1. Till then we are odious to God, Zech. xi. 8., " My soul loathed them." A sinner is to God worse than a toad ; a toad hath no poison, but what God hath put into it : but a sinner hath that which the devil hath put into him, Acts v. 3., " AVliy hath Satan filled thy heart to lie ?" A wicked man is possessed with an evil spirit, one man is possessed with the devil of pride, another with the devil of malice, — this must needs make persons odious to God, to be possess- ed with the devil. Thus it is till we be- come new creatures.
2. Till we are new creatures, our duties are not accepted with God ; they are but wild grapes. 1. Because God accepts no man, but where he sees his image. The new creature is called the renewing of God's image, Eph. iv. 24. When they brought Tamarlane a j)ot of gold, he asked wliat stamp it had on it, and wlien he saw the Roman stamp on it, he refused it : so, if God doth not see his own stamp and image on the soul, he rejects the most specious services. 2. Duties of religion are not ac-
ON BECOMING A NEW CREATURE.
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ceptcd witliout tlie new creatiiro, because there is tliat wanting which sliouhl make them a sweet savour to God, The lioly oil for tlic tabernacle was to be made of seve- ral spices and ingredients, Exod. xxx. 23 : now, if any of these spices had been left out, it had not been pleasing. The unre- generate man leaves out the chief spice in his duties, and that is faith. And, Ileb. xi. 6., " Without faith it is impossible to please God." Paith lays hold on Christ, and so is accepted.
3. Such as are not new creatures, but grow upon the stock of old Adam, get no benefit by ordinances ; they are to them, as dioscordium in a dead man's mouth ; they lose their virtue ; nay, not oidy ordi- nances do them no good, but hurt. It were sad, if all a man did eat should turn to poison. The word preached is a " sa- vour of death;" it is not healing, but har- dening; nay Christ himself is accidentally a " rock of offence," 1 Pet. ii. 8. The wic- ked stumble at a Saviour, and suck death from tl>e tree of life.
4. Without being new creatures, we cannot arrive at heaven. Rev. xxi. 27., *' There shall in nowise enter into it any thing that defileth." Heaven is not like Noah's ark, that received clean and unclean. A sinner is compared to swine, 2 Pet. ii. 22., and shall a swinish creature tread upon the golden pavement of heaven ? Indeed the frogs came iiito king Pharaoh's court, but in heaven there is no entertainment for such vermin. It is only the new creature quali- fies us for glory : this consecrates the heart, and only the pure in heart shall see God. The new creature elevates the soul, as the loadstone elevates the iron. A soul renew- ed by grace, is fit to ascend to the heaven- ly glory.
Atlily., The excellency of the new crea- ture : l.s/. The nobility. 2d, The immorta- lity. 1. The nobility. The new creature letch eth its pedigree from heaven ; it is born of God ; (lod counts none else of the blood royal ; it ennobles a man's spirit ; he as|)ires after the favour of (iod, and looks no lower than a crown. The new creature raiseth one to honour ; he excels the prin- ces of the earth, Ps. Ixxxix. 27., and is fel- low-commoner with angels. 2. The im-
mortality. The new creature is begotten of the incorruptible seed of the word, and never dies ; ii lasts as long as the soul, ag angels, as heaven. God hath laid out much cost upon it, and if it perish, he should lose .ill his cost. When Xerxes destroyed all the temples in Greece, he caused the tem- ple of Diana to be preserved for its beauti- ful structure ; the new creature is God's temple, adorned with all the graces, which he will not suffer to be demolished. Rich- es take wings, king's crowns tumble in the dust ; nay, some of the graces may cease : faith and hope shall be no more, but the new creature abideth for ever, 1 John ii. 27.
hthbf, The misery of the unrejrenerate creature; dying so, I may say so of him, as Christ said of Judas, Mark. xiv. 21., " Good were it for that man if he had never been born." Better have been a 'toad, a serpent, any thing, if not a new creature ; the old siimer must go into old To])het, Isa. xxx. 33. Damned caitiffs will have noth- ing to ease their torments, — not one drop of honey in all their gall. In the sacrifice of jealousy there was no oil put to it. Numb. V. In hell there is no oil of mercv put to the sufferjjigs of the damned to lenify them.
Therefore get out of the wild olive of na- ture : labour to be new creatures, lest you curse yourselves at last. A sinful life will cause a despairing death.
Quest. IV hat shall we do to be new crea~ tares ?
Ans. 1, Wait on the ordinances. The preaching of the word is the seed of which the new creature is formed ; this is the trumpet which must make the dead in sin come out of their grave.