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CHAP. V.

THEREFORE being justified by faith, we have peace with God

obedience; and triumph on account of it forms a principal part of the bliss of glorified spirits.-Anon.

through our Lord Jesus Christ: The pardon of sin has been justly called the life-blood of Religion; it is that which runs through all parts of the Scriptures like the blood in our veins, and is the foremost object in the glorious Gospel. No man is happy till he has reason to conclude that his sins are pardoned; gratitude for this blessing is the grand incentive to holy

We have peace with God as soon as we believe, but not always with ourselves. The pardon may be passed the prince's hand and seal, and yet not be put into the prisoner's hand.Gurnall.

2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Reconciliation, on God's part, not only includes the forgiveness of our former enmity, with all the sins of that fearful state in which we then were; but also His receiving us into a state of friendship with Himself. This is a great addition to the former. A prince may pardon to a malefactor a capital crime, spare his forfeited life and state, and yet not take him for a favourite and a friend. But when the blessed God forgives His enemies, He also takes them for His friends.Howe.

cellency of the object makes compensation for both, with an abundant surplusage; as any one would much more rejoice to be assured by a great person of ample possessions he would make him his heir to,-though he knew not distinctly what they should be, than to see a shilling already his own, with his own eyes.-Ibid.

Look, then, Christian, beyond this your present state. Confine not your eye and delight to what is now to be enjoyed, but think of what shall be. Set before your eyes the glorious prospect of the blessed God communicating Himself to the vast assembly of angels and the spirits of just men made perfect, in clearest discoveries of His glory and richest effusions of His goodness. The best appearance of things in this world makes but a dull scene in comparison of this.-Ibid.

The Christian's hope is instead of fruition; 'tis an anticipated enjoyment. We are commanded to rejoice in hope; and saints have professed to do so, to rejoice even in the hope of the glory of God. Nor is it unreasonable that this should be our present highest joy; for though it be yet a distant thing, and but indistinctly revealed, the exAnd not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;

Hope never affords more joy than in affliction. It is on a watery cloud that the sun paints those curious and beautiful colours in the rainbow.Gurnall.

There are three remarkable steps by which Christians rise to the height of courage in tribulations: First, they are justified and acquitted from guilt by faith (v. 1). Then, they are brought into a state of favour and acceptance with God (v. 2). Thence, they rise one step higher, even to a view of

I

heaven and the glory to come; and
from thence they take an easy step to
glorying in tribulations (v. 3).
say it is an easy step; for let a man
once obtain the pardon of sin, the
favour of God, and a believing view and
prospect of the glory to come; and it
is so easy to triumph in tribulation, in
such a station as that is, that it will be
found as hard to hinder it, as to hinder
a man from laughing when he is
tickled.-Flavel.

The Christian has to pass through

many rooms before he comes to this, which indeed borders upon heaven itself; faith is the key which lets him into all. First, it opens the door of justification, and lets him into a state of peace (v. 1); through this he passeth on to another, the presence-chamber of God's favour, and is admitted nigh unto Him, as a pardoned traitor is (v. 2); that is, we not only have our sins pardoned, and our persons reconciled to God by faith in Christ, but now under Christ's wing, we are brought to court as it were, and stand in His grace as favourites before their prince. This opens into a third, 'and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.' Now he is brought to the most inward room of all, which none can come at but he that goes through all the former (v. 3). And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also.' If thou hast not entered at these doors, thou art a thief and a robber; thou gettest thy confidence too quickly; and if God means thee well for eternity, He will make thee smart for this thy boldness, .as He did Jacob for stealing his father's blessing.-Gurnall.

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is, occasions the exercise and increase of it. And hence it is that men are most deceived in the measure of this grace, and esteem their inches ells, till, by trial of evils, they find the contrary.-J. Robinson.

