Thirdly, That excellent gifts and abilities, fitting men for ser- vice in the church of God, may be where the new creature is not ; for these are promiscuously dispensed by the Spirit both to the re- generate and unregenerate : Matth. vii. 22. " Many will say unto " me, in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy " name ?" Gifts are attainable by study ; prayer and preaching are reduced to an art ; but regeneration is wholly supernatural. Sin, in. dominion, is consistent with excellent gifts, but wholly incompatible with the new creature. In a word, these things are so different in nature from the new creature, that they oft-times prove the great- est bars and obstacles in the world to the regenerating work of the Spirit. Let no man, therefore, trust to things whereby multitudes deceive and destroy their own souls. Header, it may cost thee many an aking head to attain gifts, but thou wilt find an aking Heart for sin if ever God make thee a new creature.
Fourthly, Be convinced that multitudes of religious duties may
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be performed by men, in whom the new creature was never form- ed. Though all new creatures perform the duties of religion, yet all that perform the duties of religion, are not new creatures ; re- generation is not the only root from which the duties of religion spring, Isa. lviii. 2. " Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know " my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the " ordinances of their God, they ask of me the ordinances of justice, " they take delight in approaching to God." These are but weak and slippery foundations for men to build their confidence and hopes upon.
The third use^for examination. Next, therefore, let me persuade every man to try the state of his own heart in this matter, and closely consider and weigh this great question : Am I really and indeed a new creature ? or am I an old creature still, in a new creatine's dress and habit ? Some light may be given for the discovery hereof, from the considera- tion of the
2. Concomitants, V of the new creation.
First, Weigh and consider well the antecedents of the new crea- ture ; have those things passed upon your souls, which ordinarily make way for the new creature, in whomsoever the Lord forms it?
1. Hath the Lord opened the eyes of your understanding in the knowledge of sin and of Christ? Hath he shewed you both your disease and remedy, by a new light shining from heaven into your souls ! Thus the Lord doth wherever he forms the new crea- ture, Acts xxvi. 18.
2. Hath he brought home the word with mighty power and efficacy upon your hearts to convince and humble them ? This is the method in which the new creature is produced, Rom. vii. 9- 1 Thes. i. 5.
8. Have these convictions over-turned your vain confidences, and brought you to a great concern and inward distress of soul, making you to cry, What shall we do to be saved ? These are the ways of the Spirit, in the formation of the new creature, Acts xvi. 29. Acts ii. 37. If no such antecedent works of the Spirit have passed upon your hearts, you have no ground for your confidence, that the new creature is formed in you.
Secondly >, Consider the concomitant frames and workings of spirit which ordinarily attend the production of the new creature, and judge impartial! v betwixt God and your own souls, whether they have been the very frames and workings of your hearts.
1. Have your vain spirits been composed to the greatest serious-
SERM. XXVI. THE METHOD OF GRACE. 365
ness, and most solemn consideration of things eternal, as the hearts of all those are whom God regenerates ? When the Lord is about this great work upon the soul of man, whatever vanity, levity, and sinful jollity was there before, it is banished from the heart at this time ; for now heaven and hell, life and death, are before a man's eyes, and these are the most awful and solemn things that ever our thoughts conversed with in this world. Now a man of the most airy and pleasant constitution, when brought to the sight and sense of those things, saith of " laughter, It is mad; and « of mirth, What doth it?* Eccl. ii. 2.
2. A lowly, meek, and humble frame of heart accompanies the new creation ; the soul is weary and heavy laden, Mat xi. 28. Convictions of sin have plucked down the pride and loftiness of the spirit of man, emptied him of his vain conceits ; those that were of lofty, proud, and blustering humours before, are meek- ened and brought down to the very dust now : it is with them (to speak allusively) as it was with Jerusalem, that lofty city, Isa. xxix. 1, 4. " Wo to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt; thou " shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground, and " thy speech shall be low out of the dust." Ariel signifies the Lion of God : so Jerusalem in her prosperity was ; other cities trembled at her voice; but when God brought her down, by humbling judgments, then she whispered out of the dust. So it is in this case.
3. A longing, thirsting frame of spirit accompanies the new creation ; the desires of the soul are ardent after Christ ; never did the hireling long for the shadow, as the weary soul doth for Christ, and rest in him : if no such frames have accompanied that which you take for your new birth, you have the greatest reason in the world to suspect yourselves under a delusion.
Thirdly, Weigh well the effects and consequents of the new crea- ture, and consider whether such fruits as these are found in your hearts and lives.
1. Wherever the new creature is formed, there a man's course and conversation is changed : Eph. iv. 22. " That ye put off, con- " cerning the former conversation, the old man, which is cor- " rupt, according to the decitful lusts ; and be renewed in the " spirit of your mind :" the new creature cannot but blush and be ashamed of the old creature's conversation, Rom. vi. 21.
2. The new creature continually opposes and conflicts with the motions of sin in the heart; Gal. v. 17. "The spirit lusteth " against the flesh." Grace can no more incorporate with sin, than oil with water : contraries cannot consist in the same subject longer than they are fighting with each other ; if there be no con- flict with sin in thy soul, or if that conflict be only betwixt the
366 THE METHOD OF GRACE, SERM. XXVI,
conscience and affections, light in the one, struggling with lust in the other ; thou wantest that fruit which should evidence thee to be a new creature.
3. The mind and affections of the new creature are set upon heavenly and spiritual things, Col. hi. 1, % Eph. iv. 23. Rom. viii. 5. If, therefore, thy heart and affections be habitually earthly and wholly intent upon things below, driving eagerly after the world, as the great business and end of thy life, deceive not thyself, this is not the fruit of the new creature, nor consistent with it.