by the pen of S. Iames a world of wickednesse then alas how many and how great worlds of wickednesse are included in this one little world of man Now how should so foule so vncleane so polluted a creature set his foote within the portall of heauen How should such an heape of hellish lusts and diuellish vices bee receiued into that happie palace and holy mansion place of Saints and Angels What was the reason that the diuell could not tarie in heauen hauing once been there was it not because he had infected himselfe with sinne with which seeing all mankinde are whollie poysoned and couered ouer from head to foote being of their father the diuell nothing else but euen little diuels differing from the great ones not in substance and parts of corruption but alone in the degrees thereof as a childe of foure or fiue yeeres from a man of thirtie or fortie how can hee possibly finde any place in the kingdome of heauen Thus therefore we conclude our reason Sinne can haue no place no dwelling none intertainment in the kingdome of God Man vnregenerate is nothing else but a very compound or bundle of dirt and sinne Wherefore man vnregenerate cannot possibly finde a place in heauen And this is the first reason from the sinfulnesse of mans nature Reason 2 From the purity of Gods nature The second followes taken from the puritie of Gods nature The Lord is a God of pure eyes and can abide none iniquitie yea the wicked and the workers of iniquitie his soule hateth Hee is as contrary to sinne as heate to colde as light to darknesse as any two contrarie things in the world can be imagined to be contrarie and a great deale more too For other things are contrary each to other alone in regard of their qualities But the very nature substance and being of God is contrary to sinne For sinne is a taxie disorder confusion a not being and God is order perfection holinesse an absolute and a simple being For holinesse in God is not an accident but his very essence is holinesse and he is after an inconceiueable and incomprehensible manner infinitly and essentially good holy and pure Wherefore there can be no reconciliation nor vnion betwixt him and the sinner till the sinfulnes of the sinner be remoued and the image of God be formed and imprinted in him a fresh Euen as the poison of an Adder is contrary to the nature of a man and the venome of a Toade extreamly opposite to his life and therefore no force can compell no wages hire no Rhetorique perswade no perswasion induce him to lodge a Toade or Serpent in his bosome so is it impossible that the most holy pure righteous perfect essence of God should admit into a societie of grace and glorie with him the impure filthie loathsome toadlike serpentine nature of man For though the infinit perfection excellencie of Gods nature be such that he cannot receiue any hurt or indamagemēt from sin as a man is hurt by the poyson of a poysonfull creature yet still withal such is his excellencie and the infinitnes of his power and goodnesse that he cannot but remoue farre and farre from himselfe al things whatsoeuer that are contrary vnto himselfe What fellowship can there be betwixt light darknesse God and wickednesse How can things absolutely and essentially contrary be ioyned together in one Seeing God is perfectly holy and man if we may vse that epithite in this matter perfectly sinfull either God must become sinfull like to man or man holy like to God or else there can be no gratious vnion and communion betwixt man and God Now to imagine that God should become sinfull is the most blasphemous and vtterly impossible imagination in all the world Wherefore vnlesse a man be made holy that is to say be regenerate or borne againe he cannot see the kingdome of God In the third place let vs peruse the couenant of grace Reason 3 in which the Lord hath manifested his purposes of goodnesse to the sonnes of men From the tenour of the couenant of grace and we shall finde that it runneth along in these promises Ezek. 36.26 I will giue you a new heart and a new spirit will I put within you I will take away the stony heart out of your bodies and giue you an heart of flesh Hence it is easie to reason thus Whosoeuer is a stranger to the couenant of promise is likewise a stranger from all happinesse and from eternall life Now vntill a man be regenerate he is a stranger to that couenant For why that promiseth in the first place a new heart and a new spirit wherefore it must needes follow that vntill a man be regenerate hee cannot be saued Lastly let vs consider the end of our Sauiour Christs Reason 4 death and sufferings From the end of Christs death was it only to purge vs from the guilt of sinne and to saue vs from the pit of hell was it not also to redeeme vs from this present euill world that we being sanctified by his truth might auoid the corruptions that are in the world through lust and become a peculiar people vnto him zealous of good workes Doubtlesse had Christ gone about to ransome vs vpon other termes he must haue lost his labour altogether If Christ should come and dye for one man ten thousand times all those deaths should profit that one man nothing at all for his saluation vnlesse he be made a new creature For the death of Christ though it be of force to reconcile mercie and iustice in God yet is not of force enough to make God vniust or to diminish any whit his infinite