A DISCOURSE OF REGENERATION FAITH and REPENTANCE Preached at the Merchants-Lecture in Broad-street BY THOMAS COLE Minister of the GOSPEL in London LONDON Printed for Thomas Cockerill at the Three Legs in the Poultrey over-against the Stocks-Market MDCLXXXIX THE PREFACE TO THE READER WHAT hath been already published in the hearing of many by Preaching is now put into private hands by Printing and because 't is easier to please many Hearers than one Reader Let me whoever thou art bespeak thy Candor in a few words Readers should be Courteous there is a Civility due to Books as well as Persons 'T is not Manners to interrupt a Man in the middle of his Discourse and to censure a Book before you have read it our is much the same He that answereth a matter before he heareth it it is folly and shame unto him Prov. 18. 13. If what is here delivered fall not in with your thoughts I can only say this That my design was to write down my own Thoughts and not other mens submitting all to the Judgment of the Scriptures every one knows best what he thinks what he believes and is persuaded of A plain proposal of the Grounds and Reasons of our present Judgment leaving 'em to their own weight in every Man's Conscience is to act like men one towards another and the best way to communicate Light to those who are willing to learn. We cannot differ about the Conclusion when once we agree in the Premises but to resolve upon Conclusions first is the ready way to put a Cheat upon our selves whilst we don't seek so much to find out Truth as to make good our own Inventions To be born again was a hard saying Nicodemus could not receive it knew not how to make sense of it Had Christ intended only an outward reformation of Life and not an inward renovation of Nature he would not have explained our being Born again by being Born of Water and the Spirit Verse 5. which are Evangelical terms of a much higher signification and do imply a deeper change than that of Manners which at best reduces us but to a practical conformity to those inbred Moral principles belonging to our first birth as men this is still but a state of Nature we are in the same Spirit and Principle that ever we were Where is the new Nature that Spirit which is born of the Spirit those supernatural Principles that are above all our natural Notions carrying us out directly to God in Christ 'T is Faith that gathers up these supernatural Truths out of the Gospel and sets 'em home upon the Conscience with power subjecting the Soul to the Divine Authority of the Word without consulting flesh and blood about these high mysteries Revealed Truths are strange things to a natural Man and will never find acceptance with him till his mind be suited to them by a supernatural irradiation Heavenly things cannot be seen but by a Heavenly Light when God shines in our hearts then we are transformed into the very Image of those Truths which that Light discovers to us and do experimentally know what that renovation of the Spirit is which the Word speaks of Such Gospel Truths are put into our inward parts as were never there before this enables us to understand the Scriptures to Read 'em with pleasure we delight in the Law of God in our inward Man This Man within a Man this hidden Man of the heart is the new creature the genuine birth of the Spirit of God. If thou art such a Man thou art a true Christian Reader indeed willing to receive the witness of Christ who speaks what he knows and testifies that which he hath seen Ioh. 3. 11. I have written this following Discourse to you not because you know not the truth but because you know it and that no lie is of the truth 1 Joh. 2. 21. If any who may be yet spiritually unborn shall take up this Book and Read it they may see what they are not how short they come of that Character the Gospel gives of new-born Souls There are more Nicodemusses than one who cannot unriddle the mystery of Regeneration they will understand nothing by it but what they can bring ' emselves unto by an outward Baptism there is no Reasoning with these men while they live in one Nature and talk of another they say they know not what 't is impossible to have a real feeling of that Nature that is not in us He is a Skilful Limner who draws to the Life tho Life it self can never be drawn some resemblances of Life there may be the Cast and Colour of a Living Face but no breath like Painted Fire without heat or the Picture of a Man running without any actual Motion he is fixed in his first step you will always find his feet where your Pencil left them standing still in a running Posture Thus it is with many Professors they are as Pictures hung upon a Wall dressed up in all the outward Formalities of Religion you would take 'em to be real Saints they have a name to live but are indeed dead without any inward living Principle of Grace to animate and quicken those forms filling them up with true real Holiness Acts flowing from a living Principle within do carry their own evidence along with 'em giving a pleasing sensation of their Truth and Reality as the genuine off-springs of the heart which nothing that is forced or counterfeit can do The heart flows out with those actions that come from it but secretly turns away as unconcerned in every thing that doth not correspond to the inward Sense and Inclination of the Soul This will help us to judg of our Regeneration by observing the consent of our Minds to those outward acts of Religion we pass thorow what Complacency and Delight we have in them or what secret aversion to them which we must needs be privy to all mere imitations of Nature are defective somewhere this is more easily discernable when we practise upon our selves seeming to be what we are not as Actors upon a Stage under a Disguise who know we are not the Persons we go for When the New Nature comes into us how kindly are the motions of our Hearts towards Christ How welcome is he to us We are never more in our own Element than when we are in closest Communion with him our Joy is then full because we have the very desire of our Hearts we are where we would be we have what we longed for Every unregenerate man in the very height of his outward Profession be-lies his own Sense and Experience and says that of his Heart which he knows he doth not speak from his heart When a humbling overwhelming Sense of Original Sin comes upon us discovering the Universal Pravity of our Degenerate Nature how is the glory of all flesh stained How vile and mean a thing is Man born of a woman he may well lye down in his own shame
believe as Christ is gone before you as surely escape Hell and overcome Death as Christ is risen from the dead and the only way to get an Interest in Christ is to attend to the word of Faith that is preached ver 8. when once that prevails and brings you to confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God hath raised him from the dead you shall be saved ver 9. this proved out of Isa. 28. 16. Whosoever believes on him shall not be ashamed whether Iew or Gentile ver 11 12. and because Prayer is the principal part of that outward Confession made with the Mouth and the best indication of Faith in the Heart he concludes ver 13. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved Whence Observe Observ. The chiefest thing we should now pray for is that we may have an Interest in Christ and his Righteousness desiring to be found in him c. Having spoken so much of the Righteousness of Faith he does in a certain gradation shew the way and means of attaining it it is not a Righteousness that is to be done by us to be wrought out with our own hands but prepared for us by another freely promised and given to us therefore it must be askt it must be earnestly pray'd for we must beg hard of God to impute it to us v. 13. the Law propounds the work of Righteousness to be done by us the Gospel Rom. 5. 17. propounds the Gift of Righteousness to be pray'd for and thankfully received v. 14. there can be no Prayer without Faith no Faith without Hearing no Hearing without a Preacher no Preachers unless they be sent from all which he draws this Conclusion viz. that the next immediate Cause of Faith is Hearing There is much Preaching and much Hearing in this City but what comes on 't Truely if Faith does not come nothing comes that will turn to any good Account to you The Apostles in the Primitive times so spake that many believed Acts 14. 1. with that evidence and power their words had a special Accent in the Ears and Hearts of those that heard them God gave a signal testimony to the word of his Grace than fear came upon every Soul Acts 2. 