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A47030 A sermon preach'd before the University of Oxford, upon Act-Sunday, at St. Mary's in Oxford, 1698 by David Jones ... Jones, David, 1663-1724? 1698 (1698) Wing J938; ESTC R2577 15,702 30

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Truth of it For it is almost six thousand Years since Adam Sinned And we who are at this vast distance of Time from him are as really and truly guilty of his Sin as if we our selves had all been alive when he lived and had actually Sinned with him in our own Persons For says St. Paul Rom. v. 12 19. All men have sinned in Adam and by Adam's disobedience all men were made sinners And if the Sin of Adam who was only a meer Man be really and truly our Sin though we live so long a time after him Then shall not the Crucifixion of Christ who was God as well as Man be really and truly our Crucifixion when it is but so short a Time in comparison to Adam's Sinning since Christ was Crucified For is not Christ more able to save all the Elect who are only a few than Adam was to destroy all Mankind who are so many Yea verily For as the Apostle proves it at large the mischief we receive from Adam's Transgression is not so great as the Benefit we receive from Christ's Crucifixion For says St. Paul Rom. v. 15. The grace of Christ hath much more abounded than the offence of Adam And he gives the Reason for it v. 16. For says he the judgment was by one to condemnation but the free gift is of many offences unto justification That is the Offence of Adam only made Men guilty of original Sin But the Grace of Christ does not only pardon original Sin but it also pardons all the personal and actual Sins of all his People And therefore since we have certainly Sinned with Adam in Paradise before we were born let none of us if we are true Christians make the least doubt but that we were also as certainly Crucified with Christ upon the Cross before we were Born And now having thus acquainted you with these three Things the meaning of the Text which could otherwise have never been understood will be plain and easy to the most ignorant Man and Woman here present For when St. Paul here says I am crucified with Christ he tells us what he means by it Rom. vi 6. where he says that our old Man is crucified with Christ that is the corrupted Self or the corruption of Nature which is commonly called Original Sin is Crucified and Mortified and put to Death in every Believer by the Crucifixion and Death of Christ For the condemning power of Original Sin has been long since wholly taken away from us in our Justification by which we were acquitted from it's Guilt and Punishment The reigning Power of Original Sin has been already in some measure and is every Day more and more taken away from us in our Sanctification by which we constantly and manfully fight against it and weaken and lessen it's Dominion And the very being of Original Sin shall be wholly taken away from us in our Glorification in Heaven where we shall all be one glorious Church not having Spot or Wrinkle but altogether Holy and without Blemish And now you know what is meant by these Words I am crucified with Christ you will easily know the meaning of all the rest For when St. Paul says Nevertheless I live the meaning of it is this Do not think that I contradict my self by saying I am crucified and yet I live For as I according to my corrupted Self am Crucified and dead unto Sin So I according to my renewed Self am alive unto Righteousness and live unto God My old Man is daily dying in me and my new Man daily lives in me My Sin grows weaker and weaker and my Grace grows stronger and stronger But lest this humble Apostle and great Extoller of God's free Grace should seem to have taken too much to himself when he said Nevertheless I live he presently do's as it were correct himself by saying in the next Words 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 who loved me and gave himself for me The meaning of which is this It is true that God never justifies a Man and aquits him from the guilt and punishment of his Sin but he does also at the same time Sanctify him and give him inherent Righteousness and put into him a new Principle of Action But this new Principle of Action is not so strong and powerful as of it's self to make a Believer do all his Duty without any further Assistance from Christ This inherent Righteousness does not cannot carry a Believer through all or indeed through any Christian Duties unless Christ gives him both the Will and the Deed unless he excites him to inables him for and makes him to persevere in the Practice of every one of them And therefore notwithstanding this new Principle and this inherent Righteousness which every Believer has Yet there is not one Spiritual Action that any Believer does or can do but Christ does more in it than the Believer himself does Christ lives more in a Believer than a Believer lives himself For says St. Paul