righteousnesse which should be diminished yea annihilated if he should open the gates of heauen to vnholy vnsanctified vnregenerate persons for then should he be a louer of the wicked then should fooles dwel with him then should hee haue fellowship with the vnrighteous and communion with the darkest darknesse Whereas the Scripture saith that he is light 1 Iohn 1.5 and in him is no darknes and that if we walke in darknes and say wee haue communion with him we lie and deale not truly For al that are in heauen are loued of God and haue communion with him Wherefore such admittance of such men into heauen can no more stand with Gods iustice thē it can stand with a mans life to be cast into the bottome of the sea For this cause it was neuer the meaning or intentiō of our Sauiour to open heauen to any but to those whō he would sanctifie and by sanctification bring to saluation And so we conclude the point in this manner Whosoeuer is without Christ cannot possibly come to heauen For he is the way the truth and the life Euery vnregenerate man is without Christ for all that are in him are new creatures hauing crucified the flesh with the affections lusts Therefore no vnregenerate man so continuing can
cannot be saued Accept I pray you of this my labour as a testimony of my desire of your soules welfare and make this one onely sufficient recompence of this and all other my trauel amongst you in receiuing the grace that God offers and striuing to bee such as here you may find that all the citizens of heauen must bee euen men regenerate So with my most feruent prayers to God for your prosperitie I kindly take my leaue resting so long as the ouer-weightinesse and ouer-toylsomnesse of the place shall suffer your Pastor WILLIAM WHATELY May 8. 1618. THE CONTENTS OF THE BOOKE CHAP. I. THe order of the wordâ— and the doctrine of them concerning the necessity of regeneration pag. 1. CHAP. II. The reasons of the point in number foure pag. 6. CHAP. III. The description of regeneration pag. 13. CHAP. IV. The order of working regeneration pag. 26. CHAP. V. The effects of regeneration pag. 40. CHAP. VI. The principall graces which by regeneration are wrought in the soule pag. 69. CHAP. VII An exhortation to all to examine themselues whither they be regenerate yea or no. pag. 87. CHAP. VIII A terror to them that are vnregenerate pag. 95. CHAP. IX An exhortation to the seeking of regeneration shewing the meanes of attaining it pag. 101 CHAP. X. A comfort to the regenerate pag. 115 CHAP. XI An exhortation to the regenerate to cherish the life of grace shewing the meanes of cherishing it pag. 129. CHAP. XII An exhortation to the regenerate to propagate grace to others shewing the meanes of propagating it pag. 139 THE NEW BIRTH OR A TREATISE OF REGENERATION c. IOHN 3.3 Verily verily I say vnto thee vnlesse a man bee borne againe he cannot see the kingdome of God CHAP. I. Shewing the order of the words and the doctrine of them AFter that the report of our Sauiours many and great Miracles had caused many of the common people in great multitudes to follow after him at length also a man of better note and esteeme though commonly the men of most note in the world are most backward to the things of most vse for the soule bethinkes himselfe of visiting and conferring with him This man by Name is called Nicodemus by Place he was a Ruler of the Iewes by Degree a Doctor by Sect a Pharisie a generation of men not so glorious in the world for their faire out-side as loathsome to Christ for their soule in-side Now because the carnall regard of his worldly credit the maine blocke that many times lies in the way of greatnesse to hinder it from frequenting the poore and despised Schoole of Christ made him vnwilling to bee seene and accounted one of the followers of the poore Carpenter of Nazareth hee therefore hides himselfe vnder the curtaine of darkenesse and chuseth the opportunitie of the Night-season by benefit whereof hee might enioy some priuate communication with our blessed Sauiour vnobserued of his proud and spightfull fellow-Pharisies His first salutation to Christ is formerly set downe and hath in it a manifest demonstration of much respect and reuerence borne vnto him for he doth acknowledge him to be a Teacher sent of God and giues a iust reason of his such coâ—fession from the great Miracles which hee 〈◊〉 wrought and did daily worke amongst them â—â—yond all possibility either of ignorance or deniall So hath our Sauiour gotten a new Scholar into his Schoole and therefore enters him as it was fit hee should though hee were for other learning a great Scholar into the very A B C of Christian Religion and begins to teach him the first principles and rudiments of the doctrine of saluation The points of doctrine wherein our Lord instructeth this Ruler and Doctor are two in themselues easie enough yet the first and easiest of them goes much aboue his carnall and shallow capacitie The first point is of the persons that shall be saued the second is of the causes of saluation and damnation The former is in this verse propounded and after to the thirteenth in more words discussed vpon occasion of Nicodemus his grosse and vn-Doctor-like obiection for which grossenesse hee being gently reprehended giues Christ leaue to proceede in the second without interruption from the thirteenth verse to the two and twentieth So then