with themselves well enough; that is, they are such to-day | gion; they can't tell how to inspirit it, and it will upon no as they were yesterday; and this week, as last; and this terms do, but hang and waver this way and that. And year, as the year before, and for many years past. They hence therefore, agree with themselves very well, and so only comparing themselves with themselves, they never come to understand the case. And this is very natural for men to do, and not to compare themselves with any thing which will be a reproof to them, or look ill upon them. And indeed if they took measure of their own spirits by the rule, or by another good and holy man, they would say, "Things are not so with me as they should be, and as with such and such it is." When I put myself upon a trial, I find I have no disposition of heart to love God; good thoughts of him are not at all delightful to me. But when they compare themselves with themselves, they can say, "I don't vary from myself; just such a temper of spirit as I had, I have." And so they think all is well, and never grow wise, or come to be instructed concerning the truth of their case. But if this great principle of truth could once obtain to be fixed in the minds of men, that there hath been a total depravation, and their whole souls are disaffected to the whole of their duty; and especially towards God, and all that duty which more immediately terminates on him; they would have quite other thoughts concerning the distressedness of their case, than is common with them. And 'tis of ill consequence that so plain and great a truth as this is overlooked. 2dly, Hence also they apprehend not wherein their redress must lie. They are apt either to think that some partial reformation is sufficient, and if they are reformed a little in this or that particular thing, then matters will be right and good, and will be well with them. If the drunkard take up and become sober, he thinks concerning himself, that he is a new man. If an unjust person admit a conviction, or it may be, is taught a little prudence by observing how much any thing of that kind reflects upon his reputation, and so he orders his affairs with more exactness, he is ready to look upon himself as regenerate. But if it were considered that there must be a being born, and that I am in a total corruption; surely another cure would be thought of than that, and it would appear no more proportionable to the case, than a man whose body was all over leprous, and full of sores, would acquiesce in the cure of a slight scratch in his little finger. And as they apprehend such a partial reformation sufficient, so they apprehend too from hence, that a vital principle is unnecessary. It is very true indeed, that with only some partial maim a principle of life may consist, but a universal corruption imports death. If the case were therefore understood aright, men would see it necessary in order to their cure, that they should be made alive, and a principle of life put into them; which a total depravation speaks to be absent. They would never think themselves well till then, and would find that as they are alienated from the life of God; so their business was to be made alive to God, and to Jesus Christ, as those who have been dead. But again, 6. Inference. Since in order to any one's partaking of God's kingdom, he must be born spirit of spirit, we infer further, that whosoever becomes truly and sincerely religious, a new creature is transmitted and communicated to him. This being not understood, it is all a man's business, to contrive and form for himself an artificial religion; and there are several sad consequences ensue thereupon. As, 2. All the actions of religion become exceeding grievous and irksome, and no pleasure is taken in them. You know it is a very easy thing for a man to move to and fro his own living body, where he will; pass into a speedy or slower motion, as he sees cause, without any considerable pain or difficulty; but it would be a very tedious thing to move to and fro a dead carcass; that would put him to greater pain. Here lies the difference between these two sorts of men; a man truly religious, and who therefore hath a new creature communicated to him, (as there is where any are begotten,) and other men. When any don't consider this, their business is to make up an external frame of religion, and to act and move and carry it to and fro with them; and that is alike burdensome as for a living man to move to and fro a dead carcass. But to one who is truly and spiritually alive, his new nature which is com municated to him, doth in a natural way animate the frame of religion, in which he is to act; so that the actions of it are easy and light, as all the acts of nature are. 3. Hence it is, that they are so manifestly defective imitations of religion. Their attempts and essays to do like religious men, have notorious and observable flaws in them, because they do not consider, there must be given a new nature, before I become truly religious. Some think it is only to do as men are taught, or only as a piece of art. And when we go to imitate only a natural action, there will be some very observable flaw and defect, some visible disparity in the attempt; as if