of the world's riper manhood only serve the purpose that it ought to do, in guiding the willing heart to a more full and Christlike perfection.

LALEHAM,

September 16th, 1827.

NOTE, added in 1833.-ROMANS, v. 12 ad fin.

The Apostle's object seems to be, to urge that the Gospel must fitly be universal, because the evil which it was to remedy was universal; that as those who were not Jews had shared in the consequences of Adam's sin, so those who were not Jews would fitly share in the consequences of Christ's righteousness.

I think, with Origen, that the eighteenth verse, is properly the apodosis to the twelfth, and that all between is parenthetical; one parenthesis, after St. Paul's manner, growing out of another. The main proposition, then, is this:

Therefore, because we are reconciled to God, we see, that just as one man brought sin into the world, and death came by sin, and this death extended to all, because all sinned, even so by one Man righteousness has come into the world, and life by righteousness, and this life has extended to all, because all will be righteous.

[Compare this with the words in 1 Corinth. xv. 22: "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." Words which had been written about a year before the present passage.]

But to this statement, it may be objected that sin is a breach of the law, and its punishment belongs only to those who had the law; and that in like manner, righteousness and its reward can belong only to those who keep the law.

In answer to this implied objection, St. Paul maintains his original statement thus:

All have sinned, and therefore all have died, before the law was given, no less than since. For it is a clear matter of fact, that from the Creation to the time of Moses death reigned even over those who never sinned like Adam; and Adam in this is a pattern of Christ. (But sin is not reckoned to any man's account unless there is a law.)

[That is, sin is not exclusively a breach of the law, for there was moral evil in the world before the law; and unless there be some law there can be no guilt. But here there was guilt, for not only was there evil, but there was also death, and that shows that there was sin; and those died who had not sinned like Adam, i. e. had never broken a positive revealed command, so that there is sin apparently without a breach of the law of Moses. And thus there being sin without a breach of the law of Moses, so also may there be righteousness without keeping the law of Moses.]

But now is not the gift of the same extent as the offence? For if, without respect of the law or of revelation, men died because of sin, and that sin came from their corrupt nature,-not that nature which God made, but which Adam marred,-much more may we be sure that God's mercy has reached to all without respect of the law also, and that men shall live because of righteousness, and they will be righteous because of their regenerate nature, not that nature with which they were born, but that better nature which Christ has given, because He died for their sins, and rose again that they might rise also to righteousness and life through that same Spirit by which He had risen.

And as the evil of one man's sin came upon all, does not so also the gift? For as by one sin of one man, the world was condemned, so now after many offences of many men the world is pardoned. For if it were not so, God's severity would go farther than His love; for if one man's sin made all to die, can one Man's righteousness, and that one JESUS CHRIST be less effectual to make all men live?

So it is, then, as I said, All shall be restored, even as all fell; one man's righteousness cannot do its work less extensively than one man's sin had done.

As for the law, that came but to make sin worse. Guilt was aggravated by greater knowledge; yet God's grace is mightier to save than the law, through sin, to kill. Sin reigned while men only knew their duty, and so death reigned also; but God's Spirit, pointing to Christ crucified, will make men not only know their duty, but love it; so shall righteousness reign unto eternal life, through JESUS CHRIST our LORD.

It will be observed, that here and in the following paragraph, by a different punctuation, a negative sentence has been changed into an interrogation.

SERMON II.

ROMANS V.

ROMANS, V. 7, 8.

For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

We have now carried on the Epistle to the Romans as far as the end of the fifth chapter; so far, that is, as to have endeavoured to state, as clearly as possible, the sense and the connexion of the Apostle's words. In doing so we necessarily passed over much that was of the greatest practical use, without doing more than briefly mentioning it; for had we dwelt fully on every subject that it might have been useful to enlarge upon, we should have been stopped at almost every verse. In particular, it is in the early chapters of the Epistle to the Romans that the great truth of the Atonement is mentioned most fully as the foundation of the Chris

This Sermon, as will be seen, treats only of one part of the subject, which is spoken of as a whole in the 24th Sermon in the fourth volume.

tian system. Let us then, before we go on with our explanation of the Epistle, stop a little to consider more at large this one subject; taking it particularly in that point of view in which the text places it, namely, as a proof, the greatest that could be given, of the love of God towards His creatures.

I have said, on a former occasion, that nothing is so difficult as to speak of heavenly things, of God's revelations of Himself to man, and His dealings with them, in any other words than those of the Scripture itself. No man hath ascended up into heaven, no man hath seen God at any time; we can know therefore nothing of Himself, and nothing of His counsels, but what He has Himself been pleased to tell us. Now if I wish to describe to any one some particular view which I know only from the accounts of others, I may mislead my hearer if I depart ever so slightly from the words of my informer, even in mentioning such features in the scenery as I may fancy are naturally united with those which I am told do exist in this particular spot. A word or an epithet added may give a false impression of the whole; and this in merely describing another part of our own earth, of which we know something in general from our own experience, and are only ignorant of the details, the particular objects which are grouped together in this or that portion of it. How much more then may we give false impressions in matters of which our own experience can tell us nothing at all, but all our knowledge must be gained merely from the description or report of others, that is, from the writings of the Apostles and Evangelists! And thus it is, that what are called the doctrines of the Gospel wear a different aspect when studied in the

Word of God itself, and when collected from the writings even of very good and well meaning men.

If we examine piece by piece, we shall see the main facts, and even the very words used in books of divinity, to be faithfully taken from the Scriptures; but because the words are taken from some parts only, without attending to those other parts which present to us the same subject in a different point of view; or because too much weight is given to what is borrowed from one place, and too little to what is borrowed from another; or most of all, because men have ventured to go beyond what they found written, thinking to argue from it to what appears to them a just conclusion, but which in truth they have no right to advance to; because they have added something which seemed to them quite fair or even necessary to be added; the effect of the whole is spoiled, the impression is dif ferent, and the exact notions and feelings which the Holy Spirit designed to be conveyed, are conveyed no longer.

Now to apply this to the subject in the text, to the great truth of Christ dying for sinners. I am afraid that many of us are misled sometimes by human writings upon this subject, so as to lose some of the great benefits to be derived from the Scripture way of representing it. In human affairs, if we were to be told of a king who had resolved to punish some offenders to the utmost rigour of the law, but who was prevailed upon to pardon them because his son had offered himself to die in their stead, it is quite clear that the gratitude of the men thus pardoned would be directed justly rather towards the son than towards the father; because however near the relationship may be between