sinnes he quickned us but they are put in in the translation because they must be understood to make the full sence In the words consider these things First of all heere the Apostle puts them in mind of their former condition And then he sets downe in particular what it was They were dead in trespasses and sins Then he tells them wherein they were dead what was the cause of their death and the element wherein they were dead in trespasses and sins Lastly not in one trespasse and in one sin but in trespasses and sins And then to speake a little of quickning to take it out of the 5. verse You hath he quickned There is the benefit with the condition That which Jaime at is especially to shew our estate by nature and how we are raised out of that I shall touch the points briefly as I have propounded them Saint Paul here first minds them of their former condition you were dead in trespasses and sinnes For contraries give lustre one to another and it magnifies grace mervailously to consider the opposite condition Hee that never knew the height and bredth and depth of his naturall corruption will never be able to conceive the height and breadth and depth of Gods infinite love in Iesus Christ. Saint Paul had deepe thoughts of both as ever man had therefore he could never enter into the argument of abasing man and extolling the love of God in Christ that he could satisfie himselfe but his spirit carries him from one thing to another till he set it out to the full And every one of us should be skilfull in this double mystery the mystery of the corruption of nature that is unsearchable there is corruption in the heart that none knows but God only and we must plow with his heifer that carries a light into the hidden parts of the soule and discovers corruption there is a mystery of that as well as of the Gospell of our deliverance out of that cursed estate from the guilt and thraldome of it I doe but touch it onely to shew the scope of the Apostle Now besides the consideration of it for this end to magnifie the grace of God and to understand what our former estate was the better there are many other ends As to stirre up our thankefullnesse when we consider from what we are delivered to glorifie God the more There is no soule so enlarged to glorifie God as that soule that hath large thoughts of its estate by nature and that estate by nature made worse by custome our second ill nature and bondage voluntary considering Gods mercy in delivering and freeing us from all sinnes and trespasses this will make us thankefull indeed And it is a spring of love to God when we consider what great sinnes we have forgiven usâ— it will make us humble all the daies of our lives and pitifull to others but this may be handled fitter from another portion of Scripture To come therefore to the words Who were dead in trespasses and sins Their condition is they were dead the specification of their death in sinnes and trespasses and not in one but in sinnes and trespasses Here I might digresse and tell you a discourse of life and death at large every man knowes by experience what they are In a word death is a privation of life What is life and whence ariseth it Not to speake of the life of God God is life and Christ is life but of lâ—fe in us It ariseth from the soule first there is a soule and then a life from the union with that soule and then there is a secret kindled motion and operation outward wheresoever life is Life in man I say springâ— from the soule The soule hâ—th a double life a life in it selfe and a life it communicates to the body The life in it selfe it liveth when it is out of the body it hath an essentiall life of its owne but the life of the body is derived from its union with the soule and from that union comes lively motion and operation The spirituall life of the soule is by the Spirit of Christ when our soule hath union with the quickning Spirit of Christ and by Christs Spirit is joyned to Christ and by Christ to God who is life it selfe and the first fountaine of all life then we have a spirituall life The Spirit is the soule of our soules and this spiritual soule this Spirit in us is not idle wherever life is there is motion and operation inward and outward suteable and proportionable to the fountaine of life the Spirit of God himselfe So on the contrary it is with death what is death Death is nothing else but a seperation from the cause of life from that from whence life springs The body having a communicated life from the soule when the soule is departed it must needs be dead Now death take it in a spirituall sence it is either the death of law our sentence as we say of a man when he is condemned he is a dead man Or death in regard of disposition and then the execution of that death of sentence in bodily death and in eternall death afterward Now naturally we are dead in all these sences First by the sin of Adam in whose loynes we were we were all damned there was a sentence of death upon all Adams rotten race as we say damnati antequam nati we were damned before we were borne as soone as we had a being in our mothers wombe by reason of our communion with Adam in that first sinne And then there is corruption of nature as a punishment of that first sinne that is a death as we shall see afterward a death of al the powers we cannot act and moove according to that life