advantages for the accomplishment of its work. I say, it is like a man that is sent by his lord to see and pry into the labours and works of other men, taking every advantage to discover their infirmities and failings, and to chide them,-yea, to throw them out of the lord's favour for the same.Bunyan. when grace subdues that great sinner to itself, then we have a shining Christian.-Ibid. We naturally shape our thoughts of the Divine mercy in pardoning our sins, according to the thoughts we frame to ourselves of the sins we have committed. If we conceive these little, how can we think the other great? And if we tremble at the greatness of our sins, we must needs triumph and exult at the transcendency of the mercy which so far exceeds their greatness. He that wonders at the height of some mountain, would much more wonder at the depth of those waters which should quite swallow and cover it, so that it could not be seen.-Gurnall. Little candles shine but little, for there wanteth matter for the fire to work upon; but in a great sinner, there is more matter for grace to work by. A black string makes the neck look whiter; great sins make grace burn clear. Some say, when grace and a good nature meet together, these make shining Christians; but I say, when grace and a great sinner meet, and 21 That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. What a malignant thing is sin! Physicians have observed of some diseases of a very baneful nature, that in process of time they become less virulent, having, as it were, spent their energy and worn out their malignity so that they cease to be mortal. But sin, notwithstanding the innumerable victims it has slain, is still as deadly and destructive a thing as ever-it still 'reigns unto death.'-L. They who are justified are said to receive abundance of grace, or grace abounding over all the aboundings of sin. Sin reigns over our species, subjugating them all to death; but grace conquers the conqueror, reigning through righteousness to eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord.-A. Fuller. CHAP. VI. WHAT shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? None but a devil would teach us this logic. It was a great height of sin those wretched Jews came to, who could quaff and carouse while death looked in upon them at the windows: 'Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we shall die.' They discovered their atheism therein. But what a prodigious stature in sin must that man be grown to, that can sin under the protection of the promise, and draw his encouragement to sin from the everlasting love of God: Let us eat and drink, for we are sure to live and be saved! Grace cannot dwell in that heart which draws such a cursed conclusion from the promises of God's grace; the saints have not so learned Christ.-Gurnall. Will nothing cheaper than the grace of God serve to make a cloak for sin? O vile abuse! Did Christ shed His blood to expiate our guilt, and dare we make that a plea to extenuate our guilt? God forbid !-Flavel. Is it not a madness for a man willingly to suffer the ship wherein he is, to split itself on a rock, to the irrecoverable loss of his merchandise, because he supposes he shall in his own person swim safely to shore on a plank? Is it less in him who will hazard the shipwreck of all his comfort, peace, joy, and so much of the glory of God and honour of the Gospel as he is entrusted with, merely on supposition that his soul shall yet escape ?-Dr. Owen. Sin turns all God's grace into wan 2 God forbid. longer therein? tonness it is the dare of His justice; the rape of His mercy; the jeer of His patience; the slight of His power; and the contempt of His love.-Bunyan. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any The emphasis here is on the word 'we.' 'How shall we do it, who have received grace from Christ to the contrary? We, doubtless, are worse than any, if we do it.' I need not insist on the special aggravations of the sins of such persons,-how they sin against more love, mercy, grace, assistance, relief, means, and deliverances, than others. But let such remember, there is inconceivably more evil and guilt in the evil of their heart that doth remain, than there would be in so much sin, if they had no grace at all.-Dr. Owen. Christians are dead to sin by profession, dead to it by obligation, dead to it by their relation to Christ, who died for them.-Flavel. 3 This is the true character of a Christian: he is dead to sin.' But alas! where is this Christian to be found? And yet, thus is every one that truly partakes of Christ; he is dead to sin really. Hypocrites have an historical kind of death, like this, as players in tragedies. Those players have loose bags of blood that receive the wound: so the hypocrite, in some externals, and, it may be, in that which is as near to him as any outward thing-his purse-may suffer some bloodshed of that for Christ; but this death to sin is not a swooning fit, that one may recover out of again; the apostle (v. 4) adds, that he is buried.-Leighton. Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 'Our old man is crucified with Him.' -As a man nailed to the cross first struggles, and strives, and cries out with great strength and might; but as his blood and spirits waste, his strivings become faint and seldom, his cries low and hoarse, scarcely heard;-so when a man first sets on a lust or distemper, to deal with it, it struggles with great violence to break loose; it cries with earnestness and impatience to be satisfied and relieved; but when by mortification the blood and spirits of it are let out, it moves seldom and faintly, cries sparingly, and is scarce heard in the heart; it may have some times a dying pang, that makes an appearance of great vigour, but it is quickly over, especially if it be kept from considerable success.-Dr. Owen. The only cross on which the sinner can nail his every lust to its utter destruction, is, not the devices of a selfinflicted maceration, but the tree on which Christ hung, made a curse for us.'-Dr. Goold. Five persons were once studying what were the best means to mortify sin; one said, to meditate on death; the second, to meditate on judgment the third, to meditate on the joys of heaven; the fourth, to meditate on the torments of hell; the fifth, to meditate on the blood and sufferings of Jesus Christ; and certainly the last is the choicest motive of all.-Brooks. Sin, in Scripture, is called 'a body,' because made up of several members; or as the body of an army, consisting of many troops and regiments. It is one thing to beat a troop, or put a wing of an army to fight, and another thing to rout and break the whole army. Something hath been done by moral principles, like the former; they have got some petty victory, and had the chase of some more gross and external sins; but then they were fearfully beaten by some other of sin's troops. As the sea, which loses as much in one part of the land as it gains in another; so what they got in a seeming victory over one sin, they lost again by being in bondage to another, and that a worse, because more spiritual. But faith is uniform, and routs the whole body of sin, so that not one single lust stands in its unbroken strength (v. 14). -Gurnall. The whole body of sin, indeed, is weakened in every believer, and a deadly wound given by the grace of God to his corrupt nature; yet, as a dying tree may bear some fruit, though not so much, nor that so full and ripe, as before; and as a dying man may move his limbs, though not so strongly as when he was in health; so original corruption in a saint will be stirring, though but feebly; and thou hast no cause to be discouraged because it stirs, but to be comforted that it can but stir.-Ibid. It is reported of Cato that he never spake in the senate upon public business, but he ended his speech by inculcating the necessity of destroying Carthage; his well-known maxim was: 'Delenda est Carthago.' The believer's motto is The old man must be crucified.'-L. 9 7 For he that is dead is freed from sin. 8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. 10 For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. V. 11. To how many thousand objects is the mind of man in its natural state, indifferent! it can turn itself to this or that; run with facility to all points of the compass: but attempt only to draw it to God, and it recoils; thoughts and affections revolt, and decline all converse with that blessed Object! Towards other objects it freely opens and dilates itself, as under the benign beams of a warm sun; towards God only it is presently contracted and shut up; life retires, and it becomes as a stone, cold, rigid, and im 11 penetrable !-the very contrary to what it should be! It is alive to sin, to the world, to vanity; but crucified, mortified, dead to God and Jesus Christ! 'Tis a horrid and amazing thing that it should be so, but Scripture and experience leave it undoubted that so it is.-Howe. Many flowers open to the sun, but only one follows him constantly. Be thou, my heart, like the sunflower, not only open to God's blessings, but constant in looking to Him!-Anon. 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. The life and reign of sin is in the heart; that is its garrison and throne. All outward sins are but acts of obedience to the reigning sin within. Sin is not less dangerous for lying secret in the heart. The root and heart are usually unseen. Some kings, as in China, Persia, &c., keep out of sight for the honour of their majesty. If sin appeared as it is within, it would lose much of its power and majesty; then ministers, and friends, and all good men would cast stones at it; but its secrecy is its peace.-Baxter. The power of sin is more considerable than the outward show. A poor man, if he be in the place of a magistrate, may be a ruler; and a sin materially small, and such as better men commit, may be a sin in power and rule with you, and concur with others which are greater.-Ibid. Sin may reign over the souls of men when it doth not express itself in open action; many a man shows a white and fair hand, who yet hath a very foul and black heart. The members of the body are the weapons of un righteousness; age, or sickness, may so blunt or break those weapons, that the soul cannot use them to such sinful purposes and services as it was wont to do in the vigorous season of life; and this is not because there is less sin in the heart, but because there is less strength and activity in the body; just as it is with an old soldier, who hath as much skill, policy, and delight as ever in military actions, but age and hard services have so enfeebled him that he can no longer follow the camp.-Flavel. The habitual ascendency of vice as certainly determines the choice as even a total depravity. A decided majority in Parliament carries every measure with as much certainty as if there were no minority.