صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

nant." Briefly, our Saviour's victory over death was obtained by dying, his triumph by rising again. He foiled our common enemy in his own territories the grave. His death was a counterpoison to death itself: As a bruised scorpion is a noble antidote against its venom.

[ocr errors]

Indeed his death is incomparably a greater wonder than his resurrection. For it is apparently more difficult that the son of God, who originally possesses immortality, should die, than that the human body united to him, should be raised to a glorious life. It is more conceivable that God should communicate to the human nature some of his divine perfections, impassibility, and immortality, than that he should submit to our lowest infirmaties, sufferings and death.

Now the resurrection of Christ is the argument and claim of our happy resurrection: For God chose and appointed him to be the example and principle from whom all divine blessings should be derived to us. Accordingly he tells his disciples, in a forecited scripture, "because I live, ye shall live also." Our nature was raised in his person, and in our nature all believers: Therefore he is called "the first-fruits of them that sleep;" because as the first-fruits were a pledge and assurance of the following harvest, and as from the condition of the first-fruits being offered to God, the whole harvest was entitled to a consecration, so our Saviour's resurrection to the life of glory is the earnest and assurance of ours. He is called" the first-born among the dead;" and owns the race of departed believers as his brethren, who shall be restored to life according to his pattern. He is the head; believers are his members, and therefore shall have communion with him in his life. The effect is so infallible, that now they are said to be raised up together, and made to sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, Ephes. 2. 6. If his victory over our enemies had been imperfect, and he had saved himself with difficulty and hazard, [as it were by fire] in the apostle's expression, our redemption had not been accomplished: But his passion was triumphant; and is it conceivable that he should leave the saints, his own by so many dear titles, under the power of death? If Moses, the deliverer of Israel from the tyranny of Pharaoh, Exod. 10. 26. would not suffer any thing of theirs, not an hoof, to remain in the house of bondage; will our great Redeemer be less perfect in his work? Shall our last enemy always detain his spoils, our bodies, in the grave? This would reflect upon his love and power. It is recorded, to confirm our hopes, how early his power was displayed in forcing the grave to release its chained captives: And many bodies of saints which slept arose, and came out of their graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many; Mat. 27.

*

Qui sibi ipse pulcherrimum medicamentum. Celsus.

52, 53.

What better earnest can we have that the strength of death is broken? From what he has done to what he is able to do, the consequence is clear. The apostle tells us, He will raise our vile bodies, and change them like unto his glorious body, by that power whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself; Phil. 3. 21. Our redemption will then be complete, Rom. 8. 23. and all the bitterness of death past. The redemption of the soul is accomplished from sin and misery immediately after death; but the redemption of the body is the last in order, and reserved to crown our felicity at the great day: Then death shall be swallowed up in victory, 1 Cor. 15. abolished forever.

And Ō the joyful reunion of those dear relatives after such a divorce! when the body that was so long detained in that loathsome grave, 1 Cor. 15. shall be reformed with all glorious perfections, and be a fit instrument for the soul, and partaker with it in consummate blessedness and immortality. It is said, that those that wear rich clothing are in Kings houses: But what are all the robes of costly folly, wherein earthly courtiers appear, to the brightness and beauty of the spiritual body wherewith the saints shall be clothed, to qualify them for the presence of the king of kings, and to be in his house forever? But O the miserable condition of the wicked in that day! Death now breaks their bodies and souls into an irreconcilable enmity; and how sad will their conjunction be! The soul will accuse the body to have been sin's solicitor, continually tempting to sensualities; and the body will upbraid more than ever it allured the soul, for its wicked compliance: Then the sinner shall be an entire sacrifice, burning, but never consumed; Mark 9. Now from the assurance of a blessed resurrection by Christ, the forementioned fear of death is conquered in believers. If the doctrine of the * transmigration of souls into bodies, the invention of Pythagoras, inspired his deciples with that fiery vigor, as to encounter the most present and apparent dangers; being fearless to part with the life that should be restored; how much more should a christian with a holy confidence receive death, knowing that the life of his body shall not be finally lost, but renewed in a blessed eternity?

* Fælices errore suo quos ille timorum
Maximus, haud urget leti metus, inde ruendi
In ferrum mens prona viris, animæq; capaces,
Mortis, et ignavum redituræ parcere vitæ.

Lucan.

CHAPTER V.

The qualifications of persons considered, that have a right to this privilege. Union with Christ, the fountain of eternal life, is absolutely requisite. The vital bond of that union is the sanctifying spirit. The eminent operations of the spirit considered as the spirit of truth, and of holiness, and the comforter. He illuminates the understanding, to see the reality and excellency of supernatural things. He inspires the ardent love of God. Divine love is the principle of universal holiness. The spirit communicates a divinc power to do the will of God.

The fourth general to be considered, is, the persons that have an interest in this blessed privilege.

