059. Sermon XIV: Eph_2:5-6

SERMON XIV

Even when tee were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.—Ephesians 2:5-6.

You may remember how in the general coherence, which was premised to the whole first eleven verses of this second chapter, at the entrance thereinto, which the reader may please to review, I shewed that the Apostle intended a parallel, or comparison, between what was done to Christ in bringing him to glory, as our head, and as a pattern too; and what answerably God was doing in us, and for us, in perfecting our salvation. And after a long and enlarged stream of discourse, he falls suddenly into a short winding up of it. And as in Christ’s raising to his glory, to shew forth the greatness of this power therein, there was, 1. The terminus à quo, the state from whence,—‘raised from the dead;’ 2. The terminus ad quem, the state whereto he was raised,—that glory described, Ephesians 2:21-22, &c.: so answerably in us, and our salvation, to shew forth the riches of God’s grace, which was the principal attribute in our salvation to be illustrated, he sets, 1. The terminus à quo, the state from which, a state of death and wrath, in and for sin, Ephesians 2:1-3; Ephesians , , 2. After magnifying the riches of love and mercy of the raiser of us out of this estate, he comes here to set out the terminus ad quem, the state to which we are by degrees to be advanced, in these words. Which is the third general head of this first part of this chapter, shewing how all this is and shall be perfected, according to a correspondence and proportion with that he wrought in Christ. Now this perfecting of our salvation, or the whole work of God upon us, in a correspondency to that in Christ, he sums up in two heads, which contain in them three parts or degrees thereof:—

First, To two heads. As—

1. What is already in this life begun, and to be done in us here personally; we are ‘quickened with Christ.’

2. What remains yet personally to be perfected in us in the world to come, yet at present is representatively done in our head; ‘raised up,’ and ‘sitting in heavenly places.’

Secondly, These two, comprehending three eminent parts or degrees of our salvation:—

1. Quickening, which is put to express all the whole work of God upon our souls here, until death, in a conformity to Christ.

2. Raising up our bodies, and our whole man, as he did Christ’s.

3. Glorifying us with him, in the same place, and with the same glory, for the substance of it.

Thirdly, You may observe, that all these three are said to be done with Christ, and in Christ; so completely making up the reddition, or other part of that comparison between us and Christ, namely, how the work in us is conformable to that on Christ. ‘Raised,’ as he, Ephesians 2:19; ‘set in heavenly places,’ as he, Ephesians 2:20. This in general of both these verses. I come particularly to the fifth verse:—

Ephesians 2:5. Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved.)

These words are a reddition to the 19th verse of the first chapter (Ephesians 1:19), and do refer thither. He had shewn what a power and glory was exercised in raising up Christ when he was dead, and setting him up in heavenly places, and had said the same power works towards us. Now, saith he, ye are dead, and ‘dead in sins and trespasses,’ and he hath ‘quickened you,’ and he hath ‘set you together with Christ in heavenly places.’ And whereas in the 19th verse (Ephesians 1:19) of the first chapter he had attributed it to the power of God, he alters the case here. He attributes it unto mercy, and he attributes it unto love, and he attributes it unto grace, because, as I shewed you in the observations upon the 4th verse, that all attributes do but subserve love and mercy in whatsoever they do for us; and therefore he names them. If he would have made it up according to the course and way of speech, he should have said, Look, what great power wrought in Christ, in raising him up from the dead, wrought in you, in quickening you when ye were dead in sins and trespasses. But he mentions not power, but, ‘God, who is rich in mercy, for the great love wherewith he hath loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us.’

There are three things in this verse:—

I. A short repetition of, and minding them again of that condition God found them in, by intimation of the main thereof, so to remember the whole; ‘Even when we were dead in sins.’

II. The first benefit bestowed, the first degree and foundation of salvation laid in this life; ‘quickened.’

III. A quick and most piercing note of observation of the Apostle by the way, as an inference from both, being put at once together, (‘by grace ye are saved:’) which, like the top and point of a burning pyramis, or great flame of fire, hath all the strength of heat that ariseth out of the whole centred in it. And to set the more remark upon it, it is brought in by a parenthesis, and comes not in by continued coherence, to affect the more, like a hand in the margin. He would have them, above all else in his discourse, have this in their eye.

I. The repetition; ‘Even when we were dead in sins.’

There are three things in those words:—

1. The consideration of the emphasis put upon this repetition; for it is not a bare sentence of repetition, but with an emphatical note and particle; even when, as the word καὶ implies.

2. The condition itself repeated, ‘dead in sins;’ and that singled out, as more properly referring to ‘quickening,’ so more pertinently to illustrate that first benefit.

3. The persons it is bestowed upon; ye and we.

1. Even.—This word καὶ here some would have to be redundant; others would have it to be but, as in Ephesians 2:4. And so Grotius, whose opinions engaged him to lessen the greatness of this death in sin, that the more might be given to man’s will in his quickening. But it has a double force in it, as it comes in in this coherence:—

First, As it serves fitly for a particle of repetition, to superadd an emphasis, to set out the depth of our misery, and inability to help ourselves out of it, and is all one with inquam, as Estius well, or as our translators, ‘even when dead,’ thereby to set out the love and mercy of God, as Ephesians 2:4; and ‘exceeding greatness of his power working in us,’ as Ephesians 1:19, shewn in quickening us here. In the first verse, that particle και is rightly rendered and, for there it comes in as a particle of transition to a new matter, from that which he had said of Christ, to that other part of the comparison, what concerned us. But here—

Secondly, It is a particle of brief repetition, referring to all that which was largely said before in Ephesians 2:1-3, such as the long sentences there used are, to usher in the dependency of new matter; but it is not a bare repetition, but with an advantage, to illustrate the mercy of being quickened.

Even when we were dead.—Ὄντας, ‘being dead,’ or, ‘when we were dead.’ It implies the very condition God then took us in, when we were in the depth of it. And though the Apostle repeats but a part of that condition we lay in, he doth not go over all which was said thereof in the three first verses, yet his meaning surely was, that in their thoughts thereof they should take in afresh all that he had said thereof before. Yes, he cuts short even what he repeats; for whereas he had there said, ‘dead in sins and trespasses,’ here only ‘dead in sins,’ that hint being enough to bring on the other; but there he had further added, ‘wherein we walked according to the course of this world,’ &c.; whereas here he leaves out all that, and mentions this of ‘dead in sins,’ for all the rest, as it were with an et cætera.

