502 THE NATURE AND AUTHOR OF REGENERATION.

"Here is the heart that has been the subject of this operation ?"

Hence also may be gathered some proper directions for such as are in a state of nature how to attain the new birth.

Endeavour to be thoroughly acquainted with the corruption of your nature: it is from this that the necessity of a new birth proceeds.

Be fully convinced of the indispensable necessity of this change to your salvation.

Break off from and forsake whatever tends to obstruct the new birth; as excessive worldly cares, bad company, and in short, all sin.

Seriously use all the means of grace; as, earnest prayer, attentive hearing of the word, &c.

Persevere in so doing, till your endeavours are crowned with success. And particularly, do not grow impatient of those anxieties and fears that will at first attend your pursuit.

These short hints may suffice by way of direction, if you are sincerely desirous of being directed. And what do you determine to do? Will you not resolve to seek after this important change, upon which your eternal all depends? Oh! let us part to-day fully determined upon this, that we will implore the power and mercy of God to create in us clean hearts, and renew within us right spirits.

SERMON XLIX.

THE DIVINE LIFE IN THE SOULS OF MEN CONSIDERED.

GAL. ii. 20.—I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God.

THE principal design of St. Paul in this epistle, is to assert his divine mission, in opposition to the insinuations of the Judaizing seducers that had intruded into the Galatian church; and to prove the justification of a sinner to be only through the merit of Christ's righteousness, and the instrumentality of faith. To confirm the latter he argues, Gal. ii. 15, 16, from the case of the apostles and Jewish Christians in general: "We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law." And Gal. ii. 19, he explicitly declares his own case in particular, as agreeing with theirs. "I, through the law, am dead to the law, that I might live unto God;" that is, by the knowledge of the perfection of the law, as to its extent and spirituality; I am utterly unhinged and thrown off from all dependence on the works of the law for justification, and from expecting strength to yield obedience to be conveyed, according to the covenant of works;-and God's design in bringing

me off from this dependence, and mine in relinquishing it, is not that I may turn libertine, and cast off all obligations to obedience, but that I may, by strength derived from Christ, devote myself wholly to him, and make my life a series of obedience to his will.

He goes on relating his own case in the text; in which you may observe these truths:

First, "That believers are endowed with spiritual activity; or, that they are enabled to serve God, and perform good works." This is intimated by two expressions, I am crucified, and I live; which, though they seem contradictory, do really mean the same thing. I am crucified, signifies the mortification of indwelling sin, the subduction and extirpation of corrupt principles and inclinations; and he calls the mortification of these the crucifixion of himself, (I am crucified) because of their intimate inhesion with his very nature; they were a sort of self to him. We have a like expression used, and explained by himself "Our old man is crucified with him, that

in Rom. vi. 6.

the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin." Now the mortification of sin is a part of the service of God, at least a necessary prerequisite. So the apostle reasons in Rom. vi. 2, 6, 11, "How shall we that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God." The other expression, I live, signifies spiritual activity; a vigorous, persevering serving of God; a living unto God, (as it is explained ver. 19, and Rom. vi. 11.) Life, as ascribed to a rational being, imports, not only a continuance in existence, in which sense inanimate things may be said to live, but especially a power of rational operation frequently exercised; and when attributed to a morally upright being, as such, it imports more than some kind of power of

operation, namely a vital principle of spiritual and holy operation, and the frequent, persevering exercise of it. Such a principle or power is very significantly called life, to denote its intimacy in the soul, its vivacity, and permanency.

Secondly, We may observe, that "the vital principle of holiness in believers, whereby they are enabled to serve God, is communicated to them through Christ only as a Mediator." This is intimated by that expression, I am crucified with Christ; that is, sin is crucified in me, by virtue of the crucifixion of Christ; from the merits of his death my strength to subdue sin results: and the mortification of it is the certain consequent of his sufferings, because thereby divine grace was purchased and insured for his chosen, to be communicated at the time appointed. To the same purpose he speaks in Gal. vi. 14. Far be it from me "that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom [or by which] the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." This is also asserted in the emphatical epanorthosis, I live: yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: that is, spiritual life is formally in me, but it is not self-originated; it does not result from my natural principles, (which are so essential to me, that I may represent them under the personal pronoun I) but was first implanted, and is still supported and cherished by the power and grace of God through Christ; and it is in every respect so dependent upon him, and his influence is so intimately diffused through my soul, that I may say, Christ liveth in me. A like expression is used in Col. iii. 3, 4. Christ is our life.

Thirdly, We may take notice, "that believers receive supplies from Christ for the maintenance and nourishment of their spiritual life." The life which I now live,

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(or, as it might be rendered more significantly, what I now live) in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God.

So that the substance of the text is exhausted in these three doctrines, "That all true believers are endowed with an ability to serve God: That this ability was first communicated, and is still maintained through Christ only: and, That it is by faith they derive supplies from him, for the support and nourishment thereof."

You may observe I here reason from a particular to a universal, and infer, that because these doctrines are true with respect to St. Paul, therefore they are true with respect to believers in general; and the scope of the text warrants this method of reasoning in this instance, which is confessedly fallacious in other cases; for St. Paul here introduces his own case with a design to represent and illustrate the case of believers in common; which he could not reasonably have done, had not theirs been substantially the same with his in these respects. Besides, he declares these things of himself, not upon the account of any circumstances peculiar to himself, which might appropriate them to him; and therefore, though so eminent a saint might have peculiar degrees of them, yet as to their reality and kind, they equally belong to all true Christians.

Nothing can be more profitable, nothing more necessary, than right notions about spiritual life. It is the main business of those that have it not, to seek it, and of those that have it, to cherish it; but how can they do either, if they know not what it is? Without it our religion is vain; we cannot serve the living God here, nor enjoy him hereafter; we are exposed to the eternal agonies of the second death, and our souls are pining under a spiritual decay, that will at length consume our