ESSAY XV.

ON NEWNESS OF LIFE.

We also should walk in newness of life. Rom. 6. 4.

It should be the constant aim of all those who have received Christ Jesus the Lord, to walk in him, the way, and to walk before him unto all pleasing; being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by him to the praise and glory of God.

But I apprehend that the term newness of life is very different from what is generally called " to lead a new life," and which is not strictly proper, even in the sense which is generally attached to it: for it might more properly be styled a new walk, the way of holiness, or what the Scotch divines call, the new obedience; and therefore I conclude it took its origin

from a mistake in the meaning of these words "We also should walk in newness

of life." The little word also first threw light on this passage; and I conceived it meant something very different from what is commonly called a new life, because we are exhorted to walk in the same newness of life as our Lord walked in, or in newness of life as he also walked during his stay on earth after his resurrection; and conceiving that he needed not to lead a new life according to the general sense of this term, I began to inquire what was meant by the newness of life that Christ walked in? "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 we also should walk in newness of life."

The life of Christ, after his resurrection, was the life of justification: before, as the surety of his people, he stood charged with the accumulated load of all their guilt; and before the dreadful hour came on that he

was to pay the enormous debt, even before he was heard to say-" My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death," during all the time that he tabernacled here below, he frequently anticipated the sorrows of that day, that one memorable day, in which he removed the iniquity of his spiritual land, since he is emphatically called “a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief:*" indeed, once he was heard to say—“ I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straitened till it be accomplished." But now he is risen from the dead, justified in the Spirit, acquitted from all law charges, so that law and justice can now demand no more. No more the man of sorrows, no longer acquainted with grief, perfectly happy as the triumphant Conqueror over all his and his people's enemies. The Fa

* Isaiah 53. How very far short of the meaning is it to say, "acquainted with our grief," and this I have frequently heard: but there is much error folded up in this. Christ was himself the subject of grief, so that his sufferings are lessened by this way of speaking.

ther has seen the travail of his soul, and is satisfied. He is no longer to bear the curse, nor the wrath, of his divine Father, due to the sins of his people, nor again to be forsaken. He enjoys his Father's smiles, and the light of his countenance; he walks in the light of his countenance indeed, and in his name does he rejoice all the day. He remained on earth forty days; not as a spirit, since he said-"A spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me to have;" but in his spiritual body, the exemplar after which our bodies will be raised; for it is "sown in weakness, but raised in power-sown a natural body, but raised a spiritual body;" and, during his stay, his usual salutation to his saints was-"Peace be unto you! All hail! or, All health! You are risen with me; enjoy my peace." As if he had said— "From henceforth reckon ye also yourselves to be dead; set it down also to your account: be ye always reckoning yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive

unto God, through me your risen Lord and Saviour; live as those that are alive from the dead, as justified from all things; walk in this newness of life, as ye see me also walk. Follow me in the regeneration, and you have nothing to do but to partake of the glorious spoil; all is finished, as it respects your justification: walk in this free spirit. Let all around you know that you have been with Jesus: manifest your love unto me, by keeping my sayings-by observing all that I have commanded you; and a new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another."

This is that desirable point in experience that the apostle Paul aimed at in that memorable prayer of his, in his Epistle to the Philippians. He prayed that he might know the power of our Lord's resurrection; that being made conformable to his death, or what he calls, in another place, crucified with him, he might also view himself as risen with him, by the faith which is of the