that we had at the first we cannot thinke we cannot will we cannot affect we cannot doe any thing that savours of spirituall life Hereupon comes a death of sentence upon us being damned both in Adams loynes and in originall sinne and likewise adding actuall sinnes of our owne if we had no actuall sinne it were enough for the sentence of death to passe upon us but this aggravates the sentence We are dead in law as well as in disposition This death in law is called guilt a binding over to eternall death it breeds horrour and terrours in the soule for the present which are the flashes of Hell-fire and expectation of worse even of the second death for the time to come which is an eternall seperation from God for ever an eternall lying under the wrath and curse of God in body and soule after they are united at the resurrection because wee would sinne eternally if we did live eternally here and no satisfaction being made for man after death there must be an eternall sentence and punishment upon him a terrible condition if we were not afraid of the first death we should be afraid of the
God and when he is there he may yeeld an eare to listen and he hath common discourse and understanding to know what is said and upon what ground he can offer himselfe to the worke of the Spirit he can come to the poole though he be not thrust in this day or that day when God stirrs the waters this by common grace any man living in the Church may doe Therefore though we be all dead even the best of us by nature yet let us use the parts of nature that we have that God hath given us to offer our selves to the gracions and blessed meanes wherein the Spirit of God may worke Let us come to heare the Word of God Iohn 5.25 The time is come and now is that the dead shall heare the voice of God where the voice of God is in the Ministery and so they shall live As in the latter day the noyse of the trumpet shall raise the dead bodies So the trumpet of the Word of God sounding in the eares of men together with the Spirit shall raise the dead soules out of the grave of sin Therefore J beseech you as you would be raised up out of this death heare the noyse of Gods trumpet come within the compasse of the meanes As God is the God of life and Christ calls himselfe the life and the Spirit the Spirit of life So the Word is the Word of life because together with the Word God conveyes spirituall life The Word of God in the Ordinance is an operative working Word As it was in the creation God said Let there bee light and there was light So in the Ministery it exhorts and stirres up to duty and there is a cloathing of the ministeriall word with an almighty power it is a working word As when Christ spake to Lazarus when hee stanke in his grave he said Lazarus come foorth it was an operative working word there went an almighty power to raise Lazarus Therefore though we finde our selves dead and have no worke of grace yet let us present our selves more and more to the Ordinance of God God will be mighty in his own Ordinance the blessed time may come let us waite when the waters are stirred and take heede that we despise not the counsell of God which is to bring man to spirituall life this way And object not I am dead and rotten in sin many yeares I am an old man You know many were raised in the Gospell some that had beene dead few daies Lazarus was rotten and stanke It shewes us that though a man be dead and rotten in sinne yet he may be raised first or last the blessed time may come therefore waite never pretend long custome and long living in sinne All things are in obedience to God though they have a resistance in themselves yet God can take away that resistance and bring all to obey him All things in the world though they be never so opposite to Gods grace they are in obedience to his command Therefore though there be nothing but actuall present resistance in the soule to that that is good and a slavery to the bondage of sin yet attend meekly upon the Ordinance God can make of Lions Lambs he can take away that actual resistance As Christ when he was raised the stone that lay upon the grave was remooved So when God will quicken a man he will remoove the stone of long custome that is upon him though he have beene dead so many yeares yet God can rowle away the stone and bid him rise up Therefore let none despaire God is more mercifull to save those that belong to him then Sathan can be malicious to hinder any way The best of us all though we be not wholly dead yet there are some relicks of spirituall death hanging upon us there be corruptions which in themselves are noysome Therefore let all attend upon the meanes that the Spirit of God by little and little may worke out the remainders of death the remainders of darknesse in our understandings and of rebellion in our wills and affections For there bee usually three degrees of persons in the Church of God Some open rotten persons that are as graves open sepulchres that their stincke comes foorth and they are prophane ones There are some that have a forme of godlinesse that are meerely ghosts that act things outwardly but they have not a spirit of their owne they have an evill spirit and yet doe good workes they walke up and downe and doe things with no spirit of their owne The second are more tollerable then the first in humane society because the