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
of God by Reason bringing down all spiritual Expressions to the level of Man's Understanding And if no more be intended by them things are strangely worded in the Bible 't is not the manner of men to speak so to cloath their natural Notions with such Phrases and Words peculiar only to the Scriptures as do not at all symbolize with any mere humane conception and therefore must needs signifie something higher something beyond all that ever entred into the heart of a Natural Man if not then farewel all Revealed Religion it seems nothing is revealed in Scripture but mere words Natural Theology is the thing into which all Scripture must be interpreted all the use we are to make of the Scriptures according to them is only to borrow some peculiar words and expressions as so many new Terms of Art appropriated to Religion by Divine Authority What a strange conceit is this to borrow from the Scriptures new Bottles to put our old Wine into our Sense into Gods word so spoiling both God's Words are too big for our sense and our sense too low and mean to fill up such high Expressions which can never by any rule of speech be brought down and contracted to so narrow a signification so that whilst we accommodate the Word of God to our own false Conceptions of Divine Things we understand neither God nor our selves we think absurdly and speak improperly But those who understand the pure Lauguage of the Gospel they see a suitableness between the Words of the Holy Ghost and the things of the Holy God. I have read to you out of my Text the Words of the Holy Ghost 't is God only who must shew both you and me the thing it self intended and meant by these words And now to come a little nearer let me begin with the Context Iohn 3. 3. One would have thought the high Opinion Nicodemus had of Christ ver 2. As a teacher come from God a worker of miracles and one whom God was with And Christs earnestness in asserting the truth of what he laies down so positively ver 3. under a solemn Asseveration that it was certainly so should have led Nicodemus to the belief of what Christ affirmed but 't is not the Opinion we have of the Preacher nor his earnestness in Preaching nor the certain truth of what he delivers will perswade us to receive this Doctrine of Regeneration till God enlighten our minds and give us experience of the thing in our selves Observe All natural Men have strange gross Apprehensions of the Doctrine of Regeneration Nicodemus applies all that Christ said to natural Generation mistakes the Mystery of the new Birth not comparing Spiritual things with Spiritual but with Natural He cannot rise higher than a natural Generation and thinks that must be repeated in Regeneration if any such thing be though never so often repeated 't is still the same thing done the same way by entring the second time c. And how can a man be born when he is old But suppose there were such a thing as a natural Regeneration in Nicodemus's Sense this would not mend the matter in making us more fit for Heaven for we should be sent again into the World in the same corrupt Nature as we had before whatever is born of the Flesh is but Flesh still omne simile generat simile therefore a natural Regeneration supposes no change but reproduces a man in the same State Form and Nature as he had before If a Man were ten thousand times Born naturally he would be the same Man still But the Regeneration Christ speaks of makes him a new man and therefore could not be by entring a second time into his mothers womb Nicodemus knows nothing of any such new Birth that should bring forth a new Kind or Race of Men into the World of a different Genius Complexion and Principle from all that are Born of a Woman but because the Scripture does so plainly speak of such a thing they who read the Word dare not deny it altogether and therefore place the whole Mystery of it in external Baptism do suppose it always compleated there of course and will hear no more of it ever after they count it absurd to call upon grown baptized Persons especially old Men and Women to labour after a Regeneration that they think is past and over long ago when they were baptized Observe None but a regenerate Person understands the true nature of Regeneration Others can never reach it because they don't feel it in themselves 't is a personal Change wrought in every individual Saint men may see our outward Profession our outward Walking our Praying Hearing Preaching our Moral and Religious Practices but the Principle from which we Act and by which we are carried out in all these things is infallibly known to none but God and our own Souls we may search into our own Hearts so far as to discern this new Birth and we should not rest till we have found it out That we might the better understand the Nature of Regeneration let us consider the several Names given it in Scripture Regeneration Renovation New Creation Conversion are Synonimous terms in Scripture and do all signify the same thing do all imply the Corruption of Mans Nature that produceth nothing but what is like it self how specious soever it may seem to be 't is but Flesh therefore all fleshly Wisdom Beauty and Glory must be mortified and abolished the Scripture calls for a new Birth a new Creation after the Image of God that Man may be enabled to do good created in Christ Iesus unto good works Ephes. 