he complained, That old Adam was too hard for young Melanchthon." a Ex. xx. 5; Ro. iv. 15; 1 Jo. iii. 4. 13-17. until.. world,a evident fr. the presence of death, the offence and the free and practices of men. "Adam's sin the mother of all the rest."b gift not.. law, not reckoned as transgression punishable by death.c death,d penalty of sin. reigned, king of terrors. after transgression, the special law he transgressed ceased when he b Olshausen. left Eden. figure.. come, Adam like Christ, in that he in- Robinson. "Imvolved his descendants in the consequences of his act. but..sonal, but geneputation not pergift, the involved consequences dif. in ea. case-i.e., death fr. Adam, ral."-Olshausen. life fr. Christ.e and not.. gift, etc., the sin wh. wrought the ruin was one; the sins wh. caused the redemption were many. reigned.. one, reigned over all men by one sinner. by Christ, who is not only innocent, but Divine. Adam and Christ.-I. Adam. Through him we are all-1. Subject to suffering, sorrow, and death; 2. Debarred from entrance into paradise; 3. Kept from eternal happiness. II. Christ. By Christ--1. Our sins are atoned for; 2. We are entirely freed from guilt; 3. Eternal life is granted to us; 4. Eternal happiness is given to us as our portion. Through the first Adam we fell from our high state; the second Adam restores us, by His blood, to peace, joy, and eternal life with God.g "Death proves the existence of sin, and sin sup poses law; men, therefore, were under some law." -Doddridge. "Death, wh. has come upon sinners guilty of no law, cannot be derived fr. their own sin."-Meyer. d Ge. vii. 22; xix. 25; Ex. xii. 29. transgression of e 1' Co. xv. 21, 22, 23. The wonderful love of Christ.-A man in the East Indies said one day to a friend, "Well, Krishna, you have left off all the 45; Ma. xx. 28; customs of your ancestors: what is the reason ?" He replied, Jo. iii. 16; Ro.vi. "Only have patience, and I will tell you. I am a great sinner. f Vaughan. I tried the Hindoo worship, but got no good. After awhile I" The Fall is a heard of Jesus; that He was incarnate, laboured much, and at greater mystery last laid down His life for sinners. I thought, What love is this! and here I make my resting-place." He then spoke of the great difference between Christ and the idols of his countrymen. Now," said he, "say if anything like this love was ever shown by any of your gods? Did Doorga, or Kalee, or Krishna die for sinners? You know that they only sought their own ease, and had no love for any one." than the Redemption. He who has had experience of the one may well accept the revelation of the other." -Dr.C. Vaughan. g J. H. Tasson. our relation 18, 19. offence.. one, Adam's disobedience. judgment, to Adam and sentence. came, in its effects. all men, the race wh. A. re- to Christ presented. condemnation, "Humanity sinned in A., and fella 1 Ti. iv. 10; Ga. with him." by.. one,a i.e., of Christ, the second Adam. justi- ii. 20; 1 Jo. v. 12. fication.. life, condemnation brings death; justification, Phi. ii. 8. life. disobedience, violation of law. sinners, judicially regarded as such. obedience,' perfect, and complete. righteous, constituted just in the sight of God. made c Je. xxiii. 5, 6; man is very far The nature and number of benefits derived through the mediation is the fault and of Christ.-I. The existence of the human race rests on Christ's corruption of mediation. Remember that-1. Existence is a blessing; 2. every man that naturally is enNothing can render it a curse but sin; 3. Christ is now able and gendered of the willing to take away sin from us. II. The mediatory agency offspring of of Christ procures immortality for man. III. It has furnished Adam; whereby us with a system of means to prepare us for a happy immortality. gone from origiThis is a system of-1. Grace; 2. Righteousness. Inferences-nal righteous(1) Christianity is infinitely superior to natural religion; (2) ness, and is, of Christ is certainly the most extraordinary and interesting Being inclined to evil." in the universe; (3) Let us rejoice in Christianity while parting See Art. ix. with friends in death. Christ lives; they live; we shall also live.dd Rev. C. Morris. his own nature, "Fix this simple-The first and second Adams.-I. The first Adam: 1. His crime; idea in your 2. The persons found guilty; 3. The injury which men sustain. mind, that justi-II. The second Adam: 1. Who was this "One"; 2. The means posite of condem- by which he hath wrought our deliverance; 3. The persons thus nation; for benefited; 4. What this benefit is. The righteousness of―(1) times easily and Justification; (2) Sanctification; (3) Glory-both perfect and impressively inherent.e fication is the op things are some A. James. "We mercy, and think Arabia, hardened learnt by their The effect of sin.