New creatures 2 Cor. 5. 17. To have Christ formed in us Gal. 4. 19. To be quickned Ephes. 2. 1. Baptized with the Holy Ghost Mat. 3. 11. To be renewed in the spirit of our mind Ephes. 4. 23. These are Scripture-expressions of a great depth of a high signification which if well studied and pondered in our hearts seriously and often prayed over will give us more light into the Mystery of Regeneration than the tongue of Men and Angels can utter none can open these Scriptures to you but the Holy Ghost tho Ministers cannot bring down these Scripture expressions to man's Understanding yet the Spirit of God can lift up man's Understanding to some discerning of the mind of Christ in them by shining in our hearts the light of the Knowledg of the Glory of God in the face of Christ. We see how much Glory and Honour is derived to us by God's being the Author of our Regeneration I will now look a little further into this Mystery Regeneration is our passing over into Christ into his Life Nature and Spirit they who are thus joined to the Lord are one Spirit Christ is their Life being united to Life it self they must needs be quickned by it it is present death to be separated from Life it self in Regeneration Life doth not so much enter into us as we into it and being once born of God we gradually enter further and further into his Life till all Mortality be swallowed up of it Thus Grace reigns through Righteousness unto Eternal Life and this Eternal Life is God there is but one Eternal Life when we are in him that is true in him that is Eternal this is life eternnl John 5. 20. Therefore to be in Christ and to be a New Creature is all one All Creatures that have breath live move and have their Being in God yet they are not so in God as the New Creature is in Christ God as a Creator bestows a Creature-life upon man distinct from his own Eternal Uncreated Life and man having this natural root of his own from the God of Nature grows up by himself with all the specifical Properties belonging to his kind whereby he is distinguished from his fellow-creatures he stands forth at some distance from God yet under the general influence of his Providence without which no creature can subsist But in Regeneration God does not only breathe the breath of life into us making us living souls but breathes his own quickning Spirit into us that we may live the very life of God in our measure 't is one thing for God to give forth something virtually from himself as he does in our first Creation another thing to give himself really unto us as in the second Creation God as a Redeemer raises up a new Creature in himself partaker of his own Divine Nature Life and Spirit this life is hid with Christ in God Col. 3. 3. and cannot in the Root and Principle of it be distinguished from God himself Christ is our Life which according to our finite capacity as Creatures we partake of the new Creature is but a Creature for all this though quite of another make constitution and original from all the first Creation and therefore called a new Creature standing in a nearer union and conjunction to God so born of him as no other creature is all Creatures are made by him non born of him but the new Creature as Christ took part of our Flesh and Blood in his Incarnation so we partake of his Divine Nature in our Regeneration as the soul is the life of the body so the spirit of Christ dwelling in us is the life of our souls acting them in a supernatural way we live the life of God which we were estranged from knew nothing of in our unregenerate state 't is not we that live but Christ living in us Gal. 2. 20. Because I live you shall live also John 14. 19. Christ in us the hope of glory Col. 1. 27. Till Christ be formed in us we cannot be said to be born of God a spirit of life must first enter into us from Christ and how does this spirit enter Not as a separate Principle from Christ but in and with Christ Jesus the spirit of life in Christ hath made me free from the law of sin and death Rom. 8. 2. Have a care of leading a separate life from Christ in the strength of your own Graces for they are but streams issuing from the Fountain of Life in Christ Jesus and will quickly dry up if not continually fed by the Fountain Branches cannot bear fruit if they abide not in the root as the life of the branches is in the root of the tree so our life as new creatures is radicated in Christ he is the root that bears us under all our deadness and dulness we should go to Christ for fresh quicknings many times we seek for life in our selves and can feel none but if we would seek for it in Christ and come up closer to him how reviving would that be animus cum sole redit so get but under this Sun of Righteousness you 'l quickly find healing your spirits will return your cold frozen hearts will grow warm the fire will burn within ere you are aware what is a state of death but a state of alienation from Christ who is our life Eph. 4. 18. Put him on then and wear him next your hearts let him but stretch himself all over your dark dead souls as the Prophet did over the dead child 1 Kings 17. 21. 2 Kings 4. 34 35. and life will return you 'l find a sudden Resurrection a fresh vigor of spirit will suddenly come upon you if ever you would be quickned it must be by Christ and with Christ who hath quickened us together with Christ Eph. 2. 5. What do you alone without Christ No wonder you are in a dead frame while you are musing upon what you are in your selves while you are in this solitary condition wandring up and down without Christ let Christ and you come once together and there will be life there will be strength there will be another Spirit in you If God be the Author of Regeneration let not the Eunuch say I am a dry tree all things are possible with God who can raise up children to Abraham of stones I would have none despair of becoming the Children of God who do sincerely desire it and long for that day New Births are sudden things I am perswaded they will be so towards the end of the world when a Nation shall be born in a day and sinners be converted by thousands as in the Apostles time Now we travel in birth a great while with one and another many pangs many throws yet they stick in the place of bringing forth we prophesie over dry bones but no ratling no coming together no spirit of life yet entring into them they stick in the place of bringing forth how many
of the Mind of God made to them in any point of Doctrine which they were not so clear in before or at least did not take so much notice of before 'T is observable how strangely the Saints are affected and that on a sudden with some old known truths which they have a long time owned and professed but never found them so warm upon their hearts before their hearts do glow and burn within them What is this but the hand of the Lord with them at such a season letting in his Word with power upon their Souls 5thly The Doctrine of Faith laid down in the Word cannot be taken into the Soul but by the Grace of Faith no other principle will admit it The things of God knoweth no man but by the spirit of God. That this living principle of the Grace of Faith in the heart may be exactly suited to the Doctrine of Faith in the Word God has ordered it that one should beget the other to prevent all strangeness between them that they may the better fall in with each other 6thly The Word as 't is the means of Regeneration is called the Word of Life Life is promised to the hearing of it 'T is therefore called the word of life because 't is the Word of Grace in distinction from the first Covenant which neither expressed nor intended any pardoning Grace to a sinner All the Words of the Bible from the 3d of Genesis to the end of the Revelations are words of Grace tho there is frequent mention of the Law of the Curse of it of fearful denunciations of wrath against sinners yet the end of all is to stir us up to accept of the Grace of the Gospel A pure Covenant of Works exclusive of all Grace is no where spoken of but in the 2d of Genesis where God places Adam under that Covenant before the formation of Eve And the Lord God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden and the Lord God commanded the man saying Of every tree thou maist freely eat thou thou c. Here was none but God and Adam at the making of this Covenant Eve was no doubt afterwards informed of it by her Husband as appears Gen. 3. 2 3. where she repeats over that Covenant to the Serpent Were not the Word of the Gospel a word of Grace there would be nothing for the Faith of a sinner to lay hold on no virtue nor power in it to beget life in a dead sinner The life we have by Grace differs from the life Adam had at his first Creation that came in with his first being this is life from the dead life given after the forfeiture of life which is an act of mere Grace To raise Man out of the dust of the earth and to make him a living reasonable creature was an act of God's Power and Soveraign good pleasure But after the fall to give him a new life after he had chosen death and sunk himself under the power of it What can this be ascribed to but those Bowels of infinite compassion in God to Man He was not willing that Man should die but live and therefore fixes him in a state of Eternal Life in Christ Jesus Since a creature-life was so uncertain God joyns Man to himself in one Spirit takes him into his own Life that he may live for ever Because I live you shall live I am resolved not to live without you my delight is among the Children of men I have chosen you from Eternity to be my Associates and Friends to be about my Throne and to have fellowship with me for ever 7thly There are as many instances of the Power of the Word in Regeneration as there are Believers now in the World who do all ascribe their New Birth to the Divine Virtue and Energy of the Word set home upon their Hearts by the Spirit of God. Application You see your Calling Brethren what outward Means God has appointed for your Conversion Means not put into your hands for you to work by and to shew your own skill in turning your own hearts but a Means that God himself will work by The reason why so few are converted by the Word is because they don't put their Conversion upon God saying with Ephraim Jer. 31. 18. Turn thou me and I shall he turned 'T is our duty to submit to the use of Means to place our selves under them waiting for the coming down of the Spirit to make the Word effectual did we thus wait upon God in a real Dependance upon him he would be found of us his Arm would be revealed we should see more of his Glory in the Sanctuary Let us come then with raised Expectations of what God only can and may do upon our Hearts praying that he would give some signal Testimony to the Word of his Grace The Word of God is either a certain Truth or a cunningly devised Fable if it be a Fable Why don't you throw away your Bibles lay aside your Profession resolve never to hear a Sermon more If it be a Truth as I doubt not you all believe it to be Why don't you follow it home make something of it 'T is a Word whereby you may be saved give God no rest day nor night till you attain that Salvation In our Saviour's time they followed him for the Miracles they saw done upon the Bodies of men the Word can do as great Miracles now upon our Souls When you are going to hear the Word think with you selves I am now going to see what further change of Heart God will work in me what Renovation of Spirit what further Enlightnings what fresh Comforts what further Increase of God I may find in my inward man Did you come in expectation of these mighty works of God in and upon your Hearts no place would be large enough to contain the comers to the word that they might have some experience of his mighty saving Power passing upon their Souls As Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness so we lift up Christ that you may look unto him and be healed You look unto men you judg how much of Mans Wisdom Reason and Understanding there is in a Sermon but there is not that earnest looking for the power of God unto salvation as there ought to be Many come with itching ears to hear some new Notion set off with the enticing words of Man's Wisdom as if the strength of Human Reason by a Natural Operation upon the minds of men could lead them into the belief of any thing that is said in the Pulpit without any inward efficiency of the Spirit but if this be all you look for 't is not worth your coming hither we don't pretend to any such Rhetorical Charms to any such prevailing Influence over you you may excel us in Acuteness of Wit Quickness of Apprehension you may be greater Masters of Reason than we are but let
me tell you the right understanding of what we preach to you depends neither upon your Reason nor ours but upon the bare Testimony of God we tell you Thus and thus says the Lord that 's Reason enough for you to believe and 't is the highest Reason we can give for your belief when you have once received any Gospel-Truth by Faith you will easily in the light of that Faith allow of every thing that may be rationally deduced from that Truth as included in it and belonging to it though not discerned when you first believed here lies your Edification to know the extent of those Gospel-Principles which you first took in by Faith this Faith is the Gift of God Ministers perswade you to come to Christ to repent and believe the Gospel but 't is God that turns the Heart to what we perswade you to we call upon blind dead dark sinners to look unto Christ but 't is God must give them eyes to see him all the perswasions in the world won't cause a blind man to see You 'l say To what purpose then is all this moral Suasion in the Pulpit Answer To very good purpose that whilst we are proposing the Object to you God may take occasion to open the eyes of your Understanding that you may as men discern the Object through the proper Medium of Scripture-language so plainly representing it to you Believers do find by daily experience that the Words of the Holy Ghost in Scripture being so full so apposite and proper do mightily help them in understanding the things of God and to this end has God given all Ministerial Gifts That Preachers might be apt to teach gathering up the sum and substance of the Gospel in their Sermons to the people God has appointed this way of Instruction has promised to be with us to the end of the world and to work effectually upon the hearts of men by these very means therefore let not any despise them and count them foolishness the Preaching of the Gospel is the Power of God to Salvation these Weapons are mighty through God as they are in our hands they signifie little if God did not fight with them even in our hands we hold the Weapons and manage them as well as we can but the piercing edge the overcoming weight and irresistible force of them is from God 't is he that gives the blow and does all the execution by them God has in Infinite Wisdom made choice of such outward Means as have least of Man in them that whilst we compare the weakness of the Means in a human Judgment with the wonderful Effects of them in our hearts we may be convinced of a Divine Power accompanying them Let us come then into these Assemblies with raised Expectations of some signal Appearance of God in his Word for the carrying on this Great work of Regeneration in our Souls we should see the Glory of God and be convinc'd that he is among us of a truth you may come in one Spirit go forth in another come in one Nature go forth in another come in Scoffers go home Believers a plain proposal of Christ as Crucified for us was the means of Conversion in the Primitive Times and so I am perswaded it is still Some may with more Art Elegancy and Learning preach the Gospel yet there is nothing in all this for Faith to take hold of but the naked Truth it brings nothing else into the Conscience but drops all the rest What is the Chaff to the Wheat I see nothing else required to believing but a serious looking up to God in the use of means for that anointing that teaches us all things the Gospel is plain enough in its own terms He that believes shall be saved He that believes