punishment of the wicked. Thus, in Gen. 2 : 17, life was promised to our first parents as the reward of obedience ; and death threatened as the punishment of disobedience. See Deut. 30 : 15, " I have set before thee life and death;" Jer. 21 : 8. Prov. 11 : 19. Ps. 36: 9. Matt. 25: 46. John 3:15. 2 Cor. 2 : 16, &c. &c. 4. From the opposition in this pas- sage between the life which is by Christ, and the death which is by- Adam, vs. 15, 17, 21, ' Sin reigns unto death, grace reigns through right- eousness unto eternal life.' As, however, natural death is a part, and the most obvious part, of the penal evils of sin, it no doubt was promi- nent in the apostle's mind, as appears from vs. 13, 14. Death, therefore, in this passage, means the evil, and any evil which is inflicted in punish- ment of sin. The amount of this evil is diflferent, no doubt, in every different case of transgression.
And so death passed on all men ,• that is, thus it is, or so it happened that death passed on all men. As death is the penalty of sin, and as by one man all became sinners, thus it was by one man that death passed on all men. The force of the words and so have indeed been much disputed. Many understand them as answering to the word as at the beginning of the verse, « As Adam sinned and died, so also do all men.' But in the first place the words do not admit of this interpretation. Paul does not say so also, but and so, thus it was. Besides, according to this view of the passage this verse does not contain the first part of a comparison between Adam and Christ, but merely a comparison between Adam and his posterity. It is evident, however, from vs. 18, 19, that the comparison is between Adam and Christ. In this interpretation the force of the words by one man is entirely overlooked. It is by one man that men became sinners ; and thus it was by one man that death passed upon all men.
For that all have sinned. These words obviously assign the reason why all men are exposed to death. Instead of rendering the Grreek words £(p' 3) for that, the Latin version, and many of the older commentators and theologians, Arminians as well as Calvinists, translate them in whom. * By one man all men became sinners, and hence death passed upon all men, through that one man, in whom all sinned.' This, no doubt, is the true meaning of the whole verse. But it is not necessary, in order to defend this interpretation, to adopt the rendering in whom, against which there are strong philological objections ; especially the remoteness of the antecedent. Our common version, therefore, is to be preferred. * All die for that, or because that, all have sinned.'
With regard to these important words, we meet with the three interpre- tations mentioned at the beginning of this verse. All men have personally and actually sinned. Then the sentiment of the verse is either, * As Adam sinned and died, so in like manner death has passed on all men, because all have sinned.' According to this view, the connexion of Adam's sin with the sin and death of his posterity is not stated, though it may be intimated by the peculiar form of the expressions. Or the