Looking unto Jesus a view of the everlasting gospel, or, the souls eying of…

3. We must conform to Christ in his death, carrying in us a resemblance and representation of his death. But what death is this? I answer in a word, a death unto sin; so the Apostle;¹ in that he died, unto sin;—likewise reckon ye your selves to be dead indeed unto sin. There is a likeness betwixt Christ's death, and our death, in this respect, we are planted together in the likeness of his death. True Mortification carries a similitude, a likeness, a resemblance of the death of Christ. As for instance.

1. 1Rom. 6.10, 11. Rom. 6.5.

¹1. Christ's death was a voluntary death. I lay down my life that I may take it again; no man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of my self; I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again; not all men on earth, nor all Devils in Hell could have enforced Christ's death, if he had not pleased; his death was a voluntary death, a spontaneous act; so is our mortification: Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power; many may leave their sins against their wills; but this is not true mortification; it bears ⟨p. 405⟩not in it the likeness of Christ's death; for he died willingly: it may be thou hast a clamorous Conscience, which continually dogs thee, and therefore thou leavest thy sin; thus Judas came in with his thirty pieces of silver,² and cast them down in the Temple at the High Priest's feet; but no thanks to Judas, for they were too hot for him to hold; or it may be there is some penalty of the Law, or some temporal judgment that hangs over thy head, like Damocles s sword, and therefore thou leavest thy sin; thus Ahab for a time acts the part of a penitent, but no thanks to Ahab; for the Prophet had rung him such a peal for his fin, as made both his ears tingle;