---
title: "Clarke"
description: "The apostle having, in the preceding chapter, shown the converted Gentiles the obligations they were under to live a holy life, addresses himself here to"
image: "/images/missing.jpg"
url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary/romans/7"
---

The apostle having, in the preceding chapter, shown the *converted Gentiles* the obligations they were under to live a holy life, addresses himself here to the *Jews* who might hesitate to embrace the Gospel; lest, by this means, they should renounce the *law*, which might appear to them as a renunciation of their allegiance to God. As they rested in the law, as sufficient for justification and sanctification, it was necessary to convince them of their mistake. That the law was insufficient for their *justification* the apostle had proved, in chapters iii., iv., and v.; that it is insufficient for their *sanctification* he shows in this chapter; and introduces his discourse by showing that a believing Jew is discharged from his obligations to the law, and is at liberty to come under another and much happier constitution, viz. that of the Gospel of Christ, [Romans 7:1-4](../../../kjv/romans/7/1-4). In [Romans 7:5](../../../kjv/romans/7/5) he gives a general description of the state of a *Jew*, in servitude to sin, considered as under *mere law*. In [Romans 7:6](../../../kjv/romans/7/6) he gives a summary account of the state of a *Christian*, or believing Jew, and the advantages he enjoys under the Gospel. Upon [Romans 7:5](../../../kjv/romans/7/5) he comments, from [Romans 7:7-25](../../../kjv/romans/7/7-25), and upon [Romans 7:6](../../../kjv/romans/7/6) he comments, [Romans 8:1-11](../../../kjv/romans/8/1-11).
In explaining his position in [Romans 7:5](../../../kjv/romans/7/5) he shows:
1. That the law reaches to all the branches and latent principles of sin, [Romans 7:7](../../../kjv/romans/7/7).
2. That it subjected the sinner to death, [Romans 7:8-12](../../../kjv/romans/7/8-12), without the expectation of pardon.
3. He shows the reason why the Jew was put under it, [Romans 7:13](../../../kjv/romans/7/13).
4. He proves that the law, considered as a rule of action, though it was spiritual, just, holy, and good in itself, yet was insufficient for sanctification, or for freeing a man from the power of inbred sin.
For, as the prevalency of sensual appetites cannot wholly extinguish the voice of *reason* and *conscience*, a man may acknowledge the law to be holy, just, and good, and yet his *passions* reign within him, keeping him in the most painful and degrading servitude, while the law supplied no power to deliver him from them, [Romans 7:14-24](../../../kjv/romans/7/14-24), as that power can only be supplied by the grace of Jesus Christ, [Romans 7:25](../../../kjv/romans/7/25). See Taylor.
Verse [Romans 7:1](../../../kjv/romans/7/1). ***For I speak to them that know the law*** — This is a proof that the apostle directs this part of his discourse to the *Jews*.
***As long as he liveth?*** — Or, *as long as* It *liveth*; law does not extend its influence to the dead, nor do *abrogated* laws *bind*. It is all the same whether we understand these words as speaking of a law *abrogated*, so that it cannot command; or of its objects being dead, so that it has none to bind. In either case the *law* has no force.

Verse [Romans 7:2](../../../kjv/romans/7/2). ***For the woman which hath a husband*** — The apostle illustrates his meaning by a familiar instance. A married woman is bound to her husband while he lives; but when her husband is dead she is discharged from the law by which she was bound to him *alone*.

Verse [Romans 7:3](../../../kjv/romans/7/3). ***So then, if, while*****her*****husband liveth*** — The object of the apostle's similitude is to show that each party is equally bound to the other; but that the death of either dissolves the engagement.
***So - she is no adulteress, though she be married to another*** — And do not imagine that this change would argue any disloyalty in you to your Maker; for, as he has determined that this law of ordinances shall cease, you are no more bound to it than a woman is to a deceased husband, and are as free to receive the Gospel of Christ as a woman in such circumstances would be to remarry.

Verse [Romans 7:4](../../../kjv/romans/7/4). ***Wherefore, my brethren*** — This is a parallel case. You were once under the law of Moses, and were bound by its injunctions; but now ye are become dead to that law - a modest, inoffensive mode of speech, for, *The law, which was once your* *husband, is dead*; God has determined that it shall be no longer in force; so that now, as a woman whose husband is dead is freed from the law of that husband, or from her conjugal vow, and may legally be married to another, so God, who gave the law under which ye have hitherto lived, designed that it should be in force only till the advent of the Messiah; that advent *has* taken place, the *law* has consequently ceased, and now ye are called to take on you the yoke of the *Gospel*, and lay down the yoke of the law; and it is the design of God that you should do so.
***That ye should be married to another - who is raised from the**********dead*** — As *Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to* *every one that believeth*, the object of God in giving the law was to unite you to Christ; and, as he has died, he has not only abolished that law which condemns every transgressor to *death*, without any hope of a *revival*, but he has also made that atonement for sin, by his own death, which is represented in the sacrifices prescribed by the law. And as Jesus Christ is *risen again from* *the dead*, he has thereby given the fullest proof that by his death he has procured the resurrection of mankind, and made that atonement required by the law. *That we should bring forth fruit* *unto God* - we, Jews, who believe in Christ, have, in consequence of our *union* with him, received the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit; so that we bring forth that fruit of holiness unto God which, without this union, it would be impossible for us to produce. Here is a delicate allusion to the case of a promising and numerous progeny from a legitimate and happy marriage.

Verse [Romans 7:5](../../../kjv/romans/7/5). ***For, when we were in the flesh*** — When we were without the Gospel, in our carnal and unregenerated state, though believing in the law of Moses, and performing the *rites* and *offices* of our religion.
***The motions of sins, which were by the law*** — τα παθηματα των αμαρτιων, the *passions of sins*, the *evil propensities to sins*; to every particular sin there is a *propensity*: one propensity does not excite to all kinds of sinful acts; hence the apostle uses the *plural* number, *the* PASSIONS or *propensities of* SINS; sins being not more various than their *propensities* in the unregenerate heart, which excite to them. These παθηματα, *propensities*, constitute the *fallen nature*; they are the disease of the heart, the pollution and corruption of the soul.
***Did work in our members*** — The evil propensity acts εντοις μελεσιν, in the whole nervous and muscular system, applying that stimulus to every part which is necessary to excite them to action.
***To bring forth fruit unto death.*** — To produce those acts of transgression which subject the sinner to death, temporal and eternal. When the apostle says, *the motion of sin which were by* *the law*, he points out a most striking and invariable characteristic of sin, viz. its *rebellious nature*; it ever acts *against law*, and the most powerfully against *known* law. *Because* the law requires obedience, *therefore* it *will* transgress. The law is equally against *evil passions* and *evil actions*, and both these exert themselves against it. So, these motions which were by the law, became roused into the most powerful activity by the prohibitions of the law. They were comparatively dormant till the law said, *thou shalt* NOT *do this, thou shalt* DO *that*; then the *rebellious* principle in the evil *propensity* became roused, and *acts* of *transgression* and *omissions* of *duty* were the immediate consequences.

Verse [Romans 7:6](../../../kjv/romans/7/6). ***But now we are delivered from the law*** — We, who have believed in Christ Jesus, are delivered from that yoke by which we were bound, which sentenced every transgressor to *perdition*, but provided no *pardon* even for the *penitent*, and no *sanctification* for those who are weary of their inbred corruptions.
***That being dead wherein we were held*** — To us believers in Christ this commandment is abrogated; we are transferred to another constitution; that law which kills ceases to bind us; it is dead to us who have believed in Christ Jesus, who is the end of the law for justification and salvation to every one that believes.
***That we should serve in newness of spirit*** — We are now brought under a more spiritual dispensation; now we know the *spiritual* *import* of all the Mosaic precepts. We see that the law referred to the Gospel, and can only be fulfilled by the Gospel.
***The oldness of the letter.*** — The merely literal rites, ceremonies, and sacrifices are now done away; and the *newness of* *the spirit*, the true intent and meaning of all are now fully disclosed; so that we are got from an imperfect state into a state of perfection and excellence. We sought justification and sanctification, pardon and holiness, by the law, and have found that the law could not give them: we have sought these in the Gospel scheme, and we have found them. We serve God now, not according to the old literal sense, but in the true spiritual meaning.