Thus often in our prayers or meditations, after set and particular confession of sin, we find it useful in the other part of prayer, as in craving mercies or assurances of God’s love and forgiveness, and giving thanks for benefits, even in the midst thereof, to have some short recollection of our sinfulness, which yet, by the help of the Spirit, doth give us a renewed prospect of the whole thereof; which was also Paul’s scope here. And so we often find, that in a more brief revise of larger thoughts, by a strange miraculous beam, which carries in it the species and strength of all, the Spirit of God presents in a glance all together at once to us, and gives us a comprehensive light, that works more on the heart than all the more set and enlarged thoughts we had. This repetition argues likewise, that of all the characters of sin and misery which in the foregoing verses he had given of an unregenerate estate, he esteemed this of all other the deepest, that they were dead in sins, which some would so much diminish and bring low, of all other points concerning that estate.

Thus much for the first branch, the repetition of their being dead in sins.

2. The persons he applies it unto are next to be considered.

We.—In this word he sums up both Jew and Gentiles, to have lain in this their natural condition before conversion. I take notice of this, because some interpreters make a misinterpretation of the Apostle’s sense, for they restrain this only to the Jews, and the reason is this: he had said in the first verse, ‘ye were dead in sins and trespasses;’ now, speaking of the Jews, himself being a Jew, he saith, ‘when we were dead.’ So they make the particle καὶ only a particle of comparison; we Jews, as well as ye Gentiles. But, brethren, it is true, in all the foregoing chapter, by we, he means the Jews, himself being a Jew, and by ye, the Gentiles; but when he comes to wind it up, upon the close of all, here by we he means we all, Jews and Gentiles, we are all alike dead in sins and trespasses; and when we were so, he quickened us.

How shall we prove that he intends to involve the Gentiles as well as the Jews when he saith, ‘when we were dead?’

It is clear, because in the next words he applies it to the Gentiles, ‘by grace ye are saved.’ His meaning is this: ye being quickened together with us Jews, and we all remember this, ‘by grace ye are saved,’ ye and we all: ‘when we were dead in sins and trespasses, he quickened.’

Another reason shews it, in the transposing the word in the Greek; it is this: it is not καὶ ἡμᾶς ὄντας but it is καὶ ὄντας ἡμᾶς. So now I have done with that; and the only observation that I will make from thence is this:— That now when it comes to the enjoyment of the privileges of the gospel, conversion, and heaven, and Christ, and the like, Jews and Gentiles are all one. When we were dead in sins and trespasses, he quickened us, and set us, Jews and Gentiles, all together in Christ, in heavenly places. I shall not need to stand on it. The observations from both these two put together are these:—

Obs. 1.—First, that God in his wise dispensation is pleased to permit many, if not most, of those he loves and shews mercy unto, that live up to years, to continue in an estate of unregeneracy. That de facto it was so in the days of the Apostle, in the Gentiles’ condition, is clear out of the examples of the Romans, Romans 6:17 : that doxology the Apostle there useth, ‘God be thanked that ye were the servants of sin,’ &c. I might give as many instances of it well-nigh as there have been converts, whose story is recorded in the New Testament, from John the Baptist’s time downwards, throughout all the Epistles. ‘Such were some of you,’ saith the Apostle to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 6:11, when just before he had named all sorts of sins and sinners. ‘You were sometime enemies,’ &c., says he to the Colossians, Colossians 1:21. And to the Ephesians he saith, ‘You were dead in sins and trespasses;’ and ‘when we all were dead;’ and so here. And that de facto it was true of the Jews, is also evident in that the ministry of John the Baptist, as Christ’s much more, was to turn the disobedient Jews to the wisdom of the just, Luke 1:17. And yet they were circumcised, as we all are baptized; and their circumcision was the seal of the righteousness of faith, even as our baptism is; and yet those needed a being born again, as Christ told Nicodemus for all the rest, John 3. I mention this thus briefly, to make way for a second observation, which holds forth the glorious ends which God hath in this dispensation towards his beloved ones. The second observation from this emphatical repetition of the misery of our natural condition, and that in this order and placing, is evidently this:—

Obs. 2.—That the deplorable misery of our condition by nature doth infinitely serve to set out and illustrate both the glory of that condition and salvation God hath ordained us unto, and also to magnify the greatness of that love, riches of mercy, &c., that are in God, manifested therein towards us. This reiterated mention thereof, you see, is placed in the midst, between an extolling of his great love, &c., Ephesians 2:4, and an accurate enumeration of the degrees of our exaltation in the salvation bestowed upon us, the fruits of that great love; and this on purpose to add a lustre unto both. This observation, in both the branches of it put together, is another rivulet that contributes its stream to that main ocean into which all the whole current of the Apostle’s discourse doth flow, namely, the demonstration of the greatness of God’s love. I told you, when I opened the greatness of God’s love, Ephesians 2:4, that besides that it was set out, as there, by this, that he had singled out some persons he had set himself to love, as simply so considered,—us, not others,—it was yet further to be illustrated by the condition those persons were in, the sin and misery they lay in, when God came to shew them mercy. I could not speak to it then, because it comes in more properly and in a more set and explicit intendment here. And in this way of interpreting this scripture, κατὰ πόδας, I must take things in that order the Holy Ghost hath pleased to scatter them. The reminding us of this our natural condition comes in again at Ephesians 2:11, ‘Wherefore remember, ye are Gentiles in the flesh,’ &c. Yet there, to provoke us to duties answerably, it comes upon good works; of which in that place, as the coronis of this first part of my expositions. But here, as it serves to magnify God’s love and the glory of that condition God hath raised us to, it seems to set out the glory of that estate and salvation we are brought into. God hath, in bringing any of the sons of men to any eminent height, laid the foundation of it in a lowness and misery; and these proportionable to that height and happiness he meant to raise them up too ut of it. And accordingly, when the Scripture would set out the grace of that advancement, it withal mentions the low condition from whence it had its rise, as emphatically as the glory after.