2. 10. Baptism is the Sign and Symbol of Regeneration and does imply the thing it self when the inward Work of the Spirit goes along with the outward washing of Water which it does not always do this Wind bloweth where it listeth Regeneration is of a larger Extent and Signification than Justification and Sanctification 't is initially all that belongs to a state of Grace 't is fully described Tit. 3. 5. by washing and renewing there is a double washing from Sin. First From the guilt of it by the blood of Christ 1 Iohn 1. 7. Rev. 1. 5. Rev. 7. 14. This washing is Justification therefore called Baprism unto remission of sin Mark 1. 4. Acts 2. 38. Gal. 3. 27. This is Baptism unto Justification by the blood of Christ. Secondly From the filth of sin by the Spirit of Christ 1 Cor. 6. 11. 1 Cor. 12. 13. This is commonly called Regeneration Tit. 3. 5. Ioh. 3. 4 Born of water this is baptism unto sanctification Rom. 6. 3 4. Col. 2. 12. These two internal Washings are always joyned together 1 Cor. 6. 11. the one perfect the other imperfect Justification in nature only precedes Sanctification and being the Act of God upon us and towards us is perfect but in Sanctification God takes us along with him we concur in every Act of Sanctification he works in us to
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
against the full Power of reigning sin breaks in upon corrupt Nature whether it will or no sows immortal seed where never good fruit grew before the Predominancy of sin lies in a total exclusion of Grace but the Predominancy of Grace lies in its gradual entrance into the Soul because it opposes the whole body of sin or indwelling corruption in making this forcible entrance forcible in respect of corruption that would keep it out free in respect of the renewed will through which it passes by consent God in opening the heart makes the heart to open it self Believing is our act but the power of doing it is God's They who are endued with this Divine Power cannot do the evil they would do and are inclined to by nature Gal. 5. 17. They are no more servants of sin Rom. 6. 17. But have ceased from it 1 Pet. 4. 7. They cannot sin there is something in them called here the seed of God that cannot sin 1 Iohn 3. 9. They are born of God but he that committeth sin is of the Devil ver 8. a Child of the Devil To clear up this further There are two different Natures two contrary Principles in the Saints Flesh and Spirit the Scripture speaks of them sometimes according to one Principle sometimes according to the other and sometimes according to both as Flesh so no good thing dwells in us we all sin he is a liar that says he has no sin as Spirit so we don't commit sin we can't sin are inclined only to good by that Divine supernatural Principle as Flesh and Spirit so not a just man upon Earth but sins tho he be just and holy truly sanctified in his Regenerate part yet he is unjust unholy unsanctified in his unregenerate part there he fights against God the law of the Members wars against the law of the Mind the sense of this remaining enmity against the Law of God makes the Saints complain of their wretchedness O wretched man that I am Rom. 7. 24. What carefulness what clearing of themselves what Indignation and Revenge 2 Cor. 7. 11. Tho God has forgiven them they cannot they will not forgive themselves they cut off their right hands and pluck out their right eyes The Scripture speaking of a Saint according to one or other of these two Principles speaks of him personally as two Men each distinct from the other as if a Saint when acted by a carnal Principle were not the same Man with himself when acted by a spiritual Principle Physically and substantially he is the same Man under both Principles but spiritually considered under those Divine Qualifications belonging to him as a new Creature he is not the same Person in God's account nor by his own reckoning not I but Sin that dwells in me Could we keep up this distinction under a prevailing Temptation clearing our selves and laying Sin at its own door not I but Sin 't would afford much comfort to us and quicken us up to a speedy Repentance An unregenerate Man when he sins he can't say 't is not I he lies if he says so he sees nothing in himself that opposes Sin as Sin no 't is his own proper doing his own act his whole Will is in it he can't say the Evil I do I would not do Can we in any sense say That we do not commit Sin that we cannot Sin do no iniquity Is there such a Principle within us that we can say from our Consciences we would not Sin even when we do Sin That 't is against our Inclinanation 't is a force upon the new Creature we are in Pain and cry out under that Act of Violence committed upon us 't is an unwilling Captivity that we are led into I have done with the Negative part what a regenerate Person does not He does not commit Sin. I come to the Positive part He doth righteousness Negative holiness in abstaining from such and such Sins will never prove a Man to be born of God we cannot conclude safely and strongly from this negative Mark That we are