"deftitute of any faculty or ability, fo much as to think one good "thought, or perform one good act." You were dead in respect of condemnation, being under the damning fentence of the law, and you are dead in refpect of the privation of fpiritual life; dead in oppofition to juftification, and dead in opposition to regeneration and fanctification: And the fatal inftrument by which their fouls died is here fhewed them; you were dead in, or by trefpaffes and fins, this was the fword that killed your fouls, and cut them off from God. Some do curiously distinguish betwixt trefpaffes and fins, as if one pointed at original, the other at actual fins; but I fuppofe they are promifcuously used here, and ferve to exprefs the cause of their ruin, or means of their spiritual death and destruction: this was their cafe when Chrift came to quicken them, dead in fin, and being fo, they could not move themselves towards union with Chrift, but as they were moved by the quickening Spirit of God. Hence the obfervation will be this, Doct. That thofe fouls which have union with Chrift, are quickened with a fupernatural principle of life by the Spirit of God in order thereunto. The Spirit of God is not only a living Spirit, formally confidered; but he is alfo the Spirit of life, effectively or caufally confidered: And without his breathing, or infufing life into our fouls, our union with Chrift is impoffible. It is the obfervation of learned * Camero, "that there must be "an unition before there can be an union with Chrift. Unition is "to be conceived efficiently as the work of God's Spirit, joining "the believer to Chrift, and union is to be conceived formally, the joining itself of the perfons together:" We clofe with Chrift by faith, but that faith being a vital act, pre-fuppofes a principle of life communicated to us by the Spirit; therefore it is faid, John xi. 26. "Whosoever liveth and believeth in me, shall never die :" The vital act and operation of faith springs from this quickening. Spirit: So in Rom. viii. 1, 2. The apoftle, having in the first verfe opened the bleffed eftate of them that are in Chrift, fhews us in the fecond verse, how we come to be in him: "The Spirit of "life (faith he) which is in Chrift Jefus, hath made me free from "the law of fin and death.” There is indeed a quickening work of the Spirit, which is fub- Obfervandum efi unionem et unitionem inter fe differe: unio eft rerum a&tus, qui forma rationem babet, nempe actus rerum unitarum qua unitæ funt: unitio autem actus fignificat aufa efficientis, &. Camero de Ecclef. p. 222. Sequent to regeneration, confifting in his exciting, recovering, and actuating of his own graces in us: and from hence is the liveliness of a Christian; and there is a quickening act of the Spirit in our regeneration, and from hence is the fpiritual life of a Chriftian; of this I am here to fpeak, and, that I may speak profitably to this point, I will in the doctrinal part labour to open thefe five particu lars. First, What this fpiritual life is in its nature and properties. Secondly, In what manner it is wrought or infpired into the foul. Thirdly, For what end, or with what defign, this life is fo iufpired. Fourthly, I fhall fhew this work to be wholly fupernatural. And then, Fifthly, Why this quickening must be antecedent to our actual clofing with whrift by faith. First, We shall enquire into the nature and properties of this life, and discover (as we are able) what it is. And we find it to confift in that wonderful change which the Spirit of God makes upon the frame and temper of the foul, by his infufing or implanting the principles of grace in all the powers and faculties thereof. * A change it makes upon the foul, and that a marvellous one, no lefs than from death to life; for though a man be phyfically a living man, i. e. his natural foul hath union with his body, yet his foul having no union with whrift, he is theologically a dead man, Luke xv. 24. and wol. ii. 13. Alas, it deferves not the name of life, to have a foul ferving only to feafon and preferve the body a little while from corruption: To carry it up and down the world, and only enable it to eat and drink, and talk, and laugh, and then die: Then do we begin to live, when we begin to have union with whrift the Fountain of life, by his Spirit communicated to us: From this time we are to reckon our life as fome have done: There be many changes made upon men befides this, many are changed from prophanenefs to civility, and from mere civility to formality, and a fhadow of religion, who ftill remain