and again says the same Apostle, "Ye obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered unto you." This is so true, that there may, and often does, exist a great deal of the new creature where there is a considerable defect of regular theoretical knowledge of religion in the head: and, again, there may be in the understanding much knowledge of religion, much accuracy of orthodox faith, and even much nicety of critical information on certain disputable points, where the heart is altogether untouched. Let no man deceive himself: a good tree does not merely produce leaves and blossoms, but abounds in fruit, which proves its true nature and constitution.

Again The new creature in Christ Jesus does not consist in the gift and possession of any new faculties, either mental or bodily men of courage and fortitude continue men of courage and fortitude; the timid and irresolute continue timid and irresolute. Nor does learning, to any extent whatever, convey the new creature, without the sanctifying operations of the Holy Spirit of God: "The world by wisdom knows not God." Neither are there any new truths, or new propositions, which are not contained in the word of

God, suggested by the Holy Ghost to the mind of the new creature. It is very important to observe, and to remember, that the grace of God communicates no new truths, no new thing whatever, concerning God or his Son Jesus, which is not taught in the Bible. In the new creature there is nothing of the nature of inspiration, or of miraculous interposition of the power of God, in that sense.

We shall see at once in what the real nature of the new creature consists, provided we carry in mind the difference which I pointed out between a man's being in Christ, as my text expresses it, and a man's being a mere nominal believer or professor of Christianity in a Christian country, where the religion of Christ is supported by the laws and the government. For, in fact, the "being in Christ," or, rather, the very beginning of being in Christ, is no other thing than the actual commencement of the new creature itself: nor, again, is the new creature any thing else but the continuation and expansion, as it were, of that spiritual life and spiritual condition which a man enters upon the moment he is really and in the sight of God (who only knows the heart) a true member of Christ's church.

It is here, then, that the question presses close for an answer, In what does this great change consist? And here also it is of the utmost consequence to every one of us, that the answer should be satisfactory to his own individual conscience; because, in the very same proportion as this is left doubtful, precisely in that proportion will it be also doubtful whether we are in Christ for "if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature;" and the same Apostle, in another place, says, that "in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision availeth any thing, but a new creature."

I have already observed, that no new faculties are bestowed on the new creature, nor any new truths, not contained in the Bible, opened to his understanding. The grand, the essential change, of which I speak, consists in a new disposition to use the faculties which the man possessed before. It consists not in the presenting of new objects, with which the man had never before been acquainted; but in new likings and dislikings of the old objects, with which he had long been familiar, and of which he had all his life made a wrong estimate. His approbations and aversions in the

deep practical concerns of religion are so thoroughly new, that, in strong Scripture language, "old things are passed away, and all things become new." It is as though the man was made over again-of the same materials indeed, but with a new taste and new affections, so as to merit the application of the term new creature." "We

are," says St. Paul,

St. Paul, "his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works." The man's Bible had taught him before, that he was a lost sinner; that his nature was depraved; that the carnal mind was at enmity against God; that every man was pronounced accursed that " continued not in all things written in the Law, to do them ;"—and he had very often repeated the expression, "But Thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable sinners ;"-but by the grace of God he now sees and feels that he is a miserable sinner; and would have remained a lost, miserable, and undone object of wrath and condemnation, had not Almighty God interposed, in his sovereign mercy, and commended his love to mankind, "'in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died

for us."

On examination, you will find that many persons

concern themselves very little about their lost state by nature, after they are informed that "Christ has redeemed them from the curse of the Law;" whereas a deep and an abiding sense of our natural state of guilt, and misery, and condemnation, is an essential ingredient in the Christian views and apprehensions of the new creature. And, in fact, no man can have a just value of the redemption of Christ, who does not seriously weigh the nature of the condition from which he is redeemed; nor is it possible that his heart should be duly affected with thankfulness to the Divine Saviour, unless he has acquired just ideas of the nature and the magnitude of the mercies he has received.

This, brethren, is a very trying point in practical religion; and to many it seems a hard saying to affirm that all mankind, in their natural state, are lost sinners, children of wrath, and under a sentence of condemnation. Who is there among us that cordially submits to this scriptural sentence of wrath? Who is there among us whose heart, more or less, or at one time or another, has not resisted the idea of universal demerit, and alienation from God by wicked works? Never