43. Those who were not savingly wrought upon were greatly astonished at the Doctrine of the Gospel 't is otherwise now how little of this astonishment does appear in our Assemblies where is this fear that came upon every Soul 't was short of Faith yet I am perswaded when Faith comes in some open eminent Conversion that the whole Assembly is usually struck with some present fear the Word comes like a mighty rushing Wind into the Congregation shakes all when 't is about to Convert one something like this may be observed in the Acts of the Apostles and other passages in the New Testament it is sit that Grace should be solemnly attended when it goes forth to the publick Conversion though but of one Soul If God intend the coming of Faith into any of your hearts this day he 'l come along with his Work he will prepare the way he 'l bless your hearing and speak something inwardly to you from himself that shall incline your hearts to believe the Gospel though God speaks by the Ministry of man yet his voice is distinct from ours and begins where that ends carrying the Word from the Ear to the Heart there leaving it under those mixtures of Faith that make it work effectually Hear I beseech you with diligence least you obstruct the coming of Faith by not attending to what shall be spoken to you in the name of the Lord. So then faith cometh by hearing c. Doct. Hearing the Word of God Preached to us is the ordinary means of begetting faith in us First What are we in a more special manner to understand by Faith here in the Text. The general Object of Faith is the whole Doctrine of God laid down in the Scriptures the special object of Saving Faith is the Free-promise of Grace in Christ Jesus this supports the former we must believe the Divine Narrative of the whole Will of God revealed in the Bible before we can pitch our Faith in any suitable actings upon any part of it 't is one thing to assent to the Truth of the Word in General a further and indeed another thing to apply the Promises he believes a Promise who do's fiducially rely upon it this is properly Trusting we believe something in reference to our selves living in a comfortable Hope and Expectation of it respecting not only the Truth of the thing but also the Goodness of it in reference to our selves under that possibility probability or certainty of obtaining it which our Faith according to its various Degrees may represent unto us Faith in the Righteousness of Christ for justification is here principally intended Secondly Why must this Faith come by hearing Hearing is alwayes antecedent to Faith though Faith be not always the consequent of Hearing ver 16. 18. all Hearers are not believers though all Believers are first Hearers I shall evince the necessity of Hearing in order to Faith from these following grounds I. Hearing is Sensus Discipline the Sense by which all Knowledge is let into the Soul. There is a two-fold Knowledge belonging to Faith one leading to it the other found in it arising from it and is the same with Faith it self The First is Litteral or Historical 't is rather notitia then cognitio a notice or particular information given us of the Contents of the Bible especially of the report which the Gospel makes of the way of Salvation by Christ we must know what we are to believe before we can be supposed to believe any thing How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard and how shall they hear without a Preacher Words are the proper Object of this Sense of Hearing where nothing is spoken nothing can be heard the sound of Words must reach the ear before the sense of those Words can enter into the Understanding This Historical Knowledge do's not lye in Learning the Scriptures by roat without any Rational Knowledge of the Litteral Sense and Meaning of those Propositions of Truth that are contained therein this would be only Memory without any Understanding A Natural Man does not dis-believe the Scripture because he has not a Rational Conception of the common Notion of things spoken of there but because he has and finding them so uncouth so seemingly contrary to Humane Reason he rejects them as Foolishness The Second Is a Knowledge more than Historical and is of the Essence of Faith all one with it it is that which we call a Saving Knowledge it lies in the Use and Application of Gospel Truths to our own Souls when we shape our selves to a real Conformity to the Call of God in every Gospel Truth acting in a way of Duty what the Word of God
commands There is no Saving Knowledge of Gospel Truths but the Knowledge of Faith and no other Reason for Faith in the highest Misteries of the Gospel but the bare Word of God. That Faith is Knowledge I prove thus Because in Scripture 't is opposed to Folly Blindness and Ignorance Acts 17. 23 30. Ioh. 17. 3. Ier. 31. 34. Isa. 9. 1 2. Besides it has all the effects of Knowledge in the Soul it gives full satisfaction to the Mind of a Man removes all doubts establishes the Heart in a full perswasion of the Truth of the Word of God Humane Knowledge is liable to many Mistakes but a Divine Faith admits of no Falshood therefore Faith perfects mans Understanding because it brings in nothing but Truth no mans Errors do proceed from Faith he may err in matters of Faith but 't is not from his Faith but his Unbelief therefore Faith is Knowledge unerring Knowledge we believe and are sure we may be so if we rightly understand our selves in an act of Believing no demonstrations of Reason do give that Evidence of Truth as Faith do's as mans Understanding is too low to take in Divine Truths so Gods Understanding is too high for man to comprehend therefore we are called to yield the obedience of faith to his revealed Will God governs man rather by giving him the knowledge of his Will then lifting him up into his own Infinite Understanding that is above our Capacity our Duty lies not in knowing what God knows but in doing what God commands who gives no account of his matters to us only commands us to believe his Word and to look upon that as a sufficient ground and reason of our faith when we hear it preached to us II. Because God has appointed hearing the Word as a necessary means of faith he will not immediately speak to our hearts by his Spirit but has appointed his Word to be first spoken to our Ears and promis'd that way to let it down into our hearts thus Faith comes by Hearing Quest. How should Hearing of things above our Reason contribute any thing to our believing them One would think the oftner we hear them the more absurd we should count them to be and reject them with greater Indignation having so often tried them by the Touchstone of our own reason and pronounced them unintelligible Answ. Hearing alone will not let in these Divine Mysteries into our Understandings Isa. 6. 9 10. God must inwardly Teach us and reveal them to us by his Spirit before we can believe them which brings me to the third head viz. III. How faith is wrought by our hearing the Word 1. By a special Appearance of God to the Soul. 2. By opening the Heart enlightning the Mind and perswading the Will to a thorough closure with Christ upon Gospel Terms To these two heads may be referred all that falls under our discerning and experience of the work of the Spirit in begetting faith in us 1. Faith is wrought by a special appearance of God to the Soul what this appearance of God is how it rises out of the Word in what manner 't is let into the Soul I shall endeavour to open to the experience of those who know what it is to hold Communion with God in hearing his Word there is some co-incidence in the particulars above-mentioned yet not without some distinction which I leave to your own observation the less of Art or Method there is in handling experimental points the better they come with most power to the Conscience in their own simplicity therefore I shall in a joynt Discourse run the matter close together looking sometimes on one side and sometimes on t'other till I have viewed it round that I may present the whole Truth to you in so great and necessary a point we can have no saving knowledge of God but in and by his word we must look through that Glass upon him and that appearance of God we meet with there is the beginning of all Religion the Word never comes with power to our Consciences till God appear in it How that is I am now to shew Whilst we are hearing his Word we see God standing forth in his own words declaring himself to be the Author of it this draws in our attention adds that weight and authority to the Word that we cannot but receive it as the Word of God and set our Seals to the Truth of it we see sufficient grounds for our Faith in God from this manifestation of himself to our Souls Thus God wrought faith in Abraham Gen. 17. 1. by appearing to him several times as God Almighty and All-sufficient that Abraham might not doubt of any thing that such a God should promise to him and therefore 't is said Rom. 4. 3. that Abraham believed God being fully perswaded that what he had promised he was able to perform ver 21. Thus God appeared to Samuel revealing himself to him by his Word 1 Sam. 3. 