Secondly. God's way of Concurrence to establish this Relation. It is a Creation; the Phrase is often used, Eph. 4. 24. The new Man is created after God: No other Hand could finish this piece of Workmanship. God often sets it forth by this Term, Isa. 43. 7. I have created him for my Glory, I have formed him, yea, I have made him. So vers. 21. This People have I formed for my self, they shall show forth my Praise. So in other places. Now Creation is a Work of Omnipotency, and proper to God. There is a twofold Creation; in the beginning God made some things out of nothing, and somethings ex inhabili materia, out of foregoing Matter, but such ⟨p. 377⟩as was wholly unfit for such things as was made of it. As when God made Adam out of the dust of the Ground, and Eve out of the Rib of Man. Take the Notion in the former or latter Sense, and it will suit with the Matter in hand. (1.) We are formed anew of God, as it were out of a State of Nothing, and get a new Being and a new Life. To this there are frequent Allusions in Scripture; as Rom. 9. 7. He calleth the things that are not, as though they were. 2 Cor. 4. 6. [Greek or Hebrew], Who speaketh Light out of Darkness, he bringeth Life out of Death, something out of nothing. Now there is such a Distance between these two Terms, that the Work can only be accomplished by a Divine Power. (2.) Creation out of unfit Matter. We were wholly indisposed, averse from Good, perverse Resisters of it. Now to bring us to love God and Holiness, to restore God's lost Image to us, it is a new forming or making of us, and must be looked upon, not as a low natural or common thing, but as the Work of him who gave us his Image at first. Col. 3. 10. The new Man is renewed after the Image of him that created him. To turn a Heart of Stone into an Heart of Flesh, God challengeth it to Himself, Ezek. 36. 26. This Creation showeth two things.
Secondly. God's way of Concurrence to establish this Relation. It is a Creation; the Phrase is often used, Eph. 4. 24. The new Man is created after God: No other Hand could finish this piece of Workmanship. God often sets it forth by this Term, Isa. 43. 7. I have created him for my Glory, I have formed him, yea, I have made him. So vers. 21. This People have I formed for my self, they shall shew forth my Praise. So in other places. Now Creation is a Work of Omnipotency, and proper to God. There is a twofold Creation; in the beginning God made some things out of nothing, and somethings ex inhabili materia, out of foregoing Matter, but such ⟨p. 377⟩as was wholly unfit for such things as was made of it. As when God made Adam out of the dust of the Ground, and Eve out of the Rib of Man. Take the Notion in the former or latter Sence, and it will sute with the Matter in hand. (1.) We are formed anew of God, as it were out of a State of Nothing, and get a new Being and a new Life. To this there are frequent Allusions in Scripture; as Rom. 9. 7. He calleth the things that are not, as though they were. 2 Cor. 4. 6. 〈non-Latin alphabet〉, Who speaketh Light out of Darkness, he bringeth Life out of Death, something out of nothing. Now there is such a Distance between these two Terms, that the Work can only be accomplished by a Divine Power. (2.) Creation out of unfit Matter. We were wholly indisposed, averse from Good, perverse Resisters of it. Now to bring us to love God and Holiness, to restore God's lost Image to us, it is a new forming or making of us, and must be looked upon, not as a low natural or common thing, but as the Work of him who gave us his Image at first. Col. 3. 10. The new Man is renewed after the Image of him that created him. To turn a Heart of Stone into an Heart of Flesh, God challengeth it to Himself, Ezek. 36. 26. This Creation sheweth two things.