Take two instances, the one in an earthly, the other by an advancement heavenly; and both the highest, and one the type of the other. Speaking of David’s exaltation to a kingdom, see how great things are spoken of it, Psalms 89, ‘I have exalted one chosen out of the people; I have found David my servant,’ Psalms 89:19-20; ‘I will make him my first-born, higher than the kings of the earth,’ Psalms 89:27. All which was first true of David in the type. Of all the kingdoms set up in those ages of the world, before Shiloh came to take up the sceptre, the throne of David was, for true excellency and glory, the most transcendent. It was a dominion over God’s own people, his only people in the world; but all other kingdoms over mountains of prey, as the Psalmist speaks, in comparison of it, over wild beasts; this over saints, Hosea 11:12. You have seen his exaltation. Now see, how in another psalm the Holy Ghost, to greaten this, gives us exact notice of the lowness of his condition he was taken out of, and that holding a like proportion of lowness and meanness before, to this height after, Psalms 78:70-71. ‘He chose David his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds: from following the ewes great with young, he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.’ As in the former psalm he took his elevation, so here he fathoms, as with a line and measure, his depression, and proportions them. He was before but a shepherd over silly sheep; yea, lower yet, he was but the shepherd’s boy; the Holy Ghost intimates it. He took him ‘from after the ewes;’ so you have it in your margins. The shepherds themselves in Judea did use to go before the sheep. So Christ, speaking according to the custom of that country, John 10:4, ‘The good shepherd goes before his sheep, and leads them out.’ See also Psalms 80:1. He was the younger brother, that as the servant followed the sheep; his elder brethren were the shepherds. But instead of following sheep, God made him a shepherd over his own inheritance, πόιμενα λαῶν, as Homer calls kings. And the Psalmist’s allusion is suitable, ‘to feed Israel his inheritance, and to go in and out before them.’ You have the very same, in the same expressions, 2 Samuel 7:8. From David, the shadow, let us come to Christ, the true king indeed, who is made as the pattern of ours here, and therefore is the most punctual instance can be given; how high he is ascended, you have heard from thence, ‘to sit at God’s right hand,’ &c., Ephesians 2:20-21. Now, to make this the more glorious, see his descension also, ere ever he ascended, as it is fathomed by this our Apostle in this epistle, Ephesians 4:9-10, and foreseen by David in his prophecy, which he expounds: ‘Now that he ascended, what is it but that he descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended far above all heavens.’ The terms from and unto which are, the one the lowest, the other the highest: the lower parts of the earth, the one; and far above all heavens, the other: the one as deep in lowness, as the other in height. It imports, lower he could not go, and higher he could not ascend; and that his descension might illustrate the height of his ascent, he says he first descended. If you would consider, then, his height, go down in your thoughts first into the womb, unto the cross, into the grave, yea, to hell, the wrath of God coming over his soul when on the cross; think what a poor, low, sorry man God first made him; and then read, and think over again his super-exaltation, in the first chapter, and then make up the parallel, as our head. So we that were dead in sins, children of wrath, and so in our desert laid as low as hell, are quickened, raised, and made to sit in heavenly places and glories in and with Christ. Place one part of the compass of your thoughts in the nethermost hell below, from thence stretch the other part to the highest heavens above, and then you have the true distance of the height and depth of your salvation, and of God’s goodness in it. And unto that emphasis the Apostle gives there concerning Christ the head, ‘He that descended is the same also that ascended,’—that is, the very same person, the subject of both,—lay to it the like emphasis the apostle puts here, ‘Even when we were dead, he quickened us,’ and you have the full of the Apostle’s scope, and the parallel made complete. To add that strange thanksgiving, that of the Apostle, Romans 6:17, ‘God be thanked that ye were the servants of sin;’ had the Apostle ended there, it had seemed half blasphemy. The only corollary or inference I shall make from all this is—

How much do they injure, yea, and frustrate this great design of God to magnify his love and grace, that do climb up presently so high, and immediately into God himself, simply in himself considered, that they will not condescend to look down, as yet God doth, upon these things here below, namely, to what they are or were in respect of sin; but have forgotten their old sins, yea, and their need of Christ, as an advocate to God for them. Surely God having loved us with a love of so long continuance as from everlasting, and there having not been a moment of all that vast space of time wherein he hath not loved us with so great a love, had it not been that he had a mighty design upon them in permitting this, which in the end, by the discovery of it, should take up and fill their hearts, whilst in the flesh at least, with the contemplation of his love, set off by the deep and continued sense of their own sinfulness, so long before continued; surely he that loved them so would never have suffered such multitudes of those he loves to continue so many years in this state of death and rebellion against him, and therein to wrong him so all the while; and that himself, who delights to manifest his love infinitely more than we do where we love, should suffer himself to be bound up from discovering in the least. His love would never have endured him to conceal itself so long, had it been that the glory of all this love, so designed this way to be set out, must instantly be forgotten by them that are the subjects of that love; much less would he have ordered our salvation to be accomplished by putting his own natural Son to death, and to offer up his soul a sacrifice for sin, if this his great love, and this sore travail of his soul, should be so soon forgotten and swallowed up through the joy of our enjoying God immediately without him; and this even whilst the remainders of that sin cleaves to them, to mind them of him that redeemed them from all iniquity by his so precious blood. God might, according to this religion, have spared his Son of that sore pain and grief himself put him unto, and himself the many provocations from us he loved so, besides the trouble of his own concealing and keeping in his love so long before our conversion, as afterwards, and have at first immediately brought them at a cheap rate, even as creatures that never sinned, into that immediate communion with himself, without any need of his Son’s mediation at all; yea, Paul might have spared this Epistle to these Ephesians, as patterns of grace herein to all succeeding ages, Ephesians 2:7, in the privileges of which he so glories, Ephesians 3:4. And surely God would have taken that course and way much rather, had it not been that to commend his love hereby was the great delight of his soul; the glory of his grace being his chiefest glory.

3. I come now, in the third place, to speak a little to the condition of them here, as it hath relation to quickening. When we were dead, he quickened us.

There is a peculiar relation; though he intend to take in our natural condition, yet there is a peculiar reference why he singles out being dead, when he speaks of quickening. I will not stand to insist largely to shew how we are dead in sins and trespasses; I did it when I handled the first verse, only I reserved one thing till now. When he saith we are dead in sins, and thereby would set out the power of God in quickening us, he means this: we were as utterly unable to help ourselves, to do anything of spiritual life, as a dead man is for to quicken himself, or to stir a finger, or to roll about an eye, or to perform any action that is truly good. That that is his scope is plain and clear; for afterwards he saith, ‘Even by faith we are saved, not of ourselves;’ the very faith we believe withal, ‘it is the gift of God.’ Why? Because we were dead in sins and trespasses; and, saith he, we need as true new life and soul to be put into us, before we can stir to any actions of life, as a dead man. And it is clear that it is aimed at peculiarly by the Apostle, because he refers us in these words to Ephesians 1:19, where he speaks of the power of God upon us in working grace; he saith it is the same that raised Jesus Christ; therefore he speaks in respect of such a deadness, in respect of the power of sin and our inability to believe, as Christ’s body had to be quickened to that glorious life.

