Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

nify, that something is effected for us, and wrought in us, which is intirely owing to the power and grace of GoD.

I shall speedily endeavour to guard against any false and ill consequences, that men may be tempted to draw from hence; but in the mean time it must be maintained,......that regeneration is the work of the HOLY SPIRIT. There is one passage in the 1st of John's Gospel, the 13th, that does expressly deny any other agency in this matter. Which were born, says the Evangelist, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the avill of man, but of GOD. The meaning of that place is this: To become the sons of GOD, we must be born of him; and that in such a sort as is not by blood, or by any thing communicated to us in our first generation:.......Nor according to the will of the flesh; that is, any natural inclinations in ourselves to what is holy and god-like.......Nor of the will of man; that is, the persuasion and influence of others like ourselves: But it is wholly owing to the agency and grace of GoD. So in the 1st of James, the 18th, we are told..........that of his own will begat he us. These, with other places that promise a new heart; and that God will take away the stony heart out of our flesh; and that he will put his fear into our hearts, and write his law in our inward parts; and the declaration, that it is not of him that willeth, or of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy: These, I say, and such like texts of scripture, undoubtedly prove that the change here called the second Birth, is of God.

Ezek. xi. 19. Jer. xxiv. 7.

......xxxii. 40.

Rom. ix. 16.

From hence therefore, before we advance any thing farther, we may draw this conclusion ;.......That since something is to be done in us and for us, which cannot be done by us, we should be very earnest and unwearied in our application to GOD for his grace and Spirit. This is evidently the most natural and just way of arguing, however some men may indulge to the quite contrary. There is certainly an aukwardness in thinking as well as acting. And when this is encouraged by a slothful temper, or a prejudice against any particular set of men and

their opinions; or when it is supported and improved by the suggestions of the devil, it is hardly to be rectified. For otherwise one would think it impossible that ever the metaphors...... of being created anew.......raised to newness of life,........and being born again, should be pleaded by men, as if they were literally to be understood. Which is downright to say.......that an unregenerate man has no reason, no life, no being. The same almighty power and efficacy by which we were made at first, and shall be raised at last, is undoubtedly necessary to our renovation at present; But then upon a conviction of this, we should with the greatest concern apply ourselves to him who has this all-sufficient power and grace. Thus we are wont to do in other cases where our interest is concerned; to be very earnest in soliciting such, as have it in their power to do that for us, which we are not able to do for themselves. And this is what the sacred scriptures every where require, and that in the plainest expressions, in the case of regeneration; as I shall have occasion to shew more fully at the close of this chapter.

II. That which is done in us and for us when we are said to be born again, I take to be this ;.......the infusing of some inward principle of life and action, to which we are naturally strangers; and by communicating of which, such a life begins, as shall last for ever.

There is something which so far prevails over all the powers, desires, and relishes of the sensitive and animal nature, as to bring it unto a thorough subjection and subserviency. Hence it is, that a man finds his corrupt inclinations as powerfully crossed, and as effectally kept under, by something within himself, as if he was debating the matter with a being different from himself. And he therefore acts under the controlling power of something superior to himself. If any man that reads this, thinks it unintelligible, I can only assure him in the words of our SAVIOUR, toward the close of his conference with Nicodemus; Verily, verily, we speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen, and ye receive not our witness. Our SAVIOUR knew it by intuition, and observation of what was done

C

upon others: Those that are regenerate know it by experience of what has been done in themselves: And, however those that are strangers to this work of grace, may refuse to receive the witness, yet it is nevertheless true and real.

This principle of a new life, I have said is infused into us, that it may be sought for, and esteemed as something supernatural. It is not only a habit of the mind, but the spring and cause of every good and gracious habit in us. From hence, probably, a principle of grace is called the root of the matter; to signify to us (among other things) that it is really different from the soil in which it is planted: And that it is something brought to us by a divine hand. It is a root that would otherwise have remained foreign to our nature, and we should for ever have been barren, and destitute of those fruits that are the product of it.

