A Second Proof of the Minor

If there be any gracious conditions, or qualifications wrought in us before union with Christ, then we may be in a state of grace and salvation, before we be in Christ: But that cannot be (Acts 4:12): "Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we may be saved."

If there be any gracious condition or qualification in us before faith, then there may be something in us pleasing to God before faith.

But there is nothing in us pleasing to God before faith (Hebrews 11:6): "But without faith it is impossible for us to please him: for he that comes to God, must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him."

But there must be some saving preparatives wrought in the soul, to make way for faith, and our union with Christ. For we must be cut off from the old Adam, before we can be grafted into the new. We must be dead to the first husband, before we can be married to another.

To works of creation there needs no preparation; the almighty power of God calls them to be his people, that were not his people (1 Peter 2:10). And by calling them to be so, he makes them to be so (Romans 9:25, 26): "As he says in Hosea, I will call them, My people, which were not my people; and her, Beloved, which was not beloved. Verse 26. And it shall come to pass that in the place where it is said to them, Yee are not my people, there shall they be called, The children of the living God."

While Satan, the strong man, keeps the house, Christ the stronger comes upon him, and bereaves him of his armor, and divides the spoil (Luke 11:21, 22).

We are dead to our first husband, the Law, by the body of Christ (Romans 7:4), and therefore it is by the virtue of Christ's death we have fellowship with Christ; and that gives the deadly stroke to our first husband.