SERMON L.

THE NEW CREATION.

EPH. ii. 10.

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

THE Apostle in this chapter gives us a plain description of the state of nature, and the state of grace; what sort of people we are as we proceed from the first Adam, and what we are made when we are engrafted into the second: he first puts the Ephesians in mind how they had been dead in trespasses and sins, and that not only they, but we also, we the disciples of Christ, "We are all by nature the children of Eph. 2. 3. wrath, even as others;" the children of wrath, because the children of disobedience, walking according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, and so directly contrary to the laws of God; who is therefore justly displeased with us, and hath passed the sentence of death, even of eternal death upon all, and will most certainly execute it upon every one that goes out of this world, no better than he came into it.

But then on the other side, the Apostle saith, "That when ver. 5, 6. we were thus dead in sins, God hath quickened us together with Christ, and hath raised us up together." He hath raised us up to a new and spiritual life, that we may not only escape the death, to which we were before condemned, but "sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus," and so enjoy everlasting life and happiness.

But this the Apostle ascribes wholly to the grace of God.

EE

Eph. 2. 8.

ver. 8, 9.

SERM. "For," saith he, "by grace ye are saved through faith." By L. "grace" on God's part, "and through faith" on ours, through faith in Christ as the way whereby we come to be interested in His merits and Mediation. And "that" too is "not of ourselves, it is the gift of God. Not of works," not of any thing which we ourselves can do, either to effect or to deserve it, "lest any man should boast; but that God may have all the glory."

Now for the further illustration and proof of this great doctrine here delivered by the Apostle, he adds these remarkable words, "For we are His workmanship created in Jesus Christ unto good works, which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them." In which few words rightly understood, there are many things much to be observed by all that concern themselves in good earnest about their future state. And therefore I shall endeavour to explain them in the same order wherein they lie.

The Apostle therefore, to shew that the great change that is made in us, when we are brought out of the state of nature into that of grace, is wrought in us wholly and solely by God Himself, he first observes in general, that "we are His workmanship," not only as men, but as Christians, not only as creatures, but as new creatures; we are made such also by Him, by whom we were at first made; whatsoever means or instruments may be used in bringing it about, He is the 1 Cor. 3. 6. efficient cause, He is the principal agent. "Paul may plant, and Apollos water, but it is God that giveth the increase." So that the whole new man also, with every part of it, is His workmanship.

It is His workmanship as much as the creation of the world was; for as the Apostle here adds, "We are created in Christ Jesus unto good works." Here is, it seems, a new creation or production of something out of nothing, though not of matter and substance, yet of qualities and endowments: piety and virtue being made to spring up where there was no such thing before, nothing like it, but rather the quite contrary, and therefore David prayed, that God Ps. 51. 10. would "create in him a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within him." He had an heart before, but it could not be a clean heart, unless it was created again. He had a

spirit before, but that spirit must be renewed before it could be a right spirit, right in the sight of God, and set to obey His Commandments.

But to distinguish this from the first creation, the Apostle here saith, that we "are created in Christ Jesus," and elsewhere, that "in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth Gal. 6. 15. any thing, or uncircumcision, but a new creation," as the words there signify. "And if any man be in Christ, he is a 2 Cor. 5.17. new creature." It is still in Christ that this creation is effected, or the new creature made. This is the great mystery of godliness that is revealed in the Gospel; out of which I shall therefore endeavour to set it in such a light, that we may all see what to believe concerning it, and what to do, that we may be eternally the better for it.

