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Many made sinners by Adam;

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19 For, as by one man's dis-one, shall many be made righte- A. Mcir. 4062. An. Olymp, obedience, many were made sin- ous. so, by the obedience

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20 Moreover, the law entered, that A.U.C.cir.811.

a1 Kings 1. 21. Isai. 53. 4, 5, 6, 10. 2 Cor. 5. 21.

John 15. 22. ch. 3. 20. & 4. 15. & 7. 8. Gal. 3. 19, 23.

both justice and mercy are magnified; and neither is exalted fit tabernacle for the soul in a glorified state for ever and at the expense of the other.

The Apostle uses three remarkable words in these three verses; 1. Amapa Justification, verse 16. 2. Amaiorovy, which we render righteousness, verse 17. but is best rendered justification, as expressing that pardon and salvation offered to us in the gospel: see the note chap. i. 16. 3. Amalwars, which is also rendered justification, verse 18.

ever.

The same writer observes, that when the Apostle speaks of forgiveness of sins, simply, he insists on faith as the condition; but here where he speaks of justification of life, he mentions no condition; and therefore he supposes, justification of life, the phrase being understood in a forensic sense, to mean no more than the decree or judgment that determines the resurrection from the dead. This is a favourite point with the Doctor, and he argues largely for it: see his Notes. Verse 19. For, as by one man's disobedience, &c.] The expla nation of this verse has been anticipated in the foregoing. Verse 20. The law entered that the offence might abound] After considering various opinions concerning the true mean

The first word, Sinaiapa, is found in the following places, Luke i. 6. Rom. i. 32. ii. 26. v. 16, 18. viii. 4. Heb. ix. 1, 10. Rev. XV. 4. and xix. 8. to which the reader may refer. Alnawpa signifies, among the Greek writers, the sentence of a judge, acquitting the innocent, condemning, and punishing the guilty; but in the New Testament it signifies whatever God has appointed or sanctioned as a law; and appears to answering of this verse, (see under verse 12.) I am induced to preto the Hebrew in own mishpat Yehovah, the statute, or judgment of the Lord. It has evidently this sense in Luke i. 6. walking in all the commandments and ORDINANCES, napao, of the Lord blameless; and it has the like meaning in the principal places referred to above; but in the verse in question, it most evidently means absolution, or liberation from punishment, as it is opposed to naranpua condemnation, verse 18. see the note on chap. i. 16. and see Schleusner in voce.

fer my own, as being the most simple. By law I understand the Mosaic law. By entering in, rapese, or rather coming in privily, see Gal. i. 4. (the only place where it occurs besides,) I understand the temporary or limited use of that law, which was, as far as its rites and ceremonies are considered, confined to the Jewish people; and to them, only till the Messiah should come; but considered as the moral law, or rule of conscience and life, it has in its spirit and power been slipt in, introduced into every conscience that

The second word, dixatory, I have explained at large in sin might abound, that the true nature, deformity and exchap. i. 16. already referred to.

tent of sin might appear; for by the law is the knowledge of sin for how can the finer deviations from a straight line be ascertained, without the application of a known straight edge? Without this rule of right, sin can only be known in a sort of general way; the innumerable deviations from positive rectitude can only be known by the application of the righteous statutes of which the law is composed. And it was necessary that this law should be given, that the true

The third word, dinatwols, is used by the Greek writers, almost universally, to denote the punishment inflicted on a criminal, or the condemnatory sentence itself; but in the New Testament, where it occurs only twice, (Rom. iv. 25, he was raised for our justification, dixaiwoiv, and chap. v. 18,|| unto justification of life, dinaiwory (wys,) it evidently signifies the pardon and remission of sins; and seems to be nearly synonymous with dixxipa. Dr. Taylor thinks that "Sixalo-nature of sin might be seen, and that men might be the better ovvy is gospel pardon and salvation; and has reference to prepared to receive the gospel ; finding that this law worketh God's mercy. Aiapa is our being set quite clear and only wrath, i. e. denounces punishment, forasmuch as all right; or our being restored to sanctity, delivered from eter-have sinned. Now, it is wisely ordered of God, that whernal death, and being brought to eternal life; and has reference to the power and guilt of sin. And Sinawas he thinks may mean no more than our being restored to life at the resurrection." Taking these in their order: There is, first, pardon of sin. Secondly, purification of heart, and preparation for glory. Thirdly, the resurrection of the body, and its being made like to his glorious body, so as to become a

ever the gospel goes, there the law goes also; entering every where, that sin may be seen to abound, and that men may be led to despair of salvation in any other way, or on any terms, but those proposed in the gospel of Christ. Thus the sinner becomes a true penitent, and is glad, seeing the curse of the law hanging over his soul, to flee for refuge to the hope set before him in the gospel.

