CHAPTER VI: The new creature in us a conformity to the image of Christ:
humble.' And for this especially the apostle frames his prayer for the Thessalonians: 1 Thes. 5:23, 'And the very God of peace sanctify you throughout; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.' And bless God if thou dost find such an abiding principle so wrought in thee, a seed of God, that thou canst not sin or do what thou wouldst, in the sense before explained. Bless God for it, for this is a great work; as in Adam at first there was the image of God, as a principle concreated with him, which was the foundation of all.
Use 4. And then again, rest not in having sleeping habits. The wise were saved, having oil in their vessel; but being asleep, they were frightened out of that sleep, or they had not been saved neither,
Matt. 25. And therefore endeavour to exercise every grace upon every occasion it is ordained to act in, and that is the end of it. 'Let patience have her perfect work.' Patience as the grace given habitually, let it have its perfect work that it is ordained for. And so do as to every grace else, that every grace may be able to say at your death, 'I have done the work thou gavest me to do.'
The apostle, 2 Pet. 1, having exhorted to add grace to grace, as to faith, virtue, &c., both by increasing the principle and acting accordingly, he concludes, ver. 8, 'If these be in you, and abound'
(the root of them in bringing forth fruit), 'they make you that you shall not be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of Jesus Christ.'
As thou mayest have every sin in thee, though yet thou hast not acted it; so thou hast every grace in thee, in the root, which thou hast not yet experience of. And therefore (as Paul saith) as in other graces, so 'see you abound in this grace also,' for grace is ordained to act. It is the image of God, and as God is pure act, so grace, in imitation of him, should be.
CHAPTER VI
The new creature in us is a conformity to the image of Christ.
But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, by the Spirit of the Lord.—2 COR. 3:18.
That you may know the scope and coherence of these words, our apostle in this chapter throughout sets forth the excellency of the gospel of Jesus Christ, whereof he was made a minister; though, as he himself says at the beginning, he needed not to have done it unto them, because they had sufficient experience of the power and glorious efficacy of it, even in their own hearts, God having used his ministry as a pen to draw forth even his own image, and the image of his Son in their hearts, by the power of the Spirit accompanying it. I need (says he, ver. 3) no letters of recommendation, 'for you are made manifest to be the epistle of Christ, ministered,' or written 'by us, not with ink, but the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart.' And from thence he falls upon a set and large commendation of this ministry, to the end of the chapter, and for that purpose makes a comparison between the law and the gospel, the ministry of Moses and of Jesus Christ. The sum of which is this: The law indeed (says he) had glory in it, for it revealed the glorious will of God, setting before men's eyes that image wherein they were created; for the law was the copy of it. Which glory was shadowed out by the shining of Moses's face when he came off the mount. But yet, alas! it was but the ministry of death (as it is called at that 7th verse), to the hearers and be holders of it; for though they beheld it, yet it changed not their hearts into the image of it; nay, it dazzled their eyes so that Moses was fain to put a veil over his face, in token that his ministry did not change men's hearts or open their eyes, but a veil lay over all men's hearts in the rending* of it; but now the ministry of the gospel doth exceed every way in glory, ver. 9.
1. It is as the glass or mirror, which represents unto us a far more excellent glory, even the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, he being (Gal.
3:1) pictured, described, and set forth therein to men's eyes in all his glorious properties of life and death, being crucified before men's eyes. So that the gospel sets forth the image of Christ, who is the image of his Father, and the brightness of his glory, Heb. 1:3. So that in the face of Jesus Christ, revealed in the glass, doth shine the glorious image of God the Father, and that more clearly than it did in the law, or in man at his first creation, 2 Cor. 4:6.
2. There is not only a brighter discovery of the glory of Christ in the gospel, but believers have a clearer view of it in the dispensation of the gospel than they had who lived under that of the law: 'We behold with open face' (says the apostle) 'the glory of the Lord,' not veiled and obscured, but in the clearest light.
3. We do not barely behold it and view it, but it changeth us into the same image. The law was a dead letter, and though it shewed us the will of God, yet it changed us not into the image of it; but the gospel reveals the glorious image of Jesus Christ to true believers, and changeth them into the same image, yet so as by degrees, from one degree of glory to another, this glorious image being perfected by little and little, till we come to the full stature of Christ.
4. Then lastly is shewn the ground and true reason why the gospel thus changeth those that look into it by faith, because (ver. 6, 7, 8) the gospel is the ministration of the Spirit; but the law is a dead letter. The Spirit accompanieth the ministration of the gospel, and we are changed into Christ's image, by the Spirit of the Lord.
Obs. In all true believers, that have their eyes opened to see Jesus Christ in the gospel by true faith, there is a most blessed change wrought in them into the same image of Jesus Christ, as he is revealed in that gospel.
1. I say all believers, for 'we all' (says the apostle) that do 'behold Christ' by faith are thus changed. He doth not speak only of ministers and apostles, but all true Christians; for the comparison stands between true believers and the people or children of Israel, who could not behold the glory of Moses's ministry. But they are believers that in that gospel with open face behold the glory of the Lord.
Compare the 13th, 14th, and 15th verses with the 18th verse.
2. They are changed thus in this life, for it is by beholding Christ in the mirror; but after this life is ended, the glass shall be taken away, and we shall see him as he is.
3. They are changed into that image of Christ which is revealed in the gospel; for being changed by beholding him therein, therefore so far as they behold of Christ in the gospel, so far are they changed. The doctrine having so good ground in the text, so as you cannot look on the text but it presents itself to your consideration, I will omit other
Scriptures that be alleged for it, and give you some reasons of it, and so come to the uses. I shall give only one place. In this chapter, 2 Cor.