you should make a puppet act just like a living child, the difference would be soon discovered. And hence, 4. Religion comes to be given over. Whereas where it ever comes to be taken up as an artificial thing, it is taken up on design of some present advantage and convenience; therefore if the inconveniences which shall come to you thereby be greater by continuing it than laying it aside, the reason why it was taken up being vanished, itself must needs cease. If the conveniences are not greater in a course of religion, than the inconveniences they sought to avoid, the religion itself must needs cease of course; and so it commonly doth. But where religion is in a man as a nature, it can't do so. I can easily lay aside my cloak but not my flesh, which is vitally united with me, and is one thing with me, by a.principle of life which runs through me. It is therefore of great concernment truly and thoroughly to understand this, that wherever any be come truly religious, a new nature is communicated. Being taught only signifies the acquisitions of art; but being born, and principled, and constituted of such a complexion, signifies a stayed invariable principle of those actions which proceed from it. 7. Inference-That the constitution of God's kingdom must needs be spiritual; for men are born into it spirit of spirit. It hath been a great modern controversy, as well as an ancient one, among philosophers, whether the con stitution of the universe is of primordia, which are mechanical, or spermetical and vital. It is a dangerous thing when this comes to be a matter of doubt in religion, whether the constitution of this divine kingdom is mechanical or vital. According as the greater part of men praetise, and as their habitual temper is, it seems as if it were thought that Christianity is nothing else but a piece of me chanism. But certainly if you are born into this kingdom, as they who come truly into it spirit of spirit; the constitution of this kingdom is not mechanical, or an artificial contexture of things; but a frame of things which doth in a spiritually-natural way grow up towards that pitch it is designed to; and is that spirit of life which doth diffuse itself through all the mystical body of Christ which makes the connexion between part and part, and keeps the body entire and firm to itself, and makes it a consistent and stable thing. And hereupon it must needs be consequent, then 1. Men attempt to perform what is proper to the Divine life without it. The actions of the Divine life which are visible to men, carry a kind of amiableness in them, in the common consciences of men; and they attempt those actions which are done from a principle of life, without considering, that to be sincerely religious, is to have a new nature. They think to do these actions without that life; just as he who is observed in story, to have attempted the setting up of a carcass of one newly dead: he would fain have it stand in the posture of a living body, but how to make it stand so he knew not. The head falls one way, 1. That whatever there is of disagreement among Chris and the hands another, and the legs tremble under it: at tians, who are the living members of this kingdom and last he cries out, "Deest aliquid intus, There wants some-body, it must needs be unnatural. The reason is, that all thing within." Just so do men busy themselves to make who are of this kingdom, and truly belonging to it, are an artificial frame, which is indeed a dead carcass of reli- | born into it, and in that birth partake of one and the same the difference can't be so great as many times it is thought; but then consider the difference between those who are Christians in truth, and those who are only so by profession; and there the difference, for the same reason, must be greater than it is commonly thought to be; for there the difference is between a living thing and a dead; as much as between a piece of nature and art, a man and a statue. So that it is a very vain kind of confidence which such pretend to, who because they have made a shift to imitate and resemble a Christian, they think the case is well with them, when as yet they may as much differ from them whose case is truly good, as a living man doth from a dead carcass. nature, by which they are connaturalized to one another, and to their common Lord and Head: He who sanctifieth, and they who are sanctified, are all of one, (Heb. ii. 11.) or make one entire piece. Wherefore now what there is of disagreement among Christians, must needs be preternatural, and beside nature, And hence it is consequent, that it must needs proceed from ill designs: that is, from the devil and his instruments, who make it their business, what they can, to act persons diversely; when if these things be left to their natural course, and the new nature in men is permitted to act undisturbedly, and according to its genuine tendency, it would all run one way. It is needful to be well aware of this, whatever there is of disagreement is accidental to it, and certainly proceeds from a foreign enemy, and somewhat without it, which sets such things on foot, and keeps them on foot, with an ill design towards this kingdom. If the new nature did run its course, and were not accidentally