2. It is a condition absolutely necessary to obtain subsequent grace. For—
[1.] The graces of the Spirit cannot thrive in an unmortified soul ; therefore then we set about our duty in the right order when we begin with mortification in the first place, and thence proceed to the positive duties of the new life. Faith will not thrive in a proud, unhumbled, impenitent heart : John v. 44, ' How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only ? ' Nor will the love of God ever bear sway where sensual and worldly love is in such strength and prevalency : 1 John ii. 15, ' If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.' Vain pleasures divert us from our great hopes, or the pleasures that are at God's right hand for evermore: 1 Peter i. 13, 'Be sober, and hope to the end.' Sobriety is a holy moderation or sparing use ot worldly delights ; they behave themselves as in their journey. Well, then, we must die before we can live in purity and holiness, and seek that glory which Christ now enjoyeth with God in heaven. We must put off our old rags before we can put on the garments of righteous- ness.
[2.] The longer corruption is spared it groweth the worse ; for the more it venteth itself by inordinate and sinful desires, the more it ac- quireth strength, and secures its interest more firmly in the soul. Every act strengtheneth the habit, and then it groweth into an invete- rate custom : Jer. ix. 3, ' They bend their tongues for lies, but they are
214 SERMONS UPON ROMANS VI. [SeR. YII.
not valiant for the truth upon the earth ; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith the Lord.' Therefore the apostle : 1 Peter iv. 2, 3, ' That he should no longer live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in licentiousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings and abominable idolatries.' Alas ! sin is too deeply rooted and ingrained in our natures already, and that hindereth the coming on of the divine life ; either we never receive the grace of re- generation, being so stiffened and hardened in our sins, or else it hath more corruption to grapple with, so that all our days there is more to do to keep it alive in our souls.
[3.] Till sin be mortified, the good we pretend to is but a covering and hiding of our loathsome lusts: James iv. 8, ' Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded.' Many being taxed for their evil and inordinate life will say, they hope their hearts are good. If the heart were good, the life would be better ; the sinner must cleanse his hands. Others are plausible in their carriage, but their fleshly and worldly lusts were never soundly mortified, therefore hypocrites must cleanse their hearts. Here the operation of the Spirit beginneth. Our Lord saith. Mat. xxiii. 25, 26, ' Cleanse first that which is within the cup and the platter, that the outside may be clean also.' Many external acts may be counterfeited, or overruled and influenced by by-ends ; the purity of the outside is loathsome to God without the purity of the heart. Pharisees are compared to ' whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness ; so ye outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within are full of hypocrisy and iniquity,' Mat. xxiii. 27, 28. So Luke xi. 44, ' Ye are as graves which appear not, and the men that walk over them are not aware of them ; ' not as a grave when new, but a grave when overgrown with grass. The Jews buried out of the city in the fields ; they thought themselves defiled by coming too near the dead. Men may be fair in outward guise and show, but in heart the most noisome and polluted that can be. So that mortification is necessarily requisite to vivification ; we must die be- fore we can live.
Secondl}^ Let me open the benefit, ' We shall also live with him.' Here —
1. Observe how grace is followed with grace, one part with another. God lovetli to crown his own gifts, and we are endeared to him by his own mercies. So it is in the generah Zech. iii. 2, ' Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire ? ' But some mercies draw on other mercies, and are given in order to them, as mortification in order to vivification, grace in order to glory. God giveth the one that he may give the other ; he maketh one degree of grace a step to the other.
2. Observe how grace is followed with glory, 'We shall also live with him.' One and the same word expresseth both ; life spiritual and eternal is but one life. It is good to observe how many ways the scripture sets forth the connection between the life of grace and the life of glory. Sometimes by that of the seed and crop : Gal. vi. 8, ' He that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.*