of men when therefore the Lord saith that al are dead til Christ cometh certainly there is another Life besides that life that natural men enjoy Fourthly and lastly Abundantly in the Scripture wil you find this proved that upon the souls accepting of Christ they are said to be quickned They who were dead in sins and trespasses he hath quickned Read but the ten first verses of the 2d of the Ephesians and I know not how many other places there are Ye were dead ye were such but he hath quickned you and he that beleeveth in me saith Christ to Martha in John 11.25 though he were dead he shall live and living once he shal never die Doest thou beleeve this Then Christ being the Root of a Life it being the end of his undertaking that his people might have life and all men being dead before they come to him and quickned to life upon the receiving of him certainly then there is a life that they who have any interest in Christ do live which others are strangers from And let this suffice for the first And beloved though I shal not apply this alone yet I would count it a great fruit of this daies meeting if the very notion of it might but stick upon your hearts it would be of admirable consequence that if al of you would go home and say Certainly whatsoever I may think of my self if I be in Christ there is another life than that which I live yet and as you will hear if it please God a better life another manner of life than this is But that for the first The Second which it may be you wil more long for for I suspect not that you wil doubt the truth of the first is What is this Life what is it Now remember I taught you in one of my Preparatory Conclusions That it is not to be understood of this world and therefore pray expect not any cleer opening of it what it is but only so far as the Lord hath taught me out of his Word I shal communicate to you I wil give you this Description of it and then I will open it more expresly as I go along The Life that al Beleevers have from Christ it is a participation of Christs righteousness upon their union with him Pray mark it I shall make this plainer by and by I say That the Life of Christ that al the Saints partake of it is a participation of Christs righteousness upon the souls union with him Where there are these two things a little to be cleered First That all who do receive Christ are united to him and that is the foundation of their Life The Second is That upon their union they partake of his Righteousness and the participation of this righteousness is their life That is that I mainly intend to cleer That they are al united to him the Scripture is abundant in the proof of it It is Christ in us that is the hope of glory and we are one with him and he with us and he dwells in us by his spirit c. therefore it is cleer that we are united to him made one and this union it is nothing but the Lord Jesus sending his spirit into the soul as a band to knit him and them together that he be made their Root and Stock Now that I will not treat of because the very handling of it it is not only a great Mystery but it would take up more time than is to be allowed for the Sermon But Secondly Upon their Union with Christ they partake of his Righteousness and the participation of his Righteousness is our Life Mark I pray this because I hope it will give you some Light into this great Work for if you be Gods People I am only making you to see what your spirits are what your blood is what your pulse is and I shal speak of nothing but the things that are in you if you be the Lords I say The participation of Christs Righteousness that is our Life To this purpose be pleased to observe this one rule and mark it in your reading of the Scriptures of the new Testament especially How that Righteousness and Death are the two things that are opposed one to another Death and Righteousness That look as soon as ever man was a sinner he was a dead man presently he was dead under the sentence of Death In the day thou eatest thou shalt die and not dead only under the Sentence but dead as his sin deprived him of Gods Image Now as it is sin that is our Death so it is Righteousness that is our Life not our own which the Scripture disclaims but the Righteousness of Christ and you shal find several times in Rom. 5. where the Apostle compares the Death by Adam and the Life by Christ ordinarily he useth this expression That As sin reigned unto Death so righteousness by Christ unto Life stil opposing them our Death is sin our Life is righteousness I know the time will prevent me if I should stay upon that But therefore I wil proceed to that that I aim at the Righteousness of Christ the participation of Christs Righteousness You wil say What mean you by that I mean plainly this That our spiritual Death it hath two Branches that Tree of Death that deadly Stock hath two Branches and we are said to be spiritually dead in a two-fold respect The one is We are dead as we are under the sentence of Condemnation and that is our death of guilt being bound over by the righteous Judgment of God to make him amends for the injury we have done him and that sentence of condemnation is our death that is one branch in regard of our guilt The other branch of our spiritual death is Our state of death we are in as being deprived of the image of God wherein we were made and not only deprived of it but have contrary principles in al the faculties of the soul carrying us constantly to the things that are opposite to him In these two respects are all men and women in the world dead til Christ finds them Now Jesus Christ answerable to this hath a two-fold righteousness the participation whereof is our life First He hath a Righteousness of his Obedience which is inherent only in himself but is bestowed upon us imputed to us reckoned to us and by that righteousness performed by Christ and inherent in him and reckoned to us by the righteous sentence of God he delivereth us from the death that we are under the death of our condemnation under the sentence of death and so the Apostle expresseth it cleerly in Col. 2.12 13. Ye saith he who were dead in sins and trespasses hath he quickened How forgiving you your trespasses In that place the pardoning and removing of our trespasses is the chief thing that is the quickning there intended So there is one a righteousness of Christ performed in our name accepted by God