other stinke and smell to common society common swearers and prophane persons that stinke to any except it be to themselves But the godly have this death in part the life of sentence is perfect the life of justification but spirituall life in us is by little and little wrought in the meanes the Spirit of life joynes with the Word of life and quickens us daily more and more A word of these words And you hath he quickned Suteable to the occasion This being our estate let us know how much we are beholding to God who hath quickned us God quickens us with Christ and in Christ. It is a comfortable consideration In that God hath quickned Christ and raised him from the grave it shewes that his Fathers wrath is pacified or else he would not have quickned him he gave him to death and quickned him againe 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 preheminence 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 1.20 God hath raised Christ that our faith might bee in God If Christ had not beene raised up our Faith and Hope could not have beene in God that he would raise us up we are quickned and raised in Christ all is in Christ first and then in us The ground of this is that Christ was a publike person in all that he did in his death therefore we are crucified and buried with him in his resurrection and ascention therefore we are quickned 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 yeeres after and if the world should continue millions of yeares he would convey death to all shall not Christ the second Adam convey life to all that are in him So thinke of all things both comfortable and uncomfortable in Christ first when we thinke of sinne thinke of it in him our Surety and when we thinke of freedome from death and damnation thinke of his death when wee thinke of our resurrection thinke
of his when he rose againe in his resurrection the acquittance from our sinnes was sealed thereby we know that the debt is paid because he rose againe let us see an acquittance of all in the resurrection And if we thinke of the glory that God hath reserved for us thinke of it in Christ see Christ glorious first and we in him See Christ at the right hand of God and wee in him carry Christ along with us in our contemplations We are quickned with Christ Christ takes away all the deaths J spake of before Christ by his resurrection tooke away the death of sentence he rose againe for our justification so that now there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ. So againe 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 universall principle of all life Now Christ by his death pacifying his Father obteined 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 til we come to hel So when we are in Christ the Spirit sanctifies us more and more till he have brought us to perfection And as we are quickned from the death of sentence and of disposâ—tion so we are quickned 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 betweene yet notwithstanding that is but a fitting us for glory the body is but fitted and molded in the grave for glory This very consideration will quicken a man in death my head is in Heaven above water therefore the body shall not bee long under water And Faith makes that that is to come present and affects the soule comfortably Christ is in Heaven already and J am there in Christ and J shall be there as verily as he is there I am there de jure de facto I shall be there in these considerations Christ quickens us Therefore saith St. Peter Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ who hath begotten us againe through the resurrection of Christ from the dead to a lively hope of an inheritance immortall c. We are begotten againe to this inheritance by the resurrection of Christ who is risen againe to quicken himselfe and all his The consideration of this should affect us as it did Saint Peter to blesse God Now all this quickning power ariseth from our union with Christ we must have a beeing 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 ascention to glory therefore the more we attend upon this ordinance of the Word and the seale 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 wee find faith assured of Christ the more union and fellowship wee have with Christ and the more wee seele that the more Christ is a quickning Spirit quickning 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. FINIS THE FRVITFVLL LABOVR FOR Eternall Foode In two Sermons By the late Reverend and Learned Divine RICHARD SIDS Doctor in Divinity Master of Katherine Hall in Cambridge and sometimes Preacher at Grayes-Inne ESAY 55.2 Why doe you spend money for that which is not Bread and your labour for that which satisfieth not Hearken diligently unto mee and eate yee that which is good and let your soule delight it selfe in fatnesse JOHN 6.55 For my flesh is meate indeed and my blood is drink indeed LONDON Printed by G.M. for Nicholas Bourne and Rapha Harford 1639. THE FRVITFVLL LABOVR FOR Eternall Food IOHN 6.27 Labour not for the meate that perisheth but for the meate that indureth to everlasting life which the Sonne of man shall give you for him hath God the Father Sealed OUr blessed Saviour was mighty in word and deed witnesse what he did what he taught and both in this Chapter What he did hee fed many with a few loaves he came over the water