(1.) His own holy nature is a pledge of the work of grace, and the sanctification of the Spirit whereby we are fitted and prepared for God. For the same holy S[)irit that could sanctify the substance that was taken from the virgin, so that that holy thing that was born of her might be called the Son of God. can also sanctify and cleanse our corrupt hearts. The pollution of our natures is so ingrained, that we are troubled to think how it can be wrought off, and these foul hearts of ours made clean ; but the same Spirit that separateth our nature in
426 SERMONS UPON ROMANS VIII. [SeR. IV.
the person of Christ from all the pollution of his ancestors, can purify our persons and heal our natures, how polluted soever they be : 1 Cor. vi. 11, ' Such were some of you, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are j ustified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of God,' So many generations as there are reckoned up in the story of Christ's nativity: Mat. i., 'Abraham begat Isaac, and Isaac begat Jacob,' etc. ; so many intimations there are of the deriving of sinful pol- lution from one ancestor to another, and though it still run in the blood, yet when Christ was born of the virgin, he sanctified the substance taken from her, there the infection was stopped, he was born a holy thing : Luke i. 35 : and Heb. vii. 20, ' Who is holy, harmless, unde- filed, separate from sinners.'
(2.) His life was a pattern of our obedience ; for ' he gave us an example, that we should follow his steps, and walk as he walked : ' He submitted to all manner of duties both to God and men ; Luke ii. 49, ' Wist ye not that I should be about my Father's business ? ' There was his duty to his heavenly Father ; and for his natural and reputed parents : Luke ii. 51, ' He went down and was subject to them ; ' and still he ' went about doing good, ' Acts x. 38. This was the business of his life. Obedience Christ would commend to us, for he never intended to rob God of a creature, and a subject, when he made man a christian ; therefore, he in our nature having the same interest of flesh and blood, the same passions and afi'ections, would teach us to obey God at the dearest rates.
(3.) In the same nature that was foiled, he would teach us also to conquer Satan. He conquered him, hand to hand, in personal conflict, repelling his temptations by scripture, as we should do : Mat. iv. 10. So he conquered him as a tempter. There is another conquest of him as a tormentor, as one that hath the power of death. So he conquered him by his death on the cross, and so his human nature was necessary to that also : Heb. ii. 14, ' Forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also took part of the same, that he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil' Christ would stoop to the greatest indignities to free us from this enemy, and to put mankind again into a condition of safety and happiness.
(4.) That he might take possession of heaven for us in our nature : John xiv. 2, 3, ' I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to myself.' The devil's design was to depress our nature, but Christ came to exalt it ; Satan endeavoured to make us lose paradise, but Christ came to give us heaven ; and to assure us of the reality of the gift, he did himself in our nature, rise from the dead, and entered into that glory he spake of, to giv'e us, who are strangely haunted with doubts about the other world, a visible demonstration that the glory of -the world to come is no fancy. He is entered into it, and hath carried our nature thither, that, in time, if we regard his offers and his promises, ourselves may be translated thither also.
(5.) After he had been a sacrifice for sin, and conquered death by his resurrection, he hath triumphed over the devil, and led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men, in the very act of his ascension into heaven : Eph. iv. 8. To teach us, that if we in the same nature con- tinue the conflict, and be faithful unto the death, we shall triumph also.
VeR. 3.] SERMONS UPON ROMANS VIII. 427
and * the God of peace shall tread Satan under our feet shortly' Kom. xvi. 20. These things occur to me for the present as the fruits and benefits of Christ's incarnation ; but the chief reason why it is brought here, is * that God might condemn sin in the flesh,' show the great example of his wrath against it, by the sorrows and sufferings of Christ. Secondly, by his passion. This is intimated in the terms, for sin, or by a sin-offering, as we have it in the margin ; and is confirmed in other scriptures : as Heb. x. 6, ' In burnt-offerings and sacrifices of sin thou hadst no pleasure.' In the original it is only vrepl u/iapria? in burnt- offerings, and for sin, thou hadst no pleasure ; therefore in the transla- tion we put the word sacrifices in another sort of letter, as being supplied. So Isa. liii. 10, ' When he shall make his soul sin,' that is, as we will render it, an offering for sin ; so 2 Cor. v. 21, ' Christ was made sin for us,' that is, a sacrifice for sin ; so here by sin he ' con- demned sin in the flesh,' that is, by a propitiatory sacrifice. All things that were in the sin-offering, agree to Christ's death ; for instance : —