We have to be very thankful to
those false teachers. We have to be very thankful to
God for the falls of our brothers and sisters. What a glorious
letter we have before us on account of these troubles, and what an
amazing way the providence of God worked that we would have
before us these remarkable verses. He does really work all things,
doesn't He? He actually works all things
for the good of those who love Him and who are of Thee called
according to His purpose. He does work. He's worked these
things. He's worked these things 2,000
years ago and He's worked them throughout history and He's worked
them this morning. That's the prayer, isn't it?
I pray it's the prayer of all of us for each other that God
would take these words, these amazing words that we're looking
at in particular this morning, and He would make them life to
us. Let's read from verse 16 down
to verse 21, but we'll look more closely this morning at verse
20. We who are Jews by nature are
not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. Even we have believed in Jesus
Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not
by the works of the law. For by the works of the law shall
no flesh be justified. But if, while we seek to be justified
by Christ, we ourselves are found sinners, is therefore Christ
the minister of sin? God forbid! For if I build again
the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. For I, through the law, am dead
to the law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified with
Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved
me and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace
of God. I do not set aside the grace
of God. For if righteousness come by
the law, then Christ is dead in vain. Verse 20 is what we're
looking at. It's just full of these remarkable
phrases, isn't it? I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live in
the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved
me and gave himself for me. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we have before us the most remarkable declarations of the work of Your
Son, and especially of the work of Your Son, dying on that cursed
tree, Heavenly Father, bearing the infinite holy wrath that
the sins of all of your people deserved. We praise you, Heavenly
Father, for free and sovereign grace. And we praise you, Heavenly
Father, for these words which speak so powerfully and wonderfully
of the union of the Lord Jesus with all of his bride, that eternal
covenant union, that union which is a union in love, which is
a union in grace, which is a union that caused Him to give Himself
for us. O Heavenly Father, we pray that
we might go away from here with something of these words written
by Your Spirit on our hearts and we might hold them dear. because they speak so amazingly
of our Saviour. What a remarkable statement He
makes. He's loved us. He has loved a
particular people and He loves them perfectly and purposefully.
We praise You for gathering us here today and we pray again
for our brothers and sisters throughout this world. We pray
for the proclamation of this glorious Gospel. Heavenly Father,
we pray that Your Son would be lifted up, highly exalted and
esteemed, and that people might find all of their rest, all of
their peace, and like Paul, all of their life. in Him who loved
us and gave Himself for us. We pray your blessing on us Heavenly
Father. Bless your words to our hearts. Make them real. Make
them living. Make them active. Make them life
for us, our Father. For we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. As I said last week, Paul becomes
personal He becomes personal for very real and important reasons,
doesn't he? That salvation is a personal
intimate union, a personal intimate relationship, a personal intimate
faith, a personal intimate life with the Lord Jesus Christ. He's writing this most serious
of letters and he's deeply troubled and provoked by what's happened. He's deeply troubled and provoked
by these people that he loved. These people that loved him amazingly
and would have plucked out their own eyes for him. have been led
astray, led astray by false teachers and led astray to a place where
Paul is criticised and fellowship with Paul is spurned. And he has reminded us again
and again in this letter that He's an Apostle at the beginning.
