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same resolute purpose to suffer for him, in crucifying and destroying the flesh. This entire train of thought is fully set forth in 1 Pet. 4: 1: "Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind (i. e. summon all your energy to suffer for him in the flesh); for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin." In other words, he who hath crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts thereof, hath ceased from sin. Only the internal sense is here possible; for crucifying the flesh, in this sense, does destroy sin; bodily suffering does not. The final result is then stated: "that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh (i. e. in the body, or in this world), to the lusts of man, but to the will of God." Here then we have the work to be done to crucify the flesh, and the example of Christ in suffering, the fact that it was for us that he suffered, and his earnest desire that we should indicate the same fortitude in suffering for him, in order to become holy, and live in this world for God, and not for man. Thus the appeal is thorough and complete. And how great its power! Christian, are you relaxing your efforts to subdue sin? Do you say, It is too painful, I cannot endure it? But Oh, think again. Did Christ, your Saviour, suffer so much that you may be forgiven, and be restored to holiness, and does he earnestly desire it? has he fixed his heart upon it? is he deeply grieved at your negligence and sloth? Will you not then arouse yourself at once? Think of the fortitude and firmness with which he armed himself when he suffered for you; and arm yourself with the same mind to suffer for him, in becoming holy, which he manifested in suffering that you might become holy.

This mode of speech is carried out in other parts of Scripture, in great minuteness of detail, but always on this principle, that the sufferings of Christ are supposed to be fully before the mind, as an object of daily meditation and imitation, and that, whatever took place naturally in connection with the sufferings of Christ, has something to correspond with it spiritually, in its connexion with the sufferings of believers. Thus:

CHRIST.

1. Christ suffered naturally.

2. Christ in his flesh, i. e. body natural.

THE BELIEVER.

1. The believer suffers spiritually.

2. The believer in his flesh, i. e. body of sin.

3. The members of Christ's
body were crucified.
4. Christ's body died entirely.
All natural life was total-

ly extinct.

5. Christ's natural death was
for sin.

6. Christ was buried natural-
ly, and became invisible
in the
grave.

7. Christ rose naturally, and
appeared in new external
glory.

8. It was the mighty natural power of God that raised Christ.

9. Christ after his resurrection sat down in heavenly places, bodily.

10. Christ dies naturally no more; death hath no more dominion over him.

3. The members of the body

of sin are to be crucified. 4. The body of sin, the old man, the flesh, is to be entirely destroyed. 5. The believer's spiritual death is to sin.

6. The believer is to be buried spiritually and to become invisible in his old character.

7. The believer is to rise spiritually and appear in a new, holy, glorious, spiritual character.

8. It is the mighty power of God through faith that raises the believer. 9. Believers sit down by faith in heavenly places, after their resurrection. 10. Believers die in sin no

more; death spiritual hath no more dominion over them.

This process is sometimes stated antithetically, and in separate parts, but it is also expressed in abbreviated forms of speech formed by compounding the word denoting the action with our, e. g. συμπάσχω, συσταυρόω, συναποθνήσκω, συζωοποιέω, συνeyeίow, ovynadíço, etc.; in all which cases is implied, I do or suffer that spiritually which Christ did or suffered naturally. So believers are said to suffer, be crucified, die, be buried, be restored to life, be raised, sit in heavenly places, and live forever with Christ, i. e. spiritually, as in his case naturally. The reason of this is to be found in two facts.

1. Christ suffered, died, etc. naturally, in order to secure, not only forgiveness, but also these very spiritual changes in us, and it is the power of his example and love which in fact produces them. As Christ, therefore, had all these things in view, when he suffered, and as his sufferings rendered them sure, the spiritual sufferings of believers are looked on as virtually included in

the natural sufferings of Christ: their death to sin in his for it -their spiritual burial, resurrection and eternal life, in his natural burial, resurrection and eternal life. For surely one series did involve and render certain the other; and so when one came to pass actually, the other did virtually.

2. The ardent love to Christ, which ever glowed in the breast of Paul, led him to devise this mode of speech, as the best adapted to express his unutterable affection for his Saviour, his all-absorbing admiration of his character, and his infinite and intense desire to be in all things one with him. Hence, as the sufferings of his own adored Lord and Saviour passed every hour before his mind, an intense desire arose, as it were, to make them his own, that is, to identify himself with him, in absolute and perfect sympathy, and, especially, to admire and adore and imitate his character in that humiliation, and those sufferings which he underwent for us. But before he could thus perfectly sympathize with Christ, he must of course renounce and crucify entirely all former ambitions, selfish and worldly modes of feeling; for he could not perfectly sympathize with such suffering love, till he was perfectly like him. Hence, the least remains of sin he regarded as excluding him from a perfect experimental and sympathetic knowledge of the character of Christ; and, by self-crucifixion, to reach this point of a perfect experimental sympathy in the absolute perfection of a suffering Saviour, was the summit of all his desires. Hear him as he exclaims: "I count all things loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ, my Lord, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death." And again: "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." And again: "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.”—The various forms of this mode of speech, in all its range, are not the mere offspring of a luxuriant poetic imagination. Nor are they merely the intellectual play of a fancy, that delights to trace analogies, and amuse with alliterations. They are the sacred, elevated spiritual language of unalterable love, the full power and beauty of which no eye can see, or heart feel, that has never felt the emotions from which it sprang. Without them, it may seem like a mere heartless play of the imagination; with them, it will at once be recognized as the spontaneous,