Verse [Romans 7:7](../../../kjv/romans/7/7). ***Is the law sin?*** — The apostle had said, [Romans 7:6](../../../kjv/romans/7/6): *The motions of sins, which were by the law, did bring forth fruit* *unto death*; and now he anticipates an objection, "Is therefore the law sin?" To which he answers, as usual, μηγεςοιτο, *by no* *means*. Law is only the means of *disclosing*; this sinful propensity, not of *producing* it; as a bright beam of the sun introduced into a room shows; millions of motes which appear to be dancing in it in all directions; but these were not introduced by the light: they were there before, only there was not light enough to make them manifest; so the evil propensity was there before, but there was not light sufficient to discover it.
***I had not known sin, but by the law*** — Mr. Locke and Dr. Taylor have properly remarked the skill used by St. Paul in dexterously avoiding, as much as possible, the giving offence to the Jews: and this is particularly evident in his use of the word *I* in this place. In the beginning of the chapter, where he mentions their knowledge of the law, he says YE; in [Romans 7:4](../../../kjv/romans/7/4) the 4th verse he joins himself with them, and says *we*; but *here*, and so to the end of the chapter, where he represents the power of sin and the inability of the law to subdue it, he appears to leave *them* out, and speaks altogether in the *first* person, though it is plain he means all those who are under the law. So, [Romans 3:7](../../../kjv/romans/3/7), he uses the singular pronoun, *why am I judged a sinner*? when he evidently means the whole body of unbelieving Jews.
There is another circumstance in which his address is peculiarly evident; his demonstrating the insufficiency of the law under colour of vindicating it. He knew that the Jew would take fire at the least reflection on the law, which he held in the highest veneration; and therefore he very naturally introduces him catching at that expression, [Romans 7:5](../../../kjv/romans/7/5), *the motions of sins, which were by the law*, or, notwithstanding the law. "What!" says this Jew, "do you vilify the law, by charging it with favouring sin?" By no means, says the apostle; I am very far from charging the law with favouring sin. *The law* *is holy, and the commandment is holy, just, and good*, [Romans 7:12](../../../kjv/romans/7/12). Thus he writes in vindication of the law; and yet at the same time shows:
1. That the law requires the most extensive obedience, discovering and condemning sin in all its most secret and remote branches, [Romans 7:7](../../../kjv/romans/7/7).
2. That it gives sin a deadly force, subjecting every transgression to the *penalty of death*, [Romans 7:8-14](../../../kjv/romans/7/8-14). And yet,
3. supplies neither help nor hope to the sinner, but leaves him under the power of sin, and the sentence of death, [Romans 7:14](../../../kjv/romans/7/14), c. This, says Dr. Taylor, is the most ingenious turn of writing I ever met with. We have another instance of the same sort, [Romans 13:1-7](../../../kjv/romans/13/1-7).
It is not likely that a *dark, corrupt* human heart can *discern* the will of God. His *law* is his *will*. It *recommends* what is just, and right, and good and forbids what is improper, unjust, and injurious. If God had not revealed himself by this law, we should have done precisely what many nations of the earth have done, who have not had this revelation-put darkness for light, and sin for acts of holiness. While the human *heart* is its own *measure* it will rate its workings according to its own propensities for *itself* is its highest *rule*. But when God gives a true insight of his own perfections, to be applied as a *rule* both of *passion* and *practice*, then sin is discovered, and discovered too, to be *exceedingly sinful*. So strong propensities, because they appear to be inherent in our nature, would have passed for *natural* and *necessary operations*; and their *sinfulness* would not have been discovered, if the law had not said, *Thou* *shalt not covet*; and thus determined that the *propensity* itself, as well as its *outward operations*, is *sinful*. The law is the *straight edge* which determines the quantum of *obliquity* in the *crooked line* to which it is applied.
It is natural for man to do what is unlawful, and to desire especially to do that which is forbidden. The heathens have remarked this propensity in man.

Thus LIVY, xxxiv. 4:-

Luxuria-ipsis vinculis, sicut fera bestia, irtitata.

"Luxury, like a wild beast, is *irritated* by its very *bonds*."

*Audax omnia* perpeti
*Gens humana ruit per vetitun; nefas*.

"The presumptuous human race obstinately rush into *prohibited* acts of wickedness."
HOR. *Carm*. lib. i. Od. iii. ver. 25.

And OVID, *Amor*. lib. ii. Eleg. xix. ver. 3:-

Quod licet, ingratum est; quod non licet, acrius urit.

"What is *lawful* is *insipid*; the strongest propensity is excited towards that which is *prohibited*."

And again, Ib. lib. iii. E. iv. ver. 17:-

Nitimur in vetitum semper, cupimusque negata.

"Vice is provoked by every strong restraint,
Sick men long most to *drink*, who know they *mayn't*."

The same poet delivers the same sentiment it another place:-

Acrior admonitu est, irritaturque retenta
Et crescit rabies: remoraminaque ipsa nocebant.
METAM. lib. iii. ver. 566.

"Being admonished, he becomes the more obstinate; and his fierceness is irritated by restraints. Prohibitions become incentives to greater acts of vice."

But it is needless to multiply examples; this most wicked principle of a sinful, fallen nature, has been felt and acknowledged by ALL *mankind*.

