are Born of God do thus live by Faith here below they consult not with Flesh and Blood their affections are suited to the apprehensions of their Faith they are filled with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory by believing they see good days a coming when all Tears shall be wiped from their Eyes they wait patiently till then rejoycing in the hope of the Glory of God. Till we get into this frame walking in the evidence of things not seen we shall never overcome the World for the things that are seen conceive them in what shape or posture you please have their emptiness and vanity in them will never satisfy they are but finite and temporal the present Fashion of this World be it what it will passes away into something else while we are a beholding it all things here below moulder and crumble away in our hands perish in the using are always the worse for wearing which shews they cannot last long when they are in their best state they are altogether vanity the highest degree of Perfection in the Creature tends to corruption and indeed disposes to it 't is as Natural to Die as to be Born there is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a turning point that stops the further growth of the Creature and makes it to decline ever after till its fading Glory be quite extinguish'd therefore labour not for the meat that perishes but for that which nourishes unto Everlasting Life Till we come to Live upon Eternal unseen things we live but meanly in the midst of our Earthly sufficiencies we are in straights still wanting something till Christ be ours and then all is ours There is no room left then for any further designs in him we have plenary satisfaction and perfect rest we shall never have true hearts ease till then But the difficulty lies in bringing over our hearts to this Newness of Life to this Noble Life of Faith that fetches all its Comforts from Heaven casting up its anchor within the Vail which is sure and stedfast Flesh and Blood cannot do this there is nothing in Nature that disposes us to it therefore we must be born again be made New Creatures before we shall favour the things of heaven and such is the power of Religion upon the minds of men where it is in truth that it always works this change in them they find it and feel it in themselves Whether it be so with us whether we have any certain experience of such a thing in our own Souls we should do well to consider that even upon our knees and give God no rest day nor night till we see some better symptoms of Eternal Life in our selves we may judge of our life whether it be Eternal or no by the things we live in and live upon they who are of the Earth are Earthly they who are born from above are heavenly to be carnally mindedis death but to be Spiritually minded is life and peace The inward frame of the mind discovers what kind of Creatures we are whether old or new flesh or spirit the issues of life are from the Heart as the pulse of your Souls beats upwards or downwards so you may judge of your state as you find your selves most concerned in things above or things below till you have got above the world and have overcome it you are not born again Fifthly Every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. That which is intended here is First Love to the Saints as such Unfeigned love of the Brethren is a sign of a pure heart and that we are indeed born again Secondly Love to all men 't is due to all Owe no man any thing but love that we owe to all every man may challenge it every man is our Neighbour in that sense to be the object of our Love we must extend it to our very Enemies 't is the fulfilling of the Law the duty of man to man prescribed in the Second Table cannot be performed without it Love is above all Illumination and Knowledge a more sure mark of Regeneration He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him Love is one of the communicable Attributes of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost we are followers of God when we walk in love Common Professors have some love one to another but if you trace it up to its original you 'll find it a selfish mercenary love in which they rather respect themselves than Christ 't is not for his sake but for some outward respects of relation neighbourhood or usefulness in the common concerns of this life it may be for their agreement in opinion about some lower matters of Religion this is but the friendship of the World and may be consistent with real enmity against God and good men as such but perfect love i. e. real sincere Christian Love is for God's sake because he has so loved us and given us a new Command to love one another There is no true love among men till we are born again He exhorts those who have put off the old man and are renewed in spirit to put away all bitterness wrath c. Before Regeneration we are foolish disobedient living in malice and envy hatesul and hating one another Biting devâ—uring consuming one another It looks rather like a description of Wild Beasts than men so savage and fierce are we by nature nothing but a spirit of Regeneration will sweeten and mollify the hearts of men that which unites us to Christ unites us one to another we are all one in Christ but we shall never be all one among our selves till we are united to Christ then the Peace of God rules in our hearts to which we are called in one body There is no true good nature among men but what flows from Grace Sin hath so poysoned and sowred man's Nature that till that Serpentine Venom be purged out and a better Spirit be put into us there will be little harmony or concord among men Having put on the new man put on therefore as the elect of God c. Vide Loc. Were this mark of Regeneration more visible in our days it would be a token for good of a more effectual work of the Gospel among us than for ought I see does yet appear Hatred variance c. are reckoned up among the Works of the Flesh as directly opposite to the Fruits of the Spirit I will shew how this loving disposition arises out of Regeneration that the fundamental ground of it is our conformity to Christ which necessarily follows upon our Regeneration Christ is the express Image of his Father the Saints are in their finite capacities the express Image of Christ in whom they see the Father who as God is one with the Son whilst they behold the Son as God-man they see their humane Nature hypostatically united to the Divine they see their humane persons
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
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
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