born of God unless it be from the universality of it if we can truly say We hate every evil way do fly all appearance of Evil cannot suffer Sin in our selves or others without a holy Indignation against it this indeed has something in it is very significant we may infer from hence that we are born of God that which makes this Mark so conclusive and significant is not only the universality of it but chiefly this that where-ever this negative Mark is there is also the positive Mark to be found he that escheweth Evil does Good. The force of one Mark is best understood in Conjunction with some other one single Mark is but a slender evidence of a state of Grace unless it run into some other which is the inseparable consequence of it The Positive part is He doth Righteousness what do ye more than others Opèratio sequitur esse all things have their active qualities especially where there is Life there must be active Faculties and an active Principle life it self is an act the life of a Christian is a life of the highest activity from Principles truly Divine and Heavenly that have their energy virtue and efficacy from God himself who is a most Pure Simple Eternal Act the Fountain of all Action and Motion to his Creatures as he pleases more or less to communicate himself unto them Since we are made partakers of the Divine Nature surely 't is in order to a godly life that it may appear whose off-spring we are whose image we bear being born of the Will of God we must do the Will of God which is the only rule and measure of all Righteousness in doing which we must respect the matter what God commands and the manner of doing what is commanded What is materially good is obvious to all who know but the Moral part of Religion all the difficulty lies in the manner of performing it the spirituality of the action lies here that it be done from a Gospel principle and to a Gospel end it must be done in Faith and in a constant dependance upon Christ for strength doing what we do as unto the Lord out of a Religious respect to his Holy will whatever we do we must do to his Glory 't is below a Christian to seek himself to live to himself God hath set a part the man that is Godly for himself These are sure marks of Regeneration Hold the glass of the word close to your Consciences look again and again upon these Scriptures examin your selves strictly by them Can you prove your Regeneration by these marks as they are proper and peculiar only to the Regenerate 'T is not every forbearance of sin nor every outward act of righteousness that will come up to this mark these Scriptures speak something to the experience of every one who is born of God that no Unregeneman in the world understands The ear
are Born of God do thus live by Faith here below they consult not with Flesh and Blood their affections are suited to the apprehensions of their Faith they are filled with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory by believing they see good days a coming when all Tears shall be wiped from their Eyes they wait patiently till then rejoycing in the hope of the Glory of God. Till we get into this frame walking in the evidence of things not seen we shall never overcome the World for the things that are seen conceive them in what shape or posture you please have their emptiness and vanity in them will never satisfy they are but finite and temporal the present Fashion of this World be it what it will passes away into something else while we are a beholding it all things here below moulder and crumble away in our hands perish in the using are always the worse for wearing which shews they cannot last long when they are in their best state they are altogether vanity the highest degree of Perfection in the Creature tends to corruption and indeed disposes to it 't is as Natural to Die as to be Born there is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a turning point that stops the further growth of the Creature and makes it to decline ever after till its fading Glory be quite extinguish'd therefore labour not for the meat that perishes but for that which nourishes unto Everlasting Life Till we come to Live upon Eternal unseen things we live but meanly in the midst of our Earthly sufficiencies we are in straights still wanting something till Christ be ours and then all is ours There is no room left then for any further designs in him we have plenary satisfaction and perfect rest we shall never have true hearts ease till then But the difficulty lies in bringing over our hearts to this Newness of Life to this Noble Life of Faith that fetches all its Comforts from Heaven casting up its anchor within the Vail which is sure and stedfast Flesh and Blood cannot do this there is nothing in Nature that disposes us to it therefore we must be born again be made New Creatures before we shall favour the things of heaven and such is the power of Religion upon the minds of men where it is in truth that it always works this change in them they find it and feel it in themselves Whether it be so with us whether we have any certain experience of such a thing in our own Souls we should do well to consider that even upon our knees and give God no rest day nor night till we see some better symptoms