3:3, the apostle affirms of the Corinthians, to whom he wrote, that they were made manifest to be the epistle of Christ, which was written in their hearts. What doth he mean there by the 'epistle of Christ,' but copies written out by the Spirit, even word for word, line for line, so that in their hearts and lives might be read the grace of Jesus Christ in some measure, and the likeness of his death and resurrection? They were his epistle, but Christ's image was the matter of it.
The first reason of the doctrine is drawn from that special and ultimate end that God hath predestinated us to. I do not say the end he chose us for, but that which he did predestinate us to. For that is the difference between election and predestination; the one is for an end, his own glory; the other is to an end, that is, what he means to do with his children and chosen ones. Now if you look into Rom.
8:29, 30, you shall find the apostle says there, that 'those whom he foreknew, he also, or withal, did predestinate'; that is, appoint to this
especial end! What? 'To be conformed to the image of his Son.' The apostle adds withal the reason, 'that he might be the first-born among many brethren.' The scope of the apostle, why he brings the general proposition there, is to and believers against afflictions, for it was Christ's portion before us, and God hath predestinated us to the same image, and yet not only to afflictions, for an image implies a conformity in every part; it is not otherwise an image or likeness.
And so he brings in this general proposition for their comfort, that as they are like to Christ in suffering, so shall they be in all things else.
He brings it in for their comfort, that God had ordained them in all things to be like unto his Son, and to be conformed to the same image, both of grace, sufferings, and at last of glory, thereby to arm them against these afflictions, that so they might be content to be like unto Christ in this as well as in the rest, as knowing assuredly they should be like him in glory, as well as in suffering conformed to the same image. It is a general proposition, brought to this particular purpose; and as an image is not an image of another, unless it be conformable in every part, so we are not conformed to Christ's image unless we be made like him in all things.
1. It is the end to which we are predestinated, containing the full purpose and intention of God in his decree, that we should in all things be made like to Christ, in this life, like to him in grace and afflictions, in our measure, and after in glory.
2. There is the reason and measure of this conformity, 'That he might be the firstborn among many brethren.'
(1.) Forasmuch as all are said to be his brethren, it implies it. God had many children to bring to glory, and he would have them all alike as brethren, all to resemble him and one another; and therefore conformed them all to the image of his eldest son. God set up Christ as the masterpiece, first pattern, and draught of his decree, predestinating all his to be like unto him; that what graces and glory he had, they in their measure should have also. And as, Heb. 2:11, the reason why he took our nature on him (being made like unto us by
taking the similitude of sinful flesh) is given, that he might call us brethren, so also that we might be able to call him brother. He conforms us in all things like unto himself, that he might be the firstborn of many brethren. And this too in respect of the sanctification of our nature, that 'he who sanctifieth and they who are sanctified might be all of one;' yet still so as he might be the first-born among all those brethren, were they never so many. In the old law, the elder brother had the pre-eminency; and therefore, though we should be made like to him in grace and glory, yet he would have the dignity, the priority, and the pre-eminence in all those things wherein we were made like him, both in grace, and glory, and also in sufferings.
There are none equal to him; they are but like him. So that out of this place you see, that howsoever God created us in his own image at the first immediately, yet his intent was to restore it by another way. He, having a Son that was the image of himself, resolved that he should take our nature upon him, that he might be therein made like to us, that so, filling his nature with all grace and with all glory, he might conform us again unto the image of that his Son, that we might all be brethren, all alike conformed unto him. The same apostle tells us,
Col. 1:19, that 'it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;' and God ordained him as the store-house and treasury of all that grace and glory which he means to bestow on his children. Adam lost all, and all is now in Christ, the second Adam, that ever the elect sons of men shall have; and this fulness dwells in him, Col. 2:9, that we might be made complete in him. It is principally there meant in regard of sanctification, as appears by what follows there. Now, how are we therein said to be complete in him, but when we do partake of that his fulness in a completeness suiting with our measure, and conformity unto him, so as no part of likeness to him is wanting, as the word complete implies? And therefore the apostle, in the 11th,
12th, 13th, and 14th verses, shews wherein it consists, viz., in being circumcised as he was, and in being buried as he was, and in being raised up as he was. Therefore all fulness is in him, and therefore also he is called the Sun of righteousness, because as all light is gathered up into the body of the sun, and dwells there in the fulness of it, and of it the moon and other stars do partake; and the sun,
shining on them, makes them in their measure light as the sun itself is, so is it here. God hath appointed Jesus Christ as the person in whom should remain, in the fulness of it, the glorious image of God, and all believers upon whom he shines are transformed into the same image; and the nearer they come to him, the more they are transformed. This you see is the decree of God concerning all his: to be conformed to the image of Christ; and it contains fully all that can be said of what we were ordained to.
2. A second reason of the doctrine is this: when God doth call any man, then he begins to execute that his decree, and so to renew the image of Christ in him. For 'whom he hath predestinated, them also he hath called;' and calling is nothing but the conforming us to his image in this life, in regard of grace; and therefore, says Paul, Gal.
