4. We must bless God not only for our own conversion, but the conversion of others. The body of Christ is the more completed : 1 Cor. xii. 14, ' The body is not one member, but many.' The glory of God is concerned in it : Rom. i. 8, ' First I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world ; ' Gal. i. 23, 24, ' They had heard only that he which persecuted us in time past now preached the faith that once he destroyed, and they glorified God in me.' They are monsters of men that repine at the riches of grace poured down on men by their own or others' ministry, as if they could not endure any should be godly and serious : Acts xi. 23, ' Barnabas, when he came and had seen the grace of God, was glad.'
Use. Is there a change ?
1. Be in a capacity to bless God for spiritual blessings. Should a leper give thanks for perfect health ? a mad man that he is wiser than his neighbour ? or a man ready to die thank God for his recovery ? a slave of sin for his liberty by Christ ? This is to mock God. He may thank God for redemption, for the new covenant, for the offers and invitations of grace, for means and time to repent ; but for the great change, and for an actual interest in Christ, we can never thank him till first it be wrought in us and given to us.
2. Live in admiration and acknowledgment of grace. Let this endear God to your hearts : Eph. i. 6, ' To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved ; ' and ver. 12, ' That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.'
3. Make your qualification more explicit, by being printed and marked with your religion in heart : 2 Cor. iii. 18, ' You are changed into the same image from glory to glory ; ' in life, Phil. i. 27, ' Only let your conversation be as becomes the gospel.'
Vers. 18, 19.] sermons upon romans vi. 327
4. Never return unto your old bondage. The time of slavery is past : 2 Peter ii. 20, ' If after they have escaped the pollutions of the world, through the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.' They that revert to their old bondage have no due sense of the mercy of their deliverance out of it.
SERMON XIX.
Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteous- ness. I speak after the manner of men, because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members serva^its to uncleanness, and to iniquity unto iniquity ; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. — Rom. VI. 18, 19.
These words are an inference and conclusion from the foregoing discourse, showing, that, as they had changed masters, they should change their course of life. In them observe two things —
First, The state of the believing Romans both past and present.
1. Past ; that is implied ; they were once under the bondage and slavery of sin.
2. Present ; they were freed from that bondage, and become the servants of righteousness ; where observe two things —
[1.] The freedom from their former servitude, eXevOeptoOevre^. This word is used of them that are emancipated, or brought out of bondage into liberty. Sin was a cruel and hard master.
2. Their entrance into a new estate of obedience, in the word eSov- \co6t)t€, ' ye became the servants,' or subjected yourselves ; you have given up yourselves to a more ingenious service.
Secondly, The exhortation hence deduced. Where observe two things — (1.) The preface to sweeten it ; (2.) The matter of it.
1. The preface to sweeten it, ' I speak after the manner of men, because of the infirmity of your flesh.' Some think the apostle excuseth the earthly similitude, whereby he had represented these matters, as if he were forced to use these notions of master and servants because of the weakness of their understandings, which could not brook a more sublime and spiritual way of discoursing. Rather I think it is meant of the equity of the proposal, which is set forth by two expressions —
El.] The humanity of it. 2.] The due consideration taken of the weakness of their flesh, 'The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak,' Mat. xxvi. 41 ; that is, your will indeed is good, but you must remember it may be hindered by your natural frailty. So here, the weakness of the flesh is men- tioned to intimate their disability wholly and fully to do the will of God, that is, allow for infirmities ; and avOpoiinvov Xi'yw, I speak moderately, humanly, and by way of condescension ; I propound that which is common, and judged reasonable among men ; that is said to be common to men, that doth not exceed the strength of men : 1