Imagens da página
PDF
ePub

the whole Work of Righteousness; see you not, that fuch a Defire and Endeavour to get above every Sin, and to grow in every Grace, is as evidently the Effect of a truly humbled, renewed and heavenly Mind, as a Defire and Endeavour to amafs Wealth, is the Effect of Covetoufnefs? He is not covetous, who, content with what he hath, defires not, nor labors to be rich; nor are you a new Creature, who, refting upon the prefent Stock of Holinefs, conceit you have attained, and are not folicitous for more.

BUT, obferve now the Hunger of the careless Sinner; and surely the Defire of the Formalift is like his! He hungers not for Righteoufnels but for Indulgence, Wealth, Honor; all his Appetite is for fome earthly Thing. And the more he enjoys it, the keener he grows upon it; ftill running farther from GOD, daily filling up the Measure of his Iniquities, and heating the Furnace of God's Wrath yet hotter against him.

WHAT hath been faid, may ferve, it is hoped, to give fome general Notion of the new Creature's Character, and this, with the more Distinction and Usefulness, as it hath been fet in Oppofition to the Character of the careless Sinner, and feparated and distinguished from the falfe Shew of the Formalift.

AND for the prefent, we will part with this fhort Obfervation; that these two Cha

racters

racters (for in reality they are no more) have a directly different Tendency. The one of them leads upward, every thing draws towards Heaven; in that, all the Views and Pursuits center, and in that, it will gloriously iffue. The other is altogether earthly, and bent downwards. And where will that end? O, ye too eafy Wretches, would God ye might lay it to Heart! If GOD be true, it will affuredly end in eternal Damnation.

[blocks in formation]
[ocr errors]

SERMON VI.

The Believer a new Creature.

2 COR. V. 17.

If any Man be in Chrift, he is a new Creature

I

AM willing to hope, that what hath been generally advanced in the former Sermon upon the Character of the new Crea ture, hath ferved to fhew you its peculiar, and spiritual Way and Manner; and alfo excited a becoming Importunity to fee it more perfectly and exactly drawn, to the End, that with more Attention you may trace out its Features, and difcover with greater Cer-> tainty, if the Lineaments of it are to be found upon your Soul.

LET us follow then the ftrong and very:. visible Lines, in which the Scripture paints this Man of CHRIST,within and without. And, G 5 FIRST,

FIRST, Let me lay open to your View the State of his MIND. Now the Soul of Man hath, especially, three more eminent Powers or Faculties, Understanding, Will, and Affections: The Offices of which are; that of the Understanding, to think, apprehend, and judge of the Things which lie within our Reach; that of the Will, to determine and choose what hath appeared to be good, and eligible in the Decifion of the Understanding; and the Business of the Affections is, to fpur and quicken us both to judge, and choofe, and alfo to carry our Determinations into Action. Now, through the Fall, all thefe are put into Disorder, or rather are drawn a wrong Way. They are not indeed deftroyed! but they are corrupted: They remain the fame Powers they were before; though turned, as to their Difpofition and Employment, to the most base and difhonorable Ufes. As to fpiritual Things, the principal of which are, the ever-blessed God, and the Happiness of Communion with him, which are the proper Objects for a reafonable Soul to lay itself out upon: As to these, there is a Blindness and Darkness in our Understandings; we know them not, nor feel the Weight of them, with any fuitable Impreffion, nor care to bufy our Thoughts about them: While the Things of Senfe do very naturally and eafily engage our Thoughts,

« AnteriorContinuar »