3. That since there is a liberty, we must be careful to live'accord- ing to the operation and influence of the better principle ; for it lieth upon us as our duty, though we have the power from above. There is a double argument implied in the text : the one is, a heneficio ; the other, aperiailo — the profit, the danger.
[1.] A heneficio, from the benefit accruing to us : we shall not ' fulfil the lusts of the flesh.' If they yield to the motions and inclinations of the regenerate part, they cannot do the evil which the carnal part would have them ; the grace they have will hold them in as a bridle, and turn their minds another way. Surely sin is no such lovely thino- that we should be enamoured of it ; yea, it is such an hateful thine, that we should shun and avoid it by all means possible. Now, when you have an help at hand, not only near you, but within you, such as the new nature, which riseth up in rebukes and dislikes against sin, you should take this advantage, otherwise you offer violence not only
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290 THE ELEVENTH SERMON. [GaL. Y. 1 (j.
to tlie law of God, but that new nature which he hath put into you. There are three reasons which may be urged here : —
(1.) The better princii)le, the more it is obeyed, the more it is strengthened ; for ' the way of the Lord is strength to the upright,' Prov. X. 2'J. The habits of grace increase by exercise : and tlie more godly and heavenly we are, the moi'e we shall be so ; and the more constantly we act grace, the more easily and readily we act it, and with greater pleasure and delight. This is a sure rule, that God rewardeth grace with grace : one duty is an help to another, and the sweetness and pleasure groweth upon us every day. It is at first yoking that the bullock is most unruly ; and beginners are burthened with the toil of obedience more than grown Christians. Christ's yoke growi'th more easy every day by the bearing ; for the opposition is more broken, and the experience of the sweetness and goodness of lliis way is more increased, Prov. iv. 18, 19.
(2.) The power of inbred corruption is subdued, and the lusts of the flesh weakened ; for, as the better principle groweth, the other loseth strength. Mortification and vivification mutually help one another : the more we are dead unto sin, the more we are alive unto righteousness: so, on the other side, the more we live unto righteous- ness, the more we are dead to sin ; for the carnal life is swallowed up of the spiritual. And therefore to grown Christians temptations either make none or no considerable impression ; they are alive to God, and therefore dead unto the flesh and dead unto the world. It cannot be imagined that the flesh should bear sway where there is a strong opposite principle to check it ; and when we suffer it not to be idle and unfruitful, it will obtain its effect. Sin cannot be our trade, custom, and delight. No ; it is complained of as our heaviest burden, Ilom. vii. 24, resisted as the greatest evil, and most opposite, not only to our duty, but to our very nature and temper.
(3.) This walking in the Si)irit giveth us an evidence of our interest in the grace of justification : Gal. v, 18, * And if ye be led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law.' Not to be under the teaching of the law as a rule of obedience, is impossible for a creature. To challenge such an exemption in point of right, is to make ourselves gods. To usiu'p it in point of fact, is to make ourselves devils. It must be meant, therefore, either of the irritating or condemning power of the law. If of the former, as the law hy the rigid exacting of obedience doth increase sin rather than subdue it, and maketh coirupt nature spurn and rebel against it, so it is the same with the former motives ; but that is a more limited sense. ' Not under the law,' may be expounded to be not under tlie condemning power of it ; and so to be under the law is opposed to be under grace: Rom. viii. 1, ' There is no condem- nation to them that are in Christ Jesus.' There is a great privilege ; but what is the qualification ? ' Who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit ;' that is, obey the new nature.
[2.] A 2:>ericulo, the danger of not obeying the new nature, or walking after the Spirit.
(1.) They lose their advantage, and receive one of God's gifts in vain. To receive objective grace in vain aggravateth our guilt, John iii. 19 ; but to receive subjective grace in vain doth more provoke Cod.
Gal. V. IC] the eleventh sermoj^. 291
Objective grace is that wliich is discovered in tlie gospel ; subjective grace is that which is found in the heart of a believer, the internal grace of the Holy Spirit renewing the heart. Now, to sin away this advantage after we are made partakers of it doth increase our guilt ; surely, therefore, ' if we live in the Spiiit, we should walk in the Spirit,' Gal. V. 25. We should improve God's be.st gifts, or else the work of his Spirit is lost. He loseth nothing but corn, wine, and oil bestowed upon others, but he hath bestowed the sanctification of the Spirit upon you ; shall he lose the glory of that also ?