-The divinity course of the Rev. Robert contraries." -J. Pollok" was pursued," says his biographer, "under the able professorship of the late Dr. Dick, for the ordinary time of five e Dr. T. Bradley. sessions. The first discourse he delivered in the hall, from become Rom. v. 19, excited an extraordinary sensation among the worse for God's students. It was a composition sufficiently florid, though parit will be always taking largely of Pollok's genius. But the students behaved inholiday, and are decorously, and occasionally laughed at the top of their voices. like the crystal of Pollok, however, proceeded calmly, and with dignified selfnot by cold, but possession; and while describing negatively 'the effects of Adam's made crusty and disobedience,' he raised himself to his full height, clenched his stubborn by the fist, fetched a heavy blow upon the pulpit, and, looking with Divine fire, by its righteous indignation upon his irreverent audience, exclaimed, Had sin not entered into our world, no idiot smile would have gathered on the face of folly, to put out of countenance the man of worth.' The effect was petrifying in the extreme."-The aim of Teachers.-"What shall we principally aim to teach our are under the children ?" said some Sabbath-school teachers to a venerable power of sin, they under the minister. "That they are sinners," answered he. "And what power of mad- in the next place?" "The same: tell it over and over again; ness."-Dr. Owen. make it the first part of your instructions, and the last; because it is all important." warmth of the refreshments and mercies." Taylor. Bp. "So far as any are the purpose of the law explained a Ro. iii. 20; iv. 15. b1 Ti. i. 14; Ep. i. 7, 8; Tit. iii. 3 -7. c Bengel. d Ro. vi. 21. e Jo. i. 17. "The law makes sin abound, for it exasperates, and repels the will." -Luther. 20, 21. entered, came in by the way. "The law of nature" (Macknight). offence.. abound, the widely spread consequences of A.'s sin might be manifested. grace.. abound, sin conquered man, grace conquered sin; therefore the power of grace is greatest." ." sin.. reigned, universal and despotic authority. death,d spiritual, with its train of sorrows; and in the end, eternal. so.. reign, with as wide a sway and sovereign power. through righteousness, in harmony with justice, bestowing the righteousness of faith. unto.. life, the end proposed by a God of grace, for the believer who is prepared for that life by the grace of God. by.. Lord, the administrator of the Father's will in the kingdom of grace. The triumphs of grace.-I. Sin abounded in human nature. It has-1. Filled the understanding with errors and prejudices; 2. "Might abound; Set the will in determined opposition to heaven; 3. Hurried the in the conscience passions to destructive excesses; 4. Placed the affections on by conviction; objects which they should have abhorred. II. Sin has abounded in the world. Consider-1. The idolatry; 2. The gross impuriand practice."- ties; 3. The impenitence of the world. III. But by the Scriptures are presented to us wonderful examples of grace conquering all these.-Dr. Belfrage. not in the life, by commission Gurnall. "They who are justified are said to receive abun dance of grace, The effect of good news.-"I once saw," says the Rev. Mr. Innes, "so much joy produced at good news of deliverance from or grace abound- a great dreaded evil, as may diminish our surprise at the same ing over all the effect resulting from the first discovery of pardoning mercy. In aboundings of sin. Sin reigns the town where I resided a reprieve was expected for a man under over our species, sentence of death. I requested the chief magistrate to let me but grace con con know when it arrived, as I should like to be first messenger of the subjugating good news to the criminal. He did so. I went in and communi- them all to death; cated to the poor man the glad tidings. He instantly fell on his knees on the cold earthen floor of his dungeon, and, clasping his hands and lifting up his eyes to heaven, while the tears rushed down his cheeks, he prayed that the seven days of reprieve might be to him as seven thousand years of genuine turning to God. This man afterwards received pardon." quers the queror, reigning through rightnal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord." -A. Fuller. eousness to eter CHAPTER THE SIXTH. 1, 2. what.. then? in view of this glorious doctrine of grace? shall.. sin," as though sin were unimportant, bec. the sinner is so graciously pardoned. grace.. abound? that the grace of God may be magnified by the pardon of multiplied offences? dead.. sin, etc., "we who have died by sin, how shall we still live by it?" Dead," in baptism and justification." "When Christ died, you died. A dead man cannot sin. And you are dead; dead as to that life over wh. alone sin has power, the life of flesh and sense and time: how then can you sin? To sin is to forfeit just that wh. is your glory-just that wh. makes your Christianity—a present union with Christ in His life after death in heaven." d The Gospel secures the practice of holiness.