Brethren, these phrases, ‘dead in sins and trespasses,’ we urge against the Remonstrants, that therefore man hath not spiritual ability till God quicken him; and they distinguish, and would shew some dissimilitude between natural death and spiritual; and indeed and in truth they would, as it were, make man half dead, and that there are certain kinds of sparks of life in every man. There is a natural knowledge of God, and a natural sorrow for sin, raid a natural desire of happiness; and all these the Holy Ghost hatcheth up to make a new creature, as they would seem to make it. But, brethren, the Apostle, who certainly spake appositely, and when he would set out our misery, and yet the love of God to the full, doth not talk of being half dead;—that had derogated from the love, and grace, and exceeding greatness of power that, he saith, wrought in Christ when he was raised;—I say, it makes the Apostle not to speak appositely, if that were the meaning. No, we were dead. And whereas they make a dissimilitude between bodily and spiritual death, yet the truth is, to raise a man from spiritual death is made the greater work, for it is paralleled here with the raising of Christ from the dead; and you shall find, John 11:25, that when Martha doubted of the resurrection of Lazarus,—merely of the resurrection of his body,—how doth Christ raise her faith? Saith he, Why dost thou stick at my raising of his body? I will do more, I shall raise men’s souls; for so he saith, John 11:25, ‘Jesus saith, I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?’ Dost thou stick at my raising this man’s body? ‘Behold,’ as he saith, John 5:25, ‘the time is coming, that the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and live.’ I quicken men’s souls. If it be a greater work, certainly it is a greater death; therefore we must needs be as utterly void of life, in respect of spiritual life, as a man’s body when he is dead, till he be raised again, is void of natural life. And then again, it is paralleled with the raising of Christ out of the grave; and our death is compared and paralleled with that natural death of Jesus Christ’s body. It is true God did not suffer his body to see corruption; but there was not one jot of life, it was cold and stiff certainly as others, though no way corrupted. What saith the Apostle, Romans 6:9, speaking of the body of Christ? He saith death had dominion over him: ‘In that he died, he died to sin once; death hath no more dominion over him;’ therefore it had dominion over him whilst he was dead. If he would have us liken ourselves to be transplanted into Christ’s resurrection; if there had been any spark of life, it might have been blown up, as they would make men believe. No, there is no spiritual life in us.

Now, as I said, it is objected by some, that there is this difference between the natural and the spiritual death, that the understanding and the will remains; a man is still a free creature, a living creature. For answer: he is so, he is a living creature to sin, he is dead and living, both in respect of sin. But the question is, in what respect of spiritual life, in respect of spiritual life, there is nothing at all of the Spirit, in that respect a man is wholly dead till he be called. Brethren, it is not a physical death of the soul, whereby the faculties of the soul perish; but I say it is a moral death. Whereas now, when the body is dead, all the parts of the body remain when the man is dead, yet he is wholly dead in respect of the life he had before; so, though there be a natural vivacity and livelihood that is natural to the soul, in the will and understanding, yet spiritually there is none.

Again likewise, whereas they object, Why, then, doth God use exhortations to men? Since they are dead, and have no power to stir, why doth he bid them arise? ‘Awake, thou that sleepest, stand up from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.’ That place certainly is meant of regenerated men, that kept company with wicked men, and were asleep. I let that pass. But I answer, Why did Christ say to Lazarus, Arise? Why did he speak to a dead man? If any man else had spoken it, he had spoken foolishly; but if Christ say it, and give power with the word that goes forth, dead men shall live. So the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and live, John 5:25. But they say, There is a desire of happiness left in man, and a knowledge of God, and preparations for the work of the Spirit upon man’s heart; and is this man wholly dead?

Brethren, I answer, Let a man have never so much activity, and that towards things that are spiritual,—I mean in this sense, out of ends of self-love, and the like that they are wrought upon,—yet, notwithstanding, still say I, that man is dead in respect of that wherein life lies. For when we say a man is dead in sins, you must not understand it in respect of the life of his own kind. How then? In respect of spiritual life; in respect of such a life as knits him to God and Christ; in respect of such a life as raiseth up the least affection of love to God above the love to a man’s self; in respect of any knowledge that is spiritual of God and of Christ in a spiritual way,—in respect of this light and life he is utterly dead, though he may acknowledge a God, and have a desire after happiness and the like. So let the comparison run in the same respect and kind, and then a man, though he have never so much moral good in him, this is no part of a man’s life; though self-love never so much stir, if it be only self-love, though to spiritual things, all riseth not to spiritual life; there is no degree of spiritual life all the while.

Brethren, to illustrate my meaning,—or else the comparison will not hold, it is but a supposition, it is that that will never be done,—a man hath a reasonable soul as he is a man: suppose the reasonable soul itself should be taken out of a man, and yet man still retain the sense of hearing and seeing, and the quickness of his fancy,—such as apes and beasts and such creatures have,—certainly this man would be said to be dead as a man, if the reasonable soul were gone, in respect of that life that a man hath, as a man hath a reasonable life, though the brutish life were left; yet take him as a man, he hath no life at all left in him, if the reasonable be departed and gone, and the sensitive only left.

So, brethren, it is here: take a spiritual man that hath union with God and Christ, and life flowing thence, and raising his heart to God out of love,—if all this were gone, though a man should have left such a principle as may be wound exceeding high otherwise, yet in respect of spiritual life he were utterly dead.

I might enlarge much this way in opening and clearing this. It is evident that all that is left in nature, though it be wrought on never so much, it cannot unite us to Christ nor to God; and then, certainly, there is no part of life. Why? Because all the parts of the spiritual life lie in our union with God and Christ. Now, let a man have never so many preparatives, all unite him not to Christ, till faith come, and the Holy Ghost quicken his soul in order to eternal life. Therefore all preparatives to grace are not a less degree to the same kind. ‘We hope better things of you, and such as accompany salvation,’ saith the Apostle, having spoken of glorious enlightenings. So the least dram of grace and quickening is a thing of another kind from all preparatory works and enlightenings; and in respect of a holy life, man is dead.