not shall be damned Vnless you repent you shall perish What can be plainer spoken We do as men know the common Notion of Faith and Repentance tho what Faith in Christ Jesus is what Repentance towards God is we know not Here we are at a loss and ever shall be till our Heavenly Father reveals these things unto us giving us a true spiritual discerning of them You have had a Bible a great while but it may be have not taken such notice of the Contents of it as you should go home and open it once more and say This is the word of God to Man and to me in particular why should I refuse him who speaks from Heaven I will sit down and consider what I have read what I have often heard you don't know what hold the Word may take of you what impressions it may make upon you it may fill your hearts with such serious thoughts of God and Eternity as you never had before And let me tell you if ever you be born again it must be under the power of such thoughts kept up and impregnated in your hearts whilst you are thus musing the fire will burn and the work will be done you 'l find a real turning of the Heart to Christ which is the Obedience of Faith that every New-born Soul does yield to the call of Christ in the Gospel 'T is a harder matter to Convert Professors now to the power of the Gospel than 't was to convert the Heathen World at first to the Profession of it then Profession and Power went together now they are unhappily separated men hide themselves under a National Profession without any strict inquiries after their Personal Interest in Christ. They came out of Heathenism one by one into the power of Religion But now an hereditary profession of Religion come upon them they know not well how they have Abraham to their Father born of Christian Parents and Baptized this is all the account they can give of themselves and their profession Here Religion sticks and here I am persuaded it will stick till God by a special dispensation of his Spirit suited to the formality of this professing Age does send out Ministers by a special mission to awaken such who have only a name to live but are indeed dead When the Gospel was first Preached to the Heathen world they knew they worshipped gods of their own making they knew they were unbelievers and enemies to Christ and the Gospel but we Preach the Gospel now to those who profess they worship the true God profess Faith in Christ and love to Christ they profess themselves to be all that already which we exhort them to Therefore how should we pray that God would pour out more of his Spirit upon his Holy Prophets and send them forth under a fresh anointing that they may convince the constant hearers of the Word that something more is required to the Salvation of their Souls than an outward profession of Religion And what that something else is we are all concerned to enquire after We must not flatter those who have lived long under the means of Grace in an unregenerate state but plainly tell them to their
thus viz. That the first step in Regeneration is from a sinful State and Nature to Christ. Or thus Regeneration is the Implantation of the Soul into Christ. Or thus Saving Conversion in the right Gospel-Notion of it is Conversion to Christ 'T is true a turning from Sin to Holiness is the effect or consequent of Regeneration but 't is not the thing it self the Tree must be made good before it can bring forth good Fruit so that Regeneration lies chiefly in our incorporation into Christ till we are joined to the second Adam we are and shall be acted by that corrupt nature which we derived from the First Adam There were but two publick men in the World and all men do take after one or other of them either after the First Adam or after the Second Adam they are the two Great Standards I will shew that this is the right Scriptural Notion of Regeneration and Conversion to this end is Christ Preached 1 Cor. 1. 23 24. No other Name under Heaven by which we can be saved Acts 4. 12. This Name must be published Acts 9. 15. Regeneration or our first Conversion what is it but a revealing Christ in us Gal. 1. 16. Drawing unto Christ Iohn 6. 44. Receiving Christ Iohn 1. 11. Following Christ Matt. 9. 9. 'T was Christ they came over to in Conversion hence those Phrases of our being in Christ and Christ's being in us living in us Gal. 2. 20. Formed in us Gal. 4. 19. Put on by us Gal. 3. 27. Rom. 13. 4. Thus you see how the New Creature or the Regenerate Person has his Life Being and whole Subsistence in and from Christ. If any man be in Christ he is a new creature We are taken up so much with Duties of Evangelical Obedience that we commit a great error in our first step do not go over to Christ and begin there thence it is that the Saints are called Christians because their Original is from Christ they bear his Image are acted by his Spirit partake of his Nature If this new Life be from Christ what is the way of its derivation from Christ unto us or how comes this Virtue from Christ into our Souls that both our state and nature should be thus changed in him and by him in order to newness of Life in our after Conversation You must give me leave often to put Questions why and how and which way because I am now enquiring after the Manner of Regeneration If you ask How Life comes to be derived from Christ into the Soul of a dead Sinner Answer I say this is effected by our vital union to Christ. We need not wonder that such a change is wrought in those who are thus joined to the Lord in one and the same Spirit we cannot come so near to Eternal Life it self and not be quickned by it we cannot remain dead when we thus enter into Life it self The main Query is How this Union is brought about between Christ and our Souls Answer The Spirit takes hold of us and joins us to Christ working Faith in us at the same instant by which we take hold of Christ improving the Grace of Union to a real Communion with Christ we dwelling in him and he in us 'T is union to Christ that gives Life at first and maintains it ever after in our souls We have our first quickning from this Union and all after increases of Spiritual Life are but so many fresh emanations from Christ the Fountain of Life flowing into our Souls Thus we have Life and have it more abundantly from Christ. I shall prove this Union between Christ and Believers as 't is productive of Life it self in its first vital Principle and also as it is the cause of all after-growth in Grace proceeding from the higher and more vigorous operations of this Life raised and kindled in the Soul by the enlivening influences of the Eternal Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus in both these respects as it causes and continues Life in the Saints is this Mystical Union between Christ and Believers spoken of in the Scriptures The glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one The Glory that was given to the Man Christ did all spring from the Union of the Human Nature to the Divine next to this is the Mystical Union between Christ and Believers the enlivening influences of this Union are set forth by an Incorporation by an Ingrafture The Ministry of the Word is an outward means of bringing this Union about making a tender of Christ to us and calling upon us to receive him Ministers are the Instrumental cause of this near Conjunction between Christ and Believers They are the friends of the bridegroom who give the Saints in Marriage unto Christ. I have espoused you to one Husband You see how the Scripture variously sets forth our Union to Christ who is our Life Regeneration is the beginning of this new Life and Nature in the Saints which shews it self more or less after an inward effectual call we know 't is God the Father's Voice who so calls us because a Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation accompanies it powerfully enlightning our Minds By our Union to Christ we stand in a spiritual Relation to him as his Brethren Spouse and Members and this spiritual Relation to him gives us a right to all that he hath purchased for us He that hath the Son hath life c. We have an Interest in his Righteousness 't is ours by Imputation we being his his Righteousness becomes ours we cannot have Christ without his Righteousness which in the Infinite Merit of it extends it self to all Believers Rom. 3. 22. Thus we are made the righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5. 21. Christ takes hold of us by his Spirit and by so doing enables us to take hold of him by Faith of his own operation in us such a Regeneration such a Conversion as this derives from him a Principle of Spiritual Life by which we are carried out to all good works Ephes. 2. 10. I shall further explain the Manner of our Union to Christ. Christ took our Nature upon him without the sin that cleaves to it in us this was done by a Miraculous Conception when Christ took our Nature his Eye was upon the Persons of the Elect The Hypostatical Union of the Divine and Humane Nature in the Person of Christ was in order to the Spiritual Union of our Persons to the Person of Christ Christ took our Nature abstracted from our Persons and consequently without sin super-induc'd upon it by Adam's Fall the Person corrupted the Nature in the First Adam not the Nature the Person as now it does Though Christ have taken our Nature upon him without sin yet how can we maintain this Union and Communion between Christ and our Persons in whom there is so much
' tries words as the mouth tastes meat the word has a peculiar rellish and savour in it to a Spiritual pallate The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him the word reveals it it opens the heart of God to man and laies open a man to himself discerns the thoughts and intents of his heart 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a discerner a critical judge of the frame of a mans heart and of the state of his Soul shews a Child of God how and wherein he differs from an unregenerate person and by this discerning Word we must judge of our selves He that is born of God commits not sin cannot sin but does righteousness you who are born of God do know what God means by these words I am sure you know it there is a strong spirit in these words they are critical words discerning distinguishing words and if there be any true life in you they will more or less affect you you cannot but be concerned at the hearing of them Hold the highest Spirits to the Nose of a dead Man rub him all over with them yet no heat no motion no lively colour because he has not a natural principle of life to mingle with them to feed upon them I would commend my self to your Consciences this day I hope you feel me as well as hear me When you drink any strong spirits they heat within the vital spirits do take them in feed upon them are raised by them so when spiritual truths are held close to the Conscience if there be any life there the Spirit of God within thee will close with the Spirit of God without thee in the Word there will be an inward burning in the heart the Leaven works strongly and under these inward workings of spirit I desire to leave you debating the matter between God and your own Souls till you have brought it to an issue and can say by the light of these Scriptures that you are or are not born again 2. He doth righteousness Every one that doth righteousness is born of him and Whosoever doth not righteousness is not of God. The more we resemble Christ in righteousness and true holiness the more evident it is both to our selves and others that we are born of him descended from him and therefore cannot but take after him a true Christian is and will be a follower of Christ this genius or disposition to all practical righteousness flows from our new Birth rises out of the new Nature which the Apostle ascribes to the Death and Resurrection of Christ as the procuring cause of all newness of life in us which is but our likeness to his Resurrection we die with Christ that we may live with him being freed from sin not serving it any more but yielding our selves unto God as those that are alive from the dead and our members as instruments of righteousness unto God. This plainly proves every regenerate person as such to be a doer of righteousness inclined to all holiness by virtue of his Regeneration which casts in a new leven makes us a new lump as original Sin infected the whole man so Regeneration sanctifies the whole man in Body Soul and Spirit The fruit of the spirit is in all goodness righteousness and truth Regeneration inclines us to follow Christ the filth of the Soul is carried off by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost hence we are said to be born of water and of the Spirit There is a natural inclination in a regenerate man to do good he does it willingly not by constraint Grace is got into his nature the Law is written in his heart therefore his heart inclines him to keep the Law. As Sin entred so Grace enters Sin entred into all the powers and faculties of the Soul weakning the whole man so Grace diffuses it self through every part of the Soul strengthning the whole man in every part In Regeneration we are renewed after the Image of Christ growing up into his likeness like in judgment and affection not that our natural Faculties are altered but only brought under the power of a supernatural principle we don't cease to be men only we become new men men of other minds spirits and dispositions than before taking after the second Adam not after the first being by Faith implanted into Christ we are made partakers of his Divine Nature this is called a second Birth or a new Creation though out of the same physical materials of Flesh and Blood the change is only spiritual as the Wild Olive when engrafted into the True as to its materials remains still the same 't was wood before so 't is still only there is a new sap secretly convey'd through the pores of it which make it bring forth more kindly and pleasant Fruit so the Sinner as to his physical substance was Flesh and Blood before conversion and so he is still yet there is an inward spiritual change wrought in him by his implantation into Christ who infuses his Nature Spirit and Grace through the Man so making him a new Creature not taking away his Manhood but sanctifying his Nature God is the Fountain of all Holiness 't is essential to him it goes along with his Nature is entail'd upon all who are born of God being partakers of the Divine Nature they must needs be holy as God is holy God appropriates goodness and righteousness to himself in the abstract and is the original Spring of all righteousness in the Saints Let us exert and put forth our new birth and live a life of faith The life which I now live in the flesh I live c. We are created in Christ unto good works that we should walk in them Let us then abide in Christ that we may bring forth much fruit for without him we can do nothing Corruption indeed is always active in a Saint because it acts naturally without any cessation but Grace does not always act at least so sensibly in a Saint because it must be first acted by the Spirit who is a free Agent should Grace always be as active in us as Corruption we should mistake it for Nature and ascribe all to our selves the Spirit of God is always in Believers but does not always work so effectually so sensibly the operations of it are not so manifest to us as sometimes they are This righteousness that is said to be done lies not so much in the perfection of the Deed as in the perfection of the Doer he aims well though he cannot always hit the mark he cannot do the good he would yet he wills it and that is doing in God's account who accepts the will for the deed The inclination or tendency of a new-born Soul to holiness appears three ways First Before the Temptation i. e. not before the being or existence of a Temptation for there is no such season we are always compassed about
