The Sinners Sanctuary, Sermon 33
SERMON XXXIII.
Rom. 8.12.
Therefore brethren, we are debters, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh:
Vers. 13.
For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die, &c.
WAS it not enough to contain men in obedience to God, the very essential bond of dependence upon God as the original and fountain of his beeing! and yet man hath cast away this cord from him, and withdrew from that alledgiance he did owe to his Maker, by transgressing his holy commandments. But God not willing that all should pe…ish, he hath confirmed and st…engthned that primitive obligation, by two other as strong, if not more; if the Father did most eminently appear in the first, the Son is manifested in the second, and that is the work of the redemption of man, no lesse glorious then his first creation: He made him first, and then He sent his own Son in the likenesse of sinfull fle…h, to make him again by his Spirit: and now a threefold cord is not easily broken. It seems this should bind invincibly, and constrain us not to be our own, but the Lords: and now truly, they who are in Jesus Christ, a…e thrice indebted wholly to God. But the two last obligations are the most special, and most wonderful, that God sent His Son for us, to redeem us from sin and misery, and to restore man to happinesse, took on a miserable and accursed habit, that so glorious a person gave Himself for so base; that so excellent a Lord became a servant for the rebell; that He whose the earth is, and the …ulness thereof, did …mpty Himself of all to sup…ly VsUs: and in a word, the most wonderful exchange …e made that ever the Sun saw, God for men, His life a ransome for their life: all the rare inventions, and …ancied stories of men, come infinitly short of this: The light never saw Majestty so abased, and love so expressed, as in this matter: and all to this purpose, that we who had undone ourselves, might be made up again, and the righteou…nesse of the Law fulfilled in us. At first He made us, but it cost Him nothing but a word; but now, to buy that whic… was taken captive by sin, and a… so dear a rate, ye are bought with a price, and this price more precious than the sum of Heaven and Earth could amount to, suppose by some ra…e Al…bymie the earth were all converted into Gold, and the Heavens into Precious Stones; ye… these corruptible and material things come as far short of this …ansome, as an heap of dung is unproportioned to a masse of Gold, or heap of Jewels. Now you that are thus bought, may ye not conclude, therefore we are debtters, and whereof? of our selves, for we, our persons, estates and all were sold, and all are bought with this price, therefo… we are not our own, but the Lords, and therefore we ought to glorifie God in our bodies and spirits which are his, 1 Cor 6.20. Should we henceforth claim an interest and propriety in our selves? Should we have a will of our own? Should we serve our selves with our members? O how monstruous and absurd were that! Ce…tainly, a believing heart cannot but look upon that as the greatest indignity, and vilest impiety, that ever the Sun shined upon: Ingratitu…e hath a note of ignominy, even among Heathens put upon it; they e…eemed the reproach of it the compend of all reproaches, Ingr…tum si dixeris, omnia dixeris. And truly, it hath the most abominable visage of any vice; yea, it is all s…ns drawn through other in one Table. Certainly, a godly heart cannot but account this execrable and detestable, henceforth to have any proper and peculiar will and pleasure and cannot but devout it self wholly to His will and pleasu…e, for whose pleasure all were first created, and who then redeemed us by the blood of His Son. I wish we could have this image of ingratitude alwayes observant to our eyes and minds when we are inticed with our lusts, to study our own satisfaction. But the…e is another bond superadded to this, which mightily aggravats the debt, He …ath given us his Spirit to dwell within, as well as his Son for us. And O the marvellous and strange effects that this Spirit hath in the …avou…s of men! He truly repairs that image of God, which sin broke down; He furnisheth the soul, and supplies it in all its necessities; He is a light and life to it, a spring of everlasting life and consol…tion; so that to the Spirit we owe that we are made ag…in after his Image, and the precious purchase of Christ applyed unto our souls. For Him hath our Saviour left to execute his latter-will in behalf of his children. And these things are but the first fruits of the Spirit, any peace, or joy, or love, or obedience, are but an earnest of that which is coming: we shall be yet more beholden to Him, when the walls of flesh are taken down, he will carry forth the soul into that glorious liberty of the sons of God; and not long after he shall quicken our very dust, and raise it up in glory to the fellowship of that happinesse. Now, my beloved, consider what all this tends to, mark the inference you should make from it, Therefore we are debters, debters indeed, under infinit obligations for infinit me…cies: But what is the debt we owe? truly it might be conceived to be some rare thing, equivalent to such unconceivable benefits: But mark what it is, to live after the spirit, and not after the flesh, to conform our affections and actions, and the tenor of our way and course, to the direction of the Spirit, to have our spirits led and enlightned by the Holy Spirit, and not to follow the indictment of our flesh and carnal minds. Now truly, it is a wonder that it is no… other thing then this, for this is no other thing then what we owe to our selves, and to our own natures, so to speak; for truly there is a con…ormity and suitablenesse of some things to the very nature of man, that is beautiful, some things are decent and becomes it, other things are undecent and uncomely, unsuitable to the very reasonable beeing of man, so that they put a stain and blot upon it.