I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me For Christ is the Life of every Believer Colos iii. 4. Yea and he is also the very Bread of his Life that is the only means to preserve it John vi 35. Christ gives us Life when we are dead in Trespasses and Sins and Christ continues that Life to us while we are alive and without Christ we cannot have it one moment no not while I am speaking this to you For what is said of our Natural is much more true of our Spiritual Life In him we live and move and have our Being We all live yet not we but Christ liveth in us The sum of what I have hitherto said is this We are justified by a lively Faith in Christ Crucified and not by the Works of the Law But this our Justification by Faith does not make us to live a loose and a lawless Life neither does it hinder but rather promote good Works It makes us to live unto God to live a Godly a Righteous and a sober Life And thus I have given you the true meaning of this most excellent and most comfortable Text of Scripture And I now come to propose to prove and to apply the Doctrines that are contained in it The first Doctrine is this Every Believer is Crucified with Christ For says St. Paul in the Name of every Believer I am crucified with Christ And the Reasons of it are such as these Christ is the Head of every Believer and every Believer is a Member of Christ And if the Head be Crucified the Members cannot avoid Crucifixion As when a Man's Head is cut off not only his Head but his Body and all his Members die Ephes i. 22 23. compared with 1 Cor. xii 27. Christ is the Vine and Believers are the Branches of that Vine And if the Vine be cut down and it's
himself but not the Goad So it is with every one that Persecutes a Believer he kicks against the Pricks he kicks against the Goad he kicks against Christ and he hurts himself more than the Believer For he damns his own Soul while he hurts or perhaps kills the Believers Body And therefore a Believer is compared to a great and a burdensom Stone and to a hearth of fire among Wood and to a torch of fire in a sheaf of Corn Zechar. xii 3 6. And as a Man that strikes a great heavy Stone with his Fist is himself more hurt by striking than the Stone is by being struck And as a Hearth or a Torch of Fire burns up the Wood or the Sheaf of Corn that is thrown upon it to put it out So every Man that Persecutes a Believer is himself more hurt than the Believer is For whenever a Persecution is raised against a Believer Christ steps in between it and him and he takes the greatest part of it upon himself and lets only a little of it to light upon him And he that Persecutes Christ must needs come by the worst on 't you may be sure as he that strikes against a Stone a Hearth or a Torch of Fire And therefore as Christ partakes with a Believer in his Sufferings So a Suffering Believer has the Honour to be a partaker of the Sufferings of Christ and he fills up that which is behind of the Afflictions of Christ in his Flesh for his Bodies sake which is the Church 1 Pet. iv 13. compared with Colos i. 24. And therefore whenever thou callest a Believer a Hypocrite because his good Life reproaches by bad Life thou dost really call Christ a Hypocrite whenever thou callest a Believer a troublesom balling Fellow because he always tells thee of and reproves thee for thy Sin thou dost really call Christ a troublesom balling Fellow Whenever thou laughest at a Believer in Church at Home in the Streets or any where else thou dost really Laugh at Christ and thy Laughter will certainly end in Weeping and Wailing and gnashing of Teeth And whenever thou preferrest a Rich Sinner before a Poor Believer thou dost really and truly prefer the Devil who dwelleth and worketh in that Rich Sinner before Christ who dwelleth and worketh in that Poor Believer And how ought this to terrify and to keep all wicked Men from abusing Believers because they thereby abuse Christ himself and provoke him to take Vengeance on them And how ought this to comfort and to cherish all Poor Believers under all the Abuses which are put upon them by a base ungrateful World because Christ himself is at the same time abused with them and crucified with them and partakes of all their Afflictions and helps them under them and inables them to bear them and brings them out of them and rewards them for them with unspeakable Joy and Glory Fifthly and Lastly If every Believer be crucified with Christ Then let all here present who love to have the Word of God plainly expounded and applied home to their Hearts and Consciences Let all such serious Persons turn to the 2 Kings iv 34 35. and there you will find that when the Shunamite's Child was Dead the Prophet Elisha went and lay upon him and put his Mouth upon his Mouth and his Eyes upon his Eyes and his Hands upon his Hands and he stretched himself upon him and his Flesh waxed warm and he came to life And just thus let every Believer here present do by Christ crucified Let him by Faith stretch