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

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

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.

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chapters of the Epistle to the Romans that the truth of the Atonement is mentioned most fully as the foundation of the Christian 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 different, 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 the two, and however much the father may suffer in the loss of his son, yet they cannot be so entirely one but that the sacrifice of his own life in the one must seem a kindness more deserving of our gratitude than the forgiving us for the sake of that sacrifice in the other. Now men have ventured to represent the Atonement of Christ as something of the same sort with this supposed case of the father and his son; and have therefore, as was to be expected, felt differently, if we may judge from their language, towards the Father and towards Christ: the one has been represented as only being prevailed upon by the Atonement of His Son to receive us into His

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mercy; and therefore the especial love and gratitude of Christians has been directed towards Christ, while the Father, it is not too much to say, has been regarded more coldly, and with more of awe than of love. The opposite error to this again, which, considering this view of God as unworthy, has rejected the notion of Christ's propitiation for sin altogether, and has lowered men's feelings towards their Redeemer as the first mentioned error lowered them towards their Maker, is so generally felt to be at variance with the Scriptures, that I need not now do more than thus allude to it. But let us observe how the Scripture represents the Atonement in the words of our text. Observe, "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 towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." You see it is "God commends His love towards us, because Christ died for us." It is not said, "Christ commends His love towards us because He died for us," although that might be said truly; nor yet, "God commends His love towards us because He Himself died for us;" though that might be said truly too; but it is, "God commends His love towards us, because Christ died for us;" that we might neither think unworthily of the Godhead, as if that could be subject to death; nor yet confine our love to Him who was manifested in the flesh,