*' And 1 will make them one nation, and one king shall be
^'king to them atl^ and they a^/ shall have oiie shep**



i



68

«^herd, &c.'' The dead cannot be included in this
account, because these Israelites are not represented
as being taken out of hell, but from among the heathen
nations. The political distinctions here spoken of, will
not exist after the day of judgment. The iacreaae of
population mentioned in ver. 26. cannot take place ac-
cording to our Lord, after the resurrection. Now can
any man make it appear, that the alt of the apostle is to
be understood in a more comprehensive tense than that
of the prophet ? and that they do not both refer to the
same period ?

Mr. Wright remarks on Rom. t. 20, 21. " To suppose
*^ that sin will abound and death reign to all eternity, over
** millions of creatures, is to suppose that grace neTer
''will abound equally with sin; but the apostle saith
** much more; and if grace do not ultimately reign over
** all mankind, it cannot be said that grace ever will reiga
** as sin hath reigned, for sin hath reigned OTer alK***
Mr. Wright is mistaken as to the meaning of the word ip
in this passage. He supposes it means all the sins, of tH
men in all ages. But if this were its meaning, the ^po§»
tie's assertion in the nezF verses (Chap. vi. 1, 2.) would
not be true ; for if we continued in sin, grace would
abound ; and the more sin we committed there would be
the i»ore grace ; but the apostle enters a caveat against
putting any such sense on his words, and says, God forbid ;
If sin in this place is to be understood in Mr. W.'s com*
prehensive sense, even then grace could only abound a$
much as sin ; for how jt could abound over m>ore than all
siuy I confess I have not penetration enough to discern ;
but the apostle says much more. By sin in this text, I un*
derstand the sin of Adam which hath reigned unto death,
▼er. 12. Grace abounds as much as this sin, by justifying
us from it as soon as we are, brought into existence, Ter.
