Ixiii. 9. "In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them, and he bare them, and carried them, all the days of old." Zech. ii. 8. "For thus saith the Lord of hosts, After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you; for he that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of his eye." This view of the cross, in which Christ himself appears on it with us, may render it more lovely.

(2.) They are Christ's cross to you, as he left it. Christ in person took up the cross, and there was a curse in it when he took it up: he takes off the curse, and leaves it; and bids you take it up next. O believer, the tree is left thee, but the curse is away; the nails are left, but the venom they were dipt in is away. Though bulls should push you, the horns wherewith they pushed him are cut off. Though crosses of all sorts should meet together in your case, the soul and life which the fiery law breathed into them is gone.

(3.) They grow out of the cross of Christ. Ye will, may be, not expect the Christian's bitter troubles among the fruits of Christ's cross: but mistake it not: they must either be blessings or curses. Curses they are not, Gal. iii. 13. "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us;" therefore they are blessings and if blessings, from whence else can they drop? Eph. i. 3. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ." It was by the blood of his cross he procured the covenant-blessings to his people, and the cross among the rest, Psal. lxxxix. 30-33. "If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; if they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail." We might welcome the cross in this view.

4. The cross is for the destruction of the old man, not of the new man. It is a cross to our corruptions that is much needed: but no real grace ever yet died by the cross. As the candle shines brightest in the night, and the fire burns keenest in a keen frost; so grace has ordinarily thriven best under the cross. It is indeed a cross to our corrupt will, that never goes right while it gets head: it is a cross to particular lusts, that should be mortified, Gal. v. 24. "And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts:" and both these need to be crossed.

5. It has been the lot of the saints in all ages. And there is no shifting of the cross, if we will go out by the footsteps of the

flock. Yea, and ordinarily they that have been most dear to God have drunk deepest of the bitter cup; the most eminent for piety and usefulness, as Job; for piety and parts, as Heman and Paul; for divine manifestations made to them, as Jacob and David.

6. Lastly, Public persecution for the cause of Christ is what most now alive never saw, far less felt; though our fathers had a long and dark night of it. But the way to heaven is still the same; and therefore no wonder God is making up that want another way in the case of his people; and what trial formerly he took of them, by persecutors, prisons, and gibbets, he is taking the same upon the matter of them now, by other means.

I will conclude by giving you some helps to bear the cross.

Help 1. Look on yourselves as strangers on earth; and keep your eye on Christ, as he went through the world; and upon heaven, as your home, where only ye expect your rest.

2. Quit not faith's gripe of the promise of through-bearing: Is. xliii. 2. "When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burnt; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee." Believe firmly, that Christ lays on no cross without allowance of ability for acceptable bearing it; plead and look for it.

3. Lastly, Set the cross in the light of the word, and look in through it, till ye see the pleasure in it that Paul assures us from his experience to be within it, 2 Cor. xii. 10. "Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong." Why, (1.) There is a pleasure in a man's seeing himself standing a candidate for glory, on his trials for heaven. (2.) In seeing a gracious God cross our corrupt inclinations; in seeing the thieves on the cross, and the hand of God darting one arrow after another into their heart. (3.) In seeing ourselves pass the mountains, where we see the marks of Christ's own footsteps before us. Such a paradise there is within the thorn hedge of the cross.

THE OLD AND THE NEW MAN IN BELIEVERS.

A Sermon preached, on a sacramental occasion, at Maxton, in the year 1729.

ROм. vi. 6.

Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

THE sanctification of sinners is no less a mystery than their justification the former springing out of the cross of Christ unto them, through the intervention of faith knitting the sinner to a crucified Christ, as well as the latter. Hence the apostle-having asserted the insurance of the sanctification of believers, that they shall certainly walk in "newness of life," ver. 4; in "the likeness of Christ's resurrection," ver. 5, i. e. as Christ, during the forty days after his resurrection, lived in the world after a new manner, very different from his manner of life in it before his death-brings the ground of it from the cross of Christ, in the words of the text. In which we have,

1. The ground insuring holiness of life in believers united to Christ, "Our old man is crucified with him." This secures their holiness of life, in such manner as the drying up of the fountain doth the drying up of the streams.

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(1.) The state the fountain of sin is in believers, "Our old man is crucified with him." This supposeth that Christ was crucified; that in believers there is a twofold man, a new man, and an old; for while he saith, our old man," he intimates that the old man is not the whole man, as in the unregenerate. The new man is the new creature of grace in the believer, or he as renewed. The old man is the corruption of nature, or he as unrenewed. This old man is the fountain of sin in his heart and life.

