[3.] Seriously endeavour against it, according to the advantages the Spirit giveth you. A conscientious attender on the ordinances of God hath many motions and helps.
2. To walk in newness of life, or to express the likeness of Christ's resurrection. The spiritual resurrection is described — (1.) By the cause of it : John v. 25, ' The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live ; ' in the spiritual sense that power was already executed by him, in raising sinners out of the grave of sin, for he saith, ' It now is.' It is the voice of Christ awakens, as, ' Lazarus, come forth.' Do not then delay ; do not say, It is too soon : Heb. iii. 15, ' To-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.' (2.) The nature of it ; as to the first grace : Eph. v. 14, ' Awake thou that sleepest, arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light ; ' awake as a man out of his wine. As to the progress of it : 1 Cor. xv. 34, ' Awake to righteousness, and sin not.' Eouse up yourselves out of this drowsy condition of sin to a lively exercise of grace. (3.) The tendency and end of it: Col. iii. 1, * If ye then be risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God/
VeR. 6.] SEllMONS UPON ROMANS VI. 191
SEEMON V.
Knowing iliis, that our old man is crucified luith him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth ive shoidd not serve sin. — KoM. VI. 6.
In this verse the apostle explaiaeth how we are planted into the like- ness of Christ's death, ' Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him/ &c.
In the words —
First, A truth represented, ' That our old man is crucified with him.'
Secondly, The manner of applying and improving this truth.
For the former branch —
1. Christ's undertaking, ' Our old man is crucified with him.'
2. The fruit and end of it, ' That the body of sin might be destroyed.'
3. The obligation lying upon us, ' That we might no longer serve sin.' Or,
[1.] What Christ doth, he was crucified, and our old man crucified with him.
[2.] What the Spirit doth, * That the body of sin might be destroyed ; ' that is, the reign of it broken, the power of it weakened yet more and more, acts prevented, habits cast off.
[3.] What we must do, ' That henceforth we may not serve sin.'
Doct. That the reign of sin would be sooner broken if we did seriously consider and believe the great end of Christ's death and undertaking on the cross.
This will appear — (1.) By explaining the several branches of the text ; (2.) Giving reasons.
First, In the explication take notice of the truth represented, which is expressed in three branches —
First, What Christ doth, or his intention and undertaking on the cross, ' Our old man is crucified with him.' Where observe —
1. That sin within us is called an ' old man,' partly because it is born and bred with us ; it had its rise from Adam's fall, and is ever since conveyed from father to son unto all who are descended from Adam : Rom. v. 1 2, ' Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned; ' Ps. li. 5, ' Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.' Partly because this natural corruption, which we inherit from the first man, is opposite to that new man which consisteth in knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness : Eph. iv. 22, 24, ' That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt, according to the deceitful lusts : And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness ; ' and Col. iii. 9, 10, ' Seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge, after the image of him that created him.' So that the old man is that perverse temper of soul which was in us, before we had the knowledge of Christ, or embraced him by faith. I'artly because it is an antiquated thing, as is upon the declining hand, and hasteneth in
192 SERMONS UPON ROMANS VI. [SeR. V.
the regenerate (as men in their old age) to its own ruin and destruc- tion : 2 Cor. v. 17, ' Old things are passed away, behold all things are become new ; ' 1 Cor. v. 7, ' Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump.'
2. This old man must be crucified ; that is the kind of death which it must die. Sometimes the destruction of sin is called a mortifying of sin, that implieth a putting to death in the general, or a killing the love of sin in our souls ; sometimes a crucifying of sin, that showeth the particular kind of death we must put it to, and this for a double reason — partly to show our conformity and likeness to Christ's crucifixion, partly because it expresseth the nature of the thing itself. The cross bringeth pain and death : so is sin weakened by godly sorrow, which checketh the sensual inclination. The strength and life of sin lieth in a love of pleasure, and one special means to mortify it is godly sorrow : 2 Cor. vii. 10, ' For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation, never to be repented of.' Those that have tasted the bitter waters are more easily induced to forsake all known sin. Well, then, sin must be crucified. A man fastened to the cross sufFereth great pain, his strength wasteth, and his life droppeth out with his blood by degrees. So sin is not subdued but by constant painful endeavours ; not by feeding the flesh with carnal delights, but by thwarting it, watching, strivino; against it, bemoaning ourselves because of it, and so by degrees the love of it is not only weakened, but deadened in our souls. If it be tedious and troublesome, nothing that hath life will be put to death without some struggling : we must be content to suff'er in the flesh; Christ suffered more, and none but ' he that hath suffered in the flesh ceaseth from sin,' 1 Peter iv. 1. You make it more painful by dealing negligently in the business, and draw out your vexation to a greater length : the longer you suff'er the Canaanite to live with you, the more doth it prove a thorn and goad in your sides. Our affec- tion increaseth our affliction ; your trouble endeth, and your delight in- creaseth, as you bring your souls to a thorough resolution to quit it. Quam suave mihi suhito factum est carere suavitatibus nugarum ! No delight so sincere as the contempt of vain delights. The crucified man's pains end when death cometh.