II. I come now to the benefit.

Even when we were dead in sins and trespasses, he hath quickened us together with Christ.

Here are three things to be spoken to:—

1. The benefit itself.

2. The author, the principal author of it, God the Father; that is fetched in in the coherence from the verse before, ‘God hath quickened us.’ Then—

3. The person with, and by whom, and by fellowship with whom, he hath quickened us; ‘he hath quickened us together with Christ.’

These three things I will speak to as briefly as I can.

First, For the benefit itself.

I will speak a little in general, and then particularly describe it to you.

First, In general, by quickening here is meant quickening out of death; that is clear, for ‘when we were dead, he quickened us.’ The word is so taken, Romans 4:17, Romans 8:11, ‘He shall quicken your mortal bodies.’ Now indeed the word is used sometimes for things that are not raised from the dead, and yet it is called quickening, a giving life, so the word signifies making to live; that is the proper signification of the word. It is applied to all things living, 1 Timothy 5:13, ‘God that quickeneth all things,’ all things that live God quickens. And Adam might be said to be quickened when he had the breath of life,—that is, God made him to live; so the word signifies. Now I will not stand upon it.

Now the next thing in general that I am to open is this. By quickening, I take it, is meant the whole work of God on us; the whole work of God is called quickening. My reason is, because though he principally aim at conversion,—‘when we were dead in sins and trespasses,’ he begins to do it,—yet he names this as the first degree which ends in glory, as it is Ephesians 2:6. So he familiarly includes and comprehends all that whole state of grace and the works of it. It is called quickening, though principally and eminently the first putting in of the Holy Ghost and a principle of life into a man.

You shall find in Scripture that the whole state of grace is called life; as glory also sometimes is nothing but life. Life is usually put for glory, and it is usually put for grace; therefore when he would express the difference between the one state and the other, he saith we are passed from death to life: ‘By this we know that we are passed from death to life.’ And when Christ would express a man that hath no grace, that is not in the state of grace, he expresseth it by the contrary, he hath no life in him: ‘And he that eateth not my flesh hath no life in him,’ John 6; that is, he hath no grace, nothing that belongs or pertains to the state of grace.

Brethren, you shall find this, that grace is so properly compared to life, and the working of grace on us, that when the Scripture compares the people of God to dead things for other respects, yet he brings the word ‘living’ too: as, for example, they are stones, and precious stones, 1 Peter 2:5, but he adds, ‘living stones.’ When he calls them sacrifices, that used always to be dead things, he calls them ‘living sacrifices,’ Romans 12:1. They are trees, but trees of life; and their graces are compared to waters, but living waters, and waters of life. Still he runs upon the notion of life. For, brethren, all in Christians, as they are constituted Christians, is life, life clearly; it quickeneth, he hath made us alive, all is life. But you will say, Is not the work of grace called mortification, a dying to sin?

It is true; but let me tell you this, mortification itself, dying to sin, that that is true mortification, ariseth from a spirit of life; it is a consequent of spiritual life. The meaning is not, that first God kills a man’s sin, and then puts a principle of life in him; but by a principle of life he kills sin. A man may have a great deal of deading to the world, as much as another man, from terror of conscience or the like. But here is no life; the whole of grace is life, take it in itself, and deadness to sin is but the consequent. Therefore at their first conversion, when men’s lusts have a blow, they are more dead to the world and to sin; they find more of mortification than of quickening and life, they think. Why? Because there is an additional kind of deading men’s hearts to the world from terror of conscience, that yet hath an impression upon men’s spirits; but saith the Apostle, ‘Walk in the Spirit, &c., and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh,’ Galatians 5:16. So the not fulfilling the lusts of the flesh is a fruit of living and walking in the Spirit; it is the fruit of this life.

Therefore, when he speaks of all the grace a man hath, how doth he express it? 2 Peter 1:3, ‘He hath given us all things belonging to life and godliness.’ So that all the life a man hath is godliness, and godliness is life; the one is put for the other.

And, brethren, hence now what should you learn? Put not your grace to lie in humiliation, in those works; grace doth not lie in that, your grace lies in life and quickening; therefore you see, ‘He quickened us, when we were dead in sins and trespasses, together with Christ.’ Humiliation goes not to the mortifying of lusts, no, but you may be joined to a principle of life that mortifies lusts; therefore look, how much grace you have, so much life; so much grace, so much quickening. When you come to the ordinances, so much grace and good you get as your hearts are quickened, not as you perform duties; and value quickening more than ordinances. Luke 12:23, Christ saith life is better than meat. So quickening is better than sermons and than all things in the world. I speak it, that you may know what to put religion and grace in. Food is the means of life, yet life is better than meat. So this life is better than all ordinances and duties; as far as you are quickened you have spiritual life, and your affections are stirring, and all the sacrifices you offer to God are acceptable as far as they are living. Therefore, ‘Quicken me in thy way,’ saith David, Psalms 119:37. If he went in the way of God and was not quickened, his spirit was troubled, Psalms 80:19, but he prays that he might be quickened. I speak it for this, that you are to look upon that to be grace in you; so much grace, so much life; spiritual life lies in quickening.

Notwithstanding, on the other side, consider it is quickening. The truth is, he useth the lowest expression that can be, if there be but a spirit of life. Suppose thou hast not attained strength, yet if thou hast life, he calls all that we receive in this life but quickening, if you take it in the ordinary way of phrase. We are but as children in the womb quickened; all the stirrings of grace are but such as of an infant at best. Saith he, Colossians 3:3, ‘Your life is hid with Christ in God;’ where, as it were, he compares God and Jesus Christ to the root in which the sap is; and it is winter with us, as it were, in comparison of what it shall be when we shall be raised together with Christ, and sit in heavenly places personally with Christ. Now we are in Christ; when we shall sit together with Christ, what shall this life be? But in the meantime, if we be but quickened, if there be but the least degree of spiritual life, that thy heart is raised to God, and spiritually suited,—for a spiritual mind is life,—if there be the least spiritual life, though there be not that strength, nay, though it cannot be called a birth, though thou canst not say thou hast all the parts of the new birth, yet if there be quickening, there is a new life. The Apostle descends low; this is a seed that will rise to eternity. So much in general for the explaining this quickening. But now, if you would know what kind of life this is, brethren, you may take much help from what death is. When I opened the first verse, our being dead in sins, I told you the fountain of all spiritual life was God; so he was to Adam; therefore carnal men are ‘strangers to the life of God.’ We are said to be dead in sins. Why? Because sin cuts us off from God; so all spiritual life lies in God.

