1. Our duty, which is conformity or likeness to Christ dying and living.
2. Grace to perform this duty, iv rCo XpiarS) ""Irjaov tm Kvpiw ijfMMv, through or in Jesus Christ ; by virtue of our union with him we are both to resemble his death and resurrection.
3. The means of enforcing this duty, Xo'yl^€Te, reckon ; Vulgar, exisiimate ; Erasmus out of Tertullian, reputate, consider with your- selves ; others, colligite et statuite. ,
Doct. That all who are baptized and profess faith in Christ dying and rising from the dead are under a strong obligation of dying to sin and living to God through the grace of the Kedeemer. Here —
1. I shall consider the nature of the duties of being dead to sin and alive to God.
2. The correspondency ; how they do answer the two states of Christ ; as Christ dieth to sin for the expiation of it, and after death reviveth and liveth to God, so we.
3. The order ; first death, then the resurrection from the dead ; so first dying to sin, then being alive to God.
VeR. 11.] SERMONS UPON ROMANS VI. 229
4. The certain connection of these things ; if we die we shall live, and we cannot live to God unless we be dead to sin ; neither can we die to sin unless we live to God.
5. In the two branches the apostle opposeth God to sin.
First, The nature of the work. It consists of two branches, ' dying to sin,' and ' living to God,' mortification and vivification.
1. Mortification is the purifying and cleansing of the soul, or the freeing it from the slavery of the flesh, which detaineth it from God, and disableth it for all the duties of the holy and heavenly life. The reign of sin was the punishment of the first transgression, and is taken away by the gift of the Spirit upon account of the merit of Christ, However, it is our work to see that sin die. It dieth as our love to it dieth ; and our love to sin is not for its own sake, but because of some pleasure, contentment, and satisfaction that we hope to find in it ; for no man would commit sin or transgress merely for his mind's ^ sake ; mere evil apprehended as evil, cannot be the object of our choice. Now, then, our love to sin dieth when our esteem of the advantages of the carnal life is abated, when we have no other value of the pleasures, honours, and profits of the world than is fully consistent with our duty to God, and may further us in it. Therefore we are dead to sin when we endeavour more to please God than to please the flesh, and mind more our eternal than our temporal interests : Eom. viii. 5, ' They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh ; but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.' What we mind and value most showeth the reign of either principle, the flesh or the Spirit.
2. Vivification, or living to God, is the changing of the heart by grace, and the acting of those graces we have received by the Spirit of regeneration. All that have received the gift of the spiritual life are l)0und to exercise it, and put it in act by loving, serving, and obeying God : 2 Peter i. 3-5, ' According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the know- ledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust ; and besides this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge,' &c. They that have received grace are not to sit down idle and satisfied, but to be more active and diligent in the exercise of grace ; and whatever remaineth of their lives must be devoted to God. To live to God implieth two things —
[1.] To fulfil his commands with a ready mind, and so they are said to live to God who show themselves ready to obey him in all things : Ps. cxii. 1, 'Blessed is the man that feareth God, that delighteth greatly in his commandments ; ' not who is greedy to catch all opportunities of pleasure and profit and worldly preferment in the world, and careth not how he cometh by them ; but is most observant of God's will, and careful to follow it ; he that delighteth to know, believe, and obey God's word.
[2.] To glorify his name ; for as we receive power from the Spirit of Christ to live as in the sight of God, so also to the glory of God. Sin, till it be killed and mortified in us, as it disposeth us to a wron^
^ Qu. 'sinning'd?' — Ed.
230 SERMONS UPON ROMANS VI. [SeR. IX.
wav, so to a. perverse end, to seek happiness in the satisfaction of our lusts; but grace wrought by God inclineth us to God: Phil. i. 11, * Filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Christ Jesus, to the praise and glory of God.' As they do good, so to a good end, not for any by-respect, but to please and honour God.