the words read containe the very foundation and corner-stone as I may terme it of the doctrine of Christianitie which Christ seekes to lay fast in the heart of the honest-hearted but for all his great learning ignorant Nicedemus The words themselues draw vs to two considerable points in them the proofe the doctrine prooued The proofe Christs authoritie and word deliuered in an earnestly-doubled asseueration Verily verily I whom before thou didst confesse to be a Teacher sent of God â—â—y vnto thee The doctrine prooued is about the â—â—biect of saluation or the persons that may or may â—â—t attaine eternall life laid downe in a conditionall proposition negatiuely thus vnlesse a man be or if a man be not borne againe he shall not see the Kingdome of God Of Christs vehement and repeated asseueration I will say nothing but in that doctrine whereof he sees cause to make so plaine and strong an affirmation I will bee bold to dwell a while because the knowledge of it is so exceedingly needfull that without it in vaine and idle is all else that we can possibly know concerning God or Christ or the doctrine of the Scriptures Marke then I pray you this most necessarie instruction and learne you if you haue not hitherto learned at this time that which this ancient Teacher in Israel was first set to learne that No man can be saued vnlesse he be regenerate No person be he Iew or Gentile Christian or Pagan Pharisie or of other sect Ruler or of inferiour place learned or vnlettered Doctor or of lower degree no person I say of what Nation condition wit knowledge vertue or other excellencie so euer he be can possibly see that is enioy the Kingdome of God that is the blissefull estate of heauenly glory if he be not borne againe that is made quite a new man from that that hee was in his first birth not as Nicodemus too too grossely fancied by a carnall re-entring into his mothers belly but by a spirituall renewing of his whole man in all the powers thereof There is a totall and absolute impossibilitie of any mans being admitted into the place and state of celestiall happines vnlesse he be regenerate Sooner may Angels tume diuels men beasts and beasts stones all the world iust nothing then that any one vnrenewed person shal haue entrance into heauen Yea as possible is it that God should cease to bee God as that any man not made a-new according to the image of God should be receiued into the blessed vision possession fruition of God and of all vtterly impossible things this is if of such things there might be any comparison one of the most impossible that there should bee any
beget a new life in the preaching that is to say the interpreting and applying of it by the mouth of a man inabled and assigned to that worke then in the bare reading for the Lord hath appointed in his Church Pastors and Teachers to be his Workemen his Laborers Dispensers of his heauenly mysteries and Fellow-workemen together with him that by becomming his instruments to conueigh grace into mens hearts they might become spirituall Fathers vnto them and by attendance not to reading alone 1. Tim. 4 13. but also to doctrine or teaching they might saue themselues and their hearers And when Christ himselfe was pleased to raise vp the dead world of the Gentiles vnto the new life of godlinesse and so to fulfill that which himselfe had foretold saying Iohn 5.25 The dead shall heare the voice of the Sonne of God and they that heare it shall liue Hee commanded his Disciples to goe and preach vnto all Nations will any man make himselfe so simple as to say Matth. 28.19 he meant thus Take the volume of the Law in your pockets and draw it out and reade a Chapter or two at a time vnto them Nay doubtlesse hee willed his Disciples to do that which they had so often seene and heard him doing whose custome was as wee may collect out of the fourth of Luke where one instance is recorded to make vs conceiue his ordinarie practice when he had read to interpret the Scripture by him read as there he did saying This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your eares and after to apply it to the hearers as in the same place he falles into the reproofe of their quarrelsomnesse against him that would vpbraide him with the Prouerb of Physitian heale thy selfe Prouerb amplifying his reproofe with allegation of the examples of the Widdow of Zarepta and the Syrian Naaman So the Apostles could not mistake his meaning when himselfe had by constant practice gone before you in doing what he bad them doe And therefore it will not at all follow that because the word read is able to beget faith either the ministers may content themselues vsually to reade it without preaching or the people vsually content themselues to heare it so and not be carefull to seeke for the preaching of it For of such absolute necessity and of such excellent worth is regeneration that it is needfull to seeke it and sinfull not to seeke it not onely in some one of the most easie meanes that may sometimes procure it but also in all the meanes though neuer so painfull that God hath appointed for it Euery man may reade himselfe yea must reade if he can This is a duty that might haue beene performed without establishing of any ministery in the Church But the Minister is not onely to reade but also to diuide the word of truth aright to exhort improue rebuke to speake to mens edification