then not only Inclined to but Confirmed in Good and not in a capacity to Sin Not for want of Freedome but as having no Inclination to Evil. All which is not said to incourage any man in Sloth or Idleness in doing what is his Duty upon pretence of waiting on the Spirit of God to doe all for him But rather to a diligent use of all the Means of Grace in hope of his concurrence and to Implore withall the Divine Goodness to Assist us mercifully To Prevent us in all our doings with his most gracious Favour and further us with his continual help that in all our Works Begun Continued and Ended in him we may have his blessing on them According to Solomon's advice in a like case Eccl. 11.6 In the Morning sow thy Seed and in Evening withold not thy hand For thou knowest not whether shall prosper either this or that or whether they shall both be alike Good And St. Paul makes the like Inference from the same Premises Phil. 2.12 13. Work out your own salvation with Fear and Trembling For it is God that worketh in you both to Will and to Doe of his good pleasure And if we be not failing on our part we have great incouragement to believe that God though a Free Agent will not be wanting to give his holy Spirit to those that ask him Luk. 11.13 Now for Application this Doctrine concerning the Necessity of Regeneration in those who shall see the Kingdome of God doth vindicate our Church whose Doctrine it is from the Reproach and Calumny cast upon her Doctrine As if when she says that we are Justified by Faith only she taught a Loose and Easy way of coming to Heaven without Regeneration Sanctification or Good Works the Effect of both 'T is very true she saith in her 11 th Article We are accounted Righteous before God only for the Merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by Faith and not for our own Good Works or Deservings Wherefore That we are Justified by Faith only is a most Wholesome Doctrine and very Comfortable And more to the same purpose in the Homily to which that Article refers But though she say We are Justified by Faith only she doth not say there is nothing more requisite to Salvation For we must be Sanctified as well as Justified if ever we be Saved And therefore that we may not possibly mistake her Doctrine unless wilfully she adds in the Next words which are her Twelfth Article Albeit that Good Works which are the fruits of Faith and follow after Justification cannot put away our Sins and indure the severity of God's Judgment Yet are they pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ and do spring out necessarily of a true and lively Faith In so much as by them a lively Faith may be evidently known as a Tree discerned by the Fruit. But which is her Tirteenth Article Works done before the Grace of Christ and the Inspiration of his Spirit are not pleasant to God Forasmuch as they spring not from Faith in Jesus Christ. Neither do they make man Meet to receive Grace or as the School Authors say Deserve Grace of Congruity Our Church therefore in teaching Justification by Faith only doth not teach us That we need no more to carry us to Heaven but only a Sanguine Belief that we shall come there and may thenceforth live as we list without Holiness or a Godly Righteous and sober Life For she makes this Necessary to bring us to Heaven as well as Faith or Justification it self And a pretence of Faith without this she doth not own for Faith but Presumption She owns none for a true and lively Faith but what is attended herewith as the Necessary Fruit thereof only she doth distinguish what of this belongs to Justification and what to Sanctification Which others labour studiously to Confound If any please to Cavil That if we be Justified by Faith only then there need no more to Save us because God Saves all that he Justifies I say This Cavil might seem to have some weight in it if God did Justify any whom he doth not Sanctify also A Prince I confess may sometimes Pardon a Male-factour and so Justify him or put him inâ—o a Condition of Not-guilty without making him an Honest Man But God never Justifies any whom he doth not also Sanctify And therefore 't is here the same thing to infer That a man may be Sanctified without Holiness as That he may be Saved without it if Justified by Faith only But if any indeed there be I confess I know none except the Papist that hold a man may be Justified and Saved without being Sanctified I have nothing to say in the defence of such Nor is this the Doctrine of our Church when she says We are Justified by Faith only And for any to load her Doctrine with such Consequences is great Ignorance or somewhat Worse But I proceed The two great Enemies to the Doctrine before us the necessity of Regeneration and Sanctification in order to Salvation and consequently of Good Works the effect thereof are the Atheist and the Papist With whom we may join those who Symbolise with either so far as they so do With the Atheist who thinks there is no God I join the Profane Debauched Person who so lives as if there were none Such as Profess that they know God but in Works Deny him being Abominable and Disobedient and to every good Work Reprobate