joined to the Lord in one Spirit I doubt not but the spiritual glorified Body of Christ is the medium of the beatifical Vision to Angels and Saints above the Godhead shines through it in all its brightness as the Sun shines through pure Chrystal shines upon it shines into it fills every part with light there is nothing to obumbrate or shade it it transmits the light to us with advantage The Bodies of the Saints at the Resurrection being freed from all mortality and natural weakness being then immortal spiritual Bodies like unto that glorious Body of Christ they are capable of receiving this reflected glory from Jesus Christ they have a nearer and more inward view of God in Christ than the Angels have because they see him in their own nature face to face and nothing between the Glory of God shines out upon them in the Face of Christ thus are they made light in the Lord being changed into the same Image by the Spirit of the Lord. What is thus done unto perfection upon the Bodies and Souls of glorified Saints at the Resurrection is really done in some degree upon the Souls of the Saints in this life the Image of God in all his communicable Attributes is impressed upon them they partake of his Holiness Wisdom Goodness Love are merciful as their heavenly Father is merciful and cannot but express something of all this as they are new Creatures holding forth the Image of the heavenly Adam which carries them out to a love and liking of it self in whomsoever it appears therefore he who says he loves God and hates his Image in another is a liar Those who know God in Christ will be sure to take notice of his Image in the Saints God in Christ is the Object of our worship and Christ in the Saints is the Object of our endeared love and affection God is invisible we see him not it must be pure faith that keeps up love to God but Christ in the Saints is more visible to us here we have something to help our faith and to draw out our love we see the Children of God we converse with them we may lay our hands upon them and embrace them God allows us to bestow our love to him upon his Saints 't is still to him when showed to them for his sake As much as you do it to one of these you do it to me Sixthly To desire the milk of the word As a new-born Child does naturally desire the Breast of the Mother so a new-born Soul does as naturally take the breast of the Word God as he is Iehovah is the Fountain of being to all things that are and as He is the Everlasting God He is the Fountain of life to every living Creature In him we live move and have our being all things do subsist in him and by him He supports the whole Creation which he raised out of nothing For of him and through him and to him are all things There is a Creature life which is but a creature and an uncreated and eternal life which is God himself A Creature life is either of Spirits or Animals of things incorporeal or corporeal How immaterial spirits are maintained in their created natural living beings we must leave to God that made them only this I may say that the Eternal life of the Elect Angels in which they were created and confirmed by Christ differs from that eternal life which Believers have in Christ the one is a creature life or a created life it once was not tho it shall never have an end the other is the Eternal Life of God himself communicated in time and in some degree to his creature Man which makes him a new creature taken into the Eternal Life of God himself according to man's finite capacity All sublunary living creatures have their proper nourishment assigned them by the Providence of God they all live upon their fellow creatures and have their food suited to their several kinds which by a natural appetite they are carried out unto Man who has the dominion over the creature has his choice of every thing made for food but the new man or the new creature being born of God united to God in Christ and quickned by his Eternal Spirit entring into him has Eternal Life continually communicated to him from Christ the second Adam who is a quickning spirit dwelling always in the Saints If it be asked what is the Patulum vitae to the Saints as they are new creatures I answer they have meat to eat that the World knows not of hidden Manna secret communications from Christ who is their life and because they have not an immediate fruition of him here therefore they are commanded to feed upon Christ by Faith in the Word and to gather up the Heavenly Manna they meet with there Faith knows how to live upon God in the Word till the Soul can have a nearer access to him by vision above face to face then we have life more abundantly are even swallowed up of life are all life without any symptomes of mortality about us then that life and immortality which the Gospel has brought to light will more fully appear and be made manifest in all glorified Saints APPLICATION You have heard the Doctrinal part what Regeneration is the necessity of it what are the signs of it The next thing to be considered is whether you and I are regenerated and do feel any symptoms of this new birth in our selves If not the Text does plainly conclude against us that we can't see the Kingdom of God. If these marks if all these Scripture marks be not found in you and upon you it is because there is no life in you Shew me but one of these marks and I 'll shew you all the rest in that one at least make it evident to discerning Christians that they are all comprehended in that one which you see and own in your selves I have been searching you from head to foot feeling for life in every part and 't is well if we can find it in any part O how dead how cold how wan how earthy are many Professors under all their forms like a Carcass stretched out and stiff no breath no motion no heat laid out for the Grave free among the dead unconcern'd in all the mysteries of the Gospel The reason of our mistakes about Regeneration is because we don't look for so great an inward change in our selves as we ought to do We are more given to contemplation than practise grown so purely speculative in Religion that we are no further concerned in our own notions than to maintain and defend our Opinions against all others of a contrary sentiment and this has filled the World with disputes and set us all a wrangling one with another every one thinks he is in the right When Scripture and Reason are against a Man that Man is under a temptation to be against both so fond are
I shall now shew you how God thus appearing to us in hearing the Word does open the heart enlighten the mind and throughly perswade the will to a through closure with Christ upon Gospel Terms Naturally our hearts are shut up against the Gospel our Minds are blinded 2 Cor. 4. 4. till God shines into our hearts to give the light of the Knowledge of the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ ver 6. Enlightning the eyes of our Understandings Eph. 1. 17 18. Quest. What is this Light of Faith and how does it differ from the Light of Reason Answ. The Light of Reason lies in the evidence of the thing it self as it falls under a Humane Understanding arguing from the cause to the effect drawing certain conclusions from undeniable premises granted and acknowledged by all men to be Truths in Nature Upon such Concessions they build all their acquired Knowledge and do put the stamp of Truth upon all fair inferences from thence which they judge agreeable to those first principles and notions of Truth that pass for currant under that name among credulous men who do but think they know and do rather ghess than judge so great is the uncertainty of all humane Knowledge we have little cause to glory in it The light of Faith lies in the infallible certainty of Divine Testimony faith sees not the causes of things in the things themselves but in God alone to whom all things are possible faith excells all other knowledge in as much as it sees and knows all things in their first Cause God and takes hold of them by the very root from whence they first spring arguing from the Veracity of God to the Truth of all his sayings we know that God has spoken thus and thus as Ioh. 9. 29. we know the Doctrine is of God Ioh. 7. 17. and that no prophesie of the Scripture is of private Interpretation 2 Pet. 1. 20 21. under this conviction we cannot but yield the obedience of faith to every word of God I do not deny but experience may and does give Believers some Evidence of the things themselves but this belongs rather to their after Edification then to the first act of Faith in their Conversion by which they close in with Christ upon the credit of a bare word of promise from him who cannot lie Object Since these sublime supernatural Misteries of the Gospel are so much above and so seemingly contrary to humane Reason how comes it to pass that any man should own them for Truths and be brought under the power of them Answ. 'T is by a Divine Faith I call it Divine because 't is the work of God that we believe his Testimony Ioh. 6. 29. Quest. Does not this Operation of God upon the Hearts of men in working faith in us offer violence to mans Nature and force the Will to consent to that which is above the Understanding Or how can the efficacy of Gods Grace in determining Mans Will to such a Spiritual Act of Faith in Christ Jesus be consistent with the liberty of the Will. Answ. Many intricate disputes there are about this Point managed by subtil heads not without some shew and appearance of Reason who to secure the liberty of Mans Will have denied the efficacy of Gods Grace placing the power of believing in man himself to avoid the force that otherwise they think must be offered to his Will. But to clear the efficacy of Gods Grace from this imputation I need say no more but this viz. That the Grace of God enters the Soul of man as a New Nature and therefore cannot put any force upon him Nature works kindly in all by Inclination not by Violence as Nature is from Generation so the new Nature is from Regeneration one is the birth of the Flesh the other of the Spirit as we are born Men by our first birth so we are born Christians by our second birth Artificial Christians are all name without any living Nature answerable to it being not truly born of God and thereby made partakers of his Divine Nature The breathing in of this new Nature into the Soul of man by the Spirit of God is that new Creation spoken of in the Gospel 't is the first Act of God in our Conversion 't is solely the Act of God without any concurrence of ours we have only a passive obediential power to receive the impression 'T is God that makes it upon this supernatural Principle are grounded all after proceedings in bringing the Soul forward to an actual closure with Christ all the natural powers and faculties of the Soul are gathered into this supernatural Principle do act under it are moved by it and directed in all their free motions to a supernatural end which they could not of themselves tend unto and let it not seem incredible to us that God should do this he can do no evil from the perfection of his Nature and for the same reason all good must needs be in the power of his hand the greatest good that can be done to fallen Man is thus to restore him In this new Nature are wrapped up the seeds of all Grace which by the efficacy of the Spirit are drawn out into act with the free consent of Mans Will Should God determine the Will of Man to a good act whilst it is in a bad state and under a corrupt nature this would imply force and violence but to lead out a man according to his new Nature is not to put a force upon him If Sin had that efficacy upon Man in his perfect state to encline his Will to Evil why should not Grace have the like efficacy upon Man fallen to encline his Will to good Though an inclination to Evil in Man standing was possible from the liberty of his Will in which he was created yet such an actual inclination was inconsistent with his perfect state and left such an inherent crookedness in his perverted Nature that nothing but Grace can rectifie and make streight again What is a principle of Grace but liberty to Good restored to fallen man from whence an actual inclination to choose what is good do's follow of course when God calls and excites him thereunto here is no force put upon mans Will it acts freely in the choice of good and it cannot be otherwise since Grace enters as a new Nature ingenerating a powerful Principle of Holiness in the Soul that do's incline a man freely to comply which the efficacious grace of God exciting him to those acts of Holiness so agreeable to the Nature of the new Creature as Sin reigns unto Death so Grace will reign through Righteousness unto Eternal Life Rom. 5. 21. Shall not he that raises the dead be able to quicken a dead Soul but we are more sensible of that power that God puts forth upon the bodies of Men then of that which he puts forth upon their Souls that you may know that the Son of man
stand behind the whole Creation of God and blush at the mischief he hath done the World groaning with all his fellow Creatures to be restored to the glorious Liberty of the Children of God. Serious thoughts of our lapsed estate must needs beget this self-abhorrency in us that we should thus unman our selves and become like the Beasts that perish nay worse than they because we cannot so perish as to cease to be the immortality of our Souls making us naturally capable of a miserable Eternity how should we then be consounded in our own sight and be yet more vile in our own Eyes We cannot presently take in the full sense of our wretched state the grossest sins of our Lives are not to be compared to the sins of our Nature they might pass for particular acts of folly which we were hurried into by the violence of some sudden Temptation we might hope that Nature would recover it self but that being poysoned and turned into a root of Bitterness what fruit unto Holiness can ever grow upon such evil Trees as we naturally are 'T is not any improvement of Nature by Art or Industry that will recover us there must be a real Change of Nature wrought in us and how few are convinc'd of the necessity of this A Toad may as soon complain of his Poysonous Nature as Fallen Man of his Corrupt Nature we are reconciled to every thing that is natural to us else it could not be natural whatever is a part of our selves can be no burden to us 'T is a sign the Spirit of God hath been at work in that Soul who is grown into a dislike of himself hating what he is and what he doth from a carnal Principle T is a sign there is another Spirit and Principle stirring in him 'T is impossible there should be true Grace in that Man who hath no afflicting sense of indwelling sin The flesh is flesh still even after Regeneration the New Creature is raised up in the presence of the old man they live together awhile tho' at continual variance till the fleshly part be abolished then the new creature will stand up by it self in a perfect state of Glory in the stature of a perfect Man in Christ. Sin tho it cannot hinder the Birth of the New Man yet it hinders his growth and depresses that for a season till Mortality with all that belongs to it be quite swallowed up of that Eternal Life which we derive from Christ in our Regeneration if we dye strangers to this life of God and Godliness we with all our Forms Names and specious Pretences to Religion shall be swallow'd up of Eternal Death and never see the Kingdom of God. Verily verily except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God. T. C. A DISCOURSE OF Regeneration c. From IOHN iii. 3. The Introduction THE Sound of these Words at the first reading may convince any Considering Person That Christian Religion is a great Mystery the way to understand it aright is to look into the internal Parts of it not into the Words but Power of Godliness Many and various are the outward Forms by which Professors are unhappily distinguished pleasing themselves with different Superstructures upon the same supposed Foundation But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon 1 Cor. 3. 