exhortation comfort that he may be truly called a fellow-labourer with God in the work of mens saluatiō Shal we rest our selues satisfied in one thing that may conuert shall we thinke it enough to bee constant in one exercise that may worke grace Doubtlesse if wee doe so our owne worldly wisdome and diligence shal rise vp in iudgement and condemne our spirituall folly and negligence Yea brethren in things temporall men stand thus affected that as they will neglect nothing that may promise them any furtherance to their good successe so they will shew most care and most earnestnesse in that which they haue cause to thinke will be most auaileable for their purpose Now without question the word preached is more vsually and more powerfully effectuall to regeneration then the word read The holy Ghost doth more often and more mightily worke by the word interpreted and applied then by it barely repeated out of the booke I thinke him not worthy to bee reasoned withall that will stand in deniall of this matter Reade the stories of holy writ and search and see if the examples of men by onely reading regenerated bee not few rare seldome nay scarce any where at all to be found but on the other side the examples of men by preaching made new common frequent and vsuall Therefore be it againe concluded that he doth farre vnderualue the gift of spiritual life which satisfying himself in the lesse vsuall and lesse auaileable meanes of working it because it is most easie pretermitteth the more auailable and more vsuall because he is not willing to vndergoe the paines labour or cost that it will require And thus you haue the efficient causes of regeneration Gods spirit as the chiefe the word principally preached as his instrument The materiall cause is holinesse that is the thing in the working of which regeneration is conuersant Holinesse I say the most admirable of all things in all the world as farre surpassing wit and learning and riches and other earthly vanities as learning surpasseth ignorance and wealth beggery This is as it were the character of Christ Iesus the image of God the beauty the riches the strength the life the soule of the soule of the whole man It is a very beame of the diuine light called therefore by the Apostle The diuine nature it is the most excellent and worthy thing vnder heauen or of things incident to creatures in heauen It is that that distinguisheth Angels from diuels the Saints from the damned Ghosts Take away from a blessed Angell his holinesse he will become a blacke fiend of hell It is in a word the best of all things that a creature can haue without which nothing is worth the hauing and with which the meanest condition is able to affoord a man happinesse enough This admirable thing that can by no words be sufficiently commended is giuen by regeneration and therefore wee call it the matter of regeneration Now holinesse is nothing else but this a supernaturall power of withdrawing the faculties of the whole man from sinfull and earthly obiects and exercising the same vpon God and the things of God This Adam had in his first creation and that in such perfection as God required at his hand This should hee haue propagated to his sonne and his sonne to his sonne had he continued in his innocency so that to him the same thing was naturall and to his innocent posterity should haue been which now to vs is aboue the power and course of nature to attaine and therefore need wee to get it by a second birth because wee cannot get it in our first birth For the naturall man doth not conceiue in his mind and consequently neither apply his will and affections to receiue the things of God 1. Cor. 2.14 as the Apostle speaketh yea his minde is alwayes bowing and bending after either bare earthly or very hellish obiects but because these things must be spiritually discerned therefore the holy Ghost endues him with a new power of raising himselfe vp from these base and filthy
O therefore that the children of God could sufficiently vnderstand their owne blisse that with heartie reioycing within themselues and vnfained thankefulnesse vnto God they might passe on forward towards the fruition of it Hope of great things in the world doth fill the soule with ioy and men before the attaining of good things made sure and certaine vnto them doe comfortably foresee and expect the attainement Let vs doe so for things spirituall consider with thy selfe to what inheritance the Lord of heauen hath pleased to adopt thee Represent vnto thy selfe the vnutterable ioyes which are laid vp for thee and which thou canst no more bee depriued of then God himselfe can faile of truth and al-sufficiencie for hee that hath promised is faithfull and will performe his promise The children of God whilest they frame their affections according to their present estate in the world doe walke heauily and discouragedly at once wronging both God that hath giuen them such excellent things to take comfort in and themselues that haue receiued so certaine assurance of such things Doth it become thee to whom God hath made ouer the royall inheritance of heauen purchased with the bloud of his owne Sonne to weare out thine heart with discontentment and to marre thy face with carnall teares Is not the fulnesse of celestiall glory and riches able to counteruaile thy meane and afflicted estate here Cannot eternitie outweigh