Now consider what it is to be dead, and what it is to be living. I will only give you summarily all the ways of quickening that God begins in this life: summarily all the work of grace, from the first to the last, till it come to glory, is here to be understood; ‘he hath quickened us.’

Now, first, how is man dead?

First, In respect of sin. He is cast out of the favour of God, which is his life. To be in the favour of God is to live. ‘Oh that he might lives in thy sight!’ it is the Scripture phrase. ‘In his favour is life,’ Psalms 30:5. Now, for a man to be cast out of the favour of God is to have the sentence of death upon him; it is to be dead in the guilt. On the other side, for a man to be in the favour of God, and to have an absolution from God, and to have all his sins pardoned, this is to be quickened, this is one part of it.

I shall give you Scripture for it by and by. John 5:24, saith he, ‘He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death to life.’ His passing from death to life is expressed negatively, by not entering into condemnation; the sentence of condemnation is taken off from him. Now compare it with John 3:36, ‘He that believeth on the Son of God hath eternal life; he that believeth not in the Son of God the wrath of God abideth on him.’ Here the wrath of God abiding on a man is opposed to having life. Now therefore, in Romans 5:18, our being justified from all our sins is called the ‘justification of life;’ a man is made, of a dead man, of a condemned man, a living man in the sight of God.

Now to come home to the point, Colossians 2:13, where the Apostle useth the same expression, ‘He hath quickened us with Christ,’ what doth he understand by ‘quickening’ there? Namely, having forgiven you all your trespasses; there lies the greatest of our life and quickening, it is the life of justification, that by faith God giveth us.

Again, in the second place, there is all the joy, and all the evidences that God gives us of his favour, and the assurance of his love in quickening also. I told you I cannot stand upon the order. Now you shall find in Scripture that freedom from trouble, by contrary joy infused by God, is called quickening. You have an express place, Psalms 143:11, ‘Quicken me, bring my soul out of trouble;’ Psalms 119:25, ‘My soul cleaveth to the dust, quicken me.’ When his soul did cleave to the dust, under the sense of death and the wrath of God, he calls for quickening. ‘Quicken me.’ With what? With his loving-kindness, as it is in another verse; and ‘according to thy loving-kindness.’ And Psalms 63, ‘Thy favour is better than life.’ So you have it in Romans 8:6, for I can but quote scriptures, ‘To be spiritually minded is life and peace;’ having said before, ‘the carnal man cannot please God.’ In the third place, all the fellowship the Holy Ghost vouchsafes us in this life with God and Christ, and the enjoyment of them in themselves, and their own excellency, which besides are distinct from the assurance of his love and favour. Many times these are called life. Psalms 22, ‘Your hearts shall live, and ye shall eat of the fat, and abundantly enjoy God. He shall shew me the path of life;’ Psalms 16, ‘Fulness of joy is at thy right hand.’ I will give you but a scripture or two. John 14:1, Christ’s disciples were troubled; saith he, I will give you the Comforter; and ‘because I live, ye shall live.’ And what follows? In that day ye shall know; for I will be but a little while away, and I will send you the Comforter: ‘And at that day ye shall know that I am in the Father, and you in me, and I in you. And I will love him, and manifest myself to him;’ as it is in John 14:21. Another place is 1 John 1:2. There he calls Jesus Christ, ‘our life.’ ‘And that life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and shew that eternal life was in the Father, and is manifest unto us.’ Here Jesus Christ is called eternal life; and the incarnation is called the manifestation of that life; and the evidence, the communion and fellowship that the apostles had with him, that is called a being manifested to us: and what follows? ‘That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that you may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.’ So all fellowship with God the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ, is the manifestation of this life as it was manifested to the apostles themselves. So now, in the fourth place, the image of God wrought in us is also a principle of life. We are quickened in that image of God, in holiness and righteousness, by which we live to God. The want of it is called death. On the other side, inherent holiness is called life: Romans 8:6, ‘The spiritual mind is life;’ Romans 8:2, speaking of the inherent holiness in Christ’s heart, he calls it, ‘The law of the Spirit of life that is in Christ Jesus.’ It is evident it was so, for he opposeth it to the law of sin and death that was in our hearts; he should be free by the law of the Spirit of life that was in Jesus Christ. Now then, to have therefore a vital principle of the image of God, whereby a man is made fit and capable of communion with God, suitable to God and Jesus Christ, and all holy things, that causeth him to draw near to God, and to have such an inward quickening principle in his soul, that enables a man thus to converse with God, as the reasonable vital principle enables him to commerce with men; this also is life, and a great part of life. In Revelation 11, when the witnesses are raised, how is their resurrection set forth? A spirit of life came into them,—it is an allusion to the resurrection of men,—a new life was shot, a vital principle, through all the man; so here is a principle suitable to all spiritual objects. It is not as if an angel should take a dead man, and act him, without putting in a principle of life; but when the Holy Ghost is given, it comes and quickens a man: he not only acts the soul positively, but he puts in a living principle by which the soul joins with the Holy Ghost in activeness. Therefore all his performances are called ‘living sacrifices.’ Why? Because all his actions do not proceed from the Holy Ghost only, simply, but from the image of God which the Holy Ghost works in him, and acts and operates in him; so his sacrifice: as the Holy Ghost is a living principle for his part, so it is a principle to make a man alive to God.

It is an excellent expression of Jesus Christ, Romans 6:10. How is Jesus Christ’s life expressed there? ‘In that he liveth, he liveth to God.’ What doth Jesus Christ in heaven, to mind the things of God, to govern the world so as God may have glory, and to diffuse grace into the hearts of the saints in heaven and earth, that God may have glory? He lives to God, that is all his work: it is an active life that carries all in the soul to God; as living in God, so living to God.

