Secondly ', But though this life of the new creature be a great mystery, and secret in some respects ; yet so far as it is known, and appears unfo us, the new creature is the most beautiful and lovely creature that ever God made ; for the beauty of the Lord himself is upon it : " The new man is created after God," Eph. iv. 24. As the picture is drawn after the man, it is a draught of God himself delineated by the Spirit, that admirable Artist, upon the soul of man. Holiness is the beauty and glory of God ; and in holiness the new creature is created after God's own image, Col, iii. 10. The regenerate soul hereby becomes holy, 1 John iii. 3. not essentially holy, as God is, nor yet efficiently holy; for the re- generate soul can neither make itself, nor others holy : But the life of the new creature may be said to resemble the life of God in this, that as God lives to himself, so the new creature wholly lives to God ; as God loves holiness, and hates the contrary, so doth the new creature ; it is in these things formed after the image of God that created it When God creates this creature in the soul of man, we are said then to be " partakers of the divine nature," 2 Pet. i. 4. So that there can be nothing communicated unto men which beautifies and adorns their souls as this new creation doth : Men do not resemble God as they are noble, and as they are rich, but as they are holy : no gift, no endowment of nature embellishes the soul as this new creature doth : An awful Majesty sits upon the brow of the new creature, commanding the greatest and worst of men to do homage to it, Mark vi. 20. Yea, such is the beauty of the new creature, that Christ, its author, is also its admirer, Cant, iv. 2. " Thou hast ravished mine heart with one of thine eyes.""
Thirdly, This new creature is created in man, upon the highest design that ever any work of God was wrought : the end of its crea- tion and infusion is high and noble : salvation to the soul in which it is wrought ; this is both the finis operis, and the finis operands : It is the design both of the work and of the workman that wrought it. When we receive the end of our faith, we receive the salva- tion of our souls ; salvation is the end of faith : as death is the end of sin, so life eternal is the end of grace. The new creature doth, by the instinct and steady direction of its own nature, take its course as directly to God., and to heaven, the place of its full
SERM. XXV. THE METHOD OF GRACE. 353
enjoyment, as the rivers do to the ocean ; it declares itself to be made for God, by its restless workings after him ; and as salva- tion is the end of the new creature, so it is the express design and end of him that created it. 2 Cor. v. 5. " Now he that hath " wrought us for the self-same thing, is God ;*" by this workman- ship of his upon our souls, he is now polishing, preparing, and " making them meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints " in light," Col. i. 12.
Fourthly, This new creation is the most necessary work that ever God wrought upon the soul of man : the eternal well-being of his soul depends upon it ; and without it no man shall see God, Heb. xii. 14. and John i. %, 5. " Except ye be regenerate, and " born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God." Can you be saved without Christ? You know you cannot. Can you have interest in Christ without the new creature ? My text expressly tells you it can never be ; for, " If any man be in Christ, he is a " new creature." O reader, whatever slight thoughts of this mat- ter, and with what a careless and unconcerned eye soever thou readest these lines ; yet know thou must either be a new creature, or a miserable and damned creature for ever. If civility without the new creature could save thee, why are not the moral Heathens saved also ? If strictness of life without the new creature could save thee, why did it not save the Scribes and Pharisees also ? If an high profession of religion without the new creature can save thee, why did it not save Judas, Hymenseus and Philetus also ? Nothing is more evident than this, that no repentance, obedience, self-denial, prayers, tears, reformations or ordinances, without the new creation, avail any thing to the salvation of thy soul : The very blood of Christ himself, without the new creature, never did, and never will save any man. Oh how necessary a work is the new creation ! " Circumcision avails nothing, and uncircumcision nothing : but a " new creature."
Fifthly, The new creature is a marvellous and wonderful crea- ture : there are many wonders in the first creation, " The works " of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have plea- " sure therein," Psal. cxi. 2. But there are no wonders in nature, like those in grace. Is it not the greatest wonder that ever was seen in the world, (except the incarnation of the Son of God) to see the nature and temper of man so altered and changed as it is by grace ? to see lascivious Corinthians, and idolatrous Ephesians, become mortified and heavenly Christians? to see a fierce and cruel persecutor, become a glorious confessor and sufferer for Christ ? Gal. i. 23. to see the carnal mind of man, which was lately fully set in a strong bent to the world, to be wholly taken oft' from its lusts, and set upon things that are spiritual and heavenly ? Certainly it
354 THE METHOD OF GRACE. SERM. XXV,
was not a greater miracle to see dead Lazarus come out of his se- pulchre, than it is to see the dead and carnal mind coming out of its lusts to embrace Jesus Christ ; it was not a greater wonder to see the dead and dry bones in the valley to move and come to- gether, than it is to see a dead soul moving after God, and moving to Christ in the way of faith.
Sixthly, The new creature is an immortal creature, a creature that shall never see death, John iv. 14. it is in the soul of man, a well of water, springing up unto eternal life. I will not adventure to say, it is immortal in its own nature, for it is but a creature, as my text calls it ; and we know, that essential interminability is the in- communicable property of God: The new creature hath both a beginning and succession ; and therefore might also have an end, as to any thing in itself, or its own nature. Experience also shews us, that it is capable both of increasing and decreasing, and may be brought nigh unto death, Rev. iii. 2. The work of the Spirit in believers, may be ready to die ; but though its perpetuity flow not out of its own nature, it flows out of God's covenant and promises, which make it an immortal creature : when all other excellencies in man go away, as at death they will, Job iv. 21. this excellency only remains: our gifts may leave us, our friends leave us, our estates leave us, but our graces will never leave us ; they ascend with the soul (in which they inhere) into glory, when the stroke of death separates it from the body.