3. Knowing is often put for assent ; for faith is not a doubting, but a certain knowledge. And this enliveneth every truth. If you do beheve that Christ came to take away every sin, you have no reason to cherish it. The word worketh not till it be believed : Heb. iv. 2, ' To us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them ; but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them tliat heard it.' But then it worketh mightily and eflfectually ; for it cometh not to us in w^ord only, but in power : 1 Thes. ii. 13, 'Ye received it not as the w^ord of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.' And more particularly in mortification ; for it is ' faith that purifieth the heart,' Acts xv. 9. Where the christian doctrine is really entertained and received by faith, it taketh men off from their old sins : 1 Peter i. 22, ' Seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit.' The obedience of the truth is nothing else but faith wrought in us by the Spirit upon the hearing of the gospel ; this produceth in us that purity of heart and life which becometh christians.
Secondly, I will give you the reasons. The death of Christ may be considered as it worketh morally, or as it worketh meritoriously. As it worketh morally, it hath a full and a sufficient force to draw us off' from sin ; as it worketh meritoriously, it purchaseth the Spirit for us. As it worketh morally, it layeth a strong engagement upon us ; as it worketh meritoriously, it giveth great encouragement to oppose and resist sin, and set about the mortification of it. So that the true way of subduing sin is by serious reflection on the death of Christ, which we shall consider — (1.) As it is a strong engagement ; (2.) As it is a great encouragement.
1. As it is a strong engagement ; and there —
[1.] It is a pattern to teach us how to deny the pleasures of the senses. Pleasure is the great sorceress that hath bewitched all the world, and that which giveth strength to all temptations : James i. 14, * Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed.' There is some sensitive carnal bait which first inviteth, and then draweth us from our duty ; and all the charms sin hath upon us, are by the treacherous sensual appetite, which is impatient to be crossed. So when another apostle speaketh of a revolt to the carnal life after some partial reformation, he giveth this account of it : 2 Peter ii. 20, ' After they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled and overcome.' Before men be overcome by temptation, they are first enticed by the apprehension of some pleasure or profit which is to be had by their sins, by which apprehension the danger of committing the sin is covered and hid, as the fisher's hook is by the bait ; that is the metaphor there, ifi7rXaK€VT€<; rjTToJvTai. lapse again into the slavery of the former sins, which they seemed to have escaped. Therefore till we are dead to the sensitive lure, and can be content to suffer in the flesh, and to deny the satisfactions of the animal life, we Bhall never avoid the slavery of sin, nor know that our old man is crucified. Now what is more powerful than the consideration of the
198 SERMONS UPON ROMANS VI. [SeR. V.
death and example of Jesus Christ ? In his whole. life he was a man of sorrows, and so taught us to contemn the world, and the pleasures of the flesh ; but especially at his death, when pain was poured in upon him by the conduit of every sense, there ' he pleased not himself,' Kom. XV. 3, but conquered the love of life, and all the natural content- ments of life, that he might please God, and procure our salvation. Now we have not the spirit of our religion till we grow dead, not only to the pleasures of sin, but the natural pleasures of life, yea, life itself, and can submit all to God's glory.
[2.] As it is an act of love, which should beget love in us to God again, which love will make us tender of sinning. There are many aggravations of sinning; but the greatest of all is because we sin against so much love as God hath showed us in our redemption by Christ. Sin is aggravated by the greatness of the person against whom it is committed, against the infinite majesty of God ; as to strike an inferior person is not so heinous a crime as to strike a magis- trate or prince ; but this will not hold in all cases, for foul indignities and grievous wrongs offered to meaner persons are a greater offence than the omission of a ceremony to a prince, as if a man through ignorance of the customs of the court should not be bare before his chair of state. Therefore take in the other consideration of the infinite goodness and love of God towards us in Christ ; this doth exceedingly aggravate our sins. They are acts of unkindness : ' After such a deliverance as this is, shall we again break thy commandments ? ' Ezra ix. 13, 14 ; after a deliverance out of Babylon, out of hell. To sin against the infinite goodness of a creator by eating the forbidden fruit, we see what mischief it brought upon mankind ; conscious of this transgression, the first actors hid themselves from God's presence. But what is it to sin against the infinite goodness of a Redeemer, who came to recover us from this thraldom and bondage, and to draw us to himself with the cord of love ? He chose rather to suffer the punishment due to our sins than to suffer sin still to reign in us, whom lie loved more dearly than his own life : Gal. ii. 20, ' Who loved me, and gave himself for me ; ' Rev. i. 5, ' To him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood.' Now, if after this mani- festation of his love we shall still continue in sin, the heinousness of our offence is greatly increased.