He's an Apostle neither of man, neither by man, but by Jesus
Christ and God the Father. He's made, He's made an Apostle. He's made a proclaimer of the
Gospel by a sovereign work of God. And He had the revelation
of Jesus Christ in verse 12. He speaks of his life, he speaks
of his conversion, he speaks of it in remarkable terms, and
God always gets all of the glory. He was zealous for the traditions
of his fathers, the traditions that Peter and these others at
Antioch were going back into, and Paul, remember, is still,
I believe, continuing this message before them, issuing those solemn,
solemn warnings. issuing them as an ambassador
of God. He's speaking on God's behalf
to the souls of these people. He is speaking like the prophets
of old and like the Lord Jesus himself. He's speaking With heaviness
of heart, knowing that there is, as there always has been,
there is going to be a division in humanity. There is going to
be, and history tells us again and again, the scriptures tell
us again and again, that there are those who would read this
letter and find in it the most solemn warnings and respond like
Peter did, calling Paul a beloved brother. And there are those
who would continue on their way, unheeding the warnings given. And that's why Paul is describing
here from verse 18 on, he's describing the personal relationship he
has with God. He's describing what it is to
really be a Christian. He's describing what it is to
be really saved. He's describing what spiritual
life is like. We know enough about carnal life. We know enough about carnal religion. But he writes knowing that there
is going to be this division. There has been from all of time,
hasn't there? Cain and Abel went to church. One went away a righteous man,
the other one went away hardened in self-righteousness. was a man who found grace in
the eyes of the Lord, and just nine and eight souls were saved
out of that deluge. Abraham was just one man and
he was saved out of that world and out of Ur of the Chaldeans. And from his loins Isaac was
chosen, Ishmael, remained and was left in his self-righteousness. Jacob was loved, Esau was hated,
and throughout the history of the scriptures we see that there
is this division. The Lord Jesus came and he brought
that division. Hebrews has some remarkable things
to say in relation to the The letter to Galatians and Romans,
one of the remarkable statements that it makes is that he says
in Hebrews 13, 13, he says, Let us go therefore unto him without
the camp, bearing his reproach. Therefore Jesus also that he
might sanctify the people with his own blood suffered without
the gate. unto him without the camp." The
camp was clearly seen in those days, wasn't it? The camp was
this remarkable, magnificent temple and all of the Jewish
laws and ceremonies, the third laws and the laws of circumcision
and all the other works, those works of the flesh, those works
that Peter was drawn back into. is calling these Galatians that
he loved. He's calling them to him. He's calling them to him and
the brethren with him. He's calling them to the Lord
Jesus Christ. And he's reminding them of the
glories, the glories of covenant union, the glories of relationship. That's why he uses the personal
pronoun. He's describing his life with
the Lord Jesus. Each of us has a personal, as
we saw last week, in that verse 18, if I build again things which
I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. We saw that there is a personal
responsibility and there's a personal relationship. I can't and I don't
pretend to see into the hearts of people. It's good for us not
to. The best we can see is flesh. We are deeply and wonderfully
encouraged by faithful witness to the Gospel and faithful perseverance
under trials and we have so much to thank God for, so much to
thank God for in bringing us the truth and sustaining that
truth. So much to be thankful for that
we have brothers and sisters around the world who proclaim
these things, the things that we have found delightful. And yet we know that there is
a camp, a vast camp, and Paul is writing this letter to say
to these people, this is deadly serious. I'm fellowshipping.
I fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. If you're going to fellowship
with the Lord Jesus Christ, you fellowship with me. You fellowship
with the Gospel I proclaim. But in the midst of it, He gives
us remarkable testimony. He does on several occasions
in Galatians. And He draws us, isn't He? He's
drawing us with these amazing chords of love in these verses. I love what Hosea says. He says,
Therefore behold, I will allure her, I will draw her to myself,
and I will bring her into the wilderness and speak tenderly
to her. The Gospel is amazingly attractive
to fallen sinners. The Christ of the Gospel is amazingly
personally attractive to fallen sinners. So Paul begins his testimony,
doesn't he? He says earlier on, I through
the law am dead to the law that I might live under God. Then
he describes in verse 20 how he died to the law. He says, I am crucified with
Christ. I have been once and with finality
crucified with the Lord Jesus Christ. Obviously it can't mean
a physical crucifixion. Paul wasn't there and Paul is
alive and so I was in reference in reference to the real spiritual
union between the Lord Jesus Christ and His Bride, the head
and the body, the vine and the branches, the husband and the
wife, the shepherd and the sheep. There is There is a real spiritual,
vital, intimate, eternal, powerful, effective union with the Lord
Jesus Christ and his people, such as that all that he is,
and all that he has done, and all that he will do, is seen
to be done in perfect union with his bride. Absolutely undivided,
perfect union. It's a union, a covenant union
in eternity. It's the eternal covenant. It's
the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. He was always the
God and Saviour of His people. He was always one with them. He cannot be separated from them. All His mystical body, a mystical
body from our perspective, not a mystical body from His perspective.
The understanding, it says in Psalm 145, the knowledge, well
the understanding of the Lord is infinite. He knows absolutely
everything all the time. He knows absolutely everything
right now about all the future. He knows the end from the beginning. He knows exactly what the new
creation is going to be like and what we'll be doing there.
and who will be there and the joys and the delights of it.