of Eternal Life in our selves we may judge of our life whether it be Eternal or no by the things we live in and live upon they who are of the Earth are Earthly they who are born from above are heavenly to be carnally mindedis death but to be Spiritually minded is life and peace The inward frame of the mind discovers what kind of Creatures we are whether old or new flesh or spirit the issues of life are from the Heart as the pulse of your Souls beats upwards or downwards so you may judge of your state as you find your selves most concerned in things above or things below till you have got above the world and have overcome it you are not born again Fifthly Every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. That which is intended here is First Love to the Saints as such Unfeigned love of the Brethren is a sign of a pure heart and that we are indeed born again Secondly Love to all men 't is due to all Owe no man any thing but love that we owe to all every man may challenge it every man is our Neighbour in that sense to be the object of our Love we must extend it to our very Enemies 't is the fulfilling of the Law the duty of man to man prescribed in the Second Table cannot be performed without it Love is above all Illumination and Knowledge a more sure mark of Regeneration He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him Love is one of the communicable Attributes of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost we are followers of God when we walk in love Common Professors have some love one to another but if you trace it up to its original you 'll find it a selfish mercenary love in which they rather respect themselves than Christ 't is not for his sake but for some outward respects of relation neighbourhood or usefulness in the common concerns of this life it may be for their agreement in opinion about some lower matters of Religion this is but the friendship of the World and may be consistent with real enmity against God and good men as such but perfect love i. e. real sincere Christian Love is for God's sake because he has so loved us and given us a new Command to love one another There is no true love among men till we are born again He exhorts those who have put off the old man and are renewed in spirit to put away all bitterness wrath c. Before Regeneration we are foolish disobedient living in malice and envy hatesul and hating one another Biting devâ—uring consuming one another It looks rather like a description of Wild Beasts than men so savage and fierce are we by nature nothing but a spirit of Regeneration will sweeten and mollify the hearts of men that which unites us to Christ unites us one to another we are all one in Christ but we shall never be all one among our selves till we are united to Christ then the Peace of God rules in our hearts to which we are called in one body There is no true good nature among men but what flows from Grace Sin hath so poysoned and sowred man's Nature that till that Serpentine Venom be purged out and a better Spirit be put into us there will be little harmony or concord among men Having put on the new man put on therefore as the elect of God c. Vide Loc. Were this mark of Regeneration more visible in our days it would be a token for good of a more effectual work of the Gospel among us than for ought I see does yet appear Hatred variance c. are reckoned up among the Works of the Flesh as directly opposite to the Fruits of the Spirit I will shew how this loving disposition arises out of Regeneration that the fundamental ground of it is our conformity to Christ which necessarily follows upon our Regeneration Christ is the express Image of his Father the Saints are in their finite capacities the express Image of Christ in whom they see the Father who as God is one with the Son whilst they behold the Son as God-man they see their humane Nature hypostatically united to the Divine they see their humane persons
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
stand behind the whole Creation of God and blush at the mischief he hath done the World groaning with all his fellow Creatures to be restored to the glorious Liberty of the Children of God. Serious thoughts of our lapsed estate must needs beget this self-abhorrency in us that we should thus unman our selves and become like the Beasts that perish nay worse than they because we cannot so perish as to cease to be the immortality of our Souls making us naturally capable of a miserable Eternity how should we then be consounded in our own sight and be yet more vile in our own Eyes We cannot presently take in the full sense of our wretched state the grossest sins of our Lives are not to be compared to the sins of our Nature they might pass for particular acts of folly which we were hurried into by the violence of some sudden Temptation we might hope that Nature would recover it self but that being poysoned and turned into a root of Bitterness what fruit unto Holiness can ever grow upon such evil Trees as we naturally are 'T is not any improvement of Nature by Art or Industry that will recover us there must be a real Change of Nature wrought in us and how few are convinc'd of the necessity of this A Toad may as soon complain of