For which purpose, we may first observe, that this Jesus Christ being both God and man in one person; as God, he was neither made nor created; but as man, He was "made Gal. 4. 4. of a woman," and created immediately by God Himself, according to that of the Prophet, "The Lord hath created a Jer. 31. 22. new thing in the earth, a woman shall compass a man;"

"the man that is My fellow," saith the Lord of Hosts; Zech. 13. 7. "one, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery Phil. 2. 6. to be equal with God;" "and yet nevertheless, took upon ver. 7. Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men." He was made so by the immediate act of God Himself, as the first man was; for as the Lord God formed Gen. 2. 7. Adam of the dust of the ground, so He formed Christ of the flesh or substance of the Virgin; to whom the Angel said, "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of Luke 1. 35. the Highest shall overshadow thee, therefore also that Holy Thing which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God." Where we see, that Jesus Christ, who was to be born, is not called only an Holy God, or Holy Man, but that "Holy Thing," a thing made up of God and man together; such a thing as never was before, any otherwise than in the decree and promise of God, but now it began actually to exist by the power of the Highest. It was by that, that the manhood was both formed and united to the Divine Person. And so in both respects, that Holy Thing, Christ Jesus, was

SERM. the workmanship of God, created as the first man was by His Almighty power.

L.

ver. 45.

And as the first man was not only a single human person, but one in whom all mankind was then contained, and therefore had no proper name given him, but was called Adam, that is, man, man in general; so Christ took not on Him the nature of one or more particular human persons, but the whole human nature, the nature of man in general. And therefore, although there were millions of human persons 1 Cor.15.47. between the first man and Him, yet "the man Christ Jesus is cal ed the second man;" the second that was man in general as the first was; and for the same reason He is also "the last Adam," because the whole nature of man was in Him, as well as it was in the first Adam. And that too with this mighty advantage, that it was in the first, only as in a finite human person, but in the last, in a person that is infinite and Divine, so as to make but one person with Him; for that which was formed of the substance of the blessed Virgin, never subsisting of itself, but being from its first conception united to the Godhead, could not make a person of itself distinct from the Divine; but as "the reasonable soul and flesh is one man, so God and man is one Christ; one, not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by taking of the manhood into God."

Now the manhood in general, or whole human nature being thus in God our Saviour, whatsoever He did or suffered as man, was done and suffered by the whole nature of man; and it being done and suffered in an infinite person, it could not but be of infinite worth and merit for those who are of that nature. Hence it is, that as our whole nature was corrupted in the first man, it is cleansed and sanctified 1 Cor.15.22. in the second; "As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all Rom. 5. 19. be made alive;" "as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one, shall many be made righteous." And as in Adam, we fell from the happy estate in which we were created, so we are restored to it, by being created again in Christ Jesus.

But that we may be so, as we come by nature from the first Adam, we must come to the last by faith, that is, we

must believe and trust on Him for it, according to the revelations that God hath given us, and the promises which He hath made us in Him; that being the way that God Himself hath appointed in His Holy Word, whereby to come to Christ, so as to have all that He did and suffered in our common nature, applied to our own particular persons; as appears from the whole design and tenor of the Gospel, where faith is all along required in order to our obtaining any of the blessings that He hath merited for us, insomuch that they who do not believe, have no part or portion in Him, no more than as if He had never been made man, but are still in their natural state, just as they proceeded from the first Adam; whereas they who truly believe, are taken out of the first, and grafted into the second, so as to be made branches of Him the true Vine, members of that body whereof Christ Himself is head; and being in Him, they partake of all the merits of the death He suffered, and of all that He ever did or is now doing in their nature; in Him they have pardon and peace, in Him they have righteousness and strength, in Him they are made new creatures, for they are "created in Christ Jesus."

They are created much after the same manner as all things were at first; for as all things were at first created by the Word of God, so are they by the Word made flesh, and by the Word made known unto them; for they are created or "born again not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by 1 Pet. 1. 23. the Word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever." There is only this difference, that whereas in the first creation of things, there being nothing to believe or disbelieve His Word, "God only commanded, and they were created." Ps. 148. 5. But in this new creation, men being before made, and made free agents, capable of believing or not believing what is said, "The Word worketh effectually only in them who believe.” 1 Thes.2.13. And that is the reason, that none but they who believe are created in Christ Jesus; but all that do so are.

Again, when God in the beginning had created the Heavens and the earth, it is said, "That the Spirit of God Gen. 1. 2. moved upon the face of the waters." So that by "the Word Ps. 33. 6. of the Lord were the Heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath or Spirit of His mouth." He first by