10. There is Gold Silver and Precious Stones in some Buildings and too much Wood Hay and Stubble in others Before I set fire to this by a spirit of Judgment and Burning let us all examine our Foundations and see whether the whole House is not to be pulled down and built anew we had better pull down a House weakly founded than suffer it to fall upon our heads then we perish in the ruins My Text leads me to this search I hope you will all join with me in feeling for the Rock if we find it we may with more comfort and success set upon the mending and repairing what is amiss otherwise The Text speaks of the Nativity or first Original of a Christian and derives his Descent from above from Heaven from God from the Holy Spirit this is very high we may look for something extraordinary in such a Birth which is here called Regeneration or our being Born again or a second time This is a great Mystery and cannot be understood till it is in some measure felt Regeneration is not a Notion but a Nature not a mere empty Speculation floating in the Brain but an inward living Principle rooted in the Heart I am not speaking of things without you at a distance from you that are foreign and extrinsecal to your souls but of that which is essential to the Being and Constitution of a Christian as such you are not only my Auditors this day but each of you the subject of my present Discourse I am not only speaking to you but of you 't is what you are or are not in the inward state of your souls that I am now enquiring after By comparing your selves with the word you may know how far you do or do not answer to the Character that is given there of the New-born soul the essential Properties of that Nature in which we live must needs be owned by us they are in us they are of us bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh they are our very selves no sensible considering man can be without this knowledg of himself he cannot deny his own Image which he sees with his own Eyes In a glass face answers face so 't is with the heart of a Man describe it as it is in its present Actings Motions Principles and Inclinations 't will fall in with you to a tittle I would not speak a word and I hope God will so guide me that I shall not utter any thing concerning this new Birth which falls not under the experience of the weakest Christian who is really born of God If I shoot over the heads of others 't is none of my fault we must speak of Divine Things as they are laid down in the Scriptures whether we are understood or not understood Preachers do only explain the Object they cannot enlighten the Faculty they may open the Text but they cannot open the Hearts of those that hear them to understand the Scriptures this is God's work Faith cometh by hearing therefore he that hath ears to hear let him hear I cannot bespeak your Attention by a stronger Argument than that in my Text Except a man be born again he cannot c. That which the Word of God so plainly puts as a bar to our entrance into the Kingdom of God we are all concerned to see that bar removed who have any hope of entring into that Kingdom Give me leave to reason with you out of the Scriptures about this great Point of Regeneration Some place it in that which a mere natural man may pretend unto passing over the whole Mystery of the Gospel they construe the Word
hearers are there in our Congregations who are stuck between Christ and the World can get neither backwards nor forwards are now where they were many years ago They dare not cast off Religion altogether neither dare they come up to the power of it they come and go to and from the place of the Holy One conversing only with the dead Letter of the Gospel are not yet brought under the glorious ministration of the Spirit 't is the Spirit gives life by bringing in Gospel Truths in their natural living Principle into the Heart then we live and the Word lives in us the heart and the Word are quickned together one was in a dead frame the other lay in a dead Letter before but now both do live together and agree with each other the sense of the Soul is the sense of the Word and the Sense of the Word is the sense of the Soul they both mean the same thing they fall in with each other they dwell together in Wisdom and Spiritual Understanding there is but one Spirit between them what one says the other does and this is the great work of God as he is the Author of Regeneration to make our hearts thus to agree with his Word by casting them into the mould of the Gospel If ever the Word be ingrafted upon the Soul it must be ingrafted upon a living Principle of Holiness that suits with it for nothing else can receive it or hold it and this is the Work of God upon the Soul in Regeneration CHAP. II. Subjects of Regeneration II. THE Subjects of Regeneration who they are viz. The Elect only the Elect and all the Elect Rom. 8. 30. Whom he did predestinate them he also called c. Let their outward Circumstances be what they will whether bond or free male or female 1 Cor. 12. 13. Gal. 6. 15. Regeneration will reach them all first or last I prove it thus It must be either by Gods Election or by Man's Election putting himself by his own free-will into this state or by Accident no body knows how I will prove it must be one of these three ways because 't is apparent that all by Nature are born in an unregenerate state and that the Devil does carry away the greatest part of mankind into Hell in their unregenerate state These Truths are plainly laid down in Scripture and are capable of clear demonstration from thence Since neither of them need any proof I 'le take them both for granted and I argue thus from them If all are born in sin and the greatest part by far dye in their sins Who makes the difference and from whence does it arise It must come either from the Eternal Purpose of God electing some and not others or from man's own choice electing himself and putting himself into this state by the power of his own free-will so that he is regenerate because he will be so he will regenerate himself and change his own nature and make himself a new creature The absurdity of this will appear by and by or else it is by an unaccountable Contingency no body knows how or why It cannot be by the two latter ways Ergo by the First viz. Gods Election 1. It cannot be by man's own free-will for it can't be supposed that corrupt nature should ever will its own destruction the flesh is not so divided against it self Satan will not cast out Satan the Devil is more at Unity with himself than so he would indeed set himself above God and dethrone him if possible as he is he would be a God he would have the use of God's Power that he might abuse it and play the Devil the more so far he would be like unto the most High but he is so much a Devil such an irreconcilable enemy to all Godliness that he would not exchange his Devilish Nature for the Holy Nature of God and so are all the Children of the Devil Acts 13. 10. Oh thou child of the devil thou enemy of all righteousness A natural man would be nothing but what he is he likes himself too well to part with his own nature 't is unreasonable to imagine such a self-destroying inclination in any creature whatsoever 't is impossible for any nature to will a change of it self A Principle of self-preservation runs through the whole Creation of God the Toad as full of Poyson as it is would be a Toad still so sinful man is as tender of himself as much in love with himself as the Holiest Angel in Heaven is with himself Whence should such an actual Will arise in man as to desire his own Annihilation that he may cease to be what he is and become a new Creature There must be another Nature put into him before he can desire to be another Man all do follow the course of Nature and cannot do otherwise therefore till nature is changed the course is and must be the same as ever it was good inclinations are never found in depraved nature an evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit figs grow not upon thistles nor grapes upon thorns To suppose a man in a state of nature to will his own Conversion is to suppose him already converted if the Will be changed the Man is changed the Will is the Man. Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots Jer. 13. 23. they may as soon do this as one born in sin can cease to live in sin we must be born again first for a sinful nature will never carry a man out to a holy Life Nature is a constant fixed Principle always keeping within its own sphere 't is not a mutable fancy that may be taken up or laid down at pleasure We see all things keep their own shape and form and 't would be monstrous were it otherwise The whole Creation would be confounded if things could run one into another and Metamorphise themselves into what different species they please the God of Nature has fixed things otherwise and I am sure none but the God of Grace can alter the corrupt nature of fallen man. It cannot be by chance by a fortuitous concourse of I know not what None but a downright Atheist will resolve it into this 't is such a denial of Providence in the chiefest design and contrivance of the Infinite Wisdom and Goodness of God as no Christian ever can bear What is Regenerating Grace but a special Providence towards the Elect carried on with wonderful Wisdom and Counsel Where known causes and special ends may be assigned there is no room for Chance we may steadily look from the beginning to the end of such a production and trace back the effect step by step to its first original cause He that is a Christian by chance not knowing how or why he came to be so will give but a sorry account of his Faith and may as suddenly with more reason turn Infidel again Therefore since Regeneration does not happen by an
and shewed you how you may do it Since your present Comfort and future Happiness depends upon the proof of your Election How should you long to see this sure and infallible evidence of it in your Regeneration CHAP. III. III. The Means of Regeneration I Have already spoken of the principal efficient Cause of Regeneration under the first Head I am now to speak of the Instrumental Cause or outward means of Regeneration viz. The Word Preach'd as appears by these following Scriptures 1 Pet. 1. 23. where Regeneration is plainly ascribed to the Word Iames 1. 18. God is said to beget us with the word of truth 1 Cor. 4. 15. Paul is said to have begotten the Corinthians through the Gospel or by the Word of God which is able to save our Souls These Scriptures are an undeniable proof of these two things 1. That there is a Virtue and Power in the Word to work a change of heart and nature in those that hear it 2. That this Virtue and Power is from God whensoever his Spirit concurs with it it becomes effectual for our Regeneration I shall give you some Reasons or rather some further Illustrations of this Truth from the Scriptures we must say nothing of the Word but what we have from the Word and what falls in with the experience of all Christians who live in any observation of the way of the Spirit of God in turning their hearts to himself I shall make out this in sundry particulars 1st The Word is a proper medium for the Invisible God to work by we cannot behold his face because he is Invisible in his Essence but we may hear his voice when he speaks to us in our Language God never acts more like a God like a Creator than when he works by his Word He says and 't is done let there be light and there was light Lazarus come forth and immediately a Resurrection follows He can as easily do as speak his Word is operative God chuses to work by his Word that he may appear to do all by himself As a Creator he has nothing else to work by Thus he brings all things out of nothing he that is the everlasting I am makes that which is not to be and exist the essence and being of all things that are made flows from the Lord Iehovah the fountain of all being 2dly The Written Word is the most suitable means for God to make use of in all his dealings with his reasonable creature Man Speech is proper to Man he only of all creatures has Ears to hear and understand words as men communicate their thoughts one to another by words so does God communicate his sense to us by words he puts his sense into our words adapting them to Divine mysteries and thereby drawing them up to a higher signification than the wit of Man can reach unto The VVord is a very proper means for God to work upon Man by because it is full expressive of the mind of God and when the Spirit is given from above we shall have a right understanding of it as a natural Man cannot know the things of God in the VVord without the Spirit so neither can a spiritual Man in this VVorld know them without the Word we cannot come nearer to God now than the VVord brings us 3dly The Word is the Exemplar or Pattern of the Image of God which is drawn upon the face of the new creature plainly representing it to us in all its spiritual features We have it before us as in a Table that we may often examine our selves by it and see how we answer to that Character which the Scripture gives of every renewed Soul how like or unlike we are to it the Word is the Mould into which we are cast The Glory of the Lord reflected upon us through the Glass of the Gospel leaves its own Image upon the Soul. As to know God in Christ is Eternal Life so to behold his Glory with understanding is the highest Glory we are capable of as his Righteousness makes us Righteous his Wisdom wise his Strength makes us strong so his Glory let in upon the Soul is our glorification Thus God is all in all to the Saints there is some appearance of God in every thing that is excellent in them their All is Christ in them without him they are nothing and it is by the Word they are transformed into his likeness What is Grace but Truth put into the inward parts the Law written in the Heart the Word abiding in us and turned into grace in our hearts which is nothing else but a living principle of Faith and Holiness enclining us to keep the Word which is an authentick copy and transcript of the will of God to Man. Where there is an inward Man delighting in the Law of God we may be sure the Word has been effectual in that Soul. Who is that inward Man but the new Man the new Creature born of the incorruptible seed of the Word 4thly The Word works morally the Spirit Physically in plain English thus The Word makes an outward proposal of the Object the Spirit inwardly enlightens the faculty disposes the heart to receive it as things of sense are perceived by a more gross corporeal contact so things of Reason and Faith are let in in a more intellectual way by mental conceptions How all intelligible things purely rational do arise from Sense I shall not now speak to but 't is certain that all inward representations of things purely spiritual and supernatural are made to us by the Holy-Ghost revealing Christ in us and in him discovering to us the reality and truth of all the Word speaks of The Word is of a persuasive strain full of reasonings and arguings with Man God debates matters with us would discourse us into a right understanding of his Will Hence so many motives and exhortations Faith it self is but a persuasion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to persuade but because the things discoursed of in the Word are supernatural we must be spiritually illuminated before we can perceive them the Natural Man perceives not the things of God. The Word is but an outward light let it shine out never so brightly in the plainest and fullest Exposition that can be given of it yet still 't is but an outward light which our dark minds cannot comprehend 'till God enlighten them Snuff a Candle never so often a blind Man will see never the better but when his eyes are opened then he can distinguish between the dimness and brightness of the Candle So 't is with Believers they are ready to take in the most spiritual sense of the Word 't is that they wait for they know that God does open his mind further and further to the Saints by the Preaching of the Gospel which makes them so much in love with Ordinances and 't is the rejoycing of their hearts to have any further discovery