-I. The supposed tendency of the Gospel to encourage sin: 1. The Gospel certainly, when stated as Paul stated it, has, to a superficial observer, this aspect; 2. Hence men, in every age, have characterised it as licentious. II. The security it gives for the practice of universal holiness: 1. What a man professes at his first entrance into Christ's Church; 2. What effect this profession must have on all his future life. Address-(1) Those who entertain this objection against the Gospel; (2) Those who, by their conduct, give occasion for it; (3) Those who bear in mind and exemplify their baptismal vows.-Rev. C. Simeon, M.A. Conviction of sin.—Dr. Milne, the late missionary, in speaking of his conversion, says, "The book which God made use of more especially for convincing me of my sin and misery, was Boston's Fourfold State, which I read with the deepest attention. It conducted me into my own heart, discovered the evil which before lay hid in the chambers of imagery; the monstrous ingratitude to God which marked all my conduct; and the pollution of original and actual sin with which my soul was contaminated. I saw that I was necessarily under the strongest and most righteous obligations to God, and had never for one hour of my life discharged these, but lived in rebellion against the Author of my life; so I was justly under the curse of God's righteous law, and exposed to everlasting misery.' Under the tormenting fears of eternal wrath, he sometimes wished himself transformed into a stone, or one of the fowls he saw flying over his head in the fields. He was frequent and fervent in prayer, and was, in the mercy of God, led to those means by which he learned how even a vile and guilty creature, such as he was, might be for ever saved. 3, 4. know.. not, are ye ignorant? that.. death ? a "sealed with the seal of heaven; and, as it were, formally entered shall we sin that grace may abound? a Ro. iii. 8; vi. 15. b Macknight. Bengel. d Vaughan. “Live no more in it; renounce it ; be dead to its influence."--Stuart. "Dead in its condemning power." -Haldane. "Died, not figuratively, though spiritually and peculiarly; in Christ's death all believers died with Him."-Olshausen. "A man dies not only when the soul leaves the body, but when, though yet in the body, it puts off bodily passions."- Philo. To kill the passions is to die with them." Porphyry. "A Christian is one who is united which Christ has entered Dr. baptized into the death of Christ a Ga. iii. 27: 1 and articled, to all the benefits and all the obligations of Christian Co. x. 2; Col. iii. discipleship in general, and of His death in particular." "Baptism of chil- dren in first three Christian writers. tro. of infant bap- therefore.. life, "our baptism was a sort of funeral; a solemn act of consigning us to that death of Christ in wh. we are made one with Him. And with this object: not that we might remain dead, but that we might rise with Him fr. death, experience (even in this world) the power of His resurrection, and live the life wh. we now live in the flesh as men who have already died and risen Likeness to Christ the Christian's destiny.-I. The imitation of Christ is a chief part of the Divine worship and homage, which we pay to Him as our God. II. The grand principles of Christ's character are godliness and philanthropy, or love towards man. III. The death of Christ chiefly declares His character, and in posed it, but on this chiefly we are called upon to imitate Him.d-The Divine life innocence of in- of Christian believers.-I. Union with Christ is a new Divine life fants, etc. Prac-in respect of-1. The principle from which it proceeds; 2. The tised in the time rule by which it is directed; 3. Its end and scope. II. Our duty of Irenæus, latter to walk before God in newness of life. This life is the most-1. cent., and favour- Honourable; 2. Easy; 3. Comfortable and delectable; 4. Safe. ed in the third by -The Atonement.-I. Though it is evident from Scripture that Origen, who calls good works are necessary to salvation, it is evident also that they fr. the Apostles. are not absolutely so. II. Though it is certain that justification, Fidus, an African adoption, and final salvation are employed as convertible terms, Bp. in the same being all constituent parts of one great benefit, yet it is plain cent., proposed that the justification spoken of by Paul is distinct from our final eighth day, but salvation, the former being in this, the latter in the life to come. was opposed by III. Our justification and final salvation, then, are of Christ 323-397, where Holiness.