21. So Christ appeared to Paul by a voice and a Light from Heaven I am Jesus Acts 9. there are spiritual appearances of God now to our Souls under the Preaching of the Gospel answerable to these Visions of Old. God lets himself down into our Hearts through the apprehensions of our faith which frames in our hearts a right image of God answerable to that Character he gives of himself in the Word he shines through the Word in all his Glory when he spake of Old to the Patriarchs by an articulate voice the unwritten word then was accompanied with such convincing signs of his Presence that they could not but believe it and so is the written Word now as capable of representing God to us when he has a mind to be seen by us as that was then the Letter of the Word is but a Creature but the Truths contained in it are Eternal and do all center in God himself who is the Essential Word thus God rises out of the Word and looks a man in the Face tells him thus saith the Lord I am that Lord God Almighty who now speaks unto you he leaves no Objection unanswered shews what sure grounds of faith we have in him shall God say and not do 't is impossible for God to lie it must be so as God saies it can't be otherwise Heaven and Earth shall sooner pass away than one Tittle of the Word be broken thus in God we praise his Word Psal. 56. 4. 10. Consider the Word out of God 't will puzzle Men and Angels to make out the meaning of it to think the things spoken of possible or likely to come to pass but all things are possible with God and to those who believe in God they stick at nothing they are sure Omnipotency knows no difficulties the Counsel of the Lord must stand his thoughts shall come to pass a Soul thus struck with a sense of Gods Presence yields immediately I believe Lord with all my heart am ready to do whatever
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
of his revealed Will hold fast there and you are safe the greatest Scholars in the World must come down to the plain mans Faith if ever they die in peace in all Gospel Truths their consonancy not to our Reason but to the Scriptures is to be regarded Mans leaning rather to their own understanding of the thing than to their faith in the Word about that thing hath led them into Error into false notions of Divine Mysteries I grant from your faith in one Truth you may fetch Reasons for some other Truth depending upon it these are Gospel Reasons not your own we don't believe because we know but we know because we believe this is a new way of knowing things which the world is not acquainted with because it cannot receive the spirit of Truth the spirit of Truth is a spirit of Faith hearing the Word is of singular use to Believers themselves 1 Ioh. 5. 13. to confirm and strengthen your Faith that you may be built up further in it furnished with further matter to act it upon Let none be discouraged though never so ignorant and unlearned of a low mean capacity yet come to hear with an expectation of Gods working faith in thee faith will overcome all these difficulties as weak and simple and ignorant as any may be supposed to be yet be not discouraged you may be made to believe more in one moment than the greatest Scholars in the World can attain to the knowledge of in many years study It is written in the prophets Joh. 6. 45. and they shall be all taught of God every man therefore that hath heard and hath learned of the father cometh unto me Not that any man hath seen the Father 'T is not what men you hear what Ministers you follow till God the Father do's speak powerfully to your hearts by the Ministry of man. It matters not who the man is your faith consists not in the Wisdom of man but in the power of God when you have a proof of Christs speaking in any 2 Cor. 13. 3. then hearken diligently till you hear an inward Word from this invisible Teacher you 'l never come to Christ. If all the Ministers in the World should lay their heads together they could never bring a sinner to Christ till the Father speaks the word and draw him We are but Ministers by whom you believe as the Lord gives to every man So then neither is he that planteth any thing nor he that watereth but God that giveth the increase 1 Cor. 3. 5 6 7. The sum of all is this We are sent to Preach that you may Hear we carry the Letter of the Word to your Ears the Spirit brings it home in the name of God to your Consciences convincing you that it is his Word under this Conviction you see the truth of the Word in the veracity of God this word of Truth and your Souls meeting so close as they alwayes do in an act of Faith sanctifies you this sanctification lies in the ready assent of your understanding and free consent of your Will the one is founded in light the other in love so that when an enlightned Understanding receives the Truth in the love of the Truth there is a firm Principle of Holiness fixed in that Soul flowing from that Union to Christ that Faith gives us this is the beginning and progress of that Faith the end of which is the Salvation of your Souls The Second Point How we are Iustified by Faith. WE ought to be Doers of the Word and not Hearers only to maintain good Works for necessary uses Tit. 3. 14. It behoveth us therefore to know what use we should make of our works and doings in the great business of our Salvation so as not to entrench upon the Righteousness of Christ nor to degrade that from being our sole and only justifying Righteousness Some men are as much mistaken in grounding their salvation upon doing as others are in grounding it upon bare hearing and therefore these things must be warily spoken unto and warily understood When we urge the necessity of doing the Word of God Carnal Reason lies at the catch and is ready to take every thing in a wrong sense and meaning and to bring down the Mysteries of the Gospel to a low loyal vulgar Notion more suitable to humane Reason There are two extreams that men are apt to run into either they neglect good works or else they trust in good works either they do in a careless formal presumptuous manner pretend to cast all upon Christ without any serious inquiries after the Truth of Grace in themselves or ever proving it by its fruits conceiving it altogether needless to be any way active in their own salvation Secondly If upon search they find any actings of Grace in their Hearts any fruits of Grace in their Lives these are their own proper goods they think Money found in their own Purses it matters not how they came by it they have it and they are resolved to convert it to their own proper use making it nothing less than a part of their Justifying Righteousness Those of this way with whom I have now to do do state the matter thus They say that Christ is the meritorious cause of our Justification having by his Death satisfied the Law and discharged us from the Curse of it and so far we agree with them They say further That Christ to compleat our Justification hath also purchased for us strength and ability to perform the condition of the new Covenant this we assent to the performance of which according to them is to be taken in as a part of our Justifying Righteousness and this we deny We say the performance of what is required in the New Covenant is a good Justification of the Cause whether it be of Faith or of Good Works or of any particular thing or action the sincerity and truth of which may be in question But we deny that it adds any thing to the Justification of the person and therefore they speak not ad idem to the same thing when they deny Christs imputed Righteousness to be the sole Righteousness that justifies the Person because there is another Righteousness required upon another account to justifie or clear up the sincerity of our Faith and Holiness I say to clear up this to our selves and other men which we deny not For we do not admit any Faith to be a justifying Faith but upon good evidence of the Truth of it neither do we admit any works to be good works but upon full proof of the goodness of them The Sum of all is this we say Faith and obedience once proved to be true and genuine are good evidences of our interest in Christ whose imputed Righteousness is the sole and only Righteousness by which our Persons are universally justified from all charges and blame whatsoever in the sight of God and to say otherwise is in effect to say that Christ died
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
