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as thine own hath often been; he hath told thee what he likes, and desires, and alters not: so now thou knowest whom thou hast to do withal, and what to do, whom to please, and what will please him, and this cannot but much settle thy mind, and put thee at ease: thou mayest say heartily, as rejoicing in the change of so many for one, and such, for such a one, as the church says'; O Lord our God, other lords beside thee have had dominion over me, but now by thee only will I make mention of thy name; now none but thyself, not so much as the name of them any more; away with them; through thy grace thou only shalt be my God. It cannot endure that any thing be named with thee.

Now that it may be thus, that we may wholly live to the will of God, we first must know his will, what it is. Persons grossly ignorant of God, and of his will, cannot live to him; we cannot have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, for he is light This takes off a great many amongst us, that have not so much as a common notion of the will of God. But besides, that knowledge, which is a part, and (I may say) the first part, of the renewed image of God, is not a natural knowledge of spiritual things, merely attained by human teaching or industry; but it is a beam of God's own, issuing from himself, both enlightening and enlivening the whole soul. It gains the affection and stirs to action and so, indeed, it acts and increases by acting; for the more we walk according to what we know of the will of God, the more we shall be advanced to know more. That is the real proving what is his good, and holy, and acceptable will. So says Christ, If any will do the will of my my Father, he shall know of the doctrine". Our lying off from the lively use of known truth, keeps us low in the kuowledge of God, and communion with him. 2. So then upon

that knowledge of God's will,

i Isa. xxvi. 13.

* 1 John i. 6, 7.

John vii. 17.

1 Rom. xii. 2.

where it is spiritual, and from himself, follows the suiting of the heart with it, the affections taking the stamp of it, and agreeing with it; receiving the truth in the love of it, so that the heart may be transformed into it, and now not driven to obedience violently, but sweetly moving to it, by love within the heart framed to the love of God, and so of his will.

3. As Divine knowledge begets this affection, so this affection will bring forth action, real obedience. For these three are inseparably linked, and each dependent on, and the product of, one another. The affection is not blind, but flowing from knowledge, nor actual obedience constrained, but flowing from affection; and the affection is not idle, seeing it brings forth obedience; nor the knowledge dead, seeing it begets affection.

Thus the renewed, the living Christian, is all for God; a sacrifice entirely offered up to God, and a living sacrifice, which lives to God. He takes no more notice of his own carnal will; hath renounced that to embrace the holy will of God; and therefore, though there is a contrary law and will in him, yet he does not acknowledge it, but only the law of Christ, as now established in him; that law of love, by which he is sweetly and willingly led to real obedience. So that he consults not now in his ways, with flesh and blood, what will please them, but only inquires what will please his God; and knowing his mind, resolves to demur no more, nor to ask consent of any other. That he will do; and it is reason enough to him, my Lord wills it; therefore in his strength, I will do it; for now I live to his will, it is my life to study and obey it.

Now, we know what is the true character of the redeemed of Christ, that they are freed from the service of themselves and of the world, yea, dead to it, and have no life but for God, as all his.

Let this, then, be our study and ambition, to attain this, and to grow in it; to be daily further freed from all other ways and desires, and more wholly

addicted to the will of our God; displeased when we find any thing else stir or move within us, but that, that, the spring of our motion in every work.

1. Because we know that his sovereign will is, (and is most justly) the glory of his name, therefore are we not to rest till this be set up in our view, as our end in all, and to count all our plausible doings as hateful (as indeed they are) that are not aimed at this end; yea, endeavouring to have it as frequently, and as expressly, before us as we can, still keeping our eye on the mark; throwing away, yea undoing, our own interest, not seeking ourselves in any thing, but him in all.