in the state and power of spiritual death, notwithstanding; but when the Spirit of the Lord is poured out upon us, to quicken us with the new fpiritual life, this is a wonderful change indeed: It gives us an effe fupernaturale, a new fupernatural being, which is therefore called a new creature, the new man, the hidden man of the heart: The natural effence and faculties of the foul remain ftill, but it is divefted of the old qualities, and endowed with new ones, 2 Cor. v. 17. "Old "things are paffed away, behold, all things are become new." And this change is not made by altering and rectifying the dif orders of the life only, leaving the temper and frame of the heart * Hie jacet Similis, cujus ætas multorem annorum fuit, ipfe feptem duntaxat annos vixit. ftill carnal; but by the infufion of a fupernatural permanent principle into the foul, John iv. 14. "It fhall be in him a well of water:" principles are to a courfe of actions, as fountains or fprings are to the streams and rivers that flow from them, and are maintained by them and hence is the evennefs and conftancy of renewed fouls in the course of Godliness. Nor is this principle or habit acquired by accuftoming ourselves to holy actions, as natural habits are acquired by frequent acts, which beget a difpofition, and thence grow up to an habit or fecond nature, but it is infused, or implanted in the foul by the Spirit of God. So we read, Ezek. xxxvi. 25, 26. « A new heart also will "I give you, and a new fpirit will I put within you :" It grows not up out of our natures, but is put or infused into us: as it is faid of the two witneffes, Rev. xi. 11. who lay dead in a civil sense, three days and a half, that the Spirit of life from God entered into them; fo it is here in a spiritual fenfe, the Spirit of life from God enters into the dead, carnal heart: it is all by way of fupernatural infufion. Nor is it limited to this or that faculty of the foul, but grace or life is poured into all the faculties: «Behold, all things are be« come new," 2 Cor. v. 17. The understanding, will, thoughts, and affections, are all renewed by it: the whole inner man is changed; yea, the tongue and hand, the discourses and actions, even all the ways and courfes of the outward man are renewed by it. But more particularly, we fhall difcern the nature of this fpiritual life, by confidering the properties of it; among which, thefe are very remarkable. First, The foul that is joined to Chrift is quickened with a divine life, fo we read in 2 Pet. i. 4. Where believers are faid to be partakers of the divine nature: a very high expreffion, and warily to be understood. Partakers of the divine nature, not effentially; fo it is wholly incommunicable to the creature, nor yet hypoftatically, and perfonally; fo Chrift only was a partaker of it; but our participation of the divine nature, must be understood in a way proper to believers; that is to fay, we partake of it by the inhabitation of the Spirit of God in us, according to 1 Cor. iii. 16, 17. "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit " of God dwelleth in you?" The Spirit, who is God by nature, dwells in, and actuates the foul whom he regenerates, and by fanctifying it, caufes it to live a divine life: from this life of God the unfanctified are faid to be alienated, Eph. iv. 18. but believers are partakers of it. Secondly, And being divine, it muft needs be the most excellent, and tranfcendent life that any creature doth, or can live in this world: it furmounts the natural, rational, and moral life of the unfanctified, as much as the angelical life excels the life of flies and worms of the earth. Some think it a rare life to live in fenfual pleasures; but the fcripture will not allow fo much as the name of life to them; but 'tells us, "they are dead whilft they live." 1 Tim. v. 6. certainly it is a wonderful elevation of the nature of man, to be quickened with fuch a life as this. There are two ways wherein the blessed God hath honoured poor man above the very angels of heaven. One was by the hypoftatical union of our nature, in Chrift, with the divine nature; the other is by uniting our perfons mystically to Christ, and thereby communicating fpiritual life to us: this latter is a moft glorious privilege, and in one refpect a more fingular mercy than the former; for that honour which is done to our nature by the hypoftatical union, is common to all, good and bad, even they that perifh have yet that honour; but to be implanted into Chrift by regeneration, and live upon him as the branch doth upon the