the sting of it is
taken away, that relation it did bear to the just wrath of God. And now as
to the body of a Christian under appointment to die for sin, that is, for
the death of sin, the eternal death of sin. Christ having come under the
power of death, hath gotten power over it, and spoiled it of its stinging
virtue. He hath taken away the poisonable ingredient of the curse, that it
can no more hurt them that are in him, and so it is not now vested with
that piercing and wounding notion of punishment. Though it be true that
sin was the first inlet of death, that it first opened the sluice to let
it enter and flow in upon mankind, yet that appointment of death is
renewed, and bears a relation to the destruction of sin, rather than the
punishment of the sinner, who is forgiven in Christ. And, O! how much
solid comfort is here, that the great reason of mortality that a Christian
is subject unto, is, that he may be made free of that which made him at
first mortal. Because sin hath taken such possession in this earthly
tabernacle, and is so strong a poison, that it hath infected all the
members, and by no purgation here made can be fully cleansed out, but
there are many secret corners it lurks into, and upon occasion vents
itself, therefore it hath pleased God, in his infinite goodness, to
continue the former appointment of death, but under a new and living
consideration, to take down this infected and defiled tabernacle, as the
houses of leprosy were taken down under the law, that so they might be the
better cleansed, and this is the last purification of the soul from sin.
And therefore, as one of the ancients said well, "That we might not be
eternally miserable, mercy hath made us mortal." Justice hath made the
world mortal, that they might be eternally miserable, but to put an end to
this misery, Christ hath continued our mortality, else he would have
abolished death itself, if he had not meant to abolish sin by death. And
indeed, it would appear this is the reason why the world must be consumed
with fire at the last day, and new heavens and earth succeed in its room,
because, as the little house, the body, so the great house, the world, was
infected with this leprosy, and so subjoined to vanity and corruption
because of mans sin therefore, that there might be no remnant of mans
corruption, and no memorial of sin to interrupt his eternal joy, the Lord
will purify and change all,--all the members that were made instrumen