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b2 Cor. 15. 56, 57. ch. 6. 16, 21, 23.

preceding chapter bring to our view! No less than the doctrine of the fall of man from original righteousness; and the redemption of the world by the incarnation and death of Christ. On the subject of the FALL, though I have spoken much in the notes on Genesis, chap. iii. yet it may be necessary to make a few farther observations:

But where sin abounded] Whether in the world, or in the heart of the individual, being discovered by this most pure and righteous law; grace did much more abound: not only pardon for all that is past, is offered by the gospel, so that all the transgressions for which the soul is condemned to death by the law, are freely and fully forgiven; but also the Holy Spirit, in the abundance of his gifts and graces, is 1. That all mankind have fallen under the empire of death, communicated, so as to prepare the receiver for an exceed- through this original transgression, the apostle most positiveing and eternal weight of glory. Thus the grace of the gos-ly asserts; and few men who profess to believe the Bible, pel not only redeems from death, and restores to life; but pretend to dispute. This point is indeed ably stated, argued, brings the soul into such a relationship with God, and into and proved by Dr. Taylor, from whose observations the such a participation of eternal glory, as we have no autho- preceding notes are considerably enriched. But there is one rity to believe ever would have been the portion even of point, which I think not less evident; which he has not only Adam himself, had he even eternally retained his innocence. not included in his argument, but as far as it came in his Thus, where sin abounded, grace doth much more abound. way, has argued against it, viz. the degeneracy and moral Verse 21. That as sin hath reigned unto death] As ex- corruption of the human soul. As no man can account for tensively, as deeply, as universally, as sin, whether imply- the death brought into the world, but on the ground of this ing the act of transgression, or the impure principle from primitive transgression; so none can account for the moral which the act proceeds, or both. Hath reigned, subjected evil that is in the world, on any other ground. It is a fact, the whole earth and all its inhabitants; the whole soul, and that every human being brings into the world with him the all its powers and faculties, unto death, temporal of the seeds of dissolution and mortality. Into this state we are body, spiritual of the soul, and eternal of both; even so,|| fallen, according to divine revelation, through the one ofas extensively, deeply, and universally, might grace reign, || fence of Adam. This fact is proved by the mortality of all men. filling the whole earth, and pervading, purifying, and refin- It is not less a fact, that every man that is born into the world ing the whole soul: through righteousness, through this brings with him the seeds of moral evil; these he could not doctrine of free salvation by the blood of the Lamb,|| have derived from his Maker; for the most pure and holy and by the principle of holiness transfused through the God can make nothing impure, imperfect, or unholy. Into soul by the Holy Ghost: unto eternal life, the prothis state we are reduced, according to the Scripture, by the per object of an immortal spirit's hope, the only sphere transgression of Adam; for by this one man, sin entered into where the human intellect can rest, and he happy in the world, as well as death. the place and state where God is; where he is seen AS HE IS ; and where he can be enjoyed without interruption in an eternal progression of knowledge and beatitude: by Jesus Christ our Lord, as the cause of our salvation, the means by which it is communicated, and the source whence it springs. Thus we find, that the salvation from sin here, is as extensive and complete as the guilt and contamination of sin; death is conquered, hell disappointed, the Devil confounded, and sin totally destroyed. Here is glorying, to Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and has made us kings and priests to God and his Father, be|| glory and dominion, for ever and ever. Amen! Hallelujah! The Lord God omnipotent reigneth! Amen, and Amen.

2. The fact, that all come into the world with sinful propensities, is proved by another fact, that every man sins; that sin is his first work, and that no exception to this has ever been noticed, except in the human nature of Jesus Christ; and that exempt case is sufficiently accounted for from this circumstance, that it did not come in the common way of natural generation.

