CHAPTER V: The new creature wrought in us by the Spirit of God, a change of heart
CHAPTER V
That the new creature wrought in us by the Spirit of God is a change of heart.
A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.—EZEK. 36:26, 27.
The glory of God's grace in the application of salvation unto us in this life, and the commitment of it to the Holy Ghost, you find it put together in this one scripture. Here is,
1. A creating and issuing new abilities, and vivifie principles of spiritual life, whereby the soul is quickened and enabled to act as a supernatural agent, or worker of all sorts of spiritual works and operations, which is here in Ezekiel said to be the giving a new heart and a new spirit, together with taking away the heart of stone, which is as truly a work of omnipotency as to turn a stone into flesh, into living flesh, or to transform stones into bread (upon doing which the devil himself would have believed Christ to be the Son of God); or of stones to raise up children to Abraham, whereby John the Baptist celebrateth God's omnipotent power.
2. Here is set forth the Holy Ghost's effectual drawing forth, and efficaciously working every such spiritual act, causing us to walk in his ways, both by his giving Τὸ θελεῖν, 'to will and to do of his good pleasure,' Philip. 2:13.
3. Here is the giving this person of the Holy Ghost unto our persons, to dwell in us for ever, as the author of both of these, which is expressed in those words, 'I will put my Spirit within you,' which
comes in between the former two. It is he who gives us the new heart at first; and having predisposed and prepared us thereby, causeth us to 'walk,' and do; that is, draws forth that new heart into act.
The words of my text, Ezek. 36:26, 27, are promises of the covenant of grace concerning all that is wrought in us by God, from first to last, unto salvation, summed up to two heads: 1. The giving a new heart,
&c.; 2. The intent of that gift, viz., to enable us to do, and to walk, which is a continuation of doing. The first is the principle of doing, placed first in order, and accordingly given first, as the foundation of subsequent doing and walking ever after. There is also the Spirit of God, over and besides that new spirit promised, given to them, to cause them to act and do, when once the new heart and spirit is given. And although the Holy Spirit of God is promised, to cause them to do, as without whom the new heart alone would not produce those new actions, yet so as withal the Spirit himself doth not cause us to do without a new heart first given; and unless the old heart, the heart of stone (the principle of the former contrary walking and doing), be removed and taken away, as being that contrary principle that letteth, and would let for ever, if it continued in its old full being and strength. The Holy Ghost is the extrinsecal cause of the operation therefore said to be put; but the new heart is the intrinsecal cause of our doing, though as acted by the Holy Ghost.
And these things are consonant to reason and scriptures.
1. The heart doth, in the language of nature, speak the primary intrinsecal cause of motion and action, being the first seat and forge of all the vital spirits by which we act and move. And so in the soul there is that answers to it, which is the spring; and actions are the streams that issue from thence: 'Above all keeping keep thy heart, for out of it are the issues of life,' that is, the course and actings of a man's life, which are as issues from the heart as a fountain. The walking and doing here are not the new heart itself, for that (as was noted) is a new gift and benefit distinct there-from. Nor is the Spirit's acting our natural faculties and principles already in our hearts, the
whole or sole work on God's part in us. Nor consists it only in actings (which the promise of the 27th verse is wholly spent upon), but that verse before, the 26th, is taken up as much with the promise of giving a new heart and removing the old, and is a promise of as much grace as this latter in verse 27.
2. It is true that the natural faculties of the mind, and will, and affections, are in Scriptures termed the heart, or connotated at least when the heart is spoken of; and therefore they must be taken in and supposed here, for they are the subject and intrinsecal principle of all the actings of a man in doing whatever is done, be it good or evil.
And this is common to all men, whether regenerate or unregenerate, in their doing good or evil, to do it with their hearts. And therefore
Solomon admonisheth, Prov. 4:23, 'Keep thy heart, for out of it are the issues of life,' which reason in general concerns all men, that such as the heart is, such is the course of life. He compares the heart to the fountain, and the actions to the streams that issue out from it: 'A good man,' says Christ, Mat. 12:35, 'out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.' So as a heart to do is ascribed to either of them.
3. I shall confirm this by other scriptures. You have a workmanship said to be created unto good works: Eph. 2:10, 'For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them,' Here is a whole frame or ποιήμα created and wrought in us, in order unto our working or acting, God having ordained the one for the other, viz., those works for us to walk in (as it follows), and this workmanship to bring forth those works. You read in like manner of the image of God created, ἐις ἐπίγνωσιν, 'unto knowledge,' for it is wrought to that end. And it is more expressly said, 1 John 5:20, 'He hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true.'
