4. This is to be laid down for a ground ; had we not a better being in Christ than in ourselves, he loould never take us from ourselves, for God never hiddeth us to our loss. We have a better condition in Christ than we can have in the world. It is our gain and advantage to live and die to Christ ; though it be to the loss of natural self, of civil self, and whatsoever else, yet it is our advantage. It is mercalorium, not a loss, but a trading. We have a better for worse. No man ever parted with anything for religion, or a public good, but God made it up in a better kind. Though God should not make it up in this world, in the same kind, yet in religion there be all things better than in the world. If we lose honour here, we have honour from God. If we lose riches, we have them made up in grace here, in glory hereafter. If we lose liberty, we have it in the enlargement of a good conscience. If we lose friends, we get a God for a friend, who can make our enemies friends. If we lose life, we are put into possession of eternal life, and therefore we need not stand at the bargain. We have a better being in Christ than in ourselves. Water is not lost when it emptieth itself into the sea, for there it is in its proper element. A Christian is not lost when he loseth himself in his God, in his Saviour ; for in him he hath a better being than in himself. He is brought nearer the fountain : ' I desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is the best of all,' saith the apostle, Philip, i. 23. Religion is a most excellent condi- tion ; for as he ' that saveth his life shall lose it, so he that loseth his Hfe shall save it,' Mat. x. 39.
All our comforts have a better being in Christ than in ourselves ; and therefore we should labour to have communion with him, and to strengthen our faith in Christ, and be in love with our happy condition in him, which yieldeth comfort in life and death. And all by virtue of the death of Christ, and the resurrection of Christ. As he saith afterward, ' Christ both died and rose again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.'
The resurrection of Christ is the consummation of all. ' If Christ had not risen again,' where had our comfort been ? But the very thought of it, that we are engrafted in one who hath not only purchased us by his death — ' for we are the price of his blood ; ' but to make it clear that it is so, is now in heaven as our head, having overcome death, and intending to bring all his body where he is, as it was his will ' that where he is, we
296 THE cnniSTiAN's end.
should be also,' Jolin xvii. 21 — is a glorious thought. The glory of Christian religion is in the resurrection of Christ ; and to consider that we that are creeping here on earth shall be members of him that is glorious in heaven, * Lord of heaven and earth,' who not only ' died for us, but is risen again,' and will make us all, both in body and soul, conformable to his glorious self, as the apostle saith to the Philippians, Philip, iii. 10, cannot but infuse life and vigour into all our actions, estates, and conditions, be they never so mean, and have a wonderful influence into the whole life of a Christian.
TBGE SECOND SERMON.
None of us livelh to himself, and none of ns dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord ; and ivhether we die, we die nnto the Lord : whether we live therefore, or die, ire are the Lord's. — Rom. XIV. 7, 8.
1. First, The general scope of the apostle is, to take us off from our false ends: ' None of us liveth to himself,' &c.
2. Secondly, To assign us to the true object, to whom we ought to dedicate ourselves, that is, ' to the Lord.'
3. Thirdly, The ground of all, ' Whether we live or die, we are the Lord's.'
4. And then, fourthly, the spring of all : ' Christ both died and rose again, that he might be Lord both of quick and dead.'
There is a concatenation and knitting together of divine truths, they fol- lowing one another by a necessity of consequence. As from the body of the sun, there is a natural issue of beams ; and as in plants derivation* from the root into the branch ; so there is from Christ into all truths. Grant him to be the second Adam, and grant him Lord of the living and of the dead, and it will follow, we ought to live to him. If we grant we ought to live to Christ, then we must grant we ought not to live to ourselves. For we ought to live to Christ. Why to Christ ? Because he is Lord both of life and death. Why is he Lord ? Because he hath purchased it by his blood. How do we know he hath purchased it by his death satis- factorily ? Because he is risen again, and sitteth at the right hand of God to make all good for us. Things are best to us when they are digested and made our own by the presence of good principles. But here is the mischief : Sin is ready, and good principles are not engraffed into us ; but if divine truths were as near as corruption is, then we could withstand and repel all temptations.