There is the like phrase, Galatians 2:20, to live in God as a man’s element, and to God as his end; he savours the word of life, he lives in the promises; by these things men live. The promises of the word are the savour of life; to a man that hath a principle in him, they are the savour of life; the promises of heaven, and grace, and happiness, and salvation, are relished in a spiritual way; that he pursues it, it is from a spiritual life.—So that is the fourth thing that I mention of what is meant by life. A fifth thing, that is the root of all, is this: that the Holy Ghost dwells in the heart, as the soul in the body, and becomes a man’s life. He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit, being made the temple of the Holy Ghost; for the Spirit is the foundation of all spiritual life. The Spirit quickeneth, the Godhead of Christ quickeneth, and is united to us, dwelling in us; it quickeneth the soul, and is the great quickener, and the foundation of all life. Romans 8, when he had described the spiritually-minded man, and said that he was life,—‘The spiritual mind is life,’—whence doth this spiritual man come to have this life? Romans 8:9; Romans 8:11, saith he, ‘Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if the Spirit of God dwell in you. And if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if the Spirit of Christ dwell in you, he that raised Christ from the dead shall also raise your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.’ What will be the life of our bodies at the last day? The Holy Ghost; not only our own souls, but the Holy Ghost shall possess us more than our own souls; he that shall be the life of our bodies then is the root of our spiritual life now. The spiritual mind is life, because the Spirit dwelleth in you.

Let me add this: all actings of the Holy Ghost, the stirrings of the affections, the enlightening of the mind, spiritually to know God and Christ and a man’s self, all growings up, all are quickenings; in all the ordinances, all the life you receive not only at the first, all are quickenings with Christ. You come to sermons, and your hearts are quickened, spiritual affections are stirred, and you mortify the deeds of the flesh, and aim at God; all this is quickening, it is being quickened with Jesus Christ; all the spiritual life that you have, and is increased in you, it is called ‘the light of life,’ John 8:12. All your walking in the Spirit, and your acting that proceeds from the Spirit, in Galatians 3, ‘If ye live in the Spirit, walk in the Spirit;’ all those walkings come from the habitual indwelling of the Holy Ghost. So much for the opening of that life; ‘we are quickened.’ The next thing I am to shew to you is this, which I will make an end of. We are quickened—

Together with Christ.

There are some interpreters that would extenuate and enervate that which is our infinite great comfort; for they refer the word together, that is, we Jews and Gentiles; whereas in truth the scope of the Holy Ghost is, we are quickened together with Christ. In all our quickening he quickens us together with Christ; so our translation rightly reads it.

Besides, it is all reason, that Christ being made our head, chap. 1, God hath quickened him, and raised him first, and so us; and that he saith after, we are ‘set in heavenly places with Christ,’ and are now in Christ. Besides those arguments, this makes it clear and plain, in the Colossians;—these two Epistles are as two Evangelists, the one explains the other;—Colossians 2:13, he saith, ‘He hath quickened us together with him,’ namely, with our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, not only as Jews and Gentiles are quickened, but we are quickened with Christ. This being laid for the scope of the words, I will in a word open how we are said to be quickened with him.

You must know, brethren, God the Father, who is the great quickener, he is the author, the great fountain of life; and Jesus Christ, as God-man, hath life given from the Father to him that he might raise us. You have two places: John 5:26, ‘As the Father hath life in himself, so he hath given to the Son to have life in himself.’ The Father hath life in himself, he is the original of life only; though the Son have life in himself, yet he hath not this life of himself, but from the Father; the Father is the fountain of life. And in John 6:57, ‘As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so,’ saith he, ‘he that eats my flesh shall live by me.’ So that now it is plain that God having infinite happiness and life,—for what is the life of God but his own holiness and happiness, and the entireness of his own nature, for his own blessedness, for his own pleasure?—God hath ordained and laid up eternal life in his decree; but Jesus Christ is to be eternal life, to communicate that life that is in himself to us, 1 John 1:1. Christ is called eternal life, as he was with God; and he was incarnate and took flesh on purpose that this life might be communicated, 1 John 5:11. The Father hath given us eternal life in his own decree. First, God purposed that man should live in union and communion with him, and partake of that life that he himself lives, and communicates as far as the creature is capable. ‘He hath given to us eternal life.’ Well, where hath he put it for us to have it? And, saith he, this life is in his Son, that he might unite them to him. John 17:2, ‘Thine they were, thou gavest them me, that I might give eternal life to as many as thou hast given me.’ So he gives it to them; he living by the Father, they are given to him; he bestows life on them, they live by him. So that, to express it more fully, the Godhead dwells in the human nature of Christ and is a quickening Spirit to him; and by virtue of our relation to him, having union with him, he quickens us, and never rests till he hath brought us to that union with God, in our measure and proportion, that Christ hath. Colossians 3:3, our Saviour Christ is said to be our life: our ‘life is hid with Christ in God,’ and when ‘our life shall appear,’ that is, Christ; therefore we are said to be quickened with Christ, as the author of our quickening. That is the first sense that is put upon it, so some interpreters carry it, translating it properly. In the second place, when it is said we are quickened together with Christ, it being a quickening out of death, as I told you, it evidently implies that this Lord of ours, Jesus Christ our life, was also dead; so by virtue of his dying and being quickened, we are quickened together with him. 1 Peter 3:18, it is said he was ‘put to death in the flesh, but quickened in the Spirit;’ that is, raised by the Godhead, being put to death. He had quickening and dying, and by virtue of that quickening and dying of his we are quickened; so we are quickened together with him, both by his death and resurrection.

We are quickened by his death, to purchase that life and quickening that we were to have; therefore you read in John 10 and in John 5:21, and many places, that he gave his life for the life of the world; and his flesh, as crucified and broken, is that that hath purchased life. I shall not need to stand to give you places.

Again, on the other side, by virtue of his resurrection we are also quickened; therefore it is called ‘the virtue of his resurrection,’ Php 3:10. In Isaiah 26:19, there is a prophecy of the conversion of the Jews: ‘Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise.’ Here is quickening together with Jesus Christ; his body was dead, and rose again. Saith he, ‘Thy dead men shall live,’ speaking to that nation that were scattered all the world over. How do we know that their conversion is called a resurrection from the dead? How come they to rise, and to be quickened? ‘With my dead body,’ by virtue of my resurrection. He speaks of a dew afterwards; there is a dew falls from the resurrection of Christ, a virtue which quickeneth us. So we are quickened with Christ.