disturbed, by what is not of the constitution of this kingdom, it would certainly run the same way. It is one thing to say what is the constitution of the persons; and another, what is the constitution of them as members of this kingdom and born into it. The corruption of their own hearts, is extrinsical to the constitution of this kingdom; for 'tis only so far as they are new born that they are members of this kingdom. The sphere and verge of this kingdom doth properly and directly take in only the spiritual part. It is a sphere of spirituality; and what there is in it opposite thereunto, is alien to the constitution of it, and doth not belong to it. It is a great thing to be well possessed with this apprehension, that the great enemy of this kingdom does certainly foment whatever there is of disagreement among them who are born the vital members of it; and it must be under-deal more descend from God to them who are born of him, stood to proceed from an ill design. And, 8. Inference. That love to God cannot but be characteristical to every regenerate person-For every such a one is a child of God, and born of him; and certainly it ought to be looked upon, as the property of a child, to love the Father. If you love him who begat; that is supposed and taken for granted, as a thing not to be doubted, 1 John v. 1. And therefore to have a heart destitute of the love of God, and having no love to him, is a most unreasonable and unnatural thing; and a certain argument, that one is not his child, and hath not been born spirit of spirit. "Tis very true there may be so great a degeneration in the old decayed nature of man; but in the new nature, there can never be such a degeneration, as that a person born of God should not love him. It would be the greatest inconsistency imaginable; and therefore a certain argument, that such were none of God's children. For though it is very true indeed, as it is commonly observed, that love doth descend, more than ascend; from him who begets, to them who are begotten; so love in this case more especially doth a great 2. It must argue an evil state, and the prevalency of a contrary principle. If there be divisions among you, are you not carnal? 1 Cor. iii. 3. They who are of this kingdom are spiritual; they are born into it spirit of spirit; so they come into it. Therefore so far as there is a prevail-marily, and therein lies the end of the new creation, to ing disagreement and dividedness in the state of things in the church of Christ; so far the persons who are of that state are in a decay, and lapsed into carnality, and things grow worse and worse, as the church grows more divided. That spiritual principle which agrees to every member of this kingdom, as he is born into it, drives all to oneness. It proceeds from God, and tends to him; all are children of the same Father, and they are all begotten to one and the same great and lively hope of an eternal and undefiled inheritance. The primordia of the new creature necessarily leads to unity, among all who are of this kingdom. 3. Where there is any departure from this said oneness, there is so much of the decay of the spiritual nature, by the communication whereof men are said to be born into this kingdom. So much disunion as there is, so much carnality; and the church is then in a languishing state spiritually, when it is in a divided state. The not considering this is attended with a double mischief very obvious; that is, that in different respects, the differences and disagreements among Christians, are thought greater and less than indeed they are. They are thought greater than they are, because it is not considered how the nature which is every where communicated among the true members of this kingdom, doth make them substantially one, in the great and main and more principal things. There is a greater stress put upon the differences of those who are Christians indeed, than there ought, or can be, in comparison of the small things wherein they differ. And they very much mistake who think them to be great; for they necessarily agree in one common, new, spiritual, divine nature and principle of life: and it is impossible they should disagree in any one thing, comparatively to so great a thing as this. Whatsoever other differences there are, they are comparatively little, in respect of their agreement in this. They cannot differ so but they are all one in Christ Jesus; whoever is in Christ is a new creature, they all come in him under one mould and stamp by their new creation. But then, in another respect, the difference is thought a great deal less than indeed it is among Christians. Consider Christians who are truly and sincerely such, and so | than ascend from them to him. But though it descends a 10. Inference. We further infer, that the reason is evident, why the proper means of their regeneration, or spiritual birth, are very dear to renewed souls. There is a spiritually-natural reason for it. There are those in the world, who cannot believe otherwise, but it must be folly and fanaticism, or a mere humour and affectation, that any should discover that love to the word of the Gospel, or the ministry of the Gospel, which they do. But if men would consider this, it would give them a