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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33723	A discourse of regeneration, faith and repentance preached at the Merchants-Lecture in Broad-Street by Thomas Cole ...	Cole, Thomas, 1627?-1697.	1689 (1689)	Wing C5030; ESTC R35626	125,718	304

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

with many Temptations a regenerate Soul is aware of this and fears always But before we enter into this or that particular Temptation that we see coming towards us or have reason to suspect from the present circumstances we are under here a regenerate person watches and prays that he may not enter into that Temptation that God would some way or other divert the Temptation or fortify our hearts against it that we may repel it A Temptation may enter into us when we don't enter into it then it goes as it comes and makes little or no impression upon us when a Temptation shews it self to us at some distance the Seed of God in a regenerate Soul presently takes the alarm puts on the whole armour of God. Secondly Under the Temptation when the Flesh has betrayed the Soul into the hands of a Temptation has been tampering with it then does Grace struggle and fight and cry out unto God for help all this shews the activity of Grace in a way of righteousness how loth it is to be overcome of evil Thirdly After the Temptation when 't is ended or finished then it issues either in the commission of the Sin or conquest over the Temptation Grace shews it self both ways First After the commission of Sin what repentance what godly sorrow what shame what indignation what revenge Secondly After the conquest over the Temptation what rejoycing what thanksgiving what triumphing in the Grace of Christ So that you see here lies the manifest difference between the Children of God and of the Devil An unregenerate man cannot do righteousness his skill lies not that way he is wise indeed to do evil but to do good no knowledg he is a meer Bungler at a good work his hand is always out because his heart is never right with God. He may do what is materally good but always fails in the manner those spiritual Ingredients which the Gospel requires to a work truly holy are wanting Thirdly Whosoever believeth that Iesus is the Christ is born of God. And every spirit that confesses that Iesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. They prove each other being inseparable The going forth of the Soul by Faith unto Christ as the anointed of the Lord sent and sealed by the Father to undertake the great work of Man's Redemption is a sure evidence of Regeneration All unregenerate men are strangers to Christ they know him not they desire him not they think they can shift well enough without him None know the Son of God but those who are born of God. When the Spirit comes into us then we confess that Christ is come in the flesh Christ conveys himself through our nature to our persons the Divine and Humane Nature must be first united before our persons can be admitted to any communion with him The Humane Nature of Christ is the foundation of all our Communion with God our access to God is through the veil of his flesh Being born of the Spirit we stand related to the Person of Christ he is not ashamed to call us Brethren we can then call God our Father as he is the Father of Christ our elder Brother God was the Father of Christ before his Incarnation and continues still to be so after his Incarnation not only to him but to all who are born of his Spirit The Spirit of Christ being the Spirit of him who is God and Man knows how to raise up a seed of godly men and women The Infinite Eternal Spirit of the Son of God being poured out without measure upon the Man Jesus Christ operates through both his Natures hypostatically united in his Divine Person in whom all the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily without any diminution of its infinite excellencies and Divine properties from the assumption of our finite humane nature so the same Eternal Spirit of Christ dwelling in us in a lower way of union to our persons does act indeed Divinely but yet according to our finite capacities all intellectual acts are finite or infinite as the persons are that do them the Person of Christ being infinite so are his spiritual actings notwithstanding his finite nature as Man so the actings of the Spirit of God in the Saints are finite because their persons are so Actiones sunt suppositorum Actions are personal of greater or lesser degree of efficacy and power as the persons are that do them Faith in Christ Jesus being the birth of the Spirit must needs be an infallible mark of Regeneration the design of the Spirit of God in working Faith in us is to bring us to the knowledg of Christ and through him to the knowledg of God wherein consists our true happiness This is life eternal to know thee c. Faith is the beginning of Eternal Life in the Soul and the manner of conveying this Eternal Life from God unto our Souls is called Regeneration Thus you see how he that believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. The next inquiry will be how Faith does this or how believing in Christ does work that universal change in the Soul which the Gospel calls Regeneration Tho the beginning or rather all the essentials of Regeneration are found in the first principle of Faith created in us by the Spirit of Christ yet this does not appear to us but by those lively operations of this Faith put forth by us We have an inward feeling of these operations the sense of which does lead us to some discerning of that spirit and principle from whence they flow 'T is actual Faith Iohn means in this Epistle therefore he joyns it with Confession he lays the Mark upon actual Faith for that only falls under our discerning God indeed sees the first seeds and principles of Grace but they are known to us only by the sense we have of their powerful actings in us and therefore I shall consider the regenerating Power of actual Faith and shew how it does discover that new birth that came in with a principle of Faith at first The Regenerating power of Faith both in the principle and in the act is very great it makes a marvellous change in us So strong are the impressions of Faith about Christ and our everlasting concernments in him that we must needs be much affected with the discovery which lies in two things 1. In a convicting knowledg of our sin and misery by Nature 2. In an astonishing discovery of God's Grace and mercy to us in Christ. The Spirit of God demonstrating both unto us with such clearness and evidence that we cannot but be persuaded of the truth of them in our own case and being so persuaded we must be concerned about them Faith draws in the attention of the mind to those things we believe in reference to our selves fixes our thoughts upon them dwells upon the consideration of them there is no evading the serious thoughts of Faith no getting them out of