3. As like produces its like, if Adam became mortal and sinful, he could not communicate properties which he did not possess; and he must transmit those which constituted his natural and moral likeness. Therefore all his posterity must resemble himself. Nothing less than a constant miraculous energy, presiding over the formation and developement of every human body and soul, could prevent the seeds of What highly interesting and momentous truths does the natural and moral evil from being propagated. That these

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seeds are not produced in men by their own personal transgressions, is most positively asserted by the Apostle in the preceding chapter; and that they exist before the human being is capable of actual transgression, or of the exercise of will and judgment, so as to prefer and determine, is evident to the most superficial observer; 1st, from the most marked evil propensities of children long before reason can have any influence or controul over passion; and, 2ndly, it is demonstrated by the death of millions in a state of infancy. It could not, therefore, be personal transgression that produced the evil ropensities in the one case; nor death in the other.

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parts of the preceding chapter.

to permit them to propagate theirlike in such circumstances,that their offspring must be unavoidably and eternally wretched. God has therefore provided such a Saviour, the merit of whose passion and death should apply to every human being, and should infinitely transcend the demerit of the original transgression, and put every soul that received that grace, (and ALL may,) into a state of greater excellence and glory than that was, or could have been, from which Adam, by transgressing, fell. 7. The state of infants dying before they are capable of hearing the gospel; and the state of heathens who have no opportunity of knowing how to escape from their corruption 4. While misery, death, and sin are in the world, we and misery; have been urged as cases of peculiar hardship. shall have incontrovertible proofs of the fall of man. Men But, first, there is no evidence in the whole book of God, may dispute against the doctrine of original sin; but such facts that any child dies eternally for Adam's sin. Nothing of as the above, will be a standing irrefragable argument against this kind is intimated in the Bible; and as Jesus took upon every thing that can be advanced against the doctrine itself. him human nature, and condescended to be born of a woman 5. The justice of permitting this general infection to be- in a state of perfect helpless infancy, he has, consequent come diffused, has been strongly oppugned. "Why should ly, sanctified this state, and has said, without limitation or the innocent suffer for the guilty?" As God made man to exception, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid propagate his like on the earth, his transmitting the same them not, for of such is the kingdom of God. We may justly kind of nature with which he was formed, must be a neces-infer, and all the justice as well as the mercy of the Godhead sary consequence of that propagation. He might, it is true, supports the inference, that all human beings, dying in an have cut off for ever, the offending pair; but this, most evi-infant state, are regenerated by that grace of God which bringdently, did not comport with his creative designs." But he eth salvation to all men. Titus ii. 11. and go infallibly to might have rendered Adam incapable of sin.” This does the kingdom of heaven. As to the Gentiles, their case is exnot appear. If he had been incapable of sinning, he ceedingly clear. The apostle has determined this; see chap. would have been incapable of holiness; that is, he could ii. 11. and 15. and the notes there. He, who, in the course not have been a free agent; or, in other words, he could of his providence, has withheld from them the letter of his not have been an intelligent or intellectual being; he must word, has not denied them the light and influence of his have been a mass of inert and unconscious matter. "But SPIRIT; and will judge them in the great day, only accord. God might have cut them off and created a new race." Heing to the grace and means of moral improvement with which certainly might; and what would have been gained by this? they have been favoured. No man will be finally damned, beWhy, just nothing. The second creation, if of intelligent cause he was a Gentile, but because he has not made a proper beings at all, must have been precisely similar to the first; ¦¦ use of the grace and advantages which God had given him. Thus and the circumstances in which these last were to be placed, we see that the Judge of all the carth has done right; and we must be exactly such as infinite wisdom saw to be the most pro- may rest assured that he will eternally act in the same way. per for their predecessors; and consequently the most pro- 8. The term FALL we use metaphorically, to signify deper for them. They also must have been in a state of gradation: literally, it signifies stumbling, so as to lose the probation; they also must have been placed under a law; centre of gravity, or the proper poise of our bodies, in conthis law must be guarded by penal sanctions; the possibility sequence of which we are precipitated on the ground. of transgression must be the same in the second case as in the term seems to have been borrowed from the apaπтwμя of first; and the lapse as probable, because as possible to this se- the apostle, chap. v. 15-18. which we translate offence, cond race of human beings, as it was to their predecessors. and which is more literally FALL, from raça intensive, and It was better, therefore, to let the same pair continue, to TITTW I fall, a grievous, dangerous, and ruinous fall, and is fulfil the great end of their creation, by propagating their properly applied to transgression and sin in general; as like upon the earth; and to introduce an antidote to the poi- every act is a degradation of the soul, accompanied with son, and by a dispensation as strongly expressive of wisdom hurt, and tending to destruction. The term, in this sense, is as of goodness, to make the ills of life, which were the con- still in common use; the degradation of a man in power, we sequences of their transgression, the means of correcting the term his full; the impoverishment of a rich man we express evil, and through the wondrous economy of grace, sancti- in the same way; and when a man of piety and probity is fying even these to the eternal good of the soul. overcome by any act of sin, we say he is fallen; he has descended from his spiritual eminence, is degraded from his spiritual excellence, is impure in his soul, and becomes again exposed to the displeasure of his God.

