Post by Admin on Mar 28, 2024 15:48:04 GMT -5
SERMON I
What shall we say then? shall we continue in sin, that grace may
abound? God forbid! How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any
longer therein?—ROM. 6:1, 2.
THE drift of the apostle in this chapter is to show that free
justification by faith in Christ greatly tendeth to promote holiness;
which he first proveth from the tenor of christianity, and then
exhorteth the justified to get, increase, and exercise this holiness in
all their actions.
In these words there are three things—
1. An objection supposed.
2. A rejection of it with abhorrence and indignation.
3. A confutation of it.
1. The objection is a preposterous inference from what the apostle
had said, chap. 5:20, 'That where sin abounded, grace did much
more abound.' The apostle propoundeth it by way of interrogation,
'What shall we say then? shall we continue in sin that grace may
abound?' The words may be conceived as a slander raised by Jewish
prejudice to make the doctrine of the gospel odious, as if it did foster
people in sin—an unjust calumny; or as a temptation incident to
loose, carnal, and careless christians, who are apt to abuse grace, and
have such wretched reasonings in their own hearts, that they might
take the more liberty to sin, that the grace of God might thereby
appear more illustrious and abundant. You may therefore look upon
it as produced either as a check to an objection already made, or as a
prevention of an abuse that might afterwards be made.
2. He rejecteth this inference as absurd and blasphemous, by a form
of speech familiar to him, Gal. 2:17, Rom. 3:6, 31, μὴ γένοιτο; let this
thought be far from us, or, this is a thing that all christian hearts
should abominate.
3. Paul's reason against it, or confutation of it, represented in an
emphatical interrogation, 'How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any
longer therein?' Where observe—
[1.] That to continue in sin, and live longer in sin, are equivalent
expressions; for in the objection the expression is, 'Shall we continue
in sin?' But in the apostle's answer and argument to the contrary, it
is, 'Can we live any longer therein?'
[2.] Observe that before grace we lived in sin; for when lie saith, 'any
longer,' he implieth that we were given to sin, enslaved by sin before;
but shall we continue this course? Far be it from us to think so, or say
so, much more to do so.
[3.] Observe the argument lieth here, 'We that are dead,' &c. All that
have given their names to Christ are, or should be, dead to sin. Now,
to be dead to sin and live in sin are ἀσύστατα, things incompatible;
the dead are no longer alive.
Because this is the strength of his argument, it will be good to inquire
what it is to be dead in sin. In the strict and rigorous notion, he is
said to be dead who is utterly deprived of all sense and motion, that
they are altogether without all feeling and motion of sin; but this
strict sense will not stand here; therefore I must tell you the word
relateth to the baptismal engagement, as the following verses
abundantly do declare:—ver. 3, 'Know ye not that so many of us as
were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his death?'
Baptism referreth to Christ's death, and we are baptized into the
likeness and power of his death; the meaning of that ordinance is to
signify our dying to sin and rising to newness of life; this is that
which every christian knoweth, if he be but a little instructed in the
principles of his religion. Well, then, every good christian is dead to
sin by vow and obligation, therefore cannot, should not, live any
longer therein. There is a double undertaking in baptism—one on
God's part, the other on ours; the undertaking on God's part is to
give us the sanctifying Spirit of grace, to quell the reign of sin; the
undertaking on our part is by the Spirit to mortify the deeds of the
body. Now some make conscience of this solemn vow and promise,
others do not; the apostle considereth not what is done, but what
ought to be done; he speaketh de jure, of the vow and obligation—we
are all bound; not de facto, of the event, not what always cometh to
pass. All christians are bound to be dead to sin, and every good
christian is actually dead to sin, which, though it hath some life and
being left, yet it retaineth not its sovereignty and dominion over him.
Some conceive this latter sort intended; οἵτινες ἀπεθάνομεν τῇ
ἁμαρτίᾳ, as many of us as have died to sin: but rather he considereth
the right than the fact. Christianity doth oblige all at their first
entrance into the profession of it to renounce the reign and dominion
of sin, and break the power of it yet more and more, so that it dieth,
though a lingering death, as Christ did upon the cross.
Doct. That to take occasion to live in sin from free grace, or God's
mercy to sinners in Christ, is an inference most unjust, absurd, and
blasphemous, and that which all christians' hearts should abominate.
Here in the text such an inference is mentioned with a denial joined
with a detestation of the thing denied; the very thought and first
mention of it ought to be entertained with abhorrency.
1. I will prove that the corrupt heart of man is apt to draw such a
consequence.
2. I will prove the three charges—
[1.] That it is very unjust and ill grounded.
[2.] Absurd and contradictory to christianity.
[3.] Wicked and blasphemous.
First, That the corrupt heart of man is apt to draw such inferences
from the doctrine of grace. In the general, carnal men are ill skilled at
reasoning about spiritual matters. Solomon telleth us, Prov. 26:9,
'That a parable in a fool's mouth is like a thorn in the hand of a
drunkard.' As a drunkard with a sharp thorn grievously hurts himself
and others, neither his mind nor hand can do their office when the
man is distempered with drink; so it is with men intoxicated by sin;
witness those contrary and different conclusions, which the carnal
and spiritual will draw from the same principles. From the stated
course of nature the scoffer said, 2 Peter 3:4, 'Where is the promise
of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as
they were from the beginning of the creation.' David reasoneth the
quite contrary way: Ps. 119:89–91, 'For ever, O Lord, thy word is
settled in heaven. Thy faithfulness is unto all generations: thou hast
established the earth, and it abideth. They continue this day
according to thine ordinances: for all are thy servants.' So 1 Cor.
15:32, 'If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at
Ephesus, what advantageth it me if the dead rise not? Let us eat and
drink, for to-morrow we shall die;' with 1 Cor. 7:29, 30, 'But this I
say, brethren, the time is short: it remains that both they that have
wives be as though they had none; and they that weep, as though
they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and
they that buy, as though they possessed not.' So 2 Sam. 7:2, 'The king
said unto Nathan the prophet, See now, I dwell in an house of cedar,
but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains;' with Haggai 1:2, 'This
people say, The time is not come, the time that the Lord's house
should be built.' So 2 Kings 6:33, 'Behold this evil is of the Lord, what
should I wait for the Lord any longer?' with 1 Sam. 3:18, 'It is the
Lord, let him do what seemeth him good.' So Mary Magdalene, upon
Christ's pardoning her sin, was more abundant in duty and
mourning for sin: Luke 7:47, 'Her sins, which were many, are
forgiven; for she loved much;' and in the text, the directly contrary
conclusion is drawn; 'sin, because grace doth abound;' make work for
pardoning mercy. But particularly, it is very natural to us to abuse
the gospel, and plead God's grace to quiet and strengthen ourselves
in security and sin; the thoughts of men do easily incline them to
such conclusions. That which hath been may be; that this hath been
appeareth by the writings of the apostles, who everywhere seek to
obviate this abuse; and also by evident reason.
