Romans 7

Romans 7:1

FOr I speak,] he speaks this to shew that hee did specially direct his speech to the Iews, who in all reason should have bin best instructed in al the effects of the law. Now all this is to declare and confirm what he had spoken Romans 6:14. that believers are no more under the law; and the effect of sanctification no more then the benefit of justification, cannot be expected nor hoped for by the law, but onely by Gods grace in Christ, The law,] this may be understood of all laws, obligations, or personal covenants, the power whereof ceaseth upon dead men, as the marriage bond doth, which is the strictest of all.

Romans 7:2

From the laws,] from the tye of marriage, and from that bond wherein right she was tied to her husband.

Romans 7:4

Ye also,] Christ hath ingrafted us into his mistical body, and hath appropriated us unto himself to be the sole master of our consciences, and the beginning of spiritual life in us, by vertue of his resurrection, by which he was really made the head of his Church, & hath received the fulnesse of his spirit, to distribe it unto the Church, and produce in it the resemblance of his resurrection. Ro. 6 4. and so he hath losed us from the hard command of the law, which only condemned our consciences, and by its inexorable vigor, and impossible instances did drive men to desperate rebellion, are become,] al this former right which the law had to condemne, and the power of kindling sin, is annihilated in your behalfe even as if you were dead. Romans 6:7. V. 5 For when,] it was convenient that wee should be thus appropriated to Christ to obtaine the end of directing our actions to God and to his service for whilest we were in our natural corrupted state, having no other guide but the law the perverse affections, which are the roots of sinnes, being pricked forward, rather then corrected or repressed by the law, did produce their effects in all the parts of our soule, whereupon there grw nothing else but multiplication of causes of death By the law,] because it did exasperate and inflame that which it could not correct, even as one contrary which is not able to overcome the other contrary, doth strengthen it. 1. Cor. 15. 56 In any members,] Se Romans 6:13.

Romans 7:6

Delivered,] freed from that harshnesse of the law, by which sinne being brought to dispaire, did kindle more and more Wherein,] namely in sin. Romans 6:2. whereupon the kingdome of sin being destroyed in beleivers, the aforesaid accidentall effect of the law doth also cease, namely of provoking the malignity of it, Hold,] like slaves in iros Should serve,] namely God,In newnesse, moved and driven thereunto by this new power of the holy Ghost, whereas the law did nothing but shew man his duty, as in writing or picture, without giving him any lively and effectual power therefore, whereupon this old means of righteousnesse and holinesse hath been annihilated as impotent and unprofitable.

Romans 7:7

Is the,] that is to say, is the law cause of sin, or hath it any malignity or vice? which of it own nature doth produce any such effect as to exasperate sin nay I had] contrariwise the law discovers and condemns sin perfectly, even in its first and smallest motions; now the Apostle here doth represent himselfe in his former state of Pharisee, very zealous of the law, and how by it in his serious meditations and exercises, hee could never obtain any victory upon sin, but there alwayes was bred a furious provocation of sin by it.

Romans 7:8

But sin,] that is to say, considering the extreme rigor of this commandment which condemned me to death for this concupiscence, which is unavoidable my natural vice was too far from being corrected or extinguished threby, that did I through despair abandon my self to an indifferent desire, seeing that all my labour to represse some part thereof was in vaine, Was dead,] as it were a sleep and deaded, if it were not kindled again by the law working lively upon the conscience, for then the opposition of it, against the evil which raigneth in sin, causeth one to grow obstinate against 〈…〉nd the aforesaid despaire for not being able to give it full satisfaction, drives a man to give over all manner of endeavour, and affection of studying to doe it.

Romans 7:9

I was,] namely in the time of my Pharisaisme, when I considered nothing but only the bark and out-side of the law, and the outward discipline of it, without entring into this profound cogitation of the spiritual and internall observation Alive,] I held my selfe assured of Gods love, and of everlasting life and salvation, by means of mine owne righteousnesse, which I thought to have fulfilled, I found my selfe strong enough to perform the external works of the law, and my erring conscience thought it selfe to be in perfect health Without the,]namely when the law did not wound my conscience, and that I did not represent it so lively to my self When the,] namely when I did deeply meditate upon, and applied to my conscience, that absolute forbidding of all manner of lust Revived,] it was not onely found living, and not put out in me, as I thought it had bin by my pharisaical disciplines, but it was rather exasperated and enraged And I died,] I did contrarywise fed the stings and terrors of condemnation I found my self utterly unable, and insufficient to yeeld perfect obedience, and to be far from Gods love, and from confidence in him, wherein consists the life of the soule.

Romans 7:10

I found,] namely I did by experience finde out this effect of the law, which before was unknowne to mee Which was ordained,] namely which being kept would bring life and salvation to man according to Gods first ordinance.

Romans 7:11

For sin,] through my natural corruption I framed to my selfe this damnable illusion: namely that seeing I could not with all my works and cares satisfie the law, I would then let loese the raines to all maner of iniquity, and then the law gave me the mortall stroke of unavoideable condemnation.