natural account of this love. For is it not natural to love the means by which even my very nature itself hath been communicated to me, and by which I am what I am? The apostle gives us the reason why we should love the word; As new-born babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby, (1 Pet. ii. 2.) i. e. as those who by it are new-born. It is a violence to the new nature of the child- | modern philosophy itself, that creation and conservation ren of God, to withhold from them the word of the Gos- are not diverse acts, but the latter only the former conpel, and the ministry of it, which hath been instrumental tinued; and that God doth by the contínual communicato their new birth; and can't but infer pain and anguish, tion of the same influence, by which he created and made to be abridged and deprived of what was so conducive to this world, keep it in the state wherein it is, that it doth their spiritual beings. not relapse back into its old nothing; that there would not need a positive act of God to destroy the world, if he would turn all things to nothing again, but only to suspend and withaold the influence by which every thing comes to be what it is: so it is in the new creation, or in the new creature, too. The very suspension of that influence by which it began to be, or to live, (which is all one,) must certainly infer the failure and extinction of the whole. Last inference, we collect, That this same kingdom and church of God, which is truly and really so, must needs be a growing thing. All who are of it are born into it, and so become as it were naturally subjects; there is a new nature communicated to all who are in it; and therefore, it being made up of the spiritual nature and life, will grow, till it comes to its maturity. Never fear but it will grow, behold it never so languishing, never so assaulted struck at, and contested against. For all who are born into it consist of spirit and life; and therefore it is impossible, but it must become a mature thing, worthy both of the great Author and Founder of it, and of the great design for which he formed it; namely, that he might have a people to be eternally governed by a placid, gentle empire, and a delightful, easy sway; who should be ruled by a beck and a nod; and to whom every intimation of his will should have the force of a perfect command, without any the least regret; and that all the subjects of this kingdom should partake in the glory of it. And so it will be a living kingdom, and will be a growing thing, till it come to that glorious maturity, which will answer both the greatness of the Undertaker, and the excellency of the design, for which this new nature and life was given to it. SERMON IX.* Gal. v. 25. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. In asserting the office of the Holy Ghost, or that work which it hath undertaken in reference to the spirits of men, we have already spoken of one great act of that office; i. e. the regenerating and begetting anew of souls into God's kingdom, spirit of spirit. We have now two other acts before us in these words; i. e. its maintaining the life, and causing all the right motion, of regenerate souls. The former of these are contained in the supposiion; "If we live in the Spirit:" the latter is intimated in the inferred precept; "Let us walk in the Spirit." Both are alike imputed to the Spirit of God here, and it is represented as the very element of life, and the spring of all holy motion to renewed souls; which fills the whole region, as it were, with vitality, in which they converse, and draw their continual breath. The case is, in this respect, much Like in the new creation as in the old, and in the sphere of grace as in that of nature. It is said concerning the natural world, that it doth, as it were, subsist in God; and it is spoken of the new creation here; and both in one form of expression: In him we live, and move, and have our being, Acts xvii. 28. And here we read of living in the Spirit; and walking or moving in the spirit. There is only this difference in the form of expression: that whereas we have three distinct phrases used to set forth the dependence of the natural creation upon God;-living, and moving, and having being in him;-there are only the two former used here in reference to the new creation, living and moving; living in the Spirit and walking in the Spirit. The reason of the difference is obvious, that we have in reference to the former, that superadded expression, "and have our being;" because in this natural, material, sensible world, there are many things which are, that do not live: but with the new creation it is not so; here, to live and to be, are one and the same thing; and 'tis entirely and wholly a being of life. A collection of all vital principles compose and make it up what it is; and there is nothing in the new creation concerning which it can be said, it is, but lives not; for it is all life throughout. And as philosophy has been wont to teach, even * Preached February 13th, 1677, at Cordwainer's Hall. Think therefore what it would be if all vital influence were suspended and withheld on a sudden from this material and sensible world in which we converse. You might hereupon frame the apprehension