and in death Christ is our gain." It will lead us to look forward to eternity, not only without dismay, but with joy; knowing that when we are absent from the body, we shall be present with the Lord; we shall depart to be with Christ, which is far better by much than any earthly felicity.

Let us then seek Divine grace to enable us to give up our hearts to the Lord, that He may be sanctified in them; that we may love Him supremely, that we may fear His displeasure above all things, fear to offend Him, dread to do what He has forbidden, or to omit what He has commanded us to observe and do. And may it be manifest in our whole conduct in life, that our hearts are sanctified to the Lord God, that it is our aim to please Him, and to live in unreserved obedience to His holy will and commandments, to honour His holy name and His word, and to serve Him truly all the days of our lives. Let us remember that the worship of the heart is the only worship which is acceptable to God; and that unless our hearts be truly given up to Him, to love Him above all things, we shall not willingly obey Him. But if He be sanctified in our hearts, His service will be perfect freedom; and we shall be enabled to look forward with a good hope of being admitted to serve Him in His presence, and to rejoice in His salvation for evermore.

70 Col. iii. 24. 71 Phil. i. 21, 23.

72 2 Cor. v. 8.

SERMON XLI.

FOR THE

SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.

THE CHRISTIAN LIFE.

Romans vi. 11.

LIKEWISE RECKON YE ALSO YOURSELVES TO

BE DEAD INDEED UNTO SIN, BUT ALIVE UNTO GOD THROUGH JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD.

EVERY verse of the portion of scripture which is appointed as the Epistle for this day, is full of the most interesting and important instruction. It commences with bringing to our minds our baptismal obligations, and leading us to reflect on the privileges that we are called to enjoy as Christians, and the hopes which are set before us beyond this perishing world. Know ye not, says the apostle, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into His death? Therefore we are buried with Him by bap

tism 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. Those who have partaken of the ordinance of Christian baptism, thereby made a profession of faith in the death of Christ, and were pledged to a conformity to Him in His death, that they should become dead to sin and to the world; and to a conformity to Him also in His resurrection, by walking in newness of life, as new creatures in Christ Jesus. Those who are baptized into the faith of Christ, profess to hope for pardon through His blood. This is the great privilege of the Christian church. We are all by nature the children of wrath,73 the corrupt offspring of sinful parents, shapen in iniquity, conceived in sin, and therefore, unless we be cleansed from our natural pollution; unless we be born of water and of the Spirit, we cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Baptism is the outward means appointed to be used in token of the reception of this benefit; and those who have been admitted by baptism into the church of Christ, profess to be partakers of it. By the use of the outward and visible sign, their need of being cleansed from their natural defilement is declared; and thereby they are devoted to the service of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, to be the

73 Eph. ii. 3.

74 Psalm li. 5.

75 John iii. 5.

children of God by adoption into His family, to be conformed to His holy image here upon earth, and to be partakers of His glory hereafter. This was the profession made in our names at our baptism. The dominion of Satan, the world, and sin, were then renounced either by our own act, or on our behalf; and we were dedicated to the service of God; that we might be His both here on earth and hereafter in heaven.

But something more than this seems to be meant by the apostle's addition, Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death. It denotes the entire change which takes place in believers in Christ. They are to consider themselves, as it were, dead and buried with regard to what they naturally loved and desired. As the apostle says to the Corinthians, If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away, behold all things are become new; and all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ.76 By baptism, believers in Christ are buried with Him in death to sin; and therefore it is asked, How shall we, who are dead to sin, live any longer therein? They are also dead to the law by the body of Christ," so as not to seek for justification before God by an imperfect obedience to its requirements; though they delight in the law of God after the inward man," and

76 2 Corinthians v. 17, 18.

77 Romans vii. 4, 22.

79

78

seek grace to enable them to live in obedience to it in all their conduct, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things. They are likewise dead to the world, so as not to seek their happiness in its perishing enjoyments. They consider themselves as strangers and pilgrims on earth, who have here no continuing city; and are therefore seeking one to come, and desirous to set their affection on things above, not on things on the earth.80 Believers in Christ are thus 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 they also should walk in newness of life. They are to be conformed to Christ in His resurrection as well as in His death, to walk in newness of life, to live as new creatures in Christ Jesus; or, as the apostle exhorts the Ephesians, to put off concerning their former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of their mind; and put on the new man, which, after God, is created in righteousness and true holiness.81

The apostle proceeds to show that this change of heart and life is essential to a true profession of Christianity. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection. If we are partakers

78 Titus ii. 10. 79 Heb. xiii. 14. 80 Col. iii. 2. 81 Eph. iv. 22-24.