272 SERMONS UPON ROMANS VI. [SeR. XIII,
to be Christ's. "We have no power to dispose of ourselves, being wholly his by purchase and covenant.
1. By purchase: 1 Cor. vi. 19, 20, 'Ye are not your own, ye are bought with a price.' Quod vendiiur transit in potestatem ementis — the buyer hath a power over what he hath bought. We were lost, sold away, had sold ourselves against all right and justice ; but Christ was pleased to redeem us, and that with no slight thing, but his own blood. Now how can you look your Kedeemer in the face at the last day ? If you have any sense and belief of christian mysteries, you should be afraid to rob Christ of his purchase : 1 Cor. vi. 15, ' Shall I take the members of Christ, and make them the members of a harlot ? God forbid ! ' He hath bought us to this very end, that you may be no longer under the slavery of sin, but under his blessed government, and the sceptre of his Spirit : Titus ii. 14, ' He hath redeemed us from all iniquity ; ' that was his end, to set us at liberty, and free us from our sins ; and therefore, for us to despise the benefit, and to count our bondage to be a delight and privilege, this is to build up again that which he came to destroy, to put our Kedeemer to shame, to tie those cords the faster which he came to unloose ; and so it is as great an affront and disparagement of his undertaking as possibly can be. Therefore let not sin live and reign.
2. We are his not only by purchase, but by covenant : Ezek. xvi. 8, ' I entered into covenant with thee, and thou becamest mine.' We wholly gave over ourselves to his use and service. This covenant was ratified in baptism, wherein ' we were planted into the likeness of his death,' Eom. vi. 3-5. How into the likeness of his death? To die unto sin, as he died for sin ; that is explained by the apostle, ver. 9, * Christ being raised from the dead, dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over him.' His resurrection instated him in an eternal life, never to come under the power of death again ; so are we to rise to a new life, never to return to our sins again. Now shall we rescind our bap- tismal vows, and after we have resigned ourselves to Christ, give the sove- reignty to another ? The hands of consecration have been upon us, and therefore to allow ourselves in any course and way of sinning is to alienate ourselves, and to employ ourselves not only to a common, but a vile and base use. When Ananias had dedicated that that was in his power, and kept back part for private use, God struck him dead in the place. Acts v. ; and if we alienate ourselves, who were not in our own power, and were Christ's before the consecration, of how much severer vengeance shall we be worthy ! God complaineth of the wrong of parents, Ezek. xvi. 20, that they took sons and daughters born to him, and sacrificed them to be devoured by Moloch. Children born during the marriage covenant were his ; they were circumcised, and so dedicated to him ; yet they gave them to Moloch ; as many parents dedicate their children to God by baptism, and bring them up for the world and the flesh. This is verily a great sin in parents ; but we are more answerable for our own souls, when we have owned the dedi- cation, and ratified it by our own professed consent; and if we shall willingly yield to the world and the flesh, and suffer them to have a full power and dominion over us, how do we defy Christ, whom yet iu words we profess to be our Lord 1 It is said, Gal. v. 24, ' They
VeR. 14.] SEIiMONS UPOX ROMANS VI. 273
that are Christ's have crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts thereof.' How shall we interpret this scripture, and reconcile it with the carriage of most christians ? Dejure all will grant that they should crucify the flesh, with the affections and lusts thereof ; but the apostle seemeth to speak de facto, 'they have,' and that maketh the difficulty. All true christians indeed have done so. Christians in the letter are bound to do so ; and let them look to it how they will answer it to Christ another day. All in their baptism have renounced the desires of the flesh, and the passions of it also ; they are engaged to do it ; and all that are serious and real have begun to do this act of mortifying sin, and must go on yet more and more to smother the endeavours and effects of it. Because this is a momentous business, and it is charged on us ' as we are Christ's,' as we profess ourselves to be so, and take ourselves to be so, let us see what it importeth. They must ; all are bound ; they really have crucified the flesh, mortified and deadened the root of corruption, that it shall not easily sprout and put forth its lustings. Carnal nature in them is weakened, it is not so vigorous and stirring as it was wont to be ; there is some preventing of the first risings, though sin dwell in them, and work in them. So far all that are Christ's have put to death their fleshly corruption. But now, as to the several ways of venting of it, expressed by irddi] and eTnOvfxiai, either by sinful passions, as malice, envy, hatred, variance, emulation, wrath, strife, they do in a great measure and considerable degree get above these ; or by lust is meant all fleshly and worldly desires, which carry us out of the pleasures, and profits, and honours of the world, the pleasing baits and enticements of sense ; they are dead to these also ; all motions to uncleanness, intemperance, ambition, love of riches and vain pleasures : all the children of God have actually begun this work, and are still suppressing these things ; for they have resigned their hearts for Christ to dwell in, and they are advancing his sceptre and rule continually, for they have given up themselves to be guided by him. Whether they be pleasant sins or vexatious evils, the heart of a christian is set against them ; and therefore you see how unsuitable it is for those that are Christ's, his redeemed ones, and his covenanted ones, to give way to the reign of sin.