1. We all affect liberty to a degree of licentiousness. This is natural to
us, as appeareth by our distaste of Christ's strict laws: Ps. 2:3, 'Let us
break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us;' and
our ready hearkening to seducers, 'who promise liberty, though they
bring us into bondage to sin,' 2 Peter 2:19, and we be the more
enslaved to baseness and filthiness.
2. The flesh taketh all occasions to indulge itself, and that it may be
done in a plausible cleanly manner, and with less remorse from
conscience, it catcheth at every pretence to countenance it.
Sometimes it makes use of bodily austerities as a compensation for
their sins; and so hypocrisy, superstition, and profaneness grow on
the same root. The sensual nature of men is such that it is loath to be
crossed, which produceth profaneness; for therefore do men indulge
themselves in all manner of sensuality, because they are loath to
deny their natural appetites and desires, and row against the stream
of flesh and blood; but if nature must be crossed, or else they cannot
palliate their carnal indulgences, then they will not mortify the lust,
but afflict the body for a while, and in some slight manner, which
produceth hypocrisy, and we excuse the partiality of our obedience
by some outward shows of strictness; as Isa. 58:5, 'They afflict the
soul for a day, or bow down the head like a bulrush;' and so in the
external actions of other duties. That this deceit may be more strong,
they exceed in outward observances, and that produceth
superstition, or some byelaws of our own, by which we hope to
expiate our sins; as to whip and gash ourselves: Micah 6:6, 7,
'Wherewithal shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before
the high God? shall I come before him with burnt-offerings, with
calves of a year old? will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my first-born for
my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?' On the
other side, if men's temper, education, and strain of religion carry
them to another way, and they are all for the grace of the gospel,
without the rudiments of men, the devil knows how to charm and lull
souls asleep in sin by that way of profession also; and so many take
liberty to sin under the pretence that God may have more occasion to
exercise his mercy; and our proneness to please the flesh is
countenanced by presumptions of grace, and the supposition of
unreasonable indulgences of God to the faulty creature: Ps. 50:21,
'These things hast thou done, and I kept silent; thou thoughtest that I
was altogether such an one as thyself.' God will not be so severe as is
commonly imagined; and so lessening God's holiness, they abate
their reverence of him: Ps. 68:19–21, 'Blessed be the Lord, who daily
loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation, Selah. He
that is our God is the God of salvation, and unto God the Lord belong
the issues from death. But God shall wound the head of his enemies,
and the hairy scalp of such an one as goeth on still in his trespasses.'
He seeketh to obviate their conceit, how great soever the riches of his
bounty and grace offered in Christ be, yet he is irreconcilable to
those that cease not to follow a course of sin.
3. This conceit is strengthened in us, because many that profess
Christianity live licentiously. All sins propagate their kind, and
among others, abuse of grace. We see others have great hopes and
confidence in Christ, notwithstanding their carnal and worldly
course of living, and self-love prompteth us that we may hope to fare
as well as they; and so we leaven one another with a dead, loose,
carnal sort of christianity, instead of 'provoking each other to love
and good works,' Heb. 10:24. Self-love is very partial, and loath to
think evil of our condition. Now this cannot be justified by the laws
of christianity, yet it is often justified by the lives of christians: after
this rule they live in the world, and we think we may do as others do.
4. There is another cause, that is, Satan, who abuses the weakness
of some teachers, and the ignorance of some hearers, to misapply the
grace of the gospel and the comforts of justification, to countenance
their sins. The devil knoweth we will not receive his doctrine in his
own name, and therefore doth what he can to usurp the name of
Christ, and to obtrude his commands upon us in the name of Christ,
and so conveyeth poison to you by the perfume of the gospel; and if
he can set Christ against Christ, his merits and mercy against his
government and Spirit, his promises against his laws, justification
against sanctification, he knoweth that he obtaineth his end and
purpose, that the gospel, which was set up to destroy the works of the
devil, will be a means to cherish his kingdom in the world. And on
the hearers' part, he abuseth them also; carnal hearts turn all into
fuel for their lusts, and with the more pretence if they can allege a
dispensation from God himself to serve and please the flesh, and no
harm shall come of it. A little trusting in Christ shall serve the turn,
though they live never so impure lives. I ascribe all this to Satan,
because all error is from him, who is the father of lies, who often
obtrudeth upon the simple credulity of christians his own gospel
instead of Christ's, and by a partial representation of Christ's gospel
destroyeth the whole.
Secondly, I come now to make good the charge.
First, That this inference is very unjust and ill-grounded. The
pretence here are those words of the apostle in the two last verses of
the former chapter: 'Moreover the law entered that the offence might
abound; but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound, that
as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through
righteousness unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord.' These
words yield no such consequence. To evince which—(1.) I shall state
the meaning of those words; (2.) Show the unjustness of this illation
from them.
1. For the meaning, the apostle showeth the law was given to the
Israelites by Moses, not that they might be justified thereby, but that
sin and punishment, to which we are liable by reason of sin, might
the better be known; and so the grace of God in Christ, which
justifieth us, notwithstanding the grievousness of sin, might be the
more esteemed, and we might the more earnestly fly to it for
sanctuary and refuge, and the curse might drive us to the promise.
For there are two things which the law discovereth—
[1.] The multitude and heinous nature of our offences: 'It entered
that sin might abound;' not in our practice, but in our sense and
feeling, as being more apparent, and awakening more lively stings in
our consciences. If a rugged and obstinate people sin the more, that
is not the fault of the law, but of our corrupt nature, which always
tendeth to that which is forbidden: 'It only took occasion from the
commandment,' Rom. 7:8. The proper effect of the law was to give us
more convincing and clear knowledge of duty and sin, or to be a
means to aggravate sin, to render it more exceedingly heinous, as
being against an express law of God's own giving, with great majesty
and terror.