Among grown persons if you take the day of Conversion more largely as the Scripture often does for the day of their Lives for the day of their outward Callings generally termed the day of Grace i. e. of outward Grace so they all agree in the day of their Conversion they are brought home to Christ within that time or never tho they do not all come in at the same hour of the day But more of this by and by when I come to speak of the time of our Regeneration which to avoid all coincidence of matter I shall comprehend under this Head of the manner of Regeneration which the Scripture gives us some light into we may know something of it The Manner of Regeneration 1st That a marvellous work is wrought in us and upon us We see a great difference between what we now are and what we formerly were even in our own remembrance Whereas I was blind now I see Such were some of you but you are washed Remember that ye being in time passed Gentiles in the flesh but now in Christ Iesus Called out of darkness into his marvellous light This is something of the manner of Regeneration which all Saints have some experience of the change is so great so universal in every part and faculty of the Soul All things are become new that it cannot be altogether hid from a considering Christian he cannot resolve the Cause and Reason of it into any thing but the Power of God 't is his doing wonderful in our eyes He that is born of God knows and loves him that begat him does naturally cry Abba Father from the Spirit of Adoption received in Regeneration being born of the Spirit he breathes and prays in the Spirit ever after his heart is instructed and quickned by the Spirit to call God Father The spirit it self beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. 2dly Regeneration does not only shew the wide difference between the two states the Regenerate and Unregenerate but it comes in a different manner upon the Regenerate themselves I say a different manner for there is no difference in the nature of the thing it self That is the same in substance essence and principle in all who are Regenerate yet there are some circumstances attending Regeneration sometime wherein one Regenerate person may greatly differ from another even in the first moment of Regeneration e. g. Some may be Regenerated and Converted into higher degrees of Grace in the first moment of their Conversion than some others tho as truly Regenerate as they may attain to all their days all in Regeneration do receive one and the same spirit of Grace but not in the same measure Paul was converted into an eminency in Grace he was never a babe in Christ but was born a strong Man in Christ the very first moment of his Conversion God had present use of Paul he had designed him for eminent service which he was immediately to enter upon and therefore God furnishes him accordingly Let not weak Saints question the truth of their Regeneration because they are not presently raised up to such degrees of actual Grace as they see in others Another Reason I conceive of this difference between Saint and Saint in their first Conversion may arise from the different circumstances Grace finds them under in respect 1. Of their Years 2. Of their Temptations 3. Of their Employments and Callings 1st In respect of their Years Some may be Regenerated in their Infancy as was at first granted they are capable only of habitual Faith of the seed and principle of Grace A Man is no further capable of Grace than he is of Reason 't is Reason that makes a Man a subject naturally capable of Grace and Grace usually comes in in a degree proportionable to the strength of our rational faculties Where there is but a principle of Reason there may be a principle of Grace brought into that Soul and where there is an actual understanding there may be actual Faith proportionable to our actual Understandings I shall not speak of Infants who are but habitually rational and therefore can be but habitually gracious But I shall begin with those who are next to Infants newly come to the use of Reason some are more early Converts than others Mr. Cotton in his Exposition of 1 Iohn 2. 13. says that Children may act Grace as soon as they act Reason may be made to know their Heavenly Father as soon as they do their natural Parents This is early indeed yet I doubt not but so it may be only let me put in this Observation by the way viz. Observe The nearer our second birth lies to our first the more undisernable it is In its first rise and original here Grace seems to grow up with Nature Howbeit that is not first which is spiritual but that which is natural and afterwards that which is spiritual The Apostle applies it to the Resurrection of the Body and I may as fitly apply it to the Spiritual Resurrection of the Soul in Regeneration so that you see the new creature is still the youngest Man if compared to the old Man. The new creature is of a later extraction an after birth or a second birth But every man in his own order Should Grace come in with our first being the first introduction of it could not be called Regeneration God does proportion his gifts of actual and efficacious Grace according to the strength and ripeness of our active faculties tho all Converts have the same principle of Grace yet the younger sort in their tender years are not capable of acting so distinctly as others may who are of full Age and have their Senses better exercised by reason of use 'T is said of Iohn That the child grew and waxed strong in spirit So of Christ himself tho he was fill'd with internal habitual Grace at his first conception yet proportionably to his Age his Grace did actually and more powerfully manifest it self So 't is with all young Christians Grace in the active part of it keeps peace with Nature and does not offer violence to it Grace may elevate and quicken our rational faculties and bring them sooner to maturity But it always takes our Understanding and Will along with it in every act we put forth Faith is a rational Grace an understanding Grace a wise Grace there is much of the strength of a Man's rational Soul goes out in every act of Faith. Tho Faith be above Reason yet Faith can give a Reason why we should believe things above Reason and so one way or other Faith doth deal with Man's Reason even when it lifts up Man above Reason This may be one ground of the different degrees of actual Grace among some at their first conversion I say actual Grace because that only is capable of degrees A principle of Grace is the same in all but variously
acted either according to the natural capacity of the subject or the efficacious assistance of the Spirit for let our rational faculties be never so quick and strong they cannot carry out a Child of God much less others to the least act of Faith without the help of the Spirit 2dly In respect of their Temptations Those who have been exercised with strong Temptations born down by the power of strong Corruptions when converting Grace comes it comes with an actual strength proportionable to the actual resistance that 't is like to meet with so pulling down the strongest holds of Satan Habitual Grace infused at our first Conversion is the seed of God. The Spirit sets home the Word and causes a spiritual conception in the heart raises up the living Image of the living God in the Soul of a dead Sinner This Immortal Seed or Eternal Principle of Grace has the strength of Christ in it and is able to cope with original corruption But when it opposes strong acts of sin in those who have been accustomed to do evil and by their frequent practise do sin with a stronger hand than ordinary in this Case a principle of Grace must be drawn out into acts of a proportionable strength to these mighty acts of sin to put a stop to them for the future and to turn the sinner from them God said to Paul My grace is sufficient for thee my strength is made perfect in weakness the power of Christ did rest upon him That degree of Grace may prevail over one sinner that may not so soon prevail over another I speak in respect of acquired habits or acts of sin which hardens the heart the more besides the Devil does not always make the like furious assaults upon all God knows how to suit the dispensations of his Grace to the present necessities of the Soul A Disease the further it spreads the deeper root it has taken in the Body requires stronger Physick and more effectual Remedies to remove it So 't is with the Soul and Christ the great Physician applies himself accordingly with a sufficiency of actual effectual Grace As he took notice how many years the Daughter of Abraham was bowed down and bound by Satan So he observes what power the Devil has got over such or such a Soul if his name be Legion Christ will cast him out being able to save to the uttermost Christ is more put to it to save some sinners than others in comparison There is in this respect a greater difficulty in saving some than others How hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It signifies one who has a nauseating stomach a 〈◊〉 swallow he kecks at every thing nothing will go down with him you may as soon draw a Camel through the eye of a Needle as bring a rich Man to Heaven But with God all things are possible God is here brought in acting according to the utmost possibility of his power in saving a Rich Man This may be another Reason why some are regenerated into a higher degree of Grace and spiritual strength than may be found in some others All have the same habit of Grace in the principle all have a sufficiency of actual Grace but all have not the same measure neither is it needful they should and so comparatively one Saint may be stronger or weaker than another in the first moment of Regeneration 3dly In respect of their Employments and Callings which may render them capable of higher service for God in the World than others may be called unto I instanced in Paul before so I may in Magistrates and Ministers now God in Conversion gives in Grace suitable to their Stations and Callings in the World. Saul when anointed King was turned into another Man tho that was but a civil Conversion yet it holds true in saving Conversion Also the Spirit of God divides to every man severally as he will and sets the Members every one of them in their proper place in the body under their proper peculiar gifts and qualifications that may render them useful to each other The Head cannot say to the Feet I have no need of you yet the Head is the most honourable part of the Body And you should covet earnestly the best Gifts There is a gradual difference in the Gifts and Graces of the Saints according to the several Offices they bare in the Body of Christ as Eyes Hands Feet and according to the several opportunities that Providence puts into their hands of serving the interest of Christ in their Generation Thus much of the Manner of Regeneration in a more general way I shall now speak to the Manner of Regeneration with a peculiar respect to the Gospel Notion and Nature of Regeneration as it consists in the Souls ingrafture into Christ by a vital Union to him through Faith Christ being the proper Fountain of that New Life which we derive from him in Regeneration and which is ever after maintained by him in all his true Members abiding under the quickning Influences of Christ their Living Head. The particular Manner of Regeneration in this Gospel-Notion of it will further appear in the right stating of this following Question viz. Quest. Whether the first step in Regeneration be from Sin to Holiness or from a sinful state and nature to Christ that we may be made holy by him I affirm the latter There can be no Change made in our Nature by the Spirit of Christ in our Sanctification but upon a Change of State from our closing in with the Blood of Christ for Justification The Spirit of Christ doth always follow the Blood of Christ 't is the Purchase of that Blood so that the sanctifying Spirit of Christ extends himself in all his saving Operations no further than the Body of Christ none but Members vitally joined to Christ their Head can be quickned by him therefore no man or woman can be savingly wrought upon by the Spirit of Christ who continue in a state of separation from him I grant many changes may be wrought in a mere natural man which amount to no more than a Moral Reformation and do all lye within the verge of an unregenerate state Were there no more in Regeneration or Conversion than a turning from Sin to Holiness than a change of Life and Manners arising as some would have it from that General Sufficient Grace purchased for all and which we may make effectual when we please this puts Regeneration and Conversion into Man's Power But Regeneration implies more than all this amounts to not only a Change of Life and Manners but of Nature and Principle we must first fix the Principle before we talk of doing we may as well do the Actions of a living Man without Life as act like Christians without Christ Christ is our Life a quickning Spirit in all his Members Therefore I state the Question
sin Ans. 1. Christ joins himself to nothing but the New Creature holds Communion with nothing else in the Saints Light has no Communion with darkness nor Christ with Belial Nay he does not so much hold Communion with us as takes us into Communion with himself 2. This Communion between Christ and Believers is carried on and manag'd on both sides by the Holy Spirit and therefore must needs be a Holy Communion 3. The design of Christ in uniting us to himself is to cleanse us from all sin to purge them quite out and to sanctifie us wholly in Body Mind and Spirit The Spirit of Christ is a Spirit of Burning it consumes by degrees all that is contrary to it self in our Persons and will at last make us exactly conformable to himself we shall bear the image of the Heavenly Adam and take after the perfect Human Nature of Christ i. e. Human Nature in us tho it is now corrupted yet when Regeneration has had its perfect work upon us it shall even in our Persons be reduced to that Rectitude Harmony and Perfection as 't is now in the Man Christ then we shall be men indeed Glorious Men and Women when we have derived our Human Nature from Christ in all its Perfections and under that Divine Tincture which the Hypostatical Union gives it in Christ. In Regeneration we pass over by Faith both Body and Soul into Christ some present effects of this we see in our Souls now and when our vile Bodies shall be made like unto his Glorious Body we shall to Eternity bless God who has taken us out of the First Adam and put us into the Second This Spiritual Union of Believers to the Divine Person of Christ makes a living Impression of Godliness upon their Human Persons which causes them to grow up daily into a further Conformity to the Image of Christ as God-Man till they come to the stature of Perfection in him resembling him in both his Natures in the Perfection of his and our human Nature in him and in such a spiritual Participation of his Divine Nature as Creatures are capable of and standing in this Mystical Union to the Divine Person of Christ they behold his Glory as the glory of the only begotten Son of God it shines out upon them in Heaven to all Eternity and lifts them up to the highest Communion with God that Creatures are capable of and this is their Glorification Thus I have led you from the first step in Regeneration to the last that you may see the Blessed Tendency of so great a work begun here in this World and compleated in the next I told you That Regeneration is initially and seminally all that belongs to a state of Grace ay and of Glory too therefore I may instance in any thing that lies within the Compass of a state of Grace whether Adoption Vocation Union to Christ Justification Sanctification and not recede from the Subject I am upon concerning Regeneration for all these do nearly concern it and lye close about it Some would suppose our Union to Christ and consequently by virtue of that our Justification by Christ to be before Actual Faith even in adult Persons and consequently without it they insist upon a Priority in Nature and Time and build Positions upon that distinction that will not hold they who speak with the Learned must understand with the Learned and use their terms in their sense they do not suppose this Priority or Posteriority to be in the things themselves but only in our manner of Conception we first apprehend one and then another tho we may apprehend one thing without another or before another it does not follow that those things are really without or before each other things that cannot be separated may by a precise act of the Understanding be distinguish'd but these signa or momenta rationis that men of art make use of to guide their Thoughts are too great subtilties for vulgar Heads to meddle with it may be you do not reach me in what I am now saying and it matters not whether you do or no it renders the Argument so much the stronger against the use of such Scholastick Terms in Divinity I am casting them out and perswading you from mingling vain Philosophy and Science falsly so called with the Mysteries of Faith which are best understood in their own native simplicity as they are delivered to us in plain Scripture-language They who hold Justification before Faith are afraid lest they should be betrayed into a Justification by Works if they should hold otherwise and therefore chose rather to plead for a Justification before Faith and without Faith lest they should seem to be Justified by any thing in and from themselves but how contrary is this to Scripture He that believeth not is condemned But he that believeth not is justified is no where written in my Bible They will admit of habitual Faith but are afraid of actual Faith lest that should encroach too much upon free Grace and lessen that for say they an act of Faith is Mans act and nothing that is so must have any place in Justification 1st I Answer Is not a habit of Faith a Mans habit Is it not infused by God into Man and placed in Man Is not Man the Subject of this Habit But this is wrought by God and is not every Act of Faith wrought by God in the Soul of a Believer I see no more danger in allowing actual Faith than habitual 2dly We must distinguish between an Act of Faith and Works of Faith Works of Faith are not Faith but an Effect and Fruit of Faith an Apple is not the Tree but something growing out of it and upon it as distinct from it but an Act of Faith is Faith it self 't is Faith reduced to Act or actual Faith. 