without any helpe What he taught witnesse from this part of the Chapter to the end The words are part of an Answer of our blessed Saviour to his hypocriticall followers that followed him for the Loaves and not for any confirmation of their faith by his miracles for upon occasion of those two miracles mentioned in the former part of the Chapter they followed him and perceiving that hee was miraculously come over the water they began to aske him Rabbi how camest thou heere Our Saviour perceives that they meant to complement with him he sees with what hearts they came after him therefore as most befitting the Exigence of their state because they were hypocrites he answers not to their question but to their persons Verily verily yee seeke mee not because of the miracles but because yee eate of the loaves and were filled Labour not for the meate that perisheth c. The Verses together containe a Conviction and an Injunction or direction A Conviction and that is serious and loving Serious Verily verily I say unto you you seeke mee not because of the miracles but because yee eate of the loaves c. Hee convinceth them of their fault of their hypocrisie of their wicked and carnall aimes in holy businesse they come flattering of Christ but as hee was too holy to flatter so he was too wise to be flattered hee deales therefore directly with them thoroughly convinceth them of their hypocrisie and corrupt aimes in following after him We are all naturally prone to these carnall ends in holy actions we must take heed with what mindes with what hearts we come before God whose eyes are brighter then the Sun who regards not so much what we doe as with what mindes we doe it As his conviction is Serious so it is Loving for with the conviction or reproofe followes the injunction or direction Labour not for the meate that perisheth In the Injunction there are two things First he shewes them what they should not follow he takes them off from labouring after the meate that perisheth And then secondly hee instructs them in what they should follow what they should seeke after But labour for the meate that indureth to everlasting life c. There are Arguments in both In the first there is an Argument disswasive and
of Christ we are helped and assisted against the remainders of our corruptions For the third the miseries of this life we have victori◠in Christ In him we are more they conquerours as you have it in this Chapter They can doe us no harme Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Iesus We have 〈◊〉 singular comforts in this Chapter against all the troubles than can be fall us and this is one that triumphs over all All things shall worke for the best to them that love God What should I speake of hurt from any thing that befalls us when all shall worke for the best by the over-ruling of him that commands all Vers. 28 And for death it selfe Neither life nor death shall be able to separate us from the love of God And for damnation which accompanies death It is God that justifieth who shall condemne There is opposite comforts in Gods Booke nay in this Epistle and in this Chapter against all that may any way trouble our peace There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus saith the Apostle and then he goes on after to shew how by the helpe of the Spirit all things worke for the best c. In this very Verse likewise you have this comfort set downe of our freedome by Christ from any thing that may hurt us For the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus hath made me free from the Law of sinne and of death The words are dependant as we see in the particle for For the Law of the Spirit of Life c. They depend upon the first Verse thus as a reason why how ever there be sinne in Gods children yet there is no damnation to them There is no condemnation to those that are in Christ Iesus he prooves it thus Those that are free from the Law of sinne and of death which brings in condemnation those undoubtedly are free from damnation but those that are in Christ Jesus they are freed from the Law of sinne and of death therefore there is no condemnation to such But how shall we know that we are in Christ Jesus Those that have the Spirit and are led by the Spirit of Christ they are in Christ The Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus hath freed me from the Law of sinne and of death So I say the words are especially a reason of the former There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus because by the Spirit of Christ they are freed from the Law of sinne and of death and by consequent they are freed from damnation for what brings in damnation but sinne In the words then there is an opposition there is Law against Law The Law of the Spirit of life in Christ and the Law of sinne and of death Now where there are contrarie Lawes if there be contrarie Lords as there must be New Lords will have new Lawes especially if they be Lords by conquest they will alter the very fundamentall Lawes that were before as you know the old Conquerours have done in this Kingdome Here is Law against Law and Lord against Lord Christ against sinne and death Here is a Lord by conquest over all other Lords and Lawes therefore here must needes be an alteration of Lawes upon it the very fundamentall Lawes must be altered But to come more particularly to the words For