It is for him. all finished, always all finished. And yet in His flesh we have
this remarkable manifestation of this reality, don't we? He actually became what we are,
that we might have this intimate relationship with Him. So the
Lord Jesus Christ is never represented in the Book of Scriptures as
acting in a private capacity, but he's always represented as
a public head and a representative of his people. So that's why
Paul can say, and all believers can say, I am crucified with
Christ. When he died to sin under the
law, they died in him. What does the scripture say?
We're buried with Him in baptism under death. We're circumcised
with Him. We were walked with Him. We were
buried with Him in baptism under death. We were raised with Him
in newness to life. What are we doing right now?
We're sitting together with Him in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus. He entered into heaven to appear
in the presence of God for us. We are one with Him. It's just not a philosophical
statement. This is a statement of real Christian
reality. I love what Romans 6 says. People say, well that's just
the way God sees things. Well, the way God sees things
is the way things are. Always, always will be. He says in chapter 6, Knowing this, that our old man
is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed.
Henceforth we should not serve sin, for he that is dead is free
from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ,
we believe we shall also live with Him. Knowing that Christ,
being raised from the dead, dieth no more, death has no more dominion
over him. For in that he died, he died
unto sin once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God."
The same phrase that we looked at last week, living unto God. Likewise, reckon. you also yourselves to be dead
indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ ourselves."
God reckons us that way, and he tells us to reckon ourselves
that way. I think, more than think, I believe strongly that
that's what it means about over in Romans 8, and we
don't have time to look at this, but there is the big issue in
terms of sanctification is mortifying, mortifying the deeds of the body. And I think Romans 6 is the answer,
isn't it? You have been crucified with
Christ. You have, haven't you? It's happened. It's a reality.
There are so many people who are calmly minded and it is death. We mortify the deeds of the body
by believing what God says about the reality of our union with
Him. It's not about activities. It's about a reality and a faith
reality. We are one with Him. We reckon
ourselves one with Him. This body of flesh that you see
here now, with all of its sins, And you don't see many of them,
nowhere near as many as I see, and I don't see as many as God
has. They are much deeper and darker
than I could even imagine. With all of its sins, with all
of its infirmities, with all that's offensive to men, with
all that might seem righteous in the eyes of men, It's been
crucified with Christ. It's been crucified. That's what
he says about it. It's been crucified. The law demanded that those sins
be paid for. The law demanded the ultimate
punishment for those sins, and it got it. And once it has death,
it can demand no more. It cannot now accuse me of anything. It cannot accuse any believer
ever again. We are dead to the law, brothers
and sisters, through the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, crucified
yet alive, dead yet resurrected. If Christ be in you, the body
is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness,
because of His righteousness. Nevertheless I live, yet not
I. This is Paul's life, isn't it?
He's describing the reality of his life in union with the Lord
Jesus. See, people think that regeneration
changes things in our flesh. You who know yourselves and know
your Saviour know that like Paul, you can call yourself a wretched
man, you can call yourself the chief of sinners at the end of
a remarkable Christian life. Regeneration. is the indwelling
of something, an alien righteousness that lives in us. And in conversion,
in Christian life, there is nothing in the flesh that is made holy. And there is nothing in the spirit
which is left unholy. We are perfectly fit. Perfectly fit for heaven. It's not life in Paul that Paul
is looking to. It's life in Christ. It's Christ
living in him. But Christ liveth in me. He's died, nevertheless he's
alive. and yet not I. His real life
is the life of Christ." See, Paul was crucified. God's people
in this world were crucified with Christ 2000 years ago and
the life they now live, they live with Christ living in them. This is real life, isn't it?
He liveth in me. He lives and He remains. He never comes and takes up residence
in someone with ever any intention of leaving. He changes not. Therefore you sons of Jacob are
not consumed. The resurrected Christ lives
in us. The reigning Christ lives in
us. The returning Christ lives in
all of his people. I'll just read a few scriptures.
