SERMONS
SIXTH CHAPTER OF THE ROMANS.
SERMONS UPON ROMANS VI.
SERMON I.
What shall lue say then ? shall loe continue in sin, that grace may abound ? God forbid ! Hoio shall lue, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? — Rom. VI. 1, 2.
The drift of the apostle in this chapter is to show that free justification by faith in Christ greatly tendeth to promote holiness ; which he first proveth from the tenor of Christianity, and then exhorteth the justified to get, increase, and exercise this holiness in all their actions. In these words there are three things —
1. An objection supposed.
2. A rejection of it with abhorrence and indignation.
3. A confutation of it.
1. The objection is a preposterous inference from what the apostle liad said, chap. v. 20, ' That where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.' The apostle propoundeth it by way of interrogation, ' What shall we say then ? shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?' The words may be conceived as a slander raised by Jewish prejudice to make the doctrine of the gospel odious, as if it did foster people in sin — an unjust calumny ; or as a temptation incident to loose, carnal, and careless christians, who are apt to abuse grace, and have such wretched reasonings in their own hearts, that they might take the more liberty to sin, that the grace of God might thereby appear more illustrious and abundant. You may therefore look upon it as pro- duced either as a check to an objection already made, or as a preven- tion of an abuse that might afterwards be made.
2. He rejecteth this inference as absurd and blasphemous, by a form of speech familiar to him, Gal. ii. 17, Rom. iii. 6, 31, yu,^ yevoLTo ; let this thought be far from us, or, this is a thing that all christian hearts should abominate.
3. Paul's reason against it, or confutation of it, represented in an eraphatical interrogation, ' How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein ?' Where observe —
[l.J That to continue in sin, and live longer in sin, are equivalent expressions ; for in the objection the expression is, ' Shall we continue in sin ?' But in the apostle's answer and argument to the contrary, it is, ' Can we live any longer therein ? '
154 SERMONS UPON ROMANS VL [SeR. I.
[2.] Observe that before grace we lived in sin ; for when he saith, ' any longer,' he implieth that we were given to sin, enslaved by sin before ; but shall we continue this course ? Far be it from us to think so, or say so, much more to do so.
[3.] Observe the argument lieth here, ' We that are dead/ &c. All that have given their names to Christ are, or should be, dead to sin. Now, to be dead to sin and live in sin are aavaTaTa, things incom- patible ; the dead are no longer alive.
Because this is the strength of his argument, it will be good to in- quire what it is to be dead in sin. In the strict and rigorous notion, he is said to be dead who is utterly deprived of all sense and motion, that they are altogether without all feeling and motion of sin ; but this strict sense will not stand here ; therefore I must tell you the word relateth to the baptismal engagement, as the following verses abundantly do declare : — ver. 3, ' Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his death ? ' Baptism referreth to Christ's death, and we are baptized into the likeness and power of his death; the meaning of that ordinance is to signify our dying to sin and rising to newness of life ; this is that which every christian knoweth, if he be but a little instructed in the principles of his religion. Well, then, every good christian is dead to sin by vow and obligation, therefore cannot, should not, live any longer therein. There is a double undertaking in baptism — one on God's part, the other on ours ; the undertaking on God's part is to give us the sanctifying Spirit of grace, to quell the reign of sin ; the undertaking on our part is by the Spirit to mortify the deeds of the body. Now some make conscience of this solemn vow and promise, others do not ; the apostle considereth not what is done, but what ought to be done ; he speaketh de jure, of the vow and obligation — we are all bound ; not de facto, of the event, not what always cometh to pass. All christians are bound to be dead to sin, and every good christian is actually dead to sin, which, though it hath some life and being left, yet it retaineth not its sovereignty and dominion over him. Some conceive this latter sort intended ; oht,ve<i am-eOdvofxev tt} afxapTia, as many of us as have died to sin : but rather he considereth the right than the fact. Christianity doth oblige all at their first entrance into the profession of it to renounce the reign and dominion of sin, and break the power of it yet more and more, so that it dieth, though a lingering death, as Christ did upon the cross.