25G SERMONS UPON ROMANS VI. [SeR. XII.
' Casting all your care upon him, for lie careth for you.' This easetli you of all your cares and fears, you are God's ; nay, it secureth you against eternal miseries : John xii. 20, ' Where I am, there shall my servant be.'
Use 3. To put us upon self-reflection. Is your dedication to God sincere ? If so —
1. In the whole course of your conversation you will prefer his interest before your own, and when any interest of your own riseth up against the interest of God, you will set light by it, as if it were nothing worth, and then no self-respects will tempt you to disobey God, though never so powerful ; no hire draw you to the smallest sin, nor danger fright you from 5'our duty: Dan, iii. 17, 18, ' Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, 0 king. But if not, be it known unto thee, 0 king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship thy golden image that thou hast set up ;' Acts xx. 24, ' But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy.' If we can but forget ourselves and remember God, he will remember us better than if we had remembered ourselves. We secure whatever we put into God's hands, and venture in his service.
2. You will make conscience how you spend your time and strength ; God keepeth account : Luke xix. 23, ' Wherefore gavest not thou my money into the bank, that at my coming I might have required mine own with usury ? ' So you will keep a faithful reckoning, how you lay out yourselves for God, what share he hath in all things we have and do. God observeth, so must we, whether God have his own, and we do not defraud him. Whose work are you a-doing ?
3. You will have a liberal heart ; you will think no service too much, or loss too great for God : Phil. i. 21, ' For me to live is Christ ;' all other things come from God. Certainly you must not put him oti' with what the flesh will spare.
SERMON XII.
For sin shall not have dominion over you ; for ye are not under the laio, hut under grace. — Rom. VI. 14.
The apostle had exhorted them to mortification, ver. 12 ; to vivification, ver. 13 ; in both to caution that sin may not usurp the power and place of God, who alone should command and govern both our souls and bodies. To fight for sin is to fight against God, which should be a horrid thing to christians, who should employ all their powers and faculties to keep up God's interest in their souls, by maintaining that new life that is given them by God. If we have any weapons or instruments, they should be employed for God, and not for sin, because sin was not their lord now as heretofore ; it neither had, nor shall have dominion over you. If a man should speak to any city (suppose in Hungary, or other frontier of Christendom), newly freed from Turkish
VeR. 14.] SERMONS UPON ROMANS VI. 257
slavery, Care not for the commands and threatenings of the Turks any more, they do not lord it over you as they were wont to do; the very same is the argument of the apostle ; sin hath not the same strength against you which before it had, now you are regenerate and alive from the dead. Nay, he speaketh with more advantage of expression than any can in an outward case. Sin hath not, sin shall not have, dominion, &c., if you keep striving and fighting against it ; this tyrant shall not recover the kingdom in you which he hath lost, but you shall become victorious by Christ. There are two things which encourage us to fight — (1.) The goodness of the cause ; (2.) The assurance and hope of victory. The cause is good ; for the busi- ness in debate is, to whom we should yield up ourselves ? to sin, or to God ? or in whose warfare we shall employ the faculties and powers of body and soul ? If we take to God's side, the victory is clear, that grace which hath freed us from the tyranny of sin is able to free us still, that we shall no more come under that bondage. Strive we must, for unless we fight and make good our resignation, sin will reign ; but let not the sense of our weakness discourage us in our endeavours against sin : though there be some relics of the flesh, yet the sanctifi- cation of the Spirit shall prevail, and therefore it is laziness and cowardice if we do not strive duly against sin : ' For sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law, hut under grace.' In the words observe —
1. The privilege of the renewed and striving christian, 'Sin shall not have dominion over you.'
2. The reason of the certainty of it, ' For ye are not under the law, but under grace.' This reason is both negatively and affirmatively ex- pressed.