6. Had not God provided a Redeemer, he, no doubt, would have terminated the whole mortal story, by cutting off the original transgressors; for it would have been unjust

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The

They who believe in Christ,

CHAP. VI.

must not continue in sin.

CHAPTER VI.

We must not abuse the boundless goodness of God by continuing in sin, under the wicked persuasion that the more we sin, the more the grace of God will abound, 1. For, having been baptized into Christ, we have professed thereby to be dead to sin, 2-4. And to be planted in the likeness of his resurrection, 5. For we profess to be crucified with him, to die and rise again from the dead, 6—11. We should not, therefore, let sin reign in our bodies, but live to the glory of God, 12-14. The gospel makes no provision for living in sin, any more than the law did; and those who commit sin, are the slaves of sin, 15-19. The degrading and afflictive service of sin, and its wages eternal death; the blessed effects of the grace of God in the heart; of which eternal life is the fruit, 20—23.

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2 God forbid.

HAT shall
we say then?|| 2 God forbid. How shall we, that
a Shall we continue in sin, are dead to sin, live any longer

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therein?

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a Ch. 3. 8. ver. 15.

b Ver. 11. ch. 7. 4. Gal. 2. 19. & 6. 14.

NOTES ON CHAP. VI.

The Apostle having proved that salvation both to Jew and Gentile, must come through the Messiah, and be received by faith only, proceeds in this chapter to shew the obligations under which both were laid, to live a holy life; and the means and advantages they enjoyed for that purpose. This he does, not only as a thing highly and indispensably necessary in itself, for without holiness none can see the Lord; but to confute a calumny which appears to have been gaining considerable ground even at that time; viz. that the doctrine of justification by faith alone, through the grace of Christ || Jesus, rendered obedience to the moral law useless; and that || the more evil a man did, the more the grace of God would abound to him, in his redemption from that evil. That this calumny was then propagated, we learn from chap. iii. 8. and the Apostle defends himself against it in the 31st verse of the same, by asserting, that his doctrine, far from making void the law, served to establish it. But in this, and the two following chapters, he takes up the subject in a regular, formal manner; and shews both Jews and Gentiles, that the principles of the Christian religion absolutely required a holy heart and a holy life, and made the amplest provision for both.

Verse 1. Shall we continue in sin] It is very likely that these are the words of a believing Gentile; who, having as yet received but little instruction, for he is but just brought out of his heathen state to believe in Christ Jesus, might imagine, from the manner in which God had magnified his mercy in blotting out his sin, on his simply believing on Christ; that, suppose he even gave way to the evil propensities of his own heart, his transgressions could do him no

hurt, now that he was in the favour of God. And we need not wonder that a Gentile, just emerging from the deepest darkness, might entertain such thoughts as these; when we find that eighteen centuries after this, persons have appeared in the most Christian countries of Europe, not merely asking such a question, but defending the doctrine with all their might; and asserting, in the most unqualified manner, "that believers were under no obligation to keep the moral law of God; that Christ had kept it for them: that his keeping it was imputed to them; and that God, who had exacted it from Him, who was their surety and representative, would not exact it from them; forasmuch as it would be injustice to require two payments for one debt." These are the Antinomians who once flourished in this land, and whose race is not yet utterly extinct.

The phraseology of
Greeks, and Latins.

Verse 2. God forbid!] My yeyoto, let it not be, by no means; far from it; let not such a thing be mentioned!— Any of these is the meaning of the Greek phrase, which is a strong expression of surprize and disapprobation: and is not properly rendered by our God forbid; which, though it may express the same thing, yet it is not proper to make the sacred NAME SO familiar on such occasions. How shall we, that are dead to sin] this verse is common among Hebrews, To DIE to a thing, or person, is to have nothing to do with it or him; to be totally separated from them: and to live to a thing or person, is to be wholly given up to them; to have the most intimate connection with them. So Plautus Clitell. iii. 1, 16, Nihil mecum tibi, MORTUus tibi sum. I have nothing to do with thee; I am DEAD to thee. Persa. i. 1, 20, Mihi quidem tu jam MORTUUS ERAS, quia te non visitavi: Thou wert DEAD to me, because I have not visited thee.

