it cannot be doubted that the truth denoted by it has been accomplished. The same disposition has been the origin of Transubstantiation. The bread and wine in the Lord's Supper are figuratively the body and blood of Christ; but they have been turned into the real body, blood, soul, and divinity of the Lord, and the external rite has become salvation.

So many of us. This does not imply that any of those to whom the Apostle wrote were not baptized, for there could be no room for such a possibility. It applies to the whole of them, as well as to himself, and not merely to a part. It amounts to the same thing as if it had been said, "We who were baptized;" as in Acts iii. 24, “As many as have spoken," that is, all who have spoken, for all the prophets spoke.

V. 4.-Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

Therefore. This particle refers to the reason why believers are buried with Christ, namely, that they may rise with him. The death of Christ was the means by which sin was destroyed, and his being laid in the grave, the proof of the reality of his death. In the same way, Christians are represented as buried with him by baptism into his death, in token that

they really died with him; and if buried with him, it is not that they should remain in the grave, but that as Christ arose from the dead they should also rise. Their baptism, then, is the figure of their complete deliverance from sin, signifying that God places to their account the death of Christ as their own death: it is also a figure of their purification and resurrection for the service of God.

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By the glory of the Father.-The exercise of that Almighty power, by which in various passages it is asserted that Christ was made alive again, was most glorious to God who raised him. Christ's resurrection is also ascribed to himself, because he was a partaker with the Father of that power by which he was raised. "I lay down my life that I might take it again." "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." To reconcile these, and similar passages, with those that ascribe his resurrection to the Father, it must be observed, that if the principle be regarded by which our Lord was raised up, it is to be referred to that divine power which belongs in common to the Father and the Son. The Son was raised equally by his own power as by that of his Father, because he possessed the divine as well as the human nature. But as in the work of redemption the Father acts as the Sovereign ruler, it is He who has received

the satisfaction, and who having received it, has given to the Son its just recompense in raising him from the dead. His resurrection, then, in this view, took place by the decree of the Eternal Father, pronounced from his tribunal.

Even so we also should walk in newness of life. This is the purpose of our rising with Christ, that we also, by the glory or power of the Father, should walk in newness of life. The resurrection of Christ was the effect of the power of God, not in the ordinary way of nature, but of a supernatural exertion of power. In the same manner, believers are raised to walk in newness of life. It is thus, that when Paul, Eph. i. 20, exalts the supernatural virtue of grace by which we are converted, he compares it to that power by which Christ was raised from the dead. This shows the force of the Apostle's answer to the objection he is combating. Believers are dead to sin, and, if so, every ground of their separation from God being removed, his Almighty power is engaged and exerted to cause them to walk with their risen Lord in that new life which they derive from him. The purpose, then, of Christ's death was, that his people should become dead to sin, and alive unto righteousness. "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sins, should live unto right

eousness. "He that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin." 1 Peter, ii. 24; iv. 1.

Dr Macknight is greatly mistaken, when he applies what is said in this verse to the new life, that does not take place till after the resurrection of the body. This destroys the whole force of the Apostle's reasoning, who is showing that believers cannot continue in sin, not only as they are dead to sin, but as they are risen with Christ, thus receiving a new and supernatural life, for the purpose of walking in obedience to God.

V. 5.-For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection :

For if-The conditional statement is here evidently founded on what precedes. The Apostle does not pass on to a new argument, to prove that we are dead with Christ; but having shown the burial of the Christian in baptism, he goes on to show that his resurrection is equally important. If we have been buried with Christ so we shall rise with him. Planted together.—The word in the original, when it refers to trees, does not designate the operation of grafting, but to planting them in the same place or bed. It signifies the closest union of any kind, as being incorporated, growing together, united, joined with. The meaning then is, that as in baptism we have been exhibited as one with Christ in

his death, so in due time we shall be conformed to him in the likeness of his resurrection.

We shall be.-The use here of the future tense has caused much perplexity respecting the connexion of this verse with the preceding, and contrary to its obvious meaning, the present time has been substituted. But while the proper force of the future time is preserved, the two verses stand closely connected. Both a spiritual and a literal resurrection are referred to in the emblem of baptism, but in the preceding verse, the former only is brought into view, as being that which served the Apostle's immediate purpose. In this verse, in employing the future tense, he refers to the literal resurrection which will take place, as being inseparably connected with what he had just advanced concerning walking in newness of life; and thus he unfolds the whole that is included in dying and rising with Christ, both in this world and the world to come. Believers have already been raised spiritually with Christ to walk with him on earth, in newness of life, and with equal certainty they shall be raised to live with Him in Heaven. This meaning is confirmed by what is said afterwards in the 8th and 9th verses. How powerful is this consideration, if viewed as a motive to the believer to walk at present with his risen Lord in newness of life. "Every man