Tit. 1 16. These men have as little veneration for Heaven and Holiness as the Papists have for the Word of God Which they can make use of as a Nose of Wax as they Phrase it to serve a present turn so far as it makes for them but as to much of it they had rather it were not at all And therefore care not how little it be known And when it is they would have it Truckle under their Churches Interpretation as if Insignificant without it And in like manner the Profane Atheist as to a Holy Life and a Future State He could wish perhaps with Balaam to Dye the Death of the Righteous and that his latter end might be like his Num. 32.10 But finding so little Hopes of that doth rather Wish there were no such thing And Thinks it his great Unhappiness That he is not a Beast That since he Lives like a Beast he cannot Dye like a Beast too without Hopes or Fears of Heaven or Hell For since he so Lives as to have Little hopes of Heaven he heartily Wisheth there were no fear of Hell With such as these if any man presseth for Regeneration Sanctification and a holy Life He was to pass heretofore for a Puritan then a Roundhead and now for a Damn'd Fanatick Nor shall he scape this Censure though never so great a Church-man and do exactly Conform to the Church as now Established For 't is Holiness they hate more than Non-conformity To these men I shall say
Justification or that of Adoption do properly import in the Object a Real Change but only a Relative For the Traitor thus Pardoned and thus Advanced may yet remain a Wicked Person and as very an Enemy to his Soveraign as he was before if there be not a change wrought in his Mind as well as in his Relative state Nor is this the Sonship which the Text speaks of But beside this Sonship by Adoption there is also a Sonship by Regeneration which the Text mentions as Necessary to those who shall See the Kingdome of God And this implies as was said before not so much a Relative change of the State as a Real change of the Person Except a man be born again and thereby have a New Nature as well as a New Relation he cannot See the Kingdome of God 'T is vain to think of being the Sons of God by Adoption unless we be his Sons by Regeneration also The one never goes without the other For like as 't is a Vain thing to talk of Saving Faith which is not as occasion serves attended with Good Works And a Vain thing to talk of being Justified without being Sanctified also So 't is a Vain thing to talk of Adoption without Regeneration For though the Notions be Different the Things alwaies go together And are commonly so mentioned in Scripture Thus 1 Joh. 12 13. To as many as Received him that is to as many as believed on his name as it is there explained he gave Power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Right or Privilege as the Margin renders it to be the Sons of God to wit by Adoption But it then follows which were Born to wit by Regeneration not of the will of Man but of God Those that are the Sons of God by Adoption must be Born again by Regeneration So Gal. 4 5 6. When he had said God sent his Son c. that we might receive the Adoption of Sons he adds And because ye are Sons God hath sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba Father That is the Spirit of Regeneration the same Spirit by which the Text says we must be Born again Except a man be born of Water and of the Spirit ver 5. he cannot enter into the Kingdome of God And again Rom. 8.15 16. We have not received the spirit of Bondage again to Fear but we have received the spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father The Spirit it self bearing witness with our Spirits that we are the Sons of God But how doth he thus bear witness to our Adoption He tells us ver 14. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God By being a Spirit of Regeneration it bears witness of our Adoption For like as no man can know that he is Elected till he know that he is Justified and Sanctified So neither can we know that we are Adopted till we first know that we are Regenerate Whom he did Fore-know saith St. Paul Rom. 8.28 he did also Predestinate to be conformed to the Image of his Son that is whom he designed to be Happy he designed to be Holy And whom he did thus Predestinate them he Called them he Justified and them he Glorified But till we find by the Effect we were designed to be Holy we can never know that we are designed to be Happy And in like manner Till we find that we are led by the Spirit of Regeneration we can never know that we are the Sons of God by Adoption And our Text says the same though in other words Except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdome of God that is Except he be born again by Regeneration he cannot pretend a title to the Kingdome of God by Adoption Till they be born again they cannot be Children of the Kingdome as the Phrase is Mat. 13.38 Adoption and Regeneration alwaies go together Now as being the Sons of God by Adoption is the Completing of our Justification So To become the Sons of God by Regeneration is the Beginning of our Sanctification For what in the Origine or Beginning we call Regeneration or a New Birth