You probably know so many of them. Paul, the Lord Jesus, that
last night, said, Because I live, you also shall live. And his final words in his prayer,
in John 17, 26, And I have declared unto them thy name, and will
declare it, that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in
them. The same love that God the Father
has for His Son is in His people." Then he goes on to say something
remarkable, "...and I in them." He talks about that day of conversion,
"...that day you shall know that I am in my Father, and you in
me, and I in you." One of the writers said, our
joy in this life, in this world, will be more or less as we are
enabled to live upon Christ Himself, drawing from Him all that we
need, all our resources, all of our hope, all our peace, all
our righteousness, all our salvation, drawing it simply from Him, enabling
us to discover that the life that is in Christ and the faith
from Christ are from one and the same person. All life, all
spiritual life comes from this one source. It's not our interest
in Christ, but Christ's interest in us. It's not my living for
Him, it's Him living for me, Him dying for me, Him reigning
for me. I love how Song of Solomon, the
Shulamite, described it. Again and again she says, I am
thy beloved's. I am owned lock, stock and barrel
by thy beloved. I am his possession. I am His to do with as He sees
fit, and He sees fit to do wondrous things." She said again and again,
and my Beloved is mine. I am my Beloved's first, and
then as a result of it, my Beloved is mine. Christ lives. in believers scattered throughout
this world. We do just sort of enter, don't
we, so often in the scriptures into the depths of things which
are just so extraordinary, that if God hadn't written them and
signed them with His blood and sealed them forever in the resurrection
and given us the faith and the life to see them and believe
them. No wonder the world can't understand
spiritual things and spiritual life. No wonder when they turn
from Christ and turn back to law keeping and to works righteousness
and rewards and crowns and do, do and do and do, they have a
veil. As they turn they have a veil. They veiled from seeing the glory
of Him. Christ lives in me. See the seriousness for the Galatian
believers. They might think that they've
heard some disparaging things about Paul and been enticed by
these fancy preachers. They say that Paul was a pretty
wizened up, bent over fellow and he had a high pitched, squawky,
annoying voice. There was nothing attractive
in his flesh. He seemed to have all sorts of
infirmities. With the Galatians it was the
infirmities in his eyes. I love the way the Lord took
Paul, who had this vast knowledge of Jewish history and vast knowledge
of the Scriptures, and he took him out of there and he took
him to a place where all of his natural abilities would mean
absolutely nothing, and he caused him to preach the Gospel with
power and effectiveness. And there he took Peter, who
came from despised Galilee, uneducated, uncouth as far as the Jews were
concerned. and he made him the apostle to
the Jews. God takes the weak things of
this world and he does it with a purpose so that all of the
glory would be seen to be his and all of the power would be
seen to be his and people would rest upon the faithfulness of
the Lord Jesus and the promise of the scriptures rather than
the power and the wisdom of men. Christ liveth in me. Is that your testimony, brothers
and sisters? I don't pretend to see other people's hearts.
But what a remarkable thing for you to be able to say. What a
remarkable thing. to be able to leave here and
rest your head on your pillow at the end of tiresome days and
to find rest at times when all around is nothing but the deepest
discouragement. Christ liveth in thee. He lives and remains. He cannot
leave ever. Nothing can separate us from
the love of God. It's in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
The life which I now live in the flesh. Paul really does have
a life, a real human pilgrimage. And while ever this flesh exists,
he has a life to live. But he calls it the life that
I now live in the flesh. The life that he now lives, with
its real joys and its real sorrows, he lives. His real life is a
life that's lived by the faith of the Son of God. The faith
of the Son of God, not our faith in Him. By the life I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faithfulness of the Son of God. Real life,
real spiritual life. This is eternal life, said the
Lord Jesus, that you know Him. You know the Father and you know
Him. Real life comes from the fountain
of all blessing. Paul does not live by his faith,
but by Christ's faith. All his life, all the life that
he's talking about here is in Christ, it's from Christ, it's
by Christ. We speak often about how remarkably
faithful the Lord Jesus is. He was faithful in making those
promises in that eternal covenant. The scriptures declare again
and again, faithful is our God. He's faithful as a servant to
His Father. He's faithful as a husband to
His bride. He's faithful to all His promises. All the promises of God are yes
and amen in Him. They're not yes and maybe. They
are yes and amen. He's faithful to His promises.