I have chosen to say farther, that by communicating this principle of grace, such a life begins as shall last for ever, to put you upon observing this very comfortable propriety in the use of the metaphor of being born again; namely, our entering into such a state of being, as much better deserves the name of life, than that which we are born to in this world. In our first Birth we are born to die; in our second, we are born to live for ever. In our first Birth we enter upon a manner of existence suited to a changeable and perishing state of things: In our second Birth we begin a manner of living suited to an eternal duration and happiness. As, therefore, the new life which hereby we receive, will survive the former, the commencement of it is very fitly call a new Birth.

There are two conclusions I would draw from hence, for the better and fuller settling of this point.

1. If there be such an inward principle of life and action communicated in our regeneration, it will follow.......that a mere outward change, and altering the course of our lives, is not sufficient to a person's being born again.

It is possible a man may be reclaimed from a loose, and vicious way of living, only by external motives and inducements: Or, by changing open and notorious sins, for more secret and concealed ones, there may be a seeming alteration, when there is not a real one: Or one vice, it may be, is forsaken, in order to fall into another: Or men may be wearied out with their sins; and so are not properly said to leave them, but to outlive them. However, this is certain,....That a civil outward deportment may be maintained, where there is nothing of the power of religion at the heart. For so the Apostle Paul tells us (who was far from magnifying any thing in himself before his conversion) that as touching the law, Phil. iii. 6. meaning the cutward observance of it, he was blameless. So that we have abundant reason to keep up the distinction betwixt restraining and renewing grace.

2. If it be only a new principle of life and action that is infused in regeneration, it will follow........That the new Birth does not give us new, and different natural powers and faculties, from those which we had before.

As we have the same body and bodily organs; so we have also the same souls and intellectual faculties that we had in our natural state. It is certain, that a change very great passes upon us; but then it is as certain, that we remain physically the same afterwards: That is, the principle of life and action which is infused into us, new models our souls, our tempers, and the whole of our behaviour; but it does not alter our make as to any essential part of us. As we have the same eyes, ears, and senses; so we have also the same understanding, will, and affections, that we had in an unregenerate state: But these are all differently used and employed to what they were before. And the change is great enough, to support me in what I have farther to advance under another head of explication; to which I hasten.

III. When we are thus said to be born again, we do as truly become new creatures, as if we could in a natural sense be born afresh, or had other kind of beings given us.

[ocr errors]

There needs no other than the different use and exercise of the same reasonable powers, to make us either as Brutes, or as Angels. And indeed, the change would not be so great, to see a clod of earth brighten into a star, since we know that an earthly body can reflect the rays of the sun; as to see a poor brutish sinner become a saint, shining with all the radiant graces of a Christian, and ripening for glory.

Such is the change that is made by the grace and Spirit of GOD in the new Birth, that it very much resembles the first creation of this visible world; wherein light was brought out of darkness, and beauty out of deformity, and harmony out of confusion. For so the mind in regeneration is enlightned; and all its jarring disorderly passions and affections are brought under rule and government. Those powers and capacities that lay wholly unexercised and unactive, are now taught to exert themselves. And those that were busied in a fruitless, or a hurtful manner, now are exalted to the most useful and comfortable employments. In the Apostle's comprehensive language, all old things are passed away, and all things are become new.

The distinction indeed between the regenerate and unregenerate, is not at present visible enough to convince the world of common spectators, that it is so great as really it is: But at the day of judgment, when those things that are now hid shall be revealed, the difference shall be manifested to all. He that looks only on the rough surface of the seas, and observes the mire and dirt which is cast out by its waves, may imagine there is nothing amiable and desirable in it: But he that has dived to its bottom, and discovered the jewels and treasures which lie buried there, will form a very different judgment. The man that is renewed, is greatly enriched by the gifts and graces of the Spirit of Gon; but yet there may be no beauty or excellency that shall appear to such as look no farther than the outside, and observe only the corruptions that arise in his outward actions and conversation: But when things that now lie hid shall be discovered, it will be quite otherwise. Hence it is that we read so often in scripture of the world's not knowing

« AnteriorContinuar »