within yourselves, of the face of the earth all on a sudden bestrewed with the dead carcasses of men and beasts, the beauty and pleasant verdure of it all vanished and gone, and nothing left in time but a great clod of dirt! This great temple of the Deity, which he inhabits by a vital presence, that diffuses life up and down every where, all turned into a ruinous heap. II, I say, there were a suspension of vital influence, supposing an influence continued by which this material world should still be. Why, so it must be, proportionably, in reference unto the new creature too. There is the substratum to be considered, which is a part of the natural creation, the soul or the man himself; but, that vital influence being suspended by which the new creature was made to be what it was, there is nothing left but a dead man, a dead soul! The temple of the Holy Ghost (as we must suppose it to have been, beautified and adorned with the Divine image on every side, in every part) laid waste and desolate! Nothing now but darkness and confusion, and misery and death, there where God dwelt! So the case would be, if we could suppose such a thing as the suspension of that influence, by which the life of the new creature first began to spring up. And there is not only a parity in the cases, but in some respects a sameness. For we must know that all Divine influence is in one respect, that is, ex parte principii, one and the same, and only differs, or is diversified, ex parte termini, according as it doth terminate. We can't conceive the Divine influences to be distinguished in their Fountain, that is, in the Divine Being itself, the Almighty Spirit, whence all proceeds and flows out. That Almighty Spirit, if you consider the operations of it, produces divers, but by an influence that is radically and in the Fountain one and the same. As in reference to those diversities of its operations that were performed to the church, as divers as they were, they were all wrought by one and the same spirit. The spirit of prophecy was not one spirit, and of healing another, and of tongues another; but one and the same Spirit did thus diversify its operations, according as the products were divers which were caused by it, and which it was afterwards to continue in that being which it gave. To suppose a difference or diversity of influence in the Fountain itself, the Divine Being, were to suppose God to differ from himself, and to put somewhat in God that were not God; a thing most repugnant to the simplicity of the Divine Being. But the Divine influences may be diversified terminatively, according to the subjects in which it is received. Nature is various in this, and that, and the other creature; (speaking of the natura naturata, as, for distinction's sake, it is wont to be called;} and the influences are diversified according to those divers natures in which they terminate, and according to the different purposes which the exigency of those natures doth require should be served and complied with. And so that influence, which originally and in the Fountain is one and the same, according as it goes forth to beget and continue a variety of productions of this, or that, or another kind, is an influence that gives and that preserves being to things concerning which it can only be said, they are: it is a vital influence to things that live; it is a motive influence to things that move; it is an intellectual influence to things that are capable of understanding; it is a holy influence unto what is holy, to what it hath made holy, and is to continue and keep so; it is light, as it terminates | dle sense between these two, viz. the first reception of the in light; and love, as it terminates in love; and power, as it terminates in power; and holy gracious action, as it doth terminate in such actions. But it is the principle of such actions, the subordinate principle, here signified by the name of life, or included in living, that we are now to speak of: and we shall speak of the action which proceeds from that life, and show how that hath rise also from the Spirit, when we come to the latter part of the text. From the former part the truth that we have to observe you may take thus-The blessed Spirit of God doth continue and maintain that life, whereof it hath been the Author, in every renewed soul.—We shall, in speaking to this,—1. Very briefly open the words to you, that we may clear the ground which the truth recommended to you hath in the text, and-Shall next give you some account of the thing which is asserted therein. I. As to the former, you must take notice, 1. That the if in the beginning of the text is not an if of dubitation, but of argumentation-"If ye live in the Spirit."-The apostle does not say so as doubting, nor was his design to signify that he had a doubt, whether they did so, yea or no; but supposing or taking that for granted, it is only a form used by him (as it is common in arguing hypothetically) thereupon to reason with them from such a supposed principle. The if therefore signifes as much as whereas, or since; since or inasmuch as ye live in the Spirit, therefore walk in the Spirit. As in Col. iii. 1. If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above: If ye be, that is, "Since ye are; it is he appearance which as professing Christians ye make, the aspect which ye visibly hold forth to men, viz. that of persons united with Christ, and made alive by him; since ye are risen with Christ, therefore set your affections on things above; act and do accordingly." So we are to take it here, and it affords us a clear ground for a positive assertion, those who are Christians indeed do live in the Spirit. 