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2. This "being a certain first-fruits of his creatures," denotes the superior honour and dignity which it is the gracious design of God to put upon Christians. The first-fruits presented to God were not only required to be of the best, but they derived a pre-eminence above all others from the very circumstance of their being dedicated to God; they were employed to a nobler use. Grace dignifies and exalts in a similar manner its possessor: "The righteous is more excellent than his neighbour;"* however obscure in station, and however beclouded and depressed by the meanness of his external condition, he is one of the excellent of the earth. His employment is that of "a king and a priest unto God." In reflecting some rays of his image, in advancing the honour and sustaining the cause of the blessed God, he is infinitely more honourably occupied than the votaries of the world or the servants of sin. His calling is "high and heavenly." He is associated with Jesus and the holy angels in sacred ministries, his pursuits are of a permanent and eternal nature.

If we consider the principles, also, which actuate good men and form the basis of their character, we shall perceive a greatness and elevation to which the world is an entire stranger. Is there nothing more noble in taking a wide prospect, and in looking at "the things which are unseen and eternal,"§ than in being absorbed in transitory concerns? Is not that a higher species of wisdom which calculates upon the interests and advantage which lie concealed from eyes of flesh in the depths of eternity, than that which contents itself with securing perishing riches?

Is it not incomparably more noble and more worthy of an immortal creature to be "providing for himself bags that wax not old,” “a treasure in the heavens that fadeth not,"|| than in searching for "filthy lucre ?" Is there not more true dignity in the patience that waits with composure to be happy, than in the childish eagerness which catches at every momentary gratification? Is it not more magnanimous to conquer than submit to the world? to tread the world under our feet than to be enslaved by it? to be able to exercise that self-command over our sensual affections which secures the pleasures of innocence and the approbation of conscience, than to be the victim of unbridled passions? to rule our own spirit, than to be the sport of its tyrannical disorder? to rise above a sense of injury so as to forgive our enemies, rather than to be tormented with malice and revenge? He must be insensible to reason who is at a loss how to answer these interrogatories; and to answer them in the affirmative is to attest the superior dignity of the Christian character, to acknowledge that Christians are "a sort of first-fruits of the creatures."

They are so at present with all the imperfections which attach to their state and their character; but they will be incomparably more so when they shall be assembled around the Throne, and it shall be declared of them, "These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he

Prov. xii. 26.

§ 2 Cor. iv. 18.

† Rev. i. 6.
Luke xii. 33

↑ Heb. iii. 1.
T1 Tim. iii. 3.

goeth: these were redeemed from among men, being the first-fruits unto God and the Lamb."*

3. The representation of Christians as a certain first-fruits of the creatures implies the accession of the future harvest; they are a pledge only of what is to follow; their dedication to God as the first-fruits is a preparation for the universal prevalence of religion,-the universal sanctification of the creatures.

Improvement.

I. Let us adore God for having planted in the breast a principle of true religion.

II. Let us be ambitious of exemplifying the excellence and dignity of our Christian calling.

III. As an important means of this, let us study the gospel, and endeavour to gain a deeper and more extensive acquaintance with the word of truth.f

XII.

ON SPIRITUAL DEATH.

EPH. ii. 1. And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins.

THE power of God was most illustriously displayed in raising Christ from the dead; but there is another operation of Divine power which bears a great resemblance to this, of which every individual believer is the subject. It is the prayer of the apostle, in the latter part of the preceding chapter, that the Ephesians might have an increasing experience of the effects of that power which is exerted towards "them that believe, according to the working of his mighty power;" and what particular effect of Divine [power] he had in immediate contemplation, he informs us in the first part of the ensuing chapter: "And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins." He had not merely raised Christ from the dead, but he had wrought a similar deliverance for the Ephesians by imparting spiritual life to those who had been dead in trespasses and sins.

In treating of these words, I shall first inquire to what extent this representation of a death in trespasses and sins is to be applied, and to what description of persons it belongs; secondly, I shall endeavour to show its import; and thirdly, make a few remarks on the wretched state of those who may justly be affirmed to be dead in trespasses and

sins.

Rev. xiv. 4.

Preached 7th of March, 1811, at the Wednesday evening lecture,

May the Lord the Spirit apply the awful truths we shall have occasion to unfold, with power to the conscience.

I. Are those expressions, "dead in trespasses and sins," to be understood as applicable only, or chiefly, to heathens? or to such in Christian countries as have run very remarkable lengths in wickedness? or are they applicable to the state of the unconverted universally? The heathen, say some, were exceedingly corrupt and wicked, totally enslaved to idols, "without hope and without God in the world." It was in consideration of this their remarkable alienation from God, and extreme corruption of manners, the apostle was led to employ such phrases; which are by no means to be applied to men educated in the light of Christianity, although they may not yet be in a state of salvation. Whether the representation applies to heathens only, or to those in a Christian country who for their enormous sins may be justly compared to heathens; or whether they are to be applied to unconverted sinners universally, will perhaps sufficiently appear from the following considerations.

1. The apostle expressly includes himself among those whose former state he had been considering. To the same purpose the apostle includes himself in the following description: "For we ourselves were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another."†

2. The same expression is applied generally to those who never were heathens. "And another of his disciples said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. But Jesus said, Let the dead bury their dead," the meaning of which is obvious. Let those who are spiritually dead, who are therefore totally unqualified to serve me in the gospel, perform such offices as those, to which they are fully equal; but for thee, thou art fitted for a higher and nobler employment -go thou and preach the gospel.

