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discern whether ever Christ hath been effectually applied to his foul. That which remains is

An ufe of Lamentation.

Wherein the miserable and most wretched state of all those to whom Jefus Chrift is not effectually applied, will be yet more particularly discovered, and bewailed.

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Of the State of Spiritual Death, and the Misery thereof.

Eph. v. 14. Wherefore he faith, Awake thou that fleepest, and arife from the dead, and Chrift fball give thee light.

THIS

HIS fcripture reprefents unto us the miserable, and lamentable state of the unregenerate, as being under the power of fpiritual death, which is the caufe, and inlet of all other miferies. From hence, therefore, I shall make the first discovery of the woful, and wretched state of them that apply not Jefus Chrift to their own fouls.

The scope of the apostle in this context, is to prefs believers to a circumfpect, and holy life; to "walk as children of light." This exhortation is laid down in ver. 8. and preffed by divers arguments in the following verfes.

First, From the tendency of holy principles, unto holy fruits and practice, ver. 9, 10.

Secondly, From the convincing efficacy of practical godliness, upon the confciences of the wicked, ver. 11, 12, 13. It awes, and convinces their confciences.

Thirdly, From the co-incidence of fuch a conversation with the great defign, and drift of the fcriptures; which is to awaken men, by regeneration, out of that fpiritual fleep, or rather death, which fin hath caft them into: and this is the argument of the text, Wherefore he faith, Awake thou that fleepest, &c. There is fome difficulty in the reference of thefe words. Some think it is to Ifa. xxvi. 19. "Awake and fing ye that dwell in "the duft." Others to Ifa. lx. 1. "Arife, thine, for thy light "is come," &c. But most probably, the words neither refer to this, or that particularly, but to the drift and fcope of the whole fcriptures, which were infpired, and written upon this great defigo, to awaken, and quicken fouls out of the state of

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SERM. XXXI. fpiritual death. And in them we are to confider these three things, more diftinctly, and particularly.

1. The miferable ftate of the unregenerate; they are asleep and dead.

2. Their duty; which is to "awake, and stand up from the "dead."

3. The power enabling them thereunto;"Chrift fhall give "thee light."

First, The miferable ftate of the unregenerate, represented under the notions of fleep, and death; both expreffions intending one and the fame thing, though with some variety of notion. The Chriftlefs, and unregenerate world is in a deep fleep; a fpirit of flumber, fenfelefnels, and fecurity is fallen upon them, though they lie exposed immediately to eternal wrath and mifery, ready to drop into hell every moment. Juft as man that is fast afleep in a house on fire, and whilst the confuming flames are round about him, his fancy is fporting itfelf in fome pleafant dream; this is a very lively refemblance of the unregene rate foul. But yet he that fleeps hath the principle of life entire in him, though his fenfes be bound, and the actions of life fufpended by fleep. Left therefore we should think it is only fo with the unregenerate, the expreffion is defignedly varied, and those that were faid to be afleep, are pofitively affirmed to be dead; on purpose to inform us that it is not a fimple fufpenfion of the acts, and exercife, but a total privation, of the principle of spiritual life, which is the mifery of the unregene.

rate.

Secondly, We have here the duty of the unregenerate, which is to "awake out of fleep, and arife from the dead." This is their great concernment : no duty in the world is of greater neceffity and importance to them. "Strive (faith Chrift) to enter in 66 at the ftrait gate," Luke xiii. 24. And the order of thefe duties is very natural. First awake, then arife. Startling, and roufing convictions make way for spiritual life; till God awake us by convictions of our mifery, we will never be perfuaded to arife, and move towards Christ for remedy and fafety.

Thirdly, But you will fay, if unregenerate men be dead men, to what purpofe is it to perfuade them to arife and stand up: The very exhortation fuppofes fome powers or ability in the unregenerate

*Though the words feem to import a willingness first to awake and rife, and then to be enlightened, yet we are to understand, that it is by the efficacy of Chrifl's light that the finner is made to awake and rife. Roll. on the place.

*Though are they commanded to arife *. This

difficulty is folved in this very text, though the duty is ours, yet the power is God's. God commands that in his word, which on ly his grace can perform. "Chrift fhall give thee light." Popish commentators would build the tower of free-will upon this fcrip. ture, by a very weak argument, drawn from the order wherein these things are here expreffed; which is but a weak foundation to build upon, for it is very ufual in scripture to put the effect before, and the cause after, as it is here, fo in Ifa.xxvi. 19. “ A"wake and fing, ye that dwell in the duft." But I will not here intangle my difcourfe with that controverfy, that which I aim at is plain in the words, viz.

Doct. That all Chriftless fouls are under the power of fpiritual death; they are in the ftate of the dead.

Multitudes of teftimonies are given in fcripture to this truth; Eph. ii. 1, 5. "You hath he quickened who were dead in tref"paffes and fins." Col. ii. 13. "And you being dead in your "fins, and the uncircumcifion of your flesh, hath he quickened "together with him;" with many other places of the fame importance. But the method in which I fhall difcourfe this point will be this:

First, I will fhew you in what fenfe Chriftlefs, and unregene rate men are faid to be dead.

Secondly, What the state of spiritual death is.

Thirdly, How it appears that all unregenerate men are in this fad state. And then apply it.

