GAL. 6. 15.
I Shall now finish this Discourse about a new Creature: we have handled the nature of it, and its properties; I shall in the last place shew you the counterfeits of this new Creature, or what that is which seemeth to be this new Creature, and yet is not. There is nothing wherein a man doth oftner deceive himselfe than in this. If the question should be put to every man, Whether he be a new Creature, or not? He would answer affirmatively, And thank God he is: It is therefore good to demonstrate it ocularly and palpably, that there are many things which have the vizar and form of this new Creature, but they want the power of it; and indeed to have the shew, name and title of it, is easie; but to put forth the powerful operations of it, is burdensome and difficult: In the number therefore of these Counterfeits, are,
First, All those who have the outward forme and shape of godlinesse, but are wholly destitute of the inward efficacy and power of it. Thus the Apostle, Having a form of1 godlinesse, but denying the power of it, 2 Tim 3. 5. The Greek word […] is rendred by a Form, Image, or Similitude; As if you should say, the Picture or Statue of a man, it is not a man: Thus it is here, there are many who have the outward fashion and expression of godlinesse, but they have not the reality of it, which is here in the Text called […], virtue or power, because the true nature of every thing is discerned by its operations, a picture doth not speak, nor walk, nor grow, because it’s onely the form of a man. Now this outward profession might seem to put in fair for this new creature; for look upon him as a Christian, so he is one who hath renounced the Idols of the world; he is one that comes out of the wildernesse he once lived in: If you compare him and an Heathen together, doth not one seem to be a new Creature in respect of the other? But this externall new change is not enough.2
First, Because as you have heard, The greatest work of this new Creature is in the heart, called therefore the hidden man, and the inward man. It is not so much a new Tongue to professe a new worship of God, as a new Minde, a new Will, new Affections: for look where the old man had his greatest Hold, and his strongest Fort, there this new man cometh and possesseth it. Now the strength of corruption lyeth in our mindes and hearts; there is the Treasury and Shop of sin: It’s from the heart (saith our Saviour) that evill Thoughts, Adulteries, Murders, and all wickednesse doth flow, Mark 7. 21. Then on the contrary, when a man is made a new Creature, from his heart come good thoughts, holy affections, and a godly conversation. Doe not then judge according to outward appearance, thou must not onely look to what fruit thy life bears, but what root that is from whence it groweth.
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This outward form cannot be the new Creature, because the Apostle in the Text3 makes it contradistinct, and an opposite; or at least a diverse member to that of a new Creature. For when he saith, Circumcision availeth nothing, he meaneth the whole external form of the service of God in the old Testament, when he saith uncircumcision availeth nothing, he meaneth the whole externall form of the worship of God in the new Testament. Now to both these is contradistinguished this new Creature: so that if a man have all the postures and outward forms of the Christian Religion, and godlinesse professed therein, yet he hath not oyl, he hath only lamps, and when the voice of the Bride-grooms coming will be heard, he wil fall into miserable confusion: Why is it then, that men rest in forms and externall shews, as if that were all God required, as if there were no further thing requisite?
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This outward form will not suffice, is not the new Creature, because men may be (III) rea[…] Heathens, while they are formall and titular Christians. In works they may deny Christ, while in words they do acknowledge him. and reall denying by actions, is worse than verbal by words. Thus Isaiah calls the Rulers among the Jews, Isa. 1. Princes of Sodom and Gomorrah, the worst of Heathens, because their lives were like such: The Apostle instanceth in one sin, and we may say so of any other gross sin; If any man provide not for his own, he hath denyed the faith, and is worse than an Infidel, 1 Tim. 5. 8. As it holds true of that sin, so we may say; If any man be a drunkard, lyar, swearer, Sabbath-breaker, he hath denyed his faith, and is worse than an Infidel. But why worse than an Infidel? Because he sinneth against more light and knowledge, as also against more holy obligations and bonds which are in the Christian Religion. Know therefore that a titular Christian, but a reall prophane man; a nominall believer, but a reall ungodly person, is like old Sepulchers, with new guilding and painting over them; like a Statue of earth and dirt, with some glorious colouring; and as if a man should goe to touch and feel what such a Statue is, it would presently turn to dirt and dust in his hand: so if thou wouldst seriously lay to heart thy condition, that which thou hopest in, and boastest of, thou wouldst finde to be empty and vain: reall ungodlinesse and prophanenesse under the form of Christian profession, is grosse and palpable hypocrisie; and it’s a wonder, how that contradiction between thy faith and thy practice, thy Religion and thy conversation is hid from thy eyes; It’s a wonder, that thy sins stare thee not in the face, when thou art in thy Christian duties, like so many devils, asking you what you do there. How doth thy praying and swearing stand together? how doth thy hearing and thy contempt of godlinesse consist together?
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This new name thou hast got by being a Christian, and a baptized person, cannot (IIII) be a new Creature, for then every one who is baptized, and of the Orthodox Religion, should be saved; for every new Creature, whether Jew or Gentile, bond, or free, shall be saved; there is none that is a new Creature here, that shall not have new Robes of glory hereafter, but the Scripture doth terribly, yet plainly set down this position, that but few onely of those who enjoy the outward priviledges of the Church shall be saved. Many are called; and few are saved, Mat. 20. 16. it’s a sentence, though full of terror, yet worthy to be written on your Pew doors, or your Chamber doors, yea rather upon your hearts with a Pen of Iron, to think that few of those who come in our assemblies and hear, and sit within those walls, shall yet have a Crown of glory upon their heads; who art thou then that boastest of thy Church-priviledges, of thy Protestant Profession? Thou art no Atheist, no Papist, but if no new Creature neither, heaven is not a place prepared for thee. The paucity and little number of those that shall be saved even of Christians, and baptized persons, should always make us tremble and quake. O Lord are we in the number of those few or not! But eight persons in the whole world were preserved in the Ark; but two persons of those many thousands that came out of Egypt, entred into Canaan. If the Scripture were not plain in this point, you might cry out, It was an hard speech, and not to be born. But heaven and earth shall sooner passe away, than one not or tittle of that sentence: say not then every thing that groweth in Gods garden is a flower, every thing in Christs field is good seed, every called man is an elected man, every baptized man a new Creature, for this is directly repugnant to Gods Word.