'T is true an Act of Faith is mans Act deriving all its Virtue Efficacy and Signification from Christ the Object but 't is not properly a Work but Faith it self so that I see no danger of running into Justification by Works by asserting Justification by Faith. 3dly As an Act of Faith is not properly a Work in the legal Notion of a Works it is not within the Covenant of Work is it any where contained there that we should act our Faith upon Christ for the free Pardon of Sin Besides the Scripture expresly denies Faith to be a Work in this Sense To him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness therefore believing is not working for Justification 4thly An Act of Faith is the only Act of a Man that entirely falls in with the free Grace of God Therefore it is of Faith that it might be by Grace An Act of Faith is a receiving Act it brings nothing of our own to Christ but an empty hand receiving all from him ascribing all to him excluding all manner of boasting how can
such an Act of Faith interfere with our free Justification 5thly We say That the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credere or Faith as our Act justifies no Man tho we allow the instrumentality of it in Justification as that by which we apprehend the Object Jesus Christ by whom alone we are justified When we say we are justified by Faith we mean no more but this That we are justified by Christ received and applied does it therefore follow we are not justified by Christ alone Did we well consider the Nature of Faith in its Principle and Relative Essence and also in its manner of acting we should better understand the matter and clearly see that Faith excludes all Works even it s own Act out of Justification Tho it self be the Act of a Man wrought in him by God yet 't is an Act so subservient to free Grace so intirely falling in with it that it does not in the least derogate from it but declares to all the World that Christ is the Sinners only Righteousness and leaves him relying upon Christ only for his Justification This is the meaning this is the sense of an Act of Faith Novel Expressions are apt to beget strange novel Opinions and therefore we should have a care of them Faith well acted upon Christ will never injure the free Grace of God why should we run up our Regeneration and Iustification into such ignote beginnings before Faith which we can give no account of to our selves or others before we believe I see not of what use this is to soar aloft beyond the Knowledg and Experience of all Christians let us not be wise above what is written I am yet upon the Manner of Regeneration and all preparatory Works naturally running into the manner of Conversion or Regeneration I shall a little consider them The best way to understand the manner of doing a thing is by observing all Preparations made for it all Praeludiums or Introductions in order to it therefore it will be necessary to look a little into the nature of these Preparatives which some lay too great a stress upon limiting the Spirit of God to their own unscriptural Methods and Error is soon committed here We may run upon the Merit of Congruity ere we are aware if we don't hold the Ballance of Truth with an even hand keeping close to the Genius and Spirit of the Gospel in all that we say of this matter which I shall reduce to these following Heads shewing you 1. What Preparatory works are 2. Whether there be any such certain Preparatory works always antecedently necessary to Conversion and what they are how they are all comprehended under Conviction of sin 3. That the Law is of excellent use to work this Preparatory Conviction 4. That there is Law enough taken into the Gospel to do this 5. That the Law is to be Preached but never alone by it self without any mention of Gospel-Grace 6. We must not limit the Spirit of God to such or such degrees of Humiliation Repentance Contrition or Terror Upon these Hinges my whole Discourse will turn If any Word or Phrase I shall use be not to your liking you may please your selves with your own way of Expression and speak your own language if we agree in Principles and understand the same thing as I hope we shall it matters not much whether we express it in the same manner I shall keep to the method proposed and not mingle things unless it be when one Particular may borrow light from another then a looser joint discovery does best 1. What Preparatory Works are In the Sense of those who contend most for them they are certain previous Dispositions wrought in the Soul in order to Conversion yet short of Conversion it self Here are Two Opinions about this Some would have these Preparatory Works to be Saving Works I grant eventually they may be and are so sometimes but not being always so I see not how that can be called Saving under which a Soul may eternally perish or how any Saving Work can be wrought in any before they are in Christ. The Second Opinion more agreeable to Truth is of those who call these Preparatory Works yet common Works of the Spirit but always further carried on in all elect adult Persons till at last they issue in true Conversion Here we agree but for those who place this Preparatory work in such and such certain degrees of Humiliation and Contrition affirming That Conversion is not ordinarily wrought any other way than by those Legal Steps not one of which is to be bated this needs some Explication Of which more anon That God does by his Word by his Spirit by his Providence prepare all his Elect for Conversion I no way doubt but how this is done whether God does observe the same way manner and method in this Preparatory work in all that are converted as he may do in some is not so clear to me 2. Whether according to Scripture there are any such certain Preparatory Works always antecedently necessary to Conversion and what they are how they are all comprehended under Conviction of sin whether Repentance Humiliation Contrition Terror This Conviction of sin must be presupposed in all who come to Christ for Pardon The whole need not a Physitian Here we must distinguish between initial and compleat Conversion I mean between Conversion begun and Conversion rising up to a sensible Closure with Christ Conviction of Sin is always antecedent to an act of Faith upon Christ for the Pardon of sin at least it must be concomitant with it else there can be no reason given of a sinner's coming to Christ but that such or such a degree of Humiliation Contrition c. is always pre-required unto Conversion I cannot say that Conversion is a sudden secret work of God upon the Soul as the Wind blows c. If we observe how the Spirit comes upon sinners where it lists of all sorts and tempers of all conditions and circumstances drawing their hearts to Christ we shall find it a hard matter to give this Preparatory work any certain particular name I am persuaded 't is very various and different it may be not altogether the same in any two that are converted therefore to lay down a preparatory work in all its circumstances common to all that are converted is very dangerous that which hath occasioned this is mens dwelling upon a distinct work of the Law as a School-master to Christ because the Iews of old were trained up under a legal administration of the Gospel therefore the whole work was then ascribed to the Law whereas the Law was never separately propounded to the Iews but always in some dark Typical Conjunction with the Gospel tho they did not see to the end of those things yet these Types Shadows and Ceremonies had a Gospel-end What tho there was a Legal Discipline in the Church of the Old Testament This is no warrant for us to set
repent He calls them a generation of Vipers tells them of the wrath of God and preaches the Baptism of Repentance for the remission of sins He points to Christ Behold the lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world that was Iohn's subject Peter converted the Iews by Preaching Christ and Remission of sin in his name the remedy must not be concealed Though Peter denounces a heavy Judgment against Simon Magus yet he lays down some ground of comfort had he had Grace to consider it we must keep back nothing God would have spoken to sinners we must not be always affrighting your consciences with Legal Terrours 't is necessary sometimes to draw the Sword of the Law that sinners may see their danger but we must tell them also whither they must fly for refuge else we preach not the Gospel we don't know how far the Sword of the Law may enter how deep it may cut into the Conscience of a convinced sinner it may be dangerous to leave the wound bleeding one night without applying some Gospel-Lenitive pouring in some oyl our first Faith in Conversion sometimes takes more after the Law sometimes more after the Gospel as the Spirit sets it a work either for Terror or Comfort we must not limit the Spirit of God in one or the other we must not say such a one shall be humbled to such a degree shall lie so long under Terrours of Conscience before comfort be spoken to him the Spirit is the best judge of this and knows our frame better than we do and what way of procedure is most suitable to the inward sense and feeling of such a one's Soul this must be left to God to speak Comfort or Terror when and in what degree he pleases We who are Ministers must lay down the ground of both in our Preaching and insist upon one or t'other as we see occasion But God may do as he will. If I see a broken humble sinner a little revived under a sense of Mercy and Pardon I would not check his comfort nor seek to bring him under terrors again but if I see a hardened impenitent sinner going on in his sins I would lay the Law before him in the most terrible manner I could and shew him the dreadful consequence of a Course of sin persisted in that the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all such who do not repent and turn to God that they may find Mercy we cannot Preach the Gospel but we must refer to the Law the Gospel shews how we may be delivered from the curse of the Law and therefore must needs mention it and I am sure we ought not to Preach the Law alone without any discovery of Gospel Grace 6. We must not limit the Spirit of God in converting sinners to such or such degrees of humiliation contrition or terror as we think necessary for we are not competent Judges in that matter so much Contrition of sin as causes a loathing of sin a desire to leave it and to obtain Mercy of God in the Pardon of it is sufficient for conversion God may carry on this Humbling work farther or farther to a higher or lower degree as he thinks fit as the present frame of our hearts may require Saving Conviction is the first thing in order belonging to Conversion but that conviction to such a degree of Repentance Humiliation and Terror should always be a fixed constant Preparatory work antecedent to all beginings of true Conversion is not so evident That all true Converts are convinced of their Sin and Misery by Nature I no way doubt and that the Law is of excellent use to work and heighten these Convictions is not to be denied and that many be under meer Legal Convictions and Terrors who may or may not be afterwards converted is not disputed neither the Spirit of God may improve a common work those terrors or any other afflicting providences to lead a sinner to Christ but it does not therefore follow that such Legal Terrors must always go before Conversion no more than such or such awakening Providences made use of by God to Convert some should necessarily befall all who are converted Saving Gospel Conviction of sin includes in it all that is in a mere Legal Conviction with this difference that under a Gospel Conviction of sin we see the folly of it as well as the danger and always have an eye to Christ which does alleviate the sinking overwhelming Terrors of a meer Legal Conviction only which is as the nethermost Hell a dark dungeon indeed without the least cranny for any beam of Gospel light to shine in upon a poor distressed Soul trembling under a sence of eternal vengeance It is not the design of Christ that any so concluded under wrath by Law should be left one moment without any tender of Gospel grace which if they do reject and despise God may and does sometimes judicially give them up to a final Tormenting despair We cannot rationally urge upon sinners that which is the consequence of final unbelief till we have first Preached the Gospel to them and then at their peril be it if they believe it not Some Convictions of sin that issue in Conversion will be found to have their beginning with it i. e. some Convictions that issue in a visible Conversion may have their beginning in an inward latent and yet invisible Conversion to us that does not at present appear under that name To our discerning the Soul may be in travel some time before the New Creature appears before we can say such or such a one is born of God and yet the Converting act of the Spirit of God may be truly passed in that Soul before it is manifest to us in the sensible effects of it Let us not separate saving Conviction from true Conversion and look upon it as only Antecedaneous and Preparatory to it when indeed 't is a real part of it and essentially belonging to it A true Gospel saving conviction of sin is a higher work of the Spirit of God in a regenerate Soul than a meer Legal Conviction of sin is in a Natural man let it run up into never such Frights Fears and Terrors There are some common lower works of the Spirit that may be and are sometimes mistaken for saving grace and there are some special saving works of the Spirit that go but for a common work with some Common works are not always in the intention of God so much as Preparatives for Conversion it may be said to be finis Operis but not Operantis God not giving them Grace to improve their Legal Convictions either they wear off or else they sink under them into despair The Law may terrifie a sinner but till his heart comes to be affected with the love and mercy of God he will never turn from sin but then his Soul melts within him he looks unto him whom he has pierced and is
