critics to decide how far St. Paul is giving his own individual experiences, and how far he speaks for human nature at large. Perhaps we may more truly say, that he sweeps both the general and the personal into the full torrent of his speech, and, with his quick-glancing mind, appropriates to his argument all that was truest of men in the plural, while he dissected man in the singular, and demonstrated the morbid anatomy of sin as a disease of human nature. Sold under sin. Enslaved, bound as a slave to the master who has bought him. In the use of the I instead of we, we perceive the delicacy with which Paul identifies the evil with himself rather than with his countrymen.

15-20. The collision between the sense of duty and sensual desire, between the higher and the lower nature, between the law of the mind and the law of the members, the essential interior I and the circum ferential me, is here drawn out at full length. It is a portrait, a daguerreotype of what is going on down deep in the bosom, of the game of life which every man is playing for his soul. The Apostle painted on a great scale what is true of the humblest or the youngest of the human family, the ceaseless struggles between appetite and reason, passion and conscience, the superficial desires and the innate moral forces. Gal. v. 17. 15. I allow not. Literally, I know not; i. e. I am perplexed to understand it; I know not how it is that I should act so inconsistently, as not to do what I would, but, on the contrary, to do the very thing I hate. This is a puzzle. The present rendering of the common English ver

sion mystifies the sense completely by seeming to repeat the same formula twice in the same verse; but the above rendering relieves the difliculty entirely. Tholuck remarks here that hitherto the Apostle had " contrasted himself in respect of his whole being with the Divine law; now, however, he begins to describe a discord which exists within himself. We set out with the fact that the Apostle still supposes an original element in man cognate with the Divine Being. This is the religious and moral sense which can never be wholly eradicated in man without his thereby ceasing to be man. Even the individual who sinks very low never entirely loses the consciousness that that divine element constitutes his proper self, and that to it all the rest must become homogeneous; in fact, that it is the Divine seed in him, which is choked indeed, but no more. Accordingly, the Apostle represents the sin, or flesh, as something foreign to man, and the godly element as his proper I. Ver. 17, 20. Hence also does he call that element the inward man, the true core of man.” Ver. 22.

16, 17. Though I do what is wicked, yet if I do it against my better convictions on account of the urgency of temptation, I virtually approve of the law as excellent, notwithstanding my inconsistent conduct, because in my heart of hearts I reverence its sanctity. I will therefore divide my personality, and say it is no more I proper who do the evil deed, but indwelling sin, an unlawful settler upon my premises, a tenant, whose behavior I do not like, and whom I should be glad to evict from my property.

18-20. This is mostly an ampli

For I know that in me, that is, 18

fication, after the usual copious manner of the Apostle, of what he had said before. No stronger testimony against the innate total depravity of mankind can be adduced than that of Paul, the very teacher who is generally supposed to teach this and the other Augustinian and Calvinistic doctrines in the most decisive manner. If language has any meaning, sin in the soul is not predicated by him as any more inborn or natural, than disease in the body, or as constituting the inmost self and usurping the central seat of personality, but as an excrescence, a law of the outward members, not of the mind, the inner and immortal selfhood.

This collision of the higher and lower powers of man is known to profane as well as sacred literature. Tholuck quotes richly to this effect. Thus Thucydides says: "It is an impossibility, and shows great simplicity for any one to think that, when human nature is driven eagerly to the commission of any act, it can be hindered either by the force of laws or anything however formidable." And Xenophon has this passage from a Persian: "For I have manifestly two spirits. For a spirit that is one and single is not both bad and good at once, nor at once loves things virtuous and things vicious, and at once is willing and unwilling to do them. But it is clear that there are two

spirits, and that when the good prevails, the virtuous things are done, and when the bad, then are wrong things attempted." Diodorus, Euripides, Epictetus, Simplicius, Plautus, Seneca, Lactantius, and the Jewish Rabbins, are quoted to the same effect. Ovid writes: "Desire prompts one thing, my mind persuades me to another. I see and approve the better, but follow the worse." Even the Christian is not exempt, so long as he lives, from temptation, but has to pray like Paul that he may not be a castaway; or, having some thorn in the flesh of which he cannot be rid, that the grace of Christ may be sufficient for him. 2 Cor. xii. 7–9; Phil. iii. 12, 13.