not say that all are unregenerate who see not all these marks in themselves but those who have them not to be wholly defective in any one of them overthrows our state These marks are so linked together as to the certainty of their being that they are inseparable tho as to our perceiving 'tis otherwise we may not so clearly discern some of these in our selves as we may some others I would carry it with as gentle a hand as I can I perceive these marks in the right application of them will bear hard upon us all and it may be leave us under a godly jealousy of our selves examining our state with trembling Truly this I aim at I am sure we shall suffer no loss or damage by it in the end God has put his own stamp upon his own workmanship that it may be known to be his Shew me your Regeneration under God's seal and mark and I shall rejoyce with you in it and pronounce it to be his workmanship indeed And now Brethren produce your evidences such as the Word of God calls for I shall begin with the first Mark 1. He doth not commit sin he cannot sin He sinneth not but doth righteousness Here is a Negative and a Positive Mark what he doth and what he doth not I shall first speak joyntly of them both together and then separately of each apart by themselves The sense in general of this Scripture is That he who is born of God does so far express his Image and take after his Holy Nature as to hate that which is evil and to love that which is good he has put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness Escaping the corruption that is in the World through lust If ye know that he is righteous ye know that every one that doth righteousness is born of him He proves the new-born Soul to be a true Child of God because he so much resembles his Heavenly Father in Righteousness and true Holiness we cannot be partakers of his Nature but we must be also partakers of his Holiness they are inseparable But to keep to the Negative mark He commits not sin c. The common interpretation of this Text is That such who are born of God sin not with full consent and allowance they go not on in a course of sin they sin not the sin unto death c. All this is true and does belong to the interpretation of this Text yet I conceive there is something further intended as the ground of all this viz. That he who is born of God as such sins not at all He that is a new creature may sin but not as a new creature this is an absolute truth contained in the Text. Under all the distinctions limitations and soft interpretations that are given of this Scripture we must be sure to maintain the words of the Text as they are expressive of a certain absolute truth else we shall quite lose the mark here laid down by the Holy Ghost of Regeneration and therefore I shall first fix that and make it as plain as I can that we may the better judge of our state by it 't is matter of Life or Death all is now upon Tryal your eternal Interest lies at stake therefore in so great a case we had need go by sure marks and signs and none so sure as those that are in express terms laid down by the Holy Ghost of Regeneration as we must not raise them too high in contradiction to other Scriptures so neither must we sink them too low lest we lose that Characteristical difference that the Holy Ghost here puts between the Regenerate and Unregenerate the mark lies here viz. That there is in every Regenerate Soul an inward living Principle of Grace and Holiness inclining us to good but never to evil always giving check to sin never approving or allowing of it A Regenerate person may fall into acts of sin through humane Infirmity but cannot give himself over to sin in a constant habitual way he cannot go on in sin 't is against his Nature he may be surprized into an act of sin but the new Nature will quickly recover it self and cast out that sin by Repentance A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit sin is not so connatural to a Regenerate Person he can't brook it his heart rises against it from the Antipathy he has to it when he does sin he would not sin and this we say is from the Grace of Regeneration The assertors of Free will do hold That man cannot incline to good without the general assistance of the Spirit of God but they own only such an assistance as may be resisted by us and leaves it to our option whether we will do good or evil but that the will of man should be determined by God to a good act and yet act freely under that determination is that which some will not understand supposing such an overruling efficacy of Divine Grace to be inconsistent with the liberty of man's will. The prevailing efficacy of sin in fallen man is undeniable whose thoughts and imaginations are evil only evil and that continually yet those thoughts and imaginations with all outward acts proceeding from them are free so that what they deny to the efficacy of grace they allow to the efficacy of sin That it seems does not destroy the liberty of mans will but the efficacy of grace does the mistake lies in a misapprehension of the Nature of Irresistibility grace is irresistible not because it cannot be resisted but because it cannot be overcome else 't would not be effectual the efficacy of Saving Grace lies in gaining over the free consent of the will to follow its motions and inclinations God made man perfect and that he might not impose upon his rational Nature left him a free agent giving him liberty to good or evil his Perfection did not lye in having liberty to evil but in not using it in abstaining freely from evil out of choice when he fell God withdrew and left him perpetually inclined to his own first choice which nothing can draw him off from but effectual Grace not by forcing but changing his will. It was never the intent of God in our first Creation that man should exert his power both ways to do good and evil but that he should freely chuse his own way at his first setting out and be delivered up into that Power which he should first Exercise By his obedience he would have been confirmed in good never to have fallen from it so by his disobedience he was confirmed in evil never to be recovered out of it till free Grace of its own accord relieved him And this it does gradually not all at once which is the reason why the Saints in their imperfect state here do both good and evil being flesh as well as Spirit Grace has the Predominancy because it enters in
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
your thoughts in a high esteem of this Righteousness of Christ. I would not have you say as too too many do and may be they mean no more than they say if so they do not say all the truth how many real Believers have I heard say Christ will cover the Imperfection of our own Righteousness and so think they speak all the truth but they must mean something beyond all this or they do not speak right for the Righteousness of Christ apprehended by Faith does not only cover all the Defects of your own Righteousness but covers your very Righteousness it self which must never be brought in as an Argument why God should justify you must not be found in your own Righteousness not having my own Righteousness says Paul Phil. 3. 9. that is not having it on Faith in Christ does strip a Man of his own Righteousness does not only speak comfortably as to the Pardon of all the Defects of our own Righteousness but take it in its best State and highest Degree as far as our Righteousness can reach it must be covered when we come to God for Justification There are two Seasons when Christ presents us to the Father the one for Justification the other for Glorification when he does the first he presents us sinners lying in our blood as having no righteousness of our own but what is imputed to us by God and then for Glorification he presents us perfectly Holy inherently Holy without any spot or blemish upon us and this he doth with exceeding great joy so that when you would make use of Christ for Justification remember to cover all your own righteousness and put it quite off as to any trust or confidence in it 't is hard to do Righteousness and not to be proud of it conceiving we merit something by it you must be workers of Righteousness but not wearers of your own Righteousness when you stand before God for Justification take heed of having it or being found in it Nothing can make a man see the weakness and insufficiency of his own performances but a true principle of Faith that humbles him and empties him sending him stript and naked unto Christ to cover him with the unspotted Robe of his perfect Righteousness Lastly The immediate effect of Regeneration is Adoption You see I have been comparing Regeneration with other great Gospel Truths that I might find out the proper place for it and see what relation it stands in to all the other parts and members of the body of Divinity I say therefore the immediate effect of Regeneration is Adoption being born of Man we became the Children of Men so being born of God we become the Children of God Adoption and Birth go together here he that begets adopts those whom he hath begotten 't is not so among men for this is another peculiar property of Regeneration They who have power to become the Children of God they are born of God adopted and yet born born and yet adopted so that it pleaseth God the Father by all the ways of Nature of Art of civil Custom among men to set forth his Love by a natural generation or being born 'T is a natural thing among men to be born but adoption is a civil instituted thing a thing of prudence and custom among men it is brought in by Man You know how fond men are of those they have Adopted 't is next to the natural affection they bear to the Children of their own bodies so that no doubt there is much of mystery in this Doctrine of Regeneration There is not a Man in the World almost but lives in some hope of going to Heaven when he dies yet the greatest part of mankind carry themselves so as if they would only make the World believe they shall be saved not as if they were under any real hope or expectation of such a thing nothing of this appears by any serious preparation they make for Heaven or Glory But let their hopes be what they will except a man he born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. Thus much in general I shall now come to particulars and cast all I have further to say upon this Text under these following Heads viz. 1. The Author of Regeneration 2. The Subjects of Regeneration 3. The Means of Regeneration 4. The Manner of Regeneration how it is wrought and carried on in the Soul. 5. The Time of Regeneration 6. The End of Regeneration 7. The Scripture-marks and signs of Regeneration 8. The Application of the whole 1. The Author of Regeneration viz. God. 1 Ioh. 5. 