Two reasons why they are as it were created anew : — 1. Because of the badness of our former estate. Ruinous and decayed buildings are only to be thrown down, to make way for a new structure and house to stand in the same place. Man naturally is a creature in a state of apostasy and defection, under a loss of original righteousness, averse from God, yea, an enemy to him, prone to all evil,
390 THE NINETEENTH SERMON. [EPH. II. 10.
weak, yea, dcnJ to nil spiritual good. And what must be done with euch a creature to bring hini'Out of his misery, but -wholly to new mould hini and make him, that he may have a new being and life ? The scripture represents man as blind in his mind, 2 Peter i. 9 ; perverse in Iris will, Zeoh.vii. 12; rebellious in his affections, Eph. ii. ;3, ' fulfilling the desires ©f the flesh and of the nrind.' What sound part is there left in us to mend the rest ? If we will be brought home to God, we nmst of sinful and polluted become clean and holy ; and * Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean ? not one,' Job xiv. 4. We must of carnal become S])iritual, and therefore we must be new born, new made, Jolm iii; G. That inst-ead of minding the things of the flesh w-e^may mind the things of the Spirit, we must of worldly become heavenly. ' Now, he that formeth us for this very thing is God,' 2 Cor. v. 5. 'O Karep^/ai^ofxevo^, he that frameth and createth us for this heavenly state, is God. He that is the framer and maker of all things, of infinite wisdom, power, and love, he createth us anew in Christ, that we may look after eternal life. The heavenly disposition wrought in us is a pledge of it.
2. From the nature of God's work, which is not merely by helping the will, but by giving us the will itself, or the act of volition -of it; not by curing the weakness of it, but by sanctifying it, and taking away the sinfulness of it, and inclining it to himself If the will were only in a swoon and languishment, a little moral persuasion and excitation, outward or inward, by the word and Spirit, would serve the turn ; but we cannot say of it, as Christ of the damsel, ' She is not dead, but sleepeth.' No ; the scripture saifli, We are ' dead in trespasses and sins,' Eph. ii. 1. God's grace is not only necessary for facilitation, that we may more easily pursue and choose that which is good ; as a horse is necessary that a man may pass on his journey more easily, which otherwise he might perform on foot with difficulties. No ; it is impossible as well as difficult to escape the carnal life without God, Mat. xix. 26. He doth work such a change on a carnal man's heart that he contemns the world and seeks at tor heawnly things. Nay, he doth not only give us a remote power to will if we please, or a remote power to do if we please, but he giveth ' to will and to do,' Phil. ii. 13 ; the will itself and the ■deed itself. Thus is God's opera- tion set forth ; he reneweth the faculties and exciteth the act of willing and doing by his powerful and victorious influence, Ezek. xxxvi. 2G, 27. Otherwise, if grace did only give us an indifferency, so that a man may or may not, then man would be the principal cause of his own conversion, and God lo.se the glory of his grace, and the honour of it be ascribed to the liberty of man's own will. God doth not give a power to repent and believe, and leave it to the determination of man's will to make it effectual ; but he giveth faith itself, and repent- ance itself. Faith is his gift: Eph. ii. 8, ' To you it is given to be- lieve;' Phil. i. 29. The Iledeemer was raised 'to give repent^ince,' Acts v. 31. This is the grace which the saints pray for, faith itself, repentance itself: Ps. Ii. 10, ' Create in me a clean heart ;' Ileb. xiii. 21, ' The Lord make you perfect to do his will, working in you that which is pleasing in liis sight.' We pray not only for a grace that gives the possikility, but the effect; Tiot only for such as doth invite
EpH. II. 10.] THE NINETEENTH SERMON. 391
and solicit us to good, but such as doth incline and determine us to good. And this is the grace we give thanks for ; not a power to repent and believe if we please, but for repentance and faith wrought in us. If God did only give a power to will if we please, to do if we please, man would difference himself, 1 Cor. iv. 7.
3. AVitli respect to Christ : ' We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus,' who is the head of the new world, or renewed estate. All things are new in the kingdom of Christ ; there is a change of everything from what it was before. There is a new Adam, which is Jesus Christ ; a new covenant, which is the gospel ; a new paradise, not that where Adam enjoyed God among the beasts, but where the blessed enjoy God among the angels ; a new ministry, not the posterity of Aaron or tribe of Levi, but a ministry of reconciliation, put into their hands whom God hath qualified and fitted to be dispensers of these holy mysteries ; new ordinances, ' We serve God not in the old- ness of the letter, but the newness of the spirit ;' therefore, if we be in Christ, we must be new creatures. We are both obliged and fitted by this new estate to be so. Some are in Christ externally by baptism and profession ; they are visibly in covenant with him, and dejure, of right, are bound to be new creatures. Others are in Christ by real internal union. These not only ought to be, but de facto are, new crea- tures ; they are made partakers of his Spirit, Rom. viii. 9, and by that Spirit they are renewed and sanctified. Well, then, since there is a new Lord and a new law, all is new ; there must be a new creation ; for as the general state of the church is renewed by Christ, so is every particular believer.