2. Let us demonstrate ourselves really to be freed from the power of sin, and never more permit ourselves to live in it, or be acted by it. Who are they that demonstrate themselves to be freed from sin ?
[1.] Those whose settled purpose is not to sin : 1 John. ii. 1, ' These things I write unto you that ye sin not.' A carnal man non proponit peccare, a renewed man proponit non peccare; a carnal man doth not purpose to sin, but he doth not purpose against sin ; but the godly purpose not to sin in good earnest. Do you loathe yourselves for past sins ? Are you truly desirous to get rid of sin ? Is it a benefit or burden Christ offereth to you ?
[2.] They are watchful that they may not sin: Ps. xxxix. 1, *I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I offend not with my tongue;' Prov. iv. 23, ' Keep thy heart with all diligence ; for out of it are the issues of life,' especially to watch over those corruptions and inclina- tions which are the strongest in the'm.
[3.] They are striving and endeavouring to get more victory every day. You must not only strive against sin, but conquer the predom- inant love of every sin. Every man that hath a conscience may strive against evil before he yield to it, while he liveth in it : but if it be your daily endeavour to mortify the flesh, and master its opposition to the Spirit, and you so far prevail as to live, walk, and be led by the Spirit, so that the course and drift of your life is spiritual, then do you demonstrate yourselves to be freed from sin.
VeR. 8.] SERMONS UPON ROMANS VI. 211
SERMON VIL
Now ifiue he dead loiih Christ, lue believe that ive shall also live ivith him. — Eom. VI. 8.
The apostle now proveth the second part, that we are planted into the likeness of his resurrection. He proveth it as a necessary con- sequent of the antecedent privilege, ' Now if we be dead with Christ,' &c.
In the words — (1.) A supposition ; (2.) The truth thence inferred ; (3.) The certainty of the inference.
1. The supposition, there —
[1.] The thing supposed, ' Being dead with Christ.' What that is we have explained already. All that I shall now add is, that in scrip- ture it implieth two things —
(1.) Conformity with Christ in his sufferings. So we have a saying like that in the text : 2 Tim. ii. 11, ' It is a faithful saying ; for if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him ;' which presently is explained, ver. 12, * If we suffer, we shall also reign with him.'
(2.) It implieth mortification of sin. So it is understood here, if we have communion and fellowship with his death, for the mortifi- cation of sin.
[2.] The term of proposal, conditionally, ' If we.' The particle if hath sometimes the notion of a caution : See that ye be dead with Christ ; sometimes it is a note of relation, when one privilege is deduced from another ; as here, if we partake of the effect and likeness of his death in dying to sin, we shall partake of the effect and likeness of his resurrection in being quickened to live in holiness and righteous- ness all our days. Dying to sin, and newness of life, are inseparable ; if we have the first, we shall have the other also ; they are branches of " the same work of regeneration, and both proceed from the same cause, union with Christ.
2. The truth hence inferred, ' We shall also live with him.' This is meant both of the life of grace and of the life of glory, regeneration and resurrection ; the one is to newness of life, the other is to ever- lasting bliss and happiness. Eegeneration is the Spirit's begetting us to the image and nature of God our heavenly Father ; and resurrection is for the perfecting of that likeness ; which is, it is true, perfect in part liere, in the soul : 2 Cor. iii. 18, ' We all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, as even by the Spirit of the Lord.' Hereafter both in body and soul : Phil. iii. 21, ' Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his own glorious body, according to the wonderful working whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself.' As to degrees : 1 John iii. 2, ' When he shall appear we shall be like liim, for we shall see him as he is.' As to kinds, both in holiness and happiness : 1 Cor. xv. 49, ' As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.' Now we are conformed to his image in afflictions : Rom. viii. 29, ' He hath predestinated us to be conformed to image of bis Son.' We look like him in the form of a
212 SERMONS UPON ROMANS VI. [SeR. VII.