Now indeed, there is nothing can be conceived more agreeable to the very constitution of mans nature then this, that the far better and more excellent part, should lead and command, and the baser and earthly part should obey and follow; that the flesh should minister and serve the spirit: Doth not even Nature it self teach it? and yet, no heavier yoke is put upon us, then what our own nature hath put upon … already, which indeed is wonderful; and certainly this wonderful attempering of his Laws unto the very natural exigence of the spirit of man, make the transgression of them so much the more hainous.
Now, all these three forementioned bonds do joyntly bind on this Law upon man, in general, they oblidge strongly to subjection and obedience to the will of God; but particularly, they have a constraining influence upon this, living after the spirit, not after the flesh: our very creation speaks this forth, when God made man after his own Image, when he beautified the spirit of man with that divine similitude and likenesse, in that he breathed a spirit from Heaven, and took a body out of the dust, and then exalted that heavenly piece to some participation of his own nature: Doth not all this cry aloud upon u…, that the order of creation is now dissolved, that the beauty of it is ma…ed, that all is turned up …ide-down, when mens passions and senses are their only gui…s, and the principles of light in their conscience are choakt, and …i…led? Doth not all this teach us plainly that we should not live after the flesh? that we owe not so much to this bruitish part, as to enthrone it and impower it over us? that it were the vilest Anarchy, and most intole…able confusion and usurpation, to give it the power over u…, as most men do? that there can be no order or beauty in man, till the spirit be unfettered from the chains of fleshly lust…, and restored to the native dignity and preheminency, and so keep the body in subjection? And indeed Paul was so, 1 Cor. 9.27 I keep my body in subjection, and beat it down, because it is an imperious slave, an usurping slave, and will command if not beaten and kept under.
Again, Christ hath put a bond upon us to this very same, he hath strengthned this obligation with a ne… cord, in that he gave his precious life a ransome for the souls of men, this was the principal thing he payed for (the body only being an accessory and appendix to the soul) for it is said, The redemption of the soul is precious, and ceaseth for ever, Ps…l. 49.8. and What can a man give in exchange for his soul, Mark 8.37. For what material thing can equalize a spirit? Many things may be had more preciou… and fine than the body, but all of them have no proportion to a spiritual being. Now then, in that so dear a ransome, and so infinit a p…ice must be given for the spirit of man, it declares the infinit worth and excellency of it above the body, and above all visible things: and here indeed, the greatest confirmation that can be imagined, God hath valued it, he hath put the soul of man in the ballance, to find something equal in weight of dignity and worth, and when all that is in Heaven and Earth is put in the other scale, the soul is down-weight by far▪ there is such distance, that there is no proportion; only the life and blood of his own Son weighs it down, and is an overvalue, and thus in our redemption we have a visible demonstration (as it were) of the infinit obligation of this Law, not to live after that contemptible part, our flesh▪ but to follow after the motions and directions of an enlightned spirit; not to spend our thoughts, care and time upon the body, and making provision for the lusts thereof (as most men do, and all by nature a…e now inclined to do) but to be taken up wi…h the immortal preciou… Jewel that is within, how to have it … and cleansed from all the filth, that sin and the flesh hath cast …; and restored to that native beauty, the image of God in righteousness and holiness. If you in your practice and affecti…n … the scales otherwise, and make the body and things of the body, …uppose the whole world down-weight in your affection and imagination, you have p…ainly cont…adicted the just measu…e of the Sanctuary, and in effect you declare that Christ died in vain, and gave his life out of an errour and mistake of the worth of the soul: you say, he needed not have given such a price for it, seing every day you weigh it down with every triffle o… momentany fleshly satisfaction.
Lastly, the Spirit binds this fast upon us; for the soul of man he hath chosen for his habitation, and there he delights to dwell, in the hea…t o… the contrite and humble; and this he intends to beautifie and garnish, and to restore it to that primitive excellency it once had. The Spirit of man is nea…er his nature, and more capable of being con…o…med unto it; and therefore his peculiar and special work is about our spirits : first, to enlighten and convince them; then to reform and direct them and lead them; and this binds as fo…cibly, and constraineth a believer certainly to …esign himself to the Spirit; to study how to order his walk a…ter that di…ection, and to be more and more abstracted from the satisfaction of his body; else he cannot choose but g…ieve the Spirit, his b…st friend which alone is the fountain o… joy and peace to him, and being grieved, cannot but grieve himself next.
Now, my beloved, con…der, if you owe so much to the flesh, whether or not it be so steadable and profitable unto you? and if you think it can give you a sufficient reward to compense all your pains in satisfying it, go on; But, I believe, you can …eckon no good office that ever it did you, and your expectation is lesse: what fruit have you of all, but shame and vexation of conscience? and what can you expect but death, the last fruits of it? wha… then do you owe unto it? are you debters to its pleasure and satis…cti…n, which hath never done you good; and will do you eternal hurt▪ consider whether you are so much bound and oblidged to it, as to lose your souls for it? one of them must be: and whether or not you be not more oblidged to God the Father, and his Son Iesus Christ, to live after the Spirit; though for the present it should be painful, to beat down your body. You are debters indeed, but you owe nothing to the flesh, but stripes and mortification.