2. The aim, tendency, and ordination of that life, which is to refer all our actions to God's glory, and to guide them by God's will : That they shoiddfrom henceforth live not to themselves, &c.
Now this end, aim, and tendency of the new life, it is propounded negatively : ' Not unto themselves.' This is mentioned because a man cannot live to God till he hath denied himself. Spiritual life is but a recovery out of self-love. Before the fall there was no such thing as self, contrary to, or distinct from God, set up either in an opposite or divided sense from God ; but when man fell from God, self interposed as the next heir, as an idol, not God ; therefore tlie great work and care of religion is to draw us from self to God. ' Not to themselves,' that is, not to their own wills, ends, and interests. But it is positively expressed too, that they should live according to the will, and for the glory of God.
For the first of these, the fruit itself. I shall speak of the life itself, that we have by virtue of Christ's resurrection ; * That they which live,' that is, spiritually. Some, indeed, expound it judicially ; they that live in a law sense, they are freed from death, to which they were obliged by Adam, and which they deserved by the merit of their own sins. But though that be included, it is not the full and formal meaning of the clause ; for as the death mentioned in the former verse is to be interpreted of the mystical death, so by consequence this living is to be interpreted of the spiritual life, by bestowing of the Holy Ghost upon us. Of this I shall speak under this point, namely, —
Doct. That by virtue of Christ's death and resurrection christians obtain the grace of a new life.
In opening of this, I shall —
1. Show that there is a spiritual life, and what it is.
2. The respect that it hath to the resurrection of Christ, as the spiritual death hath to his death.
First, That there is a spiritual life. There is a natural and human
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life, and there is a spiiitnal and heavenly life. The natural and human lite is nothing but the civil and orderly use of sense and reason ; and there is a spiritual and heavenly life, which is nothing but supernatural grace, fi-aming and disposing the whole man to live unto God. It is supernatural grace, because we have it by virtue of our union with Christ: John vi. 57, ' As I live by tlie Father, so he that eateth me shall live by me.' Mark, when we have eaten Christ, when we are united to Christ (that is, take it out of the metaphor), as our food becomes one with our substance ; so when we are united to Christ so as to become one spirit, then we live by the influence and virtue of his Spirit. In the life of nature we live by the influence of his general providence, but in the life of grace by the power of the Holy Ghost ; therefore it is called, * The life of God/ Eph. iv. IS : ' Being alienated from the life of God ;' that is to say, that life which God worketh in us by the communica- tion of his Spirit. Now by this supernatural grace, this gift of the Spirit, we are framed to live unto God. For this life, as it hath another principle distinct from that of the natural life, so it hath another end ; the operations of the creature are sublimated and raised to a higher end. Here, in the text, the apostle shows ' the ordination and tendency of this life, that it is ' not to ourselves.' but it is "' to him that died for us, and rose again ; ' and Gal. ii. 19, * I am dead to the law. that I might live unto God." It is a life whereby a man is enabled to act and move towards God, and for God, as his utmost end and his chief good. The natm^al life is to itself, as water riseth not beyond its fountain ; and that which is born of the flesh can go no higher than as fleshly inclinations carry it. But the spiritual life is a power enabling us to live imto God : Eom. xiv. 8, "' Whether we live we live unto God," &c. When we only mind self-interest, and act for tlie conveniences, and interests, and supports of the outward life, then we do but 'walk as men,' 1 Cor. iii. 3; this is, but according to the motions and to the bent of a natural principle. But if we would live as christians, or as new men, then we must live at a higher rate ; God must be at the end of every action. Thus you see what it is. Xow because of the term life, I shaU show —
1. The correspondence,
2. The difterence, between it and the common life.
1. The correspondence and likeness that is between the common life that other men live and this life of grace, that Christ died for us that we might live, and is wrought in us in conformity to his resurrection, for therefore they go under the same name. They are alike in many things.