his Poysonous Nature as Fallen Man of his Corrupt Nature we are reconciled to every thing that is natural to us else it could not be natural whatever is a part of our selves can be no burden to us 'T is a sign the Spirit of God hath been at work in that Soul who is grown into a dislike of himself hating what he is and what he doth from a carnal Principle T is a sign there is another Spirit and Principle stirring in him 'T is impossible there should be true Grace in that Man who hath no afflicting sense of indwelling sin The flesh is flesh still even after Regeneration the New Creature is raised up in the presence of the old man they live together awhile tho' at continual variance till the fleshly part be abolished then the new creature will stand up by it self in a perfect state of Glory in the stature of a perfect Man in Christ. Sin tho it cannot hinder the Birth of the New Man yet it hinders his growth and depresses that for a season till Mortality with all that belongs to it be quite swallowed up of that Eternal Life which we derive from Christ in our Regeneration if we dye strangers to this life of God and Godliness we with all our Forms Names and specious Pretences to Religion shall be swallow'd up of Eternal Death and never see the Kingdom of God. Verily verily except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God. T. C. A DISCOURSE OF Regeneration c. From IOHN iii. 3. The Introduction THE Sound of these Words at the first reading may convince any Considering Person That Christian Religion is a great Mystery the way to understand it aright is to look into the internal Parts of it not into the Words but Power of Godliness Many and various are the outward Forms by which Professors are unhappily distinguished pleasing themselves with different Superstructures upon the same supposed Foundation But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon 1 Cor. 3. 10. There is Gold Silver and Precious Stones in some Buildings and too much Wood Hay and Stubble in others Before I set fire to this by a spirit of Judgment and Burning let us all examine our Foundations and see whether the whole House is not to be pulled down and built anew we had better pull down a House weakly founded than suffer it to fall upon our heads then we perish in the ruins My Text leads me to this search I hope you will all join with me in feeling for the Rock if we find it we may with more comfort and success set upon the mending and repairing what is amiss otherwise The Text speaks of the Nativity or first Original of a Christian and derives his Descent from above from Heaven from God from the Holy Spirit this is very high we may look for something extraordinary in such a Birth which is here called Regeneration or our being Born again or a second time This is a great Mystery and cannot be understood till it is in some measure felt Regeneration is not a Notion but a Nature not a mere empty Speculation floating in the Brain but an inward living Principle rooted in the Heart I am not speaking of things without you at a distance from you that are foreign and extrinsecal to your souls but of that which is essential to the Being and Constitution of a Christian as such you are not only my Auditors this day but each of you the subject of my present Discourse I am not only speaking to you but of you 't is what you are or are not in the inward state of your souls that I am now enquiring after By comparing your selves with the word you may know how far you do or do not answer to the Character that is given there of the New-born soul the essential Properties of that Nature in which we live must needs be owned by us they are in us they are of us bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh they are our very selves no sensible considering man can be without this knowledg of himself he cannot deny his own Image which he sees with his own Eyes In a glass face answers face so 't is with the heart of a Man describe it as it is in its present Actings Motions Principles and Inclinations 't will fall in with you to a tittle I would not speak a word and I hope God will so guide me that I shall not utter any thing concerning this new Birth which falls not under the experience of the weakest Christian who is really born of God If I shoot over the heads of others 't is none of my fault we must speak of Divine Things as they are laid down in the Scriptures whether we are understood or not understood Preachers do only explain the Object they cannot enlighten the Faculty they may open the Text but they cannot open the Hearts of those that hear them to understand the Scriptures this is God's work Faith cometh by hearing therefore he that hath ears to hear let him hear I cannot bespeak your Attention by a stronger Argument than that in my Text Except a man be born again he cannot c. That which the Word of God so plainly puts as a bar to our entrance into the Kingdom of God we are all concerned to see that bar removed who have any hope of entring into that Kingdom Give me leave to reason with you out of the Scriptures about this great Point of Regeneration Some place it in that which a mere natural man may pretend unto passing over the whole Mystery of the Gospel they construe the Word