Who was delivered for our Offences, and was raifed again for our Juftification.

HE Manner of Expreffion here ufed is different from what is generally to be met with in other Parts of the New Teftament upon the like Occafion. Here we are told that Chrift was delivered for our Offences, and raised for our Juftification; as if the Remiffion of our Sins was to be afcribed peculiarly to the Paffion, and our Juftification in the Sight of God to the Resurrection of Chrift: Whereas in the Chapter before this, Ver. 25, the Apostle tells us in general, that God hath set forth Christ to be a Propitiation through Faith in

bis Blood; and in Ch. v. Ver. 9, particularly and exprefly, that, being juftified by his Blood, we shall be faved from Wrath through him; and Ver. 10, that we are reconciled to God by the Death of his Son. In the twentieth of the Acts, the Apostle, in his Exhortation to the Elders of the Church, warns them to feed the Church of God, which he hath purchafed with his own Blood, Ver. 28. To the fame Purpose both St. Peter and St. John fpeak; the one telling us, that the Blood of Jefus Chrift cleanfeth us from all Sin, I John i. 7; the other, that we have been redeemed with the precious Blood of Chrift, as of a Lamb without Blemish and without Spot, 1 Pet. i. 19.

It is the conftant Tenor of Scripture, that Atonement for the Sins of the World was made by our great High-Prieft upon the Crofs; that his Death was our Redemption, and his Blood the Price paid for us. So that, when we confider the Redemption (which includes our Juftification) with respect to Chrift, the Author and Finisher of it, it must be ascribed to his Death and Paffion : But, as to ourselves, our Title and Interest in this common Salvation being grounded on Faith, our Juftification, though purchased by the Blood of Chrift, must be appropriated

to

to ourselves through Faith in that Blood: For the fame Apoftle who has told us that we are juftified freely through the Redemption which is in Christ Jefus, hath likewise told us that God hath fet him forth to be a Propitiation through Faith in his Blood. For this Reason we are said to be justified by Faith; not that our Faith is the Purchase of Juftification, which we owe to the Blood of Chrift alone; but because through Faith we obtain the Benefit of the Redemption wrought by Christ Jesus. Now, though the Death of Chrift was the reconciling of the World to God, yet the Refurrection of Chrift is the great and folid Foundation of our Hope and Faith in him, even of our Faith in his Blood, by which he made the Propitiation for our Sins: And therefore, although Chrift died for our Offences, and by his precious Blood made Atonement for our Sins; yet, fince our Faith in his Death, our Hope in his Blood, by which Hope and Faith we are juftified, are built upon the Truth and Credit of his Refurrection, it is very properly faid, that he rofe again for our Juftification: For the Death of Chrift would have been no Juftification to us, nor could we have had Hope or Faith in it, but for the Power and Glory of the Resurrection }

which has wiped away the Scandal and Ignominy of the Crofs, and made it a rational Act of Faith to hope for Life and Immortality from Him, who himself once died upon the Tree.

For the Truth of this Expofition I appeal to St. Paul, who, 1 Cor. xv. 17, has told us, that, if Christ be not rifen, our Faith is vain; we are yet in our Sins. So that Faith in the Death of Chrift, not grounded on the Affurance of his Resurrection, is a vain Faith, and fuch an one as cannot deliver us from our Sins. Nay, that the Death of Chrift could not have been a Propitiation for Sin without his Resurrection, he exprefly teaches in the next Verse, saying, that, if Chrift be not raised, then they also, which are fallen afleep in Chrift, are perished.

The Power of the Refurrection, together with the Atonement for Sin made by the Death of Chrift, is very beautifully expreffed by St. Paul, Rom. viii. 34: Who is he that condemneth? It is Chrift that died, yea rather that is rifen again, who is even at the right Hand of God, who also maketh Interceffion for us. The Death of Chrift freed us from Condemnation; but then was our Freedom made manifeft, when he came from the Grave in Triumph, and led Captivity captive;

when he afcended to the right Hand of his Father to be our perpetual High-Priest and Mediator: For, as the Apoftle argues, if, when we were Enemies, we were reconciled to God by the Death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, fhall we be faved by his Life; i. by his Resurrection to Life and to Glory.

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This Account, as it gives the true Interpretation of the Text, fo likewife does it shew of what great Moment the Resurrection of our Lord was, which was to be the Bafis and Support of the whole Christian Inftitution, and the Ground of our Hope and Faith in him. That Chrift died the Death of a common Malefactor after a Life spent in Innocency, and a conftant and laborious Teaching of the great Duties of Religion and Morality, was but common to him, and others before him, whom God had raised up to be fhining Lights of the World. Thus the Prophets of old were perfecuted and destroyed by fundry kinds of Death: But in their Blood there was no Expiation for Sin: The Blood of Abel and of the Prophets spoke no fuch Language, but cried to God for Vengeance against a cruel and a guilty World, Had Chrift died like one of them, and been no more heard of, how fhould we have believed that his Death had atoned for