irresistible gushing forth of the emotions of a heart, every impulse of which is towards Christ, every desire of which is to be like him in all things, and one with him in joys and sorrows, in life and death. And sad was that day for the primitive church, when her heart ceased to beat responsive to that of Paul, and darkness fell upon the deep spiritual import of his sacred words. Then, in a fatal hour, the mystery of iniquity began to work; and soon, regeneration, by an external form, and mystic, hidden influences, usurped the place of the real crucifixion of the body of sin.

To illustrate these principles, by quotations in detail, would exceed my limits. I shall only refer to the following passages of Scripture, on which they are based, and which, in order to see the whole truth on the subject, ought to be carefully examined.

In Eph. 1: 19-23, and 2: 1-7, natural death, resurrection, etc. in Christ are viewed analogically with death and sin, resurrection from sin, etc. in believers; and the power of God, raising Christians by faith, is compared to his natural power in raising Christ, and said to be analogical to it; and the idea that believers are restored to life, rise and sit down spiritually in heaven, as Christ did naturally, and that these changes in him involved theirs, is expressed by συνεζωοποιήσει συνήγειρε, Ovvεzávoε. In Phil. 3: 10-21, Paul desires to know fully, and in a spiritual sense, that which corresponds by analogy to these natural changes in Christ,-1, sufferings; 2, death; 3, resurrection; 4, experience of divine power; and he shows how he aimed at the spiritual perfection, involved in a perfect similitude to the natural events-(i. e. a perfect moral crucifixion, death and resurrection)-though he had not yet attained, and was not yet perfect. There is not the least allusion to his own natural resurrection here. That would take place of course, and without any effort on his part, and the law of analogy totally forbids such an interpretation. In Col. 2: 20, and 3: 1-4, we have 1, death to the world with Christ; 2, a resurrection with Christ, and a sympathy with the things where Christ is, producing an internal and hidden life in him. Both of these changes in the believer are internal and spiritual, and in Christ external.

See also Gal. 6: 14, 1 Pet. 4: 1, 2, Gal. 2: 19, 20, Col. 3: 5-14, Gal. 5: 24. To these add Rom. 6: 1--13 and Col. 2: 11-13. Some of these have been referred to before;

and the last two contain the passages in dispute; but I refer to them now in order to present the Scripture evidence in a single group. One thing more deserves our notice in this place. Two spiritual states are sometimes used as analogical to the death of Christ,—one death in sin, as in Eph. 2: 1–7, and Col. 2: 11—13, the other death to sin by moral crucifixion, as in Rom. 6: 1–13 and Phil. 3: 10—21. But in no case is the fundamental law of the analogy disregarded, i. e. that the states or changes in believers are spiritual and internal, those of Christ natural and external. In the sense of death in sin, moreover, they are never said to be dead with Christ; for, to secure such a death in them, he did not aim; but their death in sin is merely spoken of as calling for the exercise of the mighty power of God to raise them up, just as Christ's natural death demanded almighty natural power in order to raise him up.

The inferences which I draw from this exhibition of the usus loquendi are these:

1. The general law of analogy demands the internal sense throughout the whole of Rom. 6: 1-13 and Col. 2: 11-13. Look at the preceding columns of parallel analogies. Of these all but 6 and 7 are undeniably internal and spiritual on one side, and external and natural on the other. By what law can 8 out of 10, in a connected series, be internal and spiritual, and the other two external and physical?

2. Of these two, one-resurrection-is clearly proved, in the analogous passages, to be used in a spiritual sense. See Eph. 2: 5, 6, and Col. 3: 1. Does not the usus loquendi then demand that sense here?

3. The resurrection in Col. 2: 11-13 is proved, by internal evidence, to be spiritual; for it is by faith. Compare this now with precisely the same idea in Eph. 1: 18-20, and 2: 4-6, Phil. 3: 10, 11, Col. 1: 3; and who can doubt? So in keeping believers, God exercises his mighty power through faith, 1 Pet. 1: 5: Εν δυνάμει Θεοῦ φρουρουμένους διὰ πίστεως, εἰς σωτηρίαν. So in Col. συνηγέρθητε διὰ τῆς πίστεως τῆς ἐνεργείας του Oɛov denotes: "ye were raised with him, by that faith, through which the power of God exerts itself." Of course, if the resurrection is spiritual, so is the burial.

4. In the phrase, dávarov avrov, in Rom. 6: 3, the law of analogy requires aurov to be regarded as the genitive of similitude, i. e. a death like his, or analogical to it. This use of the

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