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So Elian, Var. Hist. iii. 13. 07 ÇIXDIVOTATOV EVOS TO TW Tamuρwy, TOTOUTOY, WSE LYY AUTOUS av oxy, nai to mε του βίου εν τη προς αυτόν ὁμιλιᾳ καταναλίσκειν· "The Tapyrians are such lovers of wine, that they LIVE in wine; and the principal part of their LIFE IS DEVOTED to it." They live to wine; they are insatiable drunkards. See more examples in Wetstein and Rosenmuller.

Verse 3. Know ye not, &c.] Every man who believes the Christian religion, and receives baptism as the proof that he believes it, and has taken up the profession of it, is bound thereby to a life of righteousness. To be baptized into Christ,is to receive the doctrine of Christ crucified, and to receive baptism as a proof of the genuineness of that faith, and the obligation to live according to its precepts.

Baptized into his death ?] That, as Jesus Christ, in his crucifixion, died completely, so that no spark of the natural or animal life remained in his body; so, those who profess his religion, should be so completely separated and saved from sin, that they have no more connection with it, nor any more influence from it, than a dead man has with or from his departed spirit.

Verse 4. We are buried with him by baptism into death]|| It is probable that the Apostle here alludes to the mode of administering baptism by immersion, the whole body being put under the water, which seemed to say, the man is drowned, is dead; and, when he came up out of the water, || he seemed to have a resurrection to life; the man is risen again; he is alive! He was, therefore, supposed to throw off his old Gentile state, as he threw off his clothes, and to assume a new character, as the baptized generally put on new, or fresh garments. I say it is probable, that the Apostle alludes to this mode of immersion; but it is not absolutely certain that he does so, as some do imagine; for, in the next verse, our being incorporated into Christ by baptism is also denoted by our being planted, or rather, grafted together in the likeness of his death and Noah's ark floating upon the water, and sprinkled by the rain from heaven, is a figure corresponding to baptism, 1 Pet. iii. 20, 21. but neither of these gives us the same idea of the outward form, as burying. We must be careful, therefore, not to lay too much stress on such circumstances. Drowning among the ancients was considered the most noble kind of death; some think that

Gal. 6. 15. Eph. 4. 22, 23, 24. Col. 3. 10.

1 Gal. 2. 20. & 5. 24. & 5. 14. Eph. 4. 22.

Phil. 3. 10, 11.Col. 3. 5, 9.

the Apostle may allude to this. The grand point is, that this baptism represents our death to sin, and our obligation to walk in newness of life: without which, of what use can it, or any other rite be?

Raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father] From this we learn that, as it required the glory of the Father, that is, his glorious energy, to raise up from the grave the dead body of Christ; so it requires the same glorious energy, to quicken the dead soul of a sinner, and enable him to walk in newness of life.

Verse 5. For if we have been planted together] Evμoura yɛyovaμev; Dr. Taylor observes, that our translation does not completely express the Apostle's meaning. Ta ruμqura, Τα συμφυτα, are such plants as grow, the one upon, and in the other, deriving sap and nourishment from it, as the misletoe upon the oak; or the cion upon the stock in which it is grafted. He would therefore translate the words, For if we have been growers together with Christ in the likeness of his death, (or in that which is like his death,) we shall be also growers together with him in the likeness of his resurrection; or in that which is like his resurrection. He reckons it a beautiful metaphor, taken from grafting, or making the cion grow together with a new stock.

But, if we take the word planted in its usual sense, we shall find it to be a metaphor, as beautiful and as expressive as the former. When the seed, or plant, is inserted in the ground, it derives from that ground all its nourishment, and all those juices by which it becomes developed; by which it increases in size, grows firm, strong, and vigorous; and puts forth its leaves, blossoms, and fruit. The death of Jesus Christ is represented as the cause whence his fruitfulness, as the author of eternal salvation to mankind, is derived; and genuine believers in him, are represented as being planted in this death, and growing out of it; deriving their growth, vigour, firmness, beauty and fruitfulness, from it. In a word, it is by his death, that Jesus Christ redeems a lost world and it is from that vicarious death, that believers derive that pardon and holiness which make them so happy in themselves, and so useful to others. This sacrificial death is the soil in which they are planted; and from which they derive their life, their fruitfulness, and their final glory.

Verse 6. Our old man is crucified with him] This seems

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