that in the Progress we call Sanctification or a New Life And 't is called in Scripture by many other Names to the same purpose 'T is called A dying to Sin and being alive to God Rom. 6.4 11. that we may thenceforth Walk in newness of Life 'T is called Conversion or a turning from darkness to light from the power of Sathan unto God Act. 26.18 That they may receive forgiveness of Sins and Inheritance among those that are Sanctified Where you see Conversion attended with Justification or the Forgiveness of Sins and Adoption to the Inheritanc◠but 't is amongst those that are sanctified And again Mat. 18.3 Except ye be Converted and become as little children ye shall not enter into the Kingdome of Heaven Where being Converted is the same with what the Text calls being Born again 'T is becoming a new Creature Gal. 5.17 If any man be in Christ he is a new Creature Old things are passed away and all things are become new 2 Cor. 5.17 A new Heart a new Spirit Ezek. 36.26 that is A new Frame and Temper of Mind new Principles new Propensions and Inclinations To be renewed in the spirit of our Minds Eph. 4.23 To be created in Christ Jesus unto good works Eph. 2.10 which God hath before ordained that we should walk therein that is according to our present Idiom wherein God hath before appointed that we should walk 'T is a repairing of God's Image in us which by the Fall was Obliterated and Defaced A putting off the Old man with his deeds and putting on the New man which is renewed after the Image of him that created him Col. 3.9 10. A putting off the Old man which is corrupt according to the deceitfull Lusts and putting on the New man which after God is created in Righteousness and true Holiness Eph. 4.22 24. With many other Expressions of like import For in expressing Spiritual things by Metaphors taken from things Sensible 't is frequent in Scripture because no one can adequately reach it to make use of many some-way to Resemble the thing intended The Result of all tends to this That there must be a Change of Nature wrought in those who are to Inherit the Kingdome of God Not as to the Essentials of humane Nature but as to the perverse inclinations of corrupt Nature Whence those who by Nature as now Corrupted are prone to Evil may from a new Principle become in Love with God And that in order thereunto we must have not only a Principle of Reason from our First Birth to act as Men but a Principle of Grace also from our new Birth to act as Good Men. For an Evil Tree Heb. 12.15 or a Root of Bitterness will never Mat. 7.17 bring forth good Fruit But the Tree must be made good Mat. 12.33 that the
be the Truths of God notwithstanding the Follies of men Those Admonitions of Quench not the Spirit 1 Thes. 4.19 Grieve not the Spirit Eph. 4.30 Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the Flesh Gal. 5.16 were intended for serious Advice And why should we Grieve that Spirit which is to be our Comforter Joh. 14.26 and 15.26 by whom we are sealed to the day of Redemption Eph. 1.13 and 4.30 And David prays in good earnest Psal. 51.10 Create in me a clean Heart O God and renew a right Spirit within me v. 11. Take not thy holy Spirit from me v. 12. Vphold me with thy free Spirit Nor did God mock us when he promised to pour his Spirit upon all flesh Joel 2.28 Nor Christ when he says His Father will give his holy Spirit to them that ask Luke 11.13 And the Threatnings of God are very severe against those that do despite to the Spirit of Grace Heb. 10.29 and who Blaspheme or speak against the holy Spirit Mat. 12.31 32. Nor will the Follies of some who may pretend to what they have not Excuse the Malice of others who make a Mock of Holy things But to return This Change of Nature must I say be wrought by the Spirit of God Not but that we must be Active also in a diligent use of the Means of Grace whereby God's Spirit doth ordinarily work Grace in us as Praying Hearing and Reading the Word of God keeping his Sabbaths and other of his Ordinances For God hath appointed them for that very end that the Spirit of God may by them work Grace in us But we are so to use them as yet to look beyond them and wait for a work of God by his Spirit upon our hearts in concurrence with them to make them effectual to us I have Planted saith Paul 1 Cor. 3.6 and Apollo Watered but God gave the Increase Ver. 7. So then neither is he that Planteth any thing neither he that Watereth that is nothing in comparison But God that giveth the Increase Hence it is that under the same Means of Grace and the same Arguments used to perswade us one is taken and another left Mat. 24.40 41. as Christ speaks in a like case one converted and another remains obdurate And to the same person there be some Mollia tempora fandi those Arguments at one time prevail which at another time do not And when they do it is not without a special concurrence of God with them and not meerly from other Circumstantials or a power of our own without it And our Church saith the same in her Tenth Article in the words The Condition of Man after the Fall of Adam is such that he cannot turn or prepare himself by his own natural strength and good