united to him who has the inexhaustible fulness of the Spirit, and he cannot fail to partake of the spirit of holiness which dwells without measure in his glorious Head. It is impossible that the streams can be dried up when the fountain continues to flow, and it is equally impossible for the members not to partake of the same holiness which dwells so abundantly in the Head. As the branch when united to the living vine necessarily partakes of its life and fatness, so the sinner when united to Christ must receive an abundant supply of sanctifying grace out of his immeasurable fulness. The moment, therefore, that he is by faith brought into union with the second Adam-the grand truth on which the Apostle had been insisting in the preceding part of this chapter, by means of which believers are dead to sin-in that moment the source of sanctification is opened up, and streams of purifying grace flow into his soul. He is delivered from the law whereby sin had dominion over him. He is one with him who is the fountain of holiness.

These are the grounds on which justification and sanctification are inseparably connected; and the reasons why those who are dead to sin cannot live any longer therein. From all this, we see the necessity of retaining the Apostle's expression in the verse before us, justified from

sin. That it has been exchanged for the term freed in the English, as well as in most of the French versions, and that commentators are so generally undecided as to the proper rendering, arises from not clearly perceiving the ground on which the Apostle rests his denial of the consequence charged on his doctrine of justification, as leading to licentiousness. But on no other ground than that, as above explained, on which he has vindicated it from this supposed pernicious consequence, can it be proved not to have such a tendency, or not to lead to such a result. On this ground, his vindication must for ever stand unshaken. Had his answer to the question in the first verse ultimately rested, according to the reason given by Dr Macknight, on the force of a motive presented to believers, however strong in itself, such as their having felt the dreadful effects of sin in having died for it, or on the fallacious idea, according to Mr Stuart, that they were insensible to its influence, how weak, insufficient, and delusive, considering the state of human nature, would such reasons have been, on which to have rested his confident denial that they could continue to live in sin. But when the Apostle exhibits, as the cause of the believers' not continuing in sin, the purpose and power of God in Christ Jesus, as he does through all the preceding verses, he rests it on a foundation

as stable as the throne of God. He had taught, in the foregoing part of the Epistle, that Jesus Christ is made to his people righteousness; he here teaches that he is also made to them sanctification. Throughout the whole of the discussion, it is material to keep in mind, that they to whom, along with himself, the Apostle is referring, are those whom he had addressed (ch. i. 7) as "Beloved of God;" "Called;" "Saints."

The same great truths are fully developed in the 28th and 29th verses of the eighth chapter, where it is shown that the persons who were conformed to the image of Christ, were those who were justified, and who shall be glorified, the whole of which Paul there traces up to the Sovereign appointment of God. There, in like manner, he shows that the people of God, being conformed to Christ in his death, are also conformed to him in their walking in newness of life, as the prelude of their resurrection with him to glory. To the same purpose he writes to the saints at Colosse, where he assures them that they are complete in Christ, being buried and risen with him, through the faith of the operation of God, who raised him from the dead.

V. 8.-Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:

Believers being one with Christ in his death, they have the certain prospect of for ever living

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with him. That the life here mentioned is the life after the resurrection, as, in verse 5, appears from the phraseology. The Apostle speaks of it as a future life, which it is unnatural to interpret as signifying the believer's spiritual life here, or as importing the continuation of it to the end of his course. There is no need of such straining, when the obvious meaning is most true and important. Besides, the point is decided by the assertion "we believe." It is a matter of faith, and not of present experience.

"We believe.”—Upon this it is useful to remark, that though the Apostle reasons and deduces from principles, yet we are to be cautious not to consider his doctrine as needing any other support but his own assertion. His statement, or expression of belief, is, to a Christian, demonstration. It was a truth believed by those whom he addressed, because taught by Paul, and the other Apostles.

V. 9. Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.

Knowing that. The Apostle states the assumption that, as Christ having been raised from the dead, will not die again, so neither will those die again who have died and risen with him. This obviously refers to the resurrection life, and not to the present spiritual life.

It is a fact of inconceivable consolation, that, after the resurrection, the believer will never again die. All the glory of heaven could not make us happy without this truth.

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Death hath no more dominion over him.—This implies that death had once dominion over Christ himself. He was its lawful captive, as he took our place, and bore our sins. It is far from being true, according to Mr Tholuck, that the word here used, seems to involve the idea of a usurped power, for properly, as Christ,' he says, ' was an innocent being, there was no reason why he should die.' Christ was lawfully under the power of death for a time, and the word which signifies this, applies to a lawful lord as well as to a usurper. Jesus Christ being declared by his resurrection to be the Son of God, with power, his people are engaged to put their trust in him as the Creator and ruler of the universe. In his resurrection they receive the assurance of the effect of his death, in satisfying divine justice, and making full atonement for their sins; and in his rising from the dead to an immortal life, as their Lord and Head, they have a certain pledge of their own resurrection to life and immortality.

V. 10. For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.

In that, or with respect to that, he died.