Ver. 1. There is therefore now] Now, after such bloody wounds and gashes, chronicled Romans 7. Though carried captive, and sold under sin, yet not condemned, as might well have been expected. This the apostle doth here worthily admire. No condemnation] Non una condemnatio; ουδεν κατακριμα, not one condemnation. There is none in heaven, God doth not condemn them: none on earth, their own heart and conscience doth not condemn them: no word, no commandment, no threatening. An unbeliever shall have a doubl e condemnation; one from the law which he hath transgressed, and another from the gospel, which he hath despised: as a malefactor, that being condemned and dead in law, rejecteth his prince’s pardon. But it is otherwise with those that are in Christ Jesus. The law cannot condemn them, because they have appealed: the gospel cannot, because they have believed. God will “cast out condemnation for ever,” as one renders that place, Matthew 12:10, εως αν εκβαλη εις νικος την κρισιν. (Lud. de Dieu.)
Ver. 2. For the law of the Spirit] That is, Christ revived and risen hath justified me. [See Trapp on “Ro 4:25”]
Ver. 3. It was weak through the flesh] Which was irritated by the law, and took occasion thereby. In the likeness of sinful flesh] Christ condescended to our rags, sordes nostras induit, took our passions and infirmities natural, but not sinful. He was in all things like unto us, but in sin: as the brazen serpent was like the fiery serpents, but only it had no sting.
Ver. 4. Might be fulfilled] In us applicative, in Christ inhaesive.
Ver. 5. Do mind the things] For want of a better principle. The stream riseth not above the spring.
Ver. 6. To be carnally] The quintessence of the flesh’s wittiness, or rather wickedness, φρονημα.
Ver. 7. Because the carnal mind] The best of a bad man is not only averse, but utterly adverse to all goodness. Homo est inversus decalogus, Job 11:12, an ass’s foal for rudeness, a wild ass’s for unruliness. Neither indeed can be] Spiritual arguments to a carnal heart are but warm clothes to a dead man. He hath brought a miserable necessity of sinning upon himself: his soul and all the powers thereof being but the shop of sin; his body and all the parts thereof tools of sin; his life and all his actions of both soul and body a trade of sin.
Ver. 8. Cannot please God] Their best works are but dead works, saith the author to the Hebrews; but silken sins, saith Augustine. Lombard citeth that Father, saying thus, Omnis vita infidelium peccatum est: et nihil bonum sine summe bone. The whole life of unbelievers is sin: neither is there anything good without the chiefest good. Ambrose Spiera, a Popish postiller, censureth this for a bloody sentence, Crudelis est illa sententia, Harsh is that opinion, saith he.
Ver. 9. He is none of his] As the merchant sets his seal upon his goods, so doth God his Spirit upon all his people, Ephesians 1:13.
Ver. 10. The body is dead] Death to the saints is neither total, but of the body only, nor perpetual, but for a season only, Romans 8:11.
Ver. 11. Your mortal bodies] As he hath already quickened your souls.
Ver. 12. Not to the flesh] We owe the flesh nothing but stripes, nothing but the blue eye that St Paul gave it. It must be mastered and mortified. Drive this Hagar out of doors, when once it grows haughty.
Ver. 13. If we live after the flesh] We must not think to pass E coeno ad Caelum, from the mire to heaven, to dance with the devil all day, and sup with Christ at night, to fly to heaven with pleasant wings. Beetles love dunghills better than ointments; and swine love mud better than a garden; so do swinish people their lusts, better than the lives of their souls. At Paris ut vivat regnetque beatus, Cogi posse negat. (Horat.) That carnal cardinal said, that he would not part with his part in Paris for Paradise. But if ye mortify the deeds, &c.] Either a man must kill here, or be killed, Aut fer, aut feri, as Queen Elizabeth often sighed and said to herself concerning the Queen of Scots. Valentinian the emperor dying, gloried about one victory above the rest, and that was his victory over the flesh. Inimicorum nequissimum devici, carnem meam, said he. Be always an enemy to the devil and the world, but specially to your own flesh, said Robert Smith, martyr, in a letter to his wife. Surely, as the Prince of Orange said to his soldiers at the battle of Newport when they had the sea on the one side and the Spaniards on the other; If, saith he, you will live, you must either eat up these Spaniards, or drink up this sea; so must men either eat up their fleshly lusts, or drink of the burning lake: Fire and brimstone shall be else the portion of their cup, Psalms 11:6.