5.  And from all those spiritual strokes; such as blindness, hardness of heart, &c.  For he is our light; and hath procured a new heart for us, even a heart of flesh.

6.  So delivereth he from hell fire, having satisfied justice, and having brought life and immortality to light; and he giveth life eternal, as we see, Rev. ii. 3.

Oh! it is sad, that Christ is so little made use of, and that so many will forsake the fountain of living waters, and dig to themselves broken cisterns that can hold no water; and slight, despise, and undervalue the gospel of Christ, which bringeth life and immortality to light.

Oh! if the consideration of this could move such as never found any change in themselves, to run to, and make use of Jesus Christ for life; and would for this end,

(1.) Cry to him, that he would make them sensible of their deadness, and waken them out of their deep sleep.

(2.) Cry to him, to set them a-work to renounce all other help beside his, as being utterly unable to quicken and put life in them.

(3.) Cry to him, that he would draw and determine their souls to a closing with him by faith alone, to a hearing of his voice, to an obeying of his call, to a following of his direction, to a giving up of themselves to him, leaning to him, and waiting for all from him alone:  in a word, to take him for their life in all points, and to lean to him for life, and to expect it from him, through faith in the promises of the gospel.

Next. This being spoken to the disciples, whom we suppose to have been believers, it will give us ground to speak of it, in reference to believers, and so yield three points of truth, which we shall briefly touch, and then come to speak of use-making of Christ as the Life, in some particular cases.

First. It is here clearly presupposed, that even believers have need of Christ to be life unto them; and so have their fits of deadness.  If it were not so, why would Christ have said to believers, that he was life?  And daily experience doth abundantly confirm it.  For,

1.  They are oft so weak and unable to resist temptation, or to go about any commanded duty, as if they were quite dead.

2.  They are oft so borne down with discouragement, because of the strength of opposition which they meet with on all hands; and because of the manifold disappointments which they meet with, that they have neither heart nor hand; and they faint and set up in the ways of the Lord; and cannot go through difficulties, but oftentimes lie by.

3.  Through daily fighting, and seeing no victory, they become weary and faint-hearted; so that they lie by as dead, Isa. xl. 29.

4.  They oft fall sick and decay, and have need of restoration and quickening.

5.  The want of the sense of God’s favour, and of the comforts of the Holy Ghost, maketh them to dwine and droop, and look out as dead.