and spread himself upon the Cross of Christ and put his Mouth to Christ's Mouth and his Eyes to Christ's Eyes and his Hands to Christ's Hands and his Heart to Christ's Heart and thereby he will feel in himself the Death of Sin and the Life of Grace to warm and inflame his dead Heart If a Believer finds that he is apt to offend with his Mouth let him by Faith put his Mouth upon the Mouth of Christ crucified and Christ will make one of the Seraphims to fly unto him having a live Coal in his Hand taken from the Altar and he will lay it upon his Mouth and say unto him Lo this hath touched thy Lips and thine Iniquity is taken away and thy Sin is purged Isa vi 6 7. If a Believer finds that he is apt to offend with his Eyes let him by Faith put his Eyes upon the Eyes of Christ crucified and Christ will cause him to make a Covenant with his Eyes so that he shall not think upon a Maid because of the Destruction and the strange Punishment which God brings upon the Adulterer above all other Sinners Job xxxi 1 3. If a Believer finds that he is apt to offend with his Hands let him by Faith put his Hands upon the Hands of Christ crucified and Christ will take his Hands and will thrust them into his pierced Side and will put his Fingers into the Print of the Nails and will make him leave off smiting with the Fist of Wickedness and as ready to relieve as he was before to oppress the Poor Job xx 25 27. If a Believer finds that he is apt to offend with his Heart let him by Faith put his Heart upon the Heart of Christ crucified and Christ will take his Heart and purify it by Faith Acts xv 9. And so he may do with all the other Members of his Body and the Faculties of his Soul and he shall certainly have the same Success with them all For if Elisha restored a natural Life to a Child that was naturally Dead by applying the Parts of his Body to the Parts of that Child's Body then shall not the God of Elisha shall not the Lord Jesus Christ restore a spiritual Life to a Soul that is spiritually Dead when it is applied and united to him by a lively Faith And when a Believer does thus truly believe in Christ crucified and does thus experimentally feel himself to be crucified with him the Death of Christ mortifying his Body of Sin and the Life of Christ quickning his dead Soul Then the Believer finds what it is indeed to be crucified with Christ then his Soul is ravished with Joy and his Heart is filled with Comfort And when he lies sick upon his Death-Bed and the Devil comes and tells him of the Law which he has broken He presently tells the Devil again that he is crucified with Christ and Christ has long since blotted out the Law with all its Hand-writing and nailed it to his Cross and therefore the Law can affect him no more than a Bill or a Bond that has been long since paid and cancelled Colos ii 14. And when the Devil comes and tells him farther that he will drag him into Hell to receive the due Wages of his Sin eternal Death He presently tells the Devil again that he is not only crucified with Christ and dead with Christ and buried with Christ but that he has also long since descended into Hell with Christ and there spoiled all his Principalities and Powers and made a Shew of them openly triumphing over them in the Cross of Christ Colos ii 15. Oh! What will you give ye Mockers and Scoffers to have a true Interest in these two Texts of Scripture and to be able to apply them truly to your own Souls when you say the Creed in your Life-time and are ready to despair when ye come to die But when a Believer comes to die who does believe with full Assurance of Faith that he is freed from the Curse of the Law the Power of Sin the Sting of Death the Captivity of the Devil and the Fear of Hell How can such a one though never so much persecuted and tried with cruel Mockings How can he but stand with great Boldness before the Face of those that have afflicted him and made no Account of his Labours and bear his Testimony against them How can he be afraid to die though Death come upon him with all its Terror Yea how can he but even long to die and desire to be dissolved that as he has been crucified with Christ he may be also glorified with Christ and find Death to be nothing else to him but what Christ himself found it a short and a quick Passage to a Joyful and a Glorious Resurrection Which God of his infinite Mercy grant to every one of us here present for Christ his Sake who was crucified for our Offences and was raised again for our Justification If ye know these Things happy are ye if ye do them otherwise your Knowledge will be your utter Undoing Which that it may never be The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Love of God and the Fellowship of the Holy Ghost be with us all evermore Amen FINIS ADVERTISEMENT A Farewell Sermon Preached at St. Mary Woolnoth in Lombard-Street on Gal. 4. 16. A Sermon of the absolute Necessity of Family-Duties on Joshua 24. 15. Both by David Jones Studient of Christ-Church Oxon.