1:15, 16, 'When it pleased God to call me, and to reveal his Son in me;' that is, when he began to manifest this image of Christ in my poor soul. What then is the new birth, but the forming and fashioning the image of Christ in us? 'I travail in birth again,' says
Paul, Gal. 4:19, 'until Christ be formed in you.' What is the meaning that Christ should be formed in them, but that the lively and real image of Christ should be imprinted on their hearts? And in the word formed there is a metaphor taken from the shaping of a child in the womb; that look, as the natural parents communicating matter of their own bodies, it is framed and shaped by the spirits into the lively likeness of themselves, limb for limb, answerable to themselves, so likewise is Christ appointed by God as a 'second Adam,' as it is in 1
Cor. 15:45–48, and an 'everlasting Father,' Isa. 9:6, who communicates to us the seed of his word, 1 Pet. 1:23, to be shed into our hearts, and the Spirit of Christ enlivening it, frames it and fashions it in every limb like unto himself; and as the first Adam begat a child in his likeness, Gen. 5, so doth this second Adam in his likeness. And though indeed the full conformity to him shall be in heaven, yet so far as Christ is revealed, so far are we made like him; we see him but as he was upon earth, revealed in the gospel, and unto that image are we conformed here in the new birth. As we see him in the mirror, we are made like to that image in it; but when we
see him as he is, we shall also be like him in glory, 1 John 3:1, 2. And therefore, Isa. 53:10, we are called his seed, which do prolong his days upon the earth; for though he be ascended up to heaven, yet he begets daily those that are like to him as he was on the earth; so like him, as they are said to prolong his days on earth; as you use to say of a child, like his parent, that so long as he lives, his father will never die, he is so like unto him. So the resemblance of Christ in us doth prolong his days on earth; and therefore Christ is said to prolong his days on earth. Christ is said to be 'in us,' 2 Cor. 13:5, to 'live in us,'
Gal. 2:20. And we are said to put on Christ, even in regard of sanctification, Rom. 13:14; that is, we clothe our hearts and lives with his image, fashioning ourselves to him. Will you have all in a word?
The church, the body, the members of Christ are called, 1 Cor. 12:12, Christ: if you read the whole verse, and consider it well, you will find it so; and that both in regard of union to him, and communion with him in his image and likeness, and therefore also have the same common name with him, as brethren and members use to have. For the name Christ signifies Anointed; and he is indeed anointed first, as our head, with the Spirit and the grace of it above measure, even above his fellows; but yet so that as from Aaron's head that oil ran down and anointed his clothing and all his body, so do the grace and virtue of all that Christ did or suffered descend to them that 'receive the anointing' of him, 1 John 2:27.
Use 1. The first use may be a use of trial or examination, whether we yet belong to Christ or no. Let us examine whether we have his image renewed in us. We are predestinated (as you have heard) to be conformed thereunto. And in our calling also, God begins to renew this his decree on us. If that therefore we would make our calling and election sure (as the apostle speaks, 2 Peter 1:10), we should labour to try and examine whether Christ his image be in us or no. Let me therefore exhort you in the words of the apostle, 2 Cor. 13:5, to try and examine yourselves, whether Christ's image be in you. 'Know ye not your own selves, how that Christ is in you, unless you be reprobates?' that is, in the same state with them; for those that are predestinate are predestinate to be conformed to the image of his
Son, which if it be not in you, ye are as reprobates. My brethren, we profess ourselves Christians; whence is it that we have our name, but from our conformity unto Christ, as you heard out of 1 Cor. 12:12?
And therefore, those that have not the image of Christ in them begun in some measure, are but bastard Christians. We plead we are baptized, and by it made members of Christ; and did not we read that those that are baptized truly into Christ have put on Christ, his graces, his image, in sanctification as well as justification, as you heard out of the 12th of the Romans, and the last verse? We profess ourselves also such as Christ hath died for, and in the persuasion of this we labour to soothe up ourselves daily. Well; if he hath died for us, he hath died in us; if he hath lived for us, he also lives in us, by his grace and by his Spirit. Thus Paul, when (Gal. 2:20) he says,
'Jesus Christ gave himself for him,' put this before it, 'I am crucified with Christ, and Christ lives in me.' We all also profess ourselves to be the children of God, and call God Father, and Christ brother; and have you not heard out of the 8th of the Romans, that God predestinates his to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he may call them brethren? And if you do not in some measure resemble your elder brother Christ, you are none of the children of his Father. Have you not also heard that Christ begets them in his image? How will you be able to ask your inheritance at his hands, unless you be his son? And, my brethren, howsoever we may pass current here for good Christians, and think ourselves so, yet God at the latter day, and day of death, when your souls are brought to him, either to own, or to refuse, the very first things that he will inquire into will be, as Christ did when he saw the penny, whose image is it?
And as he said, 'What is Cæsar's to Cæsar, and what is God's to God,' so will God say; if it hath the image of Christ on it, give it to Christ, for it belongs to him; if of the devil (for one of these you must have), then give it to him, for it belongs to him. Nothing will pass current coin with God, but what hath the image of Christ on it; none will be taken for his sheep, but those that have his mark; and then he will raise it up at the last day, as he himself speaketh. All this, my brethren, I press upon you to stir you up seriously to lay your hearts to what shall be spoken, by way of trial: for to help you therein, my
intent is to shew you the particulars wherein the image of Christ doth consist, to which we are conformed in this life. And these take along with you. First, that it is not perfection, but truth therein, that God accepts. For the best are but imperfectly changed into this image, for it is from glory to glory, that is, from one degree to another; if therefore you canst discern the prints of his image, and superscription on thy heart, though they be but as rude and imperfect stamps, and thy evidence be but as the prints in a blurred sixpence, yet if thou beest sure thou findest them there, thou mayest have comfort; God will not deny any such imperfect coins.