[2.] The other use of the law is to give us an awakening sense of the
punishment due to sin, as it exposes us to temporal and eternal
death, ver. 21; and so our deliverance and life by Christ might be
more thankfully accepted, who by his mercy hath taken away the
condemning and reigning power of sin, by granting pardon of it, and
power over it; so that as a great and mortal disease maketh a
physician famous if he cureth it, so sin maketh the grace of Christ
more conspicuous and glorious.
2. The injustice of the illation.
[1.] There is a difference between causa per se, and causa per
accidens, a cause and an occasion. Though the abounding of sin
helpeth to advance grace, it is not of itself, but by accident, by God's
overruling grace; therefore it is a desperate adventure to try
conclusions, to drink rank poison to experiment the goodness of an
antidote, or to wound ourselves mortally to try the virtue of a plaster.
God made advantage of the sins of the world for the honouring of his
grace in Christ; but they that presume to sin greatly, that God may
pardon greatly, run a desperate adventure, whether God will pardon
them or no.
[2.] There is a difference between the remission of sins past, and
allowance of sin future. Our fixed purpose must be not to sin, but if
we sin, we have the use of God's remedy: 1 John 2:1, 'My little
children, these things I write unto you, that ye sin not. And if any
man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the
righteous.' If God made advantage of sins past to honour his grace,
we also by sins past may make an advantage for a renewed use of
faith in our Redeemer, and renewed desires and expectations of
pardon by his intercession; but it is a wrong conclusion to think we
may heap up new sins for time to come, and still make more work for
pardoning mercy, and be content to offend God again, that he may
still be pardoning, and we never forsake sin. In short, we must not
sin that grace may abound; but when we have sinned, we must make
use of abounding grace. Faith and repentance may draw good out of
sin itself, to make the remembrance of it a means of our hatred and
mortification of sin, and of more gratitude to our Redeemer; but not
to take liberty to indulge sin, antedating our pardon before the fact.
[3.] It is contrary to all ingenuity, and love to God or Christ. This is
the difference between faith and presumption, or a sound and a blind
confidence of pardon by Christ, namely, that faith maketh us hate
sin, and presumption maketh us secure and bold in sinning, and
slightly to pass it over with little remorse and reluctancy when we are
guilty of it. He who presumeth doth the work of an age in a breath.
God is merciful, Christ died for sinners, and all our confidence must
be in Christ. But the true believer is more affected with sin; as 'she
wept much and loved much to whom much was forgiven,' Luke 7:47;
and Ezek. 16:63, 'That thou mayest remember, and be confounded,
and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I
am pacified towards thee, for all that thou hast done.' They express
their gratitude for remission of sin by a careful keeping from it.
Pardoning mercy maketh God amiable to us, and his laws acceptable,
our duty sweeter, and sin more grievous.
Secondly, It is absurd and contrary to the doctrine of grace: true
christianity is of a far different make from this conceit.
1. It is not consistent with the grace that goeth along with pardon, for
God sanctifieth all those whom he justifieth: we receive, together
with the remission of sins, the gift of the Holy Ghost: 1 Cor. 1:30, 'Of
him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and
righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption;' 1 Cor. 6:11, 'But
ye are washed, but ye are justified, but ye are sanctified in the name
of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.' These are
inseparable, the application of the merit of Christ and the gift of his
Spirit, which reneweth us to the image of God, and mortifieth the life
of sin in us; the heart broken with compunction seeketh this double
benefit: 1 John 1:9, 'If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness;' as a
malefactor that hath a leprosy on him needs not only a pardon, but a
medicine; and in a broken leg not only ease of the pain is desirable,
but that the bone be set right. Therefore we are both justified and
sanctified; continuing in sin cannot consist with the truth of
regeneration.
2. It is contrary to the order of God's grace in the new covenant, who
requireth of us faith and repentance if we would be partakers of
Christ. Now, to continue in sin is to be under the bondage of it,
without restraint, or any change of heart and life.
[1.] It is against faith. Take it for assent, it is a belief that he will save
all those that submit to be sanctified and ruled by him in order to
their salvation: Heb. 5:9, 'Being made perfect, he became the author
of eternal salvation to all them that obey him.' If you hope to be
saved by him, and will not be ruled by him, you do not believe Christ,
but the devil; for if you believe Christ, you must believe that you
cannot be saved unless you be converted: Mat. 18:3, 'Except ye be
converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the
kingdom of heaven.' Take faith for acceptance of Christ, it is a hearty
consent both of subjection to him and dependence upon him as the
saviour and redeemer of the world. The mediator's blessing is 'to
turn every one of you away from your iniquities,' Acts 3:26; he is a
saviour 'to save his people from their sins,' Mat. 1:21; to say nothing
of 'receiving Christ the Lord,' which the scripture presseth. Col. 2:6.
[2.] It is against repentance, which implieth a sorrow for sin, with a
serious purpose to forsake it.
(1.) There is in it godly sorrow, 2 Cor. 7:10. This is requisite to check
the sensual inclination, or love of pleasure, which is the heart, root,
and life of all sin: it dies when our affection to it dies. In repentance
with bitterness of soul we bemoan ourselves for offending God; now
if we lick up our vomit again, and go round in a track of confessing
sin and committing sin, our hearts are not sound with God; we undo
that which is done, and so 'build again the things we have destroyed,
if while we seek to be justified by Christ, we are still found sinners,'
Gal. 2:17, 18. A man that truly seeks after pardon, seeks with it the
ruin and destruction of sin. Sin was his greatest trouble, the burden
that lay upon his conscience, the grievance from which he sought
ease, the wound which pained him at heart, the disease that his soul
was sick of. Is all this real? What will you say if this man should
delight in his former trouble, and take up his burden that he groaned
under, and prefer it before liberty, to tear open the wounds which
were in a fair way of healing, willingly relapse into the sickness out of
which he is recovered with so much ado? if he should desire the
bonds and chains again, of which he was freed by infinite mercy?
Surely then you may question the reality of all that he hath done. In
the anguish of our souls we groaned under sin as the heaviest and
most intolerable burden we could ever feel. Now, should we stoop to
it, and take it on again, after it was lifted from our backs, who would
pity us?