18. We are said to be begotten of God born of God and this is sometimes ascribed to the Father sometimes to God the Son sometimes to God the Holy Ghost all that is called God is concerned in Man's Regeneration God the Father is said to beget us 1 Pet. 1. 3. We are said to be Created in Christ Iesus unto good works Eph. 2. 10. To be in him even in his Son Iesus Christ 1 Joh. 5. 20. to be born os the spirit Joh. 3. 5. All the persons of the Trinity have a joint agency in this work of our Regeneration c. Page 1. And great is the efficacy of Three such concurring total Causes of the same kind this is above all our Logick and Philosophy which own no such Causes God is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working Isa. 28. 29. We are in his hands as clay in the hand of the potter Jer. 18 6. He can make us Vessels of Honour if he please and this Honour have all his Saints his excellent ones in whom he delights The moving Cause is God's meer Good Will and Pleasure Iames 1. 18. His abundant mercy and loving kindness 1 Pet. 1. 3. Tit. 3. 4 5. Ephes. 2. 4 5. We should be much affected with the Love of God in our Regeneration God stands in the relation of a Father to all who are begotten by him 1. He is the Father of Christ the Second person in the Trinity Psal. 2. 7. whose Generation is Eternal who can declare it Isa. 53. 8. It is the profound object of our Faith grounded upon Divine Revelation 2. He is the Father of all true Christians who are spiritually born of his Will at the time appointed of the Father for their effectual Calling 'T is termed a Calling because they are begotten by the Word of God speaking to their hearts by it and so turning them to himself God is the Father of Christ and the Father of Believers Iohn 20. 17. My father and your father Upon these accounts it is that God glories so much in his own Paternity not only in relation to Christ his Eternal Son who is God equal with the Father but also in relation to the Saints who are his true-born Children through Christ. See an instance of both 1. In reference to Christ Heb. 1 5. Thou art my son this day have I begotten thee Let all the Angels of
God worship him thy throne is for ever and ever Sit on my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool So Psal. 2. 6 7 8. Thus was this great Man this Son of God incarnate brought into Heaven in state and triumph at his Resurrection 2. In reference to the Saints Jer. 31 9. I am a father to Israel and Ephraim is my first-born So 2 Cor. 6. 18. I will be a father unto you and ye shall be my sons and daughters saith the Lord Almighty Tho God does greatly delight in his beloved Son loves to see the brightness of his own glory shining out in Christ the express Image of his Person yet next to his own Image in Christ he loves to behold the Image of his Son in the Saints and therefore has predestinated them to be conformable to the Image of his Son Rom. 8. 29. Christ indeed is the first-born but many Brethren are to follow Rom. 8. 29. to be added to the Lord as the Phrase is Acts 5. 14. God loves to see the number of his Children encreasing to see his Family enlarged Under this consideration Paul bows his Knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom the whole Family in Heaven and Earth is named Ephes. 3. 14 15. With what reverence doth Paul draw nigh to this great Father I told you but now that God glories in Christ his first begotten Son you heard in what triumph the great Man Jesus Christ was brought into Heaven how God welcomed him to Glory so there is joy in Heaven at the Regeneration of a Sinner Angels rejoyce God rejoyces This day have I begotten such and such Oh that there might be Joy in Heaven upon this account this day that it might be noted down above that this and that Man were born here I will shew you the ground of this glorying of this great satisfaction that God hath in his Children Tho Christ be anointed above his fellows yet there is a great measure of anointing poured out upon the Saints the fulness of the Godhead is in none but Christ yet the fulness of God is in all the Saints Ephes. 3. 19. they are not shut out from any of the communicable Attributes of God but have their share of all that is in him according to their capacities as creatures Cast an empty Barrel into the Sea all the Sea is not in the Barrel but the Barrel is in all the Sea the Sea runs under it over it on every side of it Thus are we swallowed up in God. He comprehends us tho we cannot fully comprehend him we are in Christ according to his infinite capacity and therefore are perfectly justified by the infinite merit of his perfect Righteousness imputed to us But Christ is in us according to our finite weak capacities and therefore we are but imperfectly sanctified we have what we are able to receive and no more at present till our hearts are farther inlarged Thus you see what it is to be a Child of God how the fulness of God is bestowed upon us God glories in this And have not the Saints reason to glory in it also But alas how do Men please themselves with their Rich Relations Great Families they are Nobly descended But I must tell you all Nations are of one Blood and that is tainted too we are a Seed of evil-doers there is no Noble blood runs in your veins till you are born of God 't is Regeneration only that makes you the Sons and Daughters of the Most High then you are high born indeed To stir you up to a holy ambition after this new birth do but consider the Father of the Family the great God of Heaven and Earth blessed for ever the Father of Mercies and the God of all Comfort Consider Christ the Elder Brother of the Family Rom. 9. 5. He is over all God blessed for ever His Name is Wonderful Counsellor the Mighty God the Everlasting Father the Prince of Peace Isa. 9. 6 7. You see how the Dignity and Majesty of his Person is described 3. Consider the many priviledges that are intailed upon new-born Souls Heirs of God joynt heirs with Christ you are born to nothing but woe and misery till you are born again How should we long to be related to such a Father to such a Brother to such an Inheritance I insist the more upon this because I am perswaded discourses of your Heavenly Father must needs be very pleasing to you who are his Children whom should Children hear of with more delight than of their Father that begat them Be not cast down at any thing that offends you here below you have a Father in Heaven who takes care of you numbers the hairs of your heads will interest himself in your smallest concerns and see that all things shall work together for good to you We may notionally and according to the Letter speak what we read and hear of Regeneration and be little affected but when once the New Nature begins to stir when a Spirit of Adoption begins to breathe in us 't will carry us out by a secret instinct to God as to a Father Nature works powerfully we say Love descends more strongly than it ascends so 't is here God loves his Children better than they can love him this is love not that we love God tho there is a great strength in the natural Affection of ingenuous Children towards their Parents The truth is nothing does more enoble our Minds raise our spirits to a true Christian Magnanimity nothing does more uphold and encourage us in our way more strengthen our Faith and Hope in Prayer than lively Apprehensions of God as our Father in Christ Jesus see how Christ hangs upon this word Father in his Prayer Iohn 17. Father Father Oh Father Holy Father Oh Righteous Father we should eye nothing more in Prayer than our Relation to God as a Father How can an unregenerate man say Our Father which art in Heaven Alas thou hast never a Father in Heaven thou art a Child of Wrath a Child of the Devil Though some unregenerate Persons may be within the Election of God yet the Scripture speaks of them according to their present state calls them Aliens Strangers Foreigners Could we conceive aright of our Covenant-relation to God and keep our thoughts working upon it it would afford an Argument to us where all other Arguments fail as Isa. 63. 16. Doubtless thou art our Father it cannot be that our Heavenly Father should forget us a Mother may forget her Child but the Lord is gracious and full of Compassion Psal. 145. 8. There is a greater fulness of Compassion in our Heavenly Father than in our Natural Parents they can do and will do what God cannot do because he will not Since the Priviledges of the Children of God are so great how should we long to be born again to be born of spirit Joh. 3. 6. To be a new lump 1 Cor. 5. 7.
