Religion & morality > Human nature in its four-fold state ... in several practical discourses

aiB The Nature of State III.
comes a new Man. But in Regeneration, Nature
itfelf is changed, and we become Partakers of the
Divine Nature', and this mull needs be a fupernatu- 1
ral Change. How can we that are dead in tfref-
fajjes and Sins, renew our felves, more than a dead |
Man can raife himfelf out of his Grave ? Who, but
the fan&ifying Spirit of Chrift, can form Chrift in a
Soul, changing it into the fame Image ? Who but
the Spirit of Sanftification can give the new Heart ?
Well may we fay, when we fee a Man thus changed.
tfbts is the Finger of God.
3. ’ JTis a Change into the Likenefs of God, 2 Cor.
iii. 18. Ure beholding as in a Glafs the Glory of the
Lord, are changed into the fame Image. Every
Thing that generates, generates its Like: The Child
bears the Image of the Parent; and they that are
horn of God, bear God’s Image. Man afpiring to
be as God, made himfelt like the Devil. In his
natural State he refembles the Devil, as a Child doth
the Father, Johnvm. 44. Te are of your Father the
Devil. But when this happy' Change comes, that
Image of Satan 'is defaced, and the Image of God
reflored. Chrtft himfelf, who is the Brightnefs of
his Father’s Glory, is the Pattern, after which the
new Creature is made, Kom. viii; 29. For whom be
did foreknow, he alfo did predeftinate to be conformed
to the Image of his Son. Hence he is faid to be formed
in the Regenerate, Gal. iv 19.
4. ’Tis an univerfal Change ; all Things become
new, 2 Cor. v. 17. ’Tis a bleft Leaven, that leavens
the whole Lump, the whole Spirit, and Soul and Body.
Original Sin infefts the whole Man ; and regenerat¬
ing Grace, which is the Salve, goes as far as the
Sore. This Fruit of the Spirit is in all Goodnefs;
Goodnefs of the Mind, Goodnefs of the Will, Good-