Again, in the third place, we are said to be quickened with Jesus Christ, because the same life that Jesus Christ is quickened with, we are; it is called ‘the life of Jesus,’ 2 Corinthians 4:11. Though Paul speak of the life of the body, it is called the life of Jesus. We are delivered to death, that the life of Jesus might be manifested in us. As he lives in the favour of God, as he lives to God, so we live to God; it is the same life; the same Spirit that quickened him quickeneth us, Romans 8:11. The same Spirit that raised his body quickens our souls; if we be quickened truly, we live with the same life that Jesus Christ did.

Lastly, We are said to be quickened with him in this sense, because when he was raised and quickened, we were said to be raised and quickened in him, as a person representative; so by virtue of that we are now quickened personally. What saith the Apostle? Romans 6:11, ‘Reckon yourselves alive to God,’ as Christ is. Why? Because when Jesus Christ was quickened, when he arose, ye did rise; when he was quickened, you were quickened in him, and shall have it complete in yourselves. Therefore, though it be imperfect quickening, it is thy comfort that thou art quickened with Christ, and in Christ as a head first; and as his life was perfect, so shall thine be: and in the meantime, though thou canst not say, It is wrought in me, thou mayest say, It is wrought in my head for me; I may say it is perfect in him. ‘Your life is hid with Christ in God.’ I have not all my life; my life is hid with Christ in God. Alas! you have but a little degree, but reckon yourselves alive to God, as Christ is. When he shall appear, that life that he hath in glory you shall have, by virtue of his being quickened. So now you have what is meant by being quickened with Christ.

Now, brethren, here lies plainly the comfort of a Christian, that we are quickened together with Jesus Christ, therefore this life shall never die; for we are quickened together with Jesus Christ, and in him as our head, and as a person representative of us. Here is our comfort, our life is bound up in the bundle of the life of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Therefore now, if Jesus Christ live; If I live, saith he, you shall live; if I never die, you shall never die. He is so quickened that death hath no more dominion over him, Romans 6:10. So saith he to Martha, when she doubted of the resurrection of her brother, ‘He that believeth in me shall never die; believest thou this?’ It is a point of thy creed, as true as any article of thy creed; believe it, there is nothing truer. What is the reason? Because we are quickened with Christ, our life is bound up with his; and as it is in 2 Corinthians 4:14, as Christ did rise up by the power of God, so shall we.

Now then I shall end in a word. The last thing that I am to speak of is the scope of the Apostle, to shew the greatness of the work of God and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ upon us, and his love, in that he hath quickened us. You see the greatness of the grace, and love, and mercy of God, that he hath quickened us with Jesus Christ. But that shall be the observation, it is the Apostle’s scope, and the main thing he aims at. In the first place, if God had quickened us with this life as he did Adam for Adam was quickened, what an infinite goodness had it been, if there had been such a life as a saint hath, to grow up to eternal life! But he did it when we had forfeited all, and were dead in sins and trespasses.

If you had seen Adam’s body, whilst it was making of clay, and formed by degrees, as God did the world; and when that body of clay was made, God put and breathed into it so glorious a soul as it was, how should we have admired this infinite work upon him! But, brethren, that when we had lost this, and were dead in sins and trespasses; that ‘when we were in our blood, God said, Live,’ Ezekiel 16:6; that he should forgive us all our sins, for quickening always carries pardon of sin; he hath quickened us with him, forgiving all our sins; and as he shewed his mercy and grace in pardoning, so his power in putting into us a principle of life, in communicating a greater power than to raise the dead, the same that raised Christ,—what infinite grace and goodness is this! And then, if we reckon that our quickening with Christ cost Christ’s death, and that we are quickened for ever with him and saved, take that in Acts 3:15, ‘Ye have killed the Prince of life, and him God raised;’ that the Prince of life must be put to death and quickened, that we might live! Our life cost God dear, when it was bought with Christ’s life. All the life of men and angels, if they had never sinned, it was but as the life of a slave to the life of a king. Do but consider, he is the Prince of life; what a life he had, and what it was for him that was the Prince of life to be put to death; and put to death he was, that you might have life. And not only so, but as your quickening lies, that being condemned, and then being justified, a sentence of condemnation being upon you: so Christ was not put to a bodily death only, but he had our sins laid on him; he was made a curse, and then he was justified in the Spirit, absolved from all our sins, and this was his quickening; and by virtue of his quickening, we are quickened in the life of justification. I might enlarge this: Romans 5:8, Christ’s love was commended in this, that he died for us. ‘Greater love hath no man than that he lay down his life,’ &c., John 15:13. Let a holy heart, that is affected with the love of Christ and of God, consider this; for words and rhetoric cannot express it to a carnal heart; but to express it to a spiritual heart, how wonderfully will he stand admiring the love and grace of God and of Christ!

Again, in the third place, do but consider the excellency of this life. It is a greater life than when we were in Adam, infinitely greater; we are quickened with Christ, with the same life that Christ is quickened with. Alas! when Adam was quickened, he was quickened by the law; but Jesus Christ is our life, Adam’s life was nothing. John 10:10, ‘I came that they might have life, and have it more abundantly.’ Therefore indeed and in truth we explain this life to you: by our death in sin we cannot do it. Why? Because our death in sin is a deprivation only of that we had in Adam, but it is restored infinitely. ‘I am come to give you life, and to give it more abundantly.’ It is a higher justification, living in the eternal favour of God; Adam was but in the temporal favour of God.

Lastly, To end all, it is evident here that the Apostle principally means our calling, the first infusion, the Holy Ghost putting in a principle of life and making us new creatures. Therein is infinite love, next to the death of Christ, that he quickened us when we were dead. ‘God, that is rich in mercy, hath quickened us.’ There are three acts of God wherein his love is:— The first is, His love from eternity. The other, When he gave Jesus Christ for us. The third, When he called us first, and converted and turned us.

What is the reason that we should account it so great a work? The reason is, because then we were quickened with Jesus Christ. Let the principle of life be never so small, it is the seed of God that shall rise to eternal life; therefore he that believeth hath eternal life. What saith the Apostle in the next words? ‘By grace ye are saved.’ He saith not, ye shall be, but ye are saved; for this life hath eternal life in the seed, and shall be raised to eternal life.

Therefore when God calls a man, all the thoughts of love that he had from eternity, all the thoughts of love he had when Christ came in the flesh, all that ever he means to do for a man, is before him, and he estates this man in all; all that God hath done, and will do, are in that act concentred, when he quickens him; for then a man hath possession and right of all. And this shall go on till it come to the height of perfection, as the Scripture holds it out; ‘to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.’