86 The Gofpel.lifyflery. Direa. V. tt ordained, that we fhould walk in them," Eph. io. If we could love God and our neighbour as the law requireth, without a new birth and creation, we might live without them ; for Chrift hath faid, " This do, and thou fhalt live," Luke X. 28. Now a new birth and creation is more than a mere re- formingand repairing our natural (tate. If we were put into a certain itate and condition by the firft birth and creation, much more by the fecond. For the firit produceth the fubitance of a man as well as a ftate ; the fecond had nothing to produce, but a new Bate of the fame perfon. And note, that we were firft created and born in Adam the natural man, but our new birth and creation are in Chrift the fpiritual man. And, if any man be in Chrift, he is in a new ftate, far different from the ítate of A- dam before the fall: he is wholly a new creature; as it is written, " old things are paft away; behold all " things are become new," 2 Cor. V. 7. Thirdly, It is pofitively afferted by the Apoftle Paul, that " thofe that are in the flefh, cannot pleafe God, Ro. viii. 8." Many are too overly and negli- gent in confidering the 'fenfe of this gofpel-phrafe, what it is to be in the flefh They underhand no more by it than to be finful, or to be addicted inor- dinately to pleafe the fenfitiveappetite. They fhould confider, that the Apoftle fpeaketh here of "being " in the flefh," as the taufe of finfulnefs ; as in the next verfe, he fpeaketh of being in the Spirit, as the caufe of holinefs; and, whatever caufe it be, it muft needs be dlitina from its effea. Sin is a property of the flfh, or fomething that dwelleth in the flefh, Rom. vii. 18. and therefore it is not the flefh itfelf. The Lila is that which " lufteth againft the Spirit," Gal. v. 17. and.therefore it is not rner&y finful lull- ing. The true interpretation is, that by flefh is meant the nature of man, as it is corrupted by the fail of Adam, and propagated from him to us, in that corrupt Rate, by natural generation; and to "be
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