abominations0?" And shall not such be the effects wrought on our souls, if the Spirit of God be truly poured forth upon us ? Our hearts shall be altogether renewed ; so that we shall be, as it were, " a new creation :" " old things shall pass away, and all things become new." Our dark understanding shall be enlightened ; our rebellious will be subdued ; our earthly and sensual affections be " purified, even as God is pure." Together with our views, our desires shall be renovated; and all our hopes and fears, and joys and sorrows, be brought into an accordance with them. In a word, we shall " be renewed, after the Divine image, in righteousness and true holiness. " O ! what a blessed change ! Who will not from this hour seek to be a partaker of it, through the abounding mercy of our promise-keeping God ?]
3.
To sanctify the life-
[What has been before spoken metaphorically, is here delivered in plain terms : " God will put his Spirit within us, and cause us to walk in his statutes, and do them." Adverse as we are by nature to God, and ready to complain of " his commandments as grievous," we shall be made to " delight in his law after our inward man," as soon as he has put his Holy Spirit within us : for " his law will then be written on the fleshy tables of our hearts." There will be a constraining influence of our souls, which shall overcome all our natural reluctance, and make us the willing servants of our God. To state precisely how this work shall be wrought in us, is beyond our power : but methinks there is some analogy between the first creation of all things and this new creation which takes place in the soul of man. As an impulse was given to all the heavenly bodies, which are kept in their respective orbits by the attractive influence of the sun, around which they move, and whose radiance they reflect ; so is there a divine impulse given to the soul of the regenerate man, who, from the first commencement of his course, yields to the attractions of " the Sun of Righteousness," and fulfils his destined offices, to the praise and glory of his God. It is by his circuit only that the laws by which he acts are discovered ; and they are known to proceed from God, because they lead him invariably to God : the effects produced upon his heart and life are decisive evi- dences that God is with him of a truth: they shew, that " He who hath wrought him to this self-same thing is God, who hath given unto him of his Spirit p."]
Application —
1. Lay hold on these promises yourselves —
0 ver. 31. l' 2 Cor. v. 5.