If, then, we do not of necessity receive a new nature in baptism, when and how are we to receive it ? Can we, by any efforts of our own, form it in ourselves ? I answer, No. It is called in Scripture "a new creation"1;" and a man can no more create himself anew, than he could create himself at first. If any think that he has within himself a power to
h 1 Cor. xi. 29. ' Acts viii. 2.3. k Rom. ix. 4.
1 Rom. ix. 2. m 2 Cor. v. 17.
renew himself after the Divine image, he has, within his own reach, the means of proving it to demon- stration. Let him set about it, and accomplish it, and he will at once disprove every word which the Scrip- ture speaks respecting this matter. Our Lord says, "Without me ye can do nothing";" and St. Paul says, that " God alone can give us either to will or to do any thing that is good0;" yea, that of our- selves "we are not sufficient even to think a good thought as of ourselves : our sufficiency for it must be of Godp." If any man think this not true, let him try it. I readily acknowledge, that a man may correct some outward vices, and practise some outward duties ; but can he bring himself to hate every kind and degree of sin, and to lothe and abhor himself on account of his indwelling corruptions ? Can he, without the Spirit's influence, so " mortify the deeds of the bodyq," as no longer to live after the flesh ? And can he sit loose to all the things of time and sense, and " set his affections" wholly and exclu- sively " on things above r ? " Can he, in a word, bring himself to love God supremely, and to delight him- self truly in all holy exercises ? Can he further so form his soul after the likeness of Christ, as, under the heaviest trials, to indulge no other tempers than those which he manifested, and willingly to lay down his life, as he did, and as every follower of Christ must be ready to dos, for the honour and glory of his God ? Let him do these things by any power of his own, and we will at once acknowledge the erro- neousness of our present statement. But the more diligently the attempt be made, the more deeply will any man be convinced, that he must have the Spirit of Christ ; and that, without the renovating influences of that Divine Agent, he can never become one of Christ's peculiar and approved people. The Spirit of Christ must " open the eyes of our understanding1." The Spirit of Christ must " renew us in our inward
n John xv. 5. ° Phil. ii. 13. p 2 Cor. iii. 5.
i Rom. viii. 13. r Col. iii. 2. s Luke xiv. 26.
1 Luke xxiv. 45