to death, and quickened him again ; therefore we may know that he hath paid the price for us. And he quickens us with Christ and in Christ. Whatsoever we have that is good, it is in Christ first : ♦ That Christ in all things might have the pre-eminence,' Col. i. 18. Christ first rose and ascended and sits in heaven, and then we rise, and ascend, ' and sit in heavenly places with Christ.'* Therefore, as St Peter saith well in 1 Peter i. 20, * God hath raised Christ, that our faith might be in God.' If Christ had not been raised up, our faith and hope could not have been in God that he would raise us up. We are quickened and raised in Christ. All is in Christ first, and then in us. The ground of this is, that Christ was a public person in all that he did in his death ; therefore we are crucified and buried with him ; in his resurrection and ascension, therefore, we are quickened with him, ' and sit in heavenly places with him.' He is the ' second Adam.' And if the first Adam could convey death to so many thousands so many thousand years after, and if the world should continue millions of years he would convey death to all, shall not Christ, the second Adam, convey life to all that are in him ? So think of all things, both comfortable and uncomfortable, in Christ first. When we think of sin, think of it in him our surety ; and when we think of freedom from death and damnation, think of his death. When we think of our resui-rection, think of his when he rose again. In his resurrection, the acquittance from our sins was sealed. Thereby we know that the debt is paid, be- cause he rose again. Let us see an acquittance of all in the resurrection. And if we think of the glory that God hath reserved for us, think of it in Christ. See Christ glorious first, and we in him. See Christ at the right hand of God, and we in him. Carry Christ along with us in our contem- plations. We are quickened with Christ. Christ takes away all the deaths I spake of before. Christ by his resurrection took away the death of sen- tence. He rose again for our justification, ' so that now there is no con- demnation to them that are in Christ,' Rom. viii. 1. So again in regard of that deadly disposition that is in us, Christ quickens us in regard of that, by infusing grace by his Spirit, for Christ is an universal principle of all life. Now Christ, by his death pacifying his Father, obtained the Spirit, and by that Spirit, which he infuseth as a principle of life, he more and more quickens our nature, and makes it better and better, till it be perfect in heaven. As Adam was a principle of death, and the more we live in the state of nature, the worse we are, till we come to hell, so when we are in Christ, the Spirit sanctifies us more and more, till he have brought us to perfection. And as we are quickened from the death of sentence and of disposition, so we are quickened in regard of that hope of glory that we have. For now in Christ we are in heaven already ; and though there come bodily death between, yet notwithstanding, that is but a fitting us for glory. The body is but fitted and moulded in the grave for glory. This veiy consideration will quicken a man in death : my head is in heaven above water, therefore the body shall not be long under water. And faith makes that that is to come present, and affects the soul comfort- ably. Christ is in heaven already, and I am there in Christ ; and I shall be there as verily as he is there. I am there de jure, and de facto I shall be there. In these considerations, Christ quickens us. Therefore, saith St Peter, ' Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath begotten us again through the resurrection of Christ from the dead to a lively hope of an inheritance immortal,' &c. We are begotten again to this * In margin here, ' See the Sermons upon Kom. viii. 2.' Cf. Vol. V. pp. 225-247.— G.
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inheritance by the resurrection of Christ, who is risen again to quicken himself and all his. The consideration of this should affect us as it did St Peter, ' to bless God.'
Now all this quickening power ariseth from our union with Christ. We must have a being in Christ before we can have comfort by death with him or by rising with him. Our union with Christ springs from faith. Faith is cherished by the sacrament. The word and sacrament beget faith. Faith unites us to Christ. Union with Christ makes us partake of his death and the benefits of it, and of his resurrection and ascension to glory. Therefore the more we attend upon this ordinance of the word, ^ and the seal of the word, the sacrament, the more our faith is increased ; for God invites us to communion and fellowship with Christ, and all his benefits and favours ; and the more we find faith assured of Christ, the more union and fellowship we have with Christ ; and the more we feel that, the more Christ is a quickening Spirit, quickening us with the life of grace here, and the hope of glory afterward. Therefore let us comfortably attend upon the ordinance of God sanctified for this purpose, to strengthen this our union with Christ.