(2.) There is a renouncing and forsaking of sin: it is called
'Repentance from dead works,' Heb. 6:1; not only repentance for but
from them. The heart is so turned from sin, that it is turned against
it: we do not repent of the sins we still live in. Now, if grace be
dispensed in this order, what more contrary to the tenor of the
gospel covenant?
(3.) This faith and repentance are solemnly professed in baptism,
which is the initiating ordinance, wherein we profess to be baptized
into the death of Christ, that is to say, to express the virtue, to be
conformed to the likeness of it, and die unto sin. When we first gave
our names to Christ, our baptism strictly obligeth us to continue no
longer in sin; it is a vowed death to sin; therefore, if we continue in it,
we renounce or forget our baptism, 2 Peter 1:9; if we wallow again in
the mire after we are once washed, all that is done in baptism is but a
nullity or empty formality. That is the apostle's argument here, 'How
shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?' There you
solemnly renounced sin, that you might have no more commerce
with it than the dead have with the living; therefore, for us to
continue in sin, and indulge sin, is to break our solemn covenant
with God. You have promised to give neither mind, nor heart, nor
sense, nor any faculty or member of soul or body to accomplish it,
but so carry yourselves as if you were dead. And besides, you deprive
yourselves of the grace of the covenant which you might have. If you
did not ponere obicem, you might be delivered from the reigning
power of indwelling sin; therefore you must carefully see that it have
not the upper hand in your souls, that the flesh be made subject to
the spirit, that the reign and dominion of sin be indeed broken, that
you run into no wilful sin, and walk with all holy strictness and
watchfulness.
(4.) It is contrary to God's design to call us out of our sinful estate to
sincere reformation. This was God's end, that we that fly from him as
a condemning God might return to his love and service as a
pardoning God: Ps. 130:4, 'There is forgiveness with thee, that thou
mightest be feared.' He pardoneth what is past upon condition of
future obedience; he calleth us to repentance: Acts 17:30, 'Now he
commandeth all men everywhere to repent;' not to encourage them
to continue, or go on a minute longer in a course of sin, or flatter
them with hope of impunity if they do so: Ezek. 18:30, 'Repent, and
turn yourselves from all your transgressions, so iniquity shall not be
your ruin;' Isa. 55:7, 'Let the wicked forsake his way, and the
unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and
he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly
pardon.'
Thirdly, It is wicked and blasphemous.
1. Because, as much as in you lieth, you make Christ a minister of sin,
or an encourager of sin: Gal. 2:7, 'If while we seek to be justified by
Christ, we are found sinners, is Christ a minister of sin? God forbid.'
2. They prevent the highest institution in the world for the recovery
of men to God: Jude 4, μετατίθεντες, 'turning the grace of God into
wantonness.' The gospel is the only way of taking away sin; you make
it the only way to countenance sin. Grace is there taken for objective
grace, viz., grace held forth to us in the doctrine of the gospel. The
doctrine of the gospel doth not tend to make men sinners, nor
encourage them to lay aside all care of holiness or good works.
Use 1. Caution against this abuse.
1. Be not prejudiced against the doctrine of grace, as if it yielded
these conclusions. It is a misunderstood and misapplied gospel; the
world hath not a right understanding in this mystery. Christ came
into the world to save sinners, but not to reconcile God to our sins, to
make him less holy, or his law less strict, or sin less odious; and his
free pardon is not to encourage us to go on in our sins; but a wicked
heart, like a spider, will suck poison from those flowers from whence
a bee sucketh honey.
2. Let us not give occasion to others to think so, either—(1.) By
entertaining opinions that may countenance this abuse, as the
setting up a naked dependence on Christ without a care of holiness,
or Christ's merit against his Spirit; relying on his reconciling, and
neglecting his renewing grace; that we are justified before we repent
or believe; that all sins past, present, or to come are pardoned at
once; that we need not trouble ourselves with scruples about
offending God; that the greatest confidence of our own good estate is
the strongest and best faith. (2.) Nor by practices. Christians must be
most averse from sin, and all enormous practices, else you dishonour
Christ in the world; but let the blame and shame lie on us, and not on
the gospel.
3. Let us not harbour this mistake in our own bosoms. We are
marvellous apt to do so; but hereby we forfeit the comfort and
privilege of christians, and it concerneth God to avenge the quarrel of
his grace against us. Now harbour it we do, if we grow more careless
and negligent in duties, less circumspect in our conversations, less
humble for sins, and venture upon them with greater boldness and
security. If you think you need to be less troubled for sin, less earnest
and watchful against it, as if since Christ died for the expiation of it,
it were a smaller matter than before to sin against God, you are guilty
of this abuse.
Use 2. To exhort you to three things.
1. To carry yourselves as those that are dead to sin; be sure that its
dominion and reign be broken, and its strength and power every day
more weakened; you subdue it thoroughly root and branch, and let
your minds be more intent on this, that you may not sin: 1 John 3:9,
'Whoso is born of God doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in
him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.' See how this is
fulfilled in you, and what conscience you make of your baptismal vow
every day.
2. Honour grace. You should not only esteem it, and advance it in
your minds, but set forth the glory of it in word and deed: Eph. 1:5,
12, 'Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,—that we
should be to the praise of his glory.' The whole strain of your life and
conversation should be to the praise of grace, that our actions might
speak for it, though we be silent. To this end consider, God hath
trusted you with the honour of his grace, therefore you should be
eminently much better than other men: Mat. 5:16, 'Let your light so
shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify
your Father which is in heaven,' 1 Peter 3:9, and set forth the genuine
and kindly workings of it.
3. Fortify your minds against this abuse, which is so natural to us.
[1.] God's principal will is that we should obey his laws rather than
need his pardon. The precept is before the sanction, before sin came
into the world; he pardoneth, that we may return to our duty, Heb.
9:14; Luke 1:74; Rev. 5:9, 10; therefore to make wounds for Christ to
cure is not the part of a good christian.
[2.] Remember what was Christ's main design: 1 John 3:5, 'To take
away sin,' not to take away obedience. Many think, though they sin
never so much, their pardon will be ready and easy. Oh no! not so
lightly, when you wilfully and presumptuously run into sin.
[3.] Loose, carnal, and careless christians, that wallow in all
filthiness, and hope to be saved, are rather of the faction of christians
than of the religion of christians: 2 Tim. 2:19, 'Let every one that
nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity;' 1 Peter 1:17, 18,
'Pass the time of your sojourning here in fear, forasmuch as you are
not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your
vain conversations, received by tradition from your fathers; but with
the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.'
