[1.] The life of justification. We are all dead by the merit of sin. When a man is cast at law, we say he is a dead man : ' Througli one man's offence all were dead,' Rom. v. 5. We are sensible of it when the law cometh in with power, Eom. vii. 9 ; we begin to awaken out of our dead sleep. God's first work is to awaken him and open his eyes, that he may see he is a child of wrath, a condemned person, undone, without a pardon. When the law came, ' sin revived and I died ;' before he thought himself a living man, in as good an estate as the best ; but when he was enlightened to see the true meaning of the law, he found himself no better than a dead man. Now, when justified, the sinner is translated from a sentence of death to a sentence of life passed in his favour ; and therefore it is called justification of life, Rom. v. 18, and John v. 29, ' He that believeth shall not enter into condemnation, but hath passed from death to life;' that is, is acquitted from the sentence of death and condemnation passed on him by the law.
[2.] The life of sanctification, which lies in a conjunction of the soul with the spirit of God, even as the natural life is a conjunction of the body with the soul. Adam, though his body was organised and formed, was but a dead lump till God breathed the soul into him ; so till our union with Christ, by the communion of his Spirit, we are dead and unable to every good work. But the Holy Ghost puts us into a living condition : Eph. ii. 4, 5, ' We were dead in trespasses and sins, yet now hath he quickened us.' There is a new manner of being, which we have upon the receiving of grace,
[3.] Life eternal, or the life of glory, which is the final result and consummation of both the former ; for justification and sanctification are but the beginnings of our happy estate ; justification is the cause and foundation, and sanctification is an introduction or entrance into that life that we shall ever live with God.
2. Now this life is distinct from life natural, first, for it hath a dis- tinct principle, which is the Spirit of God ; the other a reasonable soul : 1 Cor. sv. 45, ' The first man Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.' Parents are but instru- ments of God's providence to unite body and soul together : but here we live by the Spirit or by Christ, Gal. ii. 20 ; God and we are united together. Then we live when joined to God as the fountain of life, wdience the soul is quickened by the Spirit of grace. This is to live indeed. It is called the life of God, Eph. iv. 18, not by common in- fluence of his providence, but by special influences of his grace. Secondly, It is distinct in its operations, Unumquodque operatur secundum suam formam, as things that move upward and downward according to their form ; so the new nature carrieth men out to their own natural motion and tendency. Walking as men, 1 Cor. iii. 3, and walking as Christians, are two distinct things-. The natural and human life is nothing else but the orderly use of sense and reason ; but the divine and spiritual life is the acting of grace in order to communion with God, as if another soul dwelt in the same body : Ego non sum erjo. Old lusts, old acquaintance, old temptations, knock at
196 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR, CXXVII.
the same door, bnt there is anotlier inhabitant. Tliirdly, Distinct in supports. Hidden manna, meat indeed, drink indeed, John vi. 55. There is an outward man and an inward man ; the inward man liath its life as well as the outward. And as life, so taste : Omnis vila (justu ducUur. The hidden man must be fed with hidden manna, meat and drink tliat the world knows not of; its comforts are never higher than in decays of tlie body, 2 Cor. iv. 16. A man is as his deli<2;ht and pleasure is ; it must have something agreeable. Fourthly, Distinct in ends. The aim and tendency of the new nature is to God ; it is from God, and therefore to him, Gal. ii. 19. It is a life whereby a man is enabled to move and act towards God as his utmost end, to glorify him, or to enjoy him. A carnal man's personal contentment is his highest aim : water riseth not beyond its fountain. But a gracious man doth all to please God, Col. i. 11, to glorify God, 1 Cor. x. 31 ; and this not only from his obligations, Rom. xiv. 7, 8, but from his being, that principle of life that is within him, Eph. i. 12. A man that hath a new principle cannot live without God ; his great purpose and desire is to enjoy more of him.
3. The excellency of the one above the other. There is life carnal, life natural, and life spiritual. Life carnal, as much as it glittereth and maketh a noise in the world, it is but a death in comparison of the life of grace : 1 Tim. v. 6, ' She that liveth in pleasure is dead whilst she liveth ; ' and ' Let the dead buiy their dead,' Luke ix. 60 ; and dead in trespasses and sins. None seem to make so much of their lives as they, yet dead as to any true life and sincere comfort. So life natural, it is but a vapour, a wind, and a little puff of wind, that is soon gone. Take it in the best, nature is but a continued sickness, our food is a constant medicine to remedy the decays of nature : most men use it so, alimenta sunt medicamen/a. But more particularly — (1.) Life natural is a common thing to devils, reprobates, beasts, worms, trees, and plants ; but this is the peculiar privilege of the chil- dren of God, 1 John iv. 13. Therefore God's children think they have no life unless they have this life. If we think we have a life because we see and hear, so do the worms and smallest flies. If we think we are alive because we eat, drink, and sleep, so do the beasts and cattle. If we think we live because we reason and confer, so do the heathens and men that shall never see God. If we think we have life because we grow well and wax strong, proceeding to old age, so do the plants and trees of the field. Nay, we have not only this in common with them, but in this kind of life other creatures excel man. The trees excel us for growth in bulk and stature, who from little plants grow up into most excellent cedars. In hearing, smelling, seeing, many of the beasts go before us ; eagles in sight, dogs in scent, &c. Sense is their perfection. Some see better, others hear better, others smell better ; all have a better appetite to their meat, and more strong to digest it. For life rational, endowed with reason, many phi]oso])hers and ethnics excel Christians in the use of reason. Our excellency then lieth not in the vegetative life, wherein plants excel thee ; nor in sensitive, which beasts have better than thou ; nor in the reasonable, which many reprobates have, which shall never see the face of God ; but in life spiritual, to have the soul quickened by the spirit of grace.