EPHES. 2. 10.
I Have chosen this Text as an additional to the further explication of this New Creature you have heard so much of: That as continuall dropping doth at last make an impression into a very stone, so a constant information, and application of this Doctrine, may in the close make a powerful change on you. To understand the Text, we must take notice of the coherence, as the very first word For, dothadvertise us. In the begining of this chapter the Apostle after a most divine and admirable manner, describeth the whole nature of our justification, regeneration, and salvation.
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From the Efficient cause, God rich in mercy; with the impulsive cause, For his great love wherewith he loved us.
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From the Meritorious, or as the Logicians call it, the Procatarcticall cause, moving God from without, through Christ Jesus.
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From the Final cause, To shew forth the exceeding riches of his Glory. From this description so magnificent and full of spiritual glory, ariseth verse 8. a sure and solid proposition, By grace ye are saved: From the first to the last, all is of Grace: And grace that is without us, viz. The good love of God, not any dwelling in us. We are saved: Salvation is here either put for justification, because by that we are intituled to heaven, or else we are said to be already saved, because we have the seal and pledge of it here; and it is begun in us, and also we have a sure right to it: and qui jus habet ad rem, rem ipsam videtur habere: some understand salvation, as much as a purgation, or deliverance from sin; for as sin is called death, so freedome from it, may be called life and salvation: it comes all to one. In the next place we have the instrumental cause of our salvation, and that is Faith: And lest we should be thought to have this faith of our selves, as if God indeed gave his mercy & grace to those that believe, but we did believe by our own power; God giveth the Oyl, and we bring the vessel to receive it, he presently addeth, and that not of your selves, it is the gift of God: And as if the spirit of God would herein expresly provide against all those subtile opinions that craftily undermine Grace, he further addeth by way of opposition, Not of works, giving also a reason of the whole, lest any man should boast: Whereupon my Text is brought in as a reason to prove all is of Grace, For we are his workmanship. The strength of this argument lyeth upon that rule in Logick, Nothing can be a cause and effect too, in the same consideration. But our works and holiness, they are the effects of his grace: We are his workmanship, therefore they cannot be a cause; and yet lest by magnifying of Grace, and setting up of faith, excluding all that we do, he might seem to justle out good works, and an holy life, he saith, We are created in Christ to doe them, onely they are effects flowing from grace, not causes producing grace. I shall at this time ouely insist upon the Apostles reason set down generally in the Text. We are his workmanship, […], his figment, translate some, his Creature, others; our translators well, His workmanship. He doth not speak of our naturall making, the forming of our bodies in the womb, and infusing a soul, but of our spiritual renovation. Neither doth it signifie any kinde of workmanship; but a curious, and exact one: In which sense, verses are called Poems, as consisting of exact measure, and quantity. It may be an allusion to those expressions the Old Testament useth about the people of Israel, which God formed a people to himselfe, Deut. 32. 6. Isa 43. 21. especially that place, Isa 43. 7. is remarkable, I have created him for my glory, I have formed him, yea I have made him: where Mercer observeth a gradation; God by degrees did make Israel a glorious people, as he made the world by degrees, he created them, he formed them, that was a further work upon them; yea he made them, that was the fulnesse and complement of all.
Doct. Doct. That all those who are renewed in a spiritual manner by God, are his workmanship.
For the opening of this, consider these things as introductory.
First, That we become Gods workmanship, or his people (for it is all one) upon several grounds and titles: as1
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By conquest and victory. Satan is called The prince of the world, John 12. 31. And he rules in the hearts of the disobedient, Ephes. 2. He kept the whole world as his own Castle; but when Christ a stronger then he comes, the prince of this world is judged, and cast out of his possession John 16. 11. And now Christ having thus conquered, we become wholly his: Even as the people of Israel are said to be the people that God had made for himself, because he destroyed all their enemies for them, and delivered them from the hands of Pharaoh: So it is here, The people of God are his workmanship, because delivered by the mighty power of God from all their spiritual adversaries, that we being delivered from our enemies, might serve him without fear all the daies of our life, Luke 1. 74. Therefore never think thou art Gods workmanship, till thou see thy self set at liberty and freedome from those snares of Satan thou wert held captive in. If God hath not subdued those lusts that war against thy soul, thou art as yet sins and Satans, not the Lords. Observe that expression of Peter, 1 Pet. 2. 11. Abstain from lusts which war against the soul: Thy ungodlinesse is a war-like adversary against thee: Thou fearest the enemy that may take away thy life, thy goods; but thou fearest not thy sins that are in battel aray to deprive thee of God. Oh therefore say unto thy soul, Oh my soul, Why lovest thou to be in this dark Dungeon? Why are these cords and chains of sin so pleasing to thee? Oh pray to God that he would save thee and deliver thee from those sins, thy deadly enemies.
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We are Gods people, and so his workmanship in respect of his gracious Covenant2 and promise, for that is the tenor of the Covenant of Grace so often mentioned, I will be their God, and they shall be my people Jer. 31. 33. 2 Cor. 6. 16. So that to be Gods workmanship in this sense, is the greatest honour and priviledge we are capable of. Happy is the people whose God is the Lord, Psal. 144. 15. Yea, happy is the people: the Psalmist speaks it comparatively to all those outward blessings, that are there reckoned up: And indeed to have God our God, is the treasure of all happinesse and comfort; For then his omnipotency, his wisedome, his goodnesse, all his attributes are for thy use and advantage. It is to have the Fountain, the summ, the Treasurie of all good: It is the Divines rule, That we must not go to an absolute God, but relative one, considered in the relation of a gracious Covenent: For hereby God hath bound himself; and though we cannot plead our worth, yet we may his fidelity and truth: Though we cannot urge our works, yet we may his words: So that if we look into the Original of this workmanship, we shall finde it to be the onely Grace of God: Gods word is gone out of his mouth; and so being once passed under this rod, as the Scripture expresseth it, Ezek. 20. 37. we may boldly urge at the throne of Grace, Oh Lord, it was once free to thee whether thou wouldst own us or no, do good to us or not, but since thou hast entered into promise with us, thou canst not deny thy self. So that to be Gods workmanship, Gods people, is to be had as it were into the mount of Transfiguration, and God shews thee all the glory of heaven, and saith, All this will I give thee.
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We are his workmanship or people by purchase, and that at a dear rate, even by the3 blood of Christ. Thus Christ is said, To purchase to himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works, Tit. 2. 14. And herein that holds true which was told you not long since, That it costs Christ more to make us his people, then to create the world; for there it was but his word, saying, Let there be light, and there was light: But here it is his death and sufferings, to redeem us from our former evil waies. This should make us even startle, and be astonished at the noisome, and foul guilt of sin, which plungeth us into an irrecoverable losse, unlesse by Christs blood we are set at liberty: Every sin is the price of Christs blood. Now herein people do much deceive themselves; they look for salvation by Christs blood, but not for a freedom from the power of sin, whereas the blood of Christ doth not onely cleanse away guilt, but it also makes white and fruitfull to every good word and work.