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
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
is it What have we to do to repent of the punishment We can't reverse it 't is Gods part to repent of the punishment to turn from his wrath to cease from his anger which he will do when we repent of the sin that occasioned it To repent of the punishment is in effect to be sorry that God is so just that he so severely animadverts upon sinners we wish he would let them go unpunished that we might more securely go on in our sins the only way to escape vengeance is to acknowledge the sinfulness of sin and to repent of our great folly in committing it such a frame of Spirit bears some proportion to the Holiness of God argues true Godly sorrow which worketh Evangelical Repentance unto Salvation 2 Cor. 7. 10. 4. Legal Repentance is before Faith without Faith may never issue in saving Faith as in Cain Saul Iudas but Evangelical Repentance does alwayes accompany saving Faith and of this I am now to speak under the second head shewing you Secondly The nature of Evangelical Repentance what it is in its first rise and original upon what 't is founded It came in with the Gospel the Law never intended any such thing the sinner was to be cut off by Law to die without Mercy in the day thou eatest thou shalt die says the Law unless ye repent says the Gospel here is an exception put in in case of repentance against the peremptory Sentence of the Law. I say repentance comes in with the Gospel I will put enmity c. Gen. 3. 15. Repentance rises out of this Enmity This seems to point particularly at the Conversion of Eve who by Faith in the promised Messiah should turn against the Serpent I will put enmity between thee and the woman this woman whom thou hast deceived shall become thy Enemy and bring forth a seed that shall break thy head thou shalt bruise his heel but his Death shall be thy overthrow Repentance is a Gospel Priviledge purchased by Christ 't is an act of Grace in God to injoyn us Repentance as his leaving men in an impenitent hardened frame is an act of his Justice and Wrath. The Law in its Original Constitution does not intend the amendment of the sinner but his utter Destruction the Law can kill the sinner but cannot mortifie the sin Damnation makes no man better but concludes him Eternally under sin and wrath the Justice of God is not obliged to turn a sinner from his sins but to turn him into Hell for his sins That which makes it a just and righteous thing with God to forgive the sins of Believer is Christs Merits and his own Promise 't is Justice in God to make good his own Promises Rom. 3. 25 26. 2 Thes. 1. 6 7. he is a debtor to his own promise he cannot deny himself 2 Tim. 2. 13. he owes the performance of his Promise to his Faithfulness and Truth 't is an act of Justice to himself to keep his Promise God offers Mercy to sinners not because they do repent but that they may repent Repentance is not the Cause but the Effect of Pardon God always intends Pardon to those whom he effectually calls to repentance he gave no such call to the Angels that fell there was no Gospel preached to them No fallen Angel was saved because no Elect Angel fell but there are many of Gods Elect among the fallen Sons of Adam to whom promises of Salvation were made upon their believing in Christ this being published to all in the Gospel all who hear the Gospel do put in for their share in this Salvation and that they may render the attainment more easie and feazable to them they deny absolute Election bring in Universal Redemption assert the liberty of Mans Will to believe if he please and supposing it to be in their own power to believe they conclude they may be saved as well as others and this is the ground of all that security that is among common Professors Having spoken thus much of Evangelical Repentance as it implies a real hatred of sin as sin and a real turning to God as the chiefest good from an inward change of nature renewed after the Image of God I shall now shew you 1. That such a Repentance can never be wrought in any by the Law alone the Gospel has a principal hand in this Why not by the Law. Because in the Law there are not sufficient motives and inducements to Repentance nothing that encourages to it that renders it available to mans Salvation the law cannot give life to a sinner upon his repentance the Gospel can but the Law cannot could a man under the Law Repent suppose that What would he get by it he must to Hell after all the Law as a Covenant of Works does not seek to bring a sinner to Repentance but to Punishment the Law cannot give Repentance unto Life because it cannot give Life upon our Repentance You 'l say then is the Law against Repentance I don't say so neither for take Repentance as 't is a just equitable thing as a holy disposition of mind so the Law is not against it where ever it may be found as it is not against any other act of Moral Righteousness as such that a man may do and yet for all this 't will condemn a man for his sin and all his righteousness shall not be remembred though the Law be not against Repentance yet it will not accept of repentance as a satisfaction for past sins but the Gospel provides full satisfaction for the Law and promises sufficient and effectual Grace to the sinner to bring him to repentance having rescued him from the Curse of the Law enables him to walk worthy of the blessing of the Gospel if those who are justified were not sanctified they would live to the scandal of the Gospel The Law cannot contradict it self having already pronounced a peremptory sentence of death upon the sinner 't is impossible the Law should ever gier repentance unto Life the Law insists upon the Execution of its own Judgement and will not be satisfied till that be done in this the Gospel yields to the Law to have execution done upon man for sin and provides a man on purpose the man Christ Iesus who bore our sins in his own body upon the cross 3. This Evangelical Repentance implies real Sanctification but the Law sanctifies no man because it can't convey its own Holiness to another can't alter the Nature of a Man but only shew him what mischief his sin has done him shews him his sin in this or that instance to his great terror but if he happen to out-live those terrors and not die in the fit as Iudas his evil heart will encline him as strongly to sin as ever it did before his former Convictions they made him give a present start backwards but he will quickly recover himself and return to his wretched course he cannot cease from sin though he