Verse [Romans 7:8](../../../kjv/romans/7/8). ***Sin, taking occasion by the commandment*** — I think the pointing, both in this and in the 11th verse, to be wrong: the comma should be after *occasion*, and not after *commandment. But* *sin taking occasion, wrought in me by this commandment all manner* *of concupiscence*. There are different opinions concerning the meaning of the word αφορμη, which we here translate *occasion*. Dr. Waterland translates the clause, *Sin, taking* ADVANTAGE. Dr. Taylor contends that all commentators have mistaken the meaning of it, and that it should be rendered *having received* FORCE. For this acceptation of the word I can find no adequate authority except in its etymology-απο, *from*, and ορμη, *impetus*. The word appears to signify, in general, whatsoever is necessary for the completion or accomplishment of any particular purpose. Xenophon uses αφορμαιειςτονβιον to signify *whatever is* *necessary for the support of life*. There is a personification in the text: sin is, represented as a *murderer* watching for *life*, and snatching at every means and embracing every opportunity to carry his fell purpose into effect. The miserable sinner has a murderer, sin, within him; this murderer can only destroy life in *certain circumstances*; finding that the law condemns the object of his cruelty to death, he takes occasion from this to work in the soul all manner of concupiscence, evil and irregular desires and appetites of every kind, and, by thus increasing the evil, exposes the soul to more condemnation; and thus it is represented as being *slain*, [Romans 7:11](../../../kjv/romans/7/11). That is, the *law*, on the *evidence* of those *sinful dispositions*, and their corresponding *practices*, condemns the sinner to death: so that he is *dead in law*. Thus the very *prohibition*, as we have already seen in the preceding verse, becomes the instrument of exciting the evil propensity; for, although a sinner has the general propensity to do what is evil, yet he seems to feel most delight in transgressing *known* law: *stat pro ratione voluntas*; "I will do it, because I will."
***For without the law, sin was dead.*** — Where there is no law there is no transgression; for sin is the transgression of the law; and no fault can be imputed unto *death*, where there is no *statute* by which such a fault is made a *capital offence*.
Dr. Taylor thinks that χωριςνομον, *without the law*, means the *time* before the giving of the law from Mount Sinai, which took in the space of 430 years, during which time the people were under the Abrahamic covenant of grace; and *without the law* that was given on Mount Sinai, the sting of death, which is sin, had not power to slay the sinner; for, from the time that Adam sinned, the law was not *re-enacted* till it was given by Moses, [Romans 5:13](../../../kjv/romans/5/13). The Jew was then *alive*, because he was not under the law subjecting him to death for his transgressions; *but when the commandment* *came*, with the penalty of death annexed, *sin revived, and the Jew* *died*. Then the sting of death acquired *life*; and the Jew, upon the first transgression, was *dead in law*. Thus sin, the sting of death, received *force* or *advantage* to destroy by the commandment, [Romans 7:8](../../../kjv/romans/7/8); [Romans 7:11](../../../kjv/romans/7/11).
***All manner of concupiscence.*** — It *showed* what was *evil* and *forbade* it; and then the principle of *rebellion*, which seems essential to the very nature of sins rose up against the prohibition; and he was the more strongly incited to *disobey* in proportion as *obedience* was enjoined. Thus the apostle shows that the law had authority to *prohibit, condemn*, and *destroy*; but no *power* to *pardon* sin, *root out enmity*, or *save the soul*.
The word επιθυμια, which we render *concupiscence*, signifies simply *strong desire* of any kind; but in the New Testament, it is generally taken to signify *irregular* and *unholy desires*. Sin in the mind is the *desire* to *do*, or to *be*, what is *contrary* to the *holiness* and *authority* of GOD.
***For without the law, sin*****was*****dead.*** — This means, according to Dr. Taylor's hypothesis, the *time* previous to the giving of the law. See before. But it seems also consistent with the apostle's meaning, to interpret the place as implying the time in which Paul, in his unconverted Jewish state, had not the proper knowledge of the law-while he was unacquainted with its *spirituality*. He felt *evil desire*, but he did not know the *evil* of it; he did not consider that the law tried the *heart* and its *workings*, as well as *outward actions*. This is farther explained in the next verse.

Verse [Romans 7:9](../../../kjv/romans/7/9). ***I was alive without the law once*** — Dr. Whitby paraphrases the verse thus:-"For the seed of Abraham *was alive* *without the law once*, before the law was given, I being not obnoxious to death for that to which the law had not threatened death; *but when the commandment came*, forbidding it under that penalty, *sin revived, and I died*; i.e. it got strength to draw me to sin, and to condemn me to death. Sin is, in Scripture, represented as an enemy that seeks our ruin and destruction; and takes all occasions to effect it. It is here said *to war against* *the mind*, [Romans 7:23](../../../kjv/romans/7/23); elsewhere, *to war against the soul*, [1 Peter 2:11](../../../kjv/1-peter/2/11); to *surround* and *beset us*, [Hebrews 12:1](../../../kjv/hebrews/12/1); to *bring us into bondage* and subjection, and get the dominion over us, [Romans 6:12](../../../kjv/romans/6/12); to *entice us*, and so to work our death, [James 1:14-16](../../../kjv/james/1/14-16); and to do all that Satan, the grand enemy of mankind, doth, by tempting us to the commission of it. Whence *Chrysostom*, upon those words, [Hebrews 12:4](../../../kjv/hebrews/12/4): *Ye have not yet resisted unto blood*, προς την ἁμαρτιαν ανταγωνιζομενοι, *striving against sin*; represents sin as an *armed* and *flagrant adversary*. When, therefore, it finds a law which threatens death to the violater of it, it takes occasion thence more earnestly to tempt and allure to the violation of it, that so it may more effectually subject us to death and condemnation on that account; *for the sting of death is sin, and the strength of* *sin is the law*, condemning us to death for transgressing it. Thus, when God had forbidden, on pain of death, the eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge, Satan thence took occasion to tempt our first parents to transgress, and so *slew* them, or made them subject to death; εξηπατησε, he *deceived them*, [Genesis 3:13](../../../kjv/genesis/3/13); [1 Timothy 2:14](../../../kjv/1-timothy/2/14); which is the word used [Romans 7:11](../../../kjv/romans/7/11). The phrase, *without the law, sin* was *dead*, means, that sin was then (before the law was given) comparatively dead, as to its power of condemning to death; and this sense the antithesis requires; *without the law*, ἁμαρτια νεκρα, εγω δε εζων, *sin was dead, but I* *was living; but when the commandment came,* (i.e. the law,) *sin* *revived, and I died*. How were men living *before* the law, but because then no law condemned them? Sin, therefore, must be then *dead*, as to its condemning power. How did they die when the law came but by the law condemning them to death? Sin therefore *revived*, then, as to its power of condemning, which it received first from the *sin of Adam*, which brought death into the world; and next, from the *law of Moses*, which *entered that the offence* *might abound*, and reign more unto death, [Romans 5:20](../../../kjv/romans/5/20); [Romans 5:21](../../../kjv/romans/5/21). For though sin was in the world from Adam to Moses, or until the law was given, yet it was not imputed unto *death, when there was no* *law that did threaten death*; so that death reigned from that interval by virtue of *Adam's sin* alone; even over them who had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, i.e. against a positive law, forbidding it under the penalty of death; which law being delivered by Moses, *sin revived*; i.e. it had again its *force* to condemn men as before to death, by virtue of a law which threatened death. And in this sense the apostle seems to say, [Galatians 3:19](../../../kjv/galatians/3/19), *the law was added because of transgressions*, to convince us of the wrath and punishment due to them; and that *the law*, therefore, *worketh wrath*, because *where no law is there is no* *transgression*, [Romans 4:15](../../../kjv/romans/4/15), subjecting us to wrath; or no such sense of the Divine wrath as where a plain Divine law, threatening death and condemnation, is violated." See *Whitby*, in loco.

Verse [Romans 7:10](../../../kjv/romans/7/10). ***And the commandment*** — Meaning the *law* in general, *which* was ordained *to life*; the rule of righteousness teaching those statutes which if a man do he shall live in them, [Leviticus 18:5](../../../kjv/leviticus/18/5), I *found*, by transgressing it, *to be unto death*; for it only presented the *duty* and laid down the *penalty*, without affording any *strength* to resist sin or subdue evil propensities.

Verse [Romans 7:11](../../../kjv/romans/7/11). ***Sin, taking occasion*** — Sin, deriving strength from the law, threatening death to the transgressor, ([Romans 7:8](../../../kjv/romans/7/8),) *deceived me*, drew me aside to disobedience, promising me gratification honour, independence, c., as it promised to Eve for to her history the apostle evidently alludes, and uses the very same expression, deceived me, εξηπατησε με. See the preceding note; and see the Septuagint, [Genesis 3:13](../../../kjv/genesis/3/13).
***And by it slew*****me.**] Subjected me to that death which the law denounced against transgressors; and rendered me *miserable* during the course of life itself. It is well known to scholars that the verb αποκτεινειν signifies not only *to slay* or *kill*, but also to *make wretched*. Every sinner is not only exposed to *death* because he has sinned, and must, sooner or later, die; but he is *miserable* in both body and mind by the influence and the effects of sin. He lives a *dying life*, or a *living death*.