What shall we say then? shall we continue in sin, that grace may
abound? God forbid! How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any
longer therein?—ROM. 6:1, 2.
THE drift of the apostle in this chapter is to show that free
justification by faith in Christ greatly tendeth to promote holiness;
which he first proveth from the tenor of christianity, and then
exhorteth the justified to get, increase, and exercise this holiness in
all their actions.
In these words there are three things—
1. An objection supposed.
2. A rejection of it with abhorrence and indignation.
3. A confutation of it.
1. The objection is a preposterous inference from what the apostle
had said, chap. 5:20, 'That where sin abounded, grace did much
more abound.' The apostle propoundeth it by way of interrogation,
'What shall we say then? shall we continue in sin that grace may
abound?' The words may be conceived as a slander raised by Jewish
prejudice to make the doctrine of the gospel odious, as if it did foster
people in sin—an unjust calumny; or as a temptation incident to
loose, carnal, and careless christians, who are apt to abuse grace, and
have such wretched reasonings in their own hearts, that they might
take the more liberty to sin, that the grace of God might thereby
appear more illustrious and abundant. You may therefore look upon
it as produced either as a check to an objection already made, or as a
prevention of an abuse that might afterwards be made.
2. He rejecteth this inference as absurd and blasphemous, by a form
of speech familiar to him, Gal. 2:17, Rom. 3:6, 31, μὴ γένοιτο; let this
thought be far from us, or, this is a thing that all christian hearts
should abominate.
3. Paul's reason against it, or confutation of it, represented in an
emphatical interrogation, 'How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any
longer therein?' Where observe—
[1.] That to continue in sin, and live longer in sin, are equivalent
expressions; for in the objection the expression is, 'Shall we continue
in sin?' But in the apostle's answer and argument to the contrary, it
is, 'Can we live any longer therein?'
[2.] Observe that before grace we lived in sin; for when lie saith, 'any
longer,' he implieth that we were given to sin, enslaved by sin before;
but shall we continue this course? Far be it from us to think so, or say
so, much more to do so.
[3.] Observe the argument lieth here, 'We that are dead,' &c. All that
have given their names to Christ are, or should be, dead to sin. Now,
to be dead to sin and live in sin are ἀσύστατα, things incompatible;
the dead are no longer alive.
Because this is the strength of his argument, it will be good to inquire
what it is to be dead in sin. In the strict and rigorous notion, he is
said to be dead who is utterly deprived of all sense and motion, that
they are altogether without all feeling and motion of sin; but this
strict sense will not stand here; therefore I must tell you the word
relateth to the baptismal engagement, as the following verses
abundantly do declare:—ver. 3, 'Know ye not that so many of us as
were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his death?'
Baptism referreth to Christ's death, and we are baptized into the
likeness and power of his death; the meaning of that ordinance is to
signify our dying to sin and rising to newness of life; this is that
which every christian knoweth, if he be but a little instructed in the
principles of his religion. Well, then, every good christian is dead to
sin by vow and obligation, therefore cannot, should not, live any
longer therein. There is a double undertaking in baptism—one on
God's part, the other on ours; the undertaking on God's part is to
give us the sanctifying Spirit of grace, to quell the reign of sin; the
undertaking on our part is by the Spirit to mortify the deeds of the
body. Now some make conscience of this solemn vow and promise,
others do not; the apostle considereth not what is done, but what
ought to be done; he speaketh de jure, of the vow and obligation—we
are all bound; not de facto, of the event, not what always cometh to
pass. All christians are bound to be dead to sin, and every good
christian is actually dead to sin, which, though it hath some life and
being left, yet it retaineth not its sovereignty and dominion over him.
Some conceive this latter sort intended; οἵτινες ἀπεθάνομεν τῇ
ἁμαρτίᾳ, as many of us as have died to sin: but rather he considereth
the right than the fact. Christianity doth oblige all at their first
entrance into the profession of it to renounce the reign and dominion
of sin, and break the power of it yet more and more, so that it dieth,
though a lingering death, as Christ did upon the cross.
Doct. That to take occasion to live in sin from free grace, or God's
mercy to sinners in Christ, is an inference most unjust, absurd, and
blasphemous, and that which all christians' hearts should abominate.
Here in the text such an inference is mentioned with a denial joined
with a detestation of the thing denied; the very thought and first
mention of it ought to be entertained with abhorrency.
1. I will prove that the corrupt heart of man is apt to draw such a
consequence.
2. I will prove the three charges—
[1.] That it is very unjust and ill grounded.
[2.] Absurd and contradictory to christianity.
[3.] Wicked and blasphemous.
First, That the corrupt heart of man is apt to draw such inferences
from the doctrine of grace. In the general, carnal men are ill skilled at
reasoning about spiritual matters. Solomon telleth us, Prov. 26:9,
'That a parable in a fool's mouth is like a thorn in the hand of a
drunkard.' As a drunkard with a sharp thorn grievously hurts himself
and others, neither his mind nor hand can do their office when the
man is distempered with drink; so it is with men intoxicated by sin;
witness those contrary and different conclusions, which the carnal
and spiritual will draw from the same principles. From the stated
course of nature the scoffer said, 2 Peter 3:4, 'Where is the promise
of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as
they were from the beginning of the creation.' David reasoneth the
quite contrary way: Ps. 119:89–91, 'For ever, O Lord, thy word is
settled in heaven. Thy faithfulness is unto all generations: thou hast
established the earth, and it abideth. They continue this day
according to thine ordinances: for all are thy servants.' So 1 Cor.
15:32, 'If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at
Ephesus, what advantageth it me if the dead rise not? Let us eat and
drink, for to-morrow we shall die;' with 1 Cor. 7:29, 30, 'But this I
say, brethren, the time is short: it remains that both they that have
wives be as though they had none; and they that weep, as though
they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and
they that buy, as though they possessed not.' So 2 Sam. 7:2, 'The king
said unto Nathan the prophet, See now, I dwell in an house of cedar,
but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains;' with Haggai 1:2, 'This
people say, The time is not come, the time that the Lord's house
should be built.' So 2 Kings 6:33, 'Behold this evil is of the Lord, what
should I wait for the Lord any longer?' with 1 Sam. 3:18, 'It is the
Lord, let him do what seemeth him good.' So Mary Magdalene, upon
Christ's pardoning her sin, was more abundant in duty and
mourning for sin: Luke 7:47, 'Her sins, which were many, are
forgiven; for she loved much;' and in the text, the directly contrary
conclusion is drawn; 'sin, because grace doth abound;' make work for
pardoning mercy. But particularly, it is very natural to us to abuse
the gospel, and plead God's grace to quiet and strengthen ourselves
in security and sin; the thoughts of men do easily incline them to
such conclusions. That which hath been may be; that this hath been
appeareth by the writings of the apostles, who everywhere seek to
obviate this abuse; and also by evident reason.
