I SERMONS U P O N T H E SIXTH CHAPTER O F T H E ROMANS. SERMON I. ROM. VI. I, 2, What fhall we fay then ? fhall we continue in fin, that grace may abound? god forbid ! How(hall we that are dead to fin, live any longer therein ? irH E drift of the Apoftle in this Chapter is to thew, That free juflification by Faith in Chrift greatly tendeth to promote Holinefs, which he firft proveth from the tenor of Chriftianity, and then exhorteth the jultified to get, increafe, and exercife this Holinefs in all their altions. In thefe Words there are three things, t. An Objeflion fuppofed. a. A Reje &ion of it with abhorrence and indignation. 3. A Confutation of it. Firft, The Obje&ion is a prepofferous Inference from what the Apoftle had faid; Chap. 5. 20. That where fn abounded, grace did much more abound. The Apoftle pro - poundeth it by way of interrogation, What fhall we fay then ? fhall we continue in in that grace may abound? The words may be conceived as a dander raifed by Jewifh pre- judice to make the Doûrine of the Gofpel odious, as if it did fouler people in fin; an unjuft calumny ! Or as a temptation incident to lode, carnal, and carelefs Chrittians; who are apt to abufe Grace, and have fuch wretched reafonings in their own hearts, that they might take the more liberty to fin, that the Grace of God might thereby appear more illultrious and abundant. You may therefore look upon it as produced either as a check to an Objenion already made, or as a prevention of an Abufe that might after- wards be made. Secondly, He rejeð this Inference as abfurd and blafphemous, by a form of fpeecti familiar to him, Gal. 2. 17. Rom. 3. 8. 31. r.z. 3 9%5oo, let this thought be far from us, or this,is a thing that all Chriltian Hearts Ihould abominate. Thirdly, Paul's Reafon againit it, or Confutation of it, reprefented in an emphati- cal Interrogation, How fhall we that are dead to fin live any longer therein ? Where Obferve, Aaaaa Firfi,
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=