Now this image consisteth especially of two parts: first, in a conformity to his graces; secondly, to his example. I speak of that image which in this life we are changed to; there is also the image of glory, which in the life to come we shall be conformed to, and that of suffering, which is here in this life, neither of which are pertinent to this text. For only that image of him as here on earth is revealed to us in the gospel; we see him not as glorious in the heavens; but his grace, his work, his death, his restoration, and other parts of his mediation, which are the objects of faith, unto these here must we be conformed; for as the apostle says, 1 John 4:17, 'Even as he is, so are we in this world.'
1. The image of Christ in us is a conformity to all his graces. The like graces in us must be renewed that were in him: John 1:16, 'Of his fulness we have all received, grace for grace.' Christ was said to be full of grace in the former verses, and of his fulness do all we (says the apostle), that believe in him, receive grace; and that grace for grace; as you ought to say when you copy out one thing out of another, that it is done word for word, so do we of Christ (says John) receive grace for grace, that is, look, what graces are in Christ are derived to us, grace for grace, and therefore, John 15:5, he is compared to the vine, and we to the branches, because he conveys the same kind of sap of grace to us, that is in himself, so as we bear the like fruit unto that he did, pleasing through him unto the Father.
John 17:19, 'For their sakes sanctify I myself, that they' (even all that
thou hast given me) 'may be sanctified through the truth.' Christ sanctified our nature, that by it he might be made sanctification to us; and the place here implies, that to that end he received the graces of sanctification, that he might sanctify us with the same kind, receiving it to that end, and therefore there is no grace in Christ but is renewed in his children; otherwise that grace in Christ were in vain, for he received all as a fountain to convey his store to us. And why else is it that believers are exhorted to be holy for he is holy, 1
Peter 1:16, who are said to be righteous as he is righteous, that is in the same kind? not measure, 1 John 3:7. Why are we called to shew forth the virtues of Christ, 1 Peter 2:9, if we had not received them?
My brethren, let us be exhorted to examine ourselves by this. It is not enough to have gifts from Christ (as reprobates had, Judas and others), an abundance of swimming knowledge, common enlightening, natural wisdom, learning, abilities to express a man's self; all which I confess came from Christ; but yet are not part of that his image, but are endowments which flow from him to the sons of men. For he is thus the light that enlighteneth every man that comes into the world, John 1:8. And as the sun in the heavens, so the Sun of righteousness, with his common gifts, shines both on good and bad.
But his image is his graces, and those not civil virtues only; for they are but common gifts; but Christ was not only a civil man; no, he called for more righteousness than the Pharisee had. 'Except your righteousness,' says he, to his disciples, 'exceeds that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you cannot enter into the kingdom of God;' and yet they were civil men, and lived soberly and justly, were no adulterers.
And yet who greater opposites to Christ than these were?
Truly methinks the consideration of this truth should amaze all civil justiciaries in the world, and deliver them from resting in their glittering sins. Mark but of what strain Christ was, look into the state, mark and observe his steps in the story of him. He made the duties of holiness his chief trade, he lived not only civilly but holily; it were blasphemy to say the contrary. And if that men were begotten of him, in his image, those virtues they would shew forth most.
Christ, you heard, is our father, we his seed, begotten by him, and he
formed in us. Now as in a father those limbs that are greater, are proportionably so in the child, or else it were a monster, so all these graces which were most in Christ, would be most in us if we were his children. Whenas a man makes a great show of all kind of civil virtues, of sobriety, chastity, and the like, but none of holiness, it is a sign he is a monster, and Christ begets no such. Let men but consider that these virtues are found in those that never heard of the name of Christ, as the ancient heathen and the Turks at this day, who are not Christians, not so much as in name; and therefore those that go no further deserve the name less than they. Wild trees do bring forth blossoms, that grow in wildernesses, as well as those in gardens. But those that are ingrafted with Christ do bring forth fruit also according unto its kind, and the root they are ingrafted on. But what are moral virtues only but blossoms? And though indeed it is true, that even those were in Christ, and ought to be in Christians, yea, and are; yet, if you would make them signs of a good estate, you must discern them as growing from union with Christ, and then they will be of another kind than mere moral virtues are; differing as much as sweet marjorum from wild, the one a weed, the other an herb. Your meekness will proceed, not from softness of nature, but from a heart humbled, tamed, sweetened with the apprehension of thy injuries done to Christ, which now thou findest forgiven, and from this ground thy spirit is calmed and subdued. In the 11th of Matthew,
'Learn of me' (says Christ), 'for I am lowly and meek;' the civilest, the meekest men by nature must learn of Christ to be meek and humble.
And so also that love, sweetness, and ingenuousness of nature, would reach higher than it doth or can do in civil men, it would extend itself to thy enemies; for so Christ loved thee when thou wert an enemy: 'If you love them that love you, the Gentiles do so,' says Christ; there is but one good turn for another. Good nature and love in a gracious heart will also burst out and be seen, especially to the saints and those that excel in virtue. Indeed when Christ met with that young man, that was but a civil man, it is said he looked on him and loved him; but when he spoke to his sheep, to his poor disciples, to Mary
Magdalene and others, he opened himself to them, expressed bowels of his love unto them, countenanced them, cherished them,
comforted them! And when they told him of his brother, and sister, and mother, he shewed that they that were spiritually akin to him were dearer to him.
