5. We must be new made and born again before we can be apt or able to know or do the will of God ; as Christ inferreth th-^ necessity of regeneration from the corruption of nature — he had been discoursing with Nicodemus — ' You cannot enter into the kingdom of God ; for that which is born of the flesh is flesh,' John iii. 5, 6. Our souls naturally accommodate themselves to the flesh, and seek the good of the flesh, and all our thoughts and care, and life, and love run that way. Now, what was lost in Adam can only be recovered in Christ. It is not enough that God's hands have once made us and fashioned us, but there is a necessity of being made and fashioned anew, of becoming ' his workmanship in Christ Jesus,' Eph. ii. 10 ; and so the words of the text may be interpreted in this sense : Thou hast made me once ; Lord, new make me : thy hands made me ; 0 Lord, give me a new heart, that I may obey thee. In the first birth God gave us a natural understanding ; in the second, a spiritual understanding, that we may learn his commandments ; first that we may be good, and then do good. The first birth gave us the natural faculty, the second, the grace, or those divine qualities which were lost by Adam's sin. Better never been born, unless born again; better be a beast than a man, if the Lord give us not the knowledge of himself in Christ. The beasts, when they die, their misery and happiness dieth with them, death puts an end to their pain and pleasure ; but, we that have reason and con- science to foresee the end and know the way, enter into perfect happiness or misery at death. Unless the Lord sanctify this reason, and give us
YeE. 73.] SERMONS UPON PSAL3I CXIX. 275
a heart to know him in Christ, and choose that which is good, man is but a higher kind of beast, a wiser sort of beast, Ps. xlix. 12 ; for his soul is only employed to cater for the body, and his reason is pro- stituted to sense ; the beast rides the man. We are not distinguished from the brutes by our senses, but our understanding and our reason. But in a carnal man. the soul is a kind of sense ; it is whoUy employed about the animal life. There is not a more brutish creature in the world than a worldly wicked man. "Well, then, David had need to pray, Lord, thou hast given me reason ; give me the knowledge of thy self and thy blessed will.
6. When we seek this grace, or any degree of it, it is a proper argu- ment to urge that we are God's creatures. So doth David here. I am now come to my very business, and therefore I shall a little show how far creation is pleadable, and may any way encourage us to ask spiritual understanding and renewing grace.
[1.] In the general, I shall lay down this : It is a good way of reasoning with God to ask another gift because we have received one aheady. It is not a good way of reasoning with man, because he wastes by giving ; but a good way with God, and that upon a double account. Partly because in some cases Deus donando debet — Gxxl by giving doth in eftect bind himself to give more ; as by giving life, to give food ; by giving a body, to give raiment, Mat. vi. 25. God, by sending such a creature into the world, chargeth his providence to maintain him, as long as he will use him for his glory. God loveth to crown his own gifts : Zech. iii. 2, ' Is not this a brand plucked out of the burnings ? ' The thing pleaded there is, was not this a brand plucked out of the fire ? One mercy is pleaded to obtain another mercy. So God bindeth himsek" to give perseverance, 2 Cor. i. 10 ; but this is not the case here ; for by giving common benefits he doth not bind himself to give saving graces. And partly, too, because he doth not waste by giving : ' His mercy endureth for ever.' The same reason is given for aU those mercies, Ps. cxxxvi. ; why the Lord chose a church, maintaineth his church, giveth daily bread : ' His mercy endureth for ever.' God is where he was at first : ' He giveth liberally, and upbraideth not,' James i. 5. He doth not say, I have given already. Xow, a former common mercy showeth Gods readiness and freeness to give : the inclination to do irood still abideth with him : he is as ready and as free to give still ; daily bread : ' His mercy endureth for ever ; ' spiritual wisdom : ' His mercy endureth for ever.' Indeed, the giving of daUy bread doth not necessarily bind God to give spiri- tual "s\-isdom ; but that which is not a sure ground to expect may be a probable encom-agement to ask. And learn this, that though nothing can satisfy unbelief, yet faith can pick argimients out of anything, and make use of the most common benefits of creation to strengthen itself.