Verse [Romans 7:12](../../../kjv/romans/7/12). ***Wherefore the law*****is*****holy*** — As if he had said, to soothe his countrymen, to whom he had been showing the absolute insufficiency of the law either to justify or save from sin: I do not intimate that there is any thing *improper* or *imperfect* in the law as a *rule of life*: it prescribes what is *holy, just*, and *good;* for it comes from a holy, just, and good God. The LAW, which is to regulate the whole of the *outward conduct*, is holy; and the COMMANDMENT, *Thou shalt not covet*, which is to regulate the *heart*, is not less so. All is excellent and pure; but it neither pardons sin nor purifies the heart; and it is because it is holy, just, and good, that it condemns transgressors to *death*.

Verse [Romans 7:13](../../../kjv/romans/7/13). ***Was then that which is good made death unto me?*** — This is the question of the *Jew*, with whom the apostle appears to be disputing. "Do you allow the law to be *good*, and yet say it is the *cause* of our *death*?" The apostle answers:- *God forbid*! μη γενοιτο, by no means: it is not the *law* that is the *cause* of your death, but *sin*; it was sin which subjected us to death by the law, justly threatening sin with death: which law was given that sin might appear-might be set forth in its own colours; when we saw it subjected us to death by a law perfectly holy, just, and good; that sin, by the law, might be represented what it really is:- καθ' ὑπερβολην ἁμαρτωλος, an EXCEEDING GREAT and *deadly evil*.
Thus it appears that man cannot have a true notion of sin but by means of the law of God. For this I have already given sufficient reasons in the preceding notes. And it was one design of the law to show the abominable and destructive nature of sin, as well as to be a rule of life. It would be almost impossible for a man to have that just notion of the *demerit* of sin so as to produce repentance, or to see the nature and necessity of the death of Christ, if the law were not applied to his conscience by the light of the Holy Spirit; it is *then* alone that he sees himself to be carnal, and sold under sin; and that the law and the commandment are holy, just, and good. And let it be observed, that the law did not answer this end merely among the *Jews* in the *days of the apostle*; it is just as necessary to the *Gentiles* to the *present hour*. Nor do we find that true repentance takes place where the moral law is not preached and enforced. Those who preach only the *Gospel* to sinners, at best only heal the hurt of the daughter of my people *slightly*. The *law*, therefore, is the grand instrument in the hands of a faithful minister, to alarm and awaken sinners; and he may safely show that every sinner is *under* the law, and consequently under the curse, who has not fled for refuge to the hope held out by the Gospel: for, in this sense also, *Jesus Christ is the* END *of the* LAW *for justification to them* *that believe*.

Verse [Romans 7:14](../../../kjv/romans/7/14). ***For, we know that the law is spiritual*** — This is a general proposition, and probably, in the apostle's autograph, concluded the above sentence. The law is not to be considered as a system of *external rites* and *ceremonies*; nor even as a *rule of* *moral action*: it is a *spiritual system*; it reaches to the most hidden purposes, thoughts, dispositions, and desires of the heart and soul; and it reproves and condemns every thing, without hope of reprieve or pardon, that is contrary to eternal truth and rectitude.
***But I am carnal, sold under sin.*** — This was probably, in the apostle's letter, the beginning of a new paragraph. I believe it is agreed, on all hands, that the apostle is here demonstrating the insufficiency of the law in opposition to the Gospel. That by the *former* is the *knowledge*, by the latter the *cure, of sin*. Therefore by I here he cannot mean *himself*, nor any *Christian* *believer*: if the contrary could be proved, the argument of the apostle would go to demonstrate the insufficiency of the *Gospel* as well as the *law*.
It is difficult to conceive how the opinion could have crept into the Church, or prevailed there, that "the apostle speaks here of his *regenerate state*; and that what was, in such a state, true of himself, must be true of all others in the same state." This opinion has, most pitifully and most shamefully, not only lowered the standard of Christianity, but destroyed its influence and disgraced its character. It requires but little knowledge of the spirit of the Gospel, and of the scope of this epistle, to see that the apostle is, here, either personating a Jew under the law and without the Gospel, or showing what his own state was when he was deeply convinced that by the deeds of the law no man could be justified, and had not as yet heard those blessed words: *Brother* *Saul, the Lord Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way, hath* *sent me that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with* *the Holy Ghost*, [Acts 9:17](../../../kjv/acts/9/17).
In this and the following verses he states the contrariety between *himself*, or any Jew while without Christ, and the *law* of God. Of the latter he says, *it is spiritual*; of the former, *I am* *carnal, sold under sin*. Of the *carnal man*, in opposition to the *spiritual*, never was a more complete or accurate description given. The expressions, *in the flesh*, and *after the flesh*, in [Romans 7:5](../../../kjv/romans/7/5), and in [Romans 8:5](../../../kjv/romans/8/5); [Romans 8:8](../../../kjv/romans/8/8); [Romans 8:9](../../../kjv/romans/8/9), c., are of the same import with the word *carnal* in this verse. To be *in the flesh*, or to be *carnally minded*, solely respects the *unregenerate*. While unregenerate, a man is in a state of death and enmity against God, [Romans 8:6-9](../../../kjv/romans/8/6-9). This is St. Paul's own account of a *carnal man*. The soul of such a man has no authority over the appetites of the body and the lusts of the flesh: *reason* has not the government of *passion*. The work of such a *person* is *to make provision for the flesh, to* *fulfil the lusts thereof*, [Romans 13:14](../../../kjv/romans/13/14). *He minds the things of the flesh*, [Romans 8:5](../../../kjv/romans/8/5) he is at enmity with God. In all these things the *spiritual man* is the *reverse*; he lives in a state of *friendship* with God in Christ, and the Spirit of God dwells in him; his soul has dominion over the appetites of the body and the lusts of the flesh; his passions submit to the government of reason, and he, by the Spirit, mortifies the deeds of the flesh; *he mindeth the things of the Spirit*, [Romans 8:5](../../../kjv/romans/8/5). The Scriptures, therefore, place these two characters in direct opposition to each other. Now the apostle begins this passage by informing us that it is his *carnal state* that he is about to describe, in opposition to the spirituality of God's holy law, saying, *But I am carnal*.
Those who are of another opinion maintain that by the word *carnal* here the apostle meant that *corruption* which dwelt in him *after his conversion*; but this opinion is founded on a very great mistake; for, although there may be, after justification, the remains of the carnal mind, which will be less or more felt till the soul is completely sanctified, yet the man is never denominated from the *inferior* principle, which is under control, but from the superior principle which habitually prevails. Whatever epithets are given to *corruption* or *sin* in Scripture, opposite epithets are given to *grace* or *holiness*. By these different epithets are the *unregenerate* and *regenerate* denominated. From all this it follows that the epithet *carnal*, which is the characteristic designation of an unregenerate man, cannot be applied to St. Paul *after his conversion*; nor, indeed, to any *Christian* in that state.
But the word *carnal*, though used by the apostle to signify a state of death and enmity against God, is not sufficient to denote all the evil of the state which he is describing; hence he adds, *sold under sin*. This is one of the strongest expressions which the Spirit of God uses in Scripture, to describe the full depravity of fallen man. It implies a *willing slavery*: Ahab had *sold himself to work evil*, [1 Kings 21:20](../../../kjv/1-kings/21/20). And of the Jews it is said, in their utmost depravity, *Behold, for your iniquities have* *ye sold yourselves*, [Isaiah 50:1](../../../kjv/isaiah/50/1). *They forsook the holy covenant, and joined themselves to the* *heathen, and* WERE SOLD *to do mischief*, *1 Macc. i. 15*. Now, if the word *carnal*, in its strongest sense, had been sufficiently significant of all he meant, why add to this charge another expression still stronger? We must therefore understand the phrase, *sold under sin*, as implying that the soul was *employed* *in the drudgery of sin*; that it was *sold over* to this service, and had no power to disobey this tyrant, until it was redeemed by another. And if a man be actually sold to another, and he acquiesce in the deed, then he becomes the *legal property* of that other person. This state of bondage was well known to the Romans. The sale of slaves they saw daily, and could not misunderstand the emphatical sense of this expression. Sin is here represented as a *person*; and the apostle compares the dominion which sin has over the man in question to that of a master over his legal slave. Universally through the Scriptures man is said to be in a state of bondage to sin until the Son of God make him free: but in no part of the sacred writings is it ever said that the *children of God* are *sold under sin*. Christ came to deliver the lawful captive, and take away the prey from the mighty. *Whom the Son maketh free,* *they are free indeed*. Then, they *yield not up their members as* *instruments of unrighteousness unto sin; for sin shall not have* *the dominion over them*, because *the law of the Spirit of life in* *Christ Jesus has made them free from the law of sin and death*, [Romans 6:13](../../../kjv/romans/6/13); [Romans 6:14](../../../kjv/romans/6/14); [Romans 8:2](../../../kjv/romans/8/2). Anciently, when regular *cartels* were not known, the captives became the slaves of their victors, and by them were *sold* to any purchaser; their slavery was as complete and perpetual as if the slave had resigned his own liberty, and sold himself: the laws of the land secured him to his master; he could not redeem himself, because he had nothing that was *his own*, and nothing could rescue him from that state but a stipulated *redemption*. The apostle speaks here, not of the *manner* in which the person in question became a slave; he only asserts the fact, that sin had a full and permanent dominion over him.-*Smith*, on the carnal man's character.
***I am carnal, sold under sin.*** — I have been the more particular in ascertaining the genuine sense of this verse, because it determines the general scope of the whole passage.