Also our mercy and pity would shew itself to the souls of men especially; he was good to their bodies, for he healed many, fed five thousand out of his compassion; but it was to pluck their souls out of the jaws of death, that was his chiefest aim; stronger it was in him than hunger to convert a soul; for whenas he came an hungry to Samaria, and they went to buy victuals, he met with the woman of Samaria and forgot his dinner; it was meat to him to convert herself; and therefore, wheresoever he came, he went up and down instructing of men; prayed for his enemies' salvation, even at the last gasp; wept over Jerusalem when he went to be crucified in it; and if we had any of his compassion, our bowels would yearn within us to see men lie in the fire, and would move us to labour to pluck them out; for, alas! that is men's greatest misery.
And so our humility would not be that proud humility the world is so full of. When his kinsfolk came to him (in John 7:3–5) and spurred him on to go shew himself—'If thou dost these things, go shew thyself to the world'—alas, he suppressed it, shewed it no further than it might be for the salvation of his chosen, and that they might believe in him, John 5:34, 44, denied himself, emptied himself of the glory that was due to him (as from the beginning of the world), regarding it not if his Father might be glorified. And when it came to that dismal hour of crucifying, and encountering with his wrath, 'Not my will' (says he), 'but thy will be done.' How content was he to bear any condition of hunger, nakedness, the taunts, reproaches of his most base enemies; 'and when he was reviled, reviled not again.' How did he express his contempt of the world, in having an eye to that glory which was set before him, that though he had all the world offered him at once, yet he refused it all? What zeal and courage did he express in his Father's cause, whipping the profane out of the temple, withstanding the corruptions of those times; opposing the Pharisees,
calling them hypocrites to their very faces; what hatred and detestation did he express against their sins!
Use 2. By this we may learn how much the image of God in us is advanced and improved above what was in the heart of Adam in innocency, as also above that which the image of God is, in respect of conformity to the law and will of God. For though holiness in all states is one and the same, the same for substance; for holiness is to aim at God's glory, and that runs through all states, both in innocency, and in the state of grace, and in heaven; yet that holiness which Christ works in us under the gospel, and by which we know
God and Jesus Christ, and God in him, hath far more elevated strains, of a more excellent genius, and far higher, nobler, and heavenlier, than what was in Adam's heart, or his heart ever knew.
For instance, I will go over but some graces which are all but Christ in us.
First, Adam had humility; he must needs have it, as he was a creature. The angels they have humility in them, for they cover their faces when they behold the glory of God; they have wings on purpose to do it. But the humility that Adam had, whence did it spring? Why, by seeing himself to be a creature, made out of nothing, and that there was an infinite distance between God, that was the Creator, and himself. But now take that grace of humility that is in the heart of a believer, and it is of another make, and springs from another and more noble rise; for was Adam so humble as to be laid so low as to see himself a creature and God the Creator? Why, sin lays a believer lower, far lower; and humility in a believer riseth thence. It riseth likewise from this, that he that was God himself was humbled, and therefore shall man be proud? Had Adam such motives to humility?
That humility and self-emptiness that is in a believer makes him not value his own graces; they are all as nothing to him, and Jesus Christ is all in all to him. It lays him not only low, seeing himself nothing as a creature, but it makes him account himself worse than nothing, a creature deserving hell itself. Adam, though he was humbled as a creature, and knew his distance, yet he could stand upon terms,
terms of creation, with God; he might challenge a justification that was due to him, for so the covenant of works doth, which he was created under. Look into Rom. 4:4, and see what the apostle saith there: 'Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt;' and verse 2, 'If Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory;' but Abraham had not whereof to glory before God, therefore he was not justified by works; that is the apostle's argument. He clearly in that place holds forth the difference between the covenant of works and the covenant of grace: the one, he saith, is κατὰ τὸ ὀφείλημα, it is according to debt or due; but the other is κατὰ χάριν, according to grace. Now, is it not a strange speech, that he that should have been justified by works (as Adam should have been) had whereof to glory, had something that was a debt, which in some respect he might have challenged, and have stood upon terms with God about it? Here now is the humility of this Adam, that he knew himself to be a creature, made out of nothing, and that God might annihilate him when he would, though being under the covenant of works, while he did continue so there was a justification that was his due, that was his natural due, that God should account him and pronounce him righteous. I confess I have often wondered at the expression of the apostle in that Rom. 4; for we read in Rom.
11:35, 'Who hath first given to the Lord, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?' Therefore that is not the apostle's meaning, as if Adam could have given anything to God, and therefore he might challenge a recompence from God; but the meaning is only this, that in the way of a dueness and of a natural justness, such as is between the Creator and the creature, whilst the creature remaineth holy, God should according to that law justify him according to his works, and so he had whereof to glory. It is not a debt of retribution (that is the distinction), it is not debitum restitutionis, as if he could in a mercenary way procure anything of God, yet it was debitum conveniente,* it was meet that if he wrought, and remained holy,
God should justify him. So that Adam's humility was joined with what was a natural due, which he might have challenged if he had continued holy. But what is our humility we have from Christ? Why, instead of standing upon terms, 'the wages of sin is death.' The
reward, saith he, is reckoned of debt, and he receives it as wages; but all the wages we have now, it is but the wages of sin, and that is death. And the heart of a believer acknowledgeth it, and doth not only submit himself to the sovereignty of God, as he is a creature,—so Adam must do,—but he lays his neck upon the block, tells God that hell and destruction are his due, puts his mouth in the dust, and walketh humbly with God; and if God gives him life, Oh! it is the free gift of God! 'The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life.'
