1. HE who comes to God, and desires to be in truth a partner of Christ’s throne, ought to come with a view to this end, that he may be changed and altered from his former condition and conduct, and be made a good and new man, who brings nothing of the old man with him. If any man be in Christ, it says, he is a new creature. This was the very purpose of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, to change and alter and renew nature, and to create afresh this soul that was overturned by passions through the transgression, mingling it with His own Spirit, the Spirit of Godhead. New mind, and new soul, and new eyes, new ears, a new spiritual tongue, and in short new men altogether—this was what He came to make of those who believe Him, or let us say new bottles, anointing them with His own light of knowledge, that He might change their wine into new wine, which is His Spirit; for new wine, He says, must be put into new bottles.
2. As the enemy, when he had got man into subjection, made him new for himself, enveloping him in lusts of wickedness, and anointing him with the spirit of sin poured into him the wine of all iniquity and evil doctrine; so the Lord, having delivered him from the enemy, made him new, anointing him with His own Spirit, and poured into him the wine of life, the new doctrine of the Spirit. He who changed the nature of the five loaves into the nature of a multitude, and gave a voice to the irrational nature of an ass, and converted the harlot to chastity, and prepared the nature of burning fire to bedew those who were in the furnace, and tamed for Daniel the nature of savage lions; He is able also to change the soul, which was waste and had become savage, from sin into His own goodness and loving-kindness and peace, by the holy and good Spirit of promise.
3. As a shepherd knows how to cure the scabby sheep, and to protect it from wolves, so Christ, the true shepherd, when He came, was alone able to cure and to convert man, the lost and scabby sheep, from the scab and leprosy of sin. The priests and Levites and teachers before were unable to cure the soul by the oblations of gifts and sacrifices, and by their sprinklings of blood, wherewith indeed they were unable even to cure themselves. For it is not possible, it says, that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sin. But the Lord said, showing the impotence of the physicians of the time, Ye will surely say unto me this parable, Physician, heal thyself; as much as to say, “I am not like them, who cannot so much as heal themselves. I am the true physician, and the good shepherd, who lay down My life for the sheep, who am able to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease of the soul. I am the sheep without spot, that was offered once, and that am able to cure those that come to Me.” The true healing of the soul is from the Lord only. Behold, it says, the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world, that is to say, of the soul that has believed Him, and that loves Him with a whole heart.
4. The good Shepherd, then, heals the scabby sheep. Sheep cannot heal sheep. And except man, the reasonable sheep, be healed, there is no entrance for him into the heavenly church of the Lord. It is thus said even in the law through shadow and image. Concerning the leper, and him who has a blemish, the Spirit speaks figuratively, with this meaning; A leper, or one that hath a blemish, shall not enter into the assembly of the Lord; but it charged the leper to go to the priest, and with much entreaty to take him to the house of his tabernacle, and [ask him] to lay his hands upon the leprosy, indicating the spot where the leprosy had attacked him, and to heal it. After the same manner, Christ, the true high priest of good things to come, bending over souls that are afflicted with the leprosy of sin, enters into the tabernacle of their body, and heals and cures their disorders. Thus the soul will be enabled to enter into the heavenly church of the saints of the true Israel. For any soul that bears the leprosy of the sin of the passions, and has not come to the true high priest, and been healed now in the camp of the saints, cannot enter into the heavenly church. For [that church] being without blemish, and pure, seeks souls that are without blemish and pure. Blessed, says the scripture, are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.