3. The sameness of the Spirit in head and members doth evidence this. For the Spirit worketh uniformly in both : Rom. viii. 9, ' But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be the Spirit of Grod dwell in you.' The sap of the stock doth all. Now, if the stock be the good vine, the fruit must be as the sap is, the branches must bring forth grapes. Christ as the root communicateth to us not only the fruits and effects of his death and resurrection, but also the likeness of it, in a way proper for our reception. We partake of the likeness of the root by analogy and just proportion, and what was done to Christ literally is spiritually done to us. He died for sin, we die unto sin ; he rose to live unto God, so do we in our way here upon earth, as we seek his glory and do his will.
Fourthly, That this likeness and conformity to Christ is carried on with respect to his death and resurrection. To clear this it is good to see wherein our likeness to Christ consists. He was to be a pattern to us in three things — (1.) His graces ; (2.) His states ; (3.) The special acts of his mediation.
1. His graces. There are certain graces wherein we resemble God, as wisdom, purity, holiness, goodness, and truth ; in these God himself is our pattern : Mat. v. 8, ' Be ye perfect, as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.' There are other graces that help us in the duties of subjection to God, as faith, patience, humility, self-denial, and obedience ; in these we cannot have the pattern from God, for God is over all, and subject to none, therefore in these Christ is a pattern to us. As, for instance, humility : Mat. xi. 29, ' Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart.' For obedience : Heb. v. 8, ' Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.' For patience and self-denial : 1 Peter ii. 21, 23, ' Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should follow his steps. Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again ; when he suffered, he threatened not ; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously.' Thus in his graces must we resemble him.
2. In his states of humiliation and exaltation, wherein we must be content to follow him, wbo first suffered, and then entered into the glory that he spake of. His people are usually afflicted, persecuted, slandered ;
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now they must suffer all for the hopes of a better life, because therein they do but ' follow the captaiu of their salvation, who was made perfect through sufferings,' Heb. ii. 10 ; ' And if we suffer with him, we shall also be glorified together,' Rom. viii. 17. So 2 Tim. ii, 11, 12, ' If we be dead with him, we shall also live with him ; if we suffer, we shall also reign with him ;' 2 Cor. iv. 10, ' Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh,' And in many other places, where Christ's pattern is urged to bespeak our patience and encourage our hopes, that we may bear his cross after him, with a hope of those endless joys which our Redeemer now possesseth. He first ' endured the shame,' Heb. xii. 2, and was misrepresented in the world as we are, but at length was vindicated, being mightily ' declared to be the Son of God with power,'
3. In the special acts of his mediation, which are his death and resurrection. These are of special consideration ; for these are not barely a pattern propounded to our imitation, but have a great influ- ence upon our dying to sin and living to holiness. To clear this, let me note to you that effects of grace in us are ascribed to those acts of Christ's mediation which carry most correspondence with them. Thus our mortification is referred to Christ's dying, and our vivification to his resurrection unto life, our heavenly-mindedness to his ascension ; 80 that all Christ's acts are spiritually verified in us. We die to sin as Christ died for sin, and rise again to newness of life as Christ, rising from the dead, liveth a new kind of life to what he did before. Let us a little state the dependence of the one upon the other. Our acts depend on Christ four ways — (1.) As the effect on the cause ; (2.) As the thing purchased on the price ; (3.) As the copy on the pattern ; (4.) As the thing promised on the pledge thereof.
[1.] As the effect on the cause. By the same virtue by which Christ was raised from the dead, by the same almighty power are we raised to newness of life; the same almighty power is engaged for working grace, and carrying on grace, and perfecting grace, in believers, which wrought in Christ when he was raised from the dead : Eph. i. 19, 20, ' According to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead ; ' compared with Rom. vi. 4, ' Like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the gloiy of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.'