the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus hath freed me from the Law of sinne and of death The words are much vexed by Expositors I will rather speake my owne judgement of them and reconcile them then dash one mans judgement against another for that tends not to edification The Law of the Spirit of life c. The meaning of the words is plaine if we compare it with other Scriptures The Law It is nothing but a commanding power for so the word written the Law in the Apostles meaning is but a power forcing and commanding So the Law of the Spirit of life is the commanding and forcing power of the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus and so the Law of sinne it is either the tyrannicall command and forcing power of sinne or else the condemning for sinne afterwards as we shall see hereafter for we shall unfold the words better in the particulars First then here we have set downe what estate we are in by nature we are under the Law of sinne and of death And then here is our freedome and deliverance from that we are made free from the Law of sinne and of death And then the Author of it Christ Jesus The Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus hath freed me from the Law of sinne and of death In the words and those that goe a little before there are these three maine fundamentall points of Religion The miserie and bondage of man The deliverance of man And his dutie Here you have his miserie he is under sinne and death Here is his deliverance he is free from this by Christ. And for his dutie you have it in the last Verse of the former Chapter speaking of his deliverance Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the bodie of this death then it followes Thankes be to God through Iesus Christ our Lord Thankfulnesse is due not verball thankfulnesse onely Indeed the whole life of a Christian after his deliverance is a reall thanksgiving but that is not in my Text. To speake therefore of our estate by nature and of our deliverance our estate is that we are under the Law of sinne and death We are under the Law of sinne We are under sinne what sinne We are under a three-fold sinne We are under the first sinne of our first father for as Levi payd Tythes in Abraham to Melchisedech so we all sinned in the Loynes of Adam our first Parent and the guilt of that first sinne lyes upon us Secondly there is another sinne that is derived and springs from that first sinne which is the deprivation of the Image of God the pravation of our nature we call it originall sinne whereby we are stripped of that good we had in our first creation and have the contrarie image the image of Satan stamped upon us so we are under the first sinne the guilt of it and we are under the sinne of nature which we call originall sinne because it is derived to us even from our birth and first originall we had in Adam And then we are under actuall sinnes which are so many bonds to tie us fast under sinne We are dead by nature but we are dead and rotten by actuall sinnes we super adde to the guilt of our sinne by our dayly conversation We are blind by nature but we are blinded indeed much more by our custome of life Every sinne doth as it were tie us faster to damnation and keepes us faster under the bondage of sinne Every new sinne takes away
and to have societie with the Devill and his Angels in hell and that forever and for ever Thou maist perhaps make â—light of the service of sinne because thou hast the present baits to delight thee but thou shouldst regard death Thou maist neglect death but then regard eternall death This word Eternall it is a heavy word Eternall separation from all good and eternall communion with the Devill and his Angels and for the wrath of God to seize on thy soule eternally world without end me thinkes men should not set light by that Therefore considering that this is our estate by nature we are all slaves to sinne and death let us labour to get out of this cursed estate by all meanes which is by The Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus Now I come to speake of our freedome The Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus hath freed me from the Law of sinne and death This is good news indeed to heare of freedome good newes to the Israelites to heare of freedome out of Egypt and for the Jewes to heare of Cyrus Proclamation for their freedome out of Babylon Freedome out of bondage is a sweet message Here we have such a message of spirituall freedome from other manner of enemies then those were The yeare of Jubile it was a comfortable yeare to servants that were kept in and were much vexed with their bondage when the yeare of Jubile came they were all freed therefore there was great expectation of the yeare of Jubile Here we have a spirituall Jubile a manumission and freedome from the bondage we are in by nature The Spirit of life in Christ makes us free from the Law of sinne and death There is life in Christ opposite to death in us there is a Spirit of life in Christ and a Law of the Spirit of life in Christ opposite to the law of sinne and of death in us So that this is our happinesse while we live here oh it is the blessednesse of men to make use of it while they have time and space and grace to repent and to cleave to Christ that whatsoever ill we are under by nature we may have full supply in