Ver. t 2. the üthChapter of the ROMANS. 1O3 fon, or one mat tsentred into the Oath of God ; and being made lervants of God, we are bound to live in all new obedience. i Per. 3. 21. The lire figure whereunto even bap. cline loth now fave us : not the putting away the filth of the fiefh, but the anfwer of a good confcience towards God. The anfwer of a good confcience faveth. 4. In regard of the benefits we do hereafter expels from Chrifl, our refurreirion, and gla clous eflate in heaven: That is mentioned ver. r r. as binding us to the fpiritual life: Certainly where we have received good, and expert more good things, we are the more obliged to obedience. From the Beth we can look for nothing hut (name and death; but from the Spirit, life and peace. Therefore in prudence we are bound to make the bell choice for our felves, and to live not carnally, but fpiritually. Sin never did us any good office ; nor can you expect any thing from it for the future.; it bath never done you good, and will do you eternal hurt ; and are you fo much in love with fin , as to di( pleafe your God, and lofe your fouls for it, which might otherwife be Paved in a way of obedience to the Spirits fanftifying motions ? This Argument is again repeated in the r 3th ver. if ye live after the flefi, ye fhall dye. That we might ferioufly confider it, Can the Beth give you a fufficient reward to recompence the pains you incur by fatisfying it ? I. USE is Information: It informeth us of divers Truths. I. If your obedience be a debt, then there can be no merit in it : for what is debitum, is not meritorium: Luke 17. to. When ye have done all that is commanded you, fay, We are unprofitable fervants ; We have done that which was our duty to do. We owe our felves, and all that we have, are, and poffibly can do, to God, by whom we live and are ; and therefore deferve no further benefit at his hands. Put cafe we Ihould do all, yet in how many things are we come fhort ? Therefore furely God is not bound to reward us by any right or juflice anfing from the merit of the action its felt, but only he is inclined fo to do by his own goodnefs, and bound fo to do by his free proneife..The creature ow. eth its felt wholly to God, who made it ; and God ftandeth in fuch a degree of (mi- nency, fo far above us, that we can lay no obligation upon him. Ari/iotle laid well, That children could never merit of their parents ; and all their kindnefs and duty they perform towards them, is but a juft recompence to them from whom they received their being. If no merit between Children and Patents, furely not between. God and men. 2. When a believer gratifreth the flejb,'tás not of right, but tyrannous ufurpation. For he is not a debtor to the fíeth, he oweth it no. obedience. Let not fin reign in your mortal bodies, R.om. 6. 1I, 14. Sin (hall not reign ; it may play the Tyrant: Chryfoflome faith, That a Child of God may be overtaken through inadvertency, or overborn by the im- petuous del res of the Beth, and do fomethingwhich his heart alloweth not ; his fins are fins of paffionrather than defign; and rho the reign of fin be di(lurbed, yet 'tis not call off. Our lives fhould declare whofe fervants and debtors we are:, for whom do you do mitt ? Your lives mull give fentence for you, whether you are debtors to the Beth, or to the fpirit. If you fpend your time in making proviGon for the flelb, to fulfil the tufts thereof, Rom. 13.14. you are debtors to the fle(h. If you check the Beth, and tame ir, cut off its provilions, rho now and then it will break out, you are not debtors to the flelh, but the fpirit. The Beth may rebel for a time, but the grace of the fpirit reigneth. Some are wholly governed by their fancies and humours, or the pallions, appetites, and delires of the Beth; 'are carried on headlong by their own carnal and corrupt inclinati. ons to every fenfe pleating obje&, are not matters of themfelves in any thing', but ferve divers lulls and pleafures, againft thedillates of their own reafon and confcience. Now eis eafie to pronounce fentence concerning them. Others who are led by the Spirit of God to the earneft purfuit of heavenly things : Now thefe , tho fo often fomented to felt-pleating and compliance with their tufts and corrupt inclinations, yet the heavenly mind hath the ma(lery, they complain of this tyranny, are grieved for it, troubled, and do by degrees overcome it. 3. It informeth us what anfwer we fhould make when we are tempted to pleafe the flefh. Say, We are not debtors: When Satan tempteth, or fin inticeth , fay, 1 owe theeno- thing, I have all from God : if the fleth tempteth to neglect your callings, to mif.fpend your time, fay, This time is the Lords ; as the Apoflle , e Cor. 6. 15. 'Shall I take the members of Chrifi, and make them the members of an harlot? Luther fpeaketh of a Virgin that would anfwer all temptations with this, Baptixata few, I am baptized. So the faith. ful hath but this to anfwer to every tempter andotemptation, I am dedicated to God; or,
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