-A. Fuller. 18 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. Grace doth not pluck up by the roots, and wholly destroy the natural passions of the mind, because they are distempered by sin: that were an extreme remedy-to cure by killing, and heal by cutting off: No, but it corrects the distemper in them; the Holy Spirit causes the love of the soul to flow in its proper channel towards God in Christ.-Leighton. Some of the heathen's admired champions, to cure the lust of the eyes, have plucked them out; to show their contempt of riches, have thrown their money into the sea; to conquer the world's honour and applause, have sequestered themselves from all company. Shall we call this a victory, or a frenzy? Faith enables us to achieve a nobler conquest. If a house were on fire, which would you esteem the wiser man, he that goes to quench it by pulling the house down, or he that doth this as fully by throwing water on it, and leaves the house standing for your use? Faith recovers those possessions which had been alienated to the service of sin, and lays them all at Christ's feet.-Gurnall. If God has my members as weapons and instruments in His hands, I shall certainly be able not only to work, but also to conquer, since He understands. full well how to manage them. May the Lord only give me grace not to wind myself out of His hands! else I must needs be like a dead, useless carcass; for how can a pen write alone without being in the hand of a writer? -Bogatzky. "Yield yourselves unto God.'-Having offended the Romans, whose power was incomparably superior to their own, the Tusculans were threatened with vengeance by the marching of Camillus, at the head of a considerable army, towards their country. Conscious of their inability to copewith such an adversary, they adopted the following method of appeasing him :-They declined to make resistance, set open their gates, and applied themselves quietly to their proper business; resolving to submit, since they found it impossible to contend. Camillus, on entering their city, was struck with their prudence, and spake as follows: You only, of all people, have found out the true method of abating the Roman fury; and your submission has proved your best defence. Upon these terms we can no more find it in our hearts to injure you, than, upon other considerations, you could have found power to oppose us.' Thus the chief inducement for a sinner to submit to God, is a persuasion that He is not inexorable, but that there is forgiveness with Him through Jesus Christ.-Anecdotes. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. The soul of a saint in this world is the seat of war, but it is war to a good purpose; a war wherein he finally prevails, and wherein he is habitually victorious all along. But the soul of an unregenerate man is the seat of war in vain; for the right principle— light in the conscience is always worsted, perpetually worsted.-Howe. This is the saddest warfare that any poor creature can be engaged in. A soul under the power of conviction from the Law is pressed to fight against sin, but hath no strength for the combat. It cannot but fight, and it can never conquer; it is like a man thrust on the sword of the enemy on purpose to be slain. The Law drives him on, and sin beats him back!-Dr. Owen. When Prudence asked Christian, by what means he ever succeeded in vanquishing his spiritual enemies, his answer is very beautiful: 'When I think what I saw at the cross, that will do it; and when I look upon my broidered coat, that will do it; and when I look at my roll that I carry in my bosom, that will do it; and when my thoughts wax warm about whither I am going, that will do it!'-Cheever. If the believer were under the Law, Satan's charge against him would stand good; but he is put out of the reach of the Law by his change of relation. There is, e.g., a woman, a widow, that oweth a sum of money, and she is threatened to be sued for the debt; but what doth she but marrieth; so, when the action is commenced against her as a widow, the law finds her a married] woman; what now can be done? Nothing to her; she is not who she was; she is delivered from that state by her marriage; if anything be done, it must be done to her husband. But if Satan will sue Christ for my debt, He oweth him nothing; and as to what the Law can claim of me while I was under it, Christ hath delivered me from that curse by Redemption (Gal. iii. 13).— Bunyan. Hope of victory gives fresh ardour to the courageous; assurance of it would make a coward valiant. The slave, emancipated from his yoke, the captive escaped from his dungeon, will resist all attempts to reduce him to his former abject state, with a vigour proportioned to the prospect of preserving his beloved liberty. Thus the apostle assures believers that sin shall not reassume its hated dominion over them, in order to animate their opposition to its influence in every instance.-Scott. 15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. 16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? Reader, whose servant are you? If you are still a servant of sin, quit its work, cast off its badges. Stay not to 17 But God be thanked, that ye have obeyed from the heart that vered you. finish one unfinished job; at once strike, and offer yourself to the better Master.-W. D. Ingham. were the servants of sin, but ye form of doctrine which was deli |