3. It is the declared intention of Jesus Christ, by his appearance in our world, to give life to the world by exhibiting himself as the bread of life. "I am come that they might have life." Here we have the affirmation of him that cannot lie; that those, whosoever they be, that are destitute of saving faith, are also destitute of spiritual life. "They have no life in them;" which can surely be understood in no other sense than what is equivalent to the passage before us.

4. True Christians, without any exception, are described as persons who have "passed from death unto life."P "He that heareth my words, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but hath passed from death unto life."** 66 'Hereby we know we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren; he that loveth not his brother abideth in death."tt Here the moral state of the world is supposed to be separated by an invisible boundary into two regions, a region of life and a region of death; and it is implied that none come into the former, that is, that

* Eph. ii. 3, 4. John vi. 53.

† Tit. iii. 3.

John v. 24.

+ Matt. viii. 22.
** Ibid.

John x. 10; vi. 32, 33, ft 1 John iii. 14.

one.

of life, but by passing into it from the latter. They were not natives of this blessed region, but migrated or travelled to it from an opposite And who are those remaining in a state of death? "He who loveth not his brother;" that is, who loveth not Christians as Christians, which is certainly the character of all the unrenewed and unregenerate. We are justified then in applying this description" dead in trespasses and sins," to every person who has not been renewed by the grace of God.

It is time to proceed, in the next place, to explain the import of this representation, or to unfold some of the leading particulars included in a state of spiritual death.

1. It implies a privation, or withdrawment, of a principle, which properly belongs, and once did belong, to the subject of which it is affirmed. It would be quite improper to speak of any thing as dead which was never endued with a living principle. We never speak of the inanimate parts of creation, such as earth and stones, as dead, because they are as they ever were; no living powers are extinguished in them. But from whatever once had life, when that life is withdrawn which it formerly possessed, we affirm that it is dead. Thus we speak of plants, of animals, and men, when bereft of the vital principle, as dead. The death that overspreads the souls of the unregenerate consists in privations, in the withdrawment of what originally belonged to the soul of man, that gracious communication from God which is life. As the life of the body is derived from its union with the immortal spirit, and continues no longer than while that union subsists, so the life of the soul is derived from its union with God. Sin dissolved that union. In consequence of sin the blessed [God] withdrew from the soul, and the effect of that is, that though it is not deprived of its natural powers, as the body even after death still continues to subsist as matter; its life and happiness are gone.

The withdrawment of God is with respect to the soul, what the withdrawment of the soul is in relation to the body. In each case the necessary effect is death; and as that which occasioned that withdrawment is sin, it is very properly denominated a " death in trespasses and sins." Now this view of the subject ought surely to fill us with the deepest concern. Had man never possessed a principle of divine life, there would have been less to lament in his condition. We are less affected at the consideration of what we never had, than by the loss of advantages which we once possessed. We look at a stone, or a piece of earth, without the least emotion, because, though it be destitute of life, we are conscious it was never possessed. But when we look upon a corpse, it excites an awful feeling. Here, we are ready to reflect [and] say, dwelt an immortal spirit; those eyes were once kindled, those limbs were once animated by an ethereal fire, and a soul was once diffused throughout this frame. It is now fled, and has left nothing but the ruins of a man. Did we view things in a right light, we should be far more affected still in contemplating a dead soul. Here, we should remember, God once dwelt. The soul of man was once the abode of light and life. "How is the gold changed, and the

fine gold become dim!" It is now overspread with carnality and darkness. It is now a lost, fallen spirit.

2. To be dead in trespasses and sins intimates the total, the universal prevalence of corruption.

Life admits of innumerable degrees and kinds. There is one sort of vegetative life, as in plants, another subsists in animals, and in man a rational, which is a still more superior principle of life. Where life is of the same sort it is susceptible of different degrees. It is much more perfect in the larger sorts of animals than in reptiles. The vital principle in different men exists with various degrees of vigour, so that some are far more animated, alert, and vigorous than others. But there are no degrees in death. All things of which it can be truly said that they are dead are equally dead. There are no degrees in privation; thus it is with all who are dead in trespasses and sins. They are all equally dead. They may possess very estimable and amiable qualities, such as naturally engage the love of their fellowcreatures; but being equally destitute of a principle of spiritual life, they are all in one and the same state of death; they are governed by the same carnal principle; they are in the flesh, and therefore cannot please God. They are alike subjects of the prince of darkness; they serve the same master, and belong to the same kingdom. Every unsanctified person is totally "alienated from the life of God,"-is totally devoid of love to Him, and a perception of his true glory and excellence. How can it be otherwise, when he is under the influence of that "carnal mind which is enmity against God?" There are some sinners who are of so winning and gentle a disposition that we are ready to flatter ourselves it is easy to conduct them to God, and to form them to the love and practice of true religion; but when the experiment is tried, we soon find ourselves undeceived. Unless the Spirit of God pleases to operate, we find it as impossible to persuade them to seek the Lord by prayer, to mortify their corruptions, and set their affections on heavenly things, as persons of the most forbidding and unamiable tempers. We discover a rooted and invincible antipathy to whatever is spiritual. There are others who, by the influences of

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