Bible Commentaries

Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?

Know ye not, brethren — Bellarmine saith of his Romans (more true perhaps of these), Romani sicut non acumina, ita nec imposturas habent. As they are not very knowing, so not cunning to deceive.

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For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.

She is loosed, … — And so at liberty to marry again, though Jerome compare such to the unclean beasts in the ark, and to vessels of dishonour in a house, yea, to dogs that return to their vomit; which was his error. Patres legendi cum venia, saith one.

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So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

So then if — The sects then are out that say today, that if they have husbands and wives that will not turn saints, that is, sects, they may leave them, and marry others.

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Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

That we should bring forth fruit — The ministry of the word, saith one, is the bridal bed; wherein God by his Spirit doth communicate with our souls his sweetest favours, and maketh them be conceived with the fruits of righteousness to everlasting life.

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For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.

In the flesh — In our pure naturals.

The motions of sin — Those maladies of the soul ( παθηματα ).

By the law — By the irritation of the law.

Did work — Gr. did inwardly work ( ενηργειτο ).

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But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.

Not in the oldness of the letter — That is, not in that old kind of life that we lived under subjection to the law, to the irritation, co-action, and curse of it.

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What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.

I had not known lust — Involuntary evil motions. The apostle calleth concupiscence sin, saith Possevine the Jesuit, but we may not say so. Most of the most dangerous opinions of Popery spring from hence, that they have slight conceits of concupiscence, as a condition of nature. But inward bleeding will kill a man, so will concupiscence, if not bewailed. The Council of Trent saith, that it is not truly and properly a sin, albeit it be so called, because it proceeds from sin, and inclines a man to sin. Neither want there among us that say, that original sin is not forbidden by the law; directly indeed, and immediately, it is not; but forbidden it is, because cursed and condemned by the law.

I had not known sin — The law of nature discovers not original sin with its evil lusts. True it is that a philosopher could say (Timon apud Laertium),

παντων μεν πρωτιστα κακων επιθυμια εστιν ,

Concupiscence is the root of all evil; but whether he understood what himself said, I greatly question. Erras, si tecum vitia nasci putas, saith Seneca; supervenerunt, ingesta sunt: Thou mistakest if thou thinkest that thy vices were born with thee, they came in since, they were brought into thee. Tam sine vitio quam sine virtute nascimur, saith another; We were born as well without vice as without virtue. Quintilian saith it is more marvel that one man sinneth, than that all men should live honestly; sin is so against the nature of man.

Thou shalt not covet — The word concupisco is inceptive: to show (saith one) that the very first motion is sin, though no consent be yielded.

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But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.

By the commandment — Not commandments. Papists abolishing, or at least destroying, the sense of the second commandment, by making it a member of the first, that they may retain the number of ten words (so loth are heretics to have their asses’ ears seen) they divide this last; which yet Paul here calls the commandment; and sure he knew better than they the analysis of the law.

Wrought in me all manner of concupiscence — The more the law would dam up the torrent of sinful lusts, the higher did they swell. ( Nitimur in vetitum. ) Corruption doth increase and begin by the law. The more God forbids sin, the more we bid for it: as if we did sin on purpose to provoke God; as if God had need deal with us as he did in the story, who was wont to command the contrary when he would have anything done, because he knew they would cross him. Howbeit, although sin thus take occasion by the law, yet this is per accidens, as in the dropsy, it is not the drink that is to be blamed for increasing the disease, but the ill distemper of the body.

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