SERMON

VII.

The Believer a new Creature.

2 COR. V. 17.

If any Man be in Christ, he is a new Creature.

I

AM rejoicing in Hope, my Brethren, that while I am defcribing the Character of a new Creature, many of you, by the Grace of God, will become fuch. A Prospect, which indeed emboldens me to use much Plainnefs of Speech with you. For is it not, ought it not to be my Heart's Defire towards you, You efpecially, that ye may be faved? But what, will you, that while I fee many among you, who are walking after the Course of this World, and not after Chrift, whofe End must be Destruction, unlefs ye be plucked out of the Fire; I even let you contentedly alone? You would not, I

am

am fure you would not, that I fhould deal thus unfaithfully by you. Ye are not yet, ' fo much your own Enemies. Ye defire to be happy: And, believe me, it is all the Harm I wish you. But ye cannot be happy, if ye abide in your Sins. Thefe, I would needs you should leave, and you care not to part with. Here is all the Quarrel between

us.

You like not to be told plainly, unless ye repent ye shall perish; and I, while I live have nothing elfe to tell you. Say, we are fometimes troublesome to you, and raise fome uneafy Reflexions upon your Minds; yet, I hope you may be the quieter for it, upon your dying Beds: And then, I am fure you will thank us. I fhall efteem it a bleffed Thing, if I may any how help you to fuch an End. But this cannot be, unless you be in Christ, and none are in Christ, but those who are a new Creature; and it is plain many of you are not, from the carnal, worldly Lives ye lead. And who thofe are among you, I will endeavour with all Freedom to fhew you.

You have seen, in what a peculiar, humble, and fpiritual manner the Understanding of the new Creature judges, and apprehends all Things. The most important Matters, wherewith Man is converfant, were taken under Confideration, and illustrated alfo in a Way of Oppofition to the Judgment of the Formal, and the Careless.

2. I SHALL introduce what we have to fay concerning the Will of the new Creature, which is the fecond Power or Faculty of the Soul, with this Obfervation: That fuch due Apprehenfions in the Understanding do naturally influence the Choice of the Will; and confequently, prove themselves to be right and just, by the Power they have to engage the Heart. Unlefs our Apprehenfions do draw the Will after them, all our fuppofedly renewed Way of judging, can be but fpeculative and mistaken. To inftance in one of them. If our Apprehenfions of Heaven be humble and spiritual, that State of Glory will have fuch a Preference in our Choice to the best Things here, that we fhall find ourselves, comparatively, indifferent about them. Pleasure will have loft much of its alluring Power over us; the Relifh for Intereft and Honor will be abated: Rather, we shall fear these present Competitors for our Souls against Heaven, be aware of them, and care not how little we deal with them, knowing that we have a lafting Treasure and a fure Inheritance before us in the eternal World. Now fuch a Rejecting the Things of Life in compari fon with the Determination we have for the other World, must effectually evince an Understanding, in this particular, renewed, And fhould we find a like Effect wrought upon our Choice by the other Inftances of a renewed

renewed Understanding above produced, we must remain confirmed, that our Apprehenfions were thofe of the new Creature, and that our Judgment was enlightned by the Spirit and Word of GOD; that we, who were fome time Darkness, are now Light in the Lord (z). Whereas, doth not fuch gracious Influence manifeft itself in the Choice of our Wills; we must needs have been mistaken, if we had conceited our Apprehenfions were right and our Judgment in fpiritual Things juft? Here then is fo fair a Foundation laid, whereon to build, what the Determination of the Will under the Guidance of an enlightned Understanding muft be, that it fhall hardly be poffible to mifs of seeing it: For which Reafon I fhall not stop you particularly to obferve, what Choice doth really follow in the Will of the new Creature, from every one of the former Apprehenfions. The Refult of the whole of them, or the Choice of that Perfon's Will, whofe Mind is renewed, shall rather ferve to fhew the new Creature, in this fecond Faculty of the Soul. Now inafmuch as Choice, fuppofes the Offer made to us of different Things; the new Creature is peculiar in his Determination, choosing that which all others refufe, and refufing that which they choofe. Of the two dif ferent Portions, GoD and the World, he

(z) Ephef. v. 8.

prefers

prefers the former and rejects the latter; of the two differing Courfes, Obedience to GoD and Pleafing ourselves, he refufes his own Pleasure and determines for GOD'S : While the Careless and the Formal choose directly the other Way; the World hath with them the Preference to GOD, and the Pleafing themselves to the obeying God. In which two Points doth principally lie the Choice of the renewed Will.

(1.) THE new Creature chooses God for his Portion, and not the World.

THIS the careless Sinner doth not: His Choice being just the other Way. He doth not indeed determinately fay, "I will have nothing to do with GoD:" But he is fo much better pleased with the Things about him, that he cannot find what poffible Happiness it could be, to have God for a Portion. He cannot understand what Fellow-" fhip with GoD means: All that he hears about it, appears to him an unintelligible Jargon, and he is apt to count it no better than mere Enthufiafm. Indeed, he would not, that God, whofe Perfections he knows are infinite, should be his Enemy; he would not be without the Bleffings of his Goodnefs, nor would he fall under the Vengeance of his Power: But he wants, that GOD fhould ftand by at a Distance, and suffer him unmolested to take his Fill of the Joys

of