Verse [Romans 7:15](../../../kjv/romans/7/15). ***For, that which I do, I allow not***, c.] The first clause of this verse is a general assertion concerning the employment of the person in question in the state which the apostle calls *carnal, and sold under sin*. The Greek word κατεργαξομαι which is here translated *I do*, means a *work* which the agent *continues* to *perform* till it is *finished*, and is used by the apostle, [Philippians 2:12](../../../kjv/philippians/2/12), to denote the *continued employment* of God's saints in his service to the end of their lives. WORK OUT *your own salvation* the word here denotes an employment of a *different* kind; and therefore the man who now feels the galling dominion of sin says, What I am *continually labouring* at *I allow not*, ου γινωσκω, *I do not* *acknowledge* to be right, just, holy, or profitable.
***But what I hate, that do I.*** — I am a *slave*, and under the absolute control of my tyrannical master: I hate his service, but am *obliged* to work his will. Who, without blaspheming, can assert that the apostle is speaking this of a man in whom the *Spirit of* *the Lord dwells*? From [Romans 7:7](../../../kjv/romans/7/7) to this one the apostle, says Dr. Taylor, denotes the *Jew in the flesh* by a single *I*; here, he divides that *I* into two *I's*, or figurative persons; representing two different and opposite principles which were in him. The one *I*, or principle, assents to the law that it is good, and wills and chooses what the other does not practise, [Romans 7:16](../../../kjv/romans/7/16). This principle he expressly tells us, [Romans 7:22](../../../kjv/romans/7/22), is the *inward man; the law of the mind*, [Romans 7:23](../../../kjv/romans/7/23); the *mind*, or rational faculty, [Romans 7:25](../../../kjv/romans/7/25); for he could find no other *inward man*, or *law of the mind*, but the rational faculty, in a person who was *carnal* and *sold under sin*. The other *I*, or principle, transgresses the law, [Romans 7:23](../../../kjv/romans/7/23), and does those things which the former principle *allows not*. This principle he expressly tells us, [Romans 7:18](../../../kjv/romans/7/18), is the *flesh*, the *law in the members*, or *sensual appetite*, [Romans 7:23](../../../kjv/romans/7/23); and he concludes in the last verse, that these two principles were opposite to each other; therefore it is evident that those two principles, residing and counteracting each other in the same person; are *reason* and *lust*, or *sin that dwells in us.* And it is very easy to distinguish these two *I's*, or principles, in every part of this elegant description of iniquity, domineering over the light and remonstrances of reason. For instance, [Romans 7:17](../../../kjv/romans/7/17): *Now then, it is no more I that do it, but* SIN *that dwelleth in me*. The *I* he speaks of here is opposed to indwelling or governing sin; and therefore plainly denotes the principle of reason, *the inward* *man*, or *law of the mind*; in which, I add, a measure of the light of the Spirit of God shines, in order to show the sinfulness of sin. These two different principles he calls, one *flesh*, and the other *spirit*, [Galatians 5:17](../../../kjv/galatians/5/17); where he speaks of their contrariety in the same manner that he does here.
And we may give a probable reason why the apostle dwells so long upon the struggle and opposition between these two principles; it appears intended to answer a tacit but very obvious objection. The Jew might allege: "But the law is holy and spiritual; and I assent to it as good, as a right rule of action, which ought to be observed; yea, I esteem it highly, I *glory* and *rest* in it, convinced of its truth and excellency. And is not this enough to constitute the law a sufficient principle of sanctification?" The apostle answers, "No; *wickedness* is consistent with a *sense* of *truth*. A man may assent to the best rule of action, and yet still be under the dominion of lust and sin; from which nothing can deliver him but a principle and power proceeding from the *fountain of life*."
The sentiment in this verse may be illustrated by quotations from the ancient heathens; many of whom felt themselves in precisely the same state, (and expressed it in nearly the same language,) which some most monstrously tell us was the state of this heavenly apostle, when vindicating the claims of the Gospel against those of the Jewish ritual! Thus OVID describes the conduct of a depraved man:-
The whole spirit of the sentiment is well summed up and expressed by St. *Chrysostom*: ὁταν τινος επιθυμωμεν, ειτε κωλυωμεθα, αιρεται μαλλον της επιθυμιας ἡ φλοξ. If we lust after any thing which is afterwards prohibited, the flame of this desire burns the more *fiercely*.

Verse [Romans 7:16](../../../kjv/romans/7/16). ***If then I do that which I would not***, c.] Knowing that the law condemns it, and that therefore it must be *evil*. *I consent unto the law* I show by this circumstance that I acknowledge the law to be good.

Verse 17. ***Now then it is no more I*** — It is not that *I* which constitutes *reason* and *conscience, but sin*-corrupt and sensual inclinations, *that dwelleth in me*-that has the entire domination over my reason, darkening my understanding, and perverting my judgment; for which there is *condemnation* in the law, but no *cure*. So we find here that there is a principle in the unregenerate man stronger than *reason* itself; a principle which is, properly speaking, not of the *essence of the soul*, but acts *in* it, as its *lord*, or as a *tyrant*. This is *inbred* and *indwelling sin*-the *seed of the serpent*; by which the whole soul is darkened, confused, perverted, and excited to rebellion against God.