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
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
' 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
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
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
to us and shew us its meaning I wish we could a little better understand the actings of our Faith understand the reason the sense of it the importance the intent of an act of Faith what a thing Faith is Thirdly They suppose a double Justification and a double Justifying Righteousness the first to justifie us from the accusations of the Law the other to justifie the sincerity of our Faith and Holiness and here comes in all our inherent Righteousness This is specious too But I would not have men coyn new heads of Divinity to make good their own notions We know but of one Justification I say the second Justification which they talk of it is implyed in the first and therefore needless and unscriptural For since the Revelation of the Gospel infidelity and unbelief is a sin against the Moral Law and Faith in Christ is injoyned as a duty by the Moral Law by which we take God to be our God and consequently do bind our selves over to believe whatsoever he had or hereafter should reveal to be his Will. This we are bound to by the Moral Law therefore if we are as they themselves affirm freed by Justification from the Law of Works upon the condition of Faith then we are on our first Justification absolutely freed from infidelity and our Faith is sufficiently approved to be true and what then need a second Justification unless we will suppose an error in the first Judgment which is impious to suppose as if God should acquit us from the accusation of the Law of Works upon the condition of Faith which upon after examination Christ discovers to be false and unsound So that these things do not hang together Fourthly They say that Faith and Holiness are conditions and evidences of our title to Christ and all that comes by him and therefore part of our Justifying Righteousness It is hard to understand the strength of some mens reasoning but grant all this it amounts to no more but Christ and a title to Christ so far we are agreed for we desire no more But how they will make Faith which is our title to Christ and unto which Christ and all his benefits are by the Gospel granted promised and made over how they will make this title never so well evidenced to be part of our Justifying Righteousness I see not A title adds nothing to the inheritance makes it neither more nor less but conveys it down to us according to the intrinsick value of the thing be it more or less A title to Land is no part of the Land only we are invested in it as it is by vertue of our title Now therefore if the Righteousness of Christ be not of it self sufficient to justifie us I see not how a good title mends the matter for if the Estate be never so great and we have no good title to it it is worth nothing to us and if our title be never so good we can have no more then is and belongs to the title So that after all this stir about conditions and evidences of our title to Christ the result of all is this we have a title a good title are under all the conditions and evidences of a good title but to what To an Inheritance that is not sufficient to maintain us to a Righteousness that is not sufficient of it self alone to justifie us and where are we now with our conditions and evidences of our title For ever destitute of a compleat Justifying Righteousness Is this to Preach Christ To Preach the glad Tidings of the Gospel Is this the way to quiet and settle the Consciences of poor distressed sinners surely no. Fifthly They urge the literal sense of some few Scriptures that seem to speak for them especially two and I do not know of more in the whole Bible as to the literal signification if there were we should hear enough of it I know they quote many others which add no weight at all to the Argument they would ground upon them Therefore I shall not speak to them Those two are Mat. 12. 37. By thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned and that in Iames where it is said Abraham was justified by works Iam. 2. 23. For that in Matthew Calvin charges the Papists with very great weakness in offering to draw an Argument from that Text for Justification by Works Maldonate a Learned Jesuite on the other hand is very angry with Calvin for supposing any of the Roman Church to be so weak and injudicious as to argue so from that Scripture for saith he we very well understand that this Text doth not speak De justificatione qua justi efficimur sed de judicis sententia qua sumpto ex verbis nostris argumento justi declaramur So saith the Jesuite we know this Text doth not speak of that which is the cause of our Justification of the thing for which and by virtue of which we become just and righteous only here is the appearance of our Righteousness by our words and we are declared to be Righteous So that this doth not touch this cause of Justification and yet this is the main Text brought for it the main proof repeated again and again to prove inherent righteousness to have an influence into our Justification I say let them take the answer from the Papists or Protestants which they please they are both against them in this thing As for the other Scripture They will take it in no other sense but what implyes a contradiction to all other Texts of Scripture in the case The whole current of Scripture is against Works in Justification and leads us to a fair construction of that in Iames that it is to be understood of a justification before men and not of a justification before God. Protestant Writers have sufficiently cleared up this to the Conviction of all but such who are resolved not to be Convinced Certainly they should have a care how they abound too much in their own sense The Learned Lord Bacon saith that a little Phylosophy makes men Atheists but a great deal will convince them of a Deity Some mens Logick and School Learning overthrows Reason which duely improved and well managed would teach them to argue otherwise Certainly in our reasoning about Divine things we should be careful not to abound too much in our own sense It is better for us to leave the Mystery of the Gospel in its Mystery where we found it than to seek to draw it out and so to explain it as to force it into the mould of Humane Reason shaping it on every side to an exact conformity to the thoughts and conceptions of our weak imperfect Understanding I say no Gospel Truth will bear this After all our Faith and Knowledge and Experience we know but in part and there is at the end of every Gospel Truth a Mystery something that is passing our Understanding that calls for
silence for an holy Admiration for an humble submission in Faith to the Will of God. Therefore I would not have men speak as if they knew all and draw particular Schemes and it must be so and no otherwise and thus and thus you must proceed in this and that way and form therefore things must be so stated I have done with the Argumentative part I will now speak a word or two in a looser way of Discourse I say then thus he may be a true Believer who doth not take his faith for any part of his Justifying Righteousness I suppose that will be granted But he cannot be a true Believer who takes not Christ for his Justifying Righteousness I do not say now for his only Justifying Righteousness because I would speak in the sense of those I oppose I say they cannot be Believers who do not look upon Christ as their Justifying Righteousness but they may be true Believers who do not look upon faith as a part of their Justifying Righteousness For the first suppose it an Error it is only about the act in our apprehension which doth not alter the nature of the thing at all The second is an Error in the act which quite destroys the very nature of faith Therefore the safer way is rather to press persons to believe to see they have faith indeed and in Truth than urge them to such an unscriptural construction of their faith putting such a title of Honor upon it to the reproach of Christ and his Righteousness They honour faith sufficiently who only prefer Christ before it No doubt God will give faith its due praise and place at the last day our not knowing or not understanding the reach and truth of our faith in all circumstances of it will be no prejudice to faith at the last day I heartily wish we were more in the Exercise of Faith than in Controversies about it more in the Practise of Good Works than in Dispute about them we should then sooner understand both the one and the other Sirs the mysterious sublime Doctrine of Justification was revealed for our comfort and proposed to our faith to be believed not to our reason to argue upon in a Quodlibetical manner and to toss to and fro for Argument sake What if we know no more of Justification then is absolutely necessary for our Justification This is the case of many plain sincere hearted Christians and if it were so with us all we may have fewer Notions in our Heads but possibly more Grace in our Hearts The Lord grant that we may know the Doctrine of Justification so as they know it who are saved by Christ. But surgunt indocti rapiunt Coelum nos cum doctrinis nostris sine corde volutamur in carne in sanguine The Learned they dispute and wrangle themselves into Hell the unlearned they believe practice and gain Heaven taking up the truth in simplicity according to the general scope of the Gospel as it is held forth to the meanest Capacity Brethren what Paul said to the Jaylor Acts 16. 