Another scripture is that passage in 1 John 3:9, 'Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he
cannot sin, because he is born of God.' The words I lay hold on for my purpose are what that seed of God that remains in a man born of God should be. I might annex this argument, to be drawn from the interpretation of these passages, unto the first argument I drew before from John 3:6, that it is a birth, a thing born. And this which I shall now urge, you may well put to that, for it seconds it; and they do mutually confirm each other.
The scope is, to set out the difference between an unregenerate man and a regenerate (under the dominion of grace), in point of sinning.
Yea, and it may be extended to the differing case of Adam in his first sinning. He mentions indeed only the case of a regenerate man, but asserts concerning him: 1. That a man born of God commits not sin; that is, persists not in any constant track or course of sinning; for committing sin here is meant in the same sense as that in the words afore, 'He that doth righteousness is righteous,' is meant, which position is further amplified that 'he cannot sin.' 2. The reason of which is resolved into this, 'because he is born of God,' he hath by and from that his birth, a seed of and from God remaining in him; that is, he hath a new principle of holiness, a divine nature, and indoles, which God that begat him, and formed anew for himself, maintains in his heart, out of his gracious favour towards that grace, so as to continue the station and residence of the substance and matter of it in the heart, whilst yet its activity may be, or is weakened and abated by the prevailing of the contrary corruption (that is in the soul) through the will's indulging to it. And yet so far as that seed and principle in the solid substance of it thus remains, this corrupt will, nor all a man's own lust that tempts him, cannot employ or draw this seed to close with that sin, but it stands off, and is averse, and cooperates not—'It is not I, but sin that dwelleth in me'—yea, more or less it lusteth against it. But it is not thus with an unregenerate man's will, nor was it thus with Adam in his first sinning. But all his principles and concreated habits of holiness inherent, were by one single act of sinning, through the mere mutability and vertibility of his will (suppose his sin had been the least sin), utterly driven out of his heart and destroyed at once. The reason whereof lay in this: the
terms of his state then being the covenant of works, the curse of that law in threatening—'In that day thou sinnest thou diest the death'— took hold of his soul, and began to have its full process and execution against all that spiritual life that was in him, and raised out the whole of what was holy in him, which was the best of his lives, to whose keeping the whole stock of his grace was committed and betrusted; and he was no more able (when he sinned) to keep the least mite thereof to remain still in him, than a man that is stabbed to the heart is able to keep his soul in his body. But a stronger law is now, under grace, in force over men that are born of God, who are 'not under the law, but under grace;' which law is, that the strength of this inherent grace is the gospel of grace, which preserves this seed in the heart in the midst of sinning, so as that grace in the soul is not wholly expelled upon every sin the will consents to, as it is acknowledged by all. And who can set or put the limits of the difference, that in some sins to which the will yet consents, sin should not totally expel that seed for that present; and in other sinnings, perpetrated by the will's allowance and consent, grace should be destroyed for that present?
Now the preservation of this seed is because it remains upon that gospel-account specified in such a man, and that is the τὸ κατέχον, the thing that lets, or hinders, that he cannot sin with fulness of consent. And whilst this seed upon this account remains, so much of it as remains and hath possession and residence in the heart cannot be made use of, or be drawn to a party with its contrary, or to act the same thing which its contrary doth act. Nor will we grant that the activity of that principle, though preserved in being, may be retunded so as to put forth no acting; for the apostle affirms (Gal. 5:17) that it is never so but in some degree it makes a resistance, though so weak as it is not discernible by his heart in whom it is, as there is some motion of the pulse, though not felt, whilst there is life. This that holds invincibly true, that whilst this seed of life remains in the will at all (and that it remains is the apostle's word and assertion), it, to be sure, cannot sin, no more than sin, whilst it remains in the heart, can act holily. Sin and corruption, so far as it remains, cannot become an actor of true holiness; you may much safelier affirm that fire, as fire, may cool and moisten. It is true God may, and once we
read of did, retund the activity of fire whilst it remained fire, so as not to burn, or so much as singe, as was seen in Nebuchadnezzar's fiery furnace; but that fire, remaining fire, should cool and moisten, this were utterly contrary to its nature. And the truth of this maxim the apostle confirmeth, and applies it to this very case of sin and holiness in us, bottoming it upon this very reason; viz., that a thing contrary in its nature, whilst it remains contrary, cannot be brought to co-operate in the same act with that which is contrary to itself.
Gal. 5:17, 'For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other; so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.' And the same is the bottom ground of that other assertion of his in Rom. 8:7, 8, 'The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.'