1. We all affect liberty to a degree of licentiousness. This is natural to
us, as appeareth by our distaste of Christ's strict laws: Ps. 2:3, 'Let us
break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us;' and
our ready hearkening to seducers, 'who promise liberty, though they
bring us into bondage to sin,' 2 Peter 2:19, and we be the more
enslaved to baseness and filthiness.
2. The flesh taketh all occasions to indulge itself, and that it may be
done in a plausible cleanly manner, and with less remorse from
conscience, it catcheth at every pretence to countenance it.
Sometimes it makes use of bodily austerities as a compensation for
their sins; and so hypocrisy, superstition, and profaneness grow on
the same root. The sensual nature of men is such that it is loath to be
crossed, which produceth profaneness; for therefore do men indulge
themselves in all manner of sensuality, because they are loath to
deny their natural appetites and desires, and row against the stream
of flesh and blood; but if nature must be crossed, or else they cannot
palliate their carnal indulgences, then they will not mortify the lust,
but afflict the body for a while, and in some slight manner, which
produceth hypocrisy, and we excuse the partiality of our obedience
by some outward shows of strictness; as Isa. 58:5, 'They afflict the
soul for a day, or bow down the head like a bulrush;' and so in the
external actions of other duties. That this deceit may be more strong,
they exceed in outward observances, and that produceth
superstition, or some byelaws of our own, by which we hope to
expiate our sins; as to whip and gash ourselves: Micah 6:6, 7,
'Wherewithal shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before
the high God? shall I come before him with burnt-offerings, with
calves of a year old? will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my first-born for
my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?' On the
other side, if men's temper, education, and strain of religion carry
them to another way, and they are all for the grace of the gospel,
without the rudiments of men, the devil knows how to charm and lull
souls asleep in sin by that way of profession also; and so many take
liberty to sin under the pretence that God may have more occasion to
exercise his mercy; and our proneness to please the flesh is
countenanced by presumptions of grace, and the supposition of
unreasonable indulgences of God to the faulty creature: Ps. 50:21,
'These things hast thou done, and I kept silent; thou thoughtest that I
was altogether such an one as thyself.' God will not be so severe as is
commonly imagined; and so lessening God's holiness, they abate
their reverence of him: Ps. 68:19–21, 'Blessed be the Lord, who daily
loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation, Selah. He
that is our God is the God of salvation, and unto God the Lord belong
the issues from death. But God shall wound the head of his enemies,
and the hairy scalp of such an one as goeth on still in his trespasses.'
He seeketh to obviate their conceit, how great soever the riches of his
bounty and grace offered in Christ be, yet he is irreconcilable to
those that cease not to follow a course of sin.
3. This conceit is strengthened in us, because many that profess
Christianity live licentiously. All sins propagate their kind, and
among others, abuse of grace. We see others have great hopes and
confidence in Christ, notwithstanding their carnal and worldly
course of living, and self-love prompteth us that we may hope to fare
as well as they; and so we leaven one another with a dead, loose,
carnal sort of christianity, instead of 'provoking each other to love
and good works,' Heb. 10:24. Self-love is very partial, and loath to
think evil of our condition. Now this cannot be justified by the laws
of christianity, yet it is often justified by the lives of christians: after
this rule they live in the world, and we think we may do as others do.
4. There is another cause, that is, Satan, who abuses the weakness
of some teachers, and the ignorance of some hearers, to misapply the
grace of the gospel and the comforts of justification, to countenance
their sins. The devil knoweth we will not receive his doctrine in his
own name, and therefore doth what he can to usurp the name of
Christ, and to obtrude his commands upon us in the name of Christ,
and so conveyeth poison to you by the perfume of the gospel; and if
he can set Christ against Christ, his merits and mercy against his
government and Spirit, his promises against his laws, justification
against sanctification, he knoweth that he obtaineth his end and
purpose, that the gospel, which was set up to destroy the works of the
devil, will be a means to cherish his kingdom in the world. And on
the hearers' part, he abuseth them also; carnal hearts turn all into
fuel for their lusts, and with the more pretence if they can allege a
dispensation from God himself to serve and please the flesh, and no
harm shall come of it. A little trusting in Christ shall serve the turn,
though they live never so impure lives. I ascribe all this to Satan,
because all error is from him, who is the father of lies, who often
obtrudeth upon the simple credulity of christians his own gospel
instead of Christ's, and by a partial representation of Christ's gospel
destroyeth the whole.
Secondly, I come now to make good the charge.
First, That this inference is very unjust and ill-grounded. The
pretence here are those words of the apostle in the two last verses of
the former chapter: 'Moreover the law entered that the offence might
abound; but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound, that
as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through
righteousness unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord.' These
words yield no such consequence. To evince which—(1.) I shall state
the meaning of those words; (2.) Show the unjustness of this illation
from them.
1. For the meaning, the apostle showeth the law was given to the
Israelites by Moses, not that they might be justified thereby, but that
sin and punishment, to which we are liable by reason of sin, might
the better be known; and so the grace of God in Christ, which
justifieth us, notwithstanding the grievousness of sin, might be the
more esteemed, and we might the more earnestly fly to it for
sanctuary and refuge, and the curse might drive us to the promise.
For there are two things which the law discovereth—
[1.] The multitude and heinous nature of our offences: 'It entered
that sin might abound;' not in our practice, but in our sense and
feeling, as being more apparent, and awakening more lively stings in
our consciences. If a rugged and obstinate people sin the more, that
is not the fault of the law, but of our corrupt nature, which always
tendeth to that which is forbidden: 'It only took occasion from the
commandment,' Rom. 7:8. The proper effect of the law was to give us
more convincing and clear knowledge of duty and sin, or to be a
means to aggravate sin, to render it more exceedingly heinous, as
being against an express law of God's own giving, with great majesty
and terror.