and then when the Lord hath broke it and new shot it that he hath given you an interest in Christ and the Spirit of Christ is become a new life to you then you are fitted to this Duty but til the Lord hath wrought that in you all other talk is to no purpose therefore your first work must be to get such a heart as is capable of this for every one is not Then Secondly 2. When the Lord hath done so then for the keeping of it in a good frame all the directions though there be very many of them yet I think they may be all brought to these two heads The one is 1. Keep the heart pure keep it pure from sin from the defilement that wil daily grow upon it if it be not wel kept from the stirrings of corruption either to keep them down that they do not stir or when they do stir to get them dayly washed off by the blood of Christ. And then the other is 2. As to keep it pure from sin so to keep it fit for Duty tuned and prepared for the several Duties the word is large and through Gods mercy your instructions are many and whosoever is willing may have constant directions to guide him in all these FINIS THE LIFE OF CHRIST OR THE Great Mystery OF SPIRITUAL LIFE Opened and applied in several Sermons at Olaves Silverstreet Octob. 27. 1653. Gal. 2. part of verse 20. I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me now follows that which I shal more insist upon and the life that I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me THE Dependance of these words with the former briefly stands thus The Holy Ghost having decried the Law as that which is utterly unable to give life and set up the justification of a sinner only from Gods Free Grace in making over unto him the Righteousness of Christ having I say asserted this great fundamental Doctrine of our Christian Religion wherein the Galatians were begun to be tainted he then comes to answer the common Cavil which not only the Papists but too many among our selves do charge this Doctrine withal namely That it is but a door to al licenciousness and doth take off the rains from any man and give him an occasion to be bold in wickedness for if our righteousness cannot justifie us nor our unrighteousness condemn us but the righteousness of Christ is accepted for us and in him we are compleat without any thing of our own who would not take liberty to indulge himself in such fleshly courses as are agreeable to his nature Now against this the Apostle opposeth several things as arguments to prove that this cannot be a consequence of this Doctrine to a man that rightly understands it Justification by free Grace wil never be a temptation to a man to a sinful life and one Argument is All Pauls Ministry tended to beat down a wicked life and do they think he would come to build up that which he had pulled down that were an absurd thing Secondly The very end of our Justification by Christ is quite contrary to it for saith he through the Law I am dead indeed to the Law but it is that I might live to God as if he should have said It is true that the right understanding of the impossibility of a sinners keeping the Law wil beat down in him al thoughts of ever obtaining any life by the Law he wil be dead as to look for justification or acceptance that way but it is that he might live to God that is the very end of it that he might live to God that is another argument and that being the very end that God aims at it is impossible that the quite contrary of it should flow from the Lords own appointment Then Thirdly Every man that doth but partake of Jesus Christ he is crucified with him and he instances in himself I am crucified with Christ when Jesus Christ hung upon the Cross and there by vertue of his death did kil sin and by vertue of his resurrection hath opened a way to a new life when I partake of Christ I have an interest in this I die with him and am buried with him therefore it is impossible that looking for life by Christ should make a man live a wicked life And Fourthly Which he brings in by way of Answer to a tacite Objection Are you crucified do we not see you are alive Yes I live indeed but in truth more properly I may say it is not I that live but it is Christ Jesus that lives in me by vertue of my interest in him my whol life flows from him and that life that I live in this life that is in this fleshly Tabernacle it is the life of Christ and the way how I live it is by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me And so I have brought you to my Text and in the words without any further interpretation save what you shal have in handling the Doctrine there are these Two Doctrines cleerly laid down The first is That every soul that hath an Interest in Christ while he is in this world it is Christ that lives in him While we live in this flesh in this world the life that we live it is Christs life Christ lives it we do not only when we accept of Christ beleeve in him to be saved by him when we go out of this world and trust al the daies of our life that when this life endeth he hath a better life for us in store that is not al but when we accept of Jesus Christ we so accept him that his life is communicated to us and while we are in this world we live that life That is the first Doctrine That all the Lords people while they live in this world they live Christs life The Second is That the modus vivendi the manner of their living this life in this world it is by faith We shal live the life of Christ to Eternity but when that moment of Eternity cometh faith shal have no hand in it but the life we now live while we are in the flesh it is the grace of faith by which we live it Just as I may express my meaning for I shal not handle that Doctrine as take it of an Infant As soon as ever the body and soul are but joyned together that it is made a living soul it is the life of a man that it lives but while it is in the mothers womb the manner of living is by the navel the navel-string conveyeth al to it when it comes into the world that is cut there is no more use of it and then it lives another way So while we are in this world though we live the life of Christ yet Faith is as it were our navel-string