Verse 18. ***For I know that in me***, c.] I have learned by experience that in an unregenerate man there is *no good*. There is no principle by which the soul can be brought into the light no principle by which it can be *restored* to purity: fleshly appetites alone prevail; and the *brute* runs away with the *man*.
***For to will is present with me*** — Though the whole soul has suffered indescribably by the FALL, yet there are some faculties that appear to have suffered less than others; or rather have received larger measures of the supernatural light, because their concurrence with the Divine principle is so necessary to the salvation of the soul. Even the most unconcerned about spiritual things have *understanding, judgment, reason*, and *will*. And by means of these we have seen even scoffers at Divine revelation become very eminent in arts and sciences; some of our best metaphysicians, physicians, mathematicians, astronomers, chemists, c., have been known-to their reproach be it spoken and published-to be *without religion* nay, some of them have blasphemed it, by leaving God out of his own work, and ascribing to an idol of their own, whom they call *nature*, the operations of the wisdom, power, and goodness of the Most High. It is true that many of the most eminent in all the above branches of knowledge have been conscientious believers in Divine revelation; but the case of the others proves that, *fallen* as man is, he yet possesses extra-ordinary powers, which are capable of very high cultivation and improvement. In short, the soul seems capable of *any thing* but *knowing, fearing, loving*, and *serving God*. And it is not only incapable, *of itself*, for any truly religious acts; but what shows its fall in the most indisputable manner is its *enmity* to sacred things. Let an unregenerate man *pretend* what he pleases, his conscience knows that he *hates religion*; his *soul revolts against* *it*; his *carnal mind is not subject to the law of God, neither* *indeed can it be*. There is no reducing this fell principle to subjection; it is SIN, and *sin* is *rebellion* against God; therefore sin must be *destroyed*, not *subjected*; if *subjected*, it would *cease to be sin*, because *sin* is in *opposition* to God: hence the apostle says, most conclusively, *it cannot be subjected*, i.e. it must be *destroyed*, or it will destroy the soul for ever. When the apostle says, *to will is present with me*, he shows that the *will* is on the side of God and truth, so far that it consents to the *propriety* and *necessity* of obedience. There has been a strange clamour raised up against this faculty of the soul, as if the very essence of evil dwelt in it; whereas the apostle shows, throughout this chapter, that the *will* was regularly on God's side, while every other faculty appears to have been in *hostility* to him. The truth is, men have confounded the *will* with the *passions*, and laid to the charge of the *former* what properly belongs to the *latter*. The *will* is *right*, but the *passions* are *wrong*. It *discerns* and *approves*, but is without *ability* to *perform*: it has no power over sensual appetites; in these the principle of *rebellion* dwells: it *nills* evil, it *wills* good, but can only *command* through the power of Divine grace: but this the person in question, the unregenerate man, has not received.

Verse 19. ***For the good that I would I do not*** — Here again is the most decisive proof that the *will* is on the side of God and truth.
***But the evil which I would not*** — And here is equally decisive proof that the will is against, or opposed to evil. There is not a man in ten millions, who will carefully watch the operations of this faculty, that will find it opposed to good and obstinately attached to evil, as is generally supposed. Nay, it is found almost uniformly on God's side, while the whole sensual system is against him.-It is not the WILL that leads men astray; but the corrupt PASSIONS which oppose and oppress the *will*. It is truly astonishing into what endless mistakes men have fallen on this point, and what *systems of divinity* have been built on these mistakes. The *will*, this almost only *friend* to God in the human soul, has been slandered as God's *worst enemy*, and even by those who had the *seventh* chapter to the Romans before their eyes! Nay, it has been considered so fell a foe to God and goodness that it is bound in the adamantine chains of a dire necessity to do *evil* *only*; and the doctrine of *will* (absurdly called *free will*, as if *will* did not essentially imply what is *free*) has been considered one of the most destructive heresies. Let such persons put themselves to school to their *Bibles* and to *common sense*.
The plain state of the case is this: the soul is so completely fallen, that it has no *power* to *do good* till it receive that power from on high. But it has power to *see* good, to *distinguish* between *that* and *evil*; to *acknowledge* the excellence of this good, and to *will* it, from a conviction of that excellence; but *farther* it cannot go. Yet, in various cases, it is solicited and *consents* to sin; and because it is *will*, that is, because it is a *free principle*, it must necessarily possess this power; and although it can do no good unless it receive grace from God, yet it is impossible to *force* it to sin. Even Satan himself cannot do this; and before he can get it to *sin*, he must gain its *consent*. Thus God in his endless mercy has endued this faculty with a power in which, humanly speaking, resides the *salvability* of the soul; and without this the soul must have eternally continued *under the* *power of sin*, or been saved as an inert, absolutely passive machine; which supposition would go as nearly to prove that it was as incapable of vice as it were of virtue.
"But does not this arguing destroy the doctrine of free grace?" No! it establishes that doctrine.
1. It is through the grace, the unmerited kindness, of God, that the soul has such a faculty, and that it has not been extinguished by sin.
2. This will, though a *free principle*, as it respects its *nilling* of *evil* and *choosing* good, yet, properly speaking, has *no power* by which it can *subjugate* the *evil* or *perform* the *good*.
We know that the *eye* has a power to discern objects, but without *light* this power is perfectly useless, and no object can be discerned by it. So, of the person represented here by the apostle, it is said, *To will* *is present with me*, το γαρ θελειν παρακειται μοι. *To will is ever* *in readiness*, it is *ever at hand, it lies constantly before me;* *but how to perform that which is good, I find not*; that is, the man is unregenerate, and he is seeking justification and holiness from the *law*. The law was never designed to give these-it gives the *knowledge*, not the *cure of sin*; therefore, though he *nills* *evil* and *wills good*, yet he can neither *conquer* the *one* nor *perform* the *other* till he receives the grace of Christ, till he seeks and finds redemption in his blood. Here, then, the *free* *agency* of *man* is *preserved*, without which he could not be in a *salvable state*; and the *honour* of the *grace of Christ* is maintained, without which there can be no actual salvation. There is a good sentiment on this subject in the following words of an eminent poet:-
POPE'S *Universal Prayer.*

Verse [Romans 7:20](../../../kjv/romans/7/20). ***It is no more I*** — My *will* is against it; my *reason* and *conscience* condemn it. *But sin that dwelleth in me*-the *principle of sin*, which has possessed itself of all my *carnal* *appetites* and *passions*, and thus subjects my reason and domineers over my soul. Thus I am in perpetual contradiction to myself. Two principles are continually contending in me for the mastery: my *reason*, on which the light of God shines, to show what is evil; and my *passions*, in which the *principle of sin* works, to bring forth fruit unto death.
This strange self-contradictory propensity led some of the ancient philosophers to imagine that man has *two souls*, a *good* and a *bad* one; and it is on this principle that *Xenophon*, in his *life* *of Cyrus*, causes *Araspes*, a Persian nobleman, to account for some misconduct of his relative to *Panthea*, a beautiful female captive, whom *Cyrus* had entrusted to his care:-"O Cyrus, I am convinced that I have *two souls*; if I had but *one soul*, it could not at the same time pant after *vice* and *virtue; wish* and *abhor* the *same* *thing*. It is certain, therefore, that we have *two* souls; when the *good soul* rules, I undertake noble and virtuous actions; but when the *bad soul* predominates, I am constrained to do evil. All I can say at present is that I find my *good* soul, encouraged by thy presence, has got the better of my *bad* soul." See Spectator, vol. viii. No. 564. Thus, not only the *ancients*, but also many *moderns*, have trifled, and all will continue to do so who do not acknowledge the Scriptural account of the *fall of man*, and the lively comment upon that doctrine contained in the *seventh chapter* *of the Epistle to the Romans*.

Verse [Romans 7:21](../../../kjv/romans/7/21). ***I find then a law*** — I am in such a condition and state of soul, under the power of such habits and sinful propensities, *that when I would do good*-when my *will* and *reason* are strongly bent on obedience to the law of God and opposition to the principle of sin, *evil is present with me*, κακον παρακειται, *evil is at hand, it lies constantly before me*. That, as the *will* to do good is *constantly at hand*, [Romans 7:18](../../../kjv/romans/7/18), so the principle of *rebellion* exciting me to sin is *equally present*; but, as the one is only *will, wish*, and *desire*, without *power* to *do* what is *willed*, to *obtain* what is *wished*, or to *perform* what is *desired*, sin continually prevails.
The word νομος, *law*, in this verse, must be taken as implying any *strong* or *confirmed habit*, συνηθεια, as *Hesychius* renders it, under the influence of which the man *generally acts*; and in this sense the apostle most evidently uses it in [Romans 7:23](../../../kjv/romans/7/23).