2. We must note, that to live cannot reasonably be understood as intending the first reception of the principle of life, but the continuation of that principle. This form of expression, viz. by the present tense, is commonly used to hold forth to us the continuedness of any thing; when we don't say such a thing was, or such a thing will be, but such a thing is, it notes, I say, the continuedness of the thing spoken of; inasmuch as the present time is that which doth connect and continue the two parts of time, viz. the past and the future. And the continued state of this life is after the same manner expressed by the apostle an the 2nd chapter of this epistle to the Galatians, verse 20. The life which I live in the flesh is by the faith of the Son of God. He means not, that he only first began to live that life by an influence received from the Son of God, but that he lived from day to day that life which he did live, that spiritual, divine life, by faith in the Son of God, who had loved him and given himself for him. Nor again must we understand this living to signify the series of actions only proper to that life; for they are afterwards signified by the name of walking in the other part of the text. It is true indeed, that living, in a very common notion of it, does denote the continued series of the actions of one's life, whether good or bad, both in Scripture and in ordinary language: If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die, (Rom. viii. 13.) that is, if ye continue to act, or walk, or converse after the flesh, according as that corrupt principle doth incline and dictate, ye shall die. The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that-we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world; that is, act, and walk, and converse so, Titus ii. 11, 12. And in common speech we use to say such a man lives a good or a bad life, intending by living, the course of his actions whether good or bad. But this cannot be the meaning of living here, for the reason before mentioned; and should we so understand it, there would neither be argument, nor indeed congruity, in the apostle's way of expressing himself; for it would amount to no more than this; If ye continue to live in the Spirit, continue to live in the Spirit; or if ye continue to walk in the Spirit, continue to walk in the Spirit. Wherefore it is necessary that we conceive a mid principle of life, and the continued series of the actions of that life; and that middle sense is, (as hath been already intimated,) the continuation of the vital principle itself. If ye live, that is, if ye have the principle of a new and divine life continued and maintained in you, walk in the Spirit, as those principles would direct and guide you to do. Again, 3. We must note that by Spirit, or the Spirit, is manifestly meant the blessed eternal Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost. It can't be meant of our natural spirit, as is most evident; nor can it be meant of the new creature itself, which is in the Scripture called spirit; (as we have had occasion lately to take notice again and again;) for of the same Spirit which is here spoken of you have an enumeration of the fruits in the verses immediately foregoing; The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, meekness, temperance, &c. These, we are sure, are not the fruits of our own natural spirit; neither can they be said to be the fruits of the new creature, for they are the new creature itself, those very principles whereof the new creature is composed and doth consist. It is therefore manifest that by the Spirit we must understand the divine eternal Spirit, the blessed Spirit of God itself. And for that form of expression, "in the Spirit," that particle commonly denotes a causative influence, and signifies as much as by; q. d. If ye live by the Spirit. Many instances might be given, and have upon some other occasion been given, to show that the particle in doth sometimes signify by, and denotes the influence of an efficient cause. But then it must be noted too, that it denotes the part of an efficient cause, or a casual influence, with a great deal more emphasis than if another form of expression had been used. "If ye live in the Spirit." Why it imports the continual, vital, immediate presence of the Spirit for this purpose, to maintain this life. "If ye live in the Spirit;" as if the soul had its very situs, its situation, in a region of life which the Spirit did create and make unto it. As sometimes the continual present power, and dominion, and influence of wickedness, or some wicked principle, is expressed the same way, by being in the flesh. When we were in the flesh, under the power and regnancy of any corrupt, fleshly principle, the motions of sin which were by the law, did work in our members, to