Wesley Corpus

You next reconsider the 12th verse, which you under stand thus: “Death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned,” namely, in Adam. “‘All have sinned;’ that is, are subjected to death through that one offence of his.” (Page 51.) You said before, “‘Death passed upon all men,” means, all were by a judicial sentence made subject to death.” And here you say, “‘All have sinned, means, all have been sub jected to death.” So the Apostle asserts, “All were subjected to death, because all were subjected to death !” Not so: Sin is one thing, death another; and the former is here assigned as the cause of the latter. Although the criticism on ep’ Go (p. 52) is liable to much exception, yet I leave that and the Hebrew citations as they stand; because, though they may cause many readers to admire your learning, yet they are not to the point. “Seeing then the phrase, “All are made sinners, hath been demonstrated to signify, all are subjected to death by a judicial sentence; and seeing the Apostle's whole argument turns on this point, that all men die through the one offence of Adam; who can doubt but, ‘All have sinned,” means the same with, “All are made sinners?’” (Pages 53, 54.) I do not doubt it; but I still deny that either phrase means no more than, “All are in a state of suffering.” 16. In order fully to clear this important text, I shall here subjoin some of Dr. Jennings's remarks: “The Apostle having treated in the preceding chapter of the cause and manner of a sinner’s justification before God, namely, through the merits of Christ, and by faith in his blood, and having spoken of the fruits of justification in the former part of this chapter, he proceeds, in the verses before us, to illustrate our salvation by Christ, by comparing it with our ruin by Adam. He compares Adam with Christ, and shows how what we lost by the one is restored by the other with abundant advantage.