Secondly, Consider the justification that Adam had, and that which we have by Christ. The justification of Adam was natural. It was plainly this: if he did continue righteous, which righteousness was preserved and conserved by working according to the rule and the principles in his own heart, he thus obeying God, and remaining righteous, it was a natural due to him, a meet thing for God upon this to approve him and pronounce him righteous, because he did act and continue as God had made him, and he walked according to the law of a creature toward his Creator. Now, what was it for God to give him this approbation, and so to justify him? It was only this, that he pronounced him to be good in his kind, even as he pronounced all the other creatures to be so in their kind, Gen. 1:31. God viewed all in the creatures that he had made, and said they were very good; he viewed Adam so too, for this was before Adam fell, and he pronounced him good, as he did the rest; only good in his kind, which was the goodness of righteousness, holiness, and integrity which he yet stood in. So that indeed the justification of Adam, according to the covenant of works, it was but an approbation of him, that he continued good, that he walked uprightly, &c., as he pronounceth of the heavens that keep their ordinances to this day, that they are good; so he would have done of man, if he had kept his ordinances according to the law of creation. But, alas! all this goodness and righteousness he had would not have stood out against the least sin; if he had but sinned, all this had been forfeited, all gone, utterly lost. But now what manner of righteousness is it that we have by Christ revealed in the gospel? Why, we are justified freely by
grace, we are justified by a righteousness which is sin-proof, by a righteousness which, when it hath made a purchase of the forgiveness of all our sins, gives us in heaven too, by a righteousness which believers never can, never shall, out-spend, by a righteousness that pardons all a man's sins, pays all his debts, the very first hour that he believes and lays hold upon it, and which continues to everlasting, and would continue to everlasting, to justify him, though he should remain in a mixed condition of sinning against God, as we are in this life, by a righteousness which breaks through God's justice to God's throne of grace, and makes the soul do so with a world of confidence.
Thirdly, Let us compare the love that was in Adam's heart to God, and the love which Christ works in us. Adam loved God, it is true, because he was a good God to him, and his creator; but he so loved him as that Adam withal knew that if he did but trip, did but sin, God would instantly hate him more than ever he loved him, and his wrath would fall upon him, and he must die the death; so that, indeed, the term of love between God and man, then, what was it? I love you, while you love me. God had, out of love, made Adam holy, and given him power to love; but then so long as he continued to love God thus, and to love God at such a height, so long God continued to love him; so that indeed it was but a temporary love, as I may express it, that is, a love which might fail, and did fail as such. It is a saying that Seneca hath, and it is a true one, 'To love one so as a man thinks with himself it may fall out so one day that this man may hate me; this is the bane of friendship.' There cannot be a perfect love where this is.
'Perfect love doth cast out' all such 'fear.' But yet this was the state and condition of Adam. It is true, he knew that so long as he loved
God and obeyed him, God would love him; but yet so as he knew withal, that if he sinned (and he knew not how soon he might sin, for he was but a creature), God would then presently hate him. This was clearly and truly the friendship and love that was between God and Adam. But now what is the love, what kindleth the love now that is in the heart of a believer of a more noble flame? It is a love that is free, a love that is not fixed upon us while we love God, or because we love
him, but was eternally, before we had done either good or evil, as the phrase is, Rom. 9:11. 'Not for your sakes, but for my own name's sake, do I this,' saith God, Ezek. 36:32. Indeed he hath chosen us in Christ, that we should be holy in love; but he hath not chosen us because we loved him, nor doth he continue his choice therefore. Is it a love which may prove but temporary? No; it is a love from everlasting to everlasting; it is a love that is pitched upon our persons; I love such a person, saith God, be he sinful or holy; and if sinful, I will make him holy. The love pitched upon Adam was in relation to his graces, and the love that God bare to Adam was but single to him, as to his creature; but the love that is in God's heart now is through Christ his Son, professing to love us with the same love he loveth him. That love he bare Adam was such as he bare to any creature, be they what they be, so long as they remained holy and kept in their first state; but the love that a believer takes in, it is a peculiar love, it is a love with difference: 'I will shew mercy to whom
I will shew mercy,' that is all the reason of it: 'Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated;' and he gives no reason of it. The love that Adam had in his condition was such, that sin took away all God's love, and turned it into hatred; but here is a love now that, though we be sinful, we are not children of wrath when we are believers; a love which much water cannot quench; a love which, when we were sinners and enemies, it was the more desirous to manifest itself, because it should have, more opportunity by giving Christ to shew the more love, by how much the more we were sinners. Now all this love doth the heart of a believer take in under the gospel, and doth Christ work in us, therefore raiseth up this love to a height, to a nobleness, to a generosity, to a heavenliness, such as never Adam's heart was capable of. 'Perfect love casteth out fear;' he knows God so loves him as he will never hate him, nor never can do it; a love which is not mercenary, doth not serve for reward; a love which (when the gospel once hath kindled it) will cleave to God though a man's heart knows not whether God love him or no; a love which will not only make a man submit to the will of God, but makes a man's soul willing, if it were the will of God, to be lost for him. So it was with Paul.
Fourthly, Take self-denial in a Christian, which is a new grace. 'Not my will, but thy will,' was Christ's motto. Alas! Adam was put to live, he was to keep within his bounds which God created him in, and it was fit he should be kept in them. But we are put to deny ourselves, yea, sometimes when it comes in opposition to God, to deny friends, father, mother, life, yea, a man's own graces. No such self-denial was
Adam put to, which is the most great and glorious grace of all the rest.
Fifthly, Go take all motives to obedience, and they are far more noble in a Christian than ever was in Adam; as in 1 John 2:7, love is called not only an old commandment, but a new. And why a new one?
