which extends over a wide domain of the moral world-an actual and living Moloch, who is surrounded by innumerable slaves whom he has the power of tyrannizing over in time and of tormenting through all eternity: And the express mission of the Son of God was to combat and overthrow him. He came to destroy the works of the devil; and to make good the deliverance of all, who put themselves under Himself as the captain of their salvation, and are willing to be rescued from the grasp of the adversary. And that power to punish us in hell, wherewith Satan was invested, Christ has as it were exhausted by stepping forward and absorbing its whole discharge in His own body on the tree. And that power to fascinate and enthrall us upon earth, wherewith the God of this world holds his votaries in subjection to sin, the Redeemer hath also overcome by the Spirit poured forth on the hearts of His followers, from that throne of mediatorship to which He has been exalted. And the believer, strong and shielded and secure in the privileges that have thus been obtained for him, is effectually set at large from the power of his old master-either to confine him in the prison-house of guilt, or to control him in any of his actions now that he walketh at liberty. But still like the bond servant who has been translated to a humane from a hard-hearted superior, he is not his own--he is bought with a price and his business is now to devote, to the new and the pleasing service of Him who loveth righteousness and who hateth iniquity, that soul and spirit and body which are not his own but his Lord's.

But the chief cause, perhaps, why an illustration of this sort is more readily seized upon at the outset of our Christianity than many others, is that it falls more in with the natural legality of the human heart. We know not how obstinately it is that the conception of work and wages adheres to us, long after we profess to have given in to the doctrine of justification by faith alone, and this leaven of carnality may remain, to taint the pure and the free and evangelical spirit, even for many months after the germ of gospel truth has been deposited, and ere by its growth it overbear the feelings and tendencies of the old man. It is remarkable that Paul should think it right to adjust his expositions, to this state of immature and yet unformed Christianity; and that the sturdy and unbending advocate of salvation by grace, and by grace exclusively, should, for the purpose of helping forward the cause of Christian holiness, avail himself of the legal admixture that still infuses itself into the thoughts at the earlier stages of the Christian discipleship. But so it is; and, on the principle of all things to all men, he suits his argument to the infirmity of their flesh; and, disposed as they are under the economy of nature to regard themselves as servants, who by the fulfilment of an allotted task make out a title to payment from their master -he still, under the economy of the gospel, employs at least the relationship of servant and master to express the relationship that there is between them and God. He comes upon the very borders of legality, in order that he might fetch from thence a something that he might suitably address to the

babes in Christ, for the purpose of urging them on to the new life that becomes the new creature; and while none more careful than he to check in his disciples the spirit that would challenge reward from God, even as the servant might prosecute the master for his rightful wages—yet none more solicitous than he, that every Christian should be steadfast and abundant in all the works of righteousness. And therefore, did he gladly avail himself of a similitude, that the very legalism of the heart would dispose it the more readily to apprehend; and by which he would make it plain to his disciples, that they must now give themselves up to the service of another master-that they must now yield themselves unto God.

It may only be further necessary in this verse to explain its reiterations. In their former state they had made their members servants to iniquity unto iniquity—that is, iniquity, or he in whom moral evil may be conceived as personified or embodied, was their master. They were servants to, or the servants of iniquity; and it is added unto iniquity' That is to say, unto the corruption or iniquity of their own character. The effect of making iniquity their master, was to stamp the character of iniquity upon their souls. They were the slaves of the tyrant iniquity; and the effect of this was to make themselves iniquitous. And in like manner, are we to explain the counterpart clause of their yielding their members servants to righteousness unto holiness-that is, by entering into the service of this new master, they become partakers of his character and of his taste in their own per

sons.

They could not become the servants of righteousness, without themselves becoming holy. In yielding up their members unto righteousness, they look to righteousness as vested with an authority to rule over their actions; and the effect of their doing so is, that righteousness becomes an accomplishment to adorn and exalt their nature. So that this last clause may be thus paraphrasedAs aforetime you have yielded your members servants unto uncleanness and to iniquity, unto the utter ruin and corruption of your whole character—even so now yield your members servants to righteousness, unto the recovery and transformation of your character, that it may stand out anew in all the charms of holiness, and be graced as it was originally with the features and the lineaments of that divine resemblance wherein it was created."

And I may here advert to the influence which action has upon principle. When you do what is right at the bidding of another, there may, in the first instance, be no very willing concurrence of the heart with the obedience that has been prescribed to you. You may yield yourself up unto God, under an overpowering sense of His authority; and, from that impulse alone, do many things, which the spontaneous tastes and feelings of the inner man do not very cordially go along with. But no matter you have entered upon His service; and the effect of your strenuous and faithful perseverance in the course of it, will be to reconcile the inner man to that whereunto you have restrained the outer man. This is a result which it

appears you must work your way to. The effect of your going through the services of righteousness, is that you will at length attain the spirit of holiness. You must labour at the work of obedience; and, like unto the effect of practice in many other parts of human experience, you will at length come to love the ways of obedience. We doubt not that a certain degree of desire and of cordial regard towards what is right, enters into the very first moving principle that sets you agoing on the career of your sanctification. But you are not to wait till your taste and affections be spiritualised to a sufficient pitch, ere you embark on this career. But now, whether with or against the grain, do whatever your hand findeth to do which you know to be obviously right. Do it under a sense of allegiance to God, in defect meanwhile of the more generous and angelic principle that you like the doing of it; and the transition pointed out in the text seems to be, that, as the fruit of your being subordinated to God's authority, will you come at length to be assimilated to Him in holiness.

Ver. 20. This twentieth verse seems an argument for our entire dedication to the new master, into whose service we have entered ourselves. It is somewhat like the consideration of making the past time of our life suffice, for having done the will of the flehs; and that it is now high time to spend the remainder of our life in doing the will of God. Aforetime you were wholly given over to the service of sin, and righteousness as emanated from the divine sovereignty had no dominion. You were free from righteousness, or wholly unrestrained by