This inquiry is of infinite moment, both for the awakening of the secure, who vainly presume upon their interest in the salvation of the gospel, for the confirming and encouraging the saints. And we have an infallible rule of trial declared by St. John: He that hath the Son, hath life; and he that hath not the Son, hath not life, 1 John 5. 12. All the excellent and comfortable benefits procured by our Saviour, are communicated only to those who are united to him. Particularly with respect to the present subject: Justification, that great blessing of the gospel, the complete pardon of sins, that disarms death of its sting, is not common to all that are christians in title, but is a privilege with a limitation: There is no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus, Rom. 8. 1. vitally as their head, from whom are derived spiritual influences, and judicially as their advocate in judgment: And such are described by this infallible character, "who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." The blessedness after death that is assured by a voice from heaven, is with this precise restriction exclusive of all others; Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord; they rest from their labors, and their works follow them; Rev. 14. 13. The glorious resurrection at the last day, when the bodies of the saints that now rest in hope shall be incorruptible and immortal, is the consequence of union with him. Thus the apostle declares; as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive; 1 Cor. 15. 22. As all that are naturally in and from Adam, the corrupt fountain of mankind, are under the sentence of death; so all that are in Christ, the head of the regenerate, shall partake of his blessed life. Others shall be raised by his power, as their judge, but not as their head: raised to be more miserable than death can make them, not to be transformed into his glorious re

semblance; made capable of suffering an ever-dying death, not revived to eternal life.

Now the bond of our union to Christ, is the Holy Spirit derived from him, as the head of the church, and is the inward, powerful, and lasting principle of holiness and new obedience in believers. He that is joined to the Lord, is one Spirit, 1 Cor. 6. 17. that is, by the spirit of holiness has a real participation of his life, is both quickened and united to him; John 6. 36. When the prophet Elisha, by the outward applying the parts of his body to the dead child, 2 Kings 4. 34. inspired life into him, there was no real union between them; but Christ is, by his spirit, so intimately united to believers, that he lives in them, and they in him, Gal. 2. 20. The sanctifying spirit renews the directing and commanding faculties, the fountains of moral actions, enlightens the understandings with saving knowledge, rectifies the obliquity of the will, purifies the affection, and reforms the life: So that the same mind is in christians as was in Christ; and as his conversation was, such is thers in the world. This divine change is not wrought by natural reason, though assisted by the most powerful arguments. The breath of a man may as easy dispel a mist, or thaw a frost, as human directions and motives to virtue can renew the mind and heart, and produce a holy frame of soul towards God. Renewed christians are said to be in the spirit, illuminated, inclined, and enabled by the spirit to do God's will; and the spirit of God to dwell in them, by his peculiar and eminent operations: "They live in the spirit, and walk in the spirit." An angel may assume a body, and act by it: but the human soul enlivens it, and performs sensible operations by it: And such a principle is the Holy Spirit to the soul, gives it spiritual life, activity and power for good works. By what application of the Spirit's power this is produced, is mysterious and inexplicable; but as the apostle speaks of his rapture into the third heavens, that he knew it was real, and heard "unutterable things;" though how it was performed, "whether in the body, or out of the body," he could not tell. Thus when a natural man, the current of whose thoughts and affections was to the things of this world, becomes spiritual, when the carnal appetite is subdued, and sanctified reason has the throne, when he feels such strong and sweet impulsives to holiness as engage the will; when the stream of his desires ascend to the things above, and his life becomes holy and heavenly, he feels and knows this wonderful change, though the manner how it was wrought he cannot tell. I will shew more fully this sanctifying work of the Spirit, that we may the better understand our state.

The Spirit of God is denominated by various titles; the Spirit of truth, the Spirit of holiness, the Comforter, John 15. 26. and represented by various types; by an ointment that clarifies the

eye to see things aright, by cleansing refreshing water, by purifying refining fire, Rom. 1. 4. correspondent to his sacred operations in the soul. As the Spirit of truth, he illuminates the understanding to see the reason and excellency of supernatural and heavenly things, of the great mysteries of godliness, of eternal glory; so that a christian, in his most deliberate, solemn and composed thoughts, in his exactest valuation, infinitely prefers them before the gaudy vanities of this transient world. When the eyes of the mind are truly enlightened, present things appear, or rather disappear, as shadows. As the Spirit of holiness, he renews the will and affections, inspires the soul with divine and unutterable desires after the favor and grace of God, and communicates spiritual power for the prosecuting and obtaining those desires. The Holy Spirit raises such a love to God, that habitually and strongly inclines the soul to obey his commands. This is the most clear and essential character of a christian, the special and most excellent property of a saint, upon which all other holy qualifications depend. As reason is the first and chief excellence of man, from whence his other perfections are derived, that distinguish him from the brutes, and give him a natural and regular preeminence and dominion over them, so that a man is most properly defined a reasonable creature: Thus the love of God is the most divine grace, the true form of holiness, the root from whence all other virtues spring and flourish, and most peculiarly distinguish a saint from unregenerate men, however adorned and accomplished; so that a saint is most properly defined to be a lover of God.

This is the principle of true holiness inherent in the soul, and shining in the conversation, that distinguishes the sincerity of a saint from the art of hypocrisy, an affected appearance of religion for carnal sordid respects; and from civil virtue, that restrains from what is ignominious and disgraceful to our reputation, and makes obnoxious to penalties of the laws, and excites to praiseworthy actions, upon worldly motives; and from philosophical morality, that forbids vice as contrary to reason, and commends virtue as the chief ornament and perfection of human nature, without a regard to please and glorify God.

Love

And divine love is the principle of universal holiness. is called "the fulfilling of the law," as it is a comprehensive grace, and as it draws forth all the active powers of the soul to do God's will in an exact manner. Universal obedience is the exercise of love in various instances. As the spouse in the Song of Solomon is transformed in divers representations; sometimes as a sister, sometimes a warrior, sometimes as the keeper of a vineyard, but she always acted as a lover, and her chief business was to please her beloved. This allegorical description of the church, signifies that when the soul is inflamed with the love of God, that affection will be active, and discover itself in all it does

« السابقةمتابعة »