2. As living to his will is the great and ultimate end we should propose in all our intentions and actions, so in all and every step towards their execution or accomplishment: For we cannot attain his end but in his way, nor can we intend it without a resignation of the way to his prescription; taking all our directions from him, how we shall honour him in all. The soul that lives to him hath enough, not only to make any thing warrantable but amiahle; it is his care to seek his will; and, having found it, he not only does it, but delights to do it; that is, to live to him, to find it our life; as we speak of a work wherein men do most, and with most delight employ themselves. "That such

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a lust be crucified, is it thy will, Lord? then no more advising, no more delay. How dear soever "that was when I lived to it, it is now as hateful, seeing I live to thee who hatest it. Wilt thou "have me forget an injury, though a great one, "and love the person that hath wronged me? "While I lived to myself and my passions, this "had been hard. But now, how sweet is it! seeing "I live to thee, and am glad to be put upon things "most opposite to my corrupt heart; glad to trample upon my own will, to follow thine; and this "I daily aspire to, and aim at, to have no will of my own, but that thine be in me, that I may live

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to thee, as one with thee; and thou my rule and delight. Yea, not to use the very natural com"forts of my life but for thee; to eat, and drink, "and sleep for thee; and not to please myself, but to be enabled to serve and please thee; to make "one offering of myself and all my actions to thee my Lord."

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Oh! it is the only sweet life to be living thus, and daily learning to live more fully thus. It is heaven this, a little scantling of it here, and a pledge of whole heaven: This is, indeed, the life of Christ t; not only like his, but one with his; it is his spirit, his life derived into the soul; and, therefore, both the most excellent, and, certainly, most permanent, for he dieth no more, and therefore this his life cannot be extinguished. Hence is the perseverance of the saints; because they have one life with Christ, and so are alive unto God, once for all, for

ever.

It is true, the former custom of sin would plead old possession with grace; and this the Apostle implies here, that because formerly we lived to our lusts, they will urge that; but he teaches us to beat it directly back on them, and turn the edge of it as a most strong reason against them. "True you "had so long time of us, the more is our sorrow "and shame, and the more reason that it be no longer so."

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The rest of this time in the flesh.] That is, in this body, not to be spent as the foregoing, in living to the flesh, that is, the corrupt lusts of it, and the common ways of the world: But as often as the Christian looks back on that, to find it as a spur in his side, to be the more earnest, and more wholly busied in living much to God, having lived so long contrary to him, in living to the flesh. The past may suffice; there is a figure in that", meaning much more than the words express: It is enough, Oh! too much, to have lived so long so miserable a life.

Called in the Schools, Liptotes.

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Now, says the Christian, the Christian, "Oh! corrupt lusts and deluding world! look for no more, I have served "you too long. The rest, whatsoever it is, must "be to my Lord; to live to him by whom I live; "and ashamed and grieved I am I was so long in "beginning. So much past, it may be, the most, "of my short race past, before I took notice of "God, or looked towards him. Oh! how have I "lost, and worse than lost, all my bypast days? Now, had I the advantages and abilities of many men, and were I to live many ages, all should "be to live to my God, and honour him. And "what strength I have, and what time I shall have, "through his grace, shall be wholly his." And when any Christian hath thus resolved, his intended life being so imperfect, and the time so short, the poorness of the offer would break his heart, were there not an eternity before him, wherein he shall live to his God, and in him, without blemish and without end.

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Spiritual things being once discerned by a spiritual light, the whole soul is carried after them; and the ways of holiness are never truly sweet till they be thoroughly embraced with a full renunciation of all that is contrary to them.

All his former ways of wandering from God are very hateful to a Christian, who is indeed returned and brought home; and those most of all hateful, wherein he hath most wandered and most delighted. A sight of Christ gains the heart, makes it break from all intanglements of its own lusts, and of the profane world about it. And these are the two things the Apostle here aims at, exhorting Christians to the study of newness of life, and shewing the necessity of it. He intimates that they cannot be Christians without it; he opposes their new estate and engagement, to the old customs of their former condition, and to the continuing custom and conceit of the ungodly world; that against both they maintain that rank and dignity to which now they are called, and, in a holy disdain of both,

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