(2.) The danger of backsliding is often represented to believers to increase their caution ; as Christ said to his own disciples, John xv. 6, ' If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered^ and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.' The danger of apostasy is represented to them to confirm their standing, or laid before them to make them afraid of defection. So Heb. x. 26, 27, * If we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins. But a certain fearful looking for of judgment, and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries.'
(3.) The promise and exhortation go together, that we may carry an even hand between despair and presumption. Compare ver. 12, ' Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof,' with the text, * Sin shall not have dominion over you.' We must not presume because of the filthiness of our hearts, and the number of the snares that are still before us ; we must not despond because of the unchangeableness of God's covenant love. Let us improve the grace we have deceived, that we may continue in it. The act is ours, but the help is God's. To sin upon a confidence that we are sure to persevere is to cease persevering, and to fall away because we are sure not to fall away, which is a contradiction. Use of information. It informeth us —
1. No doctrine is so sound but a corrupt heart will abuse it ; there- fore as much as in us lies we must prevent these misinterpretations,
2. How prone sinful men are to take all occasions to indulge liberty to sin ; being naturally bent to licentiousness, they pervert Christ's holy doctrine to this end.
3. With what abhorrence we should entertain anything that lessens
VeR. 16.] SERMONS UPON ROMANS VI, 307
the necessity of the creatures' subjection to God, or doth befriend sin, or enticeth you to make light of obedience ; yea, though this should be done with the most glorious pretences of grace, it is but poison ministered by a perfume.
4, "What caution and watchfulness we should use over our own thoughts and inferences. Every one draweth one conclusion or other from the gospel ; what use do you make of it ? Many that will not say so, that we should sin because we are not under the law, but under grace, are apt to think and do so. And since it is natural to us, we should be provided of a remedy.
[1.] Let every sacred truth be digested into holy love and practice. Love : 2 Cor. viii. 1,2,' Knowledge puflfeth up, but charity edifieth. And if any man think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.' Practice : 1 John ii. 4, ' He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.' When truth is turned into love, it is turned into a new nature, and deeds discover the reality of our opinions more than words.
[2.] Let no mystical truth be set up to avoid God's unquestionable natural right to govern his creature, or to infringe the rights of the godhead, as to set up Christ against the moral law, as if that were abrogated; and if no law, no transgression, no sin, no duty, no judg- ment, no punishment, no reward.
[3.] Do not set up Christ against Christ : Heb. v. 9, ' And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him.' Do not set up his merits against his law, he is Saviour but to those that obey him.
SERMON XVII.
Knoio ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to luhom ye obey ; luhether of sin unto death, oi- of obedience unto righteousness? — Rom. VI. 16.
In this verse the apostle proveth that it is unreasonable and absurd to conclude that we may sin because we are not under the law, but under grace. Why ? Because it destroyeth the state to which we pretend, for men cannot be under grace that serve sin. He proveth it by a general maxim, evident by the common reason of mankind, ' Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are,' &c. So that in the words we may observe two things —
1. A general maxim evident by the light of nature.
2. The application of it to the matter in hand.
1. The general maxim, that whatsoever or whomsoever a man voluntarily obeyeth, he maketh it or him his proper lord and master. There take notice of —
[l.J The evidence of it, ' Know ye not,' q.d., you may easily know this by the common course of affairs of the world. Here four things are evident —
308 SERMONS UPON ROMANS VI. [SeR. XVII.
(1.) That omnis servus est alicujus domini servus — that every servant hath some particular lord and master.
(2.) That the interest of this particular lord and master is grounded upon some special title.