old man, and put on the new man." Col. 9-10. Consult these
Persecutions, and that little Book of Martyrs, the 11th of the
Hebrews, and Mr. Fox's Acts and Monuments, with many other
treatises that are extant, do abundantly evidence that from age to
age, and from one generation to another—they those who been born
after the flesh have persecuted those who have been born after the
spirit; and that the seed of the serpent have been still a-multiplying
of troubles upon the seed of the woman, Gal. 4:29. But a believer's
future glory and pleasure will abundantly recompense him for his
present pain and ignominy.
But such as will have Christ for their Savior and sovereign, but still
with some proviso or other—namely, that they may keep such a
beloved lust, or enjoy such carnal pleasures and delights, or raise
such an estate for them and their children, or comply with the times,
and such and such great men's desires, or that they may follow the
Lamb only in sunshine weather, etc., these are still Satan's bond-
slaves, and such as Christ can take no pleasure nor delight to espouse
himself unto. But,
3. The third word of advice and counsel is this, namely, "Put off the
old man, and put on the new man." Col. 9-10. Consult these
scriptures. [Eph. 4:22-24; Gal. 6:35; 1 Pet. 2:2.] You must be new
creatures, or else it had been better that you had been any creatures
than what you are: 2 Cor. 5:17, "If any man be in Christ he is a new
creature, old things are passed away, behold all things are become
new." The new creature includes a new light, a new sight, a new
understanding. The new creature sees sin to be the greatest evil, and
Christ and holiness to be the chief good, Psalm 38:4, and Cant. 5:10.
When a man is a new creature, he has a new judgment and opinion,
he looks upon God as his only happiness, and Christ as his all in all,
Col. 3:11, and upon the ways of God as ways of pleasantness,
Proverbs 3:17. The new man has new cares, new requests, new
desires. Oh that my soul may be saved! Acts 2:37, and 16:30; Oh that
my interest in Christ may be cleared! Oh that my heart may be
adorned with grace! Oh that my whole man may be secured from
wrath to come! 1 Thes. 1:10.
The new man is a man of new principles. If you make a serious
inspection into his soul, you shall find a principle of faith, of
repentance, of holiness, of love, of contentment, of patience, etc.
[Phil. 1:29; Acts 11:18; 1 Thes. 4:9; Phil. 4:11; 1 Cor. 4:12.] There is
not any one spiritual and heavenly principle respecting salvation, but
may be found in the new creature. The new man experiences a new
combat and conflict in his soul. "The flesh lusts against the spirit,
and the spirit lusts against the flesh." "I see another law in my
members warring against the law of my mind," Gal. 5:17, and
Romans 7:23. The new man experiences a combat in every faculty.
Here is the new judgment against the old judgment, and the new will
against the old will, and the new affections against the old affections.
And the reason is this; because there is flesh and spirit, sin and grace
co-existent and cohabiting in every faculty of the soul; renewing
grace is in every faculty, and remaining corruption is also in every
faculty, like Jacob and Esau struggling in the same womb, or like
heat and cold in the same water, and in every part of it.
The new man also combats with all sorts of known sins, whether they
are great or small, inward or outward, whether they are the sins of
the heart or the sins of the life. This conflict in the new man is a daily
conflict, a constant conflict. The new creature can never, the new
creature will never, be at peace with sin; sin and the new creature
will fight it out to the death. The new creature will never be brought
into a league of friendship with sin.
The new man is a man of a new life and conversation. A new life
always attends a new heart. You see it in Paul, Mary Magdalene,
Zaccheus, the jailor, and all the others that are upon Scripture
record. [See 1 John3:14; 2 Cor. 6:14; Psalm 120:5, 139:21, and 42:4.]
The new man has new society, new company: Psalm 119:63, "I am a
companion of all those who fear you, and of those who keep your
precepts," Psalm 16:3, "My goodness extends not to you, but to the
saints who are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my
delight." Holy society is the only society for people with holy hearts,
and in that society can no man delight, until God renews his heart by
grace.
Many men be as the planet Mercury, good when in company of those
that are good; and bad when in company of those that are bad. These
are those who put honesty to an open shame. [Cicero had rather have
no companion than a bad one.] Clothes and company do oftentimes
tell tales in a mute but significant language. "Tell me with whom you
go, and I will tell you what you are," says the Spanish proverb.