He's faithful to His threatenings. He's faithful yesterday, today. He's faithful right at this very
moment. He's faithful tomorrow. When you feel you've done well,
you live upon His faithfulness. When you stumble and fall like
Petey, He is faithful to send Paul to you. You know, my understanding of
Acts 21 is right, and you can look at it yourselves in your
leisure, but he was faithful to Paul when Paul stumbled like
Peter. Paul had gone back to Jerusalem,
and he'd sworn these oaths, and he went through this week-long
ritual under the law. And the last day of that week-long
ritual was a blood sacrifice. Paul was about to make a blood
sacrifice under the law. The pressure of this life in
the flesh shows the best of men to be men at best. What happened
to Paul? What does a faithful God do in
that situation? He stirs up Jerusalem and puts
him in jail. He never got to finish it. He
never got to offer the blood sacrifice. Faithful is our God,
brothers and sisters. He won't. We'll stumble and fall
and at the end of the day we'll sail like Moses underneath our
everlasting arms. an eternal covenant, ordered
and secure in every detail. Faithful, I change not, therefore
you sons of Jacob are not consumed. Faithful is he that calleth you,
who also will do it. His faithfulness is not just
a whim, his faithfulness is faithfulness in action, isn't it? In 1 Thessalonians
5, those verses are there. To do what? Faithful as he that
called you, who also doeth. What will he do? and the very
God of peace sanctify you wholly, sanctify you completely. And
I pray God your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless
until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful, faithful
and He will do it. He's faithful to the words of
this letter we have before us. He's faithful to this declaration
of what it is to be a Christian. Faithful to his word. Thy testimonies
that thou hast commanded are righteous and they are very faithful. There's not a single human being
on this planet that can say with honesty that the Lord Jesus has
ever been unfaithful. They can accuse our God of all
sorts of things, they can never accuse Him of that. No believer
can ever do it. There's a story of an old lady,
I think she was in a nursing home at the end of her life and
the pastor went to see her and she had in her Bible and all
through her Bible she had T and P written beside verses again
and again. You saw them all over the place.
And he said to her, what's the T and the P mean? She said, tried
and proved. pride and proved faithful. We live by the faith of the Son
of God. He was faithful to death on the
cross. It's the faith of the Son of
God. It's not faith in the Son of
God, although that's important and vital and we'll talk about
it another time. It's the faith of the Son of God. That is life,
isn't it? He is the author and the finisher
of faith. He is the giver of faith. And it comes, as I said earlier,
this life of faith comes and dwells in us as an alien, like
an alien righteousness. It's a faith that has a life
from outside of us that then lives in us. And we stumble and
fall and we stagger and we struggle in so many ways and He He comes
along as a comforter and as a guide and as a consoler and He faithfully
cares for His Bride always. The Eternal God is our refuge
underneath our loving arms and here Paul speaks of the intimacy
of this relationship. It's love remembered, isn't it?
And the cause. What a remarkable phrase. The
Son of God who loved me. Nothing between my Saviour and
me, says Paul, except There was one Negro who was read
as a slave after the liberation of the slaves in America. He
went to be a janitor in a church up in Philadelphia or somewhere
up north. He was such a remarkable man. Finally they called him to be
the pastor and he not only wrote poetry but he wrote the music
to go with the hymns. And one of the hymns he penned
was, Nothing between my soul and my Saviour, So that His blessed
face may be seen, Nothing preventing the least of His favours, Keep
the way clear, let nothing between. Nothing between my soul and my
saviour. As Paul was caused to say, I
know whom I have believed. It is the song of the redeemed
in heaven, isn't it? Unto Him that loved us and washed
us from our sins in His own blood. Like God's faithfulness, all
of God's attributes are one, aren't they? His love is a holy
love. His love is fixed upon people. individuals gathered together. He loved me." This notion that
he loves everyone and that love achieves nothing is not a love
that the scriptures are mentioning anywhere. I don't know about
you, But the longer I walk with the Lord, the more I live in
this world, some phrases of scripture become more amazing. There are times in our lives
when we can think that it's quite easy and quite appropriate for
the Lord to love me. For the chief of sinners, I'm just amazed. Are you amazed,
brothers and sisters? Do you know anything of yourself? The notion that He loved you. He loves you. He loves you now. He loved you in eternity. His
love like Himself never changes. We appreciate what John the Baptist
said, isn't it? I must decrease and he must increase. I'm just amazed. I am amazed. I trust you are amazed by that
sort of love. a lover of poor, helpless sinners,
a giver of grace. Christ does not come to his people
as a law keeper, an enforcer of the law with a whip. He draws
his people with cords of love. Ephesians 3 is that remarkable
prayer just over a few pages in your scriptures. Paul comes
to pray and he says, I bow my knees under the Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth
is named. There is union, there is real
spiritual union. They have his name, they are
named by him, that he would grant you, according to the riches
of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the
inner man. that Christ may dwell in your
hearts by faith, and that you, being rooted and grounded in
love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the
breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love
of Christ, to know the love of Christ, that which passes knowledge. that you might be filled with
all the fullness of God. Now unto Him who is able to do,
and I love how he just adds words here to build this up, who is
able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think
according to the power that worketh in us. unto him be glory in the
church by Jesus Christ throughout all ages, world without end. He loved me. He loved me. His love is the cause, the effect
of that love is the next phrase, isn't it? And gave himself for
me. It's extraordinary, isn't it?
