Well, as it implies duty, so it implies a gracious effect, that we shall be enabled to this duty. He indeed iu himself is a Lord. We ought to acknowledge him so, nay, we shall have the Spirit if we be his, to cause ua to acknowledge him. You have a notable place, 2 Cor. v. 15, to this pur- pose, ' The love of Christ constrains us, because wo thus judge, if one died for all, then we are all dead.' If he died to redeem us from death, to what end did he die ? He died for all, that ' they might not live to themselves, but to him that died, and rose again,' 2 Cor. v. 15. It is nothing but this in the text, ' we should live to him.' Now this, that we should live to him, it is not an aim of ours only, but an effect that he works in us. He died * that we might live to him.' For he died and rose that he might obtain the Spirit. By this Spirit he enableth us to live and die to'God : as you have it, Piom. viii. 8, at large proved. Those that are Christ's have the Spirit of Christ, and are led with it.
Beloved, it is a part of the new covenant, that whatsoever our duty is, we shall have ability to perform it by the Spirit of Christ ; for all the gracious promises of the gospel are not only promises upon condition, and 80 a covenant, but likewise the covenant of grace is a testament and a will (a will is made without conditions ; a covenant with conditions), that as he hath made a covenant what he would have us to do, so his testa- ment is, that we shall have grace to do so ; he will put his Spirit into us, and circumcise our hearts, or else, beloved, there would be no more strength of the covenant of grace than there was of that of nature in Adam. Why did Adam fall ? He had not the Spirit to uphold him, nor had he the promise of it to keep him that he should not fall. Therefore the covenant of works was frustrate. But now the covenant of grace is this, that whatsoever God requires he will give his Spirit to enable us to do it, that the covenant may not be frustrate. If God should not make good our part as well as his, we should not be saved. Therefore, now in the covenant of grace we may boldly go to God and Christ; and allege unto him, when any duty is pressed upon us, and when we a^;e about to perform any duty, and find want of strength, * Lord, thou kuowest I have no strength of myself, lam a barren wilderness ; but thou hast entered into a covenant of grace with me, which covenant now is a testament, a free will, that thou wilt give what thou requirest. Lord, in the use of means that thou hast ordained ; in attending upon thee, and looking up to thee, I desire that thou wouldst give me strength to submit to thee, to live and die to thee, to direct my course as I should.' This should be the course of a Christian, and not to set upon things in his own strength ; but when duty is discovered, look to the promise of grace and of the Spirit, and put them into suit, and allege them to Christ in the use of sanctified means, as reading, hearing, holy conference, and the like ; and he will enable us to do that that is our duty.
Therefore a man may know who is indeed under Christ's government by
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this, for he that is actually under Christ's government and acknowledgeth him to be his Lord, he hath ability to live and die to him in some com- fortable measure ; to deny himself, to go out of himself, to live and to die to the glory of God. The Spirit of God hath given him this victory and triumph over his own heart.
Last of all, if this be so, here see the wondrous secure state of a Christian. Beloved, that as Christ is his Lord both in life and death, and it is his duty to subject himself, so Christ will give him grace so to direct his life. Therefore let us do our duty, attend upon the means, and lift up our hearts to God ; let God and Christ alone with all the rest, let Christ alone with ruling us and with enabling us to be ruled by him. He is Lord not only over us, but in us by his Spirit. But the Spirit ' breatheth where it listeth,' John iii. 8. There must be waiting upon God in his ordinances, till we find ability to holy duties ; and those that have so much patience to honour God and Christ so far as to attend in the use of good means till the good hour come, till the Spirit come to subject their spirits to duty, no doubt but God intends well to them. But those that are so short- spirited that if they find not ability to deny themselves and to live to God, and to break ofi" their course of sin, but give over in a kind of base despair, it is just with God to leave them to themselves, that they shall even live and die to themselves ; that is, they shall live without respect to Christ, and die without respect to Christ at all, as if there were no Christ to take care for them.