Because when the gospel cometh, it brings new motives, and urgeth the commandment of love to our brethren and fellow-creatures upon such grounds as the law and the covenant of works never did. We have higher motives to the smallest duty than ever Adam could have or his heart was capable of. Are we to be kind to our fellowcreatures? Saith the apostle, 'Put on kindness.' But how? How doth he move it? 'As the elect of God, holy and beloved,' Col. 3:12, as those whom God hath chosen with an everlasting love in Jesus Christ,
'forbearing one another and forgiving one another.' And so you have the like in Eph. 4:32, 'Be ye kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.' And so in Eph. 5:24, the obedience of wives to their husbands, and the love of husbands to their wives, is urged upon such a ground as Adam should never have had such a motive run through his heart:
'Let wives' (saith he) 'be subject to their husbands in everything, as the church is subject unto Christ. And let husbands love their wives, even as Christ also loved the church.' Such motives as these, in these common relations, doth the gospel give us.
These old commandments Adam had, of duties to his fellow-creatures, and of love to his wife, and the like; but they were upon lower motives, infinitely lower than what the gospel holds forth. He had no such example as we have in Christ for every duty, no such motives as we have from him.
Lastly, The assistance which we have from Christ is of a higher kind than that which Adam had. How did God assist Adam in all the works of the law that he was to perform? What was the promise of assistance? No other than to assist him in his kind (God having created him holy) as he doth assist other creatures in their kind. I say his assistance was but the concurrence of a common providence, so as to other creatures; only it was applied to Adam in his kind, as a creature that was holy. But now the assistance that we have under the gospel, for every work we do, is of a higher nature, for Jesus
Christ is our covenant, he hath undertaken to fulfil all in us and for us; all that God would have us to do, he hath undertaken to work it in us, so far forth as to save us, or to bring us to that degree of glory he hath appointed us unto. He works in us both to will and to do according to his good pleasure: 'I am able to do all things' (saith
Paul) 'through Christ that strengthened me;' so that 'it is not I' (saith he), 'but the grace of God that is in me,' the grace of God acting me, falling upon me, and overpowering my spirit. A believer he is in the Spirit, and so he walketh in the Spirit. But this was not the law of assisting Adam, which was only the law of common providence.
2. The second thing which we are conformed to is Christ's example; and so the author to the Hebrews calls him 'the Captain of our salvation,' Heb. 2:10, because like a valiant general he hath set us a pattern, and 'left us an example to follow his steps,' 1 Pet. 2:21; and therefore the same apostle Peter, following the same metaphor, 1 Pet.
4:1, says, 'Arm yourselves with the same mind.' Nay, lay but aside the works of his divinity, as healing, fasting, &c., and of his mediation, and the like; and it is a sure rule, that whatsoever Christ did for a Christian he doth in him also, there being a likeness and proportion, and an assimilation in his works of grace in us, and for us. He is conceived, formed, born again in us, as you heard out of the Galatians:* 'We circumcised with him, with the circumcision made without hands, are dead, buried, raised up again with him,' as it is
Col. 2:11–13. So that the conversion of a sinner is but the acting over again of Christ's part. Now though I might go over many, yet I will insist, this I time, only in those which are mentioned, Rom. 6:5–9;
the sum of which is in the 5th verse, that 'we are planted with him into the likeness of his death and resurrection.' For those two being the chiefest parts of his mediation, the work of sanctification in us is assimilated and likened unto them. Mortification, or the killing of sin, and vivification, or quickening us unto newness of life, are assimilated to his death and resurrection; and that not only because they are wrought by the power of them (though that be true, as appears by Phil. 3:10), but also in regard of a likeness that there is between the one and the other, and so we are said to be planted with him into the similitude of his resurrection. I desire you to consider
Rom. 6:3–7, &c., because I will ground the rest on what is there. In the 6th verse, you may observe how the apostle puts upon the mass of corruption and sin that is in us, the name of a body, calling it 'the body of sin,' not only because that it is compact and made up of innumerable lusts in us as members of it (as it is Col. 3:3–5), which, like members, are knit together; but chiefly in respect of this, that he might shew us the likeness between Christ's dying, and our dying to sin, that as he had a body was crucified, so we have a body of sin to be destroyed; yea, and in the same manner crucified as his was. Such is his phrase in the 6th verse, 'that our old man,' or body of sin,
'might be crucified with him' and destroyed. Yea, and the apostle Peter, in 1st Epistle chap. 4, useth the two parts of Christ's crucifying to express this.
1. Christ was condemned, and had sentence of death passed on him; so are our sins condemned, for we having resolved to leave and forsake them, to cherish them no longer, have passed the sentence of death on them; and so a Christian hath vowed the death of his sins, as of his known enemies; and though a man loved his lusts never so well, though they have been his old bosom friends, he hath formerly had so much solace in, yet now when he hath discovered their treason out, and apprehends how they are his enemies, enemies to God, to Christ, and that he must now either kill or be killed, that they fight against his soul (as Peter speaks), he seeks the death of them by all means, accuseth, arraigneth them, by confession, and pleading guilty; his own mouth condemns them daily, hales and drags them
before the judgment-seat of God; and because he cannot execute them, he cries, Lord, thou art able to give this lust a stab, and its deadly wound, which is ready ever and anon to overcome and kill me. And how glad is he when he hears the sentence of death, pronounced against it in the word; lays his heart open to the ministry of it, the reproof of his sin, and suffers the sword of the Spirit to have its full blow at it. Oh, my brethren, examine your own hearts: who among you have gone thus far in the mortification of his lusts? Who is at enmity, and daggers drawing at them daily? Who is he that stands in terms with them, as with an enemy, nay, rather, doth not cherish them as dearest friends, keeping them under their tongues as sweet bits? How many are there that never made prayer against any one sin, that storm at the word when it condemns them?