21-23. He sums up the evidence. There is this contrariety in human nature, so steady and uniform that he calls it a law, that when our better nature wills what is good, our lower propensities do what is evil. The interior and essential self does not cease to reverence and enjoy the moral ideal of love, beauty, and truth, the law of right; but the appetites are grovelling, and the passions are headlong, and they carry the soul captive in self-indulgence and pleasure. Bringing me into captivity. The literal sense is, taking me prisoner of war. The psychology of Paul, and his doctrine of the inner and outer man, the law of the mind

and the law of the members, corresponds with many of the views of the old moralists and philosophers, as Plato, Plotinus, Philo, and Plautus. All through this passage the object of the Apostle seems to be to illustrate, by a detailed picture of the working of human nature, the inability of the Law to achieve the complete redemption of man from moral evil. The mere declaration of the wickedness of sin, and its prohibition, cannot keep mankind from sinning; but they must be addressed by more powerful motives. Law, as a restraint, is good, but higher motives must arouse the soul to positive good, as the best bulwark and safeguard against evil. Faith must summon into the field the powers of the world to come. Let in the light of heaven, and the darkness of earth will flee away. The whole philosophy of moral action is contained in another precept of the Apostle: Overcome evil with good. Good is the only

sufficient antidote in the universe to

evil. But by the expulsive power of a new affection all the forces of sin may be put to rout. Faith, hope, and charity, these three give us the victory over "the world, the flesh, and the Devil."

24. Wound up to desperation by the conflict between different powers of his own nature, the civil war in his breast, he exclaims, Who can deliver me from the body of this death! or, as is variously rendered, "the body of such ruin," or, "the body of this misery," or from the sensual power, which causes me suffering and death. Misery and death are used as synonymes, as well as life and happiness. The idea may be, also, that it was better to die than to live in such a strife with one's self, and tormented with remorse for evil done, and as

pirations for good left undone. The margin reads, this body of death. 2 Cor. v. 4, 8.

25. The common view is, that hitherto Paul had been speaking as an unconverted Jew, but that he now resumes his own address, and gives thanks for his own personal redemption. That idea is not natural. Paul had been through all these experiences on both sides of the question. He sketches them off in bold outlines, not stopping to say how much applied in each instance to himself, and how much was appropriated from the example of others. 1 Cor. xv. 57.

I thank God, &c. As much as to say, Jesus Christ delivers me from this wretchedness and moral death. This was the logical conclusion of the whole chapter. Jesus could do what the Law could not accomplish, — put an end to the internal insurrection. But in exalting Christianity to the first place, we must remember that the Law occupies the second place, and that it was a good schoolmaster to bring men to Christ. The chief scope of the Law was conscience; the Gospel came to include in its ample culture the heart, with all its boundless affections and aspirations. The last clause is but an enumeration of what had been expressed before.

There are three principal forces, or creators of character, which at different periods have engaged the attention of mankind. They are all good, and there is need of them all to keep the whole man sound and morally healthy and growing; but the error has been, that too exclusive devotion has been given to one, and the others have been neglected. These three are, Wisdom, which answers to the mind; Law, which refers to the conscience; and Faith, which appeals to the heart. The

three most eminent civilizations, or refinements of human society, have been based upon these three ideas: the Grecian upon Wisdom, the Hebrew upon Law, and the Christian upon Faith; but the greatest of these is Faith.

CHAPTER VIII.

The Apostle naturally turns from the deficiencies of the Law, and the ineffectual struggles of its subjects, to the satisfactions of Christian faith. This chapter is concerned with the capacity of the Gospel to perform all the functions of a perfect religion for human nature, and thus to justify itself as the legitimate successor and substitute of the preliminary dispensation. All the points of its adaptation are touched upon; its freedom, its spirituality, its peace, its life, its filial spirit, its hope, its patience, its prayerfulness, and its love. Few passages can be found in the Scriptures which in the same compass contain a more full and glowing portraiture of all the excellences, beauties, and glories of the religion of Jesus, and none in any literature more eloquent in expression, or more glowing with wisdom, truth, and love. The commentators divide the chapter into several sections, according to their various theories and views of the Apostle's aim and reasoning, but scarcely any two agree together. Indeed, it is evident that Paul did not lay out his discourse with formal arrangements like modern divines, but