bring forth fruit unto death, Rom. vii. 5. And, Thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity, as it is said to Simon Magus, Acts viii. 23. And, The world lies in wickedness; so as to be continually receiving in and imbibing wickedness, as it were on every hand, 1 John v. 19. In like manner the soul is represented as imbibing life and vital influence on every part; agreeably unto which notion, some (and those I may reckon the best of) philosophers have been wont to say, that it is a great deal more proper to speak of the body of a man as being in his soul, than of the soul as in the body; that the body is in the soul, as being continually clothed with vital influence on every part, and which it diffuses throughout; the soul being as an element of life unto the body all the while they do converse, life extending even unto all the extremities, unto the most extreme part of the body that you can suppose. So is the soul spoken of here in reference to the Spirit of God; though that very intimate union is frequently held forth to us in Scripture by a kind of reciprocal and mutual in-being of one in the other, and the other in that. "He that dwells in love, dwells in God, and God in him;" they do, as it were, inhabit one another. So it is with the Spirit of God, and the soul that spiritually lives by it; it is in the Spirit, and the Spirit is in it. It is not so in the Spirit, as if there were any thing of itself more intimate to it than the Spirit is; but the Spirit doth as it were clothe it with life, fill it with life, and is all in all of life to it. So much therefore is now clear to you, that the truth which we have observed hath a very adequate ground in the text. "If ye live in the Spirit," since ye do so. It is a thing to be concluded, that the life of those who are Christians indeed, who have ever come to be spiritually alive, is to be maintained and continued by a constant influence of the blessed Spirit. II. Now that we may open the truth of the thing that is asserted and contained in these words, it will be requisite to speak distinctly,-1. Concerning the life that is to be maintained,-2. Concerning the influence that maintains | refers to God. Alive to God, (Rom. iv. 11.) and it follows, it. 1. Concerning the life to be maintained. Of that I have need to say the less because we have had occasion to speak largely of it heretofore. What it will be needful to say, you may take in these few propositions. 1. We are not to understand it of natural life, no, not even of the soul itself; but we are to understand it of life in a moral sense, or if you will, in a spiritual and divine; I intend one thing by the expressions. It is called indeed the Divine life, or the life of God in plain terms, Eph. iv. 18. Being alienated from the life of God, having no share, no participation in the Divine life, in God's life. ver. 13. Yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive 5. This life doth also comprehend all other gracious 2. As life in the natural sense is a principle of action; principles beside that great radical one of love to God, so life in the moral sense is a principle of right action, or which suit the Spirit of a man to all the other parts of the by which one is enabled to act aright. The soul of a man Divine law, or all the other laws besides. Whatsoever is naturally a living, vital, active being; it is naturally so, gracious habit or disposition doth attemper and reconcile i. e. it belongs to its very essence to be capable of acting. my spirit to this or that part of the Divine will revealed in But to be disposed to act aright, though that was in some his law, that I must understand to be a principle included respect natural to it too, yet it was not inseparable, as sad within the compass of this life to be maintained. For we experience has taught us all. Though the spirit of a man find the expression used to signify the impress of the be a living, and consequently an active, being, made such whole frame of holiness upon the soul; it is but a diverse by God in the first constitution of it, it is not to be supposed expression of the work of the new creature, which we find that he turned such a being as this loose into the world expressed again and again in Scripture by putting the law when he made it, to act at random, and according as any in men's hearts. To put the law into the heart, why, that natural inclination might carry it, or external objects move is to form the new creature there, and so continue that it, this way or that; but it being not only a living, an impression upon the heart and maintain it there, or to active substance, but intellectual also, and thereby capable continue the life of the new creature in the soul. Whence of government by a law, i. e. of understanding its Maker's therefore that law so impressed and made habitual in the will and pleasure, and directing the course of its actions spirit of a man, is called the law of the spirit of life in agreeably thereto, God hath thereupon thought fit to pre-Christ Jesus Rom. viii. 2. And hence also those fruits of scribe it a law, or set it rules to act and walk by. Now the Spirit which we find mentioned in this chapter, and the mere power to act is life natural, but