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affords as much evidence of future punishment, as this passage does of the opposite doctrine. "For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope; for a living dog is better than a dead lion." The remarks already made upon Solomon's maxims, will apply to both the above passages. There is one passage in the New Testament on which you place great reliance.* The passage is Rom. vi. 7. "He that is dead is freed from sin." Your argument rests solely upon the presumption, that the death here spoken of, is the death of the body. But if it can be made to appear that the death spoken of in the passage, is not temporal death, your argument is entirely destroyed. In order to a right understanding of this text, it is necessary to observe that the apostle very frequently speaks of the literal death and resurrection of Christ, and then makes use of them, as figures by which to represent our death to sin, and life to holiness. You think, because the apostle alludes to the literal death of Christ, that the death spoken of in the 7th verse, must be temporal death. But this is very far from being the case. St. Paul says in a certain instance, I die daily. It will be admitted by all that this death is not temporal death. For it would be an absurdity to admit that Paul died a temporal death every day. But still I would inquire, from what subject did the apostle borrow the term die, which he uses in this passage? He borrows the term from temporal death. But no one will pretend the apostle meant temporal death in this passage, because he borrows his language from that subject. And so in the sixth chapter of Romans; the apostle speaks of the temporal death of Christ, but uses it as a similitude by which to represent our death to sin.

With this principle in view, let us attend to the sixth of Romans, where the passage before us is found. The apostle begins the chapter by saying, "What shall we

*Lect. p. 363. U. Mag. Vol. III. p. 131, 150, &c.

ness.

say then? shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound ? God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin, live any longer therein ?" Here then we learn the subject of which St. Paul was treating. He was speaking upon a death to sin, and not of the death of the body. Having introduced the subject, viz. a death to sin, he illustrates it by the literal death and resurrection of Christ. Verses 3d and 4th-"Know ye not, that so many of us, as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." The apostle in these verses speaks of the death and resurrection of Christ, and makes them a simile of our death to sin, and life to holiHis argument is this-As Christ died and rose from the dead, so ought we, who profess to be dead to sin, to "walk in newness of life." This argument he enforces by verse 5th-"For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection." Having stated the death and resurrection of Christ, the apostle applies the principle to the moral state of the Romans. "Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin." Verse 6th.-Here the same death is spoken of; crucifying the old man, and destroying the body of sin, signify the same as being dead to sin, mentioned in the preceding verses. This verse teaches us in the plainest manner, what death the apostle was treating of. It was a death to sin, crucifying the old man, or destroying the body of sin.

We have now noticed all the verses of this chapter, from the first up to the passage in question. And that the reader may have the whole subject before him, I will observe, that in the preceding chapter, the apostle had

been treating of the universality of God's grace. And in the first verse of this chapter, he anticipates an objection which is frequently made to this doctrine, viz. that it leads to licentiousness. To meet this objection, the apostle endeavors to show the absurdity of the principle, that those who had embraced Christ and become dead to sin, should continue to violate the laws of God. "How shall we that are dead to sin, live any longer therein ?" This subject the apostle keeps in view, to the sixth verse, where he informs us, as we have already seen, that the old man was crucified, not that we might live in sin, but that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. This he confirms by the words in debate, "He that is dead, is freed from sin ;" that is, he that has become dead to sin, by having the old man crucified, instead of continuing in sin, as the objection sug gests, is freed from sin. This is clearly the apostle's argument, and taken in this light, we see its force and pertinency. But if the death here spoken of, be the death of the body, the force of the argument is lost entirely. The objection states that God's boundless grace leads to sin. And the apostle, according to your views, answers this objection by saying, in sentiment, that if a person dies in the very act of murder, he will go to hap piness as quick as the greatest saint. This instead of meeting the objection, would rather encourage it. But God forbid that we should ascribe such futile reasoning to an inspired apostle.

Further; we have already seen that the sentiment of the 7th verse is explained by the 6th. What the apostle means by the term dead, in the 7th verse, is explained in the 6th, to signify crucifying the old man; and what is meant in the 7th by the phrase, freed from sin, is explained in the 6th to signify, that we should not serve sin. And in the 4th it is explained to mean that we should walk in newness of life. But the apostle not only

guarded the expression, "he that is dead is freed from sin," in the verses which preceded it, but in the following verses he does the same. His words are "Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Here again, the apostle expresses the same idea as in the 7th verse. He explains the word dead, to signify dead unto sin, and the phrase freed from sin, to signify being alive unto God through Jesus Christ. He then adds, "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof." Here again we see the nature of this death. Those who were dead in the sense of the 7th verse, were still in their mortal bodies. Let us now inquire, are we authorized to understand the term dead, in verse 7th, to signify the extinction of animal life, when it is not used in that sense in the context, so much as once, when applied to men? Shall we deviate from the apostle's repeated definition, only to support a preconceived opinion? Is this receiving with meekness the word of divine truth?

But probably you will say that the term, death, is used frequently in the connexion to signify the death of the body. We readily admit that it is used in that sense, when applied to Jesus Christ. But what of that? Does it follow that it must have the same meaning, when applied to men, when the apostle has told us repeatedly that it has not? Now for the sake of the case, we will admit that your reasoning is correct. Your argument is, that the death mentioned in the 7th verse, must signify the death of the body, because it has this meaning in the context. But to whom is it applied in the context, when it means temporal death? Only to Jesus Christ. So then verse 7th, "He that is dead, is freed from sin," applies to Jesus Christ. And the argument in support of your system, would be this ;-Because Jesus Christ, who never committed any sin, was by death freed from sin;

therefore those who die in sin, will pass immediately to happiness. This reasoning, to say the least, is not very conclusive.

The view we have given of Rom. vi. 7, receives the fullest confirmation, when we attend to what the same apostle has said upon the same subject elsewhere. To the Galatians he says, "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life I live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”* Here as in Rom. vi. the apostle speaks of a death to sin. I am crucified, says he. This he illustrates, as in Romans, by the literal death of Christ. I am crucified with Christ; nevertheles I live by faith in the Son of God. This passage conveys the same idea as that in Romans. There he says, "He that is dead, is freed from sin ;" and here he says, "I am crucified, nevertheless I live by faith in the Son of God." Now it is clear that St. Paul means the same by being crucified, in this passage, that he does by being dead, in the other; and what he calls being freed from sin, in the one, he calls living by faith, in the other. And in both passages alike, he illustrates this by the literal death of Christ. But did Paul mean that he was temporally dead, in this passage to the Galatians? No one will assert this. Again, the same apostle says, "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." In this passage Paul says that he is crucified to the world. By this he means the same as by being dead, in Romans; and the idea conveyed in one passage, by the phrase, freed from sin, he conveys in the other, by the phrase, the world is crucified to me, that is, worldly lusts cease to influence my conduct. In another passage, the apostle Paul alludes to the same subject, and illustrates our + Gal. vi. 14.

* Gal. ii. 20.

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