Now, the state it is in is a state of crucifixion; it is nailed to the cross, which is a state of death. And its crucifixion is a concrucifixion with Christ, Gal. ii. 20. “I am crucified with Christ." In so far as the believer is by faith united to Christ, his old man is nailed to the cross of Christ, to fare here as Christ fared: and that was heavy fare.

(2.) The issue of this state of the fountain of sin in believers. It is twofold.

1st, The final issue, "That the body of sin might be destroyed."

The old man is the body of sin, being a complication of the several sinful lusts opposite to the holy law, as the body is of members competent to the human frame. Now, the final issue of this state of the old man, the body of sin, is its destruction and utter ruin. Crucifixion is not present death indeed, but it is sure and certain death. Pilate would have "chastised Christ, and released him," Luke xxiii. 16. but the Jews would have him crucified, for that would carry him quite away from among them: even so the old man is not to be corrected and amended, but destroyed quite and clean. 2dly, The intermediate issue, "That henceforth we should not serve sin;" that from the moment of our union with Christ we should not serve sin any more, voluntarily living in it, and giving up ourselves to it as its servants, to live and act for satisfying it, as we did before. The old man may live long on the cross before he be destroyed: but then his hands and feet cannot serve him as they did before, there are nails driven through them; he may move them indeed, but then it is with pain and difficulty. So was it with Christ; he behoved to recommend his mother to the care of his beloved disciple John, for that his own hands and feet were not at liberty to act and go for her as formerly.

2. The certainty concerning this ground, "Knowing this." It is not a matter of uncertain hope, but known for truth. It could not be known by sense; no bodily eye could discern our old man on the cross with Christ: nor yet by rational deduction from natural principles; for the whole mystery of Christ is supernatural. Therefore it is known by faith upon divine testimony; it is a conclusion of faith to be laid down for invigorating us in all our endeavours after holiness of life, and to be firmly held and stuck by in all our struggles with the old man, as ever we would desire to make head against him.

That I may touch the several purposes of this text, I shall offer them in several doctrines to be briefly handled.

DOCTRINE I. "There is in believers united to Christ a new man, a holy principle; and an old man, a fountain of sin.

I. Why the holy principle and the corrupt nature in believers are called the new and old man ?

1. They are called men, because each of them possesseth the whole man, though not wholly. There are by their means two I's in every believer, Rom. vii. 15. "For that which I do, I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate that do I." There is not one part of the man that is in Christ, but grace has a part of it, and corruption has a part of it: as in the twilight there

is light over all, and darkness over all too, the darkness being mixed in every part with the light. So my renewed part is I, a man having an understanding enlightened, a will renewed, affections spiritualized, using my body conformably but my unrenewed part is I too, having an understanding darkened, a will rebellious, affections corrupted, and using my body accordingly.

2. They are called the new and old man, for two reasons.

(1.) Because the new nature is brought in upon the corrupt principle, which was the first possessor. The corrupt nature is of the same standing with ourselves from the conception and birth, and possessed us alone till our union with Christ by faith. And then only came in the new nature, and that made the former old.

(2.) Because of their different originals; the one being in us from the corrupt first Adam, the other from the holy second Adam. So the believer, looking on the corruption of his nature, may call fallen Adam father; and on the new creature in him, he may call Christ father. The second Adam coming after the first, made the first old: so the produce of them in us is the old and new man accordingly.

II. How the believer comes to be thus split in two, two men. This is done by virtue of his union with Christ, from whence ariseth a communication of grace to him from Christ, 1 Cor. i. 30. "But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." Concerning which two things are to be noted.

1. That in the moment of one's union with Christ by faith, there is communicated to him, out of the fulness of grace in the man Christ, a measure of every grace in him, as the wax impressed receives every point in the seal, John i. 16. "And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace." Eph. iv. 13. "Till we all comeunto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." And thus is the new creature formed, being a new man perfect in parts, entire or having all its members, no grace totally wanting.

Hence it is that the new man is formed immediately after Christ's image, so that it is the very picture of the man Christ, as Eve was of Adam. Therefore the forming of it is said to be the forming of Christ in the believer, Gal. iv. 19.

2. That yet there is not then, nor during this life, communicated to the believer a full measure of any grace, 1 Cor. xiii. 9. "For we know in part." So all the graces being imperfect, though they remove sin as far as they go, they cannot fill up the room in any part, mind, will, or affections. And thus is there an old man left in the believer still, Rom. vii. 14. which is the image of the first Adam, from whom the corruption composing it is derived.