2. How much it concerneth every christian to be cautious and watchful. For he is to remember this within himself, I am to repre- sent Christ's rising and dying ; the death of sin must answer the death of Christ, and the new life his resurrection. Now, is Christ's dying and rising seen in us ? We were never implanted into liim, unless it be so. Therefore, unless we will declare to the world that we have no union with Christ, we must endeavour after holiness. What maketli 80 many atheists in the world, but because so few christians discover the fruit of their baptism ? They live as if they were wholly alive to sin and the world, and dead to righteousness.
3. That they have not yet attained to true Christianity that content themselves with abstaining from gross sins, but make no conscience of loving, serving, pleasing and glorifying God, or preparation for the world to come. They do no man wrong, but have no care of com- munion with God. Paul could say, iiJiol to ^yv Xpia-ro'i, ' To me to live is Christ,' Phil. i. 21, meaning, that he had no other object and employment for his life but Christ and his service. But these wholly live to themselves ; a true christian can say, Rom. xiv. 7, 8, ' None of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord ; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord ; whether we live therefore or die, we are the Lord's.'
Use 2. Is exhortation, to press you —
1. To die unto sin. All that profess themselves christians are by obligation dead. Oh ! do not keep it alive after you have undertaken its death ; charge your consciences with your baptismal vow. Besides, Christ hath purchased grace enough for the subduing and mortifying of sin, and we have engaged ourselves to improve this grace. The ordinances call upon us every day to do it yet more and more, the word and sacraments, with the dispensations of which there go some motions of the Holy Ghost : Neh. ix. 20, ' Thou gavest them also thy good Spirit to instruct and teach them.' Oh ! quench not his motions, dis- obey not the sanctifying Spirit. If this grace hath taken hold of your hearts in any sort, and you are affected with the offers of it, you are bound to improve it the more : Col. iii. 3, ' For ye are dead ; ' ver. 5, * Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth.' You are dead by vow and covenant, dead by grace offered, dead by grace received. Habitual mortification maketh way for actual. Habitual mortification is when the heart is turned from sin, so that it is turned against it. Actual mortification consists in the resisting and suppres- sing its motions : Rom. viii. 13, ' If ye through the Spirit mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.' Once more, none arc in such a dangerous condition as those who have begun the work, and then give it over : 2 Peter ii. 20, * For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world, through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus
190 SERMONS UPON EOMANS VI. [SeR. IV.
Christ, tliey are again entangled therein and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning/ Those that fall from a common work make their condition more uncomfortable. For real belipvers the reign of sin is broken, its strength and power much weakened by grace, but still it is working and stirring : Gal. v. 17, ' The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would do ; ' Eom. vii. 23, ' I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin that is in my members.' Therefore still you must take care of this work.
Means.
[1.] Be sensible of the evil of sin. When once we begin to make light of sin, we lie ready for a temptation. God doth not make little reckoning of sin ; Christ's death showeth it : Kom. viii. 3, ' What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh/ Infants' death showeth it : Eom. v. 14, ' Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression.' The punishment of the wicked showeth it : Eom. ii. 9, ' Tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile.' The smart of God's children showeth it : Prov. xi. 31, ' Behold the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth ; much more the wicked and the sinner.'
[2.] Earnestly resolve against it in the strength of Christ : 1 Peter iv. 1, ' Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind ; for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin.' The mind is hereby fortified. Christ's dying engageth them to it. Christ hath suffered for it, and we are bound to subdue the flesh, and deny the pleasures of it.