commingled logic and rhetoric together, made sudden and abrupt transitions, frequent parentheses, and gave, perhaps, within the limits of a single chapter, specimens of half a dozen different styles and modes of argument, appeal, remonstrance, and illustration. There is no writer whose composition is so compacted and dovetailed together as that of the Apostle Paul. His style has "the universal joint," of which mechanics speak, and while it moves in every direction, it holds firmly to its purpose.

1. There is therefore now no condemnation, &c. As an inference from the foregoing chapter, he draws the conclusion, that now, under the Christian faith, there is no condemnation of the Law against those who have abandoned it and become disciples of Christ. Their new loyalty releases them from their old duty. As Jesus said to Nicodemus, "he that believeth on him is not condemned." Condemnation is a legal term, and as the Law is dead, its subjects are free. The last clause of the verse, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, is rejected from the text, as of insufficient authority, by Griesbach, Tischendorf, De Wette, and many other critics and editors. It was probably interpolated as an explanation of the phrase in Christ Jesus, from ver. 4, first into the margin, and then into the text, until it was generally received; but it is not in the best versions and manuscripts.

2. The spiritual laws of the Chris

tian faith had not only released men from the bondage of the Mosaic institutions, but they had also emancipated the believing soul from the more terrible laws of moral transgression and death. Rom. vii. 25. The main stress of the Apostle's discourse is to show that the Gospel is good, not so much to acquit its receivers and justify them, as to spiritualize them and raise them out of the bondage of the appetites and passions. Righteousness and holiness are the great ends of religion, not justification; not how we stand with God, but how we are in character and life before him. It is astonishing how much error is produced by a slight displacement of terms, or a small change of definitions, as a single rivet loose in a machine will throw the whole into utter disorder. The current orthodox system has fastened upon the Church a legality of Christianity as hard and bony every whit as the legality of Judaism. It is still, Thou shalt believe, or die; as it was before, Thou shalt do, or die. It pays the debts of the sinner as punctually and fully by the sufferings and merits of Christ, as the Law before required it to be done by the obedience of the devotee. Instead of freedom, spiritual motives, culture, growth, hope, patience, and love, we hear from the Church the termagant tones of denunciation, threatenings of hell-fire, dogmatic and compulsory belief, exclusive communion, and severe judgment. The Church has come out of the legalities of the Old Testament only to enter into a new set of legalities, erroneously predicated upon the New, and under Catholicism to be subjected to the law of ceremonies and dignities, and under Calvinism to the law of creeds and dogmas. The Christianity of the Church is

still Law, not Love. - The printing of the word Spirit with a capital is an error, because it is intended to carry, and does carry, the impression, that by it is meant the Holy Spirit, or the third person of the Trinity; whereas there is nothing throughout the whole chapter to justify such an idea. The spirit here spoken of is the spirit of man, the soul, the law of the mind, chap. vii. 23, the higher moral and spiritual nature. The phrase in this verse would better read, the law of spiritual life, &c.

3. Positive good is the only remedy for positive evil, as the only antidote to darkness is light. The power of sin must be met by an answering power, and that power is provided in the Gospel. The passions are rampant and the appetites eager; then the moral forces must be equally decided and energetic. The defect of the Law was that its form was, Thou shalt not,- a system of restraint, a curb put upon the lower man; but the glory of Christianity is, that it says, Thou shalt,- thou shalt love, believe, hope, obey,

and is thus a system of excitement and culture to all the noblest faculties of human nature, as well as a restraint on the lower desires. The Law rather stirred up the opposition of the propensities, than spoke to the depths of the soul. The very air of a prohibitory command kindles the embers of sleeping desire, as the ancients wrote; Seneca, "that parricides began with the law"; and Horace, "that the human race, bold to perpetrate anything, rush through forbidden evil"; and Ovid, "that we strive for what is denied, and always desire what is refused." King Solomon spoke to like effect when he said, "Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant." Neander rejects the notion that the