362 SERMONS UPON PSALM .CXIX. [SeR. XXXIX.,
as was wholly unfit and indisposed for those things that were to be made of it. Now, this latter suits with us : ' We are created in Christ Jesus to good works ; ' that is, we were altogether indisposed before to that which is good. We have our natural powers, but they are wholly viciously inclined till the Lord worketh on us, and infuseth a principle of new life. Till then we cannot do anything that is spiritually good. But when the Lord createth us anew, he furnisheth us with an inward power and ability to do good. What David prays for, ' Make me to go in the Avay of thy commandments,' God promiseth, Ezek. xxxvi. 27, ' I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes.' God puts his spirit, a new principle of grace. When the gospel is proposed to a man, his will must be determined by sometliing, either by an object or a quality, not by the proposal merely of the object without ; for the scripture shows there must be some work upon the heart, some divine quality infused within to incline and bend us to what is good. Well, then, first there must be an infusion of the principles of grace. In sinning, there the mischief began with an act. Adam sinned, and that infected his nature. But in grace the method is contrary ; the principle must be before the action, God first sanctifieth our natures, and then we act holily ; and this difference there is between acquired and infused habits: acquired habits follow action, for frequent acts beget a habit, as often swimming makes us expert in swimming, and much writing expert in writing ; but gracious habits are infused, and so precede the act, as a wheel runs round, not to make itself round, but because it is round. Indeed there is a further radiation of grace by frequent acts as the means which God blesseth. Now, by this first work of grace we have three advan- tages : —
1. An inclination and tendency towards what is good. As all natures imply a propensity to those things which agree to such a nature, as sparks fly upward, and a stone moves downward — it is their natural propensity — so in the new nature there is a new bent and tendency of heart, which is to live unto God, Gal. ii. 19 ; there is an inclination towards God and holy things ; and therefore the apostle presseth them by virtue of tliis grace received to act according to the tendency of the new nature : Eom. vi. 13, ' Yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead ; ' that is his argument. As soon as the life of grace is infused, the soul bends towards God.
2. A preparation of heart for holy actions. There is a principle that will carry them to it. These ' vessels are fitted and prepared for their master's use,' and are * pjrepared unto every good work,' 2 Tim. ii. 21 ; they are fitted and rigged for all holy actions and employments : Eph. ii. 10, ' Created unto good works, which God hath pi'cpared that we should walk in them.' He hath prepared them for us, and us to them. There is a suitableness in the new nature to what God requireth. As every creature is furnished with power and faculties suitable to those operations that belong to them, so when the Lord infuseth the principles of grace, and works upon the heart, we are suited to every good work, so that we need not new faculties, but new operations of grace to excite and move us. A ship that is rigged and fitted with sails ready for a voj'age needs a pilot to guide and steer it ; so we need
VeR. 35.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 3G3
influences of i^race. Therefore, when the Spirit is shed upon us after- wards, it is in another manner than upon the unregenerate. Tiie unregenerate are ohjects of grace, but the renewed are instruments of grace ; he works upon the one, but he works by the other.
3. There is a power and an ability to do good works when we are renewed ; if otherwise, one of God's most precious gifts woukl be in vain, if we were altogether without strength. That is the description of carnal nature, Eom. v. 6, ' We were without strength ; ' therefore there is a power which must be improved, not rested in: Gal. v. 25,
* If ye live in the spirit, walk in the spirit.' . There is an operation that accompanietli every life, and if there be a life of grace there will be a walking ; and Col. ii. 6, ' As ye have received Christ, so walk in him.' Grace received must not lie idle, but be put forth into act. Thus God creates and infuseth such divine qualities as may give us a tendency and preparation of heart, and strength to do that which may be pleasing to him.
Secondly, He vouchsafeth his quickening, actuating, assisting grace, for the improving these principles infused, that their operations may be carried forth with more success : Ezek. xxxvi, 27, ' I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes.' God gives not only life, but the constant motion of that life. Natural things do not act without his daily providential influence ; and therefore it is said, Prov. xx. 12, God gives ' the hearing ear and the seeing eye ; ' not only doth give the eye and ear, the fliculty, but the act of hearing and the act of seeing ; he concurs to that : and therefore God concurs by his actual assistance, sometimes in a more liberal and plentiful manner, by the freer aids and assistances of his grace, and sometimes more sparingly, according to his own pleasure. He doth not only give us the habits of grace, ' He worketh all our works for us,' Isa. xxvi. 12.