the nature of a corruption that can contribute to it No all that is in a corruption is deadly and poysonful and dishonorable to God but as one of the Fathers said of Adams fall Oh! happy fall that did obtain such a Redeemer So you will say happy are the People of God in the midst of their corruptions when the Lord Jesus doth them so much good by them Now if you will know what is the good he doth to them I acknowledg I want strength and time and you would want Patience if I should discourse of them at large I wil name but four Particulars and the naming of them wil confirm you in the truth of them if you compare them with the experiences of all Gods people The first is this 1. By the Corruptions that the Saints of God carry about them the Lord keeps them in a continual self-abhorrency which is the most excellent frame on this side Heaven I know what I speak that there is no frame of Spirit in this world so excellent as a self-abhorring Spirit taken but with the next branch that you shall hear of presently now nothing laies all Gods people so low as their corruptions I tell you if the Saints of God had all the afflictions in the world lay upon them were it not for their own corruptions they would rather be proud of their afflictions they are ready oft-times to murmur against God as David and Job were tempted to it I have walked with God in my integrity and simplicity and yet I must thus be made worse than others Oh! that would be grievous but now when the Soul is sensible of its own corruption dead heart unprofitable Spirit and the like then wretched man that I am who shal deliver me from it I say again nothing in the world keeps Gods people so low as their corruptions and that is a great gain Augustin had a Speech That God would rather allow Lust to keep his Grace humble than Grace to make his heart proud Oh! nothing so abasing as the relicks of corruption which exceedingly advantages Gods Children The Second Advantage is That as it makes us very low in our own eyes so 2· It wonderfully magnifies Christ Oh! it maketh Jesus Christ most precious nothing makes Christ so precious to the Saints of God as the Corruptions that they bear about them Nay I will add more that had Jesus Christ forty years ago done the work satisfied for sin and made me stand in Gods favor and now I had no more need of him I should quickly forget him As suppose a man had forfeited his estate and his Life forty years ago and some dear friend buys all and gives him all and sets him up again now forty years after he hath traded and grown Rich by his own Wit and strength surely he cannot but remember how he was beholding to that friend forty years ago I but he would never remember him so well as he would that friend that should do that every day for him I live upon his Table and Almes every day and yet he Loves me never a whit the less So when a Soul remembers I was a dead Man an enemy and Christ brought me and not only so but every day I forfeit all and grieve God and shall bring ruine upon my self mark how Paul concludes it in Rom. 7. when he said Oh wretched man Who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death I thank God through Jesus Christ Oh! Christ Jesus his appearing it was dear to Paul Now here is a wonderful gain beyond all the Righteousness of this world if the Saints of God had in their course as much Righteousness as the glorified Saints in Heaven and the Angels in Heaven have it were not so glorious to God in this administration as a spirit that magnifies Christ and abaseth it self and this is wonderfully advanced by the reliques of corruption that we bear about us Thirdly Another great benefit is 3. Hereby doth the Lord temper his People to make them submit quietly to every bitter Cup the Lord gives them to drink Nothing makes the Soul so Patient under affliction so quiet in the loss of all other things nothing doth it like to this Oh! had I my deserts should the Lord mark mine iniquities it would not be the loss of a Child would serve my turn it would not be the clipping off of a piece of my estate it is mercy I am not destroyed nothing makes the Soul lay its hand quietly upon its mouth and quietly submit to every dispensation of God though never so bitter as the sence of corruption we daily bear about us And in the last place 4. Hereby doth the Lord wonderfully make his People long to be dissolved and get to Heaven where they may leave sinning against him for whatsoever carnal People may think there is nothing so grievous to the people of God as sinning against him and when they shal come to die when they shall put off mortality and leave off dishonoring his name it is more welcome to them then to be rid of afflictions and that made Paul long to be in Heaven because I know while I am in this Body I shal never be with the Lord as I should be but I long til that day shal come Now here is gain when that corruption those reliques of it abase thee and magnifie Christ and fit thee for every dispensation and make thee long to be at home with the Lord and I might add in the mean time make thee attend conscionably upon all the means that may bring thee to him and is not here wonderful gain So that you may see of what use the intercession of Christ is to al the Saints in the middest of all their sinful infirmities that they bear about them I will now dismiss you presently with two short Uses of it First USE 1. This Lesson if truly understood for I know it wil be a hard thing to keep wicked men from laying hands upon it but I think Gods mind is that his own Servants should have their portion whosoever abuse it but here they may have a constant relief against that which is their greatest burden I am sure of it if thou beest the Lords no burden like thy corruptions and thy other afflictions would be easily born by thee if so be corruptions did not aggravate them in thy own apprehensions Now if the world were given thee it would not be such a succor as this to thee when thou canst say in all thy wandrings Oh! I have talked with many a Soul Oh! never such an unprofitable wretch as I saith one I think no one hath such a forgetful head as I saith another and none have such impetuous affections as I saith another Oh! but doest thou remember that he is at Gods right hand that gave himself for thee and in an acceptable day carries thee home and carries thee stil in his bosom how he appears for thee every day