31. that I say to you all Believe on the Lord Iesus Christ and thou and thy house shall be saved Don't you go home now and tell your Families that they must not understand this Text so as to look upon Christ as their only justifying righteousness but look out for something in themselves if ever they be saved No pray speak Scripture Language expound Scripture by Scripture and tell them that Christ is all in all tell them plainly that they must not be found in their own righteousness they must be found in Christ not having on their own righteousness that they must count all things but loss and dung that they may win Christ that there is no other foundation but Christ no other name under Heaven by which they can be saved but the name of Christ tell them they must not come for Justification and Life in the name of their Good Works of any thing that belongs themselves but only in the name of Christ promote this Doctrine in your Families and among your Children and Servants This is the way to save you and your Household This is good wholesome household Divinity and suited to the ordinary Capacity of all serious Professors We must not send our Hearers to intricate distinctions to learn the meaning of the Doctrine of their Justification The sense of the Gospel is plain enough in this thing they that run may read it Come come you shall never be charged at the Last Day for giving too much to Christ in the matter of Justification You are bound to ascribe all to him and you shall never be charged for giving too much And certainly if it be possible to err on that hand I had rather err in giving too much then too little to Christ. Do you think that a true Believer who doth not look upon the act of Faith or works of Holiness to be any part of his justifying righteousness but casts himself upon Christ do you think I say that God will reprove such a person at the last day for ascribing too much to Christ and not pleading his own righteousness Certainly a Believer cannot plead the righteousness of Christ without Faith his way of arguing from Christ will sufficiently evince the truth and reality of his Faith there needs no other proof and demonstration of it I should have made some Application I will tell you what I intended First To those who ground their Justification upon the sandy Foundation of their inherent Righteousness I would exhort them to pull down the house presently before it fall upon their heads and lay a better Foundation if ever they think to stand before the Son of Man in his Day Then I should exhort them and press them to study other Arguments as there are very many to promote Good Works and practical Holiness among men and not justle out Christ to make room for self Righteousness in the matter of Justification What must we work for Life still To work for Justification is to work for Life and why should we thus turn the Gospel into the Law I should speak also to those who are built upon the right Foundation and have cast themselves upon Christs Righteousness for Justification unto Life Let such be careful to maintain good Works let them be Examplary in the practise of them and bring forth fruit meet for the Kingdom of God. For as the Foundation may be too weak for the Superstructure so the Superstructure may be too mean for the Foundation And therefore down with all this Hay Wood and Stubble and labour to walk more sutable to that Holy Faith under the Profession of which you live Brethren The unsutable and uncircumspect lives of Professors have been the greatest scandal to the Doctrine of Justification by Faith it hath opened the Mouths of men against it Therefore labour to live men into a Conviction of this Truth Disputes and
it self is the gift of God as well as that which is put into it God gives us not only what we believe but he gives us to believe the habit and act of faith are both from God that he that glories may glory in the Lord only And if it be so with faith if that be shut out from being any part of our justifying Righteousness 't will hold true much more in all other saving graces that spring from faith whether Hope Love Fear Repentance c. Repentance proves our Faith to be saving such a faith as gives us an Interest in Christ faith adds nothing to the Righteousness of Christ but applies it as it is it only gives us an Interest in it and makes it ours by vertue of the Promise tendring it to us by receiving the Promise we have a sure interest in the thing promised and may ever after count it our own and if we are not justified by our graces themselves much less by our good works which are the fruits and issues of them we must resolve all our graces into faith and faith it self into Christ and his Righteousness before we can be clear in the matter of our Justification 4. The real distinction that is between them notwithstanding this necessary Connection Faith and Repentance are frequently joyned together in Scripture and sometimes each of them singly put for the whole work of Conversion and then they do alwayes include each other and imply the whole work of grace in the Soul as Luk. 13. 5. Luk. 15. 10. Acts 3. 19. Acts 11. 18. Though they cannot be separated yet they may be distinguished not only nominally but really they are spoken of Act. 20. 21. as two distinct things as Faith and Hope are inseparable yet two distinct Graces so 't is with Faith and Repentance they grow together as different Branches from the same Root that bears and feeds them both they are the two Vital Constituent parts of a Christian which have their distinct Offices and Influences Repentance is the same in Principle with Faith though they receive different denominations from the different objects and occasions about which they act A principle of Grace is that immortal Seed or that Spirit that is born of the Spirit the fruits of the Spirit are not the Spirit it self but something produced by him all Graces are the fruits of the Spirit and are specified by their different objects All Graces are but so many expressions of that holy Disposition that is wrought in us by the Holy Ghost To Repent of Sin is as true Holiness as not to sin at all a sinner has no other way to express his Love to Holiness than by a declared Hatred of his Sins They differ in their Objects faith as justifying hath Christs Righteousness for its Object Repentance has mans unrighteousness for its Object as Faith acts upon Christ for an Interest in his Righteousness so Repentance acts towards God acknowledging our own Unrighteousness and bewailing it we cannot rejoyce in the Righteousness of Christ till we mourn for our own sins Christ reconciles God to us by the attonement offer'd 2 Cor. 5. 20 21. and us to God by working Repentance in us who were Enemies to him in our Minds by wicked works Col. 1. 21. alienated from the life of God Col. 4. 18. This Enmity against God and alienation from him is removed by Repentance Faith works upwards to appease Gods Wrath by holding up the Blood of Christ Repentance works downwards upon our selves changing our Minds towards God that we may be conformable to his Will and rebel no more against him Besides All Graces do not imploy at least equally the same Affections there is more joy and hope in Faith more sorrow and fear in Repentance faith lists up and comforts a guilty sinner upon one account Repentance humbles him and lays him low upon another account filling him with godly sorrow for his sins 5. Reasons why the Professors of this Age who are so much for Faith do mind Repentance so little are so seldom found in the Exercise of it 1. Because they rest in general Notions of Faith and of Justification by Grace through Christ they say they have faith and think this will save them we may have right notions of faith in our Heads and yet be under no real actings of faith in our Hearts we may be Orthodox in our Judgements sound in the Doctrine of Faith and yet be strangers to the Grace of Faith we may hold the Truth dispute for it preach it up maintain it in our Discourses as our Opinion and yet be rotten at Heart for all this under the power of unbelief if you know these things happy are ye if ye do them Faith must be done as well as talked of it must be really acted by us in our own case 't is not the doctrine of faith but your faith in or according to that doctrine that saves you the just shall live by his own faith the doctrine of faith is an external thing laid down in the letter of the word but the grace of faith is an inward living principle found only in the hearts of real Saints this is that I am inquiring after and pressing upon you as that that will certainly produce Repentance Zach. 12. 