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God of heaven and earth; and implores an oath of them, in his name, to obtain mercy. She is intrusted with their secret, and enjoined to keep it, which she does; she withdraws all her affections from her own people, and cleaves to the children of God, hides them, lets them down by a wall, sends them away safely, and predicts their safe return if they abide three days; all which they observe, and succeed; and she gathers all her family into her own house, according to the covenant and charge they gave her, and keeps the secret with which she was intrusted; and the consequence was, that, when all the other parts of the walls of Jericho fell down, her house, that was built on the town wall, stood, with her and all her friends in it.

Salmon, a prince of Israel, marries this woman, and, according to Matthew's genealogy, Christ came through her.

Both Abraham and Rahab were justified before God by faith long before either of them was justified before men by works. The first act makes the tree good, and the last makes the fruit appear to be good. The first is attended with a divine ray from God; "He that believeth in me shall not abide in darkness:" the other is a letting our light shine before men. The first makes the man good, and the latter is a letting men see our good works, that they may glorify our Father which is in heaJames does not say, Shew God your faith without your works, but, "Shew me your faith.

ven.

without your works, and I will shew you my faith by my works." Hence it is plain that justification before men is meant, and not justification before God.

All that has been here said respects justification in the court of a man's own conscience. But the elect were decretively justified from eternity in the purpose of God; for, as he preappointed us to obtain salvation by Christ with eternal glory, so he preappointed us to righteousness as our title to it; for we were predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son, which stands in righteousness and true holiness.

2. We were justified federally in Christ from everlasting: "From everlasting I was set up;" that is, to be future man and mediator; and was then made of God unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. This is proclaimed in the covenant; "Thy people also shall be all righteous; they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified."

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3. We were justified representatively in Christ at his resurrection: "Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise.' "He died for our sins, and rose again for our justification."

VIII.

THE SAINT'S MYSTIC DEATH AND PERFECT

FREEDOM.

ROMANS vi. 7.

"For he that is dead is freed from sin."

THE elect of God, as well as all others, are by nature dead: they are dead in sin, living without any spiritual life; and to be carnally minded is death: they are without any affection for God, motion towards him, delight in him or in his service: and they are dead in law, being condemned in Adam, for judgment by one offence came upon all men to condemnation: and they are under the curse of the law, and by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

In this state the law could give us no strength to obey its precepts, and consequently it could give us no life; for all our obedience thereto is only dead works. But "what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God hath done for us, by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and, by a sacrifice for sin, condemned sin in the flesh;" Rom. viii. 3. Christ was sent in the likeness of sinful flesh. "The children being partakers of flesh and blood, he also

himself took part of the same." And to him were our actual transgressions and inbred corruptions imputed. "He was made sin for us," and he stood charged with the whole of our sins, and was arraigned and condemned, being numbered with the transgressors; and, under the sentence that fell on him, our sins were condemned in his flesh. He dies the death of the cross, and makes his soul an offering for sin. And our old man is crucified with him, and we too, for we died in our Head by virtue of a preceding union with him. "I am crucified with Christ," says Paul; I died in my Head; in him I have died the death due to me for sin by virtue of my union with him, and by his being cut off, not for himself, but for me; in him I died, in him I suffered the law; for, if one died for all, then were all dead when he died. And in this sense we were all dead together; the Head, and all the members in him. But there is a voice in the promise, "Thy dead men shall live," saith God. "With my dead body shall they arise," saith the Saviour. And in our Head we all arose. Ye are risen with Christ; God hath quickened you together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; his blood has purged your sins, his resurrection is a pledge of ours, and eternal life is in him for all his members.

To let us know this, the law that cast, condemned, and cursed to death, the covenant head, who was made sin for us, that law comes to us, sin revives, and we die; which is a planting us

together in the likeness of his death: the Spirit directs the eye of faith to the death and atonement of Christ, and quickens us by his influence; and we rise under the operation of the Spirit of God, and are planted together in the likeness of his resurrection. Now we live no more in the old way; we are dead, buried, and risen with Christ. To the lust of men, to the lust of the flesh, to the will of men, and to sin, and to the law, we live no more.

"Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." We are dead to self. No man liveth unto himself, nor dieth unto himself. Whether we live therefore or die, we are the Lord's, Rom. xiv. 7. 8. And to this end Christ died, rose again, and revived, that he might be the Lord both of the dead and of the living; the Lord of those elect souls who are as yet dead in sin, and of them that are already quickened. He is dead to sin, and lives no longer therein. He is dead to the law by the sentence passed on the body of Christ, and by the sentence felt in himself; and expects no life from that. And by a sweet union to Christ, and the enjoyment of it; by communion with the saints, and affection for them; he is crucified to this world; he can find no life in the company of the dead; and the world is crucified to him; they can find no delight or life in the company of one that is dead to sin and alive to God.

The old life, and all old things, are now passed

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