God schools and nurtures His people, that through many tribulations they may enter into their rest. Frankincense, when it is put into the fire, giveth the greater perfume; spice, if it be pounded, smelleth the sweeter; the earth, when it is torn up by the plough, becometh more fruitful; the seed in the ground, after frost, and snow, and winter storms, springeth the ranker; the nigher the vine is pruned to the stock, the greater grape it yieldeth; the grape, when it is most pressed and beaten, maketh the sweeter wine; fine gold is the better when it is cast into the fire; rough stones, with hewing, are squared and made fit for building; cloth is rent and cut that it may be made a garment; linen is washed, and wrung, and beaten, and is the fairer. These are familiar examples to show the benefit of afflictions to the people of God.-Bp. Jewell.

experience, hope;

a man's study that helps to save his estate, for want of which he would have gone to prison; and some one experience keeps the soul from despair, a prison which the devil longs to have the Christian in (Lam. iii. 21), -Gurnall.

And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given

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7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure

8 But God commend

for a good man some would even dare to die.

eth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

The act of our Redeemer, in giving Himself for us, when we were 'enemies,' 'ungodly,' &c., is encircled with a splendour of moral sublimity, which eclipses all inferior excellence; it exhibits an amplitude and vastness of moral virtue, exalted above all rivalship. How, then, does it happen, we may well ask, that while the devotion of Leonidas and his Spartans is never referred to, by men of refinement, without a warm tribute of praise, the sublime sacrifice of the Son of God, though, as a mere matter of taste, it

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9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. 10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

It is as if the apostle had said, 'Can you believe that God hath taken you, that were bloody enemies, into a state of peace and favour with Himself? Surely, then, you must find it easier for your faith to argue from reconciliation to salvation, than from enmity to pardon? Could Christ procure the one by His death, when He was weakest, as I may say, and at the lowest descent of His humiliation? how much more shall He, in the height of His court favour in heaven, where He hath all power given unto Him, be able to save those whom He

hath reconciled!-Gurnall.

The life of Christ is a ground of the lastingness of His priesthood, and so a ground of the Salvation of them that come unto God by Him. We shall be saved by His life.' Wherefore, in another place, this His life is spoken of with great emphasis-'the power of an endless life' (Heb. vii. 16). An endless life is a powerful thing: 1. It is above death, and so above him that hath the power of death, the devil. 2. It capacitates Him to be the last in His own cause, and so to have the casting voice.-Bunyan.

11 And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.

It is of the utmost importance that we entertain correct views of the Atonement of Christ. In proportion to our error on this point will be our unhappiness in Christian experience. If we do not catch the true spirit of the doctrine of the Atonement, we shall not catch the true spirit of Christian life; and if we live at all to Christ then, it will be a diseased and sickly life; and, instead of resembling those who breathe the pure atmosphere that quickens a heavenly existence, we shall resemble those who breathe the poi

sonous and pestilent vapours that sometimes float even over the green fields of the Zion of God. The Atonement is the believer's breath of life. He cannot take a step, he cannot speak a word, he cannot feel an emotion in Religion, without it. It tempers all his hopes, his fears, his faith. It governs his humility, his peace, his love. It guides his gentleness, his goodness. It opens the fountain of his tears. It is the key-note of the song he sings. And when he goes forth to do good, it turns him from the

track of the Levite and the priest to the better path of the good Samaritan who bears his oil and his wine. If this pervading principle, therefore, become corrupted, all else will partake

of the taint. If the truth of the principle be all lost, grace will not exist in the soul, and the soul will not be saved.-Dr. Spencer.

13 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:

Many have puzzled themselves about the origin of evil. I am concerned to observe that evil exists, and that there is a way of escape from it; and with this I begin and end.-Rev. J. Newton.

Had it been proper for man clearly to understand the cause of the introduction of moral evil amongst sinless beings, there can be no doubt that it would have been fully revealed. The believer in Revelation can have no difficulty in embracing this conclusion. -Dr. Leask.

If evil had never been permitted, the wisdom of God could not have appeared in overruling it, nor His justice in punishing it, nor His mercy in pardoning it, nor His power in subduing it.-Dr. Gifford.