And lot no man say it is in the power of the will to cause it so to do; the apostle says the contrary, 'So as ye cannot do what you would,' neither in sinning with your whole will, nor in doing good with your whole hearts and whole souls. And although corruption that is in us may so far prevail over the will, against the active power of grace in the will, as often exert for the outward act to commit a sin, yet still, so far as a principle of grace exists, and God causeth it to continue and abide, and whilst God upholds it so to do in the soul and will, that part of the soul and will cannot be prevailed with by the corrupt part to join with it in sinning, for they are contrary. Our apostle
John, in this his first epistle, expressly says that it doth remain. And how should that be if God did not maintain it by his grace? For that sin is stronger than created holiness, take it in its own efficacy, and as in itself, we have found by Adam sinning. And it is in effect said, in that verse, that it is God that causeth it to remain, even 'because it is born of God;' and is therefore so beloved of God, that he says,
'Destroy it not, there is a blessing in it.'
And what is the thing that doth remain, but a seed; and as all must grant, distinct from fruit? Now, every fruit must have a root to grow upon. And therefore, gracious actings proceed from a seed let in by a birth, and that birth is from our being born of God, whose seed it is
called. Which fully makes good the assertion, that in regeneration, not merely our actions are altered, but there is a change of heart.
Use 1. We see then, that one fundamental difference between them that fall away, and others that persevere in grace, is, that in the first, there is not a change of heart nor a new principle, a seed from God that remains. Many glorious things are spoken of temporary believers, but it is nowhere said in all the Scripture (that I can find), that they are born again. This assigned difference is congruous to the works that are wrought on them. In the one, there is a stirring, an elevating what is in nature, as of virtuous dispositions and self-love, by such motives as suit self, laid down in the gospel; which motives, when they cease, those actings in their hearts, which men take for grace, do cease also. It was the case of the stony ground, who 'received the word with joy, but immediately' (as the word is, Mark
4:17) they fall off from it, whereas in the other, it becomes new; new acts towards new objects, so new principles: 2 Cor. 5:17, 'Old things pass away, and all things become new.' And though operations may cease, or be weakened and overborne with the contrary corruption, so far as to prevail unto the outward acts of sin, yet there is a constant abiding principle which lusts unto the contrary. And this difference is found by experience in the one sort and the other. And you find also this difference in Scripture, in that parable of the sower, of the stony ground; Mat. 13:21, Mark 4:17, it is said, 'they have no root in themselves, 'which phrase expresseth the proper language of inherent grace habitually seated in the heart. There might be, and was, a springing up, from an external principle moving them, as the Holy Ghost stirred them by the word, but they had no root in themselves. And thus Job expresseth the difference between himself and the hypocrites, in the number of which his friends went about to persuade him that he was; Job 19:28, 'The root of the matter' (says he) 'is in me;' that is, truth and sincerity of heart towards God, whence my profession hath risen. And the apostle (Gal. 5) alludes to the same comparison, where he calls adultery, fornication, and so forth, 'works of the flesh;' 'but the fruits' (says he) 'of the Spirit' (the new creature in us, to which flesh is opposed; as also in that text,
John 3) 'are love, joy,' &c. And in this sense they are opposed in the 17th verse of that chapter, 'The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other.' By spirit he means not the Holy Ghost in us, for it must not be said that the Holy Ghost lusteth against the flesh, but it is that spirit which he begets, and then acteth, which is contrary to the corruption in us, as two contrary qualities use to be. And that metaphor of 'fruits of the spirit,' and 'works of the flesh' doth congruously argue this spirit to be a root, whence these fruits arise.
The like difference I observed from the parable, in Mat. 25, between the wise virgins and the foolish. The foolish had oil in their lamps, for a profession. They had present assistance for what they did, by motions and the like. They had heat, and warmth from rubbing, and stirrage, but they had not oil in the vessel, which remained, as principles of grace do, when men are asleep, as these were. They had not warmth and heat from a principle of life.
Use 2. Let us therefore examine ourselves. Acts and motions will not save us, without a spiritual new frame of heart, which is acted and wrought upon; whereas when these other motions are off, men's hearts remain as bad as ever, Heb. 12:28. The apostle useth this argument, that 'seeing,' by the state of grace in which we are, 'we have a kingdom that cannot be shaken,' perpetual and abiding, 'we should have grace' correspondent and answerable; let us therefore have a fixed and abiding principle thereof within us, 'that we may serve God acceptably,' seek unto God to work this in you, as well as the act and deed. 'Turn me, O Lord' (saith the convert Ephraim, Jer.
31:18), 'and I shall be turned.'
Use 3. When a lust stirs and ariseth in thee, either from Satan's temptation or from thine own heart, and the mass of corruption that is in thee, seek thou unto God to give thee the contrary grace, and to act that grace in thee, that it may lust against that corruption and overcome it: James 4:6, 'The spirit that is in us lusteth after envy; but he gives more grace. Wherefore he saith, He giveth grace to the