the disposition or immediately before the text, are to be conceived as so ability to act aright is a supervening life, by which the many vital principles all belonging to the constitution of soul is as it were contempered and framed agreeably to the the new creature, and all of them serving to conform the law by which it is to act, or the Divine government under spirit of a man unto the Divine law. After the mention which it is placed. of all those several principles which are called the fruits of the Spirit, it is said, "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit;" i. e. if we have all these fruits which are so many living principles put by the Spirit of God into us, if we have them, and they are continued and kept alive in us; then let us walk in the Spirit; act and do according to these principles. 3. The prime and fundamental law which enters the constitution of the Divine government over reasonable creatures is, that they love the Author of their beings, his own blessed self, above all things; and consequently as that love doth dictate most directly, that they be devoted and subject unto him as the supreme authority, and that they delight and take complacency, and seek rest and plessedness, in him as the supreme good; both which are included in that one root or principle of love. I am to love him, and love him above all, and then I do of course willingly and with cheerfulness devote myself to him, being acted by the power of that love so to do, and seek blessedness in him as the most suitable, the most agreeable good to my soul. This is but the very sum and substance of the first commandment, which we are to look upon as fundamental to all the rest; for it were a vain thing to prescribe any further laws as a God to those who will not take him for a God to them. This was therefore the natural method, to begin the law, the frame of laws and constitution of government, over reasonable creatures, with this grand precept, "Thou shalt have no other God but me." That is, "I will be to thee the prime object of thy love; which love shall make thee devote thyself to me, and then make thee delight and take complacency in me as the supreme, both authority and goodness." Wherefore, 4. This life which we are now to consider as to be maintained, must principally and chiefly consist in the love of God; that is, a propension of soul towards him above and beyond all things else. It is a conformity unto that grand precept, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength;" a direction or bent of spirit towards God. So long, or so far, a person is said to live spiritually, as the main bent and inclination of his heart is toward God. If he fall from God, or in what degree soever he doth so fall, so far he dies; there is a gradual death according to all the gradual declensions of the heart from God. God is the great term of this life, as we have had occasion to inculcate formerly. When it is intended to be spoken of, it is not spoken of as an absolute thing, but is distinctly spoken of as a life that relates and 6. We must further note, that not only the continual being of all those vital principles which are called the fruits of the Spirit, but also the gradual improvements of their life, vigour, liveliness, do all belong unto this life considered according to the more perfect state of it. For there is no degree of this or that thing, but hath the nature of the thing in it, and doth belong to the nature of the thing. And therefore I say, that by life here we must understand not barely the being of these principles continued in the soul, but supposing that the soul hath been improved and grown unto some strength and vigour, whatsoever maintenance it is to expect of that good state unto which it is arrived, that is under the name of life here attributed to the Spirit, as it is its proper work to hold the soul in life; according as we use to say, speaking concerning the natural life, non vivere, sed valere, vita est, merely not to be dead, is hardly worth the name of living; but to be in health, to be strong, and lively, and vigorous. We must conceive it to be within the compass of the Spirit's work, and therefore we put it within the compass of the object, to keep up souls in a lively and vigorous state, and not only having put vital influences into them, merely to preserve them from being extinct. When we find that severe animadversion, Rev. ii. 1. Thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead it appears by what follows that he doth not mean by death there, simple death, as if there was nothing of life left, but a gradual deadness, a very languishing state; for it follows, "Strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die," (ver. 2.) implying that to live so languid a life was hardly worth the name of living; they were rather to be called dead than living, while the case was only so with them. Therefore though it be true, that such a languishing is that which doth befall many a Christian who hath the root of life in him, yet if it be better with any, and if they be continued in a better state, it is to be attributed to the Spirit of God; they "live in the Spirit." If they live more prosperously, if their souls flourish, and are in a good |