works to Faith and Calling upon God Wherefore we have no power to do good works pleasant and acceptable to God without the Grace of God by Christ Preventing us that we may have a good will and Working with us when we have that good will If any shall yet inquire as Nicodemus here How can these things be Joh. 3.10 How is it that God or his Spirit can thus work upon our hearts Man being a free Agent or How this is consistent with the Freedome of Man's will or the like I do not know that we are obliged to trouble our selves with those nice Inquiries Sure it is that when we act we act Freely not against our wills Certum est nos velle cum volumus sed Deus facit ut velimus is a known saying in the case When we will 't is voluntary but 't is God makes us thus to will And St. Paul long before It is God which worketh in us both to Will and to Do of his good pleasure Phil. 2.13 As to the Manner of it If we say God works we know not how it doth not therefore follow that he doth not work If we do not know How the bones grow in the womb of her that is with child Eccles. 11.5 which yet we know do grow we may as likely be ignorant How God works in the New-birth We have in Job 38. a great many hard Questions concerning Natural things which God himself puts to Job to check his curiosity in higher matters which would trouble any of us to answer as to the particular manner and yet in general that the things be so we cannot deny St. Paul Rom. 9.19 to such captious Questions Why doth he yet complain for who hath resisted his will makes this grave Reply v. 20. Nay but O Man who art thou that disputest against God 'T is hard for us to set bounds to the Almighty to say what he doth or what he may doe Modesty becomes us herein Vain man saith Zophar in Job Job 11.12 would needs be wise though man be born like a wild Asses Colt Nor is it for us to give Law to the Almighty or say unto him What doest thou And here if ever that counsel of Solomon is seasonble Eccl. 5.2 Be not rash with thy mouth and let not thy heart be hasty to utter any thing before God for God is in heaven and thou upon earth therefore let thy words be few And our Saviour here to Nicodemus from our Ignorance in Earthly things pleads for a modest Submission in things of a higher nature Joh. 3.8 The Wind bloweth where it listeth thou hearest the sound thereof but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth So is every one that is born of the Spirit Ver. 12. And if in Earthly things we are at a loss how much more in Heavenly And Solomon to the same purpose in the place before cited Eccl. 11.5 As thou knowest not what is the way of the Spirit nor how the bones grow in the womb of her that is with child Even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all 'T is commonly either from a vain Curiosity or proud Arrogance that makes men over Confident in such things I find the Church of God in the first Ages of the World did for a long time for ought we see rest satisfied with that first general promise That the Seed of the Woman should break the Serpents head Gen. 3.25 That God would by some born of a Woman find a way they knew not how to deliver us from that wretched condition which by the Serpents malice and subtilty was brought upon us Without being over inquisitive When or How or By whom it should be brought about Till God saw fit in his own time upon the coming of our Saviour to declare it more plainly and fully And in like manner when God promises to circumcise our heart Deut. 6.30 to give us a new heart and put a new spirit within us Ezek. 36.26 to take away the heart of stone and give us a heart of flesh Ezek. 11.19 to put his Law in our inward parts and write it in our hearts Jer. 31.33 to put his fear
little more at present than to Repeat these words of Christ Joh. 3.3 5. Except a man be born again of Water and of the Spirit He cannot enter into the Kingdome of God And that of the Apostle Heb. 12.14 Without Holiness no man shall see the Lord. A Wicked Life will never bring us to Heaven And then what is like to be their condition themselves may judge The other Enemy to this Doctrine is the Papist For though they talk much of Good Works yea Works of Supererogation Works better than they need to be Yet are they no friends to the doctrine of Sanctification and a holy Life Their first Artifice is to confound Justification and Sanctification For so they doe when they tell us we are Justified by Inherent Righteousness Now what is Inherent Righteousness but Holiness and a Good Life Next this Holiness or Inherent Righteousness doth silently pass into the term of Good Works And here the Opus operatum as they call it shall serve the turn without much troubling themselves about the Habite of Grace or Holiness from whence these Good Works should proceed and without which our Church tells us Good Works Works materially good cannot be acceptable unto God And 't is craftily done to annex Justification to Good Works Else there would be no need for those who have no Good Works of their own to purchase out of the Churches treasury the Good Works of other men and so the Market of Indulgences would fail Next these Good