this inch of time and infinite blissefulnesse the present sleighthy afflictions surely the ballances are too too vnequall wherein things of so great value are not of sufficient weight to pull downe such trifles It is nothing in the world but our being led by sense rather then by faith which makes our hearts heauy and our liues vncomfortable Let vs but cleare vp our eyes dimmed with excessiue and causelesse teares and we shall find matter enough for glorious and vnspeakable ioyes euen in these tribulations which feele most burdensome vnto vs. Bee thou neuer so poore neuer so despised wronged troubled yet being regenerate God is thy Father Christ thine elder brother heauen thine house and habitation and the glory thereof thine inheritance Can hee be poore that hath such riches despised that hath such honour deiected that hath such comforts belonging vnto him To euery soule amongst you that is able to approue his regeneration vnto himselfe I am to speake in the name of the Lord and to say vnto him in this wise That he is not to lay the fault of his troublesome and discontented life vpon his estate but alone vpon his vnbeleefe and inconsideratenes for God hath giuen cause and meanes enough of being full of heartie comfort and ioy in despight of all that the diuell and the world can doe vnto him Dost thou not see how frolicke the foolish worldling is if hee haue gotten a few thousand pounds together if he haue built him a faire house and purchased a good liuing or two lying neere about it and yet in such termes standeth his soule with God that if hee should as hee may decease to night hee were sure to bee roring in Hell before morning But thou to whom Heauen is ascertained by the most plaine euidence and strong assurance that God can tell how to make vnto his creature of a future thing if thou haue an ill childe a froward yoke-fellow a sicklie bodie a penurious and friendlesse estate doest spend thy time in sullen discontentment weeping and wailing and takeing on with little lesse immoderatenesse of griefe then Rahel weeping for her children which would not bee comforted because they were not I tell thee the truth in the name of the Lord this is a great sinne of thine and a soule shame for thee Is it not a sinne to vnderprize heauen is it not a sinne to imbase Gods richest gifts is it not a sinne to dis-esteeme these benefits that passe all the estimation of all men and what is this but a dis-esteeming imbasing vnderprising of heauen it selfe to carry thy selfe as if the comfort and felicity thereof were not of worth enough to keepe thee from sinking vnder the burthen of sorrow about earthly matters Againe tell me if thou shouldest heare of a man that had at the same time made two bargaines by the one of which hee should loose some foure or fiue shillings or pounds say and by the other hee should gaine so many hundreth thousand pounds and vpon the former trifling losse should sit weeping and sighing and wringing his hands and crying out that he were vndone though hee knew well enough what a rich amends his second bargaine had made him If I say thou shouldest heare of such a person what wouldest thou say to him wouldest thou not cease pitying him and euen breake into laughter at his so ridiculous and absurd folly that would needs torment himselfe without all cause and would not enioy the good that God had offered him In truth few men would find in their hearts so much as to take compassion of such a wilfully-miserable man Hearken now then what I say Thou art this man forespoken of and thy carriage is iust his carriage so that what accusations of folly and absurdnesse thou wouldest cast vpon him the same doe in the truest application of things appertaine to thy selfe Thou hast two liues and two estates a temporary and an euerlasting For the temporary thou hast indeed let it be confessed made but a sorie match Thy children are not so dutifull thy yoke-fellow not so louing thy state not so plentifull thy friends not so faithfull as were to be wished But for the euerlasting thou hast made a bargain aboue all imaginations gainfull For God is to thee a most faithfull friend and Father Christ Iesus a most deare surety and brother heauen a rich inheritance all Saints fellow-citizens and all Angels willing seruants and after this minute of time spent in affliction thou shalt passe to a state of blisse that neuer shall haue an end In truth the gaining of ten hundred thousand pounds doth not more exceed the losse of two single pence then these thy spirituall benefits exceede thy naturall crosses and therfore I say it is most ignorantly and simply done of thee to passe away thy dayes in heauinesse and sighing which thou hast so good and sufficient cause to spend in all holy cheerfulnesse and reioycing Wouldest thou then bee acquainted with the true cause of thine vnquiet and vncomfortable liuing It is not the multitude nor greatnesse of thy crosses it is not the heauinesse of those afflictions that lie vpon thee more hard then vpon other men as thou art ready to imagine so seeking to excuse thine owne fault but it is thy carnalnesse of mind thy being led all by sense thy looking only to things visible here before thine eyes and not to things inuisible prepared for thee aboue the clouds and kept for thee by a strong and able friend Christ Iesus that hath also bought it and paid deare for it The