members as instruments of righteousness.-The members of the body are not only to be used in the direct worship of God, and in doing those things in which their instrumentality is required, but in every action they ought to be employed in this manner, even in the common business of life, in which the glory of God should be constantly kept in view. The labourer who toils in the field, if he acts with an eye to the glory of God, ought to console himself with the consideration that when he has finished his day to man, he has wrought a day to God. This view of the matter is a great relief under his daily toils. Unto God. That is, yield your members unto God. As the natural man presents his members to sin, so the believer is to present his members to God.

V. 14.-For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

For sin shall not have dominion over you.-Such is the unqualified affirmation with which Paul in this place shuts up his triumphant reply to the objection to his doctrine urged in the 1st verse. No truth is more

certain than that sin shall not have dominion over believers. God's veracity and glory are pledged to prevent it. They are dead to the guilt of sin, and therefore, its power shall no more predominate in them. They have put on the new man, and the warfare with the old man shall finally terminate in his destruction. The first for in this verse gives a reason why believers should exert themselves to give their members to the service of God. They shall not fail in their attempt, for sin shall not have dominion over them. The next for gives the reason why sin shall not have dominion over them.

For ye are not under the law-literally, under law. -A great variety of interpretations are given of this declaration. But the meaning cannot be a matter of doubt to those who are well instructed in the nature of salvation by grace. It is quite obvious, that the law which believers are here said not to be under, is the moral law, as a covenant of works, and not the legal dispensation, to distinguish it from which, may be the reason why the article is here omitted. To affirm that law here is the legal dispensation, is to say, that all who lived under the law of Moses were under the dominion of sin. In the sense in which law is here understood, the Old Testament saints were not under it. They had the gospel in figure. They trusted in the promised Saviour, and sought not to justify themselves by their obedience to the law. Besides, all unbelievers, both Jews and Gentiles, are under the law, in the sense in which believers are here said not to be under it. Believers are not under the law as a covenant, because they have endured its curse, and obeyed its precept in the person of their great Head, by whom the righteousness of the law has

But every man,

been fulfilled in them, chap. viii. 4. till he is united to Christ, is under the law, which condemns him. When united to him, the believer is no longer under the law either to be condemned or to be justified. When Mr Stuart says, that it is from the law, "as inadequate to affect the sanctification, and secure the obedience of sinners," that the Apostle here declares us to be free, he proves that he entirely misunderstands what is meant. The circumstance that the law cannot sanctify the sinner, and secure his obedience, confers no emancipation from its demands. The believer is free from the law, because another has taken his place, and fulfilled it in his stead. This implies that all who are under the law, are also under the dominion of sin, and under the curse, Gal. iii. 10. The self-righteous who trust in their works, and boast of their natural ability to serve God, are under the dominion of sin, and the very works in which they trust are sinful, or "dead works," Heb. ix. 14. They are such works as men perform before their consciences are purged by the blood of Christ.

But under grace.-Believers are not under the covenant of works, but under the covenant of grace, by which they enjoy all the blessings of that gracious covenant in which all that is required of them is promised to them. They are in a state of reconciliation with God. They know the Lord. According to the tenor of that gracious covenant his law is written in their hearts, and his fear is put within them, he has promised not to depart from them, and that they shall not depart from him, Jer. xxxii. 40; and their sins and iniquities which separated them from God, are no more remembered by him. Being made partakers of