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ginning or creation by righteousness and repentance as the gift of God may serve without citing more, or repeating those which have been already cited. Then comes,

2, A religious feeling not easy to be described; but which may be mentioned by the name of New Life; as living to God is a new life for those who before that were living to other objects: or rather, as the apostle considers, "were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past (says he) ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ,-by grace ye are saved; and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: that in the ages to come, he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith: and that, not of yourselves; it is the gift of God." (Eph. ii. 1-8.)

4. I shall not now insist on this form or state of grace, new life, or “the heavenly gift;" as I have mentioned the same particularly before now* in another way, more than to observe, that its chief ingredients are filial love and veneration; and its chief exercise, as well as enjoyment, is found in adversity: as our Lord himself taught, saying to his disciples, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me;" (Matt. xvi. 24 ;) and his apostles likewise after him ; " confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much triNamely in Christian Modes of Thinking and Doing--where may also be seen an apology for St. Paul's confession above cited Vol. III. p. 481. VOL. II.

bulation enter into the Kingdom of God." (Acts xiv. 22.) Instead of dwelling now on the subject of that blessed state we are engaged to consider of its Preparation or attainment: which is in two ways, or consisting of two parts; 1, virtual; and 2, effective.

1, The virtual part is entirely with God; or, as described also by St. John, “that which was from the beginning;" (John I. i. 1;) namely the Eternal Word; as he says, "In the beginning was the Word: and the Word was with God; and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men." (John i. 4.) The second creation too of which we are considering was ordered by him as well as the first, sitting upon his throne in terms that I need not repeat. And in this respect too either creation, that is first and second, was done instantaneously. "For he spake, and it was done : he commanded, and it stood fast," (Ps. xxxiii. 9,) says the Psalmist. But

2, If the virtual part of the new creation, which is properly the part of its Author, be instantaneous, the effective part which ranks at least for ours, will be generally slow, and more like a recovery than a creation. For all things are present with God: "neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight; but all things are naked, and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do." (Heb. iv. 13.) But with man every thing and every chance of a thing will be as though it were not, until, as we say, it come to pass, or be punctually developed. Even our own second creation; which is, similarly with the first, but the work of one moment, if not of the same, with God, with us is a work of time; it may be-of more than one life,―an acquisition, if it be an acquisition, of very slow attainment. "For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works; which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them," (Eph. ii. 10,) says St. Paul in one place: who yet owns himself in another

far enough from being finished in effect, however he might be in virtue or fate, if he did not belie his destiny. He was got so far forward in his new life or creation, as to "count all things but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, our Lord:" yet was still far enough from the perfection of a new life, such as he considered it. "If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead," said he. "Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ." (Phil. iii. 8, &c.)

It is natural that after describing the Gift of a new life or creation one should be expected to say something of its apprehension or attainment. And the essence of our faith consists in looking up to God for it through Jesus Christ; who has assured us, that we shall not look for it in vain. "And I say unto you, ask, and it shall be given you; (says he) seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." (Luke xi. 9, 10.) "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of his own free will begat he us with the Word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruit of his creatures." (Jam. i. 17, 18.) But men are not generally aware of their obligation in this quarter anyhow as they ought to be. For every kind sympathy, every benevolent intention, every just and generous design in every degree or shape is derived therefrom; and as every good gift severally so the whole collectively in this one great or general gift,-THE GIFT OF A NEW CREATION.

You

It is the misfortune of mankind, to be ever leaning to the things that are seen, and from those which are not. would think, that some were afraid, they would break their necks, such is their dread of things spiritual and invisible, if they only suffered them to enter their heads. It is like

putting new wine into old bottles, to tell such inveterate bigots of a new creation beginning imperceptibly with the superior departments of spirit and intellect, and creeping downward to the visible and material. "Not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment, ministered and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God," (Col. ii. 19,) the restoration they contemplate is just such a carnal or sensible affair as the Jews expected in our Saviour's days, and such an affair as he could not eradicate from their minds nor from the minds of his own disciples, so strong was the general prepossession in its favour; as witness the simple question of these disciples to him after he had risen from the dead, "Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?" (Acts i. 6.) Whereas I have shewn this restoration to be a very foreign work, and to consist in effects very different from any they considered; as 1, in the renewal, restoration or reform of a degenerate nature, of one that was corrupt in every part and property, whether intellectual, spiritual, or corporeal—to a state of primitive purity or uprightness; 2, a consequent reinstating of the subject in his primitive prospects and enjoyments. And if I could stay to insist on this matter, I might shew that such was the restoration chiefly foretold by the prophets for Israel, whether we understand the whole church or elect people of God by that expression, a number still much within the limits that many must suppose, to make it include themselves; or only the descendants of Israel after the flesh.

How many are there in Israel understood either way, that is either as the whole church, or only as the Jewish branch, who cannot extend their views of the process to a new spiritual creation, nor understand by "the new heaven and the new earth," (Rev. xxi. 1,) its principal effects, any thing more or less than a fine new set of material objects replacing those in existence, which are renewed every day and every minute! Who can think of nothing but

the light of the moon being as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun being seven fold "in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound." (Isai. xxx. 26.) Whereas they are told in Scripture again and again, that the new creation is of a more spiritual nature, and that even our own corporeal frames, following its general order, will, upon their dissolution," be changed" into spiritual bodies, that is into bodies of a more spiritual and elastic texture than natural or ordinary. Truly such reveries are not only childish and superstitious in themselves, but highly prejudicial to the entertainers; as by leading their minds into the region of vanity they divert them from the pursuit of every solid advantage, which is to be sought in the empyreum of intellect, and not in the sun, moon, or stars. That every object around us, whether in Heaven, or in earth, shall undergo in the day determined by God a dissolution and renewal as glorious as the prefiguration of their change in Scripture, is agreeable to reason, and likewise certain as to the matter of fact, if there be any faith in divine revelation. It is indeed a continuation or counterpart of the work that has just been described to you, and so far worth mentioning, as it would naturally be asked, if such be the mighty change --such the total revolution in the spiritual and intellectual, or inner, department of the Kingdom of God upon earth, what may become this while of the material or outer department? Is that to remain as it is here, while the celestial bodies themselves are liable to be changed above; as it is said, "They shall all wax old as doth a garment: and as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed." (Ps. cii. 26, 27.) I should think, not: and therefore with fewer data as to this department and a very inferior sense of its importance compared with the other, its renovation deserves to be mentioned.

We owe a very ancient, though not the only nor yet the most particular suggestion of this important fact to the 104th Psalm: where we have a rapid sketch of the divine

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