“If any man be in Christ,” says the Apostle, “he is a new creature.” In the first part of this sentence it is more than intimated, that some men are not in Christ, are not true Christians. Such was the fact in the days of the Apostle; such it is now. There still are enemies to the cross of Christ. There still are open opposers, decent objectors, and multitudes thoroughly indifferent to Christ and heaven, the soul and eternity. We see them all around us. The world is full of them. In the straight and narrow path that leadeth heavenward, only infrequent prints of the feet of travellers are to be seen; while the broad road is thronged by an unnumbered multitude, regardless whence they came, and whither they are going. The few who have chosen to desert their companions in folly and sin, and become Christian pilgrims, in search of a heavenly city, are called by the Apostle “new creatures.” This, and other language of similar import, the sacred writers frequently employ, to describe a regenerate state, a transformation from the complete dominion of sin to the dominion of holiness. Every truly converted soul is turned from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God. This is no eastern allegory, no oriental fiction, no dream of a disordered fancy, but the simple statement of a tremendously important fact—a fact, which, whether regarded or not, takes fast hold on the interests of the soul, and the destinies of eternity. The new birth, the new creation in Christ Jesus, regeneration, &c. are words of strange and unimaginable import to many minds. And well they may be. These persons know little about them, and what little they suppose they know, is often any thing but truth. They may talk but they do not understand. They may fancy, but fancy and fact are seldom at one. Notwithstanding the mystery which, in the view of many, hangs over this subject, to the honest and humble mind it may be simplified and rendered intelligible; and this is what I shall now attempt. The new creation produces no change in any of our bodily or mental _faculties_. The subject of it sees with the same eyes, hears with the same ears, and labours with the same hands, which he had before. Neither is the sight of his literal eye, nor the hearing of his ear, nor the vigour of his hand strengthened. The same also may be said as to any change of his _mental_ faculties. No person, by becoming spiritually a new creature, receives a new understanding, or a new imagination, or a new memory, conscience, or faculty of choice. His mental faculties may indeed be invigorated, through the influence of the Spirit, and by a proper use; still, they are not essentially changed.—In what, then, does the great change of which we are speaking consist? In what respects is the subject of it a new creature?