with many Temptations a regenerate Soul is aware of this and fears always But before we enter into this or that particular Temptation that we see coming towards us or have reason to suspect from the present circumstances we are under here a regenerate person watches and prays that he may not enter into that Temptation that God would some way or other divert the Temptation or fortify our hearts against it that we may repel it A Temptation may enter into us when we don't enter into it then it goes as it comes and makes little or no impression upon us when a Temptation shews it self to us at some distance the Seed of God in a regenerate Soul presently takes the alarm puts on the whole armour of God. Secondly Under the Temptation when the Flesh has betrayed the Soul into the hands of a Temptation has been tampering with it then does Grace struggle and fight and cry out unto God for help all this shews the activity of Grace in a way of righteousness how loth it is to be overcome of evil Thirdly After the Temptation when 't is ended or finished then it issues either in the commission of the Sin or conquest over the Temptation Grace shews it self both ways First After the commission of Sin what repentance what godly sorrow what shame what indignation what revenge Secondly After the conquest over the Temptation what rejoycing what thanksgiving what triumphing in the Grace of Christ So that you see here lies the manifest difference between the Children of God and of the Devil An unregenerate man cannot do righteousness his skill lies not that way he is wise indeed to do evil but to do good no knowledg he is a meer Bungler at a good work his hand is always out because his heart is never right with God. He may do what is materally good but always fails in the manner those spiritual Ingredients which the Gospel requires to a work truly holy are wanting Thirdly Whosoever believeth that Iesus is the Christ is born of God. And every spirit that confesses that Iesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. They prove each other being inseparable The going forth of the Soul by Faith unto Christ as the anointed of the Lord sent and sealed by the Father to undertake the great work of Man's Redemption is a sure evidence of Regeneration All unregenerate men are strangers to Christ they know him not they desire him not they think they can shift well enough without him None know the Son of God but those who are born of God. When the Spirit comes into us then we confess that Christ is come in the flesh Christ conveys himself through our nature to our persons the Divine and Humane Nature must be first united before our persons can be admitted to any communion with him The Humane Nature of Christ is the foundation of all our Communion with God our access to God is through the veil of his flesh Being born of the Spirit we stand related to the Person of Christ he is not ashamed to call us Brethren we can then call God our Father as he is the Father of Christ our elder Brother God was the Father of Christ before his Incarnation and continues still to be so after his Incarnation not only to him but to all who are born of his Spirit The Spirit of Christ being the Spirit of him who is God and Man knows how to raise up a seed of godly men and women The Infinite Eternal Spirit of the Son of God being poured out without measure upon the Man Jesus Christ operates through both his Natures hypostatically united in his Divine Person in whom all the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily without any diminution of its infinite excellencies and Divine properties from the assumption of our finite humane nature so the same Eternal Spirit of Christ dwelling in us in a lower way of union to our persons does act indeed Divinely but yet according to our finite capacities all intellectual acts are finite or infinite as the persons are that do them the Person of Christ being infinite so are his spiritual actings notwithstanding his finite nature as Man so the actings of the Spirit of God in the Saints are finite because their persons are so Actiones sunt suppositorum Actions are personal of greater or lesser degree of efficacy and power as the persons are that do them Faith in Christ Jesus being the birth of the Spirit must needs be an infallible mark of Regeneration the design of the Spirit of God in working Faith in us is to bring us to the knowledg of Christ and through him to the knowledg of God wherein consists our true happiness This is life eternal to know thee c. Faith is the beginning of Eternal Life in the Soul and the manner of conveying this Eternal Life from God unto our Souls is called Regeneration Thus you see how he that believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. The next inquiry will be how Faith does this or how believing in Christ does work that universal change in the Soul which the Gospel calls Regeneration Tho the beginning or rather all the essentials of Regeneration are found in the first principle of Faith created in us by the Spirit of Christ yet this does not appear to us but by those lively operations of this Faith put forth by us We have an inward feeling of these operations the sense of which does lead us to some discerning of that spirit and principle from whence they flow 'T is actual Faith Iohn means in this Epistle therefore he joyns it with Confession he lays the Mark upon actual Faith for that only falls under our discerning God indeed sees the first seeds and principles of Grace but they are known to us only by the sense we have of their powerful actings in us and therefore I shall consider the regenerating Power of actual Faith and shew how it does discover that new birth that came in with a principle of Faith at first The Regenerating power of Faith both in the principle and in the act is very great it makes a marvellous change in us So strong are the impressions of Faith about Christ and our everlasting concernments in him that we must needs be much affected with the discovery which lies in two things 1. In a convicting knowledg of our sin and misery by Nature 2. In an astonishing discovery of God's Grace and mercy to us in Christ. The Spirit of God demonstrating both unto us with such clearness and evidence that we cannot but be persuaded of the truth of them in our own case and being so persuaded we must be concerned about them Faith draws in the attention of the mind to those things we believe in reference to our selves fixes our thoughts upon them dwells upon the consideration of them there is no evading the serious thoughts of Faith no getting them out of
our heads nor out of our hearts they lye close they lye next us always in our view My sin is ever before me Christ dwells in our hearts by Faith we have the whole state of our Souls before us from first to last Faith shews us where our true interest lies what is of absolute necessity to be done in order to Salvation We see all this in Christ who is God and Man made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him In Christ we see how matters stand between God and Man we see all that passed between God and Man in order to his recovery the whole method way and manner of our restauration from first to last we see the wages of our Sins and the price of our Redemption we see the Law and the Gospel both fulfill'd in Christ God's infinite Justice and Mercy highly exalted and glorified in him 'T is a pleasing ravishing sight to behold God in Christ reconciling the World unto himself to observe the mystery of his manifold hidden wisdom in carrying on the great work of Man's Redemption all this Faith discovers to us in some measure filling us with a Holy admiration of God's unspeakable kindness and love to us provoking us to pursue after the great ends of the Gospel How busie is the Soul how full of discourse with it self What secret inferences does an enlightned Conscience draw from what it believes This believing Jesus to be the Christ takes in all that belongs to the Person of Christ in all his Offices takes in the whole Doctrine of Christ all his Precepts all his Promises applies all to the Soul Thou art the Man spoken of and spoken to in the Gospel hear and thy Soul shall live Now is the accepted time now is the day of Salvation Faith admits of no delays won't give us one days respite from the work it hath cut out for us So Faith wrought in Paul when Christ was revealed in him immediately he consulted not with flesh and blood Faith changes our Counsels alters the whole frame of the Soul the Man is a new Man born again into a new World into a new Nature quite of another spirit This is the Regenerating power of Faith. Let us then judge of the truth of our Faith by the great change that it always makes in those who are brought out of darkness into this marvellous light Should we ask some Professors what effect their Faith had upon them whether upon their believing in Christ they found themselves born again made new creatures It may be they will say they hope they are the better for believing that their Faith has not been without some good effect Alas what a slender account is this how short of a new birth You may be the same Man that ever you were for all this in the same state in which you were first born Art thou born again born of God Speak to this Some outward Reformation there may be where there is no inward Regeneration Hast thou a new heart dost thou lead a new life is the whole course of thy life changed are all things become new within and without Faith in Christ changes us into the same image transforms us into his likeness le ts in the Spirit of Christ further and further into the Soul till we are so filled with the Holy Spirit that there will be at last no room for a worldly spirit to breathe in us it will be quite extinct and die away The more we see of this newness of spirit in any the more of the new creature appears in them When the Apostle would take off the Ephesians from a vain worldly course of life he shews the inconsistency of such a course with the true knowledg of Christ. You have not so learned Christ you have been taught better things by him than to walk as the Gentiles do in the vanity of their mind Faith in Christ works so great a change in all the faculties of the Soul in the understanding will and affections and in our outward conversation too that a true Believer may well be said to be born again from the newness of life that appears in him and to be born of God from the holiness spirituality and heavenly nature of that life which he now lives by Faith in the Son of God. Till the Regenerating power of Faith do thus appear in us we have no reason to think we are born again 4. Whosoever is born of God overcomes the world c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Omne quod ex Deo genitum est He uses the neuter gender to comprehend all sorts states and degrees of mankind he does not say he or she that is born of God c. but whatsoever is born of God every Man Woman and Child rich or poor bond or free whosoever is born of God has power and strength from Christ to overcome the World they are assured of the Victory at their first setting out because greater is he that is in them than he that is in the World. They know they are of the strongest side Christ has overcome the World already in his own Person and will not fail to conquer it in and by the Saints he will appear so great in them that the whole World shall not be able to stand before them Be of good cheer I have overcome the world and you in me have overcome it and by me you shall personally overcome it your selves I prove this to be an evidence of Regeneration thus That which overcomes the World must be of a higher extraction of a more noble descent than the World it self in its present corrupt state it must be something distinct from the World and above it whatever is born of the Flesh is but Flesh falls in with the World to which it belongs and of which it is a part but God having chosen some out of the World and called them to a Heavenly Life has promised to give them a Heavenly Nature to beget them again unto himself to put his own Spirit into them that they may walk as New Creatures who are not of the World though they live in it they are Born of God do bear his image their hearts are moulded into the belief of his word they can do nothing against the truth but every thing for the truth these are they who overcome the World the men of the world and the Things of the World the Spirit Principles of the World the Fears and Hopes of the World the Lusts and Pleasures and Temptations of the World they are dead to all these not moved by them but do steer their course by a higher light let down from heaven into their hearts and this is their Victory even their Faith they have nothing to oppose against the World and all things in it that may disquiet and discompose their Spirits but their Faith and by believing they enter into rest all who
thou requirest of me so Paul Oh that God would so manifest himself to every one of your hearts this day that he would shew himself come up close to you look you in the face and say I am Jesus you could not withstand this mighty presence of God in Christ Jesus O speak Lord 't is but thy saying to each of us I am Jesus and we shall all be made to know the Lord from the least to the greatest I hope the quickning voice of the Son of God is now sounding in the Ears of your Faith while I am speaking to you and that you do receive the Word not as the word of Man but as it is indeed the Word of God quick and powerful sharper than a two-edged Sword in every one of your hearts The knowledge of the Truth as 't is in Jesus Eph. 4. 21. is one thing and the knowledge of the Truth as 't is in Ink and Paper is another they are the same Truths but as they are in the Scriptures they lie in the dead Letter as they are in Christ they are seen in their living root and principle from whence they spring meer Scriptural Knowledge is but Historical we look upon the things we read and hear rather as notions than realities till God fills up all expressions of Scripture concerning himself with a Divine Presence answerable thereunto we believe nothing that is said of him but such a presence of God in his Word captivates our hearts to the belief of it we must believe him to be such a God as the Word declares him to be before we shall count all his sayings true we must fetch strength from the name of God Rev. 2. 13. to support our Faith in all its actings upon any part of his revealed will and we never deny any Truth plainly revealed but we deny his name Rev. 3. 8. and question his Attributes some Truths bare more upon one Attribute some more upon another but all are founded in God and in the essential properties of his Nature from whence they have their verification and accomplishment so that till God appear and shew himself to the Soul all that is said to us out of the Scriptures in the name of an unknown God affects us not because it wants that which is the ground of its Credibility no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Spirit 1 Cor. 12. 