manner in which they are introduced: If ye then be rifen with Chrift. It is plain likewise that they must refer to fomething which had been faid of our refurrection with, or in Chrift: for this conclufion fupposes that doctrine already laid down and established. To find this connection, we must look back as far as the middle of the foregoing chapter, where the doctrine referred to in the text is plainly declared. At the tenth and following verses thus you will read: And ye are complete in him, (that is, in Chrift Jefus,) which is the head of all principality and power. In whom alfo ye are circumcifed with the circumcifion made without hands, in putting off the body of the fins of the flesh by the circumcifion of Chrift. Buried with him in baptifm, wherein also you are rifen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raifed him from the dead: and you, being dead in your fins, and the uncircumcifion of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trefpaffes. From this the inference in the text naturally follows: If ye then be rifen with Chrift, feek those things which are above, where Chrift fitteth on the right hand of God.

For the explication of these words, it will be neceffary to set before you the representation which the Scripture makes of the natural ftate and condition of man, and of his Gospel ftate upon his becoming a Chriftian.

In the ftate of nature the Scripture reprefents men, Eph. iv. 17, 18. as walking in the vanity of their minds. Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, through ignorance and blindness of heart. As walking according to the

courfe of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the Spirit that worketh in the children of difobedience, chap. ii, 2. As children of wrath, having their converfation in the luft of the flesh, fulfilling the defires of the flesh and the mind, ver. 3. As ftrangers to the covenants of promife, as having no hope, and without God in the world, ver. 12. As fervants of fin, yielding their members fervants to uncleanness and to iniquity, unto iniquity, Rom. vi. 19,

And because the end of these things is death, therefore this ftate of fin is called likewise a state of death: You hath he quickened, fays our Apostle, who were dead in trefpaffes and fins, Eph. ii. 1. The fame he repeats at the fifth verse. Whilft men were thus dead to God, and unto themselves, they lived only to fin and unrighteousness. Sin therefore is faid to reign in them, to have dominion over them. The natural paffions and affections in this state of corruption were but the inftruments of fin, in all things fubfervient; and therefore are faid to conftitute the body of fin, that body over which fin, as the foul or active principle, had entire rule and dominion. Thus we read, Rom. vi. 6. The old man is crucified with him, that, the body of fin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not ferve fin. And in the fecond of the Coloffians, and eleyenth verfe, we are said to put off the body of the fins. of the flesh. The members, of which this body is. made up, are in the next chapter defcribed: Mortify therefore your members which are upon earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupifcence, and covetousness, which is idolatry, Eph. This body is by St. Paul, in his Epiftle to,

5.

the Romans, called the body of death, for the fame reason that the ftate of fin is called the ftate of death: O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death; or, as the margin renders it, from this body of death, chap. vii. 24. The body, together with the foul, which is the active principle of life, and the influencer and director of the body and all its motions, conftitutes the man. From hence therefore, by an easy and natural metaphor, thefe depraved appetites and affections, which are the inftruments or members of fin, and which compofe the body of fin, together with the evil principle ruling in us, and directing these affections in the pursuit of all uncleannefs and iniquity, and which is called fin, are faid in Scripture to be the old man; the man which only lived before the regeneration by Chrift Jefus. Thus, Rom. vi. 6. The old man is crucified with him, that the body of fin might be deftroyed. And the Ephefians, chap. iv. 22. are exhorted to put off, concerning their former converfation, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lufts. This is the state of nature, according to the representation and language of holy Scripture and it is eafy to fee what muft become of this old man, this man of fin, upon the appearance of Chrift Jefus, who came to deftroy the works of the devil, to give light and life to those who fat in the fhadow of darkness and death; he and his works must be deftroyed to make way for the Spirit of righteousness, and his holy works. But thus to deftroy the old man, to root out all the corrupt affections of nature, and to implant a new principle of life and holiness, to restore the decayed

image of God, to give new defires to the foul, new affections to the heart; what is it but to new-make the man, and by a fecond creation to restore him to the rights and privileges of the first, which were long fince forfeited by fin and disobedience? For this reafon the Chriftian is faid to be a new creature: If any man be in Chrift, he is a new creature, 2 Cor. v. 17. In Chrift Jefus neither circumcifion availeth any thing, any thing, nor uncircumcifion, but a new creature, Gal. vi. 15. In the fecond chapter of the Ephefians, we are faid to be the workmanship of God, created in Chrift Jejus unto good works. And in the fourth chapter, ver. 23 and 24, we are faid to be renewed in the Spirit of our mind: to put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Nay, we are faid even to put on Chrift, from the fimilitude of will and affections between Chrift and his true members: As many of you as have been baptized, fays the Apostle to the Galatians, have put on Christ, chap. iii. 27.

From this account it is eafy to understand the propriety of the words or phrafes made ufe of to express these two conditions. Sometimes we read, that we were dead before the knowledge of Chrift: fometimes, that we died and were buried with Chrift: again, that we rofe with Chrift, and are alive in him. Now, to be dead before the coming of Chrift, and yet to die with Chrift after his coming, and yet still to be alive in Chrift, may feem to be affertions inconfiftent with refpect to the fame perfon: and fo indeed they are. But, if we take the fame view of man that the Scripture does, the inconfiftency will foon vanish. Man was at first created after the

image and likeness of God, with a rectitude of mind and will, with inclinations adapted to his true: happiness, and fubject to the influence and direction of reafon: this was man after the image of God. But, upon difobedience, man became a quite different perfon; his understanding was darkened, his will corrupted, his inclinations distorted: to the pursuit of evil continually. This change was a real death of the man created after the image. of God; he could no longer exercise any of the functions proper to his life, but lay buried under the ruins of fin and iniquity: and this was the death of the world before the knowledge of Chrift. What then was the life of the world at the coming of Chrift? It was the life of fin; of the earthly man, made not in the image of God, but after the likeness of the fon of difobedience. To destroy this man of fin, Chrift came into the world; and they that are Chrift's have crucified the flesh, with the affections and lufts, Gal. v. 24. And thus, with refpect to the life we had at the coming of Christ, which was the life of fin, we are faid to die with Chrift, and to be buried with him; because we renounce that life, and the affections proper to it. Thus dying to fin, we begin again to live unto God, and unto true holiness: and this is a resurrection of the man made after the image of God, which before was dead in trefpaffes; and therefore we are faid to be made alive in Chrift, and to rife together with him.

Farther this change was what we had not power. fo much as to wifh for, or defire for ourselves: it was undertaken and effected by Chrift alone; he