Christ for all the breaches that came by the first Adam There came the wrath of God the corruption of our nature terrours of conscience death and damnation all these followed the sinne and breach of the first Adam all these are made up in the second He hath freed us from all the ill wee received from the first Adam and that we have added our selves for we make our selves worse then we come from Adam by our voluntary and daily transgressions but wee are freed from all by the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus How comes this freedome There can no freedome be without satisfaction to divine Justice For why are we under sinne God gives us up to sinne why are we under death God gives us up to death Why are we under Satans government he is Gods executioner Gods serjeant he gives us up to him here because we offend him Why are we under damnation and wrath because God is offended All our slavery comes originally from God however it be sinfull in regard of Satan that keepes us yet the power whereby he keepes us is good for he doth it from God His will is alwayes naught but his power is alwayes lawfull therefore the power whereby the Devill keepes us if wee looke up to God under whom the power is it is a lawfull power for God hath a hand in giving us up to finne it is a judiciall giving up and then by lusts and â—inne to Satan and death and damnation So if we speake of freedome wee must not begin with the executioner the wrath of God must be satisfied God must be one with us so as his Justice must have contentment Satisfaction must be with the glory of his Justice as well as of his Mercie his Attributes must have full content one must not be destroyed to satisfie another hee must so be mercifull in freeing us as that content must be given to his Justice that it complaine not of any losse Now reconciliation alway supposeth satisfaction it is founded upon it And satisfaction for sinne it must be in that nature that hath sinned now man of himselfe could not satisfie divine Justice being a finite person therefore God the second Person became man that in our nature hee might satisfie Gods wrath for us and so free us by giving payment to his divine Justice The death of Christ God-man is the price of our liberty and freedome But why doth the Apostle speake here of a Law of the Spirit of life in Christ which frees us but here is no mention of satisfaction by death Oh but death is the foundation of all as we shall see afterwards To unfold the point therefore because it is a speciall point and the words need unfolding Here it is said there is life in Christ. A Spirit of life in Christ. and a Law of a Spirit of life in Christ. There is life in Christ not onely as God for so indeed he is life God his life is himselfe for life is the being of a thing and the actions and moving and vigour and operations of a thing answerable to that being So the life of God is his being As I live saith the Lord that is as I am God I will not the death of a sinner Now Christ hath life in him as God as the Father hath but that is not especially here meant There is life in Christ as God-man as Mediator Now this life is that life which is originally from the God-head indeed it is but the God-heads quickening and giving life to the man-hood in Christ the Spirit quickning and sanctifying the man-hood And we have no comfort by the life of God as it is in Gods life alone severed for alas what communion have wee with God without a Mediator but our comfort is this that God who is the fountaine of life he became man and having satisfied Gods Justice he conveyes life to us he is our head hee hath life in himselfe as God to impart spirituall life to all his members so there is life in Christ as Mediator And there is a Spirit of life that life it is a working life for spirit is an emphaticall word spirit added to a thing increased the thing Againe he saith the Law of the Spirit of life Law is a commanding thing to shew that the life in Christ it is a commanding life it countermands all opposite lives whatsoever of sinne and death and this Law is a countermand to all other Lawes the Law of the Spirit of life frees us from all other Lawes So here is life the Spirit of life and the Law of the Spirit of life all words of strong signification But for the cleare understanding of this sweet and comfortable point First
Justice for them and by the Spirit of life hath quickned that dead body of his that was surety for us himselfe we may well say Who shall lay any thing to our charge he that is our surety is dead dead nay risen againe nay ascended and sits at the right hand of God Therefore now the conscience of any Christian may make that interrogation and bold demand there it may stand out any that dares to oppose the peace of his conscience now that he may say who is it it is God-man that dyed it is Christ that dyed in our nature and hath raised that nature of ours againe and is at the right hand of God who shall lay any thing to our charge The Spirit of life in Christ quickning him hath quickned us together with him so that now we may boldly demand we are freed from our sinnes because our surety is free from all All this was for our good what Christ did it was not for himselfe but for us and in his birth and life and death and resurrection we must consider him as a publicke person and so goe