[2.] The other use of the law is to give us an awakening sense of the
punishment due to sin, as it exposes us to temporal and eternal
death, ver. 21; and so our deliverance and life by Christ might be
more thankfully accepted, who by his mercy hath taken away the
condemning and reigning power of sin, by granting pardon of it, and
power over it; so that as a great and mortal disease maketh a
physician famous if he cureth it, so sin maketh the grace of Christ
more conspicuous and glorious.
2. The injustice of the illation.
[1.] There is a difference between causa per se, and causa per
accidens, a cause and an occasion. Though the abounding of sin
helpeth to advance grace, it is not of itself, but by accident, by God's
overruling grace; therefore it is a desperate adventure to try
conclusions, to drink rank poison to experiment the goodness of an
antidote, or to wound ourselves mortally to try the virtue of a plaster.
God made advantage of the sins of the world for the honouring of his
grace in Christ; but they that presume to sin greatly, that God may
pardon greatly, run a desperate adventure, whether God will pardon
them or no.
[2.] There is a difference between the remission of sins past, and
allowance of sin future. Our fixed purpose must be not to sin, but if
we sin, we have the use of God's remedy: 1 John 2:1, 'My little
children, these things I write unto you, that ye sin not. And if any
man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the
righteous.' If God made advantage of sins past to honour his grace,
we also by sins past may make an advantage for a renewed use of
faith in our Redeemer, and renewed desires and expectations of
pardon by his intercession; but it is a wrong conclusion to think we
may heap up new sins for time to come, and still make more work for
pardoning mercy, and be content to offend God again, that he may
still be pardoning, and we never forsake sin. In short, we must not
sin that grace may abound; but when we have sinned, we must make
use of abounding grace. Faith and repentance may draw good out of
sin itself, to make the remembrance of it a means of our hatred and
mortification of sin, and of more gratitude to our Redeemer; but not
to take liberty to indulge sin, antedating our pardon before the fact.
[3.] It is contrary to all ingenuity, and love to God or Christ. This is
the difference between faith and presumption, or a sound and a blind
confidence of pardon by Christ, namely, that faith maketh us hate
sin, and presumption maketh us secure and bold in sinning, and
slightly to pass it over with little remorse and reluctancy when we are
guilty of it. He who presumeth doth the work of an age in a breath.
God is merciful, Christ died for sinners, and all our confidence must
be in Christ. But the true believer is more affected with sin; as 'she
wept much and loved much to whom much was forgiven,' Luke 7:47;
and Ezek. 16:63, 'That thou mayest remember, and be confounded,
and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I
am pacified towards thee, for all that thou hast done.' They express
their gratitude for remission of sin by a careful keeping from it.
Pardoning mercy maketh God amiable to us, and his laws acceptable,
our duty sweeter, and sin more grievous.
Secondly, It is absurd and contrary to the doctrine of grace: true
christianity is of a far different make from this conceit.
1. It is not consistent with the grace that goeth along with pardon, for
God sanctifieth all those whom he justifieth: we receive, together
with the remission of sins, the gift of the Holy Ghost: 1 Cor. 1:30, 'Of
him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and
righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption;' 1 Cor. 6:11, 'But
ye are washed, but ye are justified, but ye are sanctified in the name
of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.' These are
inseparable, the application of the merit of Christ and the gift of his
Spirit, which reneweth us to the image of God, and mortifieth the life
of sin in us; the heart broken with compunction seeketh this double
benefit: 1 John 1:9, 'If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness;' as a
malefactor that hath a leprosy on him needs not only a pardon, but a
medicine; and in a broken leg not only ease of the pain is desirable,
but that the bone be set right. Therefore we are both justified and
sanctified; continuing in sin cannot consist with the truth of
regeneration.
2. It is contrary to the order of God's grace in the new covenant, who
requireth of us faith and repentance if we would be partakers of
Christ. Now, to continue in sin is to be under the bondage of it,
without restraint, or any change of heart and life.
[1.] It is against faith. Take it for assent, it is a belief that he will save
all those that submit to be sanctified and ruled by him in order to
their salvation: Heb. 5:9, 'Being made perfect, he became the author
of eternal salvation to all them that obey him.' If you hope to be
saved by him, and will not be ruled by him, you do not believe Christ,
but the devil; for if you believe Christ, you must believe that you
cannot be saved unless you be converted: Mat. 18:3, 'Except ye be
converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the
kingdom of heaven.' Take faith for acceptance of Christ, it is a hearty
consent both of subjection to him and dependence upon him as the
saviour and redeemer of the world. The mediator's blessing is 'to
turn every one of you away from your iniquities,' Acts 3:26; he is a
saviour 'to save his people from their sins,' Mat. 1:21; to say nothing
of 'receiving Christ the Lord,' which the scripture presseth. Col. 2:6.
[2.] It is against repentance, which implieth a sorrow for sin, with a
serious purpose to forsake it.
(1.) There is in it godly sorrow, 2 Cor. 7:10. This is requisite to check
the sensual inclination, or love of pleasure, which is the heart, root,
and life of all sin: it dies when our affection to it dies. In repentance
with bitterness of soul we bemoan ourselves for offending God; now
if we lick up our vomit again, and go round in a track of confessing
sin and committing sin, our hearts are not sound with God; we undo
that which is done, and so 'build again the things we have destroyed,
if while we seek to be justified by Christ, we are still found sinners,'
Gal. 2:17, 18. A man that truly seeks after pardon, seeks with it the
ruin and destruction of sin. Sin was his greatest trouble, the burden
that lay upon his conscience, the grievance from which he sought
ease, the wound which pained him at heart, the disease that his soul
was sick of. Is all this real? What will you say if this man should
delight in his former trouble, and take up his burden that he groaned
under, and prefer it before liberty, to tear open the wounds which
were in a fair way of healing, willingly relapse into the sickness out of
which he is recovered with so much ado? if he should desire the
bonds and chains again, of which he was freed by infinite mercy?
Surely then you may question the reality of all that he hath done. In
the anguish of our souls we groaned under sin as the heaviest and
most intolerable burden we could ever feel. Now, should we stoop to
it, and take it on again, after it was lifted from our backs, who would
pity us?
(2.) There is a renouncing and forsaking of sin: it is called
'Repentance from dead works,' Heb. 6:1; not only repentance for but
from them. The heart is so turned from sin, that it is turned against
it: we do not repent of the sins we still live in. Now, if grace be
dispensed in this order, what more contrary to the tenor of the
gospel covenant?
