world! In the mount of the Lord it is seen, how the Lord hath provided! See then, O thou that beholdest, that, both in thy faith and in thy practice, thou make all things according to the pattern shewed thee in the Mount.

SERMON IV.

EASTER DAY.

ROMANS V. 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.

THIS text propounds for our consideration two effects and two causes.

The effects are; our reconciliation to God; and, our being saved.

The causes, respectively, are; the death of the Son of God; and, His life.

The death of the Son of God is set forth as the cause of our reconciliation to God. The life of the Son of God is set forth as the cause of our being saved.

The reconciliation is spoken of as something actual.

The being saved, as something yet to be brought to pass.

The life of the Son of God spoken of is the life which He now lives, risen and ascended, and seated for evermore at the right hand of the Father. This is also evident from the verse shortly before preceding, in which it is said, that Christ, Who was delivered for our offences, was raised again for our justificationa.

Twice then, within the space of a few verses, is this distinction drawn, in the words of the Holy Ghost, between the results, to us, of Christ's death, and of Christ's life from the dead, or Resurrection, which we this day celebrate.

The inference is, that the distinction must be not only real, but important. Let us then endeavour to look more closely into it.

By Christ's death we are reconciled to God.

By Christ's life from the dead we shall be saved.

Rom. iv, 25.

Does then Christ's death not save us? Assuredly it does; for He "was delivered for our offences"." He is "the Beloved, in Whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins." "He is the propitiation for our sins d " Having given Himself an offer

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ing and sacrifice to God for use."

He is "the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world'."

We are then saved by Christ's death.
We have been "" purchased with His

blood."

We have been "justified by His blood."

Yet the Apostle, in my text, speaks of our salvation as something yet to come; for he says, "much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life."

The obvious inference, I say, without further induction of similar passages, but from the mere and clear force of the Apostle's language, is, that our salvation by

Christ's Blood is something in some respect distinct from our salvation by His life from the dead.

Distinct, though not separate; distinct, but connected. A clue to the development of this distinction may be found in the consideration, first, of what it was that made His death necessary; secondly, of what the result must be if that death be effectual.

Now, that which made His death necessary, was Adam's sin. He is plainly set forth as the "second Adam," doing away, by His obedience, the effects of the first Adam's disobedience. Now the effect of the first Adam's disobedience was death, and the loss of God's favour; therefore the effect of the second Adam's obedience must be life from the dead, and reinstatement in God's favour; or, reconciliation or atonement; as the same word is variously rendered in our English Bible.

g

But, inasmuch as Adam, in the state of innocence, that is, before his fall by dis8 Karaλλay. Rom. v. 11. xi. 15. 1 Cor. v. 18, 19.