along with all that hee did as a publicke person Whatsoever may be terrible to us we must looke upon it first in Christ. If we looke upon the corruption and defilement in our nature looke upon the pure nature of Christ his nature was sanctified in his birth and he is a publicke person therefore this is for me and though I be defiled in my owne nature and carry the remainders of corruption about me yet the Spirit of life in Christ sanctified his nature and there is more sanctity in him then there can be sinne in me When we looke upon our sinnes let us not so much looke upon them in our consciences as in our surety Christ. When wee looke upon death looke not upon it in our selves in its owne visage but as it is in Christ undergone and conquered for the power of the Spirit of life in Christ overcame death in himselfe first and for us and will overcome in us in time When the wrath of God is on our consciences looke not upon it as it is in our selves but as undergone by Christ and as Christ by the Spirit of life now in him is raised up not from death alone but from all terrours My God my God why hast thou forsaken me See Christ by the Spirit of life quickened from all not onely bare naturall death but from all enemies thou needest to feare from the Law it is nayled to his Crosse hee now triumphs over it and from sinne hee was a Sacrifice for it and from the wrath of God he hath satisfied it or else he had not come out of his grave So whatsoever is terrible look on it in Christ first see a full discharge of all that may affright thy conscience and trouble thy peace any way See him in his death dying for every man that will beleeve Consider him in his resurrection as a publicke person not rising himselfe alone but for all us therefore is 1 Pet. 1. There is an excellent place Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ who hath begotten us againe to a lively hope by the resurrection of Iesus Christ to an inheritance immortall undefiled c. and so goe along with him to his Ascension and see our selves sitting with him in heavenly places as Saint Paul speakes oh this is a sweet meditation of Christ to see our selves in him in all the passages of his birth and life and death and resurrection and ascension to glory in heaven for all that he did was as a publicke person as the second Adam But now before the Spirit of life in Christ come to free me I and Christ must be one there must be an union betweene me and Christ I must be a member of Christ mysticall For as Christ quickened his owne body every joynt when it was dead because it was his body so he quickens his mysticall body every member of it but I must be a member first I must not be my selfe severed from Christ. Therefore the Law of the Spirit of life which is in Christ the first thing it doth next to impetration and obtaining of happinesse it workes application for these two goe together impetration and application Christ by his death obtained all good and by his resurrection hee declared it but there must be an application to me Now this Spirit of life which is in Christ which quickened him and raised him up and all for my good must apply this to me The grace of application it is faith therefore this must be wrought in the next place How doth the Law of the Spirit of life free me because first it freed Christ therefore me but that is not enough except there be application Therefore the Law of the Spirit of life workes faith in me to knit me to Christ to make me beleeve that all that hee hath done is mine and the same power that raised Christ from the dead workes the power of faith and application For wee must not thinke that it is an easie thing for a carnall man to beleeve to goe out of himselfe that it is salvation enough to have salvation by the obedience of another man No both in the Ephesians and Colossians in divers places it is S. Pauls phrase that the same power that raised Christ from the dead must raise our hearts and worke faith in them For as the good things that faith layes hold on are wondrous good things even above admiration almost that poore flesh and blood a piece of earth should be an heire of heaven a member of Christ that it should be above Angels in dignity as the things are superexcellent things even above admiration in a manner so the grace that beleeves these things it is a strange and excellent and admirable grace that is faith Therefore faith must be wrought by the Law of the Spirit of Christ by the ministery of the Gospell This is the grace of application when a man goes out of himselfe when he sees himselfe first in bondage to his corruptions to Satan and to death and then sees the excellent way that God hath wrought in Christ to bring him out of that cursed estate then hee hath by the Spirit of life faith wrought in him And indeed the same power and Spirit that quickened Christ from the dead must quicken our hearts to beleeve in Christ. It is a miracle to bring the heart of man to beleeve Wee thinke it an easie matter to beleeve indeed it is an easie matter to presume to have a conceite but for the soule in the time of temptation and in the houre of death for the guilty soule to goe out of it selfe and cast it selfe upon the mercy of God who is justly offended and to beleeve that the obedience of Christ is mine as verily as if I had obeyed my selfe here must be a strong