5. Tliey stop])ed at no sin : ' Ye yielded your members to unclean- ness, and to inicpiily unto iniquity.' From habitual sin they i)roceeded to actual, from one kind to another, rested not in the lust or purpose,
334 SERMONS UPON ROMANS VI. [SeR. XIX. •
but were still accomplishing what their lusts craved at their hands. So will you count yourselves servants of righteousness, because you have some purpose to do good, or have some wishes to be better, though they never come into act and effect ? Alas ! a christian is to be determined not by knowing or wishing and woulding, but by doing ; ' He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me/ John xiv. 21 : ' And whoso keepeth my words, in him verily is the love of God perfected,' 1 John ii. 5. The carnal nature ventetli itself not in lusts only, but practices ; so doth the new nature ; it is a habit and principle that influenceth your daily course of life. The same God that ruleth the heart doth also rule the life. The root is for the fruit, and the life within to enable us for action without ; so we have the root and life of grace and holiness, that we may bring forth the fruit and do the works of grace and holiness. Therefore, whatever wishes and desires men have, if they live as they did before, neither God nor any wise man will judge that they are freed from sin and become the servants of righteousness.
6. The progress ; they went forward from one sin to another, and never stopped. Now, as they heaped up sin upon sin, so should we add to grace grace : 2 Peter i. 5-7, ' Add to your faith, virtue ; to virtue, knowledge ; and to knowledge, temperance ; and to temperance, pa- tience ; and to patience, godliness ; and to godliness, brotherly kindness ; and to brotherly kindness, charity.' You should always grow more pure and holy, and aim at a higher degree of sanctiiication, till all be per- fected in heaven : 2 Cor. vii. 1, ' Perfecting holiness in the fear of God.' The more grace overcometh nature, the more comfortable every day will your lives be, and religion will grow a more easy and de- lightful thing to you. The complete subjection of our will to the will of God is the health, ease, and quietness of our wills ; therefore study to be perfect.
Secondly, The reasons why it must be so.
1. From the love and goodness of God showed in our change, which should constrain us, and awaken in us principles of gratitude towards him : 2 Cor. v. 14, 15, ' For the love of Christ constraineth us,' &c. ; Luke vii. 47, ' Her sins, which are many, are forgiven her, for she loved much.' It is a trouble to them that God hath been so long de- tained out of his right, that the devil hath engrossed so much of their choicest time and best strength, and therefore now they would make some recompense : as travellers that set forth late, ride the faster. Especially doth this hold good of them that have been great sinners. It is possible that some have stuck at no villany, but have engulphed themselves in all manner of dissoluteness. Oh ! how zealous should they be for God for time to come, and bestir themselves that they may show forth the sacred influence of grace, as they have done the cursed rigour of nature 1
2. By grace we have received a new principle and power. Now 'princifiata respondent suis jprincipiis — a new heart showeth itself by newness of life ; therefore the power and effect of grace must as much discover itself as formerly we bewrayed the power of sin, otherwise why is this new principle planted in our hearts? It is dangerous to receive objective grace in vain: 2 Cor. vi. 1, 'We then, as workers together with him, beseech you that you receive not the grace of God in vain.'
Vers. 18, 19.] sermons upon Romans vi. 335
We frustrate the method of God when we suffer the gospel to be cast away upon us ; but to receive subjective grace in vain is worse, as this is a closer appKcation, as a power put into our hearts, and we make the choicest gifts of the Spirit idle and unuseful.
Use. Is to persuade us to make our new obedience more clear and explicit.
1. By manifesting the change: 2 Cor. v. 17, 'If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature ; old things are passed away, behold all things are become new.'
2. By our growth and increase: 1 Thes. iv. 1, 'Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus Christ, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more.'
3. By exceeding in a course of holiness, as ye did before in sin : 1 Cor. XV. 10, ' I laboured more abundantly than they all.'
Reasons —
1. It is not an indifferent thing whether yc be eminent in obedience, yea or no. God maketh a great matter of it, as appeareth by his strict injunctions : Ps. cxix. 4, ' Thou hast commanded us to keep thy pre- cepts diligently ; ' by his ample promises : Dent. xi. 26-29, ' Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse ; a blessing if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day ; ' by his punishment of the disobedient : 2 Thes. i. 8, 9, ' To take vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from tiie presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power ; ' by the example of Christ : Heb. v. 8, 9, ' Though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered ; and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him.' You have gained a great point when you are persuaded of this.