(2.) The meritorious cause is the righteousness of Christ ; or the pardon of our sins, and the justification of our persons by the blood and merits of Jesus Christ. When once forgiven, we are out of the reach of the second death : 1 Cor. xv. 56, ' The sting of death is sin.' We are freed from the damning stroke, not the killing stroke, of death ; Christ having freed us from the curse of the law, and merited and purchased for us a blessed resurrection, Heb. ii. 14, 15.
Use. Is to enforce the great things of Christianity.
There are but two things we need to regard, to live holily and die comfortably. These two have a mutual respect one to another ; those that live holily take the next course to die comfortably : ' the end of that man is peace ; ' and to know how to die well, is the best way to live well ; both are enforced by this place.
1. To live holily ; there are several arguments from the text.
[1.] The comforts of Christianity are not promiscuously dispensed, jtr common to all indifi'erently, but suspended on this condition, 'if Christ be in you,' by his sanctifying Spirit. If you be deceived in your foundation, all your life, hope, and comfort, are but delusive things ; but when quickened by the renewing grace of the Spirit of Christ, and made partakers of the divine nature, you have then the earnest of your inheritance: Eph. i. 4, 2 Cor. v. 5, ' He who hath wrought us to this same thing is God, who hath given us the earnest of his Spirit.' Others die uncertain of comfort, or, it may be, most certain of con- demnation.
[2.] From the concession, the body is dead ; sentence is passed, and in part executed ; this awakeneth us to think of another world, and to make serious preparation ; wlien the walls of the house are shaken and are ready to drop down, is it not time to think of a removal ? The body is frail and mortal, and that is enough to check sin : Eom. vi. 12, ' Let not sin reign therefore in your mortal bodies, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.' But it is made more frail by actual sin : Gal. vi. 8, ' If we sow to the flesh, of the flesh we shall reap corruption.' Shall we sow to the flesh and pamper the flesh, which must soon be turned into stench and rottenness ? Man consulting with present sense carrieth himself as if he were a body only, not a soul ; and therefore out
VeK. 10.] SERMONS UPON ROMANS VIII. IT
of love to sensual pleasures, he maketh no account of anything but sensual pleasures and satisfactions ; but shall we bestow all our time and care upon a body that was dust in its composition, and will shortly again be dust in its dissolution ? The body is not only dying, but dead ; you think not of it now, but this death cometh before it is looked for. Saul trembled when the spirit answered him : 1 Sam. xxviii. 19, 20, ' To-morrow thou and thy sons shall be with me.' Would you sport and riot away your time, if you should receive such a message ? Surely the dust, and stench, and rottenness of the grave, if we thought of it, would take down our pride and check our voluptuousness, for we do but pamper worms' meat ; it would prevent our worldliness. All a man's labour is for the body, and usually in a body overcared for there dwelleth a neglected soul. The body is not only the instrument, but the incitement of it ; the soul is wholly taken up about the body, but doth the dead body deserve so much care ? Death doth disgrace all the seducing pleasures of the flesh, and the profits and honours of the world. Who is so mad as wilfully to sin with death in his eye ? Alas ! all the pleasures and honours of the world will be vanity and vexation of spirit to us when we come to die.
[3.] We come now to the corrective assertion, and there is the life promised for body and soul; this breedeth the true spirit of faith : 2 Cor. iv. 13, 14, ' We having the same spirit of faith, (according as it is written, I believed, therefore have I spoken), we also believe, therefore speak, knowing that he that I'aised up the Lord Jesus shall raise us up also.' The true diligence and godliness : 1 Cor. xv. 58. ' Be stedfast and unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for yonr labour shall not be in vain in the Lord.' And patience : Rom. ii. 7, ' Who by patient continuing in well doing, seek for glory, immortality, eternal life.' Christians ! we that have souls to save or lose, and have an offer of happiness, shall we come short of it for want of diligence, and spend our time in eating and drinking, and sporting, or in the service of God ?
[4.] It is the effect both of the Spirit's renewing, and the righteous- ness of Christ. Both call for holiness at our hands, as the effect of the renovation of tlie Spirit, and our title to the righteousness of Christ ; so that this life doth not belong to us unless we are in Christ, and walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit : Rom. viii. 1. Which begun this discourse — the double principle and ground of hope enforceth it.