10. 'T is one thing to have a Notional Knowledge of the doctrine of faith as contained in the letter of the word another thing to be under the power of the grace of faith as it passes thorow the heart in the lively actings of it Notions of things may be separated from those effects that alwayes attend the things themselves when they are in being we may shake and freeze under our notions of fire but we cannot stand before fire it self and not be warmed by it were there more real faith I mean of the grace of faith among professors there would be more Repentance let us not flatter our selves in the good opinion we have of our faith and of our supposed Interest in Christ 't is all false our faith is vain and we are yet in our sins if Repentance do not accompany our faith The visible neglect of Repentance in the Professors of this age has brought a reproach upon the doctrine of faith and caused it to be evil spoken of that faith that does not sanctifie will never justifie and without Repentance there can be no Sanctification not that we make Repentance any Meritorious Cause of Pardon or that it is to be rested in as any satisfaction for sin only we affirm that justifying faith alwayes works Repentance 2. Because they rest in a general Repentance which they took up at their first Conversion and that must serve all their lives long 't is enough they have once repented that work is over they have done with it now and care not to return to it again but because you have once repented you must always repent you entred into Covenant with God for your whole lives to repent of
Words will not do it till you make it appear that the Grace of God that hath brought Life and Immortality to light through the Gospel hath taught you to deny all Ungodliness and Worldly Lusts. This is the way to promote the Doctrine of Justification by Faith alone You that are built upon the right Foundation had need be careful and circumspect The House is not yet finished we do all of us lie open more or less to Storms and Tempests here below though they cannot throw down the house yet they may shake the house the rain may beat into the house may soak through every room of the house may foul the house may greatly incommode us and distress us Therefore keep your Souls in good repair keep them as tite as you can against Wind and Weather And for your Comfort I would have told you that Heaven will mend all the Errors in the Superstructure if the Foundation be right God will then take away and separate all those weaknesses and sinful mixtures that now run along with all our Graces all Cracks and Flawes the sinkings and failings the bendings and leanings this way and that way in any part of the building Heaven will mend all will set all right and straight when we are Sanctified throughout and the Top-stone is laid FINIS A DISCOURSE OF REPENTANCE SHEWING The Difference between Legal and Evangelical Repentance AND The Necessary Connection between Evangelical Repentance and Saving Faith. By Thomas Cole Minister of the Gospel LONDON Printed for Thomas Cockerill at the Three Legs over against the Stocks-Market 1689. A DISCOURSE OF Repentance MARK 1. 15. Repent ye and believe the Gospel THE summe of the Gospel lies in Faith and Repentance which alwayes go together and cannot be separated though they may and ought to be distinguished one from the other I have chosen this Text to show the necessary connection that is between Faith and Repentance that I may be the better understood I shall observe this method 1. Distinguish between Legal and Evangelical Repentance 2. Shew the nature of Evangelical Repentance what it is and wherein it does consist how it rises our of faith what its use and end is 3. Shew the necessary connection that is between Evangelical Repentance and saving Faith. 4. The real difference that is between them notwithstanding this necessary connection 5. Inquire into the true cause and reason why the Professors of this Age who are so much for Faith do mind Repentance so little 6. Apply all First Distinguish between Legal and Evangelical Repentance You see the Repentance and Faith spoken of in the Text have both of them a reference to the Gospel Repent and believe the Gospel We shall better understand the nature of Evangelical Repentance by comparing it with Legal Repentance observing as we go how they differ from each 1. Legal Repentance is the work of the Law i. e. The work of the Spirit by the Law for the Law works but faintly under the influence of meer Natural Light unless the Spirit awaken the Conscience and set home the Law little will be done such a work of the Law you have Rom. 2. 15. letting in a Spirit of Bondage upon the Conscience accusing us for what we have done against the Law and leaving us so convicted without any plea for our selves Evangelical Repentance is the work of the Gospel sweetly melting the Heart by Arguments drawn from the Love of God and his free Grace in Christ towards Sinners it encourages a trembling Soul to plead with God for Mercy as the Publican Lord be Merciful to me a Sinner 2. Legal Repentance is all terrour and no hope it rises from the revelation of Gods Wrath against Sinners 't is a despairing Repentance without any hope of pardon the Curse of the Law lies hard upon a Man he knows not how to get from under it but lives in a fearful expectation of fiery indignation to devour him he is a terrour to himself But Evangelical Repentance leaves not an affrighted sinner altogether without hope as I shall shew under the next head 3. Legal Repentance is from worldly sorrow not so much for the sin as the penalty incurred thereby the apprehension of which is very dreadful to a convinced sinner he is more affected with the evil of punishment then with the evil of sin in it self 't is not for Gods sake but his own that he repents of sin he could love it well enough if it did not damn him Though I do not deny but a Repentance purely legal may have some sense of the evil of sin as sin not only as malum prohibitum but as malum in se as evil in its own nature where common notions of good and evil are not utterly extinguished it must needs be so especially under a higher conviction from the Spirit of God that gives us a farther discerning of the evil of sin then the meer light of nature under its greatest elevation can possibly do It was so in Iudas Matt. 27. 34. he was convinced not only that he had broken the Law of God but that he had sinned in so doing I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood He knew he had a hand in murdering a Man a good Man a great Man who was more then Man no doubt all this came up into his mind concerning Christ yet the knowledge of Christ that Iudas had did not reach so far as to beget the least hope of Mercy from him and here lay the legality of his Repentance it was a despairing Repentance he conversed only with the Law and so sunk under the wrath of God and the curse of the Law he had none to accuse him but his own Conscience the Rulers and chief Priests were for him had set him a work and rewarded him but seeing him under such horror of Conscience he had done their business what care they see thou to that unconvinced sinners do slight the convictions of others they may go hang themselves for all them they have no pity for them I speak this to shew that legal Repentance may take in something of the evil of sin in it self as well as the destructive nature of it to us though these legal convictions of the evil of sin in it self are far short of those more through convictions that accompany true Evangelical Repentance Though the sorrow that is in legal Repentance be but worldly yet 't is very pungent it pierces us thorow and pretends to some Devotion too as if it were for Gods sake when self is only at the bottom Pharaoh confessed his sins and desired the Prayers of Gods People Exod. 9. 27 28. Saul wept for his sins 1 Sam. 24. 16. The effects of Gods wrath are very dreadful upon convinced sinners may draw Tears from their Eyes when they see what mischief they have brought upon themselves they repent but how Not of the sin but of the punishment Alas What does that signifie how ineffectual