3. he cannot say so and think so he cannot say so and believe what he says till the Father reveal his Son in him Paul by the Light of that Revelation of Christ in him knew all Gospel Mysteries and without such an inward spiritual manifestation of God to our Souls giving us a sight of him who is invisible 't is impossible we should ever be throughly convinced of the Divinity of the Scriptures all Divinity springs from God leads to him nay it looks him directly in the Face and can't be considered apart from him there is but one God and one Faith God must be in the view of our Faith whensoever we really act it Neither can we have that inward testimony of the Spirit convincing us of the Divine Authority of the Scriptures without this special Appearance of God in the Soul as a witness to the Truth of his Word While we are hearing the Word God has invisible wayes of access to our hearts he conveys himself through his Truth to our Souls his Divinity leads the way without some appearance of this the contents of the Word would have no place in our hearts but coming with so great a presence in so great a name and with so strong an impression God himself writing them upon the heart we cannot but receive his Testimony the Word comes into our Hearts suddenly before we are aware and seises them for God we cannot but think speak act and judge as God does the sense of the Word is the sense of our Souls so far as the Word is written in our hearts we read it without the least variation the Copy answers the Original Hence arises that habitual disposition or inclination to believe God creates this new heart I say this infused habit or principle of faith is antecedent to all acts of faith put forth by us and is in it self the sole act of God upon us in our first Conversion it is from this supernatural principle thus infused that the natural powers and faculties of the Soul of Man viz. the Understanding and the Will are enabled to take in things purely Spiritual and Divine Nature never acts above its sphere those inbred common Notions that are the Standards and Measures of Natural Truths in all their consequences will never lead us to grant or admit that which is supernatural when we do this 't is always from some higher Principle when we see men acting above themselves we may conclude they are acted by something higher than themselves which is the Spirit of Christ dwelling in them This special Appearance of God with those inward effects of it upon the Soul which I have been speaking of may be known to Believers they discern it in others Acts 11. 17 18. and do when they give a true reason of their faith see it in themselves that all springs from the Fathers revealing his Son in them they can give no other reason why they believe in Jesus 't is God that opens the door of Faith and makes it effectual Acts 14. 27. We are apt to be taken with any appearance of Man in a Sermon this we look after what words of Mans Wisdom how Man acquits himself in reasoning of this or that Point 'T is true there is some skill required in Planting and Watering but all the encrease comes from God your Faith consists not in the Wisdom of Man but in the power of God if God himself do not appear as a witness to his own Truth as the great undertaker of all that he has promised what we say will prevail little your faith must terminate in God himself and in that Ability that is in him to perform his word this was the ground of Abrahams faith Paul knew him whom he believed 2 Tim. 1. 12. and so must you if ever you believe to the saving of your Souls Did you go out of the Congregation after every Sermon you hear under a sight and sense of this appearance of God in his Word speaking to you from Heaven and shewing himself to your souls in some spiritual resemblance suited and adapted to that Word you are hearing how could you reject such a Word so full of God so exactly corresponding to what you see in God himself you must yield and cry out each of you who am I that I should withstand God This is the first way that God takes to work Faith in us by our hearing the Word Preached to us Secondly Faith is wrought by opening the heart enlightning the mind and perswading the will to a through closure with Christ upon Gospel Terms
hath power to forgive sins Take up thy bed and walk Mat. 9. 6. This you all see but the actings of my saving power upon the souls of men that power that works within Eph. 3. 20. you see not let this that you see convince you of that which you see not and never dispute my power more to forgive sin I can heal the diseases of the Soul as well as those of the Body the power that God has to forgive sin is the great prerogative of God belonging to the soveraignty of his grace God walks invisibly thorow the World doing his mighty works of Grace he touches some mens hearts not others he draws some and not others by the sweet yet irresistable force of his Grace we see nothing but man mans Will mans Choice mans Act and therefore conclude all is by mans own power because we see not the wheel within the wheel the Spirit of God setting the whole soul in motion towards Christ This arcanum Iehovae this secret of the Lord is with them that fear him Psal. 25. 14. The way of the Spirit of God in the hearts of men is discerned by few 't is a very hard matter to understand how God works in us to will and to do because we find it to be our own act to believe repent and turn to God we ascribe all to our selves as if our own arm had saved us The truth is God in all the efficacious operations of his grace upon the hearts of men loves to conceal himself he will not be seen by others to do what he do's in and for his Saints no noise in the streets Matth. 12. 19. The kingdom of God comes not with observation Luke 17. 20 21. All is done within secretly and silently non are privy to this heart-work but they that feel it this is the hiding of his power from the observation of those whom he never intends to work upon and for the hardening of their hearts that they may still retain an opinion of their own ability to do that which they see others so freely and willingly addicting themselves unto Though this be a cause of stumbling to many who boast of a supposed power and freedom of will to believe and repent when they please yet such in whose hearts God has wrought these mighty works of his grace they see and feel the weight of his Arm revealed upon their souls they know it is Gods doing that a divine power has touched their hearts and carried them out to all these acts of Faith that they put forth they openly acknowledge this 1 Cor. 15. 10. Phil. 4. 13. 2 Cor. 3. 5. Gal. 2. 20. Not I but Christ. When they feel themselves most strengthned by Christ they are then most sensible of their own self-insufficiency and weakness I can do all things through Christ yet not sufficient of our selves to think a good thought when I am weak then am I strong 2 Cor. 12. 10. They would not say so if they did not find a power more then humane exerting it self within them and strengthning them with might in their inward man I live yet not I but Christ lives in me till we can thus distinguish between Nature and Grace and see God influencing our Wills in all their free motions to that which is good we shall vainly assume to our selves a power that never yet reduced it self to the least real act of Faith in any man whatever 't is easie talking of a power to believe before we come to believe in good earnest then our strength fails us if God do not support us and help our unbelief I believe help my unbelief q. d. I can't hold it my faith will fail if God do not put his Everlasting Arms underneath if we consider what difficulties what strong Objections unanswerable by Reason Faith Acts against in keeping up a lively hope of Pardon in the Conscience of a convinced sinner we must needs say 't is the work of God that we believe we may wonder at our selves as men when we consider what we believe as Christians I have spoken all this to shew that God is the Author and Finisher of our Faith 't is he only can open the heart and dispose it to give Credit to the Word of his Grace Application By way of Discovery viz. How we may know when Faith comes by Hearing even at the time of Hearing and whether it be yet come into your hearts by all you have heard hitherto Faith is a secret and a sudden work when it comes it gives some sense of it self to an observing Christian that quickly convinces us of a change in our selves a heart truly turned to God is not the same it was before not in the same posture not in the same disposition and frame there is something new appears in every new Creature that do's not belong to the Old Man but rises up in opposition to him this newness do's not lye in some one corner of the heart but every where 't is universal in every faculty all things are become new though the old leaven be not totally cast out any where but left as an occasional provocation and challenge to the Grace of God to act in more opposition to those motions of sin that put a force upon the New Creature are directly contrary to the bent and genius of our renewed Nature till Faith comes we are never sensible of any such inward Conflicts between the flesh and the Spirit but then the fight begins the good fight of Faith 'T is Faith strikes the first stroke makes the first assault upon our reigning sin and corruptions and will never cease contending with them till it has got a full Victory over them and throughly mortified them But how shall we know in the very time of hearing when Faith comes When the word Works effectually after hearing it usually gives some powerful touch upon the heart at the time of hearing so 1 Cor. 14. 24 25. he speaks there of the occasional Conversion of an Unbeliever who came into the Assembly where there was Prophesying and Preaching 't is probable some such are come in hither to day Oh that God would meet with them that they might be convinced and fall down upon their Faces worshipping God acknowledging that he is among us of a truth so Acts 2. 37. their Hearts were prick'd they cry out in the midst of the Sermon Men and Brethren what shall we do We want such publick Conversions had we more of these New Births in our Congregations we should have more of these out-cries which would be very awakening to us all if God would honour his Ordinances with such visible signs of his presence as in the Primitive Times the Word was preached with that power that it wrought a great consternation and astonishment in the whole Assembly there was a great impression upon their minds which had various effects some blasphemed and some believed but all were moved and stirred struck inwardly
though many saw not the hand that struck them 't is otherwise now hearers are more unconcern'd in a more drowsie frame we can hardly keep them waking all Sermon time they say these were extraordinary cases not applicable to us now I must tell you Conversions wrought by ordinary means now are extraordinary things have extraordinary effects the Light into which we are brought is and ought to be as marvellous in our Eyes now as 't was in theirs heretofore they who find nothing of this neither in nor after Conversion would do well to make a stricter inquiry into their state sometimes we bring down Grace as low as we can for the sake of weak ones but we must not make nothing of it to please some who would rest in a silent easie Conversion and think to go Heaven by the charitable Opinion others have of them that so great a change as Conversion is should make so little appearance as it doe's in many pretending to it is that we should not easily digest Let every one examine himself Should God come upon any of you with a through Conviction of Sin and give you a real sight of Christ as your only Saviour you would not be able to contain your selves under this marvellous Light 't will be like Fire in your Bones Ier. 20. 9. you 'l immediately spring up as the Goaler did Acts 16. 29. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he did not consider which soot he should put foremost but leaped up on a suddain broke out into a passionate inquiry after the way of Salvation Faith especially at its first entrance when it first comes into our Hearts is alwaies accompanied with a through Conviction of our lost undone Estate I don't speak now of those legal Convictions that in some may be preparatory to Conversion but of that saving Evangelical Conviction that is of the Essence of saving Faith alwayes accompanying it it is the reason of Faiths earnestness in its first actings upon Christ Master save us we perish In the Acts we have several instances of Faith wrought in the time of hearing Acts 10. 44. While Peter yet spake the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word So Acts 14. 1. Acts 18. 8. Acts 28. 24. Paul perceived Faith in the Cripple by his attentive hearing Acts 14. 9. When Faith does not make this publick entrance into the Hearts of those who hear the word as it did in the Primitive times in the view and face of the whole Congregation and 't is much to be lamented that it does not I fear it portends more than I am willing to tell you yet I hope Faith may and does come in a more silent manner into your Hearts at the time of hearing this you may know by a sudden astonishment and trembling that sezes upon the Soul Luke 4. 33. Acts 13. 12. Acts 9. 6. When a discovery of the Evil of Sin and of the Grace of Christ do meet together in one saving Conviction in the Conscience of an awakened Sinner we must needs be variously affected with horrour and hope Grace clothes it self with contrary passions at the same time as it looks at Sin and at Christ loathing the one and embracing the other this may be perceived at the first opening of the Heart to believe the Gospel a present act of Faith is and will be the present sense of the Soul in and about what it believes there is no putting the word from us when once we believe it in our Hearts Men may talk of Gospel-Truths under a formal profession of Faith and not be affected with them but the Word works effectually in them that believe Faith touches the Soul in the most sensible part of it gathers up the Mind and Thoughts of a Man into a close and serious debate with himself about those things which he believes in reference to himself his Heart waxes hot within him this is the Power and Dominion that Faith has over us being the highest principle in Man it overcomes all contradictions from the Flesh answers all Carnal Objections throughly perswades a Man firmly establishes the Heart in the belief of the present Truth so that we become unmovable from the hope of the Gospel These are the inward Commotions that Faith makes in the Soul at its first entrance you cannot so slight the impressions of Faith as not to be greatly concerned about them 't is not come to real believing till it comes to this you are and must be serious in and about that which with your hearts you believe concerning your Eternal State. Whether you now are or ever have been in such a frame God and your own Consciences know best they are not trifles that you believe but matters of that moment that you cannot but be concerned in them and there is nothing required to fire your Hearts with a zealous solitude and thoughtfulness about them but only your believing them you can no more step over such an act of Faith than you can cease to think while you are actually thinking or cease to move while actually moving An act of believing is the Soul in actual motion towards Christ flying for refuge to the hope that is set before him This is the way of the Spirit in working Faith at the time of hearing and if you observe such a one whose heart the Word has reached he goes home musing upon what he has heard Suppose one standing in the Spirit of Isaiah at the Meeting-door as you go forth crying out Who hath believed our report to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed this day how experimentally would such a one say I have believed to me hath the Arm of the Lord been revealed follow him further into his House into his Chamber or Closet behold he prayes as the Word brings down the sense of God into the Soul so Prayer carries up the sence of the Soul concerning that word to God above Prayer especially just after Conversion is but a Holy enlargement of the Heart about those things that God first speaks to us by his Word I will say 't is my people they shall say the Lord is my God. In hearing expect no other reason for Faith but the bare testimony of the Word of God search the Scriptures whether things are so or no as Ministers declare if you find them so charge them upon your Consciences as most worthy of all acceptation and belief Religion now a dayes is branched out into so many speculations and subtle questions wrapped up in such terms of art under such nice distinctions that the power and simplicity of the Gospel is almost lost ordinary Professors know not what to believe while the Pulpit gives such an uncertain sound There is not so much Rational Knowledge required to the obedience of Faith as some imagine leave others to dispute to produce their Reasons pro and con do you quote Scripture and believe begging of God to direct your faith into right apprehensions