-Believers, as they were in the primitive times holy condensed in their lives, so they professed this still to be the foundation of summary of his-their holiness-Christ hath died, Christ is risen, Christ is in 5-7. planted together, allusion to grafting: united. likeness.. death, having a deadness to the influences of sense e Ep. iv. 22; Col. sin, bec. raised fr. death of sin to a new life. dead.. sin, Planted: "Graft- together."- Gro- The Christian should not serve sin.-I. It has cost him enough mus, Beza. "Graft- His grace is still the same. Come to Him with weeping and penitence, and thou shalt be once more received into His heart. "Growing up with Christ in one unity."-Olshausen. "Become Carthage must be destroyed.-It is reported of Cato that he united to the likenever spake in the senate upon public business, but he ended hisness of His death."-Ellicott. speech by inculcating the necessity of destroying Carthage; his well-known maxim was: "Delenda est Carthago." The believers' milation; not by Likeness: "Assimotto is, "The old man must be crucified." -Destruction of imitation, but the sin.-"Five persons were studying what were the best means to efficacy of His mortify sin; one said, to meditate on death; the second, to me- power in us."Beza. "By the ditate on judgment; the third, to meditate on the joys of heaven; the fourth, to meditate on the torments of hell; the fifth, to meditate on the blood and sufferings of Jesus Christ; and certainly the last is the choicest and strongest motive of all. If ever we would cast off our despairing thoughts, we must dwell and muse f Spurgeon. much upon, and apply this precious blood to our own souls; sog Rev. J. Lee. shall sorrow and mourning flee away."-Mr. Brooks. similitude.". Erasmus. "By a likeness in redeath."- Stuart. spect to His live.. relation of Christ 8,9. dead, Gk., have died with Him, i.e., as to sin. him, now in soul, aft. in body also; live for ever. .. more, and believers raised fr. death of sin, die no more; and raised fr. the tomb, they will die no more in any sense whatever. death.. him, nor over the believer through his union with Christ. : the believer to death and life of Christ a 2 Ti. ii. 11; Jo. xiv. 19; Ga. ii. 20 ; Ro. vi. 5; Jo. i. 4. nothing Dead and alive with Christ.-I. Dead with Christ. Crucified with Him 1. Judicially, as to sin's penalty; 2. Spiritually, as to 6 Re. i. 18. sin itself. II. Living with Christ: 1. Judicially-absolved from "Will death by God's own sentence; 2. Spiritually-through His own cheaper than the nature communicated to us; 3. Experimentally-in the enjoy-serve to make a ment of God with Him for ever.c grace of God cloak for sin? O, vile abuse! Did Christ shed His blood to expiate our guilt, and dare we make that a My brethren. While Mr. Thomas Boston was walking up and down in his closet one evening, in heaviness, his little daughter, whom he had laid in bed, suddenly raising up herself, said to him, she would tell him a note, and thus expressed herself:"Mary Magdalene went to the sepulchre. She went back again our guilt? God with them to the sepulchre; but they would not believe that forbid!"—Flavel. Christ was risen till Mary Magdalene met Him; and He said to c Rev. T. Robinher, Tell my brethren, they are my brethren yet."" "This," son. plea to extenuate says Mr. Boston, " she pronounced with a certain air of sweet-"He dies, and ness. It took me by the heart. His brethren yet' (thought I); and makes no sign." may I think that Christ will own me as one of His brethren yet?-Shakspeare. was to me as life from the dead." It a Jesus Christ a He. ix. 28. b Ep. i. 22; Phi. ii. 11. c Ga. ii. 19; Phi.i. 10, 11. for.. died, Gk., for that wh. He died,-i.e., that alive to God death wh. He died. once, once for all: effectually, decisively. through liveth, Gk. the life which He liveth He liveth to God. likewise, thus, on this principle. reckon, etc., regard yourselves as included in Christ in His death and in His life. Christians dead unto sin and alive unto God.-I. Christians are dead unto sin. They not only leave it; they are dead to it. II. 11; 1 Pe. ii. 5. They are not only this; but also alive unto God. Alive to His-d W. Jay. 1. Favour; 2. Presence; 3. Glory. III. Alive unto God through Christ. Through Him as-1. Their example; 2. Their teacher; 3. Their dying friend. IV. We should reckon ourselves as being such. In order-1. To maintain the conduct suitable to; 2. Keep ourselves from wondering at the treatment of; 3. Rejoicing in the portion of, such.d "Christians are. dead to sin by profession, by obligation, and by their relation to for them."-Flavel. Christ, who died 66 Many flowers |