' Rear! Jer. iii. Out of llie most poisonful drugs God distils his glory and our salva- tion. Galen speaks of a maid, called Nupella, that was nourished by poison. God can and will turn the very sins of his people, which are the worst poibou in uU the world, into his children'.s advauta^'e.
EpH. III. 8.] EICHES OF CHRIST. 71
sentence of condemnation : 1 Cor. xv. 55, 56, ' 0 death, where is thy sting ? O grave, where is thy victory ? The sting of death is sin,' &c.' The apostle here triumphs over it as a thief condemned to death. Sin is sentenced now ; though not fully put to death, it is dead judicially. As when the sentence of death is passed upon a malefactor, you say he is a dead man ; why ? he is judicially dead ; so is sin, sin is judicially dead. When a man that hath robbed and wounded another is taken, and sentenced judicially, we say he is a dead man ; and it is ofcen a great refreshing and satisfaction to a man that he is so. Sin, 0 weak soul ! is sentenced and judicially slain ; and therefore that can never work the Lord Jesus to orive thee a bill of divorce. The thouo-hts of which .shouM much refresh thee and support thee.
[2.] Secondly, Sin is dead or slain civilly, as well as judicially. It is civilly dead, because the power of it is much abated, and its dominion and tyranny overpowered. As when a king or tyrant is whipped and stripped of all power to domineer, reign, and play the tyrant, he is civilly dead, even while he Kves ; so is sin in this sense dead even while it lives, Rora. vi. 14. That text is suitable to our purpose : Hosea xiii. 1, ' When Ephraim spake trembling, he exalted himself in Israel ; but when he offended in Baal, he died.'^
What is the meanincr of these words ? The meaning is this : When the king of Ephraim spake, the people even trembled at his voice, such power once he had ; but when he offended in Baal, by serving Baal, by giving himself up to idolatry, he died in respect of obedience not yielded to him as formerly. Time was that he was terrible, but when he fell to idolatry, his strength and glory came down, so that now he became even like a dead carcase.
Adam died civilly the same day that he sinned. The creatures that before lovingly obeyed him, as soon as he renounced obedience to his God, they renounced all obedience to him or his sovereignty, so that he civilly died the very same day that he sinned.
That is a sweet word that you have, Rom. vi. 11 'Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin.' Therefore Christ will never divorce you for sin. Oh what a support may this be to a weak saint, that sin, that he fears above all other things in the world, is slain judicially and civilly. The Lord hath whipped and stripped it of all its rulmg, reigning, domineering, tyrannizing power. Oh, therefore. Chris- tians, look upon sin as dead, that is, as not to be obeyed, as not to be acknowledged, no more than a tyrant that is stripped of all his tyran- nizing power. People that are wise, and understand their liberty, look not upon such a one as fit to be obeyed and served, but as one fit to be renounced and destroyed. Do you so look upon your sins, and deal accordingly with them.^
[3.] Thirdly, Sin is slain naturally, as well as civilly, Christ hath given it its death's wound by his death and resun-ection. He hath given bin such a wound, that it cannot be long-lived, though ii may linger
' Vide Grotius and Vorstius on the words.
* It is with sin in the saints as it was with those beasts, Dan. vii. 12, who had their dominions taken away, though their lives were prolonged for a season and a time.
3 Where sin sits in the soul, as a king sits upon his throne, and commands the heart, as a king commands his subjects, there is reign of sin ; but grace frees the soul from this.
72 THE UNSEAECHABLE [EPH. III. 8.
awhile iu a saint. As a tree that is cut at the root with a sore gash or two, must die within a year, perhaps a mouth, nay, it may be within a Aveek ; though for a time it may flourish, it may have leaves and fruit, yet it secretly dies, and will very shortly wither aud perish. The Lord Jesus hath given sin such a mortal Avound, by his death and Spirit, and by the communication of his favour and grace to the soul, that sin shall never recover its strength more, but die a liugering death in the souls of the saints. Christ did not die all at once upon the cross, but by little and little ; to shew us, that his death should extend to the slajdng of sin gradually in the souls of the saints. When our enemy hath a mortal wound, we say he is a dead man, his wound is mortal ; so when Jesus Christ hath given sin such a deadly wound, such a mortal blow, that it shall never recover its strength and power more, we^ may truly say, it is dead, it is slain. Therefore cheer up, O weak souls, for certainly sin that is thus slain can never provoke Jesus Christ to give you a bill of divorce. Ah ! that all weak Christians would, like the bee, abide upon these sweet flowers, and gather honey out of them, &c.
The twelfth support is this :
Sup'port 12. Christ and you are sharers.
Know this, weak saints, for your support and comfort,
1. That Christ shares with you, and you share with Christ.
I shall open this sweet truth to you a little.
[1.] Christ shares tvith you in your natures.
In Heb. ii. 16, ' For verily he took not on him the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham.^ And by this he hath ad- vanced fallen man above the very angels. This is the great mystery spoken of, 1 Tim. iii. 16, * And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness, God manifested in the flesh,' Szc.
[2.] The Lord Jesus shares tuith you in your afiictions.
In Isa. Ixiii. 9, ' In all their afilictions he was aftlicted, and the angel of his presence saved them : in his love and in his pity he redeemed them ; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.' It is between Christ and his church as between two lute strings, no sooner one is struck but the other trembles.^
[3.] He shares with you in all sufferings and persecutimis, as well as in all your afflictions.
Acts ix. 4, 5, ' Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me V There is such a near union between the Lord Jesus Christ and the weakest saints, that a man cannot strike a saint but he must strike through the very heart of Christ. Their sufferings are held his. Col. i. 2-1 ; and their afilictions are his afilictions, and their reproaches are his reproaches,
^ The notion of ttr/Xa/t/saura/ is best expressed by Chrysostom in these words : ' When mankind fled far from Christ, Christ pursued and caught hold of it; and this he did by fastening on our nature in his incarnation,' &c.