vine, this is a peculiar privilege, a mercy kept from the world that is to perifh, and only communicated to God's elect, who are to live eternally with him in heaven. Thirdly, This life infufed by the regenerating Spirit, is a moft pleafant life. All delights, all pleafures, all joys, which are not fantaftic and delufive, have their spring and origin here, Rom. viii. 6. "To be fpiritually minded is life and peace," i. e. a moft ferene, placid life; fuch a foul becomes, fo far as it is influenced and fanctified by the Spirit, the very region of life and peace: when one thing is thus predicated of another, in cafu recto, (faith a learned man) it speaks their intimate connection: peace is fo connatural to this life, that you may either call it a life that hath peace in it, or a peace that hath life in it: yea, it hath its enclofed pleasures in it, "fuch as a ftranger intermeddles not with," Prov. xiv. 10. Regeneration is the term from which all true pleasure commences; you never live a chearful day, till you begin to live to God: therefore it is faid, Luke xv. 24. when the prodigal fen was returned to his father, and reconciled, then they began to be merry. None can make another, by any words, to understand what that pleasure is which the renewed foul feels diffused through all its faculties and affections, in its communion with the Lord, and in the fealings and witneflings of his Spirit. That is a very apt and well known fimilitude which Peter Martyr ufed, and the Lord blessed to the convertion of that noble marquis Galeacus: if, faid he, a man should see a company of people dancing upon the top of a remote hill, he would be apt to conclude they were a company of wild distracted people; but if he draw nearer, and behold the excellent order, and hear the ravishing fweet mufic that are among them, he will quickly alter his opinion of them, and be for dancing himself with them. All the delights in the fenfual life, all the pleasure that ever your lufts gave you, are but as the putrid, ftinking waters of a corrupt pond, where toads lie croaking and spawning, compared to the chryftal ftreams of the moft pure and pleasant fountain. Fourthly, This life of God, with which the regenerate are quickened in their union with Chrift, as it is a pleasant, fo it is alfo a growing increasing life, John iv. 14. "It shall be in him a well of "water fpringing up into everlafting life." It is not in our fanctification, as it is in our juftification; our juftification is complete and perfect, no defect is found there ; but the new creature labours under many defects: all believers are equally juftified, but not equally fanctified. Therefore you read, 2 Cor. iv. 16. that "the inward man is renewed day by day:" And 2 Pet. iii. 18. Chriftians are exhorted "to grow in grace, and "in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour:" if this work were perfect, and finifhed at once, as juftification is, there could be no renewing day by day, nor growth in grace. Perfectum eft cui nihil deeft, & cui nihil addi poteft; i. e. that is perfect which wants nothing, and to which nothing can be added. The apoftle indeed. prays for the Theffalonians, “that God would fanctify them," holeans,-wholly, perfectly, 1 Thef. v. 23. And this is matter of prayer and hope; for, at laft, it will grow up to perfection; but this perfect holiness is referved for the perfect ftate in the world to come, and none but * deluded, proud fpirits boast of it here: but when "that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part "fhall be done away," 1 Cor. xiii. 9, 10. And upon the imperfection of the new creature in every faculty, that warfare and daily conflict spoken of, Gal. v. 17. and experienced by every Chriftian, is grounded; grace rifes gradually in the foul, as the fun doth in the heavens, "which fhineth more and more unto a "perfect day," Prov. iv. 18. Fifthly, To conclude, This life with which the regenerate are quickened, is an everlasting life. "This is the record, that God "hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son," 1 John V. II. This principle of life is the feed of God; and that remains in the foul for ever, 1 John iii. 9. It is no tranfient, vanishing thing, but a fixed, permanent principle, which abides in the foul for ever; a man may lofe his gifts, but grace abides; the soul may, and must be separated from the body, but grace cannot be separated from the foul: when all forfake us, this will not leave us. Perfection of fanctification is not found in this life, unlefs in the dreams of fome fanatics, Amef |