Works are Signally though not only to be understood of Alms-deeds And these principally to the Church that is to their Priests or other Ecclesiasticks as they be contradistinguished from the Laicks or to some of their Religious Orders For Alms-deeds will hardly pass for meritorious unless to some of these Then these Good Works are to be commuted for Penance and the Priests Absolution For though they have nothing of Good Works at all nay though they be guilty of very great Immoralities Yet if they Confess to a Priest and receive Absolution which may be had at an easy rate they are then declared as Innocent as the Child that is New-born Especially if they perform the Penance imposed that is for the most part if they say so many Pater-nosters and so many Ave-Maries or if it be for a great Offence say over the seven Penetential Psalms for that is a great Penance or at least get some body to say it for them Nor is it necessary to this Absolution that they should be Contrite or heartily sorry For Attrition with Auricular Confession shall pass in stead of Contrition That is in effect if they be but sorry for the Penance though they be not sorry for the Sin Or if all this should fail it is but being at the charge of an Indulgence or Popes Pardon That is to purchase so many penyworth of other mens Merits having none of their own out of that Surplusage which those others have had to spare more than to serve their own turn which remain Stored up in the Churches Treasury to be dispensed at the Popes pleasure to those who will give so much Money for them Or lastly if they leave a Legacy at their Death or their Friends will be at that Charge when they are gone to purchase so many Masses to be said for them as shall be thought necessary to deliver their Souls out of Purgatory And in case they purchase more than are necessary for that occasion the Surplusage shall remain in the Churches Treasury for the Benefit of others to be dispensed as was aforesaid And this is what they require by way of Commutation in stead of Regeneration Sanctification Holiness and a Godly Life But I shall leave them And Exhort those of our Own Communion who desire truly to please God to seek after real Holiness in their Hearts and the Practice of it in their Lives First I say Real Holiness in the Heart Mat. 7.16 Men do not gather Grapes of Thorns or Figs of Thistles Ver. 18. A good Tree cannot bring forth Evil fruit nor a corrupt Tree Good fruit Mat. 12.33 Therefore make the Tree good that the Fruit may be good also Ver. 34. O generation of Vipers saith Christ how can ye being Evil speak Good things For out of the abundance of the Heart the Mouth speaketh 'T is not enough to lop off some of the Branches in practice so long as there remains a Root of Bitterness in the Heart Heb. 12.15 My Son give me thy Heart saith Solomon Pro. 23.26 And 't is out of the good treasure of the Heart that the Good man bringeth forth Good things Mat. 12.35 'T was Hezekiah's great Comfort that he had walked before God in Truth and with a perfect Heart 2 King 20.3 And contrariwise a Blemish on Amaziah's Good Actions that he did what was Right in the sight of the Lord but not with a perfect Heart 2 Chron. 25.2 Without which Bodily exercise profiteth little 1 Tim. 4.8 'T was for want of this that God complains of the Solemn Services of his own people Isai. 1.11 To what purpose is the multitude of your Sacrifices I am full of your Burnt-offerings of Rams and the Fat of fed Beasts I delight not in the bloud of Bullocks or of Lambs or of Hee goats Ver. 13. Bring no more vain Oblations Incense is an Abomination to me Ver. 14. Your New Moons and your appointed Feasts my Soul hateth They are a Trouble to me I am Weary to bear them Because though these were Good Things they were Ill done And God will not accept of Outward Services in lieu of Holiness I know 't is a Fancy that some have taken up That of those before Christ God required only Outward Services And therefore promised only Temporal Rewards Whereas say they if he had required Spiritual Services the Rewards promised would have been sutable thereunto But sure as to the Services David was of another mind Psal. 51.16 Thou delightest not in Sacrifice else would I give it Thou delightest not in Burnt-Offerings that is comparatively Ver. 17. But the Sacrifices of God are a Broken Spirit A Broken and a Contrite Heart O God thou wilt not despise Ver. 19. Then shalt thou be pleased with Sacrifices of Righteousness with Burnt-Offering and whole Burnt-Offering But not till then And as to the Rewards promised our Church is positive in her Seventh Article The Old Testament is not contrary to the New For both in the Old and New Testament Everlasting Life is offered to Mankind by Christ who is the onely Mediator between God and Man being both God and Man Wherefore they are not to be heard who feign that the Old Fathers looked only for Transitory Promises And truely they might as well say That when God Threatens In the day that thou Eatest thereof thou shalt Dye the Death Gen. 2.17 't was meant only of a Temporal Death and how comes he then to Punish with Hell As That when he Promiseth The