Dead to sin, to the world, to the law-this I find in Scripture but not dead to the old creation. This is the place of every Christian, and he is to hold himself so. But God does not say dead to the old creation, for it is God's creation, and every creature of God is good. Live above it. In its present state all is well, if it be given to us, but death to the first creation, and breaking every link with it, is not true, while we are in the body. Scripture does not say so, and Scripture, I say again, is much wiser than we are. There is a new creation, and, as in Christ, we are of it-I think we may say, the firstfruits of it-"of His creatures," at any rate.