He created the universe with a word. He has all sovereign
power to achieve absolutely anything, to give any gift. And what did he give? What did
he give to the objects of his love? He gave himself. He gave himself. He gave himself
in his entirety, in his covenant purposes and promises. He gave
himself to be made sin. He gave himself to be made a
curse. He gave himself to bear the wrath
and hatred of wicked men. He gave himself to bear the wrath
and hatred of the legalistic, self-righteous, religious men. He gave himself to bear all the
fierce arrows of Satan. He gave himself to bear the infinite
holy wrath of God, and he drank damnation dry. He gave himself nothing less
than the entirety of deity could bring Adam's chosen sons to glory. nothing less than the son of
God himself dying and bearing their sins in his own body on
the tree to take away their sins such that they can never be found
again and that we are robed in the righteousness of God. He
shall appear. I love what Hebrews 9.28 says,
that Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many unto
them, and unto them that look for him he shall appear the second
time without sin. All of the sins of all of his
people are gone. He'll appear a second time without
sin unto salvation. for us. He gave himself for me. He gave himself for a particular
people. Zechariah speaks of what it is
in him giving himself. He speaks powerfully and remarkably
about him bearing that sword of God's holy wrath. Chapter 13 of Zechariah begins,
In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David
and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and uncleanness. And this is how he did it in
verse 7. Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man
that is my fellow, says the Lord of hosts. Smite the shepherd,
and the sheep shall be scattered, and I will turn mine hand upon
the little ones. He will care for the little ones,
our God, our Father. In verse 9, at the end of the
chapter, he says, And I will bring the third part, the reserve
part, through the fire, and I will refine them as silver is refined,
and I will try them as gold is tried. They shall call on my
name, and I will hear them. I will say, it is my people,
and they shall say, The Lord is my God. What a remarkable passage of scripture. We've just skirted around the
foothills of the towering mountain. As I finish, I'd just like to
read how this verse was the verse that a man called Thomas Goodwin
went to glory with. Thomas Gooden was, it was well
known, one of the ablest writers in defence of eternal election
and particular redemption that this country, England, has ever
produced. During a great part of his long
life he held fast to these doctrines with uniform consistency and
died in the fullest assurance of their truth. This is the particulars of his
triumphant departure, as it's called. In February 1679, a fever
seized him, which in a few days put an end to his life. In all
the violence of it, he discoursed with that strength of faith and
assurance of Christ's love, with that holy admiration of free
grace, with that joy in believing, and such thanksgivings and praises
as extremely moved and affected all that heard him. He rejoiced
in the thoughts that he was dying and going to have full uninterrupted
communion with God. I am going, said he, to the three
persons with whom I have had communion. They have taken me,
I did not take them. I shall be changed in the twinkling
of an eye. All my lusts and corruptions
I shall be rid of, which I could not be here. These croaking toads
will fall off in a moment. I could not have imagined that
I should ever have had such a measure of faith in this hour. No, I
could never have imagined it. My bow abides in strength. Is
Christ divided? No. I have the whole of His righteousness. I am found in Him, not in my
own righteousness, which is of the law, but in the righteousness
which is of God, which is by the faith of Jesus Christ, who
loved me and gave Himself for me. Christ cannot love me better
than He does. I think I cannot love Christ
better than I do. I am swallowed up in God." With
this assurance of faith and fullness of joy, he left this world.