(3.) This faith and repentance are solemnly professed in baptism,
which is the initiating ordinance, wherein we profess to be baptized
into the death of Christ, that is to say, to express the virtue, to be
conformed to the likeness of it, and die unto sin. When we first gave
our names to Christ, our baptism strictly obligeth us to continue no
longer in sin; it is a vowed death to sin; therefore, if we continue in it,
we renounce or forget our baptism, 2 Peter 1:9; if we wallow again in
the mire after we are once washed, all that is done in baptism is but a
nullity or empty formality. That is the apostle's argument here, 'How
shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?' There you
solemnly renounced sin, that you might have no more commerce
with it than the dead have with the living; therefore, for us to
continue in sin, and indulge sin, is to break our solemn covenant
with God. You have promised to give neither mind, nor heart, nor
sense, nor any faculty or member of soul or body to accomplish it,
but so carry yourselves as if you were dead. And besides, you deprive
yourselves of the grace of the covenant which you might have. If you
did not ponere obicem, you might be delivered from the reigning
power of indwelling sin; therefore you must carefully see that it have
not the upper hand in your souls, that the flesh be made subject to
the spirit, that the reign and dominion of sin be indeed broken, that
you run into no wilful sin, and walk with all holy strictness and
watchfulness.
(4.) It is contrary to God's design to call us out of our sinful estate to
sincere reformation. This was God's end, that we that fly from him as
a condemning God might return to his love and service as a
pardoning God: Ps. 130:4, 'There is forgiveness with thee, that thou
mightest be feared.' He pardoneth what is past upon condition of
future obedience; he calleth us to repentance: Acts 17:30, 'Now he
commandeth all men everywhere to repent;' not to encourage them
to continue, or go on a minute longer in a course of sin, or flatter
them with hope of impunity if they do so: Ezek. 18:30, 'Repent, and
turn yourselves from all your transgressions, so iniquity shall not be
your ruin;' Isa. 55:7, 'Let the wicked forsake his way, and the
unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and
he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly
pardon.'
Thirdly, It is wicked and blasphemous.
1. Because, as much as in you lieth, you make Christ a minister of sin,
or an encourager of sin: Gal. 2:7, 'If while we seek to be justified by
Christ, we are found sinners, is Christ a minister of sin? God forbid.'
2. They prevent the highest institution in the world for the recovery
of men to God: Jude 4, μετατίθεντες, 'turning the grace of God into
wantonness.' The gospel is the only way of taking away sin; you make
it the only way to countenance sin. Grace is there taken for objective
grace, viz., grace held forth to us in the doctrine of the gospel. The
doctrine of the gospel doth not tend to make men sinners, nor
encourage them to lay aside all care of holiness or good works.
Use 1. Caution against this abuse.
1. Be not prejudiced against the doctrine of grace, as if it yielded
these conclusions. It is a misunderstood and misapplied gospel; the
world hath not a right understanding in this mystery. Christ came
into the world to save sinners, but not to reconcile God to our sins, to
make him less holy, or his law less strict, or sin less odious; and his
free pardon is not to encourage us to go on in our sins; but a wicked
heart, like a spider, will suck poison from those flowers from whence
a bee sucketh honey.
2. Let us not give occasion to others to think so, either—(1.) By
entertaining opinions that may countenance this abuse, as the
setting up a naked dependence on Christ without a care of holiness,
or Christ's merit against his Spirit; relying on his reconciling, and
neglecting his renewing grace; that we are justified before we repent
or believe; that all sins past, present, or to come are pardoned at
once; that we need not trouble ourselves with scruples about
offending God; that the greatest confidence of our own good estate is
the strongest and best faith. (2.) Nor by practices. Christians must be
most averse from sin, and all enormous practices, else you dishonour
Christ in the world; but let the blame and shame lie on us, and not on
the gospel.
3. Let us not harbour this mistake in our own bosoms. We are
marvellous apt to do so; but hereby we forfeit the comfort and
privilege of christians, and it concerneth God to avenge the quarrel of
his grace against us. Now harbour it we do, if we grow more careless
and negligent in duties, less circumspect in our conversations, less
humble for sins, and venture upon them with greater boldness and
security. If you think you need to be less troubled for sin, less earnest
and watchful against it, as if since Christ died for the expiation of it,
it were a smaller matter than before to sin against God, you are guilty
of this abuse.
Use 2. To exhort you to three things.
1. To carry yourselves as those that are dead to sin; be sure that its
dominion and reign be broken, and its strength and power every day
more weakened; you subdue it thoroughly root and branch, and let
your minds be more intent on this, that you may not sin: 1 John 3:9,
'Whoso is born of God doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in
him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.' See how this is
fulfilled in you, and what conscience you make of your baptismal vow
every day.
2. Honour grace. You should not only esteem it, and advance it in
your minds, but set forth the glory of it in word and deed: Eph. 1:5,
12, 'Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,—that we
should be to the praise of his glory.' The whole strain of your life and
conversation should be to the praise of grace, that our actions might
speak for it, though we be silent. To this end consider, God hath
trusted you with the honour of his grace, therefore you should be
eminently much better than other men: Mat. 5:16, 'Let your light so
shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify
your Father which is in heaven,' 1 Peter 3:9, and set forth the genuine
and kindly workings of it.
3. Fortify your minds against this abuse, which is so natural to us.
[1.] God's principal will is that we should obey his laws rather than
need his pardon. The precept is before the sanction, before sin came
into the world; he pardoneth, that we may return to our duty, Heb.
9:14; Luke 1:74; Rev. 5:9, 10; therefore to make wounds for Christ to
cure is not the part of a good christian.
[2.] Remember what was Christ's main design: 1 John 3:5, 'To take
away sin,' not to take away obedience. Many think, though they sin
never so much, their pardon will be ready and easy. Oh no! not so
lightly, when you wilfully and presumptuously run into sin.
[3.] Loose, carnal, and careless christians, that wallow in all
filthiness, and hope to be saved, are rather of the faction of christians
than of the religion of christians: 2 Tim. 2:19, 'Let every one that
nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity;' 1 Peter 1:17, 18,
'Pass the time of your sojourning here in fear, forasmuch as you are
not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your
vain conversations, received by tradition from your fathers; but with
the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.'