First, In what fenfe are Chriftlefs, and unregenerate men faid to be dead men.

To open this, we must know there is a three-fold death, viz. 1. Natural.

2. Spiritual. 3. Eternal.

Natural death is nothing else but the privation of the principle of natural life, or the feparation of the foul from the body, James ii. 26." The body without the fpirit is dead." Spiritual death is the privation of the principle of fpiritual life, or the want and absence of the quickening Spirit of God in the foul; the foul is the life of the body, and Chrift is the life of the foul; the abfence of the foul is death to the body, and the abfence, or want of Christ is death to the foul. Eternal death is the feparation both of body and foul from God, which is the mifery of the damned. Now chriftlefs, and unregenerate men are not dead in the first fenfe; they are naturally alive though they are dead while they live: nor are they yet dead in the last fenfe, eternally feparated from God, by an irrevocable fentence

as the damned are; but they are dead in the fecond fenfe; they are fpiritually dead, whilst they are naturally alive; and this fpiritual death is the fore-runner of eternal death. Now fpiritual death is put in fcripture in oppofition of a two-fold fpiritual life,

viz.

1. The life of justification.

2. The life of fanctification.

Spiritual death, in oppofition to the life of juftification, is nothing else but the guilt of fin bringing us under the sentence of death. Spiritual death, in oppofition to the life of fanctification, is the pollution, or dominion of fin. In both these fenfes, unregenerate men are dead men; but it is the last which I am properly concerned to speak to in this place: and therefore,

ix.14.

Secondly, Let us briefly confider what this fpiritual death is, which, as before was hinted, is the abfence of the quickening Spirit of Chrift from the foul of any man. That foul is a dead foul, into which the Spirit of Christ is not infused in the work of regeneration; and all its works are dead works, as they are called, Heb. ix. 14. For, look how it is with the damned, they live, they have fenfe and motion, and an immortality in all thefe; yet because they are eternally separated from God, the life which they live, deferves not the name of life, but it is every where in fcripture ftiled death: fo the unregenerate, they are naturally alive; they eat, and drink, they buy, and fell, they talk, and laugh, they rejoice in the creatures; and many of them spend their days in pleasures, and then go down to the grave. This is the life they live, but yet the fcripture rather calls it death than life; because though they live, yet it is without God in the world, Eph. ii. 12. though they live, yet it is a life alienated from the life of God, Eph. iv. 18. And therefore while they remain naturally alive, they are in fcripture faid

to remain in death," 1 John iii. 14. and to be "dead while "they live," 1 Tim. v. 6. And there is great reafon why a Christlefs, an unregenerate ftate, fhould be represented in scripture under the notion of death; for there is nothing in nature which more aptly represents that miferable state of the foul, than natural death doth. The dead fee, and difcern nothing; and the natural man perceiveth not the things that are of God. The dead have no beauty, or defireablenefs in them; "Bury my "dead, (faid Abraham,) out of my fight:" neither is there any fpiritual lovelinefs in the unregenerate. True it is, fome of them have fweet natural qualities, and moral excellencies, which are engaging things; but thefe are fo many flowers, deck

ing and adorning a dead corpfe. The dead are objects of pity, and great lamentation: men ufe to mourn for the dead, Eccl. xii. 5. "Man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go a"bout the streets." But unregenerate, and Chriftless fouls, are much more the objects of pity and lamentation. How are all the people of God (efpecially thofe that are naturally related to them) concerned to mourn over them, and for them, as Abraham did for Ifhmael, Gen. xvii. 18. "O that Ishmael might "live before thee." Upon thefe, and many other accounts, the state of unregeneracy is reprefented to us in the notion of death.

Thirdly, And that this is the ftate of all Chriftlefs, and unfanctified perfons, will, undeniably, appear two ways.

1. The caufes of fpiritual life have not wrought upon them. 2. The effects and figns of fpiritual life, do not appear in them; and therefore they are in the ftate, and under the power, of spiritual death.

First, The caufes of fpiritual life have not wrought upon them. There are two caufes of fpiritual life,

I. Principal, and internal.

2. Subordinate, and external.

The principal, internal caufe of fpiritual life, is the regenerating Spirit of Chrift, Rom. viii. 2." The law of the Spirit of "life in Chrift Jefus, hath made me free from the law of fin and "death." It is the Spirit, as a regenerating Spirit, that unites us with Chrift, in whom all fpiritual life originally is, John v. 25, 26. "Verily, I fay unto you, that the hour is coming, and 86 now is, when the dead fhall hear the voice of the Son of God: " and they that hear, fhall live: For as the Father hath life in "himself, fo hath he given to the Son to have life in himself." As all the members of the natural body receive animation, fense, and motion, by their union with their natural head; fo all believers, the members of Chrift, receive fpiritual life and animation by their union with Christ their mystical head, Eph. iv. 15, 16. Except we come to him, and be united with him in the way of faith, we can have no life in us, John. v. 40. "Ye "will not come unto me that ye may have life." Now the Spirit of God hath yet exerted no regenerating, quickening influences, nor begotten any special faving faith in natural, unfanctified men; whatever he hath done for them in the way of natural, or spiritual common gifts, yet he hath not quickened them with the life of Chrift. And as for the fubordinate external means of life, viz. the preaching of the gofpel, which is the in VOL. III. Ꮐ

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