2. As Christ, after he was condemned, was brought to the cross, and there executed, crucified, so also the Sprit of God in true Christians comes with the power of Christ, naileth his lusts to the cross of Christ, Gal. 6:14; and so, 1 Pet. 4:1, we are said to suffer in the flesh, as Christ did; and the apostle Paul, Rom. 6:6, useth the same word of crucifying to express the one and the other, both of Christ's and ours.
As Christ's body, in crucifying, was in every member and part put to pain, which in no death scarce but that falls out; not a vein, not a sinew, but was stretched; so also is every member of the body of sin crucified, it reaching to every lust, great and small, Gal. 5:24, they all now stretch for it. And oh, my brethren, who knows the pains in parting with lusts, but they that have done it, and in truth? And though some have stronger hearts than others to endure more pain, yet every lust being as the strings of a man's heart, as dear as his life, therefore the parting with these, the crucifying of these, must needs be as the breaking of the heart-strings, and making the vital sinews crack. Examine yourselves, how many are there of you that never parted in earnest with one lust yet, much less with all.
And then, 3dly, as Jesus Christ being thus crucified gave up the ghost, so also doth the Spirit of Christ, in likeness unto this, take away the life and power of sin; at the first stab it hath a deadly
wound given it at the heart; and therefore the apostle, in Rom. 6:2, 3, affirms that believers are dead to sin, baptized into the death of Christ, it having a deadly blow given it; and how shall we that are dead live therein? He argues it is absurd and impossible; how can it be? Can a man that is dead, or deadly-wounded, live? that is, perform the actions of life with delight constantly, for that is to live.
Why, he cannot; no more can we (says the apostle) live in sin; that is, we cannot with delight, and in the life of comfort, continue in the practice of any of our former sins in a full career, that is, continue with delight in the actions of it. For to live in sin, in the 2d verse, is all one as to continue in sin, in the 4th verse. My brethren, let us all examine ourselves hereby; we came all into the world sinners, and with lusts all as lively as ourselves; and every man, also till that he hath the power of Christ's death thus conveyed to him, lives the life of his lusts as well as that of his natural life; performs the actions whereby he satisfies them with as much life and delight as he can do those of his natural life, Col. 3:7. Now therefore examine yourselves, whether that you have felt a thorough work ever wrought in you or no, by which this power and life of sin was killed, and thy sins had and hath a deadly wound given them, which will go with them to their graves, and which they could never since recover. Try this in thy master lust. Doth a lust live in thy heart still? live, and is as brisk as ever when it is put in, or stirred up in thee, even as a fish in its own proper element? Then thou art not mortified. But dost thou find a deadness and stiffness to those sinful delights wherein formerly the comfort of thy life consisted, so as that they are all as dead drink to the stomach, or as a stone put into a dead man's mouth, and thou cannot find the relish that savours, the sweetness and fulness of contentment in them that formerly thou hast done, so that thou art crucified to the world, and the world to thee? This proceedeth from union with Christ's dying unto sin, which is likened to his dying for sin. But especially try it in regard of thy course, for the apostle says, if that we be dead to sin, how shall we live therein? If a man were crucified or dead with Christ, he could not live in his old courses: 1
Pet. 4:1, 'He that hath suffered in the flesh,' that is, whose sinful corruption of nature is killed by the power of Christ's death, 'hath
ceased from sin;' that is, the course and practice of any known sin, for that is the most capable interpretation can be given of it. My brethren, pray consider, either that is not the word of God, or this is not the meaning of it, or else any one that lives in the practice of any known bosom sin is not a Christian. How can then those that live in the lusts of the Gentiles, as they are termed there, in ver. 4, 5, 'in wantonness, chamberings, drunkenness, uncleanness,' and the like excess of riot, be termed Christians? In 1 John 3:5–8, speaking of our conformity unto Christ, among the rest he makes this as one, that as Christ had no sin in him, so he that abides in him continues not in sin; for so the word must be interpreted, for says he, ver. 8, 'Christ appeared to dissolve the works of the devil;' that is, in those that are his, to put an end to the work or devilish trade of sin in themselves. If therefore we be dead with Christ, how shall we continue in sin?
When a thief is hanged, doth he not leave the practice of his thievery?
And so should we break off our course in sinning if we ourselves had ever been on the cross with Christ, and crucified with him. Well, my brethren, this know, that none shall have the benefit of his death for the forgiveness of sin, that hath not a likeness to it in the death of it in himself. And lest it should be thought that sin is not thus truly killed with Christ, the apostle goes farther, in Rom. 6:4, and says that 'we are buried also with Christ.' There is also a conformity to his burial, whereby is shewn that sin is truly dead. A living man would not suffer himself to be buried; and by the conformity to his burial he means the progress of a Christian in the further and daily mortifying of his lusts; that as a body being laid in the grave rots away and consumes, till at length it be destroyed, so doth the body of sin (as it is at ver. 6), being crucified, it is destroyed also, and that is not till the day of death; and therein indeed it differs from Christ's body, which remained unconsumed in the grave, saw no corruption, and remains now glorified in heaven. And therefore examine whether sin moulders and decays in thee or no.