Verse [Romans 7:22](../../../kjv/romans/7/22). ***I delight in the law of God after the inward man*** — Every *Jew*, and every *unregenerate man*, who receives the Old Testament as a revelation from God, must acknowledge the great purity, excellence and utility of its *maxims*, c., though he will ever find that without the *grace of our Lord Jesus* he can never *act* according to those heavenly maxims and without the *mercy* of God, can never be redeemed from the *curse* entailed upon him for his past transgressions. To say that the *inward man* means the *regenerate part* of the soul, is supportable by no argument. Ὁ εσω ανθρωπος, and ὁ εντος ανθρωπος, especially the *latter*, are expressions frequently in use among the purest Greek ethic writers, to signify the *soul* or *rational* part of man, in opposition to the *body* of *flesh*. See the quotations in Wetstein from *Plato* and *Plotinus*. The Jews have the same form of expression; so in *Yalcut Rubeni*, fol. 10, 3, it is said: *The flesh* *is the inward garment of the man; but the* SPIRIT *is the* INWARD *man, the garment of which is the body*; and St. Paul uses the phrase in precisely the *same sense* in [2 Corinthians 4:16](../../../kjv/2-corinthians/4/16), and [Ephesians 3:16](../../../kjv/ephesians/3/16). If it be said that it is impossible for an unregenerate man *to* *delight in the law of God*, the experience of millions contradicts the assertion. Every true *penitent* admires the moral law, longs most earnestly for a conformity to it, and feels that he can never be satisfied till he awakes up after this Divine likeness; and he hates himself, because he feels that he has *broken* it, and that his evil passions are still in a state of *hostility* to it. ([Romans 7:22-25](../../../kjv/romans/7/22-25) (note))
The following observations of a pious and sensible writer on this subject cannot be unacceptable: "The *inward man* always signifies the *mind*; which either may, or may not, be the subject of grace. That which is asserted of either the *inward* or *outward* *man* is often performed by *one member* or *power*, and not with the *whole*. If any member of the body perform an *action*, we are said to do it with the *body*, although the other members be not employed. In like manner, if any *power* or *faculty* of the mind be employed about any action, the *soul* is said to act. This expression, therefore, *I delight in the law of God after the* *inward man*, can mean no more than this, that there are some *inward* *faculties* in the soul which delight in the law of God. This expression is particularly adapted to the principles of the *Pharisees*, of whom St. Paul was one before his conversion. They received the law as the oracles of God, and confessed that it deserved the most serious regard. Their veneration was inspired by a sense of its original, and a full conviction that it was true. To some parts of it they paid the most superstitious regard. They had it written upon their *phylacteries*, which they carried about with them at all times. It was often read and expounded in their synagogues: and they took delight in studying its precepts. On that account, both the prophets and our Lord agree in saying that *they delighted in the law of God*, though they regarded not its chief and most essential precepts." See farther observations on this point at the end of the chapter.
So far, then, is it from being true that *none but a* REGENERATE *man can delight in the law of God*, we find that even a *proud,* *unhumbled* PHARISEE can do it; and much more a *poor sinner*, who is humbled under a sense of his sin, and sees, in the light of God, not only the *spirituality*, but the *excellence* of the Divine law.

Verse [Romans 7:23](../../../kjv/romans/7/23). ***But I see another law in my members*** — Though the person in question is less or more under the continual influence of *reason* and *conscience*, which offer constant testimony against sin, yet as long as help is sought only from the *law*, and the grace of Christ in the Gospel is not received, the remonstrances of reason and conscience are rendered of no effect by the prevalence of sinful passions; which, from repeated gratifications, have acquired all the force of *habit*, and now *give* *law* to the whole carnal man.
***Warring against the law of my mind*** — There is an allusion here to the case of a *city besieged*, at last *taken by storm*, and the inhabitants carried away into captivity; αντιστρατευομενον, carrying on a *system of warfare*; laying *continual siege* to the soul; *repeating incessantly* its *attacks; harassing, battering*, and *storming* the spirit; and, by all these *assaults*, reducing the man to *extreme misery*. Never was a picture more impressively drawn and more effectually finished; for the next sentence shows that this spiritual city was at last taken by storm, and the inhabitants who survived the sackage led into the most shameful, painful, and oppressive captivity.
***Bringing me into captivity to the law of sin*** — He does not here speak of an *occasional advantage* gained by sin, it was a *complete* and final victory gained by corruption; which, having stormed and reduced the city, carried away the inhabitants with irresistible force, into captivity. This is the consequence of being overcome; he was now in the hands of the foe as the victor's lawful captive; and this is the import of the original word, αιχμαλωτιζοντα, and is the very term used by our Lord when speaking of the final ruin, dispersion, and captivity of the Jews. He says, αιχμαλωτισθησονται, *they shall be led away captives* into all the nations, [Luke 21:24](../../../kjv/luke/21/24). When all this is considered, who, in his right mind, can apply it to the holy soul of the apostle of the Gentiles? Is there any thing in it that can belong to his *gracious* state? Surely nothing. The *basest slave of sin*, who has any remaining checks of conscience, cannot be brought into a *worse* state than that described here by the apostle. Sin and corruption have a *final* *triumph*; and *conscience* and *reason* are taken *prisoners, laid* *in fetters*, and *sold for slaves*. Can this ever be said of a man in whom the Spirit of God dwells, and whom *the law of the Spirit* *of life in Christ Jesus has made free from the law of sin and* *death*? See [Romans 8:2](../../../kjv/romans/8/2).