We cannot form a conception either of the glorious state of Adam before his fall, or of the nature of sin, or of the transmission of it to his posterity; these events took place in a state altogether different from our own, and surpass our present capacity; nor would a perfect acquaintance with them be of any service in freeing us from our miseries. All it concerns us to know is this: that through Adam we are miserable, corrupt, and separated from God, but that we are redeemed by Jesus Christ; and of these effects the world furnishes the most striking proofs.-Pascal.

18

In Alexandria, every death is imputed to the plague, which occasionally visits the city; so, whenever a person dies, nobody troubles himself to ascertain the cause; hence, they have no coroners' inquests.-Gadsby.

The Congoese-a people of Africalikewise imagine that no one strictly dies a natural death, but that every man leaves the world through the malice of some enemy. The apostle here assigns the valid and true cause'death by sin.'—L.

Death has claimed the earth as his empire, and mankind as his prey. All nations have perished under his iron sceptre; the young man and maiden, old men and children.' Half mankind has he compelled to the grave in the dawn of childhood, and converted the world into one vast burying ground. We. walk on human dust; and the remains of men once living are turned up by the plough, and blown about by the wind.-Dwight.

Oh! just and mighty death! What none have dared, thou hast done; and whom all the world have flattered, thou alone hast cast out of the world, and despised: thou hast drawn together all the far-fetched greatness, all the cruelty and ambition of man, and covered it all over with these two narrow words, Hic jacet!-Raleigh.

(For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the

Jehovah, foreseeing the universal prevalence of sin, whether the whole race should be so connected with Adam as to be legally answerable for what he did, or whether each of his posterity should be answerable for himself alone,

figure of him that was to come.

--and the consequent necessity for the establishment of that great plan of human Redemption from which He derives so large a revenue of glory, determined to establish such a Constitution with our first parents, as should

be in itself adapted to shadow forth the way of Salvation through Jesus Christ. Thus the dispensation established with Adam, and the Mediatorial economy which has been established through Christ, reciprocally illustrate

each

other. There is, hence, in the history of the first man, a kind of initiation into the doctrine of Christ; accordingly, He is called 'the figure of Him that was to come.'-Dr. Russell.

15 But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. 16 And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification. 17 For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.) 18 Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.

Fix this simple idea in your mind, that justification is the opposite of condemnation; for things are

some

times easily and impressively learnt by their contraries.-J. A. James.

19 For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.

The first sin involved man in guilt of the most alarming extent. Singly regarded, it is a breach of only one positive precept; but it is, in fact, a violation of the great principle of all law, and strikes at the obligation of all government, and the foundation of all order. It was a single act, but it was the act that cut asunder the golden thread on which were strung, in beautiful connexion and succession, the pearls which form the circle of order and law round the diadem of God: it cut the golden thread of authority, and the pearls, the precepts, fell scattered to the ground. One sin, as it is levelled against the Divine authority, so it

would dethrone the Divine Majesty.Dr. Styles.

As to the wish expressed by certain unreflecting individuals, that the chartered blessing of life had been entrusted to their own custody-instead of Adam's -I own I cannot understand it. Is it a wise-is it even a rational wish? Is it not preposterously absurd? Was not the arrangement made with Adam pre-eminently a covenant of grace to them? In what light can we contemplate this wish but as a development of that infatuation and folly which have seized upon men in consequence of the fall?-Dr. Payne.

20 Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:

The glass discovers the spots, but doth not cause them. When the 'commandment came' into the world, sin revived': as the letting in of a clearer light into a room discovers that dust and filth which was there before, but was not seen. It was like the searching of a wound, which is neces

sary to the cure.-M. Henry.

The Law makes sin abound, for it exasperates and repels the will.Luther.

One proper work of the Law is to manifest sin; it is sent to find fault with the sinner, and it doth also watch that it may do so, and it doth take all

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