i. e. And whether Christ be in you, or no, by the inhabitation of his Holy Spirit, is a thing not difficult to be ascertained; for if Christ be in you, it will be seen by evident effects in your life and conversation; your carnal affections will die in you, and all things belonging to the Spirit will live and grow in you. And for the comfort and encouragement of all those godly persons, who feel in themselves the working of the Spirit of Christ mortifying the works of the flesh, and their earthly members; he adds, that in the grace of the Holy Spirit dwelling in them, they possess the seed and principle of a resurrection to life eternal.

be in you, the body is dead, with respect to sin; but the Spirit is life, with respect to righteousness."

Schleusner in 9 â sign. dia. Quod attinet ad peccatum et

virtutem.

"But what does that signify, to have "Christ dwelling in -us?" That also we learn at the feet of the same Doctor: "If Christ be in you, the body is dead by reason of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness:" the body of sin is mortified, and the life of grace is active, busy, and spiritual, in all them who are not in the state of reprobation: the parallel with that other expression of his, "They that are Christ's, have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts." Bp. Jer. Taylor, Life of Christ, Disc. of Repentance, § 15.

viii. 11. ει δε το πνευμα το εγείραντος Ιησεν, &c.

46

But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you."

AND now he draws the conclusion of all this Discourse concerning Christian Sanctification, from Chapter 6, to this place: viz. the infinite obligation we Christians are under to a life of holiness and purity; since no less depends upon the fulfilment, or non-fulfilment, of that condition, than eternal life, or eternal death:

viii. 12, 13. αρα εν, αδελφοι, οφείλεται εσμεν, &c.

Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh; for if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live :"

If, after

ye

ye have been once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and been made par

ye

takers of the Holy Ghost, (Heb. vi. 4.) ye still continue to lead impure and wicked lives, following the bent of corrupt nature; then, notwithstanding all the gifts of grace already received, Justification, Reconciliation, and Peace with God; notwithstanding the hope of glory, and the state of salvation in which you have been placed; shall die; not the death which all men die, bad or good; but the second death; that death, the pangs of which are never-ending and intolerable, the torment of soul and body in hell: but if, on the contrary, by a faithful use of the grace of the Spirit, ye do really mortify the deeds of the body, subduing your lusts, and putting off all the habits of sin, ye shall live; shall live though ye die; ye shall not die eternally, but shall be raised up again, at the resurrection of the just, to that which alone deserves the name of life, both for happiness, and eternal duration :

viii. 14. όσοι γαρ πνευματι θες, &c,

"For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the Sons of God:"

For they who are led by the Spirit of God, which

they only are who lead pure and holy lives, are the Sons of God, and heirs consequently of immortality.

THOSE, therefore, who are thus led by the Spirit of God, and so have the testimony of their own conscience that they are the Sons of God; all such may take to themselves the comfort of the confirming testimony of the Holy Spirit himself. For that grace of the Holy Ghost, which Christians receive at their baptism, by which a sense of God's Fatherly love toward them is shed. abroad in their hearts; (see v. 5.) and they are delivered from that slavish fear, to which they were in bondage under the Law of Moses, and of Nature; (see Heb. ii. 15.) and enabled to approach and address God with filial confidence, as a reconciled Father; this grace, I say, of the Holy Ghost is a most convincing proof to them, that they are the Sons of God: and thus the Holy Spirit himself bears witness with their own spirit, or conscience, that they are already, in this life, the Sons of God.

viii. 15, 16. 8 γαρ ελάβετε πνεύμα δελείας παλιν εις φοβον, &c.

"For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God."

BUT if Sons of God here, then undoubtedly Heirs hereafter: Heirs of glory and immortality :

viii. 17. ει δε τεκνα, και κληρονομοι, &c.

"And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ:"

per

HERE then the Apostle has attained the fection of his argument, and shewn that the Gospel of Christ is indeed, what he undertook to prove it, "the Power of God unto Salvation." For the condition of entering into eternal life, and receiving the promises, being a Sanctification of soul and body, according to the heavenly doctrine of our Lord Jesus; and the means of fulfilling this condition being ministered unto us abundantly under the Gospel, in the gifts of the