Romans 7:12

For we know,] all these aforesaid effects proceed from the contrarietie which is betweene Gods law and mans corruption. Ro. 8. 7. 1. Cor. 2. 14 which contrarietie the Apostle comprehends under these 2. terms of spiritual and carnal, by the first according to his custome, he means all whatsoever is of God, w lives in him, and is according to his nature and will, by the second, all whatsoever is not of God, and contrary to his life, and is odious and repugnant to him, Sold,] subjected as a slave, bought for a certaine price. 1. Kings 21. 20.

Romans 7:13

Made death,] namely the cause of death and perdition That it might,] that is to say, I speak thus of it, to shew the malignitie of this naturall vice of man, which gathereth strength from its contrarie, which is the law, most just and most holy, but not powerfull nough of it self, to change or annihilate that vice, that sin by,] as much as to say, to shew that the law in its most powerful operation, can produce no other effect in a corruptee man, but madnesse for to withstand it.

Romans 7:15

For that,] the proofe of this contrariety is seen also in Gods children, and in regenerate persons, in whom the reliques of that precedent perversity do yet fight against the spirit as I finde it in mine own person: even now that I am in Gods grace and out of that former damnable state I allow not,] I am confounded within my selfe; and know not what to judge of my motions, and actions, so mixed and counterpoised, between these two contraries, the flesh and the spirit. Or I doe not approve of mine owne workes, as perfectly correspondent to the inspiration of Gods spirit, and to his law, See Iob. 9. 21 That doe I not.] namely, I doe not all that good, nor in that purity as I should desire according to the motion of the spirit. Or likewise many times I sinne through frailty, though I doe it with griefe and lamentation.

Romans 7:16

If then,] namely by this motion of a regenerate will, which agreeth very well with the law, and by which I doe resist evill, though not alwaies with a full effect, I doe learne to know that the evill effect, whereof I spake, v. 8. 13 doth not proceed from any vicious quality of the law but onely from mans malice, who is repugnant to the law, and likewise by this conformity to the law, which regeneration produceth in the spiritual part of my soule, that wicked effect of desperately rebelling against the law, is no more in me.

Romans 7:17

Now then,] besides that, I doe not feare being rejected by God for these defects which remaine in me; for God judgeth of his children, who are thus divided between the flesh and the spirit, by the better and sounder part, which is that of the spirit, which predominates in them, and to which they cleave with heart and will, and which hath a subsistancy and root of a durable life, and not by the flesh, which they renounce and resist as a strange thing, which by little & little goeth away from them, and cometh to nothing, That dwelleth,] that is to say, which remaineth yet in me, but disarmed of its mortall sting of condemnation by Christ, and of its vigour and Kingdome by the holy Ghost, and is now but a let to a believing man. Hebrews 12:1. So that wee must distinguish of these three things, the Kingdome, the Dwelling, and the opposition of sin: The first is aninhilated and brought to nothing in believers, the other two remaine for their exercise and humiliation.

Romans 7:18

In mee,] namely in my nature, such as it is by its carnall generation, without the gift of regeneration, there is no true spirituall good, by which I can be capable to obey God For to will,] the certaine proofe that this evill is yet remaining in mee after my regeneration, is, that I finde my selfe unable to answere perfectly those holy motions, which Gods spirit doth oftentimes raise in me.

Romans 7:19

For the,] this ought to bee understood of the errours into which Gods children do oftentimes fal, and of the perpetuall defects which are in their good workes: not that they alwaies sin, or that they never doe any good thing.

Romans 7:21

I finde then,] I have a triall of this un〈…〉dable necessity.

Romans 7:22

After the,] namely after mine understanding, and mine affections and motions which are regenerated by the spirit, who hath possessed the inward part, and as one should say, the center of my heart from whence hee hath rooted out sinne, which being driven out of its hold, remaines upon the out-sides, and as it were upon the brinkes of the soule, from whence hee yet fights against the spirit, untill such time as by the death of the body it be utterly destroyed.

Romans 7:23

Another law,] namely, a strong contrary naturall inclination. which transportes me in despight of my self In my membersy] namely in my naturall and vicious inclinations and affections of which the members of the body are the instruments. And he seems to use this word members, to signifie the fore-said expulsion as it were to the superficies of the soul,Against the law,] namely against that strong impression of the knowledge of truth and of the will of God, which the holy Ghost hath made in my minde, by which he strictly bindes my conscience, and fraes all mine actions to holinesse, for the holy Ghost worketh in the soule of man, by an order fitting for the nature thereof, which is to have the heart governed and directed by the understanding. See Romans 12:2. Ephes. 4. 23 Bringing me,] causeth me to bee inevitably driven into sinne, whose rootes and seeds are in my nature, and in all parts and faculties of it.

Romans 7:24

O wretched man,] an exclamation out of the feeling of this miserie, namely of being yet under the bondage of sinne; and of a desire to be freed from it Who shall,] O that I were but out of this animall and terrestriall life, during which sinne doth yet dwell in me, and throw it, I am yet under the necessitie of dying; and that I were transported into the liberty of the glory of Gods children, in the life of happinesse. Romans 8:12 Philippians 1:23.

Romans 7:25

I Thank God,] this is a certaine correction of the former fervent desire, the time whereof was not yet come. The meaning is though I doe desire to depart this life, yet I submit my selfe to Gods will, and with humble thanksgiving, I content my selfe with his grace in Christ, who doth not impute this corruption and imperfection unto mee to condemnation, and shall fulfill my salvation in his appointed time. See 2. Cor. 29.