Verse [Romans 7:24](../../../kjv/romans/7/24). ***O wretched man that I am***, c.] This affecting account is finished more impressively by the *groans* of the *wounded* captive. Having long maintained a useless conflict against innumerable hosts and irresistible might, he is at last *wounded* and taken prisoner and to render his state more miserable, is not only encompassed by the slaughtered, but *chained to a dead body*; for there seems to be here an allusion to an ancient custom of certain tyrants, who bound a *dead body* to a *living man*, and obliged him to carry it about, till the contagion from the putrid mass took away his life! *Virgil* paints this in all its horrors, in the account he gives of the tyrant Mezentius. *AEneid*, lib. viii. ver. 485.
We may naturally suppose that the cry of such a person would be, *Wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this dead* *body*? And how well does this apply to the case of the person to whom the apostle refers! A *body*-a whole *mass of sin* and *corruption*, was *bound to his soul* with *chains* which he could not break and the mortal *contagion*, transfused through his whole nature, was pressing him down to the bitter pains of an eternal death. He now finds that the *law* can afford him no deliverance; and he despairs of help from any *human being*; but while he is emitting his *last*, or *almost expiring groan*, the *redemption* by Christ Jesus is proclaimed to him; and, if the apostle refers to his *own case*, Ananias unexpectedly accosts him with-*Brother Saul!* *the Lord Jesus, who appeared unto thee in the way, hath sent me* *unto thee, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled* *with the Holy Ghost*. He sees then an open door of hope, and he immediately, though but in the *prospect* of this deliverance, returns God thanks for the well-grounded *hope* which he has of salvation, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Verse [Romans 7:25](../../../kjv/romans/7/25). ***I thank God through Jesus Christ*** — Instead of ευχαριστω τῳ Θεῳ, *I thank God*, several excellent MSS., with the *Vulgate*, some copies of the *Itala*, and several of the *fathers*, read ἡ χαρις του Θεου, or του Κυριου, *the grace of God*, or *the* *grace of our Lord Jesus Christ*; this is an *answer* to the almost despairing question in the preceding verse. The whole, therefore, may be read thus: *O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me* *from the body of this death*? ANSWER-*The grace of God through our* *Lord Jesus Christ*. Thus we find that a case of the kind described by the apostle in the preceding verses, whether it were *his own*, before he was brought to the knowledge of Christ, particularly during the three days that he was at Damascus, without being able to eat or drink, in deep penitential sorrow; or whether he personates a *pharisaic* yet *conscientious Jew*, deeply concerned for his salvation: I say, we find that such a case can be relieved by the Gospel of Christ only; or, in other words, that no scheme of redemption can be effectual to the salvation of any soul, whether *Jew* or *Gentile*, but that laid down in the Gospel of Christ.
Let any or all means be used which human wisdom can devise, *guilt* will still continue *uncancelled*; and *inbred sin* will laugh them all to scorn, prevail over them, and finally triumph. And this is the very conclusion to which the apostle brings his argument in the following clause; which, like the rest of the chapter, has been most awfully abused, to favour *anti-evangelical* purposes.
***So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God*** — That this clause contains the *inference* from the preceding train of argumentation appears evident, from the αρα ουν, *therefore*, with which the apostle introduces it. As if he had said: "To conclude, the sum of what I have advanced, concerning the *power of sin* in the *carnal man*, and the utter *insufficiency* of all *human means* and *legal observances* to pardon sin and expel the corruption of the heart, is this: that the very same person, the αυτος εγω, *the* *same I*, while without the Gospel, under the killing power of the law, will find in himself *two opposite principles*, the one subscribing to and approving the law of God; and the other, notwithstanding, bringing him *into captivity* to sin: his *inward* *man*-his *rational powers* and *conscience*, will assent to the *justice* and *propriety* of the requisitions of the law; and yet, notwithstanding this, his *fleshly appetites*-the *law in his* *members*, will *war against the law of his mind*, and continue, till he receives the Gospel of Christ, to keep him in the galling captivity of sin and death."
1. THE strong expressions in this clause have led many to conclude that the *apostle* himself, in his *regenerated state*, is indisputably *the person* intended. That all that is said in this chapter of the *carnal man, sold under sin*, did apply to *Saul of* *Tarsus*, no man can doubt: that what is here said can ever be with propriety applied to *Paul the Apostle*, who can believe? Of the former, all is natural; of the latter, all here said would be monstrous and absurd, if not blasphemous.
2. But it is supposed that the words must be understood as implying a *regenerate man*, because the apostle says, [Romans 7:22](../../../kjv/romans/7/22), *I delight in the law of God*; and in this verse, *I myself with* *the mind serve the law of God*. These things, say the objectors, cannot be spoken of a wicked Jew, but of a *regenerate* man such as the apostle then was. But when we find that the former verse speaks of a man who is *brought into captivity to the law of sin* *and death*, surely there is no part of the regenerate state of the apostle to which the words can possibly apply. Had he been in captivity to the law of sin and death, *after* his conversion to Christianity, what did he gain by that conversion? *Nothing* for his personal holiness. He had found no salvation under an inefficient law; and he was left in thraldom under an equally inefficient Gospel. The very genius of Christianity demonstrates that nothing like this can, with any propriety, be spoken of a *genuine Christian*.
3. But it is farther supposed that these things cannot be spoken of a proud or wicked Jew; yet we learn the contrary from the infallible testimony of the word of God. Of this people in their *fallen* and iniquitous state, God says, by his prophet, *They* SEEK *me* DAILY, *and* DELIGHT *to know my ways, as a nation that did* RIGHTEOUSNESS, *and* FORSOOK *not the* ORDINANCES *of their God: they* *ask of me the ordinances of* JUSTICE, *and* TAKE DELIGHT *in* *approaching to God*, [Isaiah 58:2](../../../kjv/isaiah/58/2). Can any thing be *stronger* than this? And yet, at that time, they were *most dreadfully carnal*, and *sold under sin*, as the rest of that chapter proves. It is a most notorious fact, that how little soever the life of a Jew was conformed to the law of his God, he notwithstanding professed the highest *esteem* for it, and *gloried* in it: and the apostle says nothing stronger of them in this chapter than their *conduct* and *profession* verify to the *present* *day*. They are still *delighting in the law of God*, after the *inward man; with their mind serving the law of God; asking for the* *ordinances of justice, seeking God daily*, and *taking delight in* *approaching to God*; they even *glory*, and greatly *exult* and *glory*, in the Divine *original* and *excellency* of their LAW; and all this while they are most abominably *carnal, sold under sin*, and *brought into the most degrading captivity to the law of sin and* *death*. If then all that the apostle states of the person in question be true of the *Jews*, through the whole period of their history, even to the *present time*; if they do in all their *professions* and their *religious services*, which they zealously maintain, confess, and conscientiously too, that the *law is holy*, and the *commandment holy, just*, and *good*; and yet, with their *flesh, serve the law of sin*; the same certainly may be said with equal propriety of a *Jewish penitent*, deeply convinced of his lost estate, and the total insufficiency of his legal observances to deliver him from his *body of sin and death*. And consequently, all this may be said of *Paul the* JEW, while *going about to establish* *his own righteousness*-his own plan of justification; he had not as yet *submitted to the righteousness of God*-the Divine plan of redemption by Jesus Christ.
4. It must be allowed that, whatever was the *experience* of so eminent a man, Christian, and apostle, as St. Paul, it must be a very proper *standard of Christianity*. And if we are to take what is here said as *his experience* as a *Christian*, it would be presumption in *us* to expect to go higher; for he certainly had pushed the principles of his religion to their utmost consequences. But his whole life, and the account which he immediately gives of himself in the succeeding chapter, prove that he, as a *Christian* and an *apostle*, had a *widely different* *experience*; an experience which amply justifies that *superiority* which he attributes to the *Christian* religion over the *Jewish*; and demonstrates that it not only is well calculated to *perfect* all preceding dispensations, but that it affords *salvation to the* *uttermost* to all those who flee for refuge to the hope that it sets before them. Besides, there is nothing spoken here of the state of a *conscientious Jew*, or of St. *Paul* in his *Jewish state*, that is not true of every genuine *penitent*; even *before*, and it may be, *long before*, he has believed in Christ to the saving of his soul. The assertion that "every Christian, howsoever advanced in the Divine life, will and must feel all this inward conflict," c., is as *untrue* as it is *dangerous*. That many, called *Christians*, and probably *sincere*, do feel all this, may be readily granted and such we must consider to be in the same state with *Saul of Tarsus*, previously to his conversion; but that they must *continue* thus is no where intimated in the Gospel of Christ. We must take heed how we make *our experience*, which is the result of our *unbelief* and *unfaithfulness*, the *standard* for the people of God, and lower down *Christianity* to our most reprehensible and *dwarfish* state: at the same time, we should not be *discouraged* at what we thus feel, but apply to God, through Christ, as Paul did; and then we shall soon be able, with him, to declare, to the eternal glory of *God's grace*, that *the law of the Spirit of life,* *in Christ Jesus, has made us free from the law of sin and death*. This is the inheritance of God's children; and their salvation is of me, saith the Lord.
I cannot conclude these observations without recommending to the notice of my readers a learned and excellent discourse on the latter part of this chapter, preached by the Rev. *James Smith*, minister of the Gospel in *Dumfermline*, Scotland; a work to which I am indebted for some useful observations, and from which I should have been glad to have copied much, had my limits permitted. Reader, do